Expert urges women to look beyond 'bikini health' to address chronic illnesses

Attendees of the Clifford Craig Foundation's inaugural Women's Health Brunch were joined by University of Melbourne director of the Healthy Ageing Project Professor Cassandra Szoeke as she condensed 30 years of research into a 30-minute master class on healthy ageing.

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As the principal investigator of the Women's Healthy Ageing Project, Professor Szoeke oversees the longest ongoing study of women's health in Australia.

As part of her research, Professor Szoeke pushes for a more holistic understanding of women's health - focusing less on what she terms bikini health - and focusing on a top to bottom approach.

She said the benefits of holistic health were in the even application of research resources that would in turn provide better health outcomes for women.

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In one example, she pointed to the awareness of breast cancer as one of the driving forces behind the increase in treatment and lower rates of illness, while dementia, Alzheimer's and heart disease - prominent illnesses in women received less attention.

"I really see women's health from head to toe, and the focus of our research for 30 years has been head to toe research and that's why it's discovered so many important things," she said.

"If you look at the leading cause of death in women, it's dementia, followed by heart disease, followed by stroke, there's nothing covered by a bikini that's killing us."

With the healthy ageing project also drawing on research and case studies from around the globe, Professor Szoeke said she has been able to identify the positive habits that would provide the best health outcomes for women.

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She said movement was key, and explained simple everyday activities like gardening, going for a walk and even doing the shopping had been found to reduce chronic illnesses if done daily.

"We expected that aerobic exercise that makes you breathe hard would be the absolute best exercise," she said.

"What we found was that women who exercise every day for 45 minutes to an hour, even if that was just gardening, even if that was just, walking the dog around the block, they were the ones who did the best."

She said the importance of movement was so evident in the research conducted, that people who sat less were at lower risk of developing dementia.

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