The Gut Health & Hormone Balance Connection
To truly balance your hormones you need to first address one thing…
Drumroll please...
The answer is improving your gut health!
Are gut and hormone health related?
It’s easy to see gut health and hormone health as two separate things, when in reality, they are inextricably linked.
I always start with gut health in my practice. It’s really easy to want to get your hormones tested or go straight into trying to balance your hormones with supplements. Yet, to skip over gut health would mean ignoring a huge element in what could possibly be throwing off your hormone balance.
Even if you KNOW your hormones are off-perhaps you’ve recently come off of birth control and are experiencing negative side effects so you naturally make the connection that this shift in hormones is what is causing your unwanted symptoms-you still need to address gut health first.
So how does gut health actually impact hormone balance?
The health of your gut impacts your overall health.
Your microbiome, which lives inside your gastrointestinal tract, is composed of microorganisms and bacteria that need to be in a certain balance in order for your body to function properly.
The microbiome houses over 80% of your immune system.
This means that if there is an imbalance, what we call “dysbiosis”, then your immune system will suffer and inflammation can set in. Inflammation throws off ALL hormones. It is the ultimate root cause. We must bring down inflammation so that our hormones have a chance to balance out.
Inflammation in your GI tract can also cause what is referred to as “leaky gut.”
Have you heard of this popular term? This actually means that your intestinal wall, the lining that keeps things inside of your intestines and out of your blood stream, becomes permeable and things can enter your bloodstream that aren’t supposed to be there. Your body sees this as an invader and attacks it-causing inflammation and things like food allergies when undigested food particles make their way through.
Your gut microbiome also houses over 90% of your serotonin and over 60% of dopamine.
These are important feel-good neurotransmitters which means gut health directly affects mental health. So if you’re experiencing things like depression, anxiety, or mood swings then you absolutely need to start with the gut.
When your gut is stressed out, then your stress hormone cortisol will rise.
Cortisol is your stress hormone a high levels can result in anxiety, insomnia, and daily fluctuations in energy levels.
Some people may experience clear signs of dysbiosis or compromised gut health, things like bloating, burping, belching, indigestion, acid reflux, heartburn, gas, constipation, diarrhea, skin conditions or reoccurring yeast infections. Yet some people don’t experience any of these symptoms and still have compromised gut health.
If you are newly off hormonal birth control then gut health should definitely be on your radar. Hormonal birth control negatively impacts your gut microbiome so making sure you do damage control is essential to rebalancing your body and hormones.
The best way to improve your gut health so you can start balancing your hormones is to do the following:
Identify and remove any stressors including pathogens in the GI tract that might be causing trouble. The best way to do this is with a GI MAP stool test. This allows you to see the terrain of your gut and microbiome so you can make the proper adjustments.
Repair the intestinal lining to heal “leaky gut” so that your inflammation levels drop.
Repopulate the gut with beneficial bacteria that will help to crowd out the bad guys.
Make sure digestion is working properly. This means that you must be properly breaking down your food through chewing, stomach acid, and digestive enzymes. Many people with compromised guts have digestive dysfunction and need assistance.
Make sure you are having a daily bowel movement. If you aren’t then toxic hormone metabolites can build up in your system and throw your hormone balance off.
Working with a qualified practitioner is always a good idea to gain the right support and guidance. They can run the proper tests for you, if needed, and put together a custom protocol that’s right for your body. My 20-week Comprehensive Nutritional Therapy Program is designed exactly for this purpose.
Whatever you decide to do, be sure to make gut health a priority in your hormone balancing journey!