How does stress cause digestive disorders?

Stress is a state of mental and emotional instability, related to many different factors. When faced with this condition, the patient's body will react similar to when faced with a life-threatening situation. In a certain respect, stress is considered a motivation to help us take more drastic actions in some situations, helping to increase our ability to focus and have accurate judgments. However, if stress occurs continuously and for a long time, it is easy to cause bad effects on the psychology, physical, mental and health of the patient.
Favorable factors causing stress include:
External environment: Dust, noise, weather, traffic,...; Stress from family and society: Financial problems, work, conflicts, loss of loved ones,...; Physical problems: Sickness, body changes, lack of nutrients,...; Your own way of thinking: People who often think negatively are more prone to stress,... People who are stressed for a long time often have the following symptoms:
Fatigue, headache: Being stressed for a long time causes Fatigue, frequent headaches on one or both sides of the head. The cause of this condition is due to prolonged stress releases harmful substances to the brain, the activity of blood vessels and nerves is changed; Poor concentration, memory impairment: People who are often stressed often have no interest in working, lose concentration, lose memory, easily bored and work inefficiently; Sleep disorders: Due to stress for a long time, patients often feel anxious, prone to negative thoughts, and fall into a state of no way out. Due to overthinking, the patient's body has sleep disorders such as trouble sleeping, insomnia, not sleeping deeply,...; Emotional disorders: People who are stressed for a long time are often easily emotional, inhibited with small things, easily lose control of their behavior, express their emotions excessively, ...

Stress causes digestive disorders with many manifestations such as: Stress causes stomach pain, stress causes abdominal pain, stress causes constipation, stress causes diarrhea,... In fact, the digestive system is extremely sensitive to changes. change people's moods. Stress can cause patients to suffer from peptic ulcer disease, gastric perforation, gastrointestinal bleeding, dry mouth, loss of appetite, indigestion, bad breath, colon dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome. Like, gastroesophageal reflux,...
Regarding the mechanism of stress causing digestive disorders: The stomach and intestines have many nerve cells, so doctors consider the digestive system to be a small brain. Nerves connect directly from the brain to the digestive system and information is transmitted in two directions. 95% of the hormone Serotonin (a hormone that is very important in controlling human mood) is located in the digestive system.
When under severe stress, the brain will produce hormones that affect the functioning of the digestive system, and at the same time produce steroids and adrenaline to help fight stress. And sometimes these hormones affect the patient's mood, causing the patient to lose appetite when stressed. In some cases, these hormones stimulate hunger, causing people to crave food when stressed.
While everyone has different levels and ways of responding to stress, there are some common effects that stress has on the digestive system. Specifically, if the patient has stomach problems such as peptic ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome, ... then stress can make the symptoms of the disease worse.
At the same time, the central nervous system controls the digestive process. If you are too stressed, the central nervous system will stop blood circulation, causing muscle contractions, indigestion. Stress can affect the central nervous system, affect bowel movements, heartburn, cause digestive problems such as indigestion, peptic ulcer, gastric reflux, colitis. , Crohn's disease,...

Adults with stress causing digestive disorders often have the following symptoms:
Full stomach, indigestion: The digestive system is disturbed, affecting the digestion of foods. Food that is not fully digested will be stagnant in the digestive tract, making the patient often feel bloated, uncomfortable, constantly having heartburn, belching, especially after eating; Dull or severe abdominal pain: Abdominal pain can appear in many different places. The patient may have pain in the upper abdomen, lower abdomen or stomach area,... The pain is especially strong if the patient eats hot spicy food, sour food or has food poisoning,...; Anorexia: When the digestive system has problems, the patient often has a bitter feeling, anorexia, and loss of appetite; Nausea and vomiting: The digestive tract is irritated, which reduces the absorption of food. At this point, food can back up into the esophagus, causing nausea and vomiting; Digestive disorders: The digestive system is dysfunctional, causing the patient to be constipated or defecate many times a day. If this condition lasts for a long time (especially diarrhea), it will make the patient tired and weak.

Digestive disorders caused by stress are not life-threatening, but they seriously affect the patient's quality of life and spirit. At a mild level, digestive disorders make patients always in a state of stress, fatigue and discomfort. Besides, having a bowel movement many times a day also makes the patient easily dehydrated, weak body. In addition, the phenomenon of anorexia for a long time will make the body not fully supplemented with necessary nutrients, causing serious weight loss, affecting daily work performance.
More dangerous, if digestive disorders are not treated in time, it can make patients face the risk of irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, colon polyps or colon bleeding, even is colorectal cancer.

To prevent and treat digestive disorders caused by stress, patients should pay attention to the following issues:
5.1 Resolve stress - the cause of digestive disorders To eliminate stress, patients should:
Limit factors that can cause stress; Keep the right attitude and thoughts, replace negative thoughts with positive ones; Understand the right problem to eliminate fear, resentment, anxiety, depression, sadness, ...; Build a diet full of essential nutrients such as vitamins of group B, vitamins C, D, E, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, selenium, zinc, protein, starch and fat; Get complete rest by real relaxation; Exercise every day: Jog, swim or walk for 30 minutes/day,... If you have followed the above suggestions and still do not get rid of stress, the patient should see a doctor to be checked by a doctor. appropriate specialist advice and treatment.
5.2 Treatment of digestive disorders caused by stress According to experts, depending on the level of symptoms of digestive disorders caused by stress, there will be appropriate treatment methods. Some of the measures that can help treat digestive disorders that patients can refer to are:
Adjust diet:
A scientific and reasonable diet helps the patient to improve. symptoms effectively. Patients should:
Fully replenish water and electrolytes (about 2 - 3 liters/day); Eat a lot of green vegetables, fruits to supplement fiber, especially fruits rich in vitamin C such as guava, oranges, bananas, ... to enhance resistance, improve disease symptoms, support recovery of diseases. ulcers on the intestinal wall; Add more yogurt in the daily diet to provide beneficial bacteria, help the digestive system work more efficiently; Do not use foods of unknown origin, greasy food, rancid food, hot spicy food, fermented or re-raw foods (salad, blood pudding, spring rolls,...); Limit smoking, drinking alcohol, carbonated soft drinks,...; Follow the principle of eating cooked - drink boiling, eat slowly - chew thoroughly. Changing lifestyle habits
Stress causes digestive disorders, so building a positive living habit will be beneficial in treating stress and improving digestive system health. Specifically, the patient should:
Get enough sleep, on time, avoid anxiety and stress; Practice the habit of going to the toilet on time, helping the digestive system function properly with full function; Do not eat too full or let your stomach be too hungry, do not lie down immediately after eating; Sanitize living and working environment, wash hands before eating and after using the toilet to prevent infection; Enhance physical activities, maintain proper and moderate exercise habits to have a healthy digestive system. Use of drugs
When digestive disorders appear with unpleasant symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating, frequent bowel movements, vomiting, indigestion, ... the patient can use the prescribed medication. doctor. Some commonly used drugs are: Medicines to reduce bloating and indigestion, anti-diarrheal drugs, stomach pain relievers, antibiotics, enemas to help with constipation, drugs to support bowel movements,...
In addition, patients can supplement with probiotics and take Oresol to rehydrate the body as well as electrolytes. However, before taking the drug, patients should consult a doctor, strictly follow the treatment regimen of the doctor to avoid unwanted side effects. In particular, in the case of severe digestive disorders with symptoms such as high fever, dehydrated diarrhea, blood loss due to blood in the stool, etc., the patient should go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible. the faster the better.
Stress causes digestive disorders, if prolonged, can have a great impact on the psychology and health of the patient. Therefore, when unusual symptoms appear, the patient should see a doctor immediately to receive the best advice.