Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Menopause Anxiety and Weight Gain

There are symptoms of menopause that include depression, anxiety, and some women have had panic attacks. Each woman will react differently to their symptoms including eating. There are various reasons for anxiety and weight gain during menopause. There are treatments that will help ease these symptoms and lifestyle changes that will help as well.

Reasons for Menopause Anxiety

Many women become anxious as they begin menopause for a few reasons. Many women are afraid they will be less of a woman or less attractive to their partner as they become no longer able to bear children. Their hormones or rather the depletion of hormones can cause anxiety about their health, about aging in general, and things like Osteoporosis and other age related conditions that might occur. Anxiety can cause a woman to be depressed and to be irritable which in turn can cause some women to over eat or crave foods. This in turn may lead to weight gain.

Reasons for Weight Gain

Eating more calories than you can burn off will lead to weight gain. It is important for your mental and physical health to eat healthy and get exercise. Not to do so could be very detrimental. Weight gain may occur as a result of increased appetite that you might experience during menopause.

Unfortunately, weight gain is not uncommon in women entering or going through menopause. The changes (weight gain) are likely connected to the biological and physiological changes often seen with aging and to hormonal changes. These changes may increase a woman's appetite.

You may, if you are entering or in menopause experience an increase in your appetite. You may feel less energy and become less active. A reduction of appetite coupled with decreased appetite will cause you to gain weight. There is increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure with the increased weight gain.

Preventing/treating Menopausal Weight Gain

This weight gain may be prevented or reversed with certain lifestyle changes. Eating a healthier diet and getting regular exercise will help you to control your weight. Exercise does not necessarily mean hours on a treadmill or other exercise machines. Cardio-vascular exercise will help to increase your blood circulation and keep your joints working. Walking, jogging, dancing, or swimming are all effective ways to combat weight gain, increase circulation, increase your stamina, and may even strengthen your sex drive. Yoga and relaxation techniques can help relieve your hot flashes and other symptoms.

You might want to consider herbal supplements that will deal with your menopausal symptoms and benefit your general health. High quality herbal supplements will use only standardized herbal extracts because this is where the active ingredients of the herbs are found. This guarantees that quality will be consistent from pill to pill and bottle to bottle. The ingredients will have been thoroughly tested including the metabolic paths of the ingredients at the molecular level and the interactions of the ingredients. This increases the safety, purity, and efficacy of the supplements.

Conclusion

Weight gain is not only a part of aging but is also connected to the changes you go through nearing and going through menopause. Eating healthy and getting exercise will help to prevent or reduce the typical weight gain.

It is imperative that you check with your physician before taking on an exercise program or adding any supplement to your regimen, such as herbal supplements. Herbal supplements may affect how any prescriptions you may be taking for other health conditions work. It will also help you to maintain your health.

John Gibb is a nutrition enthusiast with over ten years of nutrition education and has now become a freelance writer. Currently, he focuses on information articles focused on women's health and fitness. Read more at http://www.the-menopause-source.com


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