Mullingar nutritionist offers a graceful approach to menopause

“The guinea-pig generation” is how nutritionist Grace Kinirons describes women born in the 1960s and 1970s.

“We were pretty much the first generation, to have such freedom of choices,” says Grace, pointing to the fact that the world of work opened more fully to women; contraception brought a new type of freedom; drink – and even in some cases drugs – became a feature, and over time, so too did technology.

Now, in their 40s and 50, many in that category are caught between the responsibilities of caring for both older and younger generations – often while in key roles in their workplaces.

And crucially, in the middle of all this, it’s the time of life when women go through the perimenopause and menopause. Having been through it herself, and experienced the aches, the fatigues, the brain fog that are a hallmark of the process, Grace began investigating the link diet and lifestyle have on the symptoms of menopause, and drawing up a programme to help guide others through.

Now she is about to share that knowledge via an eight-week programme aimed at both perimenopausal and menopausal women.

Grace – who spent 16 years as a West End actress in London – has run her own nutrition therapy practice since 2005 while also lecturing in nutritional therapy at two colleges in Dublin.

In 2015, she and her husband moved back to Mullingar and Grace began working with Nuts n Grains in the town as a nutrition consultant.

“I started think about doing a programme for women because that was the one thing I noticed when in Nuts n Grains was that probably – after digestive symptoms – the next biggest thing that I was seeing was women really struggling; coming in and crying on my shoulder, thinking they were going mad,” she says, explaining that what these women had in common was that they were experiencing menopause.

“They were really, really struggling. “I had symptoms myself, but totally manageable. I didn’t have to go on HRT – not that I’m against HRT because it is absolutely necessary for a lot of women – but I began to go: ‘Why is this happening? What’s happening to women?’.”

Around that time, dozens of women began sharing their menopause experiences on the Joe Duffy Show too, some revealing that they had suffered really badly.

“For some women, it’s nearly all mental or emotional, so they are feeling incredibly depressed and incredibly anxious; or they have panic attacks and are unable to control their emotions – not feeling themselves, for want of better words; like really flying off the handle, really not being able to handle stress; pressure; weird sort of almost out of body experiences.”

For other women, the symptoms can, Grace says, be more of a physical nature – “extreme tiredness achy joints, digestive issues, as well as – obviously – the hot flushes”.

According to Grace, research indicates that around 20 per cent of women come through menopause with no symptoms; another 20 per cent go through a more gruelling time and the rest are in between.

“So one of my big questions is: ‘Why is this happening?’,” Grace continues, going on to explain that she has asked many women of her mother’s generation what their experience was, and in general, it appears fewer of them had the struggle that many experience now.

“So, I am looking at what has changed in our world that has made it so hard for women. So, you know, everything from of course, the different roles we have now.

“By the time they get to their mid-40s, late 40s into the 50s, if they have a career, they might be at the height of their career, like, supervisors, managers, business owners.

“And in fact we’re hardwired for nurturing: that’s just the way we’re made, so you know they are often mothers – they could even be grannies at this point; elderly parents need looking after; or teenage kids – and some women in their mid- to late-40s have young children because they had children later.

“Then there’s that ‘superwomen’ mentality so we all have to look really good; never put on weight and never get grey hair – all that pressure.”

At the same time, food has changed; more of what we eat has been processed; people are constantly snacking; more preservatives are used; there are more medicines in use; there is more environmental pollution.

When Grace began to go through the symptoms, she realised she had a strong weapon in the form of her nutritional training, and a second in the form of the fact that she had always been keen on exercise. But it took a series of visits to physiotherapists for joint pain, tennis elbow and tendon injuries before the penny dropped that she needed to change how she exercised and what and how she ate. That prompted her to engage a personal trainer and an ‘exercise to music’ course.

“I thought: ‘this is an opportunity to really have a good look at what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, change the pattern, and it made a massive difference to me and all my energy came back; I was sleeping much better and I stopped gaining weight.”

Out of that was born Grace’s Wellness Transition Programme. The way the course works is that each week there will be a focus on a different area; participants will get a weekly information pack ahead of the class with food suggestions and recipe ideas, and there will be a 45-minute exercise session.

Grace is running her classes at two venues: the Congress Centre and at the Mullingar Charity Variety Group premises at Forest Park. To keep class sizes small, she will have several courses running at a time.