Gut Health and Stress: Understanding the Two-Way Connection

About this event

Discover how stress and gut health influence one another, and the practical foundations that can support recovery and resilience.

This science-led webinar explores the bidirectional relationship between stress and gut health. Dr Berit Nordstrand will explain how psychological stress can affect digestion, gut motility, microbial balance, immune activity and gut barrier integrity, while gut-derived signals may in turn influence the brain’s stress response, mood, sleep and emotional regulation.

The session will examine how chronic stress can create a self-reinforcing cycle involving poorer food choices, disrupted sleep, reduced recovery and worsening gut symptoms, as well as the relationship between prolonged stress, low-grade inflammation and reduced physical and mental resilience. It will broaden the conversation beyond cognitive coping strategies to consider biological foundations such as food quality, movement, sleep, daylight, recovery and social connection.

Attendees can expect to gain:

• An accessible understanding of how stress can affect the gut and how gut-derived signals may influence the stress response.
• Insight into the biological cycles that can contribute to reduced recovery and resilience.
• A broader framework for thinking about stress management beyond cognitive coping strategies alone.
• Small, realistic workplace and lifestyle measures that may help interrupt the stress-gut cycle.

Key takeaway: Stress does not exist only in the mind. It creates changes throughout the body, including in the gut, while gut health can influence how resiliently we respond to stress.

About the speaker:

Dr Berit Nordstrand

Dr Berit Nordstrand is a physician, author and entrepreneur who qualified in medicine at NTNU in Trondheim in 1991. She later specialised in clinical pharmacology and toxicology and in addiction medicine, working clinically as a medical doctor until 2015. During her clinical career, Berit worked within the interdisciplinary substance use disorder treatment service at St Olavs University Hospital’s specialist addiction clinic. Here, she integrated lifestyle medicine into conventional care, incorporating nutrition, physical activity, sleep and daily routines alongside established medical approaches. Her work also included educating doctors, nurses and patients, and lecturing on how lifestyle factors can contribute to health and recovery. Berit has since become a leading communicator on nutrition and lifestyle health, translating complex medical knowledge into practical, accessible guidance through her books, media work and the GutWise 12-step method.

Please note:

• Participants will receive their joining details 24 hours before the webinar, along with a reminder one hour before the session begins.
• The session may be recorded and shared afterwards.
• The chat function will be used to engage with participants.
• If there is an external speaker, their views will be their own and may not necessarily reflect those of the CIPD.
• If any reasonable adjustments are required, participants are encouraged to make this known and assistance will be provided.