Healthy digestion is high up on the
list of health priorities for many women.
However, did you know, tummy troubles are considered the top triggers of
hormone imbalances in women?
Those niggling symptoms of bloating
and irregular bowel movements are important signs that things are not
right. They are your bodies way of
crying out for help. Ignoring these can
lead to heightened imbalances in female reproductive hormones such as estrogen,
progesterone and testosterone and those associated with metabolic performance
such as insulin. This
combination creates the perfect blend for unexplained weight gain, especially
around the middle.
New and Exciting Research
While traditional research indicates
rises in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to be due to a combination
of genetics, inflammation and environmental influences [i]
[ii]
[iii][iv]
[v]
[vi]
[vii]
[viii]
[ix]
[x],
exciting new research suggests tummy troubles or ‘digestive dysbiosis’ also
play a role and contribute to female reproductive disorders [xi]
[xii]
[xiii]
[xiv]
[xv]
[xvi][xvii]
[xviii].
This is one reason why getting on top of your health and maintaining a healthy
body weight may prove so challenging!
Break Free and Restore Health
Getting on top of your tummy
troubles and health is like peeling back the layers of an onion and takes
expertise, experience and time. Establishing the cause of your bloating and
digestive upsets is an involved process, requiring professional symptomatic
screening techniques and targeted dysbiotic testing. But this is only the first
stage. Repairing the damage and
restoring balance with medicinal herbs and targeted probiotics is fundamental to
finally becoming symptom free.
Narelle Stegehuis, CEO of Mass Attack is a practicing naturopath
with over 30,000 hrs of in-clinic experience and health editor for Empower magazine. Specializing in the natural
treatment of women's hormonal imbalances, she has a trained eye for hormonal
weight gain. She is both an accomplished writer and recipient of the
Australian Naturopathic Excellence Award. To find out if your hormones are making you fat, visit http://www.massattack.com.au
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[ii] Lazar M. A (2005) How obesity causes diabetes: not a
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[iii] Doria A, Patti M. E, Kahn C. R (2008) The emerging genetic architecture of
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[iv] Rankinen T, Zuberi A, Chagnon Y. C, Weisnagel S. J,
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Selective induction of B7/BB-1 on interferon-gamma stimulated monocytes: a
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[xi] Meadows R (2011) Gut Bacteria May Override Genetic
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[xiii] Cani P. D, Bibiloni R, Knauf C, Waget A, Neyrinck A. M, et al. (2008)
Changes in gut microbiota control metabolic endotoxemia-induced inflammation in
high-fat diet-induced obesity and diabetes in mice. Diabetes 57: 1470–1481.
[xiv] Creely S. J, McTernan P. G, Kusminski C. M, Fisher M, Da Silva
N. F, et al. (2007) Lipopolysaccharide activates an innate immune system
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Endocrinol Metab 292: E740–E747.
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et al. (2006) Preadipocytes mediate lipopolysaccharide-induced
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human adipocytes. Endocrinology 147: 5340–5351.
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host genotype on the gut microbiome. Nat Rev Microbiol 9: 279–290.
[xvii] Khan, K.N., et al., Toll-Like Receptors in Innate Immunity:
Role of Bacterial Endotoxin and Toll-Like Receptor 4 in Endometrium and
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