A big project at work has a looming deadline and, suddenly, your gut symptoms worsen despite no changes in your diet. Or you had an altercation with your spouse or children and your gut is in knots. That’s how many of my clients experience stress affecting their IBS!
Conversely, many have also told me that when they go on vacation and can finally relax, their symptoms magically disappear. And they can eat anything they want! This speaks to the power of our mind over our gut symptoms. It also gives us a cue to how we can take control, instead of letting our stress control us.
Hi there – I’m Antonella Dewell, a registered dietitian specializing in the management of IBS. I’ve helped many clients find long-term relief from IBS and let me tell you: you can’t neglect stress management. Time and time again I’ve come across clients who were able to manage their gut symptoms with diet and, suddenly, saw a worsening due to stress. That’s why it is so important to have strategies to manage it. Let’s take a look at them!
But first, let’s answer an important question.
Why Does Stress Affect IBS?
IBS is a disorder of the “gut-brain connection”. This means that the communication between the gut and the brain is not working the way it should.
We all have experienced “butterflies” in our stomachs when anxious about a special event. That’s the brain and the gut talking! But in people with IBS, this talk is amplified. Therefore, the response to a stimulus – for example, anxiety about a job interview or simply eating a meal – is exaggerated.
Indeed, the brain can misinterpret normal signals from the digestive tract, causing the body to become extra sensitive to stimuli like stress. As a result, people with IBS may experience tummy pain and bloating after meals, urgent trips to the bathroom, and visible distention of the abdomen. Or they are not being able to use the toilet for days!
5 Tools to Improve Stress & Your IBS Symptoms
There is a lot of evidence that lowering stress can help improve IBS symptoms. In our busy lives, most of us are constantly in a “fight or flight” state (activated by the sympathetic system). We can lower our stress by using techniques that allow us to be more in a state of “rest and digest” and activate the parasympathetic system instead.
Here are 5 research-proven strategies to reduce IBS symptoms by targeting the gut-brain connection and activating the parasympathetic system.
1. Diaphragmatic breathing
Also known as ‘belly breathing’, this is the easiest and quickest way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and calm us down. It’s my favorite tool as it is very effective and accessible to anyone. All you need to do is take a minute or two from your day.
You can belly breathing any time you feel overwhelmed or anxious. But it is especially helpful to practice just before eating. It can help you better digest your food and avoid gut symptoms. It’s no coincidence that the parasympathetic state is called the ‘rest and digest’ state!
But the effect of deep breathing goes beyond relaxation. The expansion and contraction of the diaphragm can directly affect the gut and relieve pain, urgency, and constipation.
To properly practice diaphragmatic breathing, follow these steps:
- Lie or sit comfortably and place one hand on your chest and one on your belly.
- Concentrate on your breathing and ensure that only the hand on your stomach moves up and down.
- Breathe in through the nose for a count of 4. Hold for a count of 4-7.
- Breathe out through the mouth for a count of 8. Repeat as many times as you wish.
2. Yoga
In addition to activating the ‘rest and digest’ relaxation response and lowering stress, some yoga poses can stretch and compress the muscles in our intestines. This can help relieve constipation or bloating and gently relieve trapped gas.
Think about twisting poses (seated or lying down), the child pose, the ‘wind-relieving pose’, and the happy baby pose. If you are new to yoga, look for the help of an instructor to ensure you are practicing the poses correctly.
Research studies have shown that practicing yoga 2-3 times a week for 45-60 minutes decreases bowel symptoms, IBS severity, and anxiety. In addition, consistent yoga practice led to improvements in quality of life, and physical functioning (1). To learn more about how yoga can help with IBS, read my article Yoga for IBS: 4 Gentle Poses to Relieve Bloating, Gas & Constipation.
3. Meditation
Meditation can help lower stress, reduce abdominal pain and bloating, and improve IBS symptoms in the short- and long-term. It can seem daunting at first. Or you may think you can’t do it because your mind is racing with thoughts, and give up quickly.
However, the beauty of meditation is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. Just taking the time to practice counts. If you are new to meditation, a good place to start is to use a meditation app such as Calm or Headspace. All it takes to start is 10 minutes of practice a day.
4. Journaling
Journaling about thoughts and deep emotions regarding your IBS experience can help you improve your symptoms. The practice of journaling can help you gain insights into your thought processes and recognize the differences between what is just a thought versus reality.
Moreover, getting it “all out” on paper can help dissipate pent-up emotions. Once we write our thoughts and emotions down, we start to organize them and think about them in a different way.
There is no right or wrong way to do this. All you need is a journal or a note app on your phone. If journaling seems daunting, you can start by writing down 3 things or people you are grateful for at the start or end of your day. Just make it work for you!
5. Gut-directed hypnotherapy
This is not what you may have seen in a Hollywood movie but real science. It’s a type of hypnotherapy targeted at improving IBS symptoms. Think of it as meditation for the gut.
Essentially, it helps retrain how the brain and the gut communicate. As a consequence, your response to stimuli such as stress or food is reduced, and so are your IBS symptoms.
In addition, it helps reduce anxiety and depression and improves the overall quality of life, which also impacts your gut symptoms. You can try this with the help of a gut psychologist trained in gut-directed hypnotherapy. Or you can use a gut-directed hypnotherapy app (2).
Stress and IBS: It’s a Wrap!
Food is not the only thing that triggers gut symptoms. Stress can have a tremendous effect on your IBS. As a registered dietitian specializing in IBS, I take a holistic view of symptom management.
In addition to helping my clients figure out their dietary triggers, I address lifestyle triggers such as stress, exercise, and sleep. I recommend strategies (including all the above – and more!) to maximize symptom relief, and give my clients tools so they can easily implement them in their life.
If you are suffering from IBS and want a clear roadmap to finding long-term freedom, let’s chat! Click the button below and book a free call with me. I can show you what the next best steps for you are. And you can breathe a sigh of relief that you have someone on your side to figure this out.
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Published May 11, 2021. Updated, October 21, 2024.
Antonella Dewell, MS, RDN | IBS Resolution Expert
Antonella Dewell is a registered dietitian and IBS specialist based in California. She has over 2 decades of experience working in clinical research at Stanford. Since 2018, she has been running a private practice. She helps people with IBS gain real, lasting relief from IBS symptoms in just 2-4 weeks without giving up all the foods they love, so they can stop feeling anxious around food and get back to fully enjoying food and life again.
