Menopause Solutions – 3 Simple Tips For Reducing Your Headaches Through The Perimenopause – Tip 1
Could your headaches be related to your hormones?
Headaches are such a common problem that many women consider them normal, and are caused by a variety of factors. Many of us find headaches are worse with stress, and as well as stress hormones, headaches are related to changes in sex hormone levels – which can occur at any time of our lives, including the premenopause, the time from mid 30s onwards when things start to go awry.
If your headaches are worse when you are pregnant, before or during your period, or when you are on oral hormone therapy, these are clues that they may be sex- hormone related.
TIP 1. Identifying any food triggers that may be making your headaches worse. Common triggers include onions, red wine, cheese and chocolate, as well as caffeine and sugar, but we are all individuals and your food triggers may be different to your friends. Some foods that can improve hormone balance at this time include; eggs, chicken, whole milk, ground flax seed, ground chia seed which are high in the omega 3 oils and fibre.
Of course it is better to eat these proteins from organic and welfare sources where hormones and antibiotics are not used, and stress hormones are not induced by living conditions.. For example eggs from free-range chickens have different cholesterol content than eggs from chickens that are fed hormones and that do not run around to find their own food.
Action step – why not keep a food diary & see what links to your headaches.
Have fun!
To your Health and Wellbing…
Alison
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Very useful tips – as someone with frequent headaches, I shall be trying these!
Hi Felicity, I hope that these tips are helpful to you – take a leaf from Jackie’s book and “listen” to what you body needs, a journal is a great idea.
Alison, headaches were a common occurrence for me when I was in my thirties and forties. Since I’ve gone through menopause about 10 years ago, I hardly ever get headaches anymore! If I do get a headache, it will definitely be related to physical tension occuring in my neck area.
I know for myself in my more active hormonal ages, when I could anticipate the possibility of a headache due to my menstrual cycle or other hormonal activity, I could avoid food triggers and most importantly getting enough sleep seemed to be of essence for me back then.
You are right on in supporting women to be mindful of their triggers by keeping a journal. It helps in bringing that awareness forward in order to be prepared to take affirmative action in preventing them whenever possible.
Keep up the great work you do in the world, DR. A!!!
Hi Jackie, what a blessing that you were sensitive enough to your body and symptoms to be able to work out what you needed at that time! Sleep, food and stress are such important factors. Great to hear that you don’t suffer from those headaches any more…
Thanks, Alison, I am so unused to getting headaches and, with perimenopause, I got a doozy of a headache and wondered if there’s more to come. I will try your tips and pay attention to food. I know I need to eat less sugar anyway.
Yes, it can come as a shock if you are not used to getting headaches and other symptoms, when they suddenly start to be more common. Just be patient with yourself – our bodies and hormone levels are changing all the time – and you are right, take a look at your sugar, caffeine and carb intake…
It’s amazing the amount of chemicals in our food supply but hadn’t thought of keeping a journal to track food intake to health impact. I bet that would work to track my kids behavior too!
It’s amazing how much packaged food we eat. We are lucky here to be able to grow our own, and we grow an enormoous amount of runner beans to freeze, but we’ve run out until this August now…Home grown vegetables and fruit are best, as you know more or less what chemicals have landed on them. We also try to buy local where we can, and like many busy families we rely on supermarkets to make the shopping manageable, so we buy from a reliable one with quality local vegetables where they can source them.
Unruly kids’ behaviour is another story – I expect you have tried eradicating sweets & soda, and reducing “E numbers” where possible – have you tried a good quality multivitamin as well? And fundamentally, as a busy entrpreneur, do they get enough “mummy time”? I’ve stopped berating myself for this – my kids do get a lot of mummy time, but they will always want more if offered…
Have fun with the journals!