From the monthly archives:
March 2008
by Wendy on March 31, 2008
I just came across a recent study of middle-aged women, (1776 multi-ethnic women aged 47-59 to be precise), that concluded that overweight women are more likely to experience hot flashes and night sweats during menopause than women of normal weight. This finding contradicts an earlier hypothesis that a reserve of estrogen in body fat shields women from these symptoms. But the study’s researchers now think that excess fat makes it more difficult for the body to dissipate heat.
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
by Wendy on March 24, 2008
If you or someone in your family are experiencing serious adverse reactions from drugs or medical devices, you can now report it directly to the FDA’s Medwatch program by going to this website. (This is where medical product safety alerts, recalls and important labeling changes are disseminated to medical professionals and the public.) You’ll be given the option of taking the reporting form to your doctor (who is NOT required to report it to the FDA) or you can complete the online reporting form yourself. [click to continue...]
by Wendy on March 19, 2008
by Wendy on March 17, 2008
If you’ve discussed with your physician which approach you should take for alleviating menopausal symptoms — botanical, bio-identical or hormone replacement – you’ve probably heard him or her refer to research studies that have proven or dis-proven the efficacy of one treatment or another. You might even have been tempted to track down a research study to see for yourself what conclusions were reported, but didn’t know where to start. Now, there’s a new Website, available through the National Library of Medicine (NLM) that offers health research from scientific journals and other peer-reviewed sources. [click to continue...]
by Wendy on March 11, 2008
An excellent Health Journal column in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Sorting Through the Choices for Menopause Hormones,” offers a “brief biology lesson” in the three kinds of estrogen to show that not all Hormone Replacement Therapy products are the same. Here’s a recap of the article by Melinda Beck: [click to continue...]
by Wendy on March 10, 2008
Last weekend, while shopping at Costco, I purchased a 40-oz container of organic, cold-milled, quadruple-cleaned, ground, golden flax seed with 2700 mg of Omega 3 and 800 mg of Omega-6 per serving of two tablespoons. Was this typical of all flax seed brands? Or, had I stumbled upon a super, high-quality processor? I purchased it and called the manufacturer’s toll-free number to find out. [click to continue...]
by Wendy on March 5, 2008
Researchers at the University of North Carolina have concluded that the risk for cardiovascular disease posed by hormone use in menopause, seems to fade after women stop taking the synthetic hormones, estrogen and progestin. However, there may be a small, increased risk of other cancers. [click to continue...]
by Wendy on March 3, 2008
Much has been much written about the consequences of declining estrogen levels on bone health. That’s why a dosage of 1200-1500 mg of calcium daily is recommended for menopausal women along with a bisphosphonate like Fosamax and Boniva to stem or even reverse bone loss if it has already begun to occur. If you’re concerned about your bone health, you should take a look at a new “risk calculator” developed by researchers from the Women’s Health Initiative that guages a woman’s risk of breaking a hip in the next five years.
If you go to this website you’ll see an online questionnaire that identifies 11 factors that together may predict hip fractures more accurately than bone density (as measured by a DEXA scan) alone. Included in the known risk factors are diabetes, inactivity, corticosteroid use, family history and smoking. It’s a good way to see how some lifestyle changes can improve your risk profile.
