Just the mere mention of the word menopause will give any woman some jitters. For members of the female gender, this stage in their lives is as scary as nightly visits from Freddie Kruger. You too would be scared if you knew that you will be haunted by the symptoms of menopause, which include hormonal changes, night sweats, hot flashes, tension headaches, mood swings, dry skin, lowered sex drive, vaginal dryness, anxiety, tension, and depression.

Kidding aside, menopause is a terrible stage to be in. However, you should not lose hope because you can fight some of the irritating menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweating and anxiety and depression by simply drinking enough water.

Menopause And Dehydration

Not many are aware that hormonal changes experienced during menopause can also bring about some form of dehydration, a condition in which the body does not have enough fluids to perform its normal functions. It is important to note that oxygen and nutrients cannot be properly circulated in different parts of the body if you are dehydrated.

A decline in a woman's estrogen level speeds up the aging process. Aside from more wrinkles, and dry and sagging skin, the aging process also reduces the body's ability to conserve water. Thus, a huge percentage of the fluids that is ingested come out through urine and sweat.

More water is actually lost by women during perimenopause and menopause because of hot flashes and night sweating. Since these symptoms, which can last from a couple of seconds to about 30 minutes, bring about profuse sweating, menopausal women who do not have the habit of drinking the right amount of water or other fluids are really more susceptible to getting dehydrated.

Some menopausal symptoms, such as tension headaches, mood swings, anxiety, and depression can also be exacerbated by dehydration. Since the brain and other body parts are not getting enough oxygen and nutrients when you are dehydrated, there is really a huge tendency to be easily agitated and irritable.

So how does water help women with menopause?

Prevents Drying Of Skin

Because of the reduction in the amount of estrogen in the body, the skin of a woman with menopause starts to dry, sag and wrinkle. You can actually prevent your skin from drying just by drinking enough water because water helps keep your skin moisturized.

Minimizes Irritability And Anxiety

Water helps in calming people when they are angry, anxious, tensed, nervous and irritable. In movies you might have noticed that someone usually offers some water to those who are in grief, crying, excited or surprised.

Furthermore, drinking plenty of water prevents dehydration. As mentioned earlier, dehydration can exacerbate the emotional symptoms of menopausal women.

Hot flashes And Night Sweats

Women who drank at least eight glasses of water a day have fewer or lesser attacks of hot flashes. Moreover, drinking a glass of cool water when you feel that you are about to have a hot flash attack could help a lot in preventing a full blast strike. The cool water will help balance the temperature in your body. Some people even splash cool water on their face in order to ease the symptom.

Drinking water is also helpful in easing the onset of night sweating. Before you go to bed, make sure that you have a glass of water nearby so that anytime you feel that you are going to have an attack, you can immediately stop it by drinking water.

To ease the other symptoms of menopause, there are many products in the market that can help. Just be sure to look for something that is natural and won't have side effects.

One product that can help ease your menopause symptoms is Zalestra. For more information, visit www.zalestra.com.

About the Author

Sharon Bell is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and published author. Many of her insightful articles can be found at the premiere online news magazine http://www.healthnfitnesszone.com.