The PMS Solution: 3 Steps to Hormonal Resilience

premenstrual syndromePMS 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.

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How Birth Control Switches Off Hormones and Why That Matters

the pill switches off hormones

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. 

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Insight into Acne. Why Dairy, Sugar, and Insulin Are Bad for Skin

acne from insulin and sugarIf 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.”

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Ode to Ovulation

woman holding egg

Ovulation is beneficial because it’s how women make hormones.

Every month, as the ovaries get ready to release an egg, they pump out estrogen. Estrogen, in turn, stimulates serotonin, which is why women can be more outgoing and energetic in the few days leading up to ovulation.

Every month, after ovulation, one of the ovaries releases a huge amount of progesterone—the calming, soothing, anti-inflammatory hormone.  

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