Archive for August, 2008

Douching is cleansing or rinsing out the vagina by squirting water or other water related solutions like baking soda, vinegar or commercial douching solutions.

The commercial solution or water is taken into the container and are squirted through a tube or nozzle.

Why most of you prefer vaginal douching?

Usually, most of you like to douche because you believe that the process gives various benefits. But, frankly speaking douching causes more harm than good. The most common reasons why women prefer to douche include:

• To remove the abnormal odors from the vagina
• To clean the vagina
• To reduce the chances of occurring sexually transmitted diseases
• To prevent becoming pregnant
• To clean the blood after regular monthly periods

Vaginal douching is most common among the women in US. According to the studies, 20-40% of the women aged in between 15-44 used to douche regularly.

What about the safety of douching?

Experts said that all the healthy vaginas consist of some form of bacteria and some other organisms called as vaginal flora. The vagina’s normal acidity keeps the amount of bacteria low. But, if you follow vaginal douching, it disturbs this delicate balance. This can cause you to get vaginal infections.

According to a research, Low vitamin D levels may contribute to chronic pain among women.

The findings are based on the blood analysis and pain scores of almost 7000 45 year old men and women from across England, Scotland and Wales, all of whom were born during one week in March 1958.

Smokers, non-drinkers, the overweight and the underweight all reported higher rates of chronic pain.

The extent of chronic widespread pain did not vary among men according to vitamin D levels. However, this was not the case for women.

Women with vitamin D levels between 75 and 99 mmol/litre had the lowest rates of this type of pain, at just over 8%.

Women with levels of less than 25 mmol/litre had the highest rates, at 14.4%.

There appeared to be a J shaped curve, with the prevalence of widespread pain at 10% or higher among those with vitamin D levels above 99 mmol/litre.

The findings were not explained by gender differences in lifestyle or social factors, such as levels of physical activity and time spent outdoors, say the authors.

A new survey had revealed that though ovarian cancer remains one of biggest gynaecological cancer killers, many women are unsure or unaware of the symptoms of the disease.

As many as 1,500 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year and more than half of these women will not survive five years after their initial diagnosis.

The main reason is because more than 70 per cent of women are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when the cancer has spread and is difficult to treat successfully.

A new patient resource kit developed by Ovarian Cancer Australia (OvCa) has been designed to help women battling ovarian cancer and includes an information guide to living with the cancer and a daily diary for recording doctors’ appointments and setting goals.

The kit will be available to all women with ovarian cancer and aims to give women reliable and comprehensive information to help them to cope with the serious disease, which often has a devastating effect.

The survey of over 2,000 women revealed over 60 per cent of Australian women still believe an abnormal Pap test is a sign of ovarian cancer, even though a Pap test is designed to detect cervical cancer.

Naturopathy is a part of traditional Chinese medicine. Naturopathy teaches you about maintaining a healthy and balanced body with proper diet, exercise, and a positive attitude.

Usually naturopathic practitioners recommend you to avoid caffeine, because caffeine consumption interferes with ovulation.

Also, they recommend you to maintain normal weight and to eat only organic foods like fruits and vegetables.

Consume the fruits and vegetables that are produced without the use of any toxic chemicals.

You need to avoid alcohol intake because excessive intake of alcohol increases the production of hormone, called as prolactin. This disturbs your menstrual cycle and finally leads to problems related to fertility.

Also, you need to avoid smoking. Smoking is very harmful for your body and this greatly reduces the blood flow to your cervix and restrains the action of cilia. Cilia are the tiny hairs in your fallopian tube that direct the egg towards your uterus.

Nutritional therapy for female infertility treatment:

For proper functioning of your body, balanced diet is very essential. Supplements are very essential to improve your fertility.

Insufficient calories and proteins from malnourishment is the main cause of infertility. So, sufficient nutrition is very essential for the treatment of any illness along with infertility.

Before menopause, women have a blood pressure advantage. Women’s blood pressure starts out lower than men’s, but the advantage doesn’t last.

Women’s systolic pressure — the top number in the blood pressure reading and the one that’s more closely associated with heart disease risk and stroke in people over age 50 — increases by about 5 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) with menopause.

A study done between 2001 and 2003 among people over age 60 showed that women had a higher systolic blood pressure than did men in every state in America.

According to the report, women tended to think they didn’t have high blood pressure when, in fact, they did.

For healthy adults, blood pressure less than 120/80 mm Hg is desirable. Untreated high blood pressure can cause the heart to work too hard. As a result, the walls of arteries can harden and impede blood flow. Restricted blood flow can lead to stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure and dementia.

When blood pressure rises above normal, it’s essential to work with a doctor on a treatment plan to control the condition. The plan might include medications as well as these basic steps. Even one can make a significant difference in blood pressure.

Are you really depressed because of your inability to deliver a baby? Then don’t become depressed about it! Certain recent studies are assertively finding out many solutions for treating all kinds of female infertility issues.

One of the most effective ways to increase your chances of becoming pregnant is, to know more about vaginal progesterone and its influence on your reproductive system of your body.

How the progesterone levels vary in your body?

Progesterone is basically considered as pregnancy hormone in women. It can greatly help you in creating a healthy environment in your uterus or womb, where a fertilized egg actually implants and grow into a healthy infant.

Before ovulation, the progesterone levels in your body relatively tend to be very low. But once when you reach the luteal phase, the latter part of your regular menstrual cycle, the progesterone levels in your body gradually tends to increase. In fact, this part of your menstrual cycle begins with the production of progesterone hormone and usually ends either with your pregnancy or menstruation.

So, during your pregnancy, the progesterone plays a very crucial role in maintaining the lining of the uterus and as a result, it helps you in providing essential nutrients to support and nurture a fertilized egg.

When someone well-known such as Christina Applegate is diagnosed with breast cancer, many adult women become concerned as to what the future holds for them.

While it’s true that 1 out of 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in her lifetime, there are also a lot of misconceptions about the disease floating around.

Although Applegate is just 36 years old, the fact remains that breast cancer is more likely to strike women over the age of 50.

Still, many women under the age of 40 may now be tempted to run out and demand mammograms.

But mammograms are ineffective for most young women, told Dr. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families.

“Young women’s breasts are dense and if they get mammograms, their breasts show up very white on mammograms and cancer shows up as white,” she said.

“But, as women get older, their breasts are less dense and show up gray on a mammogram, which makes it easy to identify the white cancer.

If there is a family history, and women are worried, they can start earlier and in this case a digital mammography may work better than a traditional mammography.”

Are you repeatedly experiencing any uneasy or tingling irritation on your vaginal skin?

Even though vaginal itching is the hallmark of all kinds of vaginal infections, itching at vagina or vulvar areas has multiple causes.

Because of this tingling sensation at your vulvar areas, you can have a desire to scratch at those particular areas of your skin, which can be the most disgusting thing to do.

Basically your vagina acts as a host for various micro organisms such as yeast cells and bacteria. These organisms persistently exist in your vagina and gradually try to maintain balance with each other in their growth.

Whenever the balance in the growth of these organisms is lost, it can result as an inflammation or infection on your vaginal skin and leads to vaginal itching.

Never try to ignore frequent itching of your vagina!

Regular and frequent vaginal itching is a sure sign of underlying vaginal infections. So, never try to ignore any kind of abnormal sensations at your vagina, as they can lead to a wide range of vaginal infections and complications.