Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 88: The Gut–Hormone Connection – Why Your Microbiome Matters After 40

Transcript

Episode 88: The Gut–Hormone Connection – Why Your Microbiome Matters After 40 · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Julie, what's one of the things we get told most often?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I know what to do, but I don't know how to do it.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's absolutely right.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest areas we see this in is when it comes to protein intake.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: We get told all the time, I know I should eat more, but I can't seem to work that out in real life.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's really common.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we call the protein gap.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's that space between getting all of the advice until you're blue in the face, but not being able to actually put it into practice.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're going to be covering in our practical workshop called the Protein Gap coming up on Thursday, May 21st.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to join us and get your perfect protein plan finely sorted, see protein at fabulousbeyond40.com.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And also if you want to check out any of our other workshops, see fabulousbeyond40.com forward slash workshops.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: All right, we hope to see you there.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now let's get on with this week's show.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So have you ever felt like your body just kind of changed overnight?
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: You have the same habits, maybe really healthy habits, you're putting in the same effort, but all of a sudden you're feeling bloated, you've got a lot of brain fog, you've got that stubborn weight you can't seem to lose, cravings driving you mad, uh sleep that seems like it's coming from an alternate universe, and then you're told, oh, it's just your hormones.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Or even worse, it's just your age, right?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what almost nobody's talking about.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Your hormones never act alone.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're part of a system, and your gut is a really important part of that conversation.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if your gut's out of balance, your hormones don't stand a chance of behaving themselves.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to pull back the curtain on the gut hormone connection so you can understand why your microbiome might be the missing piece if you feel like your body's gone a little bit rogue after 40.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome back to Empower Your Menopause.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is the podcast where we talk about all things health, happiness, and hormones for women over 40 without all kinds of fluffy stuff, fads, or just eat less and move more nonsense.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm Coach Julie.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Coach James.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're going to get into something that might sound a little bit sciencey, but it's actually really practical because once you understand this part of it, a lot of things start to make sense.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Why your weight might feel harder to manage, why your energy dips, even when it feels like you're doing everything right.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: I say that in air quotes.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Why your mood, cravings, digestion, everything seems to be having its own little group chat without you being part of it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And spoiler alert, your gut isn't just about digestion.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just a food tube, right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's about it's influencing your hormones, it influences your metabolism, your immune system, everything.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: So let's break this down into plain English.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: What actually is the gut-hormone connection?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: What's happening in your body after 40?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And most importantly, what you can start doing about it without turning your life upside down.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start with what's changing after 40, right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Our estrogen production is declining.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: It gives us less protection throughout our whole body.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have estrogen receptors throughout our entire body, even in our gut lining, in our lungs, in our brain.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's really important.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the gut lining, especially, we're talking about something that's one cell thick, right?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: And if we are having declining estrogen, we don't have that protective effect.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: We can end up with all kinds of systemic inflammation, leaky gut, you've probably heard of.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: It changes our metabolism, the way we respond to the food that we eat, the energy we produce, and our body becomes a lot more sensitive to everyday kinds of things, especially, and you hear us say, the biggest enemy of women over 40 is stress.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Our blood sugar swings, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that has a lot to do with insulin.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: The key, the key here is that, you know, we say we've tried everything and nothing works.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't that nothing works, it's just that your body has a few new rules now that you need to understand a little better.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, James, do you want to talk a little bit about that gut and hormone link?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, estrogen is obviously a key player in this, it's a key player in many bodily processes in a woman's body.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a misconception that it's just a sex hormone.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: It protects your bones, it protects your muscle mass, it helps with blood sugar balance, it helps with cognitive challenges, which is why when estrogen starts to fluctuate in perimenopause and then drops in the menopause transition itself and the day of menopause day of menopause, women get so many symptoms because their body's having to get used to a new landscape.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that estrogen influences massively, and is all an estrogen is also influenced by is the balance of gut bacteria that's actually in your gut.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So, just as a reminder, the microbiome is that collection of bacteria, yeast, other microorganisms that live in the gut and help us perform various bodily processes.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now they aren't human species, they're foreign species.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and we have this symbiotic relationship with with that microbiome that is an inherent part of our evolution as human beings.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so the gut bacteria help women process estrogen.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's something called the estrobilome that we're not going to go del into too deeply because it's quite sciencey, quite nerdy.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the estrobilome is the part of that microbiome that helps process and eliminate estrogen and estrogen to be recycled.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so what you really want is there to be a nice balance there between the microbiome processing estrogen, allowing that to be eliminated, allowing new estrogen to be made, allowing that to circulate around the body, particularly when it's declining, and help with all those bodily functions that I just mentioned.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when your gut health is off, hormones also recirculate badly or inconsistently.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then you need to also factor factor in the fact that there are other hormones at play here as well.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just talking about estrogen that hasn't affected hormone woman's health up here, because remember, the hormonal system, your endocrine system, is like an orchestra with lots of different instruments playing together, lots of different hormones playing together.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you want them all to be playing nicely together rather than bit playing off key.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got it's also affecting cortisol, which is your stress hormone.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Julie just mentioned about what a challenge stress is in the menopause transition.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've also got insulin, which is blood sugar.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Blood sugar balance is really important for all sorts of things nerves, anxiety, fat storage, weight management.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so you've got three hormones there that are key in all of this that are all being modulated in some way, shape, or form by your gut health.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So you might just want to think of yeah, the hormones are the messengers, they go out and they do stuff, but your gut is kind of mission control, it's what's telling or helping those hormonal messages go off and do their job.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if mission control's out, then you know the mission's out, right?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: If I draw that analogy to a total uh sort of um conclusion.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: But Julie, just take us through then, you know, when that mission control is out, when the mission's off kilter, what does that actually look like in practice for a woman?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and this is where I hear one of my favorite, favorite, not favorite phrases is I just feel like a hot mess, right?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: I have all these symptoms.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: There are over 60 scientifically recognized symptoms of menopause, but we think there are many more because they can easily be um linked to something else.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: But these things tend to escalate during the menopause transition.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So peramenopause all the way through postmenopause.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And those are things, I mean, who hasn't had those days where you feel really bloated?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Especially in menopause, where we're accumulating more fat around our belly, around our midsection.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: That is a part of the menopause transition because that fat storage becomes an endocrine gland and produces estrogen when our ovaries stop producing it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it's one of the reasons why our body does that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, you add stress, and cortisol preferentially deposits fat around the belly, and that's something that almost everybody we talk to is complaining about and struggling with because they can't seem to get that down.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: We have all kinds of different cravings because our body's looking for something to satisfy it, and if we're not nourishing it well, we're not feeding the microbiome, and that in turn causes a lot of different cravings to happen because our body is constantly searching for the nourishment that it needs.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And brain fog, I mean, probably one of the top symptoms that women are dealing with at this phase of life, and you feel like I'm losing my mind, and it can be a little bit scary because sometimes that brain fog maybe feels a little bit like we're heading down the road to toward dementia.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: But brain fog is something very different, and it's something that we can work on.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, poor sleep, which drives a lot of these other things because our hormones are up and down, uh, we aren't we're overstressed, we're not finding a way to sort of unplug and relax and and calm down that sympathetic nervous system reaction, that fight or flight.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so we feel we're not sleeping well, and then we have cravings, and then we eat differently, and we get bloated, and then we start putting on more belly fat, and you know, it just becomes this this cycle.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it isn't unusual, and there's there's that's completely normal if you're feeling some of those things.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the great news is that these aren't random things, they're all connected through your gut, and when we can focus on healing the gut and and promoting gut health, because remember, most of the communication between your gut and your brain goes from the gut to your brain.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: So this affects cognitive capacity, it affects how you're bloating, it affects your craving, it affects your energy, it affects everything.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So when we look at take care of the gut, our brain is going to function better, um, just by by default.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a but it's a place because we say, okay, gut health, you know, eat more protein, eat more fiber, take care of your gut.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And why is that so difficult for so many people?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: James, you want to talk about that?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so a number of challenges that we see when people first come to see us is that you know women have been pre-conditioned, if you like, to believe that calories in, calories out is the whole picture.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Many women come to us at this time because of that weight gain around their their midriff.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're chasing for weight loss, often the default position that probably worked maybe in their 20s and their 30s when they had a metabolism that was firing on all cylinders is exercise more and eat a bit less, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is the the sort of like default.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: What is happening there though?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that extreme, I'm gonna do almost punishing cardio ends up leading to an increase in stress, and then cutting calories, particularly if it's done by some kind of extreme diet or even the GLP1 weight loss drugs that we're seeing, is that women end up being underfuelled.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's really important to have a full sort of like wide range of nutrients in the body and the for there to be enough nutrients in the body to keep energy moving properly.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that is one of the things that we see a lot of.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing is trying to work on everything separately rather than trying to think about things more holistically.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of looking at the the whole picture, maybe just focusing on one single thing at a time, trying to look at that, and usually trying to fix it with some kind of like random supplementation, you know, that idea because uh a friend of mine has done it, it's gonna work for me.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was speaking to a lady the other day, and she was saying to me that her gut health was off, and she'd spoken to a friend of hers who'd told her to take this supplement and she was gonna take it.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to her, What's in the supplement?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, I'm not I'm not sure.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So she what she she didn't even she'd not even been told or didn't investigate what it was, it's just that a friend of hers had said, This worked for me, yeah, therefore it's gonna work for you.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And what we do know is that everybody's an individual.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: What we also know though is that almost everything starts in your gut in some way, shape, or form.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's where food gets digested, it's where your hormones get recirculated, it's where you know much of your serotonin, your feel-good hormones are created in the gut.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, how can anxiety, brain fog, all those things be fixed, if you like, for want of a better word, if you're not looking at gut health as a first challenge to address, because it is that master regulator that helps with so many things.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, to draw a crude analogy, I suppose, if you want to go back to that idea of fixing it, you know, trying to work on your general menopause symptoms or post-menopause symptoms or whatever it may be that's ailing you as a woman at 40 and above, without looking at gut health first, it's a bit like trying to fix a leaking roof by just mopping the floor, right?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of need to rethink our approach to things, I suppose.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Julie, do you want to just walk us through what that that approach, that rethinking might be?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, one of the things we if you draw another analogy, because we like doing that, if you think about if the engine in your car isn't working properly, your car isn't going to drive very well.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: If that control center that James talked about, which is your gut, isn't functioning properly, then the rest of your body is going to feel off and it's going to drive a number of different symptoms and inflammation, and that really is the source of so many of the issues, health issues that we face.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: So when your gut is under-supported, that control system cannot function optimally.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that is the biggest leverage point that we have.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then the great news is it isn't something that's super difficult to fix, but it does take focus.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the and the beautiful result of that, and we actually had a client who had an amazing experience, James will talk about in a minute, but you know, when you support your gut, your hormones stop fighting so hard, your immune system functions better, you think more clearly, you have more even energy, all of those things can fall into place because it's the gut that's driving the majority of those experiences.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: James, can you tell that story?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we do a series of talks periodically on gut health for various conditions.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we do those live, sometimes we do them in person.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I did an in-person one to a group of women in the menopause transition maybe six, seven weeks ago, and a few of them signed up to um our gut reset course.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And she uh I bumped into her last week um and she said, James, I can't thank you enough.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like death when I came in.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now I feel like I've got a new lease of life.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't come from doing anything too extreme or making massive changes, it came from getting the foundations right, which started with uh gut health.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And imagine she felt that way after just four weeks.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So she said she had more energy, she was sleeping better, her weight management felt better.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if there's one thing to take away from today, is that your gut and your hormones are in constant conversation with each other.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Support one, you can influence the other.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked about our upcoming protein workshop at the start of this podcast.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And protein is really, really important.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's an important part of gut health because it's the key nutrient for keeping that gut health, that gut lining rather um nice and robust, that one cell gut lining Julie mentioned earlier.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you do want to join us on the protein workshop, we'd love to have you there.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just as a reminder, protein at protein.fabulousbeyond40.com, rather.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get the URL right to make sure you can get there to it.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: But also, if this idea of gut health is hitting a little too close to home, and you do want to join the gut health reset designed specifically for women 40 and above, um it's gutresetcourse.com.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll drop both URLs to both of those resources.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So the protein workshop, which is Thursday, May 21st at 7 pm UK, and the Gut Health Reset, which you can join at any time you like.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: We'll drop both of those resources in the show notes.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Julie.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: Terrific.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's all the time we have for this week.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we hope to see you in the gut health reset.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: We hope to see you on the protein workshop.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be great.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And in the meantime, we've been James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, and we're here to remind you to stay strong and stay fabulous, and we'll see you next time.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: See you next time, guys.