Pleased Pi Day! When you don’t have fun this math vacation, we’ve bought the pie recipes to get you began. And for those who’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this weekend, we’ve bought some wholesome “inexperienced” ideas beneath. (Your microbiome will thanks.) Hold studying for extra information concerning the menopause mind, options to colonoscopy screening and our weekly “pleasure” snacks. However earlier than that …This week’s must-reads:Turf fields could have ‘perpetually chemical compounds.’ Ought to children be enjoying on them?Why a too-tight sports activities bra could have an effect on your respiratory and energyAre pure sweeteners like honey and agave actually higher for you?Ought to I exploit diaper cream on my face? Right here’s why some persons are.Not everybody wants therapyEating inexperienced for St. Patrick’s DayScientists have discovered that the extra various your weight loss program, the extra various your intestine microbiome. Research present {that a} excessive stage of microbiome variety correlates with good well being and that low variety is linked to greater charges of weight achieve and weight problems, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and different power ailments.Even for those who already eat quite a lot of vegetables and fruit, strive growing the number of plant meals you eat every week. One quick manner to do that is to eat totally different inexperienced meals. Use extra herbs and spices. Make a salad utilizing an assortment of leafy greens quite than one sort of lettuce. Add a number of totally different greens to your stir fry and eat extra nuts, seeds, beans and grains.To have fun St. Patrick’s Day, strive making a few of these inexperienced meals from our Meals workforce. You’ll be able to at all times discover contemporary concepts for dinner and particular celebrations by way of our Recipes hyperlink. What do you wish to cook dinner immediately?Winter Salad With Crunchy Greens and SardinesCrispy Parmesan Smashed BroccoliGreen Beans With Oranges and AlmondsZero Proof Basil-Matcha Fizz“Menopause is a perform of the mind that performs havoc with a lady’s physique and her outlook on life,” Maria Shriver writes within the ahead to the brand new ebook “The Menopause Mind.” “Certainly, all of those erratic feelings and signs could make a lady really feel loopy if she shouldn’t be reassured that they’re regular.”This week on Washington Put up Stay, I spoke with the ebook’s creator, Lisa Mosconi, a neuroscientist. Right here’s an edited excerpt of our dialog. You’ll be able to watch and take heed to the total dialogue by clicking the hyperlink beneath.Why has it been such a problem, not only for girls but in addition for the medical neighborhood, to acknowledge that menopause is regular and that ladies are usually not loopy?It actually goes again to Darwin, the daddy of contemporary biology, who was the primary one to weigh in on menopause and actually characterised this part of life as one thing that nature had not meant. Darwin was the one who mentioned that ladies’s brains have been inherently inferior to males’s brains. There’s fairly a robust neurosexism in analysis, the place quite a lot of the analysis that was performed up to now actually aimed toward proving Darwin proper.The research have been inbuilt such a manner the place scientists have been testing the speculation that males’s brains have been truly higher than girls’s brains. That led to one thing referred to as “bikini drugs,” which is an attention-grabbing time period describing how, from a medical perspective, nonetheless immediately, what makes a lady a lady are these components of the physique that may match underneath the bikini line.I feel it’s additionally a mix of ageism and sexism and just a little little bit of a cultural perspective towards menopause that basically leads us to concentrate on the downsides and never take a look at menopause as one thing that’s truly useful to girls, a minimum of from an evolutionary perspective.You’ve slides of a lady’s mind earlier than and after menopause, and the modifications are startling. Are you able to clarify?That is the very first examine that we did wanting on the mind earlier than and after menopause. We present a mind scan of a lady who was 43 years outdated when she got here in for the primary time. And we additionally bought an image of her mind proper after the transition to menopause, nearly eight years later. Quantitatively, that’s a couple of 30 % discount in mind vitality ranges.A 30 % change is apparent on the mind scans, but it surely’s not an indication of a deficiency or a neurodegenerative course of. It is a signal of menopause. It’s one thing that occurs to many ladies’s brains in our research, a minimum of. We’re mainly validating what numerous girls have been saying for hundreds of years, which is that menopause modifications your mind. Many ladies can really feel these modifications of their mind vitality ranges, their biochemistry.You name this ebook “a love letter to womanhood and a rallying cry for all girls to embrace menopause with out concern or embarrassment.” What would you like girls to remove out of your ebook and from this analysis?My message is that menopause is a neurologically energetic state. It impacts your mind. It’s vital to know this as a result of it actually empowers all girls to face up for themselves and never fear that they’re shedding their minds or that they’re getting dementia. That is menopause. There are lots of options out there to deal with the signs whereas additionally embracing the very fact that there’s a organic cause for the mind to undergo menopause, on your physique to undergo menopause, and that it’s not the tip in any manner, form or type.So many ladies after menopause are nonetheless exceptionally productive, proper? We is probably not reproductive, however there’s no cause to not be productive. And the common particular person spends — the common lady will spend over 30 % of her life in a postmenopausal stage. So why not make the perfect of it?You’ll be able to see the mind photos of menopause and take heed to the total dialog, by clicking this hyperlink.And extra on menopause: New analysis suggests sure species of whales bear menopause to assist their offspring and grand offspring.What are options to a colonoscopy?My physician at all times encourages me to do a colonoscopy for colorectal most cancers screening. However I’ve pals who simply do a stool take a look at at dwelling, which appears simpler. Why ought to I’m going by way of the effort of a colonoscopy?My maxim is that any most cancers screening is best than no most cancers screening. Colorectal most cancers is among the main causes of most cancers loss of life in the USA, and circumstances are occurring with growing frequency amongst youthful folks. It scares me that 28 % of U.S. adults are usually not updated with screening. If stool assessments assist shut that hole, I’m all in.Trendy kits that take a look at your stool for irregular DNA and microscopic portions of blood can detect round 92 % of colorectal cancers. Finishing a stool take a look at is a really streamlined course of, which you are able to do totally at dwelling.For extra info on stool package choices, how you can use them and the advantages of colon most cancers screening, learn the total article from our Ask a Physician columnist Trisha Pasricha.Right here are some things that introduced us pleasure this week.Goats have been caught in visitors. Dozens of strangers helped milk them.Six methods to get extra pleasure along with your dogI have little time left. I hope my goodbye evokes you.The place darkness will fall throughout the complete photo voltaic eclipseEnjoy a few of this week’s greatest pictures from The Washington Put up. They embrace festivals, a quinceañera and a contest-winning Australian shepherd.Cats aren’t jerks. They’re simply misunderstood.Need to know extra about “pleasure” snacks? Our Mind Issues columnist Richard Sima explains. You may also learn this story as a comic book.Please tell us how we’re doing. E mail me at wellbeing@washpost.com. You may also discover us on TikTok.