🔋The Hidden Link Between Your Stomach & Mental Health (ATP#24)

You probably know (and feel) that your stomach isn’t just for digestion.

Many people talk about “gut feelings”, the intuition that something is right or wrong while being unable to explain why. When you’re nervous or stressed, you might feel your stomach clenching. It has happened to me a lot during the last weeks because I’ve been juggling way too many things.

These examples illustrate the close connection between psychological states and stomach activity.

One relatively new but fascinating research topic is the gut–brain connection, as discussed in a previous issue of this newsletter. And now, there’s a brand new study that opens up yet another avenue: stomach rhythms and their relationship with mental health.

The stomach–brain connection

The broader topic of the study is the stomach–brain connection, referring to how the upper gastrointestinal tract and the brain interact in mental health.

Both the brain and the stomach have rhythms at which they oscillate. The stomach’s rhythm is slow: its muscles contract about every 20 seconds. The brain’s oscillations, caused by neuronal activity, are significantly faster and more complex.

Still, although the stomach and the brain oscillate at different rhythms, there’s a phenomenon called coupling, which means that their rhythms can synchronize—like instruments in an orchestra.

This gastric–brain coupling and its potential relationship to mental health intrigued the authors of this new study.

The study

The authors simultaneously collected electrogastrographic (EGG) and functional magnetic resonance brain imaging data in 243 participants. In other words, they measured stomach and brain activity at the same time.

They also assessed self-reported mental health indicators, among them autism, ADHD, empathy, insomnia, interoception, depression, fatigue, social support, somatic symptoms, stress, social anxiety, trait anxiety, well-being, and quality of life.

The authors found that increased coupling (that is, stronger synchronization) of stomach and brain rhythms was associated with poorer mental health, which was an unexpected result.

Here’s how Dr. Micah Allen, lead author of the study, puts it:

The authors controlled for gastrointestinal symptoms and general gastric physiology to rule out the possibility that the results can be explained by merely physiological mechanisms of activity in the stomach.

What do these results mean?

This is the first study of this kind linking gastric–brain coupling to mental health. Future studies will have to corroborate its findings. And so far, the evidence is only correlational: it shows that there’s a relationship between stomach–brain coupling and mental health, but it’s unclear if there’s a causal link between both.

Still, there are some possible implications of the study:

• It highlights the significance of stomach rhythms for mental health.

• It could lead to the development of new diagnostic tools for mental health disorders.

• Because stomach rhythms can be influenced in different ways (for example, with nutrition or vagus nerve stimulation), the findings may also help develop new treatments for mental health disorders.

Wrapping up

This study adds to a growing body of evidence that shows how mental health is deeply embodied. Psychological distress may manifest not just in thoughts or feelings, but also in rhythms of organs we barely notice.

Mental health isn’t just in your brain. It’s also in your body.

That’s it for today!

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Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.