Could the answer to IBS lie in the ancient practice of meditation?

IBS is a world-wide problem and the most common gastrointestinal disorder.

For a long time, irritable bowel syndrome has just been thought of as a functional problem: there’s nothing measurably, or visibly wrong with the intestines, so labeling IBS as a functional problem is almost like a shrug from the experts. 

Now, IBS has earned a new classification: a disorder of gut-brain interaction. So, instead of IBS being a functional problem, there’s actually something physical that becomes disrupted – it’s just not visible to the naked eye. 

What is gut-brain interaction? It is the two-way communication highway between your brain and your gut. It’s also called “gut-brain axis”. When the connection is disrupted, there are misunderstandings and overreactions that lead to IBS symptoms. You can read more about the gut-brain axis in this blog post.

What disrupts the gut-brain interaction? Many things, but a big culprit looks to be stress (1). Stress causes stress hormones to surge in the body, which turn digestion off. With a lower digestive “fire”, food digests poorly, leading to abdominal pain, diarrhea/constipation and/or bloating. 

To make matters worse, the brains of people with IBS are wired in ways that make them more sensitive to stress, triggering a stress response more easily, which causes a difficult situation to turn into gut symptoms more easily as well. (2)

Solution? To mend the gut-brain interaction through stress release practices and mindset shifts. 

My favorite method is meditation. It feels like an antidote to pretty much anything, sort of how exercise and good nutrition are. 

When it comes to IBS, there are studies linking meditation to improved IBS symptoms, like improved abdominal pain and improved quality of life. (3)

And what I’m really excited about, is meditation’s ability to change the brain to withstand stress better (4). This means that while stress is not going to go away, you cope better with stress, and a stressful situation less easily leads to IBS symptoms. Naturally, these effects come from a long-term practice. But, even a one-time practice of a few minutes of meditation can measurably reduce stress. (5)

Personally, after 15 years of practice, daily meditation has become my secret weapon. Not only do I feel great while meditating (though not always, sometimes my brain is just too restless), I’ve noticed in general feeling calmer, more empathetic, and having a better emotional control than I used to. It feels like my brain gets triggered less easily.

One of the meditation techniques I particularly love is Hong Sau (Sau pronounced “saw”). It’s a technique of attentive focus on the breath. Since the breath is always there, it becomes an excellent object for meditation (no, meditation is not about blanking the mind). A focused mind is a calm mind, and a calm breath leads to a calm mind and vice versa. Or how do you breathe when you are reading a book with deep focus? 

I’m teaching the Hong Sau meditation technique live online starting today on Wednesday January 8th 2025. There’s still time to sign up! Even if you miss the first class, you can still participate live in the remaining four. All the sessions will be recorded, so you’ll get the recording of the first session, and they will be made available for purchase as a full course after the live course is finished. Go here for more info. Sign up by emailing me at [email protected]

Questions? You got my email address.

Let’s make the year 2025 the best one yet! Let’s start by taking up meditation, or some other stress release practice, and cultivating the belief that improvement is possible – I really do believe that. Even if you feel like you’ve tried everything, something will help you, if you keep working at it.

Anna-Kaisa Manolova working outdoors with her laptop and smiling

Love,

Anna-Kaisa

References

  1. Cryan JF, O'Riordan KJ, Cowan CSM, Sandhu KV, Bastiaanssen TFS, Boehme M, Codagnone MG, Cussotto S, Fulling C, Golubeva AV, Guzzetta KE, Jaggar M, Long-Smith CM, Lyte JM, Martin JA, Molinero-Perez A, Moloney G, Morelli E, Morillas E, O'Connor R, Cruz-Pereira JS, Peterson VL, Rea K, Ritz NL, Sherwin E, Spichak S, Teichman EM, van de Wouw M, Ventura-Silva AP, Wallace-Fitzsimons SE, Hyland N, Clarke G, Dinan TG. The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Physiol Rev. 2019 Oct 1;99(4):1877-2013. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00018.2018. PMID: 31460832.
  2. Mayer EA, Ryu HJ, Bhatt RR. The neurobiology of irritable bowel syndrome. Mol Psychiatry. 2023 Apr;28(4):1451-1465. doi: 10.1038/s41380-023-01972-w. Epub 2023 Feb 2. PMID: 36732586; PMCID: PMC10208985.
  3. Baboș CI, Leucuța DC, Dumitrașcu DL. Meditation and Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Clin Med. 2022 Nov 2;11(21):6516. doi: 10.3390/jcm11216516. PMID: 36362745; PMCID: PMC9658118.
  4. Taren AA, Gianaros PJ, Greco CM, Lindsay EK, Fairgrieve A, Brown KW, Rosen RK, Ferris JL, Julson E, Marsland AL, Bursley JK, Ramsburg J, Creswell JD. Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2015 Dec;10(12):1758-68. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsv066. Epub 2015 Jun 5. PMID: 26048176; PMCID: PMC4666115.
  5. Mandlik GV, Siopis G, Nguyen B, Ding D, Edwards KM. Effect of a single session of yoga and meditation on stress reactivity: A systematic review. Stress Health. 2024 Jun;40(3):e3324. doi: 10.1002/smi.3324. Epub 2023 Oct 11. PMID: 37822096.

The low FODMAP diet is a relatively well researched diet for IBS. Studies show that the low FODMAP diet can ease symptoms in about 2/3 of cases in varying degrees (1). But that’s just it – this diet is not a true treatment for IBS as it can only manage symptoms and not the cause of IBS. But more on that later.

foods low in FODMAPs

The idea behind the diet is that FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols), which are naturally more difficult for the body to digest, are minimized in the diet and then brought back one FODMAP group at a time. This is because you want to only avoid those FODMAP groups that trigger symptoms – it’s not usual that all FODMAP groups are the problem. Because these fibers don’t digest well, they attract water into the intestines and are fermented (digested) by your gut microbes, both of which can cause bloating, discomfort and potentially diarrhea/constipation. 

The thing is, this happens to everyone eating FODMAPs, especially in large amounts. The reason why people with IBS so often find these fibers problematic is that they have visceral hypersensitivity - they feel everything going on the intestines more strongly. Even normal things in the gut can cause bloating and pain, when normally you wouldn’t feel anything at all. 

It’s important to know that FODMAPs are not bad for you. They feed the healthy gut bacteria in the large intestine, which is actually very good for your health. Avoiding FODMAPs gives the gut bacteria less food to process, which reduces their gas production and in turn gut symptoms. Unfortunately, studies have noticed that some beneficial bacteria species are reduced on the low FODMAP diet probably for this reason. 

This is one reason I’m not the biggest fan of the diet. Other reasons are:

What you eat is highly important for gut health, of course, but to me, going on the low FODMAP diet is not the best way to go, especially not as the first thing to try. Chances are I’d still recommend some individualized diet changes, but nothing too drastic to avoid the above problems. In addition, focusing on the root cause will be vital to get real IBS symptom improvement. 

gut-brain axis is at the heart of IBS management

How do you do that? You need to think about yourself as a whole – everything that is going on in your life and your body is affecting everything else. It’s not just about food. 

My best advice? Get in touch with me to see what might be the most important diet and lifestyle changes for you. Book your free session here.

Or, if you prefer to work on your own, I have the perfect self-care program for you: IBSwise. It goes over everything worthy of knowing about IBS, with many tools that you can try right away to ease your symptoms – tools that focus on mending the gut-brain communication to achieve real results. It’s an awesome program and I highly recommend it. The price is going up on 1/1/2025, so get enrolled now! 

You can get started on calming the real problem behind IBS by practicing a breathing exercise like box breathing at least once daily. Go to Instagram to my account @ibsandstressdietitian and find there a short instructional video on box breathing pinned at the top of my posts. My clients are benefiting so much from practicing breathing exercises, so this tip is my gift to you. 

Wishing you all the best,

Anna-Kaisa

Anna-Kaisa Manolova working outdoors with her laptop and smiling

PS. Did you get my free “5 Easy Ways to Beat the Bloat” ebook? If not, go here to get it!

References:

  1. Manning LP, Yao CK, Biesiekierski JR. Therapy of IBS: Is a Low FODMAP Diet the Answer? Front Psychiatry. 2020 Aug 31;11:865. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00865. PMID: 33110411; PMCID: PMC7488954.

To truly manage IBS, you need to fix the way your brain and your gut talk to each other.

When talking about irritable bowel syndrome and IBS symptoms (abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, constipation), the discussion is not complete without considering the gut-brain axis. Especially since IBS experts are now calling the syndrome a disorder of gut-brain interaction. It’s a fascinating subject that reminds you how everything in the body affects everything - in good and in bad. This applies also to managing IBS symptoms: it’s not enough to focus on one aspect of gut health, like your diet, but also sleep, circadian rhythms, exercise, stress, and even thoughts have to be assessed as all of these affect the gut-brain axis.

What is the gut-brain axis 

Often called the gut-brain-microbiota axis, the gut-brain axis is the communication channel between the gut and the brain, the two-directional phone line between the two.

Your gut and your brain are talking to each other all the time! The main office (the brain) wants to know what the branch office is doing (the gut) and give orders if need be. They relay information back and forth about gut processes, hunger, satiety, stress, and feelings, just to name a few. 

Problems in this information exchange are linked to irritable bowel syndrome and other “functional” gut problems, immune function, sleep problems, mood disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and even obesity.

How are your gut and your brain connected?

It’s not simple. Many processes are involved:

  • Central nervous system (brain and spinal cord): both the sympathetic (stress response) and the parasympathetic (rest response) branches of the autonomic nervous system are involved, especially the vagus nerve
  • Enteric nervous system (gut’s own nervous system)
  • Endocrine pathways (hormones): such as HPA-axis with cortisol (stress hormone), gut hormones like ghrelin (hunger hormone) and leptin (regulates appetite)
  • Immune system of the gut: cytokines (inflammation controlling molecules)
  • Microbiota (gut microbes) and the molecules they produce, like short chain fatty acids and neurotransmitters
red phone on gray background

To simplify, what you need to know is that 

  • The enteric nervous system takes care of digestion, but the brain can override its functioning in stressful situations. 
  • The vagus nerve is the main information pathway between the brain and the gut, and there is evidence to show that it’s not working well in people with IBS. 
  • Gut microbes are highly important, and how you take care of them makes an impact on the gut-brain axis level also. 

What disrupts the gut-brain axis

It’s not completely clear how this happens, but it seems stress plays a big role, as does the health of the gut microbiota. Your gut microbes are affected by your lifestyle and your diet, both in helpful and harmful ways. It is thought that dysbiosis of the gut microbiota (negative changes in your gut microbes) can cause problems in the gut-brain axis, but it is not clear whether dysbiosis happens first, or whether the disruption of the gut-brain axis causes the dysbiosis. 

IBS can become triggered by a gut infection, which could support the idea that your gut microbe balance becomes disrupted first, but an infection also causes inflammation which the immune system controls. Gut infection is also a source of stress, and a sensitive brain may overreact to infection signals coming from the gut, starting a feedback loop that causes IBS. So, it’s not clear.

The brain then is responsible for assessing whether we are in danger or not, but your lifestyle and your diet can also affect your stress sensitivity, or how readily a stress response is triggered in the body. A typical Western diet and an irregular lifestyle with sleep deprivation could make you more sensitive to stress.

A woman overwhelmed by stress

Stress sensitivity

People who have had lots of stress in their lives, whether in childhood or in adulthood, become more sensitive to stress, and are at a higher risk for developing IBS. Studies show that over time their brains have adapted to stress in an unhelpful way, which explains this increased sensitivity, and probably also why not everyone with stress has IBS.

Additionally, people with IBS tend to have these similar structural brain changes and increased stress sensitivity also, and a history of highly stressful life periods. For example, I had a client whose gut symptoms began after a serious natural disaster hit her country. This all suggests that chronic stress wreaks havoc on the gut-brain axis and promotes chronic gut issues, like IBS.

What’s more, it’s relatively common that anxiety and depression happen together with IBS, both probably feeding the other. What came first, however, is not clear. 

Looking after the gut-brain axis

Everyone can benefit from taking good care of the gut-brain axis, but this is especially important for people with IBS and other functional digestive disorders. It seems that gut symptoms are like the tip of an iceberg – your gut-brain axis may have been disrupted for a while before gut symptoms surface!

How to nurture your gut-brain axis:

  • Feed your good gut bacteria with a balanced diet rich in fiber
  • Support digestive processes by eating regularly, avoiding overeating, drinking enough fluids, limiting alcohol consumption
  • Stimulate vagus nerve and calm the nervous system with stress releasing activities 
  • Activate brain areas that lower stress sensitivity: breathing exercises, meditation
  • Work on your mindset to reduce catastrophizing, expecting problems etc.
  • Pay less attention to your gut symptoms
  • Nurture body’s processes: keep regular daily rhythms with sleep, meal patterns and exercise, do your best to sleep well
  • Perhaps specific supplements, like probiotics can help

It’s a lot! But not impossible to do. 

professional woman staying calm under pressure and demands

Strong gut-brain axis plan

The first step is to map out honestly how you are doing in these different areas listed above. 

The second step is to make a plan: what needs to change and in what order. Consider what might be easier to start with, or what might make the biggest impact. 

But you don’t have to figure this out on your own. Nurturing a sturdy gut-brain axis and relieving IBS symptoms in the process is what I do. If you are not sure, let’s chat. You will have the opportunity to tell an expert about your situation, and I will go over your best next steps without you having to commit to a program. I want to make sure you and I are a good match before you invest anything in working together. Book you free consultation here.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the all-important gut-brain axis! If you are feeling overwhelmed by this, just remember that even small adjustments to diet, lifestyle, thought patterns and stress sensitivity can make a big difference. Check out all of my free resources (scroll down my home page) - they provide lots of tips to get going with.

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Anna-Kaisa

Picture of Anna-Kaisa Manolova

PS: Book your free 30-minute consultation here!

PPS: Feeling bloated? Get your copy of the free “5 Easy Ways to Beat the Bloat” guide here!

References
  1. Chen M, Ruan G, Chen L, Ying S, Li G, Xu F, Xiao Z, Tian Y, Lv L, Ping Y, Cheng Y, Wei Y. Neurotransmitter and Intestinal Interactions: Focus on the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Feb 16;13:817100. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.817100. PMID: 35250873; PMCID: PMC8888441.
  2. Mayer EA, Nance K, Chen S. The Gut-Brain Axis. Annu Rev Med. 2022 Jan 27;73:439-453. doi: 10.1146/annurev-med-042320-014032. Epub 2021 Oct 20. PMID: 34669431.
  3. Mayer EA, Labus JS, Tillisch K, Cole SW, Baldi P. Towards a systems view of IBS. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2015 Oct;12(10):592-605. doi: 10.1038/nrgastro.2015.121. Epub 2015 Aug 25. PMID: 26303675; PMCID: PMC5001844.
  4. Karakan T, Ozkul C, Küpeli Akkol E, Bilici S, Sobarzo-Sánchez E, Capasso R. Gut-Brain-Microbiota Axis: Antibiotics and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. Nutrients. 2021 Jan 27;13(2):389. doi: 10.3390/nu13020389. PMID: 33513791; PMCID: PMC7910879.
  5. Sun LJ, Li JN, Nie YZ. Gut hormones in microbiota-gut-brain cross-talk. Chin Med J (Engl). 2020 Apr 5;133(7):826-833. doi: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000000706. PMID: 32132364; PMCID: PMC7147657.

I had the pleasure of being hosted in an educational webinar to my fellow dietitians in Finland this past week. The topic was the connection between stress and irritable bowel syndrome. I had the opportunity to speak to over 50 of my peers about this subject that important and yet, significantly overlooked. 

Many studies show the intimate connection between stress and our digestive system through the gut-brain axis. Many factors affect digestion, including the food we eat, but when stress levels are high, what we eat makes no difference – we will have gut trouble until we address the stress. Eating or not eating results in pain, bloating and either diarrhea or constipation. So yes, I can tell you that stress causes gut problems, likely also IBS, and it can certainly make it worse!

In this presentation that I gave to my fellow dietitians, I talked about the science behind stress and IBS. I went over the mechanisms through which stress affects the gut. For example, stress can cause inflammation in the gut, disrupt your gut microbiota and make the gut more sensitive to what’s happening within it, even to normal things, like a small amount of gas from bacterial fermentation of whole grains (which is good for us!). 

Problems with pooping

I also went over different kinds of stress release techniques and the scientific evidence that exists for these different methods. Many different techniques are found to improve IBS symptoms, which leads me to believe that every one of us, with or without IBS, should have a stress release routine to follow every single day. 

And this is not just for gut health. I believe it is impossible to have good health without stress management. It also doesn't have to be difficult, complex, or time-consuming. It can simply mean taking deep breaths before each meal, or questioning negative thoughts. Or it could be about practicing yoga and meditation regularly. Even taking a walk, taking care of your diet, sleeping well, drinking enough fluid, and spending time outdoors can do wonders to stress. 

All my clients have experienced significant improvements in their gut issues when they have not only paid attention to their diet, but also started a daily stress release routine. For example, taking time to eat in peace instead of hurrying through each meal has made a big difference! Breathing exercises have also been a very central part of their stress release routines and my clients say they have been “life saving”.

If you are thinking “I don't have any stress”, I would suggest to question this, because everyone has some stress, and stress is not always felt on a mental level. Physical symptoms can be the only telltale signs of stress in your life. So, even if you don't feel like you're stressed out but are suffering from a lot of ailments, including gut issues, try stress release anyway because more than likely it will help you. 

Furthermore, it will not only help your gut health, but your well-being overall. 

Calm woman with a laptop

Everything affects everything, so only adjusting your diet is not enough for true health. We need to look at every aspect of life to truly find the causes for our symptoms and the best solutions.

You can start by signing up to IBSwise and exploring the different stress release techniques I offer there, or visit my Instagram page to try the box breathing exercise that I have pinned to the top of the posts.

Any questions? Just comment below, or email me at [email protected].

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Anna-Kaisa

Picture of Anna-Kaisa Manolova

PS: I host free 15-minute stress release sessions on Thursdays, every other week. The next session is September 5. You can register here for the next session, and email me if you’d like a link to watch the recording from the last session.

PPS: I have lots of free stuff you can download! For example, you can get the free guide “5 Easy Ways to Beat the Bloat” here!

Most people don’t feel great after eating a large amount of sugar in one form or the other, I know I’ve been there many times! On top of feeling off or crashing from blood sugar swings, some may even get a stomachache, diarrhea or become bloated - your typical IBS symptoms. We know that carbohydrates, including sugars, affect the gut, and in this post I will briefly discuss what is known specifically about the effect of sugar (excluding lactose in dairy) on gut function. Is it something we should avoid eating altogether?

Candy

To lay the foundation, sugar is simple carbohydrate, and there are actually many types of sugar. What is important to know is that all carbohydrate (starch) must be turned into sugar before it can be absorbed, and more specifically, into single sugar units called monosaccharides. Even two sugar molecules together, like sucrose in table sugar is too large to be absorbed. So, despite what we may have heard, this also means that sugar is not in and of itself bad for us AND all the cells in our body prefer to be fueled by the monosaccharide glucose. It’s more that high sugar foods tend to be highly processed and poor in other nutrients, like vitamins and minerals that doesn’t promote general health.

Fructose is a monosaccharide sugar found in fruit and processed foods. Fructose is also considered a FODMAP – a highly fermentable sugar that in large amounts can naturally cause gut symptoms. This is because fructose absorbs relatively poorly from the intestines as compared to glucose, and if the amount of fructose that was eaten is high enough, it can travel all the way to the large intestine where our gut microbes feast on it, causing gas formation, bloating and diarrhea. (1)

Bananas on yellow background

Another way in which fructose can trigger gut problems is that when there is enough of fructose particles together in the gut, they attract water to themselves (happens with any particles, not just fructose). This can lead to a fluid buildup in the intestine quickening it’s movement and volume, which can then lead to a fast exit, and discomfort. However, if fructose is together with glucose, it absorbs better and is likely to not cause any gut issues. (1)

Types of Sugars

Table sugar, or sucrose, is an example of a disaccharide in which a glucose and a fructose molecule are stuck together. High-fructose corn syrup, on the other hand, is a sweetener that has more fructose than glucose in it, as is fruit juice and honey. It is this excess of fructose as compared to glucose that can pose a problem when eaten in a large enough amount. And this is not just with people with IBS, but everyone – in fact, when fructose malabsorption is tested, people with IBS are not different from healthy people. (1)

You might then wonder if adding some glucose to foods that have a lot of fructose would help the fructose absorb better and thus prevent gut symptoms? Scientists have been wondering the same and while theoretically this would make sense, scientific studies haven’t been able to show this to be helpful in reducing gut symptoms (2).

But what about high sugar foods that don’t have more fructose than glucose in it? Could this kind of sugar also cause gut trouble?

The short answer is yes, it could.

In theory, sucrose and especially glucose are sugars that absorb quickly and quite completely in the small intestine so that they shouldn’t really end up in the large intestine to be fermented by our gut microbes and cause problems. 

But one reason sucrose, or table sugar, could lead to gut symptoms is a genetic disorder called sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, in which the enzyme that breaks down sucrose is missing or not working well which lets this sugar stay in the gut to attract water and travel into the large intestine to be fermented. This is very rare, however. But, if you always have gut symptoms after eating sugary food, and the low FODMAP diet hasn’t helped, and especially if you have had issues since childhood, experts suggest checking for sucrase-isomaltase deficiency. (3)

Another, and perhaps more likely, theory is that it is overloading the gut with sugar that triggers problems: the amount of sugar is bigger than what the intestine can absorb, attracting water to itself, moving too quickly through the small intestine, and becoming fermented in the large intestine.

A person eating candy from a box

A study investigating a diet low in starch and sucrose found that this diet helped reduce gut symptoms – as for the mechanism, they suggested sugar overload also, and also that the gut microbiota become improved on a lower sugar and starch diet (4). This could also be due to the fact that when we eat less sugar, we might eat more foods that positively nourish the microbiota. However, what is important, is that the authors of the study remind us that gut health is a sum of all the dietary and lifestyle choices we make, rather than depending on one or even a few foods or nutrients in our diet.

In the end, it all comes down to moderation – large amounts of anything can cause gut symptoms.

So no, you don’t have to stop eating sugar to keep your gut healthy. In addition to moderation, something also to consider is how you eat your sweets - do you eat them into an empty stomach or as a dessert? This changes how you digest the sugars in the food (I suggest you eat your sweets as a dessert).

And what else are you eating? Is your diet in balance? Is your lifestyle in balance? What can you do to bring more balance into your life so that you can enjoy a moderate amount of sugar without gut or health issues? If you are not sure, here’s a lifestyle checklist you can download to spot more easily what those changes could be. 

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts and also your requests for future blog posts.

Love,

Anna-Kaisa

Picture of Anna-Kaisa Manolova

PS: I created an IBS course called IBSwise to help people with gut issues to achieve IBS freedom! But if you’d like a more individualized approach, book a call with me to see how I can help you improve your digestive health without restrictive diets and giving up foods or nutrients.

References
  1. Fernández-Bañares F. Carbohydrate Maldigestion and Intolerance. Nutrients. 2022 May 4;14(9):1923. doi: 10.3390/nu14091923. PMID: 35565890; PMCID: PMC9099680.
  2. Tuck, C.J., et al., Adding glucose to food and solutions to enhance fructose absorption is not effective in preventing fructose-induced functional gastrointestinal symptoms: randomized controlled trials in patients with fructose malabsorption. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, 2017. 30(1): p. 73-82.
  3. Foley A, Halmos EP, Husein DM, et al Adult sucrase-isomaltase deficiency masquerading as IBS Gut 2022;71:1237-1238.
  4. Nilholm C, Roth B, Ohlsson B. A Dietary Intervention with Reduction of Starch and Sucrose Leads to Reduced Gastrointestinal and Extra-Intestinal Symptoms in IBS Patients. Nutrients. 2019 Jul 20;11(7):1662. doi: 10.3390/nu11071662. PMID: 31330810; PMCID: PMC6682926. 

Did you know that irritable bowel syndrome is now being classified as a disorder of gut-brain interaction? This is a big deal, because this classification also suggests a way to reverse IBS – by fixing this disordered gut-brain interaction! 

But let’s back up a little – what is gut-brain interaction anyway? Well, simply put, our gut and our brain communicate with each other constantly: the gut is sending signals about what is going in the gut and its contents and the brain is talking to the gut about our environment, such as of safety or danger. 

In a disordered gut-brain communication, the gut is telling the brain there are problems when there aren’t necessarily any, and the brain might be telling the gut that we are in danger when we are not. All of this might even become a vicious cycle, in which the gut and the brain feed off of each other and make everything worse.

Graph showing stress and IBS Symptoms interaction

What causes the gut-brain connection to go haywire? Sometimes a gut infection or antibiotics may trigger persistent gut symptoms probably because of inflammation and gut microbiota changes (1,2), but more importantly, all other signs point to stress. Having extensively studied and researched the mechanisms of IBS (such as visceral hypersensitivity, gut immune function changes, increased gut permeability and gut microbiota dysbiosis), all of them can be caused by stress (3). And stress is what causes the brain to send distress signals to the gut. 

For example, most of us have experienced a time when we were really nervous about something, like giving a presentation or having a sports competition, that lead to abdominal pain and maybe diarrhea. I certainly can remember many instances! What happens, is that the brain prepares the body for a dangerous situation, which triggers a stress response in the body (an important survival mechanism!), to which the gut responds by becoming hypersensitive (pain) and removing its contents (diarrhea), or not moving its contents (constipation) so that the body could be better prepared to fight or flee (4).

Usually when the event is over, the body returns to rest-and-digest mode and digestion goes back to normal. However, in IBS, a stress response has gotten stuck or triggers more easily leading to more persistent gut symptoms (3,5).

How then do we calm the disordered gut-brain interaction? The key is to switch the brain and the body to the rest-and-digest mode. The vagus nerve plays a big part in this and by stimulating this nerve we can restore proper communications between the gut and the brain.

A man wearing a baseball cap enjoying the outdoors, with blue sky and clouds in the background

And there are many ways to do this! My IBSwise course discusses most of them and provides opportunities to try them, too – I heartily recommend checking it out.

One thing you can do right away: take deep diaphragmatic (belly) breaths before each meal and any time you are feeling stressed out – this is a very simple way to calm and relax the body and boost digestion. Also try yoga and meditation practices, other breathing exercises and spending more time in nature etc. I also talk about all of these and many others on IBSwise

Thanks for reading! There is so much you can do for your gut health that is free and doesn’t require medication or supplements! Get in touch if you have any questions.

Love,

Anna-Kaisa

Picture of Anna-Kaisa Manolova

References
  1. Lupu VV, Ghiciuc CM, Stefanescu G, Mihai CM, Popp A, Sasaran MO, Bozomitu L, Starcea IM, Adam Raileanu A, Lupu A. Emerging role of the gut microbiome in post-infectious irritable bowel syndrome: A literature review. World J Gastroenterol. 2023 Jun 7;29(21):3241-3256. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v29.i21.3241. PMID: 37377581; PMCID: PMC10292139.
  2. Mamieva Z, Poluektova E, Svistushkin V, Sobolev V, Shifrin O, Guarner F, Ivashkin V. Antibiotics, gut microbiota, and irritable bowel syndrome: What are the relations? World J Gastroenterol. 2022 Mar 28;28(12):1204-1219. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i12.1204. PMID: 35431513; PMCID: PMC8968486.
  3. Qin HY, Cheng CW, Tang XD, Bian ZX. Impact of psychological stress on irritable bowel syndrome. World J Gastroenterol. 2014 Oct 21;20(39):14126-31. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i39.14126. PMID: 25339801; PMCID: PMC4202343.
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