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Does anxiety increase your heart rate, or does an increased heart rate lead to anxiety? This study (in mice) showed how the brain and the heart work together to contribute to intense emotions like anxiety. To me, this suggests that tools like HRV and biofeedback could be a useful tool for anxiety because they help lower your heart rate.

This is important research, thank u for sharing (even if its a bot)

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This is exactly how my IBS works. I get wacky anxiety and I know it's a cue to take my viberzi cause my guts are in distress. I can't even feel the discomfort. I just know it's there due to how my inner monologue changes. Goes away within an hour of taking my medication.

Doctors told me for decades my IBS was my own conscious decision. The viberzi taught me that is absolutely not true. Really disgusting the way I was treated.

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Everyone with bad IBS has this treatment. It’s bs.

This is how it works for me but with alcohol. Been drinking less lately but I always used to use the “it’s been a long day at work, I need a drink to unwind” excuse to grab a few beers after work but now that I don’t drink much during the week, I can feel my body create stress and anxiety even on easy/short days at work in order to get me to justify buying a 6 pack on the way home. Anecdotal I know but glad to see that I’m not crazy.

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Wait wait wait. IBS as in irritable bowel syndrome? There is a correlation to anxiety? There's a treatment? The comments in this thread are actually giving me a bit of hope. I've been seeing a gastroenterologist for awhile now which has felt like lightning money on fire while the situation gets worse.

Yes, go to a different doctor. Or ask the current one about Viberzi if you have IBS-D. Also look into Yoga and yoga breathing techniques. Yoga is meant to manipulate/calm the vagus nerve, which is a major factor in IBS health.

As unintuitive as it sounds you can try Miralax even for IBS-D. Look up a miralax bowel prep and do the first couple days. It works wonders for me as it actually clears out my colon and I get relief.

2nd opinions are very very important because most doctors are lazy and wildly arrogant. There's not mechanism for correcting these people, it's a broken system in a huge number of ways.

This sounds more like self medication.

Take a xanax. Seriously.

I’ve been having crazy high blood pressure, and figured out totally connected to anxiety and stress.

Got a script for low dose of Ativan. I take that now and I’m 110/60

I agree, and you're welcome. Also, not a bot.

Now we're talking about the gut-brain connection which is obviously important, too. Do you treat the IBS symptoms or treat the cause of the symptoms ie anxiety?

I've found that it's critical to treat the cause, and there are a lot of different causes for IBS. Perceived psychological stress and anxiety are the two most common causes that I see. Food intolerances like gluten is up there, too.

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Even better

This is an interesting idea and definitely seems like a complex concept to study. I’ve had anxiety for years and panic attacks have changed over time. The latest is waking up night and I’ll get up and sometimes it’ll trigger a rapid heart rate. I’ve learned to control my breathing to prevent this and doctors have told me it’s anxiety. I definitely think we need more studies into how our body triggers anxiety.

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My IBS and GURD is not a result of anxiety. It may be exacerbated by anxiety, but anxiety isn't the cause for everyone. I have been given diet plans, not viberiz, and they help.

I've been collecting microbiome-related studies as of late. The body itself - not just the brain or the mind - absolutely alters or even creates certain psychological states. Anecdotally, I've found that taking a couple of grams of GABA on an empty stomach is a way to evoke the way "body anxiety" feels, likely because the body overzealously pushes out the excess GABA , leaving a momentary shortage (localized to the neuron clusters in the gut because dietary GABA cannot readily pass the blood-brain barrier). The sensation is distinct and can be recognized, helping one overcome it by compartmentalizing it once it's identified.

Here's a relevant study relating to IBS specifically posted here a couple of days ago:

>New research establishes a link between irritable bowel syndrome and mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation --

>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11845-022-03258-6

And semi-related:

>Regular use of laxatives is associated with more than a 50% increased risk of developing dementia --

>https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/5048

Pinging /u/Ok-Cut4890 too.

Yeah let’s not encourage people that we don’t know to take benzodiazepines. They are overprescribed as it is and we are on the verge of an epidemic.

I know you’re just trying to help, but I don’t know if this is the move

Everything stems from our evolution;

1. If we experience anxiety, does it benefit our survival to increase our heart rate?

2. If we experience an increased heart rate, does it benefit our survival to generate anxiety?

I think 2 is obvious, an increased heart rate is a problem, making us anxious about a problem has clear benefits.

However, I can't discredit 1 either, because increased heart rate and blood flow and adrenaline could all be part of a package (I don't understand this part at all myself).

Of course, it could be both.

Actually it sounds like withdrawal. Alcohol relieves anxiety, your body adjusts and now requires alcohol to handle anxiety when it didn’t before.

Self-medication implies the problem was there before the drinking go started. A lot of people get addicted to things like weed and alcohol by mistaking withdrawal symptoms for personal symptoms that the drug is actually helping.

I mean... what else would create it?

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Dude, the UK care commissioning body recommends hypnosis for IBS. It's absolutely treatable for many people. You don't have to go that route.

Hyperthyroidism often means over-the-top anxiety. Anxiety is caused by too much cortisol. Every disease that impacts the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis causes anxiety.

>It’s bs.

No.

It's IBS.

ha so i just remove my body and im all good?

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100%. They can be correlated, try an elimination diet. Let go of allergens like gluten, soy, corn, dairy. Then slowly implement them one by one and see if any make a difference to your levels of anxiety. I’d suggest to do it for at least 10 days of none then 1 week add, one then see if you feel any difference.

Also, the brain and the gut are connected by the vagus nerve. What you eat makes a huge difference to what you think/feel.

I hope everyone is anxiety free, and I love you all as well as want to announce my new band... Mouse Heart

My father and grandmother both had hyperthyroidism, and I suspect I am on the path as I am thin and my tsh is on the low end of normal and slowly going down while my thyroxin is on the high end. Definitely feel the Anxiety, wish there was a reliable way to treat this that wasn't removing my thyroid.

There are doctors who will treat you before you're out of the normal range. If you could get in to see a young-ish internist with a good teaching hospital, they are less likely to dismiss you just because you're in the normal range. Most people feel their best with a TSH range between 1 and 2.

Please stay in touch. I used to be a thyroid advocate with ThyroidChange and can help you navigate some roadblocks. You don't have to live like this.

Disclaimer- I had to fight to get my Graves' disease tested for and properly treated.

Wonder if it's linked to Queuine Deficiency dysregulating tetrahydrobiopterin.

The heart cannot utilize phenylalanine appropriately when BH4 is dysregulated. Also why peroxynitrites build up causing arterial stiffening, calcification and scarring.

Cholestrol doesn't cause heart attacks, it's just trying to heal wounds, which is what it does. It's the unhealable calcified scars that is the problem.

I would argue that another mechanism involves the uncertainty of gut problems in IBS causes anxiety, and perhaps anxiety provokes or sustains attacks. Perhaps better control of IBS can decrease anxiety, and the decreased anxiety in turn reduces attacks.

Toe heavy posture and anterior pelvic tilt greatly contribute to vagus tension

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Intolerance to FODMAPs*

That's very kind. I don't really know if it's over the top to be concerned and it's obviously hard to tell the impact because it's so slow, but I definitely feel like it may be having an impact on me mentally from anxiety etc and also physically in the form of my body burning itself out faster than it needs to. I guess the easy weight control is convenient though. It's definitely frustrating to see something that looks like a problem in the future and have doctors seemingly take the attitude that they will do something about it once I have already fallen apart.

What sort of treatments are there? I know in my father's case his Thyriod overgrow in a nodular fation and when he got cancer the situation became much worse as he also had a wildly out of control heart. I remember him saying that he permanently had that feeling like someone had just popped a paper bag behind his head. If mine is overgrowing it would need surgery to remove part of it or some form of radiation iodine treatment to hamper it's function?

I have IBD and I completely feel the same. I will get kind of a sinking feeling in my stomach like when you drop during a roller coaster ride, and then my heart rate will speed up and I'll start to sweat. I know that my stomach is about to show out and its time to pull out the antispasmodics.

There is comorbidity between anxiety, conditions like ADHD and autism, and also muscular/joint pain and joint hypermobility

Just some random google sources to show I'm not making it up:

ADHD and chronic pain: https://edgefoundation.org/adhd-and-chronic-pain/

ADHD, anxiety, and chronic pain are comorbitidies of autism: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/other-conditions/#:~:text=Problems%20with%20joints%20and%20other,that%20does%20not%20go%20away

Definitely think there is something to this. Anecdotally, I have anxiety, adhd, and also chronic pain that has really wrecked my life over the last few years. I hope some more productive research into this topic will be available soon.

I had an increased heart rate (170s resting bpm) caused by right heart strain due to some problems caused by leftover PE(it never fully went away), and when I saw on the pulse ox how fast my heart was racing it induced a panic attack.

This has happened 3 times now.

I have anxiety even though my body can't make its own cortisol. I have to take hydrocortisone every day. (Addison's Disease)

So it must have other causes than too much cortisol.

Interesting to think about.

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Couldn’t results be based on the conscious reaction (fear, stress, confusion, concern) to one’s heart suddenly beating at an objectively different rate? I’m confused.

I discovered that I get insanely high blood pressure when I have some episodes, too. The IBS has only gotten more intense/severe as I've gotten older.

My posture issues go away when my intestines are working properly. I will subconsciously bend to compress my upper colon area (where the rib cage ends). I have no problem with my posture when I'm taking my medication. So for me, bad posture is a secondary symptom of the IBS.

The anxiety is a secondary symptom of the IBS. I am a naturally very happy person. I have never done the beat myself up internal monologue. The anxiety I get is always very odd and difficult to understand why I suddenly got anxious. My life has always been very easy. I always finish tests first. Writing papers and math were always easy for me. I am always the golden boy at wherever I work. I've been offered free rides to grad school for my work performance. I easily command any conversation I care to.

Anxiety, insomnia, depression. These are things that should be obviously understood as a secondary symptom of something else.

My heart has issues controlling rate, resting could be 60, could be 140. When it's elevated I feel anxiety before I check and know it's high, then knowing that it's elevated causes more anxiety which drives it even higher, fun. So I would say both can impact it.

This seems to suggest the James-Lange theory of emotions is true.

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HRV biofeedback therapy is already used for exactly this reason - as well as for IBS annd chronic pain among other physical conditions impacted by the autonomic nervous system and specifically the vagus nerve, as the discussion above also mentioned.

Tap your chest, block the sensation of your heart beating. If you feel self-conscious doing this in public, fold your arms and tap your chest without others noticing. It's a matter of breaking the positive feedback loop between pulse rate and anxiety. It's something I first did 20 years ago.

Absolutely true. One interesting overlap is with Prolapsed Mitral Valve, a common and usually mild heart abnormality, which can cause heart palpitations. A connection between people with PMV, panic disorder (PD) and hypermobility was notice many years ago. I'm once such example.

>The prevalence of MVP in PD and healthy controls was 27.20% and 9.21%, respectively. Patients with PD had a significantly increased relative risk of MVP compared to controls in the pooled sample (RR = 2.469, 95% confidence interval = 1.848–3.300). Age did not significantly modify the RR.

Also, I'm multiply cursed, ASD, ADHD, Prolapsed Mitral Valve, hypermobile joints, and panic attacks so bad in my teenage and early adulthood, that I could have represented my country at the panic attack Olympics. Thankfully I got over them.

Tural, U. and Iosifescu, D.V., 2019. The prevalence of mitral valve prolapse in panic disorder: a meta-analysis. Psychosomatics, 60(4), pp.393-401.

Garcia-Campayo, J., Asso, E. and Alda, M., 2011. Joint hypermobility and anxiety: the state of the art. Current Psychiatry Reports, 13, pp.18-25.

Wow I feel sorry for these mice.

> Here, to formally test this idea, we developed a noninvasive optogenetic pacemaker for precise, cell-type-specific control of cardiac rhythms of up to 900 beats per minute

> I’ve learned to control my breathing to prevent this

Just that?

Wath technique do you use?

I'm sure there are other causes. Sorry to hear about the Addisons. I know it can be a challenging way to live.

TBH, I'd be tempted to ask my doc to tweak my dosage.

If you still have your adrenal gland, could you be still firing off small amounts of cortisone at inappropriate times of the day? I had the thing where I wasn't making enough cortisol in the early afternoon but making too much at night so had anxiety and insomnia (this was along with Graves' disease before I had my thyroid out.) I'm much better now.

Yes, if I feel it coming on, I’d usually use the breathing app on my watch and try to keep focus away from it. It’s probably a combination of not focusing on it and the slower breathing. After I started doing this, it rarely happens anymore.

> Stress increases intestinal permeability and is involved in the pathogeny of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

> Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) can improve intestinal permeability. Targeting the intestinal barrier through VNS opens new therapeutic avenues in IBD and IBS.

From a 2022 article Anti-inflammatory effects of vagal nerve stimulation with a special attention to intestinal barrier dysfunction.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nmo.14456#:~:text=The%20vagus%20nerve%20is%20also,irritable%20bowel%20syndrome%20(IBS).

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There is a difference between sympathetic nervous system arousal and 'anxiety,' per se. Anxiety is an emotion and always has a cognitive and behavioral component.

Do you have anxiety? If you have anxiety and your IBS is caused by your anxiety then you should try out The Linden Method. It cures anxiety and if you get rid of anxiety, then IBS should disappear too.

www.thelindenmethod.direct

I would be driving and have intense butterflies in my stomach a lot for seemingly no reason. I tried a lot to get rid of it but it went on for years. Eventually I got hypnosis by a clinical counsellor and it stopped. Maybe a safe and low risk thing to try.

Very very low dose. Sorry. Like .125 twice a day.

Sorry not a doctor, not medical advice just personal experience but I would say don’t use propranolol for anxiety

There is no difference, as a thyroid cancer survivor I have many times experienced that our feelings and behavior are very much the result of our physical state. I have gone through a severe thyroid hormone overdose recently due to age-related slowing down of metabolism and it caused such strong panic attacks and disturbing thoughts that I was seriously contemplating suicuide. It took me a while to realize I wasnt going mad and that it could be thyroid related. Once I lowered my dose all that negative behavior disappeared and i m back at being the happy person i have always been. I have never had panic attacks or suicidal thoughts in my life.

Interesting. Have you done this yourself?

I haven’t done it, but I’m a member and everything they’ve said and told me about about anxiety, how it works, how it affects us, how to cure it, etc. makes perfect sense and is totally right. They just aren’t very big and can’t reach everyone around the world that needs help. I really want everyone to know about it, to know the truth, to know that that they don’t have to suffer, to get the help they need to recover from this awful condition and live fulfilling lives free from pain.