What do my gut symptoms actually mean?
If you have experienced gut symptoms you know how uncomfortable it can be. Persistent bloating, abdominal pain or constipation can leave you insecure and exhausted.You may feel like symptoms fluctuate week to week or day to day. And because of this it can be really hard to find a pattern. And without a clear pattern, it seems impossible to find a solution.
But If your gut symptoms were caused by one thing, one solution would have worked by now.
For many women, symptoms don’t follow a neat, predictable pattern.
For a few days it’s bloating.
Then constipation.
Then urgency.
One food is fine one day, but then you’re not so sure the next week.
And the cherry on top is that stress makes everything worse — but your symptoms are stressful!
And after a while, the hardest part becomes the mental load, lack of trust in your body and constant confusion.
You start questioning your body.
Your choices.
Your ability to “do this right.”
Here’s the truth most people never hear:
Shifting gut symptoms aren’t random. They’re signals that decode the systems involved.
They’re clear signs that more than one system is involved — and that your body has been compensating for a long time.
If One Thing Were Wrong, One Solution Would Have Fixed It
Most advice you hear today assumes a single root cause.
One food is your trigger.
One supplement will fix you.
One process will help you.
One missing rule you haven’t followed yet.
Or worse, there is no solution and this is just your life now.
That model of thinking works well for things like true food intolerances (lactose, sucralose) or true pancreatic insufficiency (enzyme deficiencies).
But for chronic gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, pain and urgency are often signs, you need to look deeper.
Because what’s actually happening isn’t a single issue with hence a single solution — it’s an integrated systems issue.
What do I mean by this? You are a whole connected being. And your gut is a system that receives (and gives) signals to and from the rest of your body.
It sits at the intersection of digestion, immunity, the nervous system, your hormones and your brain.
When one of those systems becomes strained, the others adapt to keep you functioning.
Over time, those adaptations show up as chronic symptoms.
Not because your body is fragile — but because it’s trying to protect you. Your body wants healing.
The Five Systems Behind Most “Unpredictable” Gut Symptoms
When symptoms are hard to understand, it’s usually because multiple systems are interacting underneath the surface.
Let’s break this down.
1. Digestion: When Food Isn’t Fully Broken Down
Digestion starts long before food reaches your intestines.
It relies on:
adequate stomach acid
digestive enzymes
bile flow
When any of those are compromised — often due to chronic stress, under-eating, nutrient depletion, or irregular eating — food doesn’t break down efficiently.
Instead, it ferments.
That fermentation produces gas, pressure, and bloating — especially after meals that were previously tolerated.
This is why people often feel worse after eating “healthy” foods like vegetables, beans, or whole grains.
The issue isn’t the food.
It’s the digestive capacity. And how your microbiome responds.
2. Motility: How Food Moves Through the Gut
Motility refers to how food moves through your digestive tract.
When motility slows or becomes irregular:
gas builds up
fermentation increases
bloating and pressure worsen
bowel movements become inconsistent
Stress, skipping meals, grazing all day, low calorie intake, lack of minerals like potassium, magnesium and zinc along with poor sleep all disrupt normal motility patterns.
The migrating motor complex (MCC) is a key regulator of motility. It is important to understand that this system is only active when the stomach is empty or during a period of fasting.
This is why meal timing and spacing is very important to nail down.
And when motility is impaired long enough, it increases the risk for conditions like SIBO — which further complicates symptoms.
Motility is a key factor to examine if there is bloating or disrupted bowel movements that persists.
3. Inflammation & Immune Activation
Many people say inflammation is the root of all disease. But how does inflammation in the gut affect your whole body? And what causes it to begin with. Well the answer is most commonly, your diet, lifestyle and environmental triggers.
When there is a an imbalance of ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ bacteria, (more on this next), the negative bacteria can produce lipopolysaccharides which contributes to inflammation and an immune like response.
This drives some of the whole body symptoms that people experience with gut related issues like skin rashes, brain fog, fatigue, joint pain and anxiety.
Frequently people who:
Are sensitive to many different foods
Have skin rashes, brain fog, joint pain or hormonal changes
Experience discomfort that feels disproportionate to what you ate
Ultimately have an inflammation issue that needs to be addressed. And this starts by healing the gut.
Foods that were once neutral now trigger symptoms — not because they’re harmful, but because your gut is more sensitive (and inflamed) than it used to be.
4. The Nervous System & The Gut–Brain Axis
Your gut is so deeply connected to your nervous system and your brain.
When your body spends too much time in a stressed, sympathetic (fight or flight) state:
stomach acid production drops
digestive enzyme release decreases
motility becomes irregular
sensation is amplified (otherwise called visceral hypersensitivity)
It is absolutely essential to be in a parasympathetic state to digest your food. The downstream effects of this not happening will contribute to negative symptoms like gas, bloating and constipation. What’s more stress negatively impacts the integrity of the intestinal lining. This picture illustrates how this can happen.
It’s why stress can make symptoms flare even when your diet hasn’t changed at all. And it’s why gut healing cannot be separated from nervous system regulation.
5. And Of Course, the best for last - The Microbiome
Did you know you can shift your microbiome in just several days. Research continually shows that your overall dietary pattern has a profound impact on the shifting nature of your microbes.
For example, a diet high in processed foods, saturated fats, refined carbohydrates and added sugars can disrupt your unique microbiome balance, feeding and promoting some bacteria while lowering others creating what is called dysbiosis.
Additionally, some eating patterns, like those high in sugars, fats and animal proteins can alter the physiology of your digestive enzymes and bile acids. These physiological changes also feed and promote certain strains of bacteria that lead to inflammation.
For example, a bacteria called Bilophila Wadsworthia, has been demonstrated to induce a variety of metabolic dysfunction and is related to an increase in inflammation and increased intestinal permeability.
Are you starting to see how this is all connected?
What kind of foods feed this bacteria? A high fat and high animal protein diet are believed to feed b. Wadsworthia.
So many adults in the US fit the bill for this type of dietary pattern.
Why Do Elimination Diets Bring Relief (that rarely lasts)
Elimination diets often help at first — and that’s not an accident.
Reducing fermentable foods lowers gas production.
Removing irritants can calm inflammation short-term.
And these are of course important to set the stage for healing.
But in the absence of addressing the rest - digestion, motility, stress, inflammation - alongside these food changes and if your microbiome isn’t rebuilt, symptoms return as soon as foods are reintroduced.
Over time, this leads to:
more restriction
less microbiome diversity
more fear around food
increased stress (which worsens symptoms further)
What often happens is that you are continually chasing your symptoms instead of rebuilding and healing in totality.
This is why people feel like they will never truly heal.
Healing Isn’t About Random Solutions — It’s about Assessing & Rebuilding based on your needs
So what is the path towards healing? Lasting gut healing supports you holistically by:
Identifying your core issues
Filling gaps with foundational dietary needs
Supporting digestion and motility
Reducing inflammation and immune activation
Rebuilding diversity and resilience
Skipping steps doesn’t make healing faster.
It just makes it temporary.
This is why so many people say:
“I’ve tried everything.”
In reality, they’ve tried many things — but not in a way that supports the whole system, for long enough to matter.
What This Means for You
If your symptoms feel unpredictable…
If you rotate foods in and out because of sensitivities…
If stress amplifies everything…
If you’ve been blaming yourself for not being consistent enough…
If you actually have no idea what is behind your symptoms…
Please hear this:
Your symptoms are signals. You need a comprehensive holistic approach rooted in your unique issues.
When you learn how to interpret the patterns instead of fighting them, healing stops feeling chaotic and starts feeling possible.
If you’re looking for a gentle place to begin, grab my simple 5 Day Gut & Energy Reset Guide here designed to calm inflammation, stabilize digestion, and help you reconnect with your body — without restriction.
And if you’re ready for deeper, personalized support, this is exactly the kind of work we do inside the Gut Restore Method — addressing root causes, with guidance and solutions. I have just 5 spots open for my next cohort.
