You used to digest everything. Now a salad wrecks you. If perimenopause changed your gut overnight, this one's for you.

Andrea Donsky, nutritionist, published menopause researcher, menopause educator, author, and co-founder of wearemorphus.com sits down with nurse practitioner and bestselling author Cynthia Thurlow to unpack the gut-hormone connection nobody warned us about. Cynthia's brand new book, The Menopause Gut (out April 28), is the paradigm-shifting guide to why 94% of perimenopausal women suddenly have digestive issues, and what to actually do about it.

What you'll learn:

• Why you can't digest food properly if you're stressed (and the 4-breath trick that changes it)
• What the estrobolome is and how it's recycling your estrogen in ways that make bloating worse
• The fiber mistake that's making your gut feel worse, not better
• Why your gut suddenly looks more like a man's after menopause
• How PCOS and perimenopause collide (and why it's not "over" when your period stops)
• The difference between intermittent fasting and "digestive rest" and which one works better in midlife

Chapters:

0:00 Cynthia's Morocco Story: When Perimenopause Broke Her Gut

2:10 Why Gut Health Gets Worse in Perimenopause and Menopause

6:32 Digestion Starts in the Brain: The Parasympathetic Connection

11:10 Estrogen, Histamine, and Why You Suddenly React to Foods

15:58 Postbiotics 101: Butyrate, Urolithin A, and Short-Chain Fatty Acids

21:30 Fiber, Bloating, and Why You Can't Just Jump to 30 Grams a Day

26:15 The Gut-Bone Connection Nobody Talks About

29:58 Sleep, Stress, and the Cortisol-Constipation Loop

34:42 The Vagus Nerve: Your Gut-Brain Superhighway

39:00 Intermittent Fasting vs Digestive Rest: What Changed Her Mind

42:50 PCOS, Insulin Resistance, and Menopause: The Missing Conversation

46:40 Where to Find Cynthia and The Menopause Gut Book

📖 Get Cynthia's new book The Menopause Gut (out April 28): https://amzn.to/4r2IDz3

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DISCLAIMER: This is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider. This podcast contains affiliate links; Morphus may earn a commission. Thank you for your support.