NATURAL HEALTH CORNER
Joshua Singer, L.Ac.
Licensed Acupuncturist
Menopause is a natural, sometimes unwelcome, hormonal changing of a woman’s body. It is the ending of the ability to reproduce, the end of the woman’s supply of eggs. Mood swings, anxiety, sleep disturbance, hot flashes, night sweating, decreased libido, dryness, and constipation are some of the common symptoms. This shift typically begins to occur in the mid to late forties. A woman is considered in menopause if she hasn’t had a menstrual cycle in one year.
Overwhelmed by Heat
Often the symptom that can be most uncomfortable and disruptive is hot flashes. This can occur regularly throughout the day. It may happen a couple times a day or a couple times an hour, when you may feel as if you just stepped into an oven for a minute. This is the reason that women often seek help. Night sweating can also be severe, where you may be awoken in bed every other hour drenched in sweat, possibly needing to change your clothes and sheets. Such sweating is depleting to the body and the consistently disturbed sleep will compromise health in other ways. We’ve all experienced when just a few nights of poor sleep affects our mood, energy level, mental focus, and our immune system, let alone every night disturbed by excessive sweating.
Time of Imbalance
You could see menopause as a changing of your body in a similar way as we are experiencing this change of season around us from Summer to Fall. It’s the ending of that prolific time when your body is able to reproduce. Like this fluctuating temperature and weather, menopause is not necessarily a smooth transition. In Chinese Medicine, which recognizes that the body is an object in nature, this is considered a time of imbalance of Yin and Yang within the body. While understanding the hormonal changes that cause these symptoms, I use this other medical language each week when treating menopausal women to ease hot flashes, night sweats, and these other challenging symptoms.
Yin is considered the cooling and calming functions of the body while Yang is seen as the warming and activating. Nighttime is when it is cooler and generally calmer for us, hence when the Yin is more demanded. Appropriate sleep requires a sufficient amount of that Yin aspect of the body. Maintaining a steady body temperature is attributed to a balance of Yin and Yang. A hot flash is considered a sudden rising of Yang, or warmth, which is typically due a deficiency of Yin. (One may equate deficiency of Yin to decline of estrogen.) Like on a balance scale, when one object gets lighter, the opposing object rises. This imbalance of Yin and Yang is a way of understanding the various symptoms of menopause.
Cooling the Fire
When symptoms of imbalance present, Chinese Medicine employs acupuncture, herbs, and foods to help regulate Yin and Yang in the body. By stimulating specific points with very fine acupuncture needles, the cooling aspect can be nourished in order to subdue the sudden, excessive warming. Certain combinations of Chinese herbs can have the same effect. The standard Yin strengthening formula that is commonly used today was originally written 900 years ago and has been used regularly since. Cooling, or Yin supportive, foods are also suggested to reduce the intensity of menopausal symptoms:
Fruits Vegetables Proteins
Apples Asparagus Eggs
Bananas Peas Kidney beans
Pears Spinach Milk
Lemons Tomatoes Pork
Watermelon Yams Tofu
You may explore by increasing some of these foods in your daily diet and see if your menopausal symptoms calm down. There are Western herbs to investigate as well that are known to regulate hormone levels.
The challenges of menopause can be disabling at times, but do typically have an end point even if untreated. By using the tools and understanding of Chinese Medicine, we can surely make this life transition a smoother one.