I read the British version of Women’s Running magazine through the Libby app. I won’t go on a diatribe about how much I miss the US version, but it’s still nice to have another option. Even if they sometimes reference products that aren’t sold here in the US… there’s always something that intrigues me and then I realize it isn’t available here.

While reading the latest issue there was a short article on new research regarding New Zealand blackcurrant’s ability to help women in perimenopause/menopause with gut troubles and bone decline.

Bone health is one of the big concerns I have as I age. My mom had to have her hip replaced last year and if I can do whatever possible to avoid that fate, I’d like to. I don’t even know if her hip socket deteriorated due to menopause, I guess we’ll never have an answer to that completely. But it is proven that estrogen decline impacts bone health.

Wildly swinging hormone levels can affect gut health. That makes sense because even just the regular monthly cycle can cause problems for a lot of women. Estrogen helps the gut lining and progesterone can help keep things moving. So problems get amplified as our hormones are shutting down.

Basically, hormone decline impacts the entire body. It’s super fun that midway through our lives the body decides to stop making some of them and that affects every system. So we get to just keep living in poorer and poorer health. Yay… (sarcasm)

Anyway, I’ll add the blurb from the magazine here.

And for the studious ones among us, I found some studies:

Blackcurrants reduce the risk of post-menopausal osteoporosis

Study Suggests Blackcurrant Supplementing Mitigates Postmenopausal Bone Loss

The power of purple: The healthy ageing benefits of these New Zealand berries.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post and shared an interview with the founder of Curranz, a brand of New Zealand blackcurrant marketed toward the athletic population. Some of the benefits for athletes that impressed me at that time: it can help with inflammation, it boosts energy, improves immunity. I’ve seen reviews on other sites from ultra runners who depend on this supplement before long training runs or races.

Now it seems like the little berry has more potential benefits in store too.

Curranz supplied a discount code for me to share with everyone back then and it’s still valid now. If anyone wants to test it out for athletic benefits, or perimenopausal/menopausal benefits, or both; try it out! I don’t get anything from the code or your purchase, it’s just a perk to you. I’m not good at monetizing myself. 😁

Code: jillruns
20% Discount at Curranzusa.com