Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition.

My name is Leah Kleintrode.

I'm a registered and licensed dietitian.

And today my co-pilot for this episode is Brandy Burrow, also a registered and licensed dietitian.

Hello.

And today we're diving into a topic that touches nearly every woman as she approaches midlife.

And this is how menopause affects our hair, our skin, and our nails. And of course, because we are dietitians,

most importantly, what can we do to support these tissues and structures through nutrition as we

make that menopausal transition in life? If you've been frustrated with duller or drier skin, thinning hair

that doesn't grow like it used to, or nails that just don't seem to be as strong as they used to be,

you are absolutely not alone. Right. Yeah, it's so common and it can be kind of frustrating because

it's impacting how we see ourselves,

how others see us, but it really isn't just cosmetics here.

You know, if your tissues are impacted on the outside, your tissues on the inside are also impacted.

So it could be a whole thing.

But what you see on the outside is just a sign of what is happening

internally. And hormonal changes, especially the drop in estrogen and progesterone that we go

through as we reach menopause, is going to affect collagen production and the hydration of your tissues.

But the good news is we do have some control over this with nutrition and the food choices that we make.

And so we like to think of food as the building blocks for beauty from the inside out.

In fact, you know, one of the very first things that some of my clients in this phase of their life might notice as they're making improvements with their diet is, you know, shinier hair, stronger nails.

Their nails aren't flaking off or breaking as easily.

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