Study Finds Menopause Symptoms Can Be Predicted

The number of eggs left in a woman’s ovaries are like the grains of sand in an hourglass, ticking away the hours on her biological clock.

Researchers now say they may be able to predict when that clock will wind down.

And while doctors can’t actually count the number of eggs in an ovary, they can measure ovarian volume. British researchers say there’s a direct correlation between the two, and by measuring ovarian volume with transvaginal ultrasound, doctors should be able to predict when menopause will set in and how many fertile years a woman has left.

According to the study authors, this information will revolutionize the care of women looking for assisted reproductive technologies, including those who were treated for childhood cancers as well as women who want to put off starting a family for whatever reason.

Although information still needs to be validated in clinical studies, its benefit is most likely to start with women who are being treated for cancer and women attending fertility clinics, said Tom Kelsey, co-author of the study appearing June 17 in the journal Human Reproduction.

“If women looking for some sort of assisted conception and their physicians know that they’ve got a long time till menopause, then you could plan for a range of treatments,” said Kelsey, who is a senior research fellow at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “If you knew menopause was likely in four to five years, you’d plan a different set of IVF [in vitro fertilization] treatments.”

Others reiterate, however, that the findings should be treated with caution.

“Should a young woman who is 30 years old go for a test to figure out whether she’s got three, five or 10 years left on her fertility? Should she make career decisions and life decisions? Are these data good enough to make those determinations?” asked Dr. Alan Copperman, director of reproductive medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “The answer is obviously no to all of those questions. The predictive value of this test is not good enough to go and tell someone to change their life.”

According to the article, eggs form in a female’s ovary while she is still in the womb, peaking at several million about halfway through gestation and then starting a continuous decline. At birth, there are several hundred thousand and, when menstruation begins, about 300,000. At about age 37, a woman has about 25,000 eggs left, and at menopause only about 1,000.

The time at which menopause sets in is widely believed to be based on the number of eggs reaching a critically low threshold.

The authors of this study measured ovarian volume with transvaginal ultrasound, then looked at the relationship between ovarian volume — ovaries shrink as a woman ages — and number of eggs. They then applied mathematical and computer models to predict menopause.

The study authors are negotiating with a medical school to set up clinical trials. The idea would be to follow women to see if their predictions were indeed correct.

While these authors have come up with a tool to potentially help women plan their lives, a second study in the same issue of Human Reproduction warned that women might not want to leave it too late. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) could not be relied upon to fully compensate for lack of natural fertility after the age of 35, the article stated.

The authors used a computer simulation model to determine that the overall success rate of assisted reproductive technology would be 30 percent for those attempting to get pregnant from age 30, 24 percent for those trying from age 35, and 17 percent from age 40.

If you are a man suffering form impotence or Erectile Dysfunction (ED), then you know how embarrassing it can be at the beginning to face it. How you explain it to your partner? What do you tell the doctor? And finally, how to get rid of it?

Generic Cialis Tadalafil can be the solution.

Impotence is a curse that doesn’t have any cure or permanent solution. What you can do best is to treat it. Just like other disease which doesn’t have any cure but you can manage it by taking proper prescription medications and following some rules, impotence also can be managed and treated by using generic cialis. Just take Cialis 15-20 minutes before your planned sexual intercourse and you are all taken care off.

Reason for impotence or not being able to get an erection when needed is decreased flow of blood to the penis. What generic Cialis (tadalafil) does is, it increases the blood flow to the penis thereby allowing the penis to have an erection when there is a foreplay. It is important to know that the pill itself doesn’t give an erection; your partner has to sexually stimulate you for this to work.

There are many reasons for which a man can have erectile dysfunction. It could be side affects of some medication; it could be associated with other diseases, too much alcohol or tobacco, testosterone deficiency, hormone change, etc. Sometimes the cause of impotence can be eliminated which in turn takes care of the impotence. However, many times there is no escape from it other than taking the pills and to treat it as needed. Tadalafil is a generic brand of cialis medication which has the same active ingredients to treat impotence and allow a man to gain an erection. Test results showed that out of 700 participants at least 88% of men experienced improvement with their erections when taking Cialis Tadalafil. Another good thing about tadalafil is that it starts working in as little as 15 minutes and lasts up to 72 hours. For its 72 hours lasting action, generic cialis is known as the weekend pill.

According to FDA regulation, a generic medication needs to have the exact same active ingredients and must work the same as the brand name medication. If they both are the same, then there is no reason to buy the brand name products as it would be just a waste of money. Generic tadalafil can do the same job as the brand Cialis pills.

Generic Cialis – Tadalafil is sold under few other brand names, but whichever brand name medication you buy, you need to keep one important thing in mind that you always should buy your medication from a trusted source.

A growing number of Americans now have a positive opinion on psychiatric medications, a new study contends. About five out of six people surveyed felt psychiatric medications could help people control psychiatric symptoms, but many also expected the medications could help people deal with day-to-day stresses, help them feel better about themselves and make things easier with family and friends.

“People’s attitudes regarding psychiatric medications became more favorable between 1998 and 2006,” said study author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an associate professor in the department of mental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Mojtabai wanted to assess American’s opinions of psychiatric medications for a number of reasons. One is that the use of such medications has soared in recent years. Between 1990 and 2000, he said, the use of antidepressants increased fivefold. Another reason is that the government has allowed direct-to-consumer advertising for the drugs. And finally, he said that he wanted to learn if the recent FDA black box warnings on some antidepressants and antipsychotics had any effect on people’s opinions of these drugs.

Using data from the U.S. General Social Surveys from 1998 and 2006, Mojtabai compared the two periods to examine people’s attitudes toward psychiatric medications.

In 1998, 84 percent of people agreed with the statement, “These medications help people control their symptoms.” In 2006, that number had edged up slightly, to 86 percent.

By 2006, more people believed that psychiatric medications could help people feel better about themselves (68 percent vs. 60 percent), help people deal with stress (83 percent compared to 78 percent), and make things easier with family and friends (76 percent compared to 68 percent).

People were somewhat more willing to take these medications themselves: 29 percent in 2006 vs. 23 percent in 1998. Opinions about the drugs’ potential adverse effects didn’t change over time, according to the study.

Mojtabai said that advertising may have helped increased people’s positive perceptions of these drugs. But, he added, there is also an increasing awareness that many psychiatric disorders have a biological or organic cause that medications may be able to help correct.

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While most instances of constipation aren’t serious, occasionally, cases of infrequent or difficult bowel movements should be evaluated by a doctor.

The American Academy of Family Physicians offers this list of warning signs that you should talk to your doctor about constipation:

– You’re constipated for the first time or it occurs for you very infrequently.
– You’ve been treating constipation at home with more fiber, fluids and exercise for at least three weeks, but have no improvement.
– You have abdominal pain.
– You have bloody stools.
– You have unexplained weight loss.

Resveratrol Antioxidants and Weight Loss: A Good Pairing?

The golden rule in weight loss is pretty simple: take in fewer calories than you expend in exercise. However, as any dieter will tell you, it’s far from easy. Americans spend billions of dollars a year on weight loss supplements, exercise programs and other diet aids—and still we can’t seem to win the battle of the bulge—even when we get desperate enough to try risky surgery or fad diets.

Recently a new product has come to light that may help people trying to lose weight stay on the healthy end of the spectrum: Resveratrol Select, which is unlike many diet supplements in that it uses a combination of natural and herbal ingredients designed to help the body stay healthy while losing weight. How? By mimicking certain aspects of the Mediterranean diet.

Studies have shown that part of America’s war with weight lies in the uniquely modern American combination of stressful lifestyle and fast-food consumption, and that the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle seem to be more conducive to healthier weight levels and longevity. In fact, much as been made on the news in recent months of the purported “French Paradox” (how the French eat a high-fat diet, enjoy rich desserts, drink wine and still have better cardiovascular health than the rest of us). One of the biggest differences between the American and French diet seems to be the wine consumption, and red wine (a staple on most Mediterranean tables) contains one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants, resveratrol, which is a key ingredient in Resveratrol Select. In addition to wine, resveratrol is also found in grape skins, blueberries, cranberries and other plants, and recent animal and in vitro studies indicate that it can have a positive effect on helping to maintain healthy cholesterol levels, supporting insulin health and optimizing metabolic and immune pathways that protect cells and improve mitochondrial function. And one capsule of Resveratrol Select includes as much resveratrol as 200 glasses of wine—without the added calories that alcohol can add to the waistline.

But consuming resveratrol alone isn’t enough to help with weight loss—so the manufacturers of Resveratrol Select also added a different type of antioxidant, Green Tea Extract (EGCG), which could make a big difference. Over time, green tea consumption helps increase metabolism, burn fat and reduce fat storage due to its caffeine and L-theanin content, which can be pivotal in helping to maintain energy for exercise.

Resveratrol Select combines these two powerful antioxidants with yet another energy boosting ingredient, Chromium, a niacin-based mineral that plays an important role in how the body uses insulin to burn sugars, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for energy.

Although relatively new to the market, Resveratrol Select seems to be making a big splash, and many people are taking advantage of the free trial offer to see how well the product works for them. The trial offer also includes two bonus tools to help with weight loss: an e-book with over 70 weight loss tips, and a weight loss visualization audio.Of course, consuming fewer calories while burning more is the most efficient form of weight loss, and it’s always a good idea to inform your doctor before taking a weight loss supplement, but this new combination herbal supplement is worth a look for those concerned about maintaining good health while losing weight.

A young mother who lived on a diet of soup and water starved herself to death, an inquest has heard.

Helen Anderson, 26, was found dead in bed by her mother at her home in UK last month. For several months before her death, the talented musician, who played violin, piano and guitar, and once auditioned for the Northern Sinfonia, existed on a diet of just water and soup. She lost almost six stones in weight, despite her parents, Michael and Hazel Anderson, pleading with her to eat more.

Her body was so starved of sugar it began to eat into its own reserve of fat. This caused a metabolic chemical reaction called ketoacidosis, which killed her.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner said: “This phenomenon – this poison if you like – which developed within her body was made by her body itself. It arises as a result of the body reacting to a lack of sugar within itself and that was in part a consequence of the intensive diet with which Helen was attempting to balance her weight. The sad truth of the matter is there has been a development within her body, a natural phenomena, which has set up this poisoning of her body’s system and has led to her death.”

Miss Anderson, who had a five-year-old daughter, by a previous marriage had been dieting to lose weight she put on as a side effect to medication.

Forensic pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton said she had also been taking slimming tablets to speed up her weight loss, but these did not contribute to her death. At 5ft 9in, the mother-of-one weighed 9st 2lb when she died, having been 15st, and was at the lower end of the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale.

She was due to become engaged to a Swedish man she met through the internet and the couple were planning a big engagement party in Sweden, before tragedy struck.

This article provides information about the human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes genital warts and can also cause cervical cancer.

What is human papillomavirus (HPV)?

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It is a virus that can be spread through skin-to-skin contact. There are many different types of HPV. Some types cause genital warts and are called low-risk, and some types can lead to cervical cancer and are called high-risk. There is no known cure for HPV, but there is a vaccine that can protect against some types of the virus.
What are genital warts?

Genital warts are skin growths in the groin, genital, or anal areas. They can be different sizes and shapes. Some look like flat white patches, and others are bumpy, like tiny bunches of cauliflower. Sometimes you can’t see the warts at all.

What causes HPV and genital warts?

HPV is a virus. Certain types of the virus cause genital warts and some types cause abnormal cervical cell changes and cervical cancer. HPV and genital warts can be spread through sexual contact with someone who has the virus.

What are the symptoms?

Most people infected with HPV don’t have symptoms. But if they do, the symptoms may be so mild that they may not know they are infected. The symptoms may include pain, itching, and bleeding, or you may develop visible genital warts.

If you have symptoms, they will probably occur 2 to 3 months after infection. But you can have symptoms from 3 weeks to many years after infection. Visible genital warts appear only during active infection. But it is possible to spread the virus even if you can’t see the warts.

How are HPV and genital warts diagnosed?

A doctor can often tell if you have genital warts by looking closely at your genital and anal areas. He or she may ask you questions about your symptoms and your risk factors. Risk factors are things that make you more likely to get a disease. Sometimes the doctor takes a sample of tissue from the wart for testing.

For women, if you have an abnormal Pap test, your doctor can do an HPV test that looks for high-risk types of the virus.

How are they treated?

There is no cure for HPV, but the symptoms can be treated. Talk to your doctor about whether you should treat visible genital warts. They usually go away with no treatment, but they may also spread. Most people decide to treat them because of the symptoms or because of how the warts look. But if you don’t have symptoms and are not worried about how the warts look, you can wait and see if the warts go away.

If you do decide to treat genital warts, talk to your doctor about the best treatment for you. There are prescription medicines you or your doctor can put on the warts. Or your doctor can remove them with lasers, surgery, or by freezing them off.

Even if you treat visible warts or your warts go away without treatment, the HPV infection can stay in your body’s cells. It is possible to spread genital warts to your partner even if you have no signs of them.

Can HPV and genital warts be prevented?

The best way to keep from getting genital warts – or any other STD – is to not have sex. If you do have sex, practice safe sex.

* Use condoms. Condoms may help reduce the risk of spreading genital warts, but they do not protect the entire genital area against skin-to-skin contact.
* Before you have sex with someone, talk to them about STDs. Find out whether he or she is at risk for them. Remember that a person can be infected without knowing it.
* If you have symptoms of an STD, don’t have sex.
* Do not have sex with anyone who has symptoms or who may have been exposed to an STD.
* Do not have more than one sex partner at a time. Having several sex partners increases your risk for disease.

A vaccine called Gardasil protects against four types of HPV, which together cause most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts. You get three shots over 6 months. The vaccine is recommended for girls 11 to 12 years old. It is also recommended for females 13 to 26 years old who did not get it when they were younger.

Scientists may be closer to solving a medical mystery with huge implications for personal and public health: Why obese people are prone to developing type 2 diabetes.

A series of studies appearing online July 26 in Nature Medicine suggest that inflammation within the fat tissues of heavy individuals could trigger the blood sugar disease.

What’s more, each of the four completely independent studies, from two continents and three countries, showed that interfering with these immune-cell processes actually reversed diabetes in mice.

The long-term implications of the findings are enticing: perhaps one day a cure for type 2 diabetes, a condition that now plagues more than 23 million people in the United States alone.

“This group of papers suggests that cellular immunity may regulate inflammation in fat,” said Dr. Vivian Fonseca, professor of medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and director of the Diabetes Institute at Scott & White. “The authors do suggest that if you change the inflammatory response by changing the way the body cells respond to a trigger for inflammation, you might be able to get at the real heart of diabetes and that suggests you could cure it.”

But Fonseca warned, all these studies were conducted in mice and have yet to be proven in humans

In type 2 diabetes, the body often becomes resistant to insulin and doesn’t use it effectively. In the last decade or so, researchers have presented evidence that suppressing inflammation in animals could improve insulin resistance and other processes involved with diabetes. Inflammation is now widely believed to be involved in many metabolic diseases afflicting obese individuals. Inflammation in fat tissue, in particular, seems to be a culprit, by changing fat tissue function, thereby contributing to insulin resistance.

But the exact mechanisms of the phenomenon have been unclear.

Three papers, one from Japan, one from Canada and one from the United States, showed that immune system cells known as T cells were deficient in obese mice, pushing the immune system to somehow initiate insulin resistance.

Restoring T cells to more normal levels actually reversed weight gain and improved insulin resistance, even when the mice continued on a high-fat diet.

The fourth study looked at another class of immune cells called mast cells, which are more commonly linked to allergies.

An over-abundance of mast cells contributed to obesity and diabetes in mice, but when mast cells were removed from the system the problem was corrected, explained study senior author Guo-Ping Shi, a biochemist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“We gave mice a high-fat diet for three months and they developed obesity and diabetes,” he said. But mice that had been stripped of mast cells did not. “These mice are protected from the disease if they are without these cells,” Shi said.

Shi’s team also gave wild-type (“normal”) mice allergy medicines, which work to “stabilize” mast cells. This also led to improvements in the mice.

“We can use the drugs to manipulate cell activity or prevent disease in this case,” Shi said.

Shi said he has signed a contract with a local company to develop a version of the drugs to combat diabetes in humans.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who smoke have a speedier progression of the disease, a new study in the Archives of Neurology suggests.

Dr. Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues also found that smokers with MS were more likely to have the progressive form of the disease, in which symptoms steadily get worse, rather than the relapsing-remitting form, in which a person has MS symptoms intermittently.

“Most of the adverse effects were seen for current smokers, which in some way is good news because it suggests that stopping smoking can help,” Ascherio told Reuters Health.

People who smoke are known to be at increased MS risk, but research on whether smoking affects the course of the illness has had conflicting results, he and his colleagues note. They followed 1,465 MS patients, 17.5% of whom were current smokers, for an average of just over three years to investigate.

Of the 891 patients the team followed for that period to determine the rate of progression from one form of disease to the other, 72 saw their MS progress to the worse relapsing-remitting form: 20 of 154 smokers, 20 of 237 ex-smokers, and 32 of 500 never-smokers.

That meant that the smokers were 2.4 times as likely as non-smokers to have primary progressive MS, and those who had relapsing-remitting disease were 2.5 times more likely than never-smokers to develop secondary progressive MS during the follow-up period.

At the study’s outset, the smokers had more disability, more severe disease, and more atrophy in their brains. Over time, they also showed a faster increase in the total amount of injured brain tissue and their degree of brain atrophy.

The mechanism through which cigarette smoking could worsen MS isn’t clear, Ascherio said. Smoking has been linked to some other autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, he noted, but not others, so the habit’s effects on the immune system could be a factor; another possibility would be that cigarette smoke is toxic to the nervous system.

There are currently no proven risk factors for progression of MS that a patient can do anything about, Ascherio noted.

“Although causality remains to be proved,” he and his colleagues write, “these findings suggest that patients with MS who quit smoking may not only reduce their risk of smoking-related diseases but also delay the progression of MS.”