The Hidden Link Between Your Stress and Gut Health

Hi Growing Friend,

Welcome back to another issue of Root & Rise! Today we're diving into a topic that's often overlooked but incredibly influential when it comes to gut health: the gut-brain connection.

My Journey: When Anxiety Took Over

After my life-altering blood clots in 2017, anxiety completely consumed me. I already carried unresolved trauma that made me generally anxious, but the blood clots sent my anxiety into overdrive. I didn't feel safe in my own body anymore.

Maybe you haven't experienced a major health scare or trauma—but I think most of us live with some level of anxiety and stress. It's woven into our culture now. Every conversation I have with friends and family includes talk about how stressful or busy life has become.

What we don't realize is how profoundly this impacts our gut.

I was literally walking around with knots in my stomach. Every interaction triggered anxiety and stress. I went from being fun, outgoing, and loving to becoming a shell of myself. I withdrew from relationships and disconnected from my own life. And this directly damaged my gut health.

The Science: How Stress Sabotages Your Gut

The gut-brain connection is fascinating—and we need to talk about it more! When we experience chronic stress and anxiety, it directly impacts our body's ability to process food and can actually damage our gut.

Here's what happens when stress releases hormones like cortisol throughout your body:

Digestion Goes Haywire Stress can slow down or speed up digestion, leading to constipation, diarrhea, and IBS-like symptoms. You know that "butterfly" feeling when you're nervous? That's your gut-brain connection in action.

Your Gut Barrier Breaks Down Chronic stress weakens your gut lining, creating "leaky gut." This allows undigested food and toxins to leak into your bloodstream, increasing inflammation and immune responses that actually make your anxiety and stress worse—it's a vicious cycle.

Your Microbiome Suffers Stress hormones reduce healthy gut bacteria while allowing harmful bacteria to flourish. This imbalance creates inflammatory responses that directly influence brain function.

Nutrient Absorption Plummets When you're stressed, your body diverts energy away from digestion, reducing the digestive enzymes and stomach acid needed for proper nutrient absorption. Ironically, reduced stomach acid actually increases acid reflux!

The bottom line? When your brain creates stress hormones, it puts your body into fight-or-flight mode. You can't "rest and digest" when your nervous system is in overdrive.

There's no amount of supplements you can take or food you can eat that will allow your body to properly digest if your nervous system is constantly firing. We need to be in a calm state—especially around eating time—for our body to properly digest our meals. This directly challenges our rushed, busy lifestyle where we're eating on the go, at our desks, or while multitasking.

Your First Steps: Healing from the Inside Out

So how do we help ourselves? We have to address our emotional state first.

I started therapy at the same time I changed our lifestyle, and it was truly life-changing.

Through EMDR and somatic experiencing therapy, I was able to:

• Open myself up again and truly feel

• Rebuild connections and relationships

• Have conversations without that intense anxiety gripping my stomach

I'm actually back in therapy now to process birth trauma because it threw me out of alignment again. I truly believe our nervous system must be healthy for our gut to heal—there's no amount of supplements that can override a dysregulated nervous system.

Simple Tools You Can Use at Home

Outside of therapy, we can support our nervous system right at home through meditation, deep breathing, yoga, and other calming practices. By downloading a free guided meditation app, you can do 5-minute breathing exercises that are proven to calm your nervous system.

Try doing this before meals and/or around bedtime to help your body get into a restful state—both for digesting food and for quality sleep. Remember, resting and digesting simply doesn't happen when our nervous system is activated. This one change can help significantly! And it's completely free 😊

We've covered some big topics these past couple of months, so we'll continue with our monthly challenge and business spotlight in the next newsletter!

I hope this helps you connect some dots in your own wellness journey. As always, send in your questions and stories—I love highlighting them because they help our entire community grow together.

Rooted in Wellness & Rising Together, 

Erica