Why your gut is vulnerable during the holidays

• Eating differently – Late dinners, heavier foods, more sweets

• Stress & travel – Nervous-system activation slows digestion and increases permeability

• Disrupted sleep – Poor sleep impairs digestion, detox, inflammation regulation

• Less routine – You skip your supplement schedule, workouts drop, healthy habits slip

How gut dysfunction impairs thyroid and energy

• Poor absorption: A leaky gut or dysbiosis can impair nutrient uptake (selenium, zinc, iron) needed for thyroid hormone production.

• Impaired conversion: Some gut bacteria help convert inactive thyroid hormone into active T3. Disrupted microbiome = slower conversion.

• Immune activation: Chronic gut inflammation feeds autoimmune thyroid conditions (e.g., Hashimoto’s thyroiditis).

• Motility issues: Low gut motility (common with gut imbalances) can lead to slower clearance of hormones and toxins, affecting thyroid efficiency.

You’ve switched to whole foods, eliminated gluten or dairy, maybe tried fermented foods—but the bloating, irregularity, fatigue, and skin breakouts remain. If that sounds familiar, welcome to a truth many women with IBS and chronic gut imbalances discover: Healthy food alone is not enough when root-causes remain hidden.

When bile production or flow is impaired, or the enterohepatic circulation is disturbed, several downstream problems can occur—especially for women with digestive and hormonal symptoms.

If you deal with bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or abdominal pain — and you’ve also noticed your symptoms flare before your period, during PMS, or in perimenopause — you’re not imagining things. Your gut and hormones are more connected than most people realize.

In fact, hormone imbalances are one of the most overlooked drivers of IBS symptoms. Here’s why it happens — and what functional medicine does differently to address it.

When your gut feels inflamed, bloated, or just plain cranky, the last thing you want to do is throw more fuel on the fire. Luckily, there are gentle, nutrient-rich foods that can help calm irritation, restore balance, and support your gut lining.

Here are my top 5 functional medicine–approved foods to soothe an irritated gut:

Your gut isn’t just affected by what you eat — it’s affected by how you live. If your IBS isn’t improving despite dietary changes, stress could be the missing link you’ve been overlooking.

Bloating isn’t always about what you eat — it’s often about how your body is processing food. By looking at the microbiome, digestive capacity, and stress response, we can finally get to the root cause and create a plan that brings relief.

If you’ve been told your labs are normal but you still don’t feel like yourself, it may be time to take a deeper look. Functional medicine labs offer a more complete picture, helping us uncover hidden imbalances that standard labs overlook.