How Stress Can Mess With Your Gut & 4 Things You Can Do About It

In times of stress, many people experience muscle tension, racing thoughts, tightness in the chest, and some may deal with digestive shifts. (Think butterflies in your belly or nerves hitting your stomach.) The fact is, the brain and the gut communicate directly. Emotions and cognitive function affect the intestines and vice versa. Stress can wreak havoc on your stomach—and your gut health can affect stress levels.

The health of your microbiome also matters. The gut produces over 90% of the body's serotonin, as well as GABA, a mellowing neurotransmitter, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, and acetylcholine. Based on the balance of gut bacteria2, the gut will either produce more "mellow" or more "stress" neurotransmitters.

What's more, when the body is in a stressed state, it tends to burn through the glutamine at a more rapid rate. This amino acid is used to produce GABA, but it is also a fuel source and a building block for gut cells. This means the depletion of glutamine to fight stress further drives gut damage.

So where do you begin? When looking at ways to heal your gut and balance your stress, it's important to reduce inflammation in the diet, support gut health and repair leaky gut, provide rich sources of gut-supporting nutrients, and foster microbiome balance.

Begin with an anti-inflammatory diet that removes the most common allergens: corn, soy, gluten, dairy, and sugar. If after removing these for a period of time, you are still dealing with symptoms of digestive stress or inflammatory response, consider an elimination diet or advanced blood testing.

Exercising regularly, meditating, reducing caffeine and sugar intakes, and getting the right nutrients from diet or supplementation are also great ways to help promote a healthy stress response.*

When you are in a state of stress, your body functions in the fight-or-flight response rather than rest-and-digest. This can mean fewer digestive enzymes are produced, leaving the gut prone to damage. After an acute bout of stress like a big life change or major event, consider resting your gut by doing a one day reset of just bone broth with optional cooked protein added.

Focus on healing your gut lining by adding therapeutic foods to support absorption of nutrients and reduce inflammatory reactions.

Many of us are overwhelmed or overextended and this chronic stress may be interfering with our gut health, our microbiome, and ultimately our mood. Taking the steps to interrupt these vicious cycles with food as medicine will support your digestive function while reducing inflammation and balancing neurotransmitter output.