HRT
Possibly one of the biggest subjects there is! Before I trained as a Nutritional Therapist, I had a kind of holier than thou view of HRT: an “I would never do that” kind of attitude. This was born out of my non-toxic, wholefoods, keep-it-natural lifestyle which I still abide by, make no mistake. However, now I’ve grown up a bit, I don’t think anything of the sort – I have nothing at all against HRT but oh so much to say about it…! So, I thought I’d write this blog for anyone who is considering going down the HRT route.
One hot flash and I'm sold
So many women have one hot flash and go straight onto HRT without even considering it, it’s almost just what you do. But, here’s why making adding hormones in your first port of call is not the answer. First of all, it’s essential to consider two of my favourite subjects – detoxification and gut health.
Break that baby down!
Let’s talk detox. It’s your liver’s job to break down oestrogen as well as all manner of toxins. Once you use oestrogen, you need to break it down and get it gone, so that it doesn’t just continue circulating round the bloodstream, wreaking havoc and then going off down your detox pathways in the wrong direction. Yes, did you know that your body metabolises oestrogen down different pathways that can be good news and not so good news for your health? This is why you MUST make sure your detox pathways are in a good place and doing a good job so that the oestrogen that your body does detox, is heading down the right pathway, not a DNA damaging one.
Gut health
Once oestrogen is packaged up, along with toxins, it is excreted in your poo and your gut health plays an essential role in keeping you regular. This is why, if your gut is in a mess, you will experience a hormone mess too.
So many perimenopausal symptoms stem from oestrogen dominance, which can be down to excess and used up oestrogen not being eliminated properly by the body. What’s more, many perimenopause symptoms mirror a poor gut health picture and poor gut health is also a huge contributory factor in menopause weight gain.
It's all about being receptive
Inflammation causes your cells to be insensitive to hormones, which means that your hormones can’t dock onto the cells’ receptor sites. When inflammation, which can be caused by a bad diet of excess sugar, alcohol and ultra processed foods, is a big part of the picture then adding hormones in willy nilly is just going to be a pointless exercise which could end up backfiring – more unwanted symptoms anyone?
This is why I always bang on about good liver detox, good gut health, a clean diet, full of wholefoods and plenty of good hydration, as well as regular movement and exercise and thinking well. Remember, you can’t HRT your way out of a bad diet or poor lifestyle choices.
Is it too late?
I know what you’re thinking “But what if I’m already taking HRT?” Don’t worry, it’s not too late to work on all these things and you would be surprised at the improvement you will experience.
This is why I am seeing a really good Nutritional Therapist myself so that I can put all this into place and then think about adding some hormones into the mix. At least, if and when I do, I’ll know that I’ve done all I can rather than just going down the one-pump-or-two, path. I deserve the very best health and so do you. Wish me luck, I’ll keep you posted.
