Pregnancy Raises Swine Flu Death Risk

A CDC analysis shows that pregnant women are more likely than the general population to develop severe disease after infection with the pandemic H1N1 swine flu virus. They are four times more likely to be hospitalized, with an unusually high death rate.

Although media reports have focused on deaths among pregnant women with underlying disease, most pregnant women who have died of swine flu were healthy when they caught the pandemic virus.

Even so, the findings do not mean that all pregnant women will suffer severe disease, says study leader Denise J. Jamieson, MD, MPH, an obstetrician-gynecologist at the CDC's Women's Health and Fertility branch.

"Most women who become ill with flu are going to have mild disease just like in the general population," Jamieson tells WebMD. "But it does seem pregnant women are at increased risk of severe illness and death. So the proportion of deaths among pregnant women is larger than you would expect."

The CDC has details on 266 of the 305 U.S. swine flu deaths reported as of July 29. Fifteen of these 266 deaths -- about 6% -- were among pregnant women. Most of the deaths were among women in their third trimester.

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Best Healthy Exercising Tips for Women Health

Every Women want to look more beautiful, tends to have more fit body than others. They do several things in order to keep them fit. However, they forget that exercise is the best solution to keep you fit. It also helps in loosing weight, and getting a perfect figure. Every Woman wants a perfect and attractive figure in order to attract men as well as to posses a confident personality.

However, you should remember one thing that not all exercises are suitable for your body. You need to find out the best suitable exercise for you. Forcing yourself to jogging, cycling or swimming just because someone told you that it is beneficial for health is not a good habit. By doing so, you are causing more harm than good to your own body.

Finding a Suitable Exercise

It is very important to find a good exercise specific to your type of body. The best way to find a good weight loss exercise is consult a dietitian or women health expert. They will suggest you a better weight loss program comprising, a perfect weight loss exercise along with proper weight loss diet and other beneficial nutrition factors helping your dieting program.

An easy and popular way to keep you fit is active participation in games or other physical activities for women like sports. Do not decide your abilities or disabilities to play a particular game. First you begin, and then later you will notice that you are progressing in games as well as in health aspects you are being more successful after adopting this gaming strategy than just by doing exercises.

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Women's Health 101: Where are the family friendly gyms in Metro Detroit?

Many Metro Detroit women are deciding to improve their health by focusing on their physical fitness. Joining a gym can give you access to guidance, equipment, and expertise while you're getting in shape. You don't have to join a gym to reach your fitness goals. But, if you do invest in a membership, you will need to research to find facilities that are friendly, safe, and comfortable for you and your family.

With hundreds of fitness centers spanning across Metro Detroit, choosing the one that best fits you can be a daunting task. Also, everyone wants to get the best deal for their money. You want to make sure that the gym you choose provides what you are looking for in a facility.

Be sure to shop around and get a good feel for each facility before your final choice. There are certain things to consider when you are visiting gyms:

• Is the facility close to home?
• Is the staff friendly?
• Are there plenty of machines available during the time I plan to workout?
• Is the facility diverse in gender, fitness level, age, etc.?
• Is the place clean?
• Is the facility safe? Is the equipment up to date, in good condition, and safe?

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Alcohol May Affect Women's Brains More

An Idaho State University researcher looking for gender-specific differences in how alcohol affects the brain says experiments on rats appear to show physiological stress responses are much higher in females.

Dan Selvage, an assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, is conducting a five-year study with a $1.1 million grant recently received from the National Institute of Health.

He said the findings are significant because consistently high levels of stress hormones can mask the body's natural feedback and create stress-related disorders.

"If you have an infection, you won't notice the symptoms of it until it gets much worse because the stress hormones are blocking the way your body would respond to it and take care of it," Selvage told the Idaho State Journal.

Eventually, he said, the study could lead to gender-specific treatments for alcohol abuse in humans.

"Females tend to suffer the ravages of alcoholism much more quickly than males," Selvage said. "Part of that's due to metabolism, but another part of that is thought to be that alcohol activates body stress responses a lot more in females."

He said premenopausal females in particular have a much higher incidence of stress-related disorders, and that stress suppresses the immune system, leading to an array of health problems.

Selvage said alcohol tends to decrease testosterone secretion in males, but increases estrogen production in females. Extra estrogen, he said, is linked to an increased stress response.

"Stress responses originate at the level of the brain, and of course, the brain communicates with the pituitary, which then sends signals to the adrenal glands that release what's called cortisol," Selvage said.

Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar while dulling the body's immune responses, Selvage said.

He said the study is being done in such a way so that small amounts of alcohol are injected directly into the cerebrospinal fluid of the rats.

"We give an animal with low estrogen levels alcohol and then we see what its stress response is by measuring hormones in the blood or by measuring activation of certain areas in the brain," Selvage said. "Then we look at a similar animal with high estrogen levels, give them alcohol and see what kind of response we get.

"We really look throughout the brain to see what brain pathways are involved in receiving this noxious alcohol. The whole idea is to come up with ways to try and block that stress response as well as you can."


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Perimenopause Management

Perimenopause can be defined as the stage of menopause transition years. In this stage the reproductive hormones, such as estrogens, progesterone and testosterone decreases. The periodic menstruation cycle becomes irregular and there are unpredictable fluctuations in levels of hormones. During the Perimenopause the fertility level of the woman also reduces, although it cannot be considered zero until she has reached the stage of menopause officially.

The menopause age can vary in women and so does the menopause transition years. Some of the women start experiencing the effects of the menopause transition at the age of 35 whereas many of them might experience the same in their mid or late 40s. The duration of Perimenopause can be of lesser than 10 years in some women while in some it might be longer. The bodily effects and severity of perimenopause is unpredictable and it may be vary in every individual women.

Perimenopause has different effect on women and during these transition years many women also undergo bodily changes due to fluctuations in the hormonal levels. One of the most common effects of menopause transition phase is "hot flash" or "hot flush". "Hot flash" or "hot flush" is referred to as sudden rise in the body temperature. When the flash sensation occurs in a woman, the body temperature rises to its peak and then rapidly drops down. Hot flashes can result in heavy sweating and can make the person feel tremendously weak.

Hot flashes can cause a lot of discomfort to the women but, they are not considered harmful by the doctors. To ease the discomfort caused by Hot flashes women can take prescription medications, or SSRI medications, or over-the-counter plant estrogens and herbal remedies. Other, Perimenopause effects include mood swings, insomnia, fatigue, anxiety, and lack of concentration. Some of the women who do not experience any physical effects of perimenopause may undergo some psychological changes. Medical treatment can basically help a woman in Perimenopause Management and lessen the impact of menopause transition.



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