5 Ways Chronic Stress & Trauma can Affect the Gut

For every one nerve fibre that travels from the brain to the gut, nine sensory nerves send information about the state of the abdominal viscera back to the brain. Trust your gut.

Do you know that the state of your gut influences your brain? 

The Enteric Nervous System, or “second brain” produces more than 30 neurotransmitters that greatly influence your mood and emotions. 

It produces many important hormones including 95% of the body’s serotonin and is a natural factory and warehouse for feel good hormones. Low serotonin levels have been linked to depression. 

Almost 90% of the vagus nerve, which connects the gut and the brain is sensory. It’s sending messages from the organs to the brain and is influenced by the state of your gut microbiome.

Chronic stress and trauma can affect the gut in different ways:

1. Sympathetic overdrive (fight-or-flight) leads to constipation and a painfully knotted gut.
2. Chronic vagal hyperactivity (freeze/shutdown) can causes a twisting pain and diarrhoea.
3. Stress inhibits the vagus nerve and this affects the gastrointestinal tract and the microbiota. This can lead to gastrointestinal disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.
4. Anxiety makes the stomach more acidic and pathogenic microbes thrive here. This can slow gut motility and lead to problems like small intestinal bacteria overgrowth.
5. Too many pathogenic microbes consume neurotransmitters that should relax your nervous system and have an anti-anxiety effect. 

Together the enteric nervous system and the vagus nerve put the gut and brain into a harmonious feel-good state or an ongoing battle.