INTEGRATIVE
WOMEN’S WELLNESS
Five Top Health Concerns and What to Do by Ronica O’Hara
A
nyone walking into a U.S. hospital today will notice something that was inconceivable 50 years ago—one in three practicing physicians is a woman, and among physicians under age 35, it’s three in five. That compares to one in 14 in 1970. For women needing health care, that fact can change everything. “Research says that female physicians provide better care to female patients than male physicians do,” says Harvard Medical School Associate Professor Alice Domar, Ph.D., a pioneer in women’s mind-body medicine. “They are more likely to listen carefully and take complaints seriously.” That’s just one factor in how health care is improving for women. Only three decades ago, women were simply considered “small men” in medical research and rarely included as subjects in clinical studies. Today, after a 1993 federal mandate ensured their inclusion, it’s been well established that women metabolize drugs differently than men, respond to health threats with a more robust immune system and are more likely to experience side effects. These findings have helped spur major changes for women in standards, dosages, medications and procedures—resulting in fewer cancer deaths, better treatment of autoimmune disorders and more nuanced cardiac care strategies. Although much has improved about women’s health, much more remains to be done. About one in three women is diagnosed with cancer in the course of a lifetime, and they have better survival rates than men, of which one in two receives that diagnosis. Between 2001 and 2017, the overall cancer death rate for women declined by 1.4 percent each year as diagnoses and treatments became more refined and targeted. The number one cancer killer for women is lung cancer, although 19 percent diagnosed have never smoked. The next most deadly are cancers of the breast, colon/rectum,
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Cancer
