A Cuppa With Tayla Lovering

Hi Tayla, can you tell us a little about yourself and your background in naturopathy?

Hi, I’m Tayla - I live in the Fleurieu Peninsula in a coastal country town called Port Elliot. Life right now looks like living by the ocean with my partner and our puppy Dulcie, surrounded by amazing friends and family. It’s slow mornings, beautiful places, long walks, swimming, funky cafes, home projects, crafting, camping adventures, and running my own naturopathic business, Wild Health Studio. An interesting fact about me would be I grew up on Kangaroo Island on a sheep farm and loved every minute of it! 

What drew you to specialise in women's health, particularly PMDD?

I chose to specialise in women’s health partly because of my own personal health struggles with PMDD, pelvic pain, migraines and gut issues and finding the health systems support to be severely lacking, but also because of the clients I began seeing early in my clinic days, where lack of education and connection to our bodies as women was so apparent. The constant dismissal of symptoms, the symptoms women just accepted as normal and the treatments offered to them were just in my opinion, not good enough. Nothing was centred around WHY this was happening or addressed them holistically. 

PMDD is something a lot of women haven't heard of until they're deep in it. For anyone who might be reading this and not quite sure what it is - how would you describe it, and how is it different from regular PMS?

Absolutely, it’s something I had no connection to at first either and this was my personal experience with PMDD as well. PMDD or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder is your brain reacting abnormally to normal hormonal fluctuations, which can include symptoms such as intense mood swings that can interfere with relationships, severe irritability or anger, depression or hopelessness, anxiety or tension and extreme fatigue. Additionally PMDD can be associated with symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, insomnia, food cravings, bloating, breast tenderness or headaches. The important thing to note is PMDD is not just a worse extension of PMS. It is characterised mostly by its timing, which occurs generally from ovulation until your Menstrual bleed - which can mean some women are suffering for 2 weeks, every 2 weeks! 

One of the most frustrating parts of PMDD seems to be feeling completely fine for half the month and then like a different person the other half. What's actually happening in the body to cause that shift?

The shift that is occurring here is our hormone changes. After ovulation we get a rise in Progesterone and it has a by-product called Allopregnanolone. Normally Allo works with GABA, your main calming neurotransmitter, to keep your nervous system steady, but in PMDD your brain responds abnormally - so instead of feeling calm, you feel more irritable, anxious or overwhelmed! There can also be additional drivers for this like oestrogen excess or progesterone deficiency and understanding what is driving yours is important in finding relief! 

Because the symptoms are so mood and emotion-based, a lot of women with PMDD get sent straight to a psychiatrist rather than anyone looking at their hormones. How do you feel about the way it's currently being diagnosed and treated?

I see this every day in the clinic. Pretty much all of my PMDD clients have been prescribed either an SSRI or bipolar medication for their symptoms, which is missing the whole point! Current diagnosis is slow and most commonly PMDD is misdiagnosed for another psychiatric disorder, but the treatment is also based around the symptoms, not why these symptoms are actually occurring! Without knowing the why, how can we possibly bring about real relief? 

From a naturopathic perspective, what are some of the most impactful things you can do to support someone with PMDD, and how long does it typically take to see a difference?

Some of the most impactful things you can begin right away to reduce your PMDD include reducing any cause of persistent stress (I know, eye roll, if we could stress less we would - hear me out!). Stress negatively impacts PMDD in many ways and can essentially exacerbate symptoms. Some of the main areas I get women to focus on is within their daily habits and overall lifestyle, I don’t add more ‘hacks’ to their list! Move through your day more slowly and mindfully, do one thing at a time, consider how your job may be effecting your stress and reduce this if you can, is your commute to work long, do you have time for yourself, are you eating 3 meals a day so your nervous system feels safe? Are you talking to yourself with compassion, kindness and love? Are you sleeping well, can you improve this? Do you say yes way too much? Without this foundation, we find shifting PMDD more difficult. 

Additionally, we find saffron, B6, Zinc and Magnesium make a real meaningful difference at appropriate doses! 

Other treatment methods work around what is driving the abnormal hormonal reaction, is there a neurotransmitter hypersensitivity element, histamine element, oestrogen excess element or Insufficient progesterone element? All of these need to be considered to get real lasting relief <3

You also work with gut health, and the gut-hormone connection is something that often surprises people. How does the microbiome play into conditions like PMDD?

The gut microbiome is such an important element to PMDD and not one to simply skip on investigating. The gut can harbour many bacteria that can negatively influence PMDD including inflammatory bacteria and histamine producing bacteria. Additionally what people don't often know, is the gut can actually harbour enzymes that recirculate hormones back into the blood stream which can really worsen PMDD and many other hormonal conditions including heavy and painful periods. Your main detox pathway aka your bowel motions hold so much power in your healing and we do a lot of gut testing in the clinic for this exact reason! 

What's one thing you wish every woman knew about PMDD - whether she has it or not?

That it is a very real condition that can have real impacts on sufferers in all aspects of their personal health and lives. PMDD can damage relationships and many women dont even recognise it and just see it as a fault of their own, unknowing to the real cause behind this. Please don't be hard on yourself or other women, you really never know what they are dealing with. 

What Mayde Tea product have you been loving lately?

I absolutely LOVE all herbal teas by Mayde Tea and have been a long-time purchaser! But I am loving the Restore Tea at the moment, the rosehips and hibiscus are the true stars! I’m loving this first thing in the morning to wake up my system during our cold SA winter mornings. 

What are you currently...

Listening to: The curve - I love learning all things investing and especially supportive of women investing and having healthy money habits so this is a long term fav! 

Reading: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke - I am honestly a very slow reader but my friends and I have started a book club to encourage more reading! I’m not far enough into this but its been interesting so far.

Watching: Dutton ranch - I have loved this whole series including 1883, 1923 and Yellowstone!

Eating: Homemade baked beans! DELISH and perfect for winter!

If you can find more about Tayla at here or on Instagram.