Female Care

Shelley Redford Young Master Alkalarian Chef

For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about losing weight, especially women. When I was very young, my mother was on this thing called a diet. I remember she ate tuna fish every day and drank the new 1 calorie drinks. Then when I attended High School, many of the girls I knew, were trying to lose weight for the prom, a dance concert, or just so they could buy a size smaller jeans. A few of my friends started taking this weight loss idea to dangerous extremes with bulimic and anorexic behavior. One of them did this for so long that her intestinal tract dried up and no longer functioned well. Checking in at a whopping 83 lbs., she finally had to have an operation to remove large parts of her intestine and required a colostomy bag for the rest of her life! All of this so she could remain the skinniest cheerleader on our High School Squad!!
Our nation, (or rather the world) appears to be confused and sometimes recklessly (the phen phen fiasco) searching for some magic bullet or potion that will allow everyone, especially women, to be at their ideal (or below) weight. The diet industry continues to be a multi billion dollar production that keeps offering up new methods, diets, and programs all making claims for results. However, obesity continues its climb to an epidemic, not only for adults, but for our children, and it has become apparent that our answer to the solution will never be found in one little pill or bottle. For the rising generation, we also need to focus on obesity prevention, not only for the emotional health of our young women, but also their physical well beings, as many diseases like diabetes and heart disease seem to accompany obesity.
Women in particular are under extreme pressure in our society to remain sleek and ideal.
Super models and movie idols are almost always close to the physical ideal that most women would love to be.
This is first brought to our attention as young females when we notice magazine covers in the check-out stand of the grocery store, most of which portray beautiful slim fit women in desirable fashions. From a very young age we develop a belief that if we can attain this look, we will be desirable, successful, and fulfilled.
Diet and Exercise equipment ads remind us as women, that we need our thighs trimmed and shaped, our bellies blasted and our buttocks busted!! Goals are set for women to remain in single digit dress sizes. Everywhere women are given a message that less is more when it comes to an ideal weight, and all with an attached sideline that we should remain toned, curvy and sexy.

Continue reading »

Myth: Skipping a meal is a good way to diet and lose weight.

Truth: The research shows that if you skip meals you are more likely to be overweight.
This appears to be especially true for those who skip breakfast.
With skipped meals there is a slowing of your body’s metabolism. The theory is that this is to preserve the stored calories through slowing the need for them. There is also good evidence that if you skip a meal you are likely to eat more at the next one, or worse, to snack (usually on whatever is handy).
Eat three regular meals a day, and if you are working at losing weight, eat smaller portions.

Myth: Carbohydrates are bad for you.
Truth: This is just plain silly. Your body uses carbs as its primary fuel source.
Carbohydrates have about half the amount of calories per gram as fats do. The problem with people’s diets today is that the contain a lot of simple carbohydrates like sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Simple sugars like these pack in the calories. When people eat low-carb diets, they eliminate these very high calorie carbohydrates and they lose weight. This type of weight loss doesn’t last for most people, however.
Research has shown that eating a diet low in fat and high in complex carbohydrates like whole grain and starches is good for you and is the best way to lose weight.

Continue reading »

All of us, from time to time, experience what we feel is unusually heavy bleeding during our menstrual periods. Fortunately, most often what we think is abnormal uterine bleeding is not excessive enough to be diagnosed as menorrhagia.

How do you know when bleeding during your period is abnormally heavy? The easiest way to know if you are experiencing menorrhagia is to take note of how often you need to change your pad or tampon. If your period is heavy enough to require changing more often than every one or two hours, or if you have a period that lasts more than a full week, you may be experiencing menorrhagia.
Continue reading »

According to researchers, a study tracking heart disease in women doubts the value of genetic testing in identifying the genes responsible for heart disease and predicting a person’s risk of developing illness.

Diagnosing woman with chromosome 9 abnormalities did not help much in predicting heart disease when compared with other risk factors associated with heart disease like smoking, diabetes, C-reactive protein, bad cholesterol levels, high blood pressure and family history.

It has been shown that this common genetic trait can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular conditions. According to Nina Paynter of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, once if you are aware of risk factors of heart disease, the extra information on genetic variation in your body is helpless. It will not improve your ability to predict heart disease.

For helping people to measure their risk of various health problems, genetic tests are being developed increasingly. However, the effectiveness of these genetic testing (not all, but few) and how far they are helpful in predicting health ailments is still unclear.

Dry eyes are most common health problem in women, particularly in menopausal women.

The main cause for dry eyes is due to fluctuations in most important hormones estrogen and androgens.

Not only post menopausal women, even pregnant women who use birth control pills and women undergoing hormone replacement therapy are frequently diagnosed with dry eyes.

If you are the one among those suffering with dry eyes, here are few effective ways to get better relief.

Optimize your diet

Be sure to eat 3 balanced meals every day that includes whole foods and all important nutrients essential for your body. If you notice any nutritional gap in your diet routine, fill it with multivitamin doses.

Stay hydrated always

Dry eyes can lead to loss of essential fluids in your eyes and can increase intensity of the problem. So, always stay hydrated by drinking enough water. Herbal teas, pure fruit and vegetable juices, milk and other non-diuretic juices also helps you long way to stay healthy.

Take proper care with contact lens

Improper use of contact lens is also one of the reasons for dry eyes. So, ensure that you take proper care with your contact lens and always keep them clean. If possible, try to avoid wearing them and go for other alternatives.

Get enough sleep

Good quality night sleep is extremely important to get better relief from dry eyes. Beyond giving enough rest and refreshment to eyes, quality night sleep can help you to reduce stress that is linked with hormonal imbalances.

Most women are ignorant of small lifestyle changes that would “dramatically reduce” the risk of strokes, the Stroke Association says.

The charity has survey evidence that shows 60% of women do not remember their last blood pressure reading.

Two-thirds do not know what an optimal blood pressure reading should be. Two surveys were conducted by GFK NOP among 1,000 people aged over 16.

Stroke is the most common cause of long-term disability, it says. Women are twice as likely to die from it as men, it added. And it points out that a third of stroke survivors have some sort of communication difficulty.

It predicts that 110 women under the age of 65 will have a stroke this week, 37 of whom will die. Had they controlled their blood pressure, 15 of them could have avoided a stroke altogether.

The survey showed that while more than 20% of women had been prescribed medication to control their blood pressure, 12% were not taking it regularly and thereby putting themselves at greater risk.
Continue reading »