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Help! For Menopause Symptoms

Menopause is not a disease contrary to what Big Pharma would like you to think. It’s a perfectly natural part of a woman’s life, none of us escapes it and we usually experience it somewhere between the ages of 44 and 56. Menopause can either blow your sox off with its intensity or it can be as uncomplicated as getting your hair done. The symptoms run the gamut from soaking sweats, memory loss, insomnia, drastic loss of libido, anxiety and depression, to just getting a bit warm now and again. Most of us don’t need any kind of pharmaceutical replacement – just a bit of tweaking with diet and possibly some natural supplements. First, I want to address diet with you.

What to Eat

The bottom line is to eat a very healthy diet. In general, increase your consumption of plant foods, reduce your consumption of the “hot” foods like animal foods and dairy and consume plenty of fruits and vegetables. You might find that alcohol will throw you into a hot flash, so you may want to cut back on cocktail hour. Here are some menopause-friendly foods:

Avocado - a great oil and a healthy pro-estrogen, natural vitamin E.
Flaxseed - a good plant based Omega 6 and a healthy pro-estrogen, natural vitamin E.
Seeds (sunflower, pumpkin) – good oils, natural vitamin E.
Nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews) – good oils, natural vitamin E.
Alfalfa – plant based healthy pro-estrogen.
Apples – pectin helps to bind unhealthy estrogen.
Fermented soy products like miso and tempeh – healthy pro-estrogen.
Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli.
Increased fiber - add a nightly fiber product like Herbal Bulk to bind toxins.
Salmon and other essential fatty acids like papaya and blueberries.

Make sure you drink plenty of water.

What to Avoid:

Sugar – pro-cancer, pro-inflammatory.
Alcohol – pro-cancer, pro-inflammatory, like throwing gasoline on the fire of a hot flash!
Heavy meat intake – too heavy for some and will promote hot flashes.
Heavy caffeine intake – will speed up metabolism and may exacerbate hot flashes.
Very spicy or hot foods – ditto.
Too much fat, especially transfats – will create heart disease, overload your detox system.
Constipation – will promote an unhealthy bowel, storing toxins for too long a time and will eventually compromise the function of your ovaries, uterus and bladder, creating a disease-welcoming terrain.
Too much physical and mental stimulation will promote hot flashes.

What to do

Rest a lot. Your hormones are in an uproar.
Sleep well. If you can’t, find out why. Your adrenals could be giving you fits.
Sweat intentionally, in a sauna, hot tub or with exercise. You will end up having fewer hot flashes, or “sweat more to sweat less.”
Do a liver cleanse, now and twice yearly, spring and fall.
Regular exercise, and plenty of it. Walk thirty minutes a day six days a week.
Frequent massage treatments, as often as you can afford.
Chiropractic manipulations, frequency per your chiropractor.
Daily meditation and/or spiritual practice to reduce your stress levels.

Finally: Herbs and supplements are controversial. I find that they work for some women and don’t work at all for others. Here is a list of herbs you could try:

Motherwort or Black Cohash
Vitex (Chaste berry) or Dong Quai
Wild Yam or Skullcap
Passionflower or Ginseng
Blue Vervain or Damiana and
St. Johns Wort

Here are some supplements to try:

Vitamin E, and Hersperidin chalcone
Vitamin C, and Quercetin
B-complex vitamins, esp. B6, and Adrenal supplements
Thyroid supplements, and L-tyrosine
Evening Primrose Oil, and Fish Oil

When all the above fails and you are still miserable, then I believe that you are a candidate for the bio-identical hormones that you can get from your gynecologist.
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