Tag: heal

  • Birth control pills and weight gain: setting the scales correct

    Birth control pills and weight gain: setting the scales correct

    I cannot say that with this article, the discussion about birth control pills and weight gain will stop. This discussion is pretty much like the epic battle between light and darkness, good and evil, ordinary milk and non-fat milk, it goes on and on and on and on.

    Scientifically speaking, there have been no indications in studies and experiments on any direct relationship between birth control pills and weight gain. Given that situation, it is really hard to fathom why most people still think the opposite.

    Well we can think of some reasons why this urban legend continues to proliferate. Birth control pills contain synthetic hormones which go straight to the pituitary glands. Once there, the synthetic hormones block the production of LH and FSH hormones. This prevents the body the natural growth of the egg and ovulation.

    According to some doctors and medical practitioners, birth control pills can also cause an increase of appetite, at least to some women. But studies have shown that this situation is more of an exception rather than the rule. It has also been found out the said increase in appetite is more coincidental and is no different from what happens in the general populace.

    This also brings us to the next point. Some doctors and medical practitioners continue issuing statements that weight gain has been observed or that weight gain is a possible side effect to their patients, adding to the confusion. Oftentimes these statements from doctors are accepted as statements of facts. Instead of clarifying already false information to begin with, they contribute to the continued spread of this myth.

    Another perception of feeling bloated or fat when one is taking the pill is that the body is said to hold more water when it is on pill compared to when it is not. This is another fallacy in a string of rumors, gossips, and misinformation.

    Women are very conscious of their weight. Ask any man who made the wrong move of commenting on a women’s weight. I’m sure it got messy. This consciousness or even subconscious wariness of gaining pounds might contribute to false admittance or observations that birth control pills cause weight gain. Women often fear the added pounds. Because of this fear women don’t take or totally avoid taking birth control pills.

    This is detrimental to any birth control program. That’s why it is important to squash the myth of weight gain once and for all. The pill is quite an effective method of birth control after all, when used correctly of course.

    Because of the weight gain issue, women will tend to go for other means of contraception. Although some other methods are quite effective, the pill is still a batter option with 99.7% chance of preventing pregnancies. Women should stop worrying about something that isn’t real or they will really begin to worry about weight gain when they get pregnant and after giving birth. These two situations pack more weight related issues than what they have now with birth control pills.

    Weight gain and weight control is all about balance. A balance diet combined with a balanced body work-out. That’s the ideal way of living. You prevent any significant weight gain by eating healthy and exercising.

    If you gain pounds while you’re in the pill, don’t lash it all out on the little guy for it is all you. Birth control pills and weight gain are not correlated, and that’s that.

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  • Birth Control Pill as a Cure for Acne and Ideal to Gain Weight

    Birth Control Pill as a Cure for Acne and Ideal to Gain Weight

    Birth control pill as a cure for acne has been gaining popularity. But what most women who have been subjected to such treatment will also attest how birth control pills can affect one’s body in gaining weight.

    Side Effect
    This is only one of the many known side effects of using oral contraceptives. Although most women would not like the idea of adding up on their pounds, they cannot help it. That is understandable because they take the meds to avoid getting pregnant.

    For the latter, there are still many options a woman and her partner can take to achieve such. But taking the pills is one of the most effective. One must learn to do something to limit the weight that they can gain.

    When on pills, you can take note of your exercise and eating habits. This will be good for your overall health. This will also help you ease the burden of putting added weight.

    Acne Remedy
    Ask your doctors about this. Although this will not be effective for all women, most of them will benefit from such. Most medical practitioners suggest three brands for this purpose. They are Estrostep, Ortho Tri-Cyclen and YAZ.

    Doctors will only prescribe birth control pills to act as a treatment for acne when the rest of the previous meds have failed their purpose. This is actually the last resort. And doctors recommend this to women who would be taking oral contraceptives anyway for the obvious purpose of not being able to conceive.

    With such effectiveness, FDA has approved a bunch of list of birth control pills to act as treatment to acne. It is also recommended that to achieve greater results, the pill must be used in combination with other real meds intended solely for acne. This includes benzoyl peroxide. You can also use topical retinoids for this need.

    Because estrogen and progestin make up the pills used for birth control, this medicine will change the common reproductive cycle and patterns of hormones of a female. This suppresses testosterone release within a woman’s body. And as an effect, it reduces the oil being produced by the glands called the sebaceous. As a result, acne comes out minimal. And it also lessens the pore blockage.

    But do not use oral contraceptives to cure acne if you haven’t told your doctors about it. They must test you first for possible side effects. The pill must match your body type. And also, other factors must be taken into account.

    If proper check-up will be bypassed, the result can be grave. Other oral contraceptives can worsen your acne problems, especially if it doesn’t suit some of your characteristics. So be careful and vigilant. It is your body so it is your responsibility to care for it.

    While sometimes, the recommended pill will worsen the acne breakout at first. This is a common happening. Acne is known to accumulate before dwindling down. So it really helps to have a doctor by your side to explain such factors.

    You will be hearing a lot about birth control as a cure for acne as years go by. This is part of the boom in the medical field that is being developed through time. But before plunging in and using the pill, consider the effect that it has on one’s body. If you are sure that you are ready for some added pounds, then you are also ready to take it.

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  • Trump reaches out to Democrats to do ‘great’ healthcare bill

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he had called the top Senate Democrat to probe interest in working on a “great” healthcare bill to replace Obamacare, after his fellow Republicans’ failed attempts to roll back the law.

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    Trump reaches out to Democrats to do 'great' healthcare bill 5

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  • Plos: Lasker Award for Public Service Honors Planned Parenthood Federation of America

    Plos: Lasker Award for Public Service Honors Planned Parenthood Federation of America 6

    “It is the commitment and impact [of the organization] that is the key concern.” —Alfred Sommer, Chair of the Jury, 2017 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award

    The mission of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation is to improve health by “accelerating support for medical research through recognition of research excellence, education and advocacy.” Each year, Lasker Awards are given to scientists that embody this mission. Organizations are also eligible for awards through the Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award that alternates years with the Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science.

     

    Plos: Lasker Award for Public Service Honors Planned Parenthood Federation of America 7
    Dr. Alfred Sommer; Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

    This year’s recipient of the Public Service Award is Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), “for providing essential health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than a century.” PPFA began in Brooklyn, New York, where in 1916 Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the US; in 1942 the organization changed its name from The American Birth Control League to Planned Parenthood. To place the 2017 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award in context, PLOS interviewed Chair of the Jury Alfred Sommer, University Distinguished Service Professor and Dean Emeritus, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

    With this award, PPFA joins other collaborative efforts including Médecins Sans Frontières, Bill & Melinda Gates and the NIH Clinical Center as Lasker Public Service Awardees. Since recent previous awardees in this category were individuals, PLOS asked Sommer what does this say about how science and medicine work today, or about the efforts needed to impact human health. “The intent of the Public Service Award has always been recognition of contributions to expanding investments in biomedical/health research and advancing the public’s health,” he responds. “In recent years there has been slightly greater attention paid to the latter, and therefore to the individuals and institutions that have made a real difference.”

    Sommer was circumspect and honest when asked to reflect on the timing of the committee’s decision process, in relation to political discourse in the US at that time over the proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act with a plan that would defund approximately 40% of Planned Parenthood’s annual budget. “The discussion is always free-wheeling, and every member is free to raise whatever perspectives they like,” he says. “I am not at liberty to discuss the actual vote, but I can say there was broad agreement with this year’s choice (as there usually is every year, once the discussion and votes are taken).” He continues that the Lasker Awards are “meant to recognize extraordinary achievements, and bring these achievements to the attention of the public. It was no different in this case.”

    The origin story of Planned Parenthood is fascinating. While family planning may be the founding service, it’s likely the public doesn’t realize the breadth of services offered by the organization, from sex education programs that reach 1.5 million people annually to over 4 million tests and treatments to both men and women (in 2015 alone) for sexually transmitted infections. “The purpose of all Lasker Awards is to better inform the public about the individual, work, and organization that is being honored,” says Sommer. In recognizing PPFA, he continues, “we would hope that the public will have a better understanding of all the contributions to health made by PPFA.”

    While publications and publicity are not a requirement for receipt of the Public Service Award, placing this type of information into the public domain helps to inform policy and to improve health outcomes. Among the PLOS journals, two articles have corresponding or contributing authors affiliated with PPFA. In the recent PLOS ONE article, “Parents’ views on sex education in schools: How much do Democrats and Republicans agree?” researchers from Planned Parenthood found that comprehensive sex education is supported by a vast majority of parents, both Democrats and Republicans.

    In the PLOS Medicine article, “Comparison of Outcomes before and after Ohio’s Law Mandating Use of the FDA-Approved Protocol for Medication Abortion: A Retrospective Cohort Study” researchers followed outcomes of a law that took effect in 2011 requiring abortion providers to follow specific US Food and Drug Administration guidelines, created in 2000, when giving patients a combination of two drugs to induce abortion. Their findings, covered by The Guardian and Los Angeles Times, indicate that women experienced a higher rate of complications and were nearly three times more likely to require additional medical intervention after the law was implemented.

    Some say that receiving a Lasker Award hints at prediction of a Nobel Prize. To put this attention to awards and prizes in context, it’s worth understanding the compelling origins and motivations of the Lasker Foundation directly from “The Lasker Legacy” video. After watching you might want to make your voice heard through suggested resources on the PLOS Stand Up for Science webpage. Work from individual scientists receiving this year’s Lasker Awards is described in a previous post.

     

    Image Credit:

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Doug Jordan; Public Health Image Library

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    Alfred Sommer is University Distinguished Service Professor and Gilman Scholar, Johns Hopkins University; Dean Emeritus and Professor of Epidemiology and International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Professor of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He served as Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from 1990-2005. Sommer is a member of both the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine, and chaired the Board (on which he still serves) of the Lasker Foundation from 2008-2014. His research interests include outcomes assessment, child survival, epidemiology of visual disorders, glaucoma, vitamin A deficiency, blindness prevention strategies, cost-benefit analysis, the growing interface between medicine and public health, and clinical guidelines. He is most widely known for and received the 1997 Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for his work on Vitamin A therapy for preventing infections and blindness. Sommer served as Chair of the Jury for the 2017 Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award.

    Plos: Lasker Award for Public Service Honors Planned Parenthood Federation of America 8

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  • Under pressure from Trump, Price resigns as health secretary over private plane uproar

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned under pressure from President Donald Trump on Friday in an uproar over Price’s use of costly private charter planes for government business.

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    Under pressure from Trump, Price resigns as health secretary over private plane uproar 12

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  • Plos: Fundamentals of Cell Growth Regulation, HPV Vaccine Development and Planned Parenthood Reap 2017 Lasker Awards

    Plos: Fundamentals of Cell Growth Regulation, HPV Vaccine Development and Planned Parenthood Reap 2017 Lasker Awards 13

    Each year, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation recognizes research excellence with a set of three awards given for major advances in the “understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of human disease.” This year’s awards were given for Basic Medical Research, Clinical Medical Research and Public Service.

    The Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award was given to Michael N. Hall for discovery of and investigations into “nutrient-activated TOR proteins and their central role in the metabolic control of cell growth.” TOR (Target of Rapamycin) is a highly conserved protein and a central regulator through its role as a nutrient sensor, coupling nutrient availability to protein synthesis and cell growth. A critical signaling protein, TOR forms multiprotein associations that function as distinct clusters, either as TORC1 (TOR Complex 1) or TORC2 (TOR Complex 2), depending upon those additional proteins. In their 2007 PLOS ONE article, Hall and colleagues identified novel TOR interacting proteins specific for each complex, investigating the role of phosphorylation and complex function for each. More recently, work from the Hall group published in PLOS Genetics demonstrated a role for TORC1 in bone formation and, in yeast cells, characterized the signaling state of the TORC1 complex with the use of antibody tools.

    The Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award was jointly awarded to John Schiller and Douglas Lowy for their collaborative efforts, innovations and ”technological advances that enabled development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for prevention of cervical cancer and other tumors caused by human papillomaviruses.” Papillomavirus infection on the skin and mucous membranes of humans and animals can cause benign warts (papillomas) or malignancies, especially anogenital carcinomas, and in genetically predisposed or immunocompromised individuals can cause skin cancer. Development of safe and effective vaccines has potential to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and other malignancies resulting from HPV.

    Schiller and Lowry collaborated on three articles published with PLOS. In the early days of PLOS Pathogens, they demonstrated that carrageenan, a sulfated polysaccharide extracted from red algae, was an extremely potent infection inhibitor for sexually transmitted genital HPVs. Their most recent joint publication (also in PLOS Pathogens) investigates papillomavirus in various mouse models, to gain insights into immune system influences on infection progression in humans. These articles, together with results of a clinical trial of bivalent HPV vaccination have received nearly 83,000 views. For further reading in PLOS journals, view Schiller’s  and Lowy’s publication lists.

    The Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award alternates years with the Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science. For more on this year’s Public Service Award, given to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, check back next week for our interview with Chair of the Jury Alfred Sommer.

    In publishing their work Open Access, these outstanding scientists and citizens advance medicine, public health and basic research for the benefit of all. PLOS celebrates their work and dedication.

     

    Image Credit: Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation

    Plos: Fundamentals of Cell Growth Regulation, HPV Vaccine Development and Planned Parenthood Reap 2017 Lasker Awards 14

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