Two of the most frequently co-occurring issues in my office are digestive problems and female hormone problems. Digestive problems include constipation, diarrhea (or alternation between the two), abdominal pain, gas, difficulty with digestion, burping, or bloating. Hormonal symptoms include abnormal menstrual cycle length, irritability, cramping, decreased libido, breast pain, weight gain, hot flashes, or acne. While there’s usually no major pathology causing these symptoms, they still don’t qualify as ‘normal.’ They signal underlying issues with gut health, detoxification, hormone production, or regulation.
My personal interest in hormone health started when my own hormone symptoms resolved after I made changes in my diet. My cramping and nausea diminished significantly when, one month, I ate many more beets and greens. It was entirely by surprise, but I was thrilled to have almost no symptoms. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time studying what affects hormones. What I discovered is that one of the biggest affectors of hormone health is your digestive system and what you eat.
There are three major interactions between your gut and your hormone levels:
1. Hormone Detoxification:
While most people think of detoxification as a diet plan to ‘flush toxins’, detoxification actually always happens in your body. Your liver is responsible for the detoxification of most hormones, medications, caffeine, pesticides, and lots more. Liver detoxification pathways use up nutrients like B vitamins, fatty acids, magnesium and other minerals. What you eat impacts how fast or slow these detoxification pathways run. While many detox-type programs aren’t necessary, if you’re eating a lot of things your body has to detoxify, your hormone processing may slow and hormone disregulation may occur. The liver is capable of breaking down and getting rid of old hormones, but excess load can cause problems. It’s like dumping a big bucket of mop water into a sink and getting overflow because the sink doesn’t drain fast enough.
In your liver there are different detoxification pathways, and your hormones are broken down using three of them (sulfation, glucaronidation, and glutathione conjugation pathways). These specific pathways also break down insulin, steroid hormones, heavy metals, xenobiotics (stuff your body’s not used to), and MSG (the food kind). Their breakdown speed slows with increased inflammation from lots of omega 6 fats, trans fats, or high insulin levels. Having too many substances that need broken down results in poor hormone elimination and symptoms from hormone imbalances.
2. Your microbiome:
There are upwards of one trillion bacteria in your gut–possibly 100 trillion. These bugs play a big role in digestion, brain function, metabolism, and hormones.1 When it comes to your gut microbiome affecting your hormones, there’s a two way street. The liver turns hormones into breakdown products that then affect the balance of your gut bacteria. On the flip side, some alterations in your gut microbiome can put hormone pieces back into your system so they can float around a bit more.1 This changes hormone balance and can cause hormone-related symptoms.
The microbiome can change estrogen, testosterone, pheromones, and neurotransmitters (which can result in anxiety and stress). It also changes how your body responds to insulin, which is important for controlling weight and avoiding diabetes.3
Compromised intestinal function, as in “leaky gut,” can also allow bacterial products (lipopolysaccaride) into the bloodstream where they increase inflammation. They can interfere with progesterone production, which is important for regulating menstrual cycles and in pregnancy.2 What happens in the gut doesn’t stay in the gut.
3. Insulin:
Even with a healthy gut and no problem detoxifying hormones, what you eat can still change your hormone levels. Insulin releases when the blood sugar goes up, which happens when you eat sugar and refined carbohydrates. Insulin changes the action of an important enzyme that alters hormones. Aromatase (the important enzyme) converts estrogen to testosterone in females,4 which is linked with polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility. In men, it converts testosterone to estrogen (think low libido and muscle loss).5 Eating lots of sugar and refined carbohydrates will elevate insulin levels and change the balance of hormones.
So what does this mean?
When hormonal symptoms are present, digestive health should be addressed to get better resolution.
- If you have dysbiosis, especially SIBO, it can be treated with antimicrobials, then maintained by diet. Antibiotics are used by some practitioners, but antimicrobial herbs are as if not more effective as medication in resolving dysbiosis.6
- Fiber in the form of whole food (fruits and veggies!), limiting sugar, trans fats, and vegetable oils in the diet all promote gut health. Probiotics and fermented foods help shift the gut bacteria, but eating a good diet maintains gut health long-term.
- Lack of vitamins and minerals can alter gut flora as well as slow detoxification pathways. The minerals important in hormone detoxifications pathways are B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, zinc, manganese, chromium, selenium, and fatty acids (more omega 3 and less omega 6). Making sure you have adequate intake of these nutrients is important in helping clear hormones from your systems. If you don’t get enough of these from food, I recommend using a healthcare pactitioner to navigate this rather than trying to supplement all these nutrients.
- Not getting enough healthy fats can also change hormone levels. All sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone) start as cholesterol. Your body makes some cholesterol, but forcing your body to make cholesterol only from carbohydrates (veggies, fruits, and grains) usually also results in blood-sugar and insulin-handling issues. Eating some healthy fats including (gasp!) saturated fats can help support hormone levels without screwing up blood sugar regulation. This includes eggs, shellfish, pastured beef, oily fish, organ meats, and full-fat dairy.
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