ACHING for an ANSWER

Friends!

I was working on my downward pressure post when this email came through. I will still be posting my pressure post later today or early tomorrow, but I wanted to throw this post in while it was fresh in my mind. Sorry to clutter your inbox. Kind of.

Back in November, I received an email from a young woman suffering from bad menstrual cycles. I get this type of email often and I responded quickly for two reasons. First, she already had a long-term, structured approach to how she was going to solve a problem with a tool. Second, her note about monthly pain medication quantities gave me a tug. No one should be on regular pain medication, especially for a natural human function. Because many of her questions are similar to many of your questions, I decided to post both our email exchange and her results.  NOTE: The emails are undoctored (with the exception of some formatting and correction of MY spelling 🙂 and I was given Stephanie's permission to post.

November 26, 2010

Dear Katy,

I am going to do your five exercises in "Down There For Women" three times a day for three months (basically until Valentine's day) as an experiment to try and get rid of menstrual cramps. I am 24 and have regular cycles, no migraines, but if I didn't take triple doses of painkillers, I would be debilitated for four days. I also switched the way that I sit and drive by tilting my pelvis forward and sitting squarly on the bones instead of tilting back on the tailbone.

 

What I want to know is, first, I saw on your blog {find the blog she is referring to here} that you had zero menstrual cramps after lots of hiking. Do you know any other success stories of people with zero menstrual cramps?

Also, do I have to do these five exercises three times a day for the rest of my life or, could I eventually maintain flexibility and strength by doing them once a day?

Thanks so much.
-Stephanie

November 27, 2010

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for your email.  We have had a many people reduce or eliminate their cramps by doing their exercises, especially those like yourself who are young.  Severe cramps are usually caused by extremely tight posterior leg muscles (everything from the hamstrings down to the soles of the feet.)  I personally took myself from a two-day monthly debilitation to needed nothing but one hot bath the day I started.  One year later I have taken no medications at all, and I used to be a 2-5 Tylenol a month girl.

I think the barefoot hiking finally got into the tight lower leg issue I was having.  The disk is a great place to start, and you should notice a difference your first cycle.  Please keep me posted!

The exercises are fairly simple. The bigger issue is WHY your muscles are tight. If you change the way you sit and stand (by thinking about what you learn on the DVD and applying it to "all the time"), you won't have such a chronic issue.  The exercises to really learn to love are the single and double calf stretch.  Those are going to be your new best friends and I do them 2-3 times a day (just a few minutes) because sitting and driving and shoe wearing just tighten everything back up again...

Hope this helps!  Good luck...

Katy

February 19, 2011

Hi Katy,

You were right, the stretches for eliminating menstrual cramps really work!  I tried a 3-month experiment.  I did notice a difference my first cycle: instead of taking a triple dose of pain killers for 4 days, I only took pain meds for 30 hours.  Second cycle: 15 hours.  Third and most recent cycle, I never felt any pain at all.  I took 1 narproxen the first day and the second day just because I was out and about and couldn't believe how successful this was - I thought it was too good to be true.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much for making that information available, I am so grateful!

-Stephanie

Why is this email so great? A dependency on painkillers to get through a day without pain is not a healthy model. The long-term cardiovascular and intestinal risks of taking painkillers and/or anti-inflammatories is well known, and if you are taking these medications for anything other than the irregular, acute issue, your body is sending you a message -- SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT. Most of the time, however, that SOMETHING is a slow accumulation of tissue damage due to inappropriate mechanical function, whether at the joint (big) or cellular (small) level.

Do you want to know the super-cool, amazing, wonderful thing no one is tell you? Joint issues are easily fixable (with diligence!). And that cellular-level ailment is being affected by the joint thing. Fix one, improve the other. Sounds too simple, I know, but, that's how the body works. The big muscles not only move the big joints around, but they also get the microscopic stuff to move around as well. Who knew? (ME, ME, ME, and You, You, and YOU!!!)

If you are having menstrual issues, you (like Stephanie) can optimize the mechanics of your natural pelvic functions with this (at alignedandwell.com or amazon.com):

Why/how does it work? The posterior leg muscle and fascial system, when at the incorrect length (SHORT), keep the pelvis tucked posteriorly. This makes your "tubes" no longer oriented in the direction their muscles systems require to generate optimal force. Now these tissues have to work more for something that should be relatively easy. That tucking position also places your weight onto your sacrum through your sitting hours, which, over time, causes an increase in tension on the muscle and fascial systems of the pelvic floor. {See a video of how to sit here} Now things have to pass through an extra tight space, which, of course, means you feel everything more. The exercises are VERY simple yet most people will struggle with the extreme tension (positive heeled shoes, sitting in chairs, poor walking patterns) down the backs and inner portion of their legs. Open these tissues up, open your biological functions up!

Interesting article on exercise and pain meds: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-0214-painkillers-backfire-20110214,0,3419327.story

Job Well Done, Stephanie, in searching for a solution and, more importantly, doing the work it takes to be well. Let me know if you'd like another DVD to try. This one is on me!

Now, stop bugging me with all of your emails, everyone. I have to write another post!!!!!!!!!