Hi All,
I do not know if you had a look at the article in Time magazine with the
cover story titled, "The truth about Women's bodies".  Having been married
to one for 22 years I thought I knew her body well (I NEVER attempted to
understand her mind).  If you did not read the article I include it
underneath.  More to be found on the website of Time at www.time.com
<http://www.time.com> .
This made interesting reading and the reason why I share this here is that
it be taken into consideration when we disuss medication and the effects
thereof on the individual PWP, male and female.

THE SEXES
MARCH 8, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 9

Diagnosis: Female
Medical science is learning that sex does make a difference. Men's and
women's bodies each have their own health problems, react differently to
drugs and often require different treatments. We bring you some of the
latest thinking:
BY ALICE PARK

Immune Complexity
A woman's immune system displays an exquisite amount of control that a man's
cannot replicate. It's still not clear why, but the female body's defenses
tend to mount more aggressive responses to invading marauders; then, during
pregnancy, this response is dampened considerably to accommodate the fetus.
Perhaps owing to this on-off intensity, women are more prone to developing
lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, all conditions in which
the immune system attacks healthy tissue. Researchers are just beginning to
study why estrogen might cause the defense system to rev into overdrive in
these cases.

Habits of the Heart
The classic chest-crushing pain that is the hallmark of a heart attack turns
out to be mainly a male symptom. Women's heart attacks, by contrast, tend to
show up as shortness of breath, fatigue and jaw pain, stretched out over
hours rather than minutes.
Women tend to suffer their first heart attack 10 years older than men. Yet,
partly because the women are older, those heart attacks are more often
fatal. This is a postmenopausal phenomenon, a trade-off for years of
protection from estrogen. Staying bathed in the hormone keeps blood vessels
elastic and free of hardened-plaque formations. Estrogen also instructs the
liver to churn out more hdl, or good cholesterol, which pulls plaque away
from artery walls.
Drugs commonly used to break up clots and stabilize erratic heartbeats are
less effective in women than in men. Hormone-replacement therapy-estrogen
and progestin-has been shown to help. A U.S.-government study is currently
under way that aims to clarify how estrogen works on the heart, brain and
breast.

Reproductive Organs
Advances in diagnostic exams and hormone treatments have drastically cut the
incidence of cancer of the uterus, ovaries and cervix over the past five
decades. Pap smears that detect abnormal cells in the cervix before they
become malignant have contributed to a 75% drop in cervical cancer since the
1950s. Wider use of birth control pills and hormonereplacement therapy (with
estrogen and progestin) have decreased the risk of ovarian and uterine
cancers. Recent research also suggests that in some cases, a low-fat diet
can cut the risk of cervical cancer even further.

Risks to the Knee
As women participate in more and more sports, orthopedists are noticing a
difference in the types of injuries women are prone to. They appear to be
more susceptible than men to damaging the ligaments that hold the knee
together. Many women basketball players have suffered painful and
potentially debilitating tears to the anterior cruciate ligament, which can
take months to heal. Doctors think it may have something to do with a
woman's wider hips, which place a greater strain on the ligaments joining
the thigh to the knee. These ligaments are weaker in women to start with.

Slower Metabolism
Women tend to metabolize a number of drugs differently from men:
Alcohol: It takes fewer drinks for a woman to feel the effects, because the
liver breaks down alcohol more slowly, leaving more of it floating in the
blood.
ASPIRIN: The painkiller takes longer to clear a woman's system. Because it
keeps platelets from clotting, aspirin should be avoided by pregnant women.
It can trigger bleeding in the fetal brain.
BETA-BLOCKERS: Because drugs like Inderal, prescribed to reduce blood
pressure and migraine pain, take longer to metabolize in women than in men,
the dosage must be more carefully monitored to avoid side effects.
TRICYCLIC ANTIDEPRESSANTS: Women taking oral contraceptives may need lower
doses of these drugs to treat their depression, since the Pill keeps levels
of the drugs in the body high.

Mind and Mood
Women are more prone to depression than men, and the reason may have as much
to do with biology as it has with stress and other life-style factors.
Evidence is mounting that the male and female brains may respond differently
to hormones and brain chemicals. Women produce less serotonin, a
mood-regulating chemical, than men, and are more sensitive to changes in
serotonin levels, which are in turn regulated by estrogen. Women thus
respond better to drugs affecting the serotonin system (such as Prozac),
while men tend to respond better to drugs that also affect norepinephrine, a
neurotransmitter secreted by the adrenal glands and by nerve endings during
stress.  Estrogen may stave off the dementia and memory loss of Alzheimer's
disease by actually encouraging neurons in the brain to grow new nerve
extensions. Postmenopausal women who do not have hormone-replacement therapy
have a greater chance of developing Alzheimer's and memory loss than men of
the same age, whose testosterone is metabolized into estradiol, a form of
estrogen.

Breast Cancer
Much of the current research is focusing on early detection. Studies show
that women with a mutation in either gene BRCA1 or gene BRCA2 have as much
as a 56% chance of developing breast cancer by age 70. The predictive power
of the genes, however, is still being debated, as scientists try to
determine how genes, environment and other factors affect the appearance and
growth of tumors.  Treatment options are constantly expanding, thanks to a
better understanding of how best to combine surgery, drugs, chemotherapy and
radiation. New forms of estrogen-like supplements, initially developed to
prevent osteoporosis, appear to prevent the growth of breast tumors as well,
and more comprehensive studies show that an old drug, tamoxifen, can cut the
risk of cancer as much as 45% over four years.

Digestive System
Even if a man and a woman eat the same thing, it may take the woman much
longer to digest it. That leaves women three times as vulnerable to chronic
constipation as men and twice as likely to develop intestinal disorders. The
sex discrepancy apparently starts with chewing: preliminary studies show
that female saliva differs chemically from that of men, perhaps setting the
stage for food's slower journey through a woman's digestive system.

Cancer Types
Projected number of deaths in 1999:
Women
1 Lung & bronchus -- 68,000
2 Breast -- 43,300
3 Colon & rectum -- 28,800
4 Pancreas -- 14,700
5 Ovary -- 14,500
Men
1 Lung & bronchus -- 90,900
2 Prostate -- 37,000
3 Colon & rectum -- 27,800
4 Pancreas -- 13,900
5 Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma -- 13,400

Feeling Pain
Contrary to anecdotal stories, numerous studies have documented that women
experience pain more acutely and more frequently than men, indicating that
the sexes may detect and dampen pain differently. In a study of dental
patients, women responded more favorably than men to a class of pain
relievers known as kappa opioids, including pentazocine, suggesting that
receptors for inhibiting pain may vary by sex. Moreover, women are less
responsive than men to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as
ibuprofen.

Bone Loss
Women, more than men, experience a significant change in their bones in
later life. In postmenopausal women, the skeleton becomes less dense, full
of perforations caused by osteoporosis. The reason for the difference: less
estrogen after menopause. The hormone slows down bone loss and builds up
bone as well. Women past menopause who have estrogen-replacement therapy can
prevent as much as 75% of their bone degradation and cut their risk of a hip
fracture 50%.

Who Will Die Within One Year of Having a Heart Attack
MEN -- 24%
WOMEN -- 42%

Source: American Heart Association

Gerrit Kleynscheldt

Tel:    021 947 8918    (International  +27 21 947 8918)
Fax:    021 947 1521    (International  +27 21 947 1521)

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