Help With Menopause - What Are Bio-Identical Hormones?

During pre-menopause and menopause, many women suffer from an array of symptoms and need help with menopause symptoms. In this article I will discuss the cause of most menopausal symptoms as well as what options women have to alleviate them.
Most pre-menopause and menopause symptoms are due to a poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle and exposure to environmental estrogens. And also an imbalance in a woman's hormone levels. Two hormones in particular are out of balance at menopause: estrogen and progesterone.
When at menopause, the progesterone level drops to zero, a woman's menstruation stops and she starts suffering from painful breasts, weight gain, bloating, low bone density, trouble sleeping, anxiety and stress. At the same time, estrogen also declines and brings symptoms such as breast tenderness, anxiety, allergies, decreased sex drive, weight gain particularly around the belly, foggy thinking, insomnia, irritability, etc.
If the symptoms are not too severe, one type of help with menopause a woman can try is by changing her diet to include more fruits, vegetable, lean meats, whole grain and legumes. It is also important to include the healthy fats such as the Omega 3 found in fish such as salmon, herring, tuna.
Extending this natural treatment includes staying away from all types of stress as stress can worsen symptoms and cause further hormonal imbalance.
If the symptoms are more severe, a woman then can talk to her doctor about bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. Bio-identical hormones are natural, plant -based hormones that mimic the structure of the hormones made by the body. Because they are natural. They do not have any side effects.
This is important to know because many medical practitioners still want to use synthetic hormones which are obtained from pregnant mares and are foreign to the human body. Studies have found that the regular hormone replacement therapy increase s the risk of breast cancer and stroke.
In order to be put on Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) you will have to find a physician knowledgeable about hormones to help with menopause symptoms. The doctor in turn will prescribe a special formula that is unique to your hormonal levels after some tests.
It is important that you get adequate information about bio-identical hormones because a lot of doctors still prescribe synthetic hormones as they are more readily available and supported by the pharmaceutical industry. Because the natural hormones cannot be patented by the pharmaceutical companies, there is still some controversy about their efficacy. So you will be wise to find out more information so you can make an educated decision about the best options for you when it comes to help with menopause.
To learn more about bio-identical hormones as well as help with menopause, get the free e-book at Menopause in Women.

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Hormonal Weight Gain - 5 Keys To Controlling Hormones and Weight Gain

Ladies, did you know that hormonal weight gain often ranging somewhere from 10 to 15 pounds on average is a very common side effect and symptom of menopause?
No doubt those women who have already begun to experience the beginning or early stages of menopause will agree with the reality of this slow shift in body weight as they watch (often in horror and frustration) their waistlines slowly thicken and increase in circumference without what seems any probable cause!
In fact both past and recent research studies that were carried out on the changes in the endocrine system and women's hormones during peri-menopause and menopause; in particular hormonal weight gain, estimates that at least 80% or more women will inevitably gain some excess poundage throughout their menopause years regardless of whether they change their calorie intake or not.
Does this sound familiar to you in any way? Have you found yourself confused and frustrated with watching your waist circumference slowly increase in spite of not making any changes to your daily diet plan?
Just to be clear, this isn't a sudden change that just happens overnight, but rather a slow, progressive change in the distribution of your body weight and where body fat tends to plant itself.
Unfortunately, it seems that the stomach, the hips and the waistline tend to be the most favoured areas for extra body fat to be stored for most women, much to our dismay.
Calories taken in are not the culprits here either, so reducing your calorie intake has little effect in maintaining your hourglass figure of yesterday.
In fact, fad diets that endorse a near starvation calorie intake of less than 1,200 calories daily can actually exacerbate the problem and be dangerous to your health!
Rather, hormonal weight gain is a direct cause and the thickening effect that follows as a result of fluctuations and shifts in a woman's hormone levels - in essence, your hormones are to blame for that excess belly fat.
There's no question that hormones and weight gain are very intricately linked and there are actually four key hormones at play here, each having its own unique role in how and where your body stores body fat.
Diet and exercise are the first two main factors that can influence the state of your hormones.
Stress, sleep and nutritional supplementation are three important factors too and also play an important role in influencing the state of your hormones and maintaining a healthy body weight as well.
Knowing what NOT to do can be helpful too.
For example, cutting back or avoiding excessive caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants is also important.
The good news for women is that many of these factors can be manipulated and changed in order to help you achieve optimal hormonal balance and avoid hormonal weight gain.
To learn more about your hormones and weight gain and how you can best put these 5 key factors into practice visit http://www.belly-fat-blues.com/

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Hormones and Aging Gracefully

One of the biggest barriers to aging gracefully is hormonal imbalance. Even if you eat right, exercise, stay out of the sun and do absolutely everything right to keep your skin looking young and your body feeling good, you are still going to see signs of premature aging if your hormones are out of whack. In fact, when you decide to stick to a nutritious diet and an exercise regime to keep your body fit, you need to think about how these things will affect your hormones. It's important to make sure that any diet or exercise regime you choose to follow will not interfere with your body's normal hormone production.
As we age, our hormones change. Most people are familiar with the changes that happen to women as they age. Sometime in their 40's or 50's, most women go through menopause - a stage in which their bodies stop producing important hormones. But not as many people realize that men go through similar hormonal changes that are just not as famous for abruptly changing. Men's hormones diminish slowly, over a period of many years. In their 50's or 60's, men often see evidence of the decline in the form of failing health, overall weakness, and other symptoms that are very similar to those experienced by women during menopause.
Medical science has progressed significantly to make it possible to replace many of the hormones that are lost due to the aging process. Replacing lost hormones does wonders for helping both men and women maintain a youthful health into old age. Women and men can both avoid many of the trials and tribulations of menopause or "man-opause" by doing hormone replacement therapy with a qualified physician. Bioidentical hormones offer people the opportunity to use plant-derived hormones that are identical in structure and function to those that are produced in the human body to restore and maintain health. Often, bioidentical hormone doctors will help their patients develop diet and exercise plans that will complement their hormone replacement treatments to achieve the very best results possible.
If you're working on staying young as long as possible, you may want to tune into your hormones and do what you can to maintain a healthy hormone balance. As you age, you may need to solicit the help of a medical doctor to keep those hormones balanced, but know that many of the aches and pains and inconveniences associated with the aging process can be diminished considerably through the judicious use of hormonal treatments.
The PhysioAge Medical Group can help answer your questions about each bioidentical hormone available. Their staff will help determine which hormone is best to help you in your unique situation.

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