Supplements, vitamins routine for menopausal women

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

Forgot to mention that I eat plant based diet, don’t drink, smoke, and try to exercise regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

OP here.
I should be more specific here. I am not looking for HRT. I am not suffering from hot flashes and my doctor didn’t recommend it unless I really need it.
As far as regulating supplements, it’s true, but I’ve learned that turmeric is marvelous for my early arthritis. Now I am looking at collagen peptides for my aging joins. Most traditionally trained doctors here are not big on supplements, but you look at other countries it’s different.
I know that there are providers out there that are more knowledgeable in complementary medicine.
Help me to find them.
Thank you.🙏

I respect that you want to go a non-hormonal route, but hot flashes are only one of the symptoms that women experience in menopause. Others can be sleep and mood problems, anxiety, joint pain, dry skin, more frequent UTIs and vaginal dryness, decreased libido and sexual sensation, difficulty coming to orgasm, disappearing labia (really!!) thinning hair, bone loss, increasing cholesterol. Many of those are really well managed with either localized vaginal estrogen or systemic estrogen, or progesterone or testosterone, or all three.

Whether you “really need it” regarding HRT is your decision to make with your doctor’s advice about risks and benefits. Your doctor doesn’t get to tell you whether your symptoms feel bad enough to you, or not.

It makes me so mad that doctors are so patronizing to women about real symptoms they’re experiencing.

[Anonymous]

^^ oh and I use one of the menopause telehealth services - Gennev. They’re all good and will walk you through hormonal and non hormonal options. You can also look at Alloy, Evernow, Midi, ByWinona.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Clark is amazing for this. She doesn't do just blanket recommendations, but actually does testing and makes recommendations based off of the testing.

https://longevitylabhealth.com/

You just linked us to a chiropractor that practices virtually, LOLOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

OP here.
I should be more specific here. I am not looking for HRT. I am not suffering from hot flashes and my doctor didn’t recommend it unless I really need it.
As far as regulating supplements, it’s true, but I’ve learned that turmeric is marvelous for my early arthritis. Now I am looking at collagen peptides for my aging joins. Most traditionally trained doctors here are not big on supplements, but you look at other countries it’s different.
I know that there are providers out there that are more knowledgeable in complementary medicine.
Help me to find them.
Thank you.🙏

I respect that you want to go a non-hormonal route, but hot flashes are only one of the symptoms that women experience in menopause. Others can be sleep and mood problems, anxiety, joint pain, dry skin, more frequent UTIs and vaginal dryness, decreased libido and sexual sensation, difficulty coming to orgasm, disappearing labia (really!!) thinning hair, bone loss, increasing cholesterol. Many of those are really well managed with either localized vaginal estrogen or systemic estrogen, or progesterone or testosterone, or all three.

Whether you “really need it” regarding HRT is your decision to make with your doctor’s advice about risks and benefits. Your doctor doesn’t get to tell you whether your symptoms feel bad enough to you, or not.

It makes me so mad that doctors are so patronizing to women about real symptoms they’re experiencing.

+1 to all of this. I'm a survivor of childhood DV and as I entered menopause, I had a recurrence of the PTSD (hypervigilence, nightmares, etc.). That was the most obvious symptoms of menopuase I was experiencing. We (women) have been SO f#@ked over in terms of research and treatment. I went to the practice that delivered my 3 kids (which had midwives so you'd think they were women focused) and was told that unless I was having severe hot flashes, insurance wouldn't cover treatment and that I, basically, would just have to suffer. I found a provider on menopause.org and it was like night and day.

For supplements (I'm not on HRT), I take the Kirkland Calcium Citrate, Fish Oil, Kirkland Tumeric, magnesium and a multi-vitamin. For me, the magnesium has been a game changes. Pre-menopause, I never experienced restless legs in the evenings. Now, without the magnesium, I can't sleep because I've got restless legs. I'm sure the Calcium has helped as well because I'm 58 and recently had a bone density test. It should that I have less bone density loss than is typical for my age even though I'm at higher risk (white, post menopausal and petite).

This is the magnesium I take. I also think it helps me sleep better (pre-menopause, I was a champion sleeper).

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Extension-Neuro-Mag-L-Threonate-Vegetarian/dp/B006P536E6?pd_rd_w=3mmj8&content-id=amzn1.sym.80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_p=80b2efcb-1985-4e3a-b8e5-050c8b58b7cf&pf_rd_r=BZVB82J45BSDE5ZA47MM&pd_rd_wg=zMB1K&pd_rd_r=8dd8dade-ab15-4dad-afb6-90807e3be586&pd_rd_i=B006P536E6&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_2_t

[Anonymous]

Turmeric can be great for joints. At high doses, it can affect blood clotting. Fish oil can also be rest for joints and helps lower triglycerides. At high doses, it can affect blood clotting. Magnesium is great for sleep, constipation, leg cramps, headaches. You need to be careful with it if your kidney function is not normal. There is some controversy regarding calcium supplements. See below. If you ever develop elevated liver tests, one of the first things you will be asked to do is stop all supplements. You have to metabolize them like everything else you ingest and sometimes they can cause problems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7910980/

[Anonymous]

Sleep: 400 mg magnesium glycinate and 100 mg L Theanine taken before bed

[Anonymous]

I am menopausal 52 and really like Capital
Integrative Health in Bethesda. You have to pay the monthly fee but the visits are mostly covered by insurance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

lol you have no idea what you are talking about. Like, pharma is “well regulated?” get out of here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dr. Clark is amazing for this. She doesn't do just blanket recommendations, but actually does testing and makes recommendations based off of the testing.

https://longevitylabhealth.com/

You just linked us to a chiropractor that practices virtually, LOLOL!

She does nutrition / functional medicine virtually (what the OP is asking for).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

OP here.
I should be more specific here. I am not looking for HRT. I am not suffering from hot flashes and my doctor didn’t recommend it unless I really need it.
As far as regulating supplements, it’s true, but I’ve learned that turmeric is marvelous for my early arthritis. Now I am looking at collagen peptides for my aging joins. Most traditionally trained doctors here are not big on supplements, but you look at other countries it’s different.
I know that there are providers out there that are more knowledgeable in complementary medicine.
Help me to find them.
Thank you.🙏

I respect that you want to go a non-hormonal route, but hot flashes are only one of the symptoms that women experience in menopause. Others can be sleep and mood problems, anxiety, joint pain, dry skin, more frequent UTIs and vaginal dryness, decreased libido and sexual sensation, difficulty coming to orgasm, disappearing labia (really!!) thinning hair, bone loss, increasing cholesterol. Many of those are really well managed with either localized vaginal estrogen or systemic estrogen, or progesterone or testosterone, or all three.

Whether you “really need it” regarding HRT is your decision to make with your doctor’s advice about risks and benefits. Your doctor doesn’t get to tell you whether your symptoms feel bad enough to you, or not.

It makes me so mad that doctors are so patronizing to women about real symptoms they’re experiencing.

I totally agree with this. It’s not the stone ages - we are outliving our fertility and hormone therapy is not some fringe or last resort idea. Estrogen is anti-inflammatory and a lot of the problems women have in menopause are related to the lack of estrogen. I definitely think there is a role for supplements. But saying you don’t need hormone replacement because you’re not having hot flashes is absolutely ridiculous.

There is fascinating research on the number of menopausal women who are now on antidepressants, osteoporosis medication, blood pressure medication, all kinds of things that actually could be at least partially treated with hormone therapy. For some reason we’re fine with going on every other medication under the sun but replacing hormone is a horrific idea? I’m not saying hormones will cure everything but they definitely help with a lot of the other problems women get treated for once they hit menopause.

At least do some research and get informed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

This. There is a lot of demand for this, as evidenced by this thread, but it is quackery. But it’s so tempting to open a clinic that caters to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend doing some research before finding a provider - there are a lot of charlatans in this area. For example, there’s no need to test hormone levels, let alone do regular testing of them. HRT does not actually replace hormones, but is used to treat symptoms. Your hormone levels are not that useful because that doesn’t account for how well your hormone receptors are functioning. Also, most physicians will give you bad advice about vitamins, telling you that you don’t need them because your levels are “normal” but the fact is that menopausal women function better with higher levels of D and iron, for example. But if you go to a naturopath, they will often try to sell you high priced supplements, which can be sketchy.

All true except there is no evidence that supplemental D changes any outcomes at all, including fractures, unfortunately. There was an article in the NEJM showing this a couple of years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recommend doing some research before finding a provider - there are a lot of charlatans in this area. For example, there’s no need to test hormone levels, let alone do regular testing of them. HRT does not actually replace hormones, but is used to treat symptoms. Your hormone levels are not that useful because that doesn’t account for how well your hormone receptors are functioning. Also, most physicians will give you bad advice about vitamins, telling you that you don’t need them because your levels are “normal” but the fact is that menopausal women function better with higher levels of D and iron, for example. But if you go to a naturopath, they will often try to sell you high priced supplements, which can be sketchy.

Ah, ok, you got your MD from where?

As a woman with PCOS I absolutely need my hormones tested regularly. Take your BS and go somewhere else.

Your PCOS is not what this comment was about, we’re talking about menopause here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Outside Vitamin D, there is not a lot of data supporting supplements. They are not regulated. You have no idea what you are actually getting. Eat a well-balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables.

People say this as a reason to avoid all supplements. As a consumer, like everything else, you need to be picky and find brands that have reputations for being reliable and effective.

You still can’t confirm what you’re getting. Unless you have a deficiency and test with resolution of the deficiency. Reputation isn’t data.

It is. You just don't want to admit it.

Sometimes reputation is based on "feeling an effect". Sometimes reputation comes from having a deficiency and testing after taking the supplement. Most often the former and sometimes the latter.

Oh good lord. It never ceases to amaze me how much credence people will put in faith healers while dismissing the education, training and advice of people whose job it is to give evidence based advice. I blame the abysmal state of science education in this country.