If you are considering or currently using hormone therapy (HT) to ease menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, you’re probably keenly aware of the concerns about a link between HT and breast cancer. So I want to share new study results that help identify which HT users are and are not at increased risk for this dreaded disease. The surprising clue: Sore breasts.

Background: There are two basic types of menopausal HT—estrogen alone…and a combination of estrogen plus progestin (a synthetic progesterone-like hormone). A woman who has had a hysterectomy can take estrogen alone. For a woman with an intact uterus, the combination form of HT is given because the progestin protects against uterine cancer. A common side effect of both types of HT is breast tenderness.

An argument with your spouse, an impossible deadline at work, a traffic jam that makes you miss a long-awaited appointment—these are the types of everyday stresses that can lead to tension headaches. Nearly everyone gets them at one time or another. And since women are more prone to this problem than men, you’re probably familiar with the symptoms—viselike pain or dull pressure that starts in the forehead or temple area and spreads over the entire head…plus tightness in the neck, shoulders and/or jaw. Symptoms typically last about half an hour, though they can persist for days.

Why not just pop a pill to get rid of the pain? Because doing so can actually make the problem worse, given that people who take over-the-counter or prescription pain medication more than three days a week on a regular basis may develop rebound headaches. Pain relievers also have potentially serious side effects, including increased risk for gastrointestinal bleeding, blood pressure problems, and kidney or liver damage.

Guys may not understand this, but we women really do sit around talking about things like how dense our breasts are and what a pain they can be—literally. We do it because we care. So when a friend lamented, “I have such dense breasts that I find something lumpy just about every time I check—so I never know whether to run to the doctor or not,” I took note. What signs should women like my friend watch for, and how long should they follow a lump before getting it checked out?

I called Jill R. Dietz, MD, director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She confirmed that this is a topic worth paying attention to because women whose breasts are dense (meaning that they contain more glandular or connective tissue than fatty tissue) are at increased risk for breast cancer. In fact, research shows that breast cancer is about four to six times more common in women with extremely dense breasts than in women with very low-density breasts.

If you’re a woman, then you already know that one daily drink of alcohol may raise your risk for breast cancer by about 12%, according to some research. But a new study suggests that not all alcohol is created equal…when it comes to wine, in particular, white wine may be more risky than red.

Now picture a restaurant full of people ordering wine—what are most of the women having? White, of course. What’s their risk?

I confess that I keep little chocolates in my desk drawer at work. Each piece has fewer than 45 calories…but when cravings surge, who can eat just one? Doing the math, I’m forced to acknowledge that nibbling on four miniature chocolates (1.2 ounces in total) per workday could translate over the course of a year to about 12 extra pounds of body weight! I’m not going to let that happen, of course. So I was happy to read about a simple step for cutting back on consumption of this all-too-enticing candy—by just taking a short walk. Sounds wacky, but it works. The tip comes from chocolate researcher Adrian Taylor, PhD, professor of exercise and health psychology at the University of Exeter in England. The skinny on Dr. Taylor’s new study…

Participants included 45 women and 33 men who habitually ate at least 3.5 ounces of chocolate daily and reported frequent chocolate cravings. They did not know that the study was about chocolate—instead, they were told that the focus was on how exercise affects thinking. The participants were randomly divided into four groups. Those in groups one and two walked briskly on a treadmill for 15 minutes. Then, for 15 minutes, they worked at a computer (in a setup similar to what you’d find in an office), with group one performing an easy task…and group two performing a difficult task. Groups three and four rested for 15 minutes instead of exercising, then worked on either the easy task or the challenging task. Key element: Each participant had a bowlful of small chocolate candies next to his or her computer and was “casually” invited to have some. Afterward, researchers weighed the bowls to see how much chocolate each person had eaten.

We tend to think that vegetables are one of the healthiest foods around. But there is one group of plant foods in particular that has 10 to 20 times the minerals and vitamins of “land” vegetables—and that’s sea vegetables, also known as seaweed or sea greens. Often used in Japanese cooking, these vibrantly colored multi-textured foods can help detoxify the body…may have anticancer benefits…and can stimulate thyroid function (in people with low thyroid). To find out more about bringing delicious sea vegetables, such as arame, nori and dulse, to your table, our editors spoke to Jill Gusman, who teaches at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and is the author of Vegetables from the Sea: Everyday Cooking with Sea Greens (William Morrow). Here’s what she recommends…

ARAME

Editor’s note: The other day, as I was rushing down the street, I literally ran into an old friend—and almost knocked her down. She had gotten so thin that it seemed a slight breeze could have blown her away. She’s not anorexic, she’s just…too scrawny. And that’s scary, because not weighing enough presents bigger health risks than many people realize.

Given all the current national focus on the opposite problem—that of obesity—it’s not surprising than the dangers of being underweight are underrecognized. But if you or someone you care about is overly slim, you need to know the facts and the fixes. That’s why I want to share a recent report that ran in Bottom Line/Health, another publication in the Bottom Line family (to subscribe, please visit www.BottomLinePublications.com/newsletters). Here’s the real skinny on being too skinny…

Q: Is it a good idea to walk with hand weights or ankle weights?

A: No, it is not. Adding weight while walking will not burn significantly more calories or build extra muscle—instead, it may land you in the doctor’s office. Why is that? If you have ever used a pedometer to track your footsteps, you know that people typically take thousands of steps each and every day. When you add extra weight to a natural repetitive movement such as walking, you overload your muscles and joints and create imbalances that can quickly lead to inflammation, pain and decreased range of motion in your neck, shoulders, back, knees and/or ankles.