Flowers and leaves of Red Clover, Trifolium pratense

A natural approach to coping with menopause symptoms is on the minds of many girls nowadays. After all of the bad press regarding hormone replacement therapy (HRT) many women now fear using HRT. When the results of the Women’s Health Initiative were published relaying the many serious health effects of use, many women on HRT chose to go off the hormones that they were using for ages. Many decided they would not go on them.

Symptoms

The symptoms of menopause and perimenopause may differ from woman to woman, from moderate to severe and life disrupting. One woman may have mild intermittent hot flashes, yet another might experience intense hot flashes every fifteen minutes accompanied by heart palpitations and feelings of acute anxiety.

    • Hot flashes
    • Night sweats
    • Insomnia
    • Depression
    • Irritability and mood swings
    • Heart palpitations
    • Feverish feelings (hot then cold)
    • Dryness
    • Headaches and migraine
    • And a Lot More

With a high number of women currently entering menopause years and the years leading up to menopause, called perimenopause, what could be achieved if hormone replacement isn’t their choice?

What to do?

Changes in lifestyle can be helpful. One thing to do is make sure exercise is a regular part or your weekly program. Exercising for an hour or more times per week can greatly reduce hot flashes, anxiety, depression and mood swings.

Women in menopause should limit or eliminate alcohol and spicy foods as both may increase the incidence of hot flashes and night sweats. Alcohol may also result in depression, anxiety, headaches and sleeplessness.

Eating a diet full of plants containing phytoestrogens may also be helpful. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring plant based compounds that are linked to our body’s own natural hormones. Some of those helpful crops are beans, seaweed, pomegranate, berries, flaxseed (must be soil, or oil is fine ), root vegetables.

Herbal Aid

For some serious help with menopause symptoms you might want to try herbal aid. Herbs can be particularly effective at reducing hot flashes and night sweats. Many women find relief with black cohosh or false unicorn root. Red clover is also an excellent herb and is also useful for keeping bones strong, yet another concern in menopausal women.

TCM

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are two known natural remedies for menopause symptoms. In Traditional Chinese Medicine every man or woman is considered as a special individual with a special set of symptoms and constitution. The herbs and acupuncture treatments given for a single woman will differ from the next, as each individual’s symptoms and constitution won’t be the same. Herbal formulas are usually created specifically for a person and contain herbs which are selected to work synergistically with one another to boost the overall treatment success.