Health News

Birth control pills — effectiveness, side-effects and health risks

Contraceptive pills

Every day, over 100 million women all over the world pop an emergency oral contraceptive pill. Oral contraceptive pills are no doubt an effective way to birth control in sexually active married women. But, such widespread use of birth control pills is definitely alarming because most women using them are unaware about its mechanism of action and its safety aspect. In this article, we highlight important aspects about birth control pills that every woman should know.

How does a birth control pill work?

A woman is said to become pregnant when the ovaries release an egg (through reproductive hormonal regulation) that gets fertilised by the male sperm. This fertilised egg then gets attached or implanted to the uterus, where it is nourished over the period of nine months to develop into a baby.

Oral contraceptive pills are designed such that they disrupt the normal hormonal cycle in women and create an artificial hormonal environment that does not allow you to conceive by interfering with contraception and implantation. Most birth control pills that are available today are a combination of oestrogen and progesterone (female reproductive hormones). These pills:

  • Block the release of egg from the ovaries
  • Make the entry of the sperm difficult by thickening the cervical mucus
  • Affect the sperm motility so that it does not reach the egg to fertilise it.

When should you take the pill?

Most birth control pills have clear instructions regarding dosage and use on their leaflet. Some pills are to be taken on specific days of the menstrual cycle. Emergency contraceptive pills are usually required to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. But not all brands of birth control pills can be used for emergency contraception. Further, the number of pills required to be taken in a dose differs for each brand.

What are the side-effects?

Birth control pills can cause minor side-effects which can appear immediately or any time after taking them. Every woman taking birth control pills will experience different side-effects including:

  1. Nausea
  2. Headache
  3. Weight gain
  4. Digestive problems- diarrhoea or constipation
  5. Vomiting
  6. Stomach cramps
  7. Changes in menstrual cycle
  8. Mood changes

These side-effects do not last for a long time. But there are some rare side-effects which need immediate medical attention:

  1. Severe headache
  2. Dizziness
  3. Sever stomach pain
  4. Swelling of hand and feet
  5. Unusual bleeding
  6. Heaviness in the chest
  7. Dark coloured urine
  8. Skin rash
  9. Speech problems
  10. Potential health risks of birth control pills

Several studies have linked the use of birth control pills with increased risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer. A study by Danish researchers suggested that oral contraceptive pills may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke in women. The risk is largely dependent on the dose of oestrogen used in the pill. There are several registered cases where women have suffered from blood clotting (deep vein thrombosis) after having a contraceptive pill.

Source: Health India

Pneumonia risk higher in sleep apnea sufferers

People suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, which causes the breathing airway to collapse intermittently during slumber, may be at a higher risk for developing pneumonia, according to a study from Taiwan

The study was published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal after researchers tracked 34,100 people for 11 years, including 6,815 who had sleep apnea.

Researchers excluded patients younger than 20 and those with an existing lung abscess or infection.

They found that 9.36 per cent of those in the sleep apnea group developed pneumonia within five years, compared to 7.77 per cent of subjects without the sleep disorder.

“This study showed that sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for incident pneumonia,” said the researchers, who added that patients with more severe sleep apnea may have a higher risk of pneumonia than patients with sleep apnea of milder severity.

They said disturbances in the immune system, brought on by sleep deprivation that is common to the breathing disorder, may have made subjects in the study more susceptible to the invasion of pathogens that can lead to pneumonia.

An estimated 860,000 Canadians — or three per cent of the population — have been diagnosed as having sleep apnea, and many more may not know they have it.

Moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea can be treated with what‘s called a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device, a machine that prevents the airway from collapsing.

Source: CBC news

New contraceptive ring aims to protect against both pregnancy and HIV

IntraVaginalRingNorthwestern

For decades, the condom has been the only form of contraceptive widely used to prevent both unplanned pregnancies and the transmission of HIV.

Now, researchers at Northwestern University have come up with a new option: An intravaginal ring that helps prevent pregnancy while simultaneously releasing low doses of an antiretroviral drug that reduces a woman’s risk of contracting both HIV and genital herpes.

Patrick Kiser, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern, devised the ring with the hopes that it would offer women more control over both disease and pregnancy prevention.

“The field of HIV prevention is really moving towards these long-acting drug delivery systems that require less user intervention, which is great because sex is episodic and exposure to [HIV] is episodic,” Kiser told FoxNews.com. “And because you don’t know when you’re going to be exposed, or even necessarily when you’re going to have sex, it’s better to…have protective measures on board at all time.”

Kiser and his team at Northwestern spent five years developing the two-inch ring, which releases doses of the contraceptive levonorgestrel and the common antiretroviral HIV medication tenofovir after being inserted in the vagina. Similarly to the NuvaRing, women can insert the device on their own. Women can then leave the ring in for up to 90 days, removing it briefly for cleaning if necessary.

Creating a device capable of releasing the proper doses of both the contraceptive and antiretroviral drugs posed a unique obstacle to researchers.

“The dose of contraceptive is very low – 10 micrograms per day, whereas with the antiviral drug we’re delivering is about 10 milligrams a day,” Kiser said. “That’s a thousand times different in terms of the amount being delivered for each drug and that was a real engineering challenge to develop a device that could achieve those extreme ranges of drug delivery.”

Eventually, they created a ring composed of three types of plastic tubing capable of releasing the appropriate doses of each medication contained within the device.

The medications used in the device both have a proven history of being both safe and effective. Levonorgestrel, which thickens a woman’s cervical mucus to prevent sperm from reaching the uterus, is widely used in popular forms of birth control like Mirena.

Source; Fox news

Daily shower bad for your skin? Try the ‘soak and smear’

The East and the Midwest have been suffering a frigid, seemingly endless winter. The West, mainly California, has been mired in drought. Neither is good for skin.

The cold can keep people indoors in dry heating, while drought is, well, dry.

Combine this weather with the American love of frequent showers and baths and you’ve got a recipe for itchy, parched skin, or aggravated conditionslike dermatitis and eczema. Should we stop showering so much, as suggested by a recent Discovery News story, and embrace our stink?

Not necessarily, say dermatologists. It’s not so much how often you bathe, but how you bathe that matters.

Forget about that all over-sudsing, suggests Dr. Casey Carlos, assistant professor of medicine in the division of dermatology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

“It’s the hardest thing to get people to use soap only where they need it,” Carlos told TODAY.com. Because soap is designed to remove oils from the skin, it’s drying. So Carlos suggests using it in armpits, the groin area, feet — the potentially smelly places —and skipping chest, back, legs, arms.

“People don’t realize that the skin does a pretty good job of cleaning itself,” Carlos said.

Use lukewarm, not hot, water, and keep showers short. (Water authorities in drought areas will thank you.) “Then, as soon as you get out of the shower, moisturize,” Carlos said.

Some research has shown using an emollient body wash can clean and moisturize as well as using an after-shower product. One risk, however, is that in-shower moisturizing can leave the shower or tub as slick as a used pasta plate.

“I used one, and the next time I stepped into the shower, I almost slipped,” Carlos said.

Baths can actually be therapeutic for dry skin sufferers because a soak in lukewarm water helps the skin absorb the moisture. Dermatologists use the phrase “soak and smear.” Soak for 10 or 15 minutes, then smear on moisturizer. That technique can be superior to moisturizing after a shower.

The American Academy of Dermatology says that small children and the elderly need to shower less often (unless, of course, your child has been building the Panama Canal in the backyard, or if they’ve been swimming in a lake, pool, or ocean.) The skin of small children is more delicate and elderly skin is naturally drier.

Many people, Carlos said, think that tight, after-shower feeling is a sign of cleanliness. It’s not. It means your skin is too dry

Source; Today health

 

Premature babies may be disadvantaged later in life

Children born prematurely may be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives by poor understanding of their needs, according to experts.

Paediatricians’ research has shown premature babies are more likely to have difficulties at school but few teachers are aware of this. The number of children born prematurely is rising because women are having babies later in life.

Researchers say the education system should adapt to reflect this change. They are calling for a child’s gestation to be recorded on their education records as a way of flagging up any problems.

‘Greater risk’
“We know from a Scottish study that the earlier you are born the more likely you are to have have problems at school”, said Glasgow paediatrician Dr Nashwa Matta.

“But these children may still be clever and the problems don’t appear until the workload increases at primary or secondary school.” Children born prematurely are more likely to be emotionally immature, lonely and at greater risk of bullying.

They ma y have visual perception issues, including difficulties with numbers and mathematics. Further traits of prematurely born children may include short memories, attention spans and problems with multi-tasking.

Some premature children are also disadvantaged if they are born at the end of the school year because they are effectively sent to school a year early. If they had been born full term they would have gone to school the following year. Around 4,000 babies are born prematurely every year in Scotland.

‘Behavioural issues’
Dr Matta has organised a one-day conference to highlight the issue at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

“The simplest thing to do is to put child’s gestation on their school entry form,” said Dr Matta. Then, when a teacher has a child with difficulty with attention, certain work, and memory then they will know he’s born prematurely and can find out what can be done so gap doesn’t get bigger.”

Three-year-old Findlay Masterton was born three months early. His mum Lorraine is worried he won’t be able to cope when he goes to school. “He has behavioural issues, there’s a strict regime of how he likes things done,” she said.

She added: “Findlay has different wee issues that a kid born full term wouldn’t have and I think these might show up when he goes to school next year.

“There’s nothing stated for schools that they have to do anything about this or give them extra time for their lessons. “Schools recognise medical problems, but pre-term? I don’t think it’s taken seriously enough.”

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) backed the call for tailored support for children with additional support needs.

An EIS spokesperson said: “Teachers and other education professionals working in our schools are aware of the broad range of additional support that is sometimes needed to allow all children to benefit fully from their education.

“There is a requirement for continuing investment in adequate ASN resources in all schools, and for teachers and other professionals to have access to ongoing professional development to ensure that they can continue meeting the particular needs of all pupils.”

Source: BBC news

Silk screws used to repair fractures

silk_screws

Screws made from 100% silk have been used to repair broken bones in research that could transform surgery.

US scientists say metal fixtures can potentially be replaced with plates and screws made from the natural fibre, which will eventually dissolve in the body.

So far the technique has only been tested on rodents. Silk was once used to make sutures, but more recently has been used in modern medical implants.

In the new research, a team of medical engineers at Tufts University, Massachusetts, made screws from medical grade silk using specially designed moulds. The silk material can be cut to different sizes on a machine.

The screws were implanted into the hind limbs of rats, where they functioned successfully for four to eight weeks.

By the end of the study, the silk had started to dissolve. The low stiffness of silk, which is similar to that of bone, and its ability to break down in the body, make it a promising bioengineering material compared with traditional metal plates and screws, the researchers say.

Lead researcher Dr David Kaplan said “The future is very exciting. We envision a whole set of orthopaedic devices for repair based on this – from plates and screws to almost any kind of device you can think of where you don’t want hardware left in the body.”

He added: “They don’t interfere with X-rays, they don’t set off alarms and they don’t cause sensitivity to cold.”

Recently, German researchers coated silicone breast implants with a thin layer of bioengineered silk proteins.

Preclinical studies suggest the coating reduces or prevents painful reactions.

The new research is published in the journal, Nature Communications.

Source: BBC news

Passive smoking causes irreversible damage to kids’ arteries

smoking]

Exposure to second-hand smoke in childhood causes irreversible damage to children’s arteries – increasing their risk of heart attacks or strokes when they grow up, according to a large international study published on Wednesday.

The research, which lends weight to campaigns for smoking to be banned in private cars and homes, found passive smoking leads to a thickening of children’s artery walls, adding some 3.3 years to the age of blood vessels by adulthood.

“Exposure to passive smoke in childhood causes direct and irreversible damage to the structure of the arteries,” said Seana Gall, a researcher in cardiovascular epidemiology who led the study at the University of Tasmania.

She said parents, or even those thinking about becoming parents, should quit smoking – both to aid their own health and protect the future health of their children.

Smoking causes lung cancer, which is often fatal, and is the world’s biggest cause of premature death from chronic conditions like heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure.

On top of the 6 million people a year killed by their own smoking, the World Health Organization (WHO) says another 600,000 die a year as a result of exposure to other peoples’ smoke – so-called second-hand or passive smoking.

Of the more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer, the WHO says – and creating 100 percent smoke-free environments is the only way to protect people fully.

About 40 percent of all children are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke at home, and almost a third of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke are in children.

ARTERY WALLS

This latest study, published in the European Heart Journal, was the first to follow children through to adulthood to look at links between exposure to parents’ smoking and thickness of the innermost two layers of the arterial wall, known as carotid intima-media thickness (IMT).

Researchers from Finland and Australia looked at data from 2,401 people in Finland 1,375 people in Australia who were asked about their parents’ smoking habits. The scientists used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the children’s artery walls once they had reached adulthood.

The results showed that carotid IMT in adulthood was 0.015 millimeters thicker in those exposed to both parents smoking than in those whose parents did not smoke.

Gall said that while this was a “modest” increase, it was nonetheless an important extra and irreversible risk for suffering heart attacks or strokes later in life.

Since children of parents who smoke are also more likely to grow up to be smokers themselves, and more likely to be overweight, their heart health risks are often already raised, she said, and the second-hand smoke adds yet more risk.

The researchers said the findings showed reducing children’s exposure to smoke is a public health priority.

“Legislation can reduce passive smoke exposure, with restriction of smoking in public places reducing hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease,” they wrote, adding that banning smoking in cars with children in them would also have a significant positive effect.

The United States, Australia and Canada have already banned smoking in cars carrying children, and Britain said last month that it too would be introducing a ban soon.

Source: Reuters

Antibiotic Misuse in Hospitals Raises Patient Infection Risk

More than half of hospitalized patients receive antibiotics, but these prescriptions may often be inappropriate — for example, giving patients the wrong medicine or leaving them on a drug for too long, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These prescriptions can put patients at risk for serious complications, including developing the deadly bacterial infection Clostridium difficile, according to the report.

In 2010, nearly 56 percent of hospitalized patients were prescribed antibiotics at some point during their stay, according to the report, which reviewed information from more than 300 U.S. hospitals.

But for about one-third of prescriptions for urinary tract infection (UTI), the researchers found evidence of prescribing errors: antibiotics were given without proper testing or evaluation for a UTI, or given for too long, the report found. (UTI is one of the most common conditions for which antibiotics are prescribed

In addition, an analysis of medical-surgical wards at selected hospitals showed that antibiotic use at some of these hospitals was three times higher than at other hospitals, a finding that suggests hospital prescribing practices can be improved, the CDC said.

The report found that patients who received powerful antibiotics (so-called board spectrum antibiotics) were three times more likely to get the notoriously difficult to treat diarrheal disease Clostridium difficile compared to patients who did not receive antibiotics.

The CDC estimates that reducing use of broad-spectrum antibiotics by 30 percent would lead to a 26 percent decrease in C. difficile infections. There are about 250,000 C. diff infections in hospitalized patients each year, and about 14,000 people in the U.S. die yearly from C. diff infections, CDC statistics show.

Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics also contributes to other antibiotic-resistant infections, a growing problem in U.S. hospitals, the CDC said.

“Antibiotics are often lifesaving; we have to protect them before our medicine chests run empty,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, told reporters today (March 4). “The drugs we have today are endangered, and any new drugs we get could be lost just as quickly if we don’t improve the way we prescribe and use them,” Frieden said.

The CDC recommends that every hospital implement a program to help improve antibiotic prescribing.

Such programs would include a way to monitor prescribing practices and antibiotic-resistant infections. The CDC also recommends that physicians who prescribe antibiotics reassess their patients after 48 hours to see whether the dose, duration or type of drug should be changed, Frieden said.

The CDC estimates that implementing these programs could reduce the rate of C. difficile infection by half over a five-year period, Frieden said.

The report will be published on Friday (March 7) in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Source: Live science

 

Intake of fish can boost good cholesterol levels

Increasing the intake of fatty fish increases the number of large HDL particles, according to a recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland. People who increased their intake of fish to a minimum of 3-4 weekly meals had more large HDL particles in their blood than people who are less frequent eaters of fish. Large HDL particles are believed to protect against cardiovascular diseases.

The consumption of fish has long been known to be beneficial for health; however, the mechanisms by which fats and other useful nutrients found in fish work in the human body are not fully known. This new study carried out at the UEF provides new information on how the consumption of fish affects the size and lipid concentrations of lipoproteins which transport lipids in the blood. The study participants increased their intake of fatty fish in particular.

It was observed that a higher intake of fish increased the number of large HDL particles and lipids contained in them. Population-based studies have shown that HDL cholesterol — also known as good cholesterol — and large HDL particles are efficient in sweeping extra cholesterol off artery walls. Large HDL particles have been associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, whereas small HDL particles may even have opposite effects.
Positive changes in lipid metabolism were observed in persons who increased their intake of fish most, i.e. in persons who ate at least 3-4 fish meals per week.

The study participants ate fatty fish such as salmon, rainbow trout, herring and vendace. No added butter or cream was used in the preparation of fish. The study doesn’t give answers to whether a similar effect would have been observed had the study participants mainly eaten low-fat fish such as zander and perch. Low-fat fish may have other health benefits such as lowering of blood pressure, which was observed in an earlier study carried out at the UEF.

State-of-the-art metabolomics was used in the study, enabling for instance a very detailed analysis of lipoprotein particles. The analyses were carried out by the university’s NMR Metabolomics Laboratory. Traditionally, cholesterol is divided into “bad” LDL cholesterol and “good” HDL cholesterol, but this method allows the investigation of a total of 14 different particle classes. “People shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking that if their standard lipid levels are OK, there’s no need to think about the diet, as things are a lot more complicated than that. Soft vegetable fats and fish are something to prefer in any case,” Postdoctoral Researcher Maria Lankinen says.

However, the researchers emphasize that a dietary approach to the treatment of increased overall and LDL cholesterol levels is important. The findings are well in line with the Finnish nutrition recommendations encouraging people to reduce the consumption of red meat and to increase the consumption of fish and other sea foods. Further information on the health effects of fish will become available in the near future as results from the Alfakala project carried out at the UEF Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition become available. The study takes a more detailed approach into the health effects of fish- and plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids, and it studies the health effects of fatty and low-fat fish.

Source; Science daily

 

Food Allergies Have Doubled Among Black Children

Over the past two decades, reports of food allergies have nearly doubled among black children, a new study reveals.

Although childhood food allergies are on the rise overall, the spike in these allergies among black children is alarming, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. It remains unclear if this sharp increase is the result of better detection or some trigger in the environment.

The study, published in the March issue of Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, involved more than 450,000 children. The researchers found that between 1988 and 2011, food allergies increased among black children at a rate of 2.1 percent every 10 years. Meanwhile, food allergies increased at a rate of just 1.2 percent each decade among Hispanics and 1 percent every 10 years among white children, the findings showed.

“Our research found a striking food allergy trend that needs to be further evaluated to discover the cause,” study author Dr. Corinne Keet, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, said in a journal news release.
“Although African Americans generally have higher levels of IgE — the antibody the immune system creates more of when one has an allergy — it is only recently that they have reported food allergy more frequently than white children,” Keet explained.

“It is important to note this increase was in self-reported allergy,” added Keet. “Many of these children did not receive a proper food allergy diagnosis from an allergist. Other conditions such as food intolerance can often be mistaken for an allergy, because not all symptoms associated with foods are caused by food allergy.”

A separate study also published in the same journal pointed out that many doctors who specialize in allergies can predict whether a child will be more likely to outgrow their food allergy or if it will remain a lifelong condition.

“Those allergic to milk, egg, soy and wheat are more likely to tolerate these allergens over time than those allergic to peanuts and tree nuts,” study author Dr. Wesley Burks, an allergist and American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology fellow, said in the news release. “No single test alone can predict eventual food tolerance, but when patients are under the regular care of a board-certified allergist they can be re-evaluated and tested in different ways.”

Source: web md