The Physiological Cost of the Modern Diet on the Female Body
Understanding Endometriosis and Menstrual Pathology
Endometriosis is commonly defined as the presence of uterine-like tissue outside the uterus, often accompanied by inflammation, scarring, pain, and heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding. In conventional medicine, it is treated as a mysterious hormonal disorder requiring suppression, surgery, or lifelong management – and accompanying long-term misery for the woman suffering this condition. From the perspective of the science of health, Natural Hygiene, endometriosis is not an isolated disease entity, but rather the advanced outcome of long-standing chronic inflammation, uterine congestion, and progressive tissue degeneration with a known cause: a backlog of cellular waste created by our unnatural modern living conditions and unnatural diet. By this standard, correction of the conditions that lead to endometriosis results in a corresponding correction of the disease itself.
Painful menstruation, clotting, excessive bleeding, and the formation of endometrial growths arise from the same underlying condition. They reflect the state of the tissues and circulation within the pelvis, rather than being a necessary reproductive function. To understand endometriosis, one must first understand menstruation itself and distinguish ovulation from bleeding.
This Often Comes as a Shock: Ovulation Is Normal. Bleeding Is Not.
Ovulation is a normal physiological process involving the maturation and release of an ovum from the ovary. Menstrual bleeding is not synonymous with ovulation and is not required for fertility. Numerous physicians, physiologists, and hygienists documented that ovulation can and does occur without hemorrhage.
Herbert M. Shelton wrote:
“Ovulation is a normal process and is not necessarily accompanied with any sanguineous flow. My studies and experiences have led me inevitably to the conclusion that the loss of blood is pathological and that it is in no sense a natural or necessary part of the physiological process of ovulation.”
Women have conceived, carried pregnancies, and given birth without menstrual bleeding. Lower mammals ovulate regularly without hemorrhage. Even among women, the amount of bleeding varies enormously, ranging from none at all to severe, prolonged hemorrhage. These variations correspond directly with health status, not reproductive capability.
Lowenthal concluded that menstrual blood is normal blood and does not contain poisonous substances requiring elimination. Amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation, does not cause disease and should not be treated as pathological when it occurs in otherwise healthy individuals.
At this point, you might be thinking, of course, bleeding during a menstrual period is normal and appropriate – everyone bleeds once a month. This is what I thought too. For many years, I suffered through heavy bleeding, debilitating cramps, fatigue, and nausea every single month. However, when I returned to a natural human diet, all of this ceased; fertility has remained measured and consistent for years. All of this has proven to me that the mainstream medical understanding of women’s monthly issues is far from accurate.
The Physiology of Menstrual Bleeding and Pain
During the ovulatory cycle, the uterine lining thickens in preparation for possible implantation. In a healthy organism, if conception does not occur, this tissue is reabsorbed and the blood redistributed into the general circulation. In such conditions, the process is bloodless or nearly so.
In the diseased body, however, the uterine capillaries are weakened by chronic congestion, inflammation, and elevated blood pressure. When pelvic blood volume increases during the post-ovulatory phase, these fragile vessels rupture. Blood escapes through the uterine wall, producing menstruation.
Pain arises from the same condition. Inflamed tissues, impaired circulation, nerve irritation, and muscular spasm create cramping, nausea, fatigue, headaches, emotional instability, and weakness. Geddes and Thompson described menstruation as a process that “lies on the borders of pathological change,” noting that pain and systemic disturbance are evidence of abnormality rather than normal function.
Endometriosis represents a further extension of this process. Repeated congestion, hemorrhage, and tissue injury weaken the uterus and surrounding structures over time, allowing displaced tissue, scarring, and chronic inflammatory responses to develop.
Dietary Cause: Protein, Inflammation, and Circulatory Stress
Across clinical observation, animal experimentation, and population data, one factor consistently emerges as the primary driver of menstrual pathology: diet.
Animal proteins, particularly meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and other concentrated protein foods, increase blood pressure, inflammatory byproducts, and circulatory strain. Dr. Alexander Haig documented that animal protein consumption elevates blood uric acid levels, noting that uric acid concentration peaks just before and during menstruation, coinciding with increased bleeding and pain.
Haig wrote:
“The more uric acid there is in the blood, resulting from the increased consumption of meat, the more profuse will be the menstrual hemorrhage.”
Dr. Harry Campbell of England conducted experiments on rats and demonstrated that meat consumption induced inflammatory degeneration of the uterine mucosa. He concluded that unphysiological diets, especially exclusive flesh feeding, caused structural changes in the uterus, leading to sterility.
Campbell stated:
“The use of non-physiological diet, for example exclusive flesh, induces a modification of the uterine mucous membrane associated with sterility.”
Dr. Schreuer, a gynecologist, concluded that menstruation and leucorrhea originate from inflammatory endometrial conditions caused by intestinal toxins derived from high-protein diets. He emphasized that detoxification of the blood and intestinal tract through a low-protein vegetarian diet was necessary for correction.
Evidence From Animals and Civilization
In the wild, animals do not menstruate. They experience estrus cycles that are bloodless and infrequent. However, under domestication, when animals are overfed and given unnatural diets rich in protein and fat, estrus becomes more frequent and eventually hemorrhagic and uncomfortable.
Havelock Ellis observed:
“It is evident that the increasing frequency of menstruation as we rise toward civilized man is based upon increase in nutrition.”
By nutrition, he refers to an overabundance of calorie intake and to nutrient-dense but burdensome foods.
Marshall, in his Physiology of Reproduction, noted that domesticated cows, fed unnatural high-protein grain heavy diets, develop true hemorrhage where wild animals do not. The same pattern appears in humans and all other animals that humans feed.
I have personally witnessed this in my rescue dogs. Unspayed females who spend their lives on kibble bleed heavily and show clear signs of discomfort during their heat. Still, within 1 year of being returned to the natural dog diet, the bleeding ceases entirely, yet the females still go into heat, however, less frequently, typically twice per year instead of 3 or 4 times on kibble.
Wartime Evidence and Dietary Restriction
During World War I, widespread food restrictions, and specifically restrictions in animal foods, in Germany led to dramatic increases in amenorrhea(lack of bleeding). Rubner reported that, among women receiving rations containing approximately 31 grams of protein daily, menstruation ceased in large numbers. Strickel documented that cases of amenorrhea in Berlin were seven times more frequent during wartime than before.
These changes correlated with a lack of animal foods available to the general public during the war. Importantly, menstruation returned when food abundance and meat and dairy consumption resumed.
Clinical Observations on Low-Protein Diets
Dr. Arnold Ehret observed that when women adopted a low-protein, fruit-and-vegetable-based diet, menstruation diminished progressively and often disappeared entirely.
Ehret wrote:
“If the female body is made perfectly clean through diet, menstruation ceases.”
Dr. George Starr White similarly reported curing thousands of women of painful and excessive menstruation through dietary reduction and raw food living.
A return to the natural human diet of fresh fruits, salads, tender vegetables, nuts, and seeds, low in protein and high in carbohydrates, results in an elimination of all menstrual pain and a gradual reduction in bleeding, until the body returns to a complete state of health and bleeding ceases entirely. Yet, in all cases, fertility remains, and women who follow the natural human diet have successful pregnancies and healthy children free from the disease conditions common in those children born to mothers consuming an unnatural cooked and high-protein diet.
This has been my own personal experience as well, starting in just the first few months of eating raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, I saw a marked reduction in both the pain and length of my menstrual bleeding. By 18 months, I had only minimal bleeding and zero pain, and by 6 years on fully raw, I saw a complete cessation of bleeding. Now bleeding will return if I have an excess of fats or cooked meals during the month, but it is only minimal bleeding and no cramping.
Fertility Without Bleeding
A central misconception is that fertility requires menstrual bleeding. The evidence repeatedly contradicts this belief. Ovulation continues in the absence of bleeding, pregnancy occurs, lactation follows, fertility remains intact without hemorrhaging monthly, and all pain, emotional swings, bloating, and other negative symptoms cease.
Bleeding is not a sign of reproductive readiness. It is a sign of vascular weakness and inflammatory burden. Heavy bleeding, clotting, and pain indicate deeper systemic stress, not biological necessity.
Why Diet Determines Menstrual Bleeding and Pain
Before examining lived experience, it is necessary to understand why dietary changes profoundly affect menstruation. Menstrual bleeding is not regulated by hormones alone, nor is it an unavoidable feature of female fertility. It is a mechanical and circulatory outcome that reflects the condition of the blood, the integrity of the uterine tissues, and the body’s overall inflammatory burden.
Two dietary factors repeatedly emerge in both historical research and clinical observation as the primary drivers of menstrual hemorrhage and pain: excess fat and excess protein.
How High-Fat Diets Increase Menstrual Bleeding and Pain
High-fat diets disrupt menstruation by impairing circulation, increasing inflammation, and weakening capillary integrity in the uterine lining. This effect occurs regardless of whether the fat comes from animal foods, dairy, oils, or excessive nuts and seeds.
Excess body fat thickens the blood and slows capillary flow. As blood viscosity increases, venous return from the pelvic organs becomes impaired, leading to congestion of the uterus and surrounding tissues. This congestion increases intracapillary pressure within the delicate endometrial capillary network.
At the same time, high-fat intake suppresses lymphatic drainage. The lymphatic system is responsible for clearing cellular waste and excess fluid from tissues. When lymph flow is sluggish, inflammatory byproducts accumulate in the uterine lining, further weakening capillary walls.
As ovulation approaches and pelvic blood supply naturally increases, these compromised capillaries are unable to withstand the pressure. The result is seepage or rupture, which manifests as menstrual bleeding. The higher the fat intake, the greater the congestion and the more pronounced the bleeding.
Pain arises because congested, inflamed tissues are being forced to expand against resistance. Cramping is not a purposeful function. It is a mechanical response to tissue irritation, pressure, and restricted circulation.
This explains why women often observe that menstrual symptoms worsen with high-fat raw diets and improve dramatically when fat intake is reduced, even when all foods are otherwise natural and uncooked.
How High-Protein Diets Increase Menstrual Bleeding and Pain
High-protein diets disrupt menstruation through a different but equally damaging pathway. Excess protein metabolism produces acidic waste products, including urea, uric acid, and ammonia, which irritate tissues and burden the circulatory system.
When protein intake exceeds the body’s structural and repair needs, it ceases to function as nourishment and instead becomes a source of systemic inflammation. The uterine mucosa, composed of delicate glandular tissue and dense capillary networks, is especially vulnerable to this irritation.
Protein metabolism also has a dehydrating effect. Large amounts of water are required to neutralize and eliminate nitrogenous waste. As plasma volume decreases, blood thickens, circulation slows, and pelvic blood pressure rises.
Elevated blood pressure places additional strain on already inflamed uterine capillaries. When combined with cyclical increases in pelvic blood flow following ovulation, this pressure results in capillary leakage or rupture.
High-protein diets also overstimulate the reproductive tract. Excess protein in follicular fluid increases follicular fluid volume and accelerates follicular rupture, leading to frequent ovulation with inadequate recovery time. The uterus is repeatedly congested without sufficient opportunity for tissue repair, creating a state of chronic pelvic hyperemia (increased blood flow into tissues).
Pain, clotting, fatigue, and emotional volatility are not signs of hormonal imbalance. They are indicators of inflammatory overload, circulatory stress, and reduced tissue resilience.
When protein intake is reduced, these stressors diminish. Blood pressure lowers, inflammation subsides, capillary integrity improves, and menstruation becomes lighter, less frequent, or disappears entirely while ovulation and fertility remain intact.
Menstruation, Fertility, and the Myth of Necessary Bleeding
Ovulation and menstruation are distinct processes. Ovulation is essential to reproduction. Hemorrhage is not.
Across species, ovulation typically occurs without bleeding. In both humans and animals, menstruation becomes more frequent and more hemorrhagic under conditions of domestication, overfeeding, and dietary excess. When these conditions are removed, bleeding diminishes without impairing reproductive capacity.
Women who do not menstruate monthly due to improved health, reduced inflammation, and restored circulatory balance remain fully capable of ovulation and conception. The absence of bleeding indicates tissue integrity rather than reproductive failure.
With this physiological context established, we can examine how this process manifests in real human experience.
Personal Experience
After returning to a natural human diet of fruits, salads, vegetables, and small amounts of nuts and seeds, it took approximately six years for bleeding to stop entirely. Before this change, menstruation was debilitating. The first day involved severe cramping, inability to leave bed, and frequent vomiting.
Notable improvement appeared within six months. Pain reduced steadily. Bleeding lessened year by year. Today, bleeding occurs only when cooked foods or excessive fat are consumed. Even then, cramping does not occur. When fully raw and eating naturally low-fat, bleeding ceases entirely while ovulation continues regularly.
Observations in Rescued Animals
The same physiological principles appear in rescued female dogs. When fed kibble-based diets, unspayed females bleed heavily during heat. After transitioning to a natural canine diet of approximately sixty percent fruit and forty percent raw, lean prey meals, bleeding decreases with each heat cycle. It typically stops entirely within eighteen to twenty-four months. Ovulation continues,0 and fertility remains.
Community Testimonials
These outcomes are not isolated.
“Heavy bleeding and painful periods take any two to three years to reverse fully. My period went down to 2.5 days, no pain, usually no clots. When I hydrate well and eat watery fruit, it becomes even lighter.”
“I had stage 4 endometriosis with horrendous pain. After one year on a raw diet, pain went from two days to about five hours. I am looking forward to being completely pain-free.”
“I am 49. Within two to three months on NH, bleeding became minimal, with many fewer days and far less painful. My cycle lengthened naturally to about six weeks.”
“Eliminating dairy was a game-changer. I went from seven days of heavy pain to light, easy cycles lasting three days or less.”
“My cysts cleared, painful periods stopped, and I started ovulating again after adopting Natural Hygiene twenty years ago.”
“My periods vanished entirely. No menopause symptoms, no hormonal rollercoasters.”
Why the Natural Human Diet Heals Endometriosis and Menstrual Pain
Endometriosis, painful menstruation, and excessive bleeding are not isolated reproductive disorders. They are expressions of systemic inflammation, impaired circulation, lymphatic congestion, and chronic irritation of pelvic tissues. When a woman returns to a natural human diet centered on ripe fruits, tender vegetables, salads, and modest amounts of nuts and seeds, the body is no longer burdened by excess protein, fat, acidic waste, or inflammatory byproducts. Blood viscosity decreases, pelvic congestion resolves, lymphatic drainage improves, and the uterine tissues are provided with the conditions required for repair rather than continual inflammation.
As the endometrial lining regains integrity and capillary strength, hemorrhage ceases to occur under normal cyclical pressure, and pain diminishes because tissues are no longer swollen, congested, or chemically irritated. Endometriosis improves for the same reason. The inflammatory environment that allowed ectopic endometrial tissue to survive and proliferate is removed, and the body gradually reabsorbs and resolves abnormal tissue as circulation and elimination normalize. What remains is ovulation without hemorrhage, cyclic change without suffering, and fertility without the pathological blood loss that modern culture has come to accept as normal.
Menstruation, as it is commonly experienced, is not a biological necessity but a reversible condition. When the causes of disease are removed, the body returns to health. Health is a state of comfort; disease is a state of discomfort. A body that is heavily uncomfortable for 1 week out of every 4 is not a body in a state of health; it is a body in distress.
Further Study and Next Steps
Menstrual pain, heavy bleeding, and endometriosis do not exist in isolation. They are part of a larger pattern created by diet, circulation, elimination, and the cumulative effects of unnatural living. For those seeking a deeper understanding of the foundations of this process, the following articles elaborate on the principles discussed here and provide essential context.
To begin with, the dietary framework itself, What Is the Natural Human Diet? explains the species-appropriate foods that support tissue integrity, circulation, and reproductive health. This is further clarified in Our Natural Foods Do Not Create Discomfort or Disturbance to the Body, which examines why pain, runny nose, teary eyes, and digestive distress are signals of incompatibility between certain foods and their irritating properties.
For a broader understanding of disease formation, Why Do We Get Sick? outlines how chronic symptoms develop over time when the causes of irritation and overload are left in place. This same physiological logic applies to reproductive pain and pelvic disease. It is explored from a different angle in The Unnatural Pain of Childbirth, which addresses why pain has become normalized in processes that were never designed to be traumatic.
Mineral imbalance and tissue hardening also play a central role in gynecological disease. The Slow Petrifaction of the Body from Inorganic Mineral Consumption explains how non-assimilable minerals contribute to congestion, stiffness, and impaired circulation throughout the body, including the uterus and surrounding tissues. Finally, What Is Detox Really? It’s Probably Not What You Think! clarifies the body’s eliminative processes and why symptom reduction follows the removal of dietary and environmental burdens rather than the stimulation or suppression of symptoms.
For those who want individualized guidance, consultations are available to assess diet, symptom patterns, and recovery timelines on a case-by-case basis. Ongoing education, structured guidance, and peer discussion are also available through the Natural Diet Support Group, where these principles are applied in daily life, and long-term healing is tracked.
Understanding physiological processes enables us to identify causes and restore health. The body does not need to be forced, corrected, or overridden. It simply needs the conditions of health provided so it can function how it was designed to function – free from pain, with abundant energy, and a life filled with joy.
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