Disruption of Our Biological Clocks Can Lead to Jet Lag or Schizophrenia

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Our core physiology relies on subtle organic timers: disrupt them, and effects range from jet lag to schizophrenia. Exactly how and when life began keeping time is unclear, but a candidate for the original biological clock may solve the mystery.

Celebrate and Reminisce National Women’s Health Week with the FDA

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Leslie Carol Botha: The FDA and women’s health in the same sentence makes me nervous. I think it is pretty clear that the FDA does not hold the health of women – nor anyone else for that matter- as a priority. It has become pretty clear that they are the government puppet for the pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Elizabeth Kissling wrote an excellent highlighting some of the FDA’s obvious disregard for the health of women.

Jerilynn Prior MD and Susan Baxter PhD Unveil ‘The Estrogen Errors’

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In this revealing work, a medical writer and an internationally-known physician team up to explain the controversy over medicine prescribing estrogen for perimenopausal women in North America, and to detail why progesterone is actually a far more effective, and a far less risk-ridden, approach.

Depo Provera Withdrawal – A Woman’s Worst Nightmare

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Need proof that women are sometimes desperate for information and support when it comes to quitting hormonal contraception? You need look no further than the 100 plus comments in reply to an old blog posting at Our Bodies Ourselves: Questions About Side Effects of Stopping Contraceptive Injections. The comment stream – a litany of woes concerning women’s discontinuation of Depo-Provera – has been active since Nov. 2, 2009.

Eric Gemelli Doubles Stock Market Profits Using Fibonacci Ratios on Holy Hormones Honey! – April 16

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Join Leslie Carol Botha when she interviews market analyst Eric Gemelli on using Fibonacci Ratios to analyze, predict and profit in the stock market Monday night, April 16 from 6 to 7 pm MST on KRFC FM, community radio in Fort Collins, CO.

Empower Teens with Education about Fertility

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Teen girls are getting pregnant, in part, because they don’t understand their menstrual cycles. It’s time for sexual health educators to step up and teach girls the primary sign of fertility.

Study Shows Immunity Influenced by Circadian Rhythms

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It’s common knowledge that too little sleep can increase our odds of getting sick, but a new study sheds light on just how direct the connection is. Researchers found that the body’s circadian clock controls an essential immune system gene in mice — a gene that helps the body ward off bacteria and viruses.

“People intuitively know that when their sleep patterns are disturbed, they are more likely to get sick,” study author Erol Fikrig, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a press release. “It does appear that disruptions of the circadian clock influence our susceptibility to pathogens.”

Why Can’t We Criticize the Pill?

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On February 10th, the Washington Post published an op-ed piece by Rachel Maddow. In this she outlines how there are Republicans who don’t want birth control covered by insurance, they don’t want Planned Parenthood receiving federal funding, and they want an embryo to be considered as a person with rights. She highlights that this last issue threatens the legality of hormonal birth control. In the final paragraph she states:

“Time will tell on the political impact of this fight, but the relevant political context here is more than just a 2012 measure of Catholic bishops’ influence on moral issues. It’s also this year’s mainstream Republican embrace of an antiabortion movement that no longer just marches on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade to criminalize abortion; it now marches on the anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut, holding signs that say “The Pill Kills.”

Menopause Tales

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The philosopher of science Mary Midgley (1995) doesn’t mince words. She tells us: “The theory of evolution is not just an inert piece of theoretical science. It is, and cannot help being, also a powerful folk-tale about human origins.” Along these lines, stories about reproductive physiology are important folk-tales about what’s natural for women and what their life course should be.

Circadian rhythms in the fetus

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PubMed.gov Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2012 Feb 5;349(1):68-75. Epub 2011 Aug 5. Serón-Ferré M, Mendez N, Abarzua-Catalan L, Vilches N, Valenzuela FJ, Reynolds HE, Llanos AJ, Rojas A, Valenzuela GJ, Torres-Farfan C. Source Programa de Fisiopatología, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas (ICBM), Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Chile. Abstract Throughout gestation, the close relationship between mothers Continue Reading …