5 min read
You may have been told that endometriosis and adenomyosis are just period pain or period problems, but as a person living with endo or adeno you know that’s simply not true.
At the RESTORE Center for Endometriosis in Saint Louis, Missouri, we understand that you are living with a full-body disease which impacts your quality of life each day.
While you are most likely experiencing difficult and painful periods while also battling infertility, you may be living with less obvious signs of endometriosis and adenomyosis including:
- Food sensitivities or food aversions
- A constant feeling of being too full after eating
- Flushing, sneezing, congestion, palpitations, and/or hives when eating certain foods—histamine intolerance
- GI symptoms like gas, bloating, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and/or diarrhea
- Skin challenges including acne, rashes, hives, psoriasis, and/or eczema
- Chronic pain in your low back, abdomen, hips, legs, and joints
- Challenges with breathing/shortness of breath and thoracic pain
- A lack of energy, constant exhaustion, and disjointed sleep
- Mental health and emotional challenges including anxiety and/or depression
- Neurological challenges including brain fog, dizziness, vertigo-like symptoms
- Poor immune health, the feeling of being constantly sick and an inability to bounce back
These symptoms are not in your head! This is your body screaming for help!
This isn’t news to you- you’ve probably been screaming for help for years while being dismissed-as women with endometriosis it takes an average of 10 years to find the care we deserve.
Dr. Patrick Yeung and your RESTORE team are here to change this paradigm! Our mission is to offer a ROOT CAUSE, one-and-done treatment for endometriosis.
While conventional medicine focuses on band-aid treatment options, such as birth control for masking symptoms, and bypass treatments such as IVF for infertility, we are here to offer root-cause LAPEX excision surgery for endometriosis to fully remove the disease and RESTORE your health and fertility naturally.
When we look at root causes and drivers of endometriosis we have to dive into inflammation and leaky gut, understanding that our nutrition, environment, and mental health all directly impact our overall health.
Inflammation and Endometriosis
Endometriosis is understood to be tissue resembling the lining of the uterus found outside of the uterus, however, this disease is far more complicated and inflammation is a core driver of the endo.
It’s important to understand that inflammation is a good thing-if we stub our toe blood rushes to the area and promotes healing-this is acute inflammation, which is a natural and essential process for healing and survival.
But what happens when your body experiences chronic inflammation?
When our body perceives an attack, our immune system goes to work trying to fight off the invader, however, with endometriosis our immune system is in a constant battle leaving us in overdrive.
Our immune system understands endometriosis as a threat, triggering immune cells that may lead to swelling, nerve sensitivity, and chronic pain, often leaving us to live with a heightened immune response for years.
Instead of helping the body heal, chronic inflammation becomes destructive. Chronic inflammation damages tissue, disrupts hormones, compromises organ function, and creates a fertile environment for chronic disease—including endometriosis.
In women with endometriosis, the immune system reacts to endometrial-like tissue growing outside the uterus as a persistent injury or threat. This leads to a continuous cycle of inflammation which intensifies debilitating pain and causes central nervous system dysfunction.
Leaky Gut and Endometriosis
Leaky gut, or increased intestinal permeability, is a common but not normal condition in which the lining of our intestines breaks down. Gaps in our intestinal lining allow substances, including food and toxins which should either be used by the body to create energy or processed out via pee, poop, or sweat, to enter the bloodstream.
Rather than our bodies using our food to make energy, these particles are circulating throughout our bloodstream where they are not intended to be found, and our bodies are responding to these particles as foreign invaders and driving up our chronic inflammation.
For those of us living with endometriosis, leaky gut can be particularly damaging, as a healthy gut microbiome helps to regulate estrogen levels. Excess estrogen, often stored in our fat cells rather than properly excreted, fuels endometriosis.
This can be an exhaustingly vicious cycle leading to systemic meltdown with a slew of symptoms that do not add up to conventional medicine providers who dismiss our cries for help or tell us that our pain is in our heads.
The stress that leaky gut puts on our bodies fuels inflammation while chronic inflammation and leaky gut compromise our immune systems. Additionally, our gut microbiome is unable to appropriately support hormone production which can be one layer of infertility or recurrent miscarriage. This cycle leaves us living with chronic pain, exhaustion, and emotional distress.
Chronic inflammation and leaky gut don’t just happen without a cause. This is the body’s response to ongoing stressors—many of which are hidden in plain sight!
If you're living with endometriosis, understanding and addressing these key drivers of inflammation and leaky gut is crucial for long-term healing. This gives you control!
Root Causes of Inflammation and Leaky Gut:
- Poor diet and nutritional deficiencies
- Sugar, processed foods, gluten, dairy, and alcohol
- Food sensitivities
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Poor digestion
- Gut infections such as SIBO, Candida/yeast infection, Lyme, Epstein-Barr, or parasites
- Overuse of antibiotics, NSAIDs, birth control, steroids, and/or antacids
- Obesity
- Smoking
- Chronic stress, unresolved trauma, and/or toxic relationships
- Poor sleep, lack of rest
- Environmental toxins including BPA, plastics, cosmetics, synthetic fragrances, pesticides, household cleaners, heavy metals, smoke, and mold
You Deserve Root-Cause Healing!
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE GUIDE TODAY
While root-cause endometriosis excision surgery is an essential step for true healing for those of us living with endo, healing does not begin and end in the operating room.
Healing is a journey of rebuilding trust with your body-understanding what fuels you, eliminating nutritional, environmental, and emotional stressors, and learning what true nourishment feels like.
Nutritional Healing:
- Consider a 3 week Elimination Diet removing inflammatory foods and common food sensitivities --gluten, grains, dairy, soy, corn, tomatoes, peanuts, shellfish, soy, alcohol, caffeine, and processed foods while focusing on whole foods and anti-inflammatory nutrition
- Keep the 4 R’s in mind! REMOVE unhealthy foods, REPLACE with nutrient-dense foods, REINOCULATE with probiotic foods + supplements, and REPAIR the body with healing foods and practices
- Promote gut health with probiotic foods including apple cider vinegar, pickles, kimchi, pickled red onion, sauerkraut, and nut milk yogurts
- Eat soothing, easy to digest foods like roasted fruits and veggies in coconut oil, herbal tea, bone broth, turmeric + black pepper, soups, and stewed meats
- Consider supplements which support gut healing, reducing inflammation, and hormone balance such as Probiotics, L-Glutamine, Zinc Carnosine, Collagen, Aloe Vera, Omega-3’s, Quercetin, NAC, Vitamin D3, Magnesium, Vitex, or Inositol
- Keep a Food/Mood/Poop journal to become more attuned to your body’s response to your nutrition and daily habits
- Support detoxification-pee, poop, and sweat! Get daily movement, stay hydrated, eat whole foods, and do lymphatic drainage self-massages
Emotional Healing:
- Be aware that chronic stress is a major driver of inflammation, leaky gut, and hormone dysregulation. Stress impacts our whole body-digestion, breathing, heart rate, sleep, brain function, and more-we must address chronic stress to find true healing
- Notice your emotional stressors, journal, take deep breaths, and set boundaries with yourself and others
- Practice calming daily habits such as getting morning sunlight, taking stretch breaks, drinking hot tea, going on walks without technology, listening to calming music, taking warm baths, limiting screen time, practicing yoga, praying, meditating, and reading or journaling before bed
- Promote healthy sleep for 7-9 hours by sleeping in a cool, dark environment without screens
- Stimulate vagal nerve tone with humming, singing, laughing, or gargling
- Seek professional help and support for addressing unresolved trauma and developing healing tools to feel safe in your body
Environmental Healing:
- Reduce exposure to plastics by using metal water bottles and glass storage containers
- Use baking soda and vinegar rather than heavily toxic cleaning solutions
- Use air purifiers and water filters to promote clean air and water
- Follow the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 for reducing pesticide exposure
- Try apps like Healthy Living, Think Dirty, and Yuka for finding clean self-care products
Supporting Fertility and Healing Infertility:
- Meet with Dr. Patrick Yeung to determine if optimal excision surgery for endometriosis is appropriate, understanding that endometriosis is often the root cause of infertility
- Focus on reducing inflammation and gut healing to support hormone balance, egg quality, and healthy ovulation
- Eat foods which promote hormone balance-avocado + avocado oil, berries, coconut + coconut oil, eggs, nuts, salmon, seeds, and lots of veggies!
- Practice Seed Cycling to support hormone balance
While taking steps for healing and restoring your life may feel overwhelming, especially when living with endometriosis, we encourage you to make small, sustainable changes-these changes build on each other and become a healthy, vibrant lifestyle!
At the RESTORE Center for Endometriosis we understand that true, root-cause healing begins when we treat the whole woman, not just her symptoms. We are here to listen, to guide, and to walk beside you every step of the way.
Need additional support navigating healing beyond surgery? Contact our Functional Medicine Health Coach, Chelsey, today! WellnesswithChelsey@gmail.com
Help us spread the word that women deserve education, empowerment, and an endometriosis surgeon who is completely focused on removing the disease and fully committed to serving them!
