Female-specific Conditions Featuring a New Look at Menopause
(The Secret Revealed)
Part 1
(The following is a quoted excerpt, pages 141-143, from the Book The Great Health Heist © by Paul Rosen J.D.,L.Ac. Published by Warren Publishing, Inc.)
There's a great commercial on TV these days - and you know it must be good if I'm able to remember it -about one diet product or another. Now, I'm the farthest thing from an advocate for diet products, but it's the commercial that was potent enough to remember, not the remedy. At any rate, in the commercial a cartoon couple stands side-by-side; both the man and the woman are represented by drawings of two puffy, roundish-shaped people.
As the woman starts talking, she explains how her husband stopped drinking soda - and lost 12 pounds. Suddenly, the cartoon male shape in the commercial slims down! Then the wife explains how her husband stopped eating carbs, and lost 20 more pounds. Once again, the male shape slims down while the woman remains round and puffy. The punch line that always gets me is the woman saying, "And I haven't had a slice of bread in two years!"
I share this story to point out what I suppose the commercial was also trying to point out: Men and women are different: emotionally, physically, instinctively, biologically. Nowhere is this fact more evident than when it comes to various signs and symptoms that a woman may not be feeling as healthy as she should.
One way this difference is magnified is when talk turns to that of menopause, the big "M" word! How, exactly, does menopause affect women? According to the Mayo Clinic:
"Although your mother or grandmother may have used "the Change" to refer to menopause, it isn't a single event. Instead, it's a transition that can start in your 30s or 40s and last into your 50s or even 60s. You may begin to experience signs and symptoms of menopause well before your periods stop permanently. Once you haven't had a period for 12 consecutive months, you've reached menopause.
"Menopause is a natural biological process, not a medical illness. Although it's associated with hormonal, physical and psychosocial changes in your life, menopause isn't the end of your youth or of your sexuality. Several generations ago, few women lived beyond menopause. Today, you may spend as much as half of your life after menopause ... "
Symptoms and signs of menopause vary, but experts have come up with a quick list to portray the onset. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "A woman has reached menopause when she has not had a period for one year. Changes and symptoms can start several years earlier." These include:
o A change in periods -shorter or longer, lighter
or heavier, with more or less time inbetween
o Hot flashes and/or night sweats
o Trouble sleeping
o Vaginal dryness
o Mood swings
o Trouble focusing
o Less hair on head, more on face
o Yeast infections
o Chronic bladder problems
Female-specific Conditions Part 2