Photo via shimc.wordpress.com
It's been quite a while since I've shared a couple of interesting articles on my blog. But, I've come across a few over the past few days that I thought were worth sharing, so that's what we're going to be doing today! Read on for some very interesting excerpts from some very interesting health and yoga articles...
PS. These articles are a bit random. I usually try to share articles that have *something* to do with each other, but not today! My apologies for the lack of connection.
PPS. Also, before you read the first article please note that it is pretty heavy. I read it this past weekend and was blown away by the information that the author shares. I think it's a really important article for any woman in their 20s-30s (who wants to have kids) to read. If you don't want to have kids and don't care about fertility, feel free to skip.
PS. These articles are a bit random. I usually try to share articles that have *something* to do with each other, but not today! My apologies for the lack of connection.
PPS. Also, before you read the first article please note that it is pretty heavy. I read it this past weekend and was blown away by the information that the author shares. I think it's a really important article for any woman in their 20s-30s (who wants to have kids) to read. If you don't want to have kids and don't care about fertility, feel free to skip.
Holly Finn, author. Photo via WSJ.com
My Fertility Crisis by Holly Finn, from The Wall Street Journal
When we were young, we were taught again and again that we shouldn't get pregnant. Now we can't.
I'm not that woman from the Roy Lichtenstein print who forgot to have children. I was never so wrapped up in my career that I didn't think about starting a family. But I'm not over 40 and childless for no reason. I was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition that makes it hard, sometimes impossible, to conceive. I gave too much time to the wrong men. I smoked in my 20s. I preferred red wine to sparkling water. I ate too much milk chocolate. I liked limericks. I know all the wrong that I've done.
...
Many women are still listening to their bosses instead of their gynecologists and their guts. They still trust that their mid to late 30s is a fine time to start trying for children. True, they could get lucky. But the question should be asked: Would you prefer to have children earlier and naturally or later, by dosing yourself up with drugs, submitting to surgery and paying tens of thousands of dollars? In the first scenario, you'll probably have as many children as you'd like, and they'll be healthy. In the second, you may be able to have only one or two kids—maybe none—with a higher risk of defects and disorders.
...
Nora Ephron has written how she regrets not having worn a bikini the entire time she was 26. "If anyone young is reading this," she writes, "go right this minute, put on a bikini, and don't take it off until you're 34."
The first thing I'd like to tell women ages 26 to 34 is: Start having babies. I know it's not polite or funny. But I don't want others to go through what I'm going through now.
-Click here to read the entire article on WSJ.com.
In the full article, Finn discusses what fertility treatments really entail. She also outlines the probabilities and percentages of getting pregnant at various ages, and it's extremely eye-opening. I'm one of those people who knows that I want to have kids, but at some time "way down the road"--not in the foreseeable future. This article really puts things into perspective and reminds me that as a woman, having children is something you have to think about and plan--before you realize that you've missed your time and are unable to do it anymore. Again, if you're in your 20s-30s and plan on having kids, I recommend reading the entire article!
When we were young, we were taught again and again that we shouldn't get pregnant. Now we can't.
I'm not that woman from the Roy Lichtenstein print who forgot to have children. I was never so wrapped up in my career that I didn't think about starting a family. But I'm not over 40 and childless for no reason. I was diagnosed with endometriosis, a condition that makes it hard, sometimes impossible, to conceive. I gave too much time to the wrong men. I smoked in my 20s. I preferred red wine to sparkling water. I ate too much milk chocolate. I liked limericks. I know all the wrong that I've done.
...
Many women are still listening to their bosses instead of their gynecologists and their guts. They still trust that their mid to late 30s is a fine time to start trying for children. True, they could get lucky. But the question should be asked: Would you prefer to have children earlier and naturally or later, by dosing yourself up with drugs, submitting to surgery and paying tens of thousands of dollars? In the first scenario, you'll probably have as many children as you'd like, and they'll be healthy. In the second, you may be able to have only one or two kids—maybe none—with a higher risk of defects and disorders.
...
Nora Ephron has written how she regrets not having worn a bikini the entire time she was 26. "If anyone young is reading this," she writes, "go right this minute, put on a bikini, and don't take it off until you're 34."
The first thing I'd like to tell women ages 26 to 34 is: Start having babies. I know it's not polite or funny. But I don't want others to go through what I'm going through now.
-Click here to read the entire article on WSJ.com.
In the full article, Finn discusses what fertility treatments really entail. She also outlines the probabilities and percentages of getting pregnant at various ages, and it's extremely eye-opening. I'm one of those people who knows that I want to have kids, but at some time "way down the road"--not in the foreseeable future. This article really puts things into perspective and reminds me that as a woman, having children is something you have to think about and plan--before you realize that you've missed your time and are unable to do it anymore. Again, if you're in your 20s-30s and plan on having kids, I recommend reading the entire article!
Stanley Cup MVP Tim Thomas Talks Yoga and Shows Us from YogaDork
Yes--a professional hockey player that does yoga! Astounding! You can read an article that highlights a few of his quotes about yoga here, or you can just watch the video below (really interesting!):
Yes--a professional hockey player that does yoga! Astounding! You can read an article that highlights a few of his quotes about yoga here, or you can just watch the video below (really interesting!):
Coming from a family of hockey players (my dad and both my brothers play), I HAD to share this one. I hope they watch it! And yes, it is becoming a trend among professional athletes to try yoga. More and more are doing it and loving the way it changes their body, their balance, and their ability to focus. Go team yoga, go!
Photo via well.blogs.nytimes.com
How Exercise Can Keep the Brain Fit from The New York Times
For those of us hoping to keep our brains fit and healthy well into middle age and beyond, the latest science offers some reassurance. Activity appears to be critical, though scientists have yet to prove that exercise can ward off serious problems like Alzheimer’s disease. But what about the more mundane, creeping memory loss that begins about the time our 30s recede, when car keys and people’s names evaporate? It’s not Alzheimer’s, but it’s worrying. Can activity ameliorate its slow advance — and maintain vocabulary retrieval skills, so that the word “ameliorate” leaps to mind when needed?
Obligingly, a number of important new studies have just been published that address those very questions. In perhaps the most encouraging of these, Canadian researchers measured the energy expenditure and cognitive functioning of a large group of elderly adults over the course of two to five years. Most of the volunteers did not exercise, per se, and almost none worked out vigorously. Their activities generally consisted of “walking around the block, cooking, gardening, cleaning and that sort of thing,” said Laura Middleton, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and lead author of the study...
The effects of this modest activity on the brain were remarkable, Dr. Middleton said. While the wholly sedentary volunteers, and there were many of these, scored significantly worse over the years on tests of cognitive function, the most active group showed little decline. About 90 percent of those with the greatest daily energy expenditure could think and remember just about as well, year after year.
-Click here to read the entire article on nytimes.com.
Yet ANOTHER reason to live an active lifestyle. Do we need more? So get your grandparents up and moving...invite them to join you for a walk, get up and garden, play with the dog. And do so yourself as you age.
Come across any other interesting articles this week? If so, please share!
Namaste,
Mary Catherine
For those of us hoping to keep our brains fit and healthy well into middle age and beyond, the latest science offers some reassurance. Activity appears to be critical, though scientists have yet to prove that exercise can ward off serious problems like Alzheimer’s disease. But what about the more mundane, creeping memory loss that begins about the time our 30s recede, when car keys and people’s names evaporate? It’s not Alzheimer’s, but it’s worrying. Can activity ameliorate its slow advance — and maintain vocabulary retrieval skills, so that the word “ameliorate” leaps to mind when needed?
Obligingly, a number of important new studies have just been published that address those very questions. In perhaps the most encouraging of these, Canadian researchers measured the energy expenditure and cognitive functioning of a large group of elderly adults over the course of two to five years. Most of the volunteers did not exercise, per se, and almost none worked out vigorously. Their activities generally consisted of “walking around the block, cooking, gardening, cleaning and that sort of thing,” said Laura Middleton, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and lead author of the study...
The effects of this modest activity on the brain were remarkable, Dr. Middleton said. While the wholly sedentary volunteers, and there were many of these, scored significantly worse over the years on tests of cognitive function, the most active group showed little decline. About 90 percent of those with the greatest daily energy expenditure could think and remember just about as well, year after year.
-Click here to read the entire article on nytimes.com.
Yet ANOTHER reason to live an active lifestyle. Do we need more? So get your grandparents up and moving...invite them to join you for a walk, get up and garden, play with the dog. And do so yourself as you age.
Come across any other interesting articles this week? If so, please share!
Namaste,
Mary Catherine
