is alcohol causing your pms?
Liver, Gut, and Hormone Health: A Package Deal
Alcohol consumption is something that can lack intentionality behind it. A lot of us may drink without really knowing why we’re drinking aside from the fact that it’s just what you do in a social situation.
But the reality is, your drinking habits are impacting your health and alcohol is a clear known inhibitor to good health.
In this space, I don’t like to forcibly push or pull you from a certain group of food or drink but rather assure you are educated on what happens after it passes through your lips. This week, I want to gather facts and genuine intention behind drinking alcohol, making you fully aware of how it is metabolized, the systems in your body it effects, and how to make smarter choices with your wellbeing in mind.
How Does Alcohol Impact the Liver?
Too many drinks can and will effect your liver, causing a multitude of diseases and, yes, even cancer. Yet, drinking is still rampant and knowledge of what it’s really doing to the liver is lost.
Your lovely liver is working 24/7 to keep you clean and alive! Every substance in your environment, on your skin, and that you consume is being processed through your liver. It holds an executive role in balancing your hormones, metabolizing estrogen, regulating essential vitamins and minerals, producing and storing glucose (your main fuel), eliminating toxins, and more. As we touched on a couple weeks ago, if you struggle with hives or other symptoms of histamine intolerance, your liver could likely use some love as it plays a vital role in degrading high levels!
Although one or two drinks a week are not going to be your most fatal decision, it is time we call alcohol what it truly is: a carcinogen.
Globally, alcohol consumption is causing upwards of 30% of HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) which is the most common type of primary liver cancer with an average survival of 6-20 months.
How can over consumption of alcohol lead to cancer?
When you toss back that margarita, hepatocytes (the chief, most abundant functional cells in your liver) are responsible for metabolizing it. Already, this is where the risk of harm begins to grow.
When hepatocytes begin metabolizing alcohol, an enzyme works to convert it to acetaldehyde-a quite toxic substance that is the reason for the unpleasant facial flushing, headaches, pounding heartbeat, and eventual lingering hangover.
Eventually, the constant breakdown of this enzyme leads to fatty liver and cancer, especially in those who lack proper amounts of this degrading enzyme (your friends who get extremely red and anxious after just one drink!).
Alcohol and Your Gut: The Gut-Liver Axis
Our TikTok fyp and Instagram feeds are literally flooded with tips and tricks on how to improve gut health and bloating… oftentimes attempting to “hack” our digestion with pills and powders. Here is one key point that is being missed: your weekend drinking habits.
Before even reaching your liver, alcohol hits home base in your stomach. The tequila makes its’ first pit stop in your gut, where it is absorbed before draining through the portal vein directly into your liver.
The Gut-Liver Axis describes a bidirectional relationship in which bacterial products are carried from your gut to your liver, and your liver returns bile, antibodies, and cytokines to your gut. Research has shown numerous harmful effects this bidirectional relationship can have on your gut health over time when alcohol is consumed:
Dysbiosis: an imbalance in the microbial world of your gut. Studies have shown that alcohol exacerbates certain strains of bacteria while down regulating others that are essential and beneficial.
Tight junctions, essentially barriers to keep the good guys in and the bad guys out, are disrupted by alcohol abuse. This causes eventual inflammation and devastation to immune health.
Nutritional absorption is massively effected. Structural damage to the intestines develops through chronic alcohol use and malnutrition becomes a concern as levels of vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, E, K, folate, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, iron, and zinc decrease.
The Cherry on Top: Alcohol, Estrogen, and PMS
If you haven’t picked up on this pattern yet, every system within our bodies is connected. Therefore, alcohol consumption is going to degrade our intestinal barrier integrity, which will allow toxic waste and cytokines to circulate in our gut, which causes dysbiois in our microbiome... inevitably impacting our hormones.
Research has shown that alcohol is associated with a moderate to severe increase in PMS symptoms. This becomes concerning when we look at statistics of the rate of female drinkers being upwards of 60% in the US and Europe compared to 29% worldwide. As most of us unfortunately know firsthand, PMS symptoms can be debilitating. Headaches, crippling cramps, mood swings, and more may make that extra drink on Friday night less of a stress reliever for us and more of an extra burden as opposed to our non-menstruating friends.
This effect on PMS is believed to be due to altered levels of sex steroid hormones and gonadotropin (the hormone responsible for signaling our brain to release estrogen and progesterone) during the menstrual cycle. Research has shown that fluctuations in these hormones significantly effect PMS. In addition, chronic alcohol use can put you in a state of constant anxiety, depression, and irritation by its’ effect on your serotonin and GABA levels. Given how PMS already makes us feel... this is frightening!
Connecting back to our altered gut health, lack of microbiome diversity leads to a drop in circulating estrogens, which is linked to PCOS, infertility, endometriosis, and more.
A multitude of studies have shown a significant link between PCOS and a lack of diversity in the gut microbiome. This connection is referred to as the estroblome- a collection of gut bacteria capable of metabolizing estrogen.
Not Ready to Give Up Alcohol for Good? Here’s How to Drink More Mindfully
Eat a well balanced meal (fats, proteins, and carbs) before drinking to support your blood sugar
Drink 8 oz of water between drinks and have an electrolyte rich drink before bed (I love coconut water!)
Carrot Juice! Carrot juice is shown to assist your liver in detox and reduce fatty acids, which can make it a great juice to have on hand for support.
Eat more fiber. Fiber produces SCFA’s (short chain fatty acids) which are shown to repair tight junctions and intestinal barrier damaged by alcohol
Utilize liver supporting herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion, burdock root, schisandra, and turmeric
Drink high quality green tea and/or take NAC before and after drinking alcohol. Green tea provides NAC, which supports your body in replenishing a very powerful antioxidant - Glutathione. This helps protect against fatty liver!
Quality probiotics, aerobic exercise, nutrient dense diet, and time in nature to maintain microbial diversity
Choose wisely. In theory, clear is the way to go. Tequila and vodka mixed with fresh citrus and club soda. Did you know tequila even serves as a prebiotic because of fructans.
Reserve drinking for special occasions instead of every week and be mindful of not over-consuming
Really take the time to ask yourself: why do I drink? What would it look like if I cut back on it and found other ways to be social, manage stress, celebrate, etc.
Bonus Mocktail Recipe!
½ C Kombucha of choice
½ C ACV
1 fresh squeezed orange
Sparkling water to finish
Top with pomegranate seeds and fresh mint
If you are struggling with your health and want to work one on one with me to reach your health goals, click here to book a free discovery call!
