What is Stress?
Stress, in a word, is a psychological response to challenges, pressures, or demands that come into our lives.
When we think a situation is overwhelming, difficult, threatening, or triggering; our psychology reacts to fight it. This reaction releases stress hormones like adrenaline from our body, which fluctuates our heart rate or sometimes creates heart-throbbing.
In this context, let’s see the 5 fixed causes of diarrhea due to stress, how to manage stress-provoked diarrhea, and the inspirational 10 ways to reduce stress and smile more every day.
Motivational and Chronic Stresses
Motivational stress is always helpful. It creates enthusiasm and fervor in the person to perform any activities by meeting deadlines. Negative stress impacts mental health by escaping danger. It creates chronic stress in an individual. Chronic stress shows some common symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, irritability, sleep disturbances or insomnia, and health hazards such as high blood pressure or weak immunity.
Can Stress Cause Diarrhea?
A Big Yes! Stress affects mentality through the gut-brain axis. It releases a kind of hormone called adrenaline, which directly causes bowel disorders. Consequently, the stressed person suffers from diarrhea.
Let’s know more about how stress causes diarrhea. Stress and the digestive power of an individual are interrelated to the gut-brain axis. The gut-brain axis emits hormone, which directly goes into the bowel. It causes indigestion, peptic ulcer, and often nausea.
1. Cortisol & Adrenaline Hormones and Digestion: Stress
When you’re overstressed, your body produces Cortisol and Adrenaline Hormones that you may or may not know. These hormones cause bowel disorders by disrupting your normal digestive process. As a result, you feel bubbles in your stomach and lose parsing. Sometimes, you’ve gastrointestinal problems. You emit gas by belching or through your buttocks. These two hormones interrupt food movement into your digestive tract, leading to diarrhea.
2. Fight or Flight Response: Stress
As soon as you eat something, your body starts fighting to digest it. It’s the body’s natural response to divert energy from digestion. It boosts your stamina for survival. However, if reacted, the fight or flight response can create gastrointestinal problems, including loose motion or diarrhea.
3. Gut Sensitivity
Stress is a psychological issue, which directly affects your mental health. The outcome of it is unknown to most of the people. Overstress amplifies the gut sensitivity to normal stimuli. This sensitivity results in abdominal disorder and causes diarrhea.
4. Impact on Gut Microbiota
Human digestion depends on the balance of gut bacteria. Gut bacteria absorb the food and release energy. However, chronic stress disrupts this balance and causes indigestion. This imbalance impedes gut microbiota, which directly contributes to diarrhea. Sometimes you may have bleeding while discharging stools or other digestive issues.
5. Aggravation of Existing Conditions
Stress exacerbates irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel diseases. When you feel stressed, it triggers a cascade of psychological responses in your body such as gut motility, increased gut permeability, and gut microbiome. These changes intensify your abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation with IBS.
Similarly, IBD people suffer from conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Stress in their case causes inflammation and disease flare-ups. Stressed people should manage these gastrointestinal disorders to alleviate their symptoms and lead a decent life.
How to Manage Stress-Provoked Diarrhea
You should manage stress to reduce its harmful impact on your digestive system and overall health. For this reason, you need relaxation like deep breathing, contemplation, yoga, a balanced diet, and exercise regularly to avoid stress levels.
However, we’ve some other advice for you to maintain your overall health. Always try to avoid oily, sugary, and junk foods that trigger your digestive disorders. Replace fluids lost during diarrhea by staying hydrated. If still diarrhea persists or worsens, you should consult a healthcare professional.
How to Reduce Stress in 10 Simple Ways and Smile More!
Let’s carefully read the following 10 simple ways to diminish mental or physical stress and get back more smiles.
1. Practice Deep Breathing
Deep & Slow breaths soothe our nervous system. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the 4-4-6 formula to reduce stress. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 and then exhale for 6 seconds. Psychologists agree with the benefits of this proven formula. This relaxes your body and removes stress at once.
2. Take Physical Exercise Regularly
Physical exercises, whether it’s a brisk walk, yoga, or moving your limbs, discharge endorphin hormones from the body. It can effectively manage your stress by reducing mental pressure. You can hope to get sound sleep and improve your overall health. A sound mind in a sound body goes the proverb. Every individual should have physical exercise in the morning or the afternoon.
3. Get Enough Sleep
Schedule early bed and rise to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Make sure quality sleep can restore your health. If you’ve any anxiety, drop it on one side. Be practical and exert your mental pressure. Sleep on the right side. If you don’t have sleep within 10-20 minutes, you should interchange sides on the bed. You should avoid taking caffeine, tea, coffee, and vape before bedtime. Still, don’t have sound sleep? Consult a medicine specialist or psychologist. Try aiming for 7-8 hours each night to improve your well-being.
4. Practice Meditation
Meditation is a tonic to drive your stress. It focuses on the present, reduces mental anxiety, and promotes peace of mind. The best time for meditation or quantum is in the early morning or the afternoon. However, you need a calm and serene atmosphere for your meditation.
5. Sometimes Laugh
Laughing is a spontaneous titillation of psychology. It comes when something pleasant knocks in your mind. Smiling focuses on positivity. Laughter is a medicine. Create jokes or cut jokes with near and dear ones. Ask them to tell you funny stories that make you laugh. You can watch funny movies to refresh your melancholic mind.
6. Stay Organized
Organized people are most often free from stress. Unorganized people suffer from clutter and chaos that creates stress. Be organized and prioritize your important and urgent tasks to lessen your workload. READ MORE
7. Get Connection with Loved Ones
Society makes a man. Connectivity with reliable friends or family members can provide you with an emotional boost. Try to be interactive or proactive with them. It’s a natural stress reliever.
8. Take Breaks
Taking breaks can relieve you from scheduled workloads. Staying away from stressful situations periodically can relieve you from physical and mental pressure. If you can’t do so, even take a 5-minute break to get relaxed or sip a cup of tea that can make a great difference.
9. Limit Caffeine and Sugar
Overtaking caffeine and sugar causes anxiety and irritability in the mind. Take balanced meals to maintain stable energy levels. Keep away from alcohol even though you’re accustomed to it.
10. Focus on Gratitude
Gratitude is the outcome of mental satisfaction. Reflect on things for which you must be thankful for. Gratitude can divert your concentration from stress to positivity. It can soothe your agonized mind and foster a happier mindset. A good mindset is a precondition to staying away from stress.
Bonus Tips To Reduce Stress
Try to smile often even though it seems to be forced at first. Remember, those who can smile can outlive them as smiling triggers the brain to discharge feel-good chemicals, reduces stress, and improves mood.
