There is a huge web of hormones, but let’s talk about one of the main ones, oestrogen.

Oestrogen is metabolised by a large group of ‘bacterial genes’ (aka gut bacteria), known as the oestrobolome.

Their main job is to keep oestrogen levels balanced. Healthy gut bacteria will ensure that neither too much nor too little oestrogen is in the system.

However, when the oestrobolome becomes off balance, it can activate too much oestrogen, leading to oestrogen dominance.

Why does the oestrobolome get off track?

For the same reasons that any gut imbalance occurs – poor food choices, stress, overuse of antibiotics, and in women – the use of birth control pills.

When there’s too much oestrogen in the body, or, when there’s not enough progesterone to balance out the oestrogen.

Either way, symptoms of oestrogen dominance include:

Now, imbalanced oestrobolome isn’t the only way that oestrogen dominance can occur. It can also be caused by:

However, all of these are factors influenced by the gut, too!

Oestrogen dominance is more common in women, but it can happen to men, too! Men produce oestrogen too, and in some cases, too much.

Under stressful conditions, the body converts testosterone to oestrogen. This will cause men to develop oestrogenic qualities.

So, how do we help our gut in order to have humming hormones

The body will heal itself, by itself, given the right lifestyle and…FOOD!

Our diet is number 1 and the most powerful healer of a compromised gut! Add in more of the good, to crowd out the not so good foods.

• Green leafy vegetables: Full of great nutrients and minerals and good microbes that help with gut health.
• Fibre: Our gut loves cold and cooked root vegetables like potato and sweet potato, (and cooked, cooled then heated oats) due to the resistance starch which helps the good bacteria stick around. If you have significant bacteria overgrowth or imbalance, fibre may flare this up, as fibre will feed both the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria. So make sure you go slow, or avoid it until you start to remove the hard to digest foods.
• Fermented foods: These are probiotic foods that add good bacteria to the gut. Think sauerkraut, kombucha (need to watch ingredients here) and sourdough.
• Dark chocolate: Yes! You heard right. Dark chocolate ferments in the gut, providing great anti-inflammatory properties – as long as you stick to the 85% or darker.
• Remove foods hard to digest: gluten, animal products including dairy, refined sugar, processed foods and caffeine.

Do this as best you can and notice what you notice for 14 days.

Once we are beginning to follow the healing steps, we can the move on to the sealing stage. Which is also healing as well 🙂

Here are my top 2 foods/supplements I take for 12 weeks once a year to seal and heal my gut (along with the recommendations above):

Quercetin (found in many fruits, vegetables, leaves and seeds – mainly red onions & kale): Take 100mg of Quercetin twice daily (I purchased mine in tablet form and took 1/2 (two 1/4s) tablet daily- check recommended dosage on pack for how much to take)

L-Glutamine: L-Glutamine the most abundant amino acid in blood plays a vital role in the maintenance of mucosal integrity. Therefore it helps with leaky gut, which in most cases of thyroid (master hormone gland) issues, leaky gut plays a role! Take 100mg (about 1/8 of a teaspoon), twice daily for 12 weeks.* If this is too much, start with once a day and build up. The L-Glutamine can be put in smoothies or simply chug it down in some water.

I trust this helps to get you on your way to glorious gut health, and humming hormones!

If you want more support;