Just a suggestion, Know The Cause *Doug Kaufmann. I know, another know it all? Not so fast. He attributes many conditions, ailments, disease to diet. He has found thru his own life storm that FUNGUS which is a KNOWN poison/carcinogenic is allowed in our GRAINS and CATTLE that we ingest, cause so many inflammations and disease - it will make your head spin. Menopause is a natural occurrence. I am going thru it. While being organic, gluten free, supplementing with Iodoral, magnesium, selenium, vit c, d3, b12 to name a couple. I eliminated IBS and all those drugs/tests. GERD/reflux and very expensive drugs for that. Sinus infections - the antibiotics were adding to my misery and so were the steroids. Just money down the drain. MIGRAINES ARE GONE, too! It is unreal. I thought for sure I would be the sick one all the time taking countless meds for this and that. I do not. In a way, I do not trust them, anymore. I took them for far too long and they did nothing to CURE me. Good luck to you. I hope you get your health back soon. :) This post was edited by worriedone on Thu, Jan 17, 13 at 13:28

I have a hard time remembering--imagine THAT--exactly when I started into peri-meno... I think it was around 1995.. it was almost like I woke up one morning and the term "Change of life" had a whole new meaning..Life as I had known it, had certainly changed alright...nothing was the same..I had these overwhelming feelings of impending doom... just knew everything was going to make me DIE..anxiety attacks 24/7.. knew I had cancer in various places, detached retina..that one was a bout with ocular migraines... vertigo---KNEW that one was a brain tumour..blood pressure sky rocketed... heart palps... cholesterol jumped... hot flashes..phantom cramps..flooding.. then nothing for months then floods..and about a gazillion other things including, but not limited to hair in places I didn't want it and none in places I did... looking back, I guess I was/am one of the "lucky" ones... most of these symptoms were brought under control fairly quickly with a combination of diet, exercise, supplements ( B 100 complex, vit E, and a calcium/ magnesium).. and a better understanding of what was happening to my body...and how THAT affected my emotions and mind..for instance the B vitamins help regulate your hormones.. stress will deplete the body of them...was I stressed? you betcha... also I stumbled across an article about breathing correctly, and realized that much of the time I was stressed out, I was either holding my breath or breathng completely wrong.. thus contributing to the endless cycle of anxiety... learning to stop looking at everything as a huge outside force that was going to KILL me also helped LOL. that came by getting out and DOING things.. getting some fresh air and thinking about other things..I had gotten pretty self-posessed. Little by little the symptoms faded and I was left with a larger bra size, a few (?) extra pounds, still those pesky chin hairs.. an occasional hot flash..although almost NEVER in the winter when I could have used them...and the begining of an appreciation for this next chapter in life.. I just passed the "official "17 months bleed free, so I guess that means I'm there..I was able to go through these years without the benefit(?) of HRT.. but I realize that everyone is different and for some women HRT is the answer to getting through this time... what ever works is my belief.. nothing is written in stone on this one.. except I think the basics... drink plenty of water, get some form of exercise daily, get sleep when you can--I started taking naps again--and find somethng to laugh about often..seriously..laughing releases chemicals in your brain that make you feel better.. might be something to the old addage.."Laugh all your troubles away".. hang in there ..there is light at the end of the tunnel... sorry this ended up being so long, I do tend to run on sometimes.. Judy

I had a sleep study last May, which showed I had various sleep problems (apnea, alpha wave intrusion, no REM sleep). It makes me wonder if lots of women going through menopause begin to have these kinds of problems. I guess I'm finally going to think about trying a cpap machine, but I think it will be a challenge. In retrospect, I really think its been my sleep problems that have made the past 10 years pretty much a constant struggle. I think sleep deprivation can cause all sorts of craziness. Even if you think you've had a good night's sleep, it doesn't mean you have.

First of all, 135/80 IS a bad reading! 100/80 is more like it for your age.... 90/60 is not very low either... :o) when I was a long distance runner, mine was 70/50(resting pulse 45). :o) So, you definitely have high blood pressure, and that's no joke! I am not a doctor, so I can't say what's causing that... in my family, we start out low and go very high... right now I am at 90/70... so I am creeping up. irritable bowel MAY be caused by perimenopause, OR it could be caused by gallstones, which gave me IBS, OR another link is fibromyalgia. I don't think that acidopholus will help with ulcers. It's a great thing to have in you, and you need good buggies in your intestinal tract, but I don't think it has much to do with an ulcer. I am not a doctor, don't even play one. :o) BUT, I would pressure your doc on this, you might have several things going on here... it's POSSIBLE that it's related to perimenopause, it's also possible it's related to a lot of other things. I understand your reasoning though, and treating the underlying symptoms SHOULD be the goal. :o) Maybe your doc needs to figure out WHAT the cause is.