Question: From Megan

Could you please give me your thoughts on Wild Yam. I have been told by several female friends that it is an excellent natural alternative for helping with menstrual complications. But when I did some internet searches I came across only negative statements/studies.

Thanks

Response From Brett:

Hi Megan

Thanks for your question. I know I have written about this before but haven’t been able to locate that reader’s question.

Anyway, I know what you mean! The wild yam content you would have come across is typical of what’s happening on the web nowadays. Unqualified people posting content on which they have no idea whether it is factual, incomplete or predominantly wrong. These people are simply doing internet searches themselves and then copying/re-wording the mistakes of other unqualified website authors.

Wild Yam is an extremely useful medicinal herb for women! It is a precursor (to human sex hormones) able to help with menstrual cramps/pain, hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.

Much of the negative content you probably came across about Wild Yam’s oestrogenic effects is quite misleading (clinical studies for traditional Wild Yam are difficult to come across outside of a laboratory conversion.)

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A few days ago I was scanning down a ‘Readers Comments’ thread on a popular health website when one reader’s response caught my eye.

This person made 3 comments in his post, all of which I have seen quite regularly on health sites around the web and ALL 3 represent common misconceptions with regard to nutritional supplements!

These particular misconceptions are proof of the popular saying “If you throw enough mud for long enough some of it will stick!”

And the Internet only serves to exacerbate this problem!

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