Reclaiming the Gut-Brain Axis: The Butterfly Effect of Stress
You know you are stressed out, but you can’t think why! You used to be able to cope with so much more! But lately, you keep thinking you have it all under control when you realize that some crucial piece of information has fallen out of your head when you weren’t looking.
And you are suddenly getting random symptoms like bloating as well. You no longer feel settled in your body… in fact, whose body is this that keeps letting you down?
I promise it’s still your body, but there’s some wiring in there that is shorting, creating a bunch of random, seemingly unrelated symptoms. It can feel like the butterfly effect in the body, where one little thing can cause a massive cascade of events. Okay, enough analogies for one day!
Let’s take a step back and look at the whole picture.
You’re a perimenopausal mum—working, parenting, running a household, maybe looking after aging parents… we are constantly told we can do it all, but should we be doing it all? It takes a huge toll on the nervous system!
The Ultimate Domino Effect
Nothing happens in the body in isolation. And I really mean nothing. Any nervous system dysregulation will eventually start showing up in the body physically.
The most frustrating part is that the gut-brain connection will keep pinging backwards and forwards without an off switch, snowballing every step of the way.
Stress shuts down digestion: Psychological or physiological stress reduces our stomach acid and enzyme capacity to digest food properly.
Nutrient starvation: This means even if you are eating well, you miss out on the essential nutrients required to keep your nervous system in balance.
The Snowball: The fewer nutrients your nervous system receives, the more stressed and depleted you become, and the worse your digestion gets.
Starving Your Microbiome
Take that a step further: our gut microbiome also doesn’t get what it needs due to poor digestion. Because we are bloating, we then start to restrict things like pulses and any "fart-type" veg, but these fiber-rich foods are exactly what is essential for feeding that microbiome!
Your gut holds an enormous amount of your serotonin (your happy neurotransmitter) and B12. In fact, a healthy microbiome synthesizes B12, which is desperately needed for your daily energy, iron stores, and nervous system function.
The more upset our microbiome becomes, the more localized inflammation is created, and that means we stop digesting effectively. This may look like outright constipation, but often it just looks like bowel movements that aren’t consistent.
Enter "Leaky Gut" and Excess Oestrogen
That chronic inflammation can loosen the junctions in the intestinal wall, junctions that are supposed to remain shut tight to stop the back-flow of waste metabolites meant for the toilet.
This looseness (often called leaky gut) allows those "meant-to-be-excreted" metabolites right back into your bloodstream. These include spent hormonal metabolites, like old oestrogen, which get reabsorbed and cause total hormonal disruption. Think dominant, angry excess oestrogen fueling your perimenopausal mood swings, heavy periods, and hot flushes.
And there you have it. You think you have a bunch of unrelated symptoms and go hunting for a magic bullet for whatever is bothering you on any particular day, but you are completely missing the big picture.
Reclaiming the Whole Picture
It depends entirely on where you are on your specific journey as to what we need to look at first. But managing your daily stress - and you can start by utilizing your right to say ‘no’- is a fantastic first step.
Stop treating your body like a collection of broken parts. If you are ready to stop chasing individual symptoms and want to figure out where your internal domino line actually started falling over, let's look at the big picture together.
Book a 15-Minute First Step Chat with me today.We can look at how your nervous system, your gut health, and your hormones are talking to each other, and map out a clear path to get you feeling settled in your own skin again. Go on, you good thing!
Simply Healing is a naturopathic and homeopathic clinic led by Sarah Dobbs, nestled in the rainforest of Kuranda. Just 30 minutes from Cairns. We specialize in Metabolic Balance and holistic health, supporting clients in person across Far North Queensland or online Australia-wide.