It's big news when a favored medical rehabilitation - Hrt for menopausal women - is found to be harmful. But it's no news to those who have been blowing the whistle on both scientific and alternative treatments of menopause for nearly two decades. As recently quoted in Newsweek Magazine: "Menopause is not a 'pathology', but a duct to power. Like puberty, menopause is a natural - and salutary - change. Wise women the world over herald menopause as a health-promoting event. They see hot flashes as 'power surges' and menopause as an intense spiritual journey. Most treatments - including Ert, Hrt, isoflavone, and progesterone creams - disrupt this process and can do severe damage to a woman's health."
Menopause Is Enlightenment
The power aspects of menopause are of extra interest to me.
As a long-time student of yoga, I was struck by the many similarities between menopausal symptoms and the well-known esoteric goal of "awakening of the kundalini." Though the ideas presented in this section may seem strange or difficult to comprehend, they consist of great messages about menopause, which lie at the heart of the Wise Woman approach.
Kundalini [is] the root [of] all spiritual experiences... Kundalini is a extra kind of power known in many cultures, including Tibetan, Indian, Sumerian, Chinese, Irish, Aztec, and Greek. Kundalini is said to be hot, fast, powerful, and large. It exists within the earth, within all life, and within each person. Psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung called kundalini anima. Kundalini is commonly represented as a serpent coiled at the base of the spine, but women's strangeness stories uncover it in the uterus - or the area where the uterus was, if a hysterectomy has occurred. During both puberty and menopause, a woman's kundalini is difficult to operate and may cause a great number of symptoms.
East Indian yogis spend lifetimes studying to activate, or wake up, their kundalini. This is also called "achieving enlightenment". When they succeed, a surge of super-heated power goes up the spine, throughout the nerves, dilating blood vessels, and fueling itself with hormones. As kundalini continues to trip up the spine, it changes the functioning of the endocrine, cardiovascular, and nervous systems. Not just in yogis, but in any woman who allows herself to come to be aware of it. Menopause is a kind of enlightenment. Hot flashes are kundalini training sessions.
Taking Hormones? These Herbs Are For You
More and more American women are using herbal remedies to help them with menopausal problems. Those who do take Ert (estrogen replacement) or Hrt (hormone replacement) may be surprised to recognize that herbal rehabilitation has a lot to offer them as well.
Herbs for women on Ert/Hrt consist of those that alleviate side-effects as well as those that counter problems caused by the hormones.
Herbal Helpers Counter Side-Effects
Water retention is the symptom most often cited for dissatisfaction with hormone replacement. Herbal tinctures and tea, such as dandelion or cleavers, and ordinary foods can not only comfort the distress, they will go to the root of the problem and help preclude recurrences.
Dandelion root tincture (Taraxacum officinale) strengthens the liver and helps it process out the excess hormones you are taking. When the liver works well, the kidneys work better, and tissues no longer bloat. A dose is 10-20 drops in any ounces of water or juice 2-3 three times a day. If you have any digestion problems, take your dandelion before meals; otherwise, anytime is fine. You can safely take dandelion daily for months or years if you need or want to.
Cleavers herb tincture (Galium molluga) tells the lymphatic tissues to get moving. Relief from edema is commonly rapid when 20-30 drops are taken in any ounces of water or juice. Repeat up to six times at hourly intervals if needed. Cleavers is especially helpful for easing swollen, sore breasts.
Foods that comfort water keeping consist of (in order of effectiveness): asparagus, nettles, corn (and corn silk tea), grapes, cucumbers, watermelon (and watermelon seed tea), parsley, celery, black tea, and green tea.
Headaches are the second most common side-effect of hormone use. Unfortunately, they are common among menopausal women not taking hormones, too. Herbs that help comfort ill without a drug-like action - such as dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle, burdock, orchad sage, skullcap, and St. John's/Joan's wort - are ordinarily thought about safe to take with hormones.
Chinese herbalists say headaches are caused by liver stress. My favorite liver-strengthening herbs are dandelion, yellow dock, milk thistle seed, and burdock. I use one at a time, a 15-25 drops of the tincture any times a day, for two weeks. If symptoms continue, I switch to a dissimilar herb.
A strong tea of orchad sage leaves (Salvia officinalis) offers immediate relief from headaches and helps preclude time to come ones. It also reduces night sweats. Tinctures of skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) and St. Joan's/John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) ease pain and comfort muscle spasms. Use 5-20 drops of skullcap and a dropperful of St.J's at the very first sign - no, the very first plan - of a headache. Repeat the doses every five minutes until pain free. Skullcap can be quite sedative, especially in large doses.
Herbal Allies to preclude Problems Caused by Taking Hormones
Breast cancer risk is increased 20% in women who use Ert for five or more years. Use of Hrt for five or more years increases breast cancer risk by 40%. Each five years of prolonged use increases the risk. In addition, women who take Ert are far more likely to get uterine or endometrial cancers. All women on hormones growth their risks of lung and ovarian cancer, too. Nourishing herbs such as red clover, and foods such as beans and yogurt, offer easy ways to stay cancer-free.
Red clover blossoms (Trifolium pratense), when dried and brewed into a strong infusion (one ounce herb steeped an a quart of boiling water for at least four hours) preclude cancer by providing phytoestrogens that counter the cancer-promoting effects of oral hormones. Usual dose is 2-4 cups a day. The infusion tastes like black tea and can be flavored with mint if you like.
Since uncooked beans and unfermented soy consist of anti-nutritional factors that may promote bone loss and dementia, soy "milk" and tofu are not recommended. Miso and tamari certainly help to preclude breast cancer but soy isoflavones may promote it.
Yogurt helps build great immunity. Women who eat a quart of yogurt a week have 700% less cancer than women who eat no yogurt.
Dry eyes afflict more than 9% of women using Ert and over 7% of those on Hrt. Risk increases by 70% for every year of prolonged use. And the longer a woman uses hormones, the greater her risk. Herbs such as oatstraw, chamomile, and chickweed can help comfort and preclude this problem.
Oatstraw infusion (Avena sativa) cools and moistens your eyes from the inside out, builds strong bones too. Use one ounce of dried herb in a quart jar; fill to the top with boiling water and cap tightly. Let steep four or more hours. Dose is 2-4 cups a day. Refrigerate after straining.
Cucumber slices ease dry eyes; so do chamomile tea bags.
The extreme ally for women with dry eyes is fresh chickweed (Stellaria media), applied as a poultice to the concluded eyes. Leave on for five minutes, or until the plant material feels warm (it will heat up). Repeat as needed.
Stroke and heart attack are positively increased by use of Ert/Hrt, though modern rehabilitation has long proclaimed the opposite. Every major double-blind study done to date has created a larger and larger gap between Ert/Hrt's supposed ability to help cardiovascular condition and its actual results. Protect your heart with nourishing and tonifying herbs and foods such as motherwort, hawthorn, and cherries.
Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) tincture helps the heart. The Japanese claim it is their private of longevity. A dose is 5-15 drops, twice a day. Motherwort also relieves hot flashes, calms tachycardiia, and eases anxiety. It's an all-in-one remedy for menopausal women.
Hawthorn (Crataegus oxycantha) flowers, leaves, and fruits are all used to pronounce heart condition and operate fluid build-up in heart tissues. A dose is 20- 30 drops of tincture 2-4 times a day, or a cup of tea with meals. This whole shrub is thought about one of the finest heart tonics in the world.
Cherries are even good than apples at keeping the physician away. Dried cherries and cherry juice, even tincture of cherries.
More than three-quarters of the women in America over the age of fifty have refused Ert/Hrt. If you want to join them, taper off your dosage slowly, while lasting to use nourishing and tonifying herbs such as dandelion, motherwort, red clover, oatstraw, and seaweed.
There Are Many Types Of Estrogens
- Women make estrogens.
- Plants make estrogens and estrogen-like compounds.
- Chemicals, especially organochlorines, act like estrogens (xenoestrogens).
Pharmaceutical companies make estrogens from substances such as horse urine, wild yam roots, and petrochemicals. Tamoxifen, used to treat and preclude breast cancer, is a type of pharmaceutical estrogen.
Women make at least thirty types of estrogen, including estradiol, estrone, and estrace. Estradiol is the strongest; it is turned on at puberty and turned off at menopause. Estradiol is positively related with breast cancer; other human estrogens are not. Anything that reduces the number of estradiol a woman produces (such as pregnancy, lactation, early menopause, and late puberty) also decreases her risk of a breast cancer diagnosis.
Phytoestrogens counter the detrimental effects of estradiol by competing for the same receptor sites.
Estradiol is a strong estrogen and is metabolized by the long path. The other estrogens our bodies make are weak estrogens and are metabolized by the short path. Alcohol turns off the short path. Phytoestrogens are weak hormones and hormonal precursors. Phytoestrogens in foods are metabolized by the short path. Phytoestrogens appear to Protect tissues from the cancer-causing effects of estradiol, xenoestrogens and pharmaceutical hormones. Phytoestrogens in foods preclude cancer and promote health; phytoestrogen supplements and processed soy fake-foods may do the opposite. Breast cancer occurs four times more often in women whose urinary production of phytoestrogen by-products is low compared to women whose urinary production is high.
Phytoestrogens are common in food. They are concentrated in seeds (grains, beans, nuts, berries) and roots. The exceptions to the rule that plants don't consist of human hormones: French beans, rice, apple seeds, licorice, and pomegranate seeds consist of the "weak" estrogen estrone.
To get the most benefit from phytoestrogenic foods and herbs remember:
- Isolated phytoestrogens are not as safe as those "in matrix."
- To make use of plant hormones, you need active, salutary gut flora.
- Herbs and foods rich in phytoestrogens need to be used in dissimilar ways.
- Phytoestrogens may have dissimilar effects on women who do not have their ovaries.
1. Plants consist of many types of phytoestrogens; additionally, they consist of minerals and other constituents which help our bodies modify the phytoestrogens and so we can use them safely. Red clover is mineral-rich and contains all four of the major types of phytoestrogens: lignans, coumestans, isoflavones, and resorcylic acid lactones. It is the world's best-known anti-cancer herb. In general, foods and herbs rich in phytoestrogens, with the potential irregularity of licorice, show anti-cancer abilities. Isoflavone, however, when isolated (usually from soy) has the opposite effect: in the lab it encourages the growth of breast cancer cells.
2. Plant hormones, including most phytoestrogens, can't be used by humans. But we can change them into ones we can use - with the help of our gut bacteria. When women take antibiotics, their excretion of phytoestrogens plummets. Get your gut flora going by eating more yogurt, miso, unpasteurized sauerkraut, homemade beers and wines, picked-by-your-own-hands-and-unwashed fruits and salads, sourdough bread, and whey-fermented vegetables. (See Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon for whey-fermented vegetable recipes.)
3. Plants which are exceptionally rich in phytoestrogens are regarded as great herbal medicines. Plants which are good sources of phytoestrogens are regarded as foods. While food can positively be our rehabilitation - a convention I advocate - it is also true that medicines are more dangerous than foods. Foods rich in phytoestrogens are dissimilar than healthful herbs rich in phytoestrogens. They have dissimilar places in my life.
- I eat phytoestrogenic foods daily in quantity.
- I use phytoestrogenic food-like herbs commonly (not daily), in moderate quantity.
- I take phytoestrogenic herbs rarely, in small amounts, for a little time.
Phytoestrogenic foods are the basis for a salutary diet and a long life. The first food listed is the highest in phytoestrogens. The best diet contains not just one but many choices from each list:
- Whole grains (rye, oats, barley, millet, rice, wheat, corn)
- Edible seeds (buckwheat, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, amaranth, quinoa)
- Beans (yellow split peas, black turtle beans, baby limas, Anasazi beans, red kidney beans, red lentils, soy beans)
- Leafy greens and seaweed (parsley, nettle, kelp, cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, lamb's quarter)
- Fruits (olives, cherries, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, salmon berries, apricots, crab apples, quinces, rosehips, blueberries)
- Olive oil and seed oils. Garlic, onions and their relatives leeks, chives, scallions, ramps, shallot
Phytoestrogenic food-like herbs are ordinarily thought about longevity tonics. For optimum effect, use only one from the list below and to stick with it for at least three months.
- Citrus peel, dandelion leaves and/or roots, fenugreek seeds, flax seeds, green tea, hops, red clover, red wine.
Phytoestrogenic herbs are commonly too great for long- term use. From the list below (which is in alphabetical order), it is safest to use only one herb at a time, and use it only when needed, although that may mean daily use for any months. More data about these herbs, including specific dosages and cautions, is in New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way.
- Agave root, black cohosh root, black currant, black haw, chasteberries, cramp bark, dong quai root, devil's club root, false unicorn root, ginseng root, groundsel herb, licorice, liferoot herb, motherwort herb, peony root, raspberry leaves, rose family plants (most parts), sage leaves, sarsaparilla root, saw palmetto berried, wild yam root, yarrow blossoms.
4. Most of the warnings about phytoestrogenic herbs town on their proven ability to thicken the uterine wall in animals who have had their ovaries removed. This could encourage cancer, just as taking Ert encourages cancer of the uterus by stimulating cell growth. Women without ovaries are probably safe eating phytoestrogenic foods, but may want to use phytoestrogenic herbs - especially ginseng, dong quai, licorice, red clover, and wild yam - in small amounts and only for short periods.
News Notes On Phytoestrogenic Plants (Updated June 2002)
- Recent studies indicate black cohosh does not suppress luteinizing hormone, has no estrogenic effect, and contains no compounds related to estrogen. Red clover flower heads consist of many hormone-like flavonoids, including isoflavone, daidzein, genistein, formononetin, biochanin, sitosterol, and coumestrol, a particularly strong phytoestrogen (six times more active than the one in soy). Red clover contains all four major estrogenic isoflavones; soy has only two of them. A cup of red clover infusion (not tea) contains ten times more phytoestrogens than a cup of soy beverage, is richer in calcium, has less calories, and contains no added sugars.
- Researchers in Australia description a million lambs a year are aborted after sheep eat clover on pasture. Yet red clover is illustrious as a fertility enhancer. What's up? Stephen Buhner, author of The private Language of Plants, says clover plants make blood-thinning compounds (which cause abortion) when overgrazed, but don't otherwise. Plants, it turns out, can fight back.
- When unfermented soy takes the place of animal protein (meat and milk), its anti-nutritional factors can originate fragile bones, thyroid problems, memory loss, foresight impairment, irregular heartbeat, depression, and vulnerability to infections. Unfermented soy is high in hemoglutin, which causes clumping of red blood cells and may growth risk of stroke. It is also impressively rich in aluminum (up to 100 times more than is found in the same number of real milk). Eating tofu more than once a week doubled the risk of Alzheimer's in a small group of Japanese men studied for thirty years.
- Human gut bacteria can bind a sugar molecule from wild yam's steroidal saponin, producing diosgenin. Labs make progesterone from diosgenin, but our bodies can't. Diosgenin itself has a weak estrogenic effect. Agreeing to Australian herbalist Ruth Trickey: "A more probable explanation [for the observed effects of wild yam]... Is that [diosgenin] interacts with hypothalamic and pituitary hormones and... Initiates ovulation."
Legal Disclaimer: This article is not intended to replace accepted medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or preclude any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be in case,granted by a clinical herbalist or other great healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material contained herein is in case,granted for general data purposes only and should not be thought about medical guidance or consultation. Taste a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.
The Yoga of Menopause - Alternatives to Hormone Therapy