Archives: Cells and Nerves

When you feel pain in your gut, this is because sensory nerves send electrical signals from the tissue behind your gut wall to your spinal cord, from where they travel to the brain.

These sensory nerves are really long: their cell bodies sit very close to your spinal cord, just underneath your vertebrae, but they send processes all the way into your gut.

Sensory nerve processes are activated directly by small substances that can seep through the gut wall, e.g. capsaicin – the active ingredient in chilli peppers. They can also receive signals indirectly, by communicating with specialised gut wall cells about harmful substances that are travelling through your gut.