Alyssa Chavez [00:00:02]:
Hello, and welcome back to the Endobelly Girl podcast. I hope you are doing fabulous today. And if you're not, then I hope your day is more fabulous after you finish listening to this episode. As usual, I am super excited about today's episode because we are going to talk all things gut health. Th and that is my favorite thing ever to talk about. So hence the name endobelly girl in the first place. Right. I love talking about your gut, and there's so much to say.
Alyssa Chavez [00:00:39]:
There's so much that relates to endometriosis. And so I can't wait to dive in here. Now, one of the questions that I receive all the time, which we're definitely going to dive into today, is just about, okay, endometriosis is a reproductive disease, right? It has to do with your uterus and your period and all of the things like that. So what in the world does it have to do with gut health? Well, the first thing I have to say about that is wrong. Endometriosis is not a reproductive disorder. It is, in fact, a full body disease. We are also often taught that endometriosis is caused by having too much estrogen in your body. Also wrong.
Alyssa Chavez [00:01:29]:
Not to say that your hormones matter. Estrogen absolutely can affect endometriosis, but that's not the same thing as causing it. So I go back to again, endo is a full body disease because that's a big part of why your gut health even matters in the first place. Now, what is endometriosis, really? We actually did a full episode on that, which I will link to in the show notes. But it is a disease that is rooted in immune dysfunction, and that's going to really come into our conversation today. So I'm going to repeat that again. Endometriosis is a disease that is rooted in immune dysfunction. Again, if you want to hear more about this and kind of the ins and outs of that, I will link to that episode in the show notes.
Alyssa Chavez [00:02:21]:
It's called what is endometriosis, really? And you can dig into deeply on that. But what we're going to do today is we are going to unpack the gut immune connection. Can't wait to nerd out on that with you. And we are going to take a look at why your gut can be a huge source of inflammation and how your body's ability to detoxify excess hormones matters and what that has to do with your gut. So let's dive in. We will start off with that gut immune connection because like I said, I am so excited to talk about that today. Oh, goodness, I am such a big old nerd. But it's all to your benefit, because the stuff that I nerd out on just gets to help you that much more.
Alyssa Chavez [00:03:13]:
Okay, so for starters, I did want to touch base at least a little bit today on what in the world your immune system even has to do with endometriosis, because that's something that's going to be very relevant to our conversation today. Well, it has a lot to do with it. So there are, of course, a lot of theories about endometriosis development. There's a lot that we don't know. But one of the theories and something that makes a lot of sense for endometriosis is that those endometrial like cells that end up becoming endometriosis lesions, your immune system basically should come by and clean that up before it turns into this full blown endometriosis disease that we see. However, when your immune system is busy doing other things, like battling chronic gut infections, for example, that we're going to talk about a little bit later, it may not have the resources available to actually do that. Secondly, let's take a look at some of the common symptoms of endometriosis. Right, pain and fatigue are two of the most common symptoms.
Alyssa Chavez [00:04:22]:
Well, it just so happens that pain and fatigue are also symptoms of inflammation. And inflammation is basically just your immune system at work. So picture when you get a cut on your finger, you get a little paper cut. That cut gets inflamed as your immune system responds to that foreign invader, and the same thing happens inside of your body. Now, in regards to pain, yes, this definitely does involve your nervous system as well. But that is a whole topic that we are going to touch base on in another day. So you can see just with that alone, like, how your immune system function matters for endometriosis. But what I really want to take a look at today is how that actually applies to your gut.
Alyssa Chavez [00:05:07]:
So, for starters, one fun fact that I think we should all should be aware of going into this is that 70% to 80% of your immune system lives in your gut. So if you are addressing your immune health overall, which you are, if you are addressing your health with endometriosis in general, that is an excellent place to begin. In general, when we're talking endometriosis, we are not just looking at inflammation, but we're looking at chronic inflammation and systemic inflammation, which is just a whole other level of inflammation, which basically just means there's inflammation happening all the time, everywhere. Which, if you experience those extreme endosymptoms, you are well aware of that, right? And all of that ties back to your gut. So what exactly is causing the immune system in your gut to fire chronically, leading to that systemic inflammation going on in your body? That's the part I really want to dive into today. So I want to connect the dots on some of that stuff. So, for starters, let's take a look at hidden food sensitivities. And this is a big one.
Alyssa Chavez [00:06:26]:
So, one thing that can happen in your body, and this is extremely common, not just with endometriosis, but just with human beings in general, is that your body basically starts to develop more and more food sensitivities over time because of a scenario known as leaky gut. You may have heard that word floating around the Internet because it has become a bit of a buzword these days, but I'm going to explain to you what that means and why it's important to you as an endowarrior and to your overall immune health and inflammation and all the things. Let's put some of these puzzle pieces together. So, inside of your gut, and I'm talking your intestines, your small and your large intestines, where the food is actually, or the nutrients are actually absorbed from the food inside of your gut, there is a lining that is only about one cell thick. And that lining is the barrier that protects large food particles, or anything foreign, really, from passing into your bloodstream, right? Because your bloodstream is directly behind that barrier. And that's how we end up absorbing nutrients. The nutrients are absorbed through that barrier into your bloodstream, and those nutrients are able to be carried around your body wherever they may need to go. So this matters because over time, especially if you're not digesting well and breaking down foods well in your body, along the way, you can end up with larger food particles making their way through your body down into your intestines, and those larger food particles can end up damaging that lining of your gut.
Alyssa Chavez [00:08:20]:
Now, what happens if that lining of your gut is damaged? Well, guess what? Those large food particles end up being able to make their way through that gut barrier that they otherwise shouldn't be able to pass through. They come in contact with your bloodstream, and that's where your immune system is hanging out, ready for action, ready to take on any foreign invaders. And it starts to recognize those foods as foreign invaders. And then this becomes a slippery slope, because the more your gut barrier becomes damaged, the more of these large food particles can make their way through, the more your immune system is reacting to that, and then guess what? The more food sensitivities you end up developing over time. So if you're in a place where you feel like you just can't eat anything, all the foods bother you, everything upsets your stomach. Well, it could very well be that you have some leaky gut happening in there and there's an imbalance happening. Right? That's a high possibility there. And this is important because if those foods, you're consuming them on a regular basis, especially if you don't know what they are, what your body is even reacting to in the first place, so you're continuing to eat these foods that are bothering you, and your immune system is reacting to, well, guess what? This just ends up contributing to that chronic immune dysfunction and that chronic inflammation, which can, in turn, result in that systemic and chronic inflammation that happens with endometriosis.
Alyssa Chavez [00:09:57]:
So there is actually a direct correlation between your food sensitivities and the amount of inflammation you have going on in your body. So, definitely something that's important to address. And how exactly we address that. Well, in my practice, when I work with my one on one clients, I like to use a food sensitivity test called the MRT, which is a specific type of food sensitivity test, right. I know there's a lot of over the counter ones, like the everly well food sensitivity tests and things like that, that you can buy easily on your own and do these. I don't actually recommend that because a. A lot of those tests only test one type of immune reaction, whereas the MRT tests multiple types of immune reactions. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:10:45]:
So that you're looking at kind of the full and complete picture. And then some of those just are very limited in the amounts of foods that they actually are testing for things like that. In other words, it can leave you being more confused than when you started, which is just not helpful at all in the first place. Right. Now, if that's not something that's available to you right now, for whatever reason, the other gold standard is simply doing an elimination diet, right? Do something like the paleo AIP diet is a good way to do that because it just kind of removes all of the potential food triggers and kind of leaves you with the staples of a good diet. And I shouldn't even use the word good. It leaves you with things that people don't react to as often. Right.
Alyssa Chavez [00:11:36]:
It kind of removes the very common food triggers, and then what you want to do is, of course, do some gut healing work along the way, even just things like drinking bone broth and things like that to help to bring some of those healing and sealing nutrients back into your body. You do that for a period of time, maybe 30 days or so, and then slowly reintroduce those foods so you can have a better gauge of how your body is reacting. Now, if you're going to do something like that, yes, you do have to remove all the foods at once. It can't be like one this week and one next week, because that's just not going to work. And at the same time, there must be some gut healing work going on. I do a very intense gut healing protocol, or it can be very intense, and I use the word intense rather loosely because it's not like it's super dramatic, but I do a full gut healing protocol with my clients as well. So that way, as they start to reintroduce, you don't end up with those food sensitivities continuing or even developing further food sensitivities, because of course, we don't want that. So that's definitely an important piece of the puzzle, is looking into those food sensitivities, what foods your immune system might be reacting to right now, because that can be a very important part of the healing puzzle.
Alyssa Chavez [00:12:56]:
Next piece, when it comes to your gut, is taking a look at gut infections. So that can be things like dysbiosis, which basically means an imbalance in your microbiome. Do you have an overgrowth of the bad gut bugs? Do you have any parasites or an overgrowth of fungus or yeast? I know this is all like super fun stuff to think about, but it's very common. And again, an imbalanced microbiome causes that immune system to react and that can again contribute to that. Chronic inflammation, chronic pain, all of the things that we're experiencing with endo, not to mention the chronic gut symptoms happening, right? If you've got constipation, diarrhea, bloating. Bloating is certainly something we talk about a lot here, being the Endo Belly Girl podcast, right? It's super common. And the imbalanced microbiome, that dysbiosis, as well as the food sensitivities, can be a huge reason that all of those digestive symptoms are coming up right now. I do want to touch base on the fact for a second that an imbalanced microbiome is not really a root cause in and of itself.
Alyssa Chavez [00:14:14]:
Because really the root cause here is figuring out how that infection came to be in the first place. So what we want to look at there. So we're kind of backing up and looking from the very beginning of our digestive tract all the way through. So we're looking at things like, how's your digestive function? How's your diet? Are you getting enough nutrients? Because all of those things are going to affect the quality of your microbiome further down the line, as well as your ability to absorb nutrients, your ability to have that healthy gut barrier. There's so many things. It all becomes a big domino effect. So you want to kind of zoom out and look at the full picture what might be going on in there so you can get back to a place of balance. Now, I think it's important to note here, because this is something that I hear a lot of conversation around when it comes to endometriosis, that conversation of self blame.
Alyssa Chavez [00:15:11]:
Especially when I say things like how a poor diet can affect your microbiome and affect your digestion. Now that is true, right? The quality of your diet does very much impact the quality of your microbiome and the quality of your immune system and all the things. But it's really not about sitting here and blaming yourself for that if you haven't been eating a great diet because a, you probably didn't know any better. I haven't always eaten super well. I think I even thought I was eating well back in my late teens, early 20s. Over through those years, I think I thought I was doing a good job. But looking back, I just didn't really have a lot of understanding of nutrition and food and how all of that impacts your body. So how could I possibly really be feeding my body the quality of nutrients that it needs if I didn't know any better? And that's true of everybody.
Alyssa Chavez [00:16:12]:
I think of it like how you would work with a young child, right? If you're say, teaching a young child how to read and write, for example, you're not going to sit there and get upset with them because they're not doing it perfectly the first day. Nobody's born knowing how to read and write. It's a slow and steady process learning that. And it's no different than anything else. It's no different as a grown up when you're learning something new and different. And honestly, nutrition is just something most of us aren't educated on. I mean, we learned maybe the basics of it in school, or at least I did. But when I say basics, I mean basics.
Alyssa Chavez [00:16:53]:
Knowing what I know now and even a lot of that information isn't super up to date. And what you really need to know, to be able to feed yourself well. And besides that fact, self blame just isn't going to help anything. For me, it's more about empowering you to take steps forward that will actually help you on your pathway towards better health. That's what it's all about. So if there's one takeaway that you have for today, let it be that, right? It's not about blaming yourself for not doing all the things well. It's about feeling empowered to take those positive steps forward towards better health. Now, in my one on one practice, thrive with endo, I do guide one on one clients through a full gut healing protocol.
Alyssa Chavez [00:17:44]:
So we use the MRT food sensitivity test that I talked about. I also like to use a stool test called the GI map, which really digs into some digestive health markers. Certainly takes a strong look at your microbiome to see what the balance is looking like there, so that we can end up bringing things back into balance at the end of the day. So that's certainly an option. Doing something like that if you're really having a lot of gut symptoms or just general pain and fatigue and all of the things looking under the hood, really digging in and seeing what's going on in your body can definitely be super beneficial for that. All right, so we took a look at food sensitivities and microbiome balance, which are definitely very key pieces of the puzzle. One thing that I wanted to talk about today, too, is hormones. And I mentioned before how there's talk around how endometriosis is just caused by estrogen, which isn't really true.
Alyssa Chavez [00:18:48]:
However, estrogen can feed endometriosis, especially when there's too much of it in circulation, which is what we call estrogen dominance. Now, I'm not going to go super in depth today on what estrogen dominance is and what that means, because that's the whole topic in and of itself. But basically what we're looking at when we're thinking of that estrogen dominance, excess estrogen, which are two different things, but are very similar. So for the purposes of today's conversation, they can be used interchangeably, but in the grand scheme of things, they are different, and we'll talk about that in a future episode. But basically, that excess estrogen can contribute to the growth of endometriosis lesions. It can contribute to estrogen dominant symptoms like heavy and painful periods and PMS symptoms and all the things that we don't want. Now, what does this have to do with your gut? Well, actually a lot, because. Okay, your body might have some of that excess estrogen happening in there.
Alyssa Chavez [00:19:53]:
It needs to be able to eliminate it because that's normal, right? Your body produces estrogen. It circulates through your body, it does what it needs to do, and then when its job is done, what should happen is that your liver packages it all up to be safely eliminated from your body, and then it ends up being eliminated through your poop. Fun. Now, in order for this to happen, well. Well, there's a few moving pieces in there because certainly there has to be quality liver function happening, which is, again, another conversation for another day. But the big thing that we're going to touch on today is just the fact that you have to poop daily for that to work. Right. If you are experiencing chronic constipation, that is going to end up with that excess estrogen sometimes being reabsorbed and recirculated into your body because it's not able to be eliminated in a timely process.
Alyssa Chavez [00:20:57]:
And that does become a problem over time, because when your estrogen is regularly not being eliminated from your body properly, well, guess what? You do end up having too much estrogen in your body. Now, if you're not pooping daily, you might be listening to this and saying, alyssa, that sounds great. I would love to poop daily, but I'm not. What do I do about that? Well, first of all, it goes back to digestive function, right? I go back to the very top of the food chain, so to speak, the very top of your digestive tract. Are you breaking down food well so that it's able to pass through your entire digestive system smoothly and then be eliminated in a timely fashion? Is everything moving at the pace that it should be? Now, that's kind of a big picture thing that can have a lot of pieces involved, but the basic pieces that you can be starting with right now, today, are things like, are you chewing your food thoroughly? When you eat your food, are you actually chewing it thoroughly? And what I mean by that is you're chewing your food 25 to 30 chews per bite, and or is your food about the consistency of a smoothie before you swallow it? So kind of two different ways to think about it that end up with basically the same result. Are you chewing your food thoroughly because that is the part of digestion that you can be actively participating in before that food even gets to your stomach? Because, of course, from there on out, it's a little more challenging to participate in that process. Your body kind of takes over. But chewing your food thoroughly can be a big part of that other simple things you can think about to help to get your digestion moving, keep that food moving in and out of your body.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:49]:
The way it should be is making sure that you're well hydrated throughout the day. Right? Think of your digestive juices. They're called juices for a reason, because they need water. You can't create digestive juices without enough water in your system. And I do mean water. Water is not the same as liquid. Coffee will not hydrate you. Soda juice, none of that will hydrate you.
Alyssa Chavez [00:23:14]:
Water. Water will hydrate you. Drink your water. Take sips of it all day long. Drink your water. Okay. And then last piece of advice to help you poop daily. If you're not currently doing that, or even if you are, it can still be helpful, is movement.
Alyssa Chavez [00:23:32]:
Are you moving your body daily? Because that's important, too. You must have movement to help your digestive tract to function optimally. Now, you can see where hormone imbalance might be an issue, right? Maybe you do have too much estrogen circulating in your system right now. Maybe you do have some estrogen dominance happening. But you can see when we kind of take a look back at all the reasons that lead up to that hormone imbalance at the end of the day is a symptom and not a root cause, right. Hormone imbalance is not the reason you're struggling, but it's a symptom that there's underlying imbalances, like having that digestive dysfunction going on, having a slowdown in the motility of your digestive system. All of that matters and can contribute to the health of your hormones. So much to say about that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:24:32]:
I'm planning an episode very soon where we're going to talk all about hormone imbalances, particularly estrogen dominance. So make sure you're subscribed to the show so you don't miss that one when it comes out. Okay, so that was a lot of information, and I just wanted to touch base also, before we wrap up for today, on the fact that, okay, we're looking at a lot of the underlying gut things today, a lot of what's going on kind of behind the scenes that you may not see on the surface, the imbalance in your microbiome and digestive dysfunction and hidden food sensitivities, or sometimes not so hidden, just food sensitivities. And this is all kind of stuff that's happening under the hood. But take a look also at just how your GI system is actually functioning, because I remember when I first started this whole health and nutrition journey. Of course, my main focus was endometriosis. I found out that I had endometriosis, and I wanted to know what I could do about it, how my diet and lifestyle choices and all the things could impact it. And I also had a lot of gut symptoms happening, but I didn't even put two and two together at first.
Alyssa Chavez [00:25:45]:
In fact, it took me a minute to realize that there was any connection between the two. And so the GI stuff was really on the back burner for me. I wasn't even that concerned about it because I was more worried about the intense pain that I was in, logically. But looking back, I had a lot of GI issues initially, right? I was having chronic bloating and gas and diarrhea and tons of food sensitivities and just general abdominal discomfort on the daily. And all of this was much worse when I was on my period. And when I started to make the connection that my gut health and endometriosis were intimately connected, that really was a huge light bulb for me. And the cool thing is, when I started really focusing in on my gut, I started to make that my priority, where, like, okay, I'm going to do everything in my power to work on fixing my gut, bringing things back into balance, optimizing my digestion. I spent years, really, on that stuff.
Alyssa Chavez [00:26:49]:
My endometriosis symptoms started to resolve at the same time. It wasn't one and the other, it was a one package deal, because all of a sudden, my GI symptoms started to improve. I can't remember at this point in time the last time I was bloated. Maybe a little bit right around the start of my period, but even that's minimal, much less having gas, which used to be a daily thing for me. I thought it was just normal to have gas all the time. It's not same thing with the diarrhea. This is, like, way too much information for me to share, probably with the universe, but whatever, this is what I'm here for. This is what I signed up for.
Alyssa Chavez [00:27:34]:
I probably, for years, never had a truly solid bowel movement, and it never occurred to me that that wasn't normal, which is kind of nuts, but no one teaches you this stuff. So that's, again, what I'm here to do. And when I started to bring things back into balance, and all of a sudden, I actually started to have normal bowel movements, where not only was my stool actually fairly solid and well formed, but also I was only pooping once or maybe twice a day, whereas I used to be having those bowel movements five, six, 7810 times a day, also not realizing that wasn't normal, learned a lot along the way. And as I was working through all of that and learning how I could best support my body, going through these trainings and certifications and working with mentors and all the things, I learned so much about my own body. And at the same time, my pain was decreasing, my fatigue was starting to lift, which again, I didn't even really realize was a thing until it started going away. My hormones started to balance out, my periods became so much better, my menstrual cycles became so much more regular, not because I was doing anything specifically even to focus on hormones. That stuff honestly came way later in my journey. I was just focusing on the gut because I started to realize, as my symptoms improved, how important that was, and it was huge for me.
Alyssa Chavez [00:29:13]:
And honestly, I see that so much in my clients as well. That's why gut health is usually pretty much always the first thing that I address beyond just eating a quality diet and all of that stuff. So that's really where the thrive with Endo program has formed around. Is that basis of kind of starting from the ground up? Right. Your gut is where you absorb all of your nutrients. You won't have nutrients unless you're digesting well and breaking food down well. And everything is functioning fairly optimally through your digestive tract. You're just not going to have the nutrients available to your body when you need them.
Alyssa Chavez [00:29:56]:
And that means the healing process will be that much slower. It means your immune system may not be functionally. I'm making up words here. Functioning very well, and that will make it much more challenging for your body to clean up any tissue that's not in the place that it should be. And things like that. Inflammation is going to be all fired up because your body feels out of control. There's a lot of stress on your body in general, right? Because all of this stuff is going on. So it's all connected, my friends.
Alyssa Chavez [00:30:33]:
It's all connected. It's all pieces of the same puzzle, right? Gut health and endometriosis are not two separate things. Right. We're looking at. Again, I come back to what I said at the very beginning. Endometriosis is a full body disease, and that is what I have dedicated my life to helping other people to get to the bottom of. So I hope that this episode brings you a little hope and inspiration, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, there is something you can do to help to address that. And if you've got a lot of this stuff going on, especially if you've got a lot of those GI issues and pain and fatigue and all the symptoms, sometimes there can be GI issues going on even if you don't have direct GI symptoms, which I know can be very frustrating.
Alyssa Chavez [00:31:26]:
Sometimes it pops up more like in that chronic inflammation or even skin stuff, right? You have a lot of acne breakouts that can actually be or eczema or things like that can also be a sign of GI distress going on. Anyway, all that to say, if you need somebody to kind of talk through this with and you just want to bounce ideas off of somebody or see how this deep gut healing work can be supportive for you and your journey, I'd be happy to chat with you. I do offer free 30 minutes consultations, and that's virtual. So if you're anywhere within the United States, I'm happy to chat with you and see if that would be a good fit. We can even work together one on one if that's something that you're interested in, or if you're in an area where that's not an option for you, you can look for practitioners in your area. Feel free, though, to reach out if you're struggling in any way. I'm always happy to connect, even if you're not necessarily ready to dive into doing this type of work yet. I love just having conversations, connecting with people, all of that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:32:32]:
So feel free just to reach out. Anyway, you can always find me on Instagram at Endobelly girl. Happy to help. I will link to how to schedule a free consult in the show notes as well. If you are interested in taking that on at this time, at the time of this recording, which is probably a few weeks before it's going to be released, I am getting to the point where I'm close to closing off my one on one practice to a waitlist. I like to keep my practice pretty small so that I can have the time, energy, and attention to share with people. So if you're feeling that little itch, like, I really think that this is something that can benefit me and I want to get to the bottom of it and figure out what's going on in my body. I would love to connect.
Alyssa Chavez [00:33:18]:
I would love for you to hop in there and claim one of those spots. Follow your intuition on that. Right? Some of my best decisions in life have been made on those kind of crazy whims of like, I just need this. I'm going to dive in. I'm going to make this happen. So if you're feeling that, if that resonates with you, I would love to connect. I would love to chat. All right, my friend.
Alyssa Chavez [00:33:41]:
That's all I've got for you today. I know that's a lot. This may won't be one those episodes you want to go back and listen to again and again just to kind of let all that sink in, settle in. And I hope that helps. All right, my friend. You have a wonderful day, much love, and we'll talk soon. Bye.