In this podcast, I discuss the gut-brain axis with Dr. Jeff Moss.  This was a fascinating conversation about the latest research on the connection between gut microflora and it's intimate connection to the brain and nervous system.  We talk about this connection with neurotransmitter imbalances, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, Alzheimer's disease, Autism, gut healing strategies and much more.

Here is the transcript of our conversation:

Dr. Hedberg: Okay, well, welcome, everyone. This is Dr. Hedberg, and thanks for tuning into "The Dr. Hedberg Show." I've got a very special guest today, Dr. Jeff Moss. And Dr. Moss is a graduate of the University of Michigan Dental School 1974. He practiced dentistry in Grand Rapids, Michigan until 1985. And he employed clinical nutrition in that practice, and he decided to use that experience and enter the professional supplement industry.

So, for the last 24 years, Dr. Moss has operated Moss Nutrition, which supplies the Moss Nutrition professional line of supplements to practitioners. And, since 2000, he has served as adjunct faculty at the University of Bridgeport Nutrition Institute, starting with the vitamins and minerals class and most recently adding the assessment in nutrition class to his teaching responsibilities.

He's co-authored the textbook, the "Textbook of Nutritional Medicine" by Dr. Melvyn Werbach, and Dr. Moss was president of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists from August 2000 to June 2001.

Moss Nutrition's website is mossnutrition.com, and those of you who are patients of mine know that I'm a big fan of Moss Nutrition products because of the quality and because of all the research behind their products, and just fantastic customer service, and just a great company to work with across the board. So Dr. Moss has definitely been a mentor of mine. He's one of the only doctors out there in the functional medicine world who I listen to and respect, so I'm really excited to have him on. Jeff, thanks for joining me.

Dr. Moss: Well, thanks so much for having me.

Dr. Hedberg: So today we're gonna be talking about the gut-brain axis. This is a topic that is kind of sweeping the functional medicine landscape with good reason. We've been addressing this issue for a long time, but we're learning more and more about how the gut flora affect extraintestinal aspects of the body, and the brain, and the rest of the body system. So why don't we jump in, and can you just talk a little bit about how the gut microbiota actually interact with our nervous system?

Dr. Moss: Sure, there are really several different ways that it does it, and before I get into all of the ways, I guess the big picture here is that why this is so interesting and why it is important and so exciting is, because of the way we've traditionally viewed any type of central nervous system issue, either behavioral or neurodegenerative, we've kind of viewed as the central nervous system kind of hanging out there in space. We view the blood-brain barrier as basically impermeable to a lot of different things, and because of that the way we viewed it and the way we intervene was basically looking at it directly. There really wasn't connected to anything else in the body.

And I remember I got this very early on as a dentist. You know, the head is just kind of detached from everything else from a physiologic and mostly in terms of a diagnostic and clinical interventional therapeutic standpoint, and so I think that's the big picture here before we get into the complexities even if some of it's a bit difficult to understand. The big picture here is that the brain is incredibly influenced by what else is going on in the body, and particularly what's going on in the gut. So, with that in mind, there are really several different ways.