Why stress is ruining your digestion?

It is widely agreed that stress is bad for us. Stress has been considered a public enemy of our health because it can affect heavily the regular and natural process of our bodies. The downside of this enemy is that it is present in our everyday life.

stress is ruining your digestion

Stressful situations are almost an inherent ingredient of the days we live on this earth. Sometimes this fact goes amiss and we do not take into account how stress can affect our natural processes. We also ignore the great fact, and a heavily research topic in Medicine, that stress affects very heavily on our digestion. This daily ingredient of stressful situations wreaks havoc on our food processing system in ways that can cause even greater problems in our health.

Stress can alter the speed

Stress can alter the regular time the digestion takes to carry out its process. Usually it takes a certain amount of time for our lunch to travel the gastrointestinal tract, and in this time the digestive system can perform its process completely.

When we succumb to the stress, our digestion no longer takes the usual time to break down our lunch and absorb the nutrients from it, and eliminate any harmful organism it contains. Stress can even halt the process of digestion causing constipation, and therefore not being able to eliminate the disposal.

It can also cause bloating, gas and pains. On the contrary, stress can cause the digestive system to speed up and disposing of our lunch quick enough to avoid the absorption of those nutrients we need, and by default also eliminating the feeling of being full.

Immunity compromised by stress

Immunity compromised by stress

The stomach is one the largest organs of the body to be in charge of the immune protection of the body. After all, it receives everything we ingest, from a well-done steak to badly cooked chicken. Our digestive system is the one to take care of such organisms that will harm our systems health. Stress can disrupt this natural defense. Our GI tract has bacteria dedicated to fighting any harmful organism that enters our body.

It is also in charge breaking down the food we ingest as part of the digestion process. When we are in stressful situation, this good bacteria is affected and it no longer performs its function with the same effectiveness. This means that what we eat can makes us sick and that it will not be broken down to digest it properly.

Keeping the stress at bay

This is only the surface of the negative implications stress can have on our digestive system. That is why we must venture into eliminating stress from our lives. One of the best options for fighting stress is undergoing relaxation therapies, such as yoga and regular exercise.

These two activities are not only good for you since they help relaxing and keeping stress at bay and away from harming your body, but also because they are proven to contribute to the process of digestion by helping circulation, aiding in the production of good bacteria and toning the abdomen muscles to avoid any blockage in your GI tract.