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The excitement has been building in me since the beginning of the year. YES, next month your Quote Master here will be turning forty and I'm giddy like a school girl. What's so exciting about living another decade? I'm a firm believer that change don't have to be diffcult or bad, it can be welcomed and celebrated.

Has it ever occurred to you that the perceptions you have of aging will determine how you age? Well it did for me. For instance, this year I attended my family reunion and I was given the opportunity to see the difference in aging between those who embraced their aging as something wonderful and those who dreaded it (the I'm so old crowd). The "I'm so old" gang looked looked older than their ages and they had more health problems (mainly obesity, diabetes,and crippling arthritis), and constantly complained. Now, their opposites on the other hand, had pep in their step, active socially and physically, and most importantly they were jovial.

By no means am I making humor of my relatives, the behavior I mentioned is my evidence how why I should look at aging as a wonderful adventure.

As usual I asked some of our readers for some of their thoughts on aging.

"HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY Regena!Yes I agree our beliefs color how we age. I went to Peru three years ago and the Indian women looked absolutely ageless. To them aging was a honor not a abnormality."Deidre 54

"Any beliefs we hold concerning growing older will shape how we age. My mother is in her nineties and she could easily pass for my sister. She is not afraid of each passing year is my explanation to why she enjoys life so much." Gretchen 61, third grade teacher

"Rather than do like other women and lie about my age or have my body redesigned by some surgeon I am choosing to think of aging as my mind and body's way of getting better.Lia 45

"Aging beliefs can make or break our aging process. You can be a Sophia Loren or the wicked witch of the west as you age it is your choice. Deborah 41

"An aging man is distinguished and an aging woman is a hag. In American culture menopausal and being over forty is seen as being over the hill and useless. What a degenerate way of thinking and yet women are held prisoner to these perceptions. Actually I will go so far as to say women perpetuate this image of themselves when they get frantic over of gray strands of hair or the extra cushion on their tushes. Ok we all know as long as we're alive we will age so why age bitterly. Pat 55

"Congratulations on your BIG 40. Regina I'm so glad you asked me for my comments on aging. Seems like the older I get the more I appreciate my life. My younger days were spent worrying with a career, money, and a bad marriage. I decided no more worries over stuff i deem trifling. I divorced, quit my job, retired rather modestly to Costa Rica. Debs, 60

What are your beliefs on growing older? What path will your beliefs on aging take you, to vibrant health and adventures or physical and mental misery?

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Early menopause symptoms - every woman at some point in her thirties or forties will wonder if what she is experiencing is really the first symptoms of menopause. Menopause is defined as the cessation of menses or the end of menstrual cycles for a period of 12 months or more. Menopause is a natural process for a woman, not an illness. It is quite common for a womans hormone balance to begin shifting in her early thirties to forties, resulting in early menopause symptoms. Why? There are several reasons why.

Women often demand much of their bodies. Stress exists in many forms for an active, involved woman today. Women have demanding and stressful careers. Women have family responsibilities. The relationship with the spouse or partner may not be the best. Aging parents can add to the burden. These and other responsibilities add up in the toll they take on the body, health and well-being of a woman.

And at the same time, the womans body may not be getting the support it needs to function as it was designed. Obesity, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, excess caffeine and alcohol add to the problem instead of helping the body cope with what is demanded of it. This stressful lifestyle, coinciding with inadequate support given to the body, contributes to experiencing many of the early menopause symptoms.

Common first symptoms of menopause for women are:

• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Light or heavy menstrual flow
• Lumpy or tender breasts
• Fibroid tumors
• Endometriosis
• Mood swings
• Water retention and bloating
• Sleep problems
• "Foggy, fuzzy" thinking and memory lapses
• Anxiety and depression
• Inability to handle stress
• PMS
• Hot flashes and night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Weight gain

Then there are the hormones, the menstrual cycle and hormone production in the body. In the normal menstrual cycle and a healthy woman, estrogen is the dominant hormone that is produced for the first 10-12 days following the previous menstrual flow. Ovulation then signals the female body to produce progesterone, which happens for the next 12 days or so. If there is no pregnancy, progesterone and estrogen levels will drop at around day 28, allowing menstruation to begin.

However, if there is no ovulation, progesterone will not be produced by the body that month. This event, called an annovulatory cycle, is a typical occurance today for women in their thirties and forties - no ovulation, no progesterone. This leaves the woman with an excess of estrogen and a deficiency of the hormone progesterone.

Many women in their thirties and forties are actually having fewer ovulations which creates hormone imbalance, resulting in many of the early menopause symptoms. And once ovulation ceases at menopause, progesterone levels fall to virtually zero. At the same time, estrogen is still being produced, again leading to hormone imbalance and the resulting first symptoms of menopause. If a hysterectomy has happened, surgical menopause means the woman no longer produces progesterone.

Besides the problems created by missed ovulations or hysterectomy, excess estrogen is regularly obtained from other sources. Birth control pills, household chemicals and pesticides, certain foods that have been sprayed or given chemicals and many construction materials used in homes are all sources of estrogen which leads to excess in the body.

Doctors call this hormone imbalance condition of excess estrogen in the body "estrogen dominance". What are the symptoms of estrogen dominance? The symptoms include low sex drive, bloating and weight gain, headaches before the menstrual period, mood swings, irregular periods and excessive menstrual bleeding. If the amount of unbalanced estrogen in the female adult increases beyond what is desirable and healthy, you will definitely experience early menopause symptoms. On the other hand, when your hormones are balanced, you feel more alert, energetic and ready to take on the challenges of life.

How can a woman tell if the first symptoms of menopause being experienced are because of hormone imbalance? An easy and effective way is to take the online test provided by a leading womens health clinic for early menopause symptoms. It takes just a few minutes and the test is free. Find out more about your health, premenopause and menopause symptoms, what the symptoms are telling you and what to do about it based on your answers to important questions. Read more about hormone imbalance, estrogen dominance symptoms, side effects of a hysterectomy and physician-recommended natural treatments for eliminating the early menopause symptoms.

Copyright 2005 InfoSearch Publishing

About The Author: Olinda Rola is President of InfoSearch Publishing and webmaster of http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com - a website of physician-recommended natural treatments for health problems. Visit the website and learn more about early menopause symptoms and ways for improving your health.

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Olinda Rola (c). All rights reserved.

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