Author Archives: Katie DuBois, MSN, APN

Why female athletes should pay attention to missed periods

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With spring sports finishing and fall sports on the horizon, many female athletes train year round to stay in shape. They may be trying to increase mileage and eat healthier to improve their performance. Sometimes, during intense sports seasons, a teen or young woman will realize that her period has stopped.

What’s wrong with that? Not many of us actually enjoy getting our periods. They can cause physical discomfort or irritability and, frankly, they aren’t pleasant. But few people realize …Continue reading →

Teenagers beware: The perils of tanning

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TanningWith summer right around the corner, many of us want to get a tan so we look good in our summer dresses and shorts. The sad thing is many of us know how unhealthy tanning is, but we ignore the warnings because we like how a tan looks.

Have you ever seen a poster in a tanning salon that showed a pale, perky 16-year-old girl on one side and a weathered wrinkled 65-year-old woman on the other? Of course not, but that’s exactly how you’ll age if you tan. And let’s not forget another situation – scars from the …Continue reading →

How to promote a healthy body image and prevent a potential eating disorder

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Everywhere we look, we are flooded with images of what “beautiful” should look like. We open up the latest Teen, YM and Cosmo magazines and are greeted with images of models who are stick thin and airbrushed while reading about how we too can “lose 10 pounds in 5 days.” We drive down the highway and see billboards promoting weight loss, and we turn on the TV and see actresses who are unbelievably thin. It’s not hard to understand why American girls and women have such a hard time loving their own bodies …Continue reading →