South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 61

3D Sun-Sentinel. Friday, Nov. 11, 1983 Women over 50 need advice on exercise A A A A A Slaff pbolot by JOA.NN VITKI.I.I These symptoms may be serious enough for consideration within the context of exercise for the aging woman. According to one authority, before the age of 45, the possibility of a woman's fracturing a forearm is exactly the same as a man's. But after 60 a woman has a 10-times-greatcr chance of fracturing a wrist.

Twenty-five or 30 percent of postmenopausal women have severe orthopedic problems such as the so-called dowager's hump, a series of fractures in the vertebra which, in extreme cases, actually cause a rib cage to end up resting on the iliac crest (the top of the hip bone). About 180,000 to 200,000 women have hip fractures every year, and about 20 percent of these women die from complications. Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a major health problem, and it's a major burden on our health-care system, with a cost exceeding $1 billion a year. There is also epidemiological evidence that the incidence of fatalities from coronary heart disease increases in this population. Before the age of 50, men had a 10-times-greater chance of dying from a heart attack than women.

After the age of 50 the two sexes are even in the chance of dying from a coronary. One tends to think of heart attacks as a male problem, but the relative immunity of women to heart attack seems to disappear after the menopause. Some of the changes that occur with (aging) are not only uncomfortable or embarrassing, but also dangerous. At the beginning of the there wasn't much of a problem because the average lifespan for a woman only extended about five years beyond the menopause. But now women can look forward lo approximately 25 additional years.

The question that now faces women is: How can they maintain the quality of life during these extra years? Unfortunately many women in the current over-50 age group lack the knowledge and skills to bond it from exercise. They grew up in the '30s, '40s and '50s when strenuous physical activity was considered un-feminine. They don't know how to plan a progressive exercise program, what a warm-up is, how to develop strength and what equipment to buy. The discomfort or injury they experience as a result of this lack of knowledge can dim their enthusiasm for further activity These women need an opportunity to learn about exercise. They need organized programs andor the guidance of well-trained professionals to avoid injury and to bent-fit from the activity.

For these women physical activity is a new experience but it can add a new dimension and new quality to their lives. Distributed by Loi Angeles Times Syndicate By Dr. Barbara L. Drinkwattr Sprriat lo Ifcr SUD-Sroliiwl The decade of the '70s was one of discovery, when our society finally realized vigorous physical activity was not unladylike. We also discovered then that sports can be a valuable learning experience for women as well as men, although the novelty of seeing women running marathons, climbing mountains, riding racehorses and even playing football caused a lot of discussion, particularly in the media.

Controversy ensued over whether women eould compete equally with men, run a four-minute mile or play on a professional basketball team. In this battle of the sexes the important question Does the woman gain the same benefits from exercise that a man does? was lost. The answer to that question is, of course, yes. She gains strength. She increases cardiovascular fitness, she becomes more flexible, and long before our sophisticated instruments can pick up any of these changes, she reports feelings of well-being, just as men do.

One important difference between older men and women, however, is the menopause. The menopause is a striking physiological marker in the life of a woman. Whether it is surgical menopause, as a result of removing ovaries, or natural menopause thai most women experience in their late 40s or early 50s, it is a very marked physiological change due to the decrease in ovarian function, with the resulting decrease in estrogen and progesterone levels. Two important questions need to be asked in relation to menopause. Does this change affect the woman's capacity for exercise, and is it possible activity might be useful in ameliorating some of the symptoms and some of the changes that occur? Seventy-five to 80 percent of all women experience some menopausal symptoms; 10 percent of them will have such severe symptoms that they will be unable to maintain a normal daily routine.

The most common symptoms and the ones that cause amusement in the non-afflicted are hot flashes and sweating episodes. They represent some of the changes that take place in the autonomic nervous system. Some women also experience pal-'pitations, dizziness and tingling in the extremities. In the psychogenic area it is possible to find depression, insomnia, headache and irritability. In the third area, the metabolic, there is (in some women) the occurrence of osteoporosis (an abnormal thinning of the bones), tissue changes and an increase in arteriosclorosis.

There is also the possibility of a decrease in carbohydrate tolerance. Evelyn Howren reminisces about World War II behind the instrument panel in the cockpit of a twin-engine Beechcraft. Earning her wings A well-done job didn'i win recognition A -c 1 A i Evelyn Howren waited 35 years Mrs. Howren is convinced that who we are and what we achieve is greatly entwined with where we come from, photographs of her parents and home in Atlanta are carefully placed among the certificates and newspaper clippings. Her mother was a homemaker who reared her children, a daughter and son, in Southern tradition.

As Mrs. Howren says: "I was to sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam." Her father was a company president and Spanish-American War veteran who did not approve of his daughter's interest in flying airplanes. He should not have been surprised, though. She had always been a tomboy, in love with the outdoors and anything that moved quickly. She was 18 years old during that summer of 1939 when, on the way to visit an aunt, she detoured to the airport for her first 30-minute flying lesson.

Up in the sky in the Piper Cub with no tail wheel and a hxL kV' Fcmmo fcro By Gay Brock Woman on view men. They were determined we were going to make it. Other male pilots didn't like it because it hurt their egos. I still think women make better instrument pilots because their touch is more gentle and the plane responds so beautifully." After graduating in April 1943, Mrs. Howren was stationed in Dallas, one of four ferry command bases in the country.

She flew seven days a week. When in the spring of 1944 she was denied officer's status, Mrs. Howren went to Colorado Springs to teach military cadets how to read instruments. As 1944 and the war wound down, the women disbanded. Mrs.

Howren went home to Atlanta. Her proud father bought her a plane and she went into business as a flight instructor at the Municipal Airport. There she teamed with another aviator, Hillman V. Howren, and together they decided to open their own flying school, Flightways Inc. In business from 1947 to 1968 the partners expanded into a small airline involved in all aspects of a fixed-base operation.

The couple waited until they retired to get married. Though the Howrens swapped their plane for a boat after moving to South Florida, they are in the process of buying another plane. Because as much fun as the deep blue sea might be, Mrs. Howren would rather be sky-high. Woman on view appears every Friday in Lifestyle.

Some fathers just don't want to pay child support. alliance. The unhappy reality here is that the government has had to step in where parents dropped out. The Census Bureau tells us that when divorcing parents make their own agreement, there is a much less trouble with payments. But a large proportion of the people who couldn't make their marriage work can't make their divorce work.

This bill is the end resuit of failed marriages, and failed divorces. But for the moment, at least the Congress is acting the way parents should: in the best interests of the child. x-S. nil By Gay Brock Suff Writer the battlefront, World War II was a man's war. On the homefront, it was a war supported by women.

Women like Evelyn Howren. Evelyn Howren, then Evelyn Greenblatt, was 20 years old when she was called to serve in the 319th Squadron Army Air Corps Women's Flying Detachment. She was among the first 30 women to be trained and tested in the role of civilian pilot. Her job? To ferry training planes, fighters end bombers to various training bases throughout the United States. Until the war, it had been a man's job.

"They were trying to find out if women could handle military aircraft," Mrs. Howren says. "After we graduated, we had proven the point. There was not one scratch on a plane. It was remarkable." Mrs.

Howren would soon learn that even the most remarkable performance does not guarantee an end to discrimination. Though in 1944 she completed the five-week training course at the Officer's School of Applied Tactics in Orlando, she was told she could not become an Army Air Corps officer because she was a woman. And it wasn't until 1977 that Mrs. Howren and the nearly 1,000 other women, pilots who flew during the war received an honorable discharge, entitling them to V.A. benefits, i "It's only right.

We were subject to everything the male pilots were subject to. It took 35 years for the government to decide we had done something." The honorable discharge fills one page of an album that chronicles her military career. Because Bill takes Every once in a while, we actually come up with a solution to a problem. This is an event so unusual in our complicated, embattled society that it should be immediately elevated to the status of news. "Man bites dog" stories pale beside such reader-grabbers as "Congress solves problem!" The solution that appears to be on hand is called "The Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1983." With luck, a bill to reform and strengthen the payment of child support may get as far as a congressional vote before Thanksgiving.

The problem, of course, has been around for a long time. One study v' after another has shown that an extraordinary proportion of divorced parents mostly fathers also divorce their children, at least financially. Of the 8.4 million families with absent fathers, only 5 million are awarded child support. Less than half of these families actually receive the full amount. In one year alone, unpaid child support came to $3.8 billion.

The Census Bureau reports that child-support payments represent only about 13 percent of the average male income. A Stanford University study shows that men who earn $50,000 a year are no more likely to pay their child support than men who earn under $10,000. It appears that most fathers don't pay because they don't want to. And '4 for an honorable discharge. 40-horsepower engine, she found heaven.

She could not tell anyone. Her parents would not approve. So she pilfered pennies from her allowance, sold the spare tire off her car and hocked some jewelry to afford the flying lessons. In 1941 she earned her private license. The sky was the limit.

When the nation went to war, Mrs. Howren was one of eight women called by the Civil Aeronautics Authority to work in airwave traffic control. With the job, she and a friend could afford to buy a plane, which they used to become Civil Air Patrol pilots. In the summer of 1942, the military began recruiting women pilots to ferry planes, releasing the male pilots for active duty. Having well over the required 300 flying hours and an excellent record with the CAA, Mrs.

Howren was chosen for the first training group. "We bad, five instructors, all Support Enforcement Month by the president. The bills were bogged down in details during the early fall and ran into opposition from divorced fathers' groups. But one piece of legislation was finally wrought out of compromise, brought out of subcommittee, and is likely to be reported out of the House Ways and Means Committee this week, close to a legislative track record. The bill beefs up enforcement of child-support payments- for both welfare and non-welfare families.

The central point is that states will now be required to withhold money from the paychecks of fathers who are 30 days late with their payments. States will also be able to withhold tax refunds from men whose families are on AFDC, make liens against the property of any delinquent parent, and add the bad news of child-support arrearages to his credit rating. A full 70 percent of the costs of administration will come from the feds, money that will also support clearinghouses to monitor and track payments. To allay the legitimate concerns of divorced fathers, there is even a provision for 50 state commissions on child support. These commissions will talk about things like visitation rights and standards for payments.

This is not a perfect bill, but it's about as decent a compromise as coui be wrought out of this odd child support under wing In-house help It will be one of the most important decisions you make hiring someone to care for the kids and the house while you work. But the task can be managed, with good results, if you are organized and take the right approach. First, decide what you expect of a housekeeper before you begin looking for someone. According to an article in Working Woman, the ideal housekeeper should be someone who: Enjoys being around children the age of your own, and has realistic ideas about what they can and cannot do, Is sensitive doesn't tease or act cruel; Is cheerful and has a sense of humor; Is intelligent and capable of handling an emergency; Is flexible, adaptable, honest, sober, healthy and clean; Is dependable shows up for work on time and does her job; Can drive (in case of an emergency); Keeps the house reasonably clean. According to a recent informal survey in the New York area, the usual salary range for housekeepers is from $140 to $200 per week, with $250 to $300 salaries not unheard of.

Group happenings The Fort Lauderdale Branch of the American Association of University Women will have a "Panel on Women" concerning the economic, legal and psychological status of single women at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Holiday Inn, 3355 N. Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale. Breakfast is $5.50, with reservations required through Box 70398, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33307.

For membership information call 583-8377. L'Chayim-Plantation Chapter of Hadassah will conduct its regular meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Deicke Auditorium, 5701 Cypress Road, Plantation. Boutique begins at 11 a.m.; mini-lunch at noon. The Broward County League of Women Voters is conducting the following two meetings about drinking water: 11:30 a.m.

to 1:30 p.m. Monday at the East Regional Library, 1300 E. Sunrise Fort Lauderdale. Topic will be "The Future of Drinking Water From Kissimee to the Kitchen." The Wednesday meeting topic is "South Florida Surface Water Hydrology," from 10 a.m. to noon at the West Regional Library 8601 W.

Broward Plantation. The Inverrary-Woodlands Chapter of Brandeis University National Women's Committee will present radio personality Barbara Studley at a luncheon and showcase Nov. 21 at the Inverrary Country Club. She will discuss "The Soviet Union and Its Impact on Israel and the Free World." For reservations, call 739-5363. Donation is $10.

Browsers are welcome at 11:30 a.m. and lunch is at noon. The Poetry Organization for Women will conduct its fifth annual contest Dec. 15 though Feb. 15, 1984.

There will be three prizes of $15, $10 and $5 and four honorable mentions in each of six categories. For more information send a self -addressed stamped envelope to POW, Maggi Meyer, 1527 Virginia St Berkeley, Calif. 94703. Tell us what's happening Femme fare appears every Friday in Lifestyle. If your croun or organization has community events or information of particular interest to women, we would like to publicize them.

Send the information to Gay Brock in care of Lifestyle; News and Sun Sentinel. Box 14430. Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33302 or 3521 Federal Highway, Boca Raton, Fla. 33431.

Please include vour phone number. 4 A Vi AC.r Ellen Goodman because they can get away with it. The desire to "do something" about truant fathers has produced a strange alliance over the past year. Traditionalists and feminists are united in one thing: disapproval of paternal neglect. Many are increasingly concerned about the "feminization of poverty." It is clear now that the quickest -way for a mother and children to get poor is to get divorced.

Most of the poor children in the country live in single-parent homes. In California, a year after divorce, the average wife's income drops 73 percent, while her husband's rises 42 percent. By last January, child-support enforcement was not only in the women's Economic Equity Act but in the President's State of the Union address. By July, a gaggle of bills were proposed, heard and studied. August, ijr its part, was dubbed Child.