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The Real Life Body Book: A Young Woman's Complete Guide to Health and Wellness - Softcover

Ricciotti, Hope; Spencer, Monique Doyle

 
9781587613579: The Real Life Body Book: A Young Woman's Complete Guide to Health and Wellness
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1587613573 ISBN 13: 9781587613579
Verlag: Celestial Arts, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

When you have questions about your health, you want answers from a trustworthy source. In The Real Life Body Book, a Harvard ob-gyn has joined forces with a humor writer to explain the full range of health issues facing young women today. This comprehensive and authoritative guide focuses on whole body wellness and prevention, from the skin (acne, piercing, tattooing) and the head (mental health, hormones, stress) to the bones, heart, and stomach (diet and digestion), plus sex and reproductive wellness. If you’re between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five and you want the latest facts about your health in a language you can understand, The Real Life Body Book is the go-to resource for keeping your body healthy today and for the rest of your life.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hope Ricciotti, MD, is a practicing clinician and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. She has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, and the Food Network. She writes a reproductive health blog at www.bewell.com and is a regular contributor to Oprah.com. Dr. Ricciotti is the author of four books on women’s health and nutrition, and her writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine; Marie Claire; Glamour; Fit Pregnancy; Pregnancy; and Prevention. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.
 
Monique Doyle Spencer is a contributing columnist for the Boston Globe. Her work has also appeared in the International Herald Tribune and on the New York Times website. Spencer is the chair and founder of The Bucket Brigade, a volunteer-based group working in Southern Sudan, as well as the author of two books on cancer-related issues. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

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CHAPTER 13
 
stress and your body
 
Does it stress you out to know that stress can kill you?
 
    You know the feeling. You have ten important things to do but time to do
only one. Then one more thing gets added—meeting the boyfriend’s family, going on a business trip when you hate flying, losing your wedding ring. Stress.
Life is stressful. Sometimes even good things—a new partner, a new job, a vacation—can trigger stress. Of course, bad things—a failed test, the end of a relationship, losing a job—can worsen stress. So can wearing tight shoes all day.
   Too much stress can increase your risk for heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, ulcers, colds, and PMS, just for starters. Even if it doesn’t kill you, stress can definitely cause physical problems like headaches, upset stomach, diarrhea, back and neck pain, fatigue, and insomnia. Stress can also cause you to feel depressed, angry, and anxious, and it can affect relationships at home and at work. 
   Believe it or not, a little stress is good for us. It keeps us striving and energetic. Studies show we are more motivated, more productive, and even happier when slightly stressed. But too much stress is not good, so let’s take a look at what the biggest causes of stress are and review some tips on how to manage stress better.
   Before we start, remember that we’re talking about lots of individual women here. Even if your particular stressors are different from my list, the tips for reducing stress and the damage it can do to you can work no matter what pushes your stress buttons.
 
What’s Stressing You Out?
So what are the biggest causes of stress for women age twenty-one to thirty-five? For some women, it’s career building. For others, it’s starting a family. For many, it’s not having enough time, being overextended, and not having a good work-life balance. However, the biggest stressor for women in this age group is relationships.
   Sound like an odd topic for a body book? Not when we’re looking at your whole body. If relationships, good or bad, are causing you stress, there’s a classic mind-body connection that’s important to pay attention to. We know the impact that stress has on you and your organs!
 
Stress and Other People
Your family, friends, and partners create a core of happiness in your life. Every good relationship you have helps you relieve a ton of stress. But at some dark point in your life, you—like everyone else—are going to think “I hate people. I hate every single one of them.”
   Since relationships are a major part of your life—and often your stress—we’re going to look at some typical situations and the problems that other people sometimes cause. We’re looking for stressors that you can change. And if you can’t change them, we’re looking for ways to stop the stress from damaging your health.
 
Love, Lust, and Stress
You have many relationships in your life, but I’m going to start with the one you’re probably thinking about right now. Your boyfriend, your girlfriend—or whatever you call your partner—s/he brings joy and stress into your life just as you do his or hers!
Here’s your doctor’s view. Today’s world is complex, and relationships change all the time. We tend to settle down with a long-term partner a lot later in life than our parents did, so most of us are likely to be exposed to more than one sex partner. And that partner has probably been with someone other than just you. Not always, but usually. 
   So as your doctor, I’m going to remind you to be aware of protection from disease and pregnancy, and to be certain you’re in a safe environment. I strongly recommended serial monogamy—one partner at a time. Ideally, before you have sex with a new partner, you should know that both of you have been checked for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. At the very least, use condoms until you do. (And remember to pack your own.)
   As your whole body doctor, however, I want to know if your lifestyle makes you happy, miserable, or depressed—in other words, stressed! I’ve seen all three. There’s the woman who wanted to have sex with many partners before settling down but became miserable when her biological clock began ticking and her party girl ways hadn’t found her a partner. I have a happy patient who had an uncountable number of sex partners, chosen “only by their sexiness, not their character,” and then married a great guy and never looked at another man. Another woman feels desperately sad and guilty about sex, especially early in relationships, because her sex partners rarely call after sex. Relationships can unfold in lots of ways, but they all have the potential to cause stress.
   Most healthy relationships don’t start with sex; however. They start with friendships—at work, through friends, and through family, community, or houses of worship. Even online dating services have become a popular way to meet partners for real relationships. They’re worth considering, and I’ve been seeing more and more people form lasting relationships this way. Just remember: Play it safe. If you’re going on a date with a stranger, meet for lunch first. Get there and leave there on your own. Don’t give out your address or any other personal information until you know the person better.
   Are you more interested in relationships with women than men? The same rules apply. Protect yourself. The only risk you don’t have to worry about is pregnancy. Every sexually transmitted infection can be transmitted from woman to woman.
Are you already an “old married lady”? Because this book is written for women from age twenty-one through thirty-five, we’re addressing the needs of a wide age group. At thirty-five, you may be in a long-term relationship, if not a marriage. You may have children. You are settling into the years of life when you may be happily married or not.
   If you are happily married—which one of my patients defines as “I didn’t kill him today . . . ”—there are still going to be stressors. You are not yet an expert at relationships, and neither is your partner. The moments of stress when you feel crazy that you ever married this galumpf, are shared by both of you (which you just cannot believe, and neither can your partner!).
   If your dating and sex life is filling you with misery and guilt, it’s time to kick it to the curb. It’s time to set standards for yourself that rule out sex until you know a person, and to limit alcohol consumption too. It’s time for a plan that works for you. Any place or source that gives you a supportive, constructive way to live your life and your relationships is a good stress reducer. 
   Books? Retreats? Role-model couples? The secret to having a mostly happy long-term relationship or marriage is still a mystery to most of us, but if you refer often to the tips listed on the next page, you’ll have a good chance of moving in the right direction.
   Relationships can be your rockiest source of stress. Worrying about meeting the right person, deciding to get married or not, hoping for or avoiding pregnancy, worrying whether you married the right person, trying to get along, learning to grow with another human being, questioning your sexuality, dealing with sexual relationships...

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Verlag
Celestial Arts
Erscheinungsdatum
2010
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1587613573
ISBN 13 
9781587613579
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
458
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar