Read the full video transcript below
Today's topic
Hello, and welcome to my weekly video blog A.Vogel Talks Menopause. I’ve got a good one for you this week. It’s only a theory but a very interesting one though.
The question is, is your antiperspirant causing or making your hot flushes worse? Now I know that sounds really strange and there will be some of you sitting there going, “What on earth have antiperspirants got to do with hot flushes?” But bear with me and hopefully all will become clear.
Eliminating toxins
Now not a lot of women realize that we actually have an extra route for eliminating toxins from the body and that’s our monthly menstrual bleed. But what happens when we approach the menopause and our periods start to tail off and stop altogether? Now unfortunately losing even one exit route can actually put pressure on your other eliminatory organs and they are the bowel, your kidneys and bladder, your lungs, and your skin.
Now if these organs are working under par, then you can end up getting menopause-like symptoms. You might find that you’re starting to get skin rashes or itchy skin. You may find that your existing skin conditions like eczema or psoriasis or dermatitis start to get worse. You might start to get a bit wheezy or you might start to feel a bit congested as well, and some people find that they get a little bit of mucus production at the back of the throat all the time. You can end up with digestive problems, which is very common in the menopause, and these would be things like bloating, wind, sluggish bowels, constipation. And some women find that they tend to be more prone to bladder infections and kidney infections as well.
Now the body is actually very clever because if one route is under pressure, it will very often find somewhere else to get rid of the toxins and one of the main routes happens to be through the skin and through our sweat. Now maybe you’ll see a little bit where we’re coming from.
The problem with antiperspirants
Now one of the main areas in which we sweat and actually detoxify is under the arms. But what do we do? We smother our underarms in antiperspirants and these antiperspirants, not only are they full of chemicals themselves, but they will actually block the pores under the arms. It’s going to stop us sweating and that is going to interfere with our temperature regulation, hence possibly the hot flushes. It’s also going to stop detoxification from that area as well.
Now unfortunately one of the reasons we tend to get body odor under the arm, not only just because we tend to cover them up with clothes, but because the bacteria on the skin under our arms actually feed on the toxins and they breed a lot in that particular area as well. So what can we do in this situation? We don’t want to go around smelling unpleasant. We still want to smell nice during the day.
So what can you do to support your liver?
What you can look at is you can actually look at natural deodorants as well. Now deodorants will help to keep you smelling and feeling fresh, but they won’t block the pores under your skin. They’re going to let you sweat naturally, which is going to help with your temperature regulation, and it’s also going to help with the detoxification process as well.
Now we do a lovely range of natural deodorants called Salt of the Earth and what these do is they actually create a film on top of the skin. It doesn’t block the pores. You still sweat, but it actually traps and smothers the bacteria and that will actually stop any odor from forming as well.
Now the other really great thing about these deodorants, when you block the pores under the arms, the body will often start to sweat elsewhere and a lot of women going through the menopause find that they get very, very sweaty either underneath the bust line or actually in between the breast. You can start getting rashes. You can get quite irritated there as well. These can be used on this particular area just to keep everything nice and comfortable. And some woman actually find that as their vaginal bacterial balance starts to change, their vagina mucus can start to smell slightly different and they often feel very self-conscious that it’s quite pronounced. You can actually use the sprays on the vaginal area as well.
What else can you do?
Now one of the other things that you need to do during the menopause is to make sure that you keep all your other eliminatory organs in tip-top condition. So we’re looking at as usual, good diet, good varied diet, plenty of roughage to keep your bowels working well. You need lots of water to help to keep your kidneys and your bladder flushed and you need to make sure that your bowels are actually moving every day because constipation can actually be a trigger for quite a lot of menopause symptoms. And try and get some exercise out in the fresh air just to keep your lungs clear.
Until next week...
So I hope this has given you a little bit of food for thought and it is really interesting when you actually sit down and think about it, that some of the things that we do on a daily basis without even thinking about them could actually play a part in our menopause symptoms. So, I look forward to seeing you next week on A.Vogel Talks Menopause.
