Anxiety And Accumulated Gas: What Is The Relationship Between These Types Of Discomfort?
Anxiety is a very common emotion, associated with all types of symptoms such as tremors, irritability, lack of concentration and even hair loss.
However, this psychological problem can sometimes be responsible for something that, at first, does not seem to have much connection: gases.
Anxiety and gas are related, whether in the form of belching, wind or both. Next we are going to see how it is possible that a psychological problem can lead to a stomach problem as curious but annoying as the accumulation of gases.
Excessive anxiety is a very common problem, which can manifest itself in the form of many symptoms and behaviors. Each person can experience it in their own way, and there are many who feel this emotional instability firsthand, specifically in the stomach area. In fact, it is quite likely that on more than one occasion we have felt nerves in our belly, since the digestive and nervous systems are connected.
When we feel nervous, it is normal for us to notice pain in the stomach, heartburn, nausea, the feeling that our stomach is closed, in addition to having gas. That’s right, there is a relationship between anxiety and gas, no matter how strange it may seem that a psychological problem affects the amount of wind and belching we can produce. Being mentally altered affects our stomach, causing physical pain, aches and pains, but also changing digestion and producing gas..
Gas may be the lesser evil of all the symptoms associated with anxiety, but the truth is that it can be very uncomfortable. Not only because the person who suffers from them can suffer a lot if the flatulence (accumulation of gases) is very intense, but also because in many cultures, mainly Western ones, releasing flatulence and belching is not well regarded in public. But sometimes they are so many and so intense that there is no time to let them escape in the bathroom…
The fact that we feel anxiety in our stomach has led many researchers to propose the idea that we have a kind of second brain in our stomach.
Naturally, it is not as complex as the one we have in our skull, but it is true that it has been seen that the digestive system has many nerves, which constitute the enteric nervous system. This system is a subdivision of the autonomic nervous system, which explains why anxiety affects the stomach area so directly.
The enteric nervous system is made up of a network of one hundred million neurons that act independently., capable of sending and receiving impulses and also registering emotions. This is why the stomach and digestive system in general is so sensitive to anxiety, this being the neurobiological explanation behind why we feel a knot in our stomach while we are nervous. It is also what allows us to understand why when we fall in love we feel butterflies in our stomach.
Why does anxiety cause gas?
When we feel anxiety our stomach can be very sensitive to this emotion. There are those who are completely closed off, while others have a terrible desire to eat everything in their path. There are also those who notice very intense pain, punctures, the desire to vomit and an upset stomach in general. But why does anxiety cause gas? What is happening?
Really It is not only that gas can be caused by anxiety, but also that anxiety itself can be a consequence of gas., since the relationship between anxiety and gas is close and bidirectional. Gas may be due to overstimulation of the enteric nervous system caused because our nervous system is suffering from anxiety, which alters intestinal flow and digestion. This translates into heartburn, heavier digestion and gas accumulation, producing stomach disorders such as bloating.
The fact that we have so much accumulated gas and it bothers us can increase anxiety. Instead of realizing that we have a lot of gas because we are emotionally unstable, The fact that we notice discomfort in the stomach makes us believe that we could suffer from some type of health problem, such as colon cancer or irritable bowel syndrome. This causes us fear, uncertainty as we do not know what to do if we are really sick, and insecurity about what may happen.
It may also happen that we feel very intense chest pain.. Since the chest is a delicate region, the fact that we feel something there makes us worry about our heart health, thinking that we could be having an attack. However, what usually happens is that we actually have a lot of gas accumulated in the neck of the stomach, so much that our chest hurts. Fortunately, these discomforts will disappear once you have burped.
In other cases, anxiety produces gas indirectly. It is common that, when we are so nervous, we make bad dietary decisions. that alter our stomach health. When we are in the middle of a nervous breakdown we do not eat salads, but rather we prefer fast food, sweets and all hyperpalatable foods, with a lot of fat and sugar, as well as certain types of derivatives of legumes and cruciferous vegetables (e.g. hummus). These foods cause a lot of gas.
Excessive gas accumulation may be due to eating very quickly, very anxiously. By eating quickly and gobbling we not only swallow food, but also air. Added to this, since we barely chew, digestion becomes much heavier, which is not only accompanied by a greater amount of gas but also heartburn and stomach pain. All the air we have swallowed will have to come out, either from where it entered or from the other side.
Besides, Anxiety causes gas partly because we move a lot. It is common for people who are very nervous to not sit still, so much so that they need to go from here to there to calm down a little or even practice a lot of exercise which, although healthy, still moves our organs too much. By constantly moving the stomach and large intestine, what is achieved is that they release the gases resulting from digestion more frequently. This is not bad, but it is an aspect to take into account if you suffer from a lot of gas and do not know the cause very well.
To prevent anxiety from causing gas, it is essential to try to reduce this psychological problem., going to a mental health professional who will provide us with the necessary guidelines to be able to manage our nervousness. However, it is essential to ensure that the gas is not caused by an actual medical problem, whether it be bloating or a serious illness such as cancer or irritable bowel syndrome.
If what causes gas has to do with how we eat, we should tell our psychologist, who will evaluate the possibility that there is an eating problem. Sometimes what we call anxiety about food can really be a problem of food addiction, excessive consumption of foods that even though we know they harm us, we cannot avoid continuing to eat them.
Whatever the problem is that causes us anxiety and gas, It is very important to eat calmly, chewing your food well and enjoying them tasting them. You should try to follow a rich and varied diet, eating five meals a day, without forgetting breakfast and monitoring which foods may make us more prone to producing gas. Healthy foods such as legumes cause wind, so their intake should be accompanied with plenty of water and consulting a nutritionist to know how often they recommend taking them depending on our case.
