My Christmas lilies are looking magnificent up the back of my garden. It’s a seasonal reminder here in New Zealand that the end of the year is upon us, and despite everything going on in our lives, it’s time to slow-down and reflect on the year that’s been.
Has it been a busy year for you? If so, then I hope that you can put your feet up over the festive season and do something for ‘you’!
I also hope that if it’s been a particularly stressful year, then, if you are on holiday as many of you living in the Southern Hemisphere may be, then you also manage to turn around your fatigue and/or weight, in readiness for another year ahead.
The co-occurrence of stress and fatigue experienced by women has been studied with respect to the workplace with work-related stress associated with fatigue in a woman’s menopause transition.
When women ‘box-on’ and don’t get a break from the co-occurence of stress and fatigue, then this has health impacts, especially for cardiovascular and thyroid health.
Over the past year, I’ve had hundreds of emails from women sharing with me, the overwhelm they are feeling with their every-day lives. It’s no surprise that with all that’s going on in-between caring for others, that they also experience the fatiguing and stressful phenomenon of “the sandwich generation” (simultaneously caring for children and parents and often working outside the home, as well).
According to researchers, this is an important gap in our understanding of midlife women’s health. (Taylor-Swanson, Wong et al, 2018). As they mention in their study of women in midlife,
“It is feasible that perceived stress could cause symptoms experienced during the menopausal transition to worsen, it is equally plausible that worsening of these symptoms could be a source of perceived stress. Just as stress is the body’s way of mounting a response to meet the demands of changes or challenges, fatigue is a natural by-product of prolonged exposure to stress.”
That’s why I want you all to understand that stress and fatigue go hand-in-hand, as does menopause weight gain and adrenal fatigue!
I used to experience the same ‘over-whelm’ and at the time, had no idea how much this was contributing to my ongoing fatigue, menopause symptoms and of course, never-ending weight gain.
Therefore, the end of the year is the time to ‘do something about it!” If you aren’t sure how to or what, then please listen to my video, put your feet up (or get underway with some healthy activity if you’ve been mainly sedentary during the year) and if you are overweight, then come on board into my January Visible Results Transform Me Weight Loss sale.
Yes, it’s that important for your ongoing health to sort out your symptoms, weight and your energy levels.
However you celebrate the festive season, thank you for being part of the MyMT™ community.
My purpose in this community is help you to help yourself understand the powerful connection between our symptoms of menopause, our weight gain and how natural hormonal changes at this stage of life, impact on our busy, stressful western lives. Happy Holidays.
Dr Wendy Sweet (PhD)/ MyMT™ Founder and Member: Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine.
Reference:
Taylor-Swanson L, Wong AE, Pincus D, Butner JE, Hahn-Holbrook J, Koithan M, Wann K, Woods NF. The dynamics of stress and fatigue across menopause: attractors, coupling, and resilience. Menopause. 2018 Apr;25(4):380-390.
