7 Ways to Fight The Side Effects of Menopause
When you mention menopause, it normal to elicits groans from women of all ages. From those who’ve been there to those who are facing it, no one likes experiencing the side effects menopause brings. If this sounds like you check out the below 7 ways to fight menopause side effects.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Menopause occurs when a woman monthly cycle stops. And though it marks the end of one cycle in a woman’s life, menopause is the beginning of another cycle. And though it is a natural occurrence, menopause brings about many changes. Along with plenty of menopausal side effects that can affect a woman both psychologically and emotionally.
Many women explain menopause as a roller coaster ride that is brings emotional and physical changes. Below is a brief list of common menopausal side effects.
Physical Effects:
- Night sweats leading to sleep disruption, due to damp sheets or a wet nightgown. (This is when I love my cooling sheets)
- Hot flashes are common in the day too – suddenly you may feel a sudden flush as if her body temperature spiked. Although the body temperature doesn’t really spike, the feeling of a hot flash can make your face appear flushed.
- Weight gain and tiredness are also common with menopause.
- Facial hair due to hormone changes
- Vaginal dryness can occur and can disrupt your intimate life, which can add to the feelings of anxiety.
In the past, there have been many synthetic solutions to alleviate menopause symptoms – but with health scares on the rise for that method, more women are turning to natural means instead. Breast cancer survivors also have to find natural methods to combat menopause because estrogen replacement isn’t a viable option for them.
Fortunately, there are numerous natural ways that you can fight back against menopause and they’re easy and inexpensive methods that any women can use to eliminate or reduce the side effects of this condition.
Exercise to Ease Menopause Side Effects
One of the simplest ways you can fight back against menopause is to exercise. Even though you may feel exhausted studies show that taking part in exercise may greatly reduce menopausal symptoms. Even a few days a week, can greatly help to reduce the occurrence of symptoms – including the hot flashes that go hand in hand with the condition.
In addition to easing menopause symptoms exercise helps you fight back against the weight gain that’s common with this condition. Weight gain typically occurs due diminishing estrogen levels. So the risk of your weight escalating is higher than it would be before menopause begins.
Exercising will not only give some relief from hot flashes, but it can also help to keep the excess weight gain off. Menopause can cause additional weight gain around the abdomen and exercise can target belly fat, which can lower your risk of developing cardiac issues related to menopause.
Exercise will also help you get a healthier night of rest. The exercise cuts down on the sleep disturbing night sweats, so you’ll get a better night’s sleep. It doesn’t take much, either. Recent studies show a mere two hours per week work wonders.
In addition to burning off weight gain, and midsection belly fat exercise will help with sleep and brain fog often associated with menopause.
One of the menopausal side effects women suffer with is brain fog. Which researchers attribute to sleep disruption. Physical activity in during your day will help with better sleep, while providing more clarity as well.
Helping you to maintain steady emotional health is another benefit of exercising for menopause-related symptoms. By exercising, you’ll be less stressed and remain calmer. The endorphins you’ll feel from working out will help alleviate mood swings naturally.
If you don’t have the time or the desire to go to a gym take an evening walk around the block with your dog, take the stairs and join a social activity.
Osteoporosis and Exercise
Because menopause is a factor in lower levels of estrogen, women are at a greater risk of developing osteoporosis. This can make bones brittle. So strength training and exercise can help menopausal stave off developing osteoporosis.
Exercising regularly can fight many of the symptoms as exercise endorphins act as pain relievers. Exercise will not only improve your body, but it will improve your mental health as well. Which enables you to fight back against the mood swings.
Give it six weeks to feel the full effects of how a little cardio can help you fight back against typical signs and symptoms associated with menopause. There’s even a beauty perk you can enjoy, too – the exercise you do, which helps circulation, contributes to a collagen boost, and fewer wrinkles to combat!
Herbal Remedies for Menopause
Besides exercise, herbs can also help fight back against menopause and many women prefer a more natural choice rather than taking hormone replacement therapy. It’s a long studied fact that the loss of estrogen during menopause is a common denominator in causing symptoms.
One of the well-known ways that herbs can help battle menopause is through the use of natural estrogens found in natural herbs as well as supplements. Phytoestrogen is found in plants and can provide similar benefits like estrogen does for the body.
While some herbs can give the body natural estrogen, other herbs will help the body raise its own level of estrogen. Various herbs can help your body balance the swing of hormones that comes with menopause, which will help you treat any mood swings.
You can alleviate anxiety and do away with stress caused by menopause by using certain herbs. Not only can herbs help with mood swings, but they can also give you relief from the fatigue associated with menopause.
Hot Flashes and Herbs
Hot flashes can also be helped through the use of herbs as can vaginal dryness. Many of the herbs you can find that help with menopause also have soothing, sedative properties to help you feel better, faster.
One of the herbs that’s helpful is black cohosh, which has properties that cover a wide range of menopause symptoms – primarily hot flashes. Researchers at the University of Arizona claim that this herb helps women tolerate hot flashes, even though it doesn’t directly reduce the number or minimize them in any way.
Dong Quai
Is a herb that helps alleviate menopause symptoms. And it may help to regulate erratic menstrual cycles.
Ginseng
You might try taking Ginseng during menopause. This root increases estrogen levels and while black cohosh is said to help women tolerate hot flash symptoms, researchers speculate that Ginseng actually works to reduce the number of hot flashes and their severity.
Red Clover
is an herb that also increases estrogen levels and works well for hot flashes and night sweats.
Ginkgo Biloba
The last herb that helps with this time of your life is Ginkgo Biloba. Whenever you’re experiencing the typical brain fog that comes with menopause, you might try this herb to help give you clarity.
Many women consider using herbs to help with the annoying side of menopause because they’re a better alternative than taking a replacement therapy. Not only can the natural herbs offer relief from the symptoms, but many of these herbs also help women in the fight against the risk of developing cancer because of a lack of estrogen.
Yoga
Though menopause is a natural occurrence it can be a miserable time for many women. One thing that may ease symptoms of menopause naturally is yoga.
Yoga is an ancient, natural method of optimizing our physical health and mental acuity. It’s helpful as yoga can help increase energy that is lost through times of menopause.
One study at the University of Washington found that menopausal women suffer with fewer hot flashes and sleep issues when they engaged in yoga regularly. They had a lower heart rate, improved flexibility and balance – and felt generally less anxiety over the change of life.
A woman’s balance and center core focus often becomes out of whack with menopause due to the hormonal changes she’s experiencing. Some women even experience vertigo during this time.
With these hormonal changes comes the mood swings that can make a woman feel okay one moment, yet irritable and weepy the next. Trying to carry on through life without restoring the balance lost by the hormonal changes can be difficult.
Yoga’s techniques of relaxing the mind and body as well as the spirit will minimize the loss of energy and the loss of peace and balance, too. The exercises done during yoga will restore your body’s hormone imbalance to a level that makes the symptoms of menopause easier to handle.
Yoga Can Help With Hot Flashes
Many women turn to yoga to deal with specific aspects of menopause . This may include hot flashes, nighttime sweating and insomnia. Certain poses may help to ease the severity of a womans hot flashes. In addition yoga poses help the body with relaxation that’s necessary for quality sleep.
In addition to yoga the practice of meditation practice puts a focus on healing energy. Which is said to bring ease to the affected parts of a woman body, thus easing menopausal symptoms and side effects.
Yoga is easy to get started with and the classes for beginners are inexpensive. If you don’t have the time to meet for a class, then consider using DVDs that teach yoga at home.
Acupuncture to Ease the Side Effects of Menopause
Another form of alternative help is one that’s becoming more popular among menopausal women. This kind of treatment helps a woman’s body achieve relief without using additional medication or replacement therapies.
And though acupuncture may be considered as an alternative therapy, many women get relief from their menopausal symptoms due to its ability to ease stress. And it can work on specific areas of the body, such as stomach cramps, headaches and other discomfort. Acupuncture is the practice of inserting thin needles into specific areas of the body – or the acupoints – in order to correct the body’s balance.
In a recent study on acupuncture, the treatment was found to help women deal with hot flashes. In addition to insomnia and other symptoms associated with menopause. One reasons that acupuncture is successful when treating menopause is that similar to exercising, this alternative therapy also causes the body to release endorphins.
Not only were negative menopausal effects reduced, but many participants had an increased sex drive!
Mediterranean Diet
It’s a fact that menopause throws a woman’s hormones off. During menopause it’s important for a woman to change any unhealthy eating habits to make sure her body is getting the right nutrients.
Switching to a specific way of eating that targets menopause side effects can help lower the severity of menopause. And in some cases eliminate some effects brought on by menopause.
One of the recommended ways for a woman to eat during menopause is called the Mediterranean Diet. This diet focuses on eating healthy food, that contain healthy fats, fruits, whole grains, and vegetables.
Rich in Omega 3
The diet puts an emphasis on foods containing Omega 3. Because Omega 3 can fight back against mood swings and it can also lower the frequency of hot flashes.
You can find Omega 3 in foods recommended on the Mediterranean Diet – such as sardines and salmon. As well as nuts and seeds like walnuts and flaxseed. In addition to legumes and lentils, oats which fit well with a plant based diet.
Many of these foods are found to reduce hot flash symptoms by up to 55%, according to a study conducted by the Menopause journal. They also help reduce heart disease and stop depression from setting in.
One of the biggest changes is that the Mediterranean Diet uses healthy oils such as Olive oil. Which is recommended for women going through menopause versus using oils with saturated fats.
Add Soy to Ease Menopausal Side Effects
If you’re a woman going through menopause it may be time to consider adding (organic) soy to your diet.
Soy has been found to ease some of the frustrating effects of menopause such as hot flashes, and night sweats.
Studies highlighted in the journal Menopause found that two servings a day reduced the frequency and severity of hot flashes as much as up to 21-26%. Don’t confuse supplements with soy products. Soy protein is rich in isoflavones which help with estrogen balance. And as a result may ease the effects of menopause like night sweats and hot flushes’.
In addition soy may help fight weight gain which is often a result of estrogen loss. You can find foods containing soy in items like soybeans, soymilk, soy sauce, edamame, tofu, soy nuts and Soy paste. All of which may be helpful for women to ease menopause effects.
Fight Menopausal Side Effects With Deep Breathing
Another quick and helpful way to alleviate menopausal side effects is to relax using deep breathing techniques.
Deep breathing aka abdominal breathing is done using the diaphragm. One way to tell if you’re doing the breathing correctly is when you have your hand on your stomach. You will feel your hand on your belly move up when inhaling and exhaling. Practice deep breathing at least twice a day. Once in the morning and again in the evening for about ten to fifteen minutes each time.
Deep breathing helps reduce hot flashes by calming the nervous system. You can learn simple breathing techniques by following a video on Youtube. Or taking a basic meditation or yoga class that incorporates breathing techniques as a means to manage stress and and relax muscle tension. In addition deep breathing can help to stabilize blood pressure as well as helping insomnia.
Concluding 7 Ways to Ease Menopausal Side Effects
Most women who are in or gone through menopause will share the miserable symptoms it brings. And since it’s a part of a woman life it’s important to do everything we can to help get through it while staying as healthy as possible. Above are 7 ways to ease the effects of menopause to help keep physically and mentally well.