Hormones and IBS, that is what I will be chatting
about today, but I want to start by introducing myself.
I'm Taylor, I'm one of the nutrition consultant
and registered dietitians that works on a Diet
Vs Disease team with all of our Lovely Dietitians
and Nutrition Consultants. So let's get started!
I'm going to chat today about estrogen and progesterone.
So some of our different hormones that can impact
digestion, and then I'm going to end with a little
bit of a chat on how our thyroid hormones can
also impact, or shift our digestion as well. I'm
going to start by saying if you've noticed your
IBS seems to flare up or how you manage, your
IBS seems to change throughout the month. You
are absolutely not alone. In fact, research
shows up to 40% of women with diagnosed IBS
experience shifts in how they manage their
bowel movements and their symptoms throughout the month.
Woohoo! So let's chat a little bit about why.
As our estrogen fluctuates, which it does
throughout the month, will see shift in our
smooth muscle tissue response. So this changes
motility or movement throughout our digestive
tract and with this movement, it can impact
our constipation or diarrhea either making
it worse or sometimes even a little bit better
depending on the person that piece can be quite individual.
So what you may notice is you'll have to use different
strategies throughout the month to help negate
that a little bit or manage it a little bit better.
So a drop in estrogen right before our cycle
or period each month will also shift our pain,
reception or perception. What that means
is if we're in a bit of a flare up, as our estrogen
drops will perceive a much higher level of pain
and this is a physiological response to those
hormones shifts. So you might notice your pain
feels a lot higher at that time of the month and
that is why or a contributing factor I should
say is our estrogen. Shifts and hormones will
also impact our inflammatory markers. So this
doesn't mean that we have inflammation in our gut necessarily.
So I want to make sure that I differentiate inflammatory
bowel from irritable bowel. Both symptoms
are no fun and impact our quality of life, for sure.
However, there is a difference in terms of inflammation
within our gut. However, as our hormones fluctuate,
we do see an increase in low-grade inflammatory
markers in our system, which also can impact
pain response and motility, which is why some people
will see again, heightened, diarrhea, constipation
or flare-ups or even different tolerance of
different fodmaps at different times of the month.
So what can we do about this? I'll save that for
the end because it's very similar to what we
would do with some of our thyroid hormone shifts as well.
So TSH or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone is a
common hormone that is used for identifying
hypo or hyperthyroidism. Or overactive or
underactive thyroid. With a hyperthyroidism
so overactive will typically see increased
movement, more diarrhea, and sometimes more
stomach pain as well. With hypo or underactive
thyroid will see typically more constipation,
slow motility, bloating, gas, and pain as well.
So, one thing I would definitely say is relevant
to all is maximizing our hormonal regulation.
So for example, with our thyroid, I would speak
to your doctor and a chronologist about how
we can manage through medications if needed.
There are some lifestyle pieces that can sometimes
help support that as well. In terms of nutrition
specific to your digestive pieces. I would
start by saying awareness. So tracking for
example, when are different times of the month
are. Where we are in our cycle, can sometimes
help us be aware of if there's a pattern with
our symptoms and if we do experience more bloating
and gas at certain times of the month, then
we'll we can look at is during those times. If
we for example are experiencing more constipation.
We can perhaps look at tweaking your fiber ratio,
adding more fluid, adding less fluid kind of
depending on again the time of the month and
what symptoms you are individually experiencing.
As a result of that, the other piece I would look
at is, does your FODMAP tolerant shift for
many women, different times of the month
will shift and after I should mention menopause,
will sometimes notice a shift in our FODMAP tolerance.
This is a great thing to be aware of because once
we know, knowledge can be power, once we know
great, we know at certain times of the month.
Maybe we have to adjust our threshold of different
FODMAPs to help prevent some of that pain flare-ups
or bloating flare-ups that we might experience.
So I would say being aware of where we're at modifying…if needed.
The other one I would say is no you're not alone.
It can be super frustrating when you feel like
you've just got a handle on your symptoms and
all of a sudden, everything seems to get thrown
out the window. Again, our hormones, and hormones
shift can do that. But no, you're not alone. Know
that we are also struggling with you on that
and then expectations. So know that at different
times of the month our management may look different,
Our management success might look different.
And that's okay too. And that is all actually,
you know what, I'll give you a little extra
tidbit of information. The other thing I would
say, is what you use for managing prior to menopause
and after menopause might look different too.
Sometimes, people ask me why their bowel movements
have shifted or why would they did before doesn't work
now. Again shifts and hormones will change our
motility and after menopause our hormones will
typically look different. And so that does
require sometimes a different plan too. And
know you're not alone with that either. Awesome!
It was great chatting with you guys today, and
I hope you found it helpful to bit of information.
Please comment below. If you watch this, just
let me know you replayed it as well as if there
was a specific tidbit of information that
you found super helpful. Okay, awesome. Bye!!!