Ways A Healthy Gut Can Help Manage Your Anxiety

Stomach issues are a common symptom of stress and anxiety. Studies have shown that gut health and anxiety are connected. The gut, like the brain, is made up of a nervous system called the enteric nervous system. Therefore it is often referred to as the second brain. These nerve connections between the gut and brain affects your mood, digestion and how you think. Here are some ways a healthy gut can help manage your anxiety.

Gut Brain Connection

The gut controls your digestion, breaking down the food for absorption and elimination.The enteric nervous system, referred to ENS, communicates with the brain through the nervous system and hormones. This also works between the gut and the immune system, which affects your mental health. When you get anxious the body releases hormones that get into the digestive system. This disrupts the gut microbiome and the digestion process causes stomach issues like indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, and IBS. 

Signs of gut issues include not feeling satisfied after a meal or needing a snack right after. Having vertical lines on your fingernails, feeling the texture of the lines on your nails. This usually means there’s a malabsorption problem in your gut. This also affects the health of your skin and hair. Constant fatigue and teeth grinding at night could be a sign of parasites in the gut. Skin irritations, like eczema, dermatitis ,sleep issues are also linked to problems in the gut. A leaky gut allows pathogens into the bloodstream leading to a domino effect of issues. 

Healing The Gut 

Healing starts with the diet. It sounds too easy but studies have shown that neurotransmitters control how we feel and that is controlled by gut health. It makes sense to think if we can fix the gut we should be able to fix how we feel mentally. Science shows us that the gut bacteria communicates with the brain. Food can be used as a start to help you feel better. A cleaner diet full of fruits and vegetables will give you healthier gut bacteria. Foods rich in fiber helps improve your mood. Vitamin D helps to regulate the microbiome and reduces inflammation in the gut. Protein produces serotonin, improving your mood.

Making sure you’re relaxed when eating is important for proper digestion as well. When you’re relaxed your body can produce the needed gastric juices to absorb food. Taking out destructive foods like highly processed  and artificial sweeteners is important, as they have been linked to cause damage to the microbiome. Antibiotics in the foods are a hidden cause of damage that most people don’t think about when consuming foods like meat and fish.  

Manage Anxiety

 Starting with accepting who you are fully. Dealing with conflict and not holding it inside helps. Unresolved emotions get trapped inside your body. Being fully yourself and accepting the fact that you can’t please everyone is very empowering. Having unconditional self love, and not putting conditions on if and when you love yourself. Self-inflicted conditions create so much anxiety and suffering. Regardless of the condition, accept yourself. This is one of the most powerful ways to take control of your anxiety.  It’s easy to get stuck in your own heads with the stories or critics. Deal with the critic by getting out of your head and into the body with things like exercise or meditation. These help silence the mind giving you clarity.