How Reflexology Can Help to Sooth the effect of Menopause
In your early to mid 40s or even late 30s, and beginning to notice changes with your monthly? Has it even been suggested that you are experiencing menopausal symptoms?
Many of us don’t really want to mention the ‘M’ word but we do need to know whats going on with our bodies and support our health and wellbeing as best we can. Menopause is the natural ending of a women’s reproductive life. It is a hormonal process and usually happens slowly, over a number of years but during peri-menopause many more changes are evident. You may notice a change in mood, be prone to spells of anxiety, experience night sweats and hot flushes and suffer from sleep disruption.
Although this is usually a gradual process, the symptoms can severely effect your day to day activities and impact on relationships, especially at home. Whilst some lifestyle changes can considerably help the symptoms such as regular exercise, good nutrition, avoidance of stimulants - the usual offenders, caffeine, alcohol, sugar etc, stress unfortunately exacerbates the problem, as stress wreaks havoc on our hormonal system.
There are considered to be 3 stages to menopause but there is some overlap in the meaning and the transitional period within each stage - peri-menopause (the first stage) seems to be the most disruptive period where your symptoms become more obvious and unpredictable and can last over a few years.
How can Reflexology help?
As this is a natural hormonal adjustment, Reflexology can help to reduce the impact of stress either caused by or added to by menopause. Calming the nervous system, and the regulation of your hormones allows the body to rebalance as best it can during this prolonged period of transition.
Clients often report a marked improvement in the number of Hot Flushes, improved sleep patterns, increase in energy, and reduction in bouts of anxiety.
Research* has shown that Reflexology can stimulate the action of the Vagus Nerve - part of the parasympathetic nervous system which is largely responsible for regulation of the body at rest and is responsible for many functions in the body. When stimulated it can encourage the ‘stress’ response to normalise, helping to bring about the benefits associated with relaxation.
Of course Reflexology cannot stop the natural process of menopause but it can help to smooth out the disruptive effects on our hormonal systems.
Whether you embark on a course of herbs, supplements, acupuncture or HRT, Reflexology has now been proven to calm your nervous and hormonal systems and support you through this phase.
If you would like to explore the benefits of Reflexology, you can find Alison Fuller at the Ele King Therapy Room on Thursday afternoons and evenings. She offers Reflexology, Hypnotherapy and Abdominal/Fertility Massage. Contact her on 07811 123494.
* Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, PubMed, Lu WA et al 2011.