PMS.
It’s just a normal part of the deal, right?
Cramping. Acne. Mood Swings.
Well, not so fast. PMS is a demonstration that you aren’t eliminating your hormones effectively. Instead, your hormones are getting pushed out through your skin, your moods and those painful period cramps. Your body has to eliminate the used hormones somehow, and this is how it is happening.
So if you are having PMS, what is going on?
Elimination of Hormones
When hormones are at the end of their life cycle, they are sent to the liver to be broken down. Once the liver is ready to eliminate them they head to the gallbladder through the bile. When you eat healthy fats, the bile is released from the gallbladder into the small intestine and the waste that originated in the liver makes its final descent out of the body through the colon. There are a few (many) ways this gets fouled up.
- Your liver is overloaded from other stressors such as food sensitivities, environmental toxins or just stress in your life and it just can’t do it all.
- You eat low-fat, or fake fat and it doesn’t trigger enough of the bile to be released from the gallbladder at any one time and instead your bile gets stagnant and so does all the waste that is in it.
- You don’t eliminate regularly and the slowed transit time allows for the old hormones to get recycled back into the blood stream.
- Your microbiome is completely out of balance, allowing the bad bacteria time to pull those old hormones back into your blood stream for circulation, again.
10 Ways to Support Hormone Health:
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Slow down and chew your food.
Healthy elimination begins with healthy digestion and this begins right at the top of the chain. Help your stomach out and break down that food fully before sending it on down!
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Eat Healthy Fats.
Friends don’t let friends use fake fats. Fake fats lead to slowed bile release from the gallbladder and ultimately this slows peristalsis. Ie. You don’t eliminate as efficiently as you should. Eat real, healthy fats such as: olive oil, butter or ghee, coconut oil, avocadoes, nuts and seeds.
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Eat the rainbow.
A variety of colors insures a variety of nutrients and prebiotics for the good bugs for a healthy microbiome. A healthy microbiome means a healthy elimination.
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Eat fiber.
Fiber helps to ensure waste is removed from the body and old hormones aren’t recycled.
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Drink Water.
Drink half your body weight in ounces each day.
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Eliminate foods you are sensitive to.
When you continue to eat foods you are sensitive to, it slows down your digestion and you continue to drive inflammation in the body.
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Balance your blood sugar.
Eating more sugar than your body can handle strains your liver and ultimately impacts how efficiently you are able to break down and eliminate old hormones. Love your liver and end the sugar.
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Remove endocrine disruptors from your personal care products.
Remove parabens and phthalates (fragrance) from all personal care products to help limit the number of exogenous hormones you bring into your body.
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Poop. Daily.
Enough said.
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Take time to slow down and breathe.
Stress of any kind impacts hormone health. Slow down and breathe and give yourself some compassion.