Sunday, August 10, 2014

Dealing With Menopause- Signs, Symptoms and Relief


So a few months ago I noticed the beginning signs of menopause and I thought to myself, ok no biggie I'll just let nature take it's course and be done with it. 

That is until the hot flashes, headaches, mood swings, itching and nausea started. I'd already decided not to take a prescription hormone therapy drug because most of those drugs like Premarin are made by keeping horses pregnant all the time and collecting their urine to make the pills. Most of the foals are fattened and sent to slaughter houses or sent to meat auctions. I don't condone the abuse and horrendous conditions these horses are kept in therefore I would never take the medicine made from it.


What I have been taking are herbal supplements, herbal tea and eating crackers. 

The two herbal supplements I've been taking are Black Cohosh which gets rid of the hot flashes and St Johns Wart which helps with fatigue, mood swings and depression often caused by menopause. 

After doing some research I also found that some women experience nausea during menopause. This is actually my biggest problem right now. After reading more about it, I found that drinking less coffee and more herbal teas as well as eating crackers will help settle the stomach. I had some herbal tea in the back on one of my cabinets and went ahead and tried it along with some crackers and I was amazed the difference it made. I really didn't expect it to make any difference but I've since bought a lot more herbal teas and don't drink coffee hardly at all now which has helped to settle my stomach so much. 

It's also been 30 days since I've eaten beef. 
That may not sound like a big deal to you but I read that meats high in protein like beef can trigger hot flashes and they were very right, so can caffeine and a lot of extra sugar.  I hardly ate meat before this but I'm eating a lot less now. Hubby eats meat so we still get some just not as much and he's ok with not eating beef  anymore at least for a while. 

So more vegetables and fruits, less caffeine and sugar and more herbal supplements and herbal teas for me. I never would have thought that I would be doing any of this but it's helping and that's what matters. Plus I'm having fun trying out all the herbal teas I had no idea about.

I had been drinking around 12 cups of coffee a day and I've never taken a vitamin or herbal supplement in my life other than the flintstone's vitamins my mom gave me as a kid. So you can see that this is a huge change for me. Hope the info helps out someone else who is going through this.