The Happy Menopause

The theme of this year’s World Menopause Day is cognition, so I’ve invited the wonderful Dr Sabina Brennan back to chat to us, because there is no better woman to help us with the cognitive challenges of the menopause

She’s a chartered health psychologist, neuroscientist, host of the Super Brain podcast and author of two fantastic books: 100 Days to A Younger Brain and Beating Brain Fog. There’s no one better to help us tackle the subject of brain health!

Brain fog, poor memory and loss of concentration and focus can significantly affect women during the menopause but fear not, because, in this episode, Sabina is full of practical advice on how to keep your brain and your neurotransmitters firing on all cylinders. 

We discuss the ageing brain and how to keep it healthy and agile through novelty, variety, diet and lifestyle. It’s very encouraging to learn that our behaviours and our lifestyle choices can directly influence our brain health and smart choices can make a material difference to our cognitive function.

Sabina is full of practical advice and simple everyday strategies that we can apply to keep our brain in great shape through menopause and beyond.
 
 If you enjoy the podcast, please give it 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on. And do tell your friends and family about it too. I’d be so grateful, because it really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

In this episode, we’re exploring the power of song, because there’s something very joyous about singing and it’s something we can all do and that we can all enjoy, even if you prefer to do it in the privacy of your shower! There are multiple benefits to singing and it can have a significant impact on your mental health and wellbeing, so we’ll be discovering how singing can make a difference to you and your menopause symptoms. 

My guest is Dr Catherine Pestano, she’s a community musician and mental health social worker with a passion for helping people to free their voices and share in the joy of singing and creative music making, at all levels. Catherine is also a lead adviser for the national Song Therapy training and a long-term member of the natural voice network. And as a menopause activist, she’s very conscious of the positive impact of song as a support for women in midlife and she’s kindly shared her expertise with us. 

We discuss all aspects of singing in this podcast and explore the various physical and mental health benefits, as well as the extraordinary support and friendship you can experience from being part of a group singing project. Catherine works with singers of all levels and is incredibly reassuring about the inhibitions we may feel about our own ability to carry a tune or sing as a group. It’s fascinating to hear about the singing therapy she’s involved in and the work she does with people going through midlife hormonal transitions  – yes, hormonal changes can affect your voice and your confidence (as we all know!), but with Catherine’s help and encouragement, we can definitely still enjoy the joy of singing. 

After chatting to Catherine, I felt hugely motivated to get out there and start singing and I’m sure you will too!

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please give it 5 star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, I’d be so grateful. And do tell your friends and family about it too. It really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Skincare is a hot topic for many women and never more so than in midlife when the hormonal fluctuations of the perimenopause bring about a sea change in the condition of our skin. Acne, dry skin and loss of elasticity are all very common problems, and we often find that our tried and trusted skincare routine is no longer effective. And that can be a problem, because if we feel that we’re no longer presenting our best face to the world it can create a knock-on issue of loss of confidence at a time when we may already be feeling a bit less comfortable in our skin. But help is at hand with my latest guest, consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Wedgeworth. 

Emma is a highly experienced clinician who treats the full range of skin conditions, including acne, rosacea and ageing skin. She’s published numerous scientific articles and been involved in cutting-edge dermatological research, so we’re definitely in good hands! 

Get your pen ready, you’ll want to take notes for this one. Emma packs so much advice into such a short space of time. We discuss moisturisers, cleansers, acne, dry skin, wrinkles, those pesky facial hairs that pop up and all the things you can do about them. Emma very kindly shares advice on specific brands and products, which I’ve included in the show notes that you’ll find on the podcast page of my website. 

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please give it 5-star rating and a short review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, I’d be so grateful. And do tell your friends and family about it to. It really does make a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause.

Season 4  of The Happy Menopause  is supported by innovative natural health company Better You. Tune in to the podcast for details of a 20% discount on their range of oral  vitamin and mineral sprays and transdermal magnesium. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Vitamin D is a non-negotiable for our health and wellbeing at any age, but never more so than in mid and later life which is why I’ve decided to shine a light on it in this episode. I’ve invited Andrew Thomas, founder of one my favourite supplement companies Better You to chat to me about all things vitamin D. 

He’s just the man we need to help us understand the ins and outs of this hormone-like vitamin. Andrew has been on quite a journey, from a chance encounter at a rodeo, which led him to found Better You to winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2021. 

The level of research into Vitamin D has expanded considerably in recent years and we explore the broad role that it plays in supporting your health and wellbeing, such as bone health, mental health and immune function, including reducing the severity and longevity of Covid-19 symptoms. Andrew explains what Vitamin D is; why we need it; why we might be deficient and typical signs of that; how the body produces it and what sort of supplement dosage is appropriate.  

This is a really practical and helpful episode that should answer any questions about Vitamin D, especially as we slide into the autumn and winter when a supplement is more important than ever. 

If you enjoy the podcast, please give it a 5 star rating and a review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, And do tell your friends and family about it. I’d be so grateful because it really does make a difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause.

Season 4  of The Happy Menopause  is supported by  innovative natural health company Better You. Tune in to the podcast for details of a 20% discount on their range of oral  vitamin and mineral sprays and transdermal magnesium. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Can’t run, won’t run? Listen to this episode before you write yourself off!

It’s September and with the whole post-holiday vibe it’s often a good time be thinking about a new fitness regime. With that in mind, I’ve decided to kick off Season 4 with an episode on running. If it’s not something you’ve tried before or thought you’d never do in a million years (that was me until Hello Lockdown!) this is the podcast for you, because I’m speaking to a specialist women’s running coach who knows exactly how to help us get started and how to do it in a way that suits our midlife body. 

I’m delighted to welcome Sam Palmer to the podcast to share her expertise. This is a woman with a lot of get up and go, who’s reinvented herself multiple times and used the knowledge from each incarnation to help her develop the next one. She started out as a nurse in neonatal intensive care; retrained as a teacher after becoming a mother; set up her own first aid training business and then retrained again as a running coach, specialising in supporting women in their first steps at becoming a runner. All of this expertise combined when she launched her Midlife Makeover coaching programmes to support women with simple lifestyle changes to improve their health and wellbeing. 

We discuss all aspects of running – how to get started if you’re a newbie and how to pick up again if you’ve taken a break. We look at the tangible health benefits and the surprising fringe benefits you can experience. Sam advises on the practical aspects of kitting yourself out and is full of good advice on how to look after yourself and reduce the risk of injury. 

Sam is so positive and encouraging. I think the big takeaway from this episode is not to rule yourself out of anything. And never say never

If you enjoy the podcast, please give it a 5 star rating and a review on Apple podcasts, or whichever platform you listen on, And please do tell your friends and family about it. I’d be so grateful because it really does make a difference to the visibility of the podcast, so that more women can find the show. After all, every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. 

 Season 4 of The Happy Menopause  is supported by  innovative natural health company Better You. Tune in to the podcast for details of a 20% discount on their range of oral  vitamin and mineral sprays and transdermal magnesium. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Bloating can be a nasty niggling issue for a lot of women in midlife. It can affect different people in different ways. You might have a sense of overfullness after even quite a small meal. Or find that you can’t do up your trousers by the end of the day. 
 
 Some women experience such a distended abdomen that they describe it as looking 6 months pregnant, after starting the day with a flat stomach. Bloating can also manifest as back pain, and a sensation of trapped wind can be very common too. Whatever your experience, bloating is generally unpleasant, often painful and can be annoyingly unpredictable. 

I see a lot of women in my nutrition clinic who struggle with bloating, which is why I’ve decided to wrap up Season 3 of The Happy Menopause with a solo episode which focuses on this tricky subject. Tune in to hear 8 tried and trusted methods of tackling bloating that you can try for yourself at home. 

The mechanics of your digestion rely on a delicate balance, and what, when and how you eat can all potentially contribute to issues of bloating and trapped wind. I explore the stages of the digestive process and the role of digestive enzymes; common potential trigger foods to consider; the impact of different fluids on bloating; why fruit may not be your best friend if you’re bloated and why finishing first is a loser’s game when you’re eating with friends or family. 

If you want to get to beat the bloat, the simple, practical advice in this episode is a great place to start!

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, why not dip back into the archive this summer? The podcast covers a whole range of different symptoms and issues and also includes episodes which feature some incredibly inspiring women, who are fantastic role models for midlife. Season 4 will kick off on 1st September, so keep a look out for that, as it launches with 3 brilliant episodes!

Jackie Lynch is an award-winning nutritionist and founder of the WellWellWell nutrition clinic where she specialises in women’s health and the menopause. Keen to break the taboo about discussing the menopause, she launched the popular diet & lifestyle podcast The Happy Menopause and her new book, The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish is out now.

She is also the author of Va Va Voom: The 10-Day Energy Dietand The Right Bite: Smart Food Choices for Eating on the Go.  Jackie’s advice features in a range of national media and she regularly appears as a guest expert on radio and TV, including Channel 4’s Superfoods.

Follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook via @WellWellWellUK.

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Do you leak a little bit of urine when you laugh or sneeze or run? Let’s face it, it’s something that’s happened to most of us at some point and statistics show that more than 1 in 3 women struggle with this. It’s called urinary stress incontinence, usually due to a weak pelvic floor, and it’s one of those things we mostly don’t talk about because it’s embarrassing. 

This month’s guest is going to help us bust that taboo wide open, because I’m speaking to the fabulous Elaine Miller. She’s a pelvic health physiotherapist and has helped countless women reverse the problem with her clinical support. But she’s also a stand-up comic and has used her comedic talent to create the hilarious Gusset Grippers show, employing humour as a health promotion tool, and going on to win the Fringe World Comedy award in 2020. She’s frank, she’s funny and I’m thrilled that she’s joined us to share her wisdom. 

We learn all about the pelvic floor: what it is; where it is; why it’s important; and how to keep it in great shape. Elaine explains some of the factors that can weaken your pelvic floor and we discuss the best ways to manage that.  We even try out the exercises, so you can squeeze along with us! Elaine’s mantra is “We won’t pee, with a 10 -10-3”, so tune in to find out what that’s all about and to enjoy a very entertaining conversation.

 We also discuss her upcoming show Viva Your Vulva at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, where she’ll once again be busting open the taboo around out intimate health with the help of giant, sparkly vulva on stage. That’s definitely a date for your diary, if you’ll be in the area, so check out the show notes for more details!

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please do tell your friends and family about the podcast and leave a 5-star rating and a review on Apple podcasts or whichever platform you listen on. It really helps to activate the algorithms and boost the rankings so that more women can find the show.  Because every woman deserves a happy menopause. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep? We all know that we’re better for it, but it can be extremely elusive, especially in midlife where a combination of the hormonal surges that often trigger night sweats and the stresses and strains of daily life can make it incredibly hard to get quality sleep. And quality more than quantity really does count when it comes to how we feel the next day. 

My guest in this episode is Lisa Cypers Kamen who’s the author of a new book called Rested: Solutions for Restorative Sleep and Wellbeing. Doesn’t that sound just what we all need? As the founder of the fabulous Harvesting Happiness lifestyle consultancy which specialises in positive psychology coaching, she’s made it her life’s work to help her clients improve their wellbeing and quality of life. Concerned by what she describes as a global sleep epidemic, she’s reviewed a mountain of research and distilled her findings into an incredibly helpful sleep guide. If you’re struggling with sleep, this episode could be a game-changer for you.

We discuss the structure of our sleep cycles and why each stage is important. Lisa explains the different strategies we can apply to support a restorative night’s sleep and we cover everything from stress and sleep hygiene to nutrition and lifestyle. It’s a fascinating episode packed with practical tips to ease you into a delicious, restful slumber. 

If you enjoy this episode, please tell your friends and family, and leave a 5-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever platform you listen on, as it really helps to spread the word, so that new listeners can find the show. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

Walking is something that’s accessible to almost all of us and it can be a much less daunting prospect to the harassed midlife woman than high impact work, running or intense training. What’s wonderful about the research we discuss in this episode is that walking isn’t a second-best option if you’re not up to other forms of exercise. It’s much, much more than that and we discuss the very many ways that different types of walking can benefit us – something I’d never really thought about before, even though I often recommend a daily walk to women in my nutrition clinic.  But walking in different weathers, at different speeds, in different terrain and with a different mindset can all bring different health benefits. 

My guest in this episode is the wonderful Annabel Streets, who’s an award-winning writer of highly researched fiction and non-fiction. She’s an absolute genius at translating complex research into simple and manageable habits that we can include in our everyday life. We discuss her latest book 52 Ways to Walk – The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time. Her books (sometimes written under the name Annabel Abbs) have been translated into over 30 languages. Her most recent books include 52 Ways to Walk (Bloomsbury), Windswept: Why Women Walk (Two Roads) and The Language of Food (Simon and Schuster). She is also co-founder of the Age-Well Project blog and co-author of The Age-Well Project: Easy Ways to a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life (Piatkus).

There are multiple health benefits associated with long, short, slow and brisk walks. A range of positive effects are associated with the weather and the environments you walk in, and we discuss the impact of a cold walk, walking in the sunshine and strolling by water or through trees. Annabel explains the impact that tuning up our wayfinding skills could have on our risk of dementia and she also describes how to walk as you work. 

It's a truly fascinating discussion and I’ve been excited about recording this podcast since I received the book. I’m confident you’re going to enjoy hearing from Annabel, as much as I did, and I hope you enjoy discovering new and different ways to walk your way to health. 

If you enjoy this episode, please tell your friends and family, and leave a 5-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or whichever platform you listen on, as it really helps to spread the word, so that new listeners can find the show. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause. 

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places. 

This episode is all about the perimenopause, because those years running up to the menopause can be full of hormonal havoc. In fact, although we use it as a catch-all term, the menopause technically only lasts for one day. It’s that day when it’s been 12 months since your last period. After that, you’re post menopausal. So the perimenopause is when all the fun and games really start and that can be a lot earlier than you might think. In fact, hormonal fluctuations can be going on in the background from your early 40s onwards and some of the initial symptoms can be surprising and disconcerting. Anxiety, brain fog, poor memory and loss of confidence are all fairly common issues, and they can cause a lot of concern, especially if your periods are still regular and you assume you’re too young. Why would you associate that with the menopause? But these early warning signs are very characteristic of the perimenopause and you don’t have to put up with them, because there are lots of options to help you deal with them. 

And this is where my latest guest comes in. I’m chatting to the brilliant Ruth Devlin, who’s a nurse, health coach and clinical educator specialising in the menopause. Dhe’s also the author of the excellent book Men! Let’s Talk Menopause, which is a snappy and useful guide to help the men in our life understand what’s going on. We discuss the different challenges faced by women during the perimenopause, from the emotional and cognitive symptoms to the physical issues such as hot flushes and vaginal dryness. 

Ruth explains some of the multiple options available to you to help manage the problems arising from the hormone ups and downs of the perimenopause and we discuss a range of potential solutions, including cognitive behavioural therapy, HRT, diet and lifestyle. This episode is a great place to start if you’ve just realised you’re perimenopausal and you’re wondering what to do about it. 

Tune in for her excellent advice, because Ruth is an absolute mine of useful information! I think the big takeaway here is to arm yourself with information and not rule anything out or make any assumptions about the best route for you, until you’ve considered all the options. I really hope this episode will help you feel empowered to do that, because this is your body and you have every right to make sure that you’re happy, comfortable and confident to manage your perimenopause in the way that is right for you. 

If you’ve enjoyed the podcast, please do leave a 5-star rating and a review on Apple podcasts or whichever platform you listen on and make sure you tell all your friends – it makes a huge difference to the visibility of the podcast and really helps to spread the word. Because every woman deserves to have a happy menopause.

Check out the full Show Notes for this episode on my website www.well-well-well.co.uk/podcast, where you'll find all the relevant links and references for each guest.

Learn how to build your own menopause diet to manage your symptoms with my book The Happy Menopause: Smart Nutrition to Help You Flourish. And if you're tired of feeling tired and grappling with brain fog, check out  my new book: The Happy Menopause Guide to Energy; Nutrition to Rejuvenate Your Brain & Body. It's available in all the usual places.