Does perimenopause cause gut issues?

"Gut health” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot these days. You even see it on products like soda, chips, and prepackaged snacks, claiming that they’re good for your gut health.

But what does it mean to have good gut health? How do you know if your gut is unhealthy?

And the BIG question, how does perimenopause impact your gut health?

In this episode, we dig into all of that, and more! Plus, you'll hear some slightly embarrassing (well, vulnerable!) personal stories  about my own gut health journey, and how I’m managing things in perimenopause.

And once you've decided that you definitely need to eat right to support your gut health, grab the free Family Fork Dinner Guide here! Filled with anti-inflammatory dinners that are easy, delish, and family friendly!

Ashley Malik is a women's health and wellness coach, helping women lose weight in perimenopause. You can learn more, and discover how to work with Ashley, by clicking here.

Transcript

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Ashley Malik (00:00.0)
Gut health is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot these days. You actually see products like soda and chips and prepackaged snacks claiming that they're good for your gut health. But what does it actually mean to have good gut health? How do you know if your gut is unhealthy? And does perimenopause have any impact on your gut health? In today's episode, we are going to dig into all of that and more. 

Ashley Malik (00:32.536)
Plus, I'm going to share some slightly embarrassing or maybe vulnerable personal stories with you about my own gut health journey and how I'm managing things in perimenopause. 

Ashley Malik (00:57.206)
Alright, in order for us to have a conversation about gut health, we have to tackle a few terms and concepts first. 

Ashley Malik (01:09.524)
Your gut microbiome is a collection of microbes that live in your gut, which is essentially your entire digestive or gastrointestinal Your gut microbiome is a collection of microbes that live in your gut, which is essentially your entire digestive tract. This includes trillions, trillions of viruses, bacteria, and tons of other microscopic bugs. 

Ashley Malik (01:38.764)
For the most part, we have a pretty good relationship with these little guys. We give them food and shelter, and in turn, they keep us really healthy and happy. Problems start to creep up though when your gut microbiome gets out of balance. And this can really happen for so many different reasons, illness, food poisoning, environmental factors. It can also get out of balance with the food that we eat. 

Ashley Malik (02:08.568)
our microbiome. 

Ashley Malik (02:12.852)
Our microbiome likes whole, healthy, unprocessed food. It does not like packaged food with preservatives, sugar, alcohol, and unhealthy fats. So when the overall balance is off, you might start experiencing a host of different symptoms. And those symptoms can really be different for different people. Everything from skin rashes, gas, bloating, hair loss, all the way to weight loss resistance, 

Ashley Malik (02:42.68)
and mental health issues like anxiety and depression. For the most part, your gut microbiome does a pretty good job of taking care of itself. But these days, with chronic stress, poor sleep, and unhealthy diets, we are making it harder for our gut microbiome to do its job. Lots of research has been done on gut health in the past 10 years. 

Ashley Malik (03:11.932)
And it's really fascinating to see what new discoveries are made every day. We now know more about how to keep our gut health in check. We also know more about how food and illness impacts gut health. So as we learn more, it's up to you and me to do what we can to support optimal gut health. 

Ashley Malik (03:41.504)
Now I mentioned that illness plays a part in gut health. While perimenopause isn't considered an illness, it does have a profound effect on our gut health. 

Ashley Malik (03:58.804)
In simple terms, as we go through perimenopause, we experience a decrease in both estrogen and progesterone. This decrease can lead to a slower transit time in our digestive tract. It can also cause issues with our gallbladder, which really aids in digestion. Imagine your digestive tract like your kitchen sink and garbage disposal. If it all gets too full, 

Ashley Malik (04:27.692)
and you don't turn on the garbage disposal to clear it out, everything gets backed up. And if everything is backed up, your sink and drain won't work properly until it gets cleared out. So in your body, when the digestive tract isn't running efficiently, waste is just hanging out in there and your gut microbiome does not like that. As a result, 

Ashley Malik (04:55.264)
you start experiencing inflammation while your body tries to fight against the waste that doesn't belong there. And ultimately, this is what poor gut health looks like. As a side note, having thyroid issues like hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's also slows transit time. So if you're anything like me, I'm dealing with hypothyroidism and perimenopause. 

Ashley Malik (05:24.35)
you can imagine that things are probably moving pretty slowly. I want to be just specific. Now I want to clarify that slow transit time doesn't mean that you're automatically going to experience constipation, although that can definitely be something that you struggle with in perimenopause. But with that, let's look at some of the symptoms that might crop up when you do have poor gut