Points Newsletter - JuLY 2005

In women, menopause involves an abrupt decrease of female sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, along with cessations of ovulation and menstruation. This marks an end to natural reproductive capability. In men, between the ages of 40 to 65, a gradual aging process with decrease of male sex hormones such as testosterone has been observed.
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Imagine that you are getting ready to go to work and are feeling totally fine one minute, and then suddenly realizing that half of your face feels a cold, numbing sensation, like you've just been to the dentist and had your mouth frozen with the anaesthesia. By the time you look in the mirror, the affected side is totally paralyzed and your normally smiling face now has one corner that droops down. One of your eyes has a swollen eyelid that can no longer close shut. When you try to eat, you keep biting your lip because you can no longer feel it, and the numbing sensation is starting to radiate to the other side of your face. For most people with Bell's palsy, the effects can be severely disfiguring and can cause great anxiety. Often the first thing that people think of is that they've had a stroke.
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Most of the time, and usually outside of our conscious awareness, we are in the process of finding our balance. This happens both internally on spiritual, mental/emotional, structural, and biochemical levels and externally in relationship to other people and our environment. This ongoing process of continually returning to balance is called homeostasis. In fact, how well we function, adapt and thrive in the world is largely related to how well we can return to balance in all circumstances.
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