Posts Tagged "menopause"

Wednesday Bubble: All the news that’s fit to…?

Posted by Liz on Mar 30, 2011 in emotions, general | 4 comments

What a perfect mid-week bubble than to burst 1970’s misconceptions about women and menopause. Seriously, wasn’t this the era of feminism and bra burning, not histronics about emotionally unstability and how it might leadership?

Even more frightening? In some circles, these viewpoints remain.

A blast from this past…this one’s only fit for bursting and burning, not for printing.

Friday Folly…gone fishing

Posted by Liz on Mar 18, 2011 in humour | 0 comments

This just places an entirely new spin on the term “on ice.”

And the double entendre – gone fishing. Some of my readers will understand.

Happy Friday and may your day be Flash Free.

Wednesday Bubble: Hot flashes? Try a little mindfulness…

Posted by Liz on Mar 16, 2011 in mind-body therapy | 1 comment

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dael4sb42nI]

No bubble bursting or woo woo. I’m talking the real deal. And if mindfulness doesn’t lead to a wee bit of tenderness, well, I don’t know what will. But enough of me taking poetic license with Otis.

Back in January, I wrote about a piece about the relaxation response and how a daily relaxation practice can actually alter gene structure and induce cellular changes believed to promote health. In the post, I said that “both inner and outer psychological states and environmental factors play a role in how women experience peri and post-menopause, their self-esteem, attitudes and severity of symptoms. If a daily practice of some sort of relaxation strategy can actually alter genes in a way that improves health and well-being, why can’t that daily practice also improve the menopausal/midlife experience?”

Guess what?

It appears that I might have been correct.

Writing in the Advanced Online edition of Menopause, researchers say that women who learn to recognize and more accurately discriminate the components that make up an experience, e.g. thoughts, feelings and sensations, or more specifically, the degree of bother and stress related to hot flashes, may be able to reduce the impact of the flashes on wellbeing.

In this 20 week study, women who were late into the transition into full menopause or in early menopause who reported experiencing, on average, 5 or more moderate to severe hot flashes/night sweats a week were assigned to 8 weekly mindfulness-based stress reduction classes  plus one, all day weekend class or to a waiting list. These classes, which lasted 2.5 hours at a time, involved the following:

• Focused awareness of gradually moving thoughts through one’s body from the feet to head while lying down, paying close attention to bodily sensations
• A sitting meditation focusing on breathing
• Mindful stretching
• Learning materials that discussed how to apply mindful stress reduction practice to everyday life and specifically in response to distressing symptoms and situations.

All participants also completed daily hot flash diaries to rate how bothersome their hot flashes were throughout the study period. Additionally, the researchers analyzed the intensity of hot flashes, quality of life, sleep quality, anxiety and perceived stress, as well as medical history, smoking, previous experience with mindfulness practices, and factors directly related to flashes such as smoking, body mass index, alcohol use and physical activity.

Granted, this study is a small one. But the researchers found that mindful stress reduction practice significantly reduced hot flash bother over time by almost as much as 15% after nine weeks and by almost 22% by 20 weeks, compared to at least half as much in women who were on the wait list. Moreover, sleep quality improved considerably!

Overall, the researchers say that their findings truly highlight the role that stress in general, and mental stress in particular, play in how we perceive hot flashes, how much we are bothered by them, and even their severity and frequency. However, they also say that the fact that mindfulness practice did not affect the intensity of hot flashes shows that it might simply help women cope better with them. Less clear is how the degree to which the placebo effect played a role; studies of pharmaceutical treatments report a subjective placebo effect of up to 30% so it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

Still, they believe that their data show that mindfulness stress reduction may be a significant resource for reducing the bother of hot flashes. Overall, it’s a win-win. Calm the mind; calm the body. Why not try a little tenderness with yourself?

Up in smoke…smoking and breast cancer in the postmenopausal years

Posted by Liz on Mar 14, 2011 in breast cancer | 5 comments

Cigarette smoking is something that appears to keep on giving. And giving. Not only do former smokers find that their habits, even once discarded, might come back to bite them in the hot flash ass and even lead to early menopause, but both active and passive smoking habits are being linked to a increased risk of breast cancer, even 20 years past the expiration date. So, when I was hanging with my bestie behind the fence of my childhood home sucking away at those Kool cigarettes, I guess was I truly making an unconscious choice that is starting to rear its ugly head.

Listen up: don’t smoke.

Okay, enough of the lecture; here are the facts.

Researchers have recently taken a look at the association between smoking and breast cancer risk in almost 80,000 women enrolled in a larger trial (the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study) that took place in the ’90s. Granted, the study relied upon self-reports, which of course, are subject to some degree of what scientists call “recall bias,” meaning that the findings can be subject to some discrepancies. Nevertheless, after collecting information on smoking (never, former or current), age when started smoking, number of cigarettes smoked daily and number of years that cigarettes were smoked, along with age when quitting, as well as potential exposures to passive smoking (as a child, in the home or at work both formerly and currently), they discovered the following:

• Former smokers had a 9% increased risk of breast cancer and current smokers, a 16% increased risk. These figures were related to smoking intensity and years of smoking.
• If a woman had started smoking before their first full time pregnancy, she had a 21% increased breast cancer risk.
• Among former smokers, time since quitting was relevant, and it took as long as 20 years for a former smoker to return to a risk level that would be considered equal to someone who had never smoked.
• Passive smoking was also a huge factor; in fact women who’s exposure to passive smoke in childhood, at home and at work for 10 years or more had a 32% excess risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who had never been exposed to passive smoke. Note that that the researchers emphasize that this particular association is only suggestive and since this is the first study to so closely examine the link between passive smoking and cancer in postmenopausal women, more data are needed.

So, what about the factors that might have influenced or skewed these findings? Well, the researchers did account for age ethnicity, education, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol use, whether or not women had ever been pregnant or brought a child to term, and history of hormone therapy use. And still, the results remained solid.

The upshot of this is that many of us grew up during a time when smoking was a rite of passage, “cool,” or simply habitual. Many of us quit during our 20s or 30s. Some of us still smoke. However, not only does smoking make those menopausal symptoms ever so much worse, but it’s also risky as hell when it comes to breast cancer.

It’s time to do due diligence. Conduct monthly breast checks. Despite controversy as to their value or lack thereof, make a conscious decision about mammography. Instill healthy habits now, including physical activity, a healthy diet and moderate alcohol intake. We might not be able to take back past habits but we can certainly do all we can to alter current habits.

If I knew then what I know now, I might not have picked up those Marlboro Lights so frequently. Oh well. Payback is certainly a bitch.

How dry I am…

Posted by Liz on Feb 25, 2011 in health, general, menopause | 1 comment

Bet you think I’m talking about vaginal dryness or dry skin. I’m not.

Actually, I am referring to another dry condition that affects women in peri and postmenopause: dry eye.

Yikes. Do women really need more dry in their lives?!

Dry eye affects almost 5 million people over age 50 and is one of the most common reasons for an eye doctor visit. It  is related to an imbalance in the tear system that interferes with the ability to produce tears, tear quality (meaning that it’s mostly water and less lubrication needed to moisturize and protect the eye) and function (meaning that the three layers of oil, water and mucus surrounding and protecting the eye — the tear film — starts to thin and loses its stability). This imbalance can lead to symptoms like itching, burning, irritation, redness, tearing, light sensitivity and blurred vision, as well as infection and injury.

Sounds like fun, right?

Even worse? Recent estimates suggest that dry about twice as common in women than in men, especially as they age. And while environmental factors like insufficient intake of fluids, excessive alcohol, excessive exposure to air conditioning or forced hot air and excessive bathing all contribute, one of the most important factor are the sex hormone receptors in the eye.

It’s true that sex hormones, namely estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, are produced by the ovaries in females. However, they are freely available to all tissues in the body, and in fact, regulate tissue in the eye as well. In fact, researchers are increasingly discovering that hormonal changes may directly influence certain eye disorders, and it is believed that the altered hormonal balance at and around menopause may affect tear production.

What can you do about dry eye?

Quite simply, the easiest way to combat dry eye is to hydrate! Lifestyle measures like drinking lots of water and other hydrating fluids, modifying alcohol intake, using humidifiers, avoiding too much air conditioned or heated air and not drying completely post-bathing before moisturizing can help. Practitioners also recommend the use of artificial tears, gels and ointments (not the type that “get the red out”) can help to increase the humidity of the surface of the eye and improve lubrication. If you are suffering from dry eye and using any medications, you should also speak to your doctor. Anticholinergic-containing drugs like Benadryl for example, can cause dry eye. Eyelid hygiene is also important as any offenders like infection or inflammation can just make things worse.

Importantly, taking hormone replacement therapy appears to worsen, not improve dry eye, especially as it relates to the ability to produce tears. This is especially true for women taking estrogen-only. Yet another reason to stay away from HRT.

There are prescription treatments for moderate to severe dry eye and at the extreme, surgery may required. The best course of action is to try some of the simpler measures and if they don’t work or if dry eye worsens, see your doctor.

I don’t know about you but I do see the humour in this, however deeply it may be hidden. Throughout menopause, many of us sweat and flash and produce all sorts of moisture. Except in the areas that matter most.