Health & Wellness

If you have 90 minutes that you can devote to yourself every Saturday for the next four weeks, tune in to Hay House Radio’s “I Can Do It!” conference series featuring some of the leading experts in personal development, mind-body medicine and spirituality including;  Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Christiane Northrup and Marianne Williamson.

Two 90-minute sessions are scheduled each Saturday on the Hay House Radio website; the first begins at 9 am (pacific time);  the second at 11am.  This Saturday’s program will begin with Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., on Changing Lifelong Thinking Habits;  followed by  Dr. Christiane Northrup, whose topic is  Creating a Life of Unbridled Joy.

The cost to tune into all eight programs is only $20, a fraction of what you would have paid to attend the San Diego “I Can Do It” conference where these sessions were originally recorded.  When you register for the first lesson, you are automatically enrolled in the rest of the series.  So it pays to register early. To see the complete event descriptions, and log-on information, visit the Hay House Radio website.

Do you know that you don’t have to be overweight to have too much body fat? You can weigh in at what you think is your ideal range and normal body size, but still be considered obese and thus, at risk for future heart problems. This phenomenon of “normal weight obesity” is the focus of a report by the Mayo Clinic, whose authors estimate that as many as 30 million Americans fall into this category.  An informative feature story about this appeared in the Wall Street Journal’s HeartBeat Column this week.

Apparently, what’s most critical in evaluating whether you’re really fit or just acceptable is not your BMI score, the traditional measure for obesity,  but how much body fat you’re carrying around. [click to continue...]

There are two facts about cholesterol that mid-life women should be concerned about: the first is that too high a level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol (the bad kind) in your blood stream increases your risk of heart disease; and second, a woman’s LDL cholesterol rises markedly – as much as 10 percent – during the year before and after menopause begins.  In today’s “Heart Beat” column in the Wall Street Journal, reporter Ron Winslow writes about a “provocative” research study that’s exploring the connection between declining estrogen levels and rising LDL markers.  The article underscores the importance of;

• Knowing your numbers when it comes to cholesterol (LDL under 100 is optimal)
• Getting enough aerobic exercise (it is a crucial weapon in responding to the impact of menopause on heart risk)
• Eating a low-saturated fat diet (high in fruits and vegetables) and,
• Monitoring your blood pressure(120/80 is ideal).

This is a good article to read and take to heart!

Fatigue, hair loss, depression and joint and muscle pain are just a few of the symptoms of a low thyroid (or hypothyroidism)- the gland that controls our metabolism.  It’s not uncommon for women experiencing hormonal fluctuations – whether during pregnancy, perimenopause or menopause, to have a low-functioning thyroid.  An explanation of why this happens can be found in an excellent series of articles on the Women To Women website.

Recently, while at a friend’s home, I helped myself to some delicious wrapped chocolate pieces.  I had three of them before I asked her where she purchased them. I found out that they were calcium chewies and I had just ingested 1500mg of Calcium plus vitamin D.   I purchased three bags the next day and I no longer forget to take my calcium twice a day!

Calcium chewies are the best known product in a growing category of “functional foods,” or nutraceuticals, which contain nutritional supplements and bioagents of foods such as anthocyanins (from berries) or beta-carotene that some research has shown to prevent or treat disease or illness.  We’re all accustomed to taking daily supplements like fish oil or calcium.  But there’s a growing industry of manufacturers that are wrapping these beneficial ingredients with delicious-tasting chocolate or concentrated fruit making them more appealing and convenient to consume.  Some claim to prevent urinary tract infections, while others are supposed to help ward off respiratory tract infections.  I don’t know if there’s any conclusive evidence to support all of the claims, but since they’re like small treats, I don’t think you’ll mind doing your own research to see if they work for you.  Here are a few products that you might want to try:  [click to continue...]

A urinary tract infection is one more thing that you can blame on menopause – or more accurately- the lack of estrogen in your body.  The decrease in estrogen, explains New York City-based Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, causes the bladder to become less elastic, triggering an inability to empty the bladder completely. “Ultimately, not being able to empty the bladder completely can create a breeding ground for bacteria to multiply, leaving menopausal women at risk for developing a UTI.” [click to continue...]

Women use products every day that are regulated by the FDA including cosmetics, medicines and  hormones. But does an “FDA Approved” claim mean that it’s safe and effective?  In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Lost in Translation- FDA Drug Information That Never Reaches Clinicians,” two researchers at Dartmouth wrote that;

“FDA approval does not mean that a drug works well.  It means only that the agency deemed its benefits to outweigh its harms.  Much of what the FDA knows about a drug’s safety and effectiveness is not included on the label. You really need to know more to see whether it’s worth the cost.”

So what does this mean for mid-life women whose physicians recommend hormone therapy to manage hot flashes, biphosphonates to prevent bone loss, sleeping pills to help with menopause-related sleep disorders and perhaps a little Zantac for heartburn?   [click to continue...]

Like many women concerned about the loss of bone mass during the menopause transition, I’ve added resistance training and weight lifting to my three-times a week workouts at the gym.  But a recent post in the New York Times Well Blog  suggests that this approach may not be helping at all.  Instead, some medical researchers now think that simply jumping up and down may be the best exercise for long-term bone health.  Learn more about what the latest research shows and why this is so important to our future health.

I’m proud to see that my home town, San Francisco, is among the top five places for women to live according to Self Magazine’s annual Survey of America’s Healthiest Places for Women.  Their criteria for ranking 100 of the largest metropolitan areas included:

• rates of diseases such as cancer and depression
• factors that affect access to health care including the number of doctors per capita
• environmental and community measures such as air quality and crime rates

Interestingly, this year, “quality of sleep” was added as a determining factor.  Charleston, WV took the prize for being the worst sleeping area with the average woman experiencing insomnia 3 to 4 nights per week.  What’s going on there?

In front of San Francisco were Burlington, VT  in the top spot (which has 40 percent more ob/gyns than the list’s average), followed by Bethesda, MD, Portland, ME, and Cambridge, MA.

Additional results?  Women in Madison, WI exercise the most while those living in El Paso, TX have the fewest health clubs to choose from.  Raleigh, NC has the cleanest water but Riverside, CA has the most toxic sites.  Women in Las Vegas have the fewest Pap smears and Rockingham County, NH has the fewest STDs.  And even though San Francisco ranks high among the best places for women to live, we seem to have the most allergies and asthma.  I guess you can’t win ‘em all. It’s a beautiful city anyway.

Details of the survey can be found in Self Magazine’s November issue. You can log onto their website to see how your own state fared.