The Gut-Brain Connection: Why Your Microbiome Matters More Than You Think

I’ll tell you what a Pepto-Bismol commercial never will - that indigestion you fight every evening… that heartburn…that tiny throw-up thing you do in your mouth sometimes after you burp… that isn’t just from an “upset tummy” after eating or from eating too late in the evening. Oh, and….Peppa-Pig-Pink-Pepto won’t cure that for you, either!

What you’re experiencing can actually be indicator lights, blinking brightly at you to take a deeper look at your gut. More specifically, at the microbiome environment in your body.

Your microbiome environment is a community of trillions of microorganisms that live in your gut. These tiny organisms play a crucial role in many aspects of your health, including your mood, energy levels, sleep quality, and digestion. These areas linking arms in turn impact your hormones (ladies - talking to you!)

70-80% of neurotransmitters (brain communicators like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, etc) are made in our digestive system. The foods we eat, the level of stress we carry, and our emotional environment all work in tandem to create this microbiome balance. The bacterium in our digestive system is actually what creates these neurotransmitters for our brain. 

What High School Health class will never teach you (and Nurse Nancy will never hand you a pamphlet on in the doctor’s office) is that so much of our mental health crisis is actually attached to the status of what’s happening in our digestive systems.

Our guts and brains are a two-way communication system, with more communication flowing in a pathway from the gut to the brain. Zoloft promises to transform your inner Eeyore into an outter Tigger. But what it fails to do is target the actual root cause. Anti-depressants (SSRI’s) can only recirculate the serotonin already pre-existing in your brain at the time you begin the medication. If 70-80% of serotonin is developed in your digestive system, and SSRi’s cant reproduce serotonin, then your inner Eeyore isn’t getting out of those sweatpants anytime soon - because the actual problem is a gut that isnt producing enough serotonin. 

Another culprit of microbiome imbalance - a nasty 6-letter word your Mother secretly used her middle finger to solute: S-T-R-E-S-S.

Our ‘gut brain access’ is a complex communication network of nerves & neurotransmitter signals. The primary pathway it’s communicating every second of every day is our Vagus Nerve.

Our Vagus Nerve is a nerve in our brains that runs into every visceral organ in our body. In common-speak, that means it is a nerve that essentially communicates with our total nervous system. So when we experience stress, primarily chronic stress (which lets face it - all of us has exposure to chronic stress what with the economy, political polarities, inflation, family life, etc), our vagus nerve gets disrupted, which by proxy interrupts the flowing communication between gut, brain, organs, and nervous system. This is why a whole-listic approach to our healing is SO IMPORTANT - and why we have to address our stress and stress responses when wanting to heal our bodies and minds. 

Ok.. so what are some symptoms that could be indicating you have a microbiome imbalance? Here’s a few:

1. GI symptoms 

• Bowel movements (frequency, form, eliminating fully, etc) 

• Gas

• Bloating

• Belching

• Heartburn

• Leaky gut

2. Fatigue

3. Mood and behavior disorders

4. Anxiety, depression, and/or hopelessness

5. Insomnia 

Intrigued to know more? Listen to part 1 of my recent podcast where I answer questions on this topic and even share a personal story of how antibiotics affect our microbiome.