Home Remedies for Water Retention with PMS Timed with the Period

Water Retention is Caused by Estrogen Mimicking Chemicals and Herbs

Water retention starting two weeks before your menstrual period associated with PMS is caused from chemicals and herbs that mimic estrogen (xenoestrogens). If you eliminate xenoestrogens, you eliminate the cause of bloating and water retention. The most important route of entry is though the skin. The top home remedy to use for water retention from PMS is topical Natural Progesterone without the simultaneous use of xenoestrogens.

Water retention can start two weeks before you period. However, the fluid retention peaks just as the period starts. Water retention can be measured by 1 to 10 or more pounds of weight gain just before the period. The body retains water. Usually, I ask my patients to record their weight at the same time of day without clothes. This usually means measuring your weight in the morning upon waking after voiding without clothes. Record your weight every day. PMS common signs are bloating, water or fluid retention with weight gain, breast tenderness, breast lumpiness, headaches, cramps, fatigue, irritability, mood swings, and anxiety. I once had a patient with severe outbursts and rage that was on the verge of losing her job. PMS is defined by symptoms that start 2 weeks before the period and sometimes for a few days into the period.[1] Water Bloat usually occurs in the breast and stomach (uterus), the female organs sensitive to estrogen. Bloat in the breast feels like a dull heavy pain. After the period finishes, weight is rapidly reduced. The woman “pees out” all the extra water weight gained before the period.

Get Rid of Water Retention Using this Home Remedy

Avoid the cause of water retention. Reduce chemicals and herbs that mimic estrogen. Take transdermal natural progesterone. Natural Progesterone is an over-the-counter home remedy nutritional supplement. The bloat in the stomach and breast that varies with the cycle will also reduce.

Estrogen dominance or too much weird estrogen causes water or fluid retention. [2] It is important to note that the type of estrogen matters. There are a multitude of different chemicals and herbs that mimic estrogen. And when they mimic estrogen they do so strangely and weirdly. These chemicals and herbs that mimic estrogen are known as xenoestrogens. They kind of have estrogen effects but may have other strange effects as well. Some of these estrogen mimickers are known to cause breast cancer and endometrial cancer. Other herbs may actually directly increase estradiol. For instance, several cups of coffee will increase your estradiol by 70%. [3]

The most important route of entry is through the skin. Chemicals and herbs go directly into the body. Anything eaten orally is 90% 1st pass inactivated by the liver.

Birth Control Pills and Synthetic Hormone Replacement Therapy Cause Water Retention

There are also man made synthetic chemicals that mimic progesterone strangely called progestins. These are used in birth control pills and “Plan B” or the “Morning After Pill.” Again these progestins are patented mutant copies of progesterone. Natural Progesterone promotes pregnancy. The progestin “Morning After Pill” opposes pregnancy and blocks progesterone at the receptor level.

Birth Control Pills and Hormone Replacement Therapy are synthetic Frankenstein strange imitations of estradiol and Natural Progesterone and are widely known to cause bloating and water retention. They are weird and strange estrogens and progestins that have estrogen like and progesterone like effects but have strangely wrong effects on the body.

Instead of Birth Control Pills, I recommend using a condom with no lubrication or spermicide. Typically, the lubrication and spermicide packaged in the condom can both act like an estrogen. Instead of Hormone Replacement Therapy, John Lee, MD recommends Natural Progesterone over-the-counter, transdermal and topical. Read more about Natural Progesterone and why it is safer here.

What Causes Water Retention? Xenoestrogens.

Are there other chemicals and herbs that act like estrogen that cause water retention associated with PMS? Most certainly, there are. For the last 50 years, there is a field of study of hormone disruptors. See Tulane University hormone disruptor website here.

Too much weird estrogen or Estrogen Dominance affects cell membranes detrimentally. Sodium and water rush into the cells. This causes intracellular edema, fluid retention, and loss of potassium and magnesium. Sometimes this results in hypertension. Dr. Milton Crane has studied the effects of estrogen, progesterone, and progestin on cell membranes. He is also familiar with plasma renin, hypertension, and aldosterone excretion. He believes that Estrogen Dominance and birth control pills are a major cause of high blood pressure in women.

John Lee, MD believes that Estrogen Dominance causes water retention. In addition, this fluid retention is inside the body’s cells (intracellular) and not between the cells in the extra cellular space. Water pills or diuretics don’t work on these patients. John Lee, MD believes that taking Natural Progesterone causes the excess water to be excreted with the high blood pressure going back to normal. [4]

In my clinical experience, avoiding xenoestrogens, the chemicals and herbs that mimic estrogen, and taking progesterone gets rid of the water retention and bloating. After a while, if all xenoestrogens are avoided and are cleansed from the body, you don’t even need progesterone. The woman just becomes normal. They have no water retention at all, and they don’t need to take natural progesterone because they have avoided all xenoestrogens. It is xenoestrogens that are causing the Estrogen Dominance in synergy with your own estradiol. The most important of home remedies for water retention is to avoid xenoestrogens on the skin and to take Natural Progesterone. The main route of entry for xenoestrogens is on the skin. Anything on the skin is 10 times the anything taken by mouth in potency.

Estrogen Dominance and Xenoestrogens

Xenoestrogens simply means “foreign estrogen”. Xenoestrogens are a subset of endocrine disrupting chemicals or hormone disruptors that are estrogen-mimicking compounds. Hormones are chemical messengers. The hormone binds to the hormone receptor on the cell membrane or inside the cell. Once the hormone is bound to the receptor, the hormone now signals the cell to do something. Hormone receptors are big and flexible and respond to hormones. Think of the hormone as a ball and the hormone as a baseball glove. The fit is not perfect, stiff, or permanent. Both the hormone and hormone receptor bend and flex. The hormone and hormone receptor do a “hand shake.”

The problem is many different types of balls can fit into the same receptor. Some of these balls just sort of resemble the original estrogen. They are really not the original estrogen, but still fit into the hormone receptor “baseball glove”. These different kinds of Frankenstein estrogens still fit into the hormone receptor, but have similar, but different effects from the original estrogen.

These Frankenstein estrogens, xenoestrogens, in synergy with your own estradiol are causing your water retention associated with PMS 2 weeks before your period.

Cattle Get Water Retention Purposely

Synthetic Estrogen pellets are purposely injected subcutaneously behind the ear of cattle to fatten them up and make them grow faster. The implant pellets slowly dissolve under the skin of the ear to give a slow constant supply of xenoestrogen to the cattle over a period of 6 months. The cattle get water retention from the synthetic estrogen pellet. Because of the water retention, the meat weighs more and is more tender. The rancher gets more money because the meat weighs more. This has been the prevailing practice in America for the last 50 years. One of my patients commented that she knew exactly how the cattle felt.

The European Union has purposely banned the importation of American Beef.  Europeans believe that this synthetic estrogen residue in the beef leads to more breast cancer. The Americans claim that the amount of estrogen in the beef is miniscule and washes out of the beef. The Americans say that they cannot find the synthetic estrogen in the cattle’s urine. However, the synthetic estrogen is fat soluble and not all of it ends up in the urine, the synthetic estrogen may be stored in the fat.

Do the 20% Effort to Get the 80% Effect

In my opinion, from treating patients from 1999 to 2016, the major route of entry of xenoestrogens into the body is from topical transdermal skin products. Anything on the skin is absorbed directly into the body. Estrogen patches supply estrogen to the body. Nicotine patches supply nicotine to the body. Shampoo, soap, deodorant, lipstick, laundry detergent are all absorbed into body. Anything on the skin is 10 times the oral dose in potency. But anything eaten is first pass 90% pre-filtered by the liver.

Thus, if you want to prevent Estrogen Dominance, the most important thing to do is to find safe products to use on the skin. These cosmetics and toiletries must be free of xenoestrogens. Other home remedies are secondary and second order effects compared to stopping all hormone disrupters on the skin. The other home remedies are band aids. The primary cause of pms water retention is xenoestrogens on the skin.

If you buy any product from us, you will get a list of safe products to use that are devoid of xenoestrogens. You will also get a no-no list of chemicals and herbs known to be xenoestrogens and hormone disrupters.

Xenoestrogen Exposure can be Extremely Minuscule and Create Estrogen Dominance

Women can be extremely sensitive to small amounts of xenostrogens. I had one patient that had migraine headaches for 10 years that varied with the menstrual cycle. So obviously, her menstrual cycle had a hormonal component to it. She went on our safe recommended product list that was devoid of all xenoestrogens. For six months, she did not have any migraine headaches. She only used topical progesterone for the first 2 months of the 6 months. The four months of the six months that she did not have any migraine headache, she was simply living a clean life. At the end of six months, she began to have headaches, bloating, breast tenderness, and water retention. The real kicker was that she had an extreme pain of 9 out of 10 in the lower right quadrant of the abdomen. She was doubled over in pain.

She asked me why.

I told her that she was exposed to a xenoestrogen in her environment. She denied that she had changed anything. So we had an hour conversation of “Yes, you do.” She answered, “No, I don’t.” I examined all the products that she was using and I could not figure out where the xenoestrogen was coming from.

She hung up and went to see her OB/GYN. The OB/GYN did a CAT scan, MRI, and abdominal ultrasound, but the doctor could not find anything. She called me back up on the phone. We had another one half hour of “Yes, you do” and “No, I don’t.” I could not find the source of the xenoestrogen. She was desperate, as her pain was still undiminished at 9 out of 10.

Another week went by and she called me up on a Saturday morning. She claimed she had found it! She started using a lip balm with cannabis oil in it about the same time all the headaches, pain and water retention associated with her period started. I told her that she had found it.

She stopped her lip balm that contained cannabis oil.

She called me up on the following Thursday. She told me that her water retention, bloating, breast tenderness, headaches, and pms symptoms had all improved. Best of all, the pain that used to be 9 out of 10 was now reduced to 3 out of 10. However, she emphatically told me that she was extremely skeptical of the claim that the lip balm was causing the problem. She only used the lip balm 3 times per week.

So, I told her, “Just try the lip balm again, and see if all the pain comes back.”

She answered, and I quote her exact words, “Hell No! I am not going to do that.”

What is happening here?

Hormones are active at very small amounts. A normal estradiol might vary from 30 picograms/gram to a very high 400 picograms/gram. What is a picogram? A picogram is 10^-12 grams. A high estradiol is 400 picogram/gram. This is 0.4 parts per billion. Thus, a high estradiol for a human woman is 0.4 parts per billion. If you spit in an Olympic sized pool, the concentration of your spit is on the order of parts per billion.

Extremely small amounts of xenoestrogens put on the lips or scalp may be hundreds or thousands of times more than your own hormones. These xenoestrogens can be much stronger than your own hormones or weaker.

Buy any product from us, and you will get a free list of recommended xenoestrogen free products and a no-no list of common chemicals and herbs that may be xenoestrogens and progesterone blockers.

Get Rid of Water Retention - Home Remedies for PMS Water Retention

The simple home remedy for reducing Water Retention that occurs 2 weeks before your period is to avoid the topical xenoestrogens, and take Natural Progesterone topically. Why? Topical xenoestrogens are causing your menstrual cycle water retention.

Many women that take Natural Progesterone can lose several pounds of water weight over 1-3 days immediately, if they are not taking strong xenostrogens at the same time. Progesterone is a safe home remedy. Women that are pregnant have high levels of progesterone. Women that are pregnant many times and carry their pregnancy to term have a smaller chance of breast tumors and endometrial tumors.

The main home remedy for water retention is transdermal Natural Progesterone. When you take Natural Progesterone there are 5 outcomes:

1. Completely avoid xenoestrogens topically. In 1-3 months, the xenoestrogens wash out of the body. It takes so long since they are fat soluble. You become normal. No progesterone is needed. If you lose fat, the xenoestrogens stored in the fat are released. Water weight reduces in the short run in several days. Weight from fat reduces in the long run over several months.

2. You take Natural Progesterone with weak xenoestrogens. You get better. Many times with several days 1-3 pounds of water weight will come off. This is about 60% of patients.

3. Your take Natural Progesterone with one or more strong xenoestrogens. You get WORSE temporarily until the progesterone is stopped. Water retention actually gets worse. Weight gets worse. The body to protect itself from long standing xenoestrogen exposure shuts down its estrogen receptors and becomes less sensitive to estrogen. Progesterone wakes up these estrogen receptors, and now you are more sensitive to estrogen. Water retention increases instead of decreases. You will have weight gain instead. Stop the Natural Progesterone. Stop all xenoestrogens. Then, use Natural Progesterone again in 1-3 months.

4. You take Natural Progesterone with one or more strong xenoestrogens. The progesterone works for the first 2-3 months, then does not work. It may take 1-2 months for the progesterone to wake up the estrogen receptors. Weight in the first several months decreases. Then, after the estrogen receptors wake up, weight increases.

5. You take Natural Progesterone with an herb or chemical that is a progesterone blocker at the receptor level. These herbs or chemicals will block progesterone from the progesterone receptor. The body uses progesterone to maintain pregnancy. Herbs or chemicals that block progesterone are typically used to create a miscarriage. Aloe is one of the many herbs used to create miscarriage. [4] I do not agree with this morally. Aloe is frequently found in shampoos, lotions, and skin creams. If you take aloe with progesterone, the progesterone won’t work. Likewise, if you take any herb or chemical known to cause miscarriage, the progesterone won’t work. These abortifacients will block progesterone. Weight does not increase or decrease.

I am not against the use of aloe. If you are sunburned, please use aloe. If you have an immune deficiency, or viral infection and you believe that aloe is helping the condition, please use aloe. But if you want to use progesterone to alleviate water retention and periodic weight gain that comes with PMS, you cannot take aloe with it. The aloe will block progesterone.

Take Iodine Because Iodine Helps Convert Strong Estradiol to Weak Estriol

According to Jonathan Wright, MD of the Tahoma Washington Clinic, taking iodine helps reduce strong estradiol to weaker estriol. He has never seen this written up, but has observed in several hundred patients that after giving iodine, strong estradiol decreases and weak estriol increases. The bloating and water retention due to hormones is the additive effect of all the xenoestrogens and estradiol together on the estrogen receptor. Thus, taking iodine helps.

Brownstein, MD has measured over 500 patients and found that over 90% of them are deficient in iodine. The gotcha in giving iodine is that if you give too much iodine at once, iodine forces out toxic bromine. Bromine makes the patient sick. This sickness is now blamed on iodine, and not on the real villain bromine. Bromine is stored in the body and messes up the thyroid hormone. Bromine is found in soft drinks, sports drinks, some swimming pools, asthma inhalers, and commercial bakery products. Flour in the store frequently contains bromine, but bromine is not listed on the label. You have to call the manufacturer to find out whether or not bromine is in the flour.

If you buy any product from us, you will get a protocol to dose iodine and rid yourself of toxic bromine. Toxic bromine can contribute to hypothyroidism. By taking iodine and slowly ramping up you can get rid of toxic bromine. Iodine will displace bromine out of the iodine receptors.

If you are poisoned with bromine and most people are, iodine will push the toxic bromine out. Once your body has sufficient iodine, your thyroid hormone system will become more active, and frequently, women experience a long term steady weight loss over a period of 3-6 months.

Before you calorie count, you must correct the hormone imbalances caused by xenoestrogens and toxic bromine. If you do not eliminate xenoestrogens and take sufficient iodine, then calorie counting does NOT work. You will eat very little, exercise a lot and NOT lose any weight, or worse gain weight.

Stop the xenoestrogens intake. Take iodine. THEN, you may calorie count and exercise. Then, you will lose weight. You will lose both water weight, and fat weight.

Home Remedies for Getting Rid of Water Retention Tied to PMS

1. Remove xenoestrogens. Xenoestrogens cause water retention associated with PMS. Xenoestrogens may take 1-3 months to wash out of the body. Buy any product from us and get a safe list of xenoestrogen free products to use. You will also get a no-no list of common herbs and chemicals that mimic estrogen, block progesterone, or increase estrogen.

2. Take transdermal Natural Progesterone topically. If you are not taking strong xenoestrogens the loss of several pounds of water weight over 1-2 days by “peeing it out” is a common occurrence. Sugar cravings and chocolate cravings should be reduced, if and only if you have removed all xenoestrogens from your skin and environment.

3. Take iodine. Ramp slowly. Watch out for toxic bromine coming out. Blame the bromine. Do not blame the iodine. Iodine increases weak estriol at the expense of strong estradiol. Iodine will displace toxic bromine and reactivate the thyroid system, if you are poisoned. Typically, weight loss over the next several months will occur.

Notes

1. John Lee, MD, Jesse Hanley, MD, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause Balance Your Hormones and Your Live from Thirty to Fifty, Warner Books, New York, New York, January 1999 p.132.

2. Colin P. White, 1 Christine L. Hitchcock, 2 Yvette M. Vigna, 2 and Jerilynn C. Prior 2 ,* Fluid Retention over the Menstrual Cycle: 1-Year Data from the Prospective Ovulation Cohort, Obstet Gynecol Int. 2011; 2011: 138451.

3. Jennifer Lucero, M.D., Bernard L Harlow, Ph.D., Robert L Barbieri, M.D., Patrick Sluss, Ph.D., Daniel W Cramer, M.D., Early follicular phase hormone levels in relation to patterns of alcohol, tobacco, and coffee use, Fertility and Sterility, October 2001 Volume 76, Issue 4, Pages 723-729.

4. John Lee, MD with Virginia Hopkins, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause The Break Through Book on Natural Hormone Balance, Warner Books, New York, New York, May 2004 p. 208-209.

5. Vern Bullough, Encyclopedia of Birth Control, ABC-CLIO, Inc., Santa Barbara, California, 2001, page 3.