Do you feel exhausted, anxious, and overwhelmed?
Can you pinpoint the cause of this feeling? Perhaps the stress of an upcoming event or deadline, or just an exceptionally long day. Maybe you didn’t sleep well or drank a little bit more wine than you normally would over the weekend. You might suspect or even know that you have a hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue, or another underlying issue that is contributing to your symptoms and feelings.
How about your gut? Did you know that a digestive system imbalance could be contributing to fatigue, anxiety, and any number of other symptoms of adrenal dysfunction?
There has been an explosion of research over the last few years linking the gut to the brain and to all kinds of health concerns. Still, we just don’t tend to think of the gut when we think of symptoms like tiredness or moodiness, and we don’t always make the connection to adrenal fatigue.
When clients come to see me about low energy and adrenal fatigue, we often uncover some degree of digestive dysfunction – like bloating, abdominal pain or discomfort, gas, constipation, or food sensitivities.
As with many connections between different body systems, the relationship between gut health and adrenal health works on a feedback loop. Imbalances in the gut contribute to adrenal fatigue or dysfunction, and adrenal fatigue contributes to issues in the gut.
This vicious cycle of stress impacting gut health and vice versa leads to more dysfunction related to hormonal and neurotransmitter balance, immune system function, thyroid function, and systemic inflammation.
What Stresses out the Gut?
The adrenal glands are responsible for producing hormones in response to stress. When stress is high and/or chronic to the point of the adrenal glands not being able to function properly, adrenal fatigue may occur.
It’s important to understand that when we talk about stress, we’re not just talking about emotional and mental stress (worries related to family, relationships, work, money, etc). Stressors can also include things like chronic exposure to toxins, inflammatory foods, or hidden imbalances within the body.
Common stressors related to gut health can include things like food sensitivities, foods that are inflammatory or difficult to digest, parasites, an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine (SIBO), a yeast overgrowth (candida), dysbiosis (an imbalance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ gut bacteria), nutritional deficiencies, the use of certain kinds of medications, and many more.
Many gut stressors are hard to find. Even if you’re eating a healthy diet, you may have a moderate food sensitivity that you’re unaware of, or another functional digestive issue (such as low stomach acid) that is keeping you from processing nutrients properly.
That’s why it’s important to really investigate and search for where some of the less obvious stressors might be – including in the gut– so that we know which areas we need to target.
How Stress affects Digestion
Our stress response is designed to help us in situations that are incredibly challenging or dangerous. This ‘flight or fight’ response is designed to keep us sharp and focused on dealing with the stressful situation (both internally and externally), our stress response slows down or shuts off functions that seem to be less pressing. This includes immune system function, reproductive function, and digestion.
When stress is constant, including from exposure to toxins, gut imbalances, and overly stressful day-to-day lives, essential systems and processes like digestion are never really given the chance to function at their normal levels and do their jobs.
Chronically high levels of cortisol can inhibit digestive function, leading to digestive issues as well as a reduction of healthy bacteria in the gut. Stress is a common cause of dysbiosis (an imbalance between friendly and unfriendly bacteria in the gut microbiome), which can contribute to all kinds of health problems, including adrenal fatigue.
Elevated cortisol levels can also increase gut permeability and allows substances like undigested food particles and bacteria to slip through into the bloodstream. When these foreign substances manage to leak out into the bloodstream, our immune system sounds the alarm, which can contribute to all kinds of issues including autoimmunity, increased food sensitivities, and chronic inflammation.
How to Restore Gut Health and Heal from Adrenal Fatigue
There are several great strategies I use in my clinical practice to help restore gut health and adrenal function. Here are some of my top tips:
- Eat wholefoods
- Add probiotics and probiotic foods (fermented superfoods like kefir and kombucha)
- Avoid processed foods. Inflammatory foods including sugar, gluten, dairy, and processed foods are stressors for the gut and the rest of the body.
- Work on stress management and self care
- Eat mindfully
- Look into specialised Functional Pathology Testing: Gut microbiome testing can also help to identify where there may be gut issues that are hindering the healing process.
Restoring gut health and adrenal function naturally is possible.
Keep these connections in mind as you go along your healing journey!
How healthy is your gut? Take the Gut Quiz to find out!
Grab your Free – Good Gut Guide
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