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Some people are lucky. They binge on pizzas, burgers, ice creams, fries and chocolates, but dont seem to add an inch to their waistlines. And we wonder why they never put on weight. Its genetics, they say. True, their genes gives them high metabolism.

Thats only partly the truth. The other part is perception. We only see them wolf down high-calorie food, but we dont know what they do during the rest of the day. Maybe they have only one or two meals a day so that the calorie intake evens out. They could have an active lifestyle to burn the calories: they may be playing a sport regularly or at least going for long walks.

People with certain health conditions like hyperthyroidism and diabetes dont pile on the pounds. Eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia too can prevent people from gaining weight. So weight management is more than just genetics and portion control.

Weight gain and weight loss: What science says

Genetics: Does it decide your body weight?

Genetics plays a major role in managing body weight since it influences metabolic rate and hormone sensitivity, allowing some people to burn calories faster than others. It also may make them less sensitive to food cues, making it easy for them to resist cravings. But genetics is not the only reason why some people stay slim no matter what they eat.

There's no evidence that some people are born to burn more calories than others, Dr Ines Barroso, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in England, says, although researchers have identified over 250 different regions of DNA associated with obesity. In a 2019 study published in PLOS Genetics, thin participants were found to have fewer genes associated with obesity. But Barroso, a co-author on the study, says genes alone don't determine your weight. "We didn't find genes that were exclusively either protecting from obesity or predisposing someone to obesity.

Kathleen Melanson, a professor of nutrition and food sciences at the University of Rhode Island, US, concurs. Our tendency to gain weight or maintain our weight isn't pre-determined, but it's also not entirely under our control. There's genetic, nutritional, and even behavioral factors involved," she told Live Science.

Starvation hormone: How does it work?

Leptin is a hormone that helps in regulating appetite. People with higher leptin sensitivity tend to control cravings better. An absence of leptin or leptin resistance [when the body doesnt respond to the brain signals.] can lead to uncontrolled feeding and weight gain. So people with leptin deficiency can be obese.

Known as starvation hormone, leptin is a protein that tells the brain if theres enough energy stored in fat cells to carry out normal metabolic processes required to maintain the body. When leptin levels are above a certain threshold [higher sensitivity], the body burns energy at a normal rate, but when it dips, the body conserves energy and stimulates hunger pangs.

The thinness gene

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a gene called Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) which they say plays a role in resisting weight gain. Dr. Josef Penninger and his team reported the discovery of a mutation in the ALK gene in a thin group of people in a study published in the journal Cell.

The gene is known to mutate frequently in several types of cancer, driving the development of tumours. ALK acts in the brain, where it regulates metabolism by integrating and controlling energy expenditure, says Michael Orthofer, the studys lead author and a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Molecular Biology in Vienna.

Digestive enzyme: How it regulates body fat

MGAT2 (monoacylglycerol acyltransferase-2) is a digestive enzyme that regulates fat in the body. So if the enzyme is absent and the body will be unable to use fat, helping them to stay thin. Scientists at the University of California in San Francisco found that mice without the gene for MGAT2 can eat whatever they want without getting fat. The results suggest that the enzyme has a pivotal role in lipid metabolism in the small intestine, and curbing MGAT2 can help in the treatment of obesity-related metabolic disorders, according to a journal published by the US National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine.

Basal metabolic rate: How it influences calorie spend

Basal metabolic rate is the minimal rate of energy burned per unit time by the body when its at rest. This energy is spent on normal metabolic processes like breathing, pumping of the heart, and functioning of brain. So people with high basal metabolic rate expend more calories at rest and they dont gain weight easily. The rate decreases as a person grows older and it increases when theres a spike in muscle mass.

Food choices: How it affects body weight

Weight gain is intrinsically linked to the quantity and quality of food consumed. If people eat large quantities of food thats less nutritious and low in calories, they wont gain weight. High sugar and highly processed food will have alarming levels of calories that will increase a persons weight. So the right amount of nutritious food is the key.

Physical activity: Why its important

An active lifestyle makes a huge difference. You dont have to hit the gym regularly, moving around a lot is good enough. Some people are predisposed to moving more and that extra movement can burn a lot of calories even though its not a workout. Even non-conventional exercises results in calorie burn over an extended period.

Non- conventional exercises: What are they?

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is an efficient way to manage body weight. NEAT constitutes body movements that do not qualify as exercise but can help expend calories. Walking around while talking over the phone, any kind of physical labour like cooking or cleaning, walking a dog, using a standing desk, climbing stairs, and fidgeting are some of them. It's also called non-exercise physical activity (NEPA). NEAT increases the metabolic rate, leading to a substantial energy loss over a long period.

Appetite regulatory system: How food intake is regulated

The nervous system and hormones in the blood interact to signal when a person is hungry or full. This is called the appetite regulatory system. When energy stores in the body are depleted, a stimulus for appetite will trigger the start of feeding, and its counterbalanced by satiety, the opposite stimulus to stop eating.

Sleep: Why its very important

The hormone cortisol plays a vital role in regulating hunger. So sleep deprivation sleep leads to stimulation of cortisol resulting in weight gain.

Skinny fat: The dangers that lie beneath

Skinny fat is medically known as metabolically obese but within a normal weight range for the height. Its a phrase used to describe people who look fit and healthy, but suffer from a range of health problems due to a lack of exercise or poor diet. These people can have the same diagnostic markers of diabetic patients like high blood sugar, low good cholesterol, high triglycerides, inflammation, and high blood pressure. They can also have vitamin deficiencies, resulting in fatigue and poor levels of concentration.

Underweight: Its as dangerous as obesity

If a persons BMI is below 18.5, he or she is said to be underweight. That body mass is not enough to sustain optimal health. According to studies quoted by Healthline, being underweight can raise the risk of early death in men by 140 per cent in men, and by 100 per cent in women. It can also decrease immunity, increase chances of infections, osteoporosis and fractures, besides causing fertility problems.

Eating disorders prevent weight gain and impact health

Eating disorders are medical conditions that adversely impact health. An excessive focus on body weight results in dangerous eating behaviours that deprive body of nutrition. This can affect the heart, digestive system and other organs, and trigger major diseases. The most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

Anorexia nervosa

People suffering from anorexia nervosa have an excessive fear of gaining weight, even if they are severely underweight. So they may restrict their food intake or compensate it through various purging behaviours like forced vomiting or use of laxatives. Some others exercise obsessively to shed weight. Over time, the body may go into starvation and they could slip into depression.

Bulimia nervosa

This binge-eating disorder can go unnoticed as the patients may not be thin. These people eat frequently, gorging a huge amount of food high in calories without even tasting it. They feel out of control. Stomach pains and the fear of weight gain force them to vomit, use laxatives or exercise excessively. The frequency of such bouts are alarming.

Binge-eating disorder

Its similar to bulimia as patients consume huge amounts of high-calorie food in a short period. The crucial difference is that people with binge eating disorder do not employ purging behaviours to compensate for their binges.

Restrictive food intake

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) causes people to eat very less due to a lack of interest in food or an intense distaste for certain foods. This can lead insufficient calorie intake and the lack of nutrition could result in poor development of the body in youngsters.

How some health conditions affect body weight?

Weight loss can be a sign of illness. Some health conditions like hyperthyroidism and diabetes can cause unintentional weight loss. It could also be triggered by cancer, depression, certain infections, bowel diseases among many other ailments.

Hyperthyroidism

Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland produces excessive thyroxine (a hormone). Mostly seen in women, an overactive thyroid accelerates body's metabolism, causing unintentional weight loss and a rapid or irregular heartbeat, according to Mayo Clinic.

Diabetes

In people with diabetes, the body fails to produce enough insulin to process the sugar in the bloodstream. So, the body starts burning fat and muscle for energy, causing a reduction in overall body weight.

Real life stories: How some people continue to remain thin

Samir Salama: Food and lifestyle have helped me stay slim

I have always had a body mass index (BMI) of less than 20. [BMI is weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres. A BMI of 18.5 24.9 is considered normal or healthy]. I am in good health, and have no medical conditions or eating disorders. My lifestyle plays a major role [in maintaining my weight], Samir Salama, Gulf News Associate Editor based in Abu Dhabi, says.

Genetics does play an important role in determining the body weight. My parents and siblings too are like me. They too dont gain weight easily.

- Samir Salama

Besides genetics, there are other things too. To stay in shape, one has to exercise. It doesnt have to be strenuous activity. When I was young, I used to walk to and from school 15kms a day, and enjoyed working in the field with my grandfather in Egypt. I have been eating a lot of herbs, which we grew ourselves, and many meals are eaten outdoors, or in the fields.

So when I moved to the UAE, I increased the fibre in my diet, which helps make me feel full and is beneficial to the microbiome in the gut. It has an impact on body weight too. In the UAE, my outdoor activities are not the same [as in Egypt]. I dont have the luxury of a garden, but I always get outside and move quite a bit (non-conventional exercise), which is very important. My daily fluid intake has been increased to at least three litres. I also ensure that I get enough sleep, which can impact appetite and metabolism.

I believe sustainable weight loss is a marathon not a sprint. It doesnt do any good if you lose 20kg, then gain it six months later. A good food regimen should be for life, and parents should recommend it to their children.

Mohammad Al Jashi: I tried to put on weight, and failed

People have always been in awe of my metabolism. No matter how much I eat, I can never gain weight, Mohammad Al Jashi, a freelance writer based in Toronto, Canada, says.

I was always fascinated by how quickly my friends put on weight. They end up adopting a stringent dietary regime of salads and no carbohydrates, something I could never wrap my head around since potatoes (crisps) and rice are a daily staples of my nourishment.

- Mohammad Al Jashi

At 57kg, Im very conscious about my lanky physique. I have tried to put on weight. There is one attempt that sticks out in particular: My skinny cousin suggested an appetite stimulant that worked wonders. I became hungry always and my portions grew even larger in size. I still remember how famished I used to be in the morning, to the extent that I would prepare my breakfast before even considering washing my face. It felt like my appetite could never be sated.

I would eat around five to six meals a day for over three months, resulting in the addition of 5.5kg. It was infuriating, because eating became a chore, and meals were no longer enjoyable as it became a means to tamp down the painful rumblings of my tummy.

Then Ramadan rolled along. Once it was over, I hopped onto the scale to find out that I lost my record gain of 5.5kgs. I realised that this is something beyond my control.

To me, gaining weight is difficult, but for my friends weight loss is a commitment that requires plenty of self-control and discipline.

Staying healthy: What the experts say

Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary, Senior Reporter

While most of us are huffing and puffing on the treadmill, counting calories and resisting our favourite foods, we have some people seem to have their cake and eat it too. In other words, these people not only eat well, but they also dont need to watch the scales. How do they achieve this impossible feat?

Gulf News spoke to a nutritionist, a gastrointestinal specialist and weight loss expert to learn what revs our metabolism. They pin it down to three main factors: behavioural patterns, sound nutrition and genetics.

Dr Fiona Cowie, Weight loss expert

Dr Fiona Cowie, an aesthetician with a certification in advanced weight loss management at the Dermalase Clinic, Jumeirah, Dubai, said weight loss and super-charged metabolism in many people could be due to NEAT. This is Non-Exercise Activity Related Thermogenesis. Some people may not be going to the gym but have an active lifestyle. From cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids, pacing in the office to even fidgeting with a pen, their activity levels can be high, leading to a constant calorie burn. It is estimated that NEAT can boost metabolism up to 50 per cent. Many people might go to the gym but overall follow a sedentary lifestyle.

Two other significant factors are sleep and eating pattern. Our nervous system and our hormones together work in tandem to create an appetite regulatory system. When people dont have good eight hours of sleep at night, it triggers cortisol release because of the stress. This activates the hunger hormone leptin, and they tend to snack a lot and put on weight. Others just have a huge appetite and tend to eat even when they are not hungry. Those with great metabolism are those who sleep well and eat only when hungry, Dr Cowie added.

Mitun De Sarkar, Clinical dietician

Mitun De Sarkar, a clinical dietician with Simply Healthy, Dubai, attributed to the slender physique of some people to mindful eating. While we might see many people eating heavy food, we are not privy to their total eating pattern. These people are likely to balance out their calories for the day. Therefore, even if you saw them eating and drinking at one particular time, they might be eating a light dinner or completely cutting out on snacking. This is behavioural. They are mindful of this behaviour and know how to compensate off the excess calories later.

According to Dr Rajesh Nambiar, specialist gastrointestinal (GI) surgeon from the International Modern Hospital, Dubai, some people are blessed with a good Basal Metabolism Rate (BMR), which helps them burn calories at a faster rate without activity. Of course, BMR can change according to ones lifestyle. However, it is a proven fact that a higher BMR can boost metabolism by up to 15 per cent.

Dr Rajesh Nambiar, Specialist gastrointestinal surgeon

The length of the gut matters a lot. The small intestine is the site where nutrition from food gets assimilated. The small intestine length can vary from 120-180 cm and in taller people; it is usually longer compared to those who are shorter. Taller people tend to have more lean muscle mass and better BMR that allows them to eat and also burn calories faster, Dr Nambiar added.

Other factors that can provide a robust metabolism is regular physical exercise and an active lifestyle. Physical activity, in general, can make a big difference. People who are up and about, always on the move, not necessarily gym freaks but with an active job or new mums chasing their toddlers and busy with household chores, are able to keep their weight off even while snacking around. All these movements rev up the metabolism, increasing the number and activity of mitochondria in the cells. More the mitochondria in your muscles higher the basal metabolic rate of your body, De Sarkar said.

But big eaters who are skinny must check their body composition. If the analysis reveals a higher body fat percentage, high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, it is advisable to cut back on incessant eating and watch what they eat to avoid serious health repercussions, De Sarkar added.

10 tips to manage your weight

Dona Cherian, Assistant Online Editor

Farah Hillou, Integrative and functional nutritionist

Farah Hillou (MS, RD, IFNCP), Integrative and Functional Nutritionist at Chiron Clinic in Dubai gave Gulf News her top ten tips to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

1. Restrict the eating window

Practise time-restricted feeding for at least 14 hours a day. Research has shown that practising time restricted feeding and intermittent fasting can help reduce inflammation, control blood cholesterol and insulin levels, promote autophagy, boost brain health, and help maintain a healthy weight. For instance, dinner can be at 7pm while breakfast the next day is around 9am.

2. Limit snacking

Not only does this prevent grazing and taking in more foods than necessary, but it supports the MMC (migrating motor complex) which optimises digestion.

3. What you eat is crucial

Fill up half of your plates with nutrient-dense, high fibre, colourful vegetables. Include greens like spinach, kale and arugula, as well as cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Add vegetables to your smoothies, soups, and stews.

4. Satiety with proteins and fats

Include protein and/or healthy fats at every meal. This can help with satiety (feeling full) and promotes blood sugar balance. Protein foods include meat, fish, beans, lentils and quinoa while healthy fats include nuts, seeds and avocado.

Avoid foods high in sugar such as cakes, cookies and pastries. Excess sugar can be stored as excess body fat.

5. Support your gut

Studies have shown that an imbalance in gut microbes can stimulate weight gain over time. Add 1 tablespoon of probiotic-rich fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and kimchi to your meals every day. Moreover, eat prebiotic foods such as garlic and onions to boost healthy gut microbes.

6. Mindful eating

Practise mindful eating by starting with three deep breaths before eating, chewing slowly, and placing your fork down between every few bites. Apply the Japanese proverb Hara Hachi Bu: eat until you are 80 per cent full.

7. Read the labels

Refer to the nutrition facts table and the ingredient list whenever your purchase any packaged foods. Ingredients are listed in order of weight, let go of anything with ingredients you cannot pronounce, and those that have sugar listed in the top few ingredients.

8. Meal planning to deal with cravings

Plan your meals ahead of time and batch cook on weekends. Sudden hunger pangs can have you reach out for anything in sight.

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Why some people never gain weight | Health Gulf News - Gulf News

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ByThe Associated Press

December 1, 2020, 5:17 PM

2 min read

LONDON -- Britains High Court ruled Tuesday that children under 16 years old who are considering gender reassignment are unlikely to be able to give informed consent to medical treatment involving drugs that delay puberty.

The ruling said that because of the experimental nature of the drugs, clinics should seek court authorization before starting such treatment, even in cases of teens aged 16 or over.

The case was brought by two claimants against a National Health Service trust that runs the U.K.s main gender identity development service for children. One of the claimants, who was prescribed hormone blockers at 16, argued that the clinic should have challenged her more over her decision to transition to a male.

Tuesdays ruling will protect vulnerable young people, said Keira Bell, who is now 23 and has stopped taking cross-sex hormones. She added that she was delighted to see that common sense has prevailed.

I wish (the judgement) had been made before I embarked on the devastating experiment of puberty blockers. My life would be very different today, she said outside the court.

Hormone blockers are drugs that can pause the development of puberty, and are sometimes prescribed to help children with gender dysphoria by giving them more time to consider their options.

Lawyers for Bell and the other claimant the mother of a 15-year-old autistic girl on the waiting list for treatment said that children going through puberty are not capable of properly understanding the nature and effects of hormone blockers.

They argued that children who start taking hormone blockers are highly likely to later take cross-sex hormones, which they say cause irreversible changes.

Health officials involved in the case argued that taking hormone blockers and later cross-sex hormones were entirely separate stages of treatment.

But on Tuesday, three judges ruled that children under 16 are unlikely to understand and weigh both the immediate and long-term consequences of the treatment to be able to consent to the use of puberty blockers. They said that puberty blocking drugs are a pathway to much greater medical interventions because a vast majority of patients taking the drugs go on to take cross-sex hormones.

The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the gender clinic, said it would seek permission to appeal against the ruling.

The trans childrens charity Mermaids said the ruling was devastating for trans young people in the country.

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UK court rules against clinic in puberty blocking drugs case - ABC News

Approximately one in 11 persons in the United States has been affected by kidney stones; among those who have experienced a kidney stone, the likelihood of recurrence is high, with up to 50% developing a recurrent stone within 10 years of the first episode. Hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) is evident in approximately 3% to 5% of patients with kidney stones and screening for PHPT is a strategy aimed at reducing the recurrence rate. Patients with kidney stones and PHPT present with hypercalcemia and hypercalciuria, raising the risk for stones by increasing urine supersaturation for calcium oxalate or phosphate.

Guidelines from the American Urological Association and the European Association of Urology call for measurement of serum calcium in patients with kidney stones, followed by the serum parathyroid level (PTH) if there is clinical suspicion for PHPT. It is unknown whether patients with kidney stones receive those recommended screenings in clinical practice. Results of a previous study suggested that fewer than one in four veterans with persistent hypercalcemia treated in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) were screened for PHPT.

Calyani Ganesan, MD, MS, and colleagues conducted a cohort study to examine the prevalence of PTH testing in veterans with kidney stones and hypercalcemia. The researchers also sought to identify the demographic, geographic, and clinical characteristics of veterans who were more or less likely to receive PTH testing. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that the frequency of PTH testing remains low despite current clinical practice guidelines and that a wide variation in screening practices is not adequately explained by patient-specific or facility-level factors. Results of the study were reported online in JAMA Surgery [doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2020.2423].

The study utilized VHA health records to identify patients with kidney stones and hypercalcemia who received care in one of the 130 VHA facilities across the United States from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2013. Patients with kidney stones were those with one or more inpatient International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes for kidney or ureteral stones, two or more outpatient ICD-9 codes for kidney or ureteral stones, or one or more Current Procedural Terminology codes for kidney or ureteral stone procedures within 1 year. Exclusion criteria included previous screening for PHPT, defined as those with a PTH level measurement between 6 and 30 months prior to the index stone diagnosis.

Data collection occurred from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2014. Data analysis occurred from June 1, 2009, to January 31, 2020. The primary outcomes of interest were the proportion of patients with a serum PTH level measurement and the proportion of patients with biochemical evidence of PHPT who underwent parathyroidectomy.

A total of 157,539 unique veterans were diagnosed with kidney stones during the study period. Of those, 139,115 had a serum calcium determination within 6 months of their index stone diagnosis, and 7381 had been previously screened with a serum PTH level measurement and were excluded. Following application of exclusion criteria, the final cohort comprised 7561 patients with kidney stones and measured hypercalcemia (n=3938) or albumin-corrected hypercalcemia (n=3623). Mean age of the final cohort was 64.3 years, 94.4% (n=7139) were men, 5.6% (n=422) were women, and 75.0% (n=5673) were white. Patients with hypercalcemia compared with those with normocalcemia (n=124,173) were more likely to have diabetes (39.8% vs 29.5%), impaired kidney function, defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate <45 mL/min/1.73 m2 (36.1% vs 15.1%), osteoporosis (4.4% vs 2.1%), and fractures (7.1% vs 4.2%).

Of the 7561 patients with kidney stones and hypercalcemia, 24.8% (n=1873) completed a serum PTH level measurement around the time of the initial stone diagnosis. In the 3938 patients with measured hypercalcemia, 34.8% (n=1369) completed a serum PHT level measurement; only 13.09% (n=504/3623) of the patients with albumin-corrected hypercalcemia did so. Of the 1873 veterans with PTH testing, 38.3% (n=717) had an elevated PTH level consistent with biochemical PHPT.

Results of multivariable logistic regression models demonstrated that the odds of PTH testing in patients with kidney stones and hypercalcemia were lower with older age (odds ratio [OR], 0.95 per decade; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.90-1.00) and among patients with a history of metastatic cancer (OR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.49-0.81). Patients with albumin-corrected hypercalcemia were less likely to complete PTH testing compared with patients with measured hypercalcemia (OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.28-0.37).

The odds of PTH testing were higher for patients who visited either a nephrologist or a urologist (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.35-1.81), and much higher for those who visited both a nephrologist and a urologist (OR, 6.57; 95% CI, 5.33-8.10) compared with patients who did not visit a stone specialty clinic during the observation period.

Across the 130 VHA facilities in the United States, the prevalence of PHT testing among the veterans with kidney stones varied between 4.0% and 57.0%. The study researchers examined the composite complexity score assigned to each facility and found no association with PTH testing rate for each facility. None of the individual facility-level variables of the complexity score were associated with PTH testing across the 130 facilities. In a comparison of facilities in the top quartile versus the bottom quartile of the PTH testing, there was an association between PTH testing and the presence of stone specialty care at each facility. There was no association between PTH testing and the mean number of parathyroidectomies performed at each facility.

Study limitations cited by the authors included the high proportion of male participants, using a single definition of PHPT, and the inability to capture medical care for veterans with kidney stones who received care outside the VHA system.

In conclusion, the researchers said, In this cohort study, a generally low rate of PTH testing was found in veterans with kidney stones and hypercalcemia, and extensive variation in PTH testing rates was found across VHA facilities in the United States. More awareness of the level or frequency of elevated serum calcium concentration may be associated with higher rates of PTH testing in patients with kidney stones. Improved screening for PHPT could increase the rates of detection and treatment of PHPT and decrease stone recurrence associated with missed or untreated PHPT.

Takeaway Points

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Parathyroid Hormone Testing in Veterans with Kidney Stones and Hypercalcemia - DocWire News

Roughly one in four women will have one. You probably know one of them, whether shes told you about it or not. As of 2017, theyre at a record low rate in America, thanks in part to the Affordable Care Acts requirement that birth control is covered by private insurance as out-of-pocket costs. Sixty-one percent of Americans say it should be legal in all cases, but a considerable subsection of them, especially in the South, dont have reliable access to it. Thats right: were talking about abortion and the musicians who are working to preserve access to it.

If youve seen some of your faves posting about the issue on Instagram (Kim Gordon and Karen O doing it caught my eye), youve probably been seeing the work of a New Mexico-based initiative called Noise For Now. They play matchmaker between musicians who want to support reproductive rights, including abortion and local funds. They aim to destigmatize the conversation around abortion. Hence, part of their plan is to ask artists to post about the organization and why access to healthcare for women is essential. Co-founder and President Amelia Bauer moved to the Southwest from New York after the 2016 election and, while trying to find a way to get involved with local reproductive rights organizations, ended up organizing a concert to benefit the National Organization For Women. It outraised all the big donor dinners and galas they had been putting on.

The idea to work as a connector between those with a large audience your favorite musician and small, local abortion funds hits at a targeted play to provide access to reproductive health care that includes abortion to women who are systematically cut off from it. Since 2011, Texas has lost 25 clinics. In the Midwest, 33 clinics have shut down. In the South, its 50. Even after the TRAP (targeted regulation of abortion providers) laws that closed them were largely overturned by the courts, most of those clinics have not reopened. Theres no doubt that in specific regions of America, the right to choose is under attack. Meanwhile, 59 new womens health clinics opened in the Northeast. More and more, having access to reproductive care and abortion is a matter of how much money you have and where you live.

When you have state legislators working against the will of the people, they create barriers to abortion for people without means, Bauer explains. Anyone with means can travel to another state to access abortion if they cant reach it near their home. That means people who work multiple jobs, who cant get time off, who cant afford a plane or bus ticket, who cant afford childcare are left out of access to safe abortion. She notes that in the U.S., where most abortions are performed in clinics, the procedure is extremely safe, while in countries where it has been outlawed and criminalized, it becomes dangerous for women. Thats why Noise For Now focuses on working with funds that support and are run by Black, brown, indigenous, and undocumented people.

For Bauer, her work in New Mexico started with an eye on preserving the access that women in nearby states traveled to get and in making that travel and all the things that go with it, from the time off work to childcare, possible. The current Supreme Court, which leans more conservative than it has in generations, has caused many to worry about stripping away the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling. It is what guarantees women the right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment right to privacy, as explained in the majority opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun a lifelong Republican. With the current slate of justices, Bauer predicts the worst, saying, I dont have a crystal ball, but I dont think its very likely it will survive this court.

Amanda Shires is all too aware of the restrictions placed on womens access to reproductive rights. In Tennessee, 96% of the counties have no facilities that provide abortions. The issue is also bleak for women in neighboring Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi the latter has only one clinic and three facilities in total where women can obtain an abortion.

Part of the problem is if people are out protesting [clinics], theyre protesting contraceptive services, HIV testing, hormone therapy, treatment for erectile dysfunction, and all kinds of stuff they dont even think about. And cancer screenings. And LGBTQA+ hormone therapy, Shires points out. She later continues, saying, What I try to do is say, to the best I can, is that Im on your side, whatever side of this you choose, in hopes people dont have to walk around feeling alone.

For Shires, who performed at Noise For Nows Voices For Choice event and the Pro Roe Tee Campaign for Planned Parenthood, talking about things is the most effective way to destigmatize them and affect change. It sometimes feels hard to make a change on your own because you cant. If you can align and affiliate and help and take action, then I dont know about you, but it makes me feel like I can sleep a tiny bit better at night, Shires says.

Shires released The Problem near the end of 2020. This song imagines a conversation between a couple discussing abortion, with proceeds benefitting the Yellowhammer Fund. This Alabama-based fund offers financial and logistic support to those in need of abortion in the state. Yellowhammer is also a fund that Noise For Now has supported. Its Executive Director Laurie Bertram Roberts points out that having these conversations in spaces where its typically verboten, namely among the conservative audiences of country music, is part of removing the stigma.

We need to be talking about how we make sure were having these conversions in spaces we may not think are welcoming, but are maybe more welcoming than we think they are, Roberts says and notes that some of the most significant legacies in country music have been all about womens issues.

Amandas song is one is a long legacy of country women artists giving social critique. It goes back to the first women in country music. It goes to Kitty Wells. It goes to Loretta Lynn and The Pill. Even Tammy Wynette singing D-I-V-O-R-C-E. All those things were controversial at the time, but it tells womens stories. Even Martina McBride talking about Independence Day. Those are women telling their stories in a way that made it accessible and acceptable to talk about those subjects.

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Noise For Now Connects The Indie Scene To Support Women's Health Care - UPROXX

Medicine is ever-evolving on a daily basis. Keeping track of the changes can be an almost-full-time job.Stacker looked at a number of medical journals and media sources to discover the biggest breakthroughs the year you were born, from 1921 to the current day.

From diseases that have been around for decades, such as diabetes and the flu, to cutting-edge tools like artificial intelligence and 3D printing, explore how medical and scientific professionals continually conduct research and clinical trials to improve the lives of patients. Sometimes advances arent immediately adopted, as with the Pap smearthat wasnt integrated into womens health care for 16 years after it was invented. But other times the path from laboratory to everyday use is much more abbreviated, like with insulin, which was used to treat diabetes only a year after it was discovered.

Another recurring theme in medical history is the repurposing of medicines that have worked for one disease in the past, to see how theyll work with another. A number of drugs and vaccines are being re-explored to manage COVID-19. Not all the heroes of medical research come from a traditional backgroundone was an electric engineer who worked for a major record label. Some were recognized with the highest honors, but others still have little visibility decades after their death. Funding for the research behind the breakthroughs is always a considerationsometimes it comes from foundations and government entities, but other times via donations from individuals and enterprises.

The dark side of medical history shown here includes unethical behavior by researchers in the past, which explains why some in the Black community arent exactly early adopters when it comes to clinical trials and new treatment options.

Advances noted here focus not only on the body, but also the mind. Explore this slideshow to see all the ways that health care has changed over the past century.

You may also like: Countries with the best life expectancy

Read more here:
Medical history from the year you were born - Bryan-College Station Eagle

DARE-BV1 met the primary endpoint of the study and all pre-specified secondary efficacy endpoints; demonstrated significantly greater clinical cure rates compared to placebo

DARE-BV1 has Fast Track and QIDP designations from FDA

New drug application (NDA) submission planned 1H of 2021

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dar Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: DARE), a leader in womens health innovation, today announced positive topline results from the DARE-BVFREE Phase 3 randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating DARE-BV1 in 307 women diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis, a serious condition estimated to affect approximately 21 million women in the United States. DARE-BV1 is an investigational thermosetting bioadhesive hydrogel containing clindamycin phosphate 2% designed as a convenient, one-time vaginally-administered treatment for bacterial vaginosis. The trial met its primary endpoint demonstrating that a single administration of DARE-BV1 was superior to placebo as a primary therapeutic intervention for women diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis.

Based on these topline results, DARE-BV1 delivered clinical cure rate values greater than those of currently marketed FDA-approved products for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis. This successful Phase 3 clinical trial marks another important achievement for Dar. We began 2020 with the announcement of a commercial partnership for Ovaprene with Bayer, marketer of one of the most successful contraceptive products in womens health, and were concluding the year with another exciting milestone, the successful completion of our Phase 3 clinical trial of DARE-BV1 to support an NDA for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis, said Sabrina Martucci Johnson, President and CEO of Dar Bioscience. We believe there is a large unmet need for a more efficacious and convenient, single-dose vaginally-administered product to treat bacterial vaginosis, and we believe DARE-BV1 could become a new front-line treatment option. DARE-BV1 received Fast Track designation from the FDA earlier this year and, based on the topline results of this trial, we plan to file our NDA in the first half of 2021.

Topline Results of the Phase 3 Randomized Clinical TrialDARE-BVFREE randomized 307 women at 32 centers across the United States in a 2:1 ratio to receive a single vaginal dose of DARE-BV1 (N=204) or a single vaginal dose of placebo gel (N=103) to be applied intravaginally within one day of randomization.

The primary endpoint for the study was clinical cure of bacterial vaginosis determined at the final study visit which occurred 21 to 30 days after study drug administration, also referred to as the test-of-cure (TOC) visit, in the modified intent-to-treat (mITT) study population (N=180). In accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance, the mITT population excludes subjects from the intent-to-treat (ITT) population (N=307) who subsequently demonstrated a positive test result for other concomitant vaginal or cervical infections at baseline.

A single vaginal dose of DARE-BV1 proved statistically superior to placebo at p-value < 0.001 at the TOC visit that occurred 21 to 30 days after study drug administration (primary efficacy endpoint) and also at the assessment visit that occurred 7 to 14 days after study drug administration. DARE-BV1 also demonstrated statistically significant efficacy in all four additional pre-specified secondary efficacy assessments. The clinical cure endpoint results are shown in the following table:

Summary of Clinical Cure Results (mITT Population), p-value < 0.001:

The clinical cure rate at the Day 21-30 visit for the ITT population was similar to that for the mITT population (70.1% for the DARE-BV1 group (N=204) and 36.9% for the placebo group (N=103), p-value < 0.001), demonstrating effectiveness of DARE-BV1 in treating bacterial vaginosis even when other concomitant vaginal or cervical infections were present.

The DARE-BVFREE studys two treatment arms were well balanced in terms of age, race, ethnicity, bacterial vaginosis history, and body mass index (BMI). The ITT population comprised primarily patients aged 15 to 51 years, with a mean age of 34.8 (standard deviation 8.84) and median age of 35. Over 53% of the ITT population qualified as obese (BMI 30.0), with a mean BMI of 31.50 (standard deviation 8.499). In the ITT population, 56.0% of women identified as Black or African American, 41% identified as white and 25.5% identified as of Hispanic or Latino origin (compared to 74.5% as not of Hispanic or Latino origin). In addition, more than 75% of the women in the ITT population reported one or more episodes of bacterial vaginosis diagnosed in the 12 months before they were randomized into the study (76.9% in the DARE-BV1 group and 73.8% in the placebo group).

DARE-BV1 was well-tolerated in the study. There were no early discontinuations due to adverse events (AEs), and the only serious AE occurred in a woman in the placebo group. In the DARE-BV1 group, 15.3% of patients reported AEs that were considered to be possibly, probably or definitely related to study treatment compared to 9.7% of patients in the placebo group.

Only two AEs were reported by more than 2% of patients in the DARE-BV1 arm and at a rate higher than in patients in the placebo arm vulvovaginal candidiasis, commonly called a vaginal yeast infection (17.2% in the DARE-BV1 group and 3.9% in the placebo group), and vulvovaginal pruritus, commonly referred to as vaginal itching (4.4% in the DARE-BV1 group and 1.9% in the placebo group). Over half of the vaginal yeast infections reported in the DARE-BV1 group and exactly half of those reported in the placebo group occurred in patients who exhibited a positive yeast culture prior to dosing.

"We believe these data demonstrate that DARE-BV1 is significantly effective in a representative patient population, including a large proportion of patients who have been previously treated for this infection. Today, about half of the patients treated for bacterial vaginosis experience recurrence of the infection within 12 months of their treatment, and currently marketed FDA-approved products for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis have clinical cure rates in the mid-30% to the high-60% range, said David Friend, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Dar Bioscience. If approved, we believe DARE-BV1 will be an important new and convenient one-time vaginally-administered treatment option with the potential to improve clinical outcomes and overall quality of life for women suffering with bacterial vaginosis.

Based on the topline results from the study, Dar expects to have a pre-NDA meeting with the FDA in early 2021 and to submit an NDA during the first half of 2021. DARE-BV1 received both Fast Track and Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designations from the FDA for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis. Given these designations, the NDA could be eligible for priority review, which, if granted, could allow for a 2021 PDUFA date, and, assuming approval, an early 2022 commercial launch in the U.S.

About the Phase 3 Study

DARE-BVFREE was a randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of a single administration of DARE-BV1 (clindamycin phosphate vaginal gel, 2%) compared to a single administration of placebo vaginal gel (HEC Universal Placebo Gel) for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis. Patients were evaluated during three clinic visits: Day 1 (screening and randomization visit), Day 7-14 (assessment visit), and Day 21-30 (TOC visit). Clinical cure was defined as resolution of the specific clinical signs that comprise the Amsel criteria; specifically, resolution of abnormal vaginal discharge associated with bacterial vaginosis, clue cells less than 20% of total epithelial cells on microscopy, and a negative 10% KOH whiff test. The total study duration was approximately one month for each individual patient.

About Bacterial Vaginosis

Bacterial vaginosis is the most common cause of vaginitis worldwide and is estimated to affect approximately 21 million women in the United States.1,2 Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among non-white women in the U.S. is higher than among white women (African American 51%, Mexican American 32%, white 23%).2 While there are several therapeutic options for women in the U.S. diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis, currently approved options have relatively insufficient clinical cure rates, require sequential daily administrations or can be otherwise inconvenient for women to use. It is estimated that as many as 50% of women treated for bacterial vaginosis will experience a recurrence within 12 months of their treatment.3

About DARE-BV1

DARE-BV1 is an investigational thermosetting bioadhesive hydrogel containing clindamycin phosphate 2% being evaluated as a one-time, vaginally-administered treatment for bacterial vaginosis.

About Dar Bioscience

Dar Bioscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the advancement of innovative products for womens health. The companys mission is to identify, develop and bring to market a diverse portfolio of differentiated therapies that expand treatment options, improve outcomes and facilitate convenience for women, primarily in the areas of contraception, vaginal health, sexual health, and fertility.

Dars product portfolio includes potential first-in-category candidates in clinical development: Ovaprene, a hormone-free, monthly contraceptive intravaginal ring whose U.S. commercial rights are under a license agreement with Bayer; Sildenafil Cream, 3.6%, a novel cream formulation of sildenafil to treat female sexual arousal disorder utilizing the active ingredient in Viagra; DARE-BV1, a unique hydrogel formulation of clindamycin phosphate 2% to treat bacterial vaginosis via a single application; and DARE-HRT1, a combination bio-identical estradiol and progesterone intravaginal ring for hormone replacement therapy following menopause. To learn more about Dars full portfolio of womens health product candidates, and mission to deliver differentiated therapies for women, please visit http://www.darebioscience.com.

Dar may announce material information about its finances, product candidates, clinical trials and other matters using the Investors section of its website (http://ir.darebioscience.com), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls and webcasts. Dar will use these channels to distribute material information about the company, and may also use social media to communicate important information about the company, its finances, product candidates, clinical trials and other matters. The information Dar posts on its investor relations website or through social media channels may be deemed to be material information. Dar encourages investors, the media, and others interested in the company to review the information Dar posts in the Investors section of its website and to follow these Twitter accounts: @SabrinaDareCEO and @DareBioscience. Any updates to the list of social media channels the company may use to communicate information will be posted on the investor relations page of Dars website mentioned above.

Forward-Looking Statements

Dar cautions you that all statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, in some cases, can be identified by terms such as believe, may, will, estimate, continue, anticipate, design, intend, expect, could, plan, potential, predict, seek, should, would, contemplate, project, target, tend to, or the negative version of these words and similar expressions. In this press release, forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Dars plans and strategies for regulatory approval and commercialization of DARE-BV1, including expected timing of Dars engagement with the FDA regarding an NDA for DARE-BV1, submission of an NDA for DARE-BV1, FDA review and approval of the NDA, and commercial launch of DARE-BV1 in the U.S. if approved; DARE-BV1s potential importance to and utilization by women with bacterial vaginosis, including its potential ability to improve clinical outcomes and overall quality of life compared to currently available therapeutic options for bacterial vaginosis if approved; and DARE-BV1s commercial potential. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Dars actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements in this press release, including, without limitation, risk and uncertainties related to: the risk that topline results from a clinical trial, including the DARE-BVFREE study, are based on Dars preliminary analysis of key efficacy and safety data and, following a comprehensive review of study data, such results may change and topline results may not accurately reflect the complete results from the clinical trial; the risk that the FDA, other regulatory authorities or members of the scientific or medical communities may not accept or agree with Dars interpretation of or conclusions regarding the study data; Dars ability to raise additional capital when and as needed to advance its product candidates and continue as a going concern; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dars operations, financial results and condition, and ability to achieve current plans and objectives, including the potential impact of the pandemic on the ability of third parties on which Dar relies to assist in the conduct of its business, including its clinical trials, to fulfill their contractual obligations to Dar; Dars ability to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, and commercialize its product candidates; the failure or delay in starting, conducting and completing clinical trials or obtaining FDA or foreign regulatory approval for Dars product candidates in a timely manner; Dars ability to conduct and design successful clinical trials, to enroll a sufficient number of patients, to meet established clinical endpoints, to avoid undesirable side effects and other safety concerns, and to demonstrate sufficient safety and efficacy of its product candidates; the risk that positive findings in early clinical and/or nonclinical studies of a product candidate may not be predictive of success in subsequent clinical and/or nonclinical studies of that candidate; Dars ability to retain its licensed rights to develop and commercialize a product candidate; Dars ability to satisfy the monetary obligations and other requirements in connection with its exclusive, in-license agreements covering the critical patents and related intellectual property related to its product candidates; the risks that the license agreement with Bayer may not become effective and, if it becomes effective, that future payments to Dar under the agreement may be significantly less than anticipated or potential amounts; developments by Dars competitors that make its product candidates less competitive or obsolete; Dars dependence on third parties to conduct clinical trials and manufacture clinical trial material; Dars ability to adequately protect or enforce its, or its licensors, intellectual property rights; the lack of patent protection for the active ingredients in certain of Dars product candidates which could expose its products to competition from other formulations using the same active ingredients; the risk of failure associated with product candidates in preclinical stages of development that may lead investors to assign them little to no value and make these assets difficult to fund; cyber attacks, security breaches or similar events that compromise Dars technology systems or those of third parties on which it relies and/or significantly disrupt Dars business; and disputes or other developments concerning Dars intellectual property rights. Dars forward-looking statements are based upon its current expectations and involve assumptions that may never materialize or may prove to be incorrect. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. For a detailed description of Dars risks and uncertainties, you are encouraged to review its documents filed with the SEC including Dars recent filings on Form 8-K, Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Dar undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

Investors on behalf of Dar Bioscience, Inc.:Lee RothBurns McClellanEmail: lroth@burnsmc.com+1 212-213-0006

Source: Dar Bioscience, Inc.

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Dar Bioscience Announces Positive Topline Results From DARE-BVFREE, a Phase 3 Trial of DARE-BV1 in Patients Diagnosed with Bacterial Vaginosis -...

Dublin, Nov. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Acromegaly and Gigantism - Epidemiology Forecast to 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Acromegaly and gigantism are rare disorders of the pituitary gland, characterized by the hypersecretion of growth hormone (GH). In 98% of the cases of acromegaly and gigantism, the hypersecretion of GH results from a benign GH- secreting pituitary adenoma (Sesmilo, 2013). A common sign of acromegaly is enlarged hands and feet, and the disease can also cause gradual changes in the shape of the face, such as a protruding lower jaw and brow, an enlarged nose, thickened lips, and wider spacing between the teeth. Progression of acromegaly can result in major health problems such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, carpal tunnel syndrome, and spinal cord compression (Mayo Clinic, 2019). While both acromegaly and gigantism are complications of uncontrolled GH levels, the presentations of the two hormonal diseases are very different; most notably, acromegaly occurs in adulthood and gigantism occurs during childhood (Eugster and Pescovitz, 1999). In 2019, the 7MM combined had 43,220 diagnosed prevalent cases of acromegaly in both sexes for ages 15 years and older.

The US accounted for the majority of these cases with 26,549 diagnosed prevalent cases, while Spain accounted for the fewest cases with 1,775 cases in 2019. The publisher epidemiologists forecast an increase in the diagnosed prevalent cases of acromegaly to 47,340 cases in 2029 in the 7MM at an Annual Growth Rate (AGR) of 0.95% during the forecast period. In 2019, the 7MM combined had 643 diagnosed prevalent cases of gigantism in both sexes for all ages. The publisher epidemiologists forecast an increase in the diagnosed prevalent cases of gigantism to 675 cases in 2029 in the 7MM at an AGR of 0.50% during the forecast period. Any change in the diagnosed prevalent cases of acromegaly and gigantism in the 7MM is attributable to changing population demographics and changing diagnosed prevalence rates in the respective markets.

Scope

Reasons to Buy

Key Topics Covered:

1 Table of Contents1.1 List of Tables1.2 List of Figures

2 Acromegaly and Gigantism: Executive Summary2.1 Catalyst2.2 Related Reports2.3 Upcoming Reports

3 Epidemiology3.1 Disease Background3.2 Risk Factors and Comorbidities3.3 Global and Historical Trends3.4 Forecast Methodology3.4.1 Sources3.4.2 Forecast Assumptions and Methods3.4.3 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly and Gigantism3.4.4 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly and Gigantism with Macroadenoma3.4.5 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly and Gigantism with Diabetes3.4.6 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly and Gigantism with Cardiovascular Disease3.4.7 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly and Gigantism with Hypertension3.5 Epidemiological Forecast for Acromegaly, 2019-20293.5.1 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly3.5.2 Sex-Specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly3.5.3 Age-Specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly3.5.4 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly with Macroadenoma3.5.5 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Acromegaly with Comorbidities3.5.6 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Gigantism3.5.7 Sex-Specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Gigantism3.5.8 Age-Specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Gigantism3.5.9 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Gigantism with Macroadenoma3.5.10 Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Gigantism with Comorbidities3.6 Discussion3.6.1 Epidemiological Forecast Insight3.6.2 Limitations of the Analysis3.6.3 Strengths of the Analysis

4 Appendix4.1 Bibliography4.2 About the Authors4.2.1 Epidemiologist4.2.2 Reviewers4.2.3 Global Director of Therapy Analysis and Epidemiology4.2.4 Global Head and EVP of Healthcare Operations and Strategy4.3 About the Publisher4.4 Contact4.5 Disclaimer

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/t97kud

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Link:
Epidemiology Forecast on Acromegaly and Gigantism to 2029 - - GlobeNewswire

Rachel Scanlon's lucky toilet came through for her not once, but twice.What you dont have a lucky toilet? Maybe Rachels story will convince you to reconsider.

On TuesdaysRyan Tubridy Show, Rachelwhos beenthrough IVF an extraordinary thirteen times started by telling Ryanthat before deciding on going down the road of IVF, she and her partner Kevin had experienced a lot ofdisappointment:

"We had a lot of miscarriages. And a lot of early miscarriages and a lot of later miscarriages. But, yes, we had a lot and so, we sought treatment."

Ryan asked Rachel to give an outline of what the IVF process involves and she madesomethings clear at the start: its a long process and different womenhave different experiences.

Different clinicstreat people differently and every womans body is different. So, no two women will have the exact same IVF experience.There are different protocols involved and Rachel found herself, more than once,on a protocol where she downregulated.

"Your body is kind ofsupressedinto a menopause-like state.And I suppose its to allow the clinic to take over and to take over the regulation of your body and so you stopproducingeggs so that the drugs can takeover andproduce the eggs for you."

The menopause-like stateprobablylasts for a couple of weeks, Rachelcontinued,beforehormone injections begin. The injections are intended to produce follicles which will eventually produce eggs. She was injecting herself every evening and sometimes more than once a dayand she was scanned regularly to ensure that the hormones are overor under-stimulating follicle production.

Pumping your body full of hormones has other effects besides follicle production, though:"Your moods are up and down, youre all over the placeI mean, youre hard to live with. Its difficult. And youre bloated as well.Your stomach is bloated. You actually look like youre pregnant because your ovaries are just bulging. Youre just a hot mess, really."

Thats one way of putting it.Of course, the long, gruelling, expensiveprocess is worth it when you get a baby at the end of it. But when you dont,when the process doesnt work at all, it can be extremely disheartening.

"Looking back, one of the hardest periods for me was when that first IVF didnt work."

Rachel reckons she was naive in the beginning because she had so much hopeinvested in that first attempt, only for it to fail:

"You eventually get to a pointwhere youre taking a test. My first time, I didnt even get to take the test, my period just arrived, like nothing had happened. Like we hadnt spent all this money, like I hadnt taken all these injections. I was absolutely heartbroken the first time it didnt work."

That first time wasjust the start of a six-year IVFjourney, that took in thirteen proceduresin four clinicsacrossthreecountriesand eventually resulted in two joyouspositivetests in that lucky toilet,in a cafcalled Wilde and Green in Milltown, Dublin,two years apart.

Little Eve and hersisterErin are thetwo happy endings toRachel and Kevinsjourney.

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IVF: "I was absolutely heartbroken the first time it didn't work" - RTE.ie

Women who experience early menopause may be more likely to face an early onset of progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). That is the finding of a Mayo Clinic study recently published in Brain Communications.

Researchers also discovered that the fewer pregnancies a woman had, the more likely an earlier onset of progressive MS. These results highlight the key role sex hormones may play for women with MS.

It is already well-known that multiple sclerosis affects men and women differently. Women are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Researchers previously had discovered that women are more likely to developing the relapsing-remitting phase of multiple sclerosis at an earlier age than men, and women have more frequent relapses than men. Meanwhile, men's symptoms tend to worsen faster than women, causing them to enter the progressive phase of the disease more quickly.

Delaying the onset of the progressive phase of MS is important in helping prevent or limit severe disability in the future. That is one of the reasons Mayo Clinic researchers wanted to understand the role women's reproductive histories could play in delaying the onset of progressive MS, says Dr. Burcu Zeydan, a Mayo Clinic researcher and the study's lead author.

The study compared the cases of 137 postmenopausal women with MS seen at Mayo Clinic to 396 postmenopausal women without MS. To identify participants without MS, the researchers relied on the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a unique medical records linkage system, to gather the necessary patient data. They found that women who underwent menopause before 46 were more likely to experience an early onset of progressive MS. Meanwhile, pregnancies appeared to have a positive effect when it came to delaying progressive MS.

"There seems to be an association between the number of pregnancies and the onset of progressive MS," Zeydan says. "The higher the number of pregnancies, the later the progressive MS onset."

That is good news for women with MS who may have avoided pregnancy due to concerns about negatively affecting the disease's progression. Indeed, it is the opposite.

Regarding their findings on the association between menopause and progression, Zeydan cautions that more research is needed to truly understand the potential benefits of perimenopausal hormone therapy. But for patients with MS who are already mulling hormone therapy, this study is worth considering.

"Our findings would be another reason to encourage patients to use hormone therapy," Zeydan says.

Continued here:
Earlier menopause, fewer pregnancies linked to early onset of progressive MS - West Central Tribune

Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? Are you gaining weight without any major diet changes, feeling sluggish, depressed, constipated, weak and aching muscles, dry skin and cant get the heat into you no matter how warm the weather is?

If the answer is yes then it might be worth visiting your GP to get your thyroid checked as you may be suffering from an underactive thyroid know as hypothyroidism.

Hypothyroidism is a condition in which the body doesnt make enough of the thyroid hormone thyroxine. Thyroid hormones help control growth, cell repair, and metabolism.

As a result, people with hypothyroidism may experience the symptoms above, among many others. However many of the symptoms can easily be confused for other conditions and as the symptoms generally appear slowly, sometimes over many years, you may just think your symptoms are a result of growing older.

If hypothyroidism is left untreated more serious symptoms may start to appear, such as a change in voice (hoarseness) a slow heart rate, anaemia and hearing loss to name a few.

Diet and nutrition alone wont cure hypothyroidism and medication alone may not restore your health and energy fully. However, a combination of the right nutrients and medication can help restore thyroid function and minimise your symptoms.

What exactly is hypothyroidism?

The thyroid gland is a small, butterfly-shaped gland that sits near the base of your neck and it makes and stores thyroid hormones that affect nearly every cell in your body.

When thyroid levels are low the thyroid gland receives a signal from the pituitary gland, called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), it then releases thyroid hormones into the bloodstream.

Occasionally, the thyroid gland doesnt release thyroid hormones, even when there is plenty of TSH. This is called primary hypothyroidism and the most common type.

When the pituitary gland is not working properly, the thyroid gland does not receive enough thyroid stimulating hormone in order to make hormones. This is called secondary hypothyroidism.

The thyroid gland may be very small but thyroid hormones are very important. They help control growth, cell repair, and metabolism, this is the process by which your body converts what you eat into energy.

Your metabolism affects your body temperature and at what rate you burn calories. Thats why people with hypothyroidism often feel cold and tired and may gain weight easily and find it hard to lose weight no matter how hard they try.

How does hypothyroidism affect your metabolism?

The thyroid hormone helps control the speed of your metabolism. The faster your metabolism, the more calories your body burns at rest. So as people with hypothyroidism make less thyroid hormone, the result of this is they have a slower metabolism and burn fewer calories at rest.

Having a slow metabolism comes with several health risks. Low levels of thyroid producing hormones, such as T3 and T4, can change the way the body processes fat.

This can lead to high cholesterol and clogging of the arteries, both of which can potentially lead to serious heart related problems.

If you find it difficult to maintain your weight with hypothyroidism, try doing moderate or high intensity cardio.

Which nutrients are important for thyroid health?

Several nutrients are important for optimal thyroid health.

Iodine

Iodine is an essential mineral thats needed to make thyroid hormones. Therefore, people with iodine deficiency might be at risk of hypothyroidism. consider adding iodized salt to your meals or eating more iodine rich foods like seaweed, fish, dairy, and eggs.

Selenium

Selenium helps activate thyroid hormones so they can be used by the body. This essential mineral also has antioxidant benefits, which means it may protect the thyroid gland from damage by molecules called free radicals. Adding selenium rich foods to your diet is a great way to boost your selenium levels. This includes Brazil nuts, tuna, sardines, eggs, and legumes.

Zinc

Like selenium, zinc helps the body activate thyroid hormones. It has been shown that zinc may help the body regulate TSH, the hormone that tells the thyroid gland to release thyroid hormones. Although zinc deficiencies are rare, if you have hypothyroidism, you should aim to eat more zinc rich foods like oysters and other shellfish, beef, and chicken.

Foods to avoid

Foods that contain goitrogens should be eaten in moderation and ideally cooked first.

You should also avoid eating highly processed foods, as they usually contain a lot of calories, sugar and trans-fats. This can be a problem if you have hypothyroidism, as you may gain weight easily and a diet high in processed foods may lead to fatigue.

Here is a list of foods you can eat in moderation. These foods contain goitrogens or are known irritants if consumed in large amounts.

* soy-based foods:tofu, tempeh edamame beans, soy milk, etc.

* cruciferous vegetables:broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, etc.

* certain fruits:peaches, pears, and strawberries

* beverages:coffee, green tea, and alcohol these beverages may irritate your thyroid gland

Foods to eat

There are plenty of food options for people with hypothyroidism, including:

* eggs:whole eggs are best, as much of their iodine and selenium are found in the yolk, while the whites are full of protein

* meat:all meats, including lamb, beef, chicken, etc.

* fish:all seafood, including salmon, tuna, halibut, etc.

* vegetables:all vegetables cruciferous vegetables are fine to eat in moderate amounts, especially when cooked

* fruits:all other fruits, including berries, bananas, tomatoes, etc.

* gluten-free grains and seeds:rice, buckwheat, quinoa, chia seeds, and flax seeds

* dairy:all dairy products,

* beverages:water and other non-caffeinated beverages

People with hypothyroidism should aim to eat a balanced diet based around vegetables, fruits, and lean meats.

If you think you have symptoms of an underactive thyroid, your first port of call would be to make an appointment with your GP to have a thyroid blood test done.

If you have an underactive thyroid and need support around dietary changes, why not schedule in an appointment with The Nutri Coach! There is no time like the present My clinic is back open and I am taking bookings for new and existing clients, so just pop me a message if you would like to schedule an appointment. contact details below.

Debbie Devane from The Nutri Coach is a qualified Nutritional Therapist and health & lifestyle coach, Debbie runs her clinic from the Glenard Clinic in Mountmellick and also offers one to one and group online consultations. Debbie is also Nutritionist to the Offaly GAA senior footballers.

For more information or to make an appointment email Debbie at

info@thenutricoach.ie

Ph: 086-1720055

Facebook: The Nutri Coach @debbiedevanethenutricoach

Instagram: the_nutricoach

For more information go to http://www.thenutricoach.ie

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Healthy Living: Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? - Leinster Leader

I think for sheer exuberance the best day of my life was my last on Everest, she wrote in Conundrum. The mountain had been climbed, and I had already begun my race down the glacier toward Katmandu, leaving the expedition to pack its gear behind me.

She continued: I heard from the radio that my news had reached London providentially on the eve of Queen Elizabeths coronation. I felt as though I had been crowned myself. For a Britain that was fast losing its empire, the conquest of Everest was greeted with nationalistic euphoria.

As a correspondent with The Times and later with The Guardian, Ms. Morris wrote about wars, famines and earthquakes and reported on the trial in Israel of Adolph Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who was convicted and executed for his leading role in the extermination of millions of Jews.

She also covered the trial in Moscow of Francis Gary Powers, the United States spy plane pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union. She traveled to Havana to interview Che Guevara, the revolutionary leader, who was described in Conundrum as sharp as a cat, and to Moscow again to meet with the British intelligence defector Guy Burgess, who was swollen with drink and self-reproach.

It was in the early 1960s that Ms. Morris met with a prominent New York endocrinologist, Dr. Harry Benjamin, an early researcher on transgender people.

He advised her on a slow process of transition that began with heavy doses of female hormones some 12,000 pills from 1964 to 1972, according to the writers own calculations. Ms. Morris wrote, I was about to change my form and apparency my status, too, perhaps my place among my peers, my attitudes no doubt, the reactions I would evoke, my reputation, my manner of life, my prospects, my emotions, possibly my abilities.

From the very beginning of her marriage, Ms. Morris had confided her feelings about her gender identity to her wife, Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter.

Continue reading here:
Jan Morris, Celebrated Writer of Place and History, Is Dead at 94 - The New York Times

The abortion pill is a simple way to end a pregnancy up to 11 weeks after the first day of your last period.

You can usually carry out part of the procedure at home, which can be more comfortable for some people.

But that can lead to anxiety about whether the pill has worked.

Although a follow-up appointment is the best way to get reassurance, there are a number of signs to look out for that point to abortion pill success.

Most people experience cramping and bleeding within a few hours of taking the second pill, misoprostol.

This is a good indicator that the abortion pill has worked.

Bleeding, or the passing of large blood clots, shows that the fetal tissue is exiting the body. Cramping helps the uterus return to its usual state.

Your healthcare provider will also schedule a follow-up appointment a couple of weeks later to check that the abortion pill worked.

The abortion pill comes in two separate doses. The process usually takes 1 to 2 days to complete.

You may experience symptoms for a few weeks after taking both pills.

Youll first have an appointment with a nurse or doctor who will ask about your medical history and explain how the process works.

If you havent had a recent ultrasound, they will perform one to see how far along the pregnancy is.

At this appointment, the healthcare staff will give you the first pill, mifepristone. In many cases, they will ask you to take it there and then.

The second pill, misoprostol, can be taken between 24 and 48 hours after the first one.

You may be given an oral dose or a slowly dissolving tablet thats placed in your vagina, under your tongue, or between your teeth and cheek.

Some people return to their healthcare provider to take misoprostol, while others take it at home.

Within 1 to 4 hours of taking the second pill, your body should begin to cramp and bleed.

Its common to pass the pregnancy within 4 hours, but it can take a few days for some people.

You may also experience lighter bleeding and cramping for a few weeks afterward.

A follow-up appointment with your healthcare provider usually takes place around 2 weeks after taking the pills.

A medical abortion uses two medications in the form of a pill to end a pregnancy.

Mifepristone is the first pill.

It blocks an important pregnancy hormone called progesterone. This results in the breakdown of the uterine lining and stopping the growth of the embryo.

The body soon realizes that the pregnancy cant continue, so the second medication, misoprostol, helps the body push out the embryo through the vagina.

The body does this by causing the uterus to contract, which leads to a similar level of cramping and bleeding as a miscarriage.

The abortion pill is highly effective, but its effectiveness does decrease the further along the pregnancy is.

For example, the medication works for 94 to 98 percent of people who are 8 weeks pregnant or less.

This reduces to 91 to 93 percent effectiveness for those who are between 9 and 10 weeks pregnant.

A 2011 research review found no evidence of a difference between the effectiveness of medical abortions and surgical procedures.

And, according to the University of California, San Francisco, only around 3 to 5 percent of people need a surgical abortion after a medical one.

But certain factors can change effectiveness.

An abortion pill wont work if you have an ectopic pregnancy or dont take both medications correctly.

Similarly, you shouldnt have a medical abortion if you have an IUD or certain medical conditions, like a bleeding disorder.

Healthcare staff will check all of the above and provide clear instructions before giving you any abortion medication.

Many liken the feeling of a medical abortion to an early miscarriage.

After taking the second pill, youll likely experience abdominal cramps and heavy bleeding for a few hours.

Depending how far along the pregnancy is, you may pass larger tissues that are brown or red in color, and may be able to see the white pregnancy sac.

Misoprostol can also cause:

Look after yourself by staying in a comfortable place, whether thats your own home or the home of family or friends.

If you can, take a couple of days off work so you can rest.

Lying down with a hot-water bottle on your abdomen can help relieve any pain. Some find sitting on the toilet to be a more comfortable position.

Youll also need highly absorbent menstrual pads for the bleeding.

If you need pain medication, avoid aspirin, as it can worsen bleeding. Instead, take ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin). It may help to take pain medication around 30 minutes before the misoprostol.

If you feel that something isnt right especially if youre soaking two or more pads an hour for a few hours or have a fever that lasts longer than a day seek medical advice.

Hospitals and clinics dont need to know youve taken the abortion pill if you feel unsafe telling them. Your symptoms mimic a natural miscarriage, so staff wont be able to tell the difference.

As soon as your abortion is complete, your symptoms should begin to reduce.

Bleeding may be lighter, while cramping may not feel so severe. Other side effects like fever or nausea should also disappear.

It may take a couple of days for you to get back into your normal routine, as the process can make you tired.

Its normal to experience lighter bleeding for a few weeks after taking the abortion pill, so dont worry if youre still spotting after your follow-up appointment.

Before the appointment, try to keep track of how much youre bleeding. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider any concerns you have.

Around 4 to 6 weeks after your abortion, your period should return.

Be aware that your body can start to ovulate around 3 weeks after taking the medication, meaning you can become pregnant once again.

Your follow-up appointment may take place over the phone or in person, depending on your and your providers preference.

Its important to attend this so your healthcare provider can check that your body is healing properly. Theyll also look for any signs of infection.

Your healthcare provider will ask you about the process, including:

Your healthcare provider may also physically check the cervix and uterus, perform lab tests to check for the pregnancy hormone, and perform an ultrasound to determine whether the abortion pill worked.

If you opted for a phone appointment, youll often be given a pregnancy test to take at home.

Avoid taking an at-home test too soon after an abortion, as the pregnancy hormone may still linger in your body. Its best to wait 4 weeks to avoid a false-positive result.

Although the abortion pill is effective in the vast majority of cases, theres a small chance that it may not work.

Your healthcare provider will be able to determine this at your follow-up appointment.

If youre still pregnant, your healthcare provider will discuss other abortion options.

You may be able to take another dose of the abortion pill, or you may need a surgical abortion instead.

If youre having trouble finding a clinic in your state or want more information about the abortion process, the following organizations can help:

Remember that its perfectly normal to experience a wide range of emotions after an abortion.

If you need to speak to someone about how youre feeling, consider a post-abortion counselor.

All-Options and Exhale offer various forms of free support, including over-the-phone counseling and a confidential text line.

Lauren Sharkey is a U.K.-based journalist and author specializing in womens issues. When she isnt trying to discover a way to banish migraine, she can be found uncovering the answers to your lurking health questions. She has also written a book profiling young female activists across the globe and is currently building a community of such resisters. Catch her on Twitter.

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How to Know If the Abortion Pill Worked and What to Do Next - Healthline

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip, Palestine I always encourage the women I know to do a self-examination and regular screenings, Intisar, 55, told UNFPA. She is a breast cancer survivor from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, and her outspokenness about the topic is a rarity in her community.

The incidence of breast cancer has been increasing in Palestine in recent years partly due to growing awareness and detection, but also because of lifestyle and dietary habits related to poverty. It is the most prevalent cancer among Palestinian women, accounting for 32 per cent of cancer diagnoses in the West Bank and 18 per cent of those in the Gaza Strip.

Breast cancer is most treatable when detected early. Unfortunately, more than 60 per cent of breast cancer cases in Palestine are found at a late stage, reducing the chance of survival.

Women with breast cancer also face serious stigma.

In Palestine, it is widely understood that vulnerability to breast cancer can be hereditary. As a result, some women avoid getting screened because they fear a breast cancer diagnosis could affect their daughters marriage prospects. Women with breast cancer have also faced gender-based violence and abandonment. A recent UNFPA study showed that breast cancer stigma is a major cause of delayed detection and treatment.

Advocates for breast cancer awareness speak to women at the Islamic University in Gaza. Image courtesy of Culture and Free Thought Association

Intisar was fortunate to have the support of her family when she received her breast cancer diagnosis in 2016. But the social stigma left her feeling depressed and isolated.

UNFPA works with the Ministry of Health to improve detection and treatment efforts, and coordinates a breast cancer working group.

Working with Augusta Victoria Hospital and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and with funding from the Government of Japan, UNFPA has deployed a mobile breast cancer screening clinic to marginalized communities in the West Bank.

UNFPA also works closely with the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) and the Campaign for the Children of Palestine to support breast cancer patients in Gaza. After Intisar received chemotherapy, she started to visit the CFTA for services.

There, she received a wig, dignity kits with hygiene products, hormone therapy, vitamins, medication and financial assistance. The association also helped her receive a mastectomy operation and prostheses. CFTA also provided psychosocial support, recreational activities and group outings.

I met women who became my real friends, Intisar recalled.

These services, as well as community awareness sessions, are supported by UNFPA with funding from the Government of Japan. Awareness is essential, experts say.

The aim is to increase awareness on the importance of early diagnosis for breast cancer for both women and men, said Firyal Thabet, director of the Women Health Centre at CFTA.

We do this by online campaigns, radio coverage, and by involving mosques, hair salons and taxi companies. Now we see more and more women and men coming to our centre for screening.

CFTA holds a recreation day for women at Al-Gouna Resort. Image courtesy of Culture and Free Thought Association.

Swift access to treatment services is also crucial. A recent evaluation of UNFPAs projects on breast cancer found that, among the projects clients, the average time from diagnosis to initiation of treatment fell from 6 months to 7 days between 2016 and 2018.

Still, some treatment options remain out of reach.

Intisar needed to receive radiotherapy, but no such services were available in Gaza. CFTA helped her obtain a permit from the Israeli authorities to receive treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, but her permit application was rejected five times before she was finally granted permission.

In 2018, almost 40 per cent of Israeli permit applications for Palestinian patients to exit the Gaza Strip to receive treatment in the West Bank or Jerusalem were rejected or delayed. About a quarter of these applications were for cancer care.

Today, Intisar is a leading advocate for early detection and a peer supporter at CFTA. She also counsels women and girls about the topic in her community. Breast cancer is a start of a new life and not the end of your life, she tells them. Do not give up.

She is also refusing to give up.

A year ago, doctors found a small cancerous tumour on her lung. She is again undergoing chemotherapy.

I am hopeful that I will recover again, she said, with the help of God and those around me.

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For one breast cancer survivor in Gaza Strip, a journey of hardship and hope - UNFPA News

Tossing and turning between the sheets could be the cause of your excessive gas.

Image Credit: KrisCole/iStock/GettyImages

There are a few foods you know are going to give you gas. That's why, before you sit down to a loaded bean chili or try that recipe for cabbage rolls (because, hey, it's a pandemic, so why not), you make sure you don't have anywhere to be.

"Flatulence is normal," says Monica Borkar, MD, a gastroenterologist with NorthShore University HealthSystem in Glenview, Illinois. In fact, you (and everyone else) probably do it around 20 times a day, notes the Cleveland Clinic.

Your diet is a big culprit in creating gas. As you eat, you swallow air, and bacteria in the gut break down food, a process that also leads to flatulence. But did you know there are other things going on in your life that you'd probably never connect to a troubling case of tooting that could do it, too?

Here are seven sneaky causes of excessive gas and what you can do about them.

The stress of the pandemic, your job, caring for kids during e-learning (and the list goes on) could be weighing on your mind and your digestive system. Your gut and brain are in constant communication, and when you're lacking ways to offload stress, your digestion can pay the price, Dr. Borkar says.

Stress may also inadvertently cause you to make less-healthy choices. "We may drink more coffee, eat more sweets, smoke, consume alcohol or chew more gum," Dr. Borkar says. "All of those factors may lead to even more flatulence."

Your fart-free plan: If you're in a time of high stress, it's even more critical to take care of yourself (even if that feels like your last priority). Dr. Borkar recommends focusing on eating a well-balanced diet, which will not only limit your consumption of the culprits above, but will also help keep you regular in the bathroom. "Staying regular often leads to less bloating and gas," she says.

Drink plenty of water and eat fiber-rich foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

2. Youre Taking in a Lot of Air When You Eat

Eating quickly or mindlessly may mean you're gulping more air than normal when you eat, per the Mayo Clinic.

Your fart-free plan: Slow down at meals and snacks. Eat without distractions like the TV or your phone, take small bites and chew thoroughly.

Each time you take a puff, you swallow more air, according to Harvard Health Publishing.

Your fart-free plan: Count this as a bonus benefit of quitting for good.

4. Youre Getting Your Period

Experiencing GI issues during PMS is common. "Fluctuations in the hormones estrogen and progesterone can cause these symptoms," Dr. Borkar says.

Your fart-free plan: Exercising, drinking water and eating a diet low in sodium and with fewer processed foods can help ease PMS, she says.

5. Youre Not Sleeping Well

Whether its due to stress, busyness or too many new shows on Netflix, cutting shut-eye short may be behind your farts.

"Since lack of sleep simulates a stressful situation, our bodies release a stress hormone called cortisol, which can cause bloating and flatulence," Dr. Borkar says.

Your fart-free plan: The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night. If you're not getting that many hours in before your alarm goes off, try moving your bedtime earlier by 15-minute increments each night (and stay consistent with when you tuck in, even on the weekends).

6. Its Your Medication

Both over-the-counter and prescription medications, as well as supplements, can cause gas. One common example is NSAIDs (like ibuprofen and aspirin), which you might take to relieve headaches, reduce muscle pain or ease PMS. These might cause gas and bloating as well as diarrhea or constipation, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Metformin, a common prescription drug to treat diabetes, is linked to flatulence, too, per an April 2017 review in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

And iron supplements that treat anemia have been found to double the risk of GI side effects, including flatulence, according to February 2015 research in PLOS One.

Your fart-free plan: Take NSAIDs with food or along with an antacid, advises the Cleveland Clinic. If you're on a prescription medication, talk to your doctor about switching, as there may be certain formulations that are better suited for your system (it's important not to stop taking a prescription med without first talking to your doc).

7. You Have a Digestive Condition

There are several conditions that count abdominal discomfort, bloating and gas as symptoms, Dr. Borkar says, including constipation and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as bacterial or viral infections.

Your fart-free plan: Farting is normal, but if you feel like it's over the top and is accompanied by other symptoms (such as abdominal pain or changes in bowel habits), talk to your doctor.

Here is the original post:
7 Causes of Excessive Gas That Aren't Food - LIVESTRONG.COM

The idea of repurposingexisting medicines as a fast approach to containing COVID-19 is still popular, even as vaccines and antibodies designed to combat the disease are starting to gain steam. Scientists at the Cleveland Clinic are among those examining existing compounds as possible treatments for the coronavirus, and now they're suggesting that the popular over-the-counter sleep aid melatonin may be a possible option in treating the disease.

The researchers used an artificial intelligence tool to analyze data from 26,779 individuals in the Cleveland Clinics COVID-19 registry, of whom 8,274 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

They found that people who were taking melatonin were 28% less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2, after adjusting for factors such as age, sex and underlying diseases, according to results published in the journal PLOS Biology.

The melatonin effect was more pronounced in African Americans, with a reduction of 52%. In White Americans, the number was 23%.

Melatonin is a hormone released by the body that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. As a dietary supplement, its commonly used to help manage insomnia andjet lag.

Besides melatonin, the Cleveland Clinic team also found that the beta-blocker carvedilol, sold under the brand Coreg for high blood pressure and other heart diseases, was associated with a 26% reduction in a persons chance of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.

RELATED:Melatonin? Stem cells? Researchers step up with unconventional approaches to COVID-19

Some members of the same Cleveland Clinic team previously pinpointed melatonin among a group of drugs they suggested might work for COVID. They showed that melatonin and mercaptopurine might work as a good combo for COVID. Those findings came from a pharmacology-based platform that used a technique called network proximity analysis. It was based on the idea that some proteins involved in other diseases might hold proximity to a virus interaction with the host.

The researchersapplied the same method in the current study to shed a light on clinical manifestations and pathologies common between COVID-19 and 64 other diseases. Closer proximity would mean a higher likelihood of pathological associations between the diseases.

They found that proteins involved in respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis were highly connected with SARS-CoV-2. That wasnt a surprise given that the two disorders can also cause death in patients with severe COVID-19.

This signals to us that a drug already approved to treat these respiratory conditions may have some utility in also treating COVID-19 by acting on those shared biological targets, Feixiong Cheng, Ph.D., the studys senior author, said in a statement.

Overall, they identified close network proximity to SARS-CoV-2 proteins from inflammatory bowel disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as pulmonary diseases such as COPD. Using a computational model, they identified 34 drugs that were significantly proximal to two or more SARS-CoV-2 host protein sets.

RELATED:COVID-19: Bio researchers race to repurpose everything from antiviral to anticancer discoveries

A team at Columbia University has also linked melatonin with increased likelihood of clinical improvement among critically ill COVID-19 patients on intubation or mechanical ventilation.

The sleep-promoting supplement was also reportedly used by President Donald Trump during his COVID-19 infection, though its not clear if he was taking it specifically to treat the disease or as part of his daily nutrition routine.

Despite melatonin emerging as a top pick from the Cleveland Clinic registry, Cheng cautioned that larger, randomized control trials would be needed before the supplement could be widely adopted in the treatment of COVID-19.

Cheng added that AI-based approaches to analyzing COVID-19 patient registries should be embraced in the effort to find effective treatments for the disease.Recent studies suggest that COVID-19 is a systematic disease impacting multiple cell types, tissues and organs, so knowledge of the complex interplays between the virus and other diseases is key to understanding COVID-19-related complications and identifying repurposable drugs, Cheng said. Our study provides a powerful, integrative network medicine strategy to predict disease manifestations associated with COVID-19 and facilitate the search for an effective treatment.

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Cleveland Clinic team draws a link between COVID-19 protection and the sleep aid melatonin - FierceBiotech

SEATTLE A federal judge in Seattle has awarded $10 million to the family of a severely disabled child who was born after a community clinic nurse inadvertently gave the mother a flu shot instead of a birth-control injection.

The Seattle Times reported that US District Judge Robert Lasnik last week awarded the child $7.5 million for her medical, educational and other expenses, on top of $2.5 million in damages for her parents.

After a trial earlier this year, Lasnik found that the mother, Yeseni Pacheco, did not want to become pregnant and would not have become pregnant in 2011 if the nurse at the Neighborcare Health clinic had given her the correct shot.

The federal government is responsible for the damages because the clinic, which serves low-income and uninsured patients, is federally funded.

The familys lawyers, Mike Maxwell and Steve Alvarez, described the case in court documents as a wrongful pregnancy and wrongful life case. They said the case was a hard-fought battle and sharply criticized the government for refusing to accept responsibility at the outset.

Luis and Yesenia Pacheco are pleased that theyre closer to receiving the funds needed for their daughters extraordinary medical care and training, they wrote in a statement. It was a long hard road for the family.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the US Attorneys Office in Seattle, which defended the lawsuit, said some of the delays were necessary to ensure medical experts could accurately measure the extent of the childs disabilities.

Pacheco, an El Salvadoran refugee who moved to the US when she was 16, had gone to the clinic for a quarterly injection of Depo-Provera, a hormone used for birth control.

A nurse at the clinic who had been administering walk-in flu shots all day apparently did not check Pachecos chart and gave Pacheco the flu vaccine instead, the court found.

Pacheco didnt discover the mistake until she called to make her next appointment, more than two months later. By then, she was pregnant.

The child is now 8 years old and in third grade at an Everett-area school, north of Seattle.

According to court documents, she suffers from a birth defect known as bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria (PMG), which has resulted in cognitive delays, slowed speech and language skills, epilepsy, vision problems and other complications.

She has an IQ of 70, according to the familys attorneys. Maxwell said that she will live a normal life span, and will require some level of care and assistance for her entire life.

Justice Department lawyers are asking that some of the award be placed in a reversionary trust that would return to the government if the girl does not need it.

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Judge awards $10M to family in 'wrongful life' case - West Haven Observer

While people are glad to have access to technology like Zoom and Facetime to stay connected with friends and family, this does not fully meet the need for social interaction that human beings need to thrive, said Dr. Emily Sander, psychologist at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing. The reality of human connection is that aspects of communication that build trust and connection, such as touch and eye contact, cannot be accomplished via video technology.

Online meetings she has observed during the pandemic involve more uncomfortable silence as well as less social chatter, less laughing than pre-pandemic in-person meetings. She said this might be caused by failing to activate our mirror neurons, which are brain cells that allow us to reflect the facial expressions, body language, and emotions of others.

Emily Sander, psychologist at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing. Submitted photo

When humans are together, these mirror neurons activate automatically, giving us a wealth of data that fosters communication, connection, and learning, Sander said. When we are not able to be physically present with others, we are left without much of this data, and the quality of the interaction is diminished.

Jessica Wiskow, school counselor at Ellsworth High School, said extended online meetings and classes have caused Zoom fatigue in some of the teachers.

So much of our communication comes from nonverbal cues, and when in groups where people are only focusing on the main speaker many nonverbal cues are missed, Wiskow said. I think its hard to feel engaged and supported when half of the message is lost in translation.

She said the strength of human relationships is critical in education. Teachers and staff at Ellsworth High School have been working

Jessica Wiskow, counselor at Ellsworth High School in Ellsworth. Submitted photo

I feel this paid off last spring when we were shut down, she said. We were able to cash in some of the relationship equity we built with the students to engage them during a very scary time.

Another concern about screen time is the drug-like effect it can have on the brain, because screen-based activities trigger the release of dopamine, which Sander said is often called the happy hormone.

These activities impact the reward system in the brain in a way that is similar to addictive substances or addictive behaviors, like gambling, Sander said. This was an issue in households across the world long before COVID-19, but the limitations of the pandemic have made finding alternatives to screentime far more difficult for many individuals and families.

For students, distance learning has created problems with appropriate study spaces, anxiety, parental support, and learning styles.

If there is one thing that this pandemic has confirmed for me is that every individual child and adolescent learns differently, Sander said. The primary motivator that makes many students excited to go to school each day is simply not the same in a distance-learning format, and that is getting to spend time with friends.

Sitting for hours in front of a screen is not healthy for anyone, Sander said, and she encourages families to set up screen free times and model healthy boundaries in using devices. Breaking sessions of screen time up with other activities, especially those that involve some movement like sports, yoga, games or family walks can provide relief from added screen time.

Movement supplies oxygen to the brain, promotes the creation of new brain cells, and helps those brain cells make connections, Sander explained. Movement also increases energy, reduces stress, and soothes the mind and bodily tension.

With many families involved in remote work as well as distance learning, it may be harder to keep to some standard routines like getting enough sleep.

I firmly believe that every household should have a tech curfew where screens are put away at least 30 minutes prior to bedtime each night, Sander said.

Sander said some adults who feel limited using technology might experience more distress when they attempt to communicate and struggle with the technology.

While there are many challenges related to the increase in screen time in all of our lives, every challenge we face in life is an opportunity for growth, Sander said. As we learn to navigate this very new world of heavy screen use in schools, the workplace, and home, I encourage individuals and families to examine their individual needs and to learn to advocate for those needs whenever possible.

As COVID cases continue to increase, no one knows how long our current situation will last, how long the additional screen time will be our lifestyle. Because mobile devices and tablets are relatively new, Sander said our understanding of the impact of screen time on the human brain is also new and is increasing.

While some of the effects may be negative, she recognizes one thing that gives her hope.

Humans are capable of resilience, she said. We can dig in and be resilient for a while, then we see a bit of a crash. People have to regroup and let themselves experience the grief that comes along with all of the changes that we are seeing, then pick ourselves up and continue. My suspicion is that is what we are going to see over time.

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Screen time increases with pandemic adjustments - RiverTowns

Since the FDA approved the abortion pill mifepristone in 2000, self-managed at-home abortions in the US have become increasingly common.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 39% of all abortions in 2017 were carried out with the abortion pill, also known as medication abortion, compared to 29% in 2014.

With many states still lacking widespread abortion clinic access and the imminent challenging of Roe v. Wade which says pregnant women have the right to abortions without excessive government intervention self-managed abortions with the pills mifepristone and misoprostol are likely to become especially sought-after, Carole Joffe, sociologist and co-author of "Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America,"told Insider.

Here's everything you need to know about medication abortion.

Two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, are used together to complete a self-managed abortion, Yale University gynecologist Dr. Mary Jane Minkin told Insider.

After a healthcare provider explains other abortion options and completes lab tests to ensure you're a good candidate for medication abortion, you'll be given mifepristone and misoprostol, directions on how to use the pills, and a number to call if you need assistance during or after the abortion.

At home, you'll first take the mifepristone, which blocks the production progesterone, a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. Right after or up to two days later, depending on your doctor's instructions, you'll take misoprostol, a drug that causes the uterus to contract and pushes the embryo or fetus out of your body.

"You will be experiencing, in a sense, a miscarriage," Minkin said.

Misoprostol normally causes cramping and bleeding one to four hours after a patient takes it, according to Planned Parenthood.

Sometimes a self-managed abortion is only done with mifepristone, but research has shown that using both drugs in tandem leads to better outcomes because it prevents the potential need for surgery to remove the fetus.

Afterwards, you'll have a follow-up appointment with a doctor to make sure the abortion is complete.

A person can do a self-managed abortion up to 11 weeks after the first day of their menstrual cycle, Minkin said.

After that, you'd have to explore other options. People with IUDs, bleeding disorders, a suspected ectopic pregnancy, or who are allergic to the pills can't get medication abortions, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The effectiveness of the abortion pill changes depending on close you get to the 11-week cutoff.

For example, the pill is effective between 94% and 98% effective for people who are less than eight weeks pregnant. But for people who are nine to 10 weeks pregnant, the pill is effective 91% to 93% of the time, the Planned Parenthood website says.

Sometimes doctors will prescribe an extra dose of medicine for patients who are closer to the 11-week threshold, which can increase effectiveness, according to Planned Parenthood.

To get the drugs you need for a self-medicated abortion, you'll need to see a gynecologist who's trained and licensed to give you the pills. Most gynecologists have this ability, Minkin said, and you can call and ask ahead of time if you're unsure.

If you can't access a gynecologist in your area, you can order the pill online.

Carafem, a reproductive healthcare provider in Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, Washington DC, and Illinois, offers both in-person and telemedicine medicated abortion services.

People who want the pill in these states but don't live in driving distance of a brick-and-mortar provider can set up an encrypted video meeting with a physician and then they'll be sent the pills in the mail, according to chief operating officer Melissa Grant.

Grant said Carafem in-person clinics are located in close proximity to states that don't have easy abortion access. Over the summer, Carafem found 30% of their clients drove more than 100 miles to get to their clinics in Washington DC, Nashville, Chicago, and Atlanta, Grant said.

Minkin said medicated abortion is typically less expensive than in-clinic, but cost varies based on your location and insurance coverage.

According to Planned Parenthood, the pill can cost up to $1,000 without insurance.

If you have Medicaid and need an abortion due to rape, incest, or life endangerment due to carrying a pregnancy, all states cover the cost of the pill, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Due to a piece of legislation called The Hyde Amendment, 16 other states use their own funds to cover abortions, including the pill, for reasons outside of the three previously mentioned if you have Medicaid.

Though rare, there are complications that can occur after a self-managed abortion, including excessive bleeding, blood clots, and infection.

If you have any of these symptoms, contact your healthcare provider right away and go to the hospital.

Read more here:
Everything you need to know about the abortion pill, according to a gynecologist - Insider - INSIDER

Karen Russell, MD, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Published 12:36 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2020

Karen Russell, the medical director for cancer research, talks about the importance of research and clinical trials.

Dr. Karen Russell, a cancer and hematology specialist at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, speaks with a breast cancer patient at the chemotherapy infusion and exam area of the Cancer Center of the hospital.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

While this year has brought a new normal for us all, we found cancer was somewhat hidden in the shadows as the world focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, cancer unfortunately continued to be disruptive and deadly, especially breast cancer.

Today, breast cancer remains the No. 1cancer in incidence for women and men combined in the United States (not including non-melanoma skin cancers). Through improved access to prevention and better treatment options, it is no longer the highest in mortality as death rates have dropped 40 percent for women between 1989 and 2017.

Yet this year alone an estimated 42,000+ deaths are predicted in the United States (American Cancer Society), which is still too many. With these daunting statistics in mind, we get to work to find a cure.

Every advancement in breast cancer care and prevention has been the result of a clinical trial and the patients who have participated in these trials. Paving the way for progress, clinical trials are how we improve healthcare and ultimately, save lives.

At Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, we are proud to offer an international network of clinical trials for cancer patients in the Big Bend. Clinical trials are an important piece of the complete care offered at TMH, as they provide the opportunity for patients to receive new and cutting-edge treatments.

Currently, we have six clinical trials active specifically for breast cancer patients. These trials are a mix of large, often government or public sector funded, cooperative group trials among many cancer centers around the world, alternately, those directly run by pharmaceutical companies testing new drugs or new timing/indication for drugs that have worked well.

Four current studies are in the area of aggressive estrogen positive or triple negative breast cancer, using added chemotherapy or immunotherapy before or after surgery in hopes for prevention of recurrence and increased cure.

BWEL is an ongoing cooperative trial led by the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. This study is an intervention of weight loss and fitness counseling after treatment of early breast cancer, where there has been suggestive data that healthy weight and exercise can decrease cancer recurrence. We continue to see robust enrollment to this trial and are encouraged by the patient experience.

We are also part of an anonymous cancer registry trial that compiles data on side effects and quality of life for our patients to improve holistic care. This clinical trial is available to all cancer types.

Finally, we continue to follow patients in an ongoing phase three trial already reporting positive results, using the new drug abemaciclib with hormone blocking therapy after standard treatment. Patients with estrogen expressing breast cancers receiving the new drug have lower recurrence rates (less cancer coming back) in the time studied to date.

In the next few months, we are excited to expand this portfolio with additional trials of novel drugs that continue to offer life-changing results for our patients. Specifically, we will soon be contributing to the COVID-19 Cancer Consortium (CCC-19) led by Vanderbilt University, to further understand how cancer patients have experienced COVID at various stages of their therapy.

Unfortunately, only about three percent of U.S. adult patients with cancer enroll in clinical trials, largely because there is a lack of access for patients to clinical research in many communities. At the very heart of improving cancer care, there must be a local cancer clinic providing accessibility to the people who need it most, and TMH is proud to be the leader in comprehensive cancer care providing access to our region.

We thank you for your continued support for the cancer services and patients at Tallahassee Memorial Cancer Center. For more information on clinical trials, visit TMH.ORG/Cancer.

Dr. Karen Russell(Photo: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare)

Karen Russell, MD, medical oncologist at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

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Cure for cancer is research: Clinical trials pave the way at TMH - Tallahassee Democrat

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip, Palestine I always encourage the women I know to do a self-examination and regular screenings, Intisar, 55, told UNFPA. She is a breast cancer survivor from Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, and her outspokenness about the topic is a rarity in her community.

The incidence of breast cancer has been increasing in Palestine in recent years partly due to growing awareness and detection, but also because of lifestyle and dietary habits related to poverty. It is the most prevalent cancer among Palestinian women, accounting for 32 per cent of cancer diagnoses in the West Bank and 18 per cent of those in the Gaza Strip.

Breast cancer is most treatable when detected early. Unfortunately, more than 60 per cent of breast cancer cases in Palestine are found at a late stage, reducing the chance of survival.

Women with breast cancer also face serious stigma.

In Palestine, it is widely understood that vulnerability to breast cancer can be hereditary. As a result, some women avoid getting screened because they fear a breast cancer diagnosis could affect their daughters marriage prospects. Women with breast cancer have also faced gender-based violence and abandonment. A recent UNFPA study showed that breast cancer stigma is a major cause of delayed detection and treatment.

Intisar was fortunate to have the support of her family when she received her breast cancer diagnosis in 2016. But the social stigma left her feeling depressed and isolated.

UNFPA works with the Ministry of Health to improve detection and treatment efforts, and coordinates a breast cancer working group.

Working with Augusta Victoria Hospital and the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and with funding from the Government of Japan, UNFPA has deployed a mobile breast cancer screening clinic to marginalized communities in the West Bank.

UNFPA also works closely with the Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA) and the Campaign for the Children of Palestine to support breast cancer patients in Gaza. After Intisar received chemotherapy, she started to visit the CFTA for services.

There, she received a wig, dignity kits with hygiene products, hormone therapy, vitamins, medication and financial assistance. The association also helped her receive a mastectomy operation and prostheses. CFTA also provided psychosocial support, recreational activities and group outings.

I met women who became my real friends, Intisar recalled.

These services, as well as community awareness sessions, are supported by UNFPA with funding from the Government of Japan. Awareness is essential, experts say.

The aim is to increase awareness on the importance of early diagnosis for breast cancer for both women and men, said Firyal Thabet, director of the Women Health Centre at CFTA.

We do this by online campaigns, radio coverage, and by involving mosques, hair salons and taxi companies. Now we see more and more women and men coming to our centre for screening.

Swift access to treatment services is also crucial. A recent evaluation of UNFPAs projects on breast cancer found that, among the projects clients, the average time from diagnosis to initiation of treatment fell from 6 months to 7 days between 2016 and 2018.

Still, some treatment options remain out of reach.

Intisar needed to receive radiotherapy, but no such services were available in Gaza. CFTA helped her obtain a permit from the Israeli authorities to receive treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, but her permit application was rejected five times before she was finally granted permission.

In 2018, almost 40 per cent of Israeli permit applications for Palestinian patients to exit the Gaza Strip to receive treatment in the West Bank or Jerusalem were rejected or delayed. About a quarter of these applications were for cancer care.

Today, Intisar is a leading advocate for early detection and a peer supporter at CFTA. She also counsels women and girls about the topic in her community. Breast cancer is a start of a new life and not the end of your life, she tells them. Do not give up.

She is also refusing to give up.

A year ago, doctors found a small cancerous tumour on her lung. She is again undergoing chemotherapy.

I am hopeful that I will recover again, she said, with the help of God and those around me.

Continue reading here:
For one breast cancer survivor in Gaza Strip, a journey of hardship and hope - occupied Palestinian territory - ReliefWeb

Crom Rehabilitation puts your physical therapy goals first while striving to keep you safe.

Here in the U.S. and around the globe, were struggling to get used to the new normal, at least for the time being. Really, none of us have ever been through anything like this! Itll be wonderful when COVID is under control but until then, we must all do our part to keep others safe.

Crom Rehabilitation is built on the principle of putting you and your physical therapy goals first but we also need to keep you safe and do as much as we possibly can to avoid spreading this terrible virus while youre visiting our center! When you come into the Crom Rehabilitation Houston clinic, your time and resources will be respected as our professional staff works to create a rehabilitative program that is tailored to meet your needs and help you effectively achieve your therapeutic goals. Together with our team of experienced therapists, we will work towards helping you reach your maximum rehabilitative potential and return to your previous lifestyle without pain or disability.

Our profession has gained some regulatory momentum.Heres some food for thought: our profession has fought hard to get to the level of autonomy and recognition we have garnered this far. The fact that physical therapy has been recognized at the federal level as essential work is monumental. We now have an opportunity to shine and truly show that we have the skills, education, and fortitude to be considered primary care providers for neuromusculoskeletal issues. What better use of our skillset than to assist in this time of crisis in order to reduce the volume of musculoskeletal pain patients in emergency rooms and urgent care? We are trained in use of personal protective equipment (PPE); we understand the science behind viral transmission and can help educate our patients-and their families-on proper handwashing, sanitization, and other ways to mitigate infection.

When we first started hearing about COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the media, it seemed like the chances of a global pandemic-while possible-were more hypothetical than anything. After all, we have seen other health concerns rise and recede-but this part of the world, we have experienced little social impact. And now, here we are almost overnight, it seems we have found ourselves in the middle of a global crisis. And while solutions are in flight, it will probably be some time before things fully return to normal-whatever the new normal may be.

Embrace social distancing.According to the CDC, this entire year is going to remain challenging and as much as many of us are tired of the masks, lockdowns etc its very important that we all do our part! In addition to carrying over sanitization best practices from your home to the Crom clinic, you should also follow similar social distancing guidelines. By nature, physical therapy has some unique challenges when it comes to maintaining a healthy distance between patients and providers. However, here are a few best practices that will reduce the risk of unnecessary contact:

Taking Care of Our PatientsConsidering all the business and financial uncertainty, it is vital that physical therapy practice owners do not forget our overarching mission as healthcare providers: ensuring the health and wellbeing of outpatients. Our patients are our most valuable asset, and many of them fall into the high risk category, which means they are even more scared. Plus, they are hearing all kinds of information, statistics and hypotheticals from people who may, or many are not trusted sources. As their physical therapist, you play the role of care provider, educator, and-now more than ever-a guiding light in the storm ahead.

Taking Care of YourselfThe most important part of this entire crisis is you! This may seem oversimplified, but your first line of defense starts at home. I suspect this wont be news to any of you, but keeping your home environment clean is the key to ensuring you and your family remain healthy as well as slowing the spread of illness, so:

And of course, consume plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Chances are that your local grocery store is fully stocked with both at the moment.

There has also been a lot of discussion regarding social distancing, or physical distancing, as the World Health Organization now refers to it, which you should practice at all times. Stick to critical gatherings only and limit them to 10 people or fewer. When you have to leave your home, keep about six feet of distance between you and other people.

Of course, taking care of yourself goes beyond cleanliness and proximity, which is why aggressive hand washing and sanitizing isnt the only thing you should be doing for yourself.

Practice self-careOne of the things that makes this health crisis so unique is that it is not isolated to a single continent or hemisphere-it is everywhere. As a result, the entire world is feeling the effects-both physically and mentally. In moments of stress-and when we experience feelings of helplessness-our brains become flooded with cortisol (the stress hormone) which has been proven to impair brain function, decision-making abilities, and rationalization. For that reason, it is not uncommon for people to turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. But, as Im sure you know, unhealthy habits can weaken the bodys immunity and when were stressed, our immunity is already less than optimal.

For that reason, it is important to be kind to yourself: go for a walk; meditate; do a quick yoga routine; play with your dog. There are companies that offer extended free trials in light of this crisis (guided meditation apps). And if you find yourself with extra time on your hands, pick up a hobby you wouldnt otherwise have time for: learn an instrument; make a new recipe with the kids; put a dent in your reading list. Devoting time to self-care and wellness is crucial to keeping your mind happy, which will make your body happy, too. These self-care reminders have been extremely helpful to many as they are juggling working, home-schooling children and all the other extra stress that has come along with this pandemic.

Crm Rehabilitation734 North Loop, Houston, TX 77009281-729-5130

For more information, visit cromrehab.com

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What Happens to A Physical Therapy Clinic during COVID-19? - outsmartmagazine.com

Decades of research has shown that singing individually and in groups is good for you on many levels.

Here, according to science, are 10 key benefits of raising your voice in song.

Singing appears to be a stress-reliever. A 2017 study measured the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, in participants saliva before and after they sang.

Researchers in that study found that the amount of cortisol was lower after singing, an indication that people felt more relaxed after theyd belted out a tune.

They also found singing reduces stress levels whether the participants were singing in a group or by themselves.

Theres a small catch, though: Cortisol only goes down if youre singing in a place that doesnt make you anxious. A similar 2015 study tested salivary cortisol levels after a singing performance, finding that cortisol levels went up in this scenario.

Theres some evidence that singing may boost your immune system and help you fight off illnesses.

A 2004 study compared the effects of singing with the effects of simply listening to music. In two separate sessions, research subjects either sang or listened to music.

Those who sang showed higher levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody your body secretes to help you fend off infections. Listening to music (without singing along) reduced stress hormones but didnt stimulate the bodys immune system.

When you sing in a group, whether its a large choir or a smaller group, the act of collective singing causes your body to release endorphins. This hormone can help promote positive feelings, and even change your perception of pain.

A 2012 study found that singing, drumming, and dancing in a group triggers the release of hormones that raise your pain tolerance in ways that just listening to music doesnt.

Researchers note that the feelings of social connection, rather than the music itself, seems to be behind the boost in pain tolerance.

Regular singing may change the way you breathe, even when youre not singing. Researchers in a 2008 study interviewed the spouses of choir members, along with the spouses of people who dont sing.

The researchers found that significantly fewer choir members snored. This led them to recommend regular singing as a potential treatment for snoring.

Studies have also shown that people who play wind instruments also snore less than the general population.

These findings have prompted some experts to suggest that singing and playing wind instruments might be helpful for people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Because singing involves deep breathing and the controlled use of muscles in the respiratory system, it may be beneficial for certain lung and breathing conditions.

Studies have shown that the breathing techniques used with singing may offer benefits for people with the following conditions:

While singing doesnt treat or cure any of these conditions, you may benefit from gaining strength in your respiratory muscles.

Singing also increases the amount of oxygen in your blood, research shows. In addition to the pulmonary benefits, singers also experience improved mood and a greater sense of social connection.

When you sing together with others, youre likely to feel the same kind of camaraderie and bonding that players on sports teams experience.

In one 2014 study involving 11,258 schoolchildren, researchers found that children in a singing and musical engagement program developed a strong sense of community and social inclusion.

In a 2016 study involving 375 adult participants, researchers found that people who sang together in a group reported a higher sense of wellbeing and meaningful connection than people who sang solo.

One of the neurochemicals released when people feel bonded together is oxytocin, also known as the love hormone.

Spontaneous, improvised singing causes your body to release this feel-good hormone, which may help give you a heightened sense of connectedness and inclusion.

People with Alzheimers disease and other types of dementia experience a gradual loss of memory. Studies have shown that people with these conditions were able to recall song lyrics more easily than other words.

In one singing study by the Alzheimers Foundation, participants said it was nice to be able to remember something.

However, the singers found they remembered more than just the lyrics. For some, singing familiar songs suddenly brought back life memories theyd forgotten, too.

Researchers found that singing songs learned at a younger age caused a spontaneous return of autobiographical details for many people.

Singing in a group doesnt just help you with physical pain; it may also help with the emotional pain you feel after youve lost someone you love.

In a 2019 study conducted among people dealing with grief, researchers found that for those who sang in a choir, depression symptoms didnt get worse over time and their sense of wellbeing remained stable.

In fact, the choir singers felt a gradual improvement in their self-esteem during and after the 12-week study. Those in the control group who didnt participate in the singing intervention didnt report this benefit.

Researchers concluded that group singing may be a good option for people who need additional support during a time of grief.

A 2018 study done in the United Kingdom evaluated 20 people in a singing program known as The Sing Your Heart Out project. The participants included people with mental health conditions, as well as the general public.

Researchers found that the participants reported improvements in their mental health, mood, sense of well-being, and feeling of belonging as a result of these singing workshops.

Decades ago, scientists began researching the effects of singing among people who have a hard time with speech due to a neurological condition.

To date, researchers have found that singing improves the speaking ability for people with:

Singing stimulates multiple areas of the brain at the same time. This may enable people with an impairment in one part of the brain to communicate using other areas of their brain.

Singing can also prolong the sounds in each word, which may make it easier to pronounce them.

Singing also makes it easier to incorporate hand-tapping, a method that can help people maintain speaking rhythms that are otherwise challenging.

Because SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, is known to spread through respiratory particles, public health officials have cautioned against events where people sing collectively.

Researchers are currently advising organizers to keep rehearsals short, small, and ideally, remote. Larger, longer events are likely to be problematic for now.

Using masks, outdoor venues, and physical distancing may help, but are not a guarantee that the virus causing COVID-19 wont spread when people meet to sing in person.

Research on this relatively new phenomenon is being continually updated.

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Benefits of Singing: 10 Ways Singing Boosts Your Health - Healthline

When Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, many began to lament the potential undoing of a host of human rights milestones. High among them was the federal decision on abortion access.

In 1973, via the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman's right to choose an abortion is protected by the Constitution. Earlier this year, in an amicus brief, more than 200 Republican Congress members urged the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. Anti-abortion activists have been setting up legal cases in states such as Louisiana and Mississippi in an effort to have them heard by the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Illinois lawmakers have promised the state will continue to provide this necessary medical procedure, regardless of any potential decisions that would undo the precedent set by Roe v. Wade.

Before Ginsburg's death, Brigid Leahy, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, and others were already hard at work solidifying protections. "We have been seeing a steady drumbeat of attacks on access to reproductive health care, and attacks on abortion access in particular. These are state-level attacks and they are part of a national strategy to cut off access to abortion," said Leahy.

As part of an effort to combat those attacks, in 2019 Illinois passed the Reproductive Health Act. The point was to ensure any federal decision would not undermine the ability for people to access abortions in Illinois. Now "access to reproductive health care is a fundamental right under Illinois law," Leahy said. The measure affirmed that the state should handle reproductive procedures the same as all other forms of health care. It also required private medical insurance providers that cover maternal health costs to also cover abortion. The state had decided in 2017 abortion would be covered by Medicaid.

The road to care

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the number of nonresidents coming to the state for abortions has risen in recent years. Between 2014 and 2018, the percentage grew by more than 90%, up to 5,669 cases in 2018.

Hope Clinic for Women, in Granite City, is near the state's border with Missouri where there is a single abortion clinic left. Hope Clinic is one of the oldest clinics of its kind in the country, founded in 1974. Many early practitioners there were motivated by the desire to prevent the deaths of women, who had limited options for safe abortion before Roe v. Wade, said Alison Dreith, the clinic's current deputy director.

Missouri is one of the states that has passed sweeping restrictions in recent years. As more states make it harder for people to access care, Hope Clinic has provided an increasing number of abortions, Dreith said. In 2017 and the decade prior, the clinic was seeing about 3,000 patients a year, she said. In 2019, the same year the Reproductive Health Act passed, that number was above 5,000. Dreith said the increase was due to the "proactive legislation in Illinois" as well as "restrictive laws also being passed in our neighboring state."

Photo by Julie Lynn

Activists dressed as handmaids observed an Illinois House human services committee meeting in May of 2019 as the Reproductive Health Act was under consideration. The Handmaids Tale is a book by Margaret Atwood, published in 1985, about a dystopian, patriarchal society where fertile women are enslaved as breeders. The book follows the womens attempts to gain their independence. The novel was made into a popular television series on Hulu, with the first episode released in 2017. Handmaid outfits have become common for those demonstrating in support of reproductive health care in recent years.

Along with the increase of clients has come an increase of opposition. "We've seen an insurgence of new protesters coming to our clinic" and the Trump administration has seemingly emboldened them, said Dreith. She said the protesters have physically blocked clients from getting into the clinic. This form of antagonism, while on the rise, is not new. In 1982 a Hope Clinic doctor and his wife were kidnapped by members of an extremist group called the "Army of God."

Dreith said about 65% of patients come from out of state, largely from Missouri. Last year, The New Yorker wrote about Illinois as an "abortion-rights haven." As the article states, it was long before Ginsburg's death that advocates began the fight to codify abortion rights through additional avenues. "Staff from Planned Parenthood offices across the country were holding a strategy session in Chicago on June 27, 2018, when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, clearing the way for Trump to appoint Kavanaugh," the article read. One of those people was Brigid Leahy, who told the magazine, "We started looking state by state and asking, where do we need to shore things up." The goal was to ensure "Illinois was as strong on reproductive rights as we could possibly make it," she had said.

Before Roe v. Wade

Abortion is literally ancient history, with evidence of the practice dating back into the pre-modern era. Miscarriages are quite common. One in eight pregnancies end with one, according to some statistics. Some women need an abortion to assist their miscarriage, a medical intervention for a natural process. Regardless of the reason, without legal and safe abortion, women have taken matters into their own hands, using risky self-induced methods or patronizing unregulated and unsanitary providers. "Almost every abortion death and disability could be prevented through sexuality education, use of effective contraception, provision of safe, legal induced abortion and timely care for complications," according to the World Health Organization.

It took an evolution of thought for LuAnn Atkins to see abortion as a human rights issue. Five decades ago, she was one of the first students at Sangamon State University (SSU) now University of Illinois Springfield. Married with two children, she had moved to Springfield in 1966. While at SSU, she earned a degree in "justice and the social order." During that time she was introduced to the women's liberation movement.

Previously, Atkins had earned a college degree in Texas, and had attended the University of Oklahoma where she had been active in campus ministry. While at SSU she took a human sexuality course and read the book Our Bodies, Ourselves. A touchstone of the second wave of feminism and the women's health movement, the book was created "by and for women." First published in 1970, the book was born of cooperative effort. At a women's liberation conference in Boston in 1969, women shared their accounts related to sexuality, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause and other topics largely considered taboo at the time. Some continued to meet and research, and together they published the book which was then distributed at women's centers and regularly taught on liberal college campuses.

Photo courtesy Hope Clinic for Women

Hope Clinic for Women sponsored this billboard on I-55/64, viewable by drivers to Illinois from Missouri.

"It freed me up to think more about my body and how that relates to my total life. And slowly, my values began to evolve," said Atkins. Atkins found out about an organization based in New York City called the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR). The organization still active and now called the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Care began as an "underground network of ministers and rabbis called the Clergy Consultation Service (CCS), formed in 1967, six years before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in the United States," according to the group's website. RCAR helped women find safe pathways to abortion. Many of those involved were also participants in the civil rights movement. They saw their work for racial justice to be connected to the fight for reproductive health access.

The 1970 book Our Bodies, Ourselves helped many women realize that a lack of adequate and comprehensive reproductive health care was a common problem.

A Methodist, Atkins felt called toward the intersection of faith and women's health. In 1971, she started a chapter of RCAR in Springfield. There were four clergy people who agreed to help counsel women and two volunteers, including herself. Atkins said two OB-GYN doctors in Springfield agreed to refer women to the local RCAR chapter.

At the time, abortion was legal in Kansas City, so women could be referred to seek assistance there. There were also doctors in Chicago who would perform abortions illegally. For later term abortions, some women would fly to New York City. Atkins said there was a couple in western Illinois, a doctor and a nurse practitioner, who would also perform abortions. She said RCAR members would visit providers they referred women to see. "We wanted to make sure that the places we told people about were safe." She would tell the women she counseled, "I'm not here to question you. I'm not here to make sure you're making the right decision. It's up to you. I just want to help you."

In Springfield, local women had founded the city's first birth control center in 1938. According to the Sangamon County Historical Society, the dominating presence of what is now St. John's Hospital meant doctors were largely averse to assisting the effort, as the Catholic health provider opposed all forms of "unnatural" birth control. Volunteers largely ran the clinic, and it went through a series of iterations and names before becoming officially affiliated with Planned Parenthood in the '70s.

Atkins became the executive director in 1973 and held the post until 1980. Her leadership came on the heels of the Roe v. Wade decision. Atkins went on to work in public health before retiring from St. John's hospice program as a social worker in 1997.

While religious leaders and people of faith, such as Atkins, have long been a part of the battle for women's health care access, it's the so-called religious right that is often given the biggest spotlight in the enduring national debate. Organizations such as the Eagle Forum and the Illinois Family Institute continue to lobby against abortion access, arguing that life begins at conception and embryos and fetuses should be protected by the state.

Photo courtesy UIS Archives

LuAnn Atkins addressed the crowd at an SSU honor dinner. This photo first appeared in the fall, 1975 edition of the universitys magazine. The magazine also had an article in it by Atkins where she wrote about how her experience taking a human sexuality course put her on a path to leading the local Planned Parenthood.

In 2017, at the age of 85, Atkins joined others in Springfield as they rallied to defend funding for Planned Parenthood, squaring off against protesters on the other side of the argument. Dressed in pink, her curly white hair under a floral visor, she held a sign that read, "I will not go quietly back to the 1950s."

"I have been very upset, frankly, over the last 15 or 20 years, that there's been a blurring of the lines between how church and state are separated," she said. "We are not a religious state. We are secular." Abortion access means lower mortality rates for women and bodily autonomy, said Atkins. She said of her ideological opponents, "I don't think it's about saving the fetus. It's about controlling women."

Onward

Jenna Gordon is a social worker with Planned Parenthood of Illinois who works downstate. Like Atkins, she said her role is not to tell clients what to do, but to let them know their options, and support their decisions. She counsels clients from a variety of backgrounds. "I'm typically able to help them with some things such as intimate partner violence, sexual assault or financial and familial strain." When it comes to the decision of how to handle a pregnancy, the approach is that the decision must be up to the patient, "in consultation with their health care provider," she said.

"No matter their reason, we want to be there to help and support them, and we always trust our patients to be making their own fully informed sexual and reproductive health care decisions." Planned Parenthood provides sexually transmitted infection screening and treatment, contraception, gender affirming hormone treatment and other services.

Photo courtesy state Rep. Ann Williams

Women dressed as handmaids, a reference to The Handmaid's Tale, to support passage of the Reproductive Health Act in Illinois and rallied at the Capitol in 2019.

When it comes to abortion, many clients still feel the harmful effects of stigma, said Gordon. "Plenty of my patients tell me about the fact that their family or their partner is going to ostracize them or leave them because of their decision to have an abortion," she said. "It is definitely a misconception that people making decisions regarding their abortions do so in a flippant manner. The reality is that most people are putting deep thought and consideration into their decision." She said even though it can be a heavy choice to make, the most common reaction she hears from clients after the procedures is that of relief.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois continues to push for better access and education throughout the state. While Illinois has become a beacon of access, Brigid Leahy said the work of expanding education and access goes on.

One measure the state chapter is lobbying for would repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act which requires health care providers to notify the guardian of anyone under the age of 18 prior to performing an abortion. Another proposal aims to ensure more comprehensive sexual education throughout the state. "There is so much more work to do, we are not done. Holding the line and keeping the status quo is not enough," said Leahy.

Contact Rachel Otwell at rotwell@illinoistimes.com.

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Abortion haven - Illinois Times