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How Does Skipping Breakfast Affect Your Hormone Levels?

admin — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:11:28 +0000

Do You Skip Breakfast?

Do you sometimes skip breakfast, maybe thinking:

“I’ll skip breakfast so I will decrease my calories to lose a few pounds” Or –
“I’ll grab something quick to give me some extra energy” – usually something sugary or caffeinated OR BOTH!
Or- “I don’t have anything prepared, and I’m in a hurry”

Well, Let me tell you about a client of mine . . .

I have a menopause coaching client named Sheila who gave me permission to tell her story.

When she worked in her husband’s medical practice, she hardly ever ate breakfast. Most doctor offices have split hours to accommodate those patients who go to work early and don’t get off from work until 5 p.m. or after.

Some medical offices don’t usually finish with patients until almost 7:30 p.m. most days.

Sheila and her husband would eat dinner out late, which made Sheila not-so-hungry the next morning when it was time to eat. She knew it wasn’t a healthy thing to do but with the hours as they were, she didn’t feel like she had much choice.

In the morning, sometimes she would grab an apple or banana on her way out of the door and ALWAYS had her coffee on the way to the office. There were times when she had only coffee for her breakfast while she was getting ready for work.

Sheila says, “Eating this way, I remember being starved by lunch time! Then I wanted to eat everything in sight when it was time to sit down to eat. Also, my energy levels were so low by mid-morning I probably could have taken a nap! I guess my excuses were that I was too much in a hurry; I stayed in bed until the very last minute and then had to rush, or felt that I didn’t have time or I just wasn’t hungry. There were times when I couldn’t even think straight. I felt so tired and run down. My husband noticed I was making too many mistakes with scheduling patients and it was becoming costly for the office. I had a hard time focusing or completing the tasks that were my responsibility.”

What is breakfast anyway? During the night while you are sleeping, your body is taking a break from eating. You are fasting. Breakfast time is when you “break that fast” and start the day by giving your body the fuel it needs to perform at the highest level.

Skipping breakfast causes your body to be under more stress and the stress hormone, cortisol goes up. Your blood sugar is low to start with. When your blood sugar drops, it causes you to crave sweets.

Keeping the blood sugar as level as possible throughout the day will help in the prevention of insulin resistance which can ultimately lead to diabetes.

Did you realize by not eating breakfast, it affects certain hormones and causes a cascading effect in your body?

One of the most important things you can do for yourself to prepare for a productive day is to have a “good” breakfast before leaving home. It will give you what you need to be able to concentrate, have mental clarity, focus and have energy.

Here is your guide to having a healthy breakfast:

Eat a breakfast that includes some protein such as real eggs. (Animal protein is easier to digest in the early part of the day than later.)

You will perform much better and feel better by having some protein with each meal throughout the day. It doesn’t have to be a lot, whatever is the right amount for you.

Suggestions:

If you don’t feel very hungry, it will greatly benefit you to still eat something small or a small amount of:

·       Fruit – apples and berries are best
        Some raw nuts (walnuts and/or almonds)
·      Slice of cheese
·      Cottage cheese
·      Ezekiel toast with Almond or Peanut Butter
·      Hard-boiled egg

Start eating breakfast, no matter how small.

· Use a journal for seven days.
· Write down how you feel after eating breakfast.
See if you feel or see an increase in your energy.
· This will also give you a guide to which foods you
may want to start avoiding.
Sit down to eat and relax. Taking time to eat and enjoying it
affects hormones that make you feel full.

Fast Results To Reduce Stress Hormones

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:59:12 +0000

Do you feel guilty because you feel like you don't have the time or discipline to "get your body moving?"

You have heard that exercise helps so many things! But why bother if you can't stay consistent? Well, many experts believe even some exercise is better than none at all.

It doesn't have to take an hour or 3 hours for you to get the benefits of exercise. Studies show less than half an hour, even 20 minutes can make all the difference.

Here is what exercise can do for you:

Increase oxygen to the cells
Help to eliminate the lymphatic fluid (waste) in the body
Stimulates on a cellular level keeping the cells healthy and normal
Helps the energy of the body flow freely
Releases tension and stress by reducing the stress hormones
Strengthens the immune system

By doing shorter bursts of exercise it is training the nervous system to deal with stress in a more positive way. You are stressing your body then letting it recover. Stressing, then recovering. Being able to recover is very important in the process.

Try doing shorter bursts of exercise for about a minute, then relaxing for two minutes, then exercise again, relax, and repeat the process. Use the stairs in your house by going up and down, do jumping jacks, jump roping or whatever works for you. See how this works wonders for you!

-Sheri Goddard, MenopauseCoach

Study: Parabens Found in Breast Cancer Tissue and Tested Urine Samples

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:17:35 +0000

(NaturalNews) They are added to everything from shampoos and deodorants to processed foods and pharmaceutical drugs in order to inexpensively extend shelf life and improve product stability. But a new study out of the University of Reading (UR) in the UK has found that, based on tests conducted, nearly every single woman with breast cancer has one or more paraben chemicals in her breast tissue, suggesting a possible link between the chemical and the disease.

According to the UK's Daily Mail, Dr. Philippa Darbre and her team from UR gathered tissue samples from 40 women who were undergoing mastectomies for breast cancer between the years of 2005 and 2008. The team took four different tissue samples from each woman at separate times, which collectively totaled 160 samples, and performed an extensive analysis on each of their contents.

In the end, the group found that 99 percent of the breast tissue samples contained at least one type of paraben, while 60 percent contained at least five. And while the presence of parabens in cancer-infected breast tissue does not necessarily imply that the chemicals are responsible for causing the disease, it sure does lend suspicion to the notion that parabens could be a potential culprit.

"The intriguing discovery that parabens are present even in women who have never used underarm products raises the question: where have these chemicals come from?" asked Dr Darbre after observing that even women who did not use typical paraben-containing products still had the chemical in their breast tissue. "The fact that parabens were present in so many of the breast tissue samples does justify further investigation."

In a separate study, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that nearly every human urine sample tested contained parabens. This is particularly concerning, since research compiled by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) suggests that parabens are linked to causing organ system toxicity, reproductive and fertility problems, birth and developmental defects, and endocrine (hormone) disruption. (http://www.ewg.org/chemindex/term/563).

When shopping for personal care products and food, be sure to read all ingredient labels carefully to avoid unnecessary exposure to parabens. High-quality personal care products, for instance, will often contain helpful labels indicating that they do not contain parabens.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034680_breast_cancer_parabens_women.html#ixzz1jw2O0TXz

What to do next: Learn about what to avoid when buying skincare products by reading: http://menopausecoach.com/what-to-avoid-in-skinbody-care/

Post-Menopausal Women, Are You Taking Statins?

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:47:24 +0000

Post-menopausal women who take statins to ward off heart attacks are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who do not, research indicates.

Older women who take statin medications to ward off heart attacks are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who do not take the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, a study has found.

The report, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that, in a large group of post-menopausal women, those who took a statin of any type were, on average, 48% likelier to develop Type 2 diabetes than those who didn't.

The heightened risk for diabetes was most pronounced in statin-taking women of Asian origin or those with a body mass index, or BMI, in the healthy range.

The authors did not recommend changes in current medical guidelines for statin use, and urged women taking statins not to stop.

But they said that future research on statins should examine gender and ethnic differences in responses to the medications. And they emphasized that changes in diet and exercise should be a first step for patients who are still healthy but who have risk factors for heart disease, including high cholesterol levels or markers for inflammation in their blood.

For women intent on heading off heart disease, "it is probably a very good idea to really look at all the risk factors and to be careful of initiating a statin where there are no risk factors or where there is just one," said coauthor Annie L. Culver, a University of Massachusetts pharmacologist.

Among the signs physicians assess in evaluating the heart risk of a still-healthy patient: a family history of heart attack, high LDL ("bad") cholesterol or very low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and elevated levels of C-reactive protein, an indication of inflammation. A patient who had already had a heart attack would almost certainly be prescribed a statin.

Cholesterol-lowering medications are the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the United States, and statins — marketed under such names as Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol and Crestor — make up the bulk of the 255 million prescriptions dispensed each year, according to IMS Health, which tracks international healthcare trends.

Women are less likely than men to have heart attacks, and their use of statins has lagged behind that of men. Still, statin use among women is rising steeply. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 in 3 older women — 36% of those between 64 and 74 and 39% of those 75 and over — take statins in a bid to prevent a first heart attack or to ward off a repeat heart attack. Almost half of all men in those age brackets take a statin.

The new study was based on data collected over 12 years on almost 154,000 women ages 50 to 79 who had participated in the landmark Women's Health Initiative, which explored the influence of diet, hormone treatment and other factors on the health of almost 162,000 women. But researchers not involved with the study said that its findings probably also applied to men.

Earlier research had suggested that both male and female patients taking statins are more likely to suffer metabolic disturbances, including insulin resistance, a harbinger of Type 2 diabetes in which the body's organs fail to use fuel efficiently. The observed effect has been more pronounced in women.

Still, as physicians and patients digest the latest research, the delicate calculation of risk and benefit is likely to change more for women than for men.

The evidence that statins drive down the risk of heart attacks is far better established for men than it is for women — partly because early trials on statins enrolled lots of men and very few women. Thus, in the case of men, the increased risk of diabetes while on a statin is offset by a much larger likelihood that the medication will prevent a heart attack or even death, said cardiologist Sanjay Kaul of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

For a woman, Kaul said, "the benefits still outweigh the risks" but the evidence is not as strong

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Kirsten L. Johansen of UC San Francisco said that the new study's findings might tip the balance against statin use for women who are at risk for heart disease but have not yet developed signs of it.

Previous studies have found that in this class of women, statins do not drive down the risk of dying of heart disease or other causes. Yet the new study found that the risk for developing diabetes was just as elevated for them.

The study also found that statin use increased the diabetes risk of Asian women the most, followed by white women and Latinas, and African American women the least.

Women with BMIs above 30 — the demarcation line for obesity — showed smaller increases in diabetes rates than women whose BMIs fell within the healthy range.

That finding — possibly the result of changes in women's fat distribution as a result of statin use — was surprising, Culver said.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

Do You Need This for Your Mental Health?

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:13:32 +0000

How often do you take care of yourself or reserve time to do something special just for you?

Is it possible to put some time aside every week for a couple of hours just for you? You would probably call that a luxury or pampering yourself. After getting through the holiday, don't you need that and don't you deserve that? Would it help you mentally and give your life more balance?

Some people go on a "date" with themselves. In Julia Cameron's book, The Artists Way, it is called an artist date. It is time for you to be with yourself. Sometimes to get this started, you may have to force yourself.

Your date can be whatever you want it to be. How about going to an antique store, browsing a favorite book store or a specialty store? What is something you would enjoy doing alone and would look forward to? It could be working in your garden, reading a good book, getting a pedicure, going for a walk, taking a nap, etc.

The problem is as Moms, wives or daughters we tend to put ourselves last on all of our lists. We make sure everyone else has what they need, then we hope there is left-over time for us.

I used to go on an "artist date" on a regular basis – what happened? It was a special time I really looked forward to. I didn't have to spend money, I just made a list of things I would enjoy doing alone.

I love stepping back in time at antique stores and bringing back memories of things I saw in my Grandmothers house when I was young. I went to a sanctuary nearby and walked the labyrinth and then sat inside and meditated for awhile. I have gone to have coffee at my favorite place. I even stayed home and spent the time beading or doing Encaustic Art.

I am sure when you think about a date with yourself you have many ideas that will come to you. I urge you to try this. It can be a lot of fun. Put the time on your calendar so you really take it seriously. When your family sees you take it seriously, then they will do that too. Make a commitment to yourself. Even if you start every two weeks or once a month, you have started. Schedule it. You will be happy you did. Let me know what your favorite artist date is.

- Sheri Goddard

Eliminate Holiday Stress

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:02:07 +0000

Could Your Holiday be Less Stressful?

We just got through one holiday and look out; here comes the next big stressor! Some people actually dread the holidays because of all the added stress!

How many people are you committed to buying gifts for? Would your holiday be less stressful if one person did not do all of the work and everyone got together and came up with a solutions that would fit everyone’s holiday budget for time and money?

If you are hosting a family or friend get together over the Christmas holidays, you have your work cut out for you. You have the cleaning, shopping, cooking, baking, organizing, wrapping, Christmas card sending and on and on, on top of your regular responsibilities.

I can remember many years ago when I was first married. We would spend money we didn’t really have and buy gifts for everyone who was going to attend our family function on my ex- husband’s side of the family. They bought something for us, so we felt we had to reciprocate.

I wish I had had the guts then to stand up and say, enough! I could have changed the tradition and saved everyone the money and time. Buying gifts wasn’t what it was about!

The most important part was that everyone who wanted to be there got there safely. Everyone was healthy and we were able to share our love, conversation and holiday food with each other.

Do you agree? Is there something you could do to eliminate some of the stress of the gift buying for your situation? I understand when children are involved but not so much with adults. If you feel overwhelmed when you think about all that “needs to be done”, break the old tradition and start a new one that works better for you and everyone else involved.

After having gone through menopause, I seem to have a lot more courage and wisdom than when I was younger. I could speak up now and do what I am asking you to do. It is your time too. Make it count.

Some tips to consider:

· Open up the communication to see how it could work better.

· Have a family meeting and delegate responsibilities.

· Ask for suggestions to eliminate some of the stress on everyone involved.

(Others may feel the same way you do – you just don’t know.)

· What if you drew names and everyone buys one gift?

· What if your family donated a gift or money to their favorite charity?

· What if you donated to a family who is homeless?

· Try not to worry about what is out of your control

· Keep up your exercise program – if you don’t have one, start walking for 15 minutes a day

· Try to eat healthy food, limit your sugar and caffeine

· Eight hours of sleep each night is really important

· Listen to something positive everyday

No shortage of people or animals that are in need of help. So many people are struggling just to get by day to day.

Most important: Remember that family, friends and giving are what make the holiday special, not the gifts or expensive decorations. And nothing and no one is perfect.

Have a wonderful Christmas Holiday!
Sheri

www.facebook.com/menopausecoach

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:38:12 +0000

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Are Household Items Making Your Hormones Crazy?

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:48:35 +0000

Connect The Dots…Plastics to Hormones

In the largest study ever done on the effects of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) on womens hormone systems, West Virginia University researchers found in blood tests that higher levels of these man- made chemicals are associated with early menopausal symptoms in females aged 42 to 64.

Premature menopause has been linked to a variety of health problems, including cardiovascular disease.

Researchers collected data from 25,957 women, measuring serum concentration levels of PFCs and the female hormone estradiol, and reported a definite association between PFC exposure, decreased estradiol and early menopause. Women with high blood levels of PFCs also had significantly lower concentrations of estrogen, compared with peers showing low levels of the chemicals.

PFCs are found in many common household products, including:

food containers - (safest plastic has a number 2, 4 or 5 on the bottom)

clothing

furniture

carpets

paints

Their broad use has resulted in widespread dissemination in water, air, soil, plant life, animals and humans, even in remote parts of the world.

A probability sample of U.S. adults conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found measurable concentrations of PFCs in 98 percent of the participants tested.

Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism

Managing Menopause Naturally

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:12:06 +0000

Your Menopause

When I was sent the DVD of Managing Menopause Naturally and asked to review it, I thought – okay. I will do it and try to keep an open mind. Well, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

It was a pleasant surprise to watch the DVD and feel really good about what I was hearing!

Managing Menopause Naturally is almost two hours long. It goes into the depth of menopause, the history of it, what can be expected, fears you may have, how it affects other women around the world, established medical treatments most popular, and the holistic alternatives you can check out as you approach that time in your life, (or if you are already there.)

The experts interviewed were not the conventional MD's, but other experts in the field of Nutrition, Chiropractic, Herbal Remedies and Midwives all reporting their experiences, knowledge and wisdom around the subject of perimenopause and menopause. That right there was very refreshing to me.

We are very fortunate that we have so many choices today. We should research for ourselves which may be the best treatment or lifestyle changes for us.

I highly recommend ordering this DVD to give you a better outlook and a more broad perspective of what to expect and how to be more proactive.

As I always say, menopause doesn't have to be doom and gloom. It can be a new beginning of your life and it will be what you make it.

http://www.amazon.com/Managing-Menopause-Naturally-Andrew-Weil/dp/B0052XU4CO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320779427&sr=8-2

PFCs Linked To Early Menopause

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:06:39 +0000

Could Be One Reason For Early Menopause

In the largest study ever done on the effects of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) on womens hormone systems, West Virginia University researchers found in blood tests that higher levels of these man-made chemicals are associated with early menopausal symptoms in females aged 42 to 64.

Premature menopause has been linked to a variety of health problems, including cardiovascular disease.

PFCs are found in many common household products, including food containers, clothing, furniture, carpets and paints. Their broad use has resulted in widespread dissemination in water, air, soil, plant life, animals and humans, even in remote parts of the world.

A probability sample of U.S. adults conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found measurable concentrations of PFCs in 98 percent of the participants tested.

Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism