As you become pre-menopausal and beyond into menopause, your oestrogen and progesterone levels will fluctuate immensely before dropping drastically. These changes impact how your cells respond to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that transports glucose out of the blood to all the cells in your body, or to the liver, to be converted to fat. The fluctuation in insulin levels as a result of the oestrogen and progesterone changes, therefore impact your blood glucose levels, going from very low to very high. This can cause havoc on your mood, your sleep, your sugar cravings, cause sweats, hot flushes, headaches and much more.

What’s going on in your brain?
Your brain needs glucose for fuel, so your blood glucose levels need to stay balanced at all times. Any sudden peaks or troughs can impact the nerves in the brain leading to mood swings, hot flushes, sugar cravings, coffee cravings, fatigue, anxiety, heart palpitations. It sends the brain into fight or flight mode, ‘stress’.

What causes low blood glucose and what are the consequences?
Low blood glucose can be caused by not eating enough, skipping meals, eating the wrong foods (processed food) or just leaving far too much of a gap between meals. These cause the blood glucose to drop too low, sending out all sorts of messages from the brain as stated in the previous paragraph.

What causes high blood glucose and what are the consequences?
The brain panics, being under so much stress, so creates major sugar cravings. If you cave in and eat high sugar foods or turn to coffee, it then sends the blood glucose too high, which sends the brain into a further flurry.

These massive peaks and troughs play havoc on your mood and energy levels, straining the adrenal glands, further increasing your fatigue. You then end up with excessive Cortisol secretion, the stress hormone, which then limits fat burning. In the end, you feel terrible, you are constantly exhausted, your body starts to ache and on top of it all, you start gaining weight, excess fat that cannot be burned if your body is constantly in a stressed state. Anxiety goes through the roof, the sweats are outrageous and sleep is all over the place.

Menopause and Insulin Resistance and Diabetes
There is a high risk of Insulin Resistance or Diabetes after menopause. So if you are getting excessive sugar cravings or constantly thirsty, consult your doctor to test for Insulin Resistance and Diabetes.

How do you fix the peaks and troughs? There are lots of things you can do!

·        Avoid simple sugars (sugar, flours, pastas, bread, rice, dried fruit, fruit yoghurts, juices), caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine, as these are the biggest contributors to spiking your blood glucose too high.

·        Eat regular meals. Eat every 3-4 hours at least 4 times per day to help stabilize your blood glucose.

·        Avoid sugary breakfast cereals. Opt for wholesome meals for breakfast as you would in the other meals in the day. Lots of fiber in the form of vegetables, protein and good fats.

·        Plan your meals to avoid getting stuck without food which leads to emergency eating and wrong food choices, or no eating at all.

·        Ensure you include plenty of protein and good fats in every meal. These stabilize your blood glucose and help give you enough energy to keep going. They also have a very good thermogenic effect, meaning they burn more calories just in the digestion process.

·        Choose healthy snacks if you are going to snack. Opt for things such as low starchy veggies (celery, capsicum, cucumber), nut butters on seed crackers, nuts, seeds, berries. Avoid rice cakes as they digest very quickly and spike your blood glucose too high too quickly.

·        Eat something an hour or half an hour before bed to avoid blood sugar drop through the night. Not a full meal necessarily as this is not ideal so close to bed time. It will stress your liver out too much and keep you awake. Instead have a small snack like the ones listed above in ‘healthy snacks’. Opt for berries over other fruits as they are slow releasing and will keep your blood glucose more stable throughout the night.

·        Supplement with magnesium and vitamin C, as deficiency in either of these can also cause sugar cravings.

·        Manage your stress. High stress puts the body in ‘fight or flight’ state causing excess glucose secretion.

·        Stay hydrated as this helps reduce stress on your body.

·        Other ways to minimize stress on your body is to get good quality adequate sleep, avoid food you are allergic, sensitive or intolerant to, keep toxins to a minimum, and stay on top of nutrient deficiencies by supplementing where required.

·        Exercise consistently and regularly, especially strength training. The greater the percentage of lean muscle versus body fat, the more insulin sensitive your are. That means that insulin can secrete at the right levels and keep your blood glucose balance.

What’s your biggest ‘a-huh’ moment from this?

– Coach Terri