As if irregular periods, acne, and hair problems weren’t enough, bloating is another surprising, yet common, symptom of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal disorder affecting up to 20 percent of women. You may be tempted to try various probiotics, diets, or tonics for your bloating; however, this article will explain how to identify and treat PCOS bloating by finding your true root cause.

What Causes Bloating in PCOS?

Dysbiosis

Your gut is home to 100 trillion bacteria and divided into three categories: beneficial bacteria, neutral bacteria, and harmful bacteria. Under optimal circumstances, your body maintains a delicate balance of these three groups to optimize function and prevent disease. However, a variety of factors like diet, antibiotics, and your environment can cause detrimental changes to gut bacteria and lead to a condition known as dysbiosis.

Dysbiosis occurs when you have an imbalance of bacteria in your gut. You may have too much bad bacteria, not enough good bacteria, and/or not enough diversity of bacteria. Unfortunately, women with PCOS are more likely to suffer from dysbiosis than women without PCOS (1).

Dysbiosis is one major root cause of abdominal bloating in PCOS. Dysbiosis may also worsen other PCOS symptoms like acne, unwanted hair growth or hair loss, and hormonal imbalances. Pictured below are supplements routinely use at Root to treat Dysbiosis and support gut health.

Gut Health Bundle

Our 3 most popular gut health supplements, bundled together for a 10% savings.

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What hurts the conversion of T4 to T3?

Many factors hinder your body’s conversion of T4 to the active T3 form. Let’s review a few of the main ones!

Stress

No surprise here, right?

In times of chronic stress, your body releases higher amounts of a stress hormone called cortisol. At this time, your body is focused on the cortisol release, so it does not put much effort into converting T4 into T3. Instead, it redirects T4 to another hormone called reverse T3 (1).

Your body requires a delicate balance of reverse T3. Too much of this hormone as a result of chronic stress can slow metabolism and cause other detrimental effects in the body.

Impaired Liver Function

Your thyroid gland makes T4 and a tiny bit of T3.

However, most conversion of T4 to T3 occurs outside of the thyroid gland, particularly in the liver (2). Impaired liver function, therefore, may negatively affect this conversion even if liver enzymes appear to be within normal limits.

Poor Gut Health

Your gut is another location where the conversion of T4 to T3 occurs. Disruptions in gut health as seen in dysbiosis (an imbalance of gut bacteria), inflammatory bowel disease, or leaky gut may reduce your body’s ability to convert T4 into the active T3 hormone.

Low-Calorie Diets

Low-calorie diets can be damaging to thyroid function and may reduce T3 concentrations by up to 50 percent (3).

When you severely restrict calories, your body will redirect your thyroid hormone (T4) into the reverse T3 version, which causes a drop in your metabolism (4). This is a protective mechanism to prolong your survival in times of famine and food restriction.

What helps the conversion of T4 to T3?

Fortunately, there are many diet and lifestyle interventions that can optimize your conversion of T4 to T3.

Follow an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Poor conversion of T4 to T3 often boils down to chronic inflammation.

To help lower inflammation, follow an anti-inflammatory diet that is rich in fruits, veggies, wild-caught fish, nuts, seeds, and legumes. Limit foods that may worsen inflammation like refined grains, processed foods, alcohol, and added sugar.

Remember to eat enough calories, too!

Eat Enough Zinc and Selenium

Zinc and selenium are two essential minerals required for the conversion of T4 to T3. In fact, one of the main enzymes that makes this conversion relies on selenium in order to function!

Eat plenty of foods rich in these two essential minerals:

Foods rich in zinc: oysters, beef, crab, pumpkin seeds, cashews, and chickpeas
Foods rich in selenium: brazil nuts, tuna, halibut, sardines, turkey, and beef liver

Root Thyroid Support

Root Thyroid Support supplement includes important nutrients, liver support, and stress support to optimize T4 to T3 conversion.

Lower Stress Levels

Managing stress is key to lowering cortisol levels and optimizing the T4 to T3 conversion. Are there any stressors in your life that you can reduce or eliminate?

Make time for a daily stress reducing activity like yoga, meditation, journaling, walking, or deep breathing exercises.

Ashwagandha is a common supplement used for stress support that has also been shown in studies to improve levels of T4 and T3 thyroid hormones. (5)