You’re getting ready to give a big presentation at work, when suddenly nature calls.
Your nervous bathroom trips may be explained by the invisible thread connecting your head to your gut, said Arizona-based Dr. Nicole Cain.
Doctors have only recently begun to explore the complex relationship between the brain and the digestive system.
“The gut and the brain, they communicate on a bidirectional axis and it’s called the gut brain microbiome, or the gut brain microbiome axis,” Dr Cain told DailyMail.com.
“And we’ve found that the gut bugs talk a lot more than the brain.”
The gut feelings you may experience when you are anxious are indicators of the gut-brain axis
Her advice is to practice deep, slow breathing when you feel the anxiety building. Avoiding foods high in fiber and caffeine can also limit the effects.
Dr. Cain began focusing on the gut-brain connection in medical school after seeing a patient with a debilitating case of Crohn’s disease and anxiety.
The patient spent days lying on the bathroom floor, with joint pain and chronic diarrhea, and no treatment worked.
Eventually, targeted therapy helped her gain control over her GI symptoms, while at the same time her anxiety seemed to miraculously disappear.
This, Dr Cain said, made her think: “There is something deep about this connection.”
Before a first date, a big exam, or a public speech, our brains may start firing off stress and anxiety signals.
This tells the body to release chemicals such as cortisol, serotonin and adrenaline.
These messengers travel throughout the body, sending heart rate and blood pressure into overdrive and attaching to receptors in the gut.
This causes a “tight” feeling, stimulates your bowels and creates contraction waves that tell you you need to go to the porcelain throne.
You may find that once the anxiety stops, you don’t need to go anymore.
Otherwise, your body does some work in this storm and releases it only when you can relax and your body can pass the stool.
“Right after the adrenaline rush is when everything can start to hit you,” said gastroenterologist Dr. Christine Lee of the Cleveland Clinic.
On the flip side, depression can also affect the gut.
For some people who struggle with depression, the condition is caused by an imbalance in chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep, libido, mood and digestion. Between 90 and 95 percent of it is produced in the digestive system, according to the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Cain became attuned to the gut-brain axis after a patient with a severe case of Crohn’s disease and anxiety appeared to both heal simultaneously
This has led researchers to theorize that for some depressed patients, the problem may be due to a dysfunctional gut – where it’s possible that their digestive system just isn’t producing enough serotonin to keep their brains going.
In addition, serotonin itself makes changes in the gut.
“There are more serotonin receptors in the digestive tract than in the brain.” Because of this, serotonin has as big a role in the digestive tract as it does in the brain,” said Dr Lee.
In the gut, serotonin helps regulate how fast food moves through your gut, how much fluid is produced to help break down and move food, and how sensitive you are to feelings like fullness and bowel movements.
Studies have found similar, odd connections between digestive health and depression.
Putting stool samples from people with depression into bacteria-free rats led to symptoms of depression, such as a lack of interest in their usual activities, a 2016 study from University College Cork found.
A large 2023 study looking at stool samples from over 1000 people found that those with depression all had low levels of a bacteria called Eubacterium ventriosum, compared to people without depression.
This suggested that a lack of these bacteria could be contributing to the condition.
One final way to connect the gut to the brain is through the vagus nerve, Dr Cain said.
The hormones and neurotransmitters released in response to stress have many receptors in the digestive tract
The vagus nerve is one of 12 major nerves that run directly from the brain into the body. It controls a number of functions that you cannot control by sheer will, including digestion, heart rate, and the immune system.
One of its most important functions is to shift your body from stress to compression. After you leave a stressful situation, your vagus nerve activates, regulating your heart rate, reducing anxiety, and boosting your immune system.
This also puts the intestines back to rest, working to process food and returning energy at a leisurely pace.
Some naturopaths, like Dr Cain, say that this system can be ‘hacked’ to your advantage. If you notice that you get anxious or stressed in situations that don’t require it, you can try activating your vagus nerve, setting your body and gut into a hard reset.
Deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, cold exposure and meditation can reactivate your vagus nerve — calming you down, Dr Cain said.
Whether it’s because of anxiety, depression or simple vagus nerve simulation, each of us has to deal with the strange communication between the digestive tract and the brain, said Dr Cain, “instead of feeling shame and embarrassment about it, is to understand that this is your body giving you information.
“We are, by and large, products of our gut.”
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