Importance of Reducing Stress and Maintaining a Healthy Gastrointestinal Tract

 Stress can affect every part of the digestive system  

Stress can cause your esophagus to go into spasms. It can increase the acid in your stomach causing indigestion or can make you feel nauseous. Stress can cause your colon to react in a way that gives you diarrhea or constipation. We are all familiar with the athlete or the student who has to rush to the bathroom before the big game or the big exam.  

Keeping Stress Under Control is Very Important  to Maintain a Healthy Gastrointestinal Tract

 Functional gastrointestinal disorders affect 35% to 70% of people at some point in life.

Multiple factors — biological, psychological, and social — contribute to the development of a functional gastrointestinal disorder.    This is why Quantum Biofeedback Therapies are helpful to alleviate functional gastrointestinal disorders and help people learn to cope with such symptoms.

Life-sustaining functions, such as breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, and body temperature, are regulated through the autonomic nervous system. This complex network of nerves extends from the brain to all the major organs of the body and has two major divisions. The sympathetic nervous system triggers the "fight or flight" response. The parasympathetic nervous system calms the body down after the danger has passed. Both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems interact with another, less well-known component of the autonomic nervous system — the enteric nervous system, which helps regulate digestion.

The enteric nervous system is sometimes referred to as a "second brain" because it relies on the same types of neurons and neurotransmitters that are found in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). After sensing that food has entered the gut, neurons lining the digestive tract signal muscle cells to initiate a series of intestinal contractions that propel the food farther along, breaking it down into nutrients and waste. At the same time, the enteric nervous system uses neurotransmitters such as serotonin to communicate and interact with the central nervous system.

 A family of peptides called corticotrophin releasing factors are responsible for coordinating the body’s response to stress, and corticotrophin releasing factors  have a potent effects on the gut through modulation of inflammation, increase of gut permeability, contribution to visceral hypersensitivity, increased perception to pain, and modulation of the gut motility. This hormone affects the hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) to eventually stimulate the secretion of cortisol from the adrenal glands.

 Chronic exposure to stress may lead to the development of a variety of gastrointestinal diseases such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, peptic ulcer disease, Irritable bowel syndrome and even food allergies. Experimental studies have shown that psychological stress slows normal small intestinal transit time, encourages overgrowth of bacteria, and even compromises the intestinal barrier.  Chronic stress m therefore plays an important role in the development of intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

So detect your stress, reduce your stress and manage your stress with Quantum Biofeedback for a healthier gastrointestinal tract

 Dr. Violetta Anninou, Ph.D.