If you’ve ever wondered about the effect your mood and mental health have on your body, just consider the fact that your face gets flushed when you’re angry or you feel queasy to your stomach before a big interview!
Your gut actually has a close relationship with your brain, so your emotional state can easily affect your digestive regularity, and vice versa.
Can Mood Affect Your Digestion?
When you’re stressed out, depressed or worried about work, home or other aspects of your life, your GI (gastrointestinal) tract could end up unable to do its job. As a result, your system will be unable to efficiently expel waste or absorb nutrition from food, and this can lead to a wide range of other issues.
Can Digestive Irregularity Affect Your Mood?
Just as your mood can affect your gut, the reverse is also true. Chronic constipation actually impacts your body in two ways:
- Physical Stress – Constipation can lead to bloating, straining, abdominal cramps and sometimes, pain in the entire lower body.
- Emotional Stress – The worry of not being able to have a bowel movement, how much it will hurt when it does happen, needing to “go” when you’re outdoors, etc.
It’s essential to ensure that your gut is healthy, and to take certain measures to improve your digestive as well as emotional health.
7 Easy Ways to Maintain Better Gut Health and Keep Stress at Bay
If you’re aiming to live a creative, happy and fulfilling life, you may need to incorporate some changes in your lifestyle as soon as possible.
Here are some of the best tips to keep in mind:
- Dietary Changes – Take a close look at your diet and whether it’s well-balanced, with all the vitamins, fiber and minerals necessary for your overall wellbeing.
- Take Probiotics – Probiotics help food move through your digestive tract, and have a huge impact on overall health, so add fermented foods or supplements to your diet.
- Regular Exercise – Exercise can play a huge role in improving bowel regularity, and also brings down stress levels by releasing happiness-causing endorphins.
- Relaxation Techniques – Whether your preferred method of relaxing is a walk, yoga, reading, meditation or simply indulging in a hobby, make time for it in your life.
- Try Hypnotherapy – It may help to visit a hypnotherapist if you feel there are unresolved issues in your past that may be affecting your mental health today.
- Get a Massage – Other than being incredibly relaxing, a massage can also help relieve constipation, and you can do your own abdominal massages too.
- Consult a Doctor – If nothing else helps, or you face severe pain and straining, it’s best to visit a health professional for a thorough checkup.
Research suggests that women might be more prone to emotional disorders as a result of chronic constipation. Psychological ill-health in women tends to affect rectal blood flow and bowel movement too, so the right probiotics for women can be a powerful health booster.
Mary Toscano is a dedicated wife, a busy mom of two toddlers, an animal shelter volunteer, a health freak runner, and a passionate health and wellness blogger. All of these are her many jobs besides her day job. She aspires to having her own YouTube channel one day about healthy living and clean eating. Spending a major ...
View Full Profile