Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Premenopausal women are unlikely candidates for heart attacks, except for those who suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, or kidney disease, or who have a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol levels. Family history and smoking can also increase the risk for premenopausal women.

The Estrogen Element
Once her estrogen production drops with menopause, a woman’s chance of developing CVD rises rapidly. A 60-year-old woman has the same heart attack risk as a 50-year-old man. By her late 70s, a woman has the same heart attack risk as a man her age. To date, much of this changing risk has been attributed to the aging process, but some preliminary evidence indicates that hormones may play a bigger role than once thought. Recent results from the Postmenopausal Estrogen/Progestin Interventions (PEPI) study, a longitudinal study of how various hormone replacement therapies (HRTs) affect cardiovascular risks, indicate that HRT may reduce CVD by as much as 12 to 25 percent. In this study, HRT seemed to reduce a woman’s risk for CVD by raising HDL cholesterol levels and lowering LDL cholesterol levels. Even when their total blood cholesterol levels are higher than men’s, women may be at less risk because they typically have a higher percentage of HDL.
But that’s only part of the story. It’s true that women age 25 and over tend to have lower cholesterol levels than do men of the same age. But when they reach 45, things change. Most men’s cholesterol levels become more stable, while both LDL and total cholesterol levels in women start to rise. And the gap widens further beyond age 55.
Before age 45, women’s total blood cholesterol levels average below 220 mg/dl. By the time she is 45 to 55, the average woman’s blood cholesterol rises to between 223 and 246 mg/dl. Studies of men have shown that for every 1 percent drop in cholesterol, there is a 2 percent decrease in CVD risk. If this holds true for women, prevention efforts focusing on dietary interventions and exercise may significantly help postmenopausal women.
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First, separate the virus from a sense of punishment. Lisa states: “What I say is, it’s a virus, not a punishment. I didn’t get the virus and my husband did. Does that make me good and him bad? That’s ridiculous. Everyone got this virus like my husband did: being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The virus does not set out to “get” anyone. It has no brain, no judgment, no ability to pick out who is worthy and who is not. The virus has nothing whatever to do with punishment. Nor does anyone set out to get infected with the virus. The behaviors that put most people at risk for the virus may well be behaviors that are directed by biology, and in any case, are not the result of a conscious intention. No one makes a conscious, informed decision that they will become gay or will use drugs.
Understand that guilt, except when it keeps you from repeating mistakes, is a remarkably useless emotion. Feeling guilty means worrying about something you cannot change. Whether people knowingly ran a risk or not, the past is beyond anyone’s power to change. Guilt keeps people captured in the past and prohibits them from doing what they can to improve the present. Guilt uses emotional energy that would be better used on the real problems of life.
Balance guilt by understanding your own worth. Ask yourself, outside my worries, who am I? A pastor who has had experience with people with HIV infection asks people, “What else besides the things you feel guilty about are you? What do your friends like about you? They tell me, ‘That I helped them move the piano, that I had some good kids, that I was a good friend.’” Sometimes the pastor had to remind his parishioners what is good about them: “One man with HIV was having trouble with guilt and thought he was all bad. I had to remind him he was our church organist, and when he played, he would rock the timbers of the church with music.”
In the process of focusing on your own worth, guilt usually fades away. People come to like themselves for who they are. Some people speed up the process by getting help from a therapist. During therapy, they deal with the attitudes and behavior, often left over from childhood, that make them feel guilty. They learn to feel comfortable with themselves and free themselves of their old, useless burden of guilt.

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As we all know, prescription drugs can be expensive and often have a number of side effects, some immediate, some that show up much later. In recent years, the interest in alternative treatments for ailments has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business as people look for answers that are less expensive, less intrusive and more consumer friendly. As reports of toxic side effects of some drugs and distrust in medicine in general proliferate the media, people have turned to herbs as both a cheaper and natural alternative. But there’s actually little known about herbal remedies. What is their risk for causing cancer, birth defects, fertility problems, or other long-term health problems? Also, because the manufacturing of herbal remedies is not monitored and regulated as carefully as drugs, you may or may not get the potency that’s listed on the label. With herbal remedies, the environment is definitely one of Buyer Beware! Perhaps a more appropriate warning is Consumer, Be Aware!
But what’s wrong with leaning on them to help you make it through the day if you’re feeling low on energy or a little stressed, anxious, or depressed? Maybe nothing. Maybe something. Two popular “treatments” people are opting for these days are St. John’s wort and kava, both supposed “remedies” for depression. While anecdotal stories of mood-altering herbs like St. John’s wort and kava look promising, little empirical evidence supports their effectiveness in battling minor depression. Here’s the bottom line on the two most popular mood-altering herbs.

St. John’s ort
St. John’s wort didn’t become popular until the mid-1990s, when it catapulted from an obscure folk treatment for wounds and “melancholy” to a trendy street-legal antidepressant. The bottom line?
-    Although St. John’s won appears to help about half of those with mild to moderate depression, little solid research has looked at whether it’s useful in treating severe depression or whether it can “chase the blues away” or smooth out life’s ups and downs.
-    There are no studies on the long-term safety of taking St. John’s wort. Short-term side effects seem to be mild, though it can cause an inflammation of the skin.
-    Researchers have little information about possible drug interactions with St. John’s wort.

Kava
Kava can be traced back to special rituals of the people living in the South Pacific, who, on special occasions, would serve a mood-altering beverage brewed from the ground-up roots of the kava kava tree. This “treatment” is now as close as your local supermarket or health food store. The bottom line?
-    Kava appears to relieve some of the symptoms of clinical anxiety. According to a new, unpublished study, it also relieves some of the stress of ordinary living.
-    There are no studies on the long-term safety of taking kava every day.
-    If you take kava, don’t drink alcoholic beverages. If you take prescription drugs, check with your doctor before taking kava.
-    Don’t take kava if you’re under 18, are pregnant or nursing, or plan to operate heavy equipment, cautions the National Nutritional Foods Association, a health food and dietary supplement industry trade group.
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