Women's Health Archive

Both music and exercise help prevent and alleviate disease. Fusing the two may have even greater benefits than either alone.

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Dancing is a universal human experience. We dance to express joy, celebrate life events, and enact religious and cultural rituals. Dance also has physical and cognitive benefits that may exceed those of other forms of exercise.

What dance does for your health

Wearing lenses that screen out harmful ultraviolet radiation is essential for keeping your eyes healthy.

Large wraparound lenses offer the best protection.
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When you buy sunglasses, your primary aim might be to find a style that looks good on you and is comfortable. If so, like almost half of people selecting sunglasses from the racks, you've failed to consider the most important detail—the amount of harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation the lenses screen out.

Hiccups are often caused by many everyday situations, including distention of the stomach (which can be the result of overeating), swallowing air, or drinking carbonated beverages. They usually go away on their own, but episodes that last longer than 48 hours could be a sign of certain medical problems. 

Ask the Doctor

Q. I've found lately that when I make a routine appointment with my doctor's office, I may be seen by a physician assistant or nurse practitioner instead of my doctor. I really don't have any complaints, but I'm wondering why they seem to be taking on things that my doctor used to handle. Is this a new trend?

A. In my practice, many patients see a nurse practitioner instead of me. The appointment might be for an initial visit to get established in the practice, for routine prenatal care, for an urgent issue such as a miscarriage, or for bothersome symptoms such as those from a persistent yeast infection. If a woman has complex medical issues, the nurse practitioner immediately consults me, and together we decide the best next steps.

Ask the doctors

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Q. My daughter is 38 years old and pregnant with her first child. Her due date is in two weeks, and her doctor has recommended that she have labor induced a week early. Why can't she just allow nature to take its course?

A. Having a baby when you're "older" can have some advantages—women may feel more secure with them-selves, their relationships, or their careers. However, expectant moms 35 or older—and their babies—have some increased pregnancy-related risks.

Each of your medications may be affecting how the others work, leading to harmful side effects and complications.

Each additional medication you take increases the risk of drug interactions.
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Are you taking more than one drug? Are you taking a few different types of medications? Are you seeing several different doctors? If so, you may be at increased risk for drug interactions, which occur when a drug, a supplement, or even a food affects the way your body processes a medication. Such interactions can make a drug more powerful—so that a standard dose becomes an overdose—or can render it less potent or altogether ineffective.

Intermittent tension-type headaches may seem like a consequence of everyday life. Yet you can minimize and even prevent them.

Tension-type headaches can be annoying, but they can often be nipped in the bud by using nonprescription pain relievers.
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Compared to migraines, tension-type headaches are a mere annoyance. They tend to be relatively mild and usually aren't accompanied by nausea or oversensitivity to light or sounds. Yet they can occasionally disrupt your day, making it difficult to concentrate on work or enjoy leisure pastimes.

Inflammation is an important link between obesity, elevated blood sugar, and type 2 diabetes.

Weight loss can reduce inflammation—a major contributor to diabetes.
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We've known for a long time that being overweight is a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. But only in the last 20 years have researchers determined that metabolism and immune responses are linked and that chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development of obesity, diabetes, and related metabolic diseases. "Inflammation is not only associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but also precedes and predicts these conditions," says Dr. Allison Goldfine, head of the Clinical Research section at Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center.

Research We’re Watching

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When specks of calcium appear in ductal tissue on mammograms, they can indicate a small cancer. But when calcifications are found in the breast arteries, they haven't been a cause for concern. However, in recent years, physicians have begun to suspect that arterial calcifications in the breast, like calcifications in the coronary arteries of the heart, can be an early sign of cardiovascular disease.

A team of researchers at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Medical Center in New York City studied the test results of 292 women who'd had digital mammography and non-contrast CT chest scans within a year. None of the women were known to have heart disease. They found that 42.5% of the women had evidence of breast artery calcifications on mammography, and of these, 70% also had evidence of coronary artery calcification on their CT scans. Moreover, 63% of those whose CT images revealed coronary artery calcifications had breast artery calcifications as well. Over all, the results indicated that women with breast artery calcifications are three times as likely as those who don't to have coronary artery calcifications. The study was published online March 24, 2016, by JACC Clinical Imaging.