During the six months to three years of this cycle of your life, you may feel some of the traditional symptoms of menopause. As the ovarian production of hormones declines, many women experience symptoms such as bladder weakness, bone loss, heart problems, “hot flashes,” irregular periods, lowered sexual desire, mood changes, sleeping problems, “night sweats,” and vaginal dryness. These same symptoms may also occur after a total hysterectomy in which both the uterus and the ovaries are removed. This is sometimes referred to as “surgical menopause.”
Often, if someone is hypoglycemic or under stress the symptoms of menopause are more pronounced. Stress puts a burden on the adrenal glands, causing them to overwork and produce smaller amounts of the hormones that are needed to help reduce the side effects of menopause. Even men may experience menopausal symptoms when going through a psychological crisis.
The most common symptom of menopause is the “hot flash.” This is often the result of a dysfunction in the temperature-regulating portion of the brain. The brain continues to secrete an ovarian-stimulating hormone until the body gets used to the reduced levels of estrogen and progesterone.
Typically, a hot flash lasts about 2.7 minutes. During this time, your face and upper body feels as if it’s been shoved into an oven. Your face reddens and you sweat heavily as your skin temperature suddenly rises 7 or 8 degrees. It usually returns to normal in about 30 minutes. Triggers of hot flashes may be emotional upset, hot meals or drinks, spicy food, a warm room, or even a warm bed.
The symptoms of menopause can be unpleasant. Let’s now look at some common sense approaches that you can do to correct the problems associated with this condition yourself.
Royal Recommendations for Prevention and Treatment
1. Reduce or eliminate your consumption of dairy products, sugar, and meat. These cause most of the hot flashes associated with menopause. Avoid coffee and other caffeine sources as they stimulate stress hormones that trigger hot flashes. Alcohol is another trigger for some women. Increase your consumption of complex carbohydrates such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Use fish (such as salmon) as a source of protein and Black strap molasses for minerals. (See “Allergy—Foods.”)
2. Stay active. (See “Obesity.”) Exercise sensibly and regularly. Aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, for 20 minutes three or four times a week is a good way to start. Jogging, bicycling, jumping rope, dancing, and swimming can also help relieve the symptoms of menopause. Aerobics and stretching exercises will improve flexibility, strengthen muscles, and enhance relaxation. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water or juice after exercising. This will help to keep your body temperature in check.
3. Small meals five or six times a day will help your body to regulate its temperature more easily than three large meals daily.
4. Learn meditation or yoga or just sit quietly, with your eyes closed, for a while every day. Yoga also improves diaphragmatic breathing, which, in turn, induces relaxation and reduces stress. (See “Stress.”) Learning to relax will put you in better control of your life.
5. Heart rate variability testing, an assessment of heart rate variations, can reveal if an imbalance in the autonomic nervous system exists. The autonomic nervous system regulates the production of hormones in the body. An imbalance in the ANS can now be treated with non-cognitive biofeedback (e.g., recycling of the heart rate variations).
6. Don’t neglect your love life. Women who have intercourse on a regular basis (e.g., once a week or more) have been shown to have fewer hot flashes. Frequent sex helps moderate dropping estrogen levels, which reduces the occurrence of hot flashes. Regular sexual activity indirectly stimulates failing ovaries, and moderates the hormonal system to prevent extreme swings in the estrogen level. If the vagina is dry, then use a lubricant such as vitamin E oil, natural estrogen or progesterone cream, or a water-soluble lubricant such as K-Y Jelly.
7. It is believed that an estrogen deficiency is a major factor in osteoporosis of post-menopausal women. However, the risks of synthetic estrogen replacement therapy may outweigh its benefits for the majority of women at risk for osteoporosis. Such risks include breast and uterine cancer, cardiac arrhythmias, increased clotting of the blood, edema, gallbladder disease, and stroke. These risks are not associated with natural hormones, such as progesterone. If estrogen is needed, the body can make it from progesterone. Often, natural progesterone is all that is needed. If your doctor still feels that estrogen is needed, in addition to progesterone, it too can be obtained from natural sources and in forms that are much safer. It is also well established that the use of estrogen and progesterone in combination for menopausal women results in a lesser incidence of cancer of the breast and uterus compared to women who do not use any hormone medication at all. However, it may take some time for the body’s hormones to get balanced. Give hormone therapy at least three months to get menopausal symptoms under control. (See “Hypothyroidism.”)
8. Supplements include vitamins A, C, and E, B-complex, essential fatty acids (such as flax seed oil), and the minerals magnesium and calcium. If itching of the vaginal area occurs, use natural vitamin E oil or cream or calendula ointment topically.
9. Herbs known to be helpful include Black cohosh, damiana, Siberian ginseng, gotu kola, licorice, raspberry, sage, and squaw vine. Dong quai relieves hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and depression. Ginseng also helps relieve depression.
10. Homeopathics to consider include: Amyl Nitrate (if having sudden bursts of heat in the face), Bellis Perenis (for fatigue), Caulophyllum (when nervous tension and anxiety are present), Cimicifuga (for irritability and pain in the ovaries), Folliculinum (for irregular menstrual cycle), Lachesis (for hot flashes with sweating and/or awakening in the morning with a headache), Natrum Muriaticum (for symptoms of depression), Pulsatilla (if overly sensitive and frequently crying), Sanguinaria (when headaches are associated with hot flashes), Sepia (for prolapse of the uterus), Veratrum Viride (when flushes of heat continue beyond menopause). Another homeopathic, FSH, made from the follicle stimulating hormone of the pituitary gland, may be helpful in helping to restore hormonal balance. Overproduction of FSH, the brain hormone that attempts to stimulate and maintain production of estrogen by the ovaries, is what causes the flushing reaction.
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