Practical Practitioner
By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE
Stay healthy at any age with preventive medicine
What can you do to stay healthy and prevent disease?
A good start would be to get certain screening tests, take preventive medicine if you need it, and practice healthy lifestyle behaviors.
Checklist for Your Next Checkup:
Screening tests, such as mammograms and Pap smears, can find diseases early when they are easier to treat.
Some women need certain screening tests earlier, or more often, than others. Talk to your healthcare provider about which of the tests listed below are right for you, when you should have them, and how often.
The Talk Force has made the following recommendations, based on scientific evidence, about which screening tests you should have.
- Mammograms: Have a mammogram every 1 to 2 years starting at age 40.
- Pap Smears: Have a Pap smear every 1 to 3 years if you have been sexually active or are older than 21.
- Cholesterol Checks: Have your cholesterol checked regularly starting at age 45. If you smoke, have diabetes, or if heart disease runs in your family, start having your cholesterol checked at age 20.
- Blood Pressure: Have your blood pressure checked at least every 2 years.
- Colorectal Cancer Tests: Have a test for colorectal cancer starting at age 50. Your clinician can help you decide which test is right for you.
- Diabetes Tests: Have a test to screen for diabetes if you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
- Depression: If you've felt "down", sad, or hopeless, and have felt little interest or pleasure in doing things for 2 weeks straight, talk to your doctor about whether he or she can screen you for depression.
- Osteoporosis Tests: Have a bone density test at age 65 to screen for osteoporosis (thinning of the bones).
- Chlamydia and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Have a test for Chlamydia if you are 25 or younger and sexually active. If you are older, talk to you practitioner to see whether you should be tested for this or other sexually transmitted diseases.
- Hormones: According to recent studies, the risks of taking the combined hormones estrogen and progestin after menopause to prevent long-term illnesses outweigh the benefits. Talk to you practitioner about whether starting or continuing to take hormones is right for you.
- Breast Cancer Drugs: If your mother, sister, or daughter has had breast cancer, talk to your clinician about the risks and benefits of taking medicines to prevent breast cancer.
- Aspirin: Talk to your clinician about taking aspirin to prevent heart disease if you are older than 45 and have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or if you smoke.
- Immunizations: Stay up-to-date with your immunizations.
- Flu Shots: Have a flu shot every year starting at age 50.
- Tetanus: Have a tetanus-diphtheria shot every 10 years.
- Pneumonia: Have a pneumonia shot once at age 65.
- Hepatitis: Talk to your health practitioner to see whether you need hepatitis B shots.
What else can you do to stay healthy?
- Don't smoke.
Eat a Healthy Diet.
Be Physically Active.
Stay At a Healthy Weight.
Drink Alcohol Only in Moderation.
This article was originally published May 19, 2003 in The St. Tammany News.
Recent Posts:
- - Natural Remedies for Colds and Upper Respiratory Infections
- - Menopause: When is Hormone Replacement Therapy Appropriate?
- - Anti-Aging Medicine: Myth Or Reality?
- - What is Swine Flu and What are its Symptoms?
- - What is Vitamin D3?
PamelaEgan.com > Health Articles > Women's Health