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Author: Dr.Lejla Kažinić Kreho
The battle with menopause is won on the plate! |
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Hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, vaginal dryness, urinary tract infections, anxiety, lack of energy, joint pain...
These are some of the symptoms you must have experienced if you are in your forties.
Responsible for these symptoms is the hormone merry-go-round which occurs in perimenopause.
In some of the women the hormones will be enhanced, while others will experience milder problem so menopause for them will not be a significantly unpleasant phase.
Synthetic therapy as a two-edged sword
According to the report in Journal of the North American Menopause Society, published in the summer of 2006, nine out of ten women experience some of about 20 symptoms typical of this life phase.
To help women, in mid-20th century the American scientists designed synthetic estrogen as a replacement for the natural hormone.
It was believed that the synthetic estrogen postpones osteoporosis, prevents heart disease and colonal cancer.
Up until the seventies it was considered miraculous remedy, but then it was discovered it increased the risk of uterine cancer.
It was then that the synthetic progesteron was created as an ideal partner to the synthetic estrogen. This was the birth of the combination known as HRT - hormonal replacement therapy.
At the beginning, this therapy gave many women's lives a new meaning.
But not for long. Recent research have linked it with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, brain stroke, blood clot formation, breast cancer and endometriosis, specially if it is taken for a long time.
Due to the side effects that may appear during the hormonal replacement therapies and to the danger it entails many women have opted for natural replacement therapy.
It includes an increased consumption of foods known as phytoestrogens, which imitate the female hormons.
Fantastic phytoestrogens - the most recent hit of the natural medicine
Phyto is "plant" in Greek, and phytoestrogens are estrogens from the plant world.
Do you know we have been eating phytoestrogens all our life without knowing it and that we have neglected because of the food industry modernization?
Today we know about 300 plants that contains estrogens in small quantities.
Although they cannot satisfy the needs for estrogen, which decreases as women age, if they are taken every day in adequate quantities, phytoestrogens may have positive effect on physiological and psychological symptoms related to menopause.
There is an abundance of phytoestrogens in the Japanese women's diet, which is why the symptoms of menopause are barely known among them.
In 1998 Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology reported that soy helped alleviate hot flashes, and the scientists from The Dunn Clinical Nutrition Cambridge University discovered that phytoestrogens may balance the hormones.
Research on phytoestrogens is being conducted almost daily in research centres and clinics.
They are increasingly used as a natural solution for the unbearable menopausal symptoms and for hormone-related cancers such as breast and prostate cancer.
They are also being viewed in context of natural medications for osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases which have turned into an epidemic.
>> Continue reading: Diet in menopause: discover foods rich in phytoestrogens
Note:
In the book "Prehrana 21. stoljeća" (21st Century Diet) I explained that the foods like broccoli, cabbage, peanuts and ? pinjola, although very healthy, aren't recommended to people with thyroid gland disorder.
These foods make iodine absorption difficult.
It seems soy should be included in this group for the same reason. Some research show that isoflavones from soy may interfere with thyroid function by reducing the concentration of free thyroxine, a hormone important for the healthy functioning of the thyroid gland.
However, these foods do not affect the thyroid functioning in healthy people.
It is important to secure sufficient consumption of iodine through diet.
The iodine rich food are:
• Sea algae
- Spinach
- Swiss chard
- Garlic
- Sesame seeds
- Asparagus
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