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Menopause symptoms, signs, weight gain

Menopause symptoms and the associated signs of menopause are part of a woman’s natural reproductive cycle.
During the early teens, your ovaries will start releasing an egg every month. If the egg is fertilized, pregnancy occurs. If there is no fertilization the egg dies. The uterine lining (endometrium) which was built up in preparation for pregnancy, breaks down and sheds – menstruation.

menopause symptoms

Hormones of the menstrual cycle

There are 4 main hormones involved in the menstrual cycle:

  1. estrogen
  2. progesterone
  3. follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)
  4. luteinizing hormone (LH)

The two that concern you most with regard to signs of menopause and symptoms of menopause are estrogen and progesterone. The menstrual cycle can be divided into 3 parts:

  1. pre-ovulation
  2. post-ovulation
  3. menstruation

What happens in different phases of the menstrual cycle?

In the pre-ovulatory phase, the developing egg releases estrogen mostly. This causes the endometrium to proliferate and thicken. In the post ovulatory phase, progesterone is secreted in increasing amounts from the corpus luteum which is left in the ovary after ovulation.


It acts to increase the blood supply to the endometrium making it water-logged and rich in nutrients. If pregnancy does not occur, the corpus luteum dies through lack of stimulation from a growing fetus. Following this, the secretion of estrogen and progesterone goes down.

The endometrium does not have enough hormonal stimulation to thrive and starts to break down shedding the top 2 layers and leaving the basal layer intact. This is referred to as menstruation. In the absence of pregnancy, this cycle occurs roughly every month (22-35 days).

What happens at menopause?

There is a limited number of eggs in the ovaries and as you get older, more and more of them die off. By the time you’re in your 40s, most of the eggs have been released during ovulation or died and the few that are left are usually of poor quality. Ovulation may not occur every month and the length of the menstrual cycle gradually increases. Menstruation becomes irregular until eventually periods stop altogether.

How does this lead to menopase symptoms?

During this time of irregular ovulation/menstruation, there is marked estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate a lot. Estrogen levels tend to be higher than those of progesterone, leading to the use of the term ‘estrogen dominance’ to describe this imbalance

Without a corpus luteum there is minimal secretion of progesterone. However, estrogen is still produced (in the fat cell for example) from conversion of androgens (male sex hormones) produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands. Menopause symptoms and menopause signs are thus caused by several factors:

  1. imbalance between estrogen and progesterone
  2. progesterone deficiency
  3. estrogen deficiency

Common menopause symptoms

The following list of menopause symptoms and menopause signs is very long and far from exhaustive. Fortunately, no woman will have all the menopause symptoms and signs and some women are fortunate enough to have relatively mild menopause symptoms.

  • hot flashes (the most common menopause symptom, affecting about 85% of women)
  • depression
  • forgetfulness
  • headaches
  • inability to concentrate
  • irritability
  • mood swings
  • chest pain
  • palpitations
  • sore breasts
  • irregular/heavy bleeding
  • vaginal dryness
  • itchy vulva
  • loss of sex drive
  • slower sexual arousal
  • painful intercourse
  • constipation
  • abdominal bloating
  • irritable bladder
  • frequent bladder infection
  • frequent urination
  • increased facial hair
  • thinning hair
  • itchy skin
  • brittle nails
  • pins and needles
  • sore muscles
  • stiff/swollen joints
  • back pain

These menopause symptoms occur at various times. Early symptoms of menopause include irregular or heavy vaginal bleeding while menopause symptoms like thinning of the hair and brittle nails may not occur for several years after the menopause.

Menopausal weight gain (also known as middle age spread) is common from about age 40 and onwards. At this time you may find yourself putting on weight or find that it becomes difficult to prevent weight gain post menopause even though you are still eating the same amount of food.

Menopausal weight gain- middle age weight loss

Causes of menopausal weight gain

Menopausal weight gain doesn’t appear overnight. During the years leading up to menopause you may put on about a pound a year.There are several reasons for this :

  1. You tend to be less active as you get older.
  2. Your body needs less energy as you get older so you burn fewer calories.
  3. Over time your muscles become replaced with fat, which burns fewer calories than muscle.
  4. You tend to eat more.
  5. Your genes may play a role. If your parents had trouble with weight, especially with fat around the tummy, you may too.
  6. Hormonal changes may contribute.

How to avoid middle age spread

The formula for losing weight and preventing weight gain is quite simply. If you take in more calories than you use up, the excess calories will be stored as fat. So to lose weight, you need to use up more calories than you eat.
Sounds a lot easier than it is!

So what do you do?

  1. Get moving. – Even if you eat the same amount of food but you increase the amount of exercise you get, you should lose weight. It is important to combine aerobic exercise with weight training for best results.
  2. Eat less. – There are 2 ways of looking at this. You can look at this in terms of the quantity of food that you eat or in terms of the number of calories in your food.

You should avoid ‘energy dense’ foods. These are foods that have lots of calories crammed into very small quantities of food. Things like ice cream, chocolates, soft drinks (sodas), fries e.t.c. fall into this category. A plate of veggies will definitely contain less calories than a bar of chocolate or a can of soda and will be more filling and chock full of vitamins and minerals.

On the other hand you could reduce the size of your portions which may leave you feeling hungry leading to snacking later on.
The6 tips to avoid it

Don’t let weekend weight gain ruin all your hard work!

You’re usually a bit stressed out during the week trying to juggle all your responsibilities. You do your strength training and cardio religiously. You pass on the creamy, rich desserts and you eat lots of fruit and vegetables. You control your portion sizes and make sure to drink lots of water.

You’re there for your spouse, partner, kids, family, colleagues and just about everyone else that needs or wants a bit of you for one reason or another. So the weekend is the time to let it all hang out and relax right? This might be the only time you have to give yourself some love. But guess what? What you eat while you’re chilling out may be the cause of your weekend weight gain.

On weekends, you may have more time to prepare sumptuous meals (my family looks forward to their saturday breakfast!)If you’re at home, remember that idle hands need something to keep them busy.

It’s easier to pig out on fattening snacks and unhealthy treats while you’re watching tv or reading a novel or magazine for example. Going out is another pitfall because you may be less conscious of what and how much you’re eating while you’re chatting and having a good time.

With all this, some people may eat more than 800 extra Calories over the weekend. This can add up to an extra 5.5kg (about 12 pounds) of weight a year.

How do you avoid the extra weekend weight gain?

  • Watch your food portions.
  • Go easy on the alcohol which contains a lot of empty calories.
  • Eat more fruit and vegetables.
  • Eat healthy snacks like popcorn, my new favourite. I make my own so I can control how much sugar I put in it and I use olive oil.
  • Watch less tv.
  • Get up and get moving.

Alli for weight loss – how does it work?

Alli is not a new drug. It is the baby sister of the drug Xenical, a prescription drug used to treat obesity. They both contain the same substance, orlistat. The only difference is in quantity. Xenical contains 120mg of orlistat while Alli contains 60mg of orlistat. Alli should be used by overweight adults (over 18 years) as an aid to weight loss together with diet and exercise.

Alli is basically a fat blocker. It works by stopping a substance called lipase from working in your bowel. Lipase breaks down the fat that you eat into little pieces so that it can be absorbed into the body. As the fat is not broken down and absorbed, it passes through the bowel unchanged and is removed when you go to toilet.

How do you use Alli?

Alli is taken with a meal that contains fat up to 3 times a day. You should not eat more than 15g of fat in each meal as this increases the possibility of side effects.

How long should you use Alli?

The manufacturers suggest that you may only need to use it for 6 months as that is when most of the weight loss occurs.

What are the side effects of Alli?

Side effects are more common when you eat more than the recommended 15g of fat per meal. However, they can still occur even if you are within the recommended limits. They include

  1. frequent bowel movements
  2. very soft stool and even diarrhea
  3. gas
  4. oily discharge from the anus
  5. bowel movements that are hard to control

Who should not use Alli?

You should not use Alli if you:

  1. are not overweight
  2. are taking cyclosporins
  3. have had an organ transplant
  4. have trouble absorbing food (malabsorbtion)
  5. are using medication that thins the blood
  6. are diabetic
  7. have thyroid problems

Will Alli help you lose weight?

The short answer to that is yes. It is recommended that Alli should be used as an aid to weight loss in combination with a healthy diet and exercise.
But don’t expect the pounds to just fall off! Xenical, the prescription-only, double strength big sister of Alli induced a weight loss of about 6 pounds in one year. At half strength, Alli is expected to produce about half the weight loss, ie about 3 pounds a year compared to expected weight loss using diet and exercise alone.
Another thing to consider – if you stop using Alli, that weight you lost comes right back!

I have heard of people losing 10lb in 8 weeks and other similar stories. Some people that have tried almost every diet they have come across without success have been able to lose weight with Alli. It works in your intestines and not in the brain or anywhere else so you won’t get the jitters like with some other weight loss aids. It has worked for lots of women, it may work for you too.

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Natural progesterone cream – questions and answers

What is progesterone and USP natural progesterone?

Progesterone is a steroid hormone produced from cholesterol in the ovaries by the corpus luteum (the tissue that is left behind after ovulation). It is also produced in the adrenal gland in smaller quantities. It is converted in the body to produce other steroid hormones like estrogen, testosterone, cortisol and androstenedione.

The main aim of progesterone in women is to sustain any pregnancy that may arise from fertilization of the egg released from the ovary during ovulation.

natural progesterone cream

Progesterone is manufactured from Diosgenin, a substance found in Mexican Wild Yam and also from soybeans. It is converted to bioidentical progesterone in the laboratory.

USP stands for United States Pharmaceutical grade. This means that the progesterone is extracted under the strictest conditions to ensure that it the same as the progesterone that is produced in your body by the corpus luteum and that it is of the highest quality.

You may see wild yam creams or those with mexican yam extract. These are a total waste of money! They contain only diosgenin which is cheaper than bioidentical progesterone. It cannot be converted to progesterone in the body. It will not improve your symptoms.

What are the side effects of progesterone? Should I expect the same from a natural bioidentical progesterone cream?

The side effects associated with progesterone are usually found with the synthetic progesterones known as progestins. Manufacturers take the bioidentical progesterone produced from plant sources and change the structure to achieve various results e.g. give it longer lasting effects. The body recognizes these substances as foreign and so reacts to them in various ways leading to side effects.

The use of synthetic progesterone and congestion symptoms are quite common. The usual side effects are:

  • storing of excessive salt in the body. This leads to fluid retention which causes symptoms of congestion such as painful breasts, generalized bloating and weight gain
  • depression and mood swings
  • migraine headaches
  • inability to sleep properly
  • loss of sex drive
  • heart problems
  • kidney problems
  • low blood sugar levels
  • acne
  • skin rashes
  • premenstrual discomfort
  • hair loss
  • excessive hair growth

On the other hand use of bioidentical natural progesterone has virtually no side effects. At the most, using too much causes drowsiness which is easily reversed by decreasing the dose.

What should I expect when I start using natural progesterone cream?- What are the side effects of bioidentical progesterone?

If your body has very low levels of progesterone, the body tunes down your estrogen receptors making them less sensitive to the estrogen in the body. This is to avoid the negative effects of excess estrogen. When you start using progesterone cream, the body “tunes up” your estrogen receptors. You may start to notice some symptoms of estrogen excess. These include:

  • Water retention (making you feel bloated)
  • Painful, swollen breasts
  • Headache
  • Temporary increase in the thickness of the lining of your uterus

Don’t be discouraged. Most of these symptoms disappear within 2 or 3 months. To get the most out of your progesterone cream, follow the instructions closely and be consistent. Watch your symptoms. As they lessen, you may try to reduce the dose of cream you apply. This way you can try and find the minimum amount your body needs.

If you feel sleepy all the time, you may be experiencing symptoms of high progesterone. You may need to reduce the dose. If your symptoms aren’t improving you may not be getting enough progesterone and may need to increase the dose.

When you’re gettiing started, allergic reactions to the progesterone cream may occur. After the first few applications or if you have recently changed your brand of cream, watch out for side effects which may not be directly related to the progesterone. They may occur if you are using a poor quality cream which may be high in impurities and oils that can cause allergic reactions.

The signs of allergy may range from mild

  • redenning/peeling of the skin
  • rashes and
  • itching, to severe
  • dizziness
  • palpitations.

Stop using the cream immediately and see your healthcare provider.

Be sure to buy a good quality cream from a reputable vendor.

Cream progesterone vs oral – which is better?

Progesterone cream can be applied to the skin to relieve many symptoms associated with menopause. It is absorbed into the fat under the skin from where it goes straight into the blood stream from where it circulates to the rest of the body to carry out its effects.

Relatively small doses such as those found in over-the-counter, non-prescription, bio identical progesterone creams can still be effective in relieving menopause symptoms.

When progesterone is taken by mouth, like everything else you swallow, it is absorbed into the blood and taken to the liver. Here more than 3/4 of it is removed and converted to an inactive form leaving only a small amount of progesterone to act in the body. This means that much larger doses are required to achieve the same effect as what you get from applying it to the skin.

Using USP natural progesterone cream is preferable. It allows you to get a dose of progesterone that is close to what your body would be making naturally before menopause. Also, side effects from progesterone cream are minimal, at the most you will experience drowsiness if you use too much.

I have light pink spotting after use of progesterone suppositories – what’s wrong?


Progesterone suppositories supplement any progesterone in your body bringing levels back to normal. It normalizes the endometrium (lining of the womb) by causing shedding of the excess layers that are built up by unbalanced estrogen.

This shedding appears as spotting or what is known as breakthrough bleeding which may resemble a light period. Many women experience this as a side-effect of progesterone suppositories.

There is no cause for alarm. The spotting usually subsides within 2-3 cycles.

Does progesterone cause ovarian cysts?
Progesterone does not cause ovarian cysts. It helps them to resolve (shrink) by normalizing hormonal imbalance which can cause ovarian cysts.

Can progesterone cause hair loss?

Hair loss is a common symptom associated with the post-menopausal years. It comes in various forms:

  1. hair becomes thinner and lighter coupled with difficulty in styling,
  2. alopecia where the hair actually comes out from the roots leaving bald patches and
  3. male pattern baldness where hair is lost at the temples and the crown of the head.

The low estrogen levels associated with menopause cause weakening of the connective tissues from breakdown of the collagen, protein and elastic fibers in it. These are what gives your skin, hair and nails their strength and suppleness.

Can progesterone cause hair loss if used to treat menopause symptoms? On the contrary, progesterone helps to your body’s normal hair pattern. It helps to normalize zinc and copper levels which are essential for healthy hair.

Guidelines for using natural progesterone cream

You can use natural progesterone cream to manage a number of problems that are related to hormonal imbalance.

  • General guidelines for using natural progesterone
  • PMS
  • Hysterectomy
  • Premenopausal women
  • Fibrocystic breast disease
  • Endometriosis
  • Menstrual migraine headaches

How to apply natural progesterone cream

  • Spread the cream thinly over a large area of skin for maximum absorption.
  • Make sure skin is clean and clear of cosmetics. Do not apply other skin creams in the same area on the same day.
  • Apply to areas like the breasts, chest, inner thighs, buttocks and neck where skin is thinnest.
  • Don’t be concerned about getting the exact amount of cream correct. The progesterone is absorbed continuously from the skin.
  • If you are using a large dose, split it. Use 1/3 of the dose in the morning and 2/3 at bedtime. The higher dose is especially useful if you have trouble sleeping at night.
  • Buy good quality bioidentical progesterone cream from a reputable vendor. You have to be careful for the following reason
    1. the cream will not be effective if it is not suspended in the right medium
    2. creams containing mineral oil will not be absorbed properly
    3. the progesterone in some creams is not properly stabilized so it breaks down fast, making the cream useless
    4. some products containing wild yam extract don’t contain any progesterone
    5. some creams contain other chemicals that may cause allergic reactions and rashes

Dosage guidelines for bioidentical progesterone cream

PMS

Start counting with the first day of your period as day 1. Starting on day 12, apply 1/2 teaspoon of cream morning and night until day 26. If your period starts before day 26, stop using the cream. Once you see your period, start counting day 1 again, then start the cream on day 12. This dose should help relieve your symptoms much faster. When they are less severe, you can reduce the dose to 1/4 teaspoon twice a day.

Hysterectomy

Whether your ovaries have been removed or not, choose a day of the month (the 1st day is easiest to remember) and count it as day 1. Start applying the cream on that day,1/4 teaspoon morning and night until day 25 when you stop. From day 25 to the end of the month do not apply any cream. Start again on the 1st day of the new month. If you have just had a hysterectomy, you may double the dose to 1/2 teaspoon twice a day for the first month if your symptoms are very severe.
If you experience severe hot flashes and vaginal dryness, you may wish to use a combined estrogen/progesterone cream.

Premenopausal women

Whether you are menstruating regularly or irregularly, use 1/4 teaspoon bioidentical progesterone cream twice daily starting from day 12 (the 1st day of your period is day 1). Stop applying the cream on day 26. When you see your period start counting again until day 12 then start applying the cream again.
If you have irregular periods, it may take up to 3 months for them to become regular.

Fibrocystic breast disease

Use 1/4 teaspoon of cream twice daily from the middle of your cycle till you have your period, then stop, repeat again from midcycle. After 3 to 4 months, symptoms should have improved so the dose can be reduced.

Endometriosis

Use 1/4 teaspoon daily starting from day 8 to the end of your cycle. Once symptoms are reduced you can start applying the cream from day 12 until your period starts.

Menstrual migraine headaches

Use the cream for the 10 days before you expect your period e.g. if you have a 30 day cycle, start on day 20, a 26 day cycle, start on day 16 etc. Use 1/4 teaspoon twice daily.
When you get the familiar feeling or aura that comes before your migraine, apply 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cream every 3-4 hours until symptoms have subsided. Applying the cream directly to the neck or temples may bring faster relief for hormonal headaches.

 

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Deficiency in magnesium & symptoms of low magnesium

Magnesium deficiency can be hard to recognise but it is important. Magnesium performs many important functions in the body. You need it for normal electrical activity in the nerves in the brain and the heart. It is involved in chemical reactions all over the body.

magnesium

The recommended daily requirement for magnesium is up to 420 mg for men and 360 mg for women. Most people are getting much less than this. As a result, magnesium deficiency is quite common.

There are four different ways you can become magnesium deficient.

Magnesium deficiency from decreased intake

If you don’t eat enough magnesium in your diet, you may develop a deficiency. There are several ways this can happen:

  • The soil has been depleted from years of over-farming and it contains fewer nutrients than it did before
  • Eating a lot of processed food can also decrease your magnesium intake. Magnesium is one of the many nutrients stripped away when food is processed to make it more palatable and addictive.

Decreased absorption of magnesium

You may not absorb enough magnesium into the body even if you take enough in your diet. 

  • The acid in the stomach is needed to absorb magnesium into the blood. Anything that decreases stomach acid affects magnesium absorption. This include drugs like omeprazole used to treat peptic ulcers.
  • Drinking a lot of carbonated, fizzy drinks and sodas can decrease magnesium absorption from the gut.

Increased demand for magnesium

Increased demand for magnesium can create a relative deficiency. If you’re using up a lot of magnesium, the supply cannot keep up with demand. You will not have enough for your body’s needs.

Several conditions can cause this. These include:

  • stress – You use a lot more magnesium when under stress. 
  • sleep – When you don’t get enough sleep, your magnesium requirements increase.
  • a high sugar diet – you need magnesium to convert sugar into energy. The more sugar you eat, the more magnesium you need.

Increased loss of magnesium

Another way to become deficient in magnesium is through increased loss of magnesium from the body. This loss takes place through the urine:

  • drinking lots of coffee and tea increases the loss of magnesium in the urine.
  • water pills, known as diuretics, stop the kidney from re-absorbing magnesium back into the blood. As a result, you lose more of it in the urine.

Common symptoms of magnesium deficiency

Symptoms of magnesium deficiency are a little bit vague and somewhat non-specific. These could be signs and symptoms of many different kinds of diseases that can occur in the body. They include:

  • tiredness,
  • being anxious and jumpy all the time,
  • depression,
  • difficulty falling asleep,
  • difficulty staying asleep,
  • leg cramps, particularly at night,
  • palpitations and 
  • raised blood pressure

What does magnesium do?

Imagine you accidentally slam your finger in a door. Several things will happen:

  • you will almost immediately feel pain,
  • after a while, your finger will turn red,
  • it will also feel hotter than the surrounding skin,
  • it will swell up and 
  • you won’t be able to use it.

These are all signs of acute inflammation.

Now imagine this process is going on all around your body all the time but at very low levels. This is called low grade, chronic inflammation.

Many modern diseases are linked to chronic low-grade inflammation. Magnesium is anti-inflammatory – it calms down this inflammation.

Magnesium helps to relax blood vessels. This is very important in hypertension, where the blood vessels become narrowed.

Relaxation of blood vessels increases the blood flow to vital organs in the body. This helps them to function better because they get more nutrients and more oxygen.

Magnesium has a relaxing effect on the brain. It helps to relieve anxiety and helps with sleep.

Magnesium has a relaxing effect on the muscles. This can help with cramps, particularly leg cramps, which are common in magnesium deficiency.

Testing for magnesium deficiency

Most of the magnesium in the body is in the bones and inside the cells. Estimating the amount of magnesium in the body is not easy. Seeing as magnesium supplementation within the recommended daily allowance is relatively safe, one way to assess deficiency is to supplement with magnesium and see if existing signs and symptoms improve.

How do you increase magnesium levels in the body?

  • Avoid processed, packaged food that has had all its nutrients stripped away. Eat more natural food rich in magnesium like sesame seeds, cashews, black beans, spinach, sunflower seeds, coconut milk and coconut water.
  • Avoid drugs like omeprazole and avoid fizzy sodas and soft drinks.
  • Manage your stress levels and make sure you get enough rest for sleep. This will help to reduce chronic inflammation and your magnesium requirements will go down.
  • Limit the amount of tea and coffee that you drink each day. 

Magnesium supplements

Supplementing with magnesium within the recommended daily allowance is safe for most people. As usual, you have to consult your doctor, especially if you have kidney disease.

There are many different types of magnesium supplements on the market. The magnesium has to be in a form that can be absorbed and used by the body. 

A prime example is magnesium oxide. Magnesium oxide is one of the worst forms of magnesium to use for supplementation. It is one of the cheapest and most abundant forms of magnesium. Magnesium oxide passes right through the intestines, hardly any of it gets absorbed into the body. So if you’re trying to supplement with magnesium oxide, you are literally flushing your money down the toilet. 

You are better off spending a little bit more money and getting the kind of magnesium that can actually be absorbed and subsequently used by your body. There are lots of different options, some of which are better for certain things than others.

The different types of magnesium supplements include magnesium citrate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium threonate.

You can use magnesium chloride to make “magnesium oil”, which you apply to the skin. 

A potential side effect of magnesium supplements is more frequent bowel movements which is worse with some forms than others.

My favourite forms of magnesium are magnesium glycinate and magnesium taurate. They are both very well absorbed. These forms of magnesium are great if you have problems with hypertension, abnormal heart rhythms and palpitations. They are easy on the bowels and don’t usually cause diarrhoea.

Have you used magnesium supplements before? Which is your favourite type? Let me know in the comments.

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Breakfast for diabetes – here are the three worst ones!

Is your healthy diabetic breakfast helping or hurting your blood sugar? Are you eating one of the three worst breakfasts for diabetes?

There are lots of foods that are supposed to be good for you.

Yes, generally speaking some of them may be for some people. But when you have high blood sugar you have to think differently.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day…. no, not really. But I’m going to give you three of the worst possible breakfast foods for diabetes. I’ll also give you some much better alternatives you can use as a healthy breakfast for diabetes.

Unhealthy breakfast foods for diabetics

Wheat bread – a sugary breakfast for diabetes type 1 & type 2

Lots of diabetics know that white bread will raise your blood sugar and they avoid it. But somehow people have been given the idea that wheat bread is good for you.

Maybe because it’s brown and looks natural and earthy? 

There are several things to point out here:

  1.  Sometimes the manufacturers add food colouring to this bread to make it look more “wheaty”.
  2.  Another problem is that sometimes producers add sweeteners to the bread to make it more palatable because it really doesn’t taste very nice.

If you set aside these two issues, there’s another problem.

Wheat bread is made from finely ground wheat i.e. flour. Once you eat it in this form it will cause your blood sugar to go up. You will find that there is virtually no difference between your blood sugar when you eat wheat bread and when you eat white bread.

This is definitely one of the worst breakfasts for diabetes!

Instant oatmeal – this should not be part of your diabetes breakfast diet

This is one of the most popular breakfasts for diabetes. Yet anothe food that’s supposed to be super healthy for diabetics. It’s a true breakfast favourite.

But let me start by saying that if you’re eating instant oatmeal, the quick cooking 1, 2, 3, minutes variety, then you might as well eat white bread.

Once again, the same principle applies as for wheat bread. They chop up the oats into very small pieces, partially cooked, dried and packaged.

Once you eat them they are digested very fast, broken down into sugar and you absorb them very fast into your bloodstream. The blood sugar shoots up.

To make matters worse, you might decide to wash this down with skimmed / fat-free milk. Thereby adding even more sugar to your meal.

You might then decide to add insult to injury by throwing in some spoons of honey into that oatmeal. This is a disaster of a breakfast. There is no scenario in which this helps your blood sugar.

This is a very good example of a high glycemic index breakfast.

Breakfast cereal – not a healthy breakfast for diabetes

diabetes breakfast foods

The third type of food that you should avoid if you have breakfast high blood sugar is breakfast cereals. This includes the various pops, krispies, flakes and things of that variety.

They are just little balls and flakes of sugar. They are so highly processed that they bear no resemblance whatsoever to the plants that they came from.

The box might look appealing and colourful; various prestigious organisations may endorse the cereal. It may be fortified with vitamins and minerals.

But then one might argue that if they didn’t remove the natural vitamins and minerals from the food in the act of processing it, they wouldn’t need to add the artificial ones back in.

These are bad for your health and terrible for your blood sugar!

Now before you cry foul just hear me out, just hang on. Don’t take my word for it.

Use your blood sugar glucose metre and check for yourself. Record your blood sugar 30 minutes 1 hour and 2 hours after eating any of these processed foods that I just talked about.

Write down your numbers and keep them as a reference. Then compare them with the numbers that you get after eating the alternative foods that I’m going to mention.

Now onto some more blood sugar friendly foods that you can eat for breakfast.

Breakfast foods for diabetes that won’t raise your blood sugar!

What makes a good diabetic breakfast?

A good diabetic breakfast:

  • should not make your blood sugar shoot up,
  • should keep you satisfied for several hours so you don’t feel like nibbling all day,
  • it should be easy to put together, which means you’ll be more likely to prepare and eat it,
  • it should be a good source of minerals and vitamins and other essential nutrients.

Healthy breakfasts for diabetes are all around and include many of the types of food you’re already eating.

What can I eat for breakfast with diabetes?

Eggs – a complete healthy breakfast for diabetes

Over the years eggs have become controversial for some reason. And it’s difficult to actually figure out why, because we’ve been eating eggs for many generations.

How did they suddenly become bad for us? Maybe it’s the rubbish that we’re eating with the egg, the processed junk that we eat for breakfast that’s actually causing the problem and not the eggs themselves.

Eggs are a super food.

They contain many important vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants, high quality protein and healthy fats.

Fish – a low sugar breakfast for diabetes

People have very rigid ideas about what they should eat at certain times of the day. But there is no reason to restrict your foods in that way…. to decide that you can only certain things for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

So I’m going to suggest that you try fish for breakfast. You can try frozen fish, fresh fish, dry fish, sardines (minus the oil in the can).  You can eat all these types of fish in the morning. If you choose a naturally oily fish, then you’ll get the benefits of the Omega-3 fatty acids that are in these fish.

These help with brain function and depression. They help with thinking, they are beneficial in heart disease, for improving insulin resistance and so much more.

Plain unsweetened yoghurt

This is a great, healthy breakfast for diabetics. Yoghurt is made from milk. Milk contains lactose which is milk sugar. The process that converts milk into yoghurt uses of the lactose.

So you will find that if you drink yoghurt, it will not raise your blood sugar as much as the same quantity of milk would.

You can combine the yoghurt with nuts like peanuts, almonds or walnuts. This will help you to stay satisfied through the day.

Greek yoghurt is an even better breakfast for diabetes.

I know that it’s hard to ignore all the advertising and the marketing around some of these food because they do use psychology to get you to buy them.

But that is exactly what you have to do. If you want to bring down your blood sugar, forget the hype.

When it comes to your blood sugar let your metre be your guide. It’s not biased in any way. It doesn’t like you, it doesn’t hate you, is not trying to sell you anything. It is completely objective.

If you let your glucose metre guide you when making your food decisions, it’s hard to go wrong.

 

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Pain in the legs in diabetes (diabetic nerve damage)

Diabetic leg and foot pain can be excruciating. It is often caused by diabetic nerve damage (neuropathy). This is a type of damage that is peculiar to people with diabetes. It is one of the most common complications of diabetes. Pain in the legs can affect up to half of people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

This nerve damage may be mild initially, but gradually it gets worse. The pain in the feet may become so bad that it gets in the way of everyday activities.

Nerves are specialised tissues that do several things in the body.

  • They send information back to the brain about things going on around you through your senses like sight, smell and touch.
  • They transmit signals from the brain to other parts of the body. This tells them what to do, for example, to wiggle your fingers.
  • Through the nerves, the brain controls your body functions like your heartbeat and digestion that you can’t control directly.

What causes neuropathic pain in the legs in diabetes?

Over time, uncontrolled and persistent high blood sugar causes damage to the nerves. They malfunction and stop firing the way they should.

High blood sugar, over a long period, damages the blood vessels that feed the nerves. How do you feel when you haven’t eaten? You feel hungry, irritable and you can’t function efficiently. That is exactly what happens to your nerves. They become nutrient-deficient, hungry and irritable.

Different types of neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy

Peripheral neuropathy usually affects the legs and feet but may also affect the hands.

It is the most common type of diabetic neuropathy. It is usually accompanied by:

  • sharp pains,
  • numbness,
  • tingling/burning,
  • electric shock sensation and
  • increased sensitivity to touch.

Peripheral neuropathy is usually worse at night, although it can occur at any time of day.

Autonomic neuropathy

Autonomic neuropathy affects the internal organs – the heart, stomach, intestines and sex organs. Damage to nerves in these areas can lead to:

  • painful swallowing,
  • nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite,
  • diarrhoea, constipation and faecal incontinence,
  • persistent first heartbeat (tachycardia),
  • dizziness and fainting when you change position/stand-up (postural hypotension) and
  • problems with urination.

Proximal neuropathy

Proximal neuropathy affects the nerves in the buttocks and legs. It can lead to:

  • severe pain,
  • weakness of the muscles,
  • shrinking of the muscles and
  • difficulty in rising from a sitting position.

Mono neuropathy

Mono neuropathy affects a single nerve and can occur anywhere in the body. It may manifest as:

  • aching behind one eye,
  • double vision,
  • paralysis of one side of the face and
  • weakness of the hands, which may make you drop things frequently.

Risk factors for developing pain in the legs in diabetes

Prolonged, uncontrolled high blood sugar is the biggest risk factor for developing diabetic leg and foot pain.

The longer you have diabetes, the more likely you are to develop nerve damage.

If you have kidney disease, you are at a high risk of developing neuropathy. Being overweight, drinking a lot of alcohol, or smoking puts you at a higher risk.

High blood pressure or high cholesterol increases your risk of developing diabetic nerve damage.

Complications of diabetic nerve damage

Some of the complications of diabetic nerve damage can be worse than the neuropathy itself.

These may include:

  • fainting and falls – sometimes these falls can lead to death,
  • amputation of the toes all feet from infected diabetic sores on the feet,
  • urinary incontinence,
  • urinary tract infections,
  • digestive problems and
  • sexual dysfunction, including difficulty with arousal and erectile dysfunction.

Treatment of foot pain in diabetic nerve damage

In the early stages, you can reverse diabetic nerve damage. This process is excruciatingly slow, but it is possible.

The longer you have had the neuropathy, the worse it becomes. And the harder it is to treat and reverse.

The number one way to slow down the progression of diabetic nerve damage is to bring down and regulate blood sugar.

You’ll need to avoid drastic fluctuations in your blood sugar. Your blood glucose should not be swinging up and down continuously throughout the day, which can also make the pain of nerve damage even worse.

Put some effort into treating the insulin resistance aspect of diabetes and don’t just focus on your blood sugar numbers.

You will need to change the type of food you eat and when you eat. Work on developing good exercise and sleep habits. These and other lifestyle changes will bring down your blood sugar.

Drugs for pain in the legs in diabetics due to nerve damage

Drugs used to treat depression and convulsions can also help with the pain of diabetic neuropathy:

  • Anti-seizure drugs – Pregabalin (Lyrica) and gabapentin (Gralise, Neurontin) are used to treat epilepsy. Side effects may include drowsiness, dizziness and swelling.
  • Tricyclic antidepressants – These include amitriptyline, desipramine (Norpramin) and imipramine (Tofranil). Side effects may include dry mouth and drowsines.
  • Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) – Duloxetine (Cymbalta) and venlafaxine (Effexor XR) are used commonly. Possible side effects include nausea, sleepiness, dizziness, decreased appetite and constipation.

But these drugs do not actually reverse the nerve damage.

Supplements for diabetic foot pain and nerve damage

Many supplements can help with pain in the legs in diabetes. They may also create an environment that heals the nerves.

Benfotiamine

Benfotiamine is a fat-soluble version of thiamine (vitamin B1). It is better absorbed than thiamine because it is fat-soluble. Therefore, it does a better job of penetrating the fatty myelin sheath that surrounds the nerves.

What does vitamin B1 do? It helps the mitochondria clear glucose from the cell.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 can also help with nerve pain and nerve damage. The methylated form of vitamin B12, known as methylcobalamin, is more effective in non-methylators. Some people cannot methylate cobalamin, so they must take methylcobalamin.

Antioxidants 

Antioxidants can be very useful in managing diabetic nerve pain and damage. 

  • Alpha-lipoic acid exists in two forms – the r-fraction is the one that is active in the body. It is a powerful antioxidant. 
  • Pycnogenol – this helps with neuropathy but is also necessary for a healthy heart and healthy blood vessels. It is helpful for hypertension and for managing blood sugar.

Magnesium

The cells use magnesium to process glucose, which helps blood sugar control. Magnesium also helps brain and nerve function. You need it for heart function and maintaining normal blood pressure.

There are many different forms of magnesium, some of which are more effective than others. Deficiency in magnesium can worsen blood sugar control and nerve pain.

Acetyl L-carnitine

Acetyl L-carnitine is a fat-soluble nutrient, so it can pass easily into the nerves where others cannot. It helps to protect the nerves from damage and may also help to reduce pain.

All these supplements work in slightly different ways to help with diabetic nerve pain and diabetic nerve damage.

Of course, you should consult your doctor before taking any supplement, no matter how safe it claims to be.

And once again, these supplements will be most effective when you combine them with lifestyle changes that bring down your blood sugar and treat your insulin resistance.

Have you experienced diabetic nerve pain? Have you used any of the supplements I mentioned above? Let me know in the comments. 

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Are eggs good for diabetics?

I am often asked if eggs are good for diabetics, and this question is usually phrased in different ways.

  • Should I avoid eggs if I have high blood sugar? 
  • Will eggs give me a heart attack?
  • How many eggs should I eat?
eggs for diabetes

Eggs are full of nutrients which diabetics need

The yolk

Eggs are one of the most nutritious foods that you can eat. They are a superfood, a nature’s multivitamin. They contain lots of vitamins including vitamins A, B2, B5 and B12.

Eggs are a good source of selenium. They also contain smaller amounts of lots of other nutrients like potassium, iron, manganese and folate.

Eggs are one of the best sources of choline. Choline is converted into a compound that helps to transmit messages around the body through the nerves. It is also necessary for memory, brain function and contraction of muscles.

Eggs are rich in the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin. These are concentrated in the eye and help to protect your eyes from harmful sunlight. This, in turn, helps to prevent cataracts and macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.

All these nutrients I’ve mentioned are in the yolk. So if you don’t eat the yolk of the egg, then you’re missing out.

Are all these nutrients in eggs good for diabetics? Yes, definitely!

The white

The white of the egg is mostly protein, a very high-quality protein. It’s a complete protein because it contains the whole spectrum of amino acids your body needs to function properly.

There are some amino acids that you can’t produce that you have to eat. These are “essential” amino acids, and you will find them in the white of the egg.

You can cook eggs in lots of different ways. You can eat them virtually any time of the day – morning, afternoon and night.

Eggs for weight loss

When you eat eggs for breakfast, it can help you lose weight.

This works because eggs are fill you up. So you find that if you eat eggs in the morning, you don’t feel that need to nibble and pick at things all through the day. Because you feel full.

You are naturally, without hunger, reducing the number of calories that you’re consuming in a day. Which can help you to lose weight. Many diabetics need to lose weight, so in this scenario, eggs are good for diabetes.

Eggs are great – even in diabetes

Now the next question is going to be, “What about the cholesterol? Eggs are high in cholesterol, and cholesterol is bad for you.”

If you have high blood sugar, you most likely have high cholesterol levels as well.

Over the years, the media and some health bodies have brain-washed us into thinking that we shouldn’t eat cholesterol because it will kill us.

The cholesterol that you eat does not automatically equal cholesterol in your blood.

Cholesterol is vital for our existence

You make cholesterol

Cholesterol is so crucial that you cannot live without it. Your body produces cholesterol, so if you don’t eat enough, your body will make it.

Let’s assume that you need 1000mg of cholesterol in a day. If you consume maybe 300mg in your diet, your body will produce 700mg of cholesterol to make up the difference. If you eat 600mg, then your body will produce 400 mg to make up the difference.

Your body needs a certain amount of cholesterol every day, and if you don’t give it to your body, it will make it by itself. That is how vital cholesterol is to human life.

Eggs are great for brain function and hormone production in diabetics

Believe it or not, about 75% of your brain is fat, so your brain is mainly fat. One-quarter of that fat is cholesterol. That shows that you need cholesterol to make sure that your brain functions the way that it should.

Your body uses cholesterol to produce hormones. These are messengers that move around telling different cells what to do and when to do it. These include the sex hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. Eggs are great for diabetics who need to make sure they are producing enough of these hormones.

The body also produces the stress hormone cortisol from cholesterol.

The cell membrane that holds the cell together is made from cholesterol.

Cholesterol is found in bile, which is secreted into your intestines to help you break down the fat in your food.

So you can see that cholesterol is essential. You can’t do without it.

I’m going to say it one more time – the cholesterol you eat does not equal cholesterol in your blood.

Where did the cholesterol come from? Not from the eggs!

With all the press about the dangers of eating cholesterol, you may have been avoiding it for some time. You may have been taking the skin off your chicken or avoiding red meat and eggs.

And yet, you still have high cholesterol. So, where did that cholesterol come from?

Cholesterol is only found in animals and foods that originate from animals, like dairy products. Vegans do not eat any animal products, and yet some vegans have high blood cholesterol. Where did the cholesterol come from?

This means that there’s something wrong in the body that’s making it produce excessive amounts of cholesterol. And it doesn’t matter what you put in your mouth. 

US dietary guidelines on cholesterol and eggs

The older US dietary guidelines told people to eat less than 300mg of cholesterol a day. An average large egg contains about 200 milligrams of cholesterol. So basically, they were saying that you should eat no more than one and a half eggs or the equivalent a day. 

There was a lot of fanfare, and it was heavily publicized, “Oh no, don’t eat more than 300mg of cholesterol a day – it’s bad for you.” etc. etc. etc.

In their more recent guidelines, they quietly removed that 300mg limit. With all the noise that was made about this 300mg/day limit, when this limit was removed, we should have heard something.

Instead, what did we get? Crickets!

Unfortunately, some people still haven’t gotten the memo.

They’re still sharing the outdated idea that you should limit your cholesterol to less than 300mg/day. And they are dishing this out as advice to people who don’t know any better.

Meanwhile, this advice never had any scientific basis from the start. As human beings, we’ve been eating eggs for eons, for generations, and we never had any problems.

What is really raising your cholesterol?

Perhaps we should take a closer look at the foods that we eat with the eggs. 

What about the toast, orange juice, breakfast cereal and honey (which is supposed to be a healthier alternative to sugar)? Could these be giving eggs a bad reputation?

Eggs are not going to give you a heart attack. People with heart disease can eat a couple of eggs a week – some suggest up to six eggs a week are okay.

This whole egg discussion is a huge distraction. There are so many other things that you could be doing that would have an enormous impact on your health:

  • cutting out processed food,
  • eating more vegetables
  • getting up and moving around a bit more instead of sitting in one place all the time.

These are a much better use of your time and your mental energy than obsessing about how many eggs you can or can’t eat.

These two newer studies add merit to the landmark review(This link opens in a new window) published in 2017 in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, in which researchers reviewed 10 studies on egg intake for people with diabetes. They found that eating six to 12 eggs per week had no impact on cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose or insulin levels for people with diabetes.

How many eggs do you eat a week? Let me know in the comments.