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Areas › Your body › Food, caffeine and fuel
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.
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.
قريش
ٱلَّذِيٓ أَطۡعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعࣲ وَءَامَنَهُم مِّنۡ خَوۡفِۭ
who provides them with food to ward off hunger, safety to ward off fear
Qur’an 106:4read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
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). Influence of 4-week multi-strain probiotic administration on resting-state functional connectivity in healthy volunteers.. European journal of nutrition doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Digestion slows when a body is braced, so a nervous system under constant pressure shows up in the gut.
Get new or changing bowel symptoms checked medically before putting them down to stress.
Cutting artificial preservatives out can genuinely help a child who reacts to them, because a child who feels unwell behaves worse. What it does not do is treat the ADHD underneath, which will still be there once they feel better.
Very low vitamin D produces fatigue, low mood and a flatness that looks exactly like depression, and it is not part of routine bloods in most places. If you have never had it measured, it is a fair thing to ask for.
Put an actual number on it: how many coffees, teas, energy drinks and colas in a normal day. Without that number, your sleep problems, your anxiety and how well a medication is working are all being read against an unknown.