Women face many complex health conditions & issues as compared to men, specifically when they age. When women enter their matured age, they are more likely to experience waves of hot flashes, mood swings, biological changes & hormonal shifts. This creates a lot of mixed feelings among them- right from irritation, frustration or pain! But it does not have to be this way- Is there a solution?
Scientists have found that health of the gut microbiome may have a lot to say in hormonal changes.
Our hormones are regulated by an endocrine system- a set of organs that work towards producing our hormones & they are flowed into our system to bring a balance in our biological functions. These hormones control lot of our growth patterns such as reproduction, sleep, sexual functions & mood. Without our endocrine system, we would not be able to regulate our metabolism, when we feel hungry & modulate our blood pressure & temperature.
This important system is made up of various glands such as thyroid glands, adrenal glands, pituitary glands, pancreas, ovaries in females, testicles in males. This system orchestrates & facilitates biological changes inside our body with each hormone targeting a specific organ or tissue.
However, now scientists have found that our gut microbiome- 4 trillion microbes living in our gut are calling all the shots & are said to regulate a lot of those circulatory hormone levels.
Gut Microbiome interact with various aspects of human biology functions such as nutrient absorption, metabolism, immune function & neurological function. Now scientists have discovered a specific group of microbiome- Estrobolome that is responsible for regulating Estrogen levels & capable of metabolising Estrogen. These microbes release an enzyme Beta Glucuronidase that can increase the level of circulating Estrogen in the blood. When our gut microbiome is healthy & balanced, estrobolome can regulate optimum level of estrogen which makes sure that the right level of Beta Glucuronidase is released in blood. However when the gut is imbalanced, it can drive the production of Estrogen up or down (either direction), interfering with normal flow of estrogen in blood & causing abnormal/deficit estrogen led pathologies.
Changes in level of Estrogen impacts mood & menstrual cycle. However, the story does not stop here! India is called the diabetes capital of the world. Diabetes is one the most common forms of endocrine related diseases. In case of diabetes, your body cannot correctly respond to Insulin, a hormone that tells its time to pull glucose out of blood into tissues such as muscle or fat into energy. Estrogen has a major role to play here. It helps your cell listen to what insulin has to say. For this communication to take place, Estrogen level should be optimum. However, when Estrogen level is disrupted & is deficient, it breaks this communication & blood sugar level begins to rise, make you feel faint & experience many other chronic symptoms- thereby triggering type 2 diabetes
Estrogen has a major role to play in various other chronic disease conditions which includes obesity, cardiovascular diseases, Osteoporosis- most diseases are most common in women. Many women will have a higher vulnerability to these diseases since their gut microbiome status may be putting them at risk.
When your gut microbiome experiences dysregulated activity from microbes producing enzyme- Beta Glucondariase, it may lead to low Estrogen state in post menopausal women. It can also impact Estrogen level in menopausal women & increase their risk of endometriosis(a condition where uterine lining expands to other organs of the body). This expansion of tissue can lead to further dysregulation of hormone & increases scar like tissue that thickens & bleeding during menstruation cycle, thereby causing increased pain during period & chances of infertility.
In a number of cases, continuous hormone imbalance can lead to estrogen related serious conditions such as breast, ovarian cervical, prostate & endometrial cancer. Therefore the impact of gut microbiome on hormone imbalance in not specific for women.
Let us also discuss mood swings!
When women reach a certain age, their body signals that it’s time to make changes to how hormones are produced. Some of these signals include small mood swings. However if these mood swings are quite frequent & abnormal or have excessive pain, it indicates that some serious dysregulation is happening inside the body. In other words, your gut microbiome is trying to tell you that they need help.
If your gut microbiome is imbalanced & triggering inflammation, you should make concerted efforts to investigate what is causing imbalance- your nutrition, consumption of antibiotics, stress, general environment or even sleep patterns.
We at Genefitletics, just by taking a sample of your poop, can decode & analyse activity of microbes & tell you what is causing inflammation & imbalance. If you have high inflammatory activity of overgrowth of group of microbes constituting estrobolome, it may be interfering with production of Estrogen in either direction( either deficit or excess). By looking at microbial activity taking place inside your body & their impact of hormonal changes, we can tell you mechansims of action in terms of specific food interventions to regulate your health & bring back your microbiome in state of balance.
For more details, what information your biological sample is giving your about state of your hormonal changes, please contact us at www.genefitletics.com
Sources:
Kwa M, Plottel CS, Blaser MJ, Adams S. The Intestinal Microbiome and Estrogen Receptor-Positive Female Breast Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2016;108.
Mauvais-Jarvis F. Is Estradiol a Biomarker of Type 2 Diabetes Risk in Postmenopausal Women? Diabetes. 2017;66:568-570.
Parasar P, Ozcan P, Terry KL. Endometriosis: Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Clinical Management. Curr Obstet Gynecol Rep. 2017;6:34-41
