Acid Reflux, are you suffering?

Heartburn is a painful burning feeling just below or behind the breastbone. It usually comes from the esophagus. The pain often rises in your chest and may spread to your neck or throat. Contents from the stomach can back up (reflux) into the esophagus.

Altering your diet and lifestyle may help alleviate both heartburn and the more serious GERD, but neither should be overlooked and left untreated.

Lifestyle changes 

Some lifestyle changes that can help control your acid reflux symptoms. These include:

Maintain a healthy weight.

Quit smoking.

Limit alcohol.

Avoid eating 3 hours before lying down.

Raise the head of your bed.

Do not wear clothing that is too tight around your waist.

Reduce Stress.

Dietary Changes

Eat smaller more frequent meals

Eat Slowly

Chew thoroughly

Foods to Limit or Avoid, these may make it worse:

Spicy foods      Fatty foods             Mint

Chocolate        Alcohol                   Caffeine

Citrus fruits      Tomato-based foods

Keep a Food Diary:

Ultimately, every person responds differently to foods. Food diaries that include the symptoms you experienced after eating the food allow you to refer back to it to monitor any trends you notice with certain foods.

Call your health care provider if symptoms worsen or do not improve with lifestyle changes or medication.

Also call for any of the following symptoms:

•     Bleeding

•     Choking (coughing, shortness of breath)

•     Feeling filled up quickly when eating

•     Frequent vomiting

•     Hoarseness

•     Loss of appetite

•     Trouble swallowing (dysphagia) or pain with swallowing (odynophagia)

•     Weight loss

To Soy or not to Soy?

Well…. There certainly appears to be some benefits to incorporating soy into our diets when we look at the laundry list of symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause such as Menstrual Irregularities, Hot flashes/Night sweats, Sleep problems, Irritability, Weight Gain, and Sexual Issues.

These symptoms may all be associated with hormone imbalances.  Soy can have positive benefits with this trigger.

Soy contains isoflavones called genistein, daidzein and glycitein.  These phytosterols are “estrogen-like” and can act as replacements in the body during this lifespan period when estrogen levels may drop.  Providing this plant-based replacement assists in alleviating symptoms of Perimenopause and also helps to reduce breast cancer risk.

Tip: Add some Soy to your diet.

Soy is not just tofu either: there are many other products that include soy.  Endamame is a favorite snack – high quality protein, contains fiber, and is much lower in calories then many other protein foods.

Try some, yum.

Tired, tired, tired.

Fatigue, yet another symptom of pre-menopause, is one of our body’s ways of telling us to make some lifestyle changes.  Of course if you are not getting enough sleep this could be a cause.  Also if you are not getting a good quality sleep, frequent waking for example, this would also cause fatigue.  AND, once again, hormone imbalances can be the contributor to your fatigue.

Once you follow the recommendations for some quality sleep, you can also try some good dietary habits to alleviate your fatigue:

* Eat a good breakfast – this is the fuel for your day.

* Don’t turn to caffeine or sweets for energy – stick to complex carbs and proteins: nuts, seeds, fresh fruit and veggies.

* Choose smaller more frequent meals to combat fatigue.

Tip: Fight Fatigue with Whole Foods.

Complex Carbs like whole grains, brown rice, fruits, and veggies along with Quality Protein such as lean meats, beans, and low-fat dairy can help fuel your body through these difficult times.

Remember to also get some exercise and good sleep.

If you take care of yourself you are sure to feel more perky. 

I can’t get no…..

….. SLEEP.  A common perimenopause symptom.  Insomnia can also contribute to co-symptoms such as weight gain, irritability, and problems with concentration.  Sleeplessness may be alleviated by making some simple changes in you routine.

Steps to a better night’s sleep can be:

* Eliminating caffeine or Limiting to early in the day.

* Avoid alcohol – which disrupts sleep patterns.

* Don’t confuse things with Sleeping Pills – only a short-term fix.

Sometimes we can get ourselves into a viscous cycle of caffeine.  Drink it to wake up and be more alert – but then it keeps us from sleeping properly many hours later.

If you just can’t relax meditation can help to clear your mind:  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070

From the kitchen: try a small before bed snack containing tryptophan that simulates sleep-inducing serotonin.  Examples are the age-old cup of warm milk, a little bit of turkey, or some nuts.

Tip: Sleep better and avoid aggravating other perimenopause symptoms.

There are few things better then a good night’s sleep.  Try these things to help you get some ZZZZZZZZZs

This is your wake-up call

Time to start being healthy?  Years fly by and we tend to tell ourselves we will start taking better care of “me” tomorrow, or next week, or on January 1^st… Then we hit our mid-30’s to Late-40’s and we are just not feeling good.  We may be in the track of perimenopause and we are aggravating the hormonal imbalances by ignoring our wellbeing and health.  These symptoms are your wake up call.  Are you a little overweight? Not getting enough exercise? or sleep for that matter?

Excess weight can have effect on our hormone balances – Estrogen is also produced in adipose tissue along with the ovaries.  With our hormones already haywire the last thing we need to do is add to the problem.  It is now more important then ever to watch our weight and get to a healthy BMI.  Not sure what this you can check your weight and height on this chart:  http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

Tip: Get to a healthy weight to keep the excess estrogen down.

Try a food diary for a week or so and reflect on your choices, so much of our eating can be unconscious.  Make sure to record your actual exercise too.

Start taking care of you.

Can Fiber help Perimenopause Symptoms?

Making sure that we have adequate amounts of dietary fiber in our diets is beneficial to our general health but also can assist in lessening perimenopause symptoms.

You may already know that fiber plays a significant role in lowering risk for developing coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and certain gastrointestinal diseases. Increasing fiber intake also lowers blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels.

Studies also suggest that fiber assists in relieving our bodies of excess estrogen.  This same excess estrogen is thought to be the culprit of several pre-menopause conditions and is believed to increase breast cancer risk.

So, are you getting enough fiber?  Women older than 30 on a 2,000-calorie daily diet should consume at least 25 grams of fiber per day, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR AMERICANS, 2010

Tip: Wash the extra estrogen away with some fiber.  Write down what you eat, are you getting 25 grams?

Great sources of fiber are legumes (peas, soybeans, and other beans) oats, rye, barley, whole grain foods, also in some fruits and vegetables.  Many Americans are simply not eating adequate amounts of dietary fiber. See Appendix 13 in the Dietary Guidelines for the some food sources ranked by dietary fiber content per gram.  Here’s the top 5: 

1. Beans (navy, pinto, black, kidney, white, great northern, lima), cooked

2. Bran ready-to-eat cereal (100%)

3. Split peas, lentils, chickpeas, or cowpeas, cooked

4. Artichoke, cooked

5. Pears

Once again lets try to hit the pantry for some relief before we hit the pill bottle. It works!

Is it hot in here?

Night Sweats… Hot Flashes a strange phenomenon of the female body.  80% of women ages 45 to 54 in the United States experience hot flashes.  What exactly is going on?  While it is not completely understood it’s quite evident that Haywire Hormones is what’s going on.  Early in the “changing of life” some women feel pronounced symptoms of perimenopause during the pre-menstrual part of their cycles – maybe this is when the night sweats start?

I read on one of the popular medical reference websites (WebMD) some ideas to keep hot flashes at bay:  Keep your bedroom cool, use fans during the day, avoid tight clothing….. OH OK!  There was also some reasonable recommendation such as exercising and to avoid triggers Stress, Caffeine, Alcohol,  Cigarette smoke, etc.   They also mention the use of hormone therapies and/or antidepressants to alleviate this menopause symptom, but what can we do nutritionally?

There was a 2007 study published in the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing about the Effect of Dietary Intake on Hot Flashes in Menopausal Women.  This study found that the longer the duration between meals the more likely women were to experience hot flashes and/or the episode was more severe.  These results indicated that glucose levels have a direct effect on hot flashes and possibly hormone levels. 

TIP:  If you are suffering with hot flashes try eating smaller more frequent meals in order to regulate your blood sugar.

Ladies we are not totally alone here, turns out some men retrieving treatment for prostate cancer also experience hot flashes.

Hot flashes are only one in a long list of interrelated symptoms of perimenopause that include: changes in the menstrual cycle, insomnia, mood swings and increased irritability, memory or concentration problems, vaginal dryness, heavy bleeding, fatigue, depression, changes in the thickness and texture of hair, headaches, heart palpitations, sexual disinterest, urinary changes, AND weight gain….. PHEW!  Sounds Wonderful.