Stress
often starts in your head with a worry or a fear, but those feelings of anxiety, and perhaps even panic, don’t stay
there. When you feel stressed, your body ramps up production of the stress
hormones cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine.
This triggers the start of the stress
response, and, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it gains traction and
speed until you’re ready for the proverbial attack.
Adrenaline, for instance, increases your
heart rate, causing your heart to beat faster and ultimately raising blood
pressure. Cortisol can interfere with the function of the inner lining of your
blood vessels, triggering plaque buildup in your arteries, and increasing your
risk of heart disease and stroke.
Meanwhile, you brain communicates with
your gut, sending the news that you’re stressed, and your gut responds in suit,
altering what it would normally be doing so your body can collectively work to
fight off this imminent stressor (whether it’s really an imminent stressor or
not).
This stress response can be quite
beneficial if you need to run from a predator, or even quickly cram for a big
exam. Things get messy, however, when you feel stressed all or most of the
time.
While an occasional stress response is
normal and even healthy, ongoing, constant stress is not. On the contrary, it’s
the recipe for sickness, from chronic diseases to acute infections.
Your Gut and Your Brain Are in Constant
Communication
One reason why your mental stress
can be detrimental to your gut is because your gut and your brain are in
regular communication.
In addition to the brain in your
head, embedded in the wall of your gut is your enteric nervous system (ENS),
which works both independently of and in conjunction with the brain in your
head.
This communication between your
"two brains" runs both ways, and is the pathway for how foods affect
your mood or why anxiety can make you sick to your stomach, for instance.
Jane Foster, PhD, an associate
professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at McMaster University,
described to Medicine Net the multiple ways your gut
microbes communicate with your brain –
and the role that stress can play.
“…Gut bacteria can alter how
the immune system works, which can affect the brain. The gut bacteria are
involved in digestion, too, and the substances they make when they break down
food can affect the brain.
And under certain conditions,
such as stress or infection, potentially disease-causing gut bacteria, or bad
bugs, can leak through the bowel wall and enter the bloodstream, enabling them
and the chemicals they make to talk with the brain through cells in blood
vessel walls.
Bacteria could also communicate
directly with cells in certain regions of the brain, including those located
near areas involved in stress and mood …”
In Health,
Dr. Brad Niewierowski
