Korean adoption: domestic adoptions going up?

There is a growing movement in Korea to encourage domestic, instead of foreign, adoption. This could be a welcome trend. I still think the best, most important hting to be done is to help birthmothers who WANT to keep their children to give them the cultural and financial supports so they can raise them on their own.

Here's an essay I wrote about my experiences working with Korean birth mothers when researching my novel, Somebody's Daughter.

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By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

About 60 percent of all adoptions were made domestically in the first
half of this year, making it the first time for them to surpass
overseas adoptions.

The Health and Welfare Ministry reported Thursday that 59.2 percent
of adoptions, or 729 of 1,223 children in the January-June period,
were by domestic couples, far higher than the 41percent to 42 percent
average over the past five years.

A ministry spokesman said the ``increase'' is largely attributed to a
new law prioritizing domestic adoption to overseas adoption _ rather
than changing attitudes towards adoption _ as well as tax incentives
and campaigns to encourage domestic adoptions.

But it may take time to assess the full impact of the new law on
adoption patterns, a ministry spokesman said.

Over 2,000 Korean children have been adopted by foreign families
every year, but a fall in these adoptions has contributed to an
overall decrease in total adoptions.

As a result, more children are now housed at childcare centers or
with temporary families awaiting adoption.

The Overseas Korean Foundation estimated a total of 157,145 Korean
children have been adopted by foreign couples over the past 50 years,
the majority being from the U.S., followed by France, Sweden and
Denmark.

In 2005, Korea was rated the fourth biggest source for overseas
adoptions, behind China, Russia and Guatemala _ 2,101 Korean children
were adopted by foreign couples in 2005.

The government has been making efforts to shake off the country's
reputation as a ``baby-exporting'

' nation but any fruitful results
have yet to be observed.

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2007/08/113_9293.html

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NYT: Some Food Additives Raise Hyperactivity, Study Finds

Of course this study is coming out of the UK...I can't believe the American pediatricians are all worried that not letting kids have food w/toxic chemicals might be bad for their social lives! Geez! Can we get a grip, here? Plus, I love that "many parents have suspected"--no one ever wants to listen to the parents!
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NYT: Some Food Additives Raise Hyperactivity, Study Finds

September 6, 2007

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Common food additives and colorings can increase hyperactive behavior in a broad range of children, a study being released today found.

It was the first time researchers conclusively and scientifically confirmed a link that had long been suspected by many parents. Numerous support groups for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have for years recommended removing such ingredients from diets, although experts have continued to debate the evidence.

But the new, carefully controlled study shows that some artificial additives increase hyperactivity and decrease attention span in a wide range of children, not just those for whom overactivity has been diagnosed as a learning problem.

The new research, which was financed by Britain’s Food Standards Agency and published online by the British medical journal The Lancet, presents regulators with a number of issues: Should foods containing preservatives and artificial colors carry warning labels? Should some additives be prohibited entirely? Should school cafeterias remove foods with additives?

After all, the researchers note that overactivity makes learning more difficult for children.

“A mix of additives commonly found in children’s foods increases the mean level of hyperactivity,” wrote the researchers, led by Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at the University of Southampton. “The finding lends strong support for the case that food additives exacerbate hyperactive behaviors (inattention, impulsivity and overactivity) at least into middle childhood.”

In response to the study, the Food Standards Agency advised parents to monitor their children’s activity and, if they noted a marked change with food containing additives, to adjust their diets accordingly, eliminating artificial colors and preservatives.

But Professor Stevenson said it was premature to go further. “We’ve set up an issue that needs more exploration,” he said in a telephone interview.

In response to the study, some pediatricians cautioned that a diet without artificial colors and preservatives might cause other problems for children.

“Even if it shows some increase in hyperactivity, is it clinically significant and does it impact the child’s life?” said Dr. Thomas Spencer, a specialist in Pediatric Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Is it powerful enough that you want to ostracize your kid? It is very socially impacting if children can’t eat the things that their friends do.”

Still, Dr. Spencer called the advice of the British food agency “sensible,” noting that some children may be “supersensitive to additives” just as some people are more sensitive to caffeine.

The Lancet study focused on a variety of food colorings and on sodium benzoate, a common preservative. The researchers note that removing this preservative from food could cause problems in itself by increasing spoilage. In the six-week trial, researchers gave a randomly selected group of several hundred 3-year-olds and of 8- and 9-year-olds drinks with additives — colors and sodium benzoate — that mimicked the mix in children’s drinks that are commercially available. The dose of additives consumed was equivalent to that in one or two servings of candy a day, the researchers said. Their diet was otherwise controlled to avoid other sources of the additives.

A control group was given an additive-free placebo drink that looked and tasted the same.

All of the children were evaluated for inattention and hyperactivity by parents, teachers (for school-age children) and through a computer test. Neither the researchers nor the subject knew which drink any of the children had consumed.

The researchers discovered that children in both age groups were significantly more hyperactive and that they had shorter attention spans if they had consumed the drink containing the additives. The study did not try to link specific consumption with specific behaviors. The study’s authors noted that other research suggested that the hyperactivity could increase in as little as an hour after artificial additives were consumed.

The Lancet study could not determine which of the additives caused the poor performances because all the children received a mix. “This was a very complicated study, and it will take an even more complicated study to figure out which components caused the effect,” Professor Stevenson said.

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Gov. Health Office Caves to Pressure by Infant Formula Companies

By Marc Kaufman and Christopher Lee

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 31, 2007; Page A01

In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks if they did not breast-feed. It featured striking photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples.

Plans to run these blunt ads infuriated the politically powerful infant formula industry, which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political appointees toned down the campaign.

The ads ran instead with more friendly images of dandelions and cherry-topped ice cream scoops...

read more here.

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Newsflash! Stress Affects Fertility!

Hm, this should be painfully obvious that from a basic evolutionary point of view, it benefits the organism to not get pregnant in times of stress (famine, war, etc.) and that our chronic-stress environment is probably making people less fertile...not to mention that IVF (takes out the stress-relieving act of making love, for one) is in itself a cause for stress.

I.e., turns the ol' cycle into a vicious cycle.

Still, it's nice to hear an "official" "scientific" person bringing this up (from the New York Times):

A Low-Tech Approach to Fertility: Just Relax

By RANDI HUTTER EPSTEIN, M.D.

Published: September 4, 2007

Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times

Dr. Sarah L. Berga has devoted her career to one of the most hotly debated subjects in the fertility business: getting pregnant without costly drugs. She is one of a handful of physician-scientists exploring how chronic stress may keep some women from ovulating and how relaxation techniques may help.

More precisely, these researchers are examining how chronic stress alters brain signals to the hypothalamus, the walnut-size organ that serves as the master of ceremonies overseeing the delicately timed hormonal dance. Or as Dr. Berga puts it, she explores “how the hypothalamus talks to the pituitary that in turns talks to the ovary.”

Her research suggests that a cascade of events, beginning with stress, leads to reduced levels of two hormones crucial for ovulation. And her published studies, small but scrupulous, are starting to convince her critics.

In a study of 16 women reported in 2003 in the journal Fertility and Sterility, Dr. Berga showed that ovulation was restored in 7 of 8 women who underwent cognitive behavioral therapy, compared with 2 of 8 who did not get therapy. In 2006, in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, she reported that women who did not ovulate had excessive levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in the brain fluid.

Dr. Berga spoke recently about her research from her office at Emory University.

Q. You’ve studied not only people but also animals. What did those studies tell you about stress?

A. Before we did the 16-woman study, we studied monkeys. We found that when we stressed monkeys alone, 10 percent stopped menstruating temporarily. When we added exercise and limited their food intake, again about 10 percent stopped menstruating temporarily. But when we combined stress, exercise, and cut down on food, 75 percent became amenorrheic.

Q. Then you did a similar study in which two groups of women — one group with normal ovulation, the other group with stress-related amenorrhea — exercised almost to their full potential. What did you find?

A. We saw that if you are stressed when you start exercise, your body reacts differently than if you are not chronically stressed and exercise. Not only does it appear that exercise was more stressful for already stressed women, but certainly exercise did not help them lower their stress hormones, which is of course one reason people take up exercising.

Q. Today, you head a department at a prestigious university, which must help you promote your message. How was your research received initially?

A. With great skepticism. There are definitely more people now who endorse our work but there is certainly a group that doesn’t want to believe it. Chronic stress, whether emotional or physical, taxes the body. We can accept that stress is linked to heart disease, but not to fertility.

Q. Are you saying that a woman who may have had a stressful month at work is hurting her fertility? Isn’t life without stress impossible?

A. We are talking about chronic stress related to behavior or personality. People are designed to endure acute stress. That is a part of life. I am telling women, and men, that it is important to find a balance and learn to cope with their stress.

Q. Some of your work focuses on undereaters and overexercisers. Isn’t it the nutritional state that is hurting the women, not their mental state?

A. Anorexia or excessive exercise can certainly make women stop menstruating. But I believe that many of these women undertake exercise or limit food intake to deal with stress. I believe that treating the underlying stress is more likely to encourage women to relax, eat healthier and exercise healthier rather than just telling women to change their diet and exercise regime.

Q. Do you hope that your research will change the way fertility treatment is administered? How would you want to see it change?

A. Ideally, it would be good for doctors and patients to understand the link between stress and fertility so that they would know when to offer some sort of intervention. For instance, cognitive behavioral therapy is a relatively simple and inexpensive 16-week program that sometimes removes the need for expensive and risky infertility drugs and procedures.

Q. It sounds as if you’re against fertility drugs, which are a necessary component of in vitro fertilization.

A. We do I.V.F. in this department. I like to think we offer the least technology necessary to get the job done. I do think that with a certain population of women — women who may be infertile due to stress — benefit the least from I.V.F. Others absolutely need these drugs and procedures. I also believe that it is imperative that doctors communicate the risks of the drugs and help patients understand when they are and are not necessary.

Q. You have not studied the fetus as much as female hormones, but do you believe that stress hurts the fetus?

A. I do believe stress on the mother may imprint the fetal genome forever. There is some pretty solid animal research, done by other researchers, and some highly suggestive human studies. Other researchers have shown that stress decreases thyroxine levels, which controls energy availability. The mother is the sole source of thyroxine for the fetus during the first trimester of pregnancy and the major source of thyroxine for the second two trimesters. And thyroxine is absolutely vital for appropriate fetal brain development. I think doctors should tell women that if the maternal component is stressed, the fetal component will also be exposed to maternal stress hormones.

Q. In the 1940s, Freudian analysts told infertile women that lurking antimaternal thoughts made them sterile. Feminists later attacked this theory. Do you think of yourself as a continuum of this practice, or do you feel your ideas are completely different?

A. Back then they did not know the mechanisms and they intuited relationships, but they were not all wrong. They were closer to the truth than we’d like to believe. The truth is that if you are not in harmony with yourself and your culture, you are stressed. That is not totally different from Freud.

Q. Do you insist all of your patients have cognitive behavioral therapy before drug therapy?

A. I try to come at it from the perspective of suggestion. I went into women’s health to protect women’s autonomy, so the last thing I would want to do is to make a decision for my patients without their input. At the end of the day, it’s the couple who is trying to get pregnant who bears the most immediate consequences.

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Nettles can help fertility

Nettles are a rich source of many trace minerals and they are "famous" for helping fertility of both men and women. When I was at my writers' colony, I got out a lot and harvested fresh nettles and dried them by my woodstove and drink it as a rich tea.

An article from the Idaho Observer says,

Nettles are used to increase fertility in both men and women. Due to its high calcium content, the tea is specific for easing leg cramps and other muscles spasms, and also diminishes pain during and after birth.

It does a lot of other stuff that you can read about here.

Most people need gloves to harvest them, by the way. And only use them before they flower; once they go to seed they are hard on the kidneys. Also, many people consider them to be a weed, so be careful where you get them and make sure they aren't being sprayed with pesticide! You can often also buy nettle seeds and grow your own.

Nettles also helped me get rid of my seasonal allergies. Read here.

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House Recycling

This is such a cool video of the moving of an entire building/old house on campus to a new location (it's possible one of the buglike dots you see moving may be Yours Truly):

Click here.

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Did my House make my kitty hyperthyroid?

This is such an eeeek! My New York City street kitty became suddenly hyperthyroid when we moved to Providence...and we did buy some new furniture, mattresses, sofa, etc. I can't help but wonder...

From Mary Shomon, the Thyroid goddess:

Chemical-Laden Household Dust May Pose Thyroid Danger to Cats

Flame-retardant chemicals that are added to everything from carpeting to furniture may be responsible for a dramatic increase in hyperthyroidism in cats, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study published August 15, 2007.

The chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, were introduced around 30 years ago****, for use in households as a flame retardant. This coincides with the increasing incidence of overactive thyroid disease in cats. Hyperthyroidism was rare several decades ago, and is now one of the leading causes of death in pet cats. It’s known that key risk factors for feline hyperthyroidism are for indoor cats and those who eat canned foods....

They're in our homes. They're sleeping on our mattresses and furniture." Dye believes that house cats are ingesting the PBDEs, which are present in household dust, as they carefully groom themselves.

Linda Birnbaum, director of the Experimental Toxicology Division at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told HealthDay news, "Cats are very highly exposed to these chemicals, and the levels in cats are higher than the levels in people. But cats may be a good indicator of indoor exposure to humans.”

In the study, researchers compared levels of PBDE in healthy cats and cats with hyperthyroidism, and found that the cats with an overactive thyroid had PBDE levels 20 to 100 times higher than the average adult human in the United States. All the cats had detectable levels of PBDEs, but the highest levels were seen in cats with hyperthyroidism.

The researchers also found that the PBDE content of certain canned cat foods –- in particular, seafood flavors like salmon and whitefish –- is substantially higher than dry or non-seafood canned cat food.

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism in cats include hunger, increased appetite, weight loss, increased thirst, vomiting, diarrhea, irritability, and vocalizing.

According to Dye, “Our results showed that cats are being consistently exposed to PBDE. Because they are endocrine-disrupting agents, cats may well be at increased risk for developing thyroid effects.”

According to Dye, cats and humans are the only mammals with high incidences of hyperthyroidism. The paper suggests that cats are, in a way, the canaries in the coal mine, suggesting a possible thyroid risk of PBDEs to humans. While a causal link between the PBDEs and feline thyroid problems has not been proven, more research will be done to investigate. If the relationship is proven, then similar research on the effects of PBDEs on humans will be conducted.

Read more here.

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*** These chemicals--ahem--have been banned in Europe for quite a while, BTW. Since we've gotten wise to this, when we do purchasae furniture, we go to IKEA because it's made to those European standards. WHY do we keep insisting on poisoning ourselves????

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Treehugger Favourite Greens!

Yippee-doo, we're a TreeHugger Favourite Green again this week. Check out some great new sites/posts--e.g., good recipe for a health bars on Freshtopia.net.

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3M chemicals may cause low birthweight babies

Tom Elko sent me this post from Skybluewaters.com, a great regional Minnesota environmental site. I *do* have a friend who killed her birds by heating (NOT overheating, even) Teflon. Here's what it may do to babies:

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Chemicals produced by 3M that have been discovered in east metro drinking water, metro lakes, the Mississippi River, and elsewhere have been linked to low birthweight in newborns according to two new studies.

Liz Szabo of USA Today reports.

Babies exposed in the womb to chemicals used in non-stick cookware and other products may be born slightly smaller than other infants, two new studies report.

Earlier tests on animals have linked two chemicals, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), to cancer and developmental problems.

Studies also show that the chemicals can remain in the environment — and in the body — for many years.

Scientists say the studies, both of which are published in Environmental Health Perspectives, are significant because they measure the effects of lower levels in humans.

In an article published online Aug. 16, researchers tested blood from 1,400 pregnant women in a Danish birth registry. Babies of women with high PFOA levels were on average 4 ounces lighter than those born to mothers with low levels, the study reports. The study was paid for by the International Epidemiology Institute, which receives support from chemical manufacturer 3M.

On Wednesday, a public records disclosure form revealed that 3M hired lobbying firm McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. The Associated Press reported that the “firm will lobby on health-related issues and policies at the Department of Health and Human Services.”

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The latest U.S. health safety distraction ploy: Blame China!

From Mike Adams, the Health Ranger:

U.S. health and safety officials have found yet another brilliant way to distract the public from realizing just how dangerous U.S.-made food and drug products are: Blame China! Lately, we've seen China blamed for everything from toxic toothpaste, deadly dog food, contaminated ginger and now lead-based paints in Mattel toys.

Of course, all the accusations are true. China's food and herbal products are so routinely contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals that high-quality supplement formulators in the United States refuse to buy products from China anymore. But the really clever part in all this is that blaming China prevents people from paying attention to the dangerous ingredients openly allowed in the U.S. food supply by the FDA.

Specifically, the FDA currently allows known cancer-causing chemicals to be widely used in both foods and drugs. Sodium nitrite, for example, has been irrefutably shown to cause pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, leukemia and brain tumors in children, and yet the FDA looks the other way while processed meat manufacturers continue to add sodium nitrite to meat products sold throughout the country....

The USDA, meanwhile, openly allows U.S. farmers to inject cattle with hormones and antibiotics that are banned in most other countries, and the agency even has an open policy of allowing U.S. cattle to be fed chicken poop, roadkill, euthanized pets, and until recently, brain and spinal fluids from other dead, diseased cows. So what happens when consumers eating this stuff suffer bizarre neurological disorders like the human form of mad cow disease? Blame China!

See more here.

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McDonald’s marketing tricks tots’ taste buds

To continue our improptu Kiddie Health Week, if you have kids or are planning to have them (hello, Ali!), watch out! Even if you keep your kiddies away from McDonald's, they can still develop a "taste" for it:
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In test of identical foods, kids said even carrots labeled by chain were best

(AP) CHICAGO - Anything made by McDonald’s tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

“You see a McDonald’s label and kids start salivating,” said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research. Levin said it was “the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what’s going on with (marketing to) young children.”

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids’ perception of taste was “physically altered by the branding.” The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

The research, appearing in August’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study will likely stir more debate over the movement to restrict ads to kids. It comes less than a month after 11 major food and drink companies, including McDonald’s, announced new curbs on marketing to children under 12.

McDonald’s says the only Happy Meals it will promote to young children will contain fruit and have fewer calories and less fat.

“This is an important subject and McDonald’s has been actively addressing it for quite some time,” said company spokesman Walt Riker. “We’ve always wanted to be part of the solution and we are providing solutions.”

But Dr. Victor Strasburger, an author of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy urging limits on marketing to children, said the study shows too little is being done.

“It’s an amazing study and it’s very sad,” Strasburger said.

“Advertisers have tried to do exactly what this study is talking about ­ to brand younger and younger children, to instill in them an almost obsessional desire for a particular brand-name product,” he said.

Just two of the 63 children studied said they’d never eaten at McDonald’s, and about one-third ate there at least weekly. Most recognized the McDonald’s logo but it was mentioned to those who didn’t.

The study included three McDonald’s menu items ­ hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries ­ and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald’s wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked if they tasted the same or if one was better. (Some children didn’t taste all the foods.)

French fries were favorites
McDonald’s-labeled samples were the clear favorites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77 percent said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13 percent preferred the others.

Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald’s-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.

The only results not statistically clear-cut involved the hamburgers, with 29 kids choosing McDonald’s-wrapped burgers and 22 choosing the unmarked ones.

Fewer than one-fourth of the children said both samples of all foods tasted the same.

Pradeep Chintagunta, a University of Chicago marketing professor, said a fairer comparison might have gauged kids’ preferences for the McDonald’s label versus another familiar brand, such as Mickey Mouse.

“I don’t think you can necessarily hold this against” McDonald’s, he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products.

He noted that parents play a strong role in controlling food choices for children so young.

But Robinson argued that because young children are unaware of the persuasive intent of marketing, “it is an unfair playing field.”

© 2007 The Associated Press.

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80% Schools Use Neurotoxic Pesticides--Whether Needed Or Not

While we're at it...just in case the kids somehow escaped getting neurotoxins everywhere else, they can get them at school!
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From Treehugger (via Newswise)

Picture an FBI agent on the trail of poisons in America’s schools, and that’s what you’ve got when you take a look at Marc Lane, an entomologist and professor at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He says that pesticides in schools are a “pervasive, unnecessary health hazard”. He goes on to point out that “Over 80 percent of schools in America are applying pesticides on a regular basis, whether they have a pest problem or not," he said. "This is tragic not only because of the well-documented link between pesticides and health problems in children, such as asthma and neurological disorders, but also because pesticides generally do not work in a preventive manner in the school environment. Applying pesticides does not prevent pests from coming in, so using them when pests are not present does nothing other than expose children and staff to toxic chemicals."

Now according to Lame the most widely used insecticides are nerve poisons, which cause nerves to fire in an uncontrolled manner and disrupt endocrine systems. And it’s well documented that prolonged exposure can result in similar effects on humans, with results ranging from vomiting to severe breathing problems… But some further research indicates these insecticides may also play a role in causing issues such as ADHD, autism, and even infertility. ...

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4 Million Children Die Each Year from Enviro-Hazards

They always say you can tell everything about a society by how it treats its children:

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by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 08. 1.07

Environmental hazards are killing four million children every year. The World Health Organisation claims that problems such as polluted air and water are causing poisonings, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea diseases and malaria due to thriving mosquito populations in dirty water.

Up to 30% of disease in children can be attributed to environmental factors. "This is something that intuitively we have always recognized, but we never put a number to it," said WHO expert, Jenny Pronczuk.

Children don't even have to come into contact with harmful chemicals during their life for them to have an impact on their health. Any exposure that the mother recieves whilst pregnant can also be passed on, and the effects of that exposure may only emerge in adolescence. Pronczuk said, "For example if you look at lead exposure, the effect will be different if the child was exposed in utero because the lead of the mother goes into the bones of the child."

The fact that this report talks about the effects on children obviously makes for a more emotionally affecting story, and the vastness of the number affected is hard to comprehend. It’s important though, that the WHO look into these issues, because we could be walking into huge medical problems in the future. Our generation may be the first in history that becomes less healthy than the previous. The negative effects of our environment have increased faster than medical science.

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See you soon

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A First Pregnancy May Be Difficult to Achieve After Long-Term Use of an IUD

From the Guttmacher Institute on IUDs (intrauterine devices--they're put in the uterine lining to "irritate" it to prevent implantation of an embryo):

A First Pregnancy May Be Difficult to Achieve After Long-Term Use of an IUD

Women who have never given birth and have used an IUD for an extended period of time face decreased fertility when they try to conceive, according to a prospective study conducted in England and Scotland.1 Thirty-nine percent of nulliparous women who discontinued IUD use to become pregnant gave birth within 12 months, compared with 54% of those who stopped using a barrier method; the proportion was significantly lower among women who had used an IUD for 78 months or more (28%) than for those who had used one for a shorter period (45%). The association between extended IUD use and decreased fertility remained after other factors that affect fertility were taken into account.

Read more here. One might want to consider the long-term effects of birth control before choosing. Hormones, uterine irritation...even spermicides like Nonoxyl-9 may have weird biological effects.

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Korean Hostages in Afghanistan: Please help

Here's a petition about the Korean hostages that I just received from my buddy Max Han at NYseoul.com. I'm appalled at how quickly this issue has been dropped in the American media when all these people's lives are at stake at least in part because of the mess we made in the Middle East (don't forget that our involvement there against the Soviets helped allow the Taliban to become ascendant in the first place!). Please consider signing it:

Taliban leaders: free the hostages

The Afghanistan hostage situation involving the South Korean aid workers being held by the Taliban, is spiralling out of control. If any more are killed, it could force aid agencies to pull out of Afghanistan -- denying millions of Afghanis the help they need after years of war.

The Taliban are guided by the Afghan Pashtunwali code, a principle that requires “hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers” – and this kidnapping is a clear violation of the code, offending te weary people of Afghanistan on whom they depend. So it’s time for the global community to stand with Afghanis and South Koreans, demand that the Taliban to honour their code and release the rest of the hostages. Sign the petition NOW --

To the Taliban leaders,

Please honour the code of the Pashtun people, respect aid workers as guests in Afghanistan and release all hostages unharmed.

Sign the petition

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Slippery Business: The Trade in Adulterated Olive Oil

Is this what the "free market" (i.e, profit at all costs) has wrought? That you're getting tons of cheap, inflammatory Omega 6s ( and God knows what else) in what you thought was olive oil?? From the New Yorker:

On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship’s official documents, Greek olive oil. It slipped through customs, possibly with the connivance of an official, was piped into tanker trucks, and was delivered to the refinery of Riolio, an Italian olive-oil producer based in Barletta. There it was sold—in some instances blended with real olive oil—to Riolio customers...

The investigators also discovered where Ribatti’s adulterated oil had gone: to some of the largest producers of Italian olive oil, among them Nestlé, Unilever, Bertolli, and Oleifici Fasanesi, who sold it to consumers as olive oil, and collected about twelve million dollars in E.U. subsidies intended to support the olive-oil industry. (These companies claimed that they had been swindled by Ribatti, and prosecutors were unable to prove complicity on their part.)

In 1997 and 1998, olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in the European Union, prompting the E.U.’s anti-fraud office to establish an olive-oil task force. (“Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks,” one investigator told me.)...

Read more here.

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Thai cops punished by Hello Kitty

I got this from MAN Fertility. I still don't get why it's punishment.

From the BBC:

The Hello Kitty cartoon character is known across Asia

Police chiefs in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have come up with a new way of punishing officers who break the rules - an eye-catching Hello Kitty armband.

The armband is large, bright pink and has a Hello Kitty motif with two hearts embroidered on it.

From today, officers who are late, park in the wrong place or commit other minor transgressions will have to wear it for several days.

The armband is designed to shame the wearer, police officials said.

"This is to help build discipline. We should not let small offences go unnoticed," Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan told Reuters news agency.

"Guilty officers will be made to wear the armbands in the office for a few days, with instructions not to disclose their offences. Let people guess what they have done," he said.

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GM foods not served in Monsanto cafeteria

This is so ironic I don't know where to begin...

"The fight to ban genetically modified foods has won more converts -- some employees of Monsanto the company that is doing the most to promote GM products.

The Independent newspaper reports that there is a notice in the cafeteria of the Monsanto pharmaceutical factory is High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, advising customers 'as far as practicable, GM soya and maize (has been removed) from all food products served in our restaurant. We have taken the steps to ensure that you, the customer, can feel confident in the food we serve.'

The notice was posted by the Sutcliffe Catering Group.

Monsanto confirms the authenticity of the notice, but company spokesman Tony Coombes says the only reason for the GM-free foods is because the company 'believes in choice.'

So why is it lobbying so hard (and so far successfully) that GMO products must not be labeled as such? We like choice, too!

FYI: the only way the avoid is to go ORGANIC.

Read more (once you stop barfing) here.

Most recent shenanigans from Monsanto: bribes for GMO. Read the Treehugger story here.

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5 operations you don't want to get

(photo: CNN.com)

Surgery is one of the major advances in modern medical technology. And, like with any new technology, it has a tendency to be over- and mis-used.

I know someone who had one of those benign cysts on her fingers (one on each hand), and I tried to get her to either leave 'em alone (annoying but not terribly painful or obstrusive) or smash 'em with a large book like a family Bible, as it's even called a "Bible cyst" in honor of this age-old folk remedy. But her surgeon talked her into surgery; her one concession to me was that although he wanted to do both cysts at the same time, she had him only do one.

The conclusion? The pain, swelling, and weird scar tissue far exceeds what she had originally, and she had to get therapy so her finger doesn't freeze in a weird position. She's regretful of the time lost/pain and suffering but sooooo glad she didn't have the other one done. From CNN.com/Health Mag:

"The fact is, no matter how talented the surgeon, the body doesn't much care about the doc's credentials. Surgery is a trauma, and the body responds as such -- with major blood loss and swelling, and all manner of nerve and pain signals that can stick around sometimes for months."

What are the 5? Read it here:

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Doctors, Religion, and the Poor

I can't figure out if I'm surprised about this or not. ...
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Newswise — Although most religious traditions call on the faithful to serve the poor, a large cross-sectional survey of U.S. physicians found that physicians who are more religious are slightly less likely to practice medicine among the underserved than physicians with no religious affiliation.

In the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, researchers from the University of Chicago and Yale New Haven Hospital report that 31 percent of physicians who were more religious—as measured by "intrinsic religiosity" as well as frequency of attendance at religious services—practiced among the underserved, compared to 35 percent of physicians who described their religion as atheist, agnostic or none.

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Toxic Golf Courses

(Sorry if you like golf)

Man Fertility and I were just in Arizona, where it was so hot (our car thermometer said 125 degrees at one point) that we actually so wilted cacti. Yet, we also so tons of lush, rolling grassy golf courses (with fountains). But, just like when my mom and I got twin "allergic" reactions at a florist, something about the grass made me feel a bit funny. Could it have been the pesticides?

Among the big winners in Bush's proposed rollback of pesticide restrictions? The politically untouchable golf industry, where dangerous chemicals are par for the course AND bad for the ozone layer:

By Jake Tapper

January 31, 2003 | Methyl bromide gas is some pretty nasty stuff.

The toxic pesticide has a habit of affecting non-target organisms as well as the pests it seeks. Human exposure to too much of it can lead to death, respiratory failure, central nervous failure and permanent disabilities; pregnant women exposed to it risk fetal defects. And, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, "methyl bromide contributes significantly to the destruction of earth's stratospheric ozone layer" and for that reason, on Nov. 28, 2000, the U.S. government agreed to a 70 percent reduction of its use this year, with a complete ban to kick in by 2005.

The Bush administration, however, is considering applications for 56 exemptions from this ban and, according to press reports, is planning to grant many of these industries their wish...

One might be inclined to feel some sympathy for the Virginia Tomato Growers, the Sweet Potato Council of California or the Rice Millers' Association. They feed us. But golfers? Specifically, in its application (click here for a PDF copy; requires Adobe Acrobat) the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America wants EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman to allow its members to use, from 2005-2007, 734,400 pounds of a chemical so toxic and environmentally damaging it will be banned nearly everywhere else. This exemption is sought so the courses can continue to look pretty.

"Methyl bromide is used on golf courses when they resurface greens," explains GCSAA spokesman Jeff Bollig. "Greens are covered with a tarp sort-of material and they shoot the gas in -- it kills the existing grass so it can be replaced with a better strain."

And the EPA, according to some reports, appears inclined to grant the golf association its wish. Naturally, the environmental community is up in arms. "We don't think that methyl bromide should have a place on the farm, let alone the fairway," says Allen Mattison, spokesman for the national Sierra Club. "There is certainly a better solution than a substance that depletes the ozone layer and causes irreversible environmental harm."

The Bush administration, however, has been able to slowly roll back a series of such restriction in the past few years, with little notice, or outrage, from the public at large.

read more here or just stay away from golf courses...

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Western Diet Linked to Breast Cancer in Asian Women

Food for thought:

Newswise — Postmenopausal Asian women who eat a “meat-sweet” or Western diet are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who eat a “vegetable-soy” diet, according to a new study. The findings mark the first time an association between a Western diet and breast cancer has been identified in Asian women

The study, published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, involved women in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study. Eligible cases included all women 25 to 64 years of age who with a new diagnosis of breast cancer from August 1996 to March 1998. Controls were selected from the Shanghai Resident Registry of permanent residents in urban Shanghai. “The issue [of diet] is of particular relevance to women in Asia, for whom breast cancer rates are traditionally low but increasing steadily in recent years,” explained Marilyn Tseng, Ph.D., an associate member in the population science division at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

The transition in breast cancer risk has been attributed to environmental factors, possibly the incorporation of Western dietary pattern foods into traditional dietary habits as a part of broader, societal socioeconomic changes. However, the association of dietary patterns with breast cancer risk has not been studied previously in Asian women.

Through in-person interviews with the Shanghai study participants and residents of Shanghai, researchers established the existence of two primary dietary patterns—the “meat-sweet” diet and a “vegetable-soy” diet. The “meat-sweet” diet includes various meats—primarily pork but also poultry, organ meats, beef and lamb and with saltwater fish, shrimp and other shellfish as well as candy, dessert, bread and milk. The “vegetable-soy” pattern is associated with different vegetables, soy-based products, and freshwater fish.

Of 1,602 eligible breast cancer cases identified during the study period, in-person interviews were completed for 1,459 (91.1%). In-person interviews were completed for 1,556 (90.3%) of the 1,724 eligible controls.

The “meat-sweet” pattern was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer among overweight postmenopausal women. Specifically, high intake of the “meat-sweet” pattern was associated with a greater than twofold increased risk of estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer among these women. The results showed no overall association of breast cancer risk with the “vegetable-soy” pattern.

“Our study suggests the possibility that the “meat-sweet” pattern increased breast cancer risk by increasing obesity, Tseng said. “Low consumption of a Western dietary pattern plus successful weight control may protect against breast cancer in a traditionally low-risk Asian population that is poised to more broadly adopt foods characteristic of Western societies.”

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Also interesting is that my mom and her Asian friends never went through the old "change of life"--i.e., they didn't get all the hot flashes and weird hormonal shifts....hm.....

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REVIEW: Larry's Beans Coffee

Look at how hard these guys work to find you the best organic fair trade coffee, ever!

From Larry's Bean's mission statement:

We're out to prove we can sell awesome-tasting coffee beans in a way to make the world a better place. 1. We build fair trade relationships with family farm cooperatives 2. We buy organic, shade-grown coffees whenever possible and support sustainable farming methods. 3. We cultivate relationships that benefit people, animals and the environment.

I personally like their Martin Roast, a nice dark roast but without that scorched-earth taste. Check it out at Larrysbeans.com.

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Versatile hemp

I've ranted about hemp before and encouraged y'all to eat hemp products for their EFAs (read here) and its sustainability.

This is one of the best articles I've read explaining (in a nutshell, so to speak) and asininity of why hemp is not grown in the U.S.

From my cyber-bud, The Worsted Witch, bone up on your history here.

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Routine Feeding Of Antibiotics To Livestock May Be Contaminating The Environment

Another reason to buy organic meat is to create a demand for it, so we can get away from this horrible industrial farming and their out-of-control use of antibiotics (healthy farm raised animals don't needs prophylactic antibiotics):

Science Daily — It is estimated that between 9 and 13 million kilograms of antibiotics are used annually in the United States for raising livestock, with the majority being used for growth advancement and disease prevention purposes. Large amounts of antibiotics fed to livestock are excreted and end up in animal manure, which is commonly applied to agricultural land to provide crop nutrients. Therefore, food crops grown on manure-altered soils are exposed to antibiotics.

Scientists at the University of Minnesota have been evaluating the impact of antibiotic feeding in livestock production on the environment. This particular study, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), evaluated whether food crops accumulate antibiotics from soils spread with manure that contains antibiotics.

Plant uptake was evaluated in a greenhouse study involving three food crops: corn, lettuce, and potato. Plants were grown on soil modified with liquid hog manure containing Sulfamethazine, a commonly used veterinary antibiotic. This antibiotic was taken up by all three crops. Concentrations of antibiotics were found in the plant leaves. Concentrations in plant tissue also increased as the amount of antibiotics present in the manure increased. It also diffused into potato tubers, which suggests that root crops, such as potatoes, carrots, and radishes, that directly come in contact with soil may be particularly vulnerable to antibiotic contamination.

The ability of plants to absorb antibiotics raises the potential for contamination of human food supply. However, Satish Gupta, group leader notes "The adverse impacts of consuming plants that contain small quantities of antibiotics are largely unknown". Consumption of antibiotics in plants may cause allergic reactions in sensitive populations, such as young children. There is also concern that consuming antibiotics may lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance, which can render antibiotics ineffective.

Holly Dolliver, the lead scientist in this study, notes that antibiotics consumed by plants may be of particular concern to the organic farming industry. Manure is often the main source of crop nutrients for organic food production, since regulations prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizers. According to the USDA, producers must manage animal materials in a manner that does not contribute to contamination of crops by residues of prohibited substances, which includes antibiotics. However, manures containing antibiotics are not formally banned or prohibited.

I know industry is going to twist this around to see organic foods ar bad for you, when it's the industrial production that's causing this and other problems like salmonella contamination. Can we stop the insanity? EAT ORGANIC.

Oh, and if you buy meat at Safeway, you might be buying dangerously decomposing crap that's been cosmetically altered, thanks to loopholes provided by the Bush administration! Read here.

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"Walk to School" initiative/program/etc.

From Newswise's Back to School issue:

Newswise — National statistics show a reduction in kids’ physical activity along with an increase in poor childhood health and obesity rates. One Winston-Salem elementary school has partnered with Wake Forest University to design a “Walk to School” program, initiated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gary Miller, associate professor of Health and Exercise Sciences, worked with his “Health and the Environment” class students to find safe routes for the children and to personally walk with the children – both to and from school as well as during short exercise breaks at the school. Miller’s program is also providing the children with inexpensive pedometers for immediate feedback. The program is looking beyond Winston-Salem, however: Miller’s students are working on guidelines for how other communities can start their own Walk to School programs, and how to find funding for these initiatives.

Us old folks of course remember the ten-mile walk in the snow with no shoes...but I digress. Most of my X and Boomer peers either walked or biked (or took the subway) at least some part of their childhood. Now walking to school is something that has to be instituted by the heavy hand of the CDC (complete with pedometers) instead of a fun, normal spontaneous thing. I just remember a lot of random interactions that occurred during the walks to and from, now everyone is driven in a car.

These things happen in increments...but we need to keep in mind, is this how we want to live? Do we want to continue to allow oil companies to construct for us a lifestyle where you can't even walk anywhere (e.g., no sidewalks) or won't want to? Notice how these superstore centers have sidewalks, but they're made in such a way you really can't comfortably walk between HOME DEPOT and BORDERS without getting run over. You definitely will need to get in the car to cross the street. What gives? [We were also just driving around suburban Tucson--you can see why I'm a bit crabby]

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REVIEW: Green This! by Deirdre Imus

I've kind of been waiting for the furor over the "other Imus" to die down so this book can get the attention is deserves.

Call me a long-time admirer of Ms. Imus and her work with children with cancer and then figuring out on her own how big the toxin piece of the puzzle was...and how hospitals are huge repositories of chemicals and mutagens themselves (and don't forget the crappy food that would make anyone sick! We made sure to bring in our kids food AND water).

This book is full of easy and wise ways to green your cleaning and might even give you some insight into whether you overclean--as I used to--buying the marketers' ploys that we are in a war against microbes, must bleach, must ammonia, must KILL!!!! Actually, we're about 10-15% microbes ourselves, so bringing out the chems to kill 'em might not be the smartest of ideas.

I won't go over the tips, but after watching this great documentary Blue Vinyl about how PVCs not only might give you cancer and asthma but also how their manufacture and disposal gives people nearby a second chance to get more cancer...and so why we need to break our addiction to this noxious kind of plastic because the growing demand just means more pollution, etc.

Anyway, I was curious to see how/if Ms. Imus was going to address the issue, and I was more than pleased to see that one of the first things she did in greening Hackensack University Medical Center was to demand non-PVC bumpers and railings, thereby making it less toxic and hopefully starting the demand for these non-PVC products. THIS is the kind of thinking we need to do more of: how to make not just our homes less toxic and screw everyone else, but how can we simply, de-chemicalify, and also demand safer products so the whole world can be safer? Way to go, Deirdre Imus!

GreenFertility gives this two green thumbs up--buy this book and make your family AND the environment healthier.

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Meat and fertility

Aha--many times health things we're doing with our son converge with fertility, as it should, as we're just trying to get him healthier, and a healthier person is also more fertile.

We are careful to limit the mount of meat/protein he gets because too much causes an excess of ammonia in his body, and when the ammonia rises, we also see behavioral problems. Not surprisingly, too much ammonia can interfere with fertility.

Here's this from the U.K. Daily mail:

Avoid eating large quantities of red meat, which can increase the amount of ammonia in our bodies. Too much ammonia can interfere with the implantation of the egg in the uterus. Too much rich protein may also increase the body's acidity and affect sperm activity. Sperm are at their most efficient in alkaline conditions.

There plenty more tips in this article, The Fertility Diet, lots of them that I won't repeat because they've already been covered here! But if you want to read more, click here.

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Flying and Fertility?

I'm kind of wondering about this because I've had to make 3 cross-country trips and my period had come a week early for the last two cycles...eeek. From the BBC:

Frequent air travellers, such as cabin crew who repeatedly take long-haul flights, risk ill health, a study says.

As well as the obvious jet lag encountered with crossing multiple time zones, an out-of-kilter body clock can trigger psychotic and mood disorders.

The researchers say disrupted sleep and hormone patterns are largely to blame, The Lancet reported.

The Liverpool John Moores University team reviewed over 500 published articles on aviation and health.

They found reports of cabin crew experiencing decreased cognitive performance and mental health problems, including brief episodes of psychosis - loss of contact with reality.

And air hostesses complain of menstrual cycle problems linked with the irregularity of their work.

Read more here.

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Immigration May be Bad for your Health

The immigration debate: MAN FERTILITY and I were watching the Daily Show, which had clips of all the horrible things people like Pat Buchanan were saying about immigrants being diseased (recycling age-old, pernicious stereotypes). As always, scaremongering with words like TUBERCULOSIS and LEPROSY, without a shred of fact (leprosy!).

Can we stop being so hateful toward one another? Apparently the communities most fearful of immigration (e.g., places like Parker, CO) are the places that are the most white (NY Times story here)!

Watch the Jon Stewart video here.

And then read, from Newswise:

Newswise — USC study finds immigrants from Mexico in better health than Mexicans-Americans born in the United States. Hardy immigrants mask poor vital signs of American-born Hispanic community, say researchers.

Mexicans-Americans born and raised in the United States are more likely to suffer from conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol than those who emigrate from Mexico, according to a new study from the University of Southern California.

The difference may be due to poor nutrition and less physical activity among native-born Mexican-Americans. Also individuals who leave Mexico for the United States may be fitter than the ones who stay behind.

“One possible explanation is that people who immigrate are healthy to begin with and they may also have come here with better health habits,” said Eileen Crimmins, lead author of the study and professor of gerontology at USC. “The generation born here has adopted American traits such as smoking and eating at fast food restaurants that were not as accessible in more traditional parts of Mexico.”

In a comparison of risk factors across ethnic groups, researchers from the USC Davis School of Gerontology and the UCLA School of Medicine found that U.S. born Mexican-Americans are significantly worse off not just than whites but also Mexican-born immigrants. The only group at greater risk for disease than the U.S.-born Mexican-American community is the black population.

The research appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health and addresses a contradiction found in other studies known as the “Hispanic Paradox” – a claim that Hispanics in the United States are healthier than whites despite being poorer and less educated.

...The findings refute the “Hispanic Paradox” and support the hypotheses that people who are not healthy tend to stay in their home country and some immigrants living in America who become sick may return home.

...The conclusion that immigrants are a healthier population group than those living in the United States is reinforced by a second study using NHANES data that focused on immigrants specifically from Mexico. In a study soon to be published in the journal Social Biology, Crimmins’ group also found immigrants born in Mexico that come to the United States are taller and have better childhood nutrition than those who stay in their country of origin. The results indicate that migrants are selected based on health as well as social economic standing.

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Endometriosis and Cancer

From Medical News Today:

Women with endometriosis have an increased risk of developing either ovarian, kidney or thyroid cancer, say French researchers at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Lyon, France.

The researchers, led by Dr. Anna-Sofia Melin, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, examined data on 63,630 women who had endometriosis. They found that endometriosis was linked to a higher risk of developing certain types of tumor. They also found that the number of children a woman has had does not seem to influence her cancer risk, even if she has had no children.

Dr Melin said "It could be that defects in the immune system allow the endometriosis to grow and also might allow cancer cells to grow in different parts of the body. Maybe the treatment of endometriosis can influence cancer development. We do not know yet."

Dr. Melin and team doubt that the fertility problems brought on by endometriosis raise cancer risk.

The scientists found endometriosis raised the risk of developing the following types of tumors:

-- Ovarian tumors - 37% greater risk
-- Endocrine tumors - 38% greater risk
-- Kidney tumors - 36% greater risk
-- Thyroid tumors - 33% greater risk
-- Brain tumors - 27% greater risk
-- Malignant melanoma - 23% greater risk
-- Breast cancer - 9% greater risk
Surprisingly, women with endometriosis seem to have a 29% lower risk of developing cervical cancer.

Dr. Melin said "Our hope is that doctors in general start to view the endometriosis disease as a serious disease that causes a lot of suffering to the patient and also may lead to cancer."

What is Endometriosis?

It is a medical condition caused by the lining of the womb growing elsewhere in the body, such as the ovaries, fallopian tubes and abdominal cavity - other areas can be affected, such as the bladder, bowel, vagina, cervix and vulva. It affects about 15% of women of reproductive age - in advanced cases it can leave women infertile.

The misplaced tissue develops into lesions or growths which respond to the menstrual cycle, as does the tissue of the uterine lining - on a monthly basis the tissue builds up, breaks down and sheds. The blood from the misplaced tissue, however, has no way of leaving the body. The patient experiences internal bleeding, inflammation, bowel problems, infertility and scar tissue formation.

It is a painful, chronic disease which affects 5.5 million women/girls in Canada/USA.

Symptoms of Endometriosis?

-- Painful period
-- Pain before period
-- Painful sex
-- Infertility
-- Fatigue
-- During periods urination is painful
-- During periods bowel movements are painful
-- Nausea, diarrhea, constipation
-- Yeast infection

p.s. acupuncture is a good therapy for endometriosis.

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Pre-implantation Genetic Screening May not Improve Outcomes

While we're on the subject of fertility treatments, here's one on preimplantation genetic screening (PGD), a popular new treatment to make sure your kid is "perfect" before you even implant him/her (someone recently told me to try this--no lie):

July 5, 2007 — In women of advanced maternal age, preimplantation genetic screening significantly reduces, rather than increases, the rates of ongoing pregnancies and live births after in vitro fertilization, according to the results of a large, multicenter, randomized trial published in the July 5 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

"Pregnancy rates in women of advanced maternal age undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) are disappointingly low," write Sebastiaan Mastenbroek, MSc, from University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues. "It has been suggested that the use of preimplantation genetic screening of cleavage-stage embryos for aneuploidies may improve the effectiveness of IVF in these women."

This double-blind trial compared 3 cycles of IVF with and without preimplantation genetic screening in women aged 35 through 41 years. The main endpoint was ongoing pregnancy at 12 weeks of gestation, and secondary endpoints were biochemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, miscarriage, and live birth....

"Preimplantation genetic screening did not increase but instead significantly reduced the rates of ongoing pregnancies and live births after IVF in women of advanced maternal age," the authors write. "These results argue strongly against routinely performing preimplantation genetic screening as an adjunct to IVF in this group of women."

...

N Engl J Med. 2007;357:9-17, 61-63.

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Hmm, I don't know for sure, but something tells me this is an "extra" that probably costs extra money, too!

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How Safe are Fertility Treatments?

Some food for thought from ABC news (even though this story is from 2004 it's still very relevant, like one commenter said, everything old becomes new again in the health world):

The lucrative $4-billion-a-year infertility treatment business that consists of controversial drugs and experimental techniques is for the most part unregulated. Each year, thousands of women seek out infertility treatments as the solution to their infertility difficulties, however researchers expressed concerns over the industry's lack of safety and inability to keep up with the quickly growing industry. In one case, a couple dished out $30,000 and endured several months of a grueling drug regimen and the end result was no baby. The couple stated that it is a common practice for the doctors to stress the positives of the procedure and downplay the possible negatives. They also said the doctors usually required an immediate payment and didn't give an option for a payment plan. Statistics have shown that 73 percent of assisted reproduction treatments were unsuccessful in producing a baby. These results prompted some serious questions over the safety and lax regulation of the industry. Possible Negative Effects of the Procedures Enlarged ovaries Thinning of the uterine lining Multiple gestation pregnancies Other concerns that have been raised by experts center on the possible link between the infertility treatments and cervical cancer; however these studies have been inconclusive. The effects on the children conceived through assisted reproduction have also stirred concerns such as the potential of being having an increased susceptibility rate to disease.

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You can also read Waiting for Daisy, written by Peggy Orenstein, a journalist who "did it all" and experienced many of the icky health endangering things described above.

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SSRIs may cause bone loss

When I was at an artists' colony (not the one I was just at) I was having a conversation with about 15 people and it turned out I was the ONLY writer/artist not on SSRIs--prozac, paxil, zoloft, etc. Believe me, I'm as depressive as you can get (stereotypical writer, etc.) but fooling with my brain scares me.

Here's another blip I got from Newswise, a journalists' only site (funny, how all this breaking news never seems to make it to the main stream):

The class of antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may be associated with an increased rate of bone loss in older men and women, according to two articles in the June 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) treat depression by inhibiting the protein that transports serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in sleep and depression, according to background information in the articles. This protein has recently been discovered in bone as well, raising the possibility that SSRIs may affect bone density and the risk of fracture. SSRIs account for about 62 percent of antidepressant prescriptions in the United States, and are often prescribed to the elderly...

And, here's an essay in Slate Magazine of one writer's misadventures with paxil--sounds really scary, esp. the part about the "sparks." Luckily, he stopped it before he lost his mind and/or broke his hip. Read it here.

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