Cause Your Health Counts

Breast Density May Determine Cancer Risk During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an article in an online guide to women’s health released the some of the newest research findings. An issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute had contained a report information relating to the assessment of a woman’s risk for getting breast cancer.

That widely-read publication had published findings that pointed to breast density as a risk factor that should cancer play a part in the determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer. By the same token, the techniques that could facilitate a determination of a woman’s risk for breast cancer remained an elusive ideal. The existing equipment used to examine women’s breasts was not designed to measure breast density.
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Your sexuality belongs only to you!

Create your own world where you can choose to love sex. Say “Yes” to pleasure. Create your own wonderful positive sexual relationship, the integral part of your life, a whole – person proposition with equal give and take between partners. It is not such an impossible dream. You will love it because it leads you with your inner being and because it leads you to romance, love and intimacy with your partner. You will love it because it feels good, sometimes good enough to change the course of your life. Explore the mysteries of mind and body connection. Make sex alive for you. Expand your sexual capacities. You will find pleasures you did not know that existed. Increase the quality of your life.

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A new diagnostic procedure has been called a “pap smear for breasts.” It does for breast cancer what the Pap test has done for cervical cancer. It provides a means for the early detection of breast cancer.

The test procedure calls for placement of a tiny tube in the patient’s nipple. A saline solution is sent through the tiny tube and into the breast duct. That saline solution allows the physician to wash out from the duct any loose cells. The physician then extracts the wash fluid from the patient’s breast ducts.

Analysis of the extracted fluid can be accomplished in one of two ways. Either the physician analyzes the fluid under a microscope or the physician sends the sample to a lab, where it is analyzed by means of cell cytometry. During either type of analysis, the examiner must look for a sign of cancer cells.
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While you may believe you’re going into perimenopause, before beginning any treatment, you need to insist that your doctor perform proper testing, which may include an ultrasound. While you may think it’s simply perimenopause, it could just as easily be a fibroid tumor.

What is a fibroid tumor?
A fibroid tumor is a non-cancerous smooth muscle tumor of the uterous. Uterine fibroids are one of the most common medical conditions affecting women. While fibroids are generally harmless and non-symptomatic, they can sometimes grow to very large sizes and cause pain and other complications if not treated. Fibroid tumors are extremely common in women, 1 out of 4 women will develop a fibroid tumor. They’re generally not cancerous and most women are not aware that they have them. Fibroid tumors can develop anywhere inside or outside of the uterus on the ovaries.
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Osteoporosis is a part of the natural aging process, where bone mass continuously decreases. It occurs in the post-menopausal ages between 50 and 75 years. The low estrogen level in the blood that occurs in menopause causes a loss of calcium in the bones. (accelerated loss of calcium with age) The bone structure is changing, ending in a skeletal deformity associated with a chronic muscular-skeletal pain. The body becomes shorter. In the case of advanced osteoporosis some vertebra are spontaneously broken and are very painful. At this age, hip and wrist fractures occur very often after a small accident.
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Yeah, we’ve all been there. We try to take our rings off to protect them from whatever we’re about to stick our hands into, and they won’t move beyond that puff of finger flesh just before the next joint. Or we finally get our pants zipped and buttoned and then we try to sit down only to receive the biggest wedgie ever and also have our midsection just about cut in half from the waistband. The ring fit just the other day when you tried to take it off, so did the pants. So then what could the problem be to make such a radical change in our very fingers? The answer could be as simple as bloating. Bloating effects many women our age when we don’t treat our bodies ‘just right’. It can make you uncomfortable, it can sap your energy, and it can effect your entire outlook and attitude. Here are a few suggestions for lifestyle changes that just might make things a little less challenging in the future.
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The average cycle consists of 28 days broken down into three main stages. During each stage different hormones are responsible for the changes that occur in appearance, mood, and her libido.

Days 1-7
The first five to seven days are a woman’s actual period. It can last anywhere from two to six days and the average amount of blood shed is six to eight ounces. Women generally experience cramps during the first few days of their period. Due to the increased levels of prostaglandin some women may also suffer from diarrhea. Is she suddenly craving red meat? Don’t be alarmed, during this time her iron stores may become depleted.
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Gestational Diabetes Mellitus develops in women during pregnancy.

Two main reasons account for the development of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus:

First, major hormonal changes occur in the body during pregnancy. These changes increase the body’s requirement for insulin. If the pancreas is not strong enough to produce the increased amount of insulin needed during pregnancy, the chances increase for the development of this form of diabetes.

In addition, hormones secreted during pregnancy tend to decrease the effectiveness of insulin, leading to raised blood sugar levels. Nearly 2 to 5 percent of women who do not have pre-existing diabetes develop this form toward the end of the fourth month of their pregnancies.
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Menopause is a topic of great discussion both in medical circles and with women in general!

Let’s start with some definitions:

Perimenopause refers to that time in a woman’s life before the periods completely stop. This can range in time from a few years to 5 years. It is often accompanied by hot flashes, some mood swings including crying easily, to vaginal dryness, sleep changes and osteoporosis.

Menopause refers to the stopping of menstruation. There are no periods for a time of at least 6 months and the woman is not pregnant.
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The following is a synopsis of the North American Menopause Society’s (NAMS) October 3, 2002 report on two recent studies of estrogen-progestin therapy for postmenopausal women. Even though the studies evaluated only one hormone combination, NAMS concluded that they are the first well-controlled, adequately powered reports.

The Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) was a 4-year randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled study of 2,763 postmenopausal women (average age 67) with documented coronary heart disease (CHD), while the Women’s Health Initiate (WHI), begun in 1993, looked at 16,608 healthy postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79.

The WHI study was divided into two sections, a continuous-combined estrogen-progestogen therapy (CCEPT) section for women with a uterus, and an estrogen-only therapy (ET) section for women who had undergone a hysterectomy. The CCEPT section of WHI was terminated in July 2002 after 5 years of follow-up, because the overall risks exceeded the benefits. The ET arm of WHI continues, as do ancillary WHI studies evaluating memory, dementia, low-fat diet, calcium, and vitamin D.
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