This is your free weekly Hotflash inc roundup. One week until the first August 26 Office Hours, a new monthly online gathering for paid subscribers. I have a limited-time, 20% off special offer here if you want to become one and attend.
• HEART+BRAIN: A big new observational study out of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health found a 28 percent lower risk of dying from dementia in people who consumed just half a tablespoon of olive oil each day versus those who never or rarely had it. The first-of-their-kind findings were pulled from three decades of data in 90,000 people, and had nothing to do with overall diet quality. They back up previous research suggesting better health outcomes for people who choose olive oil over processed or animal fats. Harvard postdoctoral fellow Anne-Julie Tessier said it was possible the effect found from olive oil on the brain stems indirectly from its positive impact on heart health.
• EXERCISE: In research, short bursts of intense activity (three to four minutes) may be associated with a decreased risk of cancer. JAMA Network
• EXERCISE: You might also add in some wall-sitting and planks. British Journal of Sports Medicine
• HRT: A study in more than 100,000 women using oral, estrogen-only hormone therapy that you might not have heard about this summer: “Oral estrogen-only HT use was associated with an increased risk of hypertension in women. In women using estrogen-only HT, nonoral estradiol at the lowest dose and for the shortest time-period is associated with the lowest risk of hypertension.” How much increased risk? Well, 14 percent compared to transdermal estrogen creams and 19 percent compared to vaginal administration. Hypertension
• SYMPTOMS: Have you heard of dyspenia? Neither had Dr Maria Luque, health science professor, fitness and menopause expert (and Hotflash inc expert panel member). Read what she found out about this strange, perimenopause-linked onset of shortness of breath Fitness in Menopause
• HRT: Australian leading testosterone-in-women expert Susan Davis tells it like it is: Don’t believe the hype. Menopausal women don’t all need to check – or increase – their testosterone levels Monash University
• BRAIN: Which Factors Distinguish Superagers From the Rest of Us? "These people were over 80 years old — the fact that there was not much difference between their levels of activity is not surprising. Much more relevant is the question of how you get there — i.e., how active you are at the ages of 40, 50 or even 60 years old.” Medscape
• BRAIN: Well, well, well. Look what has been linked to rising rates of dementia. Researchers examined data in 5,700 people and found that those who took proton pump inhibitors – acid reflux medicine – for more than four years had a 33 percent higher risk of developing dementia that those who did not. Neurology
• BRAIN: It would be nice if more people paid attention to anticholinergic over-the-counter drugs – including anti-histamines– too, as an independent risk factor for developing dementia. This 2021 systematic review suggests it would be prudent. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Menopause at work
• We now have one of the first narrative evidence reviews on the literature regarding menopause in the workplace, published in Maturitas. The authors assessed studies between 2012 and 2023 and found just 12 studies in the UK, South America and Europe, providing a clear indication of just how nascent this work is, and rendering their observation “that there is a lack of high-quality evidence around the impact of the menopause on work” as a dramatic understatement. They grouped the evidence that does exist into the following themes: lack of recognition, sickness absence and costs, work ability, job characteristics, psychosocial and cultural factors, health, mental health and coping, and interventions. Conclusions? ‘Interventions are lacking and more study is needed’.
• This is a pretty good primer on what employers should be considering, even if menopause is not a “protected characteristic”: Legal considerations when supporting menopausal employees People Management
• "Menopausal symptoms threaten the sustainable employability of female workers”: a Dutch study Maturitas
Book you might want to read
British ob-gyn Dr Nighat Arif is a delight to follow on social media and an increasingly powerful voice for all the people who aren’t acknowledged in this conversation, boosted greatly by her fluency in Urdu and Punjabi. Her new book The Knowledge: Your guide to female health – from menstruation to the menopause is one of the few to pull it all together, and to represent and reflect a range of range of experiences, including women of colour, different abilities and cultures, and non-binary and transgender people, to the conversation. For more, check out her recent appearance on Professor Joyce Harper’s podcast What Didn’t Anyone Tell Me This?
Hotflash inc podcast
This week I caught up with my friend, nutritionist and Menopause Shift Summit co-host Andrea Donsky to talk all about her passion: supplements. (Going live this weekend) Andrea knows a crazy amount about this subject, having researched it to the hilt in co-founding her company Morphus. We talk all about what to look out for, what ingredients she loves, and what you need to be careful of too. Morphus supplements are available in the US now. With this brand you can know that you are getting exactly what’s promised – and that’s not something you can say about a lot of options.
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Hotflash inc is at….
• Thank you to fellow MenoClarity member Rachel Lankester for having me on her podcast. What a conversation. Rachel most definitely does not drink the Kool Aid. Magnificent Midlife
• Thank you so much to Lynette Shephard for letting me tell my perimenopause story with such length and depth. Part one is here and two is live too: Menopause Goddess
• I travelled to NYC to be on the Perry panel in late June and it was amazing. You can watch the entire conversation here and here via YouTube
Read, watch, follow, listen + learn
• AGING: Negative thoughts about aging can be harmful. Here’s how to reduce them.Washington Post
• INCONTINENCE: Trista Sutter – the original star of ABC’s The Bachelorette, which seems like it screened a million years ago, and so quaint now – is going through menopause and taking about it. She’s doing this courtesy of a deal with incontinence brand Tena. (I wonder if she knows about The Vagina Coach?) “Dig in and get into the conversation,” she emphasizes, “because I feel like that's the only way we are going to change the culture.” Scary Mommy
• SHERO: Halle Berry Wants You To Forget Everything You’ve Been Told About Menopause: ‘I'm Solidly In My Womanhood’ Women’s Health
• FITNESS: Let’s Talk About Menopause and Running (and adjust & adapt) Women’s Running
• WEIGHT LOSS: In Real Housewives of Beverly Hills news, Erika Jayne fumbles ducking an Ozempic question, and Feud star Jackie Hoffman’s reply “Who loses weight in menopause?” is brilliant. AOL via Watch What Happens Live