Major changes to women's health screenings

Warning: Today's post departs from my normal frivolous ramblings to tackle an issue that's been a hot topic this past week.

Why all the changes in protocol for women's health screenings?

First we had the news last week (and people are still trying to make sense of it) that the age women should start getting mammograms was pushed back from 40 to 50 and that screenings should only be done every other year, not annually. The findings from the big study by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force also threw out the idea that breast self exams were beneficial.

Then news broke that there were big changes in the recommendations for Pap smears. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that women shouldn't get their first Pap smear until they are at least 21 and then didn't need to have one every year. Women younger than 30 could have them every two years and women older than 30 should get them every three.

Previously it was recommended that women get their first Pap when they become sexually active, but not later than 21 and then every year after to detect changes in cervical cells.

For both breast cancer and cervical cancer treatment and survival, early detection is key. So it blows my mind that all of a sudden we're seeing these changes in recommendations. It was drummed into my head growing up and in the many health classes I've taken in high school and college that my health is my responsibility and one way to take control of that is through preventative screenings.

As a very health conscious person, this new changes really upset me and I'm still not sold on the reasons they give. Decreasing the number of mammograms is supposed to decrease the number of false positives, but what about each true positive that they detect early and someone's life is saved because of it. It's true there is a concern about exposing women to extra radiation, but it seems to me that the overall benefit outweighs that risk. Early detection could be saving someone's life.

Same thing goes with the changes in the Pap guidelines. Cervical cancer can be really hard to detect without a Pap smear. Symptoms are things like spotting, painful sex or a change in your period. Those symptoms also be caused by about 500 other less scary things. That's why cervical cancer is usually detected so late in most cases. The Pap is supposed to help prevent that, so again, I don't get this change in guidelines.

The ACOG says that annual Pap smears lead to over treatment in younger women. Apparently because cervical cancer is such a slow developing cancer, they believe changing the screening window will not result in additional cases of cervical cancer. I'm skeptical at best.

And I tend to agree with a lot of this woman's argument in a column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Cutting costs should not come at the detriment of women's (or anyone's) health. I'd rather deal with the stress and anxiety of having a false positive, than deal with having to go through extensive cancer treatments because I waited longer to have a preventative screening.

I'd love to hear what you all think about the new recommendations. And I promise I'll be back to my normal ramblings tomorrow.

HBBC Kickoff and my Mac is saved

Today is the kick off of Amanda's Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. I'm super excited about it for a few reasons. First I love a challenge that incorporates every kind of exercise you could possibly imagine. Points for walking, points for running, points for cross-training, points for eating healthy food. It's great. Plus, this year's she's added teams so we have a little extra motivation!

I have a date with the dreadmill tonight. I'm going to rock out some quality workouts the next three days before I head home for Thanksgiving and my schedule gets all weird.

In computer news, I took my MacBook Pro to the Apple store this weekend to have one of the Geniuses at the Genius Bar look at it. I was having huge problems connecting to the Internet. I was using both Safari and Firefox and both were horribly slow, unless I had the modem plugged directly into my computer. I was wondering if my wireless card was crapping out.

The guy at the store poked around in my Network settings and found that my work's VPN software (which I had uninstalled back in September) had dropped a few IP addresses into my DNS and changed some other settings. So basically my computer was always trying to use the work IP addresses first and when those didn't work then bounced to my home IP address. No wonder it was taking pages ages to load.

Genius guy deleted those addresses and fixed my settings and now my baby is as good as new! Oh and it cost me zero dollars!

Thanks Mac guy!

Happy Monday all! Three cheers for a short week!

Wonky sleep schedule

As part of Back on Track Month I wanted to really work on getting at least eight hours of sleep each night. This week I have failed miserably.

First I got sucked into a really good book and was up until 11:30 or midnight two nights in a row reading it.

Then I went to the BF's volleyball game, which is kind of far from where I leave, and I got back really late.

And then last night I had a splitting headache when I got home from the soccer game. I'm sure it was just a tension headache from being a little too worked up about the game. (We won 2-1, but the other team had some close chances at the end). Anyway, said headache persisted when I woke up this morning.

So yes, my sleep schedule...totally messed up. Complete sleep fail.

And you know that happens when I sleep weird...apparently I start dreaming about you guys. No kidding, one of you popped up in my dream the other night as a co-worker in my office. It was weiiiiird especially considering the fact that I've never met any of you (except Lindsay and it wasn't her).

I woke up and I was like ummm did that just really happen. But yea I guess it did.

So now I'm even more determined to get my sleep scheduled worked out. I can't be having you guys all pop up in my dreams.

Running and computer woes

Yesterday I managed to get outside for a 4.5 mile run. It was nice to be breathing fresh air while running and not the stinky, stale gym air that I'm slowly getting accustomed to with treadmill running.

My legs must have been feeling pretty good after a five mile run on Monday and some Jillian on Tuesday because I was able to clock out 9:10 minute miles (on average) on a hilly route.

I'm enjoying this bit of a warm spell we're having this late in November. This weekend we hit about 75 degrees on Sunday and early this week the temps have been pretty mild. I haven't had to bust out any Under Armour yet (knock on wood). I'll take it while I can get it. This winter is supposed to be brutal here.

In other news, tonight the Terps play in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It's the first time in something like eight years that we didn't have a first round bye. The whole bracket this year is rather crappy. The NCAA really messed up with some of the seeding. Bad teams got really high spots. Because we got such a crappy seed, tonight is our last home game of the season. It's hard to believe the season is wrapping up already.

On another note, lately my Mac has been acting like it's on dial up when connecting to the Internet. At first I thought it was my crappy Comcast service (after the headaches with them in August and September, who could blame me?) but yesterday I had my work laptop at home and it connected much faster. Made me wonder if something is going on with my Macs wireless card. I made an appointment for the Genius Bar on Saturday, so hopefully they'll be able to figure something out.

Rebuilding core strength

As part of Angela's Whittle My Middle challenge, I did between 10 and 15 minutes of core work after my run last night and I was sad to see I had fallen so far in the core strength department.

Back when I was in college, I was a fitness instructor and one of my favorite classes to teach was our half hour Abs and Low Back class. In the class I would take participants through series of crunches, back extensions and planks galore. I didn't have a six pack, but I had great core strength.

Since I graduated and stopped teaching the class, I've let my core strength slip. Teaching yoga last spring definitely helped bring some of it back, but I don't think I've done a lick of core work since July.

And that was pretty evident last night.

I was taking myself through a plank series I used to do in my class -- three planks held for a minute each with 10 seconds rest in between. Intense, but back in college I could do it, no problem. (My participants were probably cursing my name by the time they left class though.) Last night I had to modify, I did three planks for 30 seconds with 10 seconds rest between.

So now I have a new goal. By the end of the challenge, I want to be able to do my three planks for one minute with 10 seconds rest between.

To clarify the series goes like this:
Three regular planks
Three side planks
Three other side planks
It's nine minutes of planks when I do the whole thing.

Feel free to steal my plank series if you're looking for something to mix up your core work.

Terps filled weekend

My weekend was full of Terp activities.

Basketball season started on Friday and I was lucky enough to have the best seat in the house for the game. Maryland runs a program where season ticket holders can donate their tickets back to the booster club, who then gives them out to young alums who can't afford the crazy expensive tickets. I was lucky enough to be graced with seats from one of our big, big donors. My seat was exactly at midcourt close enough that I could see all the action, but high enough that I didn't have to strain my neck to see the jumbotron. Perfect. Plus Maryland smacked the opponent and won by like 30 points or something.

Saturday was a bit of the opposite. Maryland lost 36-9 to Virginia Tech. It was so pathetic I left at the end of the 3rd quarter. The BF got sick of laughing at the win by about 5 minutes into the first quarter. My parents had come down for the game too. Too bad they saw such a stinker. (Although really, our whole season has been pretty bad.) But the tailgate was tons of fun. Thanksgiving themed with a turkey, stuffing and potatoes and delicious desserts my mom made.

My leg hamstring has been tight all weekend for no apparent reason (maybe I tweaked it playing cornhole on Saturday haha). So I've been resting it up. I'll see what tonight holds workout wise when I get home from work.

Other than that nothing too exciting for me.

Happy Monday!

Cross training for the first time in months

Cross training isn't my favorite thing to do. So when I'm training for races, I pretty much have running days and resting days. It's not very often that I mix things up with biking, swimming or lifting unless it's the "off-season."

But last night it was rainy and cold and I was in no mood for the treadmill. So I cracked open my 30 Day Shred case which has been sitting neglected on my desk for at least 6 months and popped it into my laptop.

Twenty minutes later my poor shoulders, pecs, triceps, entire upper body area was dead. And I'm still feeling it today. It hurts so good though.

It was a nice change of pace to mix it up. I think I'll be turning to Jillian more often as the cold clutches of winter grip the area.

On tap for the weekend, I've got a happy hour tonight with friends before the Terps season opener (basketball) and then tomorrow the BF and I are tailgating before the VT vs MD football game. Md will probably get killed the BF will laugh and laugh. (He's aVT alum.) Should be another excellent weekend of sports!

Happy Friday!