Navigate Perimenopause with a Smile

Curious about what’s happening as you navigate the next chapter of your life? No social media cleanses required here—just a welcoming space where we dive into the realities of menopause with clarity and offer some practical solutions. Let's get started!

We’ve all heard of menopause… that bittersweet moment in a woman’s life, making it a pretty taboo topic that is generally misunderstood. Most women have a pretty good understanding of what it entails and when it happens, but there is a lot more than what meets the eye. So in this weeks newsletter we aim to focus on a key transition in women's life that depending on certain lifestyle habits can greatly improve or worsen the moment that the menopause manifests itself.

Stages of Menopause

Pre-menopause: This is the first stage in a woman's reproductive life cycle. This period is characterized by menstruation without any of the symptoms that we will indicate later. All hormone levels are at ideal levels meaning that generally everything functions properly.
Perimenopause: Roughly at the age of 35-45 a woman can begin to experience symptoms like hot flashes, sleep deterioration, mood swings, irregular and erratic periods, dry skin, etc. This can last many years. The symptoms begin because of a decrease in estrogen production due to a loss of ovarian follicles (think of them like the body's estrogen manufacturer), thus estrogen levels become erratic causing these characteristic symptoms sporadically.
Menopause: A woman only reaches this stage after menstrual periods have completely ceased for at least a year.
Post-Menopause: This transition lasts for the rest of a woman's life after menopause. It is categorized by significant changes in the body during the first 5 years and then everything tends to stabilize. The most relevant changes include but are not limited to: a loss of up to 20% in overall bone density, losing up to 10% of overall lean muscle mass each year and vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats, palpitations, etc).

This all sounds chaotic and concerning, but before you start to get that anxious feeling in your gut, there’s a few major changes that you need to know that can help you lead a happier, healthier, and more fulfilled life.

Why Perimenopause?

Like most things that pose potential danger to your body, the sooner you start making lifestyle changes the better. These changes are tricky to implement and usually takes a few years to really get into these habits and experience the benefits. Nevertheless, it’s never too late to start making these changes. Even if you are already past this stage, healthy habits will prove to help enourmously before, during and after menopause.

Enough talk, what are these lifestyle changes and how can we apply them to our day to day life? Well they are what we call The Big 3, aka the most important lifestyle changes that can help your long term health.

The Big 3:

Sunshine: I know, we say this one a lot but it is imperative! We don't get nearly enough sunlight and that is a huge issue. Our diet’s lack of vitamin D calls for a minimum of 15 minutes of sunlight per day. As we have mentioned, osteoporosis is a massive problem that can be addressed. While we cannot say that it can be 100% prevented, maintaining proper vitamin D levels is key to calcium absorption helping combat bone resorption (bone loss).
Exercise: Oh boy… a habit everyone knows they should form, but against all good judgement don't. Albeit forming a good exercise regimen can take years to become cemented in our day to day life, but the benefits are just too good to pass up. What form of exercise is the best for this purpose? Weight-bearing exercises. These are characterized by forcing your muscles to work against gravity, putting stress on bones and muscles and ultimately making them stronger and denser. Running, jogging and resistance training are all valid. But our favorite and arguably the single best weight bearing sport is weight lifting! This sport should be used as a tool to achieve long term health and directly combat muscle and bone atrophy (the gradual decline in bone and muscle mass and density). Take special note of these two as they are the two of the most relevant occurrences of menopause and post menopause.
Diet: Not only is a healthy diet good for overall health, and treating other conditions, but it is what makes or breaks your concentration, energy, immune response, and much much more. Let's briefly go over what a good diet looks like, menopause or not:

Fruits: 2-4 per day
Veggies: 2-4 per day
Legumes: 2-4 meals per week
Fish: 2-4 meals per week
Red meat: Try to limit to once a week.
Dairy products: 1-3 per day
Lean meat (Turkey, chicken and some cuts of pork): 2-4 times per week.
Grains: 4-6 servings per day.

The diet for a proactive woman during her perimenopausal period should also highlight the intake of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, protein and vitamin D. These specifically prove to be especially important for protecting and maintaining our body’s bones and muscles. A great way to get the necessary minerals in is with OmniBlue, which completely fulfills your needs with one serving!

And once again, the spotlight shines on magnesium. Not just for its key role in an vast amount of processes necessary for proper function, but also for its positive impact specifically on menopausal women. Let’s discuss:

Approximately 50% of the population is already deficient in magnesium. Even worse, magnesium is the mineral most Americans are deficient in, which means it’s the one you should be paying the most attention to.
Half of our body's magnesium is found in our bones, and when we experience periods of rapid bone resorption (loss) we lose much of our magnesium with it. And if you’re already deficient to start off, well let’s just say that’s less than ideal, and possibly dangerous.

But unlike vitamin D, we cannot make it ourselves which is why OmniBlue is the perfect choice to accompany you through such an important period in your life. Not only does OmniBlue Original contain 100% of your RDI for magnesium, it also contains a whole slew of other essential nutrients that support muscle and bone function helping to maintain and even strengthen them over time.

Final thoughts

As we close this week’s edition on menopause, remember: you’re not alone on this journey. Embrace each change with the knowledge, support, and minerals (remember there’s an exclusive added OceanElements sachet free with every order for a limited time) that’s now at your fingertips. Menopause is a natural transition, and with the right resources and mindset, it can be a time of empowerment and renewal.

Don’t forget your magnesium, and until next time!