Do Your Periods Need Help?

 

I’m back this week – and talking all things periods! How lovely – I know, but it is becoming more and more common to see irregular patterns with periods, which most definitely needs to be addressed.

So, today we’re talking about certain supplements which COULD help you to find your flow, help you reduce symptoms of painful or heavy periods and a perfect opportunity for you to learn that little bit more about your periods.

So for those lucky few, who have perfect periods and never have any issues at all, these supplements might sound a bit weird – but for those who have issues month in and month out – well listen up. These may be perfect for you.

DIM or Indole 3 Carbinol – ring a bell? No? Well let me tell you what they’re all about!

These are compounds found in cruciferous vegetables which can help you on your way to amazing periods and getting your hormones back on track! This is actually one of the supplements we use the Online 21 Day Programme (next one is starting on the 2nd of July 2018 FYI), which help the ladies find a balance in their hormones after years of uncertainty.

These Indoles are found specifically in Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale – that’s why eating your greens really are extremely important to help aid your liver detoxification process.

So, how do these compounds affect our hormones?

DIM

1. There are two phases of liver detoxification. DIM is useful for supporting phase 1 of the liver detoxification process. In other words, DIM supports and thus improves the process of estrogen breakdown by the liver, and increases conversion of estrogen to more favorable metabolites. DIM will encourage estrogen to break down into the good metabolites rather than the bad ones.
2. DIM is an aromatase inhibitor, which means it prevents the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. So taking DIM has a two-fold effect on estrogen – it will reduce the overall effect of estrogen on a woman’s body by supporting estrogen detoxification AND reduce the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.
3. Finally, DIM also blocks androgen receptors, which means it blocks the effects of testosterone or dihydrotestosterone (a more potent form of testosterone). Essentially, DIM helps improve and even eliminate acne by preventing potentially harmful androgens from getting into their receptors.

So, why would you take DIM?

DIM is especially helpful for cases of estrogen dominance, which means estrogen has become dominant over its sister hormone progesterone.

I recommend DIM for women who are showing symptoms of estrogen dominance, which often include heavy or long periods (longer than 7 days), short menstrual cycles (shorter than 25 days), and emotional PMS symptoms (e.g. major mood swings, irritability, severe fatigue, uncontrollable anger, and feelings of depression).

In addition, I also recommend DIM for symptoms of high androgens (male sex hormones – testosterone being the most well known), the most common being acne, redness or splotchy skin.

Brands and usage 

My personal brand to recommend is Nutri Advanced DIM. Unless I know you personally and have a full medical history from you, I would only ever recommend to use this product for 30 days at a time unless being seen by a health care practitioner.