Stress, your gut, and your mood

90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut. Serotonin is responsible for your mood, sleep, appetite, and pain and the cells that produce serotonin depend on your gut microbes to make serotonin. The resident microbiota (the current living bacteria) in your gut help regulate your levels of serotonin and tryptophan, a serotonin precursor. Your diet plays a large role in your gut microbes, and so do your stress levels. If you are under chronic stress, your gut microbiota is directly negatively affected which means that your serotonin levels are affected too.

So what does this mean? This means that your gut greatly affects your mood, sleep, appetite and pain via serotonin production and regulation by your gut and its microbes. It also means that what you eat and how your body processes those foods and your levels of stress play a large role. If you are under chronic (and repeated bouts of acute) stress, then your gut is going to suffer which means your mood, sleep and pain will too. 

Your gut affects your health and the number one thing affecting your gut is what you eat. Diets that are low in sugar and processed foods tend to have a better balance of healthy bacteria. Make sure you’re eating enough fiber (such as lots of veggies and berries) and avoiding foods that are processed and/or high in sugar.

Serotonin, and other neurotransmitters, also play a role in your digestion via nutrient absorption, blood flow, the local immune system in your digestive tract, and gut motility. This helps explain why your digestive symptoms get worse when you are under stress and why digestive symptoms often go hand in hand with mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. Stress affects your gut health, your gut health affects your digestion and serotonin regulation, and your serotonin regulation affects your sleep and mood. Serotonin regulation plays a role in treating many GI issues including IBS and GERD (more commonly known as heartburn) because of this.

Don’t let chronic stress and poor dietary habits be the cause of your low mood, insomnia, or chronic pain.

Make your appointment with Dr. Sahni today to see how stress and diet are affecting your health and how to make changes to get your health back on track.

Sources:

Stoller-Conrad, Jessica. Microbes Help Produce Serotonin in Gut. April 09, 2015 <https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-46495>

J Cell Physiol. 2017 Sep; 232(9): 2359–2372. Published online 2017 Apr 10. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5772764/>

Trisha A. Jenkins, Jason C. D. Nguyen Kate E. Polglaze and Paul P. Bertrand. Influence of Tryptophan and Serotonin on Mood and Cognition with a Possible Role of the Gut-Brain Axis. Nutrients. 2016 Jan; 8(1): 56. Published online 2016 Jan 20. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728667/>

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/L-tryptophan