What can I do to prevent endometriosis? Although endometriosis is rarely life-threatening, it affects life on two very critical levels—well-being and fertility. Women are often surprised by the differences they can make in ending the misery of endometriosis.
• Believe you cm make a difference. You will learn what you can do to alter your condition within these pages, but you must believe, in your heart, that you can do it. Then you have to take the first step. Beginnings can seem formidable and the goat may seem far away. Keep up your energy and motivation to reach the goal of offsetting the symptoms of endometriosis, reducing the pain, and, possibly, curing the disease and preventing its recurrence. This is challenging, but it can be done by taking one step at a time.
• Change your diet. Endometriosis responds so well to dietary changes, it must be part of standard treatment, along with medication, as indicated, for each woman. The endometriosis recovery diet follows shortly. It is based on evidence that certain foods, vitamins, and minerals affect both pain from menstrual cramping and hormone levels. The diet concentrates on putting your body in balance nutritionally and reducing pain the natural way Put very simply, it requires you to cut down on sugar, salt, and fat and increase your intake of complex carbohydrates, certain vitamins, and fiber.
Studies show that obesity promotes higher estrogen levels, which increase die chances of endometriotic cysts. Women on vegetarian diets have higher levels of estrogen and cholesterol in their stool than meat-eaters. Essentially, all the fiber they are eating helps eliminate excess estrogen and cholesterol from their bodies. This is one reason why you need fiber.
• Reduce stress. Stress-related accidents and illnesses account for about three-fourths of the time lost on the job. Why does this happen? Stress attacks start a domino effect in the body. Stress is far more than a pyschological irritant. During hard stress, the lymph glands shrink; the cortisone level is raised as the adrenal glands release more of this hormone and impair immune system functioning; blood pressure rises; the heart works harder; and the body, in sum, is left open to infection or stress-related disease.
There is much dispute about stress’s affecting or creating endometriosis. Some see the disease as a combination of known and unknown factors, all of them within the body itself—whether it is genetic predisposition or links to hormone production. These people, many of them sufferers of endometriosis, do not believe that stress has any real bearing on the condition, arguing that this places too much responsibility and “guilt” on the patient. Others, like myself, believe that this disease is connected in some way to the effects of counterproductive stress, such as fatigue, overwork, disruptive environments, discord among family members or friends, worry about money, career, love, and security for the future.
Dr. Christiane North nip an obstetrician and gynecologist and co-founder of a group practice. Women to Women, in Yarmouth, Maine, concurs. “I almost never sec a patient with endometriosis who does not have a number of adverse factors in her life, which may have affected the onset or progress of the disease.” she told me. As a woman doctor treating women, she says, “I feel strongly that stress is most definitely a component.”
Dr. Northrup thinks it is helpful for women to “rethink their goals” and do some “inner searching.” What does she mean? “Modern women want their lives to be an organic whole,” she said. “Ideally, this means home life is consistent with work life, rather like an intermeshed flowing whole. I think it’s common for working women to be hard on themselves and add the self-induced pressures of wanting that harmony and balance, myself included.
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