Read the full video transcript below

Today's topic

Hello and welcome to my weekly video blog. And today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I'm going to be talking about another three no-nos.

What are no-no's?

Now for those of you that have not seen the original one, no-nos are basically things that you might be doing on a regular basis that you don't realise could have quite a big impact on your menopause symptoms. 

No. 1 - Constipation

So today, the first thing I'm going to talk about is constipation. Now, who'd have thought constipation could make our symptoms worse. Unfortunately, during the menopause when your oestrogen starts to fall, this can have quite a big impact on your digestion.

And one of the things it does is it slows down your transit time, which basically means that it takes a lot longer for the food to go from the stomach to the bowel before it can be eliminated.

And if that is sitting in your gut for a lot longer, it's going to ferment, it's going to mean that you're not eliminating toxins on a regular basis, and this can cause all sorts of problems. 

How can constipation affect your menopause?

Now as well as bloating being one of the main symptoms, if your toxicity levels rise, in the menopause, that can affect your joints. It can cause joint pain. It can cause joint inflammation. It can cause fatigue. You can just feel, oh you know, you're not quite right. It can give you that fuzzy-headed feeling. We know that it can sometimes affect or make your hot flushes worse. And for some women, it can be a contributory factor in breast tenderness as well. 
 
The other thing that can happen is the minute your digestive system gets affected, especially if there's a toxic overload, your liver becomes involved. And the liver can get really stressed in the menopause anyway, and one of the jobs that the liver does is help to balance and break down your hormones.

So if your liver's already struggling because you're getting constipation on a regular basis, that could interfere with your hormonal balance and that could make any of your menopause symptoms worse.

What can you do?

So it's really important if you're getting constipated regularly, you do need to sort it out. Main things, loads of fresh veg, little bit of fruit, healthy grains such as round grain brown rice, that's really great for a sluggish bowel, and plenty of water.

If you are getting hot flushes or night sweats and constipation, then dehydration is usually the culprit for both of them. So make sure that you're drinking plenty of plain water as well as your other drinks during the day. If your constipation is really occasionally sluggish, then maybe look at something like Linseed Granules for the short-term relief of temporary constipation.

No. 2 -Decaffeinated Coffee

Now, no-no number two is decaffeinated coffee. Now I know a load of you out there are gonna go, "Oh no, we can't have coffee at all."

How can coffee and decaffeinated coffee can affect your menopause?

One of the reasons we say try to avoid ordinary coffee is because the caffeine can over-rev your nervous system and that can trigger flushes and sweats. It can trigger palpitations. It can trigger anxiety. It can interfere with your sleep and it can just make your nerves feel really jangly.

What's wrong with decaffeinated coffee?

So a lot of people do ask me, "Can we take decaffeinated coffee instead?" There's two problems mainly.

One of them is that how do they get the caffeine out the coffee? To make decaffeinated coffee, most companies will use chemicals to extract the caffeine so you end up with very little or no caffeine in your coffee, but there could then be a residue of the chemicals that are used to decaffeinate it. So in a way you're swapping one thing for another.

So it's really important here that if you really need a cup of coffee, if you feel that, you know, you want something, and you know coffee, for a lot of people, coffee is lovely. It's something you can look forward to. So if you want decaffeinated coffee, it's really important to find somewhere on the packet that they used a water extraction method because that way, you're not going to be saddled with all the nasty chemicals. 
 
The other problem with coffee is that it's not just caffeine that can be an issue. It's one of these situations, it's sort of 50-50. Scientists have proved that there are certain antioxidants in coffee that can be very beneficial for your health, but there are also other chemicals in the coffee that can cause negative effects, if you like.

What's the best coffee to have?

So all I would say here is that if you really want to have a cup of coffee, if you want to have decaffeinated, make sure it's water filtered and also make sure that it's organic. Coffee and chocolate are two of the most highly chemically sprayed crops on the planet. So the most important thing here is that going organic is going to make quite a bit of difference. 

No. 3 - Knickers

So, no-no number three, we're talking about underwear here. Last time it was bras, this time it's knickers, and I'm talking specifically about thongs.

How can thongs affect your menopause?

Again, probably some of you are going to go, "How on earth could thongs cause a problem?" Well, thongs are really the most intimate form of pants and knickers, if you like. The little thong part is touching every single intimate area and what happens here is no matter how clean and fastidious we are when we empty our bowels, there's always some bacteria left. And they have found that the bacteria from the bowel can use the thong as a little bridge to travel all the way around.

So these bacteria from the bowel can interfere with the bacteria in the vagina, and they can also travel to the opening of the urethra and that could then end up giving you bladder problems.

And we know in the menopause that our friendly bacteria can be weakened by lack of oestrogen, by lack of mucus in the vagina. And these friendly bacteria in the vagina, they police that whole area and they're one of the reasons why they're so important in protecting you against bladder infections. So if that area is already weakened, and you're wearing thongs on a regular basis, you're really putting these good guys under a lot of pressure.

Which knickers are best?

So this is one instance ladies, where big knickers are much better for you. Also make sure they're cotton, because again, this area needs to breathe really well. 
 
So hope you find these no-nos interesting. I've got loads more so every so often, I'll be putting a little article of these in there. So until next time, I'll look forward to seeing you on A.Vogel Talks Menopause.