ides, regulate bowel movements and much, much more. A healthy large intestine and microbiome optimize your wellbeing in so many ways.
Your accessories are important too!
The pancreas produces digestive enzymes to assist the small intestine with the final breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and fats into saccharides, amino acids and lip- ids. The pancreas also helps regulate your blood sugar. Your liver performs over 500 functions in the body, including regulating cholesterol production, metabolizing the macronutrients into usable forms, stor- ing many nutrients and producing bile to assist with the emulsification of fats. Your gallbladder acts as a reserve for excess bile waiting to release it when necessary, such as after a fatty meal.
So damage and dysfunction anywhere
along your digestive tract means improper breakdown of food, increased risk for food borne pathogens, decreased absorption and utilization of nutrients, excess storage of toxins in the body, leaky gut syndrome and compromised health.
You’ve Got Some Nerve Considering your digestive tract as just
a tube where food goes in and out of is a bit simplistic, especially considering your gut’s intimate relationship with your brain. This relationship starts with nerves. Your entire digestive system has its own separate ner- vous system running through it. It is called the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) and it controls muscle stimulation and produc- tion of secretions such as neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and nitric oxide. What you may not know is that roughly 90% of the neurotransmitter serotonin is actually produced in your digestive tract!
The ENS is a completely separate ner-
vous system creating a direct link between the digestive system and your brain through a nerve called the vagus nerve. In fact, if the vagus nerve is cut the digestive system will still function! There are hundreds of millions of neurons connecting the brain to the ENS and communication goes both ways. So the brain provides feedback to the gut and the gut provides feedback to the brain. This connection:
• Controls hunger and satiety through the release of different hormones. • Initiates digestion through the “cephalic phase of digestion.” This is when your brain registers the sight, smell, taste and texture of your food in order to send signals to your stomach to start secreting gastric juices.
• Creates “gut” feelings and “butterflies” in your stomach. That feeling in the pit of your stomach is real when you’re nervous or feel that something just isn’t right!
• Regulates parasympathetic nervous system activation. This part of your autonomic nervous system, aptly called “rest and digest,” helps calm you and promotes all aspects of the digestive process.
Your Body on Stress As you can see, activating your “rest and digest” system is critical to optimal digestive function and this is the main rea- son why stress negatively affects digestion and gut health. You have heard of “fight or flight” and now you know about “rest and digest.” However, they cannot work simulta- neously. If you are in fight or flight mode, you cannot also be resting and digesting. Therefore, when you are stressed your entire digestive process comes to a halt.
Of course, with our fast-paced life-
styles, it’s nearly impossible to feel like you don’t have any stress. But, having stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Instead, it is how your body adapts to stress that dictates how it can affect your body and your gut health. When you are exposed to a stressor, your body responds physiologically. This response is called the General Adaptation Syndrome and has three phases:
The first phase is the Alarm Phase, typi-
cally known as the fight or flight response, lasting for a short duration. During the alarm phase, you perceive a stress or threat and the body kicks into action – time to run from that tiger! Heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, rate of breathing and sweating all increase while digestion and reproduc- tive function decrease. This reaction occurs for any perceived stress – running from a bear, fighting with your spouse, getting stuck in traffic, even negative thoughts about yourself.
The next phase is the Resistance
Phase which allows your body to keep fighting that stressor long after the initial stress is gone. After the perceived threat is gone, your body is still processing it. In the resistance phase, your body produces corti- sol and other corticosteroids to help convert proteins into energy and retain sodium to keep blood pressure up. This helps you con- tinue to handle emotional crises, fight infec- tions or perform strenuous tasks. Eventually as the threat dissipates, your body returns to baseline.
Baseline, or homeostasis, is when the
body is humming along smoothly, feeling healthy and having energy. So, of course, the body wants to maintain this optimal state of health. Stress throws you off bal-
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