The Inter-Link between Food, Weight and Fibroids

For the longest time during my battle with fibroids I never realized how the symptoms I was experiencing and the growth spurt of my fibroids had everything to do with what I was constantly feeding my body that resulted to my weight index being on a high every time I stood on the weighing scale.

‘You are what you eat’, a cliché statement I always heard but never really knowing the weight of those words.

Before I go further, I would like to remind you at this juncture that fibroids are caused by a hormonal imbalance. When your hormones are out of control because the estrogen hormone is more dominant than any other hormone in your body resulting to benign tumors growing. Those tumors are what are called fibroids. To understand more about ‘hormones’ kindly refer to my recent blog article titled, ‘Hormones and Hormonal Imbalances’

I get these questions a lot from you (my readers) and following across all my Social Media platforms, ‘Does obesity cause fibroids?’ ‘What foods can I eat to naturally shrink or heal my fibroids?’ ‘How can I prevent fibroids?’

These questions are the inspiration behind todays read, the fact that there is so much curiosity around what impact food has on fibroids and what natural cures are out there for fibroids.

So, let’s tackle these topics.

Q1. Does obesity cause fibroids?

Fat cells are designed in a way that they create more estrogen.

You know what happens when more estrogen is dominant in a woman’s body? Fibroids grow.

So yes, losing weight may help reduce/ stop the growth of fibroids or even better prevent you from getting fibroids all together.

Q2. How can I prevent fibroids?

Eat right, Exercising and Learning to Manage your stress levels.

A} Eat Right

Get your BMI checked and if you are overweight or obese its time to come up with a nutritional plan that will include minding your food portions, eating right (avoid the unhealthy junk and fatty foods)

The risk of having uterine fibroids is 2 to 3 times higher in women who are obese.

N.B. Remember fat cells create or make more estrogen in your body.

B} Exercise

Trying to lose that extra weight, this should help.

Exercising isn’t also just recommended for persons who want to lose weight but also to get your heart functioning well geared towards general body wellness. Those endorphins you get from exercising are the cure for stress, they will end up leaving you with all those feel good hormones.

Also, Vitamin D has been found to help reduce the risk of getting fibroids.

So, get some sun girl… ooh and don’t burn yourself while at it.

Protect yourself with some sunscreen and preferably aim for the rays from the sun in the early mornings as they are less intense than the afternoon ones.

C}Manage your stress levels

You can’t necessarily avoid stress; each facet of your life poses a scenario where at one point you will get stressed.

But you can learn how to manage it when it shows up.

For me journaling, exercising, listening to inspirational music, sleeping, reading etc. are actions that help put me at ease.

Find out what works for you. Unmanaged stress always throws your hormones off and remember we are trying to balance out our hormones to prevent fibroids.

Q3. What foods can I eat to manage/shrink/heal my fibroids?

There are foods that affect your hormones and end up causing your hormones to be imbalanced.

There are foods that target your reproductive organs once they enter your body bringing about estrogen dominance.

Some of these foods are:

Dairy Products-Milk, Cheese, Yoghurt, Butter etc.

Red Meat-Liver, Beef, Lamb, Goat etc.

Following a Mediterranean Diet that is made of fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes (beans, green grams, peas) and fish will also naturally help heal and manage the symptoms of your fibroids.

Cutting back on alcohol which triggers inflammation and hence raising the level of estrogen hormones needed for fibroids to continue growing is also a plus.

It has been great creating awareness for the last 1 year around fibroids by tackling different questions and topics on fibroids through writing of blog posts.

Since you now know what fibroids are, follow our initiative on our various Social Media Platforms as we start off our year 2 on 5th of July to connect with us one on one as we scale up towards offering you more support on your journey towards being a fibroid warrior.

Whether it is by helping you finance your surgery treatment or helping you who can’t afford to even see a doctor.

Email us on: tabitha.ndichu@gmail.com if you a woman living with fibroids and require any form of support or have any questions on fibroids.

Thank-you for being a part of My Red Is Beautiful tribe, we love serving you.

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