Their God Is Their Belly | Philippians 3:19

What does Paul mean by belly here? The stomach or appetite, as some translations read, represents our instinctual and base-level desires, our hungers, cravings, and lusts. For the ancients, the belly was the most animalistic part of all humans, and we tend to agree with them, even is subconsciously. After all, how often do you have a gut-feeling about something? Do you ever question whether or not you should just go with your gut? Have you ever felt the fluttering in your gut while in the throes of infatuation? Our gut is our primal nature, working beyond the confines of logic and reason and, because of sin’s corruption, always longing for things forbidden. For this reason, we must learn the twin arts of self-control and self-discipline, teaching our head how to keep the stomach on a leash. Christians are especially charged to do this.

But not so for these enemies of the cross. Instead of treating the gut’s cravings with a proper amount of skepticism, they elevate it into their god

The brain-gut connection is a complicated one and frankly we don't know nearly as much about it as we think we do.

Most people don't realize that the gut produces more serotonin than the brain does.

Get that? Your gut produces more (over 90%) of the neurotransmitter that regulates your mood than your brain does.

Here's a blurb from an article of interest:

The Brain-Gut Connection
If you’ve ever “gone with your gut” to make a decision or felt “butterflies in your stomach” when nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain. Hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this “brain in your gut” is revolutionizing medicine’s understanding of the links between digestion, mood, health and even the way you think.
Scientists call this little brain the enteric nervous system (ENS). And it’s not so little. The ENS is two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells lining your gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to rectum.
Unlike the big brain in your skull, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a love note. “Its main role is controlling digestion, from swallowing to the release of enzymes that break down food to the control of blood flow that helps with nutrient absorption to elimination,” explains Jay Pasricha, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology, whose research on the enteric nervous system has garnered international attention. “The enteric nervous system doesn’t seem capable of thought as we know it, but it communicates back and forth with our big brain—with profound results.”

Here's another excerpt of interest:

Serotonin & The Gut: The Gut-Brain Axis
Your body communicates in ways you aren’t even aware of. In fact, your brain and your gut talk to each other all the time through hormones and neurotransmitters. This is known as the gut-brain axis. This communication system between your brain and your gut is a biochemical and physical network. That “gut feeling” you get or the butterflies in your stomach… that’s real! It’s actually your brain and gut talking to each other.
Conventional medicine views the body in distinct systems and psychological stressors as independent from the rest of the body. In reality, our brains are inextricably tied to our gastrointestinal tract.
This is because 95% of our serotonin, the key neurotransmitter responsible for regulating mood, is made in your gut. A deficiency in serotonin causes depression and, in some, anxiety. In fact, the majority of antidepressants work by blocking the brain’s serotonin receptors. This frees up more serotonin to remain present in the brain.
...
Serotonin is one of four “happy hormones” your body produces, along with dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins. Each of these hormones perform different functions and provide “happy” feelings.
For example, endorphins are released when exercising and are a natural pain reliever, oxytocin is released when you show affection to others or animals and gives you feelings of love, and dopamine is what makes you feel proud when you complete a task. Serotonin is the mood regulator, however it does so much more.
Serotonin acts as both a hormone and neurotransmitter. It is produced in the body, however your body synthesizes this hormone from the amino acid tryptophan, commonly found in many protein-based foods such as turkey.
A serotonin deficiency is linked with depression, and in some cases, anxiety. Many antidepressant medications are designed to block your brain’s serotonin reabsorption for this very reason. By blocking serotonin reuptake, more of this feel-good hormone is available in your brain. However, these medications often have awful side effects and don’t address the root cause of your depression.

There are some books mr. mm and I have come across that deal with the mind and something called neuroplasticity. The concept is that your brain has a tremendous influence on the body and can be rewired for dealing with conditions previously though to be incurable. The books contain some fascinating accounts.

They are:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D.

And two books by Norman Doidge:
The Brain that Heals Itself (his first book)

and

The Brain’s Way of Healing (His follow up to it)

All three are fascinating. There were some negative reviews of those books, but after reading them myself, they are really unjustified.

There is also a brain retraining program that sounds pretty interesting called

re-origin https://re-origin.com

The concept here is to train your mind to get into and stay in a relaxed state so that your body produces the DOSE chemicals that promote healing, as opposed to the other ones which suppress digestion and the immune response and promote inflammation.

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