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Navigating Menopause Care - Embracing the Power of Lifestyle Medicine for a Vibrant Midlife

Welcome to our latest blog post exploring the fascinating intersection of menopause care and lifestyle medicine.  As we navigate into midlife, perimenopause and menopause, there is an increasing recognition of the profound impact lifestyle choices can have on coping with our symptoms and overall well-being. In this newsletter, I’ll delve into strategies that can empower women to optimise health and well-being during menopause with lifestyle interventions. Join me to discover practical strategies for achieving hormonal balance, holistic wellness, and your Vibrant Midlife


Menopause – Back to Basics – stages

To start let’s have a quick recap on the various stages of menopause and the most common symptoms to expect.


Menopause is when your periods stop due to lower hormone levels. This usually happens between the ages of 45 and 55. You reach menopause when you have not had a period for 12 consecutive months (for women reaching menopause naturally)


Menopause can sometimes happen earlier naturally, or for reasons such as surgery to remove the ovaries or the uterus, cancer treatments like chemotherapy, or a genetic reason. Sometimes the reason is unknown. When menopause occurs between the ages of 40 and 45 it is known as early menopause. For some women, it may occur before the age of 40. This is known as premature menopause, or premature ovarian insufficiency (POI)


Perimenopause is the period leading up to the menopause and is when you have symptoms before your periods have stopped.


Symptoms

The most common symptoms of perimenopause are changes in periods, hot flushes, anxiety, and mood swings. Symptoms can have a big impact on people’s lives, including on relationships and work so it’s crucial to have strategies to help manage these. Find out more about menopause and managing symptoms here


So, what exactly is Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine has a few definitions, but I like simple and have taken this from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) they state:


“Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based approach to preventing, treating and even reversing diseases by replacing unhealthy behaviours with positive ones”


Not that menopause is a “disease” but stay with me here. The key areas or behaviours considered in Lifestyle Medicine are healthy eating, physical activity, stress management, avoid risky substance use, adequate sleep & relationships


Menopause and Lifestyle Medicine - The intersection


The NICE menopause guidance does give the following advice about menopause management:


“Give information to menopausal women and their family members or carers (as appropriate) that includes:

  • an explanation of the stages of menopause

  • common symptoms and diagnosis

  • lifestyle changes and interventions that could help general health and wellbeing”


So practically what can women do?


Healthy eating: Food is Medicine! A healthy diet consists predominantly of whole, plant-based foods that are rich in fibre and nutrient dense. So mainly vegetables, fruit (in moderation), beans, lentils, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Proteins like meat, chicken and fish are considered a side dish. A ratio to bear in mind on your plate is 3: 1 - ¾ portion of vegetables/beans/nuts/seeds/wholegrains and ¼ portion of protein. Good nutrition supports our gut health, blood sugar and hormone balance


Physical activity: Choose activities you enjoy so you can sustain your regimes. Then engage in regular and consistent physical activity. Examples are - walking, gardening, push-ups, lunges, stretching with poses, skipping. This supports our cardiovascular health, our bones, and muscles and can also help improve sleep


Stress Management: Stress can lead to anxiety, depression, obesity, immune dysfunction and more.  It’s important to recognise your negative stress responses, and then identify coping mechanisms and reduction techniques which lead to your improved well-being e.g., meditation, and breathing. Stress management at midlife supports our immune system and hormone balance


Avoid risky substance use: There are exhaustive data in the literature which show that addictive substance use can increase risk for many cancers and heart disease. Some of the positive behaviours to practice improving health include stopping smoking and limiting the amount of alcohol consumed. Have a mocktail instead of a cocktail 😊


Adequate Sleep: Lack of, or poor-quality sleep can lead to a strained immune system amongst other things. It’s helpful to Identify factors in your daily life that can help you improve your sleep health. It could be, how you set up where your bedroom, also strategies to help you sleep better e.g., breathing/stretching, meditation, diffusing essential oils, keeping cool. Great sleep helps our immune system and gives our brain a rest


Relationships: Studies show that isolation is associated with increased mortality.  Social connection is essential to emotional resilience and well-being. Consider your relationships and support network, evaluate your relationships, and avoid any that are toxic. Aim for mutually stable, loving, and supportive relationships that foster health and well-being. This requires you to intentionally invest in them also.  Great support just makes the midlife journey so much easier


I’ll be touching more on each of the individual areas in further blogs to share practical examples of what we can do to adopt positive behaviours to help our overall health and well-being in the menopause transition.


Personally, the areas I am focusing on are my diet, making the necessary adjustments in what I eat and shifting more towards a plant-based diet, I still eat a variety of foods and food groups, but I am tipping the balance more in favour of plants/grains, nuts etc


I struggle with consistent exercise, so I have set myself a daily plan which seems to get me doing something small every day. I rotate daily between walking, stretching, small dumbbells and resistance bands. The rotation keeps it interesting otherwise I’d get bored.   I’ll share more of what I am doing as we go along


Finally


Being mindful of food choices, managing stress, being physically active, minimising or avoiding risky substance use, getting plenty of sleep and having a strong emotional support system in life — are “just what the menopause doctor ordered”  to powerfully help reduce or cope with our most troublesome symptoms; if however, you try these and still have issues, then please consult with your healthcare practitioner for further investigation and to explore other management options which may or may not include hormone replacement therapy (HRT).


Lifestyle Medicine puts YOU at the centre, it’s all about you and your choices but is a powerful approach to prevent, treat, and often reverse our symptoms. It allows the body to protect and heal itself by promoting healthy lifestyle choices.


So, there you have it, if you want to balance your hormones, boost your energy levels, banish fatigue keep your brain sharp or just want to live in better health and well-being, I’d encourage you to consider which of the areas mentioned above you could start to work on to ensure your health and wellbeing is strong & you thrive in your midlife years


There has never been a more crucial time to evaluate where you are and make some life changing choices. If you need help in any area or have any further thoughts, I’d love to hear from you, so please leave a comment or get in touch. You can send me a message here.


Till next time Bukky x


References

4. NICE Guideline [NG23] accessed June 2023

 
 
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