The Gut-Brain Superhighway -

Part 1: The System

Part 2: The Mechanism

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 The gut and brain are in constant conversation, connected through a complex network involving the vagus nerve, microbiome, immune system, neurotransmitters, metabolism, and nervous system. Understanding this relationship gives clinicians a broader lens for addressing mental health, metabolic function, stress, sleep, cognition, resilience, and healthy aging.

Join us for an engaging exploration of the mechanisms behind the gut-brain axis and discover how gut health, intestinal barrier integrity, inflammation, key nutrients, and vagal signaling work together to influence whole-body health across the lifespan.

You’ll learn how to:

• Understand the anatomy and physiology of the vagus nerve and gut-brain axis

• Distinguish between the microbiota and microbiome and explore how microbiome diversity influences resilience, metabolism, stress, and gene expression

• Identify common disruptors of microbiome and gut health, including diet, antibiotics, chronic stress, poor sleep, circadian disruption, and sedentary behavior

• Recognize how intestinal barrier dysfunction, immune signaling, and systemic inflammation may affect brain and whole-body health

• Explore the role of short-chain fatty acids, particularly butyrate, in gut barrier integrity, immune signaling, metabolism, and gut-brain communication

• Understand how gut-derived neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine, and the glutamate-to-GABA balance are influenced by inflammation and essential cofactors

• Explore connections between gut health, heart rate variability, cortisol signaling, sleep, and neuroimmune tone

• Identify common patient phenotypes and the underlying physiologic patterns they may reflect

• Apply practical, non-pharmacologic strategies involving nutrition, fiber, magnesium, B6, omega-3s, blood-sugar regulation, movement, sleep regularity, diaphragmatic breathing, and vagal activation

• Use a systems-based framework to look beyond individual symptoms and identify underlying physiologic burdens

• Translate gut-brain physiology into practical, whole-person care

Whether you work with children, adults, or patients navigating mental health concerns, metabolic challenges, chronic stress, hormonal transitions, or healthy aging, this course will help you better understand the mechanisms connecting the gut and brain and translate that knowledge into actionable clinical strategies.

This effort is associated with North Dakota’s Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) Grant, funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), administered through the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services – Behavioral Health Division.