>> "No form of vinegar changes body pH or has any effect on toxins. The body's natural processes, mediated largely through the liver and kidneys, eliminate waste products and toxic substances." It's as if you are still rejecting the efficacy of Cinchona bark for treating malaria because the Amazonian Indians haven't discovered the formula for the quinine it contains. Instead, they say that the bark of the Cinchona tree contains the spirit of the God Xohopichulato, which destroys the evil spirit that causes malaria. If you want to rest in your beliefs that there is no Xohopichulato and therefore Cinchona cannot help with malaria, fine. Just don't pretend it is science. It is arrogant ethnocentrism, not scientific empiricism. Your arguments are based on an arbitrary and artificial definition of the word 'toxin'. You are ignoring the fact that ordinary substances can build up to toxic levels under many conditions - for example, glucose can build up to toxic levels when there is insulin resistance. In such a case, anything that reduces insulin resistance or lowers glucose levels would in fact be a 'detoxification' process. Likewise, immune hormones like the interferons and interleukins are necessary under certain conditions, but at higher doses (ie when there is infection or chronic inflammation) they often cause side effects that range from unpleasant to lethal. In SARS, H5N1 bird flu, and other killer influenzas, the body's immune system destroys the body. Immune hormones that might sometimes be beneficial are produced at toxic levels. This is quite different from your idea of metabolic toxins that are normally handled by the kidneys and liver. The short chain fatty acids present in vinegar (acetate, proprionate, butyrate) have been repeatedly shown to lower inflammatory cytokines (which have been implicated as a contributor to migraines). These simple compounds also affect levels of leptin, adiponectin and other compounds that regulate glucose, and there is research implicating this in the pathogenesis of migraines. You have stooped to pseudoscience by refusing to look at the evidence that vinegar can dramatically change certain chemicals in the body. You seem to take comfort in linguistic tautologies about 'toxins' that have little bearing on the underlying facts of the matter. Here is a link that might be useful: Glucose, Adiponectin, Immune Hormones and Migraine.

I haven't checked back here for awhile and see a few more responses are here. sewcrzy56.......My husband does drug research for drug companies, and he just said that ACE inhibitors can cause coughs, but he hadn't heard of them causing menstrual changes. But.....being a person myself who is very sensitive to meds and has symptoms from them that NO ONE else gets, I sort of feel like if it started up exactly when you started the med, then its fair to make that connection. How old are you? Is it possible that you have, indeed, started perimenopause? Don't you just want to smack the doc when he says stuff like "you read too many pharmacy inserts"? GGGRRrrrrrrr. I was on Toprol for 6 years. I took 3 months to wean off it. Then it took 2 months for my heart rate to finally slow down. The week after I was off it, I began getting lots of bodily pain...especially GI pains. It appears as though the Toprol was controlling more in my body than just my BP. I'm sure doctors would say that's not true......but its hard not to make that connection. I'm guessing your ACE inhibitor IS causing your sore throat, but maybe not your menstrual changes........but those drugs are very potent, so who knows for sure? May your trip through menopause be smooth.......but it sure wasn't for me!!

I highly recommend Horehound. It is a very bitter medicinal herb, generally recognized as useful in bronchial conditions. It likes a very well-drained position, and grows best for me in above-ground pots. It needs protection from faster growing plants--it is OK near things like Thyme and the smaller forms of Sage, but definitely not the Mints. Valerian is useful for nervous conditions, and has a fragrant inflorescence. It grows fairly tall but is an attractive plant. Comfrey is pretty close to being a rank weed similar to Mullein but I like to use it in places that would otherwise attract true weeds. It is a bully and will grow straight up at first, then let its stalks fall down, shading out anything in a 3 to 4 foot diameter. It can be used externally for injuries. Skullcap is also a rather attractive plant with interesting flower stalks...it has grown well for me and even reseeded itself lightly. Feverfew is good for migraine headaches, and is a small and rather attractive fern-like leaved little daisy-type plant that grows in attractive clumps. It works by doing something irreversible to smooth muscle, so should be used with caution. There are many medicinal herbs that treat similar conditions, so it's really more practical to try to discover the ones that do best in your area, for the conditions you want, and try to grow those. If you ask in the forums for your area, posters can tell you what has done well for them in that zone. Also, some really good medicinal herbs are either so large that you wouldn't want them to share a bed with the others, or so tiny that they really do better with the protection of their own pot.

I had an ablation about 6 years ago. I had previously had surgery to remove a couple of fibroids and that helped considerably, but a year later I was still having bleeding issues and I had the ablation. (my doctor had suggested it at the time of the fibroid removal, but I didn't want to do them both at the same time). My periods didn't stop, but I discovered Light tampons, and only needed about 5 of them a month. I haven't heard of women having hormonal problems after ablation. I certainly didn't have any problems with my procedure, which was done with the balloon method. I had cramping for less than 12 hours, then felt fine. You do need to use birth control, because you can conceive, but there is no where for the embryo to implant without the lining, so a pregnancy could be dangerous. I think that it's important to know why you are having bleeding problems. For example,if you have fibroids like I did, an ablation isn't going to remove the underlying problem.