Monthly Bluessss- When that month come (part 2)

Assalamualikum,

Welcome back and thank you for your patience; waiting this part two to publish. Sangat sibuk juga, prepare lab activity for nutrition untuk student FIST (Baru tahu semalam kena handle lab nutrition). Jangan ikut perangai ini ya anak-anak. Baiklah, previous post , we have discussed the physiology of menstrual pain (or scientifically what we called dysmenorrheoa (hoh... berbelit lidah). We also have listed few treatment that can be used (medically and home-based treatments).

Ok... As promised before, saya akan discussed berkenaan evening primrose oil dan borage oil in treating dysmenorrheoa. Have you ever seen evening primrose flower? Fuuhh.subhanallah, ia sangat cantik.

The flower is yellow. The oil is extracted from the SEED.










Ok, now the borage oil. Hardly people in Malaysia I believe heard about this plant. This is how the borage oil looks like:

Cantikkan? It has blue,white or indigo flowers. Similar to evening primrose, the oil is extracted from the seed. Numerous studies have found that either primrose or borage are high in GLA, essential fatty acid of omega 6. Borage have the HIGHEST content.

" GLA tu apa madam?"

"GLA itu singkatan daripada gamma linolenic acid, an omega 6- fatty acids yang terhasil drp linoleic acid yg terdapat dlm tumbuhan spt primrose and borage (in seed) and egg yolk. Ok, linoleic fatty acid tu mcm saya dah ajar is polyunsaturated fatty acid, also known essential fatty acids yg sgt diperlukan tubuh. omega-6 and omega 3 are examples of essential fatty acids"

"Madam, saya confuse, GLA is one of omega-6 kan. Apa kebaikannya daripada derivatives omega-6 yg lain?"

"There are several different types of omega-6 fatty acids. Most omega-6 fatty acids are consumed in the diet from vegetable oils as linoleic acid (LA).  

Jangan confuse ye dengan alpha -linolenic acid [ALA] (ALA ialah omega-3 fatty acid). 

Linoleic acid is converted to gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) in the 

body and then further broken down to arachidonic acid (AA). AA is found abundantly in meat.

Excess amounts of LA and AA are unhealthy because they promote inflammation leading to the diseases like heart disease, asthma, arthritis , depression and cancer.

However, GLA may actually reduce inflammation. Much of the GLA taken as a supplement is not converted to AA, but rather to a substance called dihomogamma-linolenic acid (DGLA).DGLA competes with AA and prevents the negative inflammatory effects that AA cause in the body. In addition, DGLA becomes part of prostaglandins that reduce inflammation.

Walaubagaimanapun, dinasihatkan untuk mendapatkan nutrien seperti zink, Vitamin C , Vit B3 dan Vitamin B6 untuk membantu penukaran GLA kepada DGLA rather than AA. Oleh itu, pemakanan seimbang adalah perlu di sini." 

"Oh... camtu ye madam. DGLA ni become parts of prostaglandin to reduce inflammatory. Tapi macammana GLA reduce the menstrual cramp symptom ye? Sebab sebvelum ni kita belajar the pain from the menses is due to prostaglandin?"

" Ha... bagus pun awk ingat fakta itu. Tu tandanya awk tak tidur dalam kelas saya, hoho... Baiklah, memang betul, research shown that pain during menstrual might be due to prostaglandin.  From my research, protaglandin ini ada 3 jenis : 

1. PGE1 and PGE3 (Good prostaglandin that promotes anti inflammation and reduce contraction )
2. PGE 2(bad prostaglandin that promotes inflammation and contraction---> Byk terhasil daripada AA)

"Jadi keyword di sini adalah : SEIMBANG. Anda kena pastikan jika anda amibil makanan yang kaya dengan omega-6, consume it moderately. Selain daripada itu, complementary from other nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, calcium citrate, vitamin E and C, B6 and B12 may help in reducing the symmptoms". Figure below show the production of Good and bad prostaglandin. 

Source: Glenville (2001)

Ok harapnya anda faham kenapa GLA itu perlu bukan sahaja untuk reduce mentrual cramp, but ia bertindak juga sebagai anti-inflammatory. Tetapi kena ingat, GLA adalah TIDAK SESUAI untuk: 

1. Wanita mengandung
2. Individual who suffer from seizures (sawan)
3. Sesetengah ubat juga memberi kesan jika dimakan bersama GLA: ceftazidime, chemotherapy, cyclosporine, NSAIDs  and Phenothiazines for schizophrenia

References: 

1. Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD. (2001) ‘The Natural Health Handbook For Women’, Piatkus Publishers Limited: London.
2. Ehrlich, S.D. (2012) ' Menstrual Pain"University of Maryland Medical Centre [online] (Available at: http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/menstrual-pain) 

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Monthly Bluessss- When that month come (part 1)

Ok.. read the post carefully " When the month come" .. .. During this period, some of the ladies might suffer from pre-menstrual syndrom (PMS). Masih ingat masa kita dulu (eh... para wanita saje ye), bila saja masa itu tiba, kelakuan kitapun berubah (ada yang jadi garang, sedih, happy tak semena-mena) and the guys would labeled us " Dia tengah PMS la tu". .. Baiklah, buka buku nota and I shall discuss with you how this pain occured.

Jom kita belajar anatomy uterus dahulu:

If we look at the figure above, the uterus shape is more like an inverted pear. It is a muscular organ, located between bladder and rectum. Baiklah, if we observed the female reproductive organ, uterus play an important roles in nourishing and house the fertilised egg until the unborn fetus is ready to be delivered. besides that, the uterus is responsible for several reproductive functions, including menses, labor, and delivery. 

" Madam, uterus tu besar mana ye? Saya pelik macam mana uterus boleh mengembang begitu besar ketika waktu hamil"

"There is no definite size of a normal uterus, it is depending on the hormonal levels in the body. Untuk remaja perempuan biasanya size uterus ialah 35mm (length) 10 mm (diameter), whilst the women uterus is roughly a size of a woman fist (8x6x4cm). Kecilkan? Tapi Maha Kuasa Allah, Dia jadikan rahim ibu itu rumah perlindungan yang sgt selesa untuk bayi yang belum lahir. Jadi anda semua kena jaga rahim yang penat menanggung pengembangan dari sebesar buah pear sehingga menjadi buah tembikai"

(Med-health.com, 2013 [online])

Ok,anda semua dah tahu anatomy uterus (atau dengan nama lain rahim). Since the major function of the uterus is to house the fertilised egg (released from ovary), jadinya setiap bulan akan berlakunya pendarahan dari uterus (this is what we called menses: haid). Menses happen when a young girl have reached her puberty (age 10-14 years). Haid berlaku apabila telur yang matang dikeluarkan oleh ovari (setiap bulan), melalui tiub fallopian terus ke uterus. Pada masa ini, dinding uterus sgt tebal dan kaya dengan darah (sebagai persediaan untuk tempelan telur yang telah disenyawakan). Jika telur tersebut tidak disenyawakan, dinding uterus akan gugur sebagai darah haid. Figure below was captured on a real-time during the ovulation process. (Masyaallah, lihatlah sekecil-kecil telur dikeluarkan ovari, membesar sebagai fetus)

" Tapi madam, apa yang membuatkan proses haid itu sakit? Bukankah darah sepatutnya turun seperti cecair?kadang-kadang rasa mcm nak guling-guling je...."

"Haa.... itu baru sakit menses ye, belum sakit bersalin. Sakit bersalin kata orang tua-tua adalah 10x ganda sakit dari sakit period. Tapi jangan sebab takutkan sakit awk tak nak mengandung pula. Pahala sakit bersalin itu sama dengan berjihad fi sabilillah. Baiklah, I will explain the condition in the next para"

Muscle cramp around the abdomen and lower body part is due to the contraction of muscular wall . Keadaan ini menyebabkan salur darah di bahagian uterus ditekan dan the blood supply is temporarily cut- off.  Without oxygen, the tissues in your womb release chemicals (prostaglandin) that trigger pain in your body (NHS, 2012)

" Hooo, jadinya madam how to reduce the pain?"

"Take a warm bath, massage, heat apply around your tummy and exercise. Itu semua anda boleh buat. But some General practitioner may prescribe medication like painkillers, NSAIDs etc."

"Saya pernah terdengar ambil evening primrose oil (EPO) can reduce the pain. Is that true?"

Ha.... satu isu yang byk menimbulkan kontroversi tentang penggunaan evening primrose. It is true that to few cases, evening primrose oil helps with pre-menstrual symptoms (PMS). TIDAK hanya EPO, salah satu tumbuhan yang dapat membantu mengurangkan PMS adalah borage oil. Kedua-dua tumbuhan ini (Evening primrose and borage) kaya dengan essential fatty accid-->  gamma linolenic  acid (GLA). Need to know how these active compound helps with PMS and muscle cramp? KITA TUNGGU THE PART TWO. (nak cerita kat sini panjang pulak). I am hoping this post light up the physiological process of menstrual. 

REFERENCES:

1. MD-Health.com (updated July 2013) [online] (Available at: http://www.md-health.com/Uterus-Size.html)
2. NHS (2012) Painful period (dysmenorrhoea) (Reviewed 16 July 2012) [online] (Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Periods-painful/Pages/Introduction.aspx) 

" Yang baik itu dari Allah, yang kurang itu dari saya"

Do visit my page at:

https://www.facebook.com/HealthAndRejuvenate?ref=hl (health and rejuvenate)
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