The food and drink choices you make every day affect your health now and later in life. Choosing healthy foods and drinks more often can help prevent or manage many health problems that affect women. And studies show that when a woman eats healthy, everyone in her household is more likely to eat healthy. Healthy eating is a way of eating that improves your health and helps prevent disease. It means choosing different types of healthy food from all of the food groups (fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and proteins), most of the time, in the correct amounts for you. Healthy eating also means not eating a lot of foods with added sugar, sodium (salt), and saturated and trans fats. Healthy eating also means getting nutrients primarily from food rather than from vitamins or other supplements. Some women might need vitamins, minerals, or other supplements at certain times in life like…

When you’re in your 20s and 30s, the right lifestyle and screening tests can go a long way to keeping you healthy. These simple steps can greatly benefit you. 1. Start a Heart-Healthy Diet-and-Exercise Plan Skip the fried and fatty foods, and try to get at least half an hour of exercise every day. Eating right and keeping active are the gifts that keep on giving. If you set up these habits now, the benefits will last a lifetime. And if you plan on having children someday, it’s a good idea to take a multivitamin that gives you plenty of folic acid — between 400 and 800 micrograms a day. Start taking folic acid at least 1 month before you plan to get pregnant, and keep it up during your first trimester. 2. Work on Your Relationship with Your Doctor Find one you trust. Before your appointment, make up a list questions, such…

By nature, women face a triple threat of risk factors when it comes to arthritis: biology, genetic predisposition, and hormones. Unfortunately, a lot of women have added a fourth risk factor to the mix — obesity. Overall, women have osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, at much higher rates than men. Experts estimate that almost 27 million people in the United States have osteoarthritis, and that about 60 percent of them are women. Before age 55, more men tend to have osteoarthritis, but after age 55 the number of women with the condition far surpasses the number of men. Joints affected by osteoarthritis also tend to vary by gender, says Alexander Shikhman, MD, PhD, founder of the Institute for Specialized Medicine in Del Mar, Calif., and medical director of Restorative Remedies. Men are more prone to experience arthritis in their hips, while women tend to have it in the knees or hands,…

You know exercise is good for you, but do you know how well? From boosting your mood to improving your sex life, find out how exercise can improve your life. Want to feel better, have more energy and even add years to your life? Just exercise. The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are hard to ignore. Everyone benefits from exercise, regardless of age, sex or physical ability. Need more convincing to get moving? Check out these seven ways exercise can lead to a happier, healthier you. 1. Exercise controls weight Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help maintain weight loss. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn. Regular trips to the gym are great, but don’t worry if you can’t find a large chunk of time to exercise every day. Any amount of…

You have probably experienced an emotional phase in your life that has negatively affected you and left you feeling gloomy. Instead of asking for help to cope better with your situation, you were afraid of seeking help because of what people might think or say. Health experts say the stigma of mental illness is rife and that’s the reason people tend to be in denial or don’t want to confront the emotions they might be going through. Psychiatrist, Dr Linessa Moodley, and clinical psychologist, Nompumelelo Kubheka, share expert advice that discredits the stigma and myths on mental illness. WHAT IS MENTAL ILLNESS? The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or illness. Mental illness and disorder can be understood as an illness that adversely affects emotions, cognition, behaviour or speech and results in deterioration in the…