[00:00:00] Alison: it is quite interesting when you talk to women and when I say to them have you ever thought that you might be in a perimenopause? The majority of women say, no I'm not in menopause. They don't think of that.
But if you are feeling exhausted and you're having hot flashes and headaches and all of these things, and you're around 45, your hormones will be playing a part in that.
[00:00:24] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My guest is Alison Bladh and she's a distinguished health writer, speaker, lecturer, and renowned for her contributions to the field of women's health, particularly in menopause management for women aged 40 and beyond.
She has over 30 years of experience in health and wellness. She's an award-winning practitioner. She blends her expertise in nutritional and beauty therapy, and she operates a thriving online clinic offering tailored support to women across the globe. Grappling with the challenges, of perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause, her dedication lies in crafting personalized interventions in diet, health, mindset, and lifestyle, empowering her clients to master their hormonal health and reclaim confidence and vitality.
This was a juicy conversation. We spent so much time talking about what is the difference between perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. What are some of the things that we start to see and experience in our bodies as women? What are the things that we can do naturally? How do we become our advocates?
We talked a little bit about testing that we can do to get a baseline and make informed decisions on what we can do as a result of it. We talked about sleep and everything else that happens when we go through these life changes, as well as how to embrace aging as the next phase that we are in.
Loved our conversation. It was so informative. She is so delightful. She has a wonderful free giveaway to everyone as well, which we've included in the show notes. Take a listen to this
Allison, thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:02:44] Alison: Thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure to be here with you on your podcast today. So thank you.
[00:02:51] Aneta: Yeah. I've been looking forward to our conversation because what it is that you work on and what you're passionate about is something that I'm experiencing personally. And I know many of my listeners are as well. So I know that you are so passionate about women's health and holistic wellbeing, but tell me a little bit about where this passion came from and was there sort of something that happened with you that helped you get to this stage?
[00:03:20] Alison: Yeah. My journey started when I was a teenager and my interest in hormones started because I suffered from very bad acne when I was a teenager and that is just such a sensitive time, isn't it? With all the hormones and everything going on having acne is terrible and it knocks your confidence and everything.
But I decided that even at young age that I wanted to find out what I could do that would help my skin. Not just taking medication. So I started looking at nutrition, lifestyle, all of that piece and really did a lot of changes in my life and my skin just improved considerably. And that triggered my real interest for hormones and skin health and women's health and what was going on.
And I specifically remember as I was growing up, my mother and all her friends were going through the menopause and I'd heard of the menopause, but I didn't really understand what it was, but they were really suffering. And it was very much, we don't talk about it. You just get on with it.
There wasn't any help. There wasn't any support. It was this shrouded with negativity and because of my interest in hormones, I then started looking into that and thinking, well, why is this? This is like an event that every woman will go through. They need support because there are so many things that you can actually do.
So the beginning of my career I train as an esthetician. So I'm a beauty therapist as well. I work specifically with women that had hormonal skin issues, which can happen quite regularly during the menopause transition, not just when we're teenagers. And then I very soon came to realize that you need the inside piece as well.
You need the nutrition. So that's when I went back and studied nutritional science. And those two things together are just fantastic because everybody wants to look good, don't they? They want to have nice skin, but they also want to be able to work on the inside piece with the nutrition, lifestyle et cetera.
So I've made it my passion and goal in life to help women thrive after 40. Because we've got many years left. So we want to feel and look amazing in this next part of our lives, the next phase of our lives.
[00:05:46] Aneta: Yeah. And it's so interesting because sometimes something will happen personally that will spark that idea. And for you, it was in your teenage years with the acne, were you able to find help traditionally, like through doctors or were you researching on your own to really find natural ways to deal with the acne and maybe how hormones were playing a part in it?
[00:06:10] Alison: Now I just researched it all myself. And when that was happening, the internet you didn't have, now you've got that this resource is so easy, isn't it? So I had to go to the library and look through books and, everything. But as far as the support from the medical profession, it was more just putting you on medication, antibiotics, just taking medication. There wasn't any advice on why is this happening. And what can you do lifestyle and nutrition-wise? No, I didn't get any advice on that.
[00:06:41] Aneta: And that's the hard part too, is that it does require us sometimes to go and do the research ourselves to understand what is happening internally. That then on the skin is an external representation of what's happening internally. So, going to the hormone piece, because you said something I thought was so interesting is that every woman goes through menopause and we have these experiences.
Some things are very similar. Some things might be unique to each of us, but we don't have a lot of information in terms of like what to expect, I remember also seeing my mom go through menopause and sometimes people would make jokes, that women get a little crazy or, suddenly we put weight on, but it's not an understanding or an appreciation of how amazing the human body is and why we have these shifts and these changes.
So what did you discover when you started researching more about perimenopause and menopause that you think is helpful for maybe some women who still are either looking ahead saying, wow, this is something I'm going to be going through? And I'm not sure what to expect, or maybe we're in the middle of it like I am. And I'm noticing these changes. And still struggling to figure out how to adjust to my changing body. How do I adjust to the things that I used to do in terms of nutrition or exercise or sleep suddenly no longer working?
[00:08:09] Alison: Yeah, and that is so true. That last thing that you said is that we have to make changes because what you used to do doesn't work anymore. And there are reasons for this. I mean, it's a big hormonal shift in a woman's life menopause. Women in general have three major shifts in their lives with hormones, and puberty, which we all know about.
We talk about that. Pregnancy is another big hormonal event in a woman's life and that's spoken about. And then we come to menopause and it's just this silence that nobody speaks about. So it's not so strange that women don't really understand. They don't know and there are so many things that you can do.
But I think the first thing is to accept. You are in perimenopause or menopause or postmenopause, which is the different stages, and thinking, okay, I'm in perimenopause, for example, what can I do to make myself feel better? And there are looking at nutrition, looking at lifestyle and mindset, thinking okay, this is another phase in my life that I'm going to embrace, but you just have to tweak things a bit.
Certain things happen because of all the metabolic changes in the body due to many factors, but the decline in estrogen, and the decline in progesterone, which happens during the menopause transition, these hormones will gradually decline until you come into menopause. And menopause is really when you haven't, menstruated for a year.
So when you haven't had a period for a year, you are then officially in menopause, and then all the time after that, you're actually in what we call post-menopause, and that's the rest of a woman's life. So really understanding what phase you're in, I mean, estrogen is so important for our health, and we tend to think of estrogens just as a reproductive hormone, but it isn't.
It is a mother hormone that is needed for virtually every bodily function. So it's not so strange that when we have a decline in this hormone, we start feeling terrible. I mean, we have estrogen receptors all over the body, including the brain. So the receptor is what the hormone locks into and sends a message.
So you can imagine these receptors are there on all your body parts, and they're not getting the message from estrogen. So it's not so strange that maybe you forget things or you have brain fog or you have hot flashes or night sweats or fatigue. I mean, the list goes on of menopausal symptoms.
So what I would say to women who are going through menopause is that there are so many things that you can do. You just have to kind of reassess. You have to step back and think, okay, I now have to look at what I'm eating. How am I managing my stress? What am I doing every day? Because you may need to change some of those things. So you start feeling better.
[00:11:27] Aneta: So I think a helpful place to start would be what is the definition of perimenopause first? And then is there a range of ages where people can self-identify, hey, I think maybe I'm in this stage right now. Because you talked about menopause being it's one year of no longer having your cycle.
But if we can go to perimenopause, what does that look like? Is there a range of years before menopause where women will notice that there are some changes in their body, maybe how they're feeling, there's some weight gain, or other things? I mean, I know my personal story is just gained weight. Loss of muscle, suddenly my sleep was more disrupted.
And so there are things that I was starting to notice but maybe sharing a little bit of that I think would be helpful. And then what are some of the things we can do naturally to help either lessen the symptoms or maybe just release some of the shame and still start to feel better while we are going through all these changes?
[00:12:27] Alison: So perimenopause if we look at the, it's called the menopause transition. Now, perimenopause is the beginning of this transition. And on average, it starts at the age of 45, but it is very individual. I mean, some women just glide through menopause and don't have any symptoms at all, and some women suffer, but perimenopause is the beginning of this transition.
And what a lot of people don't understand in perimenopause is that your hormones become very unbalanced. So it doesn't mean that all of a sudden your estrogen and your progesterone are just going to decline. A lot of the time in perimenopause, estrogen can be quite dominant, which comes along with another set of symptoms. And progesterone can be quite low. So it's kind of like this mad roller coaster ride, estrogen all over the place in perimenopause, which can trigger these symptoms.
The classic symptoms of perimenopause are hot flashes and night sweats. But what I see with the women that I work with because of the age that you are, it's also a time in a woman's life where you're very busy, you've maybe got a family at home, you've maybe got aging parents, you've got a career, you're looking after everybody. So you tend to put down the way that you're feeling, down to just life in general.
It is quite interesting when you talk to women and when I say to them have you ever thought that you might be in a perimenopause? The majority of women say, no I'm not in menopause. They don't think of that.
But if you are feeling exhausted and you're having hot flashes and headaches and all of these things, and you're around 45, your hormones will be playing a part in that. But what we have to remember as well is when you come into your 40s. This isn't just a thing that happens between 45 and 50. It's a very individual experience for everybody and it can happen earlier.
Some women do go into menopause under the age of 40. I mean, early onset menopause There is a condition called ovarian insufficiency, that is we don't fully understand yet with research, but some poor women can have this in their 20s where ovarian function stops. So you would go into menopause and also there's a lot of women due to other reasons such as hysterectomy, maybe chemotherapy, cancer treatments that will put you into menopause. So it isn't just women over 40.
There are a lot of women that are experiencing menopause due to other reasons in their life. So that's perimenopause. And when we go through perimenopause, our hormones are all over the place and then they gradually start to decline, particularly now we're talking about estrogen and progesterone. There's a lot of talk at the moment about testosterone as well, but testosterone it's not part of the menopause.
This hormone in women declines naturally with age and we need testosterone as well for mental health, muscle, for strength, but that isn't specifically menopausal. It doesn't just stop being produced. So you have perimenopause and then menopause, as we said, after a year of not ovulating. And this means that you're no longer fertile. You're no longer having ovulation.
And then all the time after that is post-menopause. This is where the hormone levels in your ovaries aren't functioning. You don't have an ovary function. You're not producing these hormones from your ovaries, but your body is very clever and it produces a very small amount of these hormones from your adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys.
So there is a very minimal amount of these hormones will be produced. If you're taking hormone replacement therapy, then that is a different matter. But the answer to your other question, what can you do? This is the big thing. Is this what everyone wants to know? What can I do? So when we look at perimenopause, if we look at nutrition first as women, and I see this all the time and I do online programs and have amazing results with women on these programs what we want to think about is that Eating in balance.
Protein is something that we don't eat enough of as women. As we get older and come into perimenopause, we want to make sure we eat enough protein because we lose muscle. We want to make sure that we're keeping our muscle mass. It keeps us satisfied.
We don't have all these blood sugar peaks and lows. That's a big thing in blood sugar management because we're more vulnerable to insulin resistance when we age as women and because of the decline in estrogen. So really looking at what you're putting on your plate, palm size of protein, half your plate should be vegetables and salads. And then a small amount of whole grains, but no processed, refined, packaged foods.
Even if you just do one thing from what we're talking about today, if you remove processed foods from your life, you will see a huge difference in your health because they are full of sugar, damaged fats, and very low in nutritional value. We've seen this in research, since the era of packaged processed foods, the health of the world has deteriorated. Obesity has increased considerably.
And because of the lack of hormones, we don't have the same metabolic health that we had when we were younger. So we need to just eat whole food. And I'm a big fan of things being simple. It doesn't have to be difficult. small amount of protein, half your plate full of vegetables and salads and everything, and then a small amount of whole grains and things like brown rice, all the grains that are full of fiber. Because we need fiber, and then healthy fats.
Now fats, when you say the word fat, they think, I'm not going to eat fats, I'll put weight on. That isn't true. It's the sort of fats that you're eating. Olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds, butter, good old-fashioned butter, coconut oil, all these fats are really important for our overall health. And Omega 3. Fatty acids. There's been some fantastic research recently coming out on the huge benefit of those for many things, but in particular, cognitive health.
[00:19:28] Aneta: Absolutely. And, you said something that I experienced too, is my experience with perimenopause was the imbalance of hormones. And I went to see someone who was a specialist and hormonal health. And I was young, I think I was in my thirties and I started in one year noticing like, wait a second, there's a weight gain.
There's a shift. There's some belly fat that I never had before. My sleep was interrupted. And of course, as you said, there's all the stress also with work, with home, and all these other things happening at the same time. And my stress response was, well, I'm just going to go harder and that doesn't work. The body's sending us signals sometimes, but yeah, I had the thing where my estrogen was super high and my progesterone was very low.
And so then my cortisol was high while I was sleeping in the middle of the night. And the doctor goes, do you work the third shift? I go, no, I work in a bank. And he goes, Your cortisol levels are like that of a third-shift ER doctor. And so coupling all of those things and trying to get it under control was important, but it's one of those things here in the States, you have to go outside of traditional medicine to sometimes get the type of help that you need.
I took a Dutch test, and so there are tests and assessments. So what are some of the very helpful things? If someone says, I don't know what my hormones are. I don't even know where to begin. What are some of the things that they can do or some of the resources that you recommend? Maybe you do some of these assessments yourself. I'm not sure that could at least give someone a baseline of what is currently happening to their body.
[00:21:05] Alison: Yeah, testing. I work with what we call the functional medicine model, and that is where you look at the whole person. It's very holistic. If you're getting headaches, for example, I want to find out why is that happening. What is going on? Where's that coming from? So I offer functional testing and I tailor it very much to the client, the person because it's very individual depending on what their goals are, how they're feeling, and what I feel would be most beneficial as a test.
But, as you mentioned, the Dutch test, I do use that a fair bit with some clients because that gives you an overview of hormones and not just eating and progesterone. It shows you how they metabolized because that's very interesting to see how your body is eliminating these hormones. After all, we need to eliminate them. To detoxify them. We mustn't want the body to reabsorb them.
So it gives you cortisol levels as well and all of these things. It's a wonderful test. I mean, you've had it done, haven't you? So you know how much information that you get from that. So that I do but particularly on ladies that are in perimenopause, because once you get into. menopause and post-menopause, you're not producing estrogen progesterone.
So that test maybe isn't so beneficial, maybe cortisol and metabolites would be interesting, but it's more beneficial in perimenopause to do the hormonal testing. I do a lot of stool testing as well. Again, that is amazing the information that you get from doing stool testing on how the digestive system is working, the gut bacteria, the microbiome, if there are any parasites, yeast infections, all of these things will show up on a stool test.
Nutrient testing as well is very interesting because, before we start taking any sort of supplements, we need to know, well, am I deficient in that or not? I think supplementation, so many people take many different supplements, but there isn't any evidence behind why they're taking them. They take them because they've heard they were good, or their friend's taking them, or they've seen an advert.
And supplements you have to have respect for them. They can be detrimental if you take too much or you're on medication. So I do work with supplementation, but testing mineral and vitamin deficiencies, checking for cholesterol, blood fats, or all of those things because that is something again in women as we age that we can find our cholesterol levels become higher and also blood pressure levels can increase.
So there's a lot, there's many fantastic tests that you can do depending really on the client and what their concerns are.
[00:23:58] Aneta: And I love that you do all these tests because it's still strange to me that we can go to a doctor, share our symptoms, not do any sort of test, and be prescribed drugs to take. I love the functional medicine model because we are taking a test doing an assessment identifying what is happening to me to my body not based on a statistic or some sort of a chart that says if the symptom then this and I do think it's really important for folks to be able to be their advocates and to do the research and to say, okay, this seems right.
I can get my baseline. I can see exactly what I need, and what I don't need and make a decision based on it. Because there are more natural supplements. There's even, I know I take for progesterone, there's something you could take from yams, that's a concentrated adjustment that's helped me with my sleep, for example, because when you have low progesterone, sometimes you're not sleeping so well. So let's talk about sleep maybe, because that is something that also can get very disrupted either through night sweats hot flashes, or just because the progesterone is dropping.
So what are some of the things that maybe if women were noticing and they weren't putting it together that it could be a perimenopause symptom? What are some of the things that you have seen to be effective for folks who are looking to maybe improve their sleep during perimenopause?
[00:25:26] Alison: Yeah, sleep can really be affected during perimenopause and unfortunately it can be affected for quite a few years and it's just horrible, isn't it? Not being able to sleep. It's the worst thing because it affects your whole life. It affects everything. It is very detrimental. I think a very common symptom of perimenopause and menopause is waking up.
So when you go to bed, you fall asleep, and then you wake up at 2, 3 in the morning and you're just lying there wide awake. And then your brain starts working, doesn't it? And you start thinking about all the things you need to do. I should be doing that, and then you just get into this cycle of kind of anxiety and it's very difficult to go back to sleep.
There are so many things that you can do to improve sleep. What we call sleep hygiene. One of the things that I find, this may sound very basic, but I find with my clients and when I do programs and we talk about sleep is I get them to, not everybody likes this, but they do it. They're not allowed to have their mobile phone or any appliances in the bedroom, so they have to charge everything in another room I make them buy an alarm clock like an old-fashioned alarm clock and even just that small thing makes a difference because what do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night?
The first thing you grab for is your phone and you start surfing and you've got the light from the phone that interferes with your melatonin production. It's very detrimental to sleep. So what you need to do a couple of hours before you go to bed is turn off all your appliances and do something calming. You need to prepare your body for rest.
So something like reading a book or, talking with your family members, maybe having a bath with Epsom salts, wonderful, rich in magnesium, really calming. Sitting outside listening to the birds, going for a slow walk. Anything that calms you down is excellent and beneficial for sleep.
And then when we look at nutrition, interestingly, it isn't beneficial for sleep if you eat too much close to when you go into bed, really leaving the window a couple of hours before you go to bed. So don't eat anything and even though I'm very keen on people drinking lots of water, try not to drink too much before you go to bed because you'll be getting up in the night to go to the toilet.
And then I'm a huge fan of magnesium. It's so calming on the body and there is a magnesium called magnesium glycinate. This has been shown to have a very calming and relaxing effect on the body at night. So that is something that you could look at taking before you go to bed.
Brilliant also for restless leg syndrome. A lot of people suffer from those twitchy legs at night. Because magnesium is very calming to the nervous system. So it stops that twitching and then just looking at your bedroom, you can buy blackout curtains to make sure the room's dark, make sure you have a cool room, the temperature is really important.
And there are some great things that you can buy. You can buy a cooling blanket for ladies who may suffer from night sweats and cooling pillows. The feedback that I've got from people that use them says they're very helpful.
Also, aromatherapy oils are lovely to use before you go to bed to calm you down, particularly lavender. You can put a little bit of lavender on your pillow and it has wonderful soothing, aromatherapy oils that are very powerful and go into the blood circulation. But it's all about doing things that calm you down.
And If you do wake up in the middle of the night, a very easy thing to do to reset and to calm you down and hopefully help you go back to sleep is to do deep breathing exercises, just to take some deep breaths when you lie there. It's easier said than done, but your brain going into overdrive, and that's what you want to stop.
Some people find it beneficial to just write down what they're thinking about. There's a couple, I have to do that tomorrow. I need to do that. If you have a journal by your bed, just write those things down because it feels like once you've written that down, it enables you to relax better.
[00:30:09] Aneta: I love magnesium and I take it every night and it's so good, and I also read a book. I'll take the magnesium and then I'll read for a little bit, and usually it takes like 20 minutes the magnesium kicks in and then I'm like, it's time to go to sleep. It's just the most gentle sort of calming everything down.
But I think the key is with everything that you shared, I also do not charge my phone in the room. It's in a separate space. I tell my clients to do that all the time. It's intentionally creating a nighttime routine for ourselves. We used to have routines, our children tend to have routines. I always say you don't just throw the kids in the bed and say, good luck and close the door.
There's usually a bath and reading a story and maybe you're laying there with them. We have to give ourselves the same permission to like you said, prepare for rest because we don't rest. Our nervous systems are typically running so high all day long. Especially if you're on your device, which is very stimulating. It's hard to then just to try to close our eyes and settle in.
And so I think that what I love that you shared were so many wonderful tips, pick a few that work for you and try it out, and permit yourself to start to wind down at least 60 minutes before, so thank you for sharing all those tips.
I do many of those myself and I found them to be super helpful with clients. So we talked a little bit about what happened. One of the other things I really would love your take on, because I know that you focus on this as well is how we let go of the shame or let go of whatever comes with these changes as women, as we embrace aging as we move into new chapters of our life.
How do you work with clients to help them embrace that everything that we're talking about is natural? Everything that we're talking about is supposed to be happening. It's not something that we necessarily can resist. We can do things to feel better and we can help some of the symptoms naturally, but how do you embrace the fact that we are aging and that's okay, there's some beauty to be found in this next stage of life.
[00:32:18] Alison: Yeah, great question because it's difficult, isn't it? We live in a society that I'm not saying we all want to, but it's very ageism, isn't it? There's very much focus, particularly for women, that we should all look a certain way and all be young which is ridiculous.
And aging is a part of life. Every single person will age. And as women, when we come into this next phase in our lives, we should embrace it with joy. I always say to people, it's a privilege to age. Not everybody has that. Not everybody is privileged enough to live as long as you will if you go into post-menopause.
And it's about knowledge and attitude and positivity because I think once you know what this menopause transition is, then you kind of understand it and it's acceptance that it's okay. You might not be feeling fantastic, but this is a natural course of life and every single woman in the world will go through this.
There are different phases in life. This is the next phase that women go through and it comes with some fantastic things, a new sense of freedom. I've seen so many women that we have a different mindset, we're not scared of saying no. We go out and do things that we maybe didn't have time for. We become fearless.
I've heard some amazing stories from women when they're past their fifties or sixties, who just sell up everything and go off to Australia and buy a camper van and drive across the outback, or they start their own business when they're 65.
I think you have to remember this isn't the end. This is a new beginning and embracing this and having a passion for this next phase with excitement is what I portray to my clients.
[00:34:16] Aneta: I love that. That's such great advice. And Alison, if folks are listening and they have identified, you know what, I probably need some additional help, and something that you've shared sparks an interest in them. What is the best way that they can find you if they're interested in working with you?
[00:34:33] Alison: I think the best way is via my website, which is Alison Bladh, that's B L A D H dot com. On there, you've got all the information on how to contact me. There is also a resources page there are lots of free downloads. I'm on all social media. If you just search for Alison Bladh, you'll find me on virtually all social media channels.
And I've also put together a lovely free download, ebook download for your listeners if they're interested. And this is a seven-day reset and reboot meal plan. So everything that we've been talking about, how protein, vegetables, all of that is in this seven-day meal plan.
So it just gives you an idea of how you should be eating. And if you eat this way for seven days it gives you more energy. It makes you feel better. So I can send you the link for that and you can maybe put that in the show notes.
[00:35:27] Aneta: I think that everybody Should download it myself included, I think that's fantastic. We need all the help we can get. And there's a final question that I ask all my guests, which is, what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?
[00:35:42] Alison: Yeah, I'm very much into the width of life, living a full life is embracing new experiences. Exploring, and doing new things. I'm not scared to try new things, even if it pushes me out of my comfort zone. Just doing that because when you've done something new and you maybe was difficult or you found it a little bit scary when you've done it you feel fantastic and the width of your life becomes even wider. Focusing on embracing new experiences, traveling, taking up new hobbies, and meeting new people, all of those things have helped me to live a full and empowering life.
[00:36:24] Aneta: That's a beautiful response. Alison, thank you so much for joining me today. I just learned so much myself, and I appreciate everything that you've shared. Thank you for continuing to do this great work in the world.
[00:36:37] Alison: It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed our conversation.
[00:36:42] Aneta: Have a great day.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.
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