The Most Powerful Pain Reliever You Didn’t Know You Had - Your Gut

Apr 3

No doubt you've heard about the gut-brain connection. We’ve all experienced it in the context of feeling "butterflies in your stomach" when you're nervous, or even nausea when you're about to do something scary.

But did you know that gut health is related to pain as well? Turns out, there's a powerful gut-pain connection that can majorly impact your inflammation, pain levels, and even your brain’s response to pain.

Read on to learn how gut health is a key piece for pain relief (and inflammation control) and how to keep your digestive system happy and healthy for the long term.

Let’s Talk About Gut Health

The gut's microbiome is a population of bacteria, fungi, and other guys that help to regulate the balance in your belly for digestion so it can break down and use nutrients from food. When we are stressed, ill, or something disturbs that lovely gut balance, certain bacteria and fungi (like Candida Albicans) can overpower the gut. Technically, Candida isn't a bad guy in and of itself and should be present in the gut in small quantities. But when Candida becomes too plentiful, it can cause a problem. As can too much of anything else. The key is balance.

However, with inflammation in the gut (due to imbalance or other irritation), the lining can become more permeable. Meaning things can start to slip through. Keep in mind, the digestive tract is completely closed off from the rest of the body so nothing can "leak" out. It’s kind of like a pipeline through the ocean. But when things start exiting where they're not supposed to, aka "leaky gut," it can trigger an emergency response in the body's immune system, leading to inflammation and pain in seemingly random places.

This gut imbalance, or dysbiosis, can occur due to various factors such as poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, and medications. Therefore, maintaining good gut health through a healthy diet, regular exercise, stress management, avoidance of medications, and sometimes, probiotics can help reduce pain and inflammation levels in the body.

Chronic Inflammation, Joint Pain, and the Gut

Now, the body is quite brilliantly made to heat up (aka create inflammation) in order to remove toxins as quickly as possible to maintain perfect balance. That's a good thing.

Except when things heat up every time we eat due to a leaky gut. Cause even though it's not “bad guys” per se eeking out into the stratosphere (ahem, outside the digestive system), they are in the wrong place, so are flagged for removal by the immune system.

If not addressed, this can create chronic inflammation leading to joint pain (and other pain) which can show up anywhere in the body. And once inflammation becomes systemic - spreads throughout the body systems - it can cause symptoms to show up anywhere, without an easy-to-find cause.

And while there are natural and effective ways to decrease pain and inflammation like turmeric, ginger, or cayenne pepper, unless the gut is addressed, that pain is just going to keep coming back.

Autoimmune Response to Leaky Gut

Systemic inflammation due to leaky gut or other gut imbalances also affects your mood (depression, anxiety), causes fatigue, headaches, weight gain, and even autoimmune conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis. Basically inflammation of the gut can trigger a whole body response, chronic inflammation, and is a precursor to autoimmune dysfunction.

So you can see that if the gut is missed or ignored as a possible contributor to inflammation in the body, things are just going to keep progressing until you give that guy some good, old-fashioned TLC.

To add insult to injury, the gut also produces neurotransmitters (aka chemical signals to the brain) such as serotonin, which play a crucial role in regulating pain and inflammation levels. So when the gut ain’t happy, it doesn’t produce as much serotonin, leading to an increase in pain and inflammation as well. Pain on top of pain on top of inflammation.

How to Keep Your Gut Happy for Long-Term Health

As mentioned earlier, several key lifestyle choices can majorly affect gut health. By addressing these things daily, rather than letting them go unchecked, your gut can stay balanced and calm, leading to better whole-body health.

Exercise - not only is exercise great for getting circulation to your heart, but to your digestive organs as well. Exercises like walking that use the whole body are excellent for giving a gentle massage to your digestive system keeping it well-toned and functioning smoothly.
De-stress - since the gut and brain are so closely linked, keeping your brain free from excess stress is a must for great gut health. Check out this article on how to detox the brain for some specific ideas.
Nutrition - you knew this was coming. And obviously, this is the major culprit to many digestive issues. Great nutrition can be as simple as eating only wholesome, unprocessed, non-GMO fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains (not wheat).
Chew well - great digestion starts in the mouth. You should chew each bite of food so well that it’s basically a smoothie before you swallow. That ensures the food has been well-mixed with the enzymes in your saliva to help break down nutrients which takes a huge load off your stomach’s processing duties.
Stop snacking - snacking keeps your digestive organs on the clock when they desperately need to rest. We should aim to keep our meals spaced out by at least 4-5 hours for the best digestion.
Sun on your tum - for some deep healing and nutrition, a bit of sun on your belly can work wonders. Depending on where you live and your skin color, around 15 minutes or so per day is a good place to start.
Water between meals only - drinking with meals can dilute the gastric juices and make digestion more difficult. Stay well hydrated by drinking between meals only. Aim to stop liquids about 30 minutes before a meal and resume drinking about 2 hours after the meal. Chewing your food well (see #4) will help you not feel the need to drink with your meal.

If you're struggling with gut issues such as bloating, indigestion, gas, pain, or more systemic problems like general inflammation, joint pain, mood issues, and autoimmune illness, it’s vital to address the health of the gut to help restore balance and cool the inflammation cycle. In fact, it could be the missing piece to your health.