The Top 7 Threats To Women’s Health
November 30, 2011 by MarathonMakeover
Avoiding the threats to your health is key to a long and fulfilling life and most of the threats to a women’s health are preventable. Recently, we came across an article by the Mayo Clinic staff that outlined the seven threats to women’s health and what you can do to prevent them. Here they are…
- Heart Disease- it’s not just a man’s world when it comes to problems with the old ticker. Heart disease is the number one, preventable health risk for women. What can you do to prevent it?
- Don’t smoke
- Eat a healthy diet
- Manage chronic conditions
- Include physical activity in your daily routine
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Limit alcohol
- Manage stress
- Cancer- Some types of cancer are a concern to women, including breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer and colorectal cancer. Consider these general tips to reduce your risk of cancer:
- Don’t smoke… hmmm
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Get moving
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
- Protect yourself from the sun
- Limit alcohol
- Breast-feed, if you can
- Take early detection seriously
- Stroke- Some risk factors are out of your control, such as, age, age, family history and race. Here are things you can do to help reduce the risk:
- Manage chronic conditions
- Don’t smoke (have we heard this before?)
- Make healthy lifestyle choices
- Limit alcohol
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases- Protecting your respiratory health can help prevent chronic lung conditions, such as, bronchitis and emphysema. Here are things that will help:
- You guessed it… don’t smoke!
- Avoid pollutants
- Prevent respiratory infections
- Alzheimer’s disease- There is no guaranteed way to prevent Alzheimer’s but you should consider doing the following:
- Manage chronic conditions
- Don’t smoke… we think there is a pattern here
- Include physical activity in your daily routine
- Maintain social and mental fitness
- Accidents- The greatest cause of accidental death in women is motor vehicle crashes. Use common sense when driving and do the following:
- Wear your seat belt
- Drive the speed limit
- Don’t drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Don’t drive sleepy
- Don’t text while driving
- Type 2 diabetes- You have to get serious if you want to prevent type 2 diabetes. Here is how:
- Eat a healthy diet
- Include physical activity in your daily routine
- If you’re overweight, lose excess pounds
Joining a group wellness program will increase the likelihood you will follow through with your healthy lifestyle. Marathon Makeover is a 40-week wellness program that incorporates:
- Community support
- A moderate training schedule
- A fun, goal-oriented activity (a half or full marathon)
- Ongoing education on how to maintain a healthy YOU – mind, body and spirit
Marathon Makeover starts with walking one mile and gradually helps you build to being able to finish a half or full marathon. Although completing a race distance is not required, most participants are fully able to complete one of those distances as a result of the training program. We have walkers, runners and those that do a little bit of both.
Who is the average participant? The average participant in Marathon Makeover is a 43-year-old female who is ready to do something spectacular with her health. Seventy percent of the participants are female and the thirty percent male participants are the luckiest guys on the planet! We have had participants from 21 to 71-years-old complete a marathon as a result of completing Marathon Makeover.
A new training season starts in January of 2012 and we have many teams across the country. If you can’t find a team nearby, train with us online!
www.MarathonMakeover.com
www.facebook.com/marathonmakeover
