Have You Tried Cycle Syncing Yet?
It's a form of biohacking that understands and works with your body, and involves aligning your lifestyle decisions based on the phases of your menstrual cycle. 'When you start syncing your lifestyle to your cycle, you stop feeling like you're 'all over the place' every week,' explains Mitun De Sarkar, UAE-based clinical dietitian.
Instead of viewing your period as an isolated event, cycle syncing is about honouring the entire cycle, believes integrative nutritionist and health psychologist, Karishma Shah. 'It recognises hormones, mood, energy, and the metabolism shift each week, and so should your lifestyle,' she adds. 'Cycle syncing helps you understand when to lean in, when to pull back, and how to nourish your body in a way that supports hormonal harmony.'
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The benefits
This technique offers a range of benefits — from reducing PMS and improving fertility to balancing mood, boosting energy, enhancing skin quality, and supporting weight management. 'It helps women train smarter, not harder, by aligning with the body's changing biomechanics, fatigue levels, and joint stability across each phase,' says Dr Karishma Sanghavi, sports physiotherapist and certified MDT from McKenzie Institute India.
Even in skincare, it promotes greater body awareness. Dr Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist and founder of Self London, notes that while research is still emerging, there's biological plausibility behind hormone fluctuations affecting the skin. 'By tracking these shifts and adjusting skincare accordingly, individuals may better manage concerns like oiliness, breakouts, sensitivity, or dullness,' she explains.
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3 Simple Rules for a Healthy Gut
Beyond its well-known digestive functions, the microbiota plays a role in regulating our entire metabolism. It may modify our mood and even our gene expression. What if it were possible to optimise it with raw food?
Taking the wheel: a guide to cycle syncing
Menstrual phase (Day 1 - 5)
Oestrogen and progesterone are at their lowest; the body is in rest-and-release mode, shedding the uterine lining with low energy levels.
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Have You Tried Cycle Syncing Yet?
The menstrual cycle impacts nearly everything — mood, energy, appetite, weight, productivity, and behaviour — everything. As much as we like to feel in control, hormones often take the lead and run the show. Considering they play such a central role in the female body, instead of ignoring them, it makes sense to listen and plan accordingly. And that's where cycle syncing comes in. It's a form of biohacking that understands and works with your body, and involves aligning your lifestyle decisions based on the phases of your menstrual cycle. 'When you start syncing your lifestyle to your cycle, you stop feeling like you're 'all over the place' every week,' explains Mitun De Sarkar, UAE-based clinical dietitian. Instead of viewing your period as an isolated event, cycle syncing is about honouring the entire cycle, believes integrative nutritionist and health psychologist, Karishma Shah. 'It recognises hormones, mood, energy, and the metabolism shift each week, and so should your lifestyle,' she adds. 'Cycle syncing helps you understand when to lean in, when to pull back, and how to nourish your body in a way that supports hormonal harmony.' Read More Are we Overdosing on Health and Beauty Supplements? The sudden surge in nutraceuticals has got people reaching out for pills and powders instead of real food The benefits This technique offers a range of benefits — from reducing PMS and improving fertility to balancing mood, boosting energy, enhancing skin quality, and supporting weight management. 'It helps women train smarter, not harder, by aligning with the body's changing biomechanics, fatigue levels, and joint stability across each phase,' says Dr Karishma Sanghavi, sports physiotherapist and certified MDT from McKenzie Institute India. Even in skincare, it promotes greater body awareness. Dr Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist and founder of Self London, notes that while research is still emerging, there's biological plausibility behind hormone fluctuations affecting the skin. 'By tracking these shifts and adjusting skincare accordingly, individuals may better manage concerns like oiliness, breakouts, sensitivity, or dullness,' she explains. Read More 3 Simple Rules for a Healthy Gut Beyond its well-known digestive functions, the microbiota plays a role in regulating our entire metabolism. It may modify our mood and even our gene expression. What if it were possible to optimise it with raw food? Taking the wheel: a guide to cycle syncing Menstrual phase (Day 1 - 5) Oestrogen and progesterone are at their lowest; the body is in rest-and-release mode, shedding the uterine lining with low energy levels.
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Are GLP-1s a Cure for Menopausal Weight Gain?
It was night sweats, wild mood swings, and, ironically, significant hair loss that first sent Kate, 54, a New York–based hairstylist, to her doctor in her late 40s looking for relief; she was prescribed an estrogen patch. 'It made me feel like myself again,' says Kate, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy. 'I was sleeping, I wasn't losing my temper, and my mood really evened out, but I was still overweight.' Despite a healthy diet and regular exercise, there were a dozen or so pounds that just wouldn't budge. So she started taking Wegovy. For Shelby Meade, 55, an LA-based publicist, regular doses of estrogen helped temper her sometimes 30-day periods but did nothing for her perpetually bloated state. 'I was heavier than I'd ever been and there was a constant pressure on my lower abdomen,' says Meade, who, like Kate, exercised regularly and had a healthy diet. A family doctor suggested Wegovy. 'I just wanted to feel better in my body, and that flipped a switch,' says Meade. 'It was a game changer.' While vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats are recurring topics in conversations about menopause, weight gain is just as pervasive: Around 60 percent of women gain weight during this transition, putting on an average of 1.5 pounds per year throughout their 40s and 50s. 'I have 16 patients a day, and usually 16 out of 16 are reporting weight gain to me,' says Tara Iyer, MD, medical director of the Menopause and Midlife Clinic at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts. 'Many had never struggled with weight but now have gained 15 or 20 pounds.' And that will happen to women without any changes in diet or exercise. 'It's a very unfair paradigm,' says Caroline Messer, MD, a New York City–based endocrinologist. Much of that midlife weight gain tends to be concentrated in the midsection, earning the unfortunate moniker 'meno belly.' This happens due to a combination of factors. Estrogen—which, much like the collagen in our faces, we lose at a rapid rate come midlife—has many important functions related to weight and body composition: It helps women maintain muscle mass, and it contributes to the regulation of appetite and metabolism. 'Essentially women are losing muscle, gaining fat tissue, and where we store our weight changes,' says Iyer. A drop in estrogen can lead to insulin resistance, meaning that it becomes more difficult for the body to regulate sugar, and for many women that glucose gets turned into fat. Addressing excess weight around the midsection isn't just about vanity, it can pose a health risk: Associated metabolic complications can include fatty liver disease and hypertension, the latter of which, says Reena Bose, MD, an internal medicine and obesity medicine specialist at Cleveland Clinic, increases almost 30 percent with even a 10-pound weight gain. The American Heart Association also highlights the menopause transition as a time of heightened risk for women's cardiovascular health. The hormonal changes of menopause can make the weight gain more resistant to traditional diet and lifestyle adjustments, says Peminda Cabandugama, MD. But studies have found that GLP-1s can be a very effective reinforcement of diet and exercise GLP-1s—that is, the class of drugs that includes semaglutide, packaged in brand-name form as Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, like Mounjaro—'act on estrogen receptors in the body, and they improve insulin resistance,' explains Judi Chervenak, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at Montefiore with a clinical focus on menopause. They also slow GI motility, so you feel full. That last part 'can be essential because women are often simply hungrier during the menopause transition,' says Bose, adding that estrogen is also responsible for keeping the body's hunger-balancing hormones, ghrelin and leptin (which tell us when we're full), in check. The hormonal changes of menopause can make the weight gain more resistant to traditional diet and lifestyle adjustments, says Peminda Cabandugama, MD, an endocrinologist and obesity specialist at Cleveland Clinic. But studies, like a recent one in the journal Obesity, found that GLP-1s can be a very effective reinforcement of diet and exercise. Research is also growing about the potential benefits of combining GLP-1s with the menopausal hormone treatment (MHT) that has long been recommended, and there are new companies to support the regimen. Alloy Women's Health, an expansive digital menopause platform that connects board-certified physicians to women across the country (a boon in health care deserts), launched with estrogen creams and patches, but earlier this year they started offering GLP-1s as well. 'Women really wanted it,' says Monica Molenaar, cofounder and co-CEO of Alloy. Now 35 percent of Alloy's customers are on both a GLP-1 and hormonal treatment. Another platform, Noom, started as a digital weight-management platform and first offered semaglutide in 2023; it expanded into hormonal treatment this year. 'These drugs are addressing different problems, but they work together in the sense that they both bring down inflammation,' says Karen Mann, MD, medical director at Noom. Messer is a huge proponent of coupling the treatments (she favors low doses of tirzepatide, which often has fewer side effects than semaglutide). A recent study by the Mayo Clinic found that overweight or obese postmenopausal women using hormonal treatments and semaglutide lost about 30 percent more weight than those using semaglutide alone. Chrisandra Shufelt, MD, an internal medicine doctor specializing in women's health at the Mayo Clinic and one of the authors of the study, emphasizes that the findings don't necessarily mean that hormone therapy supercharges the effects of semaglutide, but rather that hormones help the body respond more optimally to the drugs. (A larger study is expected to be published soon.) In lay terms, it makes sense: Hot flashes, night sweats, mood shifts, joint pain, and sleep disruptions—all of that can dramatically impact your quality of life and, in turn, lead to weight gain. There are doctors, of course, who remain conservative about prescribing GLP-1s to women who don't fit a specific set of criteria. 'We have to be careful about using them willy-nilly, like with someone, for example, who has a normal BMI and may just not be happy because of a slight increase in body weight,' says Chervenak. 'These drugs are not without risk.' There are the common side effects of GLP-1s, like gastrointestinal issues, abdominal pain, and nausea, and women should assess their risk factors with their doctor before starting any treatment. But there is also a growing sense that women no longer want to suffer silently. 'We have this societal norm where we make women in particular wait until they get diseased or are in crisis before we say, 'Here's a treatment,' ' says Alloy cofounder Molenaar. For some women the benefits of these drugs far outweigh any potential risks. Carolyn Chang, MD, 58, a plastic surgeon in San Francisco, experienced some of the expected negatives of Ozempic when she added it to her hormonal regimen but says it's been worth it: Her mood has improved, her joint pain is gone, and she is no longer prediabetic. That threat of diabetes was part of the reason Chang decided to start taking Ozempic, but the other was, she admits, her appearance. 'I'm a plastic surgeon so, yes, my presentation matters to me,' says Chang. Many women may feel shy to express it in such blunt terms, but put in other words, it has a straightforward appeal: There doesn't need to be a divide between feeling better in one's body and feeling better about it.
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Is Hair & Scalp SPF Actually a Thing?
Time and again, we're reminded that sunscreen is sacrosanct. It's the Holy Grail of skincare. The be-all and end-all of your routine. But does the rule apply to your hair and scalp, too? The internet seems to think so, and considering your scalp is an extension of your skin, the experts agree, too. 'The scalp is skin — and just like the rest of your body, it is vulnerable to sun damage,' says Michael Ryan, clinical trichologist, Dubai Hair Doctor. 'Many people forget this area because it's often covered with hair. But the part lines, thinning areas, receding hairlines, and even fully exposed scalps for bald individuals, can get sunburnt, leading to discomfort.' The hair affair While your hair acts like a barrier for most of it, your scalp is still susceptible to UV ray exposure and eventual damage. According to Ryan, it's a high risk for sunbuns due to direct sun exposure, especially at the crown and part line. 'Skin cancers often appear on the scalp because it's constantly exposed and often unprotected.' To top it off, just like heat, UV rays can degrade your hair proteins, particularly keratin. While hair itself is not living tissue, Dr Anjali Mahto, consultant dermatologist at Self London, believes that it can also suffer from UV exposure, leading to dryness, brittleness, and colour fading. 'Applying sunscreen to the scalp is about offering it the same protection we afford the rest of our skin,' she says. 'Repeated UV exposure can lead to damage, pigmentation changes and, in some cases, precancerous lesions.' It doesn't end there. Neglecting to protect your scalp can eventually lead to several risks, including burns that may result in redness, peeling, tenderness, irritation, and flaking, which almost mimics dandruff. Repeated sun exposure may contribute to accelerated scalp skin ageing, and even follicular inflammation that can potentially impact hair growth over time. It also increases the risk of skin cancers such as basal or squamous cell carcinoma, particularly in those with thinning or bald areas. Is it an absolute necessity? Yes and no! 'It's not about overcomplicating your routine,' says Dr Mahto. 'It's about smart, targeted protection.' For example, if you have thick hair with no visible scalp, the risk is lower, though still present on partings or the hairline. If you wear your hair in partings or hairstyles that expose the scalp or if you have thinning or fine hair, then sun protection becomes essential. This applies to those who are bald or closely shaved, too.
