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E1: 7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ

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E1: 7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ

Nov 16, 2020

Women's health is so much bigger than just one problem. The seven domains of women's health—physical, emotional, social, intellectual, financial, environmental, and spiritual— are interconnected and come together to make the whole person. Women's health expert , looks in-depth at how each of the seven domains of a woman's health affects her overall well-being.

    This content was originally produced for audio. Certain elements such as tone, sound effects, and music, may not fully capture the intended experience in textual representation. Therefore, the following transcription has been modified for clarity. We recognize not everyone can access the audio podcast. However, for those who can, we encourage subscribing and listening to the original content for a more engaging and immersive experience.

    All thoughts and opinions expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views held by the institutions with which they are affiliated.

     


    Introducing "7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ" - The Show

    Check, check. Welcome, welcome. Now, this is going to be about half an hour. If you don't have half an hour, I have about 300 short pieces and you can check in and listen to other topics in women's health. But if you have half an hour, we're going to be expanding topics and see how they affect the whole lives of people who have a particular issue or condition.

    We're going to be talking about periods, we're going to be talking about menopause, we're going to be talking about infertility, we're going to be talking about a lot of stuff, but we're going to talk about it big. So, I'm excited to talk about what my patients have taught me when they have a bad condition, about how they cope with it in the many domains of their lives.

    So, today, get a cup of coffee, sit down, or a tea or Diet Coke, or just water. Make it fizzy water so that we can be popping with some ideas about the seven domains of your health today.

    This is the "7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ" and I'm from obstetrics and gynecology at ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ of Utah ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ.

    I'm a reproductive endocrinologist, which means I'm an OB/GYN who's interested in ladies' hormones, girls' hormones, pregnancy hormones, and all ladies' hormones. Over the years, over the 40 years that I've been taking care of women, I've seen ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵren and young women and middle-aged women and older women, and they have all taught me that they are so much more than the problem that they bring in. Their health is so much bigger than just one problem, and it affects every aspect of their health. They've taught me this. I've listened, and now I'm telling you that the seven domains of women's health are all things that touch women's health.

    • Physical
    • Emotional
    • Social
    • Intellectual
    • Financial
    • Environmental
    • Spiritual

    Here's what we're doing here. We're going to be talking a little bit more in-depth on various topics and how each of the seven domains of health affects that particular medical issue.

    If you're in this group of women who've been teaching me for all these years, listen up, listen in, and we're going to have this conversation together. This is a conversation for all the women in your life. It will help us understand what the issues are for your teenagers, and what the issues are for your sister's daughters. What are the issues for you and your friends? What are the issues for your mother? So listen in, because this is all about you and the people you love.

    Listening to women talk about their lives, their joys, their sorrows, their worries has helped me understand what the term "wellness" means. It isn't really a spa retreat. It's all about wellness everything. And in fact, I think a lot of stuff that's actually advertised as wellness isn't really. It isn't specifically a new smoothie or an exercise routine, although it might be. It's a sense of well-being that comes from having the important parts of a woman's life and a man's life tucked in, in good shape.

    One of my very smart patients who had four kids told me, "You're only as happy as your least happy ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ." The health and well-being of your family are part of a woman's feeling well. So, let's just have a conversation on these seven domains and why they may contribute to being well.

    Being Part of Something Bigger Helps You Be Resilient

    I want to tell a story first about the domain of spirituality. I had a young patient with breast cancer. She had little ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵren. The breast cancer was discovered after the birth of a ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ. And she did all the medical things that she could, but actually she lived many years after her initial diagnosis, more years than we thought she would.

    She had a presence that lit up each room that she entered. She was not defined by her cancer, but by her inner light that was a gentle energy of her spirituality. I went to see her in the last few days of her life and it seemed as if all that was left of her body was her spirit. And in fact, her spirit lived out much longer than her body did. It was powerful, generous, and illuminating. And although she was very sick in traditional terms, her body was filled with her spirit.

    A person can be healthy by all of our traditional medical measurements, blood pressure, cholesterol, but not be well. And a person could have a grave illness, but still be alive and well and in the world.

    Now, spirituality is hard to define sometimes. It's one of those things maybe like pornography. You know when you see it or when you feel it. On the one hand, it may mean an inner quality that facilitates connectedness with yourself and others, and each person may define it individually.

    And traditionally, it's that ability to connect with something much bigger than yourself, often a supreme being. Traditionally, spirituality is defined as the basic or inherent quality in all humans that involves a belief in something bigger and a faith that positively affirms life. This is really important.

    Religiosity is a related concept, and it has to do with religious attendance, practice, or activity.

    Some people profess spirituality without a religious affiliation. Some even consider religiosity or belonging to a church as getting in the way of their spirituality. But it's important because a community and a religious concept and religious words that you get from your religious faith may give you the words that help you think about your spirituality.

    We know that women who have a strong sense of spirituality and have a way to practice that domain have lower blood pressure, less stress, and are more resilient in the face of disease. So, spirituality is very important. It helps women become resilient.

    How women practice it is going to be quite individual, but it's important to identify it and find a way to connect to it, because when times get tough, it's important to feel that you're part of something bigger than yourself and not go down the rabbit hole of your very own worries. Being part of something bigger helps you be resilient, and this is part of being spiritual. 

    Take Responsibility for Your Physical ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ as You Get Older

    Now let's talk about physical health. Of course, your physical health is important. When we're young, we take our health for granted. The saying, "When you're 20, you have the face God gave you, and when you're 50, you have the face you made yourself," is true for the rest of your body, not just your face.

    How do we take care of our physical health? And that's similar to when we were young compared to when we're older, but the consequences are much bigger in how we take care of ourselves when we're older.

    ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵy aging includes:

    • Eating modestly — Mostly fruits and veg, with whole grains and lean protein. I'd say the same thing for young people, for their physical health.
    • Drinking moderately — No more than one drink a day, and probably less. Three to five a week in our 50s, and less in our 70s as we metabolize alcohol more slowly than men, and more slowly as we age.
    • Keep moving

    Now, I have a story about the woman that I want to be when I grow up, the woman who aged more gracefully than any other woman I know, and that's my mother-in-law, believe it or not.

    And she would have been proud but modest to share her outlook of a healthy life in all the seven domains. But she was a very moderate eater. She had a 1,200-calorie zipper in her mouth, and she told me about her diet, saving room for a little bit of chocolate and a little bit of bourbon at the end of each day. She exercised in three areas every day. She had a morning stretching and balance routine that she did up into her 90s. And as a physician's wife and mother of six kids, she got her regular checkups. So, she took her health seriously as a young woman but very seriously in terms of her engagement in her wellness through her physical health starting in her late 40s. And it was very helpful for her. 

    Our physical health is important, and part of it is up to your doctor or your clinician, but part of it is up to you and it certainly is up on you to take responsibility for your physical health as you get older. 

    Now, I'm going to pull Chloé in. Chloé is the producer for the "7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ". And she helps me see the world through millennials' eyes. I'm old and traditional and a white girl, and she is cosmopolitan and hip, young, fit, and strong, and only eats vegetables and rice. I never see her eat any bad things. And she has a beautiful face that God gave her.

     

    Dr. Jones: So what do millennials think about their physical health? Do they do checkups or not so much?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: So... I don't. But I think most millennials do. I think there's a shift in prioritizing wellness and health now with millennials and people my age, you'll say. But I think it's not so much as going to the doctor, but it's more checking your diet, making sure you eat healthy, making sure you exercise, making sure your mental health is on check, on point, stuff like that. I think it's wellness rather than it is health.

    Dr. Jones: Right. And actually, I think that's a very encouraging sign. We're worried definitely that millennials and Gen Xers will not live as long as the boomers, and probably because there's more obesity, there's more diabetes. Whether there's more stress and that leads to more heart disease, we don't know, but it's not looking that good. But we do know that, as a group, millennials and Gen Xers have more mental health and substance abuse problems and are dying young.

    However, the picture of the millennial is someone who has a smoothie for breakfast, makes sure she gets her yoga in a couple of times a week, takes good care, only uses organic and good stuff on her face. She's so much better at taking care of herself than the boomers were.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I think millennials want to be more healthy, but there are so many diets out there and there are so many exercise routines and there are all those sort of things. And at the end of the day, you don't really know what is right, what's wrong. And then the thing too . . . and I don't want to discredit millennials because I'm a millennial, but I think we have such short attention span that we tend to try . . .

    Dr. Jones: Have a varied diet.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Yeah, we tend to try a lot of things. We don't stick to a lot of things.

    Dr. Jones: Well, I think the other thing is we can't lump everybody into the millennials just because the ladies' magazine do.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Right. And I think a large population of people who think millennials are this and that based off of social media, Instagram . . . there are all those pretty models and bloggers, and that's what people are based millennials off of, and I don't think that's really fair.

    Dr. Jones: No. And it's certainly not fair when we actually look at the average weight of millennials or boomers, and it isn't what we see in social media.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Right.

     

    Our physical health is important and we need to pay attention to things that promote our physical health, such as healthy eating, exercise, sleep, and I think some checkups are good because I'm a checkup kind of person, except I don't go myself either. So there we go. Okay. Well, I sort of do. I do, yeah, sort of.

    Having Supportive Friends is One of the Best Predictors of ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵy Aging

    While we're on the topic of social and social health, let's talk about the social domain. An important study on the effects of social support on the course of breast cancer, we know that women who were part of a group of patients with breast cancer who met regularly lived longer than women who weren't part of that group. This was a randomized trial.

    Women at the same stage of breast cancer were randomized to group therapy support or not. We are social beings, very social beings, and women are more social than men. And having supportive friends is one of the best predictors of healthy aging. Women who were enrolled in the women's health longitudinal study, and this is 90,000 women 50 to 79, who were just followed for more than 20 years and their life habits and their health and disease were measured, women who said they had strong social support were 20% less likely to have heart disease than women who didn't. That's significant.

    Girlfriends matter and friends matter, and having a supportive social network matters, whether it's your church, another volunteer group, your neighborhood, or your extended family, and you need to kind of be in touch. And I don't know that social media and all the friends that you have on your Facebook page count as friends.

    So for instance, laughing is a very human expression, and it's good for the immune system. I know that you can laugh alone when you read something funny or watch a funny movie, but we don't normally laugh out loud by ourselves and we kind of think people are kooky. Chloé is just nodding. She says she laughs out loud by herself. This is something we do with friends and it's good for you.

    Maintaining those social networks is important in two key times of your young lives: when you're having kids and when you're just getting to 50. I consider that still young. But you have to get in the habit of supporting your friends and then they'll support you.

    As boomers, I don't think we normally go to social media to catch up with our friends. It's great to see my friends' pictures of their grandbabies, but if I want to feel social, I write a letter to somebody or I call them up and say, "Let's get together for coffee."

    So, what happens when most of your friends are Facebook friends, they're not give-me-a-hug friends? Chloé, I'm calling on you.

     

    Dr. Jones: What do millennials do about friends? 

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I always go back to this one friend that I had since kindergarten. This was like 20 years ago, more than 20 years ago I've known her. And for whatever reason, everybody else in my life we'll text, we'll do Facebook. It's all digital. But I have this one friend who I've known since kindergarten, I can't do that with her. All of our text messages are literally just confirmations of dates and times to meet up. 

    Dr. Jones: Well, that's a friend-friend.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: And that’s a friend-friend. I find it so difficult to carry on a text conversation with her. But so many of my other friends are Facebook friends or acquaintances. They are people that I catch up with through texting or through some other sort of messaging app. We're so busy nowadays and that's how we catch up with each other.

    So I think it's really important though that you do have that one person, or if you're lucky enough to have more than one, great. But I do think it's super important to have somebody in your life where you're not constantly communicating with them through your iPhone or your smartphone.

    Dr. Jones: Well, it's interesting if you look at other higher primates, and that will be chimpanzees and bonobos . . .

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Are they higher primates than us?

    Dr. Jones: Yeah, some are higher than us for sure. We are the latest on the evolutionary tree of primates, but we are really social. And when we look at them, you can actually follow study groups of apes, great apes, and gibbons and chimpanzees. And when a chimpanzee or a gibbon lose social status for some reason, or one of their friends dies, they die if they don't have their social support. 

    And you always see pictures of the great apes sitting next to each other and kind of picking out little . . . grooming each other. They touch each other all the time. And they have a social network of girls that will go to bat for them.

    I like the example of a bonobo who don't have outrageous going forward violence, meaning they don't go beat up other chimpanzees or anything like that, but they have reactive violence. So if a bonobo gets raped by a male, a female, then all her girlfriends go and beat up that guy. So she's got a social network of girlfriends and they're constantly in touch. 

    I know we aren't great apes, but we sort of are and we like to touch each other and social touch and emotional touch. It doesn't have to be a spouse, but when you look at what happens to people when they're sick, they're going into a scanner, and you follow their heart rate and their blood pressure, and you let someone hold their hand, you look at what the brain is doing, and we look at the blood pressure, if someone they love, a friend or a spouse that they love . . . remember spouses aren't always loved, but there you go. If they're holding their hand, their blood pressure goes down and their pulse goes down and their brain calms. It's often what we do. 

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: That sounds nice.

    Dr. Jones: I know.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I mean, the situation is not nice.

    Dr. Jones: But we can't do that in social media, and it's now scary. Now we're having barriers to socially acceptable touch between men and women and potentially between women and women if it gets to that. What is socially acceptable touching for this enormously social species that we call Homo sapiens?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I don't have an answer to that. I don't think anybody really has an answer to that. There was something on Facebook called a poke, though. I don't know what that is. I've yet to figure that out. It's been around for a while. I think it's essentially the same as flirting.

    Dr. Jones: Really?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I think so.

    Dr. Jones: It doesn't sound nice.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I could be totally wrong. Someone please tell us.

    Dr. Jones: I want hug instead.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I don't even know. You poke them and then the notification says, "So-and-so poked you."

    Dr. Jones: Well, I like holding hands and getting hugs, but that's me and the way I was raised.

    Developing Emotional Intelligence Builds Resilience

    Talking about the way I was raised and emotional health, let's move on to emotional health. Women and men have similar rates of mental health problems, but women are more likely to have anxiety and are more likely to express their emotional state, and good for them. 

    Some emotional states are internal and some are caused by external stressors, like kids and finances, but often there's a combination. Poor emotional health leads to stress, and stress leads to poor emotional health, and stress leads to poor pregnancy outcomes and more high blood pressure, more diabetes, more inflammation, more Alzheimer's, and less physical resilience.

    Women of all ages learn the techniques to recognize, label, understand, express, and regulate their emotions. Exercise, mindfulness exercises, friends, and living your spiritual connections are all ways to decrease emotional distress. So, take a deep breath.

    When my son was a kid and would have an emotional meltdown, I would take him to his room and lay down with him on his bed and tell him that I wasn't leaving until he told me in his words what he was feeling, why he was feeling that way, and what he could do or what I could do to make him feel better.

    Then later, I would sit down, give words to how I was feeling to myself, figure out why I was feeling that way, and come up with what I could do to make myself feel better. And unfortunately, like Winnie the Pooh, it would often include eating a little something, but that's a whole different story.

    No matter what your age, developing emotional intelligence builds resilience and makes you an easier person to live with. Take time to apply the RULER principles that we should teach our little kids:

    • Recognize what you're feeling.
    • Understand the triggers.
    • Label your emotions.
    • Express your emotions to others. Let them know with words what you're feeling.
    • Regulate your response to your emotions.

    Don't yell, throw things, and lash out in anger, or you'll just feel worse later. Take a deep breath, take another deep breath, and get help if you can't do it alone.

     

    Dr. Jones: Now, Chloé, does an emoji count in the Ruler's stuff? So if you're sending a message and you're feeling sad, do you say, "I feel sad," or you just put an emoji that's got tears coming out?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I do both.

    Dr. Jones: Do you?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: I do both. I think emojis are important because sarcasm doesn't transfer. When I say sarcastic things . . . I'm a pretty sarcastic person. I need to make sure that there's an emoji attached to it. Otherwise people think I'm mad at them or something.

    Dr. Jones: Right, or that you've said something that was totally awful.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Yeah. The one that I always use is the running tears one, but I'm obviously not crying my eyes out in real life. So do emojis represent how I feel in real life? No, but I think they're fun.

    Dr. Jones: Well, I don't know. Sometimes I text my sibs because they're not nearby. And if I put a crier on there, they would kind of look at that. If I said, "I'm feeling sad," I would get a telephone call immediately. So if I use the words . . . and once again, we're boomers, so if I use the words, "I'm feeling sad," that would call for an immediate response on their part.

    Well, I think emojis actually are a great out for people who may not be that fluent, that emotionally intelligent, to actually use words about emotions in a way that's positive. And the concept of transferring some kind of emotion to your words, I think that's pretty useful, but I don't think it's as useful as telling people how you feel, telling somebody you trust how you feel.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Absolutely.

    Laughing is Good for the Brain

    Having emotional intelligence is important, but let's talk about intellectual health and intellectual intelligence. The habits of curiosity and brain exercise start early, but it's almost never too late. And in some complicated ways that we don't understand female hormones, estrogen, are good for the brain.

    There are a number of studies that suggest that women with earlier menopause have a greater chance of later dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Some studies suggest the use of estrogen replacement early in menopause may decrease the future of dementia.

    How do you keep your intellectual health?

    • Be curious — Read, discuss, and think about what you read. It is hard brainwork to listen to others' thoughts, compare them with your own thoughts, and thoughtfully respond. This is hard and it's good for your brain. Putting words into your brain isn't enough. You have to put words out. And it's no accident that women belong to book clubs much more often than men do, and that adds intellectual health to social health.
    • Aerobic exercise — not strength training — is very good for the brain.
    • No excessive alcohol — Alcohol isn't so good for the brain.
    • A good time with friends — Moderate drinking, and laughing and talking about stuff is good for the brain.
    • Manage blood pressure and blood sugar — Hypertension and diabetes are associated with early dementia.

    In our midlife women's clinic, the most common health concerns were anxiety and cognitive health. Your brain is in your body and you have to keep your body healthy. Your brain may react to what you eat. Do you feel stupid and sleepy when you eat too much sugar? Many women offer that what they eat affects how they think their brain is working.

    Don't skimp on your sleep time. We clear out unnecessary memories and we clear out cellular brain garbage while we're sleeping. Try to eat mindfully because your brain may feel better on some foods than others. And use it or lose it. Do new stuff. Think about things in a new way. Look carefully at what is around you when you go for a walk.

    Unfortunately, doing Sudoku puzzles only helps you get better at Sudoku. It doesn't really help you think about new things or remember where you put your keys.

     

    Dr. Jones: Now, when you're young, you never think your brain is going to ever be anything more brilliant than it is right now. Chloé, are you worried about your intellectual health?

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Always.

    Dr. Jones: Oh, no.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: A few people have told me that I have an old soul, so I'm not really sure what that means. Does that mean I'm more mature?

    Dr. Jones: No. So when people use that term an old soul, it means that you behave or respond in a way that suggests that you've had much more life experience or that you're maybe channeling an older person to help you behave more rationally, more calmly, more thoughtfully than you might automatically. So you're behaving as if you have maybe more life experience and more thoughtfully because you're at the best . . .

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: But I don't know if that's an old soul.

    Dr. Jones: You’re at the best age because you have still a fast brain but you're beginning to accumulate wisdom.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: Is that what you're trying to tell me then?

    Dr. Jones: I'm telling you, you are so lucky. This is great because you have a fast brain and some wisdom, and that's when you start to really feel on top of your own intellectual game. So when you feel on top of your intellectual game, it means that you're fast, your computer is fast, but you know how to use it.

    °ä³ó±ô´Çé: There you go.

    Dr. Jones: There you go.

    Women are Exposed to More Environmental Toxins than Men

    When I think about old souls and where you live and your intellectual health, it helps me think a little bit about what the things are that get in the way of my intellectual health. When I have externalities that affect my health, and my environment, then my brain gets derailed. And I want to talk a little bit about environmental health, because it's really important.

    Women can often tell when their physical environment is toxic. They have a better sense of smell on average than men. You know when your eyes tear up and you start to cough and you're exposed to something that might not be good for you, except onions, I guess.

    Now, certainly, some people will say, "Oh, I'm going to move away from the city where there's all this pollution. I'm going to move out to the suburbs." Well, it turns out that sometimes the suburbs can be just as toxic.

    I don't think that there's any good evidence that living in the suburbs where you might be more exposed to chemicals that people put on their lawns and on their plants, or you might be more exposed to time in the car while you're going into the city to work or taking your kids to school . . . the sense that you might move out to the suburbs to move away from environmental risks is not necessarily true. You may not see the risks as much.

    Sometimes moving away doesn't necessarily make it all that much better. I think you have to know your own environment. You can look at a map. You can make decisions about what's in your home, what you put on your face, what you clean with.

    Women are exposed to more types of environmental toxins than men usually. Certainly, men's exposure to a toxic workplace with particulate and volatile chemicals can be deadly. Think about male shipyard workers and asbestos. Think about male coal miners.

    However, women are exposed to relatively toxic household cleaning products. They put mildly toxic chemicals on their skin and nails in the form of cosmetics. And they're exposed to fumes from cooking more than men, except, of course, don't forget the very toxic barbecuing.

    How do you know if what you're cleaning with or putting on your face is good or not? So you can check out the , and their Skin Deep database will help you look up many common skin products. There's a link to common cleaning products and what might be concerning and what you clean with, or maybe what your housekeeper is cleaning with. And there's a link to a national safe drinking water database.

    It's important that you know how your environment inside your home, in your neighborhood, and in your town is environmentally safe with respect to physical safety and environmental and chemical safety. 

    Don't assume just because you live in the burbs that you're not exposed to bad air and chemicals, because in fact, you might be. Women often know when they don't feel that their environment is safe, and they just don't always know what to do about it.

    In terms of environmental chemical safety, don't be part of the problem. Don't fire up your woodstove almost ever. Don't idle when you're getting your drive-through coffee, at the bank, or at the school. Be an advocate for clean water and clean air in your community. And you're using your brain to do something new and you're getting out and being social, and that makes more domains in your corner.

    Financial Insecurity is a Major Cause of Stress in Women

    When you're thinking about moving to a bigger house, maybe that's not so good, or a better house or whatever you're doing. It makes you check in with your financial health. And financial insecurity is a major cause of stress in women and a major cause of emotional stress in a relationship.

    Many women feel financially unhealthy, and they don't know what to do about it. Some women don't even know what their financial resources are, and if they're married and their spouse does all the financial stuff, they don't know if they're in good shape or bad shape and that makes them feel uneasy.

    We lived in a family that traveled all over the world for my dad's job, and it was a job that he sometimes just quit and he'd go get another job. And in between quitting jobs, he had no job. So we had a lot of financial insecurity in my family.

    I'd like to say that my dad and my mom taught me about finances, but in fact, my mother used to borrow my babysitting money to buy food at the end of the month because she didn't have any money left and I did. So what I learned from my parents was not the following five things that I'm going to tell you. For me, saving was a big deal. Besides, I charged my mom interest, and so I got back more than I actually lent, and she always paid me back.

    Well, I'll be your mom and I'll give you five tips in terms of your financial health what-to-do. Don't be my mom, bless her heart, and borrow money from your kids when you can't make food money at the end of the month.

    1. Find out where you stand — Check your credit score. You know how you and your husband or your family or your spouse is actually doing, and you should kind of know what's going on in your financial background.
    2. Be responsible with your credit card — Make a budget and be accountable for yourself. Know where your little swipes or clicks on your credit card are taking you and decide if you really need that or can make it at home. Think about your latte habit that can cost thousands of dollars a year.
    3. What can you expect when you get into your mid-60s? — Do you have any retirement plans? Do you want to have a retirement plan? Will Social Security actually be there when you get there? So find out what you've accumulated and think about how you can save a little bit more.
    4. Start an emergency fund and fund it regularly — It doesn't have to be in big chunks. Just saving the equivalent of one latte a day comes up to $120 a month, $1,500 a year. Put it in the bank account and leave it alone unless it's an emergency. Aim to have six months' worth of living expenses in an emergency fund.
    5. If you are in financial trouble, get help — Each state has programs to help people who cannot buy food, pay electricity and heating bills, and even temporary help with rent. has a handout on government assistance with links to each state, or go to . So if things are tight, get help. If they're not tight, find out where you've got some extras, put it in an emergency savings account, and be responsible for the way you spend your money.

    The Seven Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ Are Interconnected

    The great thing about getting old is supposedly there's this window when you are wise, somewhere between 45 and 70 for people who study wisdom. You can be a wise person. There are some wise people who are younger, and of course, there's always Jimmy Carter who's been always wise.

    But now I'm in that window, so what we're going to do with these seven domains is I'm going to on-the-fly pull out a little "Seven Domains" haiku, a little hitch, or a little question, or maybe a little something profound, but that's individual. And this is a little something you could do, because haikus are fun to make. And when you're stressed or when you can't get your mind off something, put it on this little puzzle. So, here is the "Seven Domains" haiku:

     

    More than blood pressure 
    Bigger than paps and mammos 
    Women are much more

     

    So all of this actually brings us to the cycle of life. The whole seven domains are interconnected. Let's make sure we keep them all healthy. Your physical health, of course, is important, but everything reflects back on that. So let's keep our physical health, our emotional health, our social health, our intellectual health, our financial health, our environmental health, and our spiritual health connected and strong to make a better you.

    See you next time.

    Host:

    Guest: Chloé Nguyen

    Producer: Chloé Nguyen

    Connect with '7 Domains of Women's ÈËÆÞÖгöÊÓƵ'

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