Editor’s letter: March/April Healthy

Healthy Sampler

Healthy has always taken a certain pride in covering the health issues other women’s glossy magazines don’t.

Conditions not deemed sexy or positive enough to appear in glamorous monthly magazines will score a double-page feature inside these pages. Our overarching philosophy is – if it’s part of your body, or has an impact on your health, and you want to know about it – then, we will write about it, embarrassment-free.

And this issue we decided to fully embrace that editorial stance with a total ‘taboo takeover’. In one of our most no-holds-barred editorial meetings ever, the team debated – over herbal teas and some healthy fruit and nut-based snacks (obviously) – which under-represented health topics we felt were most in need of some expert attention.

So, hello stress incontinence (p48) – a common problem which affects millions of women, but we bet you haven’t discussed it with your GP. Also, death (p55) – a natural part of life, but how many of us feel con dent that we know how to talk about it, particularly to someone who is dying? Sweating, haemorrhoids, dodgy teeth and bad breath also made it in.

As we continued our meeting, it became clear many of the issues we wished were more openly discussed came under the beauty banner – so we extended our taboo takeover into our Glow section. The female body has long been a battle ground and currently there’s a war raging over our body hair – see our feature, page 82, for a thought-provoking read.

In essence, we don’t think any health issue should be off limits. Hopefully by including them here, we’re helping, in some small way, to break the taboos around discussing them.

As always, do let us know what you think (and let us know if we’ve missed out any taboo subjects)!