EP.235/ The Benefits of dandelion for hormone balance and endo symptoms
Okay so this is week two of our Ease Endo Tea Challenge. Remember, if you’d like to receive a copy of each week’s challenge with all the references, research, doses and info, sign up to the challenge via email. I’ve linked to the sign-up page in my show notes. You can also hop over to Instagram and comment, ask questions or share pics of your challenge so far.
This week, we’re supporting the liver, which in turn, will help support our hormones.
Trigger warning: Very brief note about oestrogen and its role in conception. Skip the next paragraph if you'd like to avoid.
The Symptom
Did you know the liver plays a crucial role in balancing our levels of oestrogen? Oestrogen is the hormone responsible for many functions, but in relation to our cycles and endometriosis, it helps thicken the uterine lining, grow breast tissue and kicks off ovulation. In the first half of our cycle, it also drives us to be more sociable, energised and optimistic - this is because oestrogen is ultimately trying to get us to reproduce, whether we want to or not and because it helps to produce serotonin.
However, if we have too much oestrogen or we have too much oestrogen in relation to progesterone in the second half of our cycle, we can have symptoms of excess oestrogen or oestrogen dominance. They include:
PMS
Tender breasts
Bloating/water retention
Heavy periods/clotty periods
Painful periods
Mood swings
Often clients come to me thinking most of these symptoms are because of their endo, but actually, when we begin to balance their hormones, many of them fall away or get significantly better!
So, what's the liver got to do with this?
Once we've used up our oestrogen for the day, it's sent to the liver to package it up and get it ready for removal. It's then sent to the gut and leaves us through daily bowel movements. BUT, in this day and age, the liver is often overburdened with more important waste like sugar, caffeine, medication, pollutants, toxins from beauty and body products, smoking, alcohol, etc.
When it has these guys to also clean out, it will put oestrogen to the back of the queue because these are more harmful to the body and need to be cleared out. The result is we start stacking up the oestrogen, creating excess oestrogen levels.
Following Christmas, it's pretty likely that most of us are going to have livers that are needing a bit more support, whether we've had more alcohol, eaten more sugar, drank more caffeine or simply used more make up and fancy body products.
So, this week, we're giving the liver a bit of a helping hand with dandelion tea.
The Tea
There are many things that will support your liver and hormone levels, such as blood sugar balance, added veggies and herbs, minimising your toxin exposure, etc. but tea is an easy way in. It's not going to solve all your hormonal problems, but it'll help!
Here's how dandelion tea can help your liver:
It helps to increase bile flow. Bile is a substance that transports those packaged up waste products (like oestrogen) to the gut, for pooping. However, it can become thick and stagnant, or diminished, meaning there's not enough of it or it's too thick to move those toxins out. By supporting bile production, we're literally supporting oestrogen removal.
It can help improve liver function. The liver works in two phases, phase 1 and phase 2, if either of these phases aren't working properly, oestrogen detoxification will be impaired, so dandelion tea is giving this a little boost.
For those with interstitial cystitis, it may also soothe the bladder!
How To Drink
Dose wise, I suggest doing what's easiest for you.
You can use teabags, just try to pick ones that aren't made with glues and plastics (most are, but this brand in the UK doesn't use these). Allow to steep for at least 5 minutes, so the tea is concentrated. If you're worried about it cooling down, put a saucer/small plate over your tea cup.
You can also use loose leaf tea, and leading natural medicine doctor, Dr. Axe, recommends using one tablespoon. Steep the tea for 5-10 minutes, again, to ensure it's really concentrated.
Finally, if you don't like grassy flavoured teas, you can drink roasted dandelion root as coffee! Look for organic roasted dandelion root, grind it up using a handheld grinder (it can be manual or electric), just don't put it through a big coffee grinder because it'll clog that up! Then put 1-2 teaspoons into a cafetiere, top with hot water and brew for 5-10 minutes. It's delicious! You can also blend it up with a good quality milk or with some cashew butter for a creamy latte.
You can drink your tea/coffee whenever you like, but dandelion is a natural diuretic (meaning it makes you pee) so it's probably best to have it earlier in the day so you're not waking up in the night to go.
You can get dandelion tea in most health shops, or from specialist herb shops.
Roasted dandelion roots are more commonly found online (unless you're lucky!). Watch out for any added ingredients like barley, etc. as many of these contain gluten, which may affect some of us with endo. We're looking for pure roasted dandelion root. I use Costwold Roasted Dandelion Root Coffee, unfortunately it's not organic, but I find it difficult to get hold of an organic dandelion coffee – except when I was in France, for some reason it’s everywhere there!
Ideally, we'll now be drinking both ginger and dandelion root tea daily, but if that's unsustainable, you can alternate them each day, so you get a bit of both.
Moving forward, drinking dandelion tea in the second half of your cycle is a great way to help ensure oestrogen is kept in check and allows progesterone to shine. Of course, it takes more than tea, but it's a start!
Must-read Precautions
Now just a reminder, having the odd herbal tea doesn't need a doctor's approval, but for this challenge, we're using very strong teas daily.
This is a free challenge where I cannot tailor general info to each individual, so it's important you take responsibility for your own health and ensure that ginger tea is right and safe for you. Please consult your doctor/health professional before beginning the challenge.
If you are allergic to dandelions, of course, please do not use this tea.
If you're on any medication at all, it's essential you discuss drinking this tea with a doctor as it can interreact with some medications and can also increase how quickly they are cleared out through the body.
As always, if you're pregnant or trying to conceive, please talk to your doctor as well.
Dandelion tea is generally safe, but it's always important to discuss bringing in herbs with a doctor. Especially if you fit into any of the above.
So that’s it! That’s this week’s tea. Feel free to jazz it up and turn it into something special if you’d like to – just avoid adding sugar, because sugar raises inflammation, so will be cancelling out what we’re doing! If you want to sweeten it, try monk fruit, allulose or stevia.
Okay, so get cosy, start sipping and I’ll see you next week!
Show Notes
References:
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/22/9/1409/htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3155102/
https://draxe.com/nutrition/dandelion-tea/
This episode is also sponsored by Semaine. Semaine is a plant-based supplement for reducing period pain and inflammation, that you take for 7 days of your cycle, during your period. Semaine is made up of 9 super-powered plant extracts and minerals that are all vegan and sourced for maximum quality and bioavailability and selected based on the latest clinical research. If you want to try Semaine, they are currently offering 15% off your first order and they deliver worldwide! Head to: www.semainehealth.com
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