While about 95% percent of the body is water, protein, and tats, the remaining 4 percent is accounted for by minerals. When we think of minerals, the first one that comes to mind is calcium. Others include magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, iodine, potassium, and sodium. Hard skeletal structure is composed primarily of minerals, but we could not survive or reproduce without adequate and balanced amounts of the minerals that form the nuclei of soft tissues such as muscle and nerve cells.

Minerals are responsible for regulating a few crucial functions, such as nerve responses, and for maintaining the acid-base equilibrium that helps in the absorption of minerals and contraction of muscles.

Second in rank after calcium in the amount present in the body, phosphorus has been found to have more functions than any other mineral. About 80 percent of it will combine with calcium to strengthen bone structure, and the remainder nourishes soft tissues and bodily fluids. Among its important functions is to help metabolize fats and carbohydrates and fuel muscle energy metabolism. Unfortunately, many high-phosphorus foods are anathema for the endometriosis sufferer, since they tend to be high in fat and cholesterol. These include egg yolk, red meat, and whole-milk cheeses. Other foods are better bets, such as lean turkey breast and whole-grain cereals. Fruit, which you want to limit during the menstrual cycle and the ten days preceding it, is low in phosphorus, as are most vegetables. (Fruits contain bioflavonoid, which can mimic the effect of estrogen in the body.) If you have enough calcium and protein in your diet, you should be getting enough phosphorus.

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The promotion of tanning has become big business. In our society a good sun tan is equated with health, success and sexual desirability. ‘Soft sun’, ‘Dr X’s Solarium’, and ‘Safe sun’ are just some of the reassuring terms used to describe the booming business of tanning bodies. Solarium franchises are currently the most successful and lucrative of all the franchise businesses in the United States and are booming in Australia as well. Unfortunately, however, these are probably the two countries whose people’s skin are least able to tolerate the extra radiation. In fact the UVA units originally came from Europe, and Germany in particular, where there is much less environmental sunshine and what there is, is of less intensity; furthermore in Europe these units are primarily promoted for private home use, not public use in tanning parlours, beauty salons, hairdressing salons, gymnasiums, etc. This means that in addition to their potential harmful effect being greatly diminished, far fewer people are at risk.

The artificial light sources used in the solariums are usually fluorescent tubes emitting UVA wavelengths predominantly. However it is impossible for them to be totally confined to this wavelength as a continuous spectrum is emitted, and at least 2 per cent of the wavelength will be in the UVB band. Tanning is usually carried out on a bed-like apparatus with either half or total body exposure possible; exposure times are long, therefore stand-up arrangements are less practical. Exposure of the average Caucasian skin to UVA solariums will produce tanning within about 10 minutes, with the maximum tanning being reached in about an hour. Burning, although certainly possible, is unlikely. The acquired tan is, however, short lived, and requires regular frequent exposures to maintain it. UVB solariums are much more likely to cause burning, but the tan they produce is the so-called ‘true or delayed tan’, which is associated with new melanin formation and consequently is longer lasting. It is, however, important to be aware that although a tan protects against UVB sunburn, it does not protect the skin from the cancer-producing or premature ageing effects of UVA radiation. This is because, in order to tan, some epidermal and dermal damage must occur.

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‘I heard that the earlier you start your periods the earlier they finish.’

‘Oh, I thought it was just the opposite, that the earlier you started the later you finish.’

When used by doctors, the term ‘menopause’ means, literally, ‘last menstrual period’, but women use it to mean that whole period of their lives between first starting to experience menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes, and the end of their periods and the troublesome symptoms. Doctors use the word ‘climacteric’ to describe this period (from the Greek klimakier, meaning a critical period’), and they divide it loosely into three phases:

Pre-menopause. When periods are still regular, but the first symptoms may appear – usually hot flushes and mood changes.

Peri-menopause. When the ovaries’ function declines, periods become irregular, and symptoms either start or become troublesome. This leads up to the time of the last menstrual period.

Post-menopause From the time of a woman’s last period until the end of her days.

The problem with the concept of a ‘last menstrual period’ is that a woman doesn’t know she has had her last period until quite a long time afterwards. Was that last period the last one, or will you get another one in several months’ time? It’s not until about a year has passed without a period that it is safe to say you have finished. Consequently, the period of time we call the menopause (and doctors call the climacteric) has no clear beginning or end. For some women it will last only a year, for most about two to three years, but about one quarter of all women will still be experiencing ‘short-term’ menopausal symptoms five or more years after they began.

It isn’t known exactly what determines the age at which a woman reaches the menopause. Nutrition is important; poor nutrition brings it on earner. Women who have never borne children tend to have an earlier menopause than women who have had several children, and those whose last pregnancy occurred before their late twenties reputedly have an earlier menopause than those whose last pregnancy was in their thirties. Smokers reach the menopause up to five years earlier than non-smokers, probably because smoking lowers oestrogen levels, and ‘passive smokers’ (non-smokers who live or work amongst smokers) also tend to have an earlier menopause.

As a rough guide, most women (though by no means all) will experience the menopause at about the same time as their mothers or older female relatives did. But how do you know when that was? It’s highly likely that neither your mother nor your elderly aunts ever discussed with you their experiences of the menopause; hopefully, you will feel better able to talk to your daughter about it than your mother did to you.

It is safe to say, however, that at some time in your middle years, things will start to change. It is most likely to happen around the mid to late forties, occasionally in the early fifties, and in some women it can happen as early as their thirties. Although the age at which girls start their periods has got earlier over the last few hundred years, the average age for the menopause still remains at about 50. In the third century BC, Aristode noticed that women couldn’t have children after about the age of 50. In the Middle Ages, the age was put at 50-ish, and it is still that today. We can still expect to end our reproductive days at about the same age our pre-Christian forebears did, despite the fact that our expectation of life has more than doubled since then.

*6\42\4*

Many women in their fertile years become moody and tense and feel ‘down’ in the week before their menstrual periods. In about 2-8% of women these changes are severe. They may also feel hopeless and angry, may be easily distracted and disinterested in work, friends and hobbies. In addition, their breasts may feel swollen, their heads may ache, their abdomens may feel bloated, and their joints and muscles painful. Difficulties with sleepiness or sleeplessness may also pose problems. Within a few days of starting to menstruate, these difficulties diminish or disappear.

Women for whom these sorts of changes occur at a predictable time in most menstrual cycles may be suffering from premenstrual syndrome. Hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle are sometimes blamed for the condition but it seems there is also a strong psychological component. Distress from other sources, such as marriage, parenthood or occupation, may interact with hormonal changes resulting in intermittent negative moods and behaviours.

Patricia, a 35-year-old mother, sought help for severe irritability, uncontrolled anger, confusion, insomnia, fatigue and low libido, which typically appeared two weeks before her period and disappeared about a week after bleeding stopped. With a thirty day menstrual cycle, this meant she experienced only about eight days when she felt well and ‘in control’ of her situation. Doctors occasionally suggest a hysterectomy in such circumstances in a bid to relieve symptoms that are disrupting relationships and generally making life a misery. There is, however, little evidence to support the value of this approach as symptoms often persist after hysterectomy.

Patricia found a coping skills program incorporating anxiety-reduction techniques and responsible assertiveness training to be extremely helpful. Within twelve weeks she was increasingly positive about her relationships in all directions and regarded her premenstrual phase as a time when she felt ‘out of sorts’ but from which she would recover her competence within a day or two.

*21\198\4*

The total amount of REM sleep at night occupies about 25 per cent of the total sleep time and this proportion stays relatively constant throughout life. Hence we now know that one-quarter of our sleep is spent in dreams, and dreams are part of a healthy nightly sleep.

Now what is the importance of REM sleep and dreams? Physiologically it appears that we cannot do without REM sleep; it is an important part of the sleep cycle. Dr William Dement, the leading sleep expert, performed the following experiment with his sleep subjects. On the first night, whenever he was sure that his subjects were beginning to enter REM sleep, he woke them up and then allowed them to fall back to sleep again. This deprived his subjects of any REM sleep and hence dreams. To his surprise, the subjects appeared to enter REM sleep again and again, and more and more frequently as the morning approached. As many as 30 or more awakenings were required to prevent REM sleep from starting again. In other words, the more you try to prevent someone from dreaming, the more he has to.

The next night, Dement’s subjects were allowed to have a normal sleep without any disturbance. It was observed that they now had an excessively large proportion of REM sleep and dreams. Dement suggested that there was a need to dream. After the deprivation of REM sleep, there is a rebound as if to make up for the debt of REM sleep, and this is called REM rebound. More recent studies, however, show that suppression of REM sleep does not lead to any physiological and psychological ill-effect. The real significance of REM sleep has yet to be determined.

*21\174\4*