How Stress Affects Gut Health

And, like other physical phenomena our bodies interact with, stress can affect our gut health.

The first hint of this relationship lies in that split second sensation most people feel in high-intensity situations. You feel it right there in your gut. It’s a cue from the environment that things are going to get hairy for a little while, and you should prepare yourself. The gut is so central to everything, it’s our first real interface with the outside world. The gut is where food goes. It’s where outside nutrients or pathogens or interlopers try to gain entry to our inner world. The “gut feeling” is a Primal one that we cannot ignore.

So what happens to our guts when we endure too much stress without relief?

They used to say “leaky gut” was a myth. It’s not. In clinical trials, they call it “intestinal permeability,” but it describes the same phenomenon: instead of the tight junctions that line our gut closely regulating the passage of toxins, allergenic particles, and nutrients into the body, the gates are thrown open to allow anything entry into circulation. This can increase or trigger autoimmune disease, allergic reactions to foods, and infiltration of toxins and pathogens. The end result is increased inflammation and oxidative stress, and many other diseases and conditions linked to leaky gut.

Studies have shown that stress reduces the number of Lactobacillus species in the gut and tends to increase the growth of and colonization by pathogenic species—changes that correlate to many of the negative stress-related alterations to gut health and function.2 Many of these changes to the gut bacteria makeup stem from the increased cortisol and other stress hormones, which have been shown to have profound effects on the species living in our guts.

There’s nothing worse for gut health than eating junk food, especially if you’re coming from an otherwise healthy Primal way of eating.

But that’s what stress does to many people: increases their susceptibility to the temptations of processed food. When you’re sitting in traffic for four hours a day, that Burger King drive thru starts looking real good. When you’re working 12 hours days, the last thing many of you want to do is go home and spend an hour preparing a healthy dinner. I get it, I understand it, but the fact remains that eating that way is terrible for gut health and function (and you know it, don’t you?).

Worse still, if you’re under a lot of stress, eating that junk food is less likely to satisfy you. Your food reward system in the brain grows duller, requiring greater quantities of even tastier junk food to satisfy its demands and “trigger” the food reward effect.5

What, besides “reduce stress,” can you do to improve or maintain your gut health in times of stress?

Melatonin isn’t just a “sleep hormone.” It also acts as an antioxidant, affects a whole range of health measures, and, yes, protects your gut against stress-induced alterations. The best way to optimize melatonin status is getting morning and afternoon natural light, spending as much time outside as you can, reducing artificial light after dark, getting a bedtime routine, eating healthy food, and sticking to your bedtime sleep schedule. But that can be tough, as often the source of your stress will also be throwing your sleep schedule off. Supplemental melatonin can help here.

Remember how stress lays waste to the Lactobacillus species normally residing in our guts? Animal studies show that reintroducing some of them through probiotic supplementation can mitigate and even counter some of the stress-induced alterations to gut function, such as leaky gut and hampered motility.

Now I’d love to hear from you. How does stress affect your gut function? What have you noticed? And how do you deal with stress, especially as it relates to your gut?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care.