Take Heart: Men's Health Week 2012, 11-17 June
To celebrate the tenth birthday of Men’s Health Week, the Men’s Health Forum is launching a new interactive campaign. YoLo - You Only Live Once - will encourage men to make the choices that will enable them to live better, live healthier and live longer. Because you only live once.
Put your heart into the Week
Heart disease is the single biggest killer of men. That’s why we’ve chosen heart health as the theme for for Men’s Health Week 2012, 11-17 June and to kick off the YoLo campaign. Three times as many men as women die from heart disease before their 75th birthday. This year’s Men’s Health Week message is clear: you only live once - so you need a tip-top ticker.
We are keen to support men to do all they can to prevent heart disease by encouraging them to exercise, eat right and to get help if they are concerned about their health.
This year’s campaign will put more emphasis on promoting the local campaign events and activities which are run across the country which is what partners have asked us to do. We are broadening our target audience to include women and children who play a key role in influencing the men in their lives lifestyle choices. We will use Father’s Day holiday (Sunday, 17 June 2012 to promote our messages to the general public.
You can
register your organisation free of charge for updates on events and resources for the week.
Active hearts, healthy hearts
Activities for the Week include:
- A social media driven advertising campaign in print and online media promoting Men’s Health and engaging members of public to support Men’s Health Week in varied and fun ways
- A customisable and downloadable Father’s Day e-card incorporating men’s health messaging linked to the campaign’s website
- A dedicated National Men’s Health Week website with all resources available for registrants and partner organisations featuring a navigatable listing of all local events and activities taking place across the country during the week
- A high-profile National Launch Event at Arsenal Stadium on Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 4-6pm. (by invitation only
- Our award-winning Haynes mini-manuals on Heart Health – a proven and succefful, fun resource for men – available to purchase
- National/local media activity
- The week will be followed by an expert symposium on men’s heart health which will aim to develop further policy in this area
We want to hear from you - especially if you've a dickie ticker
If you are planning any event or have anything else you want to tell us or suggest or have any questions about the Week
contact us.
We are also looking for
heart health case studies. So if you've experienced something that would help others - heart-warming, heart-breaking - we'd love to hear from you.
Thank you your support of Men’s Health Week.
EARLY diagnosis has become one of the most fundamental precepts of modern medicine. It goes something like this: The best way to keep people healthy is to find out if they have (pick one heart disease, autism, glaucoma, diabetes, vascular problems, osteoporosis or, of course, cancer — early. And the way to find these conditions early is through screening.
It is a precept that resonates with the intuition of the general public: obviously it’s better to catch and deal with problems as soon as possible. A study published with much fanfare in The New England Journal of Medicine last week contained what researchers called the best evidence yet that colonoscopies reduce deaths from colon cancer.
Recently, however, there have been rumblings within the medical profession that suggest that the enthusiasm for early diagnosis may be waning. Most prominent are recommendations against prostate cancer screening for healthy men and for reducing the frequency of breast and cervical cancer screening. Some experts even cautioned against the recent colonoscopy results, pointing out that the study participants were probably much healthier than the general population, which would make them less likely to die of colon cancer. In addition there is a concern about too much detection and treatment of early diabetes, a growing appreciation that autism has been too broadly defined and skepticism toward new guidelines for universal cholesterol screening of children.
The basic strategy behind early diagnosis is to encourage the well to get examined — to determine if they are not, in fact, sick. But is looking hard for things to be wrong a good way to promote health? The truth is, the fastest way to get heart disease, autism, glaucoma, diabetes, vascular problems, osteoporosis or cancer ... is to be screened for it. In other words, the problem is overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Screening the apparently healthy potentially saves a few lives (although the National Cancer Institute couldn’t find any evidence for this in its recent large studies of prostate and ovarian cancer screening . But it definitely drags many others into the system needlessly — into needless appointments, needless tests, needless drugs and needless operations (not to mention all the accompanying needless insurance forms .
This process doesn’t promote health; it promotes disease. People suffer from more anxiety about their health, from drug side effects, from complications of surgery. A few die. And remember: these people felt fine when they entered the health care system.
It wasn’t always like this. In the past, doctors made diagnoses and initiated therapy only in patients who were experiencing problems. Of course, we still do that today. But increasingly we also operate under the early diagnosis precept: seeking diagnosis and initiating therapy in people who are not experiencing problems. That’s a huge change in approach, from one that focused on the sick to one that focuses on the well.
Think about it this way: in the past, you went to the doctor because you had a problem and you wanted to learn what to do about it. Now you go to the doctor because you want to stay well and you learn instead that you have a problem.
How did we get here? Or perhaps, more to the point: Who is to blame? One answer is the health care industry: By turning people into patients, screening makes a lot of money for pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and doctors. The chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society once pointed out that his hospital could make around $5,000 from each free prostate cancer screening, thanks to the ensuing biopsies, treatments and follow-up care.
A more glib response to the question of blame is: Richard Nixon. It was Nixon who said, “we need to work out a system that includes a greater emphasis on preventive care.” Preventive care was central to his administration’s promotion of health maintenance organizations and the war on cancer. But because the promotion of genuine health — largely dependent upon a healthy diet, exercise and not smoking — did not fit well in the biomedical culture, preventive care was transformed into a high-tech search for early disease.
Some doctors have long recognized that the approach is a distraction for the medical community. It’s easier to transform people into new patients than it is to treat the truly sick. It’s easier to develop new ways of testing than it is to develop better treatments. And it’s a lot easier to measure how many healthy people get tested than it is to determine how well doctors manage the chronically ill.
But the precept of early diagnosis was too intuitive, too appealing, too hard to challenge and too easy to support. The rumblings show that that’s beginning to change.
Let me be clear: early diagnosis is not always wrong. Doctors would rather see patients early in the course of their heart attack than wait until they develop low blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat. And we’d rather see women with small breast lumps than wait until they develop large breast masses. The question is how often and how far we should get ahead of symptoms.
For years now, people have been encouraged to look to medical care as the way to make them healthy. But that’s your job — you can’t contract that out. Doctors might be able to help, but so might an author of a good cookbook, a personal trainer, a cleric or a good friend. We would all be better off if the medical system got a little closer to its original mission of helping sick patients, and let the healthy be.
H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, is an author of “Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health.”
One of the new Blue and Blue Shield stores in Florida. Photo courtesy of Kaiser Health News.
When Ronda Austin's employer stopped offering health coverage last spring, she bought an individual policy from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida. A month later she was given a diagnosis of multiple myeloma and began chemotherapy at her oncologist's office near her home in Tampa.
But after several sessions, the physician's office said that her plan covered chemotherapy only if it was provided in a hospital and told her she owed the practice $15,000. Austin called her plan's member-services number but didn't get anywhere.
So she stopped in at a new kind of insurance facility - her local BCBS of Florida retail store. There, a customer service rep sat down with her and called up her plan information online. She referred Austin to nearby Moffitt Cancer Center for subsequent chemotherapy treatments and explained how to address the problem with the oncologist's billing department, which had misread her policy. The problem was quickly resolved.
"It's a great feeling to know the insurance company is standing behind you," says Austin.
Health insurers increasingly want to make shopping for a new health plan as easy and convenient as dropping into a local retailer to buy a TV. In recent years, a number of them have opened stores where consumers can stop by to talk with a customer service representative about buying a plan or resolve questions about their current coverage. Some stores also sponsor health fairs or community seminars on nutrition and exercise. A few have primary-care doctors on-site.
"The stores are big, bold and easy to see," says Marc Pierce, president of Stonegate Advisors, a research and strategy company in Chicago that has helped several insurers evaluate retailing. "For insurers, the impetus is to provide a tangible touchpoint so they can provide more value for their customers." The trend should continue, he says, unless the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the 2010 health-care law.
The number of individual health insurance customers is expected to grow significantly in coming years. Employer-sponsored health coverage is eroding, and in 2014 the law will require nearly everyone to have insurance, adding millions to the ranks of the insured.
The stores are "a reaction to the shift from wholesale to retail in insurance sales," says Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. "In wholesale sales, employers were the buyers. Now insurers are recognizing that retail will be more important."
Bricks and Mortar
Insurers Highmark in Pennsylvania and BCBS of Florida have the largest retail presence to date, with several stores throughout those states. In New York, UnitedHealthcare recently opened a 16,000-square-foot facility in the Flushing section of Queens; it operates a number of smaller storefronts as well.
As insurers see it, bricks-and-mortar stores are one more way, along with online and telephone support, to reach out to consumers.
"This is a third service option for people that like high-touch service," says Craig Thomas, senior vice president for consumer and government markets at BCBS of Florida.
Insurers also hope that their visible presence in communities may generate some positive buzz. "We don't really drive a whole ton of word-of-mouth on the positive side," says Matt Fidler, vice president of consumerism and retail marketing at Highmark, a BCBS plan.
BCBS of Florida and UnitedHealthcare both emphasize providing comprehensive services. At the Queens store, for example, visitors, many of them Asian-American Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, can get their claims questions answered in their native languages and get help signing up for social services programs such as food stamps and a pharmaceutical assistance program for seniors.
"We want to afford people a 360-[degree] experience, and give people access to all the information they need to take care of their health care," says Yasmine Winkler, UnitedHealthcare's chief product and marketing officer. Offering a smorgasbord of services also keeps people coming back, creating consumer "stickiness," she says.
Strip-Mall Service
In Pennsylvania, Highmark stores focus on sales. Ninety percent of the traffic at its eight stores is sales-related, says Fidler.
After being laid off from her job, Heather Manning bought insurance at the Highmark store at a strip mall in Easton shortly before her second child was due.
Although she wasn't able to get coverage for herself until after she had the baby -- her pregnancy was a preexisting condition, which individual insurance policies typically don't cover -- she bought coverage for her 6-year-old son. Once the baby was born in January, she bought a separate policy for the two of them. She pays $400 a month for all three of them.
The experience was very positive, she says. Before signing on with Highmark, she had gotten online quotes from several other insurers, which led to a barrage of sales calls from agents.
Highmark customer service reps, however, don't get sales commissions. "It sets the tone to have it be educational," says Fidler. "It differentiates us [from brokers] from the get-go."
Although there are many upsides to the new insurance stores, Pierce cautions that they could backfire. Consumers already think that health plans make too much money, he says. "Here's the potential for consumers to say, 'Why are you building this big store? Why don't you just reduce my premiums by 20 percent?'"
Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
In relation to living a healthy lifestyle you will discover that there are millions of people who want to accomplish this, they just don't know where to begin. You ought to realize that doing just one thing to be healthy will be beneficial, however you ought to recognize the more healthy lifestyle traits you pick up the healthier you will be. As you continue to read you're going to find I will be offering you a few suggestions that you need to end up following which can help you lead a much better life.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Ethiopia
February 27, 2012
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Phone: +1.206.709.3400
Email:
media@gatesfoundation.org
SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced the appointment of its first official representative in Ethiopia. Haddis Tadesse, who has worked as an external relations officer for the foundation since 2007, will assume the new position later this month and be based in Addis Ababa.
Tadesse, who grew up in Ethiopia and was educated in the United States, will serve as the foundation’s liaison to the federal government of Ethiopia and the African Union. He also will help the foundation strengthen its relationships with health and development partners operating in Ethiopia, including donor agencies, international NGOs and local Ethiopian organizations.
The foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.
“We invest more than half of our resources in Africa, and we want to build closer and more effective relationships with valued partners on the ground,” said foundation co-chair Melinda Gates. “Ethiopia is making great progress in health and economic growth, and we hope to support these efforts by appointing Haddis, who possesses deep knowledge of the country, its challenges, and its huge potential.”
Ethiopia is an important focus country for the foundation, which currently provides more than USD $265 million in funding to partner organizations that are operating health and development programs across the nation. That amount includes funding to help small farmers increase food production, as well as grants to expand access to childhood vaccines, maternal and child health programs, financial services for the poor, safe water and sanitation, and other effective, low-cost innovations.
Ethiopia also benefits indirectly from the foundation’s investments in global partner organizations such as the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which provide grants to country governments to expand vaccine delivery and increase the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of major diseases.
The foundation made its first program investments in Ethiopia in 2000, and it has since made more than 125 grants to partner organizations that are either working in Ethiopia or conducting research and development designed to benefit Ethiopia.
“I am very excited to be the foundation’s first representative in Ethiopia,” said Tadesse. “I am especially thrilled to have an opportunity to help expand access to health and development in the land where I was raised.”
One example of the foundation’s efforts to build effective partnerships in Ethiopia is its support for the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA . It has provided a total of USD $25.1 million to three partners – the United Nations Development Program (UNDP , the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Synergos Institute – that are working to strengthen ATA’s capacity to stimulate the Ethiopian economy by increasing production among smallholder farmers.
Other examples of foundation-supported efforts in Ethiopia include grants to:
JSI Research & Training Institute to improve the delivery of maternal and child health through support provided by rural extension workers;
FHI Solutions to develop better approaches to nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s development between pregnancy and age two;
AGRA to improve the soil management skills of small farmers and their access to local fertilizers; and
The World Food Programme to improve market opportunities for smallholder farmers to sell surplus food to UN agencies that respond to humanitarian emergencies in the Horn of Africa
Tadesse earned a bachelor’s degree in business management and a master’s in public administration from the University of Washington in Seattle. He began working at the foundation as an advisor to the Agricultural Development program and has recently served as an external relations officer, managing the foundation’s engagement with key stakeholders in Africa.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
2 for 1 end of year sale on mini manuals
The Forum is currently offering a wide range of existing titles at 2-4-1 prices until the end of March.
Two boxes will cost the price of one: just £130 - a 50% saving on our previous prices. This cost includes postage and packing. What's more, the MHF are not VAT-registered so VAT is not applicable on any orders.
The list of titles that are available (while stock lasts , is:
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH (16 pages, 200 copies per box
- Over Active Bladder (p16 200
- Brain booklet - on mental health (p16 200
- Domestic Violence (p16 200
- Alcohol Awareness (p16 200
- Men and Work (in Welsh (p16 100
- Challenges & Choices - a manual highlighting the small changes men can make that will have a positive impact on their health (p32 100
- Surviving Cancer (p32 100
- MS Carers (p16 200
- Man Sexual Health (second edition (p32 100
- Woman (p16 200
- Health Clicks - a guide to health on the internet for beginners or experience surfers (p32 100
- Greenwich Man Time (32p 100
It is possible to mix and match various titles - such as a box of each - depending on your requirements.
Additional discounts will apply should you order more than 10 boxes (please get in touch with Matt:
matthew.maycock@menshealthforum.org.uk to discuss this in more detail . This offer expires at the end of March so please get in touch with us quickly in order to make your order while these limited stocks last.
Please make your order by filling out the form below:
Vogue
magazine and went on to grace more than 500 others. The
New York Times
has called her one of the 20th century’s most influential people in fashion, and she has been honored at Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball. But 59-year-old Beverly Johnson shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The woman who forever changed the face of the fashion industry is now an entrepreneur with her own namesake collection of hair extensions and wigs. On the heels of the success of the hair line, Johnson is now launching a
multi-cultural line of styling products called Model Logic in Target stores nationwide and also offers skincare products on her new e-commerce website
BeverlyJohnson.com.
“I wanted to be more than just the face on the box or the name to help sell the product. It was time to really share my secrets, formulas, talent pool of resources, and lessons learned throughout my decades as a model and actress,” Johnson says.
We also asked the beauty what she does to keep herself in supermodel form. “I stay abreast of all the latest health and beauty advice and finding my fitness passion of playing golf has been an incredible lifesaver, providing me with physical and mental nourishment,” Johnson says.
Bright Lights, Big City
and
Regarding Henry
.
The understated Chinn has since left the Hollywood scene to live a quiet life in New York City, raising her son, modeling occasionally, and teaching yoga.
“I teach several forms of yoga and Pilates to the over 50-set,” Chinn says. “My focus is core strength, flexibility, building breath capacity, alignment, and an overall sense of well-being!”
People
magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People, 47-year-old
Emme changed the ‘shape’ of fashion forever.
We caught up with the curvy beauty who speaks out on body image issues and arts funding in schools. “We live in a society that promotes a desire for thinness at any cost in the quest for the attainment of unrealistic beauty,” Emme says. “I want women to know their self-esteem is not contingent upon their dress size and good health is attainable by more than just one body type.”
Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue
, 43-year-old Roshumba is now a regular fixture on many TV shows and her book,
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being a Model
, is in its second printing.
The New York City resident tells
SHAPE
that staying in supermodel form is easy. “I eat a balanced diet, walk a lot,
lift weights, and do yoga,” Roshumba says. “But what’s most important [to me] is to stay healthy and beautiful on the inside by minimizing stress and having gratitude for everything [I have].”
The mom of two
recently ran the New York City Marathon for the third time and became a spokesperson for CIRCA, which aims to help consumers better understand the “horrific effects mining for diamonds has on the environment.”
How is she staying fit? “A little running, a little stretching, and healthy eating changes your life for the better every time you do it," she says.
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
at the age of 30. After taking a long hiatus from modeling to battle drug addiction, anorexia, and deal with a tumultuous marriage to actor Mickey Rourke, 42-year-old Carre Otis reemerged healthier, stronger, and more beautiful than ever. Just last fall, she shared her struggles in her memoir
Beauty Disrupted
.
Now, the practicing Buddhist finds solace in her religion and regularly
practices yoga at her Colorado home.
The first African-American woman to grace the cover of Vogue, the first plus-size supermodel, and the former face of Halston, way before Sarah Jessica Parker made the label chic again—these are all milestones made by groundbreaking fashion models Beverly Johnson, Alva Chinn, and Emme. But where are they now? We caught up with six
former supermodels to find out what they are up to (bestselling books!
Shadow flicker is considered an environmental 'nuisance' rather than medical risk, while there is insufficient evidence that noise causes health problems
"Shadow flicker" – when the blades of a turbine cast a shadow over local residents – is a known phenomenon and UK planning law now insists it should be considered during any application. Planning guidelines state that shadow flicker can impact on residents who live within a distance 10 times greater than the blade's diameter.
However, the typical frequency of flicker caused by a large turbine – 1.75Hz, or about 35rpm – is lower than the frequency range – 3-60Hz – that the
Epilepsy Society says can affect those who can suffer seizures triggered by photosensitive epilepsy. Shadow flicker is, therefore, considered an environmental "nuisance" rather than medical risk.
Noise - "whoosing" and "thumping" - is the most commonly expressed complaint about turbines after aesthetic impact. Planning guidelines still rely on government advice issued in 1996 which says that turbine noise should not exceed 5 decibels above background, ambient noise. A windfarm produces a noise of about 35-45 decibels at a distance of 350m. Rural night-time background noise typically ranges from 20 to 40 decibels.
In January, the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection published a health impact study written by a team of independent doctors and engineers. It concluded: "There is insufficient evidence that the noise from wind turbines is directly (ie, independent from an effect on annoyance or sleep causing health problems or disease ... The strongest epidemiological study suggests that there is not an association between noise from wind turbines and measures of psychological distress or mental health problems."
On shadow flicker, it said: "Scientific evidence suggests that shadow flicker does not pose a risk for eliciting seizures as a result of photic stimulation...There is limited scientific evidence of an association between annoyance from prolonged shadow flicker (exceeding 30 minutes per day and potential transitory cognitive and physical health effects."
But the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol says in its publication
Common Concerns About Wind Power that such concerns expressed by local residents should still be taken into account: "It is evident that residents who feel installations are forced upon their local setting will judge any subsequent noise accordingly, and it is cogent that clearly realised benefits for residents (direct financial benefit and a better understanding of how wind power contributes to a low-carbon economy significantly mitigate this negative bias."
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More Feeds
The coalition explained
in a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that more consumers are trying to make better, informed choices about the foods they eat and that FDA has the ability to provide consumers with the informational tools to make smarter decisions.
The letter noted that "[w]hile current regulations stipulate what foods can be labeled 'No Sugar Added' or use a similar phrase, there is currently no requirement that added sugars be shown separately on the 'Ingredients List.' "
The coalition recommends that FDA require any "added sugars" to be listed in the ingredients section as a single food ingredient with a parenthetical list of the specific ingredients that account for those sugars. In line with the rules for labeling ingredients, the specific added sugars would be listed by descending weight and the combined weight of the added sugars will be used to determine where the "added sugars" ingredient will be ranked in the ingredient list.
Americans consume significantly more added sugar than is recommended. The American Heart Association, which signed the letter, notes that the usual intake of added sugars for Americans is 22.2 teaspoons a day. At first glance that may not sound like a lot of added sugar, but 22.2 teaspoons of sugar is the equivalent of 355 calories; the recommended daily limit of added sugars for women is 100 calories and 150 for men.
The connection between sugar intake and the obesity epidemic is also of concern to this coalition. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 33 percent of adults and approximately 17 percent of children and adolescents are obese.
Likely anticipating a response from the sugar and food industry that the burden should fall on the consumer to stay informed to make these decisions rather than impose more government regulation, the coalition stated: "Without specific information on the amount of 'added sugars' on the labels of food products, consumers can hardly exercise that responsibility and make smarter choices in the grocery aisle."
The 14 coalition members are: Environmental Working Group, American Association for Health Education, American Heart Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Corporate Accountability International, Defeat Diabetes Foundation, American Association for Health Education, National Association of School Nurses, Young People's Healthy Heart at Mercy Hospital, Indiana Rural Health Association, American Society of Bariatric Physicians, The FGE Food & Nutrition Team, Cambridge/Somerville WIC, and Iowa Public Health Association.
The discovery of stem cells in human ovaries means “it may one day be possible to produce an ‘unlimited’ supply of eggs,” according to the Daily Mail.
The discovery was made during animal and laboratory research looking for the existence of ‘oogenial stem cells’ (OSCs . These are specialised cells that scientists thought might develop into ‘oocytes’, which can, in turn, develop into mature eggs or ‘ova’. Research has previously found that OSCs exist in mice, but this study found that female humans possess them too. When these human OSCs were transplanted into mice they were able to develop into oocytes. Further tests using mouse OSCs demonstrated that the oocytes could then be matured and fertilised to form mouse embryos. In all, the results of this study challenge the idea that females are born with all the oocytes that they will ever have, and that no more are created after birth.
This exciting discovery of human OSCs raises questions about whether new fertility treatments could be developed using their unique properties. However, this experimental research is at a very early stage and much further study will be needed before we can understand if it can be safely used to help patients. It should also be noted that there are many reasons why both men and women may experience fertility problems and even if the findings from this study could one day be put into clinical use, it is unclear how many infertile couples would benefit.
Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA and Saitama Medical University, Japan. It was funded by the US National Institute on Aging, the Henry and Vivian Rosenberg Philanthropic Fund, the Sea Breeze Foundation and Vincent Memorial Hospital Research Funds. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine.
This story was widely covered, appearing in many newspapers and on the BBC. Most of the coverage of the study was accurate. However, while this study obtained egg-producing stem cells from both healthy mice and healthy young women, it has only demonstrated that human OSCs can develop into oocytes in the laboratory and when transplanted into mice. This means the study does not provide evidence on whether these human oocytes were healthy, functioned normally or could be fertilised.
There are many reasons why both men and women may experience fertility problems, and even if the findings from this study were put into clinical use it is unclear how many infertile couples would benefit.
What kind of research was this?
There is a long-standing scientific belief that females are born with all the oocytes (immature eggs or ‘ova’ that they will have, and that after birth no more oocytes are created. However, in recent years some studies using mice have challenged this idea, indicating that types of cells called ‘female germline’ or ‘oogonial stem cells’ (OSCs can produce further oocytes in living mice. This was a laboratory- and animal-based study aiming to optimise the method of isolating OSCs, and to see if OSCs are also present in humans. Once isolated, the researchers aimed to test their growth properties and function both in the laboratory and in animal-based systems.
Laboratory and animal-based investigation is the ideal way to answer this basic scientific question. Although the researchers did some experiments with human tissue, legal and ethical reasons meant that they could not determine whether the human oocytes that the OSCs produced were functional (could be fertilised to form an embryo . In addition, much more study will be required before these exciting findings can be put to clinical use.
What did the research involve?
Previous research has found that mouse OSCs can be identified by the presence of a certain protein, called Ddx4 on their cell surface. The researchers first optimised a procedure for isolating these cells from mouse ovaries. They then used the same technique to isolate human OSCs from adult human ovaries. The human ovaries were obtained from six women aged between 22 and 33 with a genetic identity disorder who were undergoing sex reassignment. After isolating the OSCs, they tried to grow them in the laboratory.
The researchers then introduced a piece of DNA into the mouse OSCs, which would cause them to glow brightly (fluoresce , so that they could be identified. They introduced the marked OSCs into the ovaries of normal mice. It was then seen if the mouse oocytes they produced were functional.
The researchers then performed further experiments on human OSCs. They determined whether the human OSCs could form oocytes in the laboratory. They then introduced the piece of DNA coding for the fluorescent marker into the human OSCs and transplanted them into mice, to see whether oocytes would be formed.
What were the basic results?
The researchers successfully used their system to isolate OSCs from mouse and human ovaries. The OSCs produced from both these sources could be grown in the laboratory.
The fluorescently-marked mouse OSCs could form oocytes (immature egg cells when transplanted into the ovaries of normal mice. These fluorescent oocytes could mature and be fertilised to form embryos in the laboratory.
Human OSCs could form oocytes in the laboratory. In addition, after fluorescently-marked human OSCs were mixed with human ovary tissue and transplanted into mice, fluorescently-marked oocytes were formed. For legal and ethical reasons the researchers did not perform further experiments to see whether these human oocytes were functional.
How did the researchers interpret the results?
The researchers conclude that they have identified female germline or oogonial stem cells in humans, and that they have developed a process for isolating them. They say that “clear evidence for the existence of these cells in women may offer new opportunities to expand on and enhance current fertility-preservation strategies”. They note that the human ovarian tissue used in this study was cryopreserved (frozen , and allowed functional OSCs to be obtained. They also say that these findings will allow more detailed study into oogenesis (the egg-forming process in the laboratory.
Conclusion
In this exciting study, researchers were able to identify and isolate oogenial stem cells (OSCs , also known as female human germline cells. These OSCs could be grown in the laboratory and were able to form oocytes (immature eggs or ‘ova’ under laboratory conditions and when transplanted into mouse ovarian tissue. The researchers also showed that oocytes formed from isolated mouse OSCs could successfully form mouse embryos.
The results of this study, and of previous studies using mice, challenge the idea that females are born with all the oocytes that they will have, and that after birth no more oocytes are created. This challenge to conventional scientific wisdom raises questions over whether the findings could have an impact on fertility-preservation strategies. In future, OSCs could potentially be isolated from ovarian tissue either before or after it is frozen.
However, the research is at a very early stage and much further study is required. It should also be noted that there are several different reasons why both men and women may experience fertility problems. Even if the findings from this study could one day be put into clinical use, it is unclear how many infertile couples would benefit.
Analysis by Bazian
Links To The Headlines
Unlimited human eggs 'potential' for fertility treatment. BBC News, February 27 2012
Could stem cells give every woman life-long fertility? Breakthrough could lead to unlimited supply of eggs. Daily Mail, February 27 2012
Women 'have potentially endless supply of eggs'. The Daily Telegraph, February 27 2012
Human egg factory offers hope for infertile women. Metro, February 27 2012
Links To Science
White YAR, Woods DC, Takai Y et al. Oocyte formation by mitotically active germ cells purified from ovaries of reproductive-age women. Nature Medicine, Published online February 26 2012
James Howson, first mixed-race actor to play Heathcliff, awaits sentencing for abusing mother of his child after they split up
The young star of the
latest film version of Wuthering Heights, who is awaiting sentence for racially abusing a former girlfriend, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
Proceedings were adjourned at Leeds magistrates court after James Howson's solicitor explained that the 24-year-old was being treated at a hospital in Newcastle.
Sectioning is used in cases where doctors are convinced that psychiatric treatment is essential, compelling the patient to accept medical help for 28 days, renewable for further periods, with the right of appeal by the patient or friends and relatives.
Howson's solicitor Anthony Sugare said outside the court: "The position is that on arriving at court this morning, I was told that the court itself had heard from the hospital that he had been taken in there under the Mental Health Act for a period of 28 days for observation."
The actor, who made his much-publicised debut as the first mixed-race actor to play Heathcliff in November, admitted the racially aggravated harassment of Shakira Ramdihal at a hearing in Leeds last month. Magistrates were told that
he shouted abuse and threats at the 23-year-old after rows over her pregnancy and the end of their three-year relationship.
The abuse went on for about four months and he had been so aggressive that he was banned from the maternity unit after their baby daughter was born. The offences coincided with the launch of Wuthering Heights which saw Howson combine unsuccessful hunting for more film work on a ?34-a-week jobseeker's allowance with engagements at the Venice film festival and other such gatherings.
He landed the part after hearing from a centre for the unemployed in Leeds that the film's director, Andrea Arnold, was looking for a young actor matching Emily Bronte's original description of Heathcliff as a
"dark-skinned gipsy in aspect and a little lascar" (an old term for Indian sailors . He beat hundreds of other applicants to the role at auditions organised by the casting director Gail Stevens, who previously chose the local children used in the 2008 Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
Howson's background from a broken home, expelled from school at 14 and serving jail terms for theft and drug offences, mirrored that of the young Heathcliff. Paid ?7,800 for his work, which won critical approval, he was upset to discover on seeing the film that his voice had been dubbed.
The sentence hearing was adjourned until 26 March.
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A full-time government-funded nurse in every early childhood centre and school across New Zealand would provide better health outcomes, according to the nurses’ union.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has called for the government to introduce the proposal, one of a series of recommendations, outlined in its submission to the government’s Green Paper on Vulnerable Children.
NZNO nursing policy adviser and researcher Jill Clendon said locating a nurse at every school and early childhood centre would improve access to health care for children, young people and their families.
Ms Clendon said nurses can work with teachers and social workers in the facilities to provide preventative health education and can advocate, assess and provide brief intervention and referral while coordinating care for those experiencing difficulties.
Evidence demonstrates that health outcomes and access to health care for children improves with school-based nursing services, she said.
“Evidence from New Zealand shows that where the nurse is able to assess and focus care on the specific needs of children and whÄÂnau in a community, health outcomes improve,” she stated in the submission.
“When the nurse at a nurse-led clinic in a primary school in Auckland focused care on education and interventions for families managing asthma, skin conditions and ear conditions, significantly decreased visitation to the city’s children’s hospital was observed for ENT services and decreased visitation was observed for general medical services for children from the area.”
The government’s discussion paper is seeking feedback on how the country can better protect abused, neglected and disadvantaged children.
It comes as figures show every year an average of 10 New Zealand children die at the hands of the people closest to them while suspected abuse or neglect notifications have grown 205 per cent from 2004 to 2010.
In 2008-2009, there were 13,315 hospital admissions for children aged under five for conditions that could have been avoided and 1,286 hospital admissions for children and young people aged from newborns to 24 which were a result of assault, neglect or maltreatment.
Your Healthy Living - March 2012
English | True PDF | 48 pages | 15.95 MB
Your Healthy Living Magazine, our FREE consumer health publication, has a circulation of 100,000 with distribution to health food retailers throughout the UK via our partnership with Tree of Life.
GOAL
Ethiopia
20 Apr 2012
General Description of the Programme GOAL has been operational in Ethiopia since 1984, implementing emergency and rehabilitation/development projects. The impact of the current drought has been evident in Ethiopia since late 2010; many areas of the country are manifesting serious nutritional problems. The revised Humanitarian Requirements Document launched on 11 July 2011 calls for an additional US$ 398.4 million in humanitarian funding to meet food and non-food needs in Ethiopia between July and December 2011. The total number of relief food beneficiaries has been increased to 4,567,256. The dire situation in Somalia continues to push an increasing number of refugees into Ethiopia with an average of 1,400 to 2,000 refugees per day reported to arrive at refugee camps in Dolo Odo, Liben zone. Many refugees are arriving in a very weak state, with up to 45% of children suffering from malnutrition. In response, the Government has recently given permission for organizations to begin nutrition screening and other services at the reception and transit sites in Dolo Ado. Currently there are four Somalia refugee camps near to Dollo Odo sheltering 101,315 refugees. GOAL is supporting International Medical Corps with in kind donations of therapeutic food for one camp. Two more camps will be opened shortly to cater for the new arrivals and GOAL plans to support these camps directly. The main support will be nutrition, non-food items and shelter.
GOAL’s Humanitarian Response Program (HRP main funders are USAID/OFDA/ ECHO, Irish Aid, UNOCHA and GOAL. GOAL’s nutrition interventions utilize the Community-Management of Acute Malnutrition model of care in line with the country protocols.
General description of the role The Nutrition Program Manager is responsible for providing technical support and strategic direction to GOALs emergency nutrition program in Ethiopia in collaboration with the HRP team. Due to the short nature of the contract, the Nutrition Program Manager will be primarily involved in helping to establish a nutrition team, conduct staff training, organising and pre-positioning appropriate materials and ensures the establishment and subsequent maintenance of a comprehensive Nutrition Information System (NIS system in order to monitor progress and meet all requisite SPHERE standards and reporting needs.
S/he will represent GOAL at nutrition sector and/or camp management meetings in the locality. Key duties • Assume overall management for all nutrition activities, ensuring they are implemented in line with donor proposals and verify that the GOAL nutrition response remains closely aligned to the needs in this rapidly evolving emergency. • Work in close coordination with the Nutrition Coordinator, HRP management team and ACD Programs in order to; o Help develop any nutrition related proposals and program strategies (as necessary o Ensure a tightly integrated programme approach with any other GOAL support activities; o Ensure close coordination with local partners and ensure that community leaders are involved in the decision making process. o Work in close coordination with any other operational sectors either implemented by GOAL or other partners (such as WASH, Health etc ensuring a tight integrated response is developed across all sectors and natural cross-cutting themes are embedded into each other’s programs. • Provide technical support to GOAL staff, in consultation with the Nutrition Coordinator, HRP management team and ACD Programs. This support will include: o Helping to recruit a newly operational nutrition team to be located in a Dollo Odo refugee camp o Training of all new nutrition staff working in Dollo Odo refugee camp and assessing their ability to provide key nutritional services to a requisite level (including the provision of high level technical curative care, effective management of supply chains and timely data collection & reporting . o Overseeing the procurement and pre-positioning of all appropriate materials for the full complement of nutrition activities to be implemented by GOAL (including information education communication (IEC materials o Building capacity of key staff who will ultimately responsible for delivering programs o Nurture and capacity build national Nutrition Program Manager who will take over responsibility for the management of the operation within 1-3 months o Regular visits to oversee service delivery, conduct on the job training (in conjunction with national Program Manager , identify potential issues and capacity build team to effectively problem solve o Ensure the establishment and subsequent maintenance of a comprehensive Nutrition Information System (NIS system in order to provide accurate, consistent monitoring and evaluation systems, to meet all requisite SPHERE standards and reporting needs o Conduct regular analysis of data with feedback to field based health staff and Addis Ababa o Responsible for submission of timely donor reports, in coordination with Nutrition Coordinator and HRP Management • Representation of GOAL at regional meetings, cultivating close relationships with donors, ministries and other key national stakeholders. • To be fully conversant with GOAL policies and guidelines, including HR, finance, administration and security protocols • Any other related tasks at the request of the HRP Senior Management team Requirements • Nutrition / Public Health Nutrition qualification with at least 3 years post-graduation experience • Practical experience working in emergency nutrition programmes for an international NGO with management responsibilities. • A clear and proven understanding of all aspects of CMAM (including in-patient care, outpatient care, outreach activities and supplementary feeding programs with training experience and competence (essential • Experience of working in clinical settings on the treatment of severe acute malnutrition either in Ethiopia or overseas • Excellent communication and training skills with track record of building/developing cohesive teams • Experience of writing donor proposals, budgets, log-frames and gannt charts with subsequent management of projects thereafter. • Demonstrated analytical and conceptual skills to plan projects, timetable agreed activities and oversee staff activities. • Good team player, flexible and capable of working with a multi-national country team • Ability and willingness to travel to remote locations and live in basic conditions • Good computer skills, including Word, Excel. Desirable • Masters degree in Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition, or medical background with nutrition • Experience Postgraduate study or relevant work experience in Public Health Nutrition • Experience of working with Government health system in Ethiopia (an advantage . This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. This is an unaccompanied position. Interviews will be held in Dublin or London. Unfortunately GOAL cannot contribute to financial costs incurred when attending interview. Note: GOAL is an equal opportunities employer
GOAL has a Staff Code of Conduct and a Child Protection Policy which have been developed to ensure the maximum protection of programme participants and children from exploitation. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to these policies any job offer made is also subject to police clearance.
If you would like to apply for the above position, please send your CV and covering letter to
applications@goal.ie, ensuring that the job title and location of the role are clearly stated in the subject line of your email. Thank you.
The phrase
sexual anorexia
may seem a taboo one at that, but the truth of the matter is, it's a real, medically
studied problem.
It's a term that's been coined from the clinical diagnosis:
sexual aversion disorder. The condition has been described by the experts as "one that goes far beyond inhibition or sexually negative attitudes. It is an obsessive state in which the thought of being sexual by oneself or with others is almost unbearable."
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist,
Dr. Paul Hokemeyer, puts it in perspective.
"While some people may snicker at the concept, sexual anorexia is a very real phenomenon. Sex is one of the ways we communicate with other people and with ourselves. When the sexual part of ourselves is shut down or limited our psychological life suffers. Just like a a pond needs to be constantly re-fed, so too does our erotic life. When its not, it stagnates and becomes toxic."
Dr. Hokemeyer goes on to explain that sexual anorexia is just one of the ways people seek out--in an attempt to manage emotional pain. He associates the condition with a certain way men and women can feel a "sense of mastery over their bodies, their lives and even their emotions."
Associating it with other forms of addiction, Hokemeyer acknowledges that this type of "coping mechanism" can work in the short term, but over time shutting down one's sexuality can take a hefty toll.
Related:
7 Amazing Health Benefits of Sex
Hokemeyer outlines the four most common characteristics associated with the disorder:
Rigidity around sex (i.e. never having sex and/or refusing to discuss sex
Fear of sex, sexuality and sexually related issues and objects (i.e. becoming anxious when the topic of sex is discussed, when other people express their sexuality, or when sexual objects such as lingerie are shown or discussed
Shame and guilt around sex (i.e. feeling “damaged” because of your sexual past or current sexual desires
Self-harm to avoid appearing sexual (i.e. gaining weight to avoid sexual advances from others
While there is no "cure-all" for sexual anorexia there is hope. Some clinicians
suggest the following for sufferrers:
Related:
6 Ways to Reclaim Your Sexual Satisfaction
Typical treatment would involve discovering and resolving underlying conflict or life difficulties.
The choice of behavioral or psychodynamic psychotherapy depends on the diagnostic understanding, but can be an aid.
Marital therapy is indicated if the cause is interpersonal.
Panic states can be treated with tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, or benzodiazepines.
More from GalTime:
How to Keep Weight Gain from Killing Your Sex Life
3 Biggest Mistakes Women Make in Bed
The Anti-Aging Workout
Tara Weng is the national editor of parenting and health for GalTime. She is also a media consultant with a focus on medical and consumer topics. Her professional experience includes a stint as a medical/features producer at the NBC affiliate in Boston, MA and a media relations position at a top teaching hospital in Boston. Tara has also done public relations consulting work and has written for several online and print media outlets. She is a wife and a mother to two children (who are fantastic and an enthusiastic New England sports fan.
by Kim Krisberg
Walking around a public health laboratory is seriously cool.
Giant humming machines, rows of test tubes and small, round dishes containing specimens with hard-to-pronounce names, biohazard warnings and emergency shower stations, an egg incubator and liquid nitrogen generator, people in protective gear with bulky white hoods and face shields. Oh, and boxes with severed animal heads inside.
"Everything is just so unusual and every day is different," Dr. Grace Kubin told me as she took me on a tour of the Texas state public health lab in Austin last week.
After years of writing about public health, I finally got the chance to look behind the proverbial curtain, if only for a couple hours. Like the state it serves, the Texas public health lab is huge. It houses nearly 400 staff and processes 6,500 samples and specimens every day. That's 1.5 million every year and means the lab handles the largest volume of testing of any public health lab in the country.
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There's a growing body of research linking childhood trauma (abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, etc. to impaired brain development and functioning.
Maia Szalavitz at TIME's Healthland blog describes the findings of new study by Harvard researchers (published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences :
Now, in the largest study yet to use brain scans to show the effects of child abuse, researchers have found specific changes in key regions in and around the hippocampus in the brains of young adults who were maltreated or neglected in childhood. These changes may leave victims more vulnerable to depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD , the study suggests.
CDC's
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE Study enrolled more than 17,000 members of study partner Kaiser Permanente in San Diego between 1995 and 1997 and has been tracking their medical status.
Researchers have found higher childhood stress to be associated with a greater risk of several negative health conditions and behaviors, from alcoholism and early initiation of smoking to depression and sexually ischemic heart disease. The website
ACEs Too High, run by journalist Jane Stevens, collects news and research related to ACEs, and one of the site's recent pieces (via
Reporting on Health profiles the
efforts of Tarpon Springs, Florida to address trauma as a community.
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Here’s the deal: if you take one cup of grapes and remove the water, you’ll get about a quarter cup of raisins, so when fruit is dried the portion shrinks by about ?.
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