Connections between mind & gut

Years ago, in my early twenties, I was in the midst of an extremely emotionally-challenging time and my physical health suffered enormously. In particular, I had the worst GI pain of my life. Everything I ate made me feel worse. I would often be up in the night with terrible abdominal pain. I was afraid to go to potlucks and social gatherings that centered around food because I was never sure what was going to happen to me digestively. I tried so many diets and restrictive eating plans that promised to make my symptoms disappear, and quite frankly, my condition just seemed to get worse. This whole experience was super stressful. I did not feel hopeful that I would get better. Actually, I did not feel a lot of hope in general.

Life felt overwhelming. I moved to the woods to live and be alone in a one-room cob house, which happened to be in an area where many medicinal plants grew wildly. I started to learn a little bit about herbs in the area, and I also read a lot about health, mostly out of desperation to climb out of the “feeling sick and sad” well I had fallen into. Around this same time, a book came out called The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health by Dr. Emeran Mayer. This was the first time I ever really thought about the relationship between what was happening for me emotionally and the distress I was experiencing digestively.

Some great research has been published in the past decade that highlights the bidirectional relationship between gut and mind, and work on this topic is increasingly influential in both western conventional medicine and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) fields. It is fascinating to note that Chinese medicine has linked digestion and emotions for centuries. Many ancient texts focus on the importance of digestion for mental wellbeing, and some schools of thought within Chinese medicine trace all ailments back to the digestive system. It’s exciting to think about conventional and complementary medicines working alongside each other more frequently in the years to come.

There is so much to say about the relationship between mental health and digestive health. Many of us struggle with emotional challenges, digestive distress, or both. I’ll continue to write and share more on this topic in the weeks to come. In the meantime, you are welcome to write to me if you’re looking for more reading or resources on this topic or if you’d like to schedule an herbal session.

Warmly,

Artemisia

innervillagehealth.com 

Schedule a session here

Related Resources

• I liked this podcast episode interview between Dr. Emeran Mayer and Dr. Kerry Wangen, who both specialize in psychiatry and gastroenterology and are advocates for holistic approaches to mental and digestive health.

• This article gives a little bit of information about the history of the digestion-emotion relationship in conventional medicine, which dates back hundreds of years in the US (it’s more of a short historical piece than a scientific report).

• If you’re looking for a little bit of inspiration to appreciate your gut more, you might like this TED Talk by Giulia Enders, who has written an easy-to-digest (haha) pop science book on the same subject.