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Why Stress Is So Bad For Your Gut
17 Plays5 months ago
Ready to resolve your gas, bloating, constipation, and other digestive problems for good? Watch my free Gut Recovery Masterclass to learn more: https://gutrecoverymethod.com/register
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Hosted by functional health practitioner and longevity author, Christian Yordanov, this podcast is dedicated to helping women struggling with gastrointestinal problems such as gas, bloating, constipation, and other digestive distress.
Whether you have a diagnosis such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBD (inflammatory bowel disease; Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis), SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) or not, you will benefit from the insights we'll share.
Join us as we explore the intricate connections between gut health and overall well-being, addressing common issues like fatigue, poor sleep, hormonal imbalances, and anxiety.
Learn how stress impacts your digestive system and discover effective strategies to reduce inflammation, improve digestion, and enhance your quality of life.
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Transcript
The Impact of Stress and Cortisol on Gut Health
00:00:43
chrisyzen
Alright, today we're going to talk about how and why stress is so bad for the gut. We cut right to the chase. Basically, stress causes an increase in the hormone cortisol. so Cortisol is released in response to stress. And it can increase leaky gut and there's a number of different mechanisms through which it does that. right then Just to kind of make sure we're on the same page, stress can be not eating.
00:01:14
chrisyzen
that causes an increase in cortisol. Low carb diets are actually stressful, as I discussed in my longevity book. Exercise, if you do too much of it, especially if you're not well fueled, or it causes a drop in blood sugar, that's definitely stressful. Of course, psychological stress, not sleeping you enough, right? Poor sleep. um these These and a number of other things are all stresses, but the the I think the important thing to get out of this preamble is that a lot of quote unquote healthy things that we do nowadays are actually
00:01:56
chrisyzen
pretty stressful right and that by virtue of them being pretty stressful or downright stressful that actually makes them unhealthy things and it it might kind of seem counterintuitive to say but it's just the way it is like a lot of the stuff many people are hoodwinked into believing is healthy like tons of exercise like there there is such a there's so little needed of these things often that they become very stressful just because of our own overzealousness in terms of okay i can do 30 minutes of exercise today
00:02:39
chrisyzen
that's
Risks of Overdoing Healthy Activities
00:02:40
chrisyzen
healthy. So then I'm going to do an hour and then I'm going to do it every day or maybe I'll do it like two hours a day. And either you understand or we do intermittent fasting for maybe 14 hours, but then why don't I just do like 18 hours and then I'll do one meal a day. Then maybe I'll do exercise while I'm fasted because it burns more fat, right? And then, oh, let me just like ah ah after my inter intermittent fast, I'll eat low carb because that will force my body to burn more fat and all of these things are super stressful and maybe maybe they had some benefits but because of this so it's so stressful a lot of these benefits get um basically nullified it's like it's like sometimes my wife tells me because I'm a little bit but let's say militant about eating clean and sometimes
00:03:32
chrisyzen
especially for my daughter, right? And sometimes she says, you know, the stress you're causing out of the this big hubbub you're creating about, let's say she's going to eat some crappy cake or whatever, the stress of that is probably doing more damage than the the crappy ingredients in the cake will do to us or to her or whatever. right For example, um which if that's true, and perhaps perhaps it can be in certain situations,
00:04:08
chrisyzen
Then a lot of the over-exercising or too much fasting or ah exertion or low carb, so going too low carb for too long, that's probably, if if the the initial statement is true, then a lot of these things that people are doing are actually nullifying a lot of the benefits maybe of the supplements they're taking that are good, the diet that they're eating that is very clean, because of all this cortisol and extra stress on top of that. right so um it's It's something to ponder about. right You could be doing a lot of things right and just by being in a stressful having a stressful environment or lifestyle or job or you know home situation, that could be nullifying a lot of the
00:05:00
chrisyzen
health benefits of all the amazing stuff you could be doing like going to yoga and drinking you know like apple cider vinegar with lemon or green smoothies whatever whatever people think is healthy a lot of that we are destroying a lot of those benefits just by living such high octane stressful lives. So that are the let's look at some of the mechanisms, right?
Cortisol's Role in Leaky Gut
00:05:25
chrisyzen
So cortisol, so again cortisol is always secreted in response to stress from the adrenal glands. That stress can be a drop in blood sugar. So not eating, skipping meals, low carb diet or extreme exertion.
00:05:43
chrisyzen
that those things can cause a droping drop in blood sugar and a subsequent cor cortisol release. Now, in our gut, in the gut, right? the You may know that the the gut lining, that gut barrier is only one cell thick. The cells that make up that ah the gut lining, they are um joined together by what are known as tight junctions or tight junction proteins and these basically they you know they they hold they're kind of like the glue that holds the gut cells together and they they make it one barrier and apparently
00:06:27
chrisyzen
Elevated cortisol levels can alter the expression and function of these tight junction proteins and cortisol can actually cause the downregulation of these tight junction proteins leading to the loosening of the tight junctions and increased permeability of the intestinal barrier. So this is one sort of direct mechanism actually. that cortisol has on increasing leaky gut or intestinal permeability. So that's the that's one sort of category of mechanisms. Then you have the immune modulation and inflammation, right? So cortisol modulates the immune response, right? So it's kind of known that cortisol is an anti-inflammatory.
00:07:22
chrisyzen
That's kind of its immediate effect. That's why a lot of anti-inflammatories, quote unquote, are cortisol mimicking chemicals like cortisone, prednisone, prednisolone, and there's hundreds of them, right? And these are used in various things. that are inflammatory autoimmune in nature and so on, right? ah Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, you know psoriasis, eczema, a bunch of different things and they they have an effect because those are conditions where the immune system is dysregulated or disrupted in some way and basically cortisol or cortisol mimicking chemicals, they suppress the immune system. That's why the person gets relief. The problem is
00:08:08
chrisyzen
that over time the immune system being suppressed can you know lead to increased infection risk, fungal candida overgrowth, cancerization and stuff like that. right so not a good thing but here's the thing that the way cortisol modulates the immune response it can actually lead to the production of pro-inflammatory molecules like TNF alpha, interleukin 6, IL1 beta and so on right and these themselves these cytokines as they're known they can actually disrupt those tight junction proteins
00:08:46
chrisyzen
And that's another mechanism of how cortisol or stress, more broadly speaking, because stress usually increases cortisol. ah This is how the stress or cortisol increases intestinal permeability.
00:09:07
chrisyzen
Okay. Then we have oxidative stress.
Oxidative Stress and Systemic Effects of Stress
00:09:10
chrisyzen
So you've heard of oxidative stress, probably reactive oxygen species, free radicals, this kind of stuff. So chronic stress and elevated cortisol levels can increase the production of these so-called reactive oxygen species. And oxidative stress can damage the cellular structures of the gut lining, including tight junction proteins leading to intestinal permeability.
00:09:37
chrisyzen
And also cortisol can interfere with the body's antioxidant defense mechanisms, exacerbating oxidative stress, which then further damages the intestinal barrier. okay That's another mechanism of stress and cortisol and how they can cause. again so this is we can look at the gut but think about cortisol because it so one of its roles is this anti-inflammatory role but its major role is to increase our blood glucose level in response to stress because
00:10:13
chrisyzen
the body thinks it will need that extra glucose, that extra energy to run, fight, flee, climatry, kill something, hunted, whatever, escape. So that's why we're that's why stress increases your blood sugar level. Your cortisol increases your blood sugar level. That's why we have steroid-induced diabetes. These anti-inflammatory drugs, because they're cortisol-mimicking, cortisol-like chemicals, they can actually cause steroid induced diabetes as it's as it's known. um So the mechanisms through which cortisol does that is it signals to cells to basically destroy themselves, dismantle themselves so they can then parts their parts their amino acids and other things.
00:11:01
chrisyzen
can go to the liver and then the liver can make glucose out of those bits and pieces, amino acids and so on, right? So cortisol is a very destructive hormone, it's a very destructive chemical, which is why stress has this pro-aging effect, this effective degeneration, right? Because you're literally, the stress literally causes you to break your body down. So the point is if stress is doing that to your gut lining and it's causing leaky gut, which in itself is obviously going to cause countless other bad things to happen, but it's also doing that to the rest of your body, which is important to
Importance of Stress Management for Gut Health
00:11:44
chrisyzen
understand. This is why stress reduction is such an important part of my program because
00:11:53
chrisyzen
if you don't dial in the stress piece and I mean properly dial it in right there's many threads that we can pull in in in this direction but um If you don't dial it in, a lot of people, they're just taking one step forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back. So it's ah just a little bit of a struggle to actually really get the the real healing, the real progress that people crave if you don't get the stress under control. And I've also seen
00:12:24
chrisyzen
where someone goes from an extremely stressful job that is somewhat physical, a lot of, you know, maybe crazy hours and weird sort of um work circumstances to just like, I know it's not optimal, but like to a sitting down desk job when you're like on the phone talking to people. even though that's not an optimal condition either, getting from that super stressed environment into that place.
00:12:57
chrisyzen
allows the people to get gain to do get a lot of gains in terms of healing. it's It's freaking amazing. And the reason for that is there's less stress. You're using your body, your physical energy a lot less so that can be diverted to, obviously, to healing and other stuff. But also when you're so when you're moving a lot and when you're stressed on top of that, remember, the not only are you in a physical mode but you you also have your fight-or-flight nervous system activated that causes the blood to be pulled to the extremities to the arms and the legs because you're doing stuff right and that blood getting away from the um gastrointestinal system can cause not just leaky gut but reduced ah digestion absorption assimilation of food and a lot of other problems after that right
00:13:51
chrisyzen
So stress reduction is important. Then cortisol can affect the turnover and regeneration of epithelial cells in the guts of those barrier cells. Prolonged high cortisol levels can slow down this renewal process and that leads to a weakened gut barrier. Then we have ah apple apotosis So cortisol can induce apoptosis, which is programmed cell death of the intestinal cells. ah So apoptosis is when the cell itself kind of commits cell suicide. It's a controlled process.
00:14:31
chrisyzen
And um obviously yeah it can happen it can happen if the cell is dysfunctional but also if cortisol signals to ah it to do so because let's let's say there's a lack of energy or the stress levels are so high and there's not enough kind of but enough energy to meet that stress where it is. then that cord is always going to induce a lot of this cell death and which can then um lead to ah again the integrity of the gut barrier to be compromised. Then we have the mucus layer disruption.
Cortisol's Multi-faceted Impact on Gut Barrier
00:15:03
chrisyzen
So we have this mucus layer that protects the barrier of gut cells like the epithelial cells. So they don't have
00:15:11
chrisyzen
direct contact to like bacteria, various chemicals and stuff in the food, right? So the cortisol increase can actually reduce the production of this mucus. So this mucus layer can basically get thinned out, I suppose you could use that term. And that makes the intestine, the intestinal lining, those cells, the epithelial cells, more vulnerable to damage, which can then increase. That's another mechanism. for increased permeability. And then I already kind of alluded to this, the elevated levels of cortisol, they can cause the blood vessels to constrict and reduce the blood flow to the intestines, right? So that it leads to reduced oxygen supply. And then this, because the cells need oxygen to create energy, right? It's it's a constant process of up-taking
00:16:04
chrisyzen
um Uptaking oxygen nutrients and so on and then pushing out various other Molecules and stuff like that co2 and so on right so this is chemia or lack of oxygen supply Can lead to cell death and that those cells when they die they they can leave um You know the gut more as more permeable in there. So increased icky gut Is the result and again if you have a lot of stress malnourishment to kind of reduce absorption of of nutrients and so on you might not have enough and
00:16:43
chrisyzen
um nutrition and energy to repair the damage. And if you have a confluence of these multiple factors, that that's when you know it can wreak a lot of havoc in the gut. So the the six basic things we covered here are disruption of the tight junction, Right? Immune modulation that can reduce ah or increase pro-inflammatory molecules and chronic inflammation. Oxidative stress that can compromise antioxidant defenses. ah The cell impact on the epithelial gut barrier cells, right? Affecting the cell turnover, inducing that cell death, the apoptosis, the mucus layer disruption.
00:17:25
chrisyzen
So weakening the protective mucus layer and the blood flow the blood flow reduction that leads to lack of oxygen to the cells and the subsequent damage to the gut lining. So these are just a few mechanisms, you know, there's a ah lot of other things going on in the body. that can cause gut problems. But here you can see how just just one hormone, just one chemical really, can do so much damage. And how is that chemical?
Factors Increasing Cortisol and Their Effects
00:18:00
chrisyzen
This is the most important thing to kind of take out as a takeaway. how what really We have to understand
00:18:08
chrisyzen
what causes increases in cortisol. And I'm going to list them again off the top of my head for you just so you can remember, right?
00:18:21
chrisyzen
not eating starvation or fasting if you want to call it fasting intermittent fasting can also do that right um so you might get relief from fasting in terms of the gut but long term this elevation in cortisol is probably not doing you good too much exercise so a lot of exertion psychological stress poor sleep And of course, there's so many there's so many ways of getting into these stress states. right So think about the many different ways we can, each one of us has our own unique set of circumstances that can cause us to be psychologically stressed or to not sleep well. right you You might have a young young child or you maybe you just got a puppy that's barking at night or your job or your business or your spouse. There's a million things that could be causing these things.
00:19:18
chrisyzen
could be your CrossFit membership, right? ah So each one of us, it's on us to figure out which are the things that are more most disrupting, most stressful, that you know most most disrupting to my sleep, most stressful in terms of my psychological well-being, in terms of physical Well-being, am I doing things that are, i like like I mentioned already, overexertion or perhaps um maybe skipping meals or not eating enough or eating low-carb,
Broader Implications of Cortisol on Health
00:19:51
chrisyzen
right? There's so many different things that each one each one of us could be doing to reduce cortisol or basically to reduce stress.
00:20:00
chrisyzen
whether we understand it as such whether we label it as stress stress or not there's a lot of things that we could be doing to reduce stress or cortisol because at the end of the day stress causes this increase in cortisol and that is not just bad for our gut which is kind of the topic of this particular episode but it's so detrimental to so many other processes to muscles to bone health to our organs you know for it's bad for our blood pressure it increases it it ruins our sleep it um makes our mood all crappy it gives us anxiety i mean there's so many different
00:20:39
chrisyzen
areas where cortisol is a contributing factor to pathology quote-unquote or to feeling crappy um that we really have to understand this and be very um sort of diligent in terms of taking stock of these factors and then systematically reducing eliminating or at least ameliorating them as and when we can and we'll be covering how to do that of course in other videos