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Women: Set Yourself Up for a Healthy Future
Your future health is influenced by the actions you take today. Dr. Kanchan Pillai, an internal medicine specialist with ProMedica, shares practical things women can do now to impact their health for years to come.
Featured Speaker:
Kanchan Pillai, MD, FACP
Kanchan Pillai MD, FACP, specializes in internal medicine. She provides a comprehensive array of health services, including diagnosis, treatment and wellness care to adults over 18. Dr. Pillai practices at ProMedica Physicians Internal Medicine | Family Medicine - Perrysburg. Transcription:
Women: Set Yourself Up for a Healthy Future
Maggie McKay: Welcome to Happily Ever After 40, a podcast brought to you by ProMedica, where we discuss midlife health and wellbeing. In this episode, we'll find out how you can set yourself up for a healthy future. I'm Maggie McKay. And my guest today is Dr. Kanchan Pillai, who specializes in internal medicine and obesity medicine at ProMedica.
Thank you so much for joining me today. You know, women especially take care of everybody else and sometimes forget their own needs, like their health. So to begin, please tell us why it's so important that women in midlife look beyond the present to consider and plan for their future health.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Thank you so much for having me today. Aging, as we all know, it's associated with progressive changes that increase our susceptibility to disease, and these changes are broadly predictable for the most part. So there are a lot of things that you can do today to set yourself for a healthier future.
I am going to talk a little bit about those changes that occur. In the little later part, I will talk about what we can do to slow down those changes or prevent them. Now, the rate at which aging happens is different for everyone. Even in an individual body, the rate at which different organs age is different, and this rate is influenced by many factors. Most important of which are genetics, lifestyle and environmental exposure.
Now, we cannot do much about our genetics. We can, to a certain extent, modify our environment and we can change our lifestyle to a large extent. It is important to understand some of these changes. That way, we can make lifestyle modifications that help us.
Maggie McKay: I imagine thinking about our future health is different during different stages, like you said, and everybody is different, of course. But what do you advise women when it comes to starting to think about the future? What's considered midlife?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: So typically, if you look at the definition, midlife starts at 40 and goes up to 65. But again, that's just a book definition of it. I always tell patients, age is just a number
Maggie McKay: So true. What are some practical everyday things that women can do that will make an impact on their health for years to come? Like you were saying, there are some things we can do to plan ahead.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Yes. So first, I want to talk about heart health. This is one of the most important predictors of, you know, mortality, which is death and morbidity, which is disability. So first of all, we have to make sure that we are finding out what risk factors we have for us to get heart disease. And most important of those are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. So starting age 40, we all should be getting our blood pressure checked at least once a year, getting our cholesterol checked periodically, and getting ourselves checked for diabetes.
The other thing I really want to emphasize on is healthy diet. So it is estimated that about 1/3 of the deaths from heart disease can be prevented with a healthy diet. And just broadly speaking of healthy diet, if you look at a plate, half of your plate should consist of fruits and 1/4 of the plate should be white meat or any other protein. And the remaining one fourth should be carbohydrates. Most of the time, multi-grain is good. You can add some low-fat dairy to it and some nuts.
The other thing is regular exercise. For general health and wellbeing, we recommend at least 150 minutes of exercise per week. And we kind of like it spread out through the week. If someone was trying to lose weight or maintain the weight loss, they may need more. But for general health and wellbeing, 150 minutes at least per week is what we recommend. This is mainly about heart health.
And the other big thing is stopping smoking. Smoking is one of the major risk factors for heart health. So avoiding smoking, eating healthy, doing regular exercise, getting yourself checked for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol are some of the things you can do to prevent heart diseases.
Then, there are cancers. Now, there are certain kinds of cancers where early detection really helps, most important of that is breast cancer. So I would encourage all the women to start a discussion with their physician about breast cancer screening at age 40. There is cervical cancer for which we screen all women between age 21 to 65. And lastly, colon cancer screening should start at age 45 in all average risk individuals.
I would also like to talk a little bit about photo aging, which is skin damage from sun exposure. It can cause skin cancer, but it can also cause about 90% of the changes in skin that are cosmetically undesirable. So it is not really the normal aging that makes us look older, it's the aging because of sun exposure. So you have to do a good job of preventing sun exposure, use of sunscreens and things like that.
Maggie McKay: And so doctor, if we do all those things, what if, in addition to that, we have like crazy stress in our lives? How do we manage stress and how important is it to manage?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: That is a very good question. And I wanted to talk about it. So chronic stress is one of the significant causes of increased physical decline earlier than expected. And it is also one of the risk factors for physical decline from heart disease. And stress looks different for different people. For some people, it decreases their functioning. For others, stress is physical symptoms such as chronic pain, headaches.
And there are a few you can help yourself. And it is different for all individuals. But most of the time, it's mindfulness or just deep breathing, doing a distraction, such as reading or spending time on a hobby, spending time with a friend, taking a walk in nature, taking a swim, riding a bike, meditation, yoga. Music can be good for some people. And if there is conflict, it has to be addressed, if that is causing the stress. These are some of the things that we can do for chronic stress management. And most important, laughter, laughter is really good for chronic stress.
Maggie McKay: I like to hear that one. But it's so true, like you were saying, you could do everything right, everything you listed, including managing your stress. But if you don't address what's stressing you out, it's still there.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Yes.
Maggie McKay: Doctor, how important is sleep when it comes to our future health?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Sleep is very important. It has a huge impact on our body weight. Sleep less than five hours or more than 10 hours is associated with weight gain. And the National Foundation of Sleep Consensus recommends sleep between seven to nine hours for individuals between age 18 to 64.
Maggie McKay: So in closing, what would you like women to know about healthy aging and longevity? In general, what would you like them to take away from this?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: So there is something called as successful aging and it refers to individuals who don't have any chronic health problems, who have a normal body weight, who have normal blood pressure, do not take any medications. This is for now the definition of longevity. It is dependent on many genetic and environmental factors.
But there are certain things that have been proven to improve longevity. And I'm just summarizing. One of those is healthy diet, regular physical activity, avoiding smoking and alcohol, managing chronic stress better. These are the four things I would like them to keep in mind. You know, make sure you're doing your health screenings on time. Make sure you take out time for yourself to see the doctor every so often. And do the things that you like that will help avoiding or managing your chronic stress.
Maggie McKay: I really like the laughter one, because that's something we can all do, however you get there. You know, that's an easy one. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and advice with us. I have learned so much and it's a great reminder for women to make their future health a priority now and plan ahead in order to live a long and vibrant life.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Thank you.
Maggie McKay: To find out more, please visit promedica.org. Thank you for listening. Until next time, stay happily ever after 40.
Women: Set Yourself Up for a Healthy Future
Maggie McKay: Welcome to Happily Ever After 40, a podcast brought to you by ProMedica, where we discuss midlife health and wellbeing. In this episode, we'll find out how you can set yourself up for a healthy future. I'm Maggie McKay. And my guest today is Dr. Kanchan Pillai, who specializes in internal medicine and obesity medicine at ProMedica.
Thank you so much for joining me today. You know, women especially take care of everybody else and sometimes forget their own needs, like their health. So to begin, please tell us why it's so important that women in midlife look beyond the present to consider and plan for their future health.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Thank you so much for having me today. Aging, as we all know, it's associated with progressive changes that increase our susceptibility to disease, and these changes are broadly predictable for the most part. So there are a lot of things that you can do today to set yourself for a healthier future.
I am going to talk a little bit about those changes that occur. In the little later part, I will talk about what we can do to slow down those changes or prevent them. Now, the rate at which aging happens is different for everyone. Even in an individual body, the rate at which different organs age is different, and this rate is influenced by many factors. Most important of which are genetics, lifestyle and environmental exposure.
Now, we cannot do much about our genetics. We can, to a certain extent, modify our environment and we can change our lifestyle to a large extent. It is important to understand some of these changes. That way, we can make lifestyle modifications that help us.
Maggie McKay: I imagine thinking about our future health is different during different stages, like you said, and everybody is different, of course. But what do you advise women when it comes to starting to think about the future? What's considered midlife?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: So typically, if you look at the definition, midlife starts at 40 and goes up to 65. But again, that's just a book definition of it. I always tell patients, age is just a number
Maggie McKay: So true. What are some practical everyday things that women can do that will make an impact on their health for years to come? Like you were saying, there are some things we can do to plan ahead.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Yes. So first, I want to talk about heart health. This is one of the most important predictors of, you know, mortality, which is death and morbidity, which is disability. So first of all, we have to make sure that we are finding out what risk factors we have for us to get heart disease. And most important of those are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. So starting age 40, we all should be getting our blood pressure checked at least once a year, getting our cholesterol checked periodically, and getting ourselves checked for diabetes.
The other thing I really want to emphasize on is healthy diet. So it is estimated that about 1/3 of the deaths from heart disease can be prevented with a healthy diet. And just broadly speaking of healthy diet, if you look at a plate, half of your plate should consist of fruits and 1/4 of the plate should be white meat or any other protein. And the remaining one fourth should be carbohydrates. Most of the time, multi-grain is good. You can add some low-fat dairy to it and some nuts.
The other thing is regular exercise. For general health and wellbeing, we recommend at least 150 minutes of exercise per week. And we kind of like it spread out through the week. If someone was trying to lose weight or maintain the weight loss, they may need more. But for general health and wellbeing, 150 minutes at least per week is what we recommend. This is mainly about heart health.
And the other big thing is stopping smoking. Smoking is one of the major risk factors for heart health. So avoiding smoking, eating healthy, doing regular exercise, getting yourself checked for high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol are some of the things you can do to prevent heart diseases.
Then, there are cancers. Now, there are certain kinds of cancers where early detection really helps, most important of that is breast cancer. So I would encourage all the women to start a discussion with their physician about breast cancer screening at age 40. There is cervical cancer for which we screen all women between age 21 to 65. And lastly, colon cancer screening should start at age 45 in all average risk individuals.
I would also like to talk a little bit about photo aging, which is skin damage from sun exposure. It can cause skin cancer, but it can also cause about 90% of the changes in skin that are cosmetically undesirable. So it is not really the normal aging that makes us look older, it's the aging because of sun exposure. So you have to do a good job of preventing sun exposure, use of sunscreens and things like that.
Maggie McKay: And so doctor, if we do all those things, what if, in addition to that, we have like crazy stress in our lives? How do we manage stress and how important is it to manage?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: That is a very good question. And I wanted to talk about it. So chronic stress is one of the significant causes of increased physical decline earlier than expected. And it is also one of the risk factors for physical decline from heart disease. And stress looks different for different people. For some people, it decreases their functioning. For others, stress is physical symptoms such as chronic pain, headaches.
And there are a few you can help yourself. And it is different for all individuals. But most of the time, it's mindfulness or just deep breathing, doing a distraction, such as reading or spending time on a hobby, spending time with a friend, taking a walk in nature, taking a swim, riding a bike, meditation, yoga. Music can be good for some people. And if there is conflict, it has to be addressed, if that is causing the stress. These are some of the things that we can do for chronic stress management. And most important, laughter, laughter is really good for chronic stress.
Maggie McKay: I like to hear that one. But it's so true, like you were saying, you could do everything right, everything you listed, including managing your stress. But if you don't address what's stressing you out, it's still there.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Yes.
Maggie McKay: Doctor, how important is sleep when it comes to our future health?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Sleep is very important. It has a huge impact on our body weight. Sleep less than five hours or more than 10 hours is associated with weight gain. And the National Foundation of Sleep Consensus recommends sleep between seven to nine hours for individuals between age 18 to 64.
Maggie McKay: So in closing, what would you like women to know about healthy aging and longevity? In general, what would you like them to take away from this?
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: So there is something called as successful aging and it refers to individuals who don't have any chronic health problems, who have a normal body weight, who have normal blood pressure, do not take any medications. This is for now the definition of longevity. It is dependent on many genetic and environmental factors.
But there are certain things that have been proven to improve longevity. And I'm just summarizing. One of those is healthy diet, regular physical activity, avoiding smoking and alcohol, managing chronic stress better. These are the four things I would like them to keep in mind. You know, make sure you're doing your health screenings on time. Make sure you take out time for yourself to see the doctor every so often. And do the things that you like that will help avoiding or managing your chronic stress.
Maggie McKay: I really like the laughter one, because that's something we can all do, however you get there. You know, that's an easy one. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and advice with us. I have learned so much and it's a great reminder for women to make their future health a priority now and plan ahead in order to live a long and vibrant life.
Dr. Kanchan Pillai: Thank you.
Maggie McKay: To find out more, please visit promedica.org. Thank you for listening. Until next time, stay happily ever after 40.