Could this be your daughter?
Last week I discussed the painful disappointment women face when they believe they have been doing the right thing for their health, to only discover down the line that it actually created deeper and more ser
ious problems. It is frustrating as a health practitioner to see so many women, under ill advice, actually exacerbate the root causes of the menstrual symptoms they are trying to fix. This issue must be taken more seriously by all women as it not only impacts their fertility and overall sense of wellbeing, but also the next generations to come.
Today I will share a case story from the youngest group of women I typically see in my practice. It is important to note this is a very common case which would conventionally be treated with hormonal birth control to suppress symptoms.
Young Girls with Menstrual Imbalances: Beth’s Story
I am always uplifted by the opportunity to address elimination imbalances early in a young woman’s life because our work together not only establishes a symptom-free healthy adulthood, but will benefit any future generation she may choose to have. This young lady, if she stays on this path, now understands she can actually impact her own health and well-being and won’t face the issues her mother or grandmother had with chronic symptoms like uterine fibroids, menstrual hemorrhaging and ovarian cancer setting in during their 40’s.
Beth, a shy and scholarly 15 year old, was brought to my office by her mother for help due to prolonged and painful menses of 7 days followed by up to another 7 days of clear discharge. The discharge would have barely ended and she would begin bleeding again. Beth also shared that she regularly experienced frequent loose bowel movements and woke during the night to urinate —both clear signs her kidneys were working very hard, yet still could not keep up.
Here’s What I Saw:
Based on my intake and her symptoms of skin issues, dry/brittle hair and nighttime head perspiration, I suspected Beth had a very low vitality and high state of inflammation. The discharge and pain she experienced only confirmed that her body was highly inflamed. Her body was using her uterus to dump the acids not removed by the bowels and kidneys. At the same time, her body was attempting to use as many emergency exits as possible to clean the wastes not being eliminated by her kidneys—her skin, her bowels, her vagina, and she had chronic sinusitis.
Here’s What I Did:
While I had experience with a known protocol that would address the vaginal discharge directly, I was concerned the intensity of the drainage would trigger an aggravation in her urinary tract. It was clear to me I needed to regulate Beth’s bowels first (frequent loose stools) which would keep the kidneys from working so hard (night urination) to then take the pressure off the uterus so it was not in a constant cleaning mode. Because her body was dumping acids through her bowels and her uterus, it was necessary for the first protocol to support her kidneys at this stage in the process. Beth began by taking three gemmotherapy extracts—Blueberry and Birch Sap each morning and Lingonberry each evening.
We also had a serious talk about diet. To begin with she needed to alkalize her body, so I suggested she begin by eating the all fruit breakfast to help her lymphatic system get off to a good start each morning. I also know dairy products are not kind whatsoever to women with menstrual symptoms of any sort. Beth was a yogurt lover and that was going to be a hard change for her. I suggested she get started with the fruit in the morning and the Gemmo protocol and see for herself how her next menses went. If she saw some results she may be more inclined to make the switch off dairy. Beth felt that was fair.
Here’s What Happened:
After two weeks Beth reported she was now only having 2 bowel movements daily as opposed to 4 or more and while she did have a painful menses, it was much shorter in length and with 50% less cramping than in the past. These were all good signs her body was beginning to respond. While she was still waking at night to urinate, it was only once compared to three times indicting her kidneys were not working so hard. She also reported she was willing to go dairy free the next month to see if she could improve her symptoms further. That was a very mature decision for a 15 year old and the right one.
After a total of six weeks on the protocol and the dietary changes, much of the inflammation had come down and Beth’s next menstrual cycle increased in length to 21 days. Our goal would be 28-30 days, however, my experience has been with cases like it often takes until the 3rd or 4th cycle to get there. Much depends on how compliant clients are with changing their diet and routinely taking their Gemmos.
While there is still plenty of work ahead for us, it is clear this first stage of Gemmotherapy treatment is getting Beth’s body out of the acute inflammatory state she was in and beginning to balance elimination.
Final Thoughts:
Had Beth’s mom taken the conventional or allopathic path for her daughter’s symptoms, the underlying cause would never be addressed. Once Beth decided in her 20’s or 30’s to stop the birth control to get pregnant, she very likely would face great difficulty with conception because her body would have an incredible build-up of lymphatic wastes and be in a state of acidosis. This build-up of waste impairs organ function, particularly reproductive organs. Because birth control meds suppress and alter normal menstruation, those organs have not had an opportunity to clean for years! Future fertility is not always the first thing on our minds when we see our daughters struggle with painful periods, but it needs to be. It’s often hard for us to imagine the distant future, so it might be easier to sum it up this way: any action that decreases by one third the body’s ability to rid itself of wastes leads nowhere other than chronic inflammatory dis-ease. I encourage all of my clients to pause and mindfully consider any “solution” that would impair the long-term health and well-being of their daughters—even if those solutions seem to resolve the current symptoms. It’s very important for everyone to know there is a natural, holistic path that eliminates the symptoms because it deals directly with the root of the problem.
While I will be moving off the topic of women’s health for the next four weeks to share my adventures and findings in Europe, it is by no means the end to this discussion. It is far too near and dear to me to drop and a dialogue I want to see in a much wider arena than just this blog. Please do share this information with your female family members, friends and colleagues. We can change the course of women’s health care from the grassroots level, but only if we inform one another and take the steps required.