How Essential Oils Aid Digestive Health by Supporting the Microbiome and Calming Stressed-Out Minds and Guts

All Disease is Linked to the Gut

This is a big claim that was made in our previous video post, but I think I made a good argument to support it.

Our intestinal tract not only aids digestion, assimilation, absorption of nutrients, and elimination, but it also impacts all aspects of wellness. Furthermore, the gastrointestinal (GI) tube is the home to a large proportion of the trillions of microbes in our body. This collection of microorganisms is known as the gut microbiome (the sum of all the genomes of our gut microbiota). These belly bugs are the major regulators of how our digestive system influences our overall physiology and psychology.

Thankfully, there are many natural approaches for supporting a healthy gut and its teeny inhabitants. One of my favorites is using essential oils.

In this video post, I will continue discussing the crucial role of the gut in relation to wellness. Then, I will review the many biochemical properties of essential oils that support digestive function and highlight a few key areas that they enhance.

Today, our topics consist of:

• A quick review of the functions of the digestive system, the microbiome, and the properties of essential oils that support digestive health
• How essential oils impact the microbiome
• The effect of stress on the gut
• Using essential oils to calm stressed out guts and minds
• How essential oils act as vagus nerve modulators

In my final video in this series, I’ll highlight some of my favorite essential oils for digestion and how I use them.

As always, all the links to the research studies will be available in this accompanying article and previous posts and references will be available in the resource section at the end of the post.

Let’s get started.

 

The Vital Role of the Gut and the Gut Microbiome in Health

As stated, the digestive tract affects our general health. This is through its communication to our brain (via the “gut-brain axis) and its bidirectional relationship to most other organs. Besides its role in digestion, some of its other functions include:

• aiding in the elimination of toxins and hormones
• housing most of our immune cells
• producing neurochemicals

Microbes residing in our intestinal tract are the managers of our crucial essential digestive functions. Today, researchers are still uncovering the seemingly infinite ways that our cohabitants influence mind-body wellness. Some of the known vital areas the microbiome regulates include:

• digestion
• immune function
• hormone balance and excretion
• brain health (via production of neurochemicals and neurotransmitters)
• intestinal integrity (by manufacturing short-chain fatty acids and defending against the entry of toxins and pathogens)
• systemic health (through production of B vitamins and vitamin K)

 

How Essential Oils Support the Digestive System

Essential oils support our digestion through their various biological properties that influence all these aspects of wellness. These include their role in:

• immune balance
• detoxification
• protecting cellular and mitochondrial health
• preserving cognitive function
• selectively inhibiting pathogens
• neurotransmitter balance
• supporting digestion and the microbiome
• balancing stress, cortisol, hormones, and blood sugar
• enhancing vagal tone

Now, that we are caught up, let’s explore some of these key digestive roles that essential oils enhance.

 

Essential Oils and the Microbiome

As noted above, the critters that inhabit us have been found to influence our physical and emotional health in many important ways. With the discovery of these beneficial microbes, scientists have come to realize that we have previously underestimated their importance.

As a result of our microbiota’s impact, conventional physicians have become astute to how they use antibiotics and other medications. This is because many now understand that these interventions may inadvertently wipe out our helpful bugs as they attack unwanted pathogens.

Many integrative doctors have also become concerned that their antimicrobial herbal and supplemental nutrients could also result in a form of dysbiosis (an imbalance of the gut microbiota). In fact, I hear many integrative physicians proclaim that the “antibacterial” properties of essential oils and botanicals can similarly harm our belly bugs in the long-term.

Yet, this is likely not the case. Although certain herbs and aromatics can inhibit harmful microbes, they also seem to benefit our commensal (“good”) bacteria. Furthermore, they also possess many biological properties that help to address the underlying causes of why someone’s body becomes imbalanced. This would only enhance health and protect our helpful microbes, not harm them.

Essential oils effect on the microbiome is hot topic and I have aimed several times to clarify my position. In my first solosode episode on the The Essential Oil Revolution podcast, I explored my summary of the research on essential oils and our gut microbiota. In it, I reviewed studies on how essential oils impact our belly bugs for the better. Specifically, I highlighted evidence on how they can selectively inhibit detrimental microorganisms as they support our microbiome.

You can find out more information in the detailed show notes and the link to listen here.

 

Stressed Out Guts and Essential Oils

For healthy digestion, absorption, and removal of substances, the body needs to be in a calm, parasympathetic “rest and digest” state. Acute stress can cause loose stools and poor absorption. If one is chronically “wired” up, the bowels and liver can become stagnant. This can lead to impaired elimination and prevent toxins from leaving the body. As a result, the re-absorption of harmful substances and more complications can manifest.

The relationship between stress and the digestive tract is bidirectional. This means an imbalance in our GI tract can trigger or perpetuate stressors and emotional and physical stressors can alter our gastrointestinal (GI) function.

As mentioned, our enteric nervous system, the “second brain” residing in our intestines, connects directly to the brain. This gut-brain communication is via metabolites produced from its microbiota that travel to our cranium through the vagus nerve. This means alterations in our gut impact our brain function and overall physiology.

The influence of emotional stress on digestion also occurs related to shifts in signaling molecules and the communication between our brain to our gut. This is explained via this gut-stress axis feedback. Stress has been found to alter gut function via effecting:

• GI motility
• digestive and hormonal secretions
• pain sensations
• our microbe population (leading to less health-promoting bugs and more pathogens)
• intestinal lining integrity

As a result, long-term stress can lead to various diseases with underlying causes of changes in gut and systemic immunity, shifts in the microbiome, and intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”).

For these reasons, we must address stress if we expect to heal an unhealthy GI tract.

 

Essential Oils for Calming Stressed Out Minds, Guts, and Emotions

Essential oils are perhaps most well-known for their ability to induce relaxation and relieve stress. They also have all the beneficial properties discussed above to balance our physiology that gets out of whack with stress.

In my previous video blog on the five ways essential oils can calm our brains to support healthy detoxification, I reviewed their stress-reducing mechanisms. These included:

1. Regulating our hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
2. Buffering stress at the level of perception
3. Balancing hormones
4. Lowering cortisol
5. Stimulating the vagus nerve

Essential oils direct impact on our perception stops the harmful effects of emotional stress on the gut with one sniff. Whereas stimulation of the vagus nerve is a key area in stress modulation for the gut-brain link.

 

The Vagus Nerve to Calm a Stress-Out Gut

A primary way essential oils promote our “rest and digest” state is by influencing the vagus nerve. This tenth cranial nerve is the connection between the gut and brain and is associated with the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) division. Conversely, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for the “fight and flee” response within the ANS. It ensures that our body remains alert and prepared to defend against potential threats.

Stimulating the vagus nerve helps the body perform its subconscious functions, like digestion and assimilation, in a more optimal manner. It calms over-activation of the sympathetic system and enhances the PNS. Essential oils are vagal nerve modulators which can keep our physiology, psychology, and biochemistry in balance.

Lavender, bergamot, and ylang ylang are my top three essential oils for tonifying the vagus nerve. This is due to their multi-factorial beneficial effects on the PNS, as evidenced from human clinical trials.

Another blend I use in my naturopathic practice for supporting vagal tone is the Parasympathetic® blend. It can be applied behind the earlobe on the mastoid bone prior to meals. This helps to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and promote better assimilation and elimination.

 

Summing Up: Essential Oils and Digestive Health

Our digestive system affects almost every area of our health. Having a well-tuned intestinal tract is paramount to recover from any imbalance. Essential oils support our digestive health through their various biological properties, balancing our microbiome, supporting emotional health, and calming stress.

Specific essential oils can calm us down by stimulating the vagus nerve. These include lavender, bergamot, ylang ylang, and the Parasympathetic® blend.

I hope this information gives you an appreciation of the crucial role that your digestive system plays in overall wellness and explains why using essential oils can help to optimize it.

In my next post, I’ll review several of my favorite aromatic allies and some specialty blends for the gut.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn how to nurture your mind, body, heart, and soul.

I’d love to hear from you on how you use essential oils to support digestion and keep your gut healthy.

Sending you many blessings.

 

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Resources

• The Importance of Digestive Health & How Essential Oils Enhance Gut Function and the Gut-Brain Connection (My video article with references)
• An Update: Do Essential Oils Harm Our Microbiome? (Ep. 394 of the Essential Oil Revolution Detailed Show Notes and Episode)
• The Five Mind-Body and Mood Benefits of Essential Oils That Support Healthy Detoxification and Enhance Our Mental and Physical Health (My video blog with references)
• Essential Oils for Stress Relief and Mental Health: A Review (My article with references)
• How Stress Messes with Your Gut (The Gut-Stress Axis) (My article with references)
• Research on Essential Oils to Support the Vagus Nerve (The Top Three Essential Oils in Used in Studies) (Ep. 397 of the Essential Oil Detailed Show Notes and Podcast)
• Your “Gut Brain” – Why You Need to Know About Your “Second Brain” and How it Influences Your Mood (My video article with references)
• The Unsterile Start (My article on Natural Path)
• Microbiome Insights For (the Not So) Dummies (My blog)
• Three Ways Essential Oils Support Brain Health for Better Mood, Memory, and Cognition: Part 1 (My video article with references)
• A Naturopathic and Functional Medicine Approach to Supporting the Brain Using Essential Oils: Essential Oils for the Brain Part 2 (My video article with references)
• Gut-Brain Axis: Understanding The Gut-Brain Connection (My article on Rupa Health- Reviews Support for Overall Gut Health)
• What is the Gut Microbiome (Rupa Health)