Join Leslie Carol Botha on Monday, March 19 on KRFC FM when she interviews T.S. Wiley, on her book, ‘Sex Lies and Menopause: The Shocking Truth about Hormone Replacement Therapy” and her work and research on Rhythmic Cyclic BHRT and the development of the Wiley Protocol using natural cyclic hormones for menopause. Wiley has made numerous national radio and television appearances and since 2000 continues to present and lecture on Multi-Phasic, Rhythmic Cyclic BHRT and Hibernation and Metabolic States. Wiley’s Seminar’s on the Natural History of Endocrinology are attended by physicians from all over the world and they are awarded CME credits for her work.

T.S. Wiley is the author of “Sex, Lies & Menopause,” Harper Collins, 2003, the hypothesis of which explains why postponing marriage and motherhood, women have accelerated the aging process and put themselves in the bull’s eye for breast cancer. The book also examines the introduction of the birth control pill in the early 1960’s and the impact of not breast-feeding our young. In her previous book, “Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival, ” Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, 2000, Wiley succinctly and logically argues that electricity and the light bulb put us out of sync with nature as the ultimate “endocrine disruptors”.

People spent summers, before electric lights, sleeping less and eating heavily in preparation for winter because the light triggered the hunger for carbohydrates. Now, light is available 24 hours a day. Heating and air-conditioning climate control our hormonal responses to consume carbohydrates now available year round. This is the scenario for obesity, Type II diabetes, and depression.

In Wiley’s opinion, sleep is the best medicine. T.S. Wiley has also published peer-reviewed scientific papers in molecular oncology and endocrinology, as well as lecturing globally and teaching physicians Environmental Endocrinology in Planetarium settings around the world. Her newest work in process is “Manthropology”, exploring how medicine and modern life are killing men. Find out more about the study of bio-identical, bio-mimetic HRT on her website, www.thewileyprotocol.com

Read the complete article and related information at ‘Sex, Lies & Menopause’ Author T.S. Wiley on Holy Hormones Honey!

Friday Weird Science: Does your menstrual blood attract BEARS?!

Neurotic Physiology
Feb 03 2012 Published by scicurious under Friday Weird Science

While Sci was listening eagerly to Kate Clancy’s appearance on Skeptically Speaking last Sunday (you’ll be able to download the episode soon), I was flabbergasted to find out that there is a rumor out there that, if you go out hiking on your period…you might attract BEARS.

(I totally forgot about this until someone on Twitter pointed it out. Awesome)

Bears?!

Not only that, the rumor was apparently widespread enough that someone actually did a study to find out if it was true.

Which is good, I’d hate to fear for my life while hiking because I’m shedding my uterine lining. I’d like the think bears are more sensible than that.

But I’ll admit, a part of me was a little worried. After all, I have been camping, and had our campsite raided by bears, because someone left their toothpaste out of the bear box. Apparently bears in Yosemite National Park love them some minty freshness. And if toothpaste is on the menu, why not tampons? I mean, bears will eat most anything, right? Luckily, science is here for us, and science wants us to know, it’s ok to menstruate around bears. Black bears, anyway.

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Read the complete article and related information at Does your menstrual blood attract BEARS?!

‘Menstrual’ brain changes seen

BBC News
Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 09:28 GMT 10:28 UK

Women use their brains differently at different times of the month, research suggests.

Emotion-controlling brain activity increased premenstrually

Brain scans revealed mental processes can change across the menstrual cycle.

Just before a period, at the time when some women experience premenstrual syndrome, activity in brain regions that help control emotions increased.

After menstruation the activity went down, a US team from New York told Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cyclical changes

Although the researchers looked at 12 women with no outward menstrual mood changes, they say their findings could be important for understanding why some women have a particularly hard emotional time around menstruation.

PMS is believed to affect between one-third and one-half of women between 20-50 years of age.

Women with PMS may experience depression, irritability and a propensity towards outbursts of anger as well as physical symptoms such as cramps and bloating.

It confirms that the psychological health of women patients must be assessed in relationship to the menstrual cycle Chris Ryan of the National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome

In the study, Dr Emily Stern of Cornell University, along with colleagues from the Rockefeller University, used MRI scans to monitor the brain activity patterns of women as they were asked to read words with negative, neutral or positive connotations.

The 12 women were asked to perform the same task premenstrually – one to five days before their period was due – and then postmenstrually – eight to 12 days after their period.

Premenstrual syndrome

During the premenstrual phase the women showed much greater activity in frontal brain regions that help control emotions when they were reading the emotive words.

Postmenstrually, this increased brain activity had disappeared.

The researchers say it is possible that the brain changes might have allowed the women to maintain a consistent emotional state and compensate for the surging hormones that occur around menstruation, which some suggest are involved in PMS.

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Read the complete article and related information at Brain Changes During Menstruation Prove PMS & PMDD are Contrived Syndromes

Things We Don’t Talk About – Healing Narrative from The Red Tent a film by Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost on Holy Hormones Honey! February 13

Listen to the interview on KRFC FM – http://krfcfm.org – 6 to 7 pm MST.

Things We Don’t Talk About (Fall 2012) is a groundbreaking feature length documentary that shows how the Red Tent, a red fabric space is empowering women. The film documents the things women hide, the things that bring them pain and joy, and for many it is a place to be honest for the first time in their life. “Things We Don’t Talk About” seeks to humanize the stories in the red tent—to put a face on the space.

Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost is trained as both a filmmaker and as a textile historian. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Masters from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is also currently pursuing her Ph.D. In addition to her educational experience, Isadora has owned and operated Soulful Media, her film production company since 2004 and has produced 12 films since she began. Isadora continues to be inspired by international travel and many of her films have led her to live in and travel in more than 18 countries.

“Things We Don’t Talk About” documents the stories of women reclaiming their sacredness, their truth and their voice as changers in the world. We are in a new era of history – the healing of ourselves and our planet will come from the women. This movie chronicles the voices of The Red Tent movement, one that is sweeping the world and signals the clarion call to all who envision a world built around cooperation rather than competition. A world we want to leave for our children, their children and stretching far into the future.

“Things We Don’t Talk About” shows Red Tent’s around the nation gifting women with an opportunity to remember, to listen, to know, and to discover what needs to be brought to our communities to help reawaken their voices. Bringing a Red Tent to a community is a cooperative effort. Women who participate in the Red Tent contribute in a variety of ways. Some design and assemble the Red Tent. Some make the food. Some are the shoulders to cry on. Others provide the financial backing that allows the experiences to continue. All give so that all will receive.

“The Red Tent: A Woman-space Phenomenon”

by Tracie Welser

Off Our Backs. Washington: 2007. Vol. 37, Iss. 2/3; pg. 41, 4 pgs
Abstract (Summary)

At gatherings and festivals, Red Tent facilitators offer intimate spaces for women to meet and discuss issues such as body image, self-acceptance and the sacred feminine.

WHEN ANITA DIAMANT’S NOVEL The Red Tent was first published in 1997, it didn’t cause much of a stir. According to Newsweek reviewer Susannah Meadows, thousands of copies of the imaginative story of a minor biblical character named Dinah lingered in warehouses after a lackluster debut. In a surprising move, the author herself began a campaign to enhance the book’s appeal: by word-of-mouth. Copies were sent to rabbis, female Christian ministers and independent booksellers. Within months, the book’s popularity soared, and reviewers began to take notice. Recently, the book hit several bestseller lists and was optioned for a film version. But what makes this book remarkable, in spite of reviews that characterize the book as melodramatic and revisionist, is the response of women around the world to the premise referred to in the novel’s title: the importance of creating women-only spaces.

The Red Tent is the retelling of events in the book of Genesis (chapter 34), of the family of Jacob and his wives, daughters and sons. As Jacob’s only daughter, Dinah is barely mentioned in the Bible, the victim of a rape avenged by her brothers. In Diamant’s retelling, Dinah is the narrator, allowing the reader to become acquainted with her as a central character rather than a secondary one. In a world of restrictive patriarchy, Dinah takes comfort and gains wisdom in the red tent, a refuge for women (and a required segregation from the company of men) during times of menses or childbirth.

Many Jewish and Christian women have embraced Diamant’s book; interestingly, a great number of women who see themselves as neither have also been captivated by the idea. As one reviewer, Christine Schoefer of New Moon Network magazine, prophetically noted, “I expect that reading this book will awaken in women the longing for a red tent and the wisdom that women shared there.” Although at least one rabbi has publicly stated that there is no proof this proto-feminist tradition ever existed in biblical times, and the author herself acknowledges that it is mostly her own creation, a number of Red Tent groups have formed based On the idea.

For feminists, the creation of women-only spaces is nothing new. But with the advent of this novel, a revived, larger and more mainstream acceptance of woman-space has become apparent, in the form of permanent spaces and organized meet-ups, virtual Red Tent groups, and mobile spaces arranged at festivals. These groups have manifested with differing modes and purposes: to share menstrual and birthing information, for spiritual reasons, for the purpose of activism, to simply provide a safe haven for women’s voices or a combination of these.

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Read the complete article and related information at Things We Don’t Talk About – Healing Narrative from The Red Tent

Activist Post

January 26, 2012

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Read the complete article and related information at Health Groups: Statins Linked to 300+ Negative Effects

Marcia G. Yerman - Reporting – Reviewing – Reflecting

February 3, 2102

The first time I saw Rachel Lloyd was in 2005, the year of the 70^th Annual Academy Awards. “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” had taken the honors for best song. Whenever I complained about that tune being showcased, people would remark, “Lighten up.” Yet when Lloyd  addressed an audience in Soho about the issue of human trafficking, she mentioned “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” using it to illustrate the disconnect between reality and the Hollywood version of life on the street .

Since then, while covering the topic of human trafficking, I have heard Lloyd talk at numerous events and panels. I have called her up for quotes and insights, like the time football star Lawrence Taylor was arrested. I had needed to get a lucid response on why the media was portraying an under-age trafficked girl as a “hooker.”

Lloyd always speaks the truth to power. It may be to a New York City police commissioner, or an affluent Manhattan audience learning for the first time that 13-year-old African-American girls in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn are being bought and sold. Lloyd frequently notes that they are part of an estimated 200,000-300,000 adolescents who are at risk annually for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States.

Consequently, it was no surprise to me that the memoir Lloyd had penned, Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself, would be a tough, gritty and brutally honest account. Lloyd traces how a difficult childhood led to a hair-raising journey that encompassed risk, recruitment, violent abuse, breaking free from sexual exploitation—and ultimately healing. She now is a top activist in the anti-trafficking movement.

Finding her purpose in working with girls “in the life,” Lloyd connects to those in crisis based on shared experiences, understanding without judgment, and respect. Founding Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) in 1998, Lloyd went back to school to attain her GED, going on to receive a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and a Masters in Applied Urban Anthropology from the City College of New York. She has racked up numerous awards for her efforts, all while “owning her experience.”

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Read the complete article and related information at “Girls Likes Us” — Rachel Lloyd’s Memoir Illuminates the Sexual Exploitation of Children

CJAD 800 AM

Posted By: Dan Spector dspector@astral.com · 2/1/2012 10:01:00 PM

On a day when CJAD News was discussing the story of a family intending to sue a massive pharmaceutical company for $200 000 after their daughter died soon after receiving the anti-HPV (Human papillomavirus) vaccine Gardasil, researcher Dr. Lucija Tomljenovic joined Aaron for a fascinating discussion about the safety of the vaccine.

Dr.Tomljenovic hails from the Neural Dynamics Research Group at the University of British Columbia, and along with colleague Dr. Chris Shaw has published a controversial new study that asks: “Is it possible that HPV vaccines have been promoted to women based on inaccurate information?

Their essay was published online in late December in the medical journal Annals of Medicine.

To read about their findings, take a look at the following Medscape article. It sums up Tomljenovic and Shaw’s work nicely. If you’re interested in some of the controversy and backlash resulting from this study, scroll to the bottom.

January 31, 2012 — Is the policy for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at odds with evidence-based medicine?

Yes, according to an essay published online December 22, 2011, in the Annals of Medicine.

Canadian researchers Lucija Tomljenovic, PhD, and Christopher Shaw, PhD, from the Neural Dynamics Research Group, University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, point out that there is a major discrepancy in claims regarding the safety and efficacy of Gardasil (Merck & Co) and Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) — the 2 HPV vaccines that are currently on the market.

The vaccines have been heavily promoted in the United States by their respective manufacturers, the essayists report. In addition, the vaccines are backed by government agencies in the United States, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration, and by medical authorities in a number of other countries.

HPV vaccination has been mired in controversy since the first vaccine was approved in the United States in 2006. There have been clashes among politicians, parents, professional and advocacy organizations, and public health officials, with heated exchanges over issues ranging from safety, the premise that vaccination will promote sexual activity in teens, cost, and concerns about aggressive lobbying by Merck to make the vaccine mandatory for girls.

Drs. Tomljenovic and Shaw note that skepticism about the vaccine has been increasing for a number of reasons, despite reassurances from the public-health sector. In their essay, they examine the current evidence to answer a key question: “Is it possible that HPV vaccines have been promoted to women based on inaccurate information?”

Does it Prevent Cancer?

One major issue is the claim made by medical authorities that HPV vaccines are an important tool in preventing cervical cancer. The efficacy of the vaccines in preventing cervical cancer has not been demonstrated because the study periods have been too short, say the essayists.

The longest follow-up from phase 2 trials for Gardasil is 5 years and for Cervarix is 8.4 years, but invasive cervical cancer can take 20 to 40 years to develop from the time of HPV infection.

“We don’t know the duration of the immune response of the vaccines,” Dr. Tomljenovic told Medscape Medical News, “so we don’t know if they are actually preventing cervical cancer or simply postponing it.”

Both vaccines very effectively prevent persistent infections with high-risk HPV types 16 and 18 and the associated cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2/3 lesions in HPV-naïve young women. However, note the essayists, even persistent HPV infections caused by high-risk strains generally do not lead to precursor lesions in the short term or to cervical cancer in the long term.

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Read the complete article and related information at A new voice in the HPV vaccine debate

The New York Times

By DENISE GRADY
Published: January 29, 2012

Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Bridgette Dunlap, a Fordham University law student, knew that the school’s health plan had to pay for birth control pills, in keeping with New York state law. What she did not find out until she was in an examining room, “in the paper dress,” was that the student health service — in keeping with Roman Catholic tenets — would simply refuse to prescribe them.

As a result, students have had to go to Planned Parenthood or private doctors to get prescriptions. Some, unable to afford the doctor visits, gave up birth control pills entirely. In November, Ms. Dunlap, 31, who was raised a Catholic and was educated at parochial schools, organized a one-day, off-campus clinic staffed by volunteer doctors who wrote prescriptions for dozens of women.

Many Catholic colleges decline to prescribe or cover birth control, citing religious reasons. Now they are under pressure to change. This month the Obama administration, citing the medical case for birth control, made a politically charged decision that the new health care law requires insurance plans at Catholic institutions to cover birth control without co-payments for employees, and that may be extended to students. But Catholic organizations are resisting the rule, saying it would force them to violate their beliefs and finance behavior that betrays Catholic teachings.

“We can’t just lie down and die and let religious freedom go,” said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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Read the complete article and related information at Ruling on Contraception Draws Battle Lines at Catholic Colleges

The Daily Beast

Feb 3, 2012 12:00 AM EST

Michelle Goldberg

If a Republican becomes president, says Michelle Goldberg, say goodbye to international programs providing birth control to women in desperately poor countries such as Liberia.

Gertrude Gorma Cole, a midwife in Liberia’s Bong County, is almost universally known as “Mother Dear.” A warm, grandmotherly presence in a traditional lappa dress, she has been practicing at least since the 1970s. In some ways, she is conservative. Speaking of Liberia’s disastrous teenage pregnancy rate—which is high even by West African standards—she blames both the social breakdown caused by the country’s savage civil war and the lax ideas of the international NGOs that swept into the country in its wake. “After the war, the NGO people came in and they brought ‘child rights,’ so the children became so loose, and even to discipline them, they will take you to the police,” she says. Western aid workers dispute this, insisting that the idea of Liberian kids informing on their parents is an urban legend. Still, her views speak to a level of distrust toward the humanitarian agencies that play an outsized role in governing the decimated nation.

Yet there is one thing Mother Dear does not distrust: the programs to provide birth control, which are largely supplied by USAID. In addition to being a midwife, Mother Dear is the county’s reproductive-health supervisor. When I tell her that support for international family planning is controversial in the U.S., and that some candidates for president would like to end it, she is shocked. “If they cut off funding for family planning, more mothers are going to die,” she says.

She’s worth listening to, because whatever effect the upcoming election has on the reproductive health of American women, the effect on women worldwide is likely to be even greater. I was in Liberia recently as part of a World Health Organization-sponsored trip to look at the future of funding for AIDS, TB, and malaria in an age of global austerity. But the country is also an object lesson in the potential global impact of our interminable culture wars.

Those culture wars have turned birth control into a significant issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. All of the Republican candidates have slammed the administration’s refusal to give religious institutions a broad exemption from the mandate that insurance cover family planning. One of them, Rick Santorum, has promised to use the presidency to speak out about “the dangers of contraception in this country,” and has said he believes states should have the right to ban it. Mitt Romney, the likely nominee, has laughed off threats to birth control as an absurd nonissue, but even he has pledged to eliminate Title X, the federal family-planning program founded under Richard Nixon.

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Read the complete article and related information at How a GOP Win Could Spell the End of Reproductive Health for Global Women

 New York Times

By REUTERS
Published: February 3, 2012 at 3:50 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation backed down from its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and birth control services, following a massive outcry by supporters of the world’s largest breast cancer charity.

Komen’s decision had thrust the group into America’s deeply politicized debate over abortion rights and its apology on Friday may not satisfy the more vocal advocates on either side.

Planned Parenthood supporters, including local directors within Komen’s ranks, say Komen had come under pressure from anti-abortion activists. Social conservatives had lauded the move to disengage from Planned Parenthood and said it would win Komen new supporters.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” Komen said in a statement on Friday signed by its board of directors and its founder Nancy Brinker.

Komen had said earlier this week it would cease to fund grants for breast cancer screening to Planned Parenthood under new rules to tighten eligibility. The guidelines excluded groups under investigation by U.S. authorities and Planned Parenthood is the subject of a probe by U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Republican from Florida who opposes abortion.

Planned Parenthood provides a variety of services – including reproductive healthcare, sex education, cancer screenings and information on sexually transmitted diseases – but its abortion role has put it at the forefront of the national debate.

Komen’s move prompted a protest campaign on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook that reached a fever pitch on Thursday. Local Komen chapters sent letters to headquarters opposing the move, and by late Thursday night, its board convened a special meeting.

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Read the complete article and related information at Cancer Group Backs Down on Cutting Off Planned Parenthood