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I may have mentioned this before, but I wanted to mention it again: At the beginning of the year, I went to a new doctor, recommended to me by some friends, Dr. Eleanor Hynote. Generally, I am pretty darn healthy (knock on wood), eat well, exercise, and have few complaints. Except one teensy issue with PMS. I remember my mother also having a very tough time with it. Luckily, I was fairly symptom free through my 20s and most of my 30s. Through my mid-30s until now, though, I started feeling progressively worse about ten days before the end of my cycle. (I realize now I am venturing into a more personal area...but if this helps someone, that's important.)

It always felt like a switch was thrown. One day, I'd be smiling and happy, and things would be just fine. Then, like clockwork, the next day I'd wake up and feel anxious, angry, and like nothing was right in my world. Mike usually got the brunt of it. I thought it was just my personality, or that if I just fixed things in my life, I wouldn't feel like that. Then, the day before my period started, it felt like the cloudy gray veil was just lifted, and I could see the sun again. I talked to my old GP, but she didn't seem to get it. She told me there were no tests that could be done on hormones to determine if I had an imbalance.

So as part of my annual exam with Dr. Hynote, I talked to her about my symptoms. She said that it was perfectly normal for someone my age to have exactly these symptoms. (Whew.) She had me take a blood test on a specific day and determined that I was indeed experiencing an imbalance in hormones. She prescribed Balance (above), three each day in the morning, starting on the 18th day. I was pretty skeptical the first month. I felt the "switch" so I knew that I was going through my usual cycle. I started taking the Balance. The first day, I felt the same, the second day, I felt a little bit better, and on the morning of the third day, I woke up and felt not only normal, but HAPPY. I was ecstatic. I was so grateful. If I'd known about this five or ten years ago, it would have given me a lot more happy days, and my husband a lot less grief.

In addition to balancing out my hormones, Dr. H found through my blood test that I have one of the early indicators for heart disease. As you know, my mother had a quadruple bypass this last summer (poor Mommy!) and both of my living grandparents have stents, which I think is a prop for a formerly clogged artery. That, and diabetes on both sides of my family means I have to take extra good care of myself to avoid these things. Luckily, this precursor is treatable with a Niacin supplement. Now I don't know whether this indicator is something that causes heart disease, or whether it is something that people who have heart disease also happen to have, but if a relatively inexpensive supplement can address it, and it isn't harmful, then why not?

If you are thinking about seeing Dr. Hynote, you should know that she does not take insurance. The first consultation and exam are a bit expensive. Ouch expensive. The blood tests were also expensive, but were covered by my insurance. But the attention, comprehensive diagnostics, nutrition analysis and holistic approach to health were so worth it in the end. Ok, so now I spend twice as much on vitamins as I did before. But in the end, I'm healthy, AND I'm happier overall, so what's that worth?