The Mind Gut Connection
You have probably experienced, at least once in your life, feeling nervous and nauseous right before a presentation or some sort of public speaking activity or ‘butterflies’ in your tummy. These experiences have led researchers to get curious about how emotions or situations (present or past) can present as a physical symptom within the gut.
A recent systematic review of randomized control trials on the connection between food and mood found significant decreases in depression when participants eliminated fast and processed foods. There is more research happening within the field of nutritional psychiatry as we now understand the importance of the gut-mind connection and a whole-body approach to mental health to achieve sustainable mental and emotional wellness.
The second brain in our gut
Scientists call the intelligent system of over 100 million neurons in our intestinal tract the enteric nervous system (ENS) or ‘second brain.’ The ENS starts at the esophagus and goes down through the intestines ending at the anus. It is in charge of moving food down into your belly; then turning on digestion, identifying which nutrients need to be uploaded and moving molecules that are not nutritious into elimination pathways.
The vagus nerve plays an important role in delivering electronic messages, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, between the second brain and the big brain and allows two-way communication between the body and the brain in our skull.
Maybe you have noticed that on days when you are really stressed, your digestion may be off resulting in bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea or even a loss of appetite. Stress can activate your sympathetic nervous system, which turns on cortisol, increases your heart rate and blood flow, narrows your thoughts to focus on the worst-case scenario so you have the best chance of survival and turns off digestion to help you survive a perceived threat.
However, the sympathetic nervous system doesn’t know the difference between a threat from a saber tooth tiger or a never-ending To Do list. This means that so many of us in these modern times are chronically engaged in their sympathetic nervous system when digestion is turned off and gut motility (i.e. the flow through our intestines) is slowed down.
The bi-directional relationship between the big brain and the second “gut” brain
Since the ENS, or second brain, has a bi-directional relationship with the big brain in our skull, then it makes sense that if the second brain picks up pathogenic or toxic elements in the intestinal tract as a perceived threat then it too will will engage the sympathetic nervous system, and your heart rate and blood flow can increase, digestion turns off, thoughts are catastrophic - all to help you to survive the perceived threat.
The bi-directional communication between the second brain in our gut and the big brain that represents our mind means it is likely that symptoms of:
- anxiety
- panic
- increased heart rate
- increased blood pressure
- chronic worrying and rumination
- catastrophic thought patterns
All these symptoms can have a root cause in the gut (an internal threat to our survival) just as easily as coming from an external perceived or real threat to our survival.
On the flip side, if you are in a situation where you may be nervous about giving a presentation in front of many people at work, the nervousness or anxiety you feel may send signals there is an external and perceived threat to your survival which can activate the threat sensors within your ENS resulting in nausea or vomiting.
The importance of the gut and mind connection
By understanding the bi-directional nature between the gut and the brain we can, with the help of the right healthcare professionals, you both can get curious about where symptoms of anxiety (and depression) are coming from since the root cause is not the brain 100% of the time.
Most conventional healthcare practices dismiss the two-way communication between the gut and the mind thus focusing treatment solely on the brain. By dismissing a probable root cause many do not get relief from brain-targeted treatment.
For instance, we have many people inquiring about our whole-body approach to mental health at Flourish because they are still experiencing chronic levels of anxiety and/or depression despite trying many different combinations of talk therapy and pharmaceutical-based treatments like psychiatric medications or even ketamine infusions.
Usually their previous healthcare professionals overlooked co-occurring symptoms of constipation, diarrhea, bloating, indigestion, and/or reflux and prescribed talk and medication interventions focused solely on changing the way the messages get sent from the brain to the body.
How to improve the gut-mind connection
Embracing curiosity about the truly wondrous and complex human body can help broaden your perspective around mental health and overall wellness. When we step back and look at the body as many interconnected and complex systems we can see the ENS was brilliantly designed as a second tier to detect and alert us to internal threats to our survival.
In order to make sure communication of these threats, both internal and external, are received, acknowledged, and responded to appropriately, the vagus nerve needs to have good ‘vagal tone’ so that it can put the brakes on to disengage the threat response and return us to homeostasis and a state of safety.
If someone has chronic symptoms of IBS their second brain is sending signals to the big brain that there is an internal threat and turns on inflammation, which in turn can negatively impact the vagus nerve’s ability to turn on the brakes, resulting in chronic sympathetic nervous system (SNS) engagement.
Prolonged engagement of the SNS looks exactly like anxiety or panic disorder and can even result in depression, insomnia and ADD. Therefore improving communication between the gut and the mind and reducing inflammation in the gut can dramatically decrease mental health symptoms.
Here are some ideas for how to improve this gut-mind connection
Build vagal tone
One tip to improve the gut-mind connection is to focus on improving vagal tone to help your body transition swiftly from detecting a perceived threat and back to safety.
Exercises to build vagal tone include humming, gargling, whispering, and splashing cold water on your face. Kundalini Yoga has been around for thousands of years and many of their exercise routines called Kriyas incorporate humming, chanting, and even belly laughing to build vagal tone.
Belly breathing before meals
Another way to improve the bi-direcitonal communication between the second brain and the big brain is to explore ways to ensure you are properly digesting your food. A tip that is free and easy to do is to practice belly breathing before taking your first bite of a meal.
Belly breathing starts by expanding your belly on the inhale and pressing your belly against the spine during the exhale. Repeating belly breathing cycles that include extended exhales before eating can move you out of the sympathetic nervous system and into the parasympathetic nervous system, turning on digestion to ensure you break down the meal you’ve eaten into nutrients that can be distributed appropriately.
Click here to access belly breathing meditation.
Meditation
Meditation can also help improve the connection between the mind and the gut by improving vagal tone, engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, and building gray matter within the prefrontal cortex.
Even a daily 5-minute silent meditation focused on your breath can do all of the above so you can imagine how beneficial a longer medication could be for your overall wellness. There are lots of free meditation apps and we encourage you to try several until you find one or two that feel comfortable.
Another option is to engage in meditative exercises like mindful walking or mindful eating.
All of our practitioners at Flourish are knowledgeable about the gut-mind connection and can either help you address your unique set of symptoms and circumstances or connect you with the appropriate referral for your individual needs. Click here to schedule a free 15-min consultation!