Tag: Solutions

Can we speak of pain without mentioning menstrual pain?

In today’s poor-diet, simple sugar – overload world where the female hormones hardly balance themselves, menstrual pain may be as common as headaches, neck and muscle pain, nerve pain, joint pain and upper and lower back pain. In the Comet newspaper before it became defunct, one of the female reporters often became a spectacle every month. It was always obvious to almost every one that she was flying the Chinese flag or that her friends, the Reds, were visiting.

Someone else would have to finish her work while she was taken to the clinic where the doctor or the nurse would give her anti-pain and anti-cramp injections. Meanwhile, her friends would have to mop the floor after clearing her vomit. She loved coffee and soft drinks and enjoyed junks food. It was only about last year that she grudgingly agreed to give up coffee after she developed multiple uterine fibroids. Who wouldn’t, who was still expecting the proverbial “fruit of the womb” at almost forty years of age? Many women are like this woman. But many of them are not as lucky because dominance of the estrogen hormone over the progesterone hormone, which may be a source of this problem, may also predispose them to such breast irritation that may, someday, spring up breast lumps or even breast cancer.

 

CAUSES OF MENSTRUAL PAIN

Researchers keep adding to the list of possible causes of menstrual pain. According to www.healthline.com, the check – list may parade 18 possible causes which it ranks in order of severity as:

(1)        “Heavy….

• Heavy, prolonged or irregular menstrual periods
• Endometriosis
• Fibroids
• Fertility
• Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)
• Depression
• Stress and Anxiety
• Fibromyalgia
• Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
• Necrotising vasculition
• Polycystic kidney disease
• Hypopara thyrodism”

Is menstruation natural or a disease?

Today is not the day to examine this idea which I first picked up in THE NEW RAW ENERGY, written by sisters Deborah and Leslie Kenton in the raw food era in Europe, when the eating of especially salads, fruits and greens generally, was advocated by nutrition  activists, researchers and doctors. Raw food, now endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which suggests that about 80 percent of the daily diet be raw, contains lots of organic Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, other minerals, Vitamins, co-factors and trace elements, among many others.

Working synergistically like an orchestra, they provide the body with much, if not all it needs, for a healthy and balanced biochemistry. THE NEW RAW ENERGY featured research findings which showed that women who ate lots of raw food during these studies did not menstruate but were nevertheless fertile and some of them actually became pregnant. This was attributed to high levels of Beta carotene in their bloodstream, and the suggestion that women are menstruating today only because they had low levels of Beta carotene in their system. The information enabled me to  explain what it thought was the circumstance of a young mother of three who was banished from her village in Benue State because she was not menstruating but was fertile, getting pregnant and having babies. Her case was presented at a Gothe Institute health seminar in Lagos I attended. We run the risk of throwing up the floor for a debate of this subject today. But I’d rather not. So, I would only suggest today that it may be possible for some cases of menstrual pain, if not all, be avoided by those women who are prone to this disorder if they get more Beta carotene into their diet.

 

The pain

rguably, the most well known cause of menstrual pain is caused by cramping of muscles in the uterine (womb) wall. Doctors say these muscles contract to expel the inner lining of the uterus, the endometrium, when no pregnancy occurs, despite preparations by the endometrium to receive a fertilised egg and nurse it. The shedding or expulsion occurs because the levels of estrogen and progesterone in the blood decline. These are two hormones which, like the endometrium, would have supported the growth of a fertilised egg. As these hormones are watered down, literally speaking, the endometrium swells up. It is shed by the muscular contractions in what is sighted as the menstrual flow, to be replaced in preparation for another cycle. Contractions of the muscles narrow or constrict vessels which supply the endometrium with blood. Loss of blood supply means loss of oxygen supply, and loss of oxygen supply means death of the endometrium which breaks up in the process of the muscular spams.When the endometrium breaks up, it releases its blood holding into the uterus for expulsion through the Cervix and the virginal. At this time, certain chemicals in the endometrial blood pour into the uterus as the endometrium breaks up, releasing its blood holding. These chemicals include leukotrienes, which are believed to induce cramping of the uterine muscles, and prostaglandins.

There are two types of prostaglandins… the ones which cause inflammation (and pain) and the ones which oppose inflammation and soothe the pain of inflammation. A woman’s diet will determine how much of each she would have in her blood and endometrium. Women who have large amounts of pro-inflammatory prostaglandins are known to suffer almost, if not exactly, the same degree of birthing pain experienced by women who are given pro-inflammatory prostaglandin injection to induce their labour. Thus, for women who suffer severe menstrual pain, the consumption of anti-inflammatory food factors should be the beginning of wisdom. Some of these include Titus fish (the type called original Titus in Nigeria), Sardine. Oily fish contains omega-3 fish oil which is highly anti-inflammatory. Red meat (beef) on the other hand, yield sarachidonic acid which, in turn, fuels inflammation.

In the plant kingdom, flax seed oil offers omega-3 oils as well so does evening Prime rose oil. Vegetable oils produce omega-6 oils which fuel inflammation. We must never forget The Law of Balance, one of the laws of Nature which requires balance in everything, whether in Estrogen or Progesterone, the two major female hormones, or in Omega-3 and omega -6 oils, to maintain balance between inflammation and anti-inflammation responses. There’s little need, I believe, to emphasis now that too much of cooked food and junk foods such as white flour bread and food beef, fries, sugar etc increases acidity which in turn, fuels inflammation, and pain. On the other hand, the health food industry today offers the health–conscious public powderised or micronised forms of alkaline forming foods such as carrot powder, spinach powder, Spirulina powder, kale powder and many others. These may be added to soups, stews, beans, pap, even cassava flour to mineralise, vitaminise, protenise and alkalise them.

WOMEN who experienced blood clots in their menstrual discharge may be candidates for menstrual pain. If their periods are pain free, the blood clots may be a signal for something serious they should worry about. If the endometrium breaks up, and there is a large amount of clots in the blood it releases, and the clots find their way to the cervix for expulsion through the vagina, the pressure these clots exert on the tissue of the cervix may be a source of menstrual pain if the cervix outlet is, for example, too narrow and they have to be forced out. When a woman tells me her period comes with heavy or tiny clots, I suggest she add apple cider vinegar and/or cayenne to her diet. They help to break down the clots so the blood flow can be rich red and fresh. Rich, red menstrual flow suggests a well oxygenated uterus and good blood circulation. In many women, the blood circulation to and from the uterus is sluggish and poor, damaging to the health of this organ. Some women have found that serrapeptase helps to breakdown these clots and even some uterine fibroids, another cause of menstrual pain.

We shouldn’t lose sight of Calcium and Magnesium which should exist in ratio 2:1. Many women are Calcium bound because they do not take enough magnesium in through the diet. Calcium contracts. Magnesium relaxes. Menstrual pain may arise from too much contraction and insufficiency of magnesium to counter balance excess calcium. Thus, magnesium supplements may help troubled women as should the aforementioned greens. In emergencies, I have found magnesium oil and St. John’swort oil helpful. In the cell salt pharmacy, Ferrumphos breaks down clots of all sorts and oxygenates while Mag Phos stamps out cramping, even in palpitations of the heart.

NOTHER source of irritation for the uterus and source of menstrual pain is Lactic acid which the cramps of muscles produce. If you haven’t cut grass or exercised in a long while, and you suddenly overdo it, the pain you experience in your muscles the day after or so is coursed by lactic acid irritation. Lactic acid is a by-product of energy production in the muscles. You need potassium along with alkaline minerals to reutilise it. While Magnesium oil massage may help, it is always beneficial to take potassium-rich foods such as banana, Avocado pear, water Mellon Juice etc. for potassium. Mrs Florence Fusi told me that in her Vermanda region in the Cameroon, banana skin is eaten. I have learned from a woman in Lagos, also, that the herbalist who helped her get rid of uterine fibroids gave her the powder of plantain fruit peel.

Both peels are rich in potassium. The peel of orange or Tangerine or that of any citrus fruit is also good and anti-inflammatory. They help me to easily knock bone pain away.

UTERINE FIBROIDS may be a cause of menstrual pain, especially if they irritate the endometrium and the reproductive cycle. Getting rid of these growths may be easy or complex. Dr. Max Gerson taught the world that oil growth arise from oxygen and potassium deficiency.

I have had testimonials from women who say their fibroid sizes shrank under a good potassium-rich diet. Add to that the balancing of the female hormones with Vitex, Dong qual, yarrow, maharane and the lusertion vaginally of Guffebao or Happy Woman.  Heavy bleeders may become tired and suffer shortness of breath and pain because of anaemia due to iron loss. The proprietary formula Jobelyn should help. So should iron-rich herbs such as kenp, kalebeet root and Spirulina. If fibroids cause excessive bleeding, herbal astringents should help. Yarrow and Chankapiedra help a lot. The fibroids press on the bowels causing constipation, or the bladder, causing frequent urination, appropriate herbs are available for these conditions.

Many women visit their doctors with laboratory reports which suggest that their condition is  P.I.D – driven, yet do not know what to make of Pelvic + inflammatory Disease (P.I.D). This is an infection of the female reproductive organs. These organs include the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, Cervix and Vagina. The Pelvis is in the lower abdomen region. P.I.Ds can cause pain in the lower abdomen, pain in the upper abdomen, fever, painful sex, urination, irregular bleeding, increased or foul smelling vaginal discharge, tiredness”, according to Health line as a PID infection may be dangerous if it gets into the blood stream, holistic treatment is often advisable. Golden seal Root is a favorite natural remedy. It may be supported with Grape seed extract, Cranberry tea (if the urinary tract is infected), colloidal silver taken internally and used as a vaginal wash, Walnut husk and proprietary blends. Sometimes, preparations of these herbs are inserted into the vaginal, and after the therapy, a course of probiotic is undertaken orally and through vaginal insertion.

Finally, today, is the havoc of endometriosis. It arises when endometrial cells from the uterus escapes elsewhere, implants there and begin to grow as if they were still in the uterus. One of the facilitators for this escape is thought to be fat worms which travel from the uterus through the fallopian tubes to the pelvis. Another therapy suggests retrograde menstrual flow, that means that, rather than flow from the uterus through the cervix vagina, menstrual blood flows backwards into the fallopian tubes and the pelvic cavity. In the Pelvis, these cells adhere to tissue, thicken and behave as though they are still resident in the uterus. This may cause scar tissue in disturbed organs such as organs of the bladders, set off inflammation and bleed during the menstrual cycle. Besides, they may cause period pains. As this condition causes blood loss, blood replacement and decomposition important.

Pain therapy is important. Hormonal balance is important as well. Some doctors prefer to put out the ovaries to prevent them from making excess estrogen. But others prefer to normalise ovarian secretions. Ovarian herbs such as Vitex, Blue colosh, St. John’s Wort are good. So is valerian root or leaves to calm the nerves, prime rose oil as well.

When I lived at 3A Emina Crescent, off Toyin Street, Ikeja, Lagos, a trauma hospital next door constantly reminded me of pain. Day and night, agonizing cries from body-wrenching pain sounded like the signature tune of this hospital. And the specialist doctors who worked there would appear to have bundles on their hands. For one set of peculiar cries often quickly gave way to other ones, suggesting that some patients were calming while the hospital was admitting a new set of others.

I hate pain and agony and, so, never ventured into the grounds of this hospital. I have been lucky not to live in pain, except for when, in 1966, I suffered a femur fracture when a taxi knocked me down in Ibadan, and when, in 2000, a terrible toothache sent me to the dentist. It was a 50th birthday toothache and began in the night. I had at home no herbal remedy such as Clove Oil to calm it.

Being unable to bear the head-splitting headache which accompanied the toothache, I dabbled the tooth with an Aloe Vera product which was not meant to be administered internally. And the tooth cracked, worsening the pain.There are two other pain experience I cannot easily forget. The first was a sharp and prolonged pain in both eyes which I experienced in an airplane on my way home from the Netherlands. It was as though pins were being short into each eyeball. Obviously, these were nerve pains and should have educated me well enough to pay more attention to those eyes. Like most people, I forgot about that pain after an almost instant relief from a dose of Aspirin which the cabin attendants gave me. Years after, the underlying cause, glaucoma, was to be woken from slumber, according to my ophthalmologist, by drugs an orthopaedic doctor gave me for suspected rheumatoid arthritis in both shoulders.

When Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) he gave did not appear to work well, he replaced the prescription with Corticosteroids, a more powerful anti-inflammatory regimen, and, according to the eye doctor, this was what exhumed and roused a slumbering volcano. I will not forget, also, post-operative pain after a minor surgery to connect a deviated septum. The septum is that ridge of tissue which separates nostrils, it was possible that I fell as a baby, bled from nose and the blood was stopped but the septum was not properly checked. said Dr. Kunle Okupe, a terrific Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor (now of blessed memory) who carried out the surgery. I had noticed that, if I lay on one side of the body, the septum flipped to cover or block the nostril on that side, leaving me to breathe with only one nostril during sleep. When Dr. Okupe said he would ‘’pack’’ the nostrils after the corrective surgery. I didn’t understand the procedure in all its ramifications. When he finished, cotton wool was stuffed into the nostrils to absorb blood from bleeding tissue. I had to breathe through the mouth for the next 24 hours.

That meant I had to keep awake all night, as the surgery took place in the evening, with severe headache which heavy doses of pain killer, could not contain. But this was only the beginning of post-operative pain. Removal of cotton wool was traumatic as blood clots had glued it to tissue after the cotton wool was removed, cleaning of the Nostrils to remove blood clots was an unforgettable experience. I was free of the cotton wool, dressing every three days to clear the nostrils of blood clots were an unforgettable pain experience.

The experiences of many people with pain are varied. Some people suffer from migraines or tension headache, some from cluster headache. Eye pain is the challenge of others. For some others still, degenerating neck bones may cause a type of arthritis known as cervical spondylosis.

In this condition, the neatly arranged and well aligned neck bones may shift or misalign, pinching a nerve, and this may set off a pain reaction. Surgery may be advised to re-align the bones. But the risk taken may involve the possibility of the surgeon’s knife cutting a nerve and causing paralysis. Sometimes, neck collars are worn to help the condition. If one prefers a chiropractor may be called to knock the bones into shape, but there are not many of them in Nigeria. Peptic ulcer and duodenal ulcer cause pain. Indigestion and other digestive system problems do cause pain. If the blood does not flow well to the organs, pain may arise. And when one organ exceeds its boundary and encroaches on another, such as when the intestine drops on the testes in testicular hernia, pain arise. One time Nigerian military Head of State Gen Ibrahim Babangida once suffered from radiculopathy, inflammation of the radicles, a nervous system condition, which warranted surgery in France. Chronic hypoxia (insufficiency of oxygen in the blood) is another pain factor. Tumours or cancers of any sort are another breeding ground for pain. Even when iron levels (ferritin) are too high in the blood, this causes pain. Many people are challenged with fibromyalgia. Most of the sufferers (about 50 percent) are women.

This is an arthritic condition of the muscles and skeletal system which affect both sides of the body. The symptoms encompass fatigue and sleep disorders. Mrs. Elizabeth Strand, the wife of Dr. Ray Strand, was a well-known sufferer from this condition. Her energy crashed to the point that she couldn’t even brush her teeth. Her husband couldn’t help her. But she got well on herbs and nutritional supplements she was given by her friends to the point that she could tend and ride her horses again. Dr. Strand was intrigued by this that he began to research nutritional supplements, with Grape Seed Extract becoming his pet supplement, and he wrote the book WHAT YOUR DOCTOR DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT NUTRITION MAY BE KILLING YOU. Many of these conditions are not lone rangers. Fibromyalgia, for example, is associated with some medical situations, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), itself caused by micro-organisms in the bowels, post-traumatic stress disorders and lupus, an auto-immune disorder. Back-ache is reported in many countries to be second in occurrence to only headache. Back-ache may arise from factors which may include back injury, arthritis of the spinal bones, slipped disc, herniated disc, nerve injury, muscle and/or ligament tear or strain, muscle spasms or swollen joint. Bad standing or sitting posture may be culprits as well. Bone spurs caused by deposition of calcium not inside the bone but on the outside is another problem to watch. Dr. Oz, whose television programmes are popular in Europe and in the United States, advices that pancreatic cancer can be a cause of back pain. He says that, when a tumour blocks the pancreatic duct, which sends pancreatic enzymes into the intestine to digest food there, this causes an acid build-up in the pancreas, eating up this organ and causing abdominal pain which may radiate to the back. He suggests that, to rule out this condition if your stool is pale and your skin is yellow, you see your doctor immediately. Lymphoma is becoming a common ailment in Nigeria. It is cancer of the lymph nodes (in the neck, armpit and groin) which attacks white blood cells. Some sufferers experience lumps in the throats and difficulty in swallowing. Another pain factor many pain-stricken people do not consider before they gobble pain-killing or relieving pharmaceutical drugs is that too much iron or too little of it is dangerous to health. Iron is needed to form heamoglobin, a constituent of red blood cells which transport oxygen throughout the body. When the cells are deprived of oxygen for their living processes, they ‘’cry’’ out in pain. For the purpose of making red blood cells wherever they are needed, the body stores iron inside a special protein called ferritin, it is found in bodycells with a little of it found circulating in the bloodstream. The Mayo Clinic says ferritin contains 20 percent iron, with the largest concentration of ferritin being in the liver. When it is time to make more red blood cells, the body calls for the release of ferritin. Ferritin thus released is then bound to another substances called transferrin, another protein which takes ferritin to where new red blood cells are manufactured. One authority describes transferrin as a “taxi”. In low ferritin levels, the following symptoms may be experienced as iron levels deplete: “Unexplained fatigue, dizziness, chronic headaches, unexplained weakness, ringing in the ears, irritability, leg pains and shortness of breath, in excess ferritin levels, the symptoms may include “stomach pain, heart palpitations or chest pains, unexplained weakness, joint pain and unexplained fatigue.”

Rising ferritin levels call for a check on the liver and spleen as damage to these organs may cause ferritin influx into blood circulation. This would cause pain, which, in Nigeria, many self-medicating people try to resolve with a popular pain killer. Unfortunately, accumulations of the residues of this pain killer damage the liver and the kidneys. It is a pity, too, that this pain killer can be purchased by anyone over the counter, and doctors who prescribe them do not often warn their patients against an over dose. According to an article on the Gastro-enterology and Hepatology Journal, as reported by Racheal Nail in Health line Medical Review team (www.healthline.com): “The most common causes of elevated ferritin levels are obesity, inflammation and daily alcohol intake Health line add: Lower than normal ferritin level can indicate that you have an iron deficiency, which can happen when you don’t consume enough iron in your daily diet.”

Another condition that affects iron levels is anemia, which is when you don’t have enough red blood cells for iron to attack to. Additional conditions includes excessive menstrual bleeding, stomach conditions that affect intestinal absorbtion and internal bleeding. Ferritin levels that are too high can indicate certain condition. Some example is haematochromatosis which is when your body absorbs too much iron. Other conditions that cause too much iron levels include rheumatoid arthritis, liver disease, hyperthyroidism, adult still’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, leukemia, Hodgken’s lymphoma, iron poisoning and frequent blood transfusions. This much has been said of iron and ferritin as causes of pain and some of the causes of their elevation have been mentioned as well, to advice that it is not in all cases of pain that these dangerous pain killers should be greedily consumed. They do not solve underlying problems of pain. They merely block the pain temporally. Pain is terrible. So, where we may seek to block it, however temporally, so we can move on more freely with our lives, we should not relent in making our doctors investigate the root causes of the pain. Doctors will prescribe Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) or Corticosteroids, such as that which exhumed my slumbering glaucoma. It would be up to us, once armed with the appropriate diagnosis, to find natural solutions to these underlying conditions, as I did for my smoldering rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Many women would not forgive me if I do not mention the pain which comes with menstruation. For it makes them miserable every month. Some have even lost their Jobs on account of this. What would happen, for example, is better imagined if, on the day of the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination, that crucial examination in Nigeria for University placement, a girl is knocked out of the competition by menstrual pain. It would mean she would have to wait another year to try again. But who can predict the future? What if menstrual pain debars a young university graduate from attending an important job interview or mars her performance before the panelists?  It is still arguable medically if women should menstruate. In THE NEW RAN ENERGY published in the 1960s, Leslie and Susannah Kenton featured research work  which showed that, like the old World Monkeys, women who consumed large amount of beta carotene do not menstruate but, nevertheless, fertile and get pregnant.

At a Gotha Institute health  seminar I attended in Lagos in the 1990s, a young mother of three from the middle belt zone of Nigeria was presented. She was banished from her village because she was not known to menstruate. This menstruation is now being seen in some medical circles as a New World disease. For women who menstruate, this phenomenon is the expulsion of the lining of the uterus, the endometrium, if no pregnancy occurred prior to it. Menstruation is stimulated by some hormone like substances called prostaglandins. Of which there are two major types. One type promote inflammation. The other is anti-inflamating, if a woman has too much of the former, they may cause excessive cramping of the uterine walls. And lactic acid would build up in these walls, inducing inflammation and pain.

The pro-inflammation prostaglandins have been linked to diet, especially the consumption of red meat, white sugar, white flour foods, fried foods etc. Many women who are beset with this condition  are known to have an excess of calcium (from milk consumption etc.) viz-a-viz magnesium. While Calcium causes those contractions, there is not enough magnesium at work to simultaneously relax the nerves and muscles. Research in this field of pain have noted that other factors may cause menstrual pain. These include endometriosis (when the uterine lining grows in other parts of the pelvic region), family history, early puberty (before age II), irregular periods, heavy periods, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), uterus fibroids and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), among others. This column is exploratory. Other columns in the series will examine specific conditions or groups of them with the aim of suggesting natural ways of answering them or overcoming them.