Women are not little men!
- Women have more side effects from drugs than men and can be overdosed because they are generally smaller with a higher percentage of fat.
- Women’s bodies also process drugs differently than men and this changes with their menstrual cycle.
- Women have more chronic pain conditions than men but more often than men are not prescribed pain medication.
- Women have hypothyroidism 10 times more often than men and this affects so many aspects of their health.
- Women are four times more likely to get osteoporosis.
Women have more autoimmune diseases than men including:
- Lupus
- Arthritis
- MS
Women have more chronic pain conditions:
- Arthritis
- Fibromyalgia
- Migraine headaches affect women three times more than men.
- Interstitial cystitis
Women are affected more by some mysterious conditions poorly understood by the medical community such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), chemical/environmental sensitivities and candida overgrowth. The medical community frequently does not take women with these conditions seriously and they are often chalked up to psychological disorders and put on anti-depressants.
Womens health has often been neglected in the history of modern western medicine. Fortunately this is changing for the better, but we still have a ways to go.
For a good part of the 20th century, the established medical community in the US treated women as if they were little men.
Drugs were tested exclusively on men and the data was then extrapolated for use on women. Women were not included in drug research trials and many of the unique womens health conditions were not taken seriously. Many nutritional studies were also done on men, therefore the unique nutritional needs of women were not always considered.
The good news is things are changing!
There are now many women doctors who specialize in women’s medicine and most women today can see a female doctor.
Natural health has a lot to offer women for the prevention and treatment of the underlying causes of many women’s health conditions. You cannot control everything, but women are often taught they are helpless to control their bodies and must just learn to live with many women’s conditions. Most women would be amazed by how much of their health can be controlled by what they eat.
