In this week’s episode of Menopause Conversations, I am chatting with Ange Sinclair the Digestive Detective all about gut health and hormones. Ange had lifelong issues with her gut but it wasn’t until she started to change the food that she was eating that she started to get improvements.

Some of the key points that we cover in this episode are:

-    The importance of specific gut bacteria to metabolise oestrogen
-    How we can manipulate our gut bacteria to influence our hormone levels
-    The connection between poor gut health and conditions such as PCOS, endometriosis and breast cancer
-    The difference between probiotics and prebiotic foods and why it is essential to include more prebiotic foods in our diet
-    The importance of a diverse diet that is high in plant foods and includes all colours of the rainbow
-    Switching your meals to be primarily vegetables with the meat as a ‘side’ or condiment portion
-    Investigating some traditional diets and how our ancestors ate food

One of the key take aways that Ange shared is that it is important to make small consistent changes over time to allow your gut time to adjust.  Making changes too quickly or too drastically can cause more gut issues.