In this article I’m going to take a deeper dive into your gut, and in particular your gut microbiome.

What I find really fascinating is that 2500 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates already knew that all disease starts in the gut. We then ignored that message for a long time, but have started to look more closely at the gut more recently and in particularly at the bacteria in the gut.

Your gut microbiome, or the make up of your gut bacteria (good and bad), plays a key role in your Endometriosis as it directly contributes to the underlying inflammation, as well as specific, gut related, symptoms.

Before we take a closer look at your gut microbiome, here’s a fun fact: you gut is approximately 9 meters, or 29.5 feet, long and most of it is made up of the small and large intestines and the colon. And in your gut are more than 100 trillion micro-organisms, most of these are bacteria. Without these micro-organisms you simply would not survive!

Your colon contains a lot of your gut bacteria and these protect your gut. But they also produce some key vitamins, such as vitamin K and some B vitamins.

A healthy gut microbiome needs your gut wall to be in excellent condition. It needs to have a healthy mucous layer to stop bacteria, food particles, toxins, and digestive acids and enzymes from going through the gut wall and entering your bloodstream. It also needs the gut wall to be intact. Most people with Endometriosis have leaky gut, or gut hyper-permeability. Not only allows a leaky gut undigested food particles to get into the bloodstream, the damage also means there is less surface area on the gut wall for the gut bacteria to adhere to, grow and flourish.

So to improve your gut microbiome, you first need to improve your gut wall. Your best strategies are to remove gluten, dairy and any other foods that you are intolerant to. This allows your gut wall to heal.

The next step is to address the balance of good and bad bacteria. And here is where it gets interesting: your gut bacteria eat what you eat. But the good bacteria don’t eat the same things the bad bacteria eat. And that means you can use your diet to starve the bad bacteria and allow the good bacteria to multiply.

To starve the bad bacteria, you need to remove processed foods, junk food, sugar and simple carbohydrates.

And to feed the good bacteria, you need to eat foods that are high in fibre, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, lentils, beans, nuts and seeds, and whole grains.

Once your diet is the perfect diet for the good bacteria, you can help things along by including fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and apple cider vinegar which contain live bacteria.

And a final comment if you have considered (or even been recommended) this diet to help with your Endometriosis symptoms. Please know that the FODMAP diet is only right for you if you have been medically diagnosed with IBS. Unfortunately, a FODMAP diet has been shown to damage the gut microbiome, so unless you definitely have IBS, you should never follow it.

If you’d like to have a personal chat about your options for improving your gut microbiome and reduce your Endometriosis symptoms, book a free Endometriosis SOS Call.