It is easy to feel defeated in peri-menopause. Especially when it comes to the number one symptom midlife women report to be wrecking their lives; daily uncomfortable and sleep disturbing hot flashes and night sweats.
It’s enough to make you want to throw in the towel and bypass the whole ‘hormonal change’ experience with HRT.
I am not going to tell you natural hormonal change is easy, or you can reduce your symptoms to zero with a whizz of a blender, a protein rich shake and some berries. The hill I am here to die on is this; menopause is a learning experience and our symptoms is the language our bodies speak (sometimes loudly) that contains all the wisdom we need to improve our longterm health and extend our active years by listening and responding at midlife.
So, what can we learn from hot flashes?
Hot flashes are a vasodilatory response in the body and can be triggered by stress, excess sugar, spicy foods, caffeine and excess or too little estrogen.
From this we learn that we need to take very good care of ourselves during peri-menopause because our thermostat is going to be extra sensitive. Things have changed and it is time to prioritize you.
Science tells us, when we are carrying excess weight on our bodies we are more likely to experience hot flashes.
Our fat cells are not inert, they also create chemicals and estrogen. We can experience an imbalance of estrogen in the body at midlife just from the influence of the fat cells on our body.
(I want to give this statement nuance with the information that some weight on your body can protect your health post menopause and can save your life if you have cancer. We are talking Goldilocks here…not too little, not too much, but just enough. Don’t hate your body if you are carrying weight. Love yourself enough to take baby steps in the direction of change.)
Increasing fibre, reducing sugar and mindfully lifting weights is the best path to weight loss during hormonal change as diet and restriction can also negatively impact our hormonal balance.
We learn from our body we need to increase our fibre and possibly modify our exercise when we are in peri-menopause to manage our symptoms of hot flashes. It is beneficial to buck the aging stereotype and work on feeling strong at midlife.
One of the most effective ways of managing hot flashes is to reduce the amount of sugar in the diet and this includes alcohol, which metabolizes as sugar and the glucose rush following the fight or flight response, triggered by caffeine. Research tells us, in fact, it is the sugar crash after ingesting too much sugar triggering hot flashes (this is called reactive hypoglycemia) and that hot flashes can be reduced by balancing blood sugar with regular meals centred on protein, fibre and healthy fats.
We learn that diet is impactful in reducing our hot flashes and we can get empowered to nurture ourselves with protein, fibre and healthy fats.
Recent studies in midlife womens health (yes! they have been a long time coming!) tell us women who experience debilitating hot flashes often are more likely to experience a subsequent cardiac event within the next ten years.
Breathe, this does not mean that you are going to have a heart attack, but, you are receiving information from your body about your cardiovascular health and you have an opportunity at midlife to support your beautiful body back to health when it is experiencing the very beginnings of calcification of the arteries and cardiovascular disease. The best way to improve heart health is by following a heart healthy diet with more fibre, healthy fats and plenty of berries and vegetables. Magnesium from leafy greens helps to reverse calcification.
We learn that midlife is the best time of life to listen to your symptoms and begin to eat to support your best health in the next chapter, that you are being gifted the knowledge of your health status in your forties and the time (a full decade) to step up for yourself and make meaningful positive change to your diet and nutrition.
One of the best ways to control your hot flashes, according to research, is with paced breathing. Literally, by changing the way that we breathe we can reduce the number and severity of the hot flashes we experience. This made sense to me when I first started waking through the night with damp sheets and the sweats. In a revelation, I realized that ALL of my breathing was in the top of my chest. I was anxious and exhausted and NEVER took a proper deep breath unless it was a sigh! (Also, passive aggressive much?!?!) Who can relate? I knew I really needed to take stock of my life and drastically bring down my stress levels. Experts recommend yoga, pilates and other exercise regimes that enable you to breathe more mindfully.
We learn that many of us are overwhelmed and stressed at midlife and can make dramatic positive changes to our health by mindfully breathing and reducing our stress levels through structural changes to our schedule and the ability to say NO! We learn that boundaries are important to midlife women after years of boundary erosion often in child rearing.
When we bypass our hot flashes and head directly for the quick fix, the man in the white coat and the daily pill that overrides the entire process of hormonal change, we bypass all of the gentle listening our body craves. We bypass the opportunity to offer our bodies responsive nurturing through small changes in diet and lifestyle the sacred woman inside each of us has been waiting for patiently while we raise our families, focus on our careers and see to the needs of everyone else, apart from ourselves.
At Midlife our body is sharing valuable wisdom we can only learn by listening to our symptoms. Wisdom with which we can turn around our health and quite possibly save our own lives in the next chapter.
