How Stress Affects Your Digestion — and What to Do About It
Short answer: stress affects your digestion by interfering with the nerve signals that keep your gut running smoothly. It slows digestive secretions, changes how quickly food moves through you, and unsettles the balance of bacteria that keeps everything working well. That's why a tense week so often shows up as bloating, a tight stomach, irregular bowels, or symptoms you thought you'd already sorted making a comeback. The good news is that the same connection works in reverse. Because your gut and your nervous system are so closely wired together, calming one genuinely does calm the other — and most of what helps is simple, gentle, and easy to build into daily life. Here's what's actually going on, and what you can do about it. Did you know...