Digest Number 2097

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/10/2004 11:07:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

writes:

 

> Actually, the women I know personally who are frequently amenorrheic

are neither too thin nor vegetarian. They excel in their athleticism

and rarely get sick.

 

My experience (in boulder) with these super athletes is that on the

outside they may be strong and never get sick, but their yin and blood

is being burned from the inside and are hence amenorrheic... Youth can

mask many serious underlying vacuities.

 

 

 

 

I suggest that people look up the " Female Athletic Triad " , which is a

syndrome that consists of anorexia, amenorrhea and osteoporosis. The major (non

pill) reason young women do not menstruate is that they have too little body fat

and lack the cholesterol to manufacture hormones. This also causes premature

osteoporosis since the girl requires fat and protein to lay down bone- in some

cases girls have become permanently crippled in their 20s or 30s because of

anorexia or related eating disorders including rigid dietary patterns that do

not benefit their health. If athletic, the girls are especially prone to stress

fractures

 

No teenage girl or young woman should be a vegan as it is nearly impossible

to lay down enough bone on such a diet, and the bones laid down during young

womanhood are the " bank " from which she will withdraw calcium for the rest of

her life. She may be able to maintain with good diet and load-bearing exercise,

but generally she will not increase bone after her 30s..

 

(A vegan diet may be appropriate later in life as a recovery from a diet

excessively rich in protein and dairy, but probably should be considered a

curative diet of a few years duration rather than as a sustaining diet. There

are no

traditional societies with vegan diets and even ostensibly vegetarian diets

in India seem to have a significant amount of protein from insect sources-

enough so that Indians moving to Great Britian where there is less insect

infestation begin to suffer from disease.) .

 

Karen S. Vaughan, L.Ac., MSTOM

Creation's Garden

Creationsgarden1

253 Garfield Place

Brooklyn, NY 11215

 

(718) 622-6755