5 tips to help yourself with perimenopausal mood, sleep and hot flushes.

Whilst we cannot avoid, we can certainly influence a lot about how we cope with our peri-menopausal symptoms. So, don’t be at the mercy of your symptoms and read on!

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1. REST & SELF-CARE

• Give yourself permission to slow down
• Get help at home
• Do yoga, meditate
• Book in for a regular massage
• Cut back work hours
• When you’re stressed your cortisol level’s increase and over time if it remains high for too long, it becomes responsible for the belly fat, just like you have been drinking too much alcohol.

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2. REDUCE/ELIMINATE ALCOHOL

• Alcohol impairs healthy metabolism of estrogen which means if it’s high your body can’t get rid of it easily
• Alcohol also lowers progesterone and interferes with progesterone’s calming action in the brain
• You may be able to get away with drinking, but you’ll feel better without it
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3. EAT WITHIN A 10-HOUR PROCESS

For example, 8 am – 6pm. Finish dinner as early as you can. This is a type of intermittent fasting. This has really improved the quality of my sleep!

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4. DON’T BE AFRAID OF HUNGER, DON’T BE AFRAID OF FOOD

Eat three meals a day a day until you feel satisfied and then let your body rest in between. Eating is an inflammatory response and increases your insulin.

If you are using your Metabolic Jumpstart program as a guide, just combine your meals into three.

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5. TAKE SUPPLEMENTS AND HERBAL MEDICINES FOR PERIMENOPAUSAL MOOD, SLEEP AND HOT FLUSHES

• Take magnesium. It’s a powerful stress-reliever. It calms the brain, regulates the *HPA axis and promotes sleep.
  
• Taurine. It’s an amino acid that calms the brain and stabilises the *HPA axis. It has a tranquilising effect similar to GABA. Taurine can only be obtained from animal products so you’ll probably already be low if you are a vegetarian.
• Vitamin B6 for perimenopausal mood symptoms. It promotes healthy estrogen metabolism and boosts GABA.
• Ashwagandha. It’s a herbal medicine that dials down the stress response.
• Ziziphus. A herbal sedative traditionally prescribed for perimenopause. It’s a non-addictive sedative. It’s often combined with Magnolia Officinalis.
• Micronised or natural progesterone. Can help with hot flushes. It dramatically improves sleep by reducing anxiety and by supporting the sleep centres of the brain.

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I get a script from my GP and get the compounding chemist in Sawtell to make this up for me. It’s a cream applied topically but you can get natural progesterone in tablet form too so check with your GP.

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Final notes:

Everything I take is under the recommendation of my nutritionist who has the history of my hormone levels and gut health. There are so many supplements out there how do you know which is of good quality? There’s also lots of different types of magnesium too!

If you’re serious, book in with your GP and get your hormones, thyroid and gut tested.

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*HPA: Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenals

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