Is Leaky Gut affecting your hormones?
Ok if you’re just here looking for the answer to the question above the answer is yes, yes it can affect your hormones! So now you know it does, let’s look at how…
You may have heard the term Leaky Gut and thought to yourself, well that sounds gross….
It kinda is. It’s also called Increased Intestinal Permeability but somehow Leaky gut is the term that most people use.
Leaky Gut image from HappyGutLife.com
What is leaky gut?
It occurs when there are small holes or gaps in the lining of the intestine and things that you’re eating can actually pass through the gaps and slip into the bloodstream. In very simplistic terms, your body recognizes this as something foreign that shouldn’t be there and attacks it. This sets off an inflammatory response in the body and can lead to issues like fatigue, increased sugar cravings, weight gain, hormonal imbalances, increased food intolerances and autoimmune disease. You can see that leaky gut can affect all parts of your body and can be especially bad if you’re looking to balance out your hormones.
How does it affect your hormones?
Hormone imbalances like insulin resistance can arise when the inflammation and immune response are triggered by leaky gut.
Leaky gut can impede estrogen metabolism and allow the dangerous estrogens to recirculate in the body leading to increased risk of some cancers.
There are also hormones that are actually made in the gut- Serotonin and Melatonin. Serotonin is your happy chemical and 90% of this neurotransmitter/ brain hormone is made in the gut! Melatonin is your sleep hormone and is a derivative of serotonin. Wanna be happy and sleep good? Gotta take care of your gut!
Your gut is also important for some of the conversion of your thyroid hormone T4 into T3. T3 is the active hormone that does everything! You need the right bacteria in the intestines in order for this conversion to take place. That’s why some people with leaky gut can still feel hypothyroid symptoms even on meds.
So how do I know if I have Leaky Gut?
Glad you asked! If you suffer from any autoimmune disease, IBS, have food allergies, skin conditions that are inflammatory like eczema or psoriasis, thyroid problems or other hormonal imbalances etc, it is highly highly likely that you are dealing with leaky gut problems. In fact it’s super rare that anyone these days has no issues in the gut at all. There’s a lab test that can be done that looks at Zonulin which is a way to check the size of the gaps in the intestinal wall. If you have high levels of Zonulin you’re dealing with leaky gut. We use a test called the GI MAP which is a stool test you can do at home. It looks at your microbiome (gut) and can show us if both good and bad bacteria, parasites, viruses, yeast/fungus, and we add on the Zonulin marker.
How did it get that way?
There are so many things that can cause leaky gut- toxins, diet, food intolerances, infections, medicines. Let’s look a smidge more in depth at a few of them. Unfortunately, many of the foods that we commonly eat in this country are big contributors to leaky gut and can cause damage to the cell wall of the gut. Foods that contain lectins, like legumes, soy, grains (wheat and others), sugar, nightshade vegetables and other things that are added to foods like preservatives and chemicals. Things like glyphosate in roundup and food dyes are very damaging to the intestines. Often we’ll have a patient who comes to us with all kinds of food intolerances but once we repair the gut, they’re actually able to eat many of the foods that were causing them trouble.
Stress can also affect it and cause inflammation in the body so you have to learn how to keep that in check which is very hard in our world today.
Certain medications like NSAIDS (Advil, Tylenol etc), antibiotics and opioids can damage the lining of the intestine and cause leaky gut.
So how do I fix it??
If you want balanced hormones it’s super important to have a healthy digestive system too. The good news is that the things we talk about that can help balance hormones are also good for helping the gut! Obviously we need to start by not putting in the stuff that causes the inflammation and destroys the gut in the first place!
Here are a few things you can do to get started but please remember it’s always a good idea to work with a Qualified Functional Medicine Practitioner to get optimal results.
Start with an Anti Inflammatory diet or Elimination Diet as soon as possible. This will help give your gut a break from foods that are harmful and can help you identify which foods may be triggering an allergic response in your body.
Eat probiotic foods like bone broth, sauerkraut, unsweetened coconut milk yogurt, coconut oil, organic meats and fatty fish that can help support the gut. You can also take a good quality probiotic. We really like MegaSpore.
Supplement with things like L-Glutamine and DGL to begin to repair the leaky gut. We commonly use this combination called Glutagenics.
Eat organic as much as possible and avoid taking in toxins like glyphosate, plastics and aluminum in your food.
Get good sleep.
Work on stress reduction.
Remember this is just a jumping off place, there are many many things that can help with leaky gut and everyone is different. It often takes several months to repair the damage so be patient and persistent!
If you’re dealing with severe hormone issues and digestive issues we really encourage you to have testing done.
If you’re interested in working with us check out our programs page.
We can absolutely add in a Digestive test along with the Dutch hormone testing to help you address the root cause of your health issues!
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