Improve Your Mood With Food: The Gut-Brain Axis
Improve Your Mood With Food: The Gut-Brain Axis
February 10, 2022
by Kirsty Gilmore and Lesley Seto, MSc.A, RD
If you’ve never heard of the ‘Gut-Brain Axis,’ you might have felt it before! This could be a nauseous feeling in the stomach when you’re anxious or nervous before a big interview or event. We’re going to dive into some new research about the link between gut health, mood, food, and stress with some key takeaways of how to eat and de-stress for better gut and brain health!
All the organs and systems in your body are interconnected, and the gut and brain connection is no exception, but recent research is actually proving it! These findings have huge potential to help people with gut issues that aren’t completely resolved through dietary changes and another way to support those experiencing anxiety, depression, mood swings. Anxiousness, for example, can impact gut symptoms, but poor gut health can also increase or cause anxiety! It’s a two-way street. Imagine if eating different could improve your moods, or if reducing stress and developing mental resilience could help get rid of gut symptoms.
Gut Microbes
There are trillions of microbes that live in our gut, and these friendly microbes do more than just help us digest food. Gut microbes make vitamins and protect us from the not-so-friendly microbes, modulate immune health, manage our weight and even have mood-boosting and stress-busting functions! The microbes that live in our gut are known as our gut microbiota.
How are Your Gut & Brain Connected?
Gut disorders impact over 35% of people at some point in their life, affecting more women than men. These disorders can cause pain, bloating or other discomforts, and many times these gut issues don’t have an easily diagnosable cause making them difficult to treat or relieve. Several studies show that stress may be an important, and often overlooked, reason for gut issues. There are many ways that we are beginning to understand how our gut microbes can affect our brain, a couple of these include:
The vagus nerve, which directly connects your gut to your brain, is responsible for regulating your organs - affecting digestion, heart rate, breath rate and more. The nerve coordinates the relaxation response and reduces inflammation in the body.
“Biochemical messengers” that are made in your gut travel throughout the body to communicate with other organs, including your brain. The brain can also signal nerves in the digestive tract to slow down or speed up in times of chronic and acute stress respectively. Examples of biochemicals include short-chain fatty acids and tryptophan, which can modulate how we feel. Tryptophan is used to make the sleep hormone melatonin and feel-good hormone serotonin - think happy turkey coma on Thanksgiving!
Your gut has its own nervous system called the enteric nervous system, this system spans your whole digestive tract from your esophagus, along your stomach, intestines, and colon. This means that our digestive system has receptors for neurotransmitters like feel-good hormones or neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, which are chemical messengers that send messages between brain cells. The gut microbiota also make neurotransmitters, some of which can influence our moods.
This complex connection between your gut and brain is referred to as the gut-brain axis. Signals go in both directions – from your brain down to your gut, and from your gut up to your brain. Currently, it is known that experiencing strong or frequent digestive issues can increase your stress levels and shift your mood. People with depression and anxiety have more gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and people with GI symptoms have more issues with depression and anxiety.
“The road to health is paved with good intestines!”
- Sherry A. Rogers
Mood, Stress and Your Gut
The gut microbiome’s balance of “good” and “bad” bacteria influences mental health through the development of inflammation and intestinal permeability when there’s an overgrowth of “bad” bacteria or a lack of diversity in gut microbes which is often called dysbiosis. Inflammation in the gut can lead to inflammation in other organs and vice versa. Learn more about intestinal permeability or “Leaky Gut” in our previous post.
Dysbiosis, inflammation, and leaky gut are all interrelated. Dysbiosis causes leaky gut and inflammation. Leaky gut causes inflammation and dysbiosis. Inflammation causes damage to the lining of the intestine and creates an environment for bad bacteria to thrive. They all are a cause and effect of each other, which means that regardless of which one you have first, you end up having all three. Dysbiosis, inflammation, and leaky gut are root causes of many digestive and non-digestive concerns like depression, heart disease, joint pain, etc.
Emotions like fear, sadness, anger, anxiety, or depression are often felt in the gut, these feelings can cause our digestive systems to speed up or slow down, which in turn can cause pain, bloating, constipation or other symptoms. This can lead to dysbiosis, inflammation and leaky gut. which is why chronic or long-term stress and strong emotions can contribute to or worsen a number of GI issues such as Crohn’s disease, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or food allergies and sensitivities.
How to Eat for Better Gut and Brain Health
The food you eat can have a huge impact on your health and is particularly true when it comes to the microbiome. The Mediterranean eating style has consistently been shown to reduce rates of depression. It’s also linked to lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. The Mediterranean diet is primarily focused on whole grains, vegetables, and fruit, which are the main food categories that help improve mood. Dairy, nuts, and olive oil can be included every day while various protein sources like legumes, fish, poultry, and eggs, can be enjoyed several times per week. The Mediterranean diet is high in fibre and low in inflammatory foods like sugar and red meat, which help to create a healthier gut microbiome. Fermented foods can further improve the number of ‘good’ bacteria colonizing the gut.
Foods to promote better gut and brain health:
Fruits and Vegetables
Nuts and Seeds
Whole Grains
Legumes, seafood or poultry
Yogurt, Sauerkraut, Kimchi, miso or other fermented foods
Stress Reduction Techniques
You might have heard yoga and meditation are good for reducing stress, but how? Evidence suggests that stress reduction techniques are helpful for people who experience gut issues as a result of stress. These techniques promote the relaxation response and also improve vagal tone, which helps the body to relax more quickly in the face of stressful events.
Some of the stress techniques we love and recommend are:
Guided Meditation
Deep Breathing
Dancing and shaking
Mindfulness
Yoga and Yoga Nidra
Final Thoughts
The gut-brain axis is a prime example of how complex our bodies are. Research shows that what you eat not only improves the gut and overall health, but also your brain and mental health. In addition, several stress-reduction techniques have been shown to reduce digestive illness and distress as well. It is important to know that everyone is sensitive to different foods and food sensitivities can trigger inflammation, dysbiosis and leaky gut. A generalized approach like the Mediterranean diet is a great starting point, but It’s always a good idea to take a personalized approach to support your gut and brain health.
If you want a plan to help improve your gut, brain and moods, book a consultation with Lesley! You will receive recommendations for a whole-body healing plan designed specifically for you that incorporates nutrition, mind-body techniques, and supplement recommendations.
Your gut, brain, and mood will thank you!