Gender: Female
High homocysteine bad for the bones
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Women who have high levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the blood are at increased risk for low bone mineral density (BMD), European investigators report. “Our finding adds to the increasing evidence that homocysteine is important for bone health,” lead author Dr. Clara Gram Gjesdal from the University of Bergen in Norway told Reuters Health.
“Osteoporosis is a major public health problem with increasing consequences as people live longer,” she said. “If the modest associations observed in our study are causal, the public health implications may be significant because high homocysteine levels respond to intake of folate and other B vitamins.”
Exercise helps elderly heal
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The body’s ability to heal even small skin wounds normally slows down as we age. But a new study in older adults finds that regular exercise may speed up the wound-healing process by as much as 25 percent.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to document this kind of enhancement associated with exercise,” said Charles Emery, a professor of psychology and the lead author of the Ohio State University study.
Identification of regulatory mechanism could lead to new treatments of osteoporosis
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Medical researchers at the University of Bonn, working in collaboration with scientists from Israel, the USA and Britain, have identified a previously unknown regulatory mechanism in the process of bone loss. Their findings could open up new approaches to the treatment of osteoporosis. More than four million people, predominantly women, are estimated to suffer from this distressing illness in Germany alone. In recognition of the importance of her results, Dr. Meliha Karsak from the Bonn-based Life & Brain Center has recently been awarded the Osteology Prize of the German Society for Endocrinology, which entails a cash award of 8,000 euros. Her study will now be published in the renowned “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS).
Working together with colleagues from the University of Jeruslam, Dr. Meliha Karsak found that mice with a particular gene defect have a lower bone density. This breakthrough is making “cannabinoidreceptors” a key focus of osteoporosis research.
Women in US need more breastfeeding support
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A number of factors influence whether a women will give up breastfeeding before the baby can derive any health benefits from it, new research suggests—but with more encouragement and help many more women might persevere.
Numerous studies have documented the health benefits of breastfeeding for the infant, such as a decreased risk of upper respiratory infections and possibly even a reduced risk of dying. Still, many women forgo breastfeeding altogether or stop it after just a few days or weeks, despite recommendations that a few months of breastfeeding is needed to see a benefit.
Young women asking for the morning-after pill at UK pharmacies will be offered fast-tracked screenin
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Young women asking for the morning-after pill at pharmacies will be offered fast-tracked screening for Chlamydia, the UK’s most common sexually transmitted infection, in a University of Manchester study.
It is thought that up to one in ten young people under 25 have Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection that often has no symptoms and can lead to infertility, although it is very easily treated with just one dose of four tablets in the majority of cases.
Women Increasingly Pick Husbands’ Surnames
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What’s in a name – or two names? Quite a bit, says a University of Florida professor, whose research finds that a growing number of brides are returning to tradition when taking a man’s hand in marriage, assuming his name instead of keeping their own as a symbol of independent identity.
“Adopting a husband’s last name remains an entrenched tradition that is on the upswing, despite a temporary blip in the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s where many young women tended to want to hold on to their birth names,” said UF linguistics professor Diana Boxer, who led a series of studies. “I think it reflects how men’s power continues to influence American society despite the fact that women have made great advances economically and socially.”
Women warned about contraceptive patch
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The makers of a revolutionary contraceptive patch are warning women that they are at a greater risk of blood clots and other serious side-effects because of the higher doses of hormones the patch delivers.
The patch, which is called Evra and is worn on the skin like a plaster, was first introduced in Britain in 2003 amid claims that it would be the greatest family-planning breakthrough since the Pill.
Heart Disease is #1 Killer of Women, Could A Simple Test Be a Lifesaver?
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New research from Saint Louis University School of Medicine may give doctors a way to predict life-threatening heart problems in women.
The team studied 421 diabetic women between 49 and 75 who underwent a certain type of stress test for suspected coronary disease. Investigators concluded that the test, known as dobutamine stress echocardiography, provided valuable information that could help doctors predict future fatal heart problems.
Amenorrhea common after Hodgkin’s treatment
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Most women stop having their menstrual period, a condition called amenorrhea, after undergoing chemotherapy for advanced-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL), cancer specialists report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Study author Dr. Karolin Behringer told Reuters Health that doctors need to talk to patients about “late toxicities, especially infertility,” of chemotherapy and radiation therapy before treatment is initiated. Late toxicities or complications are side effects from chemotherapy or radiation therapy that occur long after the treatment ends. Among these, infertility for women is a major concern.
Specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis discovered
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Findings reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine (November 3 issue) highlight promising findings from two Seattle-based researchers on the origins of bacterial vaginosis (BV).
In a collaborative effort to identify specific bacterial markers for bacterial vaginosis in vaginal-fluid samples, David Fredricks, MD, of the Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, of the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle report the detection of three newly recognized bacteria that were highly specific for bacterial vaginosis. Subjects for this study were recruited from Dr. Marrazzo’s Vaginal Health Project and from Public Health-Seattle and King County Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Clinic. Although preliminary, the researchers are hopeful that these findings may contribute to identifying the specific cause of and better treatment for the disease.
Exercise helps elderly cut long-term risk of falls
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Research has shown that starting an exercise program can lower an elderly woman’s risk of falling, and a new study suggests the benefit can be lasting.
Researchers found that among 98 elderly women who took part in a 6-month exercise program, the risk of suffering a fall was still reduced one year after the program ended.
Twins More Likely to Have Premature Ovarian Failure
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Twins have a higher risk of premature ovarian failure than women in general, researchers reported here today.
What’s more, it’s relatively common for one twin to have ovarian failure years before her sister, said Roger Gosden, Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.
Half of Egg Donors Produce Abnormal Embryos
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Embryos formed from the eggs of young healthy donors show a high level of chromosomal abnormalities, researchers said here today.
Overall, the rate of aneuploidy—an abnormal number of chromosomes—in such embryos was between 40% and 50%, but for some women as many as 83% of the embryos were abnormal, according to reports presented at a joint meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society.
Lumpectomy Plus Radiation Therapy Can Spare Breast Implants
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A cosmetic breast implant does not need to be removed to treat women with early-stage breast cancer who are having a lumpectomy, a Mayo team reported here.
“The fact that a woman has a breast implant does not appear to impact outcomes if she wants breast conserving surgery,” Rosalyn Morrell, M.D., reported at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology meeting here.
Blood Pressure Control Poor In Women Over 80
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Women older than 80 have poor control of their blood pressure, and sub-optimal treatment may be part of the problem, according to data from a long-running heart study.
The data suggest “major gaps in the implementation of anti-hypertensive therapies recommended by current guidelines,” contended Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in the July 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
