Googling Menopause

Actually, I've been googling hormone replacement therapy. Here's one thing I found that's a little scary:

Risk factors of osteoporosis include:

• Age–risk increases as you grow older


• Being a woman–women have less bone tissue and lose bone faster than men


• Body size–small, thin-boned women are at greatest risk


• Ethnicity–white and Asian women are at highest risk


• Family history–having parents with a history of fractures


• Sex hormones–abnormal absence of menstrual periods (amenorrhea) or menopause


• Anorexia


• Lifetime diet low in calcium and vitamin D


• Certain medications, such as glucocorticoids (prescribed for various diseases, including arthritis, asthma, and lupus) or some anticonvulsants


• Physical inactivity or extended bed rest


• Cigarette smoking


• Excessive use of alcoholic beverages

Okay, so I'm reading this list, and I'm thinking Me. Me. Me., checking them off as I read. The only ones that don't pertain are physical inactivity or extended bed rest and cigarette smoking. Although I smoked about a pack a day (more when I was drinking at a bar), I quit over 20 years ago, and have only had maybe 10 or 15 cigarettes in all the years since then.

Then I get to the last one.

Excessive use of alcoholic beverages???!!

This is the first I've ever heard of that being a contributing factor to osteoporosis.

Crap. I'm screwed.

And, I've been SO wanting a drink (not in a gotta have one way, but just an ooh, a martini would be soooo good kinda way) for the last couple of days. I'm going to lunch with a friend on Thursday who's not in the loop on the alcohol-problem-self-outing, and this particular friend and I always have a glass of wine or two -- heck, let's just by a bottle-it's cheaper! -- when we go out for lunch, and then yesterday I was reading an article on summer entertaining, and there was a recipe for a lovely peach sangria, suggesting Gerwurtztraminer as the wine to use as a base, and I L-O-V-E Fetzer Gerwurtztraminer, so that got me to thinking that maybe I'd just pick up a bottle of that on the way home from my lunch date...

You see where this is leading. It's the whole alcoholic rationalization process that leads to the downward spiral back to where I was a month ago.