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We’ve created clever euphemisms to describe it - like muffin top, mid-life bulge, and a thickening waist. But however you want to refer to belly fat, it’s an unfortunate fact of life for most women in mid-life and getting rid of it is, as a friend of mine put it, like chiseling cement. [click to continue…]

Ripe: The Truth About Growing Older And The Beauty Of Getting On With Your Life by Janet Champ and Charlotte Moore, is not a typical book about menopause. There are no chapters on what to do about hot flashes, nor advice about losing weight. It’s more about how we handle the changes that life, age and time do to us. It’s truthful, thought-provoking and clever, which is why you won’t want to keep it tucked away with your other books. [click to continue…]

Last weekend at the BlogHer gathering, I met Tomima Edmark, a 51-year old Dallas woman, who told me that she’s never had a menopausal symptom. My first thought was, “that’s not fair!” But then she explained. Tomima started taking bioidentical hormones eight years ago, when she first began experiencing perimenopausal symtoms. With the help of a medical professional who specializes in hormone balance, Tomima says she feels and looks better now than she did a decade ago. My second thought? Why didn’t I think of that? [click to continue…]

I was surprised to read Dr. Andrew Weil’s comments about the fallacies of taking some natural remedies to alleviate menopausal symptoms in his “Dr. Debunker” column in the latest issue of AARP Magazine. After all, isn’t he known as a leading proponent of natural medicine? [click to continue…]

I came across a relatively new book on women’s health by Nieca Goldberg, M.D., a physician in New York City who is the medical director of NY University’s Women’s Heart Program. “Dr. Nieca Goldberg’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health” focuses on women over 35 and I have to say it’s one of the better books out there for a number of reasons.

Using case studies from her own practice, she does a particularly good job of explaining the changes that most women experience in mid-life to one degree or another (i.e. weight gain, changes in skin quality, vision and joint pain), and the problems you’re likely to bring to your physician’s attention. And that’s where she begins: how to choose the right doctor and how to be a good patient. [click to continue…]

Since my blogpost about Vitamin D several months ago, I’ve noticed dozens of articles, research studies and even books about the “sunshine” vitamin.  It seems to be the new “it” vitamin that everyone’s talking about. Vitamins A, B and C have had their 15 minutes of fame. Apparently, it’s D’s turn and, as my own physician said to me, “it’s hot.”

To find out why, I contacted the leading proponent of Vitamin D, the author of “The Vitamin D Cure,” Dr. James Dowd , a rheumatologist and founder and director of the Arthritis Institute of Michigan.   He responded to my questions by email, which I gladly share with you here.   [click to continue…]

If you’re suffering from moderate to severe menopausal hot flashes you may want to ask your doctor about an estrogen spray that is applied once daily to your forearm. It’s called Evamist and it was approved by the FDA last summer and reported in the June 2008 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. You can read a summary of the article here. It’s made from 17-Beta estradiol, a compound made from plants to be similar to the estrogen hormone that we produce from puberty to menopause and is involved in over 400 functions of the female body. (See my March 11th blogpost for an explanation on the three types of Estrogen). The metered spray delivers low-doses through the skin, thus bypassing the liver. [click to continue…]

The first global summit of  40 “menopause experts” convened last week to review the current evidence, risks and benefits of using hormone replacement therapy for women in early menopause. They concluded that HRT is indeed safe for healthy women entering menopause, despite what the 2002 government-sponsored WHI study showed.  They went so far to state that women should “have no fears” about its use.”  I don’t know about you, but I find that statement quite startling in light of all the research that has concluded that HRT poses a number of significant health risks.  [click to continue…]

It’s a sign of the times. Every one is talking or writing about middle-age memory loss, or so it seems. I doubt that anyone who is 25 years old has noticed the same thing, of course. They probably didn’t notice when vibrantBrains, a “gym” for improving memory function, opened recently in San Francisco. And they certainly weren’t interested in a lecture there last week by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin, the author of “Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife.” [click to continue…]