Anti-Aging and Hormones: 

Perimenopause and menopause are natural events that affect every woman. They are part of a natural process; however, approximately two-thirds of all women will develop menopausal symptoms. The most bothersome of these are the vasomotor symptoms of hot flashes and night sweats.

For a long time, hormone therapy was considered the first line of treatment for these symptoms. This is changing, however, given the results of the Women’s Health Initiative. Now, many women are reluctant to use exogenous hormones for these symptoms and are turning to botanicals and dietary supplements for relief.

Perimenopause and Menopause

Before menopause manifests, there is a time known as perimenopause, literally meaning “around menopause,” that can bring on very troublesome symptoms. Perimenopause is generally expressed in women between 35 and 50 years of age. This phase can last two to 10 years, before the total cessation of a woman’s menstrual cycle. If a woman does not properly metabolize estrogen, she can develop common perimenopausal symptoms. These symptoms are caused by fluctuations in estrogen levels, along with higher levels of toxic estrogen and a deficiency of healthy estrogen metabolites. This is a signal that a woman should address how her body is handling endogenous estrogens, as well as estrogens found within our environment. These symptoms are signaling that future health problems may arise from these toxic estrogens.

Actual menopause officially arrives when a woman has not had a menstrual period for 12 months in a row. A woman is post-menopausal after 12 full months have passed since the last menstrual period. The primary cause of actual menopause is declining estrogen levels, a Natural part of the aging process. The average age for experiencing menopause is 51 years, but many women will notice early menopausal symptoms before the age of 45. For multiple reasons, women can go through menopause as early as their 20s, 30s or 40s.

The severe vasomotor symptoms of menopause—hot flashes and night sweats—are primarily caused by the rapidly fluctuating and dropping levels of natural hormones. These vasomotor symptoms may begin more than four years before menstruation stops and continue a year or two after menopause. These menopausal symptoms can also lead to insomnia or disturbed sleep.

To effectively treat these very troubling symptoms of perimenopause and menopause without resorting to hormone therapy, very specific nutrients and botanicals at clinically significant levels can be utilized to support healthy hormonal levels and metabolism, providing welcome relief for women. If you understand estrogen metabolism and take actions to affect it, you can significantly reduce perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms, as well as the risk of breast and uterine cancers.

Nutritional Treatment of Symptoms Relating to Menopause

• Black cohosh root extract
• Other botanicals that have performed well in placebo-controlled clinical trials include specific isoflavones from Leonurus cardiaca, or motherwort, is another botanical that has estrogenic activity and has been shown to be helpful in alleviating the discomforts associated with menopause.
• Phytonutrients found in cruciferous vegetables, specifically DIM (3, 3’-Diindolylmethane), have been found to promote beneficial estrogen metabolism and detoxification to restore a healthy hormonal balance.
• Proper diet can help improve estrogen metabolism and helps resolve toxic estrogen dominance and the symptoms that arise from it. 

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