The Ageless and Awesome Podcast

FLASHBACK EP: Are you getting irritated and fuming at the smallest things? You're not alone!

• Susie Garden • Episode 270

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Ever wondered why the slightest noises or minor annoyances can set you off during perimenopause and menopause? Find out in this week's flashback  episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast! This week I'm peeling back the layers on the fascinating interplay of hormones and brain health during these transformative life stages. I'll uncover how the fluctuations in oestrogen and progesterone can cause your brain to respond with heightened sensitivity and stress. Additionally, I'll delve into the roles of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine and how they contribute to these emotional shifts, making everyday situations seem more challenging than ever before. 

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In this episode, I’ll arm you with practical, evidence-based strategies to balance your hormones and manage stress effectively. Discover how to regulate your own nervous system and improve your overall well-being. Tune in to gain valuable insights on navigating perimenopause and menopause with greater emotional balance, transforming this challenging period into one of empowerment and clarity.

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Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and Awesome podcast. I'm an age-defying naturopath and clinical nutritionist and I'm here to bust myths around women's health and aging so that you can be ageless and awesome in your 40s, 50s and beyond. The Ageless and Awesome podcast is dedicated to helping women through perimenopause and menopause with great health, a positive mindset and outrageous confidence. Hit, subscribe or follow now and let's get started. Hello, gorgeous one, and welcome to this week's episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast of the Ageless and Awesome podcast.

Speaker 1:

This week I'm going to talk a little bit about our brain health in perimenopause and menopause. Because have you ever wondered why normal sounds like your partner chewing or your kids complaining or I don't know? Just things irritate you more and sometimes that can just feel unbearable and leading to anger acting out. Yeah, just being, I guess, out of character for yourself. One of my friends said to me I don't know, it was a few weeks ago now. She said she thought her husband was going to throw her off the balcony because she recognized that it was her anger and her irritability. And we see this a lot. I certainly see this a lot in clients. I've certainly had that happen to me during my early sort of perimenopause, and it's actually a physiological reason for it. So I just wanted to, I guess, firstly reassure you that we know why this is happening and there is a reason for it, and also that you're not alone. This happens to so many women and this is very similar to the experience of PMS in many women as well, where there is that irritability, anger, depression, sadness, emotional responses to things that normally you wouldn't bat an eyelid at right. So I wanted to just kind of give you a little bit of background of why this happens and what you can do to help support yourself if you're finding that this is happening to you.

Speaker 1:

And essentially this sounds complicated but it's not really. It's essentially about your fluctuating hormones progesterone and estrogen, specifically about your fluctuating hormones progesterone and estrogen specifically affecting sensory processing in your brain. Okay, we have in our brain in fact, all over the body we have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and in a particular part of the brain, in the limbic system, there actually is an extra concentration of estrogen and progesterone receptors, and so when you have these surges of estrogen, the dropping away of progesterone and the dropping away of estrogen as well, that really impacts that part of the brain, in the limbic system, and the limbic system is a big part of your stress response, so your fight or flight response, and when estrogen and progesterone levels dip, the limbic system becomes more sensitive, more sensitive and that kind of gets expressed as emotional sort of behavior and the other thing. I guess now the picture, and part of this, is that these hormones help modulate our brain chemicals. Some of our neurotransmitters are like serotonin, which you may have heard of, and dopamine, and they influence how we process and react to the sensory stimulus or stimuli that's around us in our environment. And as these fluctuations are happening, your brain might misinterpret everyday sounds as threats, causing irritation, maybe anxiety, maybe a sense of fear, a sense of palpitations. But I think a lot of women really experience this irritability and and cortisol is probably one of the primary factors that we can control that can help with this, because even though we've got these hormonal fluctuations going on, a lot of that is out of our control. When I say this, obviously there are lifestyle things we can do that help with all of this, and I've spoken about that a lot on the podcast.

Speaker 1:

But if we really go into our cortisol, so cortisol is what we call a stress hormone and it is produced by the body when we are in our stress response, in our fight or flight response and, let's face it, we are stressed a lot of the time, in our Western kind of environments particularly and so if you're already running at a fairly reasonable level of stress and then you're having these fluctuating hormones on top of that, that can be just enough to tip you over the edge. So one part of this that we can have a fair degree of control over is our cortisol levels, and that's, I guess, where I'm going next, because if we can kind of reduce or balance out that cortisol. So when I'm talking about that, because sometimes the way cortisol works, it works in a circadian kind of pattern. Okay, it's a little bit higher in the morning and it kind of is a bit lower at night. That is a normal pattern, and there's a couple of other time points during the day that it's supposed to be in a certain range, but it's usually the morning and the evening ones that people really notice.

Speaker 1:

So if your cortisol levels are a little bit out of whack, some of the things that you'll experience is, when you wake up in the morning, even if you've had a really good night's sleep, you just don't feel refreshed, you just feel sluggish, you feel fatigued, you're dragging yourself out of bed. That's probably one of the first signs when I'm assessing clients, is one of the first signs, I think. Hmm, if they're saying that to me, if they're actually getting good night's sleep but they're waking feeling like they could sleep for another couple of hours, that's telling me that possibly one of the reasons for that could be that their cortisol level is lower than it should be at that time of day, same as if we. You know, you've probably heard the expression wired and tired. That often happens at night is women feel really tired but they're so wired that they can't sleep and that sometimes can mean that cortisol levels are higher than they should be for that time of day because we want the cortisol levels to be a bit lower at night, because we want to go to sleep right.

Speaker 1:

So managing the cortisol and making sure it's at the levels it's supposed to be at different times of the day is something that I often work with women and men actually on their health. And cortisol is also a very important hormone when we're looking at weight management, because if our cortisol is high it interferes with our blood glucose regulation and that can lead to sugar cravings. It also tends to promote weight gain around the waist. So it's all kind of complex. These systems all feed into each other. But the management of this is not so complex because really what you're wanting to do at this point is regulate your nervous system or manage your stress. Same thing, manage your stress Same thing.

Speaker 1:

Because when you're stressed the priority is survival. Always your body is wired to survive. So when you're stressed, your body doesn't know your nervous system I should say doesn't know the difference between having a I don't know an argument with your partner and having to run away from a threat. So you're going to get that prioritization of production of cortisol in that type of situation or work-related stress, or financial stress, any of those stresses that we're dealing with on a daily basis At that time your body is going to prioritize the production of cortisol and that means it impacts also, from a secondary point of view, the production of your sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone. So when we're prioritizing cortisol, that absolutely will impact your progesterone production, which is in perimenopause and definitely menopause, kind of on the lower end of the spectrum anyway. So anything we can do to preserve our progesterone is a good thing. And when our progesterone is lower that can increase our anxiety, it can increase our irritability, because progesterone is actually very calming for our brain. Brain really likes it. So anything we can do to preserve, that is a good thing, do to preserve, that is a good thing. Also, elevated cortisol disrupts the HPA axis. So that's our kind of our master controlling system of our stress response or our fight or flight response.

Speaker 1:

So the HPA is hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal gland. So the hypothalamus is in the center of our brain. Pituitary gland is also sort of in the brain area kind of near the back of the nose and our adrenals obviously just at the back of our body, just above the kidney, so just around where the bottom of our rib cage is, almost there anyway. So when we have stress our hypothalamus receives that message from our eyes or our ears. Something else, maybe our skin, maybe we get hot on our skin. So it activates that HPA axis. The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland all right, we're on, we've got to run away or we've got to fight. And that will then send a message down to the adrenal glands to you know it produce adrenaline, noradrenaline cortisol to get us out of that situation as quickly as possible. So when that system, that HPA axis, is activated, it prioritizes pretty much only that, and what we know with regard to this HPA axis is that during perimenopause, it can become destabilized by the fluctuations in hormones. So it's kind of like a two-way thing If we've got the stress around us, we're going to be producing more cortisol, we're going to be not prioritizing our hormone production, and even when we're in perimenopause, our HPA axis is destabilized anyway, so we're already going to be sort of feeling a little more anxious.

Speaker 1:

Potentially, it obviously all depends on each individual, but this seems to be some of the stuff that's come up in the research Now also. Obviously, there isn't a lot of research on this, but some of the research that's been done has been done in small groups of women, and it's all kind of telling us very similar information. So it looks like there's good correlation there, which is what we're looking for. When we're looking at research. We're wanting things to be able to be repeated and repeated and repeated, and that's when we start building up that evidence that this is actually in a cause and effect relationship, right? So what does this mean for you, though?

Speaker 1:

Well, what it means is if you're finding yourself being very irritable and you know I have this conversation with women all the time right, we have periods all our lives and yet we can particularly for those that suffer from PMS you don't really know you've got it until you get your period and you're just like, oh, that's why I've been so irritable or sad or whatever it is. So I guess part of this is trying to get ahead of it, because we know when we're in it, we're not necessarily able to recognize it. So that is why, when we're looking at learning how to regulate the nervous system or learning how to manage our stress, it really does need to be a daily practice to make sure that you're keeping your cortisol levels, your adrenaline, all of the things at a nice easy level as much as you can. I mean, obviously, that system is there for a reason. Sometimes we really need our stress response. So this is not something that we're going to be able to control all of the time, but if we can keep our base level of stress at around a three to four out of 10, that seems to be the sweet spot Then when you do have a stressful event happen, you have some room to move, whereas if you're walking around and you're a six to seven out of 10 all the time and a stressful event happens, there's not a lot of room for more spiking of that cortisol. So I hope this is making sense. But let's get into what we can do about it.

Speaker 1:

So the evidence-based things you can do to help to manage your stress response. The first one, which I think is just such a great one, is breath control. Now, we all need to breathe all of the time, right? So this is not something that you have to put on your to-do list and do as a separate kind of thing in your day. Deep breathing Now, yes, there are some specific techniques that have evidence. Those techniques are things like your belly breathing, where you're breathing deeply into the belly box, breathing which is kind of like a in for four, breathing in for four, holding for four, breathing out for four, holding for four, breathing out for four, holding for four. So that is a good one, but it does require you to think, and I prefer ones that you can do that don't necessarily require a lot of thinking. That way, you can do it when you're cooking, you can do it when you're working, when you're sitting in front of the computer. You can do it all the time, nobody knows you're doing it and you don't have to sit and count or anything like that. So just breathing deeply into the belly really does help bring that stress response down. And another form of breathing is Nadi Shodhana, which is a yogic type of breathing, that alternate nostril breathing. There's actually good evidence for that one as well that it really helps to bring down that stress response and therefore push you over into that relaxation response. So our sympathetic nervous system activation, if you're familiar with that term, pushing that across into your parasympathetic nervous system, so to speak, that across into your parasympathetic nervous system, so to speak. So breathing is fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, meditation would be even better Spending time in nature, practicing mindfulness. And the kind of mindfulness I'm referring to is just being aware of yourself and your surroundings. So starting to think about, for example, the feeling of the clothing on your skin, thinking about the weight of your body in the chair, thinking about if you've got your feet on the floor, thinking about the surface that you're standing on or that you're resting your feet on, it's just becoming really aware of the minute detail of your surroundings. That really helps to regulate your nervous system and bring down that production of cortisol and adrenaline et cetera, and bring your body back into balance, which then takes the pressure off those reproductive hormones and can help them get into a better balance. So there's mind-body type of activities like that. Obviously, exercise is a really good one as well. Yoga is particularly good, but I think reformer Pilates or mat Pilates is also very good. Resistance training is great because it's hard to think of anything else when you're doing resistance training. I mean, cycling is great for the body, but I think it's very easy to go wandering in your mind when you're cycling because it's a fairly repetitive task and it's fairly easy to do for most of us. So, yeah, movement that really you need to concentrate on is helpful.

Speaker 1:

Also from a food point of view lots of fresh fruits and veggies, lots of healthy fats Healthy fats are great for the brain. So things like avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, flaxseed oil, things like that are really good for your brain and to help with your nervous system response and to help with your hormone building Good quality protein had regularly through the day. So three meals a day is ideal. Particularly, three meals a day will help you manage your blood sugar level better and that is important I mentioned just before. When we have elevated cortisol, it does interfere with our blood glucose regulation. So if you can help also regulate your blood glucose by timing your meals so you've got about a five to six hour block in between meals, that can really help with blood sugar regulation as well. Even in people with diabetes that can be very, very helpful for blood sugar regulation.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, I think I already said lots of colorful, if I didn't, lots of colorful fruit and veggies to give you all of your micronutrients that really help to build all of these chemicals, to build your hormones in your body. Because remember that old adage you are what you eat. It's so true. The body is breaking down that food into nutrients that will then become part of you, that will become part of your cells. Your hormones get used for energy, et cetera, and so I think that's probably the main things I wanted to cover today.

Speaker 1:

So just to give you a little bit of a recap. So if you're finding yourself irritable, angry, angry outbursts, things like that, noises that shouldn't normally irritate you, really irritating you, and you're in your 40s or 50s or beyond, really have a think about well, could this be my hormones? And therefore really focus on managing stress, on eating well, on reducing things like your sugar and your processed foods, your fast foods, et cetera, and that will really help bring not only your stress hormones back into balance, but also those stress hormones back into balance, but also those sex hormones back into balance, which is really important for your overall well-being and longevity, and maybe your partner's longevity as well, if that's where you're directing your anger and your irritation. Anyway, I hope that's made sense. I know sometimes I can ramble on a little bit, but yeah, I hope that makes sense. If you've got any questions about that, please do let me know. There is a link at the bottom of the show notes where you can send me a text, or you can email me hello at suzygardencom or go to my Instagram at suzygardenwellness and send me a DM.

Speaker 1:

All right, I hope you're enjoying your week so far. I'll be back on Thursday with Q&A, take care, and I will see you then. Thanks so much for joining me today on the Ageless and Awesome podcast. If you liked today's episode, please make sure you click the little plus button if you're on Apple podcasts, or the follow button if you're on Spotify, so that you get each new episode delivered to you every week. If you like free stuff, then head to the show notes and click the link to receive my free Radiant Reset Hormone Detox Guide for Perimenopausal Women. Or if you'd like to continue the discussion, head over to Instagram and DM me at suzygardenwellness. I'd love to connect with you.

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Susie Garden

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