Gateway to the Mind

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The microbiome is the strange invisible world of our non human selves. On and in all of us are hoards of microbes. Their impact on our physical health is becoming clear to science, but a controversial idea is emerging too - that gut bacteria could alter what happens in our brains. In this final episode of the series BBC Science and Health correspondent James Gallagher examines a growing body of research into the gut as a gateway to the mind and why some scientists believe we could be o the cusp of a revolution in psychiatry that uses microbes to improve mental health. Illustration by Katie Horwich Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Marnie Chesterton from Crowds Science here, just gate-crashing the podcast you actually downloaded
0:06.5	to mention mine. If you're the type of person who's ever wondered anything about the world
0:11.7	around you, then we are the podcast for you. wondered anything
0:13.5	anything about the world around you then we are the podcast for you. We take your questions on anything scientific and scour the globe for answers. That's crowd science which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
0:23.0	I'll get out of your ears now, as you were.
0:25.0	Hello, I'm James Gallagher, and this is Discovery from the BBC World Service.
0:31.0	I'm always humbled by the microbiome to think that 99% of our genes are in our
0:38.4	microbiome that we have more microbial cells than we do human cells.
0:42.7	That the weight of our gut microbiome is that of our brain.
0:45.7	I mean, everything I learn about the microbiome
0:48.2	and all of where our data has taken us
0:50.1	into these weird areas
0:51.8	highlight to me the power that the microbiome has in shaping
0:56.1	all aspects of physiology and offers loads of opportunity.
1:02.3	The microbiome is full of mystery.
1:04.0	It's the strange and alien world of our non-human cells.
1:08.0	The trillions of microbes on and in all of us constitute a second genome yet have been largely ignored for decades
1:16.7	but now their secret is out.
1:19.7	Science is piecing together how vital they are for our physical health,
1:24.0	but their work has uncovered something controversial.
1:27.5	A new idea is emerging that claims gut bacteria are an invisible hand altering our brains. We've known for centuries
1:36.1	that how we feel affects our gut. Just think what happens before an exam or a job
	...

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