Irregular Periods? It Could Be Your Thyroid
If you came to me for help with irregular periods, I would think very carefully about your thyroid.
It wouldn’t matter if you already had another diagnosis such as PCOS or hypothalamic amenorrhea. It wouldn’t matter if your doctor had vaguely said at some point that your blood test was normal. I would still think about thyroid. Why? Because underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) is a common reason for irregular periods.
The PMS Solution: 3 Steps to Hormonal Resilience
PMS is my favorite thing to treat because it responds so well to natural treatment. I love to hear patients say: “I was surprised when my period just arrived. I didn’t even feel it coming.”
No irritability. No headache. No food cravings. It is possible.
The first step to easy periods is to value female hormones. Both estrogen and progesterone are powerful assets, and not something to be switched off with hormonal birth control.
Endometriosis Is an Autoimmune Disease
A change is coming for endometriosis treatment. Until now, the clinical approach has been surgery followed by hormonal suppression with hormonal birth control or other drugs. Going forward, the approach will shift to anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating treatments. That’s because there is growing evidence that endometriosis is not primarily a hormonal condition. It is autoimmune.
How Birth Control Switches Off Hormones and Why That Matters
The pill was an important step in our struggle to legalize contraception. I celebrate that, of course. Hormonal birth control can also be medicine for debilitating conditions such as severe endometriosis and very heavy periods. I celebrate that.
What I don’t celebrate is the distorted message that hormonal birth control is the only birth control. And I don’t celebrate its widespread prescription as “hormone balance” for any hormonal symptom that might arise in women and teenage girls.
Treatment for 4 Types of PCOS. Treat the Cause.
I invite you to think differently about polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and the types of PCOS.
PCOS is not one thing. It is not one disease. Instead, PCOS is a set of symptoms, with the key symptom being impaired ovulation which leads to androgen excess or a high level of male hormones. Androgen excess then causes the common PCOS symptoms of hair loss, hirsutism, and acne.
To treat PCOS you must first ask: “Why, in your particular case, do you not ovulate?”
Insight into Acne. Why Dairy, Sugar, and Insulin Are Bad for Skin
If you suffer from acne or treat acne, then 2012 was an important year. That’s when this ground-breaking paper came out of Germany: Diet in Acne: Further Evidence for the Role of Nutrient Signalling in Acne Pathogenesis.
One sentence from the abstract says it all:
“Acne should be regarded as an mTOR-driven disease of civilization, like obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer induced by Western diet.”