Building Resilience Podcast – Episode 249

IBS Isn’t Just in Your Gut — It’s in Your Nervous System

Host: Leah Davidson
Date: September 24, 2025

Brief Overview

In this episode, host Leah Davidson explores Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) from a fresh perspective, emphasizing the critical—and often overlooked—role of the nervous system. She discusses why IBS is not merely a gut issue but also deeply tied to how our brain and nervous system manage stress, safety, and survival. Integrating practical tools, personal experience, and compassionate guidance, Leah offers listeners both validation and actionable strategies for navigating IBS with resilience and self-kindness.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. IBS: More than a Gut Issue

[00:00–02:50]

• Leah opens the episode addressing the discomfort, embarrassment, and unpredictability of IBS, stressing that it affects millions and is difficult to discuss.
• She emphasizes that IBS is not “just in your head” and that standard advice to “fix it” with diet or symptom tracking can feel invalidating.
• IBS is a functional disorder: There’s no structural damage, but the gut isn’t working as it should due to dysregulation.

Notable Quote:

“Your gut may look fine, but it’s not functioning the way it should. The signals, the speed, the rhythm—they're dysregulated. And a lot of that comes from your nervous system.” – Leah Davidson [03:10]

2. The Gut-Brain Connection: The Role of the Nervous System

[03:00–05:20]

• The gut has its own nervous system—the enteric nervous system—sometimes called the “second brain.”
• There is constant, bi-directional communication between the brain and the gut via the vagus nerve.
• If the brain perceives a threat, the gut feels it; and if the gut is distressed, the brain interprets this as danger.
• This loop underlines why stress isn’t just felt emotionally, but physically—in the gut.

Notable Quote:

“If your brain is perceiving a threat, your gut is going to feel it. And if your gut is inflamed or overstimulated, your brain is going to interpret that as danger. So this loop is very real.” – Leah Davidson [04:08]

3. Stress, IBS, and the Protection Loop

[05:20–07:50]

• Stress alters gut motility, secretion, absorption, inflammation, and the gut microbiome.
• The phenomenon of “visceral hypersensitivity” means the same meal can affect people differently depending on their stress state.
• IBS sufferers often have a low threshold for stress—small triggers can switch the system into “hyper,” “hypo,” or “freeze” states, disrupting digestion.
• Leah outlines the “protection loop”: symptom ➔ fear ➔ tension ➔ hypervigilance ➔ more symptoms ➔ reinforced alarm.
• Reference to Dr. Howard Schubiner’s “six Fs” that keep people stuck: Fear, Focusing, Frustration, Fighting through, Fixing, Figuring it out.

Notable Quote:

“This loop feels like proof that something is broken. But it’s really your nervous system predicting danger and reacting, just in case.” – Leah Davidson [07:10]

4. Why Standard Mind-Body Tools Don’t Always Fit IBS

[07:50–09:50]

• While tools like somatic tracking can help with other chronic pain (by paying gentle, nonjudgmental attention to sensations), IBS involves more physiological factors.
• For IBS, Leah recommends tracking not the pain itself, but the anticipatory stress, anxiety, and patterns before a flare.
• The goal is to “expand your zone of resilience” and support your nervous system—not to control every gut reaction.

Notable Quote:

“What we want to do, instead of tracking the pain directly when we have symptoms, we want to start tracking the anticipation, the stress, the anxiety levels, the pattern that comes before the full-on flare.” – Leah Davidson [09:12]

5. Expanding Safety and Building Trust in Your Body

[09:50–11:00]

• Feeling safe isn’t about symptom-free perfection or “fixing everything”—it’s about teaching the brain and body to believe you’re not in danger, even with symptoms.
• Neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to learn and unlearn patterns—gives hope for healing.
• Leah shares her new resource, the “IBS Nervous System Reset,” designed to move beyond food lists and symptom trackers and focus on trust, regulation, and empowerment.

Notable Quote:

“Once the brain believes that you’re not in danger, it’s going to turn the volume down. That’s how neuroplasticity works. What’s been learned can be unlearned.” – Leah Davidson [10:33]

6. Encouragement and Resources

[11:00–12:10]

• Leah encourages listeners: “Your gut isn’t broken and you’re not making this up. Your symptoms are real, your body is brilliant, but your nervous system is talking to you and it wants you to listen.”
• She invites listeners to check out her guide, IBS Nervous System Reset, and highlights the community in her Nervous System Journaling Club.

Notable Quote:

“Healing is very possible, but it’s not going to be through perfection or pressure.” – Leah Davidson [11:56]

Most Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “IBS is not just about digestion. It’s about discomfort, embarrassment, unpredictability, and sometimes shame.” [00:12]
• “Your nervous system is always setting the stage. It is even behind whether your meal is going to give you the poops or not.” [05:05]
• “These are survival strategies. And they all make sense… but they keep your nervous system revved up.” [07:39]
• “It’s not about food rules or symptom tracking. It’s about building trust… and shifting from fixing everything to feeling it.” [10:00]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00 — Introduction: The real impact of IBS
• 03:00 — IBS as a functional disorder; gut-brain bi-directional loop
• 05:20 — Effects of stress; visceral hypersensitivity and “team resilient” state
• 07:10 — The symptom-protection loop; Dr. Schubiner’s “six Fs”
• 09:12 — Adapting mind-body tools for IBS; tracking anticipation and stress
• 10:33 — The role of safety and neuroplasticity in healing
• 11:50 — Final encouragement and resources

Conclusion & Takeaways

Leah Davidson offers a compassionate, scientifically grounded perspective on IBS, reframing it as an interplay between gut and nervous system—not a problem you can simply “fix” with diet. She urges listeners to move away from perfectionism and toward supporting their own nervous system, reinforcing that healing is possible and your body is not broken. Listeners are encouraged to check out further resources and to focus on building trust and resilience from within.