Dietary Fats And Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a leading cause of infertility which has been shown to have many direct connections to modern nutritional habits. The good news is that improving your diet can have a profound effect upon endometriosis symptoms - and reduce the chances of recurrence after laparoscopic endometriosis removal.

One of the biggest nutritional culprits is dietary fats and oils which one has little control over when eating out. The kinds of fats that you eat daily control - to a large degree - the amount of inflammation that you produce in your body and the degree to which endometriosis spreads.

In a study (1) on the connections between endometriosis and diet, Harvard researchers examined data from the 12 years of the nurses health study. They discovered that women who were in the top fifth for consumption of the highest amounts of omega-3 fats were 23% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis. Fish oil is one of your best dietary allies when endometriosis is your problem.

The study also showed that as you increase omega-3 fats in the diet to replace other sources of fat the incidence of endometriosis dropped by 50%. However, regarding animal fats it’s a different story:

“Women in the upper fifth of animal fat intake had a 20% greater risk of endometriosis...”

“...and specifically a significantly increased risk of nearly 80% with palmitic acid intake.” (from meat and diary)
Similarly, women who were in the highest category for trans-unsaturated fats were 48% more likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis. The study concluded that:

“These data suggest that specific types of dietary fat are associated with the incidence of laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis, and that these relations may indicate modifiable risk. This evidence additionally provides another disease association that supports efforts to remove trans fat from hydrogenated oils from the food supply.”

Previous studies have shown that women who consume fish oil have less symptoms of menstrual pain (dysmenorrhea) and that women who eat high levels of red meat have higher levels of endometriosis incidence. Animal studies have also shown that when endometrial implants are surgically placed into endometriosis-free animals, fish oil is able to prevent or minimize the spread of the disease.

In a separate study evaluating the effects of dietary fats upon inflammation it was discovered that consumption of trans-fats increased levels of CRP - a marker of inflammation - and that diets rich in oleic acid - the primary fatty acid in olive oil - decreased inflammation levels evidenced by a drop in IL-6. This study concluded that:

“...dietary fatty acids can modulate markers of inflammation...”

Clearly, you need to clean-up inflammatory producing fats and oils in your diet if you are trying to conceive and have endometriosis, or if you have unexplained infertility for which hidden endometriosis may well be the cause.

So, how to do a good clean-up? Much of the hydrogenated fats in our diets come from crackers, commercially produced baked goods fried, fast-food and deep fried foods. Trans-fats are hard to avoid if you eat fast food as you don’t get the opportunity to label-read and they sneak into fast-food everywhere.

Palmitic acid which was associated with the biggest risk of endometriosis is present in both meat and dairy foods which means the more vegan + fish meals you eat the better. Here is a quick primer for making your diet more endometriosis-friendly:

Switch to cold-pressed olive oil and only heat it gently when cooking

Cut out any crackers, crisp-breads, breads, cakes, cookies, flat breads with trans-fats

Add a good quality fish oil or krill oil supplement to your diet daily at full strength. Take with main meals for best absorption.

Include wild salmon in your diet a few times a week in place of meat and dairy proteins.

Avoid dairy food or use fat-free dairy foods or low fat to keep dairy fats low

Use grass-fed beef if eating red meat as it has a good profile of omega-3 fats due to the all grass diet that the cows eat.

Eat organic, pasture-fed meats and dairy to reduce your intake of synthetic
estrogens and growth hormones which may also aggravate endometriosis.

Replace more and more meat / dairy based meals with bean based vegan dishes that do not contain animal fats. Check out a good vegan cookbook for ideas. You can use fat-free or low-fat organic meat stock for meaty flavor if you like.

When reducing dairy foods in your diet it is important to replace calcium by taking supplements, calcium citrate is the best form of calcium to take for good absorption. Making your diet more endometriosis-friendly could improve your fertility and significantly reduce re-growth of endometrial implants after surgery, your health may benefit all round too.

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References:

(1) A prospective study of dietary fat consumption and endometriosis risk Human Reproduction. 2010;25(6):1528-1535. Missmer, et al.

(2) Dietary fatty acids affect plasma markers of inflammation in healthy men fed controlled diets: a randomized crossover study, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 6, 969-973, June 2004. Baer, et al.