Many people suffer from gastrointestinal disorders that are either caused or exacerbated by stress. One of these is irritable bowel syndrome, better known by its acronym IBS.
A new study just published by the University of Michigan shows that stress is a major factor in the development of the pathology, or at least as a concomitant factor that plays a leading role.
How stress contributes to the development of IBS, is through a significant change in the brain-gut interaction that produces the inflammation which ultimately causes the sometimes severe symptoms of cramping, diarrhea and/ nausea.
Stress plays a role by suppressing a chief element in maintaining healthy gut bacteria, called the Inflammosome, which maintains healthy gastrointestinal flora levels. Taking probiotics then is a logical solution to the problem, and taking probiotics in the study showed a reversal of the flora imbalance in the gut.
Probiotics were shown to move in and replace some of the good bacteria lost to stress and the ensuing inflammation. And probiotics are very important, just like good natural bacteria in the gut, because they play a pivotal role in the absorption of nutrients that are crucial to a healthy immune system.
The way stress affects intestinal flora is that good bacteria need action from a nucletide-binding oligomerization receptor, a pyrin-domain containing NLRP -6 inflammosome. Laboratory mice, when stressed, released a corticotropin releasing hormone that inhibited inflammosome action. The inhibition then caused inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, because, without it, good bacteria could not thrive and inflammation set in.
Further studies will be needed to establish which combination of probiotics works best to supplement a person's diet in gastrointestinal pathologies.
source: MNT 3.17.13
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