Women’s health
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – this old saying is especially true for gynecology. There are many ways to develop health problems in the modern world.
Just think about fast food, nicotine and alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, but also about permanent stress. Have you ever noticed that everyone seems to be using a smart phone in public places? Have you ever been bothered by the loud conversations of those people who are “always available”? Are you also always available, always on call?
These are only a few of the factors that can affect your health. It is now well known that women react to many things differently than men. One goal of a physician’s work is to support you in finding your own individual way to deal with stress. This is an ongoing process – start today!
Of course we have to remember that in modern medicine, more can be achieved through early detection than in prevention. Prevention is an active process – for the women. Physicians can assist and support this process. The great physician Hippocrates of Kos spoke of the benefits of a healthy, moderate diet in conjunction with exercise (sports), fresh air, sufficient sleep, and slowing down. Even today, these are still simple (yet difficult to implement) and modern approaches!
The ovaries, which produce the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone (and many others) in interplay with the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain, play a central role in a woman’s life. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland are closely related to the hippocampus, where our emotions originate in the broadest sense. One affects the other!
Prevention should therefore start early for women, because the function of the ovaries declines after age 30. This is not bad in itself and most women do not even notice it. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland counteract it. But then, when the first slight changes occur, is the right time to start prevention – if symptoms have already occurred, they have to be treated in some way.
You can influence many things in your life yourself:
- High blood pressure and the use of cardiovascular drugs
- Blood lipids and the use of lipid-lowering drugs
- Weight and the positive effects of weight loss
- Mental stability and use of psychotropic drugs
- Protection from the physiological decline of ovarian function
- Early protection against osteoporosis
- Early prevention of skin changes
- Hair loss
- Loss of libido
- Fatigue, loss of drive
Many factors affect women’s health differently than they affect men, for example:
- Menopause are years of change. Change is an active process that women don’t just let happen, they want to consciously form it. No one understands your own body as well as you do!
- Social status affects health. We know this. Yet it plays only a small role in everyday work.
- Formerly, the women of Berlin came from Schlesien and Pommern; today they come from Turkey, Poland, Russia, Yugoslavia, and many other European and non-European countries. Many women in our city thus bring other experiences, other religions, and new ways of life to our city. Immigrant background has become an important health topic because gynecology in particular has to take the role of women in modern society into account.
Modern Medicine should keep this facts in mind.
We can prevent many diseases and we can start to work at this together!