Girls and women come in many varieties and all are beautiful. How would you complete this statement? I am beautiful because…
Here’s mine: I am beautiful because I have bright eyes and a cheery smile.
Please share your thoughts on beauty and check out the BYU Women’s Services and resources 10-day body image challenge.
How much do you know about pregnancy and nutrition? Test your Pregnancy Nutrition IQ!
Eating the right foods is critical to having a healthy pregnancy and delivering a healthy baby. The principles for healthy eating during pregnancy include the familiar reminders to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein.
Foods to avoid when pregnant:
Get plenty of these essential nutrients:
Many women have been told, “You are eating for two,” when pregnant. This is not completely accurate and has caused many women to overeat, putting the mother and baby’s health in danger. New research says that women need one extra snack per day which is about 300 calories. It is best to choose nutritious foods rather than junk food.
Robin Weiss recommends her favorite snacks:
Do you have other healthy snack/meal ideas? I’d love to hear what works well for you!
Are you a recent high school graduate getting excited to begin your freshman year of college after a nice a relaxing summer? Are you a mom with a daughter heading to college in the fall? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you need to be aware of Meningitis.
College freshmen are at an increased risk because of close living spaces in the dorms.
What is it? Meningitis is inflammation in the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord caused by a viral or bacterial infection. Viral meningitis is usually less severe and clears up without specific treatment. Bacterial meningitis, on the other hand, can be very severe and result in brain damage, hearing loss, learning disability, or death.
What are the Symptoms? The most common symptoms include:
These symptoms are similar to the flu and usually appear suddenly. It is important to get to a doctor as soon as you suspect that you have meningitis.
Is there a vaccine? Yes. There are two vaccines that prevent most, but not all cases of meningitis and it is recommended by the CDC for all children ages 11-18.
How can I avoid getting it?
Everyone is excited to get out in the summer sun and swim, hike, go on a picnic, go boating, go to the beach. Just thinking about this makes me want to stop writing and go outside! But, nothing puts a damper on summer fun like a bad sunburn! The best way to enjoy all of these great summer activities is by wearing sunscreen and using sun protection.
Going out in the sun without sun protection can expose us to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. These rays damage the skin and can lead to wrinkles, age spots, skin cancer, and permanent damage to the eyes.
The CDC suggestions for sun protection include:
Most of the older women
that I talk to mention how they wish they would have used sunscreen more as a kid because they are paying for not using it now that they are older. Many of these women are using sunscreen now, but it is often too late. The damage has been done. Young girls out there: invest in your future and start wearing sunscreen now. You will be grateful that you did!
Do you use sunscreen? What helps you remember to apply sunscreen? Share your advice with us!
I’m thinking of an object. It’s shaped like a triangle and divided into sections. It tells us how much of each food group to eat…
It’s the food guide pyramid!
The food guide pyramid was created in 1992, revised in 2005 and just yesterday, First Lady, Michelle Obama announced a new diagram to help Americans eat healthier. It is called My Plate and is part of her campaign against obesity. The image is simple and easier to understand than the previous pyramids. The plate is divided into sections to show how much should be filled with fruit, vegetables, grains and protein. There is a circle off to the side to represent dairy.
Along with the new image, a website has been created with tips on balancing calories, planning a healthy menu, foods to increase in your diet and foods to decrease, weight loss information and much more.
“As long as they’re eating proper portions, as long as half of their meal is fruits and vegetables alongside their lean proteins, whole grains and low-fat dairy, then we’re good. It’s as simple as that,” the first lady said at the MyPlate.gov unveiling.
The other diagrams are still accurate representations of a healthy diet, but this new diagram is easier to understand. We can visualize the image in our minds as we fill our plates before meals and hopefully it will guide us to make more balanced meal choices.
Check out the website. Check out the new diagram. Is it better than what we had before? Share your thoughts with us!
What are they?
An eating disorder is a condition where a person has severe disturbances in their eating habits. These disturbances can include extreme reduction of food intake or extreme overeating. A person with an eating disorder feels extreme distress or concern about their weight and body shape.
Eating disorders frequently appear during adolescence or young adulthood, but they can develop during childhood or later in adulthood. Boys and males can have eating disorders too; but they are much more common in girls and women. The two most common eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia.
Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a distorted body image and intense fear of gaining weight. People with anorexia often use unhealthy methods to lose weight. Dieting and exercising excessively, self-induced vomiting, or misusing laxatives, diuretics or enemas are common ways to try to lose weight. Weighing one’s self repeatedly, portioning food carefully, and eating only very small quantities of certain foods are typical behaviors of a person with anorexia.
Treatment involves three components:
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by frequent episodes of binge eating, followed by frantic efforts to avoid gaining weight, known as purging. They often fear gaining weight, want desperately to lose weight, and are intensely unhappy with their body size and shape.Usually, bulimic behavior is done in secret and is accompanied by feelings of disgust or shame.
Treatment often involves a combination of options and depends on the needs of the individual. To reduce or eliminate binge and purge behavior, a patient may undergo nutritional counseling and psychotherapy, especially cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), or be prescribed medication.
Treatable-Eating disorders are treatable, but no treatment plan is alike. It is best if the treatment is tailored to the patient’s individual needs. Treatment may include medical care and monitoring; medications; nutritional counseling; and individual, group and/or family psychotherapy. Some patients may also need to be hospitalized to treat malnutrition or to gain weight.
Every once in a while I get this rush of overwhelming excitement about being a girl. It’s great, don’t you think? As girls, we get to play sports, dance, wear jewelry, and be wives, mothers, and sisters. We get to wear dresses, run and play. We go shopping and have slumber parties; activities that boys just don’t understand!
Girls Inc. is a non-profit organization with the goal to inspire girls to be strong. They created a Bill of Rights for girls that help to inspire us to be bold and successful. This program helps young girls realize their value and potential. A six-year old girl shared her thoughts about being a girl. She said, “It’s good to be a girl in this world today. I like being a girl because I can speak for myself. I can stand up for myself. Being a girl makes me strong.”
Being a girl is not just about all of the fun activities we get to do. Girls are capable of success and no one can stand in our way. Girls become Doctors, teachers, nurses, scientists and much more. The possibilities are endless if you believe in yourself.
As girls and women, we have so many great opportunities to eliminate the stereotypes that hold us back. We can change the world.
What are your favorite things about being a girl?
Osteoporosis is a very common condition in older women. It is characterized by a decrease in bone density which leads to decreased strength and fragile bones. The bones become porous and spongy. This condition leads to compressed vertebrae which can cause a decrease of up to six inches in height. It makes day-to-day activities a challenge.
Some signs of osteoporosis include sloping shoulders, curve in the back, height loss, back pain, hunched posture, and a protruding abdomen.
Areas of the body that are prone to fractures because of osteoporosis include the spine, hips, ribs, and wrists. However, almost any bone in the body can be fractured due to weakening caused by osteoporosis. People can have osteoporosis and not know it until they fall and break a bone. When they visit their doctor to treat their broken bone, the doctor often finds that the bones were weak and may have caused the fall.
Prevention should start when we are young and continue throughout life. It includes getting enough calcium; drinking plenty of milk and eating fruits and vegetables regularly. Another way to strengthen bones is through weight-bearing exercises like gymnastics, running, dancing, lifting weights and yoga. Be sure to avoid smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and eating poorly, as these can lead to osteoporosis.
If you are wondering if you have weak bones, talk to your doctor about getting a bone density test.
What are you doing now to prevent weak bones and osteoporosis later in life? Please share your tips with us!
Healthy Bones Osteoporosis
As I drove back to Provo from Salt Lake this weekend, I noticed many health billboards along the side of the freeway. The most memorable one said, “Breast cancer is 99% curable if detected early.” This gave me hope. We can beat breast cancer if we are consistent with our self breast exams and mammograms.
Compared with other cancers, breast cancer is the most prevalent among women and affects approximately one million women worldwide. There are many factors that make women susceptible to breast cancer and being aware of these risks can help women make healthy lifestyle changes that will decrease their risk of getting breast cancer. Some of these risk factors include: being obese or overweight, lack of physical activity, a diet high in saturated fat, early menstruation, late menopause, and having a family history of breast cancer.
Up to 10 percent of breast cancer is due to genetics. If a woman has a grandmother, mother, sister, or daughter who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, she is put in the higher risk group. I have not experienced breast cancer personally, but I know several women whose lives have been changed because of breast cancer.
In visits with my doctor and talking with other women, I have learned some key ideas in detecting breast cancer early. They include doing a self-breast exam every month, a yearly mammogram, a check up with a medical professional once a year, losing weight through diet and exercise and taking vitamin D.
It can be difficult to keep up with these preventative behaviors because life gets busy, but doing them can save our lives.
What are your experiences? What are the best ways for you to be healthy and watch for signs of breast cancer? Do you have creative and cleaver ways to remind yourself to do your exams? I’d love to hear your input!
HPV stands for Human papillomavirus, which is the most common sexually transmitted infection. Approximately 75% to 80% of males and females will be infected in their lifetime. HPV can clear up on its own with help from the body’s immune system, but that does not always happen.
Bad news: if it doesn’t clear, it can cause cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in females and genital warts in males and females
Good news: there is a vaccine, called Gardasil.
Gardasil is FDA approved and is the only vaccine that protects against the 4 most common types of HPV. It is given in a series of three shots and must be administered before a person’s first sexual contact in order to be effective.
The CDC recommends routine vaccination with Gardasil for girls ages 11 to 12, and for young women ages 13 through 26 who have not already been vaccinated. The CDC says that Gardasil can be given to boys and young men ages 9 through 26.
Gardasil helps protect males and females ages 9 to 26 from 90% of genital warts cases and also helps protect females ages 9 to 26 from about 75% of cervical, 70% of vaginal, and up to 50% of vulvar cancer cases.
As with any drug or vaccine, however, there is always the potential for trouble. Some women have experienced skin rashes, nausea, dizziness, headaches and they say it is from getting the Gardasil vaccine.
Have you been vaccinated? Have your daughters been vaccinated? What are your thoughts on this important issue in girls’ women’s health?
Remember this is your decision. Be sure to talk to your doctor to decide what is best for you and your family.
Healthy Girls and Women 