Botanical medicine for hormonal health

Symptoms of a hormonal imbalance can affect women of any age and are difficult to live with. Anyone that is managing a condition like PCOS, experiencing a challenging transition post-hormonal birth control, or simply struggling with undiagnosed symptoms can attest to that.

But, treating diseases related to hormone imbalance from a medical provider’s perspective is also challenging. Many conventional medical and nursing schools do not spend a great amount of time teaching about holistic ways to heal our endocrine system, and as a result, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is a go-to for many providers.

This therapy involves prescribing patients synthetic hormones. While this treatment method is amazingly effective and extremely helpful in severe cases, it does not address the root cause of an imbalance. That means that for many women, it can generate a cycle of rebound symptoms. This can be just as frustrating, if not more, to women as the original symptoms that had initially catalyzed them to seek support.

While naturopathic doctors like myself do use HRT for some patients, we were fortunate to have been educated in alternative ways of re-balancing our bodies. Enter botanical medicine.

What is botanical medicine?

Botanical medicine, also known as herbal medicine or phytomedicine, leverages products made from plants used for internal use.

While many prescription and over-the-counter medicines are also made from plant substances, these products are regulated by the FDA and contain only processed and purified ingredients.

Botanical medicine can be in various forms and consumed in many ways:

• Swallowed via pills and tinctures
• Brewed into tea
• Applied to our skin via creams and gels
• Added to bath water

Naturopathic doctors and other more holistically-minded providers often use botanical medicine as part of a “whole person” approach to address not only the cause of a hormone imbalance, but even subsequent complications from long-standing symptoms.

How do botanicals help re-balance our bodies?

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The answer lies within using entire herbs, each of which contains numerous active constituents that work together to relieve symptoms. This is in conjunction to pharmacological therapies, which often isolate a single constituent to alter a single pathway and subsequently increasing the risk of side effects.

The numerous active constituents in herbs work synergistically to modulate hormones, meaning they help support hormonal pathways in areas that are functioning deficiently and decrease pathways that are working overtime. This allows our bodies to heal themselves naturally over time, subsequently decreasing and even eliminating the root cause of symptoms like irregular periods, weight gain, mood swings, and more.

Here are some examples of what herbs can do:

·      Regulate ovulation (and thereby our periods)

·      Decrease heavy blood flow

·      Improve our skin

·      Improve digestion

·      Decrease stress and anxiety

·      Promote sleep, and more!

Is botanical medicine for me?

While there is a time and place for pharmaceuticals, botanical medicine is an attractive option to achieve lasting change for many people that menstruate.

That said, although herbal medicine has been used for thousands of years and is common in the world of holistic healthcare, its use does remain controversial since many of these supplements are not FDA-regulated.

Although largely well tolerated, some individuals should stick away from specific herbs because of how they can interact with other medications, pre-existing conditions, or current deficiencies and excesses.

For that reason, it’s highly recommended that you do not start using any sort of herbal medication without the oversight of a medical provider that is trained in both women’s health and botanical medicine. Naturopathic doctors fit this bill, as do other functional medicine certified practitioners. These providers will make sure they complete any necessary labs and take into account your full medical history before prescribing herbs to re-balance your system.

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