That fatigue and constipation could be due to stress

A couple of months ago, I spoke to my daughter’s classmates about the importance of carrying healthy snacks to school.

While they seemed interested in the colourful vegetables I presented, as well as the reward stickers I gave out, I realised that presenting to adults is much easier.

My experience with the children made me realise that teachers don’t have it as easy as we think. Those long holidays are well-earned, and often not enough to re-charge before school opens again.

And that bring me to Emily, a 32-year-old teacher, who, by her own admission, was frequently on medication.

When she came to see me, she was taking drugs for irritable bowel syndrome, acne and acidity and was plagued by constant fatigue.

As the consultation went on, I realised that all these issues had stress at their root. Let me explain.

Irritable bowel syndrome is a condition that encompasses a number of symptoms, from diarrhoea and/or constipation, to abdominal cramps, spasms and outright pain.

While the treatment differs depending on what one is suffering from, one trigger that I see in almost all the cases I’ve treated is stress. It is due to what is known as the ‘mind-gut’ connection.

You see, the colon, or large intestine, is partly controlled by the nervous system, and when our brain feels “stress” it can affect the gut, causing symptoms like pain.

This increased pain can then lead to further anxiety, leading to a vicious cycle. The location of the acne on Emily’s face indicated that the colon was indeed the problem, and that she was also constipated.

CONSTIPATION, ACIDITY

Both constipation and acidity (her third symptom) can directly be caused by ongoing stress.

That is partly because the only kind of stress that our brains are capable of responding to is the lion-creeping-up-on-you kind.

The hormones that are released prepare the body to either defend itself or flee, what is known as “fight or flight”. To defend the body efficiently, it needs to divert attention from digesting food.

Truth be told, I think Emily was worried she was never going to feel better.

So, how did we turn things around in just eight weeks? Emily was prepared to try anything, so not only did she cut out wheat and dairy (both of them could have been irritating her gut), she also did away with foodstuff that converted quickly to sugar in the bloodstream (juice, fizzy drinks, refined carbohydrates, dried fruit, sweets, chocolate, bananas and potatoes).

It is rare that I put someone on a programme so strict, because majority do not stick to it. Emily did, and two weeks later, the difference was remarkable.

But it was only once she was in better shape that the real healing could begin.

She started to eat more soluble fibre to help carry any toxins out of her body, (apples, carrots, beans, lentils, oats) and drink plenty of water. She also kept a food diary. Without the wheat and dairy skewing the results, we found that it was beef and eggs that were affecting her system.

That is why, at the end of eight weeks, she was able to go back to eating wheat freely. She did not go back to the dairy produce though, because she didn’t miss it.

It is also worth pointing out that the fatigue never came back.