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Non-Hormonal Management of Hot Flashes & Night Sweats
Living with Menopause: Symptoms & Treatment Options
LadyCare: Device Offers Relief from Menopause Symptoms
Perimenopause & Menopause: Hormones, Nutrition & Intimacy
Use It or Lose It: Tips for Overcoming Vaginal Dryness
Natural Treatments for Your Menopausal Symptoms
Menopause and Perimenopause – What to Expect
10 Tips to Help Your Partner Understand the Emotional Effects of Menopause
Approaching Menopause? Get in the Know with Dr. Jen Ashton
Why Are Women Not Treating their Menopause Symptoms?
6 Solutions to Ease Your Menopause Symptoms
Top 3 Herbs for Women's Health
Signs and Symptoms of Menopause
Ask HER: Artificial Sweeteners, Supporting Mom Through Menopause & Natural Remedies for Migraines
Navigating through Menopause
Refusing Hormones During Menopause?
Are Toxins the Reason for Your Early Menopause?
Hormone Therapy & Your Heart Health: Are You at Risk for Cardiovascular Disease?
Hops & Lignan: Lesser-Known Solutions for Menopausal Symptoms
Ask Dr. Mike: Hops for Hot Flashes? PLUS Does Wearing a Bra & Using Antiperspirant Cause Breast Cancer?
Find Hormonal Happiness: Natural Medicine to Help with Menopause
How Smoking Affects Women’s Health
Natural Alternative Menopause Therapies
That's not to say that HRT doesn't have a time and place, as well as benefits. It can ease the symptoms of vaginal dryness and discomfort, help with hot flashes and other symptoms and decrease the risk of osteoporosis. Currently there are studies going on to see if it can also help reduce the risk of heart disease. Please note that HRT isn't for everyone. It is a matter of personal preference.
The risks are what cause a lot of women to avoid HRT. Risks include: blood clots, stroke, heart disease, breast cancer and others. Some risks may depend on whether you're given estrogen alone as monotherapy or combination therapy with estrogen and progesterone.
SO WHAT'S A WOMAN TO DO?
Fix Your Mood with Food
Menopause: When Can Early Onset Occur?
Menopausal? Acupuncture Can Treat Your Hot Flashes
Are You Going through a Midlife Crisis?
Diet Soda Drinkers: Is Your Habit a Health Risk?
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Let's Think This Through
As a Naturopathic Doctor I have been taught to think about health and healing in a very comprehensive, holistic manner.
The science that drives my thought process is called Vitalism. Vitalism states that our bodies have an inherent self-healing mechanism and are brilliant and built to stay in balance through the harmonious efforts of many interrelated systems that are constantly working on our behalf to take care of us.
As a practitioner of this style of medicine, I am challenged to listen and ask deeper questions when I am involved with a patient who has become entirely out of balance and therefore symptomatic. Symptoms are the body’s way of talking to us, telling us that something needs attention. I have to understand where there might be obstacles to cure, where there might be some excess or deficiencies, and then work with the body to achieve a state of health.
Hormone Replacement Therapy: Let's Think this Through
9 Essential Health Tests for Women
9 Reasons for Hair Loss in Women
Reclaim Your Hormonal Balance
Sexual Dysfunction in Women: Is Viagra the Answer?
The 9 Most Important Questions to Ask Your Gynecologist
Reduce Hot Flashes without Hormones
Unbalanced Hormones: Feeling Crappy is NOT Normal
Treating Menopause
Dry Down There? Treat Vaginal Dryness Safely and Effectively
Are Hormones Safe to Take?
Painful Sex? Enjoy Intercourse Again
Hysterectomy: Estrogen Therapy Saves Lives
Leaky Gut & A Possible Connection to Hot Flashes
Intestinal permeability describes a cascade of symptoms and disorders that stem from small intestine's semi-permeable membrane becoming excessively permeable for a variety of reasons, allowing infiltration of microbial and metabolic toxins (as well as undigested food) into the bloodstream. These symptoms include fatigue, immune deficiency, food allergies, asthma and eczema.
Intestinal permeability may also be a contributor to other modern illnesses such as insulin resistance, obesity, neurotransmitter disorders, autoimmune disorders and cancer. In fact, it may account for 50 percent of chronic illness.
One symptom that I have not linked to intestinal permeability in the past, which has been getting my attention lately, is the vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, an overlooked aspect of inflammation.
Is Your Leaky Gut to Blame for Hot Flashes?
Effective Non-Hormonal Therapies for Menopausal Symptoms
However, mounting evidence from several clinical trials has shown that women using synthetic HRT are at significant increased risk of developing breast cancer, coronary heart disease, pulmonary embolism, and stroke.
With little room for HRT in current practice and little else in the traditional medicine chest to consider, physicians are increasingly turning to natural non-hormonal therapies for women who need relief from menopausal symptoms.
As a naturopathic physician, I have used botanical medicines and other natural alternatives for many years with great success to help women create and maintain hormonal health. I've found the most effective approach combines stress management, diet, exercise and nutritional supplements to support and work with a woman's body, not against it. While each patient's treatment plan is unique, it has been my experience that most symptoms caused by menopause and/or hormone fluctuations and imbalances will respond to natural therapies.
Non-Hormonal Therapies for Hot Flashes
Is Sex Over after Menopause?
Is a Hysterectomy Necessary? Becoming Your Own Health Advocate
Estrogen Dominance: Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be BAD
Estrogen dominance is a multi-factorial situation and is caused by such things as exposure to excess environmental xenoestrogens, use of synthetic estrogens such as the birth control pill and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), anovulation (lack of ovulation during menstrual cycle, which is not uncommon among women older than 35), digestion issues (which tax the estrogen-detoxification process in the liver), unrelenting stress (which strains the adrenals and the thyroid), unresolved emotional issues, poor diet and negative lifestyle factors such as smoking and alcohol use.
How does estrogen dominance specifically alter women's health?