I’m always diving deeper into my understanding of why and how the gut falls into dysfunction.
The most recent SIBO summit illuminated the biggest overlooked piece of gut healing: the emotional and psychological piece. While some experts focused solely on this topic, others brought it up during their lecture. It was the theme of entire summit. And it is important to raise awareness about this often overlooked topic in health and medicine. The importance of addressing the mind, emotions and spirit, while also addressing the body.
It is difficult and triggering to look at our emotional health. Especially when doctors tell us that IBS is in our heads. When it comes to that deep inner work, we’re already on the defensive, without being given much structure for fixing or exploring this complicated issue.
I’ve seen it in my health coaching practice from reading hundreds of health history forms. Stress is almost always a major cause and driver of IBS and SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) symptoms.
But what is stress? And how do we recognize it in our lives?
Stress can be chronic or acute.
Acute stress comes from trauma and can manifest as trapped physical tension in the smooth muscles of the intestines or disrupt nervous system function. This greatly influences digestion and elimination, particularly by decreasing motility and immune function (which protects us from pathogens).
One SIBO talk highlighted the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study as a good indicator of who will have IBS as an adult. This study measures traumatic childhood experiences and a higher score correlates with much greater chances of developing digestive disease and autoimmune dysfunction.
The trauma from these childhood events get trapped in the nervous system and muscle memory and throw off involuntary gut function, effecting stomach acid secretion, peristalsis, motility, intestinal permeability, cortisol secretion and immune function. Traumatic events, endured during childhood or adulthood, can cause other common IBS symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. According to some experts, as many as 90 percent of people with IBS suffer with anxiety or depression.
Trauma and other difficult emotions that get trapped in the body become constant stressors on the body and keep the gut from functioning well. Digestion is compromised and pathogenic overgrowths can happen as a result.
Stress can also be lower grade but chronic. It can take the form of constant activity (never slowing down or taking time to unwind), hypervigilance (over activation of the nervous system to always look for impending problems/the body) or chronic worry about money, the future, your family, what people will think, etc.
No matter how perfect or dialed in your diet or supplement protocol is, if your body and mind are stuck in a chronic or acute stress mode, healing will never fully happen. Symptoms and gut function can improve but not fully recover.
Mental and emotional healing is just as important as the right testing, anti-microbials, supplements, probiotics, habit change and diet.
Bringing attention to the elephant in the room
While it’s not easy or comfortable to address painful emotional patterns, it is crucial for gut health.
Being constantly busy and in motion is a common escape from uncomfortable feelings/emotions.
If you never acknowledge or process those emotions, your body will chase you forever, asking for resolution through strange aches, imbalances and dysfunctions. You can spend your life running away, avoiding those internal cries for help and stay in gut crisis, or quiet down to listen to those body messages.
The best way to escape anxiety is to stop avoiding your body and emotions and learn how to connect to and inhabit it.
Mental anxiety can be adressed by identifying where it lives in the physical body and attending to it.
I use DIY methods with my clients to locate and resolve that physical anxiety. There are other practitioners that can greatly support and facilitate that healing process.
These professional include somatic experiencing therapists, rapid eye movement therapists, Feldenkrais practitioners. Other helpful practices include biofeedback therapy, chi gong or tai chi, hypnotherapy, yoga therapy, breathing exercises, body centered meditation or somatic therapy. These are all body centered approaches that heal trauma and chronic stress.
My story
In my two personal experiences with IBS, the emotional aspect was definitely a big part of it.
The first time with IBS I found peace and joy in my healing experience. I embraced my diet and let go of my stresses by quitting my job. I looked at healing as blessing not a chore. I had faith instead of fear, so I could ride the roller coaster of “healing crisis” symptoms that came up along the healing process. I checked in with my coach every two weeks for a year to guide me through the healing process. At the end of it my body was so transformed that I could eat anything without reaction. Dairy and gluten included.
I know I was fortunate. Not everyone has the luxuries I had, the ability to take time off and hire a coach.
The second time around, a year and half ago, when I developed SIBO, I gained so much knowledge and experience working with clients that I was able to health coach myself.
I was able to constructed a comprehensive healing program that addressed body, spirit and mind. This cut my 4-month SIBO healing process down to only 6 weeks. You can read about my experience here.
SIBO summit spotlight
The most interesting talk during the SIBO summit was the one by Steve Wright on Ketamine Assisted Therapy to release deep tensions and emotional trauma from the system.
Despite all the work Steve did on healing his gut, there were stubborn symptoms that persisted. After his ketamine therapy sessions he was able to resolve them all.
He talked about the default mode network, which is our neurological basis for self, our relationship to others and our perception of the past and future. This itself can dictate our experience in life and drive our hyper vigilance and anxiety.
He talked about using a prescription medication during 4 to 8 therapist assisted sessions to power down the default mode network in order to feel, process and release stored body emotions and memories without judgement. This releases traumatic events stored in the body but not consciously remembered or consciously repressed. Steve processed the trauma of almost being electrocuted when he was 2 years old. Something he could not have remembered on his own.
I don’t recommend Ketamine therapy as a gut healing tool because it is not widely available and expensive. I bring it up as an example of how stress and trauma from a long time ago can keep the gut inflamed and functioning poorly. There is another way to achieve Steve’s results.
The ancient, low technology way to heal
I too have been working on releasing stress and trauma from my system. After the initial trauma of having IBS, my physical symptoms went away but I was left with hyper vigilance and more anxiety than I should have. This is my last step in healing my vulnerable gut.
When my anxiety goes away, I will know that my gut healing is complete.
My approach to working with my default mode network is the ancient practice of chi gong. Also spelled qi gong.
Like drug assisted therapy it powers down my hyper vigilance and lowers my judgement and emotional charge around traumatic events so I can release them. This is not a mental process but a physical or somatic one.
It takes more than 4 to 8 sessions to get results but there are perks along the way, like community (support), personal growth, insights/realizations, and spiritual connection.
Through this process I have learned to quiet down my nervous system so it can enjoys stillness rather than being irritated by it.
Chi gong teachers you to make choices about your reactions and recognize unhealthy patterns. This was you can become your own best therapist as you recognize and release unhealthy patterns.
Chi gong helps with the past as well as the future. It builds resiliency in the system so that future stressors don’t throw your body back into imbalance. Before chi gong, the stress of my recent move to Argentina, and living in a moldy apartment for 6 weeks would have caused digestive problems and other physical distress.
Instead, I weathered that storm without gut problems or an IBS relapse. I’m grateful I have learned how to recover quickly from this ancient practice.
Healing provides so many valuable life lessons. Which are not achieved through pills and food. Healing is deeper than that. It can be profound if you open to it.
If you want to learn the deeper lessons of gut healing offered by the 44 practitioner experts you can can listen to a replay of the SIBO summit here
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.