Bath time

After consideration and discussion about diapering and if Newt has been in his human form yet (he hasn’t), it was decided that so far Newt’s diaper was more like a bandage wrapped around his serpentine body. From all that arose this.



Title: Bath Time
Continues from Hungy
prior Andy & Simon drabbles
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 701


“Alright, Newt my little eel stop wriggling like an … eel.” Andy sometimes thought about taping Newt to the changing pad just so it would be easier to swap out his bandage of a diaper.

“Eeeeeeeeel. I eeeeeeeeeel.” Newt writhed around trying to escape.

“No, you’re not,” Andy sang.” You’re my skink of a son Newt. Who I love very, very, very much but if you don’t hold still ……”

“Skiiink. I skiiiink.”

Andy sighed. “Newt please hold still. If you were house trained like your Father, you could run around without your diaper but you aren’t.”

“I am not house trained,” was said firmly.

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Parenthood.html

The Mind Gut Connection

'The Mind-Gut Connection': Could Your Gut Microbes Be Affecting How You Feel? September 16, 2016 By Carey Goldberg



I’d just gotten used to the idea that I’m a walking mountain of microbes. The sizzling field of research into the microbiome — our full complement of bugs — is casting new light on our role as homes to the trillions of bacteria that inhabit each of us. At least most of them are friendly, I figured.

But now comes the next microbial shift in my self-image, courtesy of the new book “The Mind-Gut Connection.” My trillions of gut microbes, it seems, are in constant communication with my brain, and there’s mounting evidence that they may affect how I feel — not just physically but emotionally.

Does this mean — gulp — that maybe our bugs are driving the bus? I spoke with the book’s author, Dr. Emeran Mayer, professor of medicine and psychiatry at UCLA, executive director of the Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience and expert in brain-gut microbiome interactions. Edited excerpts:

So we’re not only packed with trillions of gut microbes but they’re in constant cross-talk with our brains — that’s the picture?

First of all, you have to realize that these are invisible creatures. So even though there are 100 trillion of them living in our gut, you wouldn’t be able to see them with the naked eye. It’s not like something tangible sitting inside of you, like another organ.

These minuscule creatures live in different parts of your gut, most of them sitting at the mucus layer that is just on top of your gut surface. That allows them to be just microns away from receptors and sensors with which your gut records the chatter that goes on between them and measures what goes on inside.


And yes, they can communicate. Interestingly enough, they have the same signaling molecules that we’re quite familiar with, neurotransmitters and hormones, that are the main means of biological communication in our bodies and brains. The microbes use very similar molecules, and in fact, we probably got the genes to produce these signaling molecules from the microbes millions of years ago.

When you’re stressed, for example, the main stress molecule that we secrete, norepinephrine, gets to the microbes, changes their gene expression pattern, and makes them secrete different things, which results in a change in their behavior. So the microbes know what state of mood you’re in, and at the same time, our brain knows the signals that microbes send up to us. It’s a communication that we are totally unaware of, yet it plays such an important role.
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