I tell ALL my patients that when you exercise you can actually increase your life span!. For women, certain exercises can help with hormone balancing, preventing osteoporosis (enter the dreaded hip fracture-NO THANKS!!!) and of course, help prevent or control chronic problems like diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiovascular events and mood problems.
I just took a test right here that revealed my real age!!! I was pleasantly surprised since I have a birthday right around the corner! Here are the results of my test. You can take the test too!
I got such high marks because of lifestyle choices I have made that have reduced my risk of chronic disease. Exercising regularly, eating healthy, sleeping good, not having to take prescription medications are some of the things that gave me that lower age.
So, if you don’t like to exercise, have never exercised, don’t know where to start with exercising, don’t know how to start exercising, I have the solution for you. I have written a course just for that and it is discounted if you sign up between now and 10/31/21. Enter the code Let Me In at checkout. After that the price goes up!
Oh, and there is a planner to go with that. It is available here. I highly recommend you snag that because it gives you everything you need in one place.
Please don’t think it’s too late to get started! It’s not!!!!! I heard someone on a call I was on the other day say that she struggled with alcohol use and was way too fat and was actually afraid she would die too soon because of her choices. Guess what? She gave up the alcohol, got a personal trainer (you can connect with a personal trainer in my course) and lost 40+ pounds. She looked great!!!
I hope you decide to join me on this health and wellness journey through the Fire Up Your Fitness Framework course. I will see you on the other side!!
When I was 32, my provider demanded I get a baseline mammogram due to my Mom’s history. The girl that did the test at the hospital, Linda, (I don't fondly remember her name) pressed the plates together against my breast so hard that there was an audible “pop” followed by a dark green discharge that came out of the nipple. I was also bruised all around the breast. That experience pretty much created a deep fear in me to ever get another mammogram. I avoided it for years after the recommended age for screening had passed.
Finally, (I don’t remember my age), I came to my senses and scheduled another mammogram. This time there was a dedicated breast center and the experience was much more tolerable. I am a terrible patient, so I let the yearly screening come and go and was not good at being diligent with that. Besides, my mammograms were usually normal. A couple of times, there were some “calcifications” that looked suspicious so they would call me back in for a diagnostic mammogram to look further.
In 2015, I was supposed to get my screening mammogram done in January. I already mentioned I am a terrible patient and before I realized it the year was almost gone. I scheduled my test on my birthday in November. I figured that would be an easy way to remember to get this done every year. I got a call the next day that I had a suspicious lesion that was likely cancer. WHAT????? Yep, ER/PR+ HER2- 1 cm DCIS tumor. I had a breast MRI to make sure there were no abnormal findings anywhere else in the surrounding musculature or bones. It was all normal. I had a lumpectomy and they removed 4 lymph nodes. Once the surgical site healed, I had 33 radiation treatments. It was a scary process but I am, at the time of this writing, cancer free.
I had decided this last year I would look into thermography to see if there were any inflammatory changes going on. They did a baseline test and 3 months later repeated that and everything was normal.
Mammography is standard of care. It is a form of xray that examines breast tissue and identifies abnormalities that could be cancer. It can also detect possible abnormalities that need further imaging as in the case of calcifications. This can cause anxiety and is more costly. Mammograms are recommended starting at age 50. The starting age used to be 40 but the guidelines have changed unless you have a first degree relative with a history of breast cancer. The guidelines also state the screening can be done every 2 years. This is a discussion you should have with your provider.
Drawbacks of mammogram are xray exposure and deep compression of breast tissue and false findings resulting in more imaging.
Thermography is another screening tool but is not considered standard of care. It is a form of infrared technology that detects and records temperature changes on the surface of the skin. It is thought that if there are cancer cells then those cells create inflammation which will show up on the imaging as elevated skin temperature. There are some benefits to consider - see the above chart
Thermography is not recommended as a substitute for mammography or breast MRI
Moving forward, I will continue to get mammograms and may continue to alternate that screening with thermography. This last year I did only thermography. This year I will do another mammogram (ugh!!)