I don't remember where I first read about this procedure. I was amused and then the question I started asking myself upon reading the popularity of the procedure among some women was, why bother? When I googled "vaginal rejuvenation" I can't believe the number of places offering the services!

Reuters
Updated: 12:01 p.m. PT Aug 31, 2007

Cosmetic procedures billed as ”vaginal rejuvenation,” “designer vaginoplasty” or even “revirgination” are not medically necessary and are not guaranteed to be safe, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists cautioned on Friday.

The group, which educates and accredits doctors who treat women and deliver babies, said it is deceptive to give the impression that any of these procedures are accepted or routine.

In guidance published in the September issue of its journal, Obstetrics & Gynecology, the group, known as ACOG, said the procedures can cause complications such as infection, altered sensation, pain and scarring.

The procedures include changing the shape or size of the labia, “restoring” the hymen, and tightening the vagina.

Dr. Abbey Berenson, who helped write the guidelines, said some women may be fooled by deceptive marketing practices into thinking they need the surgery because they are somehow abnormal.

“Many women don’t realize that the appearance of external genitals varies significantly from woman to woman,” Berenson said in a statement.

Read more here.

Garlic has become a popular food supplement for the support of a healthy cardiovascular system. Garlic contains the chemicals alliin and allinase, and when combined produce allicin — the active ingredient in garlic which most scientists believe is responsible for providing this important support for cardiovascular health.

The following story about what garlic can do sounds very promising. A friend of mine died of brain cancer while in his early thirties.

CHARLESTON, S.C., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Garlic can kill cells that cause glioblastoma, a brain cancer that is usually fatal, researchers in South Carolina have found.

Swapan Ray and Narendra Banik, neurosciences professors at the Medical University of South Carolina, said their discovery came during a search for a way to kill the cancer without harming healthy cells, The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier reported.

"In the disease, you want to kill the cells, but you want to protect others," Banik told the newspaper. "Our tests were to see how effective the compounds were."

Banik, Ray and post-doctoral fellow Arabinda Das tested several organic compounds on cancerous cells. They included garlic in the test program because of its reputation for having healing powers.

Three organo-sulfur compounds they tested effectively stopped the cancerous cells, Ray said.

"This research highlights the great promise of plant-originated compounds as natural medicine for controlling the malignant growth of human brain tumor cells," Ray said.

More studies are needed in animals before the therapeutic strategy can be applied to human patients, Ray said.

The research will be published next month in the American Cancer Society's journal, Cancer.

UPI Story via Science Daily News

I do not have a weight problem, but I do have a belly fat problem. Even when I was a skinny teenager I had a fat tummy in comparison to the rest of my body.

Now that I am older, I do not know if there is something I can do about reducing the belly fat. What bothers me is that the fat could be the inner abdominal fat, or visceral fat that is associated with heart disease and diabetes.

A Canadian study found that the Chinese and South Asian participants tended to have a greater proportion of visceral fat. That means Asians are more likely to develop weight-related illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. :-(

By Terri Coles

TORONTO (Reuters) - The danger in putting on weight isn't just a matter of how much, but also where the fat goes -- and it seems some ethnic and racial groups have a tendency to gain fat where it does the most damage.

Compared with people of European ancestry, those of Chinese and South Asian ancestry tend to have relatively more inner abdominal fat, which puts them at a higher risk of developing weight-related illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, a Canadian study found.

The results, published this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show that current methods of measuring body fat may not be accurate for people who are not of European descent because the targets generally used for waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) are based on studies whose participants were predominately of Caucasian European origin, said lead researcher Dr. Scott Lear, and an assistant professor at the School of Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

This inaccuracy could make it harder to identify weight-related problems and to treat people in certain ethnic populations, even when they are the same size as Europeans. "If we use targets based on Caucasians for the Asian population, we're not going to identify people until they're at a higher risk," Lear said.

The study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, looked at 800 healthy Chinese, South Asian, Aboriginal and European subjects, evenly distributed among the four ethnic and racial groups.

The participants' amounts of abdominal fat were compared based on the same amounts of total body fat, Lear explained, because in a random sample, the Chinese and South Asians would tend to be smaller than the Europeans and would have less overall body fat even if they had the same BMI, a ratio of weight to height.

Inner abdominal fat, or visceral fat, is not the fat you grab when you pinch an inch on your stomach. Instead, it sits behind the abdominal wall around the internal organs, and tends to be more strongly associated with heart disease and diabetes.

The researchers found that Aborigines didn't have a difference in their body fat distribution compared with Europeans, but the Chinese and South Asian participants tended to have a greater proportion of visceral fat.

The research team recognized that other factors such as diet and physical activity might differ across ethnic groups, so those were taken into account, along with smoking, education and income. Even with those influences controlled for, the differences in body fat still remained.

"What that lends us to believe," Lear said, "is that there's some physiological or genetic rule that is deciding that a higher proportion of fat goes into the abdominal area in Asians than it does in Europeans."

How often do you justify your complaining as "something you needed to get off your chest"? How often have you actually felt that the incessant griping actually made you feel worse instead of better?

I know that feeling very well! I even get sleepless nights because I would replay whatever caused me the angst in my mind.

Voicing your frustrations is a natural way of dealing with them — but watch out for when a conversation dissolves into a bitch session. Talking your problems to death can make you feel even worse.

A recent study found that teenage girls who vented to each other about their problems, from boy trouble to social slights, were more likely to develop depression and anxiety — and the same is likely true for adult women, says Amanda Rose, the author of the study.

“There’s a definite belief in our culture that talking about our problems makes you feel better,” says Rose, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, whose research was published in the July issue of Developmental Psychology. “That’s true in moderation. ... It only becomes risky when it becomes excessive.”

.......

Still, there’s an upside to all that complaining. Rose points out that in her findings, the girls who vented to each other also reported feeling closer to their friends. It can establish an instant bond because the listeners know the complainer trusts them enough to spill their emotions — and the complainer’s just grateful that someone is willing to listen.

My father has been on oral diabetic treatment for many years and it has adversely affected his kidney function. He is now on insulin treatment.

I suffered from gestational diabetes and since I have a family history of diabetes, I am afraid that I am a likely candidate for diabetes.

I am interested in natural solutions for diabetes. I have known for quite some time now about the benefits of Gymnema Sylvestre in lowering blood sugar levels. I have a bottle of it which I got from my online food supplement store. But the thing with this tablet is that I am supposed to take it about half an hour before a meal. And I keep forgetting to do it!

I have recently discovered that bitter melon (peria, in Malay) also have some benefit in lowering blood sugar levels. There has been in fact a study on the effects of bitter melon (Momordica charantia) on serum and liver triglyceride levels in rats.

Today I was at my favorite Asian supermarket, and bought myself some fresh bitter melons. I was quite surprised to find bitter melon tea at the tea and coffee aisle in the supermarket. Naturally I bought some! I don't really like bitter stuff but if it helps my health, I will take it! I even bought a small teapot for my tea. :-)

Skin whitening or lightening cosmetic products are popular among Asians. A lighter complexion is the ideal for those born with a naturally darker complexion.

In some cultures, a dark complexion means that you are of the lower class, somebody who has to work out in the sun, whereas a lighter complexion means that you are pampered and stays indoors.

But whatever our ethnic background eventually there comes a time in our life where we will struggle with some kind of skin pigmentation problem. Personally I've noticed some dark patches on my face. I have begun to use sunscreen on my face during the day, in hopes of limiting the progress of the skin discoloration. So far I have noticed that it is not getting worse.

The beauty products that I am currently using, Beauticontrol, have made a dramatic improvement on the quality and appearance of my complexion. I have not tried any product from their Whitening line, though.

There have been reports about the safety concerns of skin lightening beauty products which use Hydroquinone as the active ingredient. But according to an article in Medical News Today, " A risk -benefit approach in which all of the data available on HQ and alternatives is assessed is most likely to provide a path forward for providing optimal therapeutic benefits to patients with pigmentary changes of the skin."

That said, I am not worried about using a skin whitening product produced by companies that adhere to strict preparation standards.

I confess I am addicted to my lip balm! I hate the feeling of tightness and dryness on my lips. After I have washed my mouth, I will immediately look for my lip balm. :-o

FRIDAY, Aug. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Some people use lip balm so often that it's almost like an addiction.

"For many people, it is quite difficult for them to stop using lip balm because they've become so used to their lips having more moisture content than they had in the past," Dr. Lisa Garner, a dermatologist at Baylor Medical Center in Garland, Texas, said in a prepared statement.

This lip balm "addiction" isn't a problem as long as you don't develop an allergy to any of the ingredients.

"On occasion, you may develop an irritation or sensitivity to one of the ingredients that may make your lips feel dry, because you're actually having a reaction to the lip balm," Garner said.

Flavoring, fragrances or added preservatives may be the source of the problem if you do have problems with a lip balm. Switching to an unflavored or unscented type of lip balm may solve the problem, Garner said.

Lip balms work by sealing in natural moisture and, in terms of effectiveness, there isn't much difference between a 99-cent lip balm and more expensive brands, experts say.

Many people have known for a long time that after unprotected sex, one can take a large dose of the contraceptive pill and it can prevent pregnancy. Plan B is just the "large number of pills" put together in one tablet.

I do not oppose the use of contraceptive pills, so to me this is just another version of the pill for pregnancy prevention. What I am against is abortion after pregnancy has been ascertained. The only danger of the easy access of this pill is that it might promote more promiscuity among the young who refused to use the condom and prefer to take the Plan B pill. We still don't know the long term effects of frequent use of this pregnancy prevention pill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Sales of the Plan B "morning-after pill" nearly doubled in the past year, exceeding expectations after the U.S. government allowed adults to buy the emergency contraceptive without a prescription.

A three-year battle ended last August when the Food and Drug Administration decided that women and men 18 and older could buy the Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. product without a doctor's order if they showed proof of age at a pharmacy.

"More women know about it, and it's just becoming much more part of their mainstream reproductive health care," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said.

Plan B pills contain higher doses of progestin, a hormone used in prescription birth-control pills for 35 years. Two Plan B pills reduce odds of pregnancy by 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, studies show.

Plan B sales hit about $40 million a year when the product required a prescription for all women. Industry analysts and Barr projected nonprescription access for adults, approved in August 2006, could boost sales to about $60 million in 2007.

The popularity of Plan B has exceeded those estimates.

Barr launched the nonprescription version last November, and the company predicts 2007 sales will reach about $80 million.

"We believe (sales) will continue to grow," Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox said.

Read more here.

I wrote about a 3-day diet in another blog. The 3-day diet may seem to work for a time, but in reality the weight loss is mostly due to the liquid loss from the body. Moreover the food that the dieter must eat gets monotonous and boring for a time. I think that kind of diet would qualify as a dangerous diet.

(HealthDay News) -- The right way to diet and lose weight is slowly, over time, and while eating a balanced diet with plenty of healthy foods, the American Heart Association says.

Diets that encourage eating only one type of food or encourage rapid weight loss can be dangerous to your health.

The association offers this list of the possible risks posed by fad diets:

• Nutritional deficiencies caused by a lack of a balanced diet.
• Lack of physical activity from emphasis on diet only can increase the risk of heart disease.
• Lack of variety in foods can cause boredom and frustration, and make it difficult to maintain the diet for more than a brief period.
• Severe restrictions on the foods you can eat may make it difficult to establish and maintain a healthy diet in the future.
• Many quick weight-loss diets are based on unfounded claims that may do more harm than good.

A national TV personality, Robin Roberts, recently was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery. Well-known Malaysian actress, Azean Irdawaty was also diagnosed with stage three breast cancer and currently undergoing treatment. Laura Ingraham, a radio talk show host, was also diagnosed with breast cancer but has been cancer free for two years after successful medical treatment.

These news highlight the importance of breast self exams because early detection of lumps in the breasts, and immediate medical treatment can save a woman's life.

(HealthDay News) -- Women should examine their breasts regularly to detect lumps or abnormalities that could signal breast cancer. An exam should be done once a month, several days after the last day of a woman's period.

Here are the five basic steps to a breast self-exam, courtesy of Breastcancer.org:

• Standing with your shoulders straight and your arms on your hips, face a mirror. Look for any differences in size, shape, color, swelling or bulging of the skin, changes in the nipple, or any signs of redness or rash.
• Raise your arms, and examine your breasts for any of those differences.
• Gently squeeze each nipple to check for any discharge.
• Lie down, and feel each breast with the hand of the opposite arm. Feel all the tissue, applying pressure to check deep tissue for any lumps or abnormalities.
• Examine the breasts while you are standing or sitting, gently examining the entire breast. You may want to try this method in the shower, while the skin is slippery.