Wellcure
Natural Healing Advisor
04:45 PM | 12-06-2019
Menopause is a natural process in a woman’s life. It should not be viewed with the commonly associated negative symptoms like hot flush, mood swings and discomfort. By following a natural diet, taking in sunlight, adequate exercise and rest, sail through this period to step into the next phase of your life with joy. Read on to know more.
Menopause is a dreaded word in the lives of women in late 40s or early 50s. And unfortunately, sometimes even earlier – Blame it on the environment we live in, the onslaught of medicines on our body and the negative lifestyle practices we follow. The symptoms of menopause are perceived like a disease which needs medical redressal and therefore, creates panic even much ahead of it and brings with it an array of other disorders.
What should We Know about Menopause
Just like the process of puberty, pregnancy, childbirth, or even greying hair, menopause is a natural process that marks the decline of the reproductive period in a woman. The ovaries no longer produce an egg and the uterus stops preparing itself for nurturing a baby every month.
It can typically be marked by a long absence of your menstrual period (between 6-12 months) or an irregularity in the occurrence or flow of your menstrual cycle. Physiologically speaking, there is a fluctuation in the levels of key reproductive hormones – progesterone and estrogen.
The transition into menopause is often associated with hot flushes, night sweats, low libido, mood swings, depression and so on. It is commonly believed that one has to live with these symptoms and bear them. But if you understand it from nature’s perspective, these are indicators of misbalance in your body. Any natural process within our body is not designed to be painful. However, if any of the indicators become painful or cause discomfort, we need to shift our focus on what’s our body trying to say and how can we help ourselves manage these symptoms.
What can We Do to have a Stress Free Menopause
Just like any other function, menopausal processes need energy, material, time and space. When we enable our body on these four parameters, it functions optimally. This applies to women at all ages and stages of life. One doesn’t necessarily need to wait until menopause to take care of the body and focus on wellness.
We can get the necessary energy and material through food, time through sleep and relaxation and space through exercise, exposure to sunlight etc. These parameters together nourish our bodies and help it perform all functions without any stress.
1) Eat Right – Foods that Nourish, Build and Clean
Food, as an input to the body, is often the most undermined aspect. Just eating right can empower our bodies beyond our imagination! Food determines our gut health, which in turn affects the hormonal balance in the body. Hormones are nothing but chemical messengers in the body that tell the cells how to behave. They affect functions of all our vital organs, skin and hair.
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Aim to have plenty of fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables in raw form. Make this a major portion of your diet. Also add in some sprouts, nuts, seeds and a small quantity of grains and pulses. Keep your meals simple and healthy. You can find many ideas for healthy meals from our recipes section.
These whole, plant-based foods keep the body’s fat in balance. Abnormal weight gain is surely a precursor to any kind of hormonal imbalance.
Nutritionists and experts who follow natural laws also say that the levels of Calcium and Vitamin D3 are extremely important for a healthy hormonal balance. In fact, when we have the right gut health (by eating the plant-based foods), our body synthesizes Vitamin D3 (with the help of sunlight) and holds on to it. Vitamin D3, in turn, positively impacts levels of Calcium and fosters bone health.
So, the next time we hear that osteoporosis is common among women around menopause, we would know what’s going wrong, right? Yes, it’s the food. Menopause, by itself, doesn’t cause poor bone health.
How to Eat
The Well-known Foes of the Body that We Must Avoid
Processed Foods (anything that comes out of a jar, packet), refined sugar, oil, flours, tea, coffee, alcohol are all detrimental to our gut health. They suck up vital nutrients, fluids and enzymes from our body to be broken down leaving toxic residues, deplete gut bacteria, block cells and interfere with absorption of nutrients and give back nothing as nourishment.
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Add to the list – milk and dairy products. Cows, today, are artificially pumped with hormones that interfere with ours when we ingest such products. Besides, human bodies do not really have the enzymes to break down the protein and calcium in cow’s milk.
All these foods increase toxicity in the body and cause the negative symptoms associated with menopause.
2) Rest Well
Physical Body - It is during the rest hours that repair and regeneration happens. Lack of rest hampers elimination of toxins and builds up toxicity in the body’s environment. When that happens, how do we expect the hormones to behave! Hot flushes and night sweats are then, not a mystery! Sound, deep and adequate (~8 hours) sleep is non-negotiable for any adult. One must wake up naturally, feeling fresh and not triggered by a mechanical alarm.
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Mind and Soul – Any feeling of anticipated stress causes stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to shoot up. Any unwanted stress can reign havoc on our bodies by interfering in the carrying out of normal body functions. This leads to symptoms and illness/disease.
Meditation, pranayama, creative activities like writing, gardening, art, handwork, social work, playing with children or pets - can channelize your mind towards something purposeful and trigger happy-hormones like serotonin. Switching off for 5 minutes every 3-4 hours with rosewater-soaked pads on the eyes, an occasional visit to the spa, using essential oils to create a pleasant aroma around the house are ways of conserving energy and relaxing the nervous system.
3) Exercise
Movement is critical to life. Walking, swimming, stretching, Yoga – are all proven means of maintaining muscle strength and creating physical space within the body for nourishment to flow in and toxicity to move out.
4) Get Sunlight
The energy from sunlight is the source of all life forms on earth. Exposure to sunlight for at least 20 minutes every day is essential. Vit D is made in the skin when it is exposed to the sun.
Embrace the change
The right balance of food, rest, exercise and sunlight can help you look fresh, feel good inside, which is what we want at the end of it all, isn’t it?
So ladies, let’s embrace ageing just as we enjoy youth and other vital phases of our life. Give our body, mind and soul the love in your younger years and see your later life becoming more content, joyful and peaceful!
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Treat this as the beginning of a new phase of life, an opportunity to spend time on yourself, new friendships, hobbies and a relaxed lifestyle. With freedom from the monthly cycle, step into the next phase to savour new experiences. You are only as old as you think!
Keep reading our articles in the Body wisdom section. Share this article with your friends to spread good health and joy!
Title image credit: Skullman via Pixabay.com
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