They hit at the most inconvenient times: during business meetings, out with friends, in bed with your partner. Your face flushes. Your heart rate accelerates. Your body feels like a steam vent, and perspiration washes all over you.
You’re having hot flashes, and for more than 70 percent of women, they’re an ill-timed, uncomfortable, and often embarrassing reality of menopause.
So what’s the cause?
Ask that question, even to doctors, and you won’t get a straight answer. They’ll say “we don’t know,” or “it’s not clear what triggers hot flashes,” or the common answer: “declining estrogen.”
Well, this is true as there appears to be many reasons and factors as to why some women have more hot flashes and some less. Certainly bioidentical estrogen and progesterone helps, but there is one main overlooked reason that must be addressed.
I have effectively worked with women to stop hot flashes - and do it without drugs like anti-depressants, high blood pressure meds, or anti-seizure drugs – the typical medicines prescribed to help. But they don’t correct a core reason, which is something no one has ever pointed out to you...
In two words: “insulin resistance.”
Insulin is a hormone that delivers glucose, or blood sugar, from the bloodstream into cells, where it’s burned for energy. Insulin resistance means that the insulin is less efficient at “making the delivery,” like the mail person who can’t make it to your house to give you your letters … so sugar levels rise in the blood. Insulin resistance lurks beneath many of most common symptoms one experiences during menopause – not only hot flashes, but also fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and weight gain.
Once you know the real cause of something – in this case, insulin resistance – then you can stop the problem in its tracks, and not mask it with drugs. Here’s how, straight from my new book The Hormone Fix.
How to stop the problem:
Start the Keto-Green® Diet.
My Keto-Green® diet helps regulate insulin and reverse insulin resistance in one important way: it shifts you into ketosis, which restores your body to an insulin-sensitive state.
The ketogenic component of my diet works by keeping your carbohydrate stores almost empty. Your body starts burning its own body fat for energy, helping you lose weight quickly. It will also burn fat that you’re consuming through your diet, assuming you are eating healthy fats (not trans fats, for example).The details, including food lists, daily menu plans, and recipes are all in The Hormone Fix.
As for hot flashes, even night sweats, expect them to become a distant memory!
Do Keto-Green® fasting.
This is a form of intermittent fasting, in which you go 13 to 15 hours without food overnight and in the morning. Let’s say you finish dinner at 7 pm. Don’t eat anything other than some coffee in the morning. Make an early lunch or late breakfast (say 9am) your first meal of the day. That’s all there is to Keto-Green Fasting.
Studies have found this form intermittent fasting helps prevent hot-flash-triggering insulin resistance, plus enhances hormone function that helps with weight loss, including the loss of belly fat. I outline how to do Keto-Green Fasting in The Hormone Fix in detail.
Stop snacking.
Do not eat between meals and do not snack. That advice might seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but here’s the truth: if you’re over forty, snacking can be destructive to your goals. It can cause insulin resistance, weight gain, hot flashes, and inflammation. If you feel hunger pangs during the day, add more healthy fats, oils, and nuts to your meals. The hunger pangs will soon disappear. Eventually you’ll retrain your body to not desire snacks.
Douse the fire with Maca.
Maca is an adaptogen, which means it can help support your adrenals, especially against the impact of burnout and chronic stress. Additionally, maca helps keep the body from being too acidic (stress is extremely acidifying by itself) because it is very alkalinizing. Maca also supports hormone balance, sex drive, and mood, and it decreases hot flashes. Take one to two scoops of my Mighty Maca Plus in smoothies, teas, or water. This contains organic Peruvian maca plus over 30 superfoods I combined to naturally support our body and hormone balance and it really works for hot flashes!
Supplement with Omega-3 fish oil.
I’m a big believer in the power of this supplement, made up of two components of fish oil, EPA and DHA. In a 2009 study conducted in Canada, 120 women going through menopause were given either a fish oil supplement providing 1,200 milligrams of EPA and DHA or a placebo for two months. Prior to the study, these women averaged about 2.8 hot flashes daily. But after eight weeks, their hot flashes decreased by 55 percent in the EPA and DHA group, but by only 25 percent in the placebo group. You can’t go wrong by including this supplement in your daily regimen. A good omega-3 will have 360 milligrams EPA and 240 milligrams DHA per 1,000-milligram capsule. Besides omega-3 fish oil and Mighty Maca Plus, The Hormone Fix covers other supplement solutions to stopping hot flashes.
You hold tremendous power over your health and your quality of life and that includes tackling hot flashes. In all my years of researching and working with women (and men) on nutrition and hormone reset programs, the approach I offer in my new book is the best way I have found to stop hot flashes, get healthy, and balance hormones so you can feel sexy again, and have loving relationships.
It’s all in The Hormone Fix, available in bookstores nationally, or for order on my website. With basic diet and lifestyle changes you can start living without hot flashes and other annoying symptoms of menopause.
Curious as to what type of meals are part of my Keto-Green diet? I’m sharing my favorite DIY Keto-Green Salad recipe with you all so you can try yourselves!
DIY Keto-Green Salad
INGREDIENTS
- 4 handfuls fresh greens (can use any super greens like kale,
parsley, dandelion, spinach, etc.)
- 4 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
- Dressing, enough to coat salad (see page TK)
- Sprouts (broccoli or other)
- Sunflower seeds or slivered almonds
- 4 pieces salmon, chicken, tuna, or beef; 4 servings sardines; or 4 servings hard-boiled eggs, each sliced in half
DIRECTIONS
- In a mixing bowl, combine vegetables and toss with dressing.
- Arrange on 4 plates and top each with sprouts, sunflower seeds or almonds, and your choice of protein.
Makes 4 servings.
P.S. All of these amazing benefits are why I chose maca as a core foundational element of my Keto-Green™ Diet and Lifestyle program.
Experience the benefits of maca for yourself with a free trial of Mighty Maca Plus!
