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Eating for Your Hormones
A Natural Solution to Menopause Madness
By Kelly Burgess
"Ideally younger women are pretty balanced," Dr. Lark says. "But as women get into their 40s and early 50s a lot of women deviate from that perfect balance and may show an estrogen dominance type pattern. Then, as they get closer to menopause, they move into a stage of estrogen deficiency, which creates those symptoms of menopause."
Dr. Lark's most recent book deals with all three phases of a woman's hormonal life. Dr. Susan Lark's Hormone Revolution (Portola Press, 2007) has guidelines for eating and supplements at every stage of a woman's life depending upon her unique hormonal needs, with a particular focus on the problems of menopause.
What she's found in her many years of practice is that most women going through menopause fall into one of two categories with the listed symptoms being most prominent:
Estrogen Deficiency Fast Processor
- More anxious
- Wiry
- Thin and dry skin, hair and vaginal tissues
- Insomnia
- Hot Flashes
- Night Sweats
Estrogen Deficiency Slow Processor
- Excess weight/weight gain
- Fluid retention
- Beautiful skin and hair
- Placid temperament
- Low libido
- Poor mental acuity
- Lack of zest for life
These are just partial lists, and Dr. Lark notes that women can find they have symptoms from both categories. However, she says that most women, once they get beyond the transitional phase of menopause, will fall fairly solidly into one category or another.
Changing your diet to ease menopause symptoms is not a new idea. One of the books that Mercurio read was The Menopause Diet by Dr. Larrian Gillespie (Healthy Life Publications, 2003). Dr. Gillespie has long advocated a low-glycemic diet with an emphasis onlean sources of protein such as fish, poultry and tofu. Carbohydrates should come primarily from whole-wheat bread products, vegetables and fruit. Avoid refined carbohydrates such as rice, white bread and pasta, Dr. Gillespie says.
