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16 Ways to Beat the Menopause Naturally

“My biggest ‘aha’ moment was realising that it all starts with the gut!

“I mean everything, absolutely every health concern, starts with the gut! Looking after our digestive system should be the number one priority when it comes to health. Mental health is considerably improved once we begin to work on the gut.”

Which is why we call it the ‘second brain’.

I’m at a “Balance Hormones Naturally’ talk and food demo with nutritional therapist and food photographer Daniela Exley at Cake Room, Hastings. Daniela’s journey into healthy eating and personal development began in May 2013 after she started experiencing a huge array of symptoms including exhaustion, depression, allergies and painful joints – she was eventually diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis and is now on the road to recovery through diet and lifestyle rather than taking drugs. I also have RA so am keen to learn from her experiences.

Her first point is that our general approach to health issues is medical care first and diet and nutrition as a last resort. It should be the other way around. If you’re experiencing health issues the first thing you should do is look at your diet and learn about how the gut works and what might be causing a problem. See if you can improve things naturally before you take drugs or HRT or its bio-identical equivalent, which is still chemically manufactured.

daniela-lifestyle

  • Hormones are chemical messengers – your body is an orchestra and hormones are the conductors keeping things balanced and on track. When they are out of balance, for example, with menopause, it affects our health
  • Healthy gut flora is important for a healthy immune system. 70-80% of your immune tissue is in your digestive tract. One way to replenish gut microbiome and rebalance your hormones is to eat more fermented foods like Kombucha, Kimchi, Kefir, Sauerkraut, which you can pick up from Trinity Wholefoods, a health food cooperative around the corner in Trinity Street
  • Eat coloured veg for phytonutrients
  • Eat prebiotics – found in green bananas, asparagus, artichoke, leeks, and garlic
  • Drink 1 ½ to 2 litres of water a day (herbal tea counts) to help release toxins in the gut
  • Phytoestrogens are structurally similar to estrogen so they can mimic it and help reduce the risk of conditions associated with low estrogen levels, such as osteoporosis and heart disease. Flaxseeds are the richest dietary source of lignans, a type of phytoestrogen. “My menopausal symptoms – hot flushes and breast pain – have stopped completely after 7 days of taking flaxseeds.”
  • Asian women don’t tend to complain of menopausal symptoms, and they have much lower rates of breast cancer – possibly because of a diet high in miso, tofu, tempeh and Natto, a fermented soy superfood which is an acquired taste. “It tastes like old socks… slimy, stretchy but it’s soooo good for you.” Nor do they drink much alcohol, apparently, which made everyone go quiet. “Alcohol is so toxic to the system, it’s the only thing your liver can deal with when you drink, so if you’re drinking regularly your liver can’t help regulate your sex hormones.”
  • Brassicas, baby – they are a good source of indoles which help the liver detoxify and inhibit enzymes that activate carcinogens. Broccoli, bok choy, kale, cauliflower, Brussels
  • We need healthy fats and cholesterol for hormone production. Quality fish oils, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil: “I’ve lived with Spanish people who eat gallons of it – they are one of the healthiest nations.”
  • Get outdoors more – being in nature helps to calm the central nervous system. Don’t overdo the exercise… hardcore workouts aren’t great in your 40s as they can stress the adrenals… try yoga or Pilates
  • For better quality sleep and less anxiety try Epsom salt baths (magnesium) – I buy mine by the bucket load from a garden centre – much more economical and a nice man carries it up the stairs for me. “Listen to Marconi Union’s ‘Weightless’. It’s THE top meditation track. I always fall asleep before the end of it.”
  • Plastics – you can’t avoid them completely, but supermarkets are getting better. Morrisons allows you to take in your own containers for fresh fish or better still, buy from your local fish market where it’s wrapped in paper. In Hastings, you can buy reusable wraps from The Crown pub on All Saints Street
  • Beauty products can be hormone disruptors – ewg.org lists all known toxins present in products
  • Go organic: when fruit & veg are sprayed with pesticides they don’t produce as many phytoestrogens
  • BEE POLLEN – “You can survive on it. It contains every vitamin, mineral and amino acid known to man. It’s what they feed the Queen Bee and she ain’t got hot flushes
  • Maca is great for libido, energy and balancing your hormones. Blend it with cashews, coconut flakes, dates, and lemon essential oil to make your own truffles
  • Buy quality Essential oils – Daniela recommends doTERRA, which are food grade. We sniffed several: basil (smells amazing, relieves stress, anxiety & depression, relieves itchy skin), clary sage, thyme – all help with hormone balancing. Daniela hosts a drop-in session at The Cake Room on Monday mornings where you can try some of the oils and learn more about their uses

All in all, a fascinating evening and I came away feeling inspired and energised. Good company, good food and useful information. Daniela made a rocket & walnut pate/pesto while we were there served with homemade chia & flaxseed crackers. Easy and yummy: blitz lemon juice, olive oil, rocket and walnuts. We drank homemade Kombucha tea from Vikki from Bullet Café (has a kick and could be Prosecco if you drink it in a flute…) and polished off the Maca truffles.

I bought her book, the 28 Day Mind & Body Reset and have been enjoying the recipes – blitz and bake easy dishes and things I actually want to eat. I found bee pollen granules in Trinity so have been taking those; let’s see what a difference they make to my focus and energy levels as an alternative to multivitamins.

We had a chat before I left, and she gave me another nugget. “If you’re looking to do some deep work on energy and manifestation, I recommend Lacy Phillips. Check her out, powerful stuff.” I have since signed up for The Pathway and she’s right, it is life-changing work and another tool to support you on your journey.

www.beetspulseandthyme.co.uk

Dive in… The Deep Connect Nature Retreat, Romania – 1 – 8th June 2019

Photos: Daniela Exley

 

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Newsletter

A Night of Flamenco: Jesus Olmedo & La Kati – review

I went to see Jesus Olmedo perform at the Kino Teatr last month. A graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Madrid, he is now working across the globe and runs a collective in London called Flamenco Soul – live shows combining ‘cante jondo’ (traditional song) with Spanish guitar and flamenco dancing. He rose to fame as Pippa Middleton’s flamenco teacher on the back of this article she wrote for The Telegraph.

First up: Flamenco guitarist Adrian Sola who just sat down and started to play. Following a big bang – technical hitch – he looked up with a shy smile, fiddled a bit and carried on. He has such grace – a beautiful, transcendent sound that grounds you and lays the foundation for the rest of the show. He doesn’t say much but has a fantastic stage presence and can hold his own as a solo performer. I noticed I had started crying. After a couple of sets, he was joined by percussionist Ayoze de Alejandro who worked his way into the sound and they played off each other. I think of flamenco as a solo performance, but it’s about teamwork and collaboration with lots of eye contact, banter and gesturing between performers. It was lovely to feel the connection between the two men.

Jesus is petite and slender with a determined chin and an intense expression – he reminded me of Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman. For the first performance, he wore a black and white suit which looked a bit Michael Jackson with a shirt that came undone as he moved. He is an excellent dancer and gave an accomplished performance, but for some reason, he didn’t dominate the room or give me tingles down my spine. I wanted him to push it to the edge. Maybe that would come later? For the second half, he wore a red and black suit which looked sharper and took it in turns to dance with La Kati – an excellent flamenco performer.

“You need to watch Israel Galvan,” my friend whispered into my ear. “I saw him in London. He’s such a force… dominates the stage. Such charisma. Chunky, not too skinny. Great ass, too.”

One of the highlights was an improv session around a wooden table featuring all performers. They started out tapping the table with their fists, building the sound, smiling and laughing and ended with a cracking tabletop performance by Jesus and La Kati. Would it collapse, or would they fall off first? Good tension and the audience got into the swing of it, clapping along in delight. I can imagine this scene being played out in bars across the country as a voice for political protest.

All in, an accomplished show, though I was left wanting more. For me, the standout performance was Sola’s solo guitar playing. Graceful and immersive, he took the audience with him on a journey – the total opposite to the flamenco but the two work well in tandem – he sets the stage for the physical movement and didn’t need any vocal accompaniment.

Looking around the Kino Teatr, St Leonards’ Russian art gallery and performance venue, I felt a bit depressed that most of the audience were over 50. £20 per ticket is a bit steep, but this is live theatre and something you don’t see every day in St Leonards. I prioritised this over other events as I wanted to feel something and thought it would help with the winter blues.

When we got home I watched Israel Galvan and Silvia Pérez Cruz on YouTube. She has a stunning, ethereal voice and he is such a force on stage – simple black outfit, hair swept back in a ponytail. He draws you in with his graceful hand movements. I can see why flamenco is Spain’s premier art form and a powerful tool for protest. Not sure I’d be any good at it with my joints, but I look forward to being energised by more of it.

Jesus Olmedo will be back at the Kino Teatr, St Leonards on May 25, 2019. Booking and info here.

Photo by Dolo Iglesias on Unsplash

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The M’Hencha Company – Moreish Moroccan Cake

“What is it?”

“It’s a traditional Moroccan cake, but made here in the Cotswolds by a woman in Bourton on the Water,” the shopkeeper said proudly. “It won a Gold Great Taste Award”.

M’hencha (M’hanncha) is a tear and share filo pastry filled with almond, pistachio and rose water. The name is Arabic for ‘coiled like a snake’ so it’s also called snake pie or serpent cake. When things feel drab, nothing lifts the spirits like fresh mint tea, Turkish Delight and pistachio pastries scattered with rose petals. This is my regular afternoon treat at Liban, the new Lebanese restaurant at the Kino Teatr, St Leonards. Intrigued to see if the M’Hencha lived up to its award-winning status, I bought one to take home.

M’Hencha’s creator, Sophie Browne, is an artisan baker based in Bourton on the Water. In 2003 Sophie was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disorder and soon realised that juggling a corporate career with motherhood didn’t blend with managing a chronic condition. With a fair amount of trepidation and hope to create a better lifestyle and heal herself, she quit her sales and marketing job and decided to set up her own bakery business.

“I thought baking cake to order would be a grand plan, a pleasure to do, creative, local. I’d start small so there was less pressure and with some serious persistence, a hefty dollop of determination along with an unsustainable business plan under my belt I finally came up with a unique proposition: M’hencha. I created my interpretation of it in 2011, and after taking it to market for the first time and receiving an extraordinary response, I submitted it to the Great Taste Awards. I was utterly overwhelmed to receive three stars and have M’hencha Citrus, Rosewater & Pistachio named as one of the Top 50 Foods in Britain & Ireland 2012. This catapulted M’hencha into the limelight and The M’hencha Company was born.”

Sophie’s version of the North African pastry cake is an amalgamation of five recipes from Algeria to Morocco. She has added her favourite flavours to give it a new spin with citrus and frangipane. “My palate is my guide, I have a passion for Persian flavours and I like what I eat to be a sensory experience.” In 2015, she created an alter ego to the fragrant, fresh Citrus Rosewater and Pistachio, and, inspired by the other flavours of North Africa, the orange, cinnamon and date M’hencha was born.

“The final recipe was an accidental hero born from a bag of dates splitting in the mix when up against the clock. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened making the fine-tuned recipe punchy and spicy. I submitted this version to the Great Taste Awards where it achieved three stars, ‘Top 50’ status and was awarded the Golden Fork for the South West (the Oscars of the food industry)”.

Sophie has kept her business small and specialist, personally making every M’hencha order and, in addition to the baking, manages the business development, orders and events – with the help of an enthusiastic support team. “I am a passionate artisan and incredibly proud to be one of many creative Cotswolds’ foodie businesses.”

My M’Hencha didn’t make it home in one piece. I heated it up and had some for breakfast with coffee from Fillet & Bone. Strikingly different, it tastes extraordinary and you don’t need much to feel satisfied. An excellent alternative to almond croissants in the morning and an exotic gift for foodie friends.

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https://themhenchacompany.co.uk

The Cotswold Chocolate Company

Photo: Thanks to Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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Blog Culture Spain Wellness

The Art of Tickling – Cosquillearte, Madrid

I watched The Great Beauty last night – Paolo Sorrentino’s ode to Rome, a satire on high society decadence. In one scene the lead character Jep Gambardella, a journalist and ageing playboy has a meal with one of his confidantes who calls herself ‘the Queen of Misfits’.

“How’s the soup, little Jep?” she asks him.

“You’ve not called me that for centuries, why now?”.

“Because a friend, every now and again, needs to make their friend feel like they did as a child.”

“How can I make you feel like a little girl?”

“You don’t need to, I feel like a little girl every day,” she laughs.

To tap into that energy Jep throws lavish parties for his aristocratic friends where they do the “best Conga in Rome”. He dances and has lots of sex.

Touch is a basic need, it connects the body and mind and keeps us in the moment. Not being touched enough can make us feel withdrawn, lonely, anxious and depressed. In Western cultures, massage is an expensive ‘treat’, a luxury rather than part of our daily routine, as it is in Eastern countries. Massage shouldn’t be something we have to pay a lot for, it helps us to feel connected to ourselves, the planet, and that youthful energy Jep is craving. I’m mindful of this when I see friends and like to give them a hug and a kiss hello because I know how important touch is and what a difference it can make to someone’s sense of well-being.

CosquilleArte in Madrid is a spa doing something a bit different. It’s ‘the world’s first tickle spa’ and has built up a steady roster of clients from children and teenagers to 70-year-olds, and is looking to set up franchises around the world. Intrigued? Here’s a comment piece by Andrew Kuzyk.

Tickling Therapy: No Laughing Matter

Laughter is truly the best form of medicine, right? CosquilleArte, which recently opened in Madrid, now offers half-hour and hour tickling sessions for $35 and $45 respectively in its treatment rooms, where clients can lie down on a comfy massage table…and be tickled. The name of this particular spa, CosquilleArte can be translated to “tickle yourself” or “tickle art” Time.com stated.

“My dad used to tickle me to get me to go to sleep, so it’s always relaxed me,” says owner Isabel Aires, who helped develop the tickling treatment with two trained massage therapists. “One day I just thought, why can’t I pay someone to do this, in the same way as I pay for a relaxing massage?”.

“There is no school for tickling”, she said. “We simply had to invent it ourselves.” With an environment much like many other day spas, the treatment takes place in a darkened room, with soothing music playing and a hint of incense in the air, Time’s Lisa Abend reports.

The client lies down lightly draped with a warm, soothing towel and then the sensual tickling, first with fingertips drawn along the relaxed body, then a delicate feather and so the tickle massage begins. “We use a variety of strokes”, says therapist Lourdes Nieto. “If someone is extra ticklish, we may press firmer. The idea is to completely relax them, not to stress them out in any way.” Abend, while extremely ticklish, confirmed that the treatment was in fact very relaxing and reported that everybody seems to leave happy and hooked on tickling.

Writing this article led me to think, as I have a hundred times before, how much physical touch can give comfort: the delicate stroking a mother gives to her child, the gentle rub on the back of someone who is grieving. Touch has great value, it communicates so much; it makes us all feel good when done properly of course. Our bodies respond to it. I don’t know how widely known this is, but if your partner is experiencing physical pain, light stroking or tickling, especially along the midline of the body, can help immensely.

Tickling stimulates the hypothalamus, which is part of the human brain that controls our body temperature, hunger and sensual behaviour. Many people, therefore, find being tickled and touched a sexual turn-on. If both parties are game then tickle away. Using a sleep mask or blindfold can actually enhance the sensations of touching and double the pleasure enjoyed. The soles of the foot contain concentrated bundles of nerve endings, over 200,000, which make the feet very sensitive and receptive to foot rubs or tickle rubs.

I have personally observed this to be true for myself and others I have touched. Most people are ticklish in some way, whether all over or just in a small “tickle spot”. One doesn’t usually have to look far to find a ticklish spot. Tickling and caressing makes us laugh, smile and feel physical pleasure. Some people like tickling for the way it creates bonding and brings you together, while others enjoy it in more intimate settings. Whether you are being intimate or simply relaxing, tickling can certainly lighten your mood.

Non-consensual tickling should never be administered on an individual…

CosquilleArte Vitoria

Photo by Emilio Garcia on Unsplash

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Ground Zeroh: Bottle Alley, Hastings

Daniel Hardiker and Neil Hetherington started working together as ZEROH on New Year’s Eve 1999 – a name inspired by new beginnings so it’s fitting that their initial project in Hastings’ neglected Bottle Alley was the first public art show in its 80-year history. Their second work, WaveLength, comes after the repairs and serves as a celebration of the iconic seaside structure. I met them to find out what’s in store for 2018.

What drew you to Bottle Alley?

How can you not be drawn to Bottle Alley? It’s an incredible space, unique to Hastings and we should be proud of it. We always take that route from St Leonards to Hastings and became really fond of it. It’s been neglected for years and people would avoid it because of the street drinkers and drugs. We got a lot of aggro when we were working on our first project, Point of Decay, as it was being used for drug dealing. We wanted to make it more inviting and encourage people to go down there and for the council to take more care of it as well. We knew they were going to redevelop the alley so we came up with a concept that would fit in with that in terms of commissioning art that would decay over time with the weather.

What was your next project?

WaveLength is our second project in the space, which was produced for Coastal Currents 2017 after the repairs. We painted 113 concrete columns of the passage in different shades of green and blue from east to west and yellow and orange from west to east. When you stop halfway along and look back, you can see the colour shifting like the sand. It’s a stunning effect and has a real rhythm to it, it makes you slow down and appreciate the view. We’ve had a really positive response with more people going down there and there seems to be more respect for space. There’s only been one incidence of graffiti since last September.

And now we have an amazing light installation….

A new lighting installation was launched in Bottle Alley in November 2017. The council has replaced some 500 metres of broken lighting with equipment that can be programmed for special effects and synchronised to music to create a sound and light show. We advised them on the lighting and produced a demo at the launch event to show local businesses and councillors what can be done in the space.

There are 1,524 lights and each one has its own address so it can be controlled as an individual entity. The potential is enormous – it’s a proper spectacle. The lights are so strong that they create their own bands of colour – pure whites and pure blacks and that’s something we want to play with in terms of sound and movement. The guys who fitted the lights were quite shocked – they didn’t envisage how they would look. We were there for the first test run and it was amazing to see the light coming towards you, it definitely makes you move faster!

Every Friday night there’s a light show in Bottle Alley, which is organised by the council in association with the pier.

How do you want to make people feel?

For the launch event of Point of Decay, we had a classical trio on a red carpet in the space. We’re really proud of that – it’s such an opposite feeling to how it is normally down there – using the language of privilege in a way to entertain people and showing how it used to be back in the day when the seaside was a destination. Hastings & St Leonards was a very social space in the 1920s/1930s so it’s interesting to reconnect old photos with the potential for what we can do now. Seaside architecture is very monotone and traditional, all white and beige. We really love the splashes of colour along the seafront and the lights add to that, It reflects the diversity of Hastings a bit more than the white architecture.

Did you have much support from local businesses? 

We applied for Arts Council funding through Coastal Currents, the town’s annual arts festival. WaveLength was supported by Trade Paints who provided materials and advice and Leyland Paints who provided the paint.

Our budget would have meant a more simple piece, but thanks to Trade Paints we were able to add two colour tones instead of one.  We had a small team of 5 – 6 artists working on the installation for one week and used over 200 tins of paint!

You said you were planning a live event in the space – how’s that coming along? 

We had plans to do something big in the spring but have moved this to the other end of the year, when the clocks go back, as we realised the people we wish to involve would need more time and none of us wanted to rush it. We want to do an event which is a little bit different, something people haven’t experienced before; a bit more challenging and less obvious. The musical response on the demo day was a real spectacle so we’d like to push that further and have a live element to it. At the moment the lights are pre-programmed and don’t cater for any live control so if we were to put an artist down there, we’d want to have the space to respond to them in a live way – that’s the goal for the next event.

What attracted you to Hastings?

We lived in Brighton in the early 90s when it was a vibrant, creative, edgy town and then it became a city and lost its identity. We stumbled across Hastings on a day trip to buy a camera. Driving by Marine Court we were amazed by the level of beauty of the architecture and the sense that it’s a real place to live with real people. Brighton had lost that a bit. We did the Hastings Moth Project, which integrated us into the arts scene – the work became a talking point and was a good way to meet new people. Since then, we’ve collaborated with a variety of artists on many levels and really enjoy the process. Andrew Kotting recently commissioned us to do the end title sequence for his next film, Lek and the Dogs, which has just had its international premiere in Rotterdam.

What else is happening on the arts scene?

We’d love to see more permanent public art in Hastings and there needs to be a space for artists to create and exhibit their work. There seems to be a hierarchy of acceptance for graffiti! If it’s not offensive and has some artistic merit like the Banksy in St Leonards then it’s more acceptable. The decision-making process seems to go up the ranks in the council. That kind of conversation should be happening in public and we would like to see an agenda for this and further conversations about permanent art. We have some fantastic street artists in the town and it would be nice to celebrate this in our public spaces. There’s been a lot of talk about a street art festival over the last couple of years and it would be fantastic if Hastings could develop this in the same way Blackpool has.

facebook.com: ZEROH