Having two periods in one month? You may have ovulation bleeding!

31-year-old Sarah (patients name has been changed) came to see me at Almond Wellness Centre, our acupuncture Chinese medicine clinic. Sarah had been trying to get pregnant for over a year without any success and was concerned that her short menstrual cycles might be hindering her chances.

Sarah’s period was so short that she almost had two periods in one month. Her first period lasts for 5 days, normal flow with mild cramping and some PMS. She then has another period a few days later. The second “period” is light or spotting only, with clear stretching discharge and some cramping or sharp pain on the sides of lower abdomen.

I suggested her to do ovulation test and check her basal body temperature (BBT). From her BBT and ovulation history we discovered that she was not actually having two periods in one month, but was experiencing ovulation bleeding instead.

So, what is ovulation bleeding?

Ovulation bleeding is light bleeding or spotting that occurs during ovulation.

The exact cause of ovulation bleeding is not clear, but it is thought to be related to changes in hormone levels that occur during ovulation. The surge in estrogen and luteinizing hormone that triggers ovulation can cause some women to experience spotting or light bleeding.

Ovulation bleeding is generally not a concern; however, it may affect chances of getting pregnant. For instance, Sarah thought that she was having period. She avoided having intercourse during that period time, therefore missed her fertile windows and had difficulty to get pregnant.

Chinese medicine and ovulation bleeding

In Chinese medicine, ovulation bleeding is seen as a sign of disharmony in the body’s energy, or qi. This disharmony can be caused by a variety of factors, including stress, poor diet, and hormonal imbalances. A Chinese medicine practitioner will work to identify the root cause of the problem and develop a customized treatment plan. Treatment include acupuncture and/or Chinese herbal medicine to help regulate hormone levels and improve overall reproductive health. In addition, dietary and lifestyle changes may be recommended to support your overall health and improve your chances of getting pregnant.

Because Sarah was avoiding intercourse during her bleeding time, she was actually missing her fertile windows, which made it more difficult for her to conceive. We gave her acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine treatments, as well as other advice, her period became more regular and her ovulation bleeding stopped. She could time it right – having intercourse during her fertile windows. A few months later Sarah successfully became pregnant, much to her delight and relief.

So, if you are experiencing two periods in one month, with light flow or unusual spotting or discharge, you may actually be experiencing ovulation bleeding. Don’t let ovulation bleeding or any other menstrual irregularities get in the way of your dreams of becoming pregnant. With the right treatment and care, you can improve your chances of conception and start your journey towards motherhood.

Cool hot flashes naturally with Chinese Herbal Medicine

Menopause is a physiological process that signifies the end of a woman’s reproductive lifespan. However, the symptoms associated with this transition can be distressing and debilitating. Hot flashes, characterized by sudden and intense sensations of heat, can cause significant discomfort and distress in menopausal women. In this context, Chinese herbal medicine has emerged as an alternative therapy that can offer safe and effective relief from hot flashes during menopause.

Traditional Chinese medicine attributes hot flashes to an imbalance of yin and yang energy in the body. Chinese herbal medicine aims to address this imbalance by using a combination of herbs that act synergistically to restore balance and promote health. The therapeutic efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine for alleviating hot flashes is supported by a growing body of scientific evidence.

Black cohosh / Sheng Ma (Cimicifuga rhizoma) is a herb that is widely used in Chinese herbal medicine to alleviate hot flashes during menopause. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 84 menopausal women found that black cohosh significantly reduced the frequency and severity of hot flashes compared to placebo. (1)

Dong Quai / Dang Gui (Angelica sinensis) is another herb that is commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine to alleviate hot flashes. Dang Gui has been shown to exert estrogenic effects, which can help alleviate menopausal symptoms, and one of two herbs in the Chinese herbal formula “Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang”.  A 12-week randomized controlled trial involving 60 postmenopausal women found that Dang Gui Bu Xue Tang significantly reduced the severity of hot flashes compared to placebo. (2)

Other herbs that are commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine to alleviate hot flashes during menopause include Foxglove Root / Shu Di Huang (Rehmannia Glutinosa) and Goji Fruit / Gou Qi Zi (Lucium Chinense). Chinese medicine considers these herbs as yin and blood tonics. This is to counteract the age related loss of yin that is experienced with menopause.

To use Chinese herbal medicine to alleviate hot flashes during menopause, it is important to seek guidance from a qualified practitioner. Although Chinese herbal medicine is generally safe, some herbs may interact with certain medications or have potential side effects. Therefore, it is essential to develop a personalized treatment plan that considers the individual needs of each patient.

In conclusion, Chinese herbal medicine offers a safe and effective way to alleviate hot flashes during menopause. The therapeutic efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine is supported by scientific evidence, and herbs such as black cohosh, angelica, rehmannia and goji have been shown to alleviate menopausal symptoms. As a practitioner, it is essential to be aware of the potential benefits and limitations of Chinese herbal medicine to provide comprehensive care to menopausal women experiencing hot flashes.

 

References

  1. Shahnazi M, Nahaee J, Mohammad-Alizadeh-Charandabi S, Bayatipayan S. Effect of black cohosh (cimicifuga racemosa) on vasomotor symptoms in postmenopausal women: a randomized clinical trial. J Caring Sci. 2013;2(2):105-13.
  2. Wang CC, Cheng KF, Lo WM, Law C, Li L, Leung PC, et al. A randomized, double-blind, multiple-dose escalation study of a Chinese herbal medicine preparation (Dang Gui Buxue Tang) for moderate to severe menopausal symptoms and quality of life in postmenopausal women. Menopause (New York, NY). 2013;20(2):223-31.

 

Supporting New Mums after Birth

In Chinese Medicine supporting new mums after birth is referred to as Postpartum health preservation. Whether or not you believe in Chinese medicine herbs or superstitions surrounding “one month confinement” there is no doubt that belief plays a significant role in one’s feeling of health, preservation and well-being.

Postpartum period for some women is characterized by feeling tired due to excessive loss of blood and energy. It can also include symptoms such as sweating, backache and abdominal pain. Therefore, new mums will need gentle exercises, recuperation, appropriate tonics and diet to regulate and tonify their bodies or improve their energy.

In traditional Asian cultures the purpose of one month confinement whereby the new mum is confined to the home or postpartum centre after the delivery of their babies, aims to recover and restore their health after the 9 months of nourishing their infants in their wombs.

Origins in Chinese Medicine Medical writings about one month confinement (Zuo Yuezi) can be traced back to Xi Han (Li Ji‧NeiZe), it is more than two thousand years of history, also called “Yue Nei”. It is a very important ceremony after delivery process.

What is one month confinement (Zuo Yuezi)?

The term of Zuo Yuezi that translates into “one month confinement”. The Chinese tradition of Zuo Yuezi dictates that for 30 to 40 days from the birth of their children, new mothers must stay inside and avoid bathing, washing their hair or brushing their teeth. They must cover their heads to prevent chills, keep the windows closed, and remain in bed for as long as possible. It also requires mothers to avoid all forms of stress, including crying, shouting and talking for an entire cycle of the moon.

New mothers cannot eat cold foods such as cool drinks, ice cream, cold fruits during the one-month confinement. Instead, they must load up on ‘hot’ foods like boiled eggs, chicken and fish soup.”

Essentially, “one month confinement” was a primitive form of quarantine to prevent postpartum complications. If you analyze Zuo Yuezi in an early medical context, many of the practices made sense. The avoidance of bathing and teeth-brushing was a way to prevent water-borne illness; staying indoors helped women and babies avoid exposure to communicable diseases, and covering the head protected new mothers from catching a ‘chill’. Food-wise, the proteins and iron found in eggs, meat and fish provided mothers with strength and muscle repair.

Rest and heavy consumption of hot soup helped prevent dehydration, kept mums warm and was believed to promote the production of breast milk. Clearly a lot of these reasons behind the confinement are now obsolete since we don’t have to fear contaminated water supplies, nor would we be concerned about catching a “chill”, especially if you live in a tropical country. Although I think that the fallacy that you can catch a “chill” from cold weather should be acknowledged.

General diet of promoting lactation with Chinese medicine herbs – If new mums find that their milk supply is low, they should add Radix Rhapontici (lou-lu tong) or vaccaria segetalis (wang-bu-liu-xing) to their soups.

New mums can also eat the following food or soups for promoting lactation: knuckle, tail, chicken feet, eggs, beef, milk, scallions, white beans, black sesame, walnut, peanut, fish, shrimp, squid, sea cucumber, gouqizi, guiyuan, capsicum, tomato, sweet potato and potato.

What are “practitioner-only-products”?

Vitality

It can be confusing. Some “practitioner-only” brands are only available through qualified health care practitioners. Others are more easily available.

The idea behind the “practitioner-only” designation is simple. The majority of “practitioner-only” brands focus on producing higher quality, more potent products. Such products are manufactured to maximise impact and effectiveness, and therefore should only be accessed under the supervision of a qualified health professional.

Naturopaths and nutritionists for example, are trained in herbs and nutrients. They understand how the ingredients will affect you. Taking advice from a health professional on what products to take ensures safety risks are minimised and products are appropriate for your individual health needs.

This is not to say all “retail” products are inferior.

 

Quality

What does this mean? Practitioner products are generally of a higher quality, and more potent, but how is this defined? Within both the broad retail and “practitioner only” categories, quality can vary significantly due to many factors including active ingredients, encapsulation, dosage, molecular weight, excipients used, conditions a plant is cultivated in and supporting evidence (1). To keep things simple we’re going to focus on 3 key areas:

  • Ingredients
  • Bioavailability
  • Excipients

 

Ingredients 

Along with the importance of co-factors and ingredients being at a therapeutic dose, mineral absorption and bioavailability may be enhanced by the form the mineral comes in. Chelated minerals are minerals bound to a chelating agent which is designed to enhance their absorption in your body. An amino acid chelated mineral is a mineral (like calcium) that has been molecularly attached to an amino acid. Common amino acids used to make mineral chelates include aspartic acid, lysine and glycine. In general, animal studies indicate that chelated minerals are absorbed more effectively (2).

 

Bioavailability

Bioavailability is influenced by many factors from both the host (human) and from the supplement itself. Bioavailability refers to how efficiently your body can use a nutrient.  The commonly accepted definition of bioavailability is the proportion of the nutrient that is digested, absorbed and metabolised through normal pathways.

It has also long been recognised that gut microbes contribute to the biosynthesis and bioavailability of vitamins and nutrients.  Maintaining a healthy gut is vitally important for proper nutrient synthesis and absorption as the gut microbiota synthesises certain vitamins and nutrients (1).

Bioavailability is also influenced by other factors including diet, nutrient concentration, nutritional status, health, and life-stage (3).

 

Excipients

Excipients selected for product formulation vary across the pharmaceutical and complementary medicine industries. The role of the excipient should not be underestimated, particularly when it comes to generic pharmaceuticals. A number of pharmaceutical excipients are known to have side effects or contraindications. For example, excipients may make up to 90% of a product formulation and may be synthetic or sourced from plants or animals (4).

Depending on the medication/supplement type, excipients may be nil to low. Powders and capsules generally require fewer excipients than tablets due to binding and coating ingredients required for a tablet.

Each excipient serves a specific purpose for the proper performance of the supplement dose and form, i.e. capsule, tablet, powder or liquid.

 

Effectiveness and accessibility 

As practitioner products are generally more potent, this lends itself to supervised use under the instruction of a qualified health professional. As such, practitioner only products are not as accessible to the general public. Indeed practitioner only products are designed specifically for dispensing by a healthcare professional in accordance with section 42AA of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (5).

 

How can I access “practitioner only products”? 

If you are not currently working with a healthcare professional, you can find a practitioner here via vital.ly platform.

 

References

1Pressman P, Clemens RA, Hayes AW. Bioavailability of micronutrients obtained from supplements and food: A survey and case study of the polyphenols. Toxicology Research and Application. January 2017.
2Goff JP. Invited review: Mineral absorption mechanisms, mineral interactions that affect acid-base and antioxidant status, and diet considerations to improve mineral status. J Dairy Sci. 2018 Apr;101(4):2763-2813. doi: 10.3168/jds.2017-13112. Epub 2018 Feb 4.
3Michael, Hambidge. (2010). Micronutrient Bioavailability: Dietary Reference Intakes and a Future Perspective. The American journal of clinical nutrition. 91. 1430S-1432S. 10.3945/ajcn.2010.28674B.
4Haywood, A., & Glass, B. (2011). Pharmaceutical excipients – where do we begin? Australian Prescriber, 34(4), 112–114.
5Australian Government. Department of Health. Therapeutic Goods Administration. Australian regulatory guidelines for complementary medicines ARGCM. Version 7.2, February 2018.[Internet] [ cited 2021. September 12th]. Available from:https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/australian-regulatory-guidelines-complementary-medicines-argcm.pdf

 

Acupuncture Intro, how it Works and What it can Treat

Acupunturist needles on a traditional Chinese medicine medallion

Acupuncture has a history spanning thousands of years. Some of the earliest text recorded containing discussions of both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine date as far back as 474 B.C.!

Acupuncture is simply the painless insertion of sterile, single use needles into the body to stimulate the bodies self-healing mechanism. Our understanding of how this works is evolving all the time.

But what is known is that Acupuncture releases pain killing endorphins in the brain, stimulates the nervous system and can even increase the production of white blood cells (the immune system).

Although Acupuncture has many clinical uses, it is probably best known for the treatment of pain, regardless of the cause.

In Australia, a trained Acupuncturist must undergo a minimum of 4 years full time study, including substantial training in Western medicine with subjects like Chemistry, Pharmacology, human Anatomy and Biology. Bachelor of Health Science trained Acupuncturists must complete that same level of science as an undergraduate medical student.

Acupuncture is a wholistic medicine, which means you are supposed to treat the WHOLE PERSON. For example, if a patient comes to my clinic complaining of shoulder pain, I treat them from a whole-body perspective. This means I still need to ask them about their sleep, stomach, bowel habits, headaches ect… as we treat the PERSON first and the CONDITION second, or at least I do.

Obviously, I need to try and get them results for the shoulder pain, which is the reason they came to my clinic to begin with. But pain is a symptom, not the cause. My job as an Acupuncturist is to identify the cause and treat that, not just apply a band-aid to reduce the pain for a short time.

Acupuncture is practised in many different ways, depending on where the practitioner has been trained and how they developed their practise.

I personally use a specific style of Acupuncture called ‘The Balance Method’ which involves understanding the interconnections of the body. This can be confusing for patients because I never insert needles anywhere near the location of their pain, and quite often use the opposite side of the pain! I practise this way because the results are far superior and the patient often feels immediate improvement in pain, which is not possible with local needling.

This is my 10th year of clinical practise, and I have only been using ‘The Balance Method’ for the last two years. Although it is a more advanced style of Acupuncture, the results can be spectacular, and it has revolutionized my clinical practise.

Pain is not the only complaint I see in clinic, and this style is highly effective for many health conditions. If you would like to know whether Acupuncture can assist your health complaint, please contact me at the clinic.

High quality herbal granules I use in my clinic. Herbs treat many conditions. Simply add boiling water, stir and make into tea, and drink. Simple!

An example of Acupuncture in the hand, sterile needles are single use. These two points called Ling Ku and Da Bai are powerful and have many applications in the clinic for pain relief and many other conditions.

Combating Cortisol Without Quitting Your Job!

Woman stretching

We have all experienced stress, but did you know it could be causing you a number of other health related complaints?

UP TO 90% OF ALL DOCTOR’S OFFICE VISITS ARE DUE TO STRESS-RELATED AILMENTS!

The stress hormone, cortisol, could be causing your moodiness, daytime fatigue, insomnia, persistent infections, sugar cravings, as well as the excess weight around your waist you can never seem to shift despite hours spent at the gym.

During periods of acute stress, your adrenal glands release increased levels of cortisol to help the body cope with physical or psychological stressors. Cortisol is responsible for maintaining normal blood sugar levels, regulation of carbohydrate, protein and lipid metabolism, participates in immune and/or inflammatory reactions, as well as influencing the heart and blood vessels. In the short run, it’s great – even protective and restorative.

However, problems develop when your relentlessly busy lifestyle forces the adrenal glands to be on constant “high alert” resulting in a continual elevation of cortisol.

PERSISTENTLY ELEVATED LEVELS OF CORTISOL CAUSE:

Anxiety & depression

Fatigue and weakness

Weight gain, particularly around the waist

Insomnia

Lowered sex drive

High blood pressure

Insulin resistance

Weakened immunity

Thyroid imbalance

If stress persists and your adrenals are required to constantly respond, they will eventually struggle to produce cortisol, which could ultimately lead to adrenal exhaustion. Although we may not always be able to reduce the immediate stressor (I would suggest taking a holiday if you can!), the good news is there are many steps you can start today to normalise cortisol levels and restore healthy adrenal function.

LIFESTYLE RECOMMENDATIONS:

Aim to have regular breaks throughout your day, even a 5 minute walk outside of the office can help dramatically

Exercise regularly, but not excessively

Regular bed time, ideally before 10pm

Regular relaxation & breathing exercises

Share enjoyable time and laugh with friends & family

Focus on a better balance between work, rest, and play

 DIETARY RECOMMENDATIONS:

5-6 serves of vegetables, and 1-2 serves of fruit per day

Eat good quality protein, especially for breakfast & lunch

Eat mostly homemade foods that are nutrient-dense and nourishing. Do a “Sunday cook-up” for the weeks lunches

Use quality cold-pressed oils e.g. olive, walnut, almond, flaxseed & coconut

Avoid energy robbers such as alcohol and caffeine

Increase vitamin C rich foods – orange, red and yellow varieties

Avoid acidic foods such as hydrogenated fats, refined carbohydrates & sugars

Drink filtered water – 8 to 10 glasses per day

If you have been experiencing stress and suspect your cortisol levels may be out of balance, a visit to our naturopaths is your answer. They will formulate a treatment plan specific to your needs, and through the use of herbal medicine, nutrition and lifestyle factors, you will achieve great results!