Women's Health

Smoking damages the entire body, including the eyes. The Australian government has introduced harsh laws to discourage the addictive habit. Cigarette packaging is plain, featuring gruesome color photos and statements such as “Smoking Causes Blindness.” What are Australia’s anti-smoking laws, and will they work? How does smoking cause blindness?

Smokers have a significantly higher chance of developing heart disease, lung cancer, emphysema, macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma. Smoking during
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We came across a perfectly fascinating article about the fact that whether a baby is a boy or girl may be related to the mother’s diet at the time of conception … which is also true in nature.

“A joint study conducted by researchers at the Universities of Oxford and Exeter has turned up the tantalizing evidence that a child’s gender might be determined by mother’s diet around the time of conception.

If this is true, it goes a long way in solving the mystery of why there is a decreasing number of male babies born each year in the industrialized nations of the world, including the United States, Canada, and the UK.” (from Medweb)

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From before birth to the end of your life, smoking has a radical, nasty effect on your life: not only your health, but your social and mental life as well.  It impacts every aspect of your life – your vision, your health, your happiness – from the time in the womb until your old age.
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 The study appeared in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Schools of Public Health reported that the risk is especially high for older women. They connect lower levels of  the hormone DHEAS, or dehydroepiandrosterone  sulfate, with this higher stroke risk.

The study’s subjects included women from the Nurses’ Health Study of 1976. They had no reported history of strokes when they joined that study.  The levels of DHEAS of these women were tested between 1989 & 1990. The 461 stroke patients were matched up for age, race,
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that the block-buster sleeping pill Ambien (zolpidem) dose be lowered, especially for women, due to negative side-effects. The drug stays in women’s system much longer than in men’s. Too many car accidents the day after taking Ambien have lead to the government agency to halve the recommended dose for women, and re-consider the dose for men.

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A cataract is defined as  a clouding of the lens of the eye that is usually associated with aging. However, approximately 1 in 250 newborns in the US have a cataract on at least one eye at birth, or develop a cataract soon after they are born. While many cases of congenital cataracts are detected and treated quickly, it is estimated that up to 1/3rd of older children diagnosed with a cataract had it at undetected at birth. Early treatment is crucial for the brain to develop normally, and to prevent lazy eye (amblyopia) and other vision problems.

The reasons for congenital cataracts in newborns may include infection (especially measles during pregnancy), genetics, metabolic problems, inflammation, diabetes, trauma or reactions to drugs. Common tetracycline antibiotics taken during pregnancy can cause cataracts in the developing baby. Older children can get pediatric cataracts for reasons comparable to the ones above; eye injuries such as a blow to the eye are more typically the cause, associated with 40% of pediatric cataracts cases.

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Do you dread looking in the bathroom mirror when you first wake up? Scared of seeing baggy, puffy eyes or horrible dark circles under your eyes?

Well, flick on the bathroom light and gaze at your reflection! There are natural solutions to these eye problems. You don’t have to walk around looking like you stayed up all night or got into a fight.

The skin around your eyes is very thin and sensitive. This thin eye skin helps your eyes move easily. Unfortunately, this thin skin easily reveals color changes and swelling.

Instead of skulking around in dark glasses, look into natural eye care that can help with dark circles under the eyes and puffy eyes.
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Antioxidants have been found to successfully treat yet another medical condition: pre-eclampsia, a condition experienced by 5% of pregnant women that is marked by abnormally high blood pressure.

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, taking a dietary supplement containing an amino acid and antioxidant vitamins significantly reduced pregnant women’s chances of developing pre-eclampsia.

Women under 75 | Annual Survey | Vitamin D3 | D Sources

Vitamin D – and the fact that so many people are deficient in this vital compound – has been in the news a lot lately.  A lack of vitamin D has been linked to asthma in children, the development of cancers, cognitive impairment, and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Vitamin D impacts the health of the eyes as well.
A number of  studies show that low vitamin D3 levels correspond to an increase in the incidence of age related macular degeneration.
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Whole Grains

Women with diabetes can cut their risk of death from a heart attack by eating more whole grains.

A study published in the journal Circulation discusses how women who are a diet rich in whole grains and wheat bran were 16-31% less likely to die over a 26 year period compared to women who did not eat those foods.   When researchers considered mortality risks specifically associated with cardiovascular problems, those who ate a whole-grain and bran healthy diet were 28-35% less likely to die of heart related causes during the study’s duration.
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