Did you Know?

Women, alcohol, and heart disease
Menopause and memory loss
Bad breath: what can be done?
Does caffeine case lumpy breasts?
Excessive body perspiration
How Sports Participation Influences Teens’ Sexual Activity
Cold Hands, Warm Heart
Depression Increases Men's Risk of Heart Disease, Not Women's
Gender Bias in Treatment: Women Given Less Sophisticated Pacemakers

1. Women, alcohol, and heart disease

Some studies have shown that women who drink one or two glasses of wine — or any alcoholic beverage — have higher levels of HDL, or "good cholesterol," which protects against heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and anything that can prevent this problem warrants serious consideration. But given alcohol’s downside, even if you don’t drink, there is no reason to start. If you do drink, do not exceed two glasses of alcohol per day (A standard drink is defined as containing half an ounce of absolute alcohol. By this measure, the typical glass of wine is four to five ounces; a serving of hard liquor is about one ounce.)

Some women should not drink alcohol under any circumstances, including those who are pregnant or trying to conceive; those with a personal or family history of alcohol addiction; and those taking medication that could interact with alcohol. It also is important to know that although the studies are inconclusive, women who drink heavily may be at greater risk of getting breast cancer than those who abstain, and that heavy drinking is associated with cirrhosis of the liver, which can be more severe in women than men. Even moderate drinkers may be at greater risk of developing osteoporosis (a disease characterized by critical thinning of the bones).

Adapted from What Women Need to Know. Legato M.D., Marianne (2000; p.29)

2. Menopause and memory loss

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s go far beyond forgetting names or dates. It produces a myriad of problems, including the inability to communicate, sudden mood changes, confusion, irrational behavior, and ultimately, the loss of skills important to daily living.

Loss of memory for names is extremely common in both sexes after the age of forty and is a normal phenomenon of aging. It isn’t unusual for a woman to notice these changes after menopause because estrogen plays a role in maintaining optimal brain function. Estrogen levels decline gradually after menopause.
There are some things that can be done to improve memory function.

Taking hormone replacement therapy after menopause has been found in some women to improve memory and the ability to concentrate.
Some people rely on mind games and associations. For example, it might be easier to remember the name of a woman named Rita who has red hair if you make the association that actress Rita Hayworth also had red hair.
Use a person’s name in conversation after meeting them to reinforce the name in your mind

Adapted from What Women Need to Know. Legato M.D., Marianne (2000; p.34)

3. Bad breath: what can be done?

Bad breath is a result of the accumulation of anaerobic bacteria in the mouth, teeth, or gums that can emit unpleasant sulfur fumes. Gum disease, tooth decay, monthly hormonal changes, or a decrease of saliva production all can cause bad breath, but there are several things that can be done to control it.

Replace lost moisture in your mouth by drinking water or sucking on sugar-free mints throughout the day.
Use mouthwash with the compound chlorine dioxide, which, according to several studies, may be more effective than mouthwashes without it.
Clean your tongue, which is loaded with crevices that can trap bacteria.

If these simple, at-home measures don’t improve your breath, see your physician, because in some cases, bad breath may be the result of more serious underlying medical problems.

Adapted from What Women Need to Know. Legato M.D., Marianne (2000; p.39, 40)

4. Does caffeine case lumpy breasts?

Though there have been many anecdotal reports that link caffeine consumption to fibrocystic breasts, there are no definitive scientific studies to confirm this link. However, a handful of studies have claimed that women with fibrocystic breasts who refrain from caffeine report a lessening in the severity of their symptoms. If you have fibrocystic breasts, you can try to cut down or eliminate your caffeine intake to see if it relieves your symptoms. Beware of hidden sources of caffeine such as colas, chocolate, and many over-the-counter analgesics.

Adapted from What Women Need to Know. Legato M.D., Marianne (2000; p. 47)

5. Excessive body perspiration

There are many reasons for excessive underarm perspiration, one of which is anxiety, particularly in young women. Usually, this problem goes away on its own by the time a woman is in her thirties.

If sweating is destroying your clothes, try wearing cotton or another washable material next to your body. If you can’t wash it right away, soak the garment as soon as possible after taking it off. Sweat itself doesn’t smell offensive: It is the bacteria that grow in the area that cause the odor. Find a deodorant that cuts down problem sweating.

Some illnesses, such as tuberculosis, do cause excessive sweating. Other excessive sweating results from alcoholism; as the alcohol wears off and withdrawal symptoms begin, perspiration increases.

Adapted from What Women Need to Know. Legato M.D., Marianne (2000; p. 44)

6. How Sports Participation Influences Teens’ Sexual Activity

Is there a form of contraception that every school and parent can endorse?

Yes--sports.

Participating in athletics reduces the likelihood of teen pregnancy, according to a report from the Women's Sports Foundation® based on two large surveys of teen girls and boys. The effect of sports participation on young women is particularly profound: Not only were female athletes less than half as likely to get pregnant (5% vs. 11%), they were more likely to be virgins (54% vs. 41%), twice as likely to have first intercourse later in adolescence, and they had sex less often with fewer sex partners. The Foundation suggests that the reasons for this are not so mysterious. For girls, athletic participation increases self-esteem and strengthens self-confidence, giving girls a greater ability to resist peer pressure. In addition, being a girl athlete has often meant, "challenging male privilege and cultural myths about female frailty," according to the report. That may change their view of the teen-age dating game, in which vulnerable girls often follow the lead of aggressive boys.

Interestingly, for young men, the impact of sports participation has the opposite effect on sexual activity. Male athletes experienced their first intercourse earlier than male non-athletes. This may be true because, in contrast to girls, boys’ experiences in sports often have been an extension of gender expectations surrounding manhood and sexuality. Nonetheless, sports remains an effective barrier to teenage pregnancy. Girls and boys who participate in sports and are sexually active are more likely to use a contraceptive than their non-athlete peers.

Source: The Women's Sports Foundation® Report: Sport and Teen Pregnancy. Sabo, D., Miller, K., Farrell, M., Barnes, G., and Melnick, M. (1998), East Meadow, N Y: The Women's Sports Foundation®, 800-227-3988

7. Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Science rarely tests the truth of folk sayings and old adages, but that's what researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have done, and it turns out that "cold hands, warm heart" is true--at least for women.

The researchers, led by Han Kim and J. Lynn Lyon, M.D., tested 219 people using thermometers that measure core body temperature at the eardrums and peripheral temperature at the middle fingernails. They discovered that women had a colder hands than men--87.2° F versus 90°F for men--and warmer hearts--97.8°F for women and 97.4°F for men. In fact, women were four times more likely than men to have hands colder than 91°F.

In women, hormones and age seem to play a role in body temperatures. Postmenopausal women older than 50 had lower hand and core temperatures than premenstrual girls under age 13. And women in the first 14 days of their menstrual cycle were more likely to have lower core temperatures than women in the last 14 days.

Men's bulk seems to affect their internal furnace. Those with a higher body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight in relation to height, had lower core temperatures, but the BMI had no bearing on men's hand temperatures.

What are the implications of these distinctions? "We're at the beginning of gathering this information, so we don't know yet how to use it," Dr. Lyon notes. He would like to see many more temperatures collected and cross-referenced to various diseases and conditions.

Source: The Lancet (1998; 351:1492)

8. Depression Increases Men's Risk of Heart Disease, Not Women's

Depressed men at increased risk for heart disease

According to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, men diagnosed with depression were three times more likely to develop heart disease than men who weren't depressed.

The explanation? Lead researcher Julia Hippisley-Cox and her colleagues suggest a number of possible reasons:

Depression may contribute to heart disease because it is associated with poor health behaviors such as smoking.
Antidepressant drugs may be somehow implicated.
An increase in sympathetic or decrease in parasympathetic nerve activity linked to depression might raise the risk of heart disease. Men's greater susceptibility to changes in autonomic nerve activity or changes in the operation of the catecholamine and steroid-axes might also account for the difference.
Depression may lead to an unfavorable lipid profile resulting from interaction between catecholamine and steroid-axes.

9. Women avoid the link

Researchers also found that depression did not increase the risk of heart in women.

They speculate that may be because:

The combination of depression and heart disease may simply be more common in men than in women.
If there is a "dose-response" relation between depression and heart disease, the difference in risk may be due to a tendency in healthcare workers to diagnose depression in men only when it is relatively severe.
Men are more likely than women to adopt risky behaviors which are associated with heart disease, such as smoking.

Source: British Medical Journal (1998; 316:1714-1719)

10. Gender Bias in Treatment: The Pacemaker Gap

Women are more likely than men to receive a less-sophisticated pacemaker, despite the underlying cardiac disorder, according to recent German research. The study of nearly 32,000 patients covered two-thirds of all implants in Germany in 1992 and 1993 and suggests that patients’ gender affects which pacemaker a doctor chooses. This held true even when other factors such as age and symptoms were taken into account.

Women were more likely to receive single chamber pacemakers, a type of device in which one lead is implanted in the right ventricle. These pacemakers are effective in the treatment of abnormal heart rhythms, but they do not increase the heart rate when patients exercise and also do not ensure that the atria (upper heart chambers) beat in time with the ventricles. By contrast, men were more likely to receive dual chamber or rate responsive systems, a more sophisticated device that allows both the atrium and ventricle to be paced and sensed. Dual chamber pacing enables atrial activity to be tracked by the ventricle if the sinus node, the natural heart pacemaker, is working. If the sinus node is diseased, sensors in the dual chamber pacemaker can respond better and set an appropriate rate.

"Doctors are known to behave differently towards men and women as far as both diagnostic and therapeutic strategies are concerned," concluded the researchers. "The sex differences in the selection of a pacemaker system cannot be explained by the underlying cardiac disorder." They called for more research in order to evaluate the effect of sex and other non-medical issues on how pacemakers are selected.

Source: British Medical Journal (1998; 316:1492-1495)