• Women May Not Do as Well as Men in Stroke Rehab. [Reuters.uk, UK] Women seem to have less favorable results than men when they undergo rehabilitation after a stroke. In stroke rehabilitation, "some reports have shown no sex differences in functional outcome, whereas others have reported a worse functional status in females," Dr. Stefano Paolucci and colleagues write in the medical journal Stroke. This prompted the researchers, from the Fondazione IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy, to study 220 men and 220 women who had had a stroke and were matched for stroke severity, age, and the interval between the onset of stroke and their hospital admission. Men and women had a similar neurological recovery, the investigators found. However, men had better functional recovery. More men reached independence in both stair climbing and activities of daily living, and they had a higher mobility score than women when they left the hospital. Further analysis showed that men were three times more likely than women to be able to manage stairs on their own, and that women were more likely to need a cane for walking. "The reason for such sex-related difference is unclear and difficult to explain," Paolucci's team writes.

• Outwardly Expressed Anger Affects Some Women’s Heart Arteries. [MedIndia, India] While previous studies have shown that anger and hostility, in and of themselves, can increase risk of heart disease in men, little of the research has included women. Results of a new study, conducted exclusively with female subjects, suggest that anger and hostility alone are not predictive for coronary artery disease in women, but women who outwardly express anger may be at increased risk if they also have any of several other risk factors: age (risk increases as women get older), history of diabetes and history of unhealthy levels of fats (lipids) in the blood. Cardiologist C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., medical director of the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center and medical director of Women’s Health at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said the overt expression of anger toward other persons or objects appears to be the most “toxic” aspect of hostility in women. In fact, the researchers analyzed a variety of measures related to anger, including cynicism, hostile temperament, aggression and suppressed anger. Only expressed anger – described as Anger Out on the rating scale – had predictive value, and only when the age, diabetes or dyslipidemia risk factors also were present. 'Our results appear to differ from the literature on males, particularly young males, in which hostility scores are found to be associated with coronary artery disease. However, the new data, combined with our previous findings, indicate that anger and hostility in women, as in men, do tend to cluster with adverse risk factors,' said Bairey Merz, one of the authors of an article in December, 2006, issue of the Journal of Women’s Health.

• Household Chores Cut Women's Breast Cancer Risk. [DailyIndia.com] Women who exercise by doing housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, according to a new study. The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport. Dusting, mopping and vacuuming was also better than having a physical job. The women in the Cancer Research UK-funded study spent an average of 16 to 17 hours a week cooking, cleaning and doing the washing. Something as simple and cheap as doing the housework can help.

• Herceptin Improves Early Survival for Women with Breast Cancer. [Hindu, India] Giving women with a certain type of breast cancer Herceptin for one year following standard chemotherapy may improve their survival. This press release issued by Eureklaert says that around 15-25% of women with early breast cancer have a type called HER2-receptor positive disease. Herceptin has been shown to reduce the risk of disease recurrence in women with HER2-positive early breast cancer. In the Herceptin Adjuvant (HERA) study, Ian Smith (Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK) and colleagues assessed the effect of the drug on overall survival after two years follow-up.

• India: Women Urged to Spread Awareness of Cancer. [Hindu, India] More women should participate in spreading cancer awareness and education, V. Shantha, chairperson of the Cancer Institute, said. Taking part in the silver jubilee celebration of Thursday Ladies Club here, she said the disease was curable if detected early. She called upon members of the Club to involve themselves in educating people about the disease. Noting that the female literacy rate in the State was hardly 50%, she said the percentage of women professionals was much less. Social Welfare Minister Poongothai handed over to Dr. Shantha a check for Rs. 1 lakh given by the Club for the Institute. The Minister expressed concern at young women becoming widows, most of them losing their husbands to HIV/AIDS. While many women made accomplishments, gender discrimination and domestic violence against women persisted.

• Turkey: Women Uninformed About Cervical Cancer. [Turkish Daily News, Turkey] According to a poll conducted on 262 doctors and 433 women in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, Turkish women are seriously under-informed about cervical cancer. Breast cancer is the best-known type of cancer in Turkey, with 97.9% of women showing some level of awareness; however, only 19.2% knew anything about cervical cancer, despite it being amongst the easiest cancers to detect and, in some cases, prevent. According to the research, only 30% of those who had heard of cervical cancer knew that the human papillomavirus (HPV), spread by sexual relations, is a causative factor for cervical cancer. Fifty-seven% said that they had been informed about cervical cancer from television and newspapers. HPV infection is the cause of the majority of cases of cervical cancer, one of the most common cancers in women -- breast cancer is the most common. The virus is very easily spread, according to public health specialist Dr. Ümit Sahin, and is also responsible for genital warts.

• Physical Activity May Reduce Lung Cancer Risk in Female Smokers. [Cancer Consultants] Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of Pennsylvania have reported that physical activity may reduce the risk of developing lung cancer in current and former smokers. The details of this study appeared in the December 2006 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Increased physical activity has been associated with a lower incidence of several cancers and better outcomes after the diagnosis of cancer. To date, there has been little reported on the relationship between lung cancer and physical activity. This is probably because smoking cessation is the best way to prevent lung cancer. Researchers involved in the Iowa Women’s Health Study group looked at the incidence of lung cancer in 36,929 women enrolled in a prospective study in 1986. These women were followed through 2002 and evaluated for cancer incidence. There were 36,410 participants in 2002 and 777 cases of lung cancer. One hundred and twenty-five cases occurred in non-smokers, 177 in former smokers and 475 in current smokers. High physical activity was defined as moderate workouts more than 4 times per week or vigorous workouts two or more times per week. They reported that women with high physical activity were 23% less likely to develop lung cancer than women with low physical activity. The risk reduction for current smokers was 28%; for former smokers it was 37%. There was no risk reduction associated with exercise for never smokers. The highest risk group was current smokers who had low physical activity.

• Women More Likely to Survive Lung Cancer. [The Australian, Australia] When women and men have lung cancer of the same stage and are given the same treatment, the women are more likely to survive, according to new research. Lung cancer "is the number one cause of cancer deaths in both men and women worldwide," Dr. Robert James Cerfolio and colleagues from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, wrote in the journal Chest. Several studies using data from national cancer registries have shown that men and women differ in lung cancer survival. The present study was different in that it determined survival in men and women who were diagnosed with lung cancer, treated based on the same algorithm, and then followed for up to seven years. The study focused on patients with non-small cell lung cancer, the most common type. Unlike the small cell variant, non-small cell lung cancer is often amenable to surgical removal and more responsive to chemotherapy.

• Australia: Abortion Groups Clash Over Counseling Plan. [The Age] Pro-choice and pro-life groups continue to clash over the government's decision to involve Catholic agencies in a helpline for women with unplanned pregnancies. The two Catholic and, therefore, anti-abortion groups denied a conflict of interest, while federal Health Minister Tony Abbott said the helpline would be monitored to ensure its impartiality. But Reproductive Choice Australia, a coalition of pro-choice groups, said the so-called safeguards would not prevent pro-life activists misleading women.

• Australia: Dogma No Help to Women. [Daily Telegraph, Australia] Labor wants to ensure balance in pregnancy counseling services – women must be able to consider the full range of options available to them as they make one of the most difficult decisions of their lives. We believe organizations in receipt of Government money to provide pregnancy counseling advice must be able to ensure they can provide unbiased, expert, independent and professional advice. This is not a question of "Catholic bashing", or "anti- Catholic sniping", as your columnist, Tory Maguire accuses (The Daily Telegraph, January 8). I have a good working relationship with Centacare, which is an active organization in my electorate and is a great social welfare deliverer. Given the Catholic Church's explicit and public opposition to abortion, it is hard to see how Centacare – or the Caroline Chisholm Society, similarly singled out by Health Minister Tony Abbott in his media release announcing the successful tenders – will not be compromised. This discussion is also not about promoting a pro-choice or pro-abortion stance.

• Norway: Young Women Opt for Abortion. [Aftenposten, Norway] More than half of ethnic Norwegian women under age 25 choose abortion if they get pregnant, according to a new study. The professor behind the study calls the statistic "surprising" and "worrisome." A woman's right to choose abortion is deeply engrained in Norwegian society, but it's only most common among young women and women with little education, says Professor Anne Eskild of Akershus University Hospital. Eskild's study marked the first time that researchers tracked the incidence of abortions and births among ethnic Norwegian women. Results showed major differences between those who chose to abort and those who chose to give birth. More than half of pregnant women under 25 chose abortion, a rate double that for pregnant women over 40. The abortion rate for women under age 20 was nine times higher than that for women over 40. Only 2.9% of women with a university education chose abortion, according to the study.

• New Evidence Suggests Women Make More of an Effort When They Are Fertile. [GMTV] Women take more care about their appearance when they are at their peak fertility levels, new research suggests. In a trial, volunteers were shown two full-length photographs of one of 30 women, one when she was close to ovulation and the other at a point of low fertility in the menstrual cycle. Asked which picture showed the woman trying to look more attractive, they picked the one taken when she was ovulating 59.5% of the time more often than would be expected by chance. This is the first evidence that women openly advertise their fertility like other primate females, New Scientist reports. The research, carried out by a team from the University of California, Los Angeles and reported in the journal Hormones and Behavior, raises another intriguing possibility. All 30 of the women who took part in the study described themselves as being in a committed relationship with a man. This suggests that they may have been dressing up when they were at their most fertile to attract other men.

• New Book on Kama Sutra Stresses Women's Fulfillment. [Telugu Portal, India] Fulfillment of women is at the heart of the experience of sex and the lines between sex and sensuality, as between social mores and individual desire, are indeed fine and must be understood deeply. That is the basic message author-diplomat Pavan K. Verma tries to send across in his brave new book, "Kama Sutra: The Art of Making Love to a Woman", published by Roli Books and launched at the Hotel Shangri-la. Verma's tribute to the 300 A.D. immortal treatise on sex by Vatsyayana comes at a time when, in Verma's own words, "there is an avalanche of flesh in cinema, TV and magazines".

• Cheer Up, Girls – Antidepressant Pill Could Be a Female Viagra. [The Sunday Times] Trials have begun on a sex drug that works directly on the pleasure zones of a woman’s brain to restore flagging libido. If successful, flibanserin — developed by the German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim — could become the “female Viagra”. Its effect was discovered by accident when it was being tested as an anti-depressant. Participants in the trials reported that their depression was no better but that they had experienced a boost in sexual desire. The company is conducting four trials on 5,000 women in 220 locations and hopes for approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in 2009. The company is not yet sure exactly how flibanserin works, but Dr Charles de Wet, Boehringer Ingelheim’s medical director for the UK, said: “As many as two out of every 10 women describe some degree of decreased sexual desire. Female sexual dysfunction is not just related to blood flow, but also affected by stimulation of certain brain areas dealing with sexual stimuli.”

• Down Syndrome Test Urged for All Pregnant Women. [Houston Chronicle] All pregnant women, regardless of their age, should be offered screening for Down syndrome in their first trimester, according to new practice guidelines to be issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Noninvasive screening tests developed in the past decade have made it possible to predict the risk of Down syndrome and certain other chromosomal abnormalities with high accuracy. Pregnancies identified as being at risk then can be offered further screening with invasive, and more dangerous, tests such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, according to the guidelines published in the January issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. Invasive tests have been offered routinely to women older than 35, at highest risk of bearing affected children. But the risks have been managed so successfully that the largest number of Down syndrome children are being born to younger women, said Dr. Edward McCabe of the Mattel Children's Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles.

• Risk Of Low Birth Weight May Be Reduced. [Medical News Today, UK] Undernourished women who take a vitamin and mineral supplement while pregnant may be less likely than women taking only iron and folic acid supplements to have babies weighing less than 2,500 grams, and their newborns may be less likely to have morbidity in the first seven days of life, according v to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Low birth weight, or a weight of less than 2,500 grams, is a major predictor of death in infancy, according to background information in the article. It also increases the risk that the child will grow up to develop coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke or high blood pressure. In countries low on resources, a mother's nutrition before and during pregnancy are known to affect the birth weight of her baby. Low-income women are often deficient in a number of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), including vitamins C and E, vitamin B complex and folate.

• Folate Levels Fall in Young U.S. Women. [Houston Chronicle] Blood levels of folate in young women are dropping, a disturbing development that could lead to increased birth defects and may be due to low-carb diets or the popularity of unfortified whole-grain breads. Government health officials could only speculate on the reasons but called the backslide in this important B vitamin disturbing. It's not clear how the decline in folate levels has affected newborns, but preliminary data suggest the dramatic declines in neural tube defects seen in the late 1990s may have leveled off by 2004, said officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is a cause of substantial concern," said Dr. Nancy Green, medical director for the March of Dimes, which campaigns for birth defects prevention. Folate is a naturally occurring B vitamin. An artificial version, which is more easily metabolized

• Folic Acid a Healthy Step for Hispanic Women. [HispanicBusiness.com] It's important for all women of childbearing age to understand the importance of folic acid for preventing birth defects. Folic acid is an important component of every woman’s diet because of its vital role in reducing the risk of serious birth defects called neural tube defects (NTDs). Folic acid is a B-Vitamin that helps the body to make healthy new cells. If taken before and during early pregnancy from a multi-vitamin or fortified foods, folic acid can prevent up to 70% of some forms of NTDs. While all women need to be informed about folic acid, in particular Hispanic women of childbearing age need to be informed about the need to take folic acid every day. According to national statistics, Hispanic babies are 1.5 to 2 times more likely than others in the U.S. to be born with a NTD than those of other races and ethnicities.

• With 60% of Pregnancies Unplanned, Women's Pre-Pregnancy Diets Become Increasingly Important. [PR Newswire] According to recent March of Dimes statistics, women of childbearing age are missing a healthy dose of folic acid in their diets and the Grain Foods Foundation, with the help of Susie Castillo, is reminding women of the important role the vitamin plays in preventing birth defects during January's Birth Defects Prevention Month. Folic acid is needed for spinal cord development in the first three weeks of a pregnancy; often before a woman even knows she is pregnant. "Since the majority of pregnancies are unplanned, it's important that young women pay attention to their eating habits now and follow a well-balanced diet that is rich in folic acid," said Castillo. "In particular, because Hispanic women are more likely to have a child born with a neural tube defect, it is necessary that they understand the importance of eating folic acid-rich foods like enriched grains to dramatically improve their chances of having a healthy baby some day."

• Vitamin E in Pregnant Women Linked to Fetal Growth. [Food Consumer] High vitamin E in pregnant women's blood was associated with higher birth weight in infants, according to a new study published in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The finding may indicate that taking vitamin E supplements or eat a diet high in vitamin E may prevent low birth weight. If that is true, too much of vitamin E in the blood may also push a normal fetus to grow too fast. But the association may simply indicate that vitamin E is a biomarker and other factors associated with vitamin E such as overall nutrition status of a diet may contribute to the fast growth of the fetus.

• Women Who Shed Pounds Become More Fertile. [WCSH-TV] As America's obesity epidemic grows, more and more women who want to become pregnant are having problems. So now, one Chicago-area doctor is promoting a fertility treatment that takes little more than will power: the commitment to lose weight. Reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Laurence Jacobs believes that diet and exercise will help aspiring mothers to become pregnant, where other fertility treatments have failed. Along with dieting tips, patients are given weighted exercise vests and told to workout 30 minutes, twice a day, even if it's just doing the housework, or walking around the block.

• UK: Too-Posh-to-Push Women 'Should Pay for Their Own Caesareans'. [Telegraph.co.uk, UK] Women who have caesareans as a "lifestyle choice" rather than for medical reasons should have to pay for their treatment. NHS money would be better spent on expensive cancer treatments than on mothers who choose the procedure because they are afraid of the pain of labor, Dr Tim Crayford, president of the Association of Director of Public Health, said. The caesarean rate has risen from nine% of all births in 1980 to almost 23% in 2004-05. There has been growing concern over the phenomenon of so-called mothers-to-be who are "too posh to push".

• Uterus Transplant Would Offer Chance For Women To Bear Children. [Playfuls.com, Romania] Doctors at a New York hospital plan the first uterus transplant to allow women with defective or removed wombs to bear children. A cancer specialist, Dr. Giuseppe Del Priore, and gynecologist surgeon, Dr. Jeanetta Stega, of the New York Downtown Hospital, which is part of the New York-Presbyterian Health Care system, revealed steps that would lead to the first uterus transplant. He said it was a natural progression after the successful transplants of limbs and partial facial replacements. "If this is a passionate desire for a woman who's had surgical removal of a uterus, I would think this would be something she'd really want to pursue," said Julia Rowland, director of the National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Survivorship.

• Herbs Found to be Ineffective for Symptoms of Menopause. [The New York Times] Black cohosh and other botanicals widely used to relieve the hot flashes and night sweats of menopause are no more effective than a placebo, according to a new study. Researchers tested 351 women over one year, dividing them into five groups. The first took 160 milligrams of black cohosh daily, the second took black cohosh in combination with a group of other botanicals including pomegranate, chaste tree and ginseng. A third group took the multibotanical regimen and received counseling that recommended two soy food servings per day to provide 12 to 20 grams of soy protein. The fourth received daily doses of estrogen with or without progestin, and the fifth took an inactive placebo. The study, published in the Dec. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that hormone treatment reduced night sweats by an average of one per night and hot flashes by an average of three per day, but that none of the botanical treatments differed from the placebo.

• Canada: Women’s Conference to Explore Effects of Aging. [Nanton News, Canada] The Nanton Women’s Conference will be holding its third annual event on January 13. This year’s theme is Women: Through Your Ages. The event is organized in an effort to gather women in and around the Nanton area for the purposes of learning, networking and communicating amongst each other. Eileen Bahlsen, conference committee member, said the conference is truly a celebration of the female gender. “People always say women are the backbone (of society), and they truly are,” Bahlsen said. “The range of talents of women we have in this community is absolutely astounding.”

• Public Support Must for Fighting Female Feticide. [PunjabNewsline.com, India] The public support is the need of the hour in curtailing the present trend of the female feticide from this society and this is not possible without bringing in full awareness among the masses against this social evil. District legal services authority K.K.Karir made these remarks while addressing a seminar on the female feticide at village Sensarwal. The seminar was being organized by the village panchayat. Before addressing the seminar he also inaugurated an exhibition put up by the health department covering the topics of female feticide, AIDS and intoxication etc. Karir said that if not checked in time than this issue would become a serious matter in the coming days as the male –female ratio was taking an ugly turn. He also mentioned the case of this village where the number of girls against the boys was very low here number of girls is 21 against the number of boys 48. He said that though the law had a capacity to punish the guilty but so far he believes in pursuing the people to shun this path. He urged the people to know that if there is no girl in the world than how the human beings will get birth on this earth. So he exhorted the people to immediately change their mind set over this issue to save the humanity from vanishing.

• Rally on Female Feticide. [Ludhiana Newsline, India] Spring Dale Senior Secondary School organized a rally on female feticide to mark Lohri. Students along with teachers participated in it. The purpose of the rally was to give the rightful place to the girl child as Lohri should also be celebrated on the birth of a girl child. It was organized to make people aware about the consequences of female feticide so that the heinous crime is stopped. Avinash Kaur Walia, Director and Founder Principal of the school, flagged off the rally. Students holding placards, banners and posters reflected the plight of the girl child. They raised slogans like ‘Killing Girl Child is a Crime’ and ‘Save Girl, Save Future’. At various stages, lectures were delivered. Students discussed and delivered speeches among the gathering about the importance of the girl child. The rally started from Spring Dale School and passed from Dholewal locality, Rama Charitable Hospital, Daba Road, and the government school at Miller Ganj.

• Punjab Celebrates Girl's Lohri to Focus on Female Feticide. [PunjabNewsline.com, India] The staff and students of SGPC run Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab by celebrating Lohri of second daughter of the College employee Harminderjit Singh Sonu to spread a message against female feticide. Fatehgarh sahib district, dominated by Sikhs, has recorded lowest male-female ratio in the country. The function was organized with the efforts of Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib principal Dr Gurmohan Singh Walia and students of Journalism and mass communication. Dr Walia said that as a result of the adverse male female ratio in district Fatehgarh Sahib it is the need of the hour to change the mindset of the people who consider that only the birth of a male child calls for celebration. As per Dr Walia "Charity begins at home, as educationists it is our moral duty to raise our voice against the evil prevailing in the society." He said that the celebration of Lohri of a girl child was itself a very positive step to change the mindset of the male child seeker people. It is heart rendering that a prosperous state like Punjab is facing adverse male-female ratio and Fatehgarh Sahib District has the lowest sex ratio. In the Lohri celebration at Mata Gujri College, Fatehgarh Sahib College employee, the students and teachers participated in the event with great zeal and enthusiasm.

• FGM Raises Childbirth Problems. [Medical News Today, UK] A new study published by WHO has shown that women who have had Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are significantly more likely to experience difficulties during childbirth and that their babies are more likely to die as a result of the practice. Researchers found there was an increased need to resuscitate babies whose mothers had had FGM. It is estimated that in the African context an additional 10 to 20 babies die per 1000 deliveries as a result of the practice. The reliable evidence regarding its harmful effects, both for mothers and their babies, should contribute to the abandonment of the practice.

• Former Fistula Patient Preaches Prevention to Village Women in Niger. [UNFPA] Kouboura Moutari greets visitors to her home in the village of Madara with her fist raised in a power salute. Unlike most village girls, she is boldly confident when she speaks, with her head held high, her posture erect, and plenty of eye contact. To see her today, one would never realize the suffering Kouboura has endured. She was married when she was just fifteen years old and soon after delivered her first stillborn child. When her second child was due, she labored for two days before her family brought her by horse and cart to the hospital for a Caesarean, but it was too late and she lost that baby, too. “It took too long,” remembers Kouboura, sitting in front of the thatch hut she shares with her family. “When it was done, I realized that I couldn’t control it. Urine was just flowing out of me.” Kouboura had suffered a fistula, a hole in the birth canal that can lead to chronic incontinence. A simple surgical procedure can repair the injury, with success rates as high as 90%. Unfortunately, the price tag of about $300 is out of range for most fistula patients. Kouboura was one of the lucky ones. She was operated on and the uncontrollable flow of urine stopped.

• Women Who Take NNRTI Have More Cervical HIV Shedding. [Aidsmap, UK] A substantial number of antiretroviral-treated women with an undetectable or very low (below 500 copies/ml) plasma viral load were nevertheless shedding potentially infectious amounts of HIV from their cervix in an American study published in the January 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. In addition, the investigators found that women who took a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) were more likely to have cervical shedding of HIV than women who took a protease inhibitor as part of their HIV treatment regimen. Use of illicit drugs such as crack, cocaine and heroin was also associated with cervical HIV shedding. Cervical shedding of HIV points to the potential for HIV transmission during vaginal intercourse and during childbirth, even when a woman has undetectable plasma viral load.

• Study Finds Pregnant Women Can Take Anti-AIDS Drug. [New York Times] Women can take the anti-AIDS drug nevirapine to protect their unborn children without endangering their ability to undergo life-saving antiretroviral treatment later on, a new study has found. The results are good news for poor women in Africa, Asia and Latin America who must take nevirapine, an inexpensive first-line drug that often prevents the transmission of H.I.V. from mother to child. The drug lingers in the blood up to three weeks, and if the mother has the AIDS virus, its presence encourages the growth of nevirapine-resistant strains. That has led to fears that any antiretroviral drug cocktail containing nevirapine would be useless. But the new study, being published in The New England Journal of Medicine, finds that such a cocktail is still effective if women simply delay it for six months after taking the protective dose of nevirapine.

• Delaying Nevirapine Fox Six Months May Improve Outcome Among HIV-Infected Women. [E Canada Now, Canada] Delaying the use of nevirapine-containing antiretroviral therapy (ART) for at least six months after labor may improve treatment outcomes among HIV-infected women in developing countries who took nevirapine during labor to prevent their babies from becoming infected, suggests a new study in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings could potentially change treatment approaches for millions of mothers infected with the AIDS virus. The study appears in the January 11, 2007, issue of the journal. Nevirapine, given once during labor, either alone or in combination with a short course of zidovudine (AZT) or other antiretroviral medications, significantly reduces the chances that a pregnant woman will pass HIV to her child. A single dose of nevirapine during labor is frequently all that is accessible to pregnant women in resource-limited settings where more complicated and expensive, multidrug treatments may not be available. The use of single-dose nevirapine has successfully reduced mother-to-infant transmission of HIV, but has also created a terrible dilemma for physicians and patients. Research has shown that 20 to 69% of women who take a single dose of nevirapine during labor subsequently develop resistance to the drug — a situation that may undermine the patients” ability to respond later to nevirapine-containing ART when they may need the treatment to save their lives. Nevirapine is the cornerstone of three-drug ART in most regions of the world. Drug resistance develops as well in a range of the minority of infants who become HIV infected, despite the use of single-dose nevirapine.

• Technique Based on Buddhist Philosophy is Helping Western Women with Eating Disorders. [DailyIndia.com] When it comes to battling eating disorders, two psychologists have found that a psychological technique based on Buddhist philosophy and practice may provide a solution for women in the West. Griffith University psychologists Michelle Hanisch and Angela Morgan have come up with a technique known as 'mindfulness', which is currently being taught to women in Queensland, Australia to help them understand and deal with the emotions that trigger their binges. The psychologists revealed that unlike many therapies for eating disorders, there is less focus on food and controlling eating and more on providing freedom from negative thoughts and emotions. They revealed that women who binged are often high-achievers and perfectionists. These women turn to binge eating when they fail to meet self-imposed standards, or feel as if they are not in control of situations.

• Doctors Fault Designers’ Stance Over Thin Models. [New York Times] The response of American fashion designers to the problem of dangerously thin models on the runway is to propose educational reform and better working conditions. The response of eating disorder professionals is to suggest that those models should not be on the runways at all. The Academy for Eating Disorders, an international doctors’ organization based in Northbrook, Ill., planned to release a series of recommendations today that contrast sharply with the proposals discussed by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in a meeting led by the designer Diane Von Furstenberg. While designers have resisted age and weight requirements, the doctors’ group insists that they are necessary.

• Women Risk Health Avoiding Eating. [Life Style Extra, UK] More than one in two women are risking their health by going without food in a bid to fit into Britain's body obsessed society. Weight is the new 'class divide' with an alarming eight in ten people believing the rich tend to be slim and the poor fat. And the perception is generally right with full time working women earning less than £15,000 a year four times more likely to be overweight than those on at least £35,000. Part time workers with a salary under £6,000 are twice as likely to be overweight than those earning £12,000 and clerical workers are nine times more likely to be overweight than those at director level. The survey of 2,000 women by Closer magazine's healthy eating website found just one in a hundred women are happy with their body and more than half (54%) hate it - rising to two thirds of the under-twenty-fives.

• Do Skinny Girls Make the Subway Late? [that’s fit] One of the most annoying things about relying on public transportation is that it never seems to arrive on time when you need it to. According to an analysis of statistics from NYC's Metro Transit Authority, skinny girls could be one of the major reasons your train gets delayed. Huh? It's not as out there as it sounds. "Sick customer" is listed as the Number 3 cause of disruptions between October 2005 and October 2006. According to MTA personnel, these ill passengers are often women who faint during the morning rush hour after going on crash diets. As reported by New York's Early AM newspaper, "You have women trying to get their bodies tight for the summer and they won't eat," said Asim Nelson, a Transit emergency medical technician based in Grand Central Station. "Not eating for three or four days, you are going to go down. If you don't eat for 12 hours you are going to get weak." So have some breakfast, and quit holding up everyone else's commute!

• Full-Fat Dairy Products Help Weight Loss. [FemaleFirst.co.uk, UK] Adults can reduce their weight by consuming full-fat dairy products over time, a study has claimed. Researchers studied over 19,000 women to find those who had at least one serving of whole milk or cheese a day put on less weight over nine years compared to the women who ate these foods occasionally. Recent studies have suggested milk, yoghurt and other dairy might help regulate body fat because of the high calcium content. Health experts have warned the latest findings should not be taken seriously until there is more supporting evidence.

• Girls Most Likely to Gain Weight as Pre-Teens. [Forbes] Girls are most likely to gain weight early in adolescence, between the ages of nine and twelve, a new report finds. And the health consequences of being overweight can be evident in girls as young as nine, all of which points to the need to tailor prevention efforts to ever-younger ages. "We really need to get to kids before age nine and ten, and this really puts the pressure on elementary school, preschool and whatever societal institutions we have to really focus on young ages," said study co-author Eva Obarzanek, a research nutritionist at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Miscellaneous

• Mothers' Wombs Could Provide Stem Cells Without Ethical Controversy. [Alok Jha, The Guardian] A new process for harvesting stem cells could satisfy anti-abortion campaigners because it does not require using embryos. Scientists have found a new source of stem cells that does not involve destroying embryos. The cells can be harvested easily from the fluid surrounding developing babies in the womb and could help overcome ethical concerns. It has been known for decades that the placenta and the amniotic fluid in the womb contain important cells. "We asked the question: is there a possibility that within this cell population we can capture true stem cells? The answer is yes," said Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest, who led the research. Stem cells can grow into any type of body tissue and are used to research cures for conditions such as diabetes and brain disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. It is hoped that one day they may be used to grow replacement tissue that is a perfect genetic match for patients with damaged organs. Stem cells from embryos are highly prized because they are the most adaptable. They are hard to obtain, however, because they are normally harvested from embryos left over from fertility treatments. Anti-abortion campaigners argue this leads to destruction of human life. Adults also have stem cells, but these can turn into fewer types of body tissue.

• Bone Drug Helps Even When Women Stop Taking It. [Hawaii Channel.com] Millions of women take alendronate, a drug that is designed to strengthen bones, fight osteoporosis and prevent bone fractures. But doctors didn't know how many years women could safely take the drug or how effective it was in long-term use. But a new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that it may even keep working after women stop taking it.

• Not Just for New Year's: Study Shows Many Women Resolve to Get in Shape. [Yahoo! News] New Year's might be considered prime time for resolving to get in shape -- 64% of women say that it's on their list of resolutions, but seven out of 10 women (71%) make up their minds at least twice a year to eat right and exercise, according to a new survey (1). And, more than a third (37%) renew their weight-loss and fitness vows four or more times a year. While the single biggest challenge (51%) for those wanting to lose weight and get fit -- at New Year's or any time of the year -- is getting started, nearly 70% of women are likely to make food purchases throughout the year with the intent to lose or maintain weight.

• Ban on Female Plasma Donors Possible. [Fresno Bee] The Central California Blood Center may stop accepting plasma donations from women next year, sharply reducing the number of donors in the central San Joaquin Valley. Blood centers across the country are considering dropping women as plasma donors to meet new safety recommendations from the American Association of Blood Banks, which set standards for the collection, processing and transfusion of blood and blood products. Women face being excluded as donors because proteins called human leukocyte antibodies are created in their bodies during pregnancy. People transfused with plasma that carries the antibodies are more likely to develop a rare but potentially deadly lung condition.

• Gender and Cigarettes. [Kansas City Star] Studies show that women have a harder time quitting and staying off cigarettes and respond less well than men to nicotine replacement therapy. Cigarettes and nicotine also appear to affect men and women in markedly different ways. In addition, research shows that women who smoke are more susceptible to lung cancer than their male counterparts. As a result, scientists are working with increased urgency to understand the relationship between smoking and gender. “What we’re learning is that the female heart and the female lung are very different from the male heart and the male lung,” said Sherry Marts, vice president for scientific affairs at the Society for Women’s Health Research, an educational and advocacy group in Washington. “Some differences we’re going to find are just going to be biological curiosities, but a lot of them are going to be significant for medical therapy.”

• How Women Pick Mates vs. Flings. [LiveScience.com] Science might be able to explain our fascination with Brad Pitt's chiseled jaw and George Clooney's smoldering eyes. Women seem to judge potential mates by how masculine their features are, new research shows. Men with square jaws and well-defined brow ridges are seen as good short-term partners, while those with more feminine traits such as a rounder face and fuller lips are perceived as better long-term mates. In the study, 854 male and female subjects viewed a series of male head shots that had been digitally altered to exaggerate or minimize masculine traits. The participants then answered questions about how they expected the men in the photos to behave. Overwhelmingly, participants said those with more masculine features were likely to be risky and competitive and also more apt to fight, challenge bosses, cheat on spouses and put less effort into parenting. Those with more feminine faces were seen as good parents and husbands, hard workers and emotionally supportive mates [compare examples].

• Women Drinkers 'Depression Link'. [BBC News, UK] The link between binge drinking and depression is stronger in women than men, a study suggests. U.S. and Canadian researchers quizzed 6,009 men and 8,054 women about alcohol intake and their history of depression. They found women who were binge drinkers were more likely to be clinically depressed than men.

• Headache and Depression Link Found – Women Who Suffer From Migraines More Likely to be Depressed. [Best Syndication] Women who suffer from chronic headaches, especially migraines, are at a higher risk for depression. These women are also more likely to feel tired and experience other severe physical ailments. "Painful physical symptoms may provoke or be a manifestation of major depression in women with chronic headache, and depression may heighten pain perception," said study author Gretchen Tietjen, MD with the University of Toledo-Health Science Campus and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "This relation between migraine and major depression suggests a common neurobiology."

• Female Veterans Suffer from PTSD. [North Platte Telegraph] Anxiety attacks. Insomnia. Overreactions to sudden loud noises. Welcome to life after deployment. “Women handle conflict differently than men,” said Operation Desert Storm veteran Teresa Wickens. “Veterans groups and the Veterans Administration (VA) are not prepared to handle that.” During and after the Vietnam War, mental-health professionals noticed adjustment problems in some veterans returning from Southeast Asia. In 1980 this condition was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A recent study by the VA showed 8–10% of U.S. women who served in Iraq suffer from PTSD, and that women serving in Iraq suffer from more pronounced and rehabilitating symptoms of PTSD than men.

• Physiological Changes Can Hurt Female Athletes. [Canton Repository] Kay Comer sometimes felt stuck in a stranger's body. She looked in the mirror last summer and saw few remnants of the scrawny high school freshman whom cross-country coaches had once referred to as "lungs with legs." Comer's hips had expanded. Her shoulders had broadened. Her thighs had developed more muscle. Only a year earlier, Comer won a district championship at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Va., and earned a reputation as Virginia's up-and-coming distance runner. Now, even her shortest jogs ended in a hobbled limp. "I went through a stage where running was hard and it hurt everywhere,'' Comer said. "I just didn't want to do it.'' Like most female cross-country runners, Comer has faced much greater hardship than the typical high school athlete who grows up, builds muscle and improves each season.

• Women More Willing to Have Cosmetic Surgery Now Than Ever Before! [DailyIndia.com] A new survey has found that the number of women willing to undergo cosmetic surgery to improve their looks has doubled in two years. Nearly one-third of the women participants in the study said that they were "favorably disposed" to having a little work done to improve their looks. The study shows how a growing acceptance of surgery, fuelled by television shows like Nip/Tuck, Extreme Makeover and Ten Years Younger, have 'desensitized' attitudes to radical procedures. About 690,000 procedures are to be carried out this year, a 40% increase on last year, and 240% higher than 2001. Analysts have predicted that the number of women willing to go under the knife will grow by 139% within the next four years, and that the cosmetic surgery market could be worth 1.8 billion pounds per year by 2011.