Women who are dealing with menopause often feel like they’re going mad. Hot flashes, memory loss and disturbed sleep and mood swings; all combined with weight gain and vaginal dryness, erratic bleeding and lack of sex drive are just a handful of symptoms associated with lowering levels of oestrogen.
However, that isn’t the end. Groundbreaking new research suggests that health conditions, such as Alzheimer’s traditionally associated with age, do in fact start during the perimenopause. It’s the change in hormonal balance that triggers the plaque to form around the neurons in the brain and this new study suggests that these diseases begin when our hormone levels change, but take so long to manifest that they are only discovered when we reach older age.
It has never been more important to look after ourselves when dealing with menopause.
How does reflexology therapy help in dealing with menopause?
Reflexology balances our body. It won’t stop our bodies from changing, that is a natural part of the ageing process. But what reflexology does do is remove the stress from the process.
So for instance, we can expect our periods to be more balanced, because our hormones aren’t spiking and tumbling out of control. Anyone who is going through this will talk about how this alone is enough to give reflexology a go!
In turn, by your hormones being more balanced, we can expect the knock on effect to be improved liver and kidney function, fewer UTI’s and better skin. We’ll look and feel more healthy. And our midlife crisis will be a distant memory.
Health improvements without supplements
And what’s better, we’re not selling supplements. There’s no medical intervention with side effects. We’re literally just using pressure points in your feet to remove blockages of energy, which then allows your body to operate optimally. You never know, you sexual desires may even rekindle.
However, if you’d like a few natural supplements, research has shown that a few vitamin injections can help.
- Vitamin B12: Vitamin B12 is involved in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps to regulate mood. Low levels of vitamin B12 can lead to decreased serotonin levels, which can increase the risk of hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
- Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps to regulate the production of hormones that affect the brain. Some studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency is associated with hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, so taking vitamin D supplements may help to reduce these symptoms.
Text us to let us know that you’d like to book these into your session. If you have them at the same time as your massage or reflexology appointment, then we offer them at a huge discount against what you’ll be able to find them elsewhere. 07757 946023
Not convinced? Here’s what the research says.
Below are the summaries of two independent research studies conducted on how women dealing with menopause can benefit from reflexology treatments. This is in addition to our own experience working for over ten years on ladies suffering from the effects of menopausal symptoms.
Research one — sleep disturbances & hot flushes
1. Methods 100, more than 12 months post -menopausal women ranging from 45-60 yrs of age and reporting sleep disorder were randomised to either reflexology or foot massage. None had taken HRT. The outcome measure was the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) which measures quality and patterns of sleep. All women taking part had sleep disorder (score >5).
Reflexology or foot massage was given for 15 minutes daily for 21 days. Base line measurements were taken from the previous four weeks prior to the intervention. There were no significant differences between the groups in any of the parameters.
Results
Hot flushes: Hot flushes at baseline were 4-9 per day and this stayed the same for the foot massage group but reduced to 2-3 per day in the reflexology group. This was a statistical difference of p<0.001
Sleep: Both interventions had an effect – 41.5% reflexology and 19.1% of the nonspecific massage had normal sleep after the intervention. But the difference between groups shows a statistical difference of p<0.01 towards the reflexology group.
Conclusions ‘Reflexology is an effective non-hormonal approach for treatment of sleep disorder (in the menopause).’
Research two — Hot flushes and night sweats
2. Methods Outcome measures: Women’s Health Questionnaire (WHQ) using the sub-scores for anxiety and depression A visual analogue scale for severity of symptoms
Frequency of flushes and night sweats (options – flushes 0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16- 20; night sweats, 0-5, 6-10, more than 10). 6 weekly treatments of 45 mins. followed by one treatment per month for three months. (Minimum inclusion criteria of 7 treatments)
Results Both groups had a reduction in symptoms but there was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusions Reflexology wasn’t more effective than foot massage in the treatment of the psychological symptoms of the menopause. They needed a larger sample size. The study was under-powered. There were limitations on the recording of the flushes and night sweats. The effect of the placebo effect was miss estimated. There was a relatively short duration of follow up. The blinding of the control was of limited success.
Comments The limitations of the flush / night sweat notation is that there is a big difference to a menopausal woman between having five flushes or zero flushes, yet these would have entailed the same tick box to be marked. This measure would not truly represent the effect of the treatment to the women. It is important to be aware of the limitations of the outcome measurement chosen. This isn’t a great study in methodological terms nor is it particularly well written up BUT it is controlled and for a reflexology study is relatively large with almost 50 in each group (47 / 53).
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