Monday, July 23, 2007

Natural Cure For Menopause

Menopause: Stop the hot flashes naturally.

If your irritability, mood swings, hot flashes and fatigue are becoming a problem for domestic harmony, it’s time to pause and take stock of the situation. You’ve entered the phase of life that almost four thousand women daily do. You have reached menopause. Had it not been for these annoying and exasperating symptoms, you’d have gladly welcomed this freedom from PMS, menstruation and birth control issues. However, not all is lost. If you take the correct medication, you can still have a time of your life.

What is menopause?

When a woman reaches her mid-thirties, hormone production in her ovaries declines. This continues in the forties too, when hormone levels may fluctuate. However, by the fifties, periods usually end completely. This causes a host of bodily changes that affects a woman physically, as well as, mentally in varying degrees.

What are the symptoms of menopause?

Fluctuating hormone levels bring with it symptoms and problems that almost drives women up the wall. These symptoms generally include:

a. Hot flashes: Hot flashes usually occur for at least one year and up to five years before cessation of menstruation. These can annoy and disrupt your sleep and daily life. A hot flash induces increasing warmness, beginning in the chest and rising to your head. Hot flashes most commonly occur at night and can last from a few seconds to up to an hour.

b. Vaginal dryness: Decreasing hormones may result in vaginal dryness, which may compel you to use vaginal lubricant to keep your sex life active with minimal discomfort. However, in serious cases an estrogen cream may be recommended by your physician.

c. Other symptoms: Other symptoms may include difficulty in concentrating, headaches, fatigue, night sweats, depression and anxiety, sleep disorders, incontinence, and the like. This condition may also lead to osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. Some women are known to gain weight too, especially around the waist.

Natural remedies menopause

Although, the most popular treatment for menopause is the Hormone Replacement Therapy, there are certain risks, like cancer, associated with it. If you don’t want to put your life on line by this line of treatment, there is a world of natural herbal remedies waiting to be explored! Let’s see what these menopause natural remedies are:

a. Diet: Your diet is important in controlling menopause natural remedy symptoms. Since, at this stage the body requires estrogens, the female hormone, increase the consumption of foods containing phytoestrogens, like soy, grains, oats, wheat, brown rice, tofu, almonds, cashews, fresh fruits and vegetables. However, cut down on caffeine, carbonated beverages, sugar, commercially raised meats, including beef, pork and chicken.

b. Exercise: It reduces the severity of menopausal symptoms. It also relieves stress, and often improves depression and anxiety symptoms. Routine exercise improves bone mass, as well.

c. Herbs: Herbs like black cohosh, dong quai, evening primrose oil, ginseng and vitex agnus castus can help many women manage menopause symptoms most effectively.

d. Red clover isoflavone: Promensil, containing red clover isoflavone, is an effective natural remedy for menopause hot flashes. This dietary supplement is available over-the-counter, without a prescription, at any retail grocery, drug and health food stores. It decreases the number of hot flashes and night sweats.

e. ‘Good’ bacteria:Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidus are the ‘good’ bacteria in our intestines. They help in metabolism and utilization of estrogen during menopause. Good bacteria can be found in various nutritional formulas in the market.

f. Ayurveda: This ancient Indian science of holistic healing considers menopause as an ‘out of balance’ condition. It demands a lifestyle change, in which, you’d need to increase warm food and drinks, regular meals, early bedtime, oil massage, meditation, yoga, walking and spices, such as fennel and cumin.

Remember, the symptoms of menopause may vary from woman to woman. So, adopt whichever natural cure works best for you, but not without consulting your physician.

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