Slow bowels?
Only pooping every few days?
Are you also noticing?
- Heavy painful periods
- Swollen tender breasts
- Increased body fat on hips and thighs
- Headaches/migraines
- Mood swings creating irritability or impatience
Did you know your slow bowel movements could be creating these signs of estrogen dominance?
When your body is done with the estrogen it was using, the liver packages it up ready for disposal. These packages are released into the bowel to be neatly ‘thrown out”. But if your bowel movements are not as regular as they should be, the packaged estrogen is left in the bowel for a longer time. During this time the body starts to break down and reabsorb some of that neatly packaged estrogen and start sending it back around the body. As you can imagine this means you have excess estrogen in your system and the poor liver has to repackage it again to be eliminated again. But if you are still too slow, the cycle repeats over and over again! And you end up in estrogen dominance, with symptoms as listed above and a liver that is overworked!
When you reach the perimenopausal stage of your life a woman’s body is more prone to estrogen dominance naturally as the hormones change. So, it is at this time it is important to eliminate those used and packaged estrogen hormones. Otherwise, the symptoms as already listed, PLUS, joint and body aches and temperature fluctuations can become unbearable!
So how do you keep your bowels moving?
Foods to help motility of the gut include:
- Soluble Fibre
- Insoluble Fibre
- Water
- Probiotic Foods (fermented foods like kombucha, sauerkraut, yoghurt, all raw and unpasteurized)
- Prebiotics (includes the fibres, polyphenols, starches and many other components of a variety of fresh real food)
Movement is also important, include movements like:
- Daily walks
- Yoga (especially the spinal twists are good for gut motility)
Reduce the stress levels with:
- Quiet unwinding time
- Dancing to music
- Reading a book
- Any activity that rejuvenates you and is health-promoting
- 7-9 hours of sleep
Poorly balanced hormones could be a symptom of your gut health and gut motility. So get your bowels regular with diet and lifestyle changes.
If you need help to get your bowels moving regularly or are struggling to get your hormones balanced please reach out to me via email anthea@antheaholder.com.au
Yours in Health,
Dr. Anthea Holder
(Chiropractor and Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner)
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