Birth control pills may help mask menopause symptoms By TOM VALEO Published March 28, 2006 All women can expect to enter menopause sooner or later, but women taking birth control pills may not notice, at least for a while. In the meantime, they can expect several benefits from the pill beside avoiding an unwanted pregnancy: They will avoid some of the most conspicuous signs of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats and irritability. "A woman on the birth control pill is getting hormones at a level above what her ovaries would produce,'' said Dr. Catherine Lynch, director of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa. "When a woman goes into menopause, the ovaries basically shut down and no longer produce estrogen or progesterone in any significant amounts, so a woman taking the birth control pill in the standard fashion of three weeks on active pills, followed by one week of inactive pills, often won't have any symptoms of menopause until that pill-free week. She may not even realize she's in menopause because she's getting adequate estrogen and still cycling.'' During the week when she is not taking active birth control pills, the woman may even have a "withdrawal bleed" caused by the sudden drop in estrogen. A withdrawal bleed is easily mistaken for a normal period. And if the woman is taking continuous-use birth control pills, she will take inactive pills only one week out of every 12 instead of every four, so she will have a withdrawal bleed no more than once every four months. "So a woman who's, say, 51 and taking Seasonale one of the continuous-use birth control pills isn't going to have hot flashes or night sweats for 12 weeks, because she's having estrogen provided for her by the pills,'' Dr. Lynch said. "She may experience symptoms during the week she takes inactive pills, but just as symptoms start to climb, she starts taking active pills again, and she won't appreciate that these are symptoms of menopause.'' But that's not all. Taking birth control pills also seems to reduce bone loss. In fact, if the woman is also doing weight-bearing exercises and getting plenty of calcium, low-dose birth control pills may even help build bone density. Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. The Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study, the largest to investigate this last issue, found a 40 percent decrease on average of ovarian cancer in women who had taken oral contraceptives. The risk decreased as the amount of time on the pill increased, so women who had taken the pill for seven years or longer experienced a reduction in the risk of ovarian cancer of 60 to 80 percent. Some Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. studies suggest that oral contraceptives might even protect against colorectal cancer, uterine fibroid tumors, Alzheimer's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Taking the pill has always meant an increase in the risk of blood clots, which can cause a stroke. But a woman who does not smoke, does not have high blood pressure, and takes a low-dose oral contraceptive can almost eliminate that additional risk. So why not just stay on the pill and enjoy all the benefits of hormone-replacement therapy, known as HRT? Because even low-dose birth-control pills deliver five to seven times as much estrogen as HRT. HRT simply gives the body back what the ovaries were producing before they were shut down by menopause. The birth control pill delivers a dose of hormones large enough to shut down the ovaries, and it's pointless for a woman to keep taking hormones after menopause has begun and she has stopped ovulating. She would be better off with hormone-replacement therapy, which would provide her with the same benefits but a lower dose of hormone. "The trick is figuring out when she is in menopause,'' Dr. Lynch said. "There are a couple of ways to test this, but they're not 100 percent reliable. She can go off the pill and see if she's still cycling, but if she's sexually active, there's an outside chance she could get pregnant. "While it's rare for pregnancy to occur at the age of 50 or 51, it can happen if you're still ovulating.'' Tom Valeo is a freelance writer specializing in medical and health issues. Contact him c/o Seniority, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail features at sptimes dot com. [Last modified March 28, 2006, 08:52:07] Here is a link that might be useful: from a Florida online newspaper

I had a sleep study last May, which showed I had various sleep problems (apnea, alpha wave intrusion, no REM sleep). It makes me wonder if lots of women going through menopause begin to have these kinds of problems. I guess I'm finally going to think about trying a cpap machine, but I think it will be a challenge. In retrospect, I really think its been my sleep problems that have made the past 10 years pretty much a constant struggle. I think sleep deprivation can cause all sorts of craziness. Even if you think you've had a good night's sleep, it doesn't mean you have.

The following are commonly asked questions about Dr. Young's science of pH and his answers: Question: How important is it to maintain an alkaline pH in our blood, saliva, urine and sweat? Dr. Young: Maintaining the alkaline pH of the saliva, urine, tears, sweat and blood is critical. Testing the body fluid pH is the most important daily measurement anyone can do to maintain health and fitness and to PREVENT ALL sickness and disease. The beauty of the pH test is that you don't need to go to a doctor to do it. You can do it yourself. You can actually become your own doctor and manage your own health with this simple test. And if you'll remember this rule--if you maintain the saliva and the urine pH, ideally at 7.2 or above, you will never get sick. That's right, you will NEVER get sick! The key is to manage the alkaline design of the body fluids. But, most people on the planet have a urine or saliva pH in the 6's or even the 5's. They don't manage their pH. People take better care of the pH level of their aquariums, swimming pools, or spas, than their own internal body fluids. Managing the pH of your body fluids is simple. All you do is take some pH Hydrion paper or litmus paper, moisten it with saliva and urine and then check the color on the color-coded chart. The chart measures the pH of saliva, urine, sweat, and tears in 5.0 to 8.5 increments. Ideally, you want your saliva, urine, sweat and tears to measure at least 7.2 or better. Managing you body fluid pH with an alkaline lifestyle and diet is the healthiest advice I could give anyone on this planet. It is inexpensive. It is simple, and it works. Question: When these body fluids stay acidic for days, weeks, months or years, what happens to human health? Dr. Young: What happens to human health when you stay in the acidic zone? You get sick, tired and fat. And, if you don't get fat, you die. When you are underweight, you are living on your own body tissue. Your body is making red blood cells out of body cells. Why? Because you have damaged the root system of your small intestine with acidic food, drink, harmful digestive enzymes, probiotics, antibiotics and other acidic drugs. You are constantly breaking down your own body cells in order to maintain the level of red blood cells at 5 million red blood cells per cubic millimeter. In order to build muscle and bones you have to have healthy strong red blood cells. In order to have healthy strong red blood cells you have to have a healthy alkaline root system or intestinal villi with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. You build healthy blood with electron-rich green alkaline foods and drinks. When you are constantly bombarding your internal environment with acidic foods and drinks and damaging your intestinal villi, you set the stage for all sickness and dis-ease. You must protect the alkaline design of the body. When you start using up your alkaline reserves and you do not replace those reserves with alkaline foods and drinks, you begin to compromise other parts of the body. This is especially so if the daily diet is loaded with acidic foods and drinks. When the alkaline reserves are deficient, and when the diet is also deficient in food or drink that should be building up those alkaline reserves, the body starts pulling alkaline minerals from the bones, muscles, ligaments and cartilage. This causes deficiencies of the bones and muscles. That's why many older people actually shrink and become bent over. They have cannibalized their own body by stealing mineral salts from their own infrastructure to help alkalize too many acids in the body. When your blood is compromised from a deficiency of alkaline reserves such as sodium bicarbonate or the elements to make sodium bicarbonate, the body will begin pulling calcium from the bones and/or magnesium from the muscles to maintain the alkalinity of the blood plasma. This is when you will start experiencing the deficiencies of alkalinity that are expressed in the seven stages of acidosis, going from various sensitivities all the way up to degeneration such as cancerous cells. Question: What are some of the positive things that would occur if all of these body fluids are alkaline? Dr. Young: When you are alkalized, you are energized. And when you are energized, you feel better and think better. You have sustainable energy when you are alkalized. When you eat and drink alkaline you are making energy deposits to your body, like a bank account. You are making alkaline deposits to your energy bank account and to your alkaline reserves or energy savings account. The positive benefits of being alkaline are incredible health, energy, fitness, mental clarity and vitality. Question: We're going to use your term--why is the "New Biology" so important? Dr. Young: The New Biology is important because it is based on a foundational health principal, that the human body is alkaline by design, but every function of the body is acidic. So every disease is nothing more than the body trying to maintain its alkaline design. So when we're talking about bone disease, the body is taking alkalinity from the bones to maintain the alkalinity of the blood which is the most important organ of the body. Once the blood becomes acidic, you will die very soon. A drop from the normal blood pH of 7.365 to 6.9 will cause one to go into a coma. The blood pH has a very narrow range for health and vitality. The normal healthy blood pH is at 7.365. If the blood pH drops down to 7.2, you start feeling very sick and at 6.9 will die very soon. So the body will do everything it can to maintain the alkaline integrity of the blood, at the expense of all other organs and organ systems. Once we understand the foundational theory of the New BiologyÂ, and I'll repeat it again: the human organism is alkaline by design, although acidic by function. So breathing is acidic. Thinking is acidic. Eating is acidic. Metabolism is acidic. The process of breaking down the food you eat is acidic. Everything you eat is acidic to a greater or lesser degree. The body has to protect itself. The body protects itself with the alkaline buffering system which is currently NOT understood by medical savants. Your body is looking for energy in the form of electrons or electron-rich food and drink. Health is all about energy. The New Biology teaches us the foundational principles of health, fitness and energy and how to maintain that health, fitness and energy, for a lifetime, free from ALL sickness and disease. Question: For the body's immune system to work properly is alkalinity the most important thing to monitor? Dr. Young: Yes, immunity from ALL sickness and disease comes from alkalinity, NOT from white blood cells. We were all taught in human biology that immunity comes from white blood cells protecting us from some invading germ or virus. White blood cells provide NO immunity. White blood cells do not destroy germs. White blood cells are glorified janitors that swim around in our blood and lymphatic plasma picking up the garbage we create from an acidic lifestyle and diet. White blood cells are NOT soldiers, destroying some invading germ coming in from the outside world that would make us sick. True immunity comes to each of us by maintaining the alkaline fluids of the body. That is where true immunity is found. The first line of defense against sickness and disease is an alkaline internal environment. As soon as you put something acidic into your mind, into your mouth, or into your lungs, your alkaline buffering system is immediately engaged in trying to neutralize or buffer any acidic food, drink, or thought that might be present. That's true immunity. It is found in the alkaline reserves for your body. When you have an alkaline lifestyle and diet, you are able to defend or neutralize environmental, dietary or metabolic acids that would make you sick, tired and/or fat. Germs DO NOT cause disease. Acids cause pain, sickness and disease. There is a simple way to understand this principal. Let's compare our bodies to an automobile. When you start your car, the car begins using energy. As the car uses energy is creates an acidic waste product called carbon monoxide. When you turn the car off you stop producing this acid. If you start the car again and stuff a few socks or a potato in the tailpipe the car will die from carbon monoxide acidosis. If you were to stop eliminating your own acidic waste products through urination, perspiration, defecation or respiration, like the car, you would die too. The body has ways of protecting itself from excess acidity. When dietary and/or metabolic acids are not properly eliminated, they get parked on your hips, thighs, buttocks, waistline, breast and brain. The body does this to protect and preserve the organs and organ systems that sustain life. Your best immunity in order to protect your body from ALL sickness and disease DOES NOT come from vaccination or medication. True immunity comes from protecting the alkaline design of the body with an alkaline lifestyle and diet. Once again, white blood cells, including neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and T and B-cells help to maintain cleanliness. And in reality, they are just the janitors of your body fluids like an automatic pool sweep. You can support your white blood cells with an electron-rich alkaline lifestyle and die t. Question: What is the easiest way for someone to check and maintain their body's pH? Dr. Young: The easiest way for someone to check and maintain the body fluid pH is to test the urine and saliva. The best time to test the urine is in the morning, because the morning urine is an expression of what you ate and what you drank and how you lived your life the previous, 24 hours. The morning urine is not a product of the blood; it is a product of the tissues. When you measure your urine, you are measuring the pH of your tissues. If your pH is below the ideal of 7.2, and it measures in the 5's or 6's, you are in tissue acidosis. When someone over-exercises they can go into lactic tissue acidosis. Lactic acid from over-exercise is felt in the connective tissues and muscles. When the muscles are sore, that's the tissues picking up the acid to maintain the alkaline blood pH. The blood has to rid itself of metabolic acids or you would die. So it throws the acid out into the muscle tissues and you feel it as irritation or inflammation. If the lactic acid stays in the tissues, it will spoil the tissue cells and the body will go into preservation mode. In preservation mode, the body will encapsulate the cells spoiled by lactic acid, and now you have a tumor. The tumor is the solution to stop systemic spoiling or metastasis. When the lymphatic system is healthy, it will pull the lactic acid out of the tissues, and eventually you will sweat it out or it will be recycled back into the blood and you will urinate it out. This is very, very important. So remember, when you are testing the pH of your urine, you are testing the pH of the fluids in and from the tissues. When you are testing your saliva, you are testing your ability or potential to alkalize your food and drink. So when you're saliva pH is below 7.2, your potential for alkalizing your food, drink and emotions is less. Your reserves are low. You need to make a deposit to your alkaline bank account. And that would be the same with your urine. When your urine is acidic, you need to start alkalizing. You run the risk of staying within an acidic zone; you run the risk of going through the seven stages of acidosis. Starting with lack of energy to sensitivities to inflammation, and working up to ulceration and degeneration. CONTACT INFORMATION pH Miracle Center 16390 Dia Del Sol Valley Center, CA 92082-6025 Phone: 760-751-8321 FAX: 760-751-8324 Web Address: www.phmiracleliving.com Science articles: www.articlesofhealth.blogspot.com Email Dr. Young's assistant: Patrick.Sobota@YoungpHorever.org

Wait times for elective procedures can be longer but if it is serious you do not wait. Before my husband retired, all dental, prescription etc. Was covered by his employment. Now we would pay or take out private insurance for that but since neither of us takes much - he takes Synthyroid since he had thyroid cancer several decades ago. Anyway, our prescription meds are cheaper. My sister in law has Parkinson’s and moved to British Columbia and her care was seamless. You can also buy private insurance that is able to fast track you. If you need an MRI you get one. Since mine is in place of a mammogram, it is scheduled yearly. Your point about employer insurance being cheaper than our taxes is valid but no one is left out here. What if something catastrophic happens? What if you have a pre existing condition and move to a different state? None of that matters here. Re distances for care, it would be the same in the States. If you live in Lebanon Kansas, you may have to travel to get to a specialist. I should have not gone on and on but I am so tired of Americans going on about the evils of socialist medicine. We have a place in the Turks where there are a lot of Americans and listening to some of their stories I am grateful for my peace of mind. Again, sorry for my rant.