How your gut affects your hormones
Just when you think you understand hormones, you learn something new. Did you know the hormones that regulate your menstrual cycle are influenced by your gut? Your intestinal bacteria (and their genes), called the microbiome, have so many important functions for your body that some scientists refer to it as a “virtual organ”
The microbiome synthesizes nutrients and assists with digestion. It releases chemicals that regulate mood and metabolism and immune function, and if all that wasn’t enough, it also helps to control the level of estrogen
How the microbiome affects estrogen
Estrogen is made primarily by your ovaries. It then circulates through your body to your uterus and breasts and other organs, until it reaches your liver where it’s inactivated.Inactivated estrogen is then sent to the intestine where it is supposed to stay inactivated so it can exit the body through the stool. That is normal, healthy estrogen metabolism.
When certain intestinal bacteria are present, something very different happens. Unfriendly bacteria make an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, which re-activates estrogen in your gut. That’s a problem because re-activated estrogen then re-enters your body and causes excess estrogen. That is impaired estrogen metabolism.
The problem with excess estrogen
too much estrogen can
➡️make periods heavier.
➡️ Cause excess weight gain
➡️ Add to anxiety and depression
➡️ Cause hair loss
Symptoms of excess estrogen
How to improve estrogen metabolism through your gut
Fortunately, there are ways to improve the health of the microbiome and to, therefore, promote the healthy metabolism of estrogen.
- Eat more vegetables. Fiber promotes a healthy microbiome
- Reduce alcohol consumption. Chronic alcohol consumption alters the microbiome
- Take a probiotic. To add back good flora into the gut. We have a choice of 3.
- 1. Probiotic powder- a good all rounder.
- 2. Skin youth biome- a gut and skin probiotic to help with hydration and anti aging.
- 3. Clear skin biome- a gut and skin probiotic to help heal acne and breakouts.
When you are treating a skin condition know that there is more to the skin than ‘just the skin’. You’ve to consider hormones, the gut, your lifestyle, your diet, your stress levels. If you don’t address these or consider these your skin condition may seem ‘untreatable’ or ‘these products don’t work’. Once you address and pin point which is your trigger points your skin condition/concern might even clear on its own!
if you need some tips on your skin or need a new skin care routine or even just want to know how to use what you already have, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Stephanie 💋