Two-time Emmy nominated actress Brenda Strong, who played Ann Ewing on TNT’s ‘Dallas,’ and also played and narrated the deceased character of Mary Alice Young on ABC’s dramedy ‘Desperate Housewives.’ Her other television credits include ‘Seinfeld,’ ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘CSI’ among others. She is also helping women over 50 deal with the issue of menopause. Also a certified yoga instructor, she has taught at the Mind Body Institute at UCLA and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yo San University for her work in the field of women’s wellness. Strong is also the national spokesperson for the American Fertility Association. Her efforts have been featured in Alternative Medicine Magazine, Shape Magazine for Pregnancy, Yoga Journal and Yoga Magazine. She is joined by Dr. Michelle Warren, a North American Menopause Society (NAMS) certified menopause practitioner. She earned a medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and is board certified in internal medicine and in the subspecialty of endocrinology along with training in reproductive endocrinology. In addition, in 1997, Dr. Warren founded the Center for Menopause, Hormone Disorders and Women’s Health at Columbia University Medical Center. TheCelebrityCafe.com’s Sari N. Kent had the opportunity to speak with both Ms. Strong about ‘Dallas’ cancellation and the campaign to bring it to another network as well as her work in aiding women 50 years and older in dealing with menopause. Dr. Warren also weighed in with advice on how to combat certain symptoms of menopause.
SNK: Before we begin Ms. Strong, I would just like to say how sorry I was to hear of Dallas’ cancellation. I watched the original as a little girl, loved your portrayal of Ann Ewing and was thrilled that Bobby [Ewing] finally found a no-nonsense wife would spoke her mind and didn’t pull any punches.
BS: Thank you so much. I really loved playing Ann Ewing and I’m sad it’s over too.
SNK: I’ve read rumors on various social media sites that Dallas might be picked up by another network. Can you comment on that?
BS: Well, Warner Brothers and the Save Dallas Campaign did a very fine job of trying to find another home for us. It’s a very complicated situation. There’s a lot of contracts in place and I totally appreciate the fans rallying for us. I’m so happy they loved the show enough that they want to see it live somewhere else. It’s really not up to us, it’s a business decision. So, ultimately, I’m hoping that we find an opportunity to wrap up the story at least out of respect for the fans and the characters.
SNK: You’re also helping to raise awareness about the health challenges that women 50 and older experience. Can you tell me a little more about how you’re doing that?
BS: As you may not know, I’m also a yoga teacher and I have a company called “StrongYoga4Women.” It’s yoga for every age and stage of a woman’s life. It started with fertility then pregnancy so it was a natural evolution. Pfizer then approached me to talk about menopause. We collaborated and created this video called “The Other Talk.” It’s really a clever, humorous approach to talking about menopause. It starts off with me talking to my daughter about her going through puberty and the pain she might be experiencing and getting the door slammed in my face *laugh* And, then, conversely, my mother starts to want to talk to me about “The Other Talk.” It’s really about her trying to warn me about what could be coming, symptom wise with menopause and I didn’t want to have that talk. It’s really kind of an opportunity to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about menopause and to help more women to come forward and talk about menopause and not be ashamed or feel embarrassed because it’s a natural time in life and we can live beyond it and we can live many many more years very healthily afterwards.
SNK: Are there any other upcoming projects of yours that you would like to mention?
BS: The most important one is this video. People can go to YouTube.com/letstalkaboutchange and that campaign is really to help women so they have some information about what’s coming and to find relief if they are having symptoms they aren’t sure what to do with and to talk to their health care practitioner and their partner about it.
SNK: This question is for Dr. Warren. My mother is 63 years old, she stopped having night sweats two years ago, takes all the right vitamins, calcium, B12, iron, magnesium, etc., but she’s still gets exhausted. Is there anything else she can do to get her energy back?
MW: There are excellent treatments for those kinds of symptoms. The symptoms of menopause occur because the body stops making estrogen. You get symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia and moodiness.
SNK: Well, her two main symptoms right now are weight gain and tiredness.
MW: She’s probably not sleeping well and the weight gain occurs, in particular, in people who aren’t sleeping well. You’ve got to move around. You have to keep exercising as you get older because you start losing muscle mass otherwise and you will gain weight. So, she needs to go to her health care practitioner and not be embarrassed by all of the symptoms, including the thinning of the vaginal wall, which is a symptom a lot of women don’t recognize, which leads to painful intercourse. There are FDA treatments that are available. Treatment needs to be individualized because every woman is different. In this campaign, we go over all of the symptoms and we also emphasize that you need to talk to your partner as well because there are symptoms that he needs to understand. Those in particular that lead to painful intercourse. There’s a whole variety of treatments out there and you need to be careful in talking to your health care practitioner and going into detail about what’s bothering you.
SNK: Is there anything else either of you would like to mention?
BS: Just to go to the YouTube video and watch it with their friends. It’s about opening up and having the conversation because so many of us are going to be going through menopause and in 2015, nearly half of the population in the US will be either reaching menopause or already in it. So, this is a conversation that’s natural and normal and we should feel comfortable talking about. We want to encourage women to speak up for themselves.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}