The Food Medic - Hormones, Gut Health, and You: What Every Woman Should Understand | With Dr Megan Rossi

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

What if ignoring your gut health is fueling a hormonal war inside your body? In this episode of The Food Medic Podcast, Dr Hazel Wallace, a women’s health nutritionist, sits down with Dr. Megan Rossi, a gut health expert, about the complex links between gut health and women’s health. They discuss how gut bacteria influence hormones and conditions like PCOS and endometriosis, the impact of the menstrual cycle on digestion, and the importance of evidence-based probiotic use. The episode covers: How do gut bacteria influence hormones and conditions such as PCOS and endometriosis in women?   What is the impact of the menstrual cycle on digestion and gut health?   Why is evidence-based probiotic use important for women’s health?   What are some common myths about IBS, and what is the role of the vaginal microbiome?   What dietary strategies and personalised approaches does Dr. Rossi recommend? The episode emphasises the importance of adopting personalised, research-backed approaches when it comes to managing women’s health. It highlights how nutrition and lifestyle strategies should be tailored to individual needs rather than one-size-fits-all solution. Listeners are encouraged to use this approach to make informed decisions that promote long-term wellness. So, have you ever wondered how much your gut health affects your hormones and health? What if understanding your gut could unlock the key to feeling truly balanced and healthy? — If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the podcast, simply send a voice note to [e-mail] – we'd love to hear from you! Stay up to date with the latest health advice, recipes, insights, and updates from Dr. Hazel Wallace and The Food Medic community. Dr. Hazel Wallace Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drhazelwallace/ The Food Medic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefoodmedic/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefoodmedic/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thefoodmedic Explore More from The Food Medic Not Just A Period – New Book A groundbreaking guide to understanding your cycle, hormones, and health.Coming 22nd May 2025. Pre-order now: https://linktr.ee/notjustaperiod The Food Medic App Learn more: https://www.thefoodmedic.co.uk/about-the-food-medic-hub Weekly Newsletter Subscribe here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/62b5a28d76b1bf772c403012 Get in Touch For inquiries or collaborations: General: [e-mail] Partnerships: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. But there is, annoyingly, this concept that we should all just take a vaginal microbiome supplement for the menopause or just because we're women, right? And it's so incorrect, like, taking one when you don't need it couldn't disrupt things. What's actually happening on a physiological level? Why are we getting these changes in our gut function across the cycle? So it all comes down to hormones, right? There's a lot of posts I'm seeing online about people saying if you're using caffeine to have your first bowel motion of the day, then you don't have a healthy gut.

Yeah, myth busted, right? Hello everyone and welcome back to the Food Medic podcast. I'm Dr. Hazel Wallace, a women's health nutritionist and former NHS doctor, and I'm back for a special women's health series of the Food Medic podcast. I'm Dr. Hazel Wallace, a women's health nutritionist and former NHS doctor, and I'm back for a special women's health series of the Food Medic podcast. In this mini series, we're diving into all things women's health, from expert insights and myth-busting chats,

to mini Ask Dr. Hazel episodes, where I answer questions submitted by you. Expect accessible, evidence-backed tips to help you feel empowered, not held back by your menstrual cycle and more. Today's guest is Dr Megan Rossi, founder of the Gut Health Doctor and one of the most influential voices in gut health globally. She's a registered dietician, nutritionist

and leading research fellow at King's College London with over 15 years of experience and a PhD in probiotics. Megan is also a two-time Sunday Times best-selling author and the founder of the Gut Health Clinic, the gut-friendly food brand BioME and the clinically proven supplement range Smart Strains. In this episode we explore the connection between gut health, hormones and the menstrual cycle. If you're enjoying these conversations and want to go beyond just understanding your hormones and your menstrual cycle and actually learn how to work with them, my latest book, Not Just a Period, is available. It's a practical, science-backed roadmap that helps you align

your cycle in every area of your life, from nutrition and mood to body image, skin, hair and more. If you're ready to feel more in tune with your body and supported by your hormones, rather than confused by them, I'd love for you to check it out. You might notice a QR code floating around if you're watching the video free to scan, or if you're listening to the audio version, you can find the link at the bottom of the episode show notes. Megan, welcome back to the Food Medic podcast.

We were just saying I'm a veteran, aren't I? I know, I think it was season one that you came on and that was 2018. So. Little babies. I know, I know. And a lot has changed since then, in some ways. In some ways things feel like they've stayed the same.

Yeah, yeah. And I think at that time we were talking more about the role of nutrition and gut health. But today I would love to chat a bit more about women's health and gut health and that interconnection. Yeah. So let's start there. How is women's health and gut health interconnected? Well in terms of the science, like you said, historically, we'll very much like focus on just the nutrition side.

But now we're understanding a lot more as to how those trillions of bacteria in our gut. So we think about gut health, this nine meter long digestive tract, one of the key components what's really brought the fame, right, is those trillions of bacteria that live there. And what we've discovered is actually they play a really important role in things like regulating different hormones like estrogen, for example. So actually that's kind of opened up this new space of being like, well, actually, maybe these microbes are really helping with things like women's health and, you know, PCOS and endometriosis, all of these issues where there's

a hormonal imbalances. And like, if we want to get really into the science, I know you're a bit of a no like me. So there's a group of microbes in our gut called the Estrabloom. And essentially they're the ones that have these unique enzymes that turn inactive estrogen to active estrogen, right? So when our bodies finish using the estrogen, it gets dumped into our gut and usually we would like poop that out, right? But we've got these certain types of microbes, well, some people have more and others don't have as many,

that actually can turn that inactive estrogen into active and that then gets reabsorbed into our blood system and has its effects there. So yeah, it's a really exciting time for women's health. And I know you're all about like empowering women. And I think that's what this science really has shown us have been like, there's so many things we can't control, like, you know, a lot of the hormonal issues, but actually, the science is kind of starting to suggest through a few little

tweaks, we can actually, you know, help with some of these hormonal imbalance, not cure them and not like, you know, be the savior of everything. But actually, it can have meaningful differences in people's lives. Yeah, absolutely. And I definitely want to dive into that and what we can do. But before we get there, we talk a lot about on this podcast, how most of the medical research we have today is based on male bodies, male cells, male mice. Is that the same in the gut health research? And are there any important differences maybe between men and women that we're only starting to realize when it comes to our gut?

Yeah, I mean, it's true. And I work as a research fellow at King's, I know kind of the challenges and often the reason why males are studying is because they're not having these fluctuating hormonal cycles. They're much easier to recruit because you don't have to only recruit during like a two-week window every month. So I understand the reasons, like it's much cheaper to recruit than for those reasons, but 100% it has massively limited our understanding of a lot of female driven conditions, right? Because of that, but you know, I think, you know, thankfully times are changing, women

are being more empowered. I think the government is starting to fund more women related conditions and, you know, coming to your question about any specific differences, well, we know, I guess physiologically, women typically have lower gut transit times, which essentially means food takes longer to go through. And that's why women are like two to three times more likely to suffer with constipation. And then other things like typically, again, women tend to have more sensitive gut lining, so it's called visceral hypersensitivity. And that again comes down to the great hormones,

you know, estrogen, which can make our gut that little bit more sensitive. Again, kind of reflecting why women typically have high rates of things like irritable bowel syndrome. Yeah, going back to that gut motility aspect, we also see that change across the menstrual cycle. And I think, you know, some women listening, I think I was actually looking at a study and 75% of the subjects did report issues, gut issues before and during menstruation. And I think a lot of women listening probably experienced that and maybe they don't have a term for a label for it, but often we talk about period poops. So I'd love to talk about what's actually happening on a physiological level.

Why are we getting these changes in our gut function across the cycle? Yeah. So it all comes down to hormones, right? So one of the hormone-like chemicals, prostaglandins, you know, obviously you're very aware of it. One of the key reasons we produce it is to contract the uterus, right? And that sheds the lining and then we have our menstruation. That also effect of that contraction can happen in the gut because of the prostaglandins. So as a result, the food can move through our body much quicker.

And that means that we're not absorbing all of that good nutrition higher up and it kind of gets dumped down into the lower part of the intestine where the bacteria live. And if they get like dumped with all this food, they kind of over ferment it and produce a lot of gas and that can lead to things like the bloating, but also more explosive bowel movements, the period poops. And then obviously, progesterone, we know that that's been more associated with kind of constipating, slowing and relaxing the gut muscles, kind of the opposite effect.

And that's why again, when we have our periods, it reduces them. Therefore that kind of the increase in protoclandins, decrease in progesterone, we get that loose bowel movement. Yeah, perfect, perfect storm. And I guess like thinking about those higher progesterone states. So in that luteal phase, women often say they feel a bit more constipated, but we also see that in pregnancy, right? So we see changes to gut motility and symptoms and all of that's related to hormones. Yeah. Lucky us.

Yeah, I know. I know. But I think understanding that can help you be more proactive about nutritional choices and maybe your lifestyle choices around that time because we can't really control what our hormones are doing, but we can react to them. I think a lot of people don't necessarily realize that we actually have little receptors, little checkpoints along our gut for things like estrogen and protesterone, right? So they're having effects, really well recognized effects on our gut, not just things like estrogen and protesterone, right? So they're having effects, really well recognized effects on our gut, not just things like the more focused of menstruation and things like that.

Yeah. For the subset of women who are getting those period poops or changes to their gut during menstruation, we'll maybe take looser stools first. What are some key nutrition changes and maybe lifestyle changes that you would recommend to think about if they're really struggling? Yeah. So during that period, so we're having more typically faster trends or food moving through. So we want to look at things that aren't going to speed that up or exacerbate that further.

So we know that things like caffeine, high fat foods, having too much fruit in one sitting can also kind of speed that up and lead to dumping and extra fermentation. So I think, you know, there's some of the key strategies that I would recommend is still absolutely have your fruit. We know actually that what, you know, one study showed that women who have less than two pieces of fruit a day seem to have more painful periods. So we know that actually, you know, fruit is hugely beneficial, but it's got fruit toast in it. Again, completely know, fruit is hugely beneficial, but it's got fruit toast in it.

Again, completely fine, just a fruit sugar. But our body can't absorb too much of it at any one period. So I usually say just 80 grams of fruit per sitting and three sittings a day. So instead of just like dining on a big bowl of blueberries, try like separate out to give your guts more time and then you're not getting kind of that dumping. And then I mean there's other things like polyols, these sugar alcohols, which are found a lot of things like sugar-free chewing gum, a lot of protein powders and things like that. Again, our body's not very good at absorbing it, so we can kind of dump extra food into the large intestine, the microbes ferment it, again, exacerbating that period poop effect.

Yeah, absolutely. And then maybe people who are experiencing the opposite likely in that later luteal phase with hypergestrel and constipation maybe and struggling with bowel movements. What changes might you recommend there? Yeah, so that's a really good one. I mean, constipation is, like I said, so common in women. So common regardless. Yeah. So psy regardless. Yeah.

So psyllium husk is a really amazing fiber and we've done some research at King's and it's a unique fiber because it can not only just soften hard stills, it can help with constipation, but actually it can thicken up loose stills, so like the period poop. So you don't need to worry too much of like, I have to stop on this day because I don't want to exacerbate like my period poops and that sort of thing. So it can be a really helpful fiber. If you've got quite a sensitive gut, I would start with just one teaspoon. Otherwise, I would go to one tablespoon and you can work that up over several weeks to

months up to three tablespoons. And it can really help have this laxating effect. And then other things we know for constipation is there's like this perfect kind of environment for a bowel movement. So this mass movement is this big kind of push that occurs in the gut that helps us poop essentially and that's more active in the morning which is why most people have their bowel movement in the morning. But typically if you think of a lot of people's schedules right it's like rush rushing for a train like this morning. Yeah. No time to kind of let that movement happen.

So we kind of suppress it. So actually what I say in clinic for a lot of people who are like really struggling with constipation is even if it means waking up half an hour earlier, just giving your bowels that time to relax. And there's like the kind of the formula that helps that mass movement is a little bit of caffeine, so maybe a coffee or a tea, some fat and carbohydrates, so it might be oats and some full fat Greek yogurt, and a little bit of gentle exercise. It could be a walk around the block or a gut-directed yoga flow or something like that.

That together can help that mass movement kind of get stimulated more so. I'm kind of going on a little bit of a segue here, but there's a lot of posts I'm seeing online about people saying, if you're using caffeine to have your first bowel motion of the day, then you don't have a healthy gut. I would love your take on this. Yeah, myth busted, right? I think there's this whole thing of like, we don't really depend on anything. We should just be this amazing vessel and everything just works perfectly.

And like, not at all. Right? So absolutely having a cup of coffee. And I mean, there's so much controversy around is coffee good or is it bad? And I think one of the things that, you know, we see on social media all the time is it depends on who we're talking to. Right? And I think one of the things that we see on social media all the time is it depends on who we're talking to, right? So we know that actually there are observational studies showing that if you have caffeine,

it might increase the diversity of microbes, which is a really good thing. We want more different types of bacteria that have more skills. That's because coffee contains these polyphenols which feed them and nourish them. But the obvious element of coffee is the caffeine, which is what the controversy kind of arises. And it can be really helpful for constipation, right? Gets that movement, it can get us up in the morning, kind of get our brain working, hit a BP at the gym.

So we know it has the benefits, but also, I guess, for those who've got that underlying gut sensitivity or anxiety, we know that caffeine can increase cortisol, stress hormone, and also kind of create a little bit more extra gut sensitivity. So for those people, be cautious with how much you're having or maybe switch to decaf, but for everyone else, having a couple of coffees a day is completely fine. Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that because I feel like caffeine right now has been really demonized and it's all about the dose, isn't it?

It's all about the dose, it's all about the sensitivity, it's all about context, but on social media there is zero context. Amazing. I would love to move from the menstrual cycle to the vaginal microbiome. We talk a lot about the gut microbiome and all of that bacteria, but what we're starting to learn more about now is the vaginal microbiome and how that might influence our health. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah.

Obviously, we focused very much on the gut microbiome, which is the trillions of microorganisms. It's not just the bacteria. We've got viruses and fungi such as yeast and even some parasites synergistically working together. So it's this amazing community in our gut. But actually we also have a skin microbiome. We have an oral microbiome, we have a lung microbiome. And of course we've got a vaginal microbiome

or the males have a testicular microbiome. So we've got these different communities living in all the different niches in our body, and they all have a really important functional role. And like you said, we haven't done that much research into women, but there is starting to be more research into the vagina microbiome. We know we've got billions of different microbes in there. And again, it's not just the bacteria.

We have some fungi and some viruses. But I guess some of the key differences, so the gut microbiome, one of our optimal focuses is getting diversity. So there's so many different types of microbes that you can get in and that's why people here eat more different plants and that sort of thing. With our vaginal microbiome, actually, we see the most healthiest as those who actually don't have as much diversity. And we want them more dominated by a group called Lactobacillus.

And they essentially help prevent the overgrowth of other types of microbes like Candida that can cause things like thrush. Okay, amazing. And so how might we influence that microbiome? Because I think now most people know that for your gut, eat as much, like different types of plants, plant diversity is key here. But when it comes to your gut microbiome, how can we influence that and make sure that we're supporting it in the right way?

Yeah. So in terms of our vaginal microbiome, like key strategies, again, we haven't got a whole lot of research to work from. And I think there's a few myths to dispel in terms of things like the anti-Candida diet, where people have suggested that cutting out fruit in different sugars and even some dairy can reduce your risk of getting vaginal thrush. And actually, there is no scientific evidence behind that. So I think that's one important thing because I see that in clinic where people come and

they're having really restrictive diets thinking that can help with their vaginal microbiome when actually it might have a negative impact. So there has been some observational studies suggesting again quite similar things that we recommend, like Mediterranean diet, more different types of colored fruit and veggies and different plants might have a beneficial role in vagina microbiome. But I guess probably the key things has been looking at lifestyle factors, so not using perfume soaps and synthetic underwear and those sorts of things to help your vagina microbiome.

I think it's quite good at keeping balanced itself in terms of not having to clean it and those sorts of things. And I think we've been led to believe that vaginas should not smell like anything and it should be perfumed and perfect like roses. And I think that is probably where a lot of the disruption can occur. Yeah. I think it was Dr. Jen Gunter who said, your vagina is a self-cleaning oven. And I love that. But we are, there's so many, you know, go into any boots, any pharmacies, and you'll see products that are like female hygiene products. And actually, in the last episode with Dr. Brooke, we talked about

this and how that could disrupt that pH and impact the health of your vagina. And it's such a shame that we are still pushing those products to this day and letting women believe that maybe down there is unclean or unhygienic and that needs to smell like flowers. So it's good to know that that that could potentially impact our microbiome. I would love to know your thoughts around probiotics for the vaginal microbiome.

We're seeing a lot of supplements come out in that space. I think Courtney Kardashian released a gummy. Your take on this? Yeah. Look, I think this whole world of supplements and probiotics has been kind of misunderstood. So I actually do my PhD in probiotics. I'm very passionate about this space. And what we're learning about probiotics is there's thousands of different types of probiotics.

And when we say probiotics, we mean different types of bacteria, different strains, there's a scientific name. So each strain, i.e. type, does different things. So we need to make sure that we're being really specific with making sure there has been like a human clinical trial showing that that specific formulation of strains can have the benefit you're after. Yeah. So yes, you know, we talk about the vagina microbiome, but I think just wiping out this concept that

for general gut health, we should take a probiotic. There's never been a clinical trial showing that a probiotic can help with your general gut health, right? To do that, eat the plant diversity, fermented foods, and things like that. But like you alluded to, there is actually some really interesting research around specific strains, right? So Candida and bacterial vaginosis are really common and we know that medical therapy works really well, antifungals or antibiotics if it's bacterial vaginosis, but the issue is relapsed rates

are huge, right? So anyone who's in this vicious cycle will know that it's just kind of repeat therapy. And from a dietician's perspective, like I said, the anti-Candida diet is not helpful. So I've always been like, I don't know how to help you. I'm sorry. It's like a medical thing. It looks like it's just ongoing. So I saw some placebo controlled. So again, it takes out a placebo effect, randomized controlled trials.

And it showed that alongside, so it's adjunct therapy, right, so it's not like instead of medical care, but as an adjunct therapy for thrush, having the bacterial strains LA14 and LHN001 with lactoferrin, which is a protein. So having that as a formulation in the clinical trial showed to significantly reduce relapse compared to placebo at six months by nearly three times. So it is highlighting actually they can be really powerful and the studies have shown that it kind of survives and arrives in the vagina via oral supplementation. So for that scenario, I'm like, yeah, there's been a placebo-controlled trial, yes.

Similarly with bacterial vaginosis, another quite common vaginal infection, again, that same formulation has been trialed in a placebo-controlled trial showing a benefit. I think it was about a 50% reduction risk of relapse compared to placebo. And again, it was taken during the antibiotics and then continued post-antibiotics. So I get really excited about that.

I'm like, finally, there is some good science behind that. But there is, annoyingly, this concept that we should all just take a vaginal microbiome supplement for the menopause or just because we're women, right? And it's just, it's so incorrect. Like it actually can, you know, taking one when you don't need it, it can disrupt things, right? So I think the message is that ProVacs are very specific and you want to make sure there

is a good quality study showing that exact formulation you're going to take. If there's not, I would look at other therapies or I wouldn't go there because these are live microbes that we're kind of putting into our bodies. Yeah, absolutely. And another kind of area of women's health and probiotics that is really emerging and I'm paying close attention to because I have PCOS, I also work with clients with PCOS is the role of probiotics and PCOS. And I think when it comes to gut health and PCOS,

we're seeing that there's maybe some gut microbiome disruption and whether that's like an egg and chicken scenario, what came first. What are your thoughts on this? And do you think that the research is good quality enough that we should be maybe suggesting women with PCOS take a probiotic? Yeah, it's a really interesting space. And I know what you were saying in terms of like the chicken, the egg, which came first.

But actually there was a really interesting study looking at fecal transplants and people with PCOS. So what they did, it wasn't human to human, it was human to animal. So they took women who had PCOS and they transplanted the stool sample, i.e. their gut microbiome, into germ-free mice. And those mice then started to develop symptoms similar like insulin resistance to PCOS. So actually that's kind of the first step to suggesting there might be some sort of causal role. Yeah. Right? Obviously we now need to look at that in human to human

and that sort of thing. But yeah, I certainly think there is, there was some really interesting research there. In terms of probiotics, when I've looked in this space, there has been a few positive clinical trials. But if you look at the detail of them, I haven't, I guess, been overly convinced in terms of which are the right strains, which is the right dose. I think it's a bit of a maybe in the next couple of years, and I think there

are a few clinical trials underway that I'm kind of watching and being like, oh, this could be promising. But yeah, in clinical practice, I don't typically recommend PCOS has a probiotic supplement at this stage because again, I want to make sure we know the right strains, the right dose. But that's like you highlighted in your clinic. I think absolutely we should be focusing on the gut microbiome. And there has been studies highlighting that people with PCOS typically have lower diversity of some of their anti-inflammatory microbes. So having that diversity is, I think,

really helpful. And obviously it's going to help with blood sugar regulation too. Yeah, absolutely. I would completely agree with that. And endometriosis is another women's health condition that's getting more awareness when it comes to the role of gut health. And I think for a few reasons, because a lot of women with endometriosis also have IBS, and sometimes they can be misdiagnosed for one another. I've actually seen that in clinical practice. Can you talk a little bit about maybe that connection and maybe the role of the gut in endometriosis and what women who have endometriosis can start implementing.

Yeah, I mean, it's such a tricky one to diagnose, isn't it? Yeah. I was talking to Thomas, my husband, at NHSGP. So I was like, so tell me, how would you... And he's like, yeah, it's just a really tricky one. So understand why there's a lot of misdiagnosis. But also, yeah, we do see that there is this high correlation where people can have both,

right? And they've shown that women who have endometriosis with gut symptoms, if they go on a low FODMAP diet, which is a diet that we know is a medical diet, super strict and something I wouldn't recommend everyone just do, right? But actually it has helped with their gut symptoms. And again, if anyone is thinking about low FODMAP diet, it should only ever be done for maximum eight weeks and then you reintroduce. Because again, time and time I just see people stuck in the restrictive phase and we know

that can have a negative impact on their microbiome. And particularly like with endometriosis, there was a study looking at the Mediterranean diet and showed that it was a fairly small study, but still it was a nicely controlled study that the women who were going on the Mediterranean diet actually had a reduction in pelvic pain and pain during and after sex as well. So clinically meaningful outcomes by focusing on a Mediterranean diet, which we know one of the main mechanisms

is that it feeds the microbes. It's full of the polyphenols and different fibers, things like the extra virgin olive oil, oily fish, the omega-3, all the things we know our microbes love. Yeah. And kind of across the lifespan and thinking about those key hormonal stages like puberty,

pregnancy perhaps in some women, postpartum and perimenopause, menopause, do we see changes to the gut microbiome across those stages? Yeah, absolutely. So in terms of, I guess, the relationship with our gut microbes and our hormones is it is very bi-directional, right? So we know that our microbes can help recycle it and therefore change levels of our hormones is it is very bi-directional. So we know that our microbes can help recycle it and therefore change levels of our hormones. But equally, our hormones can dictate the types of microbes we've got. And that's one of the starkest changes is when we go through the menopause.

Because like we said, with estrogen, it can get recycled and that kind of feeds some microbes. So we think that might be one of the reasons why if it starts to drop, why actually they have less fertilizer and they typically, we typically, one day I'll get there, have start to resemble like the male microbiome, slightly less diverse ranges of microbes as well. So yeah, you know, it's constantly, our microbes constantly changing according to our hormones. And the husband that I'm aware of being early studies looking within a menstrual cycle, but I think that would be amazing to see like how it changes. Because even after like three or four days of eating differently, like feeding the microbes

different nutrients, we start to see changes in our microbiome. So I'm sure with all the hormone changes, we'd to see changes in our microbiome. So I'm sure with all the hormone changes, we'd be seeing changes. Something's happening. Yeah. Yeah. So fascinating. What I'm seeing a lot of through social media in the women's health space is a lot of greens, powders, and prebiotic supplements coming up with quite like big claims that it's going

to balance your hormones, it's going to help with your PCOS, your PMS. Thoughts on this? Yeah. I mean, it's wild. It is the wildest, right? So a lot of these green supplements, in fact, one of the biggest ones, they did a study and looked at gut health outcomes in the microbiome and actually didn't find a benefit. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. Share that one. So, I mean, the thing with the green powders is what happens is they take, you know, really beneficial plants, right? But then they do process it and a lot of the phytochemicals can be damaged. And I think what it leads people into this false sense of security that they've eaten

all their greens for the day, right? So they're having this powder and therefore they don't need to eat any plants. So actually I think overall they then have this lower kind of nourishment for the microbiome. And also we know that like an apple contains like a hundred million bacteria on the skin, right? So again, when we have fresh fruit and veg, we're getting extra microbes in that way, whereas the powder has been so like, you know, killed, so to speak, it's not having that same effect.

And you raise a really good point about like the prebiotics in it. And you know, that's just a sexy term for different fertilizers for our microbiome. So we've got the probiotics, which is a live microbes, the prebiotics are fertilizers. And we know that having too many prebiotics, particularly in a lot of women who have gut line sensitivities, can actually give them worse bloating, altered stools and things like that. So I am very conscious of a lot of the powders where people in clay often say, I've tried it and it said it was for my gut.

Had like apple and greens, but actually it's made my gut worse. I'm like, yeah, because it's really high in these prebiotics and often polyols as well. Remember, we're not very good at absorbing them. So I don't typically recommend them because they kind of mess with the equilibrium. Absolutely. You heard her here first. I love that we covered that. I would love to wrap by asking you what's one myth in women's health for hormones that you would love to bust for good? Look, I think it has to be around IBS, that it's like all in your head. Yeah. And it's like a feminine condition and it's like, oh, she's just a little bit emotional. And we're like, no, it is a condition that is very serious and it can be hugely debilitating

and it is well now understood it's a dysfunction between the gut and the brain. So yes, if you have a lot of trauma going on in here, you can significantly increase your risk of IPS, but equally if you get food poisoning, right, or you know, barley belly or something like that, you come back and that subsequently you've got like a three to four fold increased risk of getting IBS. So there is this, you know, the enteric nervous system, which is 100 millions of nerves that connect the gut and the brain, you know, they are being dysregulated as well as things like, you know, estrogen can make those wires, those nerves more sensitive and excitable and we feel the pain more often.

So yeah, I think making people not feel like they have to hide it or be like, oh yeah, it's just IBS, actually appreciate, you know, it is a chronic condition. It can be hugely debilitating. And there is a lot more research in that space. And I want people to speak up about it and get support because we know diet and lifestyle can be hugely effective. Yeah, I love that. I think the narrative with a lot of women's health conditions, even though this is not a women's health condition, but a lot of women are affected by it, is that it is all in your head.

Or, you know, you're just being hysterical, you're being over the top, like just deal with it. And I think, you know, I see that time and time again with period problems. It's just part and parcel of being a woman. So I love that that was your myth. Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure. Before we leave each other, I would love if you could just take a moment to rate the podcast,

leave a review or share it with a friend or a loved one that you think would learn a lot from this episode. If today's conversation resonated, my book, Not Just a Period is available and it's packed with practical advice to help you understand your hormones, manage tricky periods and work with your cycle for better energy, mood, and overall health. You can grab a copy now through the link in the show notes or via the QR code on your screen. I hope you all have a great week and thank you so much for listening. Hi there. I wanted to tell you about a podcast that I think every single one of you will benefit from.

It's called Therapy Works and it's hosted by me, Julia Samuel. I'm a bestselling author and psychotherapist. I invite you into my therapy room where I speak to either a known or unknown guest. Topics range from the difficulties of divorce, a life-changing illness, to the struggles of motherhood. Search Therapy Works now wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode.