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This is an on-going conversation between Ms Yen and me, Pep at an
Endometriosis message board. I wanted to introduce some part of it
here because I had a chance to express some of my ideas about
environmental toxins and endometriosis in it, thanks to Ms Yen and
the board.
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(2-24-01) ****
Hi Pep and all, Pep, would you share with me the website which
notes the relationship between primrose oil and estrogen release?
I had found at other websites that primrose oil is estrogenic --
thus I was confused that so many endo websites suggested primrose oil
for our pain. I tried the primrose oil ?maybe a year ago when
I was playing with my diet to see what products/foods affected
the pain -- the primrose oil definitely flared the pain.
From your website, I assume you are of japanese descent -- is
this so? Through research, I've found that it is noted that
japanese women have one of the highest rates of endo -- I wonder
whether this is due to the high consumption of estrogenic products in
the japanese diet, ie. soy, tofu, bean sprouts (and other "estrogenic"
vegies)? What do you think re this possibility?
Of course, endo is also prevalent in America and other countries
as well. Take Care, Yen
(2-24-01) ****
Hi Yen and everybody,
>Pep, would you share with me the website which notes the relationship
between primrose oil and estrogen release?
I found the information in the book called Prescription for
Nutritional Healing -third edition.
>thus I was confused that so many endo websites suggested primrose
oil for our pain.
That may be because no one supposedly knows what causes
endometriosis although there are some thories. It is probably true
that not much is known about endo, but what I don't understand is that
they still call Dioxin one of the "theories" or even try not to talk
about the relationship between Dioxin and endo while in more than
4 books I've read, said Dioxin has been proven to cause endometreosis -
among those poor monkeys who had been fed a very little amount of
Dioxin, 86 % of them developed endometriosis.
>From your website, I assume you are of japanese descent -- is this
so?
Yes, I'm Japanese and I live in the US.
>Through research, I've found that it is noted that japanese women
have one of the highest rates of endo --
I have learned that average amount of Dioxin in the air of
Japanese urban areas is also the highests in the world - a few years
back, it was 10 times more than the average amount in the US urban
areas.( 1.02pg per cubic meter to 0.09 pg ) More in bigger cities
also applies to the number of endo patients in Japan. About soy,
Japanese people eat so much less soy now ( and eat more meat and dairy
) than some decades ago while endo population keeps getting bigger.
Even after considering the factor that many women might not have been
diagnosed as endo back then, it seems fair to say that the increasing
number of the women with endo and the women who suffer from those
symptoms is overwhelming.
Fish that come from seas near Japan have very high levels of Dioxin
and Japanese do eat lots of fish..
Thank you so much. Sincerely, Pep
(2-24-01) ****
Hi Pep and all,
Pep, your comment re the high dioxin level in Japan as a possible
culprit for the high rate of endo is interesting. From what I've read,
you are correct re research supporting endo and dioxin correlation.
Take Care, Yen
(2-26-01) ****
Hi Yen and everybody,
Thank you very much for responding so quickly, Yen, and sorry I could
not thank you earlier. I updated about primrose oil on my homepage
and I started taking black currant oil instead of primrose.
This month, I did not read the information very carefully and sort of
misused the natural progesterone cream ( I gave it rest for only
3 days instead of recommended 4-7 days ) and ended up having my period
twice in 2 weeks (!...)That made me very tired but thankfully, I still
did not have to have pain.
Sincerely, Pep
(2-26-01) ****
Hi Pep and all, Pep, what exactly is the black currant oil
supposed to do for us?
Have you noticed whether eating tuna or salmon flares your pain?
What about chocolate? Are you eating tofu and other soy products?
No eggs, right (I think eggs taste so yummy but the subsequent
endo pain just isn't worth it) -- I've thought about trying
the organic/hormone free eggs, haven't yet though. Take Care, Yen
(2-27-01) ****
Hello Yen and everybody,
>Pep, what exactly is the black currant oil supposed to do for us?
The oil is a good source of essential fatty acids which are
essential for rebuilding and producing new cells but cannot be made
by the body. EFAs improve skin and hair, lower cholesterol and
triglyceride levels, reduce the risk of blood clot formation etc..
by aiding in regulating prostaglandin balance---from "Prescription
for Nutritional Healing". There are some other oils ( fish oil,
flaxseed oil..) that have EFAs as well.
>Have you noticed whether eating tuna or salmon flares your pain?
I occasionally have tuna and very little salmon and luckily
I'm ok with them. But I try not to eat large kinds of fish too often
because larger fishes contain more toxins ( Dioxin etc ) than smaller
fishes. And also, a lot of fish come from fish farm and I think
you could guess what they do to those fish there--just like
cows..antibiotics, hormons, so on. Where I live, we get very fresh
fish from the sea except salmons come from somewhere else.
I've heard many salmons come from farms, but I have also seen
natural (non-farmed) salmons at stores.
>What about chocolate? Are you eating tofu and other soy products?
No eggs, right ..
When I decided to change my diet and some other things in my life,
my endo pain was so severe that it really made me commit to be
rather strict. I decided to be strict for at least several months.
And in 3 months, I was pain free but I intend to continue ( being
strict ) for 3 more months and if I will have been pain free for
6 months then, maybe I'll loosen up a little ( specially about diet )
....Please don't get me wrong, I do love to eat and I try not to get
too nervous about food.
In any cases, what I have really been strict about for these
3 months are caffeine, milk, dairy and white sugar ( like I said
in my homepage, I was not eating meat back then already ).
Yes, that includes chocolate and ice cream! Although there are
organic dairy stuff and soy or rice ice cream etc., I am not eating
those either at the moment. I sometimes use a little bit of
turbinado sugar from natural cane. I actually use quite a bit
of soy products-preferably organic- and luckily I am ok with them.
And I have maybe 2 eggs every 10 days or so and they are
Natural eggs from All-Natural grain-fed, free roaming ( cage free )
hens-no pesticides or addtives.
Again, I am concentrating more on eliminating environmental
toxins and building more immune systems and it does end up toward
eating-healthy type diet..But I personally do not think good diet is
enough to overcome endometriosis - even just in order not to take
any more dioxin etc into the body and to get rid of those toxins we
already have - and that's why I have been trying all those
natural remedies and stopped using certain things.
I'm also wanting to write about endocrine (hormone) disrupters
melting into our food from plastic and styrofoam containers
in my homepage some time soon.
Sorry this message got kind of long.. Take care !
Sincerely, Pep
* If you came to this page directly by search, home is at
http://www.geocities.com/pepchun/p.html
thanks.