Are you struggling with estrogen dominance, anxiety, candida, weight gain, a thyroid condition, hair loss and more?

You might not be aware, but the gut health and hormone health are closely related. You won’t have balanced hormones if you don’t heal the gut first. It is important to realize that you are as healthy as your gut is. Hippocrates said, “All disease begins in the gut.”

If you can’t digest and break down the food properly your body is not getting enough nutrients to function optimally.

Our gut is a barrier, which lets things in that should get in, and to keep things out that should stay out. We absorb the right nutrients through the gut and eliminate things, which our body doesn’t need. This process seems simple, but actually, it is super-complex! This process can break down in many places and can cause a lot of imbalances in the body.

One of the imbalances is called “leaky gut”, which means that your gut allows undigested particles (the ones that shouldn’t be there in the first place. They irritate the gut and the intestinal wall, and the gut become “leaky”) of food to get into our bloodstream. Leaky gut can wreak havoc on our health. One of them is inflammation, which is a cause of many diseases. 80% of our immune system is in our microbiome- bacteria in the gut which keep us healthy. When the gut is healthy and not leaky, it serves as a barrier from infections and bacteria. It is important to keep our intestinal wall strong.

The gut contains billions of friendly health-promoting microbes. Those healthy microbes facilitate digestion and absorption of nutrients. They also help us fight off disease-causing microbes, make neurotransmitters, vitamins, contribute to reducing inflammation and help stabilize blood sugar.

Unbalanced gut flora can cause candida, which can wreak havoc on our hormones. Candida is an opportunistic micro-organism and systematic fungal infection. We all carry that fungal strain, but for people with healthy digestive and immune system, it doesn’t cause any issues. When our gut is impaired though, Candia will multiply and overgrow, which affect our hormones.

When you have compromised digestive system, you can’t absorb the nutrients that are necessary for our bodily functions like vitamin B12 and magnesium., which are essential for our hormones.

Candida creates inflammation in the gut, which will promote the growth and spread of yeast. Candida waste products can also mimic estrogen, which means that the infection will send out confusing messages that your body is producing more estrogen than it really is.

Having too much estrogen in the body promotes the growth of candida. Lower levels of estrogen protect against candida and infections in general while too much estrogen suppresses body immunity against infections.

Your gut also influences the hormones, which also help regulate your menstrual cycle. Our microbiome controls the level of estrogen. This process called is the estrobolome. Estrogen is metabolized in the liver, and it becomes inactive. The estrogen is sent to the gut where it is supposed to be excreted from the body via stool. When our gut bacteria is imbalanced, that doesn’t happen, and non-friendly bacteria make an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. That enzyme re-activates estrogen in your intestines, which then re-enters your body and causes excess estrogen.

How to improve gut health

There are plenty of ways to improve gut health. Let’s talk about what to eliminate first, which is the easiest way. Remove processed food, alcohol, caffeine and sugar from your diet. Give it a try for a month or so and will be surprised how great you will feel.

Eliminate other gut irritants. You can try an elimination diet to find out if you have any food allergies and sensitivities. Most common allergies are to dairy, eggs, gluten, corn, nuts, and soy. Do it for a month, see how you feel and how your digestion improves.

Eat nutrient-dense foods, which will allow more macro- and micro-nutrients into our gut to maximize the chance for absorption. These nutrients are necessary for building and repairing our gut. The most nutrient dense foods are dark leafy greens, fruits, nuts, veggies, fish and organ meats.

Relax. Taking care of stress is very important for gut health. Stress itself can be a cause of dysbiosis. Take a couple of deep breaths before eating, express gratitude, eat slowly, chew your food and enjoy your meal. Don’t rush! A lot of people improve their digestion by doing just that!

Take probiotic, probiotic-rich foods and drinks, to replenish your gut microbes. They will help maintain your gut ecosystem. Probiotic-rich foods are found in fermented foods like kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, and miso. Make sure you eat them daily.

Don’t forget about gut-friendly fiber. Fiber is essential for gut health. Fiber helps remove toxins and unwanted bacteria from your body and feeds friendly microbes which help to absorb and digest our food better. Foods rich in fiber are vegetables, avocados, nuts, fruits, and seeds.

Support healthy stomach acid by drinking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with 6 ounces of water 10 minutes before each meal. A lot of people have low stomach acid. The acid helps us break down proteins and sterilize any food making it into your gut. Low stomach acid creates dysbiosis, chronic inflammation, poor digestion and lowers nutrients absorption. Having good stomach acid will help you digest your food better along with getting rid of bloating, gas and heartburn.

Recipe – Fermented beets

Serves 10

1 L warm water
5 tsp salt
5 beets, medium, peeled, sliced on mandoline
1 clove garlic, smashed (optional)
2 tablespoon soaked hijiki seaweeds

Instructions
Make a brine. Dissolve the salt in water.

Place sliced beets and soaked hijiki in a clean canning jar. Pack them tight. Leave 1 inch of headspace at the top.
Fill the jar with brine. Cover the beets completely with brine. Weigh the beets down. Beets shouldn’t float (you can use a “fermenting weight”).

Close the jar and let it sit at room temperature for 1-4 days. The longer it sits, the more the flavor will develop. You can open the jar after one day to release unnecessary air.

Serve & enjoy!

You can use it as snacks or serve with dinner.

If you want to heal the gut, try my Restore your Gut program. Click on the image!

In Health,

Angie