Quick ahead 20 years, and we nonetheless don’t have a remedy for endo, and we don’t have what I, or the World Well being Group4 for that matter, would take into account efficient therapies for the situation.
However I’m not stunned. In 2022, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being devoted lower than 0.1% of their analysis funding to the research of this continual situation that impacts 1 in 105 folks assigned feminine at start of reproductive age, considerably reduces high quality of life6, and prices america an estimated $22 billion a 12 months in misplaced productiveness. (FYI, in uncommon circumstances, folks assigned male at start can have endo too.)
Like many individuals with endo who’ve been left within the lurch relating to remedy and care, I needed to do my very own analysis. I found that dietary adjustments, though not a remedy, could assist alleviate endometriosis signs. Again within the early aughts, the prevailing knowledge relating to food plan and endo was to go vegan.
The simplified idea was that consuming some animal merchandise7, like purple meat, might drive prostaglandin manufacturing. Prostaglandins, though essential for the physique, when overproduced could cause the uterus (and that endometrial-like tissue) to contract, resulting in ache and cramping. Plus, prostaglandins are implicated8 within the pathophysiology of endo.
As somebody who went vegan manner again in 2001, I can let you know {that a} vegan food plan doesn’t at all times equate to a nutritious diet. Though I ate an abundance of fruits and veggies, I used to be additionally consuming a lot of processed carbs, reminiscent of pasta, rice, cereal, bread, and so forth. In order that vegan food plan didn’t essentially assist me. The truth is, it could have made it worse9.
