Serotonin In The Gut?!

[Lemons2lemonade]

Hi all! I was doing some reading on serotonin the other day and was surprised to learn that that there is a significant amount in the gut! So i'm running a poll on eating habits prior to dysautonomia. I hope each day for all of you to have relief from your symptoms. Cheers.

[sue1234]

How are you doing? Last I really saw of you posting, you had gotten a job, so I was assuming you were doing really well. I hope you still are!

[Lemons2lemonade]

Things are still going well comparatively. I still feel light headed at times, but am doing so much better than i was. Thanks for asking Sue! Hope all is well with you!

[abbyw]

Hi Lemons,

Glad you are doing well overall. I can't answer most of the questions (I never count calories, and I am a big "snacker".) But, I do know that the amount of serontonin in the gut is supposedly more than in the brain and that is why they sometimes treat IBS with SSRIs. I thought that I remembered that you were taking Lexapro - are you? Did it affect your gut?

Thanks,

Abby

[Guest maia]

The gut is amazingly intricate with its own 'brain' and the only organ directly connected to your brain, and there are seratonin mediated allergies, and mast cell connectins, etc... its definitely worth reading up on. here is a link i found very quickly... http://www.psyking.net/id36.htm which goes into it a little. i only skimmed it, so not sure if its a very good one, and not really scientific in its presentation, but its a start. the gut brain connection is very interesting.

[Batik]

If you're not sure what counts as a well-balanced diet in terms of ratio of protein/carbs/fat, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200 is a well-respected guideline which does at least give you some idea of what is counted as "normal" in this respect. Which is all debatable, of course, but it gives us a baseline to work with. I'd consider my diet to be normal, while someone who believes in a low-carb/high-fat diet would think that I'm on a high-carb diet.