Long ring finger ups risk of arthritis
Check out your fingers. Is your ring finger longer than your index finger? Mine is. Uh Oh. That means I have nearly double the chance of developing osteoarthritis, according to a recent study.
Size differences between ring fingers and index fingers have already been linked to sexual and physical ability and performance in university exams, but researchers have now discovered that arthritis might also be connected to the size of fingers.
Type 3 Finger Pattern is what it's called when people have the common male trait of a shorter index finger, and it's now been linked to arthritis of the hips and knees. More common in women than men, the mechanism that accounts for this finding -- and one linking this finger pattern with early onset menopause -- is unknown.
Sounds like I could be headed for future health issues. How about you?
Staying healthy, fit and trim keeps just about any woman looking and feeling younger, but time rolls steadily along when it comes to those ovaries. Yet if Father Time is late when it comes to the arrival of your date with menopause, it can be a plus.
How dark is your room at night? For me, not so much. I'm a little afraid to admit it but I might be, um, just the teensiest bit afraid of the dark ... hey, you, stop laughing! I'm serious. It goes back to my childhood when I watched the episode of Little House on the Prairie where Mary woke up and discovered she was blind. Ever since then, I need to have a little bit of light in my room when I sleep so that when I wake up, I can see something and prove to myself that, yet again, I woke up with my eyesight intact.
Hormone replacement therapy has been a subject of controversy for a while now. A recent study
I was sure when I saw the article The Grapefruit-Cancer Connection in February's
Menopause is a fact of life for women. But is it a reality for men too?
If you're planning to have your ovaries removed before menopause happens, a new study indicates that you may hive a
Bad news ladies: Not only does your metabolism slow down as your age, but 
Apparently the Beatles were right when they sang "I get by with a little help from my friends". Well, as far as women are concerned at least. As shows like Sex and the City have shown, women tend to turn toward their girlfriends when they're having trouble with work, kids, boyfriends, husbands and anything or anyone else out there that adds stress to their lives.
Osteoporosis and weak bones are generally thought of as a women's issue, and although women are 4 times more likely to suffer from "brittle bones," with 1 in 12 men getting the disease it's a serious issue for them too.
After being diagnosed with cancer I read everything that I could about the disease and what contributes to it. The word "steroid" was implanted in my mind as a big "No No" that contributed to certain cancers. Six years later one of my medical doctors studied all of my medical reports even as far back as childhood, when I had a high ANA reading on a blood test. She immediately referred me to a Rheumatoid specialist to determine if I had lupus. Sure enough I was diagnosed with lupus and one of the first things he mentioned was steroids for the inflammation. I threw up my arms in an "X" as if to ward off the medications that could bring more cancer back into my life. He set me at ease a little bit on the various types of steroids and why I needed them to control the inflammation in my joints, pleurisy (inflammation around lungs), and pericarditis (inflammation around heart).
Good news for women seeking help with their menopause symptoms, but are leery of all the risks associated with taking pills: the French recently published a study that shows hormone patches and hormones gels are
The plethora of birth control methods leaves nobody out these days -- from pills to devices to chemicals to...well, you get the picture. With the release of quite a few new birth control "pills" on the market in the last few years, there have been some safety concerns on several of these products.
I've been a walking commercial for tea tree oil ever since I discovered the wonders it could work on my skin. Anything that needed to heal, be less red or less dry- I'd put tea tree oil on it and, poof! It seemed to be a miracle cure, and it came from a tree. I felt good about that.







