How does menopause affect healing?

Today's topic

Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I take a look at how menopause can affect healing.

One of the things that are common during peri-menopause, menopause, and post-menopause, is that women can find it takes longer to get over illnesses such as colds and flu. Cuts and grazes can take a lot longer to heal or they just never seem to get completely better. And you find that you tend to bruise a lot more easily.

So today, I'm going to look at why these things can happen and what you can do to help yourself.

1. Wounds taking longer to heal

Wounds can often take longer to heal during menopause. You may have just cut your finger chopping the vegetables and found that a week later, it's still nipping and the redness doesn't seem to be going away. You might find that grazes don't seem to heal or that when scarring takes place, it doesn't fade as much as normal.

So, the reason for these can be severalfold.

One reason is that immune function can get slightly weaker as you go through menopause, so any kind of healing is going to take that little bit longer because your immune response is going to be that little bit slower. But the other thing that happens is that falling oestrogen affects our skin in different ways. It can make the skin drier. It can make the skin thinner, and it can make it weaker so any pressure or knocks to the skin can have a bigger impact.

What can help?

So, in this situation, you're looking at improving the skin and also your circulation. All the little, tiny blood vessels in the skin can get much weaker so they can bleed more easily as well. So if you feel your circulation's not working particularly well, if you tend to have poor wound healing, and maybe you also get cold hands and feet much more in the winter, you can look at the herb Ginkgo biloba as this is known to help improve arterial circulation, even down to the tiny, little arteries in your fingers and your feet.

Make sure you're getting enough zinc. Zinc is a really important mineral to help with skin healing and our bodies use more zinc up in menopause just because of all the physical changes that are going on. So, a daily zinc supplement can help to support immune function and also to help to heal the skin.

Vitamin E's a nice one as well. It helps to keep the skin healthy. Vitamin E is also really good for heart health so make sure you're getting enough foods in your diet with vitamin E or you can take a vitamin E supplement too.

Vitamin C is also very important for wound healing. We don't often get enough Vitamin C, especially in the winter. If we're not eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, then our amount of vitamin C can go down. So, again, maybe take a daily vitamin C supplement.

All I would say with vitamin C is try and go little and often rather than one huge amount once a day. Your body can cope with little and often much better. And often, you get better benefits with a lower dose if it's taken throughout the day.

2. Longer recovery time

You might find it takes you longer to bounce after being unwell. It can take longer for colds to go away and you might find that you're still struggling to get your energy back weeks later.

So, again, this is all to do with our immune function being extra pressured during menopause.

It can also be due to poor sleep too. If you're not sleeping well, which a lot of women aren't during menopause, poor sleep will affect immune function. Stress will affect immune function. So all these symptoms that we can experience during menopause could put that little bit of extra pressure on our immune function.

What can help?

Look at helping to support your immune function. As I mentioned above, zinc and vitamin C are both very important for good immune function.

You could also look at the herb Echinacea. This is known to help fight colds and flu symptoms by strengthening the immune system. It works

We also do a supplement called Immune Support which has got zinc in it and other key vitamins and minerals that help to support immune function.

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The other thing that can happen is a lot of women find that their recovery from exercise takes longer.

After a gym session, you may have been fine the next day, whereas now, you're finding that your muscles ache a bit more. Even doing less exercise causes more discomfort the next day or the day after. Or you may find that you just can't get through your exercise routine as easily as you did. You're losing energy maybe halfway through rather than keeping everything up till the end.

A lot of this is due just to the fact our bodies are generally fatigued during menopause. All these physical changes going on take a lot of energy. And then if you're going out exercising hard, your body just goes, "I can't cope with all of this. I don't have enough energy to fit everything in."

So be very aware of how much you exercise, when you exercise, and how much recovery time you give your body. If you're exercising for an hour a day every day, when is your body going to get that much-needed recuperation time? It's not. So, rest days in between exercise classes are really important.

I do two or three sessions a week. I do high-intensity interval training, which is tough at times but what I found is that I need that day in between to completely rest because usually, the next day, my muscles are a little bit sore.

What can help?

Low magnesium can be a big factor in poor muscle recuperation. And remember, you need loads of magnesium for everything during menopause. So, if your muscles are tending to get very sore regularly, consider taking a magnesium supplement.

We have a great drink called Balance Mineral Drink. It's got magnesium in it and potassium, which is great for energy. I find that having that to drink during my exercise class helps me to last that little bit longer and I end up with less muscle fatigue the next day.

And remember, it's so important, especially post-menopause, when you've finished any exercise, to do that little bit of cool down session just to stretch the muscles out. That can make quite a difference to your recuperation as well.

3. Bruising more easily

You may find that you bruise more easily. You may notice a bruise and think "Where did that come from? I don't remember banging my arm." Or you might find you get bruises on your legs and don't know why.

I do a lot of gardening when I have free time. And afterward, I often find bruises and wonder "Where did that come from? I don't remember hurting myself at all."

Again, it's often to do with skin changes during menopause. Your skin gets thinner and weaker and if you're knocked, because the little blood vessels at the surface of the skin are more fragile, they can burst and cause bruising.

What can help?

So, again, with the skin, make sure that you're getting enough zinc, vitamin E, and vitamin C. Sea buckthorn oil is a great supplement to have because it helps to keep the skin nice and moist so that it doesn't dry out too much.

If you've got really dry skin, there's also another supplement called hyaluronic acid which is great for maintaining moisture in the skin.

Make sure your circulation is working well. Again, if you're getting the bruising and you're getting cold hands and feet, then the herb ginkgo bilbo can be helpful.

We've also got our super Arnica Cream which is specifically for bruising. And if you can get that on as soon as you think you've knocked yourself or at the earliest stages of bruising, then very often, it can prevent a bad bruise from forming.

The only thing I will say here is if you're not a particularly active person but you're getting lots of bruising and you don't know where they're coming from, please get this checked out by your doctor just to make sure there isn't any other underlying condition that may be a factor with this.

So, I hope you found this helpful. Again, if you have any other questions about symptoms, about issues that you might be worried about, then please ask and I will be happy to help.

Key points to take away from this blog:

• Menopause can affect healing in several ways. It can cause wounds and grazes to heal more slowly, recovery time from illnesses such as colds and flu, as well as recovery time from exercise to be longer. You can also bruise more easily, and they can take longer to go away.
• Healing can be affected during menopause due to symptoms such as poor sleep and stress impacting immune function, as well as poor circulation and skin changes.
• Zinc and vitamin C are important for both the skin and immune function.

Until next week, take care.