The Unconscious Genius of Viruses and the Gut-Brain Connection

This chapter explores how the rabies virus manipulates host behavior to enhance its transmission, presenting a unique evolutionary strategy. It also examines the gut-brain axis, highlighting the role of enteroendocrine cells in nutrient detection and communication between the gut and the brain.

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Episode notes

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Diego Bohórquez, PhD, professor of medicine and neurobiology at Duke University and a pioneering researcher into how we use our ‘gut sense.’ He describes how your gut communicates to your brain and the rest of your body through hormones and neural connections to shape your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. He explains how your gut senses a range of features such as temperature, pH, the macro- and micronutrients in our foods, and much more and signals that information to the brain to affect our food preferences, aversions, and cravings.

Dr. Bohórquez describes his early life in the Amazon jungle and how exposure to traditional agriculture inspired his unique expertise combining nutrition, gastrointestinal physiology, and neuroscience. We discuss how the gut and brain integrate sensory cues, leading to our intuitive “gut sense” about food, people, and situations. This episode provides a scientific perspective into your gut sense to help you make better food choices and, indeed, to support better decision-making in all of life.

For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com.