How does stress impact your digestive system. Can stress lead to increased gas production. What are the effects of stress on different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. How does the gut-brain connection influence stress-related digestive issues. Is there a link between anxiety and gas problems.

The Intricate Relationship Between Stress and the Gut

The human gut is a complex system that plays a crucial role in our overall health and well-being. With hundreds of millions of neurons, it can function independently and maintain constant communication with the brain. This intricate connection, often referred to as the gut-brain axis, explains why we experience physical sensations like “butterflies” in our stomach during stressful situations.

Stress can significantly impact this delicate brain-gut communication, leading to various digestive issues. How does stress affect our gut health? It can trigger or exacerbate symptoms such as pain, bloating, and general gut discomfort. The gut’s sensitivity to stress can make these sensations more pronounced and harder to ignore.

The Role of Gut Bacteria in Stress Response

Our gut is home to millions of bacteria, collectively known as the gut microbiome. These microorganisms play a vital role in maintaining gut health and influencing brain function. Can gut bacteria affect our mood and cognitive abilities? Research suggests that changes in gut bacteria due to stress can indeed impact our emotional state and cognitive functions.

This bidirectional relationship between the gut and the brain means that stress can alter our gut bacteria composition, which in turn can influence our mood and stress response. This creates a potential cycle where stress and gut health continuously impact each other.

Early Life Stress and Its Long-term Impact on Gut Health

The effects of stress on gut health are not limited to adulthood. Early life stress can have lasting consequences on both the nervous system and the body’s stress response mechanisms. How does childhood stress affect future gut health? Exposure to significant stress during developmental years can increase the risk of developing gut diseases or dysfunction later in life.

This emphasizes the importance of addressing and managing stress from an early age to promote long-term gut health and overall well-being. It also highlights the need for further research into interventions that can mitigate the effects of early life stress on gut health.

Stress-Induced Changes in the Esophagus

The esophagus, the tube connecting the throat to the stomach, is not immune to the effects of stress. How does stress impact esophageal function? Stress can lead to various changes in eating habits and lifestyle choices that directly affect the esophagus:

• Altered eating patterns: Stress may cause some individuals to eat significantly more or less than usual.
• Increased consumption of trigger foods: Stress often leads to comfort eating, which may involve foods that trigger heartburn or acid reflux.
• Higher alcohol and tobacco use: These substances can exacerbate existing esophageal issues.
• Intensified heartburn: Stress and exhaustion can increase the severity of regular heartburn pain.
• Esophageal spasms: In rare cases, intense stress can trigger spasms in the esophagus, which may be mistaken for heart attack symptoms.

Can stress affect swallowing? Indeed, stress can make swallowing foods more difficult. It may also increase the amount of air swallowed during eating or drinking, leading to increased burping, gassiness, and bloating.

The Impact of Stress on Stomach Function

The stomach, a key player in the digestive process, is particularly susceptible to the effects of stress. How does stress influence stomach function? While stress doesn’t directly increase acid production or cause stomach ulcers (contrary to popular belief), it can still have significant impacts:

• Heightened sensitivity: Stress may make stomach discomfort, including pain, bloating, and nausea, more noticeable and intense.
• Altered appetite: Stress can cause unnecessary increases or decreases in appetite, potentially leading to unhealthy eating patterns.
• Severe stress response: In cases of extreme stress, vomiting may occur.
• Ulcer aggravation: While stress doesn’t cause ulcers (bacterial infections do), it can make existing ulcers more bothersome.

It’s important to note that the relationship between stress and stomach function is complex. While stress can exacerbate stomach issues, poor dietary choices resulting from stress can, in turn, negatively impact mood, creating a potential cycle of stress and digestive discomfort.

Stress and Bowel Function: A Complex Interplay

The bowels, comprising the small and large intestines, play a crucial role in digestion and nutrient absorption. How does stress affect bowel function? The impact of stress on the bowels can be multifaceted:

• Increased sensitivity: Stress can make pain, bloating, or discomfort in the bowels more noticeable.
• Altered motility: Stress can change how quickly food moves through the digestive system, potentially causing diarrhea or constipation.
• Muscle spasms: Stress can induce painful muscle spasms in the bowel.
• Nutrient absorption: Stress can affect digestion and nutrient absorption, potentially leading to increased gas production.
• Weakened intestinal barrier: Stress can compromise the intestinal barrier, allowing gut bacteria to enter the body and potentially cause mild chronic inflammation.

For individuals with chronic bowel disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), stress can be particularly problematic. Why do these conditions make people more susceptible to stress-related bowel issues? It may be due to increased gut nerve sensitivity, changes in gut microbiota, altered gut motility, or modified gut immune responses in these individuals.

The Anxiety-Gas Connection: When Worry Leads to Digestive Discomfort

While the link between stress and digestive issues is well-established, the specific connection between anxiety and gas problems is less commonly discussed. Can anxiety cause excessive gas? The answer is yes, and the reasons are multifaceted:

Air Swallowing During Anxiety Attacks

During periods of high anxiety or panic attacks, individuals often unknowingly swallow excessive amounts of air. This phenomenon, known as aerophagia, occurs due to changes in breathing patterns associated with anxiety. How does this lead to gas? The swallowed air accumulates in the digestive tract, creating pressure that needs to be released, resulting in increased burping or flatulence.

Hyperventilation and Oxygen Release

Anxiety and panic attacks can also lead to hyperventilation, a condition where there’s too much oxygen in the blood due to rapid, deep breathing. As the body works to expel this excess oxygen, it can result in increased gas production. This connection between hyperventilation and gas further illustrates the complex relationship between anxiety and digestive symptoms.

Breaking the Cycle: Managing Stress for Better Gut Health

Given the significant impact of stress on gut health, it’s crucial to develop effective stress management strategies. How can we mitigate the effects of stress on our digestive system? Here are some approaches that may help:

1. Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques: Meditation, deep breathing exercises, and progressive muscle relaxation can help reduce stress levels.
2. Maintain a balanced diet: Eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet can support both gut health and stress management.
3. Regular exercise: Physical activity is known to reduce stress and promote healthy digestion.
4. Adequate sleep: Ensuring sufficient, quality sleep can help manage stress levels and support overall health.
5. Seek professional help: If stress or anxiety is significantly impacting your life, consider talking to a mental health professional.
6. Probiotics and prebiotics: These can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome, potentially mitigating some stress-related gut issues.
7. Limit caffeine and alcohol: Both can exacerbate stress and digestive problems when consumed in excess.

By implementing these strategies, individuals can work towards breaking the cycle of stress and digestive discomfort, promoting better overall health and well-being.

The Role of the Gut-Brain Axis in Stress Management

The gut-brain axis, the bidirectional communication system between the central nervous system and the enteric nervous system, plays a crucial role in our body’s response to stress. How does this axis influence our stress levels and digestive health?

The gut-brain axis operates through various pathways, including the vagus nerve, the endocrine system, and the immune system. This complex network allows for constant communication between the gut and the brain, influencing everything from mood and cognition to digestive function and immune response.

Neurotransmitters and the Gut-Brain Connection

Did you know that the gut produces many of the same neurotransmitters found in the brain? These include serotonin, dopamine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), all of which play crucial roles in mood regulation and stress response. In fact, about 95% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut.

This production of neurotransmitters in the gut further emphasizes the importance of maintaining gut health for overall well-being and stress management. A healthy gut microbiome can contribute to balanced neurotransmitter production, potentially helping to regulate mood and stress levels.

The Impact of Stress on Gut Permeability

Stress can increase gut permeability, often referred to as “leaky gut.” How does this affect our health? When the gut becomes more permeable, it allows substances that would normally be contained within the gut to enter the bloodstream. This can trigger an immune response and lead to inflammation throughout the body.

Chronic stress and the resulting increased gut permeability can contribute to a variety of health issues, including autoimmune disorders, mood disorders, and chronic fatigue syndrome. This underscores the importance of stress management not just for gut health, but for overall health and well-being.

Innovative Approaches to Stress-Related Digestive Issues

As our understanding of the stress-gut connection grows, researchers and healthcare professionals are exploring innovative approaches to managing stress-related digestive issues. What are some cutting-edge strategies for addressing these problems?

Psychobiotics: The Future of Stress Management?

Psychobiotics are a new class of probiotics that have been shown to have a positive impact on mental health. These beneficial bacteria can produce and deliver neuroactive substances such as gamma-aminobutyric acid and serotonin, which act on the brain-gut axis.

Early research suggests that psychobiotics may help reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression while also improving gut health. While more studies are needed, psychobiotics represent an exciting frontier in the treatment of stress-related digestive issues.

Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy

Gut-directed hypnotherapy is a specialized form of hypnosis that focuses on improving gut function and reducing digestive symptoms. How does it work? This technique uses the power of suggestion to influence the gut-brain connection, potentially reducing pain perception and altering gut motility.

Studies have shown promising results for gut-directed hypnotherapy in treating conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia. As a non-invasive treatment option, it offers a unique approach to managing stress-related digestive issues.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Gut Health

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a structured program that combines mindfulness meditation and yoga to help individuals manage stress. Can MBSR improve gut health? Research suggests that it can. Studies have shown that MBSR can reduce symptoms in individuals with IBS and other functional gastrointestinal disorders.

By reducing stress levels and promoting relaxation, MBSR may help normalize gut function and reduce the impact of stress on the digestive system. This holistic approach addresses both the psychological and physiological aspects of stress-related digestive issues.

The Role of Diet in Managing Stress-Related Digestive Issues

While managing stress is crucial for maintaining gut health, diet also plays a significant role. How can dietary choices help mitigate stress-related digestive issues?

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Chronic stress can lead to inflammation in the body, including the digestive system. An anti-inflammatory diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and omega-3 fatty acids, may help counteract this effect. Foods like fatty fish, berries, leafy greens, and nuts are particularly beneficial.

By reducing inflammation, this diet may help alleviate stress-related digestive symptoms and promote overall gut health. It’s also worth noting that many of these foods are rich in antioxidants, which can help protect the body from the damaging effects of stress.

The Role of Fermented Foods

Fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi are rich in probiotics, which can help maintain a healthy gut microbiome. How do these foods impact stress-related digestive issues? By promoting a diverse and balanced gut microbiome, fermented foods may help improve the gut’s resilience to stress.

Moreover, some studies suggest that certain probiotic strains may help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, further highlighting the potential of fermented foods in managing stress-related digestive issues.

The Importance of Fiber

Dietary fiber plays a crucial role in maintaining gut health. It serves as food for beneficial gut bacteria, helping to maintain a diverse and healthy microbiome. How does this relate to stress management? A healthy gut microbiome is better equipped to handle the effects of stress on the digestive system.

Additionally, high-fiber foods often require more chewing, which can have a calming effect and help reduce stress. Good sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

The Future of Stress and Gut Health Research

As our understanding of the stress-gut connection continues to evolve, what can we expect from future research in this field? Several exciting areas of study are emerging:

Personalized Gut Health Approaches

Given the highly individual nature of both stress responses and gut microbiomes, researchers are exploring personalized approaches to managing stress-related digestive issues. This might involve tailored probiotic treatments based on an individual’s specific gut microbiome composition or stress response patterns.

Wearable Technology for Stress and Gut Health Monitoring

Advances in wearable technology may soon allow for real-time monitoring of both stress levels and gut function. How could this impact treatment? By providing immediate feedback, such technology could help individuals make timely interventions to manage stress and prevent digestive issues.

Gene-Environment Interactions in Stress-Related Gut Disorders

Researchers are delving deeper into how genetic factors interact with environmental stressors to influence gut health. This research could lead to more targeted interventions based on an individual’s genetic predispositions and lifestyle factors.

As research in these areas progresses, we can anticipate more effective and personalized approaches to managing stress-related digestive issues, ultimately leading to improved quality of life for those affected by these conditions.

Stress effects on the body

The gut has hundreds of millions of neurons which can function fairly independently and are in constant communication with the brain—explaining the ability to feel “butterflies” in the stomach. Stress can affect this brain-gut communication, and may trigger pain, bloating, and other gut discomfort to be felt more easily. The gut is also inhabited by millions of bacteria which can influence its health and the brain’s health, which can impact the ability to think and affect emotions.

Stress is associated with changes in gut bacteria which in turn can influence mood. Thus, the gut’s nerves and bacteria strongly influence the brain and vice versa.

Early life stress can change the development of the nervous system as well as how the body reacts to stress. These changes can increase the risk for later gut diseases or dysfunctioning.

Esophagus

When stressed, individuals may eat much more or much less than usual. More or different foods, or an increase in the use of alcohol or tobacco, can result in heartburn or acid reflux. Stress or exhaustion can also increase the severity of regularly occurring heartburn pain. A rare case of spasms in the esophagus can be set off by intense stress and can be easily mistaken for a heart attack.

Stress also may make swallowing foods difficult or increase the amount of air that is swallowed, which increases burping, gassiness, and bloating.

Stomach

Stress may make pain, bloating, nausea, and other stomach discomfort felt more easily. Vomiting may occur if the stress is severe enough. Furthermore, stress may cause an unnecessary increase or decrease in appetite. Unhealthy diets may in turn deteriorate one’s mood.

Contrary to popular belief, stress does not increase acid production in the stomach, nor causes stomach ulcers. The latter are actually caused by a bacterial infection. When stressed, ulcers may be more bothersome.

Bowel

Stress can also make pain, bloating, or discomfort felt more easily in the bowels. It can affect how quickly food moves through the body, which can cause either diarrhea or constipation. Furthermore, stress can induce muscle spasms in the bowel, which can be painful.

Stress can affect digestion and what nutrients the intestines absorb. Gas production related to nutrient absorption may increase.

The intestines have a tight barrier to protect the body from (most) food related bacteria. Stress can make the intestinal barrier weaker and allow gut bacteria to enter the body. Although most of these bacteria are easily taken care of by the immune system and do not make us sick, the constant low need for inflammatory action can lead to chronic mild symptoms.

Stress especially affects people with chronic bowel disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome. This may be due to the gut nerves being more sensitive, changes in gut microbiota, changes in how quickly food moves through the gut, and/or changes in gut immune responses.

How Anxiety Can Make You Gassy

If you have anxiety, you likely experience a variety of difficult symptoms. Some common symptoms are feeling tense, nervousness, having racing thoughts, believing in worst case scenarios, and struggling with a rapid heartbeat.

Some people with anxiety also have symptoms that manifest physically, such as nausea and shakiness. Another physical symptom of anxiety (that is not often discussed) is gas problems. Although it may seem strange, many people do experience gas (burping and flatulence) connected to their anxiety. 

Not only can anxiety cause gas problems and bloating – the gas problems themselves can lead to other symptoms that can actually increase anxiety. This can create a vicious cycle of anxiety and gassiness. While being gassy is generally nothing to worry about, recognizing the cause of the gas problems is important in terms of learning ways to intervene on the issue.

Anxiety and Gas

Different types of anxiety may contribute to different types of gas, or the extent that the gas affects you. While there may not be a concrete way to pinpoint the exact cause of the gas as it relates to one’s anxiety without medical tests, there are some common contributing factors. 

• Air Swallowing During anxiety attacks, it is not uncommon to swallow excessive amounts of air. This often occurs unintentionally, as during a panic attack most people’s breathing patterns change significantly (i.e. – breathing more rapidly). Once the air is inside your body, it starts can cause pressure that needs to be released, which results in gas. 
• Oxygen Release Similarly, those who have anxiety and panic attacks are more likely to experience hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is when there is too much oxygen in your blood. Eventually that oxygen needs to be dispelled, and gas may be the result. Essentially, hyperventilation is overbreathing: breathing very rapidly and deeply. Hyperventilation can lead to feeling light-headed, dizzy, experiencing chest pain, dry mouth, or even belching. Hyperventilation can leave someone feeling breathless. 
• Digestion Issues The digestive tract is extremely sensitive to any change and/or stress. Anxiety can obviously lead to increased stress, which affects the gastrointestinal system. In terms of the entire gastrointestinal system and anxiety, symptoms are often felt in the stomach first. The stress (resulting from the anxiety) can prevent a person’s body from processing food efficiently, often passing it through the system too slowly. This can cause the bacteria in your body to build up and produce excess gas and bloating. This is why irritable bowel syndrome is also often connected to, or aggravated by, anxiety.

How Gas Can Cause Anxiety

While symptoms of anxiety (changes in breathing, stress on the gastrointestinal system) can cause gas, the opposite can be true as well, in that gas can cause anxiety – especially those already prone to it. 

Significant amounts of gas can cause physical pain, and if the person experiencing the gas is unable to pass that gas (often due to being around other people) anxiety can be induced. This can be a vicious cycle, with anxiety causing gas and gas contributing to increased anxiety. 

How to Reduce Anxiety-Related Gas

Once gas builds up in a person’s body, it needs to be released. This means finding a place where this can be done comfortably through belching or flatulating. Once the gas is out, the symptoms of that gas (and the anxiety experienced as a result of that gas) should decrease.

Individuals whose gas is caused by digestion issues may benefit from eating healthier meals with fewer gas causing ingredients. Dairy, for example, often contributes to gas. Talking to your doctor about food intolerances and anti-gas medications is also an option. Additionally, it could be helpful to rule out gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or acid reflux, which can cause gas and other symptoms of anxiety. 

If gas is primarily due to hyperventilation and air swallowing, learning to slow one’s breathing could be helpful. If you notice when the rate of breathing accelerates, try these techniques:

• Breathe in slowly, at a speed which lasts 5 seconds.
• Hold for a few seconds.
• Breathe out slowly, at a speed that lasts about 7 seconds.

Other ways people have reported managing their anxiety-related gas include:

• Eating and drinking slowly – Taking more time to chew and swallow food and drinks automatically helps with swallowing less air. Eating during times of less stress, and allowing adequate time to eat and enjoy a meal can all help with managing the pace of eating and drinking
• Quit smoking – If a person is a smoker and experiencing anxiety-related gas, it may benefit him or her to quit. When a person inhales smoke, he or she also inhales (and swallows) air. 
• Skip the gum and hard candies – those who chew gum and/or eat hard candies throughout the day are far more prone to swallow more air than those who do not indulge in these things. 
• Avoid carbonated beverages – carbonated drinks (i.e. – soda, beer, etc.) release carbon dioxide gas, which directly increases the chances of having gas and bloating. 
• Check the dentures – if a person has dentures that are poorly fitting, he or she is likely swallowing extra air. 

There are many possible factors contributing to anxiety-related gas. Address anything that could possibly be contributing to the gassiness. Also important is learning to manage the anxiety, as ultimately, this is the underlying cause and main contributing factor to many people’s gas and bloating.

SUMMARY:

Anxiety has a direct effect on the gut, and an indirect effect on breathing, muscles, digestion, and other causes of gas. There are also hyperventilation and air swallowing issues that can cause gas-like symptoms. Although there are some strategies for reducing these symptoms, controlling anxiety is the only effective long term strategy.

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Stress and stomach pain: When should you see a specialist?

Can stress or anxiety cause stomach pain?

Do you ever feel like there’s a knot in your stomach when you’re worried or stressed? Do nerves make you feel butterflies in your gut? Whether it’s a one-time stressor or chronic worry, stomach problems are among the most common symptoms of stress and anxiety. As a gastroenterologist at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, I help patients determine if their stomach pain is stress-related or if their symptoms are caused by a more serious condition.

Should I see a doctor if I get stomach pains when I am stressed?

If you have stomach or gastrointestinal discomfort, you should be seeing your primary care doctor at least once a year. If the pain is not severe and doesn’t require immediate medical attention, your primary care physician may refer you to a gastroenterologist — a specialist in the treatment of diseases of the GI tract and liver. A gastroenterologist can help rule out if your stomach pain is happening naturally versus from a stressful situation.

Why does stress cause stomach pain or GI discomfort?

When a person is stressed, the adrenal glands make and release the hormone cortisol into the bloodstream. This causes the fight-or-flight response, and can also trigger abdominal discomfort, stomach cramps, constipation, diarrhea, nausea and other symptoms.

People experiencing chronic stress may also eat more or eat unhealthy foods, smoke, or drink more alcohol or coffee than normal. These new habits can also cause stomach or GI discomfort.

How can you tell when GI symptoms are associated with a temporarily stressful situation, or when it’s a more serious condition?

Warning signs like weight loss, bloody or black stools, or abnormal lab results that indicate anemia or other abnormalities may show that something more serious is occurring.

Primary care physicians often refer patients who are acutely ill for a colon cancer screening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults ages 50 to 75 at average risk be screened regularly for colorectal cancer. Some groups recommend starting at age 45, and anyone experiencing certain symptoms should be tested.

Though gastroenterologists can screen for and treat a wide variety of symptoms, conditions and illnesses caused by stress, it’s important for patients to have a conversation with your primary care doctors about how to better manage stress to prevent stomach and GI issues.

My father, who was a longtime physician, always said “the stressed fall into the lap of a physician.” We worked together in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago for 25 years until he retired from medicine at age 88. My uncle also practiced medicine and inspired me to become a physician.

I enjoy working in same building where my dad worked. It’s really a community-based office setting that’s safe and welcoming for patients. My wonderful staff helps to keep my stress levels down!

Kevin Dolehide, DO, sees patients at the UChicago Medicine Medical Group in Beverly and Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey.

GI Symptoms and Anxiety Disorders

Gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances commonly include symptoms of stomach pain, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and vomiting. While there are plenty of possible causes of GI issues, when no medical explanation is found, they are often termed “functional GI symptoms.”

Many studies have shown a correlation between anxiety, depression, and functional GI symptoms. Generally, study results have demonstrated that people who have at least one GI symptom are more likely to have an anxiety disorder or depression than those without any GI symptoms.

Unexplained physical complaints as a whole—including fatigue, headache, stomach upset, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, dizziness, and musculoskeletal pains—are more commonly reported in individuals with an anxiety disorder and/or depression.

Common Anxiety-Related GI Symptoms

GI symptoms may be associated with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder, and phobias. Common GI symptoms that have been associated with anxiety disorders include:

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Increased hunger
• Indigestion
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Stomach cramps

Dangerous GI Symptoms

Whether or not you believe your GI symptoms are anxiety-related, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible if your symptoms occur with any of the following:

• Blood in the stool
• Feeling bloated or full after eating very little
• Having a bowel movement that is black, tarry, and foul-smelling
• Persistent, low-grade fever
• Unexplained weight loss

These symptoms could mean you have another condition that requires treatment, like hemorrhoids, an infection, intestinal bleeding, or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While it can be concerning to know that these symptoms could indicate a serious condition, seeking medical help sooner rather than later will ensure that you receive the right treatment.

Seek Immediate Care

Seek immediate medical care if you have:

• Chest, neck, shoulder, or jaw pain
• Disorientation or confusion
• High fever
• Inability to have a bowel movement
• Moderate to severe rectal bleeding
• Rapid or significantly decreased heart rate
• Severe abdominal pain
• Severe diarrhea lasting more than one day
• Vomiting blood (if the vomited matter looks like ground coffee, this may indicate blood)

GI Conditions Linked to Anxiety

Some GI conditions—such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)—have also been linked to anxiety disorders.

IBS

IBS is a GI disorder that causes symptoms like pain, bloating, cramping, flatulence (gas), whitish mucus in the stool, diarrhea, and constipation. While the condition is not life-threatening, it is chronic and can have a serious impact on a person’s quality of life.

People who have IBS are also often diagnosed with mood and anxiety disorders.

IBS is a treatable condition. Making dietary changes can often help, as can managing your stress using strategies like yoga.

GERD

GERD is a digestive condition that causes acid reflux, which is when stomach acid enters the esophagus and leads to sensations like heartburn and trouble swallowing.

Common symptoms of GERD include:

• Bad breath
• Chest pain
• Difficulty swallowing
• Hoarseness of the voice, especially upon waking
• Mild pain or stuck-in-throat type sensations
• Persistent dry cough

Some research suggests that people who have GERD are also more likely to experience anxiety. While the exact reasons for this connection are not entirely understood, researchers suggest that high anxiety and stress levels may increase stomach acid and muscle tension that can contribute to symptoms of GERD.

GERD is treatable with medication, diet, and lifestyle changes.

What to Do About Pain and Nausea From Anxiety

You should consult with your healthcare provider if you are experiencing unexplained mild to moderate GI disturbances for more than a few days, or if your symptoms stop and then return. They may order tests or refer you to a specialist to rule out any serious medical problem that may be causing your symptoms.

If your doctor determines that you have functional GI symptoms related to anxiety, there are many effective treatments available—both for your GI concerns and the underlying anxiety. Prescribed medications and psychotherapy can help you to reduce your feelings of anxiety and develop healthy ways to cope with stress.

Coping With Anxiety-Related GI Symptoms and Conditions

Learning to manage your anxiety while treating your GI symptoms can be the most beneficial approach for helping you deal with both issues. To help cope with symptoms of anxiety and related GI problems, try:

• Avoiding excessive caffeine: Not only can caffeine increase feelings of anxiety, but many caffeine-containing products can also lead to GI upset.
• Changing your diet: Focusing on a gut-friendly diet may help calm symptoms of GI upset. Make sure that you are eating fiber-rich foods, and try adding foods containing probiotics to your diet (such as yogurt, sauerkraut, and kombucha). Some animal studies have suggested that probiotics may have anxiety-reducing effects, though more research is needed to understand their impact on human mental health.
• Practicing stress management techniques: Stress is a normal part of life, so developing good coping skills is important. Relaxation techniques that can help include deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and meditation.

how anxiety and stress can cause stomach troubles

Do you suffer from bloating or irritated bowels when feeling stressed or anxious? If so, you’re not alone. Stress and anxiety are known to bring on (or worsen) gut troubles.

We speak to gut health specialist Dr Ashton Harper about why some people experience digestive discomfort when they’re stressed or feeling anxious:

How stress affects your gut

If you ever suffer from tummy troubles during a stressful episode, this is because your anxiety levels are connected to your digestive system.

‘There’s evidence that the brain and the gut communicate with each other via numerous systems (neural, hormonal and immunological) and do not function independently,’ says Dr Ashton. ‘Because of this interconnected relationship it means that if one system is disturbed it will result in the other system being disturbed. In simplest terms: mental stress at work = tummy upset.’

What causes gut troubles?

According to Dr Ashton, feeling stressed and anxious may induce a variety of digestive discomfort. ‘Alteration in the contractility of the gut may cause cramps or pain (increased contractility) and may influence stool habits – constipation due to reduced GI contractions may cause feelings of bloating,’ he says.

Additionally, bloating may occur without constipation and you could also experience increased heartburn as a result of your anxious feelings. ‘Decreased stomach emptying accompanied by increased oesophageal contractions may cause acid reflux,’ he adds.

How to treat stress-related tummy troubles

There are several things you can do to reduce the effects of anxiety and stress on your gut. ‘There is a direct link between our microbiota and our stress hormone system – alterations in our gut microbiota may lead to a heightened or suppressed hormonal response to stressful situations,’ says Dr Ashton. ‘The direct approach would be to identify the “stress trigger” and try to remove it, or alter its impact, from your daily life, where possible.’

If you feel yourself getting stressed out with a task take a mini-break from the activity.

For instance, Dr Ashton suggests, you may get stressed by not being prepared for some activity at work like giving a presentation – make sure that you allow plenty of time to adequately prepare and rehearse to prevent or reduce anxiety.

Think about how you can calm your day from the beginning – walking some of the journey to work rather than all of it being spent on busy trains or in traffic jams.

‘If you feel yourself getting stressed out with a task take a mini-break from the activity by making a hot drink or writing a list of things you would like to do with your weekend before returning to your work.’

Diet and stomach stress

Interestingly, increasing evidence suggests that gut troubles may also have an impact on anxiety and stress – suggesting the gut-brain axis works both ways.

Dr Ashton highlights the importance of looking after gut health more generally, such as consuming a balanced diet and taking probiotics. And if you suffer from IBS or allergies, take time and effort to manage your condition – eg by eating a low-FODMAP diet and avoiding foods that aggravate stomach issues.

Stress-busting techniques

Many people don’t realise that your mind and gut are linked. ‘With our busy, on-the-go lives, emotions we experience throughout the day, like stress, can affect our digestive system,’ says mindfulness expert Emma Mills. ‘Stress can trigger IBS symptoms; however quick and simple mindfulness and meditation exercises can help to alleviate this.’

To bring some serenity to your life – and your gut – try these techniques devised by Mills:

• Breathe it out

Sit comfortably and take 3 gentle breaths. As you breathe in through your nose imagine saying, ‘things come easily’ and as you breathe out through your mouth ‘things go easily’.

• Try the body scan

Sitting with your eyes closed, scan through your body in an objective way, as though you were just having a look. Start at the top of your head, and move down through each part of your body, paying special attention to your middle area. Sense all the intelligent processes that are naturally happening in the body eg breathing fresh air, your digestion, your heartbeat. Finish this with two gentle breaths in and out.

• Use visualisation techniques

Close your eyes, take a few gentle breaths in and out. Imagine the soles of your feet growing strong roots, like a tree and settling deep down in the rich soil of the earth. As the roots grow, you start to feel secure, anchored and nourished by life. Feel yourself as part of life, supported by life in each moment.

Last updated: 17-02-2020

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Why Stress and Anxiety Can Cause Diarrhea

Although a wide variety of health conditions have diarrhea as a symptom, sometimes the cause can be attributed simply to stress or anxiety. You experience diarrhea symptoms when you are not sick, but instead are just “stressed out.” It can be helpful to learn why this happens and what strategies you can use to avoid this unpleasant, and certainly unwanted, physical symptom.

Verywell / Joshua Seong 

Gut Reactions to Stress

The reason that you can experience diarrhea when you are stressed is directly related to your body’s programmed stress response, what is commonly referred to as our “fight-or-flight” reaction.

The fight-or-flight reaction did a great job in helping humans to survive as a species, particularly back when they were often faced with things like hungry lions. But this same reaction has become more troublesome in light of the challenges you are faced with, and the fast pace of, modern life.

When you come across something that you perceive as threatening, your body reacts with a variety of physical changes. Heart rate and respiration increase, your muscles tense up, blood is directed toward your extremities, and most relevant to the current discussion, your colon contractions speed up. In some cases, this increase in colon activity can result in the symptom of diarrhea.

Deciphering Whether or Not It’s IBS

People who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can readily attest to the effect that stress has on their digestive system. However, it is possible to also experience stress-triggered diarrhea without having IBS.

IBS is a syndrome that involves recurrent bouts of abdominal pain and significant and ongoing problems with diarrhea or constipation. A diagnosis of IBS is made according to specific criteria known as the Rome criteria.

If your stress-related diarrhea happens quite frequently, you should make an appointment with your doctor for a proper diagnosis, as there are other health conditions that can cause you to experience diarrhea when under stress.

If your stress-related diarrhea only happens once in a while, it is unlikely that anything is going on other than the natural stress reaction. But you may still want to take measures to reduce its impact when bouts strike.

What Can You Do

You do not have to be a passive victim of anxiety-triggered diarrhea. There are a variety of stress management techniques that you can use to help your body to become more resilient in its response to outside stressors.

Two activities that have been associated with reducing your body’s baseline anxiety level are yoga and meditation. Practicing one or both of these on a regular basis will help you to deal more effectively with the stressful situations in your life that arise.

There are also some relaxation techniques that you can use “on the spot” to help your body to turn off the stress response and thus hopefully quiet down your bowels, sparing you from further diarrhea episodes. These include visualization, deep breathing exercises, and muscle relaxation exercises. Like all skills, these relaxation exercises are more effective when they are practiced on a regular basis.

If you are under a lot of stress a lot of the time, it is also important to take an objective look at your life to see if changes can be made to reduce your overall stress level. Problem-solving and assertiveness skills can be utilized to make your life more comfortable.

It may be helpful to initiate some psychotherapy to help you to better manage the stresses and challenges that are contributing to your stress-induced diarrhea.

When to See a Medical Doctor

Even if you are fairly certain that stress is the culprit, you should discuss any unusual physical complaint with your doctor to ensure that no other disease process is present and contributing to the problem. You should seek immediate medical attention should you experience any of the following:

• Blood in stools or any sign of rectal bleeding
• Dehydration
• Fever over 102 F or fever that lasts more than three days
• Rectal bleeding
• Severe abdominal pain

Is Your Stomach Churning? You May Have ‘Gut Stress’ – Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic

If you’re experiencing bloating, pain or constipation, chances are you’re feeling stress — either as a cause, a result, or both.

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It’s understandable. Maybe of us are experiencing an unprecedented amount of stress right now. With coronavirus causing isolation, job losses and more, it’s difficult to know how to process all of the stress.

We all process stress differently. However stress affects you, internalizing it can lead to chronic health problems like heart disease, hypertension, obesity and depression, says wellness coach and internal medicine specialist Michael Roizen, MD.

He says learning to change your response to stressful events can dramatically improve your health and well-being.

What happens when you’re stressed out

• Your gut bacteria changes. Bad bacteria start to flourish, and good bacteria begin to die off. This changes the way foods you eat are digested.
•  Your gut gets leakier. When you eat processed foods, some of the molecules escape from your intestine into your immune-processing pathways, increasing inflammation and other problems.
• Your mood changes. Your gut produces even more of the mood-lifting chemical serotonin than your brain. But stress cuts its production, leaving you feeling uneasy and at risk of depression.
• Your “fight, flight or freeze” switch stays on. Diverting all your energy to your muscles helped in prehistoric times: When you saw the woolly mammoth coming, you could quickly run away, hit him on the nose and knock him out, or play dead. After the mammoth moved on, you could relax. Chronic stress keeps your “emergency button” on all the time. Your digestion remains altered, causing bloating, cramps, diarrhea and constipation.

How to develop a new stress response

“Many of us respond to stress in a dysfunctional way,” Dr. Roizen notes. “We hope the problem, or stressor, will go away, then treat ourselves to ice cream, simple sugars and carbs, or red meat,” he says. But sweet foods or foods with lecithin, cholines and carnitine will change good gut bacteria to bad, increasing your gut distress and causing a vicious cycle response, he says.

Or maybe you deal with stress in other dysfunctional ways, like shopping, drinking or gambling in order to soothe yourself. Then you have a bigger stress response afterward.

“Handling stress in a functional way begins with the awareness that you’re under stress. Then you can deal with stress in a few different ways,” says Dr. Roizen.

1. Solve the problem

If financial problems are stressing you out, you can set up a budget that helps you make ends meet. Or you can cut up that problem credit card. Then arrange to have your 401K contribution auto-deducted from your paycheck.

If a relationship is difficult but necessary, figure out how to ease the tension. Seek counseling if necessary, for a marriage or family member. Or if it’s a coworker, maybe learn ways to go along with a joke (laughter is a great stress-reliever). Or include a third colleague or friend in your encounters. If the relationship is personal, find a passion you both share to enjoy.

2. Refocus your mind

When a stressful situation is unavoidable (and many of them are), you can breathe deeply or meditate through it.

For example, if someone cuts you off in traffic, rather than getting mad, focus your attention on deep breathing in your car. Or you can work out, take a bath, enjoy a walk or do some gardening to calm down. Whatever works for you.

3. Eliminate the stressor

If Uncle Joe always drives you crazy at Thanksgiving or another holiday, make holiday plans with good friends instead, or just avoid Uncle Joe. If you’ve overcommitted yourself to volunteering or to social activities, try cutting back.

The bottom line

Your stress response can wreck havoc on your guts. But if you learn to reframe your responses to stress, it can have a dramatic impact on your health.

“Challenges are part of life,” says Dr. Roizen. “And life’s challenges keep you stimulated, engaged and passionate about who you are and what you do.”

It’s not about living stress-free. It’s about changing your response to stressful situations.

Laughing gas

Nitrous oxide is known to everyone as “laughing gas”. Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) is the first gas in the world to be used for anesthesia. Now it is used in medicine, for technical purposes, in the food industry, as well as for filling balloons. Laughing gas has been used in medicine for over 200 years. Nitrous oxide is a colorless gas with a pleasant smell and sweetish taste, heavier than air, soluble in water, liquefies at temperatures below zero and at normal room temperature.The big problem in modern society is that people have begun to use laughing gas for pleasure.

Laughing gas is distributed in clubs in balloons, is sold on the Internet.

Laughing gas vendors convince us of its safety, explaining that it is even used in medicine. Accordingly, it is “useful”. People started using it at parties as a stress reliever and enjoyable. But no one thinks about the harm that nitrous oxide can cause to the body.In modern medical practice, there are already enough cases of laughing gas poisoning, asphyxiation. Unfortunately, currently the legislation does not prohibit its acquisition and distribution, but each of us must know what nitrous oxide is and how it affects human health.

Why is it possible to use nitrous oxide for medical purposes, but it is extremely dangerous to use it for pleasure?

For medical purposes, nitrous oxide is used as a means of inhalation anesthesia in surgery, as a pain reliever for those who are contraindicated in other drugs, for example, people with allergies, as well as in obstetric practice. This nitrous oxide has a high degree of purification from impurities. During the operation, laughing gas is injected into the human body in a metered dose, passing it through filters, nitrous oxide is necessarily diluted with oxygen. 30% gas, 70% oxygen.

How does laughing gas affect humans?

When inhaling laughing gas, a person feels euphoria, a state of joy, delight, unrestrained laughter, removes the feeling of anxiety, causes a state similar to intoxication.Since it quickly enters the bloodstream, it acts with lightning speed. This effect lasts approximately 30 seconds.

How is laughing gas dangerous to humans?

One inhalation of this gas can lead to serious mental illness, heart failure, infertility, and in case of brain damage – death, can occur within a few minutes

· Regular intake of nitrous oxide can cause vitamin B12 deficiency.Vitamin B deficiency can lead to severe nerve damage.

· By acting on blood cells, it causes anemia, which is manifested by weakness and fatigue, reduces the number of leukocytes, increases the body’s susceptibility to infectious diseases.

· Nitrous oxide inhibits respiration. When accumulated, causes asphyxiation (suffocation). If nitrous oxide is inhaled in a confined space, it can cause sudden death due to lack of oxygen.

· Inhalation in pure form causes narcotic intoxication, hallucinations.In the future, with the systematic use of laughing gas, depression and insomnia develop, which develop into aggression.

· Even at low concentration, it disorganizes mental activity, hinders the work of muscles, and depresses vision.

· Causes hypoxia (oxygen starvation), respectively, the cardiovascular system, kidneys, liver, central nervous system suffer. Without oxygen, brain cells die irreversibly after 2.5 – 3 minutes.

· Has a cumulative effect, forms some compounds that accumulate in the bone marrow. Affects the spinal cord. In the future, it can turn into paralysis.

· When using non-medical nitrous oxide during pregnancy, it causes deformities in the fetus

· Since the gas is cold, the development of sore throat is possible

· Like any substance that causes euphoria, it can cause addiction. Laughing gas is addictive in every person.

· If a large amount of gas is inhaled, the effect of anesthesia may develop, which will lead to a fall, which can cause various injuries, abrasions, bruises. Nitrous oxide quickly leads to a complete loss of motor control, after inhalation, a person’s coordination of movement is disturbed, he begins to swing and falls.

Signs of laughing gas use:

Short-term use:

Unreasonable laughter, dizziness, frequent headaches, frequent fainting.

Long-term use:

Short-term memory loss, emotional instability, impaired thought processes, impairment of hearing, touch, staggering gait, slurred speech, gradual atrophy of the tongue.

Prevention:

In order to reduce the use of laughing gas among young people, as well as children and adolescents, it is necessary to educate them about the harm and dangers of this hobby. Parents should talk with children, teachers should pay attention to this topic in the classroom to explain that the use of laughing gas is equivalent to drug use in terms of its effects, and can lead to death.Consuming nitrous oxide on your own without proper indication can cause serious health problems. Each breath of laughing gas may be the last.

in the Cheboksary clinic stress and fatigue are treated with “mountain” air and “noble” gas

Insomnia, anxiety, fear – familiar feelings? These are just a few of the many signs of stress that can affect family and work relationships. How to deal with acute reactions of the body to various adverse factors and restore mental and physical health know firsthand in Legamed Clinic .

This private clinic uses innovative techniques – xenon therapy and interval hypoxy-hyperoxy therapy. This treatment is prompted by nature itself: you will breathe air, however, not quite ordinary. Let’s try to understand the mechanism of action of such therapy on the body together with the anesthesiologist of the Legamed clinic, Candidate of Medical Sciences Alexei Ivanov .

The noble gas on guard of health

Xenonotherapy was invented in our country, it has already proved its effectiveness and is distributed all over the world today.It is based on respiratory therapy using xenon. This inert gas is in the air, but its content is extremely small (under normal conditions, a cubic meter of air contains 0.086–0.087 cm3 of xenon ). In the Moscow region there is a production where inert gas is isolated from the air and pumped into cylinders, which are subsequently supplied to medical institutions.

With the help of special equipment, a person breathes an oxygen-xenon mixture through a mask. Gas concentration can be different: from 11 to 30 percent .

“Initially it is an ideal anesthetic because xenon is easy to manage and has virtually no side effects. For comparison, anesthesiologists work with a concentration of 70 percent and higher, here – with a lower one, because the therapeutic effect manifests itself precisely in this range, ”says Aleksey Ivanov.

Xenon affects primarily the nervous system , but it can also localize intoxication, for example, with withdrawal symptoms .

According to the doctor, the treatment helps to restore the resources that were taken away by stressful situations. With the help of such therapy, you can relieve acute and chronic pain syndrome, remove the state of anxiety and fear, and improve the process of falling asleep. The patient receives, as it were, a protective cocoon that protects against the negative effects of the surrounding world. If earlier a person reacted to something inadequately, irritably, then after treatment he does not pay attention to it.

An improvement in your emotional health can be felt already after the first procedure, visible results appear after the third, but in general xenon therapy has a cumulative effect.Although, as Aleksey Ivanov says, it is better to work additionally with a psychotherapist.

The procedure lasts from 15 to 40 minutes – depending on the patient’s condition, the doctor selects the time and dose, everything is very individual here. During this time you will experience pleasant sensations!

“We do not affect any particular organ, there is no specific point of application, we have a systemic effect on the whole organism. And we get positive effects from this, ”the doctor notes.

Xenon therapy has no contraindications, it does not cause allergic reactions.Ideal for people who have had pneumonia and other pulmonary diseases – the device will help relieve fear, come to a normal emotional and physical tone.

Xenon will also be appreciated by athletes – after using it, they noticeably reduce the time between loads and training, which allows them to prepare for competitions much more efficiently.

You don’t need to go anywhere for mountain air

The second technique, by the way, is also intended for those who are professionally involved in sports, although, of course, it will be useful to absolutely everyone – hypoxytherapy has no contraindications, except for respiratory tract infections and fever.

Hypoxia is a state of lack of oxygen, it occurs both in nature and in human life. Hypoxy-hyperoxy therapy is a fast way to correct oxygen delivery processes and increase the power of the body’s oxidative, reductive and adaptive systems. The restoration of the body takes place at the cellular level. The principle of this therapy is to alternate the supply of a mixture with a reduced or increased oxygen content.

A special apparatus simulates a situation when a person is in the mountains at an altitude of from 4 to 6.5 thousand meters .What happens in this case? The body enters an atmosphere where there is little oxygen, thin air.

“For example, in a normal state, there is 20-22 percent oxygen in the air, and we supply a mixture, where is from 15 to 9 percent of oxygen. So that you understand, 9 percent are in the mountains at an altitude of 6.5 thousand meters. The body needs to adapt and mobilize, in any way to deliver oxygen, which is scarce, to organs and tissues, ”explains the doctor.

And with such a specific effect, it begins to work to compensate for the lack of oxygen.The heart rate, the depth of breathing increase, erythrocytes and hormones are released into the blood. Then inhalation with a reduced oxygen content is changed to a mixture with an increased content. There can be such cycles from three to eight .

Passing even one course of hypoxytherapy leads to decrease in the biological age of a person by five years , to an increase in immunity – resistance to diseases increases 3-5 times. The procedure has a deep normalizing effect on the entire body as a whole: metabolism improves, blood microcirculation is restored, energy processes are activated.

The course is designed for 10 procedures . Alexey Ivanov advises to go through all 10 so that the effect is fully revealed and consolidated. The procedure lasts from 30 minutes to 1 hour. The device contains more than 10 programs , designed for different patients, for example, for a weakened organism or for athletes, and, if desired, an individual trajectory can be developed.

After completed therapy, the body will spend less resources and efforts to provide organs and tissues with oxygen.Chronic fatigue will go away, the body will recover faster after stress, increase efficiency, and normalize sleep.

This procedure will also be very useful for those who have had pneumonia and pneumonia as rehabilitation, regardless of the age and severity of the illness. The number of attacks also decreases with asthma . Anemia can be treated : The supply of oxygen stimulates the spleen and bone marrow to produce additional red blood cells and hemoglobin.In addition, the procedure is designed for people who do not tolerate flights .

Unlike a hyperbaric chamber, where oxygen is driven under pressure, hypoxytherapy is suitable for patients with hypertension , for people who have had a stroke or for a heart attack , and even with a heavy weight and claustrophobic .

After a course of interval hypoxy-hyperoxy therapy in athletes , the recovery time is shortened.For example, the Cheboksary Hawks team has already gone through this procedure. Captain Nikolay Dolmatov told later that he immediately felt how he began to use oxygen correctly and quickly restore oxygen reserves: “I still have time to sit, but I have already caught my breath.” And marathon runner Tatyana Aryasova noticed that after hypoxic therapy she began to walk easier and faster, because her body performance improved.

Now a Cheboksarets comes for the procedure, who is preparing to climb Elbrus in July.He needs hypoxytherapy in order to undergo acclimatization in advance. He will gradually reduce the oxygen concentration, and when he arrives in the mountains, his body will be ready and will not need to adapt at altitude.

But you don’t have to go to the mountains to invigorate your body! The clinic “Legamed” will help you find peace of mind, return to your usual way of life. Remember, all diseases are from nerves, so take care of yourself and be healthy!

Self-regulation under stress | Moscow Government University

21.08.2020

Our life passes in conditions of uncertainty, risk, pressure of time and circumstances. Therefore, managing your stress, emotional state and vitality is a key skill that determines the professional effectiveness of an individual. At a webinar with a teacher of Tibetan yoga and qigong, Alexei Shchavelev, we studied self-regulation technologies and practices to maintain biological youth. The main results of the webinar are collected for you in this material.

WHY STRESS IS OUR FRIEND AND HOW HE CAN KILL US

Love stress. It is an adaptive response of the body that gives us access to energy resources. Thanks to stress, we are saved from danger, in a critical situation it saves life. And during times of moderate stress, we achieve maximum efficiency.

At the same time, we spend a huge amount of biological resources and nervous energy on stress. If we cannot control him, he turns into our killer.Yes, you can die from psychosomatic diseases that cause chronic stress! But we will learn to turn stress in our favor, restore energy resources and direct all the energy of mobilization towards achieving the goal.

If you are a leader, it is especially important to keep your stress in check. There is such an anecdote. Colonels never run: in peacetime this is funny, but in wartime it leads to panic among subordinates. So it is with any leader: he must act productively and expediently, use stress to solve a problem, and not for empty emotions.

Never believe the first stressful reaction! The choice of the brain – what is dangerous and what is not dangerous – is unreliable. You need to verify the information, understand your goals in the situation, and identify resources. Of course, in a difficult situation, you want to give up and just panic. But stress will help only if you direct it somewhere by a willful effort. If you don’t, the body’s reactions will be primitive: hit, run or freeze. But most of today’s stressful situations require something completely different! For them, presence of mind is important – the ability not to turn off those areas of the brain that are responsible for rational control of the situation and volitional actions.

STRESS BIOLOGY

Stress is dangerous for health, as the whole body is involved in it. Regardless of whether you are fighting for life on a ship in a storm or worried about a quarterly report in a warm office.

Stress is a brain automation. The neural network of the hippocampus – one of the parts of the limbic system of the brain – stores information about all the dangers in our life. Moreover, the one that we personally did not experience, but about which we simply heard, read and which we saw.When a stimulus from the external environment arises, the brain runs it through this database. If the brain recognizes the situation as dangerous, it transmits information to the amygdala. It triggers a stress response, gives the body a signal to mobilize. After 250 milliseconds, we will know about it too.

Imagine: you are sitting at work, an important letter arrives. You opened it and suddenly became alert. Your eyes noticed something, and you felt uneasy, even though you haven’t even read the letter yet. It was your brain that noticed a familiar detail and recognized it as a hazard.When you read the letter, there may be nothing wrong with it, it was just a negative brain association.

Our brain controls internal organs through the circuits of the autonomic nervous system. All organs are surrounded by two types of nerves: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

The sympathetic nervous system is your body’s gas pedal. It is activated during stress, helps to do something quickly, and increases the speed of metabolic processes.

Parasympathetic nervous system – brake pedal in the body.It maintains homeostasis.

The harder you throttle, the better your brake should be! If the imbalance between the gas and the brake is prolonged, a state of nervous exhaustion will occur.

Here the brain has determined that the stimulus is stressful, and started the work of the amygdala. Cerebral norepinephrine is immediately released – a neurochemical impulse is transmitted and a landslide reaction is triggered throughout the body. The sympathetic nervous system begins to work.

• the pupil is instantly dilated,
• decreases salivation,
• the bronchi dilate,
• breathing becomes intense,
• the heart rate increases,
• stimulates the secretion of glucose by the liver,
• stimulates the release of adrenaline,
• digestion slows down – the stomach temporarily stops digesting food,
• relaxes the bladder,
• the rectum contracts.

The body no longer spends energy on homeostasis processes. He is ready to fend off danger or run away from it.

If stress is one-time, these processes are normal. What if it’s chronic?

The stomach suffers. There is hydrochloric acid in our stomach. To prevent it from digesting itself, special cells in the mucous membrane secrete a protective gel. In chronic stress, the microcapillaries that penetrate the mucous membrane spasm, the cells work poorly, and the gel turns out to be diluted.Non-infectious gastritis develops and then an ulcer. With chronic stress, food is no longer processed with hydrochloric acid, is not absorbed through the intestinal wall and turns into fecal stones. Intestinal diverticulosis may begin.

HORMONES

The impulse along the nerve fibers reaches the organs of the endocrine system – the adrenal glands. They produce a large number of hormones that are involved in stress mobilization.

Unlike neurotransmitters, which transmit an electrochemical signal through a nerve fiber from neuron to neuron, hormones are released directly into the blood as a liquid.

Three of them are worth remembering:

Adrenaline is responsible for the “run” response.

The heart begins to jump out of the chest. Vessels spasm sharply and unevenly – pressure increases in them. The microcapillaries that penetrate the internal organs are in spasm, they do not have enough blood, because it is directed to where the other type of receptors is – to the large muscles. Feel hot inside during stress? This blood is evacuated into large muscles to allow you to react quickly and escape.

Hypoxia (oxygen starvation) of organs begins. When you draw air into your lungs, this is not breathing, it is gas exchange. Breathing is when the blood delivers erythrocytes with oxygen molecules to the mitochondria of cells and there the Krebs cycle and the production of adenosine triphosphate take place.

Internal organs start signaling to the brain to increase the pressure. After that, the vessels shrink even more, become solid, and increase the density of the shell. The result is hypertension. This is a common disease of modern managers.

Have you heard about adrenaline addiction? It is a myth. If a person is injected with adrenaline, he will feel cold in his hands and feet, his heart will pound. I definitely don’t want repetition. Why does addiction arise in extreme sports? During times of extreme stress, the brain begins to prepare us for trauma. To prevent us from dying from painful shock, analgesics – endogenous opioids – are released. For example, endorphins. When you jump with a parachute and feel euphoric, analgesics work.The addiction comes not at all from adrenaline, but from analgesics.

Norepinephrine is responsible for the attack response, mobilizes muscles.

Cortisol is responsible for the freeze reaction.

This hormone dramatically increases blood glucose – it converts glycogen into sugar. When glycogen runs out, it is taken up by fat and muscle tissue.

Cortisol keeps our sugar high, which sooner or later leads to diabetes. Insulin is also constantly released.Cells sooner or later remove receptors that respond to insulin; now glucose does not enter the cells, there is a lot of it in the blood, and glycated hemoglobin appears, which destroys blood vessels.

During prolonged stress, cortisol destroys the organs responsible for the immune system: for example, the thymus gland, which produces thymus-dependent lymphocytes, which mark cells infected with the virus. During prolonged stress, a person loses immunity. On the other hand, with a one-time stress, immunity rises.

After stress the body turns on parasympathetic.You are safe, the brain is inhibited, secreting a special neurotransmitter – acetylcholine.

• pupils constrict,
• stimulates salivation and digestion,
• breathing returns to normal,
• muscles relax,
• pressure drops,
• stabilizes the level of stress hormones.

The body gradually goes into a dreamlike state and then into deep sleep. It seems to us that during sleep we are simply turned off.No, we have the brake pedal pressed. Special neurohormones provide recuperation. One of them you probably know is melatonin.

BALANCE VIOLATION

All our conditions depend on the release of certain substances by the brain and glands of the endocrine system. For example, our engagement and motivation are linked to the release of dopamine. When it is not enough, apathy sets in.

Remember: if you do not switch, do not press the “brake”, then bring yourself to nervous exhaustion: the neurons of the brain cease to secrete the necessary substances in the required amount, and you do not get pleasure from life and lose motivation to work.

Burnout is included in the WHO list of diseases. But this is not a disease, but a syndrome! Psycho-emotional trauma and exhaustion from chronic stress can be behind it. Does a person think slowly, make bad decisions and shout at people? No, it’s not burnout, it’s 90,014 neurasthenia. Those who don’t like the term are talking about burnout. Another term has been coined for larger executives: strategic fatigue.And it doesn’t exist either. Are you making the wrong decisions, falling for people? This is not fatigue, this is neurasthenia.

WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO FIND THE BALANCE

The best way to recover is breathing exercises based on hypercapnia. For example, extended breathing, when the oxygen level does not fall, but the level of CO ₂ in the blood rises. The brain perceives this as a threat and instructs the smooth muscles to expand and save the body. After five minutes of stretched breathing, your arms and legs are warming up, your face turns pink.

For relaxation of smooth muscles, the supplement is suitable – amino acid L-arginine. When concentrated in the liver, it is rapidly metabolized to nitric oxide, which expands smooth muscles. To relieve chronic spasm, it is enough to take three grams of L-arginine at night on an empty stomach. You can start with one gram and work up to three. It is especially important to take L-arginine during periods of stress.

If you are stressed, do breathing exercises and relieve spasms with L-arginine.After nervous tension, physical activity is required.

Can you relax with alcohol?

If you haven’t used up your stress hormones as intended, they are killing you. Worst case: get nervous at work and drink alcohol at home. The physiological norm that the body can process is 30-40 grams in terms of pure alcohol. These are two glasses of wine. The main problem is to stop on time. A few glasses can bring temporary relaxation, and we will want more.

After alcohol, the capillaries really expand, but the enzyme in the liver may not be enough to process the alcohol. It gets into the blood. A high concentration of alcohol in the blood defattes red blood cells. They lose their shells and begin to stick together. Erythrocyte clots are already moving in the blood, which the blood cannot tolerate. The next morning we feel bad, because the whole night the body was in a state of oxygen starvation.

Yes, the vessels expanded briefly, but the body still suffered.So no more than two glasses of wine at dinner! Any external support for the body comes at a cost. Better to rely on self-regulation methods.

SYMPTOMS OF CHRONIC VEGETATIVE VOLTAGE

How to understand the problem? One-time stress is easy to spot. But we get used to the chronic, the psyche does not notice it anymore, the person forgets what it means to live without stress.

Rate how each of these symptoms have characterized you over the past two weeks. Give 3 points if the symptom was clearly manifested; 2 points – was, but in an average degree; 1 point – manifested weakly; 0 – there was no symptom.

• Spasm of blood vessels and capillaries: cold hands and feet, pale skin, hypertension. Pay particular attention to the lower pressure: if it is high, the vessels are in spasm.
• Muscle Armor. The striated muscles are tense: biceps, triceps. When you press on the muscles, you feel pain, you cannot relax before going to bed.
• Chronic fatigue, low energy level. Normal fatigue builds up towards evening, but when you have eaten, slept, rested, it goes away.If you are tired already in the morning – this is a bell.
• Dizziness, poor concentration and memory.
• Poor digestion, gastritis, ulcer. When you have eaten the right food, not fast food, and the stomach is still heaviness is a sign of stress.
• Decreased immunity. Measure it in three months. Diseases last a long time, chronic diseases develop, herpes may appear.
• Decreased sleep quality. You cannot fall asleep for more than 20 minutes, sleep is shallow, there is a feeling of a working head, it is hard to wake up in the morning.
• Anhedonia – inability to enjoy simple things: entertainment, food, sleep.
• Dysphoria – long-term unreasonable mood disorder, anxiety, irritation with other people, aggression.
• Addictive, or dependent, behavior – escape from reality by artificially changing the mental state. For example, tobacco smoking, alcoholism, overeating, Internet addiction, etc.

(How to assess that you have an addiction.What will happen if you are deprived of this object: alcohol, computer games, tobacco, coffee? Will your mood, behavior change, can you spend a long time without it?)

If you scored up to 10 points, you have a balance between gas and brake.

If you have 10 to 20 points, you spend more energy than you can recover.

If you scored more than 20 points, then you have chronic stress, parasympathetic does not work.

• Take a stress hormone test.For example, elevated cortisol indicates either stress or Cushing’s syndrome.

• Pay attention to changes in heart rate variability. In a healthy person, the time intervals between heart beats are always different by milliseconds. If your heart beats like a metronome, your body is exhausted or sick.

RESPIRATORY GYMNASTICS

Breathe through your nose. Close your eyes. Place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Begin to breathe with your belly, smoothly fill the bottom of your lungs with air, then open your chest and fill all the lungs with air under the collarbones.This will lower your diaphragm and fill your blood with carbon dioxide. Exhale smoothly for a long time. Inhale again immediately.

Concentrate on your breathing. Don’t breathe automatically. Let the mind recognize moment by moment how the breath is taking place. Let go of external stimulus or internal thoughts, return your attention to the breath.

As soon as the diaphragm began to move, the vagus nerve was stimulated, which switches you to parasympathetic control. An extended inhalation and exhalation fill the blood with oxygen and, at the same time, with carbon dioxide.

Draw air into your lungs and hold your breath. Drop your head limply on your chest, roll back, make a circle with your head. Tilt your head back, focus on the deflection in the thoracic vertebrae, raise your head and exhale slowly.

This closes the blood flow to the brain, and it begins to release endogenous opioids. It is enough to do this 3-4 times, and the opioids will be restored.

MEDITATIVE PRACTICE FOR DAILY SELF-REGULATION

Sit down, straighten your back, feel the stability of your body.Place your hands on your knees, palms up. Pull the crown up: there should be a feeling that the distance between the vertebrae is increasing. The body is relaxed, the back is straight.

Close your eyes. Bring your attention to your feet. What is the temperature of your feet? How do they feel the surface? Don’t think about feet, just watch how you feel.

Bring your attention gently to your hands. How do your fingertips, the middle of your palms feel?

Grab your entire body with attention.Feel the legs, arms, torso, and head. Feel the skeleton and internal organs. How do sensations change under your supervision? The body starts to get heavy, the muscles relax. Watch your body continuously. If you notice a thought, immediately return from it to observation.

Bring your attention to your mind. Notice the appearance of a thought, image, picture and release. If one thought is gone and the other is not, stay paused. Do not crush your thoughts, you will not be able to get rid of them. Just return to observation and the mind will calm down on its own.To calm the water in a glass, you do not need to swing it in your hand. Just don’t touch the glass and the liquid will calm down on its own.

How to understand that you are meditating:

• The beam of attention is directed to one object.
• You are aware of the object moment by moment continuously.
• You always understand in what tone your attention is. You can bring it back and strengthen it.
• Mental activity gradually disappears – pauses appear between thoughts.
• Physical and mental relaxation sets in.

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90,000 How stress affects bowel function

Chief physician of Polyclinic Biomed LLC Sergey Ivaskiv told why irritable bowel syndrome occurs, what are its symptoms, and how stress is associated with the disease

Photo: press service of Polyclinic Biomed LLC

According to research by the World Health Organization, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a fairly common disease that affects 20% of the world’s adult population.Most often, this disease affects people aged 23 to 40 years.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a functional disorder in the digestive system that can cause intestinal cramps, bloating, diarrhea and constipation.

Practice shows that it is impossible to completely get rid of IBS. However, with a change in lifestyle, diet and with proper drug therapy, all unpleasant symptoms can be stopped.

According to Sergei Ivaskiv, chief physician of Biomed Polyclinic LLC, according to recent studies, prolonged stress is one of the most common causes of irritable bowel syndrome.As a rule, with this disease there are no morphological (structural) disorders in the tissues. The appearance of symptoms of the disease is usually explained by the influence of any external factors that affect the innervation and work of smooth muscles in the intestinal walls.

“From the point of view of medicine, stress is the body’s response to emotional or physical stress. Normally, they allow the body to better adapt to various situations, however, prolonged stress has a negative effect.This is due to the activation of the autonomic nervous system and the release of a number of hormones. It is these reactions that cause disturbances in the work of smooth muscle tissue, ”explained Sergey Ivaskiv.

As a result, disturbances in the innervation of the body can lead to a number of problems. In particular, the appearance of recurrent abdominal pain in patients (muscle spasm – reflex muscle tension in the intestinal wall, – ed.).

When gassing, the retention of the content leads to an intensification of the fermentation processes (especially when drinking beer, kvass, grapes and other products with a similar effect – approx.ed.). Gas accumulates in the intestines and a corresponding symptom occurs – flatulence.

Stress has the most direct effect on bowel function. Even healthy people who do not have irritable bowel syndrome can experience similar symptoms. For patients with clinical symptoms, additional features in the structure of the nervous and muscular system are characteristic. In addition to stimulating the nervous system, prolonged stress can weaken the immune system.

For the prevention of irritable bowel syndrome against a background of stress, doctors recommend observing a reasonable mode of work and rest, giving up bad habits – smoking, alcohol, excessive consumption of coffee and tea (substances that affect the psyche and the work of the nervous system).Additional treatments for IBS include regular exercise or gymnastics.

In some cases, a very effective help is the prophylactic intake of weak sedatives (infusion of valerian, chamomile, motherwort). In addition, an important role in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome is played by the advice of a psychologist or psychotherapist, especially with severe psycho-emotional stress.

The therapist of “Polyclinic” Biomed “will carry out the necessary diagnostics and select the optimal treatment plan in accordance with the characteristics and condition of the patient’s body.

Help

Polyclinic Biomed LLC has been successfully operating in the market of medical services in the Belgorod region for more than five years, has more than 1,000 regular corporate clients and 82,000 private patients. Every month in the polyclinic there are actions on consultation with specialists, free initial examinations are provided. One of the activities is to conduct annual medical examinations and consultations of employees of enterprises.

There are contraindications.Specialist consultation required

90,000 CO2 emissions are increasingly threatening the oceans

July 3, 2015

Photo author, PA

Photo caption,

The temperature and acidity of the world’s oceans are continuously increasing under the influence of anthropogenic factors

Scientists warn that marine flora and fauna will undergo irreversible changes if humanity fails to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

An article published in the journal Science says that the temperature of water in the world’s oceans is rising, the oxygen content is falling, and the waters themselves are becoming more and more acidic due to the dissolution of carbon dioxide in them.

Scientists argue that the internationally agreed limit for a 2 degree increase in global temperature will not be able to prevent a negative impact on the world’s oceans and its biological systems.

In their opinion, the ability to counteract these processes is rapidly decreasing, and their cost is growing.

22 world famous oceanographers participated in the preparation of this article. They believe that policymakers addressing the problem of global warming are not paying enough attention to the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans.

The authors of the article are convinced that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels is changing the chemical composition of the world’s oceans faster than at any time since the Great Extinction of the Permian species 252 million years ago.

Photo by BBC World Service

Photo caption,

The combination of stresses can lead to a rapid deterioration in the state of the world’s oceans

According to oceanologists, the world’s oceans have absorbed almost 30% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere since 1750, making seawater more and more sour.

The oceans have also served as an accumulator of additional heat generated by man-made factors since 1970. Warming up ocean waters leads to a decrease in the oxygen content in them.

Radical Change

Several recent experiments show that many marine organisms are able to withstand the warming and acidifying of sea water, as well as decreasing oxygen levels. However, the combined effect of these factors can be critical.

“The fate of the oceans has been largely absent from the global climate talks. Our study provides a compelling case for changing this situation at the UN conference in Paris,” said Jean-Pierre Gattuso, scientific team leader.

Researchers indicate that the increase in acidity in ocean waters has a serious impact on the rate of reproduction, growth, nutrition and survival of the larvae of marine organisms, especially crustaceans that have chitinous shells or membranes made of calcium.

According to the authors of the article, multiple stressors sometimes neutralize each other, but more often they increase the negative consequences.

They indicate that warming oceans will affect fishermen, fish farms, coastal tourist areas and public health.

Depzrav recommended that Muscovites sing more often to strengthen immunity and fight stress – City News Agency “Moscow”

Depzrav recommended that Muscovites sing more often to strengthen immunity and fight stress

07/19/2019 07:30

Tags:
Health
, healthcare
, medicine

Regular singing improves ventilation of the lungs and makes the body more resistant to colds, in addition, singing helps fight stress.Andrey Tyazhelnikov, the chief freelance specialist of the Moscow Department of Health on primary health care for adults, told the Moscow City News Agency about this.

“When singing, there is a quick inhalation and a long exhalation. This increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood, which helps to activate the immune system. A person becomes more resistant to seasonal colds. Of course, singing in itself cannot become an alternative to drug treatment of diseases such as chronic bronchitis, pneumonia and bronchial asthma.But we can say that with regular vocals, ventilation of the lungs improves and this helps to strengthen health, ”A. Tyazhelnikov said.

According to him, singing, especially in a friendly company, has a beneficial effect on the nervous system and increases resistance to stress.

“The main benefit of singing is its positive psychological impact. This is a very emotional activity that stimulates the production of the hormone of joy endorphin in the brain, which has a beneficial effect on the human central nervous system, helps to get rid of stress, causes satisfaction, improves attention, activates vitality, intellectual activity.Singing in a friendly company, for example, in karaoke, enhances a positive emotional state, which gives pleasant communication, “- said A. Tyazhelnikov.

Heading:
Society

Link to material: https://www.mskagency.ru/materials/2909117

90,000 Xenon therapy in Chelyabinsk. Xenon, antiarrhythmic property, myocardial infarction, pain syndrome, alcoholism, withdrawal symptoms

Xenon application

At present, the modern direction of medicine is intensively developing in the world – the introduction of the inert gas xenon into the therapy of a wide range of diseases.In this direction, research is carried out in the world’s leading gas producing companies. A large amount of clinical and experimental material has been accumulated, which makes it possible to state that xenon is an ideal anesthetic and therapeutic agent with a wide range of pharmacological properties in the treatment of diseases.

Therapeutic properties of Xenon:

– does not undergo biotransformation,

– does not cause allergic reactions,

– has no contraindications,

– harmless,

– provides a quick onset of the effect (within a few minutes after the procedure),

– a combination with any pharmaceuticals is possible,

– can be used at any age,

– not addictive (physical dependence).

– possibility of long-term use – short-term inhalations for several months.

We use xenon inhalations for treatment:

– Depression

– Anxiety disorders, panic attacks

– Alcoholism and drug addiction

– Ischemia of the brain

– Pain syndromes

Xenon-therapy is successfully used in recovery after physical exertion and long flights !!

Technique of xenon therapy: dosed inhalation introduction of xenon-oxygen mixture into the body, as a rule, this ratio (50%: 50%) or (70%: 30%) for 2-3 minutes, once a day or in 2-3 days, lasting 3-10 sessions.

Inhalation of oxygen-xenon mixture is carried out using specialized therapeutic attachments, since the use of standard anesthesia and respiratory equipment in this case makes these procedures economically unprofitable. Therapy can be performed both in a monovariant – xenon therapy, and in combinations with physiotherapeutic methods, pharmacological agents and the use of psychotherapy.

It is characteristic that the effectiveness of the xenon therapy technique is in the range of 70-80%, and even more for certain types of general somatic pathology.The positive effect is due to the use of a post-xenonic inspectorate general somatic reaction, which activates the compensatory capabilities of the organism, aimed at restoring the regulatory functions of organs and systems as a whole – from the central nervous system to the regional level.

Stress management programs

Xenon is effectively used in the correction of acute and chronic stress disorders, to relieve psycho-emotional stress and chronic fatigue syndrome, to treat depressive conditions and insomnia.Xenon has an analgesic and sedative effect. The effect of xenon lasts for several days, but the gas is completely removed from the body 5-7 minutes after the end of the procedure. To obtain a long-term therapeutic effect, a course of treatment is sufficient, consisting of 3-5 xenon inhalation procedures, carried out every other day.

The use of xenon inhalations allows you to get rid of the effects of stress, improve health, restore vitality, reduce the dose of sedative drugs or abandon them completely.

Programs for rejuvenation of the body and skin

In the process of studying the properties of xenon, scientists discovered that this gas has a powerful antioxidant property, increases the level of local immunity, prevents the development of inflammation and promotes the process of cell regeneration. Xenon baths allow patients to relieve stress, tone muscles and skin.

Relax programs

Following the results of xenon inhalations, positive feedback from patients was received, in which there was a significant improvement in the state of the body.

Xenon therapy helps:

• to increase the efficiency and activity of the brain;
• activate immunity;
• improve mood;
• improve overall health, get an emotional boost;
• to reduce the level of stress, and the stress hormone in the body;
• speed up healing.

The Clinic’s specialists have successful experience in using xenon therapy!

A bit of science:

Research conducted at the Research Institute of Pharmacology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (Goldberg E.D.), Tomsk Military Medical Institute (A.V. Lukinov, S.V. Avdeev, S.A. Naumov), City Narcological Clinical Hospital No. 17 (Yu.A. Shulyak, Klyachin A.I., P. Z. Rykhletsky), the City Narcological Dispensary of the Moscow Region, Podolsk (Soloviev E.Yu., Donenko V.E.) in 2001-2004. suggest that xenon is not only a promising anesthetic, but also a unique therapeutic agent with a wide range of effective applications in medicine.

Xenon is able to relieve pain, relieve psycho-emotional excitement, encephalopathy.Has a pronounced neuroprotective effect. Reduces the level of basal metabolic rate. It is used in the complex therapy of hemodynamic disorders, in postoperative anesthesia, etc.

Possessing pronounced anxiolytic, neuroprotective and nootropic properties, positively affecting microcirculation, xenon has found its application in the treatment of ischemic and dyscirculatory brain lesions. The pronounced muscle relaxant and analgesic effect of xenon is used in the treatment of radiculitis.

Immunity.

Xenon is a well-known immunocorrector, has a slight immunostimulating effect, has an anti-inflammatory effect, weakens the effect of the TNF cytokine, normalizes leuko- and lymphopoiesis (Kitiashvili I.Z., N.E.Burov et al. 2006). Xenon provides an economically less expensive therapy than using nitrous oxide concomitant anesthesia.

Organoprotection. The organoprotective effect of xenon is manifested mainly due to the improvement of microcirculation, organ blood flow, oxygen delivery and the absence of toxicity.It is important to take this into account when transplanting kidneys, liver, heart and other organs in order to preserve the transplant (I.A. Kozlov, Stepanova (2005), Avdeev S.V. (2003).

Stress.

Correction of the consequences of stress in our rather hectic age is one of the indications for the therapeutic inhalation effect of the Xe: O2 mixture (Yu.A. Bubeev, 2008).

Xenon in the treatment of drug addiction, substance abuse, alcoholism shows an undeniable clinical effect. It is especially important that xenon, of the existing drugs, is the most effective drug, with the help of which psychoses and abstinence are removed in patients with alcoholism and drug addiction.Studies of xenon as an antidepressant, adaptogen, nootropic and anxiolytic in the treatment of a number of borderline disorders have shown a fairly high positive effect.