• home
• weekly featured article
• just ask terry
• e-newsletter archives
• health category articles
• terry's excercise plan
• terry's menu for health and longevity
• webinar schedule
• podcasts
• media
• mission
• about terry
• terry's quick links

weekly articles

A Special Report

Menopause Protocol
By Cheryl Myers

A Menopause Protocol You can Live with!

Cheryl Myers

Physical transitions can be emotional transitions as well.  Puberty is usually greeted with enthusiasm, as children feel they can’t wait to grow up. Pregnancy is often met with hope and expectation. But in some cultures, including our own, menopause can be fraught with negative emotions, such as a sense of loss or purpose. This is not true in all cultures. In Asia, women who reach menopause are believed to have achieved a powerful stage in life. They are no longer losing chi energy by producing children, but are now able to retain and gain chi energy, which enhances their life force. Native Americans also greatly respected women who reached menopause. These women were felt to hold in their hearts the selfless well-being of the tribe. When a new chief was appointed, the only group with a veto vote was the council of grandmothers. It was felt that these women, with their wisdom and life-connection to the tribe, would be the best judge of character.

But in America, women can feel that they are becoming less after menopause instead of more. This is an unfortunate belief system that is not changing quickly enough. Did you know that women can expect to live more than half their adult lives after menopause? These are the decades where women reach their full power and maturity, and can use their life experience to make real changes in the world. But physical symptoms can get in the way and make it hard to see menopause as anything than a problem.

Why are women suffering if this is a natural and expected transition? Well, in part, because of the UN-natural lives we lead. Environmental estrogens and pollutants that behave like estrogens, changes in diet over the past several decades, certain prescription drugs, and increasing rates of overweight and obesity have all combined to make this transition far more problematic that it has been in the past.  Doctors call it the 20-60-20 rule: about 20% of women have little physical difficulty with menopause symptoms; 60% have moderate discomfort; and 20% have a great deal of discomfort that significantly interrupts everyday life. Wherever you fall in that spectrum, I have a protocol of supplements that can make a difference in how you feel every day—and night—during this normal life stage.

A Sometimes Difficult Transition

But let’s talk a moment about why women are having such difficulty with this normal transition. A lot of the answer lies with hormones.  Hormones are powerful messengers that tell our bodies to do certain things. Hormones like estrogen tell little girls to develop as young women around the time of puberty, so we can see what a profound effect these messengers can have.

The definition of menopause is going 12 consecutive months without a natural menstrual cycle. A few years before menopause, certain hormones can start to have steeper peaks and valleys, including estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, our “sex” hormones. This period of time is called peri-menopause, can produce many physical changes, and can last up to 10 years. At menopause, these hormones diminish but never truly go away.   

The symptoms of menopausal discomfort are almost too many to list and include the well-known hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances and mood changes. However, other systems can be impacted as well, and women whose menstrual cycles have ceased can see an increase in muscle and joint pain, headaches, loss of libido, weight gain, thyroid changes, abnormal skin sensations (including itching), visual changes and bone loss.

THE ROLE OF DIET AND ENVIRONMENT

But why do women in Western industrialized nations report such difficult menopausal transitions, while in many other cultures, there is not even a word meaning “hot flash”? I think the answer lies in lack of balance. Think about drinking coffee. Let’s say all your life you drank one cup of coffee each morning, and suddenly the coffee is taken away. How do you feel? A bit grumpy for a few days, but then you’d be fine. You might not even miss it. Now, what if you drank 12 cups a day, and you drank coffee morning, noon and night? How are you going to feel when that is taken away? You might be miserable.

Drowning in a Sea of Hormones

I know that is a simplification, but it gives you an idea of what is happening in our country. Women make a certain amount of estrogen, and then they may take prescriptions that add even more estrogen on board. They drink milk and eat meat from cows treated with hormones to make them mature faster, and tiny amounts of these hormones are passed along. Plastic bottles and food storage containers contain plasticizers that look like estrogen to the body. We call these xeno- (meaning foreign) estrogens. Pesticides and herbicides are endocrine disruptors. They work by disrupting the reproductive cycle of the pest or plant, and guess what? They disrupt our hormone balance, too. Women eat contaminated fruits and vegetables, and absorb even more xenoestrogens into their bodies. Women take prescription hormones, and they pass these drugs along in the waste water system, and the waste treatment facilities cannot fully remove these hormones from the water, so tap water contains trace amounts of hormones. Last, but certainly not least, fat cells produce a certain amount of estrogen. The more body fat you have, regardless of your weight, the more likely you have significant hormone imbalances. Women are drowning in a sea of hormones.

Therefore, when the body starts to slow hormone production, women may have a whole host of negative reactions to these changes. Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural part of the life cycle. But like so many other natural transitions, it has become greatly complicated by our food choices and environmental damage.

THE MENOPAUSE PROTOCOL

If your menopausal experience has been very uncomfortable, it is not in your head. And there are things you can do to help get back in balance and feel like yourself again.

1. Limit your exposure to environmental xenoestrogens and hormone mimics, which means eating more organic, less processed foods; paying attention to your plastics exposure; investigating a water filtering system for your home, and voting  your conscience to make sure environmental clean-up legislation and efforts stay on track.
2. Make more muscles with weight-bearing exercise. Turn the fat (which produces estrogenic compounds) into muscle. You will feel better and get another added benefit: muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, so you will have an easier time maintaining your weight.
3. Use supplements to help with hormonal balance and symptom relief.

I’d like to share with you a way to create your own personal menopause protocol that addresses your specific menopausal issues. My recommendations include EuroPharma’s MenoComplete™, Terrific Zzz’z Sleep Formula™, Hydra-7™ and AnxioFit-1™.

MENOPAUSE: MENOCOMPLETE™

MenoComplete is a formula created to address a wide range of menopausal concerns. It contains a unique hops extract, standardized black cohosh, and sour green cider apple. This product is for anyone with menopausal symptoms, and is the common base for your menopausal protocol to which you can add other products as needed.*

MenoComplete Ingredients: Hop Cone Extract

The female flower of the hops plant develops into “cones.” These cones are the source of a unique phytoestrogen known as 8-prenylnaringenin, which is 10,000 to 20,000 times less active than the hormone 17β-estradiol (a human estrogen). This is important, because there are serious safety concerns with the use of human or animal estrogens. New research on this hop cone extract shows that it relieves menopause symptoms without causing the adverse effects associated with estrogen-based hormone replacement therapy (HRT).*

In one 6-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, women using this hop cone extract had 4 times fewer hot flashes than the women in the placebo group, and double the reduction in overall menopause symptoms. [Heyerick A. A first prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the use of a standardized hop extract to alleviate menopausal discomforts. Maturitas. 2006;54(2):164-75.] In another 8 week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, women using the hop cone extract reported less than half the number of night sweats as women in the placebo group. [Erkkola R. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over pilot study on the use of a standardized hop extract to alleviate menopausal discomforts. Phytomedicine. 2010 Feb 16].*

Black Cohosh

Black cohosh, standardized to 2.5% triterpene glycosides, is the most well-studied herb for menopause. Despite common misunderstandings to the contrary, black cohosh is not a phytoestrogen. Researchers believe it is somewhat like a selective estrogen receptor modifier (SERM), which means it acts like estrogen in the brain, bone and vaginal tissue, but does not act like estrogen in breast or uterine tissue. There have been over 90 published scientific papers and presentations on efficacy and safety of standardized black cohosh extract.*

Published research has shown results of up to 70% reduction in menopause symptoms after 12 weeks of use. In one study, women experienced a 56% reduction in daily hot flashes after only four weeks of use, and a recent study confirms significant reduction in menopausal symptoms, particularly with women in early stages of menopause, with no adverse side effects at all.*

Sour Green Cider Apple

Apple variety has dwindled as more focus is paid to sweet, juicy varieties that transport well. However, there is a sour green cider apple in Europe that contains unique properties in balancing weight and fat in the body. These apples contain generous amounts of quercetin and a rare flavonoid called phloridzin that reduce or delay sugar absorption, minimizing the amount of sugar that is converted to fat and stored by the body. This is particularly useful as menopausal changes favor weight gain, especially around the waist.*

SLEEP: TERRIFIC Zzz’z Sleep Formula™

If you have disturbed sleep, you are not alone. Over 61% of women in menopause report occasional trouble sleeping. If you are one of them, add Terrific Zzz’z to your protocol. The Chemotyped Plant Oils in this product (marjoram, lavender, mandarin, ravintsara, and lemon verbena) are calming but non-sedating, which means no sleep hangovers. Chemotyped Plant Oils (CPOs), like those used in Terrific Zzz’z, are fingerprinted to ensure the purity, identity and potency of key compounds. Only CPOs are safe for internal use.*

VAGINAL DRYNESS: HYDRA-7™

Vaginal dryness can be irritating, uncomfortable, and interfere greatly with physical intimacy. Hydra-7 is a high purity sea buckthorn oil that contains a rare omega fatty acid, omega 7. This oil-rich berry from the northern latitudes has a profound impact on mucous membrane regeneration and hydration. In one clinical study, women reported improved vaginal health and decreased dryness. On a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) they reported scores that increased from a little over 6 points to 13 points (almost double) after 12 weeks of supplementation.*

NERVOUS TENSION: ANXIOFIT-1™

Sometimes, anxiety and nervous tension in menopause are a result of disturbed sleep or the discomfort of hot flashes. In those instances, the anxiety disappears once you are on MenoComplete and Terrific Zzz’z. But sometimes, it is related to other hormonal issues that result in nervous tension and irritability. Adding AnxioFit-1 to your protocol can make you feel more calm and in control.  AnxioFit-1 was created by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, based on their discovery of potent anti-anxiety compounds found in one unusual type of echinacea extract. This product is fact acting, and results improve with continued use.  In one clinical study, participants experienced a significant reduction on an anxiety measurement scale after one day of AnxioFit-1 use, which increased to a 25% reduction by day 7. There is a narrow dosage range for optimal effectiveness—take too much, and it doesn’t work. The best way to use AnxioFit-1 is to start with one 20 mg tablet. If you need to repeat it 6 to 8 hours later, go ahead. But don’t take more than one at a time, or you might not get the results you seek.*

SUMMARY

Menopause is a normal, healthy hormonal transition in a woman’s life. But because of many modern challenges, sometimes this transition is accompanied by very uncomfortable, life-disrupting symptoms. There are real and immediate steps you can take to start feeling better, and this protocol is a good place to start. Begin with MenoComplete, and then customize the protocol to meet your personal needs. Maybe you need only MenoComplete, or maybe you will need to add additional products for sleep, vaginal dryness and anxiety.*  With this nutritional protocol, you are now empowered to feel better and, with your new change of life, you can get on with your plans to change the world.

*THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION.
THESE PRODUCTS ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT DISEASE.

©2010 Terry Talks Nutrition | Privacy | Legal Disclaimer