Gut Health: Why It Matters for Your Hormones, Skin and Mood
You're already investing in yourself. The pilates membership, the infrared sauna sessions, the skincare that costs more than your groceries. You know gut health matters. It's impossible to open Instagram and not hear about it. Maybe you're taking a probiotic or eating fermented foods when you remember.
But like the women I work with, you haven't quite connected the dots between your gut and what's actually disrupting your days.
Your gut isn't just digesting food. It's producing hormones, manufacturing neurotransmitters, modulating immune function, and housing trillions of bacteria that influence virtually every system in your body. When it's functioning optimally, these systems work seamlessly. When it's compromised, this shows up as brain fog despite sleeping eight hours, skin that remains dull and congested despite quality products, constant baseline anxiety, bloating by mid-afternoon, and expanding food intolerances (Secret: it's rarely the food itself, it's the state of your gut).
You've probably addressed each of these individually. A new serum. Magnesium for sleep. Seed cycling for hormones. Temporary relief, but nothing creates lasting change. Because you're treating symptoms, not the source.
This isn't about adding complexity to your already full life. It's about understanding something fundamental that simplifies everything else. Once you see how your gut orchestrates your hormones, skin, and mental clarity, you can finally do something about it.
The Gut-Hormone Connection
There's a collection of bacteria in your gut microbiome called the estrobolome, which produces an enzyme that plays a crucial role in oestrogen metabolism. When balanced, your cycle is predictable, your skin is clear, your mood is stable.
When disrupted, this can lead to symptoms of oestrogen dominance: pronounced PMS with mood swings and irritability, heavy or painful periods, bloating and digestive issues, hormonal acne that flares cyclically, and fibrocystic breasts.
An imbalance in the estrobolome can also lead to low oestrogen levels which can present as irregular or absent cycles, diminished libido, dry skin, and fertility issues. This often happens after coming off hormonal birth control, when your gut hasn't yet recovered its ability to properly metabolise hormones.
You can take all the DIM, eat cruciferous vegetables, try every hormone-balancing supplement, but if your gut isn't functioning properly, you're addressing symptoms, not the root cause. Your gut is the gatekeeper of your hormonal health.
The Gut-Skin Connection
You're investing in quality products and staying consistent with your routine. Perhaps you've tried prescription treatments or worked with a dermatologist. Yet your skin remains reactive, congested, or prone to breakouts without clear triggers.
Here's the connection: when your gut lining becomes compromised (increased intestinal permeability or 'leaky gut'), particles that should stay contained in your digestive tract enter your bloodstream. Your immune system responds with inflammation that travels throughout your body and often appears in your skin. Add to this slow-moving bowels that allow toxins to recirculate, bacterial imbalance (dysbiosis) that increases inflammation, and impaired detoxification pathways, and your skin is left to pick up the slack as a major elimination organ.
This results in persistent hormonal breakouts that don't respond to topicals. Fluctuating redness or sensitivity. Premature signs of ageing and a lack of radiance, even when you're doing everything else right. Your skin reflects your internal terrain. No topical treatment can override internal inflammation.
I've worked with women who've spent years and thousands of dollars on topicals and treatments, only to see their skin finally clear within a few months of addressing their gut comprehensively. The skin you want isn't found in a bottle. It's cultivated from within.
The Gut-Mood Connection
Your gut microbiome produces approximately 95% of your body's serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for mood regulation, sleep quality, and overall wellbeing. Your microbiome also produces GABA (your calming neurotransmitter), dopamine, and other compounds that directly influence how you feel.
When your microbiome is imbalanced, your capacity to produce these mood-regulating chemicals diminishes significantly. This results in baseline anxiety you can't shake, racing thoughts at night, difficulty feeling genuinely calm, mood swings and a sense of being constantly on edge.
Meditation, breathwork, and nervous system practices are essential tools that I integrate into all my work. But they're most effective when your body has the biochemical capacity to support them. If your gut isn't producing adequate neurotransmitters, these practices are working against depletion rather than building on a solid foundation.
There's also the vagus nerve, which runs from your brainstem to your gut, creating direct communication between your digestive system and brain. This connection is bidirectional. Stress affects your digestion, and gut dysfunction affects your mental state. This explains why stress and anxiety so often show up in your gut, and why gut symptoms can amplify anxious feelings. It's a two-way conversation that affects both your physical and emotional wellbeing.
What Actually Disrupts Your Gut
Your gut is remarkably sensitive, and modern life presents unique challenges to its function. Here are some of the most common culprits:
Hormonal birth control: The pill alters your microbiome composition, often depleting beneficial species and allowing opportunistic bacteria to overgrow. This effect can persist long after you've stopped taking it.
Chronic stress: When you're running on cortisol, your body diverts resources away from digestion. Your gut lining becomes more permeable, beneficial bacteria decline, and this creates an environment for less beneficial bacteria to increase.
Antibiotics: While sometimes necessary, even a single course can significantly disrupt your microbiome for months or years. Multiple courses compound this effect. Use them only when absolutely needed, and prioritise gut restoration during and after antibiotic use.
Restrictive eating: Under-eating or restricting food groups limits the diversity of fibre and micronutrients your microbiome needs to thrive.
Processed foods and alcohol: While an occasional glass of natural wine isn't the issue, regular consumption of alcohol and ultra-processed foods compromises gut lining integrity, increases intestinal permeability, and drives inflammation.
Insufficient sleep: Your gut has its own circadian rhythm. Disrupted sleep directly impairs bacterial diversity and function.
The cumulative effect of these factors (most of which are unavoidable in modern life) often creates a situation where your gut needs intentional support. This isn't about blame or what you should have done differently. It's about understanding what your body needs now and making intentional choices to support it.
How To Start Supporting Your Gut
If this is resonating, here's where to focus your attention:
Foundational Diet Shifts
Increase diversity. Aim for 30+ different plant foods weekly (herbs and spices count), prioritising a spectrum of colours. Each colour represents different polyphenols that feed distinct bacterial species. This single shift creates more microbial diversity than any probiotic or supplement.
Prioritise fibre. Women need 25-30g daily, yet most consume less than half. Focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds. Your microbiome ferments fibre to produce compounds that repair your gut lining, reduce inflammation, and support regular bowel movements.
Include polyphenol-rich foods. Berries, dark chocolate, green tea, extra virgin olive oil, and colourful vegetables act as prebiotics, nourish beneficial bacteria, and reduce inflammation.
Support digestive enzymes. Incorporate bitter foods (rocket, radicchio, dandelion greens) before meals to stimulate enzyme production and improve breakdown and absorption of nutrients.
Slow down when you eat. Chew thoroughly and eat without distraction. This switches on the cephalic phase of digestion (rest and digest), triggers proper enzyme release, and allows your body to digest efficiently. Even five minutes of focused eating makes a difference.
Support Your Nervous System
Chronic stress directly impacts gut function. No amount of supplementation can compensate for a dysregulated nervous system.
Your gut cannot heal if your body is constantly in fight-or-flight. Restoration requires feeling genuinely resourced and regulated, not just managing stress, but building your capacity to handle it. This means boundaries, adequate rest, and nervous system practices that feel nourishing and sustainable for you.
If you're unsure where to start with nervous system support, explore Become Resourced & Regulated for a practical toolkit with rituals and practices to help you find your centre during times of overwhelm.
Targeted Supplementation
Sometimes dietary changes alone aren't enough. Gut lining repair nutrients, specific probiotic strains, or digestive enzymes may be needed. This is where personalised care makes the difference.
Understanding What's Actually Happening
Guessing is expensive and exhausting. Most women I work with wish they'd started here.
Comprehensive gut microbiome testing paired with expert naturopathic support gets you to the root faster. Testing reveals which bacteria are depleted, which are overabundant, how efficiently you're digesting and absorbing nutrients, and the state of your gut lining and inflammation. From there, we create a tailored approach designed specifically for your body. Explore The Foundation Package for comprehensive testing and 1:1 support to address the root of what's actually driving your symptoms.
You deserve to feel genuinely well, not just manage symptoms. Regulated, radiant, and deeply connected to your vitality. It starts with your gut.
Ready to get started? Book a 1:1 consultation or explore The Foundation Package for comprehensive testing and personalised support.
