What can you do yourself for menopause symptoms?

By Charlotte Labee

Do you suffer from hot flashes, night sweats, depressed feelings, weight gain (especially around your waist), skin aging, fatigue, forgetfulness, dry skin, aching joints?

Then there is a good chance that you are going through the menopause. The menopause can even cause you to stop sleeping at all and thus not feel fit. These symptoms occur because the production and ratio of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone changes. This process starts gently as early as a woman's ^35th year.

From then on, the ovaries produce less estrogen and progesterone, thus fertility decreases.

The 10-15 years before menopause, you are in menopause, or peri-menopause. This peri-menopause can cause a lot of symptoms. The average age for actual menopause is 53. You have not really reached menopause until you have not had ovulation for a year and therefore have not menstruated.

Not normal

But do you know that it's not at all normal if you have real menopause symptoms?

In fact, in Mediterranean countries, women go through menopause differently on average. How can this be?

According to research, eating lots of vegetables has a positive effect and they are eaten more in those areas. Using olive oil instead of unhealthy fats is also very common there. Also, a lot more is eaten from the sea in that area, so women get more omega 3.

Research further shows that eating lots of leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cauliflower, radishes etc) also leads to fewer symptoms.

In contrast, alcohol and caffeine both have a negative effect, in that when consumed, they increase the likelihood of hot flashes and s-night waking.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle has a major influence on whether or not you get menopause symptoms.
The production and breakdown of hormones listens very closely. Once a hormone is no longer needed, the liver breaks it down. The liver may be quite busy dealing with toxins and disposing of waste products. This does not always go well due to chronic stress, improper diet, sugar consumption and foreign substances such as alcohol, medications or heavy metals you have ingested, among other things. Taken together, this can cause you to have more menopause symptoms. It is never one cause but a sum of multiple risk factors.

So you can have a lot of influence on your hormone balance with Brain food, supplements and a healthy lifestyle.

Likewise, exercise is super important. Due to changed hormones, you can suffer from osteoporosis sooner. So you have to keep 'loading' your bones to keep stimulating bone production. You do this by getting plenty of exercise, such as walking, jumping rope and strength training. Vitamin D, K, magnesium and collagen are important for healthy bones and teeth. So it is advisable to make sure you get enough of these substances and supplement with supplements.

Ashwagandha, femaluse, saffron and turmeric also contribute to the proper functioning of hormones*.