Massage & menopause
Menopause & peri-menopause
Going through menopause is a major milestone, but before the menopause hits us, we go through the peri-menopause which can last as long as 10 years before the big M finally arrives!
We will all transition through the stages differently, some more intensely than others. Through these stages our hormones start to fluctuate and oestrogen - which is a natural anti-inflammatory - will start to decrease, as well as progesterone and testosterone. This may affect us emotionally, psychologically and physiologically either in waves throughout the month or in a consistent stream. The symptoms of these hormonal shifts could present as fatigue, joint pain, general achiness, anxiety, low mood, brain fog, poor sleep, weight gain, dry skin, hot flashes, night sweats and can even impact our bone health… and this is by no means an exhaustive list.
Impact on the nervous system
Dealing with all these new changes to our body and the impact that it has on our day to day life can cause our stress levels to rocket, as our system is unbalanced and overloaded. This impacts our nervous system which can then go into sympathetic overdrive; this means our body’s sympathetic nervous system is activated and we get stuck in the ’fight or flight’ mode. When we are balanced the time spent in this mode is short, and our body recovers quickly and returns to homeostasis. If our stress levels are high over a long period of time our adrenal glands produce too much cortisol (the stress hormone) which keeps us in the sympathetic overdrive mode, this has a negative impact on our already stressed system which is trying to cope with the changes our body is naturally going through.
How massage helps
Peri-menopause and menopause are hard on our physical and mental wellbeing, and massage can help as well as other modalities such as yoga, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, and a balanced diet. Massage helps the body by calming the nerves and sensory receptors, and the sympathetic nervous system is then overridden by the para-sympathetic nervous system. The para-sympathetic system slows down the body’s activities such as reducing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure, helping improve quality of sleep, improving blood flow, which reduces achiness and joint pain, aids lymphatic flow and improves our immune function. So overall it helps the body come down from the fight or flight mode and ease into the para-sympathetic mode, otherwise known as the rest and digest phase. Let massage help reclaim your physical and mental wellbeing!
