When Did This Happen?
I’ve engaged a 23-years-young vet tech to come over for the next week to give my Lily, my kitten, eye ointment because I can’t seem to accomplish this one little task. Okay, I’m a loser.
But more importantly, tonight, this cute woman and I started talking and she mentioned that her 52-year-old dad is free. Wow! In my head, I am only…30 at most? But I am old enough to be this woman’s mother and date her dad. WHAT?!
When did this happen?
Seems like I was dancing to the English Beat in a cow barn in Madison. Wisconsin with my roomie and her boyfriend only yesterday. But when I think about it, I was actually in meetings all day with a group of individuals younger than me, all of them, including the agency’s principals.
You are only as old as you feel.
Today, I am realizing that mid-life has entered hard and fast and I’ve not yet caught up.
What about you?
Amy’s Top 10
My BBFF Amy posted the top 10 search terms that people use to find her blog ‘I could cry but I don’t have the time.’ Number one?
Am I menopausal or insane?
I think that this one stands on its own.
Up in Smoke
I remember the first time I had a cigarette. It was a Kool, purchased surreptitiously from the candy shop across the street from McKinley School. The year was 1969 and I was eight years old.
Yes, I said eight!
It used to be cool to smoke. My girlfriends and I would pretend we were in the teachers’ lounge (remember those?). By the time I got to college, I switched to clove cigarettes. And then afterwards, Marlboro Lights. I was up to a pack and a half a day by the time I stopped smoking. At the age of 30.
This means that I smoked, on and off, for 22 years.
At the age of 46, I had my first night sweat. I turned 47 this past May, and started to address my perimenopausal symptoms more seriously. And started this blog.
You may wonder why I’m sharing these intimate details of my covert and then overt smoking life.
Researchers say that first- and second-hand smoking not only increases the risk for death from heart disease and cancer, but may also significantly increase the risk for starting menopause at an earlier age (i.e., around age 45 rather than the average age of 51).
Data from a cross-section of 5,029 women aged 25 and older participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III have shown that women who were current smokers (as measured by self-reports and blood levels of nicotine) started menopause at a mean age of 47, while women in service industries who were exposed to nicotine in their jobs started menopause at a mean age of 46.
Black women who had been regularly exposed to cigarette smoke had 12 times the odds of other racial groups of an earlier menopause age compared with smokers and nonsmokers who had not had any exposure. The investigators attributed this significantly increased risk among Black women to the body’s inability to clear nicotine from the blood as quickly as their peers.
The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that women in the workplace who are exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk for many of the same diseases as smokers. They’ve now added early menopause to this list.
What is less clear, however, is the risk for “former smokers,” since they were taken out of the analyses.
Makes you wonder if many of us who are former smokers or were exposed to second-hand smoke on a regular basis in our homes (a good percentage of women our age, as my sister in law pointed out), are at a higher risk as well.
Sort of like poster children, right?
Take Control
I’ve posted several times about the pending Life Quality Technologies’ device to stop hot flashes in their tracks. I strongly believe that this “alternative alternative” to HRT and even herbal medicines could revolutionize the way that women address menopausal vasomotor symptoms. But folks with the wallets may need some convincing.
If you are experiencing hot flashes and are interested in seeing this type of product on the market, I would like to ask you to take a brief survey. No email addresses or other information will be collected and the survey should take any longer than a minute or so of your time.
Here’s the link.
Don’t you think it’s time to start taking control of our bodies and our health?
Hot hot hot!
Yes, it’s been too darn hot in Maryland and DC of late. But looks like things are really starting to heat up for women in menopause who suffer hot flashes.
Researchers say that vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes tend to last for at least four years after a woman’s final menstrual period. FOUR YEARS!
Evidently, a review of 10 studies evaluating over 35,000 women shows that overall, symptoms increase in the two years before menopause, peak approximately one year after the final period, and then return to normal levels in about either years after the final menstrual period. However, at least half of the women who participated in these studies reported a peak in symptoms around four years after their final period.
Life Quality Technologies’ new device to address this problem can’t come soon enough. Curious what I’m talking about? Check out this previous post.
To Bo or Not to Bo, part 2
The New York Times has an article today on how older brides are holding botox and other cosmetic-fix-oriented parties for their bridesmaids.
It’s a whole new take on the term “bridezilla,” no?!
Ca
No bones about it ladies. As you enter the early stages of menopause, your bones lose their ability to retain their mass and manufacture new bone tissue, resulting in bone loss and increasing the risk for osteoporosis. In addition to exercise and eating calcium-rich foods, experts recommend calcium supplements to make up for what you might be lacking.
According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, adults ages 50 and over need about 1200 mg daily, while adults up to age 50 need about 1,000 mg daily. Calcium supplements have been shown to slow bone loss in postmenopausal women but for in some, may also cause bloating and constipation.
Fortunately, new research published in the early online edition of the journal Calcified Tissue International shows that supplements containing 500 mg calcium citrate are absorbed more efficiently than those containing 1000 mg calcium carbonate. What’s more, the lower dose of calcium citrate also causes fewer side effects.
The bottom line is less may be more, except for when it comes to side effects.
For those of you who don’t know the difference between the two forms of calcium, calcium citrate is derived from the citric acid while calcium carbonate comes from the shells of marine organisms, snails and eggs.
Finally, it’s Wednesday! For whatever reason, the calcium symbol reminds me of the following scene from Singing in the Rain. Enjoy!
Twinkling
Photo/Design Credit: Kevin Lynch Designs, UK
Musings of a Mid Life Diva wrote a beautiful post today about the importance of getting your “twinkling” on, i.e. leaving some of daily worries behind to recapture the joys of Summer.
To celebrate life and as a nod to Mid Life Diva, I’m planning on taking a break today to ‘twinkle my toes.’ Read the post and do the same. You’ll be glad that you did.
To Bo or Not to Bo…
Over 2.4 million botox procedures were performed in US women in 2007, according to statistical data from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 25% of these injections were performed in women between the ages of 51 and 64, while 47% were perfomed in women between the ages of 30 and 50.
What these stats imply is that menopausal women are getting a lot of botox done.
In the youth-obsessed culture in which we live, cutting, reshaping, lifting and plumping has become the norm, not the exception. Yet, I do wonder whether or not too much of a good thing is well, is too much of a good thing. When I see photos of celebrities like Nicole Kidman or Cher, I just cringe. And isn’t it ironic that one of the most potent poisons we know of is used to create the illusion of youth?
I’m not going to stand on a high moral ground judging women’s decisions to inject toxin into their faces to smooth the wrinkles and recapture a few fleeting moments of youth. (Okay, well, that sounds a bit judgmental!) Truly though, the drive to steal a youthful appearance, if only for a few weeks or months, is perfectly understandable; I can’t tell you how many mornings I look in the mirror, and ask myself “what happened?”
But the real challenge is to understand how the external changes that we can see relate to the internal changes that we can’t. I believe that this knowledge can help us to define effective longer-term strategies that ultimately result in a better balance between the two.
Afterall, botox is only skin-deep, isn’t it?
What do you think?
Oh! Dem bones!
Dem bones, dem bones gon-na walk a roun.’ Spiritual, traditional childrens song. Writer: anonymous.
Remember that song from your childhood….the leg bone connected to the knee bone. The knee bone connected to the thigh bone. The thigh bone connected to the back bone…etc etc?
Several studies are starting to emerge as to whether or not long-term use of osteoporosis drugs actually weakens the bones they are supposed to protect. The most vulnerable area? The thighbone, which, in some patients, have snapped during walking or standing.
Most recently, doctors from New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell and New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery report in the Journal of Orthopedic Trauma that 19 of 20 women who had used the osteoporosis drug Fosamax for at least 6.9 years suffered from this type of fracture. Fortunately, similar fractures have not been observed in association with other drugs of the same class (e.g. Actonel, Boniva).
The New York Times has a great article about this issue worth checking out.
In the interim, last month, I wrote about a Thai herb that might help peri- and post-menopausal women with bone loss. Other important steps include a diet that is rich in calcium and vitamin D, regular weight-bearing exercise, and avoidance of excessive alcohol or caffeine.
You can read also more about osteoporosis and the role of lifestyle changes in prevention at the American College of Rheumatology website.
