Health News and Information

What you eat can change the course of endometriosis enough to make a difference in your life.

The effect of diet on the body is no longer just an issue of sustenance for survival. It is also a matter of health, and even longer life, we know, fairly conclusively, that high cholesterol levels affect heart function, high-fat diets may be connected to bowel and breast cancer, and that salt irrevocably influences blood pressure. Each year, there is more evidence of how certain foods and vitamins have the ability to fuel our immune systems, while other nutrients, or nonnutrients such as caffeine, can cause us problems.

Women with endometriosis, especially those who are enduring chronic pain, may not be eating correctly. This could be more from a lack of appetite or lack of energy than from a lack of knowledge as to what is best to eat. This may also be true of women with mild endometriosis. Nutrition affects recovery rates from disease, and the low-fat, low-salt, low-sugar diet and vitamin plan can make a difference.

Before we get to the actual diet plan, you should know why you will be taking minerals, vitamins, and selected nutritional supplements. These dietary changes will most benefit any woman with endometriosis.

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The total amount of ITV radiation reaching the skin at any given time is influenced by such factors as the season, time of day, latitude, altitude, and conditions of the immediate atmosphere, such as the presence of rain or clouds, and the degree of pollution.

These variations are related both to the scattering of the UV radiation in the atmosphere, and to the distance the radiation must travel through the atmosphere. This distance depends on the position of the sun. Hence, the lower the angle of the sun above the horizon, the greater the atmospheric distance which must be crossed. Therefore, at noon in summer, with the sun almost directly overhead, the UV radiation is the most intense. Of the total UV radiation received from the sun on a midsummer’s day, about 66 per cent of the energy is received between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The ozone layer present in the atmosphere also plays a major role in the absorption of this radiation. The thickness of the ozone layer varies, there being, for instance, a thinner layer in the tropics than elsewhere. As a result the intensity of UV radiation is approximately 15 per cent greater in the tropics than in other places. The ozone layer thickness also varies with the seasons (except in places close to the Equator), It is thickest in the winter and thinnest in the summer, which is why the effects of sunlight are more intense during the summer months.

At high altitudes the effects of UV radiation are greater, because there is less atmosphere to absorb the sun’s rays. Furthermore, in the presence of snow this is augmented by reflection. Contrary to a commonly held belief, water does not reflect but in fact absorbs UV radiation, so that one may become burnt even under the surface of water. Similarly, on an overcast or foggy day. considerable UV radiation will be transmitted by scattering.

Careful studies have shown that in Australia, in the midday summer sun, the earliest onset of burning for those with fair untanned skin, will occur, on average after 12 minutes. In the United States, under similar circumstances, the average time is 20 minutes. Other controlled studies have shown that various environmental factors play an important contributing role in determining the extent of the damage produced by UV radiation. These include wind, temperature and humidity. It has been convincingly shown that a combination of wind, heat and humidity will enhance the injurious effects of this radiation; on their own. however, these factors have no observable effect.

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As the menopause approaches, eggs are produced by the ovaries less regularly, leading to irregular levels of oestrogen and then to an overall decline in the average amount of oestrogen produced each month. (The number of ovarian follicles, and the egg cells they contain, decreases steadily from birth onwards, accelerating after about the age of 35, until by the time of the menopause, only a few egg cells remain.) As ovulation becomes less frequent, the ovaries produce no more progesterone, the lining of the womb no longer thickens each month and periods cease.

Eventually, the time comes when the ovaries produce almost no oestrogen or progesterone, although they continue to produce hormones called androgens. Androgens (of which testosterone is an example) are hormones that produce male characteristics, but these androgens definitely belong in the female body, and influence general health, sexuality and muscular strength. Some androgens are converted to oestrogen in the body’s fat cells, so women with more fat produce more oestrogen after the menopause and may have fewer problems with hot flushes, vaginal dryness and osteoporosis than thinner women. So there is some advantage in having that extra body fat! The disadvantage is that overweight women may produce too much oestrogen, and run an increased risk of developing cancer of the womb or breast. Although all women will be producing some oestrogen from the adrenal glands, there is not enough after the menopause to keep bones strong, prevent menopausal symptoms and protect against arterial disease.

Until the menopause, a woman’s natural level of oestrogens is very much higher than her natural level of androgens. Once the menopause has passed, oestrogens fall to a very low level but androgens continue to be produced; this may explain why older women sometimes develop increased facial hair and their voices deepen slightly.

The coming of the menopause doesn’t mean you are now ‘unfemale’, or unfeminine, or old, unless you let it affect you that way. If you tell people you feel less female, they will start to view you that way; if you start to look, behave and dress like an old woman, people will treat you as old. There are so many advantages to reaching the time of the menopause, it would be a pity to let society’s view of older women spoil it all. You have now left behind you the difficulties of looking after young children, you are almost certainly more confident and self-assured than you were 20 years ago; your periods have ended, and with them premenstrual tension, pelvic aching, cramps, tampons, and the need for using birth control. You are probably better off financially than when you had children and a building society to support, and as family responsibilities lessen there is more time for new interests and activities. The end of fertility does not mean the end of your attractiveness as a person; it can mean a whole new era of your life dawning, full of possibilities for fulfilment that were unattainable when you were younger. In the days when most women didn’t live that long, the menopause meant old age; now women have at least another 30 years left to live, years full of new opportunities.

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Inflammation of women’s reproductive organs is referred to as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). When the Fallopian tubes are affected, the condition is called salpingitis. Pus produced in the tubes or other organs in response to the inflammation may interfere with their normal function and result in symptoms of abdominal pain, fever and tenderness. Any one of a number of micro-organisms may be responsible for PID and it is thought that these are sexually transmitted. PID tends to occur in women who have had many sexual partners or women whose partners have had many sexual partners.

Prompt treatment of PID with antibiotics can bring rapid relief from discomfort. Recurrent episodes of PID can, however, result in irreversible damage to the Fallopian tubes (causing problems with fertility) and persistent symptoms. Techniques to clear blocked Fallopian tubes and restore them to good health are sometimes successful in restoring fertility and reducing pain. These techniques include hysteroscopic tubal cannulation, falloposcopy and microsurgery. If severe PID is resistant to treatment and the woman concerned has no desire to become pregnant in the future, removal of the uterus, ovaries and Fallopian tubes may be considered.

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With the help of the sleep laboratory we can now chart and record sleep patterns and study them later with the help of a computer. Two kinds of sleep are identified. The first kind is REM sleep, during which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and dreams are experienced. In the second kind of sleep there is no rapid eye movement. This is called non-REM sleep or NREM sleep. This NREM sleep consists of the four stages of sleep.

Sleep cycles. When a person falls asleep, he goes into NREM sleep, first entering the short-lived stage 1 sleep and then passing into stage 2 sleep. Stage 2 is the main stage and occupies about 50 per cent of the time spent in NREM sleep. He then goes into stages 3 and 4 of slow wave sleep. After 90 minutes from the onset of sleep he goes back to stage 2 sleep and enters the first REM sleep. The time up to the beginning of the first REM sleep is called the first sleep cycle.

The second sleep cycle starts with the first REM sleep, continues through the four stages of NREM sleep, and ends at the beginning of the next REM sleep. Hence each sleep cycle consists of some REM sleep and some NREM sleep, except for the first sleep cycle which has little or no REM sleep.

Each sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes and, as the night progresses, each REM period, and consequently each dream experience, lasts longer and longer, with the last REM stage in the morning perhaps lasting over an hour. This is why, when we wake up in the morning, we are very often in the middle of a dream. A normal sleep pattern will have four or five sleep cycles a night.

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