Re: Menopause question

[Guest guest]

Carol,

Was the black cohosh, chaste tree together in a formula? Chaste tree alone

worked well for me before diet changes. Black cohosh aggravated my

hypoglycemia. Are you still doing the coconut oil? Inflammation just about

disappeared in me with it. Arthritic toe that got frostbite in as a kid not

even bothering me this winter. EFAs from evening primrose helped my sister.

Other than that more protein, fat, low carb, no grain has made my hot

flashes gone and nearly all other monthly irks.

Sure is cold! 35 below last night. Woodstove here that's not quite keeping

our water from freezing. Was heat tape not working anymore the other day

when it was 20 below. Woke up at 4:30AM today wondering why. Minutes later

heard a sound, went out into kitchen to find water had froze coming between

heat tape outside and pump inside, pressurized intake to water pump that

blew off, spurting water was the noise.

Wanita

wondering how the Inuit did it

Menopause question

> I'm 55 next month and have been having an irregular period for 5 years

> now. When they first started, the hot flashes started too. I went the

> soy route, including making my own soy milk and tofu because I didn't

> want the carbs in the store stuff. Then I got too busy to do soy and

> then I found the sites that are against soy. Besides, it didn't help

> with the hot flashes. And it probably messed up my thyroid. (weight

> prob) Nothing seems to help for more than just a short time (like maybe

> a month or 3).

>

> Tried Black Cohosh, Chaste tree berry, other stuff I can't remember

> right now. I'm about 50 lbs + overweight and can't seem to lose. I also

> have a mild case of fibromialgia, don't sleep well, wake up stiff and

> achy, brain fog sometimes.

>

> Last spring I found Kefir, coconut oil and NT and thru the summer was

> feeling better than in a long time, but since the weather got cold, I've

> been quite achy again.

>

> Back to the Question. Last year around Christmas, I had my first period

> in 13 months. Bummer. I had thought I was done. The Dr's blood tests

> showed that the LH hormone was not high at all (it should be high if

> you're menopausal). Double bummer. She put me on a low dose of

> estrogen/progestroen. I took the pill for 9 days and quit because I

> couldn't stand it. I had gone from hot to an ice cube. I couldn't keep

> warm. I've only had 1 period this last year, in Oct.

>

> About a week ago, because of some posts here I did some web research on

> adrenal burnout. I have most of the symptoms so I checked out what to do

> about it. Didn't have most of the stuff, but I do have Black Cohosh

> around from before. I took 1 or 2 tabs for 3 or 4 days and the results

> were awful. I was back to being the ice cube. The first 2 days I blamed

> the weather, but when I realized I was trying to keep the house at

> nearly 80* and was still cold, I knew something was wrong. Most of the

> time I'm yelling at DH if it's over 70* (we burn wood and it's sometimes

> hard to control the temp)

>

> So what can I do for the hot flashes and maybe the adrenals. And don't

> say live with them, since I can't put up with this and some days I feel

> like a zombie from lack of sleep.

>

> TIA,

> Carol K

[Guest guest]

P.S. Black cohosh is both estrogen and progesterone. Chaste tree is only

progesterone.

Wanita

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol,

Hot flashes are a problem aren't they?

I have tried gingseng, soy, and black cohosh. Right now I'm on Evening

Primrose Oil - when I remember to take it.

The black cohosh had the effect of giving me a period after a year of not having

one :-( The Dr. informed me that herbs are not regulated very well, and some

pills might have too much of the active ingredient whilst others do not contain

enough.

Are you taking thyroid medication? Being cold all the time could be an

indicator of being hypothyroid, and maybe your meds need to be adjusted.

Also, I had problems taking my thyroid meds with kefir, as the calcium inhbits

the absorption of Levythyroxin. I'm sure you know better, but just thought I'd

mention it....... Drinking kefir at lunch time or later works fine for me,

just not for breakfast.

One thing I have noticed is that my hot flashes are worse after I've consumed

alcohol the night before.....

I have heard good things about Promensil, which is made from red clover. I

intend to give that a try soon.

I suggest you invest in a VERY warm sweater with buttons down the front, so that

you can put it on and take it off a million times a day (!)

With empathy,

and the K9's

[Guest guest]

I'm 62. Been there, done that! I don't have any tried and true, no

fell answers to your problem. I do sympathize. There could be

something simple that you could do; then again it could be a very

complicated problem for you just because we are all different. No one

thing will work the same for everyone. I have severe osteoporosis and

I am still trying to discover how to reverse it for me. Some here have

done it with the NT style of eating. Some haven't. I have discovered

that a chiropractor that does Applied Kinesiology would be able to

help me find the reason for my osteoporosis and tell me what to

take(and how much) in the way of vitamins and minerals to reverse it.

Maybe that kind of person could help you?? I found him in the yellow

pages. I went to see him for a consultation and he said all the right

things. He told me of all the things that can cause osteoporosis and

named tests that can be done to rule out those things. Unlike the

medical doctor that could do nothing but prescribe medicine. If I had

done this when I was 55 I might not be so severe. So I say go find out

the REASON for the hot flashes. Homeopathic could help find the REASON

also.

Del

> I'm 55 next month and have been having an irregular period for 5 years

> now. When they first started, the hot flashes started too. I went the

> soy route, including making my own soy milk and tofu because I didn't

> want the carbs in the store stuff. Then I got too busy to do soy and

> then I found the sites that are against soy. Besides, it didn't help

> with the hot flashes. And it probably messed up my thyroid. (weight

> prob) Nothing seems to help for more than just a short time (like maybe

> a month or 3).

>

> Tried Black Cohosh, Chaste tree berry, other stuff I can't remember

> right now. I'm about 50 lbs + overweight and can't seem to lose. I also

> have a mild case of fibromialgia, don't sleep well, wake up stiff and

> achy, brain fog sometimes.

>

> Last spring I found Kefir, coconut oil and NT and thru the summer was

> feeling better than in a long time, but since the weather got cold,

I've

> been quite achy again.

>

> Back to the Question. Last year around Christmas, I had my first period

> in 13 months. Bummer. I had thought I was done. The Dr's blood tests

> showed that the LH hormone was not high at all (it should be high if

> you're menopausal). Double bummer. She put me on a low dose of

> estrogen/progestroen. I took the pill for 9 days and quit because I

> couldn't stand it. I had gone from hot to an ice cube. I couldn't keep

> warm. I've only had 1 period this last year, in Oct.

>

> About a week ago, because of some posts here I did some web research on

> adrenal burnout. I have most of the symptoms so I checked out what

to do

> about it. Didn't have most of the stuff, but I do have Black Cohosh

> around from before. I took 1 or 2 tabs for 3 or 4 days and the results

> were awful. I was back to being the ice cube. The first 2 days I blamed

> the weather, but when I realized I was trying to keep the house at

> nearly 80* and was still cold, I knew something was wrong. Most of the

> time I'm yelling at DH if it's over 70* (we burn wood and it's

sometimes

> hard to control the temp)

>

> So what can I do for the hot flashes and maybe the adrenals. And don't

> say live with them, since I can't put up with this and some days I

feel

> like a zombie from lack of sleep.

>

> TIA,

> Carol K

[Guest guest]

I'm a bit younger than you, 50, and having been dealing with

menopausal/ hormonal " malfunctioning " symptoms for the past 4 years.

I was having hot flashes, nightly waking and a host of other

problems regularly but for now NT seems to have really abated the

worst of it. This is long but it describes some of what I've been

doing. It might be helpful. I rarely have hot flashes now …of course

they may return with a vengeance as I get older.

For the first time in years I can count on sleeping through the

night! I can't exactly say what is helping but my guess is the

primary pieces are raw dairy (I use cultured goats milk and often

have a cup of yogurt or warmed milk before bed), butter oil (1-

2tsp/day), cod liver oil (1 tsp/day) and cultured veggies, along

with some raw meats. Other stuff I'm doing are raw liver tonics but

I think cooked would work for those that can't stand the idea. (See

The Liver Files under files on the left). I also have really worked

to increase my B-vits with brewers yeast almost everyday. I

increased my mineral intake with Ca/Mg (the ones Ron Schmidt

recommends) supplements, small amounts of Mezotrace, and kelp +

other seaweeds. That has really helped my teeth among other things.

I try to keep my carbs at a minimum…but do fall for the occasional

soda or sweets at times exp. when I'm stressed and tired as I teach

high school . I can really tell that my body simply is unable to

recover quickly from these slips as I get older so they have to be

kept to a minimum but it's hard at times! I can't deal well with

alcohol so I've just about given that up except for very small

glasses of high quality red wine with meat dinners. That seems to be

okay. I've found I actually begin to slur my words if I have more

than 1 glass of wine lately. Very weird but tells me my liver isn't

capable of detoxing too well so I'm not stressing it.

I do find that a bit of high quality 70% chocolate in the afternoon

seems to be okay. Or I make a chocolate coconut oil candy (see

archives for Heidi's post on coconut oil) that really helps my

afternoon sweet tooth. (BTW this is a new development as I've aged …

I've never been one for food in the afternoon…now I really want

something sweet).

I'm thinking the WD diet might also be helpful for regulating

hormones as the insulin stress is lowered to once a day. But for me

so far as long as I'm stressed with my teaching job I've not been

successful at implementing it. But you may want to archive search

warrior diet and see what others have said. Heidi seems to feel it's

really helpful to her.

Please look at what these articles for some help if you haven't

seen them:

http://www.westonaprice.org/women/natural_protection.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/women/menorrhagia.html

Somewhere on the Weston Price site I've read about that 1 cup or so

of cultured cabbage will help regulate your estrogen load. I can't

seem to locate that article.

I am not currently using any herbal formulations for menopause as

I've not had a great deal of success using herbs for hormonal

regulation. However other women I've talked to love them. Chaste

berry seems to work very well but it takes a while.

I know what you mean about stubborn weight gain! I gained 35 -40 lbs

in 2 years and am having a dickens of a time getting it off. I

think I need to work on an adrenal stress program and thyroid to

begin to get the weight off as the other parts of my diet seem

fairly good, barring the occasional soda slips!

I've also added some exercises to my routine that seem to help from

a program called TTapp. I try to sneak into the restroom at work at

least 2 times a day to do this one.

http://ttapp.com/articles/hoedowns/default.asp You can learn it from

the article and really don't to spend any money and it seems to get

my energy flowing again.

She works to develop core muscles in body. Probably any program that

works on those will help. I particularly like hers and have begun to

implement core exercises to my walking routine.

One more thing …I've also lowered my exposures to environmental

estrogens by keeping plastics out of my food storage and water. I

use nontoxic cleaning supplies and keep air filters running on

timers in our house. I try to use no pesticides or herbicides at

home. We are in the process of slowly remolding a house and I've

been very careful about what paint, sealants, cabinetry, etc. I

bring in to lower the out gassing problems. At work it's harder as I

can't control much there but I did buy an expensive air filter

that's very quiet I keep running behind my desk. I think lowering

exposure to estrogen mimicking compounds is a big piece of the

hormonal puzzle.

Here are some good sites to start that research if you're

interested: http://www.hhinst.com/ ,

http://www.bau-biologieusa.com/

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0ISW/2002_Feb-

March/82881806/p2/article.jhtml?term=

Please keep posting as to what you're doing and take care,

Lynn

[Guest guest]

Carol,

What I did for menopausal problems was to use Estroven, DHEA and magnesium,

and go on Atkins diet. This was all on the advice of a good doctor I know.

Estroven is an over the counter product with black cobash and other

nutrients. They make a couple of products. I know one just had B-6 and

something else with the cobash. I used it at first but then switched to

their extra strength product which had a lot more in it which I thought

worked much better (folate, B-12, Niacin, calcium, chromium, selenium, etc.)

Sometimes people take too much of a supplement, other times you are not

getting everything you need for it to be effective and throw your system off

worse. I can't say for you but it is something to think about. I didn't

have problems with it but did continue to have the temperture regulation

problems. For that I added the magnesium on the advice of the doctor who

said the temp problems came from my body still having trouble producing

hormones and it should help. It solved them quickly. I didn't take it for

maybe a month.

DHEA for me was a miracle drug. linked to this site earlier which I

really like. They have a ton of info on if you are interested in checking

it out. Put in DHEA in the search

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-041.shtml

At the same time I did these, I went on Atkins diet and stripped my excess

weight in a few months. One thing very important to hormone production is

cholesteral - when I first started, the more meat I ate, the more my body

craved fat juicy steaks. I remember eating them for breakfast, lunch and

dinner for a while. I honestly think that helped too.

Menopause question

I'm 55 next month and have been having an irregular period for 5 years

now. When they first started, the hot flashes started too. I went the

soy route, including making my own soy milk and tofu because I didn't

want the carbs in the store stuff. Then I got too busy to do soy and

then I found the sites that are against soy. Besides, it didn't help

with the hot flashes. And it probably messed up my thyroid. (weight

prob) Nothing seems to help for more than just a short time (like maybe

a month or 3).

Tried Black Cohosh, Chaste tree berry, other stuff I can't remember

right now. I'm about 50 lbs + overweight and can't seem to lose. I also

have a mild case of fibromialgia, don't sleep well, wake up stiff and

achy, brain fog sometimes.

Last spring I found Kefir, coconut oil and NT and thru the summer was

feeling better than in a long time, but since the weather got cold, I've

been quite achy again.

Back to the Question. Last year around Christmas, I had my first period

in 13 months. Bummer. I had thought I was done. The Dr's blood tests

showed that the LH hormone was not high at all (it should be high if

you're menopausal). Double bummer. She put me on a low dose of

estrogen/progestroen. I took the pill for 9 days and quit because I

couldn't stand it. I had gone from hot to an ice cube. I couldn't keep

warm. I've only had 1 period this last year, in Oct.

About a week ago, because of some posts here I did some web research on

adrenal burnout. I have most of the symptoms so I checked out what to do

about it. Didn't have most of the stuff, but I do have Black Cohosh

around from before. I took 1 or 2 tabs for 3 or 4 days and the results

were awful. I was back to being the ice cube. The first 2 days I blamed

the weather, but when I realized I was trying to keep the house at

nearly 80* and was still cold, I knew something was wrong. Most of the

time I'm yelling at DH if it's over 70* (we burn wood and it's sometimes

hard to control the temp)

So what can I do for the hot flashes and maybe the adrenals. And don't

say live with them, since I can't put up with this and some days I feel

like a zombie from lack of sleep.

TIA,

Carol K

[Guest guest]

Ok Bee, it makes so much sense. I didn't know about the detoxification at

night. I'm on it and I'm already worrying less. Thanks agin!

________________________________

From: Bee <beeisbuzzing2003@...>

Sent: Tue, February 22, 2011 2:46:36 PM

Subject: [ ] Re: Menopause question

>

> I wasn'n going to ask about this problem as I had understood that on this diet

> it is better to stop medication of any kind. Or so I thought, but I saw the

> other day that you recommended to one of the member that she see a doctor for

> medication as her headaches were so bad (hope you're better!) and I wonder if

> you could give me some advice on this.

+++Hi Nuala. I recommended that to one member since she was new and wasn't on

my program, so I have no way of knowing why she got such severe headaches. If

she were on my program her symptoms would be more predictable and I could advise

her.

>

> My menopause started in full about a year ago and I had quite a few daily hot

>flashes, which I lived with. The daily flashes have gone, but I now have night

>hot and cold flashes, severe fatigue, and I can't sleep. I generally have

>problems sleeping, and usually wake up late next day or, if I wake up early, I

>feel tired all day. I'm desperate to stop this as I need to be fit to job

hunt.

+++Your symptoms aren't necessarily because of menopause, since those symptoms

also occur in Men and young people. I believe they are because of natural

healing and detoxifying your body must do in order to get healthy, since they

are very common.

<snip> Although there has, as I said in a previous message been an improvement

in my stomach pain and eating habits. My worst pain,

> and discomfort (siatic pain, pain or sensation in my legs, arms, hands and

feet

>as wells as the flashes) is at night from midnight to 5 or 6am and then I fall

>asleep and can't wake up early.

+++That's great you got improvements! The pains in your sciatic nerve, legs,

arms, hands and feet are caused by toxins, and your body does more

detoxification at night.

+++You need to do things that help your body detoxify itself, which means taking

an Epsom salt bath 1/2 hour before bedtime every night, and doing coffee enemas

- see How to Detoxify Effectively:

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/detox.php

You should start with less coffee in the same amount of water as the article

explains.

<snip> Would it screw everything up if I take something to help me and continue

on your diet at the same time? What would you recommend for me if not HRT. I

have heard that there is a natural progesteron, but not sure where to get it.

+++Your symptoms are NOT caused by a lack of hormones my friend. You can also

do things that will help you sleep, and I think you should go to bed as early as

possible too - see this article on sleep:

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/sleep1.php

I hope that helps. If it doesn't you should do my 9-Day Program and not do the

coffee enemas since you'd be doing clear water enemas instead:

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/dig6.php

All the best, Bee