Month: June 2017

You’ve got your heart and mind set on getting pregnant. You’re armed with a calendar and an ovulation test—and you’re off to the races! As simple as we all wish it were to get pregnant, unfortunately, studies show that it may not be as easy as we hope.

There are many factors that can affect a woman’s (or man’s) fertility. Some are well known, and others are quite unexpected. For example, did you know that if you’ve had your tonsils or your appendix removed, you’re more fertile than others who didn’t?
Researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland evaluated 530,000 women in a 15-year study. They found that women who had either their appendix or tonsils removed were more likely to get pregnant than those who hadn’t. Pretty incredible!

We’re not suggesting that you sign up for elective surgical procedures in order to conceive, but this does demonstrate that the factors that have an impact on fertility are often mysterious and surprising. The way we go about our daily lives can interfere with our fertility too.
The good news is that there are some lifestyle changes we all can make that may increase our chances of getting pregnant. Read on to see if you can improve your fertility odds by making some simple changes to your daily routines.

1. If You Text at Night

You know that it’s bad for your mental health to keep working on your phone way past your bedtime, but did you know that it can affect your ability to conceive, as well?

According to a study published in the Journal of Fertility and Sterility, exposure to artificial light at night—like that emitted by phones and laptops—can affect your ability to conceive and can also harm your fetus if you’re already pregnant.
This type of light exposure has been shown to suppress the production of melatonin in the reproductive tract. One of melatonin’s normal roles is to protect eggs from free radicals—especially during ovulation.

Free radicals can damage your eggs and affect fertilization. If you’re already pregnant, the light can also mess with your fetus’ internal clock, which may result in long-term issues.

2. If You Have a Lot of Cavities

Studies show that a woman’s oral health could be related to her ability to reproduce. You may notice that taking good care of your teeth results in them looking great, but the benefits extend way beyond that.

It appears that the better care you take of your teeth, the more fertile you are. A study in the Journal of Periodontology found higher levels of gum inflammation and bleeding in women who had trouble getting pregnant and sought out fertility treatments. If you hope to get pregnant in the near future, keep your mouth clean and schedule your dental visits for every six months.

3. If You Don’t Meditate

Have a high-stress job without a proper stress management routine? It may be affecting your ability to ovulate. A study published in the Journal of Human Reproduction found a correlation between high stress levels and increased infertility.

In fact, women with high levels of the stress hormone alpha-amylase had a 29 percent lower chance of getting pregnant. Their risk for infertility was also double that of women with lower levels of alpha-amylase. One more reason to book that yoga class today!

4. If You Have High Cholesterol

Think that high cholesterol levels are only bothering your blood vessels? Think again! A study in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism found that the higher a woman’s cholesterol was, the longer she tried to get pregnant.

The study also showed that guys aren’t off the hook either. When both male and female partners had high cholesterol, it was even harder to conceive.

5. If You Love Junk Food

Hormones that have a role in conception (such as progesterone, insulin, and testosterone) are dependent on the body being nourished to function properly.

If your junk food addiction is leaving you malnourished in important nutrients like zinc, vitamin D, and B6, you could unknowingly be diminishing your ability to make a baby.
Want to boost your fertility even more?

A study published in Clinical Science found that eating a big breakfast (equivalent to half of your daily caloric intake) could increase your ability to conceive.

6. If You Use Lubricants

Lubricants can help make the process of getting pregnant more fun, but unfortunately some of them can also hurt your ability to conceive. Even if they don’t contain a spermicide, some lubricants can affect the sperm anyway.

If you need to use a lubricant and you’re trying to get pregnant, experts recommend using the sperm-friendly lubricant Pre-Seed (which is available over the counter).

7. If You Smoke

If you haven’t been able to give up your smoking habit, maybe this will give you the extra nudge you need. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) estimates that smoking is linked to 13 percent of infertility cases. And that’s not all.

Another study found that women who were around secondhand smoke for six or more hours a day were 36 percent more likely to have trouble getting pregnant. The good news is that if you give up smoking, your fertility will return to normal after about a year. So there’s no better time than now to ditch the habit!

8. If Your Clothes Aren’t Fitting Right

Weight is a big issue if you’re trying to get pregnant. Whether you weigh too much or too little, both can affect your periods and ovulation. The ASRM estimates that 12 percent of infertility cases are related to weight.

In the case of weight and exercise, moderation is really the key. It’s important to be fit and healthy without taking it too far. Experts suggest that body mass index (BMI) be kept in the normal range, making sure not to let it drop below 18 or rise above 25.

9. If Your Cervical Mucus Is off

What you might know is that cervical mucus is the fluid secreted by the cervix…but what you may not realize is that one of its jobs is to protect sperm as it travels up the reproductive tract. Problems can occur if your cervical mucus is abnormal—mostly if it’s too thick.

No need to worry though, this can easily be treated with medication or minor interventions. What causes your cervical mucus to be abnormal? Mostly genetics, but tobacco use can also change it and make it harder for the sperm to reach the egg.

10. If You Have Uterine Polyps or Fibroids

Polyps and fibroids are benign growths that attach to the uterine wall. There is a slight difference between them.

Polyps are composed of endometrial tissue, and fibroids are made up of muscular tissue. If you have either one, this could be messing with your fertility. Be sure to talk to your doctor if you suspect you have polyps or fibroids so you can see if any issues can be corrected with medication or surgery.

11. You’re Getting Older

This is true of everyone, obviously. As much as you want to check a whole bunch of things off your bucket list before you get pregnant, unfortunately, increasing age isn’t your friend when it comes to fertility.

A woman’s fertility naturally starts to decline at the age of 32. Then there’s another dip after the age of 35, and a big one after 40.
A woman is born with a limited number of eggs (unlike sperm, which are constantly being made), and those numbers drop over time. Additionally, as you age, the quality of eggs that you have left diminishes.

If you’re over age 35 and want to get pregnant, experts suggest that you try for six months. If after that time you’ve had no luck, you should consult with a specialist to see if there are any complications or treatments that you can consider.

Have you ever seen an old picture of your mom and thought, “Wow, look at her tiny waist”? It seems that everyone was just in better shape back in the day. And that’s not far from the truth.

Millennials grew up hearing doctors, researchers, and media outlets sound the alarm about the obesity epidemic. The statistics are pretty concerning.

Per a report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Americans are about an inch taller and 25 pounds heavier than they were in 1960, and the added inch doesn’t account for all that extra weight.

The average body mass index (BMI) increased from 25 to 29 during the same period, now teetering just shy of the obesity mark. And although BMI is an imperfect tool for measuring overall health, it’s still a good indicator that as a nation, we’re heavier than ever before.

So what gives? According to the $80 billion global fitness and health industry, we’re just not working hard enough. Every few months a new fad diet emerges, promising to help us shed inches and get that perfect “bikini body” (though let’s be real: Any body in a bikini is a “bikini body”).

Conventional wisdom says that managing our caloric intake and getting regular exercise will keep us slim and healthy. But a study published in the medical journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice suggests that’s not the whole picture.

The study, conducted by York University’s Faculty of Health, shows that Americans are actually more physically active than they were in the 1980s. But we also have to work harder to lose weight.

“Our study results suggest that if you are 40 years old now, you’d have to eat even less and exercise more than if you were a 40 year old in 1971, to prevent gaining weight,” said researcher Jennifer Kuk.

“We observe that for a given amount of self-reported food intake, people will be about 10 percent heavier in 2008 than in 1971, and about five percent heavier for a given amount of physical activity level in 1988 than 2006,” Ruth Brown, the lead researcher on the study, explained.

The research team said that this points to other factors beyond simply exercise and caloric intake that are influencing our weight and contributing to obesity.

Here are some of the things that are undermining our efforts to stay fit, according to the York University researchers.

Pesticides

It turns out that some of the chemicals we use to kill off unwanted critters on our food aren’t so great for us. Although pesticides and herbicides are used in both conventional and organic farming, some types have been linked to obesity.

Two chemical pesticides in particular, atrazine and DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene—a DDT breakdown product), are linked to increased childhood BMI and insulin resistance in rodents. People are exposed to these chemicals in the womb and through tap water, which makes them nearly impossible to avoid completely.

Flame Retardants

Say what now? Flame retardants are chemicals used in a slew of common household items to prevent or slow the spread of fires in the home.

But a 2013 study found that exposure to FM550, the most commonly used flame retardant, was associated with increased obesity and anxiety in lab rats. A 2015 study confirmed those findings and also linked widely-used flame retardants to diabetes.

These chemicals appear in upholstered furniture, carpet padding, and most disturbingly, in many baby products, such as nap mats and crib mattresses.

Chemicals in Food Packaging

Bisphenol-A (aka BPA) has received a lot of bad press over the past few years. Nearly everyone—92 percent of Americans—has BPA in their bloodstream as a result of the chemical leaching into food and water from plastic packaging.

Girls under the age of 12 with high levels of BPA are twice as likely to be obese. Fortunately, many companies have responded to research by removing the chemical from their plastic products. But its use in canned goods and other plastic packaging is still widespread.

Other components of plastic packaging, like phthalates and organotins, also leach into foods from packaging. These, along with BPA, disrupt hormones and may slow the metabolism, making it more difficult to maintain or lose weight.

Prescription Drugs

One of the most common side effects of antidepressants is weight gain, and the number of Americans using a prescription antidepressant has increased by a staggering amount.

The rate of antidepressant usage increased by 400 percent from 1988 to 1994 through 2005 to 2008 across all people ages 12 and older.

(An important reminder: Depression is a serious medical condition. Never stop taking an antidepressant without talking to your doctor first.)

Artificial Sweeteners

While it may seem like a great choice to switch from regular soda to diet, the chemicals replacing sugar in your favorite sweet foods are potentially just as bad for your waistline.

Saccharine has been shown to stimulate insulin release (which contributes to fat storage) the same way sugar does. And aspartame, another common artificial sweetener, promoted fat accumulation in trials with mice.

Although these chemicals are listed as “generally recognized as safe” by the Food and Drug Administration, they don’t necessarily deliver on their promises to help you lose weight. It’s interesting to note, though, that the sugar substitute stevia has not been found to have any adverse effects on weight and may even be able to treat insulin resistance in mice.

Stress

The American Psychological Association releases an annual “Stress in America” survey that analyzes the causes and intensity of stress in American teens and adults. For the past several years, millennials have reported significantly higher stress levels than older generations.

Millennials are known to be a socially conscious generation, and recent tension in the political climate is believed to be one of the main factors contributing to this stress.

When we get stressed out, our bodies release cortisol, a chemical that, back in the caveman days, helped us out a lot. Stress in prehistoric times meant you were being chased by a lion, or you were trying to survive a famine.

Cortisol prompts your body to store fat so that you can face these threats more effectively. But when your stress stems from a toxic work environment or political arguments at the dinner table, storing extra fat just isn’t very helpful.

Lack of Sleep

Americans just aren’t getting enough sleep in recent years, and this has some serious consequences for our overall health. Sleep helps moderate your body’s glucose metabolism (breaking down and processing sugar).

When we don’t give ourselves enough high-quality sleep, we tend to eat more to try to make up for our lack of energy, which compounds the metabolism issue.

And to top it off, poor or insufficient sleep leads to an increase in cortisol levels, which, as we’ve already noted, doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight.

So, what can we do about it?

For starters, we can be a little easier on ourselves and on others who are struggling with their weight. Science overwhelmingly suggests that the obesity epidemic is caused by more than just the calories we take in. Even American animals are getting heavier, and they don’t spend a lot of time at McDonald’s.

The best advice out there is simply to limit your intake of processed foods, eat mostly fruits and vegetables, and exercise regularly. Get more sleep. Try meditating to reduce your stress levels. And keep an eye on product labels. It’s still entirely possible to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s just harder than it used to be.

Spina bifida is an uncommon but often debilitating birth defect. Globally, about 1 person in 1,000 has some form of spina bifida, although rates vary from country to country.

This birth defect occurs when a baby’s spinal cord is left exposed due to an incomplete closure of the neural tube; as a result, the spinal cord doesn’t receive adequate protection. This often allows for spinal cord damage, which can result in mental or physical impairment.
Here’s what every person should know about this condition.

1. There are three types of spina bifida.

The most common form is the mildest.
Spina bifida occulta occurs when the baby has a small spinal gap without any opening in the back. It’s rarely discovered in early childhood, and it usually doesn’t result in disabilities.
Meningocele spina bifida occurs when a fluid sac protrudes from an incomplete closure in the baby’s back. This is a serious issue, but because the spinal cord isn’t within the site, it rarely results in major disabilities. Some nerves may be within the sac, however.

Myelomeningocele spina bifida is what most people think of when they think of spina bifida. A fluid-filled sac protrudes from the baby’s back, and part of the spinal cord is within the sac. In many instances, this type of spina bifida can cause significant disabilities.

2. Researchers aren’t sure exactly what causes spina bifida.

Nutrition seems to play a key role in the development of the birth defect. Mothers can take vitamin supplements to substantially decrease the chances of spina bifida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Folic acid seems to be especially important. In fact, the Spina Bifida Association recommends that all women should take folic acid supplements during their childbearing years. About half of all pregnancies are unplanned, and taking a regular supplement can be the best way to prevent the condition.
There’s evidence that overheating can cause some cases of spina bifida, so pregnant mothers should exercise caution and avoid hot tubs and saunas. Fevers can also increase the chances of spina bifida. Pregnant women who have elevated temperatures should consult with a healthcare professional for advice on how to treat a fever safely.
Although lifestyle modifications can have an impact on whether a child is born with spina bifida, in many cases the condition is due to genetics or other factors out of a mother’s control.

3. Treatment options are limited.

Serious cases of spina bifida are treated within several days of birth. Doctors attempt to minimize damage to the baby’s nerves and spinal cord, and in many cases, they’re successful; a relatively low percentage of children with spina bifida have paralysis.

Additional surgeries may be necessary as the child grows older, however. Some children also need ongoing physical therapy. For the mildest form of spina bifida, spina bifida occulta, treatment usually isn’t necessary.

4. Spina bifida is often detectable before birth.

Doctors can frequently see the more serious types of spina bifida on ultrasounds, and blood tests during the 16th to 18th weeks of pregnancy can identify the disease. Additionally, doctors may perform a test called a maternal amniocentesis to study protein levels in the womb.

Once again, it’s important to note that most cases of spina bifida do not result in lifelong issues. Still, expectant mothers—and all women who are able to bear children—should understand the risks and the known causes of this potentially serious condition.
Learn more by visiting the Spina Bifida Association’s website.

We all want to be physically fit, but there’s no such thing as a universal definition of “fitness.” To some people, fitness is simply a healthy BMI (even though there’s plenty of evidence that BMI is flawed). To others, it’s a toned, slim, beach-ready body. For some people, fitness means touching your elbows together in front of your bellybutton.
Wait, what?
Each year brings new fitness trends, and some of those trends are healthy—there’s nothing wrong with Pilates, for instance, and we’re not going to mock anyone for picking up a few yoga classes. However, some fitness trends are downright dangerous.

To evaluate some recent trends in getting fit, we spoke with Rui Li, a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer and the owner of New York Personal Training, a boutique fitness studio.
“My studio’s philosophy is all about total body wellness, so these crazy fitness trends are actually the opposite of what I preach,” Li says. She’s talking about things like…

1. Thigh Gaps

This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: You’re thin enough that there’s a clear gap between your thighs when you stand up.
As cool as some people may think it looks, unless your body is naturally built to have a gap, it’s almost impossible to create one while maintaining your overall health.

The biggest factor in determining whether you have a thigh gap is how your thighs sit in relation to each other. That’s largely determined by your bone structure—you can burn all the fat you want, but you can’t magically change the positioning of your hips.
If you don’t have the body type for a thigh gap, achieving one can be dangerous, since you’d need to bring your body fat down to a dangerously low level while decreasing your muscle mass.
“If you look at all the strongest people in the world, powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, and strongmen competitors, they all have thick thighs that have no space whatsoever,” Li explains.
Those athletes don’t have thigh gaps—and that’s completely fine.

“In fact, many strength athletes complain about their inner thighs rubbing together and causing skin irritation and deterioration of their pants,” Li says, proving that some of the strongest people in the world aren’t aiming for a gap.

2. Sunburn Tattoos

Don’t have the money for a tattoo? You could always use sunlight to burn a stencil right onto your skin. Of course, that’s an insanely unhealthy idea, but the #sunburntattoo hashtag took off in 2015, drawing an outcry from dermatologists everywhere.
By some estimates, UV light exposure causes approximately 90 percent of all melanomas (the most dangerous form of skin cancer). Sunburns increase your chances of melanomas substantially; according to the Skin Cancer Foundation, on average, a person’s risk of developing a melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns.

Besides, this trend doesn’t look cool—it just looks painful.

3. Cracked Abs

Meet the ab crack, which is essentially the thigh gap for your abs. It’s basically just a line that runs down the middle of your abdomen, and it’s a byproduct of having a low percentage of body fat.
As you might have guessed, it isn’t healthy.
To have clearly defined abdominal muscles, most people need to sit around 6 percent body fat. While we’d never say that anyone with a six pack is unhealthy—after all, you can still nourish yourself well and be really lean—you’ll have to go even further beyond this to get an ab crack. You’d also have to lose some muscle.

“If the ab muscles are underdeveloped, then the crack becomes much more prominent when the person is lean,” Li says. “If you look at bodybuilders who are in competition, they are extremely lean, often dropping to 4 percent body fat, but they don’t have a bizarre crack in their abdominal midline because they strength train to develop bulk in their abdominal muscles.”
Li says that the “ab crack” can be a sign of a condition called diastasis recti, which often affects people who have lifted heavy items without building up adequate core strength.

The medical editor of Health, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, notes that “getting an ab crack is probably not a realistic or healthy goal for the average person.” Most people will never be able to attain the look with even a clean diet and an intense workout regimen.

4. Protruding Ribs

Recently, social media users have started discussing “rib cage bragging,” which is exactly what it sounds like. People post photos to social media that show their rib cage visibly sticking out, with each and every bone clearly defined under the skin.
You can guess by now where we’re going with this one—while some people’s rib cages may stick out more than others, having one so clearly defined can only be attained with an extremely low level of body fat.

“This is entirely genetic,” Li says. “Some people just have ribs that stick out while others do not. I hover around 18-23 percent body fat, but even at my highest, around 25 percent, all I have to do is raise my arms to stretch and my ribs will pop out.”
Li says that your standing posture might affect whether or not your ribs protrude, but otherwise, it’s not something to strive for.
“This is an absolute nonsensical trend,” Li says.

Thankfully, this is one trend that seems to be on its way out, with many social media users publicly stating they’re not buying into the hype. As one Twitter user wrote, “‘Ribcage bragging’ is apparently a new trend? Only ribs you’ll see of mine are the BBQ ribs on my plate.”

5. Waist Training

This trend was started in large part due to the Kardashian family, who frequently post pictures of themselves in Victorian-like corsets.
The idea is that the waist trainers will gradually reduce your waistline, but Li says that contracting your waist within such a small frame can be dangerous.

“There is no way to squish your fat, muscles, organs, and ribs together without hindering how well your body functions,” Li says. “The human body evolved to be of a certain shape and proportion, and aside from exercise and diet, there is no other healthy way to modify the body.”
When worn for too long, waist trainers essentially push all of your internal organs together, resulting in some strange side effects.
“Every single thing you do to your body affects your biomechanics, from sitting at your workstation to wearing pointy-toed high heels,” Li says. “Think about how important it is to take a deep belly breath. If everything around your waist is regularly squished tighter together, you will have a much harder time getting a deep breath. Short, shallow breaths can cause anxiety, make sleeping difficult, and even cause dizziness and fainting.”

6. The A4 Waist Challenge

The A4 Waist Challenge, which has reportedly taken hold in China, encourages women to take photos of themselves with a piece of A4–size printer paper in front of their waists to show that their waists are as wide or smaller than the piece of paper. A4 printer paper, by the way, is 8.27 inches wide.

Not only is the challenge ridiculous, it prompts many women to strive for a goal that’s completely unattainable. Even with a low body fat percentage, your natural shape isn’t something you can change.

7. Alien Yoga

Also known as “nauli,” alien yoga is a yoga move that is said to strengthen your core and detoxify your digestive system.
To perform the move, you start by exhaling fully, pushing your stomach outwards. Then, while holding your breath, you pull your abdominal muscles up towards your chest, then move them from left to right.

So, does it work? Well, sort of—it contracts your core, but the “detoxification” benefits are dubious at best (detoxification doesn’t really exist, apart from the natural processes of your liver and kidneys).
Though the move should always be done in the presence of an instructor, it’s fairly safe. Yoga website DoYouYoga doesn’t recommend nauli for women who are pregnant or for people who suffer from ulcers, hernias, or heart conditions.

8. The Belly Button Challenge

Originating in China, this has to be one of the strangest body-related challenges out there. The idea is that if you’re able to wrap your arm behind your back and around to your belly button, you’re at an ideal shape and weight.
That is, of course, untrue.
“This is simply a mobility challenge,” Li says. “When you see yogis contorting themselves, it’s because they have a great deal of flexibility in their joints. Being able to wrap your arm around your waist and touch your belly button from the other side simply means you have a lot of shoulder mobility. Hypermobility, to be precise.”

While there’s nothing inherently dangerous about the pose itself, challenges like these can be harmful to people with eating disorders, according to James Hamblin of The Atlantic. Li also believes that successfully conquering the “challenge” isn’t such a great accomplishment.
“Too much of a good thing is not great,” she says. “To be that mobile means the person is lacking strength and stability in their shoulder, which makes them prone to serious injuries. “