Endometriosis

_{Photo: Mirek Kielar / Pexels}

When the Lining of the Uterus Grows Where It Doesn’t Belong

Understanding the Condition

The uterus is a strong, muscular organ about the size of a pear, sitting low in the pelvis. Its inner lining, the endometrium, is a living, blood-rich tissue that renews itself every month. Through the first half of the cycle, estrogen from the ovaries builds the lining up, thick and full of tiny blood vessels, ready to nourish a baby. If no baby comes, the hormones drop, the lining breaks down, and the uterus contracts to push it out as the monthly flow. It is one of the body’s regular cleansings: the old lining leaves, and a fresh one begins.

Endometriosis is what happens when tissue like that lining begins growing outside the uterus. It settles most often on the ovaries, on the ligaments and in the pouch behind the uterus, on the outside of the bowel and on the bladder (see the picture below). Wherever it lands, it still answers to the monthly hormones. Each cycle it swells and bleeds just as the lining inside the uterus does, but that blood has nowhere to go. It sits and irritates the tissue around it, the area becomes inflamed, and over months and years scar tissue forms. The scarring can glue neighboring organs together (adhesions), and on the ovaries the trapped old blood can form cysts, called endometriomas or “chocolate cysts.”

How It Develops

Medical science does not have one answer for why the tissue ends up where it does. The leading explanations are that some of the monthly flow travels backward through the fallopian tubes into the pelvis, which happens to most women at times; that the immune system, which normally clears that stray tissue, fails to do its job; and that the tissue is fed by too much estrogen and a body full of inflammation. What all of these have in common is a body that is overloaded and not clearing what it should.

That is where the bowel comes in. Look at the picture above: the colon loops right over and behind the uterus, and the rectum runs down its back. A bowel packed with old waste swells and presses on the uterus and its neighbors. The waste sitting there putrefies, and that poison is picked up by the blood and the lymph that serve the whole pelvis. Constipation also works against the hormones. The liver packs up used estrogen and sends it out through the bile into the bowel, to leave with the stool. When the stool sits, much of that estrogen is taken back into the blood, and more estrogen means more fuel for the misplaced tissue.

Dr. Christopher taught the same thing: many diseases, including disorders of the female organs, begin because the bowel and the bloodstream are filthy, and the first task is to clean them up and keep them clean. He shared Dr. Henry Bieler’s observation that when the diet overloads the body with wastes it cannot handle, the body pushes them out monthly through the uterus, using it like a garbage filter, until over the years the uterus breaks down. Dr. Christopher also counted the inorganic estrogen of birth control pills among the great contributors to female troubles.

What it feels like. Endometriosis affects roughly one woman in ten during the childbearing years, and many go years before they are diagnosed. The signs are periods that grow more painful over time, pelvic pain between periods, low back pain, pain with bowel movements or urination during the period, pain during intimacy, heavy or irregular bleeding, bloating, constipation or diarrhea that comes and goes with the cycle, deep tiredness, and trouble conceiving. How much it hurts does not always match how much is there: a little can hurt a great deal.

The only sure way medicine confirms endometriosis is by looking inside with a small camera (laparoscopy). An ultrasound can show cysts on the ovaries. The usual medical answers are hormone treatments that stop the cycle, surgery to remove the growths and, in the end, removing the uterus and ovaries. The growths often come back after surgery, which tells us the cause has not been touched. Dr. Christopher urged women to at least give the natural alternatives a try before surgery.

The Emotional Side: the Energy Work

Healing the whole person. We are body, mind and spirit, and all three must heal together. When one part is neglected, the other two cannot find complete healing. A person can follow a perfect herbal program, but if she stays in a life that keeps wearing her down, or never makes time to care for herself, the body will keep losing ground. Healing the body often means facing what is happening in the heart and spirit as well.

The female organs hold our feelings about being a woman: whether we feel safe, valued and cared for, and whether we care for ourselves. Louise Hay, in her book Heal Your Body, describes these patterns:

• Endometriosis: feeling insecure, disappointed and frustrated; turning to sugar in place of loving yourself; blaming others. Turn it around: I am strong, and I am worth loving. Being a woman is a gift. I love myself, and my life is full.
• Female problems in general: denying yourself; rejecting your own femininity and the feminine side of life. Turn it around: I am glad to be a woman. I love who I am, and I love my body.
• Fibroids and cysts (endometriosis often forms cysts on the ovaries): nursing a hurt from a partner; a wound to your sense of yourself as a woman. Turn it around: I let go of the pattern in me that drew this hurt. I choose to bring only good into my life.
• Constipation: refusing to let go of old ideas; stuck in the past; sometimes holding back and holding on. Turn it around: As I let go of the past, what is new, fresh and alive comes in. I let life flow through me.

Emotional patterns paraphrased from Louise Hay, Heal Your Body (Hay House).

Areas Affected & Opening the Way to Healing

Endometriosis involves the whole neighborhood of the pelvis: the uterus and its lining, the ovaries and fallopian tubes, the ligaments and pouch behind the uterus, and the outer walls of the bowel and bladder. Behind them all stand the liver, which must break down used hormones and clear the waste, and the kidneys, which carry it out. The work is to get the bowel moving and clean, open up the circulation in the pelvis so the stagnant blood and old tissue can be carried away, feed the female organs so they can rebuild, and keep the liver and kidneys clearing.

First, the Bowel

The bowel comes first and stays first the whole way through. Nothing else on this sheet can do its work while a loaded bowel is pressing on the uterus and pouring waste into it.

• LBF (Lower Bowel Formula). Take 1 capsule with dinner the first day, 2 the second, 3 the third, and keep adding one a day until you have good, easy movements. Most people land at 3 to 5 a day; some need many more. There is no limit: the goal is two to three good movements a day. Once the bowel is moving, add the fiber blend so the bowel can be cleaned out as well as moved.
• Water and food. Drink plenty of distilled water, and move toward Dr. Christopher’s mucusless diet: fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, with little or no meat, dairy, sugar, white flour or processed food. The diet that keeps the bowel clean is the diet that keeps the uterus clean.
• High enemas. In the Focused and Incurables levels, a high enema with distilled water every other day, followed by a soothing implant (8 oz. aloe vera gel with 8 oz. distilled water), helps wash out the old waste packed in the colon.

Opening the Way: Packs, Warmth and Movement

• Castor oil packs, every night. Soak a generous piece of flannel (at least a foot square) in castor oil, warm it, and lay it over the whole lower belly, from the navel to the pubic bone and from hip to hip. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel, add a hot water bottle, and leave it on all night. Castor oil draws circulation deep into the pelvis and helps soften and move congested tissue and old scar tissue. Don’t be stingy with the size or the oil. Baking soda with soap takes the oil off in the morning.
• Hot and cold. A hot and cold sitz bath (sitting in hot water, then cold) or a hot and cold shower aimed over the lower belly and lower back, one minute hot and one minute cold, seven times, brings fresh blood in and carries the stagnant blood out. Massage the area as you go. Twice a day is ideal.
• Abdominal massage. Gently knead the lower belly in the direction the colon moves (up the right side, across, and down the left) for 10 to 15 minutes a day, to help the bowel and to work the pelvic organs. Massaging while lying head-down on a slant board takes the weight of the bowel off the uterus.
• Move. Walking, bouncing on a mini-trampoline or light jogging tones the bowel and the pelvic organs and moves the lymph. Start small and build up; never exercise to the point of exhaustion.

Drawing Out What Has Settled: the Vaginal Bolus

The bolus is an internal poultice. It works right where the trouble is, feeding and strengthening the female organs and drawing out the toxic waste that has settled there. Dr. Christopher reported many women clearing cysts, tumors and infections with this routine.

• What goes in it. Equal parts of eight powdered herbs: squaw vine, slippery elm bark, yellow dock root, comfrey root, marshmallow root, chickweed, golden seal root and mullein. Work them into coconut oil until it reaches a pie-crust consistency, roll it into sticks about as thick as your finger, cut them about an inch long, and keep them in the refrigerator.
• How to use it. Insert one at bedtime and wear a sanitary pad, not a tampon. Leave it in through the next day; a little coming out in the morning is normal. In the evening, douche with a pint of warm water and 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar before inserting the next one. Six nights a week, resting over the Lord’s day. Pause the bolus during your period and start again once the flow has stopped. Not for a young woman who has not yet been sexually active.

Feeding the Female System

Dara keeps three formulas for the female system, each with its own job. For endometriosis, the Female Formula and Nu-Fem are the pair to use, and Nu-Fem is the one that rebuilds.

• Female Formula: food for the female system. Chaste tree berry, wild yam, dong quai, damiana, licorice and hops. It gives the body the raw material to make and balance its own hormones and calms the nerves. The everyday dose is 1½ teaspoons a day, stopping the week of your cycle. Three months is the average time to bring a cycle back into balance; it is not unusual to skip a cycle the first month.
• Nu-Fem: rebuilding the female organs. Dr. Christopher’s female corrective: golden seal, blessed thistle, false unicorn, red raspberry, squaw vine, cramp bark, uva ursi, ginger and a little cayenne. This is the formula that rebuilds the uterus, ovaries and tubes for endometriosis, cysts and fibroids, and it is added to the Female Formula. ½ to 1 teaspoon in a cup of distilled water two or three times a day, six days a week. Dr. Christopher saw many severe cases of years of suffering cleared up in 90 to 120 days.
• Changease: hormonal food, only if needed. Black cohosh, sarsaparilla, ginseng, licorice, blessed thistle, squaw vine, shatavari and vitex. Not a regular part of the endometriosis program. Add it only when there is a clear need for hormonal food, such as the shifts of the teen years, after childbirth or around menopause: ½ to 1 teaspoon three times a day.
• Red raspberry leaf tea. A cup or more a day. It has always strengthened the female organs, and it is the gentle start for young girls.
• Potassium broth. Dr. Christopher taught that cysts and tumors will not grow where there is enough potassium. One to three cups a day of broth simmered from thick potato peelings, greens, celery, onion and garlic (see the Liver Flushing e-book for the full recipe).

Relief for the Hard Days

• For cramps: Lobelia extract, usually one good dropperful (up to two, depending on the size of the person and how bad the pain is), or cramp bark extract, ½ to 1 teaspoon, in a little water. Within 10 to 15 minutes a wave of relaxation washes through and the uterus lets go. For pain that is already severe, alternate cramp bark and the antispasmodic tincture every 15 minutes, adding lobelia on the hour, until it eases. Starting at the first twinge works far better than waiting.
• For a heavy flow: Ex-Mens Formula (red raspberry, prickly ash, blue cohosh, wild yam and cinnamon), 2 to 4 droppersful three or four times a day as soon as a heavy cycle begins, setting the Female Formula aside until the cycle has passed. The flow usually slows within a few hours. If bleeding goes past 7 days, or comes back too soon, Dara uses the Female Formula at 1 tablespoon a day in hot water for a day or two past the bleeding instead.
• A castor oil pack and warmth over the lower belly on painful days, and rest.

Level of Commitment

Endometriosis is not a quick fix. It took years of a loaded bowel and an overloaded body to build, and it takes steady work to clear. Dara has seen many women who want to be well but are not willing to do the hard work it takes. Be honest with yourself about where you are:

• Gentle support (prevention). For young women and girls with painful periods or a lifetime of constipation, before endometriosis takes hold. Get the bowel moving every day with LBF and good food, red raspberry leaf tea, and the Female Formula. This is where endometriosis is prevented.
• Focused cleansing. For painful, heavy periods and pelvic pain that are building, or a milder case. Add Nu-Fem to the Female Formula, castor oil packs every night, hot and cold, the bolus six nights a week, high enemas, and weeks of liver flushing alternated with weeks of kidney flushing so the liver keeps clearing the old estrogen and waste.
• Incurables Program. For diagnosed endometriosis. In Dara’s experience, true endometriosis needs the entire Incurables Program, because flushing the liver and kidneys clears the waste while the herbal supports rebuild the female organs. Everything on this sheet continues, along with the cold sheet treatment once or twice a week and cleansing the bloodstream with HEAL’s Blood Purifying formula. Blood Purifying contains chaparral, which has long been regarded as one of the strongest blood purifiers in herbal use. It has had years of bad press, but used wisely it supports the body in clearing growths, and over the years many members have used it to eliminate tumors. Use with care: take Blood Purifying in courses, not continuously: two dropperfuls 4 to 6 times a day for a week at a time, in a few ounces of grape juice, while drinking 64 to 128 oz. of liquid a day. Avoid it during pregnancy or nursing and with existing liver disease. If the skin or the whites of the eyes turn yellow, the urine turns dark, or there is pain under the right ribs, stop and have the liver checked.

A Loose Healing Plan

1. Weeks 1–2: Open the bowel. Start your Foundational Program (Superfood and juicing, Echinacea, and bowel cleansing with LBF). Build up the LBF until the bowel moves two to three times a day, drink plenty of water, and begin moving toward the mucusless diet. Nothing else works until this does.
2. Weeks 1–2: Begin feeding. Start the Female Formula, and add Nu-Fem as soon as the bowel is moving. Red raspberry leaf tea daily. Keep lobelia or cramp bark on hand for the hard days.
3. Week 2 onward: Open the way. Castor oil packs over the lower belly every night, hot and cold once or twice a day, and abdominal massage and gentle movement daily. Begin the vaginal bolus six nights a week, with the lemon or vinegar douche each evening, pausing it during your period.
4. Weeks 3 onward: Flush. A week of liver flushing, then a week of kidney flushing, for as many rounds as your level of commitment calls for. For diagnosed endometriosis, this is the full Incurables Program, with Blood Purifying in week-long courses and the cold sheet treatment once or twice a week.
5. About 3 to 4 months: Take stock. Most women see the cycle steady and the pain lessen within three months; Dr. Christopher looked for results in 90 to 120 days. Many need to repeat the 30-day Incurables cycle a number of times. Ease down to the Focused level as you improve, and keep the bowel moving and the Female Formula going for life.

Stories from the Work

More on the Female System

• Rebuilding a Worn-Down Female System
• Food for the Female System
• Hormonal Food for Men and Women
• An Herbal Bolus for Weak, Sickly Female Organs
• Bringing a Heavy Cycle Back to Normal
• A Few Drops for Spasms, Cramps and Shock
• Helping Sluggish Bowels Move Again
• Hydro-therapy / Castor Oil Packs

This information is for education only. It is not meant to diagnose, treat or replace care from a qualified health professional.