African American and Jewish women and fibroids

I had heard many times that African American women are three times as susceptible as other women to fibroids, and indeed there is even a fibroid-related book aimed at this group called It's a Sistah Thing.

However I just discovered that the same is true for Jewish women, mentioned here and in various other places. That's me. Hmm, I don't recall any of my Jewish friends mentioning they have this problem, although I know that my mother did.

If someone were to write a fibroid book for Jewish women, I wonder what it would be called. Would have to have some Yiddish in there, just can think of anything!

This does present an interesting thing to think about -- I have been blaming my fibroids on myself, for poor eating, lack of exercise, too much work, not dealing with my issues, etc. But maybe it's not my fault at all, maybe it's just my genes. An interesting different way of looking at it....

Also it reminds me of a conversation with an African American friend of mine recently, I was telling him aobut my fibroid shrinking journey (he's a very close friend!) and he was telling me about two of his immediate family members who also struggled with fibroids. Then I mentioned to him the statistic that African American women are three times more likely than Caucasian women to have fibroids. Earlier in the conversation I had mentioned that holistic healers believe that fibroids are the result of unprocessed emotional "stuff" and he referenced that saying "Well, if we are talking about "stuff" then African American women certainly have a lot of it to deal with, handed down to them -- slavery, discrimination, etc, that's a lot of stuff." A very thought-provoking comment.

If you take that line of thinking to Jewish women, although it's very different "stuff" I think that Jewish women could be said to have their own variety of "stuff." If we're looking at history, of course there's the Holocaust and centuries of persecution. "Jewish guilt" is famous and some of my Jewish girlfriends and I have talked about our penchant to be worrywarts which we think is partially inherited. This is all speculative of course but interesting to think about...

cooking with pasta sauce

I've been cooking with pasta sauce a bit this week. It's high in lycopene so good for fibroid fighters, and a jar of it can be stored in the pantry so good for us busy working gals.

Specifically I have been using it to cover the flavor of fibroid fighting foods that don't taste so great on their own.

On Saturday I stir-fried some shiitake mushrooms in olive oil and then poured in some pasta sauce, and then added a serving of cooked quinoa to make a kind of porridge. Delicious -- the sauce covered the quinoa flavor.

Today I decided to try pasta sauce as a substitute for barbecue sauce when eating my natto, as I have become sick of it. I chopped up some leeks and garlic and stir fried in olive oil, added the pasta sauce and warmed, then stirred in a package of natto. Poured this all over hot brown rice. The sauce completely masked the natto taste.

Secret of the Shadow

As part of the work with my coach on addressing some of the unresolved emotional issues that may be at the energetic root of my fibroids, I am reading the book The Secret of the Shadow. The theme is all about embracing your "story" -- the difficult things in you

I have to admit that this book is not particularly well-written (as a professional writer I say she needed a better editor, it gets rather repetitive). Indeed if you look at the Amazon page using the link above you'll see that the "official" reviews are decidedly mixed. However, if you look at the reader reviews, they absolutely rave. If you can overlook the writing style, this book is very helpful, it has some good exercises in it. (Be sure to get a nice journal to use when working with it).

Changing the way you think about things can be one way to shift the energy in your body, and get out of whatever pattern helped give rise to the fibroids.

pampered animals

Here's an interesting article (http://www.goodmagazine.com/section/Features/guess_whos_coming_as_dinner)
about pampered animals, the next step beyond "merely" organic meat and poultry.
The need to avoid hormones in order to try to shrink my fiboids has made me much more aware of these kinds of issues. Sounds like the happier the animals are, the healthier they are to eat!

goji berries

I've been eating a lot of goji berries. They are a good snack for fibroid shrinkers because they are high in amino acids and iron. Also discovered from this site that they are highly alkaline. What more could one want from a food! They taste like a tart raisin, and they are my favorite shade of red!

Long used in Chinese and Japanese traditional medicine and cooking, goji berries have recently become popular in the West. This Wikipedia page tells everything you would ever want to know about them.

Lately I've been wondering about my goji berries purchased in Chinatown, given the recent problems with various foods and medicines from China. And indeed the Wikipedia page suggests that lots of pesticides may be used on them. So I just ordered some of these, which are certified organic.

A Japanese friend told me that the ninja used to carry goji berries for a snack on the run, as they offered such complete nutrition and fast energy. And indeed that's what I've been using them for. (I like imagining myself as a ninja!) I even made a dinner out of them the other day when I was too pooped to cook!

I leafed through Murad's book The Cellulite Solution and he touts the benefits of goji berries too. (More on cellulite in a future post...).  Also The Tao of Fertility says they are excellent for egg quality.

Update: I am now also drinking Goji Gold 100% organic goji juice.  Easier than eating so many berries.

Chasteberry (vitex)

When searching for information on how to shrink fibroids naturally, I always come across mentions of chasteberry (vitex) like this one.

I just want to say for the record here that I took this herb daily for about a year, and it did not shrink my fibroids. So it doesn't work for everyone!

I think my fibroids are due to a more complex set of issues than just estrogen dominance, so this may be why the vitex didn't help me...Anyway I don't recommend that fibroid shrinkers rely on this alone.

raspberry tea not good after all?

When I asked my acupuncturist what herbal teas I could drink, he suggested red raspberry leaf, which tones and strengthens the uterus. I've been drinking a bit off an on since (since I drink the herbs he gave me three times a day in a mug of hot water along with the blackstrap molasses, I don't have appetite for that much more liquid!).

I was going to post it here, but when I went to find information about it I ran across this post and several like it, which say that red raspberry leaf can be estrogenic so it's not recommended for those with fibroids.

Just more proof that even with a fabulous doctor, they might not know everything, and it's important to do your own research!

easy menu idea for fibroid fighters

One of the biggest challenges I have had in my fibroid fighting is figuring out what meals I can make that are delicous and easy (and pass muster with my boyfriend) while still being ok for fibroid fighting.

Came up with a good one last night.
Bought a bunch of cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and carrots. Lots of crubiciferous vegetables! Spread them on a cookie sheet and drizzled with olive oil and roasted about 35 minutes in a 45 degree over till soft and starting to carmelize. Yummy.

Then I found a new way to serve turkey. For fibroid fighters it's best to avoid meat, but if you do have it then turkey is the best one because it's light and non-fat and also is the only fowl that is ok for kaphas in Ayurveda. (Fibroids are a symptom that your kapha is out of whack, so if you have fibroids you are supposed to eat a kapha diet even if you are a vata or pitta).

At Whole Foods at the meat counter they had turkey sausage (made from hormone-free free-range turkey, natch!) sold with no casing, like hamburger. I made it into little patties, sauteed in olive oil, threw in some pearl onions. Then I drained off the oil, and poured in a half jar of arrabatica pasta sauce and simmered.

Was a delicious dinner and my boyfriend gave it a thumbs-up (he didn't even miss not having a starch!)

Yoga specifically for fibroids

I picked up the quirkily-titled book Yoga for a Healthy Menstrual Cycle and got a terrific surprise -- a yoga routine designed especially for fibroid-fighting! There was also general text about dealing with fibroids, from a yoga/ayurvedic point of view.

Also in the book are yoga routines to do when you have PMS, during your period, and during your period when your flow is heavy. Several of the poses specifically are about increasing circulation to the pelvic area.

This book is Iyengar style yoga, which means you need props. This ended up being a bit of an investment, as I bought a yoga bolster, two yoga blankets, two blocks, a strap, and a sandbag. I probably could have gone with another bolster but I made do with some stuff I had lying around.
Also for those of you who do yoga, there were some good suggestions in this book about what yoga poses to avoid during your period. No inversions, as they interfere with the way the blood should be flowing.

lead in lipstick

I've written previously about how I tested high for heavy metals, and that I think this overload on my liver has not helped my fibroid situation. It was easy to figure out how I got a high mercury score -- eating lots of sushi. But the high lead score was a puzzler. Until I heard about this study that shows high levels of lead in lipstick. Extremely scary -- some lipstick has lead levels that exceed the amount that is considered ok for candy, however just like candy basically lipstick gets eaten (according to this report, several pounds per year by the average woman!)

I also found a related site, a searchable database where you can type in the ingredients from your cosmetics and find out how dangerous they are. Nothing like seeing your favorite products with a red danger sign next to it! But cosmetics and body lotions etc. are absorbed into our body through our skin, and many of them are truly chemical cocktails. I'm having trouble disengaging from my favorite products, but I have noticed that there is a better selection of "organic" and "natural" cosmetics available recently at places like Whole Foods and Elephant Pharm, so as much as possible I am switching over to those. Why spend so much energy on detox when you're putting nasty harmful things on your face?

There's also a book, Not Just a Pretty Face, published by the people who did the lipstick study, all about the various health problems lurking in cosmetics. Looks like it's worth checking out. Also catching my eye was a book called Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products.

If you want to shrink your fibroids, it's best not to burden your body with unnecessary toxins!

castor oil for fibroids

Every single guide to alternative techniques for treating fibroids talks about castor oil compresses.

Evidently this cure was popularized by the natural healing guru Edgar Cayce. The basic idea from what I can tell is that the castor oil has a decongestant kind of effect and is stimulating to the lymph system. Ricinoleic acid, which is the main component of castor oil, has anti-inflammatory properties.

A lot of people pooh-pooh castor oil packs, including Andrew Weil. However, since so many people recommend it, I decided to give it a shot, doing a pack once daily. I figure it can't hurt, and certainly the warmth feels nice.

What I found is that doing castor oil packs is not logistically very easy. Because the oil is very sticky, and has a tendency to stain clothes and linens. Finally I have worked out a system that seems to work well for me, and I'll share it with you here:

1. Buy castor oil and a wool flannel.
2. Buy several large washcloths, not too thick. I found some nice ones at Ikea. I got a color different from my other towels, to keep them separate.
3. Buy an Elasto-Gel heating pad
4. And this is the key one nobody will tell you, buy a wine coaster to put underneath the bottle, as there is no way to keep it from getting sticky! The wine coaster is helpful if you want to keep it out where you'll use it.

I tried using the packs when going to bed, but I would just fall asleep with it on and wake up to a sticky mess. So I decided to use it when sitting at my desk. I keep the castor oil bottle on my desk and the towels and heating pad nearby to help remind me.

I pour a tablespoon or so of the oil onto my belly, spread it out and put the flannel over it, then cover with the washcloth, and then put the heating pad over it and leave it there for an hour. I then throw the washcloth in the laundry. (Most instructions for these packs suggest using a layer of plastic, but since I'm trying to detox I don't want heated plastic anywhere near me! So I just wash the washcloths a lot.)

By the way, my acupuncturist said that it's ok to do castor oil packs as long as I am not trying to get pregnant. For those trying to conceive, the warmth on the abdomen is evidently not helpful. Also, researching this post I discovered that one is not supposed to do the packs during the menstrual period.

an afternoon at the Korean spa

Detoxification is important for fibroid shrinkers because it helps reduce the load on the liver, and also it's a way to get heavy metals and other nasties out of your system.

One of the ways that toxins can get out of your body is through your skin. So a thorough scrubbing can help with detox, as can sweating.

What better way to get rid of dead skin and do some sweating than to spend the afternoon at a Korean spa. I first discovered the wonders of Korean spas on a trip to Seoul. But I was really converted when I was on a business trip to New York and had little sleep and felt horrible. I unexpectedly got a morning off when a meeting got cancelled, so on a whim headed over to a spa in Manhattan's Koreatown called Juvenex. After a couple of hours laying on the warm floor of the sauna, the frangrance of Korean herbs hanging in the air around me, I felt renewed as if by magic, and practically bounded out of the place. I was hooked.

Since then I've also tried King Spa in New Jersey and the one I visited yesterday, PSY in San Leandro CA.

If you've ever had a salt scrub at a regular spa, you ain't seen nothing yet. A Korean scrub-down is much more vigorous and much more complete. You need to be a bit adventurous -- willing to lay down naked on a vinyl covered table and have a middle-aged Korean lady in her underwear vigorously scrub every inch of you with rough scrubbing mitts. You'll gasp to see all the dead skin that comes off -- like a bunch of dryer lint that got wet. It's got to be excellent detox! Plus really gets the circulation going. And it's a lot less expensive than a salt scrub at a fancy spa.

After that, head over to the saunas. The walls are studded with various precious stones, which are supposed to increase the health benefits. The heat comes from the floor, so just lay down for a good detoxifying sweat.

This is a treat that is also good for you!

restaurant selections for East Bay

This post is only going to be helpful for people in the San Francisco Bay area, but will put it up just in case that's you or your are visiting here. It's hard finding places to eat out that have organic food and that use hormone-free meats. However, this site listing restaurants in the East Bay area allows you to search on organic/sustainable.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/restaurants/RestaurantSearch?keywords=+Keywords&cuisine=Organic%2FSustainable&region=&price=&features

Last night I went to the first one on the list, A Cote, and it was lovely.

The Normal One

An important aspect of healing fibroids is figuring out what old stuck emotional issues they represent.

In my case, one thing I am giving a lot of thought to right now is the impact on me of having grown up with a severely handicapped sister. I am reading a book called The Normal One which explores this topic. The New York Times calls it a "persuasive examination of the considerable effect that...impaired brothers and sisters have upon their 'normal' siblings throughout life."

This sentence in the book jumped out at me: "They (siblings of special needs children) bear an inner weight of unarticulated sorrow at having missed much of the freedom and insouciance of childhood that others take for granted." I do think I am carrying around a lot of "stuff" related to my unique childhood and having to be mature and responsible preternaturally early.

If you have what this book calls "a difficult or damaged sibling" it would be well worth examining how that has affected you.

I also have on order Being the Other One: Growing Up with A Brother or Sister who has Special Needs -- this one looks good too.

It's time to deal with all the emotional stuff I've got buried in my belly!

lycopene for fibroids

I stumbled across this study which suggests that lycopene may be helpful for shrinking fibroids.

The study was done on Japanese quail (which evidently are good for studying fibroids because they get something similar to fibroids naturally). And this page shows that study is now being done on humans! Wow, someone actually doing research on fibroids!

But I'm not waiting for the study to be completed. Bring on the lycopene! However, I prefer to eat nutrients in their natural form rather than as a supplement, so instead of popping pills I am including tomato paste and other tomato foods in my diet.

This page lists good sources of lycopene. If you don't like tomato products, watermelon, guava, and pink grapefruit are good choices. The best source evidently is vegetable juice. If you want a change from V8 and have a Japanese grocery store near you, I suggest that you try Itoen's Ichinichi Bun no Yasai (A Day's Worth of Vegetables). (The link I just put there is in Japanese, but you can use the picture shown to identify the distinctive bottle). It's similar to V8 but with less tomato and more carrot and red pepper, and tastes delicious. In addition to drinking it, I like to use it as soup stock.

In Defense of Food

While driving to my acupuncture appointment on Monday, I heard an excellent interview with author Michael Pollan. Here's a link so you can listen to it too. He was being interviewed because he has a new book out called In Defense of Food.

His main message is that the typical American diet is very unhealthy, and that we need to eat more whole foods and more plant-based foods. Which is what all fibroid shrinkers should certainly do. What's nice is that he puts it in easy-to-understand terms with persuasive arguments.

For me, it was a case of preaching to the converted (although I enjoyed the confirmation of what I am doing). But if you are experiencing shock from going on a fibroid-shrinking diet that eschews meat, dairy, wheat, sugar and processed soy products, this book is for you. Also it can be helpful for family members who are having trouble understanding why you can't eat "normal" food anymore. I'm sending the link to this interview to my boyfriend!

boost your circulation with umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums)

Reading all the Chinese medicine theories about how fibroids are due to blood stagnation, it made me think of a book I received several years ago. It was a hit in Japan at the time, called Ketsueki wo Sarasara ni Suru Seikatsujutsu (Lifestyle to Promote Good Circulation). Here's a link to it in case you are curious:Japanese book on promoting circulation . The author's name is Yuji Kikuchi, and if you google his name plus "circulation" you will see a whole bunch of technical articles.

I had happened to meet the woman who was ghostwriter for the book, who gave me a copy. I had set it aside, but now learning how to pep up my blood is a high priority.

I'll share other info from this book soon but one thing struck me right away, was the reported efficacy of umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums) in perking up circulation. One example Prof. Kikuchi gives in the book, within one hour of eating umeboshi, a patient's circulation increased by 50%.

Also umeboshi are very alkaline, which also makes them good for fibroid shrinkers (it's best to have your body be slightly alkaline). Plus they enhance liver function. So three great fibroid fighting reasons to eat them! I always enjoyed them when I lived in Japan, so it looks like now is the time to get them back into my diet!

Umeboshi are a traditional Japanese health food. This article gives lots of good background about them and why they are considered to be good for you.

Umeboshi are rather sour, and many Japanese are surprised to hear that I like them. Probably the easiest way for most Americans to enjoy this food is to take a spoonful of umeboshi paste and mix it into a mug of hot water, for something along the lines of a hot lemonade kind of flavor. I am now drinking this once a day!

Gluten-Free Girl, the book

I stopped in a bookstore and took a look at Gluten-free Girl, the book I mentioned a few posts ago that I had learned about through the blog of the same name. I was disappointed to find very few recipes that would work for fibroid-fighters, because most of them contained things like dairy or sugar or beef or poultry. Her creative ways to make baked goods – even pizza crust – without using gluten is pretty impressive. However I think a better strategy for fibroid fighters is to just resign ourselves to not being able to eat such things and instead find other things we can eat. I did however like the extended discussion of how she coped with her celiac disease diagnosis and the related need to go gluten-free. All of a sudden not being able to eat the normal things that everyone around you can eat is something that I certainly have felt since going on my fibroid-fighting diet. The situation for us fibroid fighters is similar, except that we have even more things we have to avoid! It’s really quite alienating, like being from a different planet. If this is something that has been stressing you out then this book might be comforting for you and give you some laughs too – she has a nice sense of humor. As for me, I enjoyed leafing through it but it didn’t make the cut to be purchased.

fibroid fighter on the road

I was in Chicago and Detroit on business this past week. Traveling and eating out is certainly difficult while trying to keep to a fibroid-fighting diet. It also reminded me of some of the habits that probably helped feed my fibroids. All that coffee I used to drink! All those cookies, lurking at every turn at the airport, at the hotel check-in counter, and in clients’ conference rooms! Temptations that now must be ignored.

I did however have some eating success. Was delighted to discover that Big Bowl, a popular Chicago Asian-style eatery, has hormone-free chicken and pork on its menu. Andies Restaurant in the Andersonville neighborhood, a longtime popular Mediterranean place, has a long list of vegetarian options and kindly puts asterisks by the dairy-free ones. I had lentils with Portobello mushrooms over rice, garnished with sun-dried tomatoes, delicious!

Eating in an airport, never easy, is now nearly impossible, as everything seems to be chock-full of gluten and sugar, and usually chilled to near-frozen. Starbucks used to be the one place I could count on for something tasty at the airport, but now coffee with cream, steamed milk, those sugary flavored syrups, and even soy lattes are all out for me. And forget the biscotti and baked goods! They do have some nuts on sale in an effort to be healthy, but those too are now something I need to limit. I will admit that Starbucks serves some non-caffeinated tea, but have you ever tried it? Tazo has to be the worst tea brand I have ever tasted, virtually undrinkable in this tea lover’s opinion. Usually however the Starbucks workers are kind enough to give me a cup of plain hot water free of charge, which I very much appreciate (I always offer to pay for the cup, but so far they have never taken me up on it).

On the way to Chicago I brought some cooked turkey slices I picked up at Whole Foods, packed in a baggie. I also brought a container of Just Tomatoes, the dried tomato chips that are flavorful and also give a great dose of lycopene (I also keep these around the house for when I have delayed going to the grocery store and am poking around my cabinets for something to munch on). They are light and easy to carry, and so delicious they feel like a treat. A plastic baggie filled with goji berrieswas an excellent snack. While in Chicago I had a kitchen available to me, and cooked quinoia with tomato paste and sautéed green beans for breakfast three mornings in a row. But basically throughout my trip I ended up eating quite a few energy bars.

Energy bars are rather problematic for fibroid-fighters. Read the labels on most brands, and you will find lots of processed soy and wheat and milk proteins. The palm oil many of them use is also not the greatest, being that it’s a saturated fat. Many of them are also packed with various sugars. Even the good ones I list below tend to be heavy on nuts and seeds which is not really recommended for fibroid-fighters. Thus, personally I think of energy bars as only being for the most dire of circumstances, such as when I am on the road and there are not really any good alternatives.

If one must have an energy bar, I recommend three brands. One is Larabar, which is gluten free. Its bars are mainly dried fruit combined with nuts. The cherry pie flavor is particularly nice, and cherries are good for fibroid-fighters because they are an alkalizing food. Ruth’s Hemp bars are tasty, I particularly like the chocolate raspberry. I am also a fan of the Pro Bar Superfood Slam, which is organic and packed with sprouted grains (although I have to admit it felt a bit heavy to me this time, after my month of so of fibroid-friendly light eating). At the grocery store after returning I also saw some new bars by Andrew Weil that looked good but I haven't tried them yet.

In addition to the eating difficulties, while on the road I didn’t get to exercise and hardly had time to meditate. Combine that with erratic sleep and sitting for long periods of time all the various irritations of modern travel (oomph! the person in the seat behind me on the plane just kicked my seat hard as I wrote that!). I have thus concluded that travel is not very helpful for my fibroid-fighting program. Fortunately, I have been able to cut down my upcoming travel schedule, if you want to be able to work on shrinking your fibroids hopefully you will be able to do the same.

herbs to avoid if you have fibroids

Yesterday at the market they were out of my usual herb tea so I decided to try a new one, which looked appealing as it contained cinnamon among other things. When I got home I decided to take a look at the ingredients on the internet to see what effects they might have on fibroids.

I found this page listing herbs that mimic estrogens and can cause fibroids to grow. It includes licorice, so there goes my tea. Also shows why fibroid drinkers should avoid coffee and beer! Worth checking out.

(I'm adding ths note later, since I wrote this post I have seen licorice mentioned several times as being a component of various herbal remedies for fibroids, plus it's a component of the herbal tea I'm getting from my acupuncturist, so maybe it's not so bad. But I am not going to go out of my way to consume extra!)

Mayan abdominal massage

A friend just mentioned to me that she knows a massage therapist who does Mayan abdominal massage. She gave me her card and I looked at the webpage for them. Really fascinating. It is a technique focusing on the uterus, and it specifically mentions fibroids. A directory of practitioners around the country can be found there, can't wait to give one a try!

detox baths

Detoxification is important for fibroid shrinkers, because it helps ease the burden on the liver.

It's been cold this week, so I've been taking a lot of baths, rotating between some of my favorite detox bath potions.

WiseWays Herbals Detox Bath Crystals is terrific, it has the usual detox ingredients of salts and baking soda, plus a clever herb pouch.

Uncle Harry's Detox Bath has bentonite clay (great for pulling heavy metals out of your system), sea salt, and bladderwrack seaweed. That type of seaweed is supposed to be good for fibroids when you ingest it, so why not bathe in it too!

Just a 50/50 combination of baking soda and sea salt, with a dollop of essential oil such as lavendar thrown in, is a good detox bath too.

There are many other seaweed baths and detox salt baths offered, why not experiment!

mercury in fish

I believe that my fibroid struggles have been compounded by another problem that I discovered about a year ago. I was exhausted and could not figure out why, and various tests were showing nothing. Finally my acupuncturist asked if I had ever been tested for heavy metals, and I said no.

She gave me a special urine test, and when the results came back I nearly fell off my chair --- my mercury level was touching the upper edge of the chart, right at the top of the "highly elevated" range. My acupuncturist had never seen anything like it. No wonder I was tired. My lead level was in the "elevated" range too.

Clearly this was a result of eating a lot of fish, particularly sushi. Ironically, one reason I had consumed a rather fish-heavy diet for the several years prior was belief that fish was better than meat or poultry if you have fibroids -- which is true as long as the fish you consume is not contaminated with toxins!

I have been detoxing since the spring, and have made good progress with eliminating the toxins. My acupuncturist felt that the usual detox protocol for mercury, DMSA, was not a good idea for me because it puts a burden on the kidneys and I have a family history of kidney disease so best to not overload my kidneys. I've been taking some special herbs she prescribed, combined with a homeopathic remedy, deox baths, and lots of time in the sauna to sweat it all out.

I feel a zillion times better now, but I am convinced that the burden that these toxins have placed on my liver have distracted it from cleaning up excess estrogen in my blood, thus enabling the fibroids to grow. Also, according to this page, the heavy metals can mimic the action of estrogens! Yikes! http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-139.shtml

So, if you have fibroids, I highly recommend that you find an acupuncturist or naturopath who can screen you for heavy metals in your system. I did a urine test, there are also hair and blood tests. Because discovering any heavy metal buildup you have, and getting rid of it, can help with shrinking your fibroids.

Also, please be careful about what fish you eat. The Monterey Acquarium Seafood Watch has a comprehensive list of which fish is safe and which is not: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx. Also, so you can check while looking at a menu in a restaurant, from a mobile phone you can go to www.seafoodwatch.org and will be automatically directed to their pocket guide.

In particular, please avoid tuna, especially the type that is in sushi. The NY Times reported last summer that many New Yorkers have elevated levels of mercury in their blood -- including high-income people who presumably are eating a lot of sushi, etc. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/time-to-go-easy-on-the-sushi-study-finds-high-mercury-levels-among-new-yorkers/?scp=5-b&sq=tuna+sushi+mercury&st=nyt

And just the other day, the NY Times released results of its own study of tuna sold at sushi bars and food stores, which revealed shockingly high mercury levels. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23sushi.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tuna+sushi+mercury&st=nyt&oref=slogin. Another study found similar high levels nationally.

Opening the Heart of the Womb

I was cleaning out a closet and found a meditation tape that an acupuncturist had recommended to me about 10 years ago -- long before my fibroid diagnosis. Called Opening the Heart of the Womb , it's a meditation originally designed for those who have experienced sexual trauma. At the time, I didn't really get why she had recommended it for me, as I have not been a victim of sexual trauma. So I just put it aside.

However, now I am thinking that she must have been on to something, perhaps she foresaw that I was going to have uterine issues? Because in listening to it I discovered that it does not deal directly with sexual trauma. Instead, it's a very gentle and relaxing meditaiton that concentrates on bringing healing energy (you visualize a white light) to your reproductive area. In other words, really perfect for fibroid shrinkers -- a meditation focused on making the uterus more healthy. I recommend giving it a try.

It's rather old and appears to be out of print, so it appears that only an audio cassette is available, unfortunately.

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat

Traditional Japanese food is a good choice for fibroid shrinkers, as long as you go easy on the tofu, use brown rice, and avoid mercury-laden fish like tuna.

Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat is a great introduction to the philosophy behind Japanese cooking, written for an American audience. It introduces Japanese ingredients and recipes, as well as the whole Japanese philosophy toward food. Its emphasis on vegetables, fresh fruits, and simple, light foods is perfect for fibroid fighters.