[Leslie Carol Botha: According to the study ..."Forty percent of respondents  said birth control was not important because when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen." How misinformed can one be - unless of course women want their lives changed forever by an unplanned pregnancy or an STD.]

60 Percent Of Young Adults Misinformed About Birth Control As Abstinence-Only Education Flourishes: Study

International Business Times
By Ashley Portero
May 14, 2012 1:08 PM EDT

Sixty percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 may not truly understand how proper use of contraception can prevent pregnancy, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute, which reports abstinence-only sex education may be leaving young adults with a subpar understanding of sexual health.

After quizzing a nationally representative group of 1,800 unmarried women and men in that age group, the study,  published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, concluded that more than half of the respondents received low scores on contraceptive knowledge, with 60 percent reportedly underestimating the effectiveness of birth control pills.

The quiz asked respondents to choose “true” or “false” answers for basic statements such as “all IUDs are banned from use in the United States” or “condoms have an expiration date.” More than half of the men and a quarter of the women received either a D or F on the quiz.

Although a majority of the respondents — 69 percent of women and almost half of the men — agreed they were “committed to avoiding pregnancy,” they seemed to question whether contraceptive devices such as condoms or birth control pills were an effective way to achieve that goal. A considerable 40 percent of respondents said contraception doesn’t matter because “when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen.”

Those results may be particularly concerning since women between the ages of 18 and 29 have higher rates of unintended pregnancies than any other age group, the Guttmacher Institute reports.The study, which found that variables such as a fear of side effects (as a result of contraceptives) and mistrust of government’s role in promoting contraception was associated with risky birth control practices, concluded that “programs to increase young adults’ knowledge about contraceptive methods and use are urgently needed.”

Article found on the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research Blog -  re: Cycling

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Study: Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Leaves Young Adults Misinformed About Birth Control

[Leslie Carol Botha: How would you like a stamp on your chart that states:  Gardasil Vaccine  'Counseled but Refuses'?  Will this be used as a new stigma for adolescent girls who refuse to get vaccinated with Gardasil.  Are they going to be pressured every time they go to the doctor's office? What has happened to patient privacy?  Is the stamp on the inside or the outside of the chart?  My guess is on the outside for everyone in the office to see. Can you imagine the additional pressure for a young woman to face?]

HPV Vaccination Rate Improved by Chart Reminder

Ob.Gyn. News
By: SHERRY BOSCHERT, Ob.Gyn. News Digital Network
May 17, 2012

SAN DIEGO – Something as simple as a stamp in a patient’s chart to remind medical providers about vaccinating against human papillomavirus nearly quintupled the percentage of eligible patients being vaccinated in one outpatient office, according to a poster presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

The faculty practice was vaccinating only 11% of eligible women before the trial, lower than the 2009 national average vaccination rate of 25%. After the office staff was instructed to place a reminder stamp in the progress notes of all nonpregnant women aged 18-26 years who were scheduled for an appointment with a gynecology provider, the office significantly improved its vaccination rate to 49% of eligible women, Dr. Kerry Rut and her associates reported.

The prospective study compared charts for 86 patients who were eligible to receive the Gardasil vaccine for human papillomavirus (HPV) before use of the stamp and 70 patients after implementation of the stamp. Three of the six health care providers in the office (five physicians and a nurse practitioner) significantly increased their vaccinations of patients after the reminder stamp started appearing in progress notes, said Dr. Rut, an ob.gyn. in private practice in Bay Shore, N.Y. She led the study while she was a resident at Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, N.Y.

The study received top prize among posters presented at the meeting.

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at A New Stigma: Gardasil Vaccine ‘Counseled But Refuses’ Stamped on Medical Charts

Commercial sunscreens are a danger to your health

[Leslie Carol Botha: Commercial sunscreens that contain cancer-causing and estrogenic chemicals should never be used,  the only proven safe sunscreen ingredient is zinc oxide. Sunscreens with oxybenzone, methoxycinnamate, and PABA are dangerous.]

Cureguide

by Randall Neustaedter OMD

A recent study has shown that a potent sunscreen ingredient, oxybenzone, may be a cause of endometriosis. This condition occurs when uterine tissue grows in abnormal sites in the abdomen and causes severe pain. Women are usually diagnosed because of severe cramping during their periods. In this study of 600 women, those with the highest levels of a form of oxybenzone in their urine had a 65 percent increased risk of endometriosis. Oxybenzone, like bisphenol-A (BPA), is a chemical that mimics estrogen. And endometriosis growth is fed by estrogen.

This study should be another warning sign that oxybenzone should not be put on the skin. The highest levels of oxybenzone in the urine of women in this study occurred in the months of July and August, proof that the sunscreen ingredient is readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Read Full Article..

Read the complete article and related information at Study: Commercial Sunscreens Linked to Endometriosis

[Leslie Carol Botha: Cycles and biological clocks dance to the rhythm of the Universe.  Our health, physical and mental is directly tied to dancing this dance.]

Biological clock began ticking 2.5 billion years ago

New Scientist
16 May 2012 by Debora MacKenzie

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.

Biological clocks are ubiquitous in nature, so the first clock should pre-date the evolutionary parting of the ways that led to modern groups of organisms. All the clocks found so far are unique to different groups of organisms, though. Not so the clock discovered by Akhilesh Reddy at the University of Cambridge and colleagues. In an enzyme called peroxiredoxin (PRX), they seem to have found a grandfather clock – one that is common to nearly all life.

PRX gets rid of poisonous, highly reactive oxygen (ROS), which is produced by oxygen-based metabolism. And the enzyme oscillates: it flits between an active and inactive state, depending on whether oxygen is bound to the active site. Using antibodies that bind only to the oxidised enzyme, the team found that PRX oxidation keeps cycling independently on a 24-hour cycle, even when organisms were kept in constant light or constant dark.

Reddy thinks PRX protected primitive cells from ROS damage by surging when peaks in photosynthesis related to daylight temporarily bumped up levels of oxygen. “Initially this was externally driven,” he says. Then PRX began oscillating spontaneously in anticipation of this load – thus becoming an independent daily clock. “Organisms with this anticipatory ability would be better adapted than organisms that merely ‘reacted’ to things as they happened,” Reddy says.

Moreover, they found this PRX cycle in mice, fruit flies, a plant, a fungus, an alga, bacteria and even in archaea – the most primitive of all cellular life (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature11088). That suggests PRX evolved early in life’s history. A gene sequence analysis suggests it did so 2.5 billion years ago, during the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) – a critical interval when the oxygen released by photosynthesis began to accumulate in the atmosphere.

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Disruption of Our Biological Clocks Can Lead to Jet Lag or Schizophrenia

Join Leslie Carol Botha on Monday May, 21 on Holy Hormones Honey! when she interviews the Rev. Dr. Charlene M. Proctor, founder of The Goddess Network, an on-line educational resource for topics on spiritual growth, positive thinking, consciousness, and unity on  KRFC FM – from 6 to 7 pm MST.

Charlene inspires people to rediscover their own ability to lead authentic lives. Currently, she is a weekly empowerment expert for Lifetime Television’s The Balancing Act, offering a spiritual perspective on everyday life to millions of viewers. She also offers advice on SelfGrowth.com and Beliefnet.com, the world’s largest personal-growth web sites. Her affirmations, lectures, and electronic programs reach a worldwide audience daily. She is a frequent media guest and among the Top 100 Thought Leaders of 2007 (Warren Bennis Leadership Magazine).

She is the author of the bestselling book Let Your Goddess Grow! 7 Spiritual Lessons on Female Power and Positive Thinking. A recipient of the coveted IPPY award for one of the best books in 2006 addressing women’s issues, Let Your Goddess Grow! has inspired many readers. Charlene is also the author of  The Women’s Book of Empowerment: 323 Affirmations That Change Everyday Problems into Moments of Potential.

Radio shows across the U.S. have featured interviews with Charlene, including The Good Life Show with Jesse Dylan on Sirius Satellite, Sunday Brunch with Jim Harper at Magic 105.1, The Big Story with Lloyd Jackson at WJR, Sunday Magazine at Multicultural Radio (Associated Press), Between the Lines on Shadow Broadcast Services (distributed to two thousand stations), The Aware Show at KPFK Los Angeles, the international XZone, and many others. She is profiled in The Courage Code, an award-winning book featuring stories of women who are making a difference in the world.

Charlene is a tireless community supporter and has designed empowerment workshops for women living in transitional housing shelters who have been homeless or victims of domestic violence. Through her experiential learning programs, she has taught many women how to live with more confidence and grace. Avon Corporation and Lighthouse/PATH have generously supported her work.

Read More…

Read the complete article and related information at Rev. Dr. Charlene M. Proctor, founder of the Goddess Network on Holy Hormones Honey! May 21

[Leslie Carol Botha: Another vaccine aimed at women.  Although we may fear breast cancer... injecting toxins into our breast tissue should frighten women even more.  Where will these toxins be stored? How will this affect breastfeeding?  Will these toxins directly go into breast milk?  And then there is the whole issue of puncturing a potential tumor and sending the cancerous cells further into the breast, bloodstream or lymph nodes. And remember, vaccines are given to women without regard to wear they are in the menstrual cycle.  If you choose this type of breast prevention - please do not get vaccinated when you are premenstrual or having your period.  This is the absolutely the time when your immune system is most compromised.  The government knows this.  The study on immunity and the menstrual cycle is posted on their web site.]

Breast cancer vaccine shows promise in study

Chron.com
By Todd Ackerman
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

photo credit creative commons license AJC1

Houston researchers on Wednesday reported positive results with an experimental breast cancer vaccine, a promising development in an emerging field in cancer care.

The vaccine, one of many now in testing, significantly decreased the recurrence rate of breast cancer in women who had been treated for a common tumor type, according to a study led by the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

“If this vaccine and others continue to perform well in trials, they could change practice standards in breast cancer,” said Dr. Elizabeth Mittendorf, an M.D. Anderson surgical oncology professor and the study’s principal investigator.

“That’s not to say it will take the place of surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, but it could became incorporated into standard care.”

Mittendorf said cancer researchers are in “the dawn of a new era,” in which scientists are learning to manipulate the immune system to recognize cancer cells and prevent or treat the disease. She said vaccines for breast cancer have lagged behind those for other cancer types but are starting to catch up.

The new vaccine triggers the patient’s immunity against a tumor protein, known as HER2, present to some extent in 75 percent to 80 percent of breast cancers.

It is best known when it occurs in high levels – HER2-positive breast cancers – but it occurs in lower levels in more than half of other breast cancers, plus a number of other cancers, such as prostate, ovarian and gastric cancers. This suggests the drug could provide benefits for patients with these cancers in addition to those with breast cancer.

The vaccine reduced breast cancer recurrence in women who had both high and low levels of HER2.

Read Full Article….

Read the complete article and related information at Breast Cancer Vaccine Next Shot in the Dark for Women?

[Leslie Carol Botha: Gluten is a yeast product...too much yeast causes an acidic environment - and acidic environment in the body creates inflammation.  Inflammation creates pathological and mental disorders. Wonder if eliminating gluten and balancing the body's PH will bring the mind back into balance.  There are studies proving that the addition of micronutrients to the body can alter a fractured mind bringing back into balance.]

Mother’s Gluten Sensitivity Linked With Child’s Schizophrenia Risk: Study

Posted: 05/11/2012 11:12 pm

Huff Post
Healthy Living

There may be a link between a woman’s gluten sensitivity and the risk of her baby developing psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia later on, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Johns Hopkins Children’s Center conducted research that suggests children of women with high levels of antibodies to gluten — meaning they had sensitivity to it — have almost a doubled risk of later developing a psychiatric disorder.

“Our research not only underscores the importance of maternal nutrition during pregnancy and its lifelong effects on the offspring, but also suggests one potential cheap and easy way to reduce risk if we were to find further proof that gluten sensitivity exacerbates or drives up schizophrenia risk,” study researcher Dr. Hakan Karlsson, M.D., Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Karolinska Institute, said in a statement.

The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, included analysis of 764 neonatal blood samples and birth records of people born between 1975 and 1985 in Sweden. Of those people, 211 went on to develop schizophrenia or a similar psychiatric disorder.

The researchers were able to use the blood samples to see whether the study participants had higher levels of IgG antibodies triggered by the immune system as a response to milk or wheat proteins in the body.

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Study Links Mother’s Gluten Sensitivity with Child’s Risk of Schizophrenia

[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.]

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

Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
re: cycling

by Elizabeth Kissling
May 15, 2012

I admit, I didn’t know that this is National Women’s Health Week until I received a reminder in my inbox from a U.S. FDA mailing list, letting me know about the Food & Drug Administration’s role in promoting Women’s Health. They’ve published a brochure (available in both HTML and PDF versions) commemorating 100 Years of Protecting and Promoting Women’s Health.

Society for Menstrual Cycle Research members and other women’s health advocates and activists will want to look through the list of the accomplishments the FDA claims responsibility for and lists as unequivocal improvements in women’s health.

For instance, we’ve had many discussions at re:Cycling about the FDA approval of the pill in 1960 as one holding mixed benefits for women, and not always the best choice for women’s health. The brochure also asserts that in 1970, “FDA initiated the first package insert written for consumers to explain to women the benefits and potential risks of oral contraceptives.” That *happened* in 1970, but Barbara Seaman, Alice Wolfson, and the other founding mothers of the National Women’s Health Network had more to do with its initiation than the FDA.

And here’s another inspiring quote from the FDA brochure:

1980: Making Tampon Use Safer

Problem: In 1980, there were 814 confirmed cases of menstrual related Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) and 38 deaths from the disease.
Response: FDA began requiring all tampon packages to include package inserts educating women about the risk of TSS and how to prevent it. In 1997, there were only five confirmed menstrually-related TSS cases and no deaths. The tampon package inserts with TSS information continue to be used today.

Sure, the FDA is proud of those safety rules now, but in 1982 the agency asked the industry to come up with their own voluntary standards because they did NOT want to regulate tampon safety. After years of pressure and organizing from Boston Women’s Health Collective members Esther Rome and Judy Norsigian, activist Jill Wolhander, researcher Nancy Reame, and others to standardize tampon absorbency ratings, the FDA finally enacted regulations in 1989, by court order. Nine years after 38 women died from a tampon-related illness.

Read Full Article….

Read the complete article and related information at Celebrate and Reminisce National Women’s Health Week with the FDA

[Holy Hormones Honey! It appears that the objectification of women's bodies takes place even during childbearing - a sacred time in a family's life - especially for the mother and child.  Can you imagine how traumatized the mother and the newborn must be during a birth rape? Wonder if this has any bearing on the increasing anger violence in the world.  I think many women can relate to some sort of uncomfortable treatment during labor or when their legs were in stirrups.]

Is “Birth Rape” for Real?

Time
Healthland
By Bonnie Rochman
October 5, 2010

Giving birth is not a modest affair. After a lifetime spent covering up your privates, there they are, front and center, splayed out for any ole doc or nurse to see. As part of this no-holds-barred experience, aforesaid doc or nurse occasionally plunges an instrument (not of the musical variety) or his/her hand into an expectant mom’s vagina, feeling for the moment when new life is about to burst forth. That’s what they get paid to do.

At least in my own labors, I was always forewarned of the impending probing. But sometimes, according to writer Amity Reed, a woman isn’t asked permission. Sometimes, a woman isn’t treated respectfully on the L&D ward. When that happens, she feels violated, a sensation Reed controversially calls “birth rape.” In a post on Salon.com by Tracy Clark-Flory, Reed explains the phenomenon: “Fingers, hands, suction cups, forceps, needles and scissors … these are the tools of birth rape and they are wielded with as much force and as little consent as if a stranger grabbed a passer-by off the street and tied her up before having his way with her.”

Read Full Article…

Read the complete article and related information at Birth Rape? Is this for Real?

[Holy Hormones Honey! First an article about IVF treatments and an increase in birth defects (posted May 7) and now an article on how the toxic drugs in the more expensive IVF injections affect the health of the mother and the baby.  Moral of the story? Perhaps we should not be injecting any toxic drugs - including vaccines -  into the body?]

Toxic drugs used in IVF ‘risk health of mothers and babies’

By Mario Ledwith

PUBLISHED: 19:50 EST, 13 May 2012

IVF procedures widely used in the UK are posing a ‘serious health risk’, healthcare experts have warned.

Clinics are using ‘aggressive’ practices that improve success rates but have led to treatments becoming one of the biggest causes of maternal deaths in England and Wales, they said.

There is increasing evidence that the most common treatment, which involves high doses of  toxic drugs to stimulate increased egg production in the ovaries, causes abnormalities in embryos and can damage a mother’s health.

Experts were told at a conference in Copenhagen that an alternative ‘mild’ treatment should be used instead of the more risky options common in the commercially driven UK market.

Read the complete article and related information at IVF Toxic Injections Risk Health of Mother and Baby