Tips for Women Over 50 Who Want to Look 10 Years Younger

by: Dale Kathryn Grove
Women over 50 can appear at least 10 years younger than they are and are in position to capitalize on their experience and vitality. Why would you want to look and feel younger than you are?

It could be vanity, maybe a personal challenge to increase your fitness level, maybe just better health and maybe because you are back on the market as a newly single woman. Most women will be single for a good portion of their later years. Women who date younger men are referred to as cougars however men have been dating younger women since time began and there is no corresponding term for them. Women should be able to choose who they want to date, and what they want out of life without being referred to in a derogatory way. I find it interesting that some women in their 50s when approached about starting a skin care routine or using makeup say, “I’m too old to start now.” At 50, we have in most cases at least another 30 years of life left. We are at an age where we have experience, education, money and often, an empty nest. It’s time to really embrace everything life has to offer and do the things we have always put aside because our focus has been on raising a family and working. Did you know that women, who wear makeup, on average, earn 12% more than women who don’t? When you look good, you feel good and that in turn improves your attitude. I suspect that looking your best improves confidence, which in turn would lead to better on-the-job performance. Purchase a good skin care routine that includes anti-aging products and use it daily. In most cases a quality fragrance-free skin treatment program is safe for even sensitive skin. If you rarely wear color cosmetics take the time to find some that you will be comfortable with. Makeup, that is subtle, will enhance your best features and will make you stand out as someone who cares about their appearance. If you already use color cosmetics you are ahead of the game. Allot some time in your day to exercise and stretch. Many women these days are active physically and have better health than previous generations. If they do not have a gym membership there are many activities that can tone and firm their physiques while being fun; inline skating, tennis, rock climbing, yoga. I was shocked recently when I took my grandson bowling that it is great activity to firm the gluts and arms. Clothing choices, in a large way, determine how people see you however it is not necessary to spend lot of money to look good. Reading about clothing trends helps you choose clothing that is fashionable and appropriate for your lifestyle. Whether it is for pleasure or work, choose separates that allow you to mix and match using a couple of basic colors with a few accent colors thrown in. If everything in your closet co-ordinates, dressing in the morning is easy. That will eliminate the “I have nothing to wear syndrome.” As women in our 50s we are a powerful force in our communities, our work place and our families. Take time for yourself! It energizes you and as Steven Covey believes, it “sharpens the saw.” By deciding to take charge of your appearance, fitness, health, and attitude you open doors that you may have thought closed for you. [source : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/women/article_2890.shtml]

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Smile! It could predict success of your marriage

Researchers: People with big grins in old photos more likely to stay married By Clara Moskowitz If you want to know whether your marriage will survive, look at your spouse's yearbook photos. Psychologists have found that how much people smile in old photographs can predict their later success in marriage.

In a second trial, the research team asked people over age 65 to provide photos from their childhood (the average age in the pictures was 10 years old). The researchers scored each person's smile, and found that only 11 percent of the biggest smilers had been divorced, while 31 percent of the frowners had experienced a broken marrige. Overall, the results indicate that people who frown in photos are five times more likely to get a divorce than people who smile. While the connection is striking, the researchers stress that they can't conclude anything about the cause of the correlation. "Maybe smiling represents a positive disposition towards life," said study leader Matthew Hertenstein, a psychologist at DePauw University in Indiana. "Or maybe smiling people attract other happier people, and the combination may lead to a greater likelihood of a long-lasting marriage. We don’t really know for sure what's causing it." Hertenstein said he has considered other explanations, such as the possibility that people who smile more often tend to attract more friends, and a larger support network makes it easier to keep a marriage healthy. Or it could be that people who smile when a photographer tells them to are more likely to have obedient personalities, which could make marriage easier. The results of the study fit into a larger pattern of research that has found many personality characteristics can be determined from very thin slices of behavior. Basically, we often reveal ourselves in the most subtle, simple ways. And smiling in photographs has been shown to be correlated with a number of traits, including a generally happier disposition . "I think [our results] go along with a lot of the literature that’s been coming out over the last five to 10 years, which shows that positive emotionality is incredibly important in our lives," Hertenstein told LiveScience. "There are many, many beneficial outcomes to a positive disposition." The findings are also notable because they found a connection between photos taken when people were young and marriage outcomes that sometimes occurred much later. "It feeds into this idea that what's occurring earlier in our lives in terms of our present situation and our mental state can predict things that occur decades later," Hertenstein said. "Showing the continuity in who we are is really important." The study is detailed in the April 5 issue of the journal Motivation and Emotion. [Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30213316/ ]

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Men and women see beauty differently

Study: Gals use whole brain to process a pretty sight; guys use right side

WASHINGTON - Beauty is in the brain of the beholder. Go to any museum and there will be men and women admiring paintings and sculpture. But it turns out they are thinking about the sight differently. Men process beauty on the right side of their brains, while women use their whole brain to do the job, researchers report in Tuesday's electronic edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. They even explain it differently. Novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Essayist David Hume: "Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them." Researchers were surprised by the finding. "It is well known that there are differences between brain activity in women and men in cognitive tasks," said researcher Camilo J. Cela-Conde of the University of Baleares in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. "However, why should this kind of difference appear in the case of appreciation of beauty?" Language of beautyThe answer seems to be that when women consider a visual object they link it to language while men concentrate on the spatial aspects of the object, Cela-Conde said in an interview by e-mail. He noted, however, that this doesn't explain why — and how — the human capacity to appreciate beauty evolved. "The differences that we have found might relate to the different social roles that, hypothetically, men and women had during human evolution." he said. The researchers tested 10 men and 10 women, showing them paintings and photos of urban scenes and landscapes, asking them to rate each scene as either "beautiful" or "not beautiful." At the same time the scientists looked at images of the magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brains of the men and women. For the first 300 milliseconds, there was no difference between male and female brains, and from 300 to 700 milliseconds activity was greater for objects that were rated as beautiful than for those that were not beautiful. For both sexes the most active region was the parietal lobe that deals with visual perception, spatial orientation and information processing, but it was focused on the right side of the brain in men while both sides participated in women. While there are differences between people as to what is beautiful and what isn't, Cela-Conde said they did not find identifiable differences related to sex. "Any person can find beautiful a landscape, a building or a canvas that some others will find awful. But sex has little to do with those differences. Perhaps they relate with other variables, such as age or education." he said. "It is curious that, using different neural networks, the final result is very similar in women and men. But this seems to be the case," Cela-Conde said. He added: "Human nature is complex and difficult to study and understand. Nevertheless, thanks to scientific tools we are starting to know a bit more about some very important aspects of our nature." [Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29355425/]

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Breast Cancer

About The Disease Breast cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the breast. Risk Factors Older age. Menstruating at an early age. Older age at first birth or never having given birth.

A personal history of breast cancer or benign (noncancer) breast disease. A mother or sister with breast cancer. Treatment with radiation therapy to the breast/chest. Breast tissue that is dense on a mammogram. Hormone use (such as estrogen and progesterone). Drinking alcoholic beverages. Being white rather than Latina, Asian or African American. Genetic Link The genes in cells carry the hereditary information that is received from a person’s parents. Hereditary breast cancer makes up approximately 5 to 10 percent of all breast cancer. Some altered genes related to breast cancer are more common in certain ethnic groups. Women who have an altered gene related to breast cancer and who have had breast cancer in one breast have an increased risk of developing breast cancer in the other breast. These women also have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer, and may have an increased risk of developing other cancers. Men who have an altered gene related to breast cancer also have an increased risk of developing this disease. Tests have been developed that can detect altered genes. These genetic tests are sometimes done for members of families with a high risk of cancer. Testing Mammogram: An X-ray of the breast. MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging, which takes place inside a tunnel-like scanner, makes detailed images of the breast with a magnet and radio waves, but without radiation. Biopsy: The removal of cells or tissues so they can be viewed under a microscope to check for signs of cancer. If a lump in the breast is found, the doctor may need to cut out a small piece of the lump. A pathologist views the tissue under a microscope to look for cancer cells. There are four types of biopsies: Excisional biopsy: Removal of an entire lump or suspicious tissue. Incisional biopsy: Removal of part of a lump or suspicious tissue. Core biopsy: Removal of part of a lump or suspicious tissue using a wide needle. Needle biopsy or fine-needle aspiration biopsy: Removal of part of a lump, suspicious tissue or fluid, using a thin needle. Estrogen and progesterone receptor test: A test to measure the amount of estrogen and progesterone (hormones) receptors in cancer tissue. If cancer is found in the breast, tissue from the tumor is examined in the laboratory to find out whether estrogen and progesterone could affect the way cancer grows. The test results show whether hormone therapy may stop the cancer from growing. Factors Affecting Prognosis The stage of the cancer: whether it is in the breast only or has spread to lymph nodes or other places in the body. The type of breast cancer. Estrogen-receptor and progesterone-receptor levels in the tumor tissue. A woman’s age, general health and menopausal status (whether a woman is still having menstrual periods). Whether the cancer has just been diagnosed or has come back. [Sources: AP, National Cancer Institute., http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6852960/]

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More proof depression hurts women’s hearts

Big surprise in study was antidepressant use’s link to sudden cardiac death WASHINGTON - Severe depression may silently break a seemingly healthy woman's heart.

The depressed women were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death — death typically caused by an irregular heartbeat, concluded the 12-year study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. They also had a smaller increased risk of death from other forms of heart disease. The big surprise: Sudden cardiac death seemed more closely linked with antidepressant use than with the depression symptoms the women reported. That might simply mean that women who used antidepressants were, appropriately, the most seriously depressed, cautioned lead researcher Dr. William Whang. But he said the finding merited more research. An independent risk factorStudies of the newer antidepressants most often used today so far haven't signaled a risk of irregular heartbeat, and some even have suggested protection, noted Dr. Redford Williams of Duke University, a specialist in how psychosocial factors affect health. The drug question aside, Williams said the work adds to growing evidence that depression is an independent risk factor for heart disease — on top of the classic risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking. The predominantly white Nurses' Health Study may underestimate it, Williams said. "If anything, the impact in African-American women is probably greater," he said, adding that it's time for the next step: A study testing whether properly treating depression lowers the risk. Why might depression have that effect? The study found that the more severe the women's reported depression symptoms, the more likely she was to have traditional heart risk factors. Also, stresses like depression have been linked to such physical effects as a higher resting heart rate. Perhaps a more straightforward reason: Depression can make people do a worse job taking care of themselves. Indeed, the American Heart Association last year recommended that everyone who already has heart disease be regularly screened for depression — because depressed patients may skip their medications, sit indoors instead of exercising, and eat particularly poorly. [Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29602359/]

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