Blog # 9

What are the biggest challenges to regular exercise and a healthy diet that you face?  How are these challenges going to change for you over the next five years?

My biggest challenge with regular exercise is time. I have been evaluating myself weekly and the only exercise I have done is walking for half an hour and only three times a week. I need to take some time out from my day and just do exercise. My four month old baby boy keeps me very busy. Little time that I have I do homework or cook and clean. Before I had my son I was just busy with job and school. About a year ago I bought gym membership and I went to work out every day.  The reason I went everyday was because I was paying for it but, after few weeks instead of becoming a routine it was a burden. I found it difficult to take time out to go to gym. I took the health self- assessment for this class and it too suggested that I need to do regular exercise for my better health. Healthy diet is not so much of a challenge for me because I cook at home and I try to make healthy food. Sometimes we crave “outside” food and that day it gets harder to maintain a balance diet. If I continue my habit of not exercising and giving in to my cravings I will never achieve my weight goal. I have a family history of diabetes and if continue to being overweight I might get this chronic disease. I need to motivate myself to lose the weight and eat healthy every day.  I need to set a weight goal and off course a time limit so I can achieve that goal within time.

Blog # 8 - Menopause

Explore how menopause is viewed from a different cultural perspective. Write about this and be sure to cite your source/s.

Menopause is the end of menstrual cycle and childbearing capability. Menopause in a natural event in all women’s lives, it is the last menstrual cycle. Right before and during menopause women experience physical changes due to drop in hormone production. Menopause depicts end of woman’s reproductive life usually occurring between ages 45 and 55. Menopause is accompanied by various symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and various psychic symptoms, of which hot flashes is known to occur in about 75% of the women and may continue for as long as 40 years. Image shows list of the symptoms women reports during menopause. (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.jos-health-network.150m.com/menopause1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.jos-health-network.150m.com/menopause.html&usg=__xftJ__n5SutLg1PgwvItJYZ-KV4=&h=544&w=500&sz=128&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=GREXXR0zChQYaM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmenopause%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1)

Menopause also differs in different areas of the world. Hot flashes in the West, shoulder pain in Japan and loss of vision in India, are the hallmarks of menopause. Even the median age of menopause differs from country to country. The median age at menopause reported from the West (50.3 years) is higher as compared to the range of 45–47 years in developing countries.

 In some societies youthfulness is valued and menopause is viewed as negative stage in a women lives. It is considered a difficult time in a women life because during menopause women experience uncontrollable moodiness, irritability and depression whereas, some women appreciate the freedom from menstrual periods. Western women are tired of the chorus of U’s associated with menopause: unattractive, useless, ugly, undesirable, unhappy and so on. I wanted to share the following image with everyone to show you how some people view menopause in our society. (http://ihatemenopause.com/)

 In Asian countries women gain respect when they enters into their middle age. They are thought to be wiser and more experienced. In countries such as New Zealand and India menopausal women are community leaders and hold a place of honor in their communities. It is a belief held by many cultures, that life after menopause is a time of strength, courage and wisdom.

In my opinion a women should not be afraid of getting old, and menopause should be a sign of wisdom and maturity. Women should enjoy every stage of their life so we can live up to our full potential.

Reference:

Alexander, L.L., LaRosa, J.H., Badar, H., Garfield, S., Alexander, W.J., (2010). New dimensions in women’s health (5^th ed.). Boston: Jones &Bartlett

Hunt, G. Menopause Across Cultures. RagMag. Retrieved October 18, 2010, from http://ragmag.net/2009/05/menopause-across-cultures

Blog # 7 - The Silent Partner HIV in Marriage

The Silent Partner - HIV in Marriage video shows that we live in a male dominating world. Yes, this world is changing and bringing rights to women but at what cost. Male domination is not only practiced in Kenya but throughout the world. The video shows that it’s okay for men to do anything he pleases and women should obey his every decision. Women cannot even have a say in usage of contraceptive which can save her from getting infected. Just because men are providing, doesn’t mean women cannot have a say in anything. Customs and tradition has added to women pain and suffering, custom such as dowry gets men to thinking that they own women. Women are owned by their father and then when they get married there husband buys them in the name of dowry which means they are taking complete ownership of that woman. It brings me to a documentary that I saw about Female Infanticide in India. In India and most of South East Asia dowry is where bride’s father pay’s groom family as compare to dowry in Africa where groom pays bride’s family. In this documentary daughters are killed the day that they are born and, the reason is that parents cannot afford to raise the daughter and needs to pay dowry required by groom’s family. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnmtKLQRh6g. These documentaries show that women are not in power. They cannot make decision about their life and their life is been constantly handling by male. It all comes down to illiteracy among people.  Educations about usage of contraceptive early on can save lives. In sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of the world’s people living with HIV, women make up 60 percent of those infected. Places like Africa and Kenya needs special attention from their government and NGO’s they should organize a program which not only teaches women but also men about the benefit of contraceptive. Most men transmit STI’s to women and then die from it. Condoms play a key role in preventing HIV infection if these men are given proper knowledge infection rate will go down. I hope that social and economic inequalities between men and women can come to an end.

Blog # 6 - Prenatal Care

In your opinion, why should prenatal testing be routine for all pregnant women?

Prenatal care is recommended for all women who are pregnant and who are thinking of becoming pregnant. Prenatal care ensures healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. When a woman is thinking about becoming pregnant she should consult with a doctor so she can start by having right type of vitamin, she might need some immunization and some other test. We all should adopt a healthy behavior but when you are thinking about becoming pregnant or are already pregnant you should take special care of yourself. Healthy behavior includes proper diet, physical activity and proper weight gain. Pregnant women should go for a routine checkup every month or as health care provider advice, regular prenatal checkups let you know how your baby is doing and can identity problems before hand. It’s always best to educate yourself about all the prenatal test and checkups so you know what to expect.

Prenatal care is very important it can help identify any problems that a pregnancy might have. I will give you my example; when I was pregnant I was diagnose with gestational diabetes. I was able to control my diabetes very well and the reason was I had prenatal care. Imagine if I didn’t seek prenatal care than there was no way of knowing about my gestational diabetes and I wouldn’t have any care of my diet and it would result in risking my health and my baby’s health. Due to my routine checkups and required test that is a part of prenatal care a problem can be identify and be solved within time before any major health risk.

Prenatal care can identify several different things for example health problem in mother that can affect the baby’s health, growth of baby every month such as heart rate, size, sex and, position in the uterus. It can also identify the chance that baby has certain congenital, genetic or chromosomal problems. There are several tests that are performed during each trimester. First trimester includes ultrasound test for fetal nuchal translucency and two maternal serum blood tests which can identify risk for chromosomes abnormalities.  

First trimester screening image. (http://www.chop.edu/export/system/galleries/images/hospital/conditions/first-trimester-screening-161393.gif)

Second trimester tests includes Alpha-fetoprotein screening (AFP). If the blood test is abnormal AFP can detect spina bifida, Down syndrome and other chromosomal disease.  Other test includes amniocenteses, chronic villus sampling, fetal monitoring and, glucose tolerance test.

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) is a prenatal test that involves taking a sample of some of the placental tissue. This tissue contains the same genetic material as the fetus and can be tested for chromosomal abnormalities and some other genetic problems. Third trimester test includes Group B Streptococcus (GBS) and, abdominal and transvaginal ultrasound.

GBS is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus agalactiae. Not all babies who are exposed to the bacteria will become infected. Above Image displays Vaginal Bacteria Spreading to Fetus. For more detail information about these test visit http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/pregnant/tests.html.