The Link Between Anxiety and Digestive Problems

...all the body systems and even how they link to psychological or emotional states. And whenever I'm speaking with patients they often find this to be really interesting because very often it is related to their diagnosis but also kind of this through line throughout their lives of being a little bit more anxious or a little bit of a worrier or maybe caving to fear or experiencing an unnatural amount of fear. So in this video I thought I would share one of these specific states that I find to be the most common clinically. Hey guys, Dr. Alex Hine, a Chinese medicine doctor, acupuncturist, and author of the health book, Master of the Day, which you can check out on Amazon and Audible. And I've included a link below this video, which is if you'd like to become a patient of mine either locally, there's info on my clinic, or online via telemedicine, you can reach out below. And there's also a free guide to download, which is four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So a big thing in Chinese medicine is that everything is related, right? There's never just one thing. There's never just this outlier event, like there's just headaches with no other problem, or there's just bowel movement issues or bloating with no other problems. They're always related to a system that's gone awry. One of the most just clinical observations that's really important is the link between certain organs and their emotional pathologies, if I could call it that. For example, a common one that we see is, you know, to come up with a stereotype, would be a certain kind of hypertension, a certain kind of high blood pressure, where the person coming in has a beet red face, they sweat easily, and they're a little bit more agitated or a little bit more aggressive. That's basically a very cliche presentation, and it's not every patient with high blood pressure I have. But that's more of like a liver pattern in Chinese medicine. And you guessed it, the pathological emotion of the liver is anger. Now, in this video, though, I wanted to talk about one related to digestion, because it's one of the most common problems that I see clinically, and anxiety is definitely one of the top five problems that I see clinically. So two organs that are very, very related in anxiety patterns are the kidney and the spleen in Chinese medicine. So the spleen, primarily, just think of it as relating to digestion, especially appetite, bloating, what you would probably call pancreatic enzyme secretion, as well as bowel movements. So a person who has like a spleen qi deficiency, as it's called, usually easily gets a food baby, gets bloated, usually has looser stools or frequent stools, often has easily gets allergies, like food allergies, food sensitivities. But the pathological emotion associated with this is overthinking or worry or anxiety. Now, the reason these states are associated with certain organs is kind of like a chicken and egg scenario. So a person with, you know, pretty severely progressed spleen or digestive disease will often experience those emotions. You know, there's a lot of modern research linking, like irritable bowel syndrome to anxiety and depression. And there's some very high percentage overlap, like 60 to 70% of patients with IBS often have symptoms of anxiety or depression. But also, it can go the other way, right? Like you're worried about something, you're ruminating over something while you're eating your lunch, and you feel kind of indigested after. You don't feel like the food really sits in your stomach well. The other organ related is the kidney. Now, the kidney is related to what's called the emotion of, I guess you could say, fear. And it's related to willpower. So the reason these ancient doctors actually linked the kidney, for example, with fear is that, number one, I think they were trying to describe the ancient effect of adrenal burnout, as we call it now, or HPA axis dysregulation. Where, for example, in one level, if you're exposed to prolonged fear and prolonged stress, it ends up resulting in a burnout or anxiety, depression-like scenario. Now, in Chinese medicine, your kidney is the organ you often treat for depression or anxiety. So that's why that link makes sense. But on the other side, it is, again, that chicken or egg scenario where the kidney is said to store the will. And, for example, your kidney is linked to your lifespan or inherited, let's call it your battery, your genetic longevity battery. So when you excessively drain yourself through work or whatever it is you have to do that's burning yourself out, the cliche being the CEO who's gray by the time he's 40 is because the kidney stores the essence. And one of the signs of this essence depletion is graying of hair or premature graying of hair. So on some level, excessive use of the will burnout depletes the kidney. And then that can then expose you or predispose you to these other pathological emotions. So these emotions are kind of a chicken and egg scenario. It's not always one thing creates the other or one thing leads to the other. But I thought it was interesting that for many people with digestive problems with what I would call spleen-chi deficiency, they often manifest with clinical anxiety. You know, not just feeling anxious, but severe anxiety. Their heart races. They can't sleep. They always feel on edge. You know, pretty severe stuff that people are often on antidepressants for. They're often manifesting with gut and digestive dysfunction. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Now, again, if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally, check out the link below to my clinic. That's the easiest way to get a hold of me. And there's also a free download, which is four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. That's also right below this video. All right, before you go, I have two related videos right here.