Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert reveals how menopause and hormone changes impact inflammation

Inflammation can be caused by a number of factors, but new research has found there's a link between the condition and hormone changes in women.

Loss of oestrogen can affect joints and the connective tissue that 'glues' your skeleton together, and the changes in hormones can result in general muscle aches, pains and stiffness. 

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explains further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Time to Talk Wellness in Aeron O'Hara is with us. Now,
Good morning, Good morning, So this is an interesting topic
you've got for us today. We're talking a little bit
about inflammation but how menopause and hormone changes can impact it.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, inflammation is something that has a huge impact when
hormones changes, especially through perimenopause and menopause for women. And
I think women quite commonly, or even anyone in community
thinks menopause, they think hot flushes, but actually the thing
that's actually more common is actually inflammation that happens as
hormones change. And a lot of that comes down to

(00:48):
the change and the drop in all three hormones, but
in particular the estrogen dropping and estrogen dropping then has
a big impact on inflammation, having less regulation and how
you manage inflammation in the body. And it's interesting how
the immune system works because inflammation is a natural process

(01:08):
in the body. Every time you get injured or you
get an infection, your immune system springs into action and
sends out the white blood cells to that effective area
and in particular, the macrifages will help produce cytokinds that
actually clean up the inflammation and then the inflammation gets
turned off. However, through this time, through perimenopause and menopause,

(01:30):
that turn offs which doesn't happen as well because the
macrifages are sensitive to have receptives that have hormones that
bind to them, So when the hormones are not there,
then inflammation stays turned on basically, and then we've got
this pro inflammatory state that just means the body is
super inflamed and it then leads into that chronic inflammation
of having pain, inflammation, sore joints, achy all over and

(01:55):
just can't get that inflammation switch off through this time.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay, what do we do about this? I know it's
a bit of a hard way.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
It's because it is a bit miserable, and actually a
forty percent of women in the age between forty five
and sixty five do experience joint pain through this time.
Some things we can do is looking into maybe discussing
with your doctor the likes of HRT, which is actually
the first line treatment to manage inflammation for a lot
of women. As putting a little bit of synthetic hormone

(02:26):
there can actually help with getting that inflammation switch off.
Also looking at your lifestyle, so anti inflammatory diets are
one thing I commonly would use in my clinic, So
looking at cutting back and processed meats and sugar and
refined cover hydrates and putting in more that sort of
Mediterranean anti inflammatory diet with lots of olive oil and
nuts and seeds and fish in all the polyfemales from

(02:50):
fruits and vegetables. Also exercise, which when you're feeling achy
quite often you don't want to exercise, but actually exercise
can help to counter the inflammation and regulate your immune
system better. And even just twenty minutes of exercise reduces
the inflammatory cider kinds and the body. So we actually
can get the inflammation down by actually moving your body,

(03:12):
which is actually counterintuitive for most women because when you're achy,
you think, well, I don't want to do anything, but
actually moving your body helps.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Should you also just be checking that joint pain it's
not something else, absolutely, yeah, just making sure it's not
an injury, that it's not like and that's where making
sure we're getting the right testing done.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, and even with arthritis actually movements really helpful, but
it's making sure you get some testing done to see
what's going on, and sometimes they can't find anything. And
that's the common thing through this time, is they get
to that point at night, Hey, we don't know what's
driving the inflammation and the pain, but something's obviously making
you inflamed. And that's where putting in the lifestyle. Also
managing stress will make you more inflamed as it overactivates

(03:52):
the immune system, so then you won't get that inflammation
switch off, as well as looking at just your basics
of like good sleep, hygiene and avoiding any triggers like
things like alcohol which drives up the inflammation too.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Thank you so much, erin appreci shaded.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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