Gut Health And Anxiety

We’ve all felt them: the butterflies in your stomach when nerves are running high, or the lump in your throat when you’re feeling anxious. Or, hey, maybe you’ve even faced the unplanned bout of diarrhea or unexplained heartburn that seem to show up right as deadlines approach. And while these may all seem like really inconvenient coincidences, I’ve got some news for you: They’re all connected, specifically by something called the “gut-brain axis.” (And, no, that isn’t a scientific code for saying that your head is up your backside—though that would be kind of funny.)

What it does mean is that there is a clear connection between the health of your gut and the health of your brain.

Being in a calm, controlled, balanced state of mind means that your parasympathetic, rest and digest nervous system is working. This allows for digestion, normal bowel movements, excellent absorption of nutrients, and an overall well-functioning intestinal tract. Stress, anxiety, and general feelings of overwhelm will trigger your sympathetic, fight or flight nervous system to be on constantly, meaning that the gut basically shuts down and stops working properly. Furthermore, a chronic state of fight or flight will even change the bacterial balance in your gut within as little as 24 hours.

There are many reasons why imbalances in the gut affect brain behavior.

• Lower serotonin levels. Abnormal gut bacteria can interfere with normal neurotransmitter production. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry out brain function and activity. Remember that 90% of serotonin, the feel-good brain chemical, is made in your gut.
• Reduced nutrient levels. Inflammation in the gut may block the absorption of nutrients that influence mood. Recall that a lot of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids are required to make a healthy balance of brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.
• Overgrowth of pathogens. When you don’t have a robust army of “good guys” or beneficial bacteria to act as crowd control in your gut, unsavory organisms can start to crash the party. Parasites, yeast, viruses, Cosmo Kramer, or George Costanza. These dangerous critters can start to flourish. Nothing good comes of that. Ask Jerry.
• Food sensitivities. Eating foods that create allergic reaction or inflammation can result in intestinal wall injury. This so-called “leaky gut” can lead to immune system over-activation, which means the brain gets inflamed and reactive.

Gut infections. If you develop infections in the gut, certain toxins can be released that create inflammatory cytokines (signaling molecules that recruit your immune cells to seek out and destroy harmful invaders). These cytokines communicate danger to the brain, producing symptoms of depression and anxiety, for example.

Fixing gut imbalances and causes for gut irritation will have dramatic effects on your level of anxiety and depression. Studies show that there is a high correlation between people who suffer from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and who have depression or anxiety. Although it is interesting that antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications can improve IBS symptoms, I feel that this alone is not an ideal treatment. It doesn’t really look into the underlying causes of either disorder and may not give you long-lasting benefits.

The “4 R” approach is a nifty little way to summarize the four main areas of gut health that need to be addressed.

1.  REMOVE

The first step is to remove inflammatory triggers and pathogens. Things that can trigger inflammation include:

• Stress (by the way, don’t just skim over this one, this is massive in terms of impacting gut and brain)
• Chronic alcohol use (daily or weekly can be enough to do damage)
• Food additives and pesticides in food and water
• Caffeine (even one cup of coffee in the morning may be enough to do damage to your gut)
• Drugs, both over the counter and prescription (especially antibiotics, NSAIDS, aspirin, pain relievers, birth control pills, antacids, acid blockers, and you get the picture)
• Foods that you may be sensitive to (best determined by trying an elimination diet)
• Gluten and dairy
• Sugar and processed carbohydrates that can feed unsavory bacteria (Spoiler alert: They LOVE SUGAR). In fact, carb and sugar cravings are often the result of yeast or bacterial overgrowth sending signals to your brain to eat more junk!

A full-on elimination diet is THE BEST way to determine which foods are harming your gut and brain health. Believe it or not, EIGHT foods account for about 90% of all food-allergy reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, nuts, wheat/gluten, soy, fish, and shellfish.

There are many ways to do an elimination diet, but frankly, if you are going to start cutting out foods, why not just do it all at once? What if the FOUR you choose to cut out are not the ones? Or they are not the ONLY ones you react to? What if the FIVE aren’t? You get the picture. Other common allergens that you may consider eliminating include:

• Dairy
• Gluten
• Soy
• Refined/added sugar
• Peanuts and nuts
• Corn
• Alcohol
• Eggs
• Usually all packaged, processed, or fast foods
• Certain nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers)

Most elimination diets take three to six weeks. The thought is that antibodies (the proteins your immune system makes when it reacts negatively to foods) take around three weeks to diminish, so that’s also usually the minimum amount of time needed to start to notice improvements in symptoms. Your body may also need this time to replace digestive supports that may be depleted. Symptoms like bloating, heartburn, reflux, constipation, diarrhea, gassiness, or the obvious, seeing food pieces in your poops (ewww), are possible signs of deficiencies in digestive supports.

2. REPLACE

The second step is to replace what’s missing to improve digestion and proper absorption. Start with replacing inflammatory foods with nutrient dense, gut healing foods. Anti-inflammatory foods include:

• High fiber fruits, nuts, and vegetables
• Omega 3 fatty acids (specifically ones found in wild-caught fish)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and rosemary

3.  RE-INOCULATE

The third step is to re-inoculate the gut with beneficial bacteria. (Re-inoculate is a fancy term for putting good bacteria back into your gut or building them back up.)

Probiotics can restore the beneficial Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus bacteria species. They don’t necessarily take up residence when passing through, but they do encourage the growth of beneficial species by what they do in their travels along your gut. They can improve your gut health by releasing anti-inflammatory substances, supporting immune function, and healing the gut lining.

Prebiotics are healthy foods that feed the good bacteria. This step is often overlooked and can at times be even more important than just using probiotics. I like using mega-prebiotic or indigo greens for a quick powder on the go.

4. REPAIR

The final step is to repair the intestinal lining with specific nutrients and herbs. These can include different healing substances like: Aloe vera, mastic gum, deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL), L-glutamine, marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis), omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols—which are compounds found in plants (e.g., quercetin and curcumin), vitamins A and D, and zinc, to name a few. I often like to use combination products that contain all of these essential parts like Glutashield, Repairvite, or Enteromend.

There you have it. See what restoring gut health can do for you and your anxiety this season.

^{*Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series. Click here to read the first installment, which explores an integrative approach to managing anxiety.}

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