Candida Connection: Is Your Stress Causing Leaky Gut and Candida?

Everyday stress could cause harmless microbes in your body to become pathogenic! These bacteria will rapidly multiply and mutate, leaving you at risk for an infection.

Did you know what goes on in your gut can dictate your mood, your perspective, and your sense of optimism?

Having earned the title of the second brain, the gut is in constant dialogue with the:

Immune system
Brain and neurological system
Hormonal system
Our inner ecology

The connection between the gut and our psychology is a two-way street. On the one hand, gastrointestinal inflammation and infection can contribute to things like depression and brain fog.¹ On the other, mental stress or trauma can cause intestinal permeability or “leaky gut.”^{2. 3}

As it turns out, psychological stress can do more than influence the integrity of our own cells. Scientists have found that the bacteria living inside of us can actually detect whether or not we feel stress.⁴

When we experience mental, emotional, or physical stress, we release stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine.

These stress hormones are meant to protect us during potentially dangerous events. They move energy stores into the muscle, increasing our heart rate and our breath. And in the process, cortisol and norepinephrine shut down our digestive system and our immune system.

Stress hormones move our body from digestion to a fight-or-flight response.

The bacteria that are normally present in the digestive system can read stress in the body and detect the presence of stress hormones. Researchers have found that usually harmless microbes will suddenly become pathogenic in response to the stress hormones that we release.^{5, 6}

When bacteria become pathogenic, they multiply rapidly or mutate, and this often leads to infection. Once this happens, the inner ecology of the gut is thrown out of balance.

Keep in mind that stress not only signals bacteria to multiply and mutate, it also shuts down the digestive system and the immune system. These systems usually protect us from disease. This means that when we experience stress, we are more vulnerable than ever to bacterial overgrowth and infection.

Once the inner ecology of the gut becomes imbalanced, the door opens for a wide range of health conditions to develop and manifest.

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Candida Connection: Is Your Stress Causing Leaky Gut and Candida?

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