Hormones and Gut Health

Your body systems work together to keep things running properly. The gut controls a majority of the framework. According to Hippocrates, all disease begins in the gut. The microbiome, the intestinal bacteria, works to balance organisms by stabilizing secretions. It also controls the gut motility of the intestines and can affect your metabolism, mood, immune system as well as hormones. Your thyroid, adrenals, and reproductive system all work together to keep your hormones in check. 

Thyroid

There are two main types of thyroid disorders: hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. Hashimoto’s and Grave’s disease are also thyroid conditions. Today we will just focus on the two. Hyperthyroidism means your thyroid is overactive and producing too many hormones. When this happens, your pituitary gland produces less thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to try and combat the excess. If dealing with an overactive thyroid, symptoms can include:

• Rapid heartbeat
• Anxiety
• Weight loss
• Sleep issues
• Mood swings
• Increased frequency of bowel movements
• Light or irregular periods
• Muscle weakness
• Skin dryness

Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid is producing fewer hormones. This causes your pituitary gland to produce more TSH to try and stimulate the thyroid. Symptoms of hypothyroidism can include:

• Fatigue
• Feeling cold
• Constipation
• Skin dryness
• Weight gain
• Depression
• Heavier or irregular periods
• Slowed heart rate
• Thin hair

The main testing done for checking your thyroid levels is a TSH test. However, it may be beneficial to request a free T3 and T4 test in addition to a TSH. T3 and T4 are the thyroid hormones that are secreted by the thyroid and are in your bloodstream. TSH measures what your pituitary gland is secreting based on the response loop of the thyroid.

Adrenals

The adrenal glands are responsible for our fight-or-flight response when you encounter a stressful situation. They produce cortisol, which is for energy. Cortisol has a natural rhythm to its day. It is typically higher in the morning and then tapers off towards the end of the day, so we will go to sleep at night. Cortisol is also tied to hormone production of progesterone. Stress can affect multiple body systems. When we have a fight-or-flight instance, it triggers the cortisol to respond rapidly. If we run in a stressed-out period for too long, the body stores that energy to use for those situations. Because of this extended stressed state, you will typically have trouble losing weight in the belly area. That is where the body stores that energy for a stress response. Over-exercising to try and combat the stress and lose the weight will not work and will actually cause more stress to your body.

Reproductive System

The reproductive system and your gut work together in hormone balancing. Your ovaries produce the hormone, estrogen. It then sends estrogen through your body to your uterus and breasts and then into the liver to become inactivated. It then exits the body through a bowel movement. If this process is hampered, and the estrogen is re-activated by an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, it goes back into your body. You now have excess estrogen and which can cause heavy periods.  As I mentioned above, cortisol affects progesterone as well. If you are utilizing too much, you will typically see lower progesterone in your system. This can cause mood disorders and PMS type symptoms.

There is no one size fits all diet approach to healing the gut and balancing your hormones back out. It can be done though, through trial and error. If you suspect a hormone imbalance, please check with your medical provider or functional medicine doctor to have blood work evaluated and discuss if certain protocols would be best suited for you. Remember to check with your medical provider prior to making any diet, exercise or supplement changes.

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