How menopause affects your digestive system
Digestion is a huge issue in perimenopause and menopause. And it seems to be getting worse over the years. So many women contact me to ask, "Is their digestion okay? What's going on? Is it connected? Why is it getting worse? Why is this happening?"
There are two main reasons why your digestion can be affected during perimenopause and menopause. One is, obviously, hormonal changes. We know that lack of oestrogen has a slowing-down effect on the gut. So as your oestrogen starts to fall, basically, your gut slows down. All the movement, all the digesting, all the processing, elimination, everything takes a lot longer. And that's going to cause things like wind, constipation, bloating, and discomfort.
The second reason is stress. This can be a big factor. It's the flight or fight response. The minute your body goes into any kind of flight or fight situation, it can have an impact. Today, it's not being chased by sabre-toothed tigers, it's just the fact that you might be late for work, or you can't find your car keys, or you've missed the bus. But that action of your body getting stressed, basically switches your digestion off for maybe two to three hours. If you've just had breakfast and this happens, that food is going to sit in your stomach for two to three hours without moving anywhere at all.
With the combination of these two issues, it's not surprising that sometimes, our digestion just goes completely to pot.
How do you know if your digestion is working well?
Sometimes, knowing what's going right can be just as important as knowing what could go wrong. And there are a few ways you can tell that your digestion is okay.
If everything is well, you should have a good appetite, you should be eating well, you should be enjoying your food, you shouldn't be having any cravings, and you shouldn’t be experiencing things like nausea.
The way your bowels behave is also important. I know we don't like to talk about the bowels, but the way our bowels work on a daily basis is absolutely crucial for our digestive health. And knowing if things are right or wrong in that department, again, is a really good indication of whether your digestion is healthy or not.
Your bowel should be moving at least once a day, preferably twice. I am told by some people that they only go once a week, and the doctor is quite happy with that because they're ‘regular’ in that they always go once a week. However, if you think about it, you're eating two to three meals a day, you're having snacks, and if you're not going to the toilet every day, you could end up having two to three days' worth of decaying food sitting in your gut. And then, it's no wonder that you're going to bloat. You're going to get cramping. You're going to get the wind and constipation. So, bowel habits and bowel function provide a good indication of what's going wrong and what's going right.
There is something called the Bristol Stool Chart, which I think is a really helpful guide. It shows you exactly what you should be passing if your bowels are healthy. It also shows you what you shouldn't be passing. And if things are really bad, then you need to go to the doctor. But it's well worth having a look at this, just to see if you're average, if you're okay, or if you need to overhaul your digestion.
5 signs that your digestive system may be struggling:
So, now that you know what your digestion should be like if it is working well, it's time to know what are the main signs that your digestion may be struggling.
Here are 5 key signs that indicate that your digestive system is not working as well as it should:
1. Indigestion
We all get indigestion from time to time. Even I get it sometimes if I’ve eaten too much, or if I eat a big carb-heavy meal. I can feel uncomfortable for a couple of hours. And that's fine. It happens to everybody. But if you're getting this on a regular basis, then again, it's an indication the stomach's not coping very well.
As well as feeling uncomfortable and overly full after a meal, you can also experience symptoms such as wind, and burping, so that's up the way. Indigestion can also cause cramping and wind, down the way. It can involve gastric reflux too.
2. A change in bowel habits
Remember, you should be going twice a day. If your bowel habits are changing, if you're maybe only going two or three times a week, if you've gone from twice a day to once a day, that's a 50% change in bowel habit, so that's quite a big factor.
So again, you need to look at your bowel habits. One of the really important things here though is that if you're getting constant diarrhoea, if there is blood in your stools, that needs medical attention; so, don't leave that symptom in the hope that it might just get better.
3. Sleep disturbances & low mood
Believe it or not, your digestion can impact your sleep and your mood. We have a chemical in the brain called serotonin. Serotonin helps to keep our mood up. It helps to keep our mood level. We also have serotonin receptor sites in the gut. So, if your gut is not working well, it can have a very big impact on your mood and how you're feeling on a daily basis. They actually say that the gut is the second brain because of this connection.
Poor sleep can also signal that something is wrong with your digestion. If you're eating the wrong food, your liver can really rev up during the night. So, if you're waking up between 1 am and 3 am, that's very often an indication that your liver is struggling at that time too.
4. Skin issues
Skin is connected to our digestion and our elimination. If you're constipated, very often you'll also get skin rashes. You'll get spots. You can get things like eczema and psoriasis as well. These issues are all closely linked.
5. Bad breath
We should have plenty of friendly bacteria in the digestive tract. They help create the right environment to digest and eliminate our food. If they're not working well, if they're missing or reduced because, for example, you've had something like food poisoning or antibiotics, that can then affect the ‘ventilation’ of the gut if you like, and that can produce bad breath.
What can help improve your digestive health during menopause
So, what can you do to help yourself here? There are lots of simple self-care things you can do to help improve your digestion, such as:
Increase your water intake
This is really, really important. Your digestion is a bit like a processing plant. There are all these different processes going on, and they nearly always involve water. So, if you're dehydrated, if you're getting flushes and sweats, if your oestrogen is dropping and you get dehydrated, that is going to affect your gut function.
Dehydration is one of the biggest causes of constipation. Drink plenty of water during the day, but try not to drink a lot with food because you would dilute your stomach acid and a lot of the digestive enzymes, which will affect your digestion. So, remember to drink loads of water in between meals, half an hour before a meal, or an hour afterwards, but very little at meals. And that can make quite a big difference.
Dietary changes
Carbs and menopause/ perimenopause tend not to go particularly well together. Carbs do cause a lot of bloating. And a lot of people do find just going on a low carbohydrate diet can make a huge amount of difference. Have loads of vegetables, and some fruit as well, and some nice grains, and a small number of pulses just to give you fibre to keep everything moving along really nicely.
Regular exercise
Exercise is great for constipation. Walking is one of the best exercises for this. If you're doing a brisk walk, that action is massaging the whole of your digestive tract, and that will help move everything along. Even a brisk 15-minute walk after you've had a meal can make a huge amount of difference, especially for your elimination.
Look after your friendly bacteria
They are so important, and there's so much research coming out now, looking at how friendly bacteria can affect our hormone balance. So, this is a really important time to get those friendly bacteria well-settled.
A good probiotic, maybe for one month every 6 months, can be helpful to support the digestive system generally. However, if you have digestive problems, then a good daily probiotic could make all the difference. And that can sometimes have quite a positive impact on the hormone side of things as well.
You can also look at fermented foods. These are really good for the gut. So, you've got things like kefir, tempeh, miso, things like that.
You could also look at our Molkosan Fruit Digestion, which is a digestive drink that you can take on a daily basis to help support good gut health.
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Try bitter herbs to help improve your digestion
Bitter herbs
These are absolutely great. Bitter herbs start to stimulate your digestive juices. You will find, especially on the Mediterranean diet, there's very often a first course, just a small plate of a combination of bitter herbs. And these work really well at getting everything switched on.
Obviously, you can't always have a little bowl of salad, but you can look at bitter herbs. One of the best bitter herbs that you can get is the herb called Yarrow, which you can get as drops. And you would just take that in a little water before each meal.
Chew well
The other thing is to chew well. Your stomach doesn't have any teeth, and if you rush your food, if you don't chew it properly, your poor old stomach is going to have to work really hard at breaking everything down, and that's when you end up with indigestion and gastric reflux. So, just taking an extra 5 or 10 minutes at each mealtime, chewing well, can make a real big difference to your digestion very, very quickly.
I hope you found this one helpful. We have done quite a few digestive subjects over the last few weeks, but it's one that seems to be becoming more and more apparent in perimenopause and menopause, and we're getting so many questions about it.
If you have any queries on this, if you have any stories, if you have any tips, what has really helped your digestion? What did you change in your diet? Or what did you start taking that made a big difference for you? And you know I love reading your stories.
Until next time, take care and have a lovely week.
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