Perimenopause and adrenal support

So from all my research that I have been doing over the last 3 years of delving into what goes on in the lead up to menopause and during peri and menopause, I have seen a huge link to how healthy our adrenals are to what sort of symptoms we have during this time.

So how healthy are your adrenals, do you support yourself around this area?

Do you know what your adrenals do and where they are situated in your body?

Well let's begin; your adrenals sit on top of your kidneys and they are there to help us in danger (fight and flight) or to keep us going way beyond our natural energy source would naturally go. They produce adrenalin and cortisol and in menopause they take over some of the hormone production from your ovaries. So if you have depended on your adrenals for too long they will be deficient and then when menopause arrives you are already on the back foot, so to speak.

When we burn our adrenal energy by pushing through the tired repeatedly over several years and experience extra added pressure and stress from life then your adrenals will become deficient. Now this is fine but not if we keep pushing and don't rest and rejuvenate where we can, then we will be in trouble.

If we stay in this adrenal mode our body falls into a very nasty cycle of producing adrenalin and cortisol which keeps the body producing this hormone because it thinks with these hormones circulating that we need to make more to protect us from danger. When this keeps going we can become anxious and very tired, like bone tired and we don't sleep well. So then we crash and turn to substances like coffee which is an over used upper in society or we go for carbs and refined sugars to give us that quick lift of energy. These substances will create our adrenals to keep running at our expense in the long run. Can you see the danger here and how this cycle can easily keep going day after day?

When this happens, it is believed in Chinese Medicine theory that we are eating into our kidney Yang (our base energy) or even worse our Jing (which is our essence and once that is gone our time is up or serious disease can follow).

So now you start to enter into MP and your worn out body needs these adrenal glands to support them hormonally and they are already so tired and its near impossible to do this new job, hence the symptoms of MP appear and they vary from mild to server on how well you have treated your adrenal glands throughout your life.

So it sounds all doom and gloom but not so! Once you know this you can change your life style and do things that help your adrenals rejuvenate and cope.

Firstly, change this burn out cycle as soon as you can.

Support your Adrenals/ Kidneys through life always with simple things like; constant 1.5 litres of water a day more if your exercising, rest when you can, go to bed earlier, have 15 minute naps during the day, legs up the wall for 10 minutes this pools blood into the kidneys and uterus which helps rejuvenate and nourish these organs, stop using caffeine and sugars to boost you, go for good oils and protein to achieve clean energy not low fat substitutes. Stop pushing did I say that?

Add in to your life: Acupuncture, Chinese herbs, gentle yoga, walking, don't push hard with exercise this will trigger your adrenals but regularity is key here, nurturing yourself regularly, keep your feet and kidney area warm (lower back) always, get used to saying "No" to doing to much for others, find creativity and fun activities.

Tabitha