Perimenopause And Dizziness???

[amandawald]

Hi there!

I'm getting on for 50, so I hope I can post here ;)

A quick question for the ladies: I'm an almost 46 yo female experiencing some perimenopausal symptoms (period arrived after 20 days, for example) and, for about four weeks now, on and off, I've experienced varying degrees of dizziness and light-headedness in the mornings.

It usually wears off after a while, but I wondered whether this is simply a hypoglycemic symptom (and should I be worried about that? I've never had this before!), or whether this possible hypoglycemic symptom is caused by hormonal imbalance due to my age.

Apart from that, I'm experiencing a nice steady weight loss right now through having taken bread off the menu a few days ago, so I don't want to "carb up" to get my BG back up as is recommended on the websites I looked at.

Any thoughts, recommendations, links to other websites on the subject?

Any feedback would be welcome!

[Suzien]

Hi Amanda,

I'm perimenopausal as well although a bit further down the line than you. In the past I have experienced dizzy spells and they have been followed by severe hypoglycemia symptoms.

I am now in a low carb diet and so far (it's only been 2 weeks) I haven't had the hypoglycemia but I have been feeling a light headed almost dizzy sensation which I think must be as a result of the diet. I am hoping that it will stop as my body adjusts to lower insulin/glucose levels.

[amandawald]

I have been reading "The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition" and I think she says that low estradiol levels (which perimenopausal women can get) also cause these symptoms. Light-headedness and "almost dizziness" could certainly be low blood sugar.

Dr S would argue that low blood sugar is a very bad thing as it ratchets up your adrenaline output so that your liver makes more sugar. High adrenaline levels are a huge stress for the body, so she is dead against them.

That said, she does advocate a fairly low-carb diet, but says that carbs should be eaten at every meal, just not that many. She recommends never eating a protein alone.

I am tweaking my LC WOE (formerly Groves, doing about 70g carbs/day, sometimes as low as 50g, never lower) to accommodate the SPII ideas and, so far, so good.

I used to have bacon and eggs, and often nothing else, for my "2nd breakfast", but sometimes I'd end up feeling a little spacey a while later. I now either have some hash browns, or tomato and mushrooms, or have some fruit as a kind of post-breakfast "dessert". I am so far finding that this suits me better than just protein and fat.

I have also noticed that very low-carb lunches would not keep me going for long, and today had a small portion of brown rice with my meat and veggies. And, it did indeed work better for me.

As for low blood sugar, I have since discovered that I was probably low in zinc and/or magnesium. Both of these are apparently involved in blood sugar regulation.

Drinking any caffeinated beverages or alcohol makes you pee these out and I had been drinking too much of both. Plus I had been taking alpha-lipoic acid, which may have depleted my zinc stores. When I went off the ALA, started taking 15mg of zinc per day, the dizziness went away. However, I still get faint light-headedness which is why I'm trying out this SPII programme. If that doesn't seem to help, I shall maybe get my estradiol levels checked and see about bio-identical hormones.

I really don't like this spacey feeling, but I am wondering whether it is better to learn to live with it than take hormone therapy??? This is an issue I haven't looked into yet...

Just thought I'd pass on my experiences to you. Maybe your zinc is low? Or magnesium? Do you take either of these as supplements?

amanda

[Suzien]

I have been reading "The Schwarzbein Principle II: The Transition" and I think she says that low estradiol levels (which perimenopausal women can get) also cause these symptoms. Light-headedness and "almost dizziness" could certainly be low blood sugar.

Dr S would argue that low blood sugar is a very bad thing as it ratchets up your adrenaline output so that your liver makes more sugar. High adrenaline levels are a huge stress for the body, so she is dead against them.

That said, she does advocate a fairly low-carb diet, but says that carbs should be eaten at every meal, just not that many. She recommends never eating a protein alone.

I am tweaking my LC WOE (formerly Groves, doing about 70g carbs/day, sometimes as low as 50g, never lower) to accommodate the SPII ideas and, so far, so good.

As for low blood sugar, I have since discovered that I was probably low in zinc and/or magnesium. Both of these are apparently involved in blood sugar regulation.

amanda

Hi Amanda,

Thanks for the information. I will try and up my zinc and magnesium intake.

By low blood sugar, do you mean hypoglycemia or just 'lower than you have been used to?

This whole diet thing is very confusing; talk about too much information. How does one discern between fact and hypothesis when the authors of all these books can't agree? I assume that that is why the advice to us is to pick a plan and stick to it!

Thanks again,

Sue

[amandawald]

Hi Sue,

To respond to your post:

By low blood sugar, do you mean hypoglycemia or just 'lower than you have been used to?

Well, to be honest, I thought that low blood sugar was just the English translation for the Latin term hypoglecemia, for laypeople at least. I have read somewhere that the definition of hypoglycemia is 50g/whatever, whereas somewhere round 90g/whatever is normal.

I haven't got a glucose meter so I have never measured my blood sugar at home. I just had those spacey, light-headed slightly dizzy feelings, which I suspected were low blood sugar and kind of had confirmed when I ate something like a dried date or a couple of dried apricots (this would only be 10-13g of carbs, but fast-acting ones!!!) and then felt better.

This whole diet thing is very confusing; talk about too much information. How does one discern between fact and hypothesis when the authors of all these books can't agree? I assume that that is why the advice to us is to pick a plan and stick to it!

I think it is wisest to choose ONE plan and then stick to that as best you can, as, for example, a very high-fat plan would not combine well with a higher carb regime. (Well, unless your aim was to get fatter!) I have reduced my fat/protein intake slightly (not by weighing anything, just reducing the quantities) to make up for the fact that I have upped my carbs slightly and it seems to be doing the trick. I have lost the 1kg of water/fat weight I accumulated over the weekend due to a carb blow-out and too much beer - and it went again in just two days!!! I guess most of it must have been water bloat, but I sure did feel fat!

Now I shall continue with my new SPII regime and see whether I maintain or lose. And then I'll take it from there...

The vain person in me wants to be down to 61.4kg again, rather than 62.2kg, because it all seems to go on my bum, belly and thighs. And our summer holiday is coming up!!! AAAAARGH!!! Beach holiday!!! Can I wear a swimsuit or will it be a chador??? :D

I shall have to look up this Zoe Harcombe: I've never heard of her before.

How are you doing with her plan? I felt great when I first switched to low-carbing - masses of energy and really zippy!

amanda

[Suzien]

Hi Amanda, Sorry for taking so long to reply, I've been browsing loads of threads. I can now tell you that: a. I was low on magnesium which I have upped and b. I have not got on at all well on the Harcombe diet and am now back to Atkins.

That being said, I am not doing very well. I have had a holiday when I drank far too much whisky and came back 2.5lbs heavier. Since then I have lost that bit of weight but am stuck at 199lb. Not stuck to the extent of some others on this site, but stuck for a week or so going up and down by about half a lb.

I keep playing round with my quantities (fat/carb/protein) i.e. dropping the carbs and allowing the fat to go up a bit, and I have cut right back on the berries. I am now eating up to 30g carbs, 120g protein and 160g fat. I'm a bit worried about the fat and may try to reduce it but I'm going to stick to the rest for a while and see if I can break this 'stall'.

I haven't felt great at all, although I do feel a bit more alert. This alertness may just be hormonal, I need to wait for a while to see if things change. Apart from alertness I feel more tired, my muscles ache after a small amount of exercise and I have an upset tummy.

Regards the hypoglycemia, my interpretation of that would be shaking hands, weak knees and a craving for sugary food. I normally had it during or just before my TOM. I don't have a TOM any more but still seem to have a cycle of sorts, it's just a bit erratic.

Good luck with your new regime.

Sue