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Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Eased By Acupuncture

Researchers at the The American Physiological Society found the electro-acupuncture treatments can reduce sympathetic nerve activity in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome, lead to more regular menstrual cycles, reduced testosterone levels and reduced waist circumference

 

Breast Milk Protects Baby's Stomach

Researchers at Queen Mary, University of London found that human breast milk contains an ingredient known as pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor (PSTI). PSTI is found at its highest level in colostrum. Colostrum is the milk produced in the first few days after birth.

PSTI stimulates cells to form a protective plaster over damaged intestinal cells

PSTI can reduce the damage by up to 75%

 

Breast Feeding Promotion Act

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) recently introduced the Breastfeeding Promotion Act to support employers and nursing moms by

: * Providing tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace;

* Requiring employers to make reasonable efforts to provide appropriate space and break time for mothers to express milk;

* Protecting breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace;

* Allowing families to deduct the cost of breastfeeding equipment on their taxes, as is the case with other common medical expenses.

 

Lung Diseases: Volunteers Needed For Herbal Medicine Trials

Scientists in Norfolk, England are looking for volunteers who suffer from lung diseaes such as asthma, bronchities and emphysema to test a treatment known as AKL1. AKL1 is a mixture of gingko biloba, ginger and katuka (picrorhiza kurroa)

The research team is looking for 164 volunteers, aged 18 to 80, who have asthma or COPD, and experience coughing or breathlessness. They will need to attend the Clinical Research and Trials Unit at UEA four times over a period of 10 weeks. They will receive either the AKL1 or a placebo, which they will be asked to take twice a day. At each visit, patients will have a series of breathing, walking and blood tests and will be asked to fill in questionnaires.

For more information or to volunteer call 01603 289876, or email a.m.wilson@uea.ac.uk

 

Call For Breast Feeding Legislation in Nigeria

The Muslim Rights Concern in Nigeria has called upon the National Assembly to legislate that all mothers should breast feed their children until they are at least 2 years old. A joint statement signed by Dr. Is-haq Akintola, Director and Abdul Yakeen Williams, Secretary General of MURIC "The National Assembly is hereby urged to pass suitable legislation to compel mothers to breastfeed their children for two years. The Federal Government is equally implored to take such measures that will ensure that working mothers lose nothing in their places of work in the process of breastfeeding their children."

They went on to say "In essence, there is a close relationship between crime in society and insufficient intake of human breast milk by children. It has been found that children who take breast milk for two years are less prone to take to crime when they grow up," MURIC said.

 

Breast Feeding Reduces Stroke and Heart Attack Risk to Mothers

Research carried out by the Women's Health Imitative involving close to 140,000 women found women who breastfeed are at reduced risk of developing certain problems later in life. The longer a woman breastfed the more the risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and cardio vascular disease was reduced. It found women who breastfed at least 12 months was 10% less likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

Black Market Breast Milk

A black market in breast milk has sprung up as people become desperate to give their child the best. Although Milk Banks do exist they can only supply locally to them. This leaves many mothers unable to gain access to them. Many mothers are now advertising on the internet looking for modern day wet nurses. This exposes their children to risk of diseases such as HIV as the milk is not screened and not everyone asks for blood tests to be taken. There is also the problem of the babies age. Breast milk changes as babies age. Milk from a mother with a 18 month old baby is not suitable for a 3 month old baby

Acupuncture May Help Indigestion in Pregnancy

A small study of 36 pregnant women has found that acupuncture may relieve indigestion in pregnancy. The women who took part in the study were 15 - 30 week pregnant and aged between 15 and 39. None of them had recieved acupuncture within the last year. None had suffered similar symptons prior to pregnancy and no other cause could be found. The women were asked to rate the pain from heartburn on a scale of 1 - 10. 10 being the worse. The abilty to eat and sleep due to discomfort were also studied. The group were cut in two - half recieving conventional treatment and half recieving acupuncture. The group recieving acupuncture were treated once ot twice a week over 8 weeks. They all recieved between 8 - 12 treatments each. On average each treatment lasted 25 minutes and used 12 needles. 75% of the group recieving acupuncture reported their symptons reducing by half whilst only 44% of the other group reported the same.

 

Vitamins Lower Chance of Miscarriage

Researchers have found that taking Vitamins before and during the early stages of pregnancy may reduce the chances of Miscarriage and birth defects As yet the Researchers are unsure if it is the Vitamins themselves or the fact that people who take Vitamins generally lead a healthy life 4752 were interviewed by Researchers between 2000 and 2008 95% reported taking Vitamins during the early stages of pregnancy and about 50% took them prior to conception 524 miscarriages occured in the subject group - the risk of miscarriage was 57% lower in those who took vitamins. Other factors such as age, smoking, number of prior pregnancies, race, education level or marital status did not effect this result. The research was published in: American Journal of Epidemiology June 2009 and was carried out by Researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Breast Feeding Reduces Obesity in Children

Research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism has shown children who are breastfed for longer and then fed fresh fruit and vegetables have more lean mass by the time they are 4. Sian M Robinson PhD from the University of Southampton (UK) has carried out the research. She studied 536 children accessing their body composition when they were 4 years old. Their diets were accessed at 6 months and 12 months of age. By the age of 4 - 84% of the children were normal weight, 13% were overweight and 3% obese. Those children that had been breastfed longer were found to have significant lower body mass.