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.

In fact, many women feel invisible in the media and have a difficult time finding women like us. How do you feel about that? Do images of younger women flood your brain when you’re at the movies, reading magazines or looking for new clothes?

What about sleep? What keeps you from getting a restful sleep? What’s changed for you?

Take a listen and add your own tips here. We’d love to know what your own strategies are around beauty, sleep, sex and more…

With more and more consumers turning to so-called “apps,” experts in the healthcare community have been paying careful and increasing attention as to how their audience thinks, plans and – now – interacts to improve their overall wellbeing.

With women as the key health decision makers in families today, women may see that the future of their wellbeing may lie in the hands of this simple but useful technology.

Join in the discussion as I welcome a panel of women’s health experts who have developed easy-to-use apps for healthy living. The show will feature renowned fitness expert Denise Austin whose self-titled app is packed with workouts, daily tips and more.

Denise and I will be joined by Gwynn Cassidy, the on-line director of HealthyWomen, our radio show’s content partner, to describe the nonprofit organization’s latest endeavor. Released in conjunction with National Women’s Health Awareness Week, the Passport to Good Health app tracks health and wellness information for women and their families.

And rounding out the show we’re proud to have Amy Brightfield, Woman’s Day health director, to share the magazine’s “Faith & Action” app which features inspirational daily messages along with actionable tips to impact your life.

Join REAL WOMEN ON HEALTH ONLINE RADIO SHOW on Thursday, May 12th with Kelley Connors, MPH, Women’s Wellness Coach and all our special guests as we celebrate National Women’s Health Week and new mobile technology that will help women take charge of their health…no matter where they are!

TO JOIN, CALL IN LIVE MAY 12 AT12:30 pm EST via 1-646-929-2625 or download after the show!

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I’m not sure all the chocolate in the world will help your heart “get in shape” for love – the calories would be over the top, and it’s a ton of fat.  But we’re not dissing the possibility that the flavenoids could lead to a lower risk of heart disease and cancer. And research also suggests that eating dark chocolate may help lower stress. After all, the dark chocolate we know well has cocoa in it which is known to contain immune-boosting and stress-busting hormones.

Aside from chocolate being a Valentine favorite,  how else can you prepare yourself for America’s love fest with February 14th?

Clearly, cupid’s arrow has always been romantic.  But, for real women, you’re invited to think of your heart as a dynamic, generous & passionate “pump” that if taken care of properly, can enrich our lives and relationships.  It has the capacity to change perceptions, to unite opposites and change the world.  Instead of  ”health”, think of your power as a women to authentically guide communities and families to a healthier way of living…to living their best.  For this to happen, it takes a big HEART.

Here’s how:

1. First, let’s get real. You need to know that your heart is open and available to receive and give.  So, check your blood pressure. The ideal is 120/80 but new research shows that women at risk for heart disease need to keep a check on the diastolic ( the top number).  (BTW: Eating dark chocolate may lower your blood pressure, but you need to stay away from milk chocolate and nougat.)

2. Do you know your cholesterol numbers?  Most women don’t know but they do know their dress size in high school.  That’s just wrong!  Total cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dL. There are two other numbers you need to check as well: LDL (or “bad” cholesterol) should be 100 to 129 mg/dL.  Anything more than that needs to be monitored and lifestyle or medications considered by talking with your doctor.  You may need to exercise, change your diet, or both to manage anything higher.

The second number is HDL ( or”good”cholesterol). That number should be 50 mg/dL or higher.  And, finally, your triglycerides should be measured.  Your goal is less than 150 mg/dL.  Your cholesterol can be measured at your physician’s office or at

3.  C’mon grab a friend, and start your heart healthy exercise plan. You’ll need a moderate exercise, at least 30 minutes a day, most days of the week. Can you briskly walk around your neighborhood ?  Of course, if it’s been a while since you’ve been physically active, the hardest part is just getting started. Lucky for you, there’s the Go Red BetterU™, a free 12-week health improvement program for women that you can follow in your own home, with no expensive gym memberships or special equipment.

4.  Get ready to laugh with us tomorrow, and get ready to laugh with your partner.

Join Kelley and Cassie in our on-line radio show tomorrow at 12:30 pm EST with Karyn Buxman, RN, and Nurse Humorist who will share her downright funny  way of seeing the world, on why “Nonsense Makes the Heart Grow Fonder”.   You’re invited to release those stress-busting hormones with a little laughter and get connected back to your loving self.

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day or Columbus Day,  get  your heart in shape for love, and share your passion with those you love, those you don’t and the rest of the universe.  They’re all expecting you to do so!

PS. See what Michelle Obama says how laughter makes her marriage all the stronger!

What are you going to do differently this year to make 2011 your “best yet”?

Making a new year better than the last requires a different action everyday that becomes a new habit and a new way of thinking.  It’s no easy feat and we end up getting discouraged because it takes consistent not sporadic daily action for at least 30 days to make a new choice “stick”.

Don’t get me wrong.  Exercise, and more of it, is essential to staying fit and healthy.  There’s no new science refuting the necessity for daily exercise for at least 20 minutes and more.  (more on choosing your new exercise regime this week!)

However,  did you know it’s essential to know what you want your result to be?  OK. Simply put, think of a word that represents how you’re going to be in 2011.  My word is abundant.   I’m inspired by abundance because,  instead of scarcity, I’m going to focus only three things that I’m inspired to do.   My priorities are 1) staying fit by rowing 3X a week and doing yoga 2X a week 2) training in March and April for a 63 mile bike ride to benefit Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and 3) creating stronger relationships with important people in my life.

That’s abundance for me.

By choosing a word, as opposed to a “new years resolution”,  or a “must do”, we can all create a bigger context for new possibilities that inspire change. From inspiration, you can outline the steps towards making it a real part of your life.

Choose your “how” with purpose and commitment on our on-line radio show this Wednesday, January 6th at 12:30 EST with Barbara Hannah Grufferman, author of “The Best of Everything After 50″.

What’s Your Word?

Are you kidding?? You mean losing weight?  Those twenty pounds I never lost?

But, truth be told, I did accomplish something I  NEVER WOULD HAVE THOUGHT I WOULD EVER DO and it was so much BIGGER than health, exercise, or losing weight.  It was an unspoken dare that I met with confidence!

I rode 100 miles around Lake Tahoe to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as part of the Team in Training program.   Armed with the support of my sister, my husband and friends, I jumped on my first bike ride in March and finished 12 weeks of training on Saturdays before getting on the plane with thousands of others raising funds for leukemia.  I can’t tell you how thrilling it was!

So, while it was not on my resolution list a year ago, I did, in fact, train for and complete the ride and I can’t wait to do it again this year – even if I stay local in Connecticut for the 63-mile Bloomin’ Metric.

But, I’ll need help in achieving my goal in 2011…and I invite you to join us as we support other women, like you,  in achieving their goal, too.

Here’s your invitation to make  2011 YOUR time…and go after something you never would consider doing on your own.

It might be time to change your  life and actually accomplish something fulfilling, right?

Here’s how you can make 2011 a year that’s fulfilling, exciting and purposeful!

Join Cassie and I on January 5^th at 12:30 pm,  with Barbara Hannah Grufferman, Author of “The Best of Everything After 50” in our 30 minute on-line radio show (like a kitchen table talk conversation).  Our conversation is about how we can take small steps to achieve a big goal and actually change our life.  Just ask Barbara!

Barbara kick started her 2010 by declaring that she would run the NYC Marathon.  Find out from the expert how the process of training for the marathon lieterally “changed her life” and put her on a pathway to exercise and vitality.

Here’s your secret code to join us:  Just dial 1-646-929-2625 or get an account with blogtalkradio and dial in on Wednesday, January 5th at 12:30 pm EST.  We’ll follow this show with additional on-line radio shows so we can share our victories and vices!

It’s been month…maybe years and you may have already visited your doctor several times and been referred to a neurologist or even psychologist.

But, your pain is not going away…despite what doctors believe about it.

Fibromyalgia is a common condition characterized by long-term, body-wide pain and tender points in joints, muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues. Fibromyalgia has also been linked to fatigue, morning stiffness, sleep problems, headaches, numbness in hands and feet, depression, and anxiety.

Fibromyalgia can develop on its own or along with other musculoskeletal conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.

The worse part about not feeling well is sometimes the inability to talk to anyone about it.  Since women outnumber men, 9 to 1, in seeking treatment for it, doctors may easily dismiss the condition as “unexplainable” and therefore, not curable.

It doesn’t help that there is no magic pill that will cure the condition though there are three medications approved to treat fibromyalgia.  And, many approaches include a focus on the “whole body” with complementary medicine  – like Tai Chi exercises – that have been successfully shown to provide symptomatic relief.

Still, a condition that is labelled “unexplained” can be difficult to talk to your doctor about.

“If you touch my back, it feels like it’s all bruised,” an anonymous “Linda” described her pain.  “Lately it’s felt like electroshocks.”

In March 2009, after four years of suffering, Linda finally found a new doctor who diagnosed her with fibromyalgia.

For Linda, the problem wasn’t just pervasive pain. It was the challenge of having a condition that is not well understood.

There were days when Linda didn’t even want to talk on the phone. And though she soldiered through eight-hour workdays in the shipping and receiving department of a leather company, she would take breaks to sit in the bathroom and cry.

Our experts show, Real Women on Health!, took place on Thursday, October 14 at 12:30 pm with Dr. Steven Stanos, medical director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Center for Pain Management and Lynne Matallana, fibromyalgia patient and advocate and founder of the National Fibromyalgia Association.

Ladies, if you’ve ever wondered what your pain is about, this show may help you talk with your doctor in a more productive way! So please go ahead and download it via iTunes.

Padded cycling shorts, foldable tire tubes, CO2, custom fit road bike, sunscreen, headband…and more. If you like buying “gear” and “gadgets” you’ll love road biking!  Not only that, but the health benefits of cycling on a regular basis include greater cardiovascular strength and strong leg muscles.

Always ready to try a new sport, especially that I’m now “of a certain age”, you must know my bike riding track record is no more than what it was when I was six years old…down to the penny candy store and back.  Yet,  once I found out that not all people with leukemia are as fortunate as my newly-diagnosed dad,  I figured…the worse that can happen is that I am humiliated on my first hill and have to jump in the sag wagon, a version of a van taxi on a mountain.

The “give it a try” was instigated also by my sister, Kara.  Her reasoning was that we can’t cure dad’s chronic myelogenous leukemia,  but we can help find a cure or at least advance medical research.  Because thankfully, he was one of the lucky ones.  CML can be treated these days with a drug called Gleevec but that’s only been made possible because of fundraising championed and organized by patient advocacy and fundraising organizations like the  Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

So, we decided to do a Century together around Lake Tahoe…”America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride”.

We trained for over 14 weeks to strengthen our legs, lungs and heart for this “century” ride.   The bottom line is that I learned so much from the coaches support, knowledge and experience with endurance training – as well as from their unrelenting attitude that we bikers were the engine behind the research – and the thousands of other novice, intermediate and advanced bikers who decide they can make a difference by fundraising money for this ride.

With the $4,500 I raised by reaching out to receptive and generous friends and donors,  LLS paid for my roundtrip airline ticket to Lake Tahoe, as well as two nights hotel.  The real gift is this: they also provided me with top rate bike coaching for the 14 weeks that we trained for this event.  Since I live in Connecticut,  our training rides consisted of  riding 25-65 mile routes on early Saturday mornings from March through May.

It’s really true what the coaches say “if you can bike the routes we plan for you…you’ll be prepared for Tahoe!”.

Together, my husband, Julien,  my sister, Kara, and I rode the hilling, windy, hot and oxygen-light terrain with 2,000 other LLS bikers on June 6th starting from near the Embassy Suites Hotel.   In total, just the three of us raised 13,000.00 for LLS – a mere drop in the bucket for research purposes, but, the collective LLS riders  in Tahoe raised over $6 million!  More than 75% of money raised goes to drug research and patient care for the many types of blood cancers for which there is STILL no cure.

Does this interest you at all?

I would recommend charity bike riding to mid-life women and am looking to establish a group women nationally – with the LLS as our coaches and supporters. Their superb organizational and coaching skills are unsurpassed and their dedication to finding a cure is contagious!

The benefits?

The benefits included getting stronger legs and a stronger cardiovascular system.  The biggest benefit for me was knowing with every ride that I was giving hope to a cure for the millions of patients and future-patients with blood cancers.  I get a knot in my throat when I think about the stories of patients.  And, I am grateful that bikers, years ago,  were able to fundraise so – today, my dad can just pop a pill to manage his condition.

I also have a myriad of new friends who shared an adventure with a common and elusive goal.

Kelley’s well care tip:

“how not to feel old..on a bike!“

OK. It’s almost summer, and barreling down a luge looks icey… but inspiration is season-less:))

You’re invited! Tune in and ask questions as Kelley and Cassie talk with Anne Abernathy, aka Grandma Luge, here on our radio show Friday, May 21st at 12:30 p.m.

Not exactly sure who Anne is? Anne is a six-time Olympic luger who has broken boundaries, records, and stereotypes throughout her career. Anne began competing in the Olympics at age 33, an age when most other luge athletes retired. Her career spanned 26 years. She is the first woman to qualify for six Winter Olympics and, despite battling through major life threatening injuries, cancer, and numerous knee surgeries, she has made multiple comebacks and become a fixture in the sport.

Before her first Olympic appearance in 1988, Anne was diagnosed and treated for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Although the cancer returned several times during her sports career, Anne tried to keep it hidden from the public through three Olympic appearances until it was revealed in a front-page article of the Washington Post prior to the 1998 Nagano Olympics. These were the days before Lance Armstrong broke the stigma of cancer making athletes ‘less than.’

During her career as a luger, she also suffered a serious accident resulting in a brain injury that caused significant medical problems. Within a year of therapy and rehabilitation, she was able to return and qualify for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Anne is in the Guinness World Records book as the oldest woman ever to compete in the Winter Olympics Games. She broke the record first in the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics and again in Torino in 2006.

In 2010, Anne joined TENA, maker of bladder protection products, to let women know about the  “Be Tenacious” campaign and is inspiring women to face this common condition head on and to speak out and seek solutions. As an older athlete in her sport, when Anne experienced bladder control issues she faced a challenge of which her teenage peers were unaware and one that many of her contemporaries were reluctant to discuss.

She now hopes to be a resource for other women and to bring the condition to the forefront of women’s conversations. For more information on bladder control issues, as well as a wide range of other health topics,  go to HealthyWomen.org

How do women find the time to “do good” these days and have fun?

Enter Mary Jo Wallo.

Mary Jo Wallis is your basic renaissance woman.  In addition to surfing, snowboarding and running her own investment company in San Diego she has taken on the mantle as a national leader to Fight Frump (and Give Back!), or do “Altruism with Attitude!”  How, you ask?  Yes the sports play a role but there’s also her vision as co-creator of The Blue Thong Society, a national social and philanthropic women’s organization that’s grown since its inception in 2006 to 300 chapters and 5000 members.

Mary Jo joins Real Women on Health! as our featured guest this week, where she’s going to talk about The Blue Thong Society, give tips on what women can do to “Fight Frump!” by finding like-minded women and giving back, and tell us how BTS  was born.  A hint: it all started at her 50^th birthday when a friend noted that it could be time for the gift of a red hat.  Mary Jo laughed and said a blue thong was more her style…..and the rest, as they say, is history!

We’ll also hear from clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine and private practitioner in New Haven, Connecticut.  Dr. Mary Jane Minken, widely known in the field of gynecology and as a leader in women’s health education both inside and outside the medical community, is giving a couple of minutes of her time to talk to us about powering your pelvic core….

Join Kelley Connors, host, Real Women on Health! with Cassie, Mary Jo and Dr. Mary Jane Minkin,  this Wednesday, May 12th at 8 pm – 9 pm EST streaming live on your computer or, if you live near Fairfield County, Connecticut  listen “on the AM dial” at 1350/1400.

Our show is sponsored by Zestra, essential arousal oils, a patented blend of botannicals that is clinically proven to improve desire, arousal and satisfaction for 70% of women.  Check this out and use promo code ZPASS5 at check out!