Hey
Happy 🍁 Wednesday!
At about the same time last year, I came across some rather shocking information about gender disparity in health funding. Put simply, men's and women's health
programs are not funded the same.
Of course, I knew there were differences in medical spending, but I had no idea how significant those differences were. Even more disturbing, this information wasn't all that easily accessible. Does the public know?
That explains - at least in part - why 70% of all chronic pain sufferers are women, why so many women are struggling with vague conditions that could be easily addressed, and why the Western medical system is failing women.
Naturally, this information had to be shared.
I couldn't keep it to myself.
In February of this year, I wrote several posts highlighting the issues around women's health and funding disparities. These posts brought a flurry of messages and conversations, with many of you sharing your own experiences, asking questions, and offering support to each other. Seeing this kind of community engagement and the support you all offered each other was heartwarming.
Since then, I've kept my ear to the ground, listening to themes that continued to emerge in class conversations again and again. The topic of core awareness was - and is - at the very top of that list. Core comes up almost daily.
Why do we struggle with our core?
To begin with, there are too many
conflicting messages about what the core is and isn't, where to find it, and how to do it. You might hear one thing from your physio, get a completely different cue from a gym trainer, and then see something on Instagram or Facebook that directly contradicts the first two suggestions.
It's hard enough to keep track of all of that, never mind bothering to look for the core. Sometimes, I think this information is made more confusing on purpose, so we give up on trying to figure it out.
And secondly, most women I know have had abdominal
surgery by the time they've reached their 50s. I am not even talking about C-sections (although they are absolutely worth considering). It's hysterectomies, explorative surgeries, oblations, ligations, various meshes and repairs. And don't forget the gallbladder surgeries.
The year is 2024 - not 1824. Surely, there must be better ways of managing our health symptoms than poking, prodding or cutting our bellies open?
No wonder our core is struggling. Unfortunately, neither the state of our medical system nor the information overload is
helping.
, in the next few weeks, I want to give you the broadest possible overview of the core, where to look for it, why it is sometimes hard to find it, and what you are missing when your core is not as supportive as it should
be.
We will briefly touch on why menopause is so hard on our core and what you can do to help it (briefly because menopause deserves its own post series - more on that in January!).
