by Libby Weaver
The second issue that needs to be explored is the biochemistry associated with the onset of menstruation. This is the first time in a girl’s life that her pituitary gland sends signals to her ovaries. For approximately the first five years, the chemical messengers released by the pituitary follow a road to the ovaries that looks like a goat track, meaning that it is a path that sometimes reaches a destination (in this case the ovaries) and sometimes winds up heading off into no man’s land. In other words, sometimes the pituitary signals miss their mark. After about five years, this pathway, if it has been allowed to become established, behaves like a five-lane highway. The route is clear, straight, and unhindered.
What I see, though, time and time again, are girls who have gone onto the pill to manage irregular or very heavy periods rather than for contraception, shortly after menstruation starts. And there are times when this is appropriate. If sport is a big issue or school is being missed due to severe period pain, then there may be scenarios when the use of the pill is appropriate, and I certainly do not want to elicit feelings of guilt in parents or daughters in this area. Just understand that the pill simply masks the truth and doesn’t address why the periods are painful in the first place. If a girl stays on the pill long-term, the five-lane highway is never established. She will then come off the pill in adulthood wanting to have babies, but her pituitary has no history of communicating with her ovaries. It is a lot to ask our ovaries suddenly to wake up when we have suppressed their function for an extended period of time; for some women this is more than 20 years.
I cannot encourage you enough to get to the bottom of why the pain or the irregularity occurs in the first place. Before deciding about whether or not the pill is the best choice, explore other options and seek ways to change the hormonal imbalance that may be present, or if you can, at least give the pituitary-ovary pathway time to get established.
As far as moods are concerned, what breaks my heart is seeing a young woman start menstruating, with very heavy periods and some weight gain despite still eating well, disappear into her mind with her own private focus on sad thoughts. This can be the first time ever that a girl experiences a tendency to depression, and her family is often bereft and concerned at the change in their girl. The most common intervention in this situation is the prescription of the pill. But because the pill does not correct what is likely to be slow-starting, or insufficient, progesterone, the young woman’s mood doesn’t lift, despite her periods now being regulated (by the pill). So she is encouraged by well-meaning adults to take an antidepressant. She is not even halfway through her teens, and she is on two of the most powerful medications in the Western world.
There are times when conventional medicine is lifesaving, and I am not suggesting it be avoided at all costs, especially not at the cost of precious human life. What I am encouraging, initially, is the balancing of estrogen and progesterone through natural methods with an experienced health professional. Counseling at the same time may also be incredibly beneficial to assist in dealing with the new darker thoughts that may have arisen. My holistic approach means also discussing any fears this young woman may have about her perception of what it means to be an adult woman. It can also be the first time she ever feels fleshy, puffy, or bloated, and, to a young mind influenced so heavily by popular magazines, it is easy to understand why she can think she is fat when all she is, is estrogen-dominant for the first time. As I said earlier, it is not physically possible to gain three kilos of fat in one day. It is most likely due to fluid and, given the diuretic action of progesterone, a deficiency of this vital hormone is one of the likely culprits of this young woman’s fleshy and uncomfortable feelings.
Menopause
At its simplest level, menopause is the ceasing of the ovarian production of hormones. But production continues from the adrenal glands and body fat. However, as explained earlier, many women now make insufficient amounts of progesterone from their adrenals because of chronic stress. In my experience, this is such a powerful factor in whether a woman breezes through menopause with few or no debilitating symptoms, or whether the heat and the sleeplessness become overwhelming. If you are approaching menopause, I cannot encourage you enough to ensure your adrenal function is optimal. Apply the adrenal care techniques described earlier in this book, using breathing strategies and herbal support, combined with lifestyle changes where possible.
If you are post-menopausal, I also can’t encourage you enough to address adrenal health and liver health (covered in the next chapter). Heat from the body can certainly be due to low estrogen levels or liver congestion. If I meet a client who has tried all sorts of natural estrogen therapies and used herbs that have an estrogenic action such as black cohosh, and they are still overwhelmingly hot and suffering debilitating hot flushes, I will treat their liver with the strategies outlined in Puzzle Piece 4, The Liver.
Remember that in traditional circles, menopause is a time when wisdom begins to flow constantly. Trust what you already know inside of you when it comes to your health. You innately know better than anyone else what is best for you. Seek guidance from health professionals, but apply what resonates for you.
Menstruation and menopause are feminine and very natural processes. They offer an incredible insight into a woman’s general health, as well as a window into her inner world of unconscious thoughts and beliefs. These thoughts and beliefs drive so much of what we do and how we feel, and can be a barometer guiding her to remember what she was born knowing… that she is loveliness embodied.
Signs your sex hormones need support
Your periods are heavy
Your periods contain clots
Your periods are painful
You experience a heavy, dragging feeling as the menstrual blood passes
Your breasts are swollen and/or tender in the lead up to menstruation
You regularly experience headaches or migraines in the lead up to menstruation
You experience mood swings in the lead up to menstruation—or at the same time each month, for example around ovulation—which swing anywhere from immense irritability to intense sadness, sometimes in the same hour, and often for no reason you can fathom!
You experience PMS
You’ve been diagnosed with a condition such as PCOS, endometriosis or fibroids
Your skin breaks out with your cycle
Your menstrual cycle is irregular
You are experiencing a debilitating menopause
Acne started at puberty and it hasn’t resolved
Weight gain occurred at puberty for the first time (can also be food-related and/or emotional)
A tendency toward low moods occurred at puberty for the first time (can also be food-related and/or emotional)
You retain fluid and this is worse in the lead up to menstruation
You feel anxious in the lead up to menstruation
You crave foods, often sweets, more so in the lead up to menstruation
You feel a deep fatigue in the lead up to menstruation
You are having challenges conceiving
You have “unexplained infertility”
Your bowel habits change (either to constipation or diarrhea) in the lead up to, or during, menstruation
Your head feels “foggy” in the lead up to menstruation
You take painkillers during menstruation
Most months you have a day/s off due to menstruation challenges
You feel like you can’t get your breath past your heart (and down into your belly) in the lead up to menstruation
You have pimples/congested skin/acne on your back or chest
“Unexplained” weight gain, particularly around the abdomen and hips
Cold hands and feet. This is worse in the lead up to menstruation
Tendency toward yellow-tinged skin (which is not caused by other factors, such as a liver disease)
You experience poor (or worse) sleep quality in the lead up to menstruation.
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p; SEX HORMONES SOLUTIONS
For all the challenges discussed in this chapter, focus on the gifts of your feminine essence, while the following solutions give more specific advice.
For menstrual or reproductive system
If you have any type of menstrual cycle or reproductive system challenges, take a four-week break from alcohol or, better still, take a break from it for two menstrual cycles. You’ll see your PMS significantly decrease.
If this solution is “impossible,” decrease alcohol intake to two nights a week, and preferably drink less than half a bottle of wine. I meet so many women who drink a minimum of half a bottle of wine every night. We were never designed to drink in this way. Decrease it.
Coffee can be another big-ticket item when it comes to PMS, via liver congestion. Consider swapping coffee for green tea for four weeks, and see how you feel.
For estrogen dominance (which can be confirmed with a saliva or a blood test)
Products containing broccoli sprouts.
Diindolylmethane (DIM), an extract of broccoli.
Organic green drinks: powdered/ground green vegetables and grasses that you add to water. The reason juices and smoothies aren’t listed here is that often people add too much fruit to them in an attempt to make them palatable. Good-quality, organic green powders offer concentrated sources of some key active ingredients that help support efficient liver detoxification, particularly estrogen metabolism.
Products containing curcumin, turmeric, or beetroot can also assist.
Note: I am all for getting what we need from our food, but, in this case, you would need to eat about eight heads of broccoli a day to get the same therapeutic effect as one good-quality capsule (from a reputable, quality-assured brand) containing broccoli sprouts or similar.
Menopause strategies
For hot flashes (flushes) consider whether the heat is coming from low estrogen, liver/gallbladder congestion, or both?
For low estrogen, black cohosh and sage can be useful.
For the liver/gallbladder, globe artichoke, St Mary’s thistle, bupleurum, or schisandra are excellent.
For adrenal support, rhodiola can be brilliant if you are also exhausted or Siberian ginseng or withania.
For low blood pressure, licorice is excellent.
Magnesium.
For PMS
You may experience one or a number of different PMS patterns at once, and find the following table describes the different types of PMS—the mechanisms involved and the potential treatments.
SYMPTOMS MECHANISM POTENTIAL
TREATMENT
PMT-1 Anxiety
Nervous tension
Irritability
Mood swings
Insomnia Elevated estrogen
Low progesterone
High cortisol Vitex
Dong quai
Vitamin B
DIM
PMT-2 Water and sodium retention
Abdominal
bloating
Weight gain
Breast tenderness Elevated
aldosterone (fluid)
Low dopamine Dandelion leaves
Vitamin B
Vitex
Rhodiola
PMT-3 Craving sugar
Increased appetite
Can’t resist refined sugar, followed by palpitation and fatigue
Dizziness,
shakiness,
headache Low magnesium
Deficiency of prostaglandin
PGE1 (low in anti-inflammatory substances)
Elevated insulin Magnesium
Essential fats;
Udo’s oil or fish oil or a flax oil and evening primrose oil combination
Cinnamon
PMT-4 Period pain and clots Elevated prostaglandin
PGE2 (pro-inflammatory; increases inflammation in the body)
Deficiency of anti-inflammatory substances
Possible magnesium deficiency Bupleurum if clots
Dong quai
Magnesium
Essential fats, fish oil, flax oil if vegetarian
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Puzzle Piece 4 The Liver
When it comes to fat burning, the liver packs a mighty punch. In conjunction with the gallbladder, it works endlessly to help us excrete fatty substances, including stored body fat. The best way to imagine the fat-burning power of the liver accurately is to picture a triangle shape on its side, and inside that triangle are billions and billions of little circles, each one of them a liver cell. Inside each liver cell is a mouse on a wheel running and running and running, and each turn of the billions of little wheels is contributing to driving your metabolism.
When we treat our liver unkindly, a circle (liver cell) can die. For a time, the liver can regenerate a dead cell, but, after a while, this is no longer possible, and a globule of fat will take up residence where once that fat-burning little “mouse” was working. When many fat globules take over the liver (known as “fatty liver”), our body-fat deposition pattern shifts. For the first time, people notice that they have a fat roll quite high up on their abdomen. For women, this is just below their bra line and, for men, just beneath their pectoral muscles. It can come and go, and sometimes there is a point right in the middle of your torso that is tender. I will always suggest ways to support your liver based on the presence of a fat roll in that position and gallbladder support based on that tender point.
It is not, however, only fat burning itself where the liver plays a role in body-fat management. The liver also guides other areas of metabolism, including cholesterol and estrogen, which are important to understand when it comes to health in general, as well as accessing fat to burn.
The nutrients you need for detoxification
The liver is the body’s second largest organ after our skin (although if you count the endothelium—the thin layer of cells that line all of the blood vessels and lymphatic vessels—as an organ the liver is the third biggest organ). It sits just behind your right rib cage. Its primary role is detoxification, a concept surrounded by much confusion. Detoxification is a process that goes on inside us, all day every day, and is essentially a transformation process in which any substance that would be harmful to you, if it were to accumulate, is changed by the liver into a less harmful form, so it can then be excreted safely from your body and gone forever. The lifestyle choices we make influence how efficiently the liver is able to do its job.
There are technically three stages to the liver detoxification process; however, nothing is lost and it tends to be easier to understand if I simply explain it as a two-step process.
The two stages to the detoxification process are appropriately named phase 1 and phase 2 liver detoxification pathways. Figure 10 opposite illustrates the phases of detoxification. Both stages require certain nutrients to function, and dietary choices can influence how efficiently each phase is able to proceed.
For the first stage of detoxification, numerous nutrients, including B vitamins, are essential. Grains are one of the richest sources of B vitamins we have in the food supply, yet many people feel much better eating fewer, if any, of these foods. People decrease or cut grains out of their diets for varied reasons. Some first experienced rapid weight loss with the advent of the high-protein, very low-carbohydrate diets, purported as the answer to all of our weight loss desires in the late 1990s—a repeat of the popular dietary concept from the 1970s. Some people simply started to notice that foods made from grains gave them reflux or made their tummy bloated and took action to change how they felt.
Figure 10: Detoxification Pathways in the Liver
If grains feel good for you and energize you, then enjoy them in whole-food form. If they don’t suit you, don’t eat them. Your body knows best what works for you. Simply be aware that if you have a low intake of B vitamins, your phase 1 liver detoxification processes may not function optimally. It can be useful to take a supplement if you eat a low-carbohydrate diet or avoid or limit grains.
There is one road in
to the liver (the phase 1 pathway) and five pathways out of it (the phase 2 pathways). Just as for phase 1 reactions, phase 2 liver pathways also require certain nutrients to function, in particular, specific amino acids and sulfur.
Really think about this next statement: What you eat becomes part of you. The protein foods you eat are broken down into amino acids, and one of the things they go on to create is all of the cells of your immune system, which defends you from infection. Amino acids also go on to create the neurotransmitters in your brain that influence your mood and clarity of thought. They also build your muscles so that you can carry your groceries and children. It really does matter what we eat. Your food becomes part of you.
We obtain dietary sulfur from eggs, onions, garlic, and shallots, as well as the brassica family of vegetables, which includes broccoli, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. The liver makes enzymes that are responsible for the transformation of each substance, and the rate of production of these essential enzymes determines how quickly each substance is processed. If there are nutrient deficiencies, the amount of and that rate at which liver enzymes can be made, will be compromised. The load placed on the liver as a result of—for example—dietary choices, environmental factors, gut health, and estrogen metabolism also determines how quickly things move through the liver.
