Can stress really have such an impact on the digestive system?

[Suchafrabjousday]

I know the answers is most probably yes but I find myself in such a difficult position that I’m slowly going crazy trying to find the solution to all my current woes.

I’ve got quite a lot going on and this is most probably having a negative impact on my body but I genuinely no longer know what to do.

I’ve had IBS for 26 years, it arrived without warning one day following a very stressful few years and it has never left me. It has waxed and waned over the years but I’ve always had a very sensitive digestive system since that day in 1998.

Once I hit the age of 45 however, the turbo button seemed to go full throttle and my digestive system from stomach to bum hole (sorry 🙈) has given me grief on an almost daily basis.

Despite endless gastro tests (endoscopies, colonoscopies, stool tests, scans etc) all ok, except for a positive test for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth which does not surprise me due to the very restricted low fodmap diet I’ve eaten for years in the hope of getting better, I’ve ended up buggering up my micro biome.

I was also diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis a few months ago but my gynaecologist says it won’t be causing the gut issues?!

So, as I say, these last 6 years have been just dreadful. Mornings are awful and unpredictable. My guts gurgle all the time, I pass super soft stool (sometimes diarrhoea which can be anytime and unpredictable), acid indigestion and pain, excessive burping, daily nausea, bloating in the evenings with gas and pain. I can even be woken by the excessive gurgling.

I have tried literally every everything recommended for IBS and nothing helps long term. I live the healthiest life of anyone I know yet feel like crap every day.

BUT I won’t lie, I am an extremely anxious person and my stress levels have been sky high these last 6 years. I don’t know why I can’t handle stress but I just can’t, maybe it all goes to my digestive system? Over these last 6 years I’ve had the following stressful situations to deal with (could these all be the instigators to my gut issues?),

ds had 5 years of school anxiety and refused to go to school most mornings. This was so stressful

My MIL passed away from bowel cancer

My beloved dog had to be pts due to cancer (he was my shadow, my best mate and 2 years on I’m still missing him)

My own dear mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 6 years ago. I help care for her and it’s honestly a journey to hell, it’s never ending and my mum is turning into a toddler child, it breaks my heart every day. And last month she was also diagnosed with breast cancer ffs!

My gastro seems to think my stress is causing my gut issues but from
my point of view it’s the gut symptoms (fear of soiling myself etc or worrying it’s something serious) which is driving the anxiety. It is a vicious cycle I can’t seem to break no matter who much yoga or meditation etc I do!

How can I find a way to calm
my anxiety and gut issues? I’ve literally become scared to leave the house at times. I just can’t find a solution.

Disclaimer - I worked for Yorktest on the animal health side about 20 years ago, which is how I know about them. I do know that some people (my sister for example!) would consider it unscientific but as it quantitative not just yes/no I am happy with it.

And having had a teenage son with weeping/bleeding facial dermatitis which we just couldn't get on top of, despite the dermatologist involvement, I wanted to rule out food intolerance and while it may be coincidental, cutting his high scoring foods worked. He also had a long chat with one of their nutritionists who was great at suggesting substitutes. He isn't as strict now, but knows if he starts to see a hint of a red patch to back right off his problem foods.

If you've ruled out everything else and the specialists aren't able to help you then I do think you have nothing to lose.

Whatever you do going forward I hope it works for you, your current situation sounds miserable.

Thank you NancyDrawed with dh’s work discount I can get it for quite a good price so I do think I’ll try it.

PeterGabrielsunderpants I’ll get some this week and try small amounts first and see how it goes.

I've been to the Mayr clinic three times. https://www.mayrlife.com/en

The entire aim of the treatment is to regulate the gut. There is no raw fruit or vegetables or salad on the menu, they say that they 'ferment' in the gut. No wheat, but there is spelt bread. No cow milk products, but sheep or goat dairy (yogurt, cheese). No butter but sometimes a v.tiny jug of linseed oil.

No eating after 6pm.

So anyway, I would try cutting out the salad and substitute with cooked veg.

It's very expensive but if you can afford it, go there for a month. Some of the treatments aren't really worth it (e.g. salt baths) so you can save money by sticking only to things related to gut treatment. And maybe intravenous vitamins. The massages are wonderful. The whole environment very de-stressing.

I recently had a highly stressful life event which went on for about two weeks before improving. Over that two weeks period - but not before or after - I had significant digestive problems

I have endo and ibs.

You can get endo deposits on your bowel which make ibs significantly worse.

Mine improved significantly after the deposits were lasered off,

I have name changed to post this, as I have had a monumental day on the other assets of this issue.

I have suffered from numerous dietary issues for the last 18 years, certain foods triggered IBS, others caused symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. There was a family history too, so I had resigned myself to the situation.

I couldn't eat gluten, dairy, eggs, ginger, coriander or drink alcohol. The slightest bit of gluten would have me doubled over and swollen for days. Ginger would make me burn, and I'd literally bleed.

Anyway, I got divorced. I pretty much had a breakdown and doctors, counsellors etc all helped me realise that it was a seriously abuse relationship. I.was under chronic stress to the point I'd become numb.

2 years later, I feel healed. I accidentally ate egg - no reaction. So I tried another
No reaction.

Tried dairy. No reaction

Had a curry. No reaction.

And today, for the first time in 18 years, I ate gluten. A croissant. No reaction.

Only explanation I can think of is that the sort of chronic, soul destroying stressing was under definitely caused the issues.

Hi, DS1, if you're reading this from University, because you'll know it's me!

I’ve experimented with my food a lot over the years consulates with 5 different dieticians and have kept a food and symptom diary for the last 5 years.

Very strange (as this goes against all advice) but cooked veg, even low fodmap veg makes my stomach go crazy, I can literally only tolerate certain salad veg and no fruit. It makes zero sense as you would imagine raw veg would make me worse as it does for so many IBS sufferers. If I were to eat, say steamed carrots and green beans today, I would end up going to the loo 4+ times tomorrow morning alone.

Sadly, I can no longer afford to see anyone privately as I’ve had to cut down my working hours due to my issues and caring for my mum.

Octavia64 an mri has detected my endometriosis stating deep endo and diffuse adenomyosis. Several nodules noted but nothing seen near the bowel. However, I know that only a laparoscopy will see the full extent of it all. Sadly I’m now have to wait a year long to have the procedure.
I was quite annoyed the gynae wouldn’t even entertain the idea that my gut issues could potentially be connected to the endo especially as a friend of mine ended up with a stoma due to the extent of her endo.

@Suchafrabjousday I am dealing with similar too due to really bad stress the last year.
I have developed terrible gastrointestinal symptoms and the most horrible is globus syndrome in my throat.
I feel like I have a constant lump or blockage in my throat and gets worse the more anxiety I have.
I don't know how to control it

Yes it can.

I do believe my stress is having a huge impact on my gut.

There are other issues that I haven’t mentioned which is related to my parents and caring for my mum. I hold a lot of frustrations inside me over my pig headed father which causes me a lot of anger that I just can not express right now but is sitting deep in my body making my issues worse, I’m certain of it.

Good to hear you have turned a corner from your issues, kind of gives me hope for somewhere in the future.

I get that too. I also sometimes feel like my throat is completely closing up. I’m not sure what the answer for that is but understand how horrid that feeling is.

Yes , a lot of digestive issues are caused by stress or anxiety, even if we don't realise we have stress / anxiety. For years I was blaming things for my gut issues.

But this doesn't make you immune to gut related illness. Bugs still happen, and bowel cancer is still one of the most common cancers. So keep a note of your bowel movements/ symptoms and seek medical advice if you start getting symptoms that aren't in your range of normal.

In terms of soiling , how likely is that to happen? You could wear a pad if you had a flare up , and carry wipe, if it would make you feel more secure.

I’m sorry you are going through this it sounds terrible and no way to live.

Have you tried acupuncture? It could help with both the stress and gut issues. I found it incredibly relaxing and whilst I had a completely different issue to you it did seem to work, or certainly helped a lot.

I am really sensitive to polyps and any amount of foods with polyps like sorbitol can upset me, even the serving size that is safe for most people according to the Monash app. I mention this because you said green beans and they have sorbitol.

When I did the reintroduction phase I found out I was super sensitive to polyps and fructans, whereas fructose, galactose and lactose weren’t
so bad. I can’t have dairy for other reasons (CMP) now anyway.

Something I have started doing to help increase the number of foods I can eat and thus help my microbiome is used specialist enzymes designed to break down FODMAPs.

There are a few- FODZYME by Kiwi Labs and Fructase and Quatrase Forte in Intolerans. They are exempt give but they do extend the range of foods I can eat significantly.

The other thing you could look into if you haven’t already is Hydrogen Sulphide SIBO. It causes diarrhoea and also often weight loss.

Foods that are high in sulphur exacerbate the symptoms. Basically FODMAPS cause the bacteria involved to overgrow. These bacteria are sulphide reducing bacteria (SRBs).

One of the things they do is breakdown sulphur in food, water etc. Hydrogen sulphide gas is one by product of this and sulphuric acid is another. The sulphuric acid is what causes the pain and also your body is understandably in a rush to get rid of it.

There are some things that can help with that whilst the search for a treatment progresses. One is a low sulphur and thiol diet. Another is supplementing with molybdenum. A short term solution is pepto bismol, which is difficult to get in the UK now, but you can get it on eBay. The bismuth binds sulphur. You have to get a formulation without sorbitol/polyols.

@Elieza Wiuld you happy to share the name of your person? I’m in Scotland and have been thinking of trying acupuncture/Chinese herbal medicine.

It's Dr Chen who runs the Hui Chun Clinic of Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture in Great Western Road quite near the junction with napiershall street. Tel 0141 357 1313.

Sorry forgot to say it's in Glasgow.

@Elieza thank you

Have you been tested for celiac? It doesn't always show in blood tests and having a intestinal biopsy is considered the Gold standard for diagnosis.
My dd was constantly told she didn't have celiac until the hospital did this test and clearly showed she had damage to her small intestine.
https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/screening-and-diagnosis/diagnosis/

Your stomach is most definitely your second brain. It really worth seeking talking therapy. I used to work in child clinical psychology as admin support. Many gut symptoms can be reduced or become much easier to live with, with the help of some psychological input.

Yes absolutely, my stomach knows I'm stressed before my brain does.

@Suchafrabjousday
i mean this with great kindness but elimination diets and yoga etc will have very little effect if you continue to hold all the stress and trauma inside without finding a way to regulate your nervous system and release a good amount of the stress.

Like others have said your gut is your second brain and it’s trying to send you a message. I know some of the stressors are here to stay (like caring for your mum) but I really recommend you look into EMDR therapy and also look online for methods to regulate your nervous system 💐

Mairzydotes tbh I’m pretty obsessed about bc especially after watching my mil die from it. I am always aware of the symptoms and do a FIT test every year (probably a little obsessional I know but it helps ease my anxiety over it I suppose). I have also had two colonscopies, the last one was July last year. No polyps, all was clear including the biopsies taken so that did ease my mind a little.

Dougt I have tried acupuncture and tbh I found it quite uncomfortable and just could not relax at all. I do however love reflexology and am saving up for some sessions, I find that wonderfully relaxing.

Traitortothecause yes, I have had lots of tests including 2 colonscopies, a pill camera endoscopy and a standard gastroscope which included biopsies for various issues including coeliac disease which luckily came back as normal.

Mumof1andacat I’ve been on a two year waiting list for some acceptance therapy with a NHS neuro-gastro department. I’ve been told it should be later in the summer so fingers crossed that could help me.

benefitstaxcredithelp Absolutely, I have tried so many therapies in a bid to help ease my stress and how I deal with it. I did EMDR a few years back but didn’t find it helpful. However, it was during lockdown and so via zoom, I think it may have been more successful face to face, maybe? Sadly, I no longer have the funds to pay privately for help. I am on a NHS waiting list for acceptance therapy which, after waiting 2 years for should come up in the summer. I am really hoping it will help.