What are your thoughts on holistic vs mainstream medicine for symptoms?

I am strictly holistic...it hasn't been easy at times.  At times it has been life threatening for sure.  I am about 6 years in, I think...maybe more.  At the beginning it was just stuff like itching and flooding.

I find that symptoms ebb and flow.  The longest lasting symptom was the anxiety.  That was about 6 years, maybe it was from the beginning, I am not even sure anymore, but it was a LONG HAUL!  I have finally stepped off the anxiety roller coaster in the past few months and I am VERY thankful.  I think I can handle anything else but that one.

The rest seem to flow one into another, sometimes for a few days at at time, sometimes a month or two until I can find something that helps.

At the very beginning wild yam cream helped with breast changes and perhaps other things I didn't realize were hormonal.  I wasn't paying much attention back then.  lol.

In 2012 I was hit with a thyroid and hormonal hurricane that left me really ill for about 8 months.  I finally found holistic help for that through an alternative procedure called "correactology" that can only be found in Ontario Canada

For the anxiety and mental, last year I finally found out through a friend about bach's remedies, they were a Godsend for sure!

And right now i seem to be doing great with just a chewable vitamin that has all the minerals and many herbs thrown in and are gender and age specific.

I need nothing more than that vitamin right now and I have been feeling exceptionally like myself for well over two months now.

Would it have been easier to go mainstream?  I have no idea.  I don't like the idea of side effects, and everything mainstream seems to come with side effects or a great many doctors appointments and tests.  I just can't see myself doing that unless I really have to

And prayer...prayer has brought me to all the things my body has needed to bring me through this with no casualties.  It seems that God brings in the right thing at the right time when I need it.

 

Some of  herbs can be very dangerous! What all vitamins ands herbs do you take can you share them and the dosage? 

My friend said to me 'why don't you just go get some cream and you'll be back to normal'.  She said it as nice as she could.  But I really don't want to do HRT.   I was just reading an article about perimenopause and it was encouraging.  It mentioned healthy eating, drinking a lot of water and push yourself to at least do 10 minutes of exercise each day. They also encouraged to try herbs and whatnot for the symptoms.     One of the herbs was Fennel seed which is also on the list to prevent cancer.   So I started drinking fennel tea hoping this will help balance my hormones or at least help anyways

Being a pharmacist, I got my training in the "western" pharmacy school, but throughout my career, I have manage to incorporate western and eastern medicine. I think a lot of perimenopausal symptoms can be helped by avoiding caffeine, sugars, alcohol, smoking and stress. Taking a potent fish oil that contains at least 900mg of EPA per day is helpful. If you try hormones, try Bio-identical HRT. Please send me a private message if you have any question 

I tried the natural route to start off with and that helped a lot of my symptoms but nothing shifted the anxiety and often borderline depression and I was very worried about how low I was getting. I feel fit and healthy these days through a combination of healthy eating, vitamins, herbal supplements and bioidentical estrogen so I feel like I’ve taken the best from both worlds. If I could have stayed the natural route I would have done but I love where I am now! 

Hi Michelle.   Just wondering if you tried Maca?  That is known to help with hormones but I was hesitate because some say you gain weight with it.