The risk of women having heart attacks post-menopause is 5 times more likely than those who are pre-menopausal. Why is this? This is because oestrogen protects the arteries of a woman’s heart and when a woman goes through menopause her oestrogen levels decline. Low oestrogen also means a change to a woman's cholesterol levels, with an increase in bad cholesterol {LDL} and a decrease in good cholesterol {HDL} as well as changes in blood pressure levels. While heart disease is

Acknowledging Stress Awareness Month. What is Stress? Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. It’s the body's reaction to a challenge or demand and can have both a positive and or negative impact, as the body can react to these changes physically, mentally, and emotionally. As mentioned in pt 1 of the Stress Awareness series, stress can negatively impact our hormone and gut

April is Stress Awareness Month, so I wanted to talk a little bit about the impact stress has on our bodies due to diet, lifestyle, and environment. Stress shows up in many ways however it is known to be one of the common causes of hormone imbalance and poor gut health both of which set the foundation for both minor and major health issues. Even if you eat a healthy balanced diet when the body is in stress mode it is unable to absorb key nutrients from food because of the i

Supplements can have varying effects on hormones, depending on factors such as age, gender, and health status. Some supplements, such as vitamin D and magnesium, have been shown to have a positive impact on hormone levels. Vitamin D for example is essential for the production of testosterone and other hormones in the body, and magnesium has been found to improve insulin sensitivity and regulate cortisol levels. Omega-3 fatty acids which are found in fish oil are known to re

Over the last few weeks, I have been listening to various radio interviews with artists such as Erykah Badu and Queen Aura. Both women were speaking about their spiritual journeys, holistic healing, and the work they do to help women heal from womb trauma, etc. The one thing that stood out for me from listening to these interviews was when Queen Aura referred to our homes as being our own natural pharmacy. I really felt like I could relate when I think about some of the prod

I specialised in this area because there are a lot of women who are struggling to lose weight despite all the efforts they have put in at the gym and with their diet. We know when women go through menopause weight gain is something they may experience, but women not going through any form of change may also struggle due to hormone imbalance. When hormones are out of sync, whether it is one or more it can cause an array of issues with weight gain being one of them. Which horm

We know sugar is addictive and research suggests that it takes up to 2 weeks without sugar for the body to reset itself. Are you ready to kick your sugar habit? Do you think you have the willpower? Are you unsure of the benefits that you might gain when you give up your sweet fix? I am happy to tell you that the benefits we get from reducing or removing sugar may include the following: reduced forms of acid reflux, reduction of inflammation in the body , reduced IBS, a boost

We know that the consumption of too much sugar can have a negative impact on our bodies. Even though we are aware of this, we can still find it hard to kick our sugar habits, because sugar can be addictive. The truth is our body needs some form of glucose, just not the extremely high levels we often consume. Now you might be reading this thinking this doesn't apply to you because you don’t eat chocolate, sweets, cakes, biscuits, etc. Have you thought about the sugars in refi

At this time of year, most of us are probably out socialising. Most of the socialising involves food and/or alcohol which means some of us are eating more than our usual calorie intake. We all need to let our hair down and have fun more often than we do, how do we balance having fun that involves having counter-productive effects on our health goals? The biggest challenge we have is when the weight starts to creep on, so I want to share with you some tips to stop you from pu

Our current economy in the UK is having a negative impact on household budgets in one way or the other, as we are all being challenged to re-look at our financial responsibilities and potentially scale back. The issue is when we do decide to scale back, our own health and well-being can end up being sacrificed because we stress about money and or because the health products we buy to support our health and well-being are marketed at higher price brackets. The good news is t

Did you know that your bladder can hold up to 500ml of fluid? Did you know that if we drink up to 2 litres of water per day then we probably should only be going to the toilet every 2-3 hours? Did you know that when you empty your bladder first thing in the morning that is usually your longest twinkle of the day? I attended physio recently and I was asked about my bladder control, I explained I emptied my bladder before I came to my appointment so I didn't have an urgent need

We have all been there! It is a new week or a new month and we have plans to start something new in regard to improving our fitness and or general health. We set a goal to eat “healthier” or go to the gym X times a week but often these goals are not achieved. Why is that? First of all a lot of the time, we want to do too much too soon or we set multiple goals which can clash or make it difficult to achieve one let alone 2 or 3 of them. So where do you start? Let's look at th

As the weather starts to get colder if you like your hot drinks, especially tea you'll probably find that you will be drinking a lot more cuppas. While black tea is known to have many benefits such as being rich in antioxidants, lowering cholesterol, and ability to improve gut health. Herbal teas such as Green tea, Chamomile, Ginger, and Liquorice are also just as good for us. Herbal teas are made up of a range of herbs, flowers, seeds, and roots from plants. They are free

No time to eat breakfast, not always sure what to eat for lunch, and bored of eating the same thing all the time? These are some of the challenges women face day to day making it hard to remain focused on our health plans no matter how good our intentions are. While I can share many tips telling you to do this and do that. You will still need to take action because without action nothing will change. Leading to dissatisfaction, feeling of failure, non-fulfillment, and pain be

When the female body changes i.e go through puberty, PMS, and or menopause, our lifestyle and eating habits may also need to adapt to keep us at our best. Our body is forever talking to us e.g. if we eat something our stomach doesn’t like it will tell us by giving us wind, stomach cramps, and or may bloat. Can you imagine the talking it does when our hormones are out of whack? I can tell you now the conversation gets a bit crazy, we can get bloated, we can struggle to lose w

Unless we go through the experience, it can be hard for us to understand what it's like to live with the feeling of being unhappy, having low self-esteem, feeling irritable, and be easily fatigued. There are a lot of women who feel like this constantly desperate to understand how they can manage these symptoms. Despite what we read, it is not a one size fits all approach because our symptoms and experiences can be due to our habits, reactions, environment, and lifestyle and h

We all have them, a day at work where everything feels like it going wrong. Your mood changes throughout the day and by the time you get home you are probably in a funk and just can’t shift that energy. Well, that was me last week just full of stressful energy because of everything that went wrong decided to do just that and I was unsettled and couldn’t shake the vibe. I had to have a word with myself to help me get a grip. We all know the saying that it is our reaction to

Earlier this year I went to see an acupuncturist and when he was doing my consultation he asked me a series of questions but the 2 that stood out for me were what did I do to relax? And how early did I go to bed? It really made me think like what do I do for myself to switch off, now I love going to spas and all that good stuff and I do meditate. Aside from those 2 things what else did I do to enable my mind and body to switch off and wind down? Just by how long it took me t

In this month’s monthly blog, I wrote about how we can be exposed to synthetic hormones through various exposure to plastics, and food and beverage containers. However, we can also be exposed to synthetic hormones through exposure to animal products. We hear a lot about the antibiotics fed to cows, chickens, and lambs or the additional hormones these animals are provided yet we continue to eat them, without knowing the full impact on our health. I agree, there are a lot of st

Familiar with the term hot girl summer ? well not to worry if you're not. This is the title of one of Megan thee stallion songs though she has a different meaning. I thought I would remix the words and use them to talk about health & well-being. How can you have a hot girl summer and stick to your health and well-being goals? My answer is make your goals simple so they are easier to stick to. During the summer months, we want to feel and look our best, and it can be hard wh