Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish listeners. Hope you are having a
Speaker 1: fantastic day. This is, of course, the daily podcast from
Speaker 1: Body and Soul. I am Felicity Harley, host of this
Speaker 1: podcast and joining me via our online studio today is
Speaker 1: doctor Cecilia Kittik. She's a gut health expert and exercise
Speaker 1: physiologist who has published more than eighty research papers exploring
Speaker 1: things like inflammation, nutrition, the endocrine system and of course
Speaker 1: the gut. She knows this stuff. Basically, she joins us
Speaker 1: to discuss how your gut health impacts your period health.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about this? Neither did I? And
Speaker 1: of course how to improve the health of your microbiome. Also,
Speaker 1: if you are taking special care of your fertility, make
Speaker 1: sure you're listening to extra Healthy Ish, where she shares
Speaker 1: her advice on how to create a fertile gut. You
Speaker 1: can grab that wherever you get your podcasts. Ce Celia,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on Healthy Today. Finally, we've
Speaker 1: been trying to do this interview for a few months.
Speaker 2: Now, let's make it worth it, Felicity, Yes we will.
Speaker 1: Listeners. We are here to give you all the info
Speaker 1: about gut health and how it affects your period health.
Speaker 1: I mean, what does what's the connection between these two
Speaker 1: What does gut health have to do with menstrual cycles?
Speaker 2: So they may seem like they're sitting in quite distinct locations,
Speaker 2: but these two components are very intricately connected. So the
Speaker 2: health of our microbiome does influence us having a healthy,
Speaker 2: reproductive menstrual cycle. Essentially, when we're talking about what a
Speaker 2: healthy cycle is if someone's not on any hormone or contraception,
Speaker 2: it's really looking at the fact that that menstrual cycle
Speaker 2: comes regularly, maybe every twenty six to thirty five days,
Speaker 2: that it's moderate bleeding, so nothing too excessive or heavy flow,
Speaker 2: you're not experiencing any excessive pain or severe mood swings
Speaker 2: or other debilitating symptoms. And importantly, a healthy menstrual cycle
Speaker 2: is one in which you ovulate. Now that may sound
Speaker 2: a bit unusual because while you bleed each month, you
Speaker 2: won't necessarily ovulate, and the research actually supports it in
Speaker 2: about sixteen to thirty seven percent of menstrual cycles. Population
Speaker 2: actually doesn't take place. Yeah, but it makes sense when
Speaker 2: we start to understand mechanistically what's going on and how
Speaker 2: we ovulate, and what supports that process. So importantly part
Speaker 2: of that is the communication that happens between our brain
Speaker 2: and our ovaries and how well they're talking to each other.
Speaker 2: Looking at the hormone levels that we've got circulating around,
Speaker 2: nutritional adequacy, how we're feeding our body and providing nutrients,
Speaker 2: and our immune system as well. Now all of these
Speaker 2: things are influenced by our resident microbiome, so that is
Speaker 2: the populations that we have living in our gart They're
Speaker 2: responsible for regulating sex hormones, how well we extract and
Speaker 2: absorb nutrients from food, our higher brain centers, our immune system,
Speaker 2: and these are all connected. So when there is a
Speaker 2: bit of disruption in that gut microbiome, it can be
Speaker 2: associated with missing or irregular menstrual periods, experiencing greater pre
Speaker 2: menstrual symptoms, the presence of fibroids and polyps, which can
Speaker 2: be contributed to really heavy bleeding during a cycle. And
Speaker 2: we know those disruptions are seen in conditions such as
Speaker 2: polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, you know. I obviously listen to a lot
Speaker 1: of other podcasts and just hearing you speak, there's so
Speaker 1: much we're learning about the gut and how it's just
Speaker 1: so central to everything. I mean, I listened to something
Speaker 1: the other day about it being central to heart health
Speaker 1: and now menstrual cycles, the link between the two, it's
Speaker 1: just it just blows my mind absolutely.
Speaker 2: And a lot of this comes down to looking at
Speaker 2: the processes of inflammation and oxidative stress. Essentially, these are
Speaker 2: processes that we need in our body and they're really important.
Speaker 2: But if they are left unchecked, you know, or they
Speaker 2: get a bit out of control, they can cause a
Speaker 2: bit of damage to our tissues. And so when we're
Speaker 2: looking at a lot of those disease processes diabetes, cuttingo
Speaker 2: vascular disease, autoimmune conditions, there's always an element there where
Speaker 2: inflammation is a bit disrupted. So it's the same when
Speaker 2: we're talking about our gut health and our menstrual cycle.
Speaker 2: We actually need really tightly regulated inflammation as we're growing
Speaker 2: a follicle in our ovary, and in that follicle is
Speaker 2: where we're going to find our egg. Now for that
Speaker 2: egg to be released again, we need really great communication
Speaker 2: coming from our higher brain centers to our ovaries, and
Speaker 2: when there's disruption in that communication, that pathway alone between
Speaker 2: our brain and our ovary. About eighty five of failures
Speaker 2: in when we don't ovulate are contributed to those pathways.
Speaker 2: And those pathways and what's going on in our brain
Speaker 2: is influenced by what's going on in our gut. So,
Speaker 2: particularly when we're thinking about our immune system and the
Speaker 2: process of inflammation, what happens is when there's a few
Speaker 2: when there are a few more populations living in the
Speaker 2: gut that tend to promote disruption or inflammation, that can
Speaker 2: lead to changing the structural integrity of our intestinal wall,
Speaker 2: so that leads to an increase in permeability, and we
Speaker 2: might actually have things coming from our gut into our
Speaker 2: bloodstream that can be really immune stimulating, things like endotoxin
Speaker 2: or these little components of bacterial cell walls that really
Speaker 2: trigger and activate our immune system to cause a lot
Speaker 2: of inflammation. So just even the presence of that bacterial
Speaker 2: components in our blood stream that is associated with reduced
Speaker 2: ovulation and impacting then even levels of pain that we
Speaker 2: might experience in our menstrual cycle. So when you look
Speaker 2: at the gut of women that do experience pre menstrual
Speaker 2: symptoms or having irregular cycles, there seems to be often
Speaker 2: an enrichment of populations like Prevtella that drive a bit
Speaker 2: of inflammation, and we also might have less of the
Speaker 2: good guys in there, so less of the bacteria that
Speaker 2: produce things like butyrate, and butrate is a short chain
Speaker 2: fatty acid, which is really beneficial for our health. And
Speaker 2: when we start to appreciate that's getting produced in our gut,
Speaker 2: you know, in the large intestine, but that is absorbed
Speaker 2: systemically and influencing our cardiovascular health, our brain health, the
Speaker 2: health of our muscles, and how strong we are, how
Speaker 2: well our pancreas is working. All of these are impacted
Speaker 2: by those metabolites that are getting produced within our gut.
Speaker 1: Now talk to us about birth control. Can this impact
Speaker 1: gut health? I mean, what role does this play? And
Speaker 1: also things like medication, I mean, and how does this
Speaker 1: affect our gut?
Speaker 2: So this is definitely an emerging space when we're looking
Speaker 2: at oral contraceptive pills. So our microbiome can influence our
Speaker 2: sex hormones, particularly things like estrogen, but our hormones can
Speaker 2: also influence our microbiomes. So there's definitely this by direction
Speaker 2: and communication that happens. Yes, and so when you're looking
Speaker 2: at putting in exogenous hormones, like with the oral contraceptive pill.
Speaker 2: What the research shows it's quite limited at this space
Speaker 2: in looking at the gut microbiome in particular, But what
Speaker 2: the research shows is that gut community might be pretty stable,
Speaker 2: but their function might change. And a lot of this
Speaker 2: is in very specific populations, like, for example, women that
Speaker 2: have polcistic ovary syndrome, so they might have some changes
Speaker 2: in amino acid metabolism and other functions. But ultimately, when
Speaker 2: we're thinking about what can really disrupt the microbiome, there
Speaker 2: are absolutely other medications that will tend to be more disruptive,
Speaker 2: and one of those is very commonly prescribed, and these
Speaker 2: are proton pump inhibitors. So typically they might be prescribed
Speaker 2: to treat gastrosophagy or reflex disease, or you know, getting
Speaker 2: your doctor you say I've got heartburn and they're like, oh, here,
Speaker 2: take a PPI. Very disruptive because it's changing levels of
Speaker 2: stomach acid and that's potentially enabling the growth of opportunistic
Speaker 2: pathogens or the transit of more pathogens getting from our
Speaker 2: upper gastrointestin trapped and making the way to where they
Speaker 2: probably shouldn't So antibiotics are another component that are often
Speaker 2: essential and life saving, but there is absolutely research showing
Speaker 2: that that can disrupt the gut community, and some work
Speaker 2: even shows it might take six to twelve months to
Speaker 2: restore the gut community.
Speaker 1: Goodness, I've just come off following antibiotics, okay, But on
Speaker 1: the flip side.
Speaker 2: There are definitely supportive mechanisms in place that can help
Speaker 2: you as you're restoring your community. And one of those
Speaker 2: looking at the incorporation of particular probiotics into your diet
Speaker 2: that has been shown to reduce antibiotic associated dysbiosis or
Speaker 2: that disruption and the gut microbiome, and the same with
Speaker 2: proton pump inhibitors. We know that dietary and lifestyle changes
Speaker 2: can be effective in managing reflux disease.
Speaker 1: Now, just quickly before we go, you have to give
Speaker 1: me this answer in a couple of sentences. But if
Speaker 1: we are trying to you know, get pregnant, that's your expertise.
Speaker 1: Or just improve our reproductive health our you know, help
Speaker 1: our cycles become healthier or healthy is so to speak.
Speaker 1: How can can we improve the health of our microbiome today.
Speaker 2: Have a consistent supply of probiotic fiber in your diet.
Speaker 2: And if you want to make that really easy and
Speaker 2: accessible to you, there are ways you can do it
Speaker 2: despite even having a coco late for example, at the
Speaker 2: end of your day. So even in healthy individuals, selected
Speaker 2: probiotics are going to really further enhance your gut community
Speaker 2: and promote the growth of those beneficial species. And if
Speaker 2: that is the foundation for our brain health, metabolism, immune function,
Speaker 2: endocrine function, reproductive health, we want for all the benefits. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we want all the benefits that come to us.
Speaker 1: A few more foods that have these probotics in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Probartics are found in things like lots of different
Speaker 2: fruits and vegetables, things like onion, chickpeas, b troot, whole week.
Speaker 2: You know, our grains are really important as well, bali rye.
Speaker 2: So again looking at a really great plant based focused
Speaker 2: you know, lots of diversity in what you're reading, and
Speaker 2: abundance in those whole foods and plant based foods will
Speaker 2: be nurturing your microbiome.
Speaker 1: Fora Celia, thank you for joining us on healthy Ish.
Speaker 2: Thank you Felicity.
Speaker 1: Well, time and time again, we are reminded that good
Speaker 1: health starts in the gut. Hey, Cecilia does have a
Speaker 1: book out. She has an online course as well. Her
Speaker 1: book is called Create a Fertile Gut. I will leave
Speaker 1: a link to both of them in the show notes.
Speaker 1: If you did enjoy this chat, if you've got something
Speaker 1: out of it, tell us rate and review this episode,
Speaker 1: or of course, you can subscribe to this podcast. Anything else,
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Speaker 1: Sunday paper, and until tomorrow, stay healthy ish