The Savvy Woman Patient: How and Why Sex Difference Affect Your Health

Well to begin with, you sort of have to ask yourself why a man would be writing a review on a book devoted to women's health issues. The simple answer to that is that I have a wife, daughter, sister, mother (who passed away in the not so distant past), nieces, potential granddaughters and on top of that, probably more than half of my close friends are women. Needless to say, women make up a very important part (well over half) of my life. It is only prudent to know as much about something that is extremely important to me and you, and affects all of our lives in so many ways. That is why a guy is writing a review on this subject. I must say that this work has been quite an eye opener. My wife, for many years, has observed that there seems to be almost a double standard in health care in this country which is based on many factors, but that gender is certainly one of the primary dividing points, along with social, racial, financial and culturally dividers. Now this problem seems to her (and me) to be increased if a combination of these factors are present, e.g. a lower income and lower educated black woman versus a higher income, higher educated white guy, as an example. It is an absolute proven fact that African American women share a gigantic disproportionate burden of health problems compared to other groups of women and this burden becomes even greater when compared to that of the care given to white males. But the thrust of this book and our primary interest in this case is not racial or economic, but rather women general, and women specifically. This is the area, on a personal level, that she, (and by association and projection and concern), I are most interested in at this time. This single volume, The Savvy Woman Patient is an excellent primer; indeed, it went far beyond the primer stage, in answering many of my questions. As we all know, or as we all should know, women are different than men in many ways. Their physical and mental reaction as too many disease processes and conditions are quite different than men. So often this is completely overlooked, even by the most astute health care professional, both men and women, I fear. How a woman's body reacts to a disease process in many cases, is quite different than the reaction of a man's. These differences we are talking about go even deeper than end results and begin in early adolescence. Facts such as that girls may quite likely develop symptoms of nicotine addiction faster than boys and can in fact become addicted to nicotine even before they become regular smokers is not a bit of information to take lightly. The same holds true with the speed and susceptibility to health disorders due to alcohol and is really a rather good thing to know. It is interesting and vital to note such information that although more men than women have hypertention at younger ages, women develop hypertension at a greater rate than men as they age; it is more common in women older than age 60