THE DIMINISHING REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

Women have its ups and downs. It signifies the ending of her most fruitful moment of his life to have children she wanted to care. It was the cherish wish of every woman to have a happy family. The child was the center stage of their married life. This happiness is only momentary. Menopause is the mark that her child-bearing years has ended and permanently stopped. It was time of challenge, boredom, loneliness and period of uncertainty.

In the menopausal stage, it ceased the menstrual cycle every woman is expecting every month as normal body process in biological form she can’t avoid. The woman’s ovaries no longer produce hormones as required to bear a child. It started to slow down as she reaches the age of 40 and completely stopped at the age of 50 or over. There are some of them ended much earlier.

During her child bearing years, there was continues production of female hormones (estrogen and progesterone) in the ovary. It fluctuates every month especially if there is cyclical development of new eggs.  It continues to slowly decline until the ovary no longer produce any as a sign of entering into menopausal stage. Her menstrual period was now irregular or even complete stopped. 

After menopause, a woman can still produce estrogen in small amount through her adrenal gland. A woman has no idea when her monthly period will stop no until she felt great changes in her biological processes when she no longer bear a child.

One a woman entered her menopausal stage, there is natural biological experiences she felt of having hot flashes, occasional bleeding and spotting. Hot flashes give her uncomfortable feeling of intense heat in the duration of two minutes or more. There was intense heat in her upper chest, arms, head and neck anytime of the day and repeated one or more during the day and night.

There was redness of the skin and profuse sweating. It continues year after year and even lasted 5 years. There was thinning and weakening of bones. The bones easily fracture. The brittle bones are common to older women especially in the hip or wrists. The spinal vertebra was weakened. Any slight stress to the bones will result to compression fractures deadly to older women. There is low back pain and loss in height being observed.

She has bowed posture sue to loss of flexibility and elasticity of the muscles around the damaged bones. She felt painful headache similar to migraine. There is pain in her back, neck and in the chest portion. She has bouts of sleeplessness (insomnia), irritable, mood swing, anxiety, depression, nausea, constipation, sadness and confusion.

She was irritable even in slight displeasure. She was keen on wrong impression and easily get angry to unfavorable remarks. Her response was the result of her belief of rejection from other people due to her body changes not easy to comprehend. 

Her internal passage shortens. It becomes narrower and no longer elastic. Its lining has cellular changes. It loses its thickness, it becomes thinner as the days passes by. He is susceptible to bacterial infection. Her internal passage losses its normal acidity and the natural secretion completely stopped.

A woman in her 50’s started to feel lonely. She can’t easily adjust to new environment she has to fit in. To remain young, vibrant, active and wrinkle-free was already history. Her face and skin has wrinkles as sign of getting older. Old age makes her susceptible to many kinds of diseases because of lack of hormonal balance (estrogen).

Heart disease, cancer of the colon, Alzheimer’s disease and degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system were among the few. There was drastic change in her mental capacity. She often had memory loss, her reasoning power, ability to maintain better self-care and personal hygiene was deteriorating.

 She loses her ability to be active and participate in social gathering. She just sat there alone as if no flicker of life left in her. Her children were no longer with her. There was incompleteness in her life.

To minimize the impact of menopause especially during the time when there are hot flashes, some tips may help to handle the inconveniences:

-Drink plenty of water to quench the thirst when the normal temperature of the body increases slightly.

-Minimize taking alcohol, coffee and tea. It alters the normal conditioning of the body.

-A little exercise each day helps the bones to maintain strength from its deteriorating bone structure after menopause.

-Stay at cool environment. Make the house as cool as possible with enough windows for the air to pass through inside to keep you from perspiring.

-Don’t wear tight dress instead a light and loosen dress is helpful to cool you down.

-Control your mood swing or irritability. It increases your temperature level and felt hot.

-Use water-based gel or other over-the-counter preparations intended to give relief from dryness in the internal passage.

-Talk to your doctor for possible use of estrogen. He will evaluate your condition. If found that it will not contradict to your present state of health, it will be a great help to give relief of being uncomfortable.

OVERACTIVE THYROID

We are not totally free from getting hyperthyroidism if we are not careful what we eat. There are foods that affect the good condition of the thyroid. The abnormality of the thyroid glands causes hyperthyroidism.  It is not a joke getting this disease, it may cost a life if we allow it not to give the necessary attention.

Once the thyroid in great distress, it seeks a right food to restore the balance that is missing and that food is the iodine-rich foods. We need to eat a balance diet, the healthful dietary requirements the body needs. If it will not meet what it required, some parts or organs of the body are affected and we have to begin repairing it when it is too late. We should not depend on eating foods that contains many harmful fats. We need to reduce the intake and make changes in our dietary habits.

The butterfly-shaped organ is located at the base of the neck below Adam’s Apple, the voice box responsible for our male voice in the airways.

A small goiter may not be painful but a bigger one is troublesome. Breathing and swallowing was difficult as it obstructed the airways. It leads us to cough as there was not enough air to pass through.

Aside from the absence of iodine in the body, the culprit is the overproduction of hormones in the thyroid glands or there was growing node on it.  The thyroid handled 2 kinds of hormones, the T3 (triiodothyronine and thyroxine. The circulatory system flowed with hormones for sole purpose of regulating the metabolism of the body.

 What the hormone did was controls the rate of carbohydrates and fat the body utilized. It regulates body temperature to normal level. It has effect on having normal heart rate. It assisted in the manufacture of protein the body. It controls the amount of calcium in the blood through the production of calcitonin-hormones.

Iodine acted as controller if the thyroid glands will shift to abnormality. With iodine, hormone production becomes normal. There will be no hormonal imbalance that will cause goiter.

Avoid or minimize eating vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. It has properties that worsened the existing iodine deficiency.

The immune system manufactured antibodies then erroneously attack the thyroid glands. It was under stress those producing more thyroxine for the thyroid to swell to abnormal size. This was called hyperthyroidism.

While hypothyroidism was in reverse, being a disorder in the auto- immune system instead of protecting it, it damages the thyroid to fail to produce more hormones. The pituitary gland has to produce more TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormones) to induce the thyroid to produce more hormones to balance what is lacking. But such action only causes the thyroid glands to enlarge.

Lack of hormones or with hormonal imbalance can be noticed if there is lack of strength (fatigue), sluggish movement, coarseness of the skin. There is edema and swelling.

Hyperthyroidism will cause irritability, increase heart rate (palpitation), considerable loss of weight, abnormality in regular bowel movement and heat tolerance. The common symptom is tightness in the throat, constant coughing, hoarseness, difficulty in swallowing the food, breathing problem and swelling at the base of the neck.

If the body has enough iodine, hyperthyroidism can be avoided. Include in your meals iodine-rich foods to keep the thyroid healthy.

OUTBREAK OF SKIN LESION

Pimple is the outbreak of skin lesion due to acne, the known disorder. The skin oil glands makes too much sebum. It is an oily substance that caused plugged pores. It may also cause by the rapid production of a bacteria. Most of the acne lesion can be found in neck, face, chest, back and shoulders.

It is the common skin disease that may cause disfigurement and permanent scarring. Most of the pimples occurred in their early childhood especially during their adolescent years. Both men and women are prone to the disorder. Young men are preferably more affected than women. Women’s acne was related to hormonal change but it slowly reduced as they grow older. Some women still affected with acne at the age of less than 40 of age.

Women were mostly affected by this troublesome health condition. If pimples are severe, women will develop low-self-esteem, has poor body image and feeling depressed.

There were many kinds of skin lesion. Cyst was located deep within the skin. The nodules located deeper in the skin. They were painful and if severe, it cause scarring. 

Pustule (pimples) contains pus and appeared red at the base of infected area. Papule is called plugged pore.  If it stays under the skin is called closed comedo forming white bump or white bead. While the blackheads are comedos that open up and appeared blackish on the surface of the skin. Its black color formed as the air reacts with the excess oil.

What factors triggered acne:

-If there is hormonal change during puberty.

-If there is hormonal change in adult.

-Certain medicines used in depression can cause acne.

-Too much facial make-up.

-Pressure on the skin.

-Family history of acne formation.

During adolescent years, the girls have increased concentration of female hormones (androgen). The glands will become larger producing more sebum.

Hormonal changes in female adult mostly appeared during menstrual cycle that induces acne. Most often, it formed few days before the cycle then disappear after the cycle. It also appeared during pregnancy and during menopausal stage. To keep the face clean, work it with clean water with the used if mild soap that will not irritate the skin, twice a day is enough.

There are many medicines in the trade that can cure acne and prevents further infection. Treatment is effective with the supervision of a dermatologist.

Severe acne infection will result to swelling or redness to the affected area and scarring to the skin. But it can be treated by taking antibiotic pills as advised by the dermatologist. Large cyst that will not respond to treatment will be taken by draining the pus or removing entirely the cyst. Never attempt to pick or squeeze the cyst to prevent infection and only worsen the condition of the skin. It is the necessity to take care the skin and always have better personal hygiene.

There are good points to prevent acne to form:

-Clean your skin in the morning and afternoon. Use mild soap and wash it thoroughly. Don’t scrub the skin harshly, it will bring irritation.

-Don’t let the skin to get sunburned to avoid the risk of skin cancer and premature aging of the skin.

-Use make-up products that can safeguard the sensitivity of your skin. 

The condition of your skin will depend on how you took care of it. Cleanliness is the secret of glowing skin free from irritation and scars. A healthy skin is a healthy life. It can boost your self-esteem and many people will notice you on the street. Take good care of your skin and your skin will take care of you to be known.