Colette Bouchez On Health, Beauty, Style , Attitude for Fabulous Women Over 40!: June 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

Lavender & Botox: A Good Combination

By Colette Bouchez

Thinking about trying some anti-wrinkle Botox Cosmetic injections, but feeling just a bit squeamish about needles in your face? Try inhaling some lavender essential oil just before you hit the dermatologist's office and the whole treatment may seem a lot easier to endure.

That’s the suggestion of a new study just published in the June issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology by doctors from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Baumann Cosmetic and Research Institute, both in Miami Beach, Florida.

Here, the researchers found that patients who were treated to the scent of lavender essential oils just before receiving their injection for wrinkles had a significant reduction in heart rate both pre and post treatment, when compared to those treated with a placebo scent.

Although the lavender did not appear to have any impact on the patient’s perception of pain, additional testing showed those who were exposed to the lavender just prior to treatment experienced an increase in parasympathetic nerve activity – which is the body’s natural calming system.

“Lavender has the potential to ease anxiety in patients undergoing invasive cosmetic procedures,” wrote lead study author Lisa Danielle Grunebaum MD.

How lavender eases anxiety

Although this is the first study to test the impact of lavender on Botox Cosmetic injections, the calming effects of this essential oil have been used in the medical arena for quite some time.

In one study on some 150 adults published by the American Society of Perianesthesia Nurses, researchers found lavender oil to be extremely effective in reducing pre-surgical anxiety in a hospital setting.

In another study published in the journal “Phytomedicine” in February 2010, doctors found lavender oil was as effective as the anti-anxiety agents known as benzodiazipene (like Valium) in reducing and controlling panic attacks without the side effects or risk of addiction.

Of course none of this is news to aroma therapists, who have been calling on the almost magical properties of lavender for centuries to reduce anxiety and help folks relax. But how exactly does lavender do this?

Experts say that, like many fragrances, essential oils stimulate our sense of smell – which has a direct impact on our brain chemistry. Indeed, people who have lost their sense of smell are often found to have a greater incidence of psychiatric problems such as anxiety or depression.

On the flip side of the coin, people with an “overactive” sense of smell can sometimes experience great anxiety when exposed to odors that don’t affect most other people.

When you take a whiff of a lavender essential oil the scent enters your body through the cilia – which are ultra-fine hairs that line the inside of your nose. The properties of the scent pass from here directly into the area of your brain that controls mood and emotion. Depending on the scent, this can incite any number of reactions, from a calming effect (like you get with lavender) to a stimulating effect (which comes from smelling jasmine).

Moreover, smelling lavender has also been shown to increase the brain’s “alpha waves” which are produced when we are in a very relaxed state, so in this way it may help contribute to a sense of calmness.

How to use lavender

Continue reading on Examiner.com Beauty buzz: Lavender and Botox a good combination - National beauty news | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/beauty-news-in-national/beauty-buzz-lavender-and-botox-a-good-combination#ixzz1PW088Tmt

Colette Bouchez is an award winning medical journalist and author of ten books on women’s health including “The Hot Flash Solution”, a breakthrough guide for treating hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause naturally.

Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2011 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements. Originally published in the Examiner.com by Colette Bouchez . This blog may or may not benefit from the products and services mentioned or featured on these pages.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Hot Flash: Flaxseed May Not Help Menopause Symptoms

If you’re one of many women turning to alternative medicine as a way of dealing with hot flashes during menopause or breast cancer treatment, you might want to cross flaxseed off your list. That's the suggestion of a new study presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology which found this natural treatment ineffective in controlling hot flashes.

In this randomized, placebo-controlled study of 188 women, doctors from the Mayo Clinic and the North Central Cancer Treatment Group report they found no statistically significant difference in hot flash episodes among women eating crushed flax seed compared to those who didn’t.

This finding contradicts earlier research by the same group which suggested that 40 grams of crushed flax seed daily might be a safe and effective way to treat hot flashes.

"While our preliminary data from our 2007 pilot study showed a reduction in hot flashes associated with the consumption of ground flaxseed, our new study did not result in a significant decrease in hot flashes with eating flaxseed compared to placebo,” said Sandhya Pruthis, M.D., of Mayo’s Breast Diagnostic Clinic and a researcher at North Central.

Flax is a plant grown for both it's seeds and it's fiber. The seeds are what contain the nutritional value while the fiber is used in the manufacture of cloth and paper.

What Causes a Hot Flash?

Hot flashes can occur for many reasons, but the two most common are related to menopause and certain breast cancer treatments. The flashes themselves occur due to rapid changes in body temperature - changes that are ultimately linked to fluctuations in hormones, particularly estrogen.

In fact, while most women believe it is low estrogen that causes a hot flash, in truth, it is really the fluctuations of estrogen– the up-and-down movement that occurs during the “change of life” - that is really behind many menopause symptoms, including hot flashes.

Indeed, as estrogens levels rise and fall they send an erroneous message to your brain, specifically your hypothalamus gland the command central responsible for keeping your body temperature on an even keel. This erroneous message tells your brain that your body is overheated - even when you're not - and must dispense of all this excess heat immediately.

As a result your hypothalamus gland sends a chemical message to your blood vessels to rapidly dilate and release that excess heat.

This rapid release of body heat is what you experience when a “hot flash” occurs.

However, usally within about 5 to 10 minutes your brain figures out that your hypothalamus was “tricked” by those bouncing hormones, and that you really weren’t overheated at all. This in turn causes your brain to send out a new message to immediately stop releasing heat – which is turn causes blood vessels to constrict and the hot flash to subside.

Indeed, the fact that all this heat was released when you really weren't overheated is one reason why many women experience a brief bout of the "chills" after each hot flash.

Natural treatments for hot flashes

Natural treatments such as flax seed are thought to help hot flashes by stabilizing estrogen levels, thus keeping the fluctuations at bay. By doing so, the hypothalamus gland gets fewer “wrong” messages, so fewer hot flashes occur.

Now, however, this new study suggests that flax seed does not appear to have the ability to do this - and might not be the right answer for women seeking natural hot flash relief.

What the study does not tell us, however, is whether or not higher doses of the flax seed might work, or if using this treatment for a longer period of time might change the outcome.

That said, Dr. Pruthis suggests that if you enjoy including flax seed in your diet, you should continue to do so since there it has many other healthful benefits. In addition to being a good source of fiber which can help manage constipation and blood sugar (two other problems related to menopause) flax seed can also be a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, which have other important health benefits during menopause , including helping to control mood swings.

Other natural treatments for hot flashes include herbs such as black cohash, red clover and dong quai.

To learn more about natural treatments for menopause symptoms, including bioidentical hormones visit www.yourMenopause.com .

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

New Way To Predict Breast Cancer Recurrence

One of the most devastating aspects of being treated for breast cancer is the lingering fears over how long you'll remain healthy - and whether or not your cancer will recur

Now, in a study published today in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, doctors from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center say they have discovered a way to take the fear out of post-cancer care with a new test that can determine with some certainty, who is likely to develop a recurrance and who will remain cancer-free.

At the same time the discovery also opens the door on a new type of immunotherapy vaccine that could help prevent the recurrence of breast cancer in all women.

The discovery, say researchers, involves a certain type of immune system cell that is present at the site of the breast tumor. By analyzing these cells experts say they can decipher clues that accurately chart a roadmap of how a patient's body will respond after the cancer treatment is over.

"We know that the body initiates an immune response when it detects cancer, and immune system cells are usually present at the site of the tumor," says the study's lead researcher, Masoud Manjili, D.V.M., Ph.D. assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at VCU Massey.

But, by analyzing these immune cells in a particular way, Manjili says they can determine the overall “ "biological response to the presence of cancer,” which in turn helps predict who will suffer a relapse and who will not.

Currently the two tests used to predict breast cancer recurrence are the Oncotype DX panel and the MammaPrint panel. While they do work, both focus primarily on genes that are being expressed by the actual cancer cells within the tumor.

The new test, says Manjili differs by looking instead for the overall immune system response to the presence of cancer – and this, he says, is what gives the best clues as to whether or not that cancer will recur.

Moreover, experts say it opens the door for a new type of immune boosting therapy that could very well reduce the risk of recurrences even in those women at risk.

“Our findings could lead to clinical trials that test whether using immunotherapy prior to conventional treatments in breast cancer patients with a high risk of relapse could prime the patients' immune system, much like a vaccine, to prevent the likelihood of relapse," says Manjili.

Study details

The study involved 17 female breast cancer patients, all treated at the VCU Massey Cancer Center. At the time of treatment, tissue samples were collected and maintained at the center for seven years.

After follow-up of all 17 patients, eight experienced cancer recurrences within five years, while nine remained cancer-free at seven years.

A closer look at the tissue samples of those who developed the recurrences – compared to those who did not - revealed a specific configuration of the genetic immune system marker, could predict those recurrences with over 85% accuracy.

The researchers say the next step is to study tissue samples from a large patient population to help validate and confirm the importance of the immune system biomarker. They also intend to further test the accuracy of the new biomarker with a long term study to see if, indeed, it can predict who will remain cancer-free over a longer period of time.

Until such time as the accuracy of the test is verified, the American Cancer Society continues to caution all women to remain vigilant about breast cancer screenings including reular mammograms, regular breast self exams,

and, for cancer survivors, regular checkups with your oncologist.

Colette Bouchez is an award-winning medical journalist and author of 10 books on women's health including The V Zone: A Woman's Guide To Intimate Health.