6 Great Ideas You May Not Have Thought About
Many traditional health care providers consider any treatment other than Hormone Replacement Therapy as “alternative”.
But since herbal treatments are considered main-stream by most women, we will look at treatment options that are a little more out of the ordinary.
 Herbal Treatments |
 Home Remedies |
 Acupuncture |
 Relaxation Techniques |
 Exercise |
 Diet |
 Lifestyle Changes |
 Chinese Herbs |
 Aromatherapy |
Here we are introducing six alternative menopause treatments you may not have thought about. These are Menopause treatments that are not commonly known but are successfully used by some women.
These alternative treatments include such things as:
- Acupuncture
- Relaxation and Other Stress Reducing Techniques
- Yoga and Pilates
- Diet and Dietary Adjustments
- Lifestyle Changes
- Exercise
Some of these treatments can be used together with more conventional therapies to come up with your own individualized treatment plan.
It is time to play an active role in the management of your health – with a good health care provider by your side.
1. Acupuncture for Menopause
Newer research has shown the effectiveness of acupuncture for hot flashes and night sweats. It works for several other symptoms such as low libido, lack of energy and depressive mood as well.
Numerous women swear by acupuncture in conjunction with Chinese herbs to manage their menopause symptoms. You may have to go several times to an acupuncturist to get total relief but the benefits are certainly worth it.
Acupuncture, like all the methods of traditional Chinese medicine, is a holistic approach. This means that the practitioner does not just treat one symptom but considers the total health history of the patient.
Find an experienced acupuncturist in your area and give it a try.
 Dr. Csaba Mihaly has a great acupuncture site that explains in detail how and why acupuncture for hot flashes works. |
2. Relaxation and Other Stress Reducing Techniques
Anything you can do to relax and reduce stress will help with coping in menopause. Numerous studies have shown that stress is one of the main reasons for speeding up the aging process and making your body prone to diseases.
Moreover, it has been proven that stress will make your menopause symptoms worse.
These techniques will not work overnight. You will have to practice and be consistent to have success. But they will work to ease the severity of your symptoms and in some cases even stop them (i.e. hot flashes).
Any one of the relaxation options is a great treatment but they work even better in conjunction with other remedies.
You can find several of the most common relaxation techniques such asprogressive relaxation or deep breathing exercises with specific instructions in a separate article about coping with menopause.
3. Yoga and Pilates
A recent study from India has shown that regular yoga can help alleviate hot flashes and increase memory.
It is believed that yoga increases the levels of mood regulating chemicals in the brain but it also provides help for other typical menopause symptoms, such as heart palpitations, sleeplessness, headaches and many more.
Yoga and Pilates are both mind-body exercises. This means that it doesn’t just engage the body, but provides a stress relieving benefit at the same time.
Plus you stretch your body to relieve tension, stay more flexible and fight of osteoporosis.
The combination of burning calories and helping your menopause symptoms simultaneously makes this a great alternative treatment that every woman should consider.
4. Diet and Dietary Adjustments
A diet for menopause symptoms and control of hot flashes must support ahealthy hormone balance and help with weight loss.
There is no denying that the metabolism slows down when we get older. Plus the loss of estrogen makes it easier for fat to accumulate in the cells.
So this is a double whammy for women: Not only do women suffer from menopause symptoms but they have to stay away from comfort foods even more. Not fair!
The menopausal transition is a time when decades of bad habits cause problems. Over time, the western diet of highly processed, fatty and calorie-dense foods damages not only the hunger control mechanism but other hormonal systems as well.
So now is the time to make some healthy changes to bring everything back into balance and lose some weight in the process. Check out the page onTips for Losing Weight During Menopause.
By focusing on fresh vegetables, healthy fats and beneficial fiber, you are well on your way to make the menopause transition a time of true change.
A tasty and easy way to achieve this goal and to get more fruits and vegetables into your diet is through natural juices and Healthy Smoothies. Follow the link for recipes and information. It will open in a new window.
5. Lifestyle Changes
Nobody wants to hear that the lifestyle they were leading is contributing to feeling bad. But just because it is not a fun message to hear, doesn’t make it go away.
Bad habits like smoking, being in constant stress, eating out and neglecting the body has its toll and the price comes due at menopause (if not earlier).
We already mentioned that stress makes your symptoms worse and this is true as well for a host of other lifestyle choices.
You can easily avoid some triggers of hot flashes such as spicy foods. It is also easy to change some of the clothing to be able to take layers of or put them on when the hot flashes strike.
Other lifestyle changes will be a lot harder. Do we even dare to mention that smoking can trigger hot flashes? Or alcohol or sugar?
The reward is not only less (or less severe) menopause symptoms but also a longer and healthier life – and that is goal worth fighting the inner demons for. Don’t you agree?
Here are some great ideas for healthy lifestyle changes. Just start with some of the easy ones. You will be glad you did.
6. Menopause and Exercise
Menopause and Exercise: as if we were not sweating enough as it is! However, everybody knows that exercise is good for our body:
- It is good for your energy level
- It keeps the pounds in check
- It keeps the bones strong
- It keeps the brain functioning
- AND helps with hot flashes and other symptoms.
We already mentioned yoga and Pilates which are two of the exercise methods that are known to benefit women in menopause. But whatever exercise you like, even simple walking, brings long term benefits and short term symptom relief.
Alternative Menopause Treatment Summary
Any of these ideas for an alternative menopause treatment will help youcope with menopause and other life events.
Even if you use other menopause treatments, hormonal or natural, any of these ideas will benefit your overall health. So give them a try.
We realize that this list of alternative treatments for menopause is by no means complete. We could also talk about acupressure, Reiki or several other methods that would fall into this category. If you have any experience with alternative treatments, please let us know.