Lifestyle as a protective shield. Key habits and research that can protect women from lifestyle diseases

What are the main lifestyle elements that can be a shield against civilization diseases?

These elements are many, but they are as realistic as possible to fulfill. These include a healthy diet, or rather a proper diet, and regular physical activity - both endurance and strength training, at least twice a week.

Also dealing with emotions, reducing the stress that is our daily life, avoiding stimulants such as cigarettes - both traditional and e-cigarettes - or avoiding alcohol. Not just reducing it, but even total abstinence, because there is no safe dose of alcohol. It needs to be said straightforwardly: ethanol is a toxic substance and should be completely abandoned.

Also important is how we sleep, how long and the quality of our sleep, something we often forget in this age of such busyness. Well, and ties - community, society, taking care of kind relations with our friends, family, people around us - these are the basics. Another pillar is preventive examinations, which should be part of a lifestyle, even a habit written into our calendar.

And what kind of tests should a woman do? Of course, we are talking about different stages of a woman's life here

Yes, this is true. Certainly, such an absolutely basic test that every woman should do once a year - even if she is healthy and without any symptoms - is a morphology.

In addition, annual visits to the gynecologist's office and gynecological examinations. We also have new standards when it comes to cervical cancer prevention - an HPV test is now performed instead of cytology. This way, if the result is normal, the test can be repeated only in 5 years.

In addition, it is important, depending on a woman's age and clinical condition, to determine fasting glucose levels. This is an indicator that helps in the diagnosis of carbohydrate disorders, including diabetes. Also a lipidogram, which is the determination of total cholesterol and its individual fractions: LDL, HDL and non-HDL. This is a marker of lipid disorders, but also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

TSH, or thyroid function assessment - we women, unfortunately, are more prone to autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto's, which often occurs in us.

We also have a problem with anemia and iron deficiency far more often than men. It is worth remembering that the marker of its deficiency is not the concentration of iron itself, but ferritin, the protein that is its storehouse. It is it that reflects the iron reserves in our body.

And vitamin D - its receptors are present in almost every cell of our body, hence its effect on almost every organ. Its levels should be monitored in the blood, and if necessary, appropriate supplementation should be implemented. We know that vitamin D deficiency is common in our population, especially during the period of limited cutaneous synthesis, that is, from October to March. In spring and summer, adequate sun exposure is needed, but despite this, deficiencies also occur.

Finally, I want to talk about one more test - the determination of lipoprotein(a) levels. Each of us should perform it at least once in our lives, for example, on the occasion of a lipidogram. This is a molecule whose level is genetically determined and does not change significantly during life, and is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Even if we have normal cholesterol levels and no lipid disorders are evident, but lipoprotein(a) levels are elevated, we should take special care of our lifestyle and health.