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