Endometriosis

Alisa and Freida discuss her journey with endometriosis and the effects of synthetic birth control on the body and the brain. Freida has used Cycle Syncing® to address her endometriosis instead of the pill and to support her path to motherhood. They also discuss why some women end up going against their instincts and inner voice. The reality of getting hormone care is not always straightforward, and understanding it all is not easy.

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Watch now:

‍Meet Freida Pinto:

Freida Pinto is an actress, producer, and advocate for maternal health and female reproductive rights. Best known for her critically acclaimed performance in "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Malcom’s List".

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What you'll learn:

• How synthetic birth control can affect the brain.
• The mission of making understanding your hormones as easy as possible so you do not have to become endocrine system experts.
• Cycle Syncing® is not a diet or a regime, it is a lifestyle. It’s aligning with how your body is working.
• The form of your self care should follow the function of your biology.
• It’s possible to change your relationship with exercise when you have a better understanding of how your hormones work.
• Symptoms are a loving way of asking you to help.

If you or a loved one suffers from endometriosis, you don’t need me to tell you how painful and debilitating the condition can be, and that conventional medical interventions for endometriosis are limited—and far from ideal. The condition involves inflammation, estrogen excess, and an abnormal immune response—but one of the things science doesn’t know about endometriosis is the best way to treat it.

To date, Western medicine’s best tools for dealing with endometriosis are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen, or surgery. Both strategies are for pain control; neither one addresses the root causes of the condition. But no woman with endometriosis needs to live without hope. Lifestyle strategies for reducing inflammation, strengthening the immune system, supporting the liver, and balancing hormones can make a huge difference in reducing symptoms and improving quality of life.

What is Endometriosis?

It is a painful, sometimes debilitating condition that affects as many as one in 15 percent of women ages 15 to 44 in the United States. Endometriosis occurs when endometrial tissue, which is normally found in the uterus, grows in places outside the uterus—places where it shouldn’t be. Most of the time this misplaced endometrial tissue lands on the ovaries or fallopian tubes or, painfully, on the abdomen. Because endometrial tissue responds to the same hormonal shifts that trigger the menstrual cycle, the pain associated with endometriosis will follow the same 28-day cycle as your period.

Astonishingly, and tragically, many women with endometriosis aren’t diagnosed right away. The average delay in diagnosis is almost seven years. Seven years! This means many women suffer with terrible, sometimes crippling, endometriosis-related pain for the better part of a decade, thinking that it is just severe period problems.Endometriosis can happen to any menstruating women. But why the condition strikes some women and not others is not entirely clear. Some women may be genetically predisposed. Three other factors fuel endometriosis:

1. A faulty immune system response

In women with endometriosis, the immune system fails to destroy the endometrial tissue that lands outside the uterus.

2. Excess estrogen in the body

Unfortunately, and simply by virtue of the world we live in today, excess estrogen in women (and many men) is more the norm than the exception. This overload of estrogen can fuel endometriosis in some women

3. Inflammation

Inflammation, like estrogen excess, is driven by lifestyle. What we eat and the toxins we are exposed to (and how well our bodies can detox them) drive inflammation and fuel endometriosis.While you can’t control your genetics, you can reduce inflammation in your body, help your liver flush out excess estrogen, and support your immune system with the nutrition, targeted supplementation, and lifestyle.In the next several sections, I outline my favorite strategies for easing the symptoms of endometriosis. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Best Foods for Endometriosis

Think of food as your best weapon in the fight against the painful symptoms of endometriosis. When it comes to hormone conditions like PCOS, fibroids, and endo, food is medicine. I’ve broken down the list of foods I recommend into four important categories (1) immune-boosting foods, (2) detox-support foods, (3) liver-support foods, and (4) healthy protein sources (for healing).[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width="1/2"][vc_column_text]

Foods to help boost immune function

These foods will help boost immune function:

• Carrots
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Dark leafy greens
• Leeks
• Mushrooms
• Beans, peas & lentils
• Green tea
• Rooibos tea
• Yogurt with live cultures and other fermented foods like kim chi and sauerkraut
• Rhubarb
• Berries
• Seeds (like flax, chia, and pumpkin)

Food for Healthy Protein

I recommend these healthy protein sources:

• Salmon
• Beans
• Chicken or turkey

Note:You can maximize your benefit by emphasizing these foods.

Fiber-Rich Food for Hormone Detox

I recommend these fiber-rich foods for helping your body detox excess hormones:

• Beans, peas and legumes
• Brown rice
• Quinoa
• Low-glycemic fruits, like berries; citrus fruits; apples
• Vegetables, especially dark leafy greens like kale; cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, and cauliflower; carrots and beets
• Oatmeal
• Whole grains (but NOT wheat or rye; it is important to avoid gluten)

Foods for Liver Support

I recommend these foods for liver support. The liver is the body’s main organ of detoxification and it plays a central role in helping the body detox from excess estrogen:

• Artichokes
• Beets
• Burdock
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Kale
• Lemon & Lime
• Dandelion & mustard greens
• Watercress

The Worst Foods for Endometriosis

As with any health-supportive diet, it’s as much about what you take out of your body as what you put in. If you have endometriosis, you’ll want to cut out or dramatically reduce the following foods:

Alcohol

Alcohol Is immunosuppressive and hard on the liver.

Caffeine

Some research has linked the intake of caffeine with endometriosis. Play it safe and avoid caffeinated beverages.

Refined and highly processed carbs

This includes pasta, white bread, candy, cookies, and other baked goods. These foods are inflammatory and high-glycemic, hence bad for any inflammatory condition, including endometriosis.

Dairy

Dairy is inflammatory and skim options are high-glycemic. Avoid all dairy if you have endometriosis, opting instead for coconut yogurt and kefir, and delicious non-dairy creamers made from nuts and seeds.

Fried foods and fast foods

Most fried foods and almost all fast food is prepared in unhealthy, inflammation-promoting cooking oils.

Red meat

Studies have linked red meat consumption to increased risk of endometriosis.

Sugar

Foods with a high-glycemic-index drive up inflammation, suppress the immune system and offer no phytonutrient support. If dark leafy greens are the win-win-win food of hormonal healing (because they address inflammation, immune function, and have fiber), sugar is the lose-lose-lose because it helps with none of those things — and actively interferes with your efforts to heal.

Processed foods with additives and preservatives

These foods introduce chemicals into the body that it neither needs or wants — and that it has to work very hard to detox from. Don’t force your body to use up precious resources getting rid of avoidable preservatives (when it could spend that time processing and eliminating estrogen). [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Best Supplements for Endometriosis

Food comes first when fighting endometriosis (or any hormonal imbalance). But using targeted, high-quality supplements is a close second. Here are the supplements I recommend for women with endometriosis:

Milk thistle

This herb contains the antioxidant silymarin, which helps repair the cells in the liver and protects liver cells from damage. It is also anti-inflammatory.

Evening primrose oil

Studies suggest that Evening primrose oil offers powerful support for a variety of hormonal imbalances related to female reproductive hormones. Evening primrose oil may help with pain management in endometriosis.

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6 helps balance excess estrogen by boosting progesterone production in the body. B6 is also liver supportive.

Probiotics

A healthy microbiome is essential for the management of endometriosis. That’s because there is a colony of bacteria in the gut that helps process and eliminate excess estrogen from the body, according to research. It’s called the estrobolome and you can support by taking a high-quality probiotic.

DIM

Diindolylmethane supports the body in eliminating excess estrogen. DIM is derived from cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli and it metabolizes estrogen into smaller components that are more easily assimilated and removed by the body.

The Emotional Aspects of Endometriosis

Research into the mind-body connection is gaining ground in mainstream science, no longer relegated to “alternative” medicine. We are coming to understand – in a deeper and more detailed way – how thoughts and feelings can directly impact our physical health and well-being. We are seeing the empirical evidence mounting when it comes to how physical symptoms can manifest in connection to emotions. This is a concept I think we all understand instinctively and often relate to in our own lives. It’s good to see the science supporting a shared experience.

When a woman comes to me at FLO Living with endometriosis I explain that endometriosis is a complex condition that needs a comprehensive strategy for management, tackling the ecosystem of the microbiome, liver health, inflammation in the body, and excess estrogen. For women with endometriosis it’s vital that we work together to prevent symptoms as soon as possible, and shifts in diet, adding supplements, and removing certain triggers can be very effective, very quickly.I also work with women to explore the emotional components of endometriosis.

Addressing the emotional aspect of health issues like ovarian cysts, endometriosis, fibroids, and PCOS can be an important part of the healing process. While these problems and their symptoms create their own emotions in women — depression, anxiety, stress, worry, to name a few — they can also be connected to existing emotions and experiences. A closer look at the emotional aspects of endometriosis (or other hormone condition) won’t solve the symptoms, but understanding the emotional components can lead to more compassion for ourselves, for other women, and an individual and collective recovery.

This is something I see often with the women I work with through FLO Living, we will be in the process of working on her health issue from a functional medicine standpoint and eventually we’ll organically reach a point of discussing her life, her past experiences, her feelings about herself, and about the things that have happened to her. It’s not all that surprising, it’s intimate work, and when women work with women outside of the doctor’s office, there’s a tendency for the mind-body connection to come up in a way that you might not see happening elsewhere.

The Feminist Mind-Body Connection

Think about your female reproductive organs — uterus, ovaries, a vagina — acting as a “low heart” and as such holding many of your unconscious, deeper emotions that the “high heart” is not yet ready to process. The emotions are held here, only to be released once a person has processed the source of these held feelings.

There’s actually a deeply feminist history to the mind-body connection and how it relates to the female experience. A student of psychologist Carl Jung, Marion Woodman, developed a concept of “feminine psychology.” Her work details how unconsciously held emotions, feelings, and thoughts can affect the female body. It’s important to note that as science progresses we are seeing more and more empirical evidence to support and back up this perspective. Woodman investigated how women feel about their bodies. Many of us are brought up to be fearful and distrustful of our bodies, and she believed this has a significant impact on our health. She believed that the unprocessed trauma experienced by many women – as the result of individually experienced acts of abuse and violence, and as the result of cultural oppression – could manifest itself in physical symptoms, especially those relating specifically to female biology.

Endometriosis: Time to Prioritize Your Needs?

One theory about the emotional component of endometriosis is that it may reflect — if even symbolically — a physical manifestation of putting others needs before your own. The uterus, by design, exists to put another person’s needs first. The material of the womb, the endometrium, is the first maternal embrace an embryo receives. So it has been interpreted by some that when endometrial tissue grows outside the womb, it is the body’s attempt to mother a woman who isn’t mothering herself, who isn’t putting her own needs first.

By creating a symptom you have no choice but to pay attention to, you must, necessarily, put your own needs first — and set aside that outward (overly) mothering behavior that leaves you feeling depleted. It’s wonderful to care for others and support them in their lives, but when we do it in such a way that puts our own needs last on the list we can become depleted. We might feel frustrated, angry, resentful, or just plain stressed and exhausted by the practical requirements of living that life. The expectations put on all women to be the care-providers, to put others first always, to do the “emotional labor” of supporting those around them can be oppressive.

Does this resonate with you? Do you ever feel like you’re keeping everyone else happy, stable, and cared-for, but that you’re not attending to your own needs and desires? Do you long for someone to take care of you? There’s a burning desire there for self-nurturance as well as connection with other women and community-centered support.These pressures can come out in the body and manifest as symptoms.

‍The emotional theory of endometriosis is by no means the sole root cause of the disease, but it’s an element that I have seen over and over again in my work with women at FLO Living. As I’ve said before, this has nothing to do with your personal choices in your life, and everything to do with the position of women in society, and how we are conditioned to organize our lives and act towards ourselves.  Your uterus is offering you a gift, an opportunity to reflect on your patterns and revise them for not only better health, but a happier life.  

Your 13-Step Guide to Addressing Endometriosis with Lifestyle & Diet

You can work to reduce inflammation, balance hormones, and support your immune system with food and lifestyle in a systematic way. Here’s my step-by-step guide for helping ease endometriosis symptoms. You’ll see some of the key pieces of advice that I outlined above, fleshed out with even more essential lifestyle strategies for curbing the symptoms of endometriosis:

Step 1

Start by limiting—and eventually eliminating—exposure to toxic forms of estrogen found in household cleaners, cosmetics, and bathroom products. Go through your house with a fine tooth comb and:

• Replace cosmetic and body care products with natural alternatives, this includes, soap, shampoo, hair styling products, deodorant, lotions, cosmetics, and perfumes
• Replace standard laundry soap with green alternatives. You can now find many clean alternatives on the shelves of big box stores, sitting side by side with the old (toxic) standbys. Clean alternatives are comparable in price and work just as well. You can opt for unscented products or products that have been scented with natural fragrance.
• Replace household cleaning products with clean alternatives. You can buy effective products at almost all big box stores or you can make your own, which is cheaper and healthier. The main ingredients in most DIY cleaning products are vinegar and baking soda.
• Take off your shoes at the door (and ask your guests to do the same). A lot of pesticides and other hormone-disrupting chemicals are tracked in on the bottom of shoes. Stopping those chemicals in their tracks is a great way to protect yourself.

Step 2

Just say no to pesticides and other chemicals in your food. Shop organic exclusively if you can. If you are on a budget, avoid the dirty dozen (or buy them organic) and feel okay about buying the clean 15 even when not organic.

Step 3

Emphasize dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, low-glycemic fruits like berries and other high-fiber foods to support gut health and help your liver carry out important detox functions. The liver is responsible for breaking down and eliminating excess estrogen, and cruciferous vegetables directly support that detox process.

Step 4

Eat more healthy fats like those found in olive oil, coconut oil, and avocados. Healthy fats help support healthy hormone ratios in the body.

Step 5

Emphasize lean animal protein over other kinds of meat. They are less inflammatory.

Step 6

Limit red meat. Studies have linked red meat consumption with increased risk for endometriosis.

Step 7

Help kick your immune system into high gear with immune-supportive foods like carrots, kale, cabbage, broccoli, beets, artichokes, lemons, onions, garlic, and leeks.

Step 8

Limit sugar. Sugar fuels inflammation.

Step 9

Use targeted herbal support to further support liver detox and speed up estrogen metabolism. Think milk thistle, flax seeds, DIM, and dandelion root.

Step 10

Take evening primrose oil to decrease inflammation.

Step 11

Reduce or eliminate dairy, wheat, alcohol, and caffeine to improve your immune response.

Step 12

Take a probiotic to rebalance gut flora and support estrogen metabolism.

Step 13

Use Vitex and a B6 supplement daily to balance out excess estrogen.If you’re reading this article because your friend, sister, or family member is struggling with this condition, share this article with her. Too many women believe the myth that endometriosis has to ruin your life every month.

It’s a taboo topic that we need to normalize: period blood. The color, consistency, and texture of your flow can reveal way more about your overall health than you realize. It’s time to de-stigmatize this essential vital sign and start decoding symptoms.

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Period blood is not something we’re taught to talk about. In fact, we’re pretty much raised to hide from it. Pay attention to any maxi pad or tampon commercial and all you’ll see is the same blue liquid over and over again.

The truth is: periods matter. They matter SO much, in fact, that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has declared menstruation a vital sign.The appearance, frequency, and consistency of your menstrual blood provides invaluable clues into your overall health, and if you want to finally banish symptoms and feel amazing, it’s time to get familiar with your flow.

Think of checking your flow every month like being able to access free lab work for your hormone levels. Knowing the color tells you which hormones are in and out of balance and if your eating is synced with your hormones. Your period provides genius (and free!) biofeedback for you.

Your Guide to Interpreting the Color of Your Period Blood

Ready to recognize what’s normal and what’s not? Check out my guide to period blood:

• The color: Bright, cranberry-red
• The consistency: Like jello mix that hasn’t set (medium viscosity: not too thin, not too thick)
• The length: 5-7 days
• The frequency: Every 28-30 days

What it means: Congratulations! This is what’s considered a normal, healthy period. If you’re already cycle-syncing and eating nutrient-rich, FLO-supportive foods, keep it up. Make sure to also incorporate all the necessary lifestyle tweaks and essential supplements to ensure your cycle stays on track.

• The color: Brown
• The consistency: Thin/streaky
• The length: Varies
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: That brown stuff is old oxidized blood that didn’t make it out of your uterus during your last cycle and it’s caused by low progesterone levels. These low levels may be at the root of your period symptoms and may also cause you to struggle with regular ovulation.

• The color: Dark, purple/blue
• The consistency: Thick with clots
• The length: Longer than a week
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: This frozen blueberry color is a sign of too much estrogen. Estrogen levels that are higher in proportion to progesterone cause a lot of the typical symptoms associated with problematic periods, and potentially lead to endometriosis, cysts, or fibroids. Over the long term, excess estrogen can lead to more serious health consequences.

• The color: Barely-there pink
• The consistency: Too light to tell
• The length: 3 days or less
• The frequency: Varies

What it means: A super-short period and extra light bleeding may indicate low estrogen levels. Your hormones are made from the food you eat, so your low estrogen is likely due to vitamin and nutrient deficiencies from improper and extreme dieting as well as from adrenal burnout.

Back when I was desperately trying to address my own severe case of PCOS, I spent thousands of dollars on an array of products. I tried chlorella supplements, I tried a candida eliminator, I even tried drinking a juice made of carrots and greens every morning that looked just like pond scum and turned my skin orange! So yes, I really mean it when I say I tried everything.I didn’t know it at the time, but the real reason nothing worked was that I wasn’t using supplements correctly. You can’t simply slap a pill or potion on hormonal imbalance and expect it to magically heal the condition. Supplements can and do support major healing, but they have to be used synergistically, meaning the correct formulations must be used in conjunction with the correct diet. What is Biohacking?Biohacking is simply the modification of micronutrients, diet and lifestyle to optimize the functions of the body’s biological processes. For women, this means replenishing micronutrient levels and cycle-syncing diet and lifestyle. And yes, I wrote the book on that. The key difference between biohacking for men and biohacking for women, is that in the case of men, they are trying to maximize energy, concentration, and stamina during their very short 24 hour circadian hormonal pattern. For you, as a woman, you are already maximally efficient by design, so you simply need to nurture your cyclical patterns and endocrine system’s nutritional needs, and you will feel the benefits quickly. This means you can biohack your way to an easy, symptom free period in a very short time!How Supplements Can Enhance Your HealingThe biggest learning that came out of my years-long supplement experimentation was that the proper products are meant to work in harmony with hormone-healthy foods. Sure, any manufacturer can sell a product that says it “blocks estrogen,” but if you ingest that product (assuming it actually does what it says it does — many don’t) and you’re not taking in other important micronutrients, all you’re really doing is investing your money into making really expensive pee. Seriously! That’s what I was doing for years, and along with overpriced urine, the misguided expectations created a lot of frustration and hopelessness. I don’t want you to needlessly suffer the same defeating feelings. I’ve seen so many women throw their money away on useless supplements, only to realize the products aren’t working, which leads them to stop trying to heal altogether. I don’t want you to give up — you can change your hormonal situation. You just have to do it the right way. That’s really why I created this kit. The five essential formulations must be used together because that’s exactly how they should fit into your life; as a supportive, synergistic team. These micronutrients are the ones I’ve relied on for the past 17 years to not only put my serious hormonal dysfunction into remission, but also help maintain my endocrine and overall health over time. These are my go-tos, and they’re exactly what I know will help support you as you take control of your own health and transform your life. Why These Five Supplements Are Non-Negotiable

When it came time to manufacture my kit of essential supplements, I created the five formulations that are truly non-negotiable: B-complex, magnesium, liver detoxifier/estrogen metabolizer, a probiotic, and a D3-omega-3, K blend. One question many clients have is whether or not they need to take a multivitamin, and as you may have noticed, I didn’t include one in my kit. The reasons are simple: most multivitamins contain too much of the wrong nutrients and not nearly enough of the right ones. In my years of research, I narrowed down the overwhelming and seemingly never-ending list of supplements to the true essentials: these are the products that will help your body manufacture the correct hormones and help these chemical messengers communicate in a way that’s maximally efficient and effective. So why are these essentials so essential? The facts speak for themselves. Comprehensive scientific research has demonstrated that these micronutrients are must-have supports for a fully-functioning, healthy hormonal system. Just a few examples of what you’d be missing out on if you don’t incorporate these powerful products:

• While every woman should be supplementing with B vitamins, if you’re suffering from endocrine dysfunction, you’ll need to be extra aware of your intake. Research has shown that an intake of vitamins like thiamine (B1) is inversely related to endometriosis. Another important type of B vitamin, folic acid, is known to be an important weapon in fighting PCOS.
• Magnesium is a must for women with PCOS since it improves insulin sensitivity, a major PCOS issue. And if you’ve ever suffered from hot flashes — whether you’re menopausal or not even close — magnesium has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms.
• If you’re suffering with fibroids, vitamin D is an absolute must. A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that supplementing with vitamin D reduced the size of uterine fibroids. This may be especially essential for African American women since they’re 3-4 times more likely to develop fibroids and 10 times more likely to be deficient in vitamin D than white women.
• Probiotics are a must: one study found that in just 12 weeks, probiotics stimulated natural killer cells and helped significantly reduced endometriosis pain.

The truth is, your body contains infinite wisdom. It knows how to balance your hormones. Whatever endocrine disruption you’re experiencing is due to the fact that you’re depleted in a specific area or areas and your body needs to be replenished; you have the natural potential for optimal hormonal function; your body has just lost its way and needs some re-direction and guidance. The supplements in my essentials kit are designed to support and enhance the significant improvements that will result from a targeted nutritional protocol. Whether you have a thyroid condition, endometriosis, PCOS like me, or intolerable PMS that your doctor won’t take seriously, supplementing correctly will speed your body’s ability to create real and lasting balance.These are the micronutrients every menstruating woman needs to have more balanced hormones. I’m so proud to be able to offer you this product. With it, now the FLO Living Hormone Center is the only place on the planet where women can go virtually to test, track, treat, and talk about their hormones and improve their periods naturally. Whether you’re trying to get rid of pesky PMS, offset the effects of synthetic birth control hormones, improve a diagnosed condition like PCOS, Fibroids, etc, or improve your fertility, Balance Supplements are an excellent addition for healthier hormones. And in case you missed it, check out my most popular FaceBook Live to date from this past Thursday! I really dive into why these supplements are the absolute most essential micro-nutrients that you need to support your hormones. Listen Here. If you’re just learning how your period works with the MyFLO period tracker, Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit will help you take your health to the next level. If you’ve started making changes to your food and lifestyle with MonthlyFLO, the Balance Supplement Kit will give you nutrient support to speed up your hormone balancing. If you’ve graduated from one of our FLO programs, Balance Supplement Kit will give you the nutrient support to stay on track as you continue to eat for all 4 phases and sync with your cycle. These five supplements represent your personal “insurance policy” against endocrine disruptive things you’re doing (knowingly or unknowingly) that are throwing you off balance.If you’re ready to feel energized, detoxed, replenished, harmonized, and gutsy, order the Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit now! Love,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the brand-new BALANCE Supplement Kit.

If you’ve been visiting FLO Living for a while or you’ve familiarized yourself with my book, WomanCode, then you probably know how passionate I am about guiding women through hormonal self-healing via food, supplements and lifestyle fixes. And you may also know that I’m a big believer in using specific supplements selectively and intelligently to support the body in its healing and maintenance journey. But there’s still a lot of confusion and controversy about the use of supplements to support total endocrine wellness, so I want to be sure you’re as informed as possible before making the decision to add supplements to your protocol.

Which Deficiency Type are You?

First and foremost, I want all women to know one thing: your diet has never supported your hormonal health (until you start cycle syncing of course). Depending on your diet, it’s very likely, that you’ve developed some degree of leaky gut, which means you’re not absorbing micronutrients that are necessary for optimal endocrine function. That lack of essential micronutrients means your body is deficient — you’re coming to the healing process already at a loss and this deficiency will make it harder for you to get in front of the ball when it comes to balancing your hormones.The truth is, most women are behind the ball and are constantly struggling to catch up. In my almost 20 years of doing this, it seems there are a few deficiency causes that are pretty common. Regardless of which type YOU are, they all have the same result in common - draining you of the micronutrients you need to have balanced hormones! See if you can identify which Deficiency Type you are:

• The Caffeine Type: You start every day with a big cup of coffee on an empty stomach and/or you caffeinate throughout the day with lattes, mochas, or just plain java.
• The Pill Type: You’ve taken birth control pills at any point in your life and come off (and have not done anything to rebalance post pill) and/or you’re currently on a synthetic hormone regimen.
• The Extreme Diet/Exercise Type: You are very particular about food, and refuse to consider anything less than intensely sweaty, heart-pumping cardio as exercise.
• The Super Symptomatic Type: Your period is completely out of whack, and you have everything from cramps and mood swings to acne and more.
• The Poor Diet/Leaky Gut Type: You don’t have time for healthy meals so you grab whatever you can and get on with your day.

With dairy, gluten, and allergenic ingredients serving as staples in so many people’s diets, an alarming number of women are suffering from hormonal dysfunction. Add to that the overuse of stimulants like caffeine, the common mistake of over-exercise, and rampant stress, and you’ve got a cocktail for hormonal disaster. Then add in the overwhelmingly abundant use of synthetic hormonal birth control, which is known to deplete the body even further, and you can understand the endocrine epidemic occurring all around the world.

The Micronutrients You Need More Of

In over 16 years of practice and research, I have identified which supplements are absolutely essential to replenishing key levels of micronutrients to get your endocrine system enough of the building blocks it needs to balance your hormones for you. These are:

B vitaminsOmega 3, Vit D3, Vit KProbioticLiver support MagnesiumWithout enough of these micronutrients, you are more likely to struggle with PMS, weight issues, acne, headaches, mood swings, bloating, cramping, PCOS, Fibroids, Endometriosis, Missing Periods, Ovarian Cysts, Painful and Heavy periods.Whatever Deficiency type you identify with, you need all of these micronutrients in abundance to get back on track hormonally and to feel relief from your symptoms. I’ve finally been able to formulate these into the highest quality supplements for you.

Why Supplements Are Important

The FLO protocol is predicated on the concept of food as medicine, restoring healthy gut flora takes time and lots of dedicated effort — particularly when it’s been compromised for prolonged periods of time. While it’s certainly possible to completely heal your gut and hormonal health through food alone, the addition of supplements will significantly expedite the process so you see real results in less time. The correct supplements will reverse the damage done by too much caffeine, stress, and synthetic birth control, putting you on an even playing field so the food protocol can take effect faster. Consider supplements a wonderful bridge that allows you to cross from hormonal disarray to a stable base level where food really can act as medicine. The other beautiful thing about supplements is that they don’t just expedite healing; they help support long-term maintenance. Even the most hormonally-aware among us occasionally relapse into bad behaviors (stressful times and tempting-looking coffee drinks happen, I get it). By continuing to supplement your (almost always) healthy diet and lifestyle with the right nutrients, you’ll be able to replenish your depleted stores quickly and have the gut health necessary for better absorption of the vitamins and minerals that will keep your hormones happy. What’s not to love?

Balance by FLO Living Supplement Box

These are the micronutrients every menstruating woman needs to have more balanced hormones. I’m so proud to be able to offer you this product. With it, now the FLO Living Hormone Center is the only place on the planet where women can go virtually to test, track, treat, and talk about their hormones and improve their periods naturally. Whether you’re trying to get rid of pesky PMS, offset the effects of synthetic birth control hormones, improve a diagnosed condition like PCOS, Fibroids, etc, or improve your fertility, Balance Supplements are an excellent addition for healthier hormones.If you’re just learning how your period works with the MyFLO period tracker, Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit will help you take your health to the next level. If you’ve started making changes to your food and lifestyle with MonthlyFLO, the Balance Supplement Kit will give you nutrient support to speed up your hormone balancing. If you’ve graduated from one of our FLO programs, Balance Supplement Kit will give you the nutrient support to stay on track as you continue to eat for all 4 phases and sync with your cycle. These five supplements represent your personal “insurance policy” against endocrine disruptive things you’re doing (knowingly or unknowingly) that are throwing you off balance.If you’re ready to feel energized, detoxed, replenished, harmonized, and gutsy, order the Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit now! Love, Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the brand-new BALANCE Supplement Kit.

As most FLO Living clients already know, I’m a big believer in supporting a hormone-healthy diet with the right supplements. While your diet should provide all the beautiful nutrients necessary to heal your symptoms and recalibrate your endocrine system, adding in just five key supplements can rev up your healing time and put you on the path toward lasting success much sooner. But here’s the truth: not all supplements are created equal. This was a lesson I learned the hard way after years of personal experimentation and tireless research. I realized pretty quickly that all the various products I was sinking my money into just weren’t delivering results, and as I dug deeper, I realized I was lucky these random pills and potions didn’t actually do harm. That’s because despite the fact that the global market for dietary supplements was $82 billion in 2013 (with the U.S. making up a quarter of that), with sales booming ever since, dietary supplements aren’t regulated. And that means pretty much any product can end up on the shelf masquerading as a good-for-you supplement without ever being tested for safety, purity, or quality. Scary, right?Now that you know this, you’ll start to see suspicious signs all over the supplement aisle. So many brands take shortcuts to churn out their products — many are manufactured in countries that have no manufacturing standards or safety to cut costs, and plenty of others don’t disclose where they’re made at all. And if you’re hoping for non-GMO products that are allergen-free, good luck: so many of these products contain harmful fillers like magnesium stearate and soy lecithin. And while high-priced items don’t necessarily guarantee good quality, cheap supplements are often the worst offenders. In fact, in 2015, Walmart, Walgreens, Target, and GNC were all found to be selling supplements containing allergenic compounds and useless fillers instead of the herbs their labels advertised.

The Ingredients to Avoid At All Costs

Sometimes it feels like you need a degree in chemistry to understand what’s in all the supplements on store shelves. While the most important thing you can do protect yourself is to buy your supplements from a trusted source (more on that below), you’ll want to take the first step and become aware of any absolute deal-breakers when it comes to what’s inside your supplement. These are just some of the common ingredients you’ll see on labels from cheap and/or untrustworthy producers and you should immediately throw out anything containing these ingredients:

• A

• artificial colors
• Magnesium stearate
• Canola oil
• Carrrageenan
• Sodium benzoate
• Soy lecithin
• Soybean oil
• Titanium Dioxide
• Xanthan gum

These ingredients are endocrine disruptive, and can disturb the health of your gut lining and microbiome. These can increase the symptoms you are having with PMS, cramps, and your diagnosed condition. It’s not even worth finishing the bottle. You’ll save money in the long run on your health by tossing them out now and investing in quality products that don’t use fillers and worse.

Having a Trusted Supplement Source Matters Most

When it comes to supplements, you have to trust your source. Having full faith in the producer and manufacturer ensures that you’re not just wasting your money on placebo pills and you’re not risking your health by exposing yourself to unknown ingredients. After years of research, trials, and in-depth investigation and analysis, I’m so proud to have created 5 formulations that are manufactured in the USA, are non-GMO, are allergy-free, and that offer maximum bio-availability, meaning you’ll actually be digesting and absorbing the nutrients you need. I know first-hand the kind of junk that’s often sold in the supplement aisle, and I refuse to let my clients waste their money and put their faith in products that simply don’t work (and could cause harm). I’ve been exactly where you are, suffering from hormonal issues, feeling hopeless, and wondering why my efforts weren’t paying off. By investing in the high-quality, rigorously tested supplements I’ve created, you’ll be investing in your hormonal health and you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that what you’re putting in your body isn’t just safe; it’s an essential tool in your healing process.

Why Supplements Are Important

The FLO protocol is predicated on the concept of food as medicine, and the addition of concentrated levels of micronutrients in supplements will significantly expedite your body’s ability to restore it’s hormonal balance, so you see real results in less time. The correct supplements will reverse the damage done by too much caffeine, stress, and synthetic birth control, putting you on an even playing field so the food protocol can take effect faster. Consider supplements a wonderful bridge that allows you to cross from hormonal disarray to a stable base level where food really can act as medicine. The other beautiful thing about supplements is that they don’t just expedite healing; they help support long-term maintenance. Even the most hormonally-aware among us occasionally relapse into bad behaviors (stressful times and tempting-looking coffee drinks happen, I get it). By continuing to supplement your (almost always) healthy diet and lifestyle with the right nutrients, you’ll be able to keep your hormones happy.

Balance by FLO Living Supplement Subscription Box

These are the micronutrients every menstruating woman needs to have more balanced hormones. I’m so proud to be able to offer you this product. With it, now the FLO Living Hormone Center is the only place on the planet where women can go virtually to test, track, treat, and talk about their hormones and improve their periods naturally. Whether you’re trying to get rid of pesky PMS, offset the effects of synthetic birth control hormones, improve a diagnosed condition like PCOS, Fibroids, etc, or improve your fertility, Balance Supplements are an excellent addition for healthier hormones.

If you’re just learning how your period works with the MyFLO period tracker, Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit will help you take your health to the next level. If you’ve started making changes to your food and lifestyle with MonthlyFLO, the Balance Supplement Kit will give you nutrient support to speed up your hormone balancing. If you’ve graduated from one of our FLO programs, Balance Supplement Kit will give you the nutrient support to stay on track as you continue to eat for all 4 phases and sync with your cycle. These five supplements represent your personal “insurance policy” against endocrine disruptive things you’re doing (knowingly or unknowingly) that are throwing you off balance.If you’re ready to feel energized, detoxed, replenished, harmonized, and gutsy, order the Balance by FLO Living Supplement Kit now! Love,Alisa

Introducing the BALANCE by FLO Living Hormone Supplement Kit

You’ve been asking me for hormone-friendly supplement recommendations, and I finally have created a solution that I am so thrilled to be able to offer to you on your hormonal balancing journey:

Balance by FLO Living Supplements are a complete package that work together to keep your hormone levels healthy. They include a 2 month (2 cycle) supply of the following formulations so you’re never caught short in any phase of your cycle.When you take these 5 supplements daily, you’ll be giving your body excellent micronutrients to support healthier hormone levels. Which means that you’ll start to see your worst period symptoms get better… and even disappear after a while.

Click here to learn more about the brand-new BALANCE Supplement Kit.

Royal jelly...if you’ve not heard of it before, the name might sound strange - is a food or a foot cream? Actually, royal jelly is the substance that is fed to the Queen Bee of a beehive to sustain her throughout her life, helping her to give birth to millions of baby bees. Royal Jelly creates the Queen Bee ovaries and sets her up to reach maturation in a rapid 5 days, when she is ready to start laying those millions of future generations, up to 2,000 eggs per day! This is why Royal Jelly has been investigated as a fertility-boosting supplement.

A Queen Bee is double the size and weight of your regular worker bee and lives for 5 to 6 years, rather than just one month like the rest of her hive. So, if you are what you eat - royal jelly is clearly some seriously nutritionally-dense stuff! If it can do that for a Queen Bee, then what might it do for a woman?

Royal jelly as a fertility-booster

A study conducted in 2007 out of Japan discovered the royal jelly is similar to a phyto-estrogen and that it contains properties that might support healthy uterine muscles and uterus lining. There have been multiple studies with royal jelly on fertility in animals that suggest it has the potential to increase rates of pregnancy and support fertility overall.

Royal jelly is rich in amino acids, medium chain fatty acids (like those found in coconut oil), proteins, along with vitamin D, E, all of the vitamin Bs, plus iron and calcium. It also contains a range of probiotics.

Our bodies need nutrients and minerals to have healthy hormones, healthy cycles and regular, healthy ovulation if we are to be fertile and able to get pregnant. Royal jelly packs a hugely powerful nutritional punch, containing nearly all of the vitamins and minerals a woman’s body needs to conceive successfully. Royal jelly as a supplement is incredibly potent - in taking a small amount daily you are getting a good dose of all the necessary nutrients. I have long preached the gospel of feeding your body the right foods for strong fertility, and royal jelly fits right in as containing high levels of many key nutrients.

(It’s important to note here that if you are allergic to bees/bee venom or if you have estrogen-sensitive reproductive cancers in your family history, you should avoid royal jelly.)

The benefits of royal jelly

The benefits of royal jelly make sense to me, from the perspective of someone who has helped many women conceive naturally partly through dietary changes. In order to be fertile and conceive women need:

• Vitamin D for strong immunity
• A healthy gut and absence of harmful bacteria anywhere in the body (maintained by probiotic foods)
• Vitamin B6 for boosted progesterone levels
• Amino acids for hormone production
• Fatty acids for egg growth
• Proteins for hormonal balance

...and royal jelly contains all of these elements in high doses. That’s not to say that royal jelly is the only place you can find these nutrients, definitely not, but it is a simple and easy way to boost your vitamin and mineral levels, along with your intake of probiotics, fatty acids and protein, when you’re trying to conceive.

Royal jelly vs. honey

Although both royal jelly and honey are strengthening to the immune system, good for your skin, and anti-inflammatory - honey does not have the fertility boosting properties of royal jelly. Honey is an ancient remedy for low libido, because it contains boron, which is certainly handy when it comes to getting pregnant, however if you’re looking for those fertility benefits, royal jelly is for you.

My royal jelly smoothie recipe to boost your fertility

So, how to take royal jelly? I find the best way to incorporate this into your diet is via a weekly smoothie. Alone it can taste kind of bitter. Try my “Queen Bee Smoothie.” Just add these ingredients to a food blender or smoothie maker, whizz, and you’re ready for a fertility boosting, tasty treat. You’ll also be getting a big boost of folic acid from the spinach, a whole host of vitamins and minerals from the fruit, plus zinc from the sesame seeds.

1 cup fresh Spinach

1/3 cup fresh or frozen Mango

1/4 cup fresh or frozen Blueberries

1 Teaspoon Royal Jelly

3 Tablespoons Coconut Yogurt

Pinch of Cardamom and Ginger

¼ cup of Coconut water

1 Teaspoon white or black Sesame seeds (bonus points for grinding them in a spice grinder first!)

½ Teaspoon Honey

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Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa

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If you’ve been reading my blog posts for a while, you’ll know very well that I love avocados. I see them as a perfect food for your hormones. In the past I’ve shared my thoughts on their many benefits - including the fascinating study that shows eating avocados improves the outcome and success rate of IVF treatments. I’ve recommended avocados not only to boost your fertility, but also to boost your own and your partner’s sex drive, as well as to combat the moodiness and fatigue that can come along with PMS. Perfectly packaged, so very versatile, and delicious - avocados really are a superfood, in my book. But what about avocado oil? Google recently marked this vegetable oil out as one of the hottest food trends of 2016. Now, we know that if it comes from avocados, it must be good, but what are some of the benefits of using avocado oil every day, over just eating avocados?As I never recommend many cooking oils like canola, sunflower, safflower, general vegetable oil, because these kinds of oils have far more omega-6 than omega-3 and this produces inflammation in the body, I’m always on the lookout for a new oil to add to my cooking and salad-making repertoire. I already use coconut oil daily for its myriad benefits for hormonal health. But coconut is not always the flavor profile you want. Avocado oil has a similar nutritional makeup to olive oil, with the added benefits of being a source of bioavailable phyto-testosterone, having anti-estrogenic properties to prevent estrogen excess, and containing fats your hormones need to be transported around your bloodstream. Avocado oil is actually a common ingredient in natural progesterone creams - that’s how powerful it is for balancing hormones! In the past I’ve shared recipes for avocado toast and avocado-based smoothies. I also love avocado and fruit salads in the summer (peaches or watermelon work really well), plus a sprig of mint. But avocado oil can be added to almost anything, and used as a cooking oil. It makes getting the benefits of avocado into every meal so much easier - and I’m all for that! Avocado oil has a smoke point of over 400F so it’s perfect for roasting veggies, stir fries, and sauteing greens. And what does it taste like? Well, avocados of course! In a really good way - creamy, nutty, smooth - it’s delicious.

The best kind of avocado oil

These days you can pretty much grab a jar of coconut oil at most grocery stores, but avocado oil is still much harder to come by. Especially the good kind that has no chemical additives. I rarely see it on the shelves of my favorite grocery stores, even natural food markets. That’s why I turn to Thrive Market to get my favorite brand of avocado oil. Non-GMO and full of healthy fats, Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil is also expeller-pressed and lightly refined, leaving the delicate flavor, and all the nutritional goodness, of the avocado intact. Ready to give avocado oil a try? For a limited time, Thrive Market is offering all of my readers and followers a FREE bottle of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil! Which is a fantastic deal, considering it’s still pretty hard to source, even from your local Wholefoods. All you have to do is click here and ask for your free bottle of avocado oil to be delivered to your doorstep (they’ll also give you 15% off your next order). Let me know how you like it and share your recipes with me! Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!to your FLO,AlisaGood things come in threes:

I want to hear from you!

First, how do you eat your avocados? Second, are you struggling with infertility? Third, everyone you know is hormonal – spread a little good period karma and share this article on social ;)

Are you trying to conceive?

If you want to do everything in your power to improve your chances of becoming a mom, I want to help you optimize your fertility. Whether you are just starting to think about having a baby, or have already tried naturally or have been trying with IVF, my Fertile FLO Program will help improve your chances of conception. Click here to download my FREE guide, The 5 Health Foods to Avoid to Get and Stay Pregnant.

We take a look at the types of ovarian cysts, their cause, and effective natural treatments.

In this post we'll be discussing functional ovarian cysts, as opposed to the ovarian cysts associated with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or the ovarian cysts associated with endometriosis. Functional ovarian cysts are fluid filled sacs the size of almonds that grow and develop on the ovaries, often cyclically as related to your monthly hormonal shifts. Ovarian cysts like this can come and go, get larger and smaller, and are very responsive to natural treatments.

Your body is designed to deal with ovarian cysts, if it is working at an optimal level of health. However, if you are experiencing hormonal imbalance, this can prevent ovarian cysts from shrinking, cause them to grow larger, and then potentially rupture with a lot of pain and complication involved. ‍

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The symptoms of functional ovarian cysts

Many women don’t realize they have ovarian cysts until they start experiencing symptoms. Once you have symptoms like those detailed below, you may want to ask your OB/GYN for an ultrasound exam to confirm that ovarian cysts are the cause. The common signs of ovarian cysts are:

• Lower abdominal pain
• Pain during sex
• Pressure on the bladder/need to urinate more frequently
• Bloating
• Indigestion
• Irregular cycles and anovulatory cycles (when ovulation does not occur)

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A ruptured ovarian cyst will cause you high fever and pain. Often women who experience this will go to the ER and will often be checked for appendicitis first. It’s best to be aware that a ruptured ovarian cyst could also be the cause of such pain, if you have experienced the above symptoms prior to this happening.

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Types of ovarian cysts

There are several kinds of ovarian cysts, but functional cysts, as described above, are the most common. There are just two kinds of functional ovarian cysts - follicle cysts and corpus luteum cysts. Follicle cysts happen when the ovary follicle does not open to release an egg and instead stays closed, filled with liquid. Corpus luteum cysts are when the follicle does release an egg, but then does not seal and close off afterwards.

Other kinds of ovarian cysts include:

• Endometriomas - tissue that normally would grow and develop inside the uterus can migrate outside the uterus and attach to the ovaries. These cysts are associated with an Endometriosis diagnosis. They can grow large and rupture just like functional cysts.
• PCOS - with a diagnosis of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome a woman has multiple cysts on her ovary or ovaries (sometimes said to look like “a string of pearls”). PCOS can cause infertility by producing extremely long, irregular cycles without ovulation. This lack of ovulation, the hormonal imbalance, and the enlarged cyst-covered ovary has its own set of symptoms that vary from woman to woman, but can include weight gain, acne, hair overgrowth and hair loss, anxiety, and depression.
• Dermoid cysts - these cysts grow on the ovaries and contain hair, teeth and other substances.

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Treatment for ovarian cysts

Most commonly women are offered the birth control pill to “treat” ovarian cysts. The Pill replaces your natural hormonal changes and cycle with a synthetic hormone stasis. Considering the side effects while using the Pill, and the fact that once you come off the ovarian cysts will probably return and may be worse as a result, we never recommend this as a method for combatting cysts. The birth control pill can make the root causes of ovarian cysts much, much worse.

The Pill is a band-aid for all women’s health issues and in the case of ovarian cysts when natural treatment can be very effective it is completely unnecessary. Natural treatment alone can shrink and resolve cysts, as well as prevent their return relatively quickly.

If you find you have a proclivity for cysts we recommend following our natural treatment protocol and then returning to your doctor every 6 months to monitor them.

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The cause of ovarian cysts

The central cause of ovarian cysts is estrogen dominance. This means your body holds too much estrogen and not enough progesterone to create balance. The estrogen your body is creating is not being processed and eliminated correctly. Plus, you are taking in excess estrogens from outside of your body via synthetic estrogen-filled shampoos, cosmetics, nail polishes, household cleaners, femcare products, plastics and pesticides. This creates an estrogen overload situation. If your body is not functioning optimally then it won’t be able to get rid of the excess estrogen as it needs to, efficiently and quickly. The Flo Living protocol is designed to reverse and prevent estrogen dominance and all of the symptoms that come with this hormonal imbalance.

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The best natural treatment for ovarian cysts

Cycle Syncing® your diet is the best way to manage ovarian cysts. Eating the right foods for the right phase of your hormonal cycle will keep your hormones in check and prevent excess estrogen or low progesterone. There are also certain foods you can frontload in your daily diet to make this protocol even more effective for shrinking, managing, and preventing ovarian cysts long-term. We at Flo Living firmly believe that fibroids and ovarian cysts are best treated naturally.

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These three types of foods can help shrink and even get rid of ovarian cysts:

• Cruciferous vegetables and DIM - Vegetables like Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, broccoli, and cabbage contain DIM (Di-Indolyl Methane) which is very effective at helping the body process and eliminate excess estrogen. Increase your intake of these veggies and supplement with DIM itself in pill form daily.
• Fermented foods - Sauerkraut, kimchi and pickles will help your body deal with and manage estrogen. A certain set of gut bacteria, and more specifically certain bacterial genes called the estrobolome, produce an essential enzyme that helps metabolize estrogen. Your gut is part of the elimination system that is vital in ushering hormones out of the body. Fermented foods are wonderful for gut health.
• Fiber-filled foods - Fiber helps your liver and digestive system move and eliminate excess estrogen from your body. The best fiber-filled foods for preventing estrogen dominance are pears and flax seeds. Flax seeds contain lignan which prevents the body from absorbing excess estrogen.

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A Flo Living Success Story: Ovarian Cysts

Flo Living graduate Heidi Braun came to us with functional ovarian cysts. Within two months of following the Flo Living protocol, she saw her cysts disappear from her ovaries.

“Mid-April and time to go back for another sonogram. Alisa and I spoke prior to my visit and she told me not to expect any changes…that it was too soon. I was fine with that. I knew I was doing all I could and they were great things for my health nonetheless. So as I lay on the table, with no expectations, the technician tells me, “The cyst on the left ovary is gone” and then “Oh! The one on the right is gone, too!” I’m in shock. I’m elated. And as a tear rolls down my cheek, I’m in awe of the power…the power this body has to heal itself. How amazing is that! If I treat it right (if I treat ME right), then amazing things will happen.”