The Link Between Your Gut and Your Mood in Perimenopause and Beyond
Dr. Anna Garrett, AFMCP
Perimenopause and Menopause Expert, Hormone Balancing Specialist, Women's Health Educator and Advocate, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner
Most of us think that gut health relates only to our bowels, but there’s much more to it than that. Our gut is also known as our “second brain.” This is because so many of our “brain chemicals,” like serotonin and dopamine, are actually produced in the gut.
Your gut is home to the enteric nervous system.
The enteric nervous system (ENS) cells line the intestinal tract and help the GI tract digest food. But it’s much more than just a way to digest food. The ENS uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain; in fact, 95 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the bowels. In just the last few years, more and more evidence has shown that the gut microbiome (bacteria) can influence brain chemistry and a wide range of behaviors, including emotional behavior, pain perception, and how the stress system responds.
What Neurotransmitters Are Produced in the Gut?
A large percentage of neurotransmitters are produced in the gut. These include serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine, melatonin, and GABA. Disruptions in the levels of these chemicals can contribute to depression, anxiety, seeking behaviors that provide “dopamine hits,” poor sleep, memory problems, and brain fog…to name a few.
What Role Does Our Gut?Play in Mood?
One of the most significant ways our brains and bodies are connected is through the stress response. Our bodies respond to stress with “fight, flight, or freeze.” When you’re in this mode, your body floods with cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, chronic stress produces more and more cortisol which creates inflammation. Inflammation manifests in our digestive tract in a variety of ways, including:
The connection between the brain and gut is so closely related that healthcare professionals sometimes prescribe antidepressants to help with signs and symptoms of IBS. But this doesn’t solve the root cause of what’s going on…an imbalance of microbes and gut inflammation.
领英推荐
5 Ways to Improve Your Gut Health
Soothing Supplements?to Ease Your Gut
Gut health can be dramatically improved with the use of probiotics and soothing supplements. Here are a few to check out:
Where To Find Quality Supplements?For Your Gut
And remember, when it comes to supplements, quality absolutely matters. Wellevate is an excellent source for all top-quality brands. You can access my store here:?https://wellevate.me/drannagarrett.
Healing your gut and balancing microbes allows neurotransmitter production to return to healthy levels, which helps your mood, lifts the brain fog, improves sleep, and returns you to the pleasant human you want to be.
B2B ghostwriter for lean marketing teams — loves to maximize your ROI by repurposing white papers, one-sheets, etc. ? Content Strategy, Ideation & Ghostwriting ? STEM background ? Data lover ? Slightly feral ? AI adept
2 年This was a GREAT read, thank you! (my brain surely works way better when I'm off sugar)