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.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
RSS