Are you stressed out? 😣 You’re not alone. Gathering with family, the cost of gifts and groceries, cooking holiday meals, traveling, and closing out the year at work may all cause extra stress during this time of year. Also feeling the effects of this stress: the tens of trillions of microbes that call you home. That’s because your brain and your gut are directly connected through a bidirectional pathway known as the gut-brain axis. 🧠 Due to this connection, stress can directly impact your gut and digestion. (You’ve probably felt this on a physical level before: losing your appetite after bad news—or a race to the bathroom on an ultra-nervous day.) When your body experiences environmental or emotional stress, it activates an adaptive physiological and behavioral response, which impacts the gut in a variety of ways. A few examples: 1️⃣ Stress-induced changes in nervous-system-signaling1 can alter gastrointestinal motility and function. 2️⃣ Catecholamines (hormones made by your adrenal glands, which are secreted into your blood when you’re physically or emotionally stressed) can directly modify2 microbial growth. 3️⃣ Heightened inflammation during stress can trigger blooms of pathogenic bacteria that may cause dysbiosis and in turn, loose and more frequent poops.3 All of these changes impact the trillions of microbes that reside within the gut, ultimately affecting the composition and activity of your gut microbiome. And this can work in the opposite direction, too. Remember: communication between the gut and brain is a two-way street, and information produced by your gut microbes (metabolites, neurotransmitters, fats, and compounds) can make their way to your brain, which may influence stress response and anxiety-like behavior. Research is beginning to explore how the health of our gut plays a role in maintaining psychological well-being. So, at a high-stress time like this: pause, take a deep breath, and remember to care for yourself (and your microbiome). Wishing you and your ecosystem–microbes included 😉–a happy holiday season. Citations below.