How to Boost your Digestive System in Menopause: The Workings of the Digestive System
Many women in menopause are still new to digestive health, gut health and the microbiome.
If you struggle with bloating, gas, and food issues, this post is your foundation to the digestive system.
Are you here looking to boost, or support your digestive health in menopause?
Many women don’t understand how their digestive system works. Better digestion in menopause is more than taking probiotics and drinking kombucha!
Did you know that the digestive system is connected to almost everything?
We have a:
Gut-brain axis
Gut -skin axis
Gut-joint axis
And so much more.
I want help lay the foundation here, so you can understand your digestive system basics, before we dive into the changes that your digestion goes through in menopause.
In the previous episode, Correne Omland and I discussed the gut, or the digestive system as a foundation to feeling better at any time in life. It truly is a huge pillar in our health. There are many pillars, including rest, hydration, happiness and social connection.
One of the more common symptom in menopause, besides hot flashes, and weight gain, is digestive upset.
This episode and blog post will share:
The basics around your digestion and how it works.
Microbiome Facts.
What poor digestion looks like.
What might cause poor digestion?
Aging and your digestive health/gut health.
From here we can dig into digestive health on future episodes, YouTube videos and blog posts. I will take an Add In approach, when it comes to general advice.
Many podcasts are out there talking about digestion. Why did I add one?
I meet many women who are experiencing digestive issues in menopause, and who do not know about the tie between the gut, and the rest of the body.
I also meet many women who have taken certain food groups out of their diet, to try to alleviate digestive symptoms, only to have those symptoms linger.
Is it all about the food when it comes to gut health? No. So … is food important? Yes.
It gets so confusing. Digestive health is a large, broad topic that cannot be covered in one episode.
Here, we’ll go over some basic functions of the gut, aka the digestive system.
If you're new here, I have some previous episodes on digestion, way back when I was new to this podcast game. They’re a little rough, but there's some nuggets of wisdom there!
If you are interested in how you can feel full in menopause without dieting, consider sticking around here, and joining my email community by grabbing one of my free resources below. I share everything from recipes to health information with a non diet approach, to mindful eating tips.
Mindful eating can support your digestion, by the way.
Not everything depends on a diet.
If you are looking for an easy intro to mindful eating my Cravings Interrupted Course will get you started. And it's only 14.99.
Alright enough shameless promotions let's get into the episode, and there’s research articles on the episode page on my website!
Bloating, constipation, painful gas?
These symptoms seem to rise as we age. Even food sensitivities seem to increase in menopause. Maybe some of you are experiencing:
GERD or gastro esophageal reflux disease, other wise called acid reflux, or just “reflux”. I saw a lot of people with this when I was in clinical practise in dental hygiene. Acid reflux can be silent and wreak havoc on your teeth and oral health.
IBS/IBD with chronic diarrhea and struggle to get nutrients in, and many of you have constipation and struggle to get waste out.
Thyroid issues can increase in menopause, and this can affect motility, and increase constipation.
There are a myriad of digestive issues out there.
And menopause may alter the gut microbiome, and your digestion. (1)
Then there is always the question of foods.
Are there certain foods that bother the gut?
Are we all not sensitive to gluten and dairy?
As I mentioned in the intro, this topic is so deep. And so individual.
If you are removing foods because of concerns about your digestion, there is so much nuance to this, that to just take the foods out of your diet that social media says, well you may NOT be doing yourself a favor.
Many remove foods as a means to weight loss, which is not a long term sustainable option. In fact, you may be decreasing the microbes in your gut microbiome by doing so. And when you do have that “offending” food, it can appear that you are sensitive to it.
***** That doesn’t mean that there may not be foods that you don't do well with, or that you are sensitive to. That doesn’t mean that there are not valid reasons for looking at WHAT you eat. But using a holistic approach, taking into consideration your own body cues, needs, preferences, your own health conditions, your history of disordered eating and dieting (which affects gut health by the way), all should play a role in whether or not you decide to remove a food for a little while as an experiment.
Our gut microbiome is connected to so many systems in the body including the nervous system. Correne is coming back to talk about the nervous system soon, which I think is the most important system to nurture.
That nervous system is SO tied to that digestive system.
When you read about digestive health on the internet (does anyone read anymore? Is it all YT?), there is a lot of focus on removing foods to support the gut. There is also focus on removing certain microbes out of the gut as well and repopulating the microbiome.
From probiotics to fecal transplants, there is much focus on the bugs in our gut. And that's just one space that we carry beneficial bacteria!
Microbiome Facts:
Your microbiome is made within the first 1000 days of your life.
It starts to form when you are born, and having a vaginal birth populates you with your mom's microbiome. Breast fed infants also receive more of their moms microbiome as well. (1)
Your microbiome is the environment that lives in that tube, the digestive tract. Your mouth has its own microbiome, as does your small intestine and large intestine.
This environment is made of bacteria, virus, fungus, and parasites. Yes. Some are beneficial and some may not be. When beneficial bacteria decrease in the gut the more harmful ones can become imbalanced. This is dysbiosis.
I have a source listed below from the Harvard TH Chan School of public health that you can check for the information.
I list this because there are conflicting conversations around whether or not we carry parasites in the gut.
When our gut microbiome is balanced, these critters live in harmony with us. They don't bug us, no pun intended.
Your gut bacteria may contain harmless and potentially harmful critters, but if balanced, these bugs are not threatening and may be beneficial
When it is an imbalance, there is some evidence that we may be at increased risk for chronic illness, an even some food allergy issues.
While there are many things you can add into your life to enhance digestion, it helps to have a good understanding of what the digestive process is, and what it does.
Facts about the digestive system
Your digestive tract is a marvel! It’s an open tube that runs through your body. If we took this open tube and laid it out all flat, it would cover 200 square meters, or roughly a tennis court. In fact, the intestinal mucosa, or the gut lining, is the largest surface area of the human body which comes in direct contact with the outside world.
We have mucosa, or wet tissue, that lines areas through many areas of the body. The mouth, the gut and the vagina. These tend to be the areas where women notice changes through menopause.
Dry mouth, or xerostomia, dry eyes, and vaginal dryness, are all things most of us will experience at some point in our aging journey.
The dryness of the mouth may affect digestion. This dryness is influenced by estrogen levels declining, and by medications. As we age there are a higher number of women on medication.
Your gut contains one of your microbiomes. It’s a critical microbiome and arguably the largest. You’ve probably already heard about the gut microbiome and its connection to your brain, your immune system and other areas of the body.
It also is connected to hormones. We even have something called an estrobolome. The estrobolome is part of your microbiome devoted to metabolizing estrogen.
Let’s Discuss Parts of the Digestive Tract:
The Nervous System.
Digestion depends on your brain, to stimulate saliva, or salivary flow. When you see food, or smell food, a part of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, will signal your salivary glands to make saliva.
The autonomic nervous system controls the type of saliva you secrete and the volume of saliva you secrete.
There are two different nerve types in each gland: sympathetic and parasympathetic (3). You may have heard of these nervous system terms before, if you have heard of the fight, flight, freeze or fawn, response. The STRESS response. The parasympathetic response is the part of the nervous system that is the rest and digest part. It makes watery, or serous, saliva.The sympathetic response makes thicker saliva. This happens when the body is in a more stressed state. Your body is not thinking about digestion, as this is a survival state.
This also happens with hard exercise. Your body and brain is not preparing to digest when exerting itself in a hard manner or when stressed.Then, there is a phase of digestion called the cephalic phase of digestion. This is where the sight, smell, and taste of food triggers secretion of acid in the stomach. This takes place because of the vagus nerve, which is the SOLE neural link between the brain and the secretion of gastric juices, in your digestive system.
Emotions and fear and stress AFFECT this secretion and if this secretion is dampened, then you are not breaking down food, possibly leading to digestive upset.The Mouth.
Your mouth does the job of pulverizing food. That's why we chew, to break down food to smaller more digestible pieces. This helps liberate nutrients in the food itself. If you are missing teeth, or have dental pain, this impacts your ability to chew. If you are a fast eater, this will also impact your digestion. One, you are not pulverizing food and two, you may be in a stressed or sympathetic state, within your nervous system. Chewing helps you secrete more saliva flow. (Now, let’s put a caveat here, as this isn’t always the case with menopause. I mentioned decreased saliva already.)When mouths do not have enough saliva, this affects what we choose to eat, how much, and even the joy of eating, as taste can be diminished.
Saliva also impacts how the mouth does its job because it carries enzymes, particularly amylase. Amylase starts the process of breaking down carbohydrate in the mouth.
So if you are lacking saliva, then could there be an issue digesting carbohydrates? Saliva assists with acidity in the mouth and esophagus (3). Acidity in the stomach also kills invaders by the way of microbes, fungus, mold etc.Chewing also alleviates stress, as chewing stimulates the vagus nerve. It can be calming and a stress reliever.
Esophagus.
The esophagus connects your pharynx or throat to your stomach. It moves food down to the stomach through muscular contractions. The central nervous system talks to the esophagus through the vagus nerve along with parts of the autonomic nervous system. The nerves initiate muscular contractions to move food to that stomach.When it gets to the stomach there is a valve called the LES, or lower lower esophageal sphincter just before the stomach.
The stomach.
This is where your food gets broken down by hydrochloric acid and other enzymes, as well as the muscular contraction of the stomach.
This process of churning with hydrochloric acid and other enzymes like pepsin, and proteases, help to break down your food, importantly protein.Hydrochloric acid secretion can be lower in menopause. This can be for many reasons, including lower estrogen and a rise in cortisol.
When this happens, and it can happen in perimenopause and menopause and post menopause, proper protein digestion, and mineral absorption will be affected. We need protein, and weight bearing exercise in menopause, to stave off muscle wasting.
We also need minerals for bone health and other body systems.
Small intestine
2-4 hours later the food in your stomach goes into the small intestine. Your small interesting has three segments: Duodenum, jejunum, ileum).The lower part of your small intestine is the area for absorption.
It is a huge surface area, as mentioned in the beginning of this episode. It has finger like projections that are called villi and these increase the area of absorption. Different parts of your absorption happens in different parts of the intestine.
This small intestine area gets busy with digesting, absorbing, transporting your nourishment. It secretes its own substances to protect and digest and also works with secretions from the pancreas, liver and gallbladder, which aid in the digestive process.
The small intestine also acts like a filter, trying to prevent microbes that may be harmful from passing into your blood. If there is irritation to that small intestine its filter capabilities may be impacted.
We also have a very delicate lining in our intestinal tracts, and it needs to be protected by mucous. This lining has to decide:
—> Is this item that came in here a part of the body? Is this a nutrient? How do I absorb this nutrient?
—>What are these microbes?
—>Do they stay? Do they go?
The Liver and Gallbladder do play a role, in the digestive process along with the pancreas. These all deserve their own spotlight, but this is briefly how it goes.
The Liver and Gallbladder.
The liver is your own built in master detox organ. It has phases of detoxification, that take care of hormones, and environmental toxins, you own endotoxins, the bacteria in you that lives happily, but does die and break down.The liver makes bile, that helps break down fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. This bile goes to the small intestine, or is stored in the gall bladder. A hormone called cholecystokinin triggers the release of bile.
Bile helps get water into the gut, to help with poop. This keeps you from being constipated. Constipation is a big complaint in menopause. Bile also plays a role in keeping your small intestine free of invaders.
About one quart of bile goes to the small intestine, where it wants to meet some fiber to be able to bind waste and put it in the toilet:)
The pancreas.
This organ makes enzymes to digest and absorb nutrients. Lipase, proteases, and amylase are some of the enzymes secreted. Lipase works with the bile of the liver to digest fat. If you are low on lipase and low on bile, then assimilating fat soluble vitamins like ADEK are going to be tougher.The pancreas also makes amylase, which is also in saliva.
This is for starch digestion.
Proteases digest proteins, so if these are low, there can be an incomplete break down of protein. This one reason why there can be gut or digestive issues, and food sensitivities. Proteases also keep the small intestine free of bacteria and other critters, and play a role in immunity and healing.
The colon or large intestine.
This is connecting the small intestine to the anus.
It absorbs water and some electrolytes, but it's like a storage bin for the waste, after the small intestine gets through with the food.Dietary fiber is important for the health of the colon.
It decreases the reabsorption of toxins from stool. Frequency of elimination, the consistency of your poop, all play a role in overall health.
Effective elimination, or proper pooping, is part of proper digestion.
Anus.
This is the end of the gut, of the digestive tract. It’s a canal made up of pelvic floor muscles and two sphincters. The two sphincters help sense waste, and keeps waste in or … helps move it out
What can poor digestion look like?
Bloating
Trapped gas
Alternating runny stool & constipation
Oily stool
Funny colours
Discomfort after eating
Burping
Fullness (lack pancreatic juices, or enzyme activity, to get things digested)
What might cause poor digestion? Some examples.
Health conditions: hypothyroid, mold exposure, Alzheimers.
Age: we drop our HCL, our hydrochloric acid as we get older
Estrogen changes as we age, when we are fertile we make estradiol, and in menopause we make estrone.
Microbes that cause infections.
Stress.
Age & Our Gut Health
It seems that keeping the gut bugs healthy and balanced is important for healthy aging.
It isn't just the bugs themselves, it’s also the byproducts of the bugs.
So if you are carrying an imbalance of gut bugs that aren't commensal, or part of your regular posse, well their metabolites, or THEIR poop, may have an impact on your health.
The change with aging has to do with the exposure we have over our lives to pathogens, stress, sub optimal food, (this is not always by choice, this is economics), antibiotics, stress. This affects absorption of iron, minerals, calcium, and all the other bone builders like phosphorus, and boron.
We have decreased peristalsis, or smooth muscle action to push out the poo as we age, so things just sit there, and affect our endotoxin levels, and cellular health.
Mood and immunity are also linked to the gut! Again, a whole other topic with that gut brain connection and something called the GALT or the gut associated lymphoid tissue.
How do you support the gut in menopause?
Where do you even start?
Relaxation, mindful eating, pro and prebiotics, herbs, variety and diversity of food, do you remove pathogens, are you constipated, how do you unplug yourself?
What do you do and where do you turn?!?!
What about that stomach acid?
Should everyone be drinking apple cider vinegar and lemon juice?
We need that hydrochloric acid turns on pancreatic enzymes, and enzymes in the small intestine, as well as breaking down protein. But is this the way to get it going?
What do you do with all of this?
I’m going to break these topics down, in other episodes and posts.
Here are TWO things you can do today for digestive health:
One: work on RELAXING.
If you're stressed when eating, your digestion will not “turn on”.
One of the practices within mindful eating is to pause, and breath before a meal. The breathing helps your brain feel relaxed and get into that parasympathetic state, and ready to digest, and assimilate your nutrients,
It seems simple, but hard to do, in a busy world where we are constantly on the go, with our minds rolling over our to do lists.
Taking the time to pause, and breathe, not only helps you get that nervous system in the right place, it helps you assess your hunger level, and smell the food in front of you to turn on that cephalic phase of digestion.
TWO: diversify your FOOD.
That microbiome needs different foods to feed all the different microbes in there. This can come from lots of fibre rich foods. Complex carbohydrate foods supply soluble and insoluble fiber to support your digestion.
These types of fiber can get broken down into categories, like oligosaccharides, non starch polysaccharides, and starchy polysaccharides.
That might get way too nerdy for this one post!
Tips to diversify foods:
TAKE IT SLOW. Don’t add in too much fibre, make sure to drink water and herbal teas, to help elimination, and remember this is supposed to be a journey, not a race.
STEAM your veggies to break down the fibre.
GO EASY on raw veggies, if you are not used to them.
Experiment with recipes, and ADD IN FOODS. Changing your mindset around food is one of the best things you can do for your overall health . You can do that with mindful eating.
Below, are some examples of foods you can experiment with and add in for digestive support. There are so many out there, including greens, beets, and other vegetables and starches.
Oats
Potatoes
Brown rice
White rice
Whole grain flours
Whole grain bread
Popcorn
Squash
Green peas
Legumes
Yams
Quinoa
Jerusalem artichoke
Non-ripe bananas
Plaintains
Leeks
Burdock
Chicory
Onions
Asparagus
Garlic
Chives
Non-starchfood examples:
Medicinal Mushrooms
Aloe Vera
Flaxseeds
Noni fruit
Seaweed
There is a LOT you can do with these foods!
Need some recipe ideas?
There is a link in the show notes to join my Meal Garden Platform.
I use this platform to encourage food diversity and meal planning in a ON DIET way for clients, but I do have a free area for you to check out!
I have it set to hide nutrient information in the form of calories, but because I open the whole platform up to clients, sometimes this information sneaks by.
If this triggers you, to see the calories in servings of food, I get you. Nutrition labels are everywhere and we can't erase them.
The Digestive system affects most areas or systems of the body, including your skin, nervous system, immune system and endocrine system. It really affects everything!
Having our digestive systems working as best we can for our own unique body is supports so many other systems.
There are many ore ways you can support your digestive system, which will come up in the next few episodes so stay tuned!
Sources:
(3)