“Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today”, a mantra for all women who have pledged for a healthy 2022
The one thing that we have learnt is that we can fight any ailment with a strong immune system. Ill health and co-morbidities increase ones’ susceptibility to disease and hence it is crucial that we look after ourselves to ensure we can fight any attack on our body. Women need to take extra care as more often than not they are juggling family commitments, household chores and their professional lives that they forget to look after themselves, especially their reproductive health. Setting goals and living up to them will set the stage for a better, brighter, and healthy tomorrow. While bidding adieu to 2021, lets welcome the new year keeping in mind our health goals. Dr. Mukesh Gupta, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Le Nest Hospital, Malad, Mumbai shares important focus areas, that will help women take care of their health goals for 2022.
1. Lifestyle Overhaul
Lifestyle changes is a combination of physical and mental well-being coupled with healthy eating and nutrition. You can’t trade one for the other, it must be simultaneously worked upon to ensure good reproductive health. Healthy habits including sleeping on time, staying clear of addictions, setting up a routine and avoiding exposure to toxins will help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Also, mental health issues have a huge impact on your hormones, thus causing decline in reproductive health and rise in hormonal disorders in women, menstrual irregularities, and infertility.
Thus, a good lifestyle will not only keep you fit but will also release happy hormones. Who doesn’t want it all? If so, get on the fitness wagon to enjoy a healthy life.
Suggestive Tips
- Routine exercise and physical activity will keep you fit, thus ensuring balanced hormones, disease prevention and management
- Healthy eating and balanced nutritious diet is half the battle won when it comes to tackling hormonal diseases and its impact on the body
- Yoga and meditation will boost mental well-being and must be incorporated as part of ones’ daily life
2. Regular visits to your gynecologist
While you take matters in your own hands, you also need help for timely detection and diagnosis of reproductive disorders. Your healthcare provider is your go to person when it comes to prevention of diseases like Sexually transmitted diseases in women, reproductive disorders, and serious ailments like women related cancers. Talking to your doctor about your health concerns will help you tide over fears, anxieties, any health myths that can create bottlenecks in your journey towards positive health. Consultation, screening, and treatment if required must be followed stringently to meet your reproductive health goals.
Suggestive Tip: An annual visit to your Gynaecologist is crucial to catch diseases on time or rather prevent them before they cause harm to the body.
3. Plan for essential vaccinations
Vaccines form an important preventive strategy and must be part of your health goals for the new year. Vaccines are bifurcated into one-time, pre-conception and a few that can be taken during pregnancy without harm to your body and your baby.
The cervical cancer vaccine is a one-time vaccine to be taken in doses of 2 or 3 depending on your age. This vaccine can be taken from age 9 to 45 years. Vaccines like the chicken pox vaccine must be taken prior to conception to prevent chicken pox in mothers during pregnancy that can cause congenital varicella syndrome in your baby (rare disorder causing birth abnormalities). Before planning a pregnancy, it is good to take the MMR vaccine to get protection against infections like measles, mumps, and rubella. Hepatitis, Influenza and Typhoid vaccines must also be added to the list post discussion with your doctor. The newest addition to the list of vaccines is the COVID-19 vaccine along with the booster shots whenever available. It can be safely taken during pregnancy and breastfeeding and in fact it will protect you from severe disease if infected with the coronavirus.
Suggestive Tip: Vaccinations must be taken on time, and as required. It would be good to have a vaccine chart or maintain a vaccination calendar so that you don’t miss out on critical immunization.
Also Read: Is Vaccination Before and After 5 Days of Period Risky
4. Emotional and Psychological Well-being
The first step towards emotional and psychological well-being is to Identify your issues, recognize and accept them and then seek medical help. Hormonal changes is part and parcel of a woman’s life that can deeply impact ones emotions and psychology especially during menses, pregnancy and menopause. Mental health issues are often under reported due to constant denial amounting to larger problems such as anxiety, depression, mood swings, personality disorders.
Suggestive Tips
- Create a support group in friends, family, peers to discuss problems and issues related to stress
- Meet a specialist /psychologist to overcome stress and related issues and take medications if required
5. Attitudinal Change
While the above pointers are must-haves in your health goal plan, what will drive all of it is a positive attitude towards your health including sexual wellness and reproductive health. Women of today need a shift in their thinking, as staying healthy and fit will not only positively impact their lives but will also extend to their personal life and professional commitments. It is time to think beyond the usual and open possibilities for the development of the mind and body.
Suggestive Tip: Prioritize your health and don’t neglect yourself at the cost of family, friends, and professional commitments
It is every woman’s right and duty to spend quality time looking after herself as much as her family. Let the year 2022 be a year of self-love and self-care, thus making strides towards a happy and healthy future.
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