The Physiology of Stress

The Physiology of Stress
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The Physiology of Stress
Stress arises from events that invoke frustration, anger, and nervousness. Hence, the body reacts to these events, causing stress. Stress is natural and involves mental reaction with the release of hormones to act upon the arising event. In short bursts, stress may be of positive effects, but when it is long-term and most common, it causes negative impacts, including conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
How Stress contributes to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a digestive disorder usually indicated by bloating, abdominal pain, and altered bowel habits (Defrees & Bailey, 2017). IBS patients experience enhanced perception of visceral sensation to colonic distension called visceral hypersensitivity (VHS). Visceral hypersensitivity, which worsens under stress, is a sign of Irritable Bowel Syndrome and plays a role in its pathophysiology. In laboratory experiments, investigators create stressful conditions, such as playing unpleasant music and creating mental stress. In these conditions, IBS patients are more sensitive to the stimuli than control subjects. There is a link between the Central Nervous System and the Gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Hence, brain-initiated signals can modify the Gastrointestinal Tract's secretory, motor, sensory, and immune functions.
The body aims to sustain homeostasis, which is the body's physiological process of maintaining stable equilibrium. After a stress reaction, changing hormones are supposed to go back to their levels of normality. However, individuals with anxiety and chronic stress experiences cannot maintain homeostasis, which is the case with IBS patients. Stress results in hormones such as corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone connected to the gut's healthy bacteria, responsible for maintaining bowel activity. Through this hormone, stress can havoc the gut's functioning. This is due to its ability to modify permeability, Gastrointestinal Tract motility and immunity, intestinal microbiota, and visceral sensitivity. Additionally, stress can modulate the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which links the central nervous system and the gut. Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients exhibit an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system (Lo Presti et al., 2019).
The brain areas pertained to stress are the limbic system (the amygdala and hippocampus), the prefrontal cortex, and the hypothalamus. Amygdala serves various gut functions, including receiving information from the gut through the dorsal vagal complex and the parabrachial nucleus. It is also involved in childhood psycho- traumatic experiences, which are essential elements in the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Anxiety-associated behaviors and visceral hypersensitivity are also ...