Posts Tagged ‘menopause’
Beer can Reduce Joint Problems!
beers (Photo credit: uberculture)
Is it True?
Or is it like the contradicting claims on Coffee, which was once labelled Carcinogenic and now as inhibiting Cancer?
And who defines moderation?
Another point , the first ten results of Google Search need not be correct.
Please read contradicting articles decide.
Better not to Drink.
Story:
According to many recent studies, if you consume beer in moderate proportions, then you can actually cure your joint pains and keep connecting tissue in good shape.
Here’s a quick rundown of the studies that reveal that beer helps in fighting joint pains.
According to the National Institutes of Health, dietary silicon in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA) may be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue and help reduce the risk of the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. [Via]
However, there is no recommended silicon intake. Having said that, researchers of this study suggest that with a daily average intake of 20-25 milligrams of beer, one may provide wholesome goodness to their joints.
According to a study published in The Journal of Bone And Mineral Research, ‘higher dietary silicon intake in men and younger women may have salutary effects on skeletal health.’
Many other studies in this area also support the fact that a glass full of beer may help in building better bones, all thanks to the high silicon content in it.
Feburary, 2010: Beer Is a Rich Source of Silicon and May Help Prevent Osteoporosis
Feburary, 2012: Drinking Beer Could Help Prevent Weak Bones
October, 2011: Study: Beer Can Help Women Protect Against Osteoporosis
Here are a few things you should be careful about before blindly believing these studies:
-Always make it a point to check the colour of the beer you are drinking.
-Always go for the ones that are pale in colour. The more golden or dark they are, the more you should avoid them.
-Don’t believe anyone when they talk about the health benefits of fruit beers. Not only do hardly have any silicon content, they are loaded with sugar.
-Do a basic Google search and read about beer that strictly follows a barley malting process. Do not go for beers that are made from wheat, as they have low silicon content and cannot be the medicine for your bones. Moderation is the key here.
First Human Egg Cells Produced in the Laboratory
Embryonic Stem Cells. (A) shows hESCs. (B) shows neurons derived from hESCs. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Scientists have succeeded in producing human Egg Cells through Stem Cell for the first time.
This is expected to help Infertility treatment ans reversal of Menopause.
Refers to:
Scientists are about to request a licence from the UK fertility watchdog to fertilise the eggs as part of a series of tests to generate an unlimited supply of human eggs, a breakthrough that could help infertile women to have babies as well as making women as fertile in later life as men.
Producing human eggs from stem cells would also open up the possibility of replenishing the ovaries of older women so that they do not suffer the age-related health problems associated with the menopause, from osteoporosis to heart disease.
Some scientists are even suggesting the possibility of producing an “elixir of youth” for women, where the menopause is eradicated and older women will retain the health they enjoyed when younger.
Researchers at Edinburgh University are working with a team from Harvard Medical School in Boston to be the first in the world to produce mature human eggs from stem cells isolated from human ovarian tissue.
Until now, it has only been possible to isolate a relatively small number of mature human egg cells directly from the ovaries of women who have been stimulated with hormones. This technical limitation has led to an acute shortage of human eggs, or “oocycts”, for IVF treatment as well as scientific research.
The scientists want to fertilise the laboratory-grown egg cells with human sperm to prove that they are viable. Any resulting embryos will be studied for up to 14 days – the legal limit – to see if they are normal.
These early embryos will not be transplanted into a woman’s womb because they will be deemed experimental material, but will either be frozen or allowed to perish
http://digg.com/newsbar/worldnews/scientists_rewrite_rules_of_human_reproduction
Menopause-Facts.
Image via Wikipedia
Nothing to really worry about.
During the process, one is likely to become depressed and irritable.
please take it as it comes and avoid drugging.
Important that those around understand this and be understanding of the individual and do not be aggressive towards them.
Menopause Basics
What Is Menopause?
Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The term “menopause” is commonly used to describe any of the changes a woman experiences either just before or after she stops menstruating, marking the end of her reproductive period.
http://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/guide-perimenopause
The time of a woman’s life following menopause is called postmenopause. During this time, many of the bothersome symptoms that a woman experienced prior to menopause, gradually ease for most women. But as a result of several factors including a lower level of estrogen, postmenopausal women are at increased risk for a number of health conditions, such as osteoporosis and heart disease
What Causes Menopause?
A woman is born with a finite number of eggs, which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries also produce the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which regulate menstruation and ovulation. Menopause occurs when the ovaries no longer produce an egg every month and menstruation stops.
Menopause, when it occurs after the age of 40, is considered “natural” and is a normal part of aging. But, some women can experience menopause early, either as a result of surgery, such as hysterectomy, or damage to the ovaries, such as fromchemotherapy. Menopause that occurs before the age of 40, regardless of the cause, is called premature menopause.
How Does Natural Menopause Occur?
Natural menopause is the permanent ending of menstruation that is not brought on by any type of medical treatment. For women undergoing natural menopause, the process is gradual and is described in three stages:
- Perimenopause. Perimenopause typically begins several years before menopause, when the ovaries gradually produce less estrogen. Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. In the last one to two years of perimenopause, the decrease in estrogen accelerates. At this stage, many women experience menopause symptoms (see below).
- Menopause. Menopause is the point when it’s been a year since a woman has her last menstrual period. At this stage, the ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and producing most of their estrogen.
- Postmenopause. These are the years after menopause. During this stage, menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, ease for most women. However, health risks related to the loss of estrogen increase as the woman ages.
What Conditions Cause Premature Menopause?
Premature menopause can be the result of genetics, autoimmune disorders, or medical procedures. Here are some other conditions that may cause early menopause.
- Premature ovarian failure. Normally, the ovaries produce both estrogen and progesterone. Changes in the levels of these two hormones occur when the ovaries, for unknown reasons, prematurely stop producing eggs. When this happens before the age of 40, it is considered to be premature ovarian failure. Unlike premature menopause, premature ovarian failure is not always permanent.
- Induced menopause. “Induced” menopause occurs when the ovaries are surgically removed for medical reasons, such as uterine cancer or endometriosis. Induced menopause can also result from damage to the ovaries caused by radiation or chemotherapy.
Perimenopause, or menopause transition, is the stage of a woman’s reproductive life that begins several years before menopause, when the ovaries gradually begin to produce less estrogen. It usually starts in a woman’s 40s, but can start in a woman’s 30s or even earlier as well.
Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. In the last one to two years of perimenopause, this decline in estrogen accelerates. At this stage, many women experience menopausal symptoms.
The time of a woman’s life following menopause is called postmenopause. During this time, many of the bothersome symptoms that a woman experienced prior to menopause, gradually ease for most women. But as a result of several factors including a lower level of estrogen, postmenopausal women are at increased risk for a number of health conditions, such as osteoporosis and heart disease
http://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/health-after-menopause
What Are the Symptoms of Menopause?
Most women approaching menopause or who are postmenopausal will experience hot flashes, a sudden feeling of warmth that spreads over the upper body that is often accompanied by blushing and some sweating. The severity of hot flashes varies from mild in most women to severe in others.
Other common symptoms experienced around the time of menopause include:
- Irregular or skipped periods
- Insomnia
- Mood swings
- Fatigue
- Depression
- Irritability
- Racing heart
- Headaches
- Joint and muscle aches and pains
- Changes in libido (sex drive)
- Vaginal dryness
- Bladder control problems
Not all women get all of these symptoms.
How Do I Know When I Am Going Through Menopause?
When you begin to notice the signs of menopause, either you’ll suspect the approach of menopause on your own, or your doctor will put two and two together when you report your symptoms. Two very simple tests can accurately determine what’s going on and what stage of menopause you’re in. Your follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels will dramatically rise as your ovaries begin to shut down; these levels are easily checked through one blood test.
In addition, your vaginal walls will thin, and the cells lining the vagina will not contain as much estrogen. Your doctor will simply take a Pap-like smear from your vaginal walls — simple and painless — and analyze the smear to check for vaginal “atrophy,” the thinning and drying out of your vagina. It helps if you keep track of your periods and chart them as they become irregular. Your menstrual pattern will be an added clue to your doctor about whether you are pre- or perimenopausal.
What Long-Term Health Problems Are Associated With Menopause?
The loss of estrogen associated with menopause has been linked to a number of health problems that become more common as women age.
After menopause, women are more likely to suffer from:
- Osteoporosis.
- Heart disease.
- Poor bladder and bowel function.
- Poor brain function (increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease).
- Poor skin elasticity (increased wrinkling).
- Poor muscle power and tone.
- Some deterioration in vision, such as from cataracts (clouding of the lens of the eye) and macular degeneration (breakdown of the tiny spot in the center of the retina that is the center of vision).
There are a number of treatments to consider that can reduce the risks associated with menopause.
http://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/menopause-basics
Related:
Most women experience menopause around the age of 51. Occasionally, menopause happens after the age of 60 or as young as 45 years of age.
You can also go through menopause f you have had your ovaries removed or have sustained damage to your ovaries, like the damage that can occur from radiation treatments. Perimenopause, which occurs three to five years before menopause happens, is also something to watch out for that signals menopause is not far away. This is when biological and hormonal changes as well as physical symptoms start to occur. There are many body changes during menopause that women go through.
Hormones
When you reach menopause, your ovaries produce less progesterone and estrogen because of aging. These are the hormones that regulate your menstrual cycle. This does not happen overnight; it is a slow process that begins in perimenopause. During this time of falling hormone levels, your menstrual bleeding pattern typically becomes irregular.
Some women may go through bleeding that is greater than usual during their periods. Others go through periods that are very light, missed or overdue for numerous months to even a year before the periods stop completely. It is critical to understand that you can still become pregnant even when your periods are missed or light until menopause is complete.
Hot Flashes
One of the most common symptoms of menopause is hot flashes. When you have a hot flash, you may feel warm from your chest up to your head, usually in wave-like feelings. This can result in a flushed, red look in the face and neck, especially in fair-skinned women.
Many women sweat or feel sick to their stomach and dizzy. Some additionally have a headache and feel like their heart is beating very fast and their pulse rate increases, and can make you perspire in order to cool the body down. Hot flashes are frequently followed by a cold chill and some women only feel the chill.
Vaginal Dryness
During and after menopause, as estrogen levels fall, the vagina’s lining slowly becomes thinner and less able to stretch. The vagina additionally is not able to manufacture as much lubrication or wetness throughout sexual arousal. These changes in the body can cause sex to be very uncomfortable or painful. You can talk to your physician about the risks and benefits of utilizing prescription estrogen cream for vaginal problems.
Additionally, there are some over-the-counter water-based sexual lubricants or vaginal moisturizers to make sex less painful. It can also lead to vaginal inflammation called atrophic vaginitis. These changes can make you more prone to get bacterial overgrowth, urinary tract infections or yeast infections.
Other Changes
There are some other body changes during menopause that you might experience. Some women experience sleep disorders, such as nighttime hot flashes and lack of sleep. Even though the chemical changes that occur in your body during menopause does not increase the chance of having depression, many women have major life changes during menopause and middle age that can increase the chances of her becoming depressed.
Some women complain of irritability or other mood problems during menopause. Part of the problem could be the poor sleep because of the nighttime hot flashes and lack of sleep. Since estrogen levels drop and stay at a low point during menopause, there is a greater chance of developing osteoporosis which is a condition of the bones thinning. Each woman experiences menopause in a different way. There are many ways to resolve the body changes during menopause.
Related:
http://www.brighthub.com/health/womens-health/articles/102607.aspx#ixzz1DKjWyjEf
Breast CancerTips,Symptoms,Screening,Diet.
Image via Wikipedia
2. Spend time choosing your doctor. Breast cancer specialists who work at dedicated cancer centres offer specific expertise as well as access to the latest treatments that are part of clinical studies. Such centres can provide other specialty services, usually under one roof, such as physical therapy, nutrition and social work.
3. Get the support you need for talking about your diagnosis. Breaking the news to your friends and family that you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer can be just as difficult as first hearing the news yourself from your doctor. You may feel concerned about upsetting your family and friends or worried about how they will react. Even after you have shared the news, at times you may find it difficult to communicate openly.
4. Seek help in navigating financial issues, if necessary. Your hospital or clinic should have a social worker, patient navigator or financial services department to help you manage financial issues and deal with private insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid. If you have concerns, request an appointment.
6. Get good nutrition
. Your cancer treatment may influence your ability to taste and smell, and it may alter your digestion. You may prefer and tolerate more cooked versus raw vegetables, so a vegetable stew or soup may be more appealing than a salad. You may have more energy and less nausea if you eat smaller amounts of foods more frequently rather than eating three big meals per day. Try not to gain weight by overindulging and blowing your calorie budget.
7. Take steps to prevent lymphedema. Lymphedema is a side effect of breast cancer treatment that involves swelling of the soft tissues of the arm, hand or chest wall. It isn’t life threatening, but it needs to be treated to avoid getting worse. The swelling may be accompanied by numbness, discomfort and infection. There’s no reliable way to assess your risk for lymphedema, but by taking proper precautions you can greatly reduce your chances of developing the condition.
8. Get exercise. Gentle exercise during treatment, such as regular walks, can help with both the mental and physical effects of treatment. After treatment is completed, increasing your exercise gradually will help improve your fatigue and rebuild muscle tone.
9. Bone up on bone health. Keeping your bones healthy throughout your life is important; however, if you’re a woman who’s been diagnosed with breast cancer, bone health is especially important. Research shows that some breast cancer treatments can lead to bone loss.
10. Treatment and work. Some people are able to work throughout their cancer treatment. Yet for some, reducing one’s work capacity or taking a break altogether may be necessary. If you take time off and then return to work shortly after your treatment ends, you may find that it helps you maintain your identity and even boosts your self-esteem, not to mention your income.
Read more: Breast Cancer – 10 Tips – Page 2 http://www.medindia.net/news/Breast-Cancer-10-Tips-75531-2.htm#ixzz12jYECb6V
Nutrition, lifestyle, and physical activity are all key players when it comes to breast cancer prevention and survival. There isn’t one study or one food that will change everything completely, but possibly the combination of things can help improve the overall quality of life and health.
Here are a few things we can focus on:
Obesity: Paying attention to body weight is important in relation to breast cancer. Women who are overweight or obese have a greater risk of developing breast cancer. In post-menopausal women, fat tissue produces a small amount of estrogen. Having more fat tissue after menopause can increase your estrogen levels thus increasing breast cancer risk that is why physical activity is so important.
Symptoms & Types
Breast lumps aren’t the only possible sign of breast cancer, and most breast lumps aren’t cancer. Read about the signs, symptoms, and types of breast cancer.
Symptoms
This article is a brief overview of breast cancer symptoms.
Warning Signs
Read about the possible warning signs of breast cancer. But don’t jump to conclusions; breast cancer diagnosis must be done by doctors.
http://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/guide/consumer_guide_chapter_outlin
Why Older Women Lust.
Both male and female have the same urge for sex.Differentiation in terms of their overt behavior is due sociological constraints.Basic instinct remains the same.However the approach to sex overtly is conditioned by the male instinct of ‘Protection’ towards the female counterpart makes it imperative for the male to be overtly aggressive in terms of sexual advances and behavior.
Shorn of all civilizational clothing and hypocrisy(these too have a place in the emotional well-being of human beings), we are animals first.
Hence Nature has endowed us the urge to have sex with the sole intention of propagating the species and sexual enjoyment is a spin-off and not an end in itself.
Hence classification of behavior into male and female is only academic and we need not go to the extent of assuming theories ourselves and try to prove the same.
Nature is what is.Our dissection of the same is irrelevant to it.
Sexual urge is reinforced, nay, arises, because of emotional content.No sex is possible without emotional content.
Sexual behavior is determined by genes,ethnicity,mores,customs, civilizations and culture.
Story:
Men who cheat on their spouses have always enjoyed an expedient explanation: Evolution made me do it. Many articles (here is one, and here is another), especially in recent years, have explored the theory that men sleep around because evolution has programmed them to seek fertile (and, conveniently, younger) wombs.
(See the top 10 political sex scandals.)
But what about women? If it’s really true that evolution can cause a man to risk his marriage, what effect does it have on women’s sexuality?
A new journal article suggests that evolutionary forces also push women to be more sexual, although in some unexpected ways. University of Texas psychologist David Buss wrote the article, which appears in the July issue of Personality and Individual Differences, with the help of three grad students, Judith Easton (who is listed as lead author), Jaime Confer and Cari Goetz. Buss, Easton and their colleagues found that women in their 30s and early 40s are significantly more sexual than younger women. Women ages 27 through 45 report not only having more sexual fantasies (and more intense sexual fantasies) than women ages 18 through 26; the older women also report having more sex, period. And they are more willing than younger women to have casual sex, even one-night stands. In other words, despite the girls-gone-wild image of promiscuous college women, it is women in their middle years who are America’s most sexually industrious.
By contrast, men’s sexual interest and output, usually measured by reported number of orgasms per week, peaks in the teen years and then settles to a steady level (an average of three orgasms per week) for most of their lives. As I pointed out in March, most men remain sexually active into their 70s. According to the new study, as well as the one I wrote about in March, women’s sexual ardor declines precipitously after menopause.
Why would women be more sexually active in their middle years than in their teens and 20s? Buss and his students say evolution has encouraged women to be more sexually active as their fertility begins to decline and as menopause approaches.
Here’s how their theory works:
Our female ancestors would have grown accustomed to watching many of their children — perhaps as many as half — die of various diseases, starvation, warfare and so on before being able to have kids of their own. This trauma left a psychological imprint to bear as many children as possible. Becoming pregnant is much easier for women and girls in their teens and early 20s — so much easier that they need not spend much time having sex.
(Read abut cougar cruises.)
However, after the mid-20s, the lizard-brain impulse to have more kids faces a stark reality: it’s harder and harder to get pregnant as a woman’s remaining eggs age. And so women in their middle years respond by seeking more and more sex.
To test this theory, Buss and his students asked 827 women to complete questionnaires about their sexual habits. And, indeed, they found that women who had passed their peak fertility years but not quite reached menopause were the most sexually active. This age group — 27 through 45 — reported having significantly more sex than the two other age groups in the study, 18 through 26 and 46 and up. Women in their middle years were also more likely than the younger women to fantasize about someone other than their current partner. The new findings are consistent with those of an earlier Buss paper, from 2002, which found that women in their early 30s feel more lustful and report less abstinence than women in other age groups. In both studies, these findings held true for both partnered and single women, meaning that married women in their 30s and early 40s tend to have more sex than married women in their early 20s; ditto for single women. Also, whether the women were mothers didn’t matter. Only age had a strong affect on women’s reported sexual interest and behavior.
And yet there are a few flaws with the data in the new paper. Chiefly: some three-quarters of the participants in the study were recruited on craigslist.com, a website where many go to seek hook-ups, meaning there’s a self-selection problem with the sample. (The other participants were students at the University of Texas in Austin.) The authors also note that there are some alternative explanations for why women in their 30s and early 40s might be more sexual. Many of them may simply be more comfortable with sex than women in their teens and early 20s. Still, that raises the question of why they are more comfortable: perhaps evolution programmed that comfort.
Buss is the author of the groundbreaking book The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating, which is now in its fourth edition, and he has become strongly associated with evolutionary explanations for sexual behavior. His theories explain why men can be cads — and, it turns out, why women can be cougars.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2002838,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily
