Testing It Up

Technology has brought us not only ways to improve efficiency, but also means to monitor our health better. Women now have a vast resource of apps to help keep healthy and fit, wherever they are and whenever they need it.

Period Tracker

Period Tracker is an easy and efficient way of keeping tabs with your monthly period. Period Tracker not only lets you enter data about the start and end of your cycle, it also lets you jot down notes about your symptoms and moods for each day.

With the Period Tracker app, you can also set reminders to take your birth control pill, make notes about you fertile days, log your weight and internal body temperature if you are attempting to get pregnant. After three months of data are entered, Period Tracker will provide you a ballpark figure of your fertile and ovulation days based on the duration of your average cycle.

Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker

This app performs as both calorie and exercise counter. It has hundreds of calorie info of foods ranging from grocery items like Trader Joe’s to restaurant staples like California Pizza Kitchen. It keeps track of your caloric intake so that you can watch your diet.

Cooking Light

This app intends to provide delicious and healthy recipes.  The Cooking Light app contains over 300 simple and healthy recipes including nutrition computations, as well as cooking and grocery shopping hints.

WebMD.com

WebMD.com is very informative at the same time user-friendly. It allows you to search for a particular medical concern. It has an extensive database for First Aid. It also offers a ton of information on their Drug and Treatment section, which lets you study drug interactions, side effects and more.

Dealing with certain health problems can be a bit tricky, and one reason may be because patients would rather not talk to anyone about these issues – including their doctor. These “secret inconveniences,” however, have accompanying treatment options, and for women, all that they need to do is to be up front about them with their physician.

A feature on WebMD talks about these health issues – why women should not be embarrassed about them, and why they should not keep mum about them.

The toilet is perhaps the most private place for a person, so it is understandable that most people – especially women – would rather keep toilet tales private. Conditions such as frequent urination and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are things that women would rather not discuss. One reason is that they feel that they are “different from everyone else”. Another may be that a leaky bladder, for instance, is something that an adult should no longer suffer and be able to control.

This is not true, according to the feature. For one, a person suffering from these conditions is most definitely not alone; the International Foundation for Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said that 10% – 15% of the general population, or even more, suffer from IBS. Women’s health expert Dr. Donnica Moore said that it is a known fact that 17 million American women suffer from bladder control.

That being said, Dr. Moore urges women to talk to their doctors about these conditions so that they will be given the appropriate treatment. Other issues discussed in the feature were gas, excessive sweating and vaginal odors.

According to research in Canada women who are trying to become pregnant need to be more certain about the drugs they take before pregnancy even begins and should discuss them with doctors to certify that they won’t interfere with the child’s health. Why? According to this research many women are still taking drugs that are known to have potential effects like birth defects.

Drugs like those given for epilepsy are necessary during pregnancy despite their potential risk to fetal growth. But some other drugs such as those that treat anxiety, severe acne, psychiatric drugs, antibiotics, and numerous prescription drugs for heart disease and medical conditions can be stopped and avoided during pregnancy. In fact any woman who has a chronic condition of any sort, especially those which involve the use of regular drug treatment should seriously go over the side effects of those drugs with their doctor before attempting to become pregnant. Minimizing or removing those risks before or during pregnancy can be vital for the baby’s health and in some cases survival.

Between January 1998 and the last day of 2002 prescriptions filled by pregnant women for drugs available at the time and known to pose fetal risks were analyzed. 56% of the 109,344 pregnant women filled at least 1 prescription and a total of 6.3 percent (or 6,871 women) had a medical prescription filled with potentially harmful effects to their child. The women who did so had a higher incidence of termination and children who were born with major birth defects. In these cases roughly 47% lost their child and 6 % had a miscarriage. In a the group of mothers who hadn’t taken any of these drugs during their pregnancy the rate of termination was 36% and the rate of miscarriage was lower than 5%. Of 2,842 infants affected by these medications 8.2% dealt with birth defects as a result. This was in stark contrast to the 7.1% of 59,287 infants who weren’t exposed that were shown to have birth defects.

The first study of women’s health on a global scale has pointed to AIDS as the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44. This information was released by the World Health Organization in a 91-page report.

The leading culprit behind this finding, especially among developing countries, was reportedly determined as unsafe sex; for others, lack of access to contraceptives as well as iron deficiency were also found to be risk factors. In some countries, women either do not have sufficient knowledge on how to protect themselves or have difficulty doing so due to cultural barriers or lack of resources.

Women who face these circumstances also face higher risk of death or disease. On a global scale, one in five women die due to reasons that can be traced back to unsafe sex.

The report is reportedly an attempt to bring to light the plight of women across the globe who experience unequal health treatment by virtue of the fact that they are who they are – women. There are places where this discrimination happens from infancy through adolescence and adulthood, all the way through to old age.

Dr. Margaret Chan, Chief of the World Health Organization, indicated that biologically speaking, women ought to have the upper hand when it comes to longevity as they are predisposed to live at least six years longer than men. They lose this biological advantage in some parts of the world, however, where women live in poverty, lack sufficient access to health care and live in a culture where their well-being takes a back seat to that of men.

Dr. Chan was also quick to note that the improvement of women’s health on the global perspective will only see improvement if their status in some countries that still do not give them equal rights are improved.

Whether we’re always aware of it or not women tend to be just as negligent about their health as men. If something doesn’t seem to be immediately damaging or risky to our health we blow off getting it checked out until it is and as it turns out end up paying the price for it. The following symptoms could be early warning signs that cancer is present in a woman’s body and when more than one is detected should warrant immediate medical intervention to rule out cancer.

• Bloating: This symptom can be especially tricky as it also occurs with menstrual cycles for many women. However it’s also an early sign of ovarian cancer in the body. When this is present it’s often accompanied by abdominal or pelvic pain, a lack of appetite and an increased frequency of urination. If you’ve had this on a regular basis for as long as a few weeks you need to get evaluated by a doctor.

• Inexplicable Weight Loss: If you lose 10 pounds or more in a month’s time without any major changes in diet or exercise you must go in for an evaluation! This is one of the major signs of cancer in the body!

• Bleeding Outside of Cycle: If you’re dealing with bleeding in between cycles or after menopause you shouldn’t ignore it! It can be a warning sign of endometriosis which requires ultrasound to evaluate.

• Breast Changes: While many women are aware of lumps and know to look out for them it’s not always as well known that they should also be watching for other changes. Thickening or redness of the breast skin, a rash that lasts for weeks, nipple changes, and breast discharge outside of breastfeeding are also signs to be on the lookout for.

• Difficulty Swallowing: You may even have changed your diet to accommodate the issue. The trouble is this could be a sign of GI Cancer and is also an early warning signs of both heart attack and artherioschlerosis in women.

Laparoscopic testing has long been used to test for endometriosis, but a new less invasive and nonsurgical test has been proven to be just as effective. If the method is approved by the FDA after further study into its effectiveness it may in fact replace laparoscopy. This could be good news for women facing endometriosis as the sooner the disorder is diagnosed the sooner treatment can begin. Normally it takes about 6-10 years to verify if the disorder is present in sufferers, delaying treatment and allowing the effects of the disorder to take root, deteriorating quality of life.

There are some negative aspects to this method however as women who are receiving hormone treatment can’t use it since the endometrial tissue fibers the test looks for may not be present in those who have been using hormones. Biopsy technique is also terribly important to getting the correct results in the method. Overall however the testing could help many women to diagnose and treat the disorder before it can begin to do damage to the body by progressing.

Yesterday, we began a feature on the top 5 health issues that affect the women of today. We now conclude the feature by sharing with you the last two issues that we were not able to include.

Depression. While depression can essentially be developed by both men and women, it seems that more women are affected by a depression-related disorder annually – about twice that of the number of men affected. This is according to statistics in the National Institute of Mental Health. According to author and psychologist Dorree Lynn, PhD, women need a connection with others in their lives, and if they don’t get that, they can get depressed. Depression can also be associated with hormonal changes, which naturally occur in women at certain points in their lives, particularly immediately after giving birth (post-partum) and at the onset of menopause.

Autoimmune diseases. These diseases are composed of disorders where the immune system suddenly turns on the body and starts attacking it, destroying or altering tissues. There are reportedly about 80 chronic illnesses that fall under this category, including lupus, multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes.

Among the common risk factors for these 5 health concerns are smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet and obesity, which means that women who would like to take care of themselves need to stay away from smoking and keep fit by being physically active. Physical activity may mean making a commitment to going to the gym at regular intervals, or it can be something as simple as walking to the grocery store for your weekly shopping instead of taking the car with you all the time.

Adapting healthy lifestyles and behaviors should be done early. It is also important to work with your physicians, being very forthcoming about symptoms and family histories without necessarily overdoing it.

If a couple is going through a rough patch, it may not only be the marriage that is disintegrating. A study that was presented at the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago last Thursday indicates that rocky marriages may also result in the disintegration of the health of the woman involved.

While it is true that such a situation leaves both partners in the relationship feeling depressed, the study indicates that among middle-aged couples, only the woman seem to develop health problems in conjunction with the marital problems. Women undergoing relationship problems develop high blood pressure, excess belly fat and other conditions that eventually lead to other more serious health conditions such as heart attacks and diabetes.

Researchers from the University of Utah collected data from 276 couples, with ages ranging from 32 to 76 years and with marriages that have lasted for a long time, averaging about 27 years. What they found out was that women who were in troubled relationships were more susceptible to developing depression than women who were not in that predicament. In addition, the risk factor for developing high triglycerides, low level of HDL or good cholesterol and elevated blood sugar levels which, along with high blood pressure and obesity, are considered building blocks towards heart ailments and diabetes is higher.

In contrast, husbands’ issues seem to be confined more around emotional problems such as symptoms of depression as opposed to having physical health issues. This has led to a discussion regarding looking at all aspects of a patient’s life when seeing and treating them for physical ailments.

Emotions such as anger as well as engaging in hostilities, which is what usually happens when a marriage is on the rocks, may lead to an increase in stress hormones. Stress hormones are, in turn, associated with insulin resistance, which may lead to increased blood sugar levels and higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.

Chicago Health Screening