‘I just coped’: Kirsty Wark on breaking the silence about menopause

‘The most disconcerting side-effects were disturbed sleep and night sweats, waking up literally wrung out, with no discernible pattern to either,” says Kirsty Wark. She sounds as measured, informed and professional as is her norm when presenting Newsnight but Wark is talking about something much more personal than current affairs: her menopause.

Wark is fronting a documentary that will air on BBC1 on Thursday: The Menopause and Me. Her involvement in the programme comes from her own sudden and unexpected experience. She had a “medical menopause” at the age of 47, after a hysterectomy and after coming off hormone replacement therapy(HRT) because of fears over its reported link to breast cancer.

“Suddenly, I had no oestrogen and the disturbed sleep and night sweats started. By the time I started making the documentary, nothing much had changed for me in 12 years and I just coped with it, as so many others do.”

But, aside from the obvious physical battle she had to endure, what Wark also struggled with was the apparent silence surrounding the menopause. In many households it is still not discussed and, in those that do broach the subject, it is often talked about in hushed tones as “the change”.

“It’s not so long ago that the hormonal changes that came with menopause were regarded as madness – the madwomen in the attic,” says Wark. “Mythology has a lot to answer for.”

Just 50 years ago, menopausal women tended to suffer alone, mortified by hot flushes and bewildered by hormonal mood swings. There was also a general acceptance that they should retire into the shadows in case it bothered anyone else. The very idea that work colleagues might know or show empathy was anathema.

It has, however, long been the subject of comedy, featuring in episodes of Father Ted and Absolutely Fabulous, as well as in routines by Les Dawson. Jennifer Saunders – who had a cancer-induced menopause – is both funny and uplifting in the Wark documentary. “There’s a moment when you realise everything’s changed,” she says. “Your metabolism, energy levels, skin, hair … so I just had a large glass of champagne and got on with it.”

This 2001 episode of Absolutely Fabulous is called Menopause – the subject crops up frequently on comedy programmes. Photograph: Brian Ritchie/BBC

Not until relatively recently has it started to be something that is not ignored or giggled at, or both – and this is partly owing to the willingness of celebrities such as Wark and others to speak openly about it.

In a recent interview with People magazine, Gillian Anderson talked about a sense of life falling apart when she experienced perimenopause, the hormonal transition prior to menopause. “All of a sudden, I felt like I could handle nothing. I felt completely overwhelmed,” Anderson said. “When I talked to the specialist, she said she often gets phone calls from female CEOs screaming, ‘I need help now! I’m losing my mind!’ I felt like somebody else had taken over my brain.”

She credits Angelina Jolie with helping change the stigma when she spoke openly about her menopause after having her breast and ovaries removed because of being genetically at risk of breast and ovarian cancer. “Perimenopause and menopause should be treated as the rites of passage that they are,” Anderson told People. “If not celebrated, then at least accepted and acknowledged and honoured.”

Cynthia Nixon, famous for her role in Sex and the City, has also been open, although she had a completely different experience from Anderson, telling the Telegraph that she and her wife are going through the menopause together. Nixon wasn’t upset, revealing: “There has been no sadness for me, because once you hit 50, you’re done.” She cites the advantages of passing childbearing age and experiencing it together. “Although I have a six-year-old, the freedom that comes from no longer being fertile is huge.”

Those differing experiences also highlight a potential problem in being more open about menopause, since symptoms can vary wildly. We have gone from a culture where it was rarely mentioned to, in some cases, one where women suffering badly ask for special consideration in the workplace. This leads to inevitable scepticism not just from men, but from other women who simply don’t suffer to the same extent and feel their colleagues should just put up with it.

Wark’s response to this is to suggest we should all be a bit kinder in the workplace if colleagues aren’t feeling well – which is possibly the best approach.

Wark’s programme is also for partners, husbands, family, friends and employers, to help give them an understanding of what women go through when they enter the menopause. Every angle is explored, with many women and one husband talking about loss of libido, weight gain, hair loss, joint pain and the almost unspeakable vaginal atrophy. 

It’s also useful as a reminder that times change – everyone recognises the classic image of menopausal women as witch-like harridans exhibiting seriously odd behaviour – and that the modern menopausal women is more likely to be leading a busy and satisfying life.

Many confident, articulate women are now talking and writing about the menopause, with India Knight and Christa D’Souza producing highly entertaining books, and Miranda Sawyer writing on the subject with such penetrating honesty and empathy that you wonder if she has been poking about in your own mind.

Gillian Anderson spoke of a sense of her life falling apart following her perimenopause in an interview with People magazine. Photograph: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Many women live a third of their lives post-menopausal, often at the peak of their careers and still with big plans. Medical advances are also making a huge difference to women’s experiences – and how they are seen to be dealing with it by those around them.

Wark admits she was surprised by how much she learned during the making of the programme, particularly from Dr Heather Currie, chair of the British Menopause Society and consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary in Scotland. Currie also runs the Menopause Matters website.

“Discovering Heather was on HRT was an absolute eye-opener for me,” says Wark. “The US study that prompted me to come off HRT has been considerably revised and HRT only increases the risk of breast cancer if you are already predisposed. I’m back on a small dose of HRT and think I’m starting to see my sleep improve.”

Currie says a new paper by Professor Robert D Langer demonstrates that errors in the study led to 15 years of unnecessary suffering for women who stopped HRT. “There’s a better understanding of risk,” she says. “For most women who commence HRT under the age of 60, or within 10 years of the menopause, it provides more benefits than risks, including symptom control, as well as improved urogenital, bone and cardiovascular health.”

She adds: “The study didn’t show any statistically significant increased risk of breast cancer or heart disease in women using HRT, yet the highly publicised conclusions emphasised these risks. It’s hard to come back from such panic-inducing headlines but I think we are getting there, with more women talking to their GPs about the consequences of menopause and treatment options.”

WHI Study errors led to 15 years of unnecessary suffering for women who stopped HRT.

Dr Heather Currie

Carol Smillie, another famous face who has previously spoken openly about incontinence and periods, thinks women should not be afraid to talk with GPs, friends and family about the menopause. “We live in a far more tolerant society than our parents did,” she says. “Look how far we have come with issues like gender and disability; menopause is more openly discussed and therefore better understood now.”

It is a sentiment echoed in India Knight’s book, where she writes: “There’s a whole third of life to go. That’s not an ending – it’s a thrilling new beginning. And as you approach the years ahead, you do so at the height of your powers. You know more than you’ve ever known. You are the wisest you’ve ever been.”

THE FACTS

The menopause is when a woman stops having periods and cannot get pregnant naturally. It usually occurs between 45 and 55, as oestrogen levels decline. The average age in the UK is 51.

Common symptoms include hot flushes – sudden body temperature changes that produce heat and sweating – night sweats, irregular periods, decreased libido, vaginal dryness and mood swings.

Treatments include HRT and gabapentin, which have received mixed reviews in treating hot flushes and can have significant side-effects.

The most significant recent development is the clinical trial of a new drug carried out by Dr Julia Prague and colleagues at Imperial College London that promises the development of an effective way of reducing hot flushes. The drug is currently undergoing further trials and if these are successful it could make a considerable difference to women’s lives.

Alternative remedies include bio identicals and evening primrose oil.

‘I just coped’: Kirsty Wark on breaking the silence about menopause

A moment that changed me: a teacher’s acceptance of my silence | Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Selective mutism wasn’t a diagnosis in common usage among teachers back in the 1980s when I started school; at least, no one ever used the phrase around me. I didn’t hear it until I was an adult, when suddenly it gave a name to “the thing that stopped me speaking for around 25 years of my life”.

It certainly doesn’t feel selective if you’re stuck in it. As described on the website ispeak, selective mutism (SM) is “a severe situational anxiety disorder … [which] generally starts in early childhood but can, if not treated early enough, continue into adulthood. Children and adults with SM are often fully capable of speaking … but cannot speak in certain situations because they are phobic of initiating speech.”

I was just a quiet kid at first – very shy, very jumpy – and I can’t remember exactly why that turned into just not talking any more. There often isn’t a specific reason SM children stop talking; it just happens. I stopped on one of my first days at school, when I mimed colouring a finished picture with a crayon for about an hour, because I couldn’t make myself speak to the teacher. The pretense continued until she realised that no child takes that long to perfect a daffodil.

Physically, I was able to talk. I was fine speaking to my family at home, as soon as the front door closed, but life away from those safe spaces became almost silent, and silent kids who stare wide-eyed at the floor just creep people out after a while. Especially teachers. “She’s very shy” turned into “She won’t answer me”. “She’ll certainly never go to university” in year 2 became “She frequently has a pained expression and does not communicate” in year 5.

‘Selective mutism a lot like being frightened all the time and waiting for the next bad thing to happen that you won’t be able to stop.’ Phoebe-Jane Boyd (centre) with her brother David and sister Tammy.

The problem was, as one of those kids that cared deeply about what adults thought of them, and genuinely valued good behaviour, not speaking was an Ironman challenge of self-destruction. Whenever a new adult with a wavering smile waited expectantly for me to answer them, I’d be torturing myself: “I need to answer her now – I have to, because she’s so uncomfortable, she’s worried. Stay still and she’ll leave.”

It’s difficult to explain the feeling of selective mutism to someone who’s never been trapped in it. It’s a lot like being frightened all the time and waiting for the next bad thing to happen that you won’t be able to stop. It’s not being able to force a decent voice out, even when you desperately try – a tiny whisper will emerge instead, and it hurts. For the kids at school it meant they could press their forearm against my throat in a hallway between classes if they were having a bad day, and it would be OK; they knew I’d just freeze and wait it out. Yelling, punching, stealing, touching – I’d hear my name being whispered as I went to classes, contorting me into a seven-hour school day cringe, adrenaline always raging.

Teacher after teacher would take me aside to gently ask if there were problems at home, did I get on with my parents, had anything changed recently? I’d fume, inside: “You just watched the class dipshit bounce my head off a wall because he doesn’t understand what you’re teaching him, and you’re asking me if the problem is at home?” What would struggle out was a hoarse “No” and I’d mentally file the teacher away as an idiot. Every year, every subject: “Phoebe works hard but never asks for help”, “Must try to discuss ideas more freely”, “If she were not so shy … ”

On a year 10 parent night schedule, I angrily scrawled this note for my mum: “I hate oral work, tell him to be more gentle on me when we do it! Tell him what we did with The Merchant of Venice was stupid and pointless! I get really upset and worried about performing in front of the class! Please tell him!” But teachers are there to prepare you for the world, not protect you by letting you skip reciting Shylock when it’s your turn. The message they’d instilled in me about what would happen outside, after school, had sunk in deep: I was not OK. Until I received a different message, at 17, from my English literature teacher, Mr Pearman.

He had a blank face that showed no concern about whether his classes were taking in the lesson or not. He’d calmly insult kids he didn’t like with words he knew they wouldn’t understand, and enjoy the confused look he’d get back. He told us, while turning on the overhead projector and leaving it empty, about a fun game he liked to play of turning the projector on with nothing on it to see how long the class would stare stupidly at the wall.

“I hear your other teachers saying you don’t talk,” he told me one day, after I’d been in his class a few weeks. “It’s not a problem. I’ve read your work – it’s good. So, it doesn’t matter to me what you say or don’t. You don’t worry me.” He shrugged, and calmly gazed at me; quiet.

Thank you. “Thank you, thank you,” I whispered quickly, mind whirring: “How can I sum everything up to him – he knows already though, doesn’t he? But I want to tell him. I can’t, but I want to do that for him.”

I couldn’t yet. But that was the start.

A moment that changed me: a teacher’s acceptance of my silence | Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Period pain: why do so many women suffer from menstrual cramps in silence?

I’d never been squeamish about talking about bodily functions. At university, I was a peer contraceptive counselor (meaning I handed out condoms on the quad and happily explained the inner workings of our reproductive systems to fellow students) and I’ve gone so far as to solicit drawing of vulvas from people, so I was surprised that when I started experiencing menstrual cramps so bad that I could hardly get out of bed in the morning, I kept quiet. Despite the fact that the pain made it so hard for me to go to work, it took me a year to tell my boss. And I hardly mentioned it to my closest friends and family.

Dysmenorrhea, the technical term for extreme period pain, is a common problem. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, up to 20% of women suffer from menstrual cramping severe enough to interfere with daily activities. But unlike the skiing-aficionado in your office who excitedly explains how he broke his arm on the slopes, many menstruating women grimace through their pain in silence.

Vagina Dispatches: Stopping Periods

In 2013, I was surprised to find myself as one of these silent sufferers. I started having two-week-long periods accompanied by cramps so bad I couldn’t move for days. I bled heavily for 12 to 30 days at a time, often with only days of a break in between. Put another way, the average ovulating woman has bled for a total of nearly one year since the 2012 election but I’ve nearly doubled that. Added together, I’ve had my period for longer than Trump’s presidential campaign. Hard to say which is worse.

When I finally had surgery to have fibroids removed from my uterus this year, friends remarked how they’d had no idea I was ever suffering. Now that I’m recovered, I have the energy back to think through what happened. Why didn’t I speak up about my menstrual pain? Why don’t others?

Some doctors don’t take women’s pain as seriously

For women who do speak up, their pain is often downplayed or ignored. I’ve read story after story after story after story of women whose pain was not taken seriously by physicians when something was seriously wrong (I saw three specialists before I was finally treated properly). A study, The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain, found that while women experience “more frequent and greater pain” than men, they are likely to “be less well treated than men for their painful symptoms”.

Dr Beth Darnall, a clinical associate professor in the division of pain medicine at Stanford University and a pain psychologist at the Stanford Pain Management Center has seen this phenomenon first-hand. She said that by the time patients reach her pain clinic, they’ve “seen multiple providers, they’ve been through primary care for their pain, they’ve probably seen another specialist, and then they come to us”.

It’s already hard to be a woman in the workplace

As a woman in the workplace, there is a maze of social issues navigate. You need to pay extra consideration to how to talk, how to dress and how to ask for a raise … and you still may receive a biased performance review. Considering that the mere fact of having a woman’s name can be enough to hold you back from a promotion, it’s easy to imagine how you might not want to remind your co-workers about your painful bleeding vagina.

Some companies are adopting menstrual leave policies to deal with the problem. Coexist has created an official “period policy” to let women take time off after director Beth Baxter noticed “women at work who are bent over double because of the pain caused by their periods” who “feel they cannot go home because they do not class themselves as unwell.” But not everyone is in favor of this idea. Self magazine found that women at Coexist were divided on the policy, but those arguing against it wanted more flex time for all employees.

Menstruation is still stigmatized

Periods are such a social taboo that in one study, women who dropped tampons out of their purses were perceived asless well liked and considered less competent. Others didn’t want to sit next to them. So you can imagine my anxiety about displaying an ultra-level tampon (yep, they exist) on my way to the bathroom.

It was hard to talk about the pain I suffered from an abnormal period, but it’s often as hard to even talk about normal ones. This is a large part of what the Vagina Dispatches series is trying to address. It’s hard to talk about periods, period. Even ads for tampons and pads – supplies designed specifically for periods – still show blue liquid instead of blood.

… and as a result, women aren’t receiving the education they need

Menstruation is natural, but for it to cause extreme pain isn’t. However, because so many of us are never taught very much about what to expect from our periods in the first place, it’s hard to tell when something’s wrong. “Menstrual pain is wrapped up in a natural female phenomenon,” Darnall said. “We may be more likely to minimize it until it’s a really big problem.”

Some celebrities, such as Lena Dunham and Padma Lakshmi, are raising awareness about menstrual pain. But even those without famous names or named disorders shouldn’t suffer in silence.

Period pain: why do so many women suffer from menstrual cramps in silence?

DfE emails show officials wanted to silence mental health tsar

Department for Education (DfE) officials appear to have been working to sack Natasha Devon, the government’s schools’ mental health champion, over her criticism of government policies even as they publicly denied doing so, according to internal emails obtained by Devon.

Devon, who was dropped from her role after she repeatedly argued that the government’s own education policies were contributing to poor mental health among young people, said the DfE emails confirmed her fears that the department had been trying to silence her.

In March, two months before her role was axed, one DfE official wrote that although they wanted to avoid the appearance that the department was dropping her because of her criticism, “it cannot be feasible that she continues”.

In another email a month later, an official writes: “Every day is another day she could be saying something damaging – and if that happens we will kick ourselves for not acting sooner.” But after the Guardian broke the news that Devon would be axed, she received a text that read: “What the Guardian have printed is ludicrous – We want to work with you more, not less!”

After reading the emails, Devon said they showed that the government’s policies on children’s mental health was little more than “a PR exercise” and confirmed her fears at the time that the department had been trying to silence her.

She said the emails revealed a government more worried about her comments on Twitter than the crisis in mental health among young people. “I can’t believe the ineptitude,” she said. “It’s like a script from [the BBC political satire] The Thick of It.”

Devon, who was appointed with some fanfare by the government in August 2015 to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding young people’s mental health, put in a subject access request to see government emails concerning her role after her dismissal in May.

At one point one official exclaims: “I know I keep saying this but please can everyone monitor her Twitter?”

Elsewhere the tone changes. After the news broke that her role was being cut, one DfE email read: “I think we now need to take ND down a peg or two.” A couple of days later, another said: “She is having her fifteen minutes and hopefully she is nearly at the end.”

Devon, who has almost a decade of experience of working in schools as the founder of the Self-Esteem Team and Body Gossip which deliver mental health education to young people, said her experience of working with government had “played havoc” with her own mental health.

When she was appointed she was told it was an important role – though unpaid to ensure impartiality – and would give her an opportunity to influence policy. In the end, it was “window dressing”, to help the government get coverage on GMTV and in other lifestyle media, she said.

Though Devon was hired because of her ability to talk to young people, department officials objected to her choice of language on social media.

When she uses the word “dickwad” in response to a story about a young woman being bullied for speaking out about sexism, one DfE email reads: “It is obviously totally unacceptable for a government-endorsed champion to swear and use offensive terms as she does … I have just called Natasha and she was surprisingly unapologetic.”Asked on Friday to respond to the internal emails and Devon’s criticism of the government’s policies on young people’s mental health, a DfE spokesperson said: “Natasha did a great job of helping us to raise the profile of young people’s mental health during her appointment.

“Since that time, the independent NHS taskforce report has been published which recommended that a cross-government mental health champion be created – for this reason we had to reconsider the department’s own role.”

Devon has now compiled a comprehensive report on children’s and young people’s mental health based on what she uncovered during her nine-month tenure as government mental health champion and her own work in schools.

She said of the government’s approach to young people’s mental health: “They talk a good game but they don’t get it. There was no real understanding of the severity of the situation. They would say the words, but I did not feel there was any kind of urgency.”

DfE emails show officials wanted to silence mental health tsar

Abortion in Ireland: ‘Silence is breaking 12 hearts a day’

Ireland’s abortion regime has been responsible for a litany of tragedies in recent years. The death of Savita Hallapanavar, denied a life-saving abortion during her miscarriage; the state-sponsored abuse of Miss Y, a suicidal teenage asylum seeker and rape victim, forced to carry her pregnancy to viability and deliver by C-section; a brain-dead woman kept alive, effectively as an incubator, against her family’s wishes. And there are plenty more mundane, yet nonetheless heartbreaking, stories of approximately 12 women a day who travel to the UK to access abortion services.

In the last year, something fundamental has shifted. The Irish pro-choice movement is getting loud. Actors and writers including Tara Flynn, Helen Linehan and Susan Cahill have publicly shared their abortion stories, bravely breaking taboos. An “abortion bus” flouted the law to tour Ireland distributing medication. Comedian Gráinne Maguire had us all tweeting details of our periods to the taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Activist Anna Cosgrave designed distinctive Repeal jumpers, so that on any given day in Dublin you will see supporters with their commitment to repealing the 1983 eighth amendment to the constitution emblazoned across their chests. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The last two weeks have seen some of the most extraordinary activism yet in the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment. Under the Twitter handle @twowomentravel, two friends live-tweeted their journey to England so that one of them could access an abortion, turning a personal crisis into a powerful political action. Answering my questions, on the condition that her anonymity was preserved, the companion explained that while planning the journey her friend decided she wanted something good to come from it for Irish women.

“What’s the alternative?” she asks, “Silence? Silence is breaking 12 Irish hearts a day. Silence is trapping migrant women in desperate situations, silence has the blood of Savita on its hands, silence is the shape of Miss Y’s devastation. Silence has devastated the women and girls of Ireland, but now it’s time to talk, and get real.”

They certainly got real. The pictures they shared were striking in their ordinariness: boarding an airplane in the cold grey of dawn; views from taxi windows; waiting rooms with magazines; a basic hotel. They tagged Kenny in each. The most controversial image is a lightly bloodstained sheet, which they felt was important to show: they were certainly not the first women to face a long trek home, bleeding and sore.

“The anti-choice brigade have been all over that photo,” the friend tells me. “The realities of women’s bodies have been glossed over for too long. We bleed, and we birth, and it’s not pretty, but that’s life, and that reality needs to be brought to the fore. There’s no realism in the philosophical focus of the anti-choice side. They can speculate until the cows come home about when life begins. In fact, they have speculated so loudly and for so long that real lives of women and girls have ended unnecessarily.”

When #twowomentravel returned, 48 hours later, they had tens of thousands of Twitter followers and were making international headlines. “We could never have expected the response we received. It was surreal. Where do you even begin thanking people for standing with you in that situation?”

They believe that Kenny saw their tweets: “He stopped posting updates on the Olympics, which he had been doing regularly,” she says. In her view, Kenny going offline speaks volumes. In any case, they are not surprised by his silence.

“He has no compassion, no interest in the lives of women. There are more than 100,000 women who went before us. He could have listened to any number of them, and he didn’t. He owes over 3,000 women a year a whole lot of money and remorse.”

The #twowomentravel hashtag was brimming with gratitude and solidarity. But there were also, inevitably, anti-choice pundits aggressively shaming the women. “We were showing photos of waiting rooms, taxis, flights. In response, we got bombarded by violent rhetoric accusing both of us of murder, bombarded with pictures of mutilated foetuses.”

Perhaps the strangest criticism came from detractors who refused to believe that the anonymous women existed. Seemingly, even though a dozen women a day make this journey, the notion that one of them would refuse to be shamed into silence defies all logic.

The friend I interview is scathing of such critiques: “Nobody has to believe us. Our dignity does not rely on that. But I will say this: if you are sceptical of an eloquent, salient, honest and cutting telling of the travesty that faces so many Irish women, you are a sexist. If you doubt the ability of women to tell their stories with ferocity and confidence, even in crisis, you are a sexist. If you doubt us because we have succeeded in defying you, you are a sexist. We are not meek, and we owe no explanations.”

Right now, the friends are processing everything that has happened – one healing and taking time out following her abortion, the other dealing with media. They intend to keep fighting. “We have to break the hold of silence. We can no longer whisper. We have been failed for too long. Now is the time to be loud.”

Abortion in Ireland: ‘Silence is breaking 12 hearts a day’

4 Basic Juice Recipe That Safely Silence Chronic Pain

4 Basic Juice Recipe That Safely Silence Chronic Pain

Pain Management: five Juice Recipes To Silence Joint Soreness

Many men and women suffer from joint soreness largely lead to by Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and gout. Joint injuries and an inflammatory situation called bursitis are also acknowledged to trigger joint ache.

Specified fruits, greens and other plant foods like spices and include organic phytonutrient compounds with anti-inflammatory properties, like Bromelain in pineapple. Cherry juice also reduce joint soreness and inflammation. Turmeric is wealthy in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds like curcumin.

five Juice Recipes to silence Arthritis Soreness

Turmeric Sunrise

Substances:

Apples – 2 medium
Carrots – 3 medium
Celery – 3 stalk
Ginger Root – 1 thumb
Lemons (peeled) – two fruit
Pears – 2 medium
Turmeric Root – six thumb

Instructions:

Method all elements in a juicer, shake or stir and serve.

Strawberry, Pineapple, Mint

Ingredients:

Pear – 1 medium
Peppermint – 15 leaves
Pineapple – one/two fruit
Strawberry – one cup

Directions:

You might have troubles juicing the mint leaves if you use a centrifuge juicer. Try out to bunch them up into a tight ball or pack them into some lettuce before juicing. If all else fails, just stick a number of mint leaves in the juice itself to get some of the minty taste.

Green smoothie

Elements:

Apples – 3
Celery – four stalks
Ginger – ¼ inch knob, peeled
Lemon (with rind)
Orange – one peeled
Spinach – five handfuls

Instructions:

Put together every ingredient.
Add every little thing into the juicer. (Note: Peeling is not required when utilizing natural generate)
Include everything to the juicer, extracting the juices appropriately.
Transfer to a clean, glass container.
Drink and enjoy!

Pineapple spinach

Ingredients:

5 ounces pineapple about one cup
four ounces pear about 1 cup
2 cups spinach with stems
1 (two-ounce) bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley with stems
one/two medium carrot
1/four cup freshly grapefruit juice

Directions:

In juice extractor, approach pineapple, pear, spinach, parsley, and carrot, skimming foam if required. Stir in grapefruit juice, chill if desired, and serve.

Juice is very best served right away but will keep, refrigerated, in airtight container up to two days.

Carrot, grapes and turmeric

Substances:

four slices fresh pineapple
1 large handful of cherries
1 handful of red grapes
1 big carrot
two in (5 cm) piece of fresh root ginger
4 modest pieces turmeric root

Route:

Wash all elements properly.
Reduce pineapple and remove pit from cherries.
Juice and appreciate!

Reference and sources:

http://fitlife.tv/5-juice-recipes-to-ease-rheumatoid-arthritis-ache_original/

http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/ease-your-joints-juice/

http://foodbabe.com/2013/09/30/anti-inflammatory-smoothie/

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2014/07/31/pineapple-juice-postpones-joint-soreness/

Pain Management: five Juice Recipes To Silence Joint Soreness

The widget that promises to silence the snorers

As effectively as minimizing the amount of apnoea fatalities (the problem doubled people’s probabilities of dying within the period studied), the Remede will also, it is anticipated, relieve the burden on the nation’s legal program. How? By cutting down the number of murders carried out by sleep-deprived household members who have found that no foam-based earplug will ever neutralise the nightly solo.

And let no a single feel for one particular minute that snoring is to be taken lightly. We could give it a bit of a jokey, outdated-guy title, compared with the onomatopoeic French word ronflement and the gutturally ghastly German term schnarchen, but the fact stays that, on any provided evening, nearly half the adult population of the United kingdom engages in a bit of audible passage-clearing.

When upon a time, the bedrooms of Britain had been alive with Kinsey researchers investigating our really like lives. These days, although, figures compiled by the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association reveal that a nightmarish 41.five per cent of adults engage in the audible crime that is fatty-tissue flatulence.

And don’t think it is just male sleepers who register large scores on the ronflement scale. Once again, the BSASAA is on hand with the sobering statistic that for each and every two.3 men who snore, there is 1 lady matching them grunt for snuffle.

Given that one particular of these serial-schnarchers is my wife (I really don’t snore, but make an annoying tongue-clicking), there must be a lot of partners of each sexes for whom rest is not so much a matter of gently drifting off as becoming constantly frightened by a foghorn.

Certainly, when I dipped a tentative foot into the snoring pond, some surprising revelations rose up from the deep. “One morning, after a night away, the family members sharing a room, I woke up with a vague recollection of my eight-12 months-old daughter attempting to smother me with a pillow,” volunteered 1 father. “When I asked her if this could be true, she explained, ‘Yes, Daddy. You were snoring.’”

Which factors to the irony of the entire thing, in that the snorer has – at the time – no concept they are keeping any person awake. A single wife even paid testimony to her husband’s impeccable manners every time jabbed with the elbow of retribution. “He will invariably apologise with the best politeness, and turn above,” she sighed. “And in the morning, he never ever has the faintest recollection. It is fully unconscious.”

At the identical time, however, it turned out that rather significantly less of the spirit of the Geneva Convention applied in yet another marital bed. “My wife presented me with a recording on her iPhone of my snoring,” testified one husband. “I may possibly well have to retaliate – right after all, she’s got a cold at the second.”

But stunned even though the snorer could be to wake up and be presented with audio evidence of their crimes, there is, says the NHS internet site, no mystery about why people snore.

“Fatty tissue around your neck squeezes the airways and prevents air from flowing in and out freely,” it says. “Also, alcohol brings about the muscle tissues to loosen up far more than normal for the duration of a standard night’s rest. This additional relaxation of the muscle tissues can make the back of the throat collapse much more readily, which then leads to snoring.

“Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the nasal cavity and throat, leading to swelling and catarrh. And getting overweight by just a handful of kilograms can lead to snoring.”

In other phrases, it’s all our fault. If only we weighed less, smoked less, had a sub-16½ in neck size, and downed our last drink at least 4 hours just before we went to bed, the rafters would not resound about us.

Personally, however, I’d like to place in a word for the behaviour which, in my knowledge, is the single most influential element in snore-provoking: lying on your back. I don’t hold a clipboard record, but every time I wake up in the middle of the night, from a dream which involves Mount Etna erupting, I am confronted with the identical tableau.

Instead of lying at the nice, neat, BSASAA-accredited 90-degree angle to her pillow, my wife has shifted place and adopted a sprawling, flat-on-her-back posture. Not only that but her mouth is in complete, wide-open, insect-catching mode, and her lips are doing the variety of breezy burbling that starts off really gently, but then builds up a complete-throated snore-roar.

The only advantage of the kids getting left home is that I can beat a bleary retreat to a single of their rooms at the back of the house, the place the sounds of 747s arriving at Heathrow come as a welcome lullaby to my ears.

Once, when unable to rest since of wifegrowl, I even went downstairs to search for a remedy on the pc, where, I identified the following, chilling words: “Snoring,” I read, “cannot be cured, but it can be controlled.”

And that, it appears, is that. Just as no a single actually bothers that males in the United kingdom have a three-year lower existence expectancy than women, so no one looks that concerned that, each night, some 15 million people in the United kingdom send up a cacophonous chorus of snoring.

Now, however, hope might be on hand. Testing of the Remede device in America has developed quantifiably higher “sleep efficiency” among the folks who have attempted it, and given them an alternative to obtaining to wear a breathing mask.

Personally, I’d be fine if my wife wore a mask, so prolonged as it wasn’t 1 with a frightening encounter. Even far better, even though, would be if, as an alternative of me shoving her into a sideways, snore-free position, an implant did it for me. I really don’t mind receiving the blame for often waking her up. But it would be great if, every single so often, I could get a matchbox to do it for me. Am I prepared for the Remede? Yes, by all that goes bump in the night, I am.

The widget that promises to silence the snorers

Older individuals in NHS care suffering in silence, says overall health services ombudsman

Dame Julie Mellor, the parliamentary and wellness services ombudsman. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Older men and women may be “struggling in silence” underneath NHS care since they are reluctant to complain about the care they get, the parliamentary and wellness services ombudsman for England has said.

Dame Julie Mellor believes above-65s either concern a backlash if they raise troubles or will not like producing fuss, that means watchdogs are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of critical failings.

“Older folks are some of the most regular consumers of the NHS but they are much less very likely to complain about remedy and care when specifications slip to unacceptable levels,” Mellor explained in an report for the Day-to-day Mail on Monday.

“Our analysis displays that a quarter of older men and women never know the place to go to complain about the NHS, despite using the support much more frequently than folks underneath 65. Complaints are a gift to the NHS because that is how improvements are accomplished. Older individuals should be encouraged to complain and taken significantly when they do.”

Mellor said: “Nearly 80% of all the investigations we carry out are about NHS services. Even even though virtually half of NHS care and solutions are given to older people, only a third of the health complaints we investigate are about the care of older individuals.

“Of the situations we do see, there are frequent themes operating by means of complaints about the care of older people,” the ombudsman stated. “Misdiagnosis, personnel attitudes, poor communication with sufferers and households, substandard nutrition, and individuals not currently being treated with dignity, just to title a few.”

Calling for a “cultural shift in the way” complaints are dealt with across the well being and social care technique, Mellor said: “More needs to be carried out to tackle the toxic cocktail of reluctance by individuals, carers and families to complain, and a defensive response from the NHS when they do.”

In an interview with the Guardian final yr, Mellor accused hospital boards of “not understanding from their patients’ experience to avoid problems from taking place again”, warning that failure to listen sufficiently to individuals and discover from their complaints – as occurred in the scandal at the Mid Staffordshire NHS trust – was not exceptional.

Older individuals in NHS care suffering in silence, says overall health services ombudsman

Elderly "suffer in silence" beneath NHS care, says watchdog

“But my fear is that as well numerous older people are suffering in silence. Practically 80% of all the investigations we carry out are about NHS solutions.

“Even even though nearly half of NHS care and solutions are given to older men and women, only a third of the well being complaints we investigate are about the care of older individuals.”

She also highlighted widespread themes of complaints created including misdiagnosis, staff attitudes, bad communication with sufferers and families, substandard nutrition, and sufferers not being taken care of with dignity.

The ombudsman called for a modify in attitudes as well as the method of creating a complaint.

She explained: “A lot more wants to be completed to tackle the toxic cocktail of reluctance by individuals, carers and families to complain and a defensive response from the NHS, when they do.

“Creating a complaint must be effortless and transparent. And folks must be supported to do so. Usually older individuals worry damaging repercussions when they make a complaint or they merely do not like to ‘make a fuss’.”

She stressed that if folks have been not happy with the way the NHS handled a complaint, they should complain to the Parliamentary and Overall health Support Ombudsman.

Elderly "suffer in silence" beneath NHS care, says watchdog

Initial patient safety ombudswoman fights to adjust NHS culture of silence

Delilah Hesling sees herself “as an individual who speaks reality to power and whose loyalty is first and foremost to [her] patients in partnership.”

It is sad but true. It typically requires a scandal to bring about true modify. In 2009, Margaret Haywood, a nurse at the Royal Sussex hospital in Brighton, acquired a lifetime ban from nursing for misconduct right after she “breached patient confidentiality and place filming before her nursing duties” by documenting the neglect of elderly individuals, the footage of which appeared in a BBC Panorama documentary. Two years, and a petition signed by 150,000 individuals later on, Margaret Haywood was restored to the nursing register. After the salutary mishandling of this appalling care, heads rolled, the chief executive altered and the neighborhood believe in appointed Delilah Hesling as the country’s initial patient security ombudswoman. 

Why her?

Hesling explained: “Ahead of, for the duration of and after the Television scandal I had been blowing the whistle myself on really bad care and untoward incidents and I was not listened to both. As a Royal School of Nursing representative I led a collective grievance against the believe in on behalf of 13 other nurses who felt coerced into breaching the Nursing and Midwifery Council code of specialist perform. I was then targeted by management and suspended for a 12 months however the charges towards me had been with no basis. I was sooner or later reinstated with an apology.”

Hesling is not just a frontline emergency care nurse and whistleblower. She finds time for in depth voluntary function about homelessness and her longstanding involvement in fighting racism.

She says: “The factor that drives me to stand up so strongly for sufferers and personnel is the memory of my own private unpleasant experiences. The surprising realisation of how bad a culture can get in a caring organisation gave me two alternatives. I could avert my gaze and leave or consider to be portion of changing items. I stayed.”

Her position provides an intermediary, impartial, independent, confidential service to all individuals, their loved ones and personnel when they have concerns about patient security. 

She adds: “It constantly feels like an uphill struggle but the greatest pleasure I get is the countless times staff and individuals inform me, ‘thank God I located you’. 

“Most employees, specifically the ones I have assisted, are so glad my position is there to help increase their problems. In excess of the two years I have been in submit a trickle of help has become a steady stream. The factors I uncover most irritating are familiar to several NHS employees. As in numerous other trusts, the organisational reluctance to say ‘sorry’, and the harrowing bureaucratic complaints and disciplinary processes, constantly exacerbate the discomfort of the complainant.”

Hesling is convinced alter can come. ”Poor leadership is the root of the difficulties. Accountability needs to start at the top. There is even now some defensiveness, and denial is often the initial response specially from some who must know far better. I have discovered several whistleblowers say they come to feel empowered after they have faced the concern and find out how to raise issues effectively. Other people are still too afraid to be named. Even with my position, and my willingness to speak out no matter what the value, there are personnel here who have suffered genuine detriment for speaking out even even though they were instrumental in making real adjustments for the advantage of individuals.”

So can other trusts understand from her encounter?  

Many other trusts have approached Hesling since she gave evidence at the Francis inquiry, asking how they may establish a related part. Her tips is that true independence, confidentiality and impartiality are the most essential components of the position. Hesling argues that if each believe in had a patient safety ombudswoman position, and they met often as a group and reported en masse to the CQC, then the quality of patient security inspections would be enhanced spectacularly at a stroke.

Hesling no longer sees herself as an institutional whistleblower but “as an individual who speaks truth to power and whose loyalty is 1st and foremost to my sufferers in partnership.”

She is sceptical that crowds of inspectors visiting hospitals for days, or even weeks at a time, will uncover what is going on in an organisation. “The best it supplies is a snapshot of a extremely short sample of care delivery, perhaps a wake-up phone. It will take individuals on the ground to detect a genuinely toxic culture. Inspection, quality manage, requirements to be created into the program on web site in genuine time every day.” 

Hesling believes that considering that the Francis report there have been seismic modifications in the consciousness of a lot of NHS staff regarding the catastrophic consequences of “shooting the messenger”, no matter whether family members, sufferers or members of personnel. She believes “ingrained unethical cultures will take time, courage and leadership to modify”.

She is undertaking her bit to bring that about. No wonder other folks locate her a redoubtable inspiration.

This article is published by Guardian Expert. Join the Healthcare Experts Network to receive typical emails and unique delivers.

Initial patient safety ombudswoman fights to adjust NHS culture of silence

Soapbox: SMEs should smash the wall of silence all around mental well being, says Patrick Watt

Watt pointed out that in accordance to the mental well being charity Mind, one in 6 employees are impacted by mental overall health issues. That signifies that in an organisation of ten individuals there might effectively be a single and perhaps two folks who are impacted by a mental overall health concern.

He mentioned: “Psychological wellness is a hidden problem that is impacting enterprise functionality. We want modest and medium sized companies to kick start the development of the economy, so if one in six people are not executing to their optimal level that has implications not just for the company but for the economic climate as a entire.”

Watt stated that at current a lot of personnel hide psychological health issues since they fear that speaking out could have an adverse impact on their careers.

He stated: “Staff are in search of assist for therapies of physical conditions because they are not ready to admit they have a mental problem. We are seeing much more individuals come to us with skin disorders or upset stomachs since they will not really feel comfortable putting their hands up and saying they need support for psychological overall health problems.”

Watt explained that contrary to what some men and women believed, it is feasible to effectively treat psychological sickness and pointed out that there are a lot of treatment options and therapies accessible to help individuals get much better.

Watt known as on SME leaders to introduce modifications in the workplace to help decrease the affect of stress on their workers, such offering entry to yoga classes, encouraging folks to consider suitable lunch breaks, and discouraging them from sending emails at the weekend.

He stated that even though most circumstances of tension tend to come from outside the function area, it can be small things at function like a computer not doing work or telephone calls not becoming answered that produce a tipping stage.

He stated: “There are a lot of things you can do to lessen pressure and stress and there are plenty of support and resources out there to support individuals.”

Watt also called on company leaders to develop a supportive work setting exactly where mental overall health troubles are viewed in the same way as physical health concerns are.

He additional: “No-a single would be concerned about putting their hand up and saying they require four weeks off to recover from a broken leg, but if a person has tension or nervousness or depression, no-one desires to say anything. Chief executives should lead by instance and tell their staff their business is supportive to these folks searching for support, and that there will no consequences to those coming forward.”

Soapbox: SMEs should smash the wall of silence all around mental well being, says Patrick Watt