5 Ways to Support Your Gut, Estrogen & Bones After 40 | Dr. Vonda Wright

Dr. Vonda Wright (0:00)

What if I told you the bacteria in your gut are deciding how much estrogen is circulating back into your body right now? What if I told you that is the exact same estrogen your bones, your tendons, your joints are running out of during perimenopause? Listen, this is not woo-woo.

There is a specific set of gut bacteria, it has a name, the estrobalome, that recycles estrogen back into your bloodstream. Today, I'm going to teach you what it is and how you feed it.

Hi, I'm Dr. Vonda Wright. I'm your orthopedic sports surgeon and founder and creator of skeletal longevity. I talk about bone every single day and have been an orthopedic surgeon for 27 years. Here's what almost nobody in my field is talking about. The gut is not separate from the bone. I'm going to say that again. The gut is not separate from the bone. I want you to remember that statement. You may have never heard it before.

Nothing in your body is separate from anything else. We are master communicators. Everybody is talking and that's what we are going to talk about today.

Listen, you are not falling apart. Your bones are not doomed. Your microbiome just needs to feed them. So what's happening in our body? Well, your gut is not just for digestion. Your gut is an endocrine organ. It means it secretes hormones that talks to all other parts of your body. It talks to your bones. It talks to your brain. It talks to your immune system.

Remember when I say bone is talking to the brain, muscle is talking to fat?

The gut is all in the middle of this conversation, too. There is a specific community of bacteria in your gut, the astroblome, that produces an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase.

Do not worry about the name.

Just remember what it does. It takes estrogen that your body is about to excrete and recycles it back into circulation. Think of your astroblome like a recycling truck for hormones. Without it, the estrogen gets thrown out with the trash. With it, the estrogen gets used again. You could also think about it as your gut microbiome is a garden. If you keep feeding it fast food, only the weeds grow.

If you feed it fiber and diversity, the good plants come back. Here's some numbers you need to know. The average American woman eats 12 grams of fiber a day. Therapeutic doses, 30 30 grams of fiber a day. That is a bone problem that's hiding as a gut problem. So how do we feed the astroblome? Number one, 30 grams of fiber a day. You need to count it. Not 15, not 20, but 30 That is the number to key towards. The sources can stack up fast. One cup of black beans is 15 grams. One avocado is 10 A cup of raspberries is eight. A tablespoon of chia is five. Two tablespoons of zen basil seeds is 15 You are almost there by lunch. You are totally there with zen basil seeds in your yogurt and a cup of black beans or an avocado for breakfast. You need to start slowly and ramp up. Add five grams a week. Give your gut a little bit of time to adjust. If you have starved your estrobalome of fiber, don't dump on a boatload. Give it time to adjust. So here's the analogy. Fiber is fuel for the good bacteria fire. No fuel, no fire, no fire, no estrogen recycling. We just need fiber as fuel. Number two, 30 plants a week for diversity.

Diversity feeds diversity. The estrobalome is not one bacteria. It's a community and communities need variety.

Herbs count, spices count, a handful of arugula counts, different beans count, nuts count.

Make it a game. Count your plants. Monday to Sunday, aim for 30 different plants. Almost nobody hits it on the first week. But as you grow to understand, it's easy. You can feed your gut with a broad diversity of 30 plants a week. Plus, it's more fun to eat with diversity than the same three foods every day. When you eat the same fiber foods every day, you're feeding specific parts of your microbiome. By eating 30 plants a week, you are feeding all parts of your microbiome and thus your astroblom. Here's number three. Let's eat something fermented every single day. Things like kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, plain yogurt with live cultures one serving a day.

A cheap jar of sauerkraut does more for your microbiome than a $50 bottle of probiotic pills. Just stop and think about that. Food before supplements. Number four, we need to cut ultra-processed food and added sugar. Sugar feeds the wrong bugs. It makes us inflamed. Ultra-processed foods starves the right bacteria. We need to read boxes. We need to read labels. If it has ingredients you cannot pronounce, put it back.