Stress Less: Improve Your Gut Microbiome to Reduce Stress + 7 Proven Tips to Boost Microbiome Health

Understanding the Gut Microbiome

Recent studies show a profound connection between our gut microbiome and our mental health. This relationship is known as the gut-brain axis. This incredible communication between the gut and brain influences everything from mood regulation to stress response and cognitive function.

A balanced gut microbiome contains a diverse range of beneficial bacteria that coexist in harmony; they can be thought of as the flowers in our gut garden. When weeds disrupt the garden—a condition known as dysbiosis—both physical and mental health issues can develop. These issues include depression, anxiety, and even neurodegenerative diseases.

The Gut-Mental Health Connection

An imbalanced gut can weaken the intestinal barrier, allowing undigested food and toxins to enter the bloodstream. This "leaky gut" triggers both gut and systemic inflammation, which can exacerbate conditions like depression and anxiety.

• Beneficial bacteria are essential for the synthesis of serotonin and other mood-stabilizing chemicals. Believe it or not, around 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut. Dysbiosis can disrupt this process, further contributing to mood disorders.

• The gut microbiome also influences the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which controls the body’s response to stress. A healthy microbiome helps modulate the HPA axis, reducing excessive stress responses.

• Our gut can and should be a treasure chest of calming neurotransmitters. Here are seven pro tips to enhance the health and diversity of your microbiome, supporting a positive mood and reducing stress response.

  
  

7 Pro Tips to Cultivate Your Gut Garden to Ease Stress, Anxiety, and Depression

1. Increase Intake of Prebiotic FoodsPrebiotics are foods that are resistant to human digestion but are fermented by intestinal bacteria and provide a substrate for a healthy intestinal ecosystem.

   • Resistant Starch: oats, cooked & cooled rice and potatoes.

   • Complex Carbohydrates: sweet potato, squash, lentils.

   • Cellulose: leafy veggies, legumes, apples, pears.

   • Polyphenols: brightly colored berries, spices, nuts, seeds

2. Experiment with New Foods OftenEach week, add a new food you have never tried before. It doesn’t have to be a lot. New foods are just different enough in their composition to feed other types of bacteria and increase gut diversity. Some ideas are to try Chinese broccoli, celery root, yucca, yampi, star fruit, dragon fruit, or jicama.

3. Try a Spore-based Probiotic to Become More Resilient to StressMost probiotics die when passing through stomach acid and bile salts and don’t make it into the intestine alive. Spore-based probiotics survive digestion on their way to the large intestine, where they sprout like seeds and increase microbiome diversity many times beyond the strains in the probiotic itself.

   There is a brand of spore-based probiotics that I love. MEGASPOREBIOTIC is super effective. In clinical testing, the 4 billion spores in a serving influence 30 trillion bacteria and resulted in a 30% shift in microbiome. That has a profound effect on the gut.

4. Consider Intermittent FastingThere are hundreds of species of bacteria in the gut. Some digest the fibers and foods we eat and they produce secondary nutrients that feed a whole other group of beneficial bacteria. And then there are tertiary bacteria that eat the metabolites of the secondary bacteria. This full process takes up to 12 hours and only happens when we’re fasting. If food is introduced too soon, the entire cycle stops. A great place to start is fasting for 12 hours overnight.

5. Spend Time in NatureBeing out in the natural world increases microbiome health and diversity. Did you know that rural people have 2.5 times more diverse species in their microbiome than urban dwellers simply because of exposure to the natural world? Go outside barefoot. Put your hands in the dirt. Take a walk and breathe deep in a wild forest.

6. Hang Out with PetsStudies show that households with dogs have increased microbiome diversity and stronger immune systems.

7. Practice Mindfulness at MealtimeActivate your parasympathetic nervous system to enter a state of “rest and digest.” This allows optimal absorption of nutrients and feeds your microbiome. A great place to start is:

   • Focus just on eating, put away phones, TV, work, and other distractions.

   • Pause to appreciate your food; color, scent, variety, abundance before you take a bite.

   • Eat slowly. Chew each bite 15–20 times.

   • Take deep breaths in between bites.

   • Eat while listening to music.

   • Enjoy meals over light, uplifting conversations with friends and family.

   • Eat outside.

     
     

Take Away

Think about addressing both ends at the same time to stop the stress loop. Focus on de-stressing through mindfulness and increase microbiome diversity and gut health… because one affects the other.