Women Pregnancy

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a health problem that can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle, fertility, hormones, insulin production, heart, blood vessels, and appearance. It’s hormonal imbalance linked to the way the body processes insulin after it has been produced by the pancreas to regulate blood sugar (glucose). Features of PCOS may manifest at any age, ranging from childhood (premature puberty), teenage years (hirsutism, menstrual abnormalities), early adulthood and middle life (infertility, glucose intolerance) to later life (diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease).

Insulin resistance seems to be a key feature in polycystic ovarian syndrome. The underlying cause of PCOS, Insulin Resistance, has many factors that contribute to its presence in the body. The increased incidence of insulin resistance occurs in all PCOS women, not simply obese women. When someone is insulin resistant, this means that cells throughout the body do not readily respond to the insulin circulating in the blood. Read more!

Eating apples while pregnant may give a new meaning to an apple a day keeping the doctor away, according to a study published in Thorax online on Friday. Mothers who eat apples during pregnancy may protect their children from developing asthma later in life. This new research from the Netherlands and Scotland tracked dietary intake by nearly 2,000 pregnant women and examined the effects of the maternal diet on airway development in more than 1,200 of their children five years later.
The children of mothers who ate apples had a significantly reduced risk for the development of asthma and childhood wheezing, according to researchers at Aberdeen University.

This study focuses on medical evaluations for asthma and related symptoms (i.e., wheezing) when the children were five years old. As a result of the evaluations cited in this research, other than apples, there were no consistent associations found between prenatal consumption of a range of healthful foods and asthma in the 1253 children who were evaluated. Read more!

Ready to get pregnant? These easy health and lifestyle changes can increase your odds. Despite everything you’ve been told since puberty, getting pregnant doesn’t always happen the minute you have unprotected sex. “In any one month, the chances for the average couple are just one in five,” says Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., director of the Mind/Body Center for Women’s Health at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. But that doesn’t mean they need high-tech intervention. “About 85 percent of couples will be successful after trying for a year,” says Domar, “but they should still be aware of the lifestyle habits that can raise or lower their chances.” If you are currently trying to have a baby or would like to soon, try these eight simple steps to protect and enhance your fertility.

1. Get On A Regular Sex Schedule
The standard advice to have sex midcycle isn’t a surefire road to pregnancy. Read more!