How Does Stress Affect the Digestive System?

It’s difficult to heal when you’re stressed. Stress can break your mind, your body, and your spirit - even if you’re doing everything else right!

WHAT IS STRESS?

Fundamentally, stress is the body’s natural response to threat or danger, which may be a reaction to our external environment, or to our inner feelings and thoughts. Regardless of the real imminent danger, our perception of stressors can determine the level of stress response and consequently engage its ‘Fight-or-Flight’ mechanisms. This response reflects the body’s preparedness to fight or to flee from danger.

It is a complex response, affecting all areas of the body and the brain. It can impact our immune system, hormonal response, as well as biochemical reactions, which in turn influence the function of our cardiovascular, neurological, digestive and musculoskeletal systems. Stress may cause a multitude of health problems, including headaches, mood swings, backache, infection, or heart disease and cancer long-term. This blog will focus primarily on digestive problems caused by stress and nutrient status.

WHAT ARE STRESSORS?

Stressors in our environment today have become more prevalent, which reflects the increase in demands imposed on us by work, our lifestyle, by family, or by a combination of these demands. Some of us may respond stressfully to extreme weather, to personal changes, or strong emotional experiences. Additionally, stress may be self-imposed by our own desires to succeed and accomplish goals.

Categorically, stress can be broken down into various categories: physical (exercise, hard labour), chemical (drugs and chemicals), mental, emotional, nutritional, traumatic, and psycho-spiritual stress.

THE STRESS RESPONSE

Stress imposes a real physiological impact on our body. Let’s look at this further, so that we can understand how it impacts the digestive system and alter nutrient status.

The pituitary gland in the brain responds to stress with a fight-or-flight response by secreting ACTH hormone, which triggers the adrenal glands to increase the production of three hormones; epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol. These hormones increase our breathing, heart rate, and blood flow to the heart, muscles, brain and lungs. Furthermore, blood sugar levels are raised and the rate of metabolism is increased.

Due to this increased metabolic rate, the body’s nutrients are used up more rapidly, which increases the tendency for various nutrient deficiencies.

STRESS AND DIGESTIVE ISSUES

During the stress response, as blood flow is diverted to the skeletal and cardiopulmonary systems, blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract is reduced. This reduces effective digestion, assimilation and absorption of important nutrients. During extreme periods of stress, vomiting may occur, as the body aims to eliminate consumed food that it is unable to digest.

In the stomach, It is often thought that stress will increase stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) production, and be responsible for stomach ulcers. This is in fact untrue. Although stomach acid production may be increased with stress initially, which can cause indigestion, heartburn and gastritis, this is temporary. As stress prolongs, stomach acid declines and will remain reduced. Ulcers are commonly caused by a bacterial infection, although stress can aggravate existing ones.

Low stomach acid secretion (hypochlorhydria) is also related to a reduction in the function of the pancreas. This translates into lower pancreatic digestive enzyme secretions, which are responsible for aiding in the breakdown and digestion of food.

In the bowel, stress can impact the transition of food through this portion of the digestive tract. This can cause either diarrhea or constipation, in addition to bowel pain as a result of muscle spasms in this area.

Together, all of these changes create challenges for proper digestion and nutrient absorption.

Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Unsplash

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Without the proper breakdown of foodstuffs in the digestive tract, larger molecules may be absorbed into the body, triggering an immune response and thus the development of food reactions.

As stress leads to impaired digestion and nutrient utilization, it is common to see various deficiencies of the following nutrients: Vitamins A, C, E, and B vitamins, as well as the minerals zinc, selenium, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, molybdenum and sulfur.

Additionally, due to an increase in metabolism from stress responses, all of the macronutrients are used up quicker, particularly fatty acids.

Nutrient deficiency symptoms are widespread, and may include:

Increased susceptibility to infections
Fatigue
Headaches
Hair loss
Neck and back pains
Weight changes
Depression
Allergies
Aging
Degenerative diseases

THE STRESS DIET:

There are several basic tips to improve digestion and nutrient status while under the influence of stress:

Eat high nutrient-dense foods
Eat smaller, more frequent meals
Consume more easy-to-digest meals (Ex: smoothies and soups)
Avoid irritating drugs (Ex: stimulants, and alcohol)
Avoid meals around stressful situations
Include a good supplement plan (Ex: vitamins C, B’s, essential Fatty Acids)
Consider additional herbal support

Note that although it is important to modify your dietary pattern during times of stress to improve digestion and maintain good nutrient status, it is even more essential to manage your stress through proper lifestyle practices. Regular exercise, good sleep, meditation and other stress coping strategies are all pivotal in the management of stress. A comprehensive approach to stress management is critical for the maintenance of a healthy mind, body, and spirit.

If you are struggling to manage stress or maintain a healthy work life balance, connect with me for a comprehensive wellness plan to provide you with the tools and knowledge to rediscover your vitality and manage your stress for now and for good.