Women's health management

The core of women's health management has never been the standardized template of "eating supplements, doing exercise, and regular beauty treatments" circulated on the Internet, but a set of personalized plans that are completely centered on your personal physiological stage and physical condition, rejecting marketing kidnapping, and dynamically adjusting. There is no standard answer that suits everyone, and what suits you is the best.

To be honest, I have been doing health science popularization for 6 years and have received consultations from thousands of female users. The most common pitfall I have seen is "copying homework": I saw others drinking donkey-hide gelatin to replenish blood and stocked it myself. I heard that anti-aging requires collagen supplements so I bought it by the box. A 20-year-old girl followed her 50-year-old aunt to eat soy isoflavones. In the end, she spent a lot of money and had no shortage of physical problems.

Two years ago, my best friend from college came to complain to me. She was a 28-year-old Internet operator. She stayed up until one or two o'clock every day to get off work. She stocked up a cupboard of Internet celebrity iron supplements and anti-sugar pills. My aunt came only once every two to three months. The acne on her chin disappeared and became longer. After going to the hospital for a checkup, she found out that it was pre-polycystic, with high testosterone and LH. The /FSH ratio was almost 3. None of the health supplements I had taken before were even remotely symptomatic. Later, I took short-acting birth control pills for three months to regulate hormones as directed by the doctor, gave up the habit of drinking milk tea in the early morning, and walked briskly for half an hour three days a week. On the contrary, my aunt became more regular and most of her acne disappeared.

When it comes to hormone regulation, many people have asked me the question "Should I take estrogen supplements in advance to fight aging?" It just so happens that I have been exposed to two completely different professional opinions. No one is right or wrong, but the applicable scenarios are different. The traditional view of gynecology is that only when low estrogen is diagnosed, perimenopausal symptoms occur (such as hot flashes, menstrual cycle is less than 21 days), and there are no estrogen-dependent contraindications such as breast nodules, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids, supplementation can be followed as prescribed by the doctor. It is not recommended to take supplements without indication. ； The perspective of functional medicine favors early intervention. You do not need to wait for the indicators to completely deviate from normal values. You can make soft adjustments by eating more foods containing phytoestrogens such as flaxseed and natto, adjusting your work and rest, and reducing stress to avoid a cliff-like drop in hormone levels. Among the cases I have come across, users aged 35+ who had mild hot flashes and early menstruation followed the functional medicine plan and adjusted their diet for two months, and the symptoms were indeed relieved a lot. However, there was also a girl with type III breast nodules who blindly bought soy isoflavones for half a year. During the review, the nodules had grown 3 mm, so she needed surgery. So there really is no one-size-fits-all solution. Whatever your situation is, just choose whatever solution you want.

Last week, a 32-year-old mother of two children came to me and said that she had just returned to work after taking maternity leave. She read on the Internet that postpartum recovery requires "10,000 steps a day + fat-reducing meals." After half a month, the urine leakage became more and more serious, and her hair fell out. I asked her to measure the rectus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles. Sure enough, the rectus abdominis muscles were separated by two and a half fingers, and the pelvic floor muscle strength was only level 1. Running and jumping in this situation is equivalent to continuous pressure on the already damaged pelvic floor muscles, and the leakage will of course worsen. Later, she stopped aerobic and started doing Kegels for 10 minutes every day. She also ate pork liver or duck blood three times a week to supplement her iron deficiency anemia. Within a month, she said her urinary leakage was much better and her hair loss was reduced. You see, many people make health management a trendy thing and do whatever is popular, but they don’t even understand the core contradiction of their own body.

Oh, by the way, the most asked question recently is about the nine-valent vaccine. Many girls have not been vaccinated even when they are 26 or 7 years old, just to wait for the nine-valent vaccine. I have also asked different professionals for their opinions. The official recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has always been that the sooner you get the vaccine, the better. You can get whatever price you want. The second price already covers the two most dangerous subtypes, 16 and 18, and can prevent more than 90% of cervical cancer. It is completely effective. ； However, many girls feel that the nine-price product covers many subtypes, and they are willing to wait even one or two more years. There is nothing wrong with this choice, as long as you can bear the risks during the waiting period. I met a girl before who started waiting for the 9th price at the age of 22. After waiting for 4 years, she did not get an appointment. In the middle, she was found to be infected with HPV16, but she was delayed. There is also a girl who got the 2nd price at the age of 20. She does TCT+HPV joint screening every year and has always had no problems. The key is not to negotiate a price at all, but to check regularly after vaccination. Don’t think that after vaccination, you have entered a safe.

After I turned 30, in addition to the regular items, my annual physical examination would also include vitamin D, six hormones and bone density tests. Many girls ignored the issue of vitamin D. In the past two years, I was found to have only 12ng/ml, which was a serious deficiency. During that time, I felt tired every day, depressed at every turn, and lost a lot of hair. After taking vitamin D3 supplements for three months and spending 10 minutes in the sun every day, my overall mental state was much better. And I don’t force myself to exercise every day or eat light meals. Sometimes I work overtime and stay up late, so I sleep an extra half hour the next day. I also eat hot pot and drink milk tea when I’m hungry on weekends. There’s no need to make myself feel so guilty.

In fact, women's bodies have many more physiological nodes than men's. The needs of each stage during adolescence, pregnancy and childbirth, and perimenopause are completely different. There is really no need to apply a unified template. Health management never requires you to be a perfect "model health student", but you must learn to listen to your body's voice and know what it needs most at the moment. It is much more cost-effective than hoarding a cabinet of health care products and applying for a bunch of useless fitness cards.