Since I started my practice as a Medical Herbalist, I’ve treated hundreds of women who are experiencing menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, insomnia, mood swings, depression, weight gain and vaginal dryness, most of whom have experienced some if not a vast improvement in their symptoms.

I started working as a herbalist in 2002 as the first big trial of HRT was stopped when it was found that there was an increased risk of side effects (including breast cancer and heart disease) in women using certain types of HRT long term. As a result most of my clients were women who had stopped or didn’t wish to use HRT, so I learned a lot very quickly about what herbs are effective for the different symptoms but also for the different ‘types’ of people.

A story in the news today (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7824864.stm) has highlighted one of the difficulties for herbal medicine in modern times – a lack of clinical studies to ‘prove’ it’s effectiveness. There is also a huge difference between using ‘over-the-counter’ herbal medicines (self-medicating) and using a formula created by a qualified herbalist after taking a full case history – the latter will likely be different for each person, and the herbalist will monitor their condition to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the treatment. As I have often found, a certain prescription may work for 6 months and then need to be changed as the underlying hormone levels, stress levels etc continue to change.

The National Institute of Medical Herbalists was able to fund a small clinical trial on the effectiveness of complex herbal prescriptions (using several herbs rather than just a single one) in menopause and the preliminary findings can be found here – http://www.nimh.org.uk/about-the-nimh/the-menopause-project-/nimh-outcome-study.

If you’d like any more information on the herbal or nutritional approach to peri-menopause and menopausal symptoms, please don’t hesistate to get in touch or book an appointment at one of my clinics.

Happy New Year! Having taken 10 days off over Christmas and New Year, it’s taken a few days to get back into the swing of things and remember how to get up on these dark Edinburgh mornings. Alarm clocks – yuck! I use a Lumie sunrise alarm clock which wakes you up gradually from sleep, like the sunrise, a much nicer way to become conscious in the mornings!

There seem to have been a lot of colds and flus doing the rounds over Christmas – nearly every client in clinic this week has had one. And I think Napiers have sold out of Echinacea! Luckily I tend to use Cat’s Claw more now for acute or lingering infections. I’ve been taking my usual daily doses of Fish Oils, high strength multivitamin and mineral, vitamin D and probiotic and this, together with washing my hands before eating or drinking and after every client, has (touch wood) kept the bugs at bay.

This week I attended a really good seminar on Women’s Health by Biocare, one of my favourite supplement companies. It covered all the latest research and natural supplement protocols for a wide range of health conditions affecting women including PMS, PCOS, Menopause, Osteoporosis and Endometriosis. These are areas that I already specialise in, so it was great to have a recap on the physiology of female reproductive health, and to catch up with the latest ideas and treatments for these common conditions.