Eating at night associated with chronic stress increases the risk of developing intestinal problems, sometimes causing urgent trips to the bathroom or, on the other hand, constipation.
In new research, presented this week at the conference, researchers analyzed data from 11 thousand participants in order to understand whether stress and nighttime eating patterns are related to intestinal function.
According to , a high score in allostatic load (an indicator of the body’s total stress load), combined with nighttime eating, more than doubled the chances of abnormal bowel habits, mainly constipation and diarrhea.
Participants with a high allostatic load score were more likely to report digestive problems.
Those who consumed more than 25% of their daily calories after 9pm had a 1.7 times greater risk of suffering from constipation or diarrhea, compared to people with lower stress levels who did not eat late.
This pattern was also confirmed in the second set of data. Researchers analyzed information from more than 4000 people no American Gut Project and found that individuals with high levels of stress and nocturnal eating habits were 2.5 times more likely to report bowel problems.
These participants also presented a reduced diversity in your gut microbiome.
The results were validated in the AGP component, a separate database on the intestinal microbiome, to check whether the pattern was repeated and whether intestinal bacteria were also affected.
As this study was observational, it does not establish a cause and effect relationship. Instead, it identifies patterns that point to a link between stress, meal timing and digestive health.
This finding suggests that meal timing may intensify how stress affects gut bacteria through the gut-brain axis, the communication network that connects the brain, hormones, nerves and microbiome.
