HEALTH BULLETIN .CO: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

He kicked me first! Amazing video captures twins FIGHTING inside the womb

Twins are known for their bickering but a fascinating new video shows it begins well before they are welcomed into the world.

The footage, from inside the womb, shows what really goes on in utero, and it's certainly not harmonious.

The two babies are seen kicking each other in the quest for extra leg room during their mother's pregnancy.

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Kickboxing: The incredible video, pictured, shows twins fighting in womb

The amazing images come from the Imperial College London's fetal care centre.

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The hospital used a cinematic-MRI to pick up the pictures of the siblings' rough and tumble in the womb.

The study was actually aimed at using MRI machines to diagnose a potentially deadly condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

MRI: The London hospital used a cinematic-MRI, pictured, to pick up the pictures of the siblings' rough and tumble in the womb

The rare condition only occurs in identical twins, when blood from one fetus moves into the other.

It leaves one significantly smaller than the other.

The sibling born smaller is also often paler and has anemia and dehydration.

Not harmonious: The twins are sen kicking each other in a quest for more space

Meanwhile, the bigger twin that receives the blood is often born with increased blood pressure that could lead to heart failure.

Most in utero videos are highly processed, with a lot of reconstructing and computer work being done to the footage afterwards.

But, according to the New Scientist, these shots are the raw images seen just as they're taken by the impressive cinematic-MRI.

U.S. birth rate falls to record low due to drop in foreign-born women having children

A dramatic decline in births among immigrant women hard hit by the recession is seen as the main cause of a record low in the U.S. birth rate.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center the overall birth rate across the country fell by 8 per cent between 2007 and 2010 and by 6 per cent among U.S.-born women.

The rate fell sharpest for those hardest hit by the recession - 14 per cent among all foreign-born women and including a 23 per cent drop for Mexican immigrant women.

The 2011 rate was the lowest since 1920, when such records began.

Fall: While still higher than the rate of births to U.S.-born women, the number of immigrants giving birth fell sharply

According to a study by the Pew Research Center the overall birth rate across the U.S. fell by 8 per cent between 2007 and 2010 and by 6 per cent among U.S.-born women

Foreign-born mothers continue to give birth to a disproportionate share of the nation's newborns.
Last year there were 3.95million total U.S. births, according to the preliminary data.

The overall U.S. birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age considerably lower than it's 1957 peka during the Baby Boom years when it reached 122.7 per 1,000 women.

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According to D'Vera Cohn, an author of the report, the fall is not because there are fewer immigrant women capable of giving birth, but because of a change in their behavior. She said: 'the economic downturn seems to play a pretty large role in the drop in the fertility rate.'

Better access to contraception for Latino women may also be playing a part in the falling birth rate, according to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

The overall U.S. birth rate peaked most recently in the Baby Boom years, reaching 122.7 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age in 1957, nearly double today¿s rate of 63.2

The 23 per cent share of all births to foreign-born mothers in 2010 was higher than the 13 per cent immigrant share of the U.S. population, and higher than the 17 per cent share of women aged 15-44 who are immigrants.

The 2010 birth rate for foreign-born women (87.8) was nearly 50 per cent higher than the rate for U.S.-born women (58.9).

Total U.S. births in 2010 were 4million—roughly 3.1million to U.S.-born women and 930,000 to immigrant women. In 2011, according to preliminary data, there were 3.95million total births.

Population projections from the Pew Research Center indicate that immigrants will continue to play a large role in U.S. population growth.

The projections suggest that immigrants arriving since 2005 and their descendants will account for fully 82 per cent of U.S. population growth by 2050.

Even if the lower immigration influx of recent years continues, new immigrants and their descendants are still projected to account for most of the nation’s population increase by mid-century.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

CBS news anchor accidentally calls Prince William a 'douche' instead of a duke

A New York news anchor had a slip of the tongue when he was teasing an upcoming segment about Prince William and Kate's visit to Cambridge on Wednesday.

CBS anchor Rob Morrison accidentally called William 'the douche' instead of the Duke of Cambridge.

He was previewing an upcoming segment on the 1pm news when he said: 'Also the reason why the latest royal visit was extra special for the douche- Duke, ha ha, and Duchess of Cambridge.'

Just before: CBS 2 anchor Rob Morrison (left) was teasing the upcoming segment on Prince William when he accidentally called him a different title

Slip: The anchor called him a 'douche' and not a duke

The nervous laughter following the slip, seen in the clip, showed that he clearly realized the mistake quickly and was hoping to blow by it.

HOW DOUCHE BECAME A SLUR

Long known as a feminine hygiene product, douche (the shortened version of the offensive slang word 'douchebag') became commonly used in a derogatory way in the 1960s.

It came to mean an arrogant or obnoxious man who is disrespectful and self-absorbed.

The reason behind said special visit is that it was the first time that William and Kate visited Cambridge since the Queen conferred the Dukedom on the couple on their wedding day in April last year.

Prince William is descended from the son of George III who was created Duke of Cambridge in 1801 through Queen Mary.

The couple made the trip to their namesake city on Wednesday to open a hospital, but it was Kate's new haircut that stole the show.

Spectator Joanne Baldwin, 30, spoke to the Duchess during the couple's walkabout. 'I told her I loved her new hair style,' she said.

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'She said: "I'm not sure about it. It's a bit windy today." I said don't worry, it looks lovely.'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were cheered by members of the public during an appearance on the balcony of the Guildhall in Cambridge

It is the first time the couple have visited their namesake city together

The duchess appeared nervous as she continued to sweep her layers off her face but saw the funny side as even the city's mayor struggled to keep her ceremonial hat in place during her speech.

The couple arrived in the city by train travelling First Class from King's Cross in London where they had stayed overnight, stepping off the scheduled train shortly after 10am.

Kate, 30, in a pale grey MaxMara £980 Belli overcoat and dress with brown suede Aquatalia ankle boots and a chocolate brown clutch by Emmy Scarterfield, had her new fringe on display and within minutes the wintry weather had reduced her glossy locks to a head full of tangles.

Kate and William were greeted by crowds of thousands as they made their first visit to the city that gave the name to their dukedom

Women Prefer Thin Over Macho,

A study led by scientists at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and published in the November 27 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Nor repels the long-known myth according to which macho features are what a woman is more attracted by in men.Scientists say that the macho aspect has long been related with a healthy body and a good functioning of the immune system.

What Women Want

However, they discovered that not masculine facial features such as a powerful jaw or a sharp gaze is what determines a male's health or attractiveness, but the weight of his body, Lice Science reports.

In an attempt to determine the role of the body fat in a man's immune system's functioning as well and is his attractiveness to women, researchers have made an experiment.

First, they had 69 Caucasian males photographed in underwear. They also had the men's body fat and testosterone level measured, and their immune system's response registered.

Afterwards, the men were given a vaccine for hepatitis B. It was observed that the bodies with a strong immune system response released a higher amount of antidotes than the one whose response was weaker.

Then, 29 heterosexual Latvian women in the fertile state of their menstrual cycles were asked to look at the picture and state the men's attractiveness level.

Meanwhile, 20 Finnish men and women were asked to determine the men's manhood and other 14 Latvian women – to state their facial fatness.

The experiment revealed that dumpy men were both unattractive and unhealthy. Surprisingly, it was proved that masculinity wasn't related to any of the above features.

“We found that a man’s weight serves as a better indicator of the relationship between immune response and attractiveness than masculinity does,” said Vinet Coetzee, researcher at the University of Pretoria.

“It is therefore more likely that Latvian women use weight, rather than masculinity, in their subconscious judgments of a man’s immunity.”

Researchers admit that there might be some gaps in the accuracy

of the study, because of the complexity of the immune system's measures, which has not been taken into account.

However, it “serves as a stepping stone for future studies that could test this relationship in different populations using alternative measures of immunity,” Coetzee said

Washington - Women respond more to fatness and thinness, not macho features, when considering male mates, researchers say.

Although macho features have long been touted as an evolutionary asset that heterosexual women look for in a potential mate, new research suggests that weight may be a more powerful driver of attraction.

Study researcher Vinet Coetzee, a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, said that fatness, or adiposity, “is an obvious choice for a marker of immunity because of its strong association with health and immunity.”

According to the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis, macho features like a strong jaw and squinty eyes advertise that a guy possesses high testosterone but since high levels of this masculinizing hormone interfere with the immune system, the theory goes, macho men must be extra-fit to withstand the handicap their extra testosterone confers.

The trouble with the immunocompetence handicap hypothesis is that masculinity is not universally attractive to women.

Weight is consistently linked both to health and immune system functioning, Coetzee said. Both overweight and underweight individuals are more likely to have health problems and poor immune function.

To test the evolutionary role of fat, Coetzee and his colleagues first photographed 69 Caucasian male volunteers in underwear. They also measured the men’s body fat and testosterone levels. About 65 percent were healthy weight, 4 percent were underweight and 30.4 percent were overweight or obese.

The men’s immune system response was also measured with a blood test done before and after they received a vaccine for hepatitis B. Men with strong immune responses showed more antibody production after the vaccine than men with weak immune systems. Antibodies are the proteins that recognize and help neutralize foreign invaders in the body.

Next, 29 heterosexual Latvian women looked at photographs of the men’s faces and bodies separately and judged them on attractiveness. All of the women were in the fertile phases of their menstrual cycles, as judged by counting back from the last menstrual period to the day of likely ovulation.

A separate group of 20 heterosexual Finnish men and women rated the men for masculinity, and 14 other Latvian women rated the men’s facial fatness, or adiposity, which is highly related to overall body fatness.

The results revealed that fatness, as measured with facial adiposity, was linked to both antibody response and attractiveness, with pudgier men both having weaker immune systems and being seen as less appealing by the fertile women.

A statistical analysis found that contrary to what the immunocompetence handicap would suggest, masculinity was not linked to either immune response or bodily or facial attractiveness.

“We found that a man’s weight serves as a better indicator of the relationship between immune response and attractiveness than masculinity does,” Discovery News quoted Coetzee as saying.

“It is therefore more likely that Latvian women use weight, rather than masculinity, in their subconscious judgments of a man’s immunity,” Coetzee said.

Additionally, the researchers found that testosterone levels were also more closely linked with weight than with macho looks.

Some 20 percent of women overwhelmed by cancer treatment options

(Reuters) - More than one in five women with early-stage breast cancer said they were given too much responsibility for treatment-related decisions - and those patients were more likely to end up regretting the choices they made, according to a U.S. study.

The findings, which appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don't mean that women should not be fully informed about their treatment options, researchers said, but rather that doctorsmay need to find new strategies to communicate with patients, especially the less educated.

"Some women may feel overwhelmed or burdened by treatment choices, particularly if they are not also given the tools to understand and weigh the benefits and harms of these choices," wrote research leader Jennifer Livaudais and colleagues.

Her team from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York surveyed 368 women who had just had surgery for early-stage breast cancer at one of eight New York City hospitals, and again six months later.

The majority said they typically had trouble understanding medical information and less than one-third knew the possible benefits of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, Livaudais and her colleagues found.

Lack of both "health literacy" and knowledge about treatment benefits was common among the 21 percent of women who said they had too much responsibility for decision-making - as well as among the seven percent who felt they didn't have enough responsibility.

Women who were poor, non-white or didn't finish high school were also more likely to feel that they had either too much or too little say in their treatment.

Close to two-thirds of women on both ends of the spectrum had some regret about their originaltreatment decisions six months down the line. That compared to one-third of women who originally said they had a "reasonable amount" of decision-making responsibility.

Steven Katz, who has studied cancer-related decision-making at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said that compared to past years, doctors now have better ways to tailor treatment to individual patients. But that also means treatment options are based on more convoluted information.

"The treatments are linked in complicated ways, and the information that doctors draw on to make recommendations has increasingly become more and more complex" said Katz, who wasn't involved in the new study.

He said that for patients trying to make the best treatment choices, the smartest thing they can do is have a team of doctors - an experienced surgeon, a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist and a plastic surgeon - all working on their case and sharing ideas.

"The purpose (of the study) was not to say women shouldn't be provided with these treatment options, but that the information really needs to be tailored better," said Livaudais, who is now at the University of California, San Francisco.

She recommended that doctors ask each patient how much responsibility she feels comfortable taking.

Testicular cancer

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

The exact cause of testicular cancer is unknown. There is no link between vasectomy and testicular cancer. Factors that may increase a man's risk for testicular cancer include:

Abnormal testicle development
History of testicular cancer
History of undescended testicle
Klinefelter syndrome

Other possible causes include exposure to certain chemicals and HIV infection. A family history of testicular cancer may also increase risk.

Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in men between the ages of 15 and 35. It can occur in older men, and rarely, in younger boys.

White men are more likely than African-American and Asian-American men to develop this type of cancer.

There are two main types of testicular cancer: seminomas and nonseminomas. These cancers grow from germ cells, the cells that make sperm.

Seminoma: This is a slow-growing form of testicular cancer usually found in men in their 30s and 40s. The cancer is usually just in the testes, but it can spread to the lymph nodes. Seminomas are very sensitive to radiation therapy.

Nonseminoma: This more common type of testicular cancer tends to grow more quickly than seminomas. Nonseminoma tumors are often made up of more than one type of cell, and are identified according to these different cell types:

Choriocarcinoma (rare)
Embryonal carcinoma
Teratoma
Yolk sac tumor

A stromal tumor is a rare type of testicular tumor. They are usually not cancerous. The two main types of stromal tumors are Leydig cell tumors and Sertoli cell tumors. Stromal tumors usually occur during childhood.

Symptoms

There may be no symptoms. Symptoms that may occur can include:

Discomfort or pain in the testicle, or a feeling of heaviness in the scrotum
Pain in the back or lower abdomen
Enlargement of a testicle or a change in the way it feels
Excess development of breast tissue (gynecomastia), however, this can occur normally in adolescent boys who do not have testicular cancer
Lump or swelling in either testicle

Symptoms in other parts of the body, such as the lungs, abdomen, pelvis, back, or brain, may also occur if the cancer has spread.

Signs and tests

A physical examination typically reveals a firm lump (mass) in one of the testicles. When the health care provider holds a flashlight up to the scrotum, the light does not pass through the lump.

Other tests include:

Abdominal and pelvic CT scan
Blood tests for tumor markers: alpha fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta HCG), and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH)
Chest x-ray
Ultrasound of the scrotum

An examination of the tissue is usually done after the entire testicle is surgically removed.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the:

Type of testicular tumor
Stage of the tumor

Once cancer is found, the first step is to determine the type of cancer cell by examining it under a microscope. The cells can be seminoma, nonseminoma, or both.

The next step is to determine how far the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. This is called "staging."

Stage I cancer has not spread beyond the testicle.
Stage II cancer has spread to lymph nodes in the abdomen.
Stage III cancer has spread beyond the lymph nodes (it could be as far as the liver, lungs, or brain).

Three types of treatment can be used.

Surgical treatment removes the testicle (orchiectomy) and may also remove nearby lymph nodes (lymphadenectomy). This is usually performed in the case of both seminoma and nonseminomas.
Radiation therapy using high-dose x-rays or other high-energy rays may be used after surgery to prevent the tumor from returning. Radiation therapy is usually only used for treating seminomas.
Chemotherapy uses drugs such as cisplatin, bleomycin, and etoposide to kill cancer cells. This treatment has greatly improved survival for patients with both seminomas and nonseminomas.

Support Groups

Joining a support group where members share common experiences and problems can often help the stress of illness. Your local branch of the American Cancer Society may have a support group. See: www.cancer.org for more information.

The National Cancer Institute website also provides further information: www.cancer.gov

Expectations (prognosis)

Testicular cancer is one of the most treatable and curable cancers.

The survival rate for men with early-stage seminoma (the least aggressive type of testicular cancer) is greater than 95%. The disease-free survival rate for Stage II and III cancers is slightly lower, depending on the size of the tumor and when treatment is begun.

Complications

Testicular cancer may spread to other parts of the body. The most common sites include the:

Abdomen
Lungs
Retroperitoneal area (the area near the kidneys behind the other organs in the belly area)
Spine

Complications of surgery can include:

Bleeding and infection after surgery
Infertility (if both testicles are removed)

If you are of childbearing age, ask your doctor about methods to save your sperm for use at a later date.

Calling your health care provider

Call your health care provider if you have symptoms of testicular cancer.

Prevention

The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends against routine screening for testicular cancer because there is no known effective screening technique. This recommendation does not apply if there is a personal history of an undescended testicle.

References

Einhorn LH. Testicular cancer. In Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 206.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network. National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology:Testicular cancer. 2012. Version 1.2012.
American Cancer Society Says Marijuana and Testicular Cancer Could Be Linked
Melissa Pruitt, La Tee Da Photography
The American Cancer Society has published a study that links the use trend of marijuana by young males to testicular cancer.

The journal Cancer published a study linking marijuana use by males to the development of testicular cancer. The study showed those with a history of marijuana use may have a higher risk of developing testicular cancer. The chance a man has to develop testicular cancer sometime in their lifetime is 1 in 270, according to the American Cancer Society. Out of those one in 5,000 men with testicular cancer 1 will die from the disease.

As of May of 2012, the American Cancer Society estimated 360 deaths due to the disease for the year and 8,590 new cases. The theory by Victoria Cortessis, who led the study, is that marijuana use may is that marijuana may somehow interact with developing testicles. The study also narrowed down the type of testicular cancer to a specific one, nonseminoma. Which is about what half of the germ-cell type testicle cancers are.

The study also showed out of the 163 young men studied 80% admitted to marijuana use. While 70% of the 300 men surveyed without testicle cancer said they used marijuana.

The study also noted those who admitted cocaine use had a lower risk of testicular cancer.

Pages

Friday, November 30, 2012

He kicked me first! Amazing video captures twins FIGHTING inside the womb

More...

U.S. birth rate falls to record low due to drop in foreign-born women having children

More...

Thursday, November 29, 2012

CBS news anchor accidentally calls Prince William a 'douche' instead of a duke

HOW DOUCHE BECAME A SLUR

More...

Women Prefer Thin Over Macho,

Some 20 percent of women overwhelmed by cancer treatment options

Testicular cancer

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Symptoms

Signs and tests

Treatment

Support Groups

Expectations (prognosis)

Complications

Calling your health care provider

Prevention

References