A new study in Nature Genetics puts an exclamation mark on the oft-noted, studied, Gut-Brain axis.
But this time, in a slightly different way.
The researchers compared 50,000 people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) to a population group with no symptoms of IBS.
What was their fascinating find?
There were six genetic differences that were much more common in the IBS group than the non-IBS group.
Most of those differences centered on roles in the brain and “possibly the nerves which supply the gut, rather than the gut itself.”
Now here’s where it gets even more interesting — those UnMagnificent Six Genes also put people at higher risk for other mood disorders like depression, neuroticism, and anxiety.
That doesn’t mean anxiety causes IBS symptoms or vice versa, says Prof Parkes.
“Our study shows these conditions have shared genetic origins, with the affected genes possibly leading to physical changes in brain or nerve cells that in turn cause symptoms in the brain and symptoms in the gut.”
This is yet another reminder to Christians of the huge medical component of mood and anxiety disorders.
What some Christians often call “superior faith” (a loaded term itself) might just be “different DNA.”
So if someone comes to a pastor and says, “I have anxiety,” it’s probably more helpful to respond, “Have you talked to a gastroenterologist?” than “be anxious for nothing.”
[Photo and video: I didn’t want to just do a stock photo of a stomach, so why not pay a visit, via Atlas Obscura, to what is called “the world’s most beautiful public toilet” in Gildeskal, Norway?
Also, I’m not making light of the pain of IBS w/the pic, as I have IBS and Crohn’s myself. If you’ve got them, too, you know that you have to laugh to get by. And, know where the closest restroom is.].
