The effect of Emotions on Gut Health

You might be wondering, “how on earth is my gut health related to emotions that I have?” That is a great question, and the answer is one that needs to be more known by anyone in the health field or simply looking for answers to their unique problems. 

In order to find the answer, let’s first take a closer look at what good and bad gut health looks like before we get to emotions and how they can affect your body. 

So what does Bad Gut Health look like? 

A common term that is used today is Leaky Gut Syndrome. The definition is exactly what the name implies. A functioning “gut” includes the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and small/large intestines. The Large and small intestine have small pores or gateways that allow the flow of water and other nutrients from the food we intake to be absorbed into our body. These gateways are small enough to only take what is needed and leave the waste(metals, chemicals, organisms) to be excreted. With Leaky Gut, however, the pores or gateways become large enough to allow waste products into our bloodstream. This in turn makes the rest of our organs try and pick up the slack, often causing other health concerns such as autoimmune diseases, allergies, acne, bloating, Crohns disease, irritable bowel disease, liver disease, diabetes and much more. Leaky Gut is just one of the many “syndromes'' that are attributed to poor gut health that can cause a cascade of other health concerns. At the very root of Bad gut health is something that is suppressing the function of the organs involved. 

Here is what Good Gut Health should look like!.

Good gut health health is pretty much the exact opposite of bad! You can break down and utilize your food without increasing the waste product in your blood. A good gut leads to a powerful immune system. Meaning you may not have allergies at all, and when you do “catch a sickness” you are more than capable of fighting it off on your own power almost all of the time. Your system is not suppressed in any way and you feel amazing! 

Emotions & Gut Health. We all have emotions, but how do they actually affect our bodies? I thought they were just something that I experienced in my mind? 

Emotions are very sneaky. They have the power to shape who we are and who we become all while seemingly uncontrollable. We have great hopes and dreams for our futures, but find it difficult to get there because of insecurities from our past. They may be fleeting thoughts, but they are felt deeply. “Any emotion not expressed, gets repressed in our body and comes out in dis-ease, dysfunction, or an action or characteristic we don’t like” Often we push trauma, anger, or grief to the side thinking that we have overcome them. In reality, the sideline is already full and these thoughts are moving into our organs and suppressing their function. 

Every organ in our bodies can store and are suppressed by repressed thoughts and feelings. A great example of this is the angry drunkard. This person is a genuinely nice guy until they get a little too much alcohol which goes straight to the liver. It just so happens that anger is often a huge emotion found on the liver. A different example is the feeling of being lost or vulnerable which is directly related to the small intestine whereas a feeling of being stuck or defensive is related to the large intestine. Just one unexpressed and repressed emotion can start to negatively affect your gut health. Now depending on how many years you have been in this world, there is a huge potential to have multiple layers of emotional traumas to any organ in your body. Here is something to leave you with that might bring some more clarity! 

A suppressed organ is to your overall health what a military without its general is to a war. Functional but not effective. 

Here at Vibrant Health Center, we believe that the body is designed and capable of healing itself and emotions are very significant to that process. We know that repressed emotions are detrimental to everyone and in clearing them, the individual can get to higher levels of health. With Applied Kinesiology and muscle testing we utilize a priority system that allows your body to communicate what its needs are in the proper timing at which it can best heal. This priority system allows us to find Emotional, Chemical, and Structural roadblocks that, when cleared, the body will be able to better achieve what it was designed to do.

By Dr. Chance Johnson