Compounding Pharmacies

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynocologists (ACOG) is not a fan of bioidentical hormones. Not even close. I think a lot of it has to do with them being in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry, but whatever the reason, way too many women go to their gynocologists looking for help with bioidentical hormones for their menopausal difficulties, and are flatly told that compounded medications are useless, dangerous, not regulated, I've heard a dozen different lines.

Peter Koshland at Koshland's Pharmacy is an expert on bioidenticals, and I have tapped into his expertise several times regarding issues relating to compounded medications. He has written an excellent post about ACOG's position on bioidenticals on his blog The Compounder's Forum. Be sure to read it, and perhaps even make a copy of it to present to the next doctor who tells you about the "dangers" of compounded medications.

Bioidentical Hormone Treatment For PCOS Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

If you are not already reading the blog Bioidentical Hormone Health, be sure to enter your email address to subscribe in the upper right hand corner of their home page.  It's one of the blogs I read regularly.

Interesting article on their blog today about bioidentical hormones and PCOS (polycystic ovary disease).  The article has information that is important for those of you who have this condition, and is worth passing along to daughters, friends, etc who may be struggling with PCOS (it's a leading cause of infertility). 

I spent considerable time this morning going through about 3-4 weeks of newsfeed alerts (I get emails each day that alert me to articles on the web pertinent to about 20 phrases associatied with menopause), and have found some great articles to share with you.  I hope to get as many as I can up over the next week or two, but please bear with me, my schedule over the next couple weeks is a little crazy.  If you are following the news, you know that the Democratic National Convention is going to be in Charlotte, NC next week, and I am a volunteer! I'm going to be a hospitality greeter at the airport and at a local hotel.  I'm excited to be a part of something so historic for the city, I love meeting new people and I think it will be a lot of fun.  If I get any good pictures, I will post them over on my other blog (Needle Notes) so stay tuned.

Enjoy this last week of summer, I can't believe we are at the end of August already. It was a difficult summer in many ways; I am looking forward to the fall.  Have a great week!

Heart attacks in women....

I was sorry to hear that TV personality Rosie O'Donnell suffered a heart attack recently.   She is now home and reportedly doing well, which is great news.....the world needs all the laughter it can get!

Rosie talked on her blog about her experience.  Most of you who have read my blog for any length of time know I am an advocate for women's heart health, and I proudly celebrate women's heart health the entire month of February each year (I was thrilled to see even the knitting community is getting in on the act, go check out this new book Knit Red: Stitching for Women's Heart Health).  Many women, however, mistakenly believe that chest pain (common sign in heart attack for men) is the leading symptom in heart attacks for women, too.  Not true, the symptoms when a woman has a heart attack are are varied and often more subtle. Check out this excellent article from WomenHeart.org on signs and symptoms of women's heart disease. 

Dense breast tissue doesn't add cancer risk, study shows

Generally, when I post an article like this another study comes out within a week with opposite findings. However, because I know this is a topic of interest to nearly all women, I'm sharing with you an article from this morning's edition of USAToday.com.  I was considered to have dense breast tissue when I was younger because I never had a child, and because of a history of breast cancer in my family (I lost a maternal aunt at age 42 to the disease in 1960, a maternal first cousin at age 56 in 2004) I began having mammograms at age 35.  By the time a study had come out that mammograms in women under 40 with dense breast tissue were nearly useless ---- I had already had two mammograms.  In a perfect world (which is likely not to exist as long as insurance companies are involved in our health care) we would be getting MRIs of our breasts (found to be more accurate in detecting problems) instead of mammograms, but I don't see insurance coverage for that any time soon. 

I'm sorry my posting has been so sporadic the last few weeks, my back has been acting up (hard to sit at the computer), trying to learn the new computer (which is problematic when you can't sit at it for very long at a stretch) and a lack of good articles to share with you (often happens in the summer) have made for a perfect storm of very little blog posting.  Enjoy your week!

Never underestimate the importance of stretching (every day!)

Source: healthyisalwaysbetter.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Hormone Levels Video by Dr. John D. Carr

Powerful and thought provoking....

Source: media-cache-ec9.pinterest.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Strength Training for Women

I know I carp on this a lot, but it's so important to do strength training. My mother had a severe case of osteoporosis (she lost over 4 inches of height the last 10 years of her life) and a fall in 1995 made her an invalid until she died in February 1998.  I am absolutely determined not to go down that same path, and with hormone optimization, Vitamin D2 and weight training, I'm well on my way to staying tall and strong!

Source: s3.amazonaws.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

How to Meditate Effortlessly-Deep Meditation Experience to feel great,enjoy your own company and take faster decisions in life.

If you have a Kindle, downdoad this book on meditation (check and be sure it's still free, it was on the free list when I wrote this post!) 

Don't Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body [Kindle Edition]

Good morning! I have a new desktop computer (yay!) and so will hopefully be back up and running full bore very soon.  Biggest issue right now is I strained my back big time trying to get this new computer put together, so my sitting time is very limited right now. 

For those of you who have a Kindle or a Kindle app on your tablet device, here is a link to a book that looks sort of interesting.  The title is Don't Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body, and right now it's a free download.  Follow this link.  Be sure, however, to check and see that the book is still free before you download it, as the price can jump back up without notice. 

Enjoy, and have a great first full week of August.  Stay hydrated!

Menopausal Computer Issues

Hi, everyone, I don't want you to think I have forgotten you.  I am in the process of getting a new computer, and in the meantime I have been using my iPad to post to my blogs.  However, over the weekend I developed an issue with the app saying something about my network not being ready to post (nothing has changed in my network, so I think it's something wrong with the app) but bottom line, not able to post unless I am at someone else's computer (as I am today!)  Hopefully everything will be cleared up in a week or less, but until then, stay cool, stay hydrated, and enjoy this first week fo August!