In clinical practice, it can occasionally be difficult to tell the wood from the trees. Sometimes our clients need a good ‘tune up’ first before we can get to the bottom of their signs and symptoms. 

Case History

A 47 year old female attended the clinic presenting with hormonal changes, migraines, and the feeling that she needed a general detox. She described herself as a “stressed, angry, crazy lady, feeling sorry for myself with major mood swings.” She was experiencing night sweats and hot flushes, which she described as unrelenting and significantly worse for stress at work. She had previously been prescribed the oral contraceptive pill to alleviate her hormonal symptoms, but she had recently decided to cease taking it, as she felt it was creating toxicity and compounding her problems. In addition to her hormonal symptoms, she described a range of digestive symptoms including diarrhoea, intolerances, undigested food in her stool and a previous history of haemorrhoids.

Treatment

The treatment plan we pursued for the following 8 weeks primarily focussed on clearing her symptom picture through improving her detoxification pathways, liver function and supporting her adrenals. In addition to a wholefood diet with a focus on specific foods to improve detoxification pathways (including Brassica spp., organic proteins providing amino acids, bitter foods, enzyme rich foods, fibre and fermented foods) her treatment included a herbal tonic taken as 7.5mL bd with food including: Bupleurum (Bupleurum falcatum) 50mL/week; Chen Pi (Citrus reticulata) 50mL/week; Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) 30mL/week and St Mary's Thistle (Silybum marianum) 80mL/. These herbs were chosen primarily to provide a detoxification action to meet the client’s goals, but also improve liver detoxification pathways, improve hormone biotransformation and support stress/adrenal health.

2-Week Follow-Up

Within a fortnight of starting the detox focussed wholefoods diet and herbal tonic, she reported increased energy levels from a previous 4-5/10 to 8/10. Her night sweats were waking her from 2am onwards where previously she had been tossing and turning from bed time at 10pm, and her day time hot flushes had decreased, however she noted she could still feel them coming on which caused her increased stress. Overall, she felt better, though a slight tweak to her herbal formula was made with the introduction of Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) 40mL/week to enhance support for night sweats and liver function.

4-Week Follow-Up

The following fortnight presented additional improvements in her symptoms, with her hot flushes decreasing in length significantly (the frequency only marginally reduced), and night sweats decreased significantly. She commented that her energy levels were excellent and her colleagues at work had observed how clear her skin looked. She was also happy with a reduction in weight (4 kg) and was feeling “less toxic and hormonal” and generally better in herself. Her treatment remained unchanged and we continued for an additional 4 weeks.

8-Week Follow-Up

By the end of her 8 week initial treatment plan to reduce the toxicity in her symptom picture, the patient returned to the clinic with significantly reduced occurrences of hot flushes and night sweats. She found her mood swings had diminished and her energy levels improved dramatically. Based upon the initial improvements, we focussed our current treatment on adrenal health, hormonal balance and maintained her new detox wholefood diet. She is currently maintained on a herbal combination including Black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), Withania (Withania somnifera), Rehmannia (Rehmannia glutinosa) and Sage (Salvia officinalis), and is reporting her hot flushes and night sweats are still present, however they are significantly reduced and her feelings of anger and diminished self-esteem have abated.