Have you ever wondered why menopause or post-menopause women are getting more frequent UTIs than young women? When people talk about UTIs, in most cases they are referring to a bladder infection.
I think the main cause is hormone issues, especially for those women with estrogen dominance syndrome. Estrogen dominance is a condition where a woman can have deficient, normal, or excessive estrogen, but has little or no progesterone to balance its effects in the body. There are some hormone receptors in the bladder and they are turned off due to hormone imbalance, especially with estrogen dominance syndrome. When these hormone receptors are turned off in the bladder, they affect PH balance in the bladder, so the PH level rises, which promotes the growth of bad bacteria in the bladder and causes UTIs, such as E. coli bacteria. Today our environment is loaded with environmental estrogens such as petroleum-based solvents and plastics. These foreign chemicals compete with the natural hormone receptors in our body. As a result, progesterone is squeezed out of the body. Now you understand why estrogen dominance syndrome is becoming more and more prevalent among women. Can antibiotics resolve this issue? The answer is NO.How to resolve estrogen dominance syndrome and balance your hormones? From a dietary perspective, it is important to follow a clean and healthy diet and limit gluten, dairy, and sugar. Today, our wheat products are hybridized, therefore gluten is considered a foreign compound to the gut and damage intestine linings. Did you know that 70% of immune cells are located in your gut? Your gut health is critical for your immune function. Dairy products are also inflammatory to the gut, think about what are in the dairy products: growth hormones and antibiotics. Did you know that cow’s milk is allowed to have feces in it? Most cow's milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins, and a variety of powerful antibiotics in it. Refined sugar contributes to chronic inflammation because it triggers inflammatory responses in the body. To limit foreign estrogens from our environment, you can incorporate phytoestrogen-rich food into your diet. These phytoestrogens have much smaller structures than environmental estrogens, they can occupy the hormone receptors in our body to kick these foreign estrogens out of our body. Foods rich in phytoestrogens provide a wide range of health benefits, including the following: relieve PMS and menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats; prevent osteoporosis; help balance hormones and reduce estrogen dominance syndrome; prevent cancers, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and bowel cancer; lower risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, these environmental estrogens are toxins to our body and increase the workload for the liver and other organs to break down and get rid of them. Mother nature always has the wisdom to protect us from invaders. Here are a few examples of phytoestrogens: flax seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, almonds, cruciferous vegetables, apples, dried fruits, etc. It is a good idea to limit environmental estrogens such as xenohormones as much as you can, including plastics, petroleum-based cosmetics, commercial deodorants, perfumes, and commercial detergents.
To learn more healing tips for UTIs, please check my recent video.