Your Health | PulseonParenting

A Mammogram Update: New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines

Jan 26 2016

Back in May 2015 I wrote a post entitled Moms, Get Your Mammograms. I gave some (hopefully!) clear advice about when to obtain a first (baseline) mammogram and when to get clinical and self breast exams, because the information out there is confusing. It’s conflicting. Even the medical community grapples repeatedly with the when-and-how-often of screening. And they have done it again: in October of 2015, the American Cancer Society (ACS) released an updated set of guidelines regarding breast cancer screening. So I’d like to share with you some of the new recommendations, focusing on the information we women…

Jan 19 2016

Forget your troubles, come on get happy You better chase all your cares away Shout Hallelujah, come on get happy ~from the song Get Happy by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, performed by Judy Garland in Summer Stock (1950) If you smile, you will feel happy. There are some pretty fun studies out there to help support this. Just try it yourself. Smile, and you start to feel exactly what the upturned corners of your mouth show. But is feeling happy the same as being happy?

Dec 08 2015

Tis the season for decking the halls, baking cookies, writing wish lists… and nosebleeds. As the popular holiday song goes, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful… and our kids get nosebleeds. I remember one particular occasion, while staying in a hotel, my husband and I were sitting in the cramped bathroom with our son. We were unravelling rolls (yes, rolls) of toilet paper and emptying the kleenex dispenser trying to stop a terrible nosebleed. I was ready to throw in the towel, grab an actual towel, and take our son to the nearest urgent care when,…

Oct 06 2015

(This post was originally published January 22, 2014, and has been updated for the 2015-2016 influenza season.) The bad news: cold and flu season is upon us. The good news: we can put up our dukes against it. The season is a hot topic amongst moms and I recall one particular day that was no exception. Discussion of who was ill and for how long infected a session at my yoga studio and the talk led to that of who got the flu vaccine, who did not, and the defense of their decisions. Back when I was a practicing physician…

Aug 24 2015

A few years ago, I tried a new sunscreen. Not just a different brand from the drugstore, but something completely different. The active ingredient was titanium oxide but it was formulated in a tinted powder and applied with a brush, much like foundation. The person who recommended it was a fair-skinned pediatrician who loved to sail, and with that kind of multifactorial endorsement, I bought a jar (at a rather hefty price tag). I liked the idea of a non-greasy, lightweight sunscreen that wouldn’t appear smeary-white if we didn’t get applied evenly. Certain it would be the best thing…

Jul 21 2015

Everyone notices when someone sports that gorgeous sun-bronzed skin from a sunny vacation. But my family? The people who get sunburned through car windows? We return from a week away and people look at a quizzically and say, “Where did you go, again? Submarine cruise?” I honestly could kick myself for not buying stock in a sunscreen manufacturer before we had kids…given their genetic legacy I knew they would be more sun-sensitive than a field of solar panels. Most of us use more sunscreen in the summer than any other time of year. And most of us don’t think…

Jun 16 2015

A reader brought to my attention an error I made in my post Moms, Get Your Mammograms. The letter you receive with your mammogram results should come from the imaging center where you had your mammogram done, not from your practitioner (physician, etc.) who ordered it. That said, you may still receive a phone call or a letter from your physician’s office with the results. I apologize for the mistake!

Moms, Get Your Mammograms

May 27 2015

Even though it is May, not October (when pink ribbons pervade everything everywhere) the topic of mammograms is still important. Certainly to me, as May is my mammo month. But breast cancer awareness should not be reserved for any singular time of year, it should be a regular, habitual occurrence. (I don’t really think there should be specific cancer-awareness-months; every month should be all-cancers-awareness month, but now I’m off-topic). It’s easy to think breast cancer affects “older women” and most often it does. However, younger women are struck with the disease, too. By younger women I mean mothers of young…

Jan 22 2014

Category - Your Health

A Mammogram Update: New Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines

The Happiness Project

Nosebleeds: What to Do, When to Seek Help

The Influenza Vaccine: Setting the Records Straight

Getting the Most Out of Your Sunscreen

Are Chemical Sunscreens Safe?

Moms Get Your Mammos (With a Clarification)

Moms, Get Your Mammograms

The Influenza Vaccine: Setting the Records Straight