The Roundup: September News and Tidbits

[Credit: Special thanks to artist Darryl Willison of whimsicalwest.com. Please visit his site and support his work!]

Because October starts tomorrow, I’m replacing this week’s Wednesday Bubble with the monthly Roundup. Here’s an overview of September’s post in case you missed one or want to revisit it.

Enjoy!

• Wednesday Bubble: Big dietary changes one small step at a time. A guest post by Miz Fit - Carrying around a “freshwoman forty” (or ten)? Fitness expert and author Carla Birnberg shares some tips on how to change your habits, and your body.
• Cougar 101: Pimp your hide -The Cougar Convention hits the West Coast with a roarrrrr. See what a bit of botox, plumped lips and a nip and tuck yield.
• Sinking your teeth into…osteoporosis - Time to bone up on osteoporosis as researchers now link the disease with tooth loss.
• Wednesday Bubble:  Turmeric… too good to be true? – Is this Indian spice hiding some important benefits beneath its yellow facade?
• Overworked, overextended, overstressed and underserved – A global survey reveals that women are not only busier than ever, but they are also shouldering a burden of extreme proportions. What can we do to change this burgeoning problem?
• A is for adiposity, F is for falls, M is for muscle weakness. Together they spell “D” – Research shows the Vitamin D is more important than ever for postmenopausal women: what you need to know.
• Wednesday Bubble: the best medicine – A laugh a day keeps disease at bay. No kidding.
• Calcium conundrum: which supplement should I choose? -When it comes to preventing bone loss, calcium supplements are all the same. Or are they?
• More on breast cancer and HRT – Time to take this killer off the market. More bad news for women who use HRT.
• Wednesday Bubble: Blame it on - Hormones. Women are suicidal and more unhappy than thirty years ago. The reason? Must be menopause.
• Keep it greasy – with Zestra® – Feeling a bit hot below the belt? Despite all the hype, this sensual oil is unlikely to improve your sex life. Or your aroma.

external shows

The other night we felt like slumming it and went to pick up Dominos in Didcot, where we saw the typical weekend chav-rabble cluttering the pavement outside, queuing up for pizzas and fish and chips. Obese. Smoking. Pregnant.

And I wanted to say, excuse me, it appears as if you’ve chosen not to use your god-given bodies for anything but destruction. Mind if we trade? You may as well take this one; it’s trashed with cancer anyway.

–

Anecdote: one of my hospital roommates (of whom more tales to come) was in for a hernia operation. From the other side of the curtain, I heard the surgeon explain to her that they had had to pull her stomach out of her chest.

Pull her STOMACH out of her CHEST.

“Uggh,” she said several times that day. “I feel like I’ve been pulled backwards through a hedge.”

The figurative language, I found, was insubstantial. Surely in such an instance it is more striking to speak literally: I feel like I’ve had my stomach pulled out of my chest.

So this is what I mean now when I say I dread the question “How do you feel?” There is no metaphor for how I feel. The only adequate answer is: I feel like I’ve had a piece of muscle the size of my Riverside cut out of my back, pulled through an incision in my armpit and sewn into my chest where my breast was cut off. Do you know what that’s like?

I’m grateful to have a readership of other BRCA/breast cancer bloggers who can, with some certainty, say yes to that question.

–

It was the same with chemotherapy. How do you explain chemotherapy to someone who’s never had it? Is it like a bad hangover? someone said. Yeah, sort of. And sort of not at all. Unless you’ve ever had a poison hangover.

What IS it “like?” I don’t know. On the FEC I felt like maggots ate my brain. Or like my head had been pressed inside a mammogram machine. On the Taxotere I felt like the someone had sneaked in with steel-toed shoes and kicked me in every joint and muscle while I slept.  But mostly, it’s like: you realize what you’re submitting to might be saving your life, but it makes you want to die.

–

I’m tired of feeling awful — of this terrible awareness of my body and everything that’s wrong in it.

And I resent being told by people who have never had cancer that things will go back to “normal.” It’s as if they can feel better by convincing themselves it isn’t so bad for me, or won’t be. They want you to be normal. When you have cancer, people love to say, “your hair will grow back.” As if you hadn’t realized that, or as if that really mattered.  

Hair seems to mean so damn much to everyone. I suppose because it is the “external show.” Like if you can’t see the illness, it doesn’t exist. But can’t we transcend Piaget’s sensorimotor stage for just a moment, and imagine things that aren’t immediately visible? I grant you, the hair will grow back; that’s one thing. But you can’t have cancer and then return to “default.”

But my breast won’t grow back, for a start. Neither will the muscle in my back.

Then there’s the five years of Tamoxifen, and the menopause which may or may not be permanent. My menstrual cycle won’t go back to “normal.” Or my sex drive. Or my metabolism.

Or my genetic makeup.

To me, to return to “default” would be to not constantly be wondering whether cancer cells are quietly metastasizing inside me, constantly worrying whether and when it will become visible again.

Because as “normal” as you wish you could make it, there is no cure for cancer.

Upcoming Visioning Workshop by the Queen!

Vision your future:  change your Life!

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” -Eleanor Roosevelt

How beautiful are your dreams?

Come learn how to vision your best future 9-11 AM on Saturday, October 24th at the Northern Colorado Writers Studio in south Fort Collins.  Life Transformation Specialist Laura Lee Carter will present this interactive “fun” shop, not a workshop!
Did you know your unconscious only “thinks” in images, not in words?  That is why we need to first imagine our best future in pictures before we can even begin to make it come true.

Come have the Midlife Crisis Queen guide you through the process of visioning a new life for yourself.  Get comfortable with the changes you know you need to make to move on, and then watch them come to life before your very eyes, by creating your very own vision board!

Laura Lee has been through a phenomenal amount of personal change in the past decade.  As the writer and moderator of the popular blog:  MidlifeCrisisQueen.com, she constantly assists others as they navigate the vicissitudes of midlife change.

With an extensive background as a scholar/researcher, plenty of real life experience, and a master’s degree in counseling psychology, Laura is well qualified to act as your guide to personal change!

The cost for this workshop is $40, and includes free copies of Laura Lee’s new book, Midlife Magic: Becoming The Person You Are Inside and her Midlife Change Workbook: Tools for Transformation.

Go see her blog and website: www.LauraLeeCarter.com and then send Laura Lee an e-mail with your questions.  Or reserve yourself and your friends a place at this fun and exciting life changing event!

Seating is limited.    Please send Laura Lee an e-mail at MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com to reserve your place!

Wednesday Bubble: blame it on...

I was struck by the following story that appeared two weeks ago on the BBC:

“Woman’s Death Blamed on Menopause.”

“A woman who refused to take hormone replacement therapy died while suffering a menopausal episode, an inquest had heard. Margaret Drew…was killed when she walked out of her family home on to a nearby railway line and was hit by a train…There is no trigger to this at all, except hormones making her do things that she normally wouldn’t do, Dr. Carlyon [Cornwall Coroner) concluded…”

Menopause. The silent killer. Oh really?  Drew’s husband claims that his wife was “delightful, lovely and friendly” 99% of the time; the other 1% she’d become “totally irrational.” Yet, she refused to try HRT, he says. On the day of her suicide, he said that his wife was “clearly angry about something.”

Something.

Obviously, the conclusion is that that the “something” is hormones. This reminds me of vintage advertising copy that conveys the simple message that a pill a day can cure all that ails, wipe away the tears, mood swings and instability so that women can “transition without tears” (or better yet, without killing themselves).

Notably, a search in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database turned up only one recent study specifically dealing with suicide ideation across reproductive stages. In it, researchers compared data in 8,794 women, and found an increased risk of thinking about suicide among women during perimenopause, not before or after entering menopause. These findings remained after controlling for risk factors such as anxiety and mood disorders. HOWEVER, the researchers noted that the study design did not allow them to form any definitive conclusions about the specific reasons for thinking about suicide.

Another search yielded information that the risk for a major depression increases during perimenopause, primarily as the direct result of vasomotor symptoms. The same does not hold true for women before menopause begins or once they enter menopause. Note that while major depression is a risk factor for suicide, not everyone who is depressed will actually kill themselves.

So, are hormonal fluctuations the sole cause of such deep unhappiness that women want to kill themselves?

Interestingly, just a week after the menopause/train suicide story hit the interwebz, a rather controversial set of data also emerged: since 1972, women’s overall level of happiness has dropped. These findings held true regardless of child status, marital status and age. Researcher Marcus Buckingham, writing in the Huffington Post, said that women are not more unhappy than men because of gender stereotyping and related attitudes, due to working longer hours or because of the inequality of housework/responsibilities at home, but rather, the hormonal fluctuations of menopause may be to blame. What’s more, he leaves us hanging so we’ll tune in for part two of the piece to learn the true cause of our declining happiness or better yet, read his book (which evidently guides women through the process of finding the true role that they were meant to play in life).

Importantly, reactions to this study (and various pundits’ assessment of it) have been mixed. One of the most poignant comments I’ve read asks the question “how is happiness measured? What does it mean?”

I have no idea what caused Mrs. Drew to walk into a train two weeks ago and kill herself. Perhaps she was depressed. Clearly she was suicidal.

I have no idea why research shows that women are less happier than they were three decades ago.

However, is menopause the cause? Don’t these conclusions only serve to perpetuate societal myths that menopause is a disease that requires treatment? That as women, our attitudes, belief systems and actions are hormonally-based and driven? That we are hysterical beings who need guidance on how to find our way and fulfill our dreams, realize our paths, but only if we calm down?

Feeling angry? Blame it on menopause. Unhappy? Blame it on menopause. Not realizing your dreams? Blame it on menopause. Overworked, overstressed, undervalued? Blame it on menopause.

Blame it on menopause.

I don’t know about you but I’m tired, tired of hearing that menopause is not the symptom but the disease.

There’s no time like the present to burst this bubble.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcus-buckingham/whats-happening-to-womens_b_289511.html

Tips for women (and I suppose men!) on improving memory at any age

I’d seen some of these before, but not the stuff on flossing or the dangers of nonprescription sleep pills (their effects on cognitive abilities in the long term). Interesting. I want the Rubix Cube!

 

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/09/memory.boosters/index.html?iref=newssearch

 

If you want to know what other games build memory, check out this “Games for Skills” chart:

http://www.unlocktheeinsteininside.com/ProgramReview_GamesForSkills.pdf

 

Remember, there are THREE types of memory: short-term, long-term and working.

SUPPLEMENTS AGAINST DISEASE/ AGING :

SUPPLEMENTS AGAINST DISEASE/ AGING :

Illness & early death are avoidable;

only aging isn’t..

Especially after age 30y, even with good diet & health, we need, but run out of, most essential micronutrients

– some ~15 minerals esp CalMag,Zn,Se, Bo,Cr, I, Mn (Iron in kids & young women).

~15 vitamins esp C,D,B, K, bcarotene, E;

~25 of our own manufactured  Biological – FISH OIL; hormones (melatonin, 5HTP;HRT); enzymes, MSM, CoQ10, arginine, carnitine, ribose, cartilage, glycine, glutamine, lipoic/malic acids, flavinoids, cysteine, proline etc; &

AND Dozens of other biologicals-herbs/plants eg garlic; buchu; nettle; ginger,cinnamon, guai, galega, coleus, gymnema, stevia, milk thistle, cat’s claw huperzine A; borrie, aloe, sutherlandia, – both to improve learning & concentration- FISH OMEGA3 – at all ages- and to improve all systems,

and thus to help fight stress, pain- fatigue, pollution, toxins eg smoking/ sugar, heavy metals; infections, arthritis, anaemia, allergy, asthma, cancer, infertility, fattening, obesity- diabetes, memory loss, dermatitis, eczema, depression,colitis; anxiety, insomnia, hypertension, varicose-veins-piles, ulcers

and diseases of all organs- immune, heart-lung, liver, kidney, thyroid, bones, nerves,brain, etc.

Most patent prescription medicine/drugs are based on these listed evidence-based micronutritionals- but are often more risky, less effective. No patent designer drug does what these natural supplements do- lower all-cause mortality and diseases of aging by 36% to 50%, new diabetes by up to 80%.

A is for adiposity, F is for falls, M is for muscle weakness. Together, they spell "D"

Wonder what I’m talking about yet? A newly published study in the advanced online edition of the journal menopause suggests that Vitamin D is a critical element for maintaining physical fitness during the postmenopause years.

In this study, researchers evaluated the following factors in 242 postmenopausal women that could account for overall physical fitness:

• age
• years since menopause
• weight
• blood levels of vitamin D
• daily energy expenditure
• calcium intake
• overall body composition
• waist and hip fat

The findings? Although there were many factors contributing to overall physical fitness, vitamin D was a common variable, contributing to fat mass, lean mass, balance, and handgrip strength. Hence, obtaining and maintaining adequate vitamin D appears to be important to staying lean, decreasing the risk of falls due to balance and maintaining muscle strength.

The Institute of Medicine currently recommends that women under the age of 50 obtain at least 200 IUs Vitamin D daily, and women over the age of 50, at least 400 IUs. Although a consensus has yet to be reached, many experts say that the majority of people can obtain adequate levels of vitamin D through about 5-30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back — preferably without sunscreen. Of course, this goes against common sense and skin cancer warnings and people who are especially prone to or have a skin cancer risk might want to consider obtaining their Vitamin D through daily supplements.

Regardless, it’s interesting to learn that researchers have unveiled yet another essential role for Vitamin D in our lives. Fitness is important to many aspects of aging — not just to maintain physical health — but also to promote healthier emotional well-being.

Be sure that you are paying attention to D. When it comes to postmenopause, D is for definite.

Researchers say gabapentin may ease sleep disruption caused by menopausal hot flashes.

The Los Angeles Times (9/9, Roan) “Booster Shots” blog reported that, according to a study published in the Journal of Women’s Health, gabapentin, “a medication that is used for a variety of conditions, mostly seizures, may help women whose sleep is disrupted by menopausal hot flashes.” Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center “gave 59 postmenopausal women either 300 milligrams of gabapentin three times a day or a placebo. After 12 weeks of treatment, the study showed significant improvement in overall sleep quality for the women receiving gabapentin compared with those receiving the placebo.” While the investigators “aren’t sure why” gabapentin “improves sleep in women with hot flashes,” they theorized that it “reduces hot flashes, stabilizes sleep, or decreases the amount of time to transition from wakefulness to sleep.”

[Via http://buckeyepsych.wordpress.com]

A Random Question. What Kind of God?

Keely, over at Unmom, does this thing.

You post Random Thoughts on Tuesday. That’s it.

The other night at work, I was humming. Yes, humming. To entertain my self while I was vacuuming. Yes, vacuuming. And no, I’m not a cleaning woman, although it sure does feel like it sometimes. I’m not vacuuming toenail clippings off of some cheap hotel carpet, y’all. I vacuum soot. And no, not the soot that comes out of your fireplace, the kind of soot I’m talking about is white and chalky and it gets all over everything.

Like my new black suede MBT shoes that I bought at the expensive shoe boutique for 230 bucks on sale because I heard they would make my feet stop hurting. And like my hair, which I carefully spike up before work every day, and yet by the end of the day I look like I’ve just climbed out of a vat of powdered sugar. And all over my pants, my clean coat and my safety glasses.

Anyway, back to the humming. Vacuuming, as y’all all know, is a pretty boring and solitary job, so to pass the time I usually hum whatever tune pops into my head. A lot of time I get short little spiritual ditties, called “choruses” floating around in there. In my former life, before I backslid and got divorced, I played the piano for a Pentecostal type church.

For twelve years, y’all. That’s a whole lot of little spiritual “choruses.”

So the other night, the tune I had stuck in there was one of our major choruses. Only about four lines long, we would frequently sing it to start the services off with. “Our God is a _____ God.”

That’s right. A _____God. Now looky here, y’all, I could not, for the life of me, remember the words. So I’m thinking to myself, “Now, Ginger, think. What in the Sam Hill kind of God is He, anyway?”

I came up with several possibilities.

I wanted to claim it was Thankful. But no, Our God is a Thankful God didn’t seem quite right. We should be thankful, not Him.

I ran through everything I could think of….I knew it was two syllables. Mighty? No. Loving? No. Truthful? No. Jealous? No. Frightful? Clearly, no.

As y’all can tell, it was really buggin’ me. I started to wonder how on earth I could have forgotten this. Was I that far gone into Backslidingdom that I couldn’t remember what kind of God we have? Or was menopause, or lack of sleep, or my love of mojitos to blame?

I walked around in a memory fogged daze for a while, cleaning soot out of my machine and starting it back up, all the while trying my best to remember.

Our God is a _____ God? I just couldn’t fill in the blank.

Finally, after who knows how long, I decided to go down the alphabet. Sadly, I find myself using this trick more and more to recall things like this. Like, peoples’ names. When you know you know the name, but you just can’t quite grasp it. Amanda, Betty, Carmen, Donna, etc.

Yeah. Getting old sucks.

So, I started doing the alphabet game. I was going to go down the alphabet and think of a two syllable word for every letter that describes God.

I’m happy to report it worked. A. My first word was Awesome. AWESOME! YES! OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!!

Now I’m humming. Now for the rest of the song!! Our God is an Awesome God, He reigns…..uh…..blankblankblank on High. Huh?

Oh well, at least I got the title. At least I still remember that God is awesome.

I’ll work on remembering the rest of the song later.

But if y’all ever hear me say I’ve forgotten the words to Amazing Grace? Well, just shoot me.

[Via http://gingereebs.wordpress.com]