The Endometriosis and Fertility Clinic

"Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food"
Hippocrates (460 BC)

Reducing symptoms

Endometriosis happens at the cellular level; the implant attaches to the cell wall and hangs on for dear life. So it makes sense to ensure that your body is working effectively to stop it getting hold and to help your body remove it. This means ensuring that your digestive system is working efficiently and absorbing the food that you eat. It also means eating good quality healthy food and ensuring that your immune system is working optimally. This means that your body should not be under stress, this is not just the stress of moving house, bereivement or a high stressed life style but also any stress to your immune system brought about by infections or food intolerances.

Disgestive system.

You may have heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, I would like to change that to “you are what your body can digest”. You may eat the right foods but if your body is not digesting and absorbing those nutrients there will be an imbalance. It is very important that you have an efficient digestive tract, removing nutrients from food, processing them and sending them into the bloodstream. These nutrients affect the way each cell functions, trigger production of hormones and enzymes and keep the body healthy.

• Transit time (time in which the food you eat is digested, absorbed and excreted) should be 12-24 hours. This can be discovered by avoiding sweetcorn for a significant period of time, then eating a good portion and as the sweencorn skin is not absorbed or changed in the GI tract it is an easy item to spot and work out your transit time.
• Liver function - the liver is a vast chemical factory, which deals with everything the body takes in and renders it safe. Foods which congest the liver include Dairy foods, eggs, alcohol, meat, hydrogenated oils, sugar and tobacco.
• Good gut flora - we should have between 2kg - 4kg of friendly bacteria living in our intestines. We provide them with food and warmth and in return they help us digest food.
• Fibre - is a cellulose form of carbohydrate, which the body cannot break down and it therefore passes through the GI tract more or less unchanged; however, in doing so it absorbs toxins, cholesterols and oestrogens, holds water to keep stools soft and stimulates peristalsis contractions.

The Immune system

The immune system controls the ways in which the body copes with attacks from bacteria, viruses, cell debris and infiltrating tissue, such as endometriosis. You can help to support your immune system to function by eating foods which are nutrient-rich. This gives the immune system a fighting chance at eradicating misplaced tissue such as endometriotic implants.

• Endometriosis may be due to immune dysfunction. Women who have endometriosis may have impaired immune systems, which may not be able to clean up debris in the abdominal cavity.
• A strong immune system is dependent upon a varied nutrient and phytochemical intake.
• Make sure that your foods are rich in antioxidant nutrients as they are protective - the mineral selenium and vitamins A, C and E.
• Sugar-rich foods interfere with the way in which blood cells clean up cell debris.
• If you have unexplained infertility or if your endometriosis seems to be blocking your fertility, request tests for auto-antibodies to the thyroid, coeliac disease (gluten sensitivity) and genito-urinary infections, as well as for steroid hormone levels.
• Reduce your stress levels wherever possible. Make a list of all the things which stress you and think hard about ways in which some of them could be eliminated or made less stressful.
• Avoid products containing flouride, such as toothpastes, shampoos and deodorants, as they can inhibit antibody function.

What can you do?

You can eat as healthily as you can. Avoid processed foods, high sugar and salt contents, it is important to eat nutrient-rich food and ignore calorie laden junk. Cook from fresh rather than buying ready made meals, buy the best quality you can afford (organic where possible).

Heal your digestive tract first. If you suffer from heartburn, indigestion, stomach pains, gall bladder problems, flatulence and bloating, constipation or diarrhoea, something is wrong and it needs to be corrected before you cab begin to get well.

Detoxify your liver, however great care must be used especially on some detox diets. These have been designed for “well” people, with endometriosis or other serious illnesses there may be a lot of toxins in the liver and by releasing them they are thrown into the blood stream and you may become very unwell. This has to be done slowly and you may need the help of an expert.

To test for food intollerances cut out the suspect food from the diet for 30 days. Choose other foods as alternatives to ensure that your nutrient intake is maintained and take a multivitamin/mineral supplement to cover your change in diet. When you reintroduct the food, note any symptoms that you experience over the next 24 hours, e.g. faster pulse rate, flu-like symptoms, headaches, joint pains.

Spending money to service your car and repair your home seems natural. Your body is more important. You should consider giving your body a service - a detoxification diet and spring clean. You can do it on your own but it is more sensible to have a professional to advise you and ensure that you are not doing things wrong, it will be compairable to money spent on your servicing your car.