Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: You're listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Whitney. Well, wait, Whitney and Charles. Wait, no, it's just me again. It's just me by myself on Fit to Be Tied. But it's okay because I have a special guest today. And before I introduce our guest, just to give you guys a quick recap of what we do on this show.
We talk about wellness, and lately we've been talking about fitness more specifically because you has been taking over the airwaves and telling you guys about our facilities, our programs, all the things we've done to make sure that you guys are safe wearing your face mask, staying six feet apart, and registering online. So fitness Takeover on the radio. But we are going to shift gears a little bit. This show.
It's me and a really good friend that I've known for a very long time. I think I met actually at the rec center. And we'll talk more about that. But you guys have heard her on the show before. Ms. Nika Morgan.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Hello. Hello. Thanks for having me again. I always love being here.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: So I will say this sounds a little different because I'm going to let everybody know. We are recording through Zoom and we're cheating today because we're wearing our face mask and we're staying six feet apart in Nika's office.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: You know. You know, just doing what we got to do to stay healthy, doing what
[00:01:17] Speaker A: we got to do. And it's kind of fun because usually I'm in my little dance room, yoga room recording, and it feels like I'm just talking to myself at the TV or at the screen. And now I actually get to talk in person with somebody, so it's a little bit nicer. So how's it been going?
[00:01:31] Speaker B: It's been going great. How about you? How are you handling the.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: The new normal? The new normal. You know what? Now I think I'm okay. I kind of get it. You know, it's. It's what we're having to do. It's how we're having to adjust. And, you know, my work schedule is different, but I'm just. I'm okay with it.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: How about you? Kind of the same. I see silver linings. You know, there's a lot of things that give us a break.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: You know, like getting to do things via Zoom instead of, you know, running around to and fro, getting in the car, driving here and there. You do save a little bit of time that way. And I found that those little bitty slip of time have actually helped me be more productive.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I've noticed that too. Just thinking about like you can schedule meetings back to that course for you being an advisor, that's definitely, I mean, you're scheduling probably way more than usually do. And for our audience, those that haven't, you know, listened to you on our show, go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Hey. Okay, so I like to do a lot of things in the academic world and in the healthcare world. I have a lot of interests and so I wear many hats.
So my full time job, which I love, I am a clinical faculty instructor for the department of Kinesiology at the University of Alabama. Roll Tide.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Roll Tide.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: And I'm also head faculty advisor for our amazing exercise science students that we have on campus. And I am the undergraduate program director for exercise science. So, yeah, I love it. I have a lot of fun with it. I am busy. But then my other thing that I love to do, my master's DE is in health education and health promotion.
And so in the summers I don't teach classes and I get to do a little bit more of the health educator role for St. Vincent's Health System. And well, they're all over the state, but mainly we know St. Vincent as being downtown Birmingham.
And in that role I do a lot of education for women's health for, you know, McMahon's health, pretty much any human, you know, I don't, I don't really focus on children or, or animals, you know.
That would be cool though. I can't tell you not to give your dog chocolate. Yeah, but I, I love that because I get to kind of keep a foot in the healthcare world and bring that back to my students and help my students understand the new trends and the things that are going on once they leave college and go out into the, to the working world. But then I love being with, in the academic world, sorry, flip side of that is I like to go to the corporate world, the healthcare world and tell them, hey, this is what the students are learning. This is the what next generation is going to be bringing to the table. This is how trends are going.
I love it.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Well, and you know what? I think you mentioned a little bit about women's health and that's what we're going to talk about on our show today because it is breast cancer awareness month. So we are going to take a quick little break and then get right into it. You're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone.
The capstone 90.7 fm wvua.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Welcome back.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: You're listening to Fit to Be Tied. And y', all, it's a great Sunday afternoon. And you know, we are well into the semester adjusting to all the things with COVID but yet we still got a football season. The rec center is open. We are not going to let you down. And you know, it's really interesting. I was talking to a student last week that is one of my kinesiology classes, and she was talking about, you know, just getting adjusted and everything. And she was a freshman and she was like, you know, this has just been so weird. And I said, you know, but at the same time, I feel like UA has done a pretty good job of trying to get us all back into some sort of normal. And, you know, those of you listening, if you are in school or faculty, staff or community members, it hasn't been easy, but I think everyone's tried really hard. What do you think?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Yes, I agree. I think we are all searching for normalcy. As humans, we crave structure. We crave our routine. That's why it is so hard to change our eating habits or to quit smoking or to start and keep an exercise routine. It's because we're creatures of habit. And we have not just been asked to change one aspect of our life, we've been asked to change every aspect of our life. And I think this is just from my health educator point of view. I think we as a human race have done a phenomenal job of adjusting and coping and recalibrating. We all have our times and our moments. But I think that, and I think the thing that I like the most, I want to throw this in here. Some of you may have heard it before. It's called toxic positivity.
That's interesting.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: I don't know if I've heard that.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Have you not heard it? Okay, so it's pretending to be okay when you're not okay. It's the. We're going to get through it together and this is gonna pass soon enough. Yes. We have to be positive and we have to tell ourselves that because it is true.
But it is okay to not be okay.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: And right now, none of us are okay.
We are all dealing with some kind of very abnormal change in some aspect of our life right now. Whether it's homeschooling our children when we're used to sending them to school from eight to three, being at home, working when we used to go into the office and having all our stuff there, not even being able to keep our regular face to face appointments with our physicians.
A lot of things are teledoc.
[00:07:27] Speaker A: That's exactly right. And, you know, specifically for you. And before we get into our big topic of discussion, you know, how many students do you advise in the kinesiology department? And I know it's a lot, but I'd like for our listeners to hear that, and I'd like for them to understand the mini Zoom calls that you are on every day. What does that look like now?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: So we have around 800 students in exercise science, sport pedagogy. Those who are going to become physical educators.
I see mostly right now in advising season, we're getting ready to pick our classes. Well, I say, are the students ready to pick up their classes for the spring semester? So I Zoom in, meet at least 20 minutes, one on one, with 532 students. Those are our juniors and seniors. Our wonderful advisors over in Carmichael are helping see the freshmen and sophomores. So we're a team and we're helping you know each other out. But those advisors are also seeing the education majors.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: That's. That's so wild to me because I know I don't see as many students as you do. And I'm kind of trying to, like, you know, manage my Zoom sessions and my meetings. I don't have nearly as many as you do. And sometimes I'm just, like, overwhelmed with the amount of Zoom calls, and it is hard.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: And, you know, I love people and I love helping, which is the whole reason why I went into this, you know, type of role with being a health educator and being an advisor. But there is a human fatigue element to it, and that's what I've been telling my students. There is a fatigue of sitting on Zoom all day, listening to lectures. There's a fatigue in being in Zoom breakout sessions. We have these fatigues that we are not conditioned to being used to because we. We have not lived this way ever in our lives.
This all started in March. And so it's normal to feel kind of negative sometimes and to not feel okay. That's okay.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think, you know, we're so used to screen time.
Well, before COVID hit, we were used to screen time being okay, a certain time of day when, like, okay, you get up in the morning and you check your phone and different things, and you take a break from it, and you're like, going to class, you're going to meetings, you're having interaction things, people, and then maybe you go back to your phone or your computer. And so you're having these breaks within the day. They're Actually getting social interaction, well, now
[00:09:46] Speaker B: it's less, and you're not getting human
[00:09:49] Speaker A: interaction, which, you know, we talk a lot on the show about overall wellness and our. And our Alabama model wellness wheel in the division of student life, showing us, you know, we need that emotional connection. We need a spiritual connection. And sometimes it's just really hard to get that through a computer screen.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: It is. It very much is. And that's why, you know, we have to make sure that while the weather is still pretty, we get outside and we get some vitamin D and we get some fresh air and that we try to maintain as much of our normal routines as possible.
So if that looks like, you know, you and I sitting in the same office, but with our mask on six feet apart, that helps. That helps break it up a little bit. Just having that human connection is so important.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: So we. So we talked a little bit before the break about, you know, going virtual, going, you know, to Teladoc and stuff like that. And that kind of brings me into our whole topic of conversation, which is breast cancer awareness month. And, you know, it's important to go in and, you know, Nika, you're going to give us all the information about our routine checkups. But, you know, have you talked to anybody or anybody at St. Vincent's that, like, Teladoc has impacted people or there being, you know, maybe they're not able to go in for their normal appointments? I know when Covid first hit, you couldn't get your teeth cleaned. You couldn't go to the eye doctor. You couldn't do anything. Has it gotten better?
[00:11:12] Speaker B: It has.
You know, I think it's important that we remember that other diseases that are not Covid did not cease to exist just because we're in Covid. We still have to go get our vaccinations. You know, our children still need to go get their vaccinations. Flu season, we have to get our teeth seen about. We have to have our eyes checked. We have to get our skin checked for skin cancer. But that's hard because we all are very aware, you know, and we don't want to expose ourselves more than what we need to. But I think it is important. If you're having any sign or any symptom that is abnormal for you, I would absolutely call your physician. And they may tell a doc, they may zoom and have you show them, you know, on screen or talk to them about it. And then if they deem it important enough to see you in person, you know, they'll rule out that you have Covid. And then they'll have you come into the office. Yeah, it's just there's more hoops to jump through now and so just make an appointment and showing up. Yeah, but it is, I have to stress that it is so important that you don't push off your regular screenings and your health because we are waiting for a pandemic to be over because we don't know when this will end
[00:12:25] Speaker A: and it may just, you know, be a very long time. But you know, specifically with breast cancer awareness month and you know, we're going to be coming up on a break here pretty soon, but, you know, what are the basics when it comes to breast cancer? I know as a female that's something that when I go to the doctor, they check everything out. You all know what we're talking about. They give you the whole once over and check you out. But like give us some ideas about the basics. We can come back to it if we need to.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Yes. So the first thing I want to make sure I mention is that men and women both can get breast cancer. We tend to think of it as a woman's disease where it does affect mainly women, but men can get it as well. Because you have to remember, anything in our bodies, any organ, any cell, anything can get cancer at any time. So we have to make sure that we realize that we can't leave them in out either.
But breast cancer, the basic definition is it's an uncontrolled growth of breast cells. Cancer starts going, it goes rogue.
It does usually begin in the milk producing glands or in the ducts that drain the milk, but it can originate in the fatty connective tissue of the breast as well. So that is why when we tell you to do an at home breast examination, we tell you to make sure you feel up under your armpit, all the way up to your collarbone. That's all considered, you know, breast tissue. If you think about working your pec muscles. Yeah, you know, if you can feel your pec muscles tighten, you need to be checking that whole area at
[00:13:59] Speaker A: they
[00:13:59] Speaker B: stage you when you get breast cancer.
Stage 0 describes non invasive cancers that have remained within their original location all the way up to stage four, which is invasive cancers that have spread outside the breasts to other parts of the body. So we want to catch it in stage zero. And the best way to do that, it's not, you know, 100% every time.
So please don't think I'm shaming anybody for finding something later because, you know, it's crazy. But the best, the Best defense is preventive screening.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: And I think, you know, with health education and the things that you do at St. Vincent's and talking to groups and talking to people, that's all you're trying to do. And really on this radio show, we bring our guests on to give you guys information. I mean, even our college students that are young and, you know, I was in college, I didn't think I had to go to the doctor. It was, it's like, why not go ahead and get in the habit of actually going to the doctor? So on that note, we are going
[00:14:57] Speaker B: to take a quick break, so we'll
[00:14:58] Speaker A: catch you on the other side. You're listening to fits be tied 90.7 capstone.
The capstone 90.7 fm wvua.
Welcome back to FIT to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. And we're talking about boobs, guys. And I know I just got your attention. If you're driving down the road, you probably swerved a little bit. But we are talking about Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Nika Morgan, who is over in the department of kinesiology at the university, but she also works with St. Vincent's Health Systems. And you do a lot of health educating and, and you advise students. Sounds like you're pretty much always telling people what to do.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, you can say that.
I'm always trying to encourage them to take care of themselves and to be true to themselves in some form or fashion. I do kind of prod and plead and say, hey, make sure that you take care of yourself and make good decisions.
[00:16:06] Speaker A: Which I think that's great. And that's why we're all here, is to help you guys and give you good information. So we are talking about breast cancer awareness and we don't like to talk about these things because no one ever wants to talk about cancer or bad things. But in the scope of wellness, we want you guys to be well. And preventative measures are important. So thinking about prevention and just statistics and what that looks like, I mean, shed some light and some knowledge on us.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: So a lot of females I have found will say, well, I don't have any prior family history of breast cancer, so I think I can put off my mammogram until a lot later.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Or I'm gonna skip my ob GYN appointment this year.
Or I just, I really don't do any kind of self assessment test every month, you know, while I'm in the shower. But you know, there's a statistic that's kind of unsettling to Me. But it's that 85 to 90% of all breast cancers are going to develop due to abnormalities that just come from the aging process and the wear and tear of life in general.
Breast cancer is always caused by a genetic abnormality. There's a mistake in the genetic material. And so a lot of people tend to put all their eggs in the basket of that. They don't have anybody in their family that had.
There's no prior history.
You might be the first one.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I was just thinking about. You know, we always look at our family history and those of you that do the, well, bama screenings, I mean, we always kind of are asked those questions of, do you have a family history of heart disease, certain cancers, things like that, which are great because it helps us to kind of pinpoint those things. But at the same time, you could be the first person.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: You could be the first person, and
[00:17:58] Speaker A: that's what's kind of scary. But it shouldn't be scary because that's why we want to prevent.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Yes. So I want to give you some statistics not to scare you, but to educate you. Because my whole goal in life is I don't want you to get to a diagnosis ever and say, well, I would have done differently had I known differently. So I want to give you the education for you to make that best choice for you. But I just want you to know, ladies, one in eight American women will develop invasive breast cancer during her lifetime. Wow.
That statistic is about 1 in 1,000 for men. But that shows you it still happens. Okay.
Now, if you do have a family history, your breast cancer risk nearly doubles if your mom, your sister, or your daughter. So that first degree relative has ever had breast cancer.
And here is the part that really.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: It's kind of.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: It's scary. I think we think of it as. And I don't know why, but if you. If you poll young women, like college age, they think that it is a disease of like 55 or 60, like once they hit menopause. But there are. There are a lot of women who are under the age of 45 who are getting breast cancer. And it is more common in Those women under 45 if they're African American.
And overall, African American women are more likely to die of breast cancer. So it's very important that we educate our sisters, our friends, our moms, and let them know your risk factor just from being African American is going to go up. We don't always know why, but that's a statistic.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I Think that's great information. And I don't know, statistics are like, not my thing at all.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: But it's interesting when you show one in eight women.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: You know, to me, I'm thinking if I was in a room, like in a group exercise class and there's eight of us working out, one in one of us is at risk of breast cancer.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Yes, that's.
Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. And there are a lot of risk factors. So I don't want anyone to feel like there's nothing that's out of their control.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: We have felt very out of control these past six or seven months. So I want you to feel like you do have some control. So let's talk about some of the established risk factors that come along with being diagnosed with breast cancer.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Well, just being a woman is the number one risk, and that's because of our hormones, you know, just the way we are. But an unhealthy diet and a lack of exercise does put the body at risk for developing all types of cancers. That's true cancer. Consistent intake of alcohol raises a woman's risk of hormone receptor positive breast cancer. So there's hormone driven breast cancer and non hormonal. So if you have higher levels of estrogen or you eat a diet that is, you know, promoting levels, higher levels of estrogen, such as alcohol. Alcohol does that, it fuels that. It, it does raise your risk.
Just a little. Fun fact. I had an ovarian tumor when I was in my 20s and it was hormone driven. And they told me to cut out my soy and my alcohol because that would feed estrogen, which would in turn feed that estrogen driven cancer.
So, you know, you have to talk to your physician about that. But that is something that is, is out there and that is real.
Okay.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Which I think, you know, going back to the whole alcohol thing, that's pretty important, especially for our college kids, because you're young, you're enjoying your life, you're doing things and you know, when you're young, you don't think about healthy things to eat maybe until you're like a senior and then you kind of start thinking about it or until you, you know, have a wedding or something, things like that. But, but you just don't think about not consuming as much alcohol because of the health risk. Think of it like, okay, yeah, we don't want to get alcohol poisoning, of course, but like, you think about other things. And if alcohol can contribute to cancers, especially breast cancer, that's something to be
[00:22:10] Speaker B: aware Of I think it can fuel them for sure. Absolutely. If you have that hormone driven.
Now, age does play a part. I mean, most of the time when they do find breast cancer, diagnose it, it's in women around age 55 or older.
But it does happen in young, young ladies, though. The youngest I've ever done is 12.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: 12 years old.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: But at 12, or you even have. You haven't gone through puberty yet.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: The person was starting to. So it was a hormone driven type cancer. I know.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Is that a risk factor if you are starting puberty young as a female? Like, because 12, I guess. What is that, like sixth grade maybe? Well, I guess that's about right. It's not the average seventh grade. Okay. Because I wondered, you know, those females that do start puberty a little bit earlier.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Well, you have a longer, a longer time of exposure to those hormones in your life. So you know, your, your body is dealing with when that. For a long period of time.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Wild.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
Now, overweight and obese ladies do have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who are at a healthy weight.
And this is especially important after menopause. Okay.
And if you're overweight, they have, they have found that it is, you know, causing a recurrence in those who've had the disease and beat it.
So we want to always keep you at a healthy weight, no matter what. And we do that through diet and exercise and some lifestyle modifications.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow, that's crazy.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
You know, if you've been diagnosed with breast cancer, you're three to four times more likely to develop a new cancer in the other breast or a different part of the same breast. So that is why it is important to go to your follow ups and to go to your checkups. Smoking increases the risk of all cancers. But. But there's a link between very heavy secondhand smoke exposure and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. They've shown some research in that.
Another risk factor that's been established is women who have not had a full term pregnancy or have not had their first child after age 30 have a higher risk of breast cancer compared to women who gave birth before 30. And that had. Has to do with hormone exposure. Interesting. And yes. And so then if you have dense breasts, which means, you know, very heavy kind of thick breasts, they can be six times more likely to develop cancer. And the reason why it's harder to detect in mammograms is because the breast tissue is so dense, they can't really see through the breast Sometimes it can be hidden on the backside.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: You know, my mom had a breast reduction a while back, I mean, years ago. And I remember when they were going through, they really checked her out good because I guess the density, they could never really get a full reading. And so I think a lot of ladies that do have a larger chest
[00:25:18] Speaker B: size, I mean, that's why self examinations and knowing your body and knowing if anything abnormal is happening that is not usual for you. That's why that's so important.
[00:25:30] Speaker A: Wow, this is such good information. I hope you guys are listening to this. We are going to take a break and catch you guys on the other side. You're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7, the capstone.
The capstone 90.7 fm wvua.
We are back. You're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. And we are getting some really good information about breast cancer awareness. More specifically, some kind of startling statistics. But I guess it wouldn't kick you in the pants if you didn't hear a couple of, you know, startling statistics to get you to go and get examined. Men and women are subject to breast cancer.
Women more so. But it is good to know that it affects both. So we kind of talked about the risk and the things that we need to avoid, the things that we need to do so that we, you know, don't fall into that. Sometimes we can't help it. But there are things that we can definitely strive to do better.
But let's talk about screenings a little bit and what that looks like.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Yeah. So screenings. So I'm going to give you the screening guidelines that are set forth by the American Cancer Society between ages of 40 and 44, if that is your age group. Ladies, you have the choice to start your annual breast cancer screening with mammograms, if you wish.
Now, my personal advice, if you have a family member who has a history of breast cancer, I would suggest making that part of your wish.
You're gonna want to do it, even
[00:27:11] Speaker A: though it's not great. I've never actually personally had it done,
[00:27:14] Speaker B: but I have, and it's not fin. It's not. So you need to go on and get it in your mind that you're gonna reward yourself with something afterwards, like, I don't know, some Starbucks or ice
[00:27:24] Speaker A: cream, you know, not alcohol, because it contributes.
Yeah.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: So. Or go buy your pair of shoes.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Something just, you know, kind of get through it.
Ages 45 to 54, you should get a mammogram every single year.
[00:27:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Okay. And then. And once you hit 55 and older, unless your doctor tells you differently, they say you can switch to going and getting your mammogram every two years.
Now, sometimes if you're younger and have a denser breast, they will do a mammogram with an ultrasound.
Sometimes mammograms will show shadows, some things that are not really there. So they kind of follow that up with an ultrasound.
But, you know, every now and then they'll say, we need to get a biopsy. And that's given to people who they suspect do have breast cancer or because the symptoms they may be experiencing.
So they're like, let's go and do a biopsy and let's just make sure.
And a lot of times women, thankfully, will come back and say it was fibroids or it was just a cyst, but it's better to know. It's better to know.
And then, you know, they're going to monitor you, so they're going to screen you, they're going to diagnose you, and then they're going to monitor you. So it may be that you have to go back, back every six months and follow up, or they may say you're good until next year. But the monitoring is always very important.
Okay, you have to know your breasts, and you have to know what's normal, and you have to be willing to report any changes immediately to your healthcare provider. So when we say things that are different, do you have a nipple that's all of a sudden become inverted?
Do you have. Yeah. And so do you have puckering, like a dimple all of a sudden in your breasts that you haven't had before? So it's not always a lump.
Sometimes you may have secretions from your breast.
You may have a feeling of heat or warmth.
It's not always soreness. So there's, There's. Everybody experiences it differently.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: And I think that's a really good thing to think about in general, like knowing yourself and knowing your body. Obviously, those are some pretty, I feel like, obvious things if you, if you check yourself out, if you know what you look like. But it can be anything, anything you're going through if you keep. Keep in mind how you normally feel. And that's what I do. I swear. I'm like, totally in tune with my body. And when something's off, I'm like, nope, that's not right. I got to go to the doctor. But eyesight, teeth, everything, like, you really do need to know your body. You need to know your skin. You need to make sure you're checking yourself out. It's important.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: And listen to it. We as women are so quick to just push it to the side and think, I'll get to it later, because we have so many priorities and so many responsibilities that we're juggling. But it is important to make sure that every month that you do screen and you want to make it routine. And like you said, Whitney gets no. All area areas of your breasts. Know the nipple. Know the top part, the underside, the part that goes underneath the underarm.
Start a journal if you have to, because we forget we have so many things we're thinking about. You know, we will. We sometimes look and think, was that there last week? I can't remember.
Don't panic. If you do find something unusual, just tell your doctor right away.
So here's how you do a self exam. Okay? So, ladies, you're going to have to get used to looking at your breast in the mirror because you need to see if there's any dippling, puckering, or bulging that was not there before, okay?
Looking for that redness, like I said, and swelling. Have your nipples inverted. If you're. Some people are born with an inverted nipple, all of a sudden is. It popped out now.
So I learned that when I took a breastfeeding class. So, yeah, before I had my baby,
[00:31:16] Speaker A: I don't have kids. And so some of these things, I'm like over here going, what in the world?
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Those that have had kids, you probably
[00:31:24] Speaker B: already know a lot, you know.
So what you want to do is you want to raise your arms up because your breast tissue is going to shift.
Your memory tissue is going to shift. When you raise your arm up and
[00:31:34] Speaker A: you go to the doctor, the gynecologist, if you haven't been, you need to go. But if you've been, you know, they always have. You put your arm.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Put your arm up your head, and then you want to. You want to lie down because that's when you can actually, when you're standing up, the weight of your breast just kind of goes down with the gravity. But when you lay down, it allows you to feel deeper into, like, your core, into your chest. And so you want to use a circular motion. Start up high at your collarbone. Remember, that's breast tissue.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: Feel all the way to the top of your abdomen, so right underneath that breast. And don't forget your armpit and your cleavage area areas, because cancer can grow there as well. Then sit up and feel it while you're sitting because your breast Tissue is going to change. And if there's a lump that was maybe hidden when you were laying down, maybe it will have shifted and will kind of expose itself when you're sitting up.
So you want to make. Yeah, so you want to make sure that you do this every month. Now, your physician will tell you, you what they want you to do. Do they want you to do it the week before your period, the week during your period, or the week after? Usually they'll recommend the week after because your hormone fluctuations are the least fluctuating.
Now, the week you've leveled out, you leveled out. The week before your period, you may have PMS and have sore breasts. And then the week of your period, you may have sore breath. So the week after is usually really great. But, you know, if you are
[00:33:05] Speaker A: more
[00:33:05] Speaker B: prone to having cysts or fibroids, stay away from caffeine intake.
So, you know, have your caffeine, have your coffee, but have some decaf.
You know, don't smoke. And then we do want you to exercise. We want you to get any unhealthy weight off.
We want you burning off, you know, that excess cortisol and. And adrenaline and just all that stuff that happens during our fight or flight that we just kind of sit with all day long. We just want you to, you know, just put that body in motion. And it's, you know, that's really the best thing is diet, exercise. But getting your sleep.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Sleep is so important, and that's in general. People forget how much sleep we need. Good quality sleep.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: We need sleep, and we need to stop glorifying the lack of sleep.
Waiting, being, like, superhuman. It's, like, only got three hours of sleep. I'm sorry.
[00:34:04] Speaker A: I'm so over that.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: I need you to get seven or eight. Yeah.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Oh, I'm a full eight hours of sleep, actually. Yeah, I sleep pretty well.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: That's good.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: I really do. I really do. That's really good. And I do want to mention, you know, this has all been such good information, and you can find this information online.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: And you said the Cancer Society, American Cancer Society.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Go on there. Also, the CDC is going to give you recommendations and things. And then, you know, for those of you in the community that you have had breast cancer before, you know, DCH has support groups that you can sign up for, and we actually partner with them and have a class that breast cancer survivors can come to on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And all you do is go to the Kids Cancer Center. I don't think they're letting people in right now. But you could always contact me if you wanted to. We can get you in the class. And we just do light stretching, some strength work because there has been a lot of trauma after surgery. Some of these ladies have had a lot of lymph nodes taken away. So they have a lot of swelling in the arm because they're not draining.
They've had mastectomies and it's just a lot of stuff that we're trying to work through. But it's also really good support groups. So if you're listening, you know, definitely check that out. But we're going to take another break and then we'll come back and close it out. You're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone.
The capstone 90.7 fm wvua.
Thank you guys for listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. And another good show in the books.
Another good show in the books. And I have to say I have to commend all of our guests so far this semester for sticking with me with Sheena not being here. Nika and I were just talking about Sheena during the break. And Sheena, if you are listening, we do miss you and wish you well with, you know, taking care of baby Jack and spending some time with him. But man, it's hard to co host by yourself, I guess host by yourself.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: A one man show.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: A one man show. But you know, this time of year I think is a really great time of year because we have a lot of, well, Bama health screenings going on. We're actually going to have Ashley come on next week. She's a coordinator over in office of health Promotion Wellness to kind of talk to you guys about the things that we have available on campus and the partnerships. And you know, I just, I hope that everybody will take advantage of these things. And if you want to listen to our shows, you also have them archived. We've had some good guests on aside from Nika who talked to us today, but also Dr. Mandelwal, Charles Burrows, Dee Hanson. Just talking about all the great things we have on campus for our resources. But I want to reminisce a little bit. I feel like after talking about the stretch class at the rec center, got me thinking about the rec center when we used to work together.
And I remember the first time I ever met you, I think I took, I took a class at the rec center and it was either hips, butts
[00:37:09] Speaker B: and guts, which I did not name hips, butts and guts, but I think that is the Best name Jordan and Roberts class I have ever heard.
[00:37:16] Speaker A: It is. And it's actually been used at a lot of different classes. Like, UAH had one called Butts and Guts. And I, like, when I was doing some research about class names, it was like, everywhere at that time.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: And I remember, like, it was in Studio B.
And I can't remember if it was like, funk or which. That was our dance class was Funk.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: I don't know why we called it
[00:37:35] Speaker A: that, but whatever we did and then. Or hits fussing Guts. And I remember, like, I met you for the first time and you were just like, spitfire. And I'll never forget, like, you were talking nine to nothing and I was like, listen to you going, okay.
And then we became friends and we became trainers together. And we've known each other since 2005. Yeah. Wow. So that means I would have been. I guess I graduated in 2000, 2007. So I guess it was a junior.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: You were still in school.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah. That's wild. We've had so many different friends that we've met throughout.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: I was so excited.
I have always loved fitness, but I was working, you know, I graduated from college with my degree in PR and was working in corporate public relations.
And at night I would, you know, turn into my alter ego, which was Hips, Butts and Guts instructor and teach. And it just energized me. Like, I just.
I loved it. And that's what really changed my life was to go back to school and get my master's in health promotion. Health education. Because I realized I love helping people.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And what's even crazier is Nika and I used to do this class called Body Blast where we would, like, kick your butt. Kick your butt and make you jump rope for, like, seven minutes straight. But what's even cooler is Sheena was a participant. Was a participant. Was she a grad student?
[00:39:00] Speaker B: No.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Or was she professional at that point?
[00:39:02] Speaker B: She was professional at that point, I think. Isn't that right, Sheena? Yeah. I'm not sure.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: She might have to chime in one day.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: She's told us many, many times that we're the only people to get her out of the bed at 5am in the morning to come kill her fat cell.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: And I'll tell you what, like, I don't get up early anymore to teach classes. I'm past that point in my life.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: But, man, we.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: We worked people hard and.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: And we did it with them.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: And we. We did it with them. I still to this day can't believe
[00:39:28] Speaker B: I did all that, like, once a day.
[00:39:29] Speaker A: I know. I just still can't. It just blows my mind. I remember one of the first because. Because we used to do Summer Slim down as well, which is now Morning Mayhem with us in our Tide Strong program. But Summer Slim down used to be the name of our morning and evening programs, and we kind of.
Kind of got the idea from that and kind of went into our own thing and did Mario Blast. But I remember one day, it was, like, our first meeting, and I think I had taken, like, a couple of Benadryls that night before because I had, like, allergies or something. I was running a little bit behind, of course. I remember getting a text from Nika, like, oh, my gosh, are you awake? Do you remember that?
[00:40:02] Speaker B: I don't remember that.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: I remember that because I remember I was, like, hustling up the sidewalk to the rec center, like, okay, I'm almost there. Like, I had, like, two minutes. But, you know, you needed to meet your group pretty early in the morning. But I just. I'll never forget that. Thinking I, like, doped up on Benadryl because of my allergy.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's what I loved about that class is we didn't just tell them what to do. We got in there and suffered right along with them.
So it was, you know, a lot of just.
We were just feeling it together.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: Yeah. And we had good music. It was just. It was just a really fun time. Good, good throwback, so. And I think there's probably videos, I'm sure, somewhere floating around the Internet that
[00:40:40] Speaker B: we used to make.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Whitney.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: I'm Nika and Whitney. It's Body Blast.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Body Blast. But anyway. Well, we so grateful that you're on our show, Neeka, and spending time with us today. Cause I know it's a Sunday afternoon, and, you know, you could be, like, hanging out with your kids, but instead, you're on Fit to Be Tied.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: Hey, thank you for having me. I always love being on this show. I think y' all are doing great work and reaching a lot of great Tuscaloosa community people out there. And hopefully we're giving them some advice and some help to make their lives healthier and easier. Yeah.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: And that's our wish for you guys. So until next time, you're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7, the capstone, and we'll catch you next week.
