7 Ways Trauma Impacts Your Gut Health

Trauma affects your brain; we know this with certainty by diminishing the hippocampus, the emotional memory receptacle of the brain. Trauma also affects other organs because the brain and the body are in constant communication. There is a connection between experiencing trauma and the well-being of your gut and its impact on your microbiome. The microbiome of bacteria in your gut helps your body to break down food and absorb nutrients. But when that process is disrupted, it can have a significant impact on your body.



1. Developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

According to research, people who have been through trauma are also more likely to develop irritable bowel syndrome or IBS. IBS causes you to have pain in your belly, as well as other symptoms.

For example:

  • Diarrhea
  • Bloating & Gas
  • Constipation
  • Cramps

Stress hormones are often the culprits. When they are released due to your exposure to trauma, they can harm your gut biome.







2. A Weaker Immune System

Trauma can destroy the bacteria in your gut; leading to less diversity in the number and types of bacteria in your microbiome. Why is this a problem? Because your body needs different kinds of bacteria to process foods and retrieve nutrients. These bacteria play different roles in helping to regulate your body’s other functions. The simple truth is that with less variety and numbers of bacteria, the less capable your body is able to function. These bacteria play an essential role in controlling your immune system. Researchers have noted that people who experienced PTSD also have trouble with their immune system. They additionally would develop inflammation. Researchers are not 100% sure if there is a connection between the two. However, when you have an immune system that is compromised, it’s much more difficult for your body to fend off disease and infection.






3. A Loss of Working Capability

When in a healthy mental state, the brain sends messages to the gut to have healthy hunger and fullness cues to digest and absorb nutrients, and process food in a healthy way. Stress in Fight/Flight/Freeze puts eating, processing and pooping on the back burner. For example work pressure stress can trigger survival mode and queues the digestive system to decrease hunger or to hurriedly consume carbs for quick defensive action. This is one explanation to why we may experience food aversion or comfort eating as a stress response. The gut goes both ways though, which means when there is an imbalance in the gut it sends a message to your brain to kick on a survival response, powering up the inflammation and body defenses in a mutual feedback loop. A full, happy belly after a meal can send a message to the brain to calm down and feel relaxed. This is one place where imbalance can occur with comfort eating, striving for that nervous system regulation.

4. The Effect on Other Body Systems

The microbiome in your gut also influences other systems in your body.

For example, the following are impacted:

  • The endocrine system, such as your thyroid and the adrenal glands
  • Your central nervous system
  • The metabolic process

You need these systems to survive. They are responsible for essential functions such as transmitting information from the brain to the rest of your body. Or processing molecules to be converted into energy, such as with the metabolic process. So, what happens when they are disrupted from trauma? Your body can’t take care of itself, let alone help you heal from the trauma you experienced.

Trauma disturbs the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system, which play a role in regulating body processes such as metabolism. This can make it even harder for people with PTSD or C-PTSD to control their weight. A cortisol increase can lead to weight gain, particularly around the stomach, where weight loss may be due to the fluctuating hormones and cortisol levels that occur with PTSD and C-PTSD. It can also be challenging to gain muscle in this state.






5. Early Trauma Can Have a Lasting Effect

Researchers found that if you have experienced trauma early in your life, the effects are carried with you long after the incidents have occurred. For example, one study researched children who experienced disruptions in caregiving and were placed in orphanages before adoption. Some of the results included:


  • Those children who had been put up for adoption had less diverse microbiomes than those children who had been raised by biological parents.
  • Children in the adopted group struggled with problems such as stomachaches, nausea, and vomiting.
  • Having these problems early in life could affect the capacity of the children’s brains.





6. The Microbiome and Depression

Experiencing trauma early in life not only leads to a disruption of your microbiome. It also can cause you to develop depression. This would be a big problem, especially if you were exposed to trauma when young. Depression can interfere with healthy brain development and your ability to cope with stress when an adult. It’s as if you are being set up for failure while still a child.

There is a connection between emotions, the brain, and the physiology of your body. None operate separately from the other. Indeed, they are all interconnected. If one is not functioning correctly, then that will affect the other systems as well.


While we are not always able to avoid life’s stressors, we can support our gut and our sense of well-being by:

  • Conscious, slow, mindful eating
  • Chewing food thoroughly
  • Drink lots of fluids
  • Wait a few hours after eating before going to bed
  • Eating healthy whole foods that are full of prebiotics, probiotics and digestive enzymes
  • Various supportive therapies; talk therapy, trauma counseling, life coaching, herbal and nutritional guidance and support, etc.
  • Meditation, yoga, tai chi, plant medicine, spiritual practices or other contemplation practices help us develop the ability to be present, nonjudgmental and kind, with whatever our experience is in each moment of life.

7. We Process Emotions in our Gut

Hence the expression “gut feeling”, many of our “happy” hormones are in fact produced in the gut. We can help our gut be healthier by decreasing stress and increasing positive life and social experiences. Consuming flora and fauna to help digest food and support a healthy microbiome. Diet, age, medications (antibiotics, SSRIs), stress, sleep, and exercise can impact our gut bacteria. People with PTSD, anxiety and depression have a different microbiome than other people. They have a higher amount of bad bacteria that can send inflammation into the body and brain.

Improving our microbiome diversity directly impacts your mood.



4 ways to improve microbiome

  • Prebiotics - dietary fiber is what our gut bacteria lives on. Different bacterias eat different types of plants so eating a wide variety is ideal for optimal gut health. A study found that prebiotics decrease cortisol (a stress hormone). 30 different fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains (different fiber sources) in your diet per week is directly correlated to better microbial health and diversity in the gut microbiome and better overall health outcomes.
  • Probiotics - food that already includes good bacteria. Fermented foods like (non dairy) yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, (water) kefir. Probiotics work best on an empty stomach. Probiotic supplements are an option but limited, diverse food sources are best. I generally recommend supplementing if you are on or have taken an antibiotic along with consuming fermented foods. For daily life bringing in fermented foods is ideal.
  • Decrease inflammation - inflammation is a natural healthy part of our body systems. It is a good thing in small doses. It's how our bodies fight off germs and heal wounds. However, emerging research shows that chronic, sustained inflammation can influence inflammation in the brain. How to decrease inflammation in the gut: decrease sugar, processed foods, and saturated fats.
  • Mediterranean diet has evidence that shows it helps improves mental health, 35% decreased risk of depression

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