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Ep. 36 Treating Symptoms-Perimenopause/Menopause
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Have you ever thought about treatment options for perimenopause/menopause?
We explore natural treatments and hormone therapy options - discuss seed cycling, supplements, lifestyle changes, and the importance of personalized care with provider consultation.
Welcome to Be On It, episode 36. Hey Jessica, what's going on in the beehive today? Hi, Debbie. I feel like we've recently discussed perimenopause as well as menopause, and I thought it would be fitting to discuss some natural treatments as well as hormone therapy solutions to help alleviate symptoms. Yeah, what what did you have in mind? I was talking to a coworker recently about perimenopause. What do you do if you can't take hormone replacement? What's out there for us? And besides diet and exercise and lifestyle change, she told me something called seed cycling. So I looked into it, and I found an article by Dr. Jennifer Davis, who's a board-certified gynecologist, and she started looking into ways that she could help herself naturally as she was going through menopause. She found information on seed cycling and then created a list on you know what it is and how it helps you and what you can do to help alleviate some of those symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.
SPEAKER_00Is it is it basically like medicine through food? Through seeds, specific seeds.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So it was through her own journey that she discovered a concept called seed cycling, which is a dietary practice that involves consuming specific seeds during different phases of the menstrual cycle, aiming to support hormonal balance. Traditionally, it's used to regulate periods and it helps lessen uh PMS and enhance fertility. But for women in perimenopause and postmenopause who no longer have a regular menstrual cycle, the practice is adapted to a consistent 28-day rotation to mimic the body's natural rhythm. And what that involves is consuming specific seeds at different phases of the menstrual cycle to help regulate and balance hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone. The seeds used are flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower, and each provide a unique nutrient that promotes or inhibits certain hormones.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03This practice is notably beneficial for women experiencing perimenopause or menopause as it can help manage symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. The seed cycling protocol for perimenopause and menopause, phase one. You want to mimic the follicle phase, day one through 14. This phase aims to support gentle estrogenic activity, which can be beneficial during menopause when estrogen levels are declining. The seeds to use one tablespoon each of organic, raw, ground flax seeds and raw ground pumpkin seeds, and how to prepare it. It's crucial to grind the seeds fresh each day or every other day. She recommends a coffee grinder or a high-speed blender. Um, she goes, it really helps break down the tougher outer shells. So you you do it shell and all, unsalted, give you the most bioavailable nutrients.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03She goes, pre-ground seeds quickly oxidize and lose their benefits if you if you are grinding them all at the same time. So that's what you want to do each day or every couple of days. You want to keep them at their freshest and the most beneficial. Okay. And she says how to consume. Sprinkle, you can sprinkle them on oatmeal, yogurt, salads, smoothies, whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00During day one, because of decreased estrogen levels, you're going to supplement basically with this one tablespoon daily of the flax, and then one tablespoon of the ground pumpkin. Correct. Okay.
SPEAKER_03The flax seeds are rich in photoestrogenics, and they are going to help mimic estrogen and omega-3s for inflammation and mood. So really important. This is especially when your first 14 days. And then pumpkin seeds, they're high in zinc, which is vital for hormone production and immune support. And this phase may help support mood stability, reduce hot flashes, and potentially support bone density.
SPEAKER_00So I thought that was really cool. Before you move on, what do you have? Okay, so I guess you can just grind these up and put them on top of whatever food you're having, right?
SPEAKER_03Whatever food you're having, just make sure they're really grounded. Do enough for those couple of days if you can't do it every day. But it's best and it's the most beneficial if you have it as fresh as possible. You want to keep them in airtight containers so they don't go bad. And she talks about that. I'll talk about that further and like how to preserve these. That's days one through 14. And then phase two, you're mimicking the loodal phase, the days 15 through the 28th. So that's that cycle, you know, after your period, the days between 15 and 28th. And the seeds that you want to use, it's the same concept tablespoon each of raw ground sesame seeds and raw ground sunflower seeds. You grind them up. And then you similar phase is one, you want to grind the seeds fresh daily or every few days for optimal nutrient absorption. You want to incorporate them into your diet in the same versatile ways as we did with the first phase. And the key nutrients and potential benefits of sesame seeds also contain the photoestrogenic support, calcium for bone health and zinc. And then sunflower seeds are excellent source of vitamin E and they may help with hot flashes. And the selenium is really important for thyroid health. All of these seeds are very helpful to the body, especially when it comes to menopause or peer, you know, PMS if you are, you know, younger. It's all natural things that you can do to help your body. Yeah. These phases may further assist with hot flashes, improve sleep quality, support detoxification pathways. She talks about important considerations for the protocol. Consistency is key. You're not going to see overnight results. Make it a regular part of your diet for at least two to three months to really see the optimal.
SPEAKER_00That's that's the consistency part, I think, is gonna be challenging. For some people, yeah, because if you don't see immediate results, a lot of people tend to just quit, you know.
SPEAKER_03Right. And it's not something that's gonna happen overnight. Things take time, it's not like a magical pill. Some things are gonna work better for some people and some things might not work as well, but it it helps alleviate some of those symptoms.
SPEAKER_00If you're depleted in certain essential vitamins, you're not gonna notice a change overnight because you're depleted. And so whatever you take in will kind of help replace that, but then you won't get to a point where you're um consistently at a good level until, you know, as you say, about two months in. Right.
SPEAKER_03You want to also check with your doctor. You want to make sure you don't have other deficiencies going on because if you have low iron or vitamin D levels are low, you want to know that so that you're properly taking vitamins to help with that. It's important to talk with a nutritionist if you have that through insurance and talk with your doctor is always important. But these are some easy food-based things if you're not allergic to do. And I'm, you know, I think storage is important. Obviously, you, you know, airtight containers in a cool dark place or even refrigerating is super important. So those don't go bad, especially since you're not grinding them all up on, you know, in one day. You're doing it little by little. So you don't want things to go bad. And hydration, it's you know, we always want to make sure we're ensuring adequate hydration, especially when increasing fiber intake from seeds. You know, these are you know things that are gonna help you be regular. That when you're eating healthy and healthy omega-3s, lean meats, vegetables, less processed foods, you're gonna see a difference. You're gonna feel really good because you're feeding your body the nutrients that it needs.
SPEAKER_00For optimal living. So I have an idea. I have a little ninja blender which has two, it has a small little canister and a bigger one. I'll just grind them up in the small canister, the the seeds. For me, I think the best way that I could, you know, because I think flax seeds have a certain taste to them that I don't particularly like. So I think a smoothie where you get your hydration and then you also get your seed, your ground seeds, and you can just stick it all in and put it into the canister and drink it down.
SPEAKER_03I think of chia pudding, oatmeal, yogurt, you're masking it with like things you're not gonna notice, or even on your salad. Those are all like good options. And there's lots of options. I can go buy a separate small like coffee grinder and only use it for that. So that's what I think I'm gonna do because I want it really fine powder. Like I don't want to be like drinking my my uh protein shake in the morning because that's most likely either that or chia pudding or what I'm gonna put it in. I don't want to be tasting gritty, chompy nutshells, you know. So I I'll let you know. I'll keep I'll give you an update on like how that goes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, some people need like texture-wise, they want more consistency, but some people don't prefer smoothies. So then your chia puddings or your yogurts are gonna work just fine. I think that if you use bananas, first of all, they're cheap and I like the taste of them. So that would mask the taste of the flax seeds for me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Some other natural hormone-free approaches to pairing menopause and menopause. I, for me personally, I grew up with a lot of herbal supplements. Herbal supplements are really important. In the past episode, we talked about vitamin D, you know, making sure that when you live in the northwest and there's not a lot of sunshine, vitamin D is essential. When you live in an area that's super sunny, you're getting that natural vitamin D, but it's always worth having it checked just to make sure your levels are okay. Herbal supplements like rose hips help boost immunity and promote skin health and reduce inflammation. That's a big one with your with menopause. You're bloated, you're you're inflamed, muscles hurt. Yeah. It helps with weight management. How do you how do you take it? Rose hips, you can buy it in a capsule or you can make, you can you know, grind it yourself. Yeah, it's it's a lot of natural things. My dad was more of a naturalist, he would get it at a specialty store that had different herbs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Where you live in the world, there's gonna be an equivalent to rose hips. If you can't find rose hips where you are, there's gonna be something that does the same thing that boosts your immunity and promotes skin health. You just have to find that natural root or whatever it may be in your area if you don't have access to rose hip.
SPEAKER_00So, how did you take it though? Did you make it in?
SPEAKER_03He would put it in applesauce. Oh, okay. He would grind it and put it in applesauce. It wasn't ever encapsulated, but you can put it in a capsule too. And then I would also, when I wasn't feeling good or had a sort of sore throat, my dad would give me aloe vera juice that contains polysaccharides and enzymes that really help soothe the digestive tract. And so it promotes regular bowel movements, natural fiber, as well as reducing irritation in the stomach and intestines and helps with bloating. You know, when we're not feeling good and we're going through perimenopause and menopause or even PMFs, that bloating is so uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Or somebody that's on a GLP1, they might like aloe vera juice, really helps with the digestion. Licorice root, another thing that helps with hot flashes and night sweats, it contains flavonoids, including glabridin and glaberin, which really helps support the body's own healthy production of estrogen. So a lot of natural roots have health benefits that are helping our natural hormones. It helps with the production of estrogen. Calcium, we know that when we're in perimenopause and menopause, that we are more prone to bone loss. So calcium is a good supplement to you know to take to help with that.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03And we were talking about earlier vitamin D, another good one. Supports bone health, strengthens the immune system, and improves muscle function. It helps relieve anxiety, it helps level up blood sugar levels, blood pressure, muscle and nerve function, and insomnia. I take it for sleep and it really helps. Like just relax my body and just promotes good sleep.
SPEAKER_00And again, like you're I have the tendency to take things, to start things, and then when I don't see an immediate effect, I usually stop because I I figure, oh, it's not working. There's no point in taking this. Um, but again, the consistency.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's not something you can take the first day and gonna see results right away. You need to take it on a I had to take it for a good week to see results. It made me sleepy. I think I made the mistake of actually taking it during the day one time and I was at work and I started to get sleepy around three o'clock, and I was like, oh, okay. So yeah, be careful. Take it at night. Natural muscle relaxant helps with the leg cramps. It's a big pill, but there's gummies out there too. Okay. I I take the gummies and I take the glycinate. Um, I do both because my problem is I get to sleep, but then I wake up. And if I do both, it really helps me. If I wake up, then I quickly fall back asleep.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So you've noticed that that has changed for you since that has changed for the supplement. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's not, it's, you know, I don't have to take any sleeping pills, which doctors don't want you to be on those long term, anyway. I've really noticed I'm more relaxed. I don't get anxious about things, but I think that has just been natural for me over the last year and a half as I went on this healing journey anyway. But really, I just I just feel more relaxed in general, and I just feel like it's really helped in that way.
SPEAKER_00I think that's just a good example of like how your physical promotion of your physical body supports your mental health and vice versa.
SPEAKER_03I agree.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03There's specific diets you can do that involve rich foods in calcium and magnesium and vitamin D, like lean proteins and vegetables. There's a lot of things you can do to eat and help with symptoms. I think things to avoid that we need to keep in mind processed foods, spicy foods. People might not realize that spicy foods can really give you more symptoms. Right. Caffeine and alcohol when we're going through perimenopause or menopause, that can make it worse. All the processed foods not helping you, making symptoms worse.
SPEAKER_00So it almost sounds like as you're in perimenopause or menopause, or even prior to, you kind of really need to hone down and get really right with the food intake and the supplementation.
SPEAKER_03Right. You want to eat as clean as possible. You want to eat things that are gonna like not not um not give you more symptoms. You want to, you want to, you know, you want all your vitamins. You might have to take some supplements. You want to do things that are gonna help minimize your symptoms, but enhance your body and your health.
SPEAKER_00And you know what? You know what it makes me think of too is like sometimes we run our bodies ragged and our bodies take count. As you're in this phase or entering this phase, it's like, no, now it's time that your body needs some attention.
SPEAKER_03Right. You deserve to be kind to yourself and to feed yourself healthy, nutritious things to the best of your ability. This is just a catalyst to do your own research and see what's right for you because with this seed cycling, how long do people usually stay on this regimen?
SPEAKER_00I wonder.
SPEAKER_03It's so easy to incorporate in your life, just make it a daily habit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like if you get like at least two to three months so you can see if it's impactful, why not do it? Yeah. If you make one small change, you start to notice I know when I'm not eating right, and then all of a sudden I get in the habit of eating really healthy, I just feel good. My skin feels good, I feel more energetic. You know, when you have something, it's just sitting in your stomach, you're like, why did I eat that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03When you eat something healthy for you, you don't ever feel like that. You just feel good, energetic, you're getting all the nutrients, you just you feel good inside and out.
SPEAKER_00But I think that's if you stay on the path. Like if you're if you're doing one meal of healthy food, and then the rest are not as healthy, then you're not gonna get to that optimal point in time where you feel great and and can reap all the benefits, I think.
SPEAKER_03No, you really need to make a complete lifestyle change. You really, really do. And then that's really a lot to ask and hard for people, but you deserve to feel good in your 40s and 50s. And we're as we age, we want to make sure that we're around for as long as we can be. If you're dirty, miserable and sick and have all these health conditions, that's not a good quality of life. So for as long as you're here, you want to make sure you have a good quality of life. And so eating well and you know, being balanced and exercising lifestyle changes are all a part of that. Strengthening your bones because we all know it's a fact that as we age, estrogen levels drop, hormones change, there's bone density loss, there's osteoporosis that can set in.
SPEAKER_00I think that these are all things that are um within our grasp, they're very accessible, available at most stores, definitely supplement supplement stores.
SPEAKER_03So we've talked about a natural approach, but there are also wonderful hormone therapy treatments that out there for for people.
SPEAKER_00Right. I just want to take the moment to realize that it is a gift to be a woman and to have a body that's gonna work for me because I still have a lot of life in me and want to make sure that my vessel is is working for me. It's and it's not too late to work on your health, I feel like. Um, this is a great time to make a change. We said before, if you have a bad day, accept it, and the next day you can get back on the horse. So hormone therapy, you know, I guess um you can look at it as hormone replacement therapy, or if it's before the age of 40, or you can look at it as hormone therapy after age 50. Um, these are uh you know, provider prescribed therapies um that people in perimenopause and menopause can um use to alleviate the symptoms. You know, the hot flashes, the night sweats, the brain fog, vaginal dryness, insomnia, mood swings, all these things that we talked about in our prior episodes. So um, when these become problematic for you, then it is definitely worth reaching out to a provider. I think there is a group on, and and they're available, I think, virtually, and they're called like MIDI Health, M I D I Health. I've seen that.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, most of them have insurances, but they take most insurances.
SPEAKER_00My a family member has gone through them, you know, had a consultation and got on some hormone replacement therapy. Um, and it and it's working.
SPEAKER_03Oh, good. Yeah. I know people take estrogen patches, there's pills. Exactly. There's creams for vaginal dryness. You just have to talk to your doctor about it.
SPEAKER_00I think the key is customization, which is what your provider will help you to determine, like whether the benefits versus the risks or whether you're even a candidate for this kind of therapy. It's medication basically, uh, through hormones. Sometimes it's just estrogen, and sometimes it's a combo of progesterone and estrogen, which they call EP EPT, estrogen progesterone therapy. The ways that it can be delivered are a patch, pills, a gel. You could there could be a vaginal ring, a cream, um tablets that you like almost like vaginal like suppositories, like tablets that you put inside your vagina, and then also sprays. The pharmaceutical companies have you know jumped on this bandwagon, and so there are different ways to get it. And I was I was also wondering about how long has this been around? Well, it's been around for a while, started back in the 40s, 50s, and then it It was kind of like a bell curve where it kind of started in the 40s and 50s. Um, it was becoming available, and then it boomed in the 60s, it peaked in the 90s, and then it kind of came down again because of certain risk factors, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Right now, it is definitely available, and you know, it's you know, more people are aware of it. So, again, this is a conversation that you're gonna have with your provider. Um, and you know, hormone therapy can be hormone therapy can be either systemic or it can be local, like um systemic where it kind of you know gets into your bloodstream and it affects different areas of your body and local more like for instance if you're having the vaginal dryness, then and that's your biggest complaint, then you would treat that symptom. Um, and that would be more local therapy. Just things to keep in mind that because I have a family member who is um on a patch. Um, I think she's on a um estrogen progesterone patch. It's working, and she had to work with her provider. Okay, they gave they prescribed this amount. Well, she dialed back a little and even a little more. She's at a place where she's taking the right amount for the symptoms. She took it for the brain fog and the insomnia and the and the hot flashes. It's helped quite a bit.
SPEAKER_03Good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I was surprised. I was like, well, wonderful. Inflammation is another thing that is problematic for women in these stages. The things that we talked about, things that will help to reduce inflammation are gonna probably be things that you're gonna talk about with your provider. It's possible your provider might not think about all these natural things. There are naturopathic providers too, and there's a lot of information online as well, because this is this has been an ongoing issue for women for quite a long time. And then again, consistency if you're gonna go ahead go ahead and try these things, right? I mean, and there are risks to hormonal therapy, hormone replacement therapy, you know, like risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, clot strokes as well, gallbladder disease. I don't think when you're trying things, you're always gonna be aware of the risks.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. I think we're just educating, you can do your own research and you know the health conditions that you have and what will and won't work. And I think it's just, you know, discussing with your doctor and doing your own research to kind of help you to alleviate some of those symptoms because you don't have to be inflamed, feeling miserable, get having hot flashes. That's you know, you can get through this and ask for help, and there's a lot of natural things you can do if you can't do hormone replacement that will help with some of those symptoms.
SPEAKER_00And I think like the main thing that I think or have realized is it's like customization. You are you, nobody, there's nobody like you. There nobody has the same fingerprint as you in this entire world. So if you can tailor the treatment, whether they be prescribed or whether they be more on the natural side through food or supplementation, you want to make sure that it's tailored to you and the symptoms that you're having. I also want to say that, like, sometimes, like if you're gonna try something, maybe try that, not just a bunch of things at the same time. That way you figure out okay, what are the results of that particular change?
SPEAKER_03Right. Make a note of it, journal it. You can start off by changing what you eat, you can add some supplements. Maybe you add one supplement at a time to see how that affects you. I think that's the the take home here is making sure that you are consistent and talking with your you know, we talked about all these different things, and now we've got some treatments and you know, to help with some of those symptoms. I hope that brings some relief to everybody that might be going through this. And knowing is half the battle. Educating yourself and knowing is half the battle. If you like what we're all about, join us next time.
SPEAKER_00Join us next time. Bye. Bye. Just so you know, we are speaking from our lived experiences and are not licensed therapists. We are all about community. Join our community by following and subscribing to Be On It through YouTube, Instagram, and of course your podcasting platform so we can continue to bring Be On It to you.
