Ladies beware...

You sleep seven hours a night, watch your caloric
intake and break a sweat several times a week,
but before you proclaim yourself a vision of good
heath, take a look at your daily habits.
Surprisingly, some common practices can be
harmful to your health.

1. Wearing tight fitting jeans, or trousers

Skinny, tight pants can spell trouble for your
womanliness. “It’s really common for some women to
get recurring yeast infections [with tight pants],”
says Dr. Unjali Malhotra, a women’s health
specialist from Vancouver. The restricted quality
of the trousers along with the heat and moisture
that they create can leave you feeling itchy and
sore. To steer clear, Malhotra recommends
wearing looser fitting clothing or sleeping without
underwear to give the area a chance to breathe.

2. Wearing high heels

Sexy, fashionable footwear can lead to an ugly
assortment of health ailments. According to Peter
Guy, a professor at Toronto’s Michener Institute,
and a chiropodist in Whitby, Ont., habitually
wearing sky high heels can change the way you
walk, create pain in your back and knees, shorten
your calf muscles, and stiffen and thicken the
Achilles tendon that runs down the back of your
heel. “High heels will make bunions – a
protrusion of bone and soft tissue on the side of
your foot – appear faster, and because your toes
are squeezed in the shoe’s front, you can get
hammertoes, ingrown toenails and corns,” he
says. If these painful, unattractive conditions
weren’t enough to make you kick off your heels,
these problems could also make you an early
candidate for arthritis in your feet. To lower your
risk, Guy suggests alternating your footwear.
Wear one heel height one day, don a lower heel
the next, and try flats after that, but don’t jump
straight from a three-inch heel to flats. “If you
quit heels cold turkey, you’ll have heel pain,” he
says.

3. Using old prescriptions, or sharing meds with
others

Have you ever popped a pill from an old
prescription, or downed a tablet given to you by a
girlfriend? Taking medications that are old, or not
yours can raise your risk for a surprise allergic
reaction, or an unhealthy interaction with other
medications that you may be taking. Instead of
alleviating symptoms, a visit to the ER could be in
store.
“People should be assessed by a doctor for a
correct diagnosis before they start a medication
so they know that they’re taking the right one,
and that it’s safe to use,” says Malhotra. And if
you decide to re-start an old prescription such as
one for birth control pills, book a consultation with
your doctor to make sure that your medical
situation hasn’t changed, and that it’s still the
best option for you.

4. Taking the Pill, but skipping condoms

“The only contraceptive method that offers
protection against pregnancy and sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) is the male, or
female condom,” says Malhotra. By forgoing
condom use, women are leaving themselves
exposed to STIs such as gonorrhea and
Chlamydia that if left untreated can cause pelvic
inflammatory disease, a higher risk of ectopic
pregnancy and fertility issues. Add a condom to
your intimate repertoire and lose the STI fear
factor.


5. Wearing coloured contact lenses

Want to make your brown eyes blue? Think twice
before donning cosmetic, non-corrective contact
lenses. These accessories – typically sold without
a prescription or a proper fitting by an eye health
specialist at costume shops or online – can lead
to blindness. “These lenses can produce corneal
ulcers than can quickly lead to internal ocular
infection and permanent loss of vision if left
untreated,” says Dr. Paul Rafuse, president of the
Canadian Ophthalmological Society’s Board of
Directors. “These conditions can lead to
blindness. No one should wear cosmetic lenses
from a retail outlet without a prescription and
professional oversight.”
In December 2012, Bill C-313 was passed into
legislation classifying cosmetic lenses as medical
devices. This law means that coloured lenses
must be approved and licensed by Health
Canada , and distributors will require a special
licence to sell them.

6. Being careless with tampons

It may sound surprising, but some women forget
to remove their tampons at the end of their
period. “We often have women come in with an
abnormal odour or bleeding, and find a tampon
has been left inside,” says Malhotra. “It can cause
serious infections, or toxic shock syndrome.” To
save yourself the embarrassment, and the health
risks that a forgotten tampon can create,
Malhotra recommends inserting a finger into your
womanliness after your period has finished to guarantee
that it’s a hygiene product-free zone. A little
extra care is worth it especially when it comes to
avoiding toxic shock syndrome, a life-threatening
bacterial infection characterized by high fever,
vomiting, low blood pressure, headaches and
confusion.