This EndoLife: Recent Episodes
Jessica Duffin
From surgery to natural therapies, This EndoLife brings you guests who are challenging chronic illnesses and mental health issues in their own unique ways, and are changing lives with their inspiring work. Hosted by Jessica Duffin of This EndoLife.com.
Okay so the past few weeks I’ve been talking about blood sugar and how to identify if blood sugar dysregulation is an issue for you.
This week, I want to give you the number one strategy for beginning to stabilise your blood sugar. Now, I have talked about this before in the context of other episodes, I’ve done some lives on the topic and put them out as episodes, and I’ve linked to articles I’ve written, but I don’t think I have ever done a solo episode on this key strategy, so I decided, so you didn’t have to hunt for it, just to do an episode dedicated to this one tool.
Now, of course there are other factors here, like how much sugar you’re eating between meals, but this strategy is key to building an approach to your daily meals that keeps blood sugar levels stable consistently, and as a result, that tends to reduce cravings and improve symptoms, which can allow you to start taking on bigger changes, like reducing sugary snacks for example.
Show notes
Fibre
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18287346/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-009-0026-x
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9811965/
Protein
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2386677/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S104345262200033X
Final quarter
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5336455/
Healthy fats
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16537685/
Starchy vs. Non-starchy veg
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/starchy-vs-non-starchy-vegetables
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
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This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
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Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Last week we discussed signs and symptoms of dysregulated blood sugar levels. Now, if you were concerned, I recommended speaking to your GP, however, often if you’re not pre-diabetic or diabetic, they’re not very concerned about your levels, and won’t really spend the time to get them under control.
So, today, I wanted to share how to take your own glucose readings, so you can see what your blood sugar levels are doing over the day, and so you can tweak your meals to better suit your blood sugar needs.
Read more.
Show notes
Reference ranges info and tools
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-sugar-converter.html#google_vignette
https://www.levels.com/blog/what-should-my-glucose-levels-be-ultimate-guide
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/tests/blood-sugar
Helpful resources
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-blood-sugar-gargi-parikh
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/glycemic-index-load-endo
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-and-pms-the-key-to-reducing-mood-swings-anxiety-and-low-moods-in-your-luteal-phase
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/non-food-blood-sugar-management
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/reduce-fatigue-endometriosis-symptoms-and-oestrogen-dominance
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-carbs-blood-sugar
Endo and blood sugar research
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10967113/
https://eurjmedres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40001-023-01280-7
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8609862/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35236-y
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512223004115
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37673102/
If using a CGM
A few things to be aware of –
- Your blood sugar may see erratic or very high within the first 24 hours of wearing a CGM, this is normally an adjustment period so don’t worry about that.
- Blood sugar levels tend to spike with exercise, stress and hot showers/baths. Don’t worry about exercise or showers, your body will regulate itself, but you may want to work on your stress if it’s influencing your blood sugar levels a lot!
- Your blood sugar will likely be more erratic in your luteal phase, so you may need to put some extra support in place.
- Your blood sugar levels are likely to be higher after a bad night’s sleep, so you’ll need to put more support in.
- Sleeping on the arm with yoru CGM can create inaccurate results, so if anything seems unsual in the night, try sleeping on another side. However, be aware we can have dips and peaks at night too.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
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Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
If you follow my work or have coached with me, you’ll know that blood sugar balance is an absolute staple to my approach for managing endo.
Whilst this isn’t an episode into how blood sugar affects endo, to give you a short explanation - blood sugar imbalances can have a significant negative impact on hormones, gut inflammation and the microbiome, and raise both oxidative stress levels and prostaglandin levels, both are key to endo growth and pain. I’ll link to some episodes and articles I’ve done on the topic, but maybe in the future I’ll do an updated episode covering these areas.
Show notes
Helpful resources
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-blood-sugar-gargi-parikh
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/glycemic-index-load-endo
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-and-pms-the-key-to-reducing-mood-swings-anxiety-and-low-moods-in-your-luteal-phase
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/non-food-blood-sugar-management
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/reduce-fatigue-endometriosis-symptoms-and-oestrogen-dominance
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-carbs-blood-sugar
Endo and blood sugar research
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10967113/
https://eurjmedres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40001-023-01280-7
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8609862/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35236-y
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512223004115
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37673102/
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
This one is a super quick episode today, as I didn’t want to do another replay, but also I don’t have the time at present to continue with our series on pain and nutrients, as those episodes take about a day to research and write up. So, today I want to talk about something that I’ve been discussing with two clients lately, and it occurred to me, that you might benefit as well.
Regulating the nervous system and our stress response can have a profound and positive impact on our endometriosis pain levels and our energy levels (and of course, our stress levels and mental health). I won’t go into the science of it here, because I have other episodes on this and this is supposed to be a quick episode, but in short, our cortisol levels and our stress response don’t just influence our experience of stress, but our entire sleep-wake cycle and energy levels over the day. They also influence our pain signals and can turn up the volume on pain.
If you want to learn more about this, I’ve linked to two previous episodes in the show notes.
Show notes
Nervous system and endo/energy
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/christie-uipi-curable
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-pain-vagus-nerve
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/tired-all-the-time-hpa-axis-dysfunction-and-endo
ADHD
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-adhd-link
EDS
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/hypermobile-eds-endo-linda-bluestein
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-connection
Tapping studies
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/science-research/
The Tapping Solution tools
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/free-tapping-meditations/
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/store/
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common. Because the intestines are made from soft tissue, EDS affects digestion and often causes IBS symptoms. It is a major risk factor for developing SIBO, because it slows down motility. If you have EDS and SIBO, you will be chronic - but you can still live well! And we’ll get to that in the bonus lesson with Dr Allison Siebecker.
And just to hammer this point home about the connection between EDS and IBS, one study of 228 IBS patients found 48% also had EDS.
Now the reason why I want to bring EDS to your attention is because I am seeing it more and more in my clients with both endometriosis and SIBO.
Despite these statistics, to my knowledge, most experts do not consider EDS and endometriosis to be significantly connected. At present, it is thought that most of the period pain and menstrual problems of those with EDS is not caused by endometriosis, but EDS itself.
However, I have spoken to multiple health care practitioners who do see a connection and see the two conditions together in patients, and because EDS can cause gut problems and SIBO, I think it’s worth raising here.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
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Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Dr. Linda Bluestein is a board-certified anesthesiologist, integrative pain medicine physician and former ballet dancer who specialises in coaching and educating dancers and other athletes and individuals at increased risk of hypermobility disorders.
Dr Linda’s own experience with h-EDS eventually led her down a career path change that has seen her help countless others to live well with hypermobility and avoid chronic pain development. She is widely published, considered an expert on hypermobility disorders, and has lectured internationally.
In this episode, Dr Linda and I sit down to discuss the link between Hypermobility spectrum disorders, hypermobile-Ehler’s Danlos syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome and endometriosis.
Here’s what we cover:
- What we mean by generalised hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorders and hypermobility-EDS, and how they differ.
- What are the signs and symptoms of these conditions.
- The link between h-EDS and menstrual disorders, bladder dysfunction and pelvic pain and Dr Linda’s approach to addressing these problems.
- What mast cell activation syndrome is, how it is associated with hypermobility and EDS, and how it may be a driver behind EDS and endometriosis.
- The link between SIBO and h-EDS and connective tissue disorders.
- Dr. Linda’s key strategies for managing symptomatic hypermobility and h-EDS.
Show Notes
Dr Linda’s website
Bendy Bodies podcast
Dr Linda’s Instagram
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Do you get full body pain? Does it affect your muscles, nerves or joints? Do you find that you need to rest after walking or find you tired more easily than others?
It might not just be endometriosis.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common - and out of those with this type of EDS, 6-23% have endometriosis. But that’s not where the connection ends…
- 32-77% of those with EDS have vulvodynia and or pain with sex.
- 33-75% have heavy menstrual bleeding.
-
73-93% have painful periods.
-
Additionally, histamine intolerance caused by Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is a co-condition of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and we also know that overactive mast cells play a role in endometriosis. Not only can this cause more painful periods, but it can also create problems like allergies and eczema to name a few.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is also a huge risk factor for SIBO, and as you may now know, at present SIBO is estimated as affecting 80% of the endo population.
I could go on with the overlapping symptoms and connections, but instead, I’ll let you hear it first hand from Natalia Kasnakidis who is not only an endometriosis warrior, but is also living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, histamine intolerance and potentially postural tachycardia syndrome.
In this episode we talk about:
* What the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes are and how common they are.
* The signs and symptoms to look out for and Natalia’s own experience with her symptoms.
* The journey she tool to diagnosis and her tips for getting diagnosed.
* The co-conditions of EDS and their symptoms.
* Her key strategies for living well with endometriosis and EDS.**Show notes**
https://www.thelondonhypermobilityunit.co.uk
https://join.sibosos.com/purchase/74117-Joint-Hypermobility-Syndromes?_ga=2.165935037.2051281346.1639065076-1956767515.1601293146
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
You all know I’ve been fascinated with the world of chronic pain science for a long time now. In fact, I did an episode on lowering pain signals through calming the brain and nervous system back in 2019 but I’ve been on a continuously evolving research journey since. And this research has led me to Curable, an app for chronic pain, that works by helping to reprogram the brain and nervous system so we can unlearn pain pathways and reduce chronic pain flare ups. I absolutely love Curable, and use it with my clients to help them to address the ways in which trauma, stress and a heightened nervous system could be contributing to their pain levels. Often I find it’s the missing piece of the puzzle in someone’s endo healing journey.
So I am so excited to introduce you to this week’s guest, social worker and psychotherapist Christie Uipi. Christie is on the Scientific Advisory Team at Curable, and is specialised in chronic pain, depression and anxiety. After enduring years of chronic pain herself, Christie went on to not only cure her chronic pain but also to specialise in treating it!
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- Christie’s personal story with chronic pain.
- How all pain is made in the brain and how that differs from being told endo pain is just “all in our heads”.
- How pain evolves to become chronic and how that changes the brain and nervous system.
- What factors influence chronic pain for better or worse.
- How to identify if pain is from tissue damage vs. an upregulated nervous system.
- How an upregulated nervous system can directly influence endometriosis pain.
- Exercises to begin reprogramming the brain to lower pain signals.
I really hope this episode is useful to you and perhaps it will be the missing link you’ve been looking for in your own healing journey.
Show Notes
Endo Belly Challenge
Episode 73 (pain signals, etc.)
Curable
Christie’s website
This Might Hurt film
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing with our series on low micronutrient levels and the impact on period and endo-related period pain.
Vitamin A is an antioxidant, which may have significant benefits for endometriosis pain.
Read more.
Show notes
Oxidative stress, endo and period pain
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1477-7827-7-54
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5625949/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7602455/
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/6/1308
Low levels of vitamin A
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31734759/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10303710/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0310995
https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-024-01895-x
https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13048-015-0179-6
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1477-7827-7-54
Treatment with diet
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1477-7827-7-54
https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-01126-1
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9096837/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-a/
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3704564/
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-pain-low-vitamin-c
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-pain-low-vitamin-e
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/fatty-acid-deficiency-period-pain-endo
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing with our theme of micronutrients and their impact on endo pain and period pain. Today, we’re talking about B12.
Research on the use of B12 for pain suggests that B12 can reduce chronic pain (and menstrual pain) through various methods.
Firstly, B12 can inhibit the production of the inflammatory prostaglandins which are responsible for pain and inflammation, and are found to be especially high in people with endometriosis and dysmenorrhea (which is the medical term for period pain).
Additionally, B12 plays a role in supporting nerve health and pain signally pathways, which can influence pain perception. If nerves or pain signalling pathways are comprised, this could increase pain levels. This is particularly relevant to those of us with endo who are suffering with nerve related pain due to endo on the nerves, nerve damage from surgery, leg pain, etc.
Read more.
Show notes
B12 pain benefits and endo/prostaglandin link
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7468922
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30700078/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10178419/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20511671/
B12 and endo
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/11/2/450
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10227355
https://reproductive-health-journal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12978-024-01895-x
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5625949/
B12 and period pain
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10178419
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385143175_STRESS_PHYSICAL_ACTIVITY_AND_DIETARY_INTAKE_ARE_ASSOCIATED_WITH_DYSMENORRHEA_AMONG_FEMALE_STUDENTS
B12 and period pain relief
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30700078/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0271531700001524
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385143175_STRESS_PHYSICAL_ACTIVITY_AND_DIETARY_INTAKE_ARE_ASSOCIATED_WITH_DYSMENORRHEA_AMONG_FEMALE_STUDENTS
Supplementation
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/low-b12-and-endo
https://www.seekinghealth.com/blogs/education/methyl-free-vs-methylated-do-you-need-a-non-methylated-supplement
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
Free resources:
This podcast!
Endometriosis Net Column
Endometriosis News Column
Newsletter
Ways to work with me:
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing our series on nutrients and their effects on period pain and endo pain, and this episode is about B6.
Now, we’ve already talked a lot about the powers of B6 for hormonal health, but what about its effects on pain?
B6 can support us with pain reduction in a number of ways.
Read more.
Show notes
B6 pain relieving/anti-inflammatory properties
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4519769/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5902457/
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(08)01969-9/fulltext
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39421613/
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ijgo.16096
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8361989/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11401933/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0090698074900549
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328373051_Effect_of_Pyridoxine_on_Prostaglandin_Plasma_Level_for_Primary_Dysmenorrheal_Treatment
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/11/9/2578
Period pain and B6
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10178419/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328373051_Effect_of_Pyridoxine_on_Prostaglandin_Plasma_Level_for_Primary_Dysmenorrheal_Treatment
Endo and low B6
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39421613/
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ijgo.16096
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4184/4/4/34
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10227355/
B6 and period pain relief
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC27878/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3208934/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328373051_Effect_of_Pyridoxine_on_Prostaglandin_Plasma_Level_for_Primary_Dysmenorrheal_Treatment
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289295997_Therapeutic_effect_of_vitamin_B6_on_gastro-intestinal_symptoms_of_primary_dysmenorrhea_in_young_women_in_Yazd_City_2006-2009
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4184/4/4/34
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10227355/
B6 dosing safety
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/#:~:text=The amount of vitamin B6,mg a day for women
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10343656/
https://www.lareb.nl/en/news/nerve-damage-due-to-the-use-of-nutritional-supplements-with-vitamin-b6/#:~:text=Excessive intake of vitamin B6,in hands and/or feet.&text=Products containing vitamin B6 are,, pharmacies, supermarkets and online.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me?
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing on with our discussion around micronutrients and their impact on endo and period pain
In this episode, we’re beginning with the first of the B vitamins, B1, otherwise known as thiamine.
Read more.
Show notes
B1 properties
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639433v1.full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5625949/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4825494/pdf/GJHS-6-144.pdf
Period pain and low B1 levels
https://www.jpagonline.org/article/S1083-3188(06)00186-0/abstract
https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE|A123709137
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17455057231185624?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.9
Endo and low B1 levels
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639433v1.full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11536846/
B1 and period, endo and musculoskeletal pain relief
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7146731/pdf/jcs-9-47.pdf
https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJPP/article-full-text-pdf/71051DE28902
https://www.isca.me/IJBS/Archive/v1i1/9.ISCA-JBS-2012-022.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25363189/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hussain-Alharbi/publication/389210700_Efficacy_and_safety_of_combining_NSAIDs_with_vitamin_B_for_musculoskeletal_pain_a_systematic_review_and_meta-analysis/links/67b8dab7461fb56424e4fd2a/Efficacy-and-safety-of-combining-NSAIDs-with-vitamin-B-for-musculoskeletal-pain-a-systematic-review-and-meta-analysis.pdf
https://poliklinika-harni.hr/images/uploads/2743/nutricijski-protokol-endometiozra.pdf
B1 doses
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25363189/
https://academicjournals.org/journal/AJPP/article-full-text-pdf/71051DE28902
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/
B1 food intake
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639433v1.full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523022773?via=ihub
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/
https://www.myfooddata.com/articles/thiamin-b1-foods.php
https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/vitamin-b1/
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
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Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing with our series on endo and period pain and their associations with low nutrient levels. Today, we’re talking about vitamin C.
Vitamin C is an anti-inflammatory antioxidant, which means it can help lower inflammation and also prevent oxidative stress - a process that triggers inflammatory reactions in the body and is involved in endo pain and progression. It also has antiangiogenic effects, which means it prevents the formation of new blood vessels, which endo relies on to grow.
Read more.
Show notes
Endo, period pain and prostaglandins
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6790261/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068519/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09513590.2011.588753
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4512562
Vit C antioxidant properties
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27521769/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27125410/
Vit C and endo or dysmenorrhea risk
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3484190/
https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/1308/2311-final.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10227355
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12978-024-01895-x.pdf
Vit C supplementation for Endo
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2021/5529741
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3484190/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27125410/
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jog.12050
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020729207005772
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3484190/
https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-01126-1
Vit C supplementation for dysmenorrhea
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/6/1308
High antioxidant diet and endo
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2773
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1477-7827-7-54
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing with our series on endo and period pain and their associations with low nutrient levels. And I was going to make today’s episode all about vitamins, but there are so many vitamins to cover, that I thought it would be less overwhelming to break them up, so today, we’re starting with vitamin E.
However, before we get into today’s episode, if you haven’t listened to the previous episodes in this series then you’ll be missing some of the essential science behind endo and period pain, which will help you to understand how vitamin E plays a role.
Read more.
Show notes
Endo, period pain and prostaglandins
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6790261/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068519/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09513590.2011.588753
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4512562
Oxidative stress and vit E
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5625949/
https://www.clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S2405-4577(22)00500-9/abstract
Vit E and endo risk
https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-01126-1
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8972862/
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2773
Vit E supplementation for Endo
https://rbej.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12958-023-01126-1
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2773
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2021/5529741
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3484190/
Vit E supplementation for dysmenorrhea
https://www.clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S2405-4577(22)00500-9/abstract
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/6/1308
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6856484
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-e/
High antioxidant diet and endo
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/12/2773
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1477-7827-7-54
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today we’re continuing with our discussion on low nutrient levels and their association with period pain. Menstruation is often (though not always) one of the most painful parts of the menstrual cycle, for people with endometriosis - and a connection we see between both dysmenorrhea (which is the medical term for period pain) and endometriosis, is low omega 3 fatty acids.
Omega 3 fatty acids are the precursors to anti-inflammatory prostaglandins; which basically means omega 3 makes our anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. In contrast, omega 6 makes our inflammatory prostaglandins, namely prostaglandin E2. And for those of who don’t know, prostaglandins, in the simplest of terms, are immune chemicals.
Read more.
Show notes
Omega 3 and inflammation
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09513590.2011.588753
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068519/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6790261/
Dietary modulation of prostaglandin E2
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0334211100
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/2/3/355figureth?id=figure1
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2017/5987082
https://www.clinsurggroup.us/articles/JGRO-10-226.pdf
Omega 3 fatty acids and endometriosis pain reduction/treatment
https://www.clinsurggroup.us/articles/JGRO-10-226.pdf
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/19/14601
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227695
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcp.26401
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/654
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8677647/
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(07)00202-6/fulltext
Endometriosis risk and omega 3 fatty acids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20332166/
https://www.ejog.org/article/S0301-2115(13)00173-5/abstract
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9983692/
https://theiopn.com/reel-in-the-relief-can-omega-3s-reduce-menstrual-pain/
Omega 3 fatty acids and dysmenorrhea
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1747-0080.12835
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22261128/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8701537/
https://www.ejog.org/article/S0301-2115(13)00173-5/abstract
Omega 3 fat sources
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/food-types/fish-and-shellfish-nutrition/
https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2815
Brands
- Bare Biology
- Rosita Foods
- Wiley’s Finest Catch Free (vegan)
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Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
This week I want to highlight three key minerals that when you’re low in, can cause you more period pain. These have all been associated with endo in the research too, and of course, as a classic symptom of endo is horrific period pain, replenishing these minerals could help you improve your experience of your period with endometriosis,
Read more.
Show notes
Magnesium
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://www.ijwhr.net/pdf/pdf_IJWHR_624.pdf
https://ijwhr.net/pdf/pdf_IJWHR_195.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3626048
https://www.jle.com/fr/revues/mrh/e-docs/magnesium_in_the_gynecological_practice_a_literature_review_309489/article.phtml
Calcium
https://ijwhr.net/pdf/pdf_IJWHR_195.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7834752
https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(24)11191-7
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3626048
https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(34)90970-4/abstract
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1924661/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10763903/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.2000.10718920
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6221107
https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/food-sources-calcium
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23607686/
https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0010(199909)79:12<1596::AID-JSFA406>3.0.CO;2-A
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/calcium/
https://www.peteandgerrys.com/blogs/field-notes/diy-eggshell-calcium-powder
Zinc
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10184220/
3?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289285/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35226276/
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Okay so last week we looked at foods to eat more of to support progesterone production. Today, we’re going to discuss the supplement forms of these nutrients and the doses to take.
Before we get into it, I have given a lot of warnings for each supplement. This is because I want you to have all the information, including possible side effects, so you can make an informed decision and so you understand what’s happening if you do experience side effects. But to be clear, most of the side effects occur with high doses, over prolonged periods of times, with the exceptions occurring rarely in individuals who are particularly sensitive or have other issues going on that have affected how they respond or tolerate these supplements.
Read more.
Show notes
Vit E
- Thorne Ultimate-E® (500 IU)
- Pure Encapsulations Vitamin E (400 IU)
https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1757-2215-2-1
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminE-HealthProfessional/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-e/
Omega 3
- Bare Biology
- Rosita Foods
- Wiley’s Finest Catch Free (vegan)
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(07)00202-6/fulltext
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1016/j.ijgo.2011.11.019
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11687013/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531187/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
Selenium
- Pure Encapsulations Selenium
- Thorne Research Selenium
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24206213/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/others/
Vit C
- Pure Encapsulations Buffered Ascorbic Acid Capsules
- Vital Nutrients Buffered Vitamin C
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(03)00657-5/fulltext
Zinc
- Thorne Research Zinc Picolinate
- Pure Encapsulations Zinc Picolinate
- Semaine The Daily
- Nutri Advanced Women’s Multi
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12011-022-03175-w
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10184220/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987706009066
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11643716/
http://renaissance.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Polysitol-Zinc-Article.pdf
http://eprints.mui.ac.ir/10491/1/10491.pdf
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/zinc
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/others/
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/copper
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/copper-deficiency-symptoms
Magnesium
- Bare Biology Magnesium
- Now Foods Magnesium Gylcinate
https://www.ijwhr.net/pdf/pdf_IJWHR_624.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28392498/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2067759/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/
B6
- Semaine The Daily
- Nutri Advanced Women’s Multi
- Thorne Research Basic B Complex
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3208934/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31928364/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4161081/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-b/#:~:text=The amount of vitamin B6,mg a day for women
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10343656/
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Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
The past two episodes we’ve been talking about low progesterone levels and some of the signs to watch for.
Today, I want to talk about how to raise your levels with specific nutrients.
Read more.
Show notes
Zinc
https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13048-024-01442-z
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36920672/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3275394/
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional
Magnesium
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11013220/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3198864/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6747732/
B6
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6684167/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1923170/
Vit C
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4700980/
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(03)00657-5/fulltext
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4700980/
http://www.usa-journals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Al-Katib_Vol18.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739724009000356
Selenium
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24206213/
https://www.newswise.com/articles/women-s-fertility-linked-to-detox-element-in-diet
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/selenium
Healthy fats
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(11)01162-9/fulltext
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10347784/
https://www.justintimemedicine.com/curriculum/7003
Vit E
https://ovarianresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1757-2215-2-1
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-09082-3
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Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
In our last episode, we discussed spotting before your period and what’s normal and what could be a sign of low progesterone or even endo. Today I want to discuss spotting around ovulation and again, this is going to be a nice and easy to digest bite sized episode.
So, ovulation occurs roughly midway in your cycle, though that’s just the average. Statistically, the average ovulation day is around Day 14 but it can be a few days before or after, and maybe we can do an episode on what’s a healthy time frame for ovulation and what’s a sign of a problem, but until then, I actually have an episode on what’s a healthy cycle, so I’ll link to that in the show notes.
Read more.
Show notes
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/25/8/4499
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030372071730504X
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/uterine-fibroids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6838950/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12369286
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9916952/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028211006807
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3136067
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today is one of my shorter episodes, a bite size episode!
Recently I started working with two new clients and they were both really concerned that they were spotting one to two days before their periods.
First up, what do I mean by spotting? Spotting is typically spots of blood appearing in your underwear - it’s light and is typically not very consistent. Often it’s dark red or brown, and we’ll get to why it’s that colour in a minute.
So, if you’re spotting one to two days before your period, is this a problem and is it anything to do with endo?
Some of you may be surprised to learn that spotting one to two days before your period is okay and normal.
Read more.
Show notes
Low progesterone signs and testing options
Arvigo massage
Visceral manipulation
Mercier therapy
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
At the end of last year I released a series on dairy and its possible effects on endo pain, endo belly and hormones, as well as its benefits - as I know so many of you are confused about the topic.
Today, I want to provide you with a summary of these episodes, so you can get the top lines in one place, and then of course you can deep dive into the individual episodes if you need to.
So, a big, BIG disclaimer here in case you haven’t listened to the previous episodes. If you’re vegan, please feel free to skip this episode. This episode is not about being for or against dairy, it’s about providing you with information so you can make an informed decision about whether dairy is right for you. The research is very varied and our reactions to dairy really depend on our own individual genetics, so the key takeaway here is that it’s worth investigating if dairy agrees with you personally before coming to any conclusions.
Of course this series also does not address ethics or environmental considerations with dairy, I am simply focusing on the health side. It goes without saying that choosing ethical and environmentally friendly brands and farms is always preferable where possible, if it is accessible to you, whilst being mindful of our consumption of products that can affect the environment.
So, let’s get into it.
Read more.
Show notes
References for dairy and pain (see show notes)
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/dairy-endo-pain
References for dairy and hormones (see show notes)
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/does-dairy-affect-endo
References for dairy and endo belly (see show notes)
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-belly-dairy
Endo and inflammatory markers
https://journals.mk/aph/article/view/6060
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5859972/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7956504/#:~:text=The analysis of the values,with severe endometriosis (median values:
Endo and metabolic risk
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/glycemic-index-load-endo
Endo and gut bacteria and short chain fatty acids
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-butyrate
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-short-chain-fatty-acids
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-propionate-acetate
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10805679
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-fermented-foods
Lactose testing
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lactose-intolerance/
Elimination diet guidance
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-intolerance/
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today’s episode is continuing with the theme of why some of your conditions may be worse in January, and today, we’re focusing on endometriosis.
Before we get into it, this is a short episode where I am giving you an overview of some of the ways these things can affect people with endo, but it’s not an exhaustive list. In fact, each of these topic areas could have their own episode with a deep dive into how the science works in regards to hormones, inflammation, liver function and so on, but rather than overwhelm you with a bunch of science, I am keeping in what you need to know and have linked to some further resources if you want to learn more.
Additionally, the strategies I’m suggesting are very much top line suggestions, but if you go to last week’s episode and listen from 14 minutes in, I give a much more detailed breakdown of how to make these changes there.
Show Notes
Sleep
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/09/17/5-ways-sleep-deprivaton-affects-endometriosis/
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/how-the-brain-increases-endo-pain-and-how-pelvic-pain-becomes-chronic-with-christie-uipi-of-curable
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/night-waking-endo?rq=waking
Blood sugar resources
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms
Alcohol
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926958/
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/what-is-the-endo-belly-endometriosis-ibs?rq=endo%20belly
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-belly-treatment-endometriosis-ibs?rq=endo%20belly
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-belly-endometriosis-sibo-ibs?rq=endo%20belly
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4519769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5902457/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28988571
https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/35/5/417/206575
Adhesions
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/strategies-loosen-adhesions-frozen-pelvis?rq=adhesions
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Produced by Chris Robson
It’s a New Year and perhaps you’re feeling the pressure to get up and go, but you can’t get yourself out of bed.
Maybe you’re in more pain than usual, perhaps you’re more depressed than usual or maybe you’re experiencing extreme fatigue and energy crashes?
If this is you, please know you’re not alone.
As I return to work, I’ve received many emails from endometriosis clients telling me their symptoms are worse and they’re panicked, but I’ve also had friends and endo clients who struggle with Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) experiencing heightened symptoms.
And even for me, my anxiety, bladder pain and adhesion pain are worse.
This is not uncommon. In fact, in my line of work, it’s expected that many people will have worsening periods or hormonal problems in January.
Show Notes
Other episodes on PMDD
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/what-is-pmdd?rq=PMDD
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/natural-treatment-options-pmdd-endometriosis-rebecca-sairs?rq=PMDD
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-pmdd-healing?rq=PMDD
Blood sugar resources
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms
Alcohol alternatives
Seedlip
Kin Euphorics
Biscuit alternatives
Keto8
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
With a new year beginning, I am resharing a very old meditation episode. This episode is a visualisation meditation to help you envision how you want to feel in 2024.
I use this visualisation exercise with every one of my clients, to help them see the big picture they want for their health and then to take that big picture and break it down into small, attainable goals. I also use this meditation with course students and with anyone who comes to my free workshops, so you may very well know it!
The key question you will be asking yourself in this meditation is - what if you thrived with endometriosis in 2024?
What would your body feel like?
What would your life look like?
You’ll be invited to envision what your life would be like if you did thrive and if you didn’t - and what one accessible step could you take towards this vision of the future.
Make sure you have a journal to hand, a pen and an hour to really sit with this episode and go deep with this powerful meditation. If now isn’t a good time to do this meditation, it can be truly used at any time of year!
Most people have very strong yet peaceful reactions to this meditation, and find it very enlightening - so I hope it helps you as well.
P.S. This exercise is based on the visualisation we are provided with in our training with the Integrative Women’s Health Institute.
Show notes:
Dr Jessica Drummond
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Produced by Chris Robson
The Christmas season is typically, a time of excess for those who celebrate – and even for those who don’t, New Year’s is right around the corner. For many people, we increase our intake of sugar, alcohol, processed foods, etc. and that’s okay – this episode isn’t about judgement. I love Christmas, including all the food that comes with it, but for many of us, the result can be more pain and a worse period come January, due to heightened inflammation levels.
So today’s episode is all about how to lower the impact of added sugar and blood sugar spiking foods, to lessen inflammation and hormonal imbalances.
Show Notes
Allulose here or here
Monk fruit
Berberine here or here
Chromium picolinate
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Produced by Chris Robson
So, for those of us who feel social pressure or simply enjoy having a drink with friends or family, I wanted to share some tips that can help lessen the impact of alcohol.
Remember, these are just tips and tricks and if you just want to have a drink and not worry about it, you absolutely can – that’s totally your choice!
Show Notes
https://www.fixyourperiod.com/castor-oil-packs/
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This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
In this penultimate instalment on our dairy series, I’m going to cover the effects of dairy on pain, and what to be aware of when managing endo. And yes - it’s not straight forward!
In our first episode on dairy and endo, we discussed A1 casein, but for those who haven’t listened to that episode, let’s cover it again.
A1 casein is a type of milk protein which research suggests some people find triggers intestinal inflammation and gut issues. The data on humans is emerging, and whilst it’s true for a number of people, not everyone will have this inflammatory reaction to A1 casein.
However, if you do experience inflammatory reactions to A1 casein, this can trigger a systemic full body inflammatory response with regular exposure, in a few ways.
Read more.
Shownotes
A1 casein
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5593102/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JirAKjC_Kh0
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1501596/full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7033038/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1363455/full
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5593102/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.3109/09513590.2011.588753
https://www.clinsurggroup.us/articles/JGRO-10-226.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6790261/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3488529
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1130862119303158
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925818953226
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028206014373
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9396281
Lactose
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-belly-dairy
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2835780/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9101724/
https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article-abstract/47/8/1223/1785625
https://www.jacionline.org/article/0091-6749(91)90180-V/pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/apt.12306
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9101724/
Histamines
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925818953226
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028206014373
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9396281
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24854-histamine
https://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/histamine-intolerance-autoimmunity-and-endometriosis/
Arachidonic acid
https://lipidworld.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12944-019-1039-y
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29610056/
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/13/3/654
https://www.clinsurggroup.us/articles/JGRO-10-226.pdf
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
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One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today I want to shine a spotlight on maca, a herb you’ve probably heard lots about in the wellness space, but for those of us with endo, it can be confusing to know if it’s helpful or whether we should avoid it.
Because maca can help us handle stress and burnout, I thought this busy time of year is a perfect opportunity to talk about it!
Maca is an adaptogen herb, which means it helps our bodies to adapt to physical and emotional stressors. Maca does this by acting on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA axis) to promote a more normalised stress response.
The HPA axis is a system between our brain and adrenal glands that controls our stress response and our cortisol and adrenaline output. If you want to learn more about the HPA axis, I’ve linked to an episode in the show notes.
Read more.
Show Notes
Maca adaptogenic properties
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10910417/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3991026/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614567/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614644/
Maca and energy/fatigue
https://www.ffhdj.com/index.php/ffhd/article/view/912
https://ffhdj.com/index.php/ffhd/article/view/912/1603
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212429222003364
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2017/2904951
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141813017351681
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2024.1360422/full
Maca and hormones
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405654524001483
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09513590.2024.2360085
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614604/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6419242/#bibr89-2515690X19829380
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614596/#R5
https://vuir.vu.edu.au/33971/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2015/949036
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236909766_Hormone-Balancing_Effect_of_Pre-Gelatinized_Organic_Maca_Lepidium_peruvianum_Chacon_III_Clinical_Responses_of_Early-Postmenopausal_Women_to_Maca_in_Double_Blind_Randomized_Placebo-controlled_crossover
https://journals.ekb.eg/article_79449_fda1706194d865cd287c03d88ef02905.pdf
http://eplant.njau.edu.cn/maca/publication/47.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/rmb2.12357
Maca isn’t a phytoestrogen
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614604/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614596/#R5
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/is-flax-bad-for-endo?rq=flax
Endo and cortisol
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253890701840610
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/tired-all-the-time-hpa-axis-dysfunction-and-endo?rq=HPA%20axis
Maca brands (not sponsored/affiliated)
https://supplementhub.com/en-gb/products/maca-powder-gelatinized-227g-gaia-herbs
Recipe
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/burnout-busting-luteal-phase-malted-milk
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Apply here: https://www.theendobellycoach.com/coaching
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
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One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today is a quick episode but hopefully a helpful one.
Today I want to talk about the glycemic index and the glycemic load of foods, and how you can use these tools to help you manage endo.
The glycemic index and glycemic load are two tools to help you understand how food can affect your blood sugar levels and how quickly they can do so.
Read more.
Shownotes
Glycemic index and load resources
https://glycemic-index.net/glycemic-index-chart/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522004944?via%3Dihub
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-lowdown-on-glycemic-index-and-glycemic-load
https://glycemic-index.net/bran-wheat-oat/
https://glycemic-index.net/glycemic-load/
Endo and blood sugar
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/pcos-blood-sugar-endometriosis-megan-hallett?rq=megan
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5625949/
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/19E868FB1BE3A08DCFC0D00D7489ACAF/S0954422410000272a.pdf/dietary-therapy-a-new-strategy-for-management-of-chronic-pelvic-pain.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673621003895
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3322018/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24168441/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891584922001228
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12379575/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385491981_Salivary_Prostaglandin_E2_Levels_and_HbA1c_Levels_in_Periodontal_Inflammation_A_Comparative_Analysis_of_Diabetic_and_Non-Diabetic_Patients
I am now taking applications for my final one to one coaching cohort of 2024
Apply here: https://www.theendobellycoach.com/coaching
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One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Okay so today we’re continuing with our series on dairy and endo, and today we’re taking about hormones.
And I’m going to warn you up front - the research is mixed, and it really comes down to your personal response to dairy. That being said, non-organic dairy can be treated with extra hormones, which may influence our own, so it goes without saying that organic is preferable when possible. Of course, don’t worry about the one offs like an ice cream out or some cream on your dessert in a restaurant, but if you’re regularly eating dairy at home, organic would be a better choice.
I currently having one more space available for one to one coaching. If this is of interest to you, you can reach out on hello@thisendolife.com
Read more.
Show notes
Organic dairy
https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Dairy - Guidelines.pdf - regulations for organic dairy
Insulin/blood sugar/IGF-1
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4524299/
https://www.levels.com/blog/what-we-know-about-dairy-and-blood-sugar]
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4325471/
PCOS
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7696580/#:~:text=Yoghurt appears to be a,of hepatic gluconeogenesis [54].
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4085920/#:~:text=Conclusions:,consumption and risk of PCOS.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5265695/
Hormones and dairy
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4119548/#:~:text=(Table 1).-,The prevalence of anovulatory cycles varied from 3.4% to 18.6,%, data not shown).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5265695/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17329264/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19496976/
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This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook
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Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course
One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Produced by Chris Robson
Today’s episode is all about improving fertility outcomes with endo with Dr. Amy Beckley. Dr. Amy Beckley is a PhD scientist and co-founder of Proov - a company dedicated to empowering women at every stage of life to track their own hormones quickly and easily at home. After Amy experienced multiple miscarriages and three years of infertility, Amy applied her own science expertise to her fertility struggles and with the help of her doctor, Amy was able to get pregnant with her daughter. As an endo warrior herself, Amy is deeply passionate about helping others in the community to conceive. On today’s episode we discuss:
Amy’s own personal endo story and fertility experience.
The prevalence of fertility issues within the endo community.
Why endo could cause fertility issues and how these can be addressed/improved?
The key strategies she suggests for improving fertility outcomes within the endo community.
How Amy’s company, Proov is helping those trying to conceive.
Where Amy suggests people start if they wanted to begin improving their fertility.
I know lots of you are keen to hear about addressing fertility issues with endo, so I hope this is of huge help!
Show Notes https://proovtest.com
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Today’s episode is a repost as I am off on annual leave this week and a client’s experience with painful sex has inspired me to share this episode with you. This episode is a follow on episode from my ‘Root Causes of Painful Sex’ podcast, so if you’re interested in learning more about that, I’ve linked in the show notes. Of course, this episode already has an intro so I’m not going to intro the intro - I’ll just let you get to it! I hope you find this episode helpful. TRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains brief references to sexual trauma. I wanted to do an episode on the back of my 9 Root Causes of Painful Sex with Endometriosis episode, as I talk about bloating, bladder pain, brain fog and fatigue a lot, but I haven’t covered painful sex much lately. This episode contains a range of strategies, some long-term, some more short-term and this list certainly isn’t exhaustive. Many of the changes you make to improve your endometriosis in general, such as healing the gut, are not covered here but will certainly make a difference to the pain you feel during sex. You don’t have to try all of these and you certainly don’t have to try them all at the same time, but see which ones resonate for you. Read more.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
If you’re a long-time listener of the show, you’ll know that endo belly – that classic bloating many of us get – is not just caused by endometriosis itself, but it is often the result of co-conditions and complications that people with endo face, such as small intestine bacterial overgrowth and microbiome imbalances. Gut dysbiosis, which means an imbalance of the bacteria in our gut, has been found in the research in people and animals with endometriosis. Whilst some more drastic measures can be taken, such as using antimicrobial herbs to kill off the ‘bad’ or opportunistic bacteria, one of the most essential and core things you can do to bring about balance, is to support your healthy gut bugs with their favourite foods, so that they can get back to the right numbers again. Many of us think that eating for gut health is about taking probiotics and drinking kombucha, but in fact, these strategies are just drops in the ocean – they are the paint on the walls, but first, we need to build the wall. We need to build the foundations of good gut health, so today – I am covering just that. Three essential strategies to building a healthier microbiome. Now, as you know, the strategies I provide you with in these episodes are just options for you – you don’t have to do them, and you don’t have to do them in any particular time frame. You could spend a year working through these at a sustainable pace, and I promise you, your gut will still be healthier for it, whether you take a month or a year. And in fact, when it comes to eating for gut health, it often helps to take these steps slowly, because most of them will result in an increase in fibre, and if you do that quickly, you’ll often end up with stomach upset, so you need to give your gut a chance to adjust. Read more.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
It’s August and some of us will be heading off on our holidays, but a big concern for many of with endo, is whether we will have a flare up or our period whilst on holiday. Typically, on holiday, inflammation levels will rise; we may be drinking more, sleeping less, eating less veggies and eating more sugar – all scenarios that have been shown to raise inflammation levels and unfortunately, inflammation is a key driver of endo and menstrual pain, and pain in general. Now, whilst it is never, ever your fault if you have a pain flare or endo – let’s be clear, you didn’t choose to have endo and you certainly didn’t cause it – there are some strategies we can adopt that can prevent such high increases in inflammation levels, and therefore, can reduce the chances of a flare, or at least minimise the severity of it. Whilst I cannot guarantee this will work for everyone, as after all, endo is unpredictable and there are multiple factors which can influence a flare, today I am offering three ways to counteract some of that increased inflammation. Read more.
Show Notes https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/supplements-shown-to-target-endometriosis https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/supplements-for-period-pain-menstrual-symptoms
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Today’s short solo episode is another one that I hope will provide you with some practical tools for living well with endo, today I want to briefly talk about acupuncture. Now, I am not an acupuncturist, so I am not an expert, but as a certified endometriosis health coach, it is a type of alternative therapy that I often recommend to clients, especially when they are struggling with pain and are looking for a tool kit of modalities to help reduce it over time. So, let’s first talk about what acupuncture is. Acupuncture is rooted in Chinese medicine, but it has now been adopted throughout the world and is even acknowledged to be a beneficial therapy by western medicine. At a very basic level, acupuncture is the practice of gently inserting very fine needles into specific points of the body, and traditionally, the idea behind this was that these needles would help to encourage correct and healthy flow of Qi, which is - again, in basic terms – our life force or life energy. Read more.
Show Notes 1) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acupuncture/ 2) https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/chapter/Recommendations 3) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29077705/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18928114/, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2011/481625/ 4) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29077705/ 5) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29944729/ 6) https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180177
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
So, if you’ve been listening to my podcast for a while now, you’ll know that the proper balance of oestrogen and progesterone can significantly help manage endometriosis symptoms. Not only is endo an oestrogen dependent disease, but the symptoms of oestrogen dominance can look a lot like what we associate with endo symptoms, such as heavy bleeding, clots, cramps and bloating. Oestrogen excess put very simply, is when we have too much oestrogen circulating in our body, whereas oestrogen dominance is when the oestrogen to progesterone ratio is off, and oestrogen is dominating over progesterone in the second half of our cycle, when it should be the other way round. The other issue that can occur is when our liver isn’t properly clearing out oestrogen. This can result in oestrogen building up, creating excess levels, but the liver can also convert oestrogen into an unhealthier metabolite, which can cause more exaggerated oestrogenic effects. Read more.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Many of us with endo have what we call ‘endo belly’, that swollen, distended abdomen. For some of us, endo belly can be constant, or it can come with a flare up and may also be accompanied by IBS issues like gas, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation. Whilst you’ve heard me say over and over again that the endo belly is likely caused by gut issues like low stomach acid and digestive enzymes, microbiome imbalances and SIBO (as well of course, inflammation from endo itself), there’s also another culprit I don’t talk about a lot, and that’s NSAIDS. Read more and show notes
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Something I hear a lot of people struggling with is the overwhelming amount of supplement options out there. Many of us don’t know which ones to choose, which ones can help us personally and how and when to take them, and how long for. As a result, when I meet clients some of them are on double figures of supplements, and others have given up taking any entirely. So, today I wanted to share this tip when choosing supplements. Find 1-4 supplements and choose ones that can target multiple symptoms – and then commit to them for 3-6 months minimum. So, what do I mean by choosing supplements that target more than one issue? Most of us have trouble with bloating, fatigue, PMS, blood sugar issues, histamine intolerance, pain and heavy bleeding to name a few, so ideally, we want a supplement that doesn’t just target one, but multiple. Read more
Show Notes https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/supplements-shown-to-target-endometriosis https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/supplements-for-period-pain-menstrual-symptoms
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Today I want to talk about a really easy strategy for improving your blood sugar response when eating some of your favourite carbs. Now, as some of you may know, I’m currently doing shorter episodes, so I won’t be diving into blood sugar here – but I do have many, many articles and episodes on the science of blood sugar and how it affects endo, so I’ll link to a few in the show notes. But, let’s do a very quick recap so that for those who aren’t familiar, can easily follow along. So, blood sugar is the measure of glucose in your blood stream. Glucose is the molecule that comes from carbohydrates when we break them down in the small intestine after eating, and it is our body’s primary source of fuel, so it’s needed for energy. Glucose comes from simple carbs and complex carbs. Read more.
Show Notes https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/this-endolife/id1243158865?i=1000604296655 https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This short episode is a really practical one and full disclaimer, this is one based on personal experience (and clinical experience, with my clients), rather than something that is evidence based and proven. If you’re someone who gets a lot of pain on your period with endometriosis, try this very, very simple hack: sit up. So, let me elaborate. Many years ago, after much trial and error, I realised that when I lay down totally flat on my period during a peak in pain, the cramping worsened, and when I sat upright, it began to ease off. Now, let me be clear, I don’t mean it eradicated the pain, but it took the edge of those very violent cramps and seemed to lessen their intensity. At the time, I didn’t know why it worked as I wasn’t qualified back then, I just knew it helped. Fast forward to me being a health coach, and I have some theories. A pelvic floor physio could probably explain this properly, but this isn’t an interview episode and nor is it one of my long hour-long episodes with lots and lots of research behind it, so for now, here’s my theory. Your uterus walls’ needs to contract to shed blood during menstruation. This process also involves the pelvic floor muscles, to a certain extent, especially where endo is involved and we have bleeding throughout the pelvic cavity. When we are lying down, we are making it harder for the blood to leave our body and the pelvic muscles and uterine muscles need to contract more to get the job done. When we’re sitting upright, we’re assisting the process through gravity, and also slightly opening up and expanding the pelvic floor muscles, especially if we’re sitting up right with our knees tucked in towards our chest. My theory is that this eases some of the muscle tension and also lessens the contractions in the uterus. I hope you enjoy this bitesize tip and I really do hope some of you find it useful.
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is part of a new format I am trying out. These are essentially going to be bitesize podcast episodes with tangible tips for real life, to help avoid overwhelm and to support you to make small, sustainable change. Today I wanted to focus on something that came up with one of my clients recently, and that’s making dietary changes too quickly, leading to nausea and digestion issues. This can especially happen with a sudden increase in fibre or fat, which many of us can do if we’re wanting to balance blood sugar or start eating more anti-inflammatory foods. Today I wanted to talk about fat in particular. Fat helps us to balance blood sugar by slowing down the release of glucose to the blood stream, from the carbohydrates we eat. When a glucose release happens too fast, we get a spike in blood sugar, which can heighten inflammation and pain, and can also mess with hormones. The rule of thumb for fat to support hormones and blood sugar is about two golf ball sized servings of fat, which I find easiest to measure as two heaped tablespoons. However, if you’re going from a low-fat diet, or you’re just increasing your fat in general, trying to go from what you’re used to, to this amount with every meal, in one day, is probably going to be too much for your body to handle. Read more
Show Notes https://www.urbanmoonshine.com/products/original-bitters https://www.baldwins.co.uk/natures-answer-ginger-bitters-alcohol-free-fluid-extract-60ml https://www.arrae.com/pages/gut-boost
Need more help or want to learn how to work with me? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram
Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts.
For the past few weeks I’ve been recording testimonial videos with people who have taken my course, and I really wanted to share some of these stories because they’re just so incredible. I know a lot of you expressed an interest in hearing more positive and uplifting real life experiences with managing endo, and as I personally found these stories so inspiring, I thought you guys might as well. So I’m starting with Rachael’s story and I’ll leave Rachael to share her experience in the podcast, but to give you an overview, Rachael was suffering with PMDD, chronic fatigue that was affecting her ability to work and painful (endo) periods which required her to use opioids to get through. She’d recently had excision surgery but was still suffering with an array of symptoms and was feeling desperate and didn’t know what else to try. Once Rachael started the course, through making nutritional and lifestyle changes, Rachael was able to:
Stop using opioids to get her through her period and instead now just uses magnesium baths, ginger tea, paracetamol and BeYou patches.
Has gone from having to sleep for two hours every day during work (which was agreed through occupational health) due to severe fatigue to having sustained energy and has only needed these allocated sleep hours twice in the past 8 weeks!
Stopped suffering with PMDD symptoms and works with her cycle to keep her endo and PMDD symptoms at the minimum.
Her transformation is really remarkable and so I hope that if you also struggle with any of these, Rachael’s story will shine a light at the end of the tunnel for you... Show Notes Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021 Live and Thrive with Endo course
Need more help? Free resources: This podcast! Endometriosis Net Column Endometriosis News Column Newsletter Instagram Ways to work with me: This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast digital cookbook Masterclasses in endo nutrition, surgery prep and recovery and pain relief Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations DIY course One to one coaching info and application This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
Dr. Tara Morrison is Birth Trauma Specialist and Holistic Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist who specialises in whole-person care for pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. We actually met several years ago when we were both training at the Integrative Women’s Health Institute, so it was a real pleasure to have her on the show! Tara uses trauma-informed Somatic Pelvic Care to aid not just pain and pelvic floor dysfunction, but nervous system healing through mind-body based physical therapy tools, stress management, somatic emotional release, energy medicine, and mindful living. In today’s episode, Tara and I talk about how she uses somatic therapy for chronic pelvic pain. In this episode we discuss:
The development of the nervous system and how childhood experiences can cause chronic nervous system dysregulation and pelvic pain
Emotional experiences and patterns and their impact on symptoms.
Poly-vagal theory and the chronic freeze state in endometriosis and other pelvic pain conditions.
What somatic therapy is and how this mind-body approach can help heal the root of endo and other pelvic pain conditions.
How to start focusing on what feels good from a nervous system lense.
Show Notes Website: www.cortexrehab.com Instagram: @sarahdueffert Facebook: @cortexPT Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Dr. Sarah Dueffert is a doctor of physical therapy, a board-certified neurologic clinical specialist and health coach specialising in fatigue and POTS recovery. Not only does Sarah help others get their life back, but she got her life back too - after years of mysterious symptoms like brain fog and crippling fatigue. Now she supports people to improve their energy and enjoy life again, after serious chronic illness like endometriosis and POTS have left them exhausted and barely able to get through the day. In today’s episode, Sarah and I are talking about how to recover from chronic fatigue with endo and dysautonomia/POTS. In this episode we discuss:
What dysautonomia means and what specifically what POTS is and how it affects the body.
How to get diagnosed with POTS or dysautonomia and the challenges women and people with endo face when asking for help with symptoms like a racing heart, chest pain, exhaustion and dizziness.
The personality traits associated with POTS and chronic pelvic pain, in both the literature and clinically.
Sarah’s 3 key approach to recovering from chronic fatigue and experiencing a joyful life again.
This episode hit me hard! Sarah’s approach is different from the usual fatigue recovery we hear about it, it’s so much more about joy and less about a to-do list. I think it’s an incredibly useful episode if you’re struggling with fatigue, whether you have POTS, dysutonomia or endometriosis. Show Notes Website: www.cortexrehab.com Instagram: @sarahdueffert Facebook: @cortexPT Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Elisa Imperatori is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher and menstrual cycle and perimenopause educator. Combining yoga, body literacy and the phases of the menstrual cycle, she helps people turn their menstrual cycle into an ally so that they can go from menstrual pain, mood swings and not understanding their cycle to body harmony, reduced symptoms and a happier, healthier cycle. In today’s episode, Elisa and I are talking about how to use yoga to experience a better cycle and manage chronic endo pain. In this episode we discuss:
What cycle synced yoga is and how it differs from the ‘typical’ yoga we practice in Western society.
The evidence-based benefits behind yoga for endometriosis and chronic pain.
How to practice cycle-synced yoga for endometriosis symptom management and hormone health.
How to practice yoga safely with endometriosis and how to tailor poses appropriately to prevent flare ups.
The specific poses Elisa loves for pain relief.
If you want to be able to move your body in a way that supports your endo, rather than worsens it, this is a great episode! Show Notes References https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27552065/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27869485/ https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03784976#contactlocation Elisa’s details https://elisa.yoga/ https://www.instagram.com/elisaimperatori/ https://www.facebook.com/elisaimperatoriyoga/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisaimperatori Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Today is a special episode, because my mentor, the woman who coached me through my coaching training, Susan Clinton, is joining us! Susan Clinton is a board certified women’s health physical therapist, a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Therapy, and a board certified health and wellness coach - to name just a few of her hats! She is also a Master Coach for the Integrative Women’s Health Institute, hence why she ended up being my coach and mentor! In today’s episode, Susan and I are discussing endometriosis and menopause - and how to experience a better one! In this episode we discuss:
The difference between natural menopause and surgically or medically induced menopause.
Myth-busting the lie that endo doesn’t affect those in menopause and the research on early menopause and endo.
How menopause can affect endometriosis symptoms, plus the general symptoms that can occur with menopause.
How to improve your experience of menopause and reduce your symptoms.
This isn’t a topic we’ve ever covered before on the show, but it’s certainly worth learning about now so you’re prepared and informed! Show Notes Susan’s website: www.embody-pt.com Susan’s email: susan@embody-pt.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.c.clinton and https://www.facebook.com/EmbodyPhysio Twitter: https://twitter.com/SClintonPT Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sclintonpt/ and embodypt Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susancclinton/ Co-Host of the 5 star Podcast: Tough To Treat www.toughtotreat.com - A Physio’s guide to treating the complex patient Co-Host of the Vlog: The Genius Project www.thegeniusptproject - reframing the treatment of persistent musculoskeletal pain. Cofounder and Inaugural Board of Directors of the Foundation: Global Womens Health Initiative: www.gwhi.org Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Today’s episode is with my tutor and world renowned endometriosis expert Dr Jessica Drummond. Dr Jessica Drummond is the founder and CEO of the Integrative Women’s Health Institute, where she trains thousands of practitioners and works with patients with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain conditions. She is also the author of the incredible book Outsmart Endometriosis. Jessica is hosting a free endo workshop Outsmart Endometriosis Workshop, “6 Strategies to Reclaim Your Life from Endometriosis” on Oct 25th 2pm at 2pm EST. Sign up here. You can attend live or watch the replay, but you must be signed up to receive the recording.
In today’s interview, Jessica and I continue a conversation we’ve been having together for much of the year - and this is the connection between endometriosis, MCAS, dysautonomia and hypermobility. Something I love about this conversation is that we talk less about the diagnosis of these conditions, and more about how to think about these new conditions and how to approach healing without overwhelm and without getting caught up in the weeds. I think this is a great conversation if you’ve been wondering whether you have these conditions but were scared about what this would mean for you, or you have these conditions diagnosed already but you didn’t know where to start. In this episode we discuss:
The prevalence of MCAS, dysautonomia and hypermobility in the endo community.
Why these conditions present in people with endo and how they may develop or be triggered later in life.
Dr Drummond’s approach to managing these conditions in the context of endo and how to avoid overwhelm.
How to work with Jessica and access her free workshop!
I really hope you find this a useful interview in our ongoing focus on endo, MCAS, dysautonomia and hypermobility.
Show Notes Remember, Jessica has a free workshop on Tues 25th October! You can sign up here. If you’re looking for detailed, research-driven strategies to help you understand more about endometriosis, WHY you feel the way you feel, and how the heck to feel BETTER – you’re in luck. Join the LIVE Outsmart Endo Workshop on October 25th, 2022 to discover The #1 Thing That Endo Warriors Should Do To Get Relief Right Now and reclaim your life from endometriosis, with Dr. Jessica Drummond. Discover How to Outsmart Your Endo in Jessica’s LIVE workshop and discover…
The importance of gut-immune health for endo warriors
Why nervous system regulation is crucial to endo healing
Why all of the doctors and specialists you’ve seen weren’t able to provide you with the relief you so desperately need
How to reclaim your life from endometriosis and start LIVING again!
If this resonates with you, please reserve your spot for the upcoming workshop here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This week’s episode is a replay as my guest for this week has had to postpone (but they’ll be on very soon)! I thought I’d continue on the theme of improving your period pain with endo, and wanted to share some of the best foods for lowering inflammation and supporting a healthy cycle. Of course, please avoid the foods that you know you react to and don’t tolerate. Every body is different and so just because a food is shown to be anti-inflammatory, that doesn’t mean it’s right for you. As most of you will know by now, I lean towards making healthy choices to support us with endo all month long, but that doesn’t mean that focusing on foods to add in just before our period can’t be useful. In fact, if you’re struggling with where to get started with endometriosis management, I would start here and with my last episode. As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. If you’re triggered by any of this, seek the support of a therapist and dietician/health coach/nutritionist before making further dietary changes. So, here are any foods to to eat before your period to reduce pain with endometriosis:
Spinach and other leafy greens such as kale, boy chow, lettuce, rocket, chard and other greens. Add these in for anti-inflammatory nutrients, magnesium iron and fibre. Leafy greens can help to reduce period pain, fatigue, PMS symptoms like bloating and can aid reducing any excess oestrogen.
Olive oil and other Vitamin E containing foods such as almonds, olives, avocados, greens and sunflower seeds. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce inflammation in numerous studies, as well as reduce pain with endometriosis and painful periods.
Broccoli and other cruciferous veg like kale, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli sprouts, sprouts and cabbage. These help to reduce oestrogen dominance by supporting the body to remove old oestrogen that needs clearing out and can cause symptoms like clots periods, heavy periods and period pain.
Salmon and other sources of omega 3 fats such as mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring, walnuts and chia seeds. Omega 3 fats help to lower inflammation and have been shown to reduce period pain and in studies on rats, reduce the size of endometriosis lesions. Add no more than two portions of fatty fish a week in addition to walnuts and chia seeds, and be cautious of large fatty fish as these can have a higher mercury content.
Tomatoes and other colourful vegetables such as berries, red cabbage, parsnips, peppers, squashed carrots. Studies have shown that people with endometriosis have higher levels of oxidation (which leads to higher levels of inflammation and therefore pain) and that when participants added in a high anti-oxidant diet in the form of extra fruits and vegetables, their oxidation levels lowered.
Turmeric and other herbs and spices like cinnamon and ginger. Many herbs and spices are anti-inflammatory, yet turmeric, ginger and cinnamon are particular stand-out stars, with curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) showing promise with endometriosis lesion suppression and ruction in mice, and ginger being an effective pain reliever in people with primary dysmenorrhea.
Bonus food! Raw cacao and sugar free dark chocolate. Rich in magnesium, iron and anti-oxidants, raw cacao can help lower inflammation and support energy production, whilst helping us with those sugar cravings! Just be mindful of how much you have as cacao does have a little caffeine.
More show notes and links here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This week’s episode is a replay as I am busy welcoming my new course students! I’ve had some amazing client wins in the past week - three clients had a dramatic reduction in pain and an increase in cycle regularity, with two actually going out on Day 1 of their periods to parties and social dinners! So it inspired me to share with you all ways to improve your period, and one of the go-to techniques I use with clients is pulling together a little pre-period toolkit which helps them to reduce inflammation in the lead up to menstruation. So I thought I’d reshape this old episode where I share six tips for reducing endo pain in the lead up to your period… Perhaps we get through with a mix of pain killers or maybe nothing helps at all - whatever is going on for you, today I want to offer you six simple pain relieving strategies that can help alleviate your endometriosis pain when your period arrives. These methods are best begun seven days before your period so the effects build up and compound and I do totally recommend continuing them into your period too, for extra benefits! As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. Consult your GP before adding in supplements. Here are my six tips for reducing your endometriosis pain for when your period starts:
Magnesium rich baths, 2 - 3 times the week before your period, with 500g - 600g Epsom salt baths, soaking for at least 10 minutes each times.
Two portions of low mercury, fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies salmon, herring) in addition to 1000mg - 3000mg good quality omega 3 fatty acid supplementation.
Turmeric lattes with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (1g) and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ginger root powder (350mg-700mg) in addition to ginger tea (made with ginger root powder), raspberry leaf tea and dandelion tea. Always add some fat into your latte to aid absorption of the turmeric - coconut oil, coconut butter, cacao butter or nut butter all would work well.
Daily yoga or stretches for endometriosis and pelvic pain.
Reduce or eliminate sugar, utilising stevia, inulin root syrup, berries and 100% dark chocolate as alternatives.
Eat the rainbow! Get in 5 to 10 servings of fruit and veg a day, focusing more on vegetables (think 80% vs 20%).
I hope this episode helps you prepare for your period! Please do let me know if it changes your experience of your next period - I would love to hear from you! Scroll down to the show notes for links to studies, brand recommendations, recipes, etc. View full show notes here. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
For the first and only time, I’m doing a 5-day flash sale on all of my courses. You get a year’s access to all three of my courses, plus two extra bonus masterclasses on surgery and pain relief, for just £99. If you’ve ever wanted to dip your toe into healing endo, but money was a barrier for you, now is the time to invest (affordably) in your endo recovery journey! You get all of this:
Live and Thrive with Endo – usual price: £350
The Endo Belly Protocol – usual price: £215
Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations – usual price: £160
Creating Your Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endo – usual price: £29.99
Holistic Pre and Post-Surgery Recovery Protocol – usual price: £29.99
So, that’s £784.98 worth of content, for an entire year, for £99. Want to learn more or sign up? Click here. So, what do you get? Live and Thrive with Endo This course is a step-by-step outline of my exact one-to-one coaching programme; a road map for reducing pain, bloating, fatigue, and brain fog (and all the other symptoms that come with endo!). This is the most comprehensive and clear resource I offer, other than working with me directly. The Endo Belly Protocol In this seven-step course, you will uncover the root causes behind your endo belly, learn the exact protocols for healing, identify your unique triggers and endo belly aggravators and ultimately heal your gut and calm your endo. Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations This 4-module course will provide you with effective yet easy to digest tools and strategies to reduce your pain, fatigue, endo belly, brain fog and hormonal symptoms and allow you to live your life again. This introductory course includes the biggest, yet foundational needle movers that I have seen work for my clients time and time again. You get all the essential information you need to get started, without the overwhelm. Plus, when you sign up, you’ll get two new and exclusive masterclasses… Creating Your Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endo The purpose of this workshop is so that you can create a go-to tool kit that you know works for you, that you can use whenever a pain flare kicks in. Holistic Pre- and Post-Surgery Recovery Protocol You’ll leave this workshop with a 60-day pre- and post-surgery protocol to help you experience the best surgery recovery possible. Sound good? Sign up here. I’ve never done this before, and I won’t be doing this again in the future - so why am I doing it now? Well, come 2023, I will be changing how I deliver these courses…
Live and Thrive: The Foundations will no longer be delivered live. You’ll only be able to buy this as a DIY course, without my live coaching and Q&A calls.
Live and Thrive with Endo will be transforming into an immersive, in-depth 10-month long experience, where I walk a small group through a new healing step each month, and this course will be at a higher price point to reflect these changes.
The Endo Belly Protocol will stay in its original format but won’t be launched again until next autumn and will be launching once a year only.
In short, this is the only way to work with me and access these courses for the next six months or more, as they are now, in their original formats. I know some of you haven’t been able to take these courses yet, whether it was due to money, life circumstances or health, and I wanted to make sure I gave you this opportunity to catch these courses as they are now, for a whole year, at an affordable price. Remember, this sale ends in five days on Sunday 9th October, midnight BST.
You may remember back in late August I was promoting an event I was speaking at; the wonderful IC Retreat, a virtual 3 day event hosted by Joana Bartlett - all about empowering IC patients with tools, knowledge and support. My presentation was a deep dive into the connection between interstitial cystitis, endometriosis and SIBO and how to manage these conditions together. I was so proud of this presentation and felt so passionately that everyone should have this info, that I asked Joana if I could share it all with you… So, here it is! In this presentation I discuss:
The prevalence of endo in the IC and SIBO community and the current research and statistics.
The definitions of endo and SIBO, the theories behind endo development and the two key causes of SIBO.
How endometriosis can lead to interstitial cystitis or bladder related conditions - and how endometriosis can lead to SIBO!
How SIBO can contribute to the development of endo and interstitial cystitis, and the complexity of the chicken or the egg scenario with endo and SIBO.
The co-conditions of endo, IC and SIBO: PoTs, h-EDS and MCAS and the key thread connecting them all (ahem: histamine!) and the symptoms to look out for.
How endo and SIBO are diagnosed, and how to treat both conditions in context of interstitial cystitis.
If you’d rather watch the presentation, you can do so here! View the reference list here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by Invivo; diagnostics and therapeutics to measure and modulate multiple human microbiomes that impact our health. Try their Bio.Me Prebio PHGG for 20% off with code ENDOLIFE20. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Jo Lincolne is a certified holistic wellness coach for endometriosis and a womb hara massage practitioner. As an Endometriosis Wellness Specialist and educator, Jo provides natural endometriosis support and education to help endo sufferers find wellness again and manage their endo-symptoms. As a woman with endo herself, Jo set out to support herself naturally when she was diagnosed, as there were not many answers that doctors were able to give her or effective medical treatments. This has led her right to where she is today - helping people with endo holistically find relief, hope, vitality and the power to control their health again. In this episode, Jo and I talk about health coaching for endometriosis and the specific benefits of this type of wellbeing support. We discuss: What coaching is - and what it isn’t! Busting myths about coaching.
How coaching can support someone with endo or a chronic illness and the research and evidence demonstrating its effectiveness.
How having a coach compares to working with an endo specialist or doctor and why building a health team with all three onboard and working collaboratively is so important.
What kind of areas a coach can support an endo person with.
How coaching can help someone who is struggling with making changes for endo.
How to know if coaching is the right choice and could be helpful for you.
Show Notes Jo’s website Jo’s Instagram References; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5009492/ https://journals.lww.com/md-journal/fulltext/2020/07240/current_trends_in_health_coaching_for_chronic.26.aspx https://www1.racgp.org.au/ajgp/2019/october/health-coaching-as-a-lifestyle-medicine
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by Invivo; diagnostics and therapeutics to measure and modulate multiple human microbiomes that impact our health. Try their Bio.Me Prebio PHGG for 20% off with code ENDOLIFE20. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
We are on the go again this week, preparing for our temporary return to the UK before we head to Sweden for December, so today’s episode is a replay - but one that I think is really relevant because I know so many of you struggle with this. Today I am resharing a very old episode about my story of beginning to change my diet and lifestyle for endometriosis when I first started on this journey, and how I went full throttle and burnt myself out - and then how I scaled back and made changes more sustainably to avoid overwhelm. And just as a heads up, this was recorded before I was finished with my training as a Women’s Health Coach, so I’m not as clued up on nutrition and lifestyle changes in this episode as I am now, but I’ve actually linked to some articles and episodes about nutrition for endo and the key pillars of healing I use with clients, in the show notes. So, let’s get to the show… Original text: It’s really easy, when you’re unwell, to want to fix everything as quickly as possible. When I started managing my endometriosis symptoms, I went full throttle. I changed my diet, my lifestyle, my make up and skin care - everything and anything that could be tweaked or improved to help with endometriosis, I changed. But within a short few months, I was broke and exhausted. I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of information that I was stuffing in my brain, the conflicting information out there on the endometriosis diet and all the noise on natural treatment options. Because I didn’t know what was quality information, I tried everything. My endodiet overwhelm caused me to crash and burn, and I had to work out what was the most important, what were my priorities were in order to create a plan to move forward sustainably. So in this episode, I’m talking about my experience of being totally overwhelmed to having a clear and steady plan to tackle my endo in a manageable way. I’m sharing tips, reflections and practical suggestions you can begin implementing as soon as you’re ready.
Show Notes My 4 Primary Pillars of Healing with Endometriosis 5 Nutritional Changes You Can Make Right Now to Live Well with Endo A Holistic Healing Plan for Endometriosis
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by Invivo; diagnostics and therapeutics to measure and modulate multiple human microbiomes that impact our health. Try their Bio.Me Prebio PHGG for 20% off with code ENDOLIFE20. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Rachel Dutton a.k.a The Period Whisperer is pretty much one of the most knowledgeable women to grace this podcast. She is not only a women’s health coach, but a yoga teacher, reflexologist, aromatherapist and womb massage therapist to name just a few of her credentials. Rachel specialises in women’s health and fertility - including PCOS. As a PCOS warrior herself, Rachel knows first hand the struggle to get an accurate diagnosis, life with PCOS symptoms but perhaps most importantly, how to manage and even reverse symptoms. As this month is PCOS Awareness Month, I am giving you guys a little treat. Last month, Rachel came and delivered a private talk to the members of my Live and Thrive membership, and today, to celebrate PCOS Awarenness Month, I’m sharing it with you! Now, just as a heads up, some of this talk has been cut as I wanted to ensure my member’s privacy, and half the talk was a Q&A session. Additionally, Rachel’s talk was delivered with slides so you may hear her from time to time refer to something on the screen, but all the info you need is provided in this audio. In this episode, Rachel and I discuss Here’s what we cover:
The definition of PCOS, the associated symptoms and the key causes of the condition.
The diagnostic criteria and how to get an accurate diagnosis.
The core strategies for managing PCOS and reversing symptoms.
How to safely and effectively exercise for PCOS management
The best types of essential oils for PCOS and how to use them.
The difference between ovarian cyst types and how to spot them.
Show Notes Rachel’s website Rachel’s Instagram
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by Invivo; diagnostics and therapeutics to measure and modulate multiple human microbiomes that impact our health. Try their Bio.Me Prebio PHGG for 20% off with code ENDOLIFE20. The IC Retreat - use code ENDOBELLY10 for 10% off. Date: September 16-18, 2022. Where: Online virtual event via Zoom. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Joana Bartlett is an interstitial cystitis warrior, who is thankfully in remission after spending years researching and training in a holistic approach to IC management. She is now a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, specialised in interstitial cystitis and takes a multi-faceted approach to reduce IC symptoms, addressing the whole body, not just the bladder alone. In this episode, Joana and I discuss… Here’s what we cover:
Her story of interstitial cystitis and why her journey motivated her to help others experiencing the same chronic pain.
The typical symptoms of IC, how it can manifest differently for each person and the various tests for diagnosis.
The new subtypes of interstitial cystitis - bladder centric, pelvic floor and chronic overlapping pain conditions - and where endometriosis patients fit into this new type of categorising.
The common causes of IC that Joana sees in her practice including low oestrogen, gut health problems, nervous system upregulation and pelvic floor conditions.
Why Joana’s approach is whole body rather than bladder specific, and how her work varies with each client - but usually starts with the nervous system!
How long IC healing typically takes, and where to start if you’re feeling overwhelmed or are new to Ic.
Joana’s IC retreat and how it can help those who have lived with IC for decades and those who are newly diagnosed.
Show Notes The IC Retreat - use code ENDOBELLY10 for 10% off. Date: September 16-18, 2022. Where: Online virtual event via Zoom. American Urological Guidelines new subtypes Joana’s website Joana’s Instagram Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works My free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’ is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here. My free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List is a pdf list that includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here. My free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker” could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Cheryl Woodman is a scientist, award-winning skincare formulator, acne expert and creator of Honesty For Your Skin; a safe space where you can find science-based skin help and where Cheryl also runs her online Acne Clinic. She’s been featured as an expert by Yahoo style, Byrdie and The Huffington Post and with good reason. Cheryl isn’t about quick fixes or skin fads, she’s all about root cause resolution and understanding the science behind skin. In this episode, Cheryl and I discuss hormonal and inflammatory acne and how it can be related to chronic conditions like endometriosis and PCOS, and what the hell we can do about it… Here’s what we cover:
The difference between hormonal acne and inflammatory acne and how to know which one is the culprit behind your skin challenges.
The key hormonal imbalances behind hormonal acne (testosterone, we’re looking at you) and their common root causes, plus how to resolve them.
Some of the key causes behind inflammatory acne including gut health problems, changes to the skin’s microbiome and chronic, full-body inflammation.
Why conventional acne treatments often miss the root cause, are a temporary solution and come with unacceptable side effects.
Which natural topical treatments actually work and which ones are just myths and fads, and why a full body, root cause approach is key.
Show Notes Acne Warrior course Work 1-2-1 with Cheryl in The Acne Clinic Cheryl’s Instagram Free acne diet cheat sheet Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works My free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’ is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here. My free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List is a pdf list that includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here. My free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker” could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Dr. Linda Bluestein is a board-certified anesthesiologist, integrative pain medicine physician and former ballet dancer who specialises in coaching and educating dancers and other athletes and individuals at increased risk of hypermobility disorders. Dr Linda’s own experience with h-EDS eventually led her down a career path change that has seen her help countless others to live well with hypermobility and avoid chronic pain development. She is widely published, considered an expert on hypermobility disorders, and has lectured internationally. In this episode, Dr Linda and I sit down to discuss the link between Hypermobility spectrum disorders, hypermobile-Ehler’s Danlos syndrome, mast cell activation syndrome and endometriosis. Here’s what we cover:
What we mean by generalised hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorders and hypermobility-EDS, and how they differ.
What are the signs and symptoms of these conditions.
The link between h-EDS and menstrual disorders, bladder dysfunction and pelvic pain and Dr Linda’s approach to addressing these problems.
What mast cell activation syndrome is, how it is associated with hypermobility and EDS, and how it may be a driver behind EDS and endometriosis.
The link between SIBO and h-EDS and connective tissue disorders.
Dr. Linda’s key strategies for managing symptomatic hypermobility and h-EDS.
Show Notes Dr Linda’s website Bendy Bodies podcast Dr Linda’s Instagram Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works My free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’ is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here. My free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List is a pdf list that includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here. My free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker” could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
We have just arrived in France after a 10 hour journey in 34 degree heat! Wow, was that intense! We’re now getting into our work routine but because we’ve been journeying, I have to squeeze my clients into one day, so can’t record a new episode this week. Instead, I’m reshaping an old episode which is literally providing you with my step-by-step protocol for endometriosis management and healing. I’ve developed this approach after spending seven years working with the endo community and on my own healing journey, and studying with leading specialists such as Dr Jessica Drummond and Dr Allison Siebecker. I hope by sharing some of my core steps, it’ll help you navigate your own healing journey and give you a foundation on which to build your own plan. It’s the 100th episode! To celebrate I’m sharing the foundation steps I take with my clients to create their personalised holistic healing plan for endometriosis. In this episode I share some of my main areas of focus when creating an endo healing plan:
Nutrition for endometriosis - ant-inflammatory eating, foods for hormones and blood sugar
Gut healing - removing trigger foods, getting to the root problem and gut recovery
Restoration - optimising sleep, managing stress and recovering from HPA axis dysfunction
Detoxification pathways - hydrate, heal gut, remove toxins
Structural support - visceral manipulation, pelvic floor physiotherapy, good surgery
Cycle syncing - tracking with Fertility Awareness Method, eating for the different phases and syncing your life and movement
Supplements - when to use supplements shown to target endometriosis, period pain and inflammation
Remember, everyone is different and your healing has to tailored to you - your life, your body and your needs. Take from this what feels right for you in this moment and don’t worry about the rest! Show Notes Episode on managing stress to lower pain signals Episode on managing blood sugar with Megan Hallet Episode on blood sugar Understanding the Endo Belly ep.1 Understanding the Endo Belly ep.2 Episode with Dr Jessica Drummond Episode with Molly Episode with Nicole Jardim Episode on hydration Episode with Dr Siebecker discussing visceral manipulation Episode with Dr Andrew Cook about the best surgery for endometriosis Episode with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack Episode with Jenni Hulburt about syncing your exercise with your cycle Episode with Shannon Leparksi Episode with Maisie Hill Article on BeYou about natural pain relievers
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
We are moving (to France!) and so today’s episode is a replay of a very early episode, that some of you may have not yet listened to! I see chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation a lot in our community - so I really encourage you to listen to this episode because healing is more than nutrition and supplements. If you were eating a totally anti-inflammatory diet but you were experiencing chronic stress, would that have an impact on your pain levels? My answer? It’s very, very likely. There are two key factors that cause further inflammation in our bodies when it comes to our lifestyle.
Stress, tension and danger signals are often experienced in two places in the body: the neck and shoulders, and the pelvic floor. The body is trying to protect the vital organs in the pelvis and abdomen and so in response to stress, our body believes there’s danger and clenches and tightens the pelvic floor. This creates further pain, nerve sensitivity, muscle and organ dysfunction and distortion and ultimately up-regulates inflammation as a result.
The brain is designed to recognise stress and danger signals as a priority because it’s programmed to keep us safe. Because of this, it’s much easier and quicker for the body to recognise danger signals and to send these signals (which can translate to pain signals) to the brain. Stress and danger signals actually cause heightened pain levels because your body is hyper sensitive and is hyper aware of any indications of threat, and so will send pain signals to let you know something is wrong.
In this episode I’m going to dive into how to create more SIMS (safety in my system signals) in your every day life to calm down your nervous system and ultimately calm down that inflammatory response. I provide questions, activities and step by step guidance on how to create an ant—inflammatory lifestyle for endometriosis!
Show notes: Headspace meditation app Why We Sleep The Zimzum of Love Communication, Relationships and Endometriosis with Melanie Cox Relate You Need A Budget book You Need A Budget app Managing Money and Dealing with Financial Struggles with Endometriosis with Michelle Manuel of Her Wealth IQ Radiant Life Design
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
This week on the podcast I’m interviewing Arin Nicole, who you may know better as Moonli on Instagram. Arin is a functional hormone and endometriosis nutritionist with a particular interest in working with women and uterus owners who deal with hormone and inflammatory issues such as endometriosis, fibroids, period pain, mood swings, PCOS, and more. Her aim is to heal the root cause of people's symptoms through holistic nutrition. Arin has both endometriosis and fibroids, and is now in a place where her two conditions are really well managed and no longer cause her symptoms. I invited her on to talk specifically about fibroids, given that in the US, July is Fibroids Awareness Month. In this discussion, we talk about -
What are fibroids
The association between endometriosis and fibroids
The signs and symptoms off fibroids
How can someone get diagnosed with fibroids
What causes fibroids
The conventional treatment options vs. Arin’s holistic approach to managing fibroids.
Please be aware that we do talk about dietary changes in this episode, in particular, lowering alcohol consumption. This is comes up when I ask Arin about her approach to managing fibroids, so feel free to skip this section if it’s particularly triggering for you, though we do discuss this with a balanced and realistic approach. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes Arin’s website Arin’s Instagram
This week on the podcast I’m sharing a conversation I had with herbalist and Forage Botanicals founder Natasha Richardson. Natasha develops natural remedies for period problems, as well as incredible products for bladder problems, fatigue and stress. She has a Facebook group where she teaches menstrual health and wellbeing and kindly invited me on for a chat with her and her audience. In this discussion, we talk about -
SIBO and endometriosis - the signs, symptoms and prevalence
How gut health can contribute to endometriosis development
The various theories behind endometriosis growth including immune dysfunction and mast cells
My views on hormonal treatments for endometriosis including whether we’re really getting fully informed consent and whether effectiveness is accurately portrayed
The role of medicine vs. a holistic approach in endometriosis management.
Some of these topics are delicate, and it can be tricky to navigate them when having a chat that isn’t a carefully pre-planned presentation, but I hope I was able to share my views in a delicate and considerate manner. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes https://foragebotanicals.co.uk/collections/frontpage Natasha’s Facebook group https://www.vitalhealth.com/endometriosis-specialty-center/learn-about-endometriosis/endometriosis-treatment-options/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
Last week on Instagram I asked if anyone wanted to hear about my experience of two ECGs and a tilt table test as part of my ongoing chest pain investigations, and the majority of those who voted said yes! So, I wanted to record this whilst the experience was fresh in my mind. If you’re not sure why I had these tests, you can listen to episode ep.204/ the thing that’s been happening with my heart and why it’s important to talk about it in the endo community. So, as I said in my last episode about this, I am not a cardiologist, and I am not a health coach specialising in heart disease or any heart related conditions. As an endometriosis health coach however, I do see a lot of postural tachycardia syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome, both of which can cause symptoms like chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, palpitations, etc. and so many of my clients do have to go through these processes and tests to get the right diagnoses. Read more Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/echocardiogram/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/electrocardiogram/ https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/tests/tilt-test https://www.potsuk.org/about-pots/diagnosis/ https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endo-and-chest-pain https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome?rq=postural
Last week I wanted to take a minute to process the Roe v Wade verdict, and to deal with my own personal health issues, as the latter half of last week I was having heart tests performed for two days and was travelling back and forth to London, whilst not feeling too well as a result of the tests. I think all of us had info coming at us from so many different directions last week and I didn’t want to add to that, especially without having the time or headspace to process it all and actually think through what I wanted to say. The other difficulty I face as an endo practitioner, is of course, the sensitivity of this topic within our community. I understand that discussions around abortion are hard, given that many in the community struggle with infertility, so this is a very difficult line to tread and in truth, because of the power of social media these days, I am worried that I’ll end up getting trolled or cancelled for this statement. So, before I proceed, I want to make it clear that I respect all views and opinions, even if they differ from mine - but the short of it is, that I was truly, deeply saddened by the Roe v Wade verdict this past week. Read More Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show notes IC Wellness Aloe vera brands/research Desert Harvest and protocol Tiny Pioneer Healthy Life Harvest https://www.desertharvest.com/physicians/documents/DH162.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1476005/ Quercetin https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19462895/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/781684/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808895/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19297429/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273625/ https://avivaromm.com/remedies-seasonal-allergies/ https://www.pelvicsanity.com/post/2018/03/15/quercetin-this-simple-supplement-could-reduce-your-pelvic-symptoms Magnesium spray (this is the one I use, no affiliation) BeYou (not a sponsored/affiliate link though they sponsor the podcast) Chamomile https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30925997/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/chamomile https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_supplement_checklist.pdf
So, some of you may know that for the past, I guess, three years now, I’ve been deep in the trenches with interstitial cystitis. I developed interstitial cystitis almost about 17 or so years ago, following a car accident when I was 17. I broke my left hip, my pelvis, my spine and my pubic ramus and was temporarily paralysed, and was then on bed rest for several weeks. During this time I had a catheter put in, and unbeknown to me, this delivered the first of two chronic infections. Of course, for the first year any unusual symptoms and pain I had in the pelvic region I put down to the car accident, and then when I started developing endo symptoms a year later, once I was diagnosed, I assumed all bladder issues were caused by my endo. Read more Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show notes Podcast episodes https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome?rq=postural Angina https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/angina/ https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/angina-chest-pain https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/angina-chest-pain/prinzmetals-or-prinzmetal-angina-variant-angina-and-angina-inversa Kounis syndrome https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22050066/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636655/ https://cdt.amegroups.com/article/view/1609/2259 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cclm-2016-0010/html?lang=en https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6791094/ Women and heart disease https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/women/misdiagnosis-of-heart-attacks-in-women https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/leadingcausesofdeathuk/2001to2018 https://www.henryford.com/blog/2017/04/women-ignore-signs-heart-attack https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/women-health/part-1-heart-disease-in-women-unsuspected-overlooked-ignored/ https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/heartdisease/index.html
On Christmas Day 2021, I thought I had a heart attack. It was Christmas night actually, maybe even the early hours of Boxing Day and I was woken up by one of the worst pains I have ever experienced. It felt like a metal clamp had locked around my heart and was squeezing it to the point of bursting. The pain radiated into my left arm and down into my hand, and my hand and lower arm were tingling and sort of numb. My chest was tight, it felt like I had a weight on it and I felt like I was struggling to get enough oxygen in. I still don’t know if I had a heart attack that night. My body and mind tells me it was, but at this stage, I’ll never really know – because I didn’t call an ambulance. Yes. I know it was stupid, and I regret the decision now, but there was a reason. Read more. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show notes Podcast episodes https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/endometriosis-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome?rq=postural Angina https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/angina/ https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/angina-chest-pain https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/angina-chest-pain/prinzmetals-or-prinzmetal-angina-variant-angina-and-angina-inversa Kounis syndrome https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22050066/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6636655/ https://cdt.amegroups.com/article/view/1609/2259 https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cclm-2016-0010/html?lang=en https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6791094/ Women and heart disease https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/women/misdiagnosis-of-heart-attacks-in-women https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/leadingcausesofdeathuk/2001to2018 https://www.henryford.com/blog/2017/04/women-ignore-signs-heart-attack https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/women-health/part-1-heart-disease-in-women-unsuspected-overlooked-ignored/ https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/heartdisease/index.html
I’ve been noticing something for a while now. It’s always been a problem in society overall, I think it’s an issue that takes different form depending on the generation and the situation, and I’ve been acutely away of it throughout my endo career, but today I really want to directly speak to it because I am seeing it so much lately. Today I want to tell you that you don’t have to manage endo perfectly. In fact, I am urging you not to try to. And this is what I mean. In the past say two years, I’ve worked with a couple of hundred people, either one to one or in my course, and for the most part, many people do take a balanced approach, but in some, I’ve noticed this trend to be very black and white with endo management, very full throttle, very all or nothing. And I get it. Having had an eating disorder for the best part of my adult life and all of my teenage years, I understand how easy it is to become obsessive about certain food choices. And as a perfectionist and overachiever, I also understand the desire to want to go all in, to want to try and make changes all at once, to try and do all the endo management things all at the same time. But here’s the thing. It’s not sustainable. Trying to do everything all at once and to stick to restrictive behaviours doesn’t lead to long-term successful endo management, it leads to resentment, stress, and exhaustion, and perhaps, even disordered eating. You’ll probably end up giving up because you feel so miserable, maybe not knowing what’s working because you’re trying so much at once and perhaps getting stuck in a binge-restrict cycle with your eating. So, if you’re not really sure if this applies to you or you’re just not very clear on what I’m talking about, I wanted to share some examples. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show notes Glucose Goddess sweetener guide Sweet Laurel Bakery recipes (I adapt to make sugar free, but they generally are better for blood sugar because of the almond flour anyway, if you’re in the USA, you can order her cakes) My Endo Net recipes Orthorexia
Today I am sharing a conversation with one of my past The Endo Belly Protocol course students about her incredible mindset shift and empowerment journey with endometriosis. Simone had been feeling helpless, hopeless and like endometriosis was in control of her life, and that there was nothing she could do about it. She’d been let down by the medical system for years, had a long journey to diagnosis and wasn’t getting the answers she was looking for. Since completing the course Simone has:
Chosen her own symptom management protocols and knows how and what to do to manage her pain, endo belly and hormones.
Feels empowered and in control of endometriosis, and feels like she has options, solutions and hope.
Finally understands her body and endometriosis, gut health, hormones and inflammation are linked and affect each other.
Have a listen to the episode to hear Simone’s transformation in her own words and her feedback on The Endo Belly Protocol and who she thinks will benefit from it. The Endo Belly Protocol closes tomorrow June 6th 10pm BST - final 48 hour special price now available. In this seven-step course, you will uncover the root causes behind your endo belly, learn the exact protocols for healing, identify your unique triggers and endo belly aggravators and ultimately heal your gut and calm your endo. By the end of this course you will have…
Learnt the connection between endometriosis, intestinal inflammation and the endo belly and how gut health can fuel endometriosis symptoms
Found the best anti-inflammatory, gut-healing foods for calming your own personal endo belly and gut symptoms
Identified your unique endo belly triggers and created a sustainable approach to eating for endo and gut health in a way that you enjoy!
Made the connection between any stress, trauma or emotional challenges and your gut health, and have found strategies that work for improving your gut-brain connection
and more... You’ll get seven modules, plus a bonus 8th module, multiple bonuses including workshops with surprise guests, my cookbook for free, handouts, PDFs and 7 live Q&A calls with me so you can ask any questions about your unique endo situation. Here’s a quick outline of the modules:
Module 1: What is the Endo Belly and Why Does It Happen?
Module 2: Foundational (First Line) Therapies for Healing the Endo Belly
Module 3: First Line Therapies - Anti-inflammatory Nutrition for Endo Belly Healing
Module 4: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 1 - The Endo Belly 4 Week Healing Protocol
Module 5: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 2 - Supplements and Tools for Intensive Healing and Symptom Management
Module 6: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 1: The SIBO Protocol
Module 7: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 2: Stubborn SIBO, SIFO, Candida and Other Common Gut Conditions
Doors to enrolment close on Tuesday June 7th 10 pm BST and we get started on Monday June 13th. If you’d like to learn more or you’re ready to sign up, click here. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined a new podcast network called Connectd Podcasts. Connectd Podcasts is a new mission-driven network focused on helping podcasts like this grow and thrive! I’m thrilled to be a part of a network bringing positive content to the world through diverse voices and perspectives. Be sure to check out some of the other great shows including The Period Party by Nicole Jardim and Beyond Trauma by Lara Land! This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Today I am sharing a conversation with one of my past The Endo Belly Protocol course students about her incredible endo belly improvements and period transformation. Jess had been experiencing hormonal acne, light headedness and brain fog during her period, extreme bloating that made her look six months pregnant, painful periods, gassiness, abdominal discomfort and constipation. Since completing the course and implementing a few changes, Jess has experienced:
An improvement in her hormonal acne and complexion.
No more extreme bloating on a daily basis - any bloating is now isolated to the normal bloating we tend to get with hormonal changes during the cycle (and if you want to learn more about that, listen to episode ep.137).
No more digestive problems so less gassiness, bloating, discomfort, etc.
Her period pain is now at a 1 every cycle and her hormonal symptoms have improved, so much so, that she’s continuously calling each new period her ‘best period ever’!
Have a listen to the episode to hear Jess’s improvements in her own words, what she changed, and her feedback on The Endo Belly Protocol and who she thinks will benefit from it. The Endo Belly Protocol closes tomorrow June 6th 9pm BST - final 48 hour special price now available. In this seven-step course, you will uncover the root causes behind your endo belly, learn the exact protocols for healing, identify your unique triggers and endo belly aggravators and ultimately heal your gut and calm your endo. You'll move from feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and at the mercy of the endo belly, to feeling clear and in control of your personal roadmap to healing. By the end of this course you will have…
Learnt the connection between endometriosis, intestinal inflammation and the endo belly and how gut health can fuel endometriosis symptoms
Found the best anti-inflammatory, gut-healing foods for calming your own personal endo belly and gut symptoms
Identified your unique endo belly triggers and created a sustainable approach to eating for endo and gut health in a way that you enjoy!
Made the connection between any stress, trauma or emotional challenges and your gut health, and have found strategies that work for improving your gut-brain connection
and more... You’ll get seven modules, plus a bonus 8th module, multiple bonuses including workshops with surprise guests, my cookbook for free, handouts, PDFs and 7 live Q&A calls with me so you can ask any questions about your unique endo situation. Here’s a quick outline of the modules:
Module 1: What is the Endo Belly and Why Does It Happen?
Module 2: Foundational (First Line) Therapies for Healing the Endo Belly
Module 3: First Line Therapies - Anti-inflammatory Nutrition for Endo Belly Healing
Module 4: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 1 - The Endo Belly 4 Week Healing Protocol
Module 5: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 2 - Supplements and Tools for Intensive Healing and Symptom Management
Module 6: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 1: The SIBO Protocol
Module 7: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 2: Stubborn SIBO, SIFO, Candida and Other Common Gut Conditions
Doors to enrolment close on Tuesday June 7th 10 pm BST and we get started on Monday June 13th. If you’d like to learn more or you’re ready to sign up, click here. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Today’s episode is a special and temporary episode. This is an edited recording of my live workshop, Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing. This workshop gives you the exact steps to design your own endo belly healing protocol, based on evidence-backed, functional medicine tools and strategies that I have learnt in my specialist endo, IBS and SIBO training. Now I prefer to deliver this live because it’s an interactive class and we ask and answer questions the entire way through, and I’m constantly chatting with the group participants, troubleshooting their endo problems and helping them to work out which steps are relevant to them. So, because of that, this isn’t going to stay up as a podcast episode for very long, just a week, because I would prefer people join this free workshop live and actually get the workshop delivered how I intended it to be delivered, but I had such amazing feedback from the session that I just wanted to give you the opportunity to listen if you missed out recently, but had intended to sign up. Now the recording you’re going to hear today is edited, I have edited out the conversations that I have with group participants the entire way through for confidentiality reasons, so you’ll hear me ask people to feedback in the group and then I’ve cut out their answers and skip to the next step. I’ve also edited out a couple of case studies for the same reasons too. This is also audio only whereas the workshop has slides, however I didn’t want to attach the recording of the video again for confidentiality of the people who were in the group. However, the key components of the workshop, the steps you need to create your own endo belly healing roadmap is in this recording. I’ve just launched my course The Endo Belly Protocol. In this seven-step course, you will uncover the root causes behind your endo belly, learn the exact protocols for healing, identify your unique triggers and endo belly aggravators and ultimately heal your gut and calm your endo. By the end of this course you will have…
Learnt the connection between endometriosis, intestinal inflammation and the endo belly and how gut health can fuel endometriosis symptoms
Found the best anti-inflammatory, gut-healing foods for calming your own personal endo belly and gut symptoms
Identified your unique endo belly triggers and created a sustainable approach to eating for endo and gut health in a way that you enjoy!
Made the connection between any stress, trauma or emotional challenges and your gut health, and have found strategies that work for improving your gut-brain connection
Healed your leaky gut, calmed any intestinal inflammation and reduced your endo belly flare ups!
Discovered the root causes behind your endo belly and either have begun treatment (if needed) or have a clear step-by-step roadmap for treatment
Identified which supplements are right for you and you own personal endo belly healing journey
Reduced (or even eliminated!) your pelvic pain, brain fog, fatigue, PMS and other seemingly random symptoms like allergies and joint pain
You’ll get seven modules, plus a bonus 8th module, multiple bonuses including workshops with surprise guests, my cookbook for free, handouts, PDFs and 7 live Q&A calls with me so you can ask any questions about your unique endo situation. Doors to enrolment close on Tuesday June 7th 10 pm BST and we get started on Monday June 13th. If you’d like to learn more or you’re ready to sign up, click here. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
You may have noticed that my podcast thumbnail has changed to say This EndoLife Podcast by the Endo Belly Coach. Yep! I have switched my website and all of the work I do from This EndoLife to The Endo Belly Coach – nothing is changing about my work, but I felt this title better encompassed my passion for endo and the endo belly. And to celebrate, I’ve just launched my course The Endo Belly Protocol.
In this seven-step course, you will uncover the root causes behind your endo belly, learn the exact protocols for healing, identify your unique triggers and endo belly aggravators and ultimately heal your gut and calm your endo. You'll move from feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and at the mercy of the endo belly, to feeling clear and in control of your personal roadmap to healing. If…
You've had a surgery and even though your pain symptoms have calmed down (or maybe not), you're now having gut issues for the first time.
You've suffered with gut symptoms all your life.
You can't get through the day without endo belly.
You're exhausted by the endless food restriction, you seem to react to everything.
This course was designed with you in mind. By the end of this course you will have…
Learnt the connection between endometriosis, intestinal inflammation and the endo belly and how gut health can fuel endometriosis symptoms
Found the best anti-inflammatory, gut-healing foods for calming your own personal endo belly and gut symptoms
Identified your unique endo belly triggers and created a sustainable approach to eating for endo and gut health in a way that you enjoy!
Made the connection between any stress, trauma or emotional challenges and your gut health, and have found strategies that work for improving your gut-brain connection
Healed your leaky gut, calmed any intestinal inflammation and reduced your endo belly flare ups!
Discovered the root causes behind your endo belly and either have begun treatment (if needed) or have a clear step-by-step roadmap for treatment
Identified which supplements are right for you and you own personal endo belly healing journey
Reduced (or even eliminated!) your pelvic pain, brain fog, fatigue, PMS and other seemingly random symptoms like allergies and joint pain
You’ll get seven modules, plus a bonus 8th module, multiple bonuses including workshops with surprise guests, my cookbook for free, handouts, PDFs and 7 live Q&A calls with me so you can ask any questions about your unique endo situation. Here’s a quick outline of the modules: Module 1: What is the Endo Belly and Why Does It Happen? Module 2: Foundational (First Line) Therapies for Healing the Endo Belly Module 3: First Line Therapies - Anti-inflammatory Nutrition for Endo Belly Healing Module 4: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 1 - The Endo Belly 4 Week Healing Protocol Module 5: Advanced (Second Line) Therapies, Part 2 - Supplements and Tools for Intensive Healing and Symptom Management Module 6: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 1: The SIBO Protocol Module 7: Specific (Third Line) Therapies, Part 2: Stubborn SIBO, SIFO, Candida and Other Common Gut Conditions Early bird pricing ends Thursday 26th May 9pm BST, doors to enrolment close on Tuesday June 7th 10 pm BST and we get started on Monday June 13th. If you’d like to learn more or you’re ready to sign up, the link is in my show notes or just go to www.theendobellycoach.com/the-endo-belly-protocol I hope to see some of you there!
In this second edition of my special endo belly IG live series, I’m really focusing on SIBO specifically, diagnosis, treatment troubleshooting and why you may get a negative test - even if you’re actually positive. And if you are genuinely negative for SIBO, I also talk about the other possible root causes behind your endo belly. So, here are the questions I’m answering today: What’s the difference between chronic SIBO and one off? Which types of bacteria cause SIBO? Do GPs have an awareness of SIBO? What could cause a negative test if you’re sure you have SIBO? Do GI specialists on the NHS know how to diagnose and treat SIBO? What else could cause endo belly and bloating if it’s not SIBO? If you’ve found this live helpful or you’d like to learn more, or you’re just sick of the endo belly, I’m holding two free endo belly workshops this week… To support those of you who are struggling with overwhelm or not knowing where to start with beating the endo belly, I’m running a free workshop in two weeks – Creating a Roadmap for Endo Belly Healing. You can sign up right here. In this two hour-long workshop I’m going to…
Show you how to overcome endo belly information overwhelm
Help you identify your core endo belly challenges
Teach you the first, second and third line therapies for endo belly healing that I go through with all my clients
Empower you to set 1-3 goals and next steps so you can get started and take action after the workshop.
This workshop is all about sorting through the confusion so you can begin managing the endo belly with confidence and clarity. Sign up here.
Pick the workshop that best fits your schedule. (I’m offering multiple times!). Here are the dates: Tuesday May 24th, 7pm BST Thursday May 26th, 7pm BST Sign up to register and I’ll send you all the details. If you can't make it live - don't worry, you'll be sent the replay the very next day!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes How to Test for SIBO SIBO symptoms with Dr Siebecker SIBO symptoms (solo show) How to Treat SIBO Root Causes of Endo Belly Why You May Get Constipated in Your Luteal Phase Why You May Get Diarrhoea on Your Period
A little while ago I asked you guys what your questions were about SIBO and endo belly - and my gosh, did you come through with the questions! So I decided to record my answers in a few Instagram lives and then share them as a podcast episode so more people can have access to this information. Here are the questions I am answering in today’s episode:
What came first? Endo or SIBO?
Are there certain people with endo more likely to develop SIBO?
What is the connection between SIBO and IBS and how to differentiate between them?
What are the stats on IBS, endo and SIBO?
Are there any foods that make SIBO worse?
Will I have to do a low FODMAP diet long term?
Does diet help SIBO?
Can SIBO cause B12, zinc, iron and magnesium deficiencies?
I hope this podcast episode is helpful to you. If you’re wondering whether it’s SIBO or endo or something else causing your bloating, or you’d like to learn how to test for SIBO or just understand a bit more before you investigate further, have a look at my show notes below. Free workshop: To support those of you who are struggling with overwhelm or not knowing where to start with beating the endo belly, I’m running a free workshop in two weeks – Creating a Roadmap for Endo Belly Healing. You can sign up right here. In this two hour-long workshop I’m going to…
Show you how to overcome endo belly information overwhelm
Help you identify your core endo belly challenges
Teach you the first, second and third line therapies for endo belly healing that I go through with all my clients
Empower you to set 1-3 goals and next steps so you can get started and take action after the workshop.
This workshop is all about sorting through the confusion so you can begin managing the endo belly with confidence and clarity. Sign up here. Pick the workshop that best fits your schedule. (I’m offering multiple times!). Here are the dates: Tuesday May 24th, 7pm BST Thursday May 26th, 7pm BST Sign up to register and I’ll send you all the details. If you can't make it live - don't worry, you'll be sent the replay the very next day! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes How to Test for SIBO SIBO symptoms with Dr Siebecker SIBO symptoms (solo show) How to Treat SIBO Root Causes of Endo Belly Why You May Get Constipated in Your Luteal Phase Why You May Get Diarrhoea on Your Period
This episode is a special episode sharing a recording from a Q&A with participants from my recent Endo Belly Challenge. Over 150 people took part in the 4 week free challenge, and each week, they received an email from me with some education on the endo belly and what causes it and how to treat it, and then a related action step to help them minimise symptoms and begin treating the root causes.
At the end of the challenge, to celebrate and wrap up, I held a private Q&A for anyone who wanted to ask questions about their experience with the challenge, their own endo belly issues or just about endometriosis itself.
Today I am sharing some of these questions and my answers! I have blanked out and removed names where necessary.
These questions are detailed and very unique to each person, but I really felt that some of them could be relevant or interesting to you all! Here’s a brief summary of the questions:
- Why does my endo belly and pain get worse at night and in the morning when I wake up?
- If I’m on hormonal treatment, does it change what type of natural and holistic treatment I use? Will it be less effective?
- I had a full hysterectomy and since, my endo belly has gotten so much worse. The surgeon says they got all the endo and everything was fully excised, could it still be SIBO or endo belly? DISCLAIMER: We didn’t discuss it in this call because the surgery was reportedly very successful and the surgeon was able to excise all the endo, but it is still possible for endometriosis to grow after a full hysterectomy. A hysterectomy is not a cure for endometriosis.
- If I eat an anti-inflammatory diet, will it shrink my endo?
- How do I treat SIBO?
- How do I prepare for surgery and get the best results from it? Any pre or post-op tips?
- What are the pros and cons of surgery?
- Can you treat endometriomas without surgery?
DISCLAIMER: Please remember that everyone’s experience of endometriosis is unique, and the decision to have or not have surgery should be made in partnership with your surgeon and medical team. The information I am sharing in this episode is just for informational purposes.
I hope you find this episode useful!
Free workshop: To support those of you who are struggling with overwhelm or not knowing where to start with beating the endo belly, I’m running a free workshop in two weeks – Creating a Roadmap for Endo Belly Healing. You can sign up right here. In this two hour-long workshop I’m going to…
- Show you how to overcome endo belly information overwhelm
- Help you identify your core endo belly challenges
- Teach you the first, second and third line therapies for endo belly healing that I go through with all my clients
- Empower you to set 1-3 goals and next steps so you can get started and take action after the workshop.
This workshop is all about sorting through the confusion so you can begin managing the endo belly with confidence and clarity. Sign up here. Pick the workshop that best fits your schedule. (I’m offering multiple times!). Here are the dates:Tuesday May 24th, 7pm BST
Thursday May 26th, 7pm BSTSign up to register and I’ll send you all the details.If you can't make it live - don't worry, you'll be sent the replay the very next day!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Surgery
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/02/a-common-treatment-for-endometriosis-could-actually-be-making-things-worse
https://endometriosis.net/living/surgery-adhesion
https://endometriosis.net/living/surgery-preparation-tips
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-laparoscopy-endo-belly
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endo-belly-after-endometriosis-surgery
NAC
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/2021/4/17/supplements-shown-to-target-endometriosis
Inflammation, food and endo
https://endometriosis.net/living/inflammation-pain
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/nutrition-for-endometriosis-101
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/supplements-for-period-pain-menstrual-symptoms
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/2021/4/17/supplements-shown-to-target-endometriosis
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
The SIBO queen, Dr. Allison Siebecker, is back with part two on our deep dive into all things SIBO, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis.
In this episode, we’re talking about how to test for SIBO and how to interpret your results, how to treat SIBO and how to lessen your chances of relapse with prevention methods. It’s a great episode and one that I cannot recommend enough for starting out on this SIBO/endo belly journey.
Here’s a breakdown of everything we discuss in this interview:
- How to test for SIBO and which type of test is best - the lactulose breath test or glucose?
- Why a three hour test is always recommended over a two hour test.
- How to interpret your results and what your gas levels mean for your treatment options and how to look for hydrogen sulfide clues.
- Why you have to test to know how to treat.
- The treatment options for hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide.
- The types of antibiotics used for SIBO.
- The types of antimicrobial herbs used for SIBO.
- What the elemental diet is and when it should be used for SIBO.
- Why prevention is a crucial stage of SIBO recovery.
- How and when to use diet for SIBO.
- The role of prokinetcis in SIBO.
- How to do meal spacing to prevent a relapse after treatment.
- Why patience and persistence is all part of the process of treating SIBO.
If you’ve been struggling with the endo belly, constant IBS issues, bloating, nausea and so many of the other stomach issues that seem to come hand in hand with endometriosis, this episode is absolutely the one to listen to.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
Is this the highlight of my podcast career so far? Absolutely. Today I’m joined by my tutor, the wonderful Dr. Allison Siebecker discussing small intestine bacterial overgrowth, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis.
A naturopathic doctor and SIBO patient herself, Dr. Allison Siebecker is one of the world’s leading SIBO experts and provides truly the best SIBO resource on the internet. Dr. Siebecker has worked with thousands of patients and has dedicated her career to treating some of the most difficult SIBO cases, whilst educating both health care practitioners and the general public about this commonly under diagnosed condition with her courses, website and upcoming book.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Her own experience of developing chronic SIBO and how she manages it now.
- Why a chronic case of SIBO doesn’t mean you can’t live a full and happy life.
- The signs and symptoms of SIBO to look out for.
- The associated conditions including interstitial cystitis and endometriosis.
- The root causes of SIBO - specifically endometriosis adhesions and what we can do about them.
If you’ve been struggling with the endo belly, constant IBS issues, bloating, nausea and so many of the other stomach issues that seem to come hand in hand with endometriosis, this episode is absolutely the one to listen to.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
It’s finally here! The long awaited episode on how to test for SIBO. Many of you have been contacting me to ask how to get tested or whether you can test at home, so here’s my episode discussing all the ins and outs.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the key points in the episode:
- Hydrogen and methane type SIBO can be detected through a SIBO breath test.
- You can order at-home kits. In my experience, most GPs won’t/can’t order SIBO breath tests and aren’t familiar with it, though GI doctors may be able to and SIBO specialist doctors certainly can.
- A SIBO breath test involves drinking a solution of glucose or lactulose and breathing into a test tube for 2-3 hours. The substrate will feed the bacteria, which will create fermentation, and the gas is then collected in the test tube and measured in the lab in parts per million.
- Tests can be either 2 hours with 8 test tubes or 3 hours with 10 test tubes. 2 hours runs the risk of missing SIBO in a person with slow gut motility, so for that reason, I prefer to go with a 3 hour test.
- Some specialists prefer testing with glucose, others lactulose. I like to use lactulose as glucose is absorbed in the first 1-3 feet of the small intestine and the small intestine is on average 22 ft long! So if the SIBO is further down, a glucose test can miss it entirely.
- A prep diet and overnight fast is required before taking the test. This is a low to no carb diet of meat, fish, eggs, black tea or coffee. There are some allowances for vegans, vegetarians or diabetics. If a patient ate too many carbs, or did the prep test incorrectly it would skew the test results and the test would need to be redone.
- The North American breath testing consensus states that a positive for hydrogen would be a rise of 20 ppm or more (parts per million) from the baseline (the breath before drinking the solution) in the first 90 minutes. A positive for methane would be 10ppm or more in the whole 180 minutes, including the baseline.
- Dr Allison Siebecker, who I trained with, has a slightly different diagnostic range after years and years of working with SIBO clients and consulting with other SIBO specialists. A positive hydrogen for her would be 20ppm in the first 120 minutes, with no rise needed as long as the baseline isn’t the highest number. Methane is 10 within 180 but if constipation was present, the methane would be positive if the reading was 3-9ppm.
- Though hydrogen sulfide SIBO cannot be detected with this test, some H2S patients have a flat line pattern that indicates the presence of H2S. This would be a result of 6ppm or less for hydrogen and 3ppm or less for methane.
- An elevated baseline (so not 0) is normal for methane.
- In the USA, lactulose requires a prescription so you would need to find a doctor who could help you order it.
For a deeper dive and my breakdown on how to take the test itself, have a listen to the show! I really hope this episode helps those of you who are suspecting that SIBO may be the culprit behind your endobelly.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.Today I’m talking about SIBO - Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth.
SIBO is a very common gut health condition, in fact, research has shown that 60-70% of IBS cases are actually caused by SIBO. To add to that, endometriosis is a risk factor for developing SIBO, so for those of us with endo and even with IBS too, this is a condition we want to be aware of.
- SIBO is an accumulation of of bacteria and archaea in in the small intestine.
- SIBO can cause damage to the small intestine and can cause malapsorption, nutrient deficiencies and intolerances.
- The symptoms of SIBO are bloating, fullness, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, gas, burping, GERD or acid reflux. SIBO can also cause symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, headaches, rashes, swelling and nasal congestion.
- There are three types of SIBO: hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide type SIBO.
- Hydrogen sulfide type SIBO can also cause additional symptoms such as bladder pain, bladder frequency and urgency, generally feeling unwell, worsening food intolerances, histamine sensitivity, sulfur smelling gas, body pain, tingling and numbness in the hands and feet and worsening symptoms after Epsom salt baths and sulfur containing foods.
- Hydrogen type SIBO tends to cause diarrhea.
- Hydrogen sulfide tends to cause diarrhea but can cause constipation.
- Methane tends to cause constipation.
- Both hydrogen and methane together can cause constipation or diarrhea, or a mix of both (so sometimes you’re constipated, sometimes you have diarrhea).
- Methane and hydrogen sulfide together can cause either or both.
- All three types together can cause either or both.
- Key signs of SIBO are symptoms, low B12, low ferritin, vitamins A/D/E/K deficiencies, low omega 3 levels, sometimes low albumin; leaky gut symptoms, and conditions such as interstitial cystitis, psoriasis, restless leg syndrome, rosacea, and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Key causes to look out (there are many, but most relevant to our community) are endometriosis, abdominal surgery (inc. laparoscopy), chronic stress leading to slow gut motility, low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes, food poisoning and hypothyroidism.
If any of the above sounds like you, listen to this episode and be sure to tune into my follow up episode where I talk about SIBO testing and treatment.
A huge thank you to my tutor Dr Allison Siebecker for her SIBO Pro course, which has provided me with the information and training to be able to share this with you today.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I maay not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.
In part 2 of this series, I’m talking about the foundations of good gut health and what signs to look for that your GI tract is missing these -
- Chewing: How many times should we be chewing our food, why does it matter and why does chewing less contribute to the endometriosis belly?
- Stomach acid: What is it, why is it important for good gut health (and for reducing endo symptoms and bloating) and what happens if we’re low in it? How does endometriosis, chronic pain and chronic fatigue affect our stomach acid?
- Digestive enzymes: What do digestive enzymes do, how do they help us thrive with endometriosis and what happens when we’re low in them? Can endometriosis and its co-conditions have an impact on digestive enzymes?
I also provide you with three core questions to ask yourself when assessing your gut health, so you can begin painting a picture of what improvements you could make to start reducing the endometriosis belly.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.
In part 2 of this series, I’m talking about the foundations of good gut health and what signs to look for that your GI tract is missing these -
- Chewing: How many times should we be chewing our food, why does it matter and why does chewing less contribute to the endometriosis belly?
- Stomach acid: What is it, why is it important for good gut health (and for reducing endo symptoms and bloating) and what happens if we’re low in it? How does endometriosis, chronic pain and chronic fatigue affect our stomach acid?
- Digestive enzymes: What do digestive enzymes do, how do they help us thrive with endometriosis and what happens when we’re low in them? Can endometriosis and its co-conditions have an impact on digestive enzymes?
I also provide you with three core questions to ask yourself when assessing your gut health, so you can begin painting a picture of what improvements you could make to start reducing the endometriosis belly.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
So, before we get started today, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently off on annual leave, one of my goals this year was to take more time off – well, to basically time off, rather than working through until Christmas!
And so, the episode you’re hearing today is a replay of a past episode. As it’s IBS Awareness Month, and because so many of us with endo have IBS, I wanted to share with you my most foundational, actionable and informative episodes on endo belly, IBS and SIBO – so every week you’ll get two episodes on this theme, to help raise awareness and to provide you with some actions.
Now because these episodes are old, I may not refer to some of the resources I provide on the endo belly, so I wanted to remind you of the services I provide. So, to start with, I have plenty of other episodes on the endo belly, I have a course called The Endo Belly Course which is specifically for anyone with endo who really struggles with IBS, endo belly or SIBO (here’s the waitlist; I work with 1 to 1 clients; especially those with endo belly or SIBO, and I have lots and lots of articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net about these topics. And of course, I also have my Instagram account, which is chock full of SIBO and endo belly info, for those of you wanting to learn more.
Lastly, if you feel you need a little extra support, I am currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. The challenge ends on April 18th, but if you sign up before May 2nd, you’ll still be able to access all of the challenge, and catch up – and for anyone who takes part, you’ll be invited to a private, free Q&A call with me at the start of May, where you’ll get to ask me all your endo belly questions.
Okay, so without further ado, let’s get to the episode:
Last week I polled 600 of you on my Instagram and 96% of you said you suffer with bloating or what is dubbed in our community as the endobelly. Additionally, only 48% of you had heard of small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is in fact a leading cause of IBS issue such as constipation, diarrhoea and bloating within the endo population.
Bloating is one of the biggest symptoms for those of us with endomertriosis, but it’s not impossible to treat. It’s not about masking the symptoms though - restricting foods to feel relief can result in more foods sensitive and nutrient deficiencies, whilst leaving the root cause to worsen over time.
So ideally, want to get to the heart of the problem. There may be a few, but once you address one of the root causes, often the others begin to improve and can become easier to treat or manage.
Another thing to note is rather than letting this episode overwhelm you, see it as a light shining on your gut health and revealing the clues that have been hidden to you for so long. Rather than feeling like you have no control, you now have control - you have knowledge and information, and you can now start creating a road map towards healing your bloating, step by step. You don’t have to investigate all of these issues - start with the one that feels the most relevant to you.
Finally, this list isn’t exhaustive but it does include some of the most common issues people with endometriosis face when it comes to their gut health.
Here’s an overview of the 10 root causes of bloating with endometriosis:
- SIBO - Small intestine bacterial overgrowth is a condition where normal bacteria that should live in the large intestine, build up in the small intestine. They ferment our food causing bloating, gas, constipation and other IBS complaints. Research has shown that up to 80% of people with endo have SIBO.
- Hormonal imbalances - Oestrogen dominance can cause water retention leading to bloating, which often shows up in the luteal phase or just before our periods.
- Leaky gut - The gut wall is one cell thick, made of cells packed tightly together with tiny holes to allow nutrients to pass through. However, problems like SIBO, intolerances and NSAIDS can cause those holes to widen, allowing larger food particles to pass through, triggering a reaction from the immune system. This can not only cause IBS issues like bloating, but full body symptoms.
- Coeliac disease - Research has found an association between endometriosis and coeliac disease and in a study of over 200 women with end, 75% experienced a reduction in symptoms after elimination gluten for 12 months. Coeliac disease can cause symptoms like bloating, cramps, diarrhea and bran fog, to name a few.
- Low digestive enzymes and stomach acid - Low digestive enzymes and low stomach acid can cause undigested food to pass through the GI tract, resulting in bloating and gas as bacteria get to feast on larger particles of food.
- Candida and other infections, parasites and fungi - Candida occurs in normal amounts within the body, the problem occurs when it overgrows, which can not only cause bloating, but can also cause symptoms like pelvic pain, fatigue and brain fog. Other infections, parasites and fungi can cause similar issues in the gut and body too.
- Stress, rushing and not chewing food properly - To digest food, the body must be in the ‘rest and digest’ mode. When we’re stressed rushing or gulping down our food, our ‘flight or fight’ system switches on and this automatically turns off the digestion, so that other organs and systems are prioritised. Of course, the result is you now have food in your stomach not digesting, leaving it to ferment and build up in your system, causing bloating and other IBS issues.
- Endo lesions and adhesions - We know that endometriosis lesions can cause swelling and inflammation, which may partially be responsible for abdominal bloating. But additionally, web like tissue called adhesions can also grow in an attempt to heal these lesions and as a result of surgery. They grow towards each other in order to knit together, and can stick to organs and the walls of the pelvis and abdomen, causing the organs to be pulled and distorted. Adhesions can also wrap around the intestines or pull them into loops, creating a build up of food and gas, and generally inhibiting digestion.
- Histamine intolerance - Whilst not every histamine source claims bloating is a histamine intolerance symptom, I’m including this as some do and many clients with histamine intolerance also experience bloating with histamine flares. Histamine intolerance occurs when there is a build up of histamine in the body, either because the body cannot get rid of the histamine properly anymore or the body is making too much, this then results in reactions such as rashes, bloating, vomiting, racing heart and typical allergic reactions.
- Dysbiosis - Our gut contains a huge array of bacteria that are essential for our health. However, some bacteria need to be kept in check to keep a healthy balance, and some things like antibiotics or stress can knock this balance off, allowing certain bacteria to thrive and cause problems, including bloating.
You’ll notice in this podcast episode some themes of causes behind these root causes - many being chronic stress, antibiotics, NSAIDS and SIBO to name a few. There may be a root cause behind the root cause that you need to investigate, such as addressing adhesions so you can heal from SIBO or perhaps trying anti-inflammatory supplements so you can potentially take fewer NSAIDS, whatever it is - know that you don’t have to do it all in one go, and you can create a step-by-step road map that you can take at your own pace, to get you closer to health.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Today we’re continuing with our endo and IBS theme as part of my IBS Awareness Month series.
Most of the clients who come to me have endo and IBS, now of course, I tend to see more of these clients because I am specialised in endometriosis, endo belly and SIBO, so naturally I attract these types of endo clients – but, generally, the majority of people with endo tend to have IBS problems in some form. In fact, more research is being done into this area, but The Center for Endometriosis Care found 25% of patients had painful bowel movements, 35% had constipation and 60% had diarrhoea.
But that doesn’t mean that we just have to put up with it. And it doesn’t mean that all of your IBS issues are because of endo, in fact, some of them may just be because of your hormones – and people without endometriosis will be affected by these issues too. A very common problem, is constipation, during the luteal phase, which is the phase after ovulation and before your period.
When clients come to me, they often report this symptom, and many of them are perplexed by it, and think it’s to do with endo. They report constipation in their luteal phase, and then diarrhoea during their periods, and maybe, if they’re lucky, they get some normal bowel movements in their follicular phase.
So what’s happening here?
Well, a few weeks back we discussed why the inflammation from our periods can cause diarrhoea, so if you experience that, head back to 188 for tips.
But in terms of constipation during the luteal phase, let’s look at what’s happening in this time of our cycle. The luteal phase occurs after ovulation, the follicle that once held your egg, has released the egg during ovulation, and the follicle has transformed into a temporary gland, called the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum releases the majority of our progesterone supply during this part of our cycle and oestrogen levels decrease.
Now progesterone has many roles, and one of them is to relax our muscles, in case pregnancy has occurred, and this is so the pelvic muscles can begin relaxing to allow for expansion. However, this muscle relaxant effect affects all of the body – including the muscle of the intestines.
The muscle of the intestines is responsible for the movement that pushes food through the large intestine, and out of your colon. When we are in the luteal phase, this process slows down because the contractions, known as peristalsis are lessened.
Now, it should take two hours for food to travel through the small intestine, but once it’s in the large intestine, it should take about 12-24 hours. And in terms of optimal health and bowel movements, we’re aiming for at least one bowel movement a day, but ideally, 1-3. This allows for old hormones, waste materials, and food to leave regularly, as a build-up of these in the body can start to create problems because hormones, etc. can be reabsorbed.
So, ideally, even if things slow down during this phase and your bowels feel a bit more sluggish, you should hopefully still be having at least one bowel movement a day. Now, a really easy way to test how long it’s taking your gut to process food, is the ‘polka dot poo’ test, which Dr. Nirala Jacobi teaches us in our training. So all you need to do is swallow hulled sesame seeds with water, so don’t chew, just swallow, and then look for sesame seeds in your stools, and when you see them, that is your transit time. You could do this in your follicular phase to see what your normal transit time is like, and then in your luteal phase, to see if things slow down.
Now of course, if things have slowed down, it means there’s more waste built up in your intestines, more gases building and more time for bacteria to eat our food and ferment that food, creating more gas, so then as a result, you may also have more bloating during this time, due to the expansion of the intestines. And it’s important to note that you might not think you’re gassy because you’re not passing wind frequently, but this will happen with motility and peristalsis being slower, because it’s not just food that’s moving slowly, but gas too.
Now, there are quite a number of other things that can contribute to the endo belly in the luteal phase, including inflammation and oestrogen dominance, and I have a whole episode on that which I’ve linked in the show notes. But back to constipation.
Whilst it’s normal for there to be a level of slower bowel movements during this time, we want to still try to aim for once a day if doable.
If you’re prone to a history of SIBO, or gut dysbiosis, and both are common with endo, you’re likely going to need to do some additional gut healing because those can both create IBS and constipation, so you may experience worse constipation than others during this time, and I do tend to see this to be true with many of my clients with SIBO or extensive gut health issues.
Additionally, if you already have adhesions from endo or surgery pulling on or distorting your intestines, that could create more intense problems with constipation during the luteal phase, so looking into getting those addressed with some adhesion treatment like visceral manipulation, Clear Passage, Neural Therapy or Frequency Specific Microcurrent would be part of treating the root problem.
But for now, I’m listing some short-term strategies to bring you relief on a day-to-day basis. If you find that these don’t work for you, or don’t help that much, look into the other root causes I mentioned. It simply could mean that you need to try some other strategies, of which there are many, but if you suffer with bad constipation in this phase and you tend to get a lot of IBS all cycle long too, it may be worth doing some more in-depth gut healing, like taking a course, doing a gut healing protocol or doing some testing to determine what’s going on.
It's likely you’ll need a combination of these things, because they’re sort of targeting different areas of the body to support more regular or easier bowel movements.
Number one is correct positioning on the toilet. The standard way we sit on the toilet for a bowel movement isn’t actually a helpful way to pass a stool, and this is exaggerated if we have pelvic floor issues too, which most of us do. To help your body adopt the best position to most easily pass a stool and to support your pelvic floor, try elevating your feet so that they are higher than your hips – essentially, it’s a bit like a squat. You can do this with a squatty potty, which is just like a step that sits around the toilet, or you can put your feet up on some spare toilet tissue rolls, or a stack of books or magazines.
Number two is actually helping to push stools through the intestine and break up hard stools with my go-to suggestion, and that’s abdominal massage. There are so many massages that can support with constipation, so I encourage you to do your research, but the ones that I use with clients are Arvigo massage and the ‘I Love You’ massage. You’ll need to learn an at-home method of Arvigo from a practitioner, and my colleague Tara offers online sessions, and I’ve linked to my interview with her and her website in the show notes. Then the ‘I Love You’ massage is free, and that’s on YouTube, and I’ve put the link in the show notes again.
My clients love using these and report that they can feel the hard, stuck stools and can feel them moving along as they massage, and that they’re really effective. These massages also stimulate the motility of the small intestine and digestion overall, so can really speed things up and support healthy digestion and bowel movements in general.
I see best results when massage is performed nightly or at least a few times a week.
Number three is movement in several forms. Exercise in general can help stimulate gut motility, especially walking, running (if you can manage it) and rebounding (which is essentially the new name for jumping up and down on a mini trampoline!). If you find you’re worn out during this phase of your cycle, try more gentle walking, rather than the more energetic ones.
Anything that gets you to twist or move your abdomen can really help too, so yoga is a great one, and there are actually a number of online yoga videos for constipation and digestion problems, and I’ve linked to one or two that I’m a fan of, but you can look for others online too.
Number four is softening and bulking the stools so they’re easier to pass. I recommend trying magnesium citrate or oxide, which draws water into the intestine, creating a looser stool and stimulating a bowel movement. In my training with leading SIBO doctor, Dr Siebecker, she advises the dose is 500mg up to 2000 mg at bedtime (two hours after food), daily or as needed until you have a bowel movement. However, 1000 mg is normally effective for many, but see what works for you. It’s best to work up slowly, and give it a good few days between dose changes as it might take a little while to see the initial effects, and you don’t suddenly want to suffer from stomach upset because you moved up too quickly.
If you find you don’t tolerate that too well, high dose vitamin C also acts in the same way, and there’s no maximum dose because what your body doesn’t need, will come out in a bowel movement. You could try a powder form in water or tablets, either way it’s best to use a type of vitamin C that you swallow, rather than a tongue spray or dropper, or a vitamin C skin patch, because we want it to go through the intestines.
Now, to bulk up the stools, you can try chia or flax seed, or partially hydrolysed guar gum. I recently shared how to use flax or chia in a recent episode on constipation, so I’ll link to that in the show notes.
Partially hydrolysed guar gum is a low FODMAP soluble fibre, and actually helps with both constipation and diarrhoea by bulking up stools. It’s usually well tolerated by SIBO patients too, but each SIBO patient is unique, so test your personal tolerance because for some, it just makes SIBO symptoms worse.
Dose wise, you can try 5-6 g daily, ideally dissolved in hot water on an empty stomach, for at least one month and likely ongoing for maintenance. Some people do put it with tea, coffee, smoothies or even porridge, but many of the labels suggest on an empty stomach – it seems to work well either way.
To avoid side effects like bloating or gas, increase to full dose across one to two weeks, especially if SIBO positive, so start out lower, with say one gram, and then increase by a gram or half a gram a day.
I wouldn’t use all of the above at once, because you might end up with the opposite problem and you won’t know what’s working or what you’re reacting to! So pick one, and try that for a cycle, then pick another, and try that for a cycle, etc.
Number five is increasing fat content. This is a super helpful strategy in the luteal phase because firstly, fat stimulates large intestine motility, triggering a bowel movement, but secondly, fat helps slow down glucose release to our blood, and in our luteal phase, we’re more prone to blood sugar instability, so this can help manage those levels and as a result, improve PMS and reduce pain and inflammation. I talk more about using fat in my recent episode for constipation, so you can head to that episode for more in-depth details, but generally, look to get two tablespoons of fat with each meal at a minimum, building up slowly to test your tolerance, as high levels can cause abdominal cramps and diarrhoea because it can over stimulate the large colon.
Our last strategy, is a simple one, but is often very overlooked, and that’s hydration. If you’re not drinking enough water there will be less water in your stools, creating harder stools, that are more difficult to pass when peristalsis slows down in the luteal phase. To work out if you’re drinking enough, the calculation is half your body weight in fluid ounces. So, say you’re 100 lbs, you would halve this to get 50 lbs and then simply replace the pounds sign with fluid ounces. If you’re in the UK you’ll have to then covert to litres. This is the minimum you should be drinking. If you exercise a lot or are breast feeding, you’ll need more. I’ve linked to a water calculator in the show notes which helps you to work out exactly how much you need.
So that’s it, now you have six strategies to try if you struggle with constipation and endo belly in the luteal phase. Like I said, I wouldn’t mix up the laxatives and stool softeners, just try one of those, but combining one of those with a few of these strategies could really help.
If you’ve found this helpful, don’t forget that I’m currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. We’ve already started, but you can still sign up and catch up on all the previous emails. Each week, I send you a new email with some endo belly education and a tip to help you reduce your endo belly symptoms that week. I’ve put the link in the show notes.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/2021/5/28/bloating-before-your-period-with-endo-the-oestrogen-and-gut-connection
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/tips-reduce-premenstrual-endometriosis-bloating-
https://nicolejardim.com/howyourperiodaffectsdigestivetract/
https://centerforendo.com/endometriosis-and-bowel-symptoms/
Squatty Potty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ5pxBXPJUg&t=4s
Massage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk&t=2s
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/arvigo-massage-for-endometriosis
https://taraghosh.com
Movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVv7sxDGnpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP__6dM3SvQ
Magnesium
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Vitamin C
https://drhyman.com/blog/2017/01/13/simple-steps-dealing-constipation/
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-C
https://www.tinypioneer.co.uk/desert-harvest-buffered-vitamin-c
Chia
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-015-1967-0
https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12444
Flax
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944250/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8077314/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15702593/
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.nutr.17.1.353?journalCode=nutr
PHGG
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25843197/
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/121479
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16413751
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25519526/
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Fat
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1051227614001411
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3460325/
Hydration
https://www.hydrationforhealth.com/en/hydration-tools/hydration-calculator/
It’s IBS Awareness Month and because IBS is so common within the endo community, I’m going to continue with this theme of IBS and endo belly, which I’ve been focusing on over the past few weeks.
Now, one of the key causes behind IBS is SIBO. In fact, current research estimates that the majority of IBS cases are really SIBO cases, and as you’ve probably heard about 100 times by now, research estimates that up to 80% of endo patients may have SIBO. This is based on a small amount of research and so that number may change in the future, but I would say that this number is accurate, at least based on the clients I see.
Before you start thinking about SIBO testing and treatment, I first want to say that I don’t always think jumping straight into SIBO treatment is wise. SIBO tends to be tricky to treat and a long process, so I require my clients to be in a reasonably stable place with their endo and mental resilience before we begin SIBO treatment. Now of course, treating SIBO also helps with the endo symptoms, so in some cases, we do start with the SIBO first, but as much as I can, I like to get endo to a place where it’s not ruling my client’s lives and they’re not feeling ill on a daily basis. So, just keep that in mind.
Now, if you know you have SIBO or you suspect you do, it’s important to understand what your journey may look like and the truth is, whether you have endo or not, two thirds of people who clear their SIBO, will relapse. Which means they will fall into the ‘chronic’ category. This doesn’t mean they can’t live well or clear the SIBO again. What it means is that there’s a root cause that’s hidden and maybe trickier to treat, which is causing that person to relapse. After this relapse, they may be able to find the root cause, treat it and then treat the SIBO again, and move into the not-chronic category and never develop SIBO again. For others, their root cause may be less treatable, they may never be able to fully heal the root cause, but they may be able to dramatically improve it. This could then give them longer time frames between relapses of SIBO, or mean that they have less SIBO, and could generally overall improve their quality of life with SIBO. And on that note, if you have chronic SIBO, that doesn’t mean you’ll always have SIBO all the time, the time between relapses tends to be two months to one year. If that time frame is less, you’re known as a rapid relapser, which is what I am (yay for me) – and that means there’s a pretty big root cause to be addressed, which I’ll get to later. But whether you relapse straight away or in two years, you can live well with SIBO. You can manage symptoms, live a full life, and improve digestion and nutrient absorption. I mean look at Dr. Allison Siebecker. She is a chronic case, and she lives a full and healthy life, and eats a pretty normal diet too! It’s about understanding your condition and knowing your personal tools for management.
But today, I want to talk about some of the main reasons why people with endometriosis may relapse with their SIBO, so that if it happens to you, you know what to do – or so you can prepare ahead of time and get these issues checked out.
Number one is pretty obvious and that’s adhesions from surgery or from endo itself. Structural issues are one of the two most common causes of SIBO. There are two direct causes of SIBO; so, a structural problem or a functional issue with the migrating motor complex, and there are many risk factors like diseases or problems that then lead to these direct causes. So, it’s not that these diseases or risk factors cause the SIBO, but they cause a problem which leads to the SIBO – and with endometriosis or surgery for endo, this can lead to alterations in the structure of the intestine, because adhesions can distort them.
These adhesions can cause kinks, loops, pockets of intestines that bacteria get trapped in and obstructions, which all lead to the same result: bacteria get stuck in the small intestine. Now remember, SIBO stands for small intestine bacterial overgrowth. A condition where bacteria accumulate in the small intestine, when they should be living in the large intestine, and this community of bacteria create gases that cause IBS symptoms like bloating and damage the small intestine, resulting in malabsorption of nutrients and full body problems like chronic inflammation.
Given that 50-100% of people who have abdominal surgery will get adhesions, it’s quite likely that most of you listening will have them. Now, that doesn’t mean that they’re distorting your intestines, but it’s worth checking because when they are, you could get this bacterial build up that I’m talking about.
When I work with SIBO clients, I try to do this earlier on. Normally, you might actually just wait and see whether you relapse before you spend money on investigating the root cause, unless it’s an obvious one. At least, this is what Dr. Siebecker advises and that works well for her, and she’s one of the leading experts. You also have the prevention of relapse phase, which is 3-six months, post-treatment and that itself addresses some of the root causes and is really an essential step to the overall SIBO protocol, otherwise you pretty much are guaranteed to relapse without it. But, for us endo peeps, because we’re so prone to adhesions, I just assume from the get-go that this may be a problem, and we get these assessed early on, either during treatment or during the prevention of relapse.
People who have body work in the prevention of relapse phase, like abdominal massage, tend to recover better and have a prolonged remission time, so I always advise this as standard during the prevention of relapse phase, and I recommend Arvigo, visceral manipulation or Clear Passage, all of which can support with adhesions. So, whoever you see, will be able to feel for adhesions and then work on them directly. Now the extent to which these massages can clear these adhesions increases in the order I listed them, so Arvigo can do some mild work on adhesions, but Clear Passage is like the cream of the crop.
However, there are also other methods for clearing adhesions, including Frequency Specific Microcurrent and neural therapy, and I’ve linked to these in the show notes, but I’ll probably do a whole episode on these at a later date too. For affordability, I would first recommend you just get assessed by a visceral manipulation therapist who can feel for any adhesions or tight areas, and then you can decide on your course of treatment.
Next up is our most common cause of the diarrhoea or mixed type SIBO, and that’s a history of food poisoning or gastroenteritis, and when I say mixed type I mean your SIBO causes you to fluctuate between diarrhoea and constipation. With these sicknesses, the body creates antibodies to attack the toxins released by the infections, but the issue is that the toxins look a lot like a protein that is a part of the interstitial cells of Cajal. The interstitial cells of Cajal are nerve cells which are responsible for the migrating motor complex, and just as a reminder, the migrating motor complex, or MMC for short, is a wave like motion that occurs in the small intestine, and clears out bacteria and old food debris, moving them into the small intestine. It’s not the movement that pushes your food into the large intestine, but it’s the movement that cleans the small intestine after the food has gone through.
So, the body creates these antibodies to attack the toxins, but accidentally attacks the MMC nerve cells because they look the same, resulting in a damaged MMC.
In cases like this, relapse is quite common because the body now has these antibodies. You can test for these antibodies with something called the IBS Smart test, which is not available in all countries, but is growing in availability. It generally is a private test and is not often something you can get on the NHS, and I’ve linked to a few places you can get this test.
Now in some cases, if the food poisoning or gastroenteritis occurred a long time ago, like in my case I had gastroenteritis when I was just a baby, then you probably won’t come up as positive for the antibodies, but the damage will still have been done. Unfortunately, many people with this root cause are often chronic, and need to stay on MMC support long-term, so that’s those pharmaceutical drugs or natural supplements which stimulate the MMC overnight, however, just clearing the SIBO itself can help the MMC to repair and improve, and there are other things you can do to lower the antibodies and repair the MMC including following autoimmune healing protocols like the AIP diet, healing leaky gut and using nerve healers like lion’s mane. These options won’t necessarily completely eliminate the antibodies or heal the MMC, but they can certainly improve things and may even do so to such an extent that with the right support and management, you can stay in remission. It’s not always the case, but it could be possible.
Alright, next up is a trio of issues that are sort of one and the same, and all affect the migrating motor complex, and I see these three issues often in my endo-SIBO clients and they are vagus nerve problems, trauma, and chronic stress.
The vagus nerve is a large nerve that travels from your brain all the way down to the base of your spine. It controls multiple functions and is responsible for your ‘rest and digest’ response and plays a leading role in digestion and stimulates the migrating motor complex . Now, the rest and digest response is the part of the nervous system that activates when we’re asleep or resting and is responsible for digestion and repair in the body. When this system isn’t on, we can’t digest food or heal – and stress turns it off, so you can see here how stress comes into play.
The vagus nerve can be damaged from trauma to the spine and head. It actually doesn’t have to be a severe injury, even just a bang on the head when playing as a child or falling on your spine can cause some damage to the nerve. But as I’ve just alluded to, the vagus nerve can also be affected or impaired by trauma or chronic stress – and for many of us with endo, just living with the condition can cause trauma and chronic stress, and statistically, many people with chronic pain conditions have a history of childhood and adolescent trauma, and this is normally the case with many of the clients I see. Now, trauma doesn’t have to be something huge and dramatic, there are multiple things that can be considered a trauma during these ages, and I’ve linked to some info in the show notes so you can have a look and do further reading if you wish to.
If the vagus nerve function is impaired, we’ll struggle to move into rest and digest and will often find that digestion is affected. But we may also have immune issues and many sensitivities, as vagus nerve impairment can affect immunity and cause a hyper reactive stress response, where our nervous system begins to see everything as a threat. In these people, I tend to see they generally feel sicker, have more sensitives and more immune problems, and it may feel like nothing is working for them.
One way to check how your vagus nerve is doing is to monitor your heart rate variability. Your heart rate variability is the variation of time between each heartbeat. There are numerous gadgets on the market that monitor your HRV, so shop around. But essentially, if you have low heart rate variability, so there isn’t much variation of time between heart beats, this is an indication that your vagus nerve isn’t doing so well, and if you have high heart rate variability, so the amount of time between each heartbeat varies, then this indicates a healthy vagus nerve.
There are simple ways to support your vagus nerve and more extensive ways, and I take my clients and students through both, but some very simple ways to begin supporting your vagus nerve includes deep breathing, yoga, singing and body work like massage. These are just some of the things that can help and are really more so the initial, simple changes, but diving into vagus nerve support is a whole episode in itself! In fact, I have whole lessons dedicated to it in my courses, but if you’re curious as to whether this is affecting your SIBO recovering, your first step could be to check your HRV.
Next on our list is another triad and this is the triad of mast cell activation syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and postural tachycardia.
So, let’s do some quick definitions of these –
MCAS is a condition where mast cells, which contain immune cells like histamines and other inflammatory immune cells, are hypersensitive, and release histamines and other inflammatory immune cells more frequently and in larger amounts than needed. This causes problems like histamine intolerance, but also creates other inflammatory issues, and generally a person with MCAS will have a myriad of symptoms that seem random and unconnected, and often feel very unwell most of the time.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a collection of syndromes that all affect connective tissue in the body, with the most common one being the hyper mobile form of EDS, which I see in a number of my clients, and is somewhat connected to endometriosis, painful periods, and heavy periods – and I have a whole podcast episode on that for those of you would like to know more.
Then finally, we have postural tachycardia, which is a condition that affects blood flow, heart rate and blood pressure when someone goes from sitting to standing, though the affects and symptoms of this condition don’t just happen when someone stands up - and can occur after exercise, or from a hot bath, hot weather, and other circumstances.
Now research is showing that POTs and MCAS are co-conditions of EDS, and so it’s important to look for all of these conditions when one of them is present.
And the keys reasons why these can cause a SIBO relapse, is because EDS can cause someone to have what’s known as ‘droopy bowels’, where basically, the intestines are floppy and collapsing, which means the MMC can’t functioning properly and move bacteria out, and the bacteria gets trapped inside. In fact, research has found that 48% of IBS patients have EDS! EDS can also cause slowed motility and affect the valve between your small and large intestine, allowing for bacteria to flow back up into the small intestine from the large – and these are just some of the ways that EDS can affect the gut and lead to SIBO.
Additionally, histamine can affect gut functioning, so excessive levels can impair recovery too, and then with POTS, because it’s a form of dysautonomia, which means it’s a dysfunction of our autonomic nervous system, the system that controls involuntary responses in our body like heartbeat and digestion, this can also suppress motility.
Finally, let’s look at hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a condition where we make too little thyroid hormones, and people with endometriosis have an increased chance of developing the type of hypothyroidism that is caused by autoimmunity, known as hashimoto's thyroiditis, in fact, we are six times more likely to develop the disease (though there are ways to prevent that, which is a whole other episode, but know that everything we discuss here on this podcast generally helps!).
Hypothyroidism slows gut motility and the MMC, which can of course lead to SIBO, but if you’re able to manage your hypothyroidism well with the right levels of medication and lifestyle support, this impact could hopefully be lowered. If you have hypothyroidism already, I’ve linked to a few webinars on the link between SIBO and hypothyroidism, so you can do further research.
If you’re not sure what’s going on with your thyroid, but you struggle with fatigue, weight gain or struggle losing weight, you have constipation, dry skin, brittle hair, and hair loss, this could be a sign of hypothyroidism. Ideally, you should get a full thyroid panel, which is not often done by doctors, but I have listed some private tests in the show notes, alongside the functional medicine reference ranges for optimal levels.
Okay, so that’s it. Those are some of the most common causes for SIBO relapses in people with endo. Now, there are many risk factors for relapsing with SIBO, so these aren’t the only ones, and I have linked to some further reading and resources in the show notes, but these are some of the most common ones I see with my endo and SIBO clients. I hope that this gives you some info on what symptoms to look out for, what to check for and some starting steps on how to manage some of these issues. Please share this episode or get in touch if you found it useful!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
IBS/endo/SIBO/causes
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12591062/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12397741/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/437407/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/600349
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23614961/
Adhesions
https://www.siboinfo.com/prevention-of-relapse.html
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endo-belly-after-endometriosis-surgery?rq=adhesions
https://www.iahp.com/pages/search/index.php
https://clearpassage.com
https://www.merciertherapy.com (You currently need to email them directly for a referral)
https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members
https://naant.org
https://frequencyspecific.com/frequency-specific-microcurrent-practitioners/
Food poisoning
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25970536/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31152332/
https://www.siboinfo.com/testing1.html - IBS Smart test links
Stress/vagus nerve/trauma
https://endometriosis.net/living/trauma-chronic-illness
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22450306/
https://www.caringmedical.com/can-repair-vagus-nerves/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787
https://selfhacked.com/blog/32-ways-to-stimulate-your-vagus-nerve-and-all-you-need-to-know-about-it/
https://www.jessicamaguire.com/the-vagus-nerve-masterclass
https://www.heartmath.com/science/
https://ouraring.com/blog/what-is-heart-rate-variability/
https://www.heartmath.com/tech/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22450306/
https://www.caringmedical.com/can-repair-vagus-nerves/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787
EDS/MCAS/POTS
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-is-there-a-connection
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29687534/
https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/pdf/2018-annual-conference/N-Blagowidow-2018Baltimore-OB-GYN-and-EDS-HSD-S.pdf
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31267471/
https://drbeckycampbell.com/mast-cell-activation-syndrome-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-what-is-the-connection/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6004-dysautonomia
https://join.sibosos.com/page/94124
Hypothyroidism
https://join.sibosos.com/page/94127?ref=13663
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6601386/
Every time I meet a potential new client, I go through their symptom history with them. About 90% of the time, they tell me they have cyclical diarrhoea, and some of them experience pain with that diarrhoea. Naturally, many of them are really worried by these symptoms and are concerned it’s endo related, and that it mean there’s endo in or around the rectum, but the truth is, that it might not be directly caused by endo itself. In fact, diarrhoea or loose stools during your period is very common, for people both with and without endometriosis.
Now, this doesn’t mean it’s normal and that we should put up with it. There are some very real reasons this issue can occur and some very tangible ways to reduce it, so let’s get into it.
Inflammation and the menstrual cycle
Okay, so the number one reason most of us get diarrhoea or loose stools on our periods is inflammation. This is the biggest take away from today’s episode.
Inflammation is a normal part of the menstrual cycle – we have higher levels of inflammatory chemicals prostaglandins E2 and histamines during both ovulation and menstruation. These chemicals aid the shedding of the uterine lining by causing contractions, and they aid with the egg release during ovulation.
It’s healthy to have these in normal levels and these normal levels, can cause more frequent and a little looser bowel movements. This occurs because prostaglandins sort of ‘spill’ over into the surrounding area, and if you look at a cross section of the pelvis, you’ll see that the colon is directly behind the uterus, so it is very easily affected. So, these prostaglandins not only cause a contraction sensation in the uterus, but in the bowel as well.
So as a result, all of us, to a degree, will have more frequent, maybe a little less formed stools, during our period. Especially just before and on Day 1 when levels of these inflammatory chemicals are at their highest.
The issue of course is that for those of us with endo and/or painful periods, we don’t tend to have normal levels of prostaglandins, in fact, research has shown us that people with endo and people who experience painful periods, have higher levels of prostaglandins. Which means severer cramps, heightened pain and very likely, diarrhoea. And of course, this excessive inflammation is painful – that’s one of the symptoms of inflammation – pain, and when it’s too high, it can be very severe, so if you’re getting pain in your rectum or gut, it could be due to the severity of the cramping and swelling caused by excessive inflammation in the area.
Now, just because we have endo, that doesn’t mean we have to put up with high levels of prostaglandins. Yes, the endo lesions themselves release prostaglandins and the body releases excessive amounts because our immune system is constantly trying to repair and protect the area from endo, but we can lower these levels, and as a result, see an improvement in pain with endo, as well as an improvement in diarrhoea and painful bowel movements during menstruation.
I’ll get to how to do that shortly, but let’s move onto my second reason as to why you may be experiencing painful bowel movements and diarrhoea during menstruation.
Aggravated pelvic floor dysfunction and nerve sensitivity
We know that many people with endometriosis have a tight pelvic floor, where the muscles are tense and constricted. Contrary to popular belief, this can mean the muscles are weak – yes, they are tight, but that doesn’t mean they’re strong. In fact, muscles need to be able to contract and release in order to perform the correct movements, and if they’re tight all the time, they can’t do that, and so the function of muscles that control bowel movements and urination can become impaired.
Now some of us can feel the effects of this all month long, and it might look like constipation or faecal urgency (which is when the urge to go just can’t wait), but when we have excessive prostaglandins causing a lot of cramping and movements in the bowel, we suddenly have loose and watery stools sitting in the colon and weak muscles with the inability to hold them. So we end up having to dash to and fro from the toilet.
Additionally, the tightness of the muscles can be aggravating the nerves in the area, creating hypersensitivity, resulting in pain or urgency. This can of course be worsened if you’ve had surgery which could have affected your nerves (and I’ve linked to an article that explains why this can occur) and of course constant pain can cause nerve sensitivity, and endo on the nerves can also do this too. So, your nerves may be responding with even more sensitivity to this situation.
Endo and adhesions
Next up is of course an obvious one, and that’s that you may potentially have endo or adhesions on the bowel. Now, what I will say is that most of the clients I see, don’t have endo on or in the bowel, so please don’t panic and assume that because you have diarrhoea or cramping on your period that must mean you have endo there. As I hope I’ve explained, this is naturally going to occur with excessive inflammation and so the key is to reduce those levels. And with these clients, the painful bowel movements and diarrhoea significantly improves or resolves entirely with making some lifestyle and dietary changes.
However, even in my clients who do have endo in that area, we can still see improvements and do see improvements. Remember, endo is an inflammatory disease and the inflammation is really the leading source of our symptoms, so by targeting the inflammation, we can target the symptoms.
So basically, what I want to get across here is that endo on the bowel or adhesions on the bowel doesn’t sentence you to diarrhoea and painful bowel movements for the rest of your life, and equally, having diarrhoea or painful bowel movements on your period doesn’t automatically mean you have endo there. Having said that, I do want to acknowledge that for some people, bowel endometriosis can be very difficult to manage, especially if it’s excessive, and so I appreciate that there may be more work to be done, and you’ll need a specialist surgeon to support you with improving these symptoms.
Stress
Lastly, menstruation with endometriosis can be a stressful experience, to say the least. The anxiety of anticipating our period starting alone can cause diarrhoea, and that’s because the stress response directly affects our gut. Stress slows down the digestion process, resulting in slowed digestion and motility in the stomach and small intestine, but it often can speed up motility in the large intestine, which is where all the waste lives and so of course, when motility speeds up here, we get diarrhoea and cramping, which could of course be worsening all of the above issues I’ve already mentioned.
So, what can we do to improve diarrhoea and painful bowel movements on our period?
Lower inflammation
Of course, the first place we want to start is with lowering inflammation. We can lower inflammation overall with a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods like vegetables, fruits, healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, nuts and seeds; lean organic proteins and whole grains. Lowering inflammatory foods like alcohol, trans fats and refined vegetable oils, processed foods and refined carbs, and added sugar can of course make a big difference as well, but I appreciate that can be triggering for some, so I would rather suggest we first start with just adding in more of the good stuff!
Additionally, we can give our body a bit of a helping hand by using supplements which can lower the inflammatory prostaglandins, prostaglandin E2. Magnesium lowers inflammatory prostaglandins and cramping, so having a couple of Epsom salt baths before your period and during can really help as this is a great way to absorb magnesium. To get the right amount of magnesium, you’ll need 500 g – 600 g of Epsom salts per bath. Additionally, I swear by magnesium oil sprays! I spray daily on my body after my shower, but I use the spray directly on my pelvic area, back and abdomen to ease any cramping on my period and it works within minutes.
Omega 3 fatty acids also help to lower inflammatory prostaglandins, and are best used daily because these are essential fats we need all cycle long. The therapeutic dose is between 1000mg to 3000mg a day, but it can be tricky to get hold of those levels without exceeding the dose recommendations on the bottle. If you chose to exceed the dose recommendations on the label, obviously that’s your choice but you’ll need to consult with a practitioner to be on the safe side.
If you’re vegan, look for an algae-based supplement that contains both DHA and EPA, because we need both.
The only risk is that they can sometimes thin blood, so speak to your surgeon ahead of surgery to see whether you need to stop taking them a few days beforehand, for keyhole surgery it’s unlikely, but just check.
There are multiple supplements you can use to lower inflammation, such as curcumin and quercetin, but one I love for in-the-moment relief during menstruation is ginger. Ginger has been shown to be just as effective as ibuprofen and mefenamic acid for painful periods, so if you’re looking to get off NSAIDS, this could help. It’s been shown in multiple studies to reduce dysmenorrhea and is generally a wonderfully powerful anti-inflammatory and pain reliever, demonstrated in numerous studies. The recommendation for dysmenorrhea is between 750mg to 2000mg per day, split into doses of around 250-500mg in the lead up to your period and during the first 3-4 days of your cycle and I’ve linked to the studies so you can have a little look.
What I will say is excessive amounts of ginger in one go can ironically cause diarrhoea, which is the opposite of what we want, we just want to lower inflammation, so I would start at the lower dose and work up until you find a dose that relieves your pain and cramping but doesn’t cause more diarrhoea.
Of course, as always, please consult your practitioner before using any new supplements. Ginger is also a natural blood thinner, so this is especially important if you’re already on blood thinning medication.
Slow large intestine motility
Next up, it can be helpful to avoid caffeine, which can actually stimulate motility in the large intestine and speed up bowel movements. So, the day or so before your period and during your period, you may want to avoid coffee, tea and energy drinks and maybe even chocolate if you’re sensitive.
You could further support this by trying bulking agents to bulk up your stools and slow down the transit time. Now, this is tricky because many of us with endo have small intestine bacterial overgrowth, and many forms of soluble and insoluble fibre that can bulk up stools and slow down transit can worsen SIBO, because the SIBO likes to eat these types of fibre. The best thing to do is to test yourself with a little of whichever bulking agent you want to try, and over time increase the dose to test your tolerance.
If you get severe abdominal pain and severe painful bloating during menstruation, I would test these at times when you’re less reactive because we don’t want to put you in more pain and discomfort. A good one to try would be psyllium husk, which you could add to things like a smoothie, yoghurt or oats. If you’re prone to constipation at other times in your cycle, I wouldn’t use psyllium husk at other points - this is just a strategy to using during the times when you get more diarrhoea. Now, it might take 24 hours to slow down the transit so I would maybe consider bringing it in 24 hours prior to when you expect the diarrhoea to start.
If you’re on a SIBO diet or you’re currently treating SIBO, I would talk to your practitioner about trying this first.
You can get psyllium husk supplements, so just follow the label dose but maybe start with the lowest amount you can take first, in order to test your tolerance. You can also just get a powder, and again, follow the label dose, starting with the lowest amount.
Support the pelvic floor
Finally, you may also want to look into working on your pelvic floor if you experience pain with your bowel movements and faecal urgency. This isn’t something that’s going to relieve the pain and the diarrhoea in the moment, but it will improve these issues over time. There are pelvic floor exercises online, as well as online programmes. Of course, the ideal scenario would be to see a pelvic floor physiotherapist, but if you can’t afford that, I’ve linked to a few free videos and some pelvic floor programmes in the show notes. The book Beating Endo also has some fantastic exercises for improving the pelvic floor.
Now, of course, overall, we want to improve your gut health, if there’s SIBO, we want to address that, and if there’s endo in or on the rectum, that needs to looked at by a specialist. There are lots of root causes we can work on here, but lowering inflammation and adding a bulking agent are two strategies that can bring relief instantly and over time, and supporting your pelvic floor can also be done fairly easily at home, so the barrier to entry is pretty low.
If you’re interested in doing more work to dive deeper with your gut health, I have a podcast series on healing the endo belly, and of course an entire course, called The Endo Belly Course, which isn’t open for enrolment at the moment but you can certainly join the waiting list for that, and I’ve put the link in the show notes.
So, now you know why you experience diarrhoea on your period and I really hope that these strategies help you to reduce this and help you to have an easier period! I would love to hear if you’ve found this episode helpful, and if you have, consider sharing it, as you never know who might be suffering with endo in silence.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/
Magnesium
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250
https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/
https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531187/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2832216/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614254/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11687013/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22261128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257651/
Pelvic Floor
The Pelvic Expert Stretches
Pelvic Sanity Stretches video
Beating Endo – available at most bookstores
Overcome Pelvic Pain by FemFusionFitness
Yoga for Endometriosis
Okay so today we’re talking about the all-important migrating motor complex.
Let’s start with what the MMC, which is just what’s it usually abbreviated to for ease, actually is.
The migrating motor complex is a wave like emotion that occurs in the small intestine, not large, between meals and overnight. This wave motion clears out any old food debris and bacteria once food has already passed through into the large intestine, so basically, see the MMC as the washing up, once all the leftover food has been cleared off the dinner plates.
Now, the MMC is crucial for good gut health and when it slows down, we get a build-up of bacteria and old food, this means that not only is there a constant supply of food debris in the small intestine for bacteria to munch on, but every time food enters the small intestine, that food will be munched too.
So, why is this a problem?
Well, you’re not supposed to have bacteria in your small intestine – at least, not much at all. There should be a teeny tiny amount, but the large intestine is where you should be housing all your friendly gut bacteria. The small intestine is designed for absorbing nutrients, not for housing bacteria, so this excess of bacteria damages the small intestine and we end up having trouble absorbing nutrients. To top that off, the bacteria actually compete with us for our food.
If that wasn’t enough, the bacteria ferment the food, and create gases. These gases not only cause bloating (which could be the leading cause behind your endo belly) but also cause problems like diarrhoea, gas, acid reflux, burping, constipation, abdominal pain and sensitivity, brain fog, fatigue, histamine intolerance and full body pain to name a few.
If this sounds familiar, you’d be right. What I’m describing is small intestine bacterial overgrowth, also know as, SIBO.
And SIBO is arguably one of the leading causes of endo belly with endometriosis patients, in fact, current research estimates that 80% of people with endo have SIBO and the same study found that 100% of people with endo have an impaired migrating motor complex.
Now, SIBO or not, it’s important that we all have a healthy migrating motor complex as it keeps food and bacteria in the right place, and even if our MMC isn’t damaged to the point that SIBO can occur or may eventually occur, a sluggish MMC could result in bloating, like the endo belly.
In the case of SIBO, ensuring that your MMC is supported is the essential piece to preventing relapse once you get the all clear.
Now, unfortunately, sometimes the MMC is so damaged that recurring SIBO is going to be an issue for us, and we have to use natural supplements or pharmaceutical drugs long-term to keep it working as efficiently as we can. Post SIBO treatment, there is a process called the prevention of relapse, which lasts about 3-6 months, and requires these supportive drugs or supplements, known as prokinetics, during this time frame. If you relapse once weaned off them, it suggests that your MMC is very deficient and further investigations will need to be done.
However, there are also some at-home methods we all can use to support the MMC, now these won’t be strong enough alone to prevent a SIBO relapse, so a prokinetic agent is always, always required post-SIBO treatment, at least for the prevention of relapse stage, but these suggestions are nice add-ons and if you don’t have SIBO, try one or two of them and see whether your endo belly improves, because regardless, our MMC still needs some love.
Number one is ginger.
Ginger is actually a prokinetic that we use in SIBO treatment, during the prevention of relapse stage. Unfortunately, it’s not normally strong enough to prevent a SIBO relapse so we tend to combine it with another prokinetic to increase the effects. However, for some people with SIBO, it’s enough to keep them in remission and for those of us without SIBO, it helps give our MMC a nice boost and moves things along the digestive tract.
Because the MMC is turned off for two hours after food, you don’t want to take ginger during this time frame, as it’ll push your food through too quickly and your small intestine won’t have enough time to absorb it. Instead, you can take it two hours after food and overnight, again, making sure you take it two hours after dinner.
Fresh ginger won’t work here, it needs to be ginger root powder, 1000 mg, which you can take at night or twice a day – just don’t exceed 2000 mg a day and always check with your doctor first, especially if pregnant, though ginger is normally safe and beneficial during pregnancy at these doses.
Our second method is meal spacing. Now, this might be triggering for some of you, so just skip forward by a couple of minutes if so.
Meal spacing is another essential step used in the prevention of relapse stage of SIBO treatment, and it is the practice of spacing out meals with enough time between that we allow the MMC to work. When we’re constantly grazing and eating late into the night, we’re not giving our MMC enough time to do its job. Many people can get away with this if they tend not to eat overnight and leave around a 12-hour gap between eating (so say from 8pm to 8am) but for those of us with SIBO or with other IBS issues, we may need to give our MMC a little more support. I will say that some people leave an even smaller gap overnight, like 8 hours, and they’re okay because their MMC is strong, but generally those of us with gut issues tend to need longer.
So, what does that look like? The ideal time frame is 4 hours between meals and 12 hours overnight, as our MMC does most of its work when we sleep, so that’s the really crucial time.
Now this doesn’t mean you can’t snack and it doesn’t mean you have to practice meal spacing all the time or at all if you don’t fancy it, this is just an option you could try if you’re really struggling with the endo belly and you want to see if this can help.
If you can’t do four hours, aim for three, or two and a half, and if you can’t do that, then maybe you can manage meal spacing in the morning, but not the afternoon, or vice versa. Or maybe you can’t do meal spacing during the day at all, but you can manage 12 hours overnight, or perhaps in the beginning you start with 8 or 10 hours. If you find that you’re needing to eat before those two hours are up post meal, I would also focus on the meals you’re eating because it could be that your blood sugar is dropping soon after meals and you need to do a bit of work on them to leave you satisfied for a little longer.
For me, meal spacing did not come easy because I’ve really struggled with blood sugar in the past, BUT now my blood sugar is more stable than I think it’s ever been and my continuous glucose monitor readings are looking really optimal, I can actually do meal spacing almost without thinking about it – and when I do manage to do it, my gosh do I feel better! My gut feels so much lighter, I’m not heavy and weighed down in my abdomen and I’m not as bloated.
Now, a quick note before we move onto our next tip – anything that we eat or drink that expands the stomach or contains calories, will turn the MMC off. So that includes tea or coffee with milk. But water, black tea, herbal teas, and black coffee, sipped rather than gulped, is fine!
For me, I do like a decaf tea with milk either mid-morning or mid-afternoon, so I tend to only meal space one side of lunch and overnight, but even then, I feel better!
Finally, if this feels too much for you, don’t even worry about it – don’t even think about it! Try one of the other tips and don’t give this another thought. This is more something that is important for those of us treating SIBO, but it can help us all with our MMC, which is why I included it, but it’s not essential so please don’t stress.
Next up is vagus nerve support. The vagus nerve is a large nerve that travels from your brain all the way down to the base of your spine, to your colon. It controls multiple functions and is responsible for your ‘rest and digest’ response and plays a leading role in digestion. It also stimulates the migrating motor complex, which is why we’re talking about it today!
Now the vagus nerve can be damaged in a myriad of ways, including a bang to the head or spine and trauma or chronic stress. This affects its ability to regulate digestion and to stimulate the MMC, so what we want to do is support it and improve what we call the ‘tone’ of this nerve, basically we’re working it out like a muscle.
Now, normally, I find that people with endo and the clients I work with, have such an extensive history of trauma, that they need deeper vagus nerve healing and I talk about that in my course, The Endo Belly Course, but just an introduction to vagus nerve support, we can start with really simple techniques including –
· Gargling
· Gagging
· Singing loudly
· Cold water exposure
· Alternate nose breathing
· Meditation
· Yoga
· Qigong
· Tai Chi
Now, as I’ve said, many of us tend to need deeper vagus nerve support, but give one or two of these a good run. Try one or two on a daily basis for a couple of months and see if things improve with your digestion, endo belly or SIBO.
Finally, our last strategy is one you’re all going to be bored of hearing by now, and that’s abdominal massage. Yes, I sound like a broken record because I am such a big fan of this stuff.
Regular abd0minal massage can improve digestion overall, ease constipation and even begin loosening a frozen pelvis and adhesions, but when practised in the evenings before bed, it can help boost the MMC overnight, and it actually does this by stimulating the vagus nerve. When I am working with SIBO clients or clients with constipation or excessive bloating, I really encourage them to try to practice abdominal massage nightly if possible, or a couple of times a week.
A free massage you can try is the I Love You massage, which was actually designed for constipation, bloating and other IBS issues, and I’ve linked to that in the show notes.
Alternatively, you could try Arvigo massage, which is designed for gut health issues and gynae problems like endo. You can book in an online tutorial with a teacher and then after one session, you can go away and perform it on yourself, so whilst it’s not free, it’s a low-cost option. I’ve linked to my go-to Arvigo teacher in the show notes.
So that’s it! I really hope one or some of these tips help you to better support your MMC, and I hope that brings you some endo belly relief. I’d love to hear if you try any of these strategies and how you get on – please email me or reach out on Instagram and let me know. Don’t forget to share this episode with other endo warriors if you found it useful.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
MMC
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/
https://www.siboinfo.com/mmc-videos.html
https://www.siboinfo.com/prevention-of-relapse.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10442508/
Massage
I Love You massage
Arvigo therapist Tara Ghosh interview
Today we’re talking about the endo belly, but more specifically, constipation.
Firstly, let’s quickly look at what the endo belly is.
The ‘endo belly’ is not actually a medical term, but instead is a name the community has coined in reference to the severe bloating we often experience. So, there isn’t technically a set definition, but it is generally thought to be severe bloating/swelling that tends to be attributed to endometriosis and is sometimes accompanied by pain. Some experts, articles and endo patients also include gut problems within this term too, but not always.
My definition, from my training and from seeing so many clients with these symptoms is that the endo belly is exaggerated/severe bloating, often accompanied by gut symptoms, pain or discomfort - but it is not always caused by endometriosis directly (there are normally contributing factors behind the endo belly).
Many people with endo suffer with this bloating or distension plus IBS issues like constipation, and often these can be caused by issues like gut dysbiosis (which is common with endo), small intestine bacterial overgrowth (which according to research could be affecting 80% of us with endo), adhesions from surgery and bowel endometriosis, to name just a few of the contributing factors. So, constipation can result from one or all of these issues, and the bloating itself could also come from one or all of these causes (and the many others not listed here), but the constipation itself could also be worsening your bloating.
When you’re constipated, you’re going to get a build-up of waste, gas and bacteria in your intestines, and the bacteria will also have longer to ferment the food you’ve eaten, resulting in more gas being produced than usual.
So, what can we do about it? Ideally and in the long-term, we want to address the root cause of your constipation, because at home remedies are unlikely to solve the root cause alone, however, whilst you’re on that journey, at home remedies can make a real difference.
Full credit to my tutors Dr. Allison Siebecker and Dr. Nirala Jacobi for these great tools.
Drink hot water in the morning
Yep, it’s that simple. Drinking hot or warm water, like a herbal tea, and making a chewing movement as you drink it, can actually trigger motility (which basically means movement) in the large intestine. It works best if you drink it slowly, though experiment with what works for you.
I wouldn’t necessarily wait for constipation to happen to try this but bring it into your daily routine, so you start to build a habit of a morning bowel movement.
Try flax or chia seeds
Both flax and chia seeds help to create a bowel movement, but which one you use really depends on your personal reactions to the seeds.
Chia is low FODMAP at serving sizes up to 24 grams, so as a result, chia is often safe for people with IBS and even, in many cases, people with SIBO. Chia seeds provide a large amount of fibre, and whilst many people with IBS and SIBO can’t tolerate a lot of fibre, chia seeds are often well tolerated so it’s a great way to top up your fibre content without a flare – and we all know how important fibre is!
You may have noticed that chia seeds absorb a lot of water, and so as a result, they can soften a stool by adding a gel-like consistency to food in your intestinal tract and by adding bulk, which can help form a stool and move it along.
Now, be guided by your personal reaction because with SIBO, adding fibre often makes things worse and because everyone is unique, even though chia is generally thought to be safe for SIBO, some people still react – which means their constipation could get worse.
So, start slowly with a small amount, like a tablespoon and increase to two if you find you don’t have any adverse reactions – just don’t exceed 24 g to be safe, although 24g of chia in one sitting is a huge amount, so I doubt you will!
Always add a liquid to your chia first, to create the gel-like consistency. You could make a chia pudding with almond milk, add them to oats or add them to a smoothie.
Now, with flax, I tend to see that’s less well tolerated with people who have SIBO due to the fibre content but see how you respond. To be on the safe side, a low FODMAP serving of flax is 15 grams, or one tablespoon, so start there, though you may personally be able to tolerate more. The serving size found to be effective for constipation in research is 20g.
Some of you may be wondering if flax is safe for endo. Flax contains plant compounds known as phytoestrogens, which mimic oestrogen in the body. Lots of studies show flaxseeds as being beneficial for people who have low levels of oestrogen as it raises them (just like soy) and yet because like soy, phytoestrogens are weaker than our own oestrogen, it should in theory help to lower oestrogen dominance and certainly has shown that with many people. But it seems to depend on the individual response as I’ve personally experienced worsening endometriosis symptoms with flax and I know my tutors Dr Jessica Drummond and Nicole Jardim have observed similar reactions too.
One factor to consider is that the issue isn’t the phytoestrogens in the flax but potentially the state of the flax. Flax is very vulnerable to going rancid and becoming inflammatory. It’s better to store whole flaxseeds in an airtight container in the fridge, for shorter periods of time and then grind flax seeds fresh (if required to be ground), rather than storing them in a cupboard, in a bag, already ground. So, experiment and see how you feel!
You can add flax to oats and smoothies, or you could stir it into yoghurt or a chia pudding.
Eat more fat
Adequate levels of fat can aid with constipation, as fat triggers large intestine motility.
Now, you do have to be careful because too much fat can sometimes cause gastro issues in people with IBS, but generally with my clients and students, we focus on two golf ball sized servings of fat with each meal, to support blood sugar levels, and that amount is often well tolerated. If you’re not sure, try a lesser serving size and also try fats that are lower in FODMAPs to avoid aggravating your symptoms.
Now, just to be clear, I am in no way telling you to start a low FDOMAP diet, that has to be prescribed by a doctor or dietician and should only be done with a diagnosis of IBS, but to avoid flaring your symptoms with these strategies, you could try low FODMAP options for these.
Some good fats include eggs, coconut oil, olive oil and low FODMAP nut butters. A great combination could be to combine one of these fats with your chia or flax at breakfast, after you’ve drunk some warm water, for maximum effect.
Try the ‘I Love You’ massage
The I Love You Massage is an easy abdominal massage that you can do on yourself at home, and is designed specifically for IBS problems like bloating, gas, constipation, etc. I’ve linked to a free video tutorial in the show notes.
In my experience, it’s best performed at night before bed, as it also helps to stimulate your migrating motor complex, which is a wave like motion in your small intestine, that cleans up the small intestine between meals and most of all, overnight. Whilst the MMC won’t directly help with constipation, it will help with SIBO and bloating occurring in the small intestine, and so this massage is targeting two issues at once – constipation through stimulating the large intestine and bloating/SIBO that’s occurring in the small intestine.
So that’s it! I hope one or a few of these at-home remedies help with your constipation. I would love to hear how you get on, so please do reach out on Instagram to let me know!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer with code: INTERNATIONALWOMENSDAY. Get each masterclass for £11.99 with £5 from each sale going to Period Poverty UK (masterclasses previously) - just enter the code at checkout. Offer ends Tuesday 15th March at midnight. Find out more here.
On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Water
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Chia
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-015-1967-0
https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12444
Flax
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944250/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8077314/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15702593/
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.nutr.17.1.353?journalCode=nutr
Fat
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1051227614001411
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3460325/
I Love You Massage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk&t=2s
Okay, so today is my last instalment on my series about endo and our hormones and today we’re talking about testosterone.
Now, you might think that testosterone doesn’t matter to people with ovaries and a uterus, but it really, really does. Whilst testosterone is much higher in people with testes, it actually plays a significant role in ovulation.
So, let’s take a closer look.
So, remember how we previously talked about the importance of oestrogen? Well, without enough testosterone, you won’t have enough oestrogen. Why? Because most of the testosterone that we make is converted into oestrogen, by an enzyme called aromatase.
Let’s do a quick cycle recap. During days 3-5 of your cycle, a hormone called follicle stimulating hormone, recruits a couple of follicles, which are like water balloons filled with an egg, to begin maturing, with the intention that one will eventually go on to ovulate. The follicles which were selected by FSH begin making testosterone, which is in large part then converted into oestrogen (so when we say oestrogen is made in the ovaries, this is what we mean). The rising oestrogen let’s the brain know that it’s time to lower FSH because the follicle chosen for ovulation is happily growing away. This then triggers the rise in luteinising hormone, which in turn stimulates more testosterone and androstenedione production, which again is converted largely into oestrogen, though testosterone peaks during this time too.
Testosterone then drops down again after ovulation and remains fairly low for the remainder of the cycle.
Now, whilst most of your testosterone ends up as oestrogen, the rest that does remain helps to boost libido, and from a biological standpoint, that’s so we increase our chances of conception around ovulation. Testosterone also has a positive effect on our mood, by increasing confidence, drive and motivation. In short, it gives the body and mind the determination to go after a mate.
On top of that, testosterone helps to build muscle mass, increases the happy hormone dopamine, supports the health of reproductive organs and the bladder and aids with brain function.
So what can go wrong with testosterone?
One of the more common issues we can see in our community is high levels of testosterone, often caused by a condition called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which is a condition that is very prevalent in people with endo. PCOS is normally defined by the presence of high testosterone levels, cysts on the ovaries and a lack of ovulation or delayed ovulation, among other symptoms. It’s important to note that PCOS varies from person to person and not everyone with PCOS will have cysts or high testosterone levels, for example, but more often that not, high testosterone levels will be present. There are a couple of different types of PCOS and causes of PCOS, and I’ve linked to articles for further reading in the show notes.
A key cause of high testosterone and PCOS is high insulin levels from dysregulated blood sugar. I bang on about this a lot, but for a quick recap, blood sugar is the measurement of glucose, released from carbohydrates, in the blood. Glucose is our body’s primary source of fuel, but too much of it can cause a lot of problems. Insulin is the hormone responsible for delivering glucose to our cells, and when we have high levels of glucose, the body pumps out more of it. The issue being that insulin has a direct effect on the ovaries, and high levels of it stimulate the ovaries to make too much testosterone. It also lowers sex hormone binding globulin, which is a hormone that binds up testosterone in the blood until we need it, and so without sufficient levels of SHBG, we have a lot of testosterone floating around. This excess testosterone actually prevents ovulation, and the follicle that was going to ovulate, becomes a cyst – which is how we end up with cysts on our ovaries.
Insulin issues with PCOS may not always be caused by diet directly, but rather genetic issues, though balancing your blood sugar is important to help regulate insulin, even in the presence of genetic problems.
There is also a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia. Whilst testosterone is made in the ovaries, it’s also made in your adrenal glands, and this condition causes the adrenals to make too much testosterone, creating delayed or lack of ovulation.
High testosterone levels can cause multiple symptoms, including:
· Irregular cycles
· Hair loss
· Dark hair growth on chest, abdomen, back, chin and face, nipples
· Weight gain
· Acne and oily skin
· Insomnia and sleep disturbance
· Blood sugar imbalances
· Ovulatory pain
· Cysts on the ovaries
· Body odour
· Mood swings
So now let’s look at our other common problem, low testosterone.
Low testosterone is most commonly caused by birth control and I see this a lot in my clients who are coming off birth control. Most forms of birth control stunt ovulation, and the lead up to ovulation is what aids in testosterone production, so when we halt the natural cycle, the production of testosterone is lowered. Additionally, the pill specifically raises levels of that SHBG, which as we discussed earlier, binds to testosterone. These levels can stay elevated post-pill for years, so even though testosterone production is occurring, the testosterone can’t be used because it’s bound up. We can test for this by checking our ‘free testosterone’ levels, which is the measure of unbound testosterone, and I’ll give you more guidance on how to do that shortly, but even seven years post-pill, my SHBG is still high and my free testosterone is low.
Now of course, birth control isn’t the only thing which would stunt ovulation or ovarian function. As we discussed earlier in this series, stress is a key culprit and high cortisol can lower the output of all sex hormones, including testosterone. And that stress can be in the form of lack of nutrients, inflammation, illness and mental or emotional stress.
Signs of low testosterone include:
· Increased pelvic pain
· Fatigue
· Low moods and low self-esteem
· Brain fog and slow cognitive function
· Low libido
· Painful sex
· Vaginal dryness
· Difficulty building muscle
Now, like the other hormones, you can test your testosterone levels with a simple blood test, but the dried urine sample test, DUTCH test, will be most accurate and in-depth, whereas the blood test will give you a snapshot (but it’s a good starter!).
For the blood test, you should take your test in the morning, between 7am and 10am, as that’s when testosterone is at its highest. You can take your test at any point in the cycle but if you’re testing your other hormones on day 3 (apart from progesterone, remember that test comes around day 21) then you can do them all together.
For the DUTCH test, you need to follow their timings and instructions accurately, and they may vary depending on what type of DUTCH test you do. My preferred DUTCH test is the Cycle Mapping one, because it literally tests what your hormones are doing on every day of the cycle.
Now the DUTCH test will check all of your hormones, but the blood test won’t, so what you need to ensure is that your test takes is free testosterone, which looks at the amount of testosterone which is not bound by SHBG, total testosterone, which is the total amount of free testosterone and bound testosterone and then if you can, SHBG too. I’ve linked to a couple of tests in the show notes that provide these.
Ideally, if you can, you want to test all of your androgens, which are the group of hormones that testosterone belongs too, and these can also have effects on your testosterone levels or mimic the symptoms of high or low testosterone.
If your test results come back with high testosterone levels, I would suggest doing further testing into PCOS – however, blood sugar imbalances can be responsible for elevated levels, so focus on addressing this root cause too.
If your free testosterone levels are low and your SHBG is elevated, it may be from a history of birth control, so I would suggest you work with a practitioner to help address this. If your total testosterone levels are low, it’s important to support healthy follicular and ovulatory phases as we need the ovaries to be functioning optimally for testosterone to be made. Because some of your testosterone is also made in your adrenal glands, which control your stress response, addressing stress and possible HPA axis dysfunction is important here too. We address all of these root causes in my Live and Thrive with Endo course and in my one and one work, but the course isn’t out until autumn this year. I’ve linked to a couple of my podcasts and extra resources to help you learn more and start tackling these issues.
Now because blood sugar imbalances stress the body, whether your testosterone levels are high, or low, or actually great, balancing your blood sugar is one of the best ways to keep testosterone levels healthy or get them back on track. I’ve linked to some of my resources and my masterclass on blood sugar in the show notes.
Show Notes
Testosterone references
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4685386/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28847480/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9609208/
https://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/testosterone/
https://drbrighten.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-hormone-levels/
https://nicolejardim.com/my-1-post-for-2013-the-pill-your-sex-drive-how-to-start-reclaiming-your-va-va-voom/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8005293
https://drbrighten.com/high-testosterone-women/
https://nicolejardim.com/balance-hormones-naturally/
PCOS
https://www.floliving.com/a-womans-guide-to-pcos/
https://drbrighten.com/natural-solutions-treatment-of-pcos/
https://nicolejardim.com/the-pcos-protocol/
Blood Sugar
Masterclass: https://www.thisendolife.com/nutrition-for-endo-advanced-masterclass
HPA Axis Dysfunction
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/hpa-axis-dysfunction-healing-tips-endometriosis
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/06/11/stress-management-hpa-axis-dysfunction/
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/08/27/hpa-axis-dysregulation-recover-tips/
https://www.thisendolife.com/live-and-thrive-with-endo-the-course
Testing
https://dutchtest.com/info-cycle-mapping/
https://medichecks.com/products/female-hormone-check-blood-test
https://medichecks.com/products/female-hormone-check-advanced-blood-test
https://thriva.co/tests/TPKD3E
https://instagram.com/futurewomanhq?utm_medium=copy_link - sign up to be able to order tests
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Okay, so today I am bringing you a special bonus episode. I woke up this morning to this incredible video from one of my previous Live and Thrive with Endo course students sharing her story.
Her transformation moved me so much and made me so happy that I wanted to put it out as a podcast episode for you today, especially as you all seem to really enjoy these real life stories.
I remember how Sarah was when she came to the course. She was very, very fatigued and really desperate for help. She had a lot going on with her symptoms and was really struggling to cope. Some of the severe symptoms she was suffering with were:
- Chronic fatigue
- PMDD
- Chronic full body pain
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Excruciating period pain
- Heavy menstrual bleeding
Within a matter of days, Sarah started to experience alleviation in these symptoms. Really! She is now in a place where she can live a full life, enjoying her time with loved ones and also taking care of the responsibilities she has in her life. Every single symptom has improved, and her body pain, PMDD and chronic fatigue have all reduced drastically - the change is just incredible!
Now just a word of warning, this audio is taken from a home video recording Sarah so kindly made and there are some issues with the sound quality. We tried to clean it up the best we could, but there wasn’t a huge amount that we could do to improve it, but I think it’s not too difficult to listen to!
Anyway, it’s worth persevering because Sarah’s story is just so wonderful and I am really, really grateful she shared her story with us. I hope you find this episode helpful and inspiring.
And just a head’s up, because we’ve got two episodes out this week and because I’ll be welcoming in my new students on Monday, there will be no episode next week, but I’m looking forward to being back with you the following week.
Oh and also, it’s worth noting that Sarah is referring a lot to my full Live and Thrive with Endo course, but this is a really helpful listen if you’re considering doing the Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations Course. 80% of the changes she made are from modules covered in the Foundation course, I think the only module she discusses that isn’t covered is the one on our detoxifications systems, but everything you learn and put into practice from The Foundations Course will actually be improving these anyway, which is why that module is kept for the advanced course. So, anyway, I just wanted to clarify that!
Finally, today is the last day that you can sign up for Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations, until next year. Enrolment closes at 10pm GMT tonight (Thursday 24th Feb 2022) and I’ve applied a special last day discount as well. The link to learn more or to sign up is in the show notes.
Now enough of me, and onto Sarah!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My new course, Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations, is out now! Click here to sign up or to learn more.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Okay, this week’s episode is a nice, quick boost of positivity, hope and inspiration. Today’s episode is Sam’s story. Sam is one of my previous Live and Thrive with Endo course students and is a current membership member.
In this episode, I ask Sam how her symptoms have changed from doing the course, which changes she put in place and which ones she felt have been the most effective and her advice for people just starting out on their own endo journey.
Sam is in Australia and we really struggled to find a time for us both, so instead of an interview, I asked Sam some questions and she recorded herself, so you’re just going to hear Sam talking today rather than myself.
To give you a brief intro on what to expect, Sam came to the course with really severe inflammation issues, symptoms from ovulation onwards, level 10 pain and huge endo belly problems. Sam has now gotten to the root of her endo belly and her period pain is a level 1/2 on the pain scale - and these are just some of the incredible changes, but I’ll leave her to share the rest.
Sam’s life has changed dramatically and she is now able to lead a life she never thought was possible. If you’re feeling stuck, or like you have so many symptoms that feeling better just isn’t possible, I really, really recommend you listen to this episode.
*Let's get social! Come say hello on* *Instagram* *or sign up to my* *newsletter.*
My new course, Live and Thrive with Endo: The Foundations, is out now! Click here to sign up or to learn more.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Today I want to share a story to inspire and lift you up. I know sometimes it can feel hopeless, and that’s why I love to share these client stories: because they offer hope, they show us what’s possible, they give us faith.
In this conversation, Aamina, who is one of my past Live and Thrive with Endo course students and a current membership member, shares with us her story of transformation, from despair and desperation to empowerment and hope. Aamina came to my course with nausea and vomiting around her period, severe pain during menstruation and ovulation, and nerve and leg pain pretty much all month long.
She now no longer suffers with nausea or vomiting, and has dramatically reduced her pain all the way down from an 8 to a 2 on the pain scale.
This conversation was originally recorded as part of a testimonial for my course, rather than a podcast interview, so you’ll hear Aamina referencing to the course and testifying to it throughout, but within all of this, she peppers in her story, her wins, her progress, how her relationship to endo has changed, how she better understands her body. So, just a word of caution, when you think she’s no longer talking about her own experience and is talking about the course, don’t think the relevant part is over and stop listening, listen until the end because she shares some really inspirational nuggets of insight and hope!
Oh and for those who are enjoying the hormones and endo series, don’t worry - more is coming!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop Creating a Roadmap to Endo Healing in 2022: The Foundations Workshop here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Okay so we’ve been taking about hormones and how to improve our periods for a few weeks now, so I thought it would be helpful to give you a quick run down on what the menstrual cycle actually is and what is happening with your hormones throughout all four stages, plus, what a healthy menstrual cycle looks like.
Now of course, having endometriosis, you period probably doesn’t look healthy to you. Maybe you have really heavy bleeding, prolonged periods or a lot of pain. And whilst we have to take into account that yes, our cycles and periods in particular will probably look different from others, we shouldn’t dismiss these differences as just because of endo and that there’s nothing we can do about it. In truth, there’s probably a lot you can do!
When my clients first come to me, many show signs of lack of ovulation, low progesterone, excess or oestrogen dominance. As we work on their hormones with blood sugar balancing, stress regulation, nutrition for healthy hormones and so on, these symptoms fall away and their hormones stabilise and they end up with really healthy looking cycles - and it’s then that we can see a clear picture of what endo is doing and what are the actual symptoms of their endo that are left remaining, which we can continue to work on. And the great thing is, that working on your endo improves your hormones, and working on your hormones improves your endo, so they usually both get better by default.
So today, I want to give you a basic overview of what is happening in your cycle so you can actually understand the changes, and I’ve taken snippets from my course Live and Thrive with Endo and have combined them to give you a short and succinct breakdown of what your hormones, body and emotions are doing throughout your cycle and what a healthy cycle looks like.
Now remember, we’re not aiming for perfection here. Some months my cycle is great, some months I overdo it in one area and notice a few signs of oestrogen dominance, or perhaps I notice I’ve ovulated late. We don’t live in a bubble, and there will be times when our menstrual cycle is affected, but that’s fine - it’s about doing what we can to have a healthy cycle whilst also still living our lives. If it’s going to cause you more stress to be aware of your menstrual cycle or try to balance your hormones right now, then that’s going to actually be detrimental, so maybe revisit this when you’re ready - and if it’s just something you’re not interested in, that’s okay too! These are only ever options for you and you have to pick the ones that are right for you.
Finally, I just wanted to offer a trigger warning that this episode does discuss conception, fertility, etc. in relation to the menstrual cycle.
Hormones Overview
Right so let’s start with a quick overview of the key hormones involved in the menstrual cycle.
Before I go ahead with this lesson, I do want to let you know that I talk about fertilisation and preparing the body for pregnancy, so if that feels triggering for you right now, please feel free to skip this lesson.
In a moment I’m going to take you through each stage of the menstrual cycle and to do that I thought it would be helpful just to give you a brief look at the core role of the main hormones involved in the menstrual cycle. This is a basic overview as I said, so if you want to dive deeper into this subject, I really suggest looking into my tutor Nicole Jardim’s work, and I’ve linked to some resources in the handout.
The key hormones and their main roles are:
- Luteinising hormone’s main role is to trigger ovulation.
- Follicle stimulating hormone’s main role is preparing follicles to develop mature eggs for ovulation.
- One of oestrogen main roles is to build the uterine lining, but it’s also the hormone that triggers the onset of puberty and feminine features like breasts and hips, and boosts serotonin production and activity in the brain, supports bone density, sleep and heart health.
- One of progesterone’s key roles is further preparing the uterine lining for pregnancy, but it also boosts GABA receptor function in the brain, allowing us to feel more of the calming benefits of this neurotransmitter. Additionally, progesterone supports sleep and heart, bone and breast health.
Lastly, I want to mention a few others involved (though there are more):
- Gonadotropin-releasing hormone stimulates FSH production from pituitary gland
- Testosterone plays a role in ovulation and libido but is much lower in females than males. It also affects mood to enhance confidence and assertiveness.
- Androstenedione plays a role in ovulation alongside testosterone and again, is in much higher levels in males.
Again, there’s more to these hormones than these roles and there are actually more hormones involved in this cycle in general, but FSH, LH, oestrogen and progesterone are the star players here. If you’d like to learn more, refer back to the resources in then handout.
The Four Phases
Okay so now you have a good knowledge of the key functions of these hormones, let’s look at how they behave across the cycle.
Menstrual Phase
So the start of your menstrual phase is Day 1 of your cycle and on average, this phase lasts about 3-7 days (again, on average, but varies from person to person).
Progesterone at this stage has dropped dramatically, which stimulates the breakdown of the uterine lining. Histamines and prostaglandins are released to help with contractions, which aid in the shedding. During this time, progesterone and oestrogen continue to stay low, while GnRH lets the pituitary gland know it’s time to start dishing out FSH during days 1-4. FSH begins stimulating the maturation of a couple of follicles during this time (remember, follicles are like sacks which contain an egg) and then on days 5-7, one follicle is chosen to be the one to go onto ovulate.
During this time hormone levels are at their lowest so energy and focus may be lagging, and you may be feeling less social due to lower levels of feel-good neurotransmitters, hormones and energy. You may also feel more reflective due to lack of oestrogen, which tends to put rose tinted glasses over our eyes, so we feel desire and closeness with our mate. Without oestrogen and testosterone to make us feel social and outgoing, we may feel more inclined to turn inwards and want to spend time alone.
Follicular Phase
Now the menstrual phase is actually the first half of the follicular phase because FSH actually begins rising in this part, so what we generally call the follicular phase is actually the second half of the follicular phase, and this occurs on average from day 8 to day 14.
The follicles which were selected by FSH begin making testosterone, which is in large part then converted into oestrogen (so when we say oestrogen is made in the ovaries, this is what we mean). Oestrogen goes about thickening the uterine lining and this rising oestrogen lets the brain know that it’s time to lower FSH because the follicle chosen for ovulation is happily growing away. This then triggers the rise in LH, which in turn stimulates more testosterone and androstenedione production. The body starts preparing itself for pregnancy by releasing fertile cervical fluid and moving the cervix higher up, which means that only the strongest sperm will make it to the egg, meanwhile, the chosen follicle takes the lead while the others disintegrate.
During this time, energy begins and continues to rise with the rise in oestrogen. Oestrogen begins to boost serotonin and dopamine, so you feel more positive and social and the rise in testosterone boosts confidence, potentially making you feel more outgoing.
If you noticed you’re actually feeling fatigued, run down, depleted, or you’re having mood swings in your follicular phase, you’re not alone. I see this with many endo clients and I experience it myself time to time if I don’t take some space to rest or slow down during menstruation. For my clients, I tend to see the culprits being low iron and magnesium levels due to excessive blood loss, not resting enough during menstruation, low levels of rising oestrogen in the follicular phase or low cortisol levels (and in these clients, they usually feel depleted all month long). This collection of symptoms post-menstruation has actually been labelled as post-menstrual syndrome and if you’d like to learn more, I’ve put a link in the show notes to an article by the wonderful Nicole Jardim.
Ovulatory Phase
Next up is ovulation, which on average occurs between days 12-14, but really that timespan varies greatly, and I’ll take you through that shortly.
So, as the chosen follicle matures, more oestrogen is made and this rise in oestrogen triggers off a surge in LH with oestrogen dropping just as this LH surge kicks in. The LH surge transforms the follicle into the corpus luteum gland, stimulating it to make progesterone and together, LH, progesterone, testosterone and androstenedione set off ovulation 12 hours after the LH surge.
At this point, the egg has 12-24 hours to be fertilized before it disintegrates. At this part of your cycle your cervix is at its highest point and you have sticky clear fertile cervical fluid.
It’s important to note here that if oestrogen doesn’t reach its peak, LH won’t be stimulated, and ovulation won’t occur.
This phase is fairly similar to follicular, but revved up:
Oestrogen is driving us to find a mate in this time frame so it’s normally our most social time. We tend to feel more confident and outgoing at this stage due to oestrogen and testosterone working together.
There may be pain going on for you so appreciate that this phase may be different for you and work on lowering inflammation so you can hopefully feel more of the benefits of this time in the future.
Higher oestrogen levels tend to improve focus and concentration, though for some of us this may impair concentration because the high levels of neurotransmitters could have us feeling like it’s Friday afternoon every day! I also want to mention here that some people can have an excess of dopamine, which can actually cause irritability and anger. If that’s you during this time, I recommend working on stabilising your hormones first and seeing if that helps improve things, if not, work with a functional practitioner to assess your dopamine levels and what might cause this. In the meantime, you could try adding in calming practices like meditation and breathing to help ease your mood.
Normally, you may have rose-tinted glasses thanks to oestrogen’s desire to get pregnant so this is a good time for enjoying time with loved ones, especially family members who might rub you up the wrong way at other times of the month or who you clash with around your health!
Luteal Phase
Finally, we have the luteal phase, which is named after luteinising hormone.
This kicks in after ovulation, between days 14 - 29 on average and is anywhere from 11 to 17 days long, but the average is 12-14 days.
During this phase, progesterone reigns supreme because it is being released in hopefully plentiful amounts from the corpus luteum. Progesterone continues to fluff up the uterine lining for the potentially now fertilised egg to eventually plant itself in. LH and FSH continue to stay low at this point and oestrogen should be at levels lower than progesterone. Of course, if progesterone is low or oestrogen is too high, we’ll get that oestrogen dominance scenario.
As we edge closer to menstruation, oestrogen rises briefly to support possible implantation, so you’ll likely notice some clear and sticky cervical fluid at some point a few days before your period (but this isn’t fertile cervical fluid). Then, just before your period, FSH starts to rise again to begin choosing new follicles for maturation.
In this part of our cycle, oestrogen is dropping so energy can drop across the phase, though we tend to start out with continued high levels at first. If progesterone is sufficient, you’ll feel calmer and sleep better but if your levels are low, you may feel a sudden decline in mood, energy and focus and have disturbed sleep. As oestrogen falls, you’ll likely become more introverted because you no longer have the same drive to be social.
A Healthy Cycle
Now you know how the menstrual cycle works, let’s look at what a healthy cycle looks like.
In research, a healthy cycle has been shown to be between 21 to 35 days, however, in our training, Nicole Jardim recommends 25–35-day cycles as she sees this time frame to be most consistent with healthy hormones. The average cycle length is 29 days.
Ovulation should occur ideally between days 12-21 and will normally vary slightly every month (it’s not true that we all ovulate on Day 14!), then if we’ve had successful ovulation, this should be followed by an 11-17 day luteal phase. If it’s less than 11 days, this could indicate you're not making enough progesterone or that you didn’t ovulate at all and the period you’re having is essentially just a breakthrough bleed as a result of dropping oestrogen levels (so in short, a period doesn’t mean you’ve ovulated).
There is usually some variation in cycle lengths from month to month and this is normal, and in fact, statistically you’ll likely have a cycle that varies greatly at some point each year (which may be due to stress, nutrient deficiencies, illness, etc), but if your cycles are varying dramatically all the time or frequently, then there’s a hormonal issue here or a condition like PCOS. In the next lesson, I’ll tell you which red flags to look out for when you’re tracking your cycle.
Having said all of this, everyone is different, so if you have shorter or longer cycles and you feel well, and healthy, and you’re sure you’re ovulating (I’ll show you how to check this in the next lesson) and you’ve ruled out PCOS, etc. then this is just your cycle and that’s fine!
Now let’s look at a healthy period.
The start of your period is the first day of bright red blood which is freely flowing - any spotting beforehand doesn’t count as Day 1.
It should last between 3-7 days, periods less than 3 days could indicate low oestrogen or low iron and periods longer than 8 days are regarded as ‘heavy' and are associated with low iron, oestrogen dominance and a number of other conditions I’ll flag in the next lesson. Research shows that a normal period ranges between 2-7 days but in my training, we’re taught that at least 3 days is optimum for healthy hormones and fertility. However, if you’ve always had two-day periods, your hormone levels are good and you’re ovulating, this is just how your period is and don’t worry about it not being three days! As long as you’re healthy, that’s all good.
The first one to two days should be the heaviest, with a vibrant red colour and thick yet flowing consistency (like maple syrup). Blood colour will change as time goes on and normally will get darker as the blood becomes older and exposed to oxygen. Your flow should start tapering off after day 2, gradually getting lighter until it stops entirely. If you have any spotting beforehand, it shouldn’t go on for longer than 1-2 days before your period actually starts. If your period has always started lighter, gotten heavier and then lighter again or they are the same flow every day and then stop or fade away, these are also normal scenarios.
Okay so there was a lot of hormones flying about in this lesson, so really, just remember the key takeaways, which are:
- Oestrogen dominates in first half of cycle
- Oestrogen needs to reach its peak for ovulation to occur
- Ovulation must occur for sufficient progesterone to be made
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop Creating a Roadmap to Endo Healing in 2022: The Foundations Workshop here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
The main hormones and their roles
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5743731/
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/74/7/837.full.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879914/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226892/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1327664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327930/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29962257/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8865143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709037/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4546331/
Post-menstrual syndrome
https://www.healthline.com/health/post-menstrual-syndrome
https://nicolejardim.com/post-menstrual-syndrome-pms-after-period/
A healthy cycle
https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=nursing_fac
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1622917/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15451332/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166706/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3299419/
So last week we talked about oestrogen, and so today, clearly I’m going to move onto the other predominant hormone in the menstrual cycle, progesterone
So, let’s get started.
Progesterone is famous for ‘fluffing’ up the uterine lining in the second half of your menstrual cycle, which occurs after ovulation, and this phase is called the luteal phase.
When we say fluffing up, progesterone is essentially further preparing the uterine lining to allow for implantation of a fertilised egg, whilst halting oestrogen’s effects of cell-proliferation which thickens the uterine lining. If the egg is fertilised, it will begin stimulating a steady blood supply to the lining to nourish the egg, via the formation of new blood vessels and additionally will trigger the release of nutrients from glands hidden in the endometrial lining (which is just another fancy word for uterine lining). It will also prevent uterine cramping so the egg can stay nice and secure and plays an absolutely essential role in maintaining the endometrial lining and pregnancy throughout.
Progesterone is a muscle relaxant, which is to further support pregnancy by allowing the muscles of our pelvis to open and stretch as the abdomen begins to expand with pregnancy. However, because it is a muscle relaxant, it also relaxes the intestines, which slows down intestinal motility, leading to fewer bowel movements. In people who already have gut health issues (which let’s face it, is most of us with endo) this can then lead to constipation in the second half of the cycle.
Progesterone is also immune suppressing, and this is so the immune system doesn’t reject a potential implanted egg by seeing it as a foreign invader. Coupled with elevated levels of inflammation that build from ovulation to menstruation, we might end up feeling like we have the flu if we don’t keep our immune system strong and inflammation down. This is what you may have heard of as the ‘period flu’ or ‘PMS flu’.
But, that’s not all. Progesterone plays a huge role in brain and nervous system health.
Firstly, it actually protects and repairs the fatty layer that wraps around the end of nerve fibres – these are called myelin sheaths, though remembering the name is not what’s important. What’s important is the progesterone allows these to stay intact and functioning, and these myelin sheaths support proper communication between brain neurons (otherwise known as nerve cells) which allows for healthy cognitive function and communication between the brain and nervous system. Think about these myelin sheaths like a sheath on a long sword, the nerve fibre is the sword, the sheath is the fatty layer, and if that sheath starts to get worn down, the sword will be exposed in places and may start to get blunted or rusty.
The next way that progesterone supports brain and nervous system health is through its effect on GABA, the calming neurotransmitter. When progesterone is used up in the body, it produces a metabolite, which is just a by-product of progesterone being used – it’s sort of what progesterone is transformed into once it’s done its job. So, this metabolite is called allopregnanolone and allopregnanolone binds to GABA receptors. Think of receptors as a lock and key, the receptor is a lock on a cell, whilst the keys are GABA or allopregnanolone. The binding of allopregnanolone to a GABA receptor actually enhances the soothing effects of GABA, creating a sedative like response which can improve sleep, calm anxiety, and generally soothe both body and mind.
Progesterone also helps protect us from breast and uterine cancer, supports bone density and heart health. Aaand plays a star role in ovulation, the production of progesterone is essential to kicking off the last hormonal change that aids in ovulation.
Finally, progesterone raises our temperature, which is why when using the fertility awareness method for tracking your cycle, you’ll use a basal body thermometer to take your temperature upon waking. Before ovulation, your temperature will be 36.11 to 36.50 degrees Celsius, after ovulation, it should rise 36.55-8. to If your temperature jumps up and stays there for three days in a row, you’ve ovulated and this temp change should be sustained and then drop just before your period as your progesterone levels drop.
So just like oestrogen, it’s actually an integral hormone to overall health.
Progesterone and the Menstrual Cycle
Now you know the benefits, let’s look at how it’s made and its patterns during the menstrual cycle.
Progesterone is made in something called the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is a short-term gland made from the follicle which the chosen egg ovulates from, and this transformation occurs as ovulation takes place, so mid-way through your cycle.
If the chosen eggs becomes fertilised, the corpus luteum will continue to make progesterone to sustain the pregnancy for the first three months of the cycle, if levels aren’t high enough, this is when miscarriage can occur. It’s why whenever my clients are having trouble conceiving or have miscarried, I like to keep checking their progesterone levels, because shockingly this is not something that is standardly done by doctors in relation to this, not until at least, recurrent miscarriages have occurred. After the first trimester, the progesterone supply comes from the umbilical cord.
Now, if fertilisation doesn’t occur, progesterone will be made for between 11 to 17 days post-ovulation, and then drop sharply just before your period, triggering the shedding of the uterine lining.
Progesterone goes on to stay low during the menstrual and follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, with oestrogen dominating during this time, and then progesterone dominates after ovulation.
So, what happens if there’s a problem with progesterone – and why would that occur?
The biggest imbalance we see with progesterone is low levels of progesterone. Like oestrogen dominance, there can be two ways that low progesterone occurs.
So the first would be that your progesterone levels are actually normal but are low in contrast to oestrogen, creating an oestrogen dominance affect. Remember, this would only occur in the second half of your cycle, when progesterone is supposed to be higher than oestrogen.
Or you actually have low levels of progesterone itself.
So, let’s look at the first scenario briefly. This would of course occur from elevated levels of oestrogen, in which case, we need to look at what could be affecting that and we covered those points last week.
So what if you actually have low levels of progesterone?
The key culprit would be because of lack of ovulation. If we’re not ovulating, the main follicle doesn’t get a chance to turn into the corpus luteum and produce progesterone.
The number one cause of lack of ovulation is some kind of physical or emotional stressor. This occurs because stress hormones like cortisol actually suppress the release of GnRH (which is short for Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone). GnRH is essential to get the menstrual cycle moving, it essentially tells the pituitary glands to make follicle stimulating hormone and lutenising hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone is essential for the growth of the chosen follicle whilst luteinsing hormone is vital to ovulation. When GnRH is suppressed, so are these, and so of course is ovulation and the resulting progesterone levels.
Additionally, cortisol also further prevents ovulation by making the ovaries resistant to the effects of FSH and LH.
Now even if ovulation still manages to occur, the downstream suppression of LH and FSH can still lower progesterone production and finally, cortisol actually binds to progesterone receptors, meaning even if progesterone is made, it then can’t go on and do its job in the body and is essentially just floating around with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Now remember, a stressor doesn’t have to be an actual stressor in your life, it could be inflammation from SIBO, or lack of nutrients from undereating or having SIBO, or over exercising, or living in chronic pain.
Now if you have managed to ovulate, and stress isn’t an issue, but you have low levels of progesterone, you may have something called luteal phase insufficiency, which is essentially where the corpus luteum is unable to make enough progesterone. Whilst there may be numerous causes and it’s always best to work with a practitioner if you are struggling with this, I commonly see this to be a problem in my clients who are unable to absorb enough nutrients from their food due to SIBO, or who have a lot of diarrhoea from SIBO so are underweight. They basically aren’t taking in enough nutrients to create healthy follicles.
Another cause would be thyroid issues, whether that’s hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, but can affect ovulation and progesterone output. Other conditions can affect ovulation and ultimately progesterone production too, like PCOS and high levels of the hormone prolactin.
Finally, progestin IUDs can also create low progesterone overall. Progestin is not progesterone and therefore works differently in the body, and whilst you may have been told the IUD doesn’t stop ovulation, it does for many in at least the first year of use.
Symptoms of low progesterone may sound familiar, because of course, once we have low progesterone, we also have oestrogen dominance, so here are some of the signs:
· Heavy periods
· PMS
· Tender breasts, especially before your period
· Missing periods
· Shorter cycles (indicating that progesterone wasn’t around long enough to have a full luteal phase)
· Irregular cycles
· Miscarriages or fertility struggles
· Low moods – especially anxiety, anger and irritability in the second half of your cycle
· Breakthrough bleeding in the luteal phase
Now, when it comes to progesterone, low progesterone is the most common issue we see, so much so, that going through all of my courses, I realised we don’t even cover high progesterone levels!
However, Dr. Jolene Brighten briefly covers the symptoms of high progesterone in her blog post on hormonal imbalances, so here are the symptoms from her:
· Irritability
· Feeling tearful
· Sore breasts
· Headaches
· Tiredness
High progesterone levels can be caused by:
· Progesterone cream, which is a common treatment used by many people with endometriosis.
And according to an article by Clue app., high progesterone can also be caused by:
· Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
· Some ovarian cysts
· Certain ovarian tumours
· Pregnancy complications
Because this is not my area of expertise, I’ve linked to a couple of evidence-based articles on high progesterone in the show notes.
So, how does progesterone affect endometriosis?
Firstly, we have the obvious issue that progesterone counteracts the proliferating effects of oestrogen, so without enough progesterone, there is the risk that oestrogen will go unchecked and could encourage endometriosis growth. However, this is a slightly simplistic view because some endometriosis cells are resistant to the effects of progesterone and some do not even have progesterone receptors at all, so progesterone literally cannot act on those specific cells.
The other benefit of progesterone is that it is immunosuppressive and we know there is significant immune dysfunction in endometriosis, where certain immune cells are creating excessive levels of inflammation but are doing a poor job of cleaning the endometriosis up. Having sufficient progesterone levels can potentially help quiet some of that excessive inflammation in the second half of the cycle.
Finally, progesterone can inhibit the formation of new blood vessels to the endo lesions, which are essential to their growth and development.
Now of course, indirectly, if you already have gut issues related to your endometriosis, because of SIBO or adhesions or gut dysbiosis, then the natural rise of progesterone in the second half of the cycle can cause constipation. The answer isn’t to supress progesterone, as I hope you can already see the benefits, but it’s more so to support your gut, and this could look like different things depending on what is going on with your body. If you have adhesions affecting the transition of food through the gut, daily massage like the I Love You massage or Arvigo can make a huge difference and I see this work so well with many of my constipated clients. I’ve linked to resources for both of these in my show notes.
If it’s SIBO related or gut dysbiosis related, obviously taking the necessary steps to heal the gut is essential, but in the short-term, in the second phase of your cycle, you can use some symptomatic relief strategies, which I outline in episode 169 and I’ve linked to that in the show notes.
Another issue you may have with endo is a tight pelvic floor, which when coupled with sluggish intestines, may result in constipation, so any form of pelvic floor relaxation or movement that helps gut motility like yoga, or rebounding or simply walking, is going to help.
Of course, we also have the issue that endometriosis can cause anxiety and depression, so if we have low levels of progesterone in the second half of the cycle, those conditions may feel even worse.
The answer is of course, to work to balance your oestrogen and progesterone levels with good hormonal practices, including blood sugar balancing, stress management, supporting the detoxification pathways, etc. Everything I cover in this podcast, in my nutrition masterclasses, courses and coaching. As I said last week, one of the most powerful ways to transform your hormones is with blood sugar balancing, so I would begin there. But if your biggest problem is lack of sleep, maybe that’s where you start – or if its stress, maybe you bring in meditation. The key is, we want to make sure you’re ovulating.
Now there are a few key nutrients and some hacks for raising progesterone, and I’m going to keep that for another episode because this podcast is pretty long already! But initially, we really want to get those foundations in place rather than chasing supplements and shiny hacks that are short-lived.
If you’re not sure about what your progesterone is doing, you can get a simple blood test. This blood test should be taken five to seven days after ovulation, if you’re not sure when you ovulated, then you can do days 19-22 of an average 28-day cycle (remember, this is just an average, 28 is not the ‘perfect’ cycle length). If your cycle is much longer, then check with the test provider.
And a great way to actually be sure you’re ovulating is to use the Fertility Awareness Method, which uses three different markers you can track daily, to actually know for sure whether you’ve ovulated or not. I’ve linked to a couple of resources and episodes on this in the show notes.
So that’s it! I hope you now feel confident that you understand how progesterone is made, how it affects endo and how it might be impacting you personally! If you’ve found this episode helpful, please remember to share with others and let me know what you thought!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop Creating a Roadmap to Endo Healing in 2022: The Foundations Workshop here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Progesterone menstrual cycle/imbalances:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation._1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4653859/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4436586/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5689497/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20595939/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11994369/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jne.12179
Episode 169: https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/symptom-management-supplements-for-the-endo-belly
Prolactin
https://academic.oup.com/mend/article/4/1/13/2713978
High progesterone
https://www.verywellhealth.com/high-progesterone-symptoms-5185751
https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-a-z/progesterone-101
https://drbrighten.com/hormone-imbalance-symtpoms/
IUD
https://nicolejardim.com/how-does-the-mirena-iud-work-is-it-right-for-me/
Fertility Awareness Method
https://nicolejardim.com/how-to-track-your-cycle-to-know-if-when-youre-ovulating-when-your-period-will-arrive/
https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast/fam-understanding-the-basics-of-the-fertility-awareness-method
Endo and progesterone
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2020.00026/full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5077092/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8671374/
Hormone testing
https://nicolejardim.com/hormone-testing-cheat-sheet/
https://nicolejardim.com/the-best-way-to-test-hormones/
https://drbrighten.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-hormone-levels/
We talk a lot about oestrogen on this show, and so today, I want to give you a complete low down on oestrogen – what it does, how it benefits you and how it can affect you when things go wrong.
Now, before we go ahead, I just want to share a trigger warning – I talk about reproduction and pregnancy in this episode. It’s not a huge part of it, but it’s there, so please feel free to skip this episode if you need to.
Another trigger warning in this episode is that I talk about the connection between oestrogen dominance and obesity. If this feels triggering for you, please skip! It is the final point on the causes of excess oestrogen/oestrogen dominance, and comes after the point on endocrine disruptors.
So, let’s start with what oestrogen does in the body…
Oestrogen is what fuels the growth of hips, breasts, the start of the menstrual cycle and in short, the onset of puberty. Oestrogen is responsible for fertile cervical fluid, thickening the uterine lining and kicking off ovulation, and it boosts serotonin production, which is not just crucial for cognitive function, but also helps us to feel more energised, sociable and positive. Oestrogen, alongside testosterone, increases libido - oestrogen actually increases blood flow to the pelvic area, and this heightens sensation and arousal.
Basically, this combination of feeling more energised, more positive, more lubricated, having heighten sensations, etc. – all of these changes, are ultimately an attempt to get us pregnant. This is why, if you have a partner, you may overlook certain issues or see your relationship in a really positive light, only to find them irritating or to have those issues resurfacing in your luteal phase. Now of course, you might want to get pregnant, but that’s oestrogen’s intention.
Additionally, oestrogen is crucial for bone density, heart health and cognitive function, not to mention a huge list of other organs and roles in the body.
Now, if the above doesn’t sound like your experience of oestrogen, I get it. The phases of the cycle we’re going to cover today, are normally when people who don’t have endo, have more energy, feel more outgoing, more optimistic, etc. But for some of us with endo, we’re worn out from our period in the first half of our follicular phase, and then as we reach ovulation, we get pain. I know clients whose worst endo flares are around ovulation, so I understand if this doesn’t resonate with you – but I’m at this stage, just sharing the purpose of oestrogen.
In a little while, I’ll briefly touch on why you may be struggling with oestrogen, but first, let’s talk about what’s happening with oestrogen in your cycle.
Oestrogen and the menstrual cycle
Oestrogen is at its lowest point during menstruation and tends to stay low for the first 1-2 days but begins slowly rising around day 3.
This rise occurs because oestrogen is made from maturing follicles in the ovaries, think of follicles like water balloons with an egg in the middle. A couple of these are picked to begin maturing, and then by days 5 to 7, one of these follicles is picked and will eventually go on to release the one egg that bursts through the ovary during ovulation.
As these follicles develop, they begin to make testosterone, which is largely converted into oestrogen. You’ll tend to feel a change in mood and energy around day 3 as that handful of follicles slowly begin to produce oestrogen, and then at about day 7-ish once the queen follicle has been chosen, you’ll get a real surge of oestrogen and you’ll move into the second half of your follicular phase. The oestrogen production really gets underway here and continues to climb right up until ovulation.
During this process, oestrogen is working on thickening the uterine lining, but it is also supporting lubrication and helping to create fertile cervical fluid. Initially, just after your period you’ll likely still feel dry, but as oestrogen rises, you’ll begin getting a pasty, lotion type fluid in your underwear, and you may feel a little lubricated from time to time, but not noticeably so.
Now, as I mentioned, oestrogen continues to rise in increasing levels, thanks to the queen follicle growing and maturing, and as we get closer to ovulation, we’ll begin getting a sticky, almost clear, egg-white like fluid, and we’ll feel very lubricated. This is fertile cervical fluid.
Once oestrogen reaches its peak, this peak triggers a cascade of hormonal shifts which trigger ovulation. Without this peak, ovulation cannot occur. After this peak, oestrogen drops, ovulation occurs and progesterone then dominates over oestrogen. Oestrogen is still present but it’s lower than progesterone and continues to decrease.
However, shortly before your period begins, we get another brief surge in oestrogen. This occurs to support possible implantation of a fertilised egg, and you’ll notice similar cervical fluid that you had before and around ovulation, it’s no longer fertile cervical fluid, but it looks the same. Of course, if you are pregnant, then further changes will occur, if not, oestrogen drops down again to its lowest point in your cycle and menstruation begins.
Now, a side note, which is really a whole episode in itself – if you’re feeling depleted when oestrogen is rising, we need to look at why. It could be that you lost too much iron and magnesium due to heavy bleeding, so we need to work on lightening that (and actually we’ll talk about why you may have heavy bleeding later on). It could be that you had horrendous endo pain on your period that wiped you out, so we need to look at lowering inflammation and using other tools and practices to lower that pain. It could be that you have low cortisol levels or HPA axis dysregulation, which is common in endo, and leaves you feeling constantly fatigued or fatigued in the mornings. If you’re having pain towards ovulation, we need to consider whether you’re sensitive to histamines, which rise with rising oestrogen or whether you have too high levels of inflammation, which is naturally part of the ovulatory process, but can cause pain in excess. Or perhaps you have an adhesion from surgery, tugging on your ovary, so that makes ovulation particularly painful. Or of course, you might have an endometrioma. So, these are some considerations to make and everything I’ve listed can be helped, addressed, reduced or even entirely resolved depending on your body and circumstance and what the issue is. Now of course, that’s what my work is all about, so scroll through my episodes to see which ones might help you with your personal issues during this phase.
Now, back to oestrogen specifically, a few things can go wrong.
Let’s look at the first part of the cycle. We know we want oestrogen to reach its peak, but one possible scenario is that it doesn’t get there, because your oestrogen levels are low. Low levels of oestrogen can occur from:
- The pill or other forms of hormonal treatment or birth control designed to lower oestrogen or stop ovulation.
- Stress – stress can lower sex hormones because reproduction is not a priority to the body in times of stress, and if you look at it from an evolutionary standpoint, stress back in caveman days was literally famine, or wild animals, or exclusion from our tribe; real life or death situations, so the priority was survival not reproduction. In many cases, it wouldn’t be safe to raise a baby in those kind of scenarios. Additionally, the stress response requires a lot of energy and resources from the body, the stress response literally diverts blood, glucose, etc. away from non-essential functions like reproduction and redirects them to the brain, heart and muscles. A one off acute bought of stress probably won’t do much damage, because the body was designed to cope with acute moments of stress, but chronic or prolonged stress can end up delaying or stopping ovulation entirely.
- Low calorie or nutrient intake
- Over-exercising
The follicles require energy and nutrients to mature and to reach the point where ovulation can occur, so depriving the body of these nutrients and calories can end up slowing their growth, preventing enough oestrogen from being made and ultimately, delaying ovulation or stopping it. Additionally, under eating and/or over exercising is a stressor on the body, so again, resources and energy are preserved for the stress response and directed away from the menstrual cycle process.
Now here’s the thing. You may be thinking that low oestrogen isn’t a problem for you because you’re having a period still. That’s not true. You can STILL have a period if you haven’t ovulated or if you have low oestrogen, this is because whether it got to the thickness it needed or not, you still have some uterine lining to shed and eventually, the oestrogen is going to drop, and that will kick off a shedding of the lining.
Symptoms of low oestrogen include:
- Dyspareunia or painful sex, of course we need to consider that painful sex may also be from endometriosis or a tight pelvic floor in our case.
- Night sweats
- Low levels of cervical mucus or vaginal dryness
- Low to non-existent libido
- Joint pain
- Low mood
- Brain fog and low energy
- Infrequent periods or no period at all, or a prolonged cycle
- Dry eyes
- Dry skin
Low oestrogen is linked with heart disease and a lack bone density, so it’s important to get it addressed if this seems to be an issue for you.
So now let’s look at the other scenario. High oestrogen levels or oestrogen dominance.
This can look like a few different scenarios –
- Low oestrogen but even lower levels of progesterone in the second half of the cycle, which means oestrogen is dominating over progesterone in this phase, when it should be the other way round.
- High oestrogen and normal progesterone, again, oestrogen is dominating over progesterone but is actually also high
- High oestrogen and low progesterone
- Normal oestrogen and low progesterone
A few things can create these scenarios:
- Low progesterone, in which case, we need to look at why that’s low, and that tends to be lack of ovulation, caused by stress, dysregulated blood sugar, etc.
- An overburdened liver. Your liver processes and packages up used oestrogen, it then filters it into the gut, for removal in your daily bowel movements. When the liver is overwhelmed by environmental toxins, excess alcohol and sugar, caffeine, smoking, or even everyday chemicals from your beauty and body products, it will prioritise getting rid of those, because they’re more harmful than oestrogen. As a result, your oestrogen levels stack up in the blood stream. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning here that alcohol actually raises oestrogen levels.
- Blood sugar dysregulation, which increases oestrogen levels in the body.
- Endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals and toxins which affect or mimic hormones, some of the most disruptive being xeno-oestrogens, which mimic oestrogen in the body and are now showing to be the reason young girls are getting their periods so early. Just as a side note – if you get your hormone levels tested, these won’t show up in the test because the test is measuring oestrogen, which these toxins are not, they just mimic it.
- Excess fat cells – now I want to be really clear here, this isn’t about being sizest or fat shaming, but I am just reporting on what we know from the research. Fat cells can also raise oestrogen and so the more we have, the higher the levels of oestrogen in the body. That doesn’t mean we need to have no body fat at all, that would actually stop ovulation! But generally, the research is showing that obesity is linked to oestrogen dominance. You can do whatever you like with this information, and I do not recommend you start focusing on dramatic weight loss! But it’s important to share all of the information and not just provide you with selective info, so you at least have it all and can decide what’s relevant to you.
Symptoms of oestrogen dominance or high oestrogen levels include:
- Worsening endometriosis symptoms
- Swollen and tender breasts, and maybe breast cysts
- Worsening PMS or PMDD symptoms
- Heavy periods
- Clotty periods
- Painful periods
- Mood swings
- Ovulation pain
- Brain fog
- Bloating and water retention, especially in the second half of your cycle
Now, this is where the connection to endometriosis comes in.
Oestrogen thickens the uterine lining, largely through proliferation, which is the process of cells growing and dividing to make more cells. So, cells that have oestrogen receptors, can also grow too, which is how oestrogen forms breasts. But we know that many endometriosis cells contain oestrogen receptors (though not all of them, as we’ve come to learn), and so having high levels of excess oestrogen could potentially worsen the endometriosis.
However, this isn’t a call to go straight on the pill to lower oestrogen. Why? Well, you’ve already heard the risks of low oestrogen, but the pill won’t necessarily stop endometriosis growth because endometriosis doesn’t just rely on oestrogen to grow. In fact, if some of your endo cells don’t have oestrogen receptors, it won’t be a contributing factor. Endo also uses histamines, prostaglandins, excess iron and other chemicals to grow. Additionally, endometriosis makes its own oestrogen supply, so cutting oestrogen production off at the ovaries, doesn’t actually solve the oestrogen problem.
Often, what doctors are doing with the pill, is suppressing symptoms, but they cannot guarantee growth suppression and the pill only works for a portion of endo patients. Now, everyone has to do what works for them, so please, please, please do what is right for you – if it’s working for you, great, but I just wanted to briefly raise this.
A quick side note on this, curcumin in animal studies has been shown to reduce levels of oestrogen directly in the endometriosis cells, so whilst we don’t have the same evidence in humans yet, it’s a really exciting development.
Now of course, having oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen not only creates a set of symptoms that look a lot like endo symptoms – like heavy bleeding, cramps, fatigue, ovulation pain, etc. but it also exacerbates endo symptoms too.
So, what can you do if you suspect you have an oestrogen imbalance? Well, it of course depends on whether you have low oestrogen or excess oestrogen or oestrogen dominance.
Either way, working to support your overall hormone health will help with both scenarios – so everything we cover on the podcast, such as nutrition, blood sugar balance, stress management, sleep, supporting the liver, etc. These may all sound like the foundations of a general healthy lifestyle, and that’s exactly right – you need a healthy lifestyle for your hormones to thrive.
If you want to test your levels, you can get a simple blood test on Day 3 of your period for oestrogen and day 21 of your cycle for progesterone. Now these are only going to give you a snapshot of what your cycle is doing during this time. Your oestrogen might look fine on Day 3, but by 21 it may be way higher than your progesterone or your body might be struggling to filter it out. So, if you do want to go a bit further, a DUTCH test will give you an in-depth look at your hormones, with the most comprehensive being a DUTCH Cycle Mapping Test.
Often, testing is not necessary at first. I prefer to go through the foundational changes with my clients first, and then if they’re still not responding, we test.
So where to get started? One of the most foundational changes you can make for your hormones is balancing your blood sugar, and this is almost where I start with nearly every client who shows signs of hormonal problems. I have several episodes and articles on balancing blood sugar, and I also of course cover it in my courses and masterclasses, so you can pick whatever suits you best!
So, I hope that this has given you a deeper insight into the wonders of oestrogen, and as you can see, the ideal is healthy levels of oestrogen, rather than demonizing it and wanting to get rid of it completely!
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Show Notes
Oestrogen and the menstrual cycle
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation.REF.1
Oestrogen and bone density
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8865143/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29962257/
Oestrogen and brain
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5743731/
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/74/7/837.full.pdf
Oestrogen and heart
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5709037/
Causes of hormone dysregulation
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22115162/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation.REF.1
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-014-0004-2
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10397281/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jne.12179
https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/145/3/1314/2878187
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11511861/
Hormone testing
https://nicolejardim.com/hormone-testing-cheat-sheet/
https://nicolejardim.com/the-best-way-to-test-hormones/
https://drbrighten.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-hormone-levels/
Oestrogen and endo
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7215544/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4077338/
So, following on from last week, where I shared the most effective strategies, I’ve tried from the past seven years of managing endo, today I want to share what I do on my period to avoid a pain flare. Essentially, what I do on my period that allows me to experience either low pain levels or no pain at all, and if for some reason my levels do start to creep up, how I get them back down quickly and prevent them from getting worse.
Go back to last week’s episode if you haven’t listened to it already, but for context, before I started managing my endometriosis, my periods were excruciating. I would take pain killers upon pain killers with little to no relief at all. I couldn’t stand, sleep, walk, eat – pretty much anything.
Over the years, as I’ve come to train and to experiment, I have been able to pull together essentially a toolbox of strategies that I always go to on my period. To be clear, for me, managing endometriosis is something I do all cycle long, because if I don’t, the tools I am going to share today just aren’t as effective and my pain is worse, but a combination of month-long strategies like anti-inflammatory eating and physiotherapy for example, plus these tools on Day 1 of my cycle, really guarantee me the best results.
For years and years, I suffered with period pain that on a pain scale of 1-10, were a 12, now they’re 0-3, and a bad period would be seeing them creep to say a 5, which usually only happens very temporarily and using the strategies listed, my levels return back to normal.
Now, I want to be clear that we’re all different. You may have to play around for a few cycles to work out what you respond to, it may take you a couple of months to lower your inflammation overall, you may need different tools and strategies. So, please don’t give up if you don’t have the relief, you want straight away!
This episode is here to inspire and motivate you, but ultimately, it’s my personal protocol, and you’ll need to work out what yours looks like too.
So, now you have a bit of background and context, let’s get started…
So once I actually see fresh blood (as opposed to spotting or light pink or brown discharge), that’s when I bring in my main go-tos. As you all may know, I usually take a handful of anti-inflammatory supplements each month, and normally I will stagger these throughout the day. When I am due on however, I wait until my period starts, and then take them all at once – at the moment, I’m taking quercetin, glutathione which is a potent antioxidant and omega 3 fish oil. But I vary them up depending on what I need and if I’m on a specific healing protocol for say SIBO and histamine.
Taking them, all together gives me a dose of anti-inflammatory antioxidants that can start lowering any inflammation which comes with menstruation, and in turn, can help lower pain.
Sometimes I don’t take the whole dose in one go but instead split them into two. So, at the moment I take two glutathione a day and two omega 3 caps, and 6 quercetin, and so when I see the blood, I may take half of that, then a few hours later if I feel pain creeping in, I take them again.
The reason why I do this is because I’ve noticed a pattern in my bleeding. If I’m going to get any pain, it’s going to be when I first see fresh red blood, because that’s when the inflammation and inflammatory chemicals are doing their job to cramp the uterus up and shed the uterine lining. Then things calm down and I would say about five hours later, I get another flow of fresh red blood and if I am going to get any pain, that would be when the second wave comes, and so I may save my other dose for then.
The other things I do when I start bleeding is that I immediately put on my BeYou patches, one on the front of my pelvis and one of the back. These release natural essential oils selected for their anti-spasmodic properties, essentially, they reduce cramps. Once that’s in place, I pretty much soak my pelvis and sometimes my lower back if I’m a little achy there, with magnesium spray. Magnesium helps to reduce period pain, but also relaxes muscles and reduces cramping and inhibits the inflammatory chemical prostaglandin E2.
Now, a very quick science lesson, I talk about this in more depth in other podcast episodes and in my courses, etc. but essentially, inflammatory chemicals like histamines and prostaglandin E2 cause the smooth muscle of the uterus to contract, helping to shift the lining. That’s normal. However, when we have too many of these chemicals, it causes too much inflammation and cramping, and therefore pain. Research has found that people with endo have high levels of histamines and high levels of prostaglandin E2 in their pelvic cavity and menstrual blood, research also shows that people with dysmenorrhea or painful periods have high levels of prostaglandin E2 in their menstrual blood as well. So, what I am doing here, is essentially trying to lower the levels of inflammation and cramping.
Now, I do this all month long by adopting an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle and by avoiding things that raise prostaglandin E2 levels like refined vegetables oils, processed foods and too much sugar, and adding in practices that lower their levels, like eating a diet rich in antioxidants and omega 3 fats and utilising supplements and tools like magnesium baths.
But back to what I do on my actual period, within minutes of using all of these tools, any cramping I may feel creeping in dissolves or reduces greatly, and if I have none at all, this usually keeps it that way.
Once those bits have been done, I or my boyfriend make a ginger tea. Ginger root powder is naturally anti-inflammatory, is an effective pain reliever and has been shown to alleviate period pain when taken for the first three days of the cycle. The studies range between using 1000mg to 2000mg a day for period pain, and it’s safe to go to 2000mg generally. I divide this dose across several teas if I’m not taking it in supplement form. You shouldn’t take too much ginger in one go, as it can cause diarrhoea, so you’ll find most supplements and studies dose at 250mg to 400 or 500mg at any one time. I tend to go for 250mg of dried ginger root powder per tea. I used to do higher, but it was just too spicy for me! So, I now drink less of it, but drink it more frequently.
If I have them in the house, I will also add turmeric and cinnamon, which both have anti-inflammatory properties, and cinnamon helps to alleviate heavy menstrual bleeding. I have to be a bit cautious with cinnamon because of my histamine intolerance, but I tend to allow it on my period as I’m usually only having it for one day.
I’ll link in the show notes to a latte recipe which includes ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon.
So, I drink that, and at the same time as we’re already boiling the kettle, I may also get a hot water bottle, which I’ll use for about 30 minutes, as any longer can actually worsening cramping because the blood vessels begin to restrict. I don’t love using hot water bottles, so I only really use them if I feel I need the comfort or if I feel like I need an extra tool to keep the cramping from increasing.
As I mentioned earlier, usually I am pain free or very low pain, and there are numerous factors that allow me to live with endo in this way, and I know from experience, that if I didn’t use these strategies, my pain would usually increase or will last longer.
Next up is movement and posture. I have noticed that if I am in that point where I’m bleeding freely, that point I mentioned earlier when if I’m going to be pain, it’ll be then, if I’m lying down, then the cramps can sometimes worsen. I think this is very likely my body realising it has to work harder to move the blood out, and I start to cramp more. It could also be that by lying down, I don’t have much else to focus on except for the sensation, and so I pay more attention to it, I get scared that it might get worse, my brain feels unsafe and sends danger signals, and then of course, the brain responds by increasing pain. If you want to learn more about how pain signals work, I’ve linked to an episode in the show notes.
So, it could be either of those or both. Either way, I find if I want to relax in bed, that sitting up or at least propped up, helps to reduce the chances of this happening and if it has already happened, it tends to reduce those cramps down again fairly quickly, which is why I think it’s more to do with the body having to work harder to shift the blood out because lying down has slowed the flow.
If I still don’t feel very comfortable sitting up, say the cramping has continued, then I’ll move around. I find that when I’m moving out of choice, rather than force, so I have chosen to get out of bed and move around vs. I have to get up and catch a train to a meeting, then the movement is very helpful and tends to support my menstrual flow and eases the cramping. A walk around the house, yoga for endometriosis and period pain or a walk outside if I’m up to it, tend to ease the cramps. The exception being is if I’m stuck out for some reason, I’m tired and I don’t have any of my tools with me – that kind of scenario would increase my pain.
This leads me onto my next strategy. As much as I can, I love to rest on the first day of my period. If I can fit it into my schedule, Day 1 of my period will be the one day of the month that I allow myself to sit in bed all day and just watch romcoms and chick flicks. And I’m going to say something that might sound strange to you, and I hope it doesn’t anger or upset you because please remember, I once suffered with horrific pain too – but I actually look forward to my period now. I know my period will (hopefully) involve a bath and a day in bed watching light-hearted films and series, all guilt free. I usually watch some of my favourites like period dramas, or a classic romcom like Notting Hill. In short, it’s a very stereotypical ‘girly’ day – and I love it. I don’t often do these things, and it just feels very indulgent, comforting and like a returning to myself because I get to pause.
I have found that if I don’t do this, I end up dragging myself through my period and coming out the other end of it exhausted. Your period is when your hormones are at their lowest. Your hormones help with energy, neurotransmitter production and a heap of other functions in your body. You quite literally have less energy, less happy hormones and less of a drive to socialise on your period as a result. Not to mention, you’re using up energy and nutrients in the process of bleeding, including losing iron and magnesium, two essential nutrients for energy production, so you’re more likely to be tired.
When we push through the lowest hormone days, 1 to three being the lowest, we are stressing are body and forcing it to function off cortisol and adrenaline to get us through, because it knows it needs to meet demands it doesn’t have the physical resources to meet. It’s no wonder then, that if I don’t allow even a little bit of rest, that I feel burnt out that month, which is the inevitable result of getting by on cortisol and adrenaline.
Now, clearly, I have the privilege of working for myself and I also don’t have children to look after. So, I appreciate that most of you have to go to work and some of you have people depending on you. And I get that, for many years I was an employee working with vulnerable homeless young people, who I couldn’t let down. I would drag myself to work in whatever state I was in. These days, it’s a bit different, but I still have commitments. I see clients every week, so if my period falls on a day when I have one or two clients, I will see them and rest afterwards or beforehand, and I’ll push everything else to the next day. If I know ahead that I have a really busy day of clients, I will move some around in advance – it’s worth stating here that the only way I am able to do this is by tracking my period and ensuring I know which day I’m due on, or as close to. Back when I wasn’t tracking my period, I’d be taken by surprise every single time. Anyway – back to the point, strangely, I don’t have to do rearrange my days too often as the universe seems to organise it that my clients ask to swap a day, or my period falls on an admin day or a day when I don’t have too many sessions.
Like I said, if I do have a day with a few clients and I haven’t moved them, I’ll rest up as much as possible between calls or afterwards, and I’ll also try to take some time out the next day, so I can squeeze in a full day’s rest. If that fails and for some reason, I’m unable to take any time out, say when I’m in a course launch, then I’ll take a weekend day out to rest.
For those of you who work for a company, perhaps you can talk to your managers about arranging it so you can work from home on Day 1 of your cycle, having endometriosis means you’re legally entitled to reasonable adjustments at work, even though it’s not classified as a disability. So, for example, when I worked at Centrepoint, I could work from home on Day 1 of my cycle and the other days of my period I could come in later and leave earlier, and I would make up the time at other points in my cycle – though honestly, they didn’t even expect me to do that. If you’re not sure what you’re legally entitled to, have a listen to my episode with Clare from See Her Thrive, which is all about this topic. It’s episode number xxx.
Now of course, if you have children, I understand this may be totally unrealistic and I’m not sharing this info about what I do for you guys to replicate it all. Instead, I hope it inspires you to carve out some kind of rest or time out that works for you and your lifestyle on Day 1. It could be having five minutes to yourself before the children wake up, or it could be that your partner takes the baby for half an hour whilst you lie down, or if you’re a single parent, maybe this is a day when your friend or your own parent might be able to give you a helping hand, so you don’t have to juggle everything alone.
I don’t know what will work for you, but I’m sharing what works for me, and I hope that perhaps it’ll help you discover what works for you!
So, my next strategy is an Epsom salt bath! Yes, I rave about these and with good reason. Research shows that having a bath two to three times a week with 500 g to 600 g of Epsom salts, for 10 to 30 minutes, reverses magnesium deficiency. Now here’s the thing, most of us are deficient in magnesium, especially people who menstruate or who experience frequent stress (which let’s be honest, living with chronic illness can be stressful) as these both deplete magnesium. And as I mentioned earlier, Magnesium is not only anti-inflammatory, but reduces muscle cramping, has been shown to reduce period pain and PMS, is essential for healthy hormone balance, energy production and helps to stabilise blood sugar. All important for managing endo and for aiding in energy and pain relief on our period.
So, on my period, I try my best to make time for a bath, even if it’s just 10 minutes, to soak up that magnesium, and help to relieve the tension from my muscles and uterus and restore my energy levels.
I also always have a couple of baths in the lead up to my period to help prevent my cramps being bad on my actual period.
If you don’t have a bath, you can do this with a foot soak or you can actually get inflatable baths, fold out baths and plastic bathtubs online, that you can just store away! So, you could always try that. The benefit of soaking in bath on your period as well, is that the heat actually works as a pain therapy too.
Next is how I eat on my period. As you learned last week, once upon a time I used to fast on Day 1 of my period. I would now never do that, given how much energy we need for Day 1 of our cycle! Then when I started being able to eat on my period, I moved to more keto based meals on Day 1, to avoid a blood sugar spike, which would lead to a pain flare on my period. Now I seem to have better stability with my blood sugar, I can eat meals with a normal amount of carbs, but I ensure that meal is blood sugar balancing as much as possible – so fat, fibre, protein, and complex carbs. I do actually still ease up a bit of the fibre, so I tend to have more low FODMAP veggies on day 1, just because we are already prone to having loose stools or diarrhoea on our periods because the prostaglandins also cause the colon to cramp and contract, and as I have SIBO, if I also aggravate that, the situation just gets worse and I can get intestinal inflammation and further cramping, causing me more pain and more IBS trouble.
I also add in a few extra blood sugar hacks now that I’m eating more carbs on my period, just to avoid any spikes. I have a tablespoon of vinegar in water before I eat, which has been shown to reduce blood sugar spikes and I eat my veggies first or try to have a side salad first, and eat my starches last in a meal, which again, has been shown to reduce blood sugar spikes because the fibre from the veggies delays the glucose release. And just to credit her, this info is from the incredible biochemist Glucose Goddess. I also walk around the house for 10 minutes after a meal, or just move gently on the spot, which helps to use up any excess glucose, preventing a spike. I have found that using these hacks on Day 1 of my period, really allow me to eat more comfort food like a pasta or something carby, without having a pain flare.
If you want to understand this process in more detail, have a listen to last week’s episode and episode xx, and it’s definitely worth checking out the Glucose Goddess!
So that’s it! That’s everything I do on my period to prevent a pain flare or to reduce pain if I have any.
Usually, these practices keep me pain free or at a low level of pain, but if for some reason it creeps up, I double down on these and repeat some of the processes, like spraying magnesium, drinking tea, applying a new patch, or taking some more supplements, and if I really need to, I take a paracetamol. Usually, I just need one and that’s enough to nip it in the bud.
Now of course, what works for me may not work for you because we’re all different. This period protocol has been created after years of experimenting and training as an endo health coach, and I’ve adapted it over the years as my endo has changed. If you’d like to create your own protocol, I really recommend going over some previous podcasts and articles for further research and information, and of course, I have the masterclasses and my course Live and Thrive with Endo.
Please do consult your doctor before taking any supplements or making any dietary changes!
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This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
**Show Notes**
Super Turmeric Latte
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis (pain signals)
Christie Uipi episode (pain signals)
Curcumin
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4533742/
https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/491886
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332217346838?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464615000092
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5407015/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24672232/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25277322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476912/
Quercetin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19462895/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/781684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808895/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19297429/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273625/
https://avivaromm.com/remedies-seasonal-allergies/
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531187/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2832216/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614254/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11687013/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22261128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257651/
Magnesium
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250
https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/
https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/
Cinnamon
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4443385/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5220230/
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/3/815/4596714
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/
https://examine.com/supplements/cinnamon/
https://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(16)30899-1/fulltext
Essential oils
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979258/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/prt/2016/8158693/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2221169115001033?via%3Dihub
Okay so as it’s the start of a new year I thought I’d do a reflective type episode.
I’ve been doing this podcast for a couple of years and many of you have been with me on this journey of transformation with my endometriosis, but I realised I’ve not really done an episode where I’ve shared my biggest needle movers in terms of endo strategies. I recently did a live on my key go-to daily strategies and this is a bit similar, but this is all about the things I am certain have made the biggest changes to my symptoms.
Now, they’re not the only changes – supporting my liver, improving my gut health, adhesion work, physiotherapy and many more strategies have made a big difference too, but if for some crazy reason my life depended on it and I had to give just four strategies that I think made the biggest difference, it would be these.
The reason why I’m sharing this is because I’ve seen many people and clients go down rabbit holes with very niche changes. They start researching alkaline water and focusing on only drinking that, or drinking celery juice every day, or drinking apple cider vinegar every day or doing a fast or a juice cleanse. And sure, I’m not saying there aren’t benefits to some of these more nuanced additions (some of them however do more harm than good!), but if your diet is still full of processed foods or you’re drinking alcohol every day, or you’re not getting enough sleep or you have an underlying condition like SIBO, these smaller changes are only going to do so much. So, I’m trying to save you time by giving you an insight as to what really worked for me.
Now of course, this is my personal experience so you may respond differently, but I will say as an endo health coach, that a healthy anti-inflammatory diet and balanced blood sugar are essential to managing endometriosis. That’s why I talk about them so much and why they are at the core of my work with endometriosis clients. How that fits into each client’s life, if at all, is down to the individual, but all of us can benefit from a healthy diet and balanced blood sugar, even if we don’t have endometriosis!
So again, before we get started, the following is my personal experience, not a protocol for you to follow, but I hope that my experience might inspire you with where to start or how to continue on your own journey of healing your endo symptoms. If you do want a more step-by-step protocol based on the science and research, then I have countless articles, podcasts and then of course my classes, courses and coaching that you can use to create your own plan for beating endo.
So let’s get started…
- Number 1 is anti-inflammatory nutrition. This was the first thing I tried for endometriosis, way back in the beginning when I was waiting for my second operation, about seven years ago.
At that time, my life was miserable. I lived in fear of my endometriosis flares, and my period was excruciating. I would have pain that would start before I was bleeding, sometimes a full 24 hours beforehand, at a level 10 on the pain scale – and then, I’d start bleeding and it would be even worse. The worst of the pain would be for about 48 hours to maybe three days, and by the third day it would start to clear and would be manageable again and would fade away.
Nothing seemed to help for the pain, I would take way too many painkillers and then spend the next couple of days recovering from the number of painkillers I had taken, feeling sick and experiencing migraines and drowsiness.
Feeling desperate, I went down a rabbit hole learning about nutrition for endo and inflammation, and I had so long to wait until my surgery that I decided to give it a go.
Now, to caveat, how I did this is not how I would recommend my client’s do it having now qualified as an endometriosis health coach. So, please don’t take this initial bit as advice, I’m just sharing what I did for context…
So, unfortunately, I didn’t change my diet very strategically. I didn’t do an elimination diet, where you remove certain common inflammatory foods and allergens and then add them back in one by one to see which ones you respond to. Instead, I just removed a handful and pretty much kept them out for the most part, which is not what I would recommend doing now, unless it was a food that you know, for health reasons it’s generally best to keep to minimal amounts, like alcohol and added sugar. But for the most part, I wouldn’t advise clients to just cut out a bunch of foods and never try them again or to stay strictly away from them forever. I guess the difference with me in this scenario is that I had just done a food intolerance test and it showed I was really intolerant to gluten and diary, and when I removed them I felt so much better, the difference in my IBS symptoms and period was so dramatic, that I think that test had been pretty accurate, though generally they’re quite unreliable (an elimination diet is the most effective way to test if you have a food intolerance).
So anyway, I removed gluten, dairy, added sugar and caffeine specifically – I already wasn’t drinking alcohol and so I continued with that, and I was already vegetarian so I went fully vegan at this point and decided to remove eggs too. Back then I wasn’t a health coach and I was confused about the health verdict of eggs at the time (which has changed over the years), so as I wanted to go vegan anyway, I just removed them too. I don’t think I was eating them much anyway, except in baked goods.
And just a side note, if you’re happy to eat animal protein and it fits with your lifestyle and values (because we’re all different and have to do what’s right for us as individuals!), eggs are nutrient dense, great for hormones and healthy, providing that they’re organic, free-range and from hens fed a diet mostly based on grass and foraging. Lean, unprocessed meat can have a role in a healthy anti-inflammatory diet for endometriosis, providing it is grass-fed, organic and free range or wild, to avoid the added hormones and inflammatory chemicals. That’s a big topic for another discussion, but in short, most anti-inflammatory diets in the research show a greater intake of plant foods over meat. The link between red meat and endo is more complex and requires an entire episode itself, the bottom line is that if you do eat red meat, it’s all about quality and quantity. If you want to learn more, I do cover it in my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses and in the Live and Thrive with Endo course and this will be covered in another episode later in the year, it’s just a guest episode and we haven’t been able to pin a date down yet.
But back to the main point, I did this elimination diet for one month, and had a pain free period. My first pain free period in years. This was the start of my managing endo naturally and holistically.
I then went onto experiment, unfortunately not very strategically as I already shared, and I would add things in here and there, and make changes, and sometimes I would have good periods and sometimes I would have bad, and because I wasn’t being very strategic, I didn’t always know what the cause was. But what I did know is that if I ate a diet low in inflammatory foods, and for me, what I worked out from my experiments is that my biggest inflammatory triggers were sugar, dairy, gluten, caffeine and alcohol, then I had dramatically better periods. I had some hiccups, as I’ll come to explain later, but this change meant that I got my life back.
Now I didn’t just swap these foods for a bunch of processed replacements like soy meat products and gluten free bread, because let’s not forget, processed foods whether veggie, vegan or meat based, are still processed foods – and we know a diet high in processed food is generally inflammatory. Instead, I ensured my diet was rich in whole plant foods that were full of antioxidants, which fight inflammation.
Since then, I’ve come to learn the science behind anti-inflammatory nutrition and a more sustainable approach to changing our diet as part of my training as an endo health coach.
In short, I focus on what we call ‘crowding out’ the inflammatory or processed foods with more nutrient dense whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, healthy fats including olive oil, avocados, fatty fish if applicable, and nuts and seeds; lean protein like beans and legumes, fish and grass-fed organic meat in moderation, and whole grains, gluten free if necessary. These foods are the key foods that come up time and time again in the research as being the basis of an anti-inflammatory diet, the biggest difference is that some diets include a little meat, some not at all and some quite a bit, like the paleo diet – however, as I said before, the key takeaway is that plants outweigh meat and are the star players of an anti-inflammatory diet.
Now of course, every single body is different, so what is generally anti-inflammatory in the research may not be anti-inflammatory to you, so for example, tomatoes are very anti-inflammatory in general and according to the research, but for me, because I have histamine intolerance, they’re inflammatory. So just keep that in mind, there’s no one size fits all for anti-inflammatory nutrition and it also comes down to your personal lifestyle and values.
Then, if or when my client’s feel ready, we go through a short 4-week elimination phase where we remove a small list of common inflammatory foods or allergens, and then we retest them one by one to see which ones are worsening inflammation and endo symptoms.
These days, I personally adopt the 80/20 rule. For the most part, I eat an anti-inflammatory diet, rich in those food groups I mentioned above. Then, occasionally, usually at the weekends, I allow myself to have some foods that aren’t normally in my personal anti-inflammatory diet, like a takeaway (or take out for my American listeners) or added sugar or caffeine.
Now, this is a very short discussion on anti-inflammatory eating, and more so from my personal perspective, so please don’t base any changes on what I’ve shared here. Instead, do further research and listen to my other episodes on anti-inflammatory nutrition for endo or read my articles, or if you want a step-by-step outline on how to make changes safely and realistically, there’s of course my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, my course Live and Thrive with Endo or you can work with me one to one. As always, consult your doctor before making any dietary changes! And if you have a history of an eating disorder or currently have one, please work with a nutritionist or dietician and a mental health practitioner before making changes.
But personally, for me, this was the first change I ever made to manage my endo and it will forever be the biggest game changer. This was the pillar that the following changes were built on.
- Number 2 was adding in anti-inflammatory supplements, specifically curcumin, ginger and magnesium.
When I first started managing endo with nutrition, I would say that my endo was still unpredictable. I was still learning and as you’ll come to see in strategy 3, I didn’t really understand the science behind what my body was and wasn’t responding to. To have a pain free period I felt like I had to eat “perfect” all the time, and that I could never eat any of the foods that I had cut out in the beginning - as soon as I strayed, I would end up having a really bad period that month. I felt like I was just too sensitive, and I had to work really hard to control it. It was incredible that I could even have a pain free period after years of suffering, but trying to maintain that every month was difficult.
I was then offered a curcumin and ginger supplement to trial, both have been shown in studies to be effective pain relievers, and just as effective as NSAIDS, and curcumin has been shown in rat models to directly target endo and reduce lesion size and growth rate, whilst ginger has been shown time and time again to reduce period pain. I wasn’t offered the supplement to test for endo, but actually for immunity, but that month was December and I had already been more relaxed with my eating so I was worried I would have a flare around my period. But then my period arrived and I felt absolutely fine, I still remember my shock and confusion trying to understand what I had done differently.
For me, this was the start of consistently low pain or pain free periods. Adding supplements on top took the edge off and allowed me to be more flexible with my diet and lifestyle. This is when I really moved into the 80/20 rule I shared earlier, because I had more freedom to.
Since that first encounter, I have experimented with lots of supplements and there are some great, incredibly effective ones out there which I share in episodes 130 and 131. For me, I like curcumin because there’s promising research on its effects on endo, when taken consistently it’s just as effective as ibuprofen so has pain relieving benefits daily, it helps to heal leaky gut which is important for keeping inflammation down, it’s a powerful anti-inflammatory and we know inflammation drives pain and it can also help with brain fog. I haven’t actually taken curcumin for a long time because I’ve had to focus on supplements for SIBO and there’s only so many I can take or afford, but for several years this was my go-to and I believe played a huge role in my healing.
I still take ginger to this day, just before and on my period. I would take it daily but unfortunately it burns my bladder because of my interstitial cystitis. However, I use ginger to prevent and reduce any mild cramping that may come with my period, just so I can be sure I can keep to the pain free or low pain levels that I’m used to.
What I love about ginger as well, is that if I find I have higher pain levels than usual, it really pretty much stops them in their tracks. So, for example, if there’s been a birthday or event near my period and I’ve eaten lot of sugar or something I know flares me that I wouldn’t normally eat, I find the ginger means I don’t suffer severely for it, it gets the pain under control quickly. A handful of times I may add a single paracetamol in there if I find it’s not strong enough, but that’s rare!
If you’re interested in the dosing etc. of ginger, have a listen to my supplements episode, episode 131.
Finally, a later addition was magnesium. Magnesium is not only anti-inflammatory, but reduces muscle cramping, has been shown to reduce period pain and PMS, is essential for healthy hormone balance, energy production and helps to stabilise blood sugar, which you’ll learn about in my next strategy. The difference I experience in my energy, my hormones, my moods, my sleep and my period pain with magnesium is extraordinary. I use both magnesium spray on my body daily and directly on my abdomen during my period, and I use magnesium baths throughout the month.
If I feel any cramping during my period, I spray a couple of times on my pelvis, and the cramps literally melt away in minutes, so in that way, I use it for in the moment pain relief as and when needed. But when I use magnesium spray and baths consistently, the need for spray during my period is greatly reduced, I just find my body’s tolerance and resilience is so much higher, I can be more flexible and have less consequences, and it takes a lot more to cause me pain. That doesn’t mean I can eat junk food and sugar every day as long as I use magnesium, I want to be clear that you can’t out supplement a bad diet and eating healthy isn’t just about endo, but all of the other chronic diseases we are at greater risk of with an unhealthy diet, like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. So yes, I still focus on my 80/20 approach, but it means that I can eat out more and have some treats without such severe reactions as I used to.
You know I am all about foundations, so for me, it’s about laying the foundations of good health and then adding in some extra endo support, because we tend to need a little more than the average person. And I feel like these supplements do that for me. They’re the cherry on the top that have really enhanced my endo management and freed up my life.
- Number 3 is balancing my blood sugar, which came many years later when I started my training as a health coach.
Something I had noticed was despite my endo pain being better, I was always exhausted. I had severe dips during the day which would leave me slumped in my chair and so tired I literally would hold my eyes open whilst staring at my computer. It’s a wonder that no one on my management team pulled me up on it! I additionally had severe brain fog and low moods.
I also felt hungry quickly after big meals, would have trouble sleeping, would wake up tired and starving, and would often feel faint, dizzy, shaky and irritable.
I put this all down to having endometriosis and the chronic fatigue and brain fog that can come with it. I now don’t think it’s as simple as endo causes brain fog and fatigue, I actually think -well, know - there are multiple factors that contribute to these symptoms, and I explore them in episode 119 for those of you who would like to learn more.
I was really interested in understanding why I had managed to clear my endo pain, but not my fatigue and brain fog.
The other issue was that I had noticed that I couldn’t eat heavy carbs on my period without causing a pain flare. I could be pain free, had a great month, but if I ate some fruit, a bowl or oats, rice, grains, pasta or potato, I would be in agony within 30 minutes or so. I started noticing that I was better off sticking to fasting on Day 1 of my period, or eating a small amount of protein, fats and low starchy vegetables for the first 24 hours to two days.
I was also depressed, anxious and had awful PMS and mood swings and spent a good portion of each month feeling suicidal. I do have my suspicions about whether I suffered with PMDD and that it’s now largely under control, but I wasn’t tracking my period and I didn’t even know when my period would start, so I can’t really say whether these feelings were cyclical, but I feel like they were. Regardless, all of that has gone away since balancing my hormones and learning about blood sugar.
And when I finally did learn about blood sugar, it all made sense!
So, let’s do a recap of what blood sugar is and means for the body. Blood sugar is the measurement of glucose a.ka. sugar, in the blood stream. We get glucose from carbohydrates, after they break down in the gut through digestion. Glucose is the body’s main source of fuel, but it needs to be in the right amount to benefit us. Too much and we’ll have problems, too little and we’ll have problems too.
Complex carbohydrates like vegetables, contain fibre and are broken down over time, so you get a steady drip of glucose to the blood stream over a sustained period, which creates even energy levels.
However, simple carbohydrates like processed carbs such as white bread, white pasta and simple sugars like honey, maple syrup and white sugar, contain very little fibre and are made up of only very short chains of glucose. It doesn’t take the body much time at all to break down those chains into single glucose molecules that get absorbed into the blood stream. So, this creates a large spike in blood sugar, in a very short amount of time.
Our body actually finds this spike a stressor, as we’re not designed to have that much glucose in our blood at one time. The body wants to clean up all this glucose quickly, so it releases lots of insulin from our pancreas. Insulin is a hormone that delivers glucose to cells for fuel, but when we have too much glucose, it quickly shoves it away in storage in our fat cells and liver. Because the body has released so much insulin in a panic to sort our blood sugar levels out, our glucose levels end up dropping dramatically and our levels get too low. As a result, our brain and body are now starved of glucose, because all of it has been put into storage and none has been left for actual fuel.
It’s this dip that I was experiencing during my sleep, when I was waking in the morning, when I felt exhausted mid-morning and afternoon, it’s why I would eat a huge meal and feel starving shortly after. It’s why I felt dizzy, shaky, depressed, anxious. It’s also why my moods fluctuated and it’s also why I had severe PMS and oestrogen dominance symptoms, because blood sugar dysregulation drives up oestrogen levels and can lower progesterone levels, creating hormonal imbalances.
Now the other issue is that high blood sugar levels raise inflammatory chemicals called prostaglandins, and we know that inflammation is a driver of pain in endometriosis. This would explain why I would have surges in pain when eating a carb heavy meal during my period, especially when I hadn’t created these meals to be blood sugar balancing. I can now eat a blood sugar balanced meal on my period and not experience any pain at all, which to me is still revolutionary.
At the time, when I was experiencing all of these problems, I was eating a wonderful anti-inflammatory diet rich in an antioxidant rich foods, but I was mainly eating carbs, and wasn’t paying enough attention to protein or healthy fats. I would pile my plate with hummus, potatoes, rice, falafel and vegetables. These aren’t unhealthy foods. Carbs are not the enemy here – as I’ve already explained, the glucose from carbs is essential fuel for us. But it’s about how we eat carbs.
There are a few steps to balancing your blood sugar and I dive into those in more details in other episodes, articles, my course Live and Thrive with Endo and my nutrition masterclasses, but in short, the first step is having a balanced plate. That means having fat, fibre, protein and complex carbs with every meal.
Fat, fibre and protein are not only nutrient dense and provide essential nutrients for managing endo and balancing hormones, but they slow down the release of glucose from carbohydrates because they take longer to digest.
At the IWHI where I trained, we’re taught to balance a plate with 50% of the plate being low starch vegetables like cruciferous veg, peppers, cucumbers, etc., 25% of your plate is protein, whether that’s animal or plant based, and the final 25% is split between healthy fats and extra carbs, usually starchier ones or more veggies, depending on what your body needs. So, for example, it might look like having some root vegetables which are starchier and higher in carbs, or whole grains which again are starchier and higher in carbs, and tend to break down more quickly than low starch veg. For fat, we’re looking at about two tablespoons or two golf ball sized portions.
Now this will need tweaking for each individual, as someone who is very active will probably need more starchy carbs than someone who has a desk job, but regardless, it’s about focusing on those four pillars and their rough portion sizes, adjusting to what feels right to you.
Once I made this change, I felt such a huge difference, I almost think about my health in the sense of before and after blood sugar balancing! My moods are much more stable, my energy is consistent in the sense that I don’t often have those swings anymore or those crashes unless my blood sugar is unstable for some reason, I rarely ever have oestrogen dominance symptoms unless I haven’t taken care of my blood sugar, I don’t have PMS again unless I haven’t taken care of my blood sugar, my brain fog is minimal and I’m much more focused, and I don’t have these surges of pain when I eat on my period anymore.
Of course, if you have an eating disorder or a history of an eating disorder and this feels triggering for you, I don’t recommend you make any changes without the support of a dietician or nutritionist versed in eating disorders and a mental health practitioner.
If you’d like to learn more about blood sugar in-depth, I listed earlier the resources where I provide more step-by-step actions.
- My last biggest needle mover has been surprising for me and that’s clearing my SIBO, despite having relapsed shortly afterwards.
I haven’t spoken about this much because I wanted to be sure, but even though I am quite certain I have relapsed with my SIBO, since I got a negative test result, I’ve experienced yet again, a new level of resilience in my period, similar to how I felt with adding in those supplements.
Just after I got the all clear we spent six weeks in Greece, where my options for endo friendly foods were limited. I ended up incredibly sick with gut health issues, because I am intolerant to gluten and dairy and having to eat those a few times a week ended up causing a lot of IBS issues, but in the past I would have been in cripplingly agony on my period if I was eating these foods regularly, but instead, whilst I did have an increase in pain, it wasn’t anywhere near how it was previously.
I will say, during treatment my period was up and down because there was a lot of inflammation going on in my body, so it was more coming out on the other side that I’ve seen the difference.
And since treating, I’ve introduced gluten for a coeliac disease test, but again, despite it being worse than normal and I’ve needed to take some time out of work for it, the pain with my periods wasn’t anywhere to the level it would have been in the past.
Secondly, my blood sugar levels have dramatically improved. Prior to treating my SIBO, I would have to work very hard to control my blood sugar levels and I was incredibly sensitive to any increases or dips, now they are much less sensitive and more stable. And even though I could eat more on my period learning how to balance my blood sugar, I still had to eat a low level of carbohydrates to prevent a blood sugar spike, which would normally lead to a pain flare. So, in terms of what I could eat on my period, I had gone from pretty much needing to fast or eating minimal amounts of fat and protein, to then being able to eat low carb meals once I learnt how to balance my blood sugar. However, now the difference is remarkable.
My period was on New Year’s Eve and I truly cannot believe what I ate. I had already noticed over the past months that I was becoming more and more resilient with what I could eat, so we decided to have noodles on New Year’s Eve. Usually, I would stay away from anything with a high carb content on my period because it would just shoot my pain up, but because I had been dipping my toes in over the past few months and as it was New Year’s Eve, I decided to try something I would never normally even consider eating on my period. I’m pretty sure I also ate some of my gluten free bread that day too and probably some other Christmassy carbs. And whilst I got slightly more pain than my usual low pain or pain free periods, with some extra ginger and magnesium, it went away quickly (as in, within half an hour).
So again, just to be clear, I’m not about to fill my diet with foods I know make me sick, like dairy, gluten, caffeine and sugar, and I’m certainly not going to start swapping my veggies for more processed food. But it’s nice to know I don’t have to panic if I eat a slice of birthday cake near my period or if I want a bowl of pasta on my period.
Now you’re probably wondering why treating the SIBO would make a difference. Without offering my body up for research, I can only hypothesize as to what’s happened, but I think I can reasonably believe this is correct.
Firstly, SIBO, especially methane type SIBO, can cause blood sugar imbalances, as can other forms of bacterial imbalances in the gut. I believe that whatever bacteria I specifically had that was behind my SIBO, was driving some of my blood sugar issues. You’ve heard me talk about this for a long time, that even when I ate for blood sugar, I would still notice how sensitive I was to blood sugar changes or a meal that wasn’t perfectly balanced. Now there are numerous bacteria responsible for SIBO, so for example, two people could have methane type SIBO, but the bacteria causing their methane SIBO could be different. I think that the bacteria causing my blood sugar issues has either been cleared entirely and it’s a different bacteria that’s causing my current relapse, or it’s returned but is in low levels so I’m not so affected by it.
Secondly, bacteria from SIBO can release a toxin called endotoxins or lipopolysaccharides. These cause a huge inflammatory reaction in the body and have been found in the pelvic cavity of people with endo and have been shown to contribute to the inflammation and growth of endometriosis. Having cleared SIBO, it’s possible that I may have reduced the level of endotoxins in my blood and pelvic cavity, reducing the inflammation in that area. And as a result, my body is more resilient to changes that can increase inflammation because it’s not already being inflamed by SIBO.
Clearly, I need to get back on top of my SIBO to keep reaping the benefits because I don’t want the endo toxins or bacteria to build up to high levels again. It’s not something I’m doing just yet because I’m working on my root causes, to prevent relapsing again, and as you know, I’ve been exploring candida overgrowth and mould too, which can cause relapse, but all of these things take time. If I notice any negative changes, I’ll try to do the treatment quicker, but for now, I’m enjoying the benefits!
So that’s it. Those are my top four changes that I feel made the biggest difference to my endo symptoms in the past seven years. I hope you’ve found this episode inspiring, motivating and hopeful!
See you next week.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Ease Endo Tea Challenge here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Anti-inflammatory nutrition
https://www.integrativepainscienceinstitute.com/diet-works-best-pain/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4684110/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359818/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11093597/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11093597/
https://gut.bmj.com/content/65/11/1812.long
https://gut.bmj.com/content/70/7/1287#article-bottom
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23419794/
https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/149/3/1190/2455150
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15051604/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693127/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00031-18?permanently=true
Magnesium
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250
https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/
https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/
SIBO
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7375730/
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Seven Foods To Alleviate PMS with Endometriosis In episode 107 I took you through what oestrogen dominance is, the causes and the symptoms, alongside seven foods to help alleviate the hormonal imbalance. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, go ahead and check it out, then come back to this one!
But why is oestrogen dominance even a problem? Oestrogen has been shown in multiple studies to play a pivotal role in the development and growth of endometriosis, it’s why many doctors use progestin only hormonal birth control methods to possibly help lower symptoms (though not everyone responds well to this option). If we have too much oestrogen in our body, we may be further fuelling our endo and additionally, the symptoms of oestrogen dominance look a lot like endometriosis and we for sure don't want to be worsening those!
So today, I’m taking you through five natural lifestyle and nutrition tips to reduce oestrogen dominance and balance hormones with endometriosis.
- Stress management - The body responds to stress by releasing cortisol and adrenaline. In acute moments of genuine threat and danger, this is helpful and normal but long-term chronic stress, whether it’s a low lying level of stress or severe, can cause hormonal disruption, lowering progesterone and creating an oestrogen dominant scenario.
Stressors don’t just have to be emotional or mental (like 2020!), they can also be physiological, like over-exercising, heavy caffeine consumption, underlying infections or conditions like SIBO, chronic inflammation, lack of sleep, dysregulated blood sugar, etc.
Strategies that have been shown to lower cortisol include meditation, mindfulness, breath work, yoga and walking in nature. 2. Blood sugar balance - Blood sugar balance is absolutely key to healthy hormones and imbalanced blood sugar can lead to oestrogen dominance, as well as inflammation (worsening pain). There are numerous ways that dysregulated blood sugar causes imbalanced hormones, but for the purpose of today’s conversation, I’ll focus on two areas…
High insulin levels (caused by a spike in blood sugar) raises aromatase, an enzyme that coverts testosterone into oestrogen, creating excess oestrogen in the body. Additionally, blood sugar imbalance can also cause sporadic ovulation or a lack of ovulation entirely, lowering progesterone and further exacerbating the oestrogen dominance scenario.
Three key ways to balance blood sugar are making sure your meals include fat, fibre, protein and complex carbohydrates. Eating regularly and not allowing yourself to get really hungry, hangry, shaky or faint before meals and reducing refined carbohydrates like pastries and sugary snacks. 3. Daily bowel movements - You should be having at least one bowel movement a day, as this not only allows waste to leave the body but any old oestrogen too. Constipation can lead to oestrogen dominance because oestrogen is reabsorbed if it’s not eliminated quickly enough - and I see this often with my clients who suffer with constipation from SIBO!
Ensure you’re drinking enough water (at least half your body weight in lbs, in oz) and you’re eating 8-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day for adequate fibre. Foods like chia seeds can also really help, but would be best avoided if you have SIBO as chia seeds can aggravate symptoms.
If your bowel movements are fine, your gut may still need some attention. The gut microbiome contains a group of bacteria called the estrobolome which is responsible for eliminating oestrogen from the gut, if you have an imbalance and not enough of this bacteria, you may not be able to properly remove oestrogen. Additionally, an enzyme in the gut called beta-glucuronidase can actually take old and used up oestrogen and convert it back into the usable form, causing an excess of oestrogen in the body. You can test your gut microbiome using a test called the GI Map.
If you think something is up with your gut microbiome, I encourage you to go back to my episodes on the endo belly and try some of the strategies listed there. 4. Removing xenooestrogens - Xenooestrogens are chemicals that are in the environment, pesticides, beauty products, cleaning products and more, which mimic oestrogen and have been linked in numerous studies to hormonal disruption, endometriosis and fertility problems. They additionally over-burden the liver and so old oestrogen is put on the back burner whilst the liver works hard to clear out these toxins in our body. Both the xenooestrogens themselves plus our own waste oestrogen building up leads to oestrogen dominance.
Strategies to reduce our exposure include drinking filtered water, going organic as much as possible, swapping our beauty, body and cleaning products for non-toxic versions and replacing our non-stick cookware and Tupperware with stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic, glass, silicone and non-toxic non-stick products. Yes, this is a lot to do, so start slowly! Even if it takes you a year to work through, that’s fine!
We can also support our liver further with lowering our exposure to drugs, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, drinking plenty of water and eating a nutritious diet.
Good nutrition - You knew it was coming! 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day fill us with fibre to help daily bowel movements, feed our gut bacteria and also provide essential nutrients for healthy hormones. Additionally, cruciferous veg play a key role in helping to clear out our waste oestrogen. Healthy fats, protein and complex carbohydrates also aid in keeping our blood sugar levels balanced and supporting our body to make healthy, happy hormones. For more tips on nutrition, head to episode 107.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim
My blood sugar episode
Understanding the Endo Belly Part 1
Understanding the Endo Belly Part 2
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Seven Foods To Alleviate PMS with Endometriosis Bloating? Anxiety? Tearfulness? Painful breasts? If you experience any of these symptoms, you likely experience PMS in the lead up to your period.
Even though PMS is very common, it doesn’t mean it’s just something we have to live with - especially when we’re dealing with endometriosis as well. In fact, PMS is caused by hormonal imbalances, often oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and sometimes low progesterone - and when we get these into balance, a lot of our endo symptoms ease too!
So this week, I wanted to share with your seven foods that you can add in during your luteal phase (the phase after ovulation, before your period) that contain wonderful nutrients that have been shown to alleviate PMS and support healthy hormone balance…
- Leafy greens for magnesium, calcium and potassium. You guys must know by now how much I love magnesium! It helps to alleviate cramps, aids in oestrogen detoxification but also progesterone production and reduces bloating. Potassium additionally supports bloating, which is another bonus considering so many of you reach out to tell me this is one of your worse symptoms. Finally, in research calcium has been shown to help with PMS symptoms too! Add to smoothies, salads and whatever you’re having for dinner - think leafy greens with each meal.
- Nuts and seeds, particularly sunflower seeds, sesame (tahini is best here as sesame seeds are often too small to chew and pass through undigested) and pumpkin seeds. Nuts and seeds and these three in particular are rich in magnesium, and zinc which supports healthy progesterone levels and good levels of vitamin E, which has been shown to help alleviate period pain and PMS. Add nut butter to your porridge, overnight oats and smoothies and drizzle tahini over your veggies.
- Protein for B6, including organic free range and pasture raised chicken and turkey, organic grass-fed beef, fish, lentils and chickpeas. B6 helps to keep blood sugar levels stable (in turn, keeping hormones balanced and anxiety and fatigue at bay) and has actually been shown to reduce PMS and depressive symptoms, and is truly a crucial vitamin for healthy hormonal balance! Try a chickpea curry for dinner and perhaps wild caught fish or another animal protein at lunch with lots of veggies and some healthy complex carbs and fat.
- Sweet potatoes, squash and beetroot (and all other root veggies) actually help to raise serotonin levels in our brain thanks to their complex carbohydrate content. Our feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin works closely with oestrogen during the first half of our cycle, and when oestrogen lowers in our second half our mood can take a bit of a hit - especially if our progesterone levels aren’t high enough. Eating root veggies with a good serving of protein and fat improve our mood, boost our energy and keep our blood sugar levels stable. Root vegetables also contain hormone loving B vitamins, calcium and magnesium - all great for balancing hormones and alleviating PMS. Try steaming and freezing root vegetables for smoothies or making up a lentil and beetroot salad.
- Peppers and other vitamin C rich foods like berries and broccoli can actually help to increase progesterone levels. Low progesterone levels can lead to PMS, anxiety, low moods, short cycles and pre-menstrual spotting. Try a salad of leafy greens, broccoli, peppers and lentils for a hit of vitamin C, magnesium and B6!
- Kidney beans, black beans, adzuki beans and other beans for B vitamins. B vitamins are some of the foundational nutrients behind healthy hormones - they ensure you’re making healthy amounts, keep oestrogen in check, support progesterone if it’s low and so much more that I’ll have to do a whole podcast on them. In short, they can help alleviate PMS symptoms by making sure any excess or old oestrogen is cleared out and that you have a healthy level of progesterone in your luteal phase. Try an Italian bean salad with rocket, pumpkin seed pesto, adzuki beans, borlotti beans, olives, red onion, tomatoes, pepper, artichokes and olive oil!
- Broccoli sprouts, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables for healthy oestrogen elimination. Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain DIM and sulforaphane which support the liver to break down oestrogen in a healthy way and therefore lowers any chance of PMS symptoms. Throw a big handful or half a cup of broccoli sprouts in your smoothies or on salads, and try adding cauliflower rice to your chickpea curry.
Even just adding one or two of these foods in on a daily basis could make a difference! Try making a meal plan or some meal ideas with any of the above suggestions and track how your PMS symptoms over a few cycles to see if things change.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim
My blood sugar episode
Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
Fertility Awareness Method
My FLO app
Magnesium:
Magnesium for oestrogen clearance
The Association Between Serum Magnesium and Premenstrual Syndrome: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Potassium:
Potassium foods for bloating
Calcium:
A systematic review of the role of vitamin D and calcium in premenstrual syndrome
Zinc:
Zinc induced changes in the progesterone binding properties of the human endometrium
Vitamin E:
Evaluating the effects of vitamin D and vitamin E supplement on premenstrual syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial
B6:
The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones
Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes
Dr Jolene Brighten B6
Vitamin C:
Serum Antioxidants Are Associated with Serum Reproductive Hormones and Ovulation among Healthy Women
Low progesterone
B vitamins:
Dr Joelene Brighten
Broccoli sprouts:
Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts
Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans
Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Six Foods To Eat Before Your Period To Reduce Pain with Endometriosis Today I wanted to follow up on last week’s episode Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period, with something a little more focused around nutrition. As most of you will know by now, I lean towards making healthy choices to support us with endo all month long, but that doesn’t mean that focusing on foods to add in just before our period can’t be useful. In fact, if you’re struggling with where to get started with endometriosis management, I would start here and with my last episode.
As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. If you’re triggered by any of this, seek the support of a therapist and dietician/health coach/nutritionist before making further dietary changes.
So, here are any foods to to eat before your period to reduce pain with endometriosis:
- Spinach and other leafy greens such as kale, boy chow, lettuce, rocket, chard and other greens. Add these in for anti-inflammatory nutrients, magnesium iron and fibre. Leafy greens can help to reduce period pain, fatigue, PMS symptoms like bloating and can aid reducing any excess oestrogen. You can throw some spinach in your morning smoothie and a big handful or two of lettuce to your lunch.
- Olive oil and other Vitamin E containing foods such as almonds, olives, avocados, greens and sunflower seeds. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce inflammation in numerous studies, as well as reduce pain with endometriosis and painful periods. Try drizzling two tablespoons of olive oil or sunflower seed butter over your lunch time salad, and snacking on almonds!
- Broccoli and other cruciferous veg like kale, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli sprouts, sprouts and cabbage. These help to reduce oestrogen dominance by supporting the body to remove old oestrogen that needs clearing out and can cause symptoms like clots periods, heavy periods and period pain. You could try roasting wedges of red cabbage and mixing into a salad, grating red cabbage over a tex-mea meal or adding broccoli sprouts to salads and smoothies.
- Salmon and other sources of omega 3 fats such as mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring, walnuts and chia seeds. Omega 3 fats help to lower inflammation and have been shown to reduce period pain and in studies on rats, reduce the size of endometriosis lesions. Add no more than two portions of fatty fish a week in addition to walnuts and chia seeds, and be cautious of large fatty fish as these can have a higher mercury content. If you don’t eat fish, it’s worth noting that most of us can’t convert plant-based sources of omega. fats into the usable form, so you’ll need to supplement with a vegan DHA and EPA supplement. One way to get in extra fish is to pair it with a Mediterranean salad and whole grains like quinoa for dinner, and try adding in some chia with a chia pot snack mixed with blueberries, walnuts and some almond milk.
- Tomatoes and other colourful vegetables such as berries, red cabbage, parsnips, peppers, squashed carrots. Studies have shown that people with endometriosis have higher levels of oxidation (which leads to higher levels of inflammation and therefore pain) and that when participants added in a high anti-oxidant diet in the form of extra fruits and vegetables, their oxidation levels lowered. When it comes to fruit and veggies, the more colour, the more anti-oxidants - so eat the rainbow! Try snacking on red and yellow peppers and cucumber dipped in hummus, and make a dinner that has a delicious roasted veg salad with it such as roasted carrots, beetroot and fennel - delicious with some puy lentils, fresh herbs and rocket!
- Turmeric and other herbs and spices like cinnamon and ginger. Many herbs and spices are anti-inflammatory, yet turmeric, ginger and cinnamon are particular stand-out stars, with curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) showing promise with endometriosis lesion suppression and ruction in mice, and ginger being an effective pain reliever in people with primary dysmenorrhea. How about making up a daily turmeric latte and a carrot and ginger soup to enjoy for the week?
- Bonus food! Raw cacao and sugar free dark chocolate. Rich in magnesium, iron and anti-oxidants, raw cacao can help lower inflammation and support energy production, whilst helping us with those sugar cravings! Just be mindful of how much you have as cacao does have a little caffeine. My superfood hot chocolate recipe is a lovely way to get this delicious food into your diet before your period.
So which one are you going to start with? Dm me over on Instagram and let me know which food you try this cycle!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
My FLO
How to track your period
Magnesium
Study
Magnesium baths for pain article
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Vitamin E
Vitamin E, oxidative stress, and inflammation
Antioxidant supplementation reduces endometriosis-related pelvic pain in humans
Evaluation of the effect of vitamin E on pelvic pain reduction in women suffering from primary dysmenorrhea
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
NHS fish guidance
Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model
Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain
Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea
Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin
Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond
Eat the rainbow
Foods That Fight Inflammation - Harvard Health
Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet
Curcumin
Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production
Ginger
Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations
The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea
Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea
Cacao
100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs
Hazelnut truffles
Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys)
Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don’t love their other 100% chocolate products)
So Free sweet dark chocolate
Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online)
My brownie recipe
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis If you’ve listened to my podcast recently, you’ve likely heard a lot about oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and the problems these two imbalances can bring. Oestrogen in itself isn’t a ‘bad’ hormone - it’s a wonderful hormone that plays a crucial role in our menstrual cycle and our overall health. But too much or too high in relation to progesterone is where the problems arise, and these problems can make our experience of endo worse.
So what is oestrogen dominance? Oestrogen dominance occurs when the ratio of oestrogen to progesterone is too high, this can happen when progesterone is low, oestrogen is high or both! Excess oestrogen is when there is too much oestrogen circulating the body, and this would be likely cause oestrogen dominance, providing of course that progesterone isn’t also too high (which in my experience with clients at least, is generally less common).
Why does oestrogen dominance occur? We deep dive into this topic in other interviews and episodes (so check the links below), but to give you an overview, here are some of the common causes:
- Stress
- Imbalanced blood sugar
- Gut health issues
- Deficiencies, such as zinc
- Heavy alcohol consumption
- Overburdened liver
- Xenoestrogens
Whilst taking a holistic approach looking at all of these areas is advisable, eating certain foods can help your body to remove any old or excess oestrogen and adding these foods in can be a great way to get started with healing any imbalances.
Here are seven of my favourite foods for alleviating oestrogen dominance with endometriosis:
- Dandelion root tea or coffee to help support the liver with clearing out old and excess oestrogen. Be careful that you’re not buying a caffeinated dandelion and coffee blend - we’re looking for dandelion alone. You can drink it as a herbal tea or buy it roasted, then grind and have as coffee! It makes a lovely black coffee or latte.
- Broccoli sprouts provide a big, concentrated dose of SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) , a plant compound that also helps the liver to detoxify oestrogen and break it down in a healthy way
- Cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts aid oestrogen detoxification. The active compound in cruciferous veggies is a nutrient called I3C (indole-3-cabinol), which further breaks down into SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) and DIM (diindolymethane) and both play a big role in supporting the liver with oestrogen detoxification. In fact, these nutrients are so powerful that you may recognise them - they’re often found in oestrogen clearance supplements!
- Probiotic foods such as kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and yoghurt help create a healthy gut microbiome and ensure that the bacteria which helps to eliminate oestrogen, the estrobolome, is well supported and that beta-glucuronidase, the enzyme that reactivates oestrogen (causing it to be reabsorbed into the blood stream), is prevented from getting too high. A caveat here is that if you have SIBO you may find probiotic foods aggravating. I would start slowly with one tablespoon and increase to tolerance over time.
- B6 foods such turkey, fish, seeds, nuts like pistachios, lentils, eggs, and a moderate amount of organic pasture-raised red meat helps to detoxify old and excess oestrogen and raise progesterone levels.
- Lignans from nuts and seeds, particularly pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and potentially flax (if you respond well to it) help bind and remove oestrogen. Flax can have weak oestrogenic effects, and is often recommended to help lower oestrogen dominance symptoms . However, I recommend being mindful here as I am not the only practitioner to have witnessed endo symptoms and oestrogen dominance symptoms worsening from flax, so I would just see how you personally respond. Having said that, lots of doctors, nutritionists and health coaches see an improvement, but just have an awareness when you try and if you try flax. Hopefully it works well for you!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
SIBO episodes
Ep 99 with Dr Allison Siebecker
Ep 97 My SIBO treatment plan
Oestrogen dominance episodes
Ep 104
Blood Sugar episodes
Ep 88
Ep 81
Ep 66
Ep 55
Broccoli sprouts and cruciferous veg
Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts
Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans
Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection
Estrobolome
Alisa Vitti
Histamine
The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan
B6
The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones
Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes
Dr Jolene Brighten B6
Lignans
Dr Joelene Brighten on seed cycling and flax
Lara Briden explains phytoestrogens
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period Most of us with endometriosis have experienced debilitating periods that stop us in our tracks and derail our day or week completely. Perhaps we get through with a mix of pain killers or maybe nothing helps at all - whatever is going on for you, today I want to offer you six simple pain relieving strategies that can help alleviate your endometriosis pain when your period arrives. These methods are best begun seven days before your period so the effects build up and compound and I do totally recommend continuing them into your period too, for extra benefits!
As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. Consult your GP before adding in supplements.
Here are my six tips for reducing your endometriosis pain for when your period starts:
- Magnesium rich baths, 2 - 3 times the week before your period, with 500g - 600g Epsom salt baths, soaking for at least 10 minutes each times.
- Two portions of low mercury, fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies salmon, herring) in addition to 1000mg - 3000mg good quality omega 3 fatty acid supplementation.
- Turmeric lattes with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (1g) and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ginger root powder (350mg-700mg) in addition to ginger tea (made with ginger root powder), raspberry leaf tea and dandelion tea. Always add some fat into your latte to aid absorption of the turmeric - coconut oil, coconut butter, cacao butter or nut butter all would work well.
- Daily yoga or stretches for endometriosis and pelvic pain.
- Reduce or eliminate sugar, utilising stevia, inulin root syrup, berries and 100% dark chocolate as alternatives.
- Eat the rainbow! Get in 5 to 10 servings of fruit and veg a day, focusing more on vegetables (think 80% vs 20%).
I hope this episode helps you prepare for your period! Please do let me know if it changes your experience of your next period - I would love to hear from you! Scroll down to the show notes for links to studies, brand recommendations, recipes, etc.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
Magnesium
Study
Magnesium baths for pain article
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
NHS fish guidance
Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model
Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain
Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea
Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin
Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond
Lion Heart
Aqua Biome Fish Oil
Lattes and teas
Super Turmeric Latte recipe
Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production
Nicole Jardim Fix Your Period book
Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations
The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea
Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea
Yoga and stretches for pelvic pain
Yoga for endometriosis
Stretches for endometriosis
Pelvic floor and fascia release exercises by Dr. Nicole Cozean
Sugar
Inflammatory cytokine concentrations are acutely increased by hyperglycemia in humans: role of oxidative stress
Proinflammatory effects of glucose and anti-inflammatory effect of insulin: relevance to cardiovascular disease
100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs
Hazelnut truffles
Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys)
Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don’t love their other 100% chocolate products)
So Free sweet dark chocolate
Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online)
Stevia drops
Troo syrup
Stevia powder
Perfect World ice cream
My brownie recipe
Sweet Laurel’s Bakery blog
Endometriosis and dairy episode
Endometriosis and caffeine episode
Endometriosis and sugar episode
Endometriosis and gluten episode
Molly Roberson interview
Eat the rainbow
Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet
Today’s episode is part of an end of year special series. I am resharing some of my most actionable episodes to help you reduce pain on your period and pain flares in general, and to balance your hormones for better periods, less PMS and healthier cycles. I am sharing these episodes because this time of year is often when some of our endo management strategies can go out of the window (and understandably so!). We might have more sugar, less sleep, more alcohol and more blood sugar dysregulation, and as a result, these can all raise inflammation and give our bodies a hard time when it comes to clearing old and excess hormones. So come January or maybe sooner, we tend to have more PMS, worse periods and more pain.
So these episodes are designed to provide you with some tips you can quickly implement if you’re worried about your upcoming period, or you’re feeling rough and need some tips to improve your symptoms. Now of course, it’s natural that we want to indulge a bit over Christmas, and so these episodes are not about telling you to be a saint. Instead, they’re about practices you can throw in that can just help lessen some of the impact. I am releasing a couple so you can choose strategies you think will help you most and so you have options, but you certainly don’t have to try them all!
And whilst I’m here, if you find that you want to learn more about how to eat for endo and for hormone balance, or you get to the end of the festive period and you really just want to improve your systems, I now have my Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses, which are available to buy all year round, unlike my courses. Lucky for you, they’re still discounted because I haven’t had time to change the prices, so you can still get each masterclass for £29.99 or you can buy the bundle for £50. You could also ask for them as a Christmas present!
Finally, thank you for listening to this podcast this year, and for sticking with me even with my sporadic release dates as I navigate all of these new courses and offerings with recording my free content. I am wishing you a wonderful festive break (if you celebrate) and a very happy New Year.
So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s episode. I really hope it helps you manage some of your symptoms over this festive period.
Endo and PMS: The Key to Reducing Mood Swings, Anxiety and Low Moods in Your Luteal Phase Okay so a while ago I ran a poll about PMS and endo, and I wanted to know what symptoms you struggle with. Turns out, the majority of you get low moods during your luteal phase. In fact, out of the hundreds of you who entered the poll, 93% of you said you struggle with low moods and mood swings during your luteal phase.
So today’s episode is the first in a two part series. Today I’m going to take you through one of the key causes of PMS mood swings and I’m going to provide you with my go-to strategy for starting to tackle it, and then in the second episode, I’ll be taking you through the secondary causes and strategies.
So number one, where we’re starting, is to balance your blood sugar, and truly, this is one of the most important things you can do if you want to improve your moods during this time, lower inflammation and balance your hormones. This is really key and this is why I’m starting here. If you’ve got your blood sugar sorted, then clearly this isn’t your main cause and the next two causes in the future episode will be more relevant, and they are low progesterone and low neurostransmitter levels. But we’re starting with blood sugar because this is foundational to hormone health and plays a really big role in PMS, and could be the reason why you have low progesterone anyway!
So let’s look at what blood sugar has to do with moods specifically.
Blood sugar is the measurement of glucose in our blood. Glucose comes from complex carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. and it is our body’s and brain’s primary fuel. For us to feel energised and have stable energy levels all day long, we need to have a steady drip of glucose filtering into our blood. When we’re eating a diet that consists of complex carbohydrates, that also includes healthy fats, proteins and lots of fibre, this ensures good blood sugar levels.
But glucose also comes from refined carbohydrates, such as sugars like honey, maple syrup and standard white sugar, and baked processed products like bread, cake and pizza. These foods contain a lot of carbohydrate and little fibre, they are made of simple carbohydrates, meaning that they break down very, very quickly in the gut. Complex carbohydrates are called complex carbohydrates because their chemical structure is made of long chains of glucose linked together, which takes the body longer to break down. In contrast, simple carbs are made up of very short chains of glucose that are easy for the body to break down. This creates a huge surge of glucose that’s pumped quickly into your blood stream.
What then happens is that your body panics. It’s a stressor to the body to have this much glucose in the blood at any one time, so it releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin usually delivers glucose to our cells for fuel, but when we have too much glucose, it’s released in really high amounts and pushes it into the liver and fat cells for storage. This equally happens quickly, in fact, a little too quickly and the insulin accidentally takes too much glucose out of the blood in its rush to clean things up, and our blood sugar levels plummet. This leaves us hungry soon afterwards, and we end up on a blood sugar rollercoaster, needing more refined carbs and sugar to fuel us and get our blood sugar levels back up to a healthy level. Of course, eating more sugar or processed carbs won’t take us to healthy levels, but will spike our blood sugar levels once more – so we’ll temporarily feel good, only to crash again, so the cycle continues.
The result is that we spend our days going through highs and lows, and this blood sugar rollercoaster feels like:
· Hanger
· Irritability
· Anger
· Moodiness
· Tearfulness
· Anxiety
· Shakiness
· Feeling sleepy after meals
· Having mid-morning and mid-afternoon energy slumps
· Cravings for caffeine, sugar or refined carbohydrates
· Trouble falling asleep, waking up in the night or struggling to wake in the morning
· Feeling thirsty a lot
You don’t have to have all of these symptoms, but if you have a few of them, it’s likely your blood sugar levels need improving.
So what’s this got to do with PMS? Well, in the first half of our cycle, from menstruation to ovulation, as oestrogen rises, we’re actually more insulin sensitive because oestrogen actually boosts the effectiveness of insulin. This means we respond well to insulin so we’re getting in glucose and making energy effectively, we’re satisfied more easily and we feel satiated for longer. Basically, we’re more responsive to insulin and that in turns helps us to have balanced blood sugar levels and stops us from craving all the sugar.
But in contrast, in the second half of our cycle, when progesterone rises, we actually become less insulin sensitive because progesterone can dampen the effectiveness of insulin. That means the same meal you ate the week before, may no longer satisfy you because your body is not taking in the glucose from insulin in the same way. It also means, as a result, you may be more susceptible to blood sugar highs and lows and you might end up eating more refined carbs, sugar, etc. because you still feel hungry or less energised, so your body is telling you to eat foods with a quick energy fix. This is likely why 84% of you say you get cravings during this time!
This of course can create those blood sugar crashes that leave you feeling anxious, tearful, irritable, or moody. This is one of the key reasons we can feel low during the luteal phase, which is why we start here. In the follow up episode I’m going to take you through the other causes, but by working on your blood sugar levels, you’ll actually be preventing the other causes from happening in the first place in many cases, so this is the foundation we really want to have in place. Once this is in place, we can clearly and accurately see whether there’s any other issues left over affecting your moods in this part of your cycle.
So there are a few key strategies for balancing blood sugar, but let’s start with the main strategy to get you going. Ideally, we want to practice this all month long because it’s going to lower inflammation and regulate your hormones so your PMS will be better and your pain will be better too, but at the minimum, it will be helpful to bring this strategy in from ovulation onwards until your period so we can manage those blood sugar levels.
So, the strategy is to eat healthy fats, fibre, complex carbohydrates, and protein with every single meal. And so this looks like:
· 50% of your plate (or half your plate) should be covered with low starchy veggies. This is where your complex carbs and fibre will come from. This is important because the carbs give you energy and the fibre slows down the release of glucose, because it takes longer to digest foods with fibre. So think asparagus, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, aubergine, cauliflower, etc.
· 25% of your plate should be protein (or a quarter of your plate). And that should be equal to the size and thickness of your palm. We need about 20g of protein per meal on average, so that’s not 20g of beans or chicken, but how much protein is actually in the food itself. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be weighing things up, just start with the ratios first, the portion sizes. If you’re still getting hungry after meals, check how much protein you’re actually eating and up it if need be. For meat, it works out at about 3-4 oz of animal protein. If you’re eating beans or a protein rich grain like quinoa or brown rice, you’re probably going to need to up your levels with say a dressing made of nut butter, or an egg, or maybe a tablespoon or two of seeds. Also, remember that beans and grains also count as complex carbs, so keep that in mind for when I get to the complex carbs bit!
· Next up, we want the final 25% to be split between more starchier complex carbs and healthy fats. For healthy fats, we’re looking at a two golf ball sized serving, or two heaped tablespoons and that could be equal to half an avocado, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of nut butter, etc. Fat helps to slow the blood sugar release down, and is actually essential for hormone production by the way!
The starchier carbs would consist of a small handful of something like root veggies such as sweet potato or parsnips, or maybe some quinoa or beans if you haven’t had them already as your protein source. And so this is where it has to be very individual as if you already have beans or grains, you might not need that extra starch boost and instead, you could just add some extra veggies so your plate is around 60-65% veg. But if you have say beans on your plate for your protein source and you tend to burn a lot of energy during the day because you’re a very active person, you might need a little sweet potato too or some grains. And if you’ve got meat as your protein source and you’re very active, that serving of starchier carbs might need to be a bit bigger than someone who isn’t very active. It has to be tailored to you and what your body needs.
For example, my blood sugar cannot tolerate beans and grains in the same meal, I crash and burn hard! But I have a job where for the most part, other than using a standing desk a few times throughout the day and my usual exercise routine, I don’t have a physically demanding lifestyle. But if you’re say a nurse in a busy hospital, a dance teacher or an athlete, you’ll probably feel like you do better with that extra fuel. In fact, one of my clients who’s a dance teacher always needs some kind of grain with her meals or her blood sugar would get too low, because she was always burning it off!
Another thing I want to mention here is how our blood sugar responds to grains is very personal too. Some people find that grains give them a steady release of fuel, others find they spike their blood sugar levels quickly and then crash. That’s me! Especially after oatmeal, I can have a big, filling bowl but find myself starving and shaky an hour later, if not sooner. So if you do respond like that to grains but you want to eat them regularly, you might need to up you fat and protein to really slow down that glucose release.
So, this is where we get started. It might sound a little fiddly, but over time, you’ll gradually grow accustomed to it and notice when one of these food groups is missing! In the show notes, I’ve linked to a great diagram of how this looks on a plate, so you can always print that off and have it on your fridge.
Now there other steps to balancing your blood sugar, but it can take some time to adjust to this one, so this is where I’d suggest for you to start and then you can revisit my past blood sugar episodes to learn more, or I think I’m probably going to release a standalone workshop on this in the future so you can always sign up to that if you’d like a deep dive and a step by step process.
But start here, give it at least one cycle and see how you’re doing. Of course, if you’re constantly spiking your levels with chocolate and sweets, then balancing your meals won’t cancel that out, so just be mindful of that!
And I just want to leave you with one last tip, to really get off on the right track, make sure your breakfast is fat and protein rich, don’t skip these two! If you’re just having oatmeal, you’re going to need to add a lot of nut butter, some protein powder or have two eggs on the side to balance out the carb content. Keep that in mind when you start the day and you’ll find balancing your blood sugar levels much easier as go through the rest of your day.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
How to Build a Healthy Plate Diagram by Amelia Freer
Do you get full body pain? Does it affect your muscles, nerves or joints? Do you find that you need to rest after walking or find you tired more easily than others?
It might not just be endometriosis.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common - and out of those with this type of EDS, 6-23% have endometriosis. But that’s not where the connection ends…
-
32-77% of those with EDS have vulvodynia and or pain with sex.
-
33-75% have heavy menstrual bleeding.
- 73-93% have painful periods.
Additionally, histamine intolerance caused by Mast Cell Activation Syndrome is a co-condition of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and we also know that overactive mast cells play a role in endometriosis. Not only can this cause more painful periods, but it can also create problems like allergies and eczema to name a few.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is also a huge risk factor for SIBO, and as you may now know, at present SIBO is estimated as affecting 80% of the endo population.
I could go on with the overlapping symptoms and connections, but instead, I’ll let you hear it first hand from Natalia Kasnakidis who is not only an endometriosis warrior, but is also living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, histamine intolerance and potentially postural tachycardia syndrome.
In this episode we talk about:
- What the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes are and how common they are.
- The signs and symptoms to look out for and Natalia’s own experience with her symptoms.
- The journey she tool to diagnosis and her tips for getting diagnosed.
- The co-conditions of EDS and their symptoms.
- Her key strategies for living well with endometriosis and EDS.
Get my free Christmas endo recipe ebook here. With five delicious endo-friendly recipes, This Endolife, At Christmas, is a mini cookbook to help you live and thrive with endometriosis at Christmas. These recipes are anti-inflammatory, plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and contain no added sugar! Featuring...
- Sausage, Pecan and Chestnut Stuffing
- Carrot Bacon Pigs in Blankets
- Salted Caramel Cheesecake
- This Isn't Just Custard, This Is Endo-Friendly Very Vanilla Custard
- Christmas Spiced Plum and Blackberry Crumble
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, **Live and Thrive with Endo** here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Do you suffer with the endo belly? Is it accompanied by bloating, diarrhea, constipation or abdominal cramping?
Whilst I’m all about getting to the root cause and find out WHY you’re suffering with the endo belly (not to mention, healing the root cause) I also understand the need for short-term symptom relief whilst we’re on that journey.
Today’s podcast episode offers just that. I am sharing the most effective supplement options that help to relieve endo belly flares in the moment. These are the tools and strategies we use in our SIBO training with Dr. Siebecker, but are safe if you don’t have SIBO but do suffer with IBS symptoms.
You will find all the dose references in the show notes, but remember - as a health coach I cannot prescribe you a treatment protocol, this is education only and the aim is for you to take this information away to discuss your options with your doctor.
Full credit to my tutor Dr. Allison Siebecker for teaching and providing us with these strategy relief tools!
Activated Charcoal
So first up we’re starting with activated charcoal, which is great for:
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain (not pelvic pain)
- Gas
- Acid reflux
It works by absorbing gases, which reduces pressure in the gut that can lead to cramping and of course, reduces bloating. It’s also absorbs fluid, so reduces diarrhea too.
The doses are:
- Up to 1000mg, every 1-3 hours for diarrhea.
- Up to 1000mg, every 2-6 hours for bloating/gas/abdominal pain.
- Up to 1000mg 30 mins before a meal and one hour after for endo belly ‘trigger’ foods. Now what I mean by this, is if you have to eat something that you know is probably going to make you bloat or gassy, or swell you up, but you’re a bit stuck for choices, say you’re at a family thing or wedding, or you’re on holiday, then you could use charcoal. I don’t advise you just use it for every meal so you can eat whatever you want, because you’ll end up very constipated because it absorbs fluid, but I have found it very helpful on holiday and at weddings.
- Up to 500mg every 2-3 hours for acid reflux.
So, some things to consider when taking charcoal:
- Do not consume more than 4000mg per day.
- It can cause constipation, so reduce the dose if constipation occurs or use with magnesium citrate (which you’ll learn about shortly) or stool softeners, and I’ve listed some natural stool softeners in the handout. If you do use magnesium citrate to avoid any constipation, take it an hour after the charcoal or before bed.
- Your bowel movements may look dark after charcoal - don’t worry, it just stains everything!
- Absorbs everything, so take it 30 minutes before meals/supplements/meds and/or one hour after.
- Some research has showed that in it can cause vomiting if accidentally inhaled, so if you struggle with small airways or swallowing, be cautious with this. I also personally prefer using capsules, as I have tried using the powder stirred in water and have accidentally inhaled it myself one or two times!
Ginger
Next up is my absolute favourite, and that’s ginger.
Ginger is effective for:
- Nausea/vomiting
- Gas
- Bloating
- Fullness/food won’t go down
- Abdominal pain
Ginger is a prokinetic, which means it stimulates the MMC and gut motility, so it moves gas down and out of the small intestine. This therefore helps with gas, bloating, pressure, and abdominal pain, and it helps food to go down as well if you’re feeling like you’re not digesting your food properly. And I’ve mentioned, it’s a great tool for nausea and vomiting.
The doses are:
- 1000mg an 1-2 hours after meals or at bedtime for nausea/bloating/gas/vomiting/ab. pain.
- 1000mg 30 mins before meals to aid with appetite if nauseas.
So, some things to consider when taking ginger are:
- Do not consume more than 2000 mg per day.
- It can cause something called ginger burn, which feels like heat or acid reflux is the oesophagus or stomach. If that occurs, take less, stand up and move around so it starts to go down (as ginger burn often happens when lying down or reclining in many of my clients) and sip on lots of water.
- In people with interstitial cystitis, as it’s a spice, it might cause some irritation, but this tends to vary from person to person.
- Finally, fresh ginger root is usually not as effective as dried ginger root powder, so we’re going for a 1000 mg in the form of capsules.
Peppermint
Peppermint can be used for:
- Abdominal pain
- Bloating
- General IBS symptoms (there’s LOTS of research on peppermint for IBS)
- Indigestion
- Pain with bowel movements (which I know many of you suffer with)
Peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle of the intestines, so helps significantly with cramping and abdominal pain, and helps to ease the transition of gas. It’s also been shown to be 67% effective for reducing severe IBS symptoms, pretty impressive stuff!
So, the doses are:
- Use peppermint tea/or tincture (follow label dose) for pain or sensations higher up in the abdomen (this is because peppermint generally works locally, so if you feel symptoms around the stomach area, the peppermint tea or tincture will be able to affect that area because it’s not sealed up in a pill, whereas the pills are coated and are designed to not be released until they exit the stomach).
- Label dose of triple coated tablets for mid to lower abdominal symptoms, as needed or daily. Research has shown that pain and symptoms improve significantly with long-term use with peppermint oil.
- Can also apply peppermint essential oil to abdomen. Follow label instructions as some oils require diluting in a base oil. A quick tip here, is you can use Be You patches, which I share on my podcast, over the abdomen, to ease spasms. You can keep those on for 12 hours and you can wear them daily.
So, some things to consider when taking peppermint are:
- It can cause acid reflux in some people because it relaxes the muscles, it can open up the sphincter connecting the stomach and the oesophagus, so stomach acid can travel up. If this happens to you, try a pill that’s triple coated and designed to bypass the stomach.
- For some people, peppermint can also cause nausea.
Magnesium
Magnesium citrate or oxide can be used for:
- Constipation
These types of magnesium draw water into the colon, helping to create a bowel movement.
The dose is:
- Up to 2000 mg at bedtime (two hours after food), daily or as needed until you have a bowel movement. However, 1000 mg is normally effective for many, but see what works for you.
So, some things to consider when taking magnesium citrate or oxide are:
- You need to start slowly, beginning at 500 mg and building up until you find the dose that works for you. Generally, increasing your dose slightly each night should be a good pace, but keep in mind it can take a few nights to get to work, so don’t be too hasty.
- Too much will cause abdominal cramping, bloating and diarrhea. If that occurs, reduce the dose back down until you get to a dose that creates a healthy bowel movement without watery stools or discomfort.
- Food will reduce the effects, so keep in mind you need to take it two hours away from food.
- And finally, you have to use either magnesium oxide or citrate, other forms of magnesium are not laxatives and will be absorbed in the body, rather than making their way down into the colon.
Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum
PHGG be used for:
- All IBS symptoms (multiple studies/reviews confirm this)
- Constipation
- Improving stool consistency
- Diarrhea
- Bloating/gas
- Increasing beneficial bacteria
PHGG is a type of soluble, low FODMAP fibre, which is generally safe and well tolerated by even SIBO patients! It’s a longer term symptom management tool, whereas the others bring relief same day, this tends to need about a month to build up to the benefits. It helps to bulk up stools, making it effective for both constipation and diarrhea.
So, the dose is:
- 5-6 g daily, ideally dissolved in hot water on an empty stomach, for at least one month and likely ongoing for maintenance. Some people do put it with tea, coffee, smoothies or even porridge, but many of the labels suggest on an empty stomach.
- Increase to full dose across one to two weeks, especially if SIBO positive, so start out lower, with say one gram, and then increase by a gram or half a gram a day.
So, some things to consider when taking partially hydrolysed guar gum are: * Ironically, in some people, likely people who have SIBO or extensive gut issues, it might cause bloating. So, give yourself a month or so on it and see how you respond. If it’s noticeably bad, reduce back down to a level you can tolerate or discontinue. Generally, it is thought to be SIBO safe, but we’re all different and SIBO is so individual, that we can’t guarantee it’ll be well tolerated by everyone. * And alongside that, it may cause some GI distress, so basically an irritation of your IBS symptoms and if you have SIBO and don’t respond well to it, it could worsen those. However, as I’ve mentioned, on the whole, it’s well tolerated.
Most Important Takeaway:
So, that wraps up this module, and I wanted to also let you know, there are multiple other options to help with symptoms, including more supplements and some at home remedies. I’ve linked to a handout in this slide by my tutor Dr. Allison Siebecker, which provides all of them. You don’t need to use them all, but I would recommend you have a read of it, so you know your options, and I also recommend trying some of the simple home remedies before buying expensive supplements!
But before we do any of that, remember, getting our foundations in place can make a huge difference to gut health - so start off with the first line therapies, before you start spot treating with lots of different supplements.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
**Show Notes**
Charcoal
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3717809/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3521259/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7015846/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3717809/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7949514/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12516788
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10442508/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16865831/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24390893/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17545109/
https://www.europeanreview.org/article/10145
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3958926/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18403946/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23612703/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30423929/
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Peppermint
https://bmccomplementmedtherapies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12906-018-2409-0
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11207510/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24100754/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26319955/
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Magnesium
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
PHGG
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25843197/
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/121479
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16413751
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25519526/
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
This episode is an IG live where I discuss the endo management habits that are a part of my everyday life and I pretty much couldn’t live without!
Now, it’s definitely not as simple as ‘do these habits and your symptoms will be sorted’, that’s not what this live was about - this was just a little peak into some of my daily habits. When it comes to endo it’s about understanding and treating/managing the root causes behind your symptoms and that will differ for every person. BUT these are habits that have profoundly changed my experience of endo, and I also see work wonders for clients. They are:
Anti-inflammatory nutrition
Blood sugar management
Magnesium spray/baths
Omega 3 fatty acid supplementation
An extra good quality, evidence-backed anti-inflammatory supplement (quercetin, curcumin, glutathione, etc)
Daylight in the mornings
Underneath these it’s also of course important to have the foundations of good health:
Sleep
Movement
Stress management
Good nutrition (but that’s covered above)
Stress management
Hydration
Connection/joy
I also work on the liver, gut, HPA axis, pain signals, pelvic floor health, etc. with myself and clients, but those are longer term strategies for another day and another live! They are integral to the way I approach endo management, but today I just wanted to share some of my daily habits that are part of my standard everyday routine (I think I’ve added that disclaimer enough times now!).
FINALLY I want to say that all of these methods must be tailored to you, and must fit into your life in a way that makes them feel manageable and enrich your life, rather than making you feel stressed and exhausted trying to keep up with them!
If you’re interested to learn more about eating for endo, I’ve just launched two new masterclasses:
Nutrition for Endo: The Foundations Masterclass (anti-inflammatory nutrition)
Nutrition for Endo Advanced Masterclass (blood sugar)
They’re currently on special offer for Black Friday until Tues 10pm GMT. Each class is £29.99 (full price £40) or you can get them both in a bundle for £50. Join here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
I first came across Dr. Ami Kapadia’s work through some presentations she held for an online SIBO conference. Her lectures focused on small intestine fungal overgrowth, yeast disorders and mould - and what I heard resonated with not only my story, but so many of my clients’ stories.
And I’m not alone. Dr. Jessica Drummond often speaks on the connection she sees between chronic pelvic pain and yeast problems, and yeast/SIFO are prevalent issues within the SIBO community. In fact, left untreated, they can really hinder SIBO progress. The trouble is, they’re not easy to diagnose and the symptoms are often identical to SIBO, and at least a quarter of SIBO patients, if not more, also have SIFO.
So, given that research is currently estimating that up to 80% of endometriosis patients also have SIBO, I wanted to invite Dr. Ami onto the show to discuss how to identify and treat years disorders both alongside SIBO and alone.
Dr Ami. Kapadia is a family medicine and integrative medicine physician, with a special interest in yeast and fungal disorders. She is the creator of practitioner course A Minimalist's Approach to SIFO And Mold Related Illness and patient course An Integrative Approach to SIFO: Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth And Related Conditions.
In this episode we discuss:
- What are fungal/yeast related disorders and how do they affect the body.
- The connection between yeast/fungal disorders, endometriosis and SIBO.
- The signs and symptoms of fungal/yeast related disorders and how to test for them.
- Dr. Ami’s unique treatment approach and her specific anti-fungal protocols.
- Dietary considerations (it’s not what you think!) and what to do if you find food restriction triggering.
- How to work with Dr. Ami.
This episode was fascinating and I completely geeked out (you' can probably tell!), I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.
Show Notes
- Website: www.amikapadia.com
- Teachable course for practitioners: https://drkapadia.teachable.com/p/a-minimalist-s-approach-to-mold-related-illness-and-small-intestinal-fungal-overgrowth-sifo
- Teachable course for patients: https://drkapadia.teachable.com/p/sifo-in-integrative-course-for-patient-education
This episode is an IG Live I hopped on to answer your questions in endometriosis and navigating relationships with family and friends.
In this Q&A I answer:
How to have fun with friends again? Feels like endo always gets in the way.
How to handle family not understanding how endo affects my life?
How to explain it to those who don’t get how impactful it is?
What to say or do when a friend questions if you’re really in pain when you say you can’t go out?
Also, a few of the resources I mentioned in the live:
Endometriosis UK
Endometriosis News
Endometriosis News
@vickiewilliams_
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is another live Q&A from Instagram. I had a number of you ask me about the training I did to became an endo health coach and what training is generally required, so I decided to answer some of those questions live on Instagram.
In this Q&A I talk about -
What motivated me to become an endo health coach.
The work experience I had to prepare me to coach.
The certifications I took to qualify as a women’s health coach.
The certifications I took to qualify in endometriosis specifically.
The certifications I then went onto take for SIBO.
My business model (what working with clients looks like on a week to week basis).
My plans for the future (naturopathic doctor)!
My struggles with perfectionism and workaholism during my training and start-up period.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Okay today I want to now talk about something a little more unusual, and that’s Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and its possible connection to endometriosis.
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a group of 13 conditions which all affect connective tissue (collagen) in the body. Most are rare, but one type called hypermobility EDS is common.
Because the intestines are made from soft tissue, EDS affects digestion and often causes IBS symptoms. It is a major risk factor for developing SIBO, because it slows down motility. If you have EDS and SIBO, you will be chronic - but you can still live well! And we’ll get to that in the bonus lesson with Dr Allison Siebecker.
And just to hammer this point home about the connection between EDS and IBS, one study of 228 IBS patients found 48% also had EDS.
Now the reason why I want to bring EDS to your attention is because I am seeing it more and more in my clients with both endometriosis and SIBO.
Despite these statistics, to my knowledge, most experts do not consider EDS and endometriosis to be significantly connected. At present, it is thought that most of the period pain and menstrual problems of those with EDS is not caused by endometriosis, but EDS itself.
However, I have spoken to multiple health care practitioners who do see a connection and see the two conditions together in patients, and because EDS can cause gut problems and SIBO, I think it’s worth raising here.
So, here’s an overview of what we know so far…
-
Current estimation is 6-23% of patients with EDS also have endometriosis. More research is being done into the connection at present.
-
32-77% of those with EDS have vulvodynia and or pain with sex.
- 33-75% have heavy menstrual bleeding.
- 73-93% have painful periods.
And here are some of the main symptoms of EDS, though there are many and they are often far reaching. You do` not have to have them all to have EDS:
- ·Joint pain/full body pain
- Hypermobility (can be very subtle)
- Stretchy skin
- Soft, velvety skin
- Bruise easily
- Dislocations of joints
- Chronic fatigue
- Dental crowding
And I wanted to include some signs or clues of EDS as well…
- Unusual symptoms that seem random, so people with EDS often feel like they have lots of symptoms and never really feel well.
- Family has hypermobility - again, this can be very subtle. They might have no idea.
- Tight muscles and stiffness - because your joints are unstable, the muscles overcompensate and are often stiff and tight to try and create some stability in the body.
- Allergies - and this is because MCAS is now being identified as a co-condition of EDS. MCAS is when the mast cells which release histamine are overly sensitive and easily triggered, resulting in a higher amount of histamine being released on a daily basis. Mast Cell Activation Syndrome still isn’t widely acknowledged by conventional medicine, but many functional and naturopathic doctors are leading the way with this. MCAS is now showing up in the research as being a likely co-condition of EDS, as part of a trio with another condition call PoTS, which stands for Postural Tachycardia syndrome.
- Low blood pressure and/or dizziness - because EDS often comes with something called dysautonomia
- Racing heart or palpitations - due to a type of dysautonomia which I mentioned earlier, called PoTs
- IBS - because of how EDS affects the gut
So, following on from that, I just wanted to provide a bit more education around dysautonomia in case you have the signs. Dysautonomia is a group of conditions that affect the autonomic nervous system, which control involuntary functions of the body.
Postural Tachycardia syndrome or PoTs is one of these conditions and is part of a trio of EDS-MCAS-PoTs I mentioned earlier, and it affects blood flow and blood pressure in the body, so that too little blood is getting to the heart and the heart rate increases when going from sitting/lying down to standing.
Some of the symptoms of dysautonomia are…
- Blood sugar dysregulation
- Low blood pressure/fainting
- Chest pain/breathing issues/palpitations/racing heart
- Gut problems and bladder problems
- Dizziness/balance difficulties/vertigo
- Struggle to regulate temperature
I’ll take you through some ways to get tested in the next lesson.
Now I know this might sound scary, but if you do get a diagnosis, you can manage these symptoms long-term, and your quality of life will dramatically improve!
And just because I found this personally quite helpful, because there’s a lot of symptoms floating around with this, EDS specialist Dr Alena Guggenehim sees loose joints, joint pain and dysautonomia as the main signs/symptoms of hEDS.
Diagnosis for EDS is best done through a rheumatologist, but reportedly this is more frequently being performed by GPs these days. If you can’t get a referral on the NHS (if you’re based in the UK), then I think the best route would be to buy health insurance and get referred to an EDS specialist. I think that would be safest, because not all GPs are fully versed in diagnosing EDS.
For hypermobility EDS, diagnosis is based on a physical test called Beighton score, which looks at the range of mobility in your joints, as well as issues like teeth overcrowding. Family and patient history should also be taken into account, and signs of co-conditions, like allergies and dizziness. It’s worth noting here that you can still have hEDS if you don’t score highly on the Beighton score. There is a link to it in the slides, but it does have some confusing terminology and is not to be used as a tool for diagnosis without a doctor.
Genetic testing will also be carried out to rule out the rarer forms of EDS.
PoTs is tested for by testing heart rate and blood pressure when going from sitting to standing and lying down (on a tilted table) to upright. You’ll need to speak to your GP to get a referral. If you test positive for EDS and you have signs of dysautonmia, even if it’s just fatigue, it’s worth looking into this.
Other tests may be run to look for other types of dysautonomia
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Stats references
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29687534/
https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/pdf/2018-annual-conference/N-Blagowidow-2018Baltimore-OB-GYN-and-EDS-HSD-S.pdf
Symptoms
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
Dysautonomia
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31267471/
https://drbeckycampbell.com/mast-cell-activation-syndrome-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-what-is-the-connection/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6004-dysautonomia
https://join.sibosos.com/page/94124
Testing references
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/
https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/
This episode is from a mini IG Live answering your questions about painful sex with endo (which turned out not to be mini, more like 40 mins).
Here’s the three most common questions I answered:
Is there anything that will make sex with endo eventually not painful/how do I fix it?
I’ve tried everything but still get pain, is surgery the next option?
How to navigate painful sex without killing the mood?
In this IG Live I talk about inflammation, adhesions, having a hypertonic pelvic floor, pain science and share lots of tools, resources and books to help you on your way to having less pain (hopefully pain free) sex.
I really hope you find this useful!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This week’s episode is a snippet from my upcoming course, The Endo Belly Course. I realised when creating this lesson, that this information is info everyone should know, not just my students! So today’s episode is all about what’s a ‘normal’ and healthy gut vs. what is the endo belly?
So first up, I wanted to actually talk about what the endo belly is.
The ‘endo belly’ is not actually a medical term, but instead is a name the community has coined in reference to the severe bloating we often experience. So, there isn’t technically a set definition, but it is generally thought to be severe bloating/swelling that tends to be attributed to endometriosis and is sometimes accompanied by pain. Some experts, articles and endo patients also include gut problems within this term too, but not always.
My definition, from my training and from seeing so many clients with these symptoms is that the endo belly is exaggerated/severe bloating, often accompanied by gut symptoms, pain or discomfort - but it is not always caused by endometriosis directly.
So here are some of the common symptoms I see in my clients and that I tend to think of as fitting under the term ‘the endo belly’:
- Flares up with stress/food/pain/cycle - but not always, this might just be a daily thing for you.
- Normally comes with IBS issues like diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, gas. These might not be flares, but more so just your daily bowel habits and gut issues. So, for example, you may tend to always lean towards constipation or loose stools, or you may have a lot of gas on a daily basis.
- It’s often debilitating - so it may disturb social life, diet, work, or confidence. You might worry about eating out because you’re scared of a flare up, you might have to eat a restricted diet to control symptoms, you might have to sometimes take sick days, or you just struggle at work with your symptoms. It’s not as simple as just feeling a bit bloated after lunch.
- Normally a dramatic increase in abdominal size - endo patients often report looking pregnant, requiring different sized clothing, having swelling that’s so bad they’re in pain.
And finally, I just want to note - some sources discuss the endo belly swelling being lower down in the abdomen and that IBS issues are higher up, but I think the problem with this is that it’s not true for everyone and it might mean you dismiss any other possible causes because you think “Oh it’s low down, it’s just my endo”. I’ve seen lots of people with SIBO and endo, whose bloating is from their diaphragm all the way down or starts from their belly button and goes down to their pubic bone, so I really wouldn’t pay a huge amount of attention to where the bloating is, unless of course you’re just getting a tiny bit of bloat or a bump on say one side near your ovaries, which might indicate a cyst, for example.
So, something I really think is important to discuss is what is normal vs. what is endo belly, because I don’t want us to be trying to reach for an unattainable vision of a healthy gut.
So here are some signs of the endo belly/something more is going on with your gut…
- Bloating and gut problems get worse and worse as day goes on. You get more uncomfortable, maybe your pain increases and by your last meal your stomach has swollen to triple its normal size.
- Symptoms can only be controlled through restriction - a ‘normal’ diet can’t be achieved, and you find yourself skipping meals or having to restrict to avoid flare ups.
- Often can no longer fit into clothes or need to change to be comfortable when your belly swells up because it’s become so distended. In short, the bloating is severe and significant.
- May be accompanied by other health problems and nutrient deficiencies like achy joints, fatigue, low B12 or low iron. These are signs of inflammation and malabsorption of nutrients.
- You might get constipated before period. From a functional medicine point of view, which is what my training is based on, you should have at least one daily bowel movement, and this is actually really important for hormonal health, because old oestrogen is excreted through waste and that needs to occur daily. However, in contrast, dieticians and conventional doctors tend to take a different stance and say whatever is normal for you, is normal or at least three times a week. In terms of my training with Dr Allison Siebecker, Dr Jessica Drummond, etc. we would consider that as constipation, basically anything that is not once a day, is leaning towards a form of constipation. It might be considered normal, but we wouldn’t class it as optimal for health.
- Diarrhea on period which causes abdominal discomfort, eating problems (maybe you have to avoid food or eat a restricted diet), affects daily life (you might not be able to have a normal workday because you’re stuck in the toilet), sicks days, etc.
- Often affects daily life/confidence because you’ve been asked so many times whether you’re pregnant, you get comments or you just feel fed up with not being able to wear the clothes you’d like. Additionally, your gut symptoms are affecting your daily life, so for example, I had a client who would get several bouts of loose stools every morning, to the point where she would sometimes be late for dropping her child off to nursery. Another client wouldn’t be able to finish meals without needing to dash to the toilet.
- Wake up bloated already or with gut problems/sleep is disturbed due to discomfort. So, I had one client who had a distended belly all the time, and it was so bad she actually got to the point where it was too painful to sit or stand up, she had to lay down all the time. Another client wouldn’t be able to sleep because by the evening, her belly was so bloated she couldn’t get comfortable, and she’d be in agony from all the gas inside her.
So, in contrast, I wanted to talk about what is normal for a healthy gut, and some of this might surprise you -
- Feel satisfied after eating, not overly full or like food isn’t going down. Of course, if it’s Christmas or Ramadan you might be feasting on more food than you normally would, so of course sometimes you’re going to feel full to bursting, but generally, you should feel like you’re able to digest your food and like it’s going down. It’s not just sitting there for hours afterwards.
- May be a bit bloated or gassy after meals (esp. high fibre. or large meals), but the bloating should subside a few hours later and it’s not accompanied by GI distress. This is because our good gut bugs actually eat our food and ferment it, as part of the digestion process. We actually need this to happen to get all of our nutrients. But a result of this process is the creation of gas from the bacteria, and so naturally we will get a bit of expansion after a meal and of course, we’re putting food into our stomach, you wouldn’t expect to fill an empty bag with food shopping and for it not to expand or look bigger. So, there will be some extension of your abdomen after meals, but it shouldn’t be painful, be accompanied by GI distress, be severe or worsen as the day goes on. It should naturally go down and not affect your life or comfort. Additionally, so you know, according to the NHS, a normal amount of passing gas is about 5 to 15 times a day.
- You should wake up with a relatively flatter stomach in contrast to after meals. This is because your digestion has been working overnight. Now note I don’t say your stomach should be flat in the morning, it will be flatter in contrast to after meals, because you haven’t eaten in something like 10 or 12 hours.
- And to follow on from that, a normal healthy gut doesn’t mean your stomach is flat all the time. Your stomach shouldn’t be flat all the time, it should naturally expand a bit with food!
- Bloating tends to increase towards period and in luteal phase, but it shouldn’t be severe/painful/debilitating. This is because progesterone and oestrogen affect water retention, and so bloating and swelling can increase towards your period when progesterone is at its highest. Now if your hormones are imbalanced, this will be worse, so supporting your hormones (which this course will help with) should minimise the effects, but they won’t eradicate them entirely. Additionally, those inflammatory chemicals, prostaglandins, naturally begin building in the uterus from ovulation to your period, and as we know, inflammation creates swelling, so there may be some level of normal swelling during this time, but again, it shouldn’t be severe. If it is, this may be an indicator that your inflammation levels are too high, which is likely to be the case anyway, given that the endometriosis lesions release prostaglandins. Lastly, progesterone relaxes muscles, including the muscles of the intestines, so as a result, digestion slows down, meaning things become a bit sluggish and we get a bit more of a build-up of gas and waste, leading to a bit of bloating - again, it shouldn’t be severe.
- Bowels might feel a bit sluggish towards period but shouldn’t have full-blown constipation or if you do have any, it should at least short lived, so a day or so, for example. Or maybe your stools are a little harder or more cracked than normal.
- In contrast, it’s normal to have bowel movements that are looser during your period. This is because those prostaglandin E2 causes the muscles to contract, and as your uterus is right next to your colon, this can create contractions in the colon, resulting in a bowel movement and looser stools. If your inflammation levels are high, you may get full blown diarrhea, and that’s when we’ll want to reduce those levels. Ideally, a normal scenario is maybe more bowel movements which are a bit looser on your period, but they shouldn’t be causing you pain or affecting your day-to-day life during this time.
-
Bloating after meals doesn’t require a new dress size!
Image from Integrative Women’s Health InstituteTo show you what a healthy stool looks like, here is the Bristol Stool Chart. This is a diagnostic tool used to determine the health of stools, especially in IBS populations. In terms of functional medicine training, at IWHI we aim for a 4, so your stools should be snake like, smooth, easy to pass with a banana-like consistency. You should be having one to three bowel movements a day, one is the minimum because for optimal health and hormonal health, we want to removing waste on a daily basis, including old oestrogen, to prevent hormonal imbalances.
Now, dieticians and conventional medicine will likely say to aim for somewhere between a 3-5. In terms of my training, we see 3 as beginning to lean towards constipation and 5 beginning to lean towards diarrhea. This is something that we focus on heavily with SIBO, a lot of people think that they don’t have constipation, or they don’t have diarrhea - but these bowel movements actually exist on a spectrum. Stools that are like pellets, hard and round, or difficult to pass, is a form of constipation. In my training, anything before 4 is a form of constipation and above 4 is a form of diarrhea or loose stools. They don’t show pudding like stools here, but I would consider that as form of diarrhea. However, opinions will vary as I have mentioned, so be guided by what feels best for you.
The caveat here is that if you are vegan and eat a lot of plants (not processed vegan food), you may have softer stools, nearer to a 5, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The other thing I would say is don’t chase perfection, which I’ve been guilty of. When my IBS was the most managed it’s ever been (at the time of recording it’s not, because I’ve had a SIBO relapse), my stools were about a 5 but I was very caught up on getting them to a 4! So, if your endo belly dramatically improves, if you get an all clear for gut conditions, etc. but sometimes your stools are a little either side of type 4, this is probably not something to worry about. It might just be that you ate a little more or a little less fibre that week, or maybe that’s just your normal. If you’re concerned about it, certainly see a gut health practitioner, but I just wouldn’t obsess about it that’s the only issue left and there are no other signs that something is up with your gut.
Just to finish off this section, I want to hammer this home. A super flat stomach does not equal a happy gut - in fact, it sort of suggests that the gut microbiome is under fed or non-existent, because for them to thrive, they need to eat food and as a result, that creates gas.
So, we’re not aiming for washboard abs all the time, we’re aiming for gut health that doesn’t affect your daily life, cause you pain or physical/mental/emotional distress.
*Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3* here *or just listen below!*
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
**Show Notes**
https://www.siboinfo.com/symptoms.html
https://www.endofound.org/endo-belly
https://drseckin.com/endo-belly/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/symptoms/
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/remedies-for-bloating-and-wind/
https://nutritionstripped.com/is-bloating-normal/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/flatulence/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849969/?fbclid=IwAR3kn0CVHyH4aZsIJ0hPq8__O7k4WfM_rk7EWKSLWj4RmQlVZsnCbnEu4Yg#R7
https://joe.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/joe/89/2/joe_89_2_011.xm
https://nicolejardim.com/howyourperiodaffectsdigestivetract/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16992446/
This episode is a quick IG Live to answer your questions about endo belly and The Endo Belly Course! If you missed the live and you still have questions, please feel free to just DM me or drop me an email.
Doors close on The Endo Belly Course at 10pm tonight and won’t reopen until next fall (2022). We already have a lovely group of 50 and I would love to welcome you if you feel this could help you.
In this live, I answer...
What to eat to prep for a coeliac disease test.
Whether you can do The Endo Belly Course when taking NSAIDs (because they can damage the gut).
Whether you can do the course when on hormonal birth control (again, hormonal birth control affects the gut).
If the course is suitable for those just out of surgery or about to have surgery.
If you need a SIBO diagnosis to do the course (no!).
How long you have to complete the modules and action steps.
How The Endo Belly Course differs from Live and Thrive with Endo and my one-to-one coaching.
Please feel free to post any other questions in the comments! I hope this quick live is helpful and if you’re getting tested for coeliac disease, please let me know! We can test together!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Today on the show I am talking about one of the possible root causes of your endo belly – coeliac disease. Now, before you turn this podcast off because you think you don’t react to gluten, I am literally begging you to listen.
I have noticed a trend in my clients to dismiss coeliac disease as a possibility, because they don’t have immediate reactions after gluten. But – here’s the thing, the reactions from gluten are not always obvious and they don’t always happen straight away.
So, if you’re bloated all the time, tired all the time, maybe you have diarrhoea regularly or gas, or constipation, or maybe you don’t have any gut symptoms at all – but you have brain fog, fatigue and achy joints, then it may be down to coeliac disease.
And these symptoms don’t just have to occur after straight after gluten. In fact, according to the Food Allergy Research and Resource Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, coeliac disease is a “delayed hypersensitivity reaction where symptoms develop 48-72 hours after ingestion” of gluten.(1) Now yes, some people with coeliac disease will experience symptoms soon after eating gluten, but for others, it’s a couple of hours or even longer, as demonstrated here. So just because your symptoms do not show up straight after gluten, that doesn’t mean you do not have coeliac disease and in fact, if you tend to eat gluten daily, and you tend to feel unwell daily – maybe you have chronic fatigue, for example - then this could be the result of that delayed reaction, just blurring into the next, because there’s little time between each serving.
Additionally, the NHS states that symptoms can actually be mild and can come and go, so the signs of coeliac disease may be inconsistent(2). Your reactions to gluten do not have to be severe for you to have coeliac disease, for example, my brother was hospitalised with severe abdominal cramping and vomiting when he was diagnosed, whereas my sister literally said she was just “fed up of feeling nauseas”.
And here’s why it’s important to get checked.
In the UK, only 30% of people with coeliac disease have been diagnosed(3), and it is estimated that 500,000 people are walking around with undiagnosed coeliac disease.(4)
In America, 83% of people with coeliac disease are undiagnosed.(5)
And it’s not rare either. In the UK, 1 in 100 people have coeliac disease (3) and in the USA, 1 in 133 people have coeliac disease.(5) And as you can see from these stats, the majority of them don’t know they have it.
And if you have endometriosis, the chances of having coeliac disease is higher.
Research has identified a strong association between endometriosis and coeliac disease. Coeliac disease patients were found to be almost twice as likely to develop endo in research(6) and studies have found that people with endometriosis are significantly more likely to develop coeliac disease.(7)
To add to that, coeliac disease is a co-condition of small intestine bacterial overgrowth(8), which is a condition where normal bacteria which should be found in the large intestine, are growing in the small intestine. And SIBO is at present, estimated to affect up to 80% of people with endometriosis(9) and is a root cause of the endo belly, because the signature SIBO symptom is bloating. So, if you have endometriosis and SIBO, this is a really strong indicator that you should get tested.
Additionally, in a study of over 200 women with endo, 75% experienced a reduction in symptoms after eliminating gluten for 12 months.(10) That doesn’t mean you have to be as strict as someone with coeliac disease if you don’t have it, as people with coeliac disease have to avoid cross-contamination, so literally they have to have separate food prep areas, chopping boards, etc. But not eating gluten containing foods may make a significant difference to life with endo.
Now, clearly, this isn’t for everyone. For some people in this study, it didn’t help, and we have to be careful when we talk about eliminating foods, as it can be triggering and cause issues with disordered eating, so I am not saying to just go and cut out gluten today. In fact, I actually advise against that – at least until you’ve been tested for coeliac disease! Then if you don’t have it, I advise you work with someone to identify if gluten is a problem for your endo personally or take one of my courses where I teach you how to do that yourself, and as you guys know, The Endo Belly Course is currently open for enrolment now.
So now you know the prevalence rates of coeliac disease, I thought I’d take you through some of the signs. Now, gut symptoms are often common symptoms, but some people don’t have these at all and in fact, they have other symptoms that may be seemingly random or connected to endometriosis, so they dismiss the possibility of it being coeliac disease. So today, I want to take you through some surprising signs of coeliac disease to look out for:
1) Rashes. Number one is rashes and specifically, a rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. My brother developed this, but my sister didn’t, and the rash turned up probably a year or more before his gut issues arrived and it’s actually common for people who have the rash, to not have the gut symptoms (though this isn’t always the case). The rash looks like blisters on the skin, and is itchy, red, and tends to occur on the elbows (which is where my brother had it), knees and glutes. It is only a rash that appears in coeliac disease patients and is caused by gluten, it is not a rash anyone could get and is not caused by herpes, however, it does look like the herpes virus! Of course, if you have a rash like this and you have some of the other symptoms of coeliac disease, it’s worth testing for it, but you can also get a biopsy to confirm whether this is dermatitis herpetiformis.(11)
2) Number two is dental problems. Now this tends to occur if the coeliac disease developed as a child (and just be mindful that coeliac disease can develop at any age!) due to the body being unable to absorb enough nutrients due to the damage in the intestines and from my understand, also as a result of the immune reactions. Dental problems can occur as issues with the enamel and can look like discolouration, patches on the teeth, translucent areas, grooves on the teeth and potentially increased cavities. Additionally, the growth of adult teeth can be delayed too.(12)
3) Number three is mouth ulcers(13), and these would be on the side of the mouth, on the cheeks and tongue, not on the lips – so we’re not talking about cold sores. These won’t occur in everyone, but if they do, they’ll usually be recurring and you may have a few at one time. Again, this is thought to be a result of the nutrient deficiencies and immune response to the gluten.
4) Number four is anaemia, either b12 or iron deficiency induced anaemia or both(14). And this is tricky, because this is also a sign of SIBO!(15) So again, it’s easy to dismiss coeliac disease here.
B12 and iron deficiency anaemia will cause symptoms like tiredness, dizziness, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, numbness in the hands and feet, mouth ulcers, brain fog and irritability to name a few.(16,17) I’ve linked to the NHS page for symptoms in the show notes.
You can fairly easily get tested for these through your GP or online testing sites like Thriva in the UK, and I’ve linked to a few of them(18). If your levels are low but not deficient, it’s still worth ruling out coeliac disease, because they have to get low to get deficient and if you’ve only just recently developed coeliac disease, it may take some time for your levels to drop. And on top of that, if you have the presence of gut problems, endo belly or any of the other symptoms I’ve listed, and you have low levels of iron and B12, it’s safer just to rule it out.
5) Number five is infertility or reoccurring miscarriages, and I think this is an important one to raise because we often dismiss fertility problems as a symptom of endometriosis.
Now if coeliac disease is diagnosed and treated (as in, a person sticks to a strictly gluten free diet, which is the only form of treatment there is) then fertility rates return to normal and are equal to someone without coeliac disease.
The problem is when it’s left undiagnosed, and in fact, the guidance in the UK is that people who have recurring miscarriages or fertility struggles should be tested. I mean I think they should be tested as soon as the difficulty begins, to save people all that heartache, but I guess it costs the NHS less this way.
There are numerous reasons why coeliac disease will affect fertility, from disrupting hormones, causing inflammation in the body, nutrient deficiencies and so on. But the bottom line is, the only way to treat it would be with a diagnosis and an adherence to a gluten free diet.(19)
6) Number six is brain fog(20). Coeliac disease patients often report brain fog and fatigue and research confirming these reports, with MRI scans showing brain changes and damage in people with coeliac disease. This brain fog may be accompanied by memory loss, headaches, and even balance or speech problems.
One small study found a significant improvement in patients with CD and cognitive impairment after a year on a strict gluten free diet(21), so there is definitely hope if this is a symptom you have and you’re diagnosed!
And I thought I’d raise this one because so many of us report brain fog with endometriosis, and whilst there are many root causes behind this (in fact, I have a whole episode on them) often we just dismiss it as something we have to live with.
So those are a few symptoms that you may not suspect would be behind coeliac disease – and these can all occur with or without gut problems and the endo belly.
Some other signs to look out for include the development of autoimmune conditions like hashimoto's thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes (which my brother developed) and osteoporosis(22).
So now let’s move onto testing. To accurately test for coeliac disease, you must be eating gluten daily, at least twice a day, for six weeks(23). This is because the immune system will create antibodies against gluten and that’s what’s being measured. If you’re not eating gluten at all or not regularly, you’ll get a false negative test, even if you have the disease. So, if my brother tested today, he would come up as negative, because he hasn’t eaten gluten for several years.
Once you’ve done the blood test, you’ll then also be sent for a biopsy.
If you’re still not sure whether it’s worth getting tested, I’ve linked to an online assessment in the show notes, which will literally create a letter to take to the doctor, if it advises you to get tested, based on your symptoms.(24)
So that’s it! If you have the endo belly, full stop, I advise you to get tested. And if any of these other symptoms sound familiar, I advise you to get tested too!
Left undiagnosed, coeliac disease can cause serious health problems and increase your risk of multiple conditions and chronic diseases(24), and we’ve never lived in a better time to be gluten free, so even though it might be a hassle to get tested, it’ll be worth it in the long run.
I’ve also linked to some gluten free courses and cookbooks in the show notes.(25)
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
-
https://farrp.unl.edu/resources/gi-fas/celiac-disease
-
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coeliac-disease/symptoms/
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https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/coeliac-disease-faqs/
-
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/myths-about-coeliac-disease/?&&type=rfst&set=true#cookie-widget
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https://www.beyondceliac.org/fast-facts-about-celiac-disease-infographic/
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21840904/
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6601386/
-
https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/
-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23334113/
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https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/dermatitis-herpetiformis/
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https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/related-conditions/oral-health/, https://jcda.ca/article/b39
-
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/what-are-coeliac-disease-symptoms/
-
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/what-are-coeliac-disease-symptoms/
-
https://www.siboinfo.com/overview1.html
-
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamin-b12-or-folate-deficiency-anaemia/symptoms/
-
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/iron-deficiency-anaemia/
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https://thriva.co, https://valahealth.com, https://www.letsgetchecked.com
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https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/infertility-and-coeliac-disease/
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https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/neurological-conditions/
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https://celiac.org/about-the-foundation/featured-news/2014/07/brainfog/
-
https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/conditions-linked-to-coeliac-disease/
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https://www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/getting-diagnosed/#glutenthroughout
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https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coeliac-disease/complications/
-
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665647/cannelle-et-vanille-bakes-simple-by-aran-goyoaga/, https://www.arangoyoaga.com/on-demand-videos,https://www.learningwithexperts.com/foodanddrink/courses/river-cottage-gluten-free?ref=naomidevlin, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/gluten-free-sourdough-bread, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/enriched-dough, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/everyday-gluten-free, https://gluten-free-baking-school.thinkific.com/courses/bao-noodles-and-dumplings, https://sweetlaurel.com
Happy Monday everyone! As I mentioned, today is another live Q&A style episode, with Friday’s episode being one of my regular recorded episodes. This is a nice, short Q&A but I many of those who watched really appreciated the questions and found the answers useful! So hopefully, there’s something in this episode for you too!
In this episode I answered…
How do you test for SIBO and what do you ask for?
Advice on exercising with diaphragmatic endometriosis?
Can you get rid of scar tissue/adhesions with other methods other than more surgery (short answer: YES!)
I really hope this short Q&A was helpful and gives you guys some info/inspiration for your own healing journey.
*Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3* here *or just listen below!*
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Today is another live Q&A from back in June, as due to being unwell and the passing of our cat, I have been unable to complete the planned episode for this week. But, this Q&A is chock full of the foundations of eating for endo, so I hope you find it useful.
In this Q&A on nutrition for endometriosis, I cover…
- The research behind the anti-inflammatory diets and the most researched diets for pain.
- The key components of an anti-inflammatory diet.
- Why personalisation is so important.
- Deficiencies, absorption of nutrients and how to ensure variation.
- How to eat for blood sugar balance.
- I also answer some specific SIBO, gut questions and foodie questions.
I really hope you find this episode helpful and it gives you some starters to support you with your own tailored endometriosis diet.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is another live Q&A and I managed to convince Chris (who hates public speaking, IG lives, etc.) to help me answer your questions about relationships and endo.
I had so many questions submitted in the end that we answered the ones that were sort of directed to Chris and I/about romantic relationships and I’ll answer the remaining in another live soon!
So in this Q&A we answer...
Advice to a partner on how to support you when they say they feel “helpless”.
Is Chris into holistic/naturopathic health and does he find what I do interesting.
Suggestions for helping a partner understand endo.
How to have fun with your partner again when endo gets in the way.
Just to give a little bit of context, Chris and I have been together almost 8 years, and have been friends for I think 11 or years! He was my friend when I was first diagnosed with endo and we were literally a month into our relationship when my endo symptoms returned. We have a joint column together on Endometriosis Net and Chris has also written for Endometriosis News and still writes monthly for Endometriosis Net!
We really hope you found this live helpful.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
So last week I did an episode on adhesion formation post-surgery and how that can affect or literally cause endo belly – and you guys loved it! And I’m glad that you did, because I had another linked episode to follow up with, a part two in a way…
So today, aside from adhesions, I am talking about the ways in which endo surgery could have worsened or even caused your endo belly.
Now of course, adhesions are included in that, but they’re a big topic hence the separate episode, so I encourage you to listen to that if you haven’t done so already!
So, let’s dive in…
1) Number one is constipation. The medications, like pain relief and some of the other medications they may use in surgery, can be a cause of constipation following your laparoscopy.
Even just having to water fast and not eat anything before surgery, can cause constipation.
There’s also the possibility that if you don’t feel like eating much post-surgery, or you’re stressed from surgery, your gut feels sore after surgery or you suddenly eat a lot more stodgy comfort foods post-surgery, that you may get constipation.
Now a lot of people think constipation is just a matter of discomfort and that it’s not a big deal, but actually, we eliminate oestrogen through daily bowel movements.
You’ve heard me talk a lot about excess oestrogen and oestrogen dominance in the past, and how it can be a potential driver of endometriosis and endometriosis symptoms in some of us. However, for many, the symptoms of endo look very similar to the symptoms of oestrogen dominance or oestrogen excess. When we have too much oestrogen in our bodies or we have oestrogen levels that are too high in relation to progesterone, we get symptoms such as heavy periods, period pain, clotty periods, mood swings, breast tenderness and bloating in the lead up to our periods, post-ovulation. So, we may think that our endometriosis is out of hand and causing all of these problems, but if we spent even just a month balancing our hormones, we may see a dramatic reduction or even complete elimination of these symptoms. Now of course, you can have these symptoms of oestrogen dominance or excess AND the excess oestrogen may also be fuelling your endo or worsening your symptoms, that’s certainly a possibility, but for some of us, the cause of the symptoms is the hormone imbalance itself.
Regardless, we want to ensure we’re supporting your hormones, especially after surgery, because we want to build on the good work of the surgery, and we don’t want to have excess oestrogen circulating in our system and possibly feeding any future endo growth. It’s not that oestrogen is bad, it’s a wonderful and essential hormone, but we want to ensure it is in the correct levels and in its healthiest form, as high levels and unhealthier forms of oestrogen are behind issues like breast cancer, fibroids, and endo.
So already, you can see that constipation can have a knock-on effect on our health with endo. But aside from this, constipation or sluggish bowels can cause bloating and discomfort in the abdomen, as waste and gases continue to build up, and this will of course mimic what we call the endo belly. Now as I’ve said before, I don’t believe the endo belly is just the endo belly and it’s one sole root cause is endometriosis. In fact, I usually see multiple causes behind the bloating and swelling my clients experience, and sluggish bowels is one of them.
So, if post-surgery you’re getting a lot of bloating and swelling (which you will of course, for the first few days, from the gases they use to inflate our bellies), just consider whether you’re having healthy bowel movements.
You should be having at least one bowel movement a day, and it should be long, snake-like with a banana like consistency. If it’s hard, cracked, like pellets or stones of difficult to pass, that’s constipation. And if you’re not going daily, that’s constipation too. Often, we’re led to believe that we only have constipation if we’re not going as regularly as we normally would, but that’s not healthy! If you go once a week and then you start going every 10 days, that doesn’t mean your once a week was healthy. A healthy bowel habit for optimal health, hormones and waste elimination is at least once a day.
So, if you are constipated, what can you do about it?
Firstly, don’t panic. You might be a little constipated for a few days post-surgery as your organs essentially get over the shock of going through surgery, it is after all, a trauma to the body. Even with the methods I’m going to suggest, it might take a few days to get things moving, so don’t worry, just get started with them and give yourself some time. Hopefully within two or three days we can get things moving again.
So, the first tip would be to move, gently. This is a basic first line therapy that we genuinely use with gut healing – simply to exercise. It’s low risk and is free. I’m not saying to jump on a trampoline, but your body requires movement to get things moving and constipation can often be aided by exercise. Now if we weren’t post-surgery, you could maybe do some yoga, go for a run, or do some Pilates, but clearly, we’re not going to do that post-surgery.
So, just like is suggested in the post-surgery recovery guidance, just ensure you’re getting up regularly and moving around gently for a couple of minutes. I don’t mean a fast walk, I don’t mean standing up until you hurt, I literally mean every 30 minutes or an hour, or further apart if that’s all you can handle, just gently get up and walk slowly around your room or house, for a few minutes. It could even just be one minute to start with. But if you’re lying down for eight hours then things are not going to be moving well in your body.
Doing this is also going to speed up your recovery, because it ensures that blood is flowing to the area of your surgery and getting to work with healing the wounds.
Now, you’ve likely heard your doctors encourage you to move gently after surgery, but I do want you to check in with them on this, because of course, I don’t know the type of surgery you’re having or have had. If you had a six-hour surgery then they may give you different advice, so please do check in with them on this.
Next up is a very simple strategy and that’s warm or hot water, drunk slowly in the mornings. Yes, really! This actually triggers something called the gastrocolic reflex, which stimulates movement in the large intestine, creating the urge to have a bowel movement.
You can also try increasing your intake of healthy fats, like egg yolks, fish oil (so maybe you take an omega 3 rich oil), or full-fat yoghurt (dairy free if that’s better for you, and organic to avoid added hormones if you’re having animal-based yoghurt), ideally in the mornings, as this will increase motility (which basically means movement) in the large intestine, and generally, we’re more likely to have bowel movements in the morning because digestion has been working overnight and it should take between 12-24 hours to for the food we eat to form a bowel movement.
If none of these simple at home methods work for you, you can try magnesium citrate or oxide. This works by drawing water into the intestines, creating looser stools and encouraging a bowel movement. You can safely take between 500mg to 2000mg, at night, before bed, but normally 1000mg tends to work well for people. You’ll need to build up until you find the right dose for you, as going straight in at 1000mg or 2000mg may cause diarrhoea. So, start at 500mg and increase slightly every other night until you get a bowel movement, but keep in mind may take 2-3 days as it can take a little while to get going. If you get bloating or abdominal pain from the magnesium, you’ve probably taken too much, and you’ll need to reduce back down.
Of course, consult your doctor before starting any new supplement!
2) Number 2 is that the stress from surgery, whether emotional or the physical stress of your body undergoing surgery, can turn off your digestion. Your digestion is controlled by a part of your nervous system called the ‘rest and digest response’, whereas your stress response, which helps us to power through stressful or genuinely life-threatening situations, is controlled by a part of the nervous system called the ‘flight or fight response’. The two cannot be operating at the same time and unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the situation, the stress response will always win, because it ensures our survival. This has allowed us to survive and evolve as humanity, but in modern times, even just a stressful email might trigger the flight or fight response, turning the rest and digest response off.
And the thing is, post-surgery we really want the rest and digest response to be operating well, because not only does it control digestion, but it also controls healing. So, when our body and mind is feeling stressed from having a surgery, our healing and recovery time is impaired.
But back to digestion. When digestion shuts off, a few things happen. Firstly, our digestion and motility tend to slow down. Now for some people, you may get exaggerated and increased motility in the large intestine, resulting in diarrhoea, but that doesn’t mean things are moving well in the small intestines. So, if things have slowed down in the stomach and small intestine, this creates stagnation and a chance for bacteria to populate in the small intestines where they shouldn’t be.
Now that of course, sounds like small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is a condition many people with endometriosis have, where bacteria which should be in the large intestine, happily existing in the gut microbiome, are living in the small intestine. This creates a whole host of problems and symptoms like bloating (which we may think is the endo belly), gas, constipation, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain to name a few. Now this likely wouldn’t be enough to cause you to develop SIBO alone, because once the rest and digest mode is switched back on, hopefully your motility is working well enough that the bacteria are swept out of the small intestine and into the large intestine where it belongs. However, if you also have adhesions or low stomach acid, or other risk factors for SIBO, it might be enough if you keep returning to this state of fight or flight and you’re really chronically stressed.
So, if SIBO does happen to develop, that most certainly is going to cause what we see as the endo belly, which in my experience with my clients, is most of the time at least in part caused by SIBO, so that’s one possibility. However, even if you don’t have SIBO, that slowed down motility and digestion is going to leave food hanging out in your intestines, whether that’s the small or large, leaving lots of time for bacteria to have a good munch on that food, and in turn, they make gas as a result. That’s the process of fermentation.
Additionally, when digestion turns off, we also don’t get a release of gastric juices like stomach acid and digestive enzymes. These guys are absolutely vital for breaking down food and extracting nutrients, so without them, we’re going to have chunks of food in our intestines that can’t be broken down and that can result in pain, bloating, gas, constipation, or diarrhoea.
A side note here is that we really want to be absorbing our nutrients. Our body requires vitamins, minerals, amino acids, glucose, and fats to heal, not just for the energy but for the actual process of healing and repairing the tissue. If our digestion is shutting down and we’re not absorbing our nutrients properly, we’re going to have a harder time healing and are most likely going to experience more inflammation and more pain.
Lastly, stomach acid and digestive enzymes actually play a role in protecting us from SIBO and bad bacteria. They kill off bacteria as it enters the gut, and so if those levels are lowered, it’s like our first line of defence is lower and bad bacteria can more easily move in. Having low stomach acid is also a risk factor for developing SIBO, it’s not usually enough on its own, but coupled with another risk factor it could take us to the point where we do develop it
So, what can we do about this?
So, the first thing, of course, is creating feelings of safety in the body and lowering our stress response. There are numerous ways to do this, but some proven effective strategies for turning off the flight or fight response include tapping (where you tap on different points of your body and repeat certain statements), meditation, deep breathing, and spending time in nature. There are other strategies like yoga and exercise, but I’m trying to only highlight the ones that you’ll be able to do post-surgery. So even though you may not be able to go for a run or something in nature, maybe you might be able to sit in your garden, or by a window, or when you get stronger, maybe you can manage a 10-minute walk in the park.
Now of course, we can’t always live in a stress-free bubble, and you may have recurring feelings of stress about your surgery, so it’s not that we’re trying to totally remove you from the feeling of stress, because that could get pretty stressful in itself! But what we want to do, is a few times a day, take some time to lower our stress response, so the body gets these reminders that it’s safe, that you are safe. So perhaps you do some gentle breathing in the morning, maybe you do some tapping at lunch and some meditation before bed, for example.
In the show notes, I have linked to a few apps where you can learn these techniques.
Next up is digestion support. Firstly, we want to ensure that when you’re eating, your rest and digest response is actually switched on. So, to do that, we want to be eating in a calm environment and taking time with our meal rather than rushing, if we’re rushing or eating when we’re tense, the flight or fight response will be switched on and digestion will be switched off! You can further encourage the rest and digest response to be on by taking a deep breath or a few deep breaths before eating – in through the nose, and out through the mouth, with your exhale longer than your inhale. This helps to turn the flight or fight response off and the rest and digest response on.
Finally, we can further support your digestion by adding in stomach acid support and digestive enzyme support.
You can stimulate the production of stomach acid by drinking one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 8 tablespoons of water 15 minutes before a meal. Drink through a straw to protect your enamel and don’t do this if you have a history of stomach ulcers or inflammatory bowel disease. If you have interstitial cystitis or histamine intolerance, the vinegar may not be the best option for you, so I recommend adding bitter foods with your meals, like rocket in your salad, as that can also help stimulate stomach acid – not dramatically, but somewhat. Of course, always consult a doctor before adding in supplements or digestive support.
You can also buy tinctures known as bitters, which are a blend of bitter herbs, and you can take a few drops of that before a meal instead of the vinegar. Again, these tinctures do tend to contain alcohol so people with IC may need to be careful.
You can actually take a supplement called betaine HCL, that literally provides you with more stomach acid, but at first, it’s best to see how you respond to these options as it can be very strong and is not always suitable for some people. So, start here and if you don’t feel like it’s helping, I have a protocol for taking betaine HCL in my upcoming course The Endo Belly Course and I think it might be in my endo belly podcast series as well
For digestive enzymes, certain herbs and spices have actually been shown to stimulate the production of digestive enzymes! These are:
· Garlic
· Mint
· Onion
· Turmeric
· Ginger
· Fenugreek
· Caraway
· Fennel
· Coriander
· Cumin
So, adding a mix of these to dishes can help to increase your digestive enzyme levels. A mix is always best because they tend to increase different digestive enzymes and you need an array of them, so for example, don’t just rely on garlic in a meal, try to add one or two other herbs to get the best support.
You can also use digestive enzyme supplements, which you take with meals, as directed on the label. Unless you have a gut health condition, it’s best not to use these for more than a month so that your body doesn’t get too reliant on them, but I do use them longer term for people with SIBO and anyone with more extensive gut health issues.
3) The last way endo surgery can cause endo belly and gut problems is by causing leaky gut. As you may know, the pain relief drugs known as NSAIDs can cause leaky gut, but so can stress as the chemicals released in the stress response actually directly damage the gut lining.
If you’re not familiar with leaky gut, I have a whole episode on it which I’ve linked to in the show notes, but leaky gut or intestinal permeability occurs when tiny holes appear in the gut lining. Think of the gut lining as a sausage skin, it’s a tube from the mouth to the colon that separates what’s coming in and going out from the rest of the body. The lining is incredibly thin, just one cell thick and these cells are tightly packed together with only the tiniest gap between them, to allow for the absorption of nutrients. When the gut gets inflamed or damaged from chronic IBS reactions, chronic stress, NSAIDs, infections, SIBO, allergies, intolerances, an inflammatory microbiome, etc. the gaps begin to widen.
When this happens, food particles can pass through the gut lining alongside bacteria and toxins from bacteria, known as LPS. While some of the immune defences are inside the gut, there is also a large amount on the outside of the gut lining, waiting to attack anything that passes through which shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t matter if this is food or bacteria, inflammatory immune cells will be released and because the blood stream is also on the other side of the gut lining, the inflammatory cells can get swept along the blood stream, causing full body inflammation.
If you have leaky gut, this is going to be happening every time you eat, putting you in a state of chronic inflammation.
Additionally, leaky gut can cause gut irritation, creating reactions like bloating (or what we may see as the endo belly) and IBS issues. Over time, leaky gut can cause food intolerances as the immune system begins to create antibodies to the foods passes through.
Of course, we don’t want this to be happening whilst we’re trying to recover from surgery. We want a healthy level of inflammation to help us heal, not chronic inflammation, and we certainly don’t want swelling or abdominal distress putting pressure on our stitches or the internal sites which have been excised.
So, what can we do about it?
Well of course, firstly we want to try and lower stress as I mentioned before, so go back to those practices.
Secondly, if we can, we want to lower our reliance on NSAIDS during this period. Now if you can’t, don’t worry – don’t feel guilty or pressured, just focus on the stress piece and maybe the next tip too. But if you can, there are supplements that have been shown to be just as effective as NSAIDs for reducing pain, in particular, ginger powder.
Ginger has been shown to be just as effective as ibuprofen and mefenamic acid for dysmenorrhea, it’s also been shown to be a wonderful pain reliever in numerous studies for migraines, arthritis pain, back pain and so on. Dose wise, ginger is safe to take at up to 2000mg a day, but it needs to be divided into doses rather than taken all in one go, as that can cause diarrhoea. You could start at 1000mg a day and take it four times a day, so 250mg per dose or some supplement brands are 500mg a dose, so you could start there and do two a day or four a day, depending on the level of pain you’re in. You could take it like this daily, to just keep pain down, or you can literally take it at the onset of pain, like a pain killer.
Now ginger is a blood thinner, so if you decide to start taking it before surgery, to lower inflammation ahead of time, just consult with your surgeon as they may want you to stop taking it for a few days or a week before your surgery date.
Curcumin has also been shown to be just as effective as ibuprofen for pain relief when taken daily for 4 weeks at 1,500mg. It was also shown to have less GI side effects than ibuprofen, which is great for the endo belly! And guess what else? Curcumin helps to heal leaky gut and reduce intestinal inflammation, so double bonus.
Now curcumin is also natural blood thinner, so what you could do is take it for four weeks prior to your surgery to gain the beneficial effects and build up that level of pain relief, and then stop before your surgery if instructed to by your surgeon, so check in with them ahead of the surgery in case they want you to stop, and then start again after your surgery to continue reaping the pain relieving effects. You’ll probably only be pausing your dose for a few days, two weeks at the maximum, but it’s likely they’ll only ask you to stop taking it for a week or even less before the surgery, especially if it’s only keyhole.
Of course, you may need some more pain relief than these alone, but for some of us, they’re enough, and if you’re also using some of the supplements, I mentioned in my last episode on the endo belly and surgery, then you really may not need any additional pain relief. However, if you do, hopefully the addition of ginger and maybe curcumin, might lower your need for as many
Finally, I don’t want to throw too many supplements at you for this episode and so if you do want some specific supplements and strategies for leaky gut, head to my episode on leaky gut and endo belly healing, which are linked in the show notes. But for now, I want to give you a very simple at home method for calming the gut and healing leaky gut, and that’s bone broth. Bone broth contains amino acids and collagen, which help to heal leaky gut.
Now a few caveats to this, if you’re vegan or vegetarian, this is of course not the one for you, and so what I recommend is you just really focus on a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods to lower intestinal inflammation, support your gut with curcumin and perhaps listen to my episode on leaky gut and try some of the other tips from there.
The other caveat is if you have SIBO, you might react to bone broth because the collagen in there actually can feed SIBO. Some people with SIBO do fine on bone broth, but others get bloated or get abdominal discomfort, so test how you feel on it.
Finally, if you have histamine intolerance, bone broth is high in histamine, so this also may not be for you. You can make a low histamine bone broth by cooking it for much less time, but it won’t be as healing for leaky gut because it’s going to contain less of those amino acids, collagen, minerals, etc. from the bones.
So if for whatever reason, bone broth is not for you (and actually, even if it is) the foundational thing you can do to support your gut lining to heal, is to eat a nutrient dense diet full of anti-inflammatory foods, because if we just spend our time recovering eating sugar, alcohol and fast foods, the gut lining is going to become even more inflamed and any damage from NSAIDs or stress is just going to be exaggerated. But if you can add bone broth, it’ll be a wonderful healing addition to this protocol.
So that’s it! You have lots of options to choose from, and you certainly don’t have to try them all. Pick and choose what suits you, your values, and your lifestyle, and they will go a long way to helping your gut to recover and heal post-surgery and preventing recurrence or worsening of the endo belly.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Stress relief tools
Headspace
Calm
Tapping Solution
Frequency Mind
Ginger research
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/
Curcumin
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4533742/
https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/491886
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332217346838?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464615000092
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5407015/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24672232/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25277322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476912/
Leaky gut episodes
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-leaky-gut
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/-the-endometriosis-belly
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/understanding-the-endometriosis-belly-part-2
Today’s episode is another bonus Q&A and this time it was more light-hearted and fun. This time I’m talking about endometriosis and the associated skin conditions, and I’m also sharing endo friendly skin care tips!
In this episode I talk about...
- My personal experience with rosacea and eczema and how I healed those after over a decade of suffering with them.
- How treating SIBO improved my skin in so many ways but also dehydrated it and caused some surprising skin issues!
- My skin care routine, favourite products and gua sha technique that are all endometriosis friendly.
- The link between endometriosis, histamines and eczema.
- The link between SIBO and rosacea.
- Cystic acne, endometriosis and oestrogen and how to begin healing acne.
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals in skincare and how they affect endometriosis.
I hope this Q&A is both fun and helpful!
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free workshop: Creating a Roadmap to Endo Belly Healing
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
So, you’ve had an endometriosis surgery and you’re really hopeful that’s this is it – you’re going to have some relief, for a while at the least.
Maybe your periods are better, your chronic pelvis pain is better, things are improving. But after a few months, the endo belly comes back. Or maybe you get it for the first time ever. You’re bloated all the time or maybe you bloat badly after meals, or maybe it gets worse over the day? Perhaps it’s also accompanied by IBS issues like constipation, gas, or loose stools.
If any of this sounds familiar, this episode is for you.
Whilst surgery is essential for many people, it doesn’t come without its risks. And I honestly feel like it’s a disservice that these aren’t more talked about. So today, I’m talking about why you may get endo belly for the first time, a return of it or a worsening of it as a result of adhesions, and what you can do to prevent them.
If you haven’t heard me bang on about these guys before, adhesions are a form of scar tissue. They are web-like structures and bands of collagen that grow in response to injury and trauma, to ‘knit’ back together a wounded area and as part of the healing process from infection and inflammation. Collagen strands bond together to protect the damaged area to allow healing to occur in a safe and isolated environment, and if an infection is present, they protect the rest of the body by preventing the spread.
Adhesions occur in nearly all cases of abdominal surgery, the results vary from study to study, but one large and long study found that between 55% to 100% of women who had pelvic surgery developed adhesions, and up to 90% of people who had major abdominal surgery - so something like a caesarean - developed adhesions. So, if you’ve had even one or more surgeries for endo, it’s very likely that you have some adhesions.
Now adhesions are a leading cause of the condition, small intestine bacterial overgrowth. This is another topic I bang on about all the time, but if you’re new here, I am specialised in endometriosis and SIBO, because SIBO is so prevalent in our community, the research at present is indicating that 80% of us have it. And SIBO is a condition where the normal bacteria which should be in our large intestine (this is referred to as our gut microbiome), starts accumulating in our small intestine, where it shouldn’t be. Normally, bacteria are moved through the small intestine into the large intestine with the help of something called the migrating motor complex, and this MMC is a wave like motion that sweeps the small intestine of any left-over food bits and bacteria, and it kicks in about two hours after meals and at night whilst we’re asleep. Now a number of things can damage the MMC or prevent it from doing its job. Food poisoning or gastroenteritis is the main cause of damage to the MMC, and that actually damages nerves and muscles that control it. But adhesions, even if the MMC is working well, they can stop it from doing its job properly. And they do this by pulling on our intestines. So, imagine you have an adhesion that is going from your pelvis to somewhere on your intestines, it’s going to be pulling down on your intestines and distorting the shape or the flow of the intestines. In fact, your intestines need to be able to slip and slide over each other, they need to be able to expand and accommodate food and waste, but if they’re being yanked in different directions and they’re being held in place by adhesions, the flow is going to disrupted. There may even be adhesions wrapped around the intestine, which would create an obstruction, or the adhesions may have caused the intestine to loop over itself, creating a pocket area that the bacteria can’t escape from.
Whatever is happening, the result is the same. The small intestine can’t get clean, and bacteria builds up, causing SIBO. And the small intestine isn’t designed to house bacteria, so this causes all sorts of problems like bloating, which is a main cause of the endo belly and IBS issues. The gases that are released from the bacteria can also cause brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, and body pain to name a few symptoms. I’ve linked to a couple of episodes where I break down SIBO in more detail, so if you’re not familiar with it, have a listen to that.
Now even if SIBO hasn’t developed yet, adhesions may still be a source of your bloating. If they’re not affecting your small intestine, they could still be affecting your large intestine and may be causing a build-up of waste or gas, you may not be able to have regular bowel movements or your intestines might be sluggish and slow, allowing for gases to accumulate, creating that swelling.
So, what’s the solution? Prevent the adhesions from taking root in the first place, or if they have, start to break them down.
So first up, just as a caveat, we want to be lowering inflammation levels before and after surgery with good anti-inflammatory nutrition. Now inflammation occurs during healing, it’s actually part of the healing process, but too much of it for too long will encourage adhesion formation. We want a healthy level of inflammation that aids in healing, not a chronic level that accelerates the growth of adhesions. So, before your surgery and during your healing phase, make sure you’re filling your diet with those anti-inflammatory foods I always harp on about: colourful vegetables and fruits; healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish; antioxidant packed herbs and spices; and organic lean protein sources beans and lentils, free range organic omega 3 rich eggs, wild caught fish and free range, organic, grass-fed meat. If you want to learn more, I’ve linked to a few of my podcast episodes on anti-inflammatory nutrition and a free copy of my cookbook in the show notes. I should also be bringing out a nutrition for endo workshop in the next few weeks too, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Okay, so now that’s cleared up, let’s dive into the extra strategies. I’m going to start with what you can do before and initially after the surgery, and then what you can do once the scars have healed.
- Number one is supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids.
Fish oil was shown to reduce adhesion formation following surgery on mice with induced endometriosis, and reduced the inflammatory healing process post-surgery, which could reduce the chances of further endo development as inflammatory chemicals like prostaglandins fuel endometriosis. This led to the mice who were fed with fish oil to have fewer lesions than those who were fed a standard diet without fish oil supplementation, so even though we don’t have research specifically on adhesion formation and omega 3 on humans with endo, this could be a potential helpful supplement before and after surgery (though I would argue it’s an essential daily supplement).
The therapeutic dose is between 1000mg to 3000mg a day. I personally find I get more pain relief from the higher doses, but it can be tricky to get hold of those levels without exceeding the dose recommendations on the bottle. I have linked to a few higher dose supplements in the show notes, but if you chose to exceed the dose recommendations on the label, obviously that’s your choice but you’ll need to consult with a practitioner to be on the safe side. However, omega 3 fatty acids are generally very safe at these doses.
If you’re vegan, look for an algae-based supplement that contains both DHA and EPA, because we need both. I’ve linked to a few in the handout.
The only risk is that they can sometimes thin blood, so speak to your surgeon ahead of surgery to see whether you need to stop taking them a few days beforehand, for keyhole surgery it’s unlikely, but just check.
- Number 2 is proteolytic enzymes. Proteolytic enzymes are natural substances that break down protein, and of course, the building blocks of muscle and tissue are amino acids, which form protein. As a result, proteolytic enzymes help to reduce adhesion formation and they also reduce inflammation post-surgery and aid in clearing waste products from the wound site. The research is limited, with most of the research being in oral surgery or sports related injuries but there is one study on endometriosis.
So, the only study we have on enzymes for endo is the use of a brand we use commonly at IWHI and that’s Wobenzyme. In the study, Wobenzyme was shown to reduce pain and inflammation post-surgery, reducing the chances of adhesions growth and it also inhibited the formation of new blood vessels, reducing the chances of further endo development.
The dose used in the study was the label dose for 40-60 days pre-op and then 60 days post op.
One thing to note is that because proteolytic enzymes reduce adhesion formation, there is the risk that if there is an infection at the site of the wound, that it could spread, as adhesions play a role in isolating infection sites from the rest of the body. This is rare but has been known to happen.
- Number three is home Arvigo Massage. Now, everyone is different, but my recommendation is as soon as your scars have healed and the therapist gives you the go ahead, learn Arvigo massage from a licensed therapists and start practising on yourself every day or a couple times a week. This really increases blood flow and helps to clear away scar tissue. It only takes 10 minutes and can be part of your evening routine, because if you do it at night, it actually helps to stimulate your MMC, so that will also help to reduce your chances of clearing SIBO.
So that’s a great tool you can be trying at home and that’s like your daily maintenance. But we do want to go in with the bigger guns and that’s so that’s number four.
- Number four is having some form of professional abdominal massage known as manual therapy, which is designed to break up adhesions. Manual therapy is a form of organ massage and manipulation to break down and prevent adhesions from forming, unstick organs and release a frozen pelvis. Your main options are visceral manipulation or Clear Passage.
Visceral manipulation is a form of manual therapy which was designed by Jean-Pierre Barral. It’s generally the more affordable and accessible option and is very effective for treating adhesions. Not much research has been specifically done on its effects on endometriosis, but there is plenty of research on its effects for pain conditions and lots of clinical research with endo patients experiencing success from treatment.
The holy grail of manual therapy is Clear Passage. This is a unique form of manual therapy which is designed for adhesions and is incredibly effective for SIBO and endometriosis. In fact, there is even amazing research behind it for these conditions, showing its effectiveness. If you’re contemplating a surgery but you’re not sure it’s necessary or the right path for you, for whatever reason, and you have the money to afford Clear Passage, you may want to look into it first because it can even prevent the need for surgery with endometriosis. Of course, if you have cysts that need removing or deep infiltrating endo that’s damaging your organs, I am not saying to ignore the advice of a surgeon and not have surgery, but in some cases, surgery isn’t the best option – especially if you’ve already had a few. Research has shown that the pain relief from Clear Passage is the same as surgery and is long lasting, and they all have remarkable results for endometriosis related infertility, pain during sex, and menstrual or ovulatory pain.
They also have wonderful results for SIBO and are endorsed by many of the world’s leading SIBO doctors. Honestly, I wish all of my clients with SIBO, and endo could have Clear Passage because the results from the studies are so positive. However, it’s very expensive so if you can’t afford it, honestly, don’t worry and try the Arvigo massage and visceral manipulation approach.
- Lastly, you could also try regular castor oil packs.
I know countless leading women’s health practitioners who use castor oil to soften and break down adhesions and who experience great success with it with their clients. However, it’s generally considered that more research needs to be done, though there is research on castor oil’s abilities to lower inflammation, reduce symptoms of constipation, improve circulation, and stimulate muscle relaxation.
I actually asked Arvigo Therapist Tara Ghosh about using castor oil packs for breaking down adhesions and she explained how it works. So, castor oil actually triggers the immune system, due to some of its chemical components, but once it responds to the call and finds no poison to clear, the immune system goes about utilising its tools on repairing and healing the pelvic area seeing as it’s already there, which in turn helps to break down and clear adhesions. She also emphasises that it lowers of inflammation and improves of blood flow to the area, and that this also helps to clear adhesions or prevent their formation.
If you want to learn how to make your own castor oil pack and how and when to safely use them, I advise listening to my interview with Tara who has a really quick and easy method as opposed to the often messy and sticky traditional approach! You can try a castor oil pack alongside your Arvigo massage a couple of times a week once your scars have healed.
And if you’re years past surgery, don’t worry – other than the proteolytic enzymes, you can use all of these strategies to break down any old adhesions that have formed! With the proteolytic enzymes, we only have research that focuses on pre- and post-surgery, so I really couldn’t say whether they would work years after surgery, you could try, but I just can’t make any guarantees!
So that’s it! I hope that this episode provides you with a bit of a protocol for healing post-surgery and preventing adhesion formation. I think it’s actually appalling that we’re not told about them and how to manage them, given that they cause people with endometriosis so many problems, but hopefully this gives you some tools to get to work with.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is another endo Q&A and in this live I answer:
- Will endo get worse or stay the same?
- My personal experience with mould and how it affected my endo co-conditions.
- Will endo continue to cause issues even if you’re not having pain?
- Tips for managing the kind of pain flare that leaves you on the floor.
- Post-period pelvic pain and what to do about it.
- ...And more!
I really hope you find this live helpful! We covered A LOT of super interesting topics in this one.
*Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3* here *or just listen below!*
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Okay, so a number of you have reached out to ask me whether I’m going to talk about my next steps for SIFO treatment, which I wasn’t originally going to do as I have an expert in mind to invite onto the show, but as a number of you asked, I hope that sharing my story will be somewhat helpful for you!
So, unlike with SIBO where I had quite a long-term plan in mind, this I am more so feeling out my journey because as I discussed in my previous update, I’m not 100% sure if the issue is gut dysbiosis or SIFO.
So, to recap, let’s start with what SIFO is. SIFO stands for small intestine fungal overgrowth and it’s when fungus like yeast (or other fungi) grow in the small intestine. We do have some normal, non-harmful levels of fungus and yeast in the large intestine, but they become a problem either when they overgrow or when they’re found I the small intestine.
Unfortunately, the symptoms of SIFO are exactly the same as SIBO, so it can be very tricky to identify between the two. What makes it harder is that testing for SIFO is unreliable. Often the fungus hides in biofilms, which are protective mucosal-like layers, so they don’t show up on tests and even if they do, there’s no way, without a very invasive biopsy, to tell whether the fungus is in the large intestine or small intestine. What we do know is that the organic acids test tends to be the most reliable test, at least according to the practitioners I’ve trained with.
We also know the candida tends to be the culprit behind SIFO in many cases, and just to be clear, that’s the type of yeast which causes thrush, and we also know that about xxx of SIBO cases.
Now there are some extra tell-tale signs of candida specifically, if that’s the fungus behind the problem, and those are…
· Allergies
· Yeast overgrowth (vaginal, oral or on the skin)
· Nasal congestion and excess mucus or phlegm
· Rashes
· Joint pain
· Brain fog and chronic fatigue
· Headaches
The difficulty is that unless you have the obvious thrush, whether oral, vaginal or on your skin, this symptoms are also typical of histamine intolerance, which you know if you listen to my podcast, is very common with our community and is also very common with SIBO, and hydrogen sulphide SIBO specifically.
As I had suspected hydrogen sulphide and for sure, have histamine intolerance, any possible SIFO really wasn’t obvious. Until more recently.
As you may know, about two months ago, I cleared my SIBO! But unfortunately, I still had the majority of the SIBO symptoms. I also had an unusual test result, which showed no hydrogen gas in my large intestine, which is where it should be. In a healthy negative result, you should see little hydrogen gas in the small intestine and then a rise in the large intestine, but I had a flat line. So, this indicates two possible issues – either hydrogen sulphide or a bacterial imbalance in my large intestine, essentially, the bacteria in my gut having been wiped out.
Because I’d done so many treatment rounds and most of them would target all three types of SIBO, I felt it unlikely it was still hydrogen sulphide remaining, and my colleagues agreed. Secondly, I had done a round of antibiotics, and I react quite badly to them, having lots of diarrhoea, fatigue, and headaches, and after I finished the course, I got shingles, which you only get when you’re very immune compromised. And 70% of the immune system is in and around the gut. If your healthy microbiome in the large intestine is wiped out, you can bet your immune system will be too.
So, for sure, I was certain that there was some gut dysbiosis happening. But I didn’t believe it was enough to cause all my symptoms.
And a few clues made me suspect SIFO.
Firstly, I was doing pretty well with symptom reduction until the third week of the elemental diet, which is full of simple sugars. Suddenly, I began to bloat up again. I also had a strong white film throughout the entire elemental diet, which indicated the sugars were feeding bacteria or yeast in my mouth, and secondly, I started having thrush symptoms during the elemental diet.
Then, from the elemental diet, I went onto the antibiotics, and I got thrush symptoms again!
Now Dr Siebecker warns that the elemental diet may cause yeast or fungal overgrowth in people who already have it, in contrast, Dr Ruscio uses the elemental diet for candida overgrowth, because he says the simple sugars are absorbed too quickly for the yeast to eat it. I think it’s probably the case that both doctors are right, but that it depends on the individual and that they see different types of patients. Either way, it seemed quite clear to me that I had some yeast overgrowth as a result.
I went to my doctor at Vala, and they agreed that it looked like candida overgrowth in my mouth.
Additionally, I’ve always had a white film on my tongue, honestly ever since I could remember. I used to ask dentists about it, but they would shrug it off, and tell me it was down to what I had eaten, but I was waking up with it before I had eaten a thing. Back then I just took what they said as gospel. Then a few years ago, my boyfriend and I went through a real sweet tooth phase, long before I had gotten on top of my endo and eating an anti-inflammatory diet, and we were eating a lot of sugar. At that point, I got full on oral thrush, which thankfully was cleared with 24 hours of taking the medication – or so I thought!
I’ve only ever had vaginal thrush a handful times, so again, initially, I really didn’t think candida was an issue for me! However, the fact that I then started getting the symptoms from two things which we know may cause yeast overgrowth – the elemental diet and antibiotics – made me think that maybe I have had SIFO all along, but the white film never got out of control, and it wasn’t really affecting my vagina too much.
Now having said this, according to Dr Jacobi, candida can also cause a burning bladder pain, and for sure, that’s what my pain feels like inside my bladder. Like I have a fire going on in there, and there’s also a few rusty knitting needles sticking through it too!
So, alongside my colleagues who I trained with in SIBO and my doctor, I concluded I do likely have SIFO and gut dysbiosis.
The problem is, if you have SIFO, its usually quite hard to clear SIBO or to stay in remission, and even though I still had all the symptoms of SIBO, I felt like I relapsed about 2 weeks into my all clear. The changes were subtle, but they were there. I was still having bloating and loose stools, that hadn’t changed. But what had improved is I could no longer feel fermentation happening in my gut, like active bubbles forming and moving around in my gut, which I used to get all the time – and that returned. The second issue was that my stools changed, and I won’t go into the detail, but it was reminiscent of when my SIBO used to be really bad. Then I started getting the burping back, which was a new symptom originally, that started I think in 2019, but it went during treatment, and came back around the same time as these other symptoms.
So, this occurred whilst I was in my prevention of relapse phase. So, when you clear your SIBO, you move into a three-to-six-month period where you put in place meal spacing, prokinetics (which are supplements or drugs which stimulate your migrating motor complex in the small intestine overnight, to clear out bacteria) and some kind of SIBO diet. There are also some additional extras you can do, which I was doing. I was pretty much doing everything perfectly, but I relapsed.
So, I was two weeks in, whilst deciding what treatment to start for SIFO. And at that point, sometime after my relapse, is when we decided to go to Greece.
Now originally, you’ll know my plan was to do a very specific reintroduction of foods, following the usual elimination diet reintroduction phase, where you try one new food basically a week. But now I had relapsed, and I was at a point where I never didn’t have symptoms. I bloated after every meal, despite being on the SIBO bi-phasic, so I couldn’t get any more restrictive. So, trying to tell what I was specifically going to react to was going to be incredibly difficult and frustrating.
Also, we have been wanting to travel for years, but in addition to COVID, we hadn’t because of my SIBO. I didn’t want to be in a position where I had to eat outside of a SIBO diet and ended up relapsing. But now I had relapsed.
And part of what may cause relapse is chronic stress and an elevated nervous system. I won’t go into it now, but many of you know that I have felt very, very stressed and unsafe in our current home in Margate, but we’ve had continual circumstances that have prevented us from moving – one of them being that we didn’t want to just move to a new flat, we really wanted to move overseas and roam around for a while. Additionally, we had mould, which we’ve cleared as much as we can, but there’s likely a lot of hidden mould as the entire flat was flooded not long after we first moved in, and it was after that that I got very sick with histamine intolerance, which can flare up from mould triggering the immune system. But this is a stressor on the body and nervous system, and additionally, can cause relapse if your immune system is being compromised by something like mould.
On top of that, I’d worked really hard, for really, really long and it had been a tough few years. So, we made quite an overnight decision to go to Greece for six week. You know, our original vision was to pack up, leave the flat entirely and just travel Europe for six months, because that’s all we’re allowed to do thanks to Brexit, but because of the restrictions with COVID, etc. it was just all so limited and so fingers crossed, we can do that this year. But we both decided enough was enough and we wanted a break from the house and a change of scenery, of course it was something we just wanted to do in life, but in a large part for me, my health was my motivation and my therapist even called it an intervention, and that’s for sure what it felt like.
So, I made the decision to go to Greece, knowing full well I wouldn’t have total control about the reintroduction of food, but by this point I was pretty certain I had relapsed and giving that I still had the SIFO road ahead of me, a break away seemed not just like it wouldn’t do much more damage, but that it would be good for me.
So, my plan for SIBO and SIFO basically revolved around Greece because I would have to take all my treatment with me. And I established three goals, I mean I didn’t, I’m not that organised, but that’s this is what I focused on –
· Keeping SIBO at bay and continuing the prevention of relapse to the best of my ability so it didn’t progress rapidly.
· Beginning to take on SIFO, but gently, to avoid any die off reactions whilst away.
· And to rebuild my microbiome and improve my gut lining, which I was already working on anyway.
So as a result, here’s what my current protocol looks like:
Diet
Before we went away, I began expanding with one to three new foods a week. Just some of the key ones that I thought I should try before we went, that I would likely rely on in restaurants, like lentils and some nuts.
Then, as we planned for Greece, my aim was to eat as expanded as possible, so basically the more lenient end of a SIBO diet, which looks more like the expanded version of the low FODMAP diet and the paleo diet. This is fine by the way; you won’t relapse if you expand. The point of the prevention of relapse phase is to expand to tolerance as rapidly as possible. Of course, I had no bloody idea what I was and wasn’t tolerating, so I just decided to follow the low FODMAP serving guidance to help me to stay within some kind of relatively low carb (that’s the basis of a SIBO diet) protocol. So, before we went, I basically started transitioning from the bi-phasic, which is very, very restrictive, to low FODMAP.
Because we are here for six weeks, I had the advantage of not eating out all the time. So, I my plan was, and what I have implemented whilst here, was to eat low FODMAP during the week at home, and then at the weekend, to eat as low FODMAP or paleo friendly as I could manage whilst out and about, but also allowing for treats and just basically enjoying and appreciating a different cuisine.
Now my doctor, who is a functional medicine doctor, sent me a candida diet. There are a few different versions, but essentially, it’s a low carb diet to a degree, that removes yeasts and sugars. I had a look through it and because in terms of servings, it’s generally less restrictive than the low FODMAP, I was essentially doing it, other than when I have some bread or ice cream over the weekend. But I didn’t really want to go down a rabbit hole with that, especially as I’m not sure how suitable the candida diet is for SIBO and equally, some practitioners debate whether the candida diet is even necessary. So that’s going to be a bridge that I cross when I get home. But for the most part, I am naturally doing it anyway.
So, we’ve been here for about two weeks now and I’ve settled into a routine of this kind of pattern. The first weekend we were in Athens for 48 hours and were travelling and didn’t really have time to seek out gluten free and dairy free, etc. We did stumble across a few places, thankfully, so that was great. But I ended up eating quite a bit of gluten, and by the third day I felt really nauseas and started getting an upset stomach. I also had dairy too, once, or twice, because it turns out that in Greece, it’s really hard to eat vegan and gluten free in general restaurants. The protein options are mainly meat, fish or dairy and often the fish was things that I just wouldn’t be able to stomach, like octopus, and as you know, I was hoping to transition back off of meat after having to eat on the bi-phasic, so I had some cheese every now and then, as being a health coach, blood sugar is important to me and so you do need protein with every meal. Also, my blood sugar is very suspectable to lows, so just having a plate of carbs would really mess me up and ruin the rest of the day, so I had to make choices about having enough fat and protein and that sometimes looked like a little dairy. Now I know I’m intolerant to dairy, which actually might be due to having SIBO, because it causes temporary lactose intolerance until you clear it, so I wasn’t eating huge amounts and I tried to choose cheeses that I know I tolerate better, and I avoided cow’s dairy and milk for the most part – except for a scoop of ice cream here or there, but in Athens I could get vegan.
So, because I was nervous about eating foods out, that I hadn’t eaten for a long time, I took with me betaine HCL, which is stomach acid support; digestive enzymes; FODMATE, which is digestive enzymes specifically for FODMAP foods and charcoal capsules, which absorb gas if you have bloating and can also be helpful with diarrhea, and all of these have been really handy when out. I’ve still not had the happiest bowel movements, but I wasn’t having sudden severe reactions whilst out and needing to dash to the loo, which is what I used to get and what I was scared of.
So that’s the diet side of things.
SIFO
For SIFO, I didn’t want to go in too hard core now and then have lots of die off reactions whilst away, which would leave me feeling really unwell.
So instead, I started subtle. I have a one-week course of an anti-fungal from my doctor, but I am also taking a high dose of saccharomyces boulardii, which is a healthy yeast probiotic that competes with candida for space in the gut and has been shown to be very effective.
I am also taking another probiotic called lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, which creates candida antibodies to kill it off.
I am also taking immunoglobulins, which are naturally a part of our immune system and line our gut, but I am very low on these. They bind to toxins and help expel them, and when they’re low, we’re more suspectable to infections, parasites, yeast, etc. So, I am taking them to help with both the SIBO and SIFO.
Additionally, I am taking glutathione, which is an antioxidant that’s absolutely essential to liver function, and so this is supporting my liver to clear out all the toxins as the candida, fungus, etc. clears, helping me by lessening the die off.
SIBO
For SIBO, I am keeping it at bay with the strongest prokinetic, called prucalopride. This is a pharmaceutical drug, but unfortunately, the natural prokinetics aren’t normally strong enough and this was certainly the case for me. I tried them all, and they just didn’t do the job.
Whilst doing that, I am of course doing the diet 80% of the time, and then meal spacing as much as possible. So that’s 4 hours between meals and 12 hours overnight. Sometimes I can’t manage the 4 hours between meals because I’m hungry or I need to support my blood sugar, but at a minimum we’re required to do 12 hours over night. I think maybe three days I ended up doing less than that because of travelling, maybe 10 hours or something.
And alongside that I am taking low dose allicin, which is an extract from garlic, and I use multiple times in my SIBO treatment with success, and allicin also kills off fungus. It’s reportedly not strong enough alone to kill fungus and yeast, but it can help and in combination with the probiotics, I think it’s a nice combo to keep the SIFO at bay at least, if not begin killing it off.
So, I am taking the allicin at a low dose to keep the SIBO at bay, and this is a common approach. Dr Siebecker doesn’t use it, but some other doctors do use it between treatment rounds instead of a prokinetic, and it does work. So, it may not be enough to kill the SIBO, in fact I know it’s not, but it just sort of keeps it from growing like crazy.
Then of course, the immunoglobulins help too.
Microbiome and gut lining repair
So, I am taking high dose fish oil, about 2000mg, which helps to repair the gut lining.
I am taking 2000mg of quercetin, which again helps to repair the gut lining, and also lowers inflammation in the body and gut and is a natural antihistamine. I was taking l-glutamine before I left, which is the best leaky gut healer, but the tub was huge and was open, and is a white powder, so I thought I might get arrested for that one!
Additionally, the saccharomyces boulardii also helps to repair the gut lining, and the lactobacillus acidophilus also contains two other strains which have been shown to repopulate the gut and increase levels of beneficial bacteria. Now normally, I wouldn’t take so many probiotics with SIBO, because taking too many can cause a flare up and even cause it to grow, but it’s about testing your tolerance. If you take a probiotic and you’re bloating or SIBO symptoms get worse, it’s probably not the best one for you because it’s feeding your SIBO. In contrast, certain single strains are better tolerated. I like to build people up to a few strains, and I was already on two, so with this combo I’m on four, and I tested them out before I left to make sure I wasn’t reacting. But essentially, I couldn’t find a single strain of lactobacillus acidophilus for the life of me, so this was the best I could find!
And the immunoglobulins help to rebuild the gut lining and support the microbiome too.
Additionally, in general, I have been supporting my gut by using the app. Nerva, which improves the gut-brain connection and using Arvigo massage at night to stimulate the migrating motor complex overnight. Both of these also help to lower stress, which damages the gut lining and microbiome, so addressing a stressed nervous system and an anxious gut is really important too – and I see Greece as part of that. I have to say, I haven’t been able to be consistent with the massage and the Nerva with all the travelling, but we’re a week into our new temporary home now and we’re here for another three weeks, so I can get back into my routine.
So that’s my current protocol.
When I return to the UK, I am going to move into a high dose of oregano and another yeast antimicrobial, likely Candibactin AR, but continue with the probiotics, and I’ll of course retest for SIBO. If I am positive, I may do the elemental diet again, whilst taking anti-fungals, as that should kill it at the same time.
I may then need to continue with the candida treatment for several months, as it can take some time to clear. But I think that will be judged on whether I am seeing any improvements, because if it’s not candida, then I don’t want to waste time treating the wrong issue. I’m hoping to do an organic acids test too, to see if any candida shows up. What I’ll do is take an anti-biofilm for two weeks ahead of the test, and that will hopefully break up the biofilm so it can be detected. It doesn’t always work, but we’ll see. But there are plenty of natural anti-fungals to rotate through and I have all the doses from my course with Dr Jacobi, so I’ll let you know which ones I’m doing as I go through the treatments.
If it’s not candida, I may be still having symptoms because of possible Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which I am being assessed for when I return, and I’ve been talking about that over on Instagram if you want to learn more about its connection to endo and SIBO. And it could also be that I am just rapidly relapsing and severely reacting because of an upregulated nervous system, in which case, there are two great courses for rewiring your brain if your body is very reactive, one is called DNRS and the other is the Gupta Programme, so I may consider those too. I see a lot of this with my clients, an upregulated nervous system from years of pain, inflammation, etc.
It’s really too early to say which route I’m going to go down until I see what my SIBO results say, and I see how I respond to the candida treatment that I try when I get back.
So that’s it. I hope that sharing my journey has given you some insight into your own, has maybe offered you some hope or some motivation to keep going. I know clearing these guys is tough, and I’m with you on that, but feeling well is possible.
*Let's get social! Come say hello on* *Instagram* *or sign up to my* *newsletter.*
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
**Show Notes**
Nerva
DNRS
Gupta Programme
Arvigo massage practitioner
Today is another recording from an Instagram live I did - this time all about endometriosis and chronic fatigue.
In this episode, I discuss -
Why does it happen? Covering the link between endo/chronic pelvic pain/chronic pain conditions and low cortisol, inflammation and mitochondria dysfunction, gut health issues and nutrient malabsorption, hormone imbalances and blood sugar dysregulation.
Whether fatigue will fatigue get worse the longer you live with endo.
Why fatigue might be worse after your period.
Whether fatigue is still common after excision surgery.
What’s the best/quickest way to get iron levels up.
I really hope you find this episode useful!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes’ in the subject line.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Ep. 139
Ep. 141
A few weeks ago, I shared an episode on addressing low moods in your luteal phase (that’s your premenstrual phase, which occurs after ovulation and lasts around two weeks), and I started with low blood sugar.
In this episode, I want to talk about the other common issue which can cause low moods at this time of your cycle, and that’s low progesterone. I was originally going to also talk about low neurotransmitters as well, but actually just low progesterone alone has so many parts to it (and I didn’t even touch upon them all!) that I think it would be good to separate this theme into three episodes, so one on blood sugar, one on low progesterone and one on low neurotransmitters. That way, you can work on an area and observe the difference, rather than trying to address all the issues at once, when some of them may not even be relevant to you.
If you haven’t listened to my previous episode, then I really strongly suggest you start there and begin balancing your blood sugar first, because you may not even need to address these next steps if your symptoms improve with better blood sugar levels!
And the reason why I am covering this, is because 93% of you said that you suffer with low moods in the week or so before your period, and endometriosis is enough to deal with, let alone with feeling extra teary, anxious, or irritable! I want to make your period and the rest of your cycle as manageable, and even as easy as possible for you, so even though this may not seem directly linked to endo, it will improve your overall experience of your cycle. In fact, addressing these problems will likely help your endo too – and I’ll explain why as we go through the episode.
So, let’s dive into low progesterone. And to understand this, we need to understand how progesterone is produced. The majority of our progesterone comes from a gland called the corpus luteum. This is a temporary gland that is formed once our chosen mature egg is released from its sack-like follicle during ovulation. When this sack no longer holds the egg, it transforms into our corpus luteum, and this gland releases progesterone during the second half of our cycle.
Progesterone is responsible for various reproductive roles, such as further preparing the uterine lining and supporting a healthy pregnancy, which is why it’s so crucial to have good progesterone levels if you’re trying to conceive or struggling with miscarriages. But it is also a mood soother and without enough of it, we can get cranky, irritable, depressed, or anxious…
Progesterone produces a metabolite, which is essentially a by-product that is made as a result of progesterone being used. This metabolite is called allopregnanolone and it usually has a positive impact on nerve signalling and brain function. Allopregnanolone binds to GABA receptors, and GABA is a neurotransmitter which tends to soothe and calm the nervous system. And just to be clear, a neurotransmitter is essentially a chemical messenger which transfers information from one brain neuron to another, they include other neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. So, this binding to the GABA receptor enhances the calming effects of GABA, creating a sedative like response which can improve sleep, calm anxiety, and generally soothe both body and mind.
However, if we’re low in progesterone, we may not have enough allopregnanolone to reap the benefits of GABA, and the reason why we’ll notice this so dramatically in the second half of the cycle, is because in the first half, oestrogen is supporting serotonin production, our happy hormone. So, when oestrogen lowers in the second half of our cycle, if we don’t have enough progesterone, we may feel a real crash in our mood.
On the flip side of this, research is showing that in those with PMDD, regardless of the levels of progesterone, these people have a negative reaction to the binding of allopregnanolone to GABA receptors. They actually have the opposite reaction; they become anxious, the nervous system over responds, etc. So, if you suspect you have PMDD, just have an awareness of this – healthy hormone levels will help, but you may also need some extra support due to this reaction. I’ve put a link into the show notes where you can read up on this a little more and to two podcast episodes where I cover PMDD and how to manage it.
But for those of us without PMDD, lower levels of progesterone can cause insomnia, anxiety, depression, and irritability. And also, if you suspect you have oestrogen dominance and you’re wondering why we don’t just keep reaping the benefits of serotonin if our oestrogen levels are higher than they should be in the luteal phase, well in many cases, it’s not that oestrogen is high, but that progesterone is too low, and this creates an imbalance where oestrogen is too high in relation to progesterone. Or you may genuinely have high levels of oestrogen and too low progesterone, or simply just have high levels of oestrogen and normal levels of progesterone, but regardless, that doesn’t mean the effects will be positive! If your hormones are not doing what they’re supposed to be in the second half of the cycle, you’re going to run into problems and oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen causes PMS, which of course, causes mood swings. So, the best way to have balanced moods in your luteal phase, is to balance our hormones.
So how do our levels of progesterone get too low in the first place?
So, number one is a lack of ovulation. If we don’t ovulate, we don’t have healthy progesterone levels, because the majority of progesterone will come from the corpus luteum, which is only made once we’ve ovulated.
And many people think if they have a period, they’ve ovulated, but this isn’t the case. You can still have a period without ovulation, it’s just not a true period, it’s sort of like a breakthrough bleed. If you want to know for sure if you’re ovulating, then you need to use the Fertility Awareness Method to track your cycle and this will measure your basal body temperature, cervical fluid and cervix position and will give you the exact date you ovulated on. Understanding the Fertility Awareness Method is really another podcast episode, so I’ve provided a link to where you can learn more about it in the show notes, but I also share how to do it in my course and with my clients, if you want more support on how to do it.
So, what stops up from ovulating? Many things, but the key is usually stress, whether that’s emotional or physical. And that stress can look like work stress, money stress, general life stress, but it can also be physical stressors like chronic inflammation, gut health conditions like SIBO, blood sugar imbalances, too much caffeine (because caffeine turns on the stress response), etc.
When our body is stressed, it kicks into survival mode and energy is taken away from non-essential functions and directed to essential functions that will help us to survive ovulation is not one of those, so that is put on the backburner. Additionally, having a baby when we’re under threat, from a biological standpoint, is not the best time to bring offspring into the world, so there are several ways the body responds to stop us from conceiving, and most of these result in a lack of ovulation.
Additionally, when we’re stressed, the body will always prioritise cortisol, our stress hormone. Cortisol and progesterone actually fit into the same cell receptors, so when we have higher levels of cortisol, progesterone is blocked from cells, preventing it from getting to work. So even if we have healthy levels of progesterone, if we’re stressed, we may not be reaping the same benefits.
Another possible cause of low progesterone is hypothyroidism, which is when the thyroid is producing too little thyroid hormones. Autoimmune hypothyroidism, known as hashimoto's thyroiditis, has actually been linked to endometriosis in several studies, indicating that there could be a greater risk of developing the autoimmune condition in those of us with endo.
Some signs of an underactive thyroid are:
· Chronic fatigue
· Low libido
· Painful joints
· Cognitive impairment such as brain fog and forgetfulness
· Feeling cold all the time or particularly sensitive to cold
· Constipation
· Dry skin and hair
· Hair loss or thinning (including eyebrows)
· Weight gain
· Low moods or depression
· Period problems such as heavy, long, or painful periods
· Infertility or miscarriage
I’ve written an article about the subject, though it is fairly old, and I’d love to update it, but it does have some good guidance on how to check for signs of hypothyroidism and how to correctly test your thyroid too!
However, the bottom line is, if you’re not producing enough thyroid hormones, you won’t be making enough progesterone because a lack of thyroid hormones can stop or delay ovulation and additionally directly affect our ability to make enough progesterone.
Another cause of low progesterone would be nutrient deficiencies. Nutrient deficiencies are a stressor on the body regardless, and so that could interrupt ovulation, but if we don’t have adequate nutrients, we may struggle to develop healthy follicles, meaning that even if an egg does make it to ovulation, the corpus luteum might be too poor quality to produce sufficient levels of progesterone.
So, what can we do about low moods caused by low progesterone? Well, clearly, there could be a number of causes, so I’m not going to give you a huge to-do list because that’ll be overwhelming. Instead, I’m going o give you some baby steps to try and if they don’t help over the next few cycles, you can turn to the deeper investigations.
My first suggestion is to manage stress and raise GABA levels with one action. Any stress reduction exercises can help to lower stress and raise GABA levels according to Trudy Scott, in her book, The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution, but particularly, yoga has been shown to be a shining star here. Additionally, you could try deep breathing exercises or slow movement like tai chi or forest bathing (a fancy term for walking in nature)! The more you do of these in your luteal cycle, the better you’ll likely feel and the more you do of them all month long, the less likely you’ll be to feel low in your luteal phase, because hopefully, the stress reduction has supported a healthy ovulation!
My second suggestion is to eat more fat. Yep, I really said that. And when I say fats, I mean healthy fats, like olive oil, avocados, and nut butter. Our hormones are made of fat and protein, specifically cholesterol and a protein called STAR protein. If we’re not consuming adequate fat, we won’t be developing healthy follicles leading to low levels of progesterone or a lack of ovulation entirely. Additionally, eating enough fat keeps blood sugar levels stable, and we know that imbalanced blood sugar is a major stressor to the body, which of course can lead to delayed or missing ovulation and resulting PMS. When we’re thinking about serving sizes of healthy fats, we want to be eating around two golf ball sized servings of fat with every single meal. So that might look like two tablespoons of nut butter, or maybe a third of a large avocado for example.
So that’s it. Those are two fairly easy and pleasant actions to get started with – try eating more fat and try out some gentle exercises like yoga, breathing or slow movement, ideally at least one of these once a day if possible.
Now of course, if you have hypothyroidism or you suspect you do, then these exercises aren’t going to be enough to recover your progesterone levels and you’ll need to get that addressed.
And additionally, if you have gut health issues like SIBO, gut dysbiosis, candida, etc. these are going to be a significant source of inflammation in the body and will be a chronic stressor, which could be having a real effect on your hormones. In fact, gut health issues are a leading cause of hormonal imbalances; the healthier your gut, the better your hormones will be – and the better your endo symptoms will be! Gut health problems will also very much be behind nutrient deficiencies as well, if you have them that is, as they’ll often affect nutrient absorption. And the toxin known as LPS, which comes from gram-negative bacteria and escape through a leaky gut wall, have also been shown to contribute to the development of autoimmune hypothyroidism. LPS levels are very high in SIBO, so healing that will help to prevent the development of hypothyroidism or will improve your symptoms if you already have it.
Now of course, gut healing is a whole other topic and can often take some time to work on, so I’m not going to dive into that here. What I will say is I have plenty of episodes on leaky gut, SIBO and gut healing in general, and I’m also running a free gut healing challenge at the moment, called the Endo Belly Challenge, so you can sign up to that if you’d like to begin working on this area of healing.
And finally, the standard protocols I always go on about such as eating a nutrient dense anti-inflammatory diet and balancing your blood sugar will have a significantly positive impact on ovulation and progesterone production, so generally trying to keep those in mind is going to help here too.
In the future, I’ll do another spotlight episode on progesterone and how to boost that but start here and see how you do for a few cycles and then if you’re not experiencing much of a response, begin to investigate some of the other issues I raised today like PMDD, hypothyroidism and SIBO. Additionally, listen out for the final episode in this series to see if that could help you too!
*Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3* here *or just listen below!*
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
For the next few weeks I’m experimenting with something new - two episodes a week! I’ll be releasing my usual podcast episode and a live Q&A recording, so anyone who doesn’t follow me on Instagram can tune in there. I want to see how you guys like this format and then if it’s something that is working well, we’ll keep to two a week for the most part.
As a result of this new change, this week’s first episode is a recording of my SIBO live Q&A.
Small intestine bacterial overgrowth in our community is a big, big deal. Current research has shown that possibly 80% of us with endo have SIBO, and having SIBO may even be a risk factor for developing endo in the first place... BUT having endo can also cause SIBO so it’s a real chicken or the egg scenario.
In this Q&A I break down:
- The stats behind SIBO and IBS with endo
- The treatments for SIBO: antimicrobials, antibiotics or the elemental diet.
- Why you can’t just treat it with one round of over the counter herbs (there are specific time frames and quantities!).
- Root causes of SIBO and prevention of relapse.
-
The current problems with trying to access a diagnosis and treatment though the NHS.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Okay, this is a bold statement but… this is my most favourite This EndoLife episode ever.
You all know I’ve been fascinated with the world of chronic pain science for a long time now. In fact, I did an episode on lowering pain signals through calming the brain and nervous system back in 2019 but I’ve been on a continuously evolving research journey since. And this research has led me to Curable, an app for chronic pain, that works by helping to reprogram the brain and nervous system so we can unlearn pain pathways and reduce chronic pain flare ups. I absolutely love Curable, and use it with my clients to help them to address the ways in which trauma, stress and a heightened nervous system could be contributing to their pain levels. Often I find it’s the missing piece of the puzzle in someone’s endo healing journey.
So I am so excited to introduce you to this week’s guest, social worker and psychotherapist Christie Uipi. Christie is on the Scientific Advisory Team at Curable, and is specialised in chronic pain, depression and anxiety. After enduring years of chronic pain herself, Christie went on to not only cure her chronic pain but also to specialise in treating it!
In today’s episode, we discuss:
- Christie’s personal story with chronic pain.
- How all pain is made in the brain and how that differs from being told endo pain is just “all in our heads”.
- How pain evolves to become chronic and how that changes the brain and nervous system.
- What factors influence chronic pain for better or worse.
- How to identify if pain is from tissue damage vs. an upregulated nervous system.
- How an upregulated nervous system can directly influence endometriosis pain.
- Exercises to begin reprogramming the brain to lower pain signals.
I really hope this episode is useful to you and perhaps it will be the missing link you’ve been looking for in your own healing journey.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Endo Belly Challenge
Episode 73 (pain signals, etc.)
Curable
Christie’s website
This Might Hurt film
This week’s episode is a good one! Today I am talking to Dr. Brianne Grogan. Dr. Bri is a pelvic floor physiotherapist who helps people to recover from pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction and pelvic floor injuries through her online programmes and free resources (like YouTube)!
She is the author of Lady Bits: Understand Your Body, Elevate Your Health, and Reclaim Your Spark Naturally, the founder of FemFusion and Vibrant Pelvic Health and is the podcast host of Dr.Bri Talks Lady Bits.
I was so excited to have Dr Bri on the show because I get so many questions about how to work out safely with endo - lots of you want to move your bodies, but you're scared of making the pain worse or doing damage! Many of you have also expressed that you have fitness goals and that you’re fed up of just doing yoga or stretching exercises, so I really wanted to talk to someone who actually creates workout videos and who could speak to these issues.
In this episode we discuss:
- Which types of workouts are safe for endo, vaginismus and bladder pain and which ones we may need to tweak and tailor.
- How to exercise safely with endo and pelvic pain conditions - whilst still growing your booty and building abs if that’s what you want to do!
- The correct form to support pelvic health with endo.
- The benefits of movement for people with chronic pelvic pain conditions.
- How and when to adapt our exercise routine if we’re having a bad day pain wise.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
-
"Overcome Pelvic Pain for Women" - a fully guided holistic programme that includes stretches, deep relaxation poses, nutrition guidance, trigger point release, mindset work, and more. Get a 7-day free trial: https://www.vibrantpelvichealth.com/free-female-pelvic-pain-7-day-program
-
Dr Bri’s YouTube playlists, all in one place: bit.ly/FemPlaylists
- 20 minute core workout for a tight pelvic floor: https://youtu.be/DleC6Hn0_KU
- Exercises and Stretches for Endometriosis | Gentle Pain Relief: https://youtu.be/Y7ZRyBkSLCs
- Period Relief Yoga Stretches: https://youtu.be/bZgBw6mo60c
- @femfusionfitness on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
- Booty workout example discussed in episode
- Ab workout example discussed in episode
- Pelvic floor release
Okay so a while ago I ran a poll about PMS and endo, and I wanted to know what symptoms you struggle with. Turns out, the majority of you get low moods during your luteal phase. In fact, out of the hundreds of you who entered the poll, 93% of you said you struggle with low moods and mood swings during your luteal phase.
So today’s episode is the first in a two part series. Today I’m going to take you through one of the key causes of PMS mood swings and I’m going to provide you with my go-to strategy for starting to tackle it, and then in the second episode, I’ll be taking you through the secondary causes and strategies.
So number one, where we’re starting, is to balance your blood sugar, and truly, this is one of the most important things you can do if you want to improve your moods during this time, lower inflammation and balance your hormones. This is really key and this is why I’m starting here. If you’ve got your blood sugar sorted, then clearly this isn’t your main cause and the next two causes in the future episode will be more relevant, and they are low progesterone and low neurostransmitter levels. But we’re starting with blood sugar because this is foundational to hormone health and plays a really big role in PMS, and could be the reason why you have low progesterone anyway!
So let’s look at what blood sugar has to do with moods specifically.
Blood sugar is the measurement of glucose in our blood. Glucose comes from complex carbohydrates like fruit, vegetables, beans, whole grains, etc. and it is our body’s and brain’s primary fuel. For us to feel energised and have stable energy levels all day long, we need to have a steady drip of glucose filtering into our blood. When we’re eating a diet that consists of complex carbohydrates, that also includes healthy fats, proteins and lots of fibre, this ensures good blood sugar levels.
But glucose also comes from refined carbohydrates, such as sugars like honey, maple syrup and standard white sugar, and baked processed products like bread, cake and pizza. These foods contain a lot of carbohydrate and little fibre, they are made of simple carbohydrates, meaning that they break down very, very quickly in the gut. Complex carbohydrates are called complex carbohydrates because their chemical structure is made of long chains of glucose linked together, which takes the body longer to break down. In contrast, simple carbs are made up of very short chains of glucose that are easy for the body to break down. This creates a huge surge of glucose that’s pumped quickly into your blood stream.
What then happens is that your body panics. It’s a stressor to the body to have this much glucose in the blood at any one time, so it releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin usually delivers glucose to our cells for fuel, but when we have too much glucose, it’s released in really high amounts and pushes it into the liver and fat cells for storage. This equally happens quickly, in fact, a little too quickly and the insulin accidentally takes too much glucose out of the blood in its rush to clean things up, and our blood sugar levels plummet. This leaves us hungry soon afterwards, and we end up on a blood sugar rollercoaster, needing more refined carbs and sugar to fuel us and get our blood sugar levels back up to a healthy level. Of course, eating more sugar or processed carbs won’t take us to healthy levels, but will spike our blood sugar levels once more – so we’ll temporarily feel good, only to crash again, so the cycle continues.
The result is that we spend our days going through highs and lows, and this blood sugar rollercoaster feels like:
· Hanger
· Irritability
· Anger
· Moodiness
· Tearfulness
· Anxiety
· Shakiness
· Feeling sleepy after meals
· Having mid-morning and mid-afternoon energy slumps
· Cravings for caffeine, sugar or refined carbohydrates
· Trouble falling asleep, waking up in the night or struggling to wake in the morning
· Feeling thirsty a lot
You don’t have to have all of these symptoms, but if you have a few of them, it’s likely your blood sugar levels need improving.
So what’s this got to do with PMS? Well, in the first half of our cycle, from menstruation to ovulation, as oestrogen rises, we’re actually more insulin sensitive because oestrogen actually boosts the effectiveness of insulin. This means we respond well to insulin so we’re getting in glucose and making energy effectively, we’re satisfied more easily and we feel satiated for longer. Basically, we’re more responsive to insulin and that in turns helps us to have balanced blood sugar levels and stops us from craving all the sugar.
But in contrast, in the second half of our cycle, when progesterone rises, we actually become less insulin sensitive because progesterone can dampen the effectiveness of insulin. That means the same meal you ate the week before, may no longer satisfy you because your body is not taking in the glucose from insulin in the same way. It also means, as a result, you may be more susceptible to blood sugar highs and lows and you might end up eating more refined carbs, sugar, etc. because you still feel hungry or less energised, so your body is telling you to eat foods with a quick energy fix. This is likely why 84% of you say you get cravings during this time!
This of course can create those blood sugar crashes that leave you feeling anxious, tearful, irritable, or moody. This is one of the key reasons we can feel low during the luteal phase, which is why we start here. In the follow up episode I’m going to take you through the other causes, but by working on your blood sugar levels, you’ll actually be preventing the other causes from happening in the first place in many cases, so this is the foundation we really want to have in place. Once this is in place, we can clearly and accurately see whether there’s any other issues left over affecting your moods in this part of your cycle.
So there are a few key strategies for balancing blood sugar, but let’s start with the main strategy to get you going. Ideally, we want to practice this all month long because it’s going to lower inflammation and regulate your hormones so your PMS will be better and your pain will be better too, but at the minimum, it will be helpful to bring this strategy in from ovulation onwards until your period so we can manage those blood sugar levels.
So, the strategy is to eat healthy fats, fibre, complex carbohydrates, and protein with every single meal. And so this looks like:
· 50% of your plate (or half your plate) should be covered with low starchy veggies. This is where your complex carbs and fibre will come from. This is important because the carbs give you energy and the fibre slows down the release of glucose, because it takes longer to digest foods with fibre. So think asparagus, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, aubergine, cauliflower, etc.
· 25% of your plate should be protein (or a quarter of your plate). And that should be equal to the size and thickness of your palm. We need about 20g of protein per meal on average, so that’s not 20g of beans or chicken, but how much protein is actually in the food itself. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be weighing things up, just start with the ratios first, the portion sizes. If you’re still getting hungry after meals, check how much protein you’re actually eating and up it if need be. For meat, it works out at about 3-4 oz of animal protein. If you’re eating beans or a protein rich grain like quinoa or brown rice, you’re probably going to need to up your levels with say a dressing made of nut butter, or an egg, or maybe a tablespoon or two of seeds. Also, remember that beans and grains also count as complex carbs, so keep that in mind for when I get to the complex carbs bit!
· Next up, we want the final 25% to be split between more starchier complex carbs and healthy fats. For healthy fats, we’re looking at a two golf ball sized serving, or two heaped tablespoons and that could be equal to half an avocado, two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of nut butter, etc. Fat helps to slow the blood sugar release down, and is actually essential for hormone production by the way!
The starchier carbs would consist of a small handful of something like root veggies such as sweet potato or parsnips, or maybe some quinoa or beans if you haven’t had them already as your protein source. And so this is where it has to be very individual as if you already have beans or grains, you might not need that extra starch boost and instead, you could just add some extra veggies so your plate is around 60-65% veg. But if you have say beans on your plate for your protein source and you tend to burn a lot of energy during the day because you’re a very active person, you might need a little sweet potato too or some grains. And if you’ve got meat as your protein source and you’re very active, that serving of starchier carbs might need to be a bit bigger than someone who isn’t very active. It has to be tailored to you and what your body needs.
For example, my blood sugar cannot tolerate beans and grains in the same meal, I crash and burn hard! But I have a job where for the most part, other than using a standing desk a few times throughout the day and my usual exercise routine, I don’t have a physically demanding lifestyle. But if you’re say a nurse in a busy hospital, a dance teacher or an athlete, you’ll probably feel like you do better with that extra fuel. In fact, one of my clients who’s a dance teacher always needs some kind of grain with her meals or her blood sugar would get too low, because she was always burning it off!
Another thing I want to mention here is how our blood sugar responds to grains is very personal too. Some people find that grains give them a steady release of fuel, others find they spike their blood sugar levels quickly and then crash. That’s me! Especially after oatmeal, I can have a big, filling bowl but find myself starving and shaky an hour later, if not sooner. So if you do respond like that to grains but you want to eat them regularly, you might need to up you fat and protein to really slow down that glucose release.
So, this is where we get started. It might sound a little fiddly, but over time, you’ll gradually grow accustomed to it and notice when one of these food groups is missing! In the show notes, I’ve linked to a great diagram of how this looks on a plate, so you can always print that off and have it on your fridge.
Now there other steps to balancing your blood sugar, but it can take some time to adjust to this one, so this is where I’d suggest for you to start and then you can revisit my past blood sugar episodes to learn more, or I think I’m probably going to release a standalone workshop on this in the future so you can always sign up to that if you’d like a deep dive and a step by step process.
But start here, give it at least one cycle and see how you’re doing. Of course, if you’re constantly spiking your levels with chocolate and sweets, then balancing your meals won’t cancel that out, so just be mindful of that!
And I just want to leave you with one last tip, to really get off on the right track, make sure your breakfast is fat and protein rich, don’t skip these two! If you’re just having oatmeal, you’re going to need to add a lot of nut butter, some protein powder or have two eggs on the side to balance out the carb content. Keep that in mind when you start the day and you’ll find balancing your blood sugar levels much easier as go through the rest of your day.
*Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3* here *or just listen below!*
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
How to Build a Healthy Plate Diagram by Amelia Freer
Today’s episode is a SIBO update from me… and it’s an exciting one! I FINALLY have a negative test - or is it?
Yes, nothing in my treatment journey has been straight forward so far and apparently, that’s not going to change any time soon!
In today’s episode, I share:
- My experience on the second round of the elemental diet and why I LOVED it!
- My struggles with the low histamine bi-phasic diet and what finally got me on track.
- My experience on antibiotics for SIBO (rifaximin, metronidazole and neomycin) and the not so great response from my immune system.
- The symptoms that got better - and the symptoms that got worse, despite a negative test result.
- The dilemma as to whether my SIBO test results are negative or a hydrogen sulphide flat line.
- Why I think I may have small intestine fungal overgrowth and what my next steps are with testing and treating.
- My prevention of relapse strategies including supplements, hypnotherapy, vagus nerve healing and more!
This is a LONG episode but there was so much to catch up on, and I just hope that by being really honest about my journey, you’ll be able to gain some insight and perspective on your own healing path with SIBO and endometriosis.
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Bladder test
Organic acids test
GI Map
As some of you know, I’ve been a bit sick recently with suspected shingles! As a result, I am just in too much pain to sit and record an episode, so today I am sharing another healing story. This time, I’m chatting to Neisha.
I wanted to share Neisha’s experience because I think her story will resonate with many of you because she just discusses so many relevant topics. Neisha started my course Live and Thrive with Endo on the pill (though she didn’t want to be on it and didn’t feel well with it), severe period pain, low moods, fatigue and severe allergy reactions.
Working through the course she now feels well pretty much all of the time, her allergies and hay fever have disappeared, she has tonnes of energy, she has transitioned off the pill and she has better moods and feels empowered about managing endo.
Before we dive in I wanted to just let you know that this chat with Neisha was originally recorded as a testimonial for the course, but the course is closed now and won’t be open again until next year - so this episode I am simply sharing just because I hope it will be helpful.
Secondly, I also wanted to let you know that Neisha and I talk about an elimination diet in this episode, so skip this episode if you think that might be triggering for you. But if not, I wanted to give some context - both in my course and with one to one clients, I first start lowering inflammation by adding foods in for the first few weeks, so lots of colourful veggies and fruit, nuts and seeds, healthy fats, etc. - all tailored to each person and their needs. Then, as we move to gut healing, course students or one on one clients have the option to do a 4 week elimination phase, where they remove the key or common inflammatory triggers such as dairy, gluten, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and soy. There are two versions, a simplified version and the full version, or people can just tailor the elimination phase to what they think is best for them. This elimination phase allows for the immune system to calm down, for inflammation to lower and for the gut to begin healing. After 4 weeks, they reintroduce each food removed one by one, for a period of days, to see whether the body reacts. This is the best way to test for intolerances and food sensitivities, and is considered as such based on research. It’s not a trendy ‘cleanse’ or diet, this is based on research, evidence and is a standard protocol in my training with Dr Jessica Drummond and Nicole Jardim, as well as Dr Alison Siebecker, who refers to this as a first line therapy. You don’t have to do this elimination phase if you don’t want to, but it's an option and an option that Neisha felt was right for her, but of course, everyone is different! So I just wanted to make that clear before you hear this interview and worry that an elimination phase is a must for healing.
Here are some of the key topics we covered in our chat:
- How Neisha didn’t realise that she was suffering with low immunity, blood sugar imbalances and histamine intolerance until she lowered her inflammation levels and balanced her blood sugar. This part is really inspiring for anyone living with allergies as Neisha was!
- Why Neisha wanted to come off the pill, and how she prepared her body with the course to transition off without triggering hormonal chaos and post-pill symptoms.
- Why Neisha chose to try an elimination diet to lower her inflammation and her advice for anyone worried about the restrictions involved.
I really hope this episode is helpful for you and inspires and motivates you on your own healing journey!
*Let's get social! Come say hello on* *Instagram* *or sign up to my* *newsletter.*
Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Just a short announcement to say there isn't an episode today as I am taking a break from the podcast this week, to welcome my new course students and spend time settling them in! I'll be back next week with a new episode.
Before I get started I just want to remind you that my course Live and Thrive with Endo is open for enrolment.
In this 8-week course, you will transform the way you manage endometriosis and learn the tools and strategies for reducing your symptoms naturally so you can thrive with endo and get your life back.
This course is a step-by-step outline of my exact one-to-one coaching programme; a road map for reducing pain, bloating, fatigue and brain fog (not to mention all the other symptoms!). It is the most comprehensive and clear resource I offer, other than working with me directly...
And today I just wanted to let you know that I’ve added my SIBO bonus module to the course and you’ll receive this when you sign up before Tuesday midnight BST.
Classic signs of SIBO include:
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Abdominal pain and cramping
- Diarrhea
- Inflammation
- Nause
- Vomiting
And current research is indicating SIBO prevalence in the endo community at 80%, so it’s really worth investigating.
This module will take you through understanding your test results, the different types of SIBO and the different types of treatment so you can begin to understand the road map to healing with SIBO.
What you’ll get:
- How to interpret your test results tutorial
- SIBO types and treatment tutorial, with accompanying handout
- Resource guide for SIBO healing
The link to enrol and to learn all about the course and to even watch a course video which shows you the modules, is in the shownotes.
I would love to see some of you there!
Okay so today’s episode is another inspiring transformation story and this time I’m talking to Miriam. And the reason why I wanted to share Miriam’s story is because it just moved me so much, she experienced such an incredible change in quality of life that I really had to share it. As someone who personally faced a lot of challenges at work in the past with endo, the fact that Miriam was essentially able to save her career and job really resonated with me.
I also love this story because Miriam was literally able to improve her pain, her fatigue, her brain fog and her bloating - all key symptoms many of us with endo suffer with. So, here in her own words is Miriam’s story...
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My course, Live and Thrive with Endo is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Live and Thrive with Endo course
Today we’re doing something a little different. For the past few weeks I’ve been recording testimonial videos with people who have taken my course, and I really wanted to share some of these stories because they’re just so incredible. I know a lot of you expressed an interest in hearing more positive and uplifting real life experiences with managing endo, and as I personally found these stories so inspiring, I thought you guys might as well.
So I’m starting with Rachael’s story and I’ll leave Rachael to share her experience in the podcast, but to give you an overview, Rachael was suffering with PMDD, chronic fatigue that was affecting her ability to work and painful (endo) periods which required her to use opioids to get through. She’d recently had excision surgery but was still suffering with an array of symptoms and was feeling desperate and didn’t know what else to try.
Once Rachael started the course, through making nutritional and lifestyle changes, Rachael was able to:
- Stop using opioids to get her through her period and instead now just uses magnesium baths, ginger tea, paracetamol and BeYou patches.
- Has gone from having to sleep for two hours every day during work (which was agreed through occupational health) due to severe fatigue to having sustained energy and has only needed these allocated sleep hours twice in the past 8 weeks!
- Stopped suffering with PMDD symptoms and works with her cycle to keep her endo and PMDD symptoms at the minimum.
Her transformation is really remarkable and so I hope that if you also struggle with any of these, Rachael’s story will shine a light at the end of the tunnel for you...
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
My course, Live and Thrive with Endo is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here.
This episode is sponsored my free workshop Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021: Overcome Overwhelm, Identify Your Core Endo Challenges, Learn the 8 Key Pillars of Healing and Set Goals and Next Steps So You Can Begin Managing Endometriosis with Confidence and Clarity and take action after the workshop. Sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021
Live and Thrive with Endo course
So, now you’ve learnt all about the link between HPA axis dysfunction and endometriosis, in today’s episode I want to provide you with some of the core foundational strategies for healing HPA axis dysfunction.
Before I dive in, I do want to state that healing HPA axis dysfunction can take some time, especially if you’re prone to living in the flight or fight response – so what I mean is, you’re default mode is feeling stressed, or anxious, or you spend a lot of time rushing around or over-committing yourself to endless to-do lists. If this sounds like you, don’t worry, that’s me too, and it’s many of my clients and for those of us who are like that, it can take some deep unlearning of these patterns before we can really get to see significant improvement. We can certainly feel better, and many do, but I think to really thrive and not keep returning to this cycle of low cortisol burnout, we need to change some of these habits.
So, for example, one of my clients loves to work and runs her own business like I do, so we make traction with her HPA axis dysfunction, but then if she goes through a busy period, her default mode is to put her sleep, and the strategies I’m about to share, on the backburner, because that’s always been her strategy. To push through, to keep going, to reach for perfection. And I totally get it, because I’m exactly the same too. So for her, we’ve seen improvement with her HPA axis, most definitely. She used to not be able to get out of bed! But we still have a long way to go because it’s a few steps forward and a few steps back.
And the same goes for me. I could feel a noticeable difference, I could feel my energy returning and my sleep schedule becoming normalised, and then I released the course, and it was incredible, but it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Now moving forward, it won’t be like that, because I’ve now made the course, but beforehand, I was building a course from scratch and learning how to market a course – and it was more work than I think I’ve ever done in my life. So my cortisol levels really depleted again, and I’d love to see where they were after the course, but with the SIBO treatment I just couldn’t afford more testing on top.
I feel like they’re getting back on track, but until my SIBO is fully resolved (and if there are any other infections, having them addressed too) I don’t think my cortisol will be at optimum levels. I think it will be good, much better than it’s been for most of my life, but the chronic SIBO and maybe an underlying mould infection will be keeping my body in a state of flight or fight, and I’ll explain about that a bit later in the episode.
The length of time it can take to recover from HPA axis really varies. I’ve seen studies showing it taking weeks to recover, whereas someone who is completely burnt out, like chronically fatigued, can’t get out of bed most days, that can take much longer. I did have one client like that, and I consulted with Dr Jessica Drummond, and she said to me, you know, this could take two years to heal, and we’re about a year in and she’s waking up early and working, but she’s not fully recovered yet. So, it’s a journey and just know that your healing will really depend on what’s happening in your life, in your body and the strategies you choose to implement, which will all become clear in time.
So please don’t give up if it doesn’t feel like it’s working, because honestly, what I’m about to share we should ALL be doing every day, for optimum health and a healthy stress response and circadian rhythm, so it will be benefitting you, but it may take time for your cortisol levels to fully recover.
What I suggest is, if you can afford to do so, take a CAR test, and again, I’ve linked to some options in the show notes, and then take another test after three months or sooner, if you’re feeling a difference, and then at another three months after that, just to see what your body is doing. You can usually tell, because you’ll notice changes in your energy, sleep, when you wake up, etc. but it can be helpful and just interesting really, to see what your levels do in response.
So, what I’m going to share today is four of the key strategies, there are a couple more and there are some additional strategies and tools which can help, but to avoid overwhelm, I’m just going to provide you with some of the initial key steps. These may be enough on their own to heal your HPA axis or you may need to do some further work later on down the line, but these are some of the key foundations to get started.
1. Number one is a nice and simple strategy, get sunlight to your eyes for 30 minutes as soon as possible in the mornings.
Your body relies on patterns, to set its internal rhythms and it especially relies on light and dark. Your circadian rhythm is essentially controlled by day light, so getting light exposure for 30 minutes in the mornings, is going to tell your brain what time of day it is. The light changes throughout the day, and your cortisol levels will respond to that, so getting that morning light is going to really help to raise your cortisol levels to healthy levels. Over time, this continued pattern will basically reset your internal body clock, and your circadian rhythm will be able to set its pattern to this once more and your cortisol levels will start rising when they should.
You can get this light in a number of ways. It could be that you eat your breakfast in your garden in the mornings, if you have one, it could be that you sit by an open window to get ready, or you could go for a walk or commute to work ensuring you get lots of light along the way. As long as you are getting unfiltered light, so not through sunglasses or through a window, you’re all good. And if you can’t manage 30 minutes, just do as much as you can.
2. Number two is probably the most important one, but I appreciate is often the hardest one. Get at least 7.5 hours sleep, minimum, each night, whilst also going to bed and waking at the same time every day.
I know this sounds intense but let me explain why it’s important.
Your body needs regular sleep and wake times in order to know when to raise and when to lower cortisol. If you’re going to bed at 1am, of course you’ll struggle to go to bed at 9pm, because your cortisol isn’t low enough yet as it’s been programmed to lower around 1am, and if you have a flipped curve, as we discussed last week, where cortisol is rising at night, this training of a new sleep routine will be hard but will be essential to getting those cortisol levels down.
It’s the same if your cortisol levels are low in the morning. If you’re going to bed late, then the body won’t be elevating your cortisol levels to their waking levels until about 8 hours later. Yes, they start rising before that, but not enough to wake you up, so if your alarm is going off and you’ve only had five or six hours sleep, your cortisol levels just won’t be high enough.
So, if you have HPA axis dysfunction and your cortisol levels are low in the morning or generally low all the time, you can see why not having enough sleep or irregular waking hours is not going to help. The body needs to know when it should be elevating cortisol, and to do that, it needs a reliable pattern. We’re essentially resetting your alarm clock here.
On top of that, the reason why our HPA axis is dysregulated is because of stress, and that comes from both physical and emotional stress, and a huge physical stressor on the body is lack of sleep. So, if we want to allow our HPA axis to regulate, we do need to invest in improving our sleep quality.
Now this is of course easier said than done, so that sleep routine piece is going to take practice in order for your body to get into a rhythm, and in most cases, it’s going to take sleep hygiene practices. These are essentially strategies which help your cortisol levels to lower and melatonin levels to rise at night and improve your sleep quality. That’s a whole other podcast, but I have linked to an Instagram post I did on sleep hygiene strategies and of course, if you want to dive deeper, I cover both HPA axis and sleep optimisation in my course, which you can get on the waiting list for now – I’ve put the link in my show notes.
If you have insomnia, I understand and I go through cycles of this, which truthfully, I think this is down to a flipped cortisol curve because I so often default to living in a state of flight or fight, and I also truly think a large majority of insomnia cases are down to cortisol dysregulation. So, if this is you, rather than getting stressed about the sleep piece, perhaps look at working on all of the other areas, because they will start to regulate your cortisol levels, which over time, should help you to sleep.
And I would start teaching your body a pattern of the same sleep times and wake times, if possible, even if you’re not getting to sleep, even if you’re not trying to – just sitting in bed and practice calming, restorative techniques to help lower cortisol at night. Don’t make the focus on getting to sleep, but rather on just lowering cortisol. So, a dark room, maybe candles or very soft lighting, breathing exercises, massage, listening to sleep stories (which you can now find on loads of meditation apps), just anything gentle or soothing and I hate to say this, but I would avoid watching TV, being on your phone or your laptop or computer like the plague. I know I’m often very careful with my language and say to do what works for you and to tailor each strategy, but there’s really no way around this one. Blue light from your TV, phone and laptop will elevate cortisol and suppress melatonin and not only that, but they’re also designed to engage, stimulate, and activate your brain, they’re not designed to help you wind down.
If you need your phone for the meditation or sleep story, put it on night mode, ideally get an app that creates a red screen and wear blue light blocking glasses, and turn the brightness right down.
Now finally, I know you’re probably thinking – what about the weekend? Well, research has shown that we need this consistent pattern all day, every day, but I know that’s not realistic, so I would just try to do your best. If you’re out late at a birthday, it’s a one off and I wouldn’t stress about it. If you’re at home and you just tend to stay up later at the weekends, see if you can curb that slightly and bring it closer to your normal bedtime. So, if you go to bed at 10pm normally, can you make it 11pm at the weekends? That kind of thing!
3. Number three is to eat at regular times and to balance your blood sugar. Just like with light exposure and sleep, eating at similar times can help give your body reliable patterns to set its internal rhythm to. So, if you can eat at roughly the same time each day, that’ll help. This pattern is less important that the first two, so don’t worry if sometimes you’re travelling or something and can’t eat at the same time, but roughly and as often as you can will be helpful.
But what is really important is blood sugar regulation. You know I’ve talked about this so many times by now, but high and low blood sugar are stressors to the body and activate the HPA axis stress response. And even if your cortisol levels are low, it’s still going to activate, it’s just going to be pumping out adrenaline in cortisol’s place and so the stress response will still be occurring, just of course, not as it should. And as long as we keep repeatedly stimulating that stress response, the HPA axis is going to stay dysregulated.
I’ve shared how to regulate your blood sugar in previous episodes, so I’ll link to that for full details, but in short, we need to include protein, fat, fibre, and complex carbohydrates with every meal. And the general ratios for good blood sugar balance are 50% of your plate consisting of low starchy veg which provides you with fibre and complex carbohydrates, 25% of your plate consisting of protein, and the final 25% being split into healthy fats and starchier, yet complex carbohydrates. For fat, we want at least two golf ball size servings, so that could look like say about a third of a large avocado or two tablespoons of nuts and seeds, and with starchier complex carbs, it could be sweet potatoes or quinoa, or beans if you haven’t got them as your protein source, and the serving size you have really depends on your energy needs. Of course, if you look at it in relation to the other ratios, it’s not a huge serving, about a handful, but you might need to increase it if you have a very physical job or you’re very active. Be guided by how you feel! If you find you’re getting hungry soon after meals, first try increasing your fat and protein sizes.
The other key strategies for balancing your blood sugar are to not allow yourself to get starving or super hungry before you eat – if you’re shaky or hangry, you’ve waited too long, and of course, try to keep refined carbohydrates, and added sugar to special occasions rather than everyday foods. If you want to understand this in more depth, have a listen to the episode I’ve linked to or a read of the articles I’ve added to the show notes, and my course also has an entire module on blood sugar balancing and its impact on endo and our hormones, and how to balance it.
I know the idea of reducing certain foods can be triggering, so if this feels that way, then focus more on the balancing of your plate and all the wonderful foods you can add in, and on eating regularly. Of course, if you have a history of an eating disorder it is always best to work with a nutritionist, coach or dietician who can guide you, as well as a mental health practitioner.
4. Number four is stress management. I know I said sleep was the most important, but actually it probably ties with stress management!
Now in order for our HPA axis to recover and get back to some kind of normal regulation, we need to stop chronically activating it.
This means we need to learn how to move regularly out of flight or fight and manage our stress response, plus look at any areas that may be a source of stress that we can address. Of course, there’s always going to be some element of stress in our lives, but we can change how we cope with and respond to stress, and even how we perceive stress.
So firstly, let’s begin with the simpler changes. We want to practice moving out of the stress response, called the flight or fight response, and move into the rest and digest response on a regular basis. This is particularly important if your default mode is anxiety, stress, worry, fear, etc. because for you guys, most of the time you’re going to be in flight or fight, and that’s not good for the body. You know the impact that chronic stress can have on the HPA axis and on pain, from our last episode on this, but being in a constant state of flight or fight has far reaching effects on our health.
Personally, I’ve found that I have a harder time trying to get my mind to calm down, but utilising stress relief methods for my body, practices that actually put us in rest or digest, then calms down my mind or at least takes me out of flight or fight, even if my mind is still ruminating.
So, some strategies which calm down the stress response and put us into rest or digest include:
- Massage, any kind, but I really like abdominal massage like the I Love You massage for IBS issues or Arvigo massage for IBS, period pain and endo in general. These are really great to do before bed because they put your body into rest and digest but also support digestion overnight. I’ve linked to a free I Love You massage on YouTube, and you can learn Arvigo massage in one Zoom session with a therapist and then practice on yourself. I’ve put the links to both in the show notes.
- Tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique is an exercise where we tap on the body – on the side of the hands, the eyebrows, side of the eyes, under the eyes, below the nose, on the chin, on the collarbone, under the arms and on the head, whilst repeating certain statements. The practice combines acupressure, originating from Chinese medicine, with more Western psychology practices. It’s now gathering a wealth of data behind it and has been shown to take us out of flight or fight and calm the stress response. It’s also been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and pain, and is even helpful with managing SIBO! You can learn tapping with a practitioner, or you can use an app or watch free YouTube videos online. I’ve linked to an app I like in the show notes.
- Yoga
- Mindfulness meditation
- Walking in nature
- Mild to moderate exercise (such as Pilates, brisk walking, Zumba, etc.)
- Being in community
All of these have been shown to reduce stress levels, taking us out of flight or fight and into the rest and digest state. And what I also love about these is that they’re a way to process trauma or emotion out of the body. Often if we don’t want to think about something that is distressing to us, or we don’t feel like we’re safe to express it in the moment, for whatever reason, and we store that tension in our bodies, which can lead to hypersensitive nerves firing off danger signals, triggering pain because the brain thinks we’re unsafe. But if we’re able to physically work off some of that emotion, the physically damaging effects of that stress response can be reduced.
I’ve found it really helpful for me, being a health coach, it’s of course sometimes a stressful job because I am looking after people’s health and that in itself is a lot of pressure, but of course hearing about someone’s pain or distress is emotional, so afterwards I can sometimes feel worried or anxious. So often I’ll come off a call and I won’t really know how to think my way out of what I’m feeling, I struggle to soothe myself with just my thoughts, so I tap, or I get on my rebounder for five minutes, or I do some mindful breathing, or I do some of my weightlifting exercises, which I do at intervals throughout the day. And I sort of imagine myself shedding the stress as I do it. Not all the time, but especially when I’m jogging on my rebounder, I sort of see myself running the stress off, and it really, truly helps. It’s become a wonderful way for me to process my feelings.
The next area to look at with stress is whether you have any past trauma that needs working through. I’ve been talking a lot over on Instagram about the ways in which childhood trauma, known as Adverse Childhood Events or experiences dramatically increases our chances of developing chronic pain, autoimmune diseases and chronic conditions, and the pathway for most of these developments is through HPA axis dysregulation, which has occurred due to chronic stress. If we haven’t worked through these past traumas, they can be subconsciously keeping us feeling unsafe, causing our bodies to be in a near constant state of flight or fight or easily stressed and activated.
This could be a whole topic in itself, so my recommendation to get started with this healing process is to read my Instagram post first, and then I’ve linked to a couple of books, podcasts, and therapy resources to help you work through the trauma in the show notes.
We also need to look at how pain is triggering your stress response. Of course, the more stressed we are about our pain, the more unsafe our brain feels, and then the worse the pain gets, because it is our brain which creates pain and controls the intensity – and if the brain feels like there is a reason to make pain (so if the brain feels at threat or in danger in any way at all, and this could be as small as a stressful email) it will increase the pain levels.
So, changing the way we experience pain and perceive it is also important and of course, this and the above step about trauma can take some time. Don’t worry about that, don’t stress about having to get it all done. Put the easy practices in place, like maybe getting sunlight, trying tapping before bed, eating at the same times, balancing your blood sugar, etc. Put the practical bits in place and implement them over a time frame that feels manageable, and then when you feel strong enough to work on your pain perception or trauma, begin then. By this point, I would hope that you would have better cortisol levels and a more robust and healthy stress response, so you can actually better handle the work involved in these steps.
So anyway, that was a side note on how to approach this, but back to actually changing the way we perceive our pain… Again, this is a podcast in itself but there are a few therapies and approaches to help you to do this. You could try:
-
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for pain
-
Curable (which is a brain retraining app for chronic pain and I highly recommend it)
- Mindfulness Based Pain Relief
And there are a couple of great books I recommend too, so I’m going to link to those in the show notes.
Finally, we also want to look at physical stressors, but this where it can get a little complex. If you’re dehydrated, if you’re eating an inflammatory diet, if you’re over-exercising, sleep deprived, or have SIBO or gut health infections (or any underlying infection for that matter), chronic inflammation or nutrient deficiencies, these will all be stressors on the body and can make it harder to recover from HPA axis dysfunction.
Now what I would say is that this is more advanced healing and I feel like for many people with HPA axis dysfunction, they need to have more energy and better cortisol levels to be able to take this stuff on, otherwise it can just feel too overwhelming, so I’m not going to dive into this today.
Instead, what I will say is to focus on a nutrient dense diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods, so your body is well fed, is getting a good amount of nutrients and we aren’t fuelling the inflammation fire. You can of course also add one or two supplements to help lower overall inflammation, which we know is generally a problem for most people with endo, being an inflammatory disease, and I talk about my favourite anti-inflammatory supplements in episodes 130 and 131.
Also make sure you’re drinking enough. The calculation to work out what your body needs at a minimum is to drink half your body weight in fluid ounces. So, you take your weight in pounds, so say someone was 100lbs, then you halve it, so we have 50lbs and then you just replace the pounds with fluid ounces, we’re not converting, just swapping. And if you’re very active, you’ll need more than that, this is just your minimum. I have linked to a water calculator in the show notes, which helps you to work out how much water you need if you’re very active or breast feeding, or something like that.
You could also add some essential basic supplements too, like a multivitamin and minerals supplement and omega 3 fatty acids, to ensure you’re covering the basics. Now of course, if you’re not absorbing your food well due to gut health issues, or you’re deficient in a nutrient, these may not be enough, but again, I’m just covering the foundations.
If in time you feel ready to get some thorough nutrient status tests and gut health tests, or to explore anything else you think may be going on in your body, of course, that will help, but I want to emphasise these foundations first, because they can make such a difference and can give you the strength for the bigger stuff.
So, there’s the initial four steps. And what I wanted to emphasise, what should be underpinning all of this, is joy and fun. If this is stressing you out, then it won’t be helpful. So, we need to tailor the healing in a way that will make you feel pleasant feelings and that allows you to have fun or enjoy yourself, in whatever way that is.
So, for example, instead of seeing a 10.30pm bedtime as a curfew, how can you make it feel luxurious? Can you turn your evening routine into a min spa retreat each night with a candle, an abdominal massage and calming music before bed? How can you spend more time with loved ones who you enjoy being around, in a way that feels joyful and nourishing to you? Can you go to restorative exercise classes with friends or have regular catch ups, so you feel supported and connected? Could you do things you enjoy more often, like heading to the cinema or doing fun activities? Are there things you stopped doing that brought you joy, which you can bring back into your life? Could you take a cooking course to learn how to make delicious but healthier desserts, so you can feed your body and taste buds, or could you get some new cookbooks to learn how to eat more fruits and veggies? Or maybe, if you don’t like cooking and can afford it, can you try a meal delivery service which offers you not just healthy meals, but more time for you to relax?
Basically, whatever it is, make this healing path feel good. If it feels stressful, take a step back and think about how you can make this process more joyful.
My course, **Live and Thrive with Endo** is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here.
This episode is sponsored my free workshop Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021: Overcome Overwhelm, Identify Your Core Endo Challenges, Learn the 8 Key Pillars of Healing and Set Goals and Next Steps So You Can Begin Managing Endometriosis with Confidence and Clarity and take action after the workshop. Sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021
Live and Thrive with Endo course
CAR tests
https://regeneruslabs.com/products/cortisol-awakening-response
https://www.letsgetchecked.com/gb/en/home-cortisol-test/
Light
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699216/
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm
Blood sugar
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/reduce-fatigue-endometriosis-symptoms-and-oestrogen-dominance
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
Sleep
https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBrBCmDMuj/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12941057/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12220314/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10849238/
Massage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/arvigo-massage-for-endometriosis
https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members
https://selfhacked.com/blog/32-ways-to-stimulate-your-vagus-nerve-and-all-you-need-to-know-about-it/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00082/full
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095496418300372
Tapping
https://www.thetappingsolution.com
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/science-research/
Yoga
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768222/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/yoga-could-slow-the-harmful-effects-of-stress-and-inflammation-2017101912588
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111147/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15750381/
Walking in nature
https://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/sciencehttps://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/science
Exercise
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27956050/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013452/
Mindfulness
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272735813000731?via%3Dihub
Community
https://scholar.harvard.edu/marianabockarova/files/tend-and-befriend.pdf
Trauma
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQJvnf1BYum/
https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/call-of-the-wild/
https://cmbm.org/thetransformation/
SelfHealers SoundBoard podcast
Sex Birth Trauma
Pain resources
This Might Hurt Film
Tell Me About Your Pain podcast
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pelvic-Pain-Hurts-Adriaan-Louw/dp/0985718684
The Way Out by Alan Gordon
Curable
Water
https://www.hydrationforhealth.com/en/hydration-tools/hydration-calculator/
Today’s episode is all about probiotics which are suitable for SIBO and endo related IBS. Now of course, this is a huge topic and there are so many different probiotics out there, which can often just get confusing and overwhelming, so with this podcast my intention is for it to be succinct and easy to digest, with a smaller array of probiotics to start exploring on your initial steps to gut healing.
Unfortunately, I think over the years probiotics have been a little misunderstood, and of course, we’re still learning so much about the gut microbiome (which is the good gut bugs found in our large intestine) that this area of research is still developing.
But regardless, what often happens is that we’re led to believe that we should just take a broad-spectrum probiotic, meaning it has lots of different strains in it – and that we should take this if we have gut health issues, and that will sort the problem out.
Unfortunately, that’s really not always the case and for our community, I would exercise caution when choosing probiotics.
We know that many people with endo have IBS related symptoms, and we now know that the majority of IBS is actually caused by SIBO – which stands for small intestine bacterial overgrowth, a condition where normal gut bacteria grow in the small intestine, rather than the large intestine. The small intestine is designed for the majority of our nutrient absorption, it wasn’t intended to house lots of bacteria, so this overgrowth damages the small intestine and our ability to absorb nutrients, but this bacteria also ferments our food, making gases that are harmful for us and cause symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
And we also now have recent research showing that up to 80% of endo patients have SIBO, so quite possibly, your IBS symptoms are largely down to SIBO. If you’d like to understand why SIBO occurs so frequently in the endo population, I’ve linked to some of my podcasts and articles on the subject in the show notes.
Unfortunately, when you have SIBO, taking probiotics can often make the situation worse, especially if you also have histamine intolerance, which I’ve talked about multiple times on the show already, and I’ve linked to a couple of episodes about this in the show notes, if you’d like to learn more. But if you think about it, if we’re adding bacteria to a small intestine full of bacteria already, we’re just going to be adding more fuel to the fire.
So, when it comes to trying probiotics for SIBO, we have to proceed with caution. Some people with SIBO just can’t tolerate probiotics at all at first, so their symptoms tend to get worse, but often, they’ve tried a couple of probiotics with lots of strains, and that could be the problem.
Instead, when it comes to SIBO clients or clients with very sensitive stomachs, we start with specific strains, so a probiotic with literally only one type of bacteria, and then we can build up over time. That way, if a person reacts badly to that probiotic, we know straight away that that particular strain is not well tolerated at this stage in time.
So today, what I wanted to do was to offer you three probiotic options, which have been researched for specific IBS symptoms that are often reported by endo patients, and are in most cases, safe for SIBO and are also safe for histamine intolerance, which is very common with endo.
If you do have SIBO, I want to state it’s best to proceed with extra caution, as everyone’s tolerance is different and without knowing exactly what types of bacteria are overgrowing in your small intestine specifically, we can’t guarantee that we won’t be adding to the load.
As always, what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another, so it’s very important that you tailor to your needs and approach this with an open mind – if these guys don’t work for you, it doesn’t mean all the other strains won’t either. I’ve only listed three to keep this simple, but there are a couple of others that are safe for SIBO and histamine, not many, but a few, so do some extra research if you find these aren’t the right ones for you.
I also want to be clear that probiotics aren’t a quick fix. If there’s an imbalance in the microbiome, SIBO, a parasite, an infection, an allergy, or intolerance, we need to address those because otherwise we’re just sort of pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom, so whilst probiotics are part of the healing picture, they’re supportive and won’t necessarily fix or treat the root cause if it’s as extensive as a parasite or SIBO.
And finally, please let your GP know when starting with any new supplement regime.
- Number one is lactobacillus plantarum 299v. Lactobacillus plantarum 299v is great for bloating and general IBS symptoms, so loose stools, pain, cramping, diarrhea, constipation, etc.
In one large study of 214 patients, 78.1% who took l.plantarum 299v rated their symptom improvement as good or excellent, in comparison with just 8.1% of those who took a placebo. The study showed that l.plantarum was particularly effective for bloating and abdominal pain.
Additionally, two meta-analyses (which are large reviews of all the studies) have proved the effectiveness of lactobacillus strains on IBS symptoms, including diarrhea and loose stools, but generally, they’ve been shown in multiple studies to be effective for all IBS symptoms.
If you’re concerned about the reaction of l.plantarum 299v on SIBO, l.plantarum was also included in a multi-strain probiotic used to treat SIBO, which was found to be more effective than one of the commonly used SIBO antibiotics, metronidazole.
In my training with world leading SIBO doctors, Dr Allison Siebecker and Dr. Jacobi, they both recommend l.plantarum 299v for symptomatic relief, but of course, naturally say to proceed with caution as they can’t guarantee a patient won’t react.
I also just want to be clear here that if you want to try and treat SIBO with probiotics alone, it’s not yet an industry standard, more research needs to be done and you would need to work with a practitioner who could provide you with the exact strains and take you through the treatment. But as it stands right now, antimicrobials, the elemental diet and antibiotics are the gold standard of SIBO treatment and I don’t know many practitioners who are attempting to use probiotics alone for SIBO.
So if you’d like to try l.plantarum 299v, start low and increase gradually over time – don’t rush to full dose, maybe stagger it over a few weeks. In my training with Dr Nirala Jacobi, she recommends taking l.plantarum 299v at a dose of one capsule, twice a day for SIBO related IBS symptoms. I’ve linked to a few brands in the show notes, and of course, if you don’t have SIBO, you can just follow the label dose.
Now, some probiotics actually increase histamines in the gut, but l.plantarum 299v should be safe as it’s been found to be histamine neutral, so it doesn’t raise histamines and actually, some strains of l.plantarum actually reduce histamines. I couldn’t find any research on l.plantarum 299v reducing histamine specifically, but it lowers inflammation, supports gut health as we’ve discussed and at the very least, doesn’t add to the histamine load.
- Number 2 is saccromyces boullardi. This is actually a yeast, rather than a bacteria, but it’s not a “bad” yeast – it’s not going to cause candida to overgrow. In fact, it actually helps to reduce candida and keep it at healthy levels.
But it’s also wonderful for aiding with leaky gut healing, and as you guys probably know by now, leaky gut is super common with SIBO, is a strong risk factor for developing autoimmune diseases, causes chronic inflammation and is normally a root cause of histamine intolerance. I’ve linked to a couple of episodes on leaky gut in the show notes.
In my training with Dr Siebecker, she also recommends saccromyces boullardi for abdominal pain and diarhhea, and it’s been found in multiple studies to be effective for various types of diarhhea.
It also improves immune function, by increasing the production of one of our essential antibodies, called immunoglobulin A . IgA lines the intestines and other surfaces in the body like the nostrils, and is often low in patients with SIBO, and when it’s low, we’re more vulnerable to bad bacteria, parasites, viruses, etc. because IgA is normally one of our first line of defence against these baddies.
It also binds lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are toxins released from pathogenic (bad) bacteria, gram-negative bacteria and often, the bacteria found in SIBO. LPS has been found in the pelvic cavity of people with endo and has been shown to contribute to the growth of endometriosis. IgA binds LPS and helps to eliminate it from the body, so there’s less of it to leak through out gut, and into our blood stream and pelvic cavity. I talk about this in a couple of episodes on leaky gut, so will share in the show notes.
Because s.boulardii can improve the immune system and heal leaky gut, it can also have a very positive effect on reducing intestinal and full body inflammation, making it helpful for endo, which we know is an inflammatory disease.
The dose actually varies depending on the brand, so either follow the brand instructions or if you have SIBO, you can follow some of the brand and dose recommendations in the show notes, which are from my training with Dr Nirala Jacobi. Again, as always, try with caution and slowly build up to see how you respond, especially if you have SIBO.
- Number three is lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. This is recommended in my SIBO practitioners course with Dr Allison Siebecker for diarhhea and has been shown to be helpful for various types of diarrhea, from acute watery diarhhea to travellers’ diarhhea, and diarhhea from antibiotic use. But it’s also used in SIBO treatment by Dr Jacobi because it’s been shown in studies to aid with constipation, abdominal discomfort, and leaky gut healing and in general, has been shown in research to be effective for IBS. I will quickly say though, that from my understanding, it appears that the research for constipation is a little inconsistent and needs further investigation and the leaky gut evidence is mainly based on animal studies at present.
Whilst more research needs to be done on this area specifically, it’s also been found to be helpful with histamine tolerance, as it lowers histamines receptors and allergy receptors in cells, so in the simplest of terms, allergens and histamines can’t lock onto cells to cause a reaction, and this calms down inflammation.
Generally, the dose from my training with Dr Nirala Jacobi for SIBO is 1 capsule twice a day. If you don’t have SIBO, you can just follow the label dose.
So that’s it! Please be sure to try one probiotic at a time, and really, give it at least a month or so before adding in another.
I hope this episode was useful to you, and if you’d like to learn more about gut health with endo and you’re interested in accessing some support from me on your journey, you can now sign up to the waiting list for my online course, Live and Thrive with Endo. If you’re looking for free resources on gut health, I would start with the articles and episodes I’ve linked in the show notes.
I would love to hear if you try any of these and how you respond. Please feel free to let me know on Instagram!
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
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My course, Live and Thrive with Endo is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
SIBO
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Histamine intolerance
Histamine Intolerance 101 Dr. Becky Campbell
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/strategies-for-lowering-histamine-reducing-allergies-endometriosis
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/association-between-endometriosis-allergies
Endometriosis, SIBO, Interstitial Cystitis and Allergies: The Histamine Connection
L.Plantarum 299v research
https://meridian.allenpress.com/jfp/article-abstract/80/10/1682/199965/Degradation-of-Histamine-by-Lactobacillus?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21381407/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3316997/
https://www.optibacprobiotics.com/uk/professionals/latest-research/general-health/which-probiotic-for-histamine-intolerance
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419998/
https://journals.lww.com/jcge/Abstract/2017/04000/Probiotics_for_Preventing_and_Treating_Small.4.aspx
https://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v14/i17/2650.htm
L.Plantarum 299v brands
Jarrow Ideal Bowel Support 299V, at one caps twice a day (Dr. Jacobi)
Metagenics Ultra Flora Intensive Care, at one caps twice a day (Dr. Jacobi)
CAUTION: If looking for your own brands to buy, avoid probiotics containing probiotics, as these may worsen SIBO symptoms. For a list of ingredients to be mindful of when choosing probiotics, see Dr Allison Siebecker’s handout here.
Leaky Gut
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-leaky-gut
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/-the-endometriosis-belly
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/understanding-the-endometriosis-belly-part-2
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/root-causes-of-bloating-endometriosis
LPS
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-leaky-gut
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4519769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2327198/
https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/pdf/S1931-3128(16)30161-5.pdf
S.Boulardi research
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6375115/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26316791/
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/immunoglobulin-a-deficiency
https://www.optibacprobiotics.com/professionals/latest-research/gut-health/probiotics-best-for-candida
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18584523/
https://academic.oup.com/ecco-jcc/article/11/8/999/3044359
https://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v14/i17/2650.htm
S.Boulardi brands and doses
Klaire Labs Saccharomyces boulardi, at two caps taken twice a day (Dr. Jacobi)
Invivo Bio.Me S. boulardii, at two caps daily
Bioceuticals SB Floractiv, at two caps taken twice a day (Dr. Jacobi)
CAUTION: If looking for your own brands to buy, avoid probiotics containing probiotics, as these may worsen SIBO symptoms. For a list of ingredients to be mindful of when choosing probiotics, see Dr Allison Siebecker’s handout here.
L.rhamnosus GG research
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18813028/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21390145/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30040527/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4239510/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22946635/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15756221/
https://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v14/i17/2650.htm
L.rhamnosus GG brands and doses
Nutrigold L. Rhamnosus GG, label dose (caution: contains brown rice flour)
Metagenics, Ultra Flora LGG® 60, at one cap twice a day (Dr. Jacobi)
CAUTION: If looking for your own brands to buy, avoid probiotics containing probiotics, as these may worsen SIBO symptoms. For a list of ingredients to be mindful of when choosing probiotics, see Dr Allison Siebecker’s handout here.
Okay so today I’m talking about hypothalamic pituitary adrenal dysfunction. A mouthful, I know and for ease, it’s called HPA axis dysfunction.
If you haven’t heard of HPA axis dysfunction, you may be more familiar with the term ‘adrenal fatigue’. And yes, if you’re thinking adrenal fatigue was sort of debunked as not being real, you’d be correct, but HPA axis dysfunction is very, very real and there is a huge wealth of research and evidence behind it. Adrenal fatigue was essentially an attempt to describe what is happening with HPA axis dysfunction but it oversimplified the process and made it seem like the adrenals sort of ‘ran out’ of energy, which isn’t the what happens and misses a big part of the story. I imagine, originally, when the term was coined, it did come with the full explanation of HPA axis dysfunction, but eventually through the spread of social media, it perhaps lost that meaning.
But anyway, the bottom line is HPA axis dysfunction is real, and it’s incredibly prevalent within the endometriosis and chronic pain community - and it may be the root cause behind your fatigue. So if you’re finding yourself exhausted all the time and overwhelmed by life, I really encourage you to keep listening.
So in order to understand HPA axis dysfunction, we need to break down the system behind it.
The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis is a system consisting of the:
· The hypothalamus (a part of the brain, found at the base of the brain)
· Pituitary gland (a gland found at the base of the brain)
· Adrenal glands (found above the kidneys)
This system works together to regulate our stress response and to also regulate our circadian rhythm, which is like the internal body clock that governs our sleep/wake cycle.
Let’s begin first by understanding how the HPA axis controls our stress response.
First, our hypothalamus alerts the pituitary gland of a stressor, and then the pituitary gland sends a signal to the adrenal glands to go about making stress hormones, and neurotransmitters, to power us through the situation.
The brain and adrenals respond by first releasing adrenaline, which is released quickly but also subsides quickly and then 15 minutes later, cortisol and DHEA are released, and these guys hang around for several hours.
Adrenaline and cortisol increase blood flow to organs like the heart, brain and muscles; reduce blood flow from non-essential organs like the digestive tract and reproductive system and trigger the release of stored glucose and fat, so you have the energy to fight or run. And DHEA acts as a buffer to counteract some of the damaging effects that cortisol can cause.
An important difference to note between adrenaline and cortisol, in terms of pain, is that adrenaline is inflammatory. That initial stress response triggers inflammation because the body is anticipating that there may be an injury or infection that needs to be addressed. So for example, if the stressor was that we cut ourselves, the inflammatory white blood cells would help to heal the area and fight off any bacteria that may have entered the wound. However, long-term that inflammation would become damaging, so 15 minutes later, cortisol is released, which is actually anti-inflammatory in the short term to bring down inflammation to healthy levels.
I’m going to dive into the link between chronic cortisol output and pain in future episodes, but just keep in mind that in the right levels, cortisol is anti-inflammatory. I think this can sometimes be confusing as you hear people talk about stress being inflammatory, so to clear that up, the acute initial response is inflammatory, for about 15 minutes, then it becomes anti-inflammatory when cortisol is released and these events are totally normal. It becomes a problem when cortisol remains elevated or keeps being triggered, that’s when stress becomes inflammatory, when the stress is chronic.
So, adrenaline eventually lowers back down, but cortisol is left remaining in the system until the stressor passes and should reduce after a few hours. Adrenaline is basically the hormone that gets us through the acute moment of stress, where cortisol carries us through the aftermath so to speak. So, for example, when we had that crazy flood in our flat, it was adrenaline that got me through getting out our most valuable belongings, trying to turn the mains off, calling plumbers in the middle of the night, that kind of thing. But it was cortisol that stayed with me, that kept me awake on the drive to my mum’s at 5am. That got me up the next day so I could work, despite feeling super stressed out. That stayed with me when we moved into a temporary Airbnb and navigated all the stressors of trying to work in a new home without all my stuff, with dodgy internet and a drowned laptop charger that now needed replacing.
And this is actually where the problem occurs. Originally, this stress response was designed to get us out of acute moments of danger alive. So back in cavemen days, this system helped us to outrun a wild animal that was hunting us, or to fight another tribe that was threatening ours and the stakes were high, but the outcomes were usually pretty black and white. We either died, or we survived. If we got away from the wild animal, and found our way back to the safety of our tribe, our stress response would have lowered and we would moved out of the flight or fight response and into rest and digest mode, which is the part of our nervous system responsible for digestion, repair, etc.
But in modern society, the stakes aren’t that high, but the situations aren’t as simple either. We’re now bombarded by stressors every day. Emails from colleagues who make us anxious, constant sensational headlines and 24-hour news cycles, traffic jams, struggling to balance our work and family or social lives, endless to do lists. You get the picture, I’m sure! And equally, it’s not just emotional stressors, but physical stressors that appear to the body as a threat or danger. So chronic inflammation, a low-lying infection or condition like SIBO, blue light exposure, late nights, physical pain, etc.
And these stressors, to the brain, are no different to the wild animal hunting us. The brain sees it as the same – a threat to our lives - and the stress response goes off. This means that we’re potentially operating in a state of flight or fight the majority of the time, which means we’re experiencing elevated levels of cortisol on a regular basis. And cortisol is our survival hormone, it’s great in small doses to keep us alive when we need to it, but it’s not great for long-term exposure at high levels.
Long-term exposure to cortisol can damage the gut, causing leaky gut and negative shifts in our gut microbiome, and it can also cause chronic inflammation, a suppressed immune system, increased blood sugar (because remember, part of cortisol’s job is to raise energy levels so we can fight or run, and it does this by releasing glucose from our cells into our blood stream, elevating blood sugar levels), and it can cause low progesterone (which results in oestrogen dominance), lowered thyroid function, and lack of ovulation. This episode isn’t about the effects of stress directly on our sex hormones and cycle health, but if you’re interested to learn more about this then I discuss it with Nicole Jardim in one of our podcast episodes, which I’ve linked to in the show notes, and I cover this process in detail in my course, Live and Thrive with Endo, which you can get on the waiting list for now. Again, the link is in the show notes.
So in short, the body knows this is a problem, and eventually adapts to protect itself. Firstly, the body has a sort of internal cortisol shutdown mode. The high levels of cortisol in the body trigger a feedback loop in the brain which encourages the brain to actually lower cortisol output, so the adrenals stop producing as much. Another possibility is that the adrenals may also become resistant to the signals from the brain to make more cortisol, so they lower cortisol production in that way. A third possibility is that the cortisol receptors, known as glucocorticoid receptors, become resistant, so cortisol may be being released, but it’s not actually doing its job. There are multiple different avenues for cortisol to become dysfunctional or lowered, but these are some of the main ones.
So this may seem like a good thing, as cortisol is now lowered and is no longer damaging the body, but the issue now is that the HPA axis regulation of the circadian rhythm is dysregulated.
So, I’m now going to walk you through what that means.
Cortisol isn’t just your stress hormone. It’s your wake hormone. It’s the hormone that gets you up in the morning and powers you through your day. At night, cortisol lowers and our sleep hormone melatonin rises, to allow us to drift off.
If you looked at your cortisol pattens on a graph, it would look like a roller coaster. It starts to elevate before we wake up, and it reaches its peak height about an hour after waking, so this is when we should feel our most awake (which isn’t the case for many of us with endo, right?!). After that, it begins to decline fairly sharply throughout the morning until about 12pm (so this is why many people find themselves needing an extra caffeine boost at 11am), and at midday the decline continues but is less dramatic. Your levels hit another drop at about 3pm, which again, is why people tend to get that afternoon slump and then they peter out as the afternoon and evening continues. This is to allow melatonin to rise, as cortisol actually suppresses it.
Now what can happen with HPA axis dysregulation, is that if you’re chronically stressed, you may have high levels of cortisol at first. These may be at their highest in the morning, so you wake up feeling stressed and tense straight away, maybe you find your sleep is disturbed in the early hours of the morning, but your levels can also be high at night, which suppresses your melatonin, so you find yourself exhausted but wired and unable to switch off when you go to bed. You may also be gaining weight around your middle, have trouble stabilising your blood sugar levels and be experiencing fertility issues or hormonal imbalances. These are classic signs of high cortisol.
Then over time the cortisol levels lower, and this really depends on the individual as to when this happens, but it can be quickly, over the space of weeks in some cases, but I’ve seen it take much longer. And the cortisol pattern also varies from person to person. For some people, they have lower levels than usual at certain points in the day so they tend to feel like they have dramatic crashes in energy, or they have low levels all day long but high cortisol levels at night (which is really when you have those exhausted feelings yet you’re just wide awake or struggling to stay asleep), or they have low levels constantly, and that’s when we’re really fatigued.
Now these scenarios manifest a little differently depending on the pattern of cortisol dysfunction you have, but the tell-tale symptoms include:
· Chronic fatigue
· Brain fog
· Waking up tired (no matter how much sleep you get!)
· Feeling unable to cope with everyday stressors and bigger stressors like COVID, etc.
· Continuous feelings of overwhelm as the body struggles to respond adequately to stress
· Anxiety
· Depression
· Blood sugar dysregulation
· Exercise intolerance (you find it hard to do much exercise, or find it difficult to recover afterwards)
· Get ill easily
· Dizziness, especially when going from seated to standing
· Frequent energy crashes, especially mid-morning and mid-afternoon as cortisol begins to fall
· Insomnia, disturbed sleep or feeling suddenly energised at night (this would of course be more likely if your cortisol was creeping up at night)
And if this resonates with you, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Low cortisol output is associated with nearly all chronic pain conditions, especially pelvic pain conditions, endometriosis and fibromyalgia.
In one study of 92 women with endo and 82 ‘healthy’ volunteers, they found that the women with endo and chronic pelvic pain had low levels of cortisol despite reporting higher stress levels and a low cortisol awakening response, which is that rising cortisol level we need to be able to wake in the morning.
Because pain is a stressor to the body, at first, when we first experience this pain, the cortisol output is likely to be normal for the situation or high, but overtime, if we become anxious, stressed, worried or scared of our pain, which is of course, a totally natural response to endometriosis, then over time, our HPA axis becomes dysregulated and our cortisol levels deplete because they have been high for so long as response to this pain-fear cycle. In fact, the high cortisol type of HPA axis dysfunction from chronic stress (whether the stress is from pain or not) has been shown to trigger the onset of some chronic pain conditions and worsen existing chronic pain. Then cortisol becomes depleted, and the pain continues, because the protective anti-inflammatory properties of cortisol are now lowered. So essentially, high levels of cortisol contribute to inflammation and pain, but so does low cortisol. We want the healthy level of cortisol for optimal pain regulation.
So the stress of the pain doesn’t go away, but our body is now less able to deal with it. Remember, cortisol provides us with the energy to deal with stress, it literally gets the glucose and resources we need to power our body through a stressful situation and without it, we may feel unable to cope with the demands of every day stressors or bigger events. Usually, with depleted cortisol levels, our body begins to rely more heavily on adrenaline, so when we’re stressed, we may find that we experience symptoms of high adrenaline, like shaking, an increased heart rate, feeling jittery and wired, but yet we feel unable to cope with the situation because we don’t have enough cortisol to power us through.
So now you understand what HPA axis dysfunction is, what can we do about it?
The good news is, HPA axis dysfunction can be repaired and the are very key, often simple steps to repairing it. And for us, for those of us with endo specifically, it’s about giving our body reliable patterns in the day to normalise our circadian rhythm, and changing our response to stress and pain. So in a future episode, which will be out very soon, I’ll provide you with some of the initial key steps for repairing your HPA axis and alleviating your fatigue. I am also going to do another episode that dives deeper into the pain, cortisol and inflammation connection, because it’s fairly complex and deserves an episode to itself!
I really hope this information has been useful for you. I know for many of my clients, when they learn about this and we see their low cortisol levels on their test, it makes total sense to them. So I hope this has given you some answers.
If you want to test your cortisol levels, you can order what is known as a CAR test, which is a Cortisol Awakening Response. This measures your levels of cortisol from the morning into the night, and I have provided you with a couple of test options in the show notes.
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This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My course, Live and Thrive with Endo is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Studies
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/33/9/1657/5055017
https://www.hoajonline.com/reproduction/2054-0841/3/2
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253890701840610
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1521693418300324?via%3Dihub
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263906/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5476783/
https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12974-020-01752-1#Sec21
https://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/1998/05000/Abuse_Related_Posttraumatic_Stress_Disorder_and.17.aspx
Interview with Nicole Jardim
CAR tests
https://regeneruslabs.com/products/cortisol-awakening-response
https://www.letsgetchecked.com/gb/en/home-cortisol-test/
So last week I took you guys through the ways in which inflammation, gut health and hormone levels can increase bloating in the lead up to your period.
This week I want to give you some tools to actually alleviate that bloating, now you know why it’s happening. I’m going to give you two types of tools, one set to deal with in the moment of bloating and another set for which are long-term strategies to help you to address the root cause.
So, let’s start with the tools you can use in the moment. Many of these tools I’m about to share are based on my training with world leading SIBO doctor, Dr Allison Siebecker. I’m using her doses, which are safe and effective and if you’d like a reference for these doses, they are actually available on her website, under handouts, in a handout called Symptomatic Relief Guide. So these doses are available publicly, you don’t need a prescription for them, but always consult your doctor before starting new supplements.
- Number one is using a prokinetic. A prokinetic is either a pharmaceutical drug or natural supplement which improves gut motility in the small intestine, so it increases transit time in the small intestine and also stimulates the migrating motor complex in the small intestine, which is the wave like motion that clears bacteria from food out of the small intestine and into the large intestine. When the migrating motor complex is slowed, this is when we are at risk of developing SIBO and one study actually found that 100% of participants with endometriosis had gut motility dysfunction.
A prokinetic doesn’t stimulate a bowel movement by the way, so it’s not a laxative. It doesn’t get to work on your large intestine, but on your small intestine, so it’s essentially aiding you to digest and move your food into the large intestine, and to clear gas and bacteria out of the small intestine too.
To stimulate the migrating motor complex, we can use a prokinetic at night, but for bloating, you can take it during the day, and this will support healthy transit time of gas accumulating in the small intestine. This can be really helpful in the second half of our cycle, when progesterone is naturally causing things to slow down!
So the two natural supplements you could try are ginger and STW5, which is also known as iberogast. For ginger, there are many different prokinetic formulas and I’ve put some of the best ones in the show notes, and you would just take the label dose, twice a day, one to two hours after meals or as needed, just be sure not to exceed the recommended dose on the label or to exceed 2000mg of ginger per day.
STW5 is a tincture, and you would take 20 drops with meals as or as and when needed.
I do just want to caution here that some of the ginger formulations can cause ginger burn, which is like a hot burning sensation in the diaphragm area, so if you have acid reflux this may not be the best option for you. You can normally get rid of the feeling through drinking water, but some formulations are less ‘ginger burn’ causing and I’ve highlighted which ones in the show notes. Ginger, being a spice, can also irritate bladder symptoms if you have interstitial cystitis, so this is something to consider and normally, I find the formulas which cause less ginger burn, cause less bladder problems.
Secondly, because STW5 also contains alcohol, I find this to also irritate the bladder in people with interstitial cystitis, so just be cautious with these two and experiment until you find a formula that works for you.
Finally, if you experience pain with prokinetics, it’s normally due to motility actually starting to get to work, which can cause muscle contractions at first, but if the pain is severe or persistent, it may be that you have an obstruction or adhesions disrupting the motility flow and working against it. If that’s the case, stop using and see a visceral manipulation therapist who can access your gut for adhesions and obstructions.
- Peppermint oil
Next up is peppermint oil. Peppermint oil is actually a smooth muscle relaxant and is great for abdominal pain, if you get pain with your bloating and generally, it’s really wonderful for pretty much all IBS symptoms. Recent research has shown its effectiveness in multiple symptoms of IBS, so this is a great option if you have IBS issues frequently with endo and in the lead up to your period.
So, you could of course try the tea, and some people do find that to be effective, but generally, peppermint oil tends to be stronger. If you wanted to go for tea, I would make sure it’s strong for it to work!
For capsules, you want enteric coated peppermint oil, which are capsules that have a coating on them which protects them from stomach acid, so that the peppermint is released lower down in the intestines where we want it.
You would just follow the label dose and take as needed, though you could take them every day during the second half of your cycle as the effects are stronger when taken consistently.
However, if you have acid reflux, peppermint may not be the best option for you as it can sometimes cause acid reflux. Another possible side effect is nausea. You could test yourself on one dose and see how you respond of course and take it from there, but if you’re prone to acid reflux or nausea, you might want to consider some of the others. If you do want to give peppermint a go, pills are less likely to cause acid reflux or nausea as opposed to peppermint tea or say, a tincture.
Lastly, peppermint oil can slightly slow down motility, so if you are noticing sluggish motility already due to progesterone in the second half of your cycle, either use one of the other options or if you really want to take peppermint oil, also take a prokinetic.
Oddly, if you have interstitial cystitis, it appears peppermint oil may help or it may actually irritate. There’s some research going on at the moment, specifically on peppermint oil for the treatment of interstitial cystitis, and some practitioners advise using the tea, etc. whereas I’ve heard others warn against it. Personally, applying topical peppermint oil helps with my interstitial cystitis pain, and this would be because it’s a smooth muscle relaxant, so it’s calming down any contractions and cramping, but if I drink the tea, I find it causes a burning feeling inside my bladder, so I think you’ll have to see how you respond personally, but I’m very curious to find out the outcome of this study!
- Number three is activated charcoal. Activated charcoal absorbs gas, so is really helpful for any bloating which is being causing by gut issues during the second half of our cycle.
You can take activated charcoal in supplement or powder form, you would just mix the powder into water, as and when needed, but you do need to ensure that you’re taking it at least 30 minutes before a meal and an hour after a meal, because it doesn’t just absorb gas, it absorbs nutrients too! This would be the same for supplements. You don’t want to be spending money on lovely supplements for the charcoal to be absorbing it all!
You can take up to 1000mg per dose or just follow the label dose, and you can do so four times a day, spacing the doses out by at least two hours, just don’t exceed more than 4 grams of charcoal a day.
Lastly, charcoal can sometimes cause constipation, so of course, we don’t want to worsen that if you already struggling with sluggish bowels in the second half of your cycle. If you are, then you can take magnesium in addition, which I’ll share in the next point.
- Magnesium
Whilst magnesium won’t directly help with your bloating, it is great for constipation, so if this is one of the root causes of your bloating in the second half of your cycle, magnesium is a good tool to aid with this.
Magnesium is also a nutrient that most of us are deficient in and gets used up with chronic stress and during menstruation, and when we’re low in magnesium it can worsen PMS, pain, and fatigue so this is a great supplement for endometriosis.
The best options for constipation would be citrate or oxide, and I personally prefer oxide for anyone with interstitial cystitis, as the magnesium citrate can be irritating to the bladder for some.
You can take between 500mg to 1000mg in the evening, at bedtime, and it’s best to start at a lower dose, like 500mg, to see how you react to it, as if you take too much you may get diarrhea. The aim is to have a bowel movement come the morning, so that’s the sign you want to know it’s working and normally, it takes about 2-3 days to get to work, so be patient. If you don’t have a bowel movement in this time, move up to a higher dose. Often, 1000mg is the dose most people find works for them, however, as I said, you can go higher, you just can’t exceed 2000mg and you need to ensure you’re increasing your dose slowly.
Finally, make sure you take your dose two hours after food because otherwise this can interfere with the effects.
Hopefully, by supporting your gut to keep to a healthy flow during the second half of your cycle, you’ll experience lessened bloating as waste and gas isn’t hanging around for so long.
- Number five is abdominal massage and for the purposes of bloating you could use either the I Love You massage or Arvigo Therapy, both of these you can do at home by yourself. Additionally, these massages are great for constipation and sluggish motility, so if you’re noticing those to be an issue in the second half of your cycle, I would recommend trying one of these. They also put your body into the rest and digest state, so if you’re working on trying to calm your nervous system down so your pain decreases over time (which I’ve been talking about a lot recently over on Instagram), then these are a great addition to your routine. You don’t need to do both, one or the other is fine, however, if you want the added benefit of adhesion release and better periods and less endo pain, Arvigo Massage is the way to go.
The I Love You massage is a simple massage where you literally trace the letters ‘I’, ‘L’ and ‘U’ over your intestines repeatedly. There are free YouTube videos on how to do this and I’ve linked to one in the show notes.
With Arvigo Therapy, you first need to be taught how to do it on yourself by a practitioner. The sessions are usually pretty affordable and can be taught in about 30-45 minutes, after which you don’t need to pay for anyone more sessions, you can just start performing the massage on yourself. I’ve linked to a wonderful practitioner in the show notes and to the practitioner directory.
You can do these massages daily, and I personally recommend using them in the evenings before bed, which is when the migrating motor complex really gets to work and as these help to stimulate it, they’ll give your motility a nice boost overnight. Of course, if you’re feeling bloated in the moment and want some instant relief, if you feel like it’s not painful to do, you could perform these massages when needed. Both of them take just 10-15 minutes at the most, so they’re quick to do.
- Number six is a slightly different one and that’s lymphatic drainage. We’re not addressing the bloating directly but more the water retention and fluid build-up in the body, which could in turn help to reduce the bloating, depending on whether your bloating is coming from water retention or from fermentation in the gut.
So the lymph system is a collection of vessels that run like a map across the body, under the skin and around organs. They are connected to lymph nodes which can be found in places like your armpits and groin, they’re the small shaped bumps you feel when you’re unwell.
The lymph vessels contain fluid that collects waste products, toxins, bacteria, viruses, etc. from around the body. These products are then delivered to the lymph nodes, which attack any pathogens (baddies), and this is usually when the swelling occurs if you have a really active infection - that’s why you’ll get raised bumps under your arms when you have a virus for example.
Once the most harmful pathogens have been killed off, these toxins, waste products and dead bacteria are sent to the liver and kidneys through the blood stream, where they’ll eventually be filtered out of the body.
What’s important to note here is that the lymph system cannot transport waste on its own - the fluid begins flowing with assistance from movement, such as massage or exercise and if we don’t assist it, it can stagnate, like a stream that’s become blocked.
Helping to get the lymph system moving will help to shift any build-up of excess fluid and water retention, and it can help to get rid of the excess LPS which may be circulating in our blood stream before menstruation and would certainly be adding to our inflammation levels.
There are multiple ways to get lymph fluid moving, but two lovely self-care methods you could try are dry brushing before your shower and then using a sort of lymphatic drainage paddle after your shower on your skin.
So before your shower, you would use a dry body brush and starting at your ankles, brush upwards in short bursts, going over them same area three to five times before moving to the next section of your leg. The brush strokes should be fairly firm, and short, so say from your ankle to mid-calf and then from mid-calf to your knee. You would work your way up your legs, bum, torso, all moving up towards your heart, and then you would go to your arms, starting at your wrists, and working your way up to your shoulders. The process should take about 5-7 minutes.
Then you can jump in the shower, and you can totally stop here if you like. A body brush is about £10, so it’s a nice and affordable option.
If you want to add another layer, you can get a lymphatic drainage body tool, which looks a bit like a paddle and is made of wood. I think it originates from the gua sha technique. You would essentially follow the exact same pattern you took with the body brush, but this time more lightly, it can be very gentle, and you would apply oil first, so you don’t pull your skin. I tend to use coconut oil and my paddle was £18 from Amazon. I’ve linked to it so you know the kind of thing you’re looking for.
Now of course, this process is most effective when done every day but honestly, I struggle to fit it in, so you could try a couple of times a week or whatever works for you!
- Number seven is taking an anti-inflammatory supplement. Now as we discussed last week, I don’t think the swelling and bloating is purely down to inflammation alone, but it certainly plays a role as inflammation is building as progesterone lowers and prostaglandins are slowly being released in the uterus to prepare for menstruation from ovulation, providing you’re not pregnant. So as we have higher levels of prostaglandins already, having endo, it’ll most certainly be helpful to lower these.
Now to be clear, these are not root cause fixes, I’ll move onto those in a moment, these are to help you to start feeling better in the short-term, but I just want to remind you that anti-inflammatory supplementation is not enough to get chronic inflammation down, we need to get to the root causes, but they can certainly help!
So in terms of anti-inflammatories, you could use supplements like magnesium, ginger, curcumin or fish oil and all of these have their own unique benefits, so my recommendation is to go back and listen to my episodes on supplements, so episodes 130 and 131. Then you can pick one or two that are best suited to you, and when taken consistently, should really help with your period pain too!
So that’s the symptomatic relief part of the podcast, but now let’s move onto addressing these root causes. Now what I’m giving you is the simple first steps, not the whole protocol for each of these because that would just be a lot!
- Number one is to start balancing your hormones, and one of the key ways we can do this is through ensuring we have balanced blood sugar levels, as having dysregulated blood sugar can cause elevated oestrogen levels and low progesterone. So this is really the key place I start with when balancing hormones with my clients.
And the process is pretty simple, though it takes some getting used to and practice, and it’s simply ensuring you have protein, fibre, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates with each meal. This is because if we just have a plate full of refined carbohydrates like white rice or white pasta, we’re going to get a surge of glucose in the blood (which is what carbs break down into in the gut) and that will elevate our blood sugar levels and that then creates a cascade of negative effects on our inflammation levels, hormones, and energy production. The same goes for a plate full of brown rice and starchy veg or just rice and veg – yes, these foods are healthy, but they’re also rich in carbohydrates with nothing to minimise the effects on our blood sugar.
First off, we need to choose complex carbohydrates in contrast to refined. Refined carbs break down quickly and easily in the gut, flooding the system with glucose very quickly. These are processed foods such as bread, pasta, fries, crisps, cakes and pizza. In contrast, complex carbohydrates break down over a period of time, providing the body with sustained glucose release, and these include vegetables, starchy root veggies like sweet potato and parsnips, fruits, beans and whole grains. Now whole grains really depend on the individual, for some people they break down slowly, for others, they break down quickly and cause a blood sugar surge, so it’s really about how you feel on them as an personally.
And we always want to pair these complex carbohydrates with protein and fat, because they help to slow down the release of glucose to the blood. Fibre also does the same, but providing you have enough vegetables, you should be getting fibre from there, as well as from foods like beans and whole grains.
In terms of ratio, to balance your blood sugar the ideal ratio is having 50% of your plate covered with low starchy veggies like broccoli and asparagus for example. 25% of your plate should be a protein source, and the final 25% is split between fat and complex carbohydrates. So we’re looking at about two tablespoons or two golf ball sizes portions of fat and a serving of more starchy complex carbohydrates like sweet potato, root veggies or quinoa.
Now depending on your activity levels, you may need more or less starchy carbs – this is very individual, so you need to adjust your serving to what feels best for you. If you’re still hungry after a meal, or finding yourself having blood sugar crashes, try increasing the protein or fat intake first, but if your carb content is very low, increase your carbs, whether that’s from low starchy veggies or in fact you find you just need a bit of extra starch from sweet potato, for example. In the show notes, I have linked to a great diagram demonstrating what this could look like.
But just to give you an idea, you might have half a plate full of a salad of rocket and spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, and asparagus, with a piece of salmon, then say half a small avocado and a serving of quinoa, adjusting the grain serving to the size you personally need.
So, this is where I would begin with balancing your hormones. If this feels triggering for you because it’s food related, addressing your gut health will also support your hormones, as well managing your stress levels with stress relief tactics and supporting your detoxification processes. All of my episodes on oestrogen dominance and hormone imbalances cover various areas to address when healing your hormones, so you can have a listen to those if you’d like a different option, or if you get to grips with blood sugar and want to move onto the next step.
And you could practice this over the course of a month and see what happens with your bloating. I do recommend that this is kept up going forward, not just for bloating but for keeping endo at bay, for healthy hormones, sustained energy, lowered inflammation and to prevent the onset of chronic diseases, which blood sugar dysregulation has been linked to.
If you want to learn more about blood sugar, I cover it in multiple episodes, and I’ve linked to them in the show notes, or you can read my book or take my course, when it comes out again in a few weeks. And of course, if you want a step-by-step protocol for balancing your hormones, my course includes that and you can get on the waiting list now, so you’ll be the first to hear when it launches. Again, the link is in my show notes.
- Number two is to start repairing the gut. Now this is a more complex one and tends to take time, and of course if there’s a condition like SIBO, that will eventually need treating. But we can start with some small steps, that really, we use with everyone to see whether they respond to these changes, and these are the basic foundations of good gut health.
You can listen to my episode Understanding the Endo Belly Part 1 for full protocol of what we call ‘first line therapies’, which like I said are these foundational pieces, and you can implement them over the course of a few months, but to get you started, you can try one or two of these options here.
The first would be to eat 30 different plant foods a week. Your good microbiome needs an array of different plant foods, fibres, and nutrients in order to survive and thrive, and to actually ensure the health of your intestines. In fact, your good gut bacteria take certain plant fibres and turn them into key food for our intestinal cells, which helps to keep the gut wall strong. So eating an array of different plant foods will not only help to start creating a healthy microbiome, it’ll also help the process along of repairing leaky gut.
Now I know for those with IBS, when they think about eating more plant foods it can be scary, because the fibre can often aggravate symptoms, but this is different. This is literally about eating any type of plant food – so olive oil counts, coconut oil counts, spices count, fresh herbs count, seeds count and nuts and veggies and fruits, and wholegrains and beans! Yes there’s a lot of options and they all count. And it’s actually pretty easy to get in 30 different foods when you consider this wide array of ingredients you have to work with. You know between the elemental diets I’ve been on the low histamine bi phasic diet, and honestly, I don’t think there’s a diet more restrictive than this and especially in terms of fibre and carbohydrate content, it’s much more restrictive than the low FODMAP diet, and I was still able to reach 30 different plant foods. So basically, work with the foods you’re allowed to eat if you’re on a specialist diet, and if you’re stuck, work with a nutritionist or check out gut health blogs for recipe recommendations.
Secondly, if you can, I would also begin reducing your intake of sugar. Now I don’t mean fruit. I mean added sugar, like maple syrup, honey, caster sugar, coconut sugar, corn syrup, rice syrup, added fructose, that kind of thing. Sugar actually feeds an unhealthy microbiome and inflames the gut, and changes the composition of the gut microbiome, leading to leaky gut. And of course, we want to heal the gut lining and create a nice balance of healthy bacteria in the gut.
I know this is a big step for a lot of people, so it may just be that you start slowly. Maybe you start reducing the sugar you add to your coffee by a quarter of a teaspoon for the first week, and then move to half and so on. Or maybe you start snacking on dark chocolate with a lower sugar content than a standard milk chocolate bar in the afternoon. Whatever it is, choose a method that’s manageable and sustainable for you.
And again, I would implement this over a month, to observe the changes. You could start with adding the plant foods the first month, and then start lowering sugar the next, or you could do it all in one go, and you could combine these methods with the blood sugar balancing or you could implement them month by month separately. It’s really up to you.
Now again, these are just two of the strategies and there is generally more to be done with healing the gut, but you might notice that these bring you significant relief. If they don’t, then don’t panic, this is just the beginning and normally I don’t expect to see complete resolution with my clients at this stage. So what I recommend is that you have a listen to my Understanding The Endo Belly episode, which I’ve linked in the show notes, and you can continue to layer some extra first line therapies on top of these methods,.
If neither of these options that I’ve shared appeal to you because they’re food specific, then that episode will provide you with some other options, like chewing properly, mindful eating and stress management. Or if you want to dive deeper, my course walks you through a step-by-step gut healing protocol, so again, you can get on the waiting list for that if you’d like to.
- Okay, so number three is all about lowering inflammation. And normally, in functional medicine, we would begin with food, as this is one of the quickest ways to lower inflammation.
Now there is a specific protocol for lowering inflammation with nutrition, which I would normally implement over a month with a client, but again, I am just giving you the foundations first to get started. If you want to dive deeper, you can listen to my episode with Dr Jessica Drummond, which I’ve linked in the show notes, I have countless articles on anti-inflammatory nutrition, and I’ve linked to one or two of those in the show notes as well, or you can read my book or sign up to the course for an exact step by step guide.
So to start, one of the most powerful things we can do nutritionally to lower inflammation is to eat an abundance of colourful fruit and vegetables a day.
Specifically, we’re aiming for eight servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit. Now I understand that for those of you with IBS, this might be hard on your stomach at first and it may take some time to build up to this amount of fibre, so start slowly. However, a SIBO diet or low FODMAP diet shouldn’t prevent you from getting in this amount of fruit and veg a day, you may not be able to get in a whole serving, which is 80g, because of the portion size limitations with the low FODMAP diet, but if you aim for variety, you should be able to get in eight different veggies. For example, 1 small red pepper, one medium carrot, one cup of cabbage, four sprouts, one cup of broccoli, 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup of spaghetti squash and half a cup of beetroot are all FODMAP friendly. That’s eight right there! And you’ve got some green, yellow, red, purple and orange in terms of colour, and that’s really key to lowering inflammation because the more different colours you have, the more variety of antioxidants you have, and it’s these wonderful plant nutrients that lower inflammation.
So you’re aiming for lots of different colours but with a nice emphasis on dark leafy greens, and working your way up to eight servings of veg and two servings of fruit. Again, do this slowly if you have stomach troubles on a regular basis and if you have gut health issues like SIBO or another condition, you may need to heal that first before you can tolerate that many servings of veg. But just get up to what you can tolerate and what makes you feel good.
And in the beginning, if your stomach is sensitive, start with well-cooked and pureed or mashed fruits and veggies. So for example, have a smoothie for breakfast, and a roasted veg salad for lunch, and a soup for dinner, for example. Basically, we’re trying to take some of the digestion work out of it for your stomach, so it can predominately focus on extracting those lovely nutrients.
So ideally, we’re working on adding more colour and more fruit and veg to start with, and practice that over the space of a month again, and see how your bloating and swelling does, and see how your PMS and period responds too. Now in the beginning, as your body adjusts to this added fibre, you may find yourself more bloated, and that’s why it’s important to build up slowly and to focus on well-cooked or broken-down foods, so your body gets used to it. For example, don’t go from two servings of veg a day to eight! Start with an extra serving for a few days or a week, and then move up to another serving. And of course, have those bloating relief remedies to hand as well to help you through and listen to your body. If you need to adjust or reduce the amount of veg you’re consuming, do so but don’t just assume you can’t eat veg, it may be about the serving size, how it’s cooked or the type of veg, so experiment!
Now if this feels triggering because it’s food related, another way to lower inflammation is by getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is one the key causes of inflammation, so instead of working on your food, you could start here. Now of course, if you have insomnia, sleep can be a difficult area to master and again, this is about taking it step by step and in stages, and there’s really a whole sleep hygiene protocol we could go through, depending on the type of insomnia you’re struggling with.
But let’s start with the basic step of giving yourself a nine-hour window to sleep. There is no argument, we all need at least seven and a half to eight hours sleep a night, without that, there are significant changes in our health, and it can make manging endo much more difficult because it can worsen pain, inflammation, and hormonal imbalances.
Now as someone who struggles with sleep, I want to say to you not to let this panic you, and really just to allow yourself to work on your sleep, with kindness, not beating yourself up if you’re not at eight hours yet.
Giving yourself a nine-hour window allows your body time to fall into a deep sleep and actually get eight hours of solid sleep, rather than seven hours or even less. And this nine-hour window shouldn’t include reading or scrolling or watching TV, this is literally lights out, eyes closed time and ideally, this nine-hour window should take place across the same period of time every night, so for example, from 10.30pm to 7.30am.
The reason we do this is because your body has an internal clock, and this clock lets it know when to release our waking hormone, cortisol, to wake us up, and when to release our sleep hormone, melatonin, to help us get to sleep. When we have erratic hours or inconsistent sleep patterns, the body doesn’t know when to produce these hormones, so we can find ourselves wide awake at 1am and super groggy at 9am. The body relies on rhythm to create its essential processes, and so it needs us to follow regular rhythms in order to function.
Now of course, there will be some nights when you just can’t sleep, or it’s a friend’s birthday, or your child is up sick all night, and that’s just life! So don’t beat yourself up about it, but on the whole, try to get this regular nine-hour window in. I understand if you have a baby, this is probably not possible, so come back to this when you have your nights back but otherwise, see if you can begin working on this slowly but gradually.
It will probably take some time to adjust, it’ll probably take moving around your schedule, and discipline and practice, but eventually your body should find its routine and start feeling sleepy around this time. The hardest bit for many, is us actually having the will power to put this in place and I can tell you, as someone who has a habit of working late, it is a daily practice, one I don’t always do so well at, but one I am always coming back to.
If your sleep issues are really extensive, then it to me sounds like your HPA axis is probably off. I’m going to do a podcast on this soon, but I also have a whole module on this and sleep hygiene in my course, so if you want more guidance and a roadmap for addressing this, you can of course join the waiting list.
So that’s our three strategies for beginning to address these root causes, and if we’re taking the first suggestions rather than the alternatives I’ve provided, it’ll look like:
· Eating protein, fat, fibre and complex carbs at every meal
· Eating 30 different types of plant foods a week
· Reducing sugar
· Eating 8 portions of colourful veggies and two portions of colourful fruits a day (or building up to that).
So that’s four steps, and you could work on one step a week, so by the end of the month you’re at all four, or you could work on one step per month, and observe where you are in four months. Choose to do it however you feel is best. And remember, that these are foundational steps, they may not totally resolve your PMS bloating, but they’re a step in the right direction and you can choose to keep going forward with some of the other strategies I’ve mentioned for continued improvement.
And just so you don’t drive yourself crazy, I want to remind you that it is natural for us to be a little more bloated and perhaps a tiny little puffier before our periods, but these symptoms shouldn’t be extensive and shouldn’t be affecting our daily lives. So, if you can get down to a place where these symptoms feel minimal and manageable, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to get a perfectly flat stomach the day before your period, as it might not be totally possible.
I really hope this episode has helped you and been informative! If you find it useful, please share it with others who might benefit and please do let me know and reach out on Instagram. I’d love to hear how you get on!
Remember to consult your doctor when making changes to your diet or supplement regime.
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Show Notes
Dr Siebecker’s dosages
https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf
Prokinetics
-
Vita Aid Prokine
-
Pure Encapsulations Motil Pro (in my experience, I found this caused a lot of ginger burn)
- Integrative Therapeutics Motility Activator (better for IC/ginger burn)
- Enzyme Science GI Motility Complex (better for IC/ginger burn)
- Priority One SIBO-MMC
- Invivo Clinical Bio.Me.Kinetic (I find this to be better for IC/ginger burn)
Gut motility
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/
Peppermint oil
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30654773/
I Love You Massage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk
Arvigo Therapy
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/arvigo-massage-for-endometriosis
https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members
Lymphatic drainage tool
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07V7GJW1W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Supplements
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/2021/4/17/supplements-shown-to-target-endometriosis
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/supplements-for-period-pain-menstrual-symptoms
Blood sugar
https://ameliafreer.com/2020/01/10/build-healthy-plate-from-scratch/
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/reduce-fatigue-endometriosis-symptoms-and-oestrogen-dominance
Course waiting list
https://mailchi.mp/thisendolife.com/wait-list
First Line Therapies
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/-the-endometriosis-belly
Sugar and gut health
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284805/
Anti-inflammatory nutrition
https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-antioxidants
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/07/23/primary-pillars-healing/
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/08/13/nutritional-changes-endo/
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/09/03/easy-meals-anti-inflammatory-diet/
https://endometriosisnews.com/2019/11/21/snack-healthy-suggestions/
https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/outsmart-endometriosis-dr-jessica-drummond
Sleep
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181009135845.htm
https://endometriosisnews.com/2020/09/17/5-ways-sleep-deprivaton-affects-endometriosis/
Transcript:
Recently I polled my Instagram to find out just how many of you are suffering with PMS on top of your endo symptoms and the results were pretty staggering! Unfortunately, Instagram didn’t keep the number of votes so I don’t know how many people actually took part in this pole, but the percentage of people who did and who suffer PMS was 86%.
I know from past experience that the week leading up to your period and the week of your period, can often be when endo really rears its head for a lot of us, so adding PMS symptoms as well is of course not what we want!
I went on to poll your symptoms specifically and there was not one symptom that fell beneath the 50% mark, with most of them being around 70-90%, so you guys are dealing with a lot of symptoms. I was originally going to do one podcast episode dedicated to PMS and endo, but after I saw these stats, I felt like it really would be too much to take on in one show and that some of these symptoms that you guys really scored high on deserve more focused attention.
So today, I’m talking about bloating before your period, why it happens and some strategies to reduce it. I chose this one to start with because this was the highest score, with 94% of you suffering with it.
So let’s dive in.
Now of course, when it comes to bloating, you know that I’m always going to talk about SIBO, which is small intestine bacterial overgrowth and research estimates that up to 80% of endo patients also have SIBO and that SIBO may even play a role in the development of endo. But, today I am not going to talk about SIBO. If you have bloating all the time, or most of the time, I really do recommend you also listen to my podcast episodes on SIBO, as that may be worsening the bloating you’re getting around your period. But if your bloating is mainly around your period or it’s at least worse around your period, then this episode is for you.
So other than SIBO and gut health infections or more serious gut health conditions, let’s look at some of the two of the key causes of bloating around your period.
- Number one is hormonal imbalances, mainly oestrogen excess or oestrogen dominance and/or low progesterone.
So to be clear, excess oestrogen is a hormonal imbalance where we have too much oestrogen in the body, whereas oestrogen dominance is when our levels of oestrogen dominate over progesterone.
So in a normal healthy cycle, oestrogen should be higher in the first half during the menstrual phase and the follicular phase. It actually starts off at its lowest point on Day 1 of your cycle but it will begin to build. After ovulation, progesterone is higher than oestrogen, but what happens with oestrogen dominance is that oestrogen is higher than progesterone throughout the luteal phase, which is that second half of your cycle after ovulation.
This can occur in four ways:
· Progesterone is too low but oestrogen is normal so naturally oestrogen dominates.
· Progesterone is normal but oestrogen is in excess.
· Progesterone is low and oestrogen is in excess.
· Progesterone is low and oestrogen is low, but progesterone is lower.
Two of the most common symptoms of these hormonal imbalances are water retention and bloating. Why? Because progesterone and oestrogen actually play a role in fluid regulation, fluid retention and sodium (that’s salt, essentially) retention in our body! There are actually oestrogen and progesterone receptors in parts of the body that affect fluid regulation, such as the kidneys.
Research has found that in healthy participants, when they’ve isolated progesterone and oestrogen, separately, and administered them in normal doses, fluid regulation and sodium retention were acutely affected. So for example, the hormone that triggers the kidneys to recirculate water back into the body rather than excreted in urine was higher. However, in normal healthy participants the effects of these changes were minimal so fluid retention wasn’t dramatically increased.
But of course, we’re then left to wonder what happens when hormone levels aren’t normal and are in fact higher, like with oestrogen.
So, when they isolated normal levels of oestrogen in these studies, they found there was a small increase in water retention, which was because oestrogen encouraged the kidneys to recirculate water rather than excreting it.
However, despite higher levels in the hormone responsible for this process, which is called arginine vasopressin, the kidneys were not responding as expected, meaning there wasn’t as much water retention as they would have expected there to be given the levels of arginine vasopressin. This has left scientists wondering whether oestrogen has the ability to make the kidneys less sensitive to this hormone, which has actually been shown to increase in the second half of the cycle. So basically, the effects aren’t that dramatic and they’re still trying to work out why because giving these findings, they should be.
Now sodium retention does increase with oestrogen and so scientists believe that the small change in water retention that they observed, was really down to the higher levels of salt in the body, rather than the higher levels of arginine vasopressin, which didn’t seem to create a huge change in the kidneys. And higher sodium levels increase the amount of fluid that surrounds our cells, so that would explain why we feel extra puffy and swollen.
Additionally, oestrogen increases the amount of plasma in our body, which is a clear liquid fluid that makes up the bulk of our blood. This results in swelling in the body and alterations in where fluid is distributed. Progesterone has also been found to do the same thing, but this result hasn’t been consistent across studies.
So, if progesterone can increase swelling potentially, and very slightly in healthy adults, and oestrogen can increase it too, again, slightly, then you can see why having normal levels of progesterone and higher levels of oestrogen could result in excess swelling around the body water retention and ultimately, bloating.
So if we’re able to bring our hormones into balance, we may see some normal small increases in swelling and bloating as we enter the second half of our cycle, especially if this research on progesterone increasing plasma fluid is accurate, but we shouldn’t be experiencing dramatic bloating and noticeable swelling.
This leads me to my next cause.
- Number two is your gut health.
If you listen to my podcast you’ll know already that gut health problems cause symptoms like bloating, especially problems like candida, SIBO and fungal overgrowth.
Even if you don’t have an infection, parasite or one of these problems, general gut dysbiosis can cause bloating. Gut dysbiosis is when the bacteria that live in your gut, become out of balance and this imbalance creates an inflammatory environment, excess fermentation which results in gas and bloating, and symptoms like IBS.
These issues can be worsened by the changes that happen to the gut during the lead up to menstruation. When progesterone rises in the second phase of your menstrual cycle, it actually slows down digestion – this is why you may experience constipation before your period or at least slower, sluggish bowels. This is because progesterone is a muscle relaxant, it actually helps to loosen muscles and ligaments during pregnancy to allow your pelvis to expand.
So yes, naturally and normally, your bowel movements might be a little slower in the second half of your cycle or you may just notice that your food doesn’t seem to go down as quickly after a meal, creating some degree of bloating or fullness. But these changes shouldn’t be to the point where you can hardly go to the toilet in the second half of your cycle or that your bloating is painful, your belly is really extended so you look six months pregnant or you can no longer wear the clothes you wear in the first half of your cycle.
If that’s happening, we need to look at your gut. If you have dysbiosis or a condition like SIBO, you’re going to be having more fermentation anyway, so that means you’re going to be more bloated generally. Now if we slow down the transit of food through your gut, of course, this gives the bacteria and archaea even more time to munch on the food, creating even more gas! Then, because you have slower peristalsis, which is the movement that pushes food and waste through your intestines, it’s going to take gas longer to exit. So essentially, you have more food and gas hanging around in your gut for longer, so it’s no wonder that you feel bloated!
On top of this, if you have gut dysbiosis, SIBO or another gut condition, your gut microbiome may have higher levels of an enzyme known as beta-glucuronidase. This is an enzyme that helps to regulate oestrogen, by recirculating waste oestrogen if needed, rather than allowing it to be excreted through a bowel movement. Researchers looking into the alterations of the gut microbiome and its connection to oestrogen dependent diseases hypothesise that people with endometriosis may have higher levels of beta-glucuronidase, and this is certainly the case with many of my clients when we test them. In fact, another study, sadly on monkeys with endometriosis, found significant dysbiosis including low levels of lactobacillus, which is a bacteria that helps to keep beta-glucuronidase in check and at the right levels.
This of course means that the gut dysbiosis could be the cause of or worsening any excess oestrogen or oestrogen dominance you may have, and that can in turn be worsening your water retention and swelling.
Another point to add here is that the same study on monkeys also found high levels of gram-negative bacteria in the microbiome. Gram-negative bacteria can be disease or illness causing, such as for example, certain strains of e.coli, but there are also normal gram-negative bacteria found in our guts that don’t cause disease, again, like certain strains of e.coli, but they have the potential to evolve and cause illness.
What’s really important here is that gram-negative bacteria break down, they release parts of their cell walls called lipopolysaccharides or LPS for short. Lipopolysaccharides trigger a huge inflammatory response from the immune system, and these monkeys were shown to have higher levels of intestinal inflammation, which would make sense!
More recently, research has found LPS in the pelvic cavity of people with endo and it’s believed that this LPS has been transferred from the gut, through leaky gut, and it has also been found that LPS contributes to the inflammation and disease growth of endo.
But what’s even more interesting is that recent research (though on a small study of 40 and this study does have its limitations) has found that gram-negative bacteria and LPS may actually increase in the blood in the lead up to our periods. They studied the immune responses to LPS throughout the cycle at four stages (Day 7, Day 14, Day 21, and Day 28), and found peak levels being on Day 28, indicating that there were higher levels of LPS in the blood stream around this period of time because there were higher levels of LPS antibodies.
They suspect that LPS and gram-negative bacteria actually increases in the blood due to translocation, so just to remind you that’s the movement (usually of bacteria) from the gut to outside of the gut. This, they believe, could be due to changes in the gut wall caused by progesterone rising in the second half of the cycle, so essentially, progesterone is causing temporary leaky gut. This in turn is creating an exaggerated inflammatory immune response, and one of the trademark symptoms of inflammation is a swelling of the inflamed area.
Now prior to this study, much research has shown that the immune system is actually suppressed in the second half of the cycle, and the theory is that this is to support healthy implantation and fertilisation of the egg, without the risk of the immune system attacking it. This occurs when progesterone rises following ovulation, so early to mid-luteal phase your inflammatory immune reaction should be somewhat dampened. However, as progesterone begins its decline ahead of your period about 9 to 11 days after ovulation, inflammation returns as the immune system begins to return to its normal strength.
This correlates with the findings of this study on LPS immune reactions. The strongest reaction from the immune system comes at the end of the cycle, around Day 28, and this would make sense given that the immune system is pretty much back to full strength by then. They also show that Day 14 has the lowest reaction to LPS, which would make sense of course as this is roughly around the time that ovulation occurs, although it varies from person to person and from month to month, the idea that we all ovulation on Day 14 or 15 is actually a myth!
So, as the immune system is only suppressed between say day 14 and day 25-ish, if the LPS and bacteria were present all month round, we should have seen a higher level of immune reaction on Day 7 when the immune system is still fully functioning, but we’re not, the immune response is in fact at its lowest point here, along with Day 14.
So, in this study it was the antibodies to the LPS which were measured, not the LPS levels or the gram-negative bacteria, but they have concluded from the rising antibodies that this indicates rising LPS and gram-negative bacteria levels in the second phase of the cycle, with a strong immune reaction towards the end of the cycle when the immune system returns to fully functioning. Now the limitation here is that we don’t actually know for sure the levels of LPS or bacteria as the microbiome was not studied itself and there were no stools tests taken at all, we’re simply going off the LPS antibodies in the blood, so I hope that more research is done to look into this further and see whether these findings are consistent.
But if this research is correct and we’re able to replicate it in future studies, then it would make sense that people with endo, who have a higher load of gram-negative bacteria in their guts, and maybe even more so in the case of SIBO or some other pathogen, would have more LPS in their blood stream in the second half of their cycle. Especially because there’s the possibility of leaky gut already being present, which is often the case when we have dysbiosis, or SIBO or another gut health condition. So if progesterone is expanding those tight junctions in the second half of the cycle, there’s the chance that it’s making big gaps in the gut lining even bigger, allowing more bacteria and toxins to travel through. And if LPS and gram-negative bacteria are escaping in the luteal phase, and are finding their way into the pelvic cavity, this could be contributing to swelling in the area thanks to an inflammatory immune reaction towards the end of the cycle. As I mentioned earlier, there’s already LPS in the pelvic cavity of people with endo, so if these findings turn out to be accurate and can be replicated in future research, perhaps this could explain why there’s even more an inflammatory reaction in the abdomen and pelvis of people with endo, in the lead up to their period, in contrast to the rest of the month and to those who don’t have it.
So to wrap up, of course, endometriosis can cause some degree of swelling due to the inflammatory nature of the disease, so this could definitely be contributing, but the bulk of inflammation occurs at menstruation, as the uterine lining sheds and prostaglandins and histamines are released, not beforehand (though prostaglandins are being released in the uterus in the lead up to menstruation), so this extensive swelling the week or even two weeks before, doesn’t really correlate. In my opinion, it’s the impact of this increased LPS, the returned immune response, the presence of endo, gut dysbiosis and hormonal imbalances that are creating the perfect recipe for swelling and bloating ahead of your period.
So now you’ve got some information on why it’s happening, next week I’m going to take you through some simple strategies for supporting the gut and balancing your hormones and some easy methods for quick bloating relief in the lead up to your period.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Fluid retention
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2849969/?fbclid=IwAR3kn0CVHyH4aZsIJ0hPq8__O7k4WfM_rk7EWKSLWj4RmQlVZsnCbnEu4Yg#R7
https://joe.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/joe/89/2/joe_89_2_011.xml
Progesterone and constipation
https://nicolejardim.com/howyourperiodaffectsdigestivetract/
Gut Mircobiome
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/17/7/1704/576914
https://www.maturitas.org/article/S0378-5122(17)30650-3/pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04081-1
LPS
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/acta-neuropsychiatrica/article/menstrual-cycle-may-not-be-limited-to-the-endometrium-but-also-may-impact-gut-permeability/4312A69492836C1A9D93A510D144B08D
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5902457/
Immune system and endo
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29778270/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1568997211002977
Prostaglandins
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16992446/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1115176/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7411005/
As some of you may know, I’m doing a lot of work at present to free up my pelvic area from adhesions and tightness caused by pulled fascia and a tight pelvic floor, which in physio speak is a hypertonic pelvic floor.
So I thought this would be a great time to talk about some strategies you can bring into your daily life to help loosen adhesions and a frozen pelvis.
Transcript:
I’ve talked about adhesions and fascia before, but let’s do a quick recap of what adhesions and fascia are.
So fascia is a thin sheet of tissue made from collagen that sits beneath your skin and holds your organs and muscles in place. It also surrounds all the organs, nerves, blood vessels, etc.
Fascia surrounding the body is like a bed sheet, if you pinch it or one end, the rest will wrinkle. So what can happen when we’ve had surgery is that these incisions create puckering and scarring in the fascia, which ends up tightening the fascia and pulling it in other directions. Fascia can also become distorted from inflammation, injuries and muscular problems like pelvic floor dysfunction.
Adhesions are a form of scar tissue. They are web-like structures and bands of collagen that grow in response to injury and trauma, to ‘knit’ back together a wounded area and as part of the healing process from infection and inflammation. Collagen strands bond together to protect the damaged area to allow healing to occur in a safe and isolated environment, and if an infection is present, they protect the rest of the body by preventing the spread.
Adhesions occur in nearly all cases of abdominal surgery, the results vary from study to study but one large and long study found that between 55% to 100% of women who had pelvic surgery developed adhesions, and up to 90% of people who had major abdominal surgery - so something like a caesarean - developed adhesions. So, if you’ve had one or more surgeries for endo, it’s very likely that you have some adhesions.
Adhesions can also form from inflammation, which we know occurs in those of us with endo due to the lesions and can occur in those of us with SIBO, because the body sees it as an infection. Again, as you probably know by now, research has shown that up to 80% of us with endo may have SIBO, so this could be an additional cause of your adhesions and frozen pelvis. It’s also worth noting here that adhesions can actually cause SIBO too, because they prevent the normal flow of gut.
So, what can we do about it? Thankfully, there are numerous ways to loosen adhesions and free up a frozen pelvis, and as a result, lower the pain and other challenges associated with them. So let’s dive in to my top 8 strategies. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means, and you don’t need to do them all! Just pick those that feel the most helpful for you and suit your lifestyle and budget.
1. Foam Rolling
Number one is foam rolling, which is an effective and affordable at home strategy which you can use every day if you’d like to! With foam rolling, we’re really looking at loosening the fascia rather than working on the adhesions directly. As I said earlier, fascia can get tight, pulled, puckered, and wrinkled, and if it’s experiencing it in one place, it can affect other areas in the body.
Foam rolling helps to release a distorted fascia and is when we literally use a long foam cylinder to roll back and forth across various areas of our body. With foam rolling for endo or other pelvic pain issues, we’re not just rolling back and forth on our pelvis, we’re rolling across our hips, bums, back, upper back and legs.
In the show notes I have linked to videos on how to do this, by physiotherapist Dr. Nicole Cozean.
You can order foam rollers from Amazon for about £11 and in the beginning, I would suggest starting gently with a soft roller that’s smooth, especially if you’ve experiencing a lot of pain.
Now with all of these methods, listen to your body. Some discomfort is normal when we’re working with releasing facia and adhesions, but if it’s really painful, ease up and go lightly or if it doesn’t feel right at all, appreciate that this may not be the right approach for you at first.
In an ideal world, we’d use these strategies under the guidance of a physiotherapist, but I know that’s not always an affordable option for everyone, so carefully watch the tutorials and if you’d like to do some further research to be really comfortable, I suggest reading Know Your Endo by Jessica Murnane, as she interviews Heba Shaheed, who I’ve had on the podcast before as well, and they talk about foam rolling extensively in the book.
2. Visceral Manipulation
Next up is visceral manipulation, which honestly, if you can afford it, I really believe is worth a try! Visceral manipulation is a form of organ massage which was designed by physiotherapist Jean-Pierre Barral with the particular intention to free up organs from adhesions and other structural issues that are restricting them. Organs are supposed to be able to expand and move gently as our body moves, and glide smoothly over muscles and nerves as we go about our day. When adhesions or some kind of other structural problem is keeping them stuck, that’s when we can experience pain and organ dysfunction.
Visceral manipulation is very effective for releasing these organs and loosening adhesions and I’ve seen some incredible results with my clients. What I will caution here is that it can feel quite intense and aggressive at times, and if your pelvis is very stuck, you may be better off starting more gently with a different type of massage like some kind of womb massage such as the one I’m going to suggest in the next point.
If you’re going to try visceral manipulation, make sure you’re comfortable with your therapist and be very clear with them about the pain or discomfort you experience within the session, so they know when to ease up or when to stop working on an area if it feels too much. I can tell you from personal experience that gritting your teeth and baring it does not always end well!
Other greats forms of organ/abdominal massage include Mercier Therapy and Clear Passage. Clear Passage is really the holy grail with lots of research behind it for endo and SIBO, but it’s incredibly expensive, so you may be better off trying the other techniques first. However, I do highly recommend it if you can afford it!
I’ve linked in the show notes how to find practitioners for all of these that I’ve just mentioned.
3. Arvigo Massage
Third on our list is Arvigo Therapy, which is a form of abdominal massage that is much more gentle than the ones I just mentioned previously. The benefit of Arvigo Therapy is that you only need one session, which can be done over Zoom, to learn it from a therapist, and then you can just practice it daily at home every evening.
Now in my conversation with Tara Ghosh, who is an Arvigo Therapist and actually taught me personally, she shares that whilst Arvigo Therapy doesn’t directly loosen adhesions like visceral manipulation does, it does encourage circulation to the area and helps to relax the muscles and organs in the area, which can then have the indirect effect of loosening a frozen pelvis.
However, I have seen some articles by therapists claiming it can loosen adhesions, perhaps they mean indirectly or perhaps there are differing opinions, but you can listen to the interview with Tara in episode 127 to learn more.
I highly recommend working with Tara because she’s just the loveliest person, and you can reach out to her directly via the details she shared in the interview (and I’ll put her Instagram in the show notes) but if you want to find another therapist, I’ve linked to the directory in the show notes. I’m pretty sure Tara sees clients from all over the world.
4. Breaking up your time sitting down
Number four is all about breaking up the time you spend sitting down at your desk, specifically by using a standing desk and by taking regular breaks.
Now, there’s been a lot of debate and controversy over this in the past few days. You may have seen in my stories I posted about my standing desk, which I use at varying intervals during the day, alternating between sitting and standing. I do this because my own physios and my colleagues, many of who are pelvic floor physios and my pelvic pain training, have always taught me that sitting for long periods of time without a break can worsen pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms through shortening and weaking the muscles in the area and restricting blood flow.
My understanding was that sitting down for long periods of time without breaks shortens the muscles in the front of our hips and pelvis, which means when we stand, walk or do anything else that isn’t sitting, we have restricted movement, tension, tightness and are more likely to experience pain. And if we have adhesions in the area, sitting down for long periods of time lessens the opportunity to stretch them and release them, making their hold on our organs stronger and tighter.
However, I had quite an strongly worded message form a physio informing me that this simply isn’t true and that muscles don’t shorten or lengthen, which absolutely threw me. So I went away and spoke to some colleagues and they all said that yes, muscles shorten and that sitting for prolonged periods of time causes this and can worsen pelvic floor issues. So I was quite confused!
I wanted to dig a bit deeper to understand why this physio said they don’t and I think what it boils down to is terminology, and oversimplification to make physio language easy for patients to understand. From what I gather through my own research and conversations is that the muscles don’t actually change length, but they lose their ability to stretch so they become restricted. Here’s how one of the PTs I spoke to put it.
Martha Spalding, Circle of Health Physical Therapy, CA: “Muscle length stays the same so no, they don’t elongate but they can be contracted, weak in both eccentric and concentric contractions, strained, sprained, torn and severed. Ligaments can be overstretched and they can have laxity, which is common during pregnancy and some people just have genetic ligamentous laxity. Prolonged sitting is stressful on the entire spine and pelvic floor as it is a prolonged static position in weight bearing on the pelvis. The pelvis is generally rotated posteriorly. Depending on the muscles, you can determine the stress component in the sitting position. This prolonged position does impact the fascial slings which can become restricted.”
So to help understand this better, eccentric contraction means when muscle length increases from tension during a movement, like a stretch. In contrast, concentric contraction is when a muscle shortens and tenses in order to bear weight and counteract resistance, so think about lifting a dumbbell in a bicep curl. So in short, the ability to perform these contractions can become weaker.
Laxity is defined as ‘looseness of muscle’, but I wouldn’t say this would be occurring here, it’s just an example she’s providing to demonstrate how muscles change.
After these conversations, the physio who originally contacted me also replied to say that sitting all day without any movement would cause joint and muscle stiffness, but she was also very clear to state that there are no detrimental effects on the pelvis with sitting.
So clearly there are some cross overs here, but also some differing of opinions. As I’m not a physio, I can’t really give you a definite answer so I’m providing you with the information I have gained and also what I have learned in my own time in training and working with physios. To my knowledge, yes, sitting without breaks and movement can have an impact, but I’ll leave it to you to decide.
My practice is to alternate between sitting and standing throughout the day, as I feel comfortable. When I start to feel tired and my legs need a break, I sit down, and when I feel like I’ve been sitting for long enough, I stand. And every 30 minutes to an hour of sitting at my desk working, I get up and do some form of movement, usually it’s a couple of minutes of rebounding, stretching, walking around the house or a few minutes of exercise and literally it’s just like 3 to 5 minutes.
Now I appreciate that if you have chronic pelvic pain and a weak core from pelvic floor dysfunction and from living with chronic pain, that using a standing desk can be difficult to do. So I suggest starting when only you’re ready with smaller periods of time to build up the strength in the core and to also have a cushioned mat under your feet or cushioned slippers to soften the impact. If you need to first spend some time just practicing taking breaks with gentle movement to build up your strength, or if you need to do some physio first or work on pain alleviation, do that first. This is just an option and you have to do what feels right for you – don’t rush into using a standing desk just because I’ve talked about it today, make sure it’s the right choice for you.
If you do buy a standing desk, you should also be swapping your positions when you’re standing up, so you’re not just constantly bearing down on your joints. I’ve linked to a helpful article in the show notes on different positions to adopt and how to stand in a healthy way when using a standing desk.
There’s now mounting information on the health risks of sitting for long periods of time without breaks or movement, including heightened inflammation, which you guys know is super important for us to keep on top of, so if you’re employed by a company, they really shouldn’t be surprised by you asking for a standing desk. And in fact, it should fall under reasonable adjustments to help make you feel more comfortable when living with endometriosis. If you have trouble getting your company to agree, I suggest having a listen to my interviews with Vickie Williams and Clare from See Her Thrive, which are both about your rights as an employee with endometriosis in the workplace. If you’re curious to learn more about the health considerations and research behind prolonged sitting, I’ve linked to a couple of articles in the show notes.
If you’re self-employed like I am, you can easily order a standing desk online. Prices range dramatically from whole desks which adjust to become either a seated or standing desk at about £1000 or cardboard desk toppers that you just put on top of your desk, and that you rest your keyboard and computer or laptop on, and these are around £15.
If you’re not quite ready for a standing desk or you’d like something extra to support your pelvis further when sitting, it’s best to take a quick break from sitting every 30 minutes if possible. I recently spoke to Rachal Dutton, The Period Whisperer, and she suggested getting up and doing hip circles both clockwise and anticlockwise for a minute or so or doing cat cow stretches whilst still in your chair. There are tonnes of movements you can do whilst seated to give your pelvis a quick break, so if you’d like more options, do some extra research until you find some that suit you!
To bring this unusually controversial tip to an end, I want to reassure you that if you need to sit down or lay down regularly, it’s okay. The key really is about trying to add in healthy movement as and when your health allows, and to take frequent short breaks from the sitting position, again as and when your health allows. I understand that there are days when all you can do is stay curled up, I’ve been there too! But on the days when you feel stronger, consider some small movements like rotating your hips or a quick cat cow to break things up a bit.
5. Pelvic floor stretches
You knew I was going to go there. Pelvic floor physio stretches are essential, in my opinion, to loosening adhesions and freeing up a frozen pelvis.
Of course, in an ideal world, we’d all go to pelvic floor physiotherapists who can give us tailored stretches to do daily at home, but that’s not an option for some people on smaller incomes. So if that’s you, you’ll be pleased to know that there are so many pelvic floor stretches for endo and chronic pelvic pain available online and in books.
I’ve linked to videos, articles and books in the show notes for you to choose from, and all of these are designed by professional and specialised women’s health pelvic floor physiotherapists.
What I will say is to listen to your body here. If you’re experiencing pain, or you have a strong reaction, ease up or try a different stretch – you may be currently too tight or ‘frozen’ in the pelvic area to attempt certain stretches for the time being, so start slower and allow some space and flexibility to build before attempting those pain triggering ones again.
You could add these in during your day, as part of your break from sitting, or in the morning as a way to wake your body up, or in the evening to help you to wind down. Whatever it is, find a time that suits you and don’t worry, you don’t have to spend half an hour on this! Ten or even five minutes is fine! Just start and try to get them in as often as possible, daily if you can – but don’t stress if you can’t!
Now of course, I don’t know your personal circumstances, so if stretching isn’t the right choice for you right now, don’t worry, try something else from this list that is.
6. Proteolytic enzymes
Alright, number six is proteolytic enzymes. Proteolytic enzymes are enzymes which break down proteins into amino acids. Proteolytic enzymes, when used for healing, help to reduce inflammation post-surgery and aid in clearing waste products from the wound site, and help to reduce adhesion formation. This is because of course, the building blocks of tissue are proteins!
However, because they reduce adhesion formation, there is the risk that if there is an infection at the site of the wound, that it could spread, as adhesions play a role in isolating infection sites from the rest of the body. This is rare but has been known to happen. Another thing to note is that the research is limited, with most of the research being in oral surgery or sports related injuries.
The only study we have on enzymes for endo specifically is one we use commonly at IWHI and that’s Wobenzyme. Wobenzyme was shown to reduce pain and inflammation post-surgery and inhibit the formation of new blood vessels, reducing the chances of further endo development and adhesion formation.
The dose used in the study was the label dose for 40-60 days pre-op and then 60 days post op. You need to take Wobenzyme away from food, otherwise the enzymes will just be used for digestion.
Now most of the studies on adhesion formation are conducted pre and post-op, so I really can’t say whether they’d make a difference if you surgery was five years ago for example, my instinct is that they wouldn’t aid with the adhesions but they might help with inflammation.
7. Castor oil
So number seven is castor oil and this one is also a little controversial, so I’ll provide you with the info and you can make your own decision about it.
I know countless leading women’s health practitioners who use castor oil to soften and break down adhesions and who experience great success with it with their clients. However, it’s generally considered that more research needs to be done, though there is research on castor oil’s abilities to lower inflammation, reduce symptoms of constipation, improve circulation, and stimulate muscle relaxation.
You may have heard Arvigo Therapist Tara Ghosh break it down in my interview with her. She explained that castor oil actually triggers the immune system, due to some of its chemical components, however, on responding to the call and finding no poison to clear, the immune system goes about utilising its tools on repairing and healing the pelvic area, which in turn helps to break down and clear adhesions. She also emphasises that the lowering of inflammation and improving of blood flow to the area, thanks to castor oil, is part of how this process works.
She’s not the only fan either. I had a conversation about castor oil with my colleagues and so many of them used castor oil packs to break down adhesions, and Nicole Jardim is a fan of using them for endometriosis and period pain.
So if you want to learn how to make your own castor oil pack and how and when to safely use them, I advise listening to my interview with Tara who has a really quick and easy method as opposed to the often messy and sticky traditional approach!
8. Heat Therapy
Last up is heat therapy. Yet another controversial one.
Heat therapy is often used by practitioners to help loosen fascia, muscles and break down adhesions. I recently spoke to Rachel Dutton who strongly recommended it to me to help with the lower right side of my pelvis, which is really stuck and isn’t responding well to body work therapy because it’s just too frozen and so I need to start with a gentler approach. She explained to me that heat therapy stimulates blood flow, which as a result helps to break down scar tissue and suggested this as one of the first options I should try.
Additionally, increased blood flow will allow the muscles to relax as more oxygen is delivered and so any muscles which were contracting due to restricted access to oxygen, which is common when you have a tight, bunched up pelvis, can start to loosen and become more mobile.
There’s also research showing how heat therapy can prevent adhesions from building up so much after injury.
Unfortunately PubMed was down at the time of writing this, so I haven’t got a tonne of studies to stick in the show notes but I’ve put in a few articles and one or two studies, and of course you can do some of your own research as well.
So now the controversy comes in. Some sources, but not many, claim that heat can loosen adhesions and fascia and then as they cool, they stiffen up again, and become stiffer than before. I dug into this further and honestly, I couldn’t really decipher how they sources came to that conclusion, and I spoke to multiple colleagues about this who were equally as baffled and looked at the articles with me, and didn’t really feel the claims were fully supported.
However, one research paper does discuss the rebound phenomenon, where the positive effects of heat therapy are actually only present for 20-30 minutes. So for 20 to 30 minutes, blood vessel dilate and blood flow increases, but afterwards, the blood vessels actually start to constrict again, preventing blood flow, so this is definitely worth taking into consideration.
After I raised this to my colleagues, they all agreed that they only use heat therapy for 20 to 30 minutes in terms of hot water bottles, normally applied alongside castor oil packs and perhaps alongside a massage therapy treatment. They were also very keen to stress that they never use boiling water in a hot water bottle, only warm water.
However, I’m curious about whether we can go a step further than hot water bottles.
For a long time now, I’ve been very interested in the research behind infrared therapy, which has been shown to heal muscle injury, tissue damage and lower inflammation. For this reason, I’ve been really curious about infrared sauna belts and infrared heat pads for my chronic bladder pain, because they have so many benefits, but I just haven’t bought one yet as I’m spending so much on SIBO healing. The prices that I have seen range between £50 and £60, so not that expensive, but for some of us a hot water bottle is the more affordable choice.
So whilst I can be sure about the theory that adhesions and muscles get worse after heat therapy, clinically, heat therapy seems to achieve remarkable results, especially when combined with castor oil packs and massage. Of course, if you’re going to use hot water bottles, just keep it to less than 30 minutes and don’t use water straight off the boil.
I think a wonderful way to try heat therapy is to use heat 30 minutes prior to a home massage, like Arvigo Therapy, to relax and soften the muscles so they’re more pliable and open to movement and stretch.
So I hope that has given you some ideas to help you soften your fascia, loosen adhesions and release a frozen pelvis. Remember, what works for one may not work for another, always listen to your body and be guided by what it’s telling you and ideally, consult a practitioner if you can afford to do so.
I would love to hear which strategies you try and how you get on!
Please remember I am not a physiotherapist or a masseuse. This information comes from my training as a health coach, my conversations and interviews with leading pelvic floor physios and my experiences a patient. This podcast is here for educational purposes only.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Adhesions
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11528133/
Foam Rolling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJOzcFS6fGE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umTObqSYay0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6cR3knKFIA
Visceral Manipulation
https://www.iahp.com/pages/search/index.php
https://clearpassage.com
https://www.merciertherapy.com (You currently need to email them directly for a referral)
Arvigo Therapy
https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members
Sitting
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/why-sitting-too-much-is-bad-for-us/
https://www.startstanding.org/standing-desks/10-standing-desk-mistakes/#positions
Stretching
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXigFK5hLLF82uZ72jzTvmg/videos
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/beating-endo-iris-kerin-orbuch-mdamy-stein-dpt?variant=32903931691042
https://thepelvicexpert.com/blog/6-simple-exercises-to-ease-endometriosis/
Heat Therapy
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31115522/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6214933/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300270473_Superficial_Heat_and_Cold_Applications_in_the_Treatment_of_Knee_Osteoarthritis
Castor Oil
https://nicolejardim.com/castor-oil/
If you have bloating or what’s commonly known as the endo belly - SIBO is something to pay attention to. Small intestine bacterial overgrowth is incredibly common within the endometriosis community, in fact, recent research has shown that up to 80% of endometriosis patients may have SIBO.
So how can you treat it if you test positive? One of the treatment options is the elemental diet, and today’s episode is all about my experience of the elemental diet for SIBO.
Those of you who are following my SIBO journey may know that I’ve already completed three rounds of antimicrobials, to find out how that went, have a listen to episode 126 - My SIBO Treatment: An Update. After three rounds my hydrogen was at 63ppm and my methane levels were at 10ppm, given that the elemental diet reduces gas levels by 70ppm on average, this seemed like a good time to try the elemental diet and potentially clear my SIBO in one final round.
So what is the elemental diet? The elemental diet is a powdered (sometimes liquid) formula that includes all of your calories and nutrients in a predigested state so that your gut can absorb your nutrients immediately instead of taking time to digest them. This means you get fed, but the SIBO archae or bacteria starve because there’s no time for them to feast on your food during digestion. It also allows your gut the chance to heal because it’s not having to do any work, and for this reason, the diet is also used for people with severe gut health conditions like crohn's, ulcerative colitis, coeliac disease, malabsorption and in hospitals for patients who can’t eat for other medical reasons. It’s safe (though must be followed carefully and correctly to be so), well studied and evidence based and includes everything you need, from macro to micro nutrients.
For SIBO, this powder is blended with water and oil (if fat isn’t included in your formula) and poured over ice. This shake is the only source of food for 12-21 days, with the purpose being to starve and therefore kill the SIBO bacteria or archaea. You are of course also allowed to drink water alongside this. Some patients have experimented with weak black teas and coffee, and plain boiled or baked chicken or steak (trimmed of fat and skin) and this has worked for some, but has not been proven in studies.
The elemental diet as I said earlier, reduces gas levels on average by 70ppm, but has in some cases has reduced by up to 150ppm, which is incredible! It’s 80% effective at eradicating SIBO after 2 weeks, and 85% effective at 3 weeks, so it’s a really great tool for those with high gas levels. However, it’s expensive, at about £600 to £1000 per round and is also emotionally and physically challenging, so the decision to go ahead with the elemental diet shouldn’t be taken lightly!
I wanted to share my experience of the elemental diet with you all, as it can be an overwhelming treatment to contemplate trying and so I hope my experience will help you to make an informed decision and will hopefully also help you to have a better experience if you do go ahead with this form of treatment.
So in this episode, I discuss:
- How much I spent on the elemental diet, and how I planned and prepared for it.
- The challenges of the first week - in particular, blood sugar dysregulation (severe) and die off.
- How I tweaked my formula to achieve better blood sugar regulation and how that completely transformed my experience of the elemental diet in the second week.
- How I felt emotionally, from my feelings about socialising and sharing my experience with friends and family to crying over my boyfriend’s pizza!
- The benefits I experienced, from stabilised and sustained energy in the second week to laser sharp focus.
- My SIBO results - they’re not what I expected - and why I’m back on the elemental diet (yes, really)!
I really hope that this episode is useful to you, whether you’re about to start the elemental diet or you recently had your SIBO diagnosis and you’re contemplating what’s next for you. Please feel free to direct message me on Instagram if I’ve missed anything that you’re particularly interested in!
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
As you guys know, endo is a full body disease which causes a host of symptoms throughout the body and also often comes with co-conditions that trigger these symptoms, heighten them or add new ones.
IBS issues are a problem for many people with endo and it’s important to address these, not by masking but by getting to the root causes.
The reason why getting to the root cause is so important is because gut inflammation is a key cause of pelvic pain and could even contribute to the continued growth of endo. Seventy percent of your immune system is in and around your gut and inflammation is simply a normal immune response. Inflammatory immune cells are released in response to injury, infection, bacteria or some kind of threat and these inflammatory cells cause swelling, pain and heat as they get to work on healing the area.
Now leaky gut or intestinal permeability occurs when tiny holes appear in the gut lining. Think of the gut lining as a sausage skin, it’s a tube from the mouth to the colon that seperates what’s coming in and going out from the rest of the body. The lining is incredibly thin, just one cell thick and these cells are tightly packed together with only the tiniest gap between them, to allow for the absorption of nutrients. When the gut gets inflamed from chronic IBS reactions, infections, SIBO, allergies, intolerances, an inflammatory microbiome, etc. the gut lining gets damaged and the gaps begin to wide. Other issues can also cause damage to the lining, like medication, stress and alcohol to name a few.
When this happens, food particles can pass through the gut lining alongside bacteria and toxins from bacteria, known as LPS. While some of the immune defences are inside the gut, there is also a large amount on the outside of the gut lining, waiting to attack anything that passes through which shouldn’t be there. It doesn’t matter if this is food or bacteria, inflammatory immune cells will be released and because the blood stream is also on the other side of the gut lining, the inflammatory cells can get swept along the blood stream, causing full body inflammation.
If you have leaky gut, this is going to be happening every time you eat, putting you in a state of chronic inflammation.
Of course, as you probably know, chronic inflammation causes chronic pain, and so, calming down your gut is key for calming down your pain.
But there are many other reasons to heal leaky gut.
Leaky gut causes symptoms like brain fog and fatigue, but it’s also now showing up in the research as a leading cause behind many autoimmune diseases. The reason being is that as the immune cells become more and more exposed to food particles (and whatever else is coming through), they start to develop antibodies for them, and these antibodies accidentally start attacking certain cells in our body, leading to an autoimmune condition. Research has shown people with endo are significantly more likely to develop certain autoimmune diseases and that autoimmune diseases are strongly associated with endometriosis. So, for us to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, healing leaky gut is really important.
Then there’s also the presence of LPS. Lipopolysaccharides are parts of the cell wall from certain bacteria that trigger inflammation in humans. LPS can move from the gut to other parts of the body, known as translocation. LPS have been shown to play a key role in autoimmune disease development and also play a lead role in endo development too, alongside oestrogen and inflammatory chemicals like prostaglandins.
So, whilst there are more extensive protocols for healing leaky gut that I take my clients and course students through, I get that for some of us, starting slower and with fewer steps is a better way to get going with healing.
Because of this, today I wanted to pay attention to three leading causes of leaky gut that commonly affect our endo community and tips for managing their damage. There are;
- Stress
- NSAIDS
- Gluten
Listen to the episode to hear about the research and the studies and for tips for healing if these specific causes are affecting you personally.
Do you have endometriosis and struggle with the ‘endo belly’? Do you have fatigue and brain fog? Maybe you have other unusual symptoms like swelling or puffiness, rashes or skin conditions like eczema or rosacea. If any of these sound familiar, you may not just be dealing with endo alone.
I’ve only ever done one other client story, but judging by the number of downloads, you guys found it helpful so I thought I’d share another! This is Sophie’s story of treating SIBO, candida and histamine intolerance whilst living with endo. I wanted to share Sophie’s story because her case is complex and her healing path hasn’t been easy or linear, and so for those of you who are struggling right now or feel overwhelmed by the idea of taking on SIBO, I think you’ll find Sophie’s experience, her hope, her patience and her perseverance inspiring.
Sophie came to me due to her painful sex symptoms, bloating and histamine reactions. We quickly discussed that severe SIBO was at the root of most of her issues (the painful sex we also addressed with pelvic floor physiotherapy and other strategies) and so Sophie began treatment early on into our coaching.
Her treatment was a great success and she was negative for hydrogen and methane by the end of it, yet was still having some bloating symptoms and histamine symptoms. Her test results following her treatment showed a flat line, so the question was has the elemental diet really just wiped everything out, or is hydrogen sulphide at play here? In the UK we don’t have testing for hydrogen sulphide, so deciding whether to treat that is down to the presence of H2S symptoms. We consulted Dr Alison Siebecker, who agreed that it was a tough one to call but suggested we consider trying some hydrogen sulphide treatment to see whether it helped. What we observed from this treatment was severe die off, an inflammatory reaction that occurs when bacteria, fungus or viruses die, and it can cause a flare up of symptoms. Something was dying, but it was a struggle for Sophie to continue through with the symptoms. We added in die off strategies and tried different treatment options, but even after treatment, some of her symptoms still persisted.
We sought out a nutritionist specialised in gut health in her area to do some further testing, and they discovered severe gut dysbiosis (which is definitely expected with SIBO and following treatment) and candida (yeast overgrowth). Both of which can cause bloating and worsen histamine reactions. She’s also spent several years exposed to mould, including black mould and so at present, she is working with the nutritionist on a specific mould protocol whilst also rebuilding her gut, and continuing with the physiotherapy, visceral manipulation and the practices we established during our time together. She’s also investigating the root cause of her SIBO, so she can do her best to prevent relapse.
Sophie’s journey is complex and a long one, but she’s made huge improvement along the way and she feels empowered, hopeful and relieved that she’s finally getting to the root of her symptoms. I really hope you find this episode helpful if you are also experiencing the same challenges!
This week I caught up with the wonderful Jessica Murnane, talking about her new book, Know Your Endo, which is out now. If you didn’t manage to catch the IG Live, you can listen to our interview here, where we talk about:
- How she found writing a book about endo - in the middle of COVID!
- How to prioritise your health with endo without feeling guilty or overwhelmed.
- Defining what your ‘best’ is with endo and how to walk the line between accepting that some symptoms may not fully resolve (but can be reduced) whilst also recognising when there is a deep root cause to be investigated.
- How she celebrates her progress with endo and practices self-compassion.
- Her key tools for managing endo including knowing your endo, stress management, good food, movement and changing our body/home products for more endo friendly versions.
- Navigating relationships, having friends with endo and looking after yourself in community spaces.
- How to be an advocate for endo without the burn out!
Jessica’s new book Know Your Endo is out now in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
jessicamurnane.com
Know Your Endo
Excruciating pain, heavy bleeding, nausea and vomiting are all symptoms many of my clients first come to me with.
Whilst I first and foremost use nutrition and lifestyle changes to help my clients resolve their endo symptoms, there are also supplements that have been shown to specifically lower premenstrual and menstrual problems such as pain and nausea, and I use a selection of these when necessary with my clients. I’ve seen so much success with these supplements that I included them in the supplement module of my course, Live and Thrive with Endo. In today’s episode I’m sharing another clip from this module, this time focusing on the supplements that help to relieve these specific symptoms.
Last week I shared the supplements shown to target endo and some of those supplements have also been shown to alleviate dysmenorrhea and other menstrual issues too, so I would definitely listen to both of these episodes.
Also, I want to make it clear that I believe in using diet and lifestyle changes to manage endometriosis, and getting to the root cause(s) of our symptoms. I usually use supplements later in my coaching with clients, to allow them to experience changes in their symptoms from an anti-inflammatory diet, physio, gut healing, etc. but if a client is really struggling then we do bring supplements in sooner. My point is, these shouldn't be used in isolation, but rather in tandem with healthy habits that support you to live well with endo and resolve the root problem behind your inflammation, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, etc.
I’ve also distinguished between studies on animals or in vitro in contrast to studies on humans, as of course, for those supplements which haven’t been tested on humans yet, we need more research and larger studies would be helpful for all of these supplements. I also do not advocate for animal testing and so this episode isn’t about promoting or supporting animal testing, but is rather about sharing with you the information that we have so far, whilst acknowledging the gaps in the research and the ethical issues.
Here’s the transcript from the module:
Disclaimer
So before we get started I just wanted to share a quick disclaimer as supplements can occasionally come with side effects and health risks.
So as outlined in the agreement you signed when you enrolled into the course, you should consult with your doctor before starting a new supplement regime, this is especially important if you are on medication as some supplements can change how the medication works. It may also be important to get tested first before taking some supplements, like with vitamin D and iron. I’ll mention this in the slide if this is necessary, though I do generally recommend getting your levels tested either way.
This is even more important when you’re trying to conceive or are pregnant, as some supplements aren’t safe during conception and pregnancy.
As you’re aware, I am not a dietician or medical professional. These practitioners are licenced to give specific prescriptive doses to individuals whereas I am not. Instead, these are general yet therapeutic doses (which essentially means effective) for the specific issues I highlight them as useful for in this lesson, provided to you for educational purposes with the intention that you will then discuss these with your doctor or the practitioner you’re working with before beginning. These doses are either from the studies, from my training or from other practitioners and are generally safe to use - if there are any risks, I have highlighted them in the slides.
Finally, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘you can’t out-supplement a bad diet or lifestyle’ and it’s especially true with a chronic condition. You’re not going to reap the full benefits of these supplements if your diet choices and lifestyle are standing in direct opposition to them. I do think supplements play a role with endometriosis, especially as gut health issues, deficiencies and high inflammatory markers and low antioxidant markers are factors we see in our population, but they need to be alongside healthy choices. So keep that in mind as we go through this lesson today.
Okay, now that’s the boring bit over! Let’s get to supplements!
Period Pain and Associated Symptoms
So now let’s move onto some supplements which have been shown to be effective for period pain and associated symptoms like nausea and vomiting.
Magnesium
Okay, you know I’m a major fan of magnesium and here’s why:
- Magnesium supports healthy oestrogen metabolism
- Supports blood sugar stability by improving insulin sensitivity
- Lowers inflammation by inhibiting inflammatory prostaglandins and lowering oxidation levels
- Reduces dysmenorrhea
- Supports progesterone production by supporting processes involved in hormone regulation
- Reduces PMS symptoms
- Magnesium oxide and citrate reduce constipation
Dose wise, if you’re looking to use citrate or oxide for constipation, Dr Allision Siebecker recommends 500mg to 2000mg per night, building up gradually until you get a healthy bowel movement the following morning, and then continue for maintenance or as needed. Do not go straight in at the higher dose as this will cause diarrhea.
For pain, you can use 500-600g of Epsom salts 2-3 times a week for optimal absorption or 150mg to 450mg a day (though some practitioners use higher levels). Honestly, most of us are so deficient in magnesium that this should be an ongoing supplement, but for endo pain, try using for a minimum of six months though I expect you’ll see results much quicker.
For blood sugar, the recommended dose is 150mg to 200mg of magnesium glycinate or l-threonate two to three times per day. You can use this ongoing.
Ginger
Okay another one I love is ginger!
- Ginger has been shown to be just as effective as ibuprofen and mefenamic acid for dysmenorrhea, so if you’re looking to get off NSAIDS, this could help. It’s also been shown in multiple other studies to reduce dysmenorrhea.
- Additionally, it’s been shown in research to aid with nausea.
- It’s a generally a wonderfully powerful anti-inflammatory and pain reliever, demonstrated in numerous studies.
- Aid withs migraines and headaches and has been shown to be as effective as migraine medication when taken at a dose of 250mg at the start of the migraine.
- Ginger is a natural antihistamine, shown to just as effective as loratadine.
Dose wise, the recommendation for dysmenorrhea is between 750mg to 2000mg per day, split into doses of around 250-500mg in the lead up to your period and during the first 3-4 days of your cycle. If you wanted to lower inflammation overall for endo, Dr Aviva Romm advises you could also take ginger daily for three-six months (at least) at 1000mg a day, though you could go higher as long as you didn’t exceed 2000mg per day.
I do just want to caution, if you have interstitial cystitis, ginger may be irritating for the bladder. Additionally, high doses in one go can cause stomach upset like diarrhea so always take in divided doses and build up your doses to test your tolerance.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is another lovely supplement which can really help with periods.
- Cinnamon has been shown to significantly reduce heavy bleeding in people with primary dysmenorrhea.
- It also has been shown to significantly reduce nausea and vomiting during menstruation.
- ·Significantly reduces pain with primary dysmenorrhea.
- Very effective for balancing blood sugar by improving insulin sensitivity.
The studies of cinnamon for dysmenorrhea used 420mg three times a day or 1000mg three times a day during first three days of the participants cycles.
The dose for blood sugar balance is 3000mg a day, divided into doses and taken with carbohydrate foods, though up to 6000mg has been used in studies. This can be ongoing to support with blood sugar stabilisation or short-term to help you to get on track with your blood sugar.
Due to the oxalate and histamine levels of cinnamon, cinnamon may cause bladder irritation to those with interstitial cystitis. Cinnamon extract may be more beneficial because it significantly lowers the histamine and oxalate content, though it’s unclear whether the studies used cinnamon extract or powder, but the extract still appears to be safe in these doses. Of course, consult your doctor and read the label recommendations. When choosing your product, look for ceylon cinnamon not cassia cinnamon, which contains toxic compounds that can be harmful at high doses. If you have kidney stones, you may need to adopt a low oxalate diet temporarily so consult with a partitioner before taking lots of cinnamon powder.
Vitamin D
We all know that vitamin D is an essential nutrient, here some of its super powers:
- Low vitamin D have been associated with endo, chronic pain conditions, insulin resistance and menstrual disorders such as PCOS.
- In research, vitamin D supplementation has been shown to significantly reduce pain with dysmenorrhea.
- It’s also been shown to reduce premenstrual syndrome and the associated symptoms.
So in my training we’re taught that a safe maintenance dose that you can take with normal vitamin D levels is 2000IU, though the department of health recommends a minimum of 400IU a day. So you could start lower or just stick to that level if you feel more comfortable dosing at the lower end, however it’s really only enough to avoid deficiency but is not an optimal amount for good health.
In terms of testing, a healthy optimum level of vitamin D is 50 ng/ml or near that number. If your levels are lower then you’ll need to increase your intake. 5000IU daily is the recommendation for low levels of vitamin D but because of the risk of vitamin D toxicity if you take too much, you should work with your doctor to agree on the required dose for you personally and retest between 60 to 90 days after beginning to supplement at these higher levels. Once you’re at a healthy range, you can drop down to a maintenance dose.
Show Notes
References
Magnesium
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/5/10/3910
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/dme.12250
https://drbrighten.com/boost-low-progesterone/
https://www.composednutrition.com/blog/increase-progesterone-naturally
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2675496/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25023192/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112180/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30880352/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847116/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17229895/
Ginger
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23865123/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26177393/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25912592/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ptr.6730
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7171779/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23657930/
Cinnamon
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4443385/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5220230/
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/3/815/4596714
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30396627/
https://examine.com/supplements/cinnamon/
https://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(16)30899-1/fulltext
Vitamin D
https://endometriosisnews.com/2016/11/11/ovarian-endometriosis-linked-to-vitamin-d-blood-levels-in-study
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4427945/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29447494/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6250088/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22371927/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27147120/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
https://drhyman.com/blog/2010/08/24/vitamin-d-why-you-are-probably-not-getting-enough/
As many of you may know, I’ve been busy delivery my course, Live and Thrive with Endo, which has just finished! As part of the course, I created a bonus module all about supplements for endometriosis, pain, inflammation and hormones.
In my book This EndoLife: It Starts with Breakfast I actually go into supplements that have been shown to target endometriosis, but in this module, I dive even deeper. For those of you who are in need of some extra support with your symptoms or who are curious about the evidence behind supplementing for endo, I wanted to share a part of this module, specifically, the supplements which has been shown to directly target endometriosis and reduce its symptoms, severity and growth rate.
Also, I want to make it clear that I believe in using diet and lifestyle changes to manage endometriosis, and getting to the root cause(s) of our symptoms. I usually use supplements later in my coaching with clients, to allow them to experience changes in their symptoms from an anti-inflammatory diet, physio, gut healing, etc. but if a client is really struggling then we do bring supplements in sooner. My point is, these shouldn't be used in isolation, but rather in tandem with healthy habits that support you to live well with endo and resolve the root problem behind your inflammation, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, etc.
I’ve also distinguished between studies on animals or in vitro in contrast to studies on humans, as of course, for those supplements which haven’t been tested on humans yet, we need more research and larger studies would be helpful for all of these supplements.
Here’s the transcript from the module:
Disclaimer
So before we get started I just wanted to share a quick disclaimer as supplements can occasionally come with side effects and health risks.
So as outlined in the agreement you signed when you enrolled into the course, you should consult with your doctor before starting a new supplement regime, this is especially important if you are on medication as some supplements can change how the medication works. It may also be important to get tested first before taking some supplements, like with vitamin D and iron. I’ll mention this in the slide if this is necessary, though I do generally recommend getting your levels tested either way.
This is even more important when you’re trying to conceive or are pregnant, as some supplements aren’t safe during conception and pregnancy.
As you’re aware, I am not a dietician or medical professional. These practitioners are licenced to give specific prescriptive doses to individuals whereas I am not. Instead, these are general yet therapeutic doses (which essentially means effective) for the specific issues I highlight them as useful for in this lesson, provided to you for educational purposes with the intention that you will then discuss these with your doctor or the practitioner you’re working with before beginning. These doses are either from the studies, from my training or from other practitioners and are generally safe to use - if there are any risks, I have highlighted them in the slides.
Finally, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘you can’t out-supplement a bad diet or lifestyle’ and it’s especially true with a chronic condition. You’re not going to reap the full benefits of these supplements if your diet choices and lifestyle are standing in direct opposition to them. I do think supplements play a role with endometriosis, especially as gut health issues, deficiencies and high inflammatory markers and low antioxidant markers are factors we see in our population, but they need to be alongside healthy choices. So keep that in mind as we go through this lesson today.
Okay, now that’s the boring bit over! Let’s get to supplements!
Endo Specific
So of course, I wanted to start with endometriosis specific supplements that have been shown to target endometriosis, while also have numerous other benefits.
Curcumin
Let’s start with my absolute favourite, curcumin. Now in terms of endometriosis, the research is unfortunately only in rats or in vitro (meaning outside of a human or animal such as in a test tube or a petri dish) but hopefully we’ll soon have some human studies.
- Curcumin has been shown to inhibit the spread of endometriosis and lesion formation by reducing cell proliferation (the process where cells divide to make new cells) and by reducing the adhesion molecules which allow endometriosis cells to stick to surfaces and form lesions.
- It also been shown to reduce endometriosis by speeding up the death of endo cells, known as apoptosis. Apoptosis is the normal death of cells in their life cycle, which endometrial cells are more resistant to than normal, healthy cells.
- ·Research also found that curcumin slows down growth rate by reducing oestrogen levels inside the endometrial cells, so they essentially have less fuel to feed them.
- Of course, as you probably know, there are now countless studies on curcumin’s powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. In fact, in research it’s been shown to reduce oxidation levels in mice with endometriosis, which we know are high in people with endometriosis and contribute to endometriosis growth.
In studies not on endometriosis, curcumin has been shown to…
- Be as effective as ibuprofen for pain relief when taken daily for 4 weeks at 1,500mg. It was also shown to have less GI side effects that ibuprofen.
- It has additionally been shown to boost mood and cognitive function in several studies. One study on healthy adults showed that just one hour after taking curcumin, attention and memory improved and with longer term use fatigue, mood, stress and mood significantly improved.
- It can also help to repair leaky gut and lowers intestinal inflammation by reducing the immune system’s reaction to LPS, which is why I tend to use it as one of the first supplements to try as it can heal the gut, lower inflammation in the body/gut/pelvic cavity and directly target endo. All important factors in better managing endo.
- Finally, it’s been shown to support blood sugar, which as you know is important for keeping energy levels up, inflammation down and hormone levels balanced. In one study on people with prediabetes, it was 100% effective in preventing the development of type 2 diabetes.
So the general therapeutic dose is 500mg to 1000mg a day, ideally divided in doses but don’t worry if all you can find is a single large dose. Curcumin is generally metabolised quickly and so dividing the doses means we can have it hanging around in our body for longer, doing good work!
You may feel the benefits of curcumin in a month or so, especially if you’re taking it at higher doses. However, for others it can take longer and for the best benefit we need to give curcumin at least six months to a year as the processes of directly targeting endo and reducing the effects of inflammation can take time. Of course, if you have adverse reactions, stop immediately and consult with your practitioner.
Finally, curcumin can be difficult to adsorb so when choosing a product, go for one either with piperine (which is an extract from black pepper) or is paired with fat or is labelled as ‘bioavailable’. Really, fat or piperine are the best options and take with a fat containing meal to aid absorption further. If you have interstitial cystitis, black pepper is irritating to the bladder, so definitely avoid supplements that just add black pepper itself and experiment with how you feel on the extract, as that may be less irritating. In the handout I’ve linked to one of my favourite brands which do a bioavailable form without piperine. Also, if you do have IC, avoid turmeric supplements and rather go for curcumin, which is the active extract from turmeric, as turmeric can also be irritating to the bladder. Generally, you’re also going to get more bang for your buck with curcumin because it’s in a more concentrated form than just taking turmeric.
Quercetin
Okay so quercetin is another one of my absolute favourites!
- Quercetin has been shown in studies on rats to inhibit endometriosis growth by lowering oestrogen levels, stunting development.
- In another rat study, quercetin significantly reduced the size of endometriosis lesions.
- Quercetin is anti-inflammatory and immune supportive, which is of course important with endo as we know inflammation is high and the immune system is compromised.
- It’s also a great leaky gut healer and is one of the supplements I recommend trying first for leaky gut due to its other benefits listed in this slide.
- It’s also a powerful antihistamine which can be used for reducing allergic reactions, histamine intolerance and asthma symptoms.
Dose wise, I don’t have a specific dose for endometriosis but for histamine issues, the dose varies from 100mg to 500mg. Dr Jessica Drummond recommends 100mg in our training, whereas I know Dr Aviva Romm recommends 500mg in her article on allergies. My personal feeling is that to reap the benefits for both inflammation, endo and histamine (which we know is often a problem in people with endo), the higher dose is probably going to be better here.
Like with all of these supplements, we’re really looking at about six months at a minimum, unless you react, in which case, stop immediately.
Finally, a gentle caution here, from the studies and reviews, quercetin is deemed as safe and I’ve not seen any warnings from practitioners, but it does lower both oestrogen and progesterone through lowering FSH and LH. I don’t think this is a problem because as I’ve mentioned, it’s not come with any warnings in my trainings or by practitioners who use it regularly in their practice, but if you have low progesterone I would maybe use with caution. If you can’t afford testing and you’re not sure, I would just observe your cycle and if you start getting low progesterone symptoms, ease up on your dose or remove completely if necessary. Ideally track your cycle with the FAM to ensure you’re ovulating. Again, I don’t think this is a huge issue or risk but keep it in mind when using just to be safe.
N-Acetyl Cysteine
Okay, another great supplement is n-acetyl cysteine.
N-acetyl cysteine has been shown in human studies to reduce the growth rate of endometriomas.
- It’s also been shown to reduce the size of endometriomas and endometriosis lesions, in some to the point where the endometriomas disappeared entirely. In fact, in one study, half of the patients treated with NAC cancelled their laps due to a reduction or resolution in symptoms and/or a decrease or total disappearance in endometriosis lesions and endometriomas.
- As I mentioned, these studies also showed significant reduction or total eradication of pain and symptoms.
- An added bonus is that in these studies, there were more pregnancies in the groups treated with NAC than those without so it may support fertility.
- Finally, it also supports liver function as it is the precursor to the antioxidant glutathione (which basically means NAC makes glutathione). Glutathione is essential for protecting the liver from inflammation and damage from the toxins and waste materials it processes, allowing it to function optimally and aiding oestrogen clearance.
Dose wise, the studies used 1800mg, split into three doses of 600mg for three months. However, in my training we tend to use lower levels of 500mg - 1000mg.
One word of caution is that Dr Allison Siebecker warns that NAC may possibly aggravate hydrogen sulphide SIBO symptoms because this amino acid contains sulphur, which can worsen symptoms for some people. If you know or suspect you have H2S, I will just see how you respond as this isn’t proven, it’s just something she cautions as sulphur containing foods often aggravate those with H2S.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
- Next up is fish oil or omega 3 fatty acids, and as we know these fats are essential and most of us aren’t getting enough, so there’s definitely a real benefit of adding these into our supplement regime whether we have endo or not!
- Fish oil was shown to reduce adhesion formation following surgery on mice with induced endometriosis and reduced the inflammatory healing process post-surgery which could contribute to further endo development due to the heightened inflammatory chemicals. This led to the mice who were fed with fish to have fewer lesions than those who were fed a standard diet without fish oil supplementation; therefore this could be a potential helpful supplement before and after surgery (though I would argue it’s an essential daily supplement).
- In rabbits, 8 weeks of fish oil treatment led to a significant reduction in size of endometriosis lesions.
- In humans, several studies have demonstrated a reduction in pain and inflammation with endometriosis and pelvic pain.
- It’s also been shown to significantly reduce pain in those with primary and secondary dysmenorrhea (primary means period pain with no disease or condition behind it, whereas secondary is period pain due to a condition like endo) to the point where less pain medication was needed.
- Additionally, it’s been shown to be a powerful anti-inflammatory pain reliever for issues like chronic back ache and neck pain.
- One of the ways that omega 3 fatty acids do this is through lowering inflammatory prostaglandins and raising the levels of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.
- Additionally, because of the powerful anti-inflammatory processes of omega 3 fatty acids, they may play a role in healing leaky gut and lowering intestinal inflammation. Many gut health practitioners use fish oil for this purpose.
The dose is between 1000mg to 3000mg a day. I personally find I get more relief from the higher doses, but it can be tricky to get hold of those levels without exceeding the dose recommendations on the bottle. I have linked to a few higher dose supplements in the handout, but if you chose to exceed the dose recommendations on the label, obviously that’s your choice but you’ll need to consult with a practitioner to be on the safe side. However, omega 3 fatty acids are generally very safe at these doses.
At minimum it’s advised to continue these for six months, but arguably omega 3 fatty acids should be kept in our supplement regime generally.
If you’re vegan, look for an algae-based supplement that contains both DHA and EPA, because we need both. I’ve linked to a few in the handout.
The only risk is that they can sometimes thin blood, so speak to your surgeon ahead of surgery to see whether you need to stop taking them a few days beforehand, for keyhole surgery it’s unlikely, but just check.
Pine Bark
Okay so now let’s move onto pine bark, also known as pycnogenol.
- In one study on humans, pine bark was shown to reduce endometriosis-associated pain.
- The study compared pine bark to hormonal therapy and what was interesting was that the results were much slower in the pine bark group, but the pain reduction was long-lasting, whereas the symptoms returned in the group treated with hormones once they came off the medication.
The dose used in the study was 60mg daily, split into two doses of 30mg for 48 weeks.
Combined Vitamin E and C
Now let’s move on to a combination of Vitamins E and C.
-
In one study, high doses of vitamin E and C were shown to significantly reduce pelvic pain in people with endo. 43% of participants had a reduction in daily pain, pain during menstruation was reduced in 37% and pain during sex was reduced in 24%.
-
The same study also demonstrated a reduction in inflammatory markers (which means measurements of inflammation) in the pelvic cavity.
- Additionally, vitamin C raises progesterone levels and is commonly used by naturopathic and functional medicine practitioners to support those with low levels.
- Vitamins E and C are also antioxidants and anti-inflammatories so can lower oxidation levels and inflammatory processes which can lead to endo progression, which is why there was a reduction in inflammatory markers in the study.
- Finally, vitamin E has been shown to reduce pain, pain duration and blood loss in people with primary dysmenorrhea.
In the endometriosis study, the doses used were 1000mg of vitamin C and 1200 IU of vitamin E for 8 weeks.
Now I don’t think this is really a problem because I know plenty of industry leaders in the hormone/period space who use vitamin C for low progesterone, but it does also raise oestrogen too so if you have elevated oestrogen levels it may be better to consult with a practitioner. General daily doses of vitamin C using a supplement are at much lower doses, so just taking a standard vitamin C supplement would be fine, but if you wanted to increase the dose to something like 1000mg, I would just either carefully track your cycle and how you respond and ideally, consult with a practitioner. Again, vitamin C seems to be standardly used to elevate progesterone without any warnings regarding oestrogen rising too, but I wanted to let you know in case.
Also, if you have interstitial cystitis, vitamin C supplements can irritate the bladder so you may find it better to use an oral spray which you swirl around you mouth for a few minutes before spitting out. The vitamin C absorbs through the cheek, so you’ll still get the benefits, just without the bladder burn!
Melatonin
Next up is melatonin, which I don’t presently use in my practice because it can actually affect the menstrual cycle by delaying or preventing ovulation. Also, in my training we’ve seen case studies of people not responding too well to it as it can come with side effects such as fatigue, dizziness and headaches. If I were to use it, I would do so in collaboration with a naturopathic or functional medicine doctor who could provide further guidance and supervision.
However, it’s been shown to be beneficial for endometriosis so it’s worth discussing and many leading practitioners do recommend it.
- In a study on rats melatonin was found to significantly reduce the size of lesions.
- In a human study, it was also found to lower daily pelvic pain by 39% and period pain by 38% in women with endometriosis.
The study used 10mg every evening for 8 weeks. In his book, The Endometriosis Health and Diet programme, Dr Andrew Cook advises trying between 0.5mg and 10mg daily, each evening and it’s recommended to build up to the full dose.
If you plan to try melatonin I would recommend working with someone to find the right dose for you, that doesn’t interfere with your cycle.
Resveratrol
Finally, let’s look at resveratrol.
- In studies in rats, resveratrol has been shown to reduce the size, severity and number of endometriosis lesions.
- In human studies, it was shown to enhance the benefits of oral contraceptives by further reducing pain and inflammation through inhibiting aromatase (that hormone which converts testosterone to oestrogen). This was a small study on 12 patient who didn’t find oral contraceptives helpful, but when combined with resveratrol, 82% experienced total alleviation of their pain within two months.
- It’s also a powerful anti-inflammatory, which has been shown to reduce inflammatory prostaglandins.
- And finally, it has been shown to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels in endometriosis lesions, inhibiting growth.
The study used 30mg daily for two months, though you of course could continue this for longer.
Now like many of the warnings in this lesson, I’ve not seen any health practitioners caution the use of resveratrol for endometriosis, but at certain doses it can have the opposite effect, so for example, it can become pro-inflammatory. To my knowledge, 30mg daily is both a safe and effective dose for endometriosis which practitioners like Dr Andrew Cook recommend (in his book The Endometriosis Health and Diet Program), but as with all of these supplements, consult your doctor before beginning.
Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
References:
Curcumin
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4533742/
https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/491886
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332217346838?via%3Dihub
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464615000092
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5407015/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24672232/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25277322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3476912/
Quercetin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19462895/
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2014/781684/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808895/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19297429/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273625/
https://avivaromm.com/remedies-seasonal-allergies/
NAC
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/240702/
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16531187/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2832216/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614254/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11687013/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17434511/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22261128/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257651/
Pine Bark
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17879831/
Combined Vit C & E
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6856484/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11762659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484190/
http://www.usa-journals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Al-Katib_Vol18.pdf
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(03)00657-5/pdf
Melatonin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23602498/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881748/
Resveratrol
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6413140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6191968/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6413140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164842/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25462211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164842/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23091400/
You’re doing everything ‘right’ yet you’re still having flare ups.
Does this sound like you?
If so, I think you’ll find this mini episode helpful!
Today’s episode is another special episode from my live Q&A calls with my Live and Thrive with Endo Course coaching group.
The questions they’ve been asking have been amazing and I know will resonate with many of you, so I decided to share some of my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
In this episode I’m answering the question ‘Why am I still getting flare ups when I’ve made so many changes to my diet? How much of an impact does diet really have?’
In this episode I discuss:
- Why we generally begin with diet changes
- How we can be eating anti-inflammatory foods but still triggering inflammation with imbalanced blood sugar
- How stress can impact pain signals
- How infections and gut health can worsen inflammation in the body
- Why it’s important to explore pelvic floor health and adhesions when healing endo
- Other factors to check in with such as sleep ands lack of exercise.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Useful podcast episodes to listen to if you’re still having pain after diet changes -
Can Stress or Trauma Trigger the Onset of Endometriosis?
9 Root Causes of Painful Sex with Endometriosis
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
Pelvic Floor Therapy for Endometriosis with Heba Shaheed of The Pelvic Expert
Is constipation a symptom of endo? Is it more common within the endo community? Why does it happen? What can we do about it?
Constipation is something that I see with a lot of my clients and is something that Registered Dietitian and Master of Applied Nutrition Cindy Dabrowska sees too!
In fact, if a client is struggling with constipation, this is one of the first areas that Cindy addresses because good gut health is crucial to healing with endo. As part of Endometriosis Awareness Month Cindy and I took to Instagram Live to discuss this common gut health issue within the endo community and I decided to share it here as well because it’s such an important conversation!
In this episode we discuss:
- Why constipation occurs so often within the endo population and how it can affect endo healing.
- The key causes of constipation that Cindy and I commonly see.
- Simple strategies you can begin to try at home to begin alleviating constipation and improving gut health.
- Some of her favourite supplements and tools for supporting the gut.
This is such an important conversation to have and the key takeaway is - constipation doesn’t have to be just another symptom you live with. There’s lots that can be done and many of the strategies are simple!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Cindy’s website
This week as part of my IG Live series for Endo Awareness Month I chatted with my friend and colleague Tara Ghosh to learn all about the benefits of Arvigo Therapy for endometriosis, bloating, constipation, adhesions and SIBO.
Tara is a wonderful Arvigo Therapist and wellness consultant dedicated to supporting people with periods to improve their health through accessible and simple at-home strategies.
In this conversation we discuss...
- The origins of Arvigo Therapy.
- How Arvigo Therapy works and how it benefits the body.
- How and why Arvigo Therapy can help with endometriosis pain.
- How Arvigo therapy can help you reduce IBS and SIBO symptoms that often accompany endo such as bloating, constipation and nausea.
- How Arvigo Therapy differs from visceral manipulation and whether Arvigo massage can help with adhesions or a ‘frozen pelvis’
- How to work with Tara and learn Arvigo Therapy to practice at home!
I really hope you enjoy this conversation and find it as fascinating as I did!
Listen and subscribe on all podcast players, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
https://www.arvigotherapy.com
Tara’s Instagram: @_taraghosh_
A few of you have been asking how my SIBO treatment has been going and to celebrate Endometriosis Awareness Month, I’ve been doing a series of lives discussing endo and SIBO. As part of this, I decided to jump onto Instagram Live to give a full update and to answer your SIBO questions. I also wanted to share it here in case you guys missed it.
In this podcast episode I’m sharing…
- My SIBO levels for methane and hydrogen, and why I decided to treat for hydrogen sulfide as well.
- My experience with antimicrobials, especially high dose oregano, allicin, atrantil, silver hydrosol, uva ursi and bismuth formulas.
- The updates around hydrogen sulfide treatment and bacteria.
- My experience with natural prokinetics and the challenges I faced having interstitial cystitis whilst taking them (some prokinetic ingredients can worsen IC).
- My experience with die off and ways to manage and reduce.
- When I’m retesting and my next treatment option and how to time retesting.
- What I’m doing to prevent relapse once I get the all clear.
- How to manage expectations and set realistic goals (SIBO is chronic in 2/3s of patients and relapse is typical between 2 months and a year post treatment).
- Where to get tested in the UK and how to test generally...
...Plus much more!
Please reach out and let me know in if this was helpful and if you’d like to hear more on how to manage SIBO and endo together!
Listen and subscribe on all podcast players, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
SIBO Made Simple Cookbook
Healing SIBO
SIBOinfo.com
Today’s episode is a another special mini-episode from my live Q&A calls with my Live and Thrive with Endo Course coaching group.
The questions they’ve been asking have been amazing and I know will resonate with many of you, so I decided to share some of my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
In this episode I’m answering the question ‘How quickly can food trigger an endo flare (if that food is inflammatory to you)?’
In this episode I discuss:
- The inflammatory response of prostaglandin E2 and their connection to endo.
- How a food can trigger a local inflammatory response in and around the gut, which then leads to an full-body inflammatory response.
- How quickly these immune responses occur.
- The difference between acute inflammatory responses and long-term chronic inflammatory responses.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Today’s episode is a another special mini-episode from my live Q&A calls with my Live and Thrive with Endo Course coaching group.
The questions they’ve been asking have been amazing and I know will resonate with many of you, so I decided to share some of my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
In this episode I’m talking about whether stress or trauma can actually trigger the onset of endometriosis.
In this episode I discuss:
- The research around trauma and onset of endometriosis symptoms.
- The link between endometriosis, autoimmune conditions and childhood trauma.
- The effects of stress on inflammation and the immune system.
- How stress impacts the way the brain responds to physical injury and how you experience pain.
Lastly, I want to emphasise that this is a direct answer to a direct question from a student. This is not blanket advice for everyone. I just wanted to share this in case you're having a similar experience, but please know that everyones journey with healing endo will be different.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Today’s episode is a another special mini-episode from my live Q&A calls with my Live and Thrive with Endo Course coaching group.
The questions they’ve been asking have been amazing and I know will resonate with many of you, so I decided to share some of my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
In this episode I’m talking about whether heavy bleeding and clots are really all because of endometriosis, or whether something else is going on.
In this episode I discuss:
- What causes excruciating cramping and contractions on your period - with or without endo.
- Why I don’t believe heavy menstrual bleeding and big clots are caused by endometriosis.
- Why vomiting on your period may be linked to your histamine levels.
Lastly, I want to emphasise that this is a direct answer to a direct question from a student. This is not blanket advice for everyone. I just wanted to share this in case you're having a similar experience, but please know that everyones journey with healing endo will be different.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Today’s episode is a special mini-episode from my live Q&A call with my *Live and Thrive with Endo Course* coaching group.
The questions they’ve been asking have been amazing and I know will resonate with many of you, so I decided to share some of my answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
In this episode I’m talking about what to do if you’re struggling to make anti-inflammatory diet changes that stick - my answer might surprise you!
In this episode I discuss:
- Whether you have to be on a 100% strict anti-inflammatory diet to lower inflammation
- Whether you can have ‘treats’ and what’s often commonly referred to as ‘cheat days’ (though I really don’t like that term!)
- How to make sustainable and lasting change that feels doable and realistic
-
Tips for keeping in your favourite foods.
Lastly, I want to emphasise that this is a direct answer to a direct question from a student who's eating an anti-inflammatory diet and struggling with it. This is not blanket advice for everyone nor am I saying everyone with endo must follow an anti-inflammatory diet, though this is part of the healing strategy that I use. I just wanted to share this in case you're having a similar experience, but please know that everyones journey with healing endo will be different.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
*Let's get social! Come say hello on* *Instagram**,* *Twitter* *and* *Facebook* *or sign up to my* *newsletter.*
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Today I’m bringing on one of my past clients Jo to share her healing story.
I wanted to chat with Jo as she’s one of my clients who did have a symptom free period in the first month and that continued, but also because she’s still working through her journey. Jo came to me with pain most of the time, and she’s now in a place where her periods are symptom free (unless something’s happened to trigger them) and she has less intense pain and less frequent pain on a daily basis.
During our time together we discovered she has SIBO and so when she’s ready, the next part of her journey may look like treating that, which will further reduce her inflammation and pain. As a dancer, we also identified a real need for pelvic floor physio too, which will take her symptom improvement even further. So I really wanted to talk to Jo to demonstrate that this is a journey and that you don’t have to have complete resolution over night to feel better or in control.
I also wanted to share Jo’a journey because I think Jo’s approach will resonate with anyone feeling overwhelmed.
Jo was experiencing a lot of anxiety when we met and so we adjusted the changes to make them more suitable to her pace and her needs, and so the changes felt more manageable for her. I tailor the healing approach with every client depending on their needs and some people do really well with the elimination phase that Dr Jessica Drummond and I both do and discussed in our interview, but I think what could be most helpful for those listening is that with Jo and with many of my other clients we staggered the dietary changes and we adapted those changes to their lifestyle.
This mini-interview is for anyone who’s maybe feeling overwhelmed or out of control and to show that you can get results at a pace that feels doable to you. It may not always be the quickest root, but it’ll certainly be the root that is most sustainable and suitable for you and we don’t want to be making radical change if it’s going to burn you out or you can’t keep up with it.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Also a quick reminder that if you’d like further support with your endo, my 8 week course Live and Thrive with Endo is now open! Doors close on Thursday at 10pm GMT and you can sign up for £50 off (so that’s £100 upfront payment or £35 a month for free months) with the code PODCAST. You can out more about the course here.
In this 8-week course, you will transform the way you manage endometriosis and learn the tools and strategies for reducing your symptoms naturally so you can thrive with endo and get your life back.
This course is a step-by-step outline of my exact one-to-one coaching programme; a road map for reducing pain, bloating, fatigue and brain fog (and all of the other symptoms endo comes with!). This is the most comprehensive and clear resource I offer, other than working with me directly!
By the end of this programme you will have:
1. Learnt the key contributors to endo development and symptoms and how to lower symptoms and manage the disease
2. Discovered your personal endo triggers
3. Created your own unique and tailored endo nutrition plan
4. Learnt the role of hormonal imbalances in endo and created your own hormone balancing food and lifestyle plan
5. Identified areas of gut health that need healing and began your own gut healing regime
6. Improved your energy levels and brain fog
7. Identified which supplements are right for you
8. Created a toolbox for long-term endo management and short-term symptom relief
9. Learnt how to track and sync your food and lifestyle to your menstrual cycle for better periods, reduced symptoms and hormonal balance
When you enroll in this special time period you’ll get:
- 8 modules plus a bonus module providing you with everything you need to manage endometriosis holistically.
- A proven step-by-step road map for reducing pain, fatigue, brain fog and bloating with endometriosis (amongst the long list of other symptoms!) in the short-term and the long-term.
- A complete endo nutrition guide for lowering inflammation, healing the gut and balancing hormones.
- Tools, resources and knowledge for working with your menstrual cycle and your body, not against it.
- A simple and easy to implement strategy for reducing fatigue and brain fog and swapping them for sustained energy levels and a clear mind.
- Gut healing protocol to reduce endo bloating and IBS, lower inflammation, ease pelvic pain, increase energy and aid nutrient absorption.
- Strategies and steps that you can tailor and tweak for your own personalised healing plan with endometriosis.
- Handouts, checklists and guides to help you implement everything you’re learning into your daily routine and lifestyle, to make managing endometriosis feel possible not overwhelming.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
Period Power by Maisie Hill
Dr Jessica Drummond interview
In today’s episode I’m answering some of your recent questions!
I hopped onto Instagram Live to answer you presubmitted questions but in case you missed it, I also wanted to release this chat as an episode too.
In this episode I’m answering:
- How to deal with nausea and vomiting during ovulation and menstruation?
- Is milk bad for endo?
- Tips for managing ‘kissing’ ovaries?
- Can gut motility/digestion ever return to normal with endo?
- How to inhibit further spread of endo when certain lesions cannot be removed?
- How to and where to start with the endo diet?
If I didn’t get to answer your question, I’ll be doing another live on Thursday evening, so check back with Instagram for that!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
Also a quick reminder that if you’d like further support with your endo, my 8 week course Live and Thrive with Endo is now open! Doors close on Thursday at 10pm GMT and you can sign up for £50 off (so that’s £100 upfront payment or £35 a month for free months) with the code PODCAST. You can out more about the course here.
In this 8-week course, you will transform the way you manage endometriosis and learn the tools and strategies for reducing your symptoms naturally so you can thrive with endo and get your life back.
This course is a step-by-step outline of my exact one-to-one coaching programme; a road map for reducing pain, bloating, fatigue and brain fog (and all of the other symptoms endo comes with!). This is the most comprehensive and clear resource I offer, other than working with me directly!
By the end of this programme you will have:
1. Learnt the key contributors to endo development and symptoms and how to lower symptoms and manage the disease
2. Discovered your personal endo triggers
3. Created your own unique and tailored endo nutrition plan
4. Learnt the role of hormonal imbalances in endo and created your own hormone balancing food and lifestyle plan
5. Identified areas of gut health that need healing and began your own gut healing regime
6. Improved your energy levels and brain fog
7. Identified which supplements are right for you
8. Created a toolbox for long-term endo management and short-term symptom relief
9. Learnt how to track and sync your food and lifestyle to your menstrual cycle for better periods, reduced symptoms and hormonal balance
When you enroll in this special time period you’ll get:
- 8 modules plus a bonus module providing you with everything you need to manage endometriosis holistically.
- A proven step-by-step road map for reducing pain, fatigue, brain fog and bloating with endometriosis (amongst the long list of other symptoms!) in the short-term and the long-term.
- A complete endo nutrition guide for lowering inflammation, healing the gut and balancing hormones.
- Tools, resources and knowledge for working with your menstrual cycle and your body, not against it.
- A simple and easy to implement strategy for reducing fatigue and brain fog and swapping them for sustained energy levels and a clear mind.
- Gut healing protocol to reduce endo bloating and IBS, lower inflammation, ease pelvic pain, increase energy and aid nutrient absorption.
- Strategies and steps that you can tailor and tweak for your own personalised healing plan with endometriosis.
- Handouts, checklists and guides to help you implement everything you’re learning into your daily routine and lifestyle, to make managing endometriosis feel possible not overwhelming.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.25: Adhesions And SIBO With Larry And Belinda Wurn
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.33: Visceral Mobilisation With Alyssa Tait
The Period Party Podcast: Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Related Conditions with Dr. Jennifer Mercier
The Best Surgery for Endometriosis with Dr. Andrew Cook
The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan
Histamine Intolerance 101 Dr. Becky Campbell
Endometriosis, SIBO, Interstitial Cystitis and Allergies: The Histamine Connection
Heavy Periods with Endometriosis? Why You Get Heavy Bleeding and What You Can Do to Lighten Your Periods with Krystal Kirton
Fix Your Period with Nicole Jardim
How To Rebalance Your Hormones with Endometriosis with Nicole Jardim
PCOS, Blood Sugar and Endometriosis with Megan Hallett of Feasting for Hormonal Harmony
Five Natural Tips to Reduce Oestrogen Dominance and Balance Hormones with Endometriosis
Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis
Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
In the past few months I’ve been speaking to hundreds of you about your worst endometriosis symptoms and fatigue and brain fog have often come out on top.
But why does endometriosis cause these symptoms and is endometriosis alone the sole culprit?
I may now sound like a broken record, but it’s very unlikely that endometriosis can take the glory for being the one and only true cause of brain fog and fatigue. In fact, especially for those of us with endo, there’s usually a couple of other things at play.
So today, I’m continuing with my series on root causes with 10 root causes of fatigue and brain fog with endometriosis. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it is an overview into some of the most common causes I see with clients, in the research and reported by the endo community.
- Dysregulated blood sugar - Your blood sugar levels have a direct impact on your energy and cognitive function. Glucose is the body’s primary source of fuel and comes from carbohydrates.
Complex carbohydrates like vegetables, beans and wholegrains (some of us however, do find grains to be blood sugar spiking) take longer to break down in the gut due to their fibre content and so release glucose over a steady period of time.
Simple carbohydrates like honey, maple syrup, white sugar, pastries and refined carbohydrates break down extremely quickly and so the blood is flooded with sugar across a short period of time. This spike results in a sharp dip in energy, as the body rushes to send all the glucose to the cells - leaving no glucose in the blood and causing a sugar crash. We then feel hungry, hangry, shaky, sleepy and dizzy and need to reach for more quick fixes to pick up our energy levels again.
This creates unstable energy that yo-yos up and down across the day, especially after meals and during the night. In contrast, if we balanced our blood sugar levels we would experience stable and consistent levels.
Blood sugar instability also causes inflammation and hormonal imbalances like oestrogen dominance.
- HPA axis dysfunction - Your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a system which allows your hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands to communicate in order to manage various functions in the body, but primarily to control your stress response and your internal body clock (circadian rhythm).
Your HPA axis releases cortisol in the morning to wake you up, this rises for about an hour after waking and then begins to gently dip across the day, taking a sharp drop mid-afternoon and then really declining over the evening to allow the sleep hormone melatonin to rise.
If we’ve been experiencing chronic stress (whether that’s a busy job and lifestyle, over exercising, trauma, chronic inflammation, etc.) we’re constantly pumping out cortisol and adrenaline as part of the stress response. However, the body is only designed to deal with acute moments of stress and eventually, it will become resistant to the stress signals and stop sending out so much cortisol.
This affects our circadian rhythm, often creating low cortisol all day and night so we’re exhausted all the time or causes cortisol to be low during the day and high at night, leaving us exhausted but unable to sleep.
- SIBO - Small intestine bacterial overgrowth is when bacteria that should live in the large intestine, end up in the small intestine and cause a number of health issues.
Symptoms of SIBO include brain fog and fatigue. This is in part due to the inflammatory reaction they trigger from our immune system - their cells walls, known as endotoxins or lipopolysaccharides, are toxic to us.
Additionally, hydrogen sulphide type SIBO is literally toxic to the body and can often cause issues such as brain fog, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
- Nutrient deficiencies and dehydration - If you have SIBO, leaky gut, IBS or some other gut health condition, you may not be absorbing your nutrients properly. Brain fog and fatigue are often signs of low iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and folate to name a few, and these deficiencies are associated with SIBO.
You can get tested for nutrient defs with your local GP, though for more extensive testing you may need to go private.
Dehydration also causes fatigue, brain fog, memory problems and trouble concentrating. You should at minimum be drinking half your body weight (in lbs) in ounces. See the references for a urine colour chart that helps to determine whether you are dehydrated or not.
- Coeliac disease - Coeliac disease is a severe reaction to gluten that causes the immune system to attack the body. Research has found an association between endometriosis and coeliac disease and in a study of over 200 women with endo, 75% experienced a reduction in symptoms after eliminating gluten for 12 months. Coeliac disease can cause symptoms like bloating, cramps, diarrhea and bran fog, to name a few.
Coeliac disease patients often report brain fog and fatigue and research is now starting to confirm these reports. One small study found a significant improvement in patients with CD and cognitive impairment after a year on a strict gluten free diet
- Hypothyroidism - The thyroid is integral to our health and helps to control energy production as well as many other functions in the body. Hypothyroidism has not only been associated with endometriosis, but it is one of the fastest growing conditions in women across the world, with 1 in 8 now developing some kind of thyroid problem.
Hypothyroidism is a condition where the body stops making enough thyroid hormones and this results in symptoms like hair loss, brain fog, fatigue and weight gain to name a few symptoms. Causes include Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition where the body attacks the thyroid, and chronic stress (cortisol lowers thyroid hormones), among others. People with endometriosis are significantly more at risk of developing autoimmune diseases and are also often under chronic stress for sustained periods of time due to the difficulties of endometriosis.
Your GP can test your thyroid levels, but these tests only identify if there is an actual thyroid problem and misses if you’re leaning towards one. You can get a private test that looks into your thyroid function in more detail.
- Depression and anxiety - Research has shown a strong association between endo, depression and anxiety. Studies have shown that chances of developing mental health conditions with endo increase if your symptoms are severe or you don’t have a support network. There’s also research showing that chronic pain can lead to mental health problems too.
Depression and anxiety can affect cognitive function, including memory and ability to focus, and depression can cause feelings of fatigue as well.
- Sleep deprivation - We all need 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep at a minimum, though some of us with chronic conditions may need more. Sleep deprivation has been shown in research to cause serious health and cognitive issues. The cognitive impairment that occurs from not getting the minimum amount of sleep includes problems with long-term and short-term memory, attention and decision making. Reaction time and thought processing slows down so much that it is equivalent to being drunk!
Of course, it goes without saying that sleep deprivation also affects energy levels too.
-
Chronic inflammation - Inflammation is a normal healing process in the body, but when it becomes chronic, as is the case with endometriosis, it can cause damage. Inflammation actually negatively affects mitochondria, the parts of our cells which process and make energy, leading to fatigue. Research has also found that it damages brain cells, leading to cognitive decline.
-
Chronic pain - It’s not in your head, pain makes it harder to think and is exhausting!
The same parts of your brain that are responsible for attention and memory are also used for processing pain (along with many other areas in your brain), this literally means your brain has less capacity to learn or focus when you’re experiencing pain. Having to juggle normal functioning with pain is mentally exhausting because your brain is trying to do two jobs at once in particular areas of the brain.
Of course, being in pain can also be physically exhausting too!
Again, remember these are clues to what’s worsening your symptoms but you don’t have to start picking apart each one right this moment. Just begin with one or two that you recognise yourself in and map out your next step; it could be as simple as booking a blood test at with the doctor.
For more info on how to identify these issues or to learn more, scroll to the show notes below.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored my free webinar **Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021:** Overcome Overwhelm, Identify Your Core Endo Challenges, Learn the 8 Key Pillars of Healing and Set Goals and Next Steps So You Can Begin Managing Endometriosis with Confidence and Clarity and take action after the workshop. Sign up here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
Blood Sugar
Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
HPA Axis Dysfunction
How to Recover From HPA Axis Dysregulation
SIBO
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Nutrient deficiencies and dehydration
Why Drinking Enough Water Is Key For Reducing Endometriosis Symptoms
Nutrition for Bladder Pain and Endometriosis with Brianne Thornton, MS, RD of IC Wellness
Coeliac Disease
Risk of endometriosis in 11,000 women with celiac disease
The association between endometriosis and autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Gluten-free diet: a new strategy for management of painful endometriosis related symptoms?
NHS guidance
Private test UK
“Brain Fog” Improves in Celiac Disease Patients After Starting a Gluten-Free Diet
Is Gluten a Cause of Brain Fog?
Depression and anxiety
The Connection Between Endometriosis and Mental Health
Mind.org.uk depression page
Mind.org.uk anxiety page
Sleep Deprivation
5 Ways That Sleep Deprivation Affects Endometriosis
How Lack of Sleep Impacts Cognitive Performance and Focus
Inflammation
The Impact of Inflammation on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Implications for Health Care Practice and Research
Systemic LPS Causes Chronic Neuroinflammation and Progressive Neurodegeneration
Outsmart Endometriosis: The Elimination 'Undiet' for Endometriosis with Dr Jessica Drummond
Antioxidants for Endometriosis
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
Chronic pain
Download my free natural pain relief tool kit.
I wanted to do an episode on the back of my 9 Root Causes of Painful Sex with Endometriosis episode, as I talk about bloating, bladder pain, brain fog and fatigue a lot, but I haven’t covered painful sex much lately.
This episode contains a range of strategies, some long-term, some more short-term and this list certainly isn’t exhaustive. Many of the changes you make to improve your endometriosis in general, such as healing the gut, are not covered here but will certainly make a difference to the pain you feel during sex.
You don’t have to try all of these and you certainly don’t have to try them all at the same time, but see which ones resonate for you.
TRIGGER WARNING: This podcast contains brief references to sexual trauma.
- Reduce chronic inflammation - Nutrition is one of the most effective ways to reduce inflammation. Foods that cause inflammation include sugar, alcohol, trans fats, processed conventional meats, processed foods and for some; gluten, dairy and caffeine, as well as other foods groups you may personally be sensitive to, even if they seem healthy (eggs, nightshades, etc.).
A four-week elimination diet is one of the best ways to identify what personally inflames your body and causes irritation. You remove certain foods for this period of time and then return them to your diet one by one and look for symptoms. This is best done with the support of a health practitioner or at least following a protocol from a patient book or course.
If a full-on elimination diet feels daunting of triggering to you, a smaller version where you just remove some of the key inflammatories like sugar, may be more doable.
Regardless of your choice, filling your diet with anti-inflammatory foods will be incredibly beneficial - aiming for 8 servings of veggies, 2 portions of fruit, healthy fats, organic clean proteins and gluten free wholegrains (as long as you’re not sensitive to them).
Balancing blood sugar is also key to lowering inflammation. Some of the basics of balancing blood sugar are keeping refined carbs and simple sugars to special occasions and ensuring you have a plate ratio of 50% low starch veggies, 25% protein and the final 25% split between healthy fats and complex carbohydrates. 2. Pelvic floor physiotherapy - Arguably one of the most important when it comes to healing painful sex!
Pelvic floor physiotherapy can release the tension and tightness in the muscles and ease nerve sensitivity in the area, as well as relaxing the vaginal canal. You want to look for a pelvic floor physio specifically - not just any physio - and one who is familiar with endo and pelvic pain conditions.
Don’t worry, they won’t go internal straight away if you’re uncomfortable, but if you’re willing, they’ll do an internal examination in the first session to identify what’s happening. If not, they’ll work externally to reduce your pain until you feel ready for an external examination.
If you can’t afford a physiotherapist, there are courses, free videos and paid for videos which are all incredible resources and are linked below. 3. The Ohnut - The Ohnut is a wearable non-toxic rubber-like ring which stacks on to the penis or whatever form of penetration you’re using and allows you to control penetration depth. The tool comes with several rings so you can customise depth to your comfort.
The tool was designed by Emily Sauer who has suffered with painful sex for years and designed the product in her kitchen!
It has changed the sex lives of countless people with painful sex and partners enjoy it too! 4. Swap perfumed and toxic products for non-toxic, vagina friendly products (and get some lube!) - Did you know that the chemicals and perfumes found in everyday body products can cause reproductive health issues, fertility problems and hormonal imbalances, and have been directly linked to endometriosis? These products can also irritate the skin and inflame the sensitive vaginal area, which is made of very absorbent tissue.
Instead, try swapping to organic and non-toxic based products that are perfume free and suitable for the vagina and sensitive skin, especially focus on your period products, wipes if you use them, body wash and most definitely, lubricant!
I’ve linked to some of my favourite products below. 5. Don’t rush and jump into penetration before you’re ready - If your body isn’t ready for sex and well lubricated, whether naturally or with lubricant, the friction of sex may cause tiny tears in the vaginal wall, leading to irritation, swelling and inflammation.
Equally, if you’re not ready your vagina may not be open and relaxed enough, and therefore may more easily tense up and experience pain upon penetration. 6. Help your brain to feel safe - This isn’t something you have to do during or before sex, but more generally on a daily basis, is to help the brain feel safe by flooding it with safety signals. When we have an upregulated nervous system, it can be hard to tell the brain to quiet those danger signals, so the aim is to calm the brain down by reassuring it with safety signals instead. We want to train the brain to move out of flight or fight and spend more time in the rest and digest mode, by repeatedly lowering cortisol.
Proven methods of lowering cortisol include connecting with your own support network, walking in nature, yoga, breathwork and meditation. 7. Self-massage (potentially using a yoni wand) - You can use self-massage to identify your pain points (known as triggers) in your vaginal canal and use massage to ease tension and release these tighter areas.
If you’re not comfortable with using your hands, you could use a tool called a yoni wand, which you can insert into the vagina and move in a clockwise manner to ‘map’ the pain points within your vagina, and then carefully use massage to release these. This is best done following instructions, which I’ve linked to below in the show notes. 8. Identify and work on tensions in your relationship - Do you feel comfortable in your relationship? Do you feel pressured or guilty about sex, or have you not really been able to share how you feel during sex? Does your partner not support you around endo, or are there other tensions unrelated to endo that need to be addressed?
This is an area that can take a long time to work on and explore but can make a huge difference. If there are tensions in your relationship, this will put your brain in flight or fight mode and signal to your body that it’s not safe, potentially creating tensing and pain during sex.
Couples therapy could be an option for those who are ready, but even listening to podcasts or reading books on healthy relationships can help, or even just having a difficult conversation. 9. Address trauma and any discomfort around sexuality - If you’ve experienced sexual trauma, you may likely benefit from some kind of therapy that helps you to process that trauma. There are various types of therapy for trauma from EDMR to Somatic Experiencing. If you’re not ready for talking, there are a number of books, podcasts and resources available online to help you begin the process.
If you haven’t experienced trauma but you’re uncomfortable with your sexuality or sex in general for whatever reason, therapy could also be helpful, as could reading books, taking courses and workshops and listening to podcasts on sexuality.
I’ve linked to resources for both below. 10. Visceral manipulation - Visceral manipulation can help free up the pelvis and organs that have become ‘frozen’ from scar tissue and adhesions. Clear Passage has lots of research behind it and is one of the most effective for pelvic pain, endometriosis, SIBO and infertility, but is expensive. Another wonderful option is Mercier Therapy, which is specifically designed for gynaecological conditions and pelvic pain, but you can also find general visceral manipulation therapists too! A good pelvic floor physiotherapist may also be able to do visceral manipulation on adhesions as well.
For more info on where to find these support resources, scroll down to the show notes.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
Reduce chronic inflammation
Outsmart Endometriosis: The Elimination 'Undiet' for Endometriosis with Dr Jessica Drummond
Antioxidants for Endometriosis
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
What is The Endometriosis Diet with Henrietta Norton of Wild Nutrition
Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period
Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy
Equal Treatment for Black Endometriosis Patients and Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy for Painful Sex, Interstitial Cystitis and Endometriosis with Dr. Juan Michelle Martin
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
Pelvic Floor Therapy for Endometriosis with Heba Shaheed of The Pelvic Expert
Yoga for Endometriosis
Yoga for Vulvodynia
Relieving Pelvic Pain yoga video
Pelvic Sanity You Tube
Ohnut
Ohnut website
How Ohnut is Easing Painful Sex with Emily Sauer
Non-toxic products
Yes Yes Yes
Into the Wylde
Foria Wellness
Womanology
Urtekram
SIMS
Headspace
Yoga for Endometriosis
Yoga for Vulvodynia
Relieving Pelvic Pain yoga video
Frequency breath work
Self-massage
Healing Endometriosis-Associated Dyspareunia and Rediscovering Pleasure with Elena of The Yoni Empire
Yoni mapping blog post
Yoni massage blog post
CURVE yoni mapping toy
Healing Endometriosis-Associated Dyspareunia and Rediscovering Pleasure with Elena of The Yoni Empire
Relationships
Communication, Relationships and Endometriosis with Melanie Cox
Relate
How We Cope with Endometriosis as a Couple - A Conversation with My Boyfriend
The Gottman Institute for relationships
The Zim-Zum of Love
Addressing trauma and getting comfortable with your sexuality
Mind charity
EDMR therapy
Trauma Recovery + The Epigenetics Of Stress + Rewiring The Survival Brain With Elizabeth Stanley, PhD
The Sex Doctor
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life
OMG Yes
Eat. Play.Sex. Podcast
Visceral Manipulation
Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Related Conditions with Dr. Jennifer Mercier
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.25: Adhesions And SIBO With Larry And Belinda Wurn
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.33: Visceral Mobilisation With Alyssa Tait
Visceral manipulation practitioner directory
Today’s episode is another in the root causes series and I’m talking about the root causes of painful sex with endometriosis.
92% of you voted for this episode, so I’m assuming that if you voted, you likely struggle with this symptom. But having painful sex isn’t just part and parcel of having endometriosis - there are things that can be done, and it begins with identifying why you’re experiencing pain in the first place.
Endo is complex and the stress it puts on the body can lead to other conditions and complications developing, so we’re going to explore some of these here. If you can begin identifying even just one root cause, the road ahead to healing pain will become clearer.
Again, this is about shining a light on the root causes so you’re no longer in the dark about your health. You don’t have to deal with them all and it’s unlikely you’ll have them all, just begin with one area and take baby steps there.
As I’ve mentioned with all these episodes, this list isn’t exhaustive, but it does include some of the most common conditions associated with painful sex and associated with endometriosis.
TRIGGER warning: This episode briefly discusses sexual trauma.
- Vulvodynia - Vulvodynia is a condition of chronic pain in the vulva area, that is usually worsened by sitting, sex, going to the toilet and movement. You may not have the pain all the time, but it is reoccurring, though some can experience the pain constantly. Many report the pain as a burning/stinging/itching/aching/throbbing sensation.
Causes can include untreated or resistant infections like candida, nerve hypersensitivity, damage or trauma to the area, pelvic floor dysfunction and chronic inflammation.
In the case of developing vulvodynia with endometriosis, I would argue that the amount of inflammation and an upregulated nervous system from years of chronic pain could in time affect the vulva area, as well as having a tight pelvic floor, which is common with endo patients. 2. Vaginismus - Vaginismus is a condition where the vaginal canal involuntarily spasms and closes, usually in response to some kind of penetration, though I’ve spoken to many people with vaginismus and they report this spasming to eventually happen all the time.
This is thought to occur as the body’s response to fear of penetration, even if you don’t mentally feel scared.
Vaginismus can be caused by multiple issues. It could be that endo has created so much pain internally that your body now has a fear of sex hurting and so essentially closes up shop. Constant painful, traumatic, invasive and embarrassing medical examinations that you may have endured whilst trying to get an endo diagnosis, or following one, may have triggered the onset of vaginismus as well. Uncomfortable or distressing feelings about sex like shame, guilt or trauma can also cause the condition too. 3. Adhesions or distorted fascia - Adhesions are web like scar tissue structures that do not show up on scans as they’re made of collagen. They grow in response to a wound or trauma and attempt to ‘knit’ an area back together, but can often continue to grow and extend, attaching to organs, wrapping around organs and sticking to surfaces.
Adhesions are VERY strong and will cause pain and discomfort, and can pull and tug on organs, restricting their movement and even function.
Fascia is a thin sheet of tissue which covers the entire body, sits below the skin and encases the muscles, bones and organs. Endo can grow on the fascia and cause puckering in the surface of it, and excisions form surgery can also cause the fascia to pucker from scar tissue. This puckering pulls the fascia out of shape and can distort the fascia across the rest of the body - think of what happens when you pinch a nice neat bed sheet.
If you have adhesions or your fascia is tight and distorted, this could result in painful sex. There may be pulling on your vagina or uterus, they may be putting pressure or causing pain on surrounding organs, which could then impact sex as the organs in the pelvic area are so closely packed together. Don’t forget, your bladder sits in front of your uterus and vaginal canal and your bowel sits directly behind. If any of these are tethered to each other and/or the pelvic wall, this could cause a lot of tension, tugging and pain during sex. 4. Pelvic Floor Dysfunction - Many people with endometriosis have a tight pelvic floor.
Think of your pelvic floor as a bowl made of nerves and muscle and in the bowl sits your bladder, vagina and uterus, and colon. These muscles and nerves help to control the function and sensitivity of these organs.
When you live in chronic pain due to endo, these nerves in the pelvis get used to sending out distress signals and receiving pain signals, and over time, the nervous system becomes upregulated and this path of distress becomes the default option for your nerves. They become easily triggered, even by something that wouldn’t normally cause pain.
Equally, as your muscles continuously react to chronic pain, they begin to tighten. This tightening occurs to both protect you but also as a result of the positions we often adopt when we’re in pain, like curling into a ball.
The tightness causes tension, irritates the nerves and distorts the way the organs are sitting and functioning. 5. Vaginitis - Vaginitis is a sort of blanket term for inflammation and irritation caused by, most commonly, some kind of infection. Symptoms include swelling, itchiness, pain and sometimes unusual discharge or some bleeding. Vaginitis isn’t common within the endo population specifically, but it is common in general.
Causes include STIs, candida overgrowth, allergic responses to chemicals in contraception, lubricants, body washes, etc., and changes in hormones. 6. Endo lesions - Endo lesions cause pain, swelling and scar tissue on both the surface their attached to and the surrounding area, and can cause cramping as they shed with the hormone cycle.
Endo lesions can be found on the bowel, pouch of Douglas (between the uterus and the bowel) and bladder, amongst of course other areas such as the pelvic cavity and ovaries. These are all very close to vaginal canal, especially if the endo is in the pouch of Douglas, as penetration may be almost directly irritating these endo lesions. 7. Chronic inflammation - Endo is an inflammatory disease. It creates its own inflammation, it uses inflammatory chemicals in its development and growth, and it triggers the immune system to send inflammation to the area.
Inflammation causes pain and swelling, and as the endo lesions are chronic, this swelling and pain can spread throughout the pelvis as the body attempts to get our attention. Meaning that even if you’re vaginal canal or surrounding area isn’t directly being affected by endo, you may experience pain there. 8. IBS - Many people with endo experience IBS like symptoms, which can include bloating, gas, constipation and diarrhea. All of these can make the abdomen and pelvic area tight, swollen, painful and uncomfortable.
Your intestines sit right above your uterus and your colon is right behind the vagina and uterus, so if your intestines are inflamed and swollen, the chances are that these are going to be putting pressure on surrounding organs and the inflammation and pain signals will also likely spread to these as well.
Equally, IBS problems cause leaky gut. Leaky gut allows allergens and particles to flow through the gut barrier, causing an immune reaction which releases inflammation into the body. Toxins from infections and problems like SIBO can also pass through the barrier and end up in the pelvic cavity, creating further inflammation. 9. Upregulated nervous system - The brain is designed to protect us from threats. If you have experienced chronic pain, this may have created a loop where the nerves are signalling distress signals to the brain, which then registers with pain to alert us to the problem, inflammation is released but the endo lesions don’t heal, so more distress signals are released and so on. Eventually, over time, this becomes your nervous system’s default pattern - it associates the pelvic areas with danger.
This is made worse if you’re experiencing chronic stress or acute moments of stress, if you feel unsafe in your body, your home or with your sexual partner. This stress is telling the brain it’s right to feel unsafe and the danger signals are heightened.
Of course, if you’ve experienced sexual trauma this is likely to have had an impact on your brain’s perception of safety in your pelvis and pain may be the brain’s way of alerting you to that trauma, whether past or present.
Scroll to my show notes to learn more about diagnosing these conditions or getting help identifying these issues, and for references and further reading/listening.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
Vulvodynia
National Vulvodynia Association
Functional Nutrition Treatment of Vulvodynia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Depression: A Case Report
NHS vulvodynia page
An Integrative Approach to Healing Vulvodynia w/Hannah Matluck of the V Hive
The Changing Landscape of Sexual Health In Medicine w/Dr. Heather Quaile
Vaginismus
Vaginismus And The Overlaps Between Pelvic Pain Conditions With Shelby Hadden of Tightly Wound
Self-Love And Reclaiming Womanhood With Oliwia Drzymuchowska Of Womanology
The Vaginismus Network
NHS vaginismus
Adhesions and distorted fascia
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.25: Adhesions And SIBO With Larry And Belinda Wurn
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.33: Visceral Mobilisation With Alyssa Tait
The Period Party Podcast: Mercier Therapy for Conditions with Dr. Jennifer Mercier
The Best Surgery for Endometriosis with Dr. Andrew Cook
Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Equal Treatment for Black Endometriosis Patients and Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy for Painful Sex, Interstitial Cystitis and Endometriosis with Dr. Juan Michelle Martin
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
Pelvic Floor Therapy for Endometriosis with Heba Shaheed of The Pelvic Expert
Vaginitis
NHS vaginitis
Endo lesions
The Best Surgery for Endometriosis with Dr. Andrew Cook
Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period
Inflammation
Outsmart Endometriosis: The Elimination 'Undiet' for Endometriosis with Dr Jessica Drummond
Antioxidants for Endometriosis
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
What is The Endometriosis Diet with Henrietta Norton of Wild Nutrition
IBS
Dr. Ruscio How To Heal Leaky Gut
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
“Leaky Gut” and Pelvic Pain Dr. Jessica Drummond
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Upregulated Nervous System
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
Taking An Integrative Approach to Endometriosis with Jessica Drummond of The IWHI
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
Healing Endometriosis-Associated Dyspareunia and Rediscovering Pleasure with Elena of The Yoni Empire
Communication, Relationships and Endometriosis with Melanie Cox
Endometriosis and Energy Healing with Aubree Deimler of Peace with Endo
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Endometriosis on the bladder - If you have endo lesions on the bladder or infiltrating the bladder, these will be causing scar tissue, inflammation and irritation to the surrounding area, especially during menstruation when this tissue begins to shed. This inflammation causes pain as the body attempts to alert us of a threat (endo), but as our immune system is unable to ‘clean up’ the endo, the body continues to inflame the area and continues to send pain signals.
-
Chronic inflammation - Inflammation can spread from one area in the pelvis to another over time, especially if the immune system is unable to clean up whatever is causing the threat. If endo is causing inflammation elsewhere in the pelvis and has done for some time, the inflammation and pain can spread as the nerves and surrounding tissue begin to get involved in the ‘alarm’ process.
Inflammation can also come from an inflammatory diet such as a diet rich in trans fats, sugar, processed foods and meat, and alcohol. It can also come from chronic low-lying infections, like an undiagnosed or treatment resistant UTI. Additionally, it can stem from blood sugar dysregulation.
Finally, it can also come from your gut. 70%-80% of your immune system lives in and around the gut and if you have a problem like undetected allergies, SIBO, etc., these can lead to leaky gut. Leaky gut occurs when the tight junctions in between the cells of your gut wall begin to open up and allow small food particles and bacteria to pass through. Your immune system and blood stream are sitting just on the other side of your gut wall, and so the immune system attacks these new ‘invaders’ creating an inflammatory reaction, which spreads throughout the body via the blood stream. The toxins release from SIBO and bad bacteria in the gut, can also leak through the leaky gut wall and into the pelvic cavity, creating localised inflammation.
- Small intestine bacterial overgrowth - Interstitial cystitis or at least IC symptoms have long been associated with SIBO, especially hydrogen sulphide type SIBO. This will most likely be in part due to the inflammation caused by SIBO, the toxins previously mentioned entering the pelvic cavity and histamine intolerance, which is often caused as a result of SIBO.
However, research has also recently found that some of the key bacteria behind hydrogen sulphide type SIBO are also the same bacteria responsible for chronic UTIS, including Citrobacter, klebsiella, proteus and e-coli. This means that certain UTI treatments may also be effective for H2S SIBO and is currently being explored!
- Pelvic Floor Dysfunction - Your pelvic floor is like a complex bowl of nerves and muscles, which holds the bladder, vagina/uterus and colon. These nerves and muscles help to control bladder function and sensitivity.
Chronic pain, straining, tensing and pushing can cause the muscles to tighten and lock and the nerves to become hypersensitive This can cause sensitivity, pain and bladder dysfunction over time.
- Histamines and oxalate sensitivity - Oxalates are a natural compound found in food. If we’re consuming too many oxalates or our body has trouble breaking them down, we may end up with crystal like particles in our bladder, which can of course cause irritation.
Histamines can also be a problem. Research has shown that some patients with IC have higher levels of mast cells (the cells that release histamines) and histamines in the bladder, and we also know that endometriosis lesions contain higher levels of mast cells too. Additionally, we may have trouble breaking down and clearing histamines if our gut is compromised. We may also be making more histamines if we have excess oestrogen as oestrogen triggers the production of histamines, and a condition called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome also causes mast cells to be over-sensitive and produce too much histamine as well.
Having too much histamine in our body can result in bladder pain, as well as symptoms like nausea, dizziness, rushing heart, racing heart, vomiting and bloating to name a few.
- Upregulated nervous system - Your brain’s primary function is to keep you safe and alive - it’s constantly looking for threats, which are communicated to us via our nerves. The body has a scale that measures the threat level and whether it’s worth sending a signal to the brain and if that threshold is met, a distress signal is sent out and the body responds with pain and inflammation to alert us to a problem and to heal the area.
If the wound heals, the brain can calm down, but if it doesn't, as is the case with endo, the nervous system begins a feedback loop of distress, pain and inflammation, which tells the brain things are unsafe, worsening the brains reaction. This can occur if there is endo on or near the bladder.
Over time, the brain will actually decrease the body’s natural pain-relieving hormones because it wants us to stay alert as it feels so at threat, and so we begin to become even more sensitive to pain
Additionally, anything that puts the brain in flight or fight mode such as stress, fear, anxiety or rushing, will reinforce to the brain that you’re unsafe, and will further heighten the reactions.
In fact, research has shown that people with interstitial cystitis tend to have an upregulated nervous system.
-
Hunner’s lesions - Hunner's lesions are blisters or ulcers inside the bladder that occur in about 10% of people with interstitial cystitis and are of course aggravated by food, drink and other substances. They can be diagnosed with a cystoscopy and can be removed, but often return within a year and though relief is reportedly high, it’s temporary and worth considering whether scarring could occur afterwards.
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Biofilms - Biofilms are when a colony of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens get together to form a network, and then hide themselves under a mucosal type lining that protects them from the immune system and antibiotics. They tend to cling to bladder walls and will resist treatment and not show up in standard UTI testing. Specialist testing and the use of anti-biofilms can be effective in treating and eradicating them.
-
Adhesions - Adhesions are web like scar tissue structures, made up of collagen, which do not show up in scans. Adhesions occur in response to surgery, trauma or wounds and are the body’s natural attempt to ‘knit’ an area back together.
However, adhesions often don’t stop with the wound, and begin to knit towards other scars, organs and surfaces, locking organs together and creating a ‘frozen’ pelvis. In endo, adhesions can grow as a result of surgery and of the lesions themselves. They can pull on the bladder and prevent it from functioning properly, from filling to full capacity and can heighten pain and sensitivity. Adhesions are VERY strong.
- Chronic UTIs - Due to antibiotic resistance or perhaps the use of the incorrect antibiotics, some UTIs can evade treatment and can burrow into the lining of the bladder to protect themselves, which prevents them from being destroyed by any further treatment. As the bladder wall sheds, bacteria can then move to the surface of the bladder wall again and cause irritation once more - this may be why your UTI symptoms come and go.
Standard tests only identify a small number of UTI bacteria and can also be inaccurate. You can ask for more extensive tests or go private for specialist testing that can help identify chronic UTIs.
Have a listen of the full episode to hear more and to learn the methods of identifying these root causes and scroll down for references.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
Endo on the bladder
Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period
Inflammation
Outsmart Endometriosis: The Elimination 'Undiet' for Endometriosis with Dr Jessica Drummond
Antioxidants for Endometriosis
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
SIBO
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
How to Test for SIBO
Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
Equal Treatment for Black Endometriosis Patients and Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy for Painful Sex, Interstitial Cystitis and Endometriosis with Dr. Juan Michelle Martin
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
Pelvic Floor Therapy for Endometriosis with Heba Shaheed of The Pelvic Expert
Histamines and oxalates
Nutrition for Bladder Pain and Endometriosis with Brianne Thornton, MS, RD of IC Wellness
Endometriosis, SIBO, Interstitial Cystitis and Allergies: The Histamine Connection
The Association Between Endometriosis and Allergies
Diet and Natural Treatment Options for Interstitial Cystitis and Bladder Pain with Elisabeth Yaotani of IC Wellness
Interstitial Cystitis and the Histamine Connection
Upregulated Nervous System
Your Brain on Pain - How Your Nervous System Affects Interstitial Cystitis and Endo Pain with Dr. Nicole Cozean
Taking An Integrative Approach to Endometriosis with Jessica Drummond of The IWHI
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
Hunner’s Lesions
Hunner's Ulcers - Interstitial Cystitis Association
Biofilms
Are Biofilms the Root Cause of Your Interstitial Cystitis? With Dr. Deanna Berman, ND, LM
Biofilms: Another Potential Contributor to Interstitial Cystitis
Biofilm Disruptors - do not take without consulting a practitioner first!
Adhesions
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.25: Adhesions And SIBO With Larry And Belinda Wurn
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.33: Visceral Mobilisation With Alyssa Tait
The Period Party Podcast: Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Related Conditions with Dr. Jennifer Mercier
The Best Surgery for Endometriosis with Dr. Andrew Cook
Chronic UTIs
Interstitial Cystitis Treatment With Ruth Kriz
Treating Chronic UTI's with Rochelle Stern
Last week I polled 600 of you on my Instagram and 96% of you said you suffer with bloating or what is dubbed in our community as the endobelly. Additionally, only 48% of you had heard of small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which is in fact a leading cause of IBS issue such as constipation, diarrhoea and bloating within the endo population.
Bloating is one of the biggest symptoms for those of us with endomertriosis, but it’s not impossible to treat. It’s not about masking the symptoms though - restricting foods to feel relief can result in more foods sensitive and nutrient deficiencies, whilst leaving the root cause to worsen over time.
So ideally, want to get to the heart of the problem. There may be a few, but once you address one of the root causes, often the others begin to improve and can become easier to treat or manage.
Another thing to note is rather than letting this episode overwhelm you, see it as a light shining on your gut health and revealing the clues that have been hidden to you for so long. Rather than feeling like you have no control, you now have control - you have knowledge and information, and you can now start creating a road map towards healing your bloating, step by step. You don’t have to investigate all of these issues - start with the one that feels the most relevant to you.
Finally, this list isn’t exhaustive but it does include some of the most common issues people with endometriosis face when it comes to their gut health.
Here’s an overview of the 10 root causes of bloating with endometriosis:
- SIBO - Small intestine bacterial overgrowth is a condition where normal bacteria that should live in the large intestine, build up in the small intestine. They ferment our food causing bloating, gas, constipation and other IBS complaints. Research has shown that up to 80% of people with endo have SIBO.
- Hormonal imbalances - Oestrogen dominance can cause water retention leading to bloating, which often shows up in the luteal phase or just before our periods.
- Leaky gut - The gut wall is one cell thick, made of cells packed tightly together with tiny holes to allow nutrients to pass through. However, problems like SIBO, intolerances and NSAIDS can cause those holes to widen, allowing larger food particles to pass through, triggering a reaction from the immune system. This can not only cause IBS issues like bloating, but full body symptoms.
- Coeliac disease - Research has found an association between endometriosis and coeliac disease and in a study of over 200 women with end, 75% experienced a reduction in symptoms after elimination gluten for 12 months. Coeliac disease can cause symptoms like bloating, cramps, diarrhea and bran fog, to name a few.
- Low digestive enzymes and stomach acid - Low digestive enzymes and low stomach acid can cause undigested food to pass through the GI tract, resulting in bloating and gas as bacteria get to feast on larger particles of food.
- Candida and other infections, parasites and fungi - Candida occurs in normal amounts within the body, the problem occurs when it overgrows, which can not only cause bloating, but can also cause symptoms like pelvic pain, fatigue and brain fog. Other infections, parasites and fungi can cause similar issues in the gut and body too.
- Stress, rushing and not chewing food properly - To digest food, the body must be in the ‘rest and digest’ mode. When we’re stressed rushing or gulping down our food, our ‘flight or fight’ system switches on and this automatically turns off the digestion, so that other organs and systems are prioritised. Of course, the result is you now have food in your stomach not digesting, leaving it to ferment and build up in your system, causing bloating and other IBS issues.
- Endo lesions and adhesions - We know that endometriosis lesions can cause swelling and inflammation, which may partially be responsible for abdominal bloating. But additionally, web like tissue called adhesions can also grow in an attempt to heal these lesions and as a result of surgery. They grow towards each other in order to knit together, and can stick to organs and the walls of the pelvis and abdomen, causing the organs to be pulled and distorted. Adhesions can also wrap around the intestines or pull them into loops, creating a build up of food and gas, and generally inhibiting digestion.
- Histamine intolerance - Whilst not every histamine source claims bloating is a histamine intolerance symptom, I’m including this as some do and many clients with histamine intolerance also experience bloating with histamine flares. Histamine intolerance occurs when there is a build up of histamine in the body, either because the body cannot get rid of the histamine properly anymore or the body is making too much, this then results in reactions such as rashes, bloating, vomiting, racing heart and typical allergic reactions.
- Dysbiosis - Our gut contains a huge array of bacteria that are essential for our health. However, some bacteria need to be kept in check to keep a healthy balance, and some things like antibiotics or stress can knock this balance off, allowing certain bacteria to thrive and cause problems, including bloating.
You’ll notice in this podcast episode some themes of causes behind these root causes - many being chronic stress, antibiotics, NSAIDS and SIBO to name a few. There may be a root cause behind the root cause that you need to investigate, such as addressing adhesions so you can heal from SIBO or perhaps trying anti-inflammatory supplements so you can potentially take fewer NSAIDS, whatever it is - know that you don’t have to do it all in one go, and you can create a step-by-step road map that you can take at your own pace, to get you closer to health.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
SIBO
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
How To Treat SIBO with Dr Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 3: SIBO Symptoms
How Do You Know When to Test for SIBO?
How to Test for SIBO at Home
Hormonal imbalances
Heavy Periods with Endometriosis? Why You Get Heavy Bleeding and What You Can Do to Lighten Your Periods with Krystal Kirton
Fix Your Period with Nicole Jardim
How To Rebalance Your Hormones with Endometriosis with Nicole Jardim
PCOS, Blood Sugar and Endometriosis with Megan Hallett of Feasting for Hormonal Harmony
Five Natural Tips to Reduce Oestrogen Dominance and Balance Hormones with Endometriosis
Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis
Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
Leaky Gut
Dr. Ruscio How To Heal Leaky Gut
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
“Leaky Gut” and Pelvic Pain Dr. Jessica Drummond
Coeliac disease
Risk of endometriosis in 11,000 women with celiac disease
The association between endometriosis and autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Gluten-free diet: a new strategy for management of painful endometriosis related symptoms?
NHS guidance
Private test UK
Low digestive enzymes and stomach acid
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
Candida and other infections, parasites and fungi
GI Map test UK
GI Map US
Candida, Yeast and Sensitivity Test UK
Candida article Dr. Amy Myers
Stress, rushing and not chewing food properly
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
Anti-inflammatory Living for Endometriosis
Endo lesions and adhesions
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.25: Adhesions And SIBO With Larry And Belinda Wurn
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.33: Visceral Mobilisation With Alyssa Tait
The Period Party Podcast: Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Related Conditions with Dr. Jennifer Mercier
The Best Surgery for Endometriosis with Dr. Andrew Cook
Histamine intolerance
The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan
Histamine Intolerance 101 Dr. Becky Campbell
Endometriosis, SIBO, Interstitial Cystitis and Allergies: The Histamine Connection
Dysbiosis
Gut dysbiosis Tanya Borowski
The Healthy Gut Podcast Ep.75: Testing Your Microbiome With Dr Jason Hawrela
If you experience bladder pain alongside endometriosis, you may have experienced first hand how hard it is to know what to eat.
Over the years, I’ve spoken to countless people with endometriosis who also have bladder pain syndrome or interstitial cystitis, and are totally confused over what which foods may be triggering them. The general anti-inflammatory diet that can help lower endometriosis pain, partially conflicts with the general interstitial cystitis diet, which recommends cutting out foods like tomatoes, whilst potentially inflammatory foods are given the green light.
So what’s going on here? Why are certain “healthy'“ foods given the boot with a typical diet for bladder pain and does this diet work for everyone?
In this episode, I’m speaking with Integrative and Functional Nutritionist and Registered Dietician Brianne Thornton about nutrition for bladder pain and how to navigate this often confusing world when you have multiple conditions.
We discuss:
- The role of nutrition in interstitial cystitis
- Brianne’s thoughts on the traditional IC diet and where it originates from
- Why healthy foods may still bother the bladder, even if we’re eating an anti-inflammatory diet
- What role histamines and oxalates play in bladder pain
- Which foods can soothe bladder pain
- How to know where to start first and which tests and diets to try
- What to do if you have endometriosis, SIBO and bladder pain syndrome all together
- Which supplements to consider trying to alleviate bladder pain.
If you’ve been experiencing bladder pressure, bladder urgency, bladder frequency or bladder pain, this episode is without a doubt one to listen to. I hope that you find it as insightful as I did!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
IC Wellness
Work with Brianne
IC cookbook
IC juice guide
D-Mannose Powder
For the past two weeks I’ve been diving into the undeniable link between endometriosis, allergies and histamine.
To give you guys a recap:
-
61% of people with endo have been found to have allergies.
-
88% of people with endo and fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome also have allergies.
-
Mast cells (which produce histamines) have been found in higher levels within endometriosis lesions and have been shown to be involved within the inflammatory process of endo
-
Endometriosis is an oestrogen driven disease and the endo lesions also increase oestrogen in the pelvic area. Oestrogen triggers mast cells to release histamines, whilst histamines can trigger further oestrogen production
- Histamines can also rise as oestrogen rises with the menstrual cycle.
Today I want to explore some of the strategies I’ve been using for clearing my allergies and histamine issues, and some suggestions for methods to try yourself. This isn’t an exhaustive list and it’s also not in a particular order, as it really depends on your unique situation and body with where to start, but they are certainly options to explore.
Here’s a brief overview of the key strategies I explore for lowering histamines and reducing allergies in this episode:
Low histamine diet - The body has a certain capacity for dealing with histamines and when that capacity is reached, histamine intolerance problems arise. Lowering our exposure to histamine containing and histamine liberating foods in the short term, can help calm our bodies down and allow us to focusing on more long term healing, whilst identifying our most bothersome foods.
Heal the gut - We need a healthy gut to properly break down and eliminate histamine from the body. Leaky gut and SIBO both compromise gut health and cause low digestive enzymes, plus a heightened immune response which leads to not only a further release in histamines, but an inability to break them down. Healing the gut is one of the key strategies for alleviating allergies and histamine intolerances (with the exception of severe allergies like peanut allergies).
Identify and eradicate mould - Mould is a big problem in many households and can cause worsening allergy symptoms, asthma and respiratory problems, as well as symptoms like fatigue and headaches. Mould thrives at 70% humidity, so check the humidity levels of your home and take steps to reduce moisture (try a dehumidifier) and clear any visible mould.
Clear your environment of allergens - A house may seem clean, but if your humidity is at 50% or higher, dust mites can thrive. Identify if there are any pollenating plants bothering you in your home, any build up of dust, animal hair, etc. and work on doing a deep clean if appropriate. Also consider using a non-toxic allergen spray and getting an an air-purifier
Manage stress - Stress raises histamines in the blood, so managing our lifestyle to lower stress is important. Stress isn’t just psychological either, it can also be caused from over-exercising, rushing, having an inflamed body, sleep deprivation, etc. Yoga, meditation and breath work have all been shown to lower the stress response.
Balance hormones - We known oestrogen can trigger histamine release, and oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen is a common hormonal imbalance. Look for signs of oestrogen dominance such as heavy bleeding, clots, painful periods, breast tenderness, bloating and PMS. Begin balancing hormones with daily bowel movements, balanced blood sugar and liver support such as lowering alcohol consumption.
Supplements - There are a number of supplements and herbal remedies that can aid with allergies and histamine intolerance. Quercetin, DAO and nettle being some of the most effective.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
The 4 Phase Histamine Reset Plan Dr Becky Campbell
Dr Aviva Romm allergies and gut podcast
Dr Aviva Romm allergy remedies
Histamine Block
Histamine and high performers
Air Purifier
Dehumidifier comparison site
Home Cleanse spray
Five Natural Tips to Reduce Oestrogen Dominance and Balance Hormones with Endometriosis
Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis
How to Test for SIBO
The SIBO, Endometriosis and Interstitial Cystitis Connection wth Dr. Allison Siebecker
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 2
Happy Thanksgiving to our lovely community!
I’ve been working on something in the past few months, and as a thank you for being such an amazing bunch, I wanted to finally share it with you today.
Ever since I started This EndoLife, I wanted to make it accessible.
Having worked with vulnerable groups in my past life in charity, I’ve seen first-hand the need for accessible health care. Not just in the form of conventional medicine, but in the form of empowering, alternative options that people can implement every day.
In fact, this was so much at the forefront of my mind, that when I embarked on training as a women’s health coach three years ago, my sole purpose wasn’t to do a one-to-one programme at all, but to in fact do an online course that was affordable and reached more people.
However, in order to do that, I quickly learnt that I needed the experience of one-to-one coaching and I’m so glad I did! Not only did I get to see how effective and life-changing it is, but it has been an absolute privilege getting to work with the clients I have this year, each and every one of them has been an inspiration to me.
My realisation was that some people prefer, need and can afford one to one coaching – and that’s wonderful and I’ll continue to offer that, but I still wanted both options.
Since the beginning of the year, as a way around this, I’ve been offering long-term payment plans, discounts and scholarships, and at the start of the pandemic I dropped my prices as low as I could so that people could still gain the support they needed.
But there were still people who I couldn’t reach, who I spoke to on social media and needed support.
Every day I get direct messages from people asking me how to reduce inflammation, how they can balance their hormones, how they can manage work with this kind of pain.
I’ve also spoken to a lot of you recently about what’s held you back from starting to manage endo – and many of you said overwhelm and not knowing where to start.
I hope that my free guides and ebooks, podcasts and articles provide enough for people to piece together a roadmap, but I personally know how overwhelming and confusing it can be to know which step to take first.
So in the spring I began working on this idea, my course.
A step-by-step outline of my exact coaching programme, to help you guys to live and thrive with endo.
A road map for reducing pain, bloating, fatigue and brain fog.
In this course I dive into the science of pain and inflammation, nutrition for endometriosis, how to balance your hormones and have better periods, how to improve energy and focus, how to heal your gut and so much more.
I’ve seen so many of my clients experience incredible changes. From excruciating periods to pain-free in a month, to feeling energised and alive again, to finally healing their gut health problems.
I want to offer the same life-changing experience to as many of you as possible. So that you can go on to lead the life you’ve always wanted to lead before endo took over, so that you can take back control.
This will be the most comprehensive and clear resource I offer, other than my one-to-one programme. But whilst I have the vision, there’s no point me sharing something with the world which isn’t serving the needs of this community, so that’s where you come in.
I’d like you guys to get involved and shape the way that this course is delivered, what the content looks like, what questions need answering – essentially, I’d like you to tell me what you need the most.
So I’m inviting you to join me at the grass roots level as a Founding Member.
If you’re willing to share your opinions and ideas with me, in exchange, I’d love to offer you this course at the lowest price it will ever be and with lifetime access, no matter how many changes and updates (plus some extra bonuses along the way!).
Once available, the 6-8 week course (you guys will help me decide that!) will be priced in the region of £150 (early-bird and generous payment plans available) but for founding members I’m offering the course for £75, with a payment plan if needed.
If you’re interested in getting involved and helping to change the lives of this community, please reply to this email with a simple 'yes' and I'll get back to you with the details and how to sign-up.
I will be closing the doors on the Founding Members enrolment on Monday.
Thank you!
I’m so excited about what we can achieve together.
Love,
Jessica x
P.S If this isn’t for you or you can’t afford this right now, I suggested starting with Episode 100 and also downloading my guide to getting started with managing endo.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Endometriosis, small intestine bacterial overgrowth and allergies. What do they have in common?
Histamines.
Whilst these conditions are multifaceted and often don’t have one root cause, there is a clear common thread connecting them all. Here’s some key takeaways:
- 61% of people with endo have allergies
- Research has shown up to 80% of those with endo also have SIBO (some doctors argue it’s even higher at 100%)
- SIBO can impair the body’s ability to break down and remove histamines from the body
- Mast cells (the cells that make histamine) and histamines are found in high lever levels in patients with interstitial cystitis
- Mast cells have been found in higher levels within endometriosis lesions and have been shown to be involved within the inflammatory process of endo
- Endometriosis is an oestrogen driven disease and the endo lesions also increase oestrogen in the pelvic area. Oestrogen triggers mast cells to release histamines, whilst histamines can trigger further oestrogen production
- Histamines can also rise as oestrogen rises with the menstrual cycle
- Oestrogen lowers the effects of DAO, the enzyme that helps to break down histamines.
This overload of histamine, combined with the lack of DAO and the gut’s lessened ability to break down histamine due to SIBO, can result in a histamine intolerance scenario.
Histamine intolerance can manifest in many different ways, but some common symptoms are:
- Dizziness
- Sneezing
- Wheezing
- Runny or congested nose
- Red, itchy eyes
- Rashes and hives
- Racing heart
- Chest tightness
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Irregular heart beat
- Brain fog
- Irritability
- Food allergies and airborne allergies
In today’s episode, I’m exploring all of these links in the context of my own health challenges around IC, SIBO, endo and allergies and why I believe stress, mould and my gut health problems have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I hope that by sharing my story, and the investigative work I did into my health, you may be able to pick up the clues in your own situation and begin to work out what’s triggering or worsening your allergies and other symptoms, and what you can do to start lowering histamines and controlling your symptoms.
For sources and references that I used in this episode, please see below in the show notes.
P.S. Apologies if this episode sounds a little breathy, I've been having to use a different mic for a few weeks whilst we get a new lead for our other one.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Sources
The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan
Interstitial cystitis and histamines Dr Becky Campbell
Histamine Intolerance 101 Dr Becky Campbell
Mast cells in endometriosis: guilty or innocent bystanders?
Targeting mast cells: a new way to treat endometriosis
Estrogen and histamines Dr Lara Briden
Immune Treatment for Endometriosis Dr Lara Briden
Do you have suffer with food allergies or airborne allergies? Perhaps you get fits of sneezing or watery eyes in the summer, or maybe you suffer with a chronically stuffy or runny nose? Perhaps you flare up with dairy or break out in a rash after shellfish.
Sound familiar? You're not alone.
Research has found a significant prevalence of allergies within the endometriosis community, showing that people with endo are at an increased risk of experiencing allergies.
But without this knowledge to connect the dots, we’re often left to think that different parts of us are just falling to pieces. Whilst understanding the link can’t take the allergies away, it can certainly make us feel less crazy and give us a greater understanding of what’s happening in our bodies.
In today’s episode I’m sharing some of the most important research findings regarding allergies and endometriosis. Here are some of the key takeaways:
- 61% of people with endo have been found to have allergies.
- 88% of people with endo and fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome also have allergies.
- People with endometriosis are significantly more like to have a family history of allergies.
- People with endo have been found to be four times more likely allergies.
Next week I’ll be sharing my experience with allergies, what’s helped me recently and suggestions for relief.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is sponsored by Semaine Health, the anti-inflammatory, plant-based pain relieving supplement. Now priced at $28.99 for subscription. Shop here.
Show Notes
High rate of allergies among women with endometriosis
High rates of autoimmune and endocrine disorders, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and atopic diseases among women with endometriosis: a survey analysis
Endometriosis and type 1 allergies/immediate type hypersensitivity: a systematic review
Women with Endometriosis Have Higher Rates of Some Diseases
NHS allergies
Rebecca Sairs is the PMDD health coach helping people with PMDD take back control of their wellbeing with natural methods, self-care and empowering coaching.
After experiencing PMDD herself, and struggling with the options of treatment available, Rebecca started down a holistic healing journey which eventually led her to specialise in PMDD as a health coach. She now helps people all over the world with the condition, and as many of us endo warriors also live with PMDD, I thought it was an essential to have her on the show!
In this episode, we talk about:
- Rebecca’s PMDD story and what helped her to feel well again.
- What PMDD is and the symptoms and causes of PMDD.
- Her approach to managing and how that compares to the conventional approach, and whether it’s possible for those two to work in conjunction with each other.
- Where to start with managing PMDD.
- PMDD-hacks that could help people who are stuck with in-the-moment symptoms and need relief as soon as possible.
- Where can people find access further support.
If you experience symptoms like suicidal ideation or even feeling like you’re an entirely different person in the lead up to your period, it could really be worth having a listen to this episode.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Rebecca’s website
Rebecca’s podcast
Vicious Cycle
IAPMD
Brain fog and fatigue. These are two of the biggest symptoms you guys tell me you suffer with and they’re two symptoms that I found hardest to shake, whilst my symptoms have dramatically improved, they are the two that I sometimes need some extra help with.
Now, before we dive in - I want to state that the root cause should be investigated, rather than just slapping superfood biohacks over the problem. Chronic inflammation, dysregulated blood sugar and hormonal imbalances are just some of the issues that can be behind your brain fog and fatigue, not just the endometriosis alone. But I know you guys are keen for some solutions you can add to your daily routines to make your lives easier, so whilst we’ve been exploring inflammation, hormonal balance, etc. on the show and will continue to do so, I also wanted to give you some easy strategies that might give you a boost and ease these symptoms…
Rosemary
Rosemary has been shown to increase memory speed, recall and accuracy in multiple small studies on both humans and animals. However, the types of rosemary varied. A low dose of rosemary powder improved memory speed, whereas drinking rosemary water caused just a small improvement in cognitive function. Interestingly, multiple studies have shown that the scent of rosemary improved memory, accuracy and cognitive speed.
For best effects, it seems like perhaps using a rosemary powder supplement or a rosemary oil diffuser could aid the most for brain fog and fatigue.
An extra bonus with rosemary is that it’s very anti-inflammatory, helping to keep pain levels at bay.
Lion’s Mane
Lion’s mane is one of my favourites - not only is it anti-inflammatory, it’s been shown in various studies to aid with cognitive function.
Whilst these studies are small and many are in mice, the results are promising. Lion’s mane has been found to improve memory and significantly aid cognitive function. Additionally, it’s been shown to have protective mechanisms which can reduce cognitive decline that comes with age and disease such as dementia. What’s even more interesting is how lion’s mane does it - research is showing that lion’s mane helps to regrow brain cells and strengthen them! A small study on humans also showed that lion’s mane helped to improve focus and as well as mood.
I like to have lion’s mane daily in my Lion’s Milk or in a dandelion coffee, but you can also add it to smoothies or take as a supplement.
Cordyceps
Cordyceps is another mushroom that I really love. Various studies now show that cordyceps increases energy and endurance by delivering more oxygen to the muscles and brain. Other studies have shown that cordyceps improves brain function, but more human research needs to done on this.
I combine my lion’s mane with cordyceps in the morning for an energy and brain boost, again, I have mine in the powdered form in lattes or in smoothies.
Curcumin
Okay, maybe my favourite one of them all. You know how much I love curcumin (the active compound found in turmeric) for lowering inflammation and directly targeting endometriosis (by reducing oestrogen levels inside the endo cells and suppressing growth). I also love curcumin because it’s been shown to improve memory and cognitive impairment, and increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor - a protein that helps to make new brain cells and support current ones. This is also the mechanism behind lion’s mane and its brain health benefits! Additionally, some of the studies into memory show that it’s the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of curcumin that make it so supportive for brain health.
I take my curcumin in supplement form and as I near towards my period I start sipping on my Super Turmeric Latte daily.
Cacao
Yes! Chocolate! Cacao has been shown to improve memory, cognitive performance and speed, and you guessed it - support brain-derived neurotrophic factor and protecting the brain from cognitive decline. It also, similar to cordyceps, helps to increase blood flow to the brain and as a result, cognitive function. Research suggests that plant compounds known as flavanols may be behind the increased cognitive function.
Show Notes
Endometriosis News column
Why Drinking Enough Water Is Key For Reducing Endometriosis Symptoms
Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
Cycle Syncing Your Exercise Routine for Endometriosis and Chronic Fatigue with Jenni Hulburt of WILD Wellness
Combatting Endometriosis Fatigue and Increasing Energy with Berrion Berry of Health Over Hustle
Rosemary
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4749867/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4749867/
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/jmf.2011.0005
Lion’s mane
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24266378/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20834180/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.2634
Om Mushrooms
Curcumin
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964053/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006899306027144
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10522-013-9422-y
Cacao
Enhancing Human Cognition with Cocoa Flavonoids
The effect of flavanol-rich cocoa on cerebral perfusion in healthy older adults during conscious resting state: a placebo controlled, crossover, acute trial
High-flavonoid intake induces cognitive improvements linked to changes in serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor: Two randomised, controlled trials
Brain Fog Busting Mushroom Hot Chocolate
In episode 107 I took you through what oestrogen dominance is, the causes and the symptoms, alongside seven foods to help alleviate the hormonal imbalance. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, go ahead and check it out, then come back to this one!
But why is oestrogen dominance even a problem? Oestrogen has been shown in multiple studies to play a pivotal role in the development and growth of endometriosis, it’s why many doctors use progestin only hormonal birth control methods to possibly help lower symptoms (though not everyone responds well to this option). If we have too much oestrogen in our body, we may be further fuelling our endo and additionally, the symptoms of oestrogen dominance look a lot like endometriosis and we for sure don't want to be worsening those!
So today, I’m taking you through five natural lifestyle and nutrition tips to reduce oestrogen dominance and balance hormones with endometriosis.
- Stress management - The body responds to stress by releasing cortisol and adrenaline. In acute moments of genuine threat and danger, this is helpful and normal but long-term chronic stress, whether it’s a low lying level of stress or severe, can cause hormonal disruption, lowering progesterone and creating an oestrogen dominant scenario.
Stressors don’t just have to be emotional or mental (like 2020!), they can also be physiological, like over-exercising, heavy caffeine consumption, underlying infections or conditions like SIBO, chronic inflammation, lack of sleep, dysregulated blood sugar, etc.
Strategies that have been shown to lower cortisol include meditation, mindfulness, breath work, yoga and walking in nature. 2. Blood sugar balance - Blood sugar balance is absolutely key to healthy hormones and imbalanced blood sugar can lead to oestrogen dominance, as well as inflammation (worsening pain). There are numerous ways that dysregulated blood sugar causes imbalanced hormones, but for the purpose of today’s conversation, I’ll focus on two areas…
High insulin levels (caused by a spike in blood sugar) raises aromatase, an enzyme that coverts testosterone into oestrogen, creating excess oestrogen in the body. Additionally, blood sugar imbalance can also cause sporadic ovulation or a lack of ovulation entirely, lowering progesterone and further exacerbating the oestrogen dominance scenario.
Three key ways to balance blood sugar are making sure your meals include fat, fibre, protein and complex carbohydrates. Eating regularly and not allowing yourself to get really hungry, hangry, shaky or faint before meals and reducing refined carbohydrates like pastries and sugary snacks. 3. Daily bowel movements - You should be having at least one bowel movement a day, as this not only allows waste to leave the body but any old oestrogen too. Constipation can lead to oestrogen dominance because oestrogen is reabsorbed if it’s not eliminated quickly enough - and I see this often with my clients who suffer with constipation from SIBO!
Ensure you’re drinking enough water (at least half your body weight in lbs, in oz) and you’re eating 8-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day for adequate fibre. Foods like chia seeds can also really help, but would be best avoided if you have SIBO as chia seeds can aggravate symptoms.
If your bowel movements are fine, your gut may still need some attention. The gut microbiome contains a group of bacteria called the estrobolome which is responsible for eliminating oestrogen from the gut, if you have an imbalance and not enough of this bacteria, you may not be able to properly remove oestrogen. Additionally, an enzyme in the gut called beta-glucuronidase can actually take old and used up oestrogen and convert it back into the usable form, causing an excess of oestrogen in the body. You can test your gut microbiome using a test called the GI Map.
If you think something is up with your gut microbiome, I encourage you to go back to my episodes on the endo belly and try some of the strategies listed there. 4. Removing xenooestrogens - Xenooestrogens are chemicals that are in the environment, pesticides, beauty products, cleaning products and more, which mimic oestrogen and have been linked in numerous studies to hormonal disruption, endometriosis and fertility problems. They additionally over-burden the liver and so old oestrogen is put on the back burner whilst the liver works hard to clear out these toxins in our body. Both the xenooestrogens themselves plus our own waste oestrogen building up leads to oestrogen dominance.
Strategies to reduce our exposure include drinking filtered water, going organic as much as possible, swapping our beauty, body and cleaning products for non-toxic versions and replacing our non-stick cookware and Tupperware with stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic, glass, silicone and non-toxic non-stick products. Yes, this is a lot to do, so start slowly! Even if it takes you a year to work through, that’s fine!
We can also support our liver further with lowering our exposure to drugs, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, drinking plenty of water and eating a nutritious diet.
Good nutrition - You knew it was coming! 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day fill us with fibre to help daily bowel movements, feed our gut bacteria and also provide essential nutrients for healthy hormones. Additionally, cruciferous veg play a key role in helping to clear out our waste oestrogen. Healthy fats, protein and complex carbohydrates also aid in keeping our blood sugar levels balanced and supporting our body to make healthy, happy hormones. For more tips on nutrition, head to episode 107.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim
My blood sugar episode
Understanding the Endo Belly Part 1
Understanding the Endo Belly Part 2
If you’ve listened to my podcast recently, you’ve likely heard a lot about oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and the problems these two imbalances can bring. Oestrogen in itself isn’t a ‘bad’ hormone - it’s a wonderful hormone that plays a crucial role in our menstrual cycle and our overall health. But too much or too high in relation to progesterone is where the problems arise, and these problems can make our experience of endo worse.
So what is oestrogen dominance? Oestrogen dominance occurs when the ratio of oestrogen to progesterone is too high, this can happen when progesterone is low, oestrogen is high or both! Excess oestrogen is when there is too much oestrogen circulating the body, and this would be likely cause oestrogen dominance, providing of course that progesterone isn’t also too high (which in my experience with clients at least, is generally less common).
Why does oestrogen dominance occur? We deep dive into this topic in other interviews and episodes (so check the links below), but to give you an overview, here are some of the common causes:
- Stress
- Imbalanced blood sugar
- Gut health issues
- Deficiencies, such as zinc
- Heavy alcohol consumption
- Overburdened liver
- Xenoestrogens
Whilst taking a holistic approach looking at all of these areas is advisable, eating certain foods can help your body to remove any old or excess oestrogen and adding these foods in can be a great way to get started with healing any imbalances.
Here are seven of my favourite foods for alleviating oestrogen dominance with endometriosis:
- Dandelion root tea or coffee to help support the liver with clearing out old and excess oestrogen. Be careful that you’re not buying a caffeinated dandelion and coffee blend - we’re looking for dandelion alone. You can drink it as a herbal tea or buy it roasted, then grind and have as coffee! It makes a lovely black coffee or latte.
- Broccoli sprouts provide a big, concentrated dose of SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) , a plant compound that also helps the liver to detoxify oestrogen and break it down in a healthy way
- Cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts aid oestrogen detoxification. The active compound in cruciferous veggies is a nutrient called I3C (indole-3-cabinol), which further breaks down into SGS (sulforaphane glucosinolate) and DIM (diindolymethane) and both play a big role in supporting the liver with oestrogen detoxification. In fact, these nutrients are so powerful that you may recognise them - they’re often found in oestrogen clearance supplements!
- Probiotic foods such as kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and yoghurt help create a healthy gut microbiome and ensure that the bacteria which helps to eliminate oestrogen, the estrobolome, is well supported and that beta-glucuronidase, the enzyme that reactivates oestrogen (causing it to be reabsorbed into the blood stream), is prevented from getting too high. A caveat here is that if you have SIBO you may find probiotic foods aggravating. I would start slowly with one tablespoon and increase to tolerance over time.
- B6 foods such turkey, fish, seeds, nuts like pistachios, lentils, eggs, and a moderate amount of organic pasture-raised red meat helps to detoxify old and excess oestrogen and raise progesterone levels.
- Lignans from nuts and seeds, particularly pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and potentially flax (if you respond well to it) help bind and remove oestrogen. Flax can have weak oestrogenic effects, and is often recommended to help lower oestrogen dominance symptoms . However, I recommend being mindful here as I am not the only practitioner to have witnessed endo symptoms and oestrogen dominance symptoms worsening from flax, so I would just see how you personally respond. Having said that, lots of doctors, nutritionists and health coaches see an improvement, but just have an awareness when you try and if you try flax. Hopefully it works well for you!
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
SIBO episodes
Ep 99 with Dr Allison Siebecker
Ep 97 My SIBO treatment plan
Oestrogen dominance episodes
Ep 104
Blood Sugar episodes
Ep 88
Ep 81
Ep 66
Ep 55
Broccoli sprouts and cruciferous veg
Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts
Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans
Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection
Estrobolome
Alisa Vitti
Histamine
The 4-Phase Histamine Reset Plan
B6
The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones
Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes
Dr Jolene Brighten B6
Lignans
Dr Joelene Brighten on seed cycling and flax
Lara Briden explains phytoestrogens
Bloating? Anxiety? Tearfulness? Painful breasts? If you experience any of these symptoms, you likely experience PMS in the lead up to your period.
Even though PMS is very common, it doesn’t mean it’s just something we have to live with - especially when we’re dealing with endometriosis as well. In fact, PMS is caused by hormonal imbalances, often oestrogen dominance or excess oestrogen and sometimes low progesterone - and when we get these into balance, a lot of our endo symptoms ease too!
So this week, I wanted to share with your seven foods that you can add in during your luteal phase (the phase after ovulation, before your period) that contain wonderful nutrients that have been shown to alleviate PMS and support healthy hormone balance…
- Leafy greens for magnesium, calcium and potassium. You guys must know by now how much I love magnesium! It helps to alleviate cramps, aids in oestrogen detoxification but also progesterone production and reduces bloating. Potassium additionally supports bloating, which is another bonus considering so many of you reach out to tell me this is one of your worse symptoms. Finally, in research calcium has been shown to help with PMS symptoms too! Add to smoothies, salads and whatever you’re having for dinner - think leafy greens with each meal.
- Nuts and seeds, particularly sunflower seeds, sesame (tahini is best here as sesame seeds are often too small to chew and pass through undigested) and pumpkin seeds. Nuts and seeds and these three in particular are rich in magnesium, and zinc which supports healthy progesterone levels and good levels of vitamin E, which has been shown to help alleviate period pain and PMS. Add nut butter to your porridge, overnight oats and smoothies and drizzle tahini over your veggies.
- Protein for B6, including organic free range and pasture raised chicken and turkey, organic grass-fed beef, fish, lentils and chickpeas. B6 helps to keep blood sugar levels stable (in turn, keeping hormones balanced and anxiety and fatigue at bay) and has actually been shown to reduce PMS and depressive symptoms, and is truly a crucial vitamin for healthy hormonal balance! Try a chickpea curry for dinner and perhaps wild caught fish or another animal protein at lunch with lots of veggies and some healthy complex carbs and fat.
- Sweet potatoes, squash and beetroot (and all other root veggies) actually help to raise serotonin levels in our brain thanks to their complex carbohydrate content. Our feel-good neurotransmitter, serotonin works closely with oestrogen during the first half of our cycle, and when oestrogen lowers in our second half our mood can take a bit of a hit - especially if our progesterone levels aren’t high enough. Eating root veggies with a good serving of protein and fat improve our mood, boost our energy and keep our blood sugar levels stable. Root vegetables also contain hormone loving B vitamins, calcium and magnesium - all great for balancing hormones and alleviating PMS. Try steaming and freezing root vegetables for smoothies or making up a lentil and beetroot salad.
- Peppers and other vitamin C rich foods like berries and broccoli can actually help to increase progesterone levels. Low progesterone levels can lead to PMS, anxiety, low moods, short cycles and pre-menstrual spotting. Try a salad of leafy greens, broccoli, peppers and lentils for a hit of vitamin C, magnesium and B6!
- Kidney beans, black beans, adzuki beans and other beans for B vitamins. B vitamins are some of the foundational nutrients behind healthy hormones - they ensure you’re making healthy amounts, keep oestrogen in check, support progesterone if it’s low and so much more that I’ll have to do a whole podcast on them. In short, they can help alleviate PMS symptoms by making sure any excess or old oestrogen is cleared out and that you have a healthy level of progesterone in your luteal phase. Try an Italian bean salad with rocket, pumpkin seed pesto, adzuki beans, borlotti beans, olives, red onion, tomatoes, pepper, artichokes and olive oil!
- Broccoli sprouts, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables for healthy oestrogen elimination. Broccoli and broccoli sprouts contain DIM and sulforaphane which support the liver to break down oestrogen in a healthy way and therefore lowers any chance of PMS symptoms. Throw a big handful or half a cup of broccoli sprouts in your smoothies or on salads, and try adding cauliflower rice to your chickpea curry.
Even just adding one or two of these foods in on a daily basis could make a difference! Try making a meal plan or some meal ideas with any of the above suggestions and track how your PMS symptoms over a few cycles to see if things change.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Hormone balance with Nicole Jardim
My blood sugar episode
Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
Fertility Awareness Method
My FLO app
Magnesium:
Magnesium for oestrogen clearance
The Association Between Serum Magnesium and Premenstrual Syndrome: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Potassium:
Potassium foods for bloating
Calcium:
A systematic review of the role of vitamin D and calcium in premenstrual syndrome
Zinc:
Zinc induced changes in the progesterone binding properties of the human endometrium
Vitamin E:
Evaluating the effects of vitamin D and vitamin E supplement on premenstrual syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, controlled trial
B6:
The Interactions between Vitamin B6 and Hormones
Nutritional factors in the etiology of the premenstrual tension syndromes
Dr Jolene Brighten B6
Vitamin C:
Serum Antioxidants Are Associated with Serum Reproductive Hormones and Ovulation among Healthy Women
Low progesterone
B vitamins:
Dr Joelene Brighten
Broccoli sprouts:
Magdalena Wszelaki broccoli sprouts
Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3-carbinol treatment in humans
Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and its Major Derivatives: Their Pharmacokinetics and Important Roles in Hepatic Protection
If you have endo, you probably know what it feels like to be unseen, unheard and dismissed. The gender pain gap is a real thing, and that becomes even more difficult to overcome if you’re black or a person of colour, especially given that medicine has a history of believing back women can tolerate more pain.
As a result, many of us in the endo community are doing hard work - we may be advocating for people of colour with endometriosis, like Lauren at ENDO BLACK or advocating for the LGBTQIA+ individuals, like Les at endoQueer, or perhaps you have your own awareness page, or you volunteer, or you fundraise for a charity, or perhaps you make sure you’re verbal about endo and share your story with others. Whatever it is you do, advocacy and simply spreading awareness or fighting for your rights in the doctor’s office, can be tiring work, add a chronic illness or two on top of it and the stage is set for burnout.
I don’t know about you, but trying to support our community during the start of COVID19 and also trying to do my best to be a better ally in light of the recent Black Lives Matter events, on top of my regular endometriosis advocacy work, tipped my HPA axis dysfunction over the edge.
So what can we do about it? How do we show up in the world how we want to, how do we fight for social change, whilst also navigating our health issues and respecting our boundaries for staying well?
That’s where Vianney Leigh steps in. Vianney is a period coach, menstrual cycle alignment expert, hypnotherapist and success coach. She does the incredible work of supporting female entrepreneurs who live with period problems to align with their cycle so they no longer have to suffer with burnout and exhaustion.
As a result of the recent Black Lives Matter movement, she witnessed so many black advocates experiencing sheer exhaustion. She saw a need to support those doing this work to do it not only to the best of their ability, but in a way that was sustainable and not at the sacrifice of their health, so she created Period Power Activism. A coaching programme that supports advocates of all backgrounds, to align with their cycle and create sustainable changed whilst allowing room for rest and sustained energy levels.
In this episode, Vianney and I discuss:
- What cycle syncing is.
- Her approach to social activism and how she uses her cycle syncing approach for sustainable change.
- How we can create space for rest and recovery during our period or times of pain.
- How we can manage our energy in times when we feel good, so we don’t do too much and burn out.
- The first steps you can take to aligning your social justice work with your menstrual cycle.
If this year has been a lot for you mentally and physically, but you still want to continue doing the work - this episode is the one for you!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Status Flow Collective
Vianney’s instagram
Period Power Activism Cheat Sheet
Krystal Kirton is a leading hormone and reproductive health coach, whose Instagram page is just a WEALTH of incredible information and accessible tips and advice. In today’s episode, Krystal and I are diving into her amazing pool of knowledge to explore heavy periods and endometriosis: what causes them and what you can do about it.
Krystal Kirton is a certified nutrition coach, certified hormone health expert AND a trained fertility awareness educator. I know, I know. What can’t this woman do? She helps people from all over the world address their out of control period symptoms, from heavy bleeding, clotting, irregular cycles and pain, she does it all.
After relocating to Spain, Krystal witnessed a radical shift in her health and the health of her family following their diet and lifestyle transformation. A healthy anti-inflammatory diet and more relaxed lifestyle led Krystal to experience the best periods of her life and after witnessing her clients struggling with their own, was motivated to learn everything she could about hormone health and healthy periods.
In today’s episode we explore:
- What's happening when we have heavy periods and which hormones are behind it.
- What can cause this type of hormonal imbalance.
- What strategies can help alleviate heavy periods.
- Her favourite foods/nutrients that can help reduce heavy periods.
- How long it can take before you see results.
If you ever experience flooding or you’re having to change your pads and tampons more than every two hours, this episode is for you!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
krystalkirton.com
Krystal’s Instagram
Learn Fertility Awareness Charting 1:1 programme
Mend Your Menses programme
Natural Fit Foodie blog
NHS heavy periods
Today I wanted to follow up on last week’s episode Six Tips for Reducing Endometriosis Pain in The Week Before Your Period, with something a little more focused around nutrition. As most of you will know by now, I lean towards making healthy choices to support us with endo all month long, but that doesn’t mean that focusing on foods to add in just before our period can’t be useful. In fact, if you’re struggling with where to get started with endometriosis management, I would start here and with my last episode.
As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. If you’re triggered by any of this, seek the support of a therapist and dietician/health coach/nutritionist before making further dietary changes.
So, here are any foods to to eat before your period to reduce pain with endometriosis:
- Spinach and other leafy greens such as kale, boy chow, lettuce, rocket, chard and other greens. Add these in for anti-inflammatory nutrients, magnesium iron and fibre. Leafy greens can help to reduce period pain, fatigue, PMS symptoms like bloating and can aid reducing any excess oestrogen. You can throw some spinach in your morning smoothie and a big handful or two of lettuce to your lunch.
- Olive oil and other Vitamin E containing foods such as almonds, olives, avocados, greens and sunflower seeds. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce inflammation in numerous studies, as well as reduce pain with endometriosis and painful periods. Try drizzling two tablespoons of olive oil or sunflower seed butter over your lunch time salad, and snacking on almonds!
- Broccoli and other cruciferous veg like kale, cauliflower, asparagus, broccoli sprouts, sprouts and cabbage. These help to reduce oestrogen dominance by supporting the body to remove old oestrogen that needs clearing out and can cause symptoms like clots periods, heavy periods and period pain. You could try roasting wedges of red cabbage and mixing into a salad, grating red cabbage over a tex-mea meal or adding broccoli sprouts to salads and smoothies.
- Salmon and other sources of omega 3 fats such as mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring, walnuts and chia seeds. Omega 3 fats help to lower inflammation and have been shown to reduce period pain and in studies on rats, reduce the size of endometriosis lesions. Add no more than two portions of fatty fish a week in addition to walnuts and chia seeds, and be cautious of large fatty fish as these can have a higher mercury content. If you don’t eat fish, it’s worth noting that most of us can’t convert plant-based sources of omega. fats into the usable form, so you’ll need to supplement with a vegan DHA and EPA supplement. One way to get in extra fish is to pair it with a Mediterranean salad and whole grains like quinoa for dinner, and try adding in some chia with a chia pot snack mixed with blueberries, walnuts and some almond milk.
- Tomatoes and other colourful vegetables such as berries, red cabbage, parsnips, peppers, squashed carrots. Studies have shown that people with endometriosis have higher levels of oxidation (which leads to higher levels of inflammation and therefore pain) and that when participants added in a high anti-oxidant diet in the form of extra fruits and vegetables, their oxidation levels lowered. When it comes to fruit and veggies, the more colour, the more anti-oxidants - so eat the rainbow! Try snacking on red and yellow peppers and cucumber dipped in hummus, and make a dinner that has a delicious roasted veg salad with it such as roasted carrots, beetroot and fennel - delicious with some puy lentils, fresh herbs and rocket!
- Turmeric and other herbs and spices like cinnamon and ginger. Many herbs and spices are anti-inflammatory, yet turmeric, ginger and cinnamon are particular stand-out stars, with curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) showing promise with endometriosis lesion suppression and ruction in mice, and ginger being an effective pain reliever in people with primary dysmenorrhea. How about making up a daily turmeric latte and a carrot and ginger soup to enjoy for the week?
- Bonus food! Raw cacao and sugar free dark chocolate. Rich in magnesium, iron and anti-oxidants, raw cacao can help lower inflammation and support energy production, whilst helping us with those sugar cravings! Just be mindful of how much you have as cacao does have a little caffeine. My superfood hot chocolate recipe is a lovely way to get this delicious food into your diet before your period.
So which one are you going to start with? Dm me over on Instagram and let me know which food you try this cycle!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
My FLO
How to track your period
Magnesium
Study
Magnesium baths for pain article
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Vitamin E
Vitamin E, oxidative stress, and inflammation
Antioxidant supplementation reduces endometriosis-related pelvic pain in humans
Evaluation of the effect of vitamin E on pelvic pain reduction in women suffering from primary dysmenorrhea
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
NHS fish guidance
Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model
Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain
Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea
Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin
Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond
Eat the rainbow
Foods That Fight Inflammation - Harvard Health
Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet
Curcumin
Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production
Ginger
Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations
The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea
Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea
Cacao
100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs
Hazelnut truffles
Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys)
Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don’t love their other 100% chocolate products)
So Free sweet dark chocolate
Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online)
My brownie recipe
Most of us with endometriosis have experienced debilitating periods that stop us in our tracks and derail our day or week completely. Perhaps we get through with a mix of pain killers or maybe nothing helps at all - whatever is going on for you, today I want to offer you six simple pain relieving strategies that can help alleviate your endometriosis pain when your period arrives. These methods are best begun seven days before your period so the effects build up and compound and I do totally recommend continuing them into your period too, for extra benefits!
As always, these are just options - you don’t have to do them all nor do you have to do them exactly as suggested, tweak and tailor to your lifestyle and preferences. Consult your GP before adding in supplements.
Here are my six tips for reducing your endometriosis pain for when your period starts:
- Magnesium rich baths, 2 - 3 times the week before your period, with 500g - 600g Epsom salt baths, soaking for at least 10 minutes each times.
- Two portions of low mercury, fatty fish (sardines, mackerel, anchovies salmon, herring) in addition to 1000mg - 3000mg good quality omega 3 fatty acid supplementation.
- Turmeric lattes with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (1g) and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ginger root powder (350mg-700mg) in addition to ginger tea (made with ginger root powder), raspberry leaf tea and dandelion tea. Always add some fat into your latte to aid absorption of the turmeric - coconut oil, coconut butter, cacao butter or nut butter all would work well.
- Daily yoga or stretches for endometriosis and pelvic pain.
- Reduce or eliminate sugar, utilising stevia, inulin root syrup, berries and 100% dark chocolate as alternatives.
- Eat the rainbow! Get in 5 to 10 servings of fruit and veg a day, focusing more on vegetables (think 80% vs 20%).
I hope this episode helps you prepare for your period! Please do let me know if it changes your experience of your next period - I would love to hear from you! Scroll down to the show notes for links to studies, brand recommendations, recipes, etc.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Magnesium
Study
Magnesium baths for pain article
Magnesium--a new therapeutic alternative in primary dysmenorrhea
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
NHS fish guidance
Dietary fish oil supplementation inhibits formation of endometriosis-associated adhesions in a chimeric mouse model
Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) as an anti-inflammatory: an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for discogenic pain
Effect of omega-3 fatty acids on intensity of primary dysmenorrhea
Anti-inflammatory Effects Of Omega 3 Fatty Acid In Fish Oil Linked To Lowering Of Prostaglandin
Outsmart Endometriosis by Dr Jessica Drummond
Lion Heart
Aqua Biome Fish Oil
Lattes and teas
Super Turmeric Latte recipe
Curcumin inhibits endometriosis endometrial cells by reducing estradiol production
Nicole Jardim Fix Your Period book
Dr. Aviva Romm ginger recommendations
The effect of ginger for relieving of primary dysmenorrhoea
Comparison of Effects of Ginger, Mefenamic Acid, and Ibuprofen on Pain in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea
Yoga and stretches for pelvic pain
Yoga for endometriosis
Stretches for endometriosis
Pelvic floor and fascia release exercises by Dr. Nicole Cozean
Sugar
Inflammatory cytokine concentrations are acutely increased by hyperglycemia in humans: role of oxidative stress
Proinflammatory effects of glucose and anti-inflammatory effect of insulin: relevance to cardiovascular disease
100% black sugar free peanut butter mini eggs
Hazelnut truffles
Absolute Black (can find the bar in Sainsburys)
Hotel Chocolat buttons (these are AMAZING, but I don’t love their other 100% chocolate products)
So Free sweet dark chocolate
Raw cacao (you can find this in Sainsburys, but generally you can get raw cacao everywhere and online)
Stevia drops
Troo syrup
Stevia powder
Perfect World ice cream
My brownie recipe
Sweet Laurel’s Bakery blog
Endometriosis and dairy episode
Endometriosis and caffeine episode
Endometriosis and sugar episode
Endometriosis and gluten episode
Molly Roberson interview
Eat the rainbow
Oxidative Stress and Endometriosis: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Women with endometriosis improved their peripheral antioxidant markers after the application of a high antioxidant diet
Dr. Nicole Cozean is the pelvic floor physiotherapist who is changing the way we think about and treat pelvic floor disorders and pelvic pain - and lucky for us, interstitial cystitis is her passion area.
Dr. Nicole Cozean is the owner of Pelvic Sanity and author of the incredible The Interstitial Cystitis Solution, which is an amazing resource for both patients and practitioners alike. We know that endometriosis and pelvic pain are more often than not found together, causing those of us who live with them to often feel helpless and confused as we battle two chronic conditions at one time. But Nicole takes a refreshing and almost radical approach to IC and pelvic pain in contrast to the conventional medical approach - she rarely treats the bladder itself. Instead, through extensive research and clinical practice, Nicole has identified three key areas that she addresses to see long-term remission of IC: dysfunction, inflammation and pain signals.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How do you know if you have interstitial cystitis when you’ve been in pain for so long with endo - what is ‘normal’ bladder function?
- The theories behind interstitial cystitis and the validity of them - what should we believe and what do we know to be true?
- The link between the menstrual cycle and interstitial cystitis - is there actually a connection?
- Common IC triggers - do oxalates and histamines play a role?
- How the brain is more responsible for our IC pain than our bladder is, and what to do about it.
- DIY pelvic floor physio and fascia release we can do at home.
This is a really powerful conversation - one that both educates, empowers and provides hope. I know I’m going to be making changes thanks to the advice Nicole has shared in this episode, and I truly hope this conversation helps you with your IC and Endo healing journey too.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Pelvic Sanity
Nicole’s Instagram
Nicole’s book
Pelvic Sanity YouTube
IC Roadmap - online course
Strategies for calming the nervous system episode
Just a quick message to say I'm taking a season break on the back of ep.100 to batch record some really exciting interviews and get them all ready for you! I'll be back in two weeks.
In the meantime, you can keep learning about endometriosis in my articles on Endometriosis News and Endometriosis Net.
It’s the 100th episode! To celebrate I’m sharing the foundation steps I take with my clients to create their personalised holistic healing plan for endometriosis.
I’ve developed this approach after spending seven years working with the endo community and on my own healing journey, and studying with leading specialists such as Dr Jessica Drummond and Dr Allison Siebecker. I hope by sharing some of my core steps, it’ll help you navigate your own healing journey and give you a foundation on which to build your own plan.
In this episode I share some of my main areas of focus when creating an endo healing plan:
- Nutrition for endometriosis - ant-inflammatory eating, foods for hormones and blood sugar
- Gut healing - removing trigger foods, getting to the root problem and gut recovery
- Restoration - optimising sleep, managing stress and recovering from HPA axis dysfunction
- Detoxification pathways - hydrate, heal gut, remove toxins
- Structural support - visceral manipulation, pelvic floor physiotherapy, good surgery
- Cycle syncing - tracking with Fertility Awareness Method, eating for the different phases and syncing your life and movement
- Supplements - when to use supplements shown to target endometriosis, period pain and inflammation
Remember, everyone is different and your healing has to tailored to you - your life, your body and your needs. Take from this what feels right for you in this moment and don’t worry about the rest!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Episode on managing stress to lower pain signals
Episode on managing blood sugar with Megan Hallet
Episode on blood sugar
Understanding the Endo Belly ep.1
Understanding the Endo Belly ep.2
Episode with Dr Jessica Drummond
Episode with Molly
Episode with Nicole Jardim
Episode on hydration
Episode with Dr Siebecker discussing visceral manipulation
Episode with Dr Andrew Cook about the best surgery for endometriosis
Episode with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
Episode with Jenni Hulburt about syncing your exercise with your cycle
Episode with Shannon Leparksi
Episode with Maisie Hill
Article on BeYou about natural pain relievers
The SIBO queen, Dr. Allison Siebecker, is back with part two on our deep dive into all things SIBO, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis.
In this episode, we’re talking about how to test for SIBO and how to interpret your results, how to treat SIBO and how to lessen your chances of relapse with prevention methods. It’s a great episode and one that I cannot recommend enough for starting out on this SIBO/endo belly journey.
Here’s a breakdown of everything we discuss in this interview:
- How to test for SIBO and which type of test is best - the lactulose breath test or glucose?
- Why a three hour test is always recommended over a two hour test.
- How to interpret your results and what your gas levels mean for your treatment options and how to look for hydrogen sulfide clues.
- Why you have to test to know how to treat.
- The treatment options for hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide.
- The types of antibiotics used for SIBO.
- The types of antimicrobial herbs used for SIBO.
- What the elemental diet is and when it should be used for SIBO.
- Why prevention is a crucial stage of SIBO recovery.
- How and when to use diet for SIBO.
- The role of prokinetcis in SIBO.
- How to do meal spacing to prevent a relapse after treatment.
- Why patience and persistence is all part of the process of treating SIBO.
If you’ve been struggling with the endo belly, constant IBS issues, bloating, nausea and so many of the other stomach issues that seem to come hand in hand with endometriosis, this episode is absolutely the one to listen to.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Smart SIBO Test
Find a doctor
Find a testing lab in your area
Dr Siebecker’s testing info ( including the food poisoning test)
Frequency Specific Microcurrent Therapy
Clear Passage
Neural Therapy
Visceral Manipulation Therapy
SIBO and endo study
SIBO and endotoxins
Dr Siebecker’s treatment plan article
Dr Siebecker’s interview about hydrogen sulfide treatment with Dr. Ruscio
Dr Siebecker’s interview about methane treatment with Rebecca Coomes
Dr Siebecker’s patient course
Is this the highlight of my podcast career so far? Absolutely. Today I’m joined by my tutor, the wonderful Dr. Allison Siebecker discussing small intestine bacterial overgrowth, endometriosis and interstitial cystitis.
A naturopathic doctor and SIBO patient herself, Dr. Allison Siebecker is one of the world’s leading SIBO experts and provides truly the best SIBO resource on the internet. Dr. Siebecker has worked with thousands of patients and has dedicated her career to treating some of the most difficult SIBO cases, whilst educating both health care practitioners and the general public about this commonly under diagnosed condition with her courses, website and upcoming book.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Her own experience of developing chronic SIBO and how she manages it now.
- Why a chronic case of SIBO doesn’t mean you can’t live a full and happy life.
- The signs and symptoms of SIBO to look out for.
- The associated conditions including interstitial cystitis and endometriosis.
- The root causes of SIBO - specifically endometriosis adhesions and what we can do about them.
If you’ve been struggling with the endo belly, constant IBS issues, bloating, nausea and so many of the other stomach issues that seem to come hand in hand with endometriosis, this episode is absolutely the one to listen to.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Smart SIBO Test
Find a doctor
Find a testing lab in your area
Dr Siebecker’s testing info ( including the poison test)
Frequency Specific Microcurrent Therapy
Clear Passage
Neural Therapy
Visceral Manipulation Therapy
SIBO and endo study
SIBO and endotoxins
Some of you may know that I was recently diagnosed with both hydrogen and methane type SIBO, and suspected hydrogen sulfide type SIBO too. This diagnosis, whilst I was certain would come back positive, still knocked me emotionally.
With this knowledge, I was able to piece together symptoms and struggles I have faced my entire life and begin making sense of my health story. Though endometriosis has played a huge part, SIBO has in fact been with me for much longer and has continued to cause me problems despite getting my endometriosis under control. Coming to terms with this news has been a relief but also a grieving process as I’ve looked back and realised how much SIBO had dictated my life up until this point.
As a result, I thought it might be helpful to share with you my considerations when choosing my treatment, how I’m processing the news, my concerns about managing and/or treating my SIBO, how SIBO has affected my health and what I’m doing in the present moment to reduce my symptoms.
In this episode, I’m sharing:
- My SIBO test results and what they mean.
- A recap of SIBO symptoms and signs.
- What kind of treatment plan I’m going to go with - antibiotics, antimicrobial herbs or the elemental diet, or a combination, and what these are.
- My reflections on how SIBO has shaped both my physical and mental health as a child and the implications of that, including chronic fatigue and anxiety. Trigger warning: this section includes a discussion around eating disorders.
- My process for managing my symptoms now until I begin treatment.
As mentioned above, this episode comes with a trigger warning as I spend a significant portion of time discussing my past history with disordered eating. Please take care of yourself and if it’s best for you to skip this episode, please feel free to do so.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
L-glutamine and cancer: I went back and checked my course and Dr Drummond states that high doses of l-glutamine may feed cancer cells. She felt it better to do high doses for a short period of time rather than lower for longer, but speak to your practitioner for accurate dosaging. You can also have a read of this article for more information on the link between cancer and l-glutamine.
Smart SIBO Test
Find a doctor
Find a testing lab in your area
Dr Siebecker’s testing info
It’s finally here! The long awaited episode on how to test for SIBO. Many of you have been contacting me to ask how to get tested or whether you can test at home, so here’s my episode discussing all the ins and outs.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the key points in the episode:
- Hydrogen and methane type SIBO can be detected through a SIBO breath test.
- You can order at-home kits. In my experience, most GPs won’t/can’t order SIBO breath tests and aren’t familiar with it, though GI doctors may be able to and SIBO specialist doctors certainly can.
- A SIBO breath test involves drinking a solution of glucose or lactulose and breathing into a test tube for 2-3 hours. The substrate will feed the bacteria, which will create fermentation, and the gas is then collected in the test tube and measured in the lab in parts per million.
- Tests can be either 2 hours with 8 test tubes or 3 hours with 10 test tubes. 2 hours runs the risk of missing SIBO in a person with slow gut motility, so for that reason, I prefer to go with a 3 hour test.
- Some specialists prefer testing with glucose, others lactulose. I like to use lactulose as glucose is absorbed in the first 1-3 feet of the small intestine and the small intestine is on average 22 ft long! So if the SIBO is further down, a glucose test can miss it entirely.
- A prep diet and overnight fast is required before taking the test. This is a low to no carb diet of meat, fish, eggs, black tea or coffee. There are some allowances for vegans, vegetarians or diabetics. If a patient ate too many carbs, or did the prep test incorrectly it would skew the test results and the test would need to be redone.
- The North American breath testing consensus states that a positive for hydrogen would be a rise of 20 ppm or more (parts per million) from the baseline (the breath before drinking the solution) in the first 90 minutes. A positive for methane would be 10ppm or more in the whole 180 minutes, including the baseline.
- Dr Allison Siebecker, who I trained with, has a slightly different diagnostic range after years and years of working with SIBO clients and consulting with other SIBO specialists. A positive hydrogen for her would be 20ppm in the first 120 minutes, with no rise needed as long as the baseline isn’t the highest number. Methane is 10 within 180 but if constipation was present, the methane would be positive if the reading was 3-9ppm.
- Though hydrogen sulfide SIBO cannot be detected with this test, some H2S patients have a flat line pattern that indicates the presence of H2S. This would be a result of 6ppm or less for hydrogen and 3ppm or less for methane.
- An elevated baseline (so not 0) is normal for methane.
- In the USA, lactulose requires a prescription so you would need to find a doctor who could help you order it.
For a deeper dive and my breakdown on how to take the test itself, have a listen to the show! I really hope this episode helps those of you who are suspecting that SIBO may be the culprit behind your endobelly.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Smart SIBO Test
Find a doctor
Find a testing lab in your area
Dr Siebecker’s testing info
If you have endometriosis, it’s pretty like you have bladder pain or bladder problems too. Many us struggle with frequency, urgency, bladder pressure, bladder pain and chronic UTIs without much hope of resolution when we go and see our doctor.
Elisabeth Yaotani experienced this for over a decade of her life. For years, her bladder pain and symptoms worsened despite undergoing the standard medical treatment for interstitial cystitis. Finally, she stumbled upon some alternative healing strategies and for the first time in 10 years, began to see symptom reduction.
Today, she is the founder of IC Wellness. A digital space providing community, resources, education and services to put your IC into remission.
In this episode, Elisabeth and I discuss:
- What interstitial cystitis is and the key symptoms.
- The root causes and associated conditions.
- The conventional approach to IC treatment and how that varies from the functional medicine approach.
- Her own story of healing.
- Her version of the IC diet and why nutrition plays such a pivotal role.
- The key healing strategies she recommends for putting IC into remission.
- The best testing options for interstitial cystitis.
This episode was so fascinating and informative! I know if you experience bladder pain like I do, you’re just going to love this conversation. It’s worth taking notes!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
IC Wellness
Organics acids test
GI Map test
MicrogenDX
Pathnostics
Aperiomics
DUTCH
Pain signals podcast
Dr. Juan Michelle Martin is a pelvic floor physiotherapist with a specialist interest in endometriosis and women’s health.
Across 13 years of treating patients, Dr Martin has come to notice the inequalities and inadequacies within women’s pelvic health, especially for black women. Often when women finally see Juan, they’ve had years of various dismissive doctors and finding Juan is the first time they’re heard and see. Dr Juan Michelle Martin takes a holistic approach, focusing not just on the pelvic floor but the whole person - their nutrition, lifestyle, stress levels and much more.
In this episode we discuss:
- The disparities in healthcare for black women and what needs to change in the medical industry.
- How pelvic floor dysfunction can lead to worsening endometriosis pain, even after surgery.
- How pelvic floor dysfunction and inflammation can affect abdominal organs such as the bladder and the intestines.
- Why pain spreads and why pelvic pain often worsens over time.
- Exercises to avoid with endometriosis and pelvic pain.
This was such an interesting episode! if you haven’t started seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist yet, I’m sure you’re going to want to after listening to this interview!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the next round of coaching, starting in July, and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Dr Martin’s website
Dr Martin’s Facebook
Dr Martin’s Instagram
Dr Martin’s YouTube
Fueling Her: A Woman’s Guide To Wellness Podcast
Hi loves. It’s been a heart-breaking week or so, but an eye-opening one and hopefully a week that signifies the beginning of true change.
Due to the unacceptable murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop and Ahmaud Arbery (and countless others), I decided not to continue with the planned podcast this week.
Instead, I wanted to share two stories. One is a repost of my interview with Lauren Kornegay of ENDO Black, where she shares her story of racism, endometriosis and isolation in our community and what we can do to be better allies, and another is a story that I’m sharing, of a girl who is no longer with us, who should be.
I don’t know if I’ve done the right thing sharing this story. But I’m convinced that she had endometriosis, and I am convinced that had she been white, the outcome would have been different and she’d be here within our community today. Of course, this episode comes with a trigger warning. The story I share is a story of yet another black death, I’ve seen various posts on IG with black people asking for people to stop sharing stories of more deaths beacause they can’t take anymore where others are calling for these stories to be shared to raise awareness. I’m not sure of the right thing to do here given the divided opinions, I hope I’ve done the right thing by giving her a voice and sharing her story. Please do not listen to the first 30 minutes of this episode if this is a triggering subject for you. I sincerely apologise for any offence I may have caused, if you do indeed feel that I shouldn’t have shared this story.
I also share in today’s episode several IG accounts by black women working in the period wellness and endometriosis community:
@fertilityfriday
@krystal.kirton
@moonli.woman
@thewombroom
@endo_black
@statusflow.co
@pelviswellness
@berrionlberry
Lauren Kornegay is the founder of ENDO Black; a safe space and community for people of colour and African Americans affected by endometriosis. After being diagnosed with endometriosis and discovering that she couldn’t find any materials or information that represented her or didn’t centre around cis white women, she decided to go out and create it for herself and the communities that have been so underrepresented.
And Lauren’s work is so needed. Here are some shocking statistics about people of colour and the treatment they receive (or don’t receive) around their reproductive health (thanks to Maisie Hill for this info in her book):
Black women are more likely than white women to have unnecessary surgeries such as hysterectomies.
A 2012 review of endometriosis research found that only two articles were devoted to endometriosis in black women. They were published in 1975 and 1976 and found that black women with endometriosis tended to be incorrectly diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease - disease caused by sexually transmitted infections.
In the UK, black women are five times more likely to die in the childbirth year than white women, and Asian women are twice as likely to.
In fact, Maisie goes on to explain “In the American South there is a history of medical students practicing medically unnecessary hysterectomies on poor black women without informed consent” and that “it was the experimental reproductive surgeries performed on black enslaved women in the 1920s and 1930s that gave birth to modern American gynaecology”.
Lauren is working hard to create support and representation for people of colour, African Americans and other groups that the medical industry have missed when it comes to treating and managing endometriosis. She’s also looking to create change without our policies and laws, and to begin conversations and create awareness within these communities.
In this episode, we talk about Lauren’s personal story and the experiences she had as an African American women with endometriosis, the issues facing people of colour and African Americans with endo and how we can collectively work together to make the endometriosis community more inclusive and be allies to every warrior with endometriosis, not just the ones that look like us.
It was an absolute privileged to have Lauren on and share this incredibly important message with us - I am truly grateful for the work she is doing!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
ENDO Black
ENDO Black Facebook Group
ENDO Black Instagram
Period Power book
Ah caffeine. That legal drug which apparently 90% of the world is consuming, which is pretty interesting when you consider the impact it has on our hormones and endometriosis.
We’ve talked about caffeine and endometriosis before, but today I’m sharing an updated version on the subject as well as my own personal tips and experiences with reducing my caffeine intake.
This is an exert from a Facebook Live I did in my Owning This EndoLife Challenge Facebook group - a safe space where each month you can learn new methods for reducing your endometriosis symptoms and thriving with endo.
Here are some key takeaways from the episode:
- Caffeine causes blood sugar spikes, and if you were with us during March, you'll know how important stable blood sugar is for balanced hormones and endometriosis management. Read up on it all here.
- Whilst it's not an inflammatory for everyone, caffeine is an inflammatory for many of us. Higher levels of inflammation in our bodies mean worsening pain levels - not to mention a host of other issues such as a higher risk of depression, anxiety and chronic diseases.
- Caffeine has been shown in studies to contribute to the development of cysts in both the breasts and ovaries. So if you have PCOS or endometriomas, this is super important.
- Caffeine can over-burden the liver, meaning that it can't handle detoxing the body of excess or toxic forms of oestrogen, resulting in oestrogen build up in the body which can lead to further endo growth.
- Caffeine can cause our body to create feelings of anxiety, such as accelerated heart beat and breathing, making us feel anxious - even if we're not.
- Caffeine is considered an anti-nutrient, meaning it takes a lot of nutrients to process and remove from the body, resulting in depleted levels of hormone essentials such as B vitamins.
- Caffeine can upset the gut in multiple ways, from aggravating IBS to causing an imbalance in your gut bacteria. These problems can lead to multiple issues such as nutrient malabsorption to leading gut and food intolerances.
- Caffeine affects your sleep quality - which has a huge knock on affect on your health, from reducing the healing processes that take place whilst you sleep, to making you insulin resistant the next day (again, read up on blood sugar) and negatively affecting your mental health, just for starters.
- Caffeine has been linked in studies to infertility problems, which many people with endometriosis are battling with.
- Cut down by one cup if you're drinking multiple cups a day. Try removing the cup you have later in the day, to help improve your sleep.
- Start switching to decaf bit by bit - try 3/4 scoop of caffeinated to 1/4 scoop of decaf, and then over the month get to a whole scoop of decaf only.
- Swap your caffeinated drink for my Lion's Milk recipe (you all have access to my book for free, here).
- If you're really not ready to quit yet - never drink caffeine on an empty stomach, it'll send your blood sugar soaring!
- Add some fat to your caffeine to slow down the blood sugar spike and minimise the damage, try coconut oil, MCT oil or collagen powder.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
My brain fog busting hot choc
My turmeric latte
Bullet Proof Coffee
Maybe you want to exercise with endometriosis but you find your fatigue overwhelms you. Perhaps you’re not sure whether you should exercise on your period. Or maybe you’re worried about the impact of exercise on chronic pain?
Today I’m talking to Jenni Hulburt of WILD Wellness, the fitness specialist who is helping women and people with periods to live and sweat in sync with nature.
After Jenni’s own experience with HPA axis dysfunction and burnout, she began listening to her body and decided to apply her knowledge of fitness and exercise to the natural rhythms and wisdom of nature. With a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science and Masters in Sport Psychology, Jenni is the ideal guest to talk to us about exercising with endometriosis and how to move our body whilst listening to its signs and signals, and moving in harmony with our menstrual cycles.
In today’s episode Jenni and I talk about -
- What over-training can do to your hormone levels and how cortisol can affect everything from your sleep to your period.
- Why the modern approach to working out isn’t the best model for the female body.
- What the difference phases of the menstrual cycle are and how they affect our energy levels and physiology.
- Which types of exercises are best for the different phases of the cycle.
- How to move your body when endometriosis causes your chronic fatigue, pain and a tight pelvic floor.
- How to get started with moving your body in rhythm with your cycle.
For those of you who can move your body or are feeling at the stage where you want to consider some kind of movement, this episode is full of information to help you get started.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
HPA Axis Dysfunction tests: Adrenal Hormone Metabolites and/or Advanced Adrenal Stress Test
WILD Wellness website
WILD Wellness podcast
Jenni’s instragram
Jenni’s Facebook
Workout without Burnout - online course
Quiz: What’s Your Workout Style by Nature?
Cyclical Body Quick Guide - free download
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.Today I’m talking about SIBO - Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth.
SIBO is a very common gut health condition, in fact, research has shown that 60-70% of IBS cases are actually caused by SIBO. To add to that, endometriosis is a risk factor for developing SIBO, so for those of us with endo and even with IBS too, this is a condition we want to be aware of.
- SIBO is an accumulation of of bacteria and archaea in in the small intestine.
- SIBO can cause damage to the small intestine and can cause malapsorption, nutrient deficiencies and intolerances.
- The symptoms of SIBO are bloating, fullness, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, gas, burping, GERD or acid reflux. SIBO can also cause symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, headaches, rashes, swelling and nasal congestion.
- There are three types of SIBO: hydrogen, methane and hydrogen sulfide type SIBO.
- Hydrogen sulfide type SIBO can also cause additional symptoms such as bladder pain, bladder frequency and urgency, generally feeling unwell, worsening food intolerances, histamine sensitivity, sulfur smelling gas, body pain, tingling and numbness in the hands and feet and worsening symptoms after Epsom salt baths and sulfur containing foods.
- Hydrogen type SIBO tends to cause diarrhea.
- Hydrogen sulfide tends to cause diarrhea but can cause constipation.
- Methane tends to cause constipation.
- Both hydrogen and methane together can cause constipation or diarrhea, or a mix of both (so sometimes you’re constipated, sometimes you have diarrhea).
- Methane and hydrogen sulfide together can cause either or both.
- All three types together can cause either or both.
- Key signs of SIBO are symptoms, low B12, low ferritin, vitamins A/D/E/K deficiencies, low omega 3 levels, sometimes low albumin; leaky gut symptoms, and conditions such as interstitial cystitis, psoriasis, restless leg syndrome, rosacea, and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Key causes to look out (there are many, but most relevant to our community) are endometriosis, abdominal surgery (inc. laparoscopy), chronic stress leading to slow gut motility, low stomach acid and low digestive enzymes, food poisoning and hypothyroidism.
If any of the above sounds like you, listen to this episode and be sure to tune into my follow up episode where I talk about SIBO testing and treatment.
A huge thank you to my tutor Dr Allison Siebecker for her SIBO Pro course, which has provided me with the information and training to be able to share this with you today.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
SIBO symptoms
Associated diseases
SIBO testing
Interstitial cystitis or painful bladder syndrome has been dubbed the evil twin of endometriosis, and often goes undiagnosed because the pain from the two in the pelvic can sometimes overlap and blur.
I only realised that the bladder issues I was experiencing weren’t endo related when my endo symptoms resolved after I changed my diet. Over the years, my bladder pain has only worsened and has now evolved to that point where I experience pain pretty much 247.
Histamines and oxalates can sometimes be behind bladder pain, and so this led me down a path of trying an elimination diet under the guidance of a nutrition at the start of this year. I started sharing my story on IG, but as the story unfolded, I decided it would be better to go quiet on the matter and share it once I was on the other side. So finally - I’m ready to talk!
In today’s episode I discuss -
- The symptoms I was experiencing which motivated me to seek further help and try an elimination diet.
- Oxalates and histamines, what they are and which foods I had to avoid on this elimination diet.
- How I found the elimination diet - what I tried, what worked, what didn’t work.
- What my symptoms are like now and which ones worsened (yes, really!).
- The root causes we identified as being the culprits behind my bladder pain.
- Hydrogen Sulfide type SIBO and bladder pain.
- Biofilms - what they are and how they’re related to bladder pain.
- The next steps on my healing journey.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
The Endometriosis Belly Part 2
Dr Becky Campbell
Guys this episode is SO good! Nicole Jardim is back on the show to talk endometriosis, missing periods, ovulation, thyroid problems and basically all the periods problems you can think of. Her debut book Fix Your Period is out in the world and as someone living with endometriosis and as a endo health coach, I just seriously cannot wait to get stuck into it and use some of her tools and practices with my own healing journey and with my clients.
Nicole and I hopped on to an Instagram Live on Thursday to celebrate the launch of her book in the UK and across the world, and to talk about the key pillars of hormone health that she guides us through in the book.
We talk about -
- Why nutrition, gut health, stress management and blood sugar are the foundations of a healthy period.
- What stress does to our menstrual cycle.
- How blood sugar dysregulation can affect menopause.
- Whether endo can cause hair loss - and what else might be behind it.
- The essential nutrients for thyroid health.
- What hormonal imbalances often occur in people with endometriosis.
- How her book, Fix Your Period, can help those of us with endometriosis.
And so much more! This was the funnest conversation, I really love chatting with Nicole and I’m sure you’ll love listening to all her period wisdom. Also - enjoy the moment where I bitch about my mum, only for my aunt to be watching and pipe in!
If you’d like to get Nicole’s book, you can order your copy here!
Show Notes
Nicole’s website
Nicole’s book
Outsmart Endometriosis: The Elimination 'Undiet' for Endometriosis with Dr Jessica Drummond
Outsmart Endometriosis
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast cookbook
The Endometriosis Health & Diet Program by Dr. Andrew Cook
In the FLO by Alisa Vitti
Ep 66 with Dr Andrew Cook
Ep 64 How To Rebalance Your Hormones with Endometriosis with Nicole Jardim
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Recently I did an Instagram and Facebook Live endometriosis self-care morning, with meditation, pelvic floor stretches, a gratitude practice, intention setting and a q&a. This Live was all about calming down the brain, so that our pain signals reduce and we have less endometriosis flare ups and less pain in general.
I ended the Live with a Q + A answering your questions about how to get started with managing endometriosis naturally and holistically, and supporting you with areas where you feel stuck.
Lots of you wanted this in podcast form, so here is the final installment of this Live and in today’s episode, I’m answering the following questions and addressing the following blocks some of you are facing with managing endometriosis naturally/holistically:
- “I want to get started with managing endometriosis but I’m scared of endometriosis spreading if I’m not on the pill.”
- “My doctor has told me stopping my period is the only way to control endo.”
- “I just don’t understand how to manage endometriosis holistically.”
- “Brain fog and sugar cravings always get in the way.”
I share why the pill doesn’t work for everyone and how the pill may be helpful for endometriosis in some cases (but isn’t a cure), which supplements have been shown to actually reduce the growth rate and severity of endometriosis, the strategies I use for managing endometriosis holistically and naturally - from reducing inflammation, healing the gut to supporting our detoxification systems and what methods you can use for reducing chronic fatigue and beating sugar cravings.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
Show Notes
Semaine
Foria Wellness
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast cookbook
Beating Endo
The Endometriosis Health & Diet Program by Dr. Andrew Cook
Woman Code by Alisa Vitti
In the FLO by Alisa Vitti
Ep 66 with Dr Andrew Cook
Ep 26 with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
Ep 74 Why Drinking Enough Water Is Key For Reducing Endometriosis Symptoms
Ep 55 PCOS, Blood Sugar and Endometriosis with Megan Hallett of Feasting for Hormonal Harmony
Ep 64 How To Rebalance Your Hormones with Endometriosis with Nicole Jardim
Ep 81 Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
Recently I did an Instagram and Facebook Live endometriosis self-care morning, with meditation, pelvic floor stretches, a gratitude practice, intention setting and a q&a. This Live was all about calming down the brain, so that our pain signals reduce and we have less endometriosis flare ups and less pain in general.
I felt like it was such an important time to do this, given that we’re currently in a situation where so many of us are experiencing fear, stress and anxiety. When the brain is stressed, it goes on hyper-alert and reacts in an exaggerated way to everything and anything that could be a perceived threat - including our endometriosis. So you may have noticed that recently, your periods are even more painful, or perhaps you’re getting daily pain when you didn’t before. If this is you - think about your stress/fear/anxiety levels, it’s likely they’ve been pretty high of late.
So I took us through a morning routine for endometriosis, one that would help calm our brains down and wrap our minds in safety, so that our body could in turn calm down too. Many of you contacted me to let me know how useful you found it, and 100% of you in a poll asked for me to share it on my podcast!
As a result, today’s episode is from that Live, and is specifically the morning routine component - focusing on the gratitude and intention setting to help us manage endometriosis and stay rooted in feelings of wellbeing despite everything that’s going on.
In today’s episode I talk about -
- How the brain and pain signalling works, and why stress, fear and anxiety can worsen pain levels.
- Two of my favourite products for dealing with in the moment pain.
- How to create a daily gratitude practice to calm down pain signals.
- How to set an intention for your endometriosis during this difficult time.
Please note that I was Live and this episode is a recording from Facebook, so the sound quality is not amazing - but we’ve done the best we can with it!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
Semaine
Foria Wellness
This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast cookbook
Beating Endo
The Endometriosis Health & Diet Program by Dr. Andrew Cook
Woman Code by Alisa Vitti
In the FLO by Alisa Vitti
Ep 66 with Dr Andrew Cook
Ep 26 with Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
Ep 74 Why Drinking Enough Water Is Key For Reducing Endometriosis Symptoms
Ep 55 PCOS, Blood Sugar and Endometriosis with Megan Hallett of Feasting for Hormonal Harmony
Ep 64 How To Rebalance Your Hormones with Endometriosis with Nicole Jardim
Ep 81 Reduce Fatigue, Endometriosis Symptoms and Oestrogen Dominance with A Better Breakfast
Free resources to help you stay on track with endometriosis during coronavirus crisis:
Managing Endometriosis Naturally Guide
Symptom Tracker
Endometriosis Diet Shopping List
Gluten Free Shopping List
Dairy Free Shopping List
Facebook Group
My Instagram
My Endometriosis New column
My Endometriosis Net column
In this episode, mindfulness teacher Kate McGoey takes us through a calming meditation for endometriosis.
I know it’s been a rough few weeks through COVID19 and stress, anxiety and fear can all lead to heightened pain signals, so a few Saturdays ago I held an Instagram Live where I took us all through a calming morning routine to reduce and anxiety, wrap our brain in safety signals and thus ease pain.
So many of you have said to me that you loved the live and I asked if you’d like it in a permanent podcast episode, and you all said yes! So I’m splitting it up into a few chunks as it was a long 2 hours, and I’m starting with this conversation and mindfulness meditation for pain from Kate.
In this episode, Kate and I talk about -
- How the stress of COVID19 can affect our wellbeing and our endometriosis pain levels
- How meditation can change our experience of pain
- And Kate takes us through a beautiful meditation you can actually try out whilst you’re listening to this episode!
Please note that Kate and I were Live on Instagram, and this episode is a recording from Facebook, so the sound quality is not amazing - but we’ve done the best we can with it!
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
I’m currently offering £300 off my one-to-one coaching programme! If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
Free resources to help you stay on track with endometriosis during coronavirus crisis:
Managing Endometriosis Naturally Guide
Symptom Tracker
Endometriosis Diet Shopping List
Gluten Free Shopping List
Dairy Free Shopping List
Facebook Group
My Instagram
My Endometriosis New column
My Endometriosis Net column
I’ve recently been speaking to my endometriosis community on Facebook and Instagram and a lot of people tell me they don’t know where to start when it comes to managing endometriosis naturally or holistically. They’re constantly Googling the best natural treatments for endometriosis, are reading the latest books and are keeping up to date with endometriosis blogs, but feel totally overwhelmed and anxious about where to start. It feels like there are so many options to try, and they often don’t know which order to try them in.
So I jumped on to FB Live for a group coaching session answering one of these questions, specifically:
“How do you deal with the anxiety and overwhelm of there being so many things to "try" for endo. I feel like there's so many options out there which require trial and error. There's only so much time/money/energy/motivation, and I get so overwhelmed.”
So in this episode I talk about how to identify which options, including -
- What I start with in the clinic with my endometriosis clients and why.
- What to do if you’re super stressed out by it all and don’t know where to start, and what I do when a client feels like this.
- Identifying what your biggest challenge is with endo.
- Exploring your options and deciding which option is the next best step for you.
- How to consider time, money, energy and motivation when deciding which option to try.
- How to create a strategy of small changes you can implement over your chosen period of time to manage endometriosis.
- What to do if you’re in serious pain and just want a solution now.
I truly hope this episode is useful to you, especially during a time when we’re tempted to stop some of our endometriosis management practices because we’re feeling scared and overwhelmed by the current climate.
Remember, if you feel off track, you’re having endo flares or you just want to get started with managing your endo despite what’s going on, you can get support with my free Facebook group (which is a year long challenge to manage endo), my cookbook is currently free and I have free shopping lists, a symptom tracker and a natural endometriosis treatment guide.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
I’m currently offering £300 off my one-to-one coaching programme! If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
Managing Endometriosis Diet Overwhelm episode
Free resources to help you stay on track with endometriosis during coronavirus crisis:
My cookbook
Managing Endometriosis Naturally Guide
Symptom Tracker
Endometriosis Diet Shopping List
Gluten Free Shopping List
Dairy Free Shopping List
Facebook Group
My Instagram
My Endometriosis New column
My Endometriosis Net column
Vickie Williams is a Women’s Health Researcher and Tedx speaker currently completing her PhD in Endometriosis at Work and Menstrual Policy, and you may remember her from the podcast two years earlier, where we talked all about yoga and reiki for endometriosis.
In today’s episode Vickie and I discuss -
- Vickie’s personal experience of endometriosis in her career.
- The current experience and challenges of people with endometriosis at work.
- The current support available (government level and organisation level) and ways to manage endometriosis in the workplace.
- What other support and policy changes are needed to help people working with endometriosis e.g. what employers could do and menstrual policy.
- Tips for those of you struggling with endo at work right now.
I am so fascinated by Vickie’s work and think it’s absolutely essential that more is done to support people with endometriosis at work. I hope you find this conversation helpful, informative and hopeful - and at a time where so much is uncertainty around work, I hope this brings you some clarification over your rights.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
I’m currently offering £300 off my one-to-one coaching programme for Endometriosis Awareness Month! If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
Free resources to help you stay on track with endometriosis during coronavirus crisis:
My cookbook
Managing Endometriosis Naturally Guide
Symptom Tracker
Endometriosis Diet Shopping List
Gluten Free Shopping List
Dairy Free Shopping List
Facebook Group
My Instagram
My Endometriosis New column
My Endometriosis Net column
Self-care Coaching Morning on Instagram, Sat 28th, 8.15am GMT
Vickie’s links:
Vickie’s Instagram
Vickie’s Tedx Talk
Endometriosis UK workplace guidance
Endometriosis UK Endometriosis Friendly Employer Scheme
DWP website
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.
In part 2 of this series, I’m talking about the foundations of good gut health and what signs to look for that your GI tract is missing these -
- Chewing: How many times should we be chewing our food, why does it matter and why does chewing less contribute to the endometriosis belly?
- Stomach acid: What is it, why is it important for good gut health (and for reducing endo symptoms and bloating) and what happens if we’re low in it? How does endometriosis, chronic pain and chronic fatigue affect our stomach acid?
- Digestive enzymes: What do digestive enzymes do, how do they help us thrive with endometriosis and what happens when we’re low in them? Can endometriosis and its co-conditions have an impact on digestive enzymes?
I also provide you with three core questions to ask yourself when assessing your gut health, so you can begin painting a picture of what improvements you could make to start reducing the endometriosis belly.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. The waiting list for April’s cohort is open now. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Outsmart Endometriosis
Understanding The Endometriosis Belly, Part 1
This episode is another special one where I share with you guys what’s been going on in my year long Facebook challenge and what we’re working on during Endometriosis Awareness Month.
In March, we’re reducing fatigue, endometriosis symptoms and even oestrogen dominance with one simple step - balancing blood sugar at breakfast.
Why is this important?
So. Many. Reasons. But here's a quick breakdown.
- Stable blood sugar levels in turn stabilises energy levels and helps to combat those big swings, especially those slumps where we could just fall asleep at our desks.
- Stable blood sugar helps to reduce and regulate inflammation - key for managing endo and chronic inflammation can also cause fatugue and brain fog.
- Imbalanced blood sugar creates crazy hormones - low progesterone and high oestrogen levels. Low progesterone causes symptoms like irregular cycles, anxiety, depression, migraines and irritability. High levels of oestrogen or oestrogen dominance can actually progress the growth of endometriosis and cause heavy periods, painful periods and PMS. Basically, nothing we want.
- Unstable blood sugar can continue whilst you sleep (especially if you have a sugar or carb heavy meal for dinner/dessert) and actually cause insomnia, which is really not going to help our fatigue. Wake up in the early hours? It's likely to be a blood sugar issue.
Why are we starting with breakfast?
Because if you get on the unstable blood sugar train, it's very hard to get off!
Once you cause high blood sugar by eating too many refined carbs or an imbalanced meal for breakfast, you're going to come back down with a thud in an hour or two - and you'll find yourself tired, cranky and needing a caffeine fix to get you through the morning.
If you skip breakfast altogether, you're going to be playing havoc with your hormones and energy levels as well - again creating a scenario for fatigue, inflammation and hormonal problems. If you find yourself shaky, irritable or feeling low, consider if you've eaten enough and whether it was balanced.
So how do we create a blood sugar balancing breakfast?
Make sure you're getting fibre, complex carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats in your breakfast.
Generally, aim for -
50% veggies/low sugar fruits (always lean towards the veggies!)
25% protein
25% split between good fats and starchy wholefood carbohydrates
I've created a little cheat for you which you can download and keep on your phone, or print off and stick on your fridge, which includes a breakdown of the above and the types of foods you can go for.
In this episode I share recipe ideas for the endometriosis diet and give you examples of what a blood sugar balancing breakfast might look like, so you can create your own ‘endometriosis diet plan’. Remember - everyone is different, so create a plan that works for you!
I hope you love this episode and find it useful! If you’d like to get more support with these changes, you can join my free year long Facebook challenge!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
I’m currently offering £300 off my one-to-one coaching programme for Endometriosis Awareness Month! If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
- To really understand how to balance blood sugar and why it's so important for fatigue and endometriosis, read my chapter "Why Do You Keep Banging On About Blood Sugar?" in my book. If you haven't downloaded it yet, you can get it for free here.
- Download the cheat-sheet, and have it near you when you're in the kitchen. Take it shopping!
When you read about endometriosis in the media, often the biggest headline is that it causes infertility. We hear more about the struggles than we do about the success stories, and we’re often told to get pregnant soon - whether we want or are ready for children or not. The media, the mixed information and varying personal accounts can often leave us feeling confused.
So what are the statistics behind endometriosis and infertility? Endometriosis is associated with a 30%-50% prevalence of infertility - but just because someone struggles to get pregnant, doesn’t mean they’ll never be able to conceive.
When I discovered Stefanie Valakas, I knew I had to get her on the show. Stefanie is a accredited Dietician and Nutritionist specialising in supporting couples to optimise their fertilty and nourish their young families into childhood. She is the founder of The Dietologist, where she works with people living with PCOS, endometriosis and other hormonal conditions, to create a healthy foundation to conceive from, and supports her clients throughout pregnancy and into parenting.
In this episode we talk about -
- Stefanie’s own journey with endometriosis
- How and why endometriosis can affect fertility
- The three core ways she supports people with endometriosis to conceive and have healthy pregnancies
- Key nutrients and foods for fertility
- Nutrition for IVF
- How to get started with preparing for pregnancy - whether you hope to conceive soon or in five years time.
This is the first time we’ve really talked about fertility on the show, so I truly hope you enjoy it and it’s of use to you! I was fascinated with our chat!
Stefanie will be taking over my Instagram on Wednesday 11th March to answer your listener questions that you guys sent in! So stay tuned. :)
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.
I’m currently offering £300 off my one-to-one coaching programme for Endometriosis Awareness Month! If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website.
I am now offering one-off two hour sessions for those of you who aren’t quite ready for a 12 week coaching programme. This intensive deep dive session will kick start your journey to living and thriving with endometriosis and give you a plan that you can take forward and work on alone. Click here to find out more about the programme.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
Show Notes
The Dietologist website
The endometriosis belly, the endometriosis tummy, the endo bloat, the endo belly, the endo pooch - whatever you call it, you know what I’m talking about.
That weird phenomena where your belly suddenly decides to make you look six months pregnant, not only is it uncomfortable, sometimes painful (especially if you have adhesions), it can also affect us emotionally - whether it’s about our self-esteem or because it plays on our fears around fertility.
But what is endometriosis bloating? What causes it, and what can we do about it?
In this series of episodes, I’m going to be diving into all the above and more, and really exploring the role that gut health has in endometriosis.
In part 1 of this series, I’m starting at the top. I’m talking about -
- The theories behind the endometriosis belly.
- Inflammation, the immune system, swelling and the gut.
- How stress affects gut health and endometriosis.
- How the endo belly and the underlying gut issues can worsen endometriosis symptoms.
- And most importantly - the first steps to reducing those endo belly flare ups and supporting your gut health.
I truly hope this episode helps you, and gives you some tools for taking on the endo belly!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. The waiting list for April’s cohort is open now. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Molly Roberson is a Registered Nutritional Therapist, specialising in endometriosis and founder of The Endo Expert.
Last week, Molly and I dived into her story of endometriosis, and her experience with eating for endometriosis. We discussed how the changes she made began to become obsessive, and Molly felt she was losing her joy of not just food, but life, as her eating habits become more and more rigid.
In the second and final part of our interview, we talk about what to do if the ‘endometriosis diet’ triggers disordered eating behaviours for you and how you can eat for endometriosis healthily whilst still enjoying your food.
Molly was such a delight to talk to, and I’m sure you’re going to love this interview!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Molly’s website
Beyond Bread
Rana’s Bakery
Nush yoghurt
Coyo
The wonderful Molly Roberson is a Registered Nutritional Therapist, specialising in endometriosis - and you may in fact know her as The Endo Expert.
Molly began experiencing symptoms as soon as her periods began, and they only worsened as the years went by. Finally, after continuous dismissal, doctors settled on the conclusion that it was likely to be endometriosis. Rather than going for a laparoscopy, Molly, who was already studying nutritional therapy by this point, went away and did her own research, and began managing her symptoms alone.
However, the deeper she went into managing endo, the more complex the diet protocols, and Molly found herself unhappy and eating a highly restrictive diet. As her stress levels and anxiety around her diet went up, so did her pain. Eventually, after she reached breaking point in the middle of a supermarket, Molly went back to basics and followed a general anti-inflammatory diet - eliminating dairy, sugar and gluten. She relaxed, and began enjoying her food again - and her pain resolved.
In this episode, Molly and I dive deep into -
- Her experience with eating for endometriosis.
- Eating for endometriosis and considerations for people who aer struggling with disordered eating.
- The stress response around eating and how it affects our pain levels.
- Her nutritional approach for people struggling with endometriosis.
This interview was so, SO good that it ended up going on for two hours! So I split it into parts 1 and 2 because who has 2 hours straight these days? And secondly, there’s such a wealth of information here, that I thought it’d better serve you in smaller chunks!
It was so amazing to have Molly on the show - I absolutely loved chatting with her, and I’m sure you’re going to love this interview!
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Molly’s website
Beyond Bread
Rana’s Bakery
Nush yoghurt
Coyo
How many servings of fruit and veg do you get in a day?
Did you know, fruits and vegetables are the KEY component of an anti-inflammatory diet? They’re packed full of antioxidants and these play a vital role in reducing inflammation in our bodies.
Inflammation is largely due to a process in the body known as oxidation. In multiple studies, it’s been found that people with endometriosis have higher levels of oxidation and a lower intake of antioxidants, research has also shown that increasing levels of antioxidants, through fruits and vegetables, can help reduce oxidation levels in women with endometriosis.
Another reason fruits, vegetables and antioxidants are so important for endometriosis is down to oestrogen. Oestrogen, in many cases, has been shown to be a key driver of endometriosis growth. While a new study has found that not all endometriosis cells are oestrogen driven - some are driven by progesterone and some neither – there is still a large body of research does clearly show that in many cases oestrogen heightens endo growth.
So ideally, we want to ensure our hormones are balanced and at the levels they should be. One way to do that is to ensure that old and excess oestrogen is properly eliminated from the body through the detoxification system. We need to be eliminating old and excess oestrogen ever day through healthy bowel movements, ideally, you should be having 2 to 4 Bristol type 4 stools a day (check out your stool type here). Research has also found that that antioxidants helped to reduce oestrogen levels by supporting the detoxification pathways.
So how do we support proper bowel function and a healthy detoxification system? Hydration and lots of fibre from fruits and vegetables!
Finally, various studies have found that adding in more fruits and vegetables can be helpful for endometriosis. One study found that adding in more green vegetables and fruits significantly reduced the risk of endometriosis!
Yes it's important to reduce inflammatory food groups but it's also essential to ADD in foods that flight inflammation too!
In this special episode, I am sharing a recording from a FB Live I did in my private Facebook group challenge, Owning This EndoLife Challenge. The free month long challenge involved a new goal each week with videos, tips and resources and this particular challenge feels so important that I wanted to share it. Have a listen to simply to learn, but if you fancy trying the challenge, it’s never too late to join!
Owning This EndoLife Challenge is now set to a free year long group with monthly challenges and videos. You can join here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Bristol Stool Chart
Dr Jessica Drummond is one of the world’s leading endometriosis and women’s health experts. She is the founder of the Integrative Women’s Health Institute, is a licensed physical therapist, licensed clinical nutritionist, and board certified health coach working with women with pelvic pain - and is now the author of Outsmart Endometriosis: Relieve Your Symptoms and Get Your Career Back On Track.
Jessica is a returning guest and with good reason! In this episode, we…
- Demystify the elimination diet for endometriosis, and talk about why and how it’s so important to not just rule out foods forever but to actually focus on adding nutrient dense foods IN.
- We also discuss something that doesn’t come up much in the endometriosis community - oxalates and histamine sensitivities and how that can have an impact on our pelvic pain, especially within the bladder.
- Additionally, we chat about gut health and why it’s crucial to start healing it in order to reduce our symptoms.
Jessica’s book is an incredible insight into managing endometriosis, with practical actions steps you can begin taking to reduce your symptoms with endo. You can get your free copy of Jessica’s new book here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Join my free January Facebook endometriosis challenge! A one month free challenge to help you get started with managing endometriosis and reducing your symptoms. Request access to the group here: Owning This EndoLife Challenge FB Group
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Outsmart Endometriosis
Endometriosis Health Coaches Directory
Sometimes we overlook the really simple basics of health when it comes to managing our endometriosis. We take supplements, eat super foods, restrict other foods - but forget to check in on our foundations, like drinking enough water.
Of course we forget - no one else is asking us about our foundations of our health. No one else is making the connections. We’re not even really told to look after our health with endometriosis.
It’s highly likely that many of you will have the following symptoms, which are all associated with endometriosis - but these are also symptoms of dehydration:
- Brain fog
- Constipation
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating
- Memory issues
If you find yourself constipated, brain foggy, tired, have hard to pass stools or have urine that isn’t clear or pale yellow - this episode is worth a listen. Because being properly hydrated is essential for endometriosis and reducing our symptoms.
Being properly hydrated means our body can properly eliminate oestrogen and toxins, it means our brains can function properly, it gives us more energy and it reduces those IBS issues we get with endo.
In this episode I explore why basic health needs should be addressed during endo treatment, the benefits of hydration for endometriosis management, how to tell you’re dehydrated and
Let's get social! Come say hello on *Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my *newsletter.
Join my free January Facebook endometriosis challenge! A one month free challenge to help you get started with managing endometriosis and reducing your symptoms. Request access to the group here: Owning This EndoLife Challenge FB Group
If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Show Notes
Bristol Stool chart
Urine chart
Hydration calculator
Facebook Group
One to one coaching programme
Many of us have heard about an anti-inflammatory diet for endometriosis, but what about an anti-inflammatory lifestyle? If you were eating a totally anti-inflammatory diet but you were experiencing chronic stress, would that have an impact on your pain levels?
My answer? It’s very, very likely.
There are two key factors that cause further inflammation in our bodies when it comes to our lifestyle.
- Stress, tension and danger signals are often experienced in two places in the body: the neck and shoulders, and the pelvic floor. The body is trying to protect the vital organs in the pelvis and abdomen and so in response to stress, our body believes there’s danger and clenches and tightens the pelvic floor. This creates further pain, nerve sensitivity, muscle and organ dysfunction and distortion and ultimately up-regulates inflammation as a result.
- The brain is designed to recognise stress and danger signals as a priority because it’s programmed to keep us safe. Because of this, it’s much easier and quicker for the body to recognise danger signals and to send these signals (which can translate to pain signals) to the brain. Stress and danger signals actually cause heightened pain levels because your body is hyper sensitive and is hyper aware of any indications of threat, and so will send pain signals to let you know something is wrong.
In this episode I’m going to dive into how to create more SIMS (safety in my system signals) in your every day life to calm down your nervous system and ultimately calm down that inflammatory response. I provide questions, activities and step by step guidance on how to create an ant—inflammatory lifestyle for endometriosis!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Join my free January Facebook endometriosis challenge! A one month free challenge to help you get started with managing endometriosis and reducing your symptoms. Request access to the group here: Owning This EndoLife Challenge FB Group
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This January, I am launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have three spaces left and am booking in consultation calls now. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Show Notes
Headspace meditation app
Why We Sleep
The Zimzum of Love
Communication, Relationships and Endometriosis with Melanie Cox
Relate
You Need A Budget book
You Need A Budget app
Managing Money and Dealing with Financial Struggles with Endometriosis with Michelle Manuel of Her Wealth IQ
Radiant Life Design
Okay guys - I think you’re going to love this episode! It’s super practical and covers a subject a lot of you are curious about: essential oils for endometriosis. Today I am talking to Carine Camara of the Pelvis Wellness Method. Carine is the founder of the Pelvis Wellness Method; which combines the practices of acupuncture, abdominal and pelvic bodywork with energy healing. She’s also an energy body worker, holistic health coach and a licensed acupuncturist - yes, this girl does a lot of things!
Carine’s own experience of chronic fatigue, painful periods and cysts led her down the route of Chinese medicine, after two months of dedicated diet changes, herbal medicine and acupuncture resolved her need for surgery to remove a large cyst. She’s since dedicated her life to training in Chinese medicine and is committed to helping others experience the same level of relief that she did.
In this episode we’re talking about the home remedies you can try to help manage endometriosis and alleviate pain. We discuss -
- Self-intuitive massage and how people with endometriosis can incorporate this into their pain management methods.
- Which essential oils can be safely used in home massage to help with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain.
- Acupressure point for endometriosis.
- The benefits of caster oil packs and how to do them at home.
- Herbs for vaginal steaming and how vaginal steaming can be done safely at home for endometriosis.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This January, I am launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have three spaces left and am booking in consultation calls now. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Pelvis Wellness Method website
Carine’s download for you guys
So many of us start a new year with hopeful intentions, but then struggle to live out those intentions come Feburary. Last week we did a meditation on how we wanted to feel in our bodies in 2020 and the decade ahead. This exercise is a lot more logical, it’s about planning, reflecting and going really deep on your desires for your health. You don’t have to have done the meditation, but if you did, today’s episode is about turning that vision into a reality.
In this episode, I’m going to ask you a series of questions that will really get to the root of your challenges with endometriosis, and will help you extract important lessons, identify what needs to change and really describe what it is your want for you health and where you want to prioritise your focus in 2020.
As a health coach, I have trained in behaviour change and this exercise is a wonderful way to get you motivated and inspired - but most importantly, armed with a road map for thriving with endometriosis.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutriton guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out now! Get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Atomic Habits
Owning This EndoLife Challenge
This episode is a pretty unique one. With a decade ending and a new one approaching, I have recorded a visualisation meditation to help you envision how you want to feel in 2020 and the decade ahead. The key question you will be asking yourself in this meditation is - what if you thrived with endometriosis in 2020?
What would your body feel like?
What would your life look like?
You’ll be invited to envision what your life would be like if you did thrive and if you didn’t - and what one accessible step could you take towards this vision of the future.
Make sure you have a journal to hand, a pen and an hour to really sit with this episode and go deep with this powerful meditation. If now isn’t a good time to do this meditation, save it for the New Year!
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Dr Jessica Drummond
Christmas. I’m not sure there’s any other time of year that can bring up so many complex and rich emotions and experiences. Joy, love, connection mixes with family disputes, awkwardness, and social pressure! Adding endometriosis into the mix only tends to further complicate a time that should be special.
Christmas is also a time of indulgence. Inflammatory foods tend to be the main thing on the menu, and this often results in one of our worst periods come January. So what does that mean for you? Eat and worry about the impact, or not eat those delicious foods but have a more manageable period? I don’t think you have to do either - in fact, for the past five years I’ve been creating ways to feel better and still enjoy those Christmas delights.
So in this episode, I’m sharing exactly how I plan to manage endometriosis at Christmas this year AND I’m sharing a free endometriosis-friendly Christmas mini-cookbook as my Xmas gift to you guys. You can download it here.
Here’s what I talk about in this episode:
- Prioritising rest, and why it’s so important in order to help you move into 2020 with energy and less pain.
- Pelvic floor physiotherapy.
- Exercise for endometriosis.
- Supporting detoxification pathways.
- Adding IN anti-inflammatory foods - including those Christmas favourites of brussel ssprouts, cabbage, nuts and warming spices.
- Supplements to help reduce inflammation and support the body at Christmas.
- Balancing blood sugar for stable hormones.
- Easy anti-inflammatory swaps for inflammatory foods and dishes.
I really hope this episode helps you feel a bit better this Christmas!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Gluten free shopping list of my fav brands
Diary free shopping list of my fav brands
Best natural sugar-free sweeteners
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
This title may seem a little odd to you - but endometriosis affects every area of a person’s life. Every area. That means finances too. In fact, my friend Vickie Williams, recently shared these stats from a worldwide study:
- 7,000 women across 52 countries, over 40% have given up or lost jobs due to endo, and others have gone part-time or self-employed.
- Women with endo lose 10.8 hours a week due to pain.
- Women with endo lose £5,750.72 a year due to time off sick.
It’s bad enough that’s someone’s wellbeing is affected by endometriosis, and that their social life is affected too - let alone the worry of having to take time off and potentially lose money due to being unwell. And what about those of us who need to take a break from working? Or who lose their jobs because their employers don’t understand endometriosis? How do we cope with the financial implications?
It’s no secret to you guys that I took a £10k pay drop to make my work life with endometriosis manageable. And although that came with huge benefits, it also came with a lot of financial stress. I had to use credit cards to pay for things, and I was worry about money constantly. I didn’t have the energy or the health to take the months or years it would have taken me to build financial security, so I just had to get on with it. But you guys don’t have to go down that route.
That’s why today, I’m speaking to financial coach Michelle Manuel, banker turned women’s finance coach and founder of Her Wealth IQ, who’s been through extreme financial difficulties and abundance, and knows how to manage money. In this episode we’re talking about how to manage your money and how to take on those particular challenges that come with endometriosis. We chat about handling priorities on a tight budget, how to save to cover sick pay and losses in earnings and how to plan for the future when you have endometriosis.
This is a really, really good episode which I think will be helpful for anyone - even people who don’t have endometriosis! And giving that it’s almost Christmas time, hopefully this episode will give you back some control at probably the most expensive time of the year.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutriton guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out now! Get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Her Wealth IQ
YNAB
STARLING BANK
This episode comes with a bit of a twist! In fact, it’s not technically one of my episodes. This is an interview I did with Berrion Berry on her podcast, The Feminine FLO Podcast on my experience of living with endometriosis, and what drove me to manage it naturally, and why that inspired me do the work I do through coaching, writing and podcasting.
I decided to share it because on my show, I’ve tended to hold back a little on some of the science I’ve wanted to share with you as I wasn’t yet qualified, but Berri actually interviewed me the week of my final coaching exam, so I was able to fully step into my knowledge and beliefs around managing endometriosis, and I really dove into so much of it in this episode!
In this episode I’m talking about:
- Symptoms of endometriosis
- Diagnosis of endometriosis
- Hormonal imbalances and endometriosis
- Hormonal therapy for endometriosis
- Why food should take a key role in the healing of endometriosis symptoms and management of endometriosis
- And lots more!
I hope it’s a helpful episode for you and one that is perhaps a interesting and refreshing kind of change from what you usually hear on This EndoLife Podcast.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Dr Andrew cook is a world leading endometriosis excision specialist and best selling author whose approach to endometriosis treatment is revolutionary. I absolutely love his perspective on treating endometriosis and looking at the patient as a whole, and I believe that his work is going to change the way the medical industry addresses endometriosis surgery moving forward.
Dr Andrew Cook is the founder of the Vital Health Endometriosis Center, where they take a holistic and integrative approach to healing and perform only the best surgery for endometriosis - excision. Chatting with Dr Cook was a breath of fresh air, it was incredible to hear a medical professional understand the patient’s journey and experience with endometriosis so fully, and who really bares witness to some of the appalling surgeries that are done across the world and only cause more damage. His determination and passion for revolutionising endometriosis treatment and ensuring excision is the standard is so inspiring.
In this episode, we chat about the difference between excision and ablation surgery for endometriosis, how he works with patients to not only remove endometriosis but support his patients to heal and hormonal birth control for endometriosis. We also answer some of your questions including ‘how quickly can endometriosis grow back after surgery?’ and when to have surgery for endometriosis.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutriton guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
In January 2020, I will be launching Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. I have 10 spaces available and am taking bookings and enquiries throughout November and December. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Vital Health Endometriosis Center
Dr Cook’s Instagram
Dr Cook’s books
Recently I reached out to my newsletter subscribers and asked them what questions they had about the endometriosis diet. I was met with so many questions that I couldn’t fit them all into my newsletters, so I decided to answer some of them in a Q + A episode! I didn’t even manage to get through them all, so expect another episode soon.
Here are the questions I answer:
- Which one diet change for endometriosis do you think is the most beneficial?
- What are the top 3 foods to avoid with endometriosis and top 3 foods to eat more of?
- Is a vegan diet for endometriosis healthy?
- My endometriosis is worse when I eat carbohydrates. Is this in my head or a real thing?
- What should I eat when I feel too sick or in too much pain with endometriosis?
- Do you have any endometriosis diet snack recommendations for on the go or at the movies?
- Do you talk about the gut microbiome and endometriosis in your book?
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
My new book This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast: A nutrition guide & cookbook for living and thriving with endometriosis, is out to newsletter subscribers today! Check your email for the secret password to get early access at a special price. My book is out to the rest of the world from Wednesday 20th - get your copy here.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Show Notes
100% Dark Chocolate Drops - these are SO GOOD
Montezuma’s Absolute Black chocolate
Henrietta Norton’s book
Andrew Cook’s book
Ever feel like your hormones are imbalanced when it comes to living with endometriosis? Have you noticed high oestrogen symptoms or have you heard of oestrogen dominance and it’s effects on endo? Do you find yourself experiencing bad PMS, mood swings, depression, insomnia, acne or fatigue?
Whilst we’re often led to believe these are simply part and parcel of life with endometriosis, many of them are largely down to imbalanced hormones and can be reduced if not totally eliminated. In fact, as a result of working to balance my hormones, my energy is more stable, I no longer feel fatigued all the time and I actually sleep! That’s why I was SO excited to have Nicole Jardim on the podcast to talk about rebalancing your hormones with endometriosis.
Nicole Jardim a.k.a The Period Girl is the hormone expert behind the Fix Your Period programmes and The Period Party Podcast and I freaking love her work. Her Fix Your Period programmes help people with periods to get to the root cause of their hormonal issues and instead of masking the symptoms, empowers people to actually heal, balance and restore hormonal harmony. I took Nicole’s Fix Your Blood Sugar Protocol and it has totally changed my energy in the past year. What I love about Nicole is the way she breaks down hormone health so it’s easy to understand.
In this episode, Nicole breaks down what hormonal imbalance actually means and how it might show up for us when it comes to endometriosis, we talk about the hierarchy of hormones and which ones to address first and we dive into oestrogen dominance and oestrogen excess and how these play a role in endo. We also talk about Nicole’s new book, Fix Your Period, which I can’t wait to read!
This one is jam-packed full of science and I hope you love it as much as I did!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Nicole’s Fix your Period Programmes
Nicole’s new book
In this very special episode, I’m talking about how I got my life back and how you can get your life back with endometriosis. In fact, I’m reading the first three sections of my new ebook - This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast. Think of this episode as an audio book! It doesn’t matter if you plan to buy the ebook or not - I want everyone to be able to heat what I’ve written in these first several pages because I hope they inspire, motivate and empower you to begin getting your life back.
I know how hard it can be when you’re in endometriosis pain all the time, how hard it can be to feel tired every day, to be bloated constantly, to have multiple surgeries and try treatments that don’t seem to work. These first chapters of my book are about the options and control you do have over endometriosis, how to begin creating a path of management, from balancing your hormones to reduce inflammation, to getting a physiotherapist. Whatever it is, this episode is about empowering you to start thinking outside of the box, to give you the courage to envision a different life with endometriosis, to dare to think it’s possible to reduce your symptoms.
This isn’t about a cure for endometriosis, but it’s about finding a way to live and thrive with endometriosis. A way that works for you and suits your lifestyle, and unique needs. I truly hope this episode helps you!
If you do happen to be interested in buying my first book, it’s out on November 18th to my lovely newsletter subscribers, and out on public sale November 20th. If you’d like to receive a special discount, subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of its release.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Period Power by Maisie Hill
Period Repair Manual by Lara Briden
Take Control of Your Endometriosis by Henrietta Norton
Beating Endo by Dr Iris Kerin Orbuch and Dr Amy Stein
The Endometriosis Health & Diet Program by Dr. Andrew Cook
WomanCode by Alisa Vitti
The Happy Hormone Guide by Shannon Leparski
The Happy Balance by Megan Hallett and Nicole Jardim.
Shannon Leparski is the plant-based women’s health expert who’s helping people to balance their hormones and manage conditions like endometriosis through good nutrition.
Shannon’s new book, The Happy Hormone Guide, offers a full plant-based nutrition and lifestyle cycle syncing plan that supports every single phase of your cycle, to help readerss to have better periods and ease hormonal symptoms like PMS and brain fog. In her book, she breaks down the best foods to stock up on for the follicular, ovulatory, luteal and menstrual phases and includes recipes for each one!
I eat a plant-based diet for endometriosis and over the years I’ve had questions related to endo and eating this way. Am I getting enough iron? How do I get the right amount of B vitamins? What about omega fatty acids? Shannon doesn’t just address the nutrients that plant-based eaters need, but the nutrients all us need to have good hormonal health. Even though eating a plant-based diet has been shown to reduce inflammation and eating more plants is always one of the first recommendations by nutritionists for endo, it’s important that if we do try eating this way, that we do it responsibly and make sure we’re eating enough of the right things - and that goes for all of us, whatever our diet! I also want to state that we’re all different - some people do better on a Mediterranean diet, others vegan, others paleo. It’s about our genetics, our bodies’ needs, our values and our lifestyles - and it’s okay for us to do things differently when it comes to managing endo. So know that there is no judgement here!
This episode isn’t just for those of us eating plants, it’s for everyone. In this episode we dive into how to create a hormone healthy meal, what to eat in each phase of our cycle and what nutrients are essential for good hormonal health.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
The Happy Hormone Guide
The Glowing Fridge (Shannon’s website)
Shannon’s Instagram
I often get asked what are the best supplements for endometriosis. I always state that what works for me, may not work for you, so I generally share information on the vitamins and herbal supplements that have been shown to help with endometriosis in studies. But there' is something I always share, which is true for the majority for us with endometriosis - reducing inflammation is one of the key components in managing endometriosis. That can be done through eating an anti-inflammatory diet, reducing stress and if appropriate, taking certain health supplements such as curcumin.
I have found that using anti-inflammatory supplements have made a huge difference in reducing my endometriosis pain, specifically, ginger root powder, turmeric and magnesium. That’s why I was so excited when I heard about Semaine; a new supplement design specifically to reduce inflammation and pain for people with painful periods and endometriosis.
Lauren and Catherine Lee are the incredible and literal endo sisters (well - endo twins) behind Semaine, who went on a quest to find a form of pain relief that didn’t negatively effect their bodies. After going through decades of pain without an answer, and then not finding a huge amount of relief from that pain after diagnosis, they begun digging into the studies and research on endometriosis, inflammation and natural options for pain reduction. After experiencing amazing results, they were inspired to see if their herbal and vitamin blend could help others with period pain. After successfully trialing their supplement, Semaine was born.
In this episode, we talk about Lauren and Catherine’s journey to diagnosis, the science behind endometriosis pain and inflammation, the research behind herbs, spices, minerals and vitamins such as vitamin D, magnesium and green tea extract; and why Semaine is about both education and solutions when it comes to living and thriving with endometriosis.
Semaine’s Indiegogo campaign is currently running until November 7th, and if you back Semaine, you can get 30% off for a 6 months or 12 months supply! They are also doing international shipping (yay for us UK folks!). The discount will not be running when they launch in January, so if you’re able to purchase now, go for it!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Semaine’s Indiegogo campaign
Semaine Health website
Semaine Instagram
Two years ago I went self-employed to help manage my endometriosis. Employment just wasn’t working for me - I had been signed off from work, I was struggling to explain the impact endometriosis was having on my mental health to my boss and in short, I simply felt unable to work. It felt like the normal 9-5 work system was just not set up for people like me. People who had low energy, whose health seemed to vary from day to day, whose needs changed hourly, whose mental health was unpredictable and vulnerable.
I found myself in a very difficult and painful decision, but I made the jump and went freelance as a writer and content creator. It was a terrifying time, but also a freeing one and a decision I would never change.
But that decision hasn’t come without its sacrifices. There was the pay cut, but there’s also the very unique challenges that come with being self-employed, which are often heightened by the challenges of endometriosis. I’ve spent two years navigating these - from no longer having sick pay or holiday pay, to having to work extra hours, to creating work-life boundaries, to being lonely, supporting my mental health and working through endometriosis brain fog and fatigue.
It’s admittedly a whole lot easier working for myself. It’s not for everyone, but I’ve found that I’ve managed to keep on top of my anxiety and symptoms, and I’ve seen my productivity soar as I’ve nurtured my skills whilst tending to my needs in a safe environment. Yet I’ve also had to work very hard to manage the difficulties that a self-employed endometriosis warrior faces. So in this episode, I’m exploring going self-employed for endometriosis, and diving into what life can be like for a business owner, entrepreneur or freelancer and the unique challenges they can face when journeying down this road with endo. Whilst this episode is about working for yourself, I do think the tips that I share are applicable to everyone, whether self-employed or employed, so I think it’s worth having a listen whatever your situation!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Rise Podcast ep 92: How To Be Successful in Business Without Compromising Your Health
Goal Digger Podcast ep 298: The Secret to Rest and Why It’ll Make Your Business Better
Brendon Burchard’s podcast
Amy Porterfield’s podcast
Brain FM
Lion’s Mane
Cordyceps
Headspace Meditation App
Gretchen Decker is just wonderful. She is the Holistic Health Coach behind Glow with Gretchen, contributor at Allbodies and co-founder of endometriosis support group, Everything Endo LA.
Gretchen set up Everything Endo LA after discovering that she didn’t have any local support, when she was in desperate need of it. Since then, the group has grown into a safe space that supports people living with and affected by endometriosis, and the group is changing lives.
In this episode, we talk about Gretchen’s incredible health transformation with endometriosis - from being in a dark place to living a life of joy and purpose, what running a support group has done for her and the people she supports and how you can start your own, get involved or attend a support group. I adore Gretchen, and I’m sure you will too!
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Everything Endo LA
Everything Endo LA Instagram
Glow with Gretchen Instagram
Approved book
Life with endometriosis isn’t always easy and it can have a huge impact on a person’s social life. In the past few years, I’ve really experienced this. Even though I’m doing well in my management of the disease, it admittedly takes a lot of work to be able to do that, and sometimes that has come at the price of my social life.
But I believe that a life filled with joyful moments with the ones we love is possible with endometriosis. It just might look different from your ordinary ‘healthy’ person’s social life. So I’m currently exploring ways to expand and enrich my social life, from sending flowers to cosy nights in.
I hope that this episode makes you feel lesson alone, if it feels like endometriosis is taking over your life right now, and that my story gives you some hope.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Tired Girl Society
Goal Digger Loneliness and friendships episode
Endometriosis UK
Everything Endo LA
Shelf Help Club
Harry Potter and The Sacred Text meetups
She’s Lost Control
Rob Bell podcast and events
Harry Potter and The Sacred Text podcast
The Struggle Between My Relationship and My Health
Lauren Kornegay is the founder of ENDO Black; a safe space and community for people of colour and African Americans affected by endometriosis. After being diagnosed with endometriosis and discovering that she couldn’t find any materials or information that represented her or didn’t centre around cis white women, she decided to go out and create it for herself and the communities that have been so underrepresented.
And Lauren’s work is so needed. Here are some shocking statistics about people of colour and the treatment they receive (or don’t receive) around their reproductive health (thanks to Maisie Hill for this info in her book):
Black women are more likely than white women to have unnecessary surgeries such as hysterectomies.
A 2012 review of endometriosis research found that only two articles were devoted to endometriosis in black women. They were published in 1975 and 1976 and found that black women with endometriosis tended to be incorrectly diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease - disease caused by sexually transmitted infections.
In the UK, black women are five times more likely to die in the childbirth year than white women, and Asian women are twice as likely to.
In fact, Maisie goes on to explain “In the American South there is a history of medical students practicing medically unnecessary hysterectomies on poor black women without informed consent” and that “it was the experimental reproductive surgeries performed on black enslaved women in the 1920s and 1930s that gave birth to modern American gynaecology”.
Lauren is working hard to create support and representation for people of colour, African Americans and other groups that the medical industry have missed when it comes to treating and managing endometriosis. She’s also looking to create change without our policies and laws, and to begin conversations and create awareness within these communities.
In this episode, we talk about Lauren’s personal story and the experiences she had as an African American women with endometriosis, the issues facing people of colour and African Americans with endo and how we can collectively work together to make the endometriosis community more inclusive and be allies to every warrior with endometriosis, not just the ones that look like us.
It was an absolute privileged to have Lauren on and share this incredibly important message with us - I am truly grateful for the work she is doing!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
ENDO Black
ENDO Black Facebook Group
ENDO Black Instagram
Period Power book
For many years, I thought I had bladder endometriosis. But after two surgeries showed that I didn’t have endometriosis on the bladder (though I did elsewhere), I had to start asking questions. Why did I feel bladder pressure all the time? Why did my bladder burn when it was full and even after emptying? Why did it feel like my bladder was never empty? Why did I have to urinate 20 plus times a day? I had assumed that the bladder frequency and urgency I was experiencing was just down to endometriosis alone, but I was mistaken.
Interstitial cystitis or painful bladder syndrome is a condition that many people with endometriosis also have. In fact, it’s been dubbed by science as the ‘evil twin’ of endometriosis - and the symptoms are so similar, you can easily mistake one for the other, when in fact you have both. As a result, I treated my endometriosis for years, reducing my painful periods and other symptoms, but found my bladder pressure, frequency, urgency and burning pain just continued to get worse It’s only in the past three years after receiving my diagnosis, have I really started addressing how to treating my interstitial cystitis as well as endometriosis.
So in this episode, I’m talking about the symptoms of painful bladder syndrome/interstitial cystitis, what causes it, what can trigger flare ups and how to reduce symptoms with the interstitial cystitis diet and other options like pelvic floor therapy. I share my struggles, the things that have worked for me, what hasn’t and what I’d like to try in the future. And most importantly, I chat about how we can learn to manage painful bladder syndrome alongside endometriosis.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
This episode is also supported by the Gluten Free Baking Academy.
Show Notes
NHS IC page
Interstitial Cystitis Association
Beating Endo book
Heather Crosby interview
Food list from Beating Endo
Biona foods
Eden foods
Today on the podcast I‘m talking to the incredible Megan Hallett about PCOS, blood sugar and endometriosis.
Megan Hallett is the co-author of The Happy Balance, which she wrote with period expert Nicole Jardim. I absolutely love this book and recommend it to everyone. The cookbook not only gives us an awesome quick stop tour of our hormones and why health foundations like sleep and stable blood sugar are so crucial, but it also includes 60 beautifully nourishing, hormone feeding and blood sugar balancing plant-based recipes.
Megan is a certified Integrative Nutrition Coach, is studying at CNM to become a Nutritional Therapist and is also a food writer and recipe developer.
As you can tell from the length of this interviewed, I LOVED talking to Megan and ended up getting really specific with her about the ins and outs of balancing our hormones. In this episode, we talk about her experience with PCOS, managing PCOS with blood sugar balancing, what blood sugar balance actually is and why it’s important for endometriosis and so much more, as you’ll come to hear!
Megan’s book is available on Amazon and wherever good books are sold - and right here!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my fee guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Megan’s website
Megan’s Instagram
Nicole Jardim
The Happy Balance book
Vivo Life protein powder
Woman Code book
First things first, I’m not a physio therapist or personal trainer, but I am someone who likes to keep healthy, so this episode is all about what I’m learning about exercise with endometriosis and how I’m working towards my fitness goals.
Don’t worry if you’re in way too much to move much at all right now - save this for future reference, or speak to a pelvic floor physiotherapist about what kind of gentle movement could be right for you. Just do what works and feels right for your own body. This episode isn’t supposed to make you feel bad, it’s about sharing my experiences, the tips that are helping me and the information about exercise that made me want to add more of it to my daily life. I’ve seen some really big improvements in my health and strength since changing up my fitness routine, so I wanted to share what I’ve learnt with you!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Endometriosis lower risk study
WomanCode
Period Power
Code Red
Atomic Habits
Yoga with Adreinne
Cassie Ho YouTube Channel
Rebecca Louise YouTube Channel
Rich Roll
NHS exercise guidelines
Kelly Sephton
Steph Fit
Jessica Drummond MPT, CCN, CHC is the founder of the Integrative Women’s Health Institute and the leader of the course I’m currently studying; Integrative Women’s Health Coaching! Jessica has over a decade of experience as a women’s and pelvic physical therapist and has studied at the University of Virginia, Emory University, The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, and Duke Integrative Medicine. Yes - this lady definitely knows what she’s talking about when it comes to women’s health, especially pelvic pain and endometriosis.
Jessica’s approach to treating people with pelvic pain and endometriosis is holistic and focuses on the whole person; their lifestyle, trauma, genetics, food and even their spirituality. She takes a Functional Medicine perspective, which looks at the root causes of a condition and addresses those factors, rather than simply treating and often masking the symptoms.
In this episode, Jessica and I discuss why it’s so important to have a support network when living with pelvic pain, how the foundational pillars of our life need to be in place if we want to heal endometriosis pain and her functional nutrition approach to the endometriosis diet.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Jessica Drummond
IWHI
IWHI Public Courses
IWHI Coaches
Can gluten affect endometriosis? It’s a topic that’s been subject to a number of debates and studies over the past few years, so I thought it was finally time to talk about it!
In this episode I dive into the reasons why I went 90% gluten-free, and how I changed my diet. I talk about the changes I made, things I struggled with, what I found surprisingly easy and share my tips for reducing your gluten intake if you so wish. I also dive into what the research and what the experts are saying about the link between endometriosis, inflammation and gluten, so you can decide for yourself what sounds like the right choice for you.
I hope this episode offers you some practical tools to tackle the endometriosis diet and provides you with data and professional opinions on the affects of gluten on endo.
I also made a Gluten-Free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List download for you guys to accompany this episode! Download here.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my fee guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book
Womancode
Period Power
TRIGGER WARNING: This conversation includes repeated discussions about suicidal suicidal ideations.
PMDD, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder is an incredibly severe version of PMS, which can affect anyone with a period and can impact on their day-to-day lives. Like endometriosis, PMDD is often unheard of, misdiagnosed and ignored in today’s society and yet it affects 1 in 20 menstruators. Many doctors haven’t heard of PMDD, but with so many people experiencing suicidal thoughts and actions due to the condition, it’s essential that we raise awareness amongst the medical community and the public.
Laura Murphy is the Director and Co-Founder of Vicious Cycle PMDD. If you’ve ever searched up anything about PMDD online, chances are, Laura’s been involved. Laura is working tirelessly to raise awareness of this invisible disease and I am certain she won’t stop until we all know exactly what it is! I love Laura Murphy. I think this woman is an absolute powerhouse and I am so in awe of her courage and resilience in the face of such a debilitating condition.
In this episode, I chat to Laura about her lengthy diagnosis of PMDD, what the condition actually is and the cause behind it, PMDD symptoms and treatment options for anyone living with the disease.
Our conversation may be a little different from what you’re used to hearing on the show, as most of te treatment options for PMDD are medical and hormone based, however, Laura does refer us to a video about holistic treatment for PMDD and I’m on the hunt for an expert!
This episode is such an important listen - whether you suffer with severe PMS or you know someone who does, you might learn something life changing in this episode.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free Endometriosis Symptom Tracker. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Me v PMDD App
Vicious Cycle PMDD
IAPMD
IAPMD Peer Support
Treatment Guidelines
PMDD Holistic Treatment
Asarina Pharma
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Tracker
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
What foods trigger endometriosis? It’s a complicated question to answer and the topic of dairy can be a even more complicated, with some nutritionists suggesting caution and others suggesting to eliminate dairy completely.
My personal endometriosis diet is plant-based, so no eggs or dairy. In this episode, I dive into why I made that decision, the research I found along the way, how I feel health wise for cutting the two out and what my diet looks like now. I also explore what Henrietta Norton, Alisa Vitti and Maisie Hill have to say about dairy for hormone health and endometriosis.
This episode is in no way about going vegan - I believe we’re all different and genetically, veganism might not work for us all. I’m just sharing what has worked for me, what I’ve learnt along the way and what some of the experts are saying about dairy, eggs, hormones and inflammation.
As always, this episode is not intended to treat endometriosis, but to provide you with information and tools to help you work out a path of management that suits you and works for your own body. While I am training to be an Integrative Women’s Health Coach, I am not a nutritionist.
With that being said, I hope this episode clears up any confusion you have about these foods and their impact on endometriosis. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me!
I also made a free Dairy Replacements Grocery List download for you guys to accompany this episode! Download here.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book
Womancode
Period Power
My Healing Journey
Well, we’re getting a bit vulnerable over here. I know how many of you struggle in your relationships, especially in your romantic ones. A couple of weeks back I interviewed Mel Cox all about managing strains in a relationship due to endometriosis and I thought a real life example could be helpful.
So today, I’m interviewing my boyfriend, Chris, all about what it’s like living with me and endometriosis.
We talk about how I told him about my endometriosis and he’s initial reaction, how it affects our relationship, ways that we cope which are helpful and ways that aren’t so much, and our tips and reflections on life with endometriosis as a couple.
We stayed away from the topic of painful sex because there are some things we just wanted to keep private, but as you know, I talk about this subject A LOT in my column and previous podcast episodes, so feel free to dive in if you want to know more on that subject.
I hope that by sharing our story, you’ll feel less alone and maybe some of the ways we cope with endometriosis might help you too.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my fee guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
Relationships episode with Melanie Cox
Very small increased risk of ovarian cancer
A couple of weeks ago I shared with you what I eat on an average day on my version of the endometriosis diet. This diet essentially consists of lots of anti-inflammatory foods like gluten free whole grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, good fats and low sugar fruits. But what about when the weekend hits? Well, I thought it was only fair to share how I indulge!
I love my comfort food, I love eating stereotypical junk food like pizzas, I love baking and I love sweet treats. I don’t deprive myself of these joys, instead, I’ve found ways to enjoy these and still look after my body. From choosing healthier treats, to knowing the signs of when I’ve maybe overdone it a little on the sugar, I explore how I eat for endometriosis even at the weekend - and still enjoy my food.
I also made a free Weekend Endometriosis Diet Grocery List download for you guys to accompany this episode! Download here.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes
Weekend Endometriosis Diet Grocery List
Endometriosis fatigue. It’s a b•tch isn’t it? It’s one of the biggest challenges I still struggle with and one that I’m learning how to manage effectively. Brain fog, low energy, forgetfulness and poor concentration can have a huge and negative impact on our everyday lives. That’s why when I discovered Berrion Berry, I knew I had to talk to her.
Beri is a functional nutritionist, personal trainer and hormone specialist and her mission in life is to help women to get their energy - and their lives - back.
Beri’s story starts with a crash and burn. Suffering from constant fatigue, she went on a journey to uncover how she can be a powerful modern woman with a business, friends and full lifestyle, without the endless exhaustion. Her exploration led her to the power of hormones and the differences between men and women’s biology. She was able to regain her energy, get off her caffeine and sugar addiction and end the cycle of burnout.
This conversation is one close to my heart. I’ve always been honest with my burnout tendencies. Running a blog and podcast isn’t easy with endo and fatigue is always ready to creep up on me, so I couldn’t wait to chat to Beri about how we can improve our energy with endometriosis.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show Notes
Health Over Hustle
Beri’s Instagram
Health Over Hustle Podcast
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
It’s really easy, when you’re unwell, to want to fix everything as quickly as possible. When I started managing my endometriosis symptoms, I went full throttle. I changed my diet, my lifestyle, my make up and skin care - everything and anything that could be tweaked or improved to help with endometriosis, I changed.
But within a short few months, I was broke and exhausted. I was totally overwhelmed by the amount of information that I was stuffing in my brain, the conflicting information out there on the endometriosis diet and all the noise on natural treatment options. Because I didn’t know what was quality information, I tried everything.
My endodiet overwhelm caused me to crash and burn, and I had to work out what was the most important, what were my priorities were in order to create a plan to move forward sustainably.
So in this episode, I’m talking about my experience of being totally overwhelmed to having a clear and steady plan to tackle my endo in a manageable way. I’m sharing tips, reflections and practical suggestions you can begin implementing as soon as you’re ready.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my fee guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show Notes
My Endometriosis Healing Journey
The Endometriosis Diet on A Budget
WomanCode Book
Take Control of Your Endometriosis
Henrietta Norton clinic
WomanCode course
Know Your Endo
TRIGGER WARNING: This conversation includes discussions about abusive relationships.
I know you guys have been waiting for this one, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long - but I wanted to find the best person I could to discuss the important and often difficult subject of communication, relationships and endometriosis.
Mel Cox is the founder of emotional wellbeing centre, HQ Therapy Rooms in East London. She’s also a Tension and Trauma Release Exercise Practitioner and a Humanistic Psychotherapist. Mel regularly supports couples with communication struggles ranging from conflict to intimacy problems and the impact of depression and anxiety on relationships. Her work focuses on both the physical and cognitive aspects of wellbeing, taking an approach that treats the whole person.
Many of us with endometriosis struggle within our romantic relationships. Perhaps we want to start dating but we don’t know how to tell the people we meet, perhaps we’re in a long term relationship and strains are starting to show, or maybe we’ve lost relationships due to endometriosis. Pain during sex, daily pain, chronic fatigue and mental health struggles can all cause tension in a relationship and it can be difficult to know how to communicate effectively in the face of these strains.
So in this episode, I talk to Mel about effective communication methods between couples or prospective partners, how partners can support someone living with endometriosis and understanding what makes a healthy relationship. This is a great one for both partners to listen too!
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is sponsored by my free “Endometriosis Symptom Tracker”. If you feel like you’re just in pain or tired all the time, and you can’t tell what’s making your endo better or worse, this tracker could help you begin to understand the subtle patterns in your endometriosis symptoms. As always, this guide doesn’t replace your medical treatment and is not intended to treat or cure endometriosis, but provides you with options that helped me to live well with endometriosis. Download here.
Show Notes:
HQ Therapy Rooms
Melanie Cox
Julie and John Gottman
Medium Digest
‘Real’ by Catherine O’Kane and Duane O’Kane
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
Do you want to start eating for endometriosis but feel held back by your finances? Many of us fear that managing or reducing our symptoms through nutrition, natural treatment options and complimentary therapies, will end up costing us a lot of money - and it can - but it’s also possible to follow an endometriosis diet on a budget.
In the past five years, I’ve changed jobs and have eventually gone self-employed, in order to find a lifestyle that helps me manage endometriosis, but that also means that my income has dropped significantly. I’ve had to continuously adapt my budget and that includes how and what I spend on food and supplements. I know I’m not alone in this. I’ve met many people who are struggling financially due to endometriosis or other circumstances, and are trying to navigate how to fuel their bodies with good nutrition on a smaller budget.
So in this episode, I’m getting REALLY honest. I actually give you real figures when it comes to money, how much money I’ve dropped, what I used to earn, how I dealt with my finances then, how I deal with them now and what that means for managing endometriosis through food. I tell you exactly how much I spend on food supplements and nutrition products, where I shop and tips on shopping more affordably. I also share the tools and resources that have enabled me to get really in control of my money and be able to eat for endo, even on my current small budget.
I really hope this episode helps you. I know it can be so scary when you’re facing health problems and financial problems, and so I wanted to try to do an episode that began exploring these two areas together.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my free Endometriosis Diet Grocery List. This pdf list includes all the foods I buy on a monthly basis, categorised into easy sections. I share my personal endometriosis diet plan, free recipe resources, recommendations to help you get started with the endometriosis diet and nutrition tips. Download here.
Show notes:
Starling Bank
You Need A Budget
Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen
Dolphin Fitness
Her Wealth IQ
You’re A Badass At Making Money
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Chances are, you’ve heard of Maisie Hill. She’s currently taking the world of periods by storm with her incredible debut book Period Power, which reached the top 50 books on Amazon with days of its release.
But despite what you might think, Maisie is not an overnight success. In fact, she’s been treating people with periods for over a decade. Maisie is a women’s health practitioner and birth doula, who is trained in acupunture, reflexology and aromatherapy, and is currently studying at the Integrative Women’s Health Institute and training to become a nutritional therapist. She’s also studied with Red School and Women's Health and Functional Nutrition Coach, Nicole Jardim. A lot of studying, right?
But that’s not where Maisie’s expertise ends; in fact, Maisie suffered from crippling periods. Endo-level kind of painful periods. And it was her experience of that pain and healing it, which led her down the path of helping others and eventually, writing Period Power.
I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. It spoke my language and if I could ensure it was stocked in every school in the country, I would!
In this episode, we talk about Maisie’s story of period pain, the true power of tracking and working with the most difficult parts of our cycles, from the luteal phase to menstruation. I got to ask some really nitty-gritty questions which I think you guys will really resonate with and appreciate, so grab your headphones and enjoy Maisie’s knowledge and wisdom.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by my fee guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’. This guide is perfect for anyone just starting out on this journey of managing and reducing their symptoms. Download here.
Show notes:
Period Power
Maisie’s website
DUTCH Testing
DES And Why Endocrine Disruptors Need Talking About With Meghan Cleary
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
This episode comes with a trigger warning as the conversation includes sexual trauma.
Today’s episode is a big one. I’m talking with Maggie Flood, founder of Sacral Spaces and holistic medical practitioner specialised in sexological bodywork, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Maggie’s work with women is not only unique, but fascinating. Maggie has developed her own technique combining embodied pelvic care, acupuncture and herbal medicine to help those suffering with endometriosis, chronic pelvic inflammation, painful sex, scar tissue, sexual trauma, arousal and much more.
Maggie’s personal experience of sexual trauma and being diagnosed with endometriosis led her down a path of healing, which finally inspired her to begin working with those who have experienced similar conditions and emotional pain. In today’s episode we talk about Maggie’s own healing journey, the link between trauma and endometriosis, acupuncture for endometriosis, how sexological bodywork and pelvic embodiment can lesson scar tissue and pelvic pain and finally, collective sexual trauma memories.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Onna. Gemstone toys and massage tools designed to encourage women to indulge, pamper and practice self-care through reconnecting with their bodies. Use code ENDO for 10% off any product. Click here to shop.
Show notes:
Sacral Spaces
Sexological Bodywork Directory UK
Association of Certified Sexological Bodyworkers
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Okay, so I’ve done a good couple of episodes now on how I treat endometriosis naturally through the endometriosis diet and other holistic lifestyle choices. But instead of another episode on what I avoid, I thought I’d do one on what I DO eat and the foods that I love.
This episode is about the reality of the endometriosis diet and how I base my meals around nutrition for endometriosis and hormone balance. I’ve never loved my food more, love getting in the kitchen and LOVE discovering new things to eat - so this is by far not an episode on restriction. Instead, it’s about how to look after your body, feel better with endometriosis and enjoy your food.
I hope this episode brings you some clarification around eating for endo, and inspires you to try out some delicious ways to reduce your symptoms!
Please remember - that is not about judgement. It’s not about berating yourself for eating something or not eating something. It’s not about a one size fits all for managing endometriosis and what works for me may not work for you. I’ve recorded this episode to hopefully inspire and also provide an example of what managing endo through diet looks like on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean that the way I eat is the way you should eat. This is what works for me, and I hope by sharing my story, you may be able to find your own path to reducing your symptoms too.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Ohnut. Ohnut is a revolutionary wearable that allows couples to explore comfortable penetration depths during sex. For 15% use the code JD2019 at checkout. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
Form Protein Powder
WomanCode
Take Control of Your Endometriosis
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Many of us think that endometriosis is linked only to our reproductive organs and pelvic area. But did you know that the liver is essential in helping us to manage endometriosis?
In this episode, I explore everything I’ve learnt about the liver and endometriosis so far, and the ways I am supporting my liver, and how that’s positively impacted my endometriosis symptoms.
If you’re looking to understand endometriosis natural treatment options, this episode is for you.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Onna. Gemstone toys and massage tools designed to encourage women to indulge, pamper and practice self-care through reconnecting with their bodies. Use code ENDO for 10% off any product. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
What Is The Endometriosis Diet with Henrietta Norton
Why Endocrine Disruptors Need Talking About With Meghan Cleary of Bad Periods
Sober Curious
Recovering From A Breakdown And Life After Anxiety With Rachael Welford Of Welford Wellbeing
Alisa Vitti on caffeine
Woman Code
Lily Lolo
Content Wellbeing
Green People
Kinn Living
Method
Ecover
Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Today’s episode is with the absolutely incredible Emily Sauer; founder of Ohnut and co-founder of Lady Bits League and the Sexual Wellness Summit. After years and years of enduring painful sex in silence, Emily made it her mission to find a way to make sex pleasurable again for her and people with vaginas all over the world. Ohnut was the result; a rubber wearable that allows you to be in control of penetration depths and is helping hundreds of women around the world to experience relief from dyspareunia.
For those of us with endometriosis-associated dyspareunia, Ohnut could make a huge difference and provides a natural treatment option that allows us to not rely on pain killers or total avoidance. Whilst pelvic floor therapy is incredibly helpful for many with endometriosis and dyspareunia, it can sometimes be a long process, and so Ohnut allows couples to begin exploring sooner.
In this episode, we talk about the huge and unspoken issue of dyspareunia, why and how Emily designed the Ohnut, the scientific support she’s received from specialists and how it’s changing the experience of painful sex for people with endometriosis.
For 15% off your purchase of Ohnut, use the code JD2019 at checkout. Click here to shop.
Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
Show Notes
Ohnut - For 15% off your purchase of Ohnut, use the code JD2019 at checkout. Click here to shop.
School Nurse Initiative
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Today is a good one. In this episode I’m sharing with you the key tools and endometriosis resources that have enabled me to live a life which is pretty much free from endometriosis pain. Honestly, these resources are the best out there - I’ve done a heck of a lot of research and I’ve tried all the things, and these guys come out on top for me. From books on endometriosis natural treatment options and symptom tracker apps, to courses on the endometriosis diet and charities that help you understand endometriosis - these are my go-to endometriosis resources that I recommend to help you get started with managing endometriosis. I truly hope they’re useful to you.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by Planet Organic. Eat well, live better. Click here to shop their range of health foods and supplements, like Together.
Show Notes
Endometriosis UK
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book
Know Your Endo
Womancode
Nutrition for Relieving Pelvic Pain
MyFlo App
Flutter Health App
Code Red
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
That morning cup of coffee. There’s not much out there that I love more. But my experiences with coffee and endometriosis are not great - in fact, caffeine has always worsened my endometriosis symptoms and when I eliminated caffeine, my symptoms improved dramatically. So what’s the deal? Today I’m talking about endometriosis and caffeine, from it’s affects on inflammation to how it may be increasing our oestrogen levels, and how I manage my love for coffee whilst still reducing my symptoms.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by Planet Organic. Eat well, live better. Click here to shop their range of health foods.
Show Notes
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book
Know Your Endo
Womancode
Nutrition for Relieving Pelvic Pain
Coffee Alternatives
Prewetts Organic Instant Chicory Drink
Four Sigmatic Mushroom Drinks
Wunder Workshop Turmeric and Cacao Latte
Wunder Workshop Turmeric Latte
Planet Organic Decaffeinated Teas and Coffee
Raw Living Cacao
Organic Vanilla Chai Tea (caffeine free)
Rooibos Tea
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
This page contains affiliate links which help me to cover the costs of running a podcast.
Today I’m back talking about my experience of the endometriosis diet - which is a loose term we now use for what is essentially an anti-inflammatory diet for endometriosis. In this episode, I’m focusing specifically on sugar. I talk about the reasons that sugar can make endometriosis symptoms worse and the research behind this, and how I’ve managed to reduce my endometriosis pain through changing my sugar intake.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Onna. Gemstone toys and massage tools designed to encourage women to indulge, pamper and practice self-care through reconnecting with their bodies. Use code ENDO for 10% off any product. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
Blogs:
Deliciously Ella
Minimalist Baker
One Part Plant
This Rawsome Vegan Life
YumUniverse
Brands:
Loving Earth
Perfect World
Rhythm 108
Raw Halo
Booja-Booja
Free Guides:
Pain and Symptom Diary
Managing Endometriosis Naturally
Today is a long awaited episode - how to manage endometriosis at work with Clare Knox of See Her Thrive. I know I’m not the only one who struggled in the workplace with endometriosis, from explaining endometriosis to a boss to work place accomodations for the disease, it’s a grey area which causes a hell of a lot of anxiety for many of us. So I was thrilled when Clare agreed to be on the show.
Clare is a Business Psychologists who was diagnosed several years ago with PMDD. This condition affected Clare so hugely in the workplace that she eventually went on to found See her Thrive, which helps employees and employers to support women’s wellbeing in the workplace, specifically with conditions such as endometriosis. Together, Clare and her team are changing how the UK does business and how companies support and understand women’s health.
In this episode we talk about the current issues facing people with endometriosis in the workplace, Clare’s vision for the future of women’s wellbeing at work, how to talk to a boss about endometriosis, whether endometriosis is a disability or not, the kind of endometriosis work adjustments you can ask for and what your rights are when it comes to endometriosis at work. We also cover what to do if you are being disciplined for absences and how to make formal grievances if you need to. It’s a good one.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Ohnut. Ohnut is a revolutionary wearable that allows couples to explore comfortable penetration depths during sex. For 15% use the code JD2019 at checkout. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
See Her Thrive
Endometriosis UK - Endometriosis in the workplace leaflet
Acas Helpline
I remember the days when I popped codeine all the time - it made me feel sick, drowsy and would give me awful migraines! The doctors wanted to put me on a type of painkillers I’d have to take every single day to be effective, which would make me very drowsy and I just thought there had to be another way.
These days I have a drawer full of go-to home remedies for endometriosis that I use every month and thanks to a combination of these babies and my own personal version of the endometriosis diet, my periods are either entirely pain free or incredibly low on the pain scale.
So, in case, for whatever reason, you want to reduce your reliance on pain relief medication, I’m sharing my favourite tools with you today. I hope today’s episode will give you some ideas to be able to reduce endometriosis pain with natural pain relief.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Onna. Gemstone toys and massage tools designed to encourage women to indulge, pamper and practice self-care through reconnecting with their bodies. Use code ENDO for 10% off any product. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
Better You Magnesium Spray
Together Health Magnesium Supplements
Magnesium Bath Salts
BeYou Period Patches
Forage Botanicals Moon Time Belly Balm
Livia Tens machine
Amazon Tens’ machines
Hug Wrap Around Heat Pack
Yoga with Adrienne
Vickie Williams Yoga for Endometriosis
Yoga for Endometriosis blog post
Whoopi and Maya Rub
Medipen
Lazy Sunday Bathbombs
CBD Cream with Magnesium
These show notes contain some affiliate links. Purchasing these products through these links helps to keep this show going!
Today is a sort of part two to my first solo show about my endometriosis story. Last time I told you a lot more about the medical side of my experience - from my endometriosis diagnosis, symptoms and pretty bad experiences with surgery! Ultimately, that journey got me here - pretty much pain free most of the time, and if I do get pain, it’s only around my period and is never usually higher than a 1 or 2 on the pain scale. So I thought it might be helpful to explain what my journey of healing endometriosis naturally looked like and what my endometriosis management style looks like today.
Now before we get started - I want to make a disclaimer, when I say ‘heal’ I do not mean ‘cured’. I don’t believe I have cured my endometriosis, but I manage my symptoms to a point where most of the time my life is uninterrupted by them. I use the word healing to describe my personal journey, because it has been a healing process - from having a broken relationship with my body, hormone imbalances, serious mental health issues and big gaping emotional wounds - this was an entire process which felt like a healing one to me. BUT when it comes to my symptoms, I definitely manage them and don’t want to confuse anyone into thinking I was ‘healed’. Jesus did not come down to heal me of endo.
So now that’s out of the way, I really hope this episode inspires you in some kind of way. I want it to encourage you, show you that there are more options and ways of treating endometriosis that don’t just revolve around endless surgeries and heavy pain killers - in fact, some of them are even natural. That there are tools and resources out there that can help you feel a little bit better. If this episode can get you thinking about other options that could work for you (if you want them), then I’ve done my job.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by Ohnut. Ohnut is a revolutionary wearable that allows couples to explore comfortable penetration depths during sex. For 15% use the code JD2019 at checkout. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book *
Endo Complex Supplement - Planet Organic
Womancode
Code Red
*Amazon links contain affiliate URLS
Today is a bit different… After an overwhelming response from you guys, I’m bringing in a mix of guests and solo shows. So I thought I’d start with my personal endometriosis story. This episode covers my experiences of my first endometriosis symptoms, my diagnosis, my experience with endometriosis surgery and the desperation that led me to discover natural treatment options for endometriosis, including the ‘endometriosis diet’. I hope by sharing this story, you’ll feel less alone, but also that this episode will provide some context for why I manage endometriosis naturally and how I got to this point.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by ONNA. Gemstone toys and massage tools designed to encourage women to indulge, pamper and practice self-care through reconnecting with their bodies. Use code ENDO for 10% off any product. Click here to shop.
Show Notes
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book *
Endo Complex Supplement - Planet Organic
*Amazon links contain affiliate URLS
Ever heard of the ‘endometriosis diet’ and have been confused about what it actually is? Then this episode is for you. Today is a career (and life) highlight - I’m getting to talk to Take Control of Your Endometriosis author Henrietta Norton. Henrietta Norton’s book was at the very beginning of my holistic journey with endo, and it was her words and endometriosis diet plan that helped me to really understand nutrition for endometriosis.
Henrietta is not only the author of one of the best books out there on endo, but she’s also the founder of Wild Nutrition, a nutrition clinic and company specialising in women’s health and Food-Grown® supplements including the Endo Complex, which you’ve probably heard me raving about because I take it every single day. Henrietta is not just passionate about good food, she’s got the science to back it up - Henrietta is a registered nutritional therapist, a Functional Medicine graduate and is currently studying Nutritional Medicine - and that’s why I love her. Henrietta’s book is full of evidence, research and data on nutrition for endometriosis.
In this episode we talk about some of the key food groups which could worsen endometriosis symptoms, the optimum nutrition for endometriosis and go on a deep dive into how the rest of the body’s systems and organs can actually affect endometriosis for the better or worse. If there’s an episode to listen to, it’s this one.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. If you liked this episode, might like my free guide ‘Managing Endometriosis Naturally’, click here to get your copy.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also sponsored by Planet Organic. Eat well, live better. Click here to shop their range of health foods.
Show Notes
Wild Nutrition website
Take Control of Your Endometriosis Book
Endo Complex Supplement - Planet Organic
In today’s episode of This EndoLife podcast, I’m talking to the wonderful Kate McGoey of The Balance Blueprint. I met Kate at one of my first day retreats and was struck by her positive experience of mindfulness for chronic pain and her pursuit to help others with endometriosis experience the same benefits. Kate has endured seven surgeries, extreme pain and other endometriosis symptoms, but several years ago began working with a nutritionist to manage her pain levels. This eventually led her to discover mindfulness for pain, which she now teaches through free guides, online courses and one to one support.
Kate takes us through how chronic pain conditions affect our mental health, emotions and quality of life, why changing our experience of and relationship to pain is so important and how we can learnt to live more positively with endometriosis through mindfulness for pain.
Kate is such a calming and soothing presence with such a wealth of information - it was a complete honour to have her on the show!
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by The Know Your Endo Endo Toolkit, a practical programme for managing endometriosis by Jessica Murnane. Use the code JESSICA at check out for $15 early bird and standard pricing. Click here to get course info and to enrol: https://knowyourendo.com/program
This episode is additionally supported by The Gluten Free Baking Academy. A four week online course teaching you the tools, recipes, and know-how to confidently bake in the comfort of your own kitchen. You’ll learn to make incredible flatbreads, quick breads, yeasted breads, and sourdough without dairy, gluten, eggs, or ingredients like gums and highly processed starches or flours. To take a free course tour or to enroll, click here.
Links:
The Balance Blueprint Website
The Balance Blueprint Instagram
Four Sigmatic
Four Sigmatic lion’s mane video
Headspace
Stop, Breath & Think
Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn
Wherever You Go, There You Are
*Amazon links contain affiliate URLS.
Today I’m talking to the incredible Elena of Onna and The Yoni Empire, all about endometriosis-associated dyspareunia, otherwise known as painful sex, and how we can move from healing pain to finally experiencing pleasure. Elena lived with vaginal pain - specifically vaginismus - for seven years before beginning a journey that would lead her to not only heal her own experience of painful sex, but to make it her mission to help others living with dyspareunia. Like many of us, Elena experienced dismissal, misdiagnoses and unacceptable treatment options ranging from shrugs from the doctors to suggestions of cutting her pelvic nerves so she could have sex without any sensation whatsoever.
Many of us experience strains on our relationships with endometriosis, especially when it comes to our romantic relationships - and sex is often one of the key areas of concerns. As someone living with endometriosis-associated dyspareunia, I’ve spent a long time trying to work out how to treat dyspareunia naturally - often as part of my overall approach to endometriosis, which involves the ‘endometriosis diet’, holistic therapies, movement and various other management tools. However, rarely have I actually head on tried to address the problem directly or even with my partner. Elena has helped me with this, through yoni mapping, yoni massage and facing fears and emotions associated with sex.
In this episode, we discuss some of the common causes of pain with sex, Elena’s own journey from painful sex to pleasure and the various methods we can take to begin healing endometriosis-associated dyspareunia. Talking to Elena was such a revelation - this woman has no fear, shame or guilt associated with her own pleasure, and helps others to see they shouldn’t either. Hearing her remarkable experience has given me hope, and I believe this conversation will do the same for you too.
P.S Elena has kindly given This EndoLife listeners 10% off with code ENDO on any Onna product. Just enter the code at checkout. Click here to shop: https://www.onnalifestyle.com/
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by The Know Your Endo Endo Toolkit, a practical programme for managing endometriosis by Jessica Murnane. Use the code JESSICA at check out for $15 early bird and standard pricing. Click here to get course info and to enrol: https://knowyourendo.com/program
This episode is additionally supported by The Gluten Free Baking Academy. A four week online course teaching you the tools, recipes, and know-how to confidently bake in the comfort of your own kitchen. You’ll learn to make incredible flatbreads, quick breads, yeasted breads, and sourdough without dairy, gluten, eggs, or ingredients like gums and highly processed starches or flours. To take a free course tour or to enroll, click here.
Links
Onna website - use code ENDO for 10% off any Onna products.
Elena’s Instagram
CURVE yoni mapping toy - use code ENDO for 10% off any Onna products.
Tantric Orgasm for Women by Diana Richardson
The Wild Feminine by Tami Lynn Kent
The Art of Sexual Ecstasy by Margo Anand
Yoni mapping blog post
Yoni massage blog post
Pleasure Mondays weekly newsletter
Today I’m speaking to the super inspiring Aubree Deimler, founder of Peace with Endo. Aubree is an Integrative Wellness Coach and helps people worldwide to manage pain, increase energy and find peace with endo. She’s also the best selling author of From Pain to Peace with Endo and has just released her new book, The Energetics of Endo. Aubree’s new book takes us through her endometriosis experiences as she goes from healing on a physical level to healing emotionally and spiritually with endometriosis.
In this episode, we discuss some of the spiritual root causes of endometriosis, how energy healing, such as reiki, can play a part in treating endometriosis naturally and how chakra blocks, such as the root and sacral chakras, can affect our reproductive health and our experience of endometriosis.
I found this episode absolutely fascinating, and whilst it might seem a bit ‘out there’ to some of us, Aubree’s experiences really resonated with me on a deep level. As always, this show isn’t about stopping surgery or medication, it’s about finding different ways to manage endometriosis that suit you, so have a listen and see whether this path could be for you. It was such a pleasure to have Aubree on the show, and I think you’ll going to find what she has to say incredibly insightful!
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by The Know Your Endo Endo Toolkit, a practical programme for managing endometriosis by Jessica Murnane. Use the code JESSICA at check out for $15 early bird and standard pricing. Click here to get course info and to enrol: https://knowyourendo.com/program
This episode is additionally supported by The Gluten Free Baking Academy. A four week online course teaching you the tools, recipes, and know-how to confidently bake in the comfort of your own kitchen. You’ll learn to make incredible flatbreads, quick breads, yeasted breads, and sourdough without dairy, gluten, eggs, or ingredients like gums and highly processed starches or flours. To take a free course tour or to enroll, click here.
Links
Peace with Endo Membership and Course
Peace with Endo website
Peace with Endo book
The Energetics of Endo
Women Who Run with The Wolves
Books lead to Amazon affiliate link.
This episode is all about pelvic floor therapy for endometriosis and the huge role it can play in helping us live well with the disease. Heba Shaheed is the founder of The Pelvic Expert, an online platform that provides programmes and courses on pregnancy, birth recovery, chronic pelvic pain and menstrual issues - including endometriosis. Heba is a women’s health coach, yoga and Pilates teacher, physiotherapist and fellow endometriosis warrior. She provides support to people with endometriosis through her courses, talks and classes, and has recently developed an online programme specially for those of us with endometriosis.
In today’s episode, we talk about the link between the pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and endometriosis, and how endometriosis negatively affects our nerves and muscles, as well as how our muscles and nerves actually impact our experience of endometriosis. We explore the role of physiotherapy and pelvic floor therapy can have in healing some of the nerve and muscle damage caused by chronic pain and scarring, how we can start supporting our pelvic floor with physical therapy exercises for endometriosis at home, how to find a practitioner and what to expect from a pelvic floor therapy session. We also wrap with Heba’s key endometriosis natural treatment options.
I learnt SO much in this episode, Heba is a fountain of knowledge and I’m sure you’ll love this episode.
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by The Know Your Endo Endo Toolkit, a practical programme for managing endometriosis by Jessica Murnane. Use the code JESSICA at check out for $15 early bird and standard pricing. Click here to get course info and to enrol: https://knowyourendo.com/program
This episode is additionally supported by The Gluten Free Baking Academy. A four week online course teaching you the tools, recipes, and know-how to confidently bake in the comfort of your own kitchen. You’ll learn to make incredible flatbreads, quick breads, yeasted breads, and sourdough without dairy, gluten, eggs, or ingredients like gums and highly processed starches or flours. To take a free course tour or to enroll, click here.
Links:
The Pelvic Expert Website
The Pelvic Expert Endometriosis Blog Posts
Endo Ease Course
TENDO - Endometriosis Summit Download
Today I’m talking to Lisa Hendrickson-Jack, host of the Fertility Friday Podcast, Fertility Awareness Educator, Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner and author of newly released book The Fifth Vital Sign. Since a teenager, Lisa used the pill to cope with incredibly heavy bleeding and excruciating period pain. At 18, she decided to come off the pill, address these problems head on and finally understand the mystery of her menstrual cycle. This led her to eventually train in fertility awareness methods, which are practices that allow you to track your menstrual cycle naturally and navigate your fertile windows. Through her book, podcast, course and blog, Lisa teaches people with periods how to chart their menstrual cycles naturally and if they’d like, come of hormonal birth control completely.
In this episode, Lisa drops some serious truth bombs. We discuss the side effects of the birth control pill and the risks of using hormonal birth control to mask endometriosis symptoms without addressing the root of the problem, stopping the pill with endometriosis and treating endometriosis without birth control, and finally, why we really need to start seeing the menstrual cycle as our fifth vital sign to enhance our health and wellbeing.
My jaw dropped so many times during his interview. Lisa’s research and knowledge will leave you astounded, angry and shocked - but most of all, empowered and educated. I am so glad she came on the show!
This episode is sponsored by BeYou Cramp Relief Patches. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk/pages/how-it-works
This episode is also supported by The Know Your Endo Endo Toolkit, a practical programme for managing endometriosis by Jessica Murnane. Use the code JESSICA at check out for $15 early bird and standard pricing. Click here to get course info and to enrol: https://knowyourendo.com/program
This episode is additionally supported by The Gluten Free Baking Academy. A four week online course teaching you the tools, recipes, and know-how to confidently bake in the comfort of your own kitchen. You’ll learn to make incredible flatbreads, quick breads, yeasted breads, and sourdough without dairy, gluten, eggs, or ingredients like gums and highly processed starches or flours. To take a free course tour or to enroll, click here.
Links
Fertility Friday Podcast
Fertility Friday Website
The Fifth Vital Sign Book
*Amazon link contains affiliate URL code.
Alice Smith is the 23 year old Trustee and Young Ambassador for Endometriosis UK causing a well deserved stir in education.
The UK Government is reviewing what should be taught in Sex & Relationship and PSHE lessons in England, and Alice thinks it's about time that menstrual wellbeing made it on the agenda. 14% of menstruators are starting their periods in the UK without knowing what they are and 1 in 4 said they did not feel they knew what to do when they started their period*. This is a big problem. If young people aren't being sufficiently educated about what to expect from an 'average' period, how will they know when something's wrong?
Alice and Endometriosis UK have launched a petition to get menstrual wellbeing taught in schools. They want the stigma and shame of periods to be broken, and for all pupils to understand what's 'normal' and what's not when it comes to menstruation, so people can recognise sooner the signs and symptoms of endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids and other menstrual related conditions sooner.
I chatted to Alice about the petition, their social media campaign, her own experience of menstrual education in school and what we all can do to make a difference to future generations and end period shame.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
Change.org Petition
Endometriosis UK
Campaign hashtag: #whatiwishilearned
*Stats from Plan International's Break The Barriers Report
Today I’m talking to Britt from Food Period - a start up company, which in my opinion, is revolutionary. Food Period make 'moon bites'; natural and nutritious energy balls, which contain specific seeds that are used in the nutrition protocol known as 'seed syncing', which helps balance our hormones and create easier, healthier periods. As I’ve mentioned before, endometriosis is an oestrogen dominant disease, and seed syncing helps reduce oestrogen dominance and bring our hormones back into balance, so I was super excited to get Food Period on the show!
Jenn and Britt’s story to starting Food Period is pretty much jaw-dropping, with it all stemming from Britt’s diagnosis of blood cancer, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which she’s thankfully now recovered from. Both Jenn and Britt go on a journey together to bring their periods and hormones back into balance, and are now on a mission to provide others with a natural option to regulate their periods and reduce the impact of menstrual related conditions like endometriosis.
If you’re keen to try out their seed syncing moon bites, the lovely girls at Food Period are offering $15 off your first box for the next 30 days with the code THISENDOLIFE To access this discount, you need to use this link or any of the links to Food Period on this page.
I really hope you enjoy them and I can’t wait to get started with seed syncing myself!
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
Food Period
Seed Syncing
Eating for PMS
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
In this week's podcast, I have the privilege of speaking to the wonderful Kristy Curry. Not only is Kristy super kind and lovely to chat to, she's also the co-founder of Flutter Health, the mobile endometriosis symptom tracking app that lets you track your period and journal your endometriosis symptoms, to better manage the disease.
This is far from your every day period tracking app with fixed settings that frustrate you and don't match your experience of menstruation. Six week period? You can put that in. Every endometriosis symptom under the sun - even the obscure ones? You can put them all in. You can even track your endometriosis symptoms or unusual period behaviours, download the past few months as a PDF, and take them to your doctor so you can get better treatment, or even a diagnosis.
I chat to Kristy about how her experience of endometriosis and period tracker apps led her to start Flutter Health with her husband. We discuss how tracking your endometriosis symptoms can not only enable you get more accurate treatment, but can help you understand what's working for you in terms of pain and symptom management. We also talk about the 'endometriosis diet' and how finding a community can make a huge difference to living with endometriosis.
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
Flutter Health
In this episode I’m talking to Kate Magic, founder and Creative Director of Raw Living, Europe’s leading raw food and super foods supplier. Kate is a well known raw foodie here in the UK, having written the UK’s first raw recipe book back in 2002 and the world’s first raw superfood book, Raw Magic. Kate has now launched her latest book, The Empowered Woman, which is all about female hormones, women’s empowerment and working with our body to support our hormones in order to feel our best. In this episode, we're talking about her new book and dive into female hormone health and endometriosis.
We explore the wide range of hormones in our bodies, how they work together and how they support us in our lives, we also delve into the difference between male and female hormone systems and how we can nurture these to live a life that empowers us, and how to treat hormone imbalances and the symptoms of endometriosis.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
Raw Living
Kate's website
The Empowered Woman
Macapuccino recipe
In this episode I’m talking to Cori Smith about his experience of endometriosis as a trans man and how we can make the endometriosis community a safer, more supportive place for transgender and non-binary people and others who do not identify as cis female with endometriosis.
Cori is currently launching a lawsuit against medical institute in New York for discrimination based on his gender status. Cori has endometriosis and his story of how he was treated as a women vs how he was treated as a trans man is shocking, but so important to talk about and raise awareness of. Trigger warning: Cori went through some traumatic medical procedures and abuse from medical professionals, so if you’re sensitive to those kind of subjects you may want to forward those moments.
I speak to Cori about the ways in which transgender and non-binary people are treated with endometriosis, why he decided to be brave and sue the medical institute and how we can make our support services and community more inclusive.
Cori is doing incredible and courageous work for our community. In the show notes below, I’ve listed the ways you can help Cori on his mission.
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
Cori Go Fund Me Page
Empty Closet Interview with Cori Smith
Life as a Trans Man with Endometriosis, EndoFound Interview
Our opening Season 3 episode is with the organic period subscription start-up TOTM. TOTM make tampons, pads and cups that are kinder to your vagina and are both sustainable and made without all the chemicals you find in your everyday period products. I talk to the lovely Fee and Alex about how TOTM started and why the founders were so passionate and determined to create organic period products. We discuss the chemicals found in tampons and pads and how those can affect our hormone health and even diseases like endometriosis, we also discuss how organic period products can help you have a better period and what the start up is doing to change the lives of those living with endometriosis.
Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below!
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Show Notes:
This podcast is sponsored by you guys. I’m asking for your help and support to keep This EndoLife Podcast going - if you like the show and you find it helps you live better with endometriosis, could you consider helping the podcast? I’ve set up a Patreon, where you can donate to This EndoLife and help keep the show going by supporting me to cover the costs of the show. You can donate and find out more over on my Patreon page.
This episode and The EndoLife intro music was edited and produced by The Pod Farm - podcast editing services for new and established podcasts. Visit the thepodfarm.com to find out more about their services and how they can help you grow your podcast from just an idea to polished and successful show.
TOTM
Dioxin and Endometriosis Study
Enter the competition on Instagram
TOTM Period Powerful Pioneers
Today we're back for a special one off episode to raise awareness of the #WeMatterACOG campaign. This campaign has been launched by social worker Casey Berna, Heather Guidone who is part of the Endometriosis Research Center and the Surgical Program Director at the Center for Endometriosis Care and Shannon Cohn of the Endo What? film.
The #WeMatterACOG protest will be taking place this Thursday 5th and Friday 6th in Washington DC, outside the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and together, patients will demand that the ACOG address the endometriosis care crisis in America. You're invited to join the campaign, in person, online or by signing the petition.
In this podcast, we talk about the poor standard of treatment and care for those with endometriosis, what needs to change and how patients can and are leading the way for better endometriosis care.
Check out the show notes below to take part.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. Show Notes: How to take part in the WeMatterACOG campaign
Endometriosis Research Center
Center for Endometriosis Care
Endo What?
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
You can't go on to Instagram these days without seeing a picture or story of a gorgeous sparkling crystal. Crystals are big these days, and it's easy to go and buy a couple without knowing why, except for the fact that they look really, really pretty in your bedroom. You might have heard of terms like 'crystal healing' or 'crystal therapy' and wondered what the hell it is or maybe wondered if they could help you deal with some of the emotional or even physical issues that come with endo. So today, I'm talking with Tamara a.ka. Wolf Sister, about crystal healing and self-care rituals.
Firstly, massive disclaimer here: crystal healing is not a cure for endometriosis. We know there isn't a cure, but as I always say, everyone is welcome to mange their endometriosis in the ways that suit them. And if you feel called to crystals to help you deal with depression, anxiety or maybe life with chronic pain, I want to give you the information to get the most out of crystal healing.
I met Wolf-Sister a year or two ago when I first booked myself on a She's Lost Control workshop with Tamara, and it changed my life. That event was the start of some deep spiritual healing, which is still ongoing, and thanks to the work that Wolf Sister began in me, I have always managed to find my way home when I am deeply struggling with endometriosis, depression and anxiety.
Wolf Sister is a crystal healer, shamanic practitioner, reiki master and tarot advisor. She uses modern mysticism to helps people turn challenges into transformative opportunities, empowers them to find their true paths in life and supports people in their healing. We talk about whether crystals really help with physical and emotional difficulties, how they work and where they get their energy from, what crystals can support us with particular problems and my burning question - how the hell do you cleanse a crystal?
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. Show Notes: Wolf Sister's website
Wolf Sister's Instagram
Endo Sharing Circle
Ready to get spiritual? This week I'm talking to Gail Love Schock - Transformation and Happiness Coach, reiki healer, meditation teacher and Interfaith Minister and we're discussing mind, body and soul medicine.
This is deeply spiritual one, and there's a reason for it. Gail Love Schock has endometriosis, though no longer has any symptoms and no longer identifies with the disease. Following her first laparoscopy, Gail had a spiritual experience that changed the way she cared for and communicated with her body, changing her life forever and ultimately, her experience of endometriosis.
Faith and spirituality has played a huge part in Gail's personal life, wellbeing and work, and I wanted to chat with Gail about how this has affected her and how having a spiritual practice might help some people cope with endometriosis.
We talk meditation and visualisations for endometriosis, how a sense of spiritual community can reduce feelings of isolation, depression and anxiety, and why she's reclaiming ministry for women.
Show Notes:
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter. Show Notes: This week's sponsor is the Gluten-Free Baking Academy. A 4 week online course bringing gluten free baking - including cinnamon rolls, sourdough and english muffins - back into your life.
What does the Gluten Free Baking Academy include?
• 18 learn-at-your-own-pace video lessons
• 6 start-to-finish baking videos - new!
• Know-how about the new gluten-free rules, techniques, and tools
• Know-how to bake gluten-free flatbreads
• Know-how to bake gluten-free quick breads
• Know-how to bake gluten-free yeasted breads
• Easy shopping links with each module
• Access to Community Classmates Group
• 36 total game-changing, gluten-free recipes
• 7 gluten-free flatbread recipes
• 5 gluten-free quick bread recipes
• 9 gluten-free yeasted bread and sourdough recipes - new!
• 28 total eBook and PDF resources updated and expanded
• BONUSES: extra vids, eBooks, 15 more recipes - new!
• Continued access
You can download the free course tour here.
The Gluten Free Baking Academy
Gail's website
Temple of The Rib Cage
Remember Heather? This genius creative was on the show when I first launched This EndoLife Podcast, talking about her diagnosis with interstitial cystitis and how changing her diet overhauled her health and allowed her to live again. Heather Crosby went on to found Yum Universe, and in more recent years, got so much into gluten free baking that she created the insanely good looking Gluten-Free Baking Academy.
I've been eyeing up these recipes for a while... Gluten free English muffins, gluten free sourdough bread, gluten free wraps, gluten free bagels - BAGELS - gluten free cornbread, gluten free biscuits... It's aaaaall there. I know how tough the endometriosis diet is, and how cutting out carbs (read: bread), can be really, really hard. I miss toast like I missed my first ex-boyfriend, before I realised he was a dick. And to be honest, I have some go-to gluten free brands, but they're still not the same.
Gluten free baking with The Gluten-Free Baking Academy is about understanding gluten free baking so you have the knowledge and foundations to make gluten free baked goods from scratch that work and taste amazing. Heather Crosby cuts out all the junk, and her recipes are all dairy and egg free. I chatted to Heather about how going gluten free changed her health, why she started the Gluten-Free Baking Academy and how you can go gluten free and create incredible gluten free recipes at home.
Sign up to the course here. By using this affiliate link, you are helping to support This EndoLife, allowing me to continue making free content to help others living with endometriosis.
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Show Notes: Sign up to the course here. By using this link, you are helping to support This EndoLife, allowing me to continue making free content to help others living with endometriosis.
What does the Gluten Free Baking Academy include?
• 18 learn-at-your-own-pace video lessons
• 6 start-to-finish baking videos - new!
• Know-how about the new gluten-free rules, techniques, and tools
• Know-how to bake gluten-free flatbreads
• Know-how to bake gluten-free quick breads
• Know-how to bake gluten-free yeasted breads
• Easy shopping links with each module
• Access to Community Classmates Group
• 36 total game-changing, gluten-free recipes
• 7 gluten-free flatbread recipes
• 5 gluten-free quick bread recipes
• 9 gluten-free yeasted bread and sourdough recipes - new!
• 28 total eBook and PDF resources updated and expanded
• BONUSES: extra vids, eBooks, 15 more recipes - new!
• Continued access
You can download the free course tour here.
The Gluten Free Baking Academy
Yum Universe
Silicone Bread Loaf (non-stick can contain toxins that can affect hormones and the endocrine system).
Measuring cups (also, I choose the nice looking ones, because I care about your kitchen)
Mixing bowl
Oliwia Drzymuchowska, founder of Womanology, went through 8 years of agony and unanswered questions before she was finally diagnosed with vulvodynia, vestibulodynia and clitorynia, amongst several other pelvic pain conditions. After being prescribed countless drugs and taking various hormones, she decided to take control of her health and find her own way of managing her pain. Now she lives practically symptom free and her journey has led her to found Womanology, an intimate wellbeing brand which encourages women to reclaim their womanhood.
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I chatted to Oliwia about painful intimacy and how her products can repair our relationships with our sexuality, why we need to break the taboo of female pleasure and how we can learn to love ourselves through reconnecting with our bodies.
Pandora Paloma is a holistic nutritionist, life coach, yoga teacher and founder of Rooted London. After dealing with deep issues around her body and self-worth, Pandora embarked on a journey of healing, that saw her learn how to love herself again and how to listen to her body and take better care of it.
Her experience inspired her to reach out to other women and support them to create positive relationships with themselves, especially with their bodies. She now supports female clients with endometriosis, infertility, eating disorders, PCOS, hormone conditions and various others. Through her unique approach to nutrition and health, Pandora encourages women to create an intuitive relationship with their bodies, where they're not only guided by the advice of Pandora as a nutritionist, but they learn to become aware of and respond to what the body and mind need.
Pandora's work is largely focused on self-love empowerment, and her support doesn't end at nutrition. Pandora is all about looking at our entire lives, and seeing what's happening in all aspects and how these can be affecting body, mind and soul.
I know many people with endometriosis who have a broken relationship with their bodies. When your body is struggling as much as it does with something like endometriosis, it can be hard to not feel resentment towards it.
I chatted with Pandora to discover how we can cultivate more self-love towards our bodies to aid our healing, how food can help us reduce inflammation and balance our hormones and why self-care is the greatest form of self-love.
Show Notes: This episode with sponsored by The Endo Toolkit. A five-week online program to create tools to help manage endometriosis pain and symptoms.
Each week a new tool will be released:
Week One: Know Your Endo (truly understanding the disease)
Week Two: Good Food
Week Three: Movement
Week Four: Natural Products (bath and beauty products + menstrual products)
Week Five: Alternative Medicine (CBD, medicinal cannabis, Chinese medicine)
For more information, to take the free course tour or to enrol, click here.
Enrolment ends Feb 4th. Course begins Feb 7th.
Rooted London
Rooted London Intuitive Eating and Living Course
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Fangirling much? You know I am. Jessica Murnane has been on the podcast and This EndoLife a couple of times before. Jessica is the founder of the One Part Plant Movement, is author of the One Part Plant cookbook, and is host of the One Part Podcast. She has stage IV endometriosis, and was once at the point of a hysterectomy - her last attempt was with a plant-based diet and it changed her life.
Now she's dedicated a new website, Know Your Endo and a new online course, The Endo Toolkit, to helping others live with the disease. I talked to Jessica about what inspired her to launch these new endometriosis projects, what she felt was most important to communicate and what we can expect from The Endo Toolkit online program.
For those of you who are interested, enrolment is now open for the Early Bird bookings. To check out The Endo Tookit free tour, to find out more information or to enrol, click here.
Show Notes
The Course:
A five-week online program to create tools to help manage endometriosis pain and symptoms.
Each week a new tool will be released:
Week One: Know Your Endo (truly understanding the disease)
Week Two: Good Food
Week Three: Movement
Week Four: Natural Products (bath and beauty products + menstrual products)
Week Five: Alternative Medicine (CBD, medicinal cannabis, Chinese medicine)
There is no cure for endo, but this program wants to help those living with this chronic condition develop
a powerful set of tools to help manage it.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE COURSE:
• A 5-week toolkit building program to help manage your endometriosis which includes weekly audio lessons and printable resource pages.
• Exclusive expert interviews and content created specifically for this course (featuring Adina Grigore (of SW Basics), Kathryn Budig (yogi), Giselle Wasfie (Chinese Medicine Dr) and Alex Seaman (Kundalini instructor)
• A private community page to connect and share.
• Weekly live Q+A with Jessica.
• Bonus endo-friendly recipes.
• Special discounts to Jessica's favorite endo-friendly brands.
WHEN IS IT?Program will begin February 7th
Early Bird Promotion Period: January 22-28th (ends at 8pm EST)
Regular Promotion Period: January 28th-February 4th (ends at 8pm EST)
To check out The Endo Tookit free tour, to find out more information or to enrol, click here.
Know Your Endo
The Endo Toolkit
One Part Plant
Lucy Sheridan is the world's only Comparison Coach and an incredible bubble of energy! Whether it's comparing themselves to their best friends or comparing themselves to a stranger online, Lucy specialises in helping people get out of the trap of comparison and back into their own lives, feeling good.
An issue I find many people with endometriosis deal with, is comparison. Endometriosis can force us to put our lives on hold or change direction, and it can be really hard to see everyone else (or so it seems) moving at 100mph towards their dream lives over on Instagram.
I speak to Lucy about how to get ourselves out of the comparison trap when we can't seem to stop scrolling, how we can still move towards our goals and dreams at our own pace with endometriosis and why following the rhythms of our own bodies and lives is the most fulfilling route of all. I think this episode is a perfect starter for 2018...
Another mini-episode to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
I also wanted to thank you for coming on this journey with me this year, for being patient with my most recent trials and for supporting me and sending love.
Today I chat a bit about endometriosis induced burn out, taking care of yourself and recharging over Christmas.
I'll be back in Jan 2018 with Season 2, bringing you new guests and new zing!
This episode isn't technically an episode - there's no guest, no hour long interview. Instead, it's me explaining why there's a slight break in episodes and how it has a lot to do with my mental health.
I've toyed with the idea of not putting this out there because it's a real life recording of real life depression and anxiety, but part of me felt it was important for people to hear this and for others to know they're not alone.
Also, I said I wasn't going to edit this episode - but I couldn't do it. The swallows and the sniffs from crying are edited, mainly because they annoyed the hell out of me.
But other than that, this is the one where I get really, really real.
You might remember Paige from an interview I did with her last year, recently after the launch of her podcast The Uterus and The Duderus. Paige is the Uterus half of the show; and she shares her life with endometriosis (and advocates for women everywhere) with her co-host and best friend Nik. On top of that, she also has a YouTube channel; Fireside Chats with The Uterus, which is about the spiritual, mental and emotional side of living with endometriosis and other chronic diseases.
In this episode, Paige and I discuss her recent diagnosis with adrenal fatigue, her intense struggles with chronic migraines and her upcoming surgery, plus the link between endometriosis and chronic migraine syndrome. We also get real geeky about the universe, mindfulness, and changing your mind set around chronic illness and your health; plus we crush out on Gabby Bernstein and chat hormonal acne.
This one is a roller coaster - it's emotional, painful but Paige's positivity, persistence and resilience shine through. She is a truly inspiring woman.
Show Notes
The Uterus and The Duderus
Fireside Chats
Gabby Bernstein
Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms
Adrenal Fatigue Causes
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or sign up to my newsletter.
Saschan Fearon-Josephs is the founder of The Womb Room and event series; Real Talk. The Womb Room is an online digital space, which Saschan is currently re-developing, to become a network where women can get access to information, professionals and communities - all related to reproductive issues. The Real Talk series is a 12 month period of events taking this digital space and making it a physical reality, with guest speakers, workshops and an opportunity to connect with other women.
We talk about Saschan's painful and courageous story of diagnosis; not with just endometriosis, but fibroids, uterine polyps and adenomyosis, and the experiences that has inspired her to start The Womb Room. We also talk about how women from BME communities are more likely to suffer with specific reproductive health issues yet receive the least support medically and socially, and what needs to be done to provide services to hard to reach communities and how Saschan is doing that through The Womb Room.
This conversation, to me, is one of the most important conversations I’ve had so far on the podcast – Saschan is full of knowledge, wisdom and experience and I think we can all learn from what she has to share.
Show Notes
The Womb Room
The Womb Room Facebook
Dermoid Cysts
Experiments on black communities and racism in reproductive health references:
https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm
http://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/19/1/28.full.pdf
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/85scf7fe9780252008740.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160932714200202
http://time.com/4081760/margaret-sanger-history-eugenics/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/23/margaret-sanger-founded-planned-parenthood-on-raci/
In episode 9 I'm talking with Anoushka Florence Loftus of The Goddess Space. The Goddess Space is a beautiful physical and digital sanctuary for women to gather together, to get in touch with their mind, body and spirit and tap into their own wisdom, desires and guidance. Anoushka holds workshops where women can feel empowered to not only share their story but find their story, and her work varies from 1:1 sessions, to workshops, retreats and even woodland walks.
Anoushka and I cover a lot of ground in this episode! We get into the complex areas of politics, gender roles and equality and how the election of Donald Trump has seen women rise up and speak out. We also explore the mystical and spiritual world of Anoushka's work; from getting in touch with your inner Goddess, to using tarot, crystals and astrology to support you in your life.
Whilst it may sound hippy, I'm a firm believer that we all should have the right to heal and find happiness in any way that feels right to us (as long as it's not harmful to us or others of course) and a spiritual path can be one of them. Living with endometriosis, or other forms of chronic pain, illness or mental health issues can have such a huge impact on our well-being and sometimes getting in touch with our spirit/soul/inner-self/subconscious can be incredibly powerful, clarifying and comforting.
Great change can happen when we take the time to listen to what our inner-self is trying to tell us and Anoushka has developed an incredible safe space to allow that transformation to take place.
Show Notes
The Goddess Space
The Goddess Space Instagram
How To Create Your Own Sacred Space
Anoushka's Wise Woman Teacher
Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook
This week on This EndoLife Podcast, I'm talking to herbalist, Natasha Richardson, founder of the gorgeous Forage Botanicals.
Forage Botanicals is all about supporting women to have better periods, through herbal medicine and other natural methods of self-care. Natasha has suffered with primary dysmenorrhea for nine years and during this time, she's gone on a journey of trying to mange her pain through herbal and natural remedies and more conventional treatments, like metamorphic acid. As a result of her experiences, her research into the history of women's health and the stories of her clients, Natasha has tailored Forage Botanicals to help women feel empowered about their cycle, to help them to really understand it, work with it and reduce the negative symptoms of conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids and PMS.
In this episode, we're talking about why society rejects women's natural hormonal rhythm, how to use our hormones to our own benefit, how natural treatments can help manage endometriosis and why you shouldn't feel guilty for taking a painkiller!
Natasha has also kindly offered £100 off her The Joyful Period course with discount code: ENDOLIFE. All you have to do is type in ENDOLIFE at the check out to receive your discount. PLEASE NOTE THIS COURSE IS AVAILABLE IN EUROPE ONLY. If you really would like to attend the course but live outside of Europe, please email Natasha via her website and she may be able to arrange something.
Show Notes
Forage Botanicals
The Joyful Period Course
Free Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Guide
Let's get social! Come say hi on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!
If you'd like extra 1:1 support with endometriosis, my mentoring and coaching sessions may be helpful to you. Always feel free to drop me an email with any questions.
Meghan Cleary is the creator of Bad Periods; an incredibly clear and informative website covering endometriosis, fibroids and other conditions that contribute to "bad periods". The ex-Wall Street marketing executive is also writing a book on her 31 year diagnosis experience and has only just begun in her pursuit to support women with these conditions.
Meghan is also a DES Daughter. DES was a synthetic oestrogen given to up to 10 million women in the US alone, during 1938 - 1971. Since then, the drug was discovered to be unsafe and the following generation of females are at a much higher risk of endometriosis, as well as other serious side effects, than women who were not exposed.
In this episode, I talk to Meghan about her painfully long journey to diagnosis; the many many forms of alternative and conventional treatments she has tried, how to get the right care from your doctor and how endocrine disruptors are linked to reproductive health disorders in women.
This is a big one. Perhaps even a controversial one, but Meghan has a lot to say which is important and worth the listen, even if it does rub some corporate companies up the wrong way. The subject of endocrine disruptors is a topic that needs addressing and having real conversations about how we do this is essential on our search for a cure to endometriosis.
Show Notes
Bad Periods
Additional resources on Endocrine Disruptors:
EndocrineDisruption.org
NCBI
This week I'm talking to Rachael Welford of Welford Wellbeing. Five years ago Rachael hit rock bottom when she experienced a breakdown and her entire life changed. Up until her breakdown, Rachael had been partying, working a million miles per hour and was self-medicating - all the while with severe anxiety.
Following her breakdown, Rachael spent nine months recovering, and in that time, found support from medication, the Samaritans, therapy and eventually alternative healing. As a result of her experience, Rachael now runs Welford Wellbeing; a space where she supports and heals others through reiki, sound therapy and tapping, also known as the emotional freedom technique.
Rachael and I get pretty deep on this episode; we're talking wanting a break by any means possible (even being hospitalised), just how bad anxiety can feel in the work place when you don't know how to tell people what you're feeling and how Rachael found finally peace with her mind.
Vickie Williams is a yoga teacher, reiki healer and theta healing practitioner with severe endometriosis. Since she was eleven years old, Vickie has dealt with intense endometriosis symptoms and was fainting repeatedly as soon as she began her period. When she was finally diagnosed, they discovered just how bad her endometriosis had progressed in all those years and since then, she's tried numerous treatments from the coil, to zoladex, to surgery. Now Vickie is facing the possibility of bowel surgery and an colostomy bag, but after seeing some dramatic and positive results, is giving the endometriosis diet and lifestyle changes a chance before moving forward with the procedure.
This episode may not be what you're used to hearing from the podcast - Vickie's approach to endometriosis is both scientific and spiritual and her healing work features heavily in her own self-healing and management of endometriosis. We chat about how our experiences can affect our body, how yoga and alternative healing has improved her endometriosis symptoms and anxiety and her approach to western vs eastern medicine.
This week on the podcast I'm talking to Shelby Hadden, Writer, Director and Producer of short animated film Tightly Wound. Shelby Hadden grew up with vaginismus, a condition which causes involuntary contractions of the pelvic floor muscles that tighten the vaginal entrance, causing pain, penetration problems, and an inability to have intercourse. Last year Shelby created a Kickstarter to make a film raising awareness about the condition, with her good friend Sebastian Bisbal, and not only did they exceed their target - the world came out to back her. I talk to Shelby about how it felt to grow up as a teenager with such a difficult condition, how she's worked to become vaginismus free, how medical professionals failed to find an answer and the link between vaginismus, pelvic floor dysfunction and endometriosis. I'm just letting you know now - there's a lot of sex talk!
Heather Crosby is the creator of Yum Universe, an incredible online resource full of recipes, meal plans and support for those looking to eat good, comforting food and increase their intake of plants. Heather's own struggles with health came to a climax when she was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, which is a chronic condition with no current effective treatment or cure, and so she turned to diet to help her manage the painful symptoms. Heather's health is now in an amazing place and she has just released her latest book, Pantry to Plate, which is all about cooking without recipes!
We talk about the possibility of Heather having endometriosis, her challenges with her health and interstitial cystitis, how listening to her body completely transformed her attitude to her health and how she went from refusing to eat vegetables to drinking mushroom lattes!
Autumn Smith and Fela Dunfee are the duo behind the Endotwins, a website and newsletter serving up sick humour for sick minded girls. Both in their twenties, Autumn and Fela have stage four endometriosis and are facing serious surgeries, including a hysterectomy. We talk honestly about what it feels like to be so unwell with endometriosis at such a young age, why and how they started The Endo Twins, their plans for a future charity and just how important (and weird) their friendship is. Expect a lot of realness, a lot of laughter and a little bit of sex talk.
In this first episode, I'm talking to Jessica Murnane, host of the podcast One Part Podcast, creator of One Part Plant and author of One Part Plant. Jess is super passionate about supporting people to eat more plant based foods, as a result of changing up her diet to help manage her stage 4 endometriosis. We talk the endodiet, mental health, eating disorders, supporting hard to reach communities and of course, her debut cookbook...