Traditional Chinese Medicine and Endo Ex for Endometriosis – my thoughts :)

I have had a few emails and comments regarding my Treatment plan that I started a few months ago. Well, I thought I would let you know the outcome so far. It has been a few months so it is a fair time to give something a review and here it is….

Well, the treatment plan involved taking Endo-Ex for Endometriosis and the Ghu Zhi Fu Ling Wan Traditional Chinese Medicine . I took both first thing in the morning followed by at least 10minutes of exercise. My belief was that if I exercised afterwards the relevant bits would get to where they needed to go.

A little bit more info on what is in these things:

EndoEx

This is a product by the Natural Therapies group. It contains Dong Quai, Chaste berry or Vitex, Milk Thistle, Chinese Yam and Viburnum opulus. The main focus of this tincture was to create hormonal rebalancing. It advocated a balancing mechanism which would alleviate the symptoms of Endometriosis. So, basically we are stimulating Oestrogen or Progesterone to reduce the Oestrogen overflow caused by Endometriosis. Check out their explanation of ingredients here:

http://www.nativeremedies.com/ingredients

I noticed many of these ingredients are Phytoestrogens through my other means of research, which would essentially mimic our Oestrogens. This is still debatable to me. Please read my article on it here:

Why natural healing doesn’t always work

Mucking with hormones, good or bad?

Also, read this one:

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69176.cfm about Chaste berry which is the main ingredient in Endo Ex.

There were initially some great benefits to this remedy. I noticed a significant improvement on how I felt but I also noticed my emotions were all over the place. After 2 months I was crying uncontrollably, noticing a sense of panic too much and just did not feel very emotionally stable. I could attribute these things to things that were going on in my life at the time but I decided not to continue with Endo Ex. If you have used the product I would love to hear your opinions though.

So, the struggle I have with this product is…. once again we are mucking with our hormones to alleviate the symptoms of Endometriosis. This is not a cure but it is reducing the side-effects of the condition – elevated Oestrogen levels. So, yes it might offer some temporary relief but once the balance is out of wack again, we will be back to square one.

Ghu Zhi Fu Ling Wan

The main reason I decided to use this one was that I was living in the middle of nowhere when we first got to New Zealand, working in one of the ski areas of New Zealand. Though I preferred to see a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, the closest one was an hour’s drive away. I did some research and discovered this product being advocated for Endometriosis or as they describe it, a moving of blood stasis.

It uses a “warming technique” in healing and activates the spleen, liver and kidney function thereby giving the body more chance to heal itself. It a study about the herbs it indicated that blood stasis was significantly reduced by 79% of endometriosis patients. I believe it has something to do with realigning the chi in our body.

It has been 3 months on this product and I can honestly say it has been significant in the symptom improvements. I don’t just feel less pain on it but the main differences are in the little symptoms and signs which are significantly reduced.

Noticeable improvements:

• No more headaches
• Less pain during monthly and ovulation time
• Stuff that comes out during my monthly is clear and no clots (sorry to be gross)
• Less bloating and tension in the abdominal area
• No nausea, digestion issues or heartburn

Though I believe this product helps, I still don’t think it will completely eliminate Endometriosis. I think it is a great product to get rid of the excess cells of blood in the uterus and thereby reduce the pain and adhesions.

The imbalance is still within our body and our focus still needs to be placed on the liver and lifestyle to completely rid ourselves of Endo. There is no “cure in a bottle” for endometriosis!

However, this is definitely a product I would strongly recommend, having tried it and seen definite improvements within a short time. I will keep taking it over the next 6months and keep you updated on my progress but I will definitely combine it with a strong liver diet and the other recommendations you have seen on my blog already.

To buy the product, I found it through a natural herb supplier.

Ghu Zhi Fu Ling Wan (support me by buying through this link and you will go through to Amazon)

The important thing is not to overdo it, which is our natural tendency when we find something we think is going to work. Remember, slowly wins the race! I started off with only half the dose they recommended so the body could get used to the herbs. You don’t want to get the runs believe me!
I then gradually increased the amount. Your digestion is a good sign on this one. If you are getting too runny, reduce the amount, if you are not as runny, increase it. Sorry, easiest way to explain it
It will be great for your digestion! I have no issues with this one AT ALL any more! It is fabulous and being able to reduce that additional bloating helps with Endo so much!

An update: If you have been taking Gu Zhi Fu Ling Wan for a while be careful not to overdo it. When your stools become too loose, it is time to stop