That Certain Age - general advice on natural remedies for treating menopausal symptoms

Vegetarian Times, July, 1999 by Lori Oliwenstein

One of the best ways to get a variety of minerals in useful amounts is through eating seaweed and cooked greens like kale, spinach, collards and chard. And you want to eliminate certain foods from your meal plans, notes Barnard. "Keep the calcium in your bones by adjusting your diet. Sodium costs you calcium--it encourages the loss of calcium through the kidneys. Cutting sodium intake down to a gram or two a day is as good as taking a calcium supplement of hundreds of milligrams. Animal protein, too, encourages the loss of calcium through the urine."

Vitamins can play a role in keeping your body on a steady keel, even in the midst of "the Change." Vitamin E--found in relatively large amounts in almonds, sunflower seeds and wheat germ oil--can help throw cold water on menopause's hot flashes. The problem is recommended doses are quite high, plus they vary; your best bet is to start with 200 international units (IU) daily and step it up to what Barnard calls "fairly heroic doses" until you get relief. Don't take more than 1,000 IU a day, however, without consulting a physician or nutritionist.

Also on your vitamin hit parade should be the B vitamins, the benefits of which run the gamut from boosting liver function to fighting off insomnia--often a problem in perimenopause. Vitamin D is said to help lock calcium into bones. And, adds Greenwood, don't forget your vitamin K. "It's very good for the prevention of osteoporotic fractures," she says.

Finally, you might want to incorporate foods high in the essential fatty acids, or EFAs. These are key players in your body's own production of hormones--most of which continues even after menopause, despite the dip in estrogen. EFAs can be found in flaxseed, canola, corn and sunflower oils.

HERBAL HORMONE HELP

The amount of conflicting herbal advice available these days can be daunting; trying to distill a single remedy for menopausal symptoms is nearly impossible. Instead, you need to become your own modern-day medicine woman, collecting the wisdom of the masses and putting together your own personal potion.

A number of herbs have estrogenic effects. Chasteberry is frequently recommended as a hormone balancer. Sage, ginseng and red raspberry leaf are also flush with phytoestrogens. Then there's black cohosh. Depending on whom you speak to, it's either the most important or most over-hyped herb around. Some recommend it as an alternative to HRT while others--including Weed--say they wouldn't touch the stuff. Whichever the case, it is one of the best-studied and most popular herbs for women grappling with menopausal discomfort. If you do take it, though, be alert for such side effects as low blood pressure and headaches and reduce the dosage immediately if they occur.

If decocting your own herbal infusion is beyond you, try one of the multitude of ready-made remedies on the market. Not only are they convenient, but the amount of active ingredient is standardized so you can be sure you're getting the dose of black cohosh you intended. Enzymatic Therapy's Remifemin is the best-known brand of the standardized extracts of the phytoestrogenladen herb.