Have you seen Jane Fonda’s TedxWoman video on The Third Act? It completely coincides with our recent Real Women on Health’s on-line women’s health roundtable “Creativity and Love: What’s Ageing Got to Do with It?” with our experts and real women, like Mary Jo Wallo of the Blue Thong Society.

As a follow up, this blog post was contributed by Real Women on Health’s featured clinical psychologist, Suzanne D. Phillips, Psy.D., Co-Author, Healing Together and Blogger for Huffington Press and  PsychCentral.  

Our society is guilty of Ageism, the negative stereotype of aging adults based on the presumption of inevitable decline in intellect, memory, physical capacity, mobility, and sex drive. Depicted in media, greeting cards and jokes, it has been ingrained in the culture and reflected in the expectations of both young and old alike.

Well beyond the jokes and sitcoms, however, the downside is reflected in forced retirement, job discrimination and sub-standard care of the elderly, to mention only a few examples.

To read more,  click here and get connected to more blogposts on PsychCentral written by Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D.

To listen to our on-line Real Women on Health radio show, “Creativity and Love: What’s Ageing Got to Do with It?” with experts Rebecca Crichton, Peggy Brick and Suzanne Phillips, click here and listen to the podcast!

Let us know your thoughts around ageism and if this is affecting you in the workplace or in general, in society.

We have two super-dynamic on-line radio shows coming up with Emerging Next-Generational Leaders who are embraced by  Hay House, the international leader in publishing self-help and motivational content at its first I Can Do It IGNITE! conference in San Jose on March 17-18.

TODAY: February 22 @12:30 pm EST: Crazy Sexy Life: Live Like You Mean It

“Happy Valentines Day, you have cancer.” Kris Carr got the wakeup call of her life in 2003 when she learned she had an incurable stage IV cancer. With no traditional treatment options to fall back on,  Kris paved her own pathway to wellbeing and ignited a global wellness revolution! 

Go here and listen live on computer at Real Women on Health Radio

Or call in and listen via phone:  1-646-929-2625

NEXT WEDNESDAY, February 29th @12:30 pm EST: Diagnose the Real Reason You’re Sick

Lissa Rankin, MD is an OB/GYN physician, author, keynote speaker, consultant to health care visionaries, professional artist, and founder of the women’s health and wellness community OwningPink.com. Discouraged by the broken, patriarchal health care system, she left her medical practice in 2007 only to realize that you can quit your job, but you can’t quit your calling. This epiphany launched her on a journey of discovery that led her to become a leader in the field of mind/body medicine, which she blogs about at OwningPink.com and is writing about in her third book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself (Hay House, 2013).

For background, Margaret Mead’s daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, sees aging today as an “improvisational art form calling for imagination and willingness to learn,” and in this ardent, affirming study, she relates the experiences of men and women—herself included—who, entering this second adulthood, have found new meaning and new ways to contribute, composing their lives in new patterns.

In fact, the aging brain resembles the creative brain in several ways. For instance, the aging brain is more distractible and somewhat more disinhibited than the younger brain (so is the creative brain). Aging brains score better on tests of crystallized IQ (and creative brains use crystallized knowledge to make novel and original associations). These changes in the aging brain may make it ideally suited to accomplish work in a number of creative domains. So instead of promoting retirement at age 65, perhaps we as a society should be promoting transition at age 65: transition into a creative field where our growing resource of individuals with aging brains can preserve their wisdom in culturally-valued works of art, music, or writing.

JOIN US ON OUR ON-LINE RADIO SHOW:

Join Kelley Connors, Women’s Wellness Advocate and Host of Real Women on Health, with guest Real Women on Health psychologist, Suzanne D. Phillips, Psy.D. Clinical Psychologist, Blogger for PsychCentral and Huffington Press and Co-Author, Healing Together.  Kelley and Suzanne will be speaking with two key experts:  Rebecca Crichton, Executive Director of the Northwest Center for Creative Aging and Peggy Brick, M.Ed., Founder and Past President, Sexuality and Aging Consortium at Widener University.

CALL-IN ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH @12:30 PM EST EITHER ON COMPUTER OR PHONE:

COMPUTER: Please go to Real Women on Health Radio and listen through your computer when the program starts live. Or download the show via iTunes.

PHONE:  Dial 1-646-929-2625 to listen in or talk with us if you have a comment or question!

Blog contributed by Nancy Peardon, Founder, Hot Flash Pillow, LLC

Empowering ourselves with good information in terms of self-care and stress management during menopause shouldn’t be underestimated. There’s so much hype out there aimed at women! My decline in estrogen, escalating hot flashes, and unexpected insomnia gave me all the motivation I needed to begin searching for answers.  I recalled a Harvard Women’s Health report from 2008 touting a scientific study which discovered numbing a cluster of nerves in the neck worked to cure hot flashes.  Last year, I used a twist on that science as the basis for creating Hot Flash Pillow, a small freezer-stored product which does everything I need it to do – safely.  I was thrilled to discover that the steps I took to help myself really did work to relieve my hot flashes and insomnia. Talk about feeling empowered!  I’m no longer stressed because of those symptoms.  I’m much more comfortable, I sleep better, and I’ve found my smile again.

Still, my mind isn’t firing up the way it used to. I’ve opted out of using HRT, even though I realize a little estrogen would clear up my brain fog in a heartbeat.  That’s because estrogen also affects the brain’s synapses, and synapses determine how fast the brain processes information.  I’m painfully aware I don’t make the connections as easily as I used to, and thinking requires more energy, focus and determination.  So, I do what I can do to keep my brain fog at a minimum.  Good nutrition and an active body, combined with an active mind, are optimal for good brain health. I do my best to maintain a healthy brain by exercising daily and eating walnuts, blueberries, and wild salmon on a regular basis. I also take fish oil supplements and 2000 I.U. of Vitamin D daily.

Making the best of menopause has forced me to think creatively since estrogen is also responsible for things like our skin’s elasticity and our vaginal lubrication. Painful intercourse isn’t readily discussed by women, even though it frequently accompanies menopause. In lieu of estrogen, I’m drinking Oatstraw tea infusions because Oatstraw is touted as an excellent source of phytoestrogens. Surprisingly, Mother Nature’s remedy seems to be helping me tremendously.  I consider going through this challenging, mystifying menopausal metamorphosis to be a fascinating rite of passage into the second half of my life.  Women need to keep sharing with each other.  We can inspire and support one another, empowering ourselves through this extraordinary life transition.

http://www.hotflashpillow.com/

• 1. Estrogen replacement therapy is the first “remedy” you can consider if you don’t have a risk of breast or ovarian cancer. However,  there are different forms of estrogen replacement with different types of estrogen. Your best bet is to research key women’s health web sites, and bring your questions in to your physician to discuss your options.
• 2.  Exercise is Not a “Sometimes” Pill!  You must commit to exercise as daily medicine, not just an “extra-curricular” activity that we know from our days in high school.  You need at least 30 minutes of exercise 6 days a week.It’s a pathway to healthy living and gives you many rewards, not the least of which is improved circulation that helps you feel better.  This alone is worth it and you may even loose weight, but you must at least start to think of it as a 6 day a week pill.   If you’re like me you don’t like exercising alone, so look for opportunities to join a fitness club or charity bike ride.   What about Zumba?  Have you tried rowing crew?  As a midlife woman, exercise a pathway to wellbeing, addressing stress, depression, anxiety, and weight gain.
• 3. Ingest  foods that are rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids.  You must know about  this particular FAT as an overall component of healthy living.  I’ve just started taking DHA along with Vitamin D and Calcium because I’m not eating enough salmon or tuna.  While we tend to think of fat is as troubling as a red light in the rear view mirrow, this one is like a red carpet escort. DHA is a fat that seems to be the key component of your cells’ membranes that lets it withstand the stress of inflammation and other bumps the way bumper cars survive to carry another rider. You give it preferentially to your offspring through your uterus or breast milk (DHA is the only omega-3 food additive approved for baby formula). If you don’t have enough of it, you can develop nerve dysfunction (depression in some), or deficient eyesight (dry macular degeneration) or fading memory (why did I go to the living room?).

Here’s the book called “The Second Half Of Your Life” by Jill Shaw Ruddock, and published by Random House in the UK.  The book is available here  on Amazon.com.

Whether well planned or unfolding as emergency, this a challenging task. It is one that necessitates changes, parent/child communication, family support, community services, shared information, financial resources, legal expertise, and medical care.

Read More from Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D., our Guest Clinical Psychologist and Author, Care of an Aging Parent: Enhancing the Psychological Journey, here…

Interested in learning more and speaking with our experts live?  Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 11th, join Kelley Connors, MPH, Women’s Wellness Advocate with Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D. on Real Women on Health On-line Radio, with Carolyn Brent, Author, “Why Wait? The Boomer’s Guide to Preparing Emotionally, Financially and Legally for a Parent’s Death”.

Just dial 1-646-929-2625 at 12:30 pm EST to listen in, talk or just say hello!

How Do  You Know When You’re Done Having Kids?

Our real woman on health patient, Tracey, explained to us last week on our radio show that she wanted to be able to enjoy her two children – a boy and a girl – and with both her and her husband working, “we decided that we had enough with 2 and felt very blessed”.  Tracey has some unique insights that will help women, moms, step moms, consider when enough is really enough.  At 37, Tracey is typical and as she puts it “in good company” with the majority of women over 40 who do seek permanent birth control.

What women must know about advances in birth control today:  

1. The biggest obstacle to choosing any kind of birth control seems to be the number of options – there are over 17 different birth control options – and understanding how they are different from one another is important.  Luckily, there are only two truly “permanent” birth control options, and only one of the two options is “surgery-free”.

Here’s a handy list so you can see how how permanent birth control stacks up against the other options.  For example, barrier methods, like an implantable IUD, or a condom, aren’t really permanent and less effective than a true “permanent” option of which there are two:  tubal ligation (surgery to “tie your tubes”) and a surgery-free option, non-hormonal (no estrogen or other hormones).

2.  Permanent really does mean permanent with this surgery-free birth control option.  Once you go ahead with the procedure, you can’t “untie” the tubes without more surgery so you must be sure you are DONE having kids.

3.  You must talk to your ObGyn and ask these questions, about this surgery-free birth control option.

TALK WITH US!

UPCOMING ON-LINE RADIO SHOW THIS THURSDAY, JANUARY 12TH @12:30 PM EST. 

JUST DIAL 1-646-929-2625 TO LISTEN OR TALK WITH US!

ARE YOU A WOMEN’S HEALTH OR MOMMY BLOGGER? WE HAVE CONTENT FOR YOU TO USE, INCLUDING A LIVE INTERVIEW WITH DR. AMY BRENNER, OBGYN, (NOMINATED WOMEN-OF-THE-YEAR BY CINCYCHIC)

Our Real Women on Health On-Line Radio Conversation Sponsored by Conceptus, maker of Essure.

I’ve recently learned about this one surgery-free option that makes “getting your tubes tied” so yesterday. It could also save you time waiting for your husband to get around to the vasectomy he agreed to. In fact, a recent HealthyWomen survey shows, women think they’d have a better chance of winning the lottery before their guy will have his vasectomy.

That’s why I could have titled this article, “Permanent Surgery-Free Contraception: Not Your Mother’s Birth Control,” because women today have never had more options when it comes to birth control. So if you’re still using the same form of birth control you were using a decade or more ago, it’s time for an update. And, if your lifestyle or focus has changed over the past few years or even months, your health care professional can help you determine a method that best fits your current needs.

Join us here on Real Women on Health On-line Radio to find out more… on January 5th with Dr. Amy Brenner, Gynecologist, Mother, Wife, Friend and Dog and Cat Owner. Dr. Brenner is a practicing gynecologist in Cincinnati, Ohio and will be speaking with Kelley Connors, MPH, @12:30 pm EST for 30 minutes on Real Women on Health on-line radio.  Dr. Brenner was also just named CincyChic’s Woman-of-the-Year!

ARE YOU A BLOGGER FOCUSED ON WOMEN’S HEALTH OR  MOTHERHOOD? If so, you’re invited to join us, ask questions or simply comment. We will give you and your blog a “shout out” on our show and provide you with content for more in-depth writing. Simply e-mail Kelley Connors at Kelley@kc-health.com for more information!

Written by Best-Selling Author, Marci Shimoff

At last, we’re in the final countdown of the holidays! I’ve been waiting excitedly to share with you one of my favorite holiday stories (at the end of this article) and my favorite advice for fully enjoying the holiday spirit.

If you think about it, all the gifts, parties, and holiday fuss boil down to one thing — love. Love is the #1 ingredient we need to experience holiday cheer and the absence of it is what brings holiday woe.

So how can you experience more love this season?

Practice being a good receiver!

What you say? Isn’t this season about giving? Yes, giving is a wonderful thing that helps us feel good, but if we can’t fully receive people’s gifts and kindness, open up to support, and let love in then we can’t actually FEEL the love.

Unfortunately, many people have a hard time receiving. Here are three ways you can strengthen your receiving muscle this holiday:

1. Pay attention to the gifts all around you each day — not just the BIG gifts, but the small ones, as well. Notice the kindness of the salesclerk, the smile on your neighbor’s face, the beauty of the winter landscape. Be on the look-out for the many gifts of the day.

2. Look for the blessings — even in the hard stuff, which often shows up during this season. Just as an experiment, assume that everything that happens is a gift for you. The universe is on your side. How would you look at and experience your challenges differently, if you imagined it was all for your good? Give it a try.

3. Savor the good. My neuropsychologist friend Rick Hanson says that it takes about 20 seconds to deeply register the good. So, acknowledge a compliment rather than dismiss it, express appreciation for the gifts you receive. Deeply take things in and bathe in them.

I’d love to hear what tips you use to open up and receive. Please share them with me at http://www.facebook.com/MarciShimoffFan