In preparing for teaching doctors from around the world in the 17th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine and Regenerative Biomedical Technologies conference, I have been reminded how greatly any alterations in Gastrointestinal (GI) tract beneficial bacteria (microflora) affects the adrenal stress response. The state of imbalanced GI microflora can stress you out by:
- turning up your adrenal glands into overdrive
- causing your thyroid to go out of whack
- causing your estrogens and progesterone to go haywire, and
- lead you into multiple hormonal imbalances
There are so many women who have been misdiagnosed and have been unnecessarily prescribed the common thyroid prescription medication Synthroid. This occurs because a lot of doctors use TSH and T4 for thyroid screening lab tests as primary diagnostic tools for hypothyroidism. However, they are not looking deeper. Very often, the adrenals go out of whack first. More often than realized, recurrent use of antibiotics and/or corticosteroid inhalers or corticosteroid creams kill the beneficial GI microflora. Since 60% of your immune system is in your GI tract, an imbalanced GI tract microflora causes immune system imbalances, which in turn, causes adrenal dysregulation. Adrenal dysregulation alters thyroid function. Thyroid problems cause sex hormone imbalances. Consequently, you get multi-system dysregulation. Quite often, doctors prescribe more and more medications as symptoms increase. Ultimately, women that go through this never get better because the root causes are not properly identified and treated.
In many of the other posts on this blog and articles in my newsletter archives, I’ve discussed components of the multi-system dysregulation. In the upcoming conference, I am getting an opportunity to bring all this together before a large group of health care professionals. I’m looking forward to discussing the research studies and scientific priniciples for using nutrition, lifestyle modifications, spinal manipulation and other natural means for resolving this multi-system dysregulation. The title of my presentation is “Optimizing GI Tract Function as a Therapeutic Component of Hormonal Regulation in Women”.
By the way, the resulting multi-system dysregulation originating from gut problems is also applicable to men. I’ve focused on women here because this has been on my mind lately due to preparing for my upcoming presentation.
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Dear Dr. Husbands: I have a question. This article regarding GI tract and hormonal imbalance really hit home. I have suspected that my GI problems (now going on 3 years!) are as a result of my hormonal imbalances. I am estrogen dominant and my Gyn has finally prescribed 200 mg of Prometrium vaginally (days 14-28). The first month I did this, I felt like I was 20 yrs. old again (I’m 49). Everything, including my GI imbalance seemed to calm down. The 2nd and 3rd times, I bloated up in the stomach area and have been miserably constipated and it seems there is no relief in sight! I feel like the 200 mg was way too much and that the excessive progesterone is now in my system and my question is how can I get rid of it and start over on a low dose cream?
Hi Laura,
I’ve seen this quite often — where hormones were prescribed and it initially seemed to work, but then other problems crop up because the underlying problem(s) were not correctly identified and resolved. Also, hormones alone, even bio-identical ones (without dietary evaluations and therapeutic nutritional changes), do not usually resolve any nutrient insufficiency or imbalances.
I know I am not directly answering your question… I focus on identifying the underlying causes, and address them, which then results in getting rid of the symptoms. The GI problems could be the underlying cause of the hormonal imbalances. This is confirmed through lab testing.