Health Risks and Women
When illnesses have been studied, quite often the physiology of being female vs. male was not considered - such as in determining what are the common symptoms of a heart attack. Men and women have distinctly different warning signs.
Today - it seems the medical health profession is attempting to take these things into consideration. I didn't know where else to post this article I found (I will do so in a comment), but stuff like this concerns me... and I'd be interested in anything else anyone stumbles upon.
Some gross facts about makeup
Taken from Dr Mercola’s website:
"Your skin is your largest organ -- and also the thinnest. Less than 1/10th of an inch separates your body from potential toxins. Worse yet, your skin is highly permeable. Just about anything you put on your skin will end up in your blood stream, and will be distributed throughout your body. Women who use makeup daily absorb, on average, 5 pounds each year.
..."don't put anything on your body that you wouldn't eat if you had to...""
If you thought the FDA was watching out for you…
Well, let’s just let that idea blow off right now. They let the cosmetic industry, including skin care products, police itself (your tax dollars notwithstanding). The list of people trying to help you out is surprisingly small -- almost non-existent.
Currently, there are estimated to be more than 10,500 cosmetic and personal care products on the North American market. Of those products, the Environmental Working Group estimates that 99% of the products contain one or more ingredients that have never been evaluated for safety.
The cosmetic industry and their love of loopholes. Some of the biggies are:
* "For Professional Use Only" -- This phrase allows cosmetic companies to remove harmful chemicals from their labels.
* "Hypoallergenic" -- No actual testing is necessary to claim that a product is "hypoallergenic", "allergy-free" or "safe for sensitive skin". Neither the FDA nor any other regulating body even requires the companies to prove these claims.
* Harmful Chemicals -- Unless they are intentionally placed in the product, harmful chemicals are not required to be listed. It's no shocker that you never see these.
The cosmetics industry is a $50 billion a year business (in the US alone). They spend a remarkable $2 billion a year on advertising.
Even more appalling than that is the amount of chemicals you place on your skin every year.
... Your only solution is to rely on your own skills of investigation.
Are they in the products you currently use? It’s time to check. Go grab your containers of skin care products and check them against the following …
| Ingredient | Use | Dangers |
| Parabens | Heavily used preservatives in the cosmetic industry; used in an estimated 13,200 cosmetic and skin care products. | Studies implicate their connection with cancer because their hormone-disrupting qualities mimic estrogen and could disrupt your body’s endocrine system. |
| Mineral Oil, Paraffin, and Petrolatum |
| These petroleum products coat the skin like plastic – clogging pores and creating a build-up of toxins. They can slow cellular development, creating earlier signs of aging. They’re implicated as a suspected cause of cancer. Plus, they can disrupt hormonal activity. When you think about black oil pumped from deep underground, ask yourself why you’d want to put that kind of stuff on your skin… |
| Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate (SLS), also known as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) | Found in over 90% of personal care products! They break down your skin’s moisture barrier, potentially leading to dry skin with premature aging. And because they easily penetrate your skin, they can allow other chemicals easy access. | SLS combined with other chemicals may become a "nitrosamine" – a potent carcinogen. |
| Acrylamide | Found in many facial creams. | Linked to mammary tumors. |
| Propylene glycol | Common cosmetic moisturizer and carrier for fragrance oils. | May cause dermatitis and skin irritation. May inhibit skin cell growth. Linked to kidney and liver problems. |
| Phenol carbolic acid | Found in many lotions and skin creams. | Can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma, and even death from respiratory failure. |
| Dioxane | Hidden in ingredients such as PEG, polysorbates, laureth, ethoxylated alcohols. Very common in personal care products. | These chemicals are often contaminated with high concentrations of highly volatile 1,4-dioxane that’s easily absorbed through the skin. Its carcinogenicity was first reported in 1965, and later confirmed in studies including one from the National Cancer Institute in 1978. Nasal passages are considered extremely vulnerable, making it, in my opinion, a really bad idea to use these things on your face. |
| Toluene | May be very poisonous! Made from petroleum and coal tar… found in most synthetic fragrances. | Chronic exposure linked to anemia, lowered blood cell count, liver or kidney damage…May affect a developing fetus. |
So, having read the above, do you really think it’s OK to put these things on your skin?
Anorexic Woman Tries Normal Diet
The Triggers: "I wanted to be like the women in the pages of Vogue. ... I found the gnawing, tight knot that is always in my stomach -- fear of life, work, boys, social interaction -- was quietened when I starved it."
The Mind Set: Out-of-shape women "just don't try hard enough. That's the thing about being a borderline anorexic: It makes you feel superior, clean, morally unimpeachable."
So how did the three-week trial go?
In her first week, she broke all sorts of taboos, consuming foods like chocolate, eggs, butter, pasta and rice, and dining after 7 p.m. "I feel incredibly fat, and lazy, and tired," she wrote. But "when I stand up, I don't see stars and black clouds. A first."
During week two, more food rules crumbled, and her behavior changed. "I find to my chagrin that I'm in a better mood, pretty much all day," Jones said.
By week three, Jones was taking pleasure in things like snacking at the movies. But then it came time to weigh herself. Her clothes were tight, and when she stepped on the scale, she found her weight had crept up to 126 pounds.
"I'm afraid I find all the extra flesh disgusting. I start imagining myself thin again, savoring how much I will enjoy losing this weight," Jones wrote.
Disturbing and enlightening
This woman describes what's going on with her so clearly--especially the emotions of fear, moral superiority and disgust.
It seems like the fears are tied to feelings of powerlessness and the moral superiority of being thin makes her feel powerful as a counter to the fear. But the moral superiority is defined by it's opposition to what is disgusting (flesh). I looked up disgust and found this interesting article about what triggers feelings of disgust ("why we get disgusted"). And a lot of the terminology of disgust are terms that are used to describe people of lower class ("untouchable") and particularly used about women ("unclean" and "contaminating" both used to describe the female touch during menstruation--this reminds me of the discussion of the concept of being "defiled" on the Granny Maggie thread). So it's kind of a weird Catch-22 'cause on the one hand she's trying to look like the women in Vogue--who must seem like they have power because they attract sexual interest. But on the other hand she's trying to gain moral superiority by denying the flesh--the uncleaness associated with female sexuality.
It's also reminding me both of things I'm currently reading about female conduct books and some of the research I did when I was writing about Dracula. Female conduct books which were very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries defined corrupt female behavior as exhibited by the kind of woman who wants to be seen, who makes a spectacle of herself, draws attention to herself in public through showy dress, or too loud laughter, or too energetic dancing, or enjoyment of male attention. The good woman's appearance is supposed to be more controlled and self-effacing. Then as advertising began to take off and the whole consumer society toward the end of the 19th century--there's a kind of nervousness about the fact that the men make the money and the women are seen as the consumers (lying around at home eating bon-bons--'cause home is not represented as the place of work--work's only out in the public sphere). So advertising (like Vogue) gets directed at women as the consumers, and directed at them to be attractive (being sexually attractive defines who they are) and yet to be sexual (that is to consume--to have a body) is also condemned. So then you wind up with a definition of sexual attraction as highly controlled and self-denying--or at least denying of food. Attractive=waif, child-like, not womanly. And then the flip side of that is to sexualize young girls.
Disgust and Moral Judgments
The uncommon knowledge section of the Globe on Sunday reported a study that linked higher sensitivity to disgust to more conservative valuesin particular on the issues of gay rights and abortion. I looked up the study and unfortunately can't see the original--but found a couple places where the findings are reported in a bit more depth than the Globe's one paragraph.
Here's one from physorg.com
An excerpt quoting David Pizzaro, a Professor of Psychology at Cornell and one of the study leaders:
" "People have pointed out for a long time that a lot of our moral values seem driven by emotion, and in particular, disgust appears to be one of those emotions that seems to be recruited for moral judgments," said Pizarro.
That can have tragic effects -- as in cases throughout history where minorities have been victims of discrimination by groups that perceived them as having disgusting characteristics.
The research speaks to a need for caution when forming moral judgments, Pizarro added. "Disgust really is about protecting yourself from disease; it didn't really evolve for the purpose of human morality," he said. "It clearly has become central to morality, but because of its origins in contamination and avoidance, we should be wary about its influences." "
I think Pizarro rightly points to the way it has taken something that's a physical response about contamination and been given a cultural meaning about excluding certain groups of people. It doesn't seem accidental that the two main political issues that evinced disgust are ones that people associate with the body.
I also think about the stereotype that girls find things more disgusting than boys and whether there is a kind of training in attitudes about controlling their own sexuality that's encoded in that "ick" response that girls are "supposed" to have.
Toxins in plastic much worse for women
Here are some highlights from this article on the recent studies on BPA.
Studies presented at the group's annual meeting show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources.
BPA, used to stiffen plastic bottles, line cans and make smooth paper receipts, belongs to a broad class of compounds called endocrine disruptors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is examining their safety but there has not been much evidence to show that they are any threat to human health.
"We present evidence that endocrine disruptors do have effects on male and female development, prostate cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease," Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who is president of the Endocrine Society, told a news conference.
The society issued a lengthy scientific statement about the chemicals in general that admits the evidence is not yet overwhelming, but is worrying.
Dr. Scott Belcher of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and colleagues will tell the meeting they found BPA could affect the heart cells of female mice, sending them into an uneven beating pattern called an arrhythmia.
"These effects are specific on the female heart. The male heart does not respond in this way and we understand why," Belcher said. He said BPA interacts with estrogen and said the findings may help explain why young women are more likely to die when they have a heart attack than men of the same age.
"We found that even when a they had a brief exposure during pregnancy ... mice exposed to these chemicals as a fetus carried these changes throughout their lives." The BPA did not directly change DNA through mutations, but rather through a process called epigenetics -- when chemicals attach to the DNA and change its function.
U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences expressed concern last year that BPA may hurt development of the prostate and brain.
A 2008 study by British researchers linked high levels of BPA to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.
National Women's Health Network
Posting a link here to their newsletter which comes out twice a month:
Health risks and men
A new study shows that the "real man" attitude (don't show weakness, don't ask for help, be stoical) increases men's health risks.
Hormone Replacement Therapy and Breast Cancer
A new study confirms a strong link between hormone replacement therapy in menopausal women and breast cancer. I'm thinking about how my Mom was on HRT for about 20 years and if any woman would not be at risk for bone loss it would be my mother--but her physician just gave it to her routinely because that was standard operating procedure.
HRT & lung cancer; Anti-depressants and breast cancer
Two brief citations in the paper: one on increased fatalities of lung cancer patients on HRT and the other showing that anti-depressants interfere with the effectiveness of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen.
Women's Health
Not really a health risk, but interesting info on women's health. A drug given to prevent bone loss in women who were undergoing cancer treatment seems to also shrink tumor size in breast cancer patients.
Bone drug
I don't have any backing study, but have been investigating related problems. (I've been looking at the issue with soy and phytoestrogens in general.)
I found an article that mentions magnesium helps precipitate excess estrogen out of the body (to be processed by the liver and excreted).
I happened to remember elsewhere that magnesium is something that needs to be balanced with calcium for the body to actually absorb and utilize it.
Since breast cancer is an estrogen related cancer... it made me pause and wonder. So... very interesting. I'd like to learn more about this "bone drug" and the mechanism of its workings. I guess I'm not surprised about he hormone therapy findings either.
Assessing Symptoms of Heart Problems in Men/Women
A recent study suggests that patients will interpret the same symptoms differently in male/female patients:
"Doctors in the study read vignettes about a 47-year-old man or a 56-year-old woman, whose ages would have given them a similar risk of heart disease.
When the story said the patient appeared anxious and reported a recent cause of stress, doctors interpreted chest pain, shortness of breath, and irregular heart rates as psychological symptoms rather than heart disease more than twice as often in the woman. In reality, stress is a risk factor that can signal an elevated risk of heart disease in anyone, the researchers said."
Women's heart ills are often dismissed
The frustrating part of gender role stereotypes
Knowing a woman who has survived breast cancer - I've heard this scenario before. This article made me a little bit sad.
Is my breast cancer upsetting you?
“There’s been a lot of research on how women are emotional managers, how they take care of others,” says medical sociologist and lead researcher Dr. Grace Yoo, who recently presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. “And when they’re diagnosed with breast cancer they’re still doing that. They’re worried about how others might react.”
Life Expectancy and the Female Body
mmmmm Chocolate
preeclampsia
Childbirth and the Moon
This is a goofy bit of research, as the topic has come up at my workplace. The entirety would be quotes from different sources on the internet.
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is elliptical, with a substantial eccentricity (as major Solar System bodies go) of 5.49%. In addition, the tidal effect of the Sun's gravitational field increases the eccentricity when the orbit's major axis is aligned with the Sun-Earth vector or, in other words, the Moon is full or new.
Perigee is the term used to indicate the point at which a celestial body [the moon] is nearest the Earth.
Apogee is the term used to indicate the point at which the moon is farthest from the Earth.
Extreme values for perigee and apogee distance occur when perigee or apogee passage occurs close to new or full Moon, and long-term extremes are in the months near to Earth's perihelion passage (closest approach to the Sun, when the Sun's tidal effects are strongest) in the first few days of January.
At perigee, tidal ranges are increased; at apogee, they are decreased.
There is a body of empirical evidence that shows as a woman's body prepares for natural childbirth, the amniotic sac becomes distended so the point where it will easily burst if put under pressure. Under normal circumstances, the pressure of labor contractions bursts the sac. During a full moon, the pressure caused by the moon's effect on the water inside the sac can cause the same things to happen, but without the accompanying contractions.
There are published works that show that there is such a relationship. One study looked at 5,927,978 French births occurring between the months of January 1968 and the 31st December 1974. Using spectral analysis, it was shown that there are two different rhythms in birth frequencies: --a weekly rhythm characterized by the lowest number of births on a Sunday and the largest number on a Tuesday and an annual rhythm with the maximum number of births in May and the minimum in September-October. A statistical analysis of the distribution of births in the lunar month shows that more are born between the last quarter and the new moon, and fewer are born in the first quarter of the moon. The differences between the distribution observed during the lunar month and the theoretical distribution are statistically significant.
Guillon P, Guillon D, Lansac J, Soutoul JH, Bertrand P, Hornecker JP. Births, fertility, rhythms and lunar cycle. A statistical study of 5,927,978 births Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. (Paris). 1986;15(3):265-71
Theoretically, many of our cycles would be naturally in sync with the cycles of the nature. In a world devoid of electric lights, women's menstrual cycles naturally synchronize with the phases of the moon in which they ovulate during the full moon and menstruate at the new moon (lunar fertility). There is more at play than simply gravitational pull. Total darkness signals your body to create melatonin and the sunlight of daybreak signals your body to stop this production. The light of the full moon is a signal for your body to cease melatonin production and that is what signals the start of ovulation. Electric lights are a huge potential factor in irregular ovulation. Even a small nightlight will throw off your melatonin levels.
That said, we all know that hormones play a role in spontaneous labor and while I have no idea how the moon influences the hormones specifically related to childbirth, it stands to reason that nature affects our bodies alot more than the medical community would like us to believe.
Declutter Your Way to Peace and Beauty
Practitioners of meditation have long known that spiritual growth leads to less clutter, but a new trend does it in reverse: people are now decluttering their way to spiritual growth! The end result from both processes is the same: simplicity brought about by a yearning for peaceful beauty. Peaceful beauty! Such a place is not where you find old stuck energy that has ended in a confused mess! No wonder the number one rule of feng shui is to remove clutter! Declutter your way to spiritual growth using "Clutter Codes." Here's what they are, and how they help.
Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says
One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit for lead in candy — a standard established to protect children from ingesting lead, the group said.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
Lead in Lipstick - revisited
I revisited this topic in researching how the FDA does or does not protect consumer health. I stumbled across the claim again and decided to gather more information. I stumbled across an article in Snopes that mentions that though some colorants the FDA grants approval for use in cosmetics do contain lead, they claim it is present in such miniscule amounts that it has “no adverse effects on consumers”. In this article they debunk an email about how to detect lead in lipstick by using a gold ring. Though they provide some useful facts about the cosmetic industry, I don’t agree with their risk assessment.
The article mentions that the activist groups who compare the amount of lead in lipstick to the FDA limit for lead in candy lack perspective. To give us some “perspective”, Snopes quotes the tested levels of lead that the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported in 2007: 0.65, 0.58 and 0.56 PPM – and correlated this to the amount allowed in candy – 0.1PPM. However the FDA reported finding lead levels in lipstick ranging from 0.09 to 3.06 PPM for an average of 0.97PPM. Apparently regardless of the averages, all of these measurements are still within the limit of what the FDA considers “safe”.
Snopes mentions that “Lipstick is not eaten by the bagful”. It seems the term “bagful” might be a slight exaggeration about the quantity the FDA would consider a child might eat in determining the limits on lead in candy. Though women and children are not eating a “bagful” of lipstick daily, even a “thin smear on the lips” can have a significant impact over time when it’s done once or more daily.
Snopes also points out that the acceptable limits for lead in candy used to be 5 times higher than the current level until rather recently. I have to wonder if the quantity of candy a child eat has risen significantly since those limits were set . Likely if there is a higher amount of candy eaten by smaller children on average it’s not happening all at once. This would represent how though the lead exposure limits were the same for all this time in the past, these amounts – once considered safe - were found to be unacceptable over a longer period of exposure.
Lastly they mention “U.S. Medical literature has yet to record a single case of anyone’s coming down with lead poisoning through lipstick use.” That statement speaks to a traceability failure that is more related to the nature of tracking a problem down after it’s created than it is an accurate statement of the residual risk of allowing lead in lipstick products. Just because something hasn’t been reported, doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t happening. It’s possible to have lead poisoning determined, but not be able to estimate the cause after the fact. A small exposure over a longer period of time is going to be harder to track than large amounts of something very evident – like lead paint chips or crayons that a child ingests.
It also makes me angry that they mention “lipstick is rarely used by small children”. That means that a small amount of children do wear lipstick. As a parent I wouldn’t exclude those children from the risk pool when assessing the safety of a product. If we carry homeowners insurance for an “attractive nuisance”... it’s reasonable to apply that same liability logic to a product likely to be attractive to a child. This is a product any child would have open access to and it’s reasonable to presume it may be used by a child (even without an adult’s permission). In fact, I’ve heard numerous reports of very young kids ingesting lipstick by the tube full.
The claim that lead causes cancer: it’s true, that’s not proven.
The gold ring test to determine the amount of lead in lipstick: debunked.
The risk of lead in cosmetics applied to a mucous membrane more permeable than skin on other parts of our body: still up for debate
In fact the BBC article I found that brought me back around to this mentions this:
BBC article: Body absorbs 5lb of make-up chemicals a year
Richard Bence, a biochemist who has spent three years researching conventional products, said: "We really need to start questioning the products we are putting on our skin and not just assume that the chemicals in them are safe.
"We have no idea what these chemicals do when they are mixed together, the effect could be much greater than the sum of the individual parts." Mr Bence, an advocate of organic beauty products, believes that absorbing chemicals through the skin in more dangerous than swallowing them.
He said: "If lipstick gets into your mouth it is broken down by the enzymes in saliva and in the stomach. But chemicals get straight into your bloodstream, there is no protection."
Panic attacks tied to women's heart attack risk
Article excerpt: The rapid pulse and shortness of breath of a panic attack can feel like a heart attack, and it may signal heart trouble down the road, a study of more than 3,000 older women suggests.
The findings add panic attacks to a list of mental health issues — depression, fear, hostility and anxiety — already linked in previous research to heart problems, said study co-author Dr. Jordan Smoller of Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital.
Women who reported at least one full-blown panic attack during a six-month period were three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke over the next five years than women who didn't report a panic attack.
The researchers took into account other risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, inactivity and depression and still found that panic attacks raised risk.
"Doctor hoping difference in health care is not overt sexism"
The large study of elderly patients is in line with prior research that suggests women do not get the same standard of care as men.
Curtis and colleagues analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 1991 through 2005 on more than 136,000 patients 65 or older who were at high risk for sudden cardiac death.
She found men were 3.2 times more likely than women to receive an implantable defibrillator.
To account for the fact that women live longer than men, which could skew results by comparing older women with younger men, she narrowed her analysis to men and women under age 75.
The results were similar, with men 2.4 times more likely to get an implantable defibrillator.
A second study in the same issue of the journal by Dr. Adrian Hernandez, also of Duke, looked at 13,000 patients admitted to hospitals with heart failure who were at risk of sudden cardiac death.
He found women and blacks were significantly less likely than white men to receive an implantable defibrillator.
Compared with white men, the odds of receiving an implantable defibrillator were 27 percent lower for black men, 38 percent lower for white women and 44 percent lower for black women.
Symptoms of Dystopia
I'm overwhelmed with the amount of articles I can find out there on these topics. Here are just a few:
Condition distorts self-image, destroys lives
Sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder aren’t vain, they’re stuck on ‘defects’
A disturbing ripple effect
According to Phillips, people who suffer from BDD often feel that their appearance — or some aspect of it, such as their skin or stomach or nose — is “ugly” or “horrible,” or even “monstrous.” They’ll obsess about perceived flaws for an average of three to eight hours a day, compulsively checking their reflection in the mirror and/or comparing their appearance with others’. They’ll avoid social interactions, experience relationship problems, undergo needless cosmetic surgeries and sometimes have trouble working, attending school or even leaving their homes.
Fast facts about BDD
— BDD affects an estimated 2 million to 5 million Americans, both men and women.
— BDD usually starts in adolescence, and has been found in people ages 6 to 80.
— 99 percent of people with BDD say it has significantly interfered with social functioning over their lifetime (e.g., friends, family or intimate relationships).
— 90 percent of people with BDD say the disorder has significantly interfered with work or academic functioning.
— 29 percent of people with BDD have become completely housebound for at least one week due to the disorder.
— 75 percent of people with BDD seek surgery, dermatologic or other medical treatment.
— Of those who undergo surgery, dermatologic or other non-psychiatric medical treatment, most find their BDD symptoms unchanged after the treatment; some say they are worse and less than 10 percent say they are better.
— 25 percent of people with BDD practice excessive tanning to minimize perceived appearance flaws.
— 63 percent of people with BDD have thought about suicide because of their BDD at some point since the disorder began.
Courtesy of “The Broken Mirror: Understanding and Treating Body Dysmorphic Disorder,” Oxford University Press, 2005
Studies indicate BDD strikes approximately 1 percent to 2 percent of the general population (the numbers are higher in people suffering from depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or anorexia nervosa), which adds up to an estimated 2 million to 5 million people in the U.S. alone.
But Phillips says the numbers may actually be higher. “We do need bigger and better studies because BDD often goes unrecognized and undiagnosed,” she says. “It tends to be a very secret disorder.”
Breast implants linked to increased suicide risk
Chance of taking own life is three times higher after surgery, experts say
WASHINGTON - Women who get cosmetic breast implants are nearly three times as likely to commit suicide as other women, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
“The increased risk of suicide was not apparent until 10 years after implantation,” the researchers wrote.
Lipworth said she believes that some women who get implants may have psychiatric problems to start with, perhaps linked with lower self-esteem or body image disorders.
“I think we don’t even know how big of a problem it is because we cannot even pinpoint what proportion of women have psychiatric disorders,” Lipworth said in a telephone interview.
“There could be a whole lot of different disorders.”
Women with breast implants also had a tripled risk of death from alcohol and drug use.
Being a mom and the body changes that go with it aren't "cool" anymore either...
Supposedly ... the "rejection of the “mother as martyr” mindset... has more to do with embracing your sense of self than the surgically enhanced sex appeal of the “Desperate Housewives” set."
Like Chevalier, many women these days are willing to go to extreme measures to become laser hot mamas. According to an April 2007 survey by KRC Research (on behalf of Suave), out of more than 3,000 mothers, 67 percent said they would rather regain their prebaby body than their prebaby sex life.
“We’ve definitely had more moms coming in over the last five years,” says Dr. Arielle Kauvar, clinical associate professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine and director of New York Laser & Skin Care. “A lot more women want to correct the problems they’ve developed during pregnancies.”
Those problems can range from stretch marks and loose belly skin to spider and varicose veins to melasma (brown pigmentation on the face from hormonal changes) to milked-out, deflated breasts. And although our mothers and grandmothers had to make do with cocoa butter, thick hose and hefty Cross Your Heart bras, today’s moms (many of whom fit snugly into the “yummy mummy” category) are heading to the plastic surgeon and skin care clinic for breast lifts, tummy tucks and the latest in laser treatments.
This reaches astounding proportions...
This link is about woman "private parts", it is an MSN article and "clean", but do not click if you are uncomfortable with discussing or reading about this in detail.
"We become what we behold"
I haven't read him yet, but only excerpts I find extremely insightful
Marshall McLuhan, an English professor did an intensive examination of the effects of advertising and comics in producing new perceptions about what we should and do desire, as well as why we believe these things will bring us happiness. The book I want to read is: The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (New York: Vanguard Press, 1951).
Quote of the day from that book: "We become what we behold"
I think this is largely true for numerous reasons. What kind of social pressures do we allow into our lives unchecked?
The book dealt with the influence of print media on the male and female psyche. The objective of advertising men, said McLuhan, is the manipulation, exploitation, and control of the individual. If this is true, then who, one might ask, was doing the controlling, and what was the desired effect?
The advertising companies were doing the controlling, and the desired effect was nothing loftier than selling products to unsuspecting customers. Making women into objects of desire by men, and then in turn selling the women the products to help them achieve the effect of desirability, accomplished the entire enterprise. The advertising men succeeded in creating a market where one did not previously exist. The purpose here, and earlier for McLuhan, is not to vilify the advertising industry, rather it is to provide insight into how media functions.
He also has another one: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, in 1964
This is about what he had to say concerning the various ways human beings extend themselves, and how these extensions affect our relationships with one another.
An extension occurs when an individual or society makes or uses something in a way that extends the range of the human body and mind in a fashion that is new. The shovel we use for digging holes is a kind of extension of the hands and feet. The spade is similar to the cupped hand, only it is stronger, less likely to break, and capable of removing more dirt per scoop than the hand. A microscope, or telescope is a way of seeing that is an extension of the eye.
Considering more complicated extensions, one might think of the automobile as an extension of the feet. It allows man to travel places in the same manner as the feet, only faster and with less effort. In addition, this extension enables one to travel in relative comfort in extreme weather conditions. Most individuals already understand the concept of extension, but many are unreflective when it comes to what McLuhan calls "amputations;" the counterpart to extensions.
Every extension of mankind, especially technological extensions, have the effect of amputating or modifying some other extension. An example of an amputation would be the loss of archery skills with the development of gunpowder and firearms. The need to be accurate with the new technology of guns made the continued practice of archery obsolete. The extension of a technology like the automobile "amputates" the need for a highly developed walking culture, which in turn causes cities and countries to develop in different ways. The telephone extends the voice, but also amputates the art of penmanship gained through regular correspondence. These are a few examples, and almost everything we can think of is subject to similar observations.
McLuhan believed that mankind has always been fascinated and obsessed with these extensions, but too frequently we choose to ignore or minimize the amputations. For example, we praise the advantages of high speed personal travel made available by the automobile, but do not really want to be reminded of the pollution it causes. Additionally, we do not want to be made to think about the time we spend alone in our cars isolated from other humans, or the fact that the resulting amputations from automobiles have made us more obese and generally less healthy. We have become people who regularly praise all extensions, and minimize all amputations. McLuhan believed that we do so at our own peril.
79 percent of plastic surgery patients were influenced by TV
79 percent of plastic surgery patients were influenced by TV, media
From the article:
Think about it. Four out of five people surveyed in the "Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery" study got plastic surgery partly due to so-called “reality” television programming. That should scare the hell out of us, mostly because the “reality” shown in many of these programs doesn’t even remotely reflect the reality of plastic surgery.
Let’s face it. Most people don’t get plastic surgery solely because of these reality TV programs. These programs are part of the much larger societal trend, which promotes physical perfection and pushes people to look a lot better than they actually do. But overall, these programs don’t help. They contribute to this unhealthy trend.
"My Beautiful Mommy"
Rereading this and thinking about the influence of media I was reminded of this book that came out last year--a picture book explaining plastic surgery for kids whose Moms are having "Mommy Makeovers." I see the book as only perpetuating this as the "norm" of behavior and doing so at an incredibly impressionable age.
"Despite the marketing nickname "mommy makeover," which can sound like a trip to a day spa, these are serious surgeries with potential complications that can require additional procedures—and disruption for kids."
So what's need here is a book directed to children to quiet their fears, rather than the Moms being directed to the fact that "these are serious surgeries with potential complications"? Like any serious surgery, the worst case scenario is death--I'm sure that's not mentioned in the book, but don't we as a culture have to look at what kind of dysfunctional messages we're sending out where women so define themselves by appearance and getting sexual/romantic attention that it takes time away from their kids and potentially puts kids at risk of losing their mothers?
Here's a fact that I wonder if the women who have some of tiese procedures are even aware of "About a quarter of all implant patients have to have another operation within five years due to problems like leaking, breast asymmetry and encapsulation of the implants." 25% is a high number.
And then there's the message being passed on to the children themselves about their bodies:
"Berger worries that kids will think their own body parts must need "fixing" too. The surgery on a nose, for example, may "convey to the child that the child's nose, which always seemed OK, might be perceived by Mommy or by somebody as unacceptable," she says."
Here are some words of wisdom from the daughter of the author of this article:
"They should do more about what the surgery is," says my own eight-year-old daughter. "Kids," she says, will want to know more about "what they're going to do to you." But on the other hand, if they knew more about the procedures they might not want their mothers to go through with them. As my daughter points out, "a five-year-old is going to be horrified that their mom is getting water balloons put in her breasts."
extensions/amputations
phantom limb sensations from our mechanical extentions
Theories abound about phenomenon dubbed 'ringxiety' or 'fauxcellarm'
Anecdotal evidence suggests "people feel the phone is part of them" and "they're not whole" without their phones, since the phones connect them to the world.
"Some people have biological clocks, I might have a biological BlackBerry."
I don't know where to start...
But I want to do something about it. Somehow we need to have/develop social support for women - no matter what they look like. I think these female mental and physical health problems show that this is not about evolution or a mate's choosing only women that "look healthy"... it is not our biology driving us to do this -- this seems closer to an obsession to me. Almost every community supports the "woman as a sex object". How do we cure a social "mental illness"?
Instead of mothers supporting their daughters, it seems mothers are competing with their daughter's youth and taking on their fears of not being accepted. Family is no longer a support system either.
body image, competition
That is such a tough question. What you said about mothers competing with their daughters--Mary Wollstonecraft writes about that in the 18th century and sees it as the result of women being totally dependent on marriage. So women's whole survival depended on the marriage market; they were trained up to compete in that market; and then after marriage that's the only thing they had been trained for so they continued to do it.
Today those market forces aren't the same, but since advertising depends on image you still get the same kind of definitions of what makes women valuable/desireable. And how does one go about changing a symbolic order when one's idea of who one is is coded within it?--For instance, if I don't wear make up and dress in a more masculine way, I'm still relying on what society defines as masculine/feminine.
At one level I just think about offering support and "reality" checks as much as possible to friends and relatives. And also pushing for and/or supporting as many different kinds of representations of women as possible--no one representation standing for what women are "supposed" to look like.
competition to cooperation
All this reminds me of the Nowak study Shell posted. How can competing individuals start to cooperate for the greater good?
The bottom line was when the players were put in a network, tight clusters of cooperators emerge, and defectors elsewhere in the network are not able to undermine their altruism.
I think women and men need to make networks to support a postive outlook on such things. It does have to start with an individual, but it's crucial that an individual broadcasts their message/reputation to the group.
Per the article: Another boost for cooperation comes from reputations.
They found that if reputations spread quickly enough, they could increase the chances of cooperation taking hold. Players were less likely to be fooled by defectors and more likely to benefit from cooperation.
But this begs the question: How does one build social perception?
The reason this isn't happening is related to the benefit to cost ratio somehow...
That is, cooperation will emerge if the benefit-to-cost (B/C) ratio of cooperation is greater than the average number of neighbors.
Simply, we appear to be outnumbered.
What I want to know is this because women and men are just not speaking out, or are women/men who look at this behavior and see a problem really are just this isolated/alone? If so - the only answer I can see would be some sort of education objective. That would need to be started in schools early on, but then you're still fighting social forces there too. It seems like that same Catch 22.
Hormone Imbalance - Hormone Allergy
Hormone Imbalance - Hormone Allergy
The most common disorders associated with ordinary hormone imbalance reactions are:
- PMS
- Weight Problems
- Loss of Short Term Memory
- Fatigue
- Skin Problems
- Mood Swings
- Diminished Sex Drive
Missed warnings about booze and breast cancer
MSN article excerpts:
Scientific studies showing an increased risk of breast cancer for female drinkers have appeared hundreds of times over the past 20 years. A quick search of newspaper and magazines articles, as well as news broadcasts, finds at least 11,000 stories mentioning this subject over the same 20-year period.
How could people be so ignorant of the warnings? The numerous reports were overlooked because, when it comes to health news, we tend to hear what want and manage to miss the rest.
Despite those risks, 60 percent of readers responding to an MSNBC.com poll said they wouldn't quit or cut back their drinking.
And nothing makes some people happier than hearing a health justification for drinking. In recent years, several studies have found that moderate alcohol consumption — particularly of red wine — in both women and men reduces the risk of heart disease. In no time at all, countless red wine corks were popped in the pursuit of healthier hearts.
What seemed to upset many about last week's study was the risk from all types of alcohol, including red wine. After years of being praised for its antioxidant and antibacterial benefits, red wine was suddenly being lumped with hard liquor in the risky category. In reality, the ingredients in red wine that protect against heart disease and other illnesses are tiny compared to the overall effects of the alcohol.
Many people cried foul over last week's news, confused that alcohol can be both beneficial and harmful. You have to make your own decisions. But if you want truly to be informed, you cannot just hear what you want.
Chocolate cravings: Not due to hormones, says study
Chocolate cravings: Not due to hormones, says study
(article excerpt)
Study details
Hormes and Rozin surveyed 280 pre- and post-menopausal alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania and divided them into three distinct groups with average ages of 46, 63, and 82. Women were asked to record their cravings, including whether or not their chocolate cravings were related to their menstrual cycle.
“Post-menopausal women show only a very modest decrease in chocolate craving,” report the researchers. “This modest decrease, in the face of no drop in the liking for chocolate, may be due in some small part to the absence of a direct effect of female hormone changes in these women.
“Our results suggest that the perimenstrum is linked to chocolate craving because for some women, chocolate is a way to deal with the stress or dysphoria associated with menstruation,” they note.
“Use of chocolate to cope with or compensate for such experiences is a culturally supported response in North America.
“In North America, where chocolate has the property of being a ‘forbidden food’ for many women, discomfort may license its consumption,” concluded Hormes and Rozin.
What's happening?
Commenting on the ingredients in chocolate, the researchers noted that chocolate undoubtedly contains a lot of bioactive ingredients, including stimulants like caffeine, theobromine, and tyramine. However, unlike coffee, where consumers often refer to the pharmacological effects, consumers usually note that the sensory aspects of chocolate are the most attractive, "including its melt-in-your-mouth texture, sweetness and fragrant aroma".
"We believe that the preponderance of evidence favors a sensory account for the popularity of chocolate as a form of self-reward or indulgence, and/or as a means of coping with stress by inducing pleasure," said Hormes and Rozin.
Source: Appetite
Volume 53, Issue 2, Pages 256-259
“Perimenstrual chocolate craving. What happens after menopause?”
Authors: J.M. Hormes, P. Rozin