Posts by Liz

Sleep and menopause: four’s a charm

Posted by Liz on Dec 28, 2009 in sleep disturbance | 0 comments

Daytime sleepiness? Researchers say that being in menopause, hot flashes, lack of physical activity and your partner might be the culprits. No surprises, right?

In a study appearing in the advanced online edition of the  journal Maturitas, 149 women  between the ages of 40 and 59 rated the frequency and intensity of their hot flashes and were evaluated for daytime sleepiness.At least half had hot flashes, of which about 43% were rated as very severe.

Not only did hot flashes increase the risk for daytime sleepiness by 2.6 fold, but, being postmenopausal increased it by as much as 6.5-fold. Being sedentary was associated with 3.4 times the risk for daytime sleepiness. What’s more having a partner that was not faithful was associated with an increase in risk by as much as 53%.

The good news is that most of these factors, save for being menopausal, can be modified or at least addressed to improve nighttime sleep and by default, decrease feelings of sleepiness during the daytime. If you feel unusually sleepy most of the time, it’s a great idea to speak to a healthcare practitioner who is helping you to manage your symptoms. There may be some important and effective steps you can take.

NewsFlash! Estrogen, the “split-personality” chemical

Posted by Liz on Dec 27, 2009 in estrogen | 1 comment

Move on over estrogen! The game is up. Researchers have discovered that estrogen acts like the middlewoman when it comes to certain activity in the body.  What this means for you: the potential of developing new agents that act like estrogen in the body but avoid all the negative bits, like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, heart disease and deaths from lung cancer.

The study, which was conducted in rats, showed that estrogen appears to stimulate a brain protein (i.e. calpain) that is critical to learning and memory. When it acts through calpain, it doesn’t act like a hormone (and its “wreak havoc” types of effects) but rather, like a power surger that boosts the ability to process and retain information. Researchers compare this to adrenaline, which acts like a hormone in most of the body but in the brain, helps transmit nerve signals across cells (i.e. a “neurotransmitter”).

Not only do these findings (which were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science) change the way that scientists look at estrogen, but as mentioned, they may eventually lead to strategies that allow the medical community who espouses HRT to look elsewhere for solutions to troublesome menopausal symptoms.

Seasons Greetings..from Flashfree

Posted by Liz on Dec 24, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Wishing you a Flashfree holiday!

Wednesday Bubble: a poke and voila!

Posted by Liz on Dec 23, 2009 in hot flash | 2 comments

Researchers are suggesting that  a single injection of an anesthetic into the sympathetic nervous system may shut down hot flashes all together.

What?!

Is this a bubble to be burst or a solution to celebrate? Only time can tell.

True confession – much as I try, I cannot locate the original study. So I am going to share what I’ve learned through what I can find and you can draw your own conclusions!

Theoretically, the new strategy involves injecting a local anesthetic into the sympathetic nerves in the neck to block norepinephrine. (Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that has been posited as a possible explanation for hot flashes, i.e. both norepinephrine and  serotonin lower the set point in how the body regulates temperature, meaning that heat loss mechanisms can be triggered by subtle changes in core body temperature.)

In this small study, which involved 15 women, all experienced decreases in the severity of their hot flashes by as much as 80%  for up to two weeks.

A larger study is evidently in the works to determine if this approach can help alleviate and possibly even eliminate hot flashes. Meanwhile, I am going to see if I can find more information. It’s an interesting strategy and one that could truly revolutionize the way that we address hot flashes if if proves to be true.

Menopause. The app.

Posted by Liz on Dec 21, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Yes! There is an application for menopause! No longer do you need to scramble in the middle of the night to find a pen to write in your Hot Flush Diary! Now you can turn on your phone, go to the application, and voila! All your symptoms, moods swings, night sweats, hot flashes and lack of libido in one place!

Introducing My pause the must have app that allows you to track your symptoms, create a treatment plan and hey, even share it with family and friends on Twitter!

As I’ve written previously, a diary is the last thing I want to keep on my nightstand. The same goes for an application for my phone. In fact, the idea of taking notes on all of my hot flashes and night sweats and when/why/how they occur and how they make feel gets me pretty hot under the collar. As a friend said “I’m hot and grumpy and not getting sleep. Who needs an app for that?”

I’m all for having a thorough, informative vision of what you are suffering through so that you can discuss your symptoms with a licensed practitioner and come up with a viable strategy to address them. But putting menopause into a category that requires a disease tracker? That’s taking this whole “pause” thing a bit too far.

Developers – take a note from this page. This transition is a natural part of a woman’s life. It doesn’t need to be treated; it needs to be accepted and supported. I don’t want to note my symptoms/moods/fatigue/anxiety/depression/sexual desire (or lack thereof) on my phone everyday. Instead, how about “Freeze it!” The app that stops flashes in their tracks! Now, there’s an app I can get my head around!

Seriously, who thinks of this crap?  What’s next? Anyone?