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| Ayurveda &
The Menopause |
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How
can Ayurveda Retreat help your Menopause?
 The Ayurveda Retreat program for menopause is conducted under the supervision of our Ayurvedic Consultant, and draws on knowledge from Ayurveda, the world's oldest and most complete system of natural health care.
Through its unique assessment of causal imbalances at the basis of a condition and its wide range of time-tested recommendations, Ayurveda provides the most comprehensive approach for menopausal symptoms available in natural health care today.
Understanding the Root Causes of Menopausal Symptoms
Menopause is a natural life transition that need not have any negative side effects or symptoms.
Prevention is the best policy when it comes to having an easy transition period during menopause. Ayurveda contains a wealth of information on how a woman can live her life before menopause to prevent the occurrence of negative menopausal symptoms. According to Ayurvedic theory, it is not the loss of the menstrual period and change in levels of oestrogen that cause unwanted symptoms. Rather, it is a variety of imbalances due to years of lifestyle mistakes.
If a woman already has unwanted symptoms of menopause, then Ayurveda provides many natural methods to reverse the imbalances.
There are several types of major imbalances:
1. The build-up of toxins and impurities in tissues.
2. Blockage of the channels of circulation responsible for nourishing and cleansing the tissues.
3. Imbalance of digestive and metabolic processes.
4. Imbalance and deterioration of nervous system strength and stability.
5. Accumulation of physical and mental stress.
6. Lowering of natural resistance and immunity.
7. Disruption of natural biological rhythms through improper patterns of eating, sleeping and exercise.
The Ayurveda Retreat program for menopause addresses all these issues through specific recommendations from our Ayurvedic Consultant.
Ayurvedic Assessment of Balance and Imbalance
Due to their uniquely effective assessment of balance and imbalance Ayurvedic consultations offer a new perspective to women experiencing menopausal symptoms. Ayurveda describes three major types of biological intelligence (called Vata, Pitta and Kapha) within the body that control all physical processes. These principles can become imbalanced and create the various symptoms of menopause.
Imbalances in Vata, Pitta or Kapha create very different symptoms. Learning where the imbalance is located can help women understand their condition more clearly and treat it more effectively. For example:
1. Pitta imbalance can create hot flashes as Pitta controls the level of digestion, metabolism and heat production in the body.
2. Vata imbalance leads to more anxiety, sleep disturbance and an increased drying up of the physiology because Vata imbalance disturbs the nervous system and dries up bodily tissues.
3. Kapha imbalance creates symptoms of heaviness in the body, depression and slowing of digestion as Kapha — a more dull and inert element — controls build-up of heaviness and structure within the body.
After completing the Ayurvedic assessment of balance and imbalance in Vata, Pitta and Kapha, our Ayurvedic Consultant can design the appropriate program to correct that imbalance.
Cleansing the Body of Toxins and Impurities
According to Ayurveda, the menstrual cycle not only helps maintain the reproductive system but also acts as an important internal cleansing process for the entire female physiology. When menstruation stops, the body loses a valuable natural cleansing mechanism. If there has been a build-up of toxins in the physiology when menstruation ends, impurities quickly accumulate in greater quantity and start to create many of the negative symptoms of menopause.
Accumulation of toxins and impurities creates unwanted symptoms by:
a. Localising in tissues and disrupting their delicate biochemistry, and
b. Localising in channels of circulation blocking the natural nourishment and elimination processes throughout the body.
The Ayurvedic cleansing regimens available at Ayurveda Retreat:
1. Prevent the build-up of impurities that can manifest years later as symptoms of menopause.
2. Provide cleansing periods for the body after menopause when the important cleansing periods of menstruation have been lost.
a) Rejuvenation Therapy
Our Ayurvedic Consultant will prescribe a special combination of herbalised oil massages, heat treatments and mild herbal enema suited to your individual needs.
The treatments systematically:
1. Loosen impurities that have become embedded in tissues and help liquefy them through massage and the penetration of herbalised oils.
2. Soften and open the channels of circulation and elimination so proper nourishment can reach the tissues and impurities can be more easily eliminated.
3. Activate the elimination process for the most thorough cleansing of the entire physiology.
b) Herbalised Oil Application and Massage
The herbalised oil massage plays a very important role in our cleansing therapy and deserves special mention.
Our Ayurvedic Consultant will choose a specific herbalised oil individualised for your condition. You will also be instructed in the technique of home massage that involves specific strokes used over joints, ligaments, muscles and different parts of the body.
Daily use of this herbalised oil massage provides a deeply soothing and balancing effect for the entire physiology. The motion of massage creates heat and friction which enhance circulation and help cleanse the areas of chemical impurities that could be causing symptoms of menopause. The oil and herbs often nourish the tissues, thereby hastening any needed tissue development and repair.
Also, the various herbs that have been boiled into a base oil, and the oil itself, are specifically chosen for their Vata, Pitta or Kapha balancing influence. The oil allows the herbs to deeply penetrate the tissue beds, thereby balancing the nerve and other tissues in the affected areas.
Nutrition, Digestion and Metabolism
Proper nutrition maintains balance in the body while improper nutrition can disturb digestion and lead to the creation of toxins. Most of the impurities that do localise in tissues originally come from poorly digested and improperly eliminated foods. Ayurvedic nutrition and digestion recommendations are another main line of defence against impurity build-up.
The physiological principle at the basis of digestive and metabolic processes is called Pitta. Many conditions, including some symptoms of menopause, are caused by imbalanced Pitta. These include:
• most skin disorders, rashes, inflammation, etc.
• heartburn and ulcers
• excessive anger and irritability
• colitis
• excessive hot flashes during menopause
• hormonal imbalances
A wide variety of time-tested recommendations help balance Pitta and remove the symptoms caused by its aggravation.
Our Ayurvedic Consultant will help you understand which foods are the most clogging and obstructing to circulation and which are the hardest to digest. These foods have the potential to create toxins (undigested food not only clogs the channels in the body but actually becomes toxic).
Foods that can easily be digested, creating micronutrients that are then assimilated into the tissues to rebuild their strength, will be recommended. Our Ayurvedic Consultant will provide programs to improve digestion, an important prerequisite for overcoming menopausal symptoms.
Ayurveda Retreat cooking classes provide knowledge of how to prepare foods in ways that create maximum nourishment for the body while simultaneously preventing incomplete digestion and clogged circulation.
In summary, improper nutrition can create and aggravate menopause symptoms, but proper nutrition can go a long way towards preventing and curing them.
Stress Management: Increasing Nervous System Balance and Immune Function
Excessive mental, emotional and physical stress can worsen many of the symptoms of menopause. Stress also deteriorates the body's general ability to heal itself. This is due to the hormonal changes and other biochemical responses to stress that aggravate the metabolism, create pain and depress the immune response.
The sleep disturbance often created by symptoms of menopause increases fatigue, which in turn increases one's susceptibility to stress, which in turn aggravates symptoms of menopause. A downward spiral gets created.
You may choose to learn meditation at Ayurveda Retreat. It has a wealth of scientific research verifying its effect on reducing many of the mental and stress factors influencing menopause. Research shows it creates virtually the opposite physiological response that stress does and helps the body recover more quickly from stressful stimuli.
Lifestyle and Daily Routine
One of the most important factors for maintaining high resistance to stress and stability in the nervous system is to have a lifestyle that does not disturb natural bodily rhythms. When we eat, sleep and exercise in constantly fluctuating and disturbing patterns, the body loses its natural balancing cycles and cannot cleanse or heal itself as effectively. Therefore, regularity in our daily routine is important before, during and after the menopausal period of life.
Our Ayurvedic Consultant will review your daily routine and provide the information you need to help create a daily schedule that will actually increase balance in your metabolism and digestion and aid in the healing of your body.
Ayurvedic Herbs and Reduction in Free Radicals
During your consultation our Ayurvedic Consultant will select the appropriate herbal formulas for aiding the healing process, balancing digestion and metabolism and helping the body purify itself of toxins, including free radicals.
Free radicals are the most damaging of all impurities, being highly irritating to the physiology. Their presence creates and worsens many disorders and can impact the symptoms of menopause. Free radicals are a classic example of Pitta-type toxicity and can often be created by Pitta imbalances. When appropriate, our Ayurvedic Consultant can recommend herbs that research has shown contain powerful anti-oxidants and free radical scavengers (1000 times more powerful than vitamin C or E).
These herbs can also have a holistic influence of balancing and nourishing the entire physiology.
Exercise and Flexibility Education Classes
Ayurveda considers proper stretching and flexibility exercises to have a very positive effect on the body's healing response. We offer Yoga classes every day to give you a simple but profound set of postures that you can practice daily to create a healthy flexibility throughout the body.
We also instruct you in individualised Yoga breathing practices that create a state of restful alertness in mind and body.
Summary
Menopause can be made easier with advice from our Ayurvedic
consultant. The Ayurveda Retreat program for menopausal symptoms
provides the most comprehensive approach in natural health care
to remove the imbalances at the basis of unwanted menopausal
symptoms. |
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Opening hours : Monday – Friday 9.00am – 8.00pm | Saturday 9.00am – 6.00pm | Sunday 10.30am – 4.30pm.
32 Friar Street, Reading, RG1 1DX, England. Email: info@ayurveda-retreat.co.uk |
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