Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Science
Our subconscious mind holds much greater power than what most people have ever realized or utilized. If you think you know your subconscious mind well, try whether you are able to answer the following questions:
Do you know how much water you lose through perspiration after a vigorous game? And how much you need to replenish?
Do you know how much of the salt in the food that you eat need to be absorbed into your body to maintain perfect balance and good health?
Do you know what nutrients in the food are good for your body and what are not? And how much of these good nutrients should be absorbed and how much excess need to be eliminated?
Unless you are a scientist or have read some research paper on the above findings, you will have no clue to any of the above questions. But, guess what, your body knows the answer! In fact, it has been performing these tasks every day, 24 hours a day, from the day you are borne. To be more exact, it is your subconscious mind that is doing the work. It plays a critical role in helping you to unravel the mind power secrets.
It probably takes a mathematician days or weeks or even months to figure out these answers, what our subconscious mind can solve in a minute. It does not matter whether you are a mathematician, or whether you even study mathematics or chemistry, your body just knows the answer!
How Powerful Is Your Subconscious Mind?
The power of our subconscious mind is simply mind-blowing, as Dr Geo. C. Pitzer sums it up perfectly:
"The subconscious mind is a distinct entity. It occupies the whole human body, and, when not opposed in any way, it has absolute control over all the functions, conditions, and sensations of the body. While the objective (conscious) mind has control over all of our voluntary functions and motions, the subconscious mind controls all of the silent, involuntary, and vegetative functions. Nutrition, waste, all secretions and excretions, the action of the heart in the circulation of the blood, the lungs in respiration or breathing, and all cell life, cell changes and development, are positively under the complete control of the subconscious mind. This was the only mind animal had before the evolution of the brain; and it could not, nor can it yet, reason inductively, but its power of deductive reasoning is perfect. And more, it can see without the use of physical eyes. It perceives by intuition. It has the power to communicate with others without the aid of ordinary physical means. It can read the thoughts of others. It receives intelligence and transmits it to people at a distance. Distance offers no resistance successful missions of the subconscious mind."
To get a better idea what the subconscious mind does, read the following quotes from David Bush’s “Practical Psychology and Sex Life”:
It is this mind that carries on the work of assimilation and building up whilst we sleep...
It reveals to us things that the conscious mind has no conception of until the consummations have occurred.
It can communicate with other minds without the ordinary physical means.
It gets glimpse of things that ordinary sight does not behold.
It makes God’s presence an actual, realizable fact, and keeps the personality in peace and quietness.
It warns of approaching danger.
It carries out all the best things which are given to it, providing the conscious mind does not intercept and change the course of its manifestation.
It keeps the body in health and helps it in healing, if it is at all encouraged.
Throughout history, man has witnessed countless cases of miracle healing. This is the illustration of our mind power at work. If you understand and accept the way our subconscious mind work (Which is by the way an established and provened fact), miracle healing is after all an entirely logical process. It is just the way our subconscious mind works, plain and simple.
For those who are inclined towards scientific findings and evidences to appreciate what our mind is capable of, resources that used to be in the hand of private research institutions are now available ......
..... the latest report on subconscious mind and the mind power secrets reveals the amazing potential of human mind, and how you can utilized its enormous power for your life success.....
The Subconscious Mind is
Powerful Yet Obedient
The subconscious mind does not decide and command. It merely carries out orders passed to it from the conscious mind. Its nature is to do what it is told, or what really is your heart’s desire.
From the day of our birth, our subconscious mind has been performing miracles on a daily basis to build up our body, and heal every illness. It does all these in a matter of minutes! It has practically unlimited power, not just in growing your body, but also in acquiring all the good things in your life.
We have very much taken all these for granted that we no longer appreciate the miraculous work performed by our body. We have forgotten that each and every one of us is bestowed with such amazing power that is residing in our mind.
How Do Most People Use Their Mind?
Although everybody have complete control over their conscious mind, and uses it most of the time in our physical activities, many people today go through their daily activities and thinking process without being fully conscious of their consciousness. For most people, the exciting truth about our mind power secrets remains a mystery or an illusion.
This may sound ironical, but the fact is, people in this modern day are so caught up in the rut of daily grind, bombarded with avalanche of information during most of the waking hours, often ending a typical day going home with loads of stress in the body and mind. Such fast pace, mad rush, achievement-oriented lifestyle has robbed most people of their precious ability to remain "conscious". When a person is consciously living, he is mindful of his own actions and thoughts, as well as the happenings in the surroundings. On the contrary, a person who is not living "consciously" often find himself not aware of what he has just done a minute ago, or not noticing a lot of things around him.
Scientist has found that the average human thinks approximately 60,000 thoughts per day. However, it is also found that most people are only aware of less than 5 percent of their thoughts.
Is this any surprise? It only confirmed the fact that most people are not conscious of their consciousness.
The majority of these thoughts are just mindless babbles or what we know as mind chatters, which are being absorbed at a subconscious level perpetually and function on autopilot like the heart’s pumping of blood.
When we are worry about financial matters, our conscious mind is continually focusing on the lack of money, our emotion resonates to the thought and sends the powerful message (both the though and emotion) to the subconscious mind, which in turn receives the message and perceives it as a reality. All this can happen without our conscious awareness of its occurrence.
However, if we are conscious about what we think, and take prompt action to intercept any thoughts that are deemed undesirable, we could prevent the thought from reaching the subconscious level. Whenever the subconscious mind perceives anything as reality, it will go forth with its powerful manifestation process and bring them to fruition.
This is a process that appears simple but takes conscious effort to execute.
How Can We Best Manage Our Mind?
It's important to remember that the subconscious mind has no capacity to discern if something is true or false, real or unreal, and good or bad. By nature, it only stores and acts upon the information given to it by the conscious mind.
It is hence entirely possible that we can subconsciously act against our heart’s desire by producing all the unwanted outcomes, if our conscious mind gives it the direction. The problem is: Most people are not consciously managing their thoughts, or not even aware of the thoughts that run through their mind. As a result, many outcomes in life are undesirable. Yet, people did not notice that they have unwittingly produced these outcomes by their own conscious mind.
To make things worse, our mind is constantly subject to negative influences everyday. Most of the activities we perform on a daily basis, even unconsciously, have a dramatic effect on what is being stored at the subconscious level. Reading the daily news of crimes and violence, watching TV programs that create anxiety, worry, fear and horror, as well as interacting with negative people around us, etc, all these play a major role in "allowing" negative emotions to become a daily experience in our life.
The subconscious mind, being indiscriminate, is at work all the time absorbing these emotions and perceives them as reality. If you are aware of these negative thoughts and influences that are affecting the outcomes in your life, you will want to start taking actions to change them. Nourish your mind with beautiful, positive and wholesome programs and thoughts!
Your life will become the way your mind always think about!
Given the way both parts of our mind work, you have to exercise absolute mind control to attract the things you desire, such as financial abundance, excellent health, fulfilling relationships and whatever you wanted to experience. You need to be able to utilized mind control techniques to make conscious choices to change and replace the fear-based, negative self-talks and thinking of lack, with thoughts that are congruent with the outcomes that you desire to manifest!
This ability to consciously change your thoughts becomes much easier once you started becoming consciously aware of your thought process. It is a critical skill that you need to have in order to master the mind power secrets within you.
Our subconscious mind is the conduit that connects us with our Truth, or our Source, which holds the unlimited power to access to all the abundance in our life.
"Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh recieveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."
Use your conscious mind to become consciously aware of what you are asking for!
"Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them."
By developing a knowing of how the mind works and an understanding of how our universal laws operate, you will come to know how important it is to become aware and conscious of your thoughts. When you are conscious (aware) of your thoughts, you will deliberately structure those thoughts to bring about the desired result.
The conscious mind is capable of analyzing itself, adjusting its thoughts, create new thoughts, and even override the old information stored in the subconscious mind. It is the part of mind that controls and feeds the thought (which is a form of energy) to the subconscious mind, which in turns sends that thought energy into the Universe. Hence, by consciously managing your conscious mind, you can control the vibration energy that is transmitted by the subconscious to the Universe for its due manifestation.
So, what are the salient points that you can act on?
The great business of life is your Thought – your Mind is the only creator.
If you can Control What You Think, you can control what you Create in your life.
Manage your conscious mind to produce only focused, specific, intentional and exact thoughts, so as to Direct your subconscious mind to create the exact outcomes that you want for your life!
Make it a priority in your personal development agenda to Master Mind Control techniques. This is probably the most important life skill you can ever learn, because it holds the ultimate mind power secrets to achieving success, health, wealth and happiness in your life.
Do you know how much water you lose through perspiration after a vigorous game? And how much you need to replenish?
Do you know how much of the salt in the food that you eat need to be absorbed into your body to maintain perfect balance and good health?
Do you know what nutrients in the food are good for your body and what are not? And how much of these good nutrients should be absorbed and how much excess need to be eliminated?
Unless you are a scientist or have read some research paper on the above findings, you will have no clue to any of the above questions. But, guess what, your body knows the answer! In fact, it has been performing these tasks every day, 24 hours a day, from the day you are borne. To be more exact, it is your subconscious mind that is doing the work. It plays a critical role in helping you to unravel the mind power secrets.
It probably takes a mathematician days or weeks or even months to figure out these answers, what our subconscious mind can solve in a minute. It does not matter whether you are a mathematician, or whether you even study mathematics or chemistry, your body just knows the answer!
How Powerful Is Your Subconscious Mind?
The power of our subconscious mind is simply mind-blowing, as Dr Geo. C. Pitzer sums it up perfectly:
"The subconscious mind is a distinct entity. It occupies the whole human body, and, when not opposed in any way, it has absolute control over all the functions, conditions, and sensations of the body. While the objective (conscious) mind has control over all of our voluntary functions and motions, the subconscious mind controls all of the silent, involuntary, and vegetative functions. Nutrition, waste, all secretions and excretions, the action of the heart in the circulation of the blood, the lungs in respiration or breathing, and all cell life, cell changes and development, are positively under the complete control of the subconscious mind. This was the only mind animal had before the evolution of the brain; and it could not, nor can it yet, reason inductively, but its power of deductive reasoning is perfect. And more, it can see without the use of physical eyes. It perceives by intuition. It has the power to communicate with others without the aid of ordinary physical means. It can read the thoughts of others. It receives intelligence and transmits it to people at a distance. Distance offers no resistance successful missions of the subconscious mind."
To get a better idea what the subconscious mind does, read the following quotes from David Bush’s “Practical Psychology and Sex Life”:
It is this mind that carries on the work of assimilation and building up whilst we sleep...
It reveals to us things that the conscious mind has no conception of until the consummations have occurred.
It can communicate with other minds without the ordinary physical means.
It gets glimpse of things that ordinary sight does not behold.
It makes God’s presence an actual, realizable fact, and keeps the personality in peace and quietness.
It warns of approaching danger.
It carries out all the best things which are given to it, providing the conscious mind does not intercept and change the course of its manifestation.
It keeps the body in health and helps it in healing, if it is at all encouraged.
Throughout history, man has witnessed countless cases of miracle healing. This is the illustration of our mind power at work. If you understand and accept the way our subconscious mind work (Which is by the way an established and provened fact), miracle healing is after all an entirely logical process. It is just the way our subconscious mind works, plain and simple.
For those who are inclined towards scientific findings and evidences to appreciate what our mind is capable of, resources that used to be in the hand of private research institutions are now available ......
..... the latest report on subconscious mind and the mind power secrets reveals the amazing potential of human mind, and how you can utilized its enormous power for your life success.....
The Subconscious Mind is
Powerful Yet Obedient
The subconscious mind does not decide and command. It merely carries out orders passed to it from the conscious mind. Its nature is to do what it is told, or what really is your heart’s desire.
From the day of our birth, our subconscious mind has been performing miracles on a daily basis to build up our body, and heal every illness. It does all these in a matter of minutes! It has practically unlimited power, not just in growing your body, but also in acquiring all the good things in your life.
We have very much taken all these for granted that we no longer appreciate the miraculous work performed by our body. We have forgotten that each and every one of us is bestowed with such amazing power that is residing in our mind.
How Do Most People Use Their Mind?
Although everybody have complete control over their conscious mind, and uses it most of the time in our physical activities, many people today go through their daily activities and thinking process without being fully conscious of their consciousness. For most people, the exciting truth about our mind power secrets remains a mystery or an illusion.
This may sound ironical, but the fact is, people in this modern day are so caught up in the rut of daily grind, bombarded with avalanche of information during most of the waking hours, often ending a typical day going home with loads of stress in the body and mind. Such fast pace, mad rush, achievement-oriented lifestyle has robbed most people of their precious ability to remain "conscious". When a person is consciously living, he is mindful of his own actions and thoughts, as well as the happenings in the surroundings. On the contrary, a person who is not living "consciously" often find himself not aware of what he has just done a minute ago, or not noticing a lot of things around him.
Scientist has found that the average human thinks approximately 60,000 thoughts per day. However, it is also found that most people are only aware of less than 5 percent of their thoughts.
Is this any surprise? It only confirmed the fact that most people are not conscious of their consciousness.
The majority of these thoughts are just mindless babbles or what we know as mind chatters, which are being absorbed at a subconscious level perpetually and function on autopilot like the heart’s pumping of blood.
When we are worry about financial matters, our conscious mind is continually focusing on the lack of money, our emotion resonates to the thought and sends the powerful message (both the though and emotion) to the subconscious mind, which in turn receives the message and perceives it as a reality. All this can happen without our conscious awareness of its occurrence.
However, if we are conscious about what we think, and take prompt action to intercept any thoughts that are deemed undesirable, we could prevent the thought from reaching the subconscious level. Whenever the subconscious mind perceives anything as reality, it will go forth with its powerful manifestation process and bring them to fruition.
This is a process that appears simple but takes conscious effort to execute.
How Can We Best Manage Our Mind?
It's important to remember that the subconscious mind has no capacity to discern if something is true or false, real or unreal, and good or bad. By nature, it only stores and acts upon the information given to it by the conscious mind.
It is hence entirely possible that we can subconsciously act against our heart’s desire by producing all the unwanted outcomes, if our conscious mind gives it the direction. The problem is: Most people are not consciously managing their thoughts, or not even aware of the thoughts that run through their mind. As a result, many outcomes in life are undesirable. Yet, people did not notice that they have unwittingly produced these outcomes by their own conscious mind.
To make things worse, our mind is constantly subject to negative influences everyday. Most of the activities we perform on a daily basis, even unconsciously, have a dramatic effect on what is being stored at the subconscious level. Reading the daily news of crimes and violence, watching TV programs that create anxiety, worry, fear and horror, as well as interacting with negative people around us, etc, all these play a major role in "allowing" negative emotions to become a daily experience in our life.
The subconscious mind, being indiscriminate, is at work all the time absorbing these emotions and perceives them as reality. If you are aware of these negative thoughts and influences that are affecting the outcomes in your life, you will want to start taking actions to change them. Nourish your mind with beautiful, positive and wholesome programs and thoughts!
Your life will become the way your mind always think about!
Given the way both parts of our mind work, you have to exercise absolute mind control to attract the things you desire, such as financial abundance, excellent health, fulfilling relationships and whatever you wanted to experience. You need to be able to utilized mind control techniques to make conscious choices to change and replace the fear-based, negative self-talks and thinking of lack, with thoughts that are congruent with the outcomes that you desire to manifest!
This ability to consciously change your thoughts becomes much easier once you started becoming consciously aware of your thought process. It is a critical skill that you need to have in order to master the mind power secrets within you.
Our subconscious mind is the conduit that connects us with our Truth, or our Source, which holds the unlimited power to access to all the abundance in our life.
"Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh recieveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."
Use your conscious mind to become consciously aware of what you are asking for!
"Whatsoever things ye ask for when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them."
By developing a knowing of how the mind works and an understanding of how our universal laws operate, you will come to know how important it is to become aware and conscious of your thoughts. When you are conscious (aware) of your thoughts, you will deliberately structure those thoughts to bring about the desired result.
The conscious mind is capable of analyzing itself, adjusting its thoughts, create new thoughts, and even override the old information stored in the subconscious mind. It is the part of mind that controls and feeds the thought (which is a form of energy) to the subconscious mind, which in turns sends that thought energy into the Universe. Hence, by consciously managing your conscious mind, you can control the vibration energy that is transmitted by the subconscious to the Universe for its due manifestation.
So, what are the salient points that you can act on?
The great business of life is your Thought – your Mind is the only creator.
If you can Control What You Think, you can control what you Create in your life.
Manage your conscious mind to produce only focused, specific, intentional and exact thoughts, so as to Direct your subconscious mind to create the exact outcomes that you want for your life!
Make it a priority in your personal development agenda to Master Mind Control techniques. This is probably the most important life skill you can ever learn, because it holds the ultimate mind power secrets to achieving success, health, wealth and happiness in your life.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Science
Estrogen Replacement Therapy and Mood
ERT's effect on mood in menopausal women and the mechanics of this effect
ERT's effect on mood in menopausal women and the mechanics of this effect
Depression and Menopause:
Is depression a symptom of menopause?
Controversy is a central aspect of research in estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) for menopausal women and its affect on mood. One area of controversy is whether or not depression is a symptom of menopause. Depression is a low mood state characterized by significant levels of sadness, lack of energy, low self-worth, guilt, or related symptoms. This differs from the symptomology of major depression in which a person has at least five of the symptoms of depression not due to a normal reaction to a life event that last for two weeks or more.
Symptoms of Major Depression:
depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day
markedly diminished interest and pleasure in almost all daily activities
significant weight loss or gain, or a significant increase or decrease in appetite nearly every day
insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day
fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt nearly every day
reduced ability to think or concentrate nearly every day
recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, a suicide attempt, or a specific plan for committing suicide
Depressive mood has been linked to the activity of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain. Serotonin and norepinephrine are neurotransmitters that, among other things, affect mood. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain that are responsible for communication between different brain areas and the body. A higher level of serotonin and norepinephrine activity is associated with positive mood while decreased activity is associated with depressive mood.
During menopause, women experience hormonal and chemical changes. There is a decrease in a woman's level of estradiol, the principal estrogen of women. Also, some serotonin functioning decreases although it is unknown the extent to which serotonin and norepinephrine activity is affected by menopause. In one study, premenopausal women and menopausal women were given a drug that acts in much the same way that serotonin does in the brain, a kind of pseudo-serotonin used to study the activity of serotonin itself. The researchers found that serotonin activity was decreased in postmenopausal women and that this decrease was associated with decreased levels of estradiol in the blood. The premenopausal women did not show this decrease in activity.
Estrogen boosts the activity of serotonin. Women who experience a long duration of menopause or postmenopausal women who have not used ERT have a prolonged deficiency in estrogen. This prolonged estrogen deficiency may be associated with impairment in estradiol receptors in the brain. Estradiol receptors are the sites in the brain where estrogen connects to most readily and does its work. Estradiol receptors may be important in the faciliatory effect that estrogen has on the activity of serotonin and norepinephrine. When the receptors are impaired, estrogen does not work as well and is unable to facilitate the activity of serotonin.
With the above mentioned effects in mind, it may be that menopausal and postmenopausal women are more vulnerable to depression due to lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity. The Manitoba Project, an ongoing study of Canadian women, found that the stress of daily life, chronic disease, and family problems were most likely to trigger depression in menopausal women. Perhaps these triggers have a more powerful effect on menopausal women and postmenopausal women due to their lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity. One study by Weissman found that the occurrence of major depression may increase after menopause. Another study reported by J. Coope stated that depressive illness is not more common at menopause. However, "depressive illness" was not specified in that study. We do not know if they are talking about a person diagnosed with major depression or someone experiencing depressive mood states not severe enough to be classified as major depression. The data is not conclusive in regard to the occurrence or cause of menopausal or postmenopausal depression. However, the physiological effects of menopause may make a woman more vulnerable to other life aspects that may trigger depression.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy and Mood:
Does ERT help mood?
Does estrogen in combination with progestin help mood?
There is also some controversy about the effectiveness of ERT in alleviating depressive mood, however there is much evidence in support of its beneficial effects. A meta-analysis of 26 hormone replacement studies found that in a majority of these studies ERT helped significantly in the alleviation of depressed mood as rated by scales such as the Hamilton Scale of Depression and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). These scales investigate the behavioral and bodily symptoms (Hamilton Scale) and the cognitive and mood symptoms (BDI). More recent studies have also shown support for the positive effects of ERT on mood as rated by scales similar to those mentioned above. However, J. Coope reported two studies that did not show these effects.
An interesting point to this controversy is the differences in report scales that have been used to measure depressed mood states. J. Zweifel and W. O'Brien report that the BDI yields smaller effect sizes, or the amount of change exhibited by the women of these studies compared to the effect sizes of the Hamilton Scale. Previous research also suggests that the BDI yields smaller effect sizes in comparison with other measures of depression. In other words, results from the BDI may not indicate as much change as another scale would. The BDI investigates cognition and feelings while the Hamilton Scale looks at behavioral and bodily symptoms. It may be that the BDI is less sensitive to the changes caused by ERT. Another difference in the scales is how they are taken. The BDI is a self-report measure whereas the Hamilton Scale utilizes a trained observer's ratings of symptoms. Women may be reluctant to endorse symptoms related to depression when they are doing the self-evaluation. Consequently, the BDI may not be an accurate measure of these symptoms.
Other evidence for the ERT's effectiveness in enhancing mood comes from it's effects on the chemistry of the brain. Estrogen enhances norepinephrine and serotonin activity, and inhibits production of monoamine oxidase. As mentioned earlier, serotonin and norepinephrine are involved in the regulation of depressive moods. Decreased activity of serotonin and norepinephrine are associated with increased depressive mood.
Estrogen's effects on serotonin:
estrogen increases the sensitivity of the receptors that receive serotonin (they are more likely to connect with serotonin)
increases the number of serotonin receptors which increases the activity level of serotonin
increases the reuptake of serotonin by the neuron it was released from in order that the serotonin may be made available once again in the synapse (the space between the neuron that releases the serotonin and the receptor that may connect with it)
increases the synthesis, or production, of serotonin
Estrogen's effects on norepinephrine
increases the binding rate of particular norepinephrine receptors (which increases norepinephrine activity)
increases "turnover" of norepinephrine, the rate at which it is "remade" available to be released into the synapse- this may be due to decreased metabolism or destruction of norepinephrine due to inhibition of MAO
Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is an enzyme that acts on other molecules, changing them in small ways that make the molecules more useful to the body. MAO acts on a variety of neurotransmitters, two of which are norepinephrine and serotonin. MAO destroys excessive amounts of norepinephrine and serotonin in healthy individuals. The activity level of MAO is used as an indicator of the activity level of serotonin and norepinephrine. If the activity level of MAO is high, the activity level of serotonin and norepinephrine is high. E. Klaiber and colleagues have demonstrated that increased levels of MAO platelet activity are indeed associated with lower levels of depression after two cycles of ERT.
Estrogen also acts as a MAO inhibitor by decreasing the production of MAO. The result is that there is less MAO to destroy serotonin and norepinephrine and hence, there is more of these two neurotransmitters available to be released into the synapse and their activity is increased. This action of estrogen is the same as MAO-inhibitors that are used as a therapy for depression. However, ERT alone may not be effective as an antidepressant but may be helpful as part of a larger regimen. The research for ERT as an antidepressant is not yet conclusive.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy and Progestin:
What are the effects of adding progestin to ERT?
Progestin is taken in combination with estrogen to diminish the risks of continual estrogen administration. One of the major risks of taking only estrogen is a significant increase in a woman's risk of endometrial cancer. Many studies however, have shown that the combination of estrogen and progestin has diminishes the positive effects that estrogen alone has on mood. However, not all women have such a negative reaction to the addition of progestin.
E. Klaiber and colleagues investigated the individual differences in women that may account for the differential reactions to the addition of progestin. They found that women who experienced an increase in positive mood during ERT and did not react adversely to the addition of progestin had the following characteristics:
short menopausal duration
high pretreatment estradiol levels in the blood
high pretreatment testosterone levels in the blood
low pretreatment levels of follicle stimulating hormone in the blood
****these above characteristics reflect early menopausal stages***
Women who had positive mood reaction to estrogen alone but experienced a reduction in the positive effect with the addition of progestin had the following characteristics:
long menopausal duration
low pretreatment estradiol level in the blood
low pretreatment testosterone level in the blood
high pretreatment follicle stimulating hormone in the blood
***these characteristics reflect the later stages of menopause***
Women whose benefits from estrogen were not completely countered by progestin had the following characteristics:
pretreatment adverse mood states
low pretreatment MAO activity (indicative of lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity)
older age (in an age span of 45-65 years)
The enhancing effect of estrogen on MAO activity (indicative of serotonin and norepinephrine activity) is diminished in some women by the addition of progestin. Women who did show an increase in MAO activity during ERT were woman who had short menopausal duration and high pretreatment levels of testosterone in their blood. These women showed a decline in MAO activity every time progestin was administered. An interesting occurrence is that the greater the rise in MAO activity during ERT, the less impairment there was in mood due to addition of progestin.
A paradox was found in the expected blood levels of estradiol in women with long menopausal duration. These women had higher levels of estradiol during ERT than did women with short menopausal duration but this raise in estradiol level did not counter the negative effects of progestin. They still experienced a reduction in the positive effects of estrogen. E. Klaiber and colleagues put forth an interesting hypothesis. Women with long duration of menopause also have experienced a prolonged deficiency in estrogen. The hypothesis is that the prolonged estrogen deficiency causes impairment of estradiol receptors in the brain which in turn causes a decrease in the use of estrogen resulting in more estradiol being left over in the brain (= high levels of estradiol in the blood). This impairment of estradiol receptors also impedes normal reactions to estrogen which means estrogen is not as able to have it's beneficial effects on the serotonin and norepinephrine activity.
However, women with long duration menopause do react positively to estrogen alone. S. Carranza and M. Valentino-Figueroa found that ERT was useful in alleviating depressive mood in postmenopausal women who had these depressive symptoms before ERT, but S. Girdler and colleagues found that it did not have a mood effect for women who did not have depression. It may be that in lieu of the already diminished number of healthy estradiol receptors, the progestin causes a further "down regulation" of estradiol receptors resulting in a lessening of the positive effects of estrogen. If this hypothesis of the impairment of estradiol receptors is true, it is not know if ERT can reverse it. If it can't, this is a strong argument for early intervention with ERT. However, this hypotheses have not been proven yet and further research needs to be done to investigate these probabilities.
Women with pretreatment adverse mood states and low MAO activity (indicative of low serotonin and norepinephrine activity) may already be vulnerable to depression before the onset of menopause. Their MAO level may already be low, and although estrogen may raise it, it may not be enough to protect against the effects of progestin.
ERT's effect on mood in menopausal women and the mechanics of this effect
ERT's effect on mood in menopausal women and the mechanics of this effect
Depression and Menopause:
Is depression a symptom of menopause?
Controversy is a central aspect of research in estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) for menopausal women and its affect on mood. One area of controversy is whether or not depression is a symptom of menopause. Depression is a low mood state characterized by significant levels of sadness, lack of energy, low self-worth, guilt, or related symptoms. This differs from the symptomology of major depression in which a person has at least five of the symptoms of depression not due to a normal reaction to a life event that last for two weeks or more.
Symptoms of Major Depression:
depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day
markedly diminished interest and pleasure in almost all daily activities
significant weight loss or gain, or a significant increase or decrease in appetite nearly every day
insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day
fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt nearly every day
reduced ability to think or concentrate nearly every day
recurrent thoughts of death or suicide, a suicide attempt, or a specific plan for committing suicide
Depressive mood has been linked to the activity of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain. Serotonin and norepinephrine are neurotransmitters that, among other things, affect mood. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain that are responsible for communication between different brain areas and the body. A higher level of serotonin and norepinephrine activity is associated with positive mood while decreased activity is associated with depressive mood.
During menopause, women experience hormonal and chemical changes. There is a decrease in a woman's level of estradiol, the principal estrogen of women. Also, some serotonin functioning decreases although it is unknown the extent to which serotonin and norepinephrine activity is affected by menopause. In one study, premenopausal women and menopausal women were given a drug that acts in much the same way that serotonin does in the brain, a kind of pseudo-serotonin used to study the activity of serotonin itself. The researchers found that serotonin activity was decreased in postmenopausal women and that this decrease was associated with decreased levels of estradiol in the blood. The premenopausal women did not show this decrease in activity.
Estrogen boosts the activity of serotonin. Women who experience a long duration of menopause or postmenopausal women who have not used ERT have a prolonged deficiency in estrogen. This prolonged estrogen deficiency may be associated with impairment in estradiol receptors in the brain. Estradiol receptors are the sites in the brain where estrogen connects to most readily and does its work. Estradiol receptors may be important in the faciliatory effect that estrogen has on the activity of serotonin and norepinephrine. When the receptors are impaired, estrogen does not work as well and is unable to facilitate the activity of serotonin.
With the above mentioned effects in mind, it may be that menopausal and postmenopausal women are more vulnerable to depression due to lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity. The Manitoba Project, an ongoing study of Canadian women, found that the stress of daily life, chronic disease, and family problems were most likely to trigger depression in menopausal women. Perhaps these triggers have a more powerful effect on menopausal women and postmenopausal women due to their lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity. One study by Weissman found that the occurrence of major depression may increase after menopause. Another study reported by J. Coope stated that depressive illness is not more common at menopause. However, "depressive illness" was not specified in that study. We do not know if they are talking about a person diagnosed with major depression or someone experiencing depressive mood states not severe enough to be classified as major depression. The data is not conclusive in regard to the occurrence or cause of menopausal or postmenopausal depression. However, the physiological effects of menopause may make a woman more vulnerable to other life aspects that may trigger depression.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy and Mood:
Does ERT help mood?
Does estrogen in combination with progestin help mood?
There is also some controversy about the effectiveness of ERT in alleviating depressive mood, however there is much evidence in support of its beneficial effects. A meta-analysis of 26 hormone replacement studies found that in a majority of these studies ERT helped significantly in the alleviation of depressed mood as rated by scales such as the Hamilton Scale of Depression and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). These scales investigate the behavioral and bodily symptoms (Hamilton Scale) and the cognitive and mood symptoms (BDI). More recent studies have also shown support for the positive effects of ERT on mood as rated by scales similar to those mentioned above. However, J. Coope reported two studies that did not show these effects.
An interesting point to this controversy is the differences in report scales that have been used to measure depressed mood states. J. Zweifel and W. O'Brien report that the BDI yields smaller effect sizes, or the amount of change exhibited by the women of these studies compared to the effect sizes of the Hamilton Scale. Previous research also suggests that the BDI yields smaller effect sizes in comparison with other measures of depression. In other words, results from the BDI may not indicate as much change as another scale would. The BDI investigates cognition and feelings while the Hamilton Scale looks at behavioral and bodily symptoms. It may be that the BDI is less sensitive to the changes caused by ERT. Another difference in the scales is how they are taken. The BDI is a self-report measure whereas the Hamilton Scale utilizes a trained observer's ratings of symptoms. Women may be reluctant to endorse symptoms related to depression when they are doing the self-evaluation. Consequently, the BDI may not be an accurate measure of these symptoms.
Other evidence for the ERT's effectiveness in enhancing mood comes from it's effects on the chemistry of the brain. Estrogen enhances norepinephrine and serotonin activity, and inhibits production of monoamine oxidase. As mentioned earlier, serotonin and norepinephrine are involved in the regulation of depressive moods. Decreased activity of serotonin and norepinephrine are associated with increased depressive mood.
Estrogen's effects on serotonin:
estrogen increases the sensitivity of the receptors that receive serotonin (they are more likely to connect with serotonin)
increases the number of serotonin receptors which increases the activity level of serotonin
increases the reuptake of serotonin by the neuron it was released from in order that the serotonin may be made available once again in the synapse (the space between the neuron that releases the serotonin and the receptor that may connect with it)
increases the synthesis, or production, of serotonin
Estrogen's effects on norepinephrine
increases the binding rate of particular norepinephrine receptors (which increases norepinephrine activity)
increases "turnover" of norepinephrine, the rate at which it is "remade" available to be released into the synapse- this may be due to decreased metabolism or destruction of norepinephrine due to inhibition of MAO
Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is an enzyme that acts on other molecules, changing them in small ways that make the molecules more useful to the body. MAO acts on a variety of neurotransmitters, two of which are norepinephrine and serotonin. MAO destroys excessive amounts of norepinephrine and serotonin in healthy individuals. The activity level of MAO is used as an indicator of the activity level of serotonin and norepinephrine. If the activity level of MAO is high, the activity level of serotonin and norepinephrine is high. E. Klaiber and colleagues have demonstrated that increased levels of MAO platelet activity are indeed associated with lower levels of depression after two cycles of ERT.
Estrogen also acts as a MAO inhibitor by decreasing the production of MAO. The result is that there is less MAO to destroy serotonin and norepinephrine and hence, there is more of these two neurotransmitters available to be released into the synapse and their activity is increased. This action of estrogen is the same as MAO-inhibitors that are used as a therapy for depression. However, ERT alone may not be effective as an antidepressant but may be helpful as part of a larger regimen. The research for ERT as an antidepressant is not yet conclusive.
Estrogen Replacement Therapy and Progestin:
What are the effects of adding progestin to ERT?
Progestin is taken in combination with estrogen to diminish the risks of continual estrogen administration. One of the major risks of taking only estrogen is a significant increase in a woman's risk of endometrial cancer. Many studies however, have shown that the combination of estrogen and progestin has diminishes the positive effects that estrogen alone has on mood. However, not all women have such a negative reaction to the addition of progestin.
E. Klaiber and colleagues investigated the individual differences in women that may account for the differential reactions to the addition of progestin. They found that women who experienced an increase in positive mood during ERT and did not react adversely to the addition of progestin had the following characteristics:
short menopausal duration
high pretreatment estradiol levels in the blood
high pretreatment testosterone levels in the blood
low pretreatment levels of follicle stimulating hormone in the blood
****these above characteristics reflect early menopausal stages***
Women who had positive mood reaction to estrogen alone but experienced a reduction in the positive effect with the addition of progestin had the following characteristics:
long menopausal duration
low pretreatment estradiol level in the blood
low pretreatment testosterone level in the blood
high pretreatment follicle stimulating hormone in the blood
***these characteristics reflect the later stages of menopause***
Women whose benefits from estrogen were not completely countered by progestin had the following characteristics:
pretreatment adverse mood states
low pretreatment MAO activity (indicative of lower serotonin and norepinephrine activity)
older age (in an age span of 45-65 years)
The enhancing effect of estrogen on MAO activity (indicative of serotonin and norepinephrine activity) is diminished in some women by the addition of progestin. Women who did show an increase in MAO activity during ERT were woman who had short menopausal duration and high pretreatment levels of testosterone in their blood. These women showed a decline in MAO activity every time progestin was administered. An interesting occurrence is that the greater the rise in MAO activity during ERT, the less impairment there was in mood due to addition of progestin.
A paradox was found in the expected blood levels of estradiol in women with long menopausal duration. These women had higher levels of estradiol during ERT than did women with short menopausal duration but this raise in estradiol level did not counter the negative effects of progestin. They still experienced a reduction in the positive effects of estrogen. E. Klaiber and colleagues put forth an interesting hypothesis. Women with long duration of menopause also have experienced a prolonged deficiency in estrogen. The hypothesis is that the prolonged estrogen deficiency causes impairment of estradiol receptors in the brain which in turn causes a decrease in the use of estrogen resulting in more estradiol being left over in the brain (= high levels of estradiol in the blood). This impairment of estradiol receptors also impedes normal reactions to estrogen which means estrogen is not as able to have it's beneficial effects on the serotonin and norepinephrine activity.
However, women with long duration menopause do react positively to estrogen alone. S. Carranza and M. Valentino-Figueroa found that ERT was useful in alleviating depressive mood in postmenopausal women who had these depressive symptoms before ERT, but S. Girdler and colleagues found that it did not have a mood effect for women who did not have depression. It may be that in lieu of the already diminished number of healthy estradiol receptors, the progestin causes a further "down regulation" of estradiol receptors resulting in a lessening of the positive effects of estrogen. If this hypothesis of the impairment of estradiol receptors is true, it is not know if ERT can reverse it. If it can't, this is a strong argument for early intervention with ERT. However, this hypotheses have not been proven yet and further research needs to be done to investigate these probabilities.
Women with pretreatment adverse mood states and low MAO activity (indicative of low serotonin and norepinephrine activity) may already be vulnerable to depression before the onset of menopause. Their MAO level may already be low, and although estrogen may raise it, it may not be enough to protect against the effects of progestin.
Science
Musculoskeletal Care During Pregnancy:
Despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain during pregnancy, few women in underserved populations receive therapy for their low back pain, as per a February 2007 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT). Moreover, scientists observed that pain in a prior pregnancy may predict a high risk for musculoskeletal complaints in future pregnancies.
85 percent of women surveyed reported that they had not received therapy for their musculoskeletal pain, and of the small percentage who perceived that their back complaints were addressed, less than 10 percent were satisfied with the symptom relief they obtained.
"Based on the findings of this study, doctors of chiropractic and other health care professionals need to expand the musculoskeletal care available during pregnancy, particularly in underserved populations," Dr. Skaggs said. "As a proactive step, health professionals should consider including back pain screening as part of early obstetrical care to help identify musculoskeletal risk factors and allow for early education and/or therapy".
Scientists surveyed more than 600 women at a clinic that serves predominantly an uninsured, underinsured or Medicaid-insured population. Surveys were offered to all obstetrical patients and were designed to collect information about pregnancy-related pain and quality of life issues. Of those women who responded to the survey, two-thirds reported back pain and nearly half of all women reported pain at two or more locations, including pelvic pain and mid-back pain.........
Steroid Use Fails To Boost Pregnancy Rates:
There is no clear benefit from a hormone usually prescribed to enhance the effectiveness of infertility therapys, as per a new review of studies.
The steroid hormones called glucocorticoids have potent effects on the bodys inflammatory and immune responses, so a number of fertility specialists prescribe them in hopes of making the lining of the uterus more receptive to embryo implantation. But lead review author Carolien Boomsma says that routine practice should stop.
This meta-analysis shows that empirical use of glucocorticoids is not supported by evidence from studies, she said. Moreover, we dont know enough about the possible adverse effects of glucocorticoids in early pregnancy. Therefore, at present, glucocorticoids should not be prescribed in this way, said Boomsma, a researcher at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands.
The review appears in the most recent issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
The review compares success rates between would-be mothers who took glucocorticoids around the time of embryo implantation and those who did not. All of the women underwent one of two types of assisted reproductive technology. In vitro fertilization (IVF) involves removing mature eggs from a womans ovary, mixing them with sperm in the laboratory, and placing the embryos in the womans reproductive tract. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is another in vitro fertilization practice where a single sperm is injected directly into a harvested egg.........
Menstrual Cycle And The Female Brain:
What influence does the variation in estrogen level have on the activation of the female brain? Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Jean-Claude Dreher, a researcher at the Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNRS/Universit Lyon 1), in collaboration with an American team from the National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, Maryland) directed by Karen Berman, has identified, for the first time, the neural networks involved in processing reward-related functions modulated by female gonadal steroid hormones. This result, which was published online on January 29, 2007 on the PNAS website, is an important step in better comprehension of certain psychiatric and neurological pathologies.
The human brain has a recompense system that predicts different types of reward (food, money, drugs). The normal functioning of this system plays a fundamental role in a number of cognitive processes such as motivation and learning. This reward system, composed of dopaminergic neurons1 situated in the mesencephalon (a very deep region of the brain) and their projection sites2, is crucial for neural coding of rewards. Its dysfunction can result in disorders such as addictions and is also implicated in various psychiatric and neurological pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenic disorders. A number of studies on animals prove that the dopaminergic3 system is sensitive to gonadal steroid hormones (estrogen, progesterone). For example, female rats self-administer cocaine (a drug that acts on the dopamine system) in higher doses after estrogens have been administered to them. The influence of gonadal steroid hormones on the activation of the reward system remained to be studied in humans. A better knowledge of this influence should make for better understanding of the differences between men and women, especially as observed in the prevalence of certain psychiatric pathologies and in vulnerability to drugs, (for which the dopaminergic system plays an important role.) It is known, for example, that the female response to cocaine is greater in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle4 than in the luteal phase5.Moreover, schizophrenia tends to appear later in women than in men.........
Aspirin For Conception And Healthy Pregnancy:
Scientists at the University at Buffalo and the University of Utah are beginning a clinical trial to test whether aspirin can improve a woman's chances of becoming pregnant and of maintaining a pregnancy to term.
UB's portion of the study is funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.
The trial is aimed at women who have miscarried a pregnancy in the past years.
"In women who have had their first miscarriage, the reasons for losing that pregnancy are in a number of instances unknown," said Jean Wactawski-Wende, Ph.D., UB associate professor of social and preventive medicine and principal investigator of the UB clinical center.
"These women generally are advised to try to get pregnant again, but health-care providers can offer limited assistance on any specific actions to take to improve their next pregnancy outcome," she noted. "If aspirin can help some women become pregnant or maintain a health pregnancy, it will be a critically important finding.
"Aspirin is available, inexpensive and has very few side effects," she added. "We're hopeful that this trial could produce an important finding".
Statistics show that in the United States, 10-15 percent of couples trying to become pregnant are not able to conceive, 15-31 percent of pregnancies that do occur end in miscarriage, and 8-15 percent of pregnancies that continue beyond 20 weeks end in premature birth, putting these infants at risk for increased health problems.........
Protecting Women's Mood Under Stress:
German scientists have found additional evidence that the stress hormone cortisol can have positive effects in certain situations. Eventhough chronic stress, which brings long-term elevations of cortisol in the bloodstream, can weaken the immune system and induce depression, this new study adds to mounting evidence that cortisol given near in time to a physical or psychological stress may lessen the stressor's emotional impact. Psychology experts are particularly interested in what this means for preventing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings are reported in the recent issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psychology experts Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver Wolf, PhD, of the University of Bielefeld, enlisted 44 healthy women for a double-blind study, in which neither scientists or participants knew the condition to which the women were assigned. One hour before a psychosocial stress test, participants were given either a 30 mg. dose of oral cortisol or a placebo. That 30 mg. dose is considered high, translating to a severe stressor. Experimenters tracked participant mood through self report, and measured their cortisol levels with a simple swab check of their saliva, before and after the psychosocial stress test.........
New smear test policy puts young women at risk:
The BMJ reported a fall in the number of young women attending smear tests. Now, two senior doctors warn that a new policy not to screen women aged 20-24 may be a factor in falling coverage and could increase the risk of cancer developing in young women.
Prevalence of carcinoma in situ (a precursor to cancer known as CIN3) has increased in women aged 20-24, write consultants Amanda Herbert and John Smith. This new policy will add more than 3000 women with untreated CIN3 to the larger numbers failing to accept their invitations later on, they warn.
The authors accept that CIN may regress, that invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is rare in women under 25, and that screening does little to reduce its incidence in such young women. However, they argue that ICC can develop within a couple of years of missed cell analysis, failure to investigate cell abnormalities, or incomplete therapy, emphasising the importance of treating high-grade CIN when it is found.
Screening in the UK has been highly successful and, since 1988, incidence and mortality have fallen by more than 40% despite increased risk of disease. This has been achieved by treating high-grade CIN, especially CIN3, in young women, say the authors. The peak prevalence of CIN3 is in women aged 25-29 amongst whom the fall in coverage has been greatest.........
Abortion -- where do we draw the line?:
Any challenge to the upper limit of 24 weeks poses big questions about viability, infant suffering, and the capabilities of neonatal care, writes Gornall and the danger is that this vital debate is taking place increasingly on emotional rather than scientific grounds.
The ProLife Alliance can take much of the credit for having put abortion back on the public and political agenda over the past decade. The organisation was set up in 1996 as a political party to show the reality of abortion and was also behind the ultimately failed attempt in 2003 by Joanna Jepson, a trainee vicar, to have police prosecute two doctors over the late abortion of a fetus with a cleft lip and palate.
Now the alliance has turned its attention away from pictures of dead babies to 4D ultrasound images of live ones in the womb.
The technique was pioneered by Stuart Campbell, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Georges Hospital, London, who is convinced that his 4D images have undermined the validity of the current time limit for abortion.........
Benchmark fetal surgery study:
It's one of the biggest controversies in fetal surgery and the cause of heated debate among surgeons and maternal-fetal medicine physicians around the world: What's the best way to treat twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), one of the most common conditions requiring fetal surgery and the leading cause of mortality in twins?
The benchmark, NIH-funded study on TTTS, conducted at 17 centers in the United States, will be presented February 9 at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco, and it won't likely resolve the question of which is the best procedure. The study, led by Timothy Crombleholme, M.D., director of the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati, shows that the question isn't which surgical procedure is better, it's when the procedure is done.
Dr. Crombleholme issued a clarion call to fetal care specialists around the world. "The earlier in gestation TTTS is diagnosed, the more severe the syndrome tends to be," says Dr. Crombleholme, who is also a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "We have to shift attention to diagnosing this earlier in the progression of the syndrome and being more aggressive about intervention. We can't conclude that one treatment is better than another, but it's apparent that we're going to compromise survival if therapy isn't initiated before it gets to be severe".........
African-American mothers more likely to deliver prematurely:
African-American women are three times more likely to deliver babies three to 17 weeks prematurely than Caucasian women, as per a review of Missouri birth statistics by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In addition, African-American women are more likely to deliver babies prematurely in subsequent pregnancies.
The scientists analyzed data from the Missouri Department of Health's maternally linked database of all births in Missouri between 1989 and 1997, adjusting for such variables as socioeconomic status, education level, cigarette smoking and maternal medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and eclampsia. Full-term birth is considered to be between 37 weeks and 42 weeks of gestation.
Results of the analysis appear in the recent issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The data showed that 8.8 percent of births to African-American women were between 20 weeks and 34 weeks gestation, or nearly three times the 2.95 percent of premature births to Caucasian women. In addition, African-American women were nearly four times as likely to deliver babies between 20 weeks and 28 weeks gestation than Caucasian women.
African-American women also were nearly 5.5 times more likely to have recurrent preterm births than Caucasian women.........
Helping women with PCOS achieve pregnancy:
Metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes and once thought to have great promise in overcoming the infertility linked to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), is less effective than the standard fertility drug therapy, clomiphene, as per scientists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Reproductive Medicine research network. This is the largest, most comprehensive effort yet to compare the two drugs in helping PCOS patients achieve successful pregnancy. The findings are reported in the February 8th, 2007 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM).
"With this study, my colleagues and I recommend and support the use of clomiphene alone and NOT in combination with Metformin as a first-line treatment for infertility in women with PCOS," said Christos Coutifaris, MD, PhD, Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the principal investigator from Penn. "These results emphasize the need to test any new application rigorously, no matter how promising it may seem initially."
As per the study authors, women who took metformin ovulated more that the women who were given the standard therapy. Similarly, women in the combination treatment group ovulated more frequently than did the women in either the clomiphene-alone or the metformin-alone groups. However, as the current study revealed, an increase in ovulation did not result in more successful pregnancies and deliveries for either the metformin alone, or combination group.........
Despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal pain during pregnancy, few women in underserved populations receive therapy for their low back pain, as per a February 2007 study in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics (JMPT). Moreover, scientists observed that pain in a prior pregnancy may predict a high risk for musculoskeletal complaints in future pregnancies.
85 percent of women surveyed reported that they had not received therapy for their musculoskeletal pain, and of the small percentage who perceived that their back complaints were addressed, less than 10 percent were satisfied with the symptom relief they obtained.
"Based on the findings of this study, doctors of chiropractic and other health care professionals need to expand the musculoskeletal care available during pregnancy, particularly in underserved populations," Dr. Skaggs said. "As a proactive step, health professionals should consider including back pain screening as part of early obstetrical care to help identify musculoskeletal risk factors and allow for early education and/or therapy".
Scientists surveyed more than 600 women at a clinic that serves predominantly an uninsured, underinsured or Medicaid-insured population. Surveys were offered to all obstetrical patients and were designed to collect information about pregnancy-related pain and quality of life issues. Of those women who responded to the survey, two-thirds reported back pain and nearly half of all women reported pain at two or more locations, including pelvic pain and mid-back pain.........
Steroid Use Fails To Boost Pregnancy Rates:
There is no clear benefit from a hormone usually prescribed to enhance the effectiveness of infertility therapys, as per a new review of studies.
The steroid hormones called glucocorticoids have potent effects on the bodys inflammatory and immune responses, so a number of fertility specialists prescribe them in hopes of making the lining of the uterus more receptive to embryo implantation. But lead review author Carolien Boomsma says that routine practice should stop.
This meta-analysis shows that empirical use of glucocorticoids is not supported by evidence from studies, she said. Moreover, we dont know enough about the possible adverse effects of glucocorticoids in early pregnancy. Therefore, at present, glucocorticoids should not be prescribed in this way, said Boomsma, a researcher at the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands.
The review appears in the most recent issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
The review compares success rates between would-be mothers who took glucocorticoids around the time of embryo implantation and those who did not. All of the women underwent one of two types of assisted reproductive technology. In vitro fertilization (IVF) involves removing mature eggs from a womans ovary, mixing them with sperm in the laboratory, and placing the embryos in the womans reproductive tract. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is another in vitro fertilization practice where a single sperm is injected directly into a harvested egg.........
Menstrual Cycle And The Female Brain:
What influence does the variation in estrogen level have on the activation of the female brain? Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Jean-Claude Dreher, a researcher at the Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNRS/Universit Lyon 1), in collaboration with an American team from the National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, Maryland) directed by Karen Berman, has identified, for the first time, the neural networks involved in processing reward-related functions modulated by female gonadal steroid hormones. This result, which was published online on January 29, 2007 on the PNAS website, is an important step in better comprehension of certain psychiatric and neurological pathologies.
The human brain has a recompense system that predicts different types of reward (food, money, drugs). The normal functioning of this system plays a fundamental role in a number of cognitive processes such as motivation and learning. This reward system, composed of dopaminergic neurons1 situated in the mesencephalon (a very deep region of the brain) and their projection sites2, is crucial for neural coding of rewards. Its dysfunction can result in disorders such as addictions and is also implicated in various psychiatric and neurological pathologies, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenic disorders. A number of studies on animals prove that the dopaminergic3 system is sensitive to gonadal steroid hormones (estrogen, progesterone). For example, female rats self-administer cocaine (a drug that acts on the dopamine system) in higher doses after estrogens have been administered to them. The influence of gonadal steroid hormones on the activation of the reward system remained to be studied in humans. A better knowledge of this influence should make for better understanding of the differences between men and women, especially as observed in the prevalence of certain psychiatric pathologies and in vulnerability to drugs, (for which the dopaminergic system plays an important role.) It is known, for example, that the female response to cocaine is greater in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle4 than in the luteal phase5.Moreover, schizophrenia tends to appear later in women than in men.........
Aspirin For Conception And Healthy Pregnancy:
Scientists at the University at Buffalo and the University of Utah are beginning a clinical trial to test whether aspirin can improve a woman's chances of becoming pregnant and of maintaining a pregnancy to term.
UB's portion of the study is funded by a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.
The trial is aimed at women who have miscarried a pregnancy in the past years.
"In women who have had their first miscarriage, the reasons for losing that pregnancy are in a number of instances unknown," said Jean Wactawski-Wende, Ph.D., UB associate professor of social and preventive medicine and principal investigator of the UB clinical center.
"These women generally are advised to try to get pregnant again, but health-care providers can offer limited assistance on any specific actions to take to improve their next pregnancy outcome," she noted. "If aspirin can help some women become pregnant or maintain a health pregnancy, it will be a critically important finding.
"Aspirin is available, inexpensive and has very few side effects," she added. "We're hopeful that this trial could produce an important finding".
Statistics show that in the United States, 10-15 percent of couples trying to become pregnant are not able to conceive, 15-31 percent of pregnancies that do occur end in miscarriage, and 8-15 percent of pregnancies that continue beyond 20 weeks end in premature birth, putting these infants at risk for increased health problems.........
Protecting Women's Mood Under Stress:
German scientists have found additional evidence that the stress hormone cortisol can have positive effects in certain situations. Eventhough chronic stress, which brings long-term elevations of cortisol in the bloodstream, can weaken the immune system and induce depression, this new study adds to mounting evidence that cortisol given near in time to a physical or psychological stress may lessen the stressor's emotional impact. Psychology experts are particularly interested in what this means for preventing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder. The findings are reported in the recent issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psychology experts Serkan Het, MSc, and Oliver Wolf, PhD, of the University of Bielefeld, enlisted 44 healthy women for a double-blind study, in which neither scientists or participants knew the condition to which the women were assigned. One hour before a psychosocial stress test, participants were given either a 30 mg. dose of oral cortisol or a placebo. That 30 mg. dose is considered high, translating to a severe stressor. Experimenters tracked participant mood through self report, and measured their cortisol levels with a simple swab check of their saliva, before and after the psychosocial stress test.........
New smear test policy puts young women at risk:
The BMJ reported a fall in the number of young women attending smear tests. Now, two senior doctors warn that a new policy not to screen women aged 20-24 may be a factor in falling coverage and could increase the risk of cancer developing in young women.
Prevalence of carcinoma in situ (a precursor to cancer known as CIN3) has increased in women aged 20-24, write consultants Amanda Herbert and John Smith. This new policy will add more than 3000 women with untreated CIN3 to the larger numbers failing to accept their invitations later on, they warn.
The authors accept that CIN may regress, that invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is rare in women under 25, and that screening does little to reduce its incidence in such young women. However, they argue that ICC can develop within a couple of years of missed cell analysis, failure to investigate cell abnormalities, or incomplete therapy, emphasising the importance of treating high-grade CIN when it is found.
Screening in the UK has been highly successful and, since 1988, incidence and mortality have fallen by more than 40% despite increased risk of disease. This has been achieved by treating high-grade CIN, especially CIN3, in young women, say the authors. The peak prevalence of CIN3 is in women aged 25-29 amongst whom the fall in coverage has been greatest.........
Abortion -- where do we draw the line?:
Any challenge to the upper limit of 24 weeks poses big questions about viability, infant suffering, and the capabilities of neonatal care, writes Gornall and the danger is that this vital debate is taking place increasingly on emotional rather than scientific grounds.
The ProLife Alliance can take much of the credit for having put abortion back on the public and political agenda over the past decade. The organisation was set up in 1996 as a political party to show the reality of abortion and was also behind the ultimately failed attempt in 2003 by Joanna Jepson, a trainee vicar, to have police prosecute two doctors over the late abortion of a fetus with a cleft lip and palate.
Now the alliance has turned its attention away from pictures of dead babies to 4D ultrasound images of live ones in the womb.
The technique was pioneered by Stuart Campbell, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at St Georges Hospital, London, who is convinced that his 4D images have undermined the validity of the current time limit for abortion.........
Benchmark fetal surgery study:
It's one of the biggest controversies in fetal surgery and the cause of heated debate among surgeons and maternal-fetal medicine physicians around the world: What's the best way to treat twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), one of the most common conditions requiring fetal surgery and the leading cause of mortality in twins?
The benchmark, NIH-funded study on TTTS, conducted at 17 centers in the United States, will be presented February 9 at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine in San Francisco, and it won't likely resolve the question of which is the best procedure. The study, led by Timothy Crombleholme, M.D., director of the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati, shows that the question isn't which surgical procedure is better, it's when the procedure is done.
Dr. Crombleholme issued a clarion call to fetal care specialists around the world. "The earlier in gestation TTTS is diagnosed, the more severe the syndrome tends to be," says Dr. Crombleholme, who is also a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "We have to shift attention to diagnosing this earlier in the progression of the syndrome and being more aggressive about intervention. We can't conclude that one treatment is better than another, but it's apparent that we're going to compromise survival if therapy isn't initiated before it gets to be severe".........
African-American mothers more likely to deliver prematurely:
African-American women are three times more likely to deliver babies three to 17 weeks prematurely than Caucasian women, as per a review of Missouri birth statistics by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In addition, African-American women are more likely to deliver babies prematurely in subsequent pregnancies.
The scientists analyzed data from the Missouri Department of Health's maternally linked database of all births in Missouri between 1989 and 1997, adjusting for such variables as socioeconomic status, education level, cigarette smoking and maternal medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and eclampsia. Full-term birth is considered to be between 37 weeks and 42 weeks of gestation.
Results of the analysis appear in the recent issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The data showed that 8.8 percent of births to African-American women were between 20 weeks and 34 weeks gestation, or nearly three times the 2.95 percent of premature births to Caucasian women. In addition, African-American women were nearly four times as likely to deliver babies between 20 weeks and 28 weeks gestation than Caucasian women.
African-American women also were nearly 5.5 times more likely to have recurrent preterm births than Caucasian women.........
Helping women with PCOS achieve pregnancy:
Metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes and once thought to have great promise in overcoming the infertility linked to polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), is less effective than the standard fertility drug therapy, clomiphene, as per scientists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Reproductive Medicine research network. This is the largest, most comprehensive effort yet to compare the two drugs in helping PCOS patients achieve successful pregnancy. The findings are reported in the February 8th, 2007 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM).
"With this study, my colleagues and I recommend and support the use of clomiphene alone and NOT in combination with Metformin as a first-line treatment for infertility in women with PCOS," said Christos Coutifaris, MD, PhD, Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and the principal investigator from Penn. "These results emphasize the need to test any new application rigorously, no matter how promising it may seem initially."
As per the study authors, women who took metformin ovulated more that the women who were given the standard therapy. Similarly, women in the combination treatment group ovulated more frequently than did the women in either the clomiphene-alone or the metformin-alone groups. However, as the current study revealed, an increase in ovulation did not result in more successful pregnancies and deliveries for either the metformin alone, or combination group.........
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