Medicine, Science and Technology

How To Boost Your Health As A Woman

July 10, 2018

1119

Fatima Bukar
Women’s health concerns are a little different from those of men. If you’re a woman, these tips will soon have you feeling fit and energetic.
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Tip #1:
Eat a healthy diet.

If you want to eat natural foods diet as you can, that means a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. Eat whole grains and high-fiber foods and choose leaner cuts of meat, fish, and poultry. Include low-fat dairy products in your diet as well — depending on your age, you need between 800 and 1,500 milligrams of calcium daily to help avoid osteoporosis. Avoid foods and beverages that are high in calories, sugar, salt, and fat.
Healthy eating will help you maintain a proper weight for your height, which is important because being overweight can lead to a number of illnesses. Looking for a healthy snack? Try some raw vegetables, such as celery, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, or zucchini with dip made from low-fat yogurt.
If you’re not getting enough vitamins and nutrients in your diet, you might want to take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement to make sure you’re maintaining good health.
Tip #2: Exercise.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among women, but plenty of exercise can help keep your heart healthy. You want to exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week, if not every day. Aerobic exercises (walking, swimming, jogging, bicycling, dancing) are good for women’s health in general and especially for your heart.
Tip #3:
Avoid risky habits.
Stay away from cigarettes and people who smoke. Don’t use drugs. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. Most women’s health studies show that women can safely consume one drink a day. A drink is considered to be about 12 to 14 grams of alcohol, which is equal to 12 ounces of beer (4.5 percent alcohol); 5 ounces of wine (12.9 percent alcohol); or 1.5 ounces of spirits (hard liquor such as gin or whiskey, 80-proof).
Tip #4: Manage stress.
No matter what stage of her life – daughter, mother, grandmother- a woman often wears many hats and deals with a lot of pressure and stress. Take a few minutes every day just to relax and get your perspective back again. It doesn’t take long, and mental health is important to your physical well-being.You also can manage stress with exercise, relaxation techniques, or meditation.
Tip#5: Sun safely.
Excessive exposure to the sun’s harmful rays can cause skin cancer, which can be deadly. To protect against skin cancer, wear sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15 if you are going to be outdoors for more than a few minutes. Even if you wear sunscreen faithfully, you should check regularly for signs of skin cancer. Warning signs include any changes in the size, shape, color, or feel of birthmarks, moles, or freckles, or new, enlarging, pigmented, or red skin areas. If you spot any changes or you find you have sores that are not healing, consult your doctor.
Tip #6:
Check for breast cancer
The American Cancer Society no longer recommends monthly breast self-exams for women. However, it still suggests them as “an option” for women, starting in their 20s. You should be on the lookout for any changes in your breasts and report any concerns to your doctor. All women 40 and older should get a yearly mammogram as a mammogram is the most effective way of detecting cancer in its earliest stages, when it is most treatable.
A woman’s health needs change as she ages, but the basics of women’s health remain the same. If you follow these six simple healthy living tips, you will improve your quality of life for years to come.
Crazy Health Tricks That Really Work
Many methods to improve your health are pretty straightforward: to lose weight, eat less and exercise more; to boost your energy, get more sleep; to prevent dehydration, drink more water. Others, however, are totally counter intuitive. The following tips really do work but they may leave you scratching your head
Ditch antibacterial soap to prevent illness

Reaching for the soap bottle labeled “antibacterial” won’t necessarily reduce your risk of getting sick or passing illness to others—in fact, there is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are more effective than regular ones. What’s more, long-term exposure to some ingredients in these products, such as triclosan, may pose health risks like bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.
For healthy teeth, don’t brush after eating

Don’t brush your teeth immediately after meals and drinks, especially if they were acidic. Acidic foods—citrus fruits, sports drinks, tomatoes, soda (both diet and regular)—can soften tooth enamel “like wet sandstone. Brushing your teeth at this stage can speed up acid’s effect on your enamel and erode the layer underneath. Gamble suggests waiting 30 to 60 minutes before brushing.
To wear a smaller size, gain weight
Muscle weight, that is. If two women both weigh 150 pounds and only one lifts weights, the lifter will more likely fit into a smaller pant size than her sedentary counterpart. Likewise, a 150-pound woman who lifts weights could very well wear the same size as a 140-pound woman who doesn’t exercise. The reason: Although a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle, muscle takes up less space.You can get bigger muscles and get smaller overall if you lose the fat. “The bulk so many women fear only occurs if you don’t lose fat and develop muscle on top of it.” Cut back on calories and add weight to your workout to lose inches.
Skip energy drinks when you’re tired
Energy drinks contain up to five times more caffeine than coffee, but the boost they provide is fleeting and comes with unpleasant side effects like nervousness, irritability, and rapid, says Goodson. Plus, energy drinks often contain high levels of taurine, a central nervous system stimulant, and upwards of 50 grams of sugar per can (that’s 13 teaspoons worth!). The sweet stuff spikes blood sugar temporarily, only to crash soon after, leaving you sluggish and foggy headed—and reaching for another energy drink.
Drink water when you’re bloated

When you feel bloated, drinking water sounds as if it would only make matters worse, but it can often help. If you’re on a high-fiber diet, for instance, then your body needs more water to work more efficiently. “Water mixes with water soluble fiber and makes it into a gel like substance. This affects the motility of the gut and reduces the symptom of bloating.” Drinking more water also relieves bloating caused by dehydration. When you’re dehydrated, your body clings to the water your body does have, causing you to puff up.
JOKE
My wife, a phlebotomist at the Denver VA hospital, entered a patient’s room to draw blood. Noticing an apple on his nightstand, she  remarked, “An apple a day keeps  the doctor away, right?”
“That’s true,” he agreed. “I haven’t seen a doctor in three days.”

Weird Medical Story

A Puzzling Seizure
In 2008, a 25-year-old German man was on a ski trip with a friend when he became trapped by an avalanche and knocked unconscious. On top of a broken hip and ruptured spleen, the incident left him with small muscle spasms that plagued him whenever he moved.
In part, this was caused by the oxygen deprivation he had experienced beneath the snow. But an avalanche is not easy to survive, and he was a lucky survivor. Soon, he was on the road to recovery.
But the story didn’t end there. Several weeks later, he made a startling discovery. Whenever he tried to solve sudoku puzzles, seizures would develop in his left arm. Strangely, they immediately disappeared when he stopped solving the puzzles.
After doctors scanned his brain, they found that the seizures were triggered by strenuous activity in the right central parietal cortex, a part of the brain that deals with processing visuospatial information. Whenever the man’s 3-D imagination was activated, such as by imagining three-dimensional numbers while solving sudoku, the seizures would result.
The reason? While buried beneath the snow, he suffered from hypoxia, a condition where the brain and tissue do not get enough oxygen. This led to the death of the inhibitory fibers in his brain, which resulted in over activation in the cortex whenever he used it.
The good news was that physical therapy was able to lessen the muscle spasms, improving his quality of life. The bad news was that the man had no choice but to give up sudoku, his favorite pastime.