Menopausal women who exercise may experience fewer hot flashes in the 24 hours following physical activity, according to health researchers. In general, women who are relatively inactive or are overweight or obese tend to have a risk of increased symptoms of perceived hot flashes, said Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology at Penn State.

"Some physiological explanations would suggest that performing physical activity could increase hot flashes because it acutely increases body core temperature," said Elavsky. To the contrary, the researchers found that this premise was not true -- on average, the women in the study experienced fewer hot-flash symptoms after exercising.

The four of us like to lunch. We hit the buffet about once a month, where the potato freak among us can have her fill and the other, who's perpetually dieting, won't shame us by ordering "steamed vegetables, no sauce," and I can have two helpings of dessert, if I please, one chocolate, one not, with my two pots of hot tea.

We eat, a lot or a little, according to our natures, and we talk: a lot. Always we talk a lot.