After writing last months article, I had several women ask about additional questions on menopause, so I decided to make a follow up article addressing these other issues.

Libido
The first and most common question I get asked is about sexual drive – what can be done to boost your sex drive? And can this be done effectively without unbalancing your hormone levels? Often these women ask as they have seen an herbal product advertised for this purpose and want to know if this will help them without causing any other problems.

What I usually tell people when they ask me if these herbs really work, regardless of whether they are having menopause problems or not is that if your body is optimally healthy, you may just have a deficiency in this area – if this the case, you may find these products useful. If your issues are caused because of something else, and your sex drive is just a symptom of that other issue – it may not get better with these products – and other steps may need to be taken to overcome the core issue.

For example – if you are in pretty good health, you may just be overly tired from stress at work, or burned out and do not have the energy to be “in the mood”. If this is the case, cordeyceps, maca or damiana may be a good choice to try to increase your lung capacity and energy endurance. Butcher’s broom may help to increase circulation to the lower half of your body, allowing your natural juices to flow.

However, if you are constipated, your lymph system is clogged, your kidneys and liver are unsupported and your digestion is poor, you body may be thinking that having a sex drive is the last thing it wants to think about, and taking a natural product to help sexually, probably isn’t going to give you optimum results. Often, working on clearing these issues up, can have dramatic results not just on your basic health, but also on your sex drive.

Vaginal Dryness
Along this same vein is vaginal dryness, and we touched on this briefly last month. Having dryness anywhere on the body usually means there is a deficiency of essential fatty acids, and/or moisture or water. Unfortunately not everyone makes a habit of eating a diet high in essential fatty acids, and not everyone drinks the optimal amount of water.

As mentioned before, taking essential fatty acids, such as evening primrose oil, flax seed, or fish oils, can help with menopause issues – this same supplement can also help with dry skin, dry scalp or vaginal dryness. When you are providing the optimum amount of essential fatty acids to the body, the body will disperse it the appropriate areas that it needed, not just one specific area.

If you want to get more of these essential fatty acids (EFA’s) in your diet, you can eat flax seed or flax seed meal – it is great in muffins, on salads, in meatloaf, on oatmeal, etc. It is also very high in iron, which can help many women –and fortunately it is also very high in fiber so it prevents constipation, which is often a result of taking iron supplements. Or you can eat more fish – like salmon, or seeds – like pumpkin seeds, and nuts such as walnuts and almonds, sunflower seeds, olives and avocados and also a good source of EFA’s.

Heavy Menstrual Cycles
This can often be the body’s way of eliminating excess toxins. Herbs that are good at stopping bleeding are yarrow, and capsicum. Others that can help include Bayberry, and/or False Unicorn; and combinations with all of these may work even stronger. Work with your health professional to find the best combination for you. Again working to eliminate an excess amount of toxins in your body, and helping your liver and other elimination systems flush can also help this issue.

Breast Enhancement
The question regarding breast enhancement usually has to do with firming aging breasts. There are ways to help with this issue. If you want to repair or build something, it is important that you have all the necessary elements to do so. To repair tissue it is important that your body has some basic things; enzymes and essential fatty acids are 2 of the most important. Enzymes are in raw foods. Most people don’t eat enough raw food, and thank goodness there are now enzymes available in capsules to be taken internally to help with this issue, as well as topical sprays, which we sell a lot of, to use topically on the skin to help repair tissue. We always recommend using enzymes topically to help any skin repair itself as well as taking enzymes internally as well. In addition, we also recommend taking essential fatty acids internally, or applying topically to the area where it is needed most. Topically emu oil is a good choice, as is cold-pressed virgin olive oil. These oils are extremely high in EFA’s. The enzymes will help carry the EFA’s into the tissue that needs repairing. Our customers have seen some amazing results using these products.

Another thing that is important to pay attention to what other toxic products you are using, like antiperspirants, lotions, clothes that are dry-cleaned, under wire bras, etc. All of these products not only are making your skin more toxic, and can damage your skin, but also can also prevent your body from getting the necessary elements and prevent proper circulation it needs to make new skin cells.

Other Toxic Concerns
If you remember, a few years ago they tested fish in the Columbia River and found abnormally high amounts of synthetic hormones in the fish. Unfortunately these synthetic hormones are toxic to our bodies and when we ingest them, it is no wonder that our bodies get confused about them. It often can start young girls cycles too soon, cause weight gain in women and cause menstrual problems in addition to making menopause symptoms worse. We recommend to our customers to purchase only organically grown products when possible. There is great controversy as to whether the organically grown products are better for the money. Be realistic – they certainly can’t be worse – isn’t that what people used to eat? And did they have so many health problems a hundred years ago? It is well know that many diseases, (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) were not as prevalent before the 1950’s when the food in this country started to undergo dramatic and unhealthy changes.

Irritability
And finally irritability, or as one of my customers put it, “bitchiness”. This is most often a result of a toxic liver. Once the liver is cleansed, this usually goes away fairly quickly. In Chinese medicine, heat rising in the body is often considered a sign of liver imbalances. As we mentioned last month, menopause symptoms are often related to the liver. The liver is responsible for removing all the unused hormones from your blood. If your liver is too congested from cleansing toxins out and it’s actions are weakened, you’ll have these extra hormones building up and floating around in your blood. Anytime any girl or woman goes through hormonal changes in her life, supporting the liver and cleansing the blood can certainly ease the passage. For some people simply drinking lemon juice (organic of course –else you are adding more toxins again) can help. Taking Vitamin C is another way to support your liver as well. Some other blood purifiers are burdock root, yellow dock, and red clover.

Helpful Supplements
There are some other helpful supplements that many women find useful also. One of these is DHEA – a precursor to all other hormones. This should only be used for women over 45 (or so). DHEA is the most abundant of all hormones in the body and is produced in the adrenal glands. Generally the level of DHEA drops about 80% between the ages of 20 to 65. Helping to augment the amount of DHEA in your body can help hinder the aging process by inhibiting an enzyme that is used to produce fat.

Another product that can help some women with menopause symptoms is noni juice. Noni is a funky looking fruit that grows in Hawaii, and other tropical islands. It is known for many healing properties including boosting the immune system, killing infection, aiding digestion, balancing hormones, and helping with skin issues. Noni taste absolutely terrible, but is often mixed with other juices to make it more palatable. It also is high in enzymes that are not readily available in other foods. Many of our customers take this throughout the winter and say they don’t get sick as often or at all.

Soy is another product useful for menopause issues. The soybean is high in EFA’s also, in addition to natural estrogen, which can help to prevent bone loss. If you are going to eat soybeans or take supplements from soybeans, be sure they are organic and not genetically modified (GMO).

Other Helpful Tips
It is important to remember that when you are trying to get your hormones in balance that you don’t just have ovaries to worry about. There are many other glands in the body including adrenals, thyroid, pineal, pituitary, thymus, etc. Taking a good supplements that feeds all these glands helps to allow them to all work in cadence with one another giving you more benefits overall.

Many times when I have women whose cycles have completely stopped, and come into work on other health issues, often times, there cycles will start up again – remember this is your 5 largest elimination system – and if there are toxins in there that need to come out, and your organs are still in tact, it is not unusual to see the body utilize the plumbing that is there to eliminate unwanted toxins, etc.

In his book Food is Your Best Medicine, Dr. Henry Bieler suggests that women get hot flashes because their bodies are no longer able to use the menstrual cycle as a means of eliminating toxins from their system. A good colon cleanse may help to eliminate toxins that are built up and causing an overload in the body causing hot flashes, etc.

Another good book is The Wise Women Way by Susun Weed, which could give you a whole new positive perspective on menopause.

I tell women often that it is so important to keep your menses going as long as possible – annoying as it may be, the cycle helps to keep you young – even though many women are too happy with this concept – it is important to keep your organs in tact, and allow things to work for you naturally. My mentor is in her 60’s and she still has about 3 periods a year – no wonder she looks so great! Her body is utilizing this elimination system to help keep her body clean and healthy.

What did they do in the old days before HRT? Many of my customers remember talking with their grandmothers and great grandmothers. They didn’t have these health problems. They ate and lived healthier. Why not do the same?
Top

close window