In modern society we are bombarded with all kinds of stressors; many of these are chemicals in body care products, tap water, plastics, or pesticides in food. Exposure to toxins can also come from mold (mycotoxins) in our home or office or from yeast overgrowth (candida) in our gut. Our body has to detoxify all these pollutants. If it can’t keep up, then we are thrown out of balance and suffer. We may end up with hormonal imbalances; neurological symptoms, like anxiety or brain fog; or even autoimmune disease. Learn how these stressors may be effecting you and how to detoxify your gut and liver to maintain balance.
Hormones a Mess? Detoxify to Correct Hormonal Imbalances
Let’s get real ladies. Hormonal imbalances suck! We get cranky, tired, weepy, have gas and bloating and swollen breasts. And let’s face it, men just really don’t get it. But it is hard to blame them for not giving us the support that we need when we are ready to pick a fight at the drop of a hat. You might think this kind of PMS is normal, but it doesn’t have to be.
I was experiencing extreme irritability and mood swings after ovulation and before my period. My symptoms indicated that I had estrogen dominance, which can occur when you have low levels of progesterone in relationship to your estrogen. Often, this problem of estrogen dominance can be traced back to the inability of our gut and liver to detoxify estrogen.
It is possible that toxins could be disrupting your natural hormone balance and wreaking havoc on your health.
Normally, excess estrogen is detoxified in the liver in two stages, and a water-soluble compound is produced that can be excreted in urine or bile. However, sometimes this process breaks-down and estrogen is reabsorbed into the system. That’s when all those nasty hormonal symptoms of estrogen dominance can surface.
Other hormonal imbalances may occur when toxins interfere with cell communication. Toxins can create inflammation, which prevents hormones from recognizing receptor sites on cell membranes. This gets tricky with testing because hormone levels may look O.K. on a blood test, but you may feel crappy; for instance, if thyroid (T3) hormone can’t bind to cells. Or in some cases, toxins can compete for receptors, such as mercury with thyroid hormone. This confusion could result in the body attacking its own thyroid.
This sounds pretty awful right!? Don’t worry, you can clean up your hormonal mess by minimizing the crap you bring into your body and jump-starting your body’s well-designed detoxification system.
Reduce your toxic load
Detoxification is the key to hormonal harmony.
There are an overwhelming amount of chemicals in our modern world and all of the environmental toxins that you bring in need to be cleansed. Otherwise, your body will likely prioritize detoxification of chemicals over excess hormones, such as estrogen. So, it is important to reduce the toxins that come into your system from food and water, through your skin, and from the air.
No-brainer, buy organic
If it is too much on your budget to eat all organic, then carefully choose which products to spend the extra cash on by reviewing the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) current dirty dozen and clean fifteen lists.
If it is too much on your budget to eat all organic, then carefully choose which products to spend the extra cash on by reviewing the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) current dirty dozen and clean fifteen lists.
Filter drinking and bathing water
I suggest getting a water filter for your drinking water and your shower to remove chlorine, which can be hard on your thyroid. When you take a bath, you can drop in some vitamin C to help detoxify. A water filter will also remove harmful microbes and heavy metals.
Minimize plastics —bad for your hormones and the environment
(Bonus karma points for not contributing to the giant gyre of plastic in the ocean!) Plastics contain substances (xenoestrogens) that appear to your body as estrogen. Replace your water bottle with stainless steel or glass and use glass containers for storage. Also try to avoid touching receipts, which contain BPA.
Swap chemically-loaded hair and body products for cleaner choices
A lot of people are hesitant to change their tried and true products, but the majority of body care items on the shelf contain unregulated chemicals. Our digestive tracts have the ability to detoxify, because we have always had to contend with harmful compounds and microbes in our food. However, our skin is not equipped to deal with all the modern-day toxins in perfume, lotions, and shampoos. You can find safe products that work for you by checking the chemical ratings reported by the EWG. There are also simple changes you can make like swapping out lotions for body oils.
Take a deep breath with fresh, clean air
Perfumes, dryer sheets, chemical cleaners, and plug-in fragrances are full of toxins. These chemicals affect your health and those around you that may be more sensitive. You can freshen up your home naturally with essential oils, which you can also use on your body as a replacement for fragrance. (Essential oils are also a great way to improve your mood and hormone balance!) For safer cleaning products that do not release toxic fumes, you can search the EWG list or make your own with the basic ingredients your grandmother (or great-grandmother for you younger folks) used (i.e. baking soda, vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide). To replace dryer sheets, try wool balls for static cling, add vinegar to the wash, or place a few drops of essential oils on a wet towel in the dryer. You can also buy an air purifier to improve air quality and reduce contaminants such as mold from the air. Mold releases mycotoxins and is a real threat to hormone balance.
Boost your body’s detoxification
Reducing your toxic load is the first step, but for optimal hormonal health you will also want to boost your body’s ability to detoxify.
Eat your broccoli to jump start detox
For stage I of estrogen detoxification, you need to eat veggies in the broccoli family (cruciferous veggies). These include kale, cauliflower, bok choy, mustard greens, arugula, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, etc. Cruciferous veggies have a compound that is broken down by stomach acid into DIM. This powerful substance pulls estrogen out of circulation and into the proper detoxification pathway in the liver. Those with digestive distress after consuming these veggies may want to think about supplements with DIM or try broccoli sprouts instead.
Add some kick to your food
Garlic and onions added to your meals will provide the sulfur necessary for detoxification pathways to run. (If you are sensitive to these foods, start with green onion (green parts only) or supplements.
Dig into some protein
Juice cleanses and salads may be trending, but your body can get bogged down without enough quality protein. Phase II of estrogen detoxification needs protein. Eat high quality grass-fed or pasture-raised meats. For those with digestive issues, try supplementing with an amino acid complex or consuming bone broth daily (bone broth also helps heal leaky gut!). If you are a vegetarian, try pea or hemp protein.
Boost the superman of antioxidants—glutathione
You can help optimize phase II of detox by improving your glutathione status. This can be accomplished by supplementing with glutathione or its less expensive precursor NAC. Another option is to add whey protein from grass-fed cows to your morning smoothie, which has been shown to improve glutathione status.
Indulge in a relaxing Epsom salt bath
You feel amazing after you take an epsom salt bath, partly because it is full of magnesium, which is also a necessary cofactor for phase II detoxification of estrogen. If you don’t have a bath tub or time to indulge, then supplement with magnesium. Most people are magnesium deficient due to nutrient-poor soils, a diet low in this nutrient, and/or from poor absorption from gut issues or consumption of foods that contain antinutrients. For some real fun, try a magnesium float-tank, where you can float in a sensory deprivation pool that is super saturated with magnesium.
Nurture a healthy gut microbiome
Some bad bacteria produce the enzyme beta-glucuronidase, which can inhibit phase II detox. When this occurs, partially broken-down estrogen gets rereleased into the body and can cause problems. Other bad bacteria produce endotoxins that can slip into your blood stream if you have damage to your intestinal lining (a.k.a. leaky gut) and bind to receptor sites throughout your body. This confusion can create issues, such as weight gain, insulin resistance, and impaired glucose metabolism. Endotoxins can also disrupt signaling between the brain and adrenal glands or thyroid and lead to inflammation as the immune system is on overdrive. In this state of endotoxemia, hormones become even harder to balance as the body ramps up production of estrogen (with an increase in the enzyme aromatase). To stop this chaos, focus on your gut health. Repair leaky gut by consuming bone broth and/or collagen protein powder and taking restorative supplements, such as quercetin. To assist good bugs in colonizing your gut, consume fermented foods or take probiotics. Feed these good bacteria by eating plenty of veggies that have fermentable fibers, particularly resistant starch, which can be found in potatoes (cooked and cooled), green bananas and plantains.
Keep things moving
Even if your detoxification system is working well but you are not eliminating properly, then you can reabsorb estrogen that the liver has prepared for extraction. So, make sure you are going at least once a day and drinking enough water to flush estrogen metabolites out through your kidneys.
Bind up those toxins
Some toxins sent to the liver for detoxification end up attached to bile. Bile is costly for the body to make so instead, it recycles it. As the bile is brought back and forth between the liver and gut (where it is sent to digest fat), so are these hitchhiker toxins. If you have courage, a coffee enema can stimulate the liver and gall bladder to dump old bile out of the body rather than recycle it. If you would rather not go there, binders can be used to grab the toxins from the bile for elimination in the stool. Chlorella and cilantro can be used daily, or you can use stronger binders, such as charcoal, clay, and zeolite (which should be taken away from food, medications, and supplements). To remove heavy metals or mold, work with an experienced practitioner. Binders should also be added to a weight loss regime, since toxins are stored in fat. As you shed weight, your body will dump these toxins, which can activate hormone resistance and cause weight loss to plateau. In addition, insoluble fiber can bind excess hormones in the gut. Veggies and fruits, such as berries and greens, coconut flour, and even chocolate are good sources of insoluble fiber!
Get cellular
To completely detox, we also need to remove toxins at the cellular level. Our body has a built-in system to remove byproducts that we produce during normal cellular activity. However, external sources of toxins (including those made by mold) can overload this system and may bind to the fat in cell and mitochondrial membranes. If you need to work on detox at a cellular level, find a practitioner that can assist you with this and try using an infrared sauna.
Sweat!
One of the best things you can do for detoxification is to sweat. You can do this with vigorous exercise or by using a sauna. An infrared sauna has the greatest ability to remove toxins by heating the body instead of the air, which allows a longer sauna session with more sweat to release toxins from your tissues. An infrared sauna can also remove toxins from your cells for elimination through your organs; taking a binder before a session will help grab any toxins that move out of the cells but don’t get pulled out via sweat. If going to a gym or spa for a sauna session isn’t feasible, then you can purchase your own infrared sauna or a sauna blanket if you are limited on space or cash.
