Red Tent Ramblings

I wrote about my experience in the Red Tent months ago...end of last year some time.  I appreciated the concept of it very much and feel that things like this are needed in our society to embrace women, in a society that still struggles to accomodate women in every aspect.  I didn't like the religious feel of it however, but that could just be me based on my personal experiences with religion.  I think a more open and liberal variation of the 'red tent' is what every woman needs.  Somewhere we can go and just get away from everyone and come together with women and just 'be'.

I'm a part of the red tent facebook group and something interesting has come up that brought to my memory a theory I've had about women and their menses.  The article that was referenced in this discussion talked about the possible link with depression and our attitude towards every woman's rite of passage from birth to death and how it has always been surrounded in negativity and unreachable expectations that have caused women to go against their natural grain in the way they think...this plays havoc with the chemical balances of the brain and voila....depression!

This definetly has some merit, however, I was disappointed that it didn't touch on a theory I've always had in that women's menstuation isn't healthy or 'normal' in the true sense of the word.  It has become normal in today's society because it's such a common thing amongst women that it has just become 'normal' but my theory is that it's not normal nor is it healthy to bleed month after month...year after year!

Think about it...you're basically heomorraging from an organ.  It has never made sense to me how this could possibly be normal, but I've accepted it because...well...it's what I've been taught all my life.  Or brainwashed even.

But let's consider something else here for a moment.  We bleed because an egg wasn't fertilised and the lining of the uterus isn't used so it sloughs away - that's the basics.  Ok then!  But this happens every month for every women all over the world since the dawn of time...no...wait....no it hasn't/doesn't!  Let's consider tribal women from the deepest darkest africa.  What about the American Indian?  The Australian Indigenous? (before europeans stepped in and took over).  What about women of ancient times...biblical times...cave man times?  Did they?  Well considering our natural instinct is to reproduce wouldn't it then be logical to assume that all those women of yesteryear spent their childbearing years......actually bearing children?  We don't do it today.  Today we are taught that children are a burden and that we can't just keep having children.  But in the days where there was no contraception...and where sex actually produced a baby, could it be that our ancestors spent their whole lives pregnant and/or breastfeeding?  And by the time they ovulated again...bang pregant!  No period!  From the time they were sexually active (which was young) to the time of menopause they would be pregnant and/or breastfeeding (extended breastfeeding - natures contraception) therefore they simple were not having a period every month for years on end.  They wouldn't be.  The woman's body is created to reproduce..and when women did what their body was made to do...there would never be any need for a period - EVER!  This is basic survival of the species right there!

So this leads me to believe it's not normal at all.  As for health?  Well what would this do to the chemicals of the brain?  The hormones going up and down when they weren't meant to go up and down as often as they do, peaking the way it does.  What would that do?  I say it would play havoc with the seratonin levels in our brains which would then lead to...you guessed it...depression, pms, cramps, mood swings.  This isn't normal!  This is our body telling us there's something wrong!  The body just doesn't misbehave like that without there being something not quite right.

This is a theory that i hadn't really explored properly until now.  It's passed my mind many times but again I've been told that it's normal and healthy to bleed from my uterus...I've been brainwashed into believing that it's something I MUST go through as a woman, because we're the ones with the uterus and we're the ones who have the babies. 

So I went exploring....researching.  And what do I find??  A whole theory based around the concept that menstuation is NOT healthy nor is it normal for a healthy female body.

WOW!!!

Researching further I find a whole other reason behind it.  Forget reproduction for the moment.  Forget that we are meant to be breeding machines...the whole focus in these studies is DIET!!!!

Back in those days...back when all they ate was fresh fruit and vegetable and little or no meat or animal products...apparantly they didn't get periods!  It is assumed that there isn't much ancient writings about menstuation...not because it was taboo but because it really didn't happen all that much.  It has also been suggested that even in bible times whem women were described as 'unclean'...well the word 'unclean' can be translated to mean 'unhealthy' - well....what do you know??  Bleeding from your vagina was the 'issue of blood' and it meant that they were ill...and needed to be kept away from like a leper because..well what if it was contageous?  They didn't know that it wasn't...how could they know?  All they knew is that a perfectly healthy woman was suddenly bleeding out of an orifice and that simply didn't happen all that much.

Huh!

I research further and it's all so technical about toxins and how it affects our blood vessels and how it causes mucous build up and inflamation....BLEEDING....PAIN...etc  And once a month when the lining comes away...instead of being absorbed by our bodies like it's supposed to (and possibly only losing a few drops of blood...hardly noticable) the lining inflames and bleeds copious amounts of blood!  There have been studies in animals - PRIMATES and we are the only primate that this happens to!  The only species that menstuates!  AND other animals have only started menstuating when being fed OUR FOOD....all the toxins and chemicals in it that causes their body to go into protection mode (hence the mucous/blood/inflamation).

Wow!

This is as far as i've gotten in my research so far.  But it seems that  the 'raw' diet is what's responsible for the absence of periods.  Even today healthy vegans are living period free, athletes who's diets are predominently raw foods...are living period free or bleed for shorter periods of time with less blood.  I myself have noticed the difference since i've started my weight loss regime..not only am i less sick (less colds/flus etc) but my periods have become lighter and shorter.  Coincidence?  I think not!

That's not to say i'm going to run out and eat raw...because i love my food and if a monthly period is the price I pay for junk food?... then i gladly pay it.  But i have to wonder what it does to my mind and my health and the rate at which I age.

I'm yet to research further and find out what researchers say about how it would affect depression and how this theory works within my reproduction theory.  But it has certainly given me food for thought and a reason for me not to just 'accept' my uterus heomorraging every month as something normal and inevitable just because we happen to be women.


References - (so far) - http://debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com.au/2009/04/periods-they-may-be-normal-but-are-they.html

http://www.giveittomeraw.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1407416%3ABlogPost%3A19962