PMS: Total relief of symptoms with Chinese Medicine

Pre-Menstrual Syndrome encompasses a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms that can occur anywhere from one day to two weeks before a womans menstrual cycle.  PMS can severely impact a woman's ability to function in her everyday life at work or home. Western medicine often sees this as due to a mutant gene that close to 75% of women carry. This syndrome has been medicalized and treated with pharmaceutical drugs like anti-depressants. diuretics and contraceptives.  A new disease has also been created called PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) as an attempt to sell even more medication to treat this problem. 

Do women really need medication to help them with PMS?  Hormonal imbalances are caused by a number of lifestyle factors that can be easily remedied. Many of them are related to the diet and can be caused by:

*Saturated and trans fatty acids in the diet

*Too many refined sugars and carbohydrates

*Antibiotics, xenobiotics, and hormones found in food from commercial raised meat and dairy product

*Processed foods and artificial sweeteners

*Alcohol consumption greater than 3 glasses a week

*Too much emotional stress and overwork.

* Sedentary lifestyle with no exercise program

 

In Chinese Medicine there are many different patterns of disharmony that can lead to the symptoms of PMS. Each women is seen as a unique individual and her PMS diagnosis can be completely different than another woman's. By taking the health history of an individual, a practitioner of Chinese Medicine can determine where the imbalance lies that is causing PMS. It could be related to Liver toxicity, Spleen congestion, Kidney weakness, etc.  Treatment is then given according to what the individual pattern is. A normal healthy menstrual cycle does not exhibit any PMS symptoms. Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal medicine are very effective to treat PMS along with lifestyle and dietary changes. It takes 3 cycles to eliminate PMS completely though some relief is often felt with the first cycle after treatment. 

Please join me at my clinic in Carrboro on Monday April 27th at 7:00 for an in-depth discussion of the causes and treatments for PMS. Please call ahead to reserve your space as seating is very limited. Call 919-968-1198 and leave your name and phone number.