Natural Treatment for Menopause

The menopause is not an illness, despite many medical professionals treating it as such. With many women worried about reported increased risk of certain cancers associated with long term HRT use, this has resulted in more women seeking other more natural approaches to counter menopause symptoms.

The Perfect Harmony natural HRT alternative provides a 100% natural herbal approach to the menopause and hormone balance. Herbs to help lessen the menopause symptoms have been in use for centuries, and today many women are using natural herbal alternatives to pharmaceutical HRT, but what other steps can be taken to help lessen the symptom associated with menopause and indeed PMS.

Diet

Diet is known to be related to hormone imbalance, and those women who experienced premenstrual difficulties during their reproductive years often find they suffer more with menopausal symptoms.

A diet rich in food in as natural a state as possible, including lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, seeds and nuts may help. Try reducing your meat intake and avoiding processed and 'junk' foods as much as possible. Avoiding or limiting your intake of salt and spicy foods may also help. Many meat and dairy products are found to contain traces of hormones deliberately given to animals to increase milk and meat yields, so again reducing your intake may help. You could try replacing these with soya based products.

If you are trying to lose weight, avoid fad diets, instead adopt a sensible balanced approach to your diet reducing overall calorie intake. Joining a support group based diet may help. It is also important to eat regularly as hot flushes may be related to fluctuations in blood sugar levels. This situation is also aggravated by sugary foods.

The recommended daily amount of calcium is 1000mg prior to the menopause, rising to 1500mg during and after the menopause, so if you are reducing your dairy intake try to eat more foods such as seeds, nuts, oats, blackstrap molasses, sardines, salmon, figs and parsley.

'Phyto-oestrogenic' foods which include soya, corn, apples, bananas, almonds, cashew nuts, oats, pulses, broccoli, cauliflower and green leafy vegetables help maintain a good level of hormone. Japanese women, whose diet is rich in these foods, rarely suffer from the menopausal symptoms.

Hydration is also an important part of diet, aim to drink two litres of water per day.

Exercise

Exercise is important for your overall health and wellbeing, as well helping maintain bone density, delaying the onset of osteoporosis, and helping prevent weight gain. There are many options available, but if you do not already exercise regularly build up slowly. You may also want to seek professional advice if you have medical issues.

Reducing Stress

Stress may aggravate your symptoms so make sure you take time to relax. Regular exercise, yoga, and meditation should help.

Herbal HRT Alternatives

You may also wish to consider a herbal alternative to pharmaceutical HRT such as Perfect Harmony which contains 6 key natural ingredients, aimed at providing relief from the major symptoms of menopause.