Our bodies are intelligent systems designed to keep us thriving in a complex world. Every sensation you feel, whether it’s hunger, fatigue, or digestive discomfort is your body trying to signal a message to you. Stress is one of the most common and impactful signals, and it has a large effect on how your body digests food and absorbs nutrients.
To understand how stress influences digestion, it helps to know a bit about your nervous system. It is a complex network of nerves extending throughout our whole body that allows us to communicate and coordinate various bodily functions, respond to stimuli, and sense and perceive the world around us.
Think of it as the body’s communication highway, sending messages between your brain and every organ.
The nervous system has two main parts:
The Central Nervous System (CNS): Your brain and spinal cord, the command center.
The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): The vast network of nerves reaching every part of your body, carrying messages to and from the CNS.
The PNS splits into three branches:
Somatic nervous system: Controls voluntary movements like walking or speaking.
Autonomic nervous system (ANS): Manages involuntary functions such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
Enteric nervous system (ENS): Often called your “second brain,” it governs your gut’s functions independently but still communicates with the ANS.
Within the autonomic nervous system, there are two key players for digestion and stress:
The parasympathetic nervous system helps your body rest, relax, and digest food efficiently.
The sympathetic nervous system activates the “fight-or-flight” response, preparing you to respond to danger.
When you feel hungry and relaxed, your brain sends signals through the vagus nerve, activating the parasympathetic system. This signals your gut to release digestive enzymes and stimulates the smooth muscle movements needed for proper digestion.
But when stress enters the picture, this balance shifts.
Stress triggers the sympathetic nervous system, pushing your body into survival mode. The human body is strategically designed, and this is a built-in process meant to keep us safe. Under stress, our body releases hormones like adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. These temporarily suppress digestion and any other “non-essential” functions. This system is designed to utilize all of the body’s resources for what is going to keep us alive, like our heart, lungs, and muscles.
Luckily, for the most part we go through our day-to-day lives with a sense of safety. But the human body wasn’t designed to live in this day-in-age, and way back then, processes like these where what kept us alive. The problem arises once we realize our body is unable to differentiate real and perceived threats to it’s safety. Whether it’s having to run to escape danger or constantly juggling work deadlines, the same biochemical response occurs.
Chronic or frequent stress keeps your body locked in survival mode, repeatedly diverting energy from digestion.
This can lead to uncomfortable symptoms like bloating, indigestion, or poor nutrient absorption.
You might wonder: if the gut has its own nervous system, can’t it just keep digesting even when stressed?
The enteric nervous system (ENS) does have a degree of independence, regulating gut movements and secretions. But it still listens to signals from your autonomic nervous system. When the fight-or-flight response activates, blood flow is redirected away from the gut, and the ENS’s work is overridden.
Over time, chronic stress can increase gut inflammation and disrupt the balance of your gut microbiome, further affecting digestion and overall well-being.
It starts with understanding what could be causing you chronic stress in your everyday life, as much of it is so normalized we never think twice.
The goal isn’t to eliminate every stressor, some stress is simply part of being human. But what you can do is identify the stress that’s within your power to shift, whether through your habits, mindset, or environment. The key is not control, but awareness.
Focus on what is in your hands: nurturing your body’s resilience, supporting your digestion, and creating space for rest and regulation. Your body is always communicating with you. When you feel tension, fatigue, or digestive discomfort, it’s not working against you, it’s guiding you back to balance.
If stress feels overwhelming or your digestion feels off, pause. Breathe. Ask yourself: What is my body asking for right now?
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