Not Feeling Sad but Want to Cry?
It doesn’t matter who you are, your age, or your resilience; we all cry and need to cry.
It’s an essential release for grief, sadness, stress, anger, sentimentality, and tiredness.
Sometimes though, we can go through periods of crying without obvious external motivators, wondering what is going on with ourselves!
So many people say that they feel like crying and don’t know why.
They say they have a good life, many great friends, a wonderful family, and good health (without a condition). They are flummoxed because they have lots to look forward to – and just cannot put their finger on why they could burst out crying at any given moment.
In this post, I am going to talk about what the reason could be.
Why Do You Feel Emotional For No Reason?
Why Does Gut Health Affect Mental Health?
Does Your Gut Produce Happiness?
What Is the Best Diet for Your Brain?
How Does Your Gut Make You Sad?
What Affects Gut Health?
What Foods Boost Happiness?
Why Do You Feel Emotional For No Reason?
You are not alone if you cannot quite pinpoint why you feel so emotional lately and want to cry.
If you are crying spontaneously (unusual for you, and your doctor has ruled out disease), you may be surprised to know that it could all be down to your gut bacteria.
You may have heard me talk about the bidirectional link between the brain and the gut before.
Neuroinflammation, depression, and mood disorders are linked to gut bacteria.
Why do you nip to the bathroom before a public speaking event or get ‘butterflies’ in your stomach before meeting someone?
That’s the brain-gut connection!
Why Does Gut Health Affect Mental Health?
The gut is the largest immune organ in the body!
In brief, the intestine’s surface area is the epithelium; under that is a network of immune cells. Above the mucus layer that tops the epithelium sits the gut microbiota.
What we eat influences gut microbiota composition and activity.
Gut microbiota affects our inflammatory state by breaking down food into compounds that modify immune cells.
Simplified, a whole cascade of body health events occurs according to what we eat. A gut imbalance affects the body and mind.
Gut microbiota interacts bidirectionally with environmental risk factors such as diet and lifestyle.
When we are born, we inherit our Mother’s microbiome (entire habitat of the body: microorganisms, genomes, environmental conditions).
Over time, from when we are weaned into solid foods, our guts develop a diverse and distinct collection. Over 250 bacterial species, in fact – but it can contain 1,000 different species.
This comes from genetics, bacteria that surround us, and bacteria from other people around us (environment).
Also, how we deal with stress, medication, what foods we eat, and what nutrition we give our bodies.
We have 100 trillion microorganisms that are in our microbiome.
Not only do gut microbiota aid digestion, metabolism, and nutrient absorption, but they inhibit pathogens and assist with developing and protecting the immune system.
Gut microbiota balance hormones, nourishing intestinal cells, and the gut where feel-good neurotransmitters are produced!
Does Your Gut Produce Happiness?
Feel-good neurotransmitters that are produced by gut bacteria are:
- Serotonin (the happy hormone)
- Dopamine (pleasure and motivation hormone),
- GABA (the reward hormone)
- Melatonin (the sleep hormone)
So, a compromised balance of gut microbiota results in these neurotransmitters not being produced, which means we won’t feel good mentally.
90% of serotonin is produced in the gut, for instance.
Serotonin is responsible for happiness and well-being, reducing mood swings and anxiety. It is also a precursor for melatonin, the hormone that aids sleep.
So, if you have wondered why you are not sleeping, this could explain why.
Have you read 4 Secrets to Feeling Good, How Do You Live With IBS & Anxiety?, Depression Diet & Lifestyle Intervention, and Why Are You Moody & Irritable?
Sleep is affected by gut imbalance, too. This does not help with keeping your emotions in check!
Common triggers of chronic insomnia are emotional concerns and the body’s overactive fight-or-flight mechanism (but this article is about not being able to pinpoint why we cry when there aren’t any obvious reasons).
In turn, critical biological functions, like hunger hormone regulation, occur when you go through the sleep cycles.
Without essential sleep, these essential hormone regeneration functions do not occur. This leads your body to not operate at optimum health levels, possibly activating inflammatory genes.
There’s a symbiotic relationship between gut microbiota and the body as long as good health exists.
What Is the Best Diet for Your Brain?
I always advocate for a lifestyle change rather than just a diet because how you move and think significantly affects your gut health.
So, I would recommend an anti-inflammatory lifestyle with good gut health recipes.
One that contains omega-3-rich foods that optimize brain function. The long-chain omega-3 fatty acid is suitable for brain development and plays an essential role in neurotransmitter release, cellular membrane function, and fluidity.
Choose a healthy gut lifestyle that contains all the nutrition to aid in feeding the body with good bacteria and eradicating harmful bacteria.
Because it heals the body and affects pro-inflammatory cytokine release in the brain, it allows for maximum absorption and fights against neuroinflammation in aging brains.
I always say that the way to reduce mood disorders or neurodegenerative disorders in the brain is to start with the gut!
Doctors recommend a gut-healthy lifestyle for physical and mental well-being.
If you are a member of Eat Burn Sleep, you will be experiencing the gut-healthy effects on your mental health and know firsthand that you will have improved mental well-being.
It won’t be just because your health goals are being met, but it will be for scientific reasons: biologically, physically, and mentally.
When there is gut dysbiosis, our overall health is impacted.
How Does Your Gut Make You Sad?
Microbiota is essential for homeostasis, and any dysbiosis (imbalance) compromises not only physical health but also mental health.
It’s incredible what a balanced gut microbiota can do!
You see, many people who describe themselves as ‘fit and healthy’ with good body composition can’t understand why they feel tearful and emotional.
These ‘fit and healthy’ people are often surprised to learn that despite evidential physical fitness, they are not in optimum health.
Their chosen exercise could make their bodies inflamed and susceptible to disease.
The same people experience the positive change themselves when their lifestyles (not just diet) become more gut-health-focused.
A balanced microbiota in the gut lowers chronic inflammation and promotes optimum health.
It may seem obvious now, but many people are surprised to learn why they may be crying when all is good in their world:
In the same way that your gut bacteria can make you happy when there’s a good balance in the microbiota, an imbalance causes an impact on your emotional behavior in a less-than-positive way.
Your gut bacteria affects your emotional behavior negatively and positively, and an imbalance soon happens.
Sadness, anger, and fear can all present themselves as a representation of your gut bacteria.
Even the mildest amount of stress that you may be dismissing – that couldn’t possibly warrant such uncontrollable outbursts of tears – can cause a microbial imbalance that can cause those tears and mood changes.
That is why, with gastrointestinal disorders like IBS and high inflammation, there are often accompanying depression and anxiety.
This isn’t just because of the nature of the condition or having to navigate life while dealing with the condition, such as triggers and timing.
Feeling good and the well-being of gut microbiota are tightly connected.
What Affects Gut Health?
Social Stress Can Cause Imbalanced Gut Health.
Stress can affect your mental health via its effect on the gastrointestinal tract.
It could be that you have spent time, however brief, with someone who has decreased your gut diversity. For instance, if you have experienced conflict or aggression from someone.
Positive social interaction is beneficial to gut health, optimum health – and longevity!
Likewise, oxytocin, a mood-modulating hormone, is produced in the hypothalamus and released into the bloodstream by the pituitary gland when we hug, touch, and love someone.
Or having a dance or exercise with friends!
Despite not being produced in the gut like the other feel-good hormones, oxytocin is linked with gut health because it is an anti-stress hormone.
Stress triggers gut health imbalance and digestive and inflammatory issues.
You may be recovering from an illness or an operation or have taken antibiotics even, that have wiped your body of good (as well as bad) bacteria.
So many factors can contribute to gut dysbiosis and open the pathways to inflammatory conditions. It is essential to nurture yourself.
So, the next time you feel like crying and can’t explain why, think about your gut. Is it time for a microbiome reset?
What Foods Boost Happiness?
Learn about the foods that will boost your happiness in The Lifestyle Guide and save your favorites! Access the in-depth, personalized advice for depression and anxiety here.
Improving gut health improves brain health.
It’s science!
Don’t forget to do daily anti-inflammatory movements for gut health, too! It all works synergistically together.
Here are a few quick serotonin-inducing, gut-healthy recipes for you all to enjoy: Roasted Sunchokes With Salsa Verde, Slow Cooker Indian Vegetable Curry. and Savory Rosemary & Chives Paleo Bread Rolls
I am sending you wishes for a beautiful day!
