Release the Stress!

Stress wreaks havoc on us in so many ways, y’all. Communication between the brain and the bacteria in the gut it is constant and goes both ways. So stress can absolutely influence gut health… and in a negative way.

There are a couple of ways that stress can mess us up. It can affect digestion. Our mood. Our weight. Our immunity. Even lead to more serious issues such as malnutrition and chronic illness. And let’s not forget the physical symptoms such as bloating, cramping, ulcers, nausea, etc.

So how does stress cause all of this? Keep reading!

DIGESTION

When we are stressed, our bodies take that personally and perceive that as a threat. Then the fight-or-flight response is activated and the stress hormones and neurotransmitters get involved. These They are there to protect us from harm and to prepare us to flee and literally fight in battle. They raise our blood pressure, increase heart rate, send energy to muscles and reduce blood flow to the gut to send to the extremities to prepare to run and fight. But there is no battle. So the stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, usually stored in the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) system, rush the body.

Since we don’t release them, these hormones and neurotransmitters stay stored in the body and cause problems. An excess amount of cortisol reduces the release of hydrochloric acid as well as the activity of our digestive enzymes. This lowers the gut’s ability to break down food and also absorb the nutrients from food. This is one way chronic illnesses and even malnutrition can manifest.

But not only that. If we can’t truly absorb nutrients, we don’t have the proper tools we need to build proper molecules in the body. For example, the nerve cells in the gut that produce up to 95% of the body’s serotonin don’t have the tools they need. So less serotonin is made and available to us. Also, the gut lining is usually repaired and replaced every few days. If the cells are starving, they can’t do this for us.

See how this can contribute to many issues?

MOOD

The bacteria in our gut can affect our brain and our mood, but the brain also affects what types of bacteria live in our gut. Which can be good, or bad. Did you know that we have more bacteria cells in our body than human cells? Ten times more. Our “gut” is really our bacterial makeup and is basically our very own collection of various organisms like bacteria, fungi, yeast, parasites and more. There are about one hundred trillion just in the intestines. And the diversity of all of these is important and can influence mood.

The good news is we can control at least what we eat and how often we stress. And these factors greatly influence the diversity of your gut. The more diverse, the better. You want the good guys to be able to outweigh the bad. Processed foods, a lot of sugar, and many many additives promote the growth of the bad guys. And then of course, there’s stress.

Stress can alter the shift of harmful bacterial growth and slow the growth of the good guys. The shift is towards a more hostile gut environment. Also, can be through emotional eating bad stuff. Which I do and am working on lol. But this can also affect the next thing I’m going to talk about.

WEIGHT

Yes, your gut microbiome can affect weight. In different ways. Gut bacteria may be able to influence how fat is stored. It can also affect telling us when we’ve had enough. And an important one, our blood sugar levels. If your gut isn’t very diverse and consists of mostly harmful bacteria, they can’t fight disease and obesity. This can even lead to diabetes later down the road.

A lot of us are walking around inflamed. Not even fat, just experiencing inflammation. Inflammation of the gut can lead to what’s called leaky gut and that has his own list of problems. So stress can lead to inflammation of the gut, which can lead to body wide inflammation. It’s so important for us to get our stress under control!

IMMUNITY

Chronic, and even acute, stress can cause changes in our hormonal responses and affect our immune system’s ability to respond and heal us quickly. When we stress, our bodies produce less secretory IgA, which is one of the first lines of immune defense. We also produce less dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, our anti-aging and anti-stress adrenal hormone.

As said before, stress influences the bacteria that are in our gut. And throughout our digestive systems we have immune tissue called gut associated lymphoid tissue or GALT. Stress pulls blood away from our GALT which impairs digestion and also the regeneration of our gut. Which houses 70% of our immune system.

WRAP-UP

As you can see, stress is toxic. We gotta cut her off. The way the body is set up to protect us in certain situations can harm us in others. It can’t really tell the difference. But we can try to stress less in life and this will greatly improve other areas. It’s easier said than done, I know it! But for me and your health, try it with me.

Yoga, meditation, exercise, art are some ways to combat stress. Find that thing you love and do more of it.

References

Madison A, Kiecolt-Glaser JK. Stress, depression, diet, and the gut microbiota: human-bacteria interactions at the core of psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2019 Aug;28:105-110. doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.01.011. Epub 2019 Mar 25. PMID: 32395568; PMCID: PMC7213601.

Lipski, E. (2020). Digestive wellness: Strengthen the immune system and prevent disease through healthy digestion. McGraw-Hill.

Pedre, V. (2017). Happy gut. Harpercollins.