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Today's topic
Hello, and welcome to my weekly video blog A.Vogel Talks Menopause. Now, here in the UK, the winter has well and truly settled in. And with that comes all the winter infections like colds and flus and coughs and upper respiratory tract infections. And I do get asked a lot by women if the menopause can cause you to catch these particular infections. Now, the answer is sort of yes and no.
Changing hormones
Now, the menopause itself doesn’t actually cause infections like colds and flu. But we know that the changing hormones can affect the body on all sorts of different levels. For instance, we know that it can weaken our nervous system. We can get more anxious. We can get more worried. We can get upset an awful lot easier. The falling hormones can affect our digestive system quite dramatically. And it can also affect the levels of friendly bacteria in our digestive systems. We know that the changing hormones can affect our sleep patterns. We tend to sleep lighter. We wake up more. We wake up earlier. We can’t get to sleep. And we know that the changing hormones can cause fatigue. And changing hormones can also directly weaken your immune system.
How does this happen?
Now, how can this happen? Well, we know that your nervous system being stressed can go on and on. And, certainly, during the menopause, you can get much more anxious for quite a long period of time. That can affect your immune system and its ability to actually fight infections. We know that if you have poor digestion, then you may not be absorbing your nutrients enough, so you end up getting a little bit nutrient-deficient, which can affect the way your immune system works. We know that the friendly bacteria in our digestive system actually play a really big, important part in helping to support our immune system and also to help us fight other bugs as well. We know that poor sleep will directly affect the efficiency of your immune system. And we know that fatigue will basically grind you down. And that can make you much more vulnerable to any kind of infections that happens to be on the rounds.
What can you do about it?
Diet
Now, what can you do about this during the menopause? Well, it’s the usual things. Look after yourself well. Make sure that you’re getting a really good, varied diet. During the winter, I really would recommend an extra vitamin and mineral supplement as well just to keep your nutritional needs actually satisfied.
*Immune boosting foods*
To find out more about foods which can give your immune system an extra boost, I recommend this article by our immune system expert, Dr. Jen Tan: How can diet boost our immune system
Bloating, wind and cramp
If you tend to get a bit of bloating or wind or cramping, or your bowels are a bit sluggish, then that may indicate that your friendly bacteria are not particularly happy, and in which case, a good probiotic supplement for a month would be a really good idea. That will help your immune system, and it will also help your digestion and elimination as well.
Water
So remember to have lots of water. Dehydration can affect your immune system. And, unfortunately, in the winter, we’ve got a double whammy. We’ve got the central heating, which is going to cause more dehydration. And because it’s cold, we don’t want to drink water. So in this situation, maybe, you know, make sure that you get nice, warming herb teas and just really do that relaxation, 30 minutes me-time every day. It’s very important for your immune system.
Remedies to help
Now, if you’re looking for remedies to help you during the winter, as I said, good multivit, maybe take an extra vitamin B supplement to help to support your nervous system. And you can look at taking the herb echinacea. This is known to help both support your immune system, and also it helps to fight colds and flu. And this is something you can take all winter as a preventative. And the other thing that can be really helpful, especially if you tend to get a lot of throat infections, is you can get what’s called a zinc and vitamin C lozenge, which you can suck one or two of those a day.
*Echinaforce® Echinacea drops & tablets*
Echinaforce® is a licensed traditional herbal remedy for colds and flu. It helps the body fight the symptoms of these infections by supporting the immune system, helping to maintain the body’s resistance.
Look after yourself
So, hopefully, this has given you a little bit of information about how to look after yourself and how to hopefully prevent colds and flu in the menopause. So please look after yourself well. I look forward to seeing you next week on A.Vogel Talks Menopause.
