While
the notion of “reading your body’” also known as symptomspeak
may sound annoyingly
New
Age, it’s really a rather basic but scientifically sound concept.
Symptomspeak
is your body’s bridge between the physical and the psychological.
It’s a kind of mental Morse code that transmits various subtle, and
sometimes not so subtle, signals that your body sends out from an
abdominal ache to a bloody stool. Deciphering this code is the best and
most efficient way to keep tabs on your health and protect yourself from
the advancement of a variety of illnesses.
Consider
breast cancer, for instance. Ninety-three percent of women who find and
seek treatment for breast cancer early, before it has spread beyond the
breast , will survive. If
they’re diagnosed after it has progressed, however, their odds of survival drop dramatically.
The
same is true of heart disease, the number one killer of women. If a woman has a pain in the upper left portion of her body, she assumes
it’s a pulled muscle. Since many people still view heart disease as a male
condition, women don’t recognize the signs of heart disease.
Conditions
less dire than breast cancer or heart disease may also require medical
attention. And in many cases, your doctor can tell you how to relieve
your pain and to prevent a more serious problem from developing later
on.
However, not all bodily signs require immediate attention. Some where between the extremes lies the ability to hear and
understand your body’s language –to know when a symptom needs
medical attention and when it doesn’t .
Most
experts believe that women read their bodies fairly well – at least
compared to men. Because of changes in their reproductive systems,
more things happen on a regular basis in women’s bodies than in
men’s. As a result, they become accustomed to change and its signs.”
But
recognizing a symptom or two is only half the battle. You also have to
interpret the problem and
decide what
to do about it .
