Menopause
By Rajkumar Khatri

As many wise women have said, there's no reason really that we should accept these symptoms as inevitable: menopause is not an illness, it's merely another stage of life. So why do so many women experience distressing menopausal symptoms? This stage is when the female body ceases to produce eggs, and ceases to shed the lining of the womb. In fact the whole process that's necessary for procreation comes to a halt. Hopefully, if all goes well, we'll keep enough of our feminine hormones to keep us looking reasonable and to keep our emotions on an even keel as we glide into our later years.

Exercise and a healthy diet are the places to begin. Since women of menopausal age tend to gain weight rather easily, it's of great importance to cut down on the amount of food we eat, in addition to monitoring the components of our diet to make sure that we don't consume too many carbohydrates or too much fat, both of which will add to our girth. Concentrating on plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and a small amount of cold pressed virgin oils will make sure we have enough raw materials to feed our bodies wisely.
Menopause Continued

Menopause and Weight Loss
By Cathy Taylor

During menopause, many women report that the challenge of weight loss becomes even more difficult. The need to lose weight haunts women most of the time, and now more men are reporting the same struggle. When women hit menopause, weight gathers around the waist and hips; despite our best efforts to diet and exercise.

What we know is that this additional body fat is linked to your hormones. Most women follow a conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet with lots of processed foods. Eventually this diet creates a condition known as insulin resistance; see Dr. Schwarzbein's book on the book list. When you are insulin resistant, your body converts calories into fat even when you are dieting. Menopause feels like a losing battle, but it doesn't have to be.
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Menopause and Fatigue
By Cathy Taylor

For menopause sufferers, fatigue it is all too common. Some women report lying on the couch with their eyes closed unable to move for long periods of time. Or they experience mental fatigue that provides for feelings of indifference and an overall slumber from day to dusk that makes them unable to perform activities with maximum effort.

Fatigue comes in many forms: loss of energy after working out, motion sickness fatigue as a result of senses mixing signals in the brain causing your ears and eyes to overwork, and more. Some women suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome and others are diagnosed with hypothyroidism.
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Menopause Friendly Foods
By Colette Bouchez

Many of us assume that a good diet is …well, a good diet, no matter what our age. But increasingly doctors recognize that certain stages of life present unique and different nutritional challenges. And menopause is no exception.

From day -to- day symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and fatigue, to long range risks for heart disease, breast and endometrial cancer and osteoporosis - doctors now know that what you eat, especially at mid-life, can play an integral role in your immediate and your long term health.

To help you cope with symptoms today and lay down a foundation for feeling better tomorrow, check out these "Menopause-Friendly" foods - and the ones you should avoid.
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Menopause and Headaches
By Cathy Taylor

During the mid-life phenomenon known as menopause, changes in headache type, duration and intensity are more common. Throbbing, explosive headaches can pain the sides of your head, and your energy become totally depleted. The slightest opening of an eye can cause a ripple of pain to burst on one side of your fragile head, leaving you in physical ruin. Menopause is known to heighten such uncomfortable, sometimes unbearable symptoms.

Menopause and headache changes, specifically, migraine headaches cause a repetitive stronger-than-normal headache that resides on one side of your head. During menopause, a woman’s hormone system goes awry in part because estrogen is not being produced at normal rates.

Most women nearing the end of a menstrual lifecycle discover that their progesterone levels can become significantly decreased and cause symptoms such as headaches they never had before, or worsen ones they have.
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