5 Things Every Woman Should Test for in Midlife
“Nobody knows your body like you do.” “When it comes to your health, you MUST be your own advocate.”
These are things I’ve been saying to my patients throughout my career. And in midlife, they’re more important than ever. Listen, we’ve spent a lot of years living in our bodies. We know them and understand them better now than we ever have. Plus, we aren’t getting any younger (whatever!! tell that to my brain), and everything we do now will set us up for how we live our lives 10, 20, 30, and 40 years down the road. We can take steps now to set ourselves up for health, high function, and vitality. Or we can do nothing, running the risk of our bodies breaking down, our energy levels going down, and our pain levels going up.
Lucky for us, there are many steps we can take to ensure that we’re preparing for health and vitality as we age. Our eating habits are essential, and so are the vitamins and supplements we take. Regular exercise that includes stretching and postural training is necessary, as is stress management. We should also have a healthcare provider on our health and wellness team that we can trust. One that listens to us.
Working with a healthcare provider that we trust is one of the most important things we can do as a midlife woman. This could be a general practitioner, a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a functional medicine doctor, a chiropractor, or a naturopath. Whoever it is should ALWAYS listen to you and NEVER blow off something you are telling them about your body. They should also be open-minded about running tests that they feel are important to their health. Let’s talk about a few of those tests and why they’re so important at this stage of life.
HbA1c or hemoglobin A1c will give you your average blood sugar over the past three months. This is important because blood sugar relates to heart health, adrenal gland health/stress management in the body, weight control, anxiety, and hormone health. It also gives you a picture of whether or not you are pre-diabetic or diabetic.
Homocysteine is an amino acid found in the blood. When found at high levels, it is linked to a higher risk of heart disease. Knowing this information early will allow us to take the appropriate steps to keep our hearts healthy.
Vitamin D is more of a hormone because it has so many functions in the body. It’s responsible for mood, cancer prevention, and immune system support. Most of us are extremely vitamin D deficient, so knowing where our levels are will enable us to take proper supplements. Vitamin D is especially important in midlife when our mood fluctuates very often and our immune systems weaken. I always take a vitamin D supplement with vitamin K2 to help maximize bone density and health.
Iron is a mineral necessary for the proper movement of oxygen through our blood. During perimenopause, many of us will experience heavy periods and more frequent periods, which can lead to low iron levels. Low iron levels can lead to fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, irregular heart rate, and anxiety. All of these are symptoms that many women in midlife experience. Knowing your iron levels will allow you to make appropriate changes to your diet and supplement safely.
Triglycerides are fat that circulates in your body. High triglycerides can increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart disease. High levels could be due to a diet high in unhealthy fats, the inability to properly break down and assimilate fat, and insulin resistance. Appropriate changes to diet can bring high levels down.
Typically, when we have a yearly wellness check-up, our healthcare provider will run blood work as a general scan. Except for Triclgycerides, the tests listed above are often left out. That is exactly why I’m mentioning them to you. I like to monitor my own health with yearly blood work, and these 5 are levels I have always tested. When testing, it’s also a good idea to compare your results to previous years so you can get an overall picture of what’s going on in your body, and you can monitor your healthy lifestyle choices, making changes where necessary. If you find, after testing, that one of these is higher or lower than it should be, you should probably have them retested sooner than the following year. Consider repeat testing in 3 months or 6 months instead.
Many doctors and healthcare providers are already doing these tests. If your provider isn’t, it may be time to talk with them. If your provider is unwilling to listen and won’t run the tests you want, it may be time to find a new practitioner to add to your healthcare team. Don’t enter into a relationship with a healthcare provider with blind trust. It’s ok to ask questions. It’s essential to educate yourself. And it’s imperative to listen to your body.