Ayurveda - Natural Relief For Pitta Menopause Symptoms

For thousands of years woman transitioned gracefully from childbearing days to wise family matriarch with little more than a few aspirin and herbs. In many cultures they don't even have a word for menopause. Only in the west is it treated as an illness or something unnatural.

According to Ayurveda, the 5000 year old healing and medical system from India, a woman's "change of life" is easily managed by a dosha (constitution) pacifying diet and lifestyle. Ideally, if she has implemented pitta pacifying therapies prior to menopause, during the perimenopausal years, she will likely have few or no complaints.

Yet, our western diet and lifestyle is creating an increase of unwanted and unmanageable symptoms for woman in their 40's and 50's. When out of balance the pitta type woman will experience anger, frustration,extreme hot flashes, loss of energy, loss of focus, frequent periods, extreme night sweats, menopausal acne, and even hair loss.

To restore balance the pitta type woman should follow a pitta pacifying diet, especially during the summer months or if she lives in a warm climate. She should avoid foods and activities that are over heating. Swimming is a good exercise choice for pitta type menopause as it promotes lightness and cools the body.

Therapeutic grade essential oils can be very beneficial during menopause instead of hormone replacement therapy. Three oils I recommend for pitta types are:

1) Peppermint: it is refreshing, cooling, reduces mental fatigue, lack of concentration, acne and cramps.

2). Lemon Balm and Rose: are effective at reducing anger, frustrations, and fever and vaginitis. Lemon balm is a natural hormone and blood pressure balancer. and can relieve sweating.

3) Champa: is an aphrodisiac, hormone balancer, and mood enhancer.

These oils can be added to a carrier oil for daily abhyanga massage, or to a bath. Frequent or daily use will provide relief and restore harmony and balance when combined with other pitta pacifying lifestyle regimens.

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From Martha Gesegnet RN, CHTP, CNS, Author of the highly acclaimed book, "8 Steps to Naturally Heal Chronic Pain"

Martha Gesegnet RN ~ The Natural Health Maven and http://www.AyurvedaforHealthandHealing.com

Home Remedies For Menopause - Natural Healing Remedies to Help You Get Through Menopausal Effects

Are you one of the thousands of women who suffer severely with the effects caused by menopause? It seems that some women simply breeze through menopause while others have a very hard time. Luckily there are natural ways to help you so in this article we will look at some home remedies for menopause symptoms.

The biggest complaint that most woman voice about menopause is the hot flashes which can be very uncomfortable as well as embarrassing. You feel as though your body is an oven and somebody has turned it up to the highest level causing you to sweat uncontrollably.

Here are some of the more popular home remedies for menopause that you can try. Not all remedies work for every woman so you may have to try a few different ones until you find what works for you.

1. Vitamin E - Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant that has proven to be helpful in combating hot flashes and night sweats. I've read that your body temperature rises by as much as 8 degrees during a hot flash and since these come on suddenly it is no wonder that they bring such discomfort. So a helpful tip would be to keep your home cool as well to help your body recover after the hot flash has passed.

2. Evening Primrose Oil - Evening primrose oil is used for conditions that affect a woman's health, such as breast tenderness that is associated with her menstrual cycle, menopausal symptoms, and PMS or premenstrual syndrome.

3. Meditation - meditation helps by providing stress relief which helps the woman to be calmer overall and deal with the menopausal symptoms easier.

4. Massage - Massage therapy again helps to relax the woman which helps her in coping better with the symptoms of menopause

5. Exercise - Exercise helps in so many ways, by relieving stress and by improving mood as mood swings are also a negative side effect of menopause. It is also good in preventing weight gain which is another negative by product of menopause sometimes.

6. Progesterone Cream - I once had an encounter in a retail store where the cashier was in the midst of a hot flash and the customer in front of me happened to be a nurse. It was then that I learned that progesterone cream can be helpful for women going through menopause as this nurse recommended it to the cashier to help ease her hot flashes and other side effects of menopause.

So there you have 6 remedies to help you cope with this stage of your life. I hope that you find your remedy among these but, if not, remember that there are many other home remedies menopause out there you just have to be persistent and keep researching until you find the one that works for you. Good luck and stay well.

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Top 6 Natural Estrogen Replacements!

Try these natural estrogen replacements rather than using hormone replacement therapy!

These herbal supplements contain plant estrogen, or phytoestrogen, which produces estrogen like effects in your body and can help to relieve your symptoms of menopause.

1. Angelica Herb

This herb is also called, "don quai." It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries to treat not only symptoms of menopause, but also hypertension, and heart, liver, and spleen issues.

Women can take it as a pill, liquid extract, or a tea to treat vaginal dryness, menstrual cramps, hot flashes, digestive problems.

2. Licorice Root

This herb has been used by the Greeks, Hindus, Chinese, and Egyptians. It balances hormones and helps to treat fatigue, vaginal dryness, breast tenderness, headaches, and digestive issues.

You can get your dose of licorice root in the form of drops, capsules, or teas.

Although the licorice candy is quite delicious, know that it does not contain any of this beneficial herb. Most licorice candy is flavored with anise, not licorice.

3. Red Clover

The isoflavones in red clover suggest that it can reduce hot flashes in menopausal women. More good news? It may help reduce our risk of developing osteoporosis by boosting bone density.

People also use red clover to treat skin problems like eczema and psoriasis.

4. Black Cohosh and Menopause

This is one of the most popular herbs for menopause. Women use it to treat hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, depression, and menstrual cramps. Native American women called this "cramp bark" because it was so beneficial in treating menstrual cramps.

As with the other herbs here, you can take black cohosh in a liquid or pill form.

5. Soy Estrogen

Getting soy estrogen can help treat hot flashes, vaginal dryness, migraines, and symptoms of PMS. It can also help to prevent osteoporosis and lower your cholesterol.

You've got options if you're looking to boost your estrogen with soy estrogen. You can drink soy milk, eat tofu, soy nuts, edamame, or mix some soy protein powder into your fruit smoothies.

6. Flax Seeds

Flax seeds are so good for you! They contain phytoestrogens, omega 3s, and fiber.

In order to get the most benefits from flax seeds, eat ground flax seeds. You can buy them already ground at most health food stores (keep them in your refrigerator), or you can buy whole flax seeds and grind them yourself in a coffee grinder or flax seed grinder.

Elizabeth A. O'Brien invites you to visit her website http://www.estrogensource.com to learn more about naturally balancing your menopausal hormones.

Boost your low hormone levels naturally. Visit http://www.estrogensource.com

Soy Estrogen - 5 Easy Ways to Get This Natural Estrogen Replacement

You know the many benefits of soy estrogen, you are trying to incorporate this natural estrogen replacement into your diet, and you're looking for easy ways to do it. Read on, my friends!

By eating 50-100 mg of isoflavones (the plant estrogen found in soy products) a day, you can reduce your hot flashes and night sweats, help stop your PMS symptoms, and start to have healthier skin, hair, and nails.

So, here are five easy ways to get your three daily servings of soy.

1. Soy Milk

It's time to rejoice, ladies! Getting your daily soy intake is a great excuse for drinking a lovely, cold glass of chocolate soy milk-- full of that great soy milk estrogen! If you don't like chocolate (Do people like that even exist?), then you can drink the vanilla soy milk or the unsweetened soy milk. I find that the chocolate and vanilla are great on their own, but if you are going to drink the unsweetened soy milk, you might need to give it a boost of flavor. You can do this by making a smoothie.

2. Smoothies

If you're looking for an easy breakfast or a refreshing snack, smoothies are a great idea. They are easy to make, healthful, and delicious. Get the soy in your smoothie with soy milk or soy protein powder (you can find this at health food stores). I like blending my soy milk and protein powder with frozen strawberries (It makes a great texture!) or frozen bananas. Heck, you could even go crazy and mix it with frozen strawberries AND bananas! I suggest using fresh fruit that you have frozen yourself. Those bags of frozen fruit from the grocery store taste quite fake, but if you are really in a rush, they will do the trick.

3. Edamame

It doesn't get much easier than this. Just buy these fresh soy beans at the grocery store, pop them in the microwave for a few seconds, sprinkle them with salt, and they are ready to eat. If you've never had them before, you may be wondering how to eat them. Don't eat the shell. The shell is not enjoyable to eat. You put the whole pod in your mouth and use your teeth to scrape out the two or three soy beans inside.

4. Soy Nuts

I didn't think it could get easier than the edamame, and then-- it did! Just look for roasted soy nuts at your grocery store. The instructions for eating these? Take them out of the bag and put them in your mouth.

5. Miso

This simple Japanese soup is tasty, and it has at least a serving of soy in each bowl. You can either make this at home (not so easy), or pick some up at a local Asian restaurant (easy).

Elizabeth A. O'Brien invites you to visit her website http://www.estrogensource.com to learn more about naturally balancing your menopausal hormones. Boost your low hormone levels naturally. Visit http://www.estrogensource.com

Is Natural Estrogen Replacement Available?

During menopause, natural estrogen levels in a woman's body decline causing symptoms like hot flashes and mood swings. For many years, estrogen replacement therapy was recommended to relieve menopausal symptoms. As the egg supply in the ovaries is depleted, they begin to produce less estrogen and finally shut down completely. Other organs produce estrogen as well, so even after menopause it is still present in the blood stream, just at much lower levels than when a woman was young.

In the 1930's, scientists found that they could isolate the natural estrogen from the urine of pregnant women, but continued to search for other sources, in order to make mass production possible. During that decade, researchers learned to create estrogen in the laboratory and isolate it from the urine of pregnant mares.

In 1941, estrogen replacement therapy was approved by the FDA for the treatment of menopausal symptoms.

Estrogen replacement therapy was very popular until around 1975 when researchers learned that it could cause endometrial cancer. The endometrium is the lining of the uterus. Natural estrogen produced by the ovaries causes the lining to thicken, preparing for a fertilized egg. During a woman's reproductive years, if no egg is fertilized, the ovaries produce progesterone, which causes the endometrium to be shed during menstruation. Estrogen replacement therapy caused the lining to thicken, but since progesterone was not present, the lining was not shed, resulting in cancer of the endometrium in many women.

To reduce the risk of endometrial cancer, doctors began to prescribe a combination of progesterone and estrogen replacement for women during menopause. This "combination therapy" was very popular until 2001, when the Women's Health Initiative found that the health risks associated with this therapy outweighs the benefits. Hormone replacement therapy had been commonly recommended, not only to reduce the symptoms of menopause, but also to reduce a woman's risk of colorectal cancer and osteoporosis.

During the five year study, researchers followed groups of women who were using either estrogen replacement only, combined hormone replacement therapy or a placebo (no HRT at all). Researchers had originally intended to follow the women for several more years, but research was halted because of the number of reported adverse events among women using HRT. The adverse events reported were breast cancer, heart disease, blood clots, stroke and pulmonary embolism.

The information collected by the research group indicates that while combination HRT decreases a woman's risk of endometrial cancer, it increases a woman's risk of breast cancer. One group of women in the study was able to use estrogen replacement only, because they had previously had a hysterectomy, thus estrogen posed no threat of endometrial cancer. After comparing the incidence of breast cancer in this estrogen only group to the group using combination HRT, researchers concluded that the combination therapy increased a woman's risk of breast cancer. Topically applied hormones, such as natural estrogen creams, are not believed to carry the risks of orally administered hormones.

Some brands of HRT are advertised as "natural estrogen" because the source of the estrogen is natural; mare urine. Some people refer to bio-identical hormones as "natural", because they are designed to be molecularly identical to the natural estrogen and other hormones created by a woman's body.

Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy is somewhat popular, due in part to a book written by a female TV star, who upon entering menopause was unhappy with everything that went along with it and found a clinic that offers this form of treatment. It is more expensive and not available from all doctors. Basically, bio-identical HRT involves creating hormones in the laboratory that are structurally identical to a woman's own hormones. Compounding pharmacists use plant estrogens from yams and soy, as well as animal estrogens from horses and pigs and "adjust" them, so that they are so similar to the ones produced by the human body, that, theoretically, the body can not tell the difference. To date, no studies have been conducted concerning the health risks associated with the long term use of bio-identical HRT.

Rather than offering the quick fix of estrogen replacement or other types of HRT, some of the best women's clinics begin treatment by counseling women about diet, nutrition, lifestyle and dietary supplements. In many cases, making healthy changes in lifestyle and diet and adding nutritional supplements helps to increase a woman's natural estrogen levels, relieves menopausal symptoms and makes HRT unnecessary. To learn more, please visit the Menopause and PMS Guide.

Patsy Hamilton was a healthcare professional for over twenty years before becoming a freelance writer. Currently she writes informational articles for the Menopause and PMS Guide. Visit http://www.menopause-and-pms-guide.com to learn more about menopause, PMS and natural remedies.