Hormones and gut health

Do you have leaky gut?  Do you have a hormonal imbalance such as estrogen dominance?  Well, hormones and gut health are related.  Fix one and you start fixing the other.

What is leaky gut?

Leaky gut is when your digestive tract isn’t working the way it was meant to.  It’s basically seeping bacteria and other toxins through the intestines and into your body.  Common complaints with leaky gut are:

• bloating / gas
• food allergies
• Runny nose
• IBS
• Fatigue

Hormone problems

If you suffer from any hormonal issues, you know they aren’t any fun.  Some of the most problematic are:

• Unusually heavy periods
• Brain fog
• Weight gain
• Headaches / Migraines
• Moodiness
• Acne

My hormonally challenged journey included all of these, in various degrees.  It was debilitating.  It wasn’t until I realized that I could start doing something about it that things started to change for me.  But I needed to understand the relation between my gut health and hormone imbalance.

Gut health and hormone imbalance

Raise your hand if you had no idea that your gut is related to how well your hormones are functioning.  Don’t feel bad because I didn’t have an idea either.  I was just like you and very surprised to find this out so I went to my doctor to find out that:

1. I had fibroids that were causing my heavy periods.
2. Next, I was then told I was estrogen dominant.
3. Then, I was advised to go on HRT (hormone replacement therapy).

What I wasn’t told was that what was happening with my gut was affecting my hormones so this is why I’m telling you about it because I don’t want you to experience the same frustration I did.

Hormones and gut health

I didn’t realize that what I was eating could and would eventually mess with my hormones.  Sadly, this took decades to see the effects of my diet.  Surely, this wasn’t the only cause.  There were other causes of endocrine disruptors that I wasn’t aware of that I could take control of, which I eventually did.  Unfortunately, I still had to deal with my problems:

• Fibroids and all the issues that caused, including not being able to leave the house sometimes because of period flooding problems.  So devastating!
• Dealing with my estrogen dominance – what should I do about my low progesterone?

How estrogen is causing your leaky gut problems

Our digestive systems are linked to the amount of estrogen we have floating around.  At some point, estrogen is delivered to our livers where it is then moved to our intestines to be eliminated by having a bowel movement.  The estrogen should then be broken down in the intestines.  However, if you have leaky gut and your intestines aren’t working properly, the estrogen is absorbed once again into your blood, causing high levels of estrogen to continue to circulate throughout the body.

This, in turn, causes all the issues that I mentioned above, to continue – starting a vicious cycle that is never-ending.  If you truly want to change your life and feel better, you need to recognize the issues with your diet and other endocrine disruptors that are causing these issues.  Take it from me, you DO have control over your health.

Once I started on my journey, I started to understand that I needed to do something about my diet.  My leaky gut was causing me troubles and I needed to understand how to fix it by detoxing.  When I started to get the inflammation down in my body, I started to feel better overall.  It took some time but I have finally started to feel better.  I want the same for you.  I want you to know that you can do this.  Once you understand what’s happening and how the changes can help, it makes it much easier to make some changes.