Should Men Drink More Alcohol and Less Coffee for Infertility Treatment?

Mild alcohol use by would-be fathers might help boost the odds of pregnancy through in vitro fertilization.

A recent study suggests male beverage consumption of coffee or alcohol may make a difference with infertility treatment.

Monday, October 20, 2014

A man's love of coffee could hamper the success of a couple's infertility treatment, a small new study suggests.
But mild alcohol use by would-be fathers might help boost the odds of pregnancy through in vitro fertilization, the findings indicate.
The Boston researchers aren't ready to encourage men enrolled in IVF to cut coffee consumption and have an extra beer with dinner. Still, these preliminary results were "definitely surprising," said study co-author Dr. Jorge Chavarro, an assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"We'd like to follow up and see if it replicates in other populations, such as other couples who are trying to conceive naturally," he said.

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Weight Gain Hits Women After Marriage, Men After Divorce

Researchers say married women may become more sedentary, while divorced men lose marriage's health benefits.

Monday, August 22, 2011 (HealthDay News) — Tying or untying the knot seems to affect men's and women's waistlines differently: A new study shows that women are more apt to pile on excess pounds after marriage, while men add the weight after a divorce.
"Clearly, the effect of marital transitions on weight changes differs by gender," lead author Dmitry Tumin, a doctoral student in sociology at Ohio State University, said in a university news release.
His team looked at weight gain in the two years following a marriage or divorce among more than 10,000 people in the United States surveyed from 1986 to 2008.

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What is vitamin D? What are the benefits of vitamin D?

Vitamin D is different from other essential vitamins because our own bodies can manufacture it with sunlight exposure. The main function of vitamin D is to regulate the absorption of calcium and phosphorus in our bones and aid in cell to cell communication throughout the body.

Frequent exposure of the skin to sunlight promotes sufficientvitamin D synthesis without the need for supplements, however, adults who have darker skin pigmentation or frequently wear sun protection during outdoor activities are often vitamin D deficient.

Five forms of vitamin D have been discovered, vitamin D₁, D₂, D₃, D₄, D₅. The two forms that seem to matter to humans the most are vitamins D₂ (ergocalciferol) and D₃ (cholecalciferol).

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Sugary drinks duty will save countless teeth, charity says

A 20p per litre duty on sugary drinks would help to eradicate tooth decay and save the NHS millions of pounds in wasted resources.

The Children's Food Campaign has published figures showing that the introduction of a 20 pence per litre duty on sugary drinks would benefit Londoners' health, as well as save the NHS and public health budgets in London £39 million over twenty years.

Oral health campaigners the British Dental Health Foundation also believe the duty would help to reduce levels of tooth decay seen in children age 3-12, particularly as soft drinks are the largest single source of sugar for children aged 4-10 years and teenagers.

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How to Keep Snoring From Hurting Your Relationship

Snoring doesn't just interfere with the snorer's sleep. When it comes to couples, one person's snoring often means sleep trouble for two. And it isn't only sleep that can suffer. Snoring can put great strain on relationships. A snoring problem often creates not only tiredness but also frustration and resentment between couples. It can interfere with sexual and emotional intimacy, and can push couples to sleep in separate bedrooms.

There are many good reasons to treat snoring, including restoring sleep quality, guarding against risks to health, and improving daytime functioning. Protecting the health and intimacy of your relationship is another important reason to treat a snoring problem.

How can snoring cause so much trouble within a relationship? Snoring, a form ofsleep-disordered breathing, interferes with sleep quality and sleep quantity, both for the person who snores, and, often, for the person who sleeps with a snorer. Poor quality and insufficient sleep interfere with our thinking skills and judgment. Lack of sleep can make us irritable and short-tempered. Poor sleep diminishes our ability tomanage conflict well, increasing negative feelings and reducing our ability to empathize. Lack of sleep has been shown in scientific research to make couples feelless appreciative of each other, and to experience greater feelings of selfishness. Sound like a recipe for relationship difficulties? It is.

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How Treating Sleep Apnea Can Also Improve Depression Symptoms

By Kathryn Doyle

(Reuters Health) - For people with depression and obstructive sleep apnea, using a nightly device to improve breathing while asleep may also improve depression symptoms, according to a new review of the evidence.

"It's thought that sleep apnea could contribute to depression through its effects on sleep quality as sleep fragmentation occurs from the frequent apnea events, but this hasn't been proven experimentally," said lead author Dr. Marcus Povitz of Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

"Also there is a hypothesis that the dips in oxygen due to the apneas might cause injury to the brain which could lead to depression," Povitz told Reuters Health by email.

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Reading On A Screen Before Bed Might Be Killing You

You've heard that using screens before bedtime can mess with your sleep, but new research suggests the problem is even more serious.

Reading from an iPad before bed not only makes it harder to fall asleep, but also impacts how sleepy and alert you are the next day, according to new research fromBrigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, said the findings could impact anyone who uses an eReader, laptop, smartphone, or certain TVs before bed.

The new research supports conclusions from older studies, which have also found that screen time before sleep can be detrimental.

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High protein diet not as bad for you as smoking

“People who eat diets rich in animal protein carry similar cancer risk to those who smoke 20 cigarettes each day,” reports The Daily Telegraph.

We have decades of very good evidence that smoking kills and – fortunately for meat lovers – this latest unhelpful comparison with high protein diets largely appears to be a triumph of PR spin.

The warning was raised in a press release about a large study which found that for people aged 50-65, eating a lot of protein was associated with an increased risk of dying.

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Caffeine: how does it really affect our health?

When we wake up in the morning, many of us reach for a coffee to kick-start our day. According to the International Coffee Organization, approximately 1.6 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every day.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) state that the average amount of caffeine consumed in the US is approximately 300 mg per person per day - the equivalent to between two and four cups of coffee. This is considered to be a moderate caffeine intake, which according to many studies, can promote a variety of health benefits.

But some studies claim otherwise, even suggesting that one or two cups of coffee a day may negatively impact our health. So, what are we to believe?

We analyze the potential health benefits, as well as the negative side effects of caffeine consumption.

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