Stress not only affects your mood and ability to behave normally, but it also affects your body’s function. One of the side effects may be unhealthy digestion. However, you can prevent it by managing the stress levels. If you have ever chocked under pressure you would know how Stress can affect your digestion.

What happens to digestion under stress? 
The enteric nervous system, a system which is composed of hundreds of millions of nerves, carries signals to the central nervous system and is known to control the digestive process. When flight or fight response in your central nervous system is activated by stress, digestion shuts down and your central nervous system shuts down the blood flow affecting the contraction of your digestive muscle and reducing the secretion needed for digestion. Stress can cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal system, making you more susceptible to infection.
Stress can cause your oesophagus to go into spasms and increase the acid in your stomach causing indigestion. When you are stressed, your stomach gets affected, making you nauseous.
Under stress, the mill in your stomach can shut down and make you feel nauseous. Stress can cause your colon to react in a way that gives you diarrhea or constipation. We are all familiar with the athlete or the student who has to rush to the bathroom before the big game or big exam. Although stress may not cause stomach ulcers, celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease, it can make these and other digestive disease worse.
When you are stressed your body starts acting defensively which leads to excessive generation of some chemicals that can not only affect the body’s natural functioning of most of the body’s system, including the digestive system.
You should manage your stress levels effectively to protect such negative impact on your digestion. You may try meditation and deep breathing techniques to fight stress. If you are experiencing stress because of something emotional or related to your work, share your problems with someone close to you. It will help you feel better and you may easily prevent your digestion from getting affected.
One of the best things to do undefined such circumstances is to contact your doctor and share everything that is happening to you. Your doctor will be able to provide you quick medical solution for the problem and if the stress has taken its toll on the digestion, the medication can also help you minimize damage. However, you also need to get rid of common sources of the stress. Once your stress levels are back to normal, your body will start functioning normally.