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I am Dr Tabatha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OBY giant and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling for moaning, balance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety and son, you name it, then you come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, friends. Today's topic is on endometriosis, so normally we have a new mitri ALS cells that line the inside of our uterus. And that's what grows every month from estrogen signals. Once you obviously progesterone tells those and Dmitry all cells to stay put because you might have fertilization and implantation of an embryo into that lining. Once you are ovulating, Progesterone tells those in Dmitriy l steles to stay put and keep growing because you might have fertilization and implantation of an embryo into that lining. But if you don't get pregnant, your estrogen progesterone levels drop and the lining gets the signal to release and shed. You make prostaglandins that cause cramping, and then you bleed. The same thing happens with endometriosis just outside of the uterus. So what is a new Mitri Aosis? Endometriosis happens when the microscopic and new material cells inside the uterus start growing. On the outside. They usually back flow through the flow, peon tubes and attach themselves to areas in your pelvis. The ovaries are the most common sight, and it can happen on the outside of the ovary. But often the ovaries. Gross ists filled with a sticky brown substance that actually looks like Hershey's syrup when you open them. And those air called enemy trio HMAS, the interior and post here called a sack, which are the spaces in front where the bladder lives and behind the uterus, where the rectum lives. That's the second most common places for endometriosis to grow. That's why off women often have feelings of recurrent bladder infections when they don't actually have an infection, or they get pain and diarrhea before and with their periods. The ligaments that hold up the uterus are the next most common place, and that's often why intercourse hurts. The enemy trio sis causes those ligaments to become scarred and shortened so your uterus can't move the way it's supposed to. With sex, it is painful. And then the outside of the uterus, the fallopian tubes, your bottles and your appendix, those air the other common areas for to grow on. So not only does it sometimes back flow through the flow peon tubes during a period, but individual cells can also get into your pelvic cavity during surgeries, especially C sections, where your uterus is actually cut open and the enemy atrial cells air spilled into the pelvis. Sometimes women get it growing in their C section scar on their skin. Actually, so, as a surgeon, I was always careful to irrigate and clean out all the blood and tissue away when closing up a patient during a C section because I did not want that to happen. So, ladies, having a surgeon who brags about how fast they can finish a C section is not something, not someone you want operating on you. That's another discussion. But let me just say you want a surgeon who closes every layer that they opened up irrigates your cavity well because I always say the solution to pollution is dilution, which means you want to irrigate while preventing Dmitry ALS cells, inflammatory cells, cystic fluid blood and bacteria from setting up residence where it doesn't belong. This decreases your risk of infection. Scar formation further enemy trio sis and disassociated with less pain. Post operatively. Remember those individual cells on microscopic so we can't see them until they congregate enough of themselves to create a piece of tissue. OK, sorry about that tangent, but it's important. Information. Something worth discussing with your perspective surgeon. So some women are born with an dmitry ALS cells outside of their uterine cavity because during our development as an embryo, those cells have to migrate from our abdomen. Don't into our pelvis. But we think that's a really small percentage of women. Actually, you can have all all of these possibilities as a reason why you haven't Dmitry Aosis. Some theorize that every woman has a new Mitri ALS cells outside of her uterine cavity and has the potential to develop a new Mitri aosis. Outside of being a research subject, it's not really possible to know for sure how you got it, so the lesions that grow can be superficial and usually grow in response to your hormones, just like inside your uterus, and then they bleed, which causes pain and irritation to the organ that it's growing on. Or it can grow deep and be infiltrating and cause scarring and cause the tissue to be deformed. Like I said with your ligaments, how they get shortened and they can no longer move and do what they're supposed to dio. So just a Zim Porton as the cells being where they're not supposed to be is why air they growing so as an O b g y n resident? Back in the day, I was taught that and new mitri a lesions or implants as they're often referred to our enemy atrial cells that turn into fibers, tissue, blood or cysts. The breakdown of the red blood cells by inflammatory cells results in the formacion of pigmented history. Oh, sites and he most sitter and laden macrophages. That was always the test question on exams. So the older the lesion, the more likely it is to be pigmented. So if you listened toe episode number 17 understanding your immune system, then you remember me explaining what a Mac riffage is. It's a white blood cell from your immune system that's trying to get rid of what doesn't belong to protect you. If you haven't listened to that episode, you definitely should. It will help you understand a new Mitri aosis even more so normally, when you have a Barents cells in the body that don't belong there like a new me atrial cells in your pelvic cavity, your body sends out scavengers from your immune system to go eat them up and get rid of them. But if you have chronic inflammation in your body than your immune system, often times doesn't send the right signals or cells to do its job correctly and can actually make the problem worse. This is partly how cancer develops. We constantly have cells that are getting old or full of taxes or viruses, or their DNA is being damaged. Normally, our body would have those cells going to a pap toe sis and kill themselves off or immune cells like macrophages would come and eat them. But sometimes they continue to multiply and spread their harmful contents because there's nothing there keeping them in check and getting rid of them. An easy example toe understand, is a skin cell that keeps getting exposed to the harmful UV rays in a tanning bed. So if the cell doesn't have time to repair because of repeated exposure, or if your immune system isn't functioning well, the Nets cell will multiply in its damage. DNA will eventually create a cancer cell, which multiplies. So a meta analysis of eight studies done by the University of Oxford in 2014 identified at least six gene mutations that were statistically associated with endometriosis. In addition, a study that analyzed DNA sequencing of non malignant deep endometriosis lesions So there it's not cancer. It's benign. Reported mutations and 79% of lesions and mutations in the known cancer driver jeans, a red one, a pike, three c a crass and pee pee pee to our one A and 26% of lesions, so you don't need to know what all these genes are. I just want, you know, to know that the prevalence of cancer driver mutations and non malignant cells is partly why we can get such aggressive, deep infiltrating scarring lesions. Have you ever heard of C A 1 25? So that is a common serum cancer auntie gin that's elevated and ovarian cancer So oftentimes we will draw See a 1 25 level in the blood when we're concerned about a postmenopausal women having, you know very insists and whether we're trying to decide if it's cancerous or not. So this serum anti gin is is actually elevated and women with endometriosis. So there is a link to enemy trio sis and ovarian cancer. In a lot more research needs to be done. Unfortunately, we can't use it to diagnosis because so many other processes cause that to increase. But it's a great example of how this disease is driven by cellular dysfunction, disruption of our normal Dini sequencing and the incorrect response from our immune system. So I'm not saying that you're going to get ovarian cancer if you have endometriosis. But what I'm saying is that this is all happening at a cellular level that needs to be corrected so nothing is an overnight process. Every process in your body can be intervened upon. We want to stop those in Dmitriy l cells from growing, and we want to remove them from where they don't belong. We do this by supporting our immune system to be able to function properly, and avoid things that cause dysfunction and DNA damage. I'll talk about that more in a bit. First, let's talk about who is more likely developed endometriosis and who's not. So about 10% of reproductive age women globally have a new me trio. Sis, age 25 to 35 is where we see the peak prevalence. It's difficult to determine the prevalence of endometriosis in the general population because some women are asymptomatic and those with symptoms can have varied or non specific presentations. The most common symptoms are pelvic pain that starts a week before the period starts. Pain with intercourse, heavy, painful periods, diarrhea with your period, bladder irritation and infertility. Additional symptoms include a low back pain, nausea, vomiting, lack of energy. All these symptoms are less common. Symptoms can occur alone or in combination. An increased number of symptoms is usually associated with an increased likelihood of endometriosis. But here's the deal, ladies, the only way to know for sure if you have a new Mitri Aosis is to have surgery. Because of this, most women go 10 to 12 years having symptoms before they receive a proper diagnosis. This is heartbreaking to me, I often see women in my office 5 to 10 years after they have struggled with pain and heavy periods, and their primary physician has run the gamut of birth control pills and pain medications to manage their symptoms. Unfortunately, I've even seen women be put on narcotics and opioids like Vike it in Norco, OxyContin for this type of pain, which it's not indicated for, and it really does not help. So my heart goes out to those women who have not been properly diagnosed and who have not been treated appropriately. So anyway, as a surgeon for me to diagnosis your enemy trio sis, I would need to do a Lap ra scope that is taking you to the or putting you to sleep and putting a camera through the belly button to see the enemy trio sis in your pelvic cavity. During laparoscopy, areas of peritoneal and Dmitry Aosis can appear as red raised, flame like patches. White ish Oh pacif ic ations yellow brown, discuss discolorations, translucent blabs or reddish blue, irregularly shaped islands of implants. This is also another reason why it has been so difficult to get a correct diagnosis. The appearance of some blue brown lesions has also been described as powder burns, and the pair chenille surface can actually be scarred and puckered down and create defects that look like holes called Ellen Masters defects. You can even get, naturals insists. Rarely. Endometriosis me mimic the appearance of a malignant or cancerous tumor. More commonly, it causes dense, fibrous adhesions. Were organs air scarred together, and that signifies severe disease. So I can go into a pelvis and see the bottle scarred to the ovary and the uterus and the flow peon tubes. I've had many cases where the flow peon tube isn't even identifiable, or I've had to dig the ovary and fallopian tube out of, ah, terrible skirt up bowel mess. It can be quite severe. An ultrasound will show in anime trio Maciste on your ovary, but usually you can't see the lesions or the implants or this scarring because it's not large enough to be identified an ultrasound. So just because an altar sound doesn't show anything necessarily doesn't mean you don't have endometriosis. So if you are having symptoms, you need to be diligent in continued to look for answers. Oftentimes, women are diagnosed empirically, meaning their doctor assumes they have Endo based on their symptoms and exam, and then treats them without doing surgery to confirm that diagnosis. And there's many reasons for doing that. Surgery is invasive. You know. You have general anesthesia. There's a high cost to it. There's risks involved. But then we don't know the severity of your disease or the exact location. Or even if you have a new Mitri aosis at all, it could be an incorrect diagnosis. So word of warning. Traditionally, we diagnosed empirically because we didn't have good surgical equipment and techniques to do anything about those lesions, even if we saw them when they were there. So looking inside, we would say, Yep, you have that diagnosis, but then your treatment would be the same. We would close you up and put you on birth control pills. So skipping the surgery made sense. Fortunately, with the advancement of laproscopic tools in the advent of robotic surgery, weaken due and no mitral resection surgery, which is quite successful at treating active and Dmitry aosis lesions. But here's the caveat. It will grow back if you aren't dealing with the root cause issue, and that's where functional medicine comes in. Okay, So endometriosis is more often seen in women who are no Liberace, meaning you've never been pregnant. Who had early men. Archy before age 11 or late Menopause have had menstrual cycles more often than every 27 days, have heavy menstrual bleeding or an obstruction of their flow from a congenital anomaly. Exposure to DS in utero, which you would probably know. Ah, height greater than 68 inches. Lower B M I exposure to severe physical and or sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence. And a high consumption of trans and saturated fats, a k a. The standard American diet of processed foods and boxes and banks. So that's a lot of important information it sounds like. And Demetriou sis is more often seen in women with high levels of unbalanced estrogen exposure to xeno, estrogen's or pharmaceuticals women who have emotional and mental trauma that they have not processed and dealt with, and the standard American diet, those unhealthy fats that damage or DNA and sells. I'm gonna talk about that more in a little bit, so factors associated with the decrease risk of endometriosis include having multiple babies, extending your times of nursing or breastfeeding and late monarchy after the age of 14 thes air times when you're not producing and cycling your hormones. That is why conventional medicine has aimed at shutting down your cycle as a means of treating and Demetrio sis. The problem is, women don't feel well when they're in cycling, and it's not healthy for the other systems in our body, like our heart, brain and bones. To have that cycle constantly suppressed. One other very important factor that's been associate with decreased risk of endometriosis was found in a study. Done it bring him in Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 2010 they showed that increased consumption of long chain omega three fatty acids was associated with a reduced risk of endometriosis. So women eat your avocados, your olives, olive oil, nuts, seeds and fatty fishes. Race may also be a risk factor because the prevalence of endometriosis has been reported as being higher in white and Asian women compared with black and Hispanic women. So moving on once enemy trio Sis's established, the process appears to cause symptoms through inflammatory changes, and Dmitry Aosis related pelvic pain is associated with the production of inflammatory and pain mediators, as well as neurologic dysfunction related to the lesions. Women with endometriosis related pain have an increase in nerve fibers at the site of their lesions, which signals more pain. Estrogen access in euro modulator that magnifies the sensory innovation of pain. Inflammatory cells stimulate the nerves to become more sensitive, And the chronic pain induces changes in the central nervous system, a k your brain to cause greater recognition of that recurrent pain, infertility and sub fertility happen from an atomic distortion of the tissue from scarring and adhesions and a new mitri Omagh's. This all happens because of the production of inflammatory substances like prostaglandins site, a kind and growth factors that are hostile to normal tissue and cause inflammation. Then fibers, changes and eventually scarring and adhesions. So why does your body make thes inflammatory chemicals? It's usually because of inflammation happening in other parts of your body, namely the gut. So the sad diet or standard American diet is food that is full of pesticides, synthetic hormones, plastics, antibiotics and hey, lights that destroy the lining of our gut and cause increased intestinal permeability. This lets chemicals, proteins and other toxins in your bloodstream, which caused your immune system to respond. It's trying to protect us by attacking those things. But when our immune system has to constantly attack and respond, it's sometimes over response and attacks our own healthy tissues, creating an auto immune disease. Or it's so busy attacking those things that it can't properly attack other things like or end um, atrial cells. It also changes our gut microbiome, the bacteria who live in our gut and essentially run the show. The standard American diet is associated with more gram negative bacteria, and they produce a taxing called LPs or lipo palley sack ride. This causes systemic inflammation. LPs is more often seen in women with endometriosis, so this systemic chronic inflammation increased. Accid eight of stress is not only seen in endometriosis, but it's also seen in conditions like Catherine sclerosis and heart disease. Studies published out of Brazil and Rome have shown an association with increased after sclerosis and women who have endometriosis, so bring him in. Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School did a study with over 116,000 women, and it showed that women without heart disease or stroke with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis had an increased risk of going on toe have a myocardial infarction, which is the heart attack coronary artery bypass graft surgery or NGO plast e stent placement. Compared with women without endometriosis, the risk of combined coronary heart disease was also higher, and women who underwent his direct me or who for ectomy compared with those who did not. So conventional treatment is not the best answer for your overall health. Ladies treating the systemic inflammation that root cause is the best treatment, and it's much safer. Conventional treatment usually consists of suppressing your menstrual cycle. In other words, your hormone production by putting you on a continuous birth control pill or a progestin Onley shot called dep rope Rivera. For some women, this suppresses the growth enough to help the pain and bleeding, but often comes with awful side effects of weight gain, headaches, thinning of the bones and depression. And if those don't work it well enough to suppress the growth, Lupron is often tried, which actually puts you in a menopausal state of very low estrogen and progesterone. I'm telling you, every patient I've ever put on those felt terrible. Most women say the improvement in pain is not worth the side effects. That isn't even considering the long term effects that menopausal levels of hormones has on the rest of your body. As a reproductive age woman, you do not want menopausal levels of hormones in your body that will aid you much faster. It will aid your bones, your skin, your eyes, your heart, your brain and the list goes on. So was a functional gynecologist. I would argue that it's imperative to tackle the root cause of this disease, your systemic inflammation. This is done by completely abandoning the standard American diet, that sad diet you need to embrace a clean, organic, plant based diet. So for detailed information about what you should and shouldn't be eating, please listen back to Episode four Food as medicine. In that episode, I explain how dairy, sugar, gluten and sometimes eggs can increase inflammatory side of kinds. I would definitely recommend avoiding those foods if you're suffering from endometriosis. Bro Moline is found in pineapple, and it helps heal your intestinal lining, so that would be something that you would want to start taking or eating more of burb arenas. The supplement found in Chinese herbs that repairs intestinal permeability and neutralizes that LPs that horrible like lipo police acrid tax and produced by those gram negative bacteria. So definitely get Burba, Ring N A. C or aniseed. Assisting is a natural anti inflammatory supplement that replenishes glued if I own levels glued. If I own is a major anti accident that your body needs to go clean up all those damaged cells all those free radicals to help you your body heal. Zinc is an important mineral for hormone conversion, and it's often deficient impatience with enemy trio sis, so make sure you're getting enough zinc by eating legumes, nuts, seeds, shellfish and then supplement if you need. Teoh Curcumin is the active compound phone in tumeric. It's a route used in many Indian dishes gives it that bright orange color so curcumin decreases inflammatory proteins, and it's safe for long term use, so I would definitely add that to your regimen. It's widely used for other inflammatory pain conditions, like arthritis is well, so for more information, please listen to episode for getting into me. Trio sis into remission naturally also requires that you actively manage your stress to decrease your cortisol in glucose production. So if you haven't listened to Episode three hormone imbalance, I urge you to go back and listen because I explain in detail how chronic stress causes systemic inflammation and disease. Getting on board with managing your stress and getting it under control will help you get your enemy trio sis under control. I guarantee that you can get your endometriosis under control by healing your gut and supporting a healthy, functioning immune system that isn't constantly overreacting and trying to put out fires. I do this with my patients all the time in my office, and you can do it, too. So if you're currently flared up, I recommend you implement these recommendations ASAP. If your symptoms aren't significantly improved within 3 to 4 months, I recommend you find a good G y N surgeon to remove your active growth and adhesions as best she can, and then focus on keeping that inflammation at bay so that it doesn't grow back after your surgery. Sometimes it's bad enough that we need to go in to remove what's already there and then focus on preventing new growth. The same goes if your own OCP is birth control pills de Po or Lupron injections, start part overhauling your diet. Decreasing your stress with daily exercise, meditation, counseling, yoga, whatever it takes. Don't smoke and keep alcohol to a minimum. You should also start taking a pharmaceutical grade, multi vitamin and the supplements that you need to give your body the necessary vitamins and minerals. It needs to perform its cellular functions to heal and be able to get off those harmful medications. I promise it's completely doable. And remember this. Our bodies were designed to maintain home yes, Stasis and heal themselves. Endometriosis is a condition that develops when our body isn't functioning appropriately. We just need to remove the bad stuff that is getting in the way from our body. Being able to do that once we remove those impedance is and support a healthy immune system and re balance our hormones to the way they should be, we can put that disease into remission. I hope this information helped you understand and Demetrio sis a little better. I hope you're feeling encouraged and empowered knowing that you have some control over what's going on in your own body. You're not at the mercy of your doctors. You can take major action to treat your own condition and help yourself feel better. Please follow me on Facebook and instagram a doctor Tabatha d r t a B a T h A. That's three A's. No eyes. Send me your questions or comments about this. I want to help you heal. This is the only reason I do this podcast. I don't get paid. It's quite time consuming. But if I'm helping at least one woman, he'll naturally. Then it's worth it. If you're enjoying this and finding it helpful, I would ask that you hit the subscribe button and give me a of review. Five stars would be amazing. That way I can keep bringing you this information. Now go do something loving for yourself. Take back your health, find your voice and know you have a choice. It's your body, so treat it like the castle that it is, and it will house you and protect you first, long as you maintain it till next week. Peace. My friends
I am Dr Tabatha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OBY giant and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling for moaning, balance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety and son, you name it, then you come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi, friends. Today's topic is on endometriosis, so normally we have a new mitri ALS cells that line the inside of our uterus. And that's what grows every month from estrogen signals. Once you obviously progesterone tells those and Dmitry all cells to stay put because you might have fertilization and implantation of an embryo into that lining. Once you are ovulating, Progesterone tells those in Dmitriy l steles to stay put and keep growing because you might have fertilization and implantation of an embryo into that lining. But if you don't get pregnant, your estrogen progesterone levels drop and the lining gets the signal to release and shed. You make prostaglandins that cause cramping, and then you bleed. The same thing happens with endometriosis just outside of the uterus. So what is a new Mitri Aosis? Endometriosis happens when the microscopic and new material cells inside the uterus start growing. On the outside. They usually back flow through the flow, peon tubes and attach themselves to areas in your pelvis. The ovaries are the most common sight, and it can happen on the outside of the ovary. But often the ovaries. Gross ists filled with a sticky brown substance that actually looks like Hershey's syrup when you open them. And those air called enemy trio HMAS, the interior and post here called a sack, which are the spaces in front where the bladder lives and behind the uterus, where the rectum lives. That's the second most common places for endometriosis to grow. That's why off women often have feelings of recurrent bladder infections when they don't actually have an infection, or they get pain and diarrhea before and with their periods. The ligaments that hold up the uterus are the next most common place, and that's often why intercourse hurts. The enemy trio sis causes those ligaments to become scarred and shortened so your uterus can't move the way it's supposed to. With sex, it is painful. And then the outside of the uterus, the fallopian tubes, your bottles and your appendix, those air the other common areas for to grow on. So not only does it sometimes back flow through the flow peon tubes during a period, but individual cells can also get into your pelvic cavity during surgeries, especially C sections, where your uterus is actually cut open and the enemy atrial cells air spilled into the pelvis. Sometimes women get it growing in their C section scar on their skin. Actually, so, as a surgeon, I was always careful to irrigate and clean out all the blood and tissue away when closing up a patient during a C section because I did not want that to happen. So, ladies, having a surgeon who brags about how fast they can finish a C section is not something, not someone you want operating on you. That's another discussion. But let me just say you want a surgeon who closes every layer that they opened up irrigates your cavity well because I always say the solution to pollution is dilution, which means you want to irrigate while preventing Dmitry ALS cells, inflammatory cells, cystic fluid blood and bacteria from setting up residence where it doesn't belong. This decreases your risk of infection. Scar formation further enemy trio sis and disassociated with less pain. Post operatively. Remember those individual cells on microscopic so we can't see them until they congregate enough of themselves to create a piece of tissue. OK, sorry about that tangent, but it's important. Information. Something worth discussing with your perspective surgeon. So some women are born with an dmitry ALS cells outside of their uterine cavity because during our development as an embryo, those cells have to migrate from our abdomen. Don't into our pelvis. But we think that's a really small percentage of women. Actually, you can have all all of these possibilities as a reason why you haven't Dmitry Aosis. Some theorize that every woman has a new Mitri ALS cells outside of her uterine cavity and has the potential to develop a new Mitri aosis. Outside of being a research subject, it's not really possible to know for sure how you got it, so the lesions that grow can be superficial and usually grow in response to your hormones, just like inside your uterus, and then they bleed, which causes pain and irritation to the organ that it's growing on. Or it can grow deep and be infiltrating and cause scarring and cause the tissue to be deformed. Like I said with your ligaments, how they get shortened and they can no longer move and do what they're supposed to dio. So just a Zim Porton as the cells being where they're not supposed to be is why air they growing so as an O b g y n resident? Back in the day, I was taught that and new mitri a lesions or implants as they're often referred to our enemy atrial cells that turn into fibers, tissue, blood or cysts. The breakdown of the red blood cells by inflammatory cells results in the formacion of pigmented history. Oh, sites and he most sitter and laden macrophages. That was always the test question on exams. So the older the lesion, the more likely it is to be pigmented. So if you listened toe episode number 17 understanding your immune system, then you remember me explaining what a Mac riffage is. It's a white blood cell from your immune system that's trying to get rid of what doesn't belong to protect you. If you haven't listened to that episode, you definitely should. It will help you understand a new Mitri aosis even more so normally, when you have a Barents cells in the body that don't belong there like a new me atrial cells in your pelvic cavity, your body sends out scavengers from your immune system to go eat them up and get rid of them. But if you have chronic inflammation in your body than your immune system, often times doesn't send the right signals or cells to do its job correctly and can actually make the problem worse. This is partly how cancer develops. We constantly have cells that are getting old or full of taxes or viruses, or their DNA is being damaged. Normally, our body would have those cells going to a pap toe sis and kill themselves off or immune cells like macrophages would come and eat them. But sometimes they continue to multiply and spread their harmful contents because there's nothing there keeping them in check and getting rid of them. An easy example toe understand, is a skin cell that keeps getting exposed to the harmful UV rays in a tanning bed. So if the cell doesn't have time to repair because of repeated exposure, or if your immune system isn't functioning well, the Nets cell will multiply in its damage. DNA will eventually create a cancer cell, which multiplies. So a meta analysis of eight studies done by the University of Oxford in 2014 identified at least six gene mutations that were statistically associated with endometriosis. In addition, a study that analyzed DNA sequencing of non malignant deep endometriosis lesions So there it's not cancer. It's benign. Reported mutations and 79% of lesions and mutations in the known cancer driver jeans, a red one, a pike, three c a crass and pee pee pee to our one A and 26% of lesions, so you don't need to know what all these genes are. I just want, you know, to know that the prevalence of cancer driver mutations and non malignant cells is partly why we can get such aggressive, deep infiltrating scarring lesions. Have you ever heard of C A 1 25? So that is a common serum cancer auntie gin that's elevated and ovarian cancer So oftentimes we will draw See a 1 25 level in the blood when we're concerned about a postmenopausal women having, you know very insists and whether we're trying to decide if it's cancerous or not. So this serum anti gin is is actually elevated and women with endometriosis. So there is a link to enemy trio sis and ovarian cancer. In a lot more research needs to be done. Unfortunately, we can't use it to diagnosis because so many other processes cause that to increase. But it's a great example of how this disease is driven by cellular dysfunction, disruption of our normal Dini sequencing and the incorrect response from our immune system. So I'm not saying that you're going to get ovarian cancer if you have endometriosis. But what I'm saying is that this is all happening at a cellular level that needs to be corrected so nothing is an overnight process. Every process in your body can be intervened upon. We want to stop those in Dmitriy l cells from growing, and we want to remove them from where they don't belong. We do this by supporting our immune system to be able to function properly, and avoid things that cause dysfunction and DNA damage. I'll talk about that more in a bit. First, let's talk about who is more likely developed endometriosis and who's not. So about 10% of reproductive age women globally have a new me trio. Sis, age 25 to 35 is where we see the peak prevalence. It's difficult to determine the prevalence of endometriosis in the general population because some women are asymptomatic and those with symptoms can have varied or non specific presentations. The most common symptoms are pelvic pain that starts a week before the period starts. Pain with intercourse, heavy, painful periods, diarrhea with your period, bladder irritation and infertility. Additional symptoms include a low back pain, nausea, vomiting, lack of energy. All these symptoms are less common. Symptoms can occur alone or in combination. An increased number of symptoms is usually associated with an increased likelihood of endometriosis. But here's the deal, ladies, the only way to know for sure if you have a new Mitri Aosis is to have surgery. Because of this, most women go 10 to 12 years having symptoms before they receive a proper diagnosis. This is heartbreaking to me, I often see women in my office 5 to 10 years after they have struggled with pain and heavy periods, and their primary physician has run the gamut of birth control pills and pain medications to manage their symptoms. Unfortunately, I've even seen women be put on narcotics and opioids like Vike it in Norco, OxyContin for this type of pain, which it's not indicated for, and it really does not help. So my heart goes out to those women who have not been properly diagnosed and who have not been treated appropriately. So anyway, as a surgeon for me to diagnosis your enemy trio sis, I would need to do a Lap ra scope that is taking you to the or putting you to sleep and putting a camera through the belly button to see the enemy trio sis in your pelvic cavity. During laparoscopy, areas of peritoneal and Dmitry Aosis can appear as red raised, flame like patches. White ish Oh pacif ic ations yellow brown, discuss discolorations, translucent blabs or reddish blue, irregularly shaped islands of implants. This is also another reason why it has been so difficult to get a correct diagnosis. The appearance of some blue brown lesions has also been described as powder burns, and the pair chenille surface can actually be scarred and puckered down and create defects that look like holes called Ellen Masters defects. You can even get, naturals insists. Rarely. Endometriosis me mimic the appearance of a malignant or cancerous tumor. More commonly, it causes dense, fibrous adhesions. Were organs air scarred together, and that signifies severe disease. So I can go into a pelvis and see the bottle scarred to the ovary and the uterus and the flow peon tubes. I've had many cases where the flow peon tube isn't even identifiable, or I've had to dig the ovary and fallopian tube out of, ah, terrible skirt up bowel mess. It can be quite severe. An ultrasound will show in anime trio Maciste on your ovary, but usually you can't see the lesions or the implants or this scarring because it's not large enough to be identified an ultrasound. So just because an altar sound doesn't show anything necessarily doesn't mean you don't have endometriosis. So if you are having symptoms, you need to be diligent in continued to look for answers. Oftentimes, women are diagnosed empirically, meaning their doctor assumes they have Endo based on their symptoms and exam, and then treats them without doing surgery to confirm that diagnosis. And there's many reasons for doing that. Surgery is invasive. You know. You have general anesthesia. There's a high cost to it. There's risks involved. But then we don't know the severity of your disease or the exact location. Or even if you have a new Mitri aosis at all, it could be an incorrect diagnosis. So word of warning. Traditionally, we diagnosed empirically because we didn't have good surgical equipment and techniques to do anything about those lesions, even if we saw them when they were there. So looking inside, we would say, Yep, you have that diagnosis, but then your treatment would be the same. We would close you up and put you on birth control pills. So skipping the surgery made sense. Fortunately, with the advancement of laproscopic tools in the advent of robotic surgery, weaken due and no mitral resection surgery, which is quite successful at treating active and Dmitry aosis lesions. But here's the caveat. It will grow back if you aren't dealing with the root cause issue, and that's where functional medicine comes in. Okay, So endometriosis is more often seen in women who are no Liberace, meaning you've never been pregnant. Who had early men. Archy before age 11 or late Menopause have had menstrual cycles more often than every 27 days, have heavy menstrual bleeding or an obstruction of their flow from a congenital anomaly. Exposure to DS in utero, which you would probably know. Ah, height greater than 68 inches. Lower B M I exposure to severe physical and or sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence. And a high consumption of trans and saturated fats, a k a. The standard American diet of processed foods and boxes and banks. So that's a lot of important information it sounds like. And Demetriou sis is more often seen in women with high levels of unbalanced estrogen exposure to xeno, estrogen's or pharmaceuticals women who have emotional and mental trauma that they have not processed and dealt with, and the standard American diet, those unhealthy fats that damage or DNA and sells. I'm gonna talk about that more in a little bit, so factors associated with the decrease risk of endometriosis include having multiple babies, extending your times of nursing or breastfeeding and late monarchy after the age of 14 thes air times when you're not producing and cycling your hormones. That is why conventional medicine has aimed at shutting down your cycle as a means of treating and Demetrio sis. The problem is, women don't feel well when they're in cycling, and it's not healthy for the other systems in our body, like our heart, brain and bones. To have that cycle constantly suppressed. One other very important factor that's been associate with decreased risk of endometriosis was found in a study. Done it bring him in Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 2010 they showed that increased consumption of long chain omega three fatty acids was associated with a reduced risk of endometriosis. So women eat your avocados, your olives, olive oil, nuts, seeds and fatty fishes. Race may also be a risk factor because the prevalence of endometriosis has been reported as being higher in white and Asian women compared with black and Hispanic women. So moving on once enemy trio Sis's established, the process appears to cause symptoms through inflammatory changes, and Dmitry Aosis related pelvic pain is associated with the production of inflammatory and pain mediators, as well as neurologic dysfunction related to the lesions. Women with endometriosis related pain have an increase in nerve fibers at the site of their lesions, which signals more pain. Estrogen access in euro modulator that magnifies the sensory innovation of pain. Inflammatory cells stimulate the nerves to become more sensitive, And the chronic pain induces changes in the central nervous system, a k your brain to cause greater recognition of that recurrent pain, infertility and sub fertility happen from an atomic distortion of the tissue from scarring and adhesions and a new mitri Omagh's. This all happens because of the production of inflammatory substances like prostaglandins site, a kind and growth factors that are hostile to normal tissue and cause inflammation. Then fibers, changes and eventually scarring and adhesions. So why does your body make thes inflammatory chemicals? It's usually because of inflammation happening in other parts of your body, namely the gut. So the sad diet or standard American diet is food that is full of pesticides, synthetic hormones, plastics, antibiotics and hey, lights that destroy the lining of our gut and cause increased intestinal permeability. This lets chemicals, proteins and other toxins in your bloodstream, which caused your immune system to respond. It's trying to protect us by attacking those things. But when our immune system has to constantly attack and respond, it's sometimes over response and attacks our own healthy tissues, creating an auto immune disease. Or it's so busy attacking those things that it can't properly attack other things like or end um, atrial cells. It also changes our gut microbiome, the bacteria who live in our gut and essentially run the show. The standard American diet is associated with more gram negative bacteria, and they produce a taxing called LPs or lipo palley sack ride. This causes systemic inflammation. LPs is more often seen in women with endometriosis, so this systemic chronic inflammation increased. Accid eight of stress is not only seen in endometriosis, but it's also seen in conditions like Catherine sclerosis and heart disease. Studies published out of Brazil and Rome have shown an association with increased after sclerosis and women who have endometriosis, so bring him in. Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School did a study with over 116,000 women, and it showed that women without heart disease or stroke with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis had an increased risk of going on toe have a myocardial infarction, which is the heart attack coronary artery bypass graft surgery or NGO plast e stent placement. Compared with women without endometriosis, the risk of combined coronary heart disease was also higher, and women who underwent his direct me or who for ectomy compared with those who did not. So conventional treatment is not the best answer for your overall health. Ladies treating the systemic inflammation that root cause is the best treatment, and it's much safer. Conventional treatment usually consists of suppressing your menstrual cycle. In other words, your hormone production by putting you on a continuous birth control pill or a progestin Onley shot called dep rope Rivera. For some women, this suppresses the growth enough to help the pain and bleeding, but often comes with awful side effects of weight gain, headaches, thinning of the bones and depression. And if those don't work it well enough to suppress the growth, Lupron is often tried, which actually puts you in a menopausal state of very low estrogen and progesterone. I'm telling you, every patient I've ever put on those felt terrible. Most women say the improvement in pain is not worth the side effects. That isn't even considering the long term effects that menopausal levels of hormones has on the rest of your body. As a reproductive age woman, you do not want menopausal levels of hormones in your body that will aid you much faster. It will aid your bones, your skin, your eyes, your heart, your brain and the list goes on. So was a functional gynecologist. I would argue that it's imperative to tackle the root cause of this disease, your systemic inflammation. This is done by completely abandoning the standard American diet, that sad diet you need to embrace a clean, organic, plant based diet. So for detailed information about what you should and shouldn't be eating, please listen back to Episode four Food as medicine. In that episode, I explain how dairy, sugar, gluten and sometimes eggs can increase inflammatory side of kinds. I would definitely recommend avoiding those foods if you're suffering from endometriosis. Bro Moline is found in pineapple, and it helps heal your intestinal lining, so that would be something that you would want to start taking or eating more of burb arenas. The supplement found in Chinese herbs that repairs intestinal permeability and neutralizes that LPs that horrible like lipo police acrid tax and produced by those gram negative bacteria. So definitely get Burba, Ring N A. C or aniseed. Assisting is a natural anti inflammatory supplement that replenishes glued if I own levels glued. If I own is a major anti accident that your body needs to go clean up all those damaged cells all those free radicals to help you your body heal. Zinc is an important mineral for hormone conversion, and it's often deficient impatience with enemy trio sis, so make sure you're getting enough zinc by eating legumes, nuts, seeds, shellfish and then supplement if you need. Teoh Curcumin is the active compound phone in tumeric. It's a route used in many Indian dishes gives it that bright orange color so curcumin decreases inflammatory proteins, and it's safe for long term use, so I would definitely add that to your regimen. It's widely used for other inflammatory pain conditions, like arthritis is well, so for more information, please listen to episode for getting into me. Trio sis into remission naturally also requires that you actively manage your stress to decrease your cortisol in glucose production. So if you haven't listened to Episode three hormone imbalance, I urge you to go back and listen because I explain in detail how chronic stress causes systemic inflammation and disease. Getting on board with managing your stress and getting it under control will help you get your enemy trio sis under control. I guarantee that you can get your endometriosis under control by healing your gut and supporting a healthy, functioning immune system that isn't constantly overreacting and trying to put out fires. I do this with my patients all the time in my office, and you can do it, too. So if you're currently flared up, I recommend you implement these recommendations ASAP. If your symptoms aren't significantly improved within 3 to 4 months, I recommend you find a good G y N surgeon to remove your active growth and adhesions as best she can, and then focus on keeping that inflammation at bay so that it doesn't grow back after your surgery. Sometimes it's bad enough that we need to go in to remove what's already there and then focus on preventing new growth. The same goes if your own OCP is birth control pills de Po or Lupron injections, start part overhauling your diet. Decreasing your stress with daily exercise, meditation, counseling, yoga, whatever it takes. Don't smoke and keep alcohol to a minimum. You should also start taking a pharmaceutical grade, multi vitamin and the supplements that you need to give your body the necessary vitamins and minerals. It needs to perform its cellular functions to heal and be able to get off those harmful medications. I promise it's completely doable. And remember this. Our bodies were designed to maintain home yes, Stasis and heal themselves. Endometriosis is a condition that develops when our body isn't functioning appropriately. We just need to remove the bad stuff that is getting in the way from our body. Being able to do that once we remove those impedance is and support a healthy immune system and re balance our hormones to the way they should be, we can put that disease into remission. I hope this information helped you understand and Demetrio sis a little better. I hope you're feeling encouraged and empowered knowing that you have some control over what's going on in your own body. You're not at the mercy of your doctors. You can take major action to treat your own condition and help yourself feel better. Please follow me on Facebook and instagram a doctor Tabatha d r t a B a T h A. That's three A's. No eyes. Send me your questions or comments about this. I want to help you heal. This is the only reason I do this podcast. I don't get paid. It's quite time consuming. But if I'm helping at least one woman, he'll naturally. Then it's worth it. If you're enjoying this and finding it helpful, I would ask that you hit the subscribe button and give me a of review. Five stars would be amazing. That way I can keep bringing you this information. Now go do something loving for yourself. Take back your health, find your voice and know you have a choice. It's your body, so treat it like the castle that it is, and it will house you and protect you first, long as you maintain it till next week. Peace. My friends
