Millions of Americans each year suffer from debilitating anxiety and depression that severely effects overall quality of life.  In fact, a study conducted in 2005 to 2008 showed that anti-depressant usage among all ages in the United States increased nearly 400%(1).  Looking at the state of health of most of the general population, it’s safe to assume that this number has risen considerable since then.

Unfortunately, those with digestive disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are more likely to suffer from mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression (2).  This can lead poor digestive health sufferers to opt for anti-depressant medication in order to cope with the negative symptoms.  However, anti-depressants do not address the root cause of why poor mental health is occurring and often comes with a whole list of side effects.

In fact, many fail to make the connection that their emotional behavior is highly linked to the health of their gut microbiome.  Sadly, many will suffer needlessly for years with both poor digestive health and mental health problems.  Luckily, there are natural steps that can be taken in order to help rebuild digestive health. This can naturally put an end to the negative symptoms associated with IBD and IBS such as anxiety and depression.

Before we get into these solutions, let’s first discuss how an individual’s mental health can be caused by poor intestinal health.

Gut Health, IBS, and Anxiety

It’s important to understand that those suffering with either IBD, or IBS, are suffering from inflammation in the intestines.  To be clear, IBD is the name given to all unexplainable digestive disorders; IBS is the name given to try an further pinpoint the exact digestive condition the individual is suffering from.

With that said, all digestive disorders are a result of some level of intestinal inflammation.  Researchers have recently discovered that both the brain and gut are interconnected and are constantly sending feed back to each other (3).  Interestingly, this communication between the gut and brain is thought to travel up and down the vagus nerve which connects to the brain and travels all the way down to the stomach where it its connected to the nerves in our intestines.

As a result, when an individual is under immense amounts of intestinal inflammation, signals are sent from the intestines all the way to the brain.  The feelings of restlessness, nervousness, despair, and hopelessness that are often associated with anxiety and depression are typically the body’s way of trying to communicate with the individual that something internally is wrong.  Once this intestinal inflammation is reduced and digestive order is restored, these emotions typically can go away.

Unfortunately, rather than tune into this feedback that the body is trying to give us, society has been taught to numb this feedback with medication or drugs. With that said, the only true way to get rid of poor mental health that is being caused by poor digestive health is to correct gut microbiome!

Fungal Overgrowth’s, IBS, and Anxiety

As well as intestinal inflammation being able to contribute to poor mental health, fungal overgrowth’s such as candida can also contribute to poor mental health.  Before we confuse you, those suffering from conditions such as IBS almost always suffer from a candida overgrowth as well (4).  In fact, we believe that those suffering from digestive disorders such as IBS suffer from a combination of both intestinal inflammation and fungal overgrowth’s such as candida.

It should be known that candida is a pathogenic fungus which will actually “burrow” itself into the digestive lining which can result in immense amounts of intestinal inflammation.  This act alone could cause negative signaling from the stomach to the brain creating feelings of depression and anxiety.  However, candida does much more harm than just this.

It’s well known that candida releases over 70 different toxic byproducts into the body which can wreak havoc on the gut and can disrupt several different biological and necessary functions in the body.  Some of these toxins include gliotoxin, ethanol, and acetaldehyde. As result, the overgrowth of candida and its constant release of toxic byproducts can inevitably contribute to conditions such as IBD and IBS

It should be mentioned the main fuel source of candida is sugar.  Knowing this, it’s interesting to see that patients who were put on a specific carbohydrate, or low carbohydrate diet, showed immense improvements in their digestive disorders such as IBS (5).

Solutions for IBS and Mental Health

The first step that needs to be taken in those suffering from IBS and poor mental health is to reduce intestinal inflammation and to re-balance the gut microbiome.  This is easier said than done, but if the right steps are taken, it can be done.

In order to reduce this intestinal inflammation, all inflammatory foods need to be removed from the diet.  We’ve gone over these inflammatory foods many times before so if you have not done so already, please visit our IBD homepage.  Also, it’s imperative that you begin to follow a gut friendly and low inflammatory diet.

Luckily, we’ve put together a detailed post on the best diet for those suffering from digestive disorders.  This can all be found on our Diet Protocol Page.  Following the diet outlined on this page will also help naturally inhibit the growth of candida in the body.  This is because our diet is extremely low in sugar and certain types of carbohydrates which can feed and allow this fungus to multiply.

Sticking to the Diet for Improved Mental Health

Sticking to an anti-inflammatory and gut healing diet is imperative if you wish to recover from negative emotions such as anxiety and depression which are often associated with poor digestive health.  Unfortunately, many will struggle to adhere to this new way of eating and may succumb to falling back into their old destructive eating habits.

Luckily, knowing how hard sticking to a new diet can be for some, we created our Intestinal Health Cookbook.  Our cook book contains over 20 different mouth watering recipes which are gut friendly and can help reduce intestinal inflammation.  We’ve found that this cookbook helps individuals stay true to the diet knowing that they will be eating delicious and satiating meals.

With all that said, we cannot emphasis enough of how important it is to cook all your own meals.  By cooking all your own meals you take out the chance of consuming inflammatory foods which can trigger digestive woes and negative emotions such as anxiety and depression.  Although it may be tough in the beginning, your body and mind will thank you in the long run!

Other Solutions for IBS and Anxiety

As well as following the correct the diet, there are certain herbs and foods that can help with intestinal health and symptoms such as anxiety depression.

1. Grass-Fed Organic Liver

If you’re not doing so already, we highly recommend you begin to consume liver at least twice a week.  No other food on the planet is as nutrient dense as liver.  In fact, it’s full of beneficial minerals such as zinc, copper, phosphorous, calcium and magnesium.  It’s also abundant in all the B-vitamins and is especially high in B12.  The B-vitamins play an extremely important role in mood regulation and deficiencies have been linked to both anxiety and depression.

We highly recommend you only consume liver from pastured animals that were raised organically.  Unfortunately,  this can be challenging for some depending on your location.  In this case, Grass Land Beef can be a life savor as they will ship high quality animal products right to your door!  Also, there are various high quality desiccated beef liver supplements that can be a good option.

2. Reishi Mushroom

We can’t say enough about Reishi Mushroom.  It’s in our opinion the best herb for all around good health. As well as being great for the immune system, Reishi has powerful anti-fungal properties which can help keep the digestive tract free from inflammatory causing pathogens.  It’s not uncommon for individuals to report a better overall quality of life after taking Reishi Mushroom for several weeks.

In fact, this herb is considered to be on the best herbs for overall health in all of Chinese Medicine.  It’s been used for centuries for its life giving and immune modulating properties.  If you haven’t done so already, we highly recommend you give Reishi Mushroom a try!