Seven Foods to Alleviate Oestrogen Dominance with Endometriosis - a podcast by Jessica Duffin

from 2020-10-05T19:42:16

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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!

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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.

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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

Broccoli sprouts and cruciferous veg