Are "Gut Feelings" Physically Connected to Health and Aging?

An interesting take on the science of intuition. What if I told you that our "gut feelings" are physically connected to our health and aging?

​The gut-brain connection through the vagus nerve plays a crucial role in our intuitive responses. Emerging research suggests maintaining this neural pathway through lifestyle practices can preserve our ability to access unconscious knowledge effectively.

The healthiest older adults I work with don't just exercise their bodies, they regularly challenge their intuition by trying new environments and taking smart risks, keeping those unconscious processing pathways active.

What's fascinating is how practices that support general metabolic health (like quality sleep and stress management) also create the optimal internal environment for intuition to function without the "misintuition." (The body in a hyperactive or stressed out condition can overreact and cause intuition to be wrong, a concept referred to as "misintuition.")

​Next time you think about health practices, consider how they might be protecting this hidden mental superpower we call "gut feeling."