When our moms were young, people who ate more vegetables than meat, exercised regularly, and took vitamins were considered, well, a bit strange. The all American way to age was to accept that you would get sick "old" people always did and that a kindly, wise Marcus Welby type would make all of your medical decisions for you.
Not anymore. Our generation has a new focus: preventing age related diseases before they strike us. "Women are saying, 'Okay, we're living longer. We want to know more about how
to prevent illnesses that can keep us from enjoying these longer years of life,"' says Dr. Pinn.
It's long been known that a healthy diet and regular exercise help prevent many of the illnesses associated with aging, such as cancer, diabetes, and especially cardiovascular disease, which kills more women than all forms of cancer combined.
What's new, however, is the growing evidence that antioxidants and plant chemicals (phytochemicals) in fruits and vegetables may also stave off age related diseases, including diabetes, macular degeneration, and breast cancer. Found in our bodies as well as in fruits and vegetables, antioxidants neutralize free radicals, which are "crippled" oxygen molecules that steal electrons from our healthy cells and cause aging and illness.
For example, soy foods, such as tofu and soy
milk, are rich in phytoestrogens, natural substances in soybeans that show great promise in preventing breast cancer, osteoporosis, and menopausal hot flashes. And one Swedish study of women over 50 found that women who consumed daily the amount of beta carotene found in half a carrot had up to 68 percent less risk for breast cancer than women who ate the least.
As for exercise, "it's the best anti aging medicine in the world," says Andrea Z. LaCroix, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Seattle. Lifelong exercise may add as much as 7 years to our life span. Studies suggest that regular exercise may boost our bodies' levels of antioxidants, preventing the free radical damage that gums up our works.
Free at Last
One of the most important "breakthroughs" in women's health is our generation's radically different take on menopause. "The women's
health movement has brought menopause out of the closet," says Dr. Pinn. "Women don't fear it anymore. They understand that it's a natural part of our maturing and that it marks the beginning of the rest of our lives."
One poll of 750 women between the ages of 45 and 60 found that 52 percent viewed menopause as a new and fulfilling stage of life, 60 percent did not feel that menopause made them less attractive, and 80 percent said that they were actually relieved that their periods had stopped.
In our mothers' day, women may have whispered about "the change" behind closed doors, but now we form menopause support groups and actively seek information on menopause and ,hormone replacement therapy. We play a far more active role in our midlife health care than our mothers did. "There's a well educated group of women who visit their doctors with a checklist of things they want information about, particularly HRT" says Ruth C. Fretts, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School.
