cool-jams.com Blog

Baby boomers, typically born in the mid-60’s, are finding themselves becoming the parent of their own parents, which can definitely be a challenge for just about anyone to deal with. Unfortunately, this is becoming a frequent case as the parents of baby boomers are getting older, basically at the age in which many are now suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other illnesses and ailments. In such cases, the baby boomers have been left with the responsibility of caring for their parents.

How to Transition a Parent into a Nursing Home

Let’s face it. Transitioning a parent into a nursing home is not going to be an easy task but it could be the best thing for them, which is something you need to remind yourself as well as your parents. Taking care of a parent, or two, can become a full time job and if you already have

Hormone replacement therapy may work slightly better than soy at reducing menopausal hot flashes, a new study says.

Women who took such hormones had fewer hot flashes, on average, than women who took soy – and both had fewer than those who took a placebo, or “dummy pill.”

“The bottom line for someone who is very disturbed by hot flashes and night sweats, the best treatment is hormones, and the next tier would be soy,” said Dr. Gloria Bachmann, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.

However, a 2002 landmark study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that such treatments can increase the risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. That means that if women do take hormones, Bachmann told Reuters Health, it should be the lowest

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.

Women who smoke at any age are more likely to develop breast cancer after the menopause, a new study shows.

Women who are current smokers had a 16% increased risk of developing the disease, while ex-smokers had a 9% increased risk.

The research, which involved 80,000 women in America, also found that passive smoking can lead to an increased risk of breast cancer.

Another recent study found that 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer at some point in their lives. The good news is that breast cancer treatments are always developing and now 2 thirds of women who are diagnosed with the disease still live a full life.

Yinka Ebo, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: ‘We already know that tobacco can cause over a dozen different cancers, and this study adds to the growing evidence that smoking can raise

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

There’s good news for coffee drinkers. Want to reduce your risk of breast cancer? New research suggests drinking coffee might help you do that.

Researchers from Sweden compared certain lifestyle factors and coffee consumption among women with breast cancer and those without breast cancer. They found coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of breast cancer compared to those who rarely drank coffee.However, other lifestyle factors such as age at menopause, exercise, weight, education and a family history also affected breast cancer rates. Once the researchers adjusted for these other factors, they found the protective effect of coffee was only measurable for antiestrogen-resistant estrogen-receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer.

“There is often conflicting information about the beneficial effects of coffee. When we compared our results to that of a German study, we discovered that their data showed the same trend, but the relationship

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

There are so many issues we face as we go through menopause. We all know about the hot flashes, night sweats and memory issues, but another huge problem is the loss of bone density resulting in osteoporoisis. A growing body of research suggests that consuming polyphenols, like those found in green tea, may help g to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). Researchers, many of whom were involved with both studies, concluded that drinking green tea may be an effective way for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis to slow bone loss and even improve bone mineral density. Of the 10 million Americans suffering from osteoporosis, four in five are wo">postmenopausal women preserve bone density and slow the onset of osteoporosis.

In a new study spearheaded by scientists at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, mature women who were given daily doses of green

Why would anyone take tamoxifen if the side effects are so dreadful?

In some breast cancers, oestrogen can cause tumour cells to grow: tamoxifen blocks the activity of oestrogen in the breast tissue and stops growth of the cancer. It is standard treatment after  breast cancer surgery. When a woman is diagnosed with the disease, she is tested to see if her tumour is ‘oestrogen positive’. If it is, she can take tamoxifen. It is a tablet taken every day for five years after the operation, which has been shown to significantly increase chances of survival in the ten years after surgery.

So what are the downsides?

Minor side effects include nausea, diarrhoea and headaches. The more serious side effects come from tamoxifen blocking oestrogen in the body. In pre-menopausal women menopause-like symptoms – hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings and depression – come on suddenly and dramatically