Flare ups are very common in Endometriosis and they can really interfere with your plans. Flare ups are not unique to Endometriosis, in fact they are a common occurrence in most chronic diseases.
But what causes them? And what can you do to minimise their risk of occurring?
What are flare ups?
Flare ups are a sudden worsening of your Endometriosis symptoms, or of one specific symptom, for example bloating. It can also be a sudden appearance of a completely new symptom. The intensity of the symptom(s) is usually such that it is very noticeable, sometimes to a point where you can’t function normally.
Food and/or drink is often assumed to be the cause of the flare up, and you may have noticed that each time you eat a specific food or drink a specific drink that a flare up follows. And you may think that that food or drink is the cause of your flare up, so by avoiding it you’ll avoid a flare up.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Because a flare up is not a reaction to a specific food or drink, it may not even be a reaction to any food or drink. Let me use an analogy to explain.
Imagine a bucket full of water: the water has reached the top of the bucket, but is not overflowing yet. It’s so high though, that as soon as you add a drop more, the bucket starts to overflow. But the bucket can also overflow if there is a sudden bit of wind, or some vibration in the floor. Anything that breaks the surface tension of the water will make the bucket overflow at this point.
And that is what a flare up is: your body is at a point where anything can bring on a sudden worsening of your symptoms. It can be food, it can be a drink, but it can also be a bad night sleep, or a stressful event, or your body trying to fight off a virus that you didn’t know you’d picked up somewhere, even a very intense workout (which are inflammatory, by the way).
The amount of water in the bucket is the analogy for the inflammation in your body: it is at a level where anything will push it over the edge.
How can you minimise the risk of flare ups?
How can you minimise the risk of the bucket overflowing? Reduce the amount of water in it!
The same is the case for your flare ups. You need to reduce your chronic inflammation, which is caused by food intolerances, your leaky gut and an immune system that doesn’t function optimally. Less inflammation means your body can deal with stress, lack of sleep and the occasional problematic food or drink, without causing major issues.
To reduce your inflammation, you need to follow an anti-inflammatory diet. What that looks like will be very personal to you:
- Find out what foods you are intolerant to and remove those from your diet
- Add foods and nutrients to heal your gut and support your immune system
A good place to start is by removing gluten (from wheat) and dairy from your diet, as most of my clients are intolerant to both. Also remove sugar and ultra-processed foods, as both are highly inflammatory.
If you’d like to have a personal chat about how you can minimise the risk of flare ups, book a complimentary Endometriosis SOS Call: https://theendometriosisnutritionist.online/endometriosis-sos-call/