Many women need hormonal replacement to cope with The Change. Most of them would have a much easier time if they ate their veggies and got off processed foods, especially when we consider the potential side effects of those drugs. If you go that route, find a reputable practitioner that will be as conservative as possible. Hormonal replacement is NOT the fountain of youth.” Veggies are.
Hugo Rodier, MD
Lifestyle modifications lead to cardiometabolic health benefits during menopause
Healio Minute, November 14, 2023
“Menopausal vasomotor symptoms increase the risk for future CVD events. Diet quality plays an important role in cardiometabolic health during the menopause transition.”
Comment: the discomfort caused by The Change is a reflection of how stress finds your body unprepared. In other words, you were not in good shape for that ordeal.
Postmenopausal Testosterone for Low Libido Only
Lorraine L. Janeczko, MPH. October 25, 2023, Medscape Medical News
“Your patients may see ads claiming that testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) offers postmenopausal women health benefits beyond restored sex drive: that TRT can improve their mood, energy, and thinking and give them stronger bones and bigger muscles. How accurate are these claims? According to six experts who talked with Medscape Medical News, not very. “Right now in this country and around the world, testosterone‘s only use in postmenopausal women is for libido,” said Adrian Sandra Dobs, MD, MHS, professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. “Treating postmenopausal women with testosterone is a rarity. Some physicians and some wellness centers make their money out of prescribing estrogen and testosterone to women in patches, gels, creams, capsules, pellets, and other forms. But when you look at the scientific data, outside of libido, it’s difficult to recommend testosterone therapy.”
Comment: hormonal replacement should be limited to The Change. Once you are over it, hopefully with the help of a practitioner who will emphasize diet over drugs, stop the latter, and resolve to stay on a plant-based diet.
Nutrition, stress reduction can affect women’s health conditions through gut health
Healio Minute, November 15, 2023
“The gut microbiome impacts female reproduction at every stage, thyroid disorders, bone mass and obesity, among other health concerns. Oral contraceptives, hormone therapy and stress can alter the gut microbiome.”
Comment: the negative impact of most drugs, including hormonal replacement, is by first affecting your gut microbiome, particularly when it is not well fed.
Loneliness tied to incident Parkinson’s disease
“MedPage Today (10/2/23, George) reports, “Loneliness was linked with incident Parkinson’s disease independently of genes, depression, and other major risk factors,” researchers concluded in findings from “a prospective study of nearly half a million people” published online in JAMA Neurology. After the study team accounted “for a host of variables – demographic factors, socioeconomic status, social isolation, genetic risk, smoking, physical activity, body mass index, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, myocardial infarction, depression, and seeing a psychiatrist,” they found that “the risk of a subsequent Parkinson’s diagnosis was higher in people who said they often felt lonely.” The study “followed 491,603 participants in the U.K. Biobank cohort from 2006 to 2021.”
Comment: 1/3 of Americans are lonely. Take care of your relationships.
Hobby engagement and mental wellbeing among people aged 65 years and older
J. Nature Medicine 2023;29:2233–2240
“Growing aging populations pose a threat to global health because of the social and psychological challenges they experience. To mitigate this, many countries promote hobby engagement to support and improve mental health. Yet, it remains unclear whether there is consistency in benefits across different national settings. We harmonized measures of hobby engagement and multiple aspects of mental wellbeing across 16 nations represented in five longitudinal studies (N = 93,263). Prevalence of hobby engagement varied substantially across countries, from 51.0% of Spanish respondents to 96.0% of Danish respondents. Fixed effects models and multinational meta-analyses were applied to compare the longitudinal associations between hobbies and mental wellbeing. Independent of confounders, having a hobby was associated with fewer depressive symptoms (pooled coefficient = −0.10; 95% confidence intervals (CI) = −0.13, −0.07), and higher levels of self-reported health (pooled coefficient = 0.06; 95% CI = 0.03, 0.08), happiness (pooled coefficient = 0.09; 95% CI = 0.06, 0.13) and life satisfaction (pooled coefficient = 0.10; 95% CI = 0.08, 0.12). Further analyses suggested a temporal relationship. The strength of these associations, and prevalence of hobby engagement, were correlated with macrolevel factors such as life expectancy and national happiness levels but overall, little variance in findings was explained by country-level factors (<9%). Given the relative universality of findings, ensuring equality in hobby engagement within and between countries should be a priority for promoting healthy aging.”
Comment: best hobby—spend time learning something new with loved ones.
PPI associated with elevated risk for dementia
“Neurology Advisor (11/14/23, Khaja) reports that research indicates that “proton pump inhibitors…usage is associated with an elevated risk for dementia before age 90, regardless of when treatment started based on diagnosis,” and the “risk is escalated with prolonged use of PPIs.” The findings were published in Alzheimer’s Dementia.”
Comment: and a higher risk of osteoporosis and heart attacks. They upset your ability to digest food. Your microbiome is the first victim.
Greater consumption of ultra-processed food associated with higher cancer risk
“CNN (11/22/23, LaMotte) reported, “Eating a greater amount of ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of developing cancers of the upper digestive tract, such as mouth, throat and esophageal cancer, according to a new study.” Investigators found that individuals “who consumed 10% more ultraprocessed foods than others in the study had a 23% higher risk of head and neck cancer and a 24% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.” The finding were published in the European Journal of Nutrition.”
Comment: the article would have been better if they had mentioned the noxious effect of bad food on your microbiome, which is most of your immune-detox system.
Obesity promotes a leaky gut, inflammation and pre-diabetes by lowering gut microbiota that metabolize ethanolamine
J. Gut April 27, 2023
“Microbiota are a source of low-grade inflammation during obesity and contribute to insulin resistance and poor blood glucose control among other mechanisms in the progression of type 2 diabetes.1 Nearly all bacteria that reside within the host are found in the intestine, but it is not yet clear how microbiota are a source of inflammation in the circulation or metabolic tissues during obesity. A key knowledge gap is understanding how obesity or certain diets promote gut barrier dysfunction that allows increased permeability for bacteria or bacterial components that can engage immune response and promote inflammation-induced metabolic dysfunction. Metabolic endotoxemia is the key example of a bacterial source of inflammation. Obesity or diet-induced increases in lipopolysaccharides (LPS or endotoxin), that escape the gut lumen, penetrate the intestinal barrier and enter into the host circulation, cells and tissues. This low-level increase in LPS activate toll-like receptor 4, increase inflammation in multiple cell types, and can initiate insulin resistance and dysglycaemia.2
The intestinal mucosal-epithelial barrier harbors many lines of defense to limit the penetration of bacterial components such as LPS. Gut microbiota can shape intestinal morphology and alter intestinal function such as glucose absorption.3 It was not clear how obesity or obesogenic diets engage microbiota to compromise intestinal barrier function. High-fat diet (HFD) feeding decreases the expression of tight junction protein, zona occludens-1 (ZO-1), which is associated with increased intestinal permeability.”
Comment: leaky gut and overgrowth of bacteria in the gut, with concomitant gas production and inflammation are the main reason people have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, metabolic disorders, and practically all other chronic conditions.
