Exactly what is the sensation of butterflies in the stomach?!


Question:

Exactly what is the sensation of butterflies in the stomach?

you know, like when your nervous or excited.. what exactly is the medical reason for getting these? mine are bad, i get them when something bad happens or im really nervous (in a bad way).


Answers:

There is a really good site that explains it but here is a good description i found from it. I know what you mean though I feel that way before going to an interview or something and they never feel good.

When faced with an anxiety-ridden situation, the big brain sends urgent messages to the little brain, which begins orchestrating a physical response, read as gurgling or "butterflies" in the stomach. These sensations are recorded in an "emotional memory bank" residing in the big brain, says Mayer, and the next time the big brain makes a decision in a similar situation, it's not based on some intellectual calculation. Rather, it's instantaneously formulated from this catalog of previous bodily responses–"gut feelings"–stored in the brain.


Why some people feel the burden of stress in their gut–and not for instance, in their heart–can also be explained by the close communication between the brain and the gut. When the big brain consciously perceives a stressful situation, it calls on its fraternal twin through specialized cells–called mast cells–embedded in the gut's lining. These mast cells secrete a chemical called histamine, which activates the nerves controlling the gut, telling the muscles to contract. Hence, the cramps and bathroom trips so often associated with bouts of stress.


The complex circuitry in the gut not only operates like a brain; it looks uncannily similar to one, too. Just like the nerves in the brain and spinal cord, those in the gut are naked, lacking an insulating sheath that wraps around the rest of the body's nerves. Swishing among the gut's nerves are serotonin, nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, and at least 30 other neurochemicals–the same ones sloshing around in the skull. Curiously enough, as healthy brains in the head and gut resemble each other, so too do diseased ones. Scientists have found that some Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients accumulate the same type of tissue damage in their bowels as they do in their skulls, raising the possibility that these disorders might someday be diagnosed by routine rectal biopsy.




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