5 Steps for Women to Ease Their Menstrual Cycle
By Dr. Susan Blum
Making these five simple dietary changes will reduce cramps, bleeding, PMS, and improve your mood in just five weeks.

1. Stop eating red meat, we’re talking beef.

2. Stop all full fat dairy. This means ice cream, cheese, full fat yogurt and all milk. You can have low fat or non fat yogurt and cottage cheese.

3. Increase foods that have omega-3 fats, like nuts, seeds, dark green leafy vegetables. Fish is a good choice, but choose fish that are lowest in mercury, like wild salmon and sardines. Check out EWG for the most updated list.

4. For 3-6 months take 3 nutritional supplements: 1 capsule of Evening Primrose Oil (total GLA should equal at least 250 mg), 1 capsule of Fish Oil (Total EPA + DHA should equal at least 500 mg). Read the labels to confirm the strength and make sure the fish oil is guaranteed pure and free of metals and PCB’s. Finally, the tried and true menstrual herb is called Chasteberry or also called Vitex. The usual dose is 1 twice daily.

5. And finally, remember to breathe. Find some form of daily relaxation to turn off those stress hormones. Balancing your cortisol will have a huge effect on your mood and inflammation, which in turn effect all of your symptoms.

Published 06.16.11 at 01:00 PM

Food as Medicine
By Dr. Susan Blum
When Socrates said, “Let Food Be Thy Medicine” he was clearly ahead of his time.

There are many common health conditions like reflux (GERD), chronic sinusitis, arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome that can be treated by a changing your diet. With health care costs going through the roof, it is amazing to me that the simplest and best medicine is also the cheapest. Eliminate certain foods from your diet and you can be cured.

The most common cause of irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and stomach aches in children and adults is eating dairy. Remove all milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter from your diet for a minimum of three weeks and see how you feel. Not sure? After three weeks, eat it several times and see what happens. The other food triggers for gut issues are gluten, soy and eggs. Doing the above three week elimination followed by a challenge will answer the question for you. What if you found out your symptoms would go away with a simple (or not so simple!) change in your diet? My guess is you would happily give up your morning bagel and cream cheese if you knew it would give you a stomach ache.

There are other foods commonly associated with health conditions. Chronic sinusitis and chronic ear aches in children most often respond to a dairy free diet. Occasionally it doesn’t clear up until gluten is removed as well. Wouldn’t it be great to avoid all those antibiotics which harm your gut flora? The nice thing about experimenting with a gluten and dairy free diet, is that your reflux might disappear and your arthritis pain might go away. Sometimes we need to check for other food triggers as well, but most people find using the Food as Medicine approach can offer them a real medical miracle.

About Dr. Susan Blum

A pioneer in Functional Medicine, Dr. Susan Blum has been treating, healing and preventing chronic diseases for the last decade. Her passion and dedication for identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illness through the groundbreaking whole body approach known as Functional Medicine, is helping to transform our healthcare system.

Dr. Blum completed her Internal Medicine training at St-Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, her residency in Preventive Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and is Board Certified in Preventive Medicine. She received her Masters in Public Health at Columbia University, and her training in Functional Medicine from The Institute for Functional Medicine, in Gig Harbor, Washington.

In addition to her role as Founder of The Blum Center for Health, Dr. Blum is Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is on staff at Greenwich Hospital as an Integrative Medicine Specialist in the Medicine Department. She is also a member of the Senior Teaching Faculty at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. and teaches throughout the country in their training programs.

Website: BlumCenterforHealth.com
Facebook: Blum Center for Health