Healthy Aging

Three Facts You Have Never Heard About Menopause

Confident midlife woman walking outdoors

As you may know, there is plenty of information available about menopause. In fact, there is so much out there, it is easy to get lost in it all. Have you been reading through blogs and journals only to seem as though you are reading the same facts over and over?

We wanted to take away all of the dullness and surprise you with 3 facts you more than likely have not heard or read about. These facts are going to help you ease any symptoms, avoid possible triggers, and learn more about the transition in general.

Less Quality Of Life

You may have heard the rumors that life is over once the menopause transition begins. However, that is simply not the case at all. In fact, the vast majority of women acknowledge the fact that menopause does very little to their quality of life and emotional state. Only one out of ten women will report feeling any different about life or clinically depressed. With this information, you should rest easily knowing that it is not the end of the world. While depression is not a key element in menopause, hot flashes are.

Midlife woman preparing a cool bedroom for restful sleep

If depression is not a key element of menopause, you should know that hot flashes are. In fact, hot flashes are one of those symptoms that every woman believes she is going to face at some point. However, it is not always a guaranteed symptom. Typically nine out of ten women will suffer through this symptom. While this may be disheartening news, it should be known that the intensity will decrease over time. The vast majority of women will have the most intense hot flashes at the earliest stages of menopause. However, there is somewhat of a cure to this symptom through the use of soy.

While soy may not be a major food factor in the United States it is in other nations. In fact, in Asia, women report having fewer hot flashes than women in the United States. This may be due to higher amounts of soy that are used in Asia, researchers are still studying the phenomenon. Regardless of the fact, soy is filled with plenty of nutrients, so it is beneficial in many ways. Time will only tell if soy is a key factor in hot flashes during menopause, however, you can get ahead of the wave and conduct your own research.

Midlife women having a supportive conversation

As you can see, there are a few things that the books are not all talking about. You do not have to worry about feeling depressed all of the time because of menopause and hot flashes do not cause years of pain. In addition, if you want to try and reduce the overall effects of menopause and hot flashes, try to add more soy to your diet.It is possible to fully enjoy these years in your life and not be as miserable as what all the books say you have to be! Enjoy these years and make the most of them!

3 Different Ways To Help Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is one of the biggest diseases that affects half of all women that reach age 60. Unfortunately, it is a disease that can be debilitating. While men are not immune to this problem, there is a much larger chance that a woman suffers from it. In fact, it is so prevalent now, that it has become an epidemic of sorts. Below, we will be going over some of the different ways in which you might be able to prevent this disease from affecting yourself.

Clinician discussing bone health with a mature woman

How To Prevent Osteoporosis:

1. Quit Drinking Soda.

One of the biggest things that you are going to want to do when it comes to preventing osteoporosis is to stop drinking carbonated beverages. These kinds of beverages can end up leaching calcium from your bones. A lot of people that drink a lot of carbonated beverages suffer from bone loss as a direct result. Along with this, these kinds of beverages have a lot of phosphates which can result in even further calcium depletion.

2. Reduce Protein Intake.

Another major thing that you are going to want to do is try to minimize the amount of protein you consume on a regular basis. While protein is essential for your muscles, too much protein intake can result in too much acidity in the body. This can in turn cause calcium to be lost in the urine. Most people only need around 2 to 4 ounces of lean protein intake around 3 times per day. The average diet contains 2 to 3 times this amount which is considered excess.

3. Reduce Or Eliminate Caffeine Intake.

Another significant contributor to this disease is having too much caffeine intake. Each cup of coffee that you drink can actually deplete 150 mg of calcium in your urine. If you cannot cut out caffeine entirely, you will want to at least increase your calcium intake by a minimum of 150 mg for each cup that you are going to drink throughout the day.

Foods that provide calcium and vitamin D

4. Get Vitamin D.

Another huge contributor to the rise of this disease is the fact that a majority of people are not getting enough vitamin D in their life. Vitamin D is one of the biggest epidemics in our society which is important when considering this disease because Vitamin D is necessary in order for the body to be able to properly absorb calcium and put it in the bones. Therefore, if you are not getting a sufficient amount of vitamin D in your body, you are going to end up being deficient in calcium as a direct result.

Mature woman doing a weight-bearing step exercise

5. Exercise More.

Another important thing that you are going to want to do is make sure that you are exercising as much as possible. When muscles pull against the bones during various exercises, it ultimately stimulates the bones which can increase bone growth and density.

Overall, there is a lot that can be done to minimize the risk of suffering from this disease. The tips above are a great start. By positioning your health better with the tips above, you should be able to minimize the chances that this disease negatively affects you. Be sure to increase your vitamin D intake whether through increased sun exposure or through proper supplementation and you should achieve good results. Along with this, you want to make sure that you cut out caffeine and eliminate carbonated beverages from your diet as it can leach calcium directly from your bones. All of these things are going to put your body in a good position to be as healthy as possible.