Wednesday Bubble: Bursting the Zzzzzzs

Posted by Liz on May 30, 2012 in sleep disturbance | 7 comments

Got sleep? If you are like me, you’ve been trying to burst this elusive bubble for years now. That’s why I was so intrigued when I received a note from a research assistant from Stanford University, asking for help in recruiting participants for a study that they are conducting.

Researchers in the department of clinical psychology are attempting to tease out the association between menopause and sleep disturbances, as well as treatment preferences, in order to develop behavioral strategies to combat insomnia and hot flashes/night sweats. Sounds intriguing, right? Hence, they need your opinions and 15 minutes of your time, anonymously.

Hey, why not?!

The online survey, which can be found here, may eventually lead to more evidence-based non-drug therapies for menopausal symptoms. And you may have a role in helping burst the Zzzzs bubble!

The cougar and the prom

Posted by Liz on May 28, 2012 in aging, appearance | 11 comments

Years ago, I wrote a post about The Cougar Convention, an extravaganza of botoxed, boob-jobbed, eyebrow-shaped 40+ somethings (and their younger ‘Puma’ peers) who attend presentations,  celebrate the crowning of the first Miss Cougar America and mingle at a bass-booming cougar ball (read: prom). And so, when I caught an article in yesterday’s New York Times Style Section entitled “For Would-Be Cougars, the Prom is a Good Start,” I wanted to cry because somehow, the author fails to celebrate what is truly remarkable: young girls who feel self confident enough to make their own choices despite highschool and peer pressure.

The Times piece focuses on the ‘cougar in training,’ young girls who choose to ask boys as much as a few years their junior to the prom. “Call it young cougars, a game of confidence or just female empowerment, but the unthinkable during my high school years is now happening all around me and other mothers of my acquaintance. A growing number of our teenage girls are unabashedly showing their preference for younger boys, saying they are not only more respectful than their older counterparts, but generally nicer to date.” 

Later in the piece she writes that this trend continues longer than highschool…“but if Kate Burkhardt, a junior at Dartmouth College, is correct, the cougar-in-training trend could continue as these high schoolers get older. She dated her high school boyfriend, one grade below her, through her freshman year of college. They finally broke up when he went to college.”

Has society finally rubberstamped the cougar narrative?

Therein lies my objection; why do we endorse the image of a desperate older women who will risk all to attract the attention of a ‘younger male prey?’ I don’t believe that there is anything wrong about dating younger (or older) men (or women). However, what is wrong is perpetuating the self degrading myth.

As I wrote several years ago, “These ladies (the women who attend the convention) may be in it for a good time and believe that they have every right to behave in this fashion. They do; it’s a free country. But think about it; as women, we are consistently complaining about how we are portrayed in the media and within society, especially as we age. If this is the case, why are we spending thousands of dollars to literally sculpt ourselves into charactertures of our better selves?

These’ cougars in training’? They may be giving their older ‘role models’ a run for their money one day, merely because they are doing it the right way and the way that our sisters fought to have it done: they are keeping it real and self-respectful, taking care of themselves and listening to their hearts.

So why do we need to make fun? They are doing everything right, aren’t they? And in some respects, they are demonstrating that self love is a helluvalot more attractive than inches of foundation, a lip plumper and a few nips and tucks.

Truly… before we start proclaiming that these girls are learning how to pimp their hides, shouldn’t be step back and applaud them?. There’s nothing wrong with dating a younger man (or woman). Why don’t we take a page from their playbooks and  keep the predator at bay where she belongs.

“Severe depression? Apathy? Psychomotor retardation?” How about a bennie?

Posted by Liz on May 24, 2012 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

Every now and then, a post deserves a second viewing. This week, I’m bursting the bubble again on vintage advertising. Nothing like an upper for the mid-week blues, right?

“In the severe depressions of the menopause, marked by apathy and psychomotor retardation…”just use a bennie. You’ll be speeding through your day in no time! (And will probably lose that extra weight too!)

Really! What WERE they thinking?!

Wednesday Bubble: Best Laid Plans

Posted by Liz on May 23, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

I was planning on giving life to an old post today. I updated it and saved it, knowing full well that my professional  life outside of this blog required me to be showered, dressed and out the door at 4:45 am.

When I went to “publish” before walking out, I discovered that the site was down. And now that I am happily ensconced on Amtrak, I have learned that the site is up, but that the post has vanished.

Best. Laid. Plans?

Evidently not.

And so, I leave you on this Wednesday to ponder until I return to my desktop and find it.

The only Bubble I will be busting today is my own.

Positive vibration, whole body vibration

Posted by Liz on May 21, 2012 in bone health, osteoporosis | 0 comments

I have been intrigued by whole body vibration (WBV)  for a few years now. If you’ve caught earlier posts, you’ll recall that whole body vibration was developed in India and then passed onto the Greeks to improve overall functioning. More recently, it was used  by the Russians to rehabilitate astronauts who may have lost muscle and bone mass during space missions. Now, however, it’s embraced by many sports medicine clinics and fitness facilities and gaining widespread popularity as strategy for improving leg muscle strength (and by default, balance and mobility) among adults as they age.

Positive evidence continues to accumulate in favour of WBV and in fact, researchers have conducted an extensive review of existing studies to assess whether or not WBV training can decrease the risk of falls and fractures. This is important since women as young as 35 years start to lose bone density and strength and by the time they reach the age of 50, they have a 40% risk of suffering a fracture due to osteoporosis during the rest of their lifetime. Moreover, during the first five years after menopause, women can experience as much as a 30% loss of bone density.

A bit of detail….this specific analysis included 15 studies enrolling both men and women between the ages of 64 and 82. Half of them included women only. WBV was conducted between 1 and 5 times per week over a period of 6 weeks to 18 months, and vibration was delivered during the sessions from anywhere to 15 seconds to 3 min for up to 27 times. The techniques were either vertical vibration (in which one stands on the platform and the vibration is delivered upwards), or side-alternating (in which the vibration is delivered side to side; this strategy apparently mimics a see-saw and the natural human gait.

Overall, they found that WBV may help to improve basic balance ability (i.e. sitting and standing balance) and offer significant benefit in terms of overall functional ability, especially in frailer individuals. Less clear, however, is whether or not it is effective in ultimately preventing falls; in this case, one could argue that by improving balance, WBV lowers fall and fracture risk but it isn’t so clear cut. What may actually be the case is that WBV plus an exercise program can help to do both.

So clearly, the verdict is still out on the usefulness of WBV. What’s more? The exact regimen that offers the most benefit remains unknown. Still, it’s clear that some data suggest that as we age, there are strategies other than drugs that might help to keep us walking and balanced.

As always, there is no time like the present to get moving on exercise and bone health awareness. You may be in your mid-30s and believe that nothing is going to change, but the stats are stacked against you without some sort of self-intervention.

Positive vibration? You bet!

Got life? How about another cup of joe?

Posted by Liz on May 18, 2012 in health, general | 6 comments

Have you seen the headlines? Yup, that’s right! That morning caffeine fix might just be the ticket to a longer life, at least according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week. Mind you, whether or not daily consumption of coffee directly causes a longer life or simply associated with it has yet to be determined. But this is truly the type of news that all of us can use, right?!

In this study, researchers from the National Cancer Institute examined data compiled from over 220,00 men and 173,000 women who participated in a larger diet and health study. They analyzed intake of a broad variety of foods ranging from fruits and vegetables to meat and other source of saturated fat, and coffee consumption was assessed terms of frequency, i.e. 0 to 6 or more cups daily.

Although coffee is rich in antioxidants, its consumption has been linked with increases in cholesterol and blood pressure levels. And, in this particular pool of individuals, coffee drinkers were likelier than nondrinkers to smoke cigarettes, have more than three drinks (alcoholic) a day and eat more red meat.

And yet, after adjusting for all of these confounders — in particular smoking — researchers found that drinking coffee actually appeared to prolong life. In fact, men who drank 6 or more cups a day had a 10% lower risk of dying and women who drank this much had a 15% lower risk of dying compared to non-coffee drinkers. Even better?  It didn’t appear to matter whether or not the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated.

The researchers say that their findings add evidence to other data that show inverse associations between coffee drinking and risk of diabetes, stroke and death from inflammatory diseases. Importantly, they caution that even though smokers appeared to gain the same benefits as nonsmokers, lowered risk from dying appeared to be the strongest amongst participants who never smoked or had stopped smoking.

So, should you start drinking more coffee than ever? Well, this study is an observational study and one that relied on self-reports. Therefore cause and effect is inconclusive. However, in this extremely large pool of men and women, drinking coffee more frequently appeared to confer a moderate degree of protection from dying of heart and respiratory disease, stroke, injuries, accidents and infections. Of course, more coffee may mean less sleep and more jitters, depending on your constitution and the degree of caffeine. Regardless, it appears that more is less when it comes to dying.

Got life? Have another cup!

Wednesday Bubble: Fifty is the new…

Posted by Liz on May 16, 2012 in aging | 4 comments

Bet you were going to say 30, right? Or 25?!

According to a recently published paper in the journal Advances in Life Course Research, the definition of midlife (and 50) isn’t as cut and dry as you may have thought. However, the findings likely won’t surprise you; gender plays a huge role in perception. And women? They don’t like to believe that they’ve reached the milestone…yet.

The researchers, who harken from Florida State University’s Pepper Institute on Aging say that most ‘life course’ studies pay little attention to subjective factors that affect our perceptions, such as how young or how old we feel, financial stability or health. So, they looked at longitudinal data that was compiled during two time periods: 1995-1996 and 2004-2006 and evaluated it on the basis of age in years (aka chronological age), gender, race, socioeconomic status and age identity (how old or young survey participants felt). Then they took a deeper dive and analyzed education levels, income, physical and mental health, and marriage status and parenthood status (biological or adopted children and adult children status).

The findings are pretty interesting:

• Our conception of the timing of life change with age and shift as our lives and our perceptions shifts. BUT…women and older individuals tend to elongate life and postpone the middle age time marker.
• Men believe that midlife starts as much as three years earlier for women; this is consistent with the societal perception that when it comes to aging there is a double standard. Women, on the other hand, tend to postpone their idealization of middle age — at least for their female peers — as long as two years.
• If you feel old, you tend to believe that life is shorter (and that middle age occurs earlier).  And if you are young? Middle age starts a heck of a lot earlier than older adults believe it does.
• Finances and poverty tends to shorten life. And shorten life perceptions.
• If you are in poor health, began your family at a very young age, are divorced or living without parents? You are likelier than individuals who don’t fit into these categories to think of your life as shorter. And as middle age occurring a hell of a lot earlier.

It all sounds very clinical, doesn’t it? But the key take away is that life is not necessarily a straight and narrow path. And more importantly? As women, we are often viewed as middle aged perhaps before we are prepared to view ourselves there. Mostly? If you/we feel young, more power to you/us. Those life bookends all depend on you. Associate Professor Anne Barrett and a key researcher in this study believes that the majority of people believe that middle age begins at 44 and ends at 60.

It’s what you make it. And to heck with that individual next to you who is believes that fifty is not the new…[fill in the blank]. But truly? Fifty is the new fifty. And what you make of it. I’m about to turn 51 in less than a week. Look out world; I am really only me and that me feels pretty darn young on some days.