Everything You Need To Know About Gut Health and Endometriosis
If you have endo, chances are you’ve dealt with gut imbalance issues. Cue the long list of symptoms, such as gas pain, bloating, acid reflux, loose stools, or nausea—you name it! Many things can influence your gut health, including systemic inflammation and stress caused by endometriosis. However, the relationship between gut health and endometriosis is a bit complicated (as is diagnosing endometriosis and finding effective treatments, but that’s a whole other discussion!).
So, what’s the plan of action to tackle endometriosis and gut health? First, let’s take a closer look at how the gut affects your endo and overall well-being. Then, I’ll go over natural gut health remedies and best practices to keep your gut health in check. I’m here to help guide you along the way as your fellow endo warrior and dietitian!
Why is Everyone Obsessed With Gut Health?
There’s a good reason why gut health is a big deal in the health space! Our gut is responsible for vital functions in our body, such as digestion, immunity, hormones, and cognition. The gut is even connected to this like tinnitus (ringing in the ear!). Good digestion relies on healthy levels and types of “good” bacteria in your gut microbiome, as well as how each organ of the digestive tract works. Gut health and endometriosis make things a bit more complicated. I’ll cover more on this next!
The Truth About Endometriosis and Gut Health
Did you know 70-80% of our immune system lives in the gut? When the gut isn’t functioning at an optimal level, this does significantly impact how endometriosis behaves. Additionally, various parts of the digestive tract are responsible for various roles (like the small bowel absorbing most of our nutrients, or the stomach to produce acid). There are implications to our digestive system not functioning well, including suboptimal nutrient absorption (of the nutrients we need to fight inflammation), or other parts of the digestive tract having to pick up the slack, thus resulting in more inflammation! Even more of a reason to follow a gut health protocol to ensure your gut is as healthy as possible.
Signs Your Gut Health Is Suffering and Needs Attention
If you want to lower your pain and improve your endometriosis symptoms, start with your gut health! Since endometriosis is a condition of immune dysfunction (and your gut is your largest immune organ), having a healthy gut makes ALL the difference to your quality of life with endo.
Look out for these signs of an unhealthy gut:
• Heartburn or acid reflux
• Constipation or diarrhea with loose/greasy stools
• Iron, folate, or b12 deficiencies
• Brain fog or memory trouble
• Joint pain without any direct cause
• Random and unpredictable food sensitivities
• Bloating
• Floating stools
• Sticky or hard to wipe clean stools
• Bleeding gums or a bad taste in the mouth
• History with antibiotics
• Anal itching
• Abdominal cramping
• Undigested food in your stool
Gut health and endometriosis go hand in hand—if you’re dealing with any of the above, it’s time to give your gut some TLC!
Natural Gut Health Remedies for Endowarriors
The reality is that your gut plays a direct and indirect role in pain, symptoms, fertility, and proliferation of endometriosis. As mentioned earlier, your gut is your largest immune organ, so improving your microbiome can strengthen your immune system. This helps support your immune cells to keep endo flare-ups to a minimum.
Nutrition plays a significant role in symptom relief with endometriosis, using the power of food and other healthy habits. This includes natural gut health remedies, how you eat, what you eat, and supplements for gut health and inflammation.
Start here with my endometriosis and gut health tips:
Nutrition
• Walnuts and pistachios are excellent for feeding two major classes of bacteria in your gut (firmicutes and bacteroides)
• Fennel, clove, and ginger help to promote digestive juices
• Limit gluten and alcohol, which can contribute to increased gut permeability
• Eat enough foods with vitamins D and A, which contain two fat-soluble vitamins that are essential for the gut lining
• Supplememt l-glutamine, immunoglobulins, saccharomyces boulardii, or zinc carnosine to help support the gut lining (if needed)
• Red fruits like cranberry, pomegranate, or cherries feed akkermansia (a crucial species of bacteria in your gut)
• Include at least three colors from plants in every meal to increase gut microbiome diversity
• Space your meals around 3.5 to 4 hours apart and try to maintain a 14-hour gap minimum between dinner and breakfast (this helps to support a healthy Migrating Motor Complex (MMC) to move food through the gut.
• Enjoy a cup of green tea and/or ginger tea every day
Supplements and Probiotics
• Increase fiber intake from supplemental fibers like Sunfiber and acacia fiber to help improve diversity in your flora
• Take a magnesium supplement to support healthy bowel movements (can also help with cramping and body discomfort)
• Probiotic strains such as bifidobacterium help boost vital species of bacteria in your gut
• Try a digestive bitter (my fav brand is the Gaia herbs digestive bitter)
Lifestyle
• Be mindful of the type of exercise you do; high-intensity movement in susceptible individuals can be a cause of increased gut permeability
• Manage your stress through relaxation techniques such as yoga, deep breathing, or gentle walking (chronic stress can lead to leaky gut)
• Avoid unnecessary antibiotics that can reduce the bacterial diversity in your large intestine.
• Test for SIBO & H.pylori when dealing with gastrointestinal issues as they’re prevalent with endometriosis
Support Your Gut Health with Endo
Knowing how gut health and endometriosis play a role in overall well-being, it’s crucial to do whatever you can to support them. Since your gut is your largest immune organ, you want to ensure you’re keeping it in optimal health. Through nutrition, supplements, probiotics, and lifestyle changes, you can promote good bacteria in your gut microbiome.
It can be difficult trying to come up with meals that are good for both your endometriosis and gut health. As a dietitian who also has endo, it’s something that I’ve done extensive research about for my clients (and myself!). I wanted to make it as easy as possible to have nutritious and delicious meals that endo warriors could rely on, so I created my collection of endo-friendly meal plans.
My Gut Health Meal Plan was designed to support women's gut health and reduce uncomfortable bloating. This plan outlines a week’s worth of tasty and easy-to-prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes. You’ll also get a weekly shopping list and detailed nutrition info for each recipe. If you try out any of these meal plans, let me know what you think of the recipes (I know you’ll love them!).