Menopause: Make these easy lifestyle changes to reduce symptoms | Health

Menopause a natural hormonal milestone for women often comes along with a number of symptoms from hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, mood swings and metabolism troubles to name a few.

Menopause is the time that marks the end of your menstrual cycle and is diagnosed after you don’t get periods for 12 months. Depending on genetic factors, menopause can occur between mid 40s to early 50s.

Women are often caught off guard with the changes that occur in their body and the symptoms that may be severe at times.

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Celebrity nutritionist and author of bestseller books like Indian Superfoods and Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weights, Rujuta Diwekar who keeps posting videos about health, fitness and nutrition on social media, recently took to Instagram to talk about menopause.

Explaining the cause of menopause Diwekar says, “during menopause our ovaries that produce estrogen start to shrink because of which the level of estrogen and progesterone, female hormones, starts to come down. Because of these hormone levels coming down, our period stops.”

Before Menopause our body starts to change. When estrogen and progesterone drop very rapidly, then women may face a number of symptoms.

These are:

*Mood swings

*Cravings

*Sudden hair loss

*Pigmentation

*Night sweats

*Hot flashes.

Diwekar says if the drop in hormone is steady, these symptoms will be milder.

Here are some lifestyle modifications that could make menopause easy for women:

Diet: Diwekar says that it is important to have a balanced diet to support your changing body. Stressing on the importance of micronutrients, the nutritionist says one needs to have local, seasonal and traditional food, and not supplements that may not help that much. Diversity in diet according to Diwekar is important so the body gets all the essentials nutrients. She warns against starting any diet, fasting or intermittent fasting during this time. With an appropriate diet, the menopause symptoms will go away – mood swings will improve, weight will come down subsequently, she says.

Exercise: The celebrity nutritionist recommends exercise that helps improve strength, stamina and flexibility. A combination of yoga, strength training and cardio would be helpful. Strength training and yoga should be done at least two times a week while your total physical activity should be 3 hours per week. She advises all women to take out at least half n hour every day for exercise.

Rest and recovery: Diwekar says one must make sure to nap for 20 minutes in afternoon during this time. Hitting the bed between 9:30 pm to 11 pm is advisable. Considering rest is important during this time, dieting or strenuous exercises are to be avoided.

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