Posts by Liz

Your bone health: the role of diet

Posted by Liz on Mar 11, 2011 in bone health | 1 comment

Osteoporosis. That scary condition that can result in bone fracture in up to 40% of US women after the age of 50. In the UK, it’s been estimated at least half of women over age fifty will have some sort of osteoporotic fracture. So it’s truly no laughing matter.

I’ve tried to cover osteoporosis extensively since starting Flashfree and you can find many of those posts here. However, I am especially intrigued by novel research that demonstrates that dietary pattern, that is, particular combinations of foods that we eat, may influence bone turnover, a term used to describe the balance between bone formation and bone loss (a process that goes on constantly through our lives) resulting in a net loss or gain in bone tissue. Moreover, dietary pattern may also specifically influence bone resorption, i.e., the process by which cells called osteoclasts break down bone so that minerals (like calcium) can be released into the bloodstream.

The researchers, who studied 3,236 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 59, say that to date, most research has focused on link between specific nutrients and bone health, nutrients such as vitamin D or calcium. However, they point out that most individuals eat a variety of foods the contain combinations of nutrients. Therefore, they believed that there might be value in actually examining how the whole diet and the presence or absence of certain nutrients, affects the skeleton.

Consequently, they took initial body mass index measures, bone mineral density measures, assessed dietary habits by consumption of 98 foods, how often they were consumed and by portion size, and then, based on evaluation of how often these foods were consumed by the participants, further characterized them as the following dietary patterns: “healthy,” “processed,” “bread/butter,” “fish and chips” (the study took place in Scotland!) and “snack food.”

Overall, the women in the study actually consumed a large proportion of fruits and vegetables and on average, at least three cups of tea daily. Bread and potatoes tended to comprise the greatest source (at least percentage-wise) of “energy” to the diet. To a lesser extent, yogurt, cream, fats, oils, biscuits and milk also contributed a substantial amount of energy to the diet. However:

• Of the five types of dietary patterns, a healthy diet was most associated with better bone health, and specifically, a reduction in bone resorption. Specific foods included fruits and vegetables, white meat, white and oily fish and dairy, all nutrients that have been previously associated with beneficial bone health.This combination of foods also provided adequate protein.
• Conversely, eating mainly a ‘processed foods’ (i.e. cereal, processed meats, cake, desserts, dried fruits, soup, bread, and fats and oils) diet, and a “snack foods” diet (i.e. candy/cookies, potato chips, sauces) were both associated with reductions in bone mineral density.
• The results didn’t change when factors, such as whether or not women were taking drugs to fight osteoporosis, were taken into account.

The bottom line is that when it comes to bone health, it’s important to eat healthy, pack your diet with fruits and vegetables, and stay away from junk and processed foods. Focus on foods that are risk in calcium and balanced levels of good protein. Although this may seem intuitive, the findings emphasize that  a poor diet may ultimately result in poor bone health and increase fracture risk as you age.

Time to restock the fridge? No bones about it!

Wednesday Bubble: celebrating Women…a reprise of my conversation with chef/author Mollie Katzen

Posted by Liz on Mar 9, 2011 in women's health | 0 comments

I know that yesterday was International Women’s Day. So I’m one day late reprising this post from last year. And ever so grateful for the women whose company I keep. So far as I am concerned, every day is women’s day. So here’s to all you ladies I know and love. And to you, my dear readers, without whom, this blog would not exist.

Cheers!

It’s International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate women of all ages, races, ethnicity and religion, to celebrate women as essential and relevant beings. Yet, as I write today in a post onWomen Grow Business, although women are more engaged and successful than ever, the woman in the mirror might not have much to say about the fact that her image is likely disappearing right before her eyes — just as she’s reaching the pinnacle of her career.  In fact, in a ‘visual culture’ like ours’, where youth and beauty are often valued more than experience and ‘foundation,’ many women find that they eventually cease to exist.

The Woman Grow Business post primarily focuses on how ageism affects our careers and the steps we can take to overcome inherent societal challenges. My friend, chef/author Mollie Katzen,played an important role in shaping that post.  In fact, it evolved out of an initial conversation that we had when we were discussing women, food and aging.

However, I’d like to share some additional insights that Mollie lends to concept of the disappearing woman. Let’s face it: although we live in a society that is “no country for old women,” [Credit for tag – Sadhbh Walshe, guardian.co.uk] perhaps we can shift the societal gaze to within and not without. Like Mollie, I know a number of middle-aged women who feel the need to adjust their physical appearance in order to compete. The gambit runs from hair color and botox to face lifts and labiaplasty. The question is, are these things taking time and focus away from our work (or who we are)? Granted, I color my hair and have been doing so for decades. I am not ready to embrace my gray. Does this mean that I am not ready to embrace myself or that I am somehow exacerbating my disappearing act?

Mollie is fortunate in that her chosen career is one of the few where, she says, “women are not only allowed to age but that [age] is seen as an enhancement to credibility.” However, she suggests that the more women are out there looking their age, the likelier it is for older women to do so.

However, here’s the rub: What does your age look like?

Mollie says that throughout her life, she’s been greatly helped by Gloria Steinem’s famous quote when told she didn’t look 40: “this is what 40 looks like,” said Steinem. “That phrase has been my mantra,” explains Mollie; “this is what I look like.”

For me personally, this gives me permission to dress in ways that make me feel good about myself, and perhaps even color my hair to reinforce that feeling. Mollie concurs:  “instead of hoping to look 35, try looking your best for who you are. Emphasizing that she dislikes and tries to avoid platitudes at all costs, Mollie agreed to share a few strategies that she and her friends have created. “They seem like small things,” says Mollie, “but they make a huge difference in how you come across:”

• Posture! The first sign of “older” is often stooped shoulders. Standing tall conveys confidence and strength. “Anyone who is not attracted to that is someone you don’t need in your life.”
• Keep a focused gaze. “Looking sharp sharpens, Mollie explains. “Glazing over glazes you over.”
• “A smile is the best and cheapest face lift. Especially when it is genuine; your smile, not theirs.”
• Breathe deeply. Then speak. “When you do speak, let your voice come from your abdomen and be fueled by that deep breath.” (This isn’t easy, btw.)
• “Don’t ask your sentences unless they are questions.” (Remember Valley Girl by Frank Zappa?)
• “Try to find the love in all situations.” (I need work on this!). Mollie explains that in most cases, this needs to come from within. “Recognize that sometimes that love can take the form of putting up a boundary. Recognize also, that putting up that boundary can be cloaked in warmth and humor, even while you are being assertive.”  She adds that “true personal power can be a warming and loving representation.”

Additionally, perhaps we need focus more on playing up our strengths and working on self-acceptance.  “Develop your own style of centering and use it to solidify,” advises Mollie. “Change or leave bad relationships.” (This could also refer to bad business relationships.) Seek support.

Platitudes or reality? As middle-aged women, can’t we create (or redefine) our reality. Most successful revolutions start with small steps. Our evolution as women depends on it.

Feeling like a ‘raging maniac?’ There’s a Facebook app for that!

Posted by Liz on Mar 7, 2011 in bioidentical hormones | 12 comments

Truly, I am appalled.

BodyLogicMD, a national network of physician-owned practices that specialize in biodentical hormone replacement therapy, wants you to ‘Rate the Raging Maniac‘ in your life. (Note: you have to “like” the Facebook page in order in play.)

According to Vice President for Marketing, Jill Swartz “With the Raging Maniac Quiz on Facebook, we’re able to poke fun at the otherwise serious symptoms of hormon conditions like perimenopause, menopause and thyroid imbalances. This is a playful quiz we think people will have a great time socializing with.”

Okay. Let me get this straight.

Waning estrogen is wreaking havoc on your moods, causing swings, depression, anxiety, anger and short temper. You feel miserable and perhaps you are making your partner, friends or colleagues a wee bit miserable too. Or, you have a friend who’s hormonal swings are making her into ‘Bitchy Betty.’

The answer?

Visit the Facebook BodyLogic page, play ‘Rate the Raging Maniac,’ and up your social status by determining if you or your friend is “Hormonally Happy,” “A Mild Maniac,” or a “Raging Maniac.”  Better yet, Raging Maniac allows you to select a friend to play with and after the results are in, you can post them results to your friend’s wall. Game on! She can take the quiz to see if you are a raging maniac too.

Guess what BodyLogic?

I don’t know one woman who wants to be rated as a raging maniac, publicly or otherwise. I don’t know any friends, colleagues, or intimate partners who would be so insensitive to rate people in their lives as raging maniacs or those ridiculous quirky character pseudonyms that your marketing folks have come up with, characters like “Sexi Lexi,” “Forgetful Fran” or “Negative Nancy.” I don’t know who your social marketing person is but you may want to think about replacing them with someone who understands women.

In the interim, one can only surmise that if you’re deemed a Raging Maniac, well, then, you need to contact one of BodyLogicMD’s physicians and get that prescription for biodentical hormones pronto!

Or is that the booby prize?

Flaming the fires of HRT: what influences risk?

Posted by Liz on Mar 4, 2011 in heart disease, HRT | 6 comments

Let’s face it. Despite my doubts about hormone replacement therapy (HRT), just like the Energizer Bunny, it’s going to keep on going. So as any responsible journalist must do, I have to share the good along with the bad and ugly. The trouble is that data rarely agree, lending confusion to the growing controversy about health risks, appropriate timing, combination and use of HRT.

Last week, several of you sent me a link to a study in the current issue of Menopause that appears to further clarify use of HRT and heart disease risk. Quite honestly, I had seen the study but was hesitant to write about it for fear of simply fueling the fires. But you’ve asked so I’ve answered.

The investigators of this particular study note that experts suspect that timing of hormone replacement, i.e. age when it’s started or time since menopause has begun when it’s started, plays a role in some of the differences between previous reports on HRT and heart disease. For example, reanalysis of data from the Nurses Health Study demonstrates that any heart benefits of HRT rely on starting therapy within 10 years of menopause, while data from the Women’s Health Initiative show that younger age plays an important role as well.

In a quest to tease this out further, they examined information on deaths from ischemic heart disease, age at first and/or current use of HRT, prior use and duration of use in 71,237 postmenopausal women in the California Teachers Study over a period of approximately 9 years. The findings?

• Overall, current age while using HRT appears to influence risk of dying from any cause. This factor appears to be much more importan than age that HRT was started or years since menopause began. Indeed, women using HRT at the time of the study who were younger than 65 years were found to have a 45% reduced risk of death from any cause compared to women who had never used HRT.
• Similar findings were seen when the researchers examined death from heart disease, with HRT providing some protection in younger current users that virtually disappeared once they reached 75 years.

The upshot is that the health consequences and risks of HRT may be influenced most by age at current use, with younger women having the most benefits to gain. Any sort of protection starts to disappear as women grow older so the window of opportunity might be small.

Still, questions remain. These researchers were only trying to determine the most important influencer(s) of death from heart disease and not examining cancer or other risks that have been definitively demonstrated.  Do these data fan the controversial fires and serve to heat up the debate? I believe that they do.

As always, buyer beware. Nothing is ever as it seems. Especially when it comes to hormone replacement therapy.

Wednesday Bubble: stress, abdominal fat and exercise

Posted by Liz on Mar 2, 2011 in exercise | 4 comments

This is a day to neither burst nor unburst bubbles, but rather, explore an interesting set of hypotheses that ran across my desk:

Stress boosts that unsightly bulge around our midsection as we age. And, high intensity, intermittent exercise might eliminate some of it.

It’s hard to stay away from the the battle of the middle age bulge. It’s there every time many of us look in the mirror. And as I’ve written time and again; in women, the accumulation of abdominal fat is the perfect storm, multifactorial in cause and affecting a majority despite diet and physical activity. The culprits? Experts believe that it may be related to changes in ovarian function, hormone and just generally aging. To add insult to injury, as estrogen production declines, the body starts to rely on secondary production sites, such as body fat and skin. Thus, fatty tissue starts function like an endocrine organ instead of simply a passive vessel for energy storage. The body also struggles to hold onto bone mass and may compensate for its loss by holding on to extra body fat longer.

Now it seems that there’s another culprit at play: stress.

Cortisol is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal glands. Its primary role in the body is to regulate energy (by producing blood sugar or metabolizing carbohydrates, protein and fats) and mobilize it areas in the body where is it most needed; consequently, cortisol levels tend to peak in the early morning and then gradually decline throughout the day. Cortisol is also produced in reaction to prolonged periods of stress, during which time it produces protein that the body can convert to energy. However, it also increases the creation of fat that may be deposited in fat cells residing deeply in the abdominal area.

Aging is believed to create further imbalances and an increase in cortisol levels, especially at night.  Recent data have also shown that overall, women have higher cortisol levels than men, and that certain women, especially those with greater amounts of abdominal fat, may be reacting to a large disruption in release of cortisol that causes a greater than normal difference between morning and evening levels of the hormone. This disruption is believed to be related, at least in part, to exposure to prolonged physical and mental stress.

If you are anything like me, your adrenals are working overtime and stress is pretty much a given part of your life. And, those abdominal fat deposits that were for most of your life, kept at bay, are starting to show up in the most inopportune places.

Now for the good news:

According to a recent review in the Journal of Obesity, there is accumulating evidence that high-intensity, intermittent exercise ( e.g. 8 seconds of high intensity cycling to significantly boost aerobic capacity followed by 12 seconds of low intensity, over a 20 minute period) performed at least three times a week may effectively reduce abdominal fat and even fat that lies just below the skin. The most important thing is consistency; although most studies have only evaluated these type of exercise regimens for short time periods, it appears that better results are associated with regular programs that last at least 3 months or more, especially among people who have larger amounts abdominal fat. Less certain, however, is the role that age may play, and if imbalances in cortisol levels due to prolonged stress influence how well intermittent, high intensity activity impacts fat deposits.

Not only have I upped the ante in terms of how long I exercise daily (i.e. 6o minutes) but I have started to pay more attention to how I’m working out in terms of intensity levels. Next up is the addition of intermittent high intensity intervals. Regardless of whether it’s cycling, elliptical or running, I’m hopeful that I can combat some of the bulge that’s creeping up. If anything, my heart is going to thank me!

What about you? In addition to watching what goes into your mouth, what are you doing to combat stress and that rotunda around your midsection?