How stress affects your gut

Scientists have recently found two pathways by which psychological stress causes inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Under stress the brain releases a hormone called CRH that sets off a chain reaction: first, it stimulates the pituitary gland, which then stimulates the adrenal glands on the kidneys, which then release hormones called glucocorticoids. What happens next is rather complicated. Suffice it to say that glucocorticoids induce an inflammatory response in the gut and also impair the movement of food through the gut.  

The reason your gut is so sensitive to stress is that it has its own nervous system, called the enteric nervous system (ENS). The  ENS is a web of sensory and motor neurons embedded in the wall of the gastrointestinal system. It’s a wide-ranging system that processes information and generates signals that affect other bodily systems. This web of neurons stretches from the lower third of the esophagus right through to the rectum. It’s been estimated that the ENS contains more neurons than the whole of the spinal cord. No wonder our guts are so sensitive to our mental states!

 While people with inflammatory bowel disease are often treated with immunosuppressants such as steroids, researchers believe that psychotherapy and stress-management techniques can play an important role in treating flareups. Even if you don’t have inflammatory bowel disease, you can see why your gut is so sensitive to your mental states. Don’t stress about it!

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.