Ayurvedic Herbs to make your Menopausal years easier
At any age, staying healthy and feeling your best is critical. These suggestions can help you deal with the changes that come with becoming older while also allowing you to experience life to the fullest. As we get older, we face a growing number of important life transitions, such as employment changes and retirement, children leaving home, the loss of loved ones, physical and health challenges—and even the loss of independence. Healthy aging is typically determined by how we respond to and grow from these changes.
In a culture that values youth and productivity, contemplating menopause and the changes that accompany it might be frightening. To say the least, navigating this stage of life can be difficult, but it can also be a window of opportunity and a fresh start—a chance to re-align with our beliefs and put our own well-being first. We may have heard stories from friends about their struggles with menopause, and those of us who haven’t yet experienced it may feel condemned to a similar fate.Let’s see how Ayurveda makes your menopausal experience a better one!
An Overview Of Menopause!
Menopause is the loss of ovarian reproductive function, which can occur naturally or as a result of other factors. To provide women better control of their fertility, it is not yet able to properly forecast the beginning of menopause, particularly early menopause. The menopause transition differs greatly from person to person. Menopause onset age, personal health and well-being, and each woman’s environment and culture are all important influencing factors. Menopause usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but it can happen as early as the 30s or 40s, or it can wait until a woman is in her 60s.
Lifestyle assessment and intervention, as well as hormonal and non-hormonal medication, are all possibilities for treatment, each with its own set of advantages and hazards. Symptomatology, health status, immediate and long-term health risks, personal life expectations, and the availability and cost of therapies all influence treatment decisions for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. More effective and safe menopausal symptom management methods are needed, especially for women who have absolute contraindications to hormone therapy.
The Main Symptoms Presented!
It’s critical to keep in mind that every woman’s experience is unique. Some women have few or no menopausal symptoms, while others have a variety of physical and psychological problems. Women’s symptoms vary greatly in terms of their scope and intensity. It’s also crucial to keep in mind that for some women, symptoms may appear and disappear over time. This is also highly distinctive. Generally, symptoms include irregular vaginal bleeding with occasional amenorrhea, hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal symptoms (itching, dryness, irritation, pain), urinary symptoms (urinary incontinence, urinary tract infections, etc.), mood swings, physical changes like wrinkles, weight gain, acne, sagging of the breast and so on.
Factors Causing Early Menopause?
In an ovulating woman, surgical removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy) causes instantaneous menopause, often known as surgical menopause or induced menopause. There is no perimenopause in this scenario, and a woman will normally experience the signs and symptoms of menopause after surgery. Women commonly report that the abrupt beginning of menopausal symptoms leads to particularly severe symptoms in cases of surgical menopause, however, this is not always the case.
The ovaries are frequently removed at the same time as the uterus (hysterectomy). The remaining ovary or ovaries are still capable of regular hormone production if a hysterectomy is performed without removing both ovaries in a woman who has not yet entered menopause. While a woman’s uterus cannot be removed after a hysterectomy, the ovaries can continue to generate hormones until menopause occurs spontaneously. A woman may also suffer other menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and mood changes at this time. These symptoms would no longer be linked to the end of menstruation.
Ayurvedic Viewpoint On Menopause!
Menopause is not referred to as a malady in Ayurvedic writings. Childhood, adulthood, and elderhood are the three major stages of life recognized by Ayurveda. When you reach menopause, you’re entering a vata dominant phase of your life, which allows you to gain insight, clairvoyance, and wisdom through deep thought and contemplation on your life thus far. We have a lower ability to maintain balance throughout menopause because we have lesser ojas, even in the same environment and with the same stressors. When this is combined with vata’s unpredictable character, our bodies move into sympathetic overdrive.
Menopause becomes a state of the elevated sympathetic nervous system due to reduced Ojas—cortisol levels rise, blood pressure rises, and heart rate rises. This tension raises pitta levels throughout the body, making it ready to combat any threat. This is compounded by the end of the monthly blood discharge. The menstrual cycle can be viewed as a form of rakta moksha therapy. This is a typical panchakarma therapy in which blood is drained to relieve excess pitta. All of the above-mentioned changes—hormonal shifts, Ojas and Tejas reductions, and dosha influence—can lead to an imbalance in the gunas, or characteristics, resulting in dry, rough, subtle, mobile, spreading, hot, or cold qualities.
Ayurvedic therapies to feel young even at Menopause!
Panchakarma is a multi-step, mind-body rejuvenation treatment in Ayurveda. If you are going through menopause and can participate in a full panchakarma, do so. Otherwise, its inclusion in this practice is a reminder that self-care is paramount during this time. Abhyanga, Nasya, Shirodhara, Virechana are all extremely beneficial in alleviating menopausal symptoms. There are a variety of herbs often used in Ayurveda that can provide significant assistance for women going through menopause, in addition to panchakarma such as Ashoka (Saraca asoka), Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus), Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), Musta (Cyperus rotundus) and so on.
The Road to a Glorious Menopause!
While most studies are small or preliminary, there is a growing body of research and promising preliminary findings that support a menopause strategy that embodies nourishment, contentment, and balance. Finally, achieving the bright, elegant menopause that the sages have known for millennia may be reduced to three basic objectives: increasing moisture, being calm, and boosting your digestive fire.
Hot flashes affect up to 80% of women who are going through menopause. The practice of cooling pranayama, reducing caffeine and alcohol intake, drinking pomegranate juice and fresh lime, maintaining a healthy weight, and meditation can provide a solution to this. Learn to breathe slowly and deeply, and then utilize yoga to relax your nervous system, reduce stress, and alleviate menopausal symptoms. Yoga nidra, also known as yogic sleep, is a meditation practice performed while resting on your back or in another comfortable position.
Let’s make menopause an enjoyable experience rather than an inevitable event!