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A great Article from menopause expert Ellen Dolgen Sarver read on…

It’s not your fault. You’ve been programmed to think that you’re not good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, or perfect enough. It’s on the cover of Photoshop-ed magazines at the grocery store, reinforced on TV, and referred to in current — and unfortunately catchy — songs that objectify women. So much of what surrounds us today is appearance-driven, and there’s a natural tendency to adapt to our surroundings. This unfortunate marriage between societal pressures and our brains has birthed a critical voice in our heads telling us that we are quite simply not good enough. Picture a sumo wrestler sitting on your brain. He is huge, powerful and controlling (and heavy!), but does he wrestle you down

Postmenopausal women who do yoga regularly may have less insomnia and menopausal symptoms and improved quality of life, suggests a small, randomized, controlled study published online October 30 in Menopause.

Yoga for Menopause

Forty-four postmenopausal women, 50 to 65 years of age with an apnea-hypopnea index less than 15 and a diagnosis of insomnia, were assigned to 3 groups: no treatment, twice-weekly passive stretching with a physical therapist, and twice-weekly yoga classes. The women completed a questionnaire before and 4 months after treatment that evaluated quality of life, symptoms of depression, menopause symptoms, severity of insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and stress. Participants also underwent polysomnography.

“When compared with the control group, the yoga group had significantly lower post-treatment scores

I have been checking vitamin D levels on my patients the last year or so, due to an abundance of data showing the benefits of vitamin D. I have been amazed how many women are low, even though we live in “Sunny San Diego”. Vitamin D is known as the “sunshine” vitamin. The body makes vitamin D from cholesterol through a process triggered by the action of the sun’s ultraviolet B rays on the skin. Factors such as skin color, age, amount and time of sun exposure, and geographic location affect how much vitamin D the body makes.

An estimated 1 billion people worldwide, across all ethnicities and age groups, have a vitamin D deficiency. This is mostly attributable to people getting less sun exposure because of climate, lifestyle, and concerns about skin cancer. Current studies suggest that we may need more vitamin D than presently recommended to prevent chronic disease.

• As a woman enters perimenopause she begins to experience a variety of symptoms. She might have hot flashes or night sweats, feel irritable, anxious or have headaches. Other symptoms include low libido, depression and dry skin. Whatever the symptoms are, it usually has to do with fluctuations in a woman’s hormone levels which cause all sorts of problems during the menopausal years. Some women seem to breeze through menopause with a few mild problems, while others are so debilitated with major symptoms, they have difficulty maneuvering through life. For many women, symptoms like night sweats and hot flashes can last well into their sixties.Recently there’s been much research done on foods that help to ease menopausal symptoms. Certain foods and lifestyle changes hold promise as natural remedies for combating the problems associated with menopause. By eating

• Two million women turn 50 each year. There are 75 million baby boomers and half are women.
• Over half of all women going through menopause report having night sweats and hot flashes.
• Hormonal fluctuations during perimenopause and menopause are the primary cause of night sweats and hot flashes.
• The average age of menopause is 51 years. The normal age range is 45 to 55.
• An “early menopause” is defined as the last period occurring between the age of 40 to 45. A “late” menopause is defined as a women’s final period occurring between the ages of 55 to 60.

We all know that sleep often becomes more difficult as we age. Some of us who’ve accumulated a certain number of birthday cards know this first hand! We also know that our circadian “clocks”—an internal mechanism that keeps us on a 24-hour, night-day cycle—function less well with age, and this contributes to sleep problems that can plague older adults, including:

• Difficulty falling asleep
• Trouble staying asleep
• Problems with daytime alertness

In addition to difficulty with nightly sleep, as we age we’re less likely to be able to cope with disruptions to our night-day routines, including difficulty adapting to time-zone changes, or working non-traditional hours, late at night or early in the morning.

Sleep is a critical factor in our long-term health and well being: studies show that it can play an important role in extending health and longevity and lack of sleep, in turn, can pose

Women entering into menopause not only report having night sweats and hot flashes, but often report a significant change in their hair compared to when they were cycling regularly. They say the hair on their head is starting to thin or dry out, while the hair on their face is sprouting more often in areas such as their upper lip or chin. Neither change is any fun and often leads to frustration and embarrassment. In the March, 2011 British Journal of Dermatology, researchers looked at menopausal women 45 years an older of northern European descent and found hair changes to be very common.

The results showed 41 percent of women had hair loss in some form. Twenty-six percent experienced a more generalized “all over” hair loss while 9 percent had frontal or top of the scalp thinning.

You are enjoying a night out with friends when it starts; first you feel flush, then a sensation of warmth crawls down your body. Soon you begin perspiring and you feel as if everyone around you can tell what is happening — another hot flash. An estimated three out of four women experience hot flashes  associated with menopause and nearly all would agree they are a nuisance, but experts say there could be an upside to having hot flashes

New research released February 24 in the online edition of the journal Menopause suggests that women who suffer from hot flashes and night sweats may be at lower risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke and death.

“While they are certainly bothersome, hot flashes may not be all bad,” said Northwestern Medicine endocrinologist Emily Szmuilowicz, MD, who is lead author of

A new study shows antidepressants can help reduce hot flashes and night sweats in menopausal women.

In the study, Ellen Freeman, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and her colleagues found that women who were either transitioning to menopause or were postmenopausal had less menopausal hot flashes when they used escitalopram (an antidepressant medication) compared to women who received placebo (a dummy medication or treatment).

The researchers not only tested to find out whether escitalopram or placebo was more effective, but they also examined whether race modified the treatment effects.

More than 200 women were enrolled in the multicenter, eight-week trial.

Between July 2009 and June 2010, the women were given 10 to 20 mg/per day of escitalopram or a matching placebo. Researchers used the women’s daily diaries to measure the frequency and severity of their hot

THE QUESTION Women experiencing menopause-related hot flashes often do not want to take hormone therapy because of documented risks, and the effectiveness of herbal alternatives has not been proved. Might an antidepressant be an option to lessen symptoms?

THIS STUDY involved 205 peri- and post-menopausal women, most in their mid-50s, who had an average of about 10 hot flashes a day but were otherwise healthy. They were randomly assigned to take the antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) or a placebo daily. After eight weeks, hot flashes were fewer and less severe among those taking the antidepressant than among the others. About 55 percent of the women taking Lexapro, vs. 36 percent of those in the placebo group, reported at least 50 percent fewer hot flashes, and 19 percent (vs. 9 percent) saw a decrease of at least 75 percent.

WHO MAY