Your digestive tract—a.k.a. “the second brain”—is a smart system that is acutely sensitive to your feelings. Here’s how to keep it healthy (and happy)….“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” It’s the same with digestive issues and anxiety. “We don’t know whether stress is causing the bowel to go wrong or the bowel going wrong is causing mental stress,” says Gershon. That said, there’s no question that “adding a singular stressful event on top of chronic stress makes chronic digestive symptoms worse,” says Yuri Saito, M.D., a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Real Simple by Julia Edelstein

Tags: chronic digestive symptoms, digestive track, Dr. Yuri Saito, GI, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Real Simple