Induce Your Period with Vitamin C

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The menstruation cycle is a natural monthly process for every woman. A regular cycle typically comes every 28 days and is a strong reflection of good general health. Period cycles differ from one woman to another and they also differ in the same women, varying in severity and duration from time to time. Many women choose to alter their cycle (sooner, later, lighter, etc.) and luckily the process can be achieved flawlessly using natural methods -- and one of the most effective is vitamin C. To induce your period this way, start with Step 1 below.

Steps

Changing Your Diet

  1. Drink parsley tea. Raw parsley contains 133 mg of Vitamin C. On top of that, it also contains iron, potassium and fiber. It’s easily made and could be taken two or three times a day to stimulate your period. Here's how:
    • Put a small saucepan on your stove full of water and let it boil
    • Prepare your cup by adding fresh green parsley, filling it about a quarter full
    • When the water is boiling, pour it in your cup over the parsley until the water reaches the top of your mug
    • Leave the parsley in contact with the boiling water for about 5 minutes,
    • Filter your mixture with the aid of a slotted spoon, tea straw, or strainer into another cup and enjoy!
      • Drinking parsley tea is not recommended for pregnant women, so make sure before you start the treatment to perform a pregnancy test. Otherwise excessive intake of this vitamin could result in an unintended abortion.
  2. Choose high quality cranberry juice. This is another source rich in Vitamin C. Fresh cranberry juice is much better for you than the commercial ones you find in stores, as the commercial ones contain huge amounts of artificial sweeteners or fructose to overcome its tartness. Here are some simple steps to make your own 100% cranberry juice at home:[1]
    • Buy fresh, bright red, hard cranberries (about 1500 gms of cranberries make one liter of juice). Avoid the soft, dull or wrinkled in shape ones.
    • Wash them well to make sure they're free of pesticide and bacteria
    • Let your juicer crush them into juice
    • To get rid of the tart taste, simply mix it with some apple juice
      • Cranberries can be kept fresh in your refrigerator for about two months; they can be kept up to one year in sealed plastic bags in your freezer.
      • Don't drink more than one liter a day as it may cause diarrhea and stomach upset. Over a long period of time, it could lead to kidney stones.
  3. Eat guava. Guava is very rich in Vitamin C -- it contains about 228 mg of Vitamin C per fruit. You can eat the fruit, drink the juice, or even boil the green leaves with water like parsley tea to extract the Vitamin C. They always say, “A guava a day keeps your doctor away," don't they?
    • One cup of sliced guava gives you 377mg of Vitamin C. Go for the fresh kind, not the kind drenched in high-fructose corn syrup.
  4. Include more citrus fruits in your diet. In addition to guava, orange, lime, lemon and grapefruit are good sources of this vitamin, too. Orange and lemon contain about 53 mg of Vitamin C; a cup of orange slices gives you 98mg of the stuff. Over half of a grapefruit is made up of vitamin C, so it's obviously a good choice as well.
    • Eating the raw fruits or drinking orange or lemon juice is very useful. The fresher, the better. Lemon juice could be drunk cold or hot; one glass of orange juice will provide you with 165% of your daily dose of vitamin C.
    • Be conscious of getting too much vitamin C, too. Up to 3 oranges a day is appropriate, though just a cup of grapefruit juice is enough to get you your daily need of Vitamin C.
    • To kill two birds with one stone, squeeze a lemon into your parsley tea before drinking it; you can also cut a slice of your lemon and add it to your water before boiling.
  5. Incorporate lime and mango in your diet, too. Limes and mangoes are excellent sources of ascorbic acid or vitamin C. Limes also contain limonoids, an essential antioxidant that has been shown to be extremely effective in fighting many viruses such as HIV. Mangoes, on the other hand, are also rich in vitamin A promoting vision and beautiful skin. Limes and mangoes are great for your overall health in addition to inducing menses.
    • Adding 50ml of lime juice to a 270ml mug filled with 200ml of hot water can be a pleasure drink to start your day; it is a great boost to your metabolism, you can also add lime juice, a couple tablespoons of chopped cilantro and a teaspoon of cumin to rice, and serve with seasoned black beans.
    • Try sliced mango with a sparkle of chili powder spread on a sweet hot snack, or add mango to meat dishes. In the United States, mango is very commonly added to fruit salads and cocktails.
  6. Know that kiwi and papaya are good sources as well. Kiwi is very rich in Vitamin C; in fact, a cup of sliced kiwi provides you with 167 mg, which equals 1 ¾ cups of orange slices. If they're in season, they should be an obvious choice.
    • Papaya isn't nearly as potent, but it's still good. The raw fruit has about 60 mg of vitamin C; a sliced cup of it supplies you with about 88 mg, which is nearly as much as a sliced cup of oranges.
  7. Eat more strawberries and pineapple, too. Strawberries contain about 60 mg of Vitamin C. They should be eaten raw or drank as juice, mixed with milk or any liquid you like for a healthy smoothie. Avoid the frozen ones that are bathed in sugar.
    • Pineapple is another plant source of Vitamin C and it contains about 48 mg. Pineapples can be eaten as raw fruits or can be juiced. Both strawberries and pineapple could be added to many dessert recipes, like cake.
  8. Include broccoli, tomatoes and spinach in your diet. Broccoli contains about 90 mg of Vitamin C; you can eat it raw or just steamed to avoid exposing it heat. Broccoli is one of the vegetables that could be eaten in many forms: raw, steamed alone or with other green vegetables, or even with white rice or fish.
    • Tomatoes are everywhere and could be eaten anytime in many forms and added to any recipe! As salad, paste, soup, or even fresh juice, you can easily combine it with other vitamin C sources in your diet to get more than enough.
    • Spinach is a very good source of Vitamin C, too, as it contains about 30 mg per 100 grams. Use raw spinach leaves on your salad instead of boiling it to avoid Vitamin C leakage into the water; adding tomatoes to your salad plate will increase your Vitamin C dosage. Spinach could be added on your pizza top or be added as a filling in your baked goods.
  9. Choose animal sources, too. They're not heaping in vitamin C, but they do have a little. Those such as calf liver contain about 36 mg per 100 grams; a braised liver that is about 3.5 ounces gives you about 1.1 mg of vitamin C, which is quite a small percent. You can easily increase your meal's vitamin C by adding vegetables to your plate -- potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, lemon or parsley all can be added.
    • In addition, putting slices of your liver on your salad is always a great idea.
    • Other animal sources such as turkey liver provide you with 12 mg of Vitamin C, chicken liver has 13mg, lamb liver has 12 mg, and pork liver has the most with 23mg.

Being Vitamin C Smart

  1. Know how it affects your period. High doses of vitamin C leads to high concentrations of estrogen being released in your body. As a result, this causes an increase in the uterine contractions that helps start your period within 1 – 3 days.
    • Vitamin C also decreases progesterone levels, making the inner lining of the uterus degrade and start menses.
    • You have to make sure you are not pregnant as to not risk an unintended abortion.
  2. Consider taking a supplement. Vitamin C is a very important nutrient that is essential to everyone. It acts as an antioxidant and has many benefits in many cases and diseases. Vitamin C is available as a medication supplement in pharmacies in the dosage form of tablets and effervescent tablets.
    • 3000 mg of Vitamin C for 3 days may trigger your period, or you can prepare some natural home recipes from herbs and foods listed above.
  3. Be careful while preparing your food. When you cook food that contains vitamin C, be aware that you can degrade it without knowing and not reap the benefits of them. Vitamin C degrades when cooked on high temperatures that are above 60°C (140°F).
    • Vitamin C tends to leak from the vegetables to the surrounding water especially with heat, as with cooking your food. However, do know that broccoli was found that it retains vitamin C more than any other kind of vegetables.
  4. Be careful when making tea, too. Because of this heat-causes-vitamin-loss phenomenon, take note that when making a parsley or guava herb tea, don’t boil your green leaves with the water -- you’ll degrade most of Vitamin C. Simply pour the hot water on it to only extract it into the herbal tea that you’re going to drink.
  5. Know that cold doesn't affect the vitamin C. Cutting your vitamin C-rich fruits and leaving them in your refrigerator for days doesn’t make significant changes to the fruit and their vitamin content. If you’re a working woman, prepare your fruits and salads in advance without worry.
    • However, they are best fresh. If you can avoid freezing them, that's ideal. A few days in the fridge won't hurt, but months in the freezer and their nutrition will start deteriorating. But if it comes down to the freezer or a can off the shelves, definitely choose your freezer.

Understanding Your Cycle

  1. Be aware that your diet may be affecting your period. Any nutritional deficiencies may turn a normal period into an irregular one. To achieve a body with normal functions, you must ensure that you are following a healthy diet. Paying attention to what you are eating will enhance your overall body state, including your periods.
    • Some minerals are important and related to menstrual cycles, like iron. Adequate amounts of iron in your body ensures good ovulation. Choose food rich in iron like eggs, beef, salmon, sunflower seeds, pumpkin, dark green vegetables like spinach, and beans.
    • Vitamin B is very important in maintaining hormonal balance. This is found in green vegetables, seaweed, basil and parsley.
    • Essential fatty acids are one of the main components forming hormones, Omega 3 fatty acids are found mainly in flax seeds, walnuts, raw nuts, salmon, sardines and cod liver oil.
    • Women who undergo a low fat diet may have low cholesterol levels in their circulation which contributes to hormones production. Healthy sources for cholesterol are olive/coconut oil and whole milk yogurt.
  2. Realize that your stress levels could be messing with your cycle. One of the most important factors that can make your period heavy or light and alter its duration is when you’re stressed. The result of too much stress is a high release of adrenaline and cortisol which have direct effects in inhibiting hormone release related to fertility. Thus, irregular periods are the result.
    • Avoid stress by anger management, playing sports, meditating and doing yoga. These will help in enhancing your mood and increase your concentration.
  3. Understand that your weight plays a role. Being either overweight or underweight can take its toll on your menstrual cycle. Here's how:
    • Being overweight means that you have hyper-concentration of estrogen (too much estrogen, that is) in circulation as fat cells produce it. The more fat cells you have, the more estrogen you have, knocking your levels off kilter. One study showed that 30-47% of obese women suffer from irregular menstruation.
    • Being underweight means you have a low concentration of estrogen, as, yet again, it's produced by fat cells -- which underweight individuals are lacking.
      • This high or low estrogen concentration may lead to the hypothalamus pituitary ovarian axis not functioning properly and causing irregular periods.
  4. Know your lifestyle could be the reason your period is irregular. Turns out there are a number of factors that could be messing with your fertility. If any of these ring true for you, consider making efforts to change them. The possibilities include:
    • Wearing tight clothes. Polyester underwear in particular is a culprit as it increases the temperature of the ovules.
    • Smoking. Several studies have confirmed that smokers are half as fertile compared to people who do not smoke. This is due to bad capillary blood flow in smokers.
    • 'Drinking alcohol and doing drugs. Studies have shown that alcoholism leads to impaired fertility in women.
    • Exposure to pesticides, air pollutants, heavy metals and petrochemicals. These all affect fertility (and overall health) negatively.
    • Contraception. IUDs in particular facilitate infections in the uterus and sometimes cause a blockage in the tubes resulting in infertility and abnormal menstrual cycles.
    • Diseases. Those such as diabetes, kidney disease and ovular infections such as urinary tract infections, gonorrhea, and syphilis can affect your period, too.
  5. Know how pregnancy affects your cycle. Being pregnant is one of the normal physiological reasons your period has stopped. When an ovum is successfully fertilized, the whole uterus is already prepared to nurture it to complete the pregnancy, preventing the uterine lining to break and leak out. This may be why your period isn't happening.
    • Always make sure to take a pregnancy test when you have doubts on your period cycle if you're sexually active. A pregnancy test can be easily found at most pharmacies, grocery stores, or big box stores.
  6. Know that breastfeeding can stop your period. In addition to pregnancy, breastfeeding also stops your menstruation cycle for at least six months and at most two years. This is called “Lactational Amenorrhea.”
    • When you frequently are nursing your baby, this process inhibits hormonal release that prepares your uterus for new possible pregnancy, so you don’t have any periods. The duration varies from one nursing woman to another.
  7. Realize that polycystic ovary syndrome could also be a factor in your cycle. PCOS affects about 5-10% of women above the age of 12 (at reproductive age). It’s an endocrine disorder affecting the pituitary gland causing irregular periods, amenorrhea and insulin resistance. If you haven't had your period for a while, this may be the issue.
    • It also leads to acne production and hirsutism (excessive hair production on face and back) due to the hormonal imbalance of mainly excessive testosterone release. Consult your doctor to answer your questions and make the proper diagnosis of your condition.
  8. Be aware that your thyroid affects your cycle, too. An imbalance in thyroid gland secretions can cause irregular menstruation cycles -- both hyperthyroidism (too many hormones) and hypothyroidism (not enough hormones) can affect your fertility and ovary production.
  9. Consider perimenopause as a factor. This is the time around menopause (the natural cessation of the period) -- that is, the time before and after menopause, in which estrogen levels undergo strong variations. When estrogen is in flux, you cannot rely on a regular period.
    • This leads to many physical changes or signs as hot flashes, sudden sweats, vaginal dryness and insomnia, in addition to, of course, irregular menstruation cycles.
      • If you experience any of these symptoms with a change in your period pattern, especially if you exceeded the age of 35, talk to your doctor about your complaints and she will help you determine if you are really in this phase or not. Your doctor also will inform you about other possible situations affecting your period.

Tips

  • Cranberry juice cocktail is also available but only contains 26% to 33% pure cranberry juice. This type is mixed with other fruits cocktail to avoid the sourness taste.
  • Cranberry tablets are also available and can be used.
  • Women who smoke should consume an additional 30 mg/day.

Warnings

  • Rule out the possibility of being pregnant before you go about inducing your period, as you may see adverse effects.

Sources and Citations

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