Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Reduce PMS Bloating Naturally with Herbs

PMS sucks – there’s no way around it. I’d like to be one of those nature chicks who gush about their sacred moon and honoring the body’s cycle and appreciating every aspect of it and all that stuff. But, it’s hard to be so optimistic when you’re cranky, tired, crampy and bloating up like a balloon. For those days when even your fat pants don’t fit, there are a few herbal allies that will quickly become your best friends. Beat PMS bloating with these natural remedies.

Dandelion – That’s right, the weed that grows in your yard. We’ve been brought up to think of this plant as a nuisance, but it’s actually got some wonderful medicinal and nutritional properties. It’s high in iron and many vitamins, and acts as a strong diuretic. For that reason, it’s often used to cleanse the liver and kidneys. You can get the dried leaves in capsule form or as a tincture at the health food store, or make a tonic yourself with a handful of freshly picked leaves steeped in a pint of hot water for 20 minutes. Drink a cup twice daily. The yellow flowers and leaves are both edible, but be sure to only pick the tender young leaves before the flowers appear, or they’ll be tough and bitter. The root is also edible, and is often used as treatment for digestive disorders.

Fennel seed – The stalks of this licorice-flavored plant are often used in cooking, but the seeds are what pack the PMS-fighting punch. It, too, has diuretic properties that will help relieve the dreaded bloating. It also has properties that ease bloating caused by gas. A great way to use fennel is to take it as tea – it tastes great, and it will soon help you to start feeling more like yourself again.

Peppermint – This delicious herb has so many uses, from relieving headaches to soothing the gastrointestinal tract. It relaxes smooth muscle and eases inflammation, can help stabilize mood swings and eliminates gas, which can contribute to bloating. Like fennel seed, the best way to use peppermint to relieve bloating is to drink it as tea. Peppermint tea is commonly found in most grocery stores.

You can purchase all three of these herbs in various forms online from Mountain Rose Herbs. Hampstead also has a delicious organic fair trade peppermint tea!

Got Allergies? Blame Global Warming

The latest Vogue (May, with the ever-princessey- in a good way- Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover) has a great piece entitled, “Spring Awakening” wherein writer Ginny Graves does some great round-up reporting regarding the causes of allergies and what the heck to do about them. It’s not online yet, but I excerpted below.

While I’ve never had a tiny waist (I was born with a belly, and have held onto it ever since) or good eyesight, I have one awesome physical trait- I’m not allergic to anything- not even poison ivy! BUT I have many friends who suffer from seasonal (and even year-round) allergies, and watching them suffer is no fun. So I was interested to read this with all my ever-so-sniffly amies in mind:

The latest suspect behind seasonal sneezing is rising levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is affecting plants and trees in ways no one predicted. When researchers at Harvard University grew allergy-causing ragweed under two conditions–current levels of carbon dioxide and double that (the amount that could be in the air mid-century)–they found that the plants exposed to more CO2 grew 10 percent bigger but produced 60 percent more pollen, a finding that would account for the fact that real-world pollen levels are soaring.

“Health officials typically issue warnings when the count is about 150 grams per cubic meter, but we’re seeing levels in the thousands, especially in cities, which have higher levels of CO2,” says Paul R. Epstein, M.D., associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. “The more pollen, the more allergies. It’s pretty simple.”

Writer Graves goes on to bring up that because Spring comes earlier than ever (thanks again, global warming!), pollen is floating around for ever-longer periods of time, aggravating sinuses everywhere. AND we may be more susceptible to pollen as an irritant because we disinfect so much, which means we’re exposed to fewer germs, which some scientists think actually causes allergies to be more severe (since our bodies don’t have to fight real pathogens, it turns upon benign substances–this idea is called the hygiene hypothesis). Take-home message? Our modern lives and unsustainable choices are to blame for our wheeziness.

I think I need to make a t-shirt. “Problems? Blame Global Warming?”