‘It Feels Like a Derangement’: Menopause, Depression, & Me

Estrogen 

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Estrogen is more powerful and more wide-ranging than is assumed, and its removal or diminishment brings effects ludicrously understated by “the change.”

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Flaxseed Beats HRT in Reducing Menopause Symptoms in Clinical Study

Menopause

Posted on:

Saturday, February 9th 2019 at 5:45 am

Written By:

Case Adams, Naturopath

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This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019
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Both men and women can face menopausal syndrome in varying degrees. But hormone replacement therapy is riddled with risk, from heart disease to cancer. A recent clinical study finds flaxseed beats out HRT therapy in overall effectiveness for menopausal syndrome.
As a woman heads into her menopausal years, she may be met with varying degrees of what is often referred to as menopausal syndrome. Men too sometimes face some symptoms of menopausal syndrome during those years, but such symptoms and occurrence are generally less severe.
Menopause is not a disease. It is a natural metabolic change that accompanies changes that revolve around reproductive abilities. Menopause is distinguished from perimenopause in that menopause occurs when menstruation stops completely. During perimenopause, a woman might have irregular menstruation or she may miss menstruation for a month or more before it returns. In contrast, the typical criteria for menopause include not menstruating for more than a year.
Issues women face regarding menopause in addition to the discontinuance of menstruation and the loss of reproductive abilities include a host of menopause syndrome-related symptoms such as mood swings, joint pain, hot flushes and night sweats, insomnia and others.
Men sometimes also have these symptoms during their 50s and 60s, though generally less severe.
The reason for much of menopausal syndrome relates to the body producing less estrogen. For women this means their ovaries are simply producing and secreting less estrogen.
Men produce estrogen by converting testosterone with an enzyme called aromatase.
This means that reduced levels of aromatase, testosterone or both can lead to lower than healthy estrogen levels in men.

Estrogen reception

Many of the cells of the body contain estrogen receptors on their surface. When estrogen attaches to these estrogen receptors, it stimulates the cell to function in a number of ways.
These include stimulating the production of critical substances, such as collagen in the case of skin cells, cortisol in other cells (which balances inflammation and increases energy), mucosal secretions among mucosal linings, and neurotransmitters that assist in mood balance and cognition among neuron cells.
When the body's production of estrogen is dramatically reduced – in both men and women – the receptors will lie dormant or be replaced by non-estrogens. This causes the cells to produce less of these important substances, and produce the symptoms linked to menopausal syndrome that both men and women can experience.

Phytoestrogens as estrogen replacement

In both men and women, phytoestrogens can help alleviate problematic symptoms related to low estrogen levels. Phytoestrogens are contained generally in plant-based foods: Grains, beans, seeds, fruits and vegetables.
Phytoestrogens are nature's estrogens. They attach to estrogen receptors just as estrogen does, and thus stimulate most of the same activities that estrogen does.
Among phytoestrogen sources, some of the highest levels of phytoestrogens are found in soy and flax. And clinical research has supported the fact that these two foods can significantly reduce menopausal symptoms.

Flaxseed clinically tested for menopausal symptoms

This is what was found in a recent study which also compared flaxseeds to pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Researchers from the Departments of Nursing and Pharmacy at Turkey's Izmir Katip Celebi University investigated the potential of flaxseed reducing menopausal symptoms with 140 women volunteers who had not experienced menstruation for at least a year.
The women were divided into four groups of 35. Groups one and two did not take - nor had they been taking - hormone replacement therapy. Both of these groups were given five grams of flaxseed per day. (A tablespoon of whole flaxseed equals about 11 grams.) They received the flaxseed from the researchers in bulk and took the flaxseeds daily for three months. The only difference between group one and group two is that group two also received information training about menopause.
Group three received hormone replacement therapy as prescribed by a physician. Their HRT consisted of 2 milligrams of estradiol hemihydrate and 1 milligram of norethindrone acetate per day.
Meanwhile, group four – the control group – received no treatment.
The length of the study was three months for all four groups.
Everyone in all four groups received two tests at the beginning and end of the testing period. The testing consisted of the Menopause Rating Scale – first used in 1992 – and the SP-36 Quality-of-Life Scale – a leading test since 1987. The menopausal rating scale measured the various menopausal issues including intensity and frequency.
The scores for the tests before and after the three months were analyzed by computer to create a statistical analysis for the results.

Flaxseed matches HRT in reducing menopausal symptoms

After the three months, the researchers found the groups that consumed the five grams of flax per day had significantly fewer and less-intense menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The group that didn't receive any HRT treatment nor flaxseeds (control group) had increased menopausal syndrome symptoms by an average of 7%.
Groups one and two had a decrease in menopausal syndrome symptoms, by an average of nearly 9% and 10%.
This actually means that the daily flaxseeds improved menopausal symptoms by up to 17% when compared to the control group.
Meanwhile, those women who received pharmaceutical HRT drugs also saw their menopausal symptoms decrease, by about 10%. This was slightly higher (10% compared to 9.8%) than group two, but the difference was very slight.

Quality of life scores reveal flax' advantage over HRT

One might wonder what is the advantage of flaxseed over pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy - besides cost. While flaxseed therapy with menopause education basically matched HRT in the reduction of symptoms, there is more to hormonal therapy than simply menopausal syndrome symptoms.
The two flaxseed groups in this study experienced significantly improved Quality-of-Life scores. Group one's QOL scores increased from 38.93 to 49.00, while group two saw QOL scores increase from 38.63 to 41.69.

The HRT group, however, had reduced Quality-of-Life scores. Their scores went down from 37.29 to 34.65.

The control group also had a reduction of Quality-of-Life scores – from 34.94 to 33.82.

This means the Quality-of-Life scores of those who took hormone replacement therapy drugs dropped more than those who didn't do any therapy.
Another obvious advantage for flax relates to side effects. HRT typically comes with a host of side effects. One of these was evidenced from the large Women's Health Initiative, a 15-year study of over 161,000 women. This study found combination HRT therapy (such as in this study) came with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. Short-term HRT use also increased inflammation (C-reactive protein). Other studies have shown increased risks of breast cancer with HRT.
Other adverse effects of HRT typically include intestinal irritation, vaginal bleeding, nausea, headaches and others.
What this all means is when flax is compared to HRT utilizing a complete spectrum - symptoms plus quality-of-life plus adverse side effects - we can conclude that flax significantly outperformed HRT in this clinical study.

What's in a Quality-of-Life Score?

When it comes to overall effectiveness of any therapy, QOL is a critical component. A therapy is rightly measured by both its symptom reduction and its Quality-of-Life scores because no one wants to feel worse overall when they are undergoing a therapy. For example, if someone takes an NSAID for a headache and finds the headache gone but is now faced with feeling drowsy and a stomach ache, or just a feeling of being down in the dumps, how effective was the therapy?
As this study proved, flaxseeds not only reduce symptoms of menopause – at practically the same levels as the HRT therapy: But flax also increases quality of life and comes with positive side effects. These include flax' positive effects upon digestion, cholesterol and cognition.
For example, flax contains considerable amounts of phytosterols, which reduce levels of oxidative low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Flax also contains healthy prebiotic fiber, so it aids digestion and bowel movements. Pertaining to cognitive levels, flaxseed comes with considerable content of an omega-3 fat called alpha linolenic acid or ALA. ALA is converted by a desaturase liver enzyme into heart- and brain-healthy ​docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). DHA is utilized by heart, brain and nerve cell membranes to help protect them from free radical damage.
For these many reasons, I always sneak a good dose of flaxseeds into the smoothies I make for my wife and I.
For additional research on the health benefits of flaxseed consult the GreenMedInfo.com database on the topic: Flaxseed Health Benefits Research.
Learn about natural solutions for food allergies and sensitivities.

REFERENCES:

Cetisli NE, Saruhan A, Kivcak B. The effects of flaxseed on menopausal symptoms and quality of life. Holist Nurs Pract. 2015 May-Jun;29(3):151-7. doi: 10.1097/HNP.0000000000000085.
Physicians Desk Reference. 2005
Pradhan AD, Manson JE, Rossouw JE, Siscovick DS, Mouton CP, Rifai N, Wallace RB, Jackson RD, Pettinger MB, Ridker PM. Inflammatory biomarkers, hormone replacement therapy, and incident coronary heart disease: prospective analysis from the Women's Health Initiative observational study. JAMA. 2002 Aug 28;288(8):980-7.
Originally published: 2015-06-10 
Updated: 2019-02-09
Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: collaborative reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Lancet. 1997 Oct 11;350(9084):1047-59.

Case Adams is a California Naturopath with a PhD in Natural Health Sciences, and Board Certified Alternative Medicine Practitioner. He has authored 26 books on natural healing strategies. His focus is upon researching, writing about and authenticating traditional therapies with clinical evidence. His books can also be found at Heal Naturally. Contact Case at case@caseadams.com.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

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First Ever Guidelines Address Depression in Midlife Women

Perimenopause

New evaluation and treatment recommendations are specific to perimenopause, the years before menopause, when women are especially vulnerable to mood problems.

By Beth Levine

 

 

September 11, 2018
The field of medicine has really grown in its appreciation for the need to understand factors that contribute to women’s vulnerability to depression. For example, there is much more understanding, outreach, and treatment for depression during pregnancy and postpartum today compared with 20 years ago.
But depression during perimenopause is even more frequent than depression during pregnancy, yet very little is known about it. The good news: The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and the Women and Mood Disorders Task Force of the National Network of Depression Centers have released the first-ever guidelines for the evaluation and treatment of perimenopausal depression, published online on September 4, 2018, simultaneously in the journal Menopause and the Journal of Women's Health. These guidelines have also been endorsed by the International Menopause Society.
Related: 7 Common Myths About Depression

Breaking the Stigmas for Better Depression Care

“There is a lot of stigma around menopause generally, and we wanted to bring attention to this as another contributor to women’s higher prevalence of depression disorders,” says co-lead author Pauline M. Maki, PhD, of the department of psychiatry and the department of psychology at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
Related: 9 Different Types of Depression

Depression Risk Is Higher During Perimenopause Than After a Women Reaches Menopause

Dr. Maki reports that data uniformly show that there is an increased risk in the years around the final menstrual period, as compared with the many years following the final menstrual period, because of this fluctuation. Estrogen levels may be low during menopause but at least they are somewhat stable. “That being said, the largest longitudinal study of women did indeed show that the risks do persist into the postmenopausal period,” she cautions.
According to Maki, an analysis of data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), in a report published in June 2015 in the journal Psychological Medicine, found that of perimenopausal and menopausal women, the risk for new onset depression (women who have never experienced depression before) is about 28 
 percent. For women who have a history of depression, that figure is 59 percent.

Determining Exactly When a Woman Reaches Menopause Is Tricky

Typically, menopause is diagnosed in hindsight, after a woman has not had a menstrual period, or any spotting, for 12 consecutive months.

What Is the Connection Between Perimenopause and Depression?

Most people think that the estrogen levels are what make a difference in moods, but studies have shown that it’s really the change in daily hormones that is related to mood disruption in women. “In other words, it’s not the fact that women’s estrogen levels are low that makes a difference, but that estrogen levels are fluctuating. Many people misunderstand how the hormones change around the perimenopause. People believe that it is a gradual tapering off of estradiol, but women experience tremendous and dramatic fluctuation of estrogen. Estrogen levels can be even higher than what women experience during regular menstrual cycles,” explains Maki.Related: Kate Spade’s Suicide Brings Health Threat Back Into Spotlight

Hormones Flux May Mess With Menstrual Cycles, Healthy Sleep

The fluctuating hormones can also cause sleep problems because of issues such as hot flashes. Lack of sleep can lead to mood disturbances.

Women’s Life Changes in Forties Also Affect Mood Cycles

“The main thing is that women who are going through this understand what is happening because in addition to the biological factors, it is just as important to recognize the environmental factors,” says Maki. Women at midlife are experiencingbig life changes: children growing up and taking off, taking care of elderly parents (sometimes both at the same time), career shifts, martial conflict, conflicted emotions about aging and body changes, and more. This combination of hormonal and life changes creates a complex causality that needs to be addressed in its totality.Related: Resources for Managing Depression

 

Estrogen Promotes Blood-Forming Stem Cell Function

 Wonderful work is being done by the Scientist to help Stem Cell Function.  It helps so many people.

Scientists Find That Estrogen Promotes Blood-Forming Stem Cell Function

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Adele Bantle
International Style Coach

Alzheimer Help Through Estrogen

 Interesting study on the effect of Estrogen that could help keep Alzheimer away for younger women.  This widespread condition is frightening and anything that could keep it at bay is worth a look at.

Estrogen May Help Younger Women Keep Alzheimer's Away - NewsFix.ca

To your good health.

Adele Bantle
International Style Coach

Estrogen Hormone

 A study to help with Alzheimers Disease would be most welcome. 

Estrogen May Help Younger Women Keep Alzheimer's Away - TeleManagement