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New clinical trial: Pycnogenol improves signs and symptoms of menopause

Half the population experiences menopause, and for those women, it is a condition they will experience for approximately one third of their lifetime. Alternative or natural remedies are an easy, effective way to improve signs and symptoms linked to the menopausal transition, without side effects.

7 Mar 2012

Simple recommendations help reduce environmental exposures for women

Remove your shoes at the door of your home to avoid tracking in pollutants. Decrease consumption of processed and canned foods. Avoid the use of plastics with recycling codes #3, #4 and #7. Don't use chemical tick and flea collars or dips for pets. Reproductive health care providers should share these tips and more scientific information with women who want to become pregnant or who are pregnant, but that does not always happen.

7 Mar 2012

Congress must protect international family planning funding

"Opponents of birth control don't just want to limit access in the U.S., they want to slash U.S. support for international family planning programs. It's a perennial debate, and it's about to start all over again," Chloe Cooney, director of global advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes in an RH Reality Check blog post.

7 Mar 2012

Despite controversy, report says young Catholic women support birth control use

According to the report by the Guttmacher Institute, these women perceive the recent debate surrounding contraception coverage as a political one. Meanwhile, analysis continues about Rush Limbaugh's comments on the subject.

7 Mar 2012

Novel set of genes linked with epithelial ovarian cancer patient survival

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues from 11 other institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom have used two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) - one from the U.S. and one from the U.K. - to detect a novel set of genes found to be associated with epithelial ovarian cancer patient survival.

7 Mar 2012

Smoking and lung cancer notice turns fifty but 20% Britons still smoke: Report

According to health experts, it has been five decades after doctors issued their first warning about the dangers of cigarettes. Still more than 20 percent of Britons still smoke - and unless they quit, half of them will die from the habit. Smoking has killed more than six million people in Britain since 1962, when the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) published a landmark report about the health risks of tobacco.

7 Mar 2012

Medicaid: Maine cuts scrutinized, lawmakers ask Kansas Gov. to wait on 'ambitious' changes

Last month, he signed a budget that fills a $120 million shortfall in the current fiscal year partly with contentious cuts to Maine's Medicaid program, which is among the most generous in the country. And at his direction, lawmakers in coming weeks will begin debating $80 million more in Medicaid cuts for the next fiscal year.

7 Mar 2012

Parallels between federal health law and Massachusetts overhaul still a flashpoint for Romney

The Massachusetts health law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney is a hot topic on the campaign trail leading up to Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, new polling results indicate President Barack Obama's support among women voters is on the rise.

7 Mar 2012

Vitamin D deficiency may increase risk of mortality in institutionalized elderly patients

The majority of institutionalized elderly female patients are vitamin D deficient and there is an inverse association of vitamin D deficiency and mortality, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

7 Mar 2012

Viewpoints: Contraception politics; Better food labels; Opposing stands on ultrasounds and abortion

Between the flap at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the squall about the Obama administration's directive that health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control, contraception is shaping up as one of the year's biggest political land mines.

7 Mar 2012

Planned Parenthood poll says Texans want group to remain in Texas women's program, Fla. anti-abortion bill stopped in Senate

A poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood in Texas says voters want to keep the provider in the state's Women's Health Program while an anti-abortion bill in Florida is stopped in the Senate.

7 Mar 2012

New imaging tool reveals subtle changes in breast tissue

Purdue University researchers have created a new imaging technology that reveals subtle changes in breast tissue, representing a potential tool to determine a woman's risk of developing breast cancer and to study ways of preventing the disease.

6 Mar 2012

Study finds teenage girls sit or lie down for 19 hours a day

A study undertaken by UL researchers has found that teenage girls spend an average of 19 hours a day either sitting or lying down. Some 111 girls aged between 15 and 18 years took part in the study which measured the time they spent sitting, standing or lying down using a small accelerometer device. The researchers found that although total sitting and lying time was the same between weekdays and weekends, on week-days the sitting time was accumulated in longer bouts, lasting 20 minutes or more. These long bouts of sitting were more frequent during school time.

6 Mar 2012

Obama birth control rule draws calls for action in House of Representatives

CQ HealthBeat reports that at least one House lawmaker is pushing to move a bill that is considered the companion to the Blunt amendment, which would have expanded exemptions to the Obama administration rule and was defeated late last week by the full Senate.

6 Mar 2012

States cut birth control subsidies; Impact of abortion laws hard to ascertain

Reuters reports that states are cutting birth control subsidies while The Associated Press writes that it's difficult to gauge what impact anti-abortion laws have on reducing the procedure. The Arizona House gave initial approval to blocking abortion providers from getting federal funding for family planning services through the state. A similar move in Texas, which is now in effect, reverberates.

6 Mar 2012

SSRIs appear to reduce depressive symptoms, fetal head growth during pregnancy

Treating pregnant women with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) appears to be associated with fewer depressive symptoms, reduced fetal head growth and a higher risk for preterm birth, but not with a delay in fetal body growth, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

6 Mar 2012

New article examines multiple opportunities provided by ACA to improve women's health

A new article by researchers from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative in the Department of Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services examines the multiple opportunities provided by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to improve the health of low-income women through the use of community health centers.

6 Mar 2012

Women with breast cancer can benefit from web-based programme

Every day 18 Swedish women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Although there is a real need for support and information, many women struggle and get lost in the deluge of information. In a study of 227 women, researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have developed a web-based programme to guide patients all the way from diagnosis to rehabilitation.

6 Mar 2012

Butler Hospital expands Outpatient Psychiatric Consultation Program

In a move that highlights collaboration across a health care system, three Care New England hospitals recently came together to pilot a service that is now being expanded to fill a need for mental health services in the entire region. After successfully piloting the concept at Women & Infants and Kent hospitals, Butler Hospital is expanding its Outpatient Psychiatric Consultation Program to all referring physicians in the area who may have a patient needing a consult.

6 Mar 2012

$Vitamin D may reduce risk of stress fracture in girls$

Vitamin D may reduce risk of stress fracture in girls

Vitamin D may be associated with a lower risk of developing stress fractures in preadolescent and adolescent girls, especially among those very active in high-impact activities, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

6 Mar 2012