The following has been approved by the sender for us to share with the readers.

Hi Wayne & Stas,
I want to thank you for the newsletters - I find them very informative. I noticed that in the next letter you'll be giving tips on helping deal with PMS, etc. I wanted to share some info that helped me. (I know that your primary focus is food, but I thought you might find this interesting too (if you don't already know about it:)))

About 3 years ago I started using 'The Keeper' (which I purchased at Grassroots for about $50) initially because I felt it was a more environmentally friendly alternative to tampons, but also because I didn't relish the idea of the chlorine from the tampons getting in my system. I didn't know much about the keeper before I bought it, but later found lots of info on their website www.keeper.com They claimed that using the keeper would eventually result in less bleeding and less pain - all of which have been true in my experience.

The other thing I've been experimenting with is essential oils. Both Clary Sage and Armoise are ester-producing oils, they help balance out hormones by stimulating the body to produce the ones that are lacking (since PMS is often a result of a lack of progesterone or an excess of ester). Both of these oils have also helped lessen my pre-menstrual cramps. Thought you might like to know :)

I'm also really glad to see you'll be sharing information on natural birth control - I believe that the increased use of oral contraceptives has caused the high rate of 'female' cancers. Thanks again for all your information! Miriam

Wayne's comment

Dear Miriam,
I, and I am sure many readers, would like to thank you very much for taking the time to share your thoughts and experiences with us. I hope by addressing this issue we all can make the world more environmentally friendly and we can all be healthier in it!

I Would like to share a phenomenon of nature - female animals and thier cycle! I would also like to share that consulting many women over the years when they went on a healthy diet and natural birth control, they have noticed that their menstrual cycle has decreased, less cravings, less bloating, no headaches, much less PMS (which I believe mean, pretty magical sensations), bleeding time reduced by 50-75%, better bowel movements and happier children & husbands! :-)

Female animals in the wild have only a mild discharge of one hour or so on their cycle! Many women on a healthy diet also have less than one-day discharge. If you have more than three, I consider this too much, as the healthier your body, the less bleeding. One day or less is very healthy. Two days is good health and 3 or more, well, can we talk ?!

Regarding the use of condoms.

The plastics in condoms are not of the highest quality and can leach chemicals that a woman can end up absorbing, which can be a factor in the incidence of female organ cancers! Unfortunately the best answer is to really know your partner, practice natural birth control methods (if done properly they can be 99% effective!) and use condoms minimally.