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21 WAYS TO BEAT HOT FLUSHES AND OTHER MENOPAUSAL SYMPTOMS ; HEALTH: Sarah Stacey Provides Some Natural Solutions

Posted on: Tuesday, 19 October 2004, 20:00 CDT

LOOK AFTER THE BASICS

Eat every three hours: keeps blood sugar levels steady, which helps all hormonal problems, including hot flushes.

Sip at least eight glasses of still water daily between meals and at night.

Choose fresh food, low in animal fats and sugar: a high-animal fat, high-sugar diet seems linked to hot flushes. Eat lots of vegetables and non-citrus fruit, plus fish and plant oils, which are essential for balancing hormones, improving anxiety and depression; also skin, hair and nails.

Exercise daily for at least 30-60 minutes: it helps adrenal glands release androgenic hormones that convert to a form of oestrogen your body's own HRT.

Get out in the light for an hour a day. This helps boost levels of feel-good hormone serotonin. Lack of serotonin is linked to poor sleep and low mood.

Cut out known triggers of hot flushes: hot spicy foods, alcohol, tea, coffee, smoking cigarettes, and sudden changes of temperature.

LOOK AFTER YOUR MIND

Keep stress levels under control relax and laugh!

Stress may prevent the production of oestrogen-forming hormones from adrenals, and may deplete serotonin levels.

Practise therapeutic iyengar yoga, to stretch your body, calm your mind and help with specific symptoms (www.iyengaryoga.org.uk).

Breathe deeply, slowly, smoothly: it helps you sleep and can stop a hot flush in its tracks. Inhale to a count of three, pause for three, exhale to six, repeat five times, as often as possible.

Give yourself little treats, and ask for help: lifting your mood helps everything.

IF YOU FEEL A HOT FLUSH COMING ON

Sip cold/iced water (or tea) and breathe slowly.

Reduce temperature by putting a bag of frozen peas or a chilled face cloth on your forehead. When you go out, carry a flannel wrapped around ice cubes in a plastic bag, or a fridge-chilled packet of facial wipes.

Spray face and neck from a small atomiser filled with spring water and a drop each of essential oils of juniper, clary sage and geranium.

LIFESTYLE HELPERS

Carry a fan.

Ditch manmade fibres: wear easily removable layers of cotton, silk, linen or wool. Use pure cotton bed linen; have layers of blankets or coverings, rather than duvets.

EAT FLUSH-BUSTING PHYTO-OESTROGENS:

Menopause cocktail: aromatherapist Ixchel Susan Leigh developed this potion, which stopped her hot flushes and night sweats 'dead in their tracks' in two weeks Mix about 60ml aloe vera juice into a small glass of raw organic apple juice; stir in 200mg powdered elemental magnesium citrate (take as capsules if you can't get the powder or substitute BioCare magnesium taurate). Drink daily with 1g black cohosh. (Warning: don't take more black cohosh unless professionally prescribed.)

Menopause smoothie: blend 35-50g organic tofu, 1 cupful red and purple fruit (buy frozen packs) and 1 banana with a little organic milk, yoghurt or apple juice.

PRODUCTS WIDELY AVAILABLE OR FROM WWW.DISCOUNTVITAMINSANDHERBS.COM

TRY THESE SUPPLEMENTS AND HERBS

Vitamin C with bioflavonoids, up to 1g daily, and vitamin E, 800 to 1,000 IUs daily, help hot flushes. (Vitamin C also helps skin and energy; vitamin E also improves vaginal dryness and helps reduce risk of heart disease and cancer.)

Herbal combination products: try Meno-Herbs or Femarone 40+. Black cohosh and St John's wort may help hot flushes combined with low mood and poor sleep (MedicHerb makes a product with both).

Australian Bush Flower Remedies Woman Essence: all-round helper.

For hair loss, try BioCare Hair Nail Complex, FemGuard (nutritional support), or AD 206 (Adrenal Health Complex).

Taken from Your Change, Your Choice, by Sarah Stacey and Michael Dooley (Hodder Mobius, Pounds 12.99).

To order a copy for just Pounds 10 plus Pounds 1.95 pp, call the YOU bookshop on 0870 162 5006, or visit www.you-bookshop.co.uk

Source: Mail on Sunday; London (UK)

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