Tips for a Healthier You - National Women's Health Week 2023
Staying healthy, both mentally and physically, should always be a top priority for every woman. Below are some of the best ways for women to stay healthy and focus on their whole health.
- Get Vaccinated – Vaccines save millions of lives around the world every day, and when a woman is vaccinated, she not only prevents herself from having a serious disease, but she also reduces the chances of others around her becoming sick.
- The most common vaccines for women include COVID-19, annual flu vaccination, pneumococcal pneumonia for women 65 and older, shingles for women 50 and over, HPV for all women through age 26, and TDAP (tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough) every 10 years.
- Talk to your healthcare provider if you need to schedule a vaccine.
- Schedule annual checkups and screenings – These tests can detect health conditions before symptoms appear and allow for early treatment to prevent a disease from becoming a serious condition.
- The National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NCP) provides a useful chart showing recommendations for when and how often women should schedule their preventative screenings.
- Get Sleep - A good night’s sleep is very important to overall mental and physical health.
- Women should try to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.
- Based on findings from a recent study, women are 40% more likely to be diagnosed with insomnia than men.
- Researchers think biological differences between men and women, like hormone production and circadian rhythms, may be the cause.
- The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) researches and funds projects to help understand, treat, and prevent sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, insomnia, and others.
- Some great tips to help women improve their sleep:
- Stick to a routine and go to sleep when you feel sleepy and wake up at the same time each morning.
- If you normally sleep at night, do not take a nap after 3p.m.
- Do not drink caffeinated or alcoholic drinks or smoke late in the day or at night.
- Exercise on most days, but not too close to bedtime.
- Do not eat or drink a lot within 3 hours of bedtime.
- Additional sleep tips can be found here.
- Use sunscreen – Using sunscreen helps prevent sunburn, skin cancer, and premature aging, and is one of the best and easiest ways to protect your skin’s appearance and health at any age. Sunscreen should be part of every woman’s daily routine.
- Generally, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recommends using sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher, even on cloudy days.
- Because sunscreen does not completely block harmful UV radiation, the FDA also recommends other protection such as sunglasses and protective clothing.
- See other recommendations from the FDA
- Maintain a healthy weight - More than 2 in 3 women in the United States are overweight or have obesity.
- Extra weight leads to many diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers.
- Talk to your healthcare professional to provide helpful recommendations, such as exercise and nutrition, to reach and maintain a healthier weight.