Health Today
Featuring local health & fitness articles
Transform the Future of Your Health and Life
Cardiometabolic disease refers to the web of conditions including high blood sugar and insulin resistance, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, abdominal weight gain, and chronic inflammation; if untreated, it evolves into type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Poor cardiometabolic health is silent unless it happens to be discovered at your annual doctor’s visit.
But what does cardiometabolic health have to do with your hormones? The foundation of good hormone health lies in your cardiometabolic health. If you have insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, and chronic inflammation, for example, you develop a hormone imbalance that keeps you locked in fat-storing mode by increasing levels of insulin and cortisol and promoting inflammatory estrogen breakdown. The effect on your weight includes a growing belly, hips and thighs, and the persistence of fat in tough-to-target areas like your back, arms, and jawline.
Living (and Making Wine) in a World-Class Wine Region
Between them, Maricor and Richard Skladzien have lived in lots of places: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and California. And they’ve enjoyed a variety of experiences in those places: they were an accountant and public works director, respectively, and they ran a coffee roasting company, grew grapes, and owned several stores.
The rolling hills of Paulden, Arizona—and a sense of adventure in retirement—provide the setting for their newest endeavor: They’re the owners of Del Rio Springs Vineyard and Winery, and its tasting room in downtown Prescott.
Self-Care Tips that Don’t Break the Bank
Most women struggle with self-care because we’re often told we must put others first. But when you take care of yourself, you are inadvertently improving the lives of those you love.
Here are five easy self-care activities you can do anywhere, anytime, and cheaply.
Laughter Heals
Christine, a Licensed Professional Counselor, and the owner of Sunny Shores Counseling, has a passion for helping clients to increase their happiness, develop positive relationships, and enhance their overall wellbeing. She uses a Cognitive Behavioral Client-Centered Approach—and laughter is just one of the tools in her toolbox. Christine explained that laughter benefits us mentally, physically, and socially. In today’s treatment, she said, counselors and their clients desire complete wellness (and laughter helps with that).
Swish!
With the help of a generous booster and lots of enthusiasm, the Yavapai College women’s basketball program is bouncing back to prominence after an 11-year hiatus.
Enlighted and Empowered: Understanding your Risk for Breast Cancer
One in eight women will develop breast cancer during their lifetimes. An estimated five to ten percent of those breast cancers will be linked to gene mutations passed through many generations of the family. Hormonal changes, lifestyle, and environmental factors also play a role in the development of breast cancer. This means breast cancer is likely caused by a complicated interaction of genetic makeup, the environment, and lifestyle.
From a Woman’s Perspective
If you have diabetes, you’re not alone. One in ten Yavapai County residents live with the condition. And while men are more likely than women to have type 2 diabetes, women with the condition experience more serious complications. They also face a greater risk of death.
“Type 2 diabetes happens when the body is unable to properly use insulin,” said Andrea Klein, RN, BSN, CDCES, CCRP, Director of Preventive Medicine and Wellness, Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center (YRMC). “Women with type 2 diabetes experience very specific symptoms. It’s important to know those symptoms and see your health care provider immediately if you’re experiencing any of them.”
It’s Cellular
I get a lot of questions about hormone health, and it’s put me on a mission to educate as many women as I can about their hormones.
The one thing that is essential to know about hormone balance is this: you’ll never achieve hormone harmony if your cells aren’t healthy.
Our hormones work and flow together like a symphony: some crescendo while others fall, only to rise again in their own rhythm and pattern. The overall effect can be beautiful harmony, or a jarring mess.
A Human Approach in the Age of Online
Those who practice yoga in Prescott have likely heard of or taken a class at BEND Hot Yoga. In its two studio spaces at 434 W. Goodwin Street, BEND offers a comprehensive collection of more than 45 classes per week, including Hot Yoga, Non-Heated Yoga, Yoga for Beginners, Yoga for Seniors, Aerial Yoga, Pilates, Hot HIIT, and more. Since 2012, the team at BEND has proudly provided wellness, support, and strength to the Prescott community. Team members are passionate about cultivating the highest quality, safest, and cleanest space for their diverse and dynamic schedule of classes.
Preventing Broken Bones
JoAnn spends every weekend possible hiking. She’s trekked the Grand Canyon five times and has explored hiking trails throughout Arizona. That’s why she was surprised when a bone density scan revealed she had osteoporosis, a condition that causes bone loss and can lead to fractures.
“I was running, hiking, walking, and eating high-calcium foods and I still had bone loss,” she said.
JoAnn is among 54 million Americans who have osteoporosis or low bone mass, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). To help Yavapai County residents, Dignity Health Yavapai Regional Medical Center (YRMC) offers dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). This simple, painless exam measures bone density and is available in two locations:
Unlocking Fat-Burning Potential
Healthy blood sugar levels are so essential to weight loss. Inside RESTORE, we use CGMs (continuous glucose monitors) to provide women real-time feedback on what’s happening with their blood sugar, so they can identify and repair the causes for high blood sugar. Healthy blood sugar levels are necessary for weight loss, because lowering a high blood sugar level unlocks your fat-burning potential.
‘I Show People How Powerful They Are’
Leanne Shearer believes she’s exactly where she is supposed to be, doing what she’s supposed to do: helping people change the trajectory of their lives.
“I show people how powerful they are,” said the lifestyle coach, who owns Anytime Fitness with her husband, “and how much information they have in their own bodies to find answers to perplexing challenges.”
To deliver her message to a broader audience, this past fall Leanne launched Undone + Uncensored, “a no-BS podcast that unravels life’s most complex issues.”