The doshas Vata, Pitta and Kapha are not only biological forces present in our bodies, but our life cycle can also be divided according to the 3 doshas:
Doshic phases of life:
🌱 Kapha phase: from birth to puberty: when our systems are like seeds: full of growth potential. We require a lot of sleep and nourishment during this stage. Between napping and raiding the fridge we prepare ourselves for the next stage.
🔥 Pitta phase: from puberty to menopause/andropause: our most productive years! Our hormones and metabolism is at full speed, ready to 👏🏾make 👏🏾shit 👏🏾happen!
🍂 Vata phase: from menopause/andropause on: at this stage we become more frail and dry. Our metabolism and stamina are diminished, all of our tissues and bones become weaker, and our memory start to fail. (You're reading a post about menopause, in case your forgot.)
Therefore, whatever your constitution is (Vata, Pitta or Kapha), when you enter the vata stage of life your vata dosha will inevitably be increased. What happens at menopause is that, with vata being increased, kapha the dosha that keeps it all together will be decreased, letting Vata and Pitta roam freely and cause troubles and ailments in the body. It's like pouring fuel (Vata) into a raging fire (Pitta), but with only a couple of sticks of wood to burn (Kapha). This scenario becomes worse when our frantic, exhausting lifestyles deplete our vitality and structure, or our kapha dosha, making this imbalance even harder to manage.
I'll prove it to you: most of the menopause symptoms are vata related! Look:
🍂Vata menopause symptoms: insomnia, heart palpitations, urinary incontinence, fatigue, osteoporosis, weak memory and cognition, vaginal (and overall) dryness, muscle and joint pain, changes in mood, irritability, depression, increased cardiovascular risk, diminished metabolism.
🔥Pitta menopause symptoms: hot flushes, night sweats, redness in face. Notice that these symptoms are not structural like vata symptoms, they are a bit more "superficial". Pitta here is not usually increased per se, it it's actually a false perception that it is increased because of the diminished kapha.
🌱Kapha menopause symptoms: fluid retention and weight gain. This happens because of a decreased metabolism, which can also be understood as a Pitta being diminished and/or vata increased.
What a conundrum!!! What to do in this situation is quite simple (in theory, I said simple not easy):
🍂 Balance Vata: "per my last email", this is the dosha that is causing the most trouble and it needs to be contained and redirected.
🔥Ease Pitta symptoms: menopause brings pitta-like symptoms not always because pitta is too high, but because kapha gets too low. So the best approach is to soothe the symptoms with rose water sprays for hot flushes, for example, so splish splash until the situation is corrected at its root.
🌱Increase Kapha: here is where the real secret lies! By increasing the structure, lubrication, strength, and ojas in the body, your kapha will be strong enough to contain rampant vata and pitta. If you correlate kapha only with fat/weight gain, *horn sound* you're incorrect.
If all this dosha talk is confusing to you, feel free to reach out to me.
Before we wrap up, I will leave you with some important dietary/lifestyle advice and supplements to consider*:
*after proper medical consultation and lab work:
🍳 Increase protein intake and decrease carbohydrates intake. Eliminate added sugars completely and keep ultraprocessed foods to a minimum.
🥣 Consider supplementing calcium, magnesium, omega 3, coenzyme Q10, and hydrolized collagen. Consult with your doctor first.
🏋🏽 Not exercising is not an option! Weight training is for muscle, joint and bone health and cardio for better metabolism.
🌹Having a bottle of rose water handy will help easy the hot flushed and pitta related symptoms. Rose tea can also be beneficial.
So ladies, if you are approaching this stage of life the time to care for yourself is now! If you are already feeling the changes, please don't wait any longer, you do not have to suffer.
To a balanced life!
Namaste,
Grazie Prokopetz, Doctor of Ayurveda
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