Dyslexia & Gut Health: The Surprising Link to Constipation

What does dyslexia have to do with constipation?

More than you might think.

In this episode, we explore the emerging connection between dyslexia, gut health, and the brain. While dyslexia is often viewed as a learning difference, it is also a neurodiverse profile—meaning the entire system, including the body, can be impacted.

Inside this conversation:

• The connection between the gut microbiome and brain function 
• Why neurodivergent individuals may experience more digestive challenges 
• The role of stress and anxiety in digestion 
• How gut health can influence cognitive function and dyslexic traits 
• The emerging research linking dyslexia with stomach aches and constipation 
• Why this isn’t “just physical”—it’s neurological and systemic 

We also explore interoception (your awareness of internal body signals) and how stress impacts digestion, potentially intensifying dyslexic challenges like word recall and processing.

This episode is educational, empowering, and yes… a little bit of potty talk.

✨ Because understanding your body helps you understand your brain.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unmasking Dyslexia. I'm Carlene, your host, and with each episode, we challenge the story that surrounds dyslexia. We will explore the strengths, the struggles, and the science behind the dyslexic experience so that you can better understand yourself or someone you love. Dyslexia and constipation. Do these two words even have anything in common? And guess what? They do. So when we start looking at health coaching and we really start looking in how the body processes and manage being neurodiverse, what we find is that there are neurodiverse profiles that are linked to bowel movements. So we're doing a whole bunch of potty talk in this podcast. So for those of you who don't love bathroom talk, this is where we're going today. And if anybody who knows me, they're gonna know that I have no problems talking about what happens when we sit on that big white throne. All right. So to make it quick for those of you who still want to listen and realize that, you know, it does influence us as dyslexics, I'm gonna cover it fairly quickly for you. Okay. So what we find is that we have microbiome within our gut. And that's basically our gut health. It's looking at the environment or the container of what happens within our digestive system. And what we do find and research shows is that there are differences for neurodiverse, and research is starting to look at dyslexics for this as well. So we aren't left out of this neurodiverse or neurodivergent profiles of gut health issues. And what we find is that there are leaky gut issues for some dyslexic individuals. If we start looking at this, it is what you eat can affect your brain. So we have that gut brain issues. How healthy your gut is. So do you have gas? Do you have bloating? What's going on down there? Because that does influence how efficiently and effectively your brain works. And a lot of times, it's not so much on improving the gut biome that's going to improve the brain. It's also about looking at it that it's a stress. This is an introsceptive or this is an internal stress that happens. And we know from previous podcasts that if we are stressed, our brains, our word recall, our ability to pronounce, our dyslexic challenges get even heightened. So we need to take care of that gut health in order to reduce our stresses. So we decrease the ability of our challenges to be surfaced. I just mentioned that introspees. So interception is our ability to be aware of how our body is functioning inside of us. Who are we? This is emotions, this is physicality, this is chemically, this is understanding that when I feel that grumble in my stomach, it's because I have indigestion. It's because I'm, is it, or is it because I'm nervous? Or is it because I think that person who just walked past me is pretty cute and I have the butterflies in my stomach? What is happening? That's introsception, being aware of our senses inside of ourselves. And for some neurodiverse populations, they have challenges of differentiating of what's happening for them. For us dyslexics, that has not been researched, but it doesn't seem to be our problem in understanding what's happening on the inside. Our anxiety and our stress directly relate to how our body functions. How do we digest our food? If we are stressed, guess what? You're not digesting your food properly, which is going to cause issues in the bowels, it's going to cause issues in the intestines, issues in the stomach. And then again, it can influence how our challenges or abilities actually surface for us as dyslexics. And of course, medication. Every medication seems to have issues with the gut, but I mean, it's reading those fine, um, the fine points within that. So one of the things that has come up and research has looked at most of gut health and neurodivergence is actually the studies are linked to autism. But there is one study that was released in 2021 around dyslexics. And what they found is that there's common sites of stomach aches and constipation for us dyslexics. And now, is this linked to um stress, the biology and the health of our microbiomes? And based on research, it's a little bit of both. So, one thing, as this is an educational podcast, I can't prescribe anything. I do have courses that are going to be released about health coaching and neurodiverse populations. But what is to realize and to give you a takeaway on this podcast is that you need to eat as healthy as possible. We just need to eat and make better choices for us. Decrease preservatives, decrease processed foods, eat foods like as close as they come out of the ground as possible. It's called a whole foods diet. But if you want to dive in a little bit more to yourself, please reach out to me because this is what I do offer my clients with my health coaching for neurodiverse populations. But realize that all it is is choices and what you consume and how your brain functions as a neurodiverse individual as a dyslexic, it does also affect how your gut health starts off like. How our gut actually even is primed to accept these foods. So if you're dyslexic and you have constipation or constant stomach aches, guess what? It could just be because you're dyslexic. If this episode resonated with you, know that you are not alone. And make sure to share it with someone else who might need it. Through my work at All That I Am, I offer courses and coaching to help you reconnect with your strengths, your meaning, and your sense of mattering. There are links to what I offer in the show notes. And don't forget to follow the podcast so you don't miss what's coming next.