Menopause is one of the most challenging episodes in the life of a woman. The stage brings with it certain bodily changes such as the cessation of a female’s ability to conceive. Psychologically, menopause also poses quite a challenge for a woman as it will likely challenge preconceived views on her role that may cause great changes in mood and temperment as well as requiring greater effort to accept such changes as part of the natural process. Most women reach menopause when they are 50, although the average age for menopausal women is considerably earlier in most developing countries.  There are plenty of challenges confronting a woman during her menopausal stage. However, none is perhaps greater or of more pressing concern than bone loss.  

How Is Menopause Related to Bone Loss?

A woman who reaches menopause usually experiences osteopenia, running the risk of developing osteoporosis in time. Moreover, the onset of the decay of the bone leading to a weak structure causes body pain, predominantly in the back and joints.  

To answer the question raised, bone loss comes about because of the body’s need to balance between blood production and bone creation. When still young, the body is able to produce blood as well as create bones. However, upon reaching the age of 30, the body begins to lose bones faster than it can replace them.  

At the onset of menopause, bone loss dramatically becomes faster. Estrogen production stops after menopause. Once this happens, it means more bad news for the bones because the hormone is very vital in maintaining bone strength.  

Are All Women at risk for Bone Loss?

Yes. All menopausal and post-menopausal women do experience bone loss. However, there are certain groups who stand out as having the greater incidence of the condition as well as showing a very rapid bone loss. These groups include the following:

* Those who are thin or have a small body frames. Body mass is directly proportional to body size: smaller women will experience bone loss in its most severe form.
* Those who are taking steroids. Steroids interfere with the body’s natural production of hormones. As such, when menopause comes, the body is further impeded with what little amount of hormone it can produce.
* Those who consume low levels of calcium and Vitamin D. These two nutrients are very vital in maintaining bone strength. As such, when the body does not get enough of them, bone loss during menopause is predictably more severe.
* Those with sedentary lifestyle. Lack of exercise also leads to atrophy of the bones. On the other hand, those who exercise regularly develop strong bones.

Are There Ways to Prevent or Minimize Bone Loss?

Taking in enough calcium by eating fresh fruits and vegetables allow the bone to become strong in their structure, making them withstand the decaying effects of menopause. A menopausal woman needs about 1,500 mg of calcium each day. On the other hand, calcium will not be maximized if taken without Vitamin D. Vitamin D is the nutrient that makes calcium absorption easier. The best sources for the vitamin are eggs, fish, and milk. Moreover, exercising regularly will keep the bones strong, thus preventing bone loss.

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At Menopause, our body goes through changes, that can cause a list of symptoms, including menopause weight gain.

But if you are in good shape, have always watched your diet, and had no problems until this “special time”, then you may need to tweak your routines.

It only makes sense that if our bodies are going through changes, then our routines will likely have to change as well. Personally, I found all of a sudden certain foods did not digest as well as they did. Foods that I have eaten all my life, are now causing indigestion. I quizzed a few friends and found the same answers with them.

So, before you start reaching for those antacids, go to the doctor, get that long overdue checkup, and make sure all your systems are “go”, since there are many health issues that can strike at this age, such as thyroid problems, and gall bladder issues. If you get the all clear, then try listening to your body. It will definitely tell you what it doesn’t like.

In my case, I suddenly could not digest beef. I have eaten beef all my life, raised with the Sunday family dinners with Roast Beef and all the trimmings, and suddenly I can’t digest it without pain or indigestion. Instead of reaching for antacids that will just mask the problem, I decided to stay away from beef for awhile with some surprising results.

I guess my body had not liked digesting certain foods, especially beef for a about a year, because around that time my blood pressure started to rise, and I was bloated, and sluggish all the time. My doctor wanted me on blood pressure meds, but we decided to go the diet route to begin with. I saw a dietician, who said to me, “if you need to take antacids or digestive aids to digest a certain food (in my case beef) then maybe your body doesn’t want it right now”.

I came away from it, and concentrated on other proteins, like chicken, fish, eggs and nuts, and that was all I changed. One month later I am down 5 pounds, without really trying, and my blood pressure dropped 15 points down to normal. I was totally shocked, and so was my doctor. I no longer felt sluggish or bloated.

So, if you are having trouble with menopause weight gain, take a closer look at your diet, are some foods not sitting as well as they use to?. Are you just eating them out of habit?.. Do you find high fat snack foods cause indigestion?.. Then listen to your body and make some changes. Don’t just mask the problems, they will only get worse and possibly come out as other symptoms, as with me and my blood pressure, menopause weight gain, and sluggishness. You are in charge of your own health, listen to your body.

click here and get your menopause under control and feel fantastic!

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Menopause weight gain, is the number one complaint within my circle of women friends and family (Hot flashes were second!) . Yet weight gain at this special time, seems to be expected and accepted as a natural process, but why?

Why accept it?. There may not be much we can do about hot flashes, and other symptoms that seem to come out of now where, but we can control the menopause weight gain.

The key, I found, was to change up your exercise routine and diet. Your body is going through changes of its own, so what worked for you before, probably no longer works now. You hear women, going on about weight gain, when they haven’t changed much in their diet and blaming it on menopause. Actually menopause gets the blame for many unexplainable symptoms.

But, have you also noticed, that maybe you don’t sleep as well, and you are tired and cranky, and therefore pickup that extra snack or treat, a few extra lattes here and there to get you through your day? Then too tired to exercise, and this all adds up to weight gain, no matter what stage in life you are in!

If you do exercise, and you have a certain routine, now is the time to change it up. If you walk all the time, try adding a minute of jogging or trotting, or what I call “wogging” which is very fast walking. Get your heart up a little bit, then walk again, then jog again. If you walk outside, try jogging between telephone poles, then walk for the next one.

By adding these extra blips of cardio you will notice that your mood becomes a little brighter, you feel a bit more energized after your workouts, and your waistline will shrink.

Start looking at those 100 calorie snack packs out there, and if you must eat after 7 pm, eat only one of those 100 calorie pop corns, or treats and nothing else. Go through your day, and cut back on any sugary snacks.. they will just make you want more in an hour or two and make you feel sluggish. But personally I found adding some more cardio and zing to my workouts, helped me get rid of that menopause weight gain, and as a side effect, have a better outlook on this stage in my life.

click here for tips on dealing with menopause symptoms and feel great again! Article and website by Diane palmer

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Horses Urine

After the recent scares in the media about the risks associated with HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) there is a strong case for using alternative medicine to balance the body in menopause, especially when you get to supply your body with plant hormones rather than ones derived from horse’s urine. Recent research has highlighted the side effects of taking HRT to include breast cancer and heart disease. HRT has also been linked to gallbladder diseases.

Menopause is the point at which a woman stops ovulating and menstruation ceases, indicating the end of fertility. Many years before the menopause, levels of estrogen production slow down. This can start fifteen years before the menopause and is called the ‘circadian’. Apart from being a sex or reproductive hormone, estrogen acts on many organs and systems in the body. Cells in the vagina, bladder, breasts, skin, bones, arteries, heart, liver, and brain all contain estrogen receptors and require this hormone to stimulate these receptors for normal cell function. Estrogen is required to keep the skin healthy and contributes in the bone formation process.

Many women experience few if any symptoms during this time but others may suffer from some or all of the following; anxiety, hot flushes, dry skin, fatigue, feelings of bloating, headaches, heart palpitations, insomnia, irritability, decreased interest in sex, loss of concentration, vaginal dryness and weight gain.

Twenty five per cent of women go through the change without as much as a night sweat so not all menopause experience has the commonly known symptoms so it is possible to just sail through if you are in that lucky quarter.

The Menopause Vitamin E

Supplementation with vitamin E has been known to be effective since 1954 and reports from several authors say vitamin E eradicates most of the menopausal symptoms. Gamma-oryzanol, a nutrient derived from rice bran has been shown to be effective in treating symptoms of menopause. A daily dose of 20 milligrams reduced symptoms by 50% in 67% of the women studied.

When the menstruation stops altogether most of the acute problems a woman will face are over and a new balance between hormones is established. This is the stage when she may be vulnerable to potentially serious health problems such as cardio vascular disease, osteoporosis and vaginal atrophy.

Take StarGate Nutrition Calcium – Not Calcium Carbonate

Osteoporosis in particular is a major problem for women with an estimated 80% of all the 250,000 hip fractures that occur in the US being due to osteoporosis. Over 40% of women post menopause have alkaline somach fluid. Normally the stomach is slightly acidic which helps the absorbtion of calcium into the body. Calcium carbonate is actually not good for you as an isolated chemical. The calcium will end up in your heart and the carbonate in your bowl as cancer. You need to be taking a food state form of calcium as found in StarGate Nutrition Vitamin products.

Many GPs have recommended hormone replacement therapy HRT to control sever symptoms caused by estrogen deficiency in menopausal and post menopausal women. Basically a molecularly similar estrogen is taken by the woman but this estrogen is synthetic and only close to the natural estrogens produced in the body.

No Word For Menopause In Japan

Japanese women generally experience far fewer symptoms of menopause than western women. An article in The Lancet reported that the reason may be that Japanese women consume more phytoestrogens or plant estrogens. Plant hormones are very similar in chemical design to human hormones and may provide a safe alternative to the HRT that is being offered to women up to now. These estrogen like compounds are found in foods such as soybeans, tofu, miso, flaxseeds, pomegranates and dates. When these plant estrogens are eaten they act like the estrogens produced in the body. Plant hormones can be used in childbirth to start the contractions of labour!

Half of all postmenopausal women between the ages of forty five and seventy five show signs of some degree of osteoporosis. There is a connection being drawn to the possible cause of such high levels of the condition in these women. Forty per cent of all post menopausal women have a change in their stomach pH balance. In these women there stomachs become alkaline as opposed to being acidic. This cause’s poor absorption of calcium as it needs to be converted from the form we ingest, which is calcium carbonate, through the acidity in our stomachs to calcium citrate. This is the form of calcium the body finds most absorbable. Therefore you need to be taking calcium in the same form found in StarGate Nutrition products.

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This may go some way to explaining why there is such and increase of osteoporosis in post menopausal women and perhaps that we should readdress the need for HRT to combat osteoporosis and instead focus on bringing the stomach back to acidity or giving these women calcium citrate supplements. You can make calcium citrate by crushing up a calcium carbonate and mixing it cider vinegar.

Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine menopause is looked at as a period in which the energy of the kidney is declining. For the Chinese doctor the kidney has a corresponding emotion, tissue, sensory organ and element. These are respectively, fear, bone, ear and water. The adrenal glands on the top of the kidney are responsible for producing the hormones that the ovaries used to produce.

Chinese herbal medicine is one of the best ways of treating the menopause as the approach is holistic and this appeals to the condition as it very much a mind body spirit imbalance. The herbal formulas that the Chinese doctor will give will replace the estrogens that you are now not producing with plant estrogens. One of the formulas in Chinese medicine acclaimed for its beneficial effects for the menopause is called four things soup.

Ralph Quinlan Forde – CEO www.stargatenutritionvitamin.com the author and Holistic Medicine Consultant has contributed to the following publications over eight years, The Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Herald, IVENUS, Tescos Magazine, The Irish Examiner and The Sunday Tribune. He is also the founder of www.medicinebuddhafoundation.org. His book The Book of Tibetan Medicine is now in 11 languages http://thebookoftibetanmedicine.blogspot.com

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During Menopause, so many changes are going on, that the list of symptoms you see on some websites is huge!

Some women manage to get through the process without even a hair out of place and others are dropped right in the middle of the worst symptoms.

I thought I was going to be one of those lucky ones, but NOT!

But with a few changes to your routines, you just may make it out the other end unscathed!

One of the symptoms that most menopausal women are familiar with is “hot flashes” or “hot flushes”.. either way, you get this intense heat, then the chills, and you are sure you are coming down with some kind of international flu..

Anything that can get you overheated, will quite often, trigger a hot flush which can be a real issue, especially if it is already hot outside. You have to be extra careful exercising, as you are more prone to heat related issues such as heat exhaustion etc… Personally cutting the lawn has always been something I enjoy, but now with the “extra heat” I have had to change my scheduling, or risk feeling dizzy and overheated.

I used to enjoy cutting the lawn during the day, but now I have to cut it at night, just before dark, armed with bug spray! The same with walking the dogs.. night or very early AM.

The family, of course look at me like I have lost it, or have been taken over by aliens as I weed my garden by moonlight, but I monitor all my activities based on the temps outside now. Right now it is summer here, so I garden at the crack of dawn, and take it easy during the hottest part of the day, which is probably what you are suppose to do anyways, but with menopause, these times can be extra special..

I was surprised to see other women in my age group, on my early morning treks, and we nod, in that “knowing” way, and realize that I am not the only one going through this “change” as my grandmother used to call it!

So, shake up those routines, and don’t let this menopause stuff get you down, this too, will pass.. They say you feel liberated when it is all done.. I am hanging on to that! But for now, I will garden by moonlight and keep the bedroom freezing cold!

click here for tips on dealing with menopause symptoms, and feel great! Aricle and website by Diane Palmer

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All women under menopause go through many changes physically and emotionally. Changes in sexual patterns are one of the major changes. The women can not ignore these facts but instead try to understand them and act accordingly.

You might notice that a woman under menopause shows lesser signs of interest in sexual intercourse as compared to her previous condition. A women body produces many hormones and one of them is Estrogen. That hormone maintains the condition of the reproductive system and helps in maintaining sexual interest. Once Estrogen level starts dropping, a women’s interest in sexual intercourse drops eventually. This certainly doesn’t mean you are unable to carry out sexual activities but reaching a climax or having an orgasm can be very difficult for a women under menopause. These hormonal imbalance also brings fatigue and weakness thus loosing interest in sex completely.

Some women also experience bleeding and sexual pain during sexual intercourse, this is one of the main reasons why they avoid getting in any sexual contact. That can get unbearable at times and the bleeding may increase over time. As the estrogen levels have decreased, this causes drying of the vagina and decreases lubrication making sexual intercourse a painful experience. In addition to this, menopausal women also experience sudden anxiety attacks, anger, sadness, emotional stress etc. Women go through a lot of mixed feeling, hence concentration on sexual activities reduce drastically. One can not think of having sex if one is depressed or sad.

If you have been sexually active in the past and want to regain sex interest, there are many ways to do it. Emotional changes cannot be treated in a menopausal women. However women experiencing pain and bleeding while having sex can use several strategies to treat the dryness and fragility in vagina. You can use vitamin E cream or bland jelly for the healing. It needs to be applied during or before sexual intercourse. Other products like Replens are used daily especially for such conditions. Replens have effects that stay longer. All theses products are easily available at your nearest drug store even without a prescription.

If you experience menopause at an early age and want to resume your sexual activity after a long gap, you need to first strengthen and restore the vagina by using Hormonal creams that rejuvenate, moisten and thickens mucosal folds and even vagina lining thus improving circulation and restoring orgasm. You can also gently massage the opening and walls of the vagina with a estrogen cream in case you experience shrinking of vagina. This massage can be done for 10 minutes daily.

Menopause is a time when most women need support and understanding from family especially husbands or partners as she is going through a lot of changes.

Abortion Clinic. Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the Orlando Women’s Center in March 1996. STDs, physical examinations, family planning, counseling. Late Term Abortion Clinic.

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