The 1 Probiotic You Should Consider For Your Gut Health
If you’re navigating perimenopause or menopause and something feels off — the bloating, the weight that won’t shift, the hormones that seem to have a mind of their own — there’s a good chance your gut health and hormones are more connected than you realize. As a homeopath with thirty years of experience working with women’s health, I’ve been paying close attention to this connection. And what I’ve found is both fascinating and genuinely helpful.
We live in a complicated world, though, and we bombard our bodies with chemicals, drugs, antibiotics, and poor food choices. I have always supported supplementing the body with the nutrients it might lack. Today, I’m looking at gut health.
During peri and menopause, it may be vital to look at our gut more closely if we want to avoid the dreaded menopause belly bulge at the very least. And, as you’ll see, recognize the deep connection gut health and hormones have.
Why Gut Health and Hormones Are Inseparable
The gut microbiome helps regulate hormones, and the gut itself is a critical player in hormone production. It is considered an endocrine organ. Gut health can influence hormone regulation in the body in the following ways:
- Nutrient absorption: hormones need nutrients to work correctly.
- Hormone metabolism: Some hormones get metabolized in the gut, including thyroid hormones, which are converted into their active form there.
- Hunger hormones are secreted in the gut to control appetite, signaling to the brain that you’re hungry or full.
- Disrupting estrobolome: Leaky gut and other gut imbalances can impact other hormones including estrogen by disrupting estrobolome, the gut bacteria that metabolize estrogens.
This is why gut health and hormones are so deeply intertwined — you simply cannot address one without considering the other.
As a woman in menopause also managing my auto-immune responses, I started looking into this more deeply a couple of years ago. Probiotics caught my attention, and I started taking an effective, well-advertised subscription-based one. But I prefer to avoid subscriptions. I jumped into the ingredient list to see if I could tell which ones I needed to pay attention to. It turns out to be Akkermansia.(there are others, but this one is a major player.) Akkermansia is a probiotic responsible for building back the mucosal gut lining thereby closing the gaps in the stomach lining.
There are many ways to build up your gut lining and work on your stomach biome. The right food can go a long way to help. Food is medicine, too, and nutritious and beneficial options include bone broth, salmon, fermented food, mushrooms, carrots, blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. The correct food can also prepare the stomach to receive the benefits of any supplementation.
Tests can be taken to see how much Akkermansia is in the gut. It seems, like many things, akkermansia decreases with age. Also, studies have yet to be done that demonstrate that supplementing for a short time will allow the gut biome to take over and start replicating Akkermansia again on its own. Personally, I think it’s worthwhile to supplement for a few months, see how you feel, and if there is a benefit, keep taking it for a while and then take breaks. However, you can absolutely seek out a functional medicine person to help you assess your gut health, and what you should take.
I’m also going to link you to some studies about Akkermansia and gut health that you might find interesting.
Microbe Profile: Akkermansia muciniphila: a conserved intestinal symbiont that acts as the gatekeeper of our mucosa – PubMed
A next generation probiotic, Akkermansia muciniphila – PubMed
The role of Akkermansia muciniphila in obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis – PubMed
Supporting Akkermansia is one of the most effective natural approaches to gut health and hormones I’ve come across.
If interested in trying this probiotic or others for gut health, you can go to my Fullscript Store and look for my favorites. The ones that include Akkermansia are the Pendulum GLP-1, Metabolic Daily as well as a supplement that includes only Akkermansia.
If you’re navigating perimenopause or menopause and want support that goes beyond symptom management — addressing gut health, hormones, and the whole picture of who you are — I’d love to talk. I offer a free 20-minute discovery call for women ready to explore natural approaches to their health. Book at brookhaus.com.
