Tag Archives: womens issues

Self-Care for Mild to Moderate PMS

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)

pms

A large number of women (30 to 70 per cent) experience premenstrual symptoms even though they do not have Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder or what most people refer to as PMS (Pre-Menstrual Syndrome). Approximately four to nine per cent experience Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Even though premenstrual women may be quite uncomfortable with headaches, cramps, tender breasts, or other symptoms, this is not PMDD. PMDD is only diagnosed when there are cyclical mood and behavioural changes which affect relationships and day-to-day functioning.

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) is a hormonal brain-biochemistry problem that results in mood and behavioral distress. The symptoms originate from two areas in the brain: the limbic area and up to the cortex. Different chemicals connect the limbic and cortex area of the brain: these are serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine. Any changes in these chemicals affect a woman’s mood and daily functioning.

  • The limbic area is responsible for memory, appetite, sleep, and strong emotions such as rage, anger, and aggression.
  • The cortex area affects a person’s judgment, attention, concentration, moods, perceptions, views, and interpretations of what is happening to them and around them.

Reduce stress. Symptoms can worsen when you are under stress so use stress-reduction strategies, such as well-balanced diet, regular exercise, and adequate sleep.

Eat a well-balanced diet. It is essential to have a balanced diet from all food groups (breads and cereals, dairy and dairy products, meats and alternatives, fruits and vegetables) to optimize your brain’s chemical levels. The best approach is frequent small feedings as opposed to three meals per day. Some additional suggestions are:

  1. Eliminate alcohol as it acts as a depressant in the brain.
  2. Reduce or eliminate caffeine and cigarette smoking that can increase anxiety.
  3. Moderate your intake of sugar and salt.
  4. Eat plenty of grains, vegetables, and fruit.
  5. Eat plenty of complex carbohydrates, such as potatoes, rice, pasta noodles, cereals, and breads.
  6. Limit the simple carbohydrates, such as white sugar, honey, sweet candies, ice cream, chocolate, regular pop, and juice.
  7. Cook without added fats such as butter and oil.
  8. Avoid diets by eating three smaller meals with some healthy snacks to stop the munchies and to help with premenstrual headaches.
  9. Pass on the salt. Foods high in salt include: cured meats, canned foods, packaged sauces, frozen dinners, cheese, mustard, soy sauce, pickled foods, potato chips and salted nuts. Try flavouring with herbs and spices.
  10. Drink plenty of water to reduce the symptoms.

Exercise regularly – regular exercise:

  1. Increases the level of endorphins – the body’s mood-enhancing substances
  2. Energizes you and reduces jitteriness
  3. Increases levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, therefore helping your brain to regulate itself
  4. Increases your ability to deal with daily stressors
  5. May diminish premenstrual symptoms and PMDD and depression in some women

Rest and relaxation
Sleep is a priority. The brain biochemistry resets itself during sleep. Two chemicals in particular are important in this process: melatonin and oxytocin. Melatonin is released by the pineal gland in the center of the brain. Melatonin helps you maintain your regular sleep cycle. Oxytocin is a hormone that triggers the let down of breast-milk, promotes the contraction of the uterus during menstruation and in labor, and resets the chemicals in the brain.

Four key steps to get a good night’s sleep:
(1) If you can see your hand after the lights are turned out, your bedroom is too light. Too much light in the evening disrupts the production of melatonin and interferes with sleep. Start by dimming lights in the rooms you occupy 2 hours before you go to bed and sleep in a dark bedroom.

(2) Sleep as far as possible from the street and noisy equipment or appliances. While some researchers suggest masking other sounds with a white noise generator or a fan, others do not.

(3) Maintain an air temperature of 68 degrees year-round in the bedroom. Turning the thermostat up too high in the winter not only wastes energy; it can also disturb your sleep.

(4) Your bed should be comfortable and good for your back, and it shouldn’t expose you to toxic fumes, dust mites, or mold.

More sleep facts and tips can be found in my blog post Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

This is the program that I followed and it was effective.
Photo credit

Poverty: America's Best Kept Secret

I think Americans are capable of addressing and solving the poverty created by the class structure, self-interest, individual and corporate greed, conquests and wars and, the inappropriate distribution of resources including water, food and medical assistance that lead to poverty, starvation and death.

IMO it’s shameful that earth’s most wealthy nations continue to destroy other cultures and peoples simply to fuel unsustainable lifestyles and to feed the greed of individuals and corporate shareholders. More shameful still is willingness to praise pursuit of “the  American dream”, while ignoring the poverty of their own citizens and diverting funding away from addressing their needs, to fuel huge military budgets that result in witnessing their own sons and daughters being sacrificed on battlefields for oil and brought home in body bags. This is hard-heartedness.

Measuring Poverty in the United States
The United States defines poverty in absolute terms. This is the threshold below which families or individuals are considered to be lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living: insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health. The European Union, on the other hand, measures poverty in relative terms. This is defined as having significantly compromised access to income and wealth than other members of society: an income below 60% of the national median equalized disposable income after social transfers for a comparable household. If poverty in the United States were to be defined in relative terms as determined by the European Union, the level would be much higher. Source

Poverty in the United States is measured in two ways. The first, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, measures the poverty thresholds. Poverty thresholds classify households by type of residence, race, and other social, economic, and demographic characteristics. This data generally used for statistical purposes in order to to estimate the number of people in poverty nationwide. The second measure is the poverty guideline. Used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it determines whether a person or family is eligible for assistance through various federal programs.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2005, nearly 12.6% of the United States’ population, or thirty-seven million people live in poverty. Minorities face higher levels of poverty, with 24.9% of African-Americans living in poverty and 21.8% of Hispanics. Furthermore, poverty rates for children under the age of eighteen remained higher than those between the age of eighteen and sixty four, at 17.6%. Read the full report on poverty in the USA by the U.S. Census Bureau

IMO whatever Americans may master in the areas of technology and science, etc. is not necessarily a measure of “achievement” in terms of the advancement of their citizens or the human species. It seems the governments they elect are hard-hearted when it comes to human suffering and all too accommodating when it comes to assisting corporations to prosper. Continuing this pattern is not likely to result in advancement but only in more conquest and hoarding, until all of their unsustainable structures fall and the survivors become “tribal” once more.

Poverty – Healthcare – American Women & their Children
In 2005, over 14 percent of American women lived in poverty. Among single mothers, this number rose to over 31 percent. This is clearly unacceptable, both for the women and families immediately affected and for society as a whole.

  • Nearly 1 in 4 girls does not graduate from high school
  • Female dropouts earn on average 7 percent below the Federal Poverty Line for a family of three ($15,520 vs. $16,600) while women with high school diplomas earn on average 32 percent above that level ($21, 936 vs. $16,600)
  • Girls make up 87 percent of students in traditionally female fields such as cosmetology and childcare and only 15 percent of those in traditionally male fields. Those who enter traditionally female occupations can generally expect to earn half—or less—of what they would earn in a traditionally male field
  • Women still earn on average 78 cents for every dollar paid to men.

Women and the Individual Health Insurance Market: It’s No Shopper’s Paradise
Many Americans are unfamiliar with the harsh realities of the individual health insurance market because they receive health insurance through an employer. However, as a number of prominent health care reform proposals consider expanding the role of the individual market, it is important to understand how this system fails women. Download NWLC’s report, Nowhere to Turn: How the Individual Health Insurance Market Fails Women.

Homelessness
Homelessness became a visible issue during the eighties. From 1984 to 1987, according to HUD statistics, the number of homeless doubled. From 1987 to 1997, the demand for emergency food and shelter indicate that despite the booming economy and the new prosperity, the number of homeless and those living in extreme poverty in the United States has increased. According to a recent White House press release, the number of homeless at any given time has now reached 750,000. The homeless are not necessarily penniless, or without four walls. While anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of the homeless have jobs – depending on the city — many have no access to affordable housing.

  • During the Great Depression, the number of able bodied men forced into homeless due to unemployment rates approached 25 percent.
  • In 1987, a Urban Institute study found that while only 12 percent of the U.S. population is black, they make up about 40 percent of the homeless.
  • While the 1994 federal plan acknowledged the central role of poverty in homelessness, the 1996 welfare proposal was passed despite research indicating that it would push one million children into poverty. Bush’s latest pronouncements have focused on “individual responsibility” for poverty.
  • A 1995 evaluation found that approximately 86% of the homeless children and youth attended school regularly. A majority of the service providers and shelter operators felt that homeless children faced difficulties in being evaluated for special education programs and services, and in obtaining counseling and psychological services.
  • In a 1996 study of evening news programs in 1989: Under Bush there were 44 stories on homelessness in 1989, 54 in 1991, and 43 in 1992. The average was 52.5. Under Clinton there were 35 in 1993, 32 in 1994, and just nine in 1995, for an average of 25.3.
  • On any given night in America, anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million people are homeless, according to estimates of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
  • According to a December, 2000 report of the US Conference of Mayors:single men comprise 44 percent of the homeless, single women 13 percent, families with children 36 percent, and unaccompanied minors seven percent.
  • The homeless population is about 50 percent African-American, 35 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Native American and 1 percent Asian.  Source

Election 08
This Presidential election is a critical time for Americans to make a quantum leap forward when it comes to voting change. That leap forward can begin by thinking what the candidates have put forward in terms of meeting health care needs and addressing poverty.

John McCain on the issues – welfare and poverty

“A study from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.”

  • The centerpiece of McCain’s plan would eliminate the special tax treatment of employer-provided health care and instead offer tax credits to everybody who pays premiums.
  • McCain favors an approach, endorsed by President Bush and championed by McCain’s Arizona colleague John Shadegg.
  • If enacted, his proposal would cause a shift along the lines seen in the credit-card industry.
  • Insurance companies can make bigger profits by offering different policies to different people based on separate assessments of risk rather than charging everyone the same.
  • Americans with pre-existing conditions—cancer, asthma, diabetes, and the like—would need to pay even more than they do today. Through no fault of their own, more of them would end up without insurance.
  • McCain intends to tax workers for the value of health insurance that they receive from their employers.
  • McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.
  • The net effect of the plan will be to increase family costs for medical care.
  • A monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans.
  • Will cost the average American worker an additional $110 a month in taxes
  • New tax would affect the 158 million Americans who are insured through their employer.
  • This will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all. Read the full story here: NYT: McCain’s Radical Agenda and related stories here  McCain Secretly Plans New Tax on Middle Class and here Why John McCain is Wrong on Health Care

Barack Obama on the issues – welfare and poverty
Barack Obama on Health Care
The Case for Obama: Healthcare

Those who are capable of solving the poverty problem are without doubt determined to pursue their own agendas. As the Republican administration under Bush has worked hand in glove with greedy individuals and corporations, I assume the American electorate will understand that they have created a monster. Hopefully, the  voters have learned from those past eight years of “monster creating” mistakes, and will not elect a government that is corrupt and abusive of their women and children. As voters prepare to head towards the polls on Tuesday, I hope they will demonstrate their altruistic and compassionate drive to achieve lasting and meaningful change that benefits them, the generations to come and our planet.

God is pro choice!

by guest blogger buddhaofhollywood

I have a very good and dear friend. I can’t use her name here but let’s just call her Beth. She is a lovely lady, blonde, blue eye, a perfect poster picture of an American woman. She met this handsome man, lets call him Bob, a country boy, hard working, honest, and a bit religious, if being born again Christian can pass for “a bit”. He tried to push his beliefs on me once and the discussion went way out of hand. In the heat of the argument I shouted: “Are you a true Christian?” “Of course I am” he shouted back. I took a long, deep breath and very gently asked him: “Do you love me?”
He didn’t speak to me for a week after that, but then he came back and apologized for losing his temper. I apologized to him for being an asshole, and after that we became very good friends. But I digress.

The one thing Beth wanted more than anything in this world was to have a baby, and after getting married with Bob they did the sex thing and she got pregnant. Everything was going perfect. She was a radiant pregnant woman, and her joy could be read in her omnipresent smile. But something went wrong. Before the delivery date she started having contractions, this was in her 6-7 month I believe. Bob took her to the hospital and in spite of all the doctors efforts the fetus died. I don’t have to tell you how devastated they were. They tried again and again. Same result.

Neither prayer nor science would help them. Finally she gave up. Her body was beat up and she couldn’t put up with the emotional wreckage the losses were creating. God just didn’t want them to have a child and they had to leave with that. The thing that bothered me even more is that they took the blame on themselves and the marriage was falling apart. It took a lot of convincing from their family and friends to save the marriage. Even their priest was on the same page but he stopped short on admitting God was pro choice.

I don’t have any statistics about how many babies are aborted by God every year but I’m sure this story is familiar to a lot of people out there. So I say on to you my Christian friends, lets boycott God or even better lets bomb some churches! Let’s send him a message we wouldn’t put up with his pro choice position any longer!
Be loved! BoH

Miscarriage

During the second trimester the chance of miscarriage drops again to 3%. After you’ve reached 20 weeks gestation, it is no longer considered a miscarriage. The statistics regarding miscarriage vary widely depending on the source. Here are some of the basic numbers:

  • Almost 20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, with the majority occurring during the first 12 weeks
  • There is a 75% chance of miscarriage in weeks 1-2 of pregnancy, when you do not know you are pregnant
  • There is a 10% chance of miscarriage in weeks 3-6 and this number drops to 5% during weeks 6-12

For repeat miscarriage the statistic are as follows:

  • If you have had a miscarriage during your first pregnancy, your chances of another miscarriage are 10-13%
  • If you have had one or more live births and one miscarriage your chance of another miscarriage is around 10%
  • There is a 40% chance of a repeat miscarriage if you have had two pregnancies and two miscarriages
  • The chance of multiple miscarriages is lower, at around 13%, if you have had one or more live births
  • If you have had three pregnancies and three miscarriages there is a 60% chance you will miscarry again. If you have had four miscarriages with no live births your chances of a healthy pregnancy drop to 0-5%  Source
Statistics USA

Pregnancy:
There are approximately 6 million pregnancies every year throughout the United States:
* 4,058,000 live births
* 1,995,840 pregnancy losses

Pregnancy Loss:
Every year in the United States there are approximately 2 million women who experience pregnancy loss:
* 600,000 women experience pregnancy loss through miscarriage
* 1,200,000 women experience pregnancy loss through termination
* 64,000 women experience pregnancy loss through ectopic pregnancy
* 6,000 women experience pregnancy loss through molar pregnancies
* 26,000 women experience pregnancy loss through stillbirth

Pregnancy Complications: Every year in the United States:
* 875,000 woman experience one or more pregnancy complications
* 458,952 babies are born to mothers without adequate prenatal care
* 467,201 babies are born prematurely
* 307,030 babies are born with Low Birth Weight
* 154,051 children are born with Birth Defects
* 27,864 infants die before their first birthday

Reproductive Health:
Every year in the United States, there are 60,000,000 women in the childbearing years of 15-44 :
* 70% of these women are sexually active
* 64% use a form of contraception
* 3,000,000 use NO form of contraception, accounting for 47% of unplanned pregnancies
* 6,000,000 women deal with infertility
* 2,000,000 married couples are infertile

Currently there are 68,000,000 individuals with an STD:
* There are 15,300,000 new STD cases each year
* 3,000,000 teenagers acquire an STD each year

Pregnancy & Social Concerns: Every year in the United States:
* 468,988 babies are born to teenage mothers
* 11% of pregnant woman are diagnosed with Post Partum Depression
* 820,000 woman smoke cigarettes while pregnant
* 221,000 women use illicit drugs during pregnancy
* 757,000 woman drink alcohol while pregnant
* 240,000 pregnant women are subject to domestic violence

* 40% of domestic assaults begin during the first pregnancy
* Pregnant women are at twice the risk of domestic assault than non pregnant women are Source

America's teens need sex education

U.S. Abortion Rate continues long-term decline, falling to the lowest level since Roe vs Wade – The abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974. The number of abortions declined as well, to a total of 1.2 million in 2005, 25% below the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990.  Source

There is currently no federal program dedicated to supporting comprehensive sex education that teaches young people about both abstinence and contraception.

Federal law establishes a stringent eight-point definition of “abstinence-only education” that requires programs to teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong and harmful—for people of any age. The law also prohibits programs from advocating contraceptive use or discussing contraceptive methods, except to emphasize their failure rates.

Federal guidelines now define sexual activity to include any behavior between two people that may be sexually stimulating, which could be interpreted as including even kissing or hand-holding.

Despite years of evaluation in this area, there is no evidence to date that abstinence-only education delays teen sexual activity. Moreover, recent research shows that abstinence-only strategies may deter contraceptive use among sexually active teens, increasing their risk of unintended pregnancy and STIs. Source PDF

Abstinence students still having sex - Study tracked 2,057 young people in government-funded programs – April. 16, 2007 – Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes, and they first had sex at about the same age as their control group counterparts — 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.

Approximately one in four teens in the United States will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts believe a major contributing factor is the failure of many teens to use condoms consistently and routinely. Now a new study provides some insight into some of the factors that influence condom use among teenagers. Nearly two-thirds of adolescents did not use a condom the last time they had sex.

Participants also reported an average of two partners and about 15 incidents of unprotected sexual activity within the 90-day period. The researchers found that teens who did not use condoms were significantly more likely to believe that condoms reduce sexual pleasure and were also more concerned that their partner would not approve of condom use. These findings held true across racial/ethnic groups, gender and geographic locations. The findings appear in the September/October issue of Public Health Reports. Source: ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2008)