Common and slow to be named
Endometriosis is one of the most common conditions a woman can have and one of the slowest to be diagnosed. Around one in seven Australian women has it by her late forties, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. On average six to eight years pass between the first symptoms and a diagnosis.
Dr Abdul Basit, an Egyptian biochemist, explains what is happening in his book The Green Medicine. Tissue like the lining of the womb comes to grow outside the womb. During a period some of this tissue can travel backwards through the fallopian tubes and settle in the pelvis. There it behaves as though it were still inside the womb, thickening and breaking down with every cycle. Over time it can bind the organs of the pelvis to one another and leave scar tissue behind. The result is sharp cramping with the period, pain in the abdomen, abnormal bleeding and for some women difficulty conceiving.
What conventional medicine offers
He names one conventional treatment, which is surgery to remove the scar tissue. Doctors today also use pain relief and hormonal medicines to quieten the tissue. He stresses the value of catching the symptoms early.
Endometriosis can only be confirmed and monitored by a doctor. His plants belong beside that care as daily support for the body.
The green medicine
His plants work on two fronts. Most of them supply gentle plant oestrogens that occupy the body's oestrogen receptors and keep the stronger oestrogen out. The rest calm the womb or strengthen the body's defences.
Soybean. Soy is rich in two plant oestrogens, genistein and daidzein. He explains that they take up the places where oestrogen attaches in the body, which stops the more harmful oestrogen in the blood from binding there. He adds that they shield the body from chemical pollutants that imitate oestrogen. Soy is eaten as food or its oil is added to meals.
Sprouted beans. Broad beans are soaked in lukewarm water from evening until morning. They carry genistein too and he gives them the same role as soy.
Flaxseed. Flaxseed holds large amounts of compounds called lignans, which he says help restrain tissue that is growing out of control. He finds it most useful for people who eat a lot of meat, since plants are the natural source of lignans. The seed is ground and added to bread.
Chasteberry. Used since ancient times for troubles of the cycle. He writes that it acts through the pituitary gland to correct the balance between oestrogen and progesterone.
Raspberry leaf. It relaxes a tense womb and helps balance the hormones. Two spoonfuls of the dry leaves are boiled in half a cup of water and drunk three times a day. He calls it delicious, safe and effective.
Alfalfa. The stalks and leaves contain plant oestrogen and he uses them to lessen the effect of harmful oestrogen on the womb. The green leaves are eaten in salad or juiced, a spoonful three times a day.
Evening primrose. The seeds are chewed for cramps and premenstrual symptoms. He finds them useful for the womb disturbances of endometriosis as well.
Chinese angelica. A tonic for the wall of the womb. It relaxes the muscle, calms pain and eases inflammation in the female reproductive system. A small spoonful of the dry herb is steeped in a cup of boiled water and three cups are taken a day. Angelica is not used in pregnancy.
Astragalus. A tonic for immunity that he also credits with regulating the blood supply of the womb. It is taken as a herbal drink or as drops of extract in juice.
Peanut skin. The thin red skin of the peanut is a source of compounds called OPCs, which he says help restrain uncontrolled cell growth. The nuts are eaten with the skin on.
Two more plants worth knowing
Black seed. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, "In the black seed is healing for every disease except death" (al-Bukhari and Muslim). Known as habbat al-barakah, the seed of blessing, it is one of the central remedies of prophetic medicine. Its main active compound, thymoquinone, is studied today for its action on inflammation and researchers have begun testing it in laboratory models of endometriosis.
Turmeric. Endometriosis is driven by inflammation as much as by oestrogen, which brings in turmeric, the kurkum of the Arabic medical tradition. Researchers at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences gave 50 women with endometriosis either curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, or a placebo for three months. Period pain and chronic pelvic pain both improved significantly more in the women taking curcumin.
What modern research has found
Soy sits at the top of his list and research supports the choice. A 2007 study in the journal Epidemiology measured genistein and daidzein in Japanese women. Those with the highest levels of these two soy compounds were markedly less likely to have advanced endometriosis than those with the lowest.
His remark about chemical pollutants that imitate oestrogen has also been borne out. Phthalates are the chemicals that make plastic soft. A 2021 analysis of 14 studies found that women with endometriosis carried higher levels of several phthalates in their urine and blood than women without it. Plant oestrogens on the plate and fewer plastic chemicals in the body are two sides of the same approach.
What this means day to day
Two simple habits carry this into daily life. A cup of raspberry leaf or angelica through the day keeps his herbs in regular use. The research on plastics adds the second: glass and steel in place of plastic for food and drink.
Endometriosis is a long road. What Dr Abdul Basit offers is a way of living that works with the body: plants that temper oestrogen, herbs that calm the womb and fewer of the chemicals that imitate hormones. Alongside good medical care these choices give a woman something real she can do for herself every day.
References
- Dr Abdul Basit. The Green Medicine (al-Tibb al-Akhdar), Part Four: Diseases of the Pelvis.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5688. Sahih Muslim 2215. The narration of Abu Hurayrah on the black seed.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Endometriosis in Australia, 2023.
- Tsuchiya M et al. Effect of soy isoflavones on endometriosis: interaction with estrogen receptor 2 gene polymorphism. Epidemiology, 2007.
- Conforti A et al. Unravelling the link between phthalate exposure and endometriosis in humans: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 2021.
- Amirian M, Hatami S et al. Placebo-controlled trial of curcumin in 50 women with endometriosis, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Journal of Kerman University of Medical Sciences.
- The effect of thymoquinone on experimental endometriosis rat model. Human Reproduction, 2019.