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Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the Mind/Gut Connection

Posted on September 06, 2008

Although we ve all heard allusions to the mind/body connection, Western medicine still tends to downplay or ignore the effect people s attitudes and emotions can have on their overall health. In her recent New York Times article Let the Mind Help Tame an Irritable Bowel, Jane E. Brody discusses an even more specific connection: that of the mind and the digestive system. The gut, she writes, has been called the body s second brain, containing 95 percent of the body s neurotransmitter serotonin and direct nerve connections to the brain. For patients with Irritable...

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constipation , diarrhea , diet , irritable bowel syndrome , organic , stress , tumor