Womens Health

Womens HealthMost of the health problems that are specific to women can be traced to our endless cycle of hormones. Some of us ride natural hormonal changes like crests of a wave, while others feel more as though they are being pulled into the undertow! If you fall into the latter group, keep in mind that you have plenty of company. In fact, estrogen, the name for the primary female hormone, comes from the Latin word oestrus, which means "frenzy" in English.

For those of you whose hormonal cycles drive you into a frenzy, I have good news: Almost every woman I know who has tried herbs and supportive nutrition gets some relief. And though natural remedies may involve some trial and error to discover which herbal formula works best for you, finding the right combination will help you move gracefully through most health problems specific to women, from monthly cycles to menopause. You must be patient, though—it may take a while before you begin to see real improvement.

Before plunging into an herbal healing program, you need to determine what is wrong. Your gynecologist or a health care clinic can help you do this. You may even have a local clinic that specializes in female problems. If you discover that yours is a serious disorder, be sure to work on the treatment with a professional health care practitioner.

Female hormones are indispensable—they help maintain physical and emotional well-being, as well as physical endurance and sex drive. If you alter their delicate balance, your body will let you know in a variety of ways. At times, hormonal problems can seem very complicated, since an increase in production of one hormone can lead to a decrease in others. This can place you on a hormonal seesaw! To make it even more puzzling, your hormone levels fluctuate throughout the month and even throughout the day.

Fortunately, herbs can help still the seesaw. While herbs do not contain the hormones found in our bodies, some of them do contain substances that influence our hormonal activity. How they do this is not completely understood—in fact, there is much that medical science still has to learn about hormones—but we do know thatherbs sometimes mimic, activate or block natural hormonal activity. And some herbs make your body more or less sensitive to its own hormones.