Repairing Perimenopause and Menopause Hair, Skin, and Nail Health

After struggling with the appearance of her hair skin, and nails from perimenopause, one of my new Facial Rejuvenation patients told me, “I feel like I needed to work on my skin from the inside out.”

She’s right. An inside out approach is the best way to address hair loss, unhealthy nails, and unwanted skin appearances.   

In my clinic, I use approaches that work at the root of your problems. I look at the body as a whole. Your hair, skin, and nails reveal how your digestion works, how well you are eating, and if you have enough blood in your body. In Chinese Medicine, we say your hair is the outgrowth of the blood. For many women in perimenopause and menopause, heavy bleeding alone can create hair loss.

 

What Perimenopause Does to Your Hair, Skin, and Nails

Your skin is a detoxification organ. As you age, if the liver and gall bladder are getting congested, then your skin will show it. Skin tags. Moles. Acne. Swelling. Redness. This is why one of the most important things you can do for your skin as well as your overall health is cleansing the body and helping the liver stay healthy.

Your thyroid function is also important because it acts as a regulator for your metabolism. When your thyroid hormone production becomes too high or too low, your hair, skin, it’ll often manifest in your hair, skin, and nails first. You have so many critical systems in your bodies that depend on each other. Each one of them may need attention to truly be healthy.  And when you are truly healthy, then your skin, hair and nails will look how you always envisioned.

Your digestion is often not optimal as you age. Are you making enough enzymes? Are you stressed? Cleansing with a detox will really help by making sure you can correctly digest fat. So often, I find that patients want the process of feeling and looking their best to be simpler than what their bodies really need. 

Healing Your Hair, Skin, and Nails From the Inside Out

Taking care of your bodies and staying in balance requires mastering the basics of hydration, sleep, good diet, healthy exercise, and mental and emotional management. Women’s bodies are particularly complex. Hormone changes take time to stabilize and this shift changes how you feel and act. 

I believe that empowered healing consists of three parts:

• Researching and committing to an approach.

• Evaluating how it makes you feel and then re-evaluating periodically.

• Communicating to your provider about your decision, comfort level, and results.

Your body’s needs are always shifting, meaning how you address your health needs to shift, too. There will always be a need to re-evaluate if what you are doing is still the best approach for your health. If you feel like the surface level approaches are failing, it’s often that the deeper organs need detoxification or nurturing. The older you get, the less you can handle eating a poor diet. 

I believe in using all the tools available to you when combating a challenge:

• Moisturize what is dry.

• Brush your teeth. 

• Put beautiful healing nutrients directly on your skin.

• Eat a healthier diet that supports your blood and your skin.

• Address poor digestion.

• Cleanse once a year. 

• Get checked for skin cancer. 

• Seek your doctor and evaluate anything that comes up in your labs. 

• Schedule occasional functional medicine appointments to address new needs.

Everything is interconnected. Despite a system that responds to disease and sends you to various specialists, the basics are always going to yield good results over time and help turn around or improve your health. That’s why I’m so passionate about acupuncture, herbal medicine, and functional medicine – it returns to the basics your body needs to rid complex symptoms and health conditions.

Good Needles Acupuncture is a general practice, and I enjoy seeing my patients through healthy aging. It’s so much fun to see hair grow after hair loss or to see skin glow and tighten after being dull and inflamed after a Facial Rejuvenation Treatment or prescribe an herbal or supplement protocol. It’s really a joy to take good care of you and be part of your wellness.

Worried about your health based on the appearance of your hair, skin, or nails? Let me help. I offer a free consultation, practice in Lakewood, Colorado, and offer online 1:1 Perimenopause Coaching. You can revitalize your health and appearance naturally, and I can’t wait to get you the results you dream of.