Dr. Josh Axe (0:00)

Hey, everyone. I'm Dr. Axe. And today on the show, I'll be diving into something that every single woman experiences at some point in their life. Yet it's often treated as something to be endured rather than to be honored. And today, I'll be going through the ideal diet, herbs and lifestyle medicine choices that women need to flourish through menopause. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. More than 90% of postmenopausal women were never taught about menopause at school, and over 60% only started looking for information about it once their symptoms started, according to the University College of London. Women's health and menopause is something so many women women have questions about. And today I'm going to give you the answers on how to naturally flourish through menopause, how to get rid of all your menopausal symptoms, and how to feel and look younger. Now, typically, menopause occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average being around 51. And perimenopause, which is the transition phase, can start as early as the late 30s and last between two and eight years, with the average being four years. And hot flashes, night sweats are two of the most common symptoms, and those can last seven years on average. And while menopause is natural, the symptoms don't have to be overwhelming or debilitating. And women all over the world experience menopause differently. For instance, in Japan, symptoms like hot flashes are less common. In fact, listen to this. Less than 1 in 4 women. So less than 25% of women in Japan have no hot flashes, potentially due to their healthier lifestyles, diets. And they have a very different cultural approach and mindset around menopause. And oftentimes, menopause in the Western world is seen as a time of decline, but it can also be a period of empowerment when it's managed well. A study published in the Lancet, one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, advocates for an empowerment model. With the right support and resources, women can view this transition as an opportunity for growth, for more wisdom, and for the next phase of being the most empowerment impactful they've ever been in their life. Here's a quote from Michelle Woolhouse. She's an integrative medical professional, medical doctor. She says this menopause is a time when a woman transforms from the fertile years into the wisdom years. The menopause transition is one of the most powerful experiences in a woman's life, a time for reverence and respect for her body, her fertility and her Intuition and wisdom. In Chinese medicine, menopause is referred to as the second spring. Spring is all about growth, vitality, expansion and abundance. And so I'm going to walk you through the biggest symptoms of menopause, some things you can do for every single one of those symptoms. Then we're going to get into the science. And then I'm going to go through the diet, the herbs, the supplements, and some of the lifestyle things you can do to look younger, to feel younger, and to really get rid of any of these negative menopausal symptoms and really just feel more mentally strong, empowered and youthful and as you go through menopause and post menopause. So the single most common symptom that women have when they're going through menopause is. That's right, you said it. Hot flashes. So these are sudden waves of heat often accompanied by sweating and flushed skin. And it affects over 80% of menopausal women. It can occur a day or night. It's caused by fluctuations in estrogen levels that affect the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates the body temperature. Now, when you're going through a hot flash, again, remember, it's connected to estrogen fluctuations. Now, here's what happens when estrogen gets too low. The body has a harder time producing enough fluids, so moisture and its ability to cool itself. So think about that. That's why you get so hot. Why is your body so hot? Your body is having a difficult time regulating your body temperature and it's having a difficult time moistening itself. So your body starts sweating to try and moisten itself. A lot of it goes external. So one of the things you can do if you're having hot flashes, it's incredibly effective, is take an herb called black cohosh, because what that does is that helps raise up and get your estrogen levels to the more ideal level. And that then is going to reduce some of those hot flash symptoms, in addition, doing more things that are going to cool and moisten your body, which I'll get into the ideal diet and foods for menopause cause in just a few moments. Number two, night sweats, intense sweating during sleep. This causes sleep disturbances and typically fatigue the next day. And this also is connected to these fluctuations in estrogen levels. And this is where black cohosh is also an amazing herb for this. In addition, something you can do is an herb called Vitex, which helps with balancing some of those night sweats as well. Number three are mood swings. This is irritability, anxiety, depressive Episodes are common during menopause. They affect more than 55% of women. And this results mostly from a decrease in estrogen. So remember, your estrogen levels are doing this, but the bigger thing is it's decreasing. And this also affects serotonin levels in the brain, which can lead to mood changes and emotional stability issues to where you're lashing out or you're depressed and you're sort of going back and forth and you feel like you're emotions are a total roller coaster. And something you can do to help this is take an omega 3 fatty acid supplement like fish oil, 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams a day, or just up your intake of omega 3 rich foods, especially wild caught salmon and wild tuna. Those two in particular are high in omega 3s and other nutrients. Actually, tuna also is something that supports your sleep cycles and tryptophan and other nutrients that are good there as well. The next tier that so many women struggle with as they go through menopause and is sleep disturbances and daytime fatigue. More than 85% of women that are perimenopausal and menopausal say they are fatigued. Typically, one of the most common reasons is they struggle with insomnia. And that's frequently waking up, which is leaving women the next day just feeling exhausted. If you're not getting that deep sleep, your body's not being restored and it's going to leave you tired. And this is caused by again, what we've talked about, hormonal imbalances. But more importantly than estrogen, it has to do with progesterone. So what happens in menopause is your estrogen drops and your progesterone drops, okay? And progesterone as a hormone has a calming effect on the brain, on the body, it aids in sleep. And poor sleep, we know, affects your mood, it affects your cognitive function. This is why some women that are going through menopause complain of brain fog and short term memory issues. And something you can do for the sleep disturbances is take a magnesium glycinate or a magnesium threonate or a spirulina bound or a food based magnesium supplement. So taking the right type of magnesium can help you with these symptoms. And I typically recommend around 400 or so milligrams before you go to sleep at night, okay? Helping you get better sleep of doing that sort of magnesium. And there's other things you can do in the evening as well. A more floral tea like a Roman chamomile or a general chamomile can be good as well at night, coupled with that magnesium. And here's some statistics here when it comes to sleep deprivation of some things you want to be aware of. Sleep deprivation also increases your food cravings, which then often results in weight gain. If you're not sleeping well, you're going to feel like eating more because it throws off these other hormones in the body. So what happens is when progesterone drops and then your sleep drops, that affects melatonin, which then that affects hormones called ghrelin and leptin. And those are known as your fat burning hormones and your hunger hormones. So your left feeling like you just you want to eat more. So you find yourself snacking like wanting to eat a whole bag of potato chips or way more bread than you typically would want to or more sugar because of it. So this is why women gain weight during menopause is due to these hormonal imbalances that then lead to these cravings. But it typically is from the sleep deprivation. But if you can take magnesium, if you can do some floral teas like chamomile, you could also try cbd. Oil is another good option. But anything you can do to improve your sleep is going to be helpful. The fifth most common symptom women struggle with as they go through menopause is vaginal dryness and reduced libido. Decreased estrogen can cause thinning of the vaginal lining and cause you to have less lubrication, leading to discomfort or pain during intimacy. And lower estrogen levels can also decrease libido, especially when sex is painful. And decreased estrogen can also weaken the pelvic muscles, leading to bladder control issues. And vaginal dryness is experienced by nearly 50% of menopausal women, more than two times higher than premenopausal women out there today. And so when we're talking about vaginal dryness, one of the best natural remedies is to do a vitamin E suppository. So again, a vitamin E suppository is a great thing to do to directly impact the symptoms. Now, in addition, internally and what I talked about earlier, and I will touch on again when I get into the diet component, but we need to increase moisture in your body. So what's happening when you go through menopause is your body is unable to produce enough moisture because your estrogen and your progesterone levels drop. That's why if we can dietarily and lifestyle do things to start increasing up the estrogen and progesterone and also give your body more of the foods that start to create more moisture, these symptoms will reduce greatly. And it's really the same thing that's causing most of the symptoms in menopause, whether it be hot flashes or night sweats or vaginal dryness or reduced libido, all of these things are. Your body now isn't creating enough moisture due to the drop in progesterone and estrogen. And there are some natural things you can do. And one of the things that women tend to run to first is hormone replacement therapy. But I don't believe that that is the best, first place to jump to. And here's why. According to ancient medicine, if you look at Chinese medicine, if you look at Ayurveda, and I think there are certain studies that prove this, that when you take hormone replacement therapy, you're doing something exogenously rather than affecting the body directly internally and supporting it on producing its own. So your body naturally produces progesterone and estrogen on its own, okay? Via your ovaries, via your uterus, via some other hormones that contribute there as well. It's producing these hormones. Now, when you take exogenous estrogen and progesterone, that's synthetic, your body has an internal tap of water or estrogen progesterone, that's flowing. What happens is when you take those exogenously, you turn off your own internal tap, okay? You turn it off. And when you turn it off, your body starts relying only on what's happening on the exterior, okay? And in Chinese medicine, they believe that when you turn off your own internal tap of estrogen and progesterone, you increase your likelihood of certain types of cancer, okay? And by the way, there are certain studies that show there is an increase in ovarian and uterine and different types of cancer in women who get on hormone replacement therapy. Now, I also want to say there have been a. There was a large, very large meta analysis done on hormone replacement therapy showing that the increased risk of cancer is lower than we once thought. Okay? So it wasn't significant. It was there, but it wasn't as significant as we once thought. But it's still there. And what I found is women are healthier and better if the first thing they focus on is having their own body produce more of it on its own. And there are ways to do that. And that's what I'm going to go through today when we get into diet and supplementation and a number of things is that you can take your tap that might only be dripping, okay? You Want something at least and actually turn it more on. Where your body now starts producing more estrogen, progesterone, where you don't have the menopausal symptoms and you don't have to rely on a hormone replacement therapy which is going to have side effects. In Chinese medicine, they call it stagnation because now things are moving less internally in your body. So listen, you cannot take something synthetic on the outside and have some sort of side effects. Now sometimes, listen, I believe that there is a time and a place where if a woman has gone and said, okay, I'm going to try, I'm doing the herbs, I'm doing the diet, I've managed my stress and I've tried those things naturally and it's still, it's still really affecting my sleep in a big negative way. Then I think there's a time and a place for hormone replacement therapy. So I want you to understand, I'm not saying there's never a time and a place and we should never do hormone replacement therapy. There is a time and a place, but it shouldn't be the first thing you jump to. Again, what most women do today is the first thing they do is jump and run to a medication. It's the first thing they do. And we know that that is going to treat the symptom and maybe even improve that one area of health. But we know it's going to deplete other nutrients. We know it's going to cause another side effect in the body. And while hormone replacement therapy is one step more natural than that, it's still not natural. And there are other things you can do to improve these symptoms. So again, if you have tried and exhausted every. And by the way, I believe the same thing about diabetes. Think about it, that's a hormone based condition. If somebody has type 2 diabetes and they come into my practice every time, if they follow my specific advice, they're able to reverse their diabetes. Let me say 99% of the time we've been able to reverse type 2 diabetes. Why? Because we're just rebalancing insulin. How do we do that? Their diet is mostly protein, fiber, some healthy fat, very specific nutrients like chromium and magnesium. And certain things that really balance insulin and hormone levels come back into balance. That happens. Now if I worked with somebody for two years and we still weren't able to get those insulin levels right then there's a time to get on insulin or get on metformin or get on medication. But the reality is in almost every case, if you're able to do the things that are more natural. You can reverse it, you can get your body into ideal balance, and it's typically not needed. Or at the very least, you want to push it off as far into the future as you can. So again with vaginal dryness, remember vitamin E suppository. In addition, following a moisture boosting diet. And so some of the best foods for this in particular are going to be foods that support progesterone, like chickpeas, pumpkin seeds, or pumpkin nut butter, or pumpkin seed butter, wild caught fish like tuna and salmon, yogurt. These are some of the things that will most help. All right, number six symptom that most women struggle with as they go through menopause is weight gain. About 70% of women gain weight during menopause. And it's really hormonal weight gain, okay? These hormonal changes, including reduced estrogen, reduced progesterone, and increased cortisol, slow women's metabolism, leading to susceptibility to weight gain, especially around the abdomen. And the best. And actually sometimes it's called menopause belly, okay? Women will start to say, well, I'm starting to get this, you know, this extra weight gain right on your midsection. And the best thing to do for that is going to be weight training. Okay? Weight training is the best thing you can do, okay? And it doesn't have to be every day, but it could be three days a week for 30 minutes. But doing some weights is going to be able to help that, along with just more movement, more walking, a little bit more cardio. But more movement and exercise will help. During menopause, women typically experience an average of about one to two pounds per year of weight gain. And this can accumulate to a total body weight of around an extra five to ten pounds over the course of menopause transition. And a higher body fat equates to more sleep problems, more depression, more anxiety, more joint pain, more urinary issues, more heart disease, and just generally aging more quickly. So you really want to do everything you can to combat that. And that's why weight training and exercise are your biggest tool against that. Number seven, bone density loss. Reduced estrogen negatively impacts calcium absorption and bone remodeling. So less estrogen increases the risk of bone density loss, such as osteopenia or osteoporosis and what you can do for that. And by the way, this also puts women at risk for things like fractures, okay? And so we want to do everything we can to combat that is where taking a supplement or eating foods that help build bone density. In ancient medicine, they knew that celery was one of the best. Imagine, they would say, if a food looks like an organ that supports that organ, hold up a stalk of celery next to your arm, or look at one, it looks almost like a bone, right? And so celery is one of the most electrolyte rich and alkaline foods that keeps your body from losing minerals. So eating more celery is great. Doing steamed green leafy vegetables like steamed spinach, that also is going to help with bone density. Doing raw cheese, that's great for bone density. And then if you want to take a supplement, here's the thing I want to tell you. Never ever take an isolated calcium supplement because that can increase your risk of heart disease if it's not absorbed well. So what you want to do, if you're going through estrogen, through menopause for supporting bone density, you want to take a supplement that's food based, that has magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin K2, and potentially calcium in there. And if it has those things, your body's better going to absorb calcium. Because for your body to absorb calcium, it needs vitamin K and it needs D and it needs magnesium in order to do that. So if you increase your intake of those foods, if you weight train and walk more like we talked about and take that supplement, that's going to pretty much reduce your risk of the bone density loss. Number eight is cardiovascular issues. This is where I think increasing your intake of omega 3 rich foods. We talked about taking a fish oil supplement, eating more salmon, doing more tuna, also doing more pomegranate is very good for cardiovascular issues. So again, doing pomegranate juice and eating pomegranates is a great thing to do as well. Lower estrogen, estrogen increases your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in postmenopausal women, is heart disease. So this is where doing more pomegranates, more omega 3 fatty acids like flaxseed oil and walnuts is going to help as well. Number nine symptom of menopause is cognitive decline. These fluctuating hormones affect brain function and memory. In fact, more than 30% of women struggle with memory and brain fog as they go through menopause. And this is where doing the omega 3 fats we talked about. In addition, in addition, lion's mane mushroom and ginkgo biloba are very effective at bringing that blood flow to the brain and helping Improve those symptoms. And number 10 is joint pain and muscular weakness and pain. And this is where doing turmeric ginger tea, you can buy those two together on Amazon.com, just buy turmeric ginger tea. Drinking that throughout the day is amazing in how it benefits decreasing pain in your joints and throughout your entire body. So, as we discussed, there are so many symptoms that affect women in menopause. But if you have the right strategy as you go through menopause with diet and herbs and lifestyle changes, you're going to fly through them. And I'm going to dive into those things here as well. Hey, have you ever felt like you're playing whack a mole with your symptoms? You fix one thing and another one pops up. Well, if that's you, you're not alone. You might try a new supplement, a new diet, a new prescription, and you think, okay, I'm good now. But then something else is wrong. Or that original thing just never fully heals. And the reason why those things aren't working is you're treating only the things you can see and not what's actually underneath the surface. Because the real root of your fatigue, your brain fog, your gut and your hormone issues, it's happening at a cellular level. And normal blood work does not test for what's going on inside your cell. Your doctor might say, hey, you're doing everything right. Great job. But you don't feel great because. Because if your cells are damaged, inflamed, or stuck in stress mode, no symptom relief is going to last. Stop chasing symptoms and start solving the source of all of your problems. Go to BeyondBloodwork.com to finally see what's happening inside of your cells and make all your efforts actually work, starting today. This is something I've had thousands of patients do and experience a breakthrough by finally getting to the root of their issue, by doing tests that actually work to help them find the root cause of their hormonal issues, their gut issues, their immune issues. If you finally want to get to the root of your issues at the cellular level, make sure to click the link or go to BeyondBloodwork.com and one of the myths that I want to combat that I think a lot of women might believe is listen. No matter what I do, I'm going to have these severe menopausal symptoms and listen, that's not true. It might be true in more Western countries, but again, I mentioned this earlier. If you go to Japan in areas like Mediterranean, if you go to certain areas in Italy and other places around the world, they don't have these symptoms more than 75% of the time. Think about that. Okay, so most women, 75% of women, have really almost no menopausal symptoms. And in a lot of these countries, there's just a cultural difference. In Japan, I mentioned far less symptoms and a diet that's much healthier. A lot of miso, a lot of edamame, a lot of seaweed, a lot of fish. These things are going to help with the symptoms. In India, in Ayurvedic medicine, menopause is often viewed as a natural transition rather than a medical problem. I think that's the way people think about it in the West. It's a medical condition, it's a medical problem. And the reality is, if you're doing the right things, you can have very little to no menopausal symptoms and Ayurvedic medicine. And when you look at Japan, they're doing a lot more herbs as well. I think that's one of the single biggest things we're missing in our diet. And Ayurveda, they're recommending a lot of Shatavari, they're recommending a lot of turmeric, they're recommending a lot of herbs that are going to decrease these symptoms. And then in Chinese medicine, they're doing the very same thing. A lot of green tea, a lot of black cohosh, a lot of these things that are going to reduce the symptoms. There's also regular practice. When you look in, in Japan, they're walking, they're on their bicycle, they're swimming, they're doing practices like Tai chi and yoga, just flowing movements that are healthy. In Ayurveda, they're doing things like yoga and meditation. These are things that reduce stress levels and bring the body more into balance. And so in all of these different cultures, and then the Mediterranean countries like Greece and Italy, women experience far fewer symptoms as well. Think about their diet. A lot more extra virgin olive oil, more healthy fats, more anti antioxidants, more food that was picked fresh that day, wild caught fish, right? These are things. And then here's the other thing, more connection and community, right? LAUGHTER they're not rushing to every part of every day or everything they're doing every day, there's less busyness. All of these things collectively can help you heal. And if you can put together a protocol for yourself, walking through some of the things that I'm going to go through now, it's going to help you feel younger, look younger, balance those progesterone and estrogen symptoms, bringing your body back into balance naturally. So let's walk through herbs, the supplements and the diet. Before I do that though, I do want to mention, here are the biggest reasons why in the Western world women are getting severe menopausal symptoms. Number one is an unhealthy diet. It's excess sugar intake, it's high in processed foods, it could be potato chips, it could be French fries, it could be pizza. Excess alcohol consumption. Now I do, I do want to say when you look at France and Italy and Greece, they are drinking a fair amount of wine and probably actually more than we do here. But it's in such a way where they're laughing and they're doing a three hour meal and reducing stress or doing it at the beach, it's a different way. So I don't think that's the single biggest thing. But if you're a person, you're stressed out and then you're trying to drink away your stress along with eating a bag of potato chips and ice cream, that's going to cause a problem. An unhealthy diet is the single biggest thing making menopausal symptoms worse. The second biggest thing is chronic stress. Elevating cortisol then majorly disrupts estrogen, progesterone. And so just rushing from thing to thing, chronic stress, having too many things in your life, not having enough things you love to do, that's the second biggest component. Those two things alone are the biggest reasons. Number three, sedentary lifestyle. You're just not moving enough, not walking, not getting on a bicycle, not playing with your grandkids or kids enough. Number four, four, poor gut health. Number five, nutritional deficiencies. There's a lot of women today deficient in magnesium, vitamin D, certain types of B vitamins, iron, there's major deficiencies there. Number six, it could be overconsumption of alcohol. The other thing, number seven would be hormone disruptors. If you're using a lot of plastic bottles, Teflon pans, all these chemicals that can cause issues, poor sleep, excess weight, genetics play a very, very minor role. Maybe if you're not a good methylator, which there's ways to fix that nutritionally. But overall, the biggest things that are disrupting women today, causing menopausal symptoms to be worse are diet, stress and then just this is tied to stress too. Just lifestyle issues. You don't have enough town time, not enough rest, not enough joy building, doing things you love to do. Those are issues. So let's walk through the Top herbs and supplements for improving menopausal symptoms. Number one by far is black cohosh. This is an herb that was traditionally used in all of Asian medicine. It contains phytoestrogens that mimic estrogen and support estrogen in the body. It's been shown in clinical studies to reduce hot flashes and night sweats. It also improves mood, eliminates joint pain related to menopause. So lots of benefits. Number one thing you can take for menopause is black cohosh. Number two is wild yam. This is a root rich in something called diosgenin, and this compound supports hormone balance. And specifically, it's a natural progesterone booster. So black cohosh increases estrogen, while wild yam increases progesterone. And wild yam has been shown to also help help with women who have estrogen dominance. So you might have been a woman throughout your life. You just know you've been really estrogen dominant. Well, wild yam is really great for helping bring some balance there. Now, you also want to do some things to help get rid of the excess estrogen. It could be cruciferous vegetables or an herb like milk. So it's really your liver acting a little bit, being more active at decreasing these excess estrogens. But overall, for most women, wild yam, especially in menopause, is the most beneficial. And this is in studies shown to also help with vaginal dryness. And you can do this as a cream, as a capsule as well, or a tincture. But wild yam is fantastic for upping those progesterone levels to help with some of those specific menopausal symptoms. Number three is red clover. It's actually a legume that contains isoflavones, which act similarly to estrogen. So it's another one that's going to help estrogen, and this one in particular is used for, for hot flashes, cardiovascular health, bone density and strength as well. You typically do about 40-80mg of red clover a day. Another favorite of mine, now, this is used more in ayurvedic medicine. It's known as shatavari, and it's an adaptogenic herb that also contains phytoestrogens but also helps lower cortisol. So it helps twofold, helps increase estrogen, helps lower cortisol. This also improves vaginal dryness and libido, supports overall vitality, helps with managing stress. Typically, doing around 500mg twice a day of shatavari helps with menopausal symptoms. Number five is Dong quai. This is known as female ginseng and tcm. And it adds as a blood tonic and hormone balancer. A lot of women are blood deficient. So if you would stick out your tongue, if it's not a bright red or a very vibrant, vibrant pink, again not pale pink, vibrant pink, like almost, almost red, then you have what's called a blood deficiency where your blood isn't nourished enough and that's a lack of oxygen. When that happens, you're going to feel fatigued. So if you're going through menopause and you just feel tired, you may even feel more pale on your skin or your tongue. Dong quai is the single most powerful herb for improving that. And that can improve also hot flashes. It can improve like if you feel like you've got poor circulation, blood circulation, like your hands and feet get cold, that's issue there. If you get sometimes any sort of just muscle pain or cramping, it's also good for that. But energy, low energy, Dong quai is incredibly powerful. Typically, I would recommend around 500-1,000mg daily of dong quai as you go through menopause. And so as we talked about, those are the most powerful herbs as you go through menopause to improve those symptoms. And there's a few others there I could have mentioned. Rahmania is another good one, or ashwagandha, but generally those are the fab five that will decrease those menopausal symptoms. Now next up, I would say supplementing with, when we're talking about nutrients, magnesium is number one. It's an essential mineral that supports relaxation of your blood vessels of your body. It improves sleep. There's studies showing it sometimes reduces hot flashes and night sweats. It also promotes better sleep, reduces anxiety. I would recommend about 300 to 400 milligrams daily, ideally at night or the evening of a magnesium glycinate, magnesium threonate, or a food based magnesium that maybe comes from something like spirulina, but that's what I would recommend for magnesium. Number two, an omega 3 fatty acid. I would recommend 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams a day of a fish oil. Could also be caviar oil or roe oil, but some sort of oil that has EPA and dha. And then in addition, I would add in some nuts and seeds that are rich in omega 3s and eat wild caught fish itself as well. Number three is vitamin D. I would do about 2000mg daily. If you feel like your magnesium levels are just minorly, low or about right. If not, you want to do closer to 5000ius of vitamin D daily. And here's the other thing, you ideally want to take it with magnesium. So one of the best things you could do is find a vitamin D magnesium combo and take those together because they both improve the absorption of one another. Now, your ideal way to get vitamin D is via sunlight. This is why spending way more time outdoors will help your symptoms. And here's the thing, you want to get sun in your skin, but you don't want to get too much sun. And you never want to get sunburnt because that is actually what ages your skin is getting a sunburn more than anything. So get 20 minutes, get 30 minutes, then you might cover up up. You do want to spend more time outside, but you, you, you and you also, some people think you should get no sun on your skin if you don't want to age it. It's just not true. You want to get a minimal amount to get up to get that vitamin D and then you can cover up or put on a natural based sunscreen. Number four, probiotics. These live bacteria support the gut microbiome which is going to increase your nutrient absorption of all your nutrients. Your body can create more nutrients and actually create more hormones. 95% of your body's serotonin is created in your gut. And so you want to do everything you can to support the gut microbiome. I recommend about 100 billion CFUs daily for most women. And if you've ever taken an antibiotic and have poor gut health, 1 trillion probiotics a day. And so those are the biggest needle movers in terms of supplements. Listen, there's not a million things you need to take. If you can find a good few herbs that we talked about and a few good, good nutritional nutrients there and probiotics, you're going to see amazing results there along with adjusting your lifestyle. Now let me walk you through the best foods for menopause in the dietary approach. Hey, have you ever looked at skincare products and thought, how will I know this actually works well with one skin? I don't just believe it works. I have proof. This company was founded by an incredible team of scientists specializing in tissue engineering, stem cell biology and skin regeneration. And every product they create is backed by rigorous lab studies in real clinical results. One Skin's game changing ingredient OS1 peptide is the first scientifically proven ingredient to reverse skin's biological age. It works at the cellular level, targeting senescent, AKA zombie cells that Speed up aging. And the numbers speak for the themselves and their SPF neutralizes free radicals four times more effectively than other so called anti aging sunscreens. I personally use their OS1 face in the morning and in the evening and I've noticed my skin feels firmer, healthier and more hydrated than ever before. So if you want to start improving your skin at the cellular level, go to Oneskin co Axe and use the code axe, that's AXC at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. That's Oneskin co Axe, code axe for 15% off. Today, let me walk you through the best foods for menopause. And this is proven by modern science today in functional medicine. It's also proven by thousands of years of ancient forms of medicine like TCM and Ayurveda. And here's the idea of what you want to do that I mentioned earlier. Your body, when your estrogen and progesterone lower, it stops producing enough moisture. And your body also isn't able to cool itself as well. So you get hot, you get sweaty, those things start to happen. And so these foods in particular are going to help you balance that. Now, in Chinese medicine, they would call it a kidney yin deficiency. That's the medical term used in Chinese medicine. In Japan, we talked about Japanese medicine, they use the very same type of medicine or very similar to that in China. And this is why women have far less menopausal symptoms, is they actually understand and know why they're having these symptoms. And so we want to bring moisture and coolness to the body and protect it. The number one food group that's going to help with that is going to be green leafy vegetables that are steamed, like steamed spinach is going to be very helpful with that. Steamed kale is going to help you with that. Berries and pomegranates specifically goji berries are the single best in pomegranates, goji berries and pomegranates. The second category I would say would be blueberries and blackberries. Okay. And apples and pears can be great too for kind of bringing that moisture to the body. But pomegranates and goji berries, you can buy pomegranate powder, add a teaspoon or a tablespoon to a morning smoothie, you could just eat pomegranates or do a little pomegranate juice or mix that in water with a little stevia and drink that throughout the day. But again, pomegranates and goji berries, probably the most powerful berries for reducing menopausal symptoms. And then we have fatty fish. Wild caught salmon being one of the best you could buy. Sockeye salmon, wild king salmon. In addition, there's lots of other great types of fish. Wild caught tuna, also sea bass, black cod, sardines, halibut, even grouper and snapper. But getting more fish and especially the fatty fish in your diet. Diet is going to be very, very helpful. Pasture raised organic meat like grass fed beef and bison and poultry and duck, Duck in particular is very moistening to the body. That would be great to try sometime. And by the way, you cook duck just like you cook chicken in a very similar way. Flaxseeds and chia seeds and hemp seeds, These contain those omega 3s and they bring natural moisture to the body. And if you need to build your blood, black sesame seeds are good. But in particular flax and walnuts would be the two that I would consume the most of. You could add a tablespoon of flaxseeds to a smoothie or do a little bit of cottage cheese or yogurt. Walnuts you could do maybe with a snack with pomegranate, something like that is a good option. And then I would recommend doing herbs like turmeric, cinnamon, rosemary. Just regularly using more of these herbs on your food. Sage, basil has incredible benefits for hormones. And then I would say yogurt. This could be a plant based yogurt like coconut yogurt, or it could be an A2 dairy yogurt like sheep yogurt or goat milk yogurt. Or an A2 cow's milk yogurt. Or kefir is another option. Think about it. It's very moistening to the body. And then avoid processed foods, refined sugars, trans fats. Just remove the processed foods, that's going to help tremendously. And then when you're creating your meals for menopause, you want to follow a very specific dietary pattern. Number one, get more protein. Okay, so get more protein, more collagen, more bone broth, more plant based protein. So in the morning, a lot of times, if I have a woman create a hormone balancing smoothie, what I will have them do is I'll have them put in like a little bit of sweet potato, which is very balancing or yam in there. Maybe it's like a fourth of a cup. I'll then have them do a tablespoon of goji berry powder. I might have them do a little beetroot juice, possibly even a little bit of a pomegranate juice. And then I'LL have them do 20 grams of a collagen based protein like a bone broth or a stem cell based protein. I'll have them do maybe 20 grams of a vanilla plant based protein and then add in a little bit of water, a little bit of coconut mil and make that superfood morning smoothie. You could add in other herbs like a little bit of cinnamon in there. And that's an amazing morning smoothie to do to help balance your hormones there. And there are other things but again you're getting lots of protein there, you're getting fiber, you're getting antioxidants. That's what you want to focus on. And then for your other meals, I would say for lunch do wild caught fish or grass fed beef or chicken or turkey. Do that with a little bit of sweet potato or or basmati or jasmine rice or a little bit of sourdough bread. And so you're going to do more of that carbs, fiber and protein. At night you're going to go lower carb and do more fat. And so you're going to do the wild caught salmon. You're going to do an avocado or some extra virgin olive oil and you're going to do a lot of vegetables. You're going to cook in extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil or just steam them. You could have those with some hummus or tahini. And then for dinner maybe you're doing a few bites of dark chocolate, something like that. That's sort of the ideal eating plan there for you. And as I mentioned earlier, there are lots of diets that can help. I want to mention a few just studies here. A Mediterranean diet in terms of the studies tremendously helps. And that's incorporating most of the foods I mentioned. It's lean protein, it's more fiber, it's berries, it's more healthy oils. All of those are going to help help more omega 3 fats. You know, a lower carb diet actually can help. I'm not saying you should go keto, but I am saying there's a study out of UMass General and they found that when somebody did more fat and less sugar in their diet, they experienced less hot flashes. So moderating those carbs and especially at night, going lower in carbohydrate is a smart idea when it comes to getting rid of menopausal symptoms. And then, then when it comes to lifestyle and movement, regular exercise. Now when you look at a lot of these longevity or blue zones, you're going to notice they walk a lot or they cycle a lot. Okay, so they are just, they're walking in cycling places as much as they can, about 30 to 60 minutes a day. And then sometimes they're doing some sort of other exercise. So I would recommend in an ideal world that you strength train three days a week, but at least two days a week. I'd recommend on those days that you don't walking or doing some light cardiovascular exercise in one day, trying to do a little bit more intense cardiovascular exercise. Remember, prioritizing sleep is also a big deal. You want at least seven hours of sleep at night, at least. And then hydration. Remember, you want more moisture. So doing about eight to 10 glasses of water a day or getting two or three of those big 32 ounce bottles, things of water and drinking that throughout the day, you could add, you don't need a full electrolyte powder. You probably can do like a half a packet of an electrolyte powder or add in a little pomegranate juice and stevia with a pinch of sea salt, something like that. And also eat more celery, eat more plums, eat more watermelon in the summer months. That's also going to bring some great hydration to your body as well. And then what we talked about is stress management. Look at your daily schedule or look at your weekly schedule and try incorporate spending more time in prayer with God, reading your Bible, connecting with another woman at Bible study, spending some time in meditation, creating more community and connection with friends and laughter. And sometimes you have to pursue and build those. And that takes work. But it's worth it. It's worth it for your longevity, it's worth it for your well being. And God created us for deep intimate connection with one another. And so the reality is this, when we're not living in tune with what God created, which is being connected to him, being connected to others and being connected with nature, we're sick. If you can increase your connection in relationships in all those areas, you're going to be healthier. The menopausal symptoms will all get better in response to that. And there are other natural treatments that can tremendously help with menopause. Acupuncture is great. Massage therapy can be great as well, are some things you may consider there as well. And let me close by talking about the pros and the cons of hormone replacement therapy. And again, what you can do instead, which is a lot of what we just covered. But first, hormone replacement therapy has been shown to be ideal if it's used typically between the ages of 50 and 60 or within 10 years of onset of menopause. The potential benefits, according to the studies is it has been shown to reduce hot flashes and night sweats. It has been shown to support bone density. It has been shown to improve mood and sleep issues. Here are the cautions. While it can be effective, it also has potential health risks, the most common being certain types of cancer, especially hormone based cancers like breast cancer. In fact, I know someone personally who got on hormone replacement therapy. Not just one person in the past, just literally a few months ago, and many people years before who got on hormone replacement therapy. And a couple years after they did, they were diagnosed with breast cancer or an ovarian type of cancer. So I've seen this in clinical practice. I know that it can be a cause or contribute in certain cases to certain types of cancer. But also if your hormone symptoms are so severe that they are destroying your sleep, destroying your mental health, that sometimes is worse than any side effect of hormone replacement therapy. And that can be a better option then for those cases. So let's listen. I think there's a time and a place for hormone replacement therapy for women. But before you jump into hormone replacement therapy, the first thing you should do, like taking any synthetic medication, the first thing you should do, change your diet, try some herbs. The other thing I want to mention here finally is that you can also take glandular supplements, take ovary and take uterus of cows or sheep. Okay, so take a glanular supplement for women, typically do twice the dosage and take those along with the herbs and all the things I mentioned. You could also try peptides, but try taking these glandulars. Try doing the vitamins and the supplements and the lifestyle, all the things I tried. And 90% of the time what you're going to see is these symptoms you have of menopause. They're going to improve or completely be eliminated. And if after doing those things, if you still have not seen improvement, then there's the time, there's the place to do the medication, to do the hormone, specifically the hormone replacement therapy. That's the time. But it shouldn't be the first thing you run to because you're turning off your body's own tap. And ideally you want to be able to just turn that tap on more where there's this natural flow of energy throughout your body and those symptoms disappear or improve tremendously. I want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the show. You know, I think with menopause this is something that isn't talked about enough in terms of how do you really thrive through your 40s, your 50s, your 60s, and later on in life, especially for women. And for me, I've helped guide my mom through it. And I didn't bring up my mother in law was so interesting. I put her on a diet like this when she was around. I want to say it was 49 years old and when she got on it, she actually had started menopause. She had not had her cycle in a year or two and then she started having it again, which I know some of you may not want to go through that again. But all that being said, she started having some of the symptoms because she was able to reverse her biological age. She probably reversed her age by 5 to 10 years. She was that much younger, looking younger, feeling younger. So here's the other big bonus I want to mention. As you follow this menopausal diet I just went through and the herbs and the lifestyle adjustments, not only is it going to help improve your progesterone and estrogen and alleviate the menopausal symptoms, you are actually biologically going to be getting younger. Your skin will look younger, your wrinkles will be like overall you will look younger, feel younger and actually be younger biologically when you walk through this dietary and lifestyle protocol I went through. So there's not just the benefits of the symptoms, there are the benefits of longevity and health, being more, being able to live out more of your purpose, connect more with your family and live an abundant life. Want to say thanks so much for tuning in here to the show. Hey, make sure to subscribe. By the way, I am so elated that so many of you are subscribed. And listen, some of you are not. And you're missing out. We've got so many amazing interviews coming up. I was able to be in Washington D.C. this past week connecting with the head of the FDA, Marty Makery, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. There, Dr. Mark Hyman and so many others. We have, we have some amazing people coming on the show. I have some amazing insights to be able to share with you in coming episodes. So if you're not subscribed, make sure to subscribe. Also, thank you all of you who have shared this episode and other episodes. We're literally changing the health of the world together. So thank you for sharing as well. And thank you all of you for the amazing reviews on Apple and Spotify. Wow. Thank you all of you as well. If you haven't left a review, please do that as well. But again, I just want to say thanks to everybody. And I can't wait to see you on the next episode.