It’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which feels like the ideal time to talk about something I see all the time in clinic. The emotional issues associated with IBS. It’s not just the stress of dealing with bloating, discomfort and unpredictable toilet habits (although let’s be honest, that’s no small thing). I’m talking about anxiety, low mood and the foggy-headed feeling that often walks hand-in-hand with digestive issues.
If you’ve ever felt like your gut and your mood are on the same rollercoaster, you’re not imagining it. Research shows that over half of people diagnosed with IBS also experience anxiety or depression. Despite this, the mental health impact of IBS is often brushed aside, as if it’s just a side note.
But that’s not the whole picture, not even close.
The gut and brain are connected and influence each other via the gut-brain axis. It’s like a two-way communication channel, with signals travelling back and forth all day long. When your digestion is inflamed, sluggish or out of balance that gets relayed to your brain and the brain responds with anxiety, poor resilience and low motivation. Over time, these patterns can become part of your everyday life.
This bi-directional relationship via the vagus nerve is just one way that the gut influences mental well-being. We need good digestion to absorb the raw materials our brain depends on. I’m talking about vitamin B12, folate, iron, magnesium and zinc, these are all nutrients that are commonly low in people with IBS. You might be eating well, but if you’re not absorbing nutrients properly you’re more likely to develop other seemingly unrelated symptoms including anxiety and low mood.
This is something I see again and again with clients. Sometimes they have run blood tests with their GP showing issues with iron, B12 adn folate but often we can see sub-clinical deficiencies when they complete a nutritional assessment questionnaire. The disrupted gut flora, food sensitivities and lack of digestive secretions all get in the way of proper absorption.
Protein is another big one. You need to break protein down into amino acids, which your brain then uses to make neurotransmitters like serotonin (which helps with mood), dopamine (motivation and drive), and GABA (calm and focus). However, if you’re bloated, gassy, or suffering with reflux, chances are your digestive secretions aren’t where they need to be and that means you’re not extracting those key amino acids.
And let’s not forget about fats. Essential fatty acids are literally the building blocks of your brain. But to digest them, you need bile and if your bile flow is sluggish (as it often is with IBS, constipation, or a history of low-fat dieting), then you’re not going to absorb these fats properly. That means less fuel for your brain, and more inflammation hanging around where it’s not wanted.
So it’s no surprise that low mood, anxiety, fatigue and brain fog so often accompany IBS. When your gut isn’t working properly, your brain and body will struggle.
This is why at Brain Food Nutrition Clinic, I never work with gut issues in isolation. Whether someone comes in with digestive symptoms, mental health concerns, or both we always explore what’s going on beneath the surface. Through thorough examination of symptoms, health history we can piece together cause and effect. We then use tailored food strategies and gentle, evidence-based supplementation to help clients move forward.
I’ve seen clients go from feeling anxious, flat and exhausted to calm, energised and more resilient. This isn’t done through pushing through or masking symptoms, but by nourishing their body properly and restoring that critical gut-brain link.
Let me tell you about Emma (not her real name), a client who came to me feeling completely stuck. She’d been diagnosed with IBS a few years earlier and was living with daily bloating, unpredictable bowels and intense discomfort after meals. But what really bothered her and what no one seemed to take seriously, was how low she felt. The fatigue, the anxiety and the feeling that she couldn’t focus or think clearly.
She’d been prescribed antidepressants, referred for CBT, and told to manage her stress levels but no one had ever asked about her digestion. No one had looked at her nutrient status, or whether her gut was actually able to absorb the goodness from her food.
We assessed her nutritional status in an initial consultation, by looking closely at her symptoms, health history. We asked her GP to run a full blood tests too and the results were clear: her B12 and iron were sub-optimal. This was likely because her digestive secretions were low. She also couldn’t tolerate eating much protein as it caused too much bloating. It was no wonder she felt awful, her body was starved of what it needed to function.
We worked together over a couple of months, gently supporting her digestion, replenishing nutrients and reducing the inflammation in her gut. That’s when the magic happened. Her bloating eased, her energy came back and most importantly, that heavy, anxious fog started to lift. She started to feel like her old-self again.
That’s the power of working with the root cause. When we support the gut, we support the whole person, not just the symptoms.
If you’re living with IBS and feeling like your mood has taken a hit too, please know that there is another way. You don’t have to live in survival mode.
If you’re ready to explore what’s really going on and take some steps towards balance and clarity, then I’d love to help. You can request an online or in-person (in Kings Heath, South Birmingham) appointment here.
