Life after 50 would be a lot easier if more women took the trouble to look after themselves before the onset of menopause, medical experts said at a seminar hosted by a dairy-products distributor yesterday.
"Prevention, rather than treatment, is the key," said Chou Hui-Cheng (
Menopause is a trying period for women accross the world, and manifests itself with an array of physical and psychological symptoms.
Rather than occuring at a single point in time, menopause is spread over a period of a few years, from before the end of menstruation to a few years after women stop menstruating.
The average age at which menopause starts is around 50. Some common symptoms include mood changes, hot flushes, sleep disturbances, changes in sexual activity and heart palpitations. Whilst these symptoms are certainly troubling for women, Chou said that they were not the real concern, as they would pass.
"What women need to be most concerned about are illnesses and deterioration which comes with aging," Chou said. He referred to these as "silent killers," which include osteoporosis, a disease where bone density steadily decreases.
In menopausal woman, calcium loss is up to three times greater than usual, a major reason being a decrease in secretion of certain hormones in the body.
Prevention of osteoporosis, Chou said, includes maintaining adequate levels of calcium, getting enough sunlight, doing exercise, eating foods with high levels of calcium such as milk and dried fish, and avoiding the use of steroids or smoking. Adult women should maintain an intake of 1,000mg to 1,500mg of calcium per day.
While many physical symptoms are the result of menopause, psychiatrist Wu Jia-hsuan (
According to Chou, what makes it even more important for women to look after themselves is that people live longer than ever.
"Whilst the average woman in the past died around the age she would begin menopause, the average life expectancy of women now is 82," Chou said.
"Women across the world spend their lives looking after their husband, their children, their parents; everybody but themselves. It is a time to look after yourselves," Chou said.
Chou compared menopause to a second "puberty," signalling entry into a second stage of a woman's life.
"This is a chance to do what you have always wanted to do: To live out the dreams you had of being an actor or a painter," Chou said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS