Moxibustion Heat Therapy and Herbal Medicine Are Remedies To Consider For Uterine Fibroids

When you have a diagnosis of uterine fibroids, natural and alternative home remedies can be safe and simple ways to treat yourself.

Uterine fibroids also known as leiomyomas, myomas or fibroid tumors are growths of hard muscle tissue in the uterus. About 50 percent of all women over the age of 40 have them. The fibroids grow so frequently that they are deemed a typical irregular occurrence. Most fibroids (about 80 percent) remain small, about the size of a walnut although some fibroids can become huge (medical reports show one that was a hundred pounds!).

Fibroids are the biggest reason women in the US have hysterectomies.

While medical researchers have not determined what exactly causes uterine fibroids, they have established proof that estradiol, a type of estrogen, is responsible for their growth. Fibroids disappear after menopause. But since the level of estrogen levels can increase during the early menopausal years, previously symptomless fibroids may develop in the years just prior to the cessation of the menstrual cycle, leading to menstrual flooding and extreme menstrual pain, difficult evacuation, incontinence or urinary frequency, pain during intercourse, low back pain, a sensation of heaviness in the stomach and other symptoms.

Colored women are 3 to 9 times at risk of developing fibroids with their fibroids growing more rapidly than white women.

Generally, fibroid tumors aren’t cancerous. Tumors are not a malignancy or cancer, they are growths or swelling in the body. Less than 0.1 percent of all uterine fibroids are malignant.

When it is small, the fibroid eventually disappears on its own. Fibroids that are large are harder to deal with, although through natural interventions, they are not impossible to control.

The uterus is where the lowermost energy center or “root chakra” of your body is located. It is the area believed to house unexpressed anger and that any undesirable growths in these organs can be cleared by safely channeling or externalizing the anger.

A woman’s menstrual cramps and fibroids vanished within 3 months after she embarked on a rigid exercise routine. Irregular ovulation appears to exacerbate the fibroids; exercise ensures regular ovulation.

Eating at least three servings of beans or whole grains a day not only lessens the size of fibroids but also helps prevent the development of cancer in the endometrium and breast.

Trifolium pratense or red clover flower can help prevent fibroid development although when used during the menopausal years, it may increase the number of fibroids in the body.

Herbs such as yellow dock root, milk thistle seed, and dandelion can strengthen the liver and help metabolize estrogen out of the body, which helps reduce fibroids.

Twenty five to thirty drops of chasteberry tincture or Vitex two to four times a day, tend to reduce the size of fibroids within a couple of months. But outcomes emanate from long-term use (about two years and more).

A TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioner in Saratoga Springs can administer moxibustion heat therapy over the area where the fibroid is located while you visualize the heat releasing the treasures in your uterus. What can you give birth to? What is hidden in this fibroid?

TCM treatments for reducing fibroids

Used externally as a stomach rub oil and internally as a tincture, one to ten drops of Phytolacca Americana or poke root can significantly relieve discomfort and pain caused by fibroids. Take note that poke is a poisonous herb and is usually not for sale. This is one solution you may have to make yourself to try.

Ginger compresses (hot ginger water soaked in a towel) and warm castor oil packs applied on the stomach can help reduce the size of the fibroids as well as alleviate pain.

Hormonal progesterone therapy is a controversial way of treating uterine fibroids in women. Some believe that not having enough progesterone in the body is the cause of fibroids while others believe that progesterone promotes fibroids. During pregnancy, when progesterone production is high, the size of the fibroid increase, and after menopause atrophy when progesterone levels plunge, they diminish. Time will tell what side will be proven right. In the meantime fibroid size can be reduced by eating more beans and whole grains because they alter progesterone/estrogen ratio the leads to the reduction of fibroids.

Decrease fibroids by minimizing exposure to estrogen: Eat organic foods, stay away from HRT/ERT and birth control pills, and avoid pesticides and herbicides and other estrogen-mimicking residues. Chlorine bleached tampons may imitate mimic the negative effects of estrogen as well.

The medication leuprolide acetate or Lupron induces “artificial menopause” by shutting down estradiol production in the body resulting in a substantial reduction in fibroid size within two to three months.

However, when intake of this drug is stopped, the fibroids grow back to almost their original size.

Significant developments in surgical operations have been made for fibroid sufferers. You can now have other options to consider besides uterus extraction (hysterectomy). These options include suprecervical hysterectomy, hysteroscopic resection, myomectomy, and uterine embolization. It may take time though to find a surgeon who is skilled in the procedure since these are fairly new procedures.

For women below the age of 60 who are suffering from uterine fibroids, hysterectomy can be a life-saving procedure. By the age of 60 however, many American women (a third of them) have decided to have their uterus removed surgically. If you have non-symptomatic fibroids in your body, this is not a good reason to undergo a hysterectomy. Some women who did their research before a getting a hysterectomy because of fibroids, fared much better after the operation than those who did not.

Except for a few women, a woman’s ovaries is a very important aspect of their health. So, keep your ovaries even if you decide to have a hysterectomy.

Start with the most gentle remedies first if you have a uterine fibroid that is problematic. When using a remedy, set a time limit for it. Except in emergencies, don’t advance to stronger solutions until you’re sure the safer ones don’t really work for you. You’re the best one to judge what works for you and what does not.