Karina Santos Naturopath

Do you experience premenstrual breast tenderness?

I see this so commonly in clinic and while it may be common, it isn’t normal. 🚩🚩

Often premenstrual breast tenderness occurs due to two key drivers:

✨ High oestrogen
Or
✨ Low iodine

Sometimes both will be at play.

It’s always important to test thyroid function before supplementing iodine as iodine can negatively impact thyroid function.

Support healthy oestrogen levels by:
✨ Ensuring you a well hydrated to keep bowels moving
✨ Eat lots of fibre from plant foods such as beans legumes and colourful veggies. Extra points if you include veggies such as broccoli cauliflower, radishes & broccoli sprouts as they help with oestrogen detoxification.
✨ limit alcohol intake as this can increase oestrogen levels
✨ move your bowels daily. As a daily bowel movement ensures you are clearing out oestrogen rather than it getting re-circulated. You want your stool to look like a banana 🍌 (but not yellow 😂) if not, it’s time to improve your gut health.

We also have beautiful herbs and nutrients to help to upregulate oestrogen detoxification via the liver 💖

We have thyroid receptors on just about every cell in our body and it impacts nearly every organ in the body from digestion, to mood, blood sugar regulation, heart function, muscle function and our ability to maintain a healthy weight, so it makes sense that it would impact our reproductive health and can cause:

✨ anovulatory cycles
✨ low s*x drive
✨ heavy menstrual bleeding
✨ light periods
✨infertility
✨ recurrent miscarriages
✨ irregular periods
✨ missing periods
✨ breast tenderness
✨ in some cases can exacerbate PCOS

This happens because hypothyroidism impacts our ability to ovulate and make enough progesterone, it also impacts our blood-clotting factors which can cause heavy periods with hypothyroidism and light periods with hyperthyroidism.

Hypothyroidism also impacts our ability to effectively detox oestrogen and also reduces SHBG a protein that binds up hormones such as testosterone and oestrogen.

So if you experience symptoms of low thyroid function such as
✨ fatigue no matter how much you sleep
✨ weight gain
✨ brain fog
✨ sensitivity to cold
✨ hair loss
✨joint pain
✨ constipation
Etc

Maybe it’s time to get your thyroid checked. Often doctors will only test TSH and it isn’t until that is out of range that they test your other thyroid hormones. But thyroid antibodies can be elevated years before there is a change to blood tests. So it’s worth paying out of pocket and getting a more comprehensive screen that includes:
🌿 TSH
🌿 T3 + T4
🌿 Thyroid antibodies

And then work with a practitioner to optimise your levels as low thyroid function will impact so many aspects of your health.

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Not medical advice

Just some of the more common signs of progesterone.

Progesterone can only be made if you ovulate and is important for so many things such as brain health, sleep and immune function, not just to maintain a pregnancy.

If you don’t ovulate you don’t make progesterone 😭 So work on why you don’t ovulate and address that.

If you do ovulate - confirmed by basal body temperature tracking or a mid luteal phase blood test for progesterone, then we work out if progesterone is low, or low in relation to oestrogen and then look to support that.

Some of the drivers that might impact ovulation and cause low or no progesterone include:
✨ Stress
✨ High prolactin
✨ Poor thyroid function
✨ Perimenopause
✨ Thyroid dysfunction
✨ PCOS
✨ Undereating/ over exercising
Plus much more...

Do you struggle with these symptoms?

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Not medical advice x

Carbs are not evil 😅💖

I find that poorly managed blood sugar from skipping meals, fasting, and not properly balancing meals is a big trigger for PMS symptoms such as headache, anxiety, low mood, irritability and cravings.

Poorly managed blood sugar is a big stressor on our body so when we go through the day fasting (but having a coffee to keep us going until lunch), skipping meals or not balancing our meals properly with all 3 macronutrients, it places unnecessary stress on our body on top of our already very stressful lives.

Stress then goes on to stop or impact our ability to ovulate and ovulation is the only way to make progesterone (our soothing calming hormone). Then if we do happen ovulate but are really stressed sometimes we don’t even make enough progesterone to help with our mood 😣

When progesterone isn’t nice and balanced in relation to oestrogen we can experience PMS.

Then there is also the case of oestrogen dipping toward the end of our cycle which brings down with it serotonin - which is a chemical that helps stabilise mood. And guess what? Carbs help increase serotonin so cutting them out actually impacts ovulation and the amount of progesterone you can make along with reducing serotonin.

This isn’t your pass to fill up on processed chips, cake and bread but rather enjoy whole food sources of carbs such as sweet potato, pumpkin beans and lentils.

Want personalised support to tackle your PMs? Reach out. There are We so many beautiful herbs and nutrients that help improve mood & progesterone/ oestrogen levels. You don’t have to suffer with PMS.

Ps while fasting can be of benefit for some people I find more often than not it isn’t done properly and is an additional stressor on the body halting ovulation, impacting thyroid function and making it more difficult to lose weight.
Educational only x

Carbs are not evil 😅💖

I find that poorly managed blood sugar from skipping meals, fasting, and not properly balancing meals is a big trigger for PMS symptoms such as headache, anxiety, low mood, irritability and cravings.

Poorly managed blood sugar is a big stressor on our body so when we go through the day fasting (but having a coffee to keep us going until lunch), skipping meals or not balancing our meals properly with all 3 macronutrients, it places unnecessary stress on our body on top of our already very stressful lives.

Stress then goes on to stop or impact our ability to ovulate and ovulation is the only way to make progesterone (our soothing calming hormone). Then if we do happen ovulate but are really stressed sometimes we don’t even make enough progesterone to help with our mood 😣

When progesterone isn’t nice and balanced in relation to oestrogen we can experience PMS.

Then there is also the case of oestrogen dipping toward the end of our cycle which brings down with it serotonin - which is a chemical that helps stabilise mood. And guess what? Carbs help increase serotonin so cutting them out actually impacts ovulation and the amount of progesterone you can make along with reducing serotonin.

This isn’t your pass to fill up on processed chips, cake and bread but rather enjoy whole food sources of carbs such as sweet potato, pumpkin beans and lentils.

Want personalised support to tackle your PMs? Reach out. There are We so many beautiful herbs and nutrients that help improve mood & progesterone/ oestrogen levels. You don’t have to suffer with PMS.

Ps while fasting can be of benefit for some people I find more often than not it isn’t done properly and is an additional stressor on the body halting ovulation, impacting thyroid function and making it more difficult to lose weight

Yep they aren’t random and they aren’t in your head.

Our bodies way of communicating with us is both through our intuition, but when we don’t listen we find ourselves with physical symptoms.

It’s not uncommon for women to say to me during a consult~ I’m sorry, I know there’s a lot going on.

And while it may feel that way, what they don’t realise is that those symptoms all have a pattern about them and direct me to the areas in their bodies that need more support.

Feeling sluggish and heavy, finding it hard to lose weight, having dry skin, struggling to lose weight, experiencing constipation, having brain fog, experiencing low mood and muscle weakness, having high cholesterol are all symptoms of low thyroid function

Feeling tired after food, experiencing brain fog, getting bloated often, having a history of antibiotics, experiencing acne or other skin conditions eczema or psoriasis, having lose stools tell me you have digestive issues.

Getting irritable when hungry (hangry anyone?) struggling to lose weight no matter how hard you try, craving sweets and carbs, waking hungry in the middle of the night, skipping breakfast, getting lightheaded and being prone to headaches suggest one of the drivers might be poor blood sugar

Of course there isn’t usually just one driver symptoms give so much insight to your body and should been viewed as random. They are just tor body asking that you do something differently 💖💖

If you need help in finding what that ‘different’ might be reach out. I’d love to help you understand your body better x

PMS is experienced by 75% of women.

This is huge!! And it doesn’t have to be that way. There is so much that can be done herbally and nutritionally to support you.

You don’t need to dread your period and feel like a different person 2 weeks before your period 💖

Acne is so multifactorial and the drivers vary from one person to the next.

For some people it is hormonal, while for others blood sugar and gut health play a big role. Understanding your unique driver and addressing it allows you to kick acne in the butt! 🤗

Do you struggle wth acne? Let me know your questions in the comments 💖

🌿Period pain
🌿Acne
🌿PCOS
🌿Irregular periods or missing periods are just signs of something deeper going on.

While the pill might seem like it is addressing your concerns it is merely a bandaid approach as it shuts down your bodies own ebb and flow of hormones which masks symptoms.

If you are on the pill for hormonal symptoms, know this isn’t your only option. There is so much that can be done to support your body before coming off the pill to reduce the severity of symptoms when transitioning off the pill.

Gut health is much more than probiotics.

Gut testing allows us to see exactly which bacteria have overgrown, what antimicrobials to use and whether low stomach acid,leaky gut or inflammation in the gut is causing less favourable bacteria to hang around.

If you’re struggling with gut health and acne DM me x
Not medical advice

The healthy functioning of our liver is so important for our hormones. That’s because in order for the body to excrete toxins and hormones it no longer needs they get sent to the liver where it undergoes processing in order for hormones and toxins to be excreted via the bowels and some via our sweat and lungs.

The detoxification of these toxins and hormones undergoes two phases in the liver. Phase 1 and Phase 2. These phases require specific nutrients to ensure everything runs smoothly.

While the liver is always working away on its own, nowadays we are bombarded wth more chemicals than ever before in the food we eat, the water we drink, cleaning products, our skin care etc. all these also need to be detoxed and cleared by the liver.

Some hormonal symptoms that your liver might needs some extra support are

Menstrual migraines
Fluid retention
PMS
Breast tenderness
Acne
Heavy periods
Period pain

A liver detox isn’t always the way to go because if you organs of elimination such as your gut aren’t working effectively you can do more harm than good.

Some things to consider if you suffer from period pain.

While also noting that period pain can be due to underlying conditions such as endometriosis and adenomyosis and should always be investigated by your healthcare practitioner

*not medical advice.

One of the most common concerns my clients have when coming off the pill is that their skin will get really bad.

With proper nutrition, and when necessary herbs and supplements which address your underlying health we can reduce the severity of breakouts post pill.

If this is you, I offer a free 15 minute chat where I can answer your questions and discuss what working together might look like x

Our cortisol is suppose to be high in the morning so that we an awake up and get out of bed and tapper off as the day goes on so that melatonin can be dominant at night to help us sleep.

When we have long term stress, this can be from work stress, personal stress, ongoing low grade infections or even perceived stress (ever constantly think of the worst case scenario? Yep your body doesn’t know the difference between perceived and real stress.

Over time with this ongoing stress, our cortisol patterns can become dysregulated and cause some of the above symptoms.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Naturopaths have so many tools to support the body getting back into balance.

To address this I use a
combination of dietary and lifestyle changes along with key herbs and nutrients that nurture the adrenal glands and nervous system to help you wake up feeling energised and ready to do life 💖

Male health is often overlooked during the preconception period, but research has found that in Australian infertile couples 20% of cases are due to male factors and 30% are due to combined male and female factors. ⁣
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Another scary statistic is that men have seen approximately a 50% decrease in s***m count from 1973-2011.⁣
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During conception both partners each donate one cell to form the zygote (fertilised egg) so it makes sense both would want to be in optimal health. ⁣
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S***m are very sensitive to oxidative damage and high oxidative damage causes damage to s***m DNA. ⁣
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Factors that impact s***m health are ⁣
🌱Poor nutrition⁣
🌱Increased body weight ⁣
🌱Smoking ⁣
🌱Caffeine and alcohol ⁣
🌱Heat⁣
🌱Lack of physical activity ⁣
🌱Poor methylation ⁣
🌱Poor sleep ⁣
🌱Hormonal abnormalities ⁣
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There are lots of diet, lifestyle and nutrients that can be used on a case by case basis to optimise male fertility. Ideally preconception care for both parties should begin 3-9 months prior to conceiving.

Karina Santos Naturopath updated their website address.

Do you know if you ovulate? 💫⁣
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Ovulation is crucial for not only balanced hormones but overall health. Ovulating is the only way you make progesterone. ⁣
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Ovulation usually occurs 2 weeks before your period with progesterone peaking 7 days before your period. ⁣
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Signs of ovulation include: ⁣
- Increase in body temperature-if you track your basal body temperature you will see an increase in your basal body temperature⁣
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- Cervical mucous changes- mucous changes through out your cycle are normal. Fertile mucous which occurs due before ovulation is stretchy and the consistency off egg whites. ⁣
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- Some women also notice increased libido, swollen v***a and heightened smell around ovulation. 📷

How is your gut health? ⁣
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Have you taken antibiotics, used the pill, eat a diet high in processed foods and sugar?⁣
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Chances are your gut needs some TLC. ⁣
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Each persons gut microbiome is unique and having a diverse microbiome is key to a healthy gut. ⁣
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A healthy gut supports ⁣
- Immune function ⁣
- The absorption of nutrients ⁣
- Healthy blood sugar regulation ⁣
- Healthy weight⁣
- Healthy mood⁣
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Some symptoms which may suggest your gut is not functioning optimally are: ⁣
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- Bloating ⁣
- Passing excessive wind ⁣
- Constipation or diarrhoea- we should be having at least one bowel movement daily that is the consistency of a 🍌 ⁣
- Reflux ⁣
- Acne ⁣
- Anxiety or depression ⁣
- Brain fog ⁣
- Eczema or psoriasis ⁣
- Symptoms of oestrogen excess as our gut is crucial for the clearance of oestrogen ⁣
- Headaches ⁣
- Bad breath ⁣
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Some tips to support optimal gut health ⬇️⁣
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🥗Eating 40 different plant foods per week. Plant foods are high in fibre and provide the gut with prebiotics which feed our gut bacteria. ⁣
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🍭Reduce intake of artificial sweeteners are they negatively impact our microbiome. ⁣
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🍇 Eat polyphenol rich foods such as blueberries, blackberries, plums and raspberries as they help increase the numbers of good bacteria ⁣
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🥔 Consume prebiotic rich food to feed the good bacteria in your gut. Some of my favourite are cooked and cooled potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, leeks, lentils and garlic ⁣
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Sometimes we may develop an overgrowth of less beneficial bacteria so if you’re struggling with some of the symptoms above it may be worth speaking to a naturopath who can assess your gut and recommended specific herbs to help bring your gut bacteria back into balance. Taking a probiotic isn’t always enough as different probiotics have different effects on the gut. ⁣
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Hello 👋 my name is Karina, and I’m a naturopath passionate about helping people feel healthy and vibrant. ⁣
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Being diagnosed with PCOS and Hashimotos I know what it’s like to just want to feel healthy and well again and I’m here to tell you it is absolutely possible! ⁣
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My areas of clinical interest are helping women balance their hormones, increase energy and reduce stress and anxiety. ⁣
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I’m so happy to be on here and hope to be able to sprinkle some daily health tips throughout your feed, so please let me know what you’d like to learn more about x ⁣ 📷