Sets – a Freudian Slip?
Remember Cool Sets? Last year I was asked to try out their wicking PJs — (sounds wicked), which rely on Cool Balance technology — a unique weave that allows the fabric to draw moisture away from your body, speeds evaporation and leaves you cool rather than soaked and suddenly cold from that awful night sweat or hot flash. You may recall I loved the concept but wasn’t too psyched about the fashion.
Well, the folks at Cool Sets approached me again to see if they could change my mind with some of their new designs. Admittedly, when it comes to what I put on my body, I’m pretty picky, even if it’s just a tee and shorts. I was even more skeptical when the company representative wrote and described what she was sending as “sassy.” Uh-oh.
Cool Sets – I love love love what you are doing for women everywhere. But the “fun and flirty” item of clothing you sent reminds me of a vintage slip, actually, the vintage slip that I wore to a Halloween Party several years as a ‘Freudian Slip.’
Is the fashion statement behind Cool Sets a Freudian Slip? Honestly, I do believe that you are meaning one thing, and producing another. And yet again, I willing to overlook the fashion wrong to see the product right: I remain thoroughly impressed by what your product does, not how it looks.
Now, can we get you on Project Runway for a redesign?
p.s. The photo is not a close up of a Cool Sets nightgown. It is a piece of vintage lace.
[Disclosure: I received no payment from Cool Sets to write this post. They did, however, send me an article of clothing to “test drive.” No terms were expressed by other me or the company regarding what I would write or when or if I would write it.]
Read MoreSleep and menopause: four’s a charm
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.
Read MoreMove over, red clover
There’s interesting news on the red clover front.
Although red clover may have questionable value when it comes to hot flashes (the verdict is still out with regards to whether or not it is effective) researchers are now saying that this isoflavone may be useful for reducing depression and anxiety in menopausal women.
In a study published in the online edition of Maturitas journal, over 200 menopausal women received 2-80 mg red clover capsules or sugar tablet for 90 days, took a break, and then were assigned the opposite medication for another 90 days. The researchers measured anxiety and depression at the study’s start, at 90 days and at the study’s completion.
Taking red clover reduced total anxiety and depression by as much as 77%, compared to declines following placebo (which overall, declined about 21%). This decline could likely be attributed to what is known as the placebo effect, in which some an improvement is perceived to be real.
About red clover
Red clover is a perennial whose flowers have long been dried and used therapeutically in complementary medicine. It’s a known source of calcium, chromium, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, thiamine, and vitamin C. Researchers have studied its utility in heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and of course menopause. Herbalists also use red clover topically for eczema, psoriasis and other rashes. Although most people tolerate red clover very well, it has been associated with headache, nausea and rash. Animals who graze on large amounts of red clover have also become infertile. It can also interfere with certain drugs that are metabolized by the liver and can enhance the effects of estrogens, birth control and blood thinners.
Should you take red clover for anxiety and depression? The verdict is early but it is looking promising. As always, peak to a licensed, knowledgeable practitioner before using red clover with any regularity for any condition.
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: Bifocals, babies, hot steamy flashes of perspective. It is enough.
A year ago I was fortunate to meet Author and Woman Extraordinaire Patti Digh. We met at an intimate reading of her book, Life is a Verb, in Washington DC. Since that time, I’ve repeatedly asked Patti to grace Flashfree with her words and her presence. She has graciously sent me the following guest post. Thank you Patti…
I got bifocals and gave birth in the same year. Now, six years later, the first hot flash has hit. I celebrated my fiftieth birthday this past August, telling everyone I knew that I was reaching that magic age, shamelessly announcing this momentous occasion to everyone I met. I stood on the beach at sunrise on that day–August 16–with my oldest daughter (who turned 17 the very day I turned 50) and wondered to myself if that would be the last birthday I would ever see.
If it was, it was enough.
It is enough.
None of us knows whether tomorrow will come. It’s a lesson I’ve learned many times over in my life—you have too, I’m sure—and it’s a lesson I’ve pondered daily for the past five years—how to live like you’re dying (because we all are), extracting every ounce of joy and pain from each day.
Many people disparage aging, joke about it, dread it. With a father who died at 53, I see every day as a gift he never had. He was dead far too young; perhaps my old age will be in homage to the one he never got.
For a long time in my life, I have felt I would reach my most powerful at 50. And having reached that point in the road, I believe that is true. Not my most fit, certainly, or my most rested, but my most powerful. There is a power in the transformation that starts taking place when power surges heat us up from the inside out. There is a power in the knowledge that we have nothing to prove, not one damn thing. There is power in knowing that we have every single thing we need, that we need nothing else, that we are fully human and gorgeously odd and contradictory and beautiful just as we are. That we are hot in the very deepest, richest, metaphorically resonant use of that term.
That we are not broken. That we don’t need to be fixed.
This decade for me is going to be one of simplification. Just as I peel off clothing to cool off several times a day, my infernal engine is fueling me to peel off things and toxic people and projects I dread, things I said “yes” to and immediately regretted.
Two months after turning 50, I have had a health scare, a big one, an “isn’t it ironic that this should happen to the woman who writes about what she would be doing if she only had 37 days to live?” one. My first two thoughts? 1) I have to clean out my house because I can’t leave this mess for others to see; and 2) My girls. I can’t leave my girls and my love.
That was good information for me.
I am calling in the dumpster—for files and old magazines and clothes whose single digit size I’ll never see again—and for fears and hesitations and waiting for someone to show me the way. I am calling in the dumpster for playing it safe and being practical and for bemoaning the fact that I have lines on my face and sweat stains on my best silk blouse. I am calling in the dumpster for people who are toxic to me with their whining and complaining and gossiping and blaming. I am calling in the dumpster for regret.
But before that, I’m going sky-diving with my 17-year-old simply because she has always wanted to. And baking cookies with my 6-year-old because she loves feeling the dough with her dirty, dimpled little hands and sneaking bites of it, uncooked and raw, like life.
It is enough. I am enough. I am bifocaled and hot and lumpy and messy and spectacular. And so are you.
About Patti Digh
Patti Digh is the author of Life is a Verb and has written two business books on global leadership and diversity, one named a Fortune magazine “best business book for 2000.” Jer comments have appeared on PBS, and in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the New York Times, USAToday, the Washington Post, and London Financial Times, among other national and international publications. She speaks around the world on diversity, global business, and living intentionally.
Patti is also co-founder of The Circle Project, a consulting and training firm that partners with organizations and the people in them to help them work more effectively and authentically together across difference.
She lives in Ashville, NC with her husband, two daughters and various animals.
Learn more about Patti, her work and her blog, 37 Days. You can also find Patti on Twitter and Facebook.
Read MoreThe domino effect
I’ve never heard of the term ‘Domino Effect’ being applied to menopause, although, if one thinks about it, it makes perfect sense. For example, hot flashes beget sleep disruptions beget mood swings, and so on and and so on.
But do they?
In a study published in Menopause Journal ahead-of-print, 55 women were asked to keep daily records of their symptoms for up to five years or until they fully entered menopause. whichever came first. The researchers then evaluated whether or not changes in hot flashes or night sweats would predict a change in sleep the very same day, and if these changes then predicted changes in moods the next day. They also factored in whether or not women were initially depressed to insure that any results they found would not be unduly influenced.
They found that daily hot flashes or night sweats accurately predicted same day sleep problems and disruptions, which in turn, worsened moods the next day. However, the researchers were unable to connect hot flashes and night sweats directly to shifts in mood without this interim step except for in women who were already mildly depressed.
Are you confused yet?
What this really shows is that while night flashes and hot sweats may affect overall mood swings during menopause, the reason is unlikely to be attributed directly to sleep disruption but rather to some other mechanism. In the long run, this may allow lead to better interventions that individually address these factors so that the sum of the parts becomes a more positive sense of well-being regardless of any physical disruptions.
Every action has a chain reaction. Hopefully, this finding will lead to something positive for us all.
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