How to Restart Your Gut Health After You’ve Gone off of Hormonal Birth Control Pt.2
This is by far, the most important element to implement if you’re considering going off of hormonal birth control. If you’re having gut problems, then you’re going to have hormone problems. If I would have addressed gut health problems first, then I may not have needed to ever get on the pill in the first place. Your gut functions as your second brain. It has more nerve endings than your brain and is the epicenter of all of your hormones. You know, the major ones like Serotonin, Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone. All of which are important for us to function but when we add in synthetic versions (hormonal birth control aka, the pill), it can cause havoc on our everyday bodily processes. When we’re on the pill, sometimes we can go into estrogen dominance (this is the female sex hormone that helps regulate our reproductive system). In other words, we have way too much estrogen in our gut and it throws everything off. Too much estrogen can come from being on the pill for a long time. It shows up as, increased symptoms of PMS, mood swings, headaches, anxiety, weight gain, hair loss, and even sleeping issues. Any of those sound familiar?
Getting Rid of Excess, Synthetic Hormones
When we don’t have enough healthy gut flora (healthy bacteria), our gut doesn’t know how to eliminate this excess estrogen. This turns into bloating, irregularities, not being able to digest food, (especially gluten and dairy) stomach aches, and poor skin health. It’s so important that our gut health is intact so that we can eliminate unwanted hormones, get rid of the inflammation in our gut, and prep it for nutrients it needs when going off of the pill. Since hormonal birth control can help clear acne, when you go off of the pill, your body will begin to detox. If you didn’t know, the first signs of detox always show up on our skin. I was so scared my skin would freak out after being on the pill for so long and I was terrified, just like you may be….keep reading! I was determined to balance out my hormones and I knew that the pill was only a bandaid to the real problem. Hormonal imbalances that started in my gut were the real culprit.
You can start balancing out your hormones with the food alone that you’re eating. Sign up below to get my 5 hormone balancing recipes that I continue to eat on a daily basis.
A good way to keep the detox minimal without huge spikes in hormones and uncontrollable acne is by taking a probiotic and a prebiotic.
You may already take a probiotic or perhaps you didn’t think you needed one. Not only do we need probiotics and prebiotics as humans but especially for us women who are trying to maintain a healthy balance of hormones. Think of prebiotics as the seeds that are planted, and the probiotics as the fertilizer. Your gut is the garden. Both are needed to balance out our gut flora also known as bacteria. We can have healthy bacteria and unhealthy bacteria. The healthy bacteria is what allows our gut to function optimally, deliver proper nutrients to our system and help balance out our hormones. The integrity of our gut is the most crucial part of going off of the pill. It is the first essential step in cleansing your body from the added synthetic hormones that simply do not belong in our body. In addition to reducing the amount of gluten, dairy, alcohol, and sugar you consume during your cycle, cleaning up your gut health is the first step to help you build the confidence you need to go off of the pill.
Here are just a couple of benefits from being on a prebiotic and a probiotic :
Reduces oxidative stress and your bodies natural detoxification reactions
Supports a healthy and diverse gut microbiome (healthy environment for nutrients to flourish)
Supports normal digestion and nutrient absorption
Promotes digestive comfort and bowel regularity
Supports healthy immune response
Stay tuned for pt 3. of how to get off of hormonal birth control!
xo,
Liv
Related Posts:
Why I Stopped Taking Hormonal Birth Control
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