15 Tips To Beat Menopause Hot Flashes!

Menopause is the stage that every woman needs to go through it and during this stage you won’t get your periods.

Most of the women will ask a question that what symptoms they might experience during this phase.

Generally, menopause symptoms greatly vary from one woman another.

Some women may experience insomnia as a major symptom, some experience severe back pain and some others experience menopause hot flashes.

We are not always certain which symptoms of menopause will strike your life.

Here are 15 tips that can help you to reduce the severity of menopause hot flashes:

1. Dietary triggers: There are several triggers that can increase the severity of menopause hot flashes. They include: caffeine, alcohol, diet pills, cayenne and spicy foods. If the severity of hot flashes becomes more when you consume these foods, it is suggested to eliminate them from your diet.

2. Exercise: You should have at least 30 minutes exercise daily whether it may be in the form of walking, running, bicycle riding or any other activity that make you work. Don’t do any exercise at least 3 hours before going to bed, as it can increase the severity of night sweats.

3. Hormone replacement therapy: This therapy includes estrogen replacement to provide relief from menopause hot flashes. But, estrogen has been associated with some medical risks and should be taken sparingly. Before undergoing estrogen replacement therapy, make sure to understand both the risks and benefits.

4. Soy: Research showed that including soy in your diet can reduce menopause hot flashes and also various other symptoms. Take soy most from your foods but not from soy supplements. Food sources of soy include: tempeh, soy milk, texturized vegetable protein, tofu, miso, whole soybeans, and soy powder.

5. Natural progesterone: Research found that progesterone give you relief menopause hot flashes and various other menopausal symptoms. You can find natural progesterone in the form of over-the-counter cream, capsules, compound prescription cream or in traditional prescription such as Prometrium.

6. Black cahosh: This is the most popular alternative for reducing menopause hot flashes. Not only hot flashes, also has this herb helped to relieve anxiety, heart palpitations and headaches.

7. Effexor: This is an anti-depressant helps to reduce menopause hot flashes in women taking breast cancer treatment. This medicine works well for women with breast cancer, so it is a best choice for women who don’t want to seek hormone replacement therapy.

8. Gabapentin: This drug helps to relieve migraine headaches. Research proved that this drug also help to relieve hot flashes to some extent.

9. Vitamin E: Research showed that vitamin E helps reduce the occurrence and severity of hot flashes and night sweats during menopause.

10. Antidepressants: Low-dose antidepressant medication may help forestall a hot flash by rebalancing or intercepting the chemicals in the brain that transmit the hot flash alarm, epinephrine and serotonin.

11. Acupuncture: This alternative treatment helps to move your inner wind, energy, or spirit. This treatment is helpful to reduce your hot flashes.

12. Relaxation and stress reduction: Relaxation and stress reduction can lower menopause hot flashes to some extent. Follow any of the techniques such as massaging, meditation, yoga, visualization, biofeedback technique, breathing exercises, and relaxation exercises.

13. Life style factors: Changing your lifestyle habits can have a positive impact on your life. Not only they can help to reduce menopause hot flashes, but also help to reduce fatigue, mood swings, loss of libido, insomnia, elevated cholesterol levels, muscle health, heart health, and bone health.

14. Fluid: Increase the intake of fluids than the usual. Drink lots of water and juices.

15. Hot conditions: Hot weathers even increase the severity of hot flashes. So, reduce hot foods, hot rooms, hot baths, hot tubs, and hot beds. Wear cotton clothes that allow your skin to breathe.

Importance Of Homeopathy For Women’s Health!

Homeopathy is a form of complementary and alternative medicine which contains few to no pharmacologically active ingredients.

Essentially, Homeopathy is completely natural and organic herbal ingredients in most cases.

Homeopathy may give you good health in all stages of life from infancy through old age.

Homeopathy gives you good emotional, physical and mental healthy. It aids through the transitional and developmental milestones of your life.

Homeopathy during teenage:

During the teenage, homeopathy can help with various hormone changes of puberty and acne break outs that most of the people experience at this time. Moreover, homeopathy helps with the emotional disturbances that frequently occur during the transition of little girl to womanhood.

When you are treated with homeopathy for pre-menstrual syndrome, the practitioner considers the most appropriate remedy that helps in relieving the symptoms like breast tenderness, irritability, fluid retention, mood swings and headaches.

Homeopathy during conception:

When you are trying to conceive or problems in conceiving, homeopathy helps you to some extent. During pregnancy, homeopathy helps with the symptoms like depression, nausea and morning sickness.

Homeopathy treats illnesses during pregnancy and makes you healthy to deliver a healthy baby and the baby free from any inherited diseases. Also, homeopathy helps you during the process of childbirth.

Homeopathy after childbirth:

Homeopathy helps women to overcome from the severe effects of difficult birth, hysterectomy, abortion, and also the use of contraceptive pills.

Homeopathy during menopause:

Homeopathy is extremely beneficial to women during menopause. Homeopathic remedies help women pass through this transition with relative ease. These remedies help to heal menopause symptoms like lack of energy, hot flashes, weepiness, insomnia, night sweats, and anxiety. These symptoms gradually disappear in such a subtle fashion that the person is unaware of how they passed.

Homeopathy works by stimulating the body's healing system to regain a sense of balance, problems involving hormonal imbalances respond well to homeopathic treatment. Problems associated with menstrual cycles, hormone imbalances, and pre-menstrual syndrome can be treated with homeopathy.

Fibroids can also be treated with homeopathy. For some women, homeopathy prevents the need of hysterectomy.

Along with the above conditions, homeopathy helps to treat conditions like: irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, gallstones, respiratory ailments, migraines, cystitis, fatigue, hay fever, depression and anxiety.

But, pregnant women while taking homeopathic remedies, consult the practitioner about their safety during pregnancy. Some may recommend homeopathy during pregnancy for heartburn, hemorrhoids and constipation.



10 Steps To Do Self Breast Exam!

Every woman should know about the benefits and limitations of breast self-examination.

It is essential to know how your breasts normally look and feel.

Don’t forget to report to your health care professions, if you observe any new breast changes.

Identifying a breast changes doesn’t necessarily mean there is a cancer.

You can easily recognize changes of your breasts:

• If you know how your breasts normally look and feel


• If you have proper breast awareness


• If you make a step-by-step approach for breast self-exam


• If you use a specific schedule for examining your breasts
  

It is best to exam your breasts if they are not tender or swollen. Women who want to do breast self-examination should know the technique during the periodic health exams by your health care provider.

Women who had breast implantation can also do breast self examination. With the help of your practitioner, identify the edges of implants so that you can easily identify what you are feeling. Pregnant or breast-feeding women can also choose self examination of breasts.
Step-by-step approach for breast self-examination:

1. Breast examination can be performed while you are lying down. Lie down on your back by placing your right arm behind the head. While lying down, your breast tissues spread evenly across the chest area and is very thin thus making it easy to feel all the breast tissues.


2. Use left hand to test your right breast. With the helps of finger pads of your three middle fingers, feel for any lumps in your breast. Moving the fingers in circular motion can make it easy to fell all the breast tissues.


3. You need to apply pressure of three different levels. Apply light pressure in order to feel the tissues closer to your skin. Use medium pressure to feel the tissues little deeper and rigid pressure to feel the tissues very closer to ribs and chest.


4. At the lower curve of each breast, you may feel a firm ridge. But, no need to worry, it is normal. Apart from this, if you find anything else, make sure that you tell your doctor.


5. If you can not apply the pressure properly and unable to check your breast, ask your doctor or nurse for suggestions. Make sure that you apply each pressure level properly.


6. Move the hand around your breast in an up and down pattern starting at an imaginary line drawn straight down your side from the underarm and moving across the breast to the middle of the chest bone. Make sure that you check total breast region until you identify only ribs and up to the neck or collarbone.


7. Research proved that up-and-down pattern can be the most popular choice to test your entire breast and to not to miss any tissue.


8. Use the same procedure to test your left breast with right hand finger pads and keeping left hand behind your head.


9. You can also test your breast while standing. Stand in front of the mirror by pressing your hands hardly down on the hips. Then observe the shape, size, dimpling or contour, scaliness, or redness of the nipples or breast skin.


10. Also, you can exam your underarms when you are sitting up or standing. Raise the arm slightly so that you can easily feel the area. If you raise your arm straight, the tissues of the region become tight and it is harder to examine.
    

These steps can greatly help you for breast self examination. Applying the properly and regularly can increase your ability to detect the abnormal areas of the breast. Early detection breast abnormalities can reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Benefits Of HRT During Menopause!

HRT or hormone replacement therapy, a treatment used to replace the hormones, which your body can no longer produce because of menopause.

In this therapy, the hormones that can be replaced include estrogen and progesterone.

The average age at which menopause can strike your life is 52 years, but some can experience menopause during their 30s only.

Role of estrogen hormone: Estrogen can be used to encourage the release of eggs. If your body can not release the eggs, it means that there is no more estrogen hormone in your body.

Also, estrogen helps to perform various bodily functions such as bone density, temperature of your skin and also vaginal lubrication.

Estrogen deficiency can greatly linked to various other health problems such as:

• Vaginal dryness


• Hot flashes


• Lack of sex drive


• Joint pain


• Back pain


• Mood changes like depression or irritability


• Night sweats


• Thinning of the bone that can lead to osteoporosis
  

Role of progesterone: Major function of progesterone hormone is to get ready for the possible pregnancy. Also, progesterone helps to protect the womb lining.

Deficiency of progesterone can increase the risk of cancer of the uterine lining, which is called as endometrial cancer. So, progesterone can be used in combination with estrogen.



8 Diabetes Dangers For Women!

Nowadays, diabetes has become a common condition for several women.

Having blood glucose levels more than the usual range specify that you are with diabetes mellitus.

Diabetes is of three types, such as type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.

Diabetes looses the ability of your immune system to convert the food into energy.

Type 2 diabetes can occur at any age and even in the childhood also.

Here are the effects of diabetes on your health:

1. Diabetes and menstrual cycle

During your menstrual cycle, you body undergoes various hormonal changes. These hormonal changes can greatly affect your blood sugar levels. When there are high estrogen levels, your body is resistant to its own insulin or injected insulin.

Usually women have high blood sugar 3-5 days before their menstrual cycle i.e. a week prior to ovulation. Once your period starts, your blood glucose levels will naturally fall down. This fluctuation is due to the increase in estrogen and progesterone levels, which greatly interfere with insulin activity.

Premenstrual symptoms become worse with poor blood sugar control. Young women with cycles of more than 40 days or cycles that were too irregular to estimate were found to be twice as likely to develop diabetes as those with normal cycles.

2. Diabetes and sex life

A new study conducted recently said that diabetes can cause women sexual dysfunction. All women have some kind of sexual health problems. Sexual problems occur in same rate in women with type 1 diabetes as women without diabetes. But the problems are severe in women with type 2 diabetes. Here are some of the sexual health problems:

• Vaginal dryness: Vaginal lubrication decreases with low hormone levels, damage to the blood vessels, or nerve damage. Age, pregnancy, medications and stress can also reduce vaginal lubrication.


• Yeast infection: High glucose levels in your blood increases the fungus called as yeast around your vaginal area. If the condition is not treated, then it can lead to severe urinary tract infection.
  

3. Diabetes and birth control

You will find various types of birth control methods. The risk of blood clotting is higher for women with type 2 diabetes who use oral contraceptives.

The risk of blood clots can also increases if you don’t exercise, are overweight, smoke, have high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol.

So, women with any of these risk factors should choose low dose oral contraceptives.

4. Diabetes and menopause

Women with type 1 diabetes enter into menopause stage earlier than women without. But, women with type 2 enter into menopause stage later than normal women. Women with diabetes can experience major hormonal changes.

These hormonal fluctuations can cause women to suffer from mood changes, menstrual periods that are more or less frequent, greater PMS symptoms, lighter or heavier blood flow during menstrual cycle.

Women with type 1 diabetes can experience hypoglycemia as the first sign that indicate that hormonal levels are decreasing and it is essential for insulin adjustment. Women with type 2 diabetes experience major weight gain and greater increase in blood glucose levels.

5. Diabetes and eyesight

Nowadays, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness. About 10% of women with diabetes are blind. Recent research showed that more Americans than ever are facing the threat of blindness.

6. Diabetes and other health conditions

Also, there are various ways in which diabetes affects a woman’s life. Diabetes can cause a woman to enter into coma, nerve damage, hypertension, stroke, and urinary tract infection.

7. Diabetes and reproductive problems

Diabetes can cause various reproductive abnormalities in women. Among which the most serious effects of diabetes is on fertility. Diabetes can lead to miscarriage and polycystic ovary syndrome.

5% of all pregnancies in United States experience gestational diabetes. Gestational diabetes can lead to high blood pressure, bladder infection, birth defects, premature delivery, spontaneous abortion, kidney and urinary tract infection.

8. Diabetes and heart disease

Heart disease is the most common threat of diabetes in both women and men. It is estimated that 45% of women with diabetes have heart disease. Women with heart disease have poorer prognosis than men.

After suffering from a heart attack, women are at higher risk of dying or having another heart attack.