Top 5 Myths of Women's Health
From the Show: UK HealthCast
Summary:
Air Date: 9/8/20
Duration: 10 Minutes
Dr. Shannon Voogt debunks the Top 5 myths of women's health.
Transcription:
Introduction: Another informational resource from UK Healthcare. This is UK HealthCast, featuring conversations with our physicians and other healthcare providers. Here's Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole: Welcome to UK HealthCast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. I'm Melanie Cole, and today we're talking about myths around women's health. Joining me is Dr. Shannon Voogt. She's a Physician in the department of family and community medicine at UK Healthcare. Dr. Voogt, it's a pleasure to have you on, this is such a great topic. First I'd like to start with, how do women's health concerns change as we age? What are some of the things that you want us to think about as we go from our twenties to our fifties and beyond?
Dr. Voogt: So, when we think about as you age, there's just going to be different guidelines for the things that you are screened for. So different diseases such as cancers or heart disease become more common at different ages.
Host: Well, certainly they do. And as we get older, we worry about all of those things. So let's try and bust up some of the myths, so that maybe we might not be so concerned all the time. So first of all, let's talk about breast cancer screening. There's some controversy surrounding this. What are the actual guidelines and what do you want us to know?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So a lot of women are scared of getting breast cancer. It's something that a lot of us know, family members or friends who've had it. And so it's really concerning. And it's also concerning that women are getting breast cancer at a younger age. Unfortunately, most of the data we have about screening for breast cancer, which means checking someone who doesn't have anything for an early tumor, is surrounding women who are basically age 50 to 75, is where we have found the most benefit for screening. So that gets confusing for people because you can get breast cancer younger than that. But the main benefit of the screening generally kicks in around age 50, although sometimes between age 40 and 50, you can get some benefit in those ages, but then there's the risk of finding too many things.
Host: Well, that certainly is true. And we've heard that before. So now let's move on to the HPV vaccine. We've been getting our pap smears. I've been getting them every year since I was, I don't know, 28 years old or something like that. But now we know that HPV contributes to cervical cancer. What's the deal with pap smears. And if we've been tested for HPV, do we still need our pap smear every year?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So cervical cancer is really interesting. It's not just linked to HPV. It's basically nearly 100% caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus. So this is one of the only cancers that is basically caused by a virus. So pap smear screening is screening for cervical cancer. And what we have found is that now we are able to test for the HPV virus from the cervix. And so if you don't have the HPV virus, which is something we test for, once you're at age 30, you have a very low likelihood of developing cervical cancer, which takes 10 to 15 years to develop as it is usually. So if you get tested at age 30 and your HPV is negative, you don't need another pap smear test for five years, which is great. If you're under age 30, we actually just recommend you get the regular pap smear every three years. We just don't need to test more than that unless you've had an abnormal one in the past. And in which case we do test more frequently.
Host: Well thank you for clearing that up. And as far as heart disease, which we know is the number one killer of women, and we always think of breast cancer, and like that, but really it's heart disease. What do you want us to know as far as myths about heart disease, it used to be a man's disease and the Framingham studies and all those studies were all done on men? But now we know that women are getting more and more heart disease. What would you like us to know?
Dr. Voogt: Well, the biggest thing that I like my patients to know is that you are really the most important part of your health in the terms of the decisions that you make. So staying active, eating a lot of vegetables, a plant based diet, avoiding smoking. Those are really the main things that are going to help you. Now, we also do want to know what your cholesterol levels are. We want to make sure you don't have diabetes lowering your cholesterol can help prevent heart attacks and strokes, but most of it is going to be staying healthy and making those healthy changes in your life. We do know now that baby aspirin is probably not very helpful for most people, unless you're at very high risk for having a heart attack or stroke.
Host: Well, one of the things that I hear most often is that stress and heart disease can be linked. Tell us about that link and how can women, especially because we're taking care of everybody. And if we don't put our own masks on, we can't take care of those that we love. How can we reduce some of the stress if it does indeed contribute to disease state?
Dr. Voogt: I think the link between stress and cardiovascular health it's there, but it's, we don't really know about this direct one to one, obviously times of stress, you might have a higher risk of heart attack. During those times, we feel like stress increases your cortisol levels, which over time can increase inflammation. The things we can do to reduce those cortisol levels, getting enough, sleep. Again, avoiding processed foods and getting lots of exercise. I know that's really hard to do in today's day and age, but just building those habits and trying to challenge each other to live in healthier ways, I think would be the best way to do that.
Host: Now let's move on to bone. Something that we know affects both men and women, but women in particular, tell us about bone health, why it's important and what we can do to maintain bone health. And also, should we get screened for it?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So as you get older, we actually screen less for cancers. And a lot of patients don't think about their bone health as a really big contributor, but a lot of older women will have a fracture or break a hip, and that can really significantly decrease your quality of life and your independence. So all women should get checked for bone density at age 65, but quite a few women need to get checked before that, especially if they go through menopause earlier and they have other risk factors. So you should talk to your doctor if you have those risk factors, you really should get a bone density test at a younger age.
Host: Well, I certainly agree. And one overlooked issue, especially for women and right now, is sleep and mental health. They kind of go together. So tell us a little bit about what we can do to help improve our sleep habits and our mental health, because this is a very stressful time for so many people and women, we feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. Tell us about sleep and mental health?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So mental health is very important in our practice. We screen all of our patients at least once per year for symptoms of depression. And by doing that, we just try and to identify those who have untreated depression and offer them those resources like counseling and medication that can help. In terms of sleep, a lot of patients complain about sleep, and they're just, there's a lot of ways to improve your sleep in terms of decreasing caffeine intake, exercising during the day, avoiding screens during the hour, before you go to bed, and developing really healthy sleep habits, like going to bed and getting up at the same time. And if you're not able to fall asleep, getting out of bed and doing something else that's calming, so that you don't start to associate your bed with like a terrible place where you can't sleep. That happens a lot to people with insomnia.
Host: Well, it certainly does. And now where does nutrition fit into this picture of women's health and how can we get better nutrition, especially in these busy days. And sometimes we just don't feel like cooking. What should we be doing as far as nutrition?
Dr. Voogt: Well, I think that there's a lot of fad diets out there. The one that I recommend to most people is something like a Mediterranean diet, or I just try to tell them to eat more plants and fewer processed foods. I think it's pretty hard in this day and age where we just rely a lot on eating from restaurants. Personally, I've never really eaten a lot of restaurant foods, so that just comes naturally to our family. That we're always just finding things to eat at home. Does take a little time though, and a little planning on the weekend to try to prep things ahead of time and get things ready so that you have healthy options during the week. And you don't have to fall back on ordering or eating out.
Host: That's great advice and definitely there's enough recipes and things online. It's all about planning, right? It's all about meal prep and planning, and that's the best way to eat healthy. As we wrap up Doctor, please tell the listeners the women and the people that love them, what you want us to know about maintaining good health, being our own best health advocate, showing up for our annual wellness exams, just kind of summarize it all for us.
Dr. Voogt: Right. So a lot of our annual wellness exam is going to be talking about these things like nutrition and sleep and exercise. And we're not trying to make you feel bad about yourselves, we just really want everyone to have access to their best health. So if you can set even just one goal, a specific goal like, I am going to start walking 15 minutes a day, five days a week and make that a goal that you can achieve and then start with that and then go from there. That's what I recommend to all my patients to try to make one goal that they can try to achieve and then work towards the next one after that.
Host: That's great advice. Something we can certainly all heed. Thank you so much for joining us today. And that concludes another episode of UK Healthcast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. Please visit our website at ukhealthcare.uky.edu for more information, and to get connected with one of our providers. Please also remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other University of Kentucky Healthcare podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole.
Introduction: Another informational resource from UK Healthcare. This is UK HealthCast, featuring conversations with our physicians and other healthcare providers. Here's Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole: Welcome to UK HealthCast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. I'm Melanie Cole, and today we're talking about myths around women's health. Joining me is Dr. Shannon Voogt. She's a Physician in the department of family and community medicine at UK Healthcare. Dr. Voogt, it's a pleasure to have you on, this is such a great topic. First I'd like to start with, how do women's health concerns change as we age? What are some of the things that you want us to think about as we go from our twenties to our fifties and beyond?
Dr. Voogt: So, when we think about as you age, there's just going to be different guidelines for the things that you are screened for. So different diseases such as cancers or heart disease become more common at different ages.
Host: Well, certainly they do. And as we get older, we worry about all of those things. So let's try and bust up some of the myths, so that maybe we might not be so concerned all the time. So first of all, let's talk about breast cancer screening. There's some controversy surrounding this. What are the actual guidelines and what do you want us to know?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So a lot of women are scared of getting breast cancer. It's something that a lot of us know, family members or friends who've had it. And so it's really concerning. And it's also concerning that women are getting breast cancer at a younger age. Unfortunately, most of the data we have about screening for breast cancer, which means checking someone who doesn't have anything for an early tumor, is surrounding women who are basically age 50 to 75, is where we have found the most benefit for screening. So that gets confusing for people because you can get breast cancer younger than that. But the main benefit of the screening generally kicks in around age 50, although sometimes between age 40 and 50, you can get some benefit in those ages, but then there's the risk of finding too many things.
Host: Well, that certainly is true. And we've heard that before. So now let's move on to the HPV vaccine. We've been getting our pap smears. I've been getting them every year since I was, I don't know, 28 years old or something like that. But now we know that HPV contributes to cervical cancer. What's the deal with pap smears. And if we've been tested for HPV, do we still need our pap smear every year?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So cervical cancer is really interesting. It's not just linked to HPV. It's basically nearly 100% caused by HPV, the human papilloma virus. So this is one of the only cancers that is basically caused by a virus. So pap smear screening is screening for cervical cancer. And what we have found is that now we are able to test for the HPV virus from the cervix. And so if you don't have the HPV virus, which is something we test for, once you're at age 30, you have a very low likelihood of developing cervical cancer, which takes 10 to 15 years to develop as it is usually. So if you get tested at age 30 and your HPV is negative, you don't need another pap smear test for five years, which is great. If you're under age 30, we actually just recommend you get the regular pap smear every three years. We just don't need to test more than that unless you've had an abnormal one in the past. And in which case we do test more frequently.
Host: Well thank you for clearing that up. And as far as heart disease, which we know is the number one killer of women, and we always think of breast cancer, and like that, but really it's heart disease. What do you want us to know as far as myths about heart disease, it used to be a man's disease and the Framingham studies and all those studies were all done on men? But now we know that women are getting more and more heart disease. What would you like us to know?
Dr. Voogt: Well, the biggest thing that I like my patients to know is that you are really the most important part of your health in the terms of the decisions that you make. So staying active, eating a lot of vegetables, a plant based diet, avoiding smoking. Those are really the main things that are going to help you. Now, we also do want to know what your cholesterol levels are. We want to make sure you don't have diabetes lowering your cholesterol can help prevent heart attacks and strokes, but most of it is going to be staying healthy and making those healthy changes in your life. We do know now that baby aspirin is probably not very helpful for most people, unless you're at very high risk for having a heart attack or stroke.
Host: Well, one of the things that I hear most often is that stress and heart disease can be linked. Tell us about that link and how can women, especially because we're taking care of everybody. And if we don't put our own masks on, we can't take care of those that we love. How can we reduce some of the stress if it does indeed contribute to disease state?
Dr. Voogt: I think the link between stress and cardiovascular health it's there, but it's, we don't really know about this direct one to one, obviously times of stress, you might have a higher risk of heart attack. During those times, we feel like stress increases your cortisol levels, which over time can increase inflammation. The things we can do to reduce those cortisol levels, getting enough, sleep. Again, avoiding processed foods and getting lots of exercise. I know that's really hard to do in today's day and age, but just building those habits and trying to challenge each other to live in healthier ways, I think would be the best way to do that.
Host: Now let's move on to bone. Something that we know affects both men and women, but women in particular, tell us about bone health, why it's important and what we can do to maintain bone health. And also, should we get screened for it?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So as you get older, we actually screen less for cancers. And a lot of patients don't think about their bone health as a really big contributor, but a lot of older women will have a fracture or break a hip, and that can really significantly decrease your quality of life and your independence. So all women should get checked for bone density at age 65, but quite a few women need to get checked before that, especially if they go through menopause earlier and they have other risk factors. So you should talk to your doctor if you have those risk factors, you really should get a bone density test at a younger age.
Host: Well, I certainly agree. And one overlooked issue, especially for women and right now, is sleep and mental health. They kind of go together. So tell us a little bit about what we can do to help improve our sleep habits and our mental health, because this is a very stressful time for so many people and women, we feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. Tell us about sleep and mental health?
Dr. Voogt: Right. So mental health is very important in our practice. We screen all of our patients at least once per year for symptoms of depression. And by doing that, we just try and to identify those who have untreated depression and offer them those resources like counseling and medication that can help. In terms of sleep, a lot of patients complain about sleep, and they're just, there's a lot of ways to improve your sleep in terms of decreasing caffeine intake, exercising during the day, avoiding screens during the hour, before you go to bed, and developing really healthy sleep habits, like going to bed and getting up at the same time. And if you're not able to fall asleep, getting out of bed and doing something else that's calming, so that you don't start to associate your bed with like a terrible place where you can't sleep. That happens a lot to people with insomnia.
Host: Well, it certainly does. And now where does nutrition fit into this picture of women's health and how can we get better nutrition, especially in these busy days. And sometimes we just don't feel like cooking. What should we be doing as far as nutrition?
Dr. Voogt: Well, I think that there's a lot of fad diets out there. The one that I recommend to most people is something like a Mediterranean diet, or I just try to tell them to eat more plants and fewer processed foods. I think it's pretty hard in this day and age where we just rely a lot on eating from restaurants. Personally, I've never really eaten a lot of restaurant foods, so that just comes naturally to our family. That we're always just finding things to eat at home. Does take a little time though, and a little planning on the weekend to try to prep things ahead of time and get things ready so that you have healthy options during the week. And you don't have to fall back on ordering or eating out.
Host: That's great advice and definitely there's enough recipes and things online. It's all about planning, right? It's all about meal prep and planning, and that's the best way to eat healthy. As we wrap up Doctor, please tell the listeners the women and the people that love them, what you want us to know about maintaining good health, being our own best health advocate, showing up for our annual wellness exams, just kind of summarize it all for us.
Dr. Voogt: Right. So a lot of our annual wellness exam is going to be talking about these things like nutrition and sleep and exercise. And we're not trying to make you feel bad about yourselves, we just really want everyone to have access to their best health. So if you can set even just one goal, a specific goal like, I am going to start walking 15 minutes a day, five days a week and make that a goal that you can achieve and then start with that and then go from there. That's what I recommend to all my patients to try to make one goal that they can try to achieve and then work towards the next one after that.
Host: That's great advice. Something we can certainly all heed. Thank you so much for joining us today. And that concludes another episode of UK Healthcast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. Please visit our website at ukhealthcare.uky.edu for more information, and to get connected with one of our providers. Please also remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other University of Kentucky Healthcare podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole.
