Stress and the Gut...Who's Driving?

You’ve heard that stress isn’t good for you.  Well, it turns out that some stress is fine, its just that we are on a stress roller-coaster.  See if this sounds familiar…You wake up and get a cup of coffee, head to work, sit in traffic for an hour with slow traffic.  You check you email, get texts from the office as you roll in late.  Two meetings, two more cups of coffee, emails, texts, it’s constant.  Heading home, same traffic mess, people cutting you off, you get mad, frustrated, just want to get home to that glass of wine.  Kids may need to be driven to activities until dinner at 7:30-8:00, probably order-out or fast food. Because who has time, right?  Another glass of wine, checking your email, texts, watching Netflix until you fall asleep around 11:30.  Then up at 6:00am to greet the day.

Every time you encounter a trigger- negative text, email, twitter feed, FaceBook post, caffeine, fast food, interrupted sleep, small surges of stress hormones are released.  Now, mind you, these are in tiny, tiny little amounts, but the constant barrage over a typical day is likely changing your brain and your gut.  You may know that those bacteria that help us digest our food, that are the first line of defense for our immune system? Well, they are susceptible to these stress hormones.  The stress response has been studied in animals for years.  We know that maternal separation can cause enormous stress for animals and can directly affect the baby organism’s ability to fight off infection, for their entire life!  We also know that stress can trigger IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) in humans by increasing inflammation and thereby decreasing the good bacteria in our gut.  Got brain fog?  Likely you have a maladaptive stress response.

How can you help yourself?  In the short term, a probiotic may help, especially the types of bacteria called Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.  Over the long term, the real work is more challenging.  But you can decrease the stress in your life when you take the driver’s seat.  Why allow others to run your life?  Ready to take the wheel back?

Need support making life changes? Contact me for an appointment.

References:

Dinan TG, et al., Collective unconscious: How gut microbes shape human behavior, Journal of Psychiatric Research (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.02.021

Farzi, A., Frohlich, E., Holzer, P., Gut Microbiota and the Neuroendocrine System. Neurotherapeutics, 27 January 2018

Moloney, R., et all. The microbiome: stress, health and disease. Mamm Genome. 27 November 2013. DOI: 10.1007/s00335-013-9488-5.0