All About Menstrual Disorders And The Cure

The maternal instincts of a woman arise almost entirely from the female hormones within her body. These hormes are produced in a pair of almond-shaped organs, known as the ovaries. They are situated deep within the pelvis, one on each side of the uterus or womb. The two major female hormones are estrogen and pro-gestrone. The menstrual flow is connected with the female function of ovaluation or the passing of the egg cell or ovum from the ovary to the womb ready for fertilisation. It is a provision of nature to cleanse the inner surface of the womb and enable reproduction to take place normally. The flow normally lasts for about four days and has a rhythm of 28 days. Most menstrual disorders are caused by nutritional deficiencies which lead to deficiency and improper metabolism of the female sex hormones.

These disorders are now discussed briefly. Dysmenorrhoea : Painful menstruation or dysmenorrhoea, as it is called in medical parlance, is a very common occurrence these days. This disorder is traceable to a debilitated and toxic condition of the system in general and of the sex organs in particular due to a wrong diet, wrong style of living and nervous exhaustion. The pain may be felt either two or three days before or immediately before or during the flow. Pain starting two or three days before the flow usually shows that the ovaries are not functioning properly. This is a glandular misfunction and a carefully planned natural diet will usually put matters right.

For local treatment, hot sip baths on alternate nights for a week before the period is due will be highly beneficial. Between periods, cold hip baths will increase the tone of the ovaries. Pain immediately before the flow commences is indicative of uterine flexion, which means that the position of the womb is abnormal. A professional examination should be arranged to ascertain the position of the womb and corrective exercises undertaken under professional advice.

Uterine flexion often occurs in women who are so thin that they have lost internal fat and the ligament, on which the womb is suspended. General treatment along dietetic lines is essential along with corrective exercises. When the pain occurs during menstruation, it usually means that the womb itself is inflammed. This condition can be relieved by proper attention to diet and hot hip baths just before the period is due and cold hip baths between the periods. The hot hip bath is generally taken for eight to ten minutes at a water temperature of 100 o F which can be gradually increased to 120 o F. The cold hip bath should be taken for 10 to 15 minutes at a water temperature of 50 o F to 65 o F. Amenorrhoea or stoppage of menstrual flow : Stoppage of menstruation is natural during pregnancy and at the menopause, but abnormal at any other time. It is true that some women have very infrequent periods but this seems to be peculiar to their particular type and cannot be termed as stoppage.

TREATMENT
 The patient should have three meals a day of fresh, juicy fruits, such as apples, pears, grapes, papaya, oranges, pineapple, peaches and melon. No other foodstuff should be taken; otherwise the value of the whole treatment will be lost. However, if there is much weight loss on the all-fruit diet, those already underweight may add a glass of milk to each fruit meal. During this period the bowels should be cleansed daily with a warm water enema. After the all-fruit diet, the sufferer should adopt a well- balanced diet on the following lines :

Upon rising : A glass of lukewarm water mixed with the freshly squeezed juice of half a lime and a spoon of honey.

Breakfast : Fresh fruits such as apple, orange, grapes, papaya, banana and milk.

Lunch : A bowl of freshly prepared steamed vegetable such as carrot , cabbage, cauliflower, swuash, and beans, two or three whole wheat chappatis.

Mid-afternoon : A glass of carrot juice or sugarcane juice.

Dinner : A large bowl of fresh green vegetable salad using all available vegetable such as carrot, cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, radish, red beets and onion and mung bean sprouts.

Bed-time snack : A glass of fresh milk or an apple.

The diet factor is of the utmost importance. Fruits and salads, nature’s body-cleansing and health-restoring foods, must form the bulk of the future diet along with whole grains, nuts and seeds, especially in sprouted forms. Frequent small meals should be taken instead of few large ones to prevent low blood sugar which is common during menstruation.

CAUTIONS
The foods which should be avoided in future are white-flour products, sugar, confectionery, rich cakes, pastries, sweets, refined cereals, flesh foods, rich, heavy, or greasy foods, tinned or preserved foods, strong tea, coffee, pickles, condiments and sauces. Smoking, if habitual, should be given up completely as it aggravates menstrual disorders.

6 WAYS TO PREVENT TEENAGE PREGNANCY

What really are the consequences of ending up with a teenage pregnancy? Some are medical related, while others are social and emotional consequences as listed below:

• Teenage pregnancies often times lead to the young mothers dropping out of school, often times not completing their education.
• Teenage pregnancies lead young girls to being ostracised and looked down on in their communities, even among family members.
• Children born to such mothers also suffer emotional problems, which their teenage mothers would be dealing with as well mostly due to a feeling of shame, and they (the children) would also suffer the social stigma of being a child of a teenage mother.
• There is a higher level of medical complications arising from teenage pregnancy and child birth, than with older women.
• Teenage pregnancies lead to future hardships in relationships for ladies, because men and women would rather not be involved in a relationship with a child or children involved.

Parents and guardians of teenagers and teenagers themselves must always be in touch with reality, the challenges of teenage life is a fact, teenage pregnancies do happen and can happen in any family. So here are a number of strategies mostly focusing on parents and guardians of teenagers, which they can take to help prevent their teenage wards from going down the wrong path:

1. PARENTS SHOULD BE A STRONG PART OF THEIR TEENAGE WARD’S LIVES                              Being a strong part of your teenage child’s life should not just start suddenly, it has to start when they are still kids, teenagers are known to block out adults and constantly want to stay away from them, so how are you going to suddenly want to be part of their lives without them finding it wired and running further away. The family is a strong unit of society, whatever goes on there reflects into the larger society. We find that close knit families have lesser chances of producing miscreants, that is not to say they do not have challenges, but they are a stronger unit, there should always be a strong parent-teenager relationship. Specifically, to be a strong part of your child’s life you need to:Talk to them often. The voices of parents still ring in their kids’ head even as adult, so they need to be fed with the right information early.Do not wait for them to find what they consider as friendship outside, let them find it with you their parents first. There is a time to be your kid’s friend and there is a time to draw a line. Being friends to kids by parents especially in African societies is not an idea that has been fully understood or practiced, this can go a long way with guiding your children on the long run as they grow into teenage hood. Participating in any activity your kids want you to be part of, at school or at home. Knowing their friends, and their friends’ families. Knowing where your kids are at any particular time.
2. TEACH THEM ABOUT GOD AND MORALITY

Family Praying Together — Image by © Steve Hix/Somos Images/Corbis

 Whatever faith you may follow, teaching kids early about God’s instructions and the value of morals is very important, again because they receive this message early, it forms who they become. In my personal opinion, indulging in per-marital sex only brings about harms and zero good, it leads to depression, low self esteem, shame, a disruption of inner peace, as well as the many physical harms that come along with it, such as teenage pregnancy. Even if a teenager is at that point where they seem to want to do things their way and rebel, they will not likely go down the path of indulging in sexual immorality, because they understand that ultimately, it is wrong, hence they will not simply stay away from it because their parents will not approve, they will likely make a deliberate conscious effort to stay away from such actions. This means they choose their own path correctly when you have set the right foundation and taught them the right morals.

3. PARENTS SHOULD BE GOOD ROLE MODELS

Teenagers rebel worse when they see people who have taught them to act properly contradicting what they they teach. Parents ought to be their children’s role models. It is important to act and be the same kind of persons you wish to see your kids grow into, they would cease to listen to you once they see that you only know how to tell them they are wrong but see you act wrong.

4. TEENAGERS SHOULD KEEP THE RIGHT COMPANY

When I was in secondary school, it was a normal trend that the guys considered to be the big boys were friends to the big boys, and they often break school rules and act badly, same with the girls, the “happening girls” who we often heard of their wayward escapades were friends to girls who acted same way, sometime you will see a good girl go bad, sometimes you will see one almost joining the bad girls but quitting. In the end, even teenagers cannot point fingers about the decisions they take in the absence of their guardians, they make choices, choices that can lead to ending up pregnant. Sadly, I recall a girl who died in my class from having an abortion, other girls later confirmed that it was not her first time aborting a pregnancy, how they knew that, I don’t know. When you are trying to be upright even as a teenager you find it terribly hard to believe that your peers are so exposed to be indulging in such activities. Keep the right company with friends who share similar values as you, this goes a long way.

 5. PARENTS BEING TOO STRICT OR TOO LAX

 Parents being extremely strict with their teenagers have produced the most wayward kids, so have parents who were extremely lax, allowing their wards to do as they please. In life everything is about finding a balance. You are too strict if :

1. Your never have any normal social conversations with your kids.
2. If they have to lie to you about where they are going.
3. If they have to rehearse what they want to tell you.
4. If you say NO constantly to activities they want to indulge in such as going out with friends or participating in activities in their school.
5. If you never allow them visit their friends.
6. If you make your kids feel like failures and make life all about them excelling and beating their peers at everything.

All these and more will likely make your kids break/snap on the long run, and they would one day go all out and rebel to the depths of their soul, the result could be “a pregnant teenager”. Studies have shown that kids with extremely strict parenting, have behavioural issues.

As for being too lax:

1. When you let your kids get their way all the time, you want to please them always.
2. When you do not bother who they let into their lives as friends or who they let into your home, this is especially dangerous as it would be even more sad when a teenage girl is gotten pregnant right in her parents’ house, because they cared less about who was let into their home.
3. When you know little or nothing about the families of your kids’ friends.
4. When you do not set precise rules or routine in your home.

Its possible to be kind but firm with kids/teenagers, letting them understand why as a parent you took whatever action or denied whatever request.

6. TEACHING TEENAGERS ABSTINENCE AND SEX EDUCATION

 The parent should take the foremost role in teaching this to their wards, not to wait for the school or an outsider do it. The teenager watches their bodies change, they need to understand what is going on, if parents feel shy or disgusted to speak about these things with their teenagers, they should not feel any less when their teenage son gets someone pregnant or when their teenage daughter gets pregnant. Abstinence is the best message to pass to anyone about sex, abstinence saves one all the troubles that come with per-marital sex, hence teenagers should simply abstain from sex, and e taught the consequence should they chose otherwise.

In conclusion, parents really do have a strong role to play in the path of their kids’ lives, however teenagers too have a choice to make, and they are the ones to suffer the direct impact of their actions.

DO YOU KNOW ABOUT BEING UNDERWEIGHT?

Overweight and issues relating to it is the rave of our world today, our eating habits can often quickly lead us to being on the plus side very quickly, being overweight is a big problem it can lead to a number of challenging health problems. But while being overweight has its associated complications, so does being underweight.

Who is underweight?

For someone to be referred to as being underweight, it means the individual has a Body Mass Index (BMI) under 18.5. Someone with BMI of 20 to 25 is said to be normal; someone with a BMI between 25 and 30 is said to be overweight, while someone with BMI above 30 is said to obese. If your BMI is under 18.5, you are just too underweight that you cannot afford to lose any extra pound of weight. Being underweight can affect both males and females.

FACTORS THAT LEADS TO BEING UNDERWEIGHT

ILL HEALTH: People who are ill may find that they are underweight, of course illness in itself means the body’s optimal function is being impaired, nutrients may not be well absorbed or utilized by the body. In this case the patient often returns to the ideal weight once the illness has been resolved.

MALNUTRITION: We have been taught all about balanced diet early in life, there is a need indeed to eat all the micro and macro nutrients available in through our meals. Eating just one class of nutrients i.e. carbohydrates is malnutrition. Eating empty foods especially the ones we can refer to as junk food is malnutrition. While some people in some parts of the world suffer malnutrition due to poverty which in turn makes it difficult for them to access good nutritious food, others may suffer malnutrition through simply being negligent of what they consume.

EATING DISORDERS: Anorexia is a common eating disorder that makes people become underweight, anorexia can be lack of appetite as a medical condition, or it can be an obsessive desire to loose weight leading to refusal to eat food. The later is also an emotional/psychological state, such a person has an intense fear of gaining weight that they also have a fear of food. This state can be triggered by such things as pressure to look a certain way through peer pressure or a twisted notion about what the ideal body should look like or sometimes an experience of body shaming suffered maybe due to having been overweight which then leads to the obsession to loose weight and become thin. Anorexia patients begin to look sick and unhealthy, and some have been known to take it to levels that could become life threatening.

THE DANGERS OF BEING UNDERWEIGHT

• Inhibited development and growth: This occurs mostly in teens and children. Their body is in need of so much nutrients to grow and also stay healthy. Absence of the required nutrients will culminate into stunted growth of muscles and other body tissues.
• Fragile bone: Someone who is underweight is usually deficient of calcium and vitamin D, which are essential for bone development. This can lead to osteoporosis and weak bone, which in turn translates to being prone to bone injuries.
• Weakened immune system: Your body requires energy to fight off illness and infections. Inadequate intake of right food, which leads to being underweight, will surely lead to inability of the body to fight off infections and illnesses. The fact is a weakened immune system can lead to death.
• Anemia: Anemia is the blood volume below normal. This can be due to a number of reasons including lack of folic acid (folate), Vitamin B 12 and iron. These macro nutrient are very important for the formation of red blood cells, which are the main cells making up the human blood. It will result into headaches, fatigues and dizziness. These nutrients are obtained from the foods consumed day to day. Failure to consume the foods will result in being anemic.
• Fertility problems: Low body weight can result into irregular menstrual flow in women. Lack of periods will result in infertility. Just as an excess amount of fat can also lead to infertility it is same with being underweight as the body requires some fat for hormonal functions.
• Hair loss: Being underweight can result into hair loss. It will make your hair fall off easily and the hair will thin out on your scalp. Aside this, being underweight can equally result into dry skin, which will make the skin peel off.  The skin will become thin, the teeth will look unhealthy and the nails too.

In conclusion, we must make conscious efforts to feed ourselves and our families the right meals, we must also learn to love ourselves so much that the opinions of others does not begin to influence how we treat ourselves, when we learn this we would make physical and diet changes as a positive choice not a choice born out of pressure.