Why should women entering Menopause make friends with a cucumber?

Keep it clean ladies, please!

Because…

they are one of the most water-rich foods you can eat. In fact, the simple cucumber is made up of a whopping 95% water. And why is this good news for those of us in perimenopause and beyond?

Because dehydration could be making our menopause symptoms worse, or even creating symptoms that we wrongly assume are down to our hormones.

First things first, hydration is vital for internal health AND external health. Yep, those fine lines and wrinkles that start making an appearance on our face can often be caused simply by dehydration. Our skin is 64% water so when it isn’t kept sufficiently hydrated it begins to lose its elasticity and youthful glow.

Many women are dehydrated and the older we get the more we lose water from our cells - meaning we have to be even more careful to stay hydrated if we want to look (and feel) good and stop ourselves ageing too fast.

Okay, so that’s how hydration affects our skin, but how does dehydration make our menopause symptoms worse?

You may already know that dehydration can cause kidney problems, but it has also been linked to:

• brain fog

• reduced energy / fatigue

• joint inflammation & pain

• itchy skin

• mood swings

• anxiety & panic attacks

• headaches

• hot flushes

• dizziness

• and more

These are all things that many women experience during the years leading up to, and even after, menopause. Whilst we know that the changes in our hormones during this time can trigger these symptoms, it’s important to consider whether dehydration might be making things worse for you, or possibly even causing them in the first place. So often it’s easy to blame everything on menopause, but there are times when something else is going on.

Just drinking more water isn’t enough though, we need to be consuming water through food as well, as this is retained more easily. Just think about those days when you try and chug back lots of water to be ‘good’, and then spend all day running to the loo! When water passes through us that quickly it isn’t hydrating us as well as we need it to. So a combination of drinking water AND eating water through food is best. And just a reminder: alcohol, fizzy drinks & caffeinated drinks are not good for hydration. Stick to water, herbal teas, coconut water, and fresh homemade juices instead.

So, which food should you be consuming to up your hydration levels?

Fruits and Vegetables. These have the highest amounts of water in them (when raw) so are the best things to eat. For example:

• Cucumbers

• Watermelon

• Tomatoes

• Celery

• Strawberries

• Peaches

• Blueberries

• Apples…

  these are all high in water content (and lots of other nutrients that are great for healthy ageing too).

Ensuring you are properly hydrated every day will not only give your skin a welcome boost but will also create better health internally AND may just ease (or even erase) some of those menopause symptoms that have been causing trouble.