Legs Talk : Rebekah Brown
Believing that the way we experience menopause could be intrinsically linked to nutrition - that diet can have a significant bearing upon this transitional phase, LIMINAL founder Rebekah created a range of carefully crafted supplements designed to address the unique needs of women during perimenopause and menopause.
To mark World Menopause Month, our founder Kate Shapland spoke with Rebekah about her personal journey, lifestyle habits and leg care routine.
Tell me a little bit about your story?
So LIMINAL came out of my own pretty bumpy perimenopause journey. I was 43, which statistically is pretty bang on in terms of when most of us will start to transition to perimenopause, and I'm a researcher as you know by trade and over the period of about 6 months in my job which I loved, I went from being relatively comfortable in my own skin to becoming crippled with anxiety. So my hair was falling out, my skin was terrible, I was putting on weight, I couldn't sleep, I had huge imposter syndrome, and it took me a very long time to work out what was going on and I think that's unfortunately still quite common for many of us. But you know to your point around sort of brands that come out of personal experience, I think that's what I love about women in business particularly, and you as well are a testament to that, but we tend to want to then do something to ensure no one else goes through what we went through.
Definitely. Tell me, what worked for you in a lifestyle way. So obviously with supplements, but what about other things? What about your lifestyle?
I get the privilege of listening a lot to experts in our community and I think they'd all agree if we don't learn how we digest stress, the rest of the stuff doesn't work as well as it should do.
And how do you do that?
Well I've tried different things and meditation has been hugely helpful for me, but recently I've become quite fascinated with emotional freedom technique or tapping, which is just very quick, it's in the moment and it uses a blend of sort of acupressure and psychology. You'd see a lot of the people at the Olympics actually, a lot of the sports people in the Olympics use that because yeah it can really help calm your nervous system in the moment too. Working with a practitioner you can address quite a few blockers as well, so in midlife those tend to bubble up sometimes.
I'm going to talk about leg care, because I know it's not the first thing on many women's minds when they're in their menopausal chapter, but for many women issues they've had prior to menopause can get worse. So fluid retention all of that.
I do have a leg care routine and obviously Legology is part of it. I was trying to remember but that's I think how we met, because I was using your lovely oil way back when my legs were really uncomfortable and I think I've learned a lot about the lymph and just how important the body brushing process can be. So that is something I genuinely do every morning before my shower and it just makes you feel lighter as well, it actually energises you for the day.
Timely this chat given the recent programme, the Panorama programme on HRT. Where does LIMINAL fit? I mean it is a supplement for your lifestyle in many ways, is that how you see it?
Yeah, I mean I think it's fair to acknowledge there's unfortunately a huge amount of snake oil in the supplement space and very few guardrails which can make it challenging for us to work out you know what may make an impact, but I'm a great believer in layering up. Around 60% of our community take hormone replacement therapy, we do an awful lot of education around that, but then I think it's about layering up and working out what works for you, not everyone chooses that medical route, you know not everyone's able to. But I think as you know, I get really excited about the potential, and I think with the science it never stands still, so it really is about taking agency, listening in, going to the sources you trust and as I say working out what feels right for you.
