Why Worry Affects Your Digestion

Why Worry Affects Your Digestion
Eastern medicine connects our emotions to certain organs. This connection is why your heart can feel warm in new love, or your chest heavy during times of grief. Twinsterphoto/Shutterstoc
Emma Suttie
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
Updated:

Anyone who is a chronic worrier can tell you where they feel it in their bodies. Always in the stomach. If you have ever had a challenging presentation at work, a major paper due at school, or perhaps a root canal appointment, you know where those feelings of stress manifest—in the gut. And the more intense the feelings of worry, the more of your digestive system is affected, from eating all the way to elimination.

In a clinic, problems with digestion are commonplace. Most patients I’ve seen in past clinical work have digestive concerns, but interestingly, that wasn’t the reason they came to get treated. It’s surprising how many people live with digestive issues when they can be improved with a little awareness, nutritional therapy, and a change in behavior.

The Spleen in the Eastern View

When digestive issues are present in Eastern medicine, there’s always one organ involved, the spleen. It sounds odd to us in the West, I mean who talks about the spleen? The spleen is rarely discussed in Western medicine, and most people aren’t even sure what it does. So let’s start there.
Emma Suttie
Emma Suttie
D.Ac, AP
Emma is an acupuncture physician and has written extensively about health for multiple publications over the past decade. She is now a health reporter for The Epoch Times, covering Eastern medicine, nutrition, trauma, and lifestyle medicine.
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