97:: The hormone connection nobody is making for women! (hint: it has to do with your liver & alcohol!)

Dr. Kelsy Vick continues the spring cleaning series by focusing on the liver and how alcohol uniquely affects female physiology. She explains that women experience more severe alcohol-associated liver disease at lower levels than men due to differences in first-pass metabolism, estrogen-related sensitivity to liver damage, and immune activation in the liver. Regular drinking can raise estradiol while also making the liver prioritize alcohol over estrogen clearance, potentially contributing to estrogen dominance symptoms like heavy or painful periods, bloating, mood swings, breast tenderness, and sleep disruption; alcohol may also interfere with brain-to-ovary signaling and progesterone production, with evidence strongest for the estrogen effects. She discusses how timing in the luteal phase may increase sensitivity, clarifies that alcohol sedates rather than improves sleep, and recommends practical liver support without “detox” cleanses: cruciferous vegetables, fiber diversity, hydration, and quality sleep.RESOURCES:https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(20)30926-5/fulltexthttps://www.frontiersin.org/journals/gastroenterology/articles/10.3389/fgstr.2022.1005729/fullhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00737-024-01483-9https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cncr.35391https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4729640/https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6676690/https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8594041/loving the pod? click the follow button, & we'd love if you could leave a review! thank you x 1000 :)sign up for the free Smart Girl Newspaper!insta:: @dr.kelsyvickdpt & @wellnessbigsispodyoutube:: @dr.kelsyvickdpttiktok:: @dr.kelsyvickdpt & @wellnessbigsispod