Can Yoga Support Gut Health? Part 2

By Imogen North for Om Yoga & Lifestyle Magazine.

Yoga’s Role in Easing Digestive Distress

In the first part of this article we were looking at the effect of posture on our gut health and how yoga can help.

In this part of the article I wanted to explore how stress affects gut health and how we can use yoga to support it.

Stress in life differs from one person to the next. Stressors in life could, for you, be too much on at work, a difficult boss, it could be feeling there is not enough time in the day managing family or perhaps you are dealing with something deeply traumatic in your life. Stress can, for some, just simply be around food; seeking and choosing the ‘right’ food can be challenging.

If we live our lives in short-term survival mode fighting daily stressors that is going to impact our nervous system and that in turn will play a part on the health of our digestive system.

On a basic level the SNS (Sympathetic Nervous System) is the part of our nervous system that switches on when we are responding to stressors. Some people call this part of our nervous system the ‘fight-flight-freeze’ response. When we are living in this part of our nervous system a number of things happen in the body:

• Our heart rate increases (blood pressure rises)
• Our breathing is rapid and shallow
• Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are released
• Blood is redirected away from skin to muscles and heart
• Non-essential body process like digestion are halted

You can imagine that if you are living regularly in this part of your nervous system and digestion is regularly halted that is going to play a big part in your gut health. Longterm or chronic stress is going to cause constriction of the gut muscles this could be really uncomfortable and perhaps contribute to bouts of constipation or some other gut disorder.

The part of the nervous system that supports digestion is our Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS). This is the part of the nervous system that switches on when we are calm and rested. In the PSNS bodies daily functions can happen naturally.

It is also the part of the nervous system from which an appropriate immune response can be created. Not surprisingly this part of the nervous system is called the ‘rest and digest’ response.

The vagus nerve (also known as the nerve of compassion plays) a huge part in the ‘resetting’ of the stress response. The vagus nerve is our 10th crainal nerve and the only one to leave the skull and travel down into other parts of the body. The vagus nerve travels from the facial muscles in the skull down around the lungs, through the diaphragm to the digestive and reproductive organs.

It is through this nerve channel that our gut communicates to our brain and vice versa. It is through this nerve channel that we are able to attune to our ‘gut instinct’ that visceral feeling we have in our stomach when something is not right.

If the vagus nerve communication isn’t flowing properly our phsyical and emotional health can be compromised. If we learn to simulate the vagus nerve we can allow ourselves to drop more regularly into our relaxation response which will in turn help our digestive system to function more efficiently.

My top five practices for stimulating and the vagus nerve and encouraging the body to get still so it can digest are (practice in this order):

1. Seated Supported ‘Clock Eyes’ – sit with your back against the wall so you feel supported (you could also sit up on a brick). Take a moment to let the face and shoulders soften. Shut the eyes. Then allow the eyes to open and gaze forward with a soft gaze. Then take the eyes (just the eyes) and look up to the celing and then down to the floor repeat a few times. The take the eyes (just the eyes) and look over to the left and then the right, repeat a few times. The take the eyes up to twelve o’clock and begin to move them around the numbers of a clock face clockwise and then anticlockwise. Repeat a few times. The just let the eyes close again for a few moments.

2. Seated Neck Openers – the vagus nerve passes just behind the SCM so working to release the SCM can also help. Sitting comfortably back against a wall practice taking one to one shoulder and then switching. You could also take your hand to the ear to add some gentle pressure but be careful not to yank your head over. Work slowly with your breath.

3. Childs Pose with brick under third eye – coming into traditional childs pose with the legs parrallel, a brick or bolster or soft blanket just underneath the thrid eye. The forward fold itself will encourage a folding into the self, a sense of introspection and slowing down with some gently compression on the belly. The brick at the third eye will also help to stimulate the vagus nerve.

4. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani) in squat – raise the hips on a bolster or blanket so the hips are higher than the heart. Take the feet wide and place them on the wall – as if you are in a Malasana Squat shape. This will allow the chest to open and the diaphgram will have space to move. You could also focus on some deep diaphragmatic breathes. Staying here for 3-5 minutes if you can.

5. Side Lying Savasana – this can be really comforting for people. The foetal shape a way to come home to the mid-line (see Part 1 of this article) – a pose of protection and safety for our nervous system. Lying on your side, make sure you have a support for the head it is nice also to have a bolster or blanket to support the top leg and a cushion to hug with your arms.