Many questions puzzle menopausal women as they approach menopause.
The first question is should or shouldn't you treat your menopause? One of my friends suffered 10 hot flashes a day, and she refused hormone treatment.
She said that she can't trust anybody any more; and she thought the best approach for menopause is no approach: leave flashes along.
She gripped her teeth for hot flashes, but flashes woke her up several times at night.
Not surprisingly, she was always tired when I met her.
Generally, if you get hot flashes, you are very prone to have osteoporosis later.
When you get hot flashes, you are at 50s.
Your doctors may tell you osteoporosis will happen to you at your 60s.
In fact, most doctors miss the point that the critical years for your bone health are the first 5 years when your periods end (menopause).
Bone loss dramatically speeds up during the first 5 years of your menopause.
Women may lose up to 20% of their bone mass during menopause, which will shrink your height one fifth later.
After menopause, bone loss slows down.
Your doctors may tell you many new drugs for osteoporosis on the market, but don't tell the side effects of those drugs.
Many people who take drugs for osteoporosis suffer muscle pain and other side effects.
Many osteoporosis drugs increase bone mass, but increase bone fractures too in the long-term.
Since osteoporosis drugs do not improve the quality of your bones, they increase the bone mass of your bones, because increased bone mass consists largely of dead bone tissue.
Many osteoporosis drugs do not produce new bone tissue, but keep the dead tissue there for a longer time in order to fool the bone mass test.
Bottom line is that osteoporosis drugs give you a good quantity of bone mass, but not a good quality of bone health.
Hot flashes are a strong sign that your body needs more estrogen.
You need to do some thing to control flashes and to stop bone loss.
My friend uses a Chinese herbal formula Menopause BalanZ to control her hot flashes, and take a 30-minute walk outdoor every day for bone health now.
After 6 months, I saw more smiles on her face.