This blog discusses health and life issues important to women and men. Content includes info about nutrition, aging, night sweats, menopause, how to improve your memory, hormone replacement therapy and much more.
According to Harvard's advice papers on nutrition, people who are not getting enough vitamins and minerals would do better to adjust their diet to include more nutrient-rich foods rather than take supplements.This is especially important to menopausal women since they are often cutting back due to menopausal weight gain.
In its Healthy Eating: A Guide to the New Nutrition, Harvard Medical School (HMS) urges consumers not to rely on supplements which do not contain all the other healthy food components. “There are likely many more beneficial components of healthy foods than the ones scientists have identified so far, as well as synergistic effects among them,” it says.
Antioxidants from food - not pills
“Vegetables and fruits are chock-full of the phytochemicals,” the authors say. “Eating enough vegetables and fruits not only helps prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but can actually stave off a variety of other health conditions as well.”
“It appears unlikely that taking antioxidents in supplement form will help protect against heart disease or cancer,” it says. “It could be that it’s the orchestration of antioxidants naturally present in foods, rather than one or two vitamins in high doses, that can lower your risk of serious illnesses."
“So it’s worthwhile to include antioxidants in your diet, but get them from foods – such as oranges, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, whole grains, and nuts – and not from pills.”
Harvard Medical Publications said the guidelines, published last year, reflected its general opinion on nutrition...read more
Image by size8jeans via FlickrHealthy women who put on weight between the premenopausal and postmenopausal years risk losing nerve cells in the brain, research suggests.
Gaining weight is a "highly modifiable" risk factor that may be targeted to prevent or slow the progression of potentially harmful age-related changes in the brain, the University of Pittsburgh-based study team suggests in the June issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Dr. Isabella Soreca and colleagues analyzed brain imaging data obtained from 48 healthy older women who were tracked over a 20-year period as part of the longitudinal epidemiological Pittsburgh Healthy Women Study.
They report in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine that an increase in body weight during the transition to menopause and beyond was "uniquely associated" with a lower volume of gray matter (the portion of the brain containing nerve cell bodies).
Soreca and colleagues say this finding is "particularly noteworthy" given that these were healthy older women who entered menopause naturally and had no history of cardiovascular disease or psychiatric disease and none were obese in mid-life or later on.
"Women may be particularly motivated to maintain a healthy weight in the postmenopausal years, should it be confirmed that weight gain causes alteration in brain function that is important to quality of life," Soreca and colleagues conclude...read more.
When most women first start to experience the terrible symptoms of menopause, they may right away a cure for these symptoms. These cures may include sleeping pills to get rest, changing to lighter clothes to try and keep the hot flashes at bay, and many doses of Pepto-Bismol to fix the bloating and indigestion. What about the diet, are you eating foods that will help your body to adjust to menopause? Here are some really great foods that may help in your quest to find relief.
Soy if you haven’t heard by now, soy is a very healthy and natural food that is absolutely filled with helpful plant estrogens called isoflavones that can reduce the hot flashes of menopause. Isoflavones can help lower cholesterol as well, according to many researchers. It is also loaded with protein, iron, and calcium, which is important especially for those on a vegan diet.Nuts some think that nuts are loaded with fat, but the fat they contain is not animal fat and completely unsaturated (and healthy for you!). They also contain antioxidants and minerals such as magnesium and selenium, and vitamin E. The best thing about them is you can add them to other foods in cooking, they are tasty!
Fish yes, you still need protein for your body to remain healthy and strong, even though the veggies may be your staple. If you enjoy fish, be glad because it is full of good things besides protein such as omega-3 fatty acids that are very heart healthy. This kind of fat also lowers your LDL cholesterol, so go ahead and indulge yourself!Flax what is flax? you may know that it is found mostly in a seed form, although you can also buy it as a supplement in capsule form. They contain phytoestrogens, just like soy, so they can help relieve hot flashes also. Not only that they contain essential fatty acids to help lower cholesterol.
Green tea of course you enjoy a cup of tea once in awhile, so why not make it green tea and gain the benefits of polyphenols that are a very powerful antioxidant. This natural chemical is a cancer-fighter and stops cell damage as well.Green leafy vegetables yes, your mother was right. Eating your greens is a great way to get iron, fiber, vitamins C and B, as well as minerals such as calcium and manganese.
Yogurt this food has long been thought to bring good health, due to the active cultures such as Lactobacillus acidophilus which helps balance the bad bacteria in your digestive tract. Of course the calcium is a big plus as well, but if you are lactose intolerant this may not be an option.So there are you are, some of the healthy foods you may enjoy as often as you like and actually help with your menopause symptoms, too. Of course don’t forget to drink plenty of water each day, and get some exercise too!...read more
Menopausal women complain of all kinds of symptoms from night sweats and hot flashes to weight gain. Read below about the benefits of endurance training for post menopausal women.
Marilyn Graham was 56 when she signed up for a grueling hour of cycling each morning for 12 weeks, occasionally decked out in a mask, a heart monitor and a bag of intravenous fluid and subjected to needle pricks to obtain blood samples.
"I was probably the biggest whiner of the group, complaining loudly about the seats and how my butt hurt," said Graham, who writes software for business units on the University of California, Berkeley campus. "It was really intense, and on some days my legs felt like wet noodles. On a cranky day I'd say, 'Let me off this stupid bike!'"
But once the training "kicked in," she said," I was feeling good. I had energy left over at the end of the day, less mental sluggishness. And I dropped two dress sizes without any weight loss."
Graham's experience was typical of the 10 healthy but sedentary women, averaging 55 years of age, who participated in a 2006 study of endurance training in 50-something women.
In two papers based on the experiments and published in recent months, UC Berkeley researchers report that postmenopausal women can achieve the same health benefits from regular, vigorous exercise as younger women do.
"There is some good news here for older women in the population, in that they respond much like younger women do to training," said study leader and exercise physiologist George Brooks, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. "The results are very encouraging for exercise without weight loss as an effective means for increasing vigor and controlling risk factors for chronic diseases in older women."
"There have been very few studies looking at postmenopausal women, who are different because of decreased estrogen, decreased lean body mass and decreased aerobic capacity," said Zinta Zarins, a newly minted UC Berkeley Ph.D. who conducted the experiments and is now a post-doctoral fellow at UC San Francisco. "Yet, despite changes in hormones and changes in body composition, postmenopausal women can make significant changes in their cardiovascular fitness without going on extreme diets."
Although the endurance training involved cycling on an exercise bike for an hour, five days a week, at 65 percent of maximum lung capacity, the researchers noted that even less strenuous aerobic exercise would likely produce some benefit.
"Most people don't exercise at this level, but some exercise is better than none at all," Zarins said, noting that 60 minutes of jogging on a treadmill or swimming should be as effective as an hour on a stationary bike.
Brooks noted that a woman's metabolism changes as her hormone levels change after menopause, affecting glucose clearance from the blood, for example. He proposed the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, to determine whether women achieve the same benefits from endurance training after menopause as they did before...read more
A new study testing black tea was associated with improvements in attention. This is great news for menopausal women complaining of fatigue and poor attention span.
The new study supports the association between tea and attention, although it did not report any benefits for alertness. The findings of the randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind, cross-over study in the journal Appetite.
The study, led by Suzanne Einöther from sensation, perception and behaviour at Unilever R&D Vlaardingen, recruited 29 healthy regular tea and/or coffee drinkers to take part in the study. The average age was 30.6, 11 were men, and the body mass index was between 20 and 30 kg/m2.
People were randomized to consume a drink containing L-theanine (Suntheanine, Taiyo) and caffeine mixed with iced tea powder in water, or a placebo (water with iced tea powder) separated by between 6 and 14 days, and subsequently completed a cognitive test at baseline, and then 10 and 60 minutes after drinking.
Meditation before bedtime can help men and women combat night sweats and hot flashes. A recent study conducted at University of Massachusetts Medical School found menopausal women who meditated as part of a stress reduction program experienced significant relief from hot flashes and night sweats. The study’s participants’ average age was 53.6 and they experienced an average of at least seven moderate to severe hot flashes each day.
The stress reduction program involved classes in body scan meditation, sitting meditation, and mindful stretching. The women also participated in guided meditation at home six days a week for 45 minutes. At the end of the study, the frequency of the women’s hot flashes decreased an average of 39% and the average severity of hot flashes dropped 40%. Additionally, most participants reported being better able to deal with their hot flashes.
With this study in mind, Cool-jams Wicking Sleepwear along with meditation master Sue Davey have developed a special meditation specifically for cooling the body. By using the cooling meditation before bedtime, many have found their night sweats to diminish considerably. To receive your own complimentary cooling meditation download, go to www.cool-jams.com
There are many reasons for night sweats to include menopause, chemotherapy, certain medications, thyroid dysfunction or sometimes people’s internal thermostat just runs warm. Cool-jams offers a collection of moisture wicking sleepwear in sizes ranging from small to 3X for men and women. Cool-jams can be found online at www.cool-jams.com.
Marilyn Graham was 56 when she signed up for a grueling hour of cycling each morning for 12 weeks, occasionally decked out in a mask, a heart monitor and a bag of intravenous fluid and subjected to needle pricks to obtain blood samples.
"I was probably the biggest whiner of the group, complaining loudly about the seats and how my butt hurt," said Graham, who writes software for business units on the University of California, Berkeley campus. "It was really intense, and on some days my legs felt like wet noodles. On a cranky day I'd say, 'Let me off this stupid bike!'"
But once the training "kicked in," she said," I was feeling good. I had energy left over at the end of the day, less mental sluggishness. And I dropped two dress sizes without any weight loss."
Graham's experience was typical of the 10 healthy but sedentary women, averaging 55 years of age, who participated in a 2006 study of endurance training in 50-something women.
In two papers based on the experiments and published in recent months, UC Berkeley researchers report that postmenopausal women can achieve the same health benefits from regular, vigorous exercise as younger women do.
"There is some good news here for older women in the population, in that they respond much like younger women do to training," said study leader and exercise physiologist George Brooks, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. "The results are very encouraging for exercise without weight loss as an effective means for increasing vigor and controlling risk factors for chronic diseases in older women."
"There have been very few studies looking at postmenopausal women, who are different because of decreased estrogen, decreased lean body mass and decreased aerobic capacity," said Zinta Zarins, a newly minted UC Berkeley Ph.D. who conducted the experiments and is now a post-doctoral fellow at UC San Francisco. "Yet, despite changes in hormones and changes in body composition, postmenopausal women can make significant changes in their cardiovascular fitness without going on extreme diets."
Although the endurance training involved cycling on an exercise bike for an hour, five days a week, at 65 percent of maximum lung capacity, the researchers noted that even less strenuous aerobic exercise would likely produce some benefit.
"Most people don't exercise at this level, but some exercise is better than none at all," Zarins said, noting that 60 minutes of jogging on a treadmill or swimming should be as effective as an hour on a stationary bike.
Brooks noted that a woman's metabolism changes as her hormone levels change after menopause, affecting glucose clearance from the blood, for example. He proposed the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, to determine whether women achieve the same benefits from endurance training after menopause as they did before.
"We've done lots of studies on the effects of activity and training on metabolism in younger men and women, but this is the first in an older population," Brooks said.
In a paper appearing in the September issue of the journal Metabolism - Clinical and Experimental, Brooks and Zarins report that participants increased their body's capacity to consume and use oxygen - their VO2 max - by an average of 16 percent and dropped their resting heart rates by an average of 4 beats per minute. Brooks said that after the age of 30, people lose the capacity to consume and use oxygen at about 1 percent per year.
"So, in effect, the women in our study had the cardiovascular and metabolic capabilities of women 16 years younger," he said.
By the end of the study, the women's blood pressure during exercise had dropped by 8 millimeters of mercury, while their heart rates were 19 beats per minute less when performing at the same intensity as early in the study. In addition, the women decreased their carbohydrate burning during exercise and increased their fat burning by about 10 percent. Women in the study maintained their body weight as a way to balance energy input and expenditures.
"While men tend to burn carbohydrates first during exercise, women are better fat burners, and in our study, the women improved fat burning and decreased their reliance on carbohydrate after training," Brooks said. Because they burn fat more than carbohydrates during exercise, women, in general, are better than men at maintaining stable blood glucose levels - the glucose comes from stored carbohydrates - and maintaining their weight, even while undergoing vigorous training, he said. In fact, men continue to burn carbohydrates for several hours after exercise, while women's metabolism immediately returns to normal.
A second paper, published in the July issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, showed that the women's use of blood glucose and their insulin levels during exercise showed similarities to those of younger women.
Like Graham, most training participants noticed health benefits. Carol Nyhoff, a UC Berkeley alumna who was 57 at the time of the study, admits that exercise on a treadmill at a pace suitable for reading pales in comparison to the endurance training she completed while in the study. During the final VO2 max tests, she said, "I pushed myself very hard to see how much I could do, thinking, 'Wow this could be dangerous, you're way out there somewhere.'" Yet, two weeks after the study ended, her acupuncturist told her she had the pulse of an athlete.
"I was really proud of my accomplishment and the fact that a lot of joint pain and malaise that I had been seeing the acupuncturist for was GONE two weeks after starting the study!" she wrote in an e-mail.
While many of the women who participated in the 2006 study have given up such vigorous training, claiming lack of time in a too-busy schedule, most say they have plans to resume regular exercise.
"Before, I didn't even know if getting in shape was a possibility," said Graham, who recently installed a treadmill at home. "Now I know I can, and I know how to do it."
Patti Owen, who was 54 when she participated in the study, retired in July and is finally finding time for daily vigorous walks. She aims for a pulse rate of 145, which was her target rate in the cycling study.
"Since we had to maintain our weight, the study taught me that losing weight isn't necessarily healthy, that exercise is what keeps us healthy and fit," said Owen, formerly the head of the campus's Academic Personnel office. During the 12-week study, she found herself no longer huffing and puffing as she walked uphill through campus....read more
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