Phytoestrogens are medicinal compounds from plants that interact with our bodies’ estrogen receptors, mildly mimicking estrogen’s effects. Women are becoming increasingly interested in taking phytoestrogens as an alternative to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for menopause, feeling that phytoestrogens are natural options that are milder and safer for the body. Many studies have been done on the efficacy of phytoestrogens. A new study has analyzed 174 of those studies, in a meta-analysis, combining the results of all the studies and analyzing them together for the purpose of a new research objective. In this case, the authors (Tempfer et al. 2009) reviewed the side effects of phytoestrogen treatments, compared to placebo or no treatment, in randomized controlled trials. Side effects were reported by 38% of the 4806 people taking placebo or no treatment (the control groups), and 36.7% of 5502 people taking phytoestrogens. Therefore the overall difference in side effects was not significant. When the occurences of different side effect categories were analyzed, those taking phytoestrogens were only found to have a moderate increase in gastrointestinal side effects. No increase in gynecological, musculoskeletal, neurological, or unspecific side effects were found in those taking phytoestrogens. The bottom line - phytoestrogens have a safe side effect profile. [And they are awesome.]
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Capsaicin, the compound found in chiles that makes them “hot,” as in picante, has been shown to have the ability to facilitate pain relief without affecting movement and touch as most anesthetics do. This could mean that mothers-to-be in labor could maintain the ability to move around during labor, know when to push and feel themselves giving birth, without the pain. Epidurals today do not allow this. The drugs used in epidurals today affect total nerve function, including those that send signals to the brain about the other non-painful sensations a person is feeling, as well as the nerves that send signals from the brain telling muscles how and when to move. Capsaicin has the ability to open channels selectively so that pain-killers given in conjunction will only enter the desired nerve cells.
The article from BBC NEWS explains how the Harvard research group used a compound which interferes with nerve signals just as conventional anesthetics do, but is actually too large to enter any nerve cell on its own. Capsaicin, however, has the unique capability of opening large enough channels in the cell wall for the large anesthetic compound to enter the cell. Channels are only selectively opened in the cell walls of pain receptor nerve cells, therefore no longer causing loss of sensation and paralysis in addition to killing pain.
Having the ability to walk, move and stand makes labor progress more quickly due to the helpful effects of gravity. But the implications of this go beyond speeding labor. Having an epidural as we know them today can often lead to what birth professionals call the “cascade of interventions,” where the administration of anesthesia (or some other medical labor or birth intervention) triggers a snowballing effect necessitating more and more interventions. Consider this scenario in which a laboring mother receives an epidural, is numb from the waist down so labor slows because she is not able to walk, move or change positions. Mom cannot feel when to push, so after trying pitocin to speed contractions unnaturally, the baby then has to be removed by forceps then requiring an episiotomy.
Here is a really nice diagram I found on the Birth International site. It nicely illustrates some of the trajectories that the cascade of interventions can follow. This one starts not with the epidural, but with induction which is often the case in these cascades. Induction is the act of artificially starting labor through the administration of pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) or other drugs. In terms of this diagram.. I think the use of capsaicin in conjunction with an anesthetic that cannot penetrate cell walls on its own, has the potential to route the cascade away from so many Caesareans and forceps/vacuum extraction methods, and the subsequent interventions.
