How Your Gut Influences Stress and Anxiety

Inside our digestive system lives trillions of nerves. This network of nerves is called the Enteric Nervous System and it has a major impact on how your brain functions. However, when the nervous system is always kicked into overdrive from stress, this can be a main contributor to gut issues, and vice versa.

The Gut-Brain Connection

You’ve heard of having a “nervous stomach” before, right? The connection between how your digestive system feels and functions, and how you feel mentally, is strong. Just as the brain is sending signals to your gut via the vagus nerve, which is an essential piece to gut healing, the gut is sending signals back to the brain. The gut-brain connection isn’t something to be overlooked.

Could Your Anxiety Be Stemming From Your Gut?

There are numerous ways your gut contributes to a calm, relaxed state, or a chaotic one. First, you need to develop a healthy, balanced digestive system. When there is imbalance in your gut bacteria, or your gut is under-functioning, you won’t be able to actually utilize the healthy foods and nutrients you’re (hopefully!) eating. The foundations need to be addressed, including stomach acid levels, enzymes, liver and gall bladder health, bowel movements and so on.

The Moody Hormones at Play

Now our hormones influence our gut as well, but many are actually produced IN the gut, especially in relation to stress and mood. Dopamine, serotonin and melatonin (which is key for more than just sleep) are a few of these hormones that are made in the gut from happy, balanced gut bacteria. Therefore, an unhappy gut can cause feelings of sadness, anxiety and stress.

What You Eat Majorly Impacts Stress and Anxiety

I wrote in a previous article how you can use food to balance mood, as it’s one of the key foundations for supporting a healthy, balanced mind. It’s true that what you’re putting in your body dictates how you’re going to feel. Eating sugary, processed foods will give you an immediate hit of dopamine and make you feel amazing… but only for about 30 seconds, until you’re looking for your next fix because you’re on the letdown. Surprisingly enough, hidden food sensitivities, due to leaky gut, will have the exact same affect, even if they’re “healthy” foods. They often show up the next day or two and can manifest in the form of anxiety or stress.

Why Your Healthy Diet isn’t Supporting Stress & Anxiety…

Eating well is a big piece of the puzzle, but if you’re gut isn’t healthy and balanced, you can eat all the nutrient-dense foods you want and it won’t have the impact you’re looking for.

Why?

If you’re not able to digest and assimilate the nutrients you’re consuming, you won’t build resilience to stress or live free from anxiety as easily. In fact, you could be eating all the right things, but inflammation could be running rampant inside, affecting your mood, cortisol levels and much more.

Get To The Root of Chronic Gut Issues With GI-MAP

If you’ve been working on building a healthy foundation, maybe you’ve even had your hormones checked, but haven’t gotten the results you’ve been looking for, there’s likely something missing. GI-MAP can help you look deeper into the underlying cause of why you’re experience digestive issues, anxiety and so much more.

In my new 6-Week 1:1 Gut Restore Program launching soon, I combine a personalized approach to nutrition, with root-cause digestive testing using GI-MAP, to create a protocol that’s specific to you.

If this topic interests you, you’ll love my FREE upcoming webinar on Thursday, April 20th: 4 Key Foundations for Gut Healing!

register for free now!