What’s The Connection Between Your Gut Health and Anxiety?
It’s not all in your head
There is no one single cause for anxiety, and the reasons why people develop anxiety differ from person to person.
Possible causes are brain chemical imbalances, genes, and traumatic experiences.
My traumatic childhood experiences probably played a massive role in the development of extreme social anxiety I lived with for many years. Eventually, I overcame my intense fear of people.
General anxiety, panic attacks, and chronic worry, however, stayed.
Encouraged by the positive development of my social life, I was committed to change that too.
Because of the remarkable personality changes I experienced as a result of regular exercise, I was convinced that the key to better mental health was a healthy body. Ergo, I found myself devouring books, research papers, and blog posts about the mind-body connection.
Most of the material I read focused on the brain and its various mechanisms.
However, as I dug deeper into the subject, I learned that another body part might hold the key to improved mental health — the gut.
How your gut impacts your mood
In the past decades, scientists have discovered fascinating links between gut health and numerous health conditions, such as obesity, arthritis, and lately also mood disorders.
Turns out your brain and your gut are continually communicating with each other.
The central nervous system, which resides in your brain and spinal cord, and the enteric nervous system, which lies in your gut, are connected via the gut-brain-microbiome-axis. This axis facilitates the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain.
Your gut microbiome plays a central role in this communication.
Around 1 trillion bacteria and about 100 million neurons live in your gut. These little critters can send messages to your brain and produce neurotransmitters and hormones that have a direct impact on your mood.
Serotonin, dopamine, and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), for example, play a crucial role in mood and can be produced by your gut bugs.
And it seems the impact should not be underestimated.
Scientists think that more than 90% of your serotonin and close to 50% of your dopamine is produced in the gut. According to findings from researchers at Upsala University, the balance between serotonin and dopamine may play a role in the development of social anxiety disorder.
GABA is involved in the fear response of your body and mood, and studies have shown that this neurotransmitter is reduced in people with anxiety and other mood disorders. Healthy gut flora produces GABA in addition to increasing the GABA receptors in the brain.
Your gut microbiome also affects how your body uses the “feel-good-chemicals” by regulating the amount that circulates in your blood and brain.
Pretty amazing, right?
Add to that the fact that your gut microbiome can activate the communication between the gut and the brain, and it becomes clear how the health of your gut microbiome can influence your mental health.
Neglect your gut bugs, and your moods will take a turn for the worse. Take good care of these little critters in your tummy and significant improvements in your mental health are possible.
The bad news is that our modern life is a constant health hazard to our microbiome.
Stress, sleep deprivation, the overuse of antibiotics, exposure to environmental toxins, and a diet high in processed and artificial foods lead to a reduction in the abundance and diversity of friendly bacteria.
The good news is that you can do a lot for your gut health.
In the next section we will take a look at how you can improve the health of the little critters living in your gut.
How you can improve your gut health
1. Eat a varied diet comprised of mostly whole foods
Even though there is no one perfect diet for everyone that works all the time, you can design your menu in a way that is more beneficial for gut health.
A review study published in February this year showed how your diet alters your microbiome.
Refined carbohydrates and sugar, refined vegetable oils, artificial ingredients, and alcohol all harm your gut health.
Whole foods, on the other hand, tend to promote a diverse and healthy gut microbiome.
Fiber plays a crucial role as some types of fibers act as a prebiotic and have mood-enhancing effects by stimulating the growth of bacteria associated with well-being.
Your gut bugs also synthesize short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) from the fiber you eat. The most commonly produced SCFA in the colon is butyrate, which has been shown to have therapeutic effects for the brain.
Following a strict diet with limited food choices seems to be bad news for the diversity of your microbiome.
A study published by Johnson et al.(2020) showed that adventurous eaters and people who eat complex carbohydrates tend to have a more diverse gut microbiome. This is in line with other studies that show how a varied microbiome depends on a varied diet. The researcher note that eating probiotic foods, such as yogurt, coconut yogurt, sauerkraut, or kimchi, also has a beneficial impact on your gut microbiome.
2. Manage your stress levels
Chronic stress can negatively influence the balance of your gut bacteria and alter the communication between your gut and your brain. If your brain is in constant fight or flight mode, the circulation in your gut shuts down, and the composition and number of gut microbes are altered.
Researchers at Oregon State University showed in a 2017 study how stress leads the microbiome “from stable to unstable community states.” Once out of balance, the microbiome acts in unpredictable ways.
What this means is that the symptoms of an unhealthy gut microbiome vary from person to person and are unpredictable. For some people, an out-of-balance gut microbiome can mean developing arthritis, and for others, obesity or mood disorders.
3. Exercise regularly
Only a few studies investigating the role of exercise on gut health exist. But the findings give reason to assume a healthy lifestyle has a positive impact on the diversity of your gut microbiome.
For example, Clarke et al. (2014) show that athletes had a more diverse gut microbiome than non-athletes. A study by Allen et al. (2018) showed how exercise can alter the composition of the gut microbiome. Researchers recruited 18 lean and 14 obese adults and started them on an exercise regimen. For 6 weeks, the study participants engaged in cardiovascular exercise for 30–60 minutes per session, 3 times a week. Their diets stayed the same. The researchers found increased concentrations of short-chain fatty acids, which correlated with changes in the microbiome. Once the study participants went back to their sedentary lifestyles, the levels declined again.
4. Get enough high-quality sleep
Not getting enough high-quality sleep can negatively affect the health and diversity of your gut microbiome. A study published by Benedict et al. (2016) showed that even short term sleep deprivation can alter the microbiome. After 2 days of reduced sleep, the study participants showed a change in the overall composition of the microbiome, with some species becoming more abundant. Other studies show how your gut microbiome is influenced by the circadian rhythm. This internal process regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Disruptions to your circadian rhythm, such as shift work or traveling through time zones, can also negatively affect your gut microbiome.
As with stress, the relationship between sleep and gut microbiome seems to be a two-way street. Poor sleep negatively impacts your gut bugs, and a troubled gut microbiome can affect the quality of your sleep.
Can healing your gut free you from anxiety?
There is compelling evidence that the health of your gut microbiome can have a significant effect on your anxiety levels and overall mood.
As already mentioned, however, the relationship between the gut and the brain is bidirectional, and the reasons for developing mood disorders are varied.
That means for some individuals, an unhealthy gut microbiome may be one of the main reasons for developing anxiety symptoms. In contrast, for others, it may only play a minor role.
Regardless, evidence suggests improving your gut health should lead to an improvement in anxiety symptoms.
