Is your gut health causing you anxiety/depression?

This is episode 2 of the series & talks about how gut wellness & proper digestive system can affect our mental health and vice versa.

The brief answer to it is, “May be, yes!” But you must understand beyond just a simple yes. I want you to learn one thing off this post today and that is,

YOUR GUT HEALTH & MENTAL HEALTH IS BIDIRECTIONALLY LINKED

Confused? Well let me explain.

The gut and it’s wellbeing is related to the wellness of our mental health and mental state of mind controls our gut, eating & food habits. So, they are co-dependent and influence each other.

How does our gut affect our mental health?

Gut = Our stomach, small intestine, large intestine, mainly. (Those smarty pants in the bio lab also call it our digestive system or alimentary canal if they're too fancy)

• The gut, mainly the small intestine secretes more than 90% of the ‘Serotonin’.

  • What is serotonin? Serotonin is a chemical in our body that carries information to the brain and other parts of the body. It affects our mood, sleep, digestion, nausea, sexual desire, wound and bone health – Serotonin has a major role in how we feel and what state our mind is in.

• The gut is called the ‘Second brain’ of our body

  • it has two semi-developed nervous systems (Collection of nerve fibres) which not only control the enteric/gut related activities but also control the secretion of hormones, neurotramsmitters (chemicals that pass information between nerve cells) and other chemicals. This has affect on our over all bodily functions, appetite, mood, activity and more.

• The gut has a store of “Good bacteria” , that are ideally supposed to live in our gut.

  • The good gut bacteria or commonly called as ‘Gut Microbrome’ are of different types and they do the following :

    1. Help us have a healthy happy gut,

    2. Aid digestion,

    3. Aid in overall Good Immunity,

    4. Prevent damage caused due to ‘Not-so-healthy’ diet,

    5. Aid in producing Vitamin K that is important for blood clotting,

    6. Maintain proper gut motility – prevent constipation or diarrhea.

• The gut layers are selective & they do control what goes in our blood stream

  • Contributor to how we function & feel, how drugs/medicines work on us.

How does our mental health affect our gut health?

• The mental health in turn affects our appetite

  • Depression/anxiety can cause either loss of appetite or increase in food intake or both. The reason ? Just like our gut sends signals (via chemicals) to our brain to control our mood or sensations, similarly the brain sends signals to our gut too.

• Psychosocial effects

  • Did you ever feel nauseating/feel like vomiting or puke-ish the morning before your big presentation? Or felt the need to rush to the loo just before an exam? Psychosocial factors influence the actual physiology of the gut, as well as sympathetic stimulation too, thus increasing it’s motility.

• Vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve. (No, it's not named after that city you're thinking of)

  • This nerve is a magic nerve being a major part of the gut-brain axis. It has many major functions like decreasing the sympathetic stimulation and maintaining “rest & digest” state of our body – that is when most of our normal bodily functions happen. But what it also does is send the brain signals generated by the metabolic actions of the gut bacteria on specific types of food—one means by which diet plays an important role in mental health.

• The vagus nerve also conveys signals of other neuro-active substances (chemicals that act on the brain) secreted by the digestive tract. For example : Chemicals that control our appetite.

• The vagus nerve also contributes to the immune defense of the gut.

So, now you understand how & what you eat and how you live is so essential for your mental health. Also keeping yourself calm and stress-free is equally important for your daily food health. We hope we were successful in helping you take another step towards a happy life.

Read other articles on myhealthclub.co.in for more such content, and let's start a discussion in the comments or head on over to forum.