MENSTRUAL HEALTH & PMS
Can Chiropractic help premenstrual syndrome? Can chiropractic
help the cramping, pain, and bloating of menstruation (dysmenorrhea)?
Can chiropractic help those going through menopause - the period
of change that arises when menstruation ceases? Millions of women
with these conditions have visited chiropractors - why?
The female sexual organs - the ovaries, oviducts (tubes), uterus, cervix, vagina,
glands and related structures - all need a healthy nerve supply from the
spine to function properly. Doctors of chiropractic help see that the sexual
organ/spinal column relationship is a healthy one. Let’s discuss some
of the common conditions associated with the female reproductive system.
Hysterectomy, the amputation of the uterus, which may also include the removal
of both tubes and both ovaries, is done to over 600,000 Amercian women a
year. Many are performed on women under 30. "These operations are almost
always unnecessary," says Nora W. Coffey, president of the HERS (Hysterectomy
Education Resources and Services) Foundation: As Stanley West, M.D. has written
in The Hysterectomy Hoax: "More than 90% of all hysterectomies are unnecessary.
Worse, the surgery can have long-lasting physical, emotional, and sexual
consequences that may undermine your health and well-being."
Doctors are not taught the true damage hysterectomy can cause: "I
was taught castration (removal of ovaries) does not affect a woman’s
sexuality, but women tell quite another story."
Many doctors consider menopause a disease instead of a normal physiologic state.
Because of this attitude, women are often subjected to drug therapies that
may cause dangerous side effects. As Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. has stated:
Since medical treatment for hot flashes for over five decades has proven
to be more dangerous than the disease (what disease?) and since the latest
non-hormonal treatments are no less frightening than their predecessors,
my best advice to women with hot flashes is to stay away from the doctor.
Talk to plenty of other women. Read books on the subject by women who are
not doctors. If you must go to a doctor, remember that you are receiving
experimental drugs whose side effects become more visible year after year.
It is no coincidence that many who suffer from menstrual cramps also suffer
from neck or back pain. In one study of 122 dysmenorrhea sufferers, most
had lower back problems and spinal displacements. Perhaps that is why many
women who initially visited a chiropractor for neck or back problems experienced
beneficial effects on menstrual cramps, pain and other gynecological problems.
There are, however, many women who suffer from menstrual problems and other
health conditions who will not go to a chiropractor because: "If I don’t
have a backache, why go to the chiropractor?"
Many other organs, other than the sexual ones are responsible
for reproductive health. For example, chemicals produced by the
ovaries and adrenal glands that are essential for reproduction
are broken down by the liver. If the liver isn’t working
properly, these chemicals can build up to unhealthy levels and
cause fibroid tumors in the uterus account for at least 1/3 of
all gynecological admissions to hospitals.
Many women who suffer from a wide variety of pelvic and gynecological conditions
have discovered the natural benefits of chiropractic care. Patients have
also observed that menopausal symptoms including depression, hot flashes,
back or joint pain, irritability, headaches, or fatigue, have been reduced
from chiropractic spinal care. Dr. J.E. Browning is a doctor of chiropractic
who has written extensively on the chiropractic management of patients with
pelvic problems. His clinical observations have led him to state that, "Various
disturbances in pelvic organ function have been successfully managed by chiropractic...symptoms(include)
bladder, bowel, gynecologic, and sexual dysfunction..."
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