Before Swallowing a “BIG-Pharma Cure”

I have been researching the endocrine system and its integral role in a woman’s health. Our endocrine system is composed of a network of organs and glands responsible for producing, storing, and secreting hormones that help to maintain and control vital functions such as growth, reproduction, and energy levels. There are several endocrine system diseases that result from disruptions in this complex system. In women, many of these diseases go undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed during the ‘infamous HMO 6-minute diagnosis’ of unspecified female issues. Women are told they probably are suffering PMS or worse, PMDD and issued a prescription for SARAFEM® (PROZAC’s new girly name) told to set her next appointment and the office visit done.

Recently a health advocacy study reported that if a man and a woman presented with the same symptoms, HMO doctors were twice as likely to order a blood panel for the male as for the female. Currently, are active legal actions concerning HMO’s who gave bonuses to doctors who held down costs by cutting the number of diagnostic tests. Patients were denied simple blood panels that would quickly indicate common endocrine system “malfunctions” that can lead to thyroid disorders, diabetes, or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) — one of the more common endocrine system diseases, affecting between 7% to 10% of women aged 15 to 45. PCOS is a condition associated with symptoms of infrequent or irregular menstruation, male hormone excess symptoms like hirsutism (increased and unwanted hair growth) and acne. Patients with PCOS can also have multiple egg-containing cysts on the ovaries. They are higher risk for metabolic complications like diabetes and hypertension.

So aside from grooming our readers to be VERY INCONVENIENT WOMEN, and INSISTING on a complete blood work-up before accepting a prescription, what other advice can we give you?

Be proactive about your own health.

If you get a PMS-type diagnosis, skip the “Don’t-Worry-Be-Happy-Pills. Relieving your symptoms can be as straight forward as adding exercise, improving your diet, and developing better sleep habits.

In our next Inconvenient Woman Blog, We’ll look at how adding just a little more exercise to your weekly routine can net big health advantages.

©2012 An Inconvenient Woman. All Rights Reserved.

but only if you get a good night’s sleep

After my last week’s rant about focusing efforts to PREVENT cancer as well as CURING cancer, I was please to review a research study that did just that! The study examined the link between exercise and cancer risk, paying special attention to whether or not getting adequate sleep further affected a women’s cancer risk.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleep loss a growing and as yet an under-recognized public health problem, saying Americans are getting less and less slumber. The CDC said the percentage of adults reporting sleeping six hours, or fewer, a night increased from 1985 to 2006. In previous studies reported in “The Inconvenient Women”, the rates of “short duration sleep” are even higher in the female population.

A resent National Cancer Institute study, presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, reported that physically active women, who slept less than seven hours nightly, had a 47 percent higher risk of cancer than those who got more sleep.

James McClain, Ph.D., MPH, cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute and lead author of the study, said it is unclear exactly how getting too little sleep may make one more susceptible to cancer, but getting adequate sleep has been long associated with maintaining good health. “We think it’s quite interesting and intriguing. It’s kind of a first look into this. It isn’t something that has been widely studied,”, said McClain.

“Greater participation in physical activity has consistently been associated with reduced risk of cancer incidence at several sites, including breast and colon cancers,” said James McClain, and “Short duration sleep appears to have opposing effects of physical activity on several key hormonal and metabolic parameters, which is why we looked at how it affected the exercise/cancer risk relationship.”

The Maryland-based study involving 5,968 women, aged 18 years or older with no previous cancer diagnosis, confirmed previous findings that people who engage in regular physical activity are less likely to develop cancer. The women completed an initial survey in 1998 and were then tracked through the Washington County Cancer Registry and Maryland State Cancer Registry. McClain and colleagues followed the women for almost 10 years to determine the association between physical activity energy expenditure, sleep duration and incidence of overall breast and colon cancers.

First incidence of cancer occurred among 604 women, 186 of which were breast cancer cases. According to McClain, sleep duration altered the association between physical activity and cancer risk among this population. In terms of the amount of physical exercise the women got per week, researchers found that sleep appeared to play an important role in cancer risk.

Even though the exact mechanism of how exercise reduces cancer risk isn’t known, researchers believe that physical activity’s effects on factors including hormone levels, immune function, and body weight may play an important role.

“Short duration sleep” increases all levels of health risk

Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.

Source Document:

McClain J. #B145. Presented at: AACR Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; Nov. 16-18, 2008; Washington.

©2012 An Inconvenient Woman. All Rights Reserved.

But 55-percent of all strokes and 60-percent of stroke deaths occur in women.

About 100,000 women die annually of stroke, 40,000 more than the number of men who die from it. The fact that risk goes up with age and women live longer account for a large portion of that difference.

Strokes can affect younger women as well, including after childbirth when the blood is more likely to clot — probably an evolutionary adaptation so new mothers don’t bleed to death, says Dr. David Sherman, chief of neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

And for women who have migraine headaches — about 18 percent of women do — and those who smoke and take oral contraceptives, there is more risk of stroke.

Twice as many women die from stroke every year than from breast cancer

That is why I’ve posted the following Harvard Medical report. LEARN the early warning signs of stroke. Inconvenient Women know their bodies and are proactive about their health. For more information go to ‘Stoke Facts In America‘

		September 23, 2008

3 warning signs of stroke You know the signs of a stroke. Or do you? You’d probably recognize the classic symptoms, such as sudden weakness on one side of the body or blurred vision, but often the signs are much less obvious. A crushing headache may come on without warning. Your face may feel numb. You may have inexplicable trouble speaking or following what people say. How to tell when someone’s having a stroke Crooked smile. Have the person smile or show his or her teeth. If one side doesn’t move as well as the other or seems to droop, that could be sign of a stroke. Arm drift. Have the person close his or her eyes and hold his or her arms straight out in front for about 10 seconds. If one arm does not move, or one arm winds up drifting down more than the other, they may be having a stroke. Slurred speech. Have the person say, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” or some other simple, familiar saying. If the person slurs the words, gets some words wrong, or is unable to speak, that could be sign of a stroke. Knowing all the warning signs of a stroke may one day save your life and well-being. That’s because the faster you recognize the symptoms, the sooner you can get medical help. And prompt treatment is the key to shielding your brain from a stroke’s damage and sparing you serious disabilities such as paralysis, speech impairment, and dementia. Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and other industrial countries, trailing only heart disease and cancer. In the United States, about 700,000 people have a stroke each year. If you have a stroke, the risk of dying from it increases with age: 88% of deaths from stroke are in people 65 and older. About two-thirds of people who have a stroke have some resulting disability and require rehabilitation. The odds of having a stroke more than double for each decade after age 55. Two-thirds of strokes involve people over 65. Men and women are about equally likely to have a stroke, but women have a greater risk of dying from one. Race is another risk factor. African-Americans, for example, are almost twice as likely to suffer a stroke as are whites. Although you can’t change your age or race, you can take steps to reduce other risk factors for stroke, especially ischemic stroke. The most common risk factors for both ischemic stroke and TIAs (transient ischemic attacks, or “mini strokes”) are high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and obesity. All of these factors affect the health of your blood vessels — increasing the risk not only of stroke, but also of heart disease. That’s why medications and other steps you take to reduce the risk of an ischemic stroke will also benefit your heart. Some types of hemorrhagic strokes are more likely to occur in people with chronic high blood pressure. But other types of hemorrhagic strokes seemingly strike out of the blue. Although abnormal blood vessel conditions such as an aneurysm (a bubble in the blood vessel wall that could rupture) or an arteriovenous malformation (an abnormal tangle of blood vessels) increase the risk, these conditions may only be discovered inadvertently while you are undergoing testing for something else or may not be discovered until a stroke occurs. Fortunately, medicine has made considerable strides in understanding how to treat and prevent strokes. Medical imaging devices now enable medical teams to begin to diagnose a stroke accurately within minutes. Large studies have clarified which medications and other treatments are best for which patients. For those who need rehabilitation, experimental techniques are showing promise in helping patients make better progress than was possible even just a few years ago.

FEATURED CONTENT: What is a stroke? How the brain works Subtypes and causes of stroke Diagnosing a stroke Treating ischemic stroke Treating hemorrhagic stroke Stroke rehabilitation Preventing stroke Reprinted from Stroke: Preventing and treating “brain attack” — A Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School, Copyright © 2008 by Harvard University. All rights reserved.

** Get your copy of Stroke: Preventing and treating “brain attack” Stroke: Preventing and treating “brain attack” provides up-to-the-minute information about stroke symptoms, diagnosis, stroke treatment, and rehabilitation. This report discusses stroke prevention and common signs of stroke. It also contains helpful illustrations, an extensive glossary, and an informative resource guide. Click here to read more or buy online. To order online, click one of the following links: Purchase printed version ($18.00) Purchase electronic download (PDF) ($18.00) Purchase print + electronic download (PDF) ($26.00) Or to order by mail, print and mail the order form below:

Harvard Medical School offers special reports on over 50 health topics. Visit our Web site at http://www.health.harvard.edu to find reports of interest to you and your family. Copyright 2008 by Harvard University.

©2012 An Inconvenient Woman. All Rights Reserved.

Broccoli may undo diabetes damage

Broccoli may help ward off prostate cancer

Eating broccoli could reverse the damage caused by diabetes to heart blood vessels, research suggests.

A University of Warwick team believe the key is a compound found in the vegetable, called sulforaphane.

It encourages production of enzymes which protect the blood vessels, and a reduction in high levels of molecules which cause significant cell damage.

Brassica vegetables such as broccoli have previously been linked to a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Our study suggests that compounds such as sulforaphane from broccoli may help counter processes linked to the development of vascular disease in diabetes Professor Paul Thornalley University of Warwick

People with diabetes are up to five times more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes; both are linked to damaged blood vessels.

The Warwick team, whose work is reported in the journal Diabetes, tested the effects of sulforaphane on blood vessel cells damaged by high glucose levels (hyperglycaemia), which are associated with diabetes.

They recorded a 73% reduction of molecules in the body called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).

Hyperglycaemia can cause levels of ROS to increase three-fold and such high levels can damage human cells.

The researchers also found that sulforaphane activated a protein in the body called nrf2, which protects cells and tissues from damage by activating protective antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes.

Countering vascular disease

Lead researcher Professor Paul Thornalley said: “Our study suggests that compounds such as sulforaphane from broccoli may help counter processes linked to the development of vascular disease in diabetes.

“In future, it will be important to test if eating a diet rich in brassica vegetables has health benefits for diabetic patients. We expect that it will.”

Dr Iain Frame, director of research at the charity Diabetes UK, stressed that research carried out on cells in the lab was a long way from the real life situation.

However, he said: “It is encouraging to see that Professor Thornalley and his team have identified a potentially important substance that may protect and repair blood vessels from the damaging effects of diabetes.

“It also may help add some scientific weight to the argument that eating broccoli is good for you.”

©2012 An Inconvenient Woman. All Rights Reserved.

“Over an eight-year follow-up, the risk was twice as high, even after we adjusted for body mass and other factors,” stated Solomon. However she says women with such menstrual abnormalities needn’t panic because the risk can be reduced markedly by lifestyle measures, most notably regular exercise and weight control.

Menstrual cycles 40 days or longer or irregular cycles appear to be markers for some sort of underlying metabolic abnormality, Solomon says. For example, previous reports have linked an increased risk of diabetes to a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, in which the body makes too much of the male hormone testosterone that can affect the menstrual cycle.

The study is the first to specifically link menstrual cycles and Type II diabetes, the kind that arises in adult life and is non-insulin dependent, Solomon says. The increased risk of Type II diabetes found in the study arises from resistance to insulin activity, she says. In Type II diabetes the body still makes insulin, but doesn’t use it efficiently. In Type I diabetes, the body doesn’t make insulin, and sufferers must have injections of the hormone to keep their blood sugar levels on an even keel.

The report uses data from the Nurses Health Study II, which followed more than 100,000 women starting in 1989. The women supplied information about their menstrual cycles and other personal data — weight, height, family history of diabetes, the level of physical activity.

In 1997 that study found a doubled risk of diabetes in women with the menstrual abnormalities, compared with women with normal menstrual cycles that ranged from 26 to 31 days. The risk was highest for obese women.

The results of the study are not surprising but are valuable because they provide “another piece in the puzzle of trying to tease out what are the risk factors for Type II diabetes,” says Dr. Nathaniel G. Clark, national vice president for clinical affairs of the American Diabetes Association.

Obesity has long been identified as a risk factor, Clark says. “What this study shows is that if you have irregular periods, you are at increased risk whether or not you are obese. Each is an independent risk factor,” he says.

What To Do

Solomon says, “The study points to the fact that having these unusual cycles can be a marker that there are other metabolic  irregularities going on, so a woman should inform her medical caregiver about them. A woman should at least be going over it with a physician. And we know that when individuals engage in regular physical activity and control their weight, the risk of diabetes is lowered.”

Sources: Journal of the American Medical Association

The American Diabetes Association

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

©2012 An Inconvenient Woman. All Rights Reserved.