The Brain and Menstruation

Before reading this post, I would suggest you start with my previous entry 'This is where it all starts' and work up, to undertand the context.

The key word here is ‘hypothalamus.’

This is the part of the brain that regulates the production of hormones, so I guess you could call it the control centre for your menstrual cycle. Now, the interesting thing to note here is that you CAN influence the hypothalamus consciously and unconsciously, as it responds to factors like stress/relaxation, anxiety/rest, nutrition, depression/pleasure. It basically tells the pituitary gland what to do, and also regulates the adrenal gland, which produces stress hormones. And these are just two of its functions.

I think it’s easy to think of this as one-direction-only transaction: your brain controls your body, your hypothalamus controls your hormones and your hormones control your menstrual cycle. But what Dr Tray Gaudet and other doctors, scientist and therepists are suggesting is that the system flows in a more circular motion than this: if you take care of your body, your brain will react positively. And what I am suggesting is that since we can view our brain and our body as the same thing, by taking care of our body we are taking care of our brain and if we take care of our brain we are taking care of our body! And using this theory, you can understand why we often get ill when we’re stressed, over-worked and unhappy; why we tend to feel healthy when we’re happy; and happy when we’re healthy!