Women Affairs

Sora Song Times Magazine What is a menopausal woman to do? A new study finds that taking soy supplements, a popular alternative to hormone-replacement therapy, does not help relieve the symptoms of menopause or protect against bone loss. After two years of taking daily soy isoflavone tablets, women showed no differences in bone density and no improvement in symptoms such as hot flashes or night sweats, compared with women taking a placebo. Indeed, by the end of the study, more women taking soy were having hot flashes than women taking placebos. Soy has been considered a potentially safer alternative to hormone therapy because of its isoflavones, or plant-based estrogens. Researchers have also observed that women in Asia, whose diets are typically rich in soy, are less likely to have bone loss, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease than their Western counterparts. To date, however, most clinical trials of soy have been limited by their small size, short duration or faulty d...

By Tim McGirk / Wells, Nev Times Magazine As the wife of a billionaire and a wealthy woman in her own right, Madeleine Pickens is accustomed to traveling in limos and private jets. But this afternoon, she is bumping along in a rusty pickup truck. The truck halts in the middle of a sagebrush valley. Nearby, a broad mountain shifts in color from ochre to indigo in the fading afternoon light. Pickens, 64, a petite blonde in a fringed buckskin jacket and matching boots, jumps from the truck and points to a low thundercloud of dust moving across the valley. It's a galloping herd of mustangs, tan and black and pinto, their manes streaming like water. Soon, the earth is drumming with their hoofbeats. "These horses were going to the slaughterhouse," she says, admiring the racing herd, "and so I brought them to my ranch, where they can run wild." Her giant ranch, in northeastern Nevada, is spread across three valleys and two mountain ranges, and Pickens inte...

A French model who posed nude for an anti-anorexia campaign while suffering from the illness herself has died at the age of 28, her colleagues confirm. Isabelle Caro died on 17 November after being treated for an acute respiratory illness, Swiss singer Vincent Bigler told journalists. He added that he did not know the exact cause of death. Ms Caro appeared in posters for an anti-anorexia campaign in 2007, but the ads were banned in several countries. It was not clear why it took so long for her death to be made public. The anti-anorexia campaign came amid a debate among fashion circles on the use of "ultra-skinny" models on the catwalk. The AFP news agency reported her as saying at the time: "I thought this could be a chance to use my suffering to get a message across, and finally put an image on what thinness represents and the danger it leads to - which is death." The model, who was 5ft 4in tall ...

Danica Patrick might not be IndyCar's most popular driver anymore, either because fans are tired of the excuses, don't like her turning on her teammates, or are unhappy because she's splitting time between open-wheel and NASCAR. Patrick has said she made a mistake in criticizing her teammates, but insists there are issues with the car. She'll start outside the top 10 for the first time in six Indys. Despite the sexy commercials, big-buck sponsors, model looks and international attention, she's yet to win the big one - the Indy 500 - or even string together enough smaller wins to match the attention she garners off the track. Moreover, to some she has committed the ultimate open-wheel sin by dabbling with those full-fendered boys in NASCAR. Could there be a Danica backlash brewing? As the sport gets ready today for the IndyCar Series' 94th running of the Indianapolis 500, some long-time followers of open-wheel racing are thinking there just might be. Last week, a...

World Breastfeeding Week can leave bottle-feeding mothers feeling guilty and resentful of society's judgemental pressure. Picture this. A newborn child is brought to the mother for its first feed. Mother and child both glow with health and happiness as they bond over this age-old ritual, which has well-documented benefits. But in the case of Simran Jha, 28, the experience wasn't quite like this rosy picture. "It was embarrassing as I tried to breast-feed but couldn't produce milk for over an hour," says the accounts executive. The fact that all her relatives were around, trying to figure out what was going wrong, only added to her woes. Jha eventually opted for bottle-feeding a month after her baby was born but resents the labels that come with the decision. "Women who don't breast-feed their kids are accused of being selfish and lazy," she says. "To people who make such harsh allegations, I say: it is my breast, my milk, and my ...

Time heals all wounds, especially in the entertainment business' and none would vouch for this truism of life more than super icons Shah Rukh Remember, they parted on a sour note after her hasty departure from his home production Chalte Chalte six years ago? She had already canned a portion of the film when Salman Khan reportedly landed on the sets... and, well, the rest as they say is history. Post that scene, SRK let Ash off the hook and took Rani Mukerji as his leading lady. And, since then, many big banners including Yashraj and Dharma failed to reunite the pair that created such magic in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas. Subsequently, though the Bollywood Badshah wasn’t invited to the Ash-Abhishek wedding, King Khan and wife Gauri posed with the Bachchans for the shutterbugs at the Drona premiere last year. And more recently, at Karan Johar’s birthday party on May 25, the two couples — SRK and Gauri, Ash and Abhi — spent quality time together. In the light of this thawing of rel...

Sexy eye makeup will only really be sexy if you know what you are doing. That means that before you can learn how to apply sexy eye makeup, you need to figure out what your best colors are. To do this, you can either experiment or ask an expert. Keep in mind that the colors you choose may also depend on what you are wearing. Prep your eyes with concealer: Concealer can be used to cover dark circles or the bluish discolouration just under your inner eye. Apply three dots of concealer under each eye. Start at the inner corner where skin tends to be darkest, then under the pupil and the third on the outer edge. Pat until it disappears. Apply eye base to your lid: Eye base is the secret to keeping your shadow in place for hours. Your eye shadow is likely to end up as a greasy line if you don’t prime your lid properly first. Apply shadow: It’s great to use a three-toned shadow and build from lids to brow. Start with a light colour that almost matches your lid. Sweep the colour across t...