A.Vogel Talks Menopause: Simple solutions to ease itchy skin

Read the full video transcript below

Today's topic

Hello, and welcome to my weekly video blog. And today on  A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I’m going to be talking about itchy skin. Now this is a really common symptom. It’s horrible. It can really affect your day-to-day life, but there can be a number of causes. So I’m going to go through some of them and maybe if this is one of your particular symptoms, you’ll be able to understand where it’s actually coming from and do something about it.

Urticaria

Now one of the main symptoms you would get, itchy skin, the skin would be red, you might get rashes. You’ll get little bumps and lumps coming up. Now this is actually called urticaria, because it’s likend to nettle stings. If you ever inadvertently pick up a nettle or touch a nettle, you get that kind of skin reaction. This is very often caused by histamine. Now histamine is caused by stress. And remember that the changing hormones in the menopause will stress your nervous system, and never mind about day-to-day stress as well. So you may actually find that your itchy skin will get worse when you get tired, when you get rundown, when you’re more worried about something. And that’s a very good clue that this is histamine-related.

Dehydration

Now it can also be caused by dehydration. So I hope you’re all remembering the water and especially so if you’re getting hot flushes. And some women actually find that when they get a hot flush, after the flush has subsided, their skin starts to get itchy as well. So that can very much be the dehydration and the histamine as well.

Low blood sugar levels

It can also be low blood sugar levels. And remember during the menopause that your blood sugar levels can become much more sensitive, and that sensitivity can actually contribute to histamine as well. So if you find that you’re tending to get itchy skin away from food maybe you haven’t eaten for two or three hours, then just remember those really healthy snacks, the nuts and the seeds and everything else as well. For some women, it can be caffeine. And we know that caffeine, high sugar, high salt foods can affect the nervous system as well, and that can trigger this type of itchy skin.

So in a nutshell, if this is your situation, you need to drink plenty of water, cut down on sugar, caffeine and high salt, and you may actually find that drinking a couple of cups of nettle tea a day can calm things down. Nettle is a lovely, gentle, natural antihistamine, and can sometimes work quite quickly as well. If you don’t fancy the sound of nettle tea, you can get nettle tincture and take that two or three times a day.

Stress

Now one of the other issues of this kind of itchy skin, we’ve talked about stress. So remember the relaxation. This is really important for all sorts of issues in the menopause. And just taking some time out might actually calm all this histamine reaction down as well. So don’t forget relaxation on a daily basis.

Formication

The other type of itchy skin is something called formication. That’s right, formication. And this is called formication because it’s likened to ants crawling up inside of the skin. So with this particular symptom, you’re not going to get lumps and bumps. You’re not going to get itchy skin. You’re not going to get red skin. And very often, there’ll be nothing on the surface of the skin to indicate anything is going on, but you’ll get that creepy crawly feeling and very often it can actually come up to the top of the scalp as well. This is nearly always caused by falling or fluctuating oestrogen actually affecting the nerve-endings in the skin. So you may find here that something like a fermented soya supplement will help just to gently balance and raise your oestrogen levels and calm everything down.

If you get this just in one particular place, then you may actually find that applying a St. John’s-wort oil onto the affected area will help to calm the nerves down as well.

Liver stress

The last thing that can actually happen with the itchy skin is a stressed liver. And remember that the falling hormones in the menopause and all the other things that can go on can stress the liver, can stress the digestive system. So if you find that you’re getting the itchy skin and your digestion is being affected, maybe you’re feeling a little bit liverish or you’re getting indigestion or you’re getting a little bloating or even constipation, then that can be an indication that your liver is slightly stressed. And a stressed liver will throw things out through the skin. So you may also find with this one that you’re actually getting little pimples or boils as well. So if that’s the case, then doing a little bit of gentle TLC for your liver would be very, very helpful. You can look at Milk Thistle Complex. You can also maybe cut out your coffee and go on a nice liver-friendly diet. Now that would be lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and a few healthy grains as well.

Until next week...

So hopefully this has helped with the itchy skin. If any of you have any other problems relating to skin or you have any other questions at all, please do get back in touch and I will look forward to next week where I’m going to be answering more of your questions on A.Vogel Talks Menopause.