Cryopreservation is becoming a popular option among women.
In spite of becoming a growing trend among young women and, mostly, doctor approved, a study has shown that frozen eggs result in fewer IVF pregnancies, and should be considered by future mothers. There are a lot of advantages boasted about the process of cryopreservation of eggs, such as convenience, which has reportedly become an important option for many women.
Certain studies have even suggested that popular contraception methods might at some point become obsolete as a good majority of women could someday opt for freezing their eggs and then choose sterilization to avoid the common complications of birth control pills, implants or possible accidents of unwanted pregnancies. However, that is a long way away. At least it seems so.
Some companies, such as Google and Apple, are now paying for their female employees to undergo the procedure, so they may go forth full-force within their careers without a worry that they might one day realize they missed out on the proper chance of having a child due to advancing in their age. It provides most with a helpful option of building a strong career without potentially sacrificing another aspect of their life.
However, a new study has shown that it may not be the best choice for all women, proving a slight difference in success rates between using their own cryopreserved eggs or fresh eggs in IVF (in vitro fertilization), though the contrast may not be stark enough to eliminate it as a possibility. The researchers gathered data from 380 fertility clinics and reported their findings.
Among the 11,148 IVF cycles with donated eggs, 2,227 of women used frozen eggs and the live birth rate was reported at 43.2% among them. The percentage was a bit higher for women who had chosen embryos created from fresh eggs, at 49.6%, which means the process does affect the number of pregnancies, though not yet discovered why.
It has been suggested that cryopreservation affects the quality of an egg due to the freezing and then thawing required before being used in IVF, resulting in a smaller chances of success, according to lead author Dr. Vitaly Kushnir. No matter the age, there is a small risk associated with choosing to freeze eggs.
It’s still the best option for women who would undergo chemotherapy treatment for cancer or other procedures that will effectively lower their chances of having children in the future or destroy their ovarian reserve.
However, future mothers are now warned that there is a bit smaller percentage of success if their reasoning is of a more social nature, such as work, time, financial situation or a matter of convenience.
Image source: nrmvt.com
Hospital cleaning has not been properly studied in regards to patient outcome.
A major issue, affecting patients, doctors and the health care system is vastly overlooked, considering hospital room cleanliness is highly under-researched and infections can spread without a proper solution. There is no vast study on the proper procedures of keeping a hospital room as hygienic as possible, though of course, all practice their own methods.
However, it’s often a place where a sickly patient might linger in a state of vulnerability, weakness and, in some cases, when their immune system is compromised to bacterial infections. In spite of it, there is a staggeringly low number of studies on the subject and no official guidelines on what product or manner is best for maintaining a good state of cleanliness in hospital rooms.
The study led by Craig A. Umsched, MD, and Jennifer Han, MD, at the University of Pennsylvania has uncovered that there is very little evidence to support one product, method or precaution over the other when regarding the general hygiene of a patient’s hospital room, which might deem them vulnerable to diseases even surrounded by doctors and nurses.
Out of the 80 studies published between the years 1998 and 2014, over 65% were centered around before-and-after contamination of surfaces within a room, focusing primarily on bacterial counts and colonies, and only 35% focused on the outcome upon the patient’s health and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), in spite of worrying numbers.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 721,000 HAIs are reported every year, following in 75,000 deaths due to unhygienic and neglected surfaces of hospital rooms that allowed for contamination. Most studies focused on the floor and possible ways to make sure it’s clean to the smallest speck of dust eradicated, but counters, trays, bed bars, IVs, chairs and everything else is also a possible home to a bacterial colony.
A worrying 1 in 25 hospital patients have been reported to contract an infection while still in the hospital.
The study has discovered that Clostridium difficile (C. difficile, or C. “diff”) is the most common cause of HAIs, which is a worryingly frequent bacteria contracted by patients on antibiotics. In 2011, C. difficile caused nearly 500,000 infections only in the United States.
It is one of the leading causes of hospital infections along with MRSA and VRE, but only 6% of the 3,000 hospitals examined had proper means of controlling rates of infections.
The issue is blamed less on the quality of the studies and more on the ill-targeted subjects and parameters, as previous research has delved into specific products and general decontamination of hospital rooms, instead of assessing what should be the main purpose of HAIs rates upon patients.
Future investigations have been stated to need establishing definitive, concrete and beneficial benchmarks for cleanliness that are centered around the patient, by using appropriate products that have been proven to drop the rate of hospital-acquired infections. Otherwise, it cannot be discounted why families panic and or question the growing number of lawsuits.
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The Southern diet increases the chances of heart disease by 56%.
Studies have published it, doctors have recommended against it, and now, researchers at the University of Alabama have further confirmed that the southern-style diet is hazardous for your heart. There is no surprise, and the lead author of the study would admit it himself.
However, the magnitude of the problem has been brought to light, along with several findings that are just as worrying. Coronary heart disease claims the lives of 350,000 people each year only in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps insisting that a proper diet and regular workout, along with avoiding harmful habits could prevent cardiovascular problems.
In spite of the American Heart Association claiming that the numbers of casualties due to heart problems are dropping, there still seems to be a need for Americans to be warned that certain diets can increase the chance of premature death.
Researchers polled 17,000 people of 45 years old or over, who had never experienced heart problems, about their dietary patterns. The study included follow-ups every six months for six years, inquired by telephone what they eat, how often and general details about their food pallet.
They were split into five categories: “the Southern-style eaters”, meaning those who indulge in sugary drinks and fried foods, cooked with oil and rich in fat (fried chicken, bacon, eggs, processed meat), “Convenience food eaters” such as those who base their diet on take-out food like Chinese, Mexican, pizza or pasta, “the Sweets pattern” as those who often add sugar or other sweeteners to their food, “Plant-based” for those who frequently eat vegetables, cereal and fruits, and lastly, the “Alcohol and Salad group”, who often accompany leafy vegetables with beer or wine.
Without a doubt and across all demographic factors such as age, race, gender, weight, it was observed that those within the Southern-style diet had a 56% increase of experiencing a coronary episode. In fact, participants showed a likelihood of suffering of 37% more than the others after only six years, and 536 of heart attacks ended in death.
Researcher James Shikany of the University of Alabama, recommends that people make a gradual change to their diets, very slowly weaning off the more appealing comfort foods or, at the very least, reduce their frequency.
What was more interesting, according to Shikany, was that plant-based diet lacked the protective effect, in spite of being boasted as the healthiest. It means that while a diet based on vegetables is healthier, the study has uncovered that it’s certainly not defending the eater from any future heart problems. There are far more requirements than a vegetarian diet to keep healthy.
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Proper alimentation during pregnancy might increase your child’s IQ.
A new study has concluded that, for pregnant or breastfeeding women, taking a supplement of iodine might boost your unborn baby’s IQ and improve both their lives and the nationwide economy. A small amount of iodine has been found to provide a seemingly meaningless increase in the IQ, but that slight difference is quite far from insignificant.
Around 1.9 billion people and 241 million school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old live in the 32 countries that are considered to nationally suffer from iodine deficiency. A small supplementation could result in millions more for the country’s yearly economy and greater earning potential for your child’s adult life.
According to the study’s co-author, Kate Jolly, a Public Health professor at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, iodine deficiency is still, to this day, the main cause of worldwide preventable retardation.
Even a mild shortage is found in well developed nations, such as the UK, where a slight increase could save the National Health Service (NHS) quite a lot due to a person’s increase in lifetime earnings and lowering the public sector costs.
Iodine is not naturally produced by the body, but an adequate level can be achieved by the consumption of a well balanced diet rich in dairy or seafood. However, many countries have seen a decline in sales for the first and not all have access or an attuned food pallet for the second. It has led to a widely spread unfortunate phenomenon where people have lowered their iodine intake, which effectively affects their economy.
Supplements could be the answer and it has been converted to IQ points in order to properly see the enhancement in a child’s development. During pregnancy or breastfeeding, an intake of iodine supplements could increase the baby’s IQ by 1.22 points, which has been further converted into monetary benefits.
It would increase the economy of the NHS with around £200 per expectant mother and later on by almost £4,500 per baby during their lifetime, due to the extra point that would increase the child’s academic potential and lifetime earnings. Given that there are approximately 700,000 births per year only in England and Wales, it could benefit the NHS with £140 in just one year, and £3.15 billion to UK’s economy.
According to the study’s author, food alone might be enough to provide the necessary amount, so it’s advised for soon-to-be mothers or women with young infants in iodine deficient countries to enhance their intake with supplements.
It might serve the country’s economy, but it could also improve the quality of their child’s life, which is the high point for any expecting parent.
Image source: nineentertainment.com.au
The newly repainted house looks no more like someone should “burn it down.”
In a heartwarming turn of events, a railroad worker repainted a house with 100 volunteers he had gathered through a post on his social media. The elderly couple inhabiting the house couldn’t be happier as the whole community came together in their time of need.
Oregonian man from Pendleton, Leonard Bullock, had been living in the house since 1982. In 1995, he had to retire from his job as a fork lift driver. Next, in 2000, he met Dorothy, the woman who would be his third wife. They were a perfect match, as she also had been previously married twice. Since then, they have been living together in the house that was slowly decaying.
Insurance repeatedly had refused to take in their house because of its decrepit state. Their pensions, his from Social Security, were much too low and did not allow them to refurbish it so that it could look better and get insured.
Josh Cyganik had been passing by the elderly couple’s house for four long years. Each time he did, he waved to the man who would usually sit on his porch and watch the road. One day not so long ago, Josh was going to his usual job at the Union Pacific, just across the road from the house.
As Josh says in his Facebook post, which gathered a whopping 6,251 shares, he heard two teenagers passing right by the front porch saying that the house was “crappy” and that it should be burned down. Josh immediately thought he should intervene, as he though Bullock had heard them (he did not, though later he was shock when it was told to him).
As Josh confessed later, he thought it was now a matter of respect. So what he did was he went to the local lumber store, Tum-A-Lum, and asked the manager there if he would be willing to help.
Sure enough, Tum-A-Lum donated the paint needed to repaint the house, and at 8 AM on Saturday, about 20 volunteers gathered in front of the Bullocks’ house. Josh had previously told Bullock that he wanted to help and that he would ask for volunteers. The overwhelming turnout numbered at some point 100 men and women. Each of them gave as they could: a hand of paint, a few garden tools, while another group of men decided to refurbish the man’s also decaying porch.
The local Starbucks even donated six gallons of water and ice tea. That is how you do a publicity stunt!
Now everyone is happy in Pendleton and Tum-A-Lum teamed up with a few men and plan on building the man a back porch!
Image source: Facebook: Josh Cyganik
If you’ve been drinking, don’t reach for the keys, reach for your phone and call a cab.
The CDC has released a worrying report: 4 million drunk drivers are loose on the streets of the US. And that’s just an approximate number that stands for all buy five states, as the survey could not gather enough data to make a nation-wide statistic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released the analysis results of the data gathered by a 2012 survey which asked respondents if they had been drinking in the past month, how many times it had happened before they went for a drive, and how many times did they think that their drinking was over the limit.
The results are sobering, to say the least. Almost 2 percent of all American adults – exactly 4.2 million, said that yes, they had been driving under the influence in the month prior to the survey. This turnout is more than worrying and should raise an alarm sign for the road safety authorities as well as for those who are making the decisions whether to drive or get a taxi.
According to the CDC report, about one third of the death from traffic accidents have been caused by drivers who irresponsibly went amok on the road while having drunk insanely more than the legal limit of 0.08%. Moreover, many of the respondents said that besides driving under the influence of alcohol, they also practice binge drinking, a practice that besides being bad for those around them, is also bad for their health.
Scot Karkower, a doctor specializing in alcohol excesses and treating people with drinking problems has indirectly blamed the social stigma that pushes down on drunkards. These people are just having problems, problems that could be treated by doctors. He further encourages them to seek help, despite the social opinion on them. Oftentimes those who drink will only be pushed towards more abuse by the demeaning eyes of those around them.
Almost a third of the people who said they did drink and drive and that they did binge drink were young men between the ages of 21 and 34. And 80% of all incidents of driving while drunk are attributed to men. The most worrying area because of drunk drivers is said to be Hawaii, where there were 995 instances of DUI for every 1,000 people.
Still, the agency was not able to gather results from Alaska, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and West Virginia, so there could be much more drunk drivers out there.
Image source: mirror.co.uk
Long-term effects of tattoos may be cancer and organ toxicity.
It’s a long-standing practice and, yet, 5,000 years later, tattoos’ effects are still unknown on human health by the majority of the population. The short-term occurrences are widely varied and described by many who have decided to decorate their bodies with ink, but the long-term effects are not as easily observed.
Recently, a few choice brands of tattoo ink have been pulled from the market, due to the risk of contamination, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is concerned that the products may still be used by various tattoo artists around the world. Both customers and artists are urged to look carefully at what kind of ink they use, because the problems might be lurking inside.
Just one bad batch of tattoo ink can cause an outbreak of skin infections, and it has several times along the years. The short-term effects of rashes and itchiness are known, along with the possibility of infections ranging from mild to severe.
In fact, the FDA have uncovered unopened bottles of tattoo ink that contained Mycobacterium chelonae, that might’ve caused bacterial infection if it had been indeed used, with symptoms such as red, purple or pink blemishes scattered around the body art, along with itching and swelling. So, people who choose that particular form of self-expression should pay a visit to the doctor if symptoms occur.
However, while around 120 million people today have tattoos, there is still a worldwide ignorance when it comes to the possible long-term effects. It has become a trend, but not one with all the information laid out for viewing. Some of the possibilities, besides skin infections, can be cancer or organ toxicity due to lingering ink in the body.
Dr. Andreas Luch, senior author of the study at German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment states that “nobody is talking about the side effects of ink deposits.”. While modern tattoo inks are mostly made of organic chemicals, it is injected into living tissue, with blood vessels, nerves and cells that allow for it to be carried through the rest of the body.
Few people question that when using laser tattoo removal, where the ink even goes. It is absorbed and travels to the body, possibly leading to dangerous long-term side effects as some inks might even contain dangerous substances, such as arsenic, nickel and lead.
The general population is left in the dark where it concerned these possibly consequences of ink-based body art and, with the trend rising, all should pay attention to what they inject onto their skin, because it may not affect just the surface.
Image source: thecollectiveint.com
Cancer patients in England are not getting the care they desperately need.
A new study has uncovered that England has the lowest cancer survival rates compared to other western countries that were reported in the study. These results are worrying and raise important questions over the efficiency of the NHS in combating and preventing cancer.
Recent studies show that one in two people is affected by a type of cancer in his or her life. To this extent the NHS has upped the efforts to battle the scariest disease of them all. But, it seems, effects will take some time to be seen.
The newest study conducted by Cancer Research UK shows that, out of a total of six countries, England is the worst off when it comes to the survival rates of cancer patients, and in some cases the difference in percentage with the highest rates is 12%.
The study looked at six different types of cancer – stomach cancer, colon cancer, rectum cancer, lung cancer, as well as ovarian cancer. For all but one of these types of cancer, England had by far the lowest rates of survival. The five other countries involved in the research were Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
The reason for these results, the experts say, is the poor care that the patients the UK receive. Still, there are signs of improvement over the last surveys of this kind.
This particular one looked at four million patients who had been diagnosed with cancer in the six countries, and monitored their conditions over fifteen years. This comes to rule out the possibility that the results only reflect the reality over a short period of time. They do not. It’s been so for 15 long years, between 1995 and 2009.
It is indeed possible that this is why the NHS has decided to take a more stalwart stance against this deadly disease.
The survival rate encompasses those who have been diagnosed with one form of the affection or the other, and manage to survive it for at least five years. In England, patients diagnosed between 2005 and 2009 had between 5 and 12 percent chance of survival over five years.
Another finding of the study is that not only is cancer treated poorly in the whole country, it’s treated better in London than in provincial areas. The research center warns that this should not be the case and raises the question of healthcare equality.
The best results overall were shown in Australia and Sweden, while Canada and Norway both fared well in Lung and Rectum cancer respectively. Surprisingly, Denmark was second last after England, and in the Stomach Cancer results it took the last place. Unfortunately, this study did not analyze any cases from the US.
Image source: wikimedia.org
Sam and Nia have two children and a third one on the way.
Shortly after it was first published on early Thursday morning, first video of husband announcing his wife’s pregnancy becomes Internet sensation. The online video has been viewed by Internet users all over the world praising Sam for being the first man to make a pregnancy announcement to his wife in the history of all marriages.
In a normal scenario, the wife drops the good news on her husband letting him know that he was going to be a father. Sam Paul, the father of two, wanted to do things differently. His wife notified him that she was 14 days late, but she was, nonetheless, not sure about the final outcome because she did not take a pregnancy test.
Too eager to wait any longer, Sam conceived an unbeatable plan to be the first to find out if his wife is pregnant or not. Long before his wife did, too. According to the video he posted on his official YouTube channel wife Nia has a habit of going to the toilet late at night and not flushing so she would not wake her two children up.
Sam used this opportunity to collect a specimen and take the pregnancy test for his wife. He filmed the whole process explaining the whole story behind the video and what his future plans were. Sam filmed all the moments as the pregnancy test displayed the two lines indicating a new pregnancy.
As expected, the husband’s enthusiasm skyrocketed, but he, nevertheless, managed to refrain himself and to wait until the next day to let his wife know the great news. The video introduces Nia next, while she is having breakfast with her two young girls. Husband Sam makes ironic jokes inviting Nia to a glass of wine and then letting her know that she is not allowed to drink wine.
Nia does not pay attention to him and repeatedly tells him that she is not sure she is pregnant. Sam takes the pregnancy test out of the pocket and explains Nia how he found out that she was expecting another baby. Nia was incredibly happy to hear the great news and to be the first woman to hear such an announcement, we might add.
Don’t forget to click on the video below to see Nia’s reaction when her husband lets her know she is expecting a baby.
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Women should opt for a fiber-based diet, especially if in their postmenopausal years.
Based on the findings of a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, refined carbs could be linked to women’s postmenopausal depression. Researchers concluded that the carbohydrates that women consume determine significant changes in the glycemic index of women causing them to feel depressed during menopause.
Nutrition experts at the Columbia University Medical Center have conducted a long analysis of the medical records that were registered in the past for many female patients. The research included the data collected in the period between 1994 and 1998 for Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study.
The medical records that have been subjected to a new examination amounted to 70,000. The corresponding female respondents have been chosen for this particular research because they have all reached their postmenopausal age and scientists wanted to establish whether certain activities could influence their behavior or not.
Based on the results they have registered, nutrition experts have reached the conclusion that carbohydrates consumption plays a significant role in the moods that postmenopausal women experience. The more refined carbs the respondents consumed, the bigger the chances were for them to feel tired, depressed and sad.
Women have to adopt a balanced diet once they have reached their post menopause, was researchers’ conclusion. In their opinion, a healthy diet has to take into consideration the glycemic index (GI) of the patient and the types of carbs she consumes. In addition, possible mental affections that the woman may be suffering from enable researchers to determine whether the patient will suffer from depression or not.
Refined carbohydrates have always been associated with many health and weight problems. It appears that it also influences a woman’s psychic by triggering fluctuations in the blood glucose levels. Depression has usually been noticed in women with very low blood glucose levels, who also consume refined carbohydrates, according to the new discovery that scientists have made.
Researchers recommend women to avoid products that are rich in carbs, such as, grain-based aliments. Instead, women should opt for a fiber-rich diet from vegetables, non-juice fruits and whole grains.
Although the study has been already acknowledged by most nutrition experts, experts think additional researches must be conducted to prove the validity of the experiment.
Image source: www.medaus.com