The “gut-brain axis” is a term for the way the brain and gastrointestinal tract communicate. If you’ve ever had butterflies in your stomach before a date or an urgent need for the bathroom before an exciting or upsetting event then you’ve experienced the gut-brain axis in action.
This ‘gut-brain’ explains how stress and anxiety can contribute to digestive issues, and also how the gut (or more specifically our microbiota and microbes) can impact your mental health.
Our guts and brains are connected both physically and chemically. Nerves, neurotransmitters, hormones and bacteria are the key communicators and there is a constant flow of communication happening between the two. But this communication is easily disrupted and when this miscommunication happens more often than not, IBS can occur.
Stress, anxiety and other psychological factors can influence our sensitivity to pain, activate the immune system (resulting in inflammation), influence our gut bacteria and alter the motility of food through the intestines. These changes produce the symptoms of IBS which include abdominal pain and bloating, constipation, wind and nausea.
In turn, our gut bacteria play a big part in causing the brain and gastrointestinal tract to miscommunicate in the first place as our microbes and the compounds they produce influence how our brain functions and the conditions we may be predisposed to, such as anxiety and depression.
So if you are dealing with IBS, food isn’t the only factor you need to consider.
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