John Cryan, a neuroscientist, is one of the most globally recognized voices in the study of the gut-brain communication. His work has helped demonstrate that the gut microbiota not only plays a role in digestive health, but can also modulate the stress response, behavior, and mental health. A professor and chair of the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience at University College Cork (Ireland), he has investigated the effects of a beverage that is part of the daily life of millions of people: coffee. Cryan visited Barcelona to participate in a biomedical research symposium at Pompeu Fabra University.

After years of working as a researcher and seeing patients, the "inconsistency" of seeing a lot of research remain "within laboratories" led Andreu Prados to dedicate himself to "communicating" science, to "translate it" for both patients and students and health professionals. Few voices are more didactic than his to talk about one of the most forgotten parts of our body: the vagus nerve. For some time now, videos have been proliferating on social media explaining that it is altered and that there are tricks to retrain it. But what is true in all these publications? Does the vagus nerve really have such a direct impact on our well-being? Prados, who specializes in digestive disorders, explains that knowing it is key to understanding how one of the great ills of the 21st century works from within: stress.

In life there are small misfortunes that happen periodically: catching a cold, losing socks in the washing machine, a potato rotting in the pantry, and if you live in Barcelona, stepping on dog poop. The one the other day was a pointed turd, as my young son pointed out to me while I was dealing with the incident at a fountain. That innocent comment made me go from cursing the responsible party (human, of course) to analyzing the animal's health according to the Bristol Stool Scale, which is a clear example of my brain's erratic rambling: sometimes I don't remember my children's ages, but I know the scale was published in 1997 in theScandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology and it serves to classify human feces into 7 categories, from the most intense constipation to the most watery diarrhea. It is a visual, detailed, and even creative instrument in its descriptions: it uses terms such as sausage, snake and spongy. Look for it, go.