So, this is one of those things that I know is important, but haven’t really dug too deep into. And that's our gut flora, or gut microbiome.

I’ve noticed such a difference in my health and wellbeing from when I changed my diet and started paying more attention to what I was putting into and onto my body.

So basically you’ve got a gut full of bacteria working hard to keep your body in order. The good bacteria in our gut are called probiotics, which we’ve all heard of.

Probiotics can help break down and recycle the hormones in our body, which is great because we don’t want too much of any hormone hanging around too long.

And the big one that comes to mind here, and in the realm of our menstrual cycle, is estrogen. If our estrogen isn’t being properly discarded from our body it can wreak havoc on a lot of things.

I’ve mentioned our endocrine system before, but I need to start talking about it more often because it’s pretty important. It makes over 50 hormones! To be honest I didn’t even know our bodies had that many.

Some fascinating facts I learned when researching:

+ 95% of serotonin is made in your gut.

+ 80% of our immune system operates from the gut.

+ there are 80 million neurons located in your gut microbiome and it is known as the second brain!

Symptoms of an imbalance in your gut:

+ bloating and gas

+ acne and skin issues

+ not pooping regular (diarrhea and constipation)

+ headaches and feeling foggy

+ feeling anxious or depressed

+ get sick often

+ hard to lose weight

+ deficient in vitamins and minerals

+ reoccurring yeast infections

So how can you make sure you’re helping instead of hindering your good ol’ gut bacteria?

+ Consider a probiotic, and not just any old probiotic. Do your research, go to a local health shop and ask for a recommendation.

+ Check out your diet! You want to avoid all the processed junk available for us to eat because it’s only going to negatively impact your gut flora. Make sure you’re getting enough fiber to keep things moving, get those good good fats in your diet, and don’t be shy when it comes to fermented foods.

+ Avoid things like stress, antibiotics, antibacterial cleaners and like I said above, processed food. Get that cortisol under control with things like sleep, meditation, yoga, journaling, whatever works for you.

+ Take some vitamin D. It’s actually a hormone, and important to your gut health. It’s pretty easy and common to be deficient.

+ Ditch the pill, or at least think about it. You would be shocked to learn how much hormonal birth control impacts your body. It alters around 150 different bodily functions. It throws your microbiome off balance, and can make your PCOS worse.

There’s so much more I want to dig into in regards to this topic, and I hope to continue to do so.

I had a lot of digestive issues before I got my diet in order and quit the pill. Have you had gut issues? How did you figure that out, and what did you do?