Grumpy Women Live As Long as Happy Ones

You would think that happier people live longer than miserable folk, however a new complementary medicine research study has reported this is a fallacy in women aged 50 to 69 years.

The study which was published in the Lancet followed 715,000 British women, aged 50 to 69, from 1996 to 2012. During the study, 4% (31, 531) of participants died. Previous studies have linked happiness to longevity but these researchers now say there’s no such scientific connection.

“It’s such a common belief that stress and unhappiness causes death and disease but it’s actually the other way around,” said Professor Richard Peto from University of Oxford, who was one of the study’s authors.

“People should focus on the real issues that shorten their lives, like smoking and obesity.”

It is important to note that there will be future research conducted that will report the contrary. Furthermore, science has yet to determine how to measure happiness, and surely quality of life is an important factor to take into consideration. However, Professor Peto warning that poor lifestyle choices can be detrimental; therefore lifestyle advice is pivotal to good health.

So in the interim it is important that lifestyle advice focuses on preventative.

Menopause treatment and Bio-identical hormones – Women’s health issue

A 2015 Australian study conducted by researchers from the Cancer Council NSW found that women who use menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), have double the risk of developing breast cancer compared to women who never used MHT. In addition when women stop using MHT, the increased risk drops and becomes the same as with other women who don’t use it. The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, conforms previous findings in the US and UK.
Professor Karen Canfell from the Cancer Council NSW commented, “The message to convey is that it’s important that women check in with their doctor every six months about the continuing use of MHT, because the risk of breast cancer increases as duration of use increases,” .

The researchers affirmed that HRT can still be advised for alleviating moderate to severe symptoms of menopause such as hot flushes and vaginal dryness. However, it is important to note that the risks are greater with use of combined oestrogen-progestagen as opposed to oestrogen-only therapy.

these findings will also encourage the increased use of bio-identical hormones. Bio-identical hormones are hormones synthesised to resemble identically, the natural hormones produced by the ovary. Pharmaceutical companies prefer to produce synthetic hormones (antagonist and agonist based), but these can cause various side effects due to a variety of physiological reasons.

If bio-identical hormones are the preferable mode of treatment then we need to consider the following:

• The physiological concentrations administered
• Pharmokinetics and pharmacological properties
• Do they have the same binding constants, up-regulation, down-regulation effects etc
• Is there a cascade effect post- administration that can be detrimental
• What do current observational studies show?

Possibly the best treatment option for menopause is an integrative healthcare solution of bio-identical hormones with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies such as Ayurveda, TCM , Homeopathy and Lifeline Technique strategically implemented to deal with the physical and emotional aspects of menopause.