Ayurveda Remedy: Healing Constipation During Menopause

It's unfortunate, that Western medicine and the media have led women to believe that they need to struggle and be uncomfortable during the transitional time of menopause. But that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Ayurveda, the 5000 year old system of medicine from India, offers several natural solutions to common complaints of menopause. Ayurveda remedies offer concrete solutions that don't just treat a set of symptom,s but rather,it looks at treating the underlying cause and imbalance to restore harmony, health, and balance to the whole body.

To heal and reverse constipation during menopause we need to learn and implement three simple concepts.

The first is to address the underlying cause of constipation...usually dryness in the body. This may sound obvious and dumb, yet most mainstream and over-the-counter solutions don't address the underlying cause. As a matter of fact, they can make it even worse by often causing the unwanted side effect of diarrhea, which causes the body to lose even more valuable moisture.

In Ayurveda, treatment is based on your individual body type, called your "dosha". During menopause our bodies begin the transition to more "vata" characteristics....cold and dry. So the first important step is to determine your body type.

Then the second step is to eat a "dosha" balancing diet. Common complaints of vata types are dryness, constipation, feeling mentally scattered, anxiety, insomnia.....also just happening to be common complaints of women in menopause. Following a "vata" pacifying diet, especially during early fall and Winter, will help to restore moisture to not only the colon and digestive tract, but also to the skin, lips, tissues, and sexual organs.

Thirdly, I highly recommend that women learn to do an ayurvedic treatment therapy at home, called Abhyanga. It is a self massage with a dosha pacifying massage oil that restores moisture to al the tissues of the body. It helps to calm and relax the entire body and mind...allowing your energy to focus on the job of complete and easy digestion.

In Ayurveda, healing occurs by following the principle of like attracts like. When there is an abundance and imbalance of dryness throughout the body it can be relieved my adding warm, moist foods and oils, both to the diet and to treatment therapies.

As menopause progresses women ultimately enter a vata stage of life which is characteristic of dryness as skin becomes less supple, Yet, this can be avoided by nourishing and hydrating the body and tissues and alleviating and reversing constipation.

Constipation is not the problem, it is just the symptom. Dryness throughout the body is the underlying cause 90% of the time.