It's May, Mental Health Month, and today we are deep diving into how nutrition and your gut impact your mental health.

Studies on the Correlation Between the Digestive Issues & Mental Health

There is a very strong connection between digestive disorders and mental health that we are just beginning to understand. A number of studies have been done on this subject and we're going to talk about a few of them.

#1: Taiwanese Study on the Risk of Psychiatric Disorders Following IBS Diagnosis

This Taiwanese study showed that the risk of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and bipolar syndrome are significantly higher in the first year after IBS diagnosis.

#2: Study on Psychological Disorders in Patients with Chronic Constipation

This study found that there's about a 37% rate of anxiety and about a 24% rate of depression in patients with chronic constipation. In the general population, anxiety is about 18% and depression is about 8-9%.

The Sympathetic Nervous System

The sympathetic nervous system controls your heart rate, breathing, and more. If you're nervous and your heart is beating quickly, think about what happens to your GI tract. The muscles of the GI tract begin to contract. The same thing happens when we have anxiety, and those muscle contractions can feel like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).

The Impact of IBS on Every Day Life

Whether you have diarrhea or constipation-predominant IBS, it can affect your life and your work life. It can lead to isolation, canceling social events, having to call in sick to work, feeling like you have to plan around going to the bathroom, and more.

So, there's a strong connection between psychological and digestive disorders. And it can be hard to say which one comes first.

The Gut-Brain Axis

This study looks at the bi-directional connection we have between the gut and the brain and how some of this communication may be happening. Essentially, the gut microbiota (all of the germs and bacteria in our digestive tract) can contribute to a healthy brain.

The microbiota in our gut actually plays a very strong role in how neurotransmitters are made in both the gut and brain. They also create inflammatory molecules and peptides that travel to the brain and can affect brain inflammation, neurotransmitters, and receptors.

When that goes on in our brain, it creates a certain mood, and our mood will affect our behaviors (such as what we decide to eat and what we're craving), and those behaviors will affect our gut.

Micro Array Technology

When I work with patients who have mood issues, I focus in on the gut. Micro array technology has exploded and allowed us to get better insight into what's going on through testing. There's genome, food intolerance, food allergen, microbiome, and micronutrient testing, and so much more.

The Endocrine and Immune Systems

Right now, we're also learning a lot about communication via the endocrine and immune systems. The endocrine system, which is the hormones in the body, plays a strong role in signaling the immune system.

Right now, the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal access (HPA Access) is an area that many people are studying. It's an area in the middle of the brain where there are these vessels called perivascular areas, which receive blood from the rest of the body. They also receive molecules and communication from the digestive tract to get into this part of the brain.

That part of the brain plays a major role with the nervous system, immune system, and hormonal system. They talk to each other and the hypothalamus and create a lot of settings for the rest of the body.

Exercise & Stress

While nutrition is important, it isn't the only thing. Exercise can help bring down your stress and help you with some of the hormones that make you feel better. It also helps you sleep better, which means you're getting into REM, rapid eye movement sleep, that helps you feel more rested and actually burns fat.

How I Can Help

I am a registered, licensed dietician nutritionist. I don't prescribe or diagnose, but I can help you if you're feeling weight loss resistant, if you have GI issues, obesity, or any of the co-morbidities of obesity like pre-diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

My role is to dig deeper and do more proactive testing to determine exactly what pre and probiotics and food, drinks, and supplements you should or should not be consuming.

To get started, you can contact me, head over to the Biounique Boutique if you're interested in testing, sign up for my monthly membership, or enroll in my Your Diet Do Over Course.

For the full episode transcript and links, go to:
https://www.harmonywithfood.com/single-post/harmony-with-food-radio-show-episode-224-gut-brain-health