 So the chances are that you actually in your friendship group maybe know someone who has Endo or perhaps you have Endo yourself So it's kind of a lot more common I think than people actually think and these figures could actually be much higher considering it takes such a long time to get Diagnosed and it's really complicated and lengthy It's kind of much harder to Diagnose and things like PCOS for example because you haven't got a single one kind of blood test that you can do and The journey that women kind of go on to get there is kind of complex plus You know some women don't end up looking into those symptoms until perhaps they're thinking about having a baby and People can be on contraception for a long time over their 20s for example So this can kind of mask symptoms. So this is kind of contributes to perhaps some of those figures are probably a lot higher So, you know symptoms don't always start when you get your period, but they can do for many They can actually Accurates of later on so you can have endo really kind of from the point where you start your periods Or it can happen a lot later and it's important I think to to kind of understand that this can happen in perimenopause as well because you get a change in hormonal fluctuations and You know women can have endo and have treatment for it and sort of the symptoms can go away And they can think it's completely gone and then it can kind of come back again later on as well so, you know, it's complex really in terms of its lifeline and About half of all women will go on to develop it again within five years of surgery Now, this is a really important point because that you know from my point of view This is why we want to be thinking about all the things that we can be doing to help the body to you know hopefully Not have to have repeated surgeries There's no one specific cause of endometriosis I'm going to talk about some of the etiologies, but it's kind of easy just to think it's a blend really of being a gynecondition Heavily involves the immune system It's part autoimmune and it's also something that you can sort of you know inherit as well But remember about with inherited factors, you know You can have the genetics to perhaps, you know predispose you to a condition But it's about your environment and your life and your nutrition and all those things that kind of Effect whether or not you go on to develop that disease and also someone women can have a Condition that would perhaps then make them more likely to go on to develop endometriosis So the kind of overlaps with different conditions So what is endo, okay, let's make this really simple so you're only supposed to have your your your womb lining cells in your womb But what can happen and there's many reasons why this occurs that they can move to different parts of the body Now most commonly endo is found in the pelvic area and you can see on the diagram what? tissues and organs that kind of involves More rare locations include things like the lungs kidneys nose fun and so forth And this also means that when women go on to have surgery if that's if that's necessary for them This might also involve different types of doctors getting involved So you've got a gut specialist or perhaps you've got a lung specialist, you know As well as just having a doctor who specializes in in women's health You know, there is a there's a relationship between the gut and the brain and so if you've got an inflamed Abdominal area basically pelvic area that is going to then affect the brain and so, you know Women can suffer from low mood and depression and this is again where you know anything that that naturally can be done Any kind of support working with health care practitioners working with different types of Therapist is kind of really really really important. Endo is also a very nutrient hungry condition and Research shows us that women are often very low in key nutrients that are important, which are there for managing inflammation Therefore supporting immune system there for supporting sex hormone balance, but those nutrients are also there for mental health So zinc good example zinc is important for female health at the immune system But it's also really important for the brain and mood So I think this is also why they those women you could probably argue Maybe wouldn't have been ending up with low-medal depression if they hadn't have developed endometriosis. That's my point basically diet So Fatty acids are super important. So they are the base for what forms are hormones And they help, you know communication in the body. They also help to stabilise blood sugar This also means that when you're eating meals as well Um, this means that you just feel more sort of filled up I think to sort of summarise the fats It's probably better to think of it like this So the Mediterranean diet is something that we I think a lot of us understand And that's something that you want to be looking at in terms of healthy fat usage Um, and then certainly, you know using what I call old fashioned fats are great to cook with so in terms of cooking Safe to cook with coconut oil butter ghee real ghee animal fats avocado olive oil if extra virgin So if it's extra virgin and unfiltered it means that it's got enough polyphenols to stabilise it with heat Um unsafe to cook with because they're not stable and they become very inflammatory are all the seed oils Including rapeseed oil. So just to give you a concept on that. So to be honest, even if you were just going to use Uh sunflower oil It would have to be cold pressed in a glass bottle that is dark that you bought it from a fridge Nobody really buys sunflower oil in that way. Um, this is why I'll give you an example So if you've had certain food where they use a lot of oil in the cooking and it's quite high heat I find that women with endo can feel very inflamed the next day. It can end up actually having an episode of pain Um, if you eat these types of oils during your period, I find that people's period pain is much worse So you've got to get the fats thing right and a lot of the way that the media talks about fats in terms of companies That are selling these products like rapeseed oil companies Are just gonna, you know, just going to make it sound good for them to sell their products. Um Oily fish, which I'll talk about more in a second is Your main source of omega-3. So if you're not eating oily fish and you're not supplementing With a fish oil supplement, you will be very low in omega-3 It's a real misnomer that you get a lot from a vegetarian vegan diet Flaxseed oil, you have to convert into relatively available epa and dha So in, you know, those are the components of omega-3 that that we use So if you are not having oily fish or supplementing with an with an oily fish supplement Then you need to actually do your research from looking at really good Vegan epa and dha oils that have been manipulated in terms of their levels because otherwise the levels are really low if you are Trying to get pregnant or you're or you are pregnant and you're using a flaxseed oil And you're thinking that's going to provide you and your baby with another omega-3 Again, absolutely no way. So the conversion from from flaxseed To dha is really poor So algae is much better, but algae does not have high levels of epa algae is more rich in dha So, you know, really eating a rainbow diet There's more research on here than I've actually covered. I'm a very researched evidence-based nutritionist So I do a lot of research into endo particularly as I I talk to doctors and nurses and Other scientists. So again, we're kind of leading with research and More and more we have this type of evidence coming out that this kind of really makes a difference in terms of women being lower Nutrients that you would normally find in delicious foods such as colorful vegetables and fruit and again These are all sources of fiber and cruciferous vegetables. I'm going to show on the next slide Are important for detoxification of estrogens, but also Metabolism so that means that also that the sort of it's like the safe packaging up of the estrogens that are maybe a little bit more Naughty and making them sort of easy estrogens and again just helping you a kind of safe exit in the body So here's a nice selection of Of our cruciferous vegetables as well. I'll just pause for you to take a photo again if you want to