Navigating Menopause Holistically

Menopause can be an intense season for women as they navigate hormonal changes and fluctuations and the various symptoms that come with it. This article provides women with real steps and ideas of how to manage their menopausal symptoms day-to-day from a holistic perspective.

Diet

A holistic, sustaining approach to menopause begins with choosing a diet of nutrient-rich, whole foods.

Eating a diet abundant in quality meats, fruits, and vegetables can set a foundation to deeply nourish the body, reduce inflammation, prevent bone loss, and avoid excess weight gain.

Vital Nutrients and Where to Find Them:

• Omega-3s: wild-caught salmon, grass-fed meats, chia seed oil, and flaxseed oil.
• B vitamins: root vegetables like carrots, beets, and radishes; leafy greens like kale, spinach, and chard; fresh or dried fruits, avocados, and seafood.
• Vitamin D: grass-fed or pasture-raised meat, organ meats, egg yolks, cod liver oil, wild mushrooms, fatty fish, spirulina, and bee pollen.
• Amino Acids: collagen from grass-fed cows, sardines, and pastured eggs.
• Magnesium: seaweed, figs, bananas, avocado, and dark leafy greens.
• Selenium: turkey, liver, red meat, garlic, spinach.
• Iron: organ meats, dark leafy greens, shellfish, red meat.
• Zinc: grass-fed beef, lamb, oysters.
• Healthy fats: avocados, butter, or ghee from grass-fed cows, coconut oil, coconut butter, and quality olive oil.
• Quality proteins: grass-fed or pasture-raised meats, wild-caught fish.
• Fiber: vegetables like carrots, broccoli, beets, and cauliflower.

Consume Hormone-Balancing Foods

A diet that includes hormone-balancing foods is crucial to keeping menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, and fatigue at bay. Enjoy the following foods where available:

• Cranberries: help combat urinary tract infections that can occur due to decreased estrogen levels during menopause.
• Cherries: help to increase melatonin levels, resulting in higher quality sleep.
• Maca root: contains glucosinolates which signal the body to produce balanced levels of hormones. During menopause, supplementing with maca helps a woman’s body to regulate estrogen levels, potentially minimizing hot flashes.
• Passionflower: can soothe hot flashes and night sweats, insomnia, depression, mood swings, and headaches.
• Leafy greens: like kale, chard, and spinach can ease insomnia and improve overall symptoms.
• Motherwort: can ease hot flashes and anxiety, is a tonic for the heart, and can help prevent menopausal weight gain.
• Shatavari: Known in Ayurveda as the “female rejuvenator” shatavari contains phytoestrogens, a plant-based form of estrogen that can aid in alleviating the hot, dry aspects of menopause.

Repair Your Gut

An imbalance in the gut flora, known as dysbiosis, can exacerbate hormonal imbalances during menopause and may be accompanied by other infections such as candida (an overgrowth of yeast) or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth).

These gut conditions can lead to increased inflammation, which blocks the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and balance hormones efficiently. They can also be exacerbated by hormonal fluctuations, causing a chain reaction resulting in increased negative symptoms.

Working to reduce inflammation and ensure the body can properly absorb nutrients will positively affect a woman’s overall health as well as help manage menopause symptoms.

Remove Inflammatory Foods

Removing processed foods and refined sugars from your diet is one of the first and most influential steps a woman can make in eating a cleaner, more nutrient-dense diet. These types of foods are often to blame for sending blood sugar levels on a rollercoaster ride.

Keeping blood sugar stable is crucial for navigating menopause successfully. Blood sugar spikes can impact mood and cause irritability, and are associated with depression. Similarly, consuming a diet high in processed foods has been correlated with poor bone health in women ages 50–59.

Avoiding spicy foods, alcohol, sugary foods, and caffeine may keep hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings in check. If a woman is experiencing sensitivity to a particular food item, it’s important to identify that food and remove it from the diet. If multiple food sensitivities are being identified, an elimination diet is worth considering to help reduce inflammation and identify what may be triggering symptoms.

Elimination diets can take many different forms, but the core idea is to stop eating foods you think may be triggering symptoms to see if you notice a difference.

Consider Bone Health

The drastic hormonal changes and fluctuations a woman’s body experiences during menopause can negatively affect bone health. This leads to weaker bones and an increased risk for osteoporosis.

Food and supplements to boost bone health:

• Vitamin D: Get out in the sunlight daily for as much time as possible. Working with a health care provider to consider supplementation may be necessary at times. If you choose to supplement, make sure you have adequate magnesium and vitamin K2 for proper calcium absorption.
• Cod liver oil: contains a nice balance of vitamin D along with A and K2.
• Calcium: Grass-fed dairy is one of the best sources of calcium. It is crucial when consuming dairy products to make sure that no hormones were involved in the production of the dairy, as that will negatively impact female hormones.

Methylation

Methylation (a biochemical cells perform constantly throughout the body for countless tasks) is important in the production of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, norepinephrine, and melatonin. If this integral and vital process is not optimized, a woman’s body will not properly process estrogen and other important hormones and the ability to clear and recycle hormones is impaired.

Methylation works to assist estrogen to be cleared down the 2 hydroxy pathway (2OHE1), however, problems arise when estrogen is cleared from the body down the 16aOHE1 and 4OHE1 pathways. This pathway of estrogen clearance can exacerbate menopausal symptoms and predispose women to breast cancer and other endocrine-based cancers. Working with a skilled health care provider to understand your methylation status and genetic variants such as MTHFR can help you understand how to best support your unique physiology.

Sleep

A regular sleep schedule or routine can help women support a balanced mood, a healthy weight, and keep stress levels low. Seven to eight hours of sleep at night will not only support a woman’s overall health but also help to reduce symptoms of menopause.

Tips to establish life-enhancing sleep rhythms:

• Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, seven days a week.
• Drink a cup of chamomile or other soothing herbal tea before bed.
• To reduce the effects of blue light on melatonin production, put down your phone and turn off the TV at least an hour before bed—read a book, meditate, or listen to music instead.
• Diffusing lavender essential oil can benefit restful sleep. Try adding a few drops to a warm bath before bed.
• Keep lights dim in the hours before bed.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol later in the day.

Exercise

Staying active is one of the best ways to support a woman’s body and manage symptoms during menopause. Walking 20 minutes a day can be extremely beneficial to the physical body, while also encouraging feelings of relaxation. Strength training and yoga are enormously helpful for bone health in women going through menopause and beyond.

Regular exercise a few times a week can promote many health benefits such as:

• Healthier bones and joints.
• Improved sleep quality.
• Lower stress levels.
• Lowered risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes, and stroke.

Support Your Mood

Mood changes are a common experience for women on the path of menopause. Practicing stress-reduction and relaxation techniques such as deep-breathing exercises, full-body stretching, massage, and cranial-sacral facial work can help bring a sense of peace and calm when experiencing mood fluctuations.

Consider working with a health care practitioner to supplement with St. John’s wort, passionflower, or vitamin B6, and always discuss any mood concerns to help identify the root cause.

Supplements for Menopausal Symptoms

At times, supplementing with additional herbs and vitamins can be extremely beneficial to fill out the areas that diet or other efforts have not met. As always, consult with a health care provider before supplementing.

• Black cohosh: may help reduce the frequency of hot flashes, specifically when combined with St. John’s wort.
• Dong quai: has been shown to reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes and night sweats, as well as increase sleep quality.
• Evening primrose oil: may assist in increasing bone mineral density.
• Turmeric: is an anti-inflammatory that modulates the immune system and may help with managing hot flashes and reducing joint pain.
• Resveratrol: may help boost blood flow in the brain, improve cognitive functions, and reduce brain fog.
• Glutathione: levels drop during menopause, which can lead to oxidative stress. Supplementing with N-Acetyl Cysteine or glutathione can provide antioxidant support.

Menopause is a normal, natural stage of a woman’s life. While it does mean many hormonal changes, women can be empowered to walk through this season with strength and ease.

Following these holistic diet and lifestyle methods can significantly improve menopausal symptoms. As always, working with a trained practitioner to assess an individual’s body chemistry, test hormone levels, and consider any other underlying factors can be a valuable step in adding another level of support as a woman navigates these changes.