By Femi Kusa
Menstruation is no big deal for some women. A small pimple or two on the face or on the abdomen are all the early warning signals they get of an impending “red army” or “red flag” on the way. Other women go under the covers. Such women may writh in pains, need injections of all sorts to stabilise their bodies.
Other women bleed heavily not once or two times but sometimes about three within a monthly cycle. The blood may come in black clumps, suggesting poor circulation in the uterus and de-oxygenation or shortage of oxygen. Tissues deprived oxygen may become weak and installmentally die or, whichever case, become playgrounds for bacteria, viruses, fungi or growths such as uterine fibroids. Some women suffer from Premenstrual Syndrome(PMS), bloating all over, including in the breasts which may be sore to touch, craving for all kinds of foods and behaviorally becoming irritable. It is at this time that some women cannot hold the secret of a vagina infection by bacteria, candida, fungi, parasites or other pathogens for the menstruation awfully smells. Some women who feel their lives are mangled by menstruation often wish they were men.
Before we talk about the myriad of herbs that, singly or in combination with other herbs, can reverse erratic menstrual cycles and adjunct problem, I wish to pose a question which has engaged the attention of some researchers for about fifty years. That question is “Is menstruation a natural phenomenon or unnatural one”? We tend to believe that something is natural until otherwise disproven to be unnatural. Uri Geller (born December 20, 1946) demolished the long held idea that humans were imbued with only five senses … sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. This Israeli-British man taught our generation that there is a sixth sense…..The Psychic sense. There were many stories about him. From my recollections of some of them in the 1970s, Uri Geller must have had a fall he knocked his head on an object. The knock transforms his brain (or is it the mind?) to see what many of us cannot see and, likewise, for what is beyond the five senses. He was said to see human organs as if his eyes were an x-ray machine or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine. Uri Geller was well known for his spoon and key bending exploits on television and outside the tube. He would ask anyone who wished to discover the phenomenon of Mind over Matter to hold a metallic object in his/her hands or to focus on any, while he did the same at his end. Spoons and keys bent everywhere. Many women were so scared that they demanded the TV programmes be stopped. Some people described Uri Geller as an illusionist and a magician . Whatever he may be, Uri Geller led us by the hand as though we were babies or children out of a material world fixated on five senses(sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) unto a higher ground of Psychokinesis, Telepathy and all that. We are still a long, long journey, though, from the minutest test of human spiritual abilities where, thoughts are immediately deed, where a thousand years of human material experience is like one day. That is why a knowing one would admonish us to work more with nature, a human benefactor because your “master pieces are not yet here”. At best, and thanks to people like Uri Geller, we are still at the Pyschic level but it is a much, much better and comfortable world to live in simultaneously with living in the world of the five senses, disproven by Uri Geller to be the ultimate sensory perceptions.
Today, just as we talk about Extra-Sensory Perceptions(ESPs), Out Of Body Experiences(OBEs), Psychic Energy, some researchers are wondering if menstruation is not a disease. They link their belief to evidence of some female animals specie in the wild which do not menstruate but are nevertheless fertile and reproductive. They also have evidence of some human women who, like this animals, disobey the notion that menstruation is tied to reproductive capacity. In one section of their book, The New Raw Energy Leslie and Barbara Kenton informed us of a study which suggests that a woman’s body was not designed to menstruate. Women who were fed large amounts of Beta Carotene, the precursor of Vitamin A, stopped menstruating but remained fertile, got pregnant and, almost effortlessly, bore bouncing babies.
Does the story of these exceptional women tell us anything? I met one of them from Benue State more than 30 years ago at a Goethe Institute Seminar on Alternative Medicine. She was ostracised from her community because she had three children and she was not menstruating. Let us not forget that Calabar people, too, used to see twin babies as bad omen and kill them at birth until Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary, educated them out of this habit. She died on January 13, 1915 aged 66 and was buried in Duke town, Calabar. It was too ordinary, in my view, for a woman who spent her live serving a people, including thousands of twins who are probably alive today because of her selflessness.
What the story of the women who do not menstruate but are fertile and reproductive tells me is that, we humans, the female species in particular, may have disconnected from such diets as would make menstruation unnecessary and impossible. The women who menstruate without much ado are probably nearer that diet than those who convulse, so to say, at the “red” time of month.
Menstrual health
We are back on track. In Alternative medicine circles, the newest ways and means of addressing health challenges, including those of Erratic Menstruation and Adjunct Diseases, are brought out from under the bushell yearly through thousands of specialised conferences in various continents and major cities. The calendar for this year’s conferences is out. Many will be held this month. From the several held in late last year, this column is visiting the 2020 Traditional Roots Herbal Conference Presentation, during which Dr. Kathryn Kloss made a presentation on Botanical Allies For Menstrual Health.
According to her introduction at the conference, Kathryn Kloss is “… an obstetrician-gyneacologist in Livonia, Michigan and is affiliated with St. Mary Mercy Hospital. She received her medical degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and has been in practice between six and 10 years”.
Dr. Kloss said congestions in the liver, poor blood circulation and the inflammation of these organs were major culprits in several menstrual disorders and did not fail, with new evidence, to remind us of the age of old herbal warheads against these troubles. Kloss listed some of these as “Black cohosh, Vitex, Shatavari, Macca, Yellow Pond Lily, Pulsatilla, Red root, Peony, Horse chest nut and Yarrow”.
Congested liver
Many physicians associate congested liver with almost every health challenge. The liver may be congested with fats, toxins, drug residues such as those of Acetaminophen (Panadol) or flood of blood not received by a failing heart and backing up in the liver, or disease such as hepatitis. When the heart cannot pump blood upward, there is a back up in the Inferior Vena Cava, the veins which bring blood to it from the lower parts of the body. This causes congestion, also in the circulatory system of the reproductive system, which may witness congealed or deoxygenated blackish blood clots in the menstrual flow. The toxins and metabolic waste of the cells not promptly evacuated may cause irritation, inflammation, pain, disarrangement of work order, disorientation, more menstrual cycles in one cycle, etc. Infectious diseases may cause Pelvic Inflammation Diseases(PID) which may inhibit fertility or damage the organs.
Black Cohosh
The flowers, but more especially the root, are popular in Europe and America to relieve the symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes and brittle bones. These symptoms occur as women age and the ovaries begin to under produce estrogen, one of the two major female hormones. Black Cohosh is estrogenic and helps to fill the gap. It is a friend of that woman who marries late, wishes to delay menopause, cessation of menstruation, and get pregnant, or that younger woman whose menstrual cycle is irregular.
Black Cohosh is made of different chemical compounds which exert biological actions in different parts of the body. Some have Serotonin like effects on the nerves and brain, maintaining a healthy balance between wakefulness in day time and sleep at night. The root is believed, also, to be anti-inflammatory and to activate immunity. As excessive estrogen is linked to breast cancer, studies have been done in test tubes to check the anti-cancer potential of Black Cohosh extracts. They were found to slow the growth and spread of cancer cells. Where ovarian insufficiency is the cause of disproportionate size in lower trunk, Black Cohosh may balance the estrogen shortfall and help the obtuseness. Although studies on Black Cohosh and ovulation and fertility are few, there are some reports that a combination of the herb and Clomid, a pharmaceutical agent, achieve good results. Many women use Black Cohosh to also overcome Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome(PCOS), uterine fibroids and Premenstrual Syndrome(PMS).
Vitex
In a 2013 publication of the journal Plant Amedical, the findings of 12 clinical trials suggested Vitex may help Premenstrual syndrome. In a 2014 publication in Advance Therapy, it helped PMS in 60 women aged between 18 and 44 over three menstrual cycles.
Vitex affects the levels of Prolactin in the bloodstream, and the blood levels of estrogen as well. Too much estrogen sometimes, if not often or always, associates with menstrual cramps and pain and some breast problems, including cancer. Too much estrogen may ignite too much prolactin. Too much prolactin, sometimes excites nipple secretions outside lactation, may block the ovaries, prevent ovulation, bar fertility. Vitex rebalances these hormones and paved the way for regularised menstruation and fertility, especially in the presence of Zinc. Accordingly, high estrogen blood levels decrease and blood Progesterone levels raise as does the blood level of Leutenising Hormone (LH).
Macca
A long time ago in Peru, some animals were observed always feeding more on a particular plant named Macca. They produced more offsprings than other animals, the young ones came with heavier birth weight and they hardly suffered infertile deaths. The secrets were the hormones in the plant they ate. Today, as before the Peruvian observation, Macca rule was used to boost fertility and sex drive, and energy.
Chatavari
Hold it! This herb is also known as Asparagus. An adaptogenic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, Chitavaris is well known as a Kidney Cleanser and a fertility herb. An article published in the American Herbalist Guide says it may prevent kidney stones. When a woman overcomes menstrual difficulties, her next dream often is a healthy pregnancy and a bouncing baby from an easy birthing process. Many reports on Asparagus(Chitavaris) supports the goal with a high output of Folate or Vitamin B9. This is the bedrock of Folic acid given to pregnant women in hospitals. Folate helps in pre-pregnancy and early pregnancy to prevent fetal discomfeatures as Spina bifida and neural tube defects, both of which can cause a wide range of complications. There poroblems may include learning difficulties, physical disability and loss of bowel control.
In intake open.com, a review of the “medical properties of Asparagus species” was carried out by Polo-Ma-Abide, Hildah Mfengwana and Samson Sithen Mashes, published in 2019 they say: “Asparagus for ages is a female reproductive tonic as it prevents abortion and promotes the health of the mother and growing fetus when used in antenatal care. This plant also increases lactation and is useful for the treatment of gyneacological diseases when used in post-natal care”. There are many useful benefits of this plant reported outside the terrain of female troubles.
Yellow Pond Lily
A folk remedy for infertility made from the alkaloid root has been used to treat sexual irritability among other female malaise. Potentially toxic in large doses, this plant is, nevertheless, a beneficial remedy rolled into one when taken in moderation. It is an aphrodisiac for men and women who are going frigid.
This aphrodisiac nature kills the sexual desire or a burdensome appetite. It is also a pain killer, and this may make it useful in menstrual cramps and painful menstruation. It combats scrofula(the symptoms of tuberculosis outside the lungs). The astringent properties, like those of Stinging Nettle, Shepherd’s Purse and Nimosa Pudica, should be of great value for women who excessively bleed or for too long during periods. Where the pain of menstruation disturbs sleep, this plant has pain killers, sedative chemicals and demulcent properties that may help.
Red Root
Native to Northeast America like Black Cohosh, this root has been used for hundreds of years to treat infections “cold, pneumonia, digestive problems, toothache and urinary tract infection in women”, according to Anne Danalug in www.healthline.com. There is, also, the report that “one small study tested the effect of taking Red Root in a small group of people with Thalassesia, an inherited blood disorder that often requires blood transfusion that can cause an enlarged “spleen and liver”. The researchers gave 38 persons Red root “along with standard medication, they did have improved blood test results, a longer time between blood transfusion, and a reduction in spleen size compared with when they took standard medication alone”. But since other herbs were used in the medication, there was no clarity about which herb did what. It is possible Kathryn Kloss brought Red root to the conference and workshop because of its effects on the liver and the spleen as congestion of the liver is said to be the cause of female reproductive system problems.
Horse Chest Nut
Like Butcher’s broom, Horse Chest Nut improves blood circulation to the lower parts of the body caused by venous insufficiency symptoms. Association with this condition includes varicose veins, swelling of the legs, itchy legs, pains or cramps in the legs, loss of energy in the legs or legs ulcers. Horse chest nut is good, also, for varicose veins. It has a chemical called Aescin which neutralises inflammation, a cause of fluid building up. Hemorrhoids or piles are what many people know Horse chest nut for. In male infertility caused by varicocelle, swelling of veins behind the testes, the anti-inflammatory and anti-swelling properties of Horse chest nut do help. It is contradicted in kidney and liver diseases.
Pulsatilla
This can be a toxic and poisonous plant. The homeopathic form is much, much safer. It helps pain in the male reproductive system. An example is swollen testicle or epididymitis. In females, it addresses painful menstrual cramps, pains almost everywhere in the body.
Yarrow
Yarrow is well known for many uses, but we are limited here to its uses in such women’s ailments as inflammation, thinning of menstrual blood clots, non-alcoholic liver disease, one of those liver problems which has cause Venus insufficiency in the reproductive organs.
Peony
Limited to female concerns, this herb may lift the mood, furnish more estrogen, improve blood flow and reduce inflammations.
Clean Woman
This is a bonus recipe for women which Kathryn Kloss did not mention but addresses ovarian questions, blocked tubes, menstrual disorders, uterine fibroids, urinary tract infections and much more.
According to the audio literature on how to use Clean Woman:
HOW TO USE CLEAN WOMAN
- Open the satch carefully with clean hand and untie the rope
- Lie down, with clean hand and send the pill into the virgina, or use the apprecator to insert it.
- Insert the pill into the mouth of the apprecator and push it into the virgina.
- Allow it into your body for 72 hours, that is, for three days.
THE GREEN SATCHET IN THE PACK
The green sachet Tea:
- Boil the tea the same way as lipton
- Take it to the bathroom.
- Wash your hands clean with running water.
- Gently remove the pills from your Virgina and begin to pack whatever comes out with your hand and clean up. You may think you have packed enough.
- Pour the already prepared tea you have made into the Virgina dough cane.
- Inside the dough, you will see an apprecator, press the doughing cane and the water will be splashing into the Virgina until the tea finishes.
- Don’t use another one until 24 hours.
- Don’t have sex while it is still in your body. If you wish to have sex, clean up and wait for two hours for your body to relax. This is because it has a way of tightening the virgina.
- Discontinue it three days before your period.
- Don’t use it during your period.
