Have you been struggling with stubborn weight gain?
If so, you’re not alone, and it’s likely not you – it’s perimenopause.
For many women maintaining their weight becomes increasingly more challenging especially as they near and enter their 40s.
This stage of life often brings a number of different lifestyle changes, and along with those an increased midline.
During perimenopause the body goes through a number of hormonal fluctuations that can take a toll on your metabolism and body composition. Women entering into their 40s and 50s are impacted by these body changes, sometimes in a way that can negatively influence their self-image and self-esteem.
The good news is – we’re in this together, and there are some healthy, practical and effective methods to manage perimenopausal weight gain related to hormone fluctuations and metabolic deficiencies.
Read on to discover:
What is perimenopausal weight gain?
Why does perimenopausal weight gain happen?
How to manage perimenopausal weight gain
Let’s dive in!
What is perimenopausal weight gain?
Perimenopause begins during our late 30s and early 40s, and it can bring with it changes to the body’s appearance and functioning.
Perimenopause and menopause impact many aspects of a woman’s health.
Women may experience:
Changes in thyroid function which can affect metabolism
Increase in visceral fat accumulation in and around the abdomen (and organs)
Ultimately – perimenopausal weight gain is a byproduct of the many hormonal and energy changes that come along with bodily transformation.
Decreased metabolism, lack of energy, fatigue and tiredness, stiffness and bloating – all of these perimenopausal symptoms can combine together, making it very hard to get out and get exercise.
The bottom line is that during perimenopause, we have reached an age at which our bodies need us to play a more active role in maintaining our daily health, and that starts with understanding what is happening and why.
Why does perimenopausal weight gain happen?
Weight gain is a common occurrence during perimenopause.
It’s important to understand that perimenopausal weight gain is not solely a result of overeating or a lack of exercise, but rather a biological response to changing hormones.
As we age, our metabolism slows down, which means we’re not digesting food as quickly or as effectively as we did in our younger years.
Hormonal changes during perimenopause, such as decreased estrogen, is the body’s natural process to pump the fertility brakes – you can still get pregnant during perimenopause, but your reproductive organs are slowing down and becoming less fertile.
Low testosterone, which begins to drop after age 30, can lead to an inability to build muscle mass, lose weight and decreased energy levels. Other side effects of low testosterone include: low mood, low libido and decreased bone density.
These hormonal changes can also affect metabolism, appetite regulation and fat redistribution, as subcutaneous fat (that is, the fat that is stored beneath your skin) becomes abdominal fat, which can also be called visceral fat (which is, the fat that is packed around your vital organs).
A decrease in metabolism, combined with a decrease in energy and feelings of fatigue, can lead to less physical activity and exercise – creating a recipe for packing on the pounds.
The good news is, there are ways to help your body respond to these fluctuating hormones and effectively manage perimenopausal weight gain.
A wider waistline comes with increased risks
Although bodily changes and weight gain are a common experience while aging, there are a number of motivating factors for why you should strive to manage the amount of weight you gain.
In fact, excess weight, particularly around the abdominal area, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. By managing weight gain, you can be proactive in protecting your long-term health and reduce your risk for developing these conditions.
Taking control of perimenopausal weight gain helps to promote healthy aging, including better joint health, vitality and longevity.
How to manage perimenopausal weight gain
Managing perimenopausal weight gain can improve the quality of your life, boost your confidence and even minimize the hormonal imbalances that may exacerbate perimenopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, and disrupted sleep.
Ultimately the best way to manage perimenopausal weight gain is through a holistic approach that includes:
Engaging in regular physical activity is key to managing weight during perimenopause, and it brings other benefits including lower stress levels, improved mood, and better sleep. Incorporate a combination of cardiovascular exercises such as walking, jogging or swimming. As cortisol levels rise during perimenopause, it is okay to focus on movement that is less taxing on the body, such as walking, yoga, or pilates. To really lose visceral fat, we also want to encourage NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), which is essentially just moving as much as possible throughout the day.
Strength training exercises not only help to boost your metabolism, they also counteract the natural muscle loss that occurs during perimenopause. Incorporate weight lifting or resistance bands into your routine at least three times weekly to reduce muscle loss and improve bone health.
A balanced and nutritious diet is crucial for weight management during perimenopause.
Due to a drop in estrogen levels, women in perimenopause can’t process sugars (or foods that turn into sugars) nearly as well.
It’s important to:
Focus on getting fiber from foods like chia, vegetables, and beans
Add in more protein in each meal
Consume a variety of vegetables throughout the day
Significantly reduce or eliminate alcohol to protect the gut microbiome and promote healthy sleep
Reduce caffeine intake to promote better sleep
Avoid or limit processed foods, sugary snacks and drinks that offer little nutritional value
Pay attention to portion sizes and practice mindful eating to foster a healthy relationship with food
By reducing refined carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol, and eating more whole foods, women can significantly reduce disease risk. This diet has been shown to be beneficial for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, dementia and diabetes. Weight loss and perimenopausal symptom control is an added benefit.
Quality sleep and reduced stress levels are critical to supporting hormone regulation, your metabolism, and overall well-being.
Find stress management techniques like meditation, deep breathing, yoga or journaling and create a relaxing bedtime routine to lower stress levels and increase your chances of having a restorative sleep each night.
Take supplements designed for perimenopausal women
While a balanced diet and multivitamin may have cut it in your younger years, perimenopause is a life stage during which your body can benefit from a clinically designed supplement stack created to support the unique needs of your body during this stage of life.
Not all supplement stacks are created equal, and the best brands will design their supplement system around specific health needs or goals – i.e. for men, for menopausal women, for weight training.
Here at Revivele, we’ve created our Essentials line of supplements to target the unique health needs of women in perimenopause and menopause, with a special focus on preventing the diseases that disproportionately affect women.
For example, our supplement system includes the ingredients berberine (which helps to manage weight loss and improve blood sugar levels) and inositol (which is a type of sugar found in the body, and is sometimes referred to as vitamin B8, even though it’s not a vitamin).
Working together – and combined with healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle – berberine and inositol can help with:
Increased insulin productivity in the body to break down fats and sugars
Fats distributed away from the abdomen and spread more healthily
throughout the body
Higher energy levels and improved metabolism and digestion
More balanced hormones
It’s important to talk to your doctor if you’re considering adding a supplement to your daily routine, and all women should be empowered to raise any health concerns – menopause related or not – to their family physician.
Looking to learn more about women’s health and wellness?
Learn more and get updates on the release of our Essentials supplement system by
Even though menopause is a natural, biological process and something that half of the world’s population will experience in their lives, it still remains a taboo topic and one that many medical practitioners are not well-educated in or trained on how to manage. This lack of education and support leaves women in the dark about how to navigate this important stage of life, and often we end up suffering through uncomfortable and even debilitating symptoms that can also lead to an increased risk of numerous chronic illnesses.
Since our bodies go through significant changes during this phase, which can begin as early as our mid-30s, it is incredibly important to understand exactly what is happening as you go through perimenopause, and ultimately reach menopause. We shouldn’t be expected to simply endure these symptoms – we deserve to feel great and live our lives to the fullest. With that in mind, let’s dive into the four stages of menopause, some of the symptoms that can be expected, how the loss of our hormones affects our long-term disease risk, and tips to help navigate this transition better and feel our best!
Did You Know Menopause Is Only One Day?
Menopause is defined as the one-year anniversary of the last day of your final period. The term menopause is often used to describe the entire phase of the menopausal transition years, but in actuality, you are only “in” menopause for that one day when it has been a full year without menstrual bleeding. Every year before this day, you are actually going through perimenopause.
What Are the Four Stages of Menopause?
There are four stages of menopause, each of which have their own symptoms, hormone levels, and age range/duration. The four stages are:
● Premenopause
● Perimenopause
● Menopause
● Postmenopause
Here’s a deeper look at what you can expect during each of these four stages:
Premenopause Stage
As its name suggests, the premenopause stage begins with the first menstruation during puberty and ends with perimenopause when the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, begin to fluctuate and diminish. During this stage, a woman has her regular menstrual cycle and no noticeable symptoms of perimenopause.
Most women will begin this stage during their pre-teen or early teen years until perimenopause begins.
Perimenopause Stage
Perimenopause is the time when estrogen and progesterone levels begin to fluctuate and drop, which can begin as early as the mid-30s. The loss of these hormones leads to over 50 potential symptoms, some of which can be quite debilitating. Some of these symptoms are well-known, such as hot flashes, hair loss, and weight gain, however, there are many lesser-known symptoms associated with perimenopause, such as tinnitus, heart palpitations, and mood disorders. So many of these symptoms are often undiagnosed, untreated, or treated as separate diagnoses rather than one single condition. As a result, many women are not offered proper care and continue to suffer.
Menopause Stage
Menopause occurs when you have gone without a period for 12 consecutive months. As such, women “experience” menopause only on that one day in their life.
Menopause usually occurs for most women sometime between their mid-40s and mid-50s, but this varies from person to person. The average age of menopause for a woman in the United States is 51 years old. Many perimenopausal symptoms will diminish or disappear after menopause has occurred and the body adjusts to the absence of female hormones. However, for some women, the symptoms of perimenopause may continue even after menopause.
Postmenopause Stage
Postmenopause takes place after you have surpassed a full year without a menstrual cycle and menopause has occurred. This stage lasts for the rest of your life.
During this time, many of the symptoms that are associated with perimenopause have disappeared, or gradually decrease. However, due to lower levels of hormones like estrogen, postmenopausal women are at an increased risk for various health conditions, including:
● Osteoporosis
● Cardiovascular disease
● Vaginal atrophy
● Dementia
● Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
How to Address Perimenopausal Symptoms
Here are some tips to not only help alleviate some of the most common symptoms of perimenopause, but also reduce your risk of long-term disease:
● Diet: During this time, women do not process sugars effectively, putting them at risk of glucose intolerance and diabetes. Lower levels of estrogen also contribute to increased levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides. Therefore, a whole foods diet focuses on a variety of vegetables, low glycemic fruits, unprocessed whole grains, organic free-range chicken/ eggs, grass-fed beef, and sustainably sourced low-mercury fish. Eating this way can also help reduce some of the common symptoms experienced during perimenopause such as hot flashes, brain fog, fatigue, and acid reflux.
● Exercise: Lower levels of estrogen contributes to a reduction in bone density, and increased risk of osteoporosis. As testosterone levels drop, maintaining muscle mass becomes increasingly difficult. Incorporating daily low-impact exercise can be beneficial, such as brisk walks, swimming, cycling, or yoga, and strength training 2–3 times weekly to maintain bone density and muscle mass. Regular exercise can also aid with improving mental health, weight gain, and low energy.
● Sleep: Perimenopause has a significant impact on sleep. Insufficient or poor-quality sleep has been shown to have a negative impact on long-term health and may be one of the risk factors for developing dementia. Poor sleep also leads to chronic fatigue and brain fog. Thus, women must focus on improving sleep hygiene. Consider using an eye mask, white noise machine, disconnecting from devices at least one hour before bedtime, and maintaining a regular sleep/wake schedule to help achieve at least 7 hours of quality sleep each night. Some supplements that might also be beneficial are magnesium glycinate, L-theanine, and melatonin.
● Stress reduction: Lower levels of estrogen lead to increased levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, in our bodies. This leads to numerous mood disorders in perimenopausal women, such as anxiety, depression, feelings of rage, and irritability. Focusing on reducing stress with journaling, meditation, breath work, or spending time in nature can be very beneficial. Supplements containing adaptogens (ashwagandha, rhodiola, chaga, holy basil) can help the body cope with these increased levels of stress.
● Gut health: Fluctuating hormones impact the health of our gut microbiome. As such, avoiding foods and environmental toxins that contribute to inflammation in our bodies is essential. Try to buy organic produce whenever possible, and reduce or eliminate pre-packaged foods, alcohol, refined carbohydrates, and processed meats. Incorporating probiotic foods, such as kimchi or sauerkraut, or taking a probiotic supplement can help repopulate the good bacteria in our gut.
● Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): Newer forms of HRT have been shown to have a significant impact on reducing or eliminating the symptoms of perimenopause, as well as, reducing the risk of several chronic diseases that affect women during this time. Recent evidence shows that these newer formulations (topical estradiol and oral micronized progesterone) do not, in fact, increase the risk of breast cancer or blood clots. This is an option that really should be offered to all women who can safely use HRT, so they may make an informed decision on not only improving their current symptoms but also protecting their long-term well-being.
Why do blood glucose levels matter in terms of our long-term health – and what does it mean for us when we want to enjoy a tasty treat?
Sugars are infamously addictive – but it’s hard to worry about long-term benefits and consequences when chips and cookies are sitting right there in front of us looking so good.
Disclaimer: This article is not about telling you to stop eating sugars.
Rather, it’s an article about the long-term health benefits of maintaining average low blood glucose levels, including the reduced risk of developing dementia – which is associated with consistently elevated glucose.
In this article you’ll find:
The role of blood glucose in long-term health
How to manage blood glucose levels
Why self-care goes beyond carb and sugar intake
Keeping up to date on your health Essentials
The role of blood glucose in long-term health
We want to emphasize – this message isn’t about weight. What we eat isn’t just about how we look.
It’s about how we feel, and how healthy our bodies are as we age.
Maintaining healthy blood glucose levels is essential for everyone, not just those with prediabetes or diabetes. Over time, high blood glucose levels can cause damage to your blood vessels, nerves, and organs, leading to serious health problems.
Below, we break down exactly why being mindful of your blood glucose levels matters especially as you age.
Breaking down glucose as we age
Glucose (aka. blood sugars) is processed using the body’s natural insulin production.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas and it plays a vital role in controlling and maintaining blood sugar levels. Its job is to prevent our blood sugars from rising too high (hyperglycemia) or dropping too low (hypoglycemia).
As we get older, our bodies’ estrogen and progesterone levels decline. This affects how natural insulin works in our bodies, and impacts how we are able to process sugars or high glycemic foods.
This can lead to what we call glucose intolerance, and may even develop into diabetes.
This is why we need to increase our veggetable and protein consumption, and make an effort to reduce the number of processed carbohydrates and starchy foods we eat.
Extra odihealth benefits from a healthy diet
A low carb, low sugar diet has added health benefits, such as:
Reducing damage caused to arteries
Reducing risk of dementia
Reducing risk of nerve damage
Improving wound healing
Reducing weight
Reducing perimenopausal symptoms
Persistently elevated blood glucose levels can cause damage to the arteries that carry blood to our organs, including our eyes, kidneys, heart and brain.
Our arteries also carry blood to wounds. Damaged arteries can actually slow our healing processes, which increases the risk of infections or prolonged pain and discomfort.
Glucose as a risk factor of dementia
Consistently high glucose levels is a known risk factor of dementia.
There is a scientific link between diabetes and dementia that shows elevated glucose can affect brain health.
Revivele’s founder, Dr. Kavita Desai, speaks about this subject in this Instagram video. Please feel free to check it out, leave your comments, and follow for more tips!
How to manage blood glucose levels
Fortunately, there are some simple methods to keep ourselves healthy as we age.
Reduce refined carbohydrates, sugars or foods that turn into sugar in our body (examples include: bread, pasta, potatoes, alcohol, desserts, and sugary beverages)
Choose low glycemic fruits and vegetables such as berries, broccoli, and leafy greens.
Exercise regularly
Eat more fresh vegetables and lean proteins
Eat whole foods (ie. foods that have not been processed)
Keep track of nutrient deficiencies
Nutrient deficiencies can cause cravings that we misunderstand, which means we try to satisfy them with the wrong foods.
Speak with your healthcare practitioner if you feel that you have a nutrient deficiency, and ask about taking healthy supplements to help balance these deficiencies.
Our soon-to-launch supplement system, Essentials by Revivele, includes berberine and ceylon cinnamon to help manage blood sugar levels. Learn more about how these key ingredients work to help manage your glucose below.
What do berberine and ceylon cinnamon have to do with glucose?
Berberine is a compound found in many plants and is generally acknowledged to be a powerful supplement with various health benefits.
For instance, berberine improves the body’s stimulation of glucose by inducing secretions of insulin and reducing insulin resistance.
Ceylon cinnamon is a type of cinnamon taken from the bark of a type of evergreen tree primarily found in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Cinnamon has been shown to have a positive impact on blood sugar levels, containing bioactive compounds that improve the body’s ability to use glucose effectively. It works by increasing insulin sensitivity, efficiently moving sugar from the bloodstream into cells.
Other medical benefits of ceylon cinnamon include anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial uses, in addition to boosting the immune system.
Healthy eating gets easier – and starts to feel more rewarding over time
When you consume a lot of sugar on a regular basis, your insulin is very unstable and will fluctuate a lot, which can lead to ongoing sugar cravings, and may even cause mood swings.
Although reducing sugars in your diet may feel like a deprivation at first, your body will adjust to your new healthy lifestyle over time.
Once your insulin production stabilizes, a lot of your sugar cravings will go away, and you will begin to feel the overall improvements to your health and comfort.
“Think of making healthy lifestyle changes not as a sacrifice, but as a step towards taking care of you – and improving the health and wellness of your future self!” -Dr. Kavita Desai
Self-care goes beyond carbohydrate and sugar intake
The intake of sugars and added sugars like sucrose, dextrose, table sugar, syrups, honey, and concentrated fruit juice sugars, contribute to shorter, less healthy lives in most Americans.
According to the CDC, the average person should not consume more than 12 teaspoons of sugar each day in order to maintain optimal health.
However, we’ve also been conditioned to use high-calorie foods, alcohol consumption, and sweet treats like candy, soda and baked goods as go-to solutions to “treat ourselves” when we are seeking comfort or reward.
It’s common to think: “But, how can I enjoy life when I have to watch everything I eat?”
Sugars release opioids and dopamine into our bodies to give us a quick fix of delicious pleasure.
By the time we reach our perimenopausal years, it is common to want to relax, treat ourselves, and seek comfort to manage the fluctuation of hormones and emotions that come with this time in our lives.
Just to reiterate: we’re not suggesting you have to eliminate sugars from your diet entirely.
But we are encouraging you to start consciously moderating your sugar intake, especially as you age.
Tip: It’s hard to un-train the brain from considering consumption as a reward. Read Revivele’s 5 Healthy Habits for the Year for inspiration and motivation!
Keep up to date on your health Essentials
At Revivele, we believe that every woman should be given the information they need to prioritize their health, advocate for their needs and take action to prevent the development of possible health concerns like dementia.
Not only do we keep up-to-date on the latest scientific research when it comes to women’s health, and brain health, but we are also gearing up to release our new supplement system: Essentials by Revivele.
This line will include the key ingredients that help balance glucose levels to make maintaining a healthy lifestyle easier.
Stay tuned for news about our Essentials line and follow Revivele on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Almost half of all American adults take a multivitamin – but does your body actually absorb all it needs from a multivitamin to improve long-term health outcomes?
Experts have been studying the effect of multivitamins for quite some time, and while some think they might fill in nutritional gaps, others contend they’re nothing more than an expensive pill.
The reality is that although multivitamins may minimally increase your intake of some vitamins, the majority aren’t optimally designed to make an impactful difference in your overall health.
Plus, not all multivitamins are created equally.
So what does this mean for vitamin users? What alternatives exist to make a real difference in supplementation and optimizing your health?
In this article, we explain:
The difference between multivitamins and supplementation
Ineffective dosing of ingredients in multivitamins
Alternatives to taking multivitamins
Nutrient supplements for women’s health
The difference between multivitamins and supplementation stacks
Before we dive in, it is important to understand the difference between a multivitamin and a supplementation stack.
What are multivitamins?
Multivitamins are dietary supplements, often available over-the-counter, containing a combination of vitamins and minerals in one single tablet, capsule or gummy.
They are typically designed to help people fill in nutritional gaps and meet the bare minimum recommended intake of essential nutrients. Multivitamins usually contain a broad range of vitamins and minerals.
What is a supplementation stack?
On the other hand, supplementation stacks often include a more clinically targeted combination of nutrients and vitamins designed to support specific health goals, such as improving cognitive function, aiding sleep, boosting energy and preventing long-term health complications.
Supplementation stacks might include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbal extracts and more. They also typically come with specific instructions on how to ingest the supplement – time of day, with or without food – to optimize absorption.
Ineffective dosing of ingredients in multivitamins
The most important thing you should take away from this article is: do your own research.
When it comes to any type of supplementation, it’s important to understand the following:
Effectiveness: The clinical evidence available on the specific vitamin, mineral or herb you’re considering
Purity: Be mindful of any unwanted fillers that may reduce effectiveness
Dosing: The dosing required to make a difference in your health
Timing: The best time of day to ingest a supplement
Absorption: What else may be required to aid with absorption
For example, some vitamins are absorbed better when taken with foods, like Vitamins A, E, D, and K. These are vitamins that are best absorbed when taken with fats.
Ultimately the timing, dosing, and absorption of any supplement will depend on the specific supplement you’re taking and your own individual needs.
Ask yourself why you are taking a multivitamin
If you are taking a multivitamin simply because you want to add a little boost to your overall daily vitamin intake, then at best it’s possible your multivitamins are doing what you want and at worst they may be creating expensive urine.
Ensure you research a credible manufacturer and pay attention to any unwanted fillers that may be in the ingredient list.
If you are turning to multivitamins because you want to make improvements to your long-term health, then you should consider several things before making your choice:
Do you know the daily recommended amount of each vitamin or mineral in order to be effective in your body?
Does the multivitamin you’re considering contain enough of that ingredient to make a difference?
Are you enhancing or hindering the absorption of vitamins depending on the form of the vitamin, if you should or shouldn’t take it with meals, time of day and other factors like interactions with medications?
Mental declines such as memory loss or slowed-down thinking
If you are taking a multivitamin in order to decrease risk of these or other health complications, then a multivitamin may not be your best option.
The dosing of ingredients in multivitamins is usually so low that they are sub-par for actual disease prevention.
Additionally, multivitamins are not likely to be formulated to address specific symptoms. For example, if you are a perimenopausal woman experiencing symptoms such as stress, muscle aches, disrupted sleep or poor gut health, a generic multivitamin you buy off-the-shelf will not contain the vitamins, minerals and ingredients needed to move the needle in addressing these symptoms.
If you’re interested in making a difference to your long-term health or have specific health related goals, then turning to a supplementation stack might be a better solution.
We can’t stress it enough – do your own research
You can do your own research into which vitamins and herbs are clinically shown to potentially reduce inflammation, reduce risk of heart disease, and improve long-term brain health.
Consider the key ingredients that you need in order to address a specific symptom or vitamin deficiency in your body, and review the ingredients on multivitamins.
Below are a few articles on the benefits of specific vitamins and minerals to get you started:
Similarly, taking too much vitamin A can cause health complications such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, and lack of coordination, which in older adults can put them at serious risk of falling and sustaining serious injuries.
We recommend that you do not make any decisions without first speaking to your family doctor about what your body needs.
Alternatives to taking multivitamins
When it comes to getting the basic vitamins and minerals your body needs, the best alternative to a multivitamin is diet and exercise.
Many of the vitamins your body needs in order to improve long-term health can be obtained through a healthy diet and daily exercise – both of which are more effective than multivitamins.
If you’re looking beyond the basic daily dose of important nutrients, another alternative to multivitamins is exploring a supplement stack.
As mentioned earlier, supplement stacks typically offer:
Targeted support: For example, Essentials by Revivele (coming soon!) is a supplement stack designed to support women in their perimenopausal and postmenopausal years, and contains ingredients specifically formulated for prevention of cognitive decline
Improved nutrient absorption: Some supplement stacks include ingredients that enhance nutrient absorption
Convenience: Compared to creating your own handful of different pills and herbs, supplement stacks provide a highly curated and convenient way to get a targeted combination of nutrients
Educational support: Many supplement stacks also come with education from the manufacturer on how to get the most out of your supplements, whether that be through a blog, pamphlets, or social media.
Nutrient supplements for women’s health
Revivele’s founder, Dr. Kavita Desai, recently published a book – Lady Parts – in which she talks about the disturbing lack of expertise or understanding in the medical community when it comes to women’s long-term health.
Revivele was created to fill that void with compassionate, factual information that will help women improve their overall health outcomes. Revivele is also on a mission to encourage more women to learn more about their health and advocate for their needs.
Women face challenges that men don’t – which is why Revivele provides female-led, research-focused health information to help you shape your present, and your future.
Revivele is also gearing up to release its targeted supplementation stack for women: Essentials by Reviele.
Want to learn more about women’s health and wellness?
More women than men experience insomnia – and more women than men develop dementia as well.
But, what exactly is the relationship between sleep, dementia, and women’s health? How do you lower your risk of developing dementia when the odds can sometimes feel stacked against you as a woman?
This article will walk you through the science behind insomnia and dementia – and offer suggestions on how to decrease your risk factors using a healthy sleep routine.
Read on to learn more about:
The relationship between sleep and the brain
The connection between sleep and dementia
Menopause and healthy sleep
Tips for a healthy sleep routine
The relationship between sleep and the brain
Sleeping – in addition to eating healthy foods, drinking enough water, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle – is vitally important for our overall health and development.
When you wake up feeling rested, you likely had what’s known as restorative sleep. Restorative sleep doesn’t just leave us feeling ready to tackle the day – it delivers a host of benefits, both immediate and long-term, for our brain, body and cellular function.
Some important benefits of restorative sleep include:
Cellular repair and regrowth
Proper long-term storage of memory
Increased attention span
Healthy metabolic regulation
Toxic waste removal in your brain
Improved mood
In fact, Bryce Mander, PhD, assistant professor at the University of California, who has closely reviewed the neuroscience of sleep recently reported, “there isn’t a single organ system in the body that isn’t affected detrimentally by sleep loss… If you disrupt sleep, you disrupt function everywhere. But if you can improve sleep, you might have a chance of improving everything.”
Yet, dysregulated sleep habits, and impaired cognitive function or brain fog, are just two of the numerous symptoms women experience due to hormonal imbalances during perimenopause – a stage all women go through during the course of their lives. Many healthcare professionals to date are dismissive of all perimenopausal symptoms – including disrupted sleep patterns – in perimenopausal and menopausal women, shrugging them off as “a normal part of this stage of life.”
Today, scientific studies have drawn new connections to women’s health, dementia, and the importance of getting enough sleep.
The connection between sleep and dementia
Sleep – that blissful time when our minds and bodies can rest, adrift on dreams – plays a huge role in our day to day lives.
According to the CDC, a “normal” amount of sleep is 7 hours in order to promote optimal health – however, 1 in 3 adults do not get the sleep they need to stay healthy.
Many adults feel that a lack of sleep is a normal part of adult life. During early adulthood, we are conditioned to believe that lack of sleep is “just what happens” as we age. Whether it’s a busy career, starting a family or caring for aging parents, many women find that sleep falls way down on the priority list.
Yet, research suggests that your sleeping habits can have an impact on your current health and wellbeing, as well as your future health as you grow older.
In fact, Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist and tenured professor at Stanford School of Medicine speaks at length about how damaging the mentality many young people have of “I’ll sleep when I die,” is to their day-to-day and long-term health.
So, not only is sleep important for you to enjoy each moment throughout the days of your life, feeling a true sense of vitality, but a lack of sleep may impact your cognitive function in your later years.
For someone living with a loved one who may be suffering from dementia, it is important to note that a lack of sleep is a common symptom of the disease.
Sometimes these changes in sleeping patterns may be so pronounced that older adults living with dementia may sleep all day and be unable to sleep at night.
These sleeping patterns are also known as sundowning. Adults living with dementia may experience:
Confusion
Anxiety
Agitation
Pacing
Disorientation
Hallucinations
These behaviors may begin at dusk and continue throughout the night.
Sleep disruptions in your life while you are caring for others (children, adult parents living with dementia) can be difficult and have an impact on your own health.
If you need help managing sleep disruptions in your loved one, there are resources for caregivers that you may find helpful.
Women’s menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and perimenopause all have an impact on our ability to sleep.
As hormones begin to decrease (usually around mid to late 30s), women may start experiencing perimenopausal symptoms – a time during which these hormone fluctuations cause sleep disruptions.
Research indicates a strong relationship between perimenopause and cognitive consequences, such as the development of dementia. This is likely due to the loss of sex hormones, most especially estrogen, and the flurry of symptoms women experience that also happen to be risk factors for dementia, such as sleep disturbance, changes to gut microbiome, glucose intolerance, increased stress and anxiety, inflammation, brain fog and more.
If you think you’re experiencing perimenopause, or want to know more about it, here are 6 physical signs of perimenopause to look out for in yourself or your loved ones.
Ultimately, the connection between sleep, menopause and dementia must not be overlooked. Whether you’ve struggled with sleep throughout your life, or you might be experiencing secondary insomnia due to perimenopause or the early stages of dementia, the takeaway is clear: all women deserve to do everything they can to prioritize, protect and optimize their sleep.
Tips for prioritizing and creating a healthy sleep routine
The first step to improving the length and quality of sleep you get is to make sleep one of your top priorities. If you’re looking for more motivation to prioritize the vital role sleep plays in our lives, and learn more about other relevant women’s health topics read the very first chapter of Dr. Kavita Desai’s book “Lady Parts: Putting Women’s Health Back Into Women’s Hands.”
If you’re experiencing insomnia, you may need to consider taking a three step approach to repairing your sleep:
Optimizing the biological mechanics of sleep within your body using natural sleep remedies such as magnesium, l-theanine or drinking teas such as chamomile, passionflower or valerian.
Improving sleep hygiene such as your post-bedtime routine and sleep environment (see more on this below).
Whether you’re experiencing insomnia or would like to improve the length and quality of your sleep, focus on creating an optimal sleep routine.
According to the CDC, there are some very simple strategies you can implement in your daily lives to help your bodies relax in the evenings, such as:
Keep a consistent bedtime and bedtime routine for yourself.
Ensure your sleeping space is dark, quiet, relaxing, and kept at a cool temperature.
Remove all electronic devices from your bedroom (such as phones, televisions, computers, etc).
Extra tip: Don’t use your phone for at least 60 minutes before bedtime to avoid stimulation and the disruptive effects of blue light, both of which can impact your sleeping routines.
Avoid large meals, caffeine, or alcohol use several hours before bedtime.
Get exercise throughout the day to help your body burn off energy and prepare for sleep.
Dr. Andrew Huberman has recently been instrumental in drawing attention to the importance of timed light exposure of specific wavelengths – i.e. waking up and getting outside to expose yourself to sunlight – to improve sleep and modulate hormone levels.
Following these steps will help to encourage your mind and body to maintain healthy sleeping habits.
At Revivele, we believe that every woman should be given the information they need to prioritize their health, advocate for their needs and take action to prevent the development of possible health concerns like dementia.
Not only do we keep up-to-date on the latest scientific research when it comes to women’s health, and brain health, but we are also gearing up to release our new supplement system, Essentials by Revivele, which will include a night time supplement designed to aid and improve sleep.
Calcium is important for our bone health to help prevent osteoporosis as we get older.
Osteoporosis is common in women after menopause as estrogen levels drop during menopause which can result in increased bone loss.
Yet here at Revivele we’ve carefully chosen not to include calcium in our supplement system for women and we’re sharing why calcium supplements can sometimes do more harm than good, even for perimenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal women.
In this article learn:
Why over-the-counter supplements of calcium may lead to medical complications
Healthier and more effective ways to get a daily dose of calcium into your system
Read on to learn more about the role of calcium in your health.
Key Takeaways: Of the 10 million Americans with osteoporosis, 80% are women. 1 in 5 women develop osteoporosis after age 50 compared to only 1 in 20 men. Calcium supplementation can lead to an increased cardiovascular risk. There are healthier ways to prevent osteoporosis through diet and activity vs. calcium supplementation
Maintaining bone health without supplements?
Supplements exist to provide our bodies with highly important nutrients that can’t easily be incorporated through diet and lifestyle alone.
Calcium is a mineral that is readily available for most women without taking supplements. There are a variety of ways to maintain bone health through a mix of the following:
When it comes to calcium supplements, there is discussion in medical communities about the increased risk of mortality when taking unprescribed, medically unnecessary over-the-counter calcium supplements.
Here are some of the concerns expressed by medical experts that helped guide our decision not to use calcium in our own supplement line:
Calcium ingested through a pill won’t break down in the body the same way that calcium-rich foods will, which may lead to medical complications.
Women’s health studies show a relationship between calcium supplements and an increased cardiovascular risk of 20% due to plaque buildup in the blood and arteries caused by too much calcium through over-the-counter supplements.
Watch this video to learn more about the relationship between calcium supplements and an increase in women’s mortality rates.
But what about osteoporosis?
Osteoporosis, otherwise known as the “silent disease” is the gradual weakening of bone tissues as we age which can result in bones becoming fragile, and breaking more easily.
Although anyone can develop osteoporosis as they get older, far more women than men develop the disease.
One in five women develop osteoporosis after the age of 50, compared to only one in twenty men.
Why?
The hormonal changes women experience during menopause weaken bone density, leaving them much more likely to develop the disease.
The first stages of menopause usually begin between the ages of 45 and 50, which means women above the age of 50 who have experienced menopausal changes are most at risk of developing osteoporosis.
Osteoporosis treatment and calcium intake
There are various forms of treatment for osteoporosis – including a healthy, active lifestyle, a diet rich in calcium, and taking care to prevent falls that could damage weakened bones. When needed, there is also a class of medications called bisphosphonates that are used to treat osteoporosis.
Yet, calcium also helps with other vital bodily functions such as muscle contraction, maintaining regular heart rhythms, and blood clotting.
When our bodies aren’t getting enough calcium through diet, they may draw from the calcium stored in our bones, which can lead to bone density deterioration.
Here are 3 ways to improve and maintain bone health
There are healthy ways to increase your calcium intake without needing to rely on over-the-counter supplements.
Supporting healthy bones through diet
Most of us were raised to know that milk and other dairy products can be a good source of calcium – but dairy is not the only way to increase calcium intake through diet. Plus, consuming too much processed dairy can bring its own host of health challenges.
Many other foods can be relied upon to boost your calcium intake.
Vegetables like winter squash, edamame, and leafy greens (like kale, bokchoy, spinach and turnip) are all packed full of calcium and deliver other nutrients to your body.
Almonds, canned sardines, tofu (made with calcium sulfate) and salmon (with bones) are also other great sources of calcium.
If you’re looking for more inspiration for calcium rich foods, take a look at this list of 22 calcium-rich foods to incorporate into your diet.
While you still need to ensure that your daily diet includes calcium-rich foods, exercise is a great benefit to keeping our bones healthy.
Regular activity encourages our bones to add new layers of bone to increase density.
The best forms of exercise for bone health are:
Strength training: Using resistance bands, free weights or your own body weight will help maintain bone density.
Weight-bearing activities: Aerobic exercise on your feet like dancing, stair climbing and walking, work on the bones in your legs vs. swimming which is a great form of exercise but doesn’t provide the weight-bearing load your bones need to slow down mineral loss.
Balance choosing the right form of exercise for bone health with safety (your ability) and your own personal interests.
Using vitamins D and K2 to maximize calcium absorption
It’s always important to remember that your body is a system, with many different elements working together to support your overall health.
Ensuring that you’re getting the right vitamins and nutrients is just one part of the puzzle. Healthy nutrient absorption is also within your control both by maintaining your digestive health and pairing the right vitamins and nutrients together to optimize absorption.
For calcium, it’s important to get enough vitamin D and vitamin K2 – both of which support the absorption of calcium, transporting it to your bones, rather than depositing it in your arteries. Both of these vitamins work together to metabolize calcium in your body, with vitamin D focusing on maximizing absorption levels, and vitamin K2 distributing calcium to where it needs to go – your bones.
While making smart dietary decisions is the best way to support nutrient absorption in your body, there are many vitamins and nutrients less readily accessible through diet and lifestyle choices that Revivele is working to make available in healthy supplements – coming soon.
Taking specific supplements on a daily basis can help to improve a number of overall health and wellbeing factors that directly affect how you function on a day-to-day basis.
As always, talk to your doctor before taking supplements to find out which ones may be right for you.
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