| |
Hello again from Oöna Health. It's
suppose to be summer…but I have yet to break out the
dusty lawn chair to sun on my tar roof. My neighbor informed
me that it's rained for the last 11 weekends. I heard in California
that they call it the "R" word and no one likes
to talk about it. In New York it's a main topic of conversation
that includes making excuses for our hair.
MORE BAD NEWS SURFACES ABOUT HRT
For many years health care professionals believed that hormone
replacement therapy would help retain cognitive function in
older women and prevent Alzheimer's. If any one knows where
this theory came from, your author would really like to know.
In any case, it appears that theory is now proven wrong. In
the May 28th issue of JAMA, the journal published the latest
findings based on a four year experiment involving 4,532 women
at 39 different medical centers. In four years, there were
40 cases of dementia in the hormone group (Prempro) and 21
in the placebo group. The conclusion is that hormone therapy
nearly doubled the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other types
of dementia in women who began the treatment at age 65 or
older. The implications for younger women are not known. It
is also not known how different the results would be for women
who take estrogen alone. For more info go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/28/health/28HORM.html?ex=
1055138996&ei=1&en=6490b0224dcf3478
or
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/289/20/2651
SELF BREAST EXAMS (SBE)
If you are like me, you neglect to do the formal self breast
exam and then one of those charts stares at you from a check
out counter or appears in "goody bag" and you feel
as if you've been neglecting your health. On the flip side,
I am VERY aware of changes that occur in my body, even so
slight (like a mild, temporary little eye twitch, ever get
those?) and I hope you are the same way. Well it turns out
that our way may be just as effective. The American Cancer
Society has changed its guidelines for SBE. The important
thing to note is that the ACS is not saying don't examine
yourself or that it doesn't matter how in tune you (and your
partner) are with your body, they are saying that it doesn't
need to be in the particular SBE technique that appears on
all those charts. It has discovered that the benefit is much
smaller than originally thought and it was used before mammograms
were so readily available. As mammography has become more
common, breast cancer has dropped and it remains the only
screening method that reduces death from breast cancer.
IRON AND FATIGUE According to the British Medical Journal,
a study shows that non-anaemic women who experience unexplained
fatigue may benefit from iron supplementation. Fatigue is
one of the top five complaints heard from women entering menopause
so it's worth trying. In a double-blind randomized study of
138 women aged 18-55, 29% experienced a decreased level of
fatigue taking iron compared to 13% in the placebo group.
For the complete study, go to http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7399/1124?ijkey=
7d37151629325dca1d6eb55b66fe8622f243eb5c
BRAND MATTERS
In herbal supplements especially. The New York Times reported
that only 1 in 5 of the Ginko Biloba products tested to specifications
showed that the quality of Ginko was down since 1999. We want
you to know that at Oöna Health we remain vigilant about
quality of our active ingredients and make sure that you get
what you pay for. What frustrates us is that many women who
have tried a black cohosh product and found it didn't work
for them, believe that the "herbals" are just hocus
pocus. This couldn't be further from the truth, as you know.
It just may be that particular brand didn't work for them
because it does live up to the same quality standards that
we uphold. We certainly acknowledge that not every woman will
benefit from Oona (usually 80% do), but we feel that companies
that offer ineffective, low quality products do a disservice
to the industry they represent and more importantly, the customer
they serve. Our advice: Evaluate products carefully. Be careful
it something is at a really cheap price, it may not be worth
buying. For more info on Ginko Biloba go to
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=
F4091FFF3B580C758CDDAC0894DB404482
That's it for this month! As always,
check out our website for lots more information at www.oonahealth.com. In Good Health,
The Oöna Team
Questions or comments? Write valerie@oonahealth.com
|
