Kathy Smith
Apr 04, 2011
Kathy Smith, leading health and fitness guru and author of the best-selling book and video Moving Through Menopause, recounts how exercise, nutrition and relaxation techniques can ease the physical and emotional strains of menopause.
Why did you choose to write about menopause?
Kathy Smith:Moving Through Menopause is a chronicle of my own personal experience through the challenging middle years in a woman’s life. Like many women, I was dreading the change and resisted the idea that I might be perimenopausal. What began as a personal plan to get me through it in the best possible health, grew into this book and video. Moving Through Menopause is my guide to help women take charge of menopause and perimenopause so they can better understand and manage it.
What can women expect when going through menopause?
Kathy Smith:Menopause is different for every woman. Some experience major symptoms, while others hardly notice a change. There are immediate hormonal symptoms, such as hot flashes and mood swings. Many women may experience the need to reexamine life and find a deeper sense of meaning. And with menopause comes some long-term health issues, like heart and bone health issues. Moving Through Menopause helps women address these concerns with a simple six-point plan.
Although every woman is different, experts agree that good nutrition, regular exercise and minimal stress are all extremely important for moving through menopause with relative ease.
You recommend exercise for physical conditioning and improving mood. How does exercise help ease the transition through menopause?
Kathy Smith:Aerobic exercise is my number one prescription for improving mood. In addition to being good for all the obvious physical reasons, exercise releases endorphins, those ‘feel-good’ chemicals in the brain that can elevate your mood for hours after a workout. No matter how your body reacts to menopause, every woman can gain from the health benefits and pick-me-up results of aerobic exercise.
Many women complain about weight gain during menopause. What’s the secret to burning more calories?
Kathy Smith:You don’t need to run two hours a day to shed pounds. Instead, I recommend weight training to increase muscle mass and advance your body’s overall calorie-burning potential. Building strong muscles causes you to burn more calories, both during your aerobic workouts and throughout the day. Get that body moving, and try to break a sweat! Adopting a full routine of cardio training, strength training and proper nutrition will recharge your body and make you feel like a whole new person.
Why is it especially critical to maintain healthy eating habits at midlife?
Kathy Smith:Good nutrition is vital for increasing energy, losing weight and promoting long-term health. But as women enter menopause, the nutritional demands on their bodies get more severe— weaker bones and an increased risk for impaired bone health become a reality, for example. At midlife, it’s more important than ever to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and consume the recommended daily intake of important vitamins and minerals. Proper nutrition will help build and maintain strong bones, maintain a healthy heart, counter menopausal weight gain, increase energy levels and maintain long-term overall health.
You mentioned vitamins and minerals. Which vitamins and minerals do you recommend?
Kathy Smith: Since bone loss increases during menopause, it’s crucial for women to consume between 1,000-1,500 mg calcium per day to maintain healthy bones and prevent further bone loss. Realistically, you’re not likely to get all the calcium you need in your food, so I recommend taking a supplement too. Calcium is best absorbed when taken in 500 mg doses, two to three times a day. Magnesium and vitamin D are also important to aid calcium absorption. Look for calcium supplements that contain vitamin D.
Hot flashes tend to be the biggest complaint from women suffering menopausal symptoms. What do you recommend to relieve these symptoms?
Kathy Smith: Hot flashes affect up to 80 percent of all menopausal women. While it is important to keep track of what triggers your hot flashes, dietary supplements can help. Soy isoflavones have a weak estrogen-like effect that may decrease hot flash frequency and severity by up to 40 percent. Soy products have many positive health benefits for women – in addition to reducing hot flashes, they also play a role in maintaining bone and heart health.
What do you advise for women to counter mood swings and reduce stress during menopause?
Kathy Smith: I have had great success with yoga. Yoga helps tone the nervous system and improves circulation, while pulling you back from emotional plunges and giving you the energy you need to take on your day refreshed. At the very least, I recommend every woman sets aside time every day to relax. I’m talking about uninterrupted quiet time that is so hard to come by these days unless you make it happen. A hot bath, meditation, writing in a journal – these are all great ways to relax and keep emotions and stress under control.
You’ve talked a lot about exercise, diet and relaxation for menopausal symptoms – how do you feel about hormone replacement therapy?
Kathy Smith:The focus of my Moving Through Menopause Plan is to improve health through lifestyle changes. However, everything in this plan can serve as a foundation for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) if you decide to go that route. HRT has a wide range of benefits and risks – and many long-term benefits and risks are still unknown. It’s important to be educated about HRT and to fully discuss this option with your physician. No matter which solutions you find work best for your menopausal symptoms, remember that menopause is an opportunity to amend your lifestyle, become more in control of your body and take charge of your physical and mental health!