Dealing With the Menopause

Hello Everyone. Understanding physiologically what is going on can help you understand why you feel the way you are during menopause.

You may be surprised to learn that some symptoms may not be entirely menopause-related.

Menopause can make you feel like your mind and body have been hijacked but not necessarily.

If you, or anyone you know, is experiencing the menopause transition, this post will bring some good news! Spread the word!

Why Do You Feel So Unwell With the Menopause?

Is It Really the Menopause or Not?

Does Alcohol Affect Menopause?

Menopause and Sleep

How to Stop Menopausal Weight Gain

Best Exercises to Get Rid of Menopause Belly

Best Natural Remedy for Menopause

What Is the Good News About the Menopause?

Why Do You Feel So Unwell With the Menopause?

With any physiological events, there will be challenges (for some, more than others).

Not everyone feels unwell with menopause. It shouldn’t be seen as a fearful time in a woman’s life.

Some women sail through menopause with very few symptoms. And others can feel like they have been in a tumble drier all night long and are walking around in someone else’s body.

Menopause can feel so chaotic and out of your control.

Weight gain! Hot flashes/flushes! Night sweats, vagina soreness, bloating, brain fog…!

Menopause can make women feel uncontrollably moody, agitated, frustrated, indecisive, forgetful, tearful, and more sensitive emotionally.

There could be an array of symptoms that go on. Symptoms of menopause include joint pain, weight gain, skin conditions, slow healing, and digestive changes. Anxiety can kick in, as muscle pains, urinary incontinence, migraines, lethargy, and low libido.

The libido might be there, but you may not be able to experience the same pleasures because of discomfort and the lack of estrogen in your vaginal tissues.

During menopause, the ovaries can no longer respond to pituitary hormones (FSH – follicle (egg)-stimulating hormone and LH – luteinizing hormone). Then, ovarian estrogen and progesterone cease.

What Causes Typical Menopause Symptoms?

There’s no escaping that hormones hugely affect how we feel emotionally, mentally, and physically throughout our lives. But the significant drop in estrogen causes ‘typical’ menopause symptoms. (Progesterone plays a vital role in maintaining the uterus lining).

Estrogen is a master regulator for many body functions, which is still produced in the brain and the bones at this time but not to the same levels.

The decline in hormones and continuous depletion of eggs produced in the ovaries are inflammatory events, with systemic and central nervous system inflammation processes.

Top these off with what else is happening during menopause; how we live, eat, drink, move, stress factors, genetics, exposure to toxins, and even how we think (and what we think about).

Symptoms around menopause can be managed with an anti-inflammatory lifestyle.

The role of estrogen is shown by a higher rate of women developing autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions in the post-menopausal stage of their lives. This is in comparison to men of the same age.

Which, of course, means that estrogen influences immune and inflammatory processes.

You cannot control biological changes like hormone imbalances and depletion that cause many symptoms of menopause. Still, you can intervene and eliminate a lot of multifactorial effects.

Understanding how our bodies work helps us take more care of ourselves at all times.

Is It Really the Menopause or Not?

As I mentioned, there could be things that you are doing that are contributing to the effects of menopause.

Discuss your menopause with a health professional who deals with women’s health issues. Certainly rule out conditions by having some health screening/blood tests, if you can.

It is good to question whether you are going through menopause, whether it is something else, or to take stock and make some lifestyle changes.

I suggest listing all of your symptoms down and going through them, and don’t dismiss any of them. What could be evident to you as a menopause symptom could be something else, and vice versa.

Due to the limited time doctors have with patients, whether in person or by telephone, make sure that you have noted everything down.

For instance, many symptoms of menopause are linked to inflammation. Signs of chronic inflammation can be surprising.

They may present themselves at this time of your life since low estrogen levels cause more inflammatory responses.

Inflammatory Responses:

• Brain Fog – recognized as a part of menopause, as lower serum hormone levels temporarily affect cognition and memory loss. Brain fog is also a sign of inflammation running in the body. Diabetes and high blood pressure can also affect brain health, for example. Depression is neuroinflammation.
• Thyroid issues can lead to weight gain, brain fog, fatigue, and low moods, for instance.
• Weight gain can result from low estrogen levels, but it could be the food you eat, lack of sleep, too much alcohol, digestive changes, and lack of exercise. Weight gain is linked to inflammatory events and, if it isn’t controlled, leads to the chronic inflammation condition of obesity.
• Gut dysbiosis leads to a whole array of issues, including immune dysregulation and, of course, not producing ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters, chronic inflammation, and neuroinflammation.
• You may feel like crying or have increased anxiety because your gut health is off because of your food, new intolerances, dysbiosis, insomnia, overloaded liver, fatigue, and the consequences of your lifestyle.
• Menopause ‘Belly’ can be gut imbalances due to a change of diet, lack of sleep, insufficient movement, and even stress.
• Decreased libido can directly result from lower levels of estrogen and testosterone. Still, it could be the side effects of medication and even psychological feelings surrounding menopause. 
• Medication can cause gut dysbiosis, affect sex functions and cause ‘menopausal symptoms.’
• Sleep, although connected to the estrogen-hypothalamus link, could be depression, rumination, weight gain, chronic inflammatory conditions, and life stressors. There is a bi-directional relationship between mood and sleep disturbances.

Hot flashes, night sweats, and sweating all have to do with how estrogen levels affect the hypothalamus, which regulates temperature control. You cannot change this, but you are in control of making some positive changes with a menopause-support diet and lifestyle.

Did you know that hot flashes get worse when you drink alcohol?

Does Alcohol Affect Menopause?

Alcohol can cause biological stress and can undoubtedly affect your gut homeostasis. This then affects your immunity and neurotransmitter production, which all affect menopause.

It depends on your tolerance, which can change during menopause, but estrogen levels rise when you drink alcohol.

Then, when they have dropped, this is when you can feel doom and gloom, anxiety, irritability, and have more hot flushes. It can also encourage mood swings.

Hormone levels can impact your immune system and gastrointestinal tract, which further exacerbates what alcohol can do.

This explains why sometimes a tiny amount of alcohol can make you feel tipsy quite quickly!

Alcohol can cause weight gain, depression, mood swings, metabolic issues, and sleep disruptions – all of the symptoms that you may just be attributed to menopause!

Menopause and Sleep

Sleep is a significant part of optimum health, and menopause brings disruption due to temperature control being askew, which can greatly impact your quality of life.

It may not just be disrupted due to night sweats because many factors cause poor sleeping patterns. You could have many challenges and personal life stressors at this time.

Again, it could all be down to lifestyle and what you eat and drink, but sleep deprivation is linked to increasing the risk of chronic inflammation, weight gain, and joint pain.

It is such a vicious cycle because, of course, without regular, decent sleep, energy is depleted, depressive symptoms occur, and feelings of not being able to cope!

Check out the article: Why Sleep Helps You Lose Weight.

How to Stop Menopausal Weight Gain

If you are gaining weight yet haven’t changed your healthy lifestyle and have been on the leaner side for most of your life, this will be disconcerting, I know.

So many women feel like they don’t recognize their bodies anymore, which can be upsetting.

It doesn’t mean that gaining weight during menopause will happen to everyone, but there is a reason for it.

It’s a consequence of the continuous depletion of the follicular ovarian pool during the menopause transition. It drives a systemic inflammatory state.

What happens then is hormonal fluctuation. Estrogen (estradiol) diminishes, and androgen levels increase.

As mentioned above, the deficiency in the ovarian steroid hormone leads to chronic inflammation. This leads to altered energy homeostasis. This leads to changes in body composition.

So, metabolism becomes dysregulated, an increase in weight occurs, and fat is redistributed. There’s also an increase in visceral adiposity (fat in the abdomen and organs) and a decrease in lean mass.

There may also be something that you are eating now that is adding to the problem and causing inflammation.

You may now have an intolerance for what was okay to eat before, which a menopause diet would alleviate.

You could be consuming emulsifiers and additives in foods you thought were healthy. I always advise looking at ingredients.

You would not believe how many ‘health foods’ in ‘health food stores’ are full of inflammatory additives. Plus, additives may have crept into foods that were originally made more wholesomely.

You may not have changed your routines, but with hormones fluctuating, those foods and drinks may be too much for your system to metabolize now that you are in this transitional time.

When faced with a challenge such as this weight gain that has suddenly appeared, try not to be so hard on yourself.

I always turn my thoughts into positive ones when faced with challenges, including physical challenges, because it really helps – and works!

Turn your thoughts into positive ones, and know that you can get back on track with this anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle to treat menopause weight gain and all the other symptoms. 

Hormone Imbalances

After all, hormonal imbalances promote higher abdominal fat, even if you don’t eat a lot of saturated fat.

Low estrogen levels and high androgen levels redistribute the fat present in the gluteal and femoral regions and take it to your tummy!

Also, consider that your liver will suffer if you are not exercising enough. If a liver is not functioning correctly, this leads to a slower metabolism.

Stress can cause weight gain, too! If you are not down-regulating stressors, this causes much damage to the body.

Down regulating means shifting your nervous system from a fight or flight mode to a rest and digest mode (practiced well on Eat Burn Sleep).

You can see why it is more complex than one might think.

The great news is that menopause weight is reversible with Eat Burn Sleep.

Best Exercises to Get Rid of Menopause Belly

Stay fit and stay active to get rid of ‘menopause belly’ and menopause.

It may seem like a slog when your weight was easy to maintain, but changing your exercise and movement routine may be the answer.

For instance, even though you are active, you may need regular movements to reduce inflammation since estrogen decline is linked to chronic inflammation conditions.

The right menopause exercise will help your bone health and protect against osteoporosis, a significant concern around these years.

It will also strengthen parts of your body that will aid in the reduction of symptoms.

Like strengthening the core to aid gut health and reduce menopause bloating, for instance.

Reduce Urine Release

And pelvic floor muscles will assist in reducing urine release and perhaps increase the joys of sex since these muscles are wrapped around the vagina.

Some studies show that regular exercise reduces hot flashes, headaches, and anxiety. Don’t underestimate walking every day and how good that will make you feel.

The aches and pains you feel could benefit from learning how to stretch your fascia!

It doesn’t take long of being sedentary for your body to get dense fascia in your hamstrings.

Your body needs regular circulation and metabolism to promote better muscle function, blood flow, lymph flow, and lower inflammation to be in optimum health.

You could be doing less dashing around than you used to or be full of lethargy during menopause and not prioritizing yourself and exercise (or food, stress reduction, sleep!).

It can be an overwhelming time, menopause.

An intervention like Eat Burn Sleep (which works for many people because it takes out the effort of having to put your own plan in place) will help you. Trust me.

Best Natural Remedy for Menopause

Eat Burn Sleep addresses all the needs of peri-menopause,  menopause, and post-menopause and can complement allopathic treatment.

Also, it may better prepare you for an easier time with the whole menopause transition if you are too young to even think about this stage in your life. 

As well as being a Bupa Global-approved lifestyle, it is prescribed and used by doctors worldwide. This combination can completely transform your experience of menopause.

Embark on a Happy, Healthy Lifestyle!

It will reduce inflammation, weight, mood swings, depression, brain fog, cortisol and stress, cholesterol, blood pressure, and water retention and protects against all of the consequences of menopause.

Also, being part of the wonderful health community that we have here at Eat Burn Sleep is inspirational and motivational.

Exchanging coping strategies, sympathy, and empathy with people going through similar situations, and connecting with all of us, gives extra support. It’s a beautiful thing!

Members: access the Masterclass Live on How to Stay Fit over 2, for more menopause support.

Treating the body at systemic levels will increase the positive impact of nutrient-rich compounds from omega-3s, phytoestrogens, antioxidants, and so on.

And it all works synergistically together, promoting well-being, energy, and happiness! Oh, and the Eat Burn Sleep ‘Glow’.

What Is the Good News About the Menopause?

Menopause can be all-encompassing but rest assured, the symptoms you are experiencing can be reduced, and most definitely are not forever.

Once you get the proper support with transitioning to the other side, you will feel more energized and happier, with more clarity, and just pretty fantastic, really!

Imaging studies at Weill Cornell Medicine show that the brain’s recovery after menopause was associated with increased memory and cognitive performance!

Many women can feel beautiful and free at this time—no more PMS and periods. No more anticipating when to have holidays or when to have sex!

Relieving yourself from the symptoms of menopause through Eat Burn Sleep could have you embracing this transition into one that might be one of the most liberating, empowering times in a woman’s life!

Lifestyle factors can have a significant effect on how long menopause lasts. By understanding your body, you will be in a better place to take care of it. As you transition through life, looking after yourself will always be a good decision. Treat yourself with kindness.

I hope that you have a super day!