Pre-Menstrual

Syndrome

.

Behandlung.

Frei nach: Daxa Vaishnav

What is common to all these patients is a syndrome that is present before the menses, called the Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) or Pre-Menstrual Tension. One can label a person as

suffering from PMS if a group of symptoms recurs in the same fashion and is relieved with the appearance of the menses. Its onset varies from just a few hours before menses to 6 - 10 days

before the period.

What is the cause?

This is apparently caused by water retention in the body. The other factor that is thought to be responsible for this condition is extreme sensitiveness to the fluctuations in the hormonal

levels which are in turn sensitive to psychological conditions like anxiety, emotional instability, and domestic stress to name a few.

What are the symptoms?

The patient can have physical as well as psychological symptoms.

The physical symptoms can be varied:

Migraine headaches

Sinusitis and upper respiratory tract infections

Painful swelling of the breasts

Acne

Abdominal distension

Constipation

Pelvic discomfort

Frequent urination

Gain in weight

The psychological symptoms:

Lassitude, malaise and tiredness

Extreme moodiness and touchiness

Irritability

Emotional outbursts

Sleep disturbances

Depression

Suicidal and homicidal tendencies

How can it be controlled?

Adopting a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise and a proper diet will help control the symptoms.

What are the changes required in the diet?

Low in salt and sugar (before menses)

High in fiber content

Intake of Soya bean preparations

Restriction of caffeine- coffee, tea, cola drinks, etc.

Calcium supplements to reduce the cramps during the menses

Vitamins E and the B complex

How can homeopathy help?

Constitutional treatment by a good and qualified homeopath will surely help in PMS. This will require a detailed history, followed by the prescription of a remedy that would be based not only on the patient’s physical symptoms but also on her life situation and mental state.

Below some of the homeopathic remedies useful in P.M.S.:

Calc.: pale, fat, flabby person/cannot tolerate cold. Sweats easily from the slightest exertion. Her symptoms may be the result of emotions, worries, and vexations. Mentally tired and full of anxiety. Worried that others would observe her mental weakness and that people look at her with suspicion. Full of fears that something sad or terrible would happen. Craves eggs and sweets. Menses early, profuse and long lasting (an internal examination may reveal fibroids or polyps of the uterus). Pains in the breast, leucorrhoea, chilliness and headache before the menses. There is a sensation of a weight on the top of the head, with nausea and cold hands and feet.

Graph. morbidly fat with a tendency towards constipation and delayed menses. She is in extreme mental depression, which is made worse by listening to music. She is indecisive and her moods change constantly. She recalls the events of her youth, but recent events are forgotten. She has a great aversion to sweets in her diet. Her menses are late or irregular, pale and scanty. Sometimes she has leucorrhoea instead of menses. Her premenstrual symptoms are varied- colds and cough, hoarseness of the voice, headaches, nausea, itching of the vulva, weight gain and edema of the feet, and leucorrhoea.

Kali-c. whimsical and irritable/quarrelsome- quarrels with her family and with people at work. She is extremely anxious and fearful. She cannot remain alone. This person is sensitive to every atmospheric change and cannot tolerate cold weather. Weakness, sweating and backache best describe her physical troubles. She has profuse menses and there is often a continuous flow of blood till the next cycle. Before the periods she feels very sad and is very hot and uncomfortable.

Puls. mild, gentle and yielding person. She is extremely touchy and weeps easily. She likes fuss and caresses and is relieved by sympathy and consolation. All her symptoms have appeared since she first started menstruating. She is thirst less, though her lips and mouth are dry. She dislikes and cannot tolerate food that is rich and full of fats. Her menses are irregular and lend to be delayed. The flow is thick, scanty, dark, clotted, intermittent and changeable. She will complain of pain in the breast before, and diarrhea during and after the menses.

Lac-c.: forgetFUL. She makes mistakes in writing. She is sad and believes her disease is incurable. The menses are too early and are profuse and in gushes. The breasts swell up before the menses and are very painful. They cannot tolerate the slightest jar and she must support them with her hands while walking. She also has a headache before menstruation with a blurred vision, nausea and vomiting at the height of the attack. Sore throat and cough often accompany menstruation. The pains are erratic and symptoms have a tendency to alternate sides.

Con.: spinsters, widows and old maids. History of repressed sexual desire or overindulgence. She is depressed, timid and has an aversion to meeting people. Every excitement causes mental depression. She takes no interest in anything, be it business or study. Her menses are delayed and scanty, and the parts are sensitive. The breasts enlarge and become painful before and during the menses. There are stitching pains in the nipples and she wants to press the breast hard with her hand.

‡ Frei nach: Joop van Dam, M.D. and Bob C. Witsenburg, M.D.

Premenstrual Syndrome = P.M.S. with Marjoram Comp. (= Menodoron) and the Menstrual Cycle-A.

Complaints: headache/a feeling of heaviness/tiredness/feels empty/dark/depressive/despairing/almost suicidal (sometimes feelings of depersonalization)/often abdominal pain.

Ego and astral body lose their healthy relationship to the physical and etheric bodies. In view of the point of time at which the complaints occur, this disharmony of the 4 bodies sought specifically in the processes of the uterus and ovaries.

It became apparent that certain remedies were almost always effective, so that we were led to experience them as specific for this syndrome.

1. Puls.: remedy (D 12). A plant in which light and darkness are in competition: the flower first hangs down and later straightens up again. The bell-shaped, dark-colored flower shows a profound influence from the astral. The plant is known in homeopathy as a gynecological remedy particularly for women who need to weep a great deal. The light-organism (astral) regulates the fluid-organism (tears).

2. Hepar/Magnesium D4 dil. Depression with underlying lack of vitality or exhaustion. Light (magnesium) and life are restored to the fluid-organism (liver) and this affects the rest of the metabolism.

3. Pot-e. (= Tormentilla) D 30.

R.S.: root of Pot-e. is regarded as a specific in its effect on the relatively independent part of the ego-organisation that primarily regulates the reproductive organs. Where the relationship of the ego and astral body to the etheric and physical bodies has become blocked (amenorrhea/cramps), Pot-e. in high potencies can break through this blockage via the ego-organisation.

Pulsatilla D12/Hepar-Magnesium D4/Tormentilla D30 dil. during the week before menstruation brought about a good alleviation of the premenstrual syndrome (approximately 50 patients given this treatment).

For marked fluid retention (often with increased headaches), Betula/ Gummi Cerasi 10 gtts. TID was given.

When a migraine headache came to the fore. Cycl. D 3 was indicated.

Here (as with Pot-e.) we have an impressive rootstock/intense odor/phenomena indicating a conflict in the plant between light and darkness (purple color and a stem with downward curvature at the end followed by upward-pointing petals).

In addition to the medication mentioned above as used in the week before menstruation. Marjoram comp. (Menodoron) was also given, as well as 10 gtts. TID during the second and third weeks of the cycle. In order to clarify the rationale behind this, there now follows a discussion of Marjoram comp. and then of the menstrual cycle itself.

Marjoram comp. [= Menodoron/Mill. e florae 20% + Thlas. herba tota 150% + Orig. e fructi 30% + Querc. rubra e cortex 25% + Urt-d. e florae 10%].

Mill. = Achillea millefolium ‡ an aromatic composite like Calen./Cham. with EMphasis on the form. The etheric oil is blue (as in Cham.). In both cases the blue color can be experienced as an expression of the dominant force working upon the metabolic processes/these are aroused but simultaneously given form. R.S.: Mill. a "miracle" of the plant-kingdom for the way in which the S works together with other substances in it (K). ‡

Thlas. = Capsella bursa-pastoris ‡ a crucifer compared with other members of the family physically not very substantial and only becomes clearly noticeable in its flowering stage and in the subsequent seed-setting stage. The plant has great vitality and grows on bare soil. In cruciferae the sulphur-process plays an important role and in Thlas. + a powerful silicon-process that gives the plant sturdiness. ‡

Orig. = Origanum majorana ‡ a labiate/a warmth-plant. It is on the watery side within its family: peppermint and balm are drier, while dead-nettle is even wetter. Blooms in late June, and the flowers appear progressively lower on the stem. The astral forces sink deeper and deeper into it, lignifying the stem downwards. The odor is warm but somewhat astringent. The substances of interest are mainly the etheric oils. ‡

Querc. = Quercus ‡ It occupies a special position among the 5 plants used in Marjoram comp. (Menodoron) while it is a tree. A restrained POWER resides in it. It comes into flower late in the year/leaves loose their color late/foliage retained for a long time. The restraint is to be seen also in the shape of the leaf. This form of life is expressed substantially in the substances (Ac-tann./Ca). The calcium moderates the life-processes where these threaten to get out of hand. ‡

Urt-d. ‡ strong rhythmic structure with emphasis is on the leaf. (It should actually grow around the human heart, for it is, in the natural world outside, actually analogous in its inner organization to what the heart is in the human organism.) ‡

The rhythmic system addressed in relation to metabolic processes. The sulphur-processes + silicon/K/Fe. Urt-d. effects rhythmic organ in that sphere, the uterus.

Ether-types:

Orig. labiates a powerful warmth-ether effect.

Thlas. the chemical ether.

Querc. the earth aspect of the life-ether.

Mill. light-ether

Urt-d. has all 4 ether-types united in it:

the life-ether in the lignifying quadrilateral stem,

the chemical ether in the typical metabolic processes in the leaf,

the light-ether in the sharply-indented leaves,

the warmth-ether (among others) in the exploding seed of the flowers.

What all five plants have in common is that they have great vitality and that their life-cycle, in contrast to that of many other herbs, extends over a large part of the year. They arouse powerful, enduring, constructive life-processes. In view of this characteristic, one is led to allow Marjoram comp. (Menodoron) to continue working for quite a long time (months on end).

The menstrual cycle
In order to get a clear view of the menstrual cycle and its irregularities, we shall attempt to describe it as the result of the action of the upper and lower poles upon the reproductive system.

At the end of the first week of the cycle, the endometrium begins to build up (proliferative phase) as a result of an increase in the oestrogens.

At the end of the second week ovulation occurs, with a slight rise in temperature and in progesterones, and the endometrium enters the secretory phase.

At the beginning of the fourth week oestrogens and progesterones decrease, and the endometrium begins to become ischemic due to the contraction of the spiral arteries, until on the 28th day the endometrium is shed and excreted into the external world as menstruation, and then at the end of the week the process begins again.

From a hormonal point of view we may regard oestrogens and progesterons as construction-initiators of the female reproductive system.

The construction begins at the end of the first week and continues until the beginning of the fourth week, i.e. roughly covering the second and third weeks. The destruction phase, expressed hormonally as (among other things) the decline of the two hormones mentioned, covers therefore the fourth and first weeks. Ovulation and menstruation occur in the middle of these two phases respectively.

What can these two phenomena tell us?

R.S.: see all processes and events in the body as an interaction between:

nerve-sense processes working from above downwards and from outside inwards and

metabolic processes working from below upwards and from inside outwards.

As soon as one process threatens to become too powerful, a re-harmonizing or healing occurs, caused by a rebelling reaction from the other pole.

As we can see from the example of the splinter, where initially the nerve-sense or destruction processes dominate (splinter in the skin-sphere as being in the domain of the upper pole), the metabolic system subsequently rebels and conveys the broken-off matter outwards (centrifugally) as a suppuration.

Conversely, if initially the metabolic or construction processes dominate (deeper inside the organism, as being in the domain of the lower pole), the nerve-sense system subsequently rebels and conveys the excess of construction materials inwards (centripetally) out of the blood as an incapsulation.

R.S. calls this "being on the way to disappearance from the physical world"! An example of such an encapsulation would be any calculus-formation or sclerosis.

Excessive metabolic processes (exemplified by cholesterol) are excreted inwards by the rebelling upper pole. Like an encapsulated splinter it remains thereafter in the body as an attempt to restore the balance, be it only temporarily.

If we now try to see the phenomena of the cycle as a special case of the above dynamic system, we come to the following conclusions:

In the 4th week when the ischemic phase begins, it takes several days before the destruction has proceeded far enough for a "falling out of life" to be achieved (as a suppuration), and for the metabolic processes, as a result, to have rebelled far enough for them to arrange for an outward excretion in the form of menstruation, so making an appearance in the physical world outside.

Conversely, after the 2nd week when the construction has reached a certain strength, there follows a rebelling reaction from the upper pole, leading to an ovulation, i.e. an expulsion (or rather, inward impulsion) into the free abdominal cavity. This cavity is actually not a cavity at all, but a virtual space, an absorbent space, a non-physical, i.e. etheric, space.

Ovulation is actually a disappearance from the physical world (see the splinter case terminology!). It is not without significance that it is precisely with the disappearance from this physical world that a cosmic world becomes accessible (fertilization).

Just as a fever is an intensified activity of the lower pole (reaction) following upon an impulse from the upper pole (action), so is the rise in temperature consequent upon ovulation to be seen as a result of this intensified interaction between upper and lower poles. A normal menstruation, a healthy excretion, without troublesome premenstrual phenomena, can occur only if the lower pole has had its full force in the preceding weeks. If this is not so, the destruction phenomena (feeling of heaviness/fluid-retention/depression/headache) will be observed at the moment that they begin (at the beginning of the 4th week). (This is analogous to early waking at 3 h.. when the anabolic phase of the liver has not been powerful enough and the beginning of the catabolic phase simultaneously brings awakening with it. As is well known, Fragaria Vitis comp. (Hepatodoron) is an excellent hypnotic in this case).

From the above we can conclude that a healthy cycle can occur only if construction and destruction both have their full force and # with one another.

Hence, a cycle-therapy means a strengthening of the construction in the construction phase in the 2nd and 3rd weeks and a strengthening of the destruction in the destruction phase in the 4th and 1st weeks.

For these reasons we have given up administering Marjoram comp. (Menodoron) through the whole cycle or in the 2nd half and now give it in the 2nd and 3rd weeks, while Puls. and Pot-e. are given in the 4th and 1st weeks. ‡

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