Episode 17 of the Living Life Well Show: Peri-Menopause/Menopause how do I help myself?
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
All right. Welcome back to this episode of the living life. While show today, I want to talk about. Perimenopause and menopause and what things you can do to kind of help your help yourself. What kind of a diet and lifestyle options there are for you? What kind of supplement options there are for you.
And when you might want to look to do more than that and the benefits and drawbacks. Of treating something pharmaceutically. With [00:01:00] everything, there are diet and lifestyle practices that you can put in place that will help you or hurt you. And so, menopause is no different than that, or peri-menopause so. Let's kind of back up and so, peri-menopause can really kind of be happening for several years. Before you see a big alteration. In your cycles meaning. ~, ~You haven't had a cycle for a few months or the cycles get Much heavier. Sometimes women will experience this as more difficulty with sleep.
Sometimes you'll notice it. With mood changes even with the periods, or maybe it's even just a muscle and joint pains and things like this that you really didn't have with this same intensity of exercise. Just a few months or a year before. And so these can all be signs that you're having fluctuations in those hormone levels that could be causing this.
Really [00:02:00] the big benefit of identification early is you can start implementing these things to help augment and hopefully eliminate those symptoms maintain your body's natural production of the hormones that it is able to make as you were going through this. God designed transition.
And so we want to make sure that we're supporting that as much as possible. So what can you actually do? So number one is diet, right? And so we've talked about this quite a lot but really eliminating those sugars. Eliminating those processed foods is going to be very important. The reason is that it really, it creates inflammatory changes within your body.
As we have changes. In our body with regards to inflammation. Those processes that are going on in the gut and all of our other organs, sex organs. Combined [00:03:00] are effected. And then that is going to cause a derailment of the natural production of hormones that we do make in addition, It's going to cause other issues to come up as well. Once those changes in hormones start because of that inflammatory process, that's going on. It makes those symptoms much more significant. As the body is naturally going into menopause.
So, the number one thing that we want to do is decrease inflammation. So making sure that you are eliminating all added sugars and that's going to be the first step, the second step would be eliminating any of those refined grains. For sure. You want to be eating more heirloom grains. Those types of things. You want to limit grains as much as possible.
And the third thing, and I haven't talked a whole lot about this, but really [00:04:00] eliminating any kind of seed oils anything like that. We want to eliminate canola for sure. Even flax seed oil we want to eliminate and , using olive oil would be good the way I like you to use olive oil though, is essentially as a. Addressing or a topping. After something has already been cooked the cooking denatures the olive oil and makes it less beneficial.
But if you add olive oil on it after you've cooked it. Then you get all those God design benefits that helps support the natural production of your hormones. And so. That would be something that we want to do. Second is exercise. Now a lot of women really enjoy doing cardiovascular intensive type exercise. Be it running.
Be it. Doing spin classes things like that, even walking those things and don't get me wrong. Aerobic exercise is [00:05:00] great. However, what we want to do is with our exercise now that we're having decreasing levels of our estrogen or testosterone bone health and muscle mass are going to be very important.
So as you get into your mid forties or so. I really recommend adding in some sort of resistance training or weight training to go along with your workout regimen, this is going to help you maintain your muscle mass. It's going to help you maintain your bone health and will help support healthy hormone levels.
As you go through this transition. Now for some people doing a HIIT workout is really good. Now all HIIT workouts. Aren't the same. There is some suggestion that doing a brief, even short as five to 10 minute HIIT workout with resistance training. Can be extremely beneficial for women, more so [00:06:00] than men.
And so this might be the case for you. And so exploring how to get that resistance training in how to fit it in. If you're one of the people that really enjoys your cardio and are adding in resistance training. As a necessary evil. Then maybe exploring a very short. Five to 10 minute HIIT workout a couple of times a week.
Maybe something that would be easy to incorporate as opposed to signing up at a gym and going through a big weight circuit and doing that kind of a thing.
Those things would be able to be accomplished by just using some simple hand weights at home. So, diet and exercise are of course. Always going to be tenants that we want to look at sleep of course, is going to be very important. Your sleep quality is disrupted. The more those hormone levels are off and many times as [00:07:00] women are going through perimenopause or the changes that will be one of the first things that they're seeing. Is a disruption in the sleep cycle sometimes really kind of changing up that sleep routine and those things can be beneficial, but sometimes you may need some hormone support. To really help with sleep if it's becoming an issue, if you haven't supported your magnesium levels, if you haven't. Really changed that bedtime routine I would recommend starting there and really focusing on that aspect first before you had ever moved to any type of a hormone. And then of course, with that is going to be managing stress.
Most women that are in their forties to fifties still are quite busy. Quite involved in family life work life. All these things balancing that work and home life. And that can be very difficult. That [00:08:00] creates lots of stress. So stress, again, leads to inflammation.
And the more things that you can do to mitigate those stress levels, it's going to help in your sleep. It's going to help in your hormone levels. It's going to decrease that overall inflammation. And allow this transition to be a little bit. Easier and better for you as you continue to go through this.
So. Now. As we kind of talk about this, there are also some things that you could do via supplement wise that will help to some degree now. I would not recommend relying solely on supplements. To mitigate your symptoms implementing that diet, those lifestyle changes, the sleep routine, decreasing the stress is going to help quite a bit and probably more so. Then if you were to do just supplements. Now [00:09:00] using the two together, I think you're going to get really good results.
And so what are those things that we want to do? So, first of all, we want to make sure that our vitamin D levels and B levels are good. We want to make sure that we're getting levels of vitamin D that are much higher than the standard you want to go to that optimal range at 50 to 70 at least. Really getting in there to make sure that vitamin D level is supportive because it's important in hormone formation as well. Vitamin B6, vitamin B12 are also going to be very important and we want to make sure that we're getting those in the right form.
We want to make sure that they are in a methylated form. Folate is going to be very important as well now. I generally like people to get their full, late through plant-based foods. Through fruit. This type of form, as opposed to taking a folate supplement directly because if you're going to do a folate supplement, it has to be [00:10:00] methylated folic acid as folate is not sufficient.
It is not going to be helpful and it's not going to help support activating those hormones. So. You really want to get that a methylated folate or you want to get it? Through fruits and vegetables that way. So other specific supplements that you might be able to use to help with symptoms.
So for hot flashes, Black cohosh has been shown to suggest that it helps there's been some reviews through literature from the nineties and early two thousands. That suggest that it helps some with hot flash type symptoms. In addition, flax seed is suggested to help with hot flash type symptoms.
Some people even recommend flaxseed oil. I do not recommend the oil. Just because it is a process and the way it's extracted and it would be much more than having a spoonful of [00:11:00] flax seed in like a yogurt or something like that. So, That would be way too much. So I'd recommend the actual flex seed.
If you're going to use a flax seeds as a potential supplement for night sweats. And then red Clover. Again, it is a phytoextract as well as wild yams which help with estrogen as well as progesterone, support. And so, using that would be beneficial.
They do make several supplements. Over the counter that contain all of these. So making sure that you're using your reputable source. That doesn't have a lot of added things in it. Is going to be very important. And then ginseng Ginseng. in general for mood and sleep is going to be helpful. And then soy. But when you're using soy, I recommend, , really. Whole foods not tofu. A lot of the tofu is so ultra processed is just really not very beneficial. So an example of a [00:12:00] whole food soy product would be like edamame.
Adding a little bit of edamame may be something that, that is helpful for you. Okay. So we've gone through kind of the dietary and lifestyle, the non-prescription type changes.
What else? Can we do? So the other things that we want to talk about here is I want to talk a little bit. About the different pharmaceutical treatments that we could do. So. , there's a lot of controversy going on for the last 20 plus years regarding this. I'm not going to get into the details and why all that is.
But basically here is the gist of it.
If you think that you're experiencing. Some symptoms related to perimenopause or are very early in menopause, hormone replacement therapy of some sort [00:13:00] may be of Benefit to you. But not. Until you have implemented all these other things that we just discussed. That's going to be very important. Implementing all these other things is going to give you the benefit of supporting that natural decline in estrogen. That natural decline and testosterone, those changes and FSH and LH that occurred. Naturally. Along with the progesterone.
And so. Making sure that you have done everything that you can do prior to starting on any type of supplementation is going to be important. Secondly when you start, you want to start early. You want to start in that first five to 10 years. of a symptom onset that's when you're going to get the most benefit cardiovascular benefit muscle mass benefit, bone [00:14:00] benefit. From starting any type of hormone replacement. So when we do hormones, we want to do bio-identical hormones.
So there was Premarin which was kind of the typical estrogen form of estrogen that everybody was on prior to recently in the last, in last. A couple of decades. It was made from horse urine. So that's obviously, it's not what we consider bio identical. And so, you want to do more of the bio identical hormones and then there's a few different. Forms of that.
Right? So there's creams and patches. There's injections. Slash pellets. Okay. And so. You want to be careful with all of these. And so, briefly creams and patches, I liked the most, and the reason is. You can just wipe it off or take it off. Once you do that, it's going to go away in a rapid succession a day or so. An injection typically is going to last a week or more.
And [00:15:00] so if you have overshot and created a lot more symptoms for yourself because now your hormones have gone way too high. And you're having opposite effects. Then you want to be very careful with doing that same thing with the pellets, obviously you're in there for a much longer period of time typically months.
And so. I always recommend number one, like we've said modifying any dietary lifestyle and supplements that you could use. And then when you do move to hormones move to those that are going to be the easiest to remove or add on to an injection is easier to add onto than a pellet. You can put two patches on instead of one, or we can call in a strength of a higher patch or we can. Increase the amount of cream or increase the concentration in the cream. That we're using much more easily.
[00:16:00] Then you can with the injection. Or the pellets. So another thing that I would consider a prescription. Would be DHEA. Is a precursor. Too many of our sex hormones are precursor to estrogen and testosterone. I use DHEA as an oral supplement. As well as a cream with many of my clients, male and female. Because DHEA is going to support your body's ability to then convert that into testosterone or estrogen whichever your body senses that you're needing the most. It's again, it follows that same pattern of kind of like a cream or a patch in that. , you can rapidly change if we're seeing that we have too much, or if we have too little. Now. Some people get extreme benefits and boosts from just a little bit of DHEA. Other people it takes more DHEA is [00:17:00] produced. From the adrenal glands and has to get sulfated to be in its active form.
So foods that are gonna help with that conversion are going to be like cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. Kale even a would be good. And then of course, just in general, ~ , ~eating healthy foods are going to be important.
And so, adding in fish. Is going to be important and be. Beneficial and this way. So, so looking at DHEA and supplementing, before you ever start down any road with a supplement like DHEA or a prescription, obviously you do need to be an concert with a physician to know how much, how to change levels.
Those things, if. If it is determined that you do need that. So for those women who may be further down the road with regards [00:18:00] to their menopause journey and even those that are currently going through that. Change sometimes. Adding in some projesterone at night or a progesterone precursor, like prenenolone. Can be of benefit as well.
Again, these are things that we need to be tested prior to really starting them and would need to be in conjunction with a physician. On the last episode we talked about if you think that any of this might apply to you I would recommend that you get in with your physician or if you're really not sure. Maybe take our quizzes that we have listed on our website.
You can go to livelifewellclinic.com. And take a quiz there. See if that sounds like it's something that applies to you. If it is, you can get in contact with us or you can get in contact with your primary care physician so that you can get take those steps. If you want to, to getting that blood work done looking at drawing labs and. Potentially [00:19:00] doing that Dutch test as well. That we talked about in the last episode.
So. Guys, don't worry. Coming, I have an episode For you as well on supplementation. Anyways, I hope you have found this enjoyable.
I hope it's been beneficial. Thanks. And God bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel [00:20:00] information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
