Better than plastic surgery?

For reasons I will reveal in good time, I was attending a medical conference where a Brazilian dermatologist gave a presentation on how people could skip all the expensive plastic surgery procedures for things like stretch marks (and baldness, acne, WRINKLES!) by using this nifty little implement called a Derma roller than makes tiny little "injuries" (no blood, though) with tiny little needles that you roll on whatever part of the skin you are interested in healing and the skin produced more circulation and collagen in the process. 

This intrigued me because of some of the slides she showed and also because my father, an acupuncturist, had a little device that looked a lot like that.  I was also surprised to find, after talking to her after, that you can easily buy these devices online such as this FDA approved one here.  I have ordered one and found it a little annoyingly painful on my face, but pleasantly tingly on my stretch marks and scalp.  Too soon to see if it works BUT it's totally non invasive. 

The other advice I received from the derm is to look out for the needle size.  For the scalp you should never go longer than 1.5mm.  For sensitive skin, you will need to go shorter, for results for tough stuff like stretchmarks, you'll need to go longer, up to 3.0 mm.  Again, this is not medical advice but just  passing on some kwoledge I picked up. 

If anyone else tries this, please report back! 

Toothpaste has that same stuff in hand sanitizer

Great, now toothpaste manufacturers are adding Triclosan, a chemical that is banned in Europe, to toothpaste and it may be causing (1) superbugs and (2) is an endocrine disruptor (a BIG no-no for fertility).  Also, you NEED good bugs in your mouth, they balance out the bad ones.  This whole suuper-disinfecting thing (using ammonia on meat, bleach on veggies) is getting a little out of hand.  For fast whitening and freshness, use baking soda (read secret to white teeth here) !  No one needs toothpaste. 

From the UK's Daily Mail:

For it seems an antibacterial chemical commonly added to toothpaste, including Colgate's Total range, may pose a threat to health. It is also widely used in handwashes and cosmetics.
The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety has warned that triclosan may promote widespread bacterial resistance to antibiotics and has called for further safety studies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration is worried about bacterial resistance, as well as evidence that the chemical is a hormone disruptor.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1319731/How-toothpaste-speeding-spread-superbugs.html#ixzz131p7L7Jf

read more about how toothpaste is spreading superbugs and disrupting your hormones here.

Ultrasound risks for female babies

I'm  not a big fan of ultrasound in general, being into energy medicine, but also check this out:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Sep 23 - Using ultrasound to gauge gestational age could put late-term female fetuses at risk of poor outcomes and even death, a new study from Sweden shows.
Indeed, up to a third of stillbirths among girls born post-term could be due to inaccuracies in these estimates, the researchers conclude.
Since the early 1990s, doctors have used second-trimester ultrasound measurements to determine the age of a fetus and estimate when the baby will be born, Dr. Alkistis Skalkidou of Uppsala Universitet and colleagues note in their paper, published online August 27th in Epidemiology.
But female fetuses, even at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, are smaller than male fetuses, on average, Dr. Skalkidou and colleagues add, raising the possibility that a smaller, post-term female fetus could be misclassified as having a younger gestational age based on ultrasound measurements.

Test to see if you're a good candidate for in vitro (IVF)

This is important news.  I remember friends getting more and more IVFs, no one telling them that it was unlikely it would work (age, health issues).  Now scientists have discovered a test that gave fairly accurately give you and idea:

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Stanford University researchers have developed a test to determine whether a patient is likely to conceive a child through in vitro fertilization - a breakthrough that could save women tens of thousands of dollars in fruitless procedures, as well as the heartbreak of failed treatment.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/23/BAGP1EVA8P.DTL&type=science#ixzz0y6libZZY

Blood Type Diet

Morning folks,

I became interested in the Blood Type Diet when I read (and saw, experimentally with my friends) that most autistic/vaccine damaged kids are Type A, which is also prone to inflammatory autoimmune diseases, of which I, as a TypeA-er, have.  In addition the broad outlines: eat less meat, more vegetarian; avoid scary/violent movies and crowds; don't sunbathe...plus a bunch of other things were already things I didn't like to do (e.g., have been a vegetarian for a long time, never been crazy about meat, HATE and cannot watch violent movies), so I'm trying this diet that suggests foods that are good and bad for you.

For instance, since type As don't produce enough HCL in the stomach, digestion-friendly foods like a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee actually can be beneficial.  Whoopee!  My chiro's office even had a good on Blood Type Diet and FERTILITY.  Will check that out, and check back for updates.

Chemical in breakfast cereal

Petroleum products are here, there, everywhere, even if you don't live in the Gulf.  The Washington Post reports via Planet green:

Federal regulators, who are charged with ensuring the safety of food and consumer products, are in the dark about the suspected chemical, 2-methylnaphthalene. The Food and Drug Administration has no scientific data on its impact on human health. The Environmental Protection Agency also lacks basic health and safety data for 2-methylnaphthalene -- even though the EPA has been seeking that information from the chemical industry for 16 years.

Read more here.  

How to avoid these awful contaminants?  Buy real food from people you know, make what you need.  I have a chicken stock bubbling on the stove right now from a chicken I helped to gut and clean, veggies from the same organic farm--and it's all the parts of the veggies we could have discarded.  And it smells heavenly!  

B Vitamins Help Aging Brain

Horrible story in the New York Times today about how Eli Lilly's new alzheimer's drug made people have MORE cognitive decline than the placebo--oops!

But there is something simple to improve your brain  health AND your fertility.  B vitamins!  Folate, for instance, can help with depression in women as well as prevent neural tube defects in babies.  Check out this article from Newswise: 

Newswise — B vitamins–B-6, B-12 and folate–all nourish the brain. But much remains to be discovered about the relation between these essential nutrients and our brainpower.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritionist Lindsay H. Allen has collaborated in ongoing research that has taken a closer look at the role these nutrients may play in preventing decline in brain function. The investigations, led by Mary N. Haan of the University of California-San Francisco, are part of the multiyear Sacramento (Calif.) Area Latino Study on Aging, or “SALSA.” Begun in 1996, the study attracted nearly 1,800 Hispanic seniors, ages 60 to 101, as volunteers...

An analysis of volunteers’ blood samples showed that lower levels of one B vitamin, folate, were associated with symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, also called “cognitive decline," as determined by standard tests of memory and other factors. The impairments were detectable even though less than 1 percent of the volunteers were actually deficient in folate....

In women, but not men, low levels of folate were associated with symptoms of depression. In fact, female volunteers whose plasma folate levels were in the lowest third were more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression as volunteers in the highest third. That finding provided new evidence of an association between lower blood folate and depression. Depression is already known to affect brain function.

In research with vitamin B-12, the SALSA team determined that a protein known as holoTC, short for holotranscobalamin, might be key to a new approach for detecting cognitive decline earlier and more accurately.
The researchers have published these and other findings, beginning in 2003 and continuing through

this year, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, The Journal of Nutrition, and The Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging.

3 Things you Think Are Bad for You Are Actually Good For You

My friend asked me to submit a "3 Things Thursday" for her blog (which is being turned into a book!) on farming and healthy eating.  These three surprising things should help your health and fertility.  Got a lot of feedback from my healthy (and fertile!) Korean American friends, who totally agree.


http://www.thequarteracrefarm.com/2010/08/three-things-thursday-author-marie-lee.html

3 chemicals in your environment that can affect your baby's thyroid

Another great article from Thyroid-About.com-guru Mary Shomon (I *highly* advise you to subscribe to her newsletter if you are ttc, have thyroid disease or are a woman--I'm not kidding!)
------------------

New research reported on in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has found that three common contaminants can affect thyroid hormone levels in infants.

The three contaminants -- perchlorate, nitrate and thiocyanate - are found in water, food and tobacco smoke. The research found that exposure to these pollutants blocks iodine uptake, and results in elevated levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which can be a sign of hypothyroidism -- an underactive/slowed thyroid function.

read more here.

Chances Of Pregnancy Diminish After Multiple Attempts Using Same Fertility Treatment

This is SO interesting, Check it out and MAKE sure you optimize every cycle of whatever you're doing: make sure you have been following good nutrition practices (e.g., getting a prenatal vitamin with plenty of folic acid), consider using acupuncture before AND after your treatment, get enough sleep, detox, etc. Instead of rushing to do it sooner, it may pay to try to wait until you're ready and in optimal health.

------------
Chances Of Pregnancy Diminish After Multiple Attempts Using Same Fertility Treatment, Study Finds
Main Category: Fertility
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Aug 2010

The probability that a woman will become pregnant decreases after two or three failed attempts using the same fertility treatment, according to a new study in Fertility and Sterility that offers insight into how many treatment cycles doctors should offer before trying another tactic, Reuters reports.

For the study -- which involved 408 couples at eight infertility centers -- researchers at the University of California-San Francisco analyzed the success rates of three infertility treatments: fertility drugs, intrauterine insemination and in-vitro fertilization. Of the participating couples, 21% did not undergo any of the three treatments. The total pregnancy rate across the group was 28% over 18 months.

Couples who underwent one to two cycles of fertility-drug treatment had a pregnancy rate of 85%, while IUI couples and IVF couples had success rates of 71% and 59%, respectively, after one attempt. However, according to Reuters, "the advantage of each of the three treatments declined after a certain number of attempts." For example, six couples who received three or more rounds of fertility drugs had a pregnancy rate of 29%, while 35% of the 52 couples who attempted IVF three or more times achieved pregnancy.

The findings show that individual fertility treatments have "diminishing success" over time, according to lead author James Smith, an assistant professor of urology at UCSF. Smith suggested that "[i]f couples are not getting pregnant after several cycles of each, a change to a different strategy is probably warranted" (Norton, Reuters, 8/4).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.

Bone Marrow Donation

Hi folks,

I received an interesting call (which I have to admit, subsequent ones I ducked the first couple of times after I heard the message) that I am a bone marrow match for a 24-year-old man with active lymphoblastic leukemia.

I registered as a donor ALMOST 20 YEARS ago with the Cammy Lee Foundation, a foundation set up to find more Asian American donors (AAs sadly have a low registration rate) and of course in the back of my mind I thought I'd NEVER get called.

Now I'm married and have a special needs child, as most of you know, and the stakes are somewhat different, and some relatives are worried. But after having the initial intake interview and being made aware of the risks and possible side effects as well as being laid up (they take the marrow out of your pelvis) for a few days, I have given my consent, and my husband is being super supportive.

Of course, I am also interested in WHY SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE ARE GETTING CANCER. I think we know the answer to this, at least in part: chemicals.

But in the meantime, time to concentrate on one person. And by the way, Cammy Lee, the pediatric leukemia patient DID find a match through her foundation!

If you want to register (they no longer need to take your blood, it's just a cheek swab!):

Cammy Lee Foundation

National Bone Marrow registry

Dioxins in menstrual products

I'm traveling right now, and while I normally use organic pads (see here why you should avoid tampons), I had a limited amt of baggage so so thought I'd just buy some form the drugstore. I know they have dioxin and bleach and icky things, but the absorption is much less than using tampons and I thought, just this once...

But then I saw this article, and next time, I am going to trek to the health food store and, if I must use disposables, get dioxin free natural pads. Ugh.

Dioxin & Feminine Hygiene Products

by Heather Guidone

According to a February 2000 report from the Food & Drug Administration, tampons and feminine hygiene products currently sold in the U.S. are made of cotton, rayon, or blends of rayon and cotton. Even though these products are now produced using elemental chlorine-free or totally chlorine free bleaching processes, these methods can still generate dioxins at "trace levels." Thus, there may be low amounts of dioxin present from environmental sources in cotton, rayon, or rayon/cotton tampons and feminine hygiene products. By contrast, a report released by The US Environmental Protection Agency clearly describes dioxin as a serious public health threat. The EPA report states, there is no "safe" level of exposure to dioxin - even trace amounts are a risk. Further, the EPA report confirmed that dioxin is "a cancer hazard to people;" that exposure to dioxin can also cause severe reproductive and developmental problems (at levels 100 times lower than those associated with its cancer causing effects); and that dioxin can cause immune system damage and interfere with regulatory hormones.

Dioxin exposure to women in particular, poses additional risks than just that of their own health: it crosses the placenta into the growing infant and is also present in the fatty breast milk, thereby exposing the child.

Evidence of dioxin as a catalyst for Endometriosis has been well-documented. In a 1996 Environmental Protection Agency study, dioxin exposure was linked with increased risks for Endometriosis, as well as the increased risks of pelvic inflammatory disease, reduction of fertility, and interference with normal fetal and childhood development. The EPA conclusions regarding dioxin exposure are particularly alarming in light of a 1989 Food and Drug Administration report, which stated that "possible exposures from all other medical device sources would be dwarfed by the potential tampon exposure." Dr. Philip Tierno, Jr., Director of Clinical Microbiology and Diagnostic Immunology at New York University Medical Center states that "dioxins, though they exist in the environment, have a worse effect when they contact mucous surfaces like the vagina."

Read more about how dioxin levels in menstrual products--and playground sand, thanks, Jack Welch!) are almost ENTIRELY UNREGULATED and what they found when they tested some Playtex tampons: click here for UGH.

Fertility treatments up risk of cerebral palsy

Unfortunately with artificial fertiltiy techniques, it's hard to tell some of the side effects until enough people have done them to see a pattern and/or the kids have grown old enough. Here's an article on ART and risk of cerebral palsy:


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6614RL20100702?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews

Military Small Pox Vax can sexually transmit live virus

I had to get a postpartum MMR shot, and I remember being reassured the LIVE VIRUSES would not be transmitted to my sweet newborn--there's a reason people wash their hands before holding babies: they don't have a working immune system.

Then my friend contradicted this, telling me that a recently MMR'd person was not allowed near a family member with leukemia due to transmission worries. So I looked it up in the Physician's Desk Reference, and yep, there is was--MMR can be transmitted via respiration AND breast milk. GAHHHHH.

Part of the problem is, we don't really know what vaccines do, besides the antibody thing, and we don't really care. Here's a case of the smallpox vax infecting a sexual partner, and what does the doctor do? Even though she tells him about the vax, he only tests her for STDs?

Military folks (the only ones who really get the smallpox vaccine these days) andt hose who have sex with them watch OUT:

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, July 1 (HealthDay News) -- After having sex with a soldier recently vaccinated against smallpox, a young woman in Washington state developed an illness caused by the vaccinia virus used in the shot, U.S. health officials report.

This type of viral transmission, while rare, is not unheard of, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

read more here.

Flame retardants can harm your thyroid and pregnancy

Gah, 10 years ago we got rid of our carpets and brand new couch when we were about PBDEs, the common flame retardant. The stupid thing is, as we heard from our friend who is a furniture maker, that PBDEs make stuff burn A FEW SECONDS slower than untreated stuff and then you have the fumes. So basically the flame retardants do nothing.

So we bought new stuff from IKEA because PBDEs are banned in Europe. However, I've heard lately that because of US reg's IKEA stuff now reeks because they have special US-export pieces that they impregnate.

One of the horrible things the PBDEs do is disrupt your endocrine system, including your thyroid. Interestingly, both my cat and I developed thyroid problems in the house where we had the new stuff (PBDEs degrade/outgas over time). Especially if you're pregnant now you might want to read about how PBDEs can affect your pregnancy. From Pubmed:

Polybrominated Diphenylether (PBDE) Flame Retardants and Thyroid Hormone during Pregnancy.

.

Happy 4th

I hope everyone has a happy, safe Fourth. With my parents being immigrants, they took the Fourth very seriously. I remember even traveling to NYC to celebrate the Bicentennial.

That said, while holidays are a nice time to get together, the weather's usually right for BBQ, is anyone else weirded out about the quasi-flag/patriotism worship this holiday engenders, as kind of a knee-jerk thing? It makes me wonder if this is one of those subtle things that sets up thinking apart as opposed to being part of a larger world.

For instance, Koreans probably have to be as patriotic and love their country as much as anyone. But to envision a holiday celebrating the country, and feeling compelled to fly a flag AND eat and bake renditions of it, would seem really strange, maybe pompous, too.

Sorry if I'm a stick in the mud. But if you're the type who really, really likes an excuse to eat a lot of red and blue food coloring, here's a whole slew of "patriotic" foods to choose from, couresty of the Huffington Post.

Sorry, wrong Twitter account

I was wondering where this feed of all this K-Pop (Korean-pop) stuff was coming from. Some other user has my old Twitter handle and my name, "MyungOk."

Please follow me as MarieLee_Writer. I post a lot of the quicker, more urgent health news here as time permits.

Immunity and pregnancy

I've already written a million times about my late-great immunologist, Dr. Alan Beer, who put together many of my underlying health mysteries; Chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme, secondary infertility. The infertility community, like many medical communities, can be very closed and resistant to change--and why? Just like with cancer, their success rates are lousy. I always felt bac about how Dr. Beer was so hounded at the end of his life when all he wanted to do was help (and many of my allergy symptoms and CFS improved quite dramatically on his fertility regimen).

But I even remember my local OB saying "He's a charlatan!" And of course not even know what he was talking about. Interestingly, much of the science in a lot of illness and dysfunction is coming back to the immune system. This is from Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (May 29, 2010) — Researchers at Yale School of Medicine and their colleagues at the Society for the Investigation of Early Pregnancy have helped clarify the function of a unique protein called Preimplantation Factor, which is produced by healthy embryos to direct embryo attachment and help the mother adapt to pregnancy.

These findings are published fast track for the benefit of the scientific community in the current issue of American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. They were first presented orally in February at the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine Scientific Meetings in Chicago by lead author Michael J. Paidas, M.D., associate professor and co-director of the Yale Women and Children's Center for Blood Disorders.

The research showed that Preimplantation Factor modulates maternal immunity, promotes attachment of the early embryo, and influences remodeling of uterine cells.

read more here.

Natural Hair Products that Actually Work II

I love almost everything about the Sea Chi line, which is made with real raw organic kombucha and love by its owner.

Her peppermint shampoo makes your scalp feel nice and tingly, it balances you out, and I am actually trying to wash my hair as little as possible, as a dab will do it.

More info here.

Sunscreens with acceptable amounts of chemical glop

I actually don't use sunscreen for myself or the family--hard to get Vit D as it is, we've managed to escape burns even at the beach. But if you do, it's important to find a sunscreen without chemicals OR "supplemental" add-ins like Vitamin A that sounds good but may actually make the sun's rays MORE cancerous! Environmental Working Group did a thorough study and sadly found few to recommend but here's the whole report.