1Irritable bowel symptoms turn up more often in people with ADHD, and they tend to track stress. If your stomach is at its worst in the weeks when everything else is at its worst, that is information rather than coincidence.
Two things help more often than they get suggested. Cutting caffeine frequently settles symptoms on its own, since it speeds the gut up and raises acid. And there are talking therapies designed specifically for irritable bowel, which work on the stress side rather than the food side. A low FODMAP approach is worth exploring with a dietitian, though it is fiddly and not meant to be permanent.
Islamic evidence
Who provides them with food to ward off hunger, safety to ward off fear (Quran 106:4). Food and safety are named together, and a gut needs both before it will settle.
“who provides them with food to ward off hunger, safety to ward off fear”
Qur'an 106:4
Psychological evidence
The gut and brain do talk to each other, and the evidence is more about pathways than about cures. In a randomised trial, four weeks of a multi-strain probiotic changed resting brain connectivity in healthy volunteers. That is a brain imaging finding rather than a symptom outcome, so it supports a route between the two without telling you that a supplement will settle your stomach.
Bagga D, Aigner CS, Reichert JL, Cecchetto C, Fischmeister FPS, Holzer P, Moissl-Eichinger C, Schöpf V. (2019). European journal of nutrition · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Digestion slows when a body is braced, so a nervous system under constant pressure shows up in the gut.
When not to. Get new or changing bowel symptoms checked medically before putting them down to stress.
Feedback
none yet2Stress unsettles the gut and an unsettled gut drags on mood, so the two keep each other going. The good news buried in that is you can step in from either end.
You do not have to establish which came first. Easing the pressure on your nervous system helps digestion, steadying what you eat helps mood, and either one loosens the loop a little. Pick whichever is more within reach this week rather than waiting until you can do both properly.
Islamic evidence
People, eat what is good and lawful from the earth (Quran 2:168). The instruction about food is put to everyone as a plain matter of course, so attending to it is basic care rather than a fringe concern.
“People, eat what is good and lawful from the earth, and do not follow Satan’s footsteps, for he is your sworn enemy”
Qur'an 2:168
Psychological evidence
Be careful with what gets sold on the back of this. Pooling 34 controlled trials, prebiotics showed no effect on depression or anxiety and probiotics showed only small effects, several of those coming from low quality trials. The gut and mood connection being real is not the same as a supplement being the answer. Ordinary food, sleep and stress load are the better bet.
Liu RT, Walsh RFL, Sheehan AE. (2019). Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · doi
Review detail
Why it works. Because the traffic runs both ways, a change on either side takes load off the other.