Menopause products experience steady sales, keeping itone of the strongest categories.
By Christopher Habib, ND
As many women know, menopause may cause numerous unpleasant symptoms including hot flashes, mood changes, sleep disturbances, urinary incontinence, fatigue, and sexual problems such as vaginal dryness. These symptoms can adversely impact a woman’s quality of life. In addition, it can cause an increased risk ofhealth challenges, including atherosclerosis, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes. There are no ongoing screening tests that are used to detect menopause. Instead, its diagnosis is based on the age of the patient, the overall clinical presentation, and potential laboratory diagnostic tests. In particular, elevated serum FSH tends to confirm the menopausal state.
Historically, the most common and effective treatment for these symptoms had been conventional hormone replacement therapy. However, these treatments became less utilized when large randomized studies showed that women who were undergoing hormone replacement had an increased risk of breast cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, and venous thromboembolism.
In 2010, 28.2 per cent of the female population in Canada was over the age of 55, according to the Canadian census. Although the report does not have data on the number of women experiencing menopause in Canada, it can be inferred that most of the women over 50 will have reached the menopausal stage. Statistics Canada estimates that the number of women over the age of 50 in 2013 was about 6,654,019, indicating that most of these women have reached menopause.
For many women, the benefits do not outweigh the associated risks. From a complementary and alternative medicine perspective, numerous natural therapies exist that have been shown to help with menopausal symptoms or to help decrease the risk of the associated health conditions.
THE CATEGORY
Calcium and vitamin D are the two integrative therapies that likely have the strongest evidence supporting them. Calcium helps to attain bone mass and prevent osteoporosis and adequate vitamin D allows for better calcium absorption. Multiple studies of calcium supplementation in at-risk populations like the elderly and postmenopausal women have found that calcium is helpful in preventing the loss of bone density. Vitamin D can also be useful if women are experiencing bone pain, muscle weakness, and osteomalacia, in particular by preventing a vitamin D deficiency.Joint calcium and vitamin D supplements often contain the recommended dosages of 1,200 mg of calcium paired with 400 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D to support strong bones and muscles.
Various herbs have been studied for the treatment of menopausal symptoms. There is good evidence supporting the use of the herb Salvia officinalis, or Sage, to treat symptoms. Sage contains compounds called phytoestrogens, plant-based chemicals that are similar to estrogen and may act like estrogen in the body, or in some cases may block the effects of estrogen. This means it may be able to mitigate the hot flashes that are experienced by women by taking four to six grams of the leaf per day.
Another herb that has been studied is Trifolium pratense, or red clover, a legume that also contains phytoestrogens. The evidence suggests that red clover contains isoflavones that have estrogen-like activity. However, there is no definitive evidence that these isoflavones have direct beneficial effects. The isoflavones are purported to reduce menopausal symptoms and to serve as a possible alternative to hormone replace therapy in taking 28 to 85 mg per day. Most of the human studies are poorly conducted and short in duration, and some of the studies conflict with each other.
Another option is increasing dietary intake of items such as flaxseed. Flaxseed and its derivatives flaxseed oil and linseed oil are rich sources of the essential fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid. Alpha-linolenic acid is a precursor to omega-3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaneoic acid, a highly anti-inflammatory compound that is useful for a number of different inflammatory health conditions. In addition, there are randomized controlled trials that show flaxseed oil may help decrease mild menopausal symptoms.
Beware ingredients that have been raved about in the past as being a solution for menopausal symptoms. Innovations in ingredients have come a long way. New products from natural brands avoid some ingredients previously used to treat menopausal symptoms, such as soy. Soy was studied in a 1994 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which gave six women with normal menstrual cycles 45 mg of soy isoflavones per day, the equivalent to one to two cups of soy milk. After one month, all of the women involved in the study experienced delayed menstruation, similar in effect to the breast cancer drug tamoxifen.
The difference on the retail floor is what knowledge the staff has of what is available, even at the pharmacy level. The consumer of today is not the same as 10 years ago. Customers often make their own health assessments prior to seeing a professional, and when they visit stores, they walk through the aisles with an idea of what theywill be purchasing.
Retail merchandising tools can be set at different key points or sections of the store to prompt questions and answers in the hope of engaging a conversation with the sales staff. Consumersgenerally know a lot about all the ingredients used to help treat health concerns, as the Internet always has that information readily available. Where retailers can thrive is on the directions of use.
Overall, menopause is a natural process that is accompanied by numerous unpleasant symptoms, some of which heavily impact quality of life. The conventional treatment has usually centered around hormone replacement therapy, however large studies have highlighted the multiple risks associated with it. As a result, many integrative therapies may provide viable alternatives.
Any specific treatment protocol should be discussed with a qualified health care practitioner and cases should be managed on a case-by-case basis.
What is andropause?
Recently, women have not been the only ones afflicted by the symptoms of menopause. In fact, knowledge of male menopause, or andropause, has gained prevalence in the English-speaking world.
Though not recognized by the World Health Organization, many men experience andropause. Symptoms include anger and social withdrawal, irritability, hypersensitivity, anxiety, hot flashes, mood swings, depression, lack of libido, back and head aches and insomnia, with several of the symptoms caused from a decline in testosterone production.
Along with low testosterone, high levels of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) cause the symptoms of andropause gradually, starting around age 40, although symptoms are most dramatic past the age of 70.
Men can fight back against this process my taking replacement doses of testosterone to keep the symptoms at bay.
Try stocking products that help boost testosterone such as Tribulus terrestris, Zinc or D-Aspartic Acid.
