228.8
47.0
48.5
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
fertility clock
| |||
 | |||
| | |||
| |
| ||
 |
Rolling back the fertility clock
By Alina Cho and Melissa Morgenweck For CNN's American Morning (CNN) -- A treasure map to a baby? That's just one of many things Meredith Kolk tried when she had problems getting pregnant. At age 40, the mother of one longed for another child but knew the odds were against her. Kolk says a poster board with cutout images of happy babies kept her focused on her goal. "Making this board helped me feel like I could have a vision to look at every morning and every night about what I wanted for my family. It helped keep me centered because the process is frustrating and it can be very nerve-wracking." Kolk turned to in vitro fertilization and also used alternative approaches in hopes of increasing her chances of getting pregnant. She did 30 minutes of meditation each morning before going to work. "I would visualize me pregnant with a healthy baby and a doctor saying 'yes, you're pregnant.' " Kolk also received weekly acupuncture and made changes to her diet. She added wheat germ and nuts and swapped low-fat dairy foods with whole-milk foods. Kolk says that doing these things helped her to stay calm. Dr. Alice Domar, executive director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Waltham, Massachusetts, says her research shows a medical link between stress and infertility. "The part of the brain that controls all aspects of reproduction is called the hypothalamus. It's also the part of the brain that controls how we respond to stress. And so it made sense to me intuitively that there could be a connection between stress and infertility," she said. Domar specializes in women struggling with infertility. She says that if a woman can learn stress management through relaxation techniques, her chances of getting pregnant will double. On the day we visited the center, 39-year-old Sarah Weatherhead underwent acupuncture. She's had in vitro fertilization three times without success and is waiting to hear if her fourth try has worked. She believes being more relaxed could help her chances of getting pregnant. "I tend to be very positive about it, but it's difficult, especially when I've had so many failed cycles." Weatherhead is playing the ultimate game of beat the clock. In fact, one study shows that 33 percent of women are infertile by age 40. That number increases to 87 percent by age 45. Doctors say the best hope for older women is donor eggs. "A lot of women initially are very reluctant to go down the route of donor egg because they'll lose that genetic connection with the child," says Dr. Jane Ruman, an infertility specialist with Reproductive Medicine Associates of New York. "But the fastest way to get a child into your home is usually with a donor egg." The technology is so successful that a 70-year-old woman in India gave birth to a baby girl in November. While no age limits are enforced in the United States, most fertility centers maintain a cutoff of between 50 and 55. Domar says her research shows that women over 40 make good mothers. "They tend to be more comfortable with their role as parents. They can provide more financial opportunities. So from a psychological perspective, it's a good situation." Weatherhead believes she has more to offer a child at her age. "I think I'm smarter. I like myself better. I'm more accepting of myself," she said. Weatherhead says that if in vitro fertilization doesn't work, she is open to adoption. After three cycles of in vitro fertilization, Kolk did become pregnant and gave birth to twin girls, Calliope and Josephine, in October. She says she ended up with exactly what she had visualized with her treasure map: happy, healthy babies. All AboutPregnancy and Childbirth |
|
| |
| Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/23/babies.older.mothers/index.html |
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Immortality
Cell change 'keeps organs young'
Liver cells
Toxic proteins build up in organs over time
Researchers may have found a way to halt the biological clock which slows down our bodies over the decades.
A US team thinks it may have found the genetic levers to help boost a system vital to cleaning up faulty proteins within our cells.
The journal Nature Medicine reported that the livers of genetically-altered older mice worked as well as those in younger animals.
They suggested it might one day help people with progressive brain diseases.
These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age
Dr Ana Maria Cuervo
Yeshiva University
The researchers, from Yeshiva University in New York, are focusing on a process which is central to the proper working of cells.
The fundamental chemicals of cells - proteins - often have very short working lives, and need to be cleared away and recycled as soon as possible.
The body has a system for doing just that, but it becomes progressively less efficient as we get older.
This leads to progressive falls in the function of major organs - the heart, liver and brain, some of which contribute to the diseases of old age.
Dr Ana Maria Cuervo, from Yeshiva, created a mouse with two genetic alterations.
The first, when activated, boosted the number of specific cell receptors linked to this protein recycling function, while the second allowed the first to be turned on whenever Dr Cuervo wished simply by modifying the animal's diet.
Switched on
She waited until the mice were six months old - the point at which age-related decline in the protein-recycling system begins - then turned on the receptor gene.
When examined at two years old, the liver cells of these mice were far more effective at recycling protein compared with normal mice.
When the overall liver function of the very old genetically-modified mice was tested, they performed at a comparable level to much younger mice.
Dr Cuervo said: "These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age."
She now plans to test animal models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, believing that the abnormal protein deposits in Alzheimer's in particular might be dealt with more effectively this way.
Thomas von Zglinicki, Professor of Cellular Gerontology at Newcastle University, said that the results were "very exciting".
"It's not often you see studies where they have managed to improve function in this way.
"What they seem to have managed is to maintain the mice at this young stage, and both restore and maintain normal activity."
He said that it should, in theory, be possible to achieve the same effect across the whole body.
A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society said: "As we age we have an increase in protein misfolding and general faults in protein processing, so the ability to maintain an effective system to clear these would be beneficial.
"However, a direct line to the clearance of defective proteins in the brain is not so clear from this research."
Liver cells
Toxic proteins build up in organs over time
Researchers may have found a way to halt the biological clock which slows down our bodies over the decades.
A US team thinks it may have found the genetic levers to help boost a system vital to cleaning up faulty proteins within our cells.
The journal Nature Medicine reported that the livers of genetically-altered older mice worked as well as those in younger animals.
They suggested it might one day help people with progressive brain diseases.
These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age
Dr Ana Maria Cuervo
Yeshiva University
The researchers, from Yeshiva University in New York, are focusing on a process which is central to the proper working of cells.
The fundamental chemicals of cells - proteins - often have very short working lives, and need to be cleared away and recycled as soon as possible.
The body has a system for doing just that, but it becomes progressively less efficient as we get older.
This leads to progressive falls in the function of major organs - the heart, liver and brain, some of which contribute to the diseases of old age.
Dr Ana Maria Cuervo, from Yeshiva, created a mouse with two genetic alterations.
The first, when activated, boosted the number of specific cell receptors linked to this protein recycling function, while the second allowed the first to be turned on whenever Dr Cuervo wished simply by modifying the animal's diet.
Switched on
She waited until the mice were six months old - the point at which age-related decline in the protein-recycling system begins - then turned on the receptor gene.
When examined at two years old, the liver cells of these mice were far more effective at recycling protein compared with normal mice.
When the overall liver function of the very old genetically-modified mice was tested, they performed at a comparable level to much younger mice.
Dr Cuervo said: "These results show it's possible to correct this protein 'logjam' that occurs in our cells as we get older, thereby perhaps helping us to enjoy healthier lives well into old age."
She now plans to test animal models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, believing that the abnormal protein deposits in Alzheimer's in particular might be dealt with more effectively this way.
Thomas von Zglinicki, Professor of Cellular Gerontology at Newcastle University, said that the results were "very exciting".
"It's not often you see studies where they have managed to improve function in this way.
"What they seem to have managed is to maintain the mice at this young stage, and both restore and maintain normal activity."
He said that it should, in theory, be possible to achieve the same effect across the whole body.
A spokesman for the Alzheimer's Society said: "As we age we have an increase in protein misfolding and general faults in protein processing, so the ability to maintain an effective system to clear these would be beneficial.
"However, a direct line to the clearance of defective proteins in the brain is not so clear from this research."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)