Women’s Health Series Part 3

In this article we will focus on how the decrease in our hormones impacts our gut health & sleep. If you have been following me you know my passion is the microbiome b/c so much of our health lies in our gut!  What makes your microbiome healthy is a good variety of bacteria and lots of beneficial bacteria not overgrowth of bad.  When our estrogen lowers as we age it shifts the makeup of gut bacterial balance for the worse. Good bacteria die off which allows those bad one to multiply. This leads to us making less of those good anti-inflammatory fatty acids and less of our mood boosting chemicals. The loss of estrogen also decreases the motility of our intestines. The slowing of the normal motion causes back up of foods. When the food sits too long, it basically rots and we get constipated, gassy & bloated, & even abdominal cramping.  The best thing you can do is eat 30g of fiber a day & a Mediterranean style diet.

We have things called tight junctions between the cells in our intestine. They keep the lining strong. Less estrogen makes them weak. Think of a screen with holes poked in it. Food particles leak out and your body perceives this as bad so it starts an inflammatory reaction. Not good friends.

Now let’s focus on sleep and less progesterone. Good levels of progesterone have a calming effect to our nervous system. As we lose our progesterone, we have trouble unwinding & relaxing into that 1^st phase of sleep. Trouble falling asleep anyone?? You will also stay in a lighter level of sleep, not your deep rem sleep. Plus, you will have more wake-ups. Back to estrogen and less of it = less regulation of body temp. You know, HOT flashes. It has another function for promoting serotonin our good mood chemical and melatonin which is beneficial for our sleep cycle. Non medication things to do are consistent bed/wake time, no caffeine after 2pm, no technology 1hr before sleep.  

I hope this series is helping you realize all these symptoms you’re feeling are real and due to natural body processes. We can take action to help minimize some of these symptoms. Last portion will be metabolic.