Vacation Gut: Your Gut Doesn’t Vacation When You Do

Going on vacation can be a lot of fun — especially when you feel good in your body! But I hear from SO many people that their digestion suffers when they take a trip…Bloating, constipation, or diarrhea can sure get in the way of what would otherwise be a great vacation. 
Let’s look at 3 common reasons travel can disrupt your gut: circadian clock shifts, MMC stress, and dietary stressors as well as some helpful habits that can make a huge difference.

Your Gut’s Circadian Clock

Your digestive system runs on its own circadian clock. Specialized clock genes in your gut lining — including BMAL1 and CLOCK — control the timing of motility, enzyme secretion, and gut barrier function. Isn’t that fascinating?! When your meal timing shifts, your sleep is disrupted, or you cross time zones, these genes fall out of sync with your environment. The result is that your motility slows down or is erratic, you have reduced digestive enzyme output, and your gut lining is temporarily more permeable than usual. In a nutshell, your digestive system has less capacity and resilience than usual.

Your Gut’s Cleaning Crew

And there’s more. Your migrating motor complex (MMC) — the wave-like muscular contraction that sweeps the small intestine clean between meals that I’ve talked about in past newsletters — is particularly vulnerable. Your MMC depends on consistent fasting windows (vs grazing all day) and is suppressed by stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, both of which tend to spike during travel. When your MMC stalls, undigested food and bacteria linger in the small intestine longer than they should, creating bloating and discomfort.

Dietary Stressors on Your Gut

Your microbiome responds quickly to changes in food, stress, and environment — sometimes within 24 to 48 hours. Studies on dietary shifts show that the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes — two major bacterial phyla — can change meaningfully in just a few days of altered eating. Add in alcohol (which reduces beneficial Lactobacillus populations and increases intestinal permeability), lower fiber intake from restaurant meals, and elevated cortisol (which disrupts the gut-brain axis and alters secretory IgA, your gut’s frontline immune defense), and it becomes pretty clear why your microbiome may struggle just to keep up.

Helpful Habits to Travel With

• Keep eating times somewhat consistent. Even a loose window helps anchor your digestive circadian rhythm and supports MMC function. I’ve done plenty of traveling so trust me, I know that it can be easy to both skip meals or eat a lot more when you travel. Do your best to create some consistency with meal times most days of your vacation. Your gut will thank you.
• Prioritize fiber wherever you can. Fruit, veggies, nuts/seeds, avocado, legumes — even small amounts feed your beneficial Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus strains and help your microbiome to be more stable. Plus making sure to eat fiber with all your meals helps you to stay satisfied between meals and reduces food noise.
• Bring a probiotic. I’m a big fan of taking only the most helpful supplements with me on vacation–and probiotics are one of them! If you already have one that you love, great. If you’re wanting to get one that can help protect against traveler’s diarrhea, choose a multi-strain probiotic that has Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Saccharomyces boulardii (like BioMatrix’s Support Biotic)–they have the strongest evidence for reducing traveler’s diarrhea and general gut disruption.
• Stay ahead of hydration. If you are flying, airplane cabin humidity sits around 10–20% (well below the 40–60% your mucous membranes prefer). Staying hydrated helps protect your mucus layer and gut lining (dehydration causes that mucus layer to get thick and reduces healthy functioning). I highly recommend taking a good (non-plastic) water bottle on vacation with you–it makes all the difference to take it with you everywhere and refill throughout your day (stainless steel is a good lightweight option).
• Move your body. Walking stimulates the gastrocolic reflex (when the stomach signals to the colon to evacuate) and promotes MMC activity — take a short walk about 20 minutes after meals to support your motility (sooner than that for blood sugar benefits).

Doing these simple habits can make your whole trip more comfortable and enjoyable.

As a functional nutritionist, I don’t just help you to eat healthier: I help you create a healthier lifestyle.  

If you’re ready to discover where your best health has been hiding, I’d love to connect with you!

Apply for a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session.
http://bit.ly/schedulinghealth (subject to availability).

Until next time, I’m wishing you unstoppable health,

~Rebecca

P.S. If you know someone who is ready to feel great & create health habits that stick, I would love to connect with them!

Please share my scheduling link with them so that they can schedule a complimentary Unstoppable Health Discovery Session with me.