 Update on Education
The Jean Hailes Foundation aims to prevent, reduce or postpone many of the health issues affecting women at midlife by preventative health education and information, particularly through nutrition and lifestyle and through early detection and intervention.
The Education Unit focuses on translating the latest research findings into practical health and lifestyle approaches for all women and their families.
Midlife – Choices for Health and Wellbeing
In response to requests from women across Australia for greater access to up to date, educational resources on midlife women’s health issues, The Foundation has developed a unique, interactive CD-ROM.
Written and designed by a team of national and international education, health and medical specialists, the CD-ROM was developed in partnership with a rural steering committee, including health professionals from across Victoria. Designed for women approaching midlife and beyond this CD-ROM will give women the opportunity to update their health knowledge in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.
Midlife – Choices for Health and Wellbeing is available at a cost of $12 (including postage).
To order, phone Toll Free: 1800 151 441 or order online at the Jean Hailes Foundation Shop
Bone Health
The Jean Hailes Foundation is currently developing an osteoporosis website and CD-ROM. Bone Health for Life will be launched at the end of March 2003. Both the website and CD-ROM will provide evidence based information about the causes, diagnosis, prevention and management of osteoporosis, including the risks and benefits of pharmaceutical interventions.
There will be an emphasis on providing practical lifestyle tips on exercise and nutrition and links to appropriate resources across Australia.
Those interested in the CD-ROM can contact the Education Unit on 9562 6771 or Toll Free on 1800 151 441 and leave their details.
Professional Development
The Jean Hailes Foundation aims to inform and update health professionals working with and supporting women by addressing key health issues.
The Foundation collaborates with many professional bodies in order to develop relevant and timely clinical education programs that can be accessed by health professionals across Australia, including training, workshops and speaker requests.
In addition, our professional development program ensures that leading specialists regularly update Jean Hailes Medical consultants with current best practice on women’s health.
Resources
Smart Health Choices: How to make informed health decisions.
By Judy Irwig, Les Irwig and Melissa Sweet (Allen and Unwin, 1999) RRP $19.95.
This book will provide you with the tools for assessing health advice, whether it comes from a specialist, general practitioner, naturopath, the media, the Internet or a friend. It shows you how to take an active role in your health care and to make the best decisions for you and your loved ones based on personal references and the best available evidence.
Healthy Women: Getting the balance right
By Hazel Edwards (ChoiceBooks) RRP $25.00
Find out:
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How women cope with the loss of a breast after mastectomy.
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If women ever get enough sleep after having a baby.
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Do older women have an active sexual life?
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How many women actually like their own bodies?
Sharing their ‘health balancing act’ include the ABC’s Julie McCrossin, Lorraine Elliott MP, Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson, Antarctic station leader Marilyn Boydell, former Olympic swimmer Julie McDonald and academic Professor Lois Bryson, among others.
Update on Research
 The Sue Ismiel International Study into Women’s Health and Hormones
Early last year, successful Sydney businesswoman, Sue Ismiel, committed $600,000 to fund world-first research into the link between women’s hormones and depression. Sue emigrated from Syria at 15 and overcame her lack of English to create a multi-million global export operation that began with one simple homemade product. Nad’s Natural Hair Removal Gel was created in Sue’s own kitchen in response to her daughter’s need for a product that would not irritate her sensitive skin.
Today, thanks to Sue’s vision for a healthier Australia, we are a step closer to finding out the relationship between women’s hormones and depression.
Study update
The Sue Ismiel study is a large, cross sectional study of the relationship between wellbeing and hormone levels in a population-based sample of Victorian women. The women are aged between 18 and 75 years and have been recruited by the Roy Morgan Research group from a large sample, originally identified using the electoral role. Because of this recruitment technique, we know that the women in the study are representative of the adult female Victorian population.
Recruitment began in May 2002 and was completed in July 2003, with a total of 1,433 women. We are extremely grateful to the women who helped us with this study, as it involved filling out a series of questionnaires and giving us a blood sample for the measurement of the hormone profile.
For women living in country Victoria, this may have involved travelling to a regional centre for collection of the blood sample. We are indebted to Mayne Health Dorevitch Pathology for assisting us with the collection and transport of blood samples across the state.
The process of collating and analysing the data from the study has now begun. Stay tuned for some exciting world first results to be reported in 2004.
Update on The Jean Hailes NHMRC Centre Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE)
Hormones and the development of dementia
Dementia is now the fourth most important cause of disability adjusted years of life lost (DALYS) in women in western countries and is expected to be the leading cause of disability by the year 2016. Decline in brain function (memory and other processes) is an inevitable feature of normal ageing, but the degree of deterioration varies within the older population. For several years emphasis has been on identifying risk factors for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive impairment and cognitive decline, with targets being early disease detection, and where possible, disease prevention. Known factors influencing the decline in cognitive performance are age, level of education, aerobic fitness, gender and hypertension.
In women, the effects of the body’s oestrogen production and oestrogen therapy have been investigated with some, but not all, studies indicating a positive association between oestrogen and cognitive function. Oestrogen directly influences nerve cell growth and brain chemical systems.
Is there a relationship between hormones and memory?
However, clinical studies of the relationships between oestrogen and memory have provided conflicting findings. Most recently, the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), a large American study, reported that continuous combined oral conjugated equine oestrogen and medroxyprogesterone acetate resulted in a substantial and clinically important decline in the memory score in 6.7 per cent of women aged over 65 years taking hormone therapy (HT) compared to 4.8 per cent taking placebo.
In contrast, other studies have reported improvement in verbal memory with HT. The use of different ways of measuring memory in each of these studies has made it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions.
Detecting Dementia
Inflammatory markers are proteins that can be measured in the blood that increase markedly with infection or any inflammatory process, such as rheumatoid arthritis. A recent focus has been on changes in inflammatory markers after menopause and whether these have a role in, or are predictive of, memory decline.
High blood levels of inflammatory markers have been found to be predictive of increased cardiovascular disease risk. Of the inflammatory markers studied in relation to cognitive decline, most interest has been placed in C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).
Hormone and memory study
One of the major projects being undertaken by the Jean Hailes Research team addresses the effects of hormones on memory. We will measure cognitive function using a battery of tests that measure a broad range of brain functions in 400 women aged 18 to 75 years and study the relationships between age, hormone levels, inflammatory markers and menopause status. All the participants will be re-evaluated 4 years later and we will investigate the extent to which the rate of change is associated to ageing, hormonal change, use of HT or inflammatory marker levels.
We believe these findings will play a significant role in unravelling the mystery of memory and cognition.
International Clot Research: The Serenity Survey
Women across Australia are needed to participate in a worldwide study led by The Jean Hailes Research Unit and Monash University, in collaboration with international researchers from France.
The study will look at the impact natural menopause, as well as hormone therapies (HT), may have had in contributing to the risk of developing thrombosis. Currently, there is insufficient data on the influence of female hormones at the time of menopause and from HT after menopause.
To participate in this study you must:
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Be postmenopausal
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Aged under 60
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Have experienced previous blood clots in the legs or lungs.
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We are looking for women who have both had, or not had, HT during menopause. They need to have had a previous clot.
The results will provide important information on the risk of blood clots around menopause, as well as on clot risk factors, including HT. One of the important questions is whether skin patch is safer than tablet HT after menopause. Participation in this study will only involve contacting us by phone, and if interested, completing a self administered questionnaire. Personal details remain strictly confidential.
If you are interested in participating, or want further details, please contact the Jean Hailes Research Unit on 03 9543 9463.
Medical Centre Update
Profile Dr Desiree Yap
The Jean Hailes Foundation is extremely proud of the multidisciplinary team of health professionals who consult at the Medical Centre for Women.
Specialist Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Dr Desiree Yap, was the World Health Organization (WHO) China SARS Infection Control Team Leader from May to July this year. |
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Her team’s role was to provide technical assistance to the Chinese in the area of infection control – the processing of those who might be infected, their isolation, as well as the protection of health staff from the disease. Issues included patient accommodation, ventilation and airflow, hand washing, clothing for personal protection – and how to use it - and equipment prioritisation.
Dr Yap holds a Master in Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Her special interest is in women’s health, public health, community development and Indigenous and Refugee health. Previously, she has worked in rural and remote parts of Australia, as well as in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Dr Yap's description of arriving in Beijing at the peak of the SARS epidemic.
Only 25 people got off the usually busy Hong Kong- Beijing Dragon Airbus 300 flight. Passengers and crew wore surgical masks. I didn’t bother. We’d had our temperatures checked going through Hong-Kong transit. Besides, there was only one other person in my section of the plane.
There was barely any staff and no air conditioning in the deserted airport – just one immigration officer to process us. The masked WHO driver drove me into Beijing in what should have been typical Friday night peak hour. It was empty. Hotel check in required another temperature check. This happened daily.
Restaurants were closed. Cinemas were closed. Gyms, swimming pools, the Great Wall and Mao Tse Tung’s tomb were all closed. Streets and shopping centres were deserted. Disease brings fear – fear of your neighbours, your friends, even your family. Taxi drivers slept in their cabs, frightened to go home, in case a passenger had infected them. Hospital staff worked shifts, quarantined together in cheap hotels when not on duty. Elsewhere, people were placed in isolation for two weeks – just for coming from Beijing, even those without fevers.
Every house had to record the family’s temperature and present an activity diary to the Party representative, who collated it and passed it up the hierarchy.
Temperature checks were carried out at all train and bus stations, airports and major traffic points. One person registering a fever in a bus resulted in the whole bus being quarantined. A town of 10,000 residents was quarantined. Hospitals were closed, with staff, patients and visitors impounded inside for two weeks – food and drink were passed through guarded gateways.
Breaking quarantine was punishable by death. |
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The Jean Hailes Foundation magazine is designed to be informative and educational. It is not intended that The Jean Hailes Foundation magazine provide specific medical advice or replace advice from your health professional. The Jean Hailes Foundation does not accept any liability to any person for the information or advice (or the use of information or advice) which is provided in this magazine or incorporated into it by reference. Information is provided on the basis that all persons reading the magazine undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content.
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Note: This article is an archive. Whilst the Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health has made every effort to ensure this information was accurate at the time of publication, the article content has not been updated since the date listed below.
Content November 05, 2003
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