Solo - Nutrition Health For Hormone Balance In Perimenopause And Menopause

In this episode, Elizabeth discusses the critical role of nutrition for women navigating perimenopause and menopause. She emphasizes the importance of whole foods, lean proteins, and essential vitamins and minerals, while also addressing hydration, the impact of caffeine and alcohol, and the necessity of managing stress. The conversation provides actionable strategies for women to improve their health during this transitional phase.

Nutrition plays a crucial role in managing the physical and emotional symptoms of perimenopause.
A balanced diet focusing on whole foods is essential for hormonal balance.
Cruciferous vegetables help metabolize estrogen more efficiently.
Leafy greens are rich in essential minerals and help regulate mood.
Sweet potatoes and root vegetables provide necessary complex carbohydrates.
Lean proteins are vital for maintaining muscle mass during perimenopause.
Calcium and vitamin D are important for bone health as estrogen levels decline.
Hydration is key to managing symptoms and maintaining skin health.
Caffeine and alcohol can exacerbate perimenopause symptoms and should be consumed mindfully.
Managing stress through mindfulness and gratitude can improve overall well-being.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Nutrition for Women
10:31 The Importance of Whole Foods
18:05 Lean Proteins and Their Role
27:35 Calcium, Vitamin D, and Bone Health
37:47 Caffeine, Alcohol, and Hormonal Balance
49:51 Gut Health and Probiotics

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Transcript

Elizabeth (00:01.09)
Welcome back to another episode, the Root of Our Health podcast with Elizabeth. I am your host Elizabeth. It is such a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your, I'm sure, busy day to watch this or listen to this episode. And this episode is going to be a solo episode and the solo episode, you would love to take out a piece of paper and a pencil or a pen, however you want to write.

because there it's going to be a lot of information. What I am going to be talking about today is nutrition for women going through perimenopause and menopause. This has been such a topic out there because what do we eat, right? We think that we're doing the good thing in terms of eating healthy.

But a lot of times even those healthy foods are not helping us when we're in this transition phase. So I've actually done some research and I'm going to say that I'm also going to be certified in perimenopause by April or May of 2025, hopefully April, if I can get there. But yes, I'm definitely going to be certified in this topic.

So if you have any questions, anything further that you want to have guidance on, that you need goals worked on, please do reach out to me. Everything, links and you can have a free coaching call. All of the links are going to be in the show notes. So please reference back there. But right now, again, I'm going to go through a lot of information.

So please bear with me and hopefully you are taking some notes and got some really great nuggets out of this. If you can, please do share around. Again, there are so many women going through this that unfortunately are, you know, being, they're being told that this is all in their head or they're not.

Elizabeth (02:13.966)
guided in a way that is very helpful or that is healthy. So for right now, just again, take some notes. This is about nutrition. I'm gonna go off in other areas as well that has to do with the metabolic space for perimenopause. So here we go. So nutrition does play a crucial.

role in managing the physical and emotional symptoms of perimenopause. So during this perimenopause, hormones levels are fluctuating, leading to changes in menstruation, mood, sleep, energy, and metabolism. So the good nutrition that I'm about to talk about can help ease these symptoms, promote overall well-being, and support long-term health.

So here, I'm gonna start with a couple key nutritional strategies. So please again, do write these down. If you wanna listen to this again, if you're on the road or whatever you're doing, I would suggest listening to this again or write these things down. This could definitely help with your grocery store list and yeah, help you get started on the nutritional benefits of all of this.

So first, consider balancing your diet focusing on whole foods. Whole foods, not going to whole foods, but whole foods, meaning those that do not have an ingredient list. So you have your fruits, your vegetables, your hopefully grass-fed beef and pasture raised, healthy.

forms of protein. So a well balanced diet that includes a variety of whole nutrient dense food is essential to not only the perimenopause but to manage the weight, hormonal fluctuations and the energy levels. So we're talking about again fruits and vegetables. So those that are rich in antioxidants and phytoestrogens can help balance the hormones and reduce inflammation.

Elizabeth (04:29.716)
Some of these are cruciferous vegetables. Those include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, bok choy, collard greens. The benefits of cruciferous vegetables such as these are that it's rich in what's called Indole 3-Carbinol. I-N-D-O-L-E-3-Carbinol.

a compound that helps the body metabolize the estrogen more efficiently. This also provides more fiber. So a lot of the foods that I am going to be talking about have high in fiber. So that's what you want to reference in terms of what are you looking for in your foods. So high in fiber supporting that digestion, right? So when you have high fiber, it supports digestion. You get full faster.

all of those things, helps maintain a healthy weight, balances blood sugar levels. This is really, really important. Cruciferous vegetables are also high in vitamin C. This is important for skin health and immune function. The additional benefits of cruciferous vegetables, they contain what is called sulforaphane. Say that fast five times, sulforaphane.

So you know the smell of the broccoli and the cauliflower, well that is sulfur, right? It's an antioxidant that helps reduce inflammation and protects against oxidative stress. So alongside the cruciferous vegetables, we have the leafy greens. So these are spinach, swish chard, arugula, mustard greens, and dandelion.

I have not had any dandelion greens so I can't tell you how they taste but they are part of this leafy green vegetable category. Benefits of the leafy greens are that it is packed with essential minerals like calcium, magnesium. Now magnesium is definitely needed and I've been talking about magnesium and calcium of course but magnesium definitely needed in terms of supplement form.

Elizabeth (06:51.278)
Now we can get the magnesium in these leafy greens, but a lot of times they are not full of the magnesium, the amount of magnesium that we need because of the soil that the greens are grown in. Unfortunately, our soil is depleted of the magnesium. So you notice like the dry soil that it's very crackly and dry. Well, you want that soil to be moist.

and that moisture actually keeps the magnesium intact. So regenerative farms or farming, monocrop agriculture definitely does not have the magnesium. Where you want to get your leafy greens are from a farmer.

that is regenerative. So again, ask your farmer, go to a farmer's market, ask around is this regenerative or is it monocrop? Because again, if it is monocrop and you're getting your leafy greens at the supermarket or you know that is depleted, you will have to supplement your magnesium to get the amount that we are needing.

Estrogen levels decline during paramedic trials. know this. So the leafy greens have the minerals that help protect against the bone loss and maintain strong bones. These leafy greens are also rich in folate, which is a B vitamin that plays a role in mood regulation. So if you are moody,

If you are irritable or moody, this definitely helps. Get some more leafy greens, spinach, collard greens, things like that. Get more of that in your meals. And this will definitely help with the B vitamins and energy production. The additional benefits of leafy greens that it is low in calories. I mean, you could eat so many of them. I got to say this. Whenever you put raw spinach,

Elizabeth (08:54.358)
and you cook it, you can literally, literally put the whole bag, like a, or container, and it comes out like this. It comes out very minimal. So yes, it is definitely low in calories, because you can literally eat the whole bag of spinach and be fine.

Okay, it is also high in fiber. Again, we're talking about the fiber that is needed and stabilizing blood sugar levels. Again, the fiber helps with that. Sweet potatoes and other root vegetables are amazing. So other root vegetables are the carrots, the beets, parsnips, things like this.

are amazing. They're colorful, right? So we're eating the rainbow at this point. So root vegetables are rich in complex carbohydrates. A lot of times people shy away from carbs. I know, gosh, I don't want to increase my carbs. This is the time of your life that you need to increase the carbs. So if you are on a keto diet, I suggest you carb load.

because these are needed in your diet to move through the transition properly. are also sustaining energy, helps hormonal balance. They have a low glycemic index. So just because they have higher carbs, low glycemic index, and then also the fiber in them, right?

So we got to look at those two things. So the low glycemic and the fiber. Low glycemic index, what we want to look for, it helps keep the blood sugar level stable. And this also prevents the insulin spikes. So you'll notice those carbohydrates that are slow digesting have this low glycemic index that prevents the insulin spikes. Fast.

Elizabeth (11:00.27)
Carbs are like the bananas, things like that. So again, root vegetables, these are great. So additional benefits, sweet potatoes, high in beta carotene. This is an antioxidant that supports skin and health and can reduce inflammation.

So I'm just going to name off a few more vegetables here. I won't go into a lot of them. Please do note that I do have transcript. And so you can follow this or read this in the transcript area. And then I will also put this as a blog on my website and we'll send that out as well. So tomatoes, of course, are really, really good because they are antioxidants and help reduce the risk of cancer.

including breast cancer. Now, little of a caveat, I want to emphasize HRT does not cause breast cancer, okay? Does not. So let's just put that away. That has been debunked. That unfortunately was a bad study. That was...

definitely defunct. It does not cause breast cancer. So if you need HRT, please, please, please, please talk to your gynecologist or talk to a doctor. Make sure that you are getting the treatment that you are needed, including HRT and including these lifestyle changes. Right. So this is not the end all be all. Everybody's an individual. Every woman has their own individual needs. So I'm just going to say that.

I saw the breast cancer thing and I wanted to make that very, very, very clear because I was on that train. I was on that HRT no go, no bueno because my mom had breast cancer. I definitely don't want to, you know, stare down the barrel of that one. So debunked, let's move on from there. Okay. So

Elizabeth (13:11.49)
We talk about tomatoes. The other thing are bell peppers, right? So bell peppers, especially the red ones. So look for the red ones packed with vitamin C, supports the immune system, helps with collagen production, which is great for skin health. Antioxidants, oxidative stress definitely helps during perimenopause. Avocados.

So we have this high fat fruit. So avocados is a fruit, not a vegetable, but it has high monosaturated fat. It is a source of healthy fats. This supports hormone production and balance. So again, we talk about increasing our fat intake. I referenced back to keto, again, carb loading in that if you are.

but increasing your fat intake, monounsaturated, the avocados or the olive oils, but you can also have coconut oil. Coconut oil is amazing for you. I have a blog on my website that you can reference on the amazing benefits of coconut oil for perimenopause. So these healthy fats are important for overall health, heart and brain health. They provide fiber.

Again, helps with digestion and weight management. Avocados, additional benefits, high in potassium. This helps maintain the fluid balance and reduces the bloating. Who here hates bloating during either their period or just in general? I do. I hate it.

feel like either I have a food baby or that people think that I'm pregnant. Uh-uh. No. Not... I do not like feeling bloated, especially when my clothes don't fit. So have an avocado. Have half of it. Have a whole thing. It is okay. It is definitely calorie dense because obviously nine grams of fat per...

Elizabeth (15:23.234)
calories, something like that. Anyway, you get the point. So it is higher in calories, so nuts, fats, things like that. Asparagus is another great, great vegetable to incorporate in your meal. They are great for mood regulation, energy levels, brain function, contains fiber.

And then that reducing the water retention as well alongside the avocado. So have them both together. Zucchini, summer squash, summer squash, excuse me, maintains healthy skin, provides fiber, and then also vitamin C and antioxidant. Beets, rich in fiber, improves blood flow, supports cardiovascular health and mood regulation.

artichokes, Ghan Hyde fiber, C, the correlation or maintained stable blood sugar levels, vitamin C, antioxidants. It also is rich in inulin. Inulin is a type of prebiotic fiber. So we talk a lot about probiotics, but we don't talk a lot about prebiotics. Prebiotics are mainly vegetables, root vegetables, like.

know, artichokes, but also if you ever heard of jicama, j-i-c-a-m-a, jicama, those are awesome, they're amazing. Those are also a great prebiotic alongside the probiotic. You need those for your gut health. Cucumbers, great for hydrating, so you get healthy skin. I have actually a great snack for you all.

If you can, if you like sardines as I do, great healthy fats, great omega-3s, put them or you you cut up your cucumber and then you put a little bit of sea salt on it, top it with the sardines and olive oil and voila. Sometimes I put a little cayenne pepper, you know for a little spice there.

Elizabeth (17:35.498)
you don't have to but that is an amazing snack that has your vegetable and it also has your protein and healthy fats win win win okay so additional benefits of cucumber is that they are antioxidant they help inflammation and oxidative stress so i've talked about a lot a lot about vegetables including avocado which is a fruit so now i'm going to go into

whole grains, specifically those that are not sprayed with glyphosate. I'm gonna say that again, specifically those not sprayed with glyphosate. We talk about oats, we wanna be very, very careful of the kind of oats that we are taking in. So sprouted oats, you can do organic, but.

Again, we just want to be very careful of those that are not sprayed with glyphosate. I will reference to a brand in the show notes, so please do again, go back to the show notes, click on it, it is a link, and you will be taken towards those oats that are great and safe to ingest.

quinoa provides fiber to support digestion that stabilizes the blood sugar, reduces the bloating. So those are your whole grains. I really like to stay very, very minimal in that. So quinoa, really, oats, things like that, sprouted oats. Don't want to go too far into it. I will say though, one type of bread

that I will kind of get behind is the, gosh now I'm forgetting what it is, the fermented one. Yeah, people at home listening to this, are probably screaming what that is. Sourdough. Okay, sourdough bread.

Elizabeth (19:47.55)
That is because again I say fermented so that type of bread is better for you if you can make it that is even 10 times better but sourdough bread is amazing you know it's just probably the better bread to have. Then we go into lean protein. I should have this really first because we

during perimenopause need to increase our protein intake. At least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Or one gram of protein per pound of body weight goal. For example, I am 126, that's my body weight.

I need to have at least 126 grams of protein a day. If you are 170, again, and you're not wanting to lose weight, you're fine. 170 grams of protein a day at least. If you wanted to build muscle, increase that. Obviously it's 1.5 grams per pound on it.

You want to lose weight. Say you are 170, why don't you get to 140, 130, whatever that is. You want to have 130 grams of protein a day. So it's not the 170 at this point.

it is what you want your goal weight to be. Okay, so hopefully that clears things up. I did talk about protein a lot in other podcast episodes, so please go to that. You'll definitely see it if it's talking about protein and metapause and perimetapause. So lean proteins, what are they?

Elizabeth (21:42.966)
You want grass fed and I'm going to add here if you can, grass finished. So grass fed, grass finished beef. Okay. Why grass finished? Well, great that they are fed. They go out in the pasture, right? And they're fed that. But a lot of times if they're not finished, if they, if, if it's like they're in the barn or in whatever stable.

and then they go out to pasture, but then they have to go back in. That's still not a complete pasture or grass-fed grass-finished beef cow. Again, this is where you have to do the information or the education yourself.

around make sure you look at the packaging grass-fed grass-finished it's not always going to be perfect it's not always gonna be easy if you get grass-fed that's it please do okay why why you are what you ate what you eat ate right so grain soy wheat

Grains all of those to help fatten up the cows They say no antibiotics, but how do you think what happens when cows are like this? What happens if you're in a room? with I Don't know 50 other people against each other coughing and eating and not having good nutrition You get sick

So you have to get antibiotics to get healthier and feed more, right? That is why you don't want factory farming of conventional beef in general. And this again goes for those who are vegans, okay? We're not gonna go there. Let's just stick with the lean proteins, but grass-fed or and grass-finished if you can. Wild game.

Elizabeth (23:47.36)
A lot of people have a hard time kind of thinking that wild game is a good thing to eat. Why not? Elk? Venison? I have a funny story. And I don't know if my two friends are listening to this, but if so, they'll get a chuckle. I visited a friend with another friend in New York.

At the time, see, so it's H-U-Hugh, right? They have candy bars out, so you'll see Hugh candy bars, okay? At the time, they had a storefront, or they had a restaurant. And also at the time of me visiting, I was paleo. So this is obviously increasing your meat consumption, know, the grass-fed, all of the, against the conventional.

Right? So you want to go where your paleo paleolithic ancestors were eating or ingesting or hunting or whatever it is. They had their elk. I forgot what it was. I think it was like elk, elk loaf or elk meatloaf. Right. And yeah, so that was the first time I had elk.

And I had one of my friends try it. She was just like grossed out. The other one was not so grossed out, it was not, it's not a normal everyday food group protein that everybody eats. You could find it at Fresh Time. You could find it at Whole Foods, Venison, Elk.

There's others that are out there, right? You could also find it at butcher shop, things like that. Hunters, if you have a hunter friend, if you hunt, know, whatever the case may be, you have elk, you have venison. Delicious.

Elizabeth (25:53.81)
Some of it is very hard to like the venison or the elk itself. I think it's either one. I forget which one it is. It's really hard to make hamburgers out of. So you just want to do like the chopped up ground beef or the chopped up ground, right? Just because of the consistency is just, it's really weird. All right.

I digress on that one. So those are the wild game that you want to also add into your lean proteins. And then you have your chicken, your fish, your tofu, tempeh, if you're vegan, legumes. So this supports the muscle mass as well. Just be careful because legumes are high in fiber. They're not as high in protein as what we need, right? So.

a lot of it and also your essential amino acids that is definitely needed. So sometimes you need to supplement, especially if you're vegan or vegetarian. Hate to say it, but we definitely need the essential amino acids in order to get the sufficient protein that is needed for not only muscles, but strong bones and everything.

it could, so why, why, why protein, right? Well, it is, alleviating many of the symptoms associated with the weight gain, muscle loss, muscle loss, number one, and decreasing in energy levels. Vitoestrogens are another type of food that we wanted to increase in our life.

During this time, they are plant cow pals that mimic estrogen in the body. This seizes some of the hormonal fluctuations of that perimetopause. This includes fermented soy, which is fermented soy. So it's miso tempeh tofu, things like that. Flax seeds, lentils, chickpeas.

Elizabeth (27:58.498)
Things like that, so those are phytoestrogens that we want to increase in our meals. So I've actually increased some lentils and I've always had tempeh, or I'll increase that too. Tempeh is great in protein and fiber. So if you can get around the consistency of it, if you know how to make it, that is a staple that you should have alongside your other proteins.

So outside, or let's move away from the protein and we're gonna talk about calcium and vitamin D.

screaming from the mountaintops about vitamin D for the longest time. So this is no different. We all need vitamin D and especially, especially during peri-metapause. Please do get your supplement in vitamin D. We say that, my gosh, you see the sun out there. It is right now December 7th as I'm recording this. The sun is not close enough to us.

to get the amount of vitamin D that is needed. Yes, we need to go out in the sun, but it is not the time of year that this vitamin D is going to be penetrating in our skin. This is why we need to supplement, especially mid, sorry, you know.

states that are colder, the Midwest, know, Northern, you know, things like that, we definitely need to supplement. So calcium and vitamin D as estrogen levels are declining, bone density can decrease. So this is a risk of osteoporosis. I just got off the phone with somebody that does is

Elizabeth (29:50.094)
has osteoporosis and we're kind of going through obviously building the muscle back up, building her energy or her strength, right? So calcium and vitamin D are supporting the bone health. Calcium is great for bone health. Good sources of this are dairy products. Now, if you can, goat's milk does not have a lot of calcium in it, but if you can have the cow's milk, please do have grass-fed cow's milk.

Fair Life, which is a little iffy, but I do drink Fair Life just because of protein. You can have Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, goat's cheese, things like that. Other forms that are not dairy are leafy greens, like we talked about, the kale, the broccoli, fish that has bones, which is the sardines, the salmon, beautiful in calcium.

And then the vitamin D will help with the calcium absorption. So you wanna have those two together. So again, sun exposure is recommended, but foods like fatty fish, which is the salmon, the mackerel, egg yolks, these all have vitamin D as well. And then check your levels. Please make sure that you have enough sufficient vitamin D levels. If not, you're gonna have to supplement, okay? So then we're going into the healthy fats, as I mentioned before.

Avocados, one of them, great to have. And then you have your omega-3 fatty acids, like the fatty fish that we just talked about. Salmon, mackerel, all of those things. But did we think about seeds? What about chia seeds, flax seeds? These are actually great sources of protein that are also high in fat, right? Walnuts.

Not so high in protein, but definitely the fat sources are great as well. This is great for improving mood and reducing the inflammation.

Elizabeth (31:55.906)
Moving on from foods, let's talk about hydration. Water, speaking of which, need to have some, but I won't right now. Water is super, super important, okay? I'm not gonna tell you how much you should drink. I would say no less than 48 ounces. That is actually...

the bare minimum. If you can get 64, then it's just amazing. 64 and above, but no less than 48. Okay. I know been coaching some people, can't even get 16 ounces or get only 16. This is not good. You need to flush out the kidneys, but it's also great for your skin, right? So our skin tends to get dry and supple or excuse me, dry.

as we not only age but as we are losing estrogen. So we need to replenish and hydrate. So I say to you please, please, please have that water next to you all the time. And also if you are drinking a lot of water please also make sure that you are having some form of electrolytes. One you know bottle or something like that.

We need to balance out our electrolytes. If we have too much water in itself without electrolytes, that can be detrimental as well.

Herbal teas, so chamomile, things like that. I like green tea, so that does have caffeine, so you would want to have that in the morning versus at night. Chamomile obviously is the no caffeine and helps with sleep. Lavender is also good. There's a lot of great teas out there, but just please, if it's like black tea or green tea, please do drink them in the morning and not at night.

Elizabeth (33:58.816)
Even if you can drink caffeine at night, please don't. It's still really bad for sleep. Why green tea? Antioxidant properties, supports weight metabolism or weight management. It even has a hot flash relief. So if you can have green tea with a little bit of honey, presto. You got it.

It also helps with mood stabilization, bone health, cardiovascular support. I talked a little bit about B vitamins. We definitely need these vitamins to be sufficient. I for one was deficient back in 2019. Got my test and this was when I had low thyroid or adrenal dysfunction, all of that. Zero B vitamins.

What? So no wonder why I was super, super, super tired in the afternoon wanting that caffeine. So if you feel, excuse me, if you feel like that, check your B's, check your B vitamins, your levels, your iron, those things. That could be the culprit. So please do check that.

hormonal fluctuation can affect the mood and energy levels and the B vitamins especially B6, B12 and folate play a role in the production of mood regulating neurotransmitters and in energy metabolisms. So obviously I supplement even though I eat these things that I'm about to mention that are high in B vitamins just because of I don't

it's called methylation right so I do not it's it's a different form of digesting that so it's methyl B vitamins right so but if you can ingest it and and

Elizabeth (36:06.476)
take in these B vitamins, please do have them first for foods. So your whole grains, your leafy greens, the eggs, the poultry, fish, legumes, all of these B vitamins. the other thing that again, I shout from the rooftops in every single either podcast episode, blog, coaching session, you name it.

talking on the street with somebody magnesium okay we all need magnesium and i referenced this earlier in this as i was talking it is great for relaxation and sleep we all have that interrupted sleep why not have some magnesium before you go to bed so magnesium glycinate

can help alleviate symptoms like insomnia, anxiety, muscle cramps. You don't want to take citrate at night because that actually helps with your bowel movement and you don't want to have that interrupting your sleep because that's not what we want in the first place.

But you could also get the foods. Again, I referenced them before. Vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes. Let's just try and have them in supplement form as well so that you can have adequate amount. Okay. Let's take a consideration when we're talking about hydration. Considerate consideration of caffeine and alcohol intake.

Now caffeine is not so bad. I will say this with a caveat and again I'm going to reference a personal anecdote. I have done my own genetics testing and in that it says I do not metabolize caffeine very well. I currently I was doing decaf for a while. currently

Elizabeth (38:16.258)
bumped it up a little bit to light roast, but that still aggravates my stomach. Okay? That's not why I'm saying this. I cannot metabolize this. So if I drink it past a certain time, you better believe I'm not going to sleep. And that certain time can even be noon.

Yes, that's right. It does not metabolize and I go to sleep at what? Nine o'clock normally. So nine hours still in my system. So that is why I have it no later than nine o'clock in the morning. Nine, nine thirty. So it gets that 12 hours. Okay. Again, as I referenced before, even if you can metabolize the caffeine,

Please take this into consideration because both caffeine and alcohol, and I'll go into another tangent with alcohol in just a moment, but caffeine and alcohol can trigger and worsen the perimenopause symptoms, hot flashes, sleep disturbances, mood swings. This is not in every woman, again, each individual, but a lot of women will have this issue.

So look at how much caffeine you are intaking and then look at where, and this is getting to the root cause, right? So you're needing to take caffeine at three, 4 p.m. like I did back in 2019 because literally falling asleep at my desk. If you are falling asleep at your desk,

You've got to get to the root cause and not put a bandaid on it with caffeine. Please. This is going to be very detrimental for you. Okay. If you notice an increase in the symptoms in terms of hot flashes, sleep disturbances, all of that, reduce the caffeine. Okay. And then when we talk about alcohol, alcohol acts as a vasodilator.

Elizabeth (40:29.706)
Okay, meaning it widens the blood vessels. This could trigger the hot flashes or make them more intense. Alcohol consumption can also increase the body's core temperature. So when we want to sleep at night, we want the core temperature to be low. This is why we want to sleep with an eye personally. Again, my core body temperature recently has gone up a little bit. I'm a little bit of an oven when I sleep.

I don't get night sweats, I don't get hot flashes, it's just that it kind of raises a little bit. So you'll feel me and I'm kind of a little hot to the touch, right? So I feel a little bit hot. Fan on 64 degrees, 63, 64, whatever. Beautiful sleep, right? So we want our core temperature to be a little bit low. That's what we want on the outside as well.

When we have alcohol, it increases the core temperature. This is what creates the night sweats. So I say this again, please reduce the amount of alcohol, especially, especially before going to sleep. It could, before going to sleep, we think, a glass of wine can help me sleep. Sure, it could put you to sleep, but

you're going to have that interrupted sleep because it raises your blood pressure. It's that heart rate. Believe me, I've been there. And then this also increases the nice sweats. So you're in this cycle. So please reduce the alcohol. Hormonal disruption.

During paramedicopause, fluctuating hormonal levels, especially the estrogen can range, can have a range of symptoms. So I'm sorry, I didn't mention this is what I'm going off in a tangent in terms of alcohol. Okay, now I'm talking specifically alcohol for a little bit here, okay? So alcohol again can disrupt the hormones.

Elizabeth (42:41.184)
It influences the body's hormonal balance, affecting the liver function, which is responsible for metabolizing the hormones. Excessive alcohol can also disrupt estrogen metabolism, potentially leading to increased estrogen dominance or estrogen imbalance. This

versus the symptoms like mood swings, irritability, fatigue. Again, we gotta understand why are we having these symptoms. It's not just like coming out of the blue. Some people, some women have these symptoms, some don't. Some people can have alcohol and not have these symptoms. Some can have the alcohol and have these symptoms like crazy. So it is just best to understand what alcohol plays in your

hormones, right? And let's see where we're at. It also has impact on sleep. I touched on that. So again, if you feel sleepy or relaxed, it's not going to be like that throughout the night. You are going to have interrupted sleep, night sweats, all of those things. What else is there? So it also aggravates your mood swings. Talked about that anxiety, depression. So alcohol is a depressant anyway.

I will give a little bit of you know, again, personal caveat. There have been some days to where I've been feeling the lowest of lows that I've never felt before. And so that's depression seeping in. I don't want an alcoholic beverage at that time because then I will go sink into deeper low.

And you do not want that. So we want to avoid depression, anxiety, all of those things. And alcohol can definitely, definitely, aspirate all of this. Drinking alcohol can also interfere with the neurotransmitters in the brain, serotonin and dopamine. Two things we want to have increased.

Elizabeth (44:49.47)
not decreased. Those two things help regulate our mood. I mean, I can't tell you how many times one day I am like, energy, I feel amazing. The next day I'm feeling like crap.

and I feel it like, meh, and I just don't wanna deal with the world, okay? Now, I don't have any alcohol, but I know that alcohol can, again, asperate this, right? So having alcohol makes you more susceptible to emotional instability. Again, high anxiety, depressive symptoms.

Now, when we're going through this transition, what are we wanting to do? We want to not gain weight, either maintain or lose weight, right? What do you think alcohol is going to do? Alcohol is going to slow down the metabolism, which increases your weight, right? So many women in general experience weight gain. Why would you want to add on additional things, substance like alcohol to

Bring that even more. Alcohol is empty calories, high empty calories. And this contributes to your weight gain. Again, it could also increase your appetite. You're not understanding, you're not aware of what you're eating. You're eating sugars, you're eating really bad foods. You're not thinking correctly. So you're not making the proper choices when you drink alcohol.

Another thing that alcohol is a dysregulation is bone health. Talked about when you go through perimenopause, our bone density is decreasing. And this leads to osteoporosis. So why, again, would you want to decrease your bone health even more?

Elizabeth (46:51.702)
interferes the ability to absorb the calcium which I said just a few minutes ago was very very important to take. So having the alcohol and if you're taking calcium well that calcium is no go. You're not getting any of it because your alcohol intake is just overriding it. Okay vitamin D same thing.

There's also been studies and I talked about this in another episode that I did fully on alcohol is increased risk of breast cancer.

That is one of the reasons, one of the many, but probably the main reason of the reason why I did quit drinking for the most part. I cut it out a lot. I drink here and there, very very very small, very minimal. Probably had I think four drinks in I don't know 16-18 months, something like that, 16 months.

I do not want to increase my risk of breast cancer anymore. And I don't want you to either. And there has been studies, scientific proof that alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer. And when we are going through this hormonal change, our increase of the risk of breast cancer is even more so. So again,

I'm going to say this over and over. Decrease your intake of alcohol. Another thing that alcohol plays a role in is your digestive health and gut issues. Another personal anecdote story. two times that I've got sick in the last decade or so, I want to say,

Elizabeth (48:53.014)
Only two times, COVID and then just the flu. A little stress, but alcohol. Huge role. Alcohol. Played that role. Huge, because it impacts your digestive health, gut issues, leads to bloating, constipation, gut inflammation, all of these things.

So please know that. Dehydration, we already talked about that. You know darn well that intake of alcohol is a dehydrating thing. We need to increase our water intake. I think I'm just going to stop right there in terms of alcohol. I have more, but reference back into that. don't want to cause any more. Anyway, so.

We're gonna just move on from there. Other things that you can add in. So we talked about alcohol depleting or having your gut issues. Add in probiotics. Again, talked about prebiotic foods, right? Have those probiotics for your gut health. Gut health becomes more important as hormone fluctuates during perimetopods.

floating, constipation, gas is common. So incorporating fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, miso soup, things like that can also can help really. And also probiotic supplement. So those probiotic supplements live in the fridge for a reason. They have cultures in there that are very, very healthy to the gut.

which we need to have back in homeostasis not dysregulated, okay? And last but certainly not least, this is probably number one ding ding ding key thing that we need to incorporate as we're going through perimenopause, managing stress. I'm not gonna tell you to meditate.

Elizabeth (51:14.062)
I'm not gonna tell you to do yoga. I'm not gonna tell you to deep breathe. I'm not gonna tell you to journal, but if you can do these things, amazing. I'm also going to tell you that there are foods that can also help. There are also ways you can eat your food, being mindful, that can help manage stress. When we're stressed in the moment,

We tend to lose our focus, our amygdala shuts down, we're not thinking properly, making bad decisions, and that incorporates, again, higher cortisol, higher stress, inflammation, all of those things circle, right? It goes around, it goes around.

depletes the vitamins and the minerals that you're already getting in. So please try and do as much as you can to manage your stress. Whatever that looks like for you. If you need to reach out to somebody to guide you through that on a daily basis, then go ahead. Or a weekly basis so you can implement it in your daily life, right? Again, meditation.

being grateful, having a gratitude journal. I can't tell you how many times I've gone through some stressful situations and then I sit back and in these situations and I kind of step back and be like, for example, I'm gonna give one that just popped in my head. Sometimes I just, when I travel, I get in these moments where I'm like, my gosh, there's traffic. Or not only that, but ugh, I'm so tired, I'm so exhausted.

I just don't want to drive anymore. But I'm driving. I'm driving and then on the other side I see that there's an accident and there are miles and miles of traffic. What do I say? I am so grateful I'm not on that other side.

Elizabeth (53:08.172)
So giving that, you know, obviously changing the perspective of, I don't want to drive. I'm so tired, this and that. but things can get worse. So.

That helps change the perspective in anything. And that could also help you manage your stress is be grateful for what you have. Meditate, things like that. Be grateful for your health. Be grateful for tuning in and watching this and getting educated, because this could also help you move through this transition a little bit healthier, or at least get an understanding of what you can do and how you can do it and who to reach out to.

Right, so that's again why I do this podcast is education. So try to manage your stress as much as possible. This will also help your weight. It'll help your mind. It'll just help you in general mood swings, all of that. Okay, so everything that I have told you nutrition wise, know, stress wise,

Things like that, they are very, very important when we are going through perimenopause and into the menopause and post-menopause phase. Okay, so again, reach out to me if you need any further guidance or assistance in this and please do share this around and until next time, you are worth it. Thank you so much, take care.