Soy: Cholesterol Reduction
For years, studies have shown that soy lowers total cholesterol levels including LDL (bad) cholesterol, while raising HDL (good) cholesterol. Some even document improvements in the width of the arteries.
Dry Eyes and Sjögren’s Syndrome
One perimenopausal symptom common to midlife women is dryness of the eyes and other mucous membranes, including the mouth and vagina. For many women this dryness can be easily remedied through using eye drops and a vaginal lubricant when needed, but other women will require much more help, particularly those who have Sjögren’s (shó-grins) syndrome.
High Cholesterol
Currently 40 percent of women older than fifty-five have elevated cholesterol levels. Because this condition is so common, I recommend that midlife women have a baseline lipid profile measuring total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, and HDL cholesterol so they know where they stand.
Heart Palpitations
Though rarely dangerous, heart palpitations can be frightening, and like hot flashes they can range from mild to severe. Heart palpitations at menopause are certainly related to changing hormones. But in many midlife women, heart palpitations are primarily caused by increasing heart energy (influenced by partnership, passion, anger, and forgiveness issues) trying to become embodied in a woman’s life.
Hypertension
Nearly 20 percent of midlife women in the U.S. have high blood pressure or hypertension, which increases the risk not only of heart attack and atherosclerosis, but also of ministrokes in the brain, resulting in dementia. Hypertension also increases your risk for kidney disease.
Migraines
Almost everyone has had a headache at some time in his or her life. Most headaches are primary—that is, not related to an underlying disease. If you get headaches, you may be predisposed to them due to genetics, your perception of the stressors in your life, your hormones, or your metabolism. Some headache sufferers experience […]
Exercise: Achieve Good Health
Many women have had negative experiences regarding exercise, either as a result of school sports programs or our culture, which both tend to place emphasis on athletic skills rather than fitness. But what young girls often do not understand (and often are not taught) is that being good at batting a ball and being physically fit are not necessarily related.
Nutrition: Losing Weight at Midlife
I always say that eating high quality food is one of the easiest ways to create health on a daily basis. Yet, in many ways nutrition has become synonymous with diet and weight loss in this country. Many women find themselves gaining weight at midlife, even if they have not changed their eating or exercise habits — or because they have not!
Nutrition: Eight Easy Steps
As you strive to maintain a healthy diet, there are many other factors at work. The following are the elements of maintaining total nutrition that can also influence your goal to create optimum health.
Nutrition: Hormone-Balancing Food Plan
When you consider the average lifestyle of perimenopausal women, it is not hard to understand why insulin, estrogen and eicosanoids become imbalanced, setting the stage for increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and breast cancer. Here are my suggestions for keeping your blood sugar, eicosanoids and hormones in balance.
