Matted
Ladies – get your mats ready!
Research suggests that yoga is actually superior to physical exercise for relieving vasomotor symptoms (e.g. hot flashes and sleep disturbances) perceived stress and neuroticism in perimenopausal women.
The new study, published in the journal Menopause, compared the effects of 8 weeks of simple, trainer-supervised physical exercise to integrated yoga (sun salutation with 12 postures, breathing practices and cyclic meditation) in 120 perimenopausal women.
Positive, significant benefits were seen in all measures among women who were part of the yoga versus the physical exercise group.
Yoga appears to be a wonderful way to relieve some of the more troublesome menopausal symptoms without medication. I wouldn’t give up any physical exercise that you engage in but adding a yoga component to your routine may be provide some additional benefits.
Yoga classes are offered throughout the country in local gyms, specialized centers and often through the local YMCA or YWCA. If you’ve never participated in a class, you can learn more about the practice of yoga at the following sites:
- The American Yoga Association offers a great introduction to yoga
- The Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States also has some well-written content on their website, and oversees instructor certification. They may be a good resource for finding an instructor
- Yogajournal.com is a great resource for videos, teachers, community, blogs, etc. and a wonderful place to get started
Finally, I just want to mention that that is not me in the photo. If I were ever able to get into that position, it might take me months to get out of it!
Read MoreBurn Baby Burn
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In my last post, I mentioned that menopause has been linked to altered sensitivity in the roof of the mouth and a decreased ability to detect sweet taste. Interestingly, I heard from a friend that she recently started experiencing a burning sensation in her mouth and that her doctors have been attributing it to menopause. Say what?!
Seems that the Queen Bee of Menopause, the Sister of Love and Destruction, the Lady of Light and Dark, estrogen herself, is wreaking havoc on more than the tastebuds.
I was intrigued so I did a search. I found over 500 articles in the National Library of Medicine Database, PubMed, and also located this article in the journal American Family Physician.
Although burning mouth syndrome primarily appears to primarily affect women after menopause, some 10% to 40% of women in menopause can suffer from its effects. These may may include burning in the tongue or oral mucus membranes, dry mouth and taste alterations.
The causes of burning mouth syndrome range from depression and anxiety to underlying illness, high glucose levels and of course, hormones. Researchers have also identified alterations in the cranial sacral nerves that serve taste and pain sensations as possible culprits.
Currently, unproven treatments include benzodiazapines, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and capsaicin. However, I’m wondering whether or not craniosacral therapy might offer an alternative to women who don’t want to go the drug route. Mind you, there are lots of naysayers out there who claim that CST is quakery but having used it successfully for pain, I am a huge fan.
A fellow blogger also directed me to this extensive site on burning mouth syndrome. I can’t vouch for its content but it is definitely worth checking out for backgrounding purposes. Do you suffer from Burning Mouth Syndrome? What are you doing to treat your symptoms? Inquiring minds want to know!
Read MoreNews flash! A new alternative alternative therapy!
As promised in my post last week, I tracked down Denise Polacek, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Life Quality Technologies to learn more about the device for hot flashes that she is developing. We chatted about how and why she invented the product and more importantly, what it means for women in menopause who for one reason or another, don’t want to take hormone replacement therapy.
Her background? Denise has not spent her lifetime as a career inventor but she has spent years in a field called technology transfer (assisting scientists with patenting and commercial licensing of inventions). So she understands the ins and outs of development. What’s more, she has a broad scientific research background and a few patents under her belt already, although she says that these are based in cardiovascular genomics and not targeted to her current interests.
No stranger to hot flashes, a few years ago Denise found herself attacking the thermostat in meetings every time her internal thermostat rose a degree. “After about the fifth time, a colleague pulled me aside and suggested that the problem was me,” she explained. “So, I went to the gynecologist and immediately started hormone replacement therapy.”
While the hot flashes stopped within 24 hours, her interest in research didn’t. She felt that if she was going to take hormones, she better understand what she was taking. While delving deeper into the published literature, she learned about the association between HRT and incidence of blood clots and heart attacks. The cost-benefit ratio was not worth it, she says. So she stopped the drugs immediately. And became a guinea pig for her own experimentation with thermoelectric cooling.
Denise likens her own patented invention to a cooling fan in a computer; when the compressor starts overheating, the fan kicks in. She says that she soon realized that as soon as she got into the cold, her hot flashes would stop and that she could attenuate the symptoms within seconds. “I used those blue ice paks commonly reserved for injuries,” she says. And by experimenting on different parts of the body, she discovered that certain areas were more sensitive to cold than others and could literally halt the flash in a very short period of time.
Although the new device does not have a name or a final design as of yet, there is a prototype that’s been tested successfully on numerous colleagues. The results thus far have been exciting. “Cooling is mostly immediate and instantaneous” she says.
Denise expects the yet unnamed device to be on the market sometime in 2009. She emphasizes that the final product will be lightweight, portable, discreet, and worn under clothing near the waistline, “like lingerie.”
This is a lady who was not afraid to take some risks and follow her own path when the path in front of her has too many potholes. She’s networked like crazy and her efforts are paying off – not just for herself but those perimenopausal and menopausal women for whom drugs are not the answer. Denise told me that while she has a few other ideas for her new company, she is first and foremost dedicated to menopausal women and breast cancer sufferers plunged into premature menopause. “Menopause is not a disease,” she says, and “shouldn’t be treated like one.”
The possibilities are endless. And here’s a new pioneer who’s created innovative solution for millions of women who suffer from hot flashes. Cool!
Read MoreLet’s talk about sex
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I’ve heard that menopause is often linked to problems in sexual functioning.
Now mind you, this is one issue that many of my gal pals, present company included, have yet to experience but I believe that it’s an important topic nevertheless. Indeed, other women have expressed issues around desire, capacity for orgasm, and frequency of intercourse. The question is, are these problems related to menopause and hormones or to aging? Well, apparently both.
For example, some studies have found that the sharpest decline in sexual interest for women occurs around the mean age of menopause, while others have found that menopausal status (i.e., the point of the transition) negatively affects sexual function independent of age.
Interestingly, one of the largest studies – the Melbourne Women’s Midlife Health Project – which followed 438 women through menopause for more than 10 years, found significant declines in female sexual functioning, responsiveness, frequency of sexual activity and libido. When the researchers compared women who went through the transition during the study to those who remained pretty much in the same phase, they found that only sexual responsiveness declined. What this implies is that our ability to respond to sexual activity is paired with aging, while all the rest of the issues, are affected by menopause.
Interestingly, among the variety of factors that may contribute (e.g. quality of intimate relationship, degree of stress, general well-being) androgen levels (i.e., testosterone) may play a role.
In a fairly recent review of 14 controlled trials in women undergoing natural or surgical menopause, researchers found a benefit from “adding back” testosterone, in terms of sexual desire, frequency, pleasure, and satisfaction. Testosterone was administered via patch, a gel, and inhaled, among others. While some of the benefits may be attributed to the so-called “placebo effect,” the results are interesting and lend promise for future studies.
Read MoreNavigating the Maze, Part 2
In my last post, I wrote about navigating the maze of perimenopause symptoms and treatments. This is a continuation of an interview I had with NYC-based acupuncturist and Chinese Medicine Specialist, Elaine Stern.
When I last left off, we were discussing useful Western herbs for addressing perimenopausal symptoms.
Are there other herbs than black cohosh that are helpful for perimenopausal symptoms?
Chaste tree berry is a very useful herb for perimenopause since it targets the “luteal phase” of the menstrual cycle. It helps the body become more efficient in terms of ovulation and progesterone production, and may be useful for women experiencing irregular cycles or PMS symptoms.
You mentioned nutrition earlier. How is this different than herbal medicine? Afterall, we’re taking supplements, right?
Nutrition, like acupuncture and herbal medicine, is a fairly diverse field. However, unlike the literature has not caught up with its practice. It’s also confusing because we may read the newspaper one week and see a study saying we should take vitamin X, and then the next week, see that it’s been linked to cancer.
When it comes to nutrition, it’s important to understand the body’s physiology and biochemisty and focus on nutrients to increase natural function and actions. With regards to perimenopause, you may recall that we discussed the build-up of excess estrogen. Vitamin B6 has been shown to be very important in helping the liver clear the estrogen out of the body. While things like diet are undoubtedly the most efficient way to obtain B6, well, the way that we eat and the way that our food is grown can interfere with the ability to get as much as is needed. With a little extra, we can assist the body’s ability to clear the estrogen, thereby addressing water retention and other PMS symptoms.
Do women need to stay on treatment the entire menopausal transition?
Well, it’s important to stay on some sort of program for a period of time. This will vary from person to person.
What should women look for in a practitioner?
With Chinese medicine and acupuncture, the practitioner should be licensed and have national board certification. If their specialty is nutrition, it’s helpful to inquire about education and experience. And most of all, find out if the practitioner has a specific interest or area of practice that focuses on gynecology and internal medicine.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I want reiterate that herbal and nutritional products are completely unregulated and there’s a huge variety in quality. Whatever you can learn about the way that a product is manufactured and with what type of oversight, the better. So, I’d recommend that women look at the labeling for buzzwords like “standardized,” “good manufacturing of products,” things like that, but with the knowledge and understanding that there is no oversight with regards to the marketing of these substances. Again, this is a good reason to see a practitioner, at least to get started as he or she can be useful for creating a program and guide you to good sources for herbs and nutritional products.
Finally, this is medicine. Women need to understand that they are tinkering with their hormonal balance and even if the products aren’t toxic, it’s important to look beyond the symptoms and understand what’s going on physiologically. So, I truly believe in the importance of speaking to someone who can understand your individual changes and then recommend something. At the very least, women should see someone at least once to insure that they are on the right track.
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