Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

We've all heard phrases like gut instinct or trust your gut.

And these sayings hint towards a sort of mind in your midriff.

And it turns out there's actually some truth to it.

Emerging science reveals that the brain and the gut are closely connected, constantly exchanging

signals through an intricate network of nerves. So the question is, if they're so tightly

intertwined can treating one help heal the other. I'm joined by gastroenterologist Dr. Will

Bolshewish to unravel the mystery of this connection and find out how we can use it to our

advantage. There is tremendous overlap between digestive health and mood. And we see this

represented in a powerful way in this particular condition

your oral bowel syndrome. Because yes, the criteria are not based upon your mood. The criteria

are based upon your gut, based upon your gut symptoms. But the issue is that a huge percentage

of these people simultaneously are dealing with mood issues. So it's roughly 50% of

people that have your old bowel syndrome that actually can be diagnosed with major depression

or generalized anxiety disorder or both. 50% of people with IBS can be diagnosed with like serious depression or anxiety.

Up to 50% at a minimum 50% are suffering in a way where if you were to measure their mood,

compare that to normal people. At a minimum, they're in a depressed mood relative to other people.

But it is a very large percentage of people that are that are potentially able to be diagnosed with

one of these two conditions or both which are which are mood disorders so there's this overlap

between irritable bowel syndrome and these disorders of our mood and the question that has come up is

like sort of a chicken or egg thing, right? What causes what?

And in the past, like in the very beginning, Jonathan, when they first started studying this,

...