Probiotics For Stress: Minding Your Mental-Gut Health During Anxious Times

1. You have a second "brain" in your gut

Your enteric nervous system (ENS) controls your digestion³. This mesh-like system of neurons is housed in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract⁴. It can function independently of the brain to handle your digestion, which is why many people refer to it as your “second brain.”⁴

2. Your ENS makes use of a high-speed connection to your brain

While your ENS can run independently, it can still be heavily influenced by your brain. This is because the two nervous systems run a direct connection through the spinal cord².

3. Your gut can therefore receive warning signals from your brain

In times of stress, your brain sends out distress signals⁵. Your gut receives these loud and clear thanks to their strong connection^{2 3}.

4. These signals can alter your gut’s behavior

When your brain sends out an alarm, your gut will often respond². Reactions might range from a fluttery feeling in the abdomen to needing to make an urgent dash to the bathroom². These reactions are caused by frequent or strong contractions in your GI tract- its response to stress signals².

5. Your gut is super-sensitive to signals from your brain

Your gut is hypersensitive to stress signals from the brain². The link is so strong between the brain and the ENS that your gut can react to warning signals that you are barely aware of². This means that even mild stress and anxiety can cause unpleasant symptoms in the gut and you could be unaware that stress is the cause².

Stress signals can cause the following gut symptoms:

✓  Abdominal pain

✓  Nausea and vomiting

✓  Bloating

✓  Changes to bowel movements⁶

It's vital to nurture the connection between the brain and gut². In short, to minimize stress-related gut problems, we need to look after our mental-gut health².

1. Cut down on comfort eating

This may seem counterintuitive, but many of the foods we might turn to for comfort are high in sugar or saturated fat, or are highly processed⁷. This means they can irritate the gut further, exacerbating and not solving the problem⁷.

2. Aim to consistently eat a healthy, Meditteranean-style diet

The Meditteranean-style diet is best suited to good digestive health. This means eating lots of fruits and vegetables, as many varieties and colors as possible. This diet is also high in legumes, wholegrains, lean meat, fish and seafood. It’s also important to consume healthy fats from oily fish, nuts and olive oil.⁷

3. Add more probiotic foods to your diet

Probiotics are good, helpful bacteria that naturally live in your gut⁷. They help you fight off bad bacteria and infection⁷.

You can boost the numbers of good bacteria in your gut by eating foods that contain them⁸. Improve your gut health by adding more of these probiotic foods to your diet⁸:

✓  Live yogurt

✓  Fermented milk drinks

✓  Pickled vegetables including sauerkraut and kimchi

✓  Miso⁸

4. Add a probiotic supplement to your daily routine

A really simple way to experience the benefits of probiotics is to take a probiotic supplement⁹. These will send plenty of good bacteria into your gut where they can help digestion and support your immune system⁹.

5. Take time to rest and relax

Finally, rest shouldn’t be considered a luxury. It’s vital to both your mental health⁷ and digestive health¹⁰. Your body needs you to slow down and take time out so that the digestive system can work efficiently⁷.

Rest and relaxation can also help alleviate stress (and thus reduce the unpleasant gut symptoms associated with it)⁷. Many people find that taking time out for deep breathing exercises or meditation is a really useful tool in the fight against stress-related mental-gut health problems⁷.

6. Getting an adequate amount of sleep each night

Stress may make pain, bloating, nausea, and other stomach discomfort felt moreeasily. Vomiting may occur if the stress is severe enough. Furthermore, stress maycause an unnecessary increase or decrease in appetite. Unhealthy diets may in turndeteriorate one's mood.