In order to explore this further we will cover the role of gut microbes. Research has shown that vagus nerve blockade can lead to marked weight loss, while vagus nerve stimulation is known to trigger excessive eating in rats. Instead, an emerging body of research suggests that our food cravings may actually be significantly shaped by the bacteria that we have inside our gut. Because we had never heard of or read about this phenomenon, we reviewed the English medical literature and World Wide Web to determine if such experience had been previously reported. Scientists have largely debunked the myth that food cravings are our bodies’ way of letting us know that we need a specific type of nutrient. This resembled pica, a craving to eat non-nutritive items, which is commonly associated with IDA. Often times pica cravings are caused from iron deficiencies. Pica can lead to iron deficiency anemia and lead poisoning. Definitely talk to your doctor before next week Call the nurses line at your office or something. Pica is a disorder that affects 1030 of children age 6 and under. This brings us to the topic of food cravings. Pica is characterized by persistent (one month or longer) and compulsive (uncontrollable) cravings to eat non food items. Research has shown that vagus nerve blockade can lead to marked weight loss, while vagus nerve stimulation is known to trigger excessive eating in rats. The vagus nerve acts as a major highway in the brain-gut axis, connecting the over 100 million neurons in the enteric nervous system to the medulla (located at the base of the brain). Gut hormones can bind and activate receptor targets in the brain directly but there is strong evidence that the vagus nerve plays a major role in brain-gut signalling. Such hormones include the appetite-suppressing hormones peptide YY and cholecystokinin.
These activate signalling pathways from the gut to the brainstem and the hypothalamus to stop food consumption.
When food arrives in the stomach, certain gut hormones are secreted. Pica relates to intense non-food cravings to eat as well as smell. Let’s consider what happens to the brain-gut axis when we eat a meal. Some women apparently practice pica for medicinal purposes.For example, clay eaten in parts of Nigeria has been shown to contain kaolinite and to act as a potent antidiarrheal it binds toxins and bacteria and may form a protective coat on the intestinal epithelium. Firstly, craving odd non-food related smells during pregnancy is part of a known condition called ‘pica’.