Non-Prescription Choices For Women With Hormone Imbalance

Not so long ago, menopause was a word you did not say out loud in public, and you had to go to a medical library to find a book on the subject. Today, every Barnes and Nobles, Borders, and other book stores carry literally dozens of titles on the subject of hormone imbalance or menopause.

With 40 million menopausal women in America and some 20 million baby boomer women on the brink of menopause, it is no wonder this is such a major topic of discussion today. Many women are educating themselves and "doing their homework", not readily accepting the "gold standard" so quickly suggested by their doctors of taking synthetic hormones like Premarin (from pregnant mares' urine) to assist them through this normal transition of life.

After all, menopause is not a disease but only a transition between one's childbearing years and the large segment of life that follows, when one no longer need be concerned with monthly cycles and the responsibility of pregnancy. Menopause is by design and not a mistake of mother nature... Today there are many natural alternatives that have proven to be beneficial in helping women to balance their hormones without the risky side effects of the synthetic hormones. I encourage you to take personal responsibility for your own health, and consider getting started on natural hormones today!

Summer Is Almost Over? Tell That To My Hot Flashes!

Summer may be coming to an end, but for many menopausal women across the country, the discomfort of hot flashes and night sweats will remain. Hot flashes, night sweats, moodiness and irritability are just some of the symptoms women are likely to experience during menopause. These symptoms are caused by a natural depletion of estrogen levels, causing many women to turn to Estrogen Replacement Therapy (ERT) in order to alleviate their symptoms. While this form of treatment can be effective, widely publicized potential health risks such as increased risk of breast cancer and cardiovascular disease have motivated women to seek alternative forms of treatment.

Approximately 80-90% of women in the United States are thought to experience the aforementioned symptoms during menopause, whereas only an estimated 30% of women in Asia experience the same symptoms. Why? The answer is soy. Menopausal symptom relief is just one of the many benefits associated with the regular consumption of soy. The typical Asian diet ensures that adequate amounts of soy are consumed on a regular basis, resulting in an all-natural method of reducing menopausal symptoms before they even surface. Soy isoflavones not only alleviate hot flashes and night sweats, a recent study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility indicated that soy isoflavones can also reduce emotional instability and may improve cognitive function in women with menopause. The use of soy as an all-natural, non-intrusive and risk-free alternative to traditional ERT methods is becoming more common across the nation.

In addition to adding dietary supplements containing soy to your daily health regime, the following ingredients will provide you with the adequate amounts of soy isoflavones:

Soybeans
Fortified soymilk
Tofu and tempeh
Soy flour


The products within Växa’s Women’s Health Line also cater to the specific needs of women during this delicate time. Preserve Cream for Women is an all-natural soy-based HRT balancing cream. The cream is rapidly absorbed through the skin where it starts to work immediately. Preserve is a homeopathic medicinal specifically formulated to address the problems and discomforts of menopause by providing the body with a rich supply of safe, naturally occurring phytoestrogen complexes and calming herbs.

Longevity...Is It In You?

While we all want to live a long, healthy life, several factors come into play which determine your overall quality of life. You have probably heard the expression, “Play the hand you are dealt,” obviously meaning that genetics influences your chances of being healthy or living with disease.

Personally I feel a positive mental attitude towards life, a balanced diet, plenty of rest to assist the immune system, and regular to moderate exercise are key. Bottom line…age is a state of mind, if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Is The Fountain Of Youth In Your Genes?

We have all heard of the George Burns type who drink and smoke and live long healthy lives, which leads to a debate about how much lifestyle and inherited genes have to do with life longevity. According to an article in the New York Times, “Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes,” life span is simply random. “The likely reason is that life span is determined by such a complex mix of events that there is no accurate predicting for the individuals. The factors include genetic predispositions, disease, nutrition, a woman’s health during pregnancy, subtle injuries and accidents and simply chance events, like a randomly occurring mutation in a gene of a cell that ultimately leads to cancer.”

This is good news, folks. Look at it this way. Some of us whose mother or father died early on are expecting the same for themselves, but that is not necessarily going to be the outcome. Also, in this article it does in fact point out that how we live our lives does have a strong influence on the quality and longevity of it. The article discussed many studies by various leading experts, who all agree that genetics is not a strong indicator of life span. There have been many studies following identical twins and fraternal twins and found that it was even impossible to judge life spans in identical twins.

Reading between the lines and showing a connection to lifestyle, there was a set of identical twins in the study who are both alive at the age of 92. Their lives are not concurrent however, as one sister is very healthy and very active, and the other sister has many old age type illnesses (incontinence, hip replacement, poor vision and dementia). The healthy sister claims to have been very active in tennis most of her life, obtained a master's degree, enjoyed a successful career as a teacher and was very headstrong. The healthy sister describes her twin as always having been more of a fragile individual who did not do well in school, obtaining only a high school degree.

On this same note, The Associated Press published an article titled, “Want to be 100? Listen To These 5 Centenarians.” They interviewed 5 women over the age of 100 and came to the conclusion that “the key to longevity is working hard at a job you love and taking care of your body while you’re at it.” All of the women had very positive outlooks on their current life. Commenting on how they hear all the time how some people do not want to live to be their age and they cannot understand why.

How long you live and what the quality of that life is does depend greatly on the individual. Yes, some of us may be affected by genetics, and some may have traumatic and random accidents. However, we are not chained to any one specific occurrence, rather living life to your highest and happiest potential, and incorporating healthy decisions is your best bet for a long healthy life. For additional tips, a must read is Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC and James F. Balch, M.D. Specifically part one, “Understanding the Elements of Health.”

You will find many Växa products featured in the Prescription for Nutritional Healing, such as Attend, Buffer-pH, Parasitin and Cell-U-Lite. Although, many of these products are symptom specific, Buffer-pH and Parasitin are two products that are vital in creating a healthy environment for longevity.

Bacteria Can Be Good For You!

When we think of bacteria, we generally think it is bad. While this can be true, many of us are not aware that certain forms of bacteria can in fact be good for us. “Good” bacteria essentially combat the development of “bad” bacteria, which in turn strengthens our immune system and wards off disease. While the body naturally produces a supply of “good” bacteria, the lack of nutrients in the Standard American Diet, the use of antibiotics, prolonged illness or stress can deplete this supply, making it necessary to consume probiotic supplements in order to replenish “good” bacteria supplies. So, how do probiotics actually work?

The Benefits Of Probiotics

Probiotics are dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeast, however lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are the most common microbes used. LAB have been used in the food industry for many years, because they are able to convert sugars (including lactose) and other carbohydrates into lactic acid. This not only provides the characteristic sour taste of fermented dairy foods such as yogurt, but acts as a preservative, by lowering the pH and creating fewer opportunities for harmful organisms to grow.

Probiotic bacterial cultures are intended to assist the body's naturally occurring flora within the digestive tract to reestablish themselves. They are sometimes recommended by doctors, and, more frequently, by nutritionists, after a course of antibiotics, or as part of the treatment for candidiasis.

The rationale for probiotics is that the body contains a miniature ecology of microbes, collectively known as the gut flora. The number of bacterial types can be thrown out of balance by a wide range of circumstances including the use of antibiotics or other drugs, excess alcohol, stress, disease, exposure to toxic substances, or even the use of antibacterial soap. In cases like these, the bacteria that work well with our bodies may decrease in number, an event which allows harmful competitors to thrive, to the detriment of our health.

Maintenance of healthy gut flora is, however, dependent on many factors, especially the quality of food intake. Including a significant proportion of prebiotic foods in the diet has been demonstrated to support a healthy probiotic flora and may be a more effective and sustainable means of achieving the desirable health benefits promised by probiotics.

Experiments into the benefits of probiotic therapies suggest a range of potentially beneficial medicinal uses for probiotics. For example, research has indicated that ingestion of probiotics may aid individuals with lactose intolerance, those with high blood pressure and cholesterol. Probiotics have also been linked to prevention of colon cancer and the improvement of immune system functions thereby reducing the risk of contracting infections.

In addition to consuming probiotic supplements, the inclusion of the following foods also help promote a healthy environment within the gut:

Kefir
Yogurt
Sauerkraut
Kimchi


To ensure that your body is getting sufficient amounts of probiotics, try ReFlora. ReFlora contains a special complex of 10 different and beneficial bacteria, phytomedicinals and other nutrients to help the body restore healthy bacterial flora.