During the menopause, the ovaries give up producing oestrogen and progesterone – but that doesn’t mean these hormones have completely disappeared, since post – menopause, the adrenal glands take over their production. (( As we slowly morph from wrinkley-dom to crumbliness, the adrenal production of hormones lowers. During the peri-menopause, whilst the ovaries are packing up, the brain sends more and more signals to start ovulation and then the monthly period using two different hormones, follicle stimulating hormone and lutenizing hormone respectively. Incidentally, high blood levels of these hormones show we are in the menopause – or peri-menopause, to be more exact. I believe no one knows for certain why we women get menopausal symptoms, and quite why they are so varied from woman to woman. ))
The best known job of the adrenal glands is to produce the stress hormone adrenalin. They also produce testosterone in both men and women. The adrenals are small things sitting on top of the kidneys.
Their prime job is to produce the stress hormone to enable us to escape from lions as we wander across the savanna in search of our daily deer – or indeed, get us galvanised when we do see dinner on the hoof.
Of course, the stresses of life on the savanna are long gone, replaced by traffic jams, missed deliveries, unsolicited phone calls, unexpected expenses, flat tyres, highly produced food and so on. Our adrenals work a serious amount of overtime every single day. And then we expect them to march up to the plate and deliver us our oestrogen,progesterone – and testosterone – as we age.
Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to look after the adrenals whilst we still have time.
The stronger our adrenal glands, ultimately the less wrinkly we’ll be as we get older. Even if we do cop out and take HRT, eventually that has to stop and then we reap – piles of wrinkles or frozen face botox.
Things we can do:
- Get enough sleep
- Drink enough water
- Don’t crash diet or go on silly diets. If weight is to be lost, then a)get on with it and b) eat properly since this is the way of eating for the rest of the life. See note. ((Gloves off: if weight is a problem, then work out alternatives to comfort eating. I find that everybody can lose weight for a few weeks – everybody. Then something a bit stressy happens, like getting very tired, for example, the weekend comes and there is a serious dose of falling off waggons. Followed by waddling in to the next training session, crying, ‘Well, you know, you can’t do this all the time. Its not normal,’ or some such twaddle. All the slim people I know and train do not comfort eat. We do other things when we feel upset. Not necessarily good!! But they don’t make us fat. So it strikes me as important to work out what triggers comfort eating for each individual. Is there anything else that could fill the place of a whole packet of biscuits? Food isn’t scary. Comfort eating is.))
- Don’t drink coffee or tea on an empty stomach – ie first thing in the morning. Wait until after breakfast. Caffeine on an empty stomach causes adrenal stress.
- Eat breakfast. Make sure it includes animal or fish protein.
- Make sure to do something relaxing and enjoyable everyday. Not an easy ask for many women! Collapsing in front of the telly doesn’t count.
- Breathe properly – its as good a time as any to learn how to breathe diaphramatically.
- Study stress, how to destress and find the way that suits you best. For example, meditation is good for some and not for others.
- Cut out sugar altogether and reduce dietary starch; this is best eaten, if at all, at the evening meal. These will help reduce those hot flushes.
This is a far from exhaustive list. I have written 7,000 words on the menopause, for instance. But it gets things moving in the right direction.
Good supplements to help:
- Ubermag. Helps sleep and combats hot flushes.
- Vitamin E – a natural one with high levels of gamma-tocopherol.
- Fast Brain – amazing supplement to combat memory loss.
- A high powered multi-vitamin such as Multi-Intense.
- Anti-oxidants on top of a diet high in vegetables.
To my mind, the agonies of the menopause could also be viewed as a gift. Pain is the best driver to change and my best clients hurt, but are prepared to do things to help it stop. Basically the menopause can be horrible because we have neglected the needs of our body and taken too many shortcuts: if we stop being slaves to the pharmaceutical companies and food manufacturers we will dramatically improve our health. If we just cover the symptoms up with the Pill and paracetemol, then a golden opportunity to age as well as possible is lost. No pain, why change?