I N S I G H T S

Under a stress situation our body turns on our sympathetic nervous system to cope with the immediate concern, danger or threat and this can affect our nutrition and digestion.

One function of our body, when under stress, is to provide additional glucose as immediate energy for the large muscles, lungs, heart and brain.  This is provided by the liver but also can have the effect of making us feel constantly hungry.  While increasing our food intake may be appropriate if our stress situation calls for physical exertion, it could become a weighty problem if our stress is caused by other factors and we don’t utilise the additional food energy.  While over-eating stresses our digestive system and being over-weight might cause us additional reasons to feel stressed, there is another factor in play. 

Because our body wants to power up our large muscles, heart, lungs and brain to deal with the threat or stress situation, it directs blood away from non-essential areas such as our stomach and intestines to increase the flow to the essential organs.  Our digestion will slow or stop during an immediate stress response and we will have a slower release of digestive enzymes.  If our stress response doesn’t naturally conclude and return to a normal state of balance, we will find that instead of being broken down properly, our food will continue to be poorly digested, causing discomfort, gas and bloating – particularly if it has a high fat content.  And of course, this isn’t helped if we have a coping mechanism for stress and discomfort that includes excessive coffee, alcohol or junk food consumption.  We just end up exacerbating the problem.

So the stress response turns on the sympathetic nervous system that causes these changes to occur.  How then do we return our body to a normal balance?

In healthy individuals, once the stressor event ends, our parasympathetic system, also known as the “rest and digest” system, switches on.  This works in opposition to the sympathetic system so we regain a state of balance.  The parasympathetic system is responsible for saving energy, slowing down our heart rate, restoring our blood pressure to normal and once again promoting digestion.

If we stay in a stressed state, the sympathetic system continues its job and suppresses the parasympathetic role.  This is why our ability to physically and mentally relax is of vital importance to enable us to return to, and retain, good digestive health.