Gut-Stress Connection

In today’s fast paced life, one thing is common in everyone’s life- STRESS. It can be due to relationships, work, household matters or even financial matters! Have you ever wondered why you face digestive issues, have butterflies in your stomach or face bloating when you are stressed? It is a proven fact that your gut health is related to stress issues. The relationship between the two is bi-directional: Stress can impact your gut health & gastrointestinal issues can further have a cascading impact on stress & mental health.

Gut, also called second brain, has its own immune system & nervous system(ENS). Our autonomic nervous system manages heart beat, blood pressure, temperature modulation & breathing. Our nervous system is divided into Sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems. Sympathetic nervous system gives a burst of energy( fight or flight situation) while the parasympathetic nervous system works to slow your heartbeat & breathing & help your brain to relax. One of the important parts of the autonomic nervous system is the Enteric nervous system( gut’s nervous system). This controls 5 times as many neurons as the number of neurons in the spinal cord. ENS is connected to brain & spinal cord through gut-brain axis.

ENS communicates with both sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems. This is important because ENS,embedded in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract, sends & receives signals from/to both parts of the autonomic nervous system evenly keeping your gut balanced.

ENS communicates with the nervous system through the vagus nerve. This vagus nerve is the direct line of communication between our gut & brain. ENS is responsible for moving & creating neurotransmitter & produces 90% of serotonin( that regulates our mood).

Your gut microbiome has a lot of say through use of neurotransmitters, hormones & proteins to talk to your brain. Your gut influences your happiness, emotions & how you feel.

As mentioned above, a lot of us suffer from stomach & bloating issues when they are stressed! The question arises why does this happen? Within the gut brain axis, our gut & brain work as a team. This essentially means when we are under stress, our brain is under stress & this directly impacts communication between gut & brain. These communication issues directly impact release of neurotransmitters that affect speed of digestion, our body’s ability to absorb nutrients & regulating immune system. This can result in indigestion, thereby opening doors for constipation, bloating, nausea & stomach pain & issues. In order words, your gut gets message that bacteria residing in them are being attacked so it shuts down their digestive system

These communication issues directly impact the health of our gut bacteria as well, leading to imbalance in gut bacteria. This imbalance impacts production of dopamine, serotonin & norepinephrine levels which directly impacts our mood, making us depressed, tense or create anxiety. Let us discuss how the gap in communication is the starting point of anxiety, depression & mental health issues.

Gut microbiome can lead to mental issues including depression & anxiety through:

1. Its impact on stress response: As mentioned above stress causes slow down/disruption in the digestive system. Your gut modulates your stress response through communication with our brain. As we age, changes in our microbiome ( our firmicutes increase in relation to bacteroidetes) impacts how we respond to stressors & there are larger chances of us attracting digestive issues if we are not taking care of gut bacteria residing in our colon.
2. Leaky gut: If you eat something regularly which does not feed your gut or you do not have microbes that can metabolise the food you have consumed( for instance high amount of protein- releases ammonia gas since our gut does not have bacteria that can ferment protein), it can change composition of our gut microbiome & results in leaky gut. Situation of leaky gut enables bacteria, fungi, yeast, viruses to break the intestinal barrier & enter the bloodstream, resulting in chronic inflammation & directly impacting the immune system( some may even end up eating up immune cells/human cells). This leaky gut causes the ENS & central nervous system to have dysfunctional conversation. This lack of communication/mis-communication can cause poor emotional responses
3. Chronic inflammation: Besides leaky gut, having chronic inflammation ( promoted when bad microbes overpowers beneficial ones) can make vagus nerve lead to neuropsychological disorders

Some of the signs which can indicate you that your gut microbiome is playing the spoil sport include:

1. Physical symptoms: Gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, sugar cravings, brain fog, headache, muscle pain, weight gain, irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune disorders, leaky gut
2. Psychological symptoms: Mood Swings, irritability, Nervousness, Insomnia, Sense of Doom, Social withdrawal.

Instead of going for counselling sessions or therapies to improve your mental wellbeing, you should focus on improving your gut health.

If you are dealing with stress, depression or mental health issues, you should strive to keep your gut health through dietary interventions unique for your body. Some of the hacks which you may adopt to improve your gut health are detailed below. However, please remember that these are standard hacks & may not work for you since your gut microbiome may react to different nutrients in different ways & it may release either nutrients or toxins in your blood stream depending upon our gut bacteria composition:

1. High fibre foods/Metabolite Accessible Carbohydrates(MAC):  Fibre or MAC rich foods feed beneficial bacteria in your gut & release short chain fatty  acids such as Butyrate which improve our satiety level & keeps us full. This makes our gut bacteria feel happy & regulates our mood.
2. Stay Hydrated: Water keeps things moving along our digestive tract & hence regulates our digestive system, thereby ensuring release of hormones such as serotonin what keeps us away from mental health issues.
3. Have enough sleep: Our gut has its own circadian rhythm as our other body organs have. If we have a deficit sleep, our gut release toxins such as lipopolysaccharides(LPS) which can cause autoimmune disorders, fatigue, leaky gut & even cancer

By nurturing your gut, you can eliminate the impact of any stress & improve your overall well being.

If you are stressed, have depression or mental health problems due to issues such as workplace stress, financial issues or strained relationship & unable to figure out how to overcome them, healing your gut is your best bet. Do not think that counselling or therapies are going to help you out. 

By making us your health mascot, we can help you learn about your gut microbiome profile & how your gut bacteria interacts with your brain. Sign up for our free discovery call here to unlock your gut bacteria potential.