Is Bad Digestion a Menopause Symptom? What can I do to fix it?
Menopause and bad digestion seem to go hand in hand, don’t they?
There are many menopause and perimenopause symptoms, that midlife women search for and hope to alleviate.
Poor digestion, or digestive issues, is a common menopause complaint or symptom. The digestive system DOES change through perimenopause, for various reasons, including stress, hormones, and a changing microbiome.
Not everyone has symptoms of bad digestion that are OBVIOUS.
You may have poor digestion and not know it.
Let’s first take a look at the OBVIOUS symptoms of bad digestion.
What do the obvious signs of poor digestion look like?
These are some of the direct signs that your digestion may be off in menopause:
Heartburn (or acid reflux, or GERD)
Bloating
Constipation
Diarrhea
Undigested food in stool
Cramps after eating
Food sensitivities can increase
Gas
What about INDIRECT signs that your digestion is off in menopause:
Nail Issues
Hair issues
Skin issues
Bad breath or halitosis
Have you had a gallbladder removed?
Is Poor Digestion a Menopause Symptom or is it from other things?
Digestive upset can be a menopause symptom. It can be from other things, too.
Hormone changes are just ONE of the reasons you may have digestive upset in menopause. These hormone changes can start in perimenopause.
This may be linked to a drop in estrogen.
The ovaries stop producing eggs. Estrogen (estradiol) and progesterone supply declines. Cortisol may increase in this phase.
The adrenal glands take over in making some estrogen, but in small amounts. They don’t make estrogen directly and weight gain plays a role in helping the body keep some estrogen circulating.
What does this have to do with digestion?
There is a connection between cortisol and your digestion.
Increased cortisol is part of the stress response. It’s also part of your bodies normal rhythm for waking up, too. If you experience any type of stress, your body, specifically the hypothalamus, will initiate the Fight or Flight response.
When this stress response is initiated, digestion slows down.
Your body is sending blood and nutrients to your brain and muscles where they are needed most.
With the stress response, you naturally go into Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn mode. In our stressed out modern world, many of us are constantly in a state of stress.
Does this sound like you?
Estrogen helps to regulate cortisol.
As estrogen decreases, cortisol may increase.
If you experience digestive issues in menopause or perimenopause, identifying all types of stress in your life is a first step to helping your digestion.
Being in a stressed state does not support nutrient absorption, or proper pooping!
This post here will help you identify 5 Types of Stress you may not be thinking about!
One of the best things you can do for your digestive system is to support your nervous system, and your stress resilience!
If digestion slows down, your dinner sits in there.
Your food may not travel as fast through your digestive tract. It can sit in there longer, and raise the chance of having imbalanced gut bacteria.
Stress may also speed things up, and cause loose stool or diarrhea. Some women alternate between the two.
Both can change your gut microbiome. (Your gut bacteria is also called your gut microbiome.)
Your gut microbiome can have an impact on your digestion, and nutrient absorption.
The gut bacteria also contains something called the “Estrobolome”
This is defined as “the aggregate of enteric bacterial genes whose products are capable of metabolizing estrogens” (1)
Here may lie the hormonal connection to gut bacteria.
Hormones do feed gut bacteria. So a decline in hormones may mean a decline in your gut bacteria. And that can affect digestion, and other things like your brain.
We have a gut brain connection.
As we age, we lose hydrochloric acid production in the stomach. This is your stomach acid. This changes how we digest food and can lead to some of those symptoms like bloating and gas.
3 simple things to help your digestion in menopause
Make sure you are getting enough fibre.
Fibre helps to support gut bacteria that have a positive influence on the body. Gut bacteria feed on all kinds of fibre!This is where a diverse way of eating can support your gut health!
Your digestive tract is part of your natural detoxification process. It needs fibre to bind to the by products of hormone breakdown, that come from the liver.
You also naturally produce something called endotoxins, the by products of bacterial activity and digestive processes that need to be shuttled into the toilet.
Both cooked and raw veggies feed good gut bacteria and supply nutrients, along with whole grains.
In general terms, grains are not your enemy. You may have to experiment with timing, type, and quantity of grains, if you have blood sugar issues.
Drink Water.
Hydration helps move that fibre through the digestive tract and help you poop.Many women in perimenopause and menopause struggle to get enough hydration in. Busy lives, lack of attention to ourselves, and just forgetfulness can leave us dehydrated.
Too much coffee, or tea, can also dehydrate you.
Nightly glass of wine? Yep.
If you have decided to try to increase your fiber, without more water, or even herbal tea, your gut may rebel, in the form of cramping, bloating and gas.
You may get constipation.
If this happens regularly, consider the next two tips.
Add in cooked veggies, in soups, or stews. Cooking can make foods more easily digestible.
Steam veggies and add them to your smoothies! YES.
Beets, cauliflower, and even a bit of sauerkraut, add fibre and some good bacteria to your smoothie.
A smoothie is a great way to incorporate soluble an insoluble fibre into your diet.
BOTH are important to us in menopause, as aging and other health conditions can slow down the motility of our digestive tract.
Try Digestive Bitters.
Digestive bitters are natural plant extracts that are used to aid in digestion. They are made from a combination of bitter herbs, such as gentian, dandelion, and burdock or bitter orange and cinnamon.
Herbs for digestion have been used for centuries to help with a variety of digestive issues, including bloating.
Digestive bitters work by stimulating the digestive system, including salivary flow, liver, pancreas, stomach.
They can help trigger stomach acid, and bile production from the liver, as well as pancreatic enzymes too.
Eating while feeling stressed may increase your chance of bloating and digestive problems.
The practice of Mindful Eating may help you decrease stress around meals AND help your relationship to food. This relationship to food may also be impacting your digestion!
If you eat hurried, chew fast, gulp air, you are contributing to your digestive issues!
This is also a clue to your current relationship to food.
Why is that?
When we eat in a stressed state, our digestion is not working properly. When stressed, your brain is concentrating on SURVIVAL, not assimilating nutrients.
Have you been dieting for a long time?
That can affect digestive health!
If you are stressed about WHAT you eat, and how it affects your body, your digestion will also be stressed.
Take a Non Diet approach to your digestive health in menopause.
Those three tips above involve ADDING in, aka The Addition Diet, not restricting your foods and your calories.
New to Mindful Eating and the Non Diet Approach?
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5017946/