Endometriosis: A Key to Healing Through Nutrition. Michael Vernon

By maintaining a steady supply of good nutrients from food the body should be able to mute pain responses. Supplements may assist for a time to improve the body’s fortitude. A selection of the following nutrients may help the body to cope with pain (see here.):

       Multivitamin/mineral

       D,L-Phenylalanine (DLPA)

       Essential fatty acids: omega-3 fish oils; omega-6 evening primrose oils (200mg per day)

       Magnesium malate

       Zinc citrate or amino acid chelate

       Selenium (non-yeast form)

       Vitamins A, C, E (antioxidants)

       Vitamins B1, B6, B12 (non-yeast form)

       Vitamin C with bioflavonoids and protein-digesting enzymes

       Proanthacyanadins

       Quercetin

       Resveratrol

       SUMMARY

      1 Regardless of what anyone tells you, the pain from endometriosis is REAL. Get your pain taken seriously. Try to reduce the pain symptoms through nutrition and use any method which helps to distract you whenever possible.

      2 Photocopy and fill in the pain charts from Arnold Kresch and use them to teach your GP the extent of this very real pain. You can also chart your pain (see here.) and see how it changes over time.

      3 Take painkillers early on to reduce pain. Once it takes hold it is much harder to control.

      4 Exercising at a level with which you can cope helps to increase endorphin levels in the brain. These are the body’s natural painkillers. Do exercise such as gentle walks or pleasurable swims when you feel able, to build up endorphin levels.

      5 Use relaxation and visualization techniques to aid your control of pain. Whatever works for you as an individual is the most important route to take. Feel comfortable about the techniques you try. If they feel wrong, stop using them.

      6 Ask your GP or hospital for a TENS machine to try out.

      7 Stay positive. You are going to beat this. At times when pain is overwhelming, this can feel nigh on impossible. Being positive helps to strengthen your immune cells to fight the endometriosis, which is essentially what is needed.

      8 Let the time when you are incapacitated work for you. Use hobbies and skills you have acquired; you may be able to develop another career direction. Nurture your true friends. ‘A faithful friend is the medicine of life’ – Apocrypha 6:16.

      9 Vitamins and minerals possess some analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties which may help combat pain. If you are very ill the effort of preparing and cooking food is almost impossible, but try to eat fresh nutritious food. As you begin to absorb the vitamins and minerals, the body can work more effectively to combat pain.

      10 Vitamins C, E, K, A and B-complex, the minerals selenium, zinc and magnesium, amino acids and D,L-Phenylalanine, and evening primrose and fish oils all aid in the suppression of pain. Proanthacyanadins, found in blue and red berries, have strong anti-inflammatory and diuretic properties. Ensure that you are eating and digesting these nutrients and phytochemicals from foods in your diet. Remember that correcting the digestive tract is the first step. Consult a nutritionist for individualized advice.

5 Why is my fertility threatened?

      All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed,

      Second, it is opposed,

      Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

       Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher

      Everything you take for granted today was once revolutionary.

       Professor John Crispo

      How many infertile couples do you know? One? Maybe two? The rate of subfertility among couples of reproductive age in England and the USA is an amazing 15 to 20 per cent, about 1 in every five couples.¹ More than 2.4 million people in America alone have been robbed of the opportunity to conceive and have a family. It has been estimated that 30 per cent of subfertile couples may be infertile as a result of endometriosis.² One in 15 men and one in 10 women are thought to be struggling with their fertility – you are not alone.

      Infertility is defined as lack of conception after at least 12 months of unprotected intercourse. This means that some couples may take up to two years to achieve a pregnancy, if 12 months is the mean. Infertility is a major health issue, often due to an illness, yet it receives very little attention from our society or from Parliament and Congress.

      However, 65 per cent of these subfertile couples may be helped by drugs and surgery to achieve a pregnancy. By following the correct nutritional advice, the rate of success may be increased to 86 per cent, as shown by data from Foresight – the charity for preconceptual care.³ Thus, help is available for the couple struggling with their fertility. By combining good nutrition and conventional medicine endometriosis patients enhance their ability to conceive. Everything that we put into our bodies has health consequences. Poor nutrition has detrimental effects on endocrine and reproductive functioning.

      Endometriosis is a complex disease that appears to have several different mechanisms through which it may trigger subfertility. It is not clear if one or more of these mechanisms is the cause of the subfertility associated with endometriosis, but endometriotic implants have several different effects on the reproductive system.

      In medical schools, few doctors are taught about nutrition, body biochemistry and metabolic pathways. If they were to spend time studying subjects other than physiology, anatomy and pharmacology, they would fail their board examinations. What we need here is integrative medicine – medicine that merges the benefits of all approaches to healing patients. We must begin to heal the patient from within and offer the best from all Eastern and Western medical approaches. We need to make a paradigm shift to impartial evidence-based medicine.

      ABDOMINAL ADHESIONS AND SUBFERTILITY

      As the endometriotic implants grow and develop in the abdomen, where they do not belong, the body tries to surround them with fibrous connective tissue (scar tissue). The body does this in an attempt to isolate the implants and prevent them from doing harm by putting up a protective barrier. Adhesions can also be formed during surgery when abdominal tissue is traumatized. This fibrous tissue develops like moss growing on a stone and behaves like a Band-Aid on a wound. They solidify and thicken over time, and have the effect of making the implants stick to adjacent tissues.

      Remember that blood is sticky and internal bleeding from the implant also forms adhesions, such that an implant may be stuck to several different tissues like a cat’s cradle, as if we placed some very sticky glue-like gum in the abdomen and several organs became stuck to each other by the very sticky strands. For example, an endometriotic implant on the top of the uterus may cause the ovary and small intestine to become attached at the site of the implant. If the adhesions pinch off the Fallopian tube or if they cause a blockage of the opening of the Fallopian tube, they could obstruct the union of egg and sperm and prevent fertilization and conception, or cause an ectopic pregnancy, if the embryo can’t travel to the womb. This type of obstruction can be easily diagnosed and surgically corrected.

      However, this does not explain how patients with just a few implants and no adhesions can become infertile. Adhesions can also cause pain, as internal organs which normally slip and slide become firmly glued together. For example, if the bowel is stuck to a tender, painful ovary, flatulence could cause pain, and sexual activity may be uncomfortable due to constriction of movement. Operations, by their very nature, may trigger more adhesions to form even as others are removed – catch 22.

      SECRETIONS FROM ENDOMETRIOTIC IMPLANTS

      As