As we age, maintaining good health and wellbeing becomes increasingly important. Discussions surrounding sexual activity and wellbeing can sometimes be overlooked. But the health benefits of orgasms can play a vital role in supporting our physical, emotional, and mental health.

1. Stress relief and emotional wellbeing

The pressures of daily life and the challenges that come with age can lead to increased stress levels. Orgasm triggers the release of oxytocin and endorphins, which promote relaxation and pleasure. This, in turn, can alleviate stress and contribute to a greater sense of emotional wellbeing, helping to navigate life’s ups and downs with increased resilience.

2. Sleep quality and restoration

Sleep patterns often change as we age, with many individuals experiencing difficulties falling and/or staying asleep. Orgasms can be a natural remedy for sleep issues, as the release of hormones during sexual pleasure fosters a state of calm and relaxation. For those dealing with sleep disturbances, regular orgasms can offer an improved sleep experience and greater restfulness.

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3. Immune system support

As the immune system naturally weakens with age, maintaining its effectiveness becomes crucial. Regular sexual activity leading to orgasms has been linked to increased production of immunoglobulin A (IgA), an essential antibody that helps defend the body against infections. Strengthening the immune system through sexual pleasure can help people better combat illnesses and maintain overall health.

4. Pain management

Chronic pain conditions can become more prevalent as we age, impacting daily life and wellbeing. Orgasms offer a natural way to manage pain through the release of endorphins, which act as powerful pain relievers. So find a comfortable spot, and er, hit the spot.

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5. Cardiovascular health and fitness

Engaging in sexual activity that leads to orgasm can serve as a mild cardiovascular workout, increasing heart rate and blood flow. This gentle exercise helps promote better blood circulation and may reduce the risk of heart disease, supporting heart health.

6. Hormonal balance and menopause

For women entering menopause, hormonal fluctuations can lead to various physical and emotional challenges. Orgasms can be particularly beneficial during this time, as they facilitate uterine contractions that may help reduce symptoms associated with menopause, such as hot flushes and mood swings.

7. Mental health and self-esteem

Our mental health, happiness and self-esteem can be vulnerable. The release of endorphins and dopamine during orgasms contributes to a sense of pleasure, happiness, and contentment. This natural mood boost can be uplifting, promoting positive mental wellbeing, and fostering a stronger sense of self-esteem. Feeling a bit low? You know what to do.

Could microdosing help your mental health?

From alleviating stress and promoting emotional wellbeing to supporting cardiovascular health and hormonal balance, the advantages of orgasms have far-reaching effects for people at any age.

By embracing sexual health and prioritizing intimacy, individuals can maintain and improve their overall wellbeing throughout life’s journey. So get on, celebrate this ageless pleasure and harness its numerous health benefits.

Bunty Whitstable

The post Ageless pleasure: 7 health benefits of orgasms appeared first on Silver Magazine.

Brain fog is one of the most common and least appreciated signs of menopause. That ‘cotton wool brain’ where focus, memory, and concentration have drifted off elsewhere. The impact of this can range from mildly annoying for some, to sadly quite debilitating for others.

Swathes of perimenopausal mid-lifers have reported refusing promotions, for example, or giving up jobs and businesses they’ve loved and succeeded in, all because they can’t cognitively cope any more.

My mind has always been pretty sharp, but I’ve had brief spells of brain fog for decades when I’m tired, stressed or run down. Mostly I start losing words. Names of famous people and friends, and just random words I want to put in a sentence.

I love words, so forgetting them is a considerable frustration. One that, since perimenopause, has become more and more frequent, along with dwindling concentration levels and limited patience to deal with it all.

Is it brain fog, or dementia?

My first concern, like many my age (53), was whether this was the first throes of Alzheimer’s disease. It seems, however, that menopausal brain fog is a temporary state, and I’m likely to get my mojo back at some point. In the meantime, as a nutritional therapist, I’ve been researching everything I can do to support my perimenopausal brain.

My first concern, like many my age, was whether this was the first throes of Alzheimer’s

So why does it happen in the first place? Like most activity in our fantastically complex bodies, we don’t fully understand. But we do know that the reproductive hormones progesterone, oestrogen, and testosterone are important to the health of our brain cells, and protective against both cognitive and mental decline.

So when progesterone and testosterone start dropping, and oestrogen starts fluctuating in perimenopause – which can last for sometimes a decade – this is bound to have an impact. The first year after menopause, when periods stop for good, has been found to be the worst for brain fog, and that’s when oestrogen levels are likely to plummet.

Stress, menopause, and brain fog

Stress can contribute to brain fog

Midlife is also a time when we tend to have an awful lot on the many plates we might be spinning. With women increasingly choosing to have families later in life, perimenopause can often coincide with one’s children going through puberty, and the loss or additional support needs of elderly parents. By now we may also be struggling under the weight of accumulated responsibilities, traumas and general world-weariness. All of which can takes its toll on our short-term memory and general cognitive state.

Midlife is also a time when we tend to have an awful lot on the many plates we might be spinning

Our stress hormones and reproductive hormones are so closely linked that we need to support both at the same time. Stress hormones are made in the adrenals, and we make them all the time in a rhythm that usually contributes to health and wellbeing.

Elevated stress hormones, however, can disrupt menstrual cycles and fertility, and may impact hormonal transitions such as puberty and perimenopause. Depleted levels can also be problematic.

After menopause, we convert some of our adrenal hormones into oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone to help keep us ticking along, so we need them to stay buoyant. It makes sense to try and maintain regular patterns of adrenal hormones throughout our lives.

Balancing hormones

We can do this with regular mindfulness practices, like meditation, yoga, and qi gong. Moderate levels of exercise can also be helpful, such as brisk walking, running, and dancing.

Plus there are specific nutrients and ways of eating that can keep the adrenals balanced, such as B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium, as well as avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes. Having regular protein and fibre, including early in the day with breakfast, and reducing sugar and refined carbohydrates, can really help blood sugar.

The same nutrients are also helpful for regulating reproductive hormones. Testosterone, for example, needs a lot of zinc and certain amino acids from protein. Oestrogen is a little more complicated: it’s metabolised in the liver and put through processes that require B vitamins, vitamin C, magnesium and a number of other nutrients.

These processes convert the oestrogen to different sub-types that may be stronger- or weaker-acting, according to what you need right now, or broken down completely to be got rid of. Before your body poos them out, however, some of the microbes in your gut microbiome check in to see if you actually need some recycling back into your system.

Read: How to boost the feel-good chemicals in your brain

So take care of your gut health

Look after your gut and microbiome health, with plenty of plant-based fibre and regular fermented foods. Interestingly, a well-populated gut microbiome can also help keep stress levels in check, and may even help with cognitive health.

Plus, of course, your brain needs good levels of hydration, which for most people means about two litres of water a day. Additionally, your brain cells need specific types of omega 3 fatty acids called EPA and DHA, which you can get in fish oil and vegan algae-derived supplements. There’s also a nutrient called phosphatidyl serine that can improve brain function.

Movement, and rest

I’d like to come back to exercise, because one of the most mind-blowing pieces of research I have found in recent years is this: “…resistance exercises and resistance training evoked substantial functional brain changes, especially in the frontal lobe, which were accompanied by improvements in executive functions. Furthermore, resistance training led to lower white matter atrophy and smaller white matter lesion volumes.” (Herold et al).

…one of the most mind-blowing pieces of research I have found showed “…resistance exercises and resistance training evoked substantial functional brain changes…”

This conclusion is based on just a small amount of studies, but it’s still motivated me to get some home weights and lunge on an almost daily basis.

Equally, it’s important to rest. Of course, lack of sleep is going to be feeding into any brain fog issues – who can focus on anything when sleep-deprived? There are lots of different layers of nutritional herbal support that can be so helpful here, from Montmorency cherries to valerian and Passiflora.

But for many there’s no magic sleep switch, and focussing too much on it may just be anxiety-inducing. But please make sure you get enough downtime. Carve out five minutes here, half an hour there, maybe even a whole day or weekend where you can, to just do nothing. Stare out of the window, read a novel or a magazine, relax in a warm bath. Or maybe a gentle stroll, or something artistic like sketching, painting or singing. You don’t want to stagnate, but you do want to feel rested.

Worried about brain fog?

If you’re concerned about brain fog, there are lots of tips here you can play with and see how they work for you. Of course, not everything is appropriate for everyone, so if in doubt, seek advice from a registered nutritional therapist and/or herbalist. And remember that, like puberty, this too shall pass.

FOODS TO HELP BEAT MENOPAUSAL BRAIN FOG

Foods rich in –
B Vitamins: whole grains, beans, seeds, nuts, mushrooms, avocado, fish, meat, eggs, liver, green leafy vegetables
Vitamin C: green leafy vegetables (raw), fruit (raw), onions (raw)
Magnesium: green leafy vegetables, nuts
Zinc: nuts, seeds, chickpeas, chicken, lamb, beef
EPA and DHA: oily fish (salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies)
Phosphatidylserine: soy beans, egg yolks, liver

Protein-rich foods: beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, cheese, eggs, fish, meat

Fibre-rich foods: vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, peas, lentils, herbs, spices, fruit

Fermented foods: yoghurt, kefir, well-ripened cheese, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, miso, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (“with mother”)

Kirsten Chick

Kirsten Chick is a nutritional therapist and lecturer, and author of Nutrition Brought to Life.

www.kirstenchick.com

The post Menopause and brain fog: will I ever think straight again? appeared first on Silver Magazine.

So it was when I was so rudely awoken at 6.45 am with the mother of all migraines, aching joints and a sudden lack of willingness to participate in this menopause lark any more, that I realised I wanted to put pen to paper (how very old-fashioned of me. Okay, fingers to the keypad), to express my feelings.

Because I know that despite 50 per cent of the population is having to go through, or is in the middle of, or has finally come out the other side; that I am not alone and bloody hell why is there not more written about or said about the MENOPAUSE?!

I’m not necesarily referring to women my age – but younger women. I had no idea what was in store, and a quick poll of my younger female friends tells me many of them are still clueless too. Just because your algo feeds you menopause content – remember that might not happen if you’re in your 20s.

Month by month I still have no idea what is happening with my body. Will it stay, will it go (oh I do love the Clash). Do I need pads, do I need tissues as I will be crying at a drop of a hat or a picture of a cute kitten? Or will I need to warn everyone that I am coming so they can duck or hide?

My husband doesn’t know if he should kiss me or just back away into a corner every morning. A difficult situation I’m sure.

I used to be a vivacious, party loving raver. Now I’m just a fed-up, angry, confused ranter. My confidence has all but disappeared into the abyss and there are days I can’t leave my bedroom. Then there are the days where I want to take on the world and their army. I’ve always been a bit emotional when talking about politics, or women’s rights. But now I am a frightening non-stop aggressor if I am provoked. However, other times I could just cuddle kittens and eat chocolates, watching a weepy film.

“My confidence has all but disappeared into the abyss and there are days I can’t leave my bedroom. Do you see the problem? I am no longer me.”

Do you see the problem? I am no longer me, I have no control over my mind or my body and that, dear friends, is a very difficult place to be. None of us know how the menopause will affect us; my Mum went through a terrible time, and I feel so bloody guilty now that I wasn’t there for her. And of course now it’s too late and she isn’t here for me. But as each of us goes through an entirely individual set of hurdles, we all feel very alone with this sudden new stage of our lives and no one talks about it.

We need more openness, more support, more help, more awareness. Not that long ago women were classed as hysterical and shoved in a lunatic asylum. The word hysteria originates from the Greek word for uterus, hystera. Hysteria was often and still is used as a political tool in the media to impede women’s rights movements and invalidate their arguments and desire for equal rights. The most vehement negative statements associating feminism with hysteria came during the militant suffrage campaign, and they are still being widely used today.

Amanda Blanch taking on the menopause

And if I see another bloody article about what I should be wearing in my 50s I swear I will be arrested. No-one will tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing! At 53, I have a jolly good idea, thank you very much. So although I have very rough days indeed, I have also dyed my hair pink, started wearing mini kilts with my leather jacket and I just don’t give a monkey’s what anyone thinks. That is one of the (very few) up-sides of going through this nightmare.

Come on girls, let’s get talking and doing, ranting not raving. Although frankly both ranting and raving is all good by me… Where are those Clash tracks again? Oh yes – the memory is going too. I’m thinking of starting a blog called ‘Menopausal Mandy’ to get the conversation going… who is with me?

Things we should be taking about…

• Our feelings whilst going through the menopause
• How to get through the day without killing anyone, or at least how not to offend everyone you meet.
• How to stop having a dry ladygarden and what to do to keep the spark lit in your relationships.
• It’s ok to hide away if you can’t face the world.
• Be kind to yourself, it’s the only way to get through this.
• Getting the facts about HRT or complementary medicines.
• Sharing advice of what works and what doesn’t with other women.

Things we shouldn’t be doing…

• Being embarrassed about what is happening to us.
• Being shy about asking for help.
• Forcing ourselves to do things we just can’t face.
• Becoming invisible.
• Anyway, just a few thoughts from me today … I’m off for a lie down in a dark room. Please comment below if you’d like to start a conversation about this!

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The post Menopause – what we don’t talk about but should! appeared first on Silver Magazine.