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clear search termsPMS Rapid Relief Pearls
This week’s video features a common hormone challenge afflicting our female patients and clients of all ages – PMS. Let’s prioritize supporting your toolbox for Rapid Relief of PMS.
Yes, I get it: the functional medicine model doesn’t focus just on symptom relief. But we also cannot ignore the Need for relief! Otherwise, our patients and clients keep popping NSAIDs, coffee, sugar, red wine, and chocolate in an attempt to “get by” with their suffering.
In optimizing the *impact* of functional medicine in actually helping people, Rapid Relief is key. It can help to galvanize a patient’s belief in both your skills and their ability to be well, so they actual stay around long enough to have you help them with true, upstream root causes of their challenges. Rapid Relief is especially key for a frequent, cyclical dynamic such as menstruation and will go a long way to alleviating your patients’ suffering.
In this video, I give you five top clinical tools for PMS relief. There are dozens to choose from; these are the ones I find most effective for the average woman wrestling with debilitating PMS. Many good options for the suggested supplements exist; a couple of my favorite are Gaia Herb’s Vitex Berry for chastetree berry and Thorne’s Basic B for a “starter” B complex featuring a good, initial dose of P5P – the activated form of B6 – that is neither too high nor too low for most.
For other high-value pearls on all things hormones, consider this video on the unexpected, negative effects of oral hormone supplementation on the body or this one on oral progesterone and other solutions for sleep.
If you want to gain confidence in educating, inspiring, and empowering your patients and clients to overcome a variety of hormonal challenges, check out our functional medicine training program and the full spectrum of myth-busting, truth-simplifying education we offer here at the School of Applied Functional Medicine.
I hope this is helpful to you and the patients and clients you generously serve.
Warmly,
P.S. If you are passionate about transforming healthcare through the power of functional medicine, we encourage you to learn more about SAFM’s practitioner training programs. Enrollment for our next cohort is now open!
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10 Questions for “PMS Rapid Relief Pearls”
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Many brands on the market offer great products. A few good examples here are supplements from Pure Encapsulations, Vital Nutrients, and Bluebonnet Nutrition.
Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) is an extract derived from the seeds of the evening primrose plant. The evening primrose is native to the United States and Canada. In the case of EPO, since it’s an extracted oil, what matters the most is that the product is from an organic farm and the method of extraction that preserves the most omega-6 fatty acids.
You may also be interested in this article:
https://schoolafm.com/ws_clinical_know/gastrointestinal-tract-hormone-balance/
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Sara Harooni says:
Hi, I was wondering when is the best time to take EPO? for Vitex you recommend 2nd half of menstruations but not sure for EPO.
TIA.-
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SAFM Team says:
This is going to depend on the needs of the individual. Generally speaking, evening primrose oil is an essential omega-6 fat and is a healthy inclusion in a daily supplement regimen for ongoing benefits.
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Chaste tree berry, also called Vitex is viewed by some as safe but there’s no definitive research confirming it is ok during breastfeeding:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK501807/
There’s some inconsistent evidence that babies can be fussy as a result of Vitex use while breastfeeding.
Dose matters: low, 50-100 mg will help to increase prolactin; higher dose can have the opposite effect and lower prolactin, which may be desirable in case of PCOS, but not during breastfeeding.
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Dina Assaad says:
Hi Tracy! I recently came a across a Methyl B complex .
How is it different than the plain B complex ?-
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A wide and complex variety of B vitamins is essential for the body to convert food into cellular energy. These water-soluble vitamins are first absorbed in the small intestine and then travel to the liver where they are transformed into their active coenzyme forms. One of the key roles of B vitamins is to serve as prime coenzymes for energy production and, also folate, B6, and B12 in particular, are critical for proper methylation, a biochemical process that helps convert homocysteine into the amino acids methionine and cysteine and create methyl groups in the process. This process is vital for supporting cardiovascular and mental health, a healthy nervous system, regulating gene expression, detoxification functions, proper energy metabolism, as well as immune and nerve cell function. Additional intake of B vitamins is often needed by individuals with high levels of stress.
Methylated B vitamins typically refer to methylcobalamin (methyl B12) and methyltetrahydrofolate (L-5-MTHF), which behave quite differently in the body than their ‘plain’ counterparts such as cyanocobalamin (cyano-B12) and folic acid. There are many people who have a genetic issue with the utilization of the cyanocobalamin or the folic acid and they typically do better when using the methylated forms of these nutrients.
You may enjoy these posts and write-ups:
https://schoolafm.com/ws_qa/b-vitamins-for-clients-with-cancer/
https://www.thorne.com/take-5-daily/article/what-is-methylation-and-why-should-you-care-about-it
https://drhyman.com/blog/2011/02/08/maximizing-methylation-the-key-to-healthy-aging-2/
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Deborah Lynn Strafuss says:
Recently, in the past year or two, I have slowly developed an intolerance toward good quality vitamin B complex. I first began to flush after taking Jarrow B-Right, which was a niacin flush, but then I developed a very irritated, dry bumpy itchy face breakout that took about 5 days to clear – ie, no vitamin B. I then researched and found Code B from Whole Foods, another food-based B complex, took that successfully for a while and then got an even worse breakout. At this point, I don’t know if it is something in my physiology or if I am causing a problem when I take the B with other supplements such as Bone UP, C, Nordic Omegas and my E’s. Does it not mix well with a natural ginger supplement, I take one of those too, or have I developed a problem? The B’s are very important to me because of all the Alzheimer’s in my family, so this latest development troubles me. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much. Love and blessings!
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Thanks for your question. Alas, we aren’t able to entertain personal case inquiries here, as there could be many other factors involved in the increased sensitization of your body. What I will offer, however, two possibilities. (1) You may have more of a toxic load than you realize and promoting processing of toxins and increased methylation is creating transient inflammation in your body (the next time you try it, go way low’n’slow). (2) You may be a slow methylator and simply not do well with large supplementation of methyl groups as typically found in a high-quality B complex (get your homocysteine checked; if it’s below 5, I would focus here). (3) You may have an issue with the *form* of B-complex you are using. Contrary to popular myth, “food based” supplements are not necessarily better or the optimal choice for a unique person. These kinds of nutrients are almost always derived from yeast fermentation, and if a person has a sensitivity or allergy to yeast, this they will often be unable to tolerate (especially, as you describe, over time) ongoing intake. If you can, check your homocysteine. Then, I would encourage you to try again but with a synthetic B-complex e.g. Thorne’s “Basic B”. For the first 10 days, twist open the capsule, discard about half of the contents, reassemble, and take it with food only every other day. If you do well, move up to a half-cap every day for 10 days. Only then, consider a full cap once daily. Your personal experiment will likely give you some powerful clues! This is complex but may interest you: http://www.jdmoyer.com/2011/09/03/b-vitamins-mood-and-methylation-its-complicated/ .
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Do you have certain brands of E.P.O. that you prefer over others or anything specific to look for in this supplement?