How to support your hormonal health and manage UTI’s
Is this you? Pre-menstrual tension, hot flashes, mood swings, food cravings, unable to lose weight, blood sugar roller coaster, brain fog, recurrent uti’s or cystitis? Then head in for a chat!
Until the end of June our health focus continues to support your hormonal health and managing UTI’s.
Reset your hormones and gain back some control.
Hormones work in synergy, having one out of balance can affect the rhythm and impact of other hormones. To reset your hormones, you need to take a whole-body approach and think about diet, lifestyle, and environmental impacts. Ask our supplement advisors about the hormone reset programme for full details.
Foodie tips!
- Eat a low-carbohydrate, low GI, high-protein diet. High levels of insulin produced when your diet is high in sugars and carbohydrates can increase testosterone levels. In women this can lead to high levels of oestrogen and hormonal imbalance.
- Eat a high Fibre diet. This aids detoxification of hormones, supports diversity of the gut microbiome and helps to balance hunger hormones
- Eat healthy fats rich in polyunsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats. Include lots of omega 3 fats from seafood, nuts and seeds. Fat is also very satisfying and can help you lose excess weight and lower insulin levels.
- Eat probiotic foods which can aid with detoxification and gut health. Include coconut yogurt, kefir, miso, fermented vegetables, tempeh, kimchi.
- Include organic non-genetically modified soy in your diet like t.u and tempeh. Soy contains Isoflavones, weak plant oestrogens, that can help to balance hormones. If you have an underactive thyroid limit it to 2-3 servings a week and make sure you get additional selenium from Brazil nuts.
- Include greens daily, especially cruciferous vegetables. Sprouted broccoli seeds, kale, rocket, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower contain sulforaphane that can support with liver detoxification, and they can also add fibre.
- Avoid alcohol. Alcohol intake has been negatively associated with gut health. It can also trigger blood sugar imbalances and adrenal imbalances as well as placing pressure on the liver detoxification pathways.
- Keep sugar out of your diet and aim to be sugar free. This will help to reduce cravings and reset insulin / leptin.
- Keep fruit to one or two portions a day. Eat mostly berries as these have a low glycaemic index and won’t raise insulin levels.
- Limit caffeine, coffee / tea to 1 cup daily or avoid altogether. This will support your adrenal glands and help to limit cortisol activity.
- Go gluten free. This avoids the inflammatory effect of gluten. Focus more on vegetables including starchy vegetables – sweet potato, pumpkin, butternut squash. They will feed the good bacteria in your gut.
- Limit carbs and grains. Limit your total carbohydrate consumption to 50-75g a day if you want to lose weight, slightly higher if not. This will help to reduce cravings and reset Leptin, the hunger hormone.
- Go dairy free. This will help to reduce dairy’s potential inflammatory effect. Dairy is a common food allergen.
- Avoid processed oils such as sunflower, safflower and rapeseed etc (coconut oil, ghee and butter are ok for cooking in small amounts).
- Drink at least 2 litres fluid per day. This will support hydration and detoxification. This can include water, hot water with lemon, herbal teas, dandelion coffee etc.
Lifestyle changes to support hormone health:
Include at least 30 minutes of daily exercise but don’t overdo it. Cardiovascular and resistance training helps your liver and muscles to store more glucose as glycogen and use it as fuel.
To reduce the effect of stress, and encourage progesterone production, make time to relax daily.
Reduce your toxic burden. Look for paraben free cosmetics and beauty products. Avoid phthalates often found in hair care products, deodorants, shower gels etc. Epsom salt baths at night will replenish magnesium and help you relax, circulation and detoxification.
Cook using non-toxic pans, skillets, and pots that aren’t worn to minimise any release of problematic compounds while cooking.
Managing UTI’s
By the age of 24, nearly a third of women will have had a urinary tract infection (UTI) at least once and 50% of women will experience at least one in their lifetime. For pre and post-menopausal people occurrence and recurrence is even higher. An estimated 27% of women who have had a UTI will have a recurrent episode within six months.
Early treatment of urinary tract infections using a natural approach can help to reduce reliance on antibiotics that can in turn, increase the risk of antibiotic resistance. However if a UTI travels to the kidneys and causes infection, antibiotics should be used to limit any further damage.
If you experience recurrent UTIs, an often-overlooked reason could be an imbalanced vaginal microbiome. Much like the gut microbiome, the vaginal microbiome is a complex ecosystem of bacteria, and fungi, that lives in your vagina. When the vaginal microbiome is in an optimal state, it is populated by different strains of lactobacilli bacteria – Lactobacillus crispatus is often considered the dominant bacterial resident, although a healthy vaginal microbiome should also be crowded with other species such as L. iners, L. jensenii and L. gasseri.
Some reasons for recurrent UTIs
- Menopause
- A history of UTIs – can increase the risk of having another one.
- Anything which disrupts the natural pH of the vagina. Something as simple as not over washing can help to promote a healthier vaginal community. Avoid contraceptive spermicides where possible and definitely don’t douche!
Natural remedies:
- Lactulose – sold commercially to support more frequent bowel movements is a wonderful source of food for lactobacilli which then produce lactic acid. Lactic acid maintains the correct pH of the vagina. 2ml of lactulose syrup mixed in 8ml of warm water can be applied via syringe or spray before bed. Use nightly for one week, then two or three times weekly for another three weeks.
- Green tea is another vaginal prebiotic which has been shown to increase the growth of lactobacilli while at the same time inhibiting pathogenic bacteria. To use it, brew a strong pot of tea using loose leaf green tea and allow to steep until cool. This can be used either on its own intravaginally or as per the 8ml of warm water with the lactulose syrup.
- Cranberry has anti adhesion properties which can be used as a prophylactic and during infection to prevent pathogenic bacteria from adhering to the cell wall. However cranberry on its own is unlikely to shift an infection once in place.
- Goldenseal exerts its antimicrobial properties by preventing e.coli from adhering to the bladder wall.
- Horsetail, one of the oldest and most well known herbal remedies has been shown to exhibit antimicrobial properties against a range of pathogens found in the urinary tract.
Vitamins and Minerals:
- Vitamin C is an effective antimicrobial and can be used as a supplement to support antibiotic therapy for UTIs.
- Vitamin A has been shown to be effective at reducing renal scarring in acute episodes of UTI
- Vitamin D helps to strengthen the bladder lining which in turn can inhibit colonisation by pathogenic bacteria.
- D Mannose is a simple sugar which has been shown to inhibit the adherence of pathogenic bacteria to cell walls and reduce the production of biofilms by pathogens.
- Probiotics can help to maintain a vaginal pH of ≤4.5.
