To Your Health
July, 2023 (Vol. 17, Issue 07) |
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Why Chronic Stress = IBD
By Editorial Staff
Chronic stress and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): two health issues that, unfortunately, don't seem to be going away anytime soon. With increasingly busy lifestyles, social media overload, economic uncertainty – you know, life – driving the chronic stress state, it's imperative that we all find ways to reduce and/or manage our stress before it affects our health. One result if we don't is the frustrating condition known as inflammatory bowel disease.
IBD manifests as two primary types: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. We'll spare you the detailed explanation, but trust us when we say you don't want to suffer from either one. (Diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss are shared symptoms). According to research, chronic stress causes a special type of cell called "glial cells" to communicate stress signals from the central nervous system (particularly the brain) to the "enteric nervous system" in the gastrointestinal tract. The result: GI inflammation and IBD symptoms.
We can't prevent those cells from communicating stress signals to the GI tract, but we can prevent / reduce chronic stress so the cells have less stress signals to communicate in the first place. Yale Medicine suggests eight lifestyle factors can make a major difference:
- Exercising
- Eating healthy foods
- Learning time management techniques
- Setting realistic goals
- Getting more sleep
- Making time for leisure activities
- Building stress-reduction skills
- Learning and practicing mindfulness (learning to control attention)
If you're experiencing chronic stress (with or without GI issues), talk to your doctor about what's causing the stress and how you can incorporate the above lifestyle habits into your daily stress-management routine (particularly if you haven't figured out how to do it yet). Lower stress and GI health – what are you waiting for?
