BitchBuzz
is about being passionate, opinionated, honest, and ironic. Funny, sexy, and all that good stuff.
So when Cate Sevilla, editor of BitchBuzz sent me an email with a link to World Menopause Day (October 18), well, I had a few things to say.
Check it out here.
I’d love your comments, criticisms, and opinions. Let’s talk!
Read MoreSurvey says…
I created an informal poll last week after reading two studies that suggested a seasonal timing to menopause onset and symptoms.
It turns out that the poll mimcs the results found in the studies, ie, that symptom onset is more frequent in winter.
Hmm. We are truly in tune with the tides and cycles. It’s kind of strange, right?
BTW…my BBFF Amy, is taking an informal poll on divadom…Aretha or Tina? Check it out!
Read MoreAnd now for something completely different…
Cleaner water means longer life….and more hot flashes.
Seriously though, did you now that the World Health Organization estimates that unsafe water and inadequate sanitation kills some two million people annually, mostly children under the age of five? What’s more, over a billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water?
Chlorination of drinking water here in the U.S. is one of the most significant public health advances, says the Centers for Disease Control. Not only has it virtually wiped out waterborne diseases but it’s also extended Americans’ life expectancy from 47 years of age in 1900, to 78 years of age in 2006.
In honor of the American Chemistry Association’s 100th Anniversary celebration of chlorination, let’s raise a clean glass and say cheers! And then maybe give ’em a few jeers; afterall, an increase in life expectancy means we’re all living longer (and longer through those menopausal years)!
Seriously though, we’re pretty lucky to have clean drinking water. Even when we’re sweating and swinging.
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: No Pain, No!
Does menopause increase lower back pain?
Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical. when I read this So, I dug a little deeper to see if data support recent findings that suggest that lower back back is more common before than after menopause.
In the study, which was published in the September 4 advanced online edition of the journal Menopause. Australian researchers estimated the prevalence of back pain, as well as its intensity and related degree of disability in 506 local women via questionnaire. Demographic data (i.e. menopause, relationship and employment status) were also collected.
The findings showed that more that 90% of participants had experienced low back pain, either during the previous 12 months (~75%) or at the time they filled out the questionnaire (~22%). Compared to pre- and perimenopausal women, 73% of postmenopausal women reported having high-intensity pain and 84%, a high level of disability. A high body mass index and current pain were factors that were significant predictors of both.
In another study, published in the Clinical Journal of Pain, researchers examined the association between self-reported menopausal status and musculoskeletal pain in 2,218 women participating in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. Not only did they find that 1 in 6 participants reported daily pain symptoms, but, postmenopausal women reported significantly more aches and pains that premenopausal women, even after adjusting for risk factors.
The reason? Estrogen, of course!
In a large study published in the journal Spine in 2006, researchers from the Netherlands evaluated information collected from 11,428 women, ages 20 to 59. Their goal was to examine how hormonal and reproductive factors might influence chronic lower back and upper extremity pain.
Results showed that factors relating to increased estrogen levels were especially likely to increase the risk of chronic lower back pain in particular. These factors included past pregnancy, young maternal age at first birth, duration of oral contraceptive use and use of estrogens during menopause. Importantly, these findings remained even after adjusting for age, education, working status, smoking, and overweight.
Steps you can take now
Exercise, stretching and core conditioning have all be shown to improve and keep back muscles strong. I plan on devoting another post to back strengthening exercises as I believe that it’s a topic worthy of full consideration. But in the interim, the North American Spine Society has an excellent overview of back strengthening strategies.
Of course, always check with a health professional before undertaking any major activity or change in regular routine, especially if you are already experiencing pain.
Read More“Nature’s Great Emmenagogue”
E-men-a-gogue. n. A drug that induces menstrual flow.
I discovered this advertisement for McELREE’S Wine of Cardui in a publication called “Patent Medicine. The Golden Days of Quackery.” This particular ad reportedly ran in a newspaper in Virginia in 1900.
The Wine of Cardui was a leading medicine in the South at the turn of the century. If you click on the ad, you’ll see that the “change” that afflicts “elderly women” often leads to “dreadful diseases such as cancer and consumption.”
Fortunately, the Wine of Cardui (which btw, is based on a traditional Native American recipe), will “strengthen and purify the entire system and bring the sufferer safety over these pitfalls.” The sales pitch that accompanied this product was based on the the contention that because “the great spirit planted it, one could take it and be healed.”
All these benefits for only $1.
Say no more.
Read MoreCarrying the Torch – Spanx A Lot L’eggs!
Who says that this blog has to be serious all the time?!
The other morning, Fighting Mad Mary posted a video featuring her friend GloZell (star of the You Tube series, ‘Ghetto Gossip’), trying to squeeze her frame into a pair of spanx capri. For those of you who are unfamiliar with spanx, it was clearly invented by a man because no sane woman would ever do that to another female.
Fellow blogger Gnightgirl, followed by blogger, friend, and sister-in-law Blanche, picked up the video yesterday. She is followed by BBFF Amy, and the challenge is on.
Sisters – who is going to carry the torch next? We all need to laugh as much as we need to cry. In this particular case, you may do both as you watch GloZell attempt to deal with the challenge at hand.
Spanx a lot L’eggs.
This one’s for you GloZell (and Mary and Lori and Wendy and Amy)!
Happy Friday!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B8ZsmTRKwA]
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