The Ageless and Awesome Podcast

Puffy, Painful, and Perimenopausal? It's Probably Inflammation

• Susie Garden • Episode 300

Share episode

Every day in my clinic, I see women battling a hidden enemy they can't quite name. They're experiencing joint pain that wasn't there before, skin that's suddenly reactive, or stubborn weight that refuses to budge despite their best efforts. The culprit? Inflammation – a natural process gone rogue that becomes particularly problematic during the hormonal shifts of perimenopause and menopause.

This episode dives deep into why inflammation matters so much during this life stage. As oestrogen declines, we lose its powerful anti-inflammatory protection, making our bodies more reactive to everything from certain foods to stress and poor sleep. I explain the newly recognised "musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause" that finally gives a name to the joint pain many women experience, and why that pain isn't just "getting older" – it's a biochemical process we can address. You'll discover how inflammation creates a vicious cycle with weight gain by disrupting insulin sensitivity, hunger hormones, and promoting visceral fat storage around your middle.

The good news? Inflammation responds remarkably well to the right interventions. I share my top strategies for reducing inflammation naturally, from prioritising specific anti-inflammatory foods to balancing blood sugar, supporting gut health, and managing stress effectively. These approaches have helped hundreds of women in my Glow Protocol see dramatic improvements, often within just weeks. If you've been told your symptoms are just part of aging or you're frustrated that your usual health routines aren't working anymore, this episode will help you understand what's really happening in your body and how to address it from the root cause.

Ready to tackle inflammation and reclaim your health during perimenopause? Book a peri-weight loss assessment with me to discover personalised solutions for your unique biochemistry. Pricing for my signature GLOW Protocol increases August 1st, so connect now to secure current rates and start feeling like yourself again.

Send me a text!

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause or menopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -


1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path

3. Join the waitlist for my innovative NEW 8 week group program, In Your Skin™️, for women in perimenopause and post-menopause who want effective solutions to manage skin changes at this time of life.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Awesome podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and aging so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset and outrageous confidence. Hit, subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast.

Speaker 1:

I'm Susie Garden and this week I'm talking about oh gosh. It's a word I probably mention every single day, but I know for sure that not everybody understands what I mean when I say this word, and what I'm talking about is inflammation. You're probably going to roll your eyes and go oh my God, please don't switch off, because this is actually really important. This is something that I see every single day in clinic, and you probably have inflammation in your body. You may not even know that you have it, because you don't have to have joint pain or skin rashes or whatever in order to have inflammation in your body, but some of you may have things like aching joints. Of course, some may have skin flare-ups, some may have gut issues and stubborn weight, and a lot of this can be traced back to inflammation and it can be something really sneaky, really chronic, totally overlooked, because often there aren't very few symptoms and yeah, so inflammation is a big deal. It's actually a big deal because pretty much every single medical condition, mental health condition can be traced back to inflammation. So if we have inflammation under control as best we can, you will be kind of avoiding or preventing chronic disease in later life.

Speaker 1:

And I know, when you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s even, you're not even thinking necessarily about chronic disease, particularly if you're relatively healthy. Like I'm, someone who's pretty healthy. I'm not on any kind of prescription medications as such, I don't have any major kind of medical conditions or anything like that, and I don't even think about chronic disease and being a problem. But except for the fact that I work in this area, and so every day I'm speaking to women mostly I do have some male clients, but women mostly about their health and often there are symptoms and signs that they're describing to me, particularly on the peri-weight loss assessment calls, and I know for sure that there is an inflammatory cause and that we can get inflammation to a manageable level, often just with our food choices, both what we're choosing to eat and what we're choosing not to eat. So if you've been told that what you're going through in terms of having symptoms like I just described, if you're just told that, oh, you're just getting older, you're going to have a few more aches and pains, or you're going to put on weight, or you're frustrated that your usual way of eating, your exercise, et cetera, isn't working when it comes to weight loss, then this episode is for you.

Speaker 1:

So what is inflammation really? Let's start with the basics. So inflammation is a natural response by the body. It is part of our immune system reaction and it's something that saves our lives, certainly when it comes to helping managing infection or helping fight off a cold or a flu or any kind of bacteria or virus. So it's not an inherently bad thing.

Speaker 1:

Every time you cut yourself or you get a cold or something, your body will mount an inflammatory response to heal you and you'll see that in terms of, you know, redness. So if you've got a cut, for example, redness, maybe a bit of swelling, that kind of thing, maybe a bit of heat that's often what we think of when we think of inflammation, but when that inflammation becomes chronic. So this kind of a low grade, under the radar inflammation that's just simmering away, often you may not even know it's there. You may get a bit of bloating every now and again or something that can be a sign of inflammation. It's often quite silent until it builds up enough that symptoms start to pop up and things like your joint pain, and that's a very common symptom for women in their 40s and 50s in particular. So joint pain and stiffness, digestive issues, as I mentioned, such as bloating, even such as diarrhea constipation, that kind of thing, such as bloating, even such as, you know, diarrhea constipation, that kind of thing puffy or inflamed skin, whether that's redness, whether that's feeling.

Speaker 1:

I had one client earlier this year who said to me at her peri-weight loss assessment I feel like I'm bloated all over. And when we first started her on the GLOW protocol, within the first week when I saw her, she was like I feel like all of the bloating is gone and people are actually noticing my face is less bloated and she was carrying a lot of inflammation in her body and that just reduced so quickly just through food choices and so, yeah, if you're feeling like that, feeling bloated all over, then you probably have some low grade inflammation that needs to be addressed. It definitely needs to be addressed. Fatigue Ah, that's another sign of inflammation. I didn't mention that before, but, yes, if you're fatigued all of the time, even when you're sleeping well, then maybe it's an inflammatory cause. Brain fog that can be another symptom of inflammation. And, of course, the stubborn weight gain, especially around the middle and in perimenopause in particular, our shifting hormones actually increase our sensitivity to inflammatory triggers, so we actually feel it more. And why, yes, hormones? Of course, estrogen actually has an anti-inflammatory role, and as that starts to decline, we lose some of its beautiful buffering effect, and that's why things that perhaps didn't bother you before, like lack of sleep, stress, certain foods, start having a bigger impact now.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about one of the more obvious signs of inflammation. This is the one that probably most people would be familiar with, and that's joint pain. And when you think about joint pain, you tend to think about arthritis, as in the osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis, which is an actual, specific let's call it a disease. But the joint pain I'm talking about can include that, of course, but it can just be a non-specific one either, where it doesn't actually have a medical diagnosis. So a joint pain is one of the most common complaints I hear from women in their 40s and 50s, and it's certainly something I have experienced, and so I know how frustrating and horrible it can be.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes you can wake up in the middle of the night with joint pain, particularly in the hips. Your knees might hurt walking upstairs, your hip sake if you sit for a long time. I certainly have found that. And yet nothing's necessarily going to show up on your blood work. You might get told yep, there's nothing wrong with you, you're fine, you're just getting older. But here's the thing that joint pain isn't necessarily mechanical, it's not necessarily a structural issue. It can be inflammation in the joint and in perimenopause, the decline in estrogen can lead to increased inflammation in joints, in tendons, even muscle soreness.

Speaker 1:

And guess what? There's actually been a research paper released earlier this year calling this an actual term for the first time, actually giving it a name, which is the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, and you can actually access that paper for free. The author, who's a fantastic advocate for women in this space she's a an orthopedic surgeon actually, so she's an expert in America. Her name is Dr Vonda Wright. She's a fantastic person to follow on Instagram. She's always giving out wonderful educational posts and information. So the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause was something that was only coined this year and it's not even yet fully known about by the medical population. So it's a really good paper to read and it talks about all of the hormonal effects on our bodies and how that impacts us and causes us pain.

Speaker 1:

And then the thing is, if you're combining that with poor sleep, which many women in Perry have, and stress, then you are so much less able to manage and cope with that pain. So you have this perfect storm, which it's not a great place to be in, and the other things that contribute to this, this pain, are things like processed foods, excess sugar, alcohol, trans fats, high cortisol levels. So your joints are speaking to you and it might be time to listen. The other way that you may find inflammation expressed in your body is your skin. So if you're suddenly experiencing acne again, maybe you've developed eczema, which is what happened to me, or rosacea, which also happened to me, seemingly out of nowhere, or maybe your skin just looks puffy and reactive.

Speaker 1:

Skin is absolutely a mirror of what's happening internally, especially in the gut and the immune system, because you may or may not be aware, we actually have. You've probably heard of the gut-brain axis. Right, we actually have a gut-skin axis. So we know that there is a communication system between the gut and the microbiome, I should say and the skin. We don't know a lot about it, but we know that it exists and things like inflammatory foods like the ones I just mentioned, poor gut health and hormonal fluctuations can all show up as redness in the skin, skin breakouts, itching, dryness, swelling all these things.

Speaker 1:

I've had so many women in my clinic say I thought that I'd left all of that, the breakouts in particular, behind me. Why is this happening? In my forties, I feel like I'm going through puberty again, and the answer is almost always inflammation meets hormone imbalance and the fix it's not necessarily what you're putting on your skin, it is reducing inflammatory triggers from the inside out, and the target for that is your gut. So if you're experiencing skin issues and you've got gut health issues, then it's almost absolutely going to be the case that when we manage those gut issues, that the skin will improve dramatically.

Speaker 1:

So the other aspect I wanted to talk about was inflammation and weight gain, because that's probably what the majority of women, that's probably the biggest pain point that gets them reaching out to me for help is the weight gain. For many it is also the symptoms, but almost always I reckon over 90% of the women that reach out to me it's the weight gain. That's the pain point. And most of these women have done all the things, they've tried all of the different ways of eating. They've been exercising, they've been fasting, but the weight just doesn't budge, not like it used to when you're in your 30s, for example, or your 20s.

Speaker 1:

So inflammation is often the missing link here, and it's certainly what I focus on in the GLOW protocol in a number of different ways that I attack that inflammation, because chronic inflammation impacts your insulin sensitivity, so that really does block weight loss and can make you feel hungry, can make you feel crap. It disrupts your hunger hormones like leptin and ghrelin you may have heard of those. It can slow your thyroid function as well. Chronic inflammation can put stress on your liver and your gut, which are crucial for metabolic health, and the absolute kicker is that inflammation also promotes fat storage, especially the bad kind of fat, the visceral fat, the kind that wraps around your organs and increases your risk of chronic disease such as diabetes, such as cardiovascular disease, et cetera. So you get this vicious cycle of inflammation causing weight gain, and then the weight gain fuels more inflammation and it just goes round and round.

Speaker 1:

And that's why I'm such a big believer in eating in a way that has an anti-inflammatory effect and specifically, in eating the right foods for the individual person, because we all have different levels of inflammation in our body, and when I do the bloods for the GLOW protocol, we're looking at a number of different inflammatory markers and that helps to select the right foods, but also eating them at the right times. Three meals a day, no snacks, is the ideal in the right combination of macros so we can lower inflammation, rebalance the metabolism and finally start to feel good again. And losing weight almost becomes a happy side effect of that, bringing that body back into balance and dropping that inflammation down to where it really should be. So what can you do to reduce inflammation at home? There's some of the top ways that I help people lose inflammation, particularly in perimenopause, and, as I mentioned, foods, using food as medicine, focusing on anti-inflammatory foods, and now you can Google a list of anti-inflammatory foods. Some of my favorite ones that I recommend are leafy greens like dark leafy greens, oily fish or plant-based omega-3s, berries like dark colored berries, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices like turmeric, ginger, rosemary, are all helpful.

Speaker 1:

And at the same time, though, you need to be reducing sugar. You need to be reducing your refined carbs, your processed foods. So processed foods are pretty much anything that comes in a packet. Refined carbs are all of your white foods, as I've probably mentioned before white sugar, white flour, white pasta, white rice, alcohol. You may have noticed already that your ability to process alcohol has dropped quite a bit in your 40s. So really reviewing how much you drink, whether you actually need to drink, and also reduce trans fats. So anti-inflammatory foods are really important. So anti-inflammatory foods are really important. Also, really have some knowledge. Be your own advocate, particularly around balancing blood sugar.

Speaker 1:

Now, most people think of blood sugar and they think of people with diabetes, and that is. It's just such a scratch on the surface For all of us going through perimenopause and postmenopause. Blood sugar really takes a beating and insulin resistance increases. So that means that our insulin isn't as effective as getting to get our blood out sorry, our sugar out of our blood and into our cells where it gets used when you have a stable blood sugar. The other thing that happens is it keeps your cortisol at a more stable level.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and keeping cortisol in the level that we want it, keeping blood sugar at the level that we want it all helps to reduce inflammation, and the best ways to do that are to eat protein at every meal and actually have two bites of protein first. That actually helps to trick your body into thinking you're having a high protein meal and will slow your insulin production, which is good. Um, so try not to snack even at all, except if you have high calorie needs. Um, that that's obviously different, and that's why I love personalized nutrition. I don't love giving blanket dietary advice. Everyone is different and has different needs, but to balance blood sugar, we know that if you can have five to six hours between meals and your meals are beautifully balanced, with the right amount of protein, carbs and healthy fats, that's going to make a huge difference. And it really helps also that the upside of doing this is what you'll feel is more consistent and better energy during the day. You won't be up and down and up and down with your energy levels. No afternoon slump anymore, and that's one of the most consistent things in the program that I run with the GLOW protocol, is people saying, oh, don't get an afternoon slump anymore, and it's because we're balancing out those blood sugar levels.

Speaker 1:

Number three to reduce inflammation is to prioritize your sleep. Poor sleep drives inflammation and weight gain. So really aim for seven to eight hours of sleep a night as a minimum and support your sleep hygiene like it's your job. This is one of the most critical things that we need to get back on track, particularly for women in peri and post-menopause. Supporting your gut that probably should be close to the top of this list. I haven't had this list in any particular order, but supporting your gut health is critical for lowering inflammation in the body and it's quite complex. I should probably do a whole episode on this, but let's just say that the majority of your immune system resides in your gut, and so if your gut is not happy, that's going to impact your immune system and going to cause low-grade inflammation.

Speaker 1:

So the kind of things that you're wanting to do to help support your gut is avoid foods that you know are not great for you as an individual. I have so many people that come to me when I'm talking to them about foods that they can't eat or don't choose to eat. I have so many people say to me oh well, lactose. You know, I don't really tolerate lactose very well. I can have one flat white with milk, but then I can't have any more for the rest of the day, otherwise I'll get diarrhea. And the thing is, if you do have a lactose sensitivity or intolerance, even though you're not experiencing symptoms with that one flat white, you're still going to be having low-grade inflammation in your gut which is going to cause problems. Even though you're not feeling those symptoms in your body, there's still going to be issues going on in that micro environment in the body.

Speaker 1:

So, avoid those types of foods that you know are not great for you and do things like improving your fiber intake, even just improving that with some prebiotic foods. And again, if you just Google prebiotic foods, they're just not superfoods. They're foods that you're probably eating most days, hopefully, but if you're not, start adding them in, some of the ones that are really easy to eat are things like oats, things like sweet potato. It's just for foods with good fiber, that particular type of fiber that feeds up your good gut bacteria. And again, reducing things that we know that irritate the gut, like alcohol, is a big one that we want to reduce, but often people will. When I'm talking to them they will know what foods cause them bloating, cause them to get constipated, cause them diarrhea, any of those sorts of things. Just avoid those.

Speaker 1:

Lastly, stress management is probably the other really critical one and it's totally underestimated the damage that stress can do to us on many different parts of our body. But chronic stress absolutely gives us chronic inflammation and we know that when you're in peri or postmenopause sometimes that your ability to cope with the daily stresses in life can be a little compromised because our progesterone's kind of left the building and our estrogen is often, when it's not surging, it's lower, and that impacts our brain and impacts our ability to deal with stress. So, find something that gives you joy. Okay, you don't have to dress up in the caftan and light the incense and set up a home altar. That's lovely. If you want to do that, that's lovely. But you don't have to do that. Just doing the activities that give you joy, whether it's playing with your dog or your cat, whether it's walking, whether it's reading, whether it's sewing. If it's breath work, that's fantastic. Find what works for you and do it often. So that's probably all I want to cover today.

Speaker 1:

So the main thing is do you feel like you're experiencing this inflammation? Do you feel like your whole body is bloated or puffy? We feel like there is some people just feel like there's inflammation. You may be experiencing more overt signs like like joint pain, like changes to the skin, skin itching, rashes, rosacea, eczema, acne, that kind of thing or stubborn weight gain that just will not come off. If so, you are not imagining it. You are definitely not alone, because inflammation is one of the most common yet overlooked factors in perimenopausal health, and addressing it is one of the fastest ways. Like seriously, we can see results within a week or two weeks. It's amazing. It still amazes me how quickly changing food, getting the right food for your blood biochemistry and your body and your metabolism, can improve things, and addressing inflammation is one of the fastest ways to start feeling like you again.

Speaker 1:

So I invite you, if you want to learn more, if you're thinking well maybe this is for me and you want to get some personalized support to reduce inflammation, to reset your metabolism, reclaim your energy, I'd love to invite you to book in for a peri-weight loss assessment with me. We just get on a call for about half an hour on the video. I get to know you a little bit better, find out what you're really struggling with, what potentially could be causing that, and come up with some solutions that may be just the right fit for you. The Glow Protocol is my signature three-month program designed specifically for women in perimenopause and postmenopause who want to lose weight. Balance hormones feel incredible from the inside out and don't just take my word for it. I've got so many amazing testimonials on my Instagram, on my website, so go and have a look.

Speaker 1:

And just to let you know too, I'm recording this episode on the 21st of July. My pricing is actually under review at the moment and will be increasing on the 1st of August for my program. So if you've just been kind of thinking about it, you've been on the fence book in for your periweight loss assessment now so that we can decide whether or not it's a good fit and get you in at the current pricing before it goes up. Thanks so much for joining me on the Ageless and Awesome podcast. If you liked this episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple Podcasts or the follow button if you're on Spotify so that you get each new episode delivered to you every single week. If you feel like writing me a five-star review, you would absolutely make my day. If you found this episode resonated with you, head over to my Instagram and DM me at theperimenopausepath. I would love to connect with you.

Head Shot

Susie Garden

Host