Lagging Libido Part 2

A few months back (where does the time go?), I wrote a blog post on lagging libido and how our reproductive tracts are like the canary in the coal mine. When things are out of whack… pay attention as something is amiss in your body.

Things to consider if your Libido’s Luster has Left the Lime Light:

1. Is it your age? As we age, our levels of female hormones drop. Hormones are what send us looking for that male balance in our life, mating, sex! Think about female dogs and other mammals: do they go looking for mating experiences when they are not in heat? No way. Same goes for your body: hormones dropping off with age, poor nutrition, and health issues means the physical – biologically driven urge for sex may just not be there. Now is the time to use your mind to want (or not) sexual encounters for the closeness and intimacy it brings. Need some help with lagging lubrication? http://wisewomenredtent.com/2015/10/09/menopauses-effect-on-our-vulvas-vaginas/   and    https://wisewomenredtent.com/2013/04/18/voluptuous-vaginas/
2. Thyroid: is your thyroid suffering from poor diet, lack of iodine and other key minerals, lack of good self-care?
3. Adrenal gland: is it suffering from too much stress, too much coffee & sugar, and not enough sleep / real food / and relaxation (think yoga!)?

All of these beautiful glands work in symphony with each other. One gland out of whack and the other glands suffer as well.

When our glandular health is out of balance, our bodies will actually borrow (more like steal!) the pre-cursor hormones for your reproductive tract. These pre-cursor hormones are used to make other hormones in your body because you are stressed, out of balance. You can survive not having a menstrual cycle or producing offspring but you cannot survive without your thyroid or adrenal.

Blessings, Paula

 

 

Why You Should Use Organic Menstrual Care Products

Females: Know what you are putting in and on your body. The mucous membranes of the vaginal area are very sensitive and blood rich tissue. This means the blood circulation in this area pulls toxins into your blood stream easily.

Consider using organically grown cotton made pads and tampons, organic cotton reusable pads, sea sponge tampons, moon cup /menstrual cups. I will post sites to learn and possibly purchase from below.

I LOVE my Luna Pad, organic, no dye, reusable pads. It is so easy to remove the top layer liner pad and replace it before you soak through. Which you won’t soak through with Luna pads as they have a soak proof barrier!

Article to read on Roundup toxic pesticide in your menstrual care products:

http://www.herbs-info.com/blog/study-finds-85-percent-of-feminine-hygiene-products-contain-traces-of-roundup-herbicide/

Products that are clean, chemical free, and most are reusable to prevent more garbage pile up in the world:

1. Reusable pads and tampons: http://gladrags.com/product/240/Jade-%26-Pearl-Sea-Sponge-2-Pack.html
2. Reusable pads and tampons: http://www.moontimes.co.uk/
3. Reusable pads and tampons: http://lunapads.com/
4. Reusable pads and tampons: http://gladrags.com/
5. Just one brand of menstrual cup: http://divacup.com/
6. Sea Sponge reusable tampons: http://gladrags.com/product/240/Jade-%26-Pearl-Sea-Sponge-2-Pack.html
7. Disposable organic pads & tampons (great for travel when carrying reusable used menstrual pads is not convenient): http://www.natracare.com/products/

 

What is a menstrual cup? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_cup

Awesome book on natural menstruation and feminine energy; much healing information from many wise women (AND all of the book $$$ goes to supply women in 3rd world countries with safe menstrual care products, how cool is that!?)

      Check this book out and  You will be glad you did… share with all your female friends until the page edges are tattered and torn with love and wisdom sharing!

Want to learn more about your beautiful female self and your connected-ness to the moon and all life?

♀ MOON SCHOOL: An 8 week eCourse for all females no matter where you are in your life cycle. Relearning the beauty of female ways from menarche to Wise Woman Menopausal years. A beautiful way to reclaim your life force power and wisdom as a female.  Click here for more information.

Love & Light to you as we care for self, others, and the planet as a whole living being, Paula

Fall Renewal of Body, Mind, & Soul!

 

www.PaulaYoumellRN.com

Got Heavy Bleeding? Get Wild Yam!

Got Heavy Bleeding?  Get Wild Yam!

Heavy bleeding, menorrhagia, is common in early menstruating years, in peri-menopause, and at times when hormones are fluctuating and unbalanced.

(There are a whole host of medical problems that can precipitate menorrhagia but I will stick to simple, hormonal imbalances here.)

Western medicine’s answer to the problem is to regulate a females cycle using synthetic hormones.  Often times this means prescribing birth control pills to teenagers (women of all ages, really) to regulate their cycles.  A teen’s body just started to function in a menstruating way; do we really expect it to function perfectly from the beginning? Should we not let her body settle into what will be normal for her?

When menstrual symptoms persist, I urge females to turn to nature for help.

Getting to the root causes of a female’s heavy bleeding, not covering it up with a synthetic hormone prescription, supports the whole body’s health and healing.

Actions to take:

1.  100% whole food diet – When we feed our bodies whole food, as nature gave them to us, our bodies respond with vibrant health.  This means all physiological processes function as they were meant to.  This means balanced hormonal health and reproductive cycles.

2.  Outdoor exercise, fresh air, and natural light – all three are essential for the optimum function of your body.  Go now: get your boots, sneakers, or flip flops on (depending on where you live on this beautiful planet) and get outside.  Your ovaries, your whole body, will thank you.  Get natural sun light and moon light.  Natural light regulates your hormones.  Nature is amazing.  You are nature.

3.  Sleep – Your body functions best with plenty of sleep, preferably before 10 PM.  This ensures the best natural rhythms of the body.  Human body rhythms follow nature’s rhythms because we are nature.

4. A balanced body weight for you. This means taking into consideration your body size, shape, bone structure, etc.  Adipose tissue produces estrogen and can contribute to hormone imbalances and estrogen dominance, in women. Maintaining a healthy body weight / body composition supports the female body from having heavy menstural flow.

5. Herbs:  There are many herbs that work to balance the female reproductive organs, hormones, cycle… Herbs are food that feed the body cells, nourish your whole body, mind, and soul.  You can take herbs in multi-herb formulas or in single herb healing medicines, depending on what you are trying to nourish and heal.

Remember, herbs are food.  Using herbs is akin to eating fruits and vegetables. Ask a certified herbalist for help finding the formula best suited to your reproductive needs.

I use wild yam, in varying doses to match the natural female cycle and the rising & falling of progesterone, to prevent the gushing bleeding of peri-menopause. Again, wild yam works like a charm.

My menstrual flow is very light (mini pad) except for about 12 hours of moderately light flow and it lasts about 48 hours, sometimes 2 1/2 days.  I was doing the “gush thing” that soaked through pads, clothes, coats, onto car seats, etc.  There were huge clots everywhere.  I am glad to have ended that issue with herbs… wild yam.

The female hormonal cycles:

Wild Yam has also ended my monthly, hormonal-shift migraines. These migraines can happen to women when the estrogen or progesterone levels drop during the monthly cycle.  While this is a normal hormonal drop (see cycle chart above), as hormones do not stay at the same level all month, in some women this shift in hormones can trigger migraines.  Those “beautiful” menopausal years migraines plagued me until I figured out it was an estrogen dominance issue.  Wild Yam to my rescue.

Years ago, I used wild yam as my birth control.  Again, it worked like a charm.

I would recommend you do not use just any wild yam off the store shelves, use Living Earth’s product, and ask for help from a knowlegeable practitioner to know what you are doing with herbs and understanding your body’s fertility cycle.  See below.  AND, read the booklet to know how to take it properly for birth control.  Again, need help, ask.

Below are 2 booklets (The first two are booklets and yes, I have copies of all) and 1 full size book on Wild Yam.  This is good reading to learn the wonders of natural healing; taking self-responsibility for the health of your body.

 

The below company, Living Earth, is the one I have used, personally and for client’s health and healing needs.  I trust this company and their product. Click on image below to visit the company that offers this female balancing herb. Need help, ask.

Blessing of good health, Paula

                                                                                             

Herbs are Healing, Whole Foods for Your Reproductive Tract

Herbs are Healing, Whole Foods for Your Reproductive Tract

Herbs are amazing, healing tools because herbs are whole foods. Whole foods nourish each and every cell in your body.

Whole food eating means feeding our bodies the way nature intended. This means eating foods in their natural state, as close to the perfectly “whole” state in which nature provides them. This also means following the natural growing seasons and eating more foods that are locally grown and produced, in season. Whole food nutrition is eating in balance, which in turn keeps the body in balance. Foods grown naturally develop with the right proportion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats intended for that particular food. They contain balanced vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and enzymes. This natural balance for each food ensures that the body can properly utilize the nutrients.

The effects of moving away from our whole food diet and eating a refined, processed, and convenience food diet are very prevalent in our society. (Ask me for my educational handout titled Whole Food Eating for an easy introduction to healing body cells with whole food nutrition, pyoumell@gmail.com)

One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedents of

chemical therapy over nutrition. It is substitution of artificial

therapy over natural, of poison over food, in which we are feeding people

poison trying to correct the reactions of starvation.                

Dr. Royal Lee

As a culture, we have created the same scenario with our healing medicines, including those for healing the female body. We have moved away from whole, natural medicines to the processed, refined, factory made pharmaceuticals that upset balance in the human body. Just as refined, factory made food products upset the body’s natural balance.

Herbs, whether ingested as a medicinal infusion, taken as a tincture or in any other form of herbal medicine, are whole foods. The nutrients in the herbs: vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and the nutrients yet to be discovered, are utilized by the body cells to cleanse, nourish, and heal each and every body cell.

Herbs specific for the female reproductive tract are nourishing to the reproductive organ’s cells. So often we get the message from main stream media and medicine: Do NOT use herbs as they are potentially dangerous. This is as crazy as saying that eating beets, apples, or any other natural, whole food is potentially dangerous.

When we eat a beet, an apple, some broccoli, or any whole food, our body digests and absorbs the nutrients in the whole food to nourish our cellular health. The same process of digestion and assimilation of nutrients happens with herbs. Herbs are whole food; herbs are healing medicine.

Herbs are plants (leaf, root, stems, bark, berries, seeds), like a beet or an apple, that have nutritional and healing properties with affinities for certain tissues.

Herbs for female health are many and each has its own healing purpose. Used in combination, they create powerful healing energy in the female body.

Some excellent female healing herbs are:

• Stinging nettles

• Red raspberry leaf

• Wild yam

• Chaste tree berry

• Motherwort

• Red clover flower

• False unicorn root

• Passion flower

• Don quai root

• Wild carrot

• Ginger

• Blue and Black cohosh

• Squaw vine

• Black haw

• Yarrow

• Pennyroyal

• Mugwort

• Partridge vine

These herbs balance female hormones, tone and heal the female organs, and add nutrients to every cell in your body.

A simple healing tea I used to make for my roommate, many years ago before I had become a certified herbalist, to ease her menstrual cramps: chamomile tea with 30 drops of black or blue cohosh tincture. When she moved into her own apartment, just up the street, she would call me every month and ask me to bring her a jar of this cramp relief tea.

For specifics on which herbs to use for your personal needs, contact an herbalist in your area. In the Potsdam, NY area? Give me a shout.

Herbs for healing other organs: (Just to remind you how amazing herbs really are!)

• Saw palmetto for the prostate

• Hawthorne berry for the heart

• Rhubarb root for the colon

• Milk thistle for the liver

• Nettle as a general nutritive herb (Yes, I truly love nettles!)

• Dandelion and burdock root for liver cleansing and nourishment

The list of herbs and the cells / organs they nourish goes on and on. These are just a very few example of herbs and the cells / organ they have affinities to nourish and promote healing. This healing action happens because the herb adds whole food nutrition to your body cells. This is the same thing a beet does; feeds your body cells.

Stinging nettles are my favorite herb! Nettles are a power house of nutrition and healing energy for the whole body. I add nettles to every combination herbal formula I create. Use nettles in your female healing remedies!

With that said, I recommend you read up on the herb you want to ingest for its nourishing, medicinal abilities. Learn about the herb and its healing affinities before you make the decision to take it. Contact your local herbalist for help in choosing the right herb or blend of herbs to add to your whole food dietary plan to promote personal health and healing.

Words from a happy client that demonstrates my point about herbs and whole body healing; that body cells are nourished by ingesting herbs:

Thanks Paula. The herbs you recommended for my peri-menopausal symptoms

have really helped.  No more migraines, moodiness, or horrible night sweats.

After years of challenging health symptoms, I am very happy to be healing

with whole foods, including female healing herbs.

Sherry B.

Herbs are whole foods. Use them wisely for healing your female energy and whole body healing.

Blessings of health, Paula

        

Red clover flower and Red raspberry leave, combined with my favorite herb:  Stinging nettles, are the three herbs I recommend for a fertility infusion to drink daily.

Healing Herbs for Females

Herbs are Healing Whole Foods for Your Reproductive Tract

Herbs are amazing, healing tools because herbs are whole foods.  Whole foods nourish each and every cell in your body. 

Whole food eating means feeding our bodies the way nature intended.  This means eating foods in their natural state, as close to the perfectly “whole” state in which nature provides them.  This also means following the natural growing seasons and eating more foods that are locally grown and produced, in season. Whole food nutrition is eating in balance, which in turn keeps the body in balance.  Foods grown naturally develop with the right proportion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats intended for that particular food.  They contain balanced vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and enzymes. This natural balance for each food ensures that the body can properly utilize the nutrients.

The effects of moving away from our whole food diet and eating a refined, processed, and convenience food diet are very prevalent in our society.  (Ask me for my educational handout titled Whole Food Eating for an easy introduction to healing body cells with whole food nutrition, pyoumell@gmail.com)

One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedents of chemical therapy over nutrition.  It is substitution of artificial therapy over natural, of poison over food, in which we are feeding people poisons trying to correct the reactions of starvation.    Dr. Royal Lee

 As a culture, we have created the same scenario with our healing medicines, including those for healing the female body.  We have moved away from whole, natural medicines to the processed, refined, factory made pharmaceuticals that upset balance in the human body.  Just as refined, factory made food products upset the body’s natural balance.

Herbs, whether ingested as a medicinal infusion, taken as a tincture or in any other form of herbal medicine, are whole foods.  The nutrients in the herbs: vitamins, minerals, phyto-nutrients, and the nutrients yet to be discovered, are utilized by the body cells to cleanse, nourish, and heal each and every body cell.  Herbs specific for the female reproductive tract are nourishing to the reproductive organ’s cells.

So often we get the message from main stream media and medicine:  Do NOT use herbs as they are potentially dangerous.  This is as crazy as saying that eating beets, apples, or any other natural, whole food is potentially dangerous.

When we eat a beet, an apple, some broccoli, or any whole food, our body digests and absorbs the nutrients in the whole food to nourish our cellular health.  The same process of digestion and assimilation of nutrients happens with herbs.  Herbs are whole food; herbs are healing medicine.

Herbs are plants (leaf, root, stems, bark, berries, seeds), like a beet or an apple, that have nutritional and healing properties with affinities for certain tissues.

Herbs for female health are many and each has its own healing purpose.  Used in combination, they create powerful healing energy in the female body.

Some excellent female healing herbs are:

• Stinging nettles
• Red raspberry leaf
• Wild yam
• Chaste tree berry
• Motherwort
• Red clover flower
• False unicorn root
• Passion flower
• Don quai root
• Wild carrot
• Ginger
• Blue and Black cohosh
• Squaw vine
• Black haw
• Yarrow
• Pennyroyal
• Mugwort
• Partridge vine

These herbs balance female hormones, tone and heal the female organs, and add nutrients to every cell in your body.

A simple healing tea I used to make for my roommate, many years ago before I had become a certified herbalist, to ease her menstrual cramps:  chamomile tea with 30 drops of black or blue cohosh tincture.  When she moved into her own apartment, just up the street, she would call me every month and ask me to bring her a jar of this cramp relief tea.

For specifics on which herbs to use for your personal needs, contact an herbalist in your area.  In the Potsdam, NY area?  Give me a shout.

Herbs for healing other organs: (Just to remind you how amazing herbs really are!)

• Saw palmetto for the prostate
• Hawthorne berry for the heart
• Rhubarb root for the colon
• Milk thistle for the liver
• Nettle as a general nutritive herb (Yes, I truly love nettles!)
• Dandelion and burdock root for liver cleansing and nourishment

The list of herbs and the cells / organs they nourish goes on and on.  These are just a very few example of herbs and the cells / organ they have affinities to nourish and promote healing. This healing action happens because the herb adds whole food nutrition to your body cells.  This is the same thing a beet does; feeds your body cells.

Stinging nettles are my favorite herb!  Nettles are a power house of nutrition and healing energy for the whole body.  I add nettles to every combination herbal formula I create. Use nettles in your female healing remedies!

With that said, I recommend you read up on the herb you want to ingest for its nourishing, medicinal abilities.  Learn about the herb and its healing affinities before you make the decision to take it.  Contact your local herbalist for help in choosing the right herb or blend of herbs to add to your whole food dietary plan to promote personal health and healing.

Words from a happy client that demonstrates my point about herbs and whole body healing; that body cells are nourished by ingesting herbs:

Thanks Paula! The herbs you recommended for my peri-menopausal symptoms have really helped! No more migraines, moodiness, or horrible night sweats. After years of challenging health symptoms, I am very happy to be healing with whole foods, including female healing herbs.  Sherry B.

Herbs are whole foods.  Use them wisely for healing your female energy and whole body healing.  Blessings of health, Paula

      

Red clover flower and Red raspberry leave, combined with my favorite herb: Stinging nettles, are the three herbs I recommend for a fertility infusion to drink daily.

Feminine Divine Books By Lucy Pearce in Ireland!

Feminine Divine Books By Lucy Pearce in Ireland!

Wise women around the globe unite!

http://thehappywomb.com/shop-3/shop-2/moon_time/

Ablation? Is This for Real?

Ablation?  

Seriously?  

Fry the Inside of My Uterus?

Ablation is defined as removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation). This definition alone, erosive processes??, would make me shudder and stop to think about what was being recommended for my body, my precious uterus.

“Stop your heavy period and restore your life” is NovaSure’s advertising hype for uterine ablation.  Wow, my life needs restoring because I bleed?  Really?

The opening paragraph on the NovaSure’s website is a scary Patriarchal MindSet, PMS as Wise Woman Susun Weed aptly calls it.

Heavy bleeding is a symptom that there is an imbalance in a woman’s body.  Eroding the endometrium will not heal this imbalance.  Correcting the imbalance will heal the heavy bleeding and prevent more complex female health problems down the road of life.

Address the cause not the symptoms.

I would look at the woman’s diet and lifestyle to unravel the causes of her heavy bleeding symptoms.  I would suggest diet and lifestyle changes that were fitting to her unique, individual needs.  I would recommend herbs (wild yam to start) to assist in healing the imbalances in her whole body.  How about easing stress to prevent the cortisol steal that creates female hormonal imbalances?

These lifestyle medicine healing choices make more sense to me than burning away the endometrium, the uterine lining.

 

I am an RN and Holistic Health Educator Healing support person.  I worked in Maternal Child Nursing for 12 years before leaving to focus on Wise Women centered care; holistic health education, and healing support.

I first heard of this uterine ablation while sitting at my healing table working with a beautiful female soul.  She told me she had this procedure 10 years prior, at age 32!  I then gently said, “Wait, what? Please explain that to me again.”  I was shocked to say the least but maintained my compassionate energy.

When I removed myself from standard medical care, I lost track of new procedures created to “solve women’s issues.”  Consequently, I am paying attention again, not to recommend the procedures, but to support women in healing and avoiding such body altering procedures.

Not wanting to make her feel bad for her choice; I opened my ears, heart, and soul and listened to her story.  I was amazed and frustrated at how she was convinced that burning away the inside of her uterus, the endometrium, was just the thing she needed to do to solve all her womanly problems.

I have since heard this story, many times over, and it breaks my heart.  Red tents are needed in every community to remind women of the wisdom of their own body, to listen and hear what the symptoms of heavy bleeding are struggling to tell them.

When will our culture stop viewing menstrual flow as “The Curse,” something to hide and be ashamed of.  When will we once again embrace the life-giving energy that women’s moon flow is.  Menstruation creates the miracle of reproduction… how we all are here!

My wish is to be able to support women in these situations.  By sitting with them, listening to their “her-stories,” and helping them to unravel the causes of the menstrual symptoms.  The body will heal when we remove the cause(s) of the health symptoms and nourish the body back to health with nourishing, Wise Woman supported, life-giving choices.  Lifestyle changes centered on whole food eating, whole health living (lifestyle medicine), and herbs to nourish and heal the woman’s beautiful female organs and her entire body, every cell in her body, would be how I would create a Red Tent for every woman I am blessed to support on their healing paths.