The mind gut connection – How is stress affect the gut?

We've teamed up with MoliCare to discover how stress might affect your stomach. Find out how to soothe tummy troubles and boost your health. Plus, if you're dealing with incontinence, check out our selection of MoliCare pads on our site.

Numerous research increasingly suggests an intriguing link between our brains and our bellies. Ever wondered what that's all about? Chances are, you've actually felt this connection without even realising it. Picture those times when your tummy felt all twisted before a big event, or those jitters that feel like fluttering wings in your stomach. Or perhaps those moments when worry made you feel sick, or stress sent you rushing to the loo. This is the brain-gut connection at play – something both science and our own experiences are beginning to understand a bit better.

Have you said yes to any of those questions? If so, you know a bit about the link we're talking about. You might wonder, "What does stress do to our stomachs and digestion?" By learning about the powerful link between our brain and gut, you can find ways to settle your stomach issues, help with different health problems, boost your energy, and feel fantastic.

In this article:

• What Is The Mind Gut Connection?
• Physical and Mental Symptoms Associated With The Mind Gut Connections
• How Does Stress Impact The Gut?
• How Does Stress Impact Your Body?
• What Can You Eat To Look After Your Gut?
• What Lifestyle Choices and Activities Can Help Your Gut?
• Six Tips for a Gut Health Diet

Our stomach and intestines can easily be upset by how we feel. Feeling sad, worried, stressed, or mad can lead to tummy troubles. When we grieve, we might feel sick, and stress can make us not want to eat at all.

The way we feel can really affect our belly. When we start thinking about food, our brain tells our stomach to get ready and make juices to digest the food. But if we're feeling upset or worried, our brain might mess up and send mixed-up messages to our stomach instead. When that happens, we might get a tummy ache, especially if we're feeling down or stressed out.

Many people suffer from stomach problems without knowing why. They may spend a long time trying to figure out the cause, but sometimes the stress and worry in their heads are actually to blame.

Physical and Mental Symptoms Associated With The Mind Gut Connections

The experts at MoliCare These highlight just some of the physical and mental symptoms that you might experience if you’re stressed: 

• Trouble falling asleep, or staying asleep
• Painful and prolonged recurrent headaches
• A sudden gain or loss of weight
• A lack of concentration or focus
• Feeling extreme hunger or experiencing a loss of appetite
• Withdrawing from social interactions
• Crying
• Feeling nervous and being unable to relax
• Memory loss and difficulty remembering things

It's important to note that the mind-gut connection is a two-way street, meaning that not only can stress impact our digestive system, but our digestive system can also impact our mental health.  

Understanding the close link between how your gut feels and your mood explains why stress can cause stomach ache or why you get 'butterflies' in your belly before starting a new job.

Some people think that the connection between our mind and stomach suggests the symptoms mentioned are not real, just imagined. But even if stress and anxiety start these symptoms, the discomfort felt in the body is genuinely happening. What begins as worry in your head can actually cause physical changes and inflammation to your gut, among other issues.

We now understand that stress can have a big impact on our stomach and digestion. But what exactly does stress do to our bodies? How does it affect our digestive system? Picture this: when something really stressful happens, it’s like your body hits a panic button. This triggers part of your nervous system that helps you breathe, pumps your blood around, and keeps your heart beating fast. This is your body's way of gearing up to respond to the challenge.

When you're stressed and feeling the urge to either confront it or run away, your body responds by releasing a hormone called cortisol. This makes you more alert and prepared to deal with whatever is causing the stress.

Cortisol is like an alarm system for your body that makes you more alert—your heart beats faster, you breathe quicker, and your blood pressure goes up. It also makes the cholesterol in your blood higher and causes your muscles to tighten, including the ones in your gut. All of these changes can upset your stomach and digestion in different ways.

Causing: 

• Oesophageal spasms 
• An increase in stomach acids, causing heartburn, acid reflux, and indigestion 
• Nausea 
• Diarrhoea and leakage requiring MoliCare® incontinence pads
• Constipation 
• Cramping and stomach pain 
• Lower back pain 
• Excess gas and flatulence 

Constant stress can really upset your tummy. If it gets bad, it might mean not enough oxygen and blood get to your stomach. This can cause really bad stomach aches, swelling, and even thrush, which is a kind of infection. People who already have tummy troubles might find that stress makes things even worse. Stress can actually make a bunch of different gut problems get nastier, including:

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) 
• Peptic ulcers 
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) 
• Acid reflux 

Struggling with stress or related health issues? It's important to tackle your stress to feel better. Here are some simple choices and activities that can help lower your stress and boost your overall well-being.

The saying, 'you are what you eat,' really does make sense. Eating certain foods can make your gut healthier, which makes you feel better in your mind and body.

Eating lots of foods that are good for your gut is super important. You might have heard about probiotics and prebiotics—they're both great but do different things. Think of prebiotics as food that helps the good bacteria already in your stomach grow strong. On the other hand, probiotics are like sending extra friendly bacteria into your stomach to help out.

Prebiotics are like superfoods for the tiny friendly bacteria living in your body. You can get them by eating everyday foods such as vegetables, whole grains, and beans. They help keep your gut healthy and happy!

Probiotics are foods that are full of helpful live bacteria, which are great for your stomach's health. You can find them in yoghurts that have live cultures, some types of cheese that haven't been cooked, and foods that have been fermented – that means they've been left to develop good bacteria naturally. Some popular fermented foods are kombucha, sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi, and miso paste. These foods don't just taste good, they can also make your stomach feel better if it's upset.

On top of the food tips we've shared, there are lots of simple things you can do every day to help your gut feel better and that can also make your mind and gut work better together.

• Meditate and practice mindfulness – Meditation is known to calm the mind, resulting in a whole host of benefits to the mind, body, and soul. 
• Practice yoga – Yoga has been shown to bust stress, boost flexibility, and improve overall physical health. 
• Exercise regularly – Exercise helps to keep your body in good shape and can reduce stress levels. 
• Get a good amount of sleep – Recent studies show that getting good quality sleep is more important than previously thought. It allows you to rest, recharge, and rebuild your body, helping your mental health and stress levels. 
• Cut back on alcohol – Drinking can feel good in the moment, but overindulging actually makes you more stressed than you were before you started. It is imperative that you cut down on alcohol if you want to improve your stress levels. 

MoliCare Shares Six Tips for a Gut Health Diet

1. Eat a broad range of plant-based foods – In order to have a healthy gut, you need to consume a diverse number of microbes, all of which come from different healthy foods.
2. Consume more probiotic foods – Eat a high amount of probiotic foods.
3. Up your fibre intake – While you might think you are eating enough fibre, you can always stand to consume more nuts, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. Just remember that if your current diet is low in fibre, an increase can cause you to experience wind and bloating. Add more fibre gradually and boost your water intake.
4. Use extra virgin olive oil as your fat of choice – Extra virgin olive oil is packed full of microbe-friendly polyphenols and should be your ‘go-to’ fat.
5. Stay away from highly processed foods – Sure, highly processed ‘fast’ foods taste good and pack a big punch of flavour, but they can wreak havoc on your gut health. They can hinder your good bacteria and help your bad bacteria flourish.
6. Change up your diet when taking antibiotics – Antibiotics are a necessary medical intervention, but they work by killing your ‘good’ bacteria right alongside the ‘bad’. If you need antibiotics, make sure you eat lots of foods that boost your microbes afterwards. 

Taking good care of your gut is key to feeling healthy all over. To do this, eat more foods that are good for your gut, like yoghurts and bananas, and try to relax more to calm your tummy. In short, looking after your gut helps you feel great in general.