Do Bitter Tastes Make
Head and Heart Healthy?

As I was doing research for the Companion about the intestine and microbiome, I came across an interesting phenomenon: it turns out that outside the classic sense organs, such as taste, smell, and light receptors, we have sense receptors in all kinds of other organs in the body. Arie Bos also talks about this in the Companion “Consciousness, the Brain, and Free Will” in the chapter on the sense of taste. Above is a review article that lists all kinds of receptors found in animals and humans.

 

Take bitter receptors, for example, of which we of course find many on the tongue. They make is possible to consciously taste bitters. Yet bitter receptors have also been found in the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, heart and blood vessels, thyroid gland, skeletal muscles, immune system, as well as the central nervous system.

 

Most research into bitter receptors has been done in the respiratory tract, where activation of the receptor appears to be able to ensure faster ciliary movements, better mucociliary clearance, and the release of antibacterial proteins. In the smooth muscle cells of the airways, activation of bitter receptors can provide relaxation and bronchodilation.

 

We also find multiple bitter receptors in stomach and intestines. Their activation increases gastric acid secretion and can support the removal of toxins from the cytoplasm of intestinal cells. In the colon, it can promote excretion of fluid into the intestinal lumen. There is a bitter receptor that influences glucose metabolism and insulin homeostasis; its activation can aid in metabolic disease. Yet another bitter receptor increases fat burning and improves glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, and normalizes triglycerides in the blood.

 

In the heart, the function of bitter receptors is not clear as yet, but in rats, receptors have been found that, when activated, provide relaxation of the smooth muscle cells in the vascular wall of mesenteric arteries.

 

Above article subsequently discusses potential therapeutic options in which bitter receptors could play a role.

 

In traditional herbal medicine the healthy effect of bitters has been known for a long time and bitter agents are used extensively to stimulate digestion or to help people with diabetes and obesity or asthma. Because: bitter tastes make head and heart healthy.

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