Why So Many People Have Anxiety and Digestive Problems

Are you someone who has both anxiety and digestive problems? This is one of the most common pairings I see in my private clinical practice, and within the field of traditional Chinese medicine, there's a very common reason why the two are often seen together. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hein, author of the health book Master of the Day, and doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video here today, there are two very important links right below the video. The first is for a free guide that I've put together for daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And the second is for if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, you can reach out to my private practice with the link below this video. Digestive issues are by far the number one most common issue I see in my private practice. And one thing really jumps out to anyone practicing clinical medicine. A lot of our patients with gut issues often present with anxiety. And it's not that they're just anxious because they're coming in to see a medical practitioner with gut issues. It's that the two really do coexist. That people who have an issue with their gut issues, primarily food allergies, bloating, SIBO, that sort of thing, will often have some degree of clinical anxiety or be anxious people or have that kind of disposition, that kind of constitution. But many people will even have really clinical anxiety along with symptoms of food allergies or SIBO. So why is that? There's both a simple biomedical lesson as well as a traditional Chinese medicine lesson here. Now the gut is often called the enteric nervous system. So that's why, for example, a kid can think about something stressful. Like he has a test today in school and he's thinking, thinking, thinking, and then he's thought himself into a stomachache. Or you're worried about something coming up in your job and you get diarrhea. The reason that can happen is because of the nervous system where a thought can actually cause a physiological change in the body, right? So the thoughts will produce physiological changes. And the reason it can happen so fast, right? You didn't eat anything. You didn't eat a giant burrito and get diarrhea or something. You didn't get food poisoning. You actually caused a physiological change that then showed up in the gut. And that's because of the nervous system. Now one thing that's very interesting is just how much of the serotonin in the body is produced in the gut. So that gut-brain axis is very interesting in terms of just overall mental health and how people feel. Now within the field of traditional Chinese medicine, there's something else here though. There are two very common constitutional findings that show up together. And when I say constitutional, I mean there's a genetic tendency of one pattern and another pattern that often overlap. Now one pattern is what we call just weak digestive function. So this is often categorized as spleen qi deficiency. I have lots of videos on this on the channel. But to sum it up, it's overall someone who tends towards bloating, issues with their appetite, variable stools or loose stools, food allergies, sensitive digestion, issues with indigestion or stomach acid overall. And that is often a constitutional feature for many people. Of course, you can get into that from excessive antibiotic use, illness, poor diet, etc. But a high percentage of people that I see really have a genetic tendency towards that. Now that is often paired with another genetic tendency, another constitutional finding that we call weak heart yang. Now weak heart yang is basically a sensitive person, a nervous person, someone who has a sensitive to stimulation and noise and sound and sensitive to immaterial things like noise and material things like food. Now weak heart yang sensitivity and spleen qi deficiency are a dream team, a pathological dream team that you see very often clinically. So in my experience, not only can these just be two genetic tendencies that when that person is under stress, unrested, out of balance, whatever term you want to use, those can become basically pathological. They can be pushed to a crisis point. So one option is that they are genetic tendencies that commonly coexist. The second is, of course, long-term gut dysregulation, long-term changes in the microbiome can also produce or exacerbate symptoms of anxiety or depression. I mean, I've seen research on how there's a strong correlation between the increased frequency of antibiotic usage and an increase in depression or anxiety. So clearly, alterations in the microbiome can produce alterations in mental status. So these are some general thoughts and observations on why I'm seeing so many common issues with both the gut and anxiety or depression, but just some food for thought and just some good general lessons on traditional Chinese medicine. So before you guys go, check out those links right below this video, and I'll see you soon.