The Link Between Digestion & Hormones
When women come to see me for any hormone related complaint, whether it’s painful periods, acne, infertility — you name it — they’re often surprised that one of the first things I ask them about (and one of the topics that we spend the longest time on) is their digestion.
If it sounds like I’m getting off topic, hear me out. Do you remember that trend “name a more dynamic duo”? People would list things like peanut butter and jelly, Romeo and Juliet, Batman and Robin — you get the picture. But the pair that comes to my mind when I think about the most dynamic duo is the digestive system and the hormonal system. Yep, I said it.
Your digestion and your hormones are like that inseparable pair of best friends that do absolutely everything together. You simply can’t talk about hormones without addressing gut health.
The Role of the Digestive System
Your digestive system is responsible for taking the food that you eat and turning it into the nutrients that your body needs in order to function. To do this, food is broken down into tiny particles that are small enough to be absorbed into your bloodstream. Then, after your body takes the nutrients that it needs, the remainder is packaged up for disposal in the form of your poop.
Most simply put, your body extracts things like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water from your food and then gets rid of what’s left.
How Does Digestion Affect Hormones
So now you know just how vital your digestive system is and you also know that everything in your body is connected — but let’s get into some of the details of how exactly your hormones are affected by your digestive system.
1. Hormone Detoxification
Detoxification is a pretty hot buzz word that’s thrown around a heck of a lot in the heath and wellness community, so let’s first clarify what it means. Detoxification is simply the removal of toxic substances from your body and this is done mostly in the liver.
Now, the liver isn’t one of the main organs of the digestive tract, per se, meaning that food doesn’t travel directly through it in the same way that it passes through the stomach or through the small intestine — but that doesn’t negate it’s role. The liver is an accessory organ with a whole lot of responsibility.
Not only does the liver create bile which is essential for digesting fats, but it’s also the main organ of detoxification, meaning that it helps to break down toxic elements so they can be safely removed from your body — and this includes excess hormones. In fact, one of the most fundamental jobs of the liver with regards to hormone health is to process and eliminate excess estrogen from the body.
When we talk about hormonal imbalances, this can either refer to having too much or too little of a specific hormone. When it’s a case of too much of a hormone, the excess need to be removed from the body and the first step in this removal process occurs in the liver.
Before estrogen can leave the body, it first needs to be rendered inactive in the liver. If your liver is overwhelmed or if you’re deficient in the nutrients needed to support the detoxification pathways, you may not be eliminating excess hormones efficiently, which can result in a hormonal imbalance.
2. Constipation
After being de-activated in the liver, estrogen has two ways that it can leave your body — either through your kidneys as urine or through your intestines as stool. This means that if you’re constipated and not having regular bowel movements, excess estrogen is not being efficiently removed from your body. Since it’s not being removed, it’s allowed to re-enter circulation and become activated once again.
This is essentially like bagging up the trash, but forgetting to take it out to the street for garbage day. Holding onto estrogen in this way can quickly result in a hormonal imbalance.
This is why one of the most important things that you can do to help regulate your hormones is to make sure that youre going to the bathroom EVERY SINGLE DAY. The term constipation technically refers to going three or more days without having a bowel movement, but I consider even just one day without a bowel movement to be too long.
Having a daily bowel movement may seem out of reach to you. In fact, its not uncommon for some people to have a bowel movement every other day or even once per week. If you’re one of these people, thats ok. You can begin making changes today to support regular bowel movements.
Here are some tips:
Increase your water intake.
Water keeps your intestines lubricated so that stool can pass through them more easily. Aim to drink a minimum of half your body weight in ounces each day. For example, a 140 pound women would drink 70 ounces of water.
Increase your fiber intake.
People are simply not eating as much fiber as they should be. On average, Americans eat 10-15 grams of fiber per day, while the ideal amount is at least 25 grams (for women) and 38 grams (for men). If you have no idea how much fiber you’re eating, you can use a tool like cronometer or myfitnesspal to calculate it.
Try magnesium citrate
This is my favorite supplement for constipation. Magnesium works as an osmotic laxative, meaning that it pulls water into the intestine, making the stool softer and easier to pass. It’s important to pay attention to the form of magnesium, since different forms have different actions. The starting dose is around 300 mg nightly.
Avoid laxatives
When you’re struggling to go, laxatives can be tempting, but I caution against over-using these products since even natural laxatives (like Senna teas) can quickly create dependence.
Reduce stress
Your digestion is turned on when you’re in a parasympathetic state (think, “rest and digest”) and shuts down when you’re in sympathetic state (think, “fight or flight”). If you’re stressed, it can 1000% percent be contributing to constipation.
Move your body
Moving your body increases blood flow to your intestines and provides some physical stimulation to the digestive tract. Not to mention, it’s a tried and true method for stress reduction.
If you’ve tried everything and you’re still struggling to achieve regular bowel movements, further medical investigation is needed. There are several underlying conditions that can contribute to constipation and these need to be ruled out by your doctor, including:
Hypothyroidism
Diabetes
Irritable bowel syndrome
Diverticulitis
Anxiety
Depression
Certain medications
Intestinal obstruction
Neurological disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinsons disease
3. Dysbiosis
Ok, so everything is working smoothly — your liver is processing estrogen efficiently and you’re pooping every day, meaning any extra estrogen is getting kicked to the curb and making its way out of your body — what could go wrong?
This is where your microbiome comes in to play.
Your microbiome is a unique collection of organisms that live within your gut. Yes, you have bacteria in your gut and lots of them! You may not want to hear this, but there are more bacteria cells in your body than human cells. I still don’t know if that’s fascinating or disturbing, but either way, these bacteria exist within us and they have a significant impact on our health.
But when it comes to these gut bacteria, not everyone is a good guy. Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in your gut microbiome, meaning you either have too many bad guys or not enough good guys — and this can seriously impact your health — and not just your digestion! Your bacteria affect your mental health, immune system, skin, hormones, and more!
The reason dysbiosis can be disruptive to your hormones is that some bacteria produce an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. Do you remember how your liver needs to de-activate estrogen before you body can remove it? Well, this enzyme re-activates it, allowing estrogen to be reabsorbed. This recycling of hormones can quickly lead to a hormonal imbalance.
You can test your level of beta-glucuronidase. In fact, it’s one of the markers in the stool test that I use in my practice. If you’re interested in learning more about stool testing, you can check out my website here.
Some of my favorite ways to support a healthy microbiome include:
Probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms that replenish the good bacteria in your gut. Stocking your gut with healthy bacteria crowds out the bad guys. You can get probiotics through a supplement or use food as medicine and consume probiotic-rich foods like sauerkraut, tempeh, kimchi, miso, kombucha and yogurt.
Increase fiber
Fiber is food for the bacteria in your gut. Make sure that you’re hiding your goal of 25 grams of fiber per day.
Calcium d-glucarate
Remember that the enzyme beta-glucuronidase reactives estrogen so that it’s allowed to recirculate in the body and contribute to hormonal imbalances. The good news? Calcium d-glucurate inhibits beta-glucuronidase, preventing this recycling of hormones. The standard dose is 500-1000 mg per day, but if you’re like me, and prefer to test before treating, you can check out the stool test that I offer here, which looks at beta-glucuronidase levels as one of the markers.
4. Absorption
Let’s talk about one last way that your digestion can affect your hormones and that is absorption. Remember, that the role of the digestive system is to both digest AND absorb nutrients from your food. The end goal is absorption — digestion (the breaking down of food into absorbable particles) is simply a means to an end. If you aren’t breaking down your food completely or if you’re experiencing malabsorption, you aren’t getting the nutrients that you need for hormone health.
All hormones are made from cholesterol and so fat absorption is vital to having healthy hormone levels. If you’re not absorbing fat, you’re not going to be able to build hormones.
Another way that absorption affects hormones is through detoxification. Your liver uses a variety of nutrients as co-factors in the detox process and so, if you aren’t absorbing those nutrients, you aren’t detoxing optimally.
If you’re concerned about your ability to digest and absorb your food, don’t worry because I plan on covering that in a future blog post. If you can’t wait until then, I would be honored to work together and you can apply to be a client here.
I hope you realize how interconnected every system in your body is and that you simply can’t try to isolate a single problem/symptom without addressing everything else. This is why I always take a whole body approach to healing.
If you’re struggling with your hormones, please oh please check-in on your digestion — and if you need a little extra help, I would be honored to work with you on your healing journey.
