Side Effects of Birth Control Pills
"The Combined Oral Contraceptive Pill (COCP), often referred to as "the Pill", is a combination of an estrogen (oestrogen) and a progestin (progestogen), taken by mouth to inhibit normal fertility. Combined oral contraceptives were developed by Gregory Goodwin Pincus, John Rock, and Min Chueh Chang. They were first approved for contraceptive use in the United States in 1960, and are still a popular form of birth control. They are currently used by more than 100 million women worldwide and by almost 12 million women in the United States. Usage varies widely by country, age, education, and marital status: one quarter of women aged 16 – 49 in Great Britain currently use the Pill (combined pill or minipill), compared to only 1% of women in Japan." (Wikipedia)08/30/2007: E writes: "Up until 2 months ago, I was taking birth control pills (3 years) and medication for periodic panic attacks (on and off for 10 years, continuously for the last 2 years). I have put on 40 lbs in 2 years and after doing some research, have found that it may have a lot to do with the medication for panic attacks (decreases metabolism, turns off the "full" signal and increases cravings for carbohydrates) and the birth control pill. My doctor and I had been experimenting with several types of birth control pills and the last one left me with a horrible case of dandruff. It started 6 months ago during the second month dosage with mild dandruff and has become quite awful. As mentioned, I have since stopped taking both medications, but the dandruff is not going away. On top of all of that, I was sleep deprived for 6 months due to some very noisy neighbours.
I have now been to a Naturopathic Doctor and am now on a month long liver cleanse, multi-vitamins, extra vitamin C and Omega 3's. The ND seems to agree with my findings and has told me that I just need to wait for my body to re-regulate itself over the next month or two. I am all for doing that, however, the itching, flaking and discomfort is driving me nuts. I've tried Nizoral for 3 months, Neem shampoo for one month, and just bought a tar gel shampoo that just dries my scalp. Over the last couple of weeks, I have used tea tree/olive oil on my scalp as an overnight treatment, but that has not done anything. I currently am trying the apple cider vinegar approach. Is there any end to this or am I just doomed to wait?
Thanks for any advice for relief you may have."
Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "There was one interesting case, mostly from private email in curing the dandruff, which took a couple of weeks to stop most of it. The cause was pretty much well know, which is fungus and yeast. There are plenty of ways of killing them and this is well known also, such as the topical use of tea tree oil, apple cider vinegar, tar, sodium selenite and others.
However the case that I had some successes were the use of vitamin D which was at the time about 15,000 i.u. which meant taking plenty of the cod liver oil each day, and the application of white distilled vinegar and some occasional use of tea tree oil or lavender oil, but not everyday as it is drying. Both vitamin A, Vitamin D, vitamin E, and evening primrose oil prevents scalp drying, that resulted in dandruff.
I have found that people with dark skin people living in cold climates, or people not exposed to the sun complained of dandruff and hence a vitamin D is implicated. Vitamin D helped in more ways than one, by increasing the immune system (vitamin D has limited ability to reduce fungus and yeast). Vitamin A, usually 25,000 i.u. taken maybe 5 days out of a week, vitamin E, 200 i.u. for example taken three times a week during morning hours, and evening primrose oil, 1000 mg taken two times out of a week were also helpful.
It should be noted that borax used as a shampoo and the solution is left overnight, has an anti-fungal effect, and also the body needs the boron to balance its hormones, which I often mixed together with a small amount of magnesium hydroxide. One approximate estimate is one tablespoon of borax in one cup of water, plus one tablespoon of milk of magnesia to be used as a dandruff shampoo. The milk of magnesia is used to raise the pH, discouraging the fungus growth (they don't grow in alkaline environments), and the borax is used to directly kill them.
The scalp circulation should be helped with a remedy for internal purposes such as 2 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water taken twice a day. Alkalinity of the body, which results in increase circulation should also discourage fungus growth which causes dandruff.
While most solutions for stopping dandruff are drying it is the evening primrose oil, vitamin A, vitamin E, and vitamin D (and perhaps vitamin K2 as it is also antifungal) are used to prevent the drying of the scalp.
In general estrogen lowers the body immunity as most hormones increases free radicals, and hence, this is where vitamin E and also sodium ascorbate (500-1000 mg/day for 5 days out of a week) vitamin C (alkaline form of vitamin C) shines. Magnesium ascorbate is also another possibility where the dose is about 500-1000 mg/day taken only 5 days out of a week. In case you are wondering why the vitamin C, besides it is being an antioxidant, vitamin C seems to have some anti-fungal properties too, mostly from its antioxidant properties as fungus tend to grow better in higher heavy metals, which do create free radicals.
In some cases excess heavy metals may initiate dandruff and so is chlorinated water, which lowers the body immune system by suppression of thyroid glands and hence some chlorella supplements might help, as it lowers the body heavy metal buildup. Heavy metals create free radicals and fungus tend to grow in both acidic and high metal environments, and hence it will take some time, a couple of weeks to do its job. However the frequency of chlorella supplements taken appears to be taken 4 days out of a week and the body needs 3 more days to further detoxify itself. Chinese parsley or coriander can also be taken but I believe it should be taken something like once every other day. They also chelate the heavy metals and thus removing the nutrients for further fungus to flourish causing the scalp.
In case the tea tree oil or lavender oil frequent use causes drying, I prefer to mix them together with sufficient amount of natural vitamin E to lubricate them, and that is about 50/50 mix, which is 50% vitamin E and 50% lavender oil (or tea tree oil), for example. Lavender oil is milder and less irritating than the tea tree oil.
A simpler way and cheaper of dealing with itchy scalp which may result in dandruff is the use of apple cider vinegar applied topically overnight on the scalp or just plain white distilled vinegar. At least where I lived, the price of apple cider vinegar is quite prohibitive and hence, its effects should be about the same in stopping the itchiness. The acetate portion of the apple cider vinegar is somewhat anti-inflammatory, stops itchiness, but also it is anti fungal. My experience with such use is not so drying to the skin that much. For some people who are more sensitive to vinegar, they can be left on for a several of minutes (such as 5-8 minutes) then rinse.
It should be noted that the reason why hormone use such as estrogen causes dandruff is that hormones tend to cause the body to increase free radicals, and hence the body becomes more sensitive to free radical metals and oily foods which has free radical fatty acids. Hence, it is necessary that vitamin E and vitamin C are used, but I believe that the body also needs to get rid of excess oils that may in turn create free fatty acids and become food for the yeast or fungus which causes dandruff. Therefore, I would probably take one tablespoon of granulated lecithin a day sometimes mixing with food or taken alone so that the liver won't be congested of both free fatty acids or free heavy metals. Free heavy metals are oil soluble and granulated leicithin helps the body get rid of both."
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