Wellness After 40
A podcast that empowers women in their 40s and beyond to embrace aging with vitality and purpose.
Wellness After 40
Cancer Prevention, Early Detection & Screenings for Women Over 40 with Rebecca Maff, Cancer Biologist
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What should women over 40 actually be paying attention to when it comes to cancer prevention and early detection?
In this episode of Wellness After 40, I sit down with cancer biologist and TEDx speaker Rebecca Maff for a conversation about cancer screenings, prevention, overlooked health changes, and the importance of proactive care in midlife.
We discuss why certain cancer screening guidelines are changing, what women should know about breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer awareness, and how subtle shifts in the body can sometimes be dismissed as “just aging,” stress, or hormones.
Rebecca also shares insight into the future of cancer detection, the role of AI in healthcare, and why understanding your body and advocating for your health matters more than ever after 40.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Cancer prevention and proactive healthcare after 40
- Why colorectal cancer screenings now begin at age 45
- Breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer awareness
- Subtle health changes women often dismiss in midlife
- The importance of routine screenings and family history
- Early detection and evolving healthcare technology
- AI and the future of cancer research and diagnosis
- Stress, overall health, and long-term wellness
Connect with Rebecca:
- Instagram: @rebeccamaff
- TEDx Talk: Watch Rebecca’s TEDx Talk
Visit my website for more episodes and wellness resources:
Living Well With Katie
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Some of the earliest signs that something is off in the body can look a lot like everyday midlife symptoms. Today, we're talking about the subtle changes women over 40 often overlook, why cancer screenings are evolving, and what a cancer researcher wants women to understand about prevention, early detection, and paying attention to their health before something becomes a bigger issue. Welcome to Wellness After 40: Health, Goals, and Manifestation for Women, the podcast that empowers women in their 40s and beyond to embrace aging with vitality and purpose. I'm your host, Katie, an older millennial navigating wellness, personal growth, and the art of intentional living. Each week we'll dive into the latest in exercise, nutrition, mental health, goal setting, as well as actionable steps for manifesting the life you want. We'll also explore the science behind women's health at Midlife and Beyond, along with conversations with experts to keep you thriving in your body, mind, and spirit. Whether you're focusing on achieving health goals, mastering your mental clarity, or transforming your life, this podcast will give you the tools to feel your best at every stage of life. Let's dive into the journey of not just surviving, but thriving after 40. Well, welcome to the podcast Wellness After 40. I am your host, Katie, and today I am welcoming a very informative and special guest. Welcoming to the podcast today is Rebecca Math. Rebecca is a cancer biologist and TED Talk speaker with over a decade of experience in healthcare, where she's worked on projects using data and AI to better understand and solve complex chronic disease challenges. Her work focuses on what's driving modern health issues from cancer and autoimmune conditions to mental health, longevity, and root-cause healing. After experiencing her own burnout and health crisis during graduate school, Rebecca found her own path to recovery. Now she's passionate about preventative health, stress reduction, and helping others recognize how stress shows up in the body. Sharing both the science and the lived experience behind true healing. Welcome to the podcast, Rebecca.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for having me, Katie. I'm so excited to be here today.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I feel like this topic is a pretty heavy one, but you are such a light. So I'm so excited to ask you questions, and I promise I will try to keep the questions not too numerous, but I feel like this topic is a very, very important topic to discuss for anyone in general. But our podcast focuses on women in midlife. But we're talking about what a cancer researcher wants you to know about cancer. Um, and since you have such a strong background in cancer biology, maybe you start with telling us a little bit or sharing what led you to come into this type of work and did anything influence your path?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, Katie, for the question. So I always knew I wanted to go into healthcare. So I did like a pre-dental, pre-medical track. Um, I actually thought I wanted to be a dentist initially, if you could believe it. Um, but then I ended up changing, like in my graduate program and undergraduate program, and I knew I wanted to do research because I started working in research and did a couple of years and then went back to school. And they had an opening in the molecular biology program for a cancer track. So I I took that. And the reason I chose cancer was at the time I had a lot of close family relatives getting serious diagnoses like cancer and autoimmune conditions, and they were all women and they were getting late-stage diagnoses, and I was wondering why. So I wanted to go and actually study it.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I mean, and you know, thank you for sharing that that personal information. That's you know, it's so unfortunate, but also so common nowadays, which is a little scary and you know, and also sad. So I'm I'm very thankful for you to come on today to share us your education, but also you understand kind of what some people are going through.
SPEAKER_00Definitely.
SPEAKER_01So when we start to look at cancer risk, especially for women in their 40s or over, what are the most important biological or maybe the physical, physiological changes happening during this stage of life?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So the way I was trained in graduate school is cancer, like it forms over decades. And that was like the old school thought. Now, in current state today, it's actually like more and more young people are getting diagnosed with late-stage cancer diagnoses out of nowhere. So, like, in, you know, as women age and they go into their fourth decade of life, sometimes you have a drop-off of hormones, our female sex hormones like estrogen progesterone. And when that happens, it puts us at a greater risk for certain disease conditions. And that could be based off of our genetics and familial history, um, and a whole array of different things, like what we're exposed to throughout our life. But the change in hormones is really what puts us at risk. And I sometimes think that, you know, physicians aren't really like thinking like, you know, in our 30s, in our 40s, we should be really looking into the hormonal changes. Um, so yeah, it's it's really focusing on that and and getting on board with your physician, speaking up and getting tested for your sex hormone, your female sex hormones.
SPEAKER_01So is it the reduction of the hormones that's causing a risk of cancer, or is it something else happening with these changes that you're talking about when it comes to hormones?
SPEAKER_00I think like when women start to get into their 40s, it's a very busy time and season in their life as well. So they're having changes hormonally, they're raising families potentially. They may be married, maybe they're not, maybe they're working in a very like intense career. So I think stress feeds into it as well. Stress is a leading factor. So cancer is very multifactorial, from what I understand. It's not just like one thing, like you can have the genetics, and then you know, as you age, the risk goes up. And the age also goes up for men and women as well, just as you age, just naturally, like cancer and other condition risks just go up. So it could be stress, it could just be like what you were exposed to environmentally, like lifestyle. You know, maybe you smoked when you were younger and you have a higher risk of like lung cancer or other cancers because of that. Now we're finding out alcohol use puts you at risk. So it could be like how you were living your life, like, you know, leading up to that diagnosis. And also stress is a big one, too. So it's any number of things, and it's very different for each individual as well.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. I've definitely heard often about environmental factors, heredity or genetics, but stress, can you elaborate a little bit more on what stress is doing to the body that could put you at risk for cancer?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I I love that physicians and clinicians are really talking about stress and how it feeds into the pathophysiology and the pathogenesis of cancer. Because with cancer, like it's an abnormal growth of cells, you know, and it just the growth goes awry, the pathway breaks down. Like my specialty in grad school was skin cancer. So, like it's basically, you know, some proliferation of cell growth that grows a tumor, you know, and there's a breakdown and there's oxidative stress from sun, you know, that can cause that cancer. And that's the same thing like in your life. Like you can actually get oxidative stress just from living a crazy busy like lifestyle. And like certain processes in your body just don't work as well. And your DNA repair mechanisms don't work as well if you're under high stress. Your immune system doesn't work as well. I think we've all been in that category where we had a very stressful thing happen in our life. Maybe it was a death, maybe we had a like my case graduate school. I was very, I had a ton of tests and everything and papers going on. And that one stressor can make us get a cold, you know what I mean, and just get sick. That's a perfect, perfect example of the immune system not functioning. And that's kind of what happens with cancer as well. You know, you can have that that cellular stress happen and normal pathways that worked perfectly, you know, just break down or don't work. And then you have um, you know, a cancer diagnosis that happens because of that, plus, you know, with maybe a genetic component as well. Maybe you were already at risk for having breast cancer later in life because of family members, but then you had a significant amount of stress leading up to that diagnosis.
SPEAKER_01Wow. So this is something we talk often about. You should figure out ways to work on your stress. And now this is another reason to work on mitigating some of the stress in your life because it's putting attacks on your body where your body already is having to deal with so much, and this is not going to help your risk of cancer. So thank you for sharing that. That's very interesting. So, across the cancers that you've studied, let's think about maybe more um female cancers, for example, or not even just female, because some of them are across the board. Um, because breast cancer can happen in men as well. But if we are looking at some of the cancers you've studied from like breast, ovarian, colorectal, I think is now a cancer that we're hearing a lot about in like the media. So just to maybe name a few of those, what are some of the early symptoms that tend to be subtle or more commonly overlooked?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the one that I've read the most in literature, and I also hear people talking about it, like clinicians and even on some of the podcasts and books that I've read as well. Um, just like abdominal pain, bloating, indigestion, very common things that every one of us experience from time to time if we eat something that causes like a, you know, an upset stomach. But I think with ovarian cancer, it's the bloating, um, you know, maybe some swelling in the abdomen. And you're like, oh, you know, and as you're aging, you're thinking, am I gaining weight in my midsection? Is there something going on? And I think women tend to brush things off if they have one subtle symptom. But I think that's the key here. Like if it's a symptom, it comes out of nowhere and you're having it for, I would say, a couple of weeks and it's not resolving, go to the doctor. Um, with colorectal cancer, it's going to be immediate change in any type of bowel habit, you know. So, like if you're going regularly, you haven't had any issues, maybe you see some blood. That's actually like the biggest thing. If you see blood in a bowel movement, immediately contact your doctor and request a colonoscopy because they're finding that the fit tests, um, the color guard tests aren't like as accurate to detect those early polyps and early stage polyps that you may find with a a colonoscopy, you know, a colonoscopy that you would get. Um, and then breast cancer would just be pain, you know, or something like abnormal, like a discharge or something. Um, or even just if you're you should do self-examination in the shower. And if you just find like a lump all of a sudden, or like something that hasn't been there before that's abnormal, definitely go. So it just takes one symptom, one sign, one thing that you're like, hmm, that's making me think that should be your sign to go and get checked and screened right away.
SPEAKER_01So it's really anything that's kind of out of your normal day-to-day, notating that that small change, and then just taking that information to your doctor because your doctor will be able to kind of start to work on that. But going back to for ovarian cancer for for a moment, like the the bloating around the midsection, you know, we we hear a lot about that because women in this stage of life usually have a lot of bloating there. And some researchers or different resources that I've read is that it could be from cortisol being really high, which goes back to the stress. It could be from, you know, the reduction of estrogen and then the body's holding on to like fat in certain areas. But that's such an important nuance. Like the the belly fat in that area. Is it the belly fat containing, or is it like more bloating when we're thinking about ovarian cancer?
SPEAKER_00I think it's I think it's just any like odd symptom, I would say. Like if it's you have bloating all of a sudden, you have swelling, you have fluid retention, maybe accompanied with pain, maybe just indigestion after eating. Anything that comes up out of the blue. Um, yeah, you may you mentioned the cortisol thing. Physicians can run cortisol tests and completely rule that out. Um, I believe it's a salivary test that you would take, like in the morning, maybe in the evening, the way they do it, from what I've read. Um, so that's a simple test that you can request as well to kind of rule that out. So, like with any kind of disease, it's like a ruling out, right? Like, what is it and what isn't it? So you can do that. Um, and then you can also get like an ultrasound. And I know we'll talk about like screenings and stuff probably, but you can also get an ultrasound of your abdomen to rule out like any major things going on, like a gallbladder, you know what I mean? Like anything that would have to do with like digestion as well. So you want a physician that's gonna run like a gauntlet of tests to kind of rule out everything.
SPEAKER_01And I do want to ask you some more specific questions on screening because I feel like technology is really helping with that. But I'm just curious in screenings in general. Can you walk us through maybe what a woman in her 40s should be realistically prioritizing when it comes to what type of screenings do we need?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So when you turn 40, the USPSTF, which is the United States Task Force criteria, you are they're recommending that you go for a mammogram screening at that age threshold. That's when you can begin screening. But if you're higher risk and you've had like, you know, direct family member that have had breast cancer, they will sometimes put you in that high risk bracket. You you might go sooner, maybe in your 30s, depending on um what the physician recommends. But always go for your mammogram screening that will happen in your 40s. And then did you want to pivot to other screenings potentially?
SPEAKER_01Like Yeah, just any type of screenings that should be more commonplace that we should hopefully you will go to a doctor that would recommend, but sometimes we have to be our own best advocate. So I'm just curious, like what should we be realistically looking for in our 40s?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the mammogram is a very important one. Unfortunately, ovarian, they don't really at this time. I had to look everything up, they don't recommend anything, but an ultrasound is probably the best thing right now that we have that could help, you know, take a look and see what's going on in your abdomen. And then for colon cancer risk, that would be your colonoscopy. Um, you could also get like a fit test as well, or like that. But I'm finding more and more physicians are really like they want to know what's going on internally, and they're sending folks to get that colonoscopy and see if there's any polyps. And you can take a look and even do like path, you know, pathology results on the polyp and actually test and see if it's precancerous and if it's an adenom carcinoma. Um, and then the one thing that I wanted to also say like lung cancer is another one as well, whether, you know, um, if you did or did not smoke, that might be something I know like some women are starting to get diagnosed with lung cancer that have never smoked. So that's something you might want to like look into as well. And then also from a dermatology perspective, um, you could get you could get screened for skin cancer at any age. There's really no age threshold. That's just simply going to a dermatologist, them taking a look and at any abnormal growth or mole that you might have on your skin. So that's also a really important one. Um, and your skin is like your whole body, so you definitely want to make sure that if anything looks abnormal to go get that checked as well.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so it is definitely mammograms, dermatology screenings, just going to a general doctor and getting a general workup. You're going to start the process from there. Um I was thinking of, you know, some for personal reasons. I'm like, should I be looking into um MRIs? I think that's a a new thing. You know, I have a large family history of breast cancer. So I see a specialist where I'm ultrasound, but the last time I went for my mammogram, they're like, you should really look into a breast MRI. Like, do we look to these more um the newer type of screenings if we have a family history or if we've shown signs in the past? Or is are are these going to become like the new wave of the future, in your opinion?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a big factor in all of this, right? Is insurance going to cover the MRI screening if you are high risk? Um, I know with colonoscopies, it's, you know, it's, I think you have to be 45 years old to go for a colonoscopy, but if you are below that threshold, will insurance cover it? I think that's the same with these MRIs as well. We might see that like in the future, it's more acceptable. Insurances are more willing to pay for it as long as you are on board with it. The provider's like, absolutely. And that takes you advocating for yourself and communicating to the provider, hey, look, I've had like X number of family members that have had this in the past. Maybe it's on both sides of the family. That would probably put you at a very like, you know, good candidate for that. But it's always you working with your provider to see like what your unique personalized case is for that MRI screening. But right now, usually they send folks for an MRI if there's an abnormal finding in that mammogram at first. So that's current current practice. So we'll see what happens with that in the future. I would hope that they would send folks for MRI right out of the gate, you know, for that protective and proactive type of medicine, but I don't know if we're there yet. The jury's still out on it.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And then when it comes to like blood work, is a traditional, you know, CBC that we we normally get in our normal physicals that we should hopefully be doing every year. I say that with a pun because I'm like, ooh, I need to schedule mine. Um, but is there any other type of things that we should be asking for? Or will your general doctor just be able to cover all the bases?
SPEAKER_00I've been to a couple appointments myself where they did not recommend a couple of things and I'll kind of list them up. But they should, they don't always recommend a CBC in folks that are younger, and they really should, because it does pick up if you have, you know, some if you have like an occult bleeding issue, you know, with colorectal cancer, your your blood counts will go down, and a CBC technically should reflect that and your iron levels. Um, so they should order a CBC, that full workup, and then um a comprehensive metabolic panel to check like your cholesterol readings and to make sure your liver is functioning and all that good stuff, just functioning normally, and your kidneys as well, and then also get a good glucose reading on you first thing in the morning, make sure your sugar's okay, you're not going into the diabetic realm. Um, a lot of things that providers don't prescribe that you should maybe like ask about is insulin. They don't always order an insulin screening because glucose and insulin go hand in hand. And you want to know like if you're bordering into that pre-diabetic range, your insulin might be going up. And that's something they don't always schedule, you know, for you to go get. And then also thyroid panel. Women should really be focused on thyroid functioning as well. Um, if you live in the Northeast, like I do, the northeastern part of the country here in the United States, we don't always get good sunshine. So vitamin D level, get your B vitamins as well. Um, yeah, I think that's probably about what I'm familiar with, not being a clinician that I would recommend.
SPEAKER_01That's very helpful. And you did touch on colorectal types of screenings. And there's been a recent change where it is, I think I'm not sure if it was in in 50 or 55 prior, but now the current recommendation is 45 for that screening. What do you think is behind that change or why is this becoming something that we should be looking at sooner?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So, like I mentioned earlier, that USPSTF, the United States Tap Task Force, um, would have come together and that everything goes through that. And it's probably like a group of physicians, you could correct me on that. Um, and they come together and they kind of like make these guidelines that we would follow. And that's traditionally like what we follow right now, current state. But there's been a trend in more and more younger people getting earlier diagnoses earlier in life, some in their 30s, and some of them are even late stage. So they're finding that those the normal things they would prescribe, you know, like a normal lab workup or like that fit test, it's a stool test actually where they test if there's blood in your stool. It's not catching those early cancer diagnoses. So they've they moved that threshold. And again, that's going to be decided as well like based off of like current research findings, what people are finding in randomized controlled trials, that kind of thing, which is your gold standard for research. But yeah, with the trends happening, they they moved that down. And I'm really glad that they made that call and that judgment call to do that.
SPEAKER_01And it sounded like from some of your previous advice, trying to get your information or your body checked out sooner than later is always important. And educating this our society on trying to do screenings earlier is kind of what I think you touched on in the in the beginning of our conversation. You know, this shouldn't wait until you're in your 50s. You should be trying to see a doctor just to get preventative care as young as you can. So that's I think that was one thing that you touched on that you know I would like to bring back up. Like I think that that's a really important really important idea.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So if if you're younger to this is for the younger listeners as well like if you're a teenager you're in your 20s you're in your early 30s like really establish really good care with a primary care physician or a nurse practitioner or physician assistant, whoever you find that you know you want to work with they're amazing and they listen to you and they take in all your questions and then they order the appropriate testing. Don't just rely on urgent care when things come up because it's harder to get in with a primary care if you have an urgent thing come up like say you do have a weird abdominal pain come up urgent care doesn't always like they can't really like do as much for you as a primary care doc that's been following you for a while. So establish really good care with a clinic that you really like and then you know they can follow you over you know a longitudinal period of time. They get to know you and then they'll order all the appropriate screenings. Don't just think that like I don't have to worry about that until later on in life really establish care in your 20s, your 30s, your 40s to set you up for success in your 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, right? When we think of aging naturally we want to be able to be healthy. We want to still be able to be you know move and take a walk around our house and be able to if we drop something pick it up without like falling over you know what I mean and having good balance. And those things could get picked up really early in life and along with all your preventative screenings sooner rather than later. So don't just wait and think like oh I don't need to go see a doctor all the time you know wait until my 50s 60s and 70s. Definitely establish really good care right out of the gate. And that way like if your vitamin D levels or your thyroid level or something on your CBC looks like wonky right away, they can be like oh there's something going on and they can catch it sooner. So that's that's my recommendation just being proactive and going sooner rather than later.
SPEAKER_01Yeah that makes sense if you have a history with a doctor or even in a practice where they can look back on your past results and that's when they actually know if this is a positive or a negative change because they have the data to track. So that is good advice. Do you think from a cancer researcher or a cancer biology background do you think that cancer is on the rise or do we just know more about it?
SPEAKER_00Oh I love that question.
SPEAKER_01Was that loaded?
SPEAKER_00Loaded question so okay there's a couple pieces to this so we have better screening mechanisms okay so also getting people in for screening I feel like we've been talking about it a lot especially with all the celebrities coming out and famous people saying hey like I went for a screening and now I have breast cancer. I went for screening now I have you know colon cancer and just the media talking about it in general is pushing more people to get screened um having you know more people just having more education about it which is really helpful. So our screening mechanisms are really good but I think too the world we live in right like back in the day like our my grandparents we only drank they only drank out of glass you know what I mean now we have plastic some of our what we wear is made out of plastic and not 100% cotton. You know there's talk about you know the way our food is farmed and our agriculture you know like conventional farming versus organic farming. It's just there's so many nuances today like how we live compared to like how our grandparents grew up where things were I'll say more simplistic less ingredients, less fillers, less preservatives, less synthetic stuff and our fast-paced world, right? We're all on computers, we're stuck inside we don't have a lot of sunlight some of us have to take synthetic you know vitamins and stuff like that. So I think it's just a different way of living and a lot of us drive cars back in the 70s and 60s there was one car in the parking lot. Now there's more environmental pollution it's it's just not one thing. So like all those things combined could put you at a higher risk for cancer. And I think that's what we're we're starting to see now and and people are catching on and starting to see that happening.
SPEAKER_01So if someone is feeling healthy and they don't have any symptoms that you know we were talking about should they still seek preventative care versus reactive care? Like what would you say how to best treat cancer?
SPEAKER_00Yeah so specifically for women um I the like I said before establish good care with a primary care doc. However you're eventually going to have to see an OBGYN physician as well because they specialize in the female health and reproductive health and hormones as well and they'll be able to be able to give guidance on screenings like cervical cancer screening. Cervical cancer I noticed has been in the news lately as well you know getting screened through your OBGYN's office they'll recommend mammogram screening as well so yeah definitely have like an annual visit for OBGYN and make sure that you're getting checked through there and then having I always say like when I talk about the primary care health side whenever you have your next birthday schedule it maybe like a month out you know that way you'll qualify for whatever is coming up from the screening perspective. And it's the best gift you can give to yourself, you know, after your birthday and after you become a year older is the gift of health. So yeah I would recommend just making sure that you get on the schedule because some of these physicians and even the specialty practices six to eight months out it's hard to get in with specialty care providers. That's one thing I want folks to know and you know if you're younger like definitely make the the initiative and I know when I go to a primary care doctor visit, I actually I'm due next month. So I have to go for all my blood work. When I get there I'll say okay let's schedule it out for next year and get it on the calendar and I have no excuses. So that's what I would recommend for young folks that, you know, are they really want to step into that proactive preventative realm and not be radioactive in medicine.
SPEAKER_01So the list of doctors for women in midlife it should start with your primary care and then potentially and then obviously an OBGYN those are the two of the the doctors that you for please get on the calendar for those any other doctors I know we mentioned maybe a dermatologist anyone else that you're like please please please see these this type of care in general or is it more specific to the to the patient?
SPEAKER_00Another good one that I think of as well is an endocrinologist because they deal specifically with hormones. So um you know if you get blood work done where maybe you want that insulin reading or cortisol reading like they study all the hormones and all the glands within your body. So you're thinking like your thyroid your adrenals they're it's all hormonally based and that endocrinologist that is their specialty. So if you really want to get answers that you're not quite finding 100% like confidence in with you know OBGYN or primary care go to you know go into an endocrinologist's office and you can ask them all these questions as well because they also specialize in uh diabetic care as well and yeah that's a great one to go see if we're not getting your answers.
SPEAKER_01Wow I haven't heard that one yet so that is that's good information.
SPEAKER_00And they also deal with thyroid health as well that's another I just wanted to give a call out for that as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes yeah I I've always heard an endocrinologist for thyroid care but I didn't know about diabetic care and just you know thinking more about how all the hormones in general are under under their their blanket of expertise. Absolutely so I know in prior conversations you mentioned that you are working in a healthcare system that are helping introduce AI into this conversation to the equation of our our healthcare how is technology starting to change early detection like screenings or even misdiagnoses? Like what are we seeing in the AI world that's that's new and helpful?
SPEAKER_00Yeah so artificial intelligence is definitely like end of 2025 into 2026 like a big buzzword. How do we leverage our data and technology that we have within our electronic health record system so most large healthcare systems are on an EHR which is an electronic system where all your data lives. So every time you have a visit with a provider all that's tracked in there and that's when you get your you could even log on electronically and view your your blood work or stuff ahead of time and see like what happens that's all logged within there we can actually leverage the data within the EHR system. And if you've been with the healthcare system for a couple of years they can actually and I'm not I don't want to scare people but this is where it's the good of how we can leverage technology like say you have three generations of women that are going to the same healthcare system. The data we can use is is phenomenal because you have three generations of women that have historical records within the EHR and we can really track like family history which is amazing. And I think you know you can actually build like machine learning models to like go in and like actually take out and pull out the data and take a look at these things. And the physicians themselves are really burned out. So they're not gonna always pick up on like subtle you know changes in maybe one blood marker that happened a couple years ago. It's fascinating but a like a large language model and a machine learning model could do that and pick up on things which is really crazy. So that's our hope is to be able to maybe detect cancer earlier before it starts or autoimmune conditions and even refer folks that look high risk based off of how the model the risk stratification model deems that person high risk based off of family history and other factors. And then it would recommend hey this patient is high risk they should consider going and getting a screen because they're overdue for mammogram. So it's really cool like how these things could pick up on subtle nuances that us humans can't because we're so busy and we're seeing a wide variety of patients every day. And when I say we not me I see I say our providers that are working in the healthcare systems.
SPEAKER_01Well that's exciting stuff to use AI in that way to kind of help with where we may miss something just being a human being and just being busy. So that's that's pretty exciting. Yeah it's really awesome well if someone wants to go a little deeper into this whether maybe or with you in general maybe if they would like to follow your work or read some of your research just connect with you what's the best place for them to do that yeah so I, you know the best place would be at my Facebook and Instagram handle just at Rebecca Math.
SPEAKER_00It's just my name I put out some content on there some educational stuff about like I talk about cancer screenings and I put out fun quirky reels and I like to have fun with it and educational stuff. And also I have a TEDx talk that I put out I was invited to do a TEDx talk and that really I do a deep dive into like current state of like the cancer you know within Pennsylvania but it really gives an excellent framework for anyone that works in healthcare anyone that wants to learn about healthcare or any provider that wants to maybe consider like implementing something into their healthcare system and working with others. I I really give a framework for how we we can go about doing that. So I would recommend listening to that as well if you really want to learn more.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Well I'll be sure to put all of those links in the show notes. So if you're on the go and you like to to uh work with Rebecca in any capacity or listen to more of her information I'll make sure to put all that in the show notes.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely or if you want to collaborate just reach out yeah I'd be happy to to email you back and and see what we can do.
SPEAKER_01Well to wrap up today I thought I'd just ask you a fun question. I know we were talking about very serious stuff. So I thought something fun to finish our conversation for today. So what is one healthy habit you personally prioritize now that you didn't earlier in your life yeah I love this question.
SPEAKER_00So one thing that I wish that I knew about in graduate school because I did experience burnout back then just from the being overwhelmed I worked and I went to graduate school at the same time wouldn't recommend that but at that time I really wish that I would have would have known about mindfulness and I really practice that and I practice breath work you know like taking in three deep breaths as part of being mindful. So for instance if I'm working a very busy day with back to back meetings and I don't really have a whole lot of a break I try to in between each meeting just really ground and take those three deep breaths feel my feet on the floor I have a heart like a salt rock and I I'll hold that to kind of somatically connect and it slows down my nervous system. It slows down my thinking so I can reset for the next meeting that's coming up or the next thing that I have on my busy schedule. So mindfulness taking a gentle pause to do a couple deep breaths and maybe even like going outside to just do a loop around I work from home and do a loop around my backyard get some sunshine on my face come back in reset and then do what I need to do.
SPEAKER_01I teach yoga so I'm all about the breath yes and just from learning from you stress is not something that you should ignore and so just you know that alone knowing that alone taking on these practices of breath or calming your nervous system from a cancer biologist y'all listen up it's important. So thanks for sharing your tips. Thank you so much for well Rebecca this was so informative. I really appreciate you making a subject matter that seems very daunting a little overwhelming with easier action steps to be able to get people healthy and cared for. So thank you so much for your time today. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
SPEAKER_00Well thank you Katie for having me thank you for just you know allowing me to come on here and just talk about something that I I enjoy and I love talking about women's health.
SPEAKER_01So thank you for having me today we covered so much in this conversation today from the subtle symptoms women often overlook to evolving screening recommendations, prevention, the imperativeness of reducing your stress and the importance of paying attention to changes in the body before something becomes a bigger issue. I hope this episode leaves you feeling more informed and empowered when it comes to advocating for your health and staying proactive instead of just reactive. If you'd like to connect with Rebecca follow her work watch her TEDx talk I'll have all her social media handles and links listed in the show notes. Rebecca thank you so much for being here and for sharing your knowledge and perspective with us today. And if you enjoyed this episode make sure to follow Wellness After 40 share it with someone you love and leave a review. It really helps support the show and helps more women find these conversations for listening and until next time this is Wellness after forty