Redlining burning the candle at both ends, running on fumes, working like a rented mule max out spent snowed under. These are terms that help to describe chronic stress. I know you felt them cuz I felt them as well. When you get to the point when you are literally are tapped out from all the energy because of all the things that you are dealing with and sometimes it feels like you’re perpetually behind or that you don’t have enough time or hours or minutes in the day to get everything done that you want to get done.

And you might be thinking, yes doc, you’re preaching to the choir. I am so stressed out. Maybe I should just clone myself and things will be easier. Or maybe not. Maybe your clone will be just as stressed out as you are because you have too much stuff to do. Now we know that stress impacts your health, but how exactly does it impacted, what does it do and what is going on? And is there a specific connection between chronic stress and gut health? How to y’all? Dr. Islam here. A k e, you’re poop girl. We’re trying to give you the best hip centric so you can live your best life from the top all the way down to the bottom. As a GI doctor, I can promise you there is a direct connection between chronic stress and gut health and keep washing because I’m gonna tell you three things I want you to do less of. And three things I want you to do more of to help manage your stress and you can really make a positive change by making these simple changes in your everyday life. Imagine being able to deal with what’s going on in your day every single time and not having that stress affect your life.

Guys, let’s get started. Now your body is designed to manage stress appropriately. So just imagine you’re off from the streets, taking your nice little walk and all of a sudden a dog comes barking towards you bark Park, park, your hypothalamus flips the switch and all of a sudden your adrenal glands, your stress hormones get jacked up. You are in fight or flight mode cuz you see this dog coming right at you.

Your heart rate starts to beat really fast. You breathe very deep, your eyes get dilated, the blood flow goes to your muscles cuz you’re about to get the heck outta dodge. Now when that dog comes to you, it licks your face. It’s a friendly dog. It’s a dog that you know and everything goes back down to normal. But imagine that stress response is on all the time and that you’re always in that chronic stress state that is a crazy state to be in.

Imagine that you’re constantly staring down those barking dogs. Your body is not made to be in that constant state of stress every single day for every minute of that day. There’s no way your body can survive that. And when You’re are always on, when those stress hormones are always working and getting you stressed out, that can negatively impact your health. More anxiety, more depression, difficulty sleeping, gut issues, gut pain, diarrhea and constipation, hair falling off. It can be a disastrous way to have your life. Your digestion is also greatly impacted by that chronic stress. Here are three things I’m gonna recommend to do less of to help improve that stress and to improve your gut as well. Number one, consume less caffeine.

Now caffeine’s great, Ima coffee addict. I love caffeine. And the words benefit that couple of cups of coffee can decrease your risk for developing Alzheimer’s, improve depression and help out with fatty liver disease. But like anything in life, too much of a good thing is not good for you. So you need to minimize the amount of caffeine and coffee that you’re having.

What I would recommend is to not have any caffeine after 12 at noon, because usually afternoon, whenever you have that coffee or caffeine, that caffeine levels will be high. It’ll keep you awake. It’ll lead to chronic stress. It will not allow you to relax and calm down during the night. Number two, consume less alcohol. Now, after a stressful day, people just wanna relax. Maybe have a glass of wine, and alcohol is a natural antidepressant to allow you to relax and enjoy yourself. But alcohol can still cause a stress response. And not only that, it is not good for you. It’s not good for your gut. Too much can cause issues with your liver. And there are other long-term consequences when drinking too much alcohol.

So try to minimize your alcoholic intake to improve your stress levels. Number three, stop saying yes to everything or at least cut back. Now, I used to be the type of person that always said yes to everything. You wanna do this project for me? Oh yeah, no problem. You need to go pick up that thing for me. Oh yeah, not a big deal. Do you want to be the head of this particular paper? Yeah, no problem. But it got to a point in time where I was taking on so many things that I did not do everything good. And not only that, I was so stressed by all the commitments that I made. Does this sound like you? What I started doing is I started saying no unless I got a response internally that was like, heck yeah, because unless I got an opportunity that told me, heck yeah, and I knew I wanted to do it, I just said no. And my life was so much easier, less stressful. And the things I did commit to those heck yeah things, I was able to do them well. Outstanding. And it really moved my career in the way that I wanted to move.

And it’s so hard sometimes for us to say, no, I’m a people pleaser. You may be as well, but you need to please yourself first. This is what you need to do. And one of the easiest thing you can do is just say no. Say it kindly. It’s not a a problem. People understand you don’t owe anyone an explanation, but if you feel like you have to say something to somebody, you can say, thank you for thinking of me. But because of my current commitments, I have to kindly decline this request. Simple as that. And I will tell you, you’ll feel better because of that. Now, here are three things I want you to do more of to help improve your health.

Number one, drink more. Water. Water’s great for you. There’s literally no downside about this. Try to have more water in your diet. What I typically recommend is have two glasses of water before you get up and have one glass of water before each meal. This will ensure you have enough water, but not only that, that water will take up room in your stomach to make sure you don’t overeat.

Number two, get more exercise. There’s nothing literally better in the history of the world than exercise. Even going for a walk for 20 minutes every single day is fantastic for you. It’ll improve your mental wellbeing, it’ll decrease stress, it’ll improve your cardiovascular health and it’ll help out with your gut. Go. Go for a walk, something as simple as that and increase solely from there on after that.

And walking is a fantastic way to improve your gut. Your gut likes to move. And if you walk, your gut will be happy. Number three, eat more healthy foods. Whether it’s kombucha, maybe it’s tofu, meso, kimchi, sauerkraut, fermented foods, lots of plants and vegetables. This is going to give you the nutrients and the vitamins you need to be healthy and to minimize stress.

But not only that, it’ll improve the good guys as well. And there are studies to show that what’s going on in our gut microbiome can affect what goes on up here as well. Do everything you can to have a healthy and plentiful diet. It may sound strange, but a happy gut is key to a healthy mind. So here’s what I want you to do today.

I want you to take 30 minutes, no tv, no social media, no phone. Have that to yourself, and write down everything you are, stress out about everything, put it down on paper, and then look at that paper and see what can you start to say no to start to minimize your commitments and allow yourself to say no, it’s okay.

And I think that if you do this, you’re gonna find your stress levels to be down and you’re gonna find yourselves to be happier and healthier as well. Gaza, thank you for watching. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to smash that like button like Sharon subscribe. And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter. Well, you can get great tips and tricks like you’re learning in this video.

Kaza, thank you for watching. Don’t forget, talk about poop. Thanks everybody.