Category: Health

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A Woman Woman Born with Two Vaginas and Two Wombs Becomes a Mother of Four

In all seriousness, I had never heard of such a thing. Two vaginas?

34-year-old Australian Lauren Cotter was born with uterus didelphys, meaning she had two cervices, two uteruses, and twi vaginas. It is a birth defect that affects 1 in 3,000 women, and it can cause excruciating periods and abnormal bleeding. It can also cause infertility and/or miscarriages.

Lauren was diagnosed at the age of 16 after she went to the doctor for her excruciating menstrual cycles. The doctor performed a pelvic exam and ultrasound to come to the diagnosis. He also told her that conceiving children would be difficult, if not impossible.

Posted by Lauren Cotter on Friday, January 18, 2019

She decided to have surgery to correct her double vagina, which would give her a more fulfilling sex life. When she was 17, she met her future husband and shared the news that pregnancy may not be an option.

“From quite early on, Ben and I discussed having children and it was clear that he really wanted to be a dad,” she told PA Real Life.

“I knew I had to be open and honest and tell him that might not be a possibility for me.”

So what happened? They married and tried anyway.

“We have found it easy to fall pregnant,” she said. “I am not sure why, or if it has anything to do with my two vaginas.”

With her diagnosis, Lauren understood there would be complications, but they stayed strong.

“We knew it might be a bumpy road and tried not to get our hopes up too much,” said Lauren.

In 2014, their first daughter, Amelie, was born via C-Section, completely healthy. Lauren and her husband decided to try again.  About a year and a half later they had no trouble. The crazy thing was that Harvey was born from her left womb when Amelia was born from the right!

“I carried Amelie in my right, and just assumed the left one was a dud,” said Lauren

Harvey was born prematurely at 4 pounds, 12 ounces and had difficulty swallowing. But after 3 weeks he was released in good health.

After that, the Cotters felt it best to go on birth control due to her medical history

“The [birth control] pill was giving me migraines and I couldn’t use [an IUD] coil, so in the end, the implant was the only option left,” she said.

Posted by Lauren Cotter on Sunday, May 12, 2019

But low and behold, she became pregnant with TWINS! Apparently, this family has no problems with infertility.

“‘Shocked’ doesn’t begin to cover it. During 17 years together, Ben and I had only ever got pregnant when we’d planned it. Now, here we were, having surprise twins. My doctor was very honest and said he couldn’t know how the pregnancy was going to play out.”

The doctors ordered her to bed rest for 19 weeks in order to help with any potential complications. But luckily, Lauren didn’t seem to suffer any. After 37 weeks, Maya and Evie were born each weighing about 5 pounds.

Ben and Lauren are through the moon with their family and decided to take measures to prevent future pregnancies; Lauren had her fallopian tubes tied. She said, “Ben and I are one super-fertile couple, and now we’re happy with things just as they are.”

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Some Hospitals Are Using Clear Drapes for C-Sections Instead of Opaque Ones

C-sections are grueling, and they can be really tough on new moms. One especially disappointing part is that, typically, moms are not able to see their new baby right away. Because there’s a drape obscuring their view of the surgery itself, they can only hear their babies, not see them.

That’s why some hospitals are beginning to use clear drapes.

It may sound scary to have a clear drape instead of an opaque one. Nobody wants to see themselves being operated upon!

But these drapes are actually only partially clear. The lowest part is still opaque, so it completely blocks the mom’s view of the operation. The upper part is clear, so she can see when doctors pull the baby out of her womb.

Clear drapes are amazing. <3 I love that they are more accepted for cesarean births now! Watching my client see her…

Posted by Tracy Abney, Birth Doula on Tuesday, April 3, 2018

 

Tracy Abney, a doula, mom and birth photographer, is a huge advocate of clear drapes. She had a typical C-section with a solid drape and told Parents that she felt “disconnected.”

“Everyone saw my daughter before I did. I could hear her, but not see her,” Tracy said. “I didn’t see her until she was cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket, then she was taken away and I didn’t see her for a long time.”

“Clear drapes help the mother feel like she is part of the birthing process,” she added. “She can see the baby when everyone else does, the moment the baby is born.”

That clear drape, though. <3

Posted by Tracy Abney, Birth Doula on Thursday, May 17, 2018

Clear drapes are one aspect of the new “gentle C-section” trend, which aims to make C-sections more like the traditional birthing experience. Doctors pull the baby out slowly and immediately bring the baby to the mom for skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding, if it is medically safe to do so.

Anything that helps is well worth the adjustment!

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Here’s the Truth Behind Why You Stop Feeling Tired the Moment You Crawl into Bed

Does this sound familiar?

You’re exhausted all day long. There’s isn’t enough coffee in the world to prop your eyelids up during your commute, at your desk, your kid’s soccer game, but suddenly, when you’re in your pajamas, teeth brushed, and between your nice, clean sheets, you can’t sleep.

According to TIME, you’re not alone – many people have trouble falling asleep in their own beds, thanks to a phenomenon called conditional arousal.

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Basically, it happens because you’ve inadvertently trained your body to associate your bed with being awake, as opposed to being used for sleep. We don’t get in bed when we’re tired, we get in bed an hour before we want to be asleep and then binge a couple of Netflix episodes, scroll through our social media, read a few chapters, have a snack, etc – and that tells our brain that the next time we get into bed, we won’t be going to sleep right away.

So, it holds off on the good chemicals.

Conditional arousal is a cycle, something you’ve made a habit, which means you can’t really break it in one night. To fix it, you basically have to stop doing anything that isn’t sleeping in your bed, and you’ll need to give it time.

Photo Credit: iStock

This is also the reason that sleep experts advise you get up and go into another room if you’re struggling with a bout of anxiety and/or insomnia that keeps you tossing and turning. If you stay in bed, your brain will begin to associate your mattress and pillows with flopping and frustration as opposed to a peaceful night’s sleep.

Like any habit, you’ll need to establish a new routine, and then stick to it for as long as it takes to erase the previous one from your brain.

If it doesn’t work, or you suffer from clinical insomnia or anxiety or other conditions that can make falling asleep difficult, you might want to consult a medical professional in order to get the sleep you need.

But if you’re just guilty of climbing into bed to wind down, try doing that part of your routine in another room and saving your mattress for when you’re actually ready to catch some zzz’s.

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Ex-NFL Player Deangelo Williams Paid for 500 Mammograms to Honor His Mother Who Died from Breast Cancer

DeAngelo Williams retired from professional football a few years ago, but, by the looks of it, his work might just be getting started. The former running back for the Carolina Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers made news recently when he paid for 500 mammograms for women through his non-profit organization, the DeAngelo Williams Foundation.

Williams’ mother passed away five years ago from breast cancer, and since then the ex-NFL player has made it his mission to help women with mammogram screenings and other tests so they can hopefully catch any potential issues as early as possible.

Sandra Hill, Williams’ mother, was only 53 years old when she passed away in 2014. Williams also lost four of his aunts to breast cancer, all before they had reached 50 years of age. So for him, this work if incredibly important.

So far, Williams’ foundation has paid for 500 mammograms for women in Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Memphis, and Jonesboro, Arkansas. He said, “To be able to help all these women is amazing. This can be life-changing for these women. We are enabling them to get this care that no one should ever be denied or not have access to.”

Even though Williams has already done an amazing amount of work, he’s aiming much higher. He wants to host free mammogram screenings in all 50 states and expand the reach of his organization as far as is humanly possible.

Risalyn Williams, his wife and executive director of the foundation, said, “DeAngelo wants to ensure that no woman (or man) fights breast cancer alone.”

Keep up the excellent work, Mr. Williams!

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Being Forgetful Might Be a Good Thing for Your Brain

I forget a whole lot of stuff. It’s gotten much worse as I age (and since my pregnancies and having kids – sleep deprivation is no joke!), so I’m quite happy to hear that maybe I haven’t become addled by middle age after all.

Now, let’s just say this: the science says that forgetting small details might mean your brain is functioning well, separating important things from the noise, but forgetting large things should still be considered a major problem.

Onward.

Recent research from the University of Toronto, published in Neuron, finds that the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus (where we think memories are stored) is formatted to make room for new and important information. In the process, that growth allows you to jettison useless knowledge.

Professor Blake Richards, lead author on the study, explains further.

“We always idealize the person who can smash a trivia game, but the point of memory is not being able to remember who won the Stanley Cup in 1972.”

The point of memory, of course, is to increase your intelligence and your ability to assess your circumstances and make educated decisions – and in order to do that, some things need to be forgotten.

The study is supported by 2007 research that used MRI scans to monitor the brains of 20 healthy adults taking a memory test. The results claimed people were better at remembering conflicting information, as opposed to easy or repetitive knowledge.

“The process of forgetting serves a functional purpose,” verified Michael Anderson, one of the researchers on the 2007 study. “What these guys have done is clearly establish the neurobiological basis for this process.”

Researchers agree that there are several benefits to being able to forget some things. First, certain information, like old phone numbers and passwords, is worthless. Second, we can generalize or combine certain memories to no detriment.

In one super interesting experiment with mice, scientists had the rodents find the exit to a maze, then on a future try, changed its location.

The mice who were drugged to forget the former location of the exit found the new one much faster.

Huh.

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Toby? Tom? Tim? Oooh, Andrew. Sorry.

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I’m not sure if this is why I can never remember the names of people I’ve just met (or met long ago), but hey. I’m going to go ahead and blame it on my brain trying to be smarter and stronger, and not on my general lack of interest.

Don’t try to stop me.

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A Breast Cancer Vaccine Might Be Available in Less Than 10 Years

No matter who you are, you’ve likely known someone who’s been impacted by breast cancer.

That’s why this news from the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, is potentially so groundbreaking. The institution recently announced that a vaccine that could stop the recurrence of breast and ovarian cancer, that could even stop them from developing in the first place, may be available within eight years.

The vaccine is in the early stages of development, and it would be at least three years before it was available to large numbers of patients. Mayo Clinic investigator Keith L. Knutson said, “It is reasonable to say that we could have a vaccine within eight years that may be available to patients through their pharmacy or their doctor.”

Staff at the clinic already have two vaccines against breast cancer, and they’re currently worked on the third one. This latest vaccine is intended to fight DCIS, ductal carcinoma in situ, a non-invasive breast cancer that appears in 300,000 new cases each year.

Knutson added, “We know that they’re safe. We know that they stimulate the immune system [to fight cancer]. We know that they have had a positive impact on ovarian and breast cancer. We haven’t seen any adverse events that are causing problems other than irritation in the area similar to a flu vaccination. Now we have to convince the FDA, through solid, rigorous clinical trials that we’re seeing what we’re seeing.”

This “Phase 3″ clinical trial could potentially cost millions of dollars to carry out, which is why the process takes years. The vaccines the clinic is working on are intended to boost the body’s immune system and kill cancer cells. Knutson said, “If you develop a cold or something like that, you do develop an immune response, and that actually doesn’t necessarily prevent the disease, but it keeps it at bay and it helps clear it.”

Knutson added that the Mayo Clinic is working on the foundation they’ve already established to attempt to further develop their cancer-fighting vaccines. This may be a few years away, but it gives hope, both to women currently fighting cancer and to those who fear developing it in the future.

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Bars in Italy Are Using Pasta Straws to Get Rid of Plastic Waste

Lately, companies have caused a stir (see what I did there?) by getting rid of plastic straws or only distributing them when customers specifically ask for them.

In Italy, bars and restaurants are now using pasta straws for drinks to cut down on plastic waste. What could be more Italian than drinking out of a pasta straw?!?!

Here in Italy bars are starting to use pasta as straws to reduce plastic use. Our technology amazes the world another time. from europe

The European Union voted to ban single-use plastic items by 2021, and it looks like the Italians are getting a head start.

Interestingly, there’s already a company in the UK called Stroodles that sells pasta straws. Maxim Gelmann, the founder of the company said, “Stroodles is not just a straw company and there is a much bigger picture, as I feel I can leave a long-term impact by creating a ripple effect by triggering many small changes all across the world, especially among people that are less conscious of sustainability and their respective actions and behaviors.”

??? Stroodles team at the Improving Air Quality in Mayfair event by @newwestendcompany

Posted by Stroodles- Pasta Straws on Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Gelmann added,

“The approach is to do this in a fun and non-preachy, non-finger-pointing manner. I rather aim for people to engage with a Stroodle and then themselves start asking themselves the right questions, like ‘Why is there a pasta straw in my drink?’ Thus, little realizations like that and them coming to their own conclusions, rather than being sold/preached. [It’s] much more powerful in creating behavioral and mindsets change. And … maybe next time one is offered a plastic bag, they will behave differently.”

I haven’t seen these in the U.S. yet, but maybe they’ll be coming soon?

The next step? Let’s work on getting pasta cups!

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10 Interesting Facts for You to Take a Look At

This is a fast-paced world where it can be hard to get any free time and learn new information.

But you should always make time for our fact sets! They’re filled with fascinating information that will stick in your head long after you’re done reading them.

Here are 10 such facts for you!

1. That’s a relief.

Photo Credit: did you know?

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2. Women are strong.

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3. What a great idea.

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4. That’s the backstory.

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5. Time for a name change.

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6. Take me down to Octopus City.

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7. Ugh, that’s not good.

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8. Another reason not to like Mondays.

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9. Get to the Hummer!

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10. Everybody needs to take notice of this.

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We hope you enjoyed those 10 facts!

Follow THIS LINK to explore a whole lot more.

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Good News! Eating Cheese Every Day May Actually Improve Your Health.

Here’s some good news for you!

No longer will we be shamed for eating cheese on a regular basis.

It turns out that eating cheese might actually protect us from the some of the dangers associated with a diet too high in salt.

Now, we all need some salt, but too much can lead to things like high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes, and even dementia. Avoiding it can be difficult in our over-programmed, fast-food infested worlds, so the idea that just eating more cheese might help is pretty darn appealing.

Lacy Alexander, a professor and co-author of the study published in the Journal of Nutrition, explains.

“Studies have shown that people who consume the recommended number of dairy servings each day typically have lower blood pressure and better cardiovascular health in general. We wanted to look at those connections more closely as well as explore some of the precise mechanisms by which cheese, a dairy product, may affect heart health.”

The study included 11 people with salt-sensitive blood pressure, all of whom followed different diets for a prescribed amount of time. They were low salt and no dairy, low salt and high cheese, high sale and no dairy, and high salt and high cheese.

At the end of the study, researchers assessed the blood vessel function of of each volunteer by injecting a small amount of a chemical that relaxes the vessels under their skin.

What they found was that the volunteers that had consumed the high salt, high cheese diet seemed to have some kind of protective effect against any kind of impairment to the vessel.

Scientists need to do more research, but they think it might have to do with antioxidants found in cheese.

“There is scientific evidence that dairy-based nutrients, specifically peptides generated during the digestion of dairy proteins, have beneficial antioxidant properties, meaning that they have the ability to scavenge these oxidant molecules and thereby protect against their damaging physiological effects,” said lead author Billie Alba.

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Happy national #Moldycheese day!! To celebrate, Two of my many favorite #funkycheeses. #ShropshireBlue is a #Scottishbluecheese made from pasteurised cows' milk using vegetable rennet. The orange colour comes from the addition of annatto, a natural food colouring. Penicillium #roqueforti produces the veining. #Cypressgrove- #HumboldtFog is a California #goatmilk, mold-ripened cheese with a central line of edible white ash much like Morbier. The cheese ripens starting with the #bloomy #mold exterior, resulting in a core of fresh goat #cheese surrounded by a runny shell. As the cheese matures, more of the originally crumbly core is converted to a soft-ripened texture. The bloomy mold and ash rind are edible but fairly tasteless. The cheese is creamy, light, and mildly acidic with a stronger flavor near the rind. ##ilovecheese #cheeseplease #moldycheeseday #cheeseboard #makeamericagrateagain @cypressgrovers

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The study was small, which means its results will need to be replicated, and no matter how much cheese you eat, you probably can’t guzzle salt like it doesn’t matter.

And even if it helps protect your blood vessel from salt damage, cheese is high in saturated fat and salt, too.

Now that the reasonable warnings are out of the way, let’s celebrate!

With a cheese plate. Obviously.

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New Research Finds That Running Might Actually Be Good for Your Knees

Contrary to popular wisdom, running might not be so bad for your knees after all. In fact, it may actually improve your knee health.

One reason that running is assumed to be bad for your knees is the existence of “runner’s knee,” or patellofemoral pain syndrome. It’s fairly common for runners to experience knee pain, especially those who are new to the sport. That pain is often due to muscle weakness, overextending yourself, or running with old shoes.

But studies have shown that running is not associated with knee arthritis or other types of degenerative joint disease. In fact, it may be good for your knee joints, helping to protect the knee and keep it working smoothly.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

In one 2016 study, male and female runners either ran on a treadmill for 30 minutes or sat quietly for 30 minutes. Then they did the opposite activity on the next day. Before and after each session, the researchers drew blood from their arms and synovial fluid from their knees. They measured it for cells linked to inflammation and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), the substance that marks arthritis.

After 30 minutes on the treadmill, participants had lower levels of inflammation and lower levels of COMP. Sitting for 30 minutes increased those same levels. The study’s author Robert Hyldahl concluded that moderate runs are “not likely to harm healthy knees and probably offer protection,” per the New York Times.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

So you definitely shouldn’t let the fear of bad knees keep you from running.

Still, it’s important to practice good etiquette to avoid messing up your knees — wear proper running shoes, and don’t push yourself too far too soon.

Happy trails!

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