Find Real Relief In Menopause, Diet Makes A Difference

Many of the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats, irritability, insomnia, and mood swings can be dramatically controlled by modifying your diet. This is not some magic cure, but a simple approach to a common problem.

In the recent past, many medical doctors were quick to prescribe various drugs to treat the symptoms, yet these powerful pharmaceuticals often have strong side effects that can be worse than the original ailment! One well known case in point is artificial hormone replacement therapy, HRT. This is widely recognized as a major contributor to breast cancer among women.

Why can changing you diet help you?

During menopause, the female hormones gradually begin to slow down in production, and the result is all the typical menopause symptoms. By making sure that your diet includes nutrients which are now being depleted, you can help restore the natural hormonal balance and reduce the symptoms!

So, the necessary ingredients that you body previously used to regulate mood, body temperature, weight control, sleep patterns and so on, are slowly being reduced, due to menopause.

By adding these same ingredients back into your body, you help the body manage its natural state of balance. It wants to maintain homeostasis, but it needs some help! By eating the right foods you can finally get some common sense natural menopause relief.

What kind of diet does this mean?

The last thing most women want is another diet! There must be 1,000 fad diets that have appeared over the years and nobody needs another one. This is not really a diet, as such, but a simple approach to eating healthily and making sure you include certain foods.

• Flax seed. This has been clinically proven to help with night sweats and hot flashes and menopause. It is simple to take and inexpensive as well.

• Eat three well-balanced meals a day (containing protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and nonstarchy veggies), with two snacks that include some protein. It is not a good idea to skip meals.

• Do your best to limit carbs to 15 grams per meal and 7 per snack, and to maintain a low glycemic load in your food sources overall.

• Take a medical-grade multivitamin rich in EFA's, calcium and magnesium to fill in any nutritional gaps.

• Make the effort to drink 8 cups of clear water a day. This will refresh you and clean you body on the inside.

• Learn about foods that contain natural estrogen

• Avoid foods that inhibit estrogen

What this means is very much a common sense approach that we all instinctively know to be sound. Lots of fruits and fresh vegetables, limited carbohydrates, little sugar, take a medical grade multivitamin and lots of fresh, clear water.

Here is a plan that works

On Sunday evening (or any other evening) plan a menu for yourself and your family. One week at a time is not so hard to manage, plus you will save money at the store.

Keep a journal or log of what you are eating and how you feel. It is encouraging when you find results that are directly related to your new program.

Stick to your regimen for one month and take an evaluation. If you still have the same symptoms, you need to do more research and find out what foods can specifically help your symptom.

A great deal can be learned at the Women To Women Clinic, to which I am indebted. They have a wonderful program that begins with a personal profile to determine if you have a hormone imbalance. It is very interesting, and free!