Summer Cocktails while Menopausing
Who doesn’t have this fantasy of sitting poolside, with a lover, laughter, great music, and a glass in hand filled with ice cubes, exotic fruit and a paper umbrella.
Drinking wine, beer and tequila during the summer for the season, every summer movie feeds us a scene like this. Summer is expansive, feel good, chill, and drinking helps get us there faster.
Alcohol and summer have similar qualities, they both are light, heating and penetrating, the doṣha associated with each is pitta. Perimenopause is also associated with pitta. Too much pitta or any doṣa will get a woman in trouble.
One of the main principles of Ayurveda is that everything can be medicinal and everything can be poisonous.
Medicine is a substance or action which stimulates the body/mind complex’s innate intelligence so that the body/mind complex can function and process in ease and longevity.
Poison - is a substance or action which is sharp, usually fast acting and deeply invasive forcing the body/mind complex’s intelligence to react quickly to survive the invader. A poison has the ability to transform, hinder/end health if not removed from the organism.
The Saṇskrit word for poison is viśha. One of the many names for alcohol in Ayurveda is viśha, when ingested under the wrong conditions and/or in excess.
Alcohol is used for medicinal purposes, when misused and overused is poisonous, experience and scientific studies tell us this is true.
I’m not a ‘Just say no’ type of gal unless there’s an underlying disease. I adore doing research, some into current scientific studies but mostly into the Ayurvedic Texts. Alcohol consumption is a nuanced study and practice, Vagbhat, Sushrut and Charaka the three major seers of Ayurveda have lots to say about it.
As a practitioner, I am always trying to understand the context as well as the substance or behavior for personalization to maximize health benefits. We are complex creatures and our approach must be nuanced.
Who: Doṣha (bioenergetic archetypal constitution), gender, age, underlying health conditions, state of digestive capacity (agni), tissue systems (dhātu) and state of mind. Past reactivity.
What: Overall substance qualities, doṣha and actions, main ingredients qualities, mode of preparation, effect on bodily functions, processes and digestion.
When: Season, Time of Day, Weather Conditions, Time of Life and the dominant doṣha of each of these.
Where: Environment, home conditions, work conditions including relationship - living conditions.
Why: Main reason for choosing the behavior - in the case of alcohol it could be to fit in, stress reduction, habit, loss, feel good etc…
How: Final preparation form, mixed with other substance? Taken with other food, cooked into other food, while sitting, or other activities? Taken with herbs, spices or other liquids (what are the qualities of additional substances and their interactions?)
Occasional drinking doesn’t require such an in depth investigation. If the body is healthy, it has the intelligence to manage occasional drinking without having any detrimental symptoms.
Perimenopausal women and beyond report that it takes longer to recover from alcohol than when younger.
📓 If you study your reactions closely you will find that during drinking while summer and menopausing will take more effort to feel better after a night out.
Alcohol consumption in women
The female body in general makes less of an alcohol-processing enzyme called 'alcohol dehydrogenase' in the liver compared with males. This allows a greater proportion of alcohol to reach other organs, exposing them to alcohol's toxic effects.1
Diuretic - removes water from the body
Increases Vasomotor incidents - Hot Flashes, Cold Sweats, Migraines.
What does Ayurveda have to say about Alcohol?
From Art & Heart of Menopausing Live with
Five General Alcohol Guidelines according to Ayurveda:
When in good health
In a safe environment
In moderation while celebrating in good company
In sacred ceremony (not in traditional Brahmanic ceremony)
In moderation by doṣha and appropriate by season
One of the main principles of Ayurveda is like increases like and opposites decrease each other.
Alcohol has the following qualities:
Fire Element made from fermented earth element (plant material)
light
heating
sour
sharp
fast acting
drying
pervasive/permeating
Doṣha Qualities
Vāta (Air & Space Element) is light, dry, moving
Pitta (Fire & small amount of Water Element) is heating, sour, sharp, quick acting, spreading
Kapha (Water and Earth element) is heavy, cooling, sweet, soft, stable/unmoving, moist
Peri through post menopause is the time of life when pitta is high and unstable. Women are moving or have moved into vāta stage of life.
Drinking alcohol will dry and warm a vāta person, dry and overheat a pitta person, and internally warm, increase digestive capacity and remove excess mucus for a kapha person.
If the person is a peri through post menopausal woman the effect will multiply for a vāta and pitta woman and potentially dry out a kapha woman.
— Distilled alcohols are the most fiery (pitta increasing) drinks, they include gin, vodka, bourbon, scotch, whiskey, tequila and rum.
— Sweet wines and kombucha are the least fiery of alcoholic beverages.
— Beer in general has more fire than wine but less than hard alcohol. Beer made from hops is estrogenic.
All estrogenic substances mimic estrogen and can disrupt hormone signals. This means that they can assist in increasing estrogen levels or reduce the capacity of estrogen to function appropriately in various systems of the body.
If you are celebrating summer while menopausing with some alcoholic beverages consider adding sweet fruit, cooling herbs and drink plenty of water.
Let’s face it… sometimes we all need to let go just a little.
Dear Paying Readers
I appreciate you so much, below the paywall we will explore more specifics of drinks when alcohol can help or hurt, specific herbs to manage or reduce the amount of time needed to recover.
Dear Art of Menopausing Ayurvedic Summer Members
Last week, we met for our seasonal Ojas boost session, if you didn’t attend, the recording is available.
For your Summer Ojas Boost Notes: the affect of alcohol on prāna (subtle purified essence of vāta - life force), tejas (subtle purified essence of pitta -vital brilliance) and ojas (subtle purified essence kapha - vitality, immunity) is below as well.
Casual drinking is not recommended for low Agni or low Ojas
