Today's topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a look at how menopause can affect your five senses.
We know that the falling hormones in peri-menopause and menopause can affect many areas of our health. But this can also include our senses. So, this week, I thought I would take a look at how menopause can impact your sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.
1. Sight
Falling oestrogen can affect our sight and our eyes in several different ways. Firstly, falling oestrogen is known to affect the hydration of the eyes, which can actually change the shape of the lens of the eyes. This, in turn, will affect your sight to the point where you may find that you're starting to squint a little bit more when you read, maybe you're having to try and focus if you're working on a computer, or when you're driving.
For me, the first indication that my eyesight was changing was when I realised that I couldn't see well to thread a needle. So that was the point where I thought, "Right. I need to go and get my eyes checked."
Ageing as well can affect your eyesight. And unfortunately, as my optician told me, the older you get, the more vulnerable you become to developing eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration. These are all eye conditions that tend to deteriorate over time.
So, if you're hitting peri-menopause, if your hormones are starting to change, if you're in menopause or even post-menopause, it's really important to get regular eye checks with your optician every one to two years.
I often have to wear glasses. I'm long-sighted so I find, for me, I need glasses for really close-up work. So, I'm now at the point where I will go once a year to get my eyes checked just to make sure my sight has not deteriorated any further.
The other thing that can happen is that the outside of the eye or the eyeball can dry and you can produce fewer tears. And if our eyes are not getting moisturised, then that can cause grittiness, irritation, and redness. Sometimes, the little blood vessels in the eye can rupture, and then you can end up with red eyes which can be very quiet frightening to look at.
What can help?
So, looking after your eyes is vital. If your eyes are getting very dry or very irritated, you can try Sea Buckthorn Oil capsules. These are really great for dryness anywhere in the body during peri-menopause and menopause and there's quite a lot of research on looking at it for dry eyes.
Remember the water. You want to avoid dehydration because that will affect in the eye, as well as the outside of the eye. So, just make sure that you're looking after them well and they don't get too dry.
For dry or irrited eyes, we also have our lovely, licensed Moisturising Eye Drops that you can use on a daily basis to help with that.
A.Vogel Moisturising Eye Drops | With Euphrasia & Hyaluronic acid | For Dry and Irritated Eyes | 10ml
• DRY EYE RELIEF: Eye drops for the relief of dry, irritated, or tired eyes.
• MOISTURISING: Provides quick moisturisation of the eye surface
• SOOTHING: Helps soothe and maintain lubrication of the eye
• Suitable for contact lens wearers and those with sensitive eyes
• Contains Euphrasia extracts and 1 mg/ml of Hyaluronic acid.
"Keep my eyes free from dryness and irritation and very gentle"
2. Smell
Smell can be affected in several different ways during peri-menopause and menopause. Firstly, the mucous membranes of the nose can be affected by falling oestrogen.
Your nose is classed as a mucous membrane because it's mucousy and wet. This helps to trap airborne pollutants such as dust, pollen, and pollution. You have little hairs in the nose, and the mucous membranes help these little hairs to stand out. And they help to trap everything as well.
So, if the mucous membranes in the nose start to dry, then the little hairs stop working as effectively and you can end up with things like hayfever and other allergies. It's quite interesting the number of menopausal women who suddenly find that they've developed hayfever compared to the year before. And very often, it's just due to the fact that the mucous membranes are drying out.
Falling oestrogen can also affect our smell and what we smell. It's well-known that in pregnancy the changing hormones can affect your smell. And I know, for me, just the smell of coffee made me feel really sick and this can happen during peri-menopause and menopause as well. You may find that certain foods that you love the smell of, now you can't stand. You may actually feel nauseous. You may find that the perfume you've loved for years and years, suddenly, you just can't stand it anymore. So, this is all to do with the smell receptors changing here too.
What can help?
For the dryness of the nose, you can look at Sea Buckthorn Oil. Again, this is another area where this supplement can help.
Also, consider a zinc supplement. Now, zinc is a really important mineral for menopause because it's needed for so many bodily functions, but zinc is also important for your sense of smell and taste. And you often need more zinc during menopause. So, it may be, you might be a little bit low in zinc, so a zinc supplement on a daily basis can be really helpful here. You're looking at roughly 15 milligrams a day, just taken ongoing.
Remember the water too because if you're dehydrated generally, then that's going to affect the mucous membranes anywhere in the body.
3. Hearing
There can be different areas that are affected when it comes to your hearing. Your hearing can deteriorate as you age, but again, with all the hormonal changes going on, your hearing can be affected more.
You may find that you're more prone to blocked ears, especially if you're getting sinus problems or allergies, then you're more likely to end up getting blocked ears, which can affect your hearing.
For some women, they say the complete opposite. Their hearing is more sensitive. They can hear more noises or noises grate on them. They find that they don't want to go into crowded places like supermarkets because the noise can become overwhelming.
What can help?
For this one, if you feel that your hearing is changing in any way, please get this checked out by your doctor, first of all, just to make sure that nothing else is going on. If it's more to do with blocked ears, then we have a really nice remedy called Plantago which is known as an ear, nose, and throat herb.
4. Taste
This is a huge one here because again, several different things can be at play. Our mouth is another mucous membrane so, like the nose, it can be affected by falling oestrogen during menopause and start to dry. If your tongue starts to dry, then that can affect your taste.
There is something called geographic tongue and also burning mouth syndrome. These two conditions can be affected by falling oestrogen and they will affect your taste. Both can also make eating really painful.
Furthermore, if your mouth is dry, then that's going to affect your digestion because you're ability to break your food down will be affected. In the whole digestive process, the first step is mixing the food that you're eating with saliva to start the whole digestive process down.
So, if you can't chew your food properly because your mouth is really dry, then that can have an impact on your digestion. If your mouth is really dry, it can also be hard to swallow what you are eating.
What can help?
So, again, with this one, smell and taste can be connected so you'd be looking at a zinc supplement. The Sea Buckthorn Oil supplement I mention above can also help here.
And remember the water, because again dehydration will affect your taste and worsen dryness. with this one too, especially if the gums are affected and also maybe you're not producing enough saliva, it's a good idea to check with your dentist. Because the other thing that can happen is that the salivary ducts in the mouth can become blocked and that can also affect the production of your saliva.
You could also look at the herb Centaurium as this is known to help with digestion in the mouth. It's one of these herbs that is what's called a bitter. And bitter herbs help to promote salivation, so that's something you could try too. If your mouth is getting very very dry and nothing is helping, that's another one that you need to just double-check with your doctor.
5. Touch
Again, there can be several different things going on with your sense of touch and skin. Skin tends to become much more drier as you go through menopause due to falling oestrogen affecting hydration. And if your skin starts to dry, it can get thinner, and as it gets thinner, it can become more sensitive. So, you may find clothes that you could wear quite happily before, especially natural fibers like wool or mohair, you may find that they start to itch.
You may find that your skin is getting sensitive to the washing powders that you're using. So, again, itchy skin and sensitive skin can be very common menopause symptoms. We have found that Itchy skin is one of the top 10 symptoms that women can experience and often ask me about.
For some women, skin can become less sensitive. So, you may find that you end up damaging the skin a little bit more. You're not so sensitive to heat, so you might find that you're burning your hands a little bit more, especially when you're cooking.
You may get tingling sensations. These can often happen in the skin. There's a condition called formication, which feels like little insects or ants running up and down the inside of your skin. So, there's no visible symptom of this going on but it feels really, really uncomfortable.
What can help?
To help your skin and touch, I recommend taking supplements that help to keep the skin moisturised. So that would be your Sea Buckthorn Oil supplement again.
Also, look at either supplements or cream that contain hyaluronic acid because that can be really good for helping with the skin as it is a really great one for keeping your skin moist. Also, remember the water, loads of water to keep your skin well hydrated.
If you're getting the tingling, just get that double-checked by your doctor, especially if it's in the feet. If you're getting a lot of tingling in the feet, then it can be due to poor circulation or it can be due to something called peripheral neuropathy. It could also be due to diabetes. So, this is one that's really important to double-check if you're getting it on a regular basis.
You could also add in a good magnesium supplement to help with any kind of nerve issues as well.
So, I hope you found this one helpful. It's quite a big subject so I really just touched on it. If you have any comments or any issues that you have had to deal with, and what you've done to help yourself, please share them because I would all love to hear about them.
Until next week, take care.
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