How to cope with menopause without HRT?
How to cope with menopause without HRT? HRT is an abbreviation of Hormone Replacement Therapy.
HRT as a Fast and Solid Solution
As you may do, women in menopause often suffer from various unpleasant symptoms by lowered estrogen level by aging: hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and other mental health issues, a higher risk of osteoporosis, and so on. These symptoms lower their quality of life significantly, and hormone replacement therapy, HRT, is sometimes a fast and solid solution.
Risk of HRT
But, female hormones are naturally present in tiny amounts and maintain a delicate balance. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), even when prescribed by a physician, carries a high risk of side effects as it involves manually adjusting this delicate balance.
While natural remedy is always better for anybody, the following people will especially need safer alternatives.
People who have had or are being treated for uterine fibroids, benign breast diseases
Breast cancer survivors
People with uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes
A person with unexplained irregular bleeding
Cholelithiasis
Heavy smokers
Highly obese people
Improvement of your daily habits
Natural remedy of menopausal symptoms starts from daily habits. Disturbances in the autonomic nervous system exacerbate menopausal symptoms.
People with severe symptoms tend to live a life in which the autonomic nervous system is easily disturbed, such as “poor nutritional balance” and “short sleep time.”
How menopausal symptoms are challenging (or easy) depends on the complex of various elements. We can’t expect total healing only through the improvement of one of them. Yet we can expect it may mitigate the attacks of such symptoms if you reach better habits of your diet, exercise, and other daily activities.
Four tips to cope with menopause without HRT but naturally
-
- Try keeping a healthy balanced diet
- Get 7-8 hours of sleep per day
- Keep regular exercise
- Soak in the bathtub to warm your body
Try Keeping a Healthy Balanced Diet
Diet is the base of your body to cope with menopause. Eat three meals daily, including carbs, main dish, and side dish.
A Japanese diet concept may help you frame a balanced meal.
Without proper nutrition, the body cannot function properly.
The autonomic nerves and hormone balance are also easily disrupted, worsening menopausal disorders.
Carbs: rice, noodles, bread, etc.
Main dish: meat, fish, egg, etc.
Side dis; vegetables, Mushrooms, seaweeds, etc.
To keep up such a balanced diet, it will be good to cook natural foods rather than eat easy processed foods.
Get 7-8 hours of sleep a day
Sleeping well is part of your simple course to cope with menopause naturally. Make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep per day.
For good quality sleep, please be aware of the following.
Go to bed at 11:00 (at the latest at midnight)
Finish (Japanese style) bathing and dinner 2-3 hours before bedtime
Avoid using computers and smartphones at night as much as possible
Lack of sleep can disturb the autonomic nervous system and exacerbate menopausal symptoms.
Taking enough quality sleep to relieve mental health and physical disorders is essential. It will stabilize the autonomic nervous system.
Keep Regular Exercise
Exercise daily, such as stretching, yoga, walking, and swimming.
If you are too busy to find time to exercise,
“Walk longer than usual” when going out
“Squat” while watching TV
Try incorporating exercise into your daily routine.
Actively moving the body leads to “a blood circulation improvement” and “a metabolism improvement.”
We think it helps alleviate the symptoms of menopause because they allow the work of female hormones.
Soak in the bathtub to warm your body
Soak in the bathtub every day to warm up your body. (This is advice in Japan. If a Japanese bath is not available, try a foot bath. Or, you can warm yourself up even with a shower with some tips. I will write how at the bottom of this page. )
Warming your body will reduce your stress, and female hormone secretion will improve. In addition, it will help you fall asleep if you warm up your body a few hours before you go to bed.
Furthermore, when stress is relieved and the autonomic nervous system works smoothly, the blood flow in the organs improves, and the secretion of estrogen (follicular hormone) becomes active.
Try A Natural Supplement
There is a natural and moderate therapy from within, based on Japanese traditional healthy foods.
Juveriente®’s Effisoy, launched in 2016, based on fermented soy bean germ extract has been loved as a natural menopause relief since its launching in 2016.
Its primary function is to boost the weakened synthesis of a hormone precursor, DHEA. It’s safe as it only heals the natural synthesis function. The hormone boost doesn’t provide the only relief from menopausal symptoms. But, it also supports various aging issues and increases metabolism, which leads to weight loss.
Here are some of the real product reviews in our Amazon shop.
“Restful sleep finally!!”, “I Am Now Free of Hot Flashes!!”, “Lifesaver”
Warm yourself up with a shower!
Japanese people have a culture of soaking in bath water in a bathtub. It is common sense for them that this daily habit helps beauty from within and sound falling asleep. We like to recommend this healthy habit to people around the rest of the world. But unfortunately, it is a peculiar custom in Japan, and most houses in other regions don’t have the necessary facility for it. We introduce an alternative way with a tool everybody has, shower. It may help you in your pursuit of how to cope with menopause without HRT.
It is essential to keep your neck warm.
Unfortunately, you can’t raise your core body temperature just by showering. Instead, the shower stimulates the skin and increases the sympathetic nerves, making it easier for the autonomic nerves to become unbalanced. However, there will be days when you just can’t take a bath. In such a case, try to warm your neck in the shower.
When the neck warms up, the temperature-controlling sensor in the preoptic area of the brain works, blood vessels expand, and the parasympathetic nervous system increases.
The areas to be warmed are the base of the neck and the back. At the bottom of the neck is a cluster of sympathetic nerves called the stellate ganglion, which regulates blood flow to the head, shoulders, and neck. When you warm up here, the sympathetic nerves decrease, and the parasympathetic nerves dominate. In addition, since thick blood vessels run in the back of the neck, the preoptic area responds by warming this area.
Keep the shower head as close to your skin as possible.
The point of application is to bring the shower head as close to the skin as possible. When you shower from a distance, the water droplets irritate your skin, making it easier for your sympathetic nerves to react. It is a good idea to get as close to the skin as possible so that you can feel it as a “mass of hot water” and warm it to massage it. The temperature and time should be about what you feel comfortable with. And even after taking a shower, it’s a good idea to warm your neck by, for example, putting a hair dryer on the back of your neck when drying your hair or placing a hot towel on it (be careful of burns).
Benefits
Warming your body will reduce your stress, and female hormone secretion will improve.
The neck is a very stiff part. It is like a bridge that connects the brain and the body, supporting the head, which accounts for 10% of the body weight. A regular neck has a 30 to 40-degree curve in the cervical vertebrae, which acts like a spring to absorb the load and prevent neck stiffness even if the head is slightly misaligned. However, modern people have a straight neck due to long desk work and smartphone browsing, so they are stuck.
In particular, women’s necks are about 5 to 6 centimeters thinner than men’s. They tend to be stiff because they support their heavy heads with fewer muscles. Warming the neck and improving the blood flow will wash away fatigue substances. The autonomic nerves will be balanced, and the stiffness will be refreshed.
Warming up yourself with this method a few hours before bed will help you fall asleep more easily.