Empowering Women to Safeguard Their Health
These days, many women are discovering that an inspirational women’s network frequently can transform passion into action. Joining an online community for women offers an opportunity to unite people with a common purpose and create meaningful change.
Until we are faced with a medical issue, many of us take our good health for granted and may neglect key components of preventative care. Empowering women to safeguard their health begins with information and awareness. A social network for women cannot only provide a forum for learning but it can also serve as a reminder to take simple, but critical steps to maintain our well-being. Online discussions and campaigns reinforce the importance of paying attention to women’s health issues resulting in a happier, healthier community. As children, we were taught the basics of daily preventative care. Parents’ insistence on maintaining proper hygiene such as brushing our teeth and washing our hands, eating balanced diets full of fruits and vegetables while limiting sweets, and consistently clocking approximately 8 hours of a good night’s sleep, bolstered our health as we grew and developed into vibrant adults. As adults, however, it is easy to become distracted by the demands of our hectic lives and not expand upon those notions of how to take care of ourselves by incorporating more sophisticated steps that support continued health. There are a number of annual appointments that significantly reduce your health risks. An annual physical, including fasting bloodwork to check your cholesterol, is the first opportunity for you and your doctor to discover the beginnings of a health concern. When you postpone or avoid that visit altogether you are widening the gap in your doctor’s knowledge of your current condition and can unwittingly allow a reversible health issue to develop into a more serious medical problem. Similarly, a teeth cleaning and dental exam is recommended ideally every six months, but should never be delayed for more than a year. It not only monitors your teeth and gums so you can address dental complications quickly and with minimal physical and financial discomfort, but your dentist can also spot clues of other medical conditions when he examines your teeth, gums, and tongue. Depending on your stage in life, annual pap smears and mammograms, while unpleasant, are far more bearable than the procedures involved with a more serious diagnosis they are attempting to detect at an earlier, more manageable stage. The time-line recommendations for these preventative screens have recently been fluctuating and have even become the subject of intense debate within the medical community. Furthermore, our health insurance can often dictate whether we can afford these exams. You have to trust your own instincts on this, but make sure you are making informed decisions rather than avoiding something simply because it seems inconvenient or uncomfortable. One way to gather information is to utilize your social network for women. Not only are there many accomplished medical professionals that are part of our online community, but also we all need to consider the best ways to maintain our health. By continually participating in conversations about women’s health issues, you are empowering women to invest fully in their well-being. Whether it’s reminding each other of the resources out there or expanding our understanding of the factors involved, protecting our health as individual and as a community, remains a priority through visibility, and there are not many things more empowering than that.
