Heartburn Clinic

Stress causes chemical changes in both the brain and the body. One of the most common effects is seen in the nervous system, in particular the autonomic nervous system. This is the system that controls the workings of your body without you having to think about it. Your heart rate, the movement of food through your digestive tract and many other processes that seem to take care of themselves are in fact affected by the nerves of the autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic system reacts to sudden change. A loud noise will quickly make your heart beat faster, the blood vessels in your skin and digestive system will become narrow and you will sweat. A hormone called adrenaline will be released from your adrenal glands and this will affect your whole body so that you are best prepared for immense physical effort.

Before the early 1980s it was believed that stress was a major factor in causing ulcers. However, in the early 1980s, two doctors in Australia, Warren and Marshall, discovered a bacterium living in the mucous lining of the lower half of the stomach. This bacterium we now call Helicobacter pylori or H. pylori.

The doctors found that H. pylori could hide itself in the mucous lining where it could not be attacked and destroyed like other bacteria.
Warren and Marshall discovered that when this infection was in the stomach, there was always some microscopic inflammation of the lining called gastritis. Tests proved that the H. pylori infection allowed gastritis to occur.

The discovery of H. pylori means that we now know that while stress can aggravate the stomach, it does not cause peptic ulcers. However, if you have non-ulcer dyspepsia (chronic indigestion but no stomach ulcers) you may find that your stomach is particularly sensitive to stress.
If this affects you, you should try to take some time in the day to relax and unwind.

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