There is a difference between knowing what a plant does and knowing a plant.

I can reflect on nettles minerals, or hawthorns affinity with the heart. That lemon balm has traditionally been used to soothe and settle. This knowledge matters, but it is not the whole of knowing.

Break open fresh turmeric and the colour almost startles you.

Gold concealed beneath an ordinary brown skin.

Long before turmeric became a capsule on a wellness shelf, it was food, dye and medicine, used for centuries across South and Southeast Asia and holding an important place within Ayurvedic traditions.

Watch an animal move through its day and you will not see a workout.

You will see stretching, resting, walking, sudden effort, long stillness, play, curiosity and movement in response to the world around it.

Human bodies once moved much more like this too.

Something happens in the dark that cannot happen in quite the same way in daylight.

Our bodies evolved in relationship with the turning of light and darkness, and that old rhythm still lives within us.

Its Latin name, vagus, means wandering.

And wander it does.

The vagus nerve travels from the brainstem through the neck and into the chest and abdomen, communicating with the heart, lungs and digestive system along the way.

There are parts of the female body we have learned to speak about easily.

And others that remain strangely hidden.

The pelvic floor is one of them.

Body temperature. Pulse. Breath. Blood pressure.

Medicine has long used vital signs as clues to what is happening inside the body.

The menstrual cycle can offer information too.

Long before the thinking mind has decided whether something feels safe, threatening, pleasurable or overwhelming, the body is already listening.

Breath changes. Heart rate shifts. Muscles brace or soften. Digestion alters. Attention narrows or expands.

For generations, women have called menopause the change.

There may be more wisdom in those two words than we realise.

Because this passage rarely confines itself to hormones.

We do not inhabit our bodies alone.

Within the digestive tract lives an immense community of microorganisms collectively known as the gut microbiome.

We talk about “hormone balance” so often that it is easy to imagine balance means stillness.

But hormones have never been still.

Menopause is a strangely long threshold.

Most rites of passage are imagined as a moment. A door crossed. A ceremony completed. A before and an after.

This one can take years.

For a long time, many women were taught to treat the body as an opponent.

Something to restrict, discipline, shrink, push past and correct.

Diet culture taught us to distrust hunger. Exercise culture taught us that movement could repay what we had eaten.

Recurring UTIs post menopause and post hysterectomy are very common.

Iron deficiency is one of the most common symptoms in women during peri-to-post menopause and despite myth is really has very little to do with how much meat you eat.

A high fibre diet is extremely important for a number of reasons. Eating a large variety of fresh fruits, grains and vegetables supports your gut health. 

We are exposed to EDCs every single day, and these have a direct impact on our hormones.

Women in their peri menopause may begin noticing stray hairs on their face, the odd rogue hair is not uncommon

Our Sugar intake affects everything from our mood, to our cognitive function. During Menopause, it can also affect our frequency of hot flashes

Studies show continuous unresolved high cortisol and/or poor sleep directly links to cognitive decline during the menopause transition. Cognitive decline can be irreparable if left unresolved, and so more than ever our management of issues is of critical importance