This month's Herbal Health Series is all about how to help manage PMS (premenstrual syndrome) and PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) through the use of herbs, supplements, diet, and lifestyle changes.
Anyone who has suffered from either moderate to severe PMS or PMDD will tell you just how miserable it truly is. Many suffer from increases in depression, anxiety, disregulated mood disorders, increased mood swings, irritability, bloating, and more. It can be a truly miserable experience for those who suffer from it. There are four categories of PMS we consider: 1. PMS-A- the A stands for anxiety. This category includes anxiety, tension, irritability, and mood swings. Hormonally- an increase of estrogen to progesterone ratio is occurring at the secretory phases. There are some links to diet as well. Those with a high fat, high dairy diet may benefit from decreasing those in their diets. 2. PMS-D- the D stands for depression. This category includes depression, weepiness, heightened emotions, forgetfulness, brain fog, confusion, and poor sleep. Hormonally, there is an increase in progesterone and a decrease in estrogen. 3. PMS-H- The H stands for hyper-hydration. This category includes an increase in fluid retention, weight gain, bloat, swelling, and tenderness. The body retains sodium so reducing sodium intake may help. 4. PMS-C- The C stands for craving. This category includes increase appetite, sugar and carb cravings, headaches, palpitations, dizziness, and tiredness. Low blood sugar levels and low prostaglandins can be associated with this type. Balancing blood sugar levels with regular small meals and complex carbs, may help. What are some actions that we look for using when working with PMS/PMDD? If hormonal balance is an issue, we would use a long-term course of agnus castus, taken daily. Other hormonal normalizers we can use are, black cohosh, shatavari, liquorice, wild yam, and dong quai. If stress and anxiety are present, we tackle that with long term use of trophorestoratives and nervines with additional support for the days in your cycle when your emotions are heightened. The herbs we use for this would be skullcap, oats, lime blossom, passionflower, vervain, motherworth, damicena, and valerian. A low dose of an adaptogen is used if PMS is seen as an expression of stress. We use nettle seed for this, but one dose in the morning as nettle seed can cause insomnia. Supporting the liver can help too, to help clear things through the system that might be stagnating. For this we use bitters and hepatics. This will help the liver process the hormones, as the liver breaks down hormones which govern the menstrual cycle. These include milk thistle, agrimony, burdock root, or dandelion root. We also help your body correct essential fatty acid imbalances by using evening primrose. Help assist the body is easing fluid retention with nourishing diuretics, such as dandelion leaf, cleavers, wild carrots, and celery seed. We can help relax the body with antispasmodics with a reproductive system affinity herb, such as wild yam or black cohosh. If one gets acne with their PMS/PMDD, we can use red clover, fumitory, cleavers, burdock root, or yellow dock. To achieve these functions we use a combination of long-term and acute blends. The long-term blends tend to be infusions while the acute blends tend to be in tincture format. For the acute blends, we would be using herbs that help with pain, bloating, acne, and stress. The long term blends would be hormonal normalizers typically. PMS and PMDD can wreak havoc on your life, but with a few herbs and supplements and some dietary changes, you can alleviate the worse of the symptoms and get back to feeling like you and living your life. Have you used any of these herbs for your PMS or PMDD? Let me know in the comments. Blessed be, Shannon
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This month's Herbal Health Series is on a disorder near and dear to my heart, Endometriosis. It is one I have had and dealt with since I was 19 years old. The implications of it have been devastating at times for me and ultimately ended up in me having a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingectomy (my tubes removed). Despite that, I still deal with it and its reoccurring issues, though not as often as before. It went from being a 24/7/365 deal to a once every couple months deal. It is much more manageable now than it ever was before.
Below, I will detail how herbs can help manage this condition and help one live a more full life, while also having endometriosis. It is a condition that is highly misdiagnosed and overwhelmingly ignored by the medical community. Women are dismissed frequently as drama queens and hysterical individuals when attempting to describe the incredible amount of pain they are enduring. Many are also pushed away as "drug seekers" for asking for relief from the non stop pain. I found great relief with herbs and supplements and other means and ultimately I believe that's why I was able to wait as long as I did before having a hysterectomy. So get your notebook ready, because this month's Herbal Health Series, has a lot to unpack. Endometriois is a condition affecting anyone with an uterus where the endometrial tissue (the tissue that usually lines the inside of the uterus) migrates from the inside of the uterus to the outside. This tissue can attach to anywhere within the abdominal cavity and some have even been found to have had endometrial tissue migrate to their diaphragm and lungs! When their menstrual cycle starts each month, this tissue undergoes the same process as all endometrial tissue. The hormones that act upon the endometrial tissue and tell it to shed, also act on the stray tissue. This causes intense and debilitating pain. The working theory is that this tissue strays from its normal place via the lymphatic system or blood vessels. One theory even suggests that it is actually coelomic cells that transform into endometrial cells in a process called coelomic metaplasia. There is also a hereditary link to this disease. So if you have it, there is a very good chance you mother or grandmother have/had it as well. It is found more often in those of Asian descent, affects women who have children later in life at a higher incidence, and is found in 1/4-1/2 of all individuals with uteruses that experience infertility. As you can see, this is a disease that can and does lead to a lot of heartache and pain, physically and emotionally. The symptoms of endometriosis are rather vague, meaning they could be multiple diseases and do not point specifically to endometriosis as the cause. These symptoms include, pelvic pain, pelvic masses (from built up migrated tissues or scar tissue), unusual periods (often irregular and/or heavy), back aches, dysmenorrhea (severe pain during menstrual cycles), constant dull ache in abdomen, pain during intercourse, painful urination, rectal bleeding. As you can see, those symptoms could point to any number of issues occurring, making endometriosis extremely hard to diagnose. To top it all off, endometriosis is not seen on the typical diagnostic tests done for these symptoms, such as ultrasounds and MRI's. The only true way to diagnosis it is via a laproscopic surgical procedure and directly visualizing the tissue that has migrated. On top of all this, hormonal dysregulation is another issue that many face with this. When approaching this from a herbalist point of view on how to treat and help get relief, these are the therapeutic actions I reach for and the herbs that assist with each of those. Hormonal normalizers: One of the first ones I reach for are herbs known to help smooth out imbalances. The main one of those being Agnus castus. This is a great hormonal normalizer for this situation. Others that are good to use are motherwort, liquorice, dong quai, and shatavari. Uterine Tonics: These are very important as many experience severe periods and these herbs can help soothe the uterus and help reduce heavy periods. The herbs best used for this are yarrow, wild yam, and black cohosh. Pelvic Circulatory stimulants and decongestants: These help maintain good blood flow and keep the lymph system draining. Many indivuduals with endometriosis suffer from inflammation in the pelvis and this can help reduce that issue. These herbs include prickly ash, gotu kola, ginger, and hawthorn. Analgesics: These are very important for symptom relieving management in any blend. I will also usually prescribe an acute pain blend tincture to take as needed for extra relief on especially bad days. These include, ginger, angelica, cayenne in combo with wild yam (which is a specific for endometrial pain), valerian, passion flower, california poppy, or wild lettuce. Antispasmodics: These help with the painful spasms sometimes caused by the endometrial tissue latching onto the intestines, bladder, or rectum. These herbs include, wild yam, cramp bark, skullcap, and yarrow. Uterine astringents: An astringent is a herb used to dry up an excess of fluid. In this case they help decrease heavy blood flow during a cycle. These include, lady's mantle, yarrow, agrimony, rehmannia, and bayberry. These are usually combined with a nutritive, which is a herb that helps add nutrients back to the body. As the body can get very depleted during heavy cycles, combining with a nutritive is best practice. These include, raspberry leaf, nettle, oat straw, or alfalfa. Nervines: These are added for the support needed for the stressful toll this disease takes on the body, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Being told often that the pain you are experiencing isn't that bad or that you are exaggerating it, can be quite stressful on the mental health. These can help reduce some of that stress. These include, oat straw or St. John's wort. Adaptogens: These are herbs that adapt to what the body needs the most. If under prolonged physical and mental stress these can help support your body and keep your body systems working well under such stress. These include, ashwagandha and panax ginseng. Hepatics and bitters: These help support a digestive system and liver that usually have havoc wreaked on them from the stress and migrating endometrial tissue. The one most commonly used here is dandelion root. Externally, I recommend warm compresses of lavender, wild rose, and essential oils of black pepper, ginger, and sweet marjoram. These can be effective pain management additions. Moist heat, like from a water bottle or heating pad, can be very effective as well. Heat gets the blood flowing and the more blood flowing to the area, the better in relieving congestion and helping keep inflammation down, which ultimately helps with pain control. Since this is usually a long-term approach, these herbs are typically dosed 2-3 times a day via tincture, as that is the easiest way to take herbs over a long period of time. I do usually dose analgesics as warm infusions as that can sometimes increase the pain relief one feels. I personally used wild yam and maca root, along with pain reducing herbs, like valerian, for my endometriosis at its most severe and it was an amazing relief. I also combined it with exercise, which weirdly would give me hours of pain relief. I believe that was due to the hormones it released which are known to have the ability to dull pain for a few hours. This is a well rounded approach to this disease and helping you achieve some relief and management over it. I would love to be able to work on a personalized blend for you if you are dealing with endometriosis and helping you achieve some of the relief I still gain from these herbs to this day. Do you have endometriosis? What have you tried that has helped with symptom management and pain relief? Let me know below in the comments. I love to hear from my readers! Blessed Be, Shannon Welcome to the first in my Herbal Health Series: Disease of the Month. I am so excited you came to join us today.
This Herbal Health Series will have a monthly post about a disease that is commonly found more often in woman, how it presents, symptoms, and how herbs can be used to help in these diseases, along with other holistic therapies. Grab a pen and paper, throw on some easy listening music, and get ready to dive in deep with me. Our very first Disease of the Month is Fibromyalgia. If you are one of the 4 million people, the majority being women, who suffer from this, then you understand just how debilitating and devastating this disease can be. For those of you not familiar with fibromyalgia, it is a debilitating condition characterized by intense pain all over the body. Some individuals have the pain localized to one spot, but that seems to be a rare presentation. Ouch! Fibromyalgia is very hard to get diagnosed. This is because it's a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning they have ruled out everything else it might be, and this is the only one left, so it must be that. That is not very comforting to many people. It feels like it's hardly a real diagnosis when there isn't a test result that says definitively that "Yep, its fibromyalgia!" As of this writing, February of 2021, there is still no definitive test one can have run to determine that it truly is fibromyalgia and not something else entirely. So, just why is it so hard to diagnose? Well, the symptoms are fairly vague and can be symptoms of a great many diseases. The main symptoms that an individual presents with to the herbalist or doctor are crushing fatigue, muscle stiffness, increased pain sensitivity, reduced concentration, brain fog, poor memory, headaches, insomnia, and commonly IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) as well. Many also have anxiety, depression, TMJ, and tension headaches. Right now off the top of my head I can name 5 other disorders and diseases that have those exact same symptoms. This is why it is so difficult to pinpoint and treat. Well, hell, you might be thinking, if they can hardly even diagnose it, how in the fuck can they treat it? That is a very good question. Modern medicines go to for treatment is to treat the symptoms. They will prescribe narcotic pain medications for the pain, sleeping pills for the insomnia, anti-depressants for the brain fog and fatigue and depression and anxiety, and as needed pills for the IBS symptoms. And while this helps a lot of people, it doesn't work for everyone. And many fear becoming dependent of the narcotics. Anyone who has had that happen, knows 2 things. 1. they are very, very hard to get off of. 2. when you stop taking them you get rebound pain, meaning that your body actually hurts WORSE than it did before you ever started on them. YIKES! So, how is coming to see myself or another Master Herbalist going to be any different than seeing a modern medicine doctor? Well, the first thing I do is go searching for the root cause of why you have developed fibromyalgia. What am I talking about, huh? Well, simply put there is usually a root cause, a reason, why you developed fibromyalgia. That isn't something that is normally even mentioned much less treated in the modern medicine world. Some common reasons one develops fibromyalgia are an event such as physical trauma, surgery, infection, or significant psychological stress. In some cases, symptoms build up gradually without an event or trigger being able to be identified. Researchers believe that a triggering event causes the spinal cord and brain to get out of sync with how they process and relay to you painful and non painful signals. And anyone who has fibromyalgia will tell you that they also have triggers that cause flare-ups. What could constitute a trigger? Well, poor diet or a change in your diet from your normal, hormones (and it affects women more who have hormonal changes monthly? Great!), physical or psychological stress, change in your schedule, sleep pattern change, change in weather or temperature, and lack of exercise. And, of course, one may have things that trigger them, that are different from this list or not included. Ok, so we find the root cause after a detailed health history assessment and prolonged discussion (called a consultation.) Now what? The way we treat it with herbs is based on your own root cause, your triggers, and your symptoms. Below, I will detail a generic baseline treatment, but know that if you came to see me for this particular disease, you would get a much more personalized approach. For a baseline treatment, here are the therapeutic actions we go for and the herbs in each category that are best known for those actions and their ability to help fibromyalgia. Therapeutic actions used in treating Fibromyalgia with herbs:
Also, I would usually recommend, based on root cause, Therapy to help deal with any trauma that may have caused the beginnings of this as well as to help deal with the emotional impact one receives from having an "invisible" illness that is also highly misunderstood. Not just by lay people but also the medical community at large. I would also highly recommend monthly or bi monthly visits with a massage therapist, chiropractic care, acupuncture, osteopathy, and perhaps a support group. I also refer individuals to personal trainers to help them develop an exercise plan that will get you moving and keep you moving, even on flare days. As contradictory as it sounds, pain is made worse by immobility. Muscles need to move to help lubricate the joints and stretch out sore spots. Overall, my job as a Master Holistic Herbalist, is to find the root cause, treat the root cause, treat the symptoms, triggers, and flares, as well as the mind and spirit of my client as well. I treat the entire person to get them back to optimal health. Modern medicine states there is no cure for fibromyalgia, and that may be true, but the many women I have put on the above protocol, with personalization, have had so much improvement that they say that fibromyalgia is no longer the defining factor in how they have to approach life. Isn't that amazing?!! Fuck yes! Even though fibromyalgia is still a fairly misunderstood disease in the modern medicine world, one can easily find hope in the holistic approach of a herbal treatment plan. Do you suffer from fibromyalgia? What herbs have worked for you? Any other secrets or tips you want to share for others to try? Comment below! Blessed Be, Shannon *And as always, before starting any of the herbs above on your own, please consult myself, another Master Herbalist, or your medical doctor to discuss the potential interactions with any prescribed medications you may currently be taking.* |
AuthorShannon, master herbalist, shares her thoughts, educational information, and more. Archives
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