How Does Stress Affect the Digestive System

For many people, stress is a catalyst to overeating, gut issues, anxiety, and more.

Let’s look at a few facts.

1) Most adults these days lead lives filled with at least a little, and usually a lot of, stress and anxiety.
2) 70% to 75% of all human diseases and infection begins in your gut, due to some problem with your gastrointestinal and digestive systems.

Put those two facts together, and you could make an argument for a causal relationship between stress and anxiety, and a poor digestive system.

There are mounds of evidence to support both of the facts we just mentioned. So whether stress causes digestive problems or not, a first-year law student could present a strong argument linking stress to poor digestion.

As it turns out, many doctors and other health professionals are familiar with the role stress plays in relation to how you digest food. There is no “maybe” about the link.

How Does Stress Affect the Digestive System

Anxiety, stress, and depression almost always seem to cause digestive problems of some sort. The data behind that statement is irrefutable. So is the physical link.

As the website HealthDay.com puts it, “You don’t need a PhD in physiology to know that stress can be hard on the stomach.”

Let’s take a look at exactly how high levels of stress can negatively affect the digestive process.

Have you ever had to speak in public?

Surveys show that people are more afraid of public speaking than of dying! As you were headed to the podium, about to give your speech or address, you probably experienced some level of stress.

What physical area of your body did that stress reveal itself? You got that “butterflies in your stomach” feeling, and could have actually experienced feelings of nausea and dizziness.

This is because when your brain becomes severely stressed, an automatic Tidal Wave of hormones is released. One of the hormones that is released is CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone). It is linked to the age-old “fight or flight” stress response, and one of its jobs is to turn off appetite. This explains why you might not be able to eat much when you experience high levels of stress.

However, CRH also releases steroids, which can make you hungry. This is the reason some people combat stress with a quart of ice cream or a bag of potato chips. Receiving vastly different signals, your digestive system can understandably respond by not knowing what to do.

There is also the hormone serotonin to consider.

A full 95% of your serotonin is found in your digestive tract.

How is this linked to stress? Serotonin is largely responsible for how you feel. So when your brain decides it is going to stress out, you experience a serotonin reaction.

As we just pointed out, almost all of your serotonin is in your gut. So stress cranks up your serotonin, which creates a reaction in your digestive system.

Those are just a couple of ways that stress causes a digestive system reaction. The research, clinical studies, and medical data linking high levels of stress to digestive problems show time and again that this is a very real relationship.

Short-term, irregular, and infrequent stress periods may just cause a tummy ache or nausea. However, prolonged stress can lead to aggravated chronic diseases such as heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome, and other unhealthy conditions.

Overall, learn what your stressors are and walk away from food noise when you can. Take a break and learn what triggers your digestive issues around stress. A healthy gut is the key to a healthy life!