It’s easy to assume that doctors know it all but the truth is that there are certain aspects of healthy living that doctors don’t know very much about, which is why a multidisciplinary approach is most times necessary to provide the best possible care for patients.
I’ll give you a real life example. Almost every other day i see patients with endometriosis, so i know the symptoms, how to confirm the diagnosis and how to treat it medically and surgically, however i just recently learnt from my patient that modifying your diet goes a long way in improving symptoms of endometriosis. And she testified to it’s efficacy. It also reminded me of a conversation i had with a friend of mine who recently adopted the Whole 30 lifestyle. She mentioned that one of the most significant benefits was that she barely had any menstrual pain anymore. So this made me believe there must be a real correlation between diet and certain symptoms of endometriosis.
Now just a bit about endometriosis. In this condition, the tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. However this doesn’t change the normal ebb and flow of estrogen throughout the month which also works on this external endometrial tissue just as it does on the uterine lining, causing growth when estrogen levels are high. For endometrial tissue within the uterus, this is okay; but when endometrial tissue in the pelvic or abdominal cavity grows, it can cause severe pain, unusual bleeding and damage to other organs, including the bowel and bladder, and even lead to infertility. The pain can be so bad, in fact, that some women have to be admitted in hospital.
Endometriosis can have a serious negative impact in the lives of some women.
While there are a variety of treatments for endometriosis—ranging from medications to surgery—one that is not explored enough is lifestyle changes. It has been proven that lifestyle changes, including what you eat and how much physical activity you get, affect other estrogen-dependent conditions, such as menstruation, fibroids and menopausal symptoms.
Changing your diet for endometriosis can help with the following:
- Reduce symptoms of pain
- Relieve cramps
- Reduce inflammation
- Reduce bloating
- Reduce estrogen levels
- Balance hormones
- Reduce weight – estrogen is stored in fat and endometriosis is fed by estrogen
The reason that certain foods make the symptoms of endometriosis worse is based on the chemical reactions in the body that are caused by these food groups. The controlled diet for endometriosis eliminates these problem food groups and this helps reduce the negative chemical reactions and can help to reduce many of the symptoms of the disease.
Endometriosis is fed by estrogen synthesis in the body. This can be from:
- Your own natural estrogen which is produced in the body
- The estrogen that is taken up from food as phyto-estrogen
- From chemical based estrogens that are found in toiletries and cosmetics in the form of xeno-estrogens
The correct diet can help to balance all these forms of estrogen.
Apart from estrogen, Prostaglandins (another chemical) plays an important role.
One theory is that dietary fat influences your body’s production of prostaglandins, which can stimulate uterine contractions and affect the ovaries. It’s thought that high levels of prostaglandins could lead to higher production of estrogen, which could influence the growth of endometrial tissue.
Other studies find a link between high-fat diets and levels of circulating estrogen; the more fat in your diet, the more estrogen your body produces. This also occurs if you’re overweight, and you’re more likely to be overweight if you follow a diet high in red meat and low in fruits and vegetables.
Well, whether or not diet has any effect on endometriosis, we know they have a significant effect on a host of other health-related conditions. Reducing the amount of red meat in your diet, upping intake of fresh fruit and vegetables may make a difference in the severity of your endometriosis. So it’s certainly worth a try.
Hopefully this has helped you understand the science behind why it makes sense for a diet to help improve endometriosis symptoms.
In the following post there will be a proper breakdown of what food groups to avoid as well as those that may be beneficial.
