What You Need to Know When Prescribed an Opioid Painkiller

There are a number of questions you should ask if a doctor or other health care provider prescribes opioid painkillers such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, codeine and morphine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

While approved to treat certain kinds of acute and chronic pain, opioids can have serious side effects, and the United States is in the mist of an opioid overuse epidemic.

First, ask why you need the medication, is it right for you, and are there non-opioid options?

If your health care provider thinks an opioid painkiller is the best choice, ask the doctor to prescribe the lowest dose and the smallest quantity. Find out when to call to follow-up with the health care provider on how well the opioid is working, as well as when and how to stop or taper off use of the drug, the FDA said in a news release.

To reduce the risk of side effects, take the medication exactly as prescribed. If you still have pain, call your health care provider. Do not take an extra dose.

Learn about serious side effects, such as excessive sleepiness or a craving for more of the medication, so you and your family will know when to call a doctor or go to the hospital. Ask your pharmacist if your prescription comes with a medication guide, which are paper handouts that come with many prescription medicines and provide detailed information.

"Tell your health care provider about any history you have had with substance misuse or addiction to drugs or alcohol and if you have a history of smoking cigarettes. You should also tell your health care provider if anyone in your family has had a problem with substance misuse, alcoholism or drug addiction," the FDA said.

"It is also very important that you tell your health care provider about all of the medicines you are taking, especially those prescribed to treat anxiety, sleeping problems, or seizure. Even medicines you take only occasionally could interact with the opioid pain medicine. Ask your health care provider about possible interactions," the FDA advised.

It's a good idea to keep opioids locked up to prevent youngsters from accidentally taking them or from other people stealing them. Never share opioids with other people. What's safe for you could lead to an overdose for someone else.

"You should discuss with your doctor whether you should also receive a prescription for naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose and could save lives. In many cases, it makes sense to be prepared for potential problems by keeping naloxone in your home," the FDA said.

According to federal health officials, the United States is in the grip of an unprecedented opioid epidemic. More people died from drug overdoses in 2014 (the most recent statistics available) than in any year on record. And the majority of drug overdose deaths -- more than six out of 10 -- involved an opioid.

Smartphones, Tablets and Weight Gain in Teens

Teens glued to their tablet, smartphone or computer for hours on end may be more likely to become obese, a new study suggests.

Those who used screen devices for five or more hours daily were twice as likely to drink more sugary beverages and engage in too little physical activity, the researchers found.

As a result, these teens showed a 43 percent increased risk of obesity compared with kids who don't use smartphones or tablets at all. But the study did not prove that high use of these technologies caused obesity risk to rise.

"Parents should be cautious with their kids in terms of how much they're using these devices, especially if you see your child on them several hours a day," said study lead author Erica Kenney. "It is something to keep an eye on and be concerned about, because it could be having an effect on their health."

Kids using a screen device for that amount of time is not that uncommon, Kenney, a research fellow with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and her co-author found.

One of every five U.S. teenagers spends more than five hours a day on smartphones, tablets, computers and video games, the researchers discovered. By comparison, only 8 percent of kids watch more than five hours a day of TV.

"We know kids are shifting their time away from TV and onto these other devices," Kenney said.

Previous studies have linked excessive TV viewing with increased consumption of sugary drinks, fast foods, sweets and salty snacks -- all leading to a higher risk of obesity, the study authors said.

Kenney decided to see whether this risk also applied to kids who've ditched TV for screen devices.

The study relied on data drawn from the 2013 and 2015 waves of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a regular youth survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers reviewed responses from almost 25,000 teens in grades 9 through 12.The results regarding excess TV viewing agreed with earlier findings, the researchers said. Teens who watched five or more hours of TV daily were nearly three times as likely to drink sugary beverages daily and 78 percent more likely to become obese, compared with kids who didn't watch TV.

But those bad habits also appeared to transfer over when kids used smartphones, tablets or computers. Five or more hours of screen device time every day was linked to a doubled risk of drinking sugary beverages and getting too little exercise every day, and a 74 percent increased risk of poor sleep.

Kids tend to snack too much while using electronic devices, explained Stephanie Schiff, a registered dietitian with Northwell Health's Huntington Hospital in Huntington, N.Y.

"If kids are playing video games on the computer while they're eating, they sometimes don't register an end to their hunger," Schiff said. "Eating can become mindless rather than mindful, and they may not realize they are actually full."

In addition, a more insidious process tied to screen use could be influencing their food choices, Kenney said.

"A lot of the literature on TV and diet and TV and obesity risk really suggests the key factor driving these associations is exposure to advertising for unhealthy things that kids nag their parents to get in the supermarket," she said. "We do know in recent years a lot of the money towards marketing foods and beverages has shifted more towards marketing on social media and video games and things like that."

These electronic devices also share TV's ability to glue kids to a couch, Schiff said.

"Years ago, kids would play in the playground at recess or come home after school and play in their yards or on the sidewalk," Schiff said. "That play has been replaced to an extent by video games, Facebook, YouTube and texting.

"It's not a surprise that childhood obesity is on the rise, since to some extent virtual games have replaced real-time play and interaction, and physical activity has been relegated to fingers and thumbs," she continued.

Kenney recommends getting advice on ways to limit screen time if your child is using smartphones or tablets more than a couple hours a day.

"If they're regularly on these devices for long periods of time, you maybe want to talk with your pediatrician about strategies for how to cut back a little bit," she said.

Health Tip: Who Needs a Flu Shot?

 Debating whether to get a flu shot? With few exceptions, most people will benefit and a few in particular really need the vaccine.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these people are at greatest risk of flu and should get the shot:

Children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years, and seniors aged 50 and older.
People with a chronic illness, such as diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease or kidney disease. Also, anyone with a suppressed immune system.
Pregnant women.
Children on aspirin therapy.
Anyone living in a nursing home or long-term care facility.
People who work in a health-care setting.
People who live with young children or older adults.
People who are obese.
People of Alaskan or American Indian descent.
Culled from medplus

A Lengthy, Stable Marriage May Boost Stroke Survival

Stroke patients may have better odds of surviving if they're in a long-term stable marriage, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 2,300 stroke sufferers, those who'd been "continuously" married had a better chance of surviving -- versus both lifelong singles and people who'd been divorced or widowed.

The long-term marrieds' outlook was better even compared to people who'd gotten remarried after divorcing or losing a spouse.

The reasons for the findings aren't completely clear, and the study doesn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship. But researchers said the study highlights the potential importance of "social support" in stroke recovery.

"This implies that the support of a lifelong partner has benefits," said Dr. Ralph Sacco, a professor of neurology at the University of Miami and a past president of the American Heart Association.

A spouse can give emotional support, he said, as well as help with day-to-day basics -- such as eating a healthy diet and remembering to take medications.

"People sometimes consider it 'nagging,' but it can help," said Sacco, who wasn't involved in the study.

"What we don't know," he added, "is whether other forms of social support might have similar benefits."

In a previous study, Sacco and his colleagues did find that older stroke patients who had friends generally fared better than those who were socially isolated.But it's not clear whether friendships directly aided people's stroke recovery. And no one knows whether unmarried stroke patients would live longer if they joined a support group, for example.

Those are important questions, according to Matthew Dupre, one of the researchers on the new study.

It's known that "social support" can help people stick with their medication regimens or change unhealthy habits, said Dupre, an associate professor of community and family medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

So it's possible that unmarried stroke patients could benefit from resources that connect them with other people, according to Dupre.

"More research is needed, though, to know the full implications of our findings, and to identify possible avenues of intervention," he said.

The findings, reported Dec. 14 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, are based on 2,351 U.S. adults who'd suffered a stroke. Their health was followed for about five years after the stroke, on average.

During that time, 1,362 people died -- leaving just under 1,000 survivors. Among those who survived, 42 percent were in a stable marriage with their first spouse. That compared with 31 percent among patients who died.

Overall, Dupre's team found, lifelong singles were 71 percent more likely to die than stroke patients in a stable marriage.

Much of that disparity seemed to be explained by "psychosocial factors," the researchers said -- including depression symptoms and a lack of children or other close relationships.

It wouldn't be surprising, Sacco said, if depression were a key reason that unmarried people tend to fare more poorly after a stroke.Depression is common after stroke, and it's been shown to be a predictor of stroke outcomes," he said. "Depression needs to be recognized and treated."

Dr. Paul Wright, chief of neurology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., agreed.

He said stroke patients at his center are routinely screened for depression. But the new findings, he said, suggest that unmarried patients may need closer attention in general -- including extra help with lifestyle changes that can improve their outlook.

"We may need to bring them in for follow-up earlier, and start monitoring them more closely," Wright said.

Lifelong singles were not the only ones at higher risk in this study. People who'd been divorced or widowed were more likely to die after their stroke -- particularly if they'd lost more than one marriage.

Patients who'd been divorced or widowed more than once were about 40 percent more likely to die than those in stable marriages. And those who were currently remarried fared no better.

Certain practical factors, such as income and access to health insurance, seemed to explain part of the risk -- but not all of it.

"It may be that patients with a history of marital instability experienced more severe and debilitating strokes -- and in turn have fewer economic resources and social support to use toward their recovery," Dupre said.

For now, Sacco suggested that stroke survivors "reach out and interact with other people" if they feel isolated. Many hospitals have support groups, he said -- as do organizations such as the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

People could also try community or church organizations, or even online groups, Sacco said -- though, he added, "we don't know whether computer connections can replace face-to-face human connection."

Wright agreed that unmarried stroke survivors should reach out for help. But in reality, he added, many do not -- so their family members should be proactive.

1. "Be the 'nudge' who makes sure they're taking care of themselves, even if they say they're OK," Wright said.

When Buying a Christmas Tree, Think Safety First

choosing the precise Christmas tree is a a laugh culture for lots families, but it's vital to consider fireplace protection while redecorating for the vacations, a pediatricians' institution advises.

folks that opt for an synthetic tree should make sure it's fireplace-resistant. This must be mentioned on its label, in step with the yankee Academy of Pediatrics.

in case you're shopping for a stay Christmas tree for your private home, the institution recommends the following precautions:

pick out a fresh tree. Many human beings look for bushes that are a sure length or shape, but it's also essential to make sure it is not dried out. Dry timber may turn out to be a hearth hazard. A fresh tree is green and its needles don't wreck or drop off its branches easily. The trunk of a sparkling tree is also sticky.
Trim the trunk. cutting some inches off the trunk of the tree exposes fresh wood. This allows the tree to soak up water extra correctly and keep away from drying out.
Water the tree. make certain to preserve the tree-stand full of water. bushes in heated homes can dry out quick.
cautiously keep in mind tree placement. Christmas timber should no longer be close to fireplaces, radiators or portable warmers. timber must no longer block doorways. instead, they have to be positioned faraway from high-traffic areas.

Runners' brains may be more connected, research shows

if you're thinking about taking over running as your New 12 months's decision and nevertheless want some convincing, keep in mind this: MRI scans monitor that persistence runners' brains have more useful connectivity than the brains of greater sedentary individuals.

college of Arizona researchers in comparison brain scans of younger person move country runners to teenagers who do not engage in normal bodily hobby. The runners, ordinary, showed more useful connectivity -- or connections among awesome brain regions -- within numerous regions of the mind, including the frontal cortex, which is essential for cognitive features inclusive of making plans, selection-making and the capacity to switch attention between tasks.

although extra studies is needed to determine whether or not these bodily differences in mind connectivity bring about differences in cognitive functioning, the cutting-edge findings, posted within the magazine Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, help lay the foundation for researchers to higher understand how workout impacts the brain, specially in young adults.

UA walking expert David Raichlen, an companion professor of anthropology, co-designed the take a look at with UA psychology professor Gene Alexander, who studies brain getting old and Alzheimer's sickness as a member of the UA's Evelyn F. McKnight mind Institute.

"one of the matters that drove this collaboration became that there has been a latest proliferation of studies, over the past 15 years, which have shown that bodily pastime and exercise could have a beneficial effect at the mind, but most of that paintings has been in older adults," Raichlen said.

"This query of what's happening inside the brain at more youthful a while hasn't surely been explored in a good deal intensity, and it's important," he said. "not best are we interested in what is taking place in the brains of young adults, however we realize that there are matters which you do across your lifespan that could effect what happens as you age, so it's crucial to apprehend what's taking place in the mind at those more youthful a long time."

along with their colleagues, Raichlen and Alexander compared the MRI scans of a group of male pass usa runners to the scans of young person males who hadn't engaged in any kind of organized athletic pastime for as a minimum a yr. participants have been more or less the equal age -- 18 to 25 -- with comparable body mass index and educational levels.

The scans measured resting country purposeful connectivity, or what goes on in the brain whilst members are conscious but at relaxation, now not accomplishing any precise challenge.

The findings shed new mild at the effect that running, as a particular form of exercising, may additionally have on the brain.

preceding research have shown that activities that require exceptional motor control, which include playing a musical tool, or that require high stages of hand-eye coordination, such as playing golfing, can alter mind structure and feature. however, fewer research have checked out the outcomes of more repetitive athletic activities that do not require as tons particular motor control -- which include jogging. Raichlen's and Alexander's findings propose that those forms of activities may want to have a similar impact.

"those activities that humans do not forget repetitive virtually involve many complex cognitive functions -- like making plans and selection-making -- that may have results on the mind," Raichlen stated.

considering that purposeful connectivity often seems to be altered in growing old adults, and especially in people with Alzheimer's or different neurodegenerative sicknesses, it is an vital degree to bear in mind, Alexander stated. And what researchers analyze from the brains of teenagers should have implications for the viable prevention of age-associated cognitive decline in a while.

"one of the key questions that these outcomes increase is whether or not what we're seeing in teenage

Study Shows How Zika Attacks Infant Brain

Scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the mosquito-borne virus can replicate itself thousands of times in both fetal brain cells and the placentas of pregnant women. Levels of Zika's genetic material were about 1,000 times higher in the infants' brains than in the placentas, the researchers noted.

Not only that, the virus can persist for more than seven months, which may explain why some babies who appeared normal at birth later developed symptoms of microcephaly, the researchers said. The most common birth defect associated with Zika, microcephaly leaves infants with too small heads and underdeveloped brains.

"Our findings show that Zika virus can continue to replicate in infants' brains even after birth, and that the virus can persist in placentas for months -- much longer than we expected," said study author Julu Bhatnagar, lead of the molecular pathology team at the CDC's Infectious Diseases Pathology Branch.

"We don't know how long the virus can persist, but its persistence could have implications for babies born with microcephaly and for apparently healthy infants whose mothers had Zika during their pregnancies," Bhatnagar said. "More studies are needed to fully understand how the virus can affect babies."

In all, the research team tested tissues from 52 patients with suspected Zika infection; 44 pregnant women and eight infants who had microcephaly and later died.

In their study, published Dec. 13 in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, the scientists also discovered that the virus appears to gain entry to the fetal brain through a type of migratory immune cells in the placenta known as Hofbauer cells.

Meanwhile, a report released last Friday showed that the tragedy of hundreds of babies born with devastating birth defects linked to the Zika virus is no longer confined to Brazil.

Colombia is now also experiencing a surge in infant microcephaly cases.

A team led by Margaret Honein, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported that between January and November of 2016, there were 476 cases of microcephaly in Colombia, a fourfold increase from the same period in 2015.

There were nine times as many cases of microcephaly in July 2016 than in July 2015, the researchers said.

And because Colombia's surveillance of birth defects relies on voluntary reporting, the new data "likely underestimates the actual prevalence of birth defects, including those defects associated with Zika virus infection during pregnancy," Honein's team said.

The study also found that the peak in cases of microcephaly in Colombia occurred about six months after the highest number of new Zika infections were reported. This suggests that the greatest risk for Zika-related microcephaly likely arises in the first half of pregnancy -- especially the first trimester and early in the second trimester.According to the latest figures from the CDC, there have so far been 32 cases of Zika-related birth defects to live-born infants in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

However, there's also some good news on Zika in the United States: the CDC has declared that the state of Florida is now free of the Zika virus.

But, Texas officials, who recently reported a suspected case of local infection, said last week that they have identified four more cases of suspected locally transmitted Zika virus in Cameron County, near the border with Mexico.

Anesthetic cream best for relieving vaccination pain in infants

For toddlers beneath age 1 12 months, lidocaine cream, combined with a small quantity of sugar given by way of mouth and infant soothing, can assist relieve pain from ordinary vaccinations, in keeping with a look at in CMAJ (Canadian clinical association journal).

"Vaccinations cause acute misery for both babies and their mother and father, contributing to vaccination avoidance," states Dr. Anna Taddio, a pharmacist and senior accomplice scientist on the health center for unwell children (SickKids) and professor, Leslie Dan faculty of Pharmacy, college of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. "however, there are gaps in understanding approximately what is the high-quality way to relieve pain throughout vaccination."

To address this gap, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial inclusive of 352 healthful babies from 3 pediatric outpatient clinics, together with 7 health practitioner practices, who acquired scheduled vaccinations of their first year of existence. The babies were randomized to one of four companies: placebo control; video guidance to mother and father on how to soothe their toddler; video plus oral sugar solution; and video, oral sugar answer and lidocaine applied to the pores and skin.

"We found that, while used constantly in the course of vaccine injections in the first yr of existence, most effective liposomal lidocaine mixed with parental video training and orally administered sucrose showed a gain on acute ache when in comparison with placebo, video by myself, and video and sucrose collectively," wrote the authors.

"The outcomes of regular ache control at the development of preprocedural anxiety (fear), hypersensitive reaction to ache and compliance with destiny vaccination warrant future research," they endorse.

How hearing loss can change the way nerve cells are wired

it is iciness, and your head is filled up from the cold or flu. the whole thing sounds muffled.

If this has ever passed off to you, you can have experienced conductive hearing loss, which takes place whilst sound cannot tour freely from the outer and middle ear to the inner ear. other commonplace reasons consist of ear infections in children, or a build-up of earwax in older adults.

Even quick-term blockages of this type can lead to amazing adjustments inside the auditory gadget, altering the behavior and shape of nerve cells that relay information from the ear to the brain, in line with a new university at Buffalo study.

The studies, published on line Dec. 1 inside the journal of Neuroscience, checked out what came about while mice had their ears surgically blocked for a length of 3 days to over every week, dampening hearing.

"We wanted to understand what occurs on the brainstem, inside the cells coming from the ear," says Matthew Xu-Friedman, PhD, the lead researcher and an companion professor of organic sciences in UB's university of Arts and Sciences. "What we saw is that a few substantial changes do occur within a few days.

"what's nevertheless uncertain, however, is whether or not the cells go back to their normal state while acoustic situations go back to regular. We see in our studies that the cells do appear to ordinarily bounce back, but we do not yet realize whether they completely recover."

A smaller 'gas tank'

The modifications the studies group located needed to do with neurotransmitters -- chemical substances that help ship signals from the ear to the brain.

In mice whose ears were blocked, cells inside the auditory nerve commenced to use their supplies of neurotransmitter more freely. They depleted their reserves of those chemical substances swiftly on every occasion a brand new auditory sign got here in, and that they decreased the amount of space in the cells that housed sac-like systems called vesicles -- organic garage tanks in which neurotransmitter chemical compounds are saved.

"whilst it's quiet, the needs at the auditory nerve cells are not as brilliant," Xu-Friedman says. "So it makes feel that you might see these modifications: You now not want as plenty neurotransmitter, so why spend money on lots of storage? if you're not that energetic, you don't need a large gasoline tank. And you are now not as afraid to dissipate what you have got. that is one conceivable reason for what we discovered."

The adjustments in cellular structure and behavior have been the other of what Xu-Friedman group's noticed in a preceding study that placed mice in a always noisy surroundings. In that venture -- confronted with an strangely high level of noise -- the mice's auditory nerve cells started to save money their sources, conserving materials of neurotransmitter whilst growing the storage capacity for the chemical substances.

"It looks like these results are two facets of the identical coin, and that they might be the first guidelines of a fashionable rule that nerve cells modify their connections based on how active they're," Xu-Friedman says.

Many questions stay

within the more latest observe, cellular adjustments commenced to opposite themselves when the mice's ears had been unplugged.

"when you undo the treatment, the cells begin to cross again to what they have been like before," Xu-Friedman says. "but, it's not clear that they completely recover, so we want to do more research to look if that's the case."

He additionally desires to examine what occurs while cells are exposed to conductive listening to loss time and again again, as takes place in some small children.

"when she changed into younger, my daughter had ear infections continuously. It appeared like she would get one whenever she had a chilly," Xu-Friedman says. "I have no idea what this did to her hearing, whether there are lasting outcomes from this repeated plugging of the ears, or whether or not any affects are transient. If the nerve 

Social isolation may lead to poor survival rates in breast cancer patients

Examining the link between loneliness and breast cancer
Recent studies have shown that loneliness and lack of social connections increase the risk of premature death.

In fact, some studies have suggested that social isolation and living alone increase the risk of mortality by as much as 29 and 32 percent, respectively.

Researchers led by Dr. Candyce Kroenke, of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA, set out to examine the link between social isolation and breast cancer survival rates.

Dr. Kroenke and team investigated the medical records of 9,267 women with breast cancer.

The median follow-up period was 10.6 years, during which 1,448 cancer recurrences and 1,521 deaths were recorded. Of the 1,521 deaths, 990 were from breast cancer.

Scientists wanted to see how the patients' survival is affected by their social networks within 2 years from the diagnosis.

The research findings were published in the journal Cancer.

Isolated women 60 percent more likely to die from breast cancer
The results indicate that having an extended social network significantly increases the survival rates of breast cancer survivors.

Socially isolated women had a 40 percent higher risk of recurrence and a 60 percent higher risk of dying from breast cancer than socially integrated women.

Additionally, women living in isolation had a 70 percent higher risk of dying from any cause, compared with their socially integrated counterparts.

However, not all social ties are equally beneficial to everyone. Some types of social relationships held different results, depending on age, race/ethnicity, and country of origin.

For instance, non-white women who had strong ties with their family and relatives were less likely to die from breast cancer, whereas older white women were less likely to die from breast cancer if they had a spouse.

Older white and Asian women were more likely to have a lower recurrence and mortality rate if they had strong community ties.

Overall, the correlations proved to be stronger in patients with stages 1 and 2 breast cancer.

Dr. Kroenke explains the contribution of the study, noting that it sheds light on specific breast cancer outcomes."It is well established that larger social networks predict lower overall mortality in healthy populations and in breast cancer patients, but associations with breast cancer-specific outcomes like recurrence and breast cancer mortality have been mixed," says Dr. Kroenke.

Additionally, the study highlights complex differences between various kinds of social ties.

9 amazing health benefits of cheese

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It’s easy to lump in cheese with cake, bread, and other waistline offenders. Not so fast, though: Although some dairy products might pack on pounds, many cheeses are actually good for you in moderation, as part of a balanced diet. (Read: This isn’t permission to eat a wedge of cheese for lunch, with a chaser of cheesecake.) Here are a few tasty morsels of information from nutritionist Karen Ansel, R.D.N., coauthor of Healthy in a Hurry: Simple, Wholesome Recipes for Every Meal of the Day; her insights will help you indulge in all the right ways.livefyre
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 (iStock)
It’s easy to lump in cheese with cake, bread, and other waistline offenders. Not so fast, though: Although some dairy products might pack on pounds, many cheeses are actually good for you in moderation, as part of a balanced diet. (Read: This isn’t permission to eat a wedge of cheese for lunch, with a chaser of cheesecake.) Here are a few tasty morsels of information from nutritionist Karen Ansel, R.D.N., coauthor of Healthy in a Hurry: Simple, Wholesome Recipes for Every Meal of the Day; her insights will help you indulge in all the right ways.

1.) Cheese can help you stay slim
“Cheese may help you stay slim thanks to a substance called butyrate, found in many cheeses,” says Ansel. Gruyère, blue, and Gouda, Parmesan, and cheddar all have high amounts. “Research suggests that it may help boost metabolism. These cheeses also encourage the bacteria in our gut to make even more butyrate, so it’s a double win.”
2.) Cheese may prevent cancer.This news is easy to digest: “One study found that the butyrate in cheese can protect against colon cancer by nourishing the cells of your colon,” says Ansel, “and by reducing that inflammation that can damage the colon over time.”

3.) Cheese is whey good for building muscle
“Protein-packed cheese is a smart snack for building muscle,” Ansel says. Protein is made of amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscle tissue. “For the best protein boost, try ricotta cheese,” says Ansel. “It’s one of the single best sources of whey protein, which is especially advantageous for muscle building. And it tastes a lot better than a gritty protein powder.”4.) Cheese is good for your bones
A strong case for Parmesan and cheddar: “Since it’s made from milk, cheese is packed with calcium to help keep your bones strong,” Ansel says. “Snacking on just one ounce of Parmesan gives you 336 milligrams of calcium, and the same amount of cheddar offers 216 milligrams.” That’s a good portion of the day’s needs: Most adult men require 1,000 milligrams of calcium daily.

5.) Cheese is good for your teeth, too
Chew on this: “Eating cheese can keep your teeth healthier thanks to calcium and phosphorus,” Ansel says. “These two minerals fight the lactic acid that’s naturally present in our mouths and prevent it from breaking down tooth enamel.” You need that enamel to chew food without damage to the teeth, as well as to prevent cavities and erosion.

6.) Cheese could ward off diabetes
Go on, upgrade from hamburger to cheeseburger. Those same butyrate-dense cheeses may help protect against type 2 diabetes. “Although research in this area is just starting to emerge, a study in the journal Diabetes found that mice that ate chow containing added butyrate had insulin levels that were 50 percent lower than mice who ate the regular kind. Experts suspect that butyrate may help human bodies use insulin more effectively too, in its managing of blood-sugar levels.7.) Cheese is a healthy complement to your meal
Here’s the skinny: There are many cheeses that are light in both fat and calories that are an excellent addition to your meal. “If you’re trying to cut fat and calories, stick with feta. It’s the skinniest cheese around, with only 6 grams of fat and 70 calories per ounce,” says Ansel. (We like putting it on top of our noontime spinach salads. “Mozzarella is the next best thing to feta, with only 85 calories and 6 grams of fat per ounce,” she adds. Pair it with tangy roasted peppers in a salad, or Caprese-style with basil and tomatoes. Ansel’s third pick is Swiss cheese: “It boasts only 106 calories and 8 grams of fat per ounce. Try shredding it into an omelet with asparagus or spinach.”

8.) Even the lactose-intolerant can eat certain cheeses
If lactose does a number on your stomach, you can still eat certain cheeses. “When natural cheeses including Parmesan, cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, mozzarella, and Brie are made, the manufacturing and aging processes remove almost all of the lactose," says Ansel. Try just a bit: "One ounce of these cheeses contains less than a gram of lactose, compared with the 12 grams you’d get from a glass of milk.”

9.) It’s the best comfort food— no debate
“Everybody needs comfort foods now and then,” Ansel says. “So if you’re going to reach for one, go for cheese, which has some big nutrition benefits compared with a pile of cookies or chips. But when you do, be sure to stick with a couple of small cubes and not a huge hunk of it. Those calories can add up quickly too.”

How is embryo freezing done?

How is an embryo frozen?
the main goal of embryo freezing is to hold the embryo for later use. the biggest trouble is the water inside the cells. whilst water freezes, crystals can shape. This growth can burst the cellular, inflicting it to die.

To save you this going on, the water within the embryo's cells is replaced with a protective substance called a cryoprotectant. The embryos are left to incubate in increasing ranges of cryoprotectant before they are frozen.

once most of the water has been eliminated, the embryo is cooled to its maintenance state via one in all two methods of embryo freezing:

sluggish freezing: This includes defensive the embryos from harm in sealed tubes after which slowly lowering the temperature inside the tubes. This prevents the embryo cells from growing older and becoming broken. Embryos can remaining tons longer of their frozen state than of their clean state. however, sluggish freezing is time-eating, and it requires highly-priced machinery.
Vitrification: on this procedure, the cryoprotected embryos are frozen so speedy that the water molecules in the embryos do now not have time to shape ice crystals. This helps to shield the embryos and to increase their survival price at some stage in thawing.
After freezing, the embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen until they're wished for destiny use.

success charges of thawing frozen embryos
The manner of thawing an embryo is fantastically a hit. a few studies has indicated that embryos frozen via vitrification have a better risk of survival, both at the freezing level and at some point of thawing.

Embryo freezing

Embryo freezing is a process that allows embryos to be preserved for later use. the primary a hit pregnancy attributable to freezing a woman's healthy embryos become in the Eighties. considering the fact that then, many embryos had been frozen for later use.

The embryos may be saved to enable a future being pregnant, to donate to others, for scientific studies or for training functions.

The technique starts offevolved through the use of hormones and different medications to stimulate the manufacturing of probably fertile eggs. The eggs are then extracted from the female's ovaries to either be fertilized in a lab or frozen for later use.

a success fertilization can also result in at least one healthy embryo, that may then be transferred to the lady's womb or uterus. optimistically, the embryo will increase and the girl can convey the growing infant thru pregnancy to a live beginning.

considering that fertilization often effects in a couple of embryo, the remaining embryos can be preserved via freezing.

Why we walk on our heels instead of hands

Webber was inquisitive about analyzing the mechanics of strolling, but because the saying goes, one should examine to walk before they could run, and that -- so to speak -- is what Webber has been doing in his studies.

His most current observe on walking, posted inside the magazine of Experimental Biology, especially explores why human beings walk with a heel-to-toe stride, at the same time as many other animals -- which include dogs and cats -- get around at the balls of their feet.

It turned into an especially exciting question from Webber's angle, due to the fact folks that do barefoot going for walks, or "natural going for walks," land at the center or balls in their feet rather than the heels after they run -- a stride that could feel unnatural when strolling.

indeed, people are pretty set in our methods with how we stroll, but our heel-first style will be taken into consideration relatively curious.

"human beings are very efficient walkers, and a key factor of being an green walker in all type of mammals is having lengthy legs," Webber stated. "Cats and puppies are up at the balls in their toes, with their heel multiplied up in the air, so that they've tailored to have an extended leg, however humans have achieved something distinctive. we have dropped our heels down on the floor, which bodily makes our legs shorter than they might be if were up on our feet, and this was a conundrum to us (scientists)."

Webber's take a look at, but, gives an cause of why our heel-strike stride works so well, and it nevertheless comes right down to limb period: Heel-first walking creates longer "virtual legs," he says.

We flow Like a Human Pendulum

while humans stroll, Webber says, they circulate like an inverted swinging pendulum, with the frame essentially pivoting above the point wherein the foot meets the floor below. As we take a step, the middle of pressure slides across the period of the foot, from heel to toe, with the actual pivot factor for the inverted pendulum taking place midfoot and successfully several centimeters underneath the floor. This, in essence, extends the length of our "virtual legs" below the floor, making them longer than our true physical legs.

As Webber explains: "people land on their heel and push off on their ft. You land at one factor, and you then push off from every other factor 8 to ten inches faraway from wherein you began. if you join the ones factors to make a pivot point, it occurs below the ground, essentially, and you come to be with a brand new form of limb duration that you could apprehend. automatically, it's like we've a miles longer leg than you would expect."

Webber and his adviser and co-creator, UA anthropologist David Raichlen, got here to the conclusion after monitoring take a look at participants on a treadmill inside the university's Evolutionary Biomechanics Lab. They checked out the variations between those asked to walk typically and those asked to walk toe-first. They observed that toe-first walkers moved slower and needed to work 10 percent tougher than those walking with a conventional stride, and that conventional walkers' limbs have been, in essence, 15 centimeters longer than toe-first walkers.

"The extra 'digital limb' period is longer than if we had simply had them stand on their toes, so it seems human beings have located a novel way of increasing our limb duration and becoming greater green walkers than just standing on our feet," Webber said. "It nonetheless all comes down to limb length, however there may be greater to it than how far our hip is from the floor. Our feet play an essential position, and that's frequently something that is been ignored."

whilst the researchers accelerated the treadmill to look at the transition from taking walks to running, in addition they discovered that toe-first walkers switched to going for walks at lower speeds than ordinary walkers, in addition displaying that toe-first taking walks is less green for human beings.

historic

Why we walk on our heels instead of hands

Webber was inquisitive about analyzing the mechanics of strolling, but because the saying goes, one should examine to walk before they could run, and that -- so to speak -- is what Webber has been doing in his studies.

His most current observe on walking, posted inside the magazine of Experimental Biology, especially explores why human beings walk with a heel-to-toe stride, at the same time as many other animals -- which include dogs and cats -- get around at the balls of their feet.

It turned into an especially exciting question from Webber's angle, due to the fact folks that do barefoot going for walks, or "natural going for walks," land at the center or balls in their feet rather than the heels after they run -- a stride that could feel unnatural when strolling.

indeed, people are pretty set in our methods with how we stroll, but our heel-first style will be taken into consideration relatively curious.

"human beings are very efficient walkers, and a key factor of being an green walker in all type of mammals is having lengthy legs," Webber stated. "Cats and puppies are up at the balls in their toes, with their heel multiplied up in the air, so that they've tailored to have an extended leg, however humans have achieved something distinctive. we have dropped our heels down on the floor, which bodily makes our legs shorter than they might be if were up on our feet, and this was a conundrum to us (scientists)."

Webber's take a look at, but, gives an cause of why our heel-strike stride works so well, and it nevertheless comes right down to limb period: Heel-first walking creates longer "virtual legs," he says.

We flow Like a Human Pendulum

while humans stroll, Webber says, they circulate like an inverted swinging pendulum, with the frame essentially pivoting above the point wherein the foot meets the floor below. As we take a step, the middle of pressure slides across the period of the foot, from heel to toe, with the actual pivot factor for the inverted pendulum taking place midfoot and successfully several centimeters underneath the floor. This, in essence, extends the length of our "virtual legs" below the floor, making them longer than our true physical legs.

As Webber explains: "people land on their heel and push off on their ft. You land at one factor, and you then push off from every other factor 8 to ten inches faraway from wherein you began. if you join the ones factors to make a pivot point, it occurs below the ground, essentially, and you come to be with a brand new form of limb duration that you could apprehend. automatically, it's like we've a miles longer leg than you would expect."

Webber and his adviser and co-creator, UA anthropologist David Raichlen, got here to the conclusion after monitoring take a look at participants on a treadmill inside the university's Evolutionary Biomechanics Lab. They checked out the variations between those asked to walk typically and those asked to walk toe-first. They observed that toe-first walkers moved slower and needed to work 10 percent tougher than those walking with a conventional stride, and that conventional walkers' limbs have been, in essence, 15 centimeters longer than toe-first walkers.

"The extra 'digital limb' period is longer than if we had simply had them stand on their toes, so it seems human beings have located a novel way of increasing our limb duration and becoming greater green walkers than just standing on our feet," Webber said. "It nonetheless all comes down to limb length, however there may be greater to it than how far our hip is from the floor. Our feet play an essential position, and that's frequently something that is been ignored."

whilst the researchers accelerated the treadmill to look at the transition from taking walks to running, in addition they discovered that toe-first walkers switched to going for walks at lower speeds than ordinary walkers, in addition displaying that toe-first taking walks is less green for human beings.

historic

Flavored Infused Water – An Ultimate Weight Loss Secret

Flavored Infused water is an ultimate secret to lose weight natural and prominent way. Detox drinks, weight loss nutritious Juicing recipes are also effective source of losing weight. In my surroundings, 90% of the people are fighting with weight issues and in that 90%, 75% are women. Women tend to gain weight quickly as compared to men. That is mainly due to unhealthy diet, no physical activity and after delivery with C-section. That’s not true that we can’t stop weight gain neither we totally can avoid it. We all are human and we all belongs to very fast moving lives and find it very difficult to take care of ourselves with healthy food and physical activities. That’s the main reason 70 out of 100 people prefer to eat processed and junk food outside in restaurants and remaining cook already processed food such as bacon, hot dogs etc. At home because it doesn’t required huge time to cook.


When you eat food like pizzas, burgers, pastas, pastries, the meal look incomplete if not followed or accompanied by carbonated drinks and sodas. Our habit of sodas is very much strong that we sometimes avoid water just for the sake of this. But if you know all the unhealthy and dangerous facts about these you will definitely make yourself away from these.

If you actually care about your body and wanted to lose weight than the first thing you should be doing is replace your carbonated drinks and sodas with detox drinks and infused water. This is an amazing substitute of drinks and beverages, heavy milk, tea, coffee, sugary fruit juices etc. Infused water can be made with green veggies like cucumbers, mint, parsley, lemon, fruits like strawberry, peach, apple and seeds like flaxseed and chia seed.

Infused water contains ingredients that can help you detoxify your body with toxins and help you digest food quickly and enhances bowel movements along with other health benefits like weight loss, reduced sugar level and hypertension and gives you glowing bright skin. Following is the best infused water recipe that can help you shed pounds real soon along with other miracles:Flavored Infused Water Recipe
Ingredients:

2 tbsp. Of apple cider vinegar
1 lemon, sliced
1 cucumber, sliced
12 mint leaves
1 inch piece of ginger
1 litre water

Put all the ingredients in water jug along with water and place in refrigerator for overnight. Drink this water whole day in place of normal water and other beverages for miraculous results.

Why you should never go to sleep on an argument

Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
▼Why you should never go to sleep on an argument
"
 Never go to bed on an argument," so the saying goes. And according to a new study, we should take note of this age-old advice. Researchers have found that going to sleep while still holding on to negative memories can make it harder to suppress them.

It might be best not to go to sleep on an argument; it could make those bad memories harder to suppress.
Study co-author Yunzhe Liu, of the Institute for Brain Research at Beijing Normal University in China, and colleagues report their findings in the journal Nature Communications.


In recent years, neuroscientists have learned just how important sleep is for learning and memory.

A study reported by Medical News Today earlier this year, for example, uncovered evidence that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - the cycle of sleep in which dreams occur - is essential for memory consolidation, the process by which information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory.

However, there are some memories we would rather not hold on to, such as those of a traumatic event. While bad memories may never be fully eradicated, studies suggest we are able to voluntarily suppress them to some extent in order to cope with trauma.

"A failure to suppress unwanted memories has been linked to symptoms in a number of psychiatric disorders including the ruminative state found in depression and intrusive memories in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)," note Liu and colleagues.

They add that over time, emotional memories can become increasingly resistant to suppression, which they speculate is down to memory consolidation during sleep.

"However, it remains unknown how consolidation impacts the effectiveness of voluntary suppression of unwanted emotional memories," say the authors.

With a view to finding out, Liu and colleagues enrolled 73 male college students and asked them to take part in a number of memory suppression tasks over 2 days.

Bad memories harder to suppress after sleep
First, subjects were required to learn associations between faces and aversive images, so that when they were reintroduced to each face, memories of the aversive image would arise.

Participants were presented with the faces again - both 30 minutes and 24 hours after learning the associations - and told to suppress any negative memories that came to mind.

During this experiment - called the "Think/No Think" task - participants' brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The researchers found that when presented with the faces 24 hours after the learning task - after having had a good night's sleep in between - subjects were more likely to remember the aversive images than when they were presented with the faces 30 minutes after the learning task.

Subjects' brain activity during the tasks may shed light on why it was easier to remember the aversive images after sleeping.

The team found that 30 minutes after the learning task, neural circuits involved in memory suppression were more active in the hippocampus - the brain region linked to learning and memory - while 24 hours after, this activity became widely distributed in the cortex, making bad memories harder to repress.

Why you should never go to sleep on an argument

A team of researchers in Brazil and at the Yale School of Public Health has published the first report demonstrating that the Zika virus can cause glaucoma in infants who were exposed to the virus during gestation. Exposure to the Zika virus during pregnancy causes birth defects of the central nervous system, including microcephaly. Brazilian and Yale School of Public Health researchers had reported early during the microcephaly epidemic that the virus also causes severe lesions in the retina, the posterior portion of the eye. However, until now, there has been no evidence that Zika causes glaucoma, a condition that can result in permanent damage to the optic nerve and blindness. "We identified the first case where Zika virus appears to have affected the development of the anterior chamber or front portion of the eye during gestation and caused glaucoma after birth," said Dr. Albert Icksang Ko, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and co-author of the study published in the journal Ophthalmology. Ko has longstanding research collaborations in Brazil and has worked with local scientists since Zika first appeared in the Americas to better understand the birth defects that are caused by the virus and the risk factors for Zika Congenital Syndrome. While conducting their investigations of the microcephaly epidemic in Salvador in Northeast Brazil, the researchers identified a three-month-old boy who was exposed to Zika virus during gestation. While no signs of glaucoma were present at the time of birth, the infant developed swelling, pain, and tearing in the right eye. The research team diagnosed glaucoma as the cause of symptoms and together with local ophthalmologists, performed a trabeculectomy, an operation that successfully alleviated the pressure within the eye. While this is the first known incidence of glaucoma in an infant with the Zika virus, clinicians treating patients with Zika should be aware that glaucoma is another serious symptom of the disease that should be monitored, said the investigators. Additional research is needed to determine if glaucoma in infants with Zika is caused by indirect or direct exposure to the virus, either during gestation or postpartum. The Zika virus, which is primarily transmitted through infected mosquitoes, has reached epidemic levels in several areas worldwide, and is of particular concern in Brazil, where the Pan American Health Organization reports more than 200,000 suspected cases and 109,000 confirmed cases of the disease. Since the outbreak began in 2015, Zika has now reached the United States, with more than 4,000 travel-related cases reported, and 139 locally acquired mosquito-borne cases confirmed, according to the CDC. There is currently no vaccine for the Zika virus.

Zika and glaucoma linked for first time in new study

A team of researchers in Brazil and at the Yale School of Public Health has published the first report demonstrating that the Zika virus can cause glaucoma in infants who were exposed to the virus during gestation. Exposure to the Zika virus during pregnancy causes birth defects of the central nervous system, including microcephaly. Brazilian and Yale School of Public Health researchers had reported early during the microcephaly epidemic that the virus also causes severe lesions in the retina, the posterior portion of the eye. However, until now, there has been no evidence that Zika causes glaucoma, a condition that can result in permanent damage to the optic nerve and blindness. "We identified the first case where Zika virus appears to have affected the development of the anterior chamber or front portion of the eye during gestation and caused glaucoma after birth," said Dr. Albert Icksang Ko, professor at the Yale School of Public Health and co-author of the study published in the journal Ophthalmology. Ko has longstanding research collaborations in Brazil and has worked with local scientists since Zika first appeared in the Americas to better understand the birth defects that are caused by the virus and the risk factors for Zika Congenital Syndrome. While conducting their investigations of the microcephaly epidemic in Salvador in Northeast Brazil, the researchers identified a three-month-old boy who was exposed to Zika virus during gestation. While no signs of glaucoma were present at the time of birth, the infant developed swelling, pain, and tearing in the right eye. The research team diagnosed glaucoma as the cause of symptoms and together with local ophthalmologists, performed a trabeculectomy, an operation that successfully alleviated the pressure within the eye. While this is the first known incidence of glaucoma in an infant with the Zika virus, clinicians treating patients with Zika should be aware that glaucoma is another serious symptom of the disease that should be monitored, said the investigators. Additional research is needed to determine if glaucoma in infants with Zika is caused by indirect or direct exposure to the virus, either during gestation or postpartum. The Zika virus, which is primarily transmitted through infected mosquitoes, has reached epidemic levels in several areas worldwide, and is of particular concern in Brazil, where the Pan American Health Organization reports more than 200,000 suspected cases and 109,000 confirmed cases of the disease. Since the outbreak began in 2015, Zika has now reached the United States, with more than 4,000 travel-related cases reported, and 139 locally acquired mosquito-borne cases confirmed, according to the CDC. There is currently no vaccine for the Zika virus.

Portions of the brain fall asleep and wake back up all the time

When we are in a deep slumber our brain's activity ebbs and flows in big, obvious waves, like watching a tide of human bodies rise up and sit down around a sports stadium. It's hard to miss. Now, Stanford researchers have found, those same cycles exist in wake as in sleep, but with only small sections sitting and standing in unison rather than the entire stadium. It's as if tiny portions of the brain are independently falling asleep and waking back up all the time. What's more, it appears that when the neurons have cycled into the more active, or "on," state they are better at responding to the world. The neurons also spend more time in the on state when paying attention to a task. This finding suggests processes that regulate brain activity in sleep might also play a role in attention. "Selective attention is similar to making small parts of your brain a little bit more awake," said Tatiana Engel, a postdoctoral fellow and co-lead author on the research, which is scheduled to publish Dec. 1 in Science. Former graduate student Nicholas Steinmetz was the other co-lead author, who carried out the neurophysiology experiments in the lab of Tirin Moore, a professor of neurobiology and one of the senior authors. Cycling on and off Understanding these newly discovered cycles requires knowing a bit about how the brain is organized. If you were to poke a pin directly into the brain, all the brain cells you'd hit would respond to the same types of things. In one column they might all be responding to objects in a particular part of the visual field -- the upper right, for example. The team used what amounts to sets of very sensitive pins that can record activity from a column of neurons in the brain. In the past, people had known that individual neurons go through phases of being more or less active, but with this probe they saw for the first time that all the neurons in a given column cycled together between firing very rapidly then firing at a much slower rate, similar to coordinated cycles in sleep. "During an on state the neurons all start firing rapidly," said Kwabena Boahen, a professor of bioengineering and electrical engineering at Stanford and a senior author on the paper. "Then all of a sudden they just switch to a low firing rate. This on and off switching is happening all the time, as if the neurons are flipping a coin to decide if they are going to be on or off." Those cycles, which occur on the order of seconds or fractions of seconds, weren't as visible when awake because the wave doesn't propagate much beyond that column, unlike in sleep when the wave spreads across almost the entire brain and is easy to detect. Pay attention The team found that the higher and lower activity states relate to the ability to respond to the world. The group had their probe in a region of the brain in monkeys that specifically detects one part of the visual world. The monkeys had been trained to pay attention to a cue indicating that something in a particular part of the visual field -- the upper right, say, or the lower left -- was about to change slightly. The monkeys then got a treat if they correctly identified that they'd seen that change. When the team gave a cue to where a change might occur, the neurons within the column that senses that part of the world all began spending more time in the active state. In essence, they all continued flipping between states in unison, but they spent more time in the active state if they were paying attention. If the stimulus change came when the cells were in a more active state, the monkey was also more likely to correctly identify the change. "The monkey is very good at detecting stimulus changes when neurons in that column are in the on state but not in the off state," Engel said. Even when the monkey knew to pay attention to a particular area, if the neurons cycled to a lower activity state the monkey frequently missed stimulus change. Low energy states A question that comes out of this work is why the neurons cycle into a lower activity state when we're awake. Why not just stay in the more active state all the time in case that's when the saber tooth tiger attacks? One answer could relate to energy. "There is a metabolic cost associated with neurons firing all the time," Boahen said. The brain uses a lot of energy and maybe giving the cells a chance to do the energetic equivalent of sitting down allows the brain to save energy. Also, when neurons are very active they generate cellular byproducts that can damage the cells. Engel pointed out that the low-activity states could allow time to clear out this neuronal waste. "This paper suggests places to look for these answers," Engel said.