Digestive Distress

Step 1: Collect Information

As the mix of hormones in your blood changes during your premenopausal years, you may notice the effects on your gastrointestinal tract both directly - estrogen is a gastrointestinal stimulant and varying levels may swing you from loose stools to dry ones - and indirectly, as the hormonal load places ever heavier demands on the liver.

Hormones have a strong effect on the motility of the intestinal tract. When your levels of estrogen and progesterone change (as they do throughout menopause, during pregnancy, and before menstruation and birth), your bowel patterns change, too.

Your liver is, among other things, a recycling center. It breaks down hormones circulating in the blood when they are no longer needed and makes their "parts" available for the production of more hormones. During the menopausal years some hormones (such as LH and FSH) are produced in such enormous quantities that your liver may struggle to keep up with its recycling work, and have little energy left over for digestive duties. Help yourself with these Wise Woman Ways.

Step 2: Engage the Energy

• Bless your food out loud before you eat; say grace; thank the plants and animals who nourish you; breathe in and feel grateful.

• My mother's favorite way of preventing digestive distress and ensuring regularity is to eat at regular times and go to the toilet at regular times. You'd be surprised how effective this is.

  First thing in the morning, get yourself a cup of hot water (or herbal tea) and bring it back to bed. Sip it slowly, and gnaw gently on your bottom lip. Then lie on your back and bring your knees up, feet flat on the bed; place your palms on your belly and breathe deeply. Gently begin to rub your belly (in spirals): up on the right, across the middle, and down on the left. Soon you will feel the movement gathering momentum. Sit up slowly and head for the toilet.

Step 3: Nourish & Tonify

• Yellow dock root vinegar or tincture is a wonderful ally for menopausal women with digestive distress. Daily doses of 1 teaspoon/5 ml vinegar or 5-10 drops of tincture eliminate constipation, indigestion, and gas. Yellow dock is especially recommended for the woman whose menopausal menses are getting heavier.

• Dandelion is everyone's favorite ally for a happy digestive system and a strong liver. It relieves indigestion, constipation, gas, even gallstone pain. How to use it? Have a glass of dandelion blossom wine. Eat the omega-3-rich leaves in salads. Enjoy the phytoestrogenic roots as a vinegar or tincture (a dose is 1-2 teaspoons/5-10 ml vinegar or 10-20 drops tincture taken with meals) or as a coffee substitute.

• Any rhythmical exercise, especially walking, relieves digestive gas and improves intestinal peristalsis (the movement of feces). Oriental wisdom says the liver loves movement.

• Motherwort, fenugreek, vitex, or black cohosh tinctures, taken daily, strengthen digestion and ease menopausal digestive woes. Or try a cup of garden sage tea.

• If constipation occurs due to a lessening of the moistening, lubricating cells in the colon, slippery foods such as slippery elm bark powder, oats, seaweed, flax seed, and seeds from wild Plantago (or cultivated psyllium) are wonderful allies. Adding a teaspoon/5 ml of any, or better yet, all of them to a cup/250 ml of rolled oats and cooking until thick in 3 cups/750 ml of water is a delicious way to prepare this remedy.

• My favorite remedy to relieve digestive and gas pain is plain yogurt. Sometimes even a tiny mouthful will bring instant relief. Acidophilus capsules work, too. I use both when dealing with chronic constipation or severe diarrhea.

Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate

• White flour products slow the digestive tract; so does too much grain-fed meat. Whole grain products, well-cooked beans, wild meats, and cooked greens speed it up.

• Add more liquids and soft foods to your diet - applesauce, yogurt, nourishing soups, herbal infusions - to help relieve constipation. Chew your food slowly and savor it. Drink lavishly between meals.

• Menopausal women will want to avoid the use of bran as a laxative, as it interferes with calcium absorption. Instead try prunes, prune juice, rhubarb with maple syrup, or figs.

• Ginger tea with honey is a warming, easing drink when your tummy is upset. Ahhh. Try the fresh root grated and steeped in boiling water, or put a tablespoon of the powdered stuff from your spice cupboard in a cup of hot water and enjoy.

• Crushed hemp seed (Cannabis sativa) tea - rich in essential fatty acids - is a specific against menopausal constipation.

• Herbal laxatives such as aloes, cascara sagrada, rhubarb root, and senna are addictive and destructive to normal peristalsis. Except in rare cases (such as relief of constipation for a ninety-year-old woman confined to a bed), I do not advise their use.

Step 5a: Use Supplements

Constipation and digestive distress are common side effects from taking iron supplements. A spoonful of molasses with 10-25 drops of yellow dock root tincture in a glass of warm water is a better way to increase iron, and improve elimination.

Step 6: Break & Enter

Enemas and colonics are last-resort techniques. They do not promote health and may strip the guts of important flora. Regular use of enemas is highly habit-forming. For the sake of your health, avoid them.

Legal Disclaimer: This content is not intended to replace conventional medical treatment. Any suggestions made and all herbs listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, condition or symptom. Personal directions and use should be provided by a clinical herbalist or other qualified healthcare practitioner with a specific formula for you. All material contained herein is provided for general information purposes only and should not be considered medical advice or consultation. Contact a reputable healthcare practitioner if you are in need of medical care. Exercise self-empowerment by seeking a second opinion.

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at http://www.susunweed.com

Easy Steps You Can Take Today to Erase Hip Pain

...and one of these tips you can get from a... Read More

Mercury Detoxification

An interesting area of alternative medicine that is advancing rapidly... Read More

Evolution of Aromatherapy

The Origin of AromatherapySince the beginning ? from the time... Read More

Use Digestive Enzymes to Reduce Hemorrhoid Inflammation

Using digestive enzymes when you have hemorrhoids is a good... Read More

Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Old Medicine, New Synergies

The terms alternative medicine and complementary medicine are often wrongly... Read More

Plastic Acupuncture?

Plastic Acupuncture, abbreviated as (P.Ac) is not really a new... Read More

Stuttering Child

Children can develop a stutter at an early age and... Read More

Alcohol : How Badly Can It Affect Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Sufferers?

The wonders of alcohol. The achilles heel for many people.... Read More

Got a Headache? Painkillers Are NOT the Solution!

Say you had a stressful day at work, didn't get... Read More

Treating Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Without the Use of Antibiotics

What is a urinary tract infection (UTI)? A Urinary Tract... Read More

Using Psyllium For Relieving Constipation

If you have asthma, do not take or use psyllium.... Read More

Relieving Chronic Pain Through Visualizations: A Three-Part Strategy

The most effective way to use the subconscious for pain... Read More

Toxic Plastic Water Bottles

I recently received a question from one of my readers... Read More

Hypnosis - What Exactly is it?

Hypnosis is probably not what you think it is. Hypnosis... Read More

Hypertension, An Alternative Approach

For many years high blood pressure has been defined based... Read More

How To Find Your Way To Healthy Longevity

As the old saying goes, are you "a picture of... Read More

The Benefits of Drinking Mangosteen (XanGo)

Benefits of Drinking XanGo:The Mangosteen fruit (XanGo's main ingredient) is... Read More

Substance P ? A Pain Amplifier You May Be Able To Restrict Using Your Subconscious

Substance P is a key neurotransmitter required to produce moderate... Read More

Healing Crisis A Natural Part of Body Cleansing

Introduction to A Healing Crisis An increasing number of people... Read More

Focus Your Light: Earning Money From Home When You Have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome /Fibromyalgia

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome /Fibromyalgia makes you extremely tired, exhausted and... Read More

Six Smoothie Recipes for Constipation and Acne Relief

I recommend drinking a morning smoothie if you have constipation... Read More

Are Herbal Remedies The Answer?

It seems that almost every day we come across a... Read More

Hoshin Roshi Ryu

Hoshin Roshi Ryu is a scientific system for achieving an... Read More

Toddler Stuttering

Some parents have the shock of hearing their young child... Read More

Using Carrot Juice for Relieving Constipation

Carrot JuiceCarrot juices contain certain oils that work on the... Read More