The 21^st Century Woman - Part I

Mood swings, anxiety, depression, hot flashes, bloating and low libido… sound familiar?  PMS and menopausal symptoms have become part of our culture.  Why is this?  Why are so many women affected with these issues?  It really boils down to hormonal imbalances.  The trick is figuring out what is causing these hormonal imbalances.  One thing is for certain though; it is not a deficiency in Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa or Lexapro.  Unfortunately, lifestyle and Natural Medicine options are not readily offered to the 21^st Century Woman.  Many women used to get symptomatic relief from hormone replacement therapy.  Then with some of the research findings from the Women’s Health Initiative (one of the largest studies ever to evaluate the safety of hormone replacement therapy for women), women stopped using hormones.  The Women’s Health Initiative found that synthetic hormones derived from horse urine left patients at an increased risk for cancer, heart attack and stroke.  The travesty of this is that the media did not clarify that there are other options to synthetic hormones.  For example, bio-identical hormones (identical to what your body makes) and herbs, can both be safely used to help women feel better.  Key concept: synthetic hormones are vastly different from bio-identical hormones and herbal remedies. 

So what about birth control for symptomatic relief?  According to the National Cancer Institute birth control may increase your risk of heart disease and breast cancer.  Birth control is generally in the form of synthetic hormones.  While improvements have been made in synthetic hormones since the Women’s Health Initiative findings, not all the problems have been worked out.  Additionally, your brain controls and monitors levels of hormones in your body.  There is a delicate control loop between your brain and ovaries which is damaged from using birth control.  If you’re taking birth control solely

for symptomatic relief, then you may want to seriously consider finding a cause-based care plan. 

Back to the causes of PMS and menopausal symptoms.  Diet of course plays an important role.  For women who are willing to have a chicken salad instead of chicken salad sandwich for lunch you might find near complete relief from diet and nutrition alone.  All you may need is the guidance of someone who knows how to use nutrition clinically. 

Toxins are another pervasive issue.  The reason women should be concerned about toxins is because many toxins function as estrogens in the body.  Pesticides, fertilizers, plastics and household chemicals have all been proven, in a plethora of studies, to function as estrogens in the body and have been correlated with cancer of the breast and brain, depression, anxiety, obesity, infertility and thyroid problems just to name a few.    

So does this mean that every woman with PMS and menopausal symptoms has to be on a diet of wheat grass and rice cakes, and live in a bubble devoid of toxins?  No.  Of course not.  However, for ideal results a patient would want to eat healthier to feel better, practice toxin avoidance, do some detox work and use some herbal medicine if needed.  Although, even for the woman who isn’t willing to make any changes, there are options.  Try an herbal medicine before going on birth control or an anti-depressant (which can have serious side effects).  This is not to say medications are bad, they have their time and place.  Key Concept: medications (including synthetic hormones) should be the last choice after diet/lifestyle, nutritional medicine, herbal medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement are tried. 

We are now realizing that health isn’t something a doctor does to you.  Health is something you participate in with your doctor or health professional.  With this in mind, it is my goal to help educate people so that they are empowered to take control of their health.    I invite you to attend one of my public lectures or watch one of my upcoming videos where I review new scientific research and discuss how we can implement this new information in order move from a dogmatic, symptom and pharmaceutical based model towards that of a patient centered, cause-focused, participation based approach.  Upcoming topics include: women’s health, diabetes, toxins, gluten allergies and high blood pressure.  I hope to see you there. 

For more info visit www.DrRuscio.com  or email @ office@DrRuscio.com 

The 21^st Century Woman – Part II

Herbal Medicines for PMS and Menopause

By Dr. Michael Ruscio

Many women have heard about anti-depressants or birth control for their PMS and menopausal symptoms, but what about natural herbal alternatives?  Let’s take a moment to discuss what herbal medicines have to offer the 21^st century woman so that you are aware of all your options.  

In my last article we laid a good foundation, discussing the most common causes of female hormone imbalances.  If you didn’t read the article, the main premise was PMS and menopausal symptoms are usually caused by hormonal imbalances.  Building on this foundation, let’s continue with natural treatments. 

We first need to break down female hormone imbalances as causing two different categories of symptoms; neurological and physical.  Of course the mental and physical symptoms are linked and do influence one another, but to help understand natural treatments it helps to discuss them separately.  

Neurological symptoms typically result from an imbalance in brain hormones, technically known as neurotransmitters.  There are 3 hormones that are of importance.  They are serotonin, dopamine and GABA.  Serotonin makes you feel happy and helps you sleep. Dopamine helps you focus, be energized/motivated, learn and not feel overwhelmed. GABA helps you relax.  Most anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications work to increase serotonin, dopamine and GABA.  

Natural medicines and conventional pharmaceutical drugs can both increase serotonin, dopamine and GABA.  However, natural medicines may provide a safer alternative as the side effects are usually mild to none. Please don’t take my word for it though; we will discuss what current science is showing in a moment. 

Before we do, let’s address the physical symptoms associated with PMS and menopause.  Most physical symptoms are caused by fluctuations or imbalances in estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen and progesterone share a yin-yang relationship, meaning they have to be in the proper balance relative to one another for a woman to feel well.  The beauty of herbal medicines is that they can restore your hormones to the appropriate level whether they are high or low.  This is referred to as a process called adaptogenicity.  Let’s take a brief look at what modern science is showing. 

For all of the following scientific research studies I will provide an ID number.  If you would like to see this study yourself, simply go to www.pubmed.com and type the ID number in the search box.

A very well performed study (17461529) found that combining the herbs Black Cohosh and St. John’s Wort provided significant relief for menopausal symptoms, especially hot flashes.  Shortly after this study, another was published (15863547) showing that in the 304 women studied, Black Cohosh was again an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms. 

Another very effective herb is Chaste Tree (aka Vitex Agnus).  A study published in 2010 (20334585) showed that Chaste Tree was effective for treating PMS symptoms.  In fact, all measured PMS symptoms (mood, water retention, food cravings and pain) were significantly reduced within 3 months of treatment.  Another study of 170 women (11159568) showed a similar positive effect on PMS with Chaste Tree. 

If you’re asking yourself, aren’t drugs more powerful?  You might find this interesting.  A study comparing an anti-depressant medication to Chaste Tree (aka vitex agnus) showed nearly identical improvements in PMS symptoms (12672170).  Let’s not forget about intimacy.  A review of 26 published studies showed DHEA provided mood and libido improvements for women with adrenal fatigue (17208951). 

Herbal medicines have much to offer the 21^st century woman.  One word of caution though, please be careful not to self-diagnose and treat.  A skilled clinician can ensure proper use of herbal medicines, especially when it comes to navigating issues of quality control and dose. 

If PMS or menopausal symptoms are bothering you, there is help.  Invest the time and energy to feel better.  Your family, friends, loved ones, and especially You deserve to have the healthiest, happiest version of you. 

For more info, visit Dr. Ruscio’s youtube page, www.youtube.com/michaelruscio, view his recent newsletter, http://conta.cc/oxAiNR, or emailDrRuscio@movepastyourpain.com.   Dr. Michael Ruscio is the director of Functional Medicine at Johnson Chiropractic Group, 115 Town & Country Dr., Suite E in Danville.  925.743.8210