#145 - Gut-Brain Axis Explained: Stress, Microbiome, and Real-World Fixes

We break down how the gut brain axis works and why your digestion can shape your mood, stress levels, cravings, and sleep. We connect the science of the microbiome to practical habits and a few traditional ingredients that may support gut health.

• Defining the gut brain axis as a two-way communication network
• Explaining the “second brain” in the gut wall and why it matters
• Highlighting the gut microbiome’s role in digestion, vitamins, immunity, and inflammation
• Discussing serotonin production in the gut and what it affects
• Covering GABA and how certain bacteria may support calm
• Walking through chronic stress, cortisol, and fight or flight impacts on digestion
• Linking gut dysbiosis with IBS, anxiety, depression, obesity, and metabolic disease
• Calling out modern gut stressors like processed foods, sugar, poor sleep, toxins, alcohol, and antibiotics
• Sharing foundational support: fiber, fermented foods, hydration, sleep, exercise, sunlight, and relaxation
• Talking through wormwood, black walnut, and cloves for digestive support traditions and functional medicine use

Thanks for listening to this edition of Frontline Health by Centurion. Remember, you are your best health advocate.

Learn more about our products at https://centurion.health/

Use discount code: FRONTLINE15 for 15% off your first order!

Subscribe to our newsletter: https://centurion.health/pages/podcast

Follow us on social media:

TikTok - @frontlinehealthpodcast

Youtube - Centurion Health

Facebook - Centurion Health

Instagram - @frontlinehealthpodcast

X - @TheCenturionWay

Transcript

Opening And Big Picture

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today on the Frontline Health podcast. So, in a lot of ways, stress and digestion are very closely connected.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Absolutely. There's a link called gut dysbiosis, which is an imbalance in your gut bacteria. And that's linked to IBS, to anxiety, to depression, to obesity, and to metabolic disease. So there's a lot of research around that that's going on right now that is confirming that when we're under stress like that, all those conditions start to worsen or they even begin for us if we stay at that stress level.

Gut Brain Axis Explained

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health, where we share health news, tips, and insights to help you take ownership of your health. My name is Evan Patrick. With me, Troy Duell, founder and CEO of Centurion Health. And today we're diving into something that sounds complicated, but it's actually super practical for our daily lives, and it is the gut brain axis. This is basically the idea that your gut and your brain are constantly talking to each other every day.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, and it doesn't just happen occasionally, it happens every single second of the day. And it's it's an important piece that I think a lot of people miss.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah, it's really interesting because most people, we think of the gut as just digestion. We know that food goes in, nutrients come out, end of story. But the deeper that you look, the more you realize your gut may influence your mood, your stress levels, your cravings, focus, sleep, and even aspects of our mental health like anxiety and depression.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Absolutely. And I think modern science is actually catching up to where a lot of traditional medicine has been for years and understanding that the gut is absolutely central to our health as a whole.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, absolutely. And to really help out our listeners as we dive into this conversation, why don't we start by defining uh that term, the gut brain axis? So, what actually is the gut brain axis?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

It's basically exactly what it sounds like. The gut brain axis is just the communication network between your digestive system and your brain. It's kind of like a two-way superhighway. So its signals travel from the brain to the gut, and those signals also travel from the gut back to the brain. There are really four major players when you're talking about the gut brain axis. You've got the central nervous system, which would be like the brain and spinal cord, the enteric nervous system, which is also known as the second brain, which is in the gut wall, and it actually contains, which is, I thought, an interesting piece of information, it has more neurons in our gut wall than we have in our spinal cord. And then we've got our gut microbiota, which is trillions of bacteria and microbes. And then we also have our endocrine and immune system. And those are the four components really that make up our gut brain axis.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Yeah, that's so interesting to hear about the physical connection between the brain and the gut. We've all been there where we've we've experienced this, right? We feel butterflies and our stomachs, or we've been really stressed out and it's caused issues for our digestion. But as you just explained, there are physical connections that really cause interactions between our brain and our gut as they communicate.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Absolutely. And that's why oftentimes when we're stressed, you get digestive problems, or you start to feel really kind of sick if you're getting in front of a bunch of people and it's a big presentation or a big interview, whatever it is, we've all felt that nervousness in our gut when it's really coming out of our brain that we're nervous. And it is something that we have to certainly watch as we go along.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Awesome. So that's really helpful, Troy, just uh just to get a baseline for what this connection kind of looks like. And

Microbiome, Serotonin, And GABA

SPEAKER_01 3:59

where things really get interesting is when we start talking about the gut microbiome, because we're not just talking about the the organs and the different parts of our body that make up the gut brain axis, but we're actually talking about bacteria and millions of tiny little organisms that actually live inside of our gut.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, not just millions, we're talking about trillions. So they are we are full of bacteria, we're also full of fungi, we're full of viruses, and all that makes up that gut microbiome, which increases or decreases our health, depending on what it is.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, and I don't really like to hear you say that trillions of tiny organisms are are living inside of me. It's one of those things I'd rather not think about, but they're not all bad.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Uh, they are not, and many of them are beneficial and essential really for our survival. They're going to help us digest food, they're going to help us produce vitamins, they regulate our inflammatory process and the inflammation that we have, they support our immunity, and they even influence those neurotransmitters, which is kind of mind-blowing when you think about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah, absolutely. I think we read that around 90% of the body's serotonin is actually produced in the gut.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah, and I think that that's probably what surprises a lot of people because serotonin's that feel-good neurotransmitter, and a large amount is produced in the uh GI tract, which is amazing. We know that serotonin affects our mood, anxiety, and depression, but it also affects our the movement of the gut itself, secretions, and pain perception. So it's not just our mood, it's so many more things. And it's not just serotonin, it's also GABA, which is the brain's primary calming neurotransmitter. So certain bacteria like lactobacillus and bifidobacterium can actually help produce and produce GABA in your gut, which is really weird to think that our gut can make us feel calm or it can make us anxious.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah, that's really fascinating. So when people talk about get having a gut feeling about something, that really has to do with real biological responses that your body's having.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

There is definitely more truth to that than people realize or understand. And that's kind of what this podcast is all about, just to talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Okay, awesome. So let's really flip this around. We've been talking about how uh, you know, our how this works inside of our bodies, but let's flip it around.

Stress, Cortisol, And Gut Damage

SPEAKER_01 6:33

How does do things like stress actually cause harm to the gut?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah, so when you're under chronic stress, our body actually releases cortisol. I think we've all heard about cortisol and it activates that fight or flight response. That changes our digestion, it alters the microbiome that's that we just talked about, it increases inflammation and it can actually weaken the gut lining if you have too much cortisol released in your body.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So basically, your body is prioritizing survival over digestion when you're in that fight or flight mindset.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

That's right. So if you were in a scenario where, I don't know, maybe you're being chased by a lion or a tiger or a bear or something like that. And you're really more concerned about getting away from that than you are about digesting your lunch because you don't really care what's in your stomach at that point. You just want your legs to move, and that's what you're trying to get done.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Yeah, I think uh anybody who is an endurance runner is familiar with this feeling because when you're having to fuel yourself while you are moving, especially for extended periods of time, you know that it's sometimes hard to get some of those things that we take in, like our gels or like our, you know, small snacks that people will eat while they're doing this physical activity. It's really hard to digest those things. But as you mentioned, it's it's like if your brain thinks that you're being chased by a tiger, you're trying to survive, uh, and you have that stress, um, you know, digestion becomes a low priority. And today, for many of us, those things that we build up in our minds that cause this stress are things like emails, social media, lack of sleep, bills, traffic, things that basically just stress us out. They have the same type of effect on our body.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Absolutely. And the difference with that is it stays with us all day long. And many times it goes with us to bed at night because we can't get away from those things, especially when you've got a phone right beside you, or you take your phone to bed or your computer, and there's really no time off, which is uh a big, big issue.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

So, in a lot of ways, stress and digestion are very closely connected.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Absolutely. There's a link called gut dysbiosis, um, which is an imbalance in your gut bacteria, and that's linked to IBS, to anxiety, to depression, to obesity, and to metabolic disease. So there's a lot of research around that that's going on right now that is confirming that when we're under stress like that, all those conditions start to worsen or they even begin for us if we stay at that stress level.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

So we go back to this a lot, um, but to shift gears for just a second. It's cool when we get to see modern research catching up to something that people in different places have believed uh even since ancient times. So this is one of those examples where traditional medicine systems they seem to understand this connection between the brain and the gut in a way that we are just now beginning to understand now.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah, I think uh it's interesting because traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, they've all talked about it for centuries when they went around digestion and saying that it was kind of the foundation for our overall health. Now modern medicine is catching up, if you will, to what those practices have done for years.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, they may not have had quite the scientific terms that we use now, talking about the gut microbiome and the gut brain axis, but they recognized that when digestion was off, that everything else suffered as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, and most of those systems would actually view the gut as central to your energy levels, to mood, to vitality, and even to disease prevention.

unknown 10:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Now modern research is going, maybe they were onto something.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Uh, absolutely, along with those peer-reviewed studies that we now have that kind of support what all the traditional practitioners have talked about for years. So it's really, really neat to start to see some of these studies come out and support everything that they've said.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Yeah. And

Why Modern Life Hurts Gut Health

SPEAKER_01 10:52

we know there are all kinds of things in our modern lives that are exacerbating some of these issues. We have different sources of stress than people had back in ancient times. You know, it's even almost like kind of a trend for some people or like a personality trait to be the person with tummy issues. Uh, that's definitely something that people play on on social media sometimes. But what is it that is damaging people's gut health today?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

I I think there are a lot of factors to it, but I think the first thing that we need to talk about and the major culprit is our diet. So we've got a lot of highly processed foods. We have excessive sugar, sugar. So both of those things can really mess up our gut microbiome. And then if you throw in that chronic stress that we've just talked about, you have poor sleep, you have those environmental toxins. If you're abusing alcohol or using alcohol too much, and unfortunately, the repeated antibiotic exposure, that's where you get a true recipe for poor gut health and things that we need to change.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah, it feels like modern life is almost engineered to kind of wreck our guts in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Absolutely.

Daily Habits That Support Healing

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So let's make this super practical. Give people some takeaways, some foundational things they can do. What can they do to support the gut brain axis?

SPEAKER_00 12:10

The first thing is what we just talked about, which is nutrition. Our diets need to have more fiber-rich foods. They need to have more fermented foods, vegetables, they need more protein, and we need to adequately hydrate because all of those things feed the good bacteria in our gut. The second thing is sleep. We know that poor sleep actually alters the microbiome, and that the microbiome actually follows the same circadian rhythms as we do with our sleep pattern. So that's the importance of getting sleep. Sleep and the microbiome follow those same rhythms. And the final thing is stress management. We know you need to be getting enough exercise, you need to be getting sunlight, you need to build some relaxation techniques into your day and into your life. And I firmly believe you need to develop and deepen your understanding that life ultimately is bigger than us, and God is in control by growing spiritually. Because I think once you get that piece down, a lot of the stress starts to fall away because you don't feel like you have to have it all together or need all the answers because you know somebody who does.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

That is so good, Troy. Thank you for just lining that out for us. And I think it's so cool. It seems like so many different health topics that we talk about, they always come back to these things, to nutrition, hydration, sleep, uh, exercise, stress management, like, and ultimately, as you said, even our faith uh in in major ways. So it's really cool how everything just keeps tends to come back to these things. And we have got to get these essentials in place before we move on to other things.

Supplements And Parasite Support

SPEAKER_01 13:48

But then we also know that there are supplements out there that can help. So, what are some supplements that can help support gut health?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah, I think one of the best is wormwood. There are certain things that have been used for years. Wormwood, black walnut, and cloves. They've all been used traditionally for digestive support. Historically, they use them for um parasite cleansing protocols, is what they've used them for. Functional medicine has actually started using that uh currently for it. But they found that the micro uh microbial balance and the digestive wellness really started to increase and get better with these three ingredients. So, what they have shown to have an effect on is the microbial composition, gut inflammation, barrier integrity. So your gut wall actually gets healthier, and then vagal and sensory signaling. So all those nerves that are going back to the brain are actually beginning to signal better. And wormwood in particular has some strong antimicrobial and parasitic antiparasitic effects. It has shown to reduce gut inflammation and it stimulates digestion. The black walnut is uh rich in tannins and is traditionally um used as an antiparasitic and to help with dysbiosis, and it has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and then cloves have been shown to be antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic. And interestingly, they use cloves to target eggs of parasites that are inside our gut wall and just kind of take those eggs out as well, which uh is kind of an interesting concept if you think about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, it really is. And uh if there's one thing that I hate thinking about living in my body more than bacteria, which is actually good for me, it's parasites that are are feeding off of my body and are not good for me.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Uh, that is very true. And, you know, we all have those parasites, so it's not something to be uh concerned with, but it's something that we don't want those parasites to be taking over. So doing something like a cleanse with these type ingredients is always a good suggestion and seems to be getting more and more traction within functional medicine and modern medicine itself.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, for sure. And uh yeah, thank you for sharing that. Troy, obviously, not claiming to have a miracle cure or something, but our wormwood with black walnut and cloves is on our website, www.centurion.health. So you're looking for some good support for your gut health, definitely feel free to check us out. Visit our website and we will hook you up with some wormwood.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Yeah, it doesn't sound like a uh a very appetizing piece anytime you talk about wormwood, but um has some great benefits for your gut health. And uh if you're struggling with bloating or constipation or even diarrhea on the other end, that uh can be a big help and big benefit because it may be parasites that are that are doing that. And it just may need may mean that you need to help increase the strength of your gut wall and gut health overall.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah. And the good thing about most of our supplements is that most of them are flavorless. So you don't have to uh smell or taste things that you know are group are really good for you, but uh but may not be the best tasting things out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

That's right.

Wrap Up And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Uh but yeah, just to kind of put a nice tidy bow on this conversation. Not only is gut health important for digestion, it influences inflammation, mood, energy, cravings, overall wellness. And you can go on and on and on with different aspects of our health that the gut actually influences. So the gut becomes a gut support becomes a bigger conversation than just digestion. It is super important for our overall health.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Well, guys, hopefully this episode has helped you understand why the gut brain access access has become one of the most talked-about areas of health research. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Frontline Health Podcast Bicenturian Health. As always, go out and take ownership of your health because you are your best health advocate. See you next time. If you enjoyed what you heard today on the podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review. We would love to hear your comments or questions about anything we've talked about on the show. For more health news, tips, and insights, follow us at Centurion Health on Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. And for safe, effective, and affordable healthcare products made in the USA to help you elevate your health in life, visit centurion.health. We look forward to you joining us next time on the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion.