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PMS PREVENTING YOU FROM FLOURISHING?
Vital Qi is what makes you feel that you are flourishing
in your life. When vital energy flows smoothly through the body,
you feel at one with your environment, able to think clearly and
act joyfully... you feel well.
When the vital energy is not able to flow freely,
energetic imbalances occur. As the imbalance continues you begin
to experience dis-ease ranging from a vague feeling that
life has little meaning - all the way to serious tissue damage and
pain. Both emotional and physical pain indicate underlying energetic
imbalances.
PMS SYMPTOMS
PMS symptoms characteristically include: breast
tenderness, transient weight gain, bloating, constipation, insomnia,
acne, headache, pelvic pain, irritability, depression, mood swings,
poor concentration, confusion, social withdrawal, impulsiveness
and appetite changes.
While many women experience mild symptoms of short
duration, other women have more severe symptoms that last for many
days and temporarily disturb their normal functioning.Many woman
try to suppress the symptoms of PMS with the myriad cover-up-get-through-it
means available, including using alcohol, over the counter medications,
and street drugs to cover the symptoms; they might even withdraw
from family, friends and work to cope with the symptoms.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND
YOURSELF WHEN YOU'RE IN PAIN
TCM helps you understand your symptoms, so you
can change the experience of PMS into a normal pattern of menses.
TCM moves the patient out of pain by balancing
energy and alleviating symptoms with acupuncture and herbs; encouraging
personal responsibility for mental and emotional balance; teaching
the patient about the energetics
of food 
to help alleviate symptoms; encouraging the practice of gentle meridian
exercies ;
and by explaining the importance of resting and getting great sleep.
PMS MAY BE COMMON BUT IT IS NOT NORMAL.
While menstruation is a normal cycle, PMS is not
normal. A lot of people may suffer from it; there may be a syndrome
named for it; it may be common. None of this makes it normal. Traditional
Chinese Medicine is a way to treat the symptoms and help bring you
into balance with your life in general... and that alone will reduce
the severity of the symptoms and get you well on your way to eliminating
them.
REDUCE YOUR STRESS TO REDUCE YOUR SYMPTOMS
Environmental Stress :
Common things around us an cause signs of disease. Detergents,
synthetic fibers, sprays, goops, lotions and potions often contribute
to fatigue, depression, headaches and other symptoms also common
to PMS. Our air and our water, our cell phones and our microwaves...
all can give us symptoms of PMS.
Some pollutants are easy to eliminate, some
are more difficult but, if you eliminate one smelly detergent
and your PMS headaches are gone, you'll be encouraged to
take the environmental stressors seriously.
Nutritional Stress: Take a look at what you're eating,
where it's coming from, how you're eating, and how often you're
putting something in your mouth. If you're eating out, eating
delivered, eating on the run... and snacking on the hour, every
hour... then you could have a solid direction to go to alleviate
90% of your PMS. Buy fresh, cook a meal or two, and when you're
done eating, don't do it again for at least 4 hours.
Occupational Stress: We're an automated society and technology
drives most of us through our day. Menses is one reminder for
women that we are still part of nature. If you're being driven
through your day by what you have to accomplish on the computer,
or where you have to fly to-and-back yet today you may be looking
at an exacerbating factor to your PMS.
Emotional Stress: The jokes about women being multi-taskers
able to do so many things, for so many people, and all at the
same time are not really funny if those traits are the underlying
cause of the imbalance in energy that results in a dis-ease process
as severe as PMS. Among my female patients I continually hear
"it's time for me", "I need a vacation", "I
deserve some time off".
YOU DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER WITH
PMS. SOMETHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT... AND IT MAY BE AS SIMPLE
AS:
GIVE YOURSELF A DAILY 15 MINUTES OF MERIDIAN
EXERCISE.
While excessive, or even challenging weight-lifting or aerobic
exercise can cause Qi and/or blood to flow erratically, Meridian
Exercises are simple and gentle, encouraging the free flow of
qi that will bring relief from pain.
EAT
AND DRINK MODERATELY.
AVOID FOODS THAT MAY BE TOO STIMULATING FOR YOU
Too much food makes you feel sluggish so avoid overeating. In
Chinese Medicine overeating taxes the spleen, and causes fatigue.
Many women know they get hyper if they drink
coffee, eat too much sugar, have chocolate before bed, or eat
excessively spicy foods. If this is youavoid them! If you suffer
from bloating or edema, eat meals of very light green, and green,
vegetables and root crops (celery, spring onion, turnips, collard,
kale, watercress).
MAINTAIN
REGULAR WAKING AND SLEEPING HOURS.
Adequate rest is always a good idea and more so when you are trying
to maintain balance before your menses. As much as possible, synchronize
your schedule to nature's cycles by getting up in the morning,
winding down for a bit in the late afternoon, and going to bed
before 11:00 p.m. If you fall asleep the minute your head hits
the pillow, you're overtired and your sleep will be fitful. It
should take about 20 minutes to fall asleep... and going to bed
before 11p.m. gives you the most rejuvenating sleep cycles.
MAKE
AN APPOINTMENT
FOR ACUPUNCTURE AND HERBS AND LET US HELP YOU GET RID OF THE UNDERLYING
PATTERN OF DISHARMONY THAT IS PREVENTING YOU FROM FLOURISHING!
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