The Gut-Brain Connection: 3 Ways Gut Inflammation Impacts Your Brain!

Feeling anxious, stressed, or just not yourself and not sure why? Believe it or not, poor gut health can be linked to these negative feelings!

Let’s dig into the gut-brain connection and chat about how poor gut health can impact your mental health and the best natural remedies to get your gut to send positive messages to your brain!

Your Gut Holds Secret Inflammation!

Your gut is constantly sending signals to your brain and your brain sends signals right back. This bidirectional pathway is so important and plays a huge role in your overall health, including your mental health!

Possibly the biggest gut health issue that can cause stress and anxiety is inflammation. Inflammation in the gut can be so easily overlooked, but the symptoms that come with it aren’t so easily missed.

Your gut microbiome is made up of a balance of good and bad bacteria. Unfortunately, bad bacteria LOVES to create inflammation in your gut and it’s up to the good bacteria to get rid of it! 

This means that the gut is in charge of regulating the inflammation throughout your whole body.

Having an imbalance in your gut microbiome leaves you with bad bugs creating inflammation and not enough good bugs to fight it off. 

Gut Health and Poor Sleep

A super common side effect of gut inflammation in a not-so-happy gut is having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.

The gut-brain connection is SUPER important for getting adequate quality because the gut plays a role in regulating the hormones and chemicals that signal the body that it’s time to relax and rest (aka melatonin, cortisol and magnesium).

Having too much bad bacteria living in your gut creates an imbalance that disrupts these sleepy chemicals and leaves you feeling way less than well-rested.

NOT ONLY is too much bad bacteria in your gut disrupting your sleep, not getting enough sleep leads to even more gut issues, including slowing down digestion and causing more imbalances of good and bad gut bacteria. It’s a terrible cycle!

Gut Health and Anxiety

If your gut isn’t feeling calm, it’s absolutely sending signals to your brain that can leave you feeling anxious and unsettled. 

Anxiety symptoms and anxiousness can be a result of changes in your gut microbiome, especially an increase in bad bacteria (or decrease in good!) causing inflammation in your body. 

That inflammation from gut imbalances can cause altered function in the little chemical messengers that allow your brain to communicate, which has a significant effect on your mood and emotions.

Having inflammation in your gut is a stressor and may quite literally be sending constant messages to your brain that something is not quite right, leaving you with anxious feelings when your brain can’t fix the issue on its own.

Not Being able to Recalibrate After Stress

Unfortunately, feeling stressed is a part of life. While it’s definitely not the most fun to feel stressed out, it’s a natural response when going through a difficult situation or facing a tough challenge.

However, not being able to get back to feeling like your normal self after facing stress can (surprise, surprise) be a sign that you’re dealing with some inflammation and gut imbalances!

Having the right balance of good vs bad bacteria in the gut helps to regulate things all throughout your body while communicating with your brain. 

When you’re stressed, your body enters “fight-or-flight” mode. This releases the stress hormone like cortisol. Your gut plays a crucial role in regulating the levels of cortisol in your body.

When your gut health is suffering, this critical role in regulating the stress in your body also suffers. This can make it really hard for your body to recover from being in a stressed state.

Not being able to get out of a stressed state keeps you in a constant hyper-aware state and this is exhausting! BUT getting your gut in good shape can restore the gut’s regulatory role, helping you get rid of all that stress when it doesn’t need to be there!

Put a Stop to Inflammation!

Inflammation and mental health are connected in SO many ways. Since the gut regulates inflammation through good and bad bacteria, healing your gut is a HUGE part targeting inflammation and finally getting rid of it!

So how the heck can you do that? Getting that gut bacteria in check is most likely the first step.

A super effective way to increase the good bacteria in your gut is by adding in a probiotic.

 

If you have high amounts of bad bacteria, The Healer +Pro is amazing for getting bad bacteria and toxins OUT of your system while boosting the good bacteria!

Another great addition if you’re dealing with inflammation and stress and/or anxiety is The Gut Soother. The Soother helps repair the gut lining and soothe any physical discomfort that comes along with inflammatory responses.

Now, this one is ALWAYS our recommendation to anyone who wants to feel amazing – The Miracle Worker! 

GutPersonal’s ultra-absorbable magnesium seriously lives up to its name by naturally decreasing stress and anxiety, and supporting more restful sleep! 

The Miracle Worker is perfect for reducing the mental health symptoms that come with inflammation so adding this in while working to heal your gut can help lessen the symptoms while you’re getting everything nice and balanced!

 Your gut health and mental health have such a strong connection. It’s time to get your gut health in check and focus on the gut-brain connection!