April, 2016

now browsing by month

 

5 Things You Should Know About Freezing Your Eggs + MORE

Beauty and health are wonderful areas to dedicate one’s
life. We have seen the simple addition of hair with Invisablend’s hair
extensions and treatments cause an immediate increase in our client’s confidence
and life enjoyment. We encourage you to do the little things that make you feel
good and give you confidence. It will have a dynamic effect on your quality of
life.

5 Things You Should Know About Freezing Your Eggs

– www.health.com

Nature has an ironic sense of humor: For a lot of women, the idea of having a baby is downright terrifying until one day, it suddenly isn’t. But in many cases that day doesn’t come until right around the time the baby-making window of opportunity is starting to close, and fast.  

While our fertility rates gradually decline as we get older, there’s a drop in our ability to reproduce between ages 32 and 37, with a more rapid fall after that, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). That biological deadline is one of the reasons actress Olivia Munn, 35—of Iron Man 2 and Mortdecai fame—decided to freeze her eggs. Last week on the podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified, Munn talked about how much relief it has brought her: “I think that every girl should do it,” she said. “It’s also just like, why not do it.”

In reality, the decision is a lot more complicated than that. Before you call your local fertility clinic, there are a few things you should know about the procedure technically known as oocyte cryopreservation.

RELATED: 15 Factors That Affect a Woman's Fertility

It’s not a one-step process 

The egg freezing procedure takes a few weeks, says Mindy Christianson, MD, an assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University and a physician at the Johns Hopkins Fertility Center. First steps can include a baseline ultrasound and a blood test. After that, you’ll start giving yourself injections of fertility hormones at home for about a week or so. The hormones will hopefully spur your ovaries to produce, say, 20 eggs, instead of just one. (Luckily, the needles aren’t painful, says Dr. Christianson. They’re similar to insulin pens.) Throughout the process, you’ll need to return to your doctor’s office for follow-up blood tests and ultrasounds.

Egg retrieval is no day at the spa

Your doctors will probably gather your eggs (sorry) with ultrasound guidance. They’ll stick a long, thin needle into your vagina, then grab the eggs and prep them for freezing. You’ll be under sedation for that, naturally. The good news: You’ll probably only have mild cramping afterwards, and with a pain pill, you should be okay. (Though wait a few days to exercise, since your ovaries will be enlarged.)

RELATED: Maria Menounos Snapchats Her Egg Retrieval Procedure

It’s pretty expensive

After tallying up the costs of the injections, doctor’s visits, and the procedure itself, you’re probably looking at a bill that can total $10,000 to $15,000, says Dr. Christianson. And then there’s the cost of storing the eggs, which may set you back anywhere from $500 to $800 a year.

However, the price tag looks better after you turn 40. A 2012 study in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that a woman trying to get pregnant at age 40 would save $15,000 if she froze her eggs at age 35…

Am I Peeing Too Much? How to Tell What's Normal

– www.health.com

Do you get up to pee twice as often as your co-workers? Or maybe you're the type of person who can go hours without a bathroom break, no matter how much water you down. Pee patterns seem to run the gamut from high frequency to hardly ever—which made us wonder, What's a normal number of times to go in a day? (You can laugh now, but you'll thank us later!) We tapped ob-gyn Neil Grafstein, MD, an assistant professor of urology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, to answer that question, plus a few more.

How often should we be peeing?

“Most people urinate four to seven times during a day," says Dr. Grafstein, but there's really no magic number. Your pee frequency is influenced by factors beyond how hydrated you are, he explains, including the types of fluids you're drinking: "Caffeine and alcohol are bladder irritants, so they cause you to urinate more frequently." The sensitivity of your bladder also plays a role. Some people heed the call of nature at the slightest urge; while others don't feel the need to empty their bladder until its fuller.

Is it possible to train your bladder?

Yes, says Dr. Grafstein, as long as you don't have any underlying incontinence issues. You can retrain your bladder by delaying peeing until the urge becomes strong. “A little sensitivity does not have to be responded to all the time,” he says. Certain professionals who aren't able to get to the bathroom often (think surgeons and teachers) end up doing this naturally.

But isn't holding it bad for you?

Only once the urge becomes painful. If you've really gotta go, go, says Dr. Grafstein. When you hold in urine for too long, your bladder may become distended, increasing your risk for bladder infections.

What if middle-of-the-night bathroom trips are wrecking your sleep?

If an urgent need to pee in the, er, wee hours becomes a regular thing, try keeping a fluid diary, Dr. Grafstein suggests. Document how much, what, and when you drink. Consuming most of your daily fluids at night? Shift your habits so you consume more earlier in the day. And cut back on booze near bedtime. Also consider that it may not be the urge to pee that's waking you, says Dr. Grafstein. You could be experiencing restless sleep for another reason, like anxiety or sleep apnea.

Can the color of your pee really tell you if you're well hydrated?

Like your pee frequency, the color of your pee can be affected by a variety of factors, such as the food you've eaten (as beet lovers know) and what you've had to drink. But generally, yes, the color of your urine can be a helpful clue to your hydration status, says Dr. Grafstein. The goal: If the toilet bowl turns a see-through yellow color, you're golden.

Fresh Box

This is How Fast The Average Woman Runs A Mile + MORE

Whether you're a running newbie or an avid pavement pounder, you've likely considered your running pace an important mark of improvement. And if you've ever wondered how your mile time compares to other runners' times, there's now a solid statistic you can cite. Workout tra.... More »

Hot Yoga Is No Better for You Than Regular Yoga, Study Says + MORE

[brightcove:5532322486001 default] There’s something undeniably satisfying about leaving a fitness class dripping in sweat. When it comes to yoga, though, new research suggests there’s little reason to crank up the heat. Bikram yoga has attracted a loyal following due to its steamy cla.... More »

8 Arm Exercises You Haven’t Done Before + MORE

You can read the rest of this article on Life by Daily Burn. You’ve probably cranked out a bunch of bicep curls and triceps kickbacks throughout your days at the gym. And while these moves work great for building muscles in your upper body, a few creative takes on your typica.... More »

Jada Pinkett Smith's Trainer Demonstrates Her Gravity-Defying, At-Home Workout: 'You Don't Need a Gym' + MORE

Jada Pinkett Smith is showing fans that you don’t need a fancy gym membership to get in a decent workout. On Tuesday, the 47-year-old Girls Trip star shared a video of the intense full-body exercise routine, created and demonstrated by her trainer Jeanette Jenkins&nb.... More »

Can Virtual Reality Meditation Get You Closer to Mindfulness? I Tried It to Find Out + MORE

I’ve been meditating, off and on, for the past 14 years. The technique I learned in meditation class many years ago is old-school and austere: Find a place to sit, close your eyes, feel your feet on the floor, and focus on the in-and-out breath at the tip of your nose. No music, no mantra.... More »

Continue Reading

5 Things You Should Know About Freezing Your Eggswww.health.com
Am I Peeing Too Much? How to Tell What's Normalwww.health.com

Will Immunotherapy Be the End of Cancer?

Hair extensions and hair treatments are just one way that
Invisiblend Hair Studio helps to increase our client’s quality of life. A hair
technician or hair salon specialist is more than just a stylist, they are a
friend. A person to vent your week to, express your joy and life achievements, there
is more than just beauty when it comes to our hair stylist.

Will Immunotherapy Be the End of Cancer?

– www.health.com

In September of 2011, I did the worst Google search of my life. A year after a seemingly manageable melanoma diagnosis and surgery, I learned that my cancer had appeared again, this time moving aggressively into my lungs and soft tissue. Naturally, the first thing I did was open my laptop and type "stage 4 melanoma life expectancy." Then I cried. The results were terrifying. 

On the website of MD Anderson, one of the most prestigious cancer centers in the world, I found a January 2011 article on metastatic melanoma. There was a telling quote from Michael Davies, MD, of the center’s Melanoma Medical Oncology Department: "The average survival for patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma is 6 to 10 months, and this hasn’t changed for 30 years."

I still get chills when I recall my prognosis not so very long ago, a prognosis that looked likely to wipe my presence from my two young daughters’ childhoods. Yet a month after my diagnosis, I became one of the first dozen patients in a new clinical trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, receiving a type of treatment known as immunotherapy, which harnesses the body’s natural defenses to fight cancer. Three months later, I was declared cancer-free, and I have been ever since. I had not only been granted a future—I had seen a glimpse of it. Welcome to the next era of medicine. 

WATCH THE VIDEO: "I Survived Stage IV Melanoma"

Outsmarting cancer

Our bodies are incredible machines. We are born with an internal defense system designed to fight off invaders like infection and disease. At the heart of that system are T cells, microscopic killers that recognize and destroy abnormalities. But cancer is a potent—and sneaky—foe. "For reasons we are just beginning to understand, your T cells don’t see the cancer cells," explains Naiyer Rizvi, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and a leading specialist in immunotherapy for lung cancer. And the immune system can’t fight an enemy it doesn’t even recognize.

In the fight against cancer, the trinity of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy—known by the assertive nickname "slash, burn, and poison"—has long been the weapon of choice. By going directly after cancer cells (almost always with collateral damage to otherwise healthy parts of the body), the method at least has an understandable logic: Scorch the area, then cross your fingers that the disease doesn’t come back.

Immunotherapy approaches the problem differently, stimulating the patient’s own body to kill the cancer. But reprogramming the immune system to, as Dr. Rizvi says, "break the hypnosis effect" that cancer cells have on our T cells has been hard to achieve, and immunotherapy languished for decades as a fringe field of research…

Fresh Box

Gretchen Rubin’s Daily Tricks for Staying Happy + MORE

What inspired you to write about the power of decluttering? Your space reflects you. It projects your identity to the world. If you look around and everything you own is useful or beloved, you may feel more integrated with yourself. Any advice for getting started? Adopt the one-minute r.... More »

What It Means If You Hear Laurel vs. Yanny, According to a Neuroscientist + MORE

Laurel versus Yanny is dividing the nation. It seems like we had barely settled down from the blue and black (or white and gold?) dress debacle, when YouTube star Cloe Feldman decided to publish a four-second video originally posted on Reddit by user RolandCamry. Within a coupl.... More »

These Women Are Smashing Their Makeup Because They're Sick of Insane Beauty Standards + MORE

A new feminist movement is sweeping Instagram, as some South Korean women are rebelling against unattainable beauty standards that have become a cultural norm in their country. The movement, called Escape the Corset, sprang up over the summer on YouTube and Twitter,.... More »

1-Year-Old Boy Has the Sweetest Reaction to Meeting a Woman Missing the Same Limb as Him + MORE

A young boy born with a congenital condition had an adorable reaction when he was introduced to a woman who shares the same limb difference as him. On the same day that Colleen Tidd found out that her son, Joseph, would be born without a fully formed left arm, she stumbled upon the Florida ch.... More »

11 Fitness-Themed Mannequin Challenges That Made Our Jaws Drop + MORE

Search #MannequinChallenge on social media and you'll land on hundreds of videos of folks posing stock-still in the middle of a staged action scene—like the clip of Michelle Obama and the Cleveland Cavaliers frozen mid-conversation at the White House, and the one of&nb.... More »

Continue Reading

Will Immunotherapy Be the End of Cancer?www.health.com