Pain Relief Chiropractic

You have neurons in your brain, but did you know you also have neurons in your gut, including neurons that produce neurotransmitters like serotonin (also found in your brain) that can affect your mood? Your gut literally serves as your second brain, and even produces more serotonin than your brain does.

In other words, you have two nervous systems: the central nervous system (composed of your brain and spinal cord) and the enteric nervous system (the intrinsic nervous system of your gastrointestinal tract). Both are actually created out of the same type of embryonic tissue. During fetal development, one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. To put this into more concrete terms, you’ve probably experienced the visceral sensation of butterflies in your stomach when you’re nervous, or had an upset stomach when you were very angry or stressed.

The flip side is also true, in that problems in your gut can directly impact your mental health, leading to issues like anxiety, depression, and perhaps even more serious neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

You’ve probably heard of the three blind mice. Well, now the classic rhyme just changed: Three blind mice, three blind mice, NOW-THEY -CAN-SEE! At least, that seems to be the case…

According to research done at Oxford University and published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, blind mice can see again after researchers transplanted developing cells into their eyes and discovered the mice grew a new light-sensitive layer of the retina.

This may lead to a possible treatment to restore vision in retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. It is most common for patients to lose vision when the outer retinal photoreceptor (light sensitive) layer is lost, and so it would be best to attempt to restore vision at this stage of the disease.

The study used mice that were blind from a total loss of retinal photoreceptor cells so they’d be as similar to humans with retinitis pigmentosa as possible.

According to Science Daily: “After two weeks, the researchers showed the cells transplanted into the eye had re-formed a full light-detecting layer on the retina and the mice could see. The cells used were mouse ‘precursor’ cells that are on an initial path towards developing into retinal cells.

“A pupil constriction test showed that, of the 12 mice that received the cell transplant, 10 showed improved pupil constriction in response to light. This shows that the retinas of the mice were sensing the light once more, and this was being transmitted down the optic nerve to the brain.”

There is a lot of work to be done, but this research gives a lot of promise for the future.

You have several thousand taste buds on your tongue. Taste buds are actually tiny nerve endings that allow us to perceive different tastes, including Salty (i.e. french fries, peanuts), Sweet (i.e. cotton candy, strawberries), Sour (i.e. shock tarts, lemons), Bitter (i.e. black licorice, radishes), and Umami (a specific taste in meat).

Another major component to taste is smell. By smell alone, you can often tell the difference in foods or beverages; while without smell, it can be difficult to distinguish between different tastes. You may notice this when you have a cold or stuffy nose and food does seem to taste normal. As you get older, you tend to lose taste buds and your sense of taste weakens. Taste buds can be dulled or even damaged if they are irritated by extreme heat or cold, infections, a dry mouth, smoking, spicy foods, extremely sour foods, and some medications. Some people are sensitive to a particular food, such as walnuts, which may cause soreness in their mouth. Fortunately, damaged taste buds can heal, so your sense of taste is not lost.