Does Stress Really Affect Your Digestion and Wellness?

Sometimes it takes a serious health issue to accept that stress is really behind, not only our digestive problems, but also behind our lack of well-being.

“What!?”  “Why?”  That was my first reaction to my youngest daughter’s suggestions. She said, “Dad, please do not watch any TV from now (around 6:00 PM) to the time you go to bed tonight.  Instead, take a warm 20-30 minute bath with Epson salts and then read a book before going to sleep.”

I know that she was concerned about my well-being when she suggested that. But I asked her, “Why?” anyway.

As a massage therapist, she had just finished the last of a series of three massage therapy sessions which she gave me over a period of a week or so.  She had been especially concentrating on the tense muscles and tendons at the back of my head and back; this session taking almost 2 hours.  She was trying to help me deal with some migraine headaches that have been re-occurring for me.  (You can read about that in a past blog post on this site.)

Her answer to my question was to the point and given with a bit of authority, which brought a smile to this dad’s face.  She said, “Because TV is a stimulant!  It arouses the “fright, fight, and flight” reactions in our body.”  She continued, “These migraine headaches you are having could very well indicate that you are already under a lot of stress and your body needs to regroup and reconnect with the healing effects of the massage that I just gave you.  Otherwise, you will lose the benefits of it and it could even affect other systems in your body.”  (She also was aware that I had been dealing with some indigestion issues.)

Since I definitely wanted to get relief from the migraine headaches and keep the benefits of all the hard work of her massage sessions, I humbly obeyed.

And I am glad I did. That night, after a nice warm bath in Epson Salts and after reading a nice book, I enjoyed a very nice night’s sleep with only a slight headache remaining.

The book I chose to read (actually re-read in parts) had to deal with the effects of stress and toxins on our body.  That point my daughter made about stress also ‘affecting other systems in your body’ stuck with me that evening.  I had been dealing with quite a bit of indigestion along with those migraine headaches and I sure wanted to get to the bottom of the distresses that I had been dealing with.

The book (which I inherited from my mother) is entitled:  “The Mysterious Cause of Illness” by Dr. Jonn Matsen N.D.  and was published in 1987.  (I looked for it at Barnes and Noble’s website and couldn’t find it.  But I did locate a copy at Amazon’s site.)    The author’s theme is to show “how to overcome every disease from constipation to cancer.”  He mainly deals with our entire digestive system and how it works and how to eliminate or minimize the bad effects of the toxins that our body has to deal with.  It is very informative.

I wanted to remind myself of what this doctor said about the effect of stress on digestion and wellness. In fact, that is the title of the last section (Part IV) in this book.  Interestingly that section begins by quoting Henry David Thoreau from his book “Walden.” Here is the quote:

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment;

That if one advances confidently in the

Direction of his dreams, and endeavours to

Live the life which he has imagined, he will

Meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

I thought about that quote for a while.  Finally, I believe, I got the point, especially as it related to “Stress and Digestion.”

I hope that in your seeking wellness together you will get a copy of that book and find it beneficial to you.  Otherwise, I hope to quote from it here in this blog from time to time.  It has a lot of information about the conditions which I deal with, especially at this point with my stress and indigestion and my migraine headaches.  (As you get to know me on this post, you will no doubt discover that I deal with stress a lot and am always looking for ways to relieve that stress and its effects, not only on my digestion but also on my entire well-being.)

The bottom line, at least to me, in answer to our question here, is that stress can and does affect, not only our digestion, but it also affects all of the systems of our “whole body.”  My own experiences testify to that.

So, whatever we can do to minimize that stress promises to get the good results that we are looking for as we seek wellness together.  Your comments about your own experiences in all this can be very helpful to all those of us who are seeking wellness.  We hope that you will share them with us.

Tags: dealing with stress, digestion, digestive problems, digestive system, indigestion, stress, toxins, well-being

This entry was posted on September 22, 2010 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Wellness Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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