Gut Health and Stress: What You Need to Know

By Moz Neumann

Marathon season isn't just about staying fit and injury-free, make sure you're looking after EVERY aspect of your health...

When considering sports nutrition, it’s essential to take a wholesome approach to health, performance, and recovery, keeping both nutritional and lifestyle needs in mind.

One key area to focus on is the gut, and the impact stress can have on it. You may see the gut being referenced a lot online, because it is linked to almost everything you're pursuing!

When gut health is impaired, everything else is compromised to some degree. Let’s dive into the 3 biggest issues we see with gut health and stress, and more importantly, what that means to you…

1. Leaky Gut Syndrome

Stress can upset the balance of bacteria in your gut, making your intestines more porous – this is called leaky gut. When this happens, unwanted substances can pass into your bloodstream, leading to inflammation. This may trigger digestive issues like IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). It can also weaken your immune system and affect overall health.

2. Digestion Problems

Stress affects how food moves through your digestive system. It can speed things up, causing diarrhea, or slow them down, leading to constipation. Since the gut and brain are closely connected, stress can disrupt this communication, making digestion unpredictable and uncomfortable.

3. Imbalanced Gut Bacteria

Long-term stress can reduce the good bacteria in your gut and allow harmful ones to take over. This imbalance, called dysbiosis, can cause digestive problems and even affect your mood. Studies show that stress-related gut changes may contribute to anxiety and depression as well.

All of these issues suppress your ability to perform and recover!

While we can't necessarily escape stress, we can equip ourselves to handle it better. Sourcing a highly bioactive probiotic is one very good step toward bulletproofing your gut, as well as glutamine, which helps strengthen the gut wall too.

Of course, to truly protect your gut from the impact of stress, we also strongly encourage you to prioritize sleep, give yourself "off time," and avoid foods that place huge amounts of stress on your digestive system.