Indian state offers free breast implants to poor women

Thousands of poor women in India’s Tamil Nadu state have been offered free cosmetic breast surgery, including implants, its health minister said Friday, because “poor people also have a right to look beautiful.”

The southern Indian state is known for its populist schemes, which have previously included free canteens and providing thousands of disadvantaged people with goats, laptops and bicycles among other items.

It will now offer cosmetic breast surgery free of cost to all women — for aesthetic or medical reasons — with priority given to those from the poorest sections of society.

“If a poor woman desires to look beautiful, we will support her financially,” state health minister C. Vijayabaskar told AFP.

“Whether they require medical procedures or beauty treatment, it will be free.”

Tamil Nadu is ranked among the top states in India’s public healthcare system, compared with ailing government-run facilities in many other parts of the vast country.

But critics of the new scheme said the state government is wasting public money on cosmetic surgery instead of spending money on treating serious ailments.

“It is sad that we are now focusing on beauty instead of life-saving surgeries,” Dr S. Elango, a former public health official in Tamil Nadu, told the Times of India newspaper.

Cosmetic breast surgery is becoming increasingly popular in India, but private hospitals charge anywhere between $2,300 to $3,800 for a procedure — a year’s wage for most Indians.

More than 90,000 such procedures were carried out in the country in 2016, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, up from 50,600 in 2010.

The Tamil Nadu scheme was launched Wednesday at a state-run clinic in state capital Chennai, with a promise to soon expand it to other districts of the state.

V. Ramadevi, who heads the clinic, told AFP some women want such surgery because they “face psychological issues that may severely impact their lives.”

“Their career, (their) marriage are derailed because they are taunted and their confidence is shattered,” she said, adding that the clinic expects up to 150 women a month to take up the offer.

One of India’s more prosperous states, Tamil Nadu has for decades offered freebies to its marginalised population, mostly under the government of popular actor-turned-politician Jayalalithaa. She died in 2016 but her party still rules the state.  /muf

source: technology.inquirer.net

Defiant women to Trump: Your agenda won’t go unchallenged

WASHINGTON — In a global exclamation of defiance and solidarity, more than 1 million people rallied at women’s marches in the nation’s capital and cities around the world Saturday to send President Donald Trump an emphatic message on his first full day in office that they won’t let his agenda go unchallenged.

“Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” marchers in Washington chanted.

Many of the women came wearing pink, pointy-eared “pussyhats” to mock the new president. Plenty of men joined in, too, contributing to surprising numbers everywhere from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles to Mexico City, Paris, Berlin, London, Prague and Sydney.

The Washington rally alone attracted over 500,000 people according to city officials — apparently more than Trump’s inauguration drew on Friday. It was easily one of the biggest demonstrations in the city’s history, and as night fell, not a single arrest was reported.

The international outpouring served to underscore the degree to which Trump has unsettled people in both hemispheres.

“We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war,” actress America Ferrera told the Washington crowd. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday. But the president is not America. … We are America, and we are here to stay.”

Turnout in the capital was so heavy that the designated march route alongside the National Mall was impassable. Protesters were told to make their way to the Ellipse near the White House by way of other streets, triggering a chaotic scene that snarled downtown Washington. Long after the program had ended, groups of demonstrators were still marching and chanting in different parts of the city.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer had no comment on the march except to note that there were no firm numbers for turnout because the National Park Service no longer provides crowd estimates.

Around the world, women brandished signs with slogans such as “Women won’t back down” and “Less fear more love.” They decried Trump’s stand on such issues as abortion, health care, diversity and climate change. And they branded him a sexist, a bully, a bigot and more.

“We want a leader, not a creepy tweeter,” some marchers chanted in Washington.

In Chicago, organizers canceled the march portion of their event for safety reasons because of an overflow crowd that reached an estimated 250,000. People made their way through the streets on their own anyway. In New York, well over 100,000 marched past Trump’s home at glittering Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. More than 100,000 also gathered on Boston Common, and a similar number demonstrated in Los Angeles.

In Miami, real estate agent Regina Vasquez, 51, brought a sign saying “Repeal and Replace Trump.”

“I believe that strength is in the numbers, and that we should all come out and not make Trump the new normal,” she said.

All told, more than 600 “sister marches” were planned worldwide. Crowd estimates from police and organizers around the globe added up to well over a million.

“I feel very optimistic even though it’s a miserable moment,” said Madeline Schwartzman of New York City, who brought her twin 13-year-old daughters to the Washington rally. “I feel power.”

Retired teacher Linda Lastella, 69, who came to Washington from Metuchen, New Jersey, said she had never marched before but felt the need to speak out when “many nations are experiencing this same kind of pullback and hateful, hateful attitudes.”

“It just seemed like we needed to make a very firm stand of where we were,” she said.

As the demonstrators rallied alongside the National Mall, Trump opened his first full day as president by attending a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, a tradition for the day after inauguration, and later visited the CIA. As he traveled around town, his motorcade passed large groups of protesters that would have been hard to miss.

The Women’s March on Washington appeared to accomplish the historic feat of drawing more people to protest the inauguration than the ceremony itself attracted.

It far surpassed the 60,000 people who protested the Vietnam War at Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1973. Before Saturday, that was thought to be the largest such demonstration in inaugural history.

Christopher Geldart, Washington’s homeland security director, said the crowd exceeded the 500,000 that organizers told city officials to expect. The largest-ever demonstration in Washington, according to National Park Service crowd estimates, was an anti-Vietnam protest in 1969 that drew 600,000.

The Million Man March in 1995 drew 400,000, according to the park service, which no longer estimates crowd sizes, in part because the organizers of that event accused the agency of lowballing the number and threatened to sue.

The Washington rally was a peaceful counterpoint to the window-smashing unrest that unfolded on Friday when self-described anarchists tried to disrupt the inauguration. Police used pepper spray and stun grenades against the demonstrators. More than 200 people were arrested.

Marlita Gogan, who came to Washington from Houston for the inauguration, said police advised her family not to wear their “Make America Great Again Hats” as they walked through crowds of protesters while playing tourist on Saturday.

“I think it’s very oppressive,” she said of the march atmosphere. “They can have their day, but I don’t get it.”

Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump, took to Twitter to thank the participants for “standing, speaking and marching for our values.”

The marches displayed a level of enthusiasm that Clinton herself was largely unable to generate during her campaign against Trump, when she won the popular vote but was outdistanced in the Electoral College that decides the White House.

The hand-knit “pussyhats” worn by many women served as a message of female empowerment, inspired by Trump’s crude boast about grabbing women’s genitals. They “ain’t for grabbing,” actress Ashley Judd told the Washington crowd.

The marches were a magnet for A-list celebrities, unlike Trump’s inauguration, which had a deficit of top performers.

Alicia Keys sang “Girl on Fire” for the Washington crowd. Madonna gave a fiery, profanity-laced address to the gathering. Cher, also in the nation’s capital, said Trump’s ascendance has people “more frightened maybe than they’ve ever been.”

In Park City, Utah, it was Charlize Theron leading demonstrators in a chant of “Love, not hate, makes America great.” Actresses Helen Mirren and Cynthia Nixon and Whoopi Goldberg joined the crowd of protesters in New York.

Tens of thousands of protesters squeezed into London’s Trafalgar Square. In Paris, thousands rallied in the Eiffel Tower neighborhood in a joyful atmosphere, singing and carrying posters reading “We have our eyes on you Mr. Trump” and “With our sisters in Washington.” Hundreds gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square in freezing weather, mockingly waving portraits of Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

In Sydney, thousands of Australians gathered in solidarity in Hyde Park. One organizer said hatred, bigotry and racism are not only America’s problems./rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

7 Facts About Cervical Cancer that Can Save a Life

“The Big C” is one thing people would rather talk about and deal with when it’s already there. It’s only normal lest we succumb to ureasonable fear and worry. Still, early awareness is a must especially since there is a big double C, if you will: cervical cancer. As the second highest cause of cancer death for Filipinas, it’s something we have to tackle ASAP. It was something cancer survivor Rose Manzano realized when she battled through the disease while her daughter, host and radio DJ Andi Manzano-Reyes, who stood by her side. “It really changed my life and it’s the reason why I want to start the conversation among women,” she shares.



We at Preen, aren’t here to scare you with graphic descriptions and sob stories, however. We’re here to empower you with what you need to know about the disease, how you can prevent it, and how you can spread the information to the women in your life. Here are seven quick and pertinent facts we learned from the speakers at the Power Over Cancer Cancer: You Can and You Will event which was held in light on Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

#1 Know the five risk factors
Dr. Leah Mano of Glaxo Smith-Klein explains to us that there are five main risk factors when it comes to cervical cancer: smoking, early sexual activity, having multiple sexual partners, catching HPV, and giving multiple births. If you are exposed to these risks, get yourself checked and screened by your gynecologist yearly.

#2 Get vaccinated
Part of the reason why it’s still shocking that people succumb to cervical cancer is because there is already an effective vaccine to prevent it. Dr. Erwin De Mesa of the Philippine OB-GYN Society tells us that it is important to get the vaccine as soon as possible, preferably before being sexually active. “Though it is good to get the vaccine when you can, it is advisable to have it even before you become sexually active,” he says. It is also important to make your daughters or nieces aware of the disease so they can get their shot. There’s no such thing as being too young for it as Dr. Anna Belen Ignacio-Alensuela says as she’s seen a patient as young as nine years old.

#3 It doesn’t stop with a shot
After you get your vaccine, you shouldn’t be so lax. “It’s important to have a doctor to see your cervix every year,” says Dr. Maria Julieta-Germar. This is because a malignant mass can grow inside you, without you being able to feel it. “The cervix is very accomodating,” says Dr. Maria, “It can accomodate something as big as a baby so it’s important to have an OB-Gyn look at your cervix and see if there’s already something suspicious inside.”

#4 Tell your man
Since there are many strains of HPV, it becomes a good breeding ground for cervical cancer. Since the most common way to get HPV is through sexual intercourse, open up to your man or your partner to have himself checked. Dr. Maria emphasizes that men are also responsible in decreasing the risk of getting cervical cancer.

#5 Don’t be overconfident
Abbygale Arenas de Leon, former beauty queen and member of the Bravehearts Coalition, which campaigns for cervical cancer awareness says that most women always think they will never get cervical cancer. “Masyado silang kampante,” she says. This is where we see how the lack of awareness is one of the biggest reasons cervical cancer vaccine and cure isn’t getting to the people who need it the most. Always remember that no one is safe and that the disease cuts across economic and social classes.

#6 Poor hygiene doesn’t necessarily cause the disease
On the topic of lack of awareness, it is a myth that poor hygiene, dirty sanitary napkins or tampons can increase your chances of getting the cancer. “It’s not true that you get the disease through unhygienic practices,” says Dr. Maria. “There was also a myth about the disease transferring via dirty towels. That has been proven false.”

#7 It’s one thing we need to get the government on
Geting checked, having a pap smear, using contraceptives, and sexual education all go hand in hand in preventing cervical cancer and similar diseases. Dr. Anna tells us that most of the doctors are pushing for preventive measures such as doctor’s appointments to be more accessible in schools and offices. This all falls into the clauses found in the RH Bill and other laws that tackle women’s health. So it’s important to be more vocal about the need for the government to play its part when it comes to battling this life-threatening disease.

Photo courtesy of Cervical Cancer Awareness Instagram

source: preen.inquirer.net

Male and female caffeine consumption ups miscarriage risk—study

WASHINGTON—Women have an increased risk of miscarriage if they or their partner consume more than two caffeinated drinks a day in the weeks leading up to conception, a new US study found.

Women who drink more than two caffeinated beverages per day during the first seven weeks of pregnancy were also more likely to have a miscarriage, according to the study published online late Thursday in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

But rates of miscarriage are reduced for women who take a daily multivitamin before and after conception.

The study, carried out by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Ohio State University, was based on data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) Study.

That study followed 501 couples in Michigan and Texas from 2005 to 2009, examining the relationship between fertility, lifestyle and exposure to chemicals in the environment.

The current study compared cigarette use, caffeinated beverage consumption and multivitamin use among 344 couples when the woman was carrying a single offspring. Of these pregnancies, 98 — or 28 percent — ended in miscarriage.

The researchers’ conclusions were based on a statistical concept called hazard ratio, which estimates the chances of a particular outcome occurring during the study period.

A ratio greater than one indicates increased risk for miscarriage each day following conception, while a ratio less than one indicates reduced daily risk.

The risk of miscarriage was 1.74 when the woman consumed more than two caffeinated drinks a day, the study showed.

However, the risk was almost as high — 1.73 — if the male partner drank that much caffeine or more.

“Our findings also indicate that the male partner matters, too,” said lead author Germaine Buck Louis, director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at the NIH. “Male preconception consumption of caffeinated beverages was just as strongly associated with pregnancy loss as females’.”

The study also found that taking a daily multivitamin significantly reduced chances of miscarriage.

Taking a vitamin in the weeks leading up to conception had a hazard ratio of 0.45, a 55 percent reduction in risk for pregnancy loss.

Women who continued to take multivitamins through the early stages of pregnancy had a hazard ratio of 0.21, a risk reduction of 79 percent.

source: technology.inquirer.net

No need to avoid ‘happy baby pose’ in prenatal yoga?

Even though women are often advised to steer clear of certain yoga poses late in pregnancy, many of these moves might not be a problem for women or their babies, a small US study suggests.

Yoga can have many benefits during pregnancy, including helping women maintain flexibility and muscle tone and develop breathing techniques that may be useful during labor. But late in pregnancy women are often warned against poses that require them to lie on their backs, such as "happy baby pose" or "corpse pose," and inversions such as "downward facing dog" that might reduce circulation to the fetus and contribute to a spike in fetal heart rate.

To see how much caution might be warranted, researchers monitored fetal heart rate while a group of 25 healthy women in the final weeks of pregnancy tried 26 common yoga poses.

Fetal heart rate remained normal through all of the poses, and none of the women reported decreased fetal movement, contractions, fluid leakage or vaginal bleeding in the 24 hours after their yoga sessions, researchers report in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Though this is a preliminary study, I found there were no adverse changes in maternal or fetal wellbeing in the 26 studied poses," said lead author Rachael Polis, who conducted the research at Jersey Shore University Medical Center and is currently with Kosair Children's Hospital Gynecology Specialists in Louisville, Kentucky.

"Postures suspected to be contraindicated—e.g. downward facing dog, child's pose, happy baby and corpse pose—were also well tolerated," Polis added by email.

None of the women in the study had a history of hypertension or other complications during pregnancy, and none of them had any medical conditions that required them to avoid exercise.

The women were near the end of their third trimester, at about 35 to 37 weeks pregnant. Ten of the 25 participants did yoga regularly, while eight were familiar with yoga and seven had never done it before.

Each woman completed a one-on-one yoga session with a certified yoga instructor, with an obstetrician and a medical resident in the room. They had stress tests before going through the poses and again afterward.

Given the size of their bellies, they didn't do any yoga poses lying on their stomachs. They also avoided complete inverted poses such as hand stands or head stands. To avoid falls or other injuries, they could modify poses by using blocks, chairs or the wall for support.

Beyond the small size of the study, other limitations include yoga sessions that might not match the duration or intensity of a typical community yoga class, the authors concede. The women in the study were typically of a normal healthy weight, too, while more than half of pregnant women tend to be overweight or obese.

It's also possible that women might encounter poses not covered by this experiment that could cause problems during pregnancy, noted Kathryn Curtis, a researcher at York University in Toronto who wasn't involved in the study.

"I encourage pregnant women to seek out studios that offer specialized prenatal yoga classes that are taught by teachers who have prenatal yoga training," Curtis said by email.

"Women should practice hatha based, restorative practices with breath awareness components, rather than heated or strength focused practices, for safety precautions for both the mother and baby," Curtis added.

In a separate study reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 52 pregnant women who had never tried yoga were randomly assigned to either participate in a one-time, one-hour yoga class, or to attend a one-time, one-hour PowerPoint presentation about exercise, nutrition, and obesity in pregnancy.

In this study too, there was no significant change in fetal blood flow immediately after the moms did yoga, according to Dr. Shilpa Babbar of the University of Missouri Kansas City and colleagues.

"Yoga can be recommended for low risk women to begin during pregnancy," Babbar's team concluded. —Reuters

Gum disease linked to breast cancer risk in older women

Middle-aged and older women with gum disease are slightly more likely than those without gum problems to develop breast cancer, suggests a new study.

The risk increase was most pronounced for women with gum disease who smoked cigarettes or had quit within the past 20 years, although the authors caution that the reasons for the links are still not known.

“We don’t know if it’s causal, we need to keep that in mind,” said lead author Jo Freudenheim, distinguished professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the University at Buffalo’s School of Public Health and Health Professions in New York State.

It could be that these characteristics are correlated with something else that’s causing both gum disease and breast cancer, she told Reuters Health.

The researchers analyzed data on more than 73,000 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study who did not have breast cancer to start with.

About one quarter said they had periodontal disease, a chronic inflammation and infection of the gum tissue around the base of teeth. Gum disease has also been tied to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some other cancers.

After an average of about six and a half years of follow-up, about 2,100 women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The risk of breast cancer was 14 percent higher for those with gum disease compared to those without it, according to the results in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

When researchers adjusted for a variety of other breast cancer risk factors, including age, weight, exercise, alcohol use and smoking, the extra breast cancer risk associated with gum disease fell to 11 percent.

Researchers then looked at women with breast cancer grouped by smoking status, and found that 23 percent of never smokers had gum disease, 34 percent of former smokers had gum disease and 47 percent of current smokers had gum disease.

In this analysis, never smokers with gum disease had a very small 6 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to those without gum disease, and for former smokers who had quit more than 20 years earlier there was a similarly small risk increase. For more recent quitters, however, the added risk was 36 percent higher and for current smokers, it was 32 percent higher.

“It could be that periodontal disease means there’s kind of a general inflammation in the body,” Freudenheim said. “Inflammation is related to a number of cancers and stroke and heart disease, so it could be that chronic inflammation is causing both.”

“Another possible mechanism could be that bacteria from the periodontal lesions could enter the blood stream and lead to changes in the tissues which are distant from the mouth,” said Gerard Linden, professor of periodontology at the Center for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

“There are changes in sex hormone levels related to the menopause that may affect the response of breast tissues to a stimulus such as exposure to bacteria,” said Linden, who was not part of the new study, by email.

Postmenopausal women should be sure to have regular dental checkups, he said.

“We’re just starting now to understand how important what we call the microbiome is to general health,” and the mouth and gut are full of important microbes, Freudenheim said.

Smoking is strongly tied to gum disease, and less strongly linked to breast cancer, she said.

It’s too early to say that treating or preventing gum disease lowers breast cancer risk, she said.

But, “if what people do in response to this is take care of their teeth that can’t be a bad thing,” she said. — Reuters

Weight loss, exercise may boost fertility odds for women with PCOS

Women who suffer from a leading cause of infertility may increase their odds of conception if they exercise and lose weight, a US study suggests.

Researchers compared pregnancy outcomes for 150 women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a condition that occurs when the female body makes higher than normal amounts of testosterone and androgens, sex hormones associated with male traits.

Among three groups of women, those who exercised lost the most weight and had more live births than those who didn’t.

Women with PCOS often experience irregular menstrual cycles, weight gain, excess hair on the face and body and infertility. They may take birth control pills to boost female hormones and regulate ovulation for several months before trying to get pregnant. This is thought to improve their odds of success once they stop taking contraceptives and start trying to conceive.

For the first four months of the study, one third of the women took birth control pills for that purpose, while a second group was directed to exercise and follow a low-calorie diet. A third group got both of these interventions.

After that initial phase, women taking contraceptives stopped. At this point all of the women went through four cycles of medically induced ovulation, designed to help them get pregnant.

Among 49 women in the initial birth control group, five had babies. That compared with 13 babies for the 50 women assigned to diet and exercise at the start of the study and 12 infants for women who got a combination of both interventions.

The study was too small to show a statistically meaningful difference in pregnancy outcomes between the two groups who dieted and exercised, the authors acknowledge in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

But the results suggest that exercise and weight loss might play a bigger role in conception than just regulating ovulation with birth control pills before trying to conceive, said lead study author Dr. Richard Legro of Pennsylvania State College of Medicine in Hershey.

“Based on our study, women with PCOS who are obese would derive the greatest improvement in their quality of life and reproductive parameters (body hair, androgen levels, polycystic ovaries and control of menstrual bleeding) with maintenance of their metabolic health through the combination of oral contraceptives with lifestyle modification and weight loss,” Legro said by email.

All of the women in the study were overweight or obese, which is linked to fertility problems regardless of whether women have PCOS.

Women who exercised during the study lost significantly more weight than the group assigned only to birth control pills.

At the same time, the women only taking contraceptives were more likely to develop a condition known as metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions including high blood sugar that have been linked to fertility challenges as well as heightened risk for problems such heart disease and diabetes.

As many as one in 10 women of childbearing age may have PCOS, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. The cause is unknown, but the condition is thought to be influenced by many factors, including genetics, with PCOS more likely in women who have an afflicted mother or sister.

While the findings confirm some earlier research linking metabolic changes achieved though lifestyle improvements to better reproductive function, weight loss can still be a tricky prescription, noted Dr. Gordon Wright Bates Jr., a specialist in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Women with PCOS who come to a weight-loss clinic at his university can struggle to achieve significant changes even when they are making the effort to conceive, Bates, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“Although the study adds considerable evidence to support lifestyle modifications and weight loss to optimize reproductive potential and the response to treatment, both of these remain elusive for many patients,” Bates said. —Reuters

Emma Watson, designers talk about gender equality in fashion

For an industry where women are in the spotlight, the fashion world still has more room to grow in terms of gender equality, insiders revealed to actress Emma Watson.

Designers Jonathan Saunders, Bella Freud, Erdem Moralioglu, and Stella McCartney joined Watson, who is also United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador, in a discussion about the sexism behind the dazzling world of fashion for the HeforShe campaign.

"I want to get this conversation, this dialogue happening specifically within the fashion industry to ask the leading voices about gender equality," Watson said in the video.


Freud brought up the lack of equal pay as one of the problems in the fashion industry. McCartney, on the other hand, said there are challenges in getting maternity and paternity leaves.

Despite these shortcomings, the fashion designers say they understand the industry's role in pushing gender equality.

"I think the fashion industry has a big role to play. It has a huge voice... We need to give a better message to women of all ages, all sizes, and all nationalities. We need to allow women to feel comfortable in who they are," McCartney said.

Saunders added that the fashion industry should be more conscious about how their subjects are portrayed.

"I think it's a big subject about how women are portrayed through imagery in fashion. That is where we need to be really careful with the images that we produce. That it's something that empowers women instead of making them look weaker or more fragile," he said.

But the fashion heavyweights are hopeful for the future of gender equality not just in their industry but in all corners of the world.

"I think the world is evolving into a place where your sex isn't going to limit you in any way, shape, or form," Moralioglu pointed out.

Freud said that at its core, gender equality is really about respect.

"The more people in general are treated with respect and fairness, then the imbalance between men and women will be naturally addressed," she said.

Watson launched the HeForShe campaign in September 2014, a few months after she was named a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in July in the same year. According to the actress, the campaign is about "men coming in support of women and women supporting men to achieve gender equality."

Watson is most known for her role as the brainy Hermione Granger who stood up for the rights of a minority group in the Harry Potter series. — Trisha Macas/BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Women and African Americans lose more years of life after heart attack

Heart attacks seem to have a bigger effect on life expectancy for women and African Americans than for white men, a new study shows.

Women and men live equally long after heart attack—but because women in general tend to live longer than men, the women should be living longer after a heart attack, too, according to lead author Dr. Emily M. Bucholz of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut.

Much of the differences between blacks and whites in the study could be due to differences in the way the disease first appears, and the treatments used, “but for women that was not the case,” Bucholz said.

“The thing that’s completely different from prior studies is (those studies) have not factored in what is the mean life expectancy for women in the general population,” Bucholz told Reuters Health by phone.

Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack, and 15 percent die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the new study, researchers used data on more than 140,000 Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for a heart attack between 1994 and 1995. Almost half were women. Less than 10 percent were black. The average age was 76.

White men and women hospitalized for heart attack at age 70 lived an average of about nine years afterward, compared to about seven years for black men and women hospitalized at the same age, the authors reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Men lost about 3.5 years of potential life, whereas women lost 5.5 years. Whites lost an average of 4.5 years of life, and blacks lost about 5.5 years.

Black patients tended to have more severe heart attacks and more heart failure afterward. They also had more diabetes to start with, indicating that they were a sicker population than the white patients, Bucholz said.

Not only did blacks have more cardiac risk factors at the time of the heart attack, but they “also were less likely to get acute treatments,” like clot-busting drugs or cardiac procedures like angioplasty, said Dr. Jack V. Tu of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto.

Whether this is because black patients visit hospitals that provide poorer care, or they get a lower standard of care in hospitals that also treat white patients, is still unclear, Bucholz said.

This explains some of the racial disparity, she said.

Both women and blacks are less likely to receive certain types of cardiac care, but these gaps may be narrowing over time, Tu told Reuters Health by email. He wrote an editorial comment published with the new results.

“It’s not that every patient loses three years of life or one year of life, some live for 30 days, some live for years and years,” since heart attack severity is on a continuum, Bucholz said.

There is not much individuals can do to address these gender and race disparities, but overall national policy can address them, Bucholz said.

“This study reiterates that these disparities still exist, and we can do better,” she said. —Reuters

Google pays tribute to women through doodle

Google on Sunday paid tribute to women around the world in a doodle depicting them in various occupations.

Visitors to Google's homepage were greeted with a doodle featuring women in various roles, including scientists, teachers and athletes.

As always, clicking on the doodle will bring the visitor to a Google Search Results page for "International Women's Day."



Google indicated the doodle's reach is worldwide.

For 2015, the United Nations set this year's theme as "Empowering Women - Empowering Humanity:
Picture It!"




It said the theme "envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination."  — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

It said the theme "

More from: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/448669/scitech/technology/google-pays-tribute-to-women-through-doodle 

It said the theme "envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination."  — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

It said the theme "envisions a world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies free from violence and discrimination."  — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News

More from: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/448669/scitech/technology/google-pays-tribute-to-women-through-doodle

What are ovarian cysts?

Dolores, a 35-year-old high school teacher, came to see me at the clinic one day looking very worried. She was clutching a pelvic ultrasound report which said she had an “ovarian cyst.” Immediately fear assailed her, and many questions came up: Did she need surgery? Was the cyst malignant and life-threatening? What will happen to her three small children if she got sick? How did she get it? 

When we looked at the ultrasound results closely however, it said that the ovarian cyst was at the right side, about 3 cm. in its widest diameter, thin-walled, and was signed out as a follicular cyst. I assured her this was one of the functional or physiologic cysts of the ovary. It was benign, and there was no need for any surgery; we would simply repeat the ultrasound after three to six months and see.

The ovaries are two structures (right and left) attached to the fallopian tubes and the uterus at the lower abdomen. Each month, from among the many unripe eggs inside it, one egg (the primary follicle) matures and is extruded out during ovulation. Sometimes the egg does not come out, and after a time the follicle becomes filled with fluid, and becomes a follicular cyst. These are benign growths that most of the time disappears spontaneously. The area from which the egg comes out is called the corpus luteum, and sometimes fluid also fills this area after ovulation and this becomes a corpus luteum cyst, another benign condition.

Many other non-malignant cysts can occur in the ovaries, like the dermoid cyst, which can grow to large sizes, carrying inside it skin, hair, neural tissues and sometimes even teeth and muscles; or, the so-called chocolate (endometrial) cyst, containing dark brown fluid. Many times too, numerous, very small (less than 1 cm) cysts grow at the edges of the ovaries, and the ovaries are considered polycystic.

We do not exactly know why ovarian cysts form. They occur very commonly in women during their reproductive age, probably because at this time the ovaries are actively involved in the menstrual cycle. Mature eggs come out every month, and hormones are produced in a recurring fashion. This is also a reason why ovarian cysts in post-menopausic women should be regarded with more caution, especially when there is sudden enlargement.

Symptoms

When cysts are small they are usually asymptomatic. This is when an accidental finding of an ovarian cyst surprises the woman the most. The request for a pelvic ultrasound (or sometimes, a whole abdomen ultrasound) for another ailment could provide a surprise finding.

However, the usual symptoms include dull abdominal pain, many times described simply as heaviness; or something vague like low back pains. Doctors agree that cysts are worrisome when they grow to more than 6 cm. in size; some would call growths that are less than this as simply “cystic ovaries.”  When these cysts grow large they could even be felt by the woman herself, or her partner.

When the ovarian growth is large enough it could cause pressure on the bladder, so the woman urinates more frequently. Painful sexual intercourse too, could occur. At times there will be menstrual changes, or, dysmenorrhea. This usually occurs in endometrial cysts, where the endometrial glands inside the ovaries also bleed and the cysts grow every time the woman menstruates.

Dresses and pants too could become tighter as the cyst grows. Because of the space that the cyst occupies, nausea and vomiting occur, as the woman feels full easily after eating.

Complications

Ovarian cysts sometimes have pedicles (or long, thin attachments) and these could twist. The blood supply and nerves are affected by this torsion, and can cause severe pain. The ovarian cyst itself could also become infected, and the contents become an abscess, again, leading to pain and other signs of infection.

When the intra-cystic pressure increases to such an extent that the walls could no longer hold, there could be rupture, spilling out the contents of the cyst into the peritoneum. Again, pain ensues, and with time, infection (peritonitis) follows.

Hemorrhage too, is another feared sequel of an unattended ovarian cyst. Needless to say, there will be pain, and loss of blood inside the abdomen.

Treatment

As mentioned in Dolores’ case, when the ovarian cyst is deemed physiologic and small, there is room for observation, and watchful waiting. These functional cysts could resorb by themselves, or sometimes spill out their small contents, collapse and disappear.

Larger and symptomatic cysts (regardless of size) are managed by surgery. Many gynecologic surgeons now employ laparoscopy, which entails passing a thin, lighted instrument through the abdominal wall to remove the cyst. This is the best management for cysts that are free (no adhesions), and when ovarian cancer has been ruled out. Many times the surgeon will opt to do a laparotomy, which means opening up the abdomen to remove a large and adherent cyst.

Some gynecologists too, while observing an ovarian cyst over several cycles, will prescribe an oral contraceptive to prevent further ovulation while observing the existing growth.

Fear of malignancy

Dolores’ worry about malignancy then could be allayed, as hers was a functional cyst. Clinically though we could suspect malignancy in ovarian growths when the following occurs: sudden enlargement of the cyst, plus constitutional signs of malignancy that includes weight loss, anemia, and loss of appetite. There are ultrasound findings too that could make us suspect that the cyst is no longer benign: fluid in the abdomen (called ascitis), or seeing both cystic and solid structures in the same ovarian growth. In this case, a gynaecologic oncologist would need to do surgery for a debulking procedure (removal as much malignant tissue), sample the lymph nodes, and decide post-surgery therapies. We do not know why ovarian cancer develops. But studies show that this disease is associated with: age, obesity, smoking, infertility (and the taking of ovulation medications), and a positive family history of ovarian, breast, or colon cancer.

For Dolores, she went home that day relieved and at peace, finding resolution for her many questions and worries. — BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com




 

Post-traumatic stress doubles diabetes risk in women

MIAMI - Women who suffer from post-traumatic stress are almost twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as women not affected by the disorder known as PTSD, a US study said Wednesday.

The research in the journal JAMA Psychiatry was led by public health scientists at Columbia University and Harvard University, and provides the "strongest evidence to date of a causal relationship between PTSD and type 2 diabetes," the journal said in a statement.

The data was based on surveys given to nearly 50,000 US women from 1989 to 2011.

Researchers found that about half the increased risk for diabetes was attributable to the use of antidepressants (34 percent) and overeating, as measured by elevated body mass index (14 percent).

But the other half of the heightened risk could not be explained, and researchers ruled out potential links to smoking, diet, alcohol intake or exercise.

The study also found that the more symptoms of PTSD a woman had, the higher her risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

About one in nine women experience PTSD at some point, which is twice the rate among men, according to background information in the article.

"Not only is PTSD devastating to mental health, but it affects physical health too, raising risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity," said senior author Karestan Koenen, professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School at Columbia University.

Researchers urged healthcare professionals to be on the lookout for signs of diabetes in women who have endured traumatic events.

"As fewer than half of Americans with PTSD receive treatment, our study adds urgency to the effort to improve access to mental health care to address factors that contribute to diabetes and other chronic diseases," said first author Andrea Roberts, research associate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard School of Public Health. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Review finds best exercises to prevent women’s knee injuries

Some training methods are better than others at preventing knee ligament injuries in young women, researchers advise.

Based on 14 previous studies, the researchers say training programs that focus on strengthening the legs and hips and stabilizing the abdomen are the most effective for preventing injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and doing more than one type of exercise is also important.

“We know neuromuscular training can reduce ACL injury in female athletes, but we were not sure what exercises are the best to attain the maximal prophylactic effects,” said Dai Sugimoto of The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention and the Boston Children’s Hospital Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine department, in Massachusetts.

The ACL is the key stabilizing ligament in the knee, and is most often injured during sports that involve quick turns or pivoting movements.

ACL injuries are very serious and can take a long time to heal, the researchers write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. College athletes with ACL injuries lose more time on the field than athletes with ankle or traumatic head injuries, according to the researchers.

Young women facing the greatest risk are those who play sports involving a lot of pivoting, such as soccer, basketball, lacrosse and handball, according to Sugimoto. He added that the most common age for women to be injured is around 14 to 17 years.

Grethe Mykelburst, who outlined the risks involved with ACL injury in an email, said, “it takes you out of your sport for 6-12 months, and some don’t succeed to return to their previous level.” She added that the risk of getting osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition, in the knee is high after injury.

Mykelburst, a sports physical therapist and associate professor at the Oslo Sport Trauma Research Center in Oslo, Norway, was not involved in the review.

Sugimoto’s team analyzed 14 studies of exercise intervention programs, looking specifically at four different exercise approaches including balance, jump training, abdomen stabilizing exercises and strengthening of the legs and hips.

Training programs that aimed to build strength in the back of the legs and in the hips significantly reduced the number of ACL injuries when compared with programs that did not. That was also true of programs that focused on strengthening and developing more control of the abdomen.

Programs that included more than one type of exercise were significantly more effective than those using only one type. “Neuromuscular training has to incorporate many exercise modes,” Sugimoto told Reuters Health. “Performing only one exercise mode seems ineffective.”

The researchers note that while balance and jumping exercises were somewhat helpful in reducing injury, they were not effective unless combined with other exercises.

The study lists a number of specific helpful exercises, including Russian hamstring curls, sit-ups, pushups and bench press. Sugimoto emphasized the hamstring curls in particular, as they work both to strengthen the legs and hips and require abdomen control.

“With inclusion of these exercises as well as a variety of exercise modes, athletes can attain the fullest benefit from neuromuscular training and prevent ACL injury,” Sugimoto said.

Every year 350,000 people seek ACL reconstruction surgery in the United States, the authors point out.

Sugimoto said that although surgery is the best available treatment, 24 to 30 percent of high school athletes who undergo the surgery tear their ACL again within the next several years.

“That’s why we need to prevent ACL injury in first place to avoid subsequent ACL injury and preserve a healthy knee joint,” Sugimoto said.

“The evidence is strong that neuromuscular training works,” Mykelburst agreed. “As an athlete or a coach, you can’t afford not using the prevention program and exercises that exist,” she added. — Reuters

Oral contraceptives are a good option for women’s acne – study

NEW YORK - Birth control pills seem to work as well as antibiotics for long-term treatment of acne in women, according to a new review of past clinical trials.

After six months, both treatments reduced acne by just over 50 percent, prompting dermatologists to call the Pill a good alternative for some women and a means of avoiding the drawbacks of stronger oral acne medications or long-term antibiotic use.

Past research has shown that both antibiotics and birth control pills can improve acne, but the new review compared the two options side-by-side and found antibiotics worked better after three months, but after six months of use, results were about equal.

“Oral contraceptives (OCPs) take longer to work because they have a different mechanism of action,” said Dr. Kelly H. Tyler, who was not involved in the new review.

“Antibiotics have anti-inflammatory properties, and OCPs do not have those same properties, so the reduction in acne is going to be more gradual and less dramatic in the beginning,” said Tyler, a dermatologist at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Antibiotics help to reduce inflammation of existing acne, whereas oral contraceptives reduce free or circulating androgens, lowering production of the oily sebum that plugs pores, which lowers the risk of new acne developing, she told Reuters Health by email.

The review included 32 randomized controlled trials of antibiotics or oral contraceptives for treating acne. In general, after three months of treatment, antibiotics had reduced the number of whiteheads or cysts by 48 percent, compared to 37 percent with oral contraceptives.

But by six months, oral contraceptives had caught up, reducing acne by 55 percent, compared to 53 percent with antibiotics, according to the results published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

The authors caution that the antibiotics trials they analyzed included both men and women, which interferes with the comparison to the contraceptive trial results because hormones do play such an important role in acne.

Nonetheless, they write, the findings suggest birth control pills “may have a more important first-line preventive role in chronic acne than previously accepted.”

Dr. Steven R. Feldman, a dermatologist at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, agreed. “This confirms that birth control pills are a good solid treatment for acne, and they’re probably underutilized,” he told Reuters Health.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved many birth control medications for treating acne as well as preventing pregnancy, so there should be no barrier to prescribing them, but dermatologists may still be reluctant, said Feldman, who was not involved in the new study.

Dermatologists often recommend low-dose hormonal birth control as an option for female patients, but don’t actually write a prescription for it, he told Reuters Health. Then the patient returns to her primary care doctor, who may write the prescription, and when the acne clears up the patient does not return to the dermatologist.

If the hormonal option does not work, the patient does return to the dermatologist, which gives dermatologists a biased impression of how effective the drugs are, he said.

“Given the desire to minimize antibiotic resistance and exposure, hormonal birth control could be a good alternative,” Feldman said.

Both antibiotics and birth control can interfere with other medications, and both options have side effects, said Dr. Robert Dellavalle, chief of the dermatology service at the Denver VA Medical Center.

“Severe allergic reactions are very rare but more common with antibiotics,” he told Reuters Health by email. “Blood clots are more common with oral contraceptives.”

According to the review, oral contraceptives are more effective than he had previously assumed, said Dellavalle, who was not involved in the study.

Even if a woman’s employer refuses to reimburse for birth control, they would be required to reimburse for the same hormonal medication prescribed for acne rather than for preventing pregnancy, Feldman said.

“They may or may not cover birth control, but they do cover treatment for acne,” he said. “There should be no issue.”

“Even if you got a denial from your insurer, probably a quick appeal letter might well get that corrected,” he said.

For women with severe acne, a combination of hormonal birth control and antibiotics may lessen symptoms and remove the need for Isotretinoin, a much stronger oral acne medicine that carries a serious risk of birth defects, Feldman said.

Women using Isotretinoin are required to avoid pregnancy because the drug has been shown to be teratogenic, meaning it causes serious abnormalities in a developing fetus.

Feldman said he does not prescribe medications that are so “horribly teratogenic” to women of childbearing age if there is another option that may work. He prescribes hormonal birth control first, to see if it will help clear up the skin and prevent pregnancy in the coming weeks and months. Only if acne is a persistent problem, then he may prescribe the stronger medication as well.

Men do not have to worry about potential birth defects, Feldman noted. “For severe acne in men with scarring, you might even go to Isotretinoin first.” — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

High-fat diets linked to some types of breast cancer

NEW YORK - Women who eat a lot of fat, particularly saturated fat, may be at higher risk of certain types of breast cancer, new research suggests.

Past studies have come to differing conclusions on a possible association between dietary fat and breast cancer. Whether the two are even linked at all remains controversial.

The new report, a second analysis of a large, long-term study, suggests that fat may play a role in the development of certain forms of the disease but not others, the authors said.

Still, it cannot prove that a high-fat diet is the reason any of the women got cancer.

"In our study we confirm that saturated fat intake was positively associated with breast cancer risk," lead author Sabina Sieri, from the Fondazione IRCCS National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy, told Reuters Health in an email.

"Saturated fatty acids intake should be as low as possible within the context of a nutritionally adequate diet."

Saturated fat in the diet most often comes from meat and other animal products like butter and cheese.

The research team's findings are based on a study of about 337,000 women from 10 European countries. They filled out questionnaires about their diet and lifestyle and were followed for an average of 11 to 12 years.

During that time, about 10,000 of the women were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The original study found that women who ate the most saturated fat were more likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate the least.

For the new analysis, the researchers used patient medical records to classify breast cancers into specific subtypes, for instance based on whether the tumor may respond to the hormones estrogen and progesterone.

They found that women with diets high in saturated fat were 28 percent more likely to develop tumors that had receptors for estrogen and progesterone than women with the lowest saturated fat in their diets. The pattern was similar for total fat intake.

However, the chance of developing breast tumors without receptors for those hormones was not linked to dietary fat, according to the findings published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The researchers said it's possible dietary fat increases the level of sex hormones in the body. That could explain why high-fat diets are tied to a greater risk of tumors whose growth is related to estrogen and progesterone, known as hormone-receptor-positive cancers. Those cancers make up the majority of breast cancer diagnoses.

Sieri and colleagues found that high levels of saturated fat were also linked to a greater risk of HER2 negative breast cancer, but not HER2 positive disease. HER2 stands for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and is one factor used to determine how fast a cancer is growing.

Dr. Clifford A. Hudis, chief of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's Breast Cancer Medicine Service in New York, said the extra risk of hormone-receptor-positive cancer linked to saturated fat was "relatively modest."

What's more, he added, "These patients were not randomly assigned to follow one diet or another."

That means other differences between women who ate high- and low-fat diets may have factored into their cancer risk.

Still, Hudis said, the findings are consistent with recent research looking at specific types of breast cancer and make sense based on what is known about the biological effects of dietary fat.

Dr. Michelle Holmes, who has studied diet and breast cancer at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said that in the grand scheme of things, any possible link between fat and breast cancer still seems to be small.

"In my opinion, the bottom line is that if the association with fat and breast cancer exists, it's fairly small (and) it's probably limited to certain subtypes," Holmes told Reuters Health.

Even though the new study included a "huge" number of women, she said, "the answer doesn't leap out at you."

Hudis and Holmes, who were not involved in the new research, agreed there's no reason women shouldn't still cut back on saturated fat.

"Saturated fat is bad for heart disease anyway," Holmes said.

"The associations with dietary fat are much stronger for heart disease, which still kills more women than breast cancer in the United States." —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Heart attacks often misdiagnosed as anxiety in women: study

OTTAWA - Women are more likely to die of heart attacks because their symptoms are often misdiagnosed as anxiety so they do not get vital swift treatment, said a study Monday.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal set out to understand sex differences in mortality rates for men and women with acute coronary syndrome.

They asked 1,123 patients aged 18 to 55 to fill out a survey after being admitted to one of 24 hospitals in Canada, one in the United States and one in Switzerland.

The women in the study, the researchers found, generally came from lower income brackets, were more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease.

They also had substantially higher levels of anxiety and depression than the men.

The researchers noted that the men received faster access to electrocardiograms (ECGs) to check heart rhythms and fibrinolysis to prevent blood clots than the women.

Early treatment for a heart attack can prevent or limit damage to the heart muscle, while saving the person's life.

On average it took 15 minutes and 28 minutes, respectively, for men to be given ECGs or fibrinolysis from the time they arrived at an emergency room.

In contrast, it took 21 minutes and 36 minutes for women.

The researchers pointed to the women's higher levels of anxiety as the primary reason for the discrepancy.

"Patients with anxiety who present to the emergency department with non-cardiac chest pain tend to be women, and the prevalence of acute coronary syndrome is lower among young women than among young men," said lead researcher Louise Pilote.

"These findings suggest that triage personnel might initially dismiss a cardiac event among young women with anxiety, which would result in a longer door-to-ECG interval."

The findings were published in the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Google features inspirational women in doodle video for Int'l Women's Day

Google passed on interactive games for its doodle this time.

Instead, Google is celebrating International Women's Day through an interactive homepage doodle that plays a video of women from all over the world greeting a Happy International Women's Day.


The women include 16-year-old Pakistani education and women's rights activiest Malala Yousafzai, Australian photographer and women's advocate Anne Geddes, and Indian five-time World Boxing champion Mary Kom.

Also featured are the first Filipinas to climb Mount Everest Noelle Wenceslao, Janet Belarmino and Carina Dayodon, and social advocate and lead mobilizer of #rescuePH Rosario San Juan.

The doodle will run from March 7 to 9 at the Google homepage.

International Women's Day is celebrated yearly every 8th of March. — Kim Luces/VC, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Planet Sports builds fitness oasis for women

More and more women are investing in their health. It only follows that they invest in their equipment. One store they can check out is Planet Sports, which held a special event to showcase their women's selection at their flagship branch in Bonifacio Global City.

Women can choose among several brands, including favorites Nike, Adidas and New Balance. The second floor offers a wide array of footwear, clothing, and athletic equipment.

Fashion and fitness classes

Soon, the branch will also offer fitness activities to those who want to commit to getting in shape.

"For March we're gonna do yoga," said marketing manager JM Mina. "The customers can register here for free. It's gonna last for three months. After that we're gonna do running clinics and in the third quarter [of the year], we're gonna be doing dance. In the fourth quarter, we're gonna up one level and we're doing crossfit."

Present at the event was Kapuso star Bianca King, who is the brand ambassador of Adidas by Stella McCartney in the Philippines.

"A lot of the women, they mix it up," said Mina. "They run on certain days; they do yoga. If you talk to Bianca [King], she'll do it in one particular sweep. She'll run, do yoga and crossfit right after."



The athletic retail company recognizes that Bonifacio Global City is becoming a hub for runners and other fitness enthusiasts.

"The activities we're doing here, it's not just for getting people to come to our store. We encourage everyone to be active. Not even sporty, but active," added Mina.

Planet Sports aims to address the varying needs and issues women have to pursue a fit lifestyle:

"We see a lot of men's active wear but actually, women need more comfort, especially with sports bras, with bottoms," Mina said. "We really find that there's a need to provide women with choices. We really want it to be multi-brand. They can choose from Nike, Adidas, whatever brand they feel comfortable with." — BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Stroke specialists' group issues new guidelines for women

CHICAGO - While stroke is common in both men and women, guidelines released on Thursday for the first time address factors such as pregnancy, birth control pills and menopause that put women at particular risk for the deadly condition.

Issued by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, the guidelines are designed to help doctors and patients recognize stroke risk factors early, when there is time to act.

"If you are a woman, you share many of the same risk factors for stroke with men, but your risk is also influenced by hormones, reproductive health, pregnancy, childbirth and other sex-related factors," said Dr Cheryl Bushnell, author of the new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

According to the report, stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in men and the third-leading cause of death in women. Shared risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking.

But other factors influence stroke risk in women. Many of these involve pregnancy. For example, women with a history of high blood pressure should take extra steps to control it during pregnancy, such as taking low-dose aspirin and possibly a calcium supplement. That helps reduce the risk of preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine that can cause stroke during or after delivery and premature birth.

Women who have had preeclampsia have twice the risk of a stroke and four times the risk of high blood pressure later in life. As a result, they should address issues such as smoking, high cholesterol and obesity, which heighten their stroke risk even more.

Likewise, women should be screened for high blood pressure before using birth control pills, because that combination raises stroke risks.

Other risk factors more common in women than men include migraine with aura, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, depression and emotional stress.

These are signs 52-year-old Karen Rastenis from Solon, Ohio, wished she had been aware of a while back. Before her stroke two years ago, Rastenis was a smoker and more than 150 lbs overweight. When she woke up one morning with weakness on her right side, the busy single mother of two teenagers ignored the symptom. Then it kept getting worse.

By the time she went to the hospital a few days later, her blood pressure was dangerously high at 237 over 160. She had already had a stroke in her brain stem and "I was on the verge of having a massive stoke," she said.

Rastenis says she had always been overweight but she did not know she had high blood pressure before the stroke.

Still, there had been warning signs. She had had migraines with aura from the start of puberty until she had her first child. During that pregnancy, she also had preeclampsia.

Since her stroke, Rastenis has taken several steps to prevent another. She has quit smoking and had weight loss surgery. She has already lost 60 lbs.

Still, she wishes she had known about the risks earlier.

"It's about time that they looked at the differences in stroke between males and females," she said. "We've known that a woman's heart attack will present differently than a man's. It seems to follow that the same is true of stroke."

Dr Shazam Hussain, stroke section head at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who was not involved in the study, said the guidelines were long overdue.

"Certainly, there is something in common between men and women in terms of stroke risk factors. It's also been recognized there are differences," he said, noting that women tend to do worse after a stroke and are also more likely to die from stroke than men.

"I think recognizing that, putting that on the table as a group that needs more focus when we do studies and when we care for women is very important," he said. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Facebook's Sandberg says it's OK for women to cry at work

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said in an interview published Saturday says it's ok for women to cry at work, share emotions and be honest about their femininity.

Sandberg shot to global fame after the the publication of her best-selling book "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead" which talks about women's career struggles and advises women to "lean in" to reach their potential.

It has drawn bouquets from admirers for articulating a new modern feminist vision and brickbats from critics who say her lofty position has made her out-of-touch with the gruelling personal cost of combining career and family.

In an interview with “India's Mint” business daily, the 43-year-old admitted: "I cry at work," adding women are not "one type of person Monday through Friday" and "then a different person in the nights and weekend."

"I think we are all of us emotional beings and it's okay for us to share that emotion at work," said Facebook's number two, who was named in “Time Magazine's” 2013 list as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Studies have shown women are more prone than men to cry at work because males are schooled not to cry in public and it can hurt their career progression.

Sandberg, who is married with two young children, said on the subject of her book "the messages of believing in yourself and sitting at the table, getting compensated fairly, those can happen at any point in your career."

It is necessary to talk about gender-related issues honestly in the workplace, and a need for employers to say: "I am here to support you", she added in the interview.

The question of whether women can "have it all" in terms of pursuing careers and raising families is "very problematic", added Sandberg, who got $26.2 million in salary, bonus and shares last year from the US social networking giant.

Men never face such questions because society assumes they can have both professions and children, she said in the interview.

A huge percentage of women globally have both children and work full-time, but to do so they must get the "support they need at the workplace and at home," Sandberg said. – Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com