HORMONES & HOW YOUR GUT MAY BE EFFECTING THEM

Exhausted? Can’t shift weight? Irregular periods? Bloating?

Any of these sounds familiar?

Chances are - if you’re female, that your hormones are having some form of impact on your health. And it’s understandable- it’s a complex balancing act that our bodies work at maintaining every day, all while we are throwing everything we have at disrupting this balance.

Not getting enough sleep, working to much, not exercising enough, over indulging with an extra glass of wine, using unnatural body care products such as moisturisers, shampoos and makeup.

All of these factors (among many many others!) impact our hormone levels. The last few points in that list in particular impact the liver- increasing the toxic load that the liver has to deal with each day.

But how does this impact your hormones? The liver is responsible for breaking down and clearing hormones from the body- it is an integral part in maintaining this hormonal homeostasis that I mentioned above.

The liver is also an integral part of digestion- so when your digestive function isn't working 100% and you’re experiencing symptoms such as bloating, changed bowel motions or indigestion then investigating how the liver is functioning can help to pinpoint where things are going wrong.

In clinic I often send clients for a Comprehensive Digestive Stool Analysis, and while this gives us a great indication of what is going on within the digestive tract it also shows us how the liver is functioning. We are able to measure an enzyme called b-Glucuronidase. This enzyme is responsible for breaking down carbohydrates but when it is elevated it tells us that the body is having trouble clearing oestrogen- leading to hormonal imbalances.

B-Glucuronidase increases the chances of oestrogen being reabsorbed by the body instead of being cleared from the body, so then the body ends up having more oestrogen than what it should.

So if you feel like your hormones are out of balance- just remember that it is much more to it than just your hormones.

I will write more about the impact that our environment has on our hormones, but it is bigger than just this. Our bodies, how we treat them, what we expose them to and how our body is able to counteract these negative factors all contribute to the feeling of wellbeing or not-so-well. Looking at your hormones from a holistic perspective will help you get to the cause of the issue- and work to maintain healthy hormone levels long term.