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A Guide to Women's Health: Fifty and forward
If you are in midlife or later, you’ve probably already experienced some signs of aging: your joints may ache, your skin may feel dry, and you may not sleep as well as you used to. Midlife is also a time when the risk of degenerative disease starts to climb. Many of the chronic conditions that begin to plague women in midlife are due, in part, to declining levels of estrogen, which helps to maintain tissues in the body’s reproductive organs, and also in the breasts, brain, bones, bladder, and cardiovascular system. Genetic makeup is also complicit, as are the cumulative effects of normal aging, environmental forces, and lifestyle choices. Mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) illustrate how the leading killers of women change with age (see Figure 1). Notice that cancer remains the leading cause of death until the eighth decade of life. Because the specter of malignancy hovers, women are more likely to name breast cancer than any other single condition as their top health fear. In reality, more women die of heart disease, although they tend to do so later in life.
Figure 1
This diagram shows the top 10 causes of death (expressed as a percentage of total deaths) in women at different ages. You can see how the risk of the three leading killers for all ages combined — heart disease, stroke, and cancer — changes with age by following the red, yellow, and pink boxes. Chronic lung diseases include asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes bronchitis and emphysema. Septicemia refers to blood infections.
2 comments:
Dr. Abdullah, Thank you for this chart. Just a quick note to let you know that I seem to have circumvented many of the conditions that plague my peers aged 50-60 by eating a high raw vegan diet. Natural plant estrogens seem to have replaced my body's estrogen, which has eliminated hot flashes and many of the other symptoms you mention. I also feel that I am a low risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions from this diet as well. I appreciate your educating women about what they can expect as they grow older. Thank you!
Very informative and useful chart thanks a lot for providing this systematic chart. I like this chart thanks a lot for this great informative post. keep posting and updating the blog.
Smith ALan
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