Could the clothes we wear be causing us aches and pains?
Fabafterfifty: Health
We all want to lead healthy fabulous lives, but we do recognise that as we reach 50 we have to deal with Health issues specific to our age group, starting with the ‘M’ word.
We will be covering over 50 health topics such as osteoporosis, breast cancer, thyroid issues etc.
With the help of our ‘experts’, Dr Carol Cooper and Dr Marilyn Glenville, we will bring you information to help better understand the health issues faced post 50 and learn about the latest options to deal with them, using both medical and natural therapies.
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Article by Fabafterfifty Millions are injured every year – by their clothes, it has emerged. British Osteopathic Association show around one in two adults suffer aches, pains or injuries from handbags, bras, belts and even hats. We are all encouraged to live healthier lives over 50 – eat better, exercise more, but it seems that a closer look at what we wear and how we wear it could also be having an impact on our health. The true extent to which modern fashions are leaving millions of us black and blue emerged from data published by the British Osteopathic Association Kelston Chorley, head of Professional Development commented on the findings: ”Patients are often surprised when it is pointed out to them that their bag, shoes or other items of clothing may be contributing to their presenting problem. Poor fitting bras can cause back pain Poor fitting bras are a common...
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The Menopause is NOT an illness
Article by Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD. The menopause is not an illness. If you subscribe to the standpoint currently held by the conventional medical profession, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was. In conventional terms the menopause and its symptoms are viewed as a disorder caused by falling hormone levels. So, by giving menopausal women hormones in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), the deficiency can be corrected and we have a ‘cure’. This argument is supported by the supposed similarity between the menopause and diabetes. When insulin levels are insufficient to maintain normal blood glucose levels, then insulin is supplied from outside and the balance is corrected. But diabetes is different from the menopause in one important respect: diabetes is not a natural event. It is not expected that everyone will get diabetes; but all women will pass through the menopause. It is a natural stage in our...
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Can you be the same weight at 50 as you were at 20?
Article by Anne Elliott 68% of all adults in Britain are overweight or obese. That’s nearly ¾ of the population, and it’s growing. The reasons and the cures for the problem are as numerous as there are researchers and commentators. The weight loss industry is worth billions and with so many people having a financial stake in the waistline issue, finding a way through the mountains of wordage and offers of cures becomes increasingly harder. Let me put before you a few straightforward facts that might aid your search for the answer: •If your waist is bigger than 32”/80cm (men 40”/120cm) you are at greater risk of cardio vascular disease, diabetes and stroke (World Health Organisation). Fat cells grow in 2 ways: size and number. The periods that fat cells grow in number are in: the third trimester of pregnancy, the first year of life and during adolescence. The...
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How does the menopause affect women in the workplace?
Interview with Dr Lynda Shaw With many women over 50 returning to work or thinking about how best to extend their working lives, I asked Dr Lynda Shaw how the menopause affects the way we think and are able to function in the workplace. Do we make better or worse employees? Does the menopause change women’s abilities in the workplace? With the hormonal changes experienced by women going through the menopause and the decrease in oxytocin, a hormone which contributes to maternal behaviour, women who have gone through the menopause no longer need cuddles, and are no longer drawn into others lives to ‘fix’ them. With their children having flown the nest their brains are no longer in emotional turmoil, and typically they are more lucid and even . What does this mean in terms of employment? For employers this makes post-menopausal women the perfect candidates to have on board. They...
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Tooth Whitening – what questions should you ask when considering treatment?
Article by Francesca Keen Whiter teeth can be perceived as more youthful. With so many tooth whitening treatments on offer, how do we know which are are safe to use? Acting Head of Illegal Practice at the General Dental Council, Francesca Keen, talks us through the latest developments on issues involving tooth whitening. Tooth whitening, is something we get asked about a lot. The last 18 months have proved to be quite eventful in the field of tooth whitening with a number of significant milestones. There has been significant press about it, some of it positive and some of it incorrect. The GDC’s stance remains the same; tooth whitening may only lawfully be provided by those who are registered dental professionals. Who can carry out tooth whitening? We believe that tooth whitening is the practice of dentistry, which should only be performed by GDC registrants. If you’re thinking about getting...
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Fasting is the new Fitness Fad
Article by Penelope Young Sitting in a Brighton coffee shop enjoying sourdough toast, marmalade and a long black with hot, not cold, milk on the side, I am reading The Guardian. My mid-morning pleasure is interrupted by a loud female voice. She enunciates so the whole room can be involved, “I’ve never done it that way before, but I’m up for anything so I thought ‘try it’ and do you know it’s doing me the power of good. Some days it’s punishing but afterwards I feel great.” ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ I think peering surreptitiously over the ‘Comment’ section. She’s a hefty woman in her fifties with coiffured rumpled hair and is dressed in beige linen and leather boots as if she’d just walked off a chic town farm after shampooing sheep. And she’s loud. It would take a brave bloke to manacle her to a bed post. “I do...
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Ten weeks without sugar: 22 lbs gone and less arthritic pain! Mary’s story…
Article by Mary W. Walters The last week in June I stopped eating sugar – by which I mean all sugars aside from the sugar that occurs naturally in raw fruits, vegetables, a few other foods, and in trace amounts in whole grain products like bread and crackers (which I don’t eat too much of). I also cut out sweeteners — my thinking being that if I didn’t get rid of “fake” sugar, I’d never get over sugar. When I went on this no-sugar program, I was the heaviest I have ever been in my life, and forty pounds heavier than that. Since I quit smoking about ten years ago, I’d been gaining and gaining and gaining. (Why has nobody made the connection between the increasing obesity problem and the fact that the number of smokers is declining?) My arthritis had grown worse and worse and as my weight increased,...
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Spinach might have been great for Popeye but it seems it might not be quite so beneficial for women over 50!
Tips from Dr Marilyn Glenville If like me, you were feeling virtuous by eating lots of spinach, it appears that where this particular vegetable is concerned you can have too much of a good thing. One if the biggest risks for women post menopause is osteoporosis. There are a number of risk factors for osteoporosis that apply whatever your age, but the emphasis for preventing and treating osteoporosis is to make your diet more alkaline. Calcium neutralises acid, so the more acidic your food, the more calcium has to be taken from your bones to make your body more alkaline. The more fruit and vegetables you eat the more alkaline your body becomes and there will be less loss of calcium from your bones. However, both spinach and rhubarb contain oxalic acid, which reacts with calcium in the digestive system and stops it being absorbed, so if you have osteoporosis...
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What’s in it for us? Will the Olympics help improve our health over 50 through exercise?
Article by Anne Elliott I’m transfixed with the amazing young people competing in the Olympics. As I watch, I realize that sport wasn’t encouraged in the environment I grew up in and it felt that athletes and sports people lived in an alternative universe to the one I inhabited. And when I think back to the specimens of manhood that were available as potential boyfriends, they certainly never matched up to the honed and focused individuals we see competing to be the best. Hindsight! The gorgeous ones must have been spending all their time in various sporting clubs and centres. Never mind. Its never too late to start being active But for those of us that missed the boat first time round, its never to late to hopefully start being active. Perhaps the Olympic legacy might inspire us or offer us the chance to dip our toes in and have...
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Contact Options For Ageing Eyes
Article by Aaron Beard. We often need to wear glasses for the first time once we reach our 50s, and I have memories of all my grandparents and older relatives wearing bifocal glasses, but I hadn’t appreciated that it is possible to have bi-focal contact lenses as well as bi-focal glasses. Aaron Beard explores the options for addressing midlife eye issues. Dealing with eye deterioration The body changes in virtually innumerable ways as people grow older, and while some of these changes are impossible to address, many others are possible to deal. One example of a physical byproduct of aging that can be addressed with relative ease is deterioration in eye strength and comfort. While young people often enjoy lengthy periods of time without any changes in their vision, people in their 50’s and 60’s and beyond often experience a variety of detrimental changes with their eyes. Typically, these problems...
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