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How Stress Affects IBS and How to Improve Both

If you have IBS, you know that in times of stress your symptoms tend to flare up. It’s very inconvenient when you’re already stressed about something to be dealing with stomach pains, gas, bloating, and running to the bathroom. 

So let’s talk about how stress causes IBS flare-ups and how to manage both of them if they happen. how stress affects IBS

What is IBS?

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a group of gastrointestinal symptoms that include:

  • Abdominal cramping/pain
  • Constipation (IBS-C), diarrhea (IBS-D), or both (IBS-M)
  • Gas
  • Bloating

Symptoms will often happen when the person needs to have a bowel movement. Once a bowel movement has been completed symptoms will usually subside. 

The Rome IV criteria state that a diagnosis of IBS cannot be made until a patient experiences symptoms 1 day per week for 3 consecutive months for a 6 month period of time. 

IBS symptoms can range from being annoying but mild to severe and life-altering. Getting symptoms under control can be difficult for some patients. Treatment will often consist of trying:

  • Antibiotics to treat an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine (SIBO) 
  • Low-FODMAP diets to rule out dietary instigators
  • Psychological treatments since the gut-brain axis is a major factor in symptom severity

What happens in the body when we are stressed?

Stress is regulated by our central nervous system (CNS). The CNS is broken down into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. 

The parasympathetic nervous system runs on autopilot and takes care of the body reactions we don’t really think about like breathing and digestion. 

The sympathetic nervous system is the part that deals with stress and our reactions to it. 

When the sympathetic nervous system is turned on a hormone/chemical cascade happens that causes all of your stress-related symptoms. Since it’s dubbed the “fight or flight response”, everything that happens once this system is ignited is to help your body do just that — fight or run away. 

This results in an increased heart rate, more blood flowing to your extremities, and disruption of your digestive system.

There are many different kinds of stress and reasons that stress levels can increase. 

How does stress affect IBS symptoms?

IBS is considered a psychological disorder as much as a gastrointestinal one. The gut-brain axis is what links your gastrointestinal and psychological health. When looking at the etiology of conditions like IBS there is a coexistence of both and researchers are still unable to pinpoint exactly which one is the cause and which is the effect. 

The gut-brain axis works alongside the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is what releases different stress hormones when your body becomes stressed. One of the main hormones released is the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). 

CRF tells your immune system that it’s time to get ready for battle. This would be great if you’re in for a short-term stressful event. But in today’s world, we are often in this state for extended periods of time. This contributes to systemic inflammation which will have adverse effects on your health.

It leads to dysbiosis, an imbalance of the microbes in your gut, resulting in your influx of symptoms and malaise. 

How to manage stress and related IBS symptoms

The best way to manage both stress and IBS is by getting ahead of them and recognizing triggers before either has the chance to get out of control.

Since life doesn’t really allow us to do that all the time, there are a lot of ways you can go about managing stress and IBS easier. 

Journaling

Journaling is a great practice for your mental health. There have been numerous studies done on the effectiveness of mindfulness and gratitude journaling for mental health. 

If writing isn’t your thing, there are various other methods of journaling ideas. In this Psychology Today article you can find some great alternative journaling methods like visual journaling. 

Eating a variety of healthy foods

It’s no surprise that what you eat is going to have a drastic effect on the health of your digestive system. It’s also a surprisingly great method of stress management. If you’re a stress eater, choosing healthy foods can promote happy chemicals in your brain to better deal with stress. Meanwhile eating sugary snack foods can actually make you more stressed and crave more unhealthy foods. 

Focus on keeping your microbiome happy

Your gut controls a lot of things in your body and is often referred to as your second brain. The microbes in your gut release different chemicals after breaking down your foods. These chemicals travel all throughout your body to either help or cause problems depending on the bacteria that was in your gut to create them. 

Eating healthy foods full of fiber, healthy fats, prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics can all support a healthy microbiome and improve your ability to manage stress. Atrantil is full of prebiotics, postbiotics, and polyphenols that will help to manage your IBS symptoms and support a healthy, happy microbiome.

Getting enough good-quality sleep

Good quality sleep has a huge impact on your ability to deal with and manage stress. Poor quality sleep has been shown to decrease your ability to manage stress while increasing feelings of depression, anxiety, and IBS symptoms. 

Work on making your bedroom a sleep sanctuary. Try to avoid sleeping with a TV on and work on getting to bed at a decent hour. If you can’t fall asleep right away get up and do some light stretching or reading and try again after 15 minutes. 

Talk with your doctor

Talking with your doctor or a psychiatrist about your struggles to manage stress and IBS problems is a great way to get personalized ideas to manage your symptoms. There are multiple different therapies you can try to deal with your problems and give you ways to cope in the future. 

Gut hypnotherapy has been extremely effective in most studies to manage abdominal and psychological symptoms of IBS.

Find a physical or creative outlet that works for you

We’ve all experienced that rush of anxiety within our bodies when dealing with stress. It makes you feel restless and like you need to move to try and get your brain to think more clearly. 

This is a great time to exercise or use a creative outlet like writing or art to help you release those feelings while allowing your brain to focus on something other than the problem at hand. This will let you think more clearly about it at a later time and feel slightly more relaxed. 

Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques

Mindfulness and relaxation are extremely important when it comes to long-term stress management. By practicing mindfulness and relaxation techniques on a daily basis, you’ll be able to manage stress better when it happens. It teaches you to slow your brain down and assess the situation in a less anxious way. 

Try yoga, meditation, journaling, qi gong, or a mixture of these things to center your mind and get your stress and symptoms under control. 

Join IBS support groups

Group therapy and support groups can be a great way to deal with your symptoms. Talking with others that understand what you are going through can help you not feel so alone in your battle and can give you insight into potential treatments for your own symptoms. 

The IBS Network is a great resource to find local groups in your area to join. 

Stress management isn’t something you should worry about doing alone. If you are feeling stressed out and it is affecting your IBS symptoms, talk to your doctor right away. Until you can see your doctor, try a few of the things on this list to see if they can improve symptoms in the meantime. 

Have something that has helped you that wasn’t on this list? Share it in the comments below to help other readers!

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