Cancer is an emotional subject, with most having lost a loved one to the disease.

One in two people born after 1960 in the UK will develop the condition at some point in their life, Cancer Research UK data shows.

READ MORE: Pancreatic cancer: symptoms to look out for

Lifestyle habits - like smoking, too much processed meat or inactivity - are known to trigger the disease.

Genetics also play a role, with many cases being down to bad luck.

Thyroid cancer increased by 76% in 10 years. [Photo: Cancer Research UK]

Of the 20 most common types of cancer, thyroid tumours have jumped most.

In women, the above chart - based on Cancer Research UK data - shows the disease was 76% more common in 2014-to-2016 than 2004-to-2006.

This was followed by liver cancer, which rose by 52% over the 10 years.

Kidney cancer, melanoma, and tumours of the head and neck were the next highest risers, up 44%, 35% and 25%, respectively.

READ MORE: With liver cancer deaths on the rise, these are the symptoms to look out for

Not all cancers are becoming more common, however.

The above chart shows cancers of unknown origin went down by 36% in women between 2004/6 and 2014/16.

This occurs when cancer is only detected once it has spread, with doctors being unable to find where it started.

The second fastest decline was in stomach cancer, which went down by 28%.

Overall, female cancers have risen by 8%.

Thyroid cancer has become 75% more common in men. [Photo: Cancer Research UK]

Thyroid cancer also had the biggest increase among men, rising by 75% between 2004/6 and 2014/16.

Similar to women, the above chart shows this was followed by liver cancer, which went up 61%.

The next fastest increases in cases were melanoma, kidney cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma, which rose by 55%, 38% and 22%, respectively.

Cancers of unknown origin have decreased just as fast in men as women, with a 36% decline.

This was followed by a 31% reduction in stomach cancer.

READ MORE: Processed meats containing this preservative are linked to colon cancer

For some diseases, the trends differed between men and women.

Lung cancer rose by 17% in women but went down by 10% in men.

Bowel tumours remained stable in females but reduced by 5% in males.

Oseophageal cancer was stable for men but went down by 7% in women.

The overall increase in cancer rates among men was smaller than in women, at 1%.

Why some cancers are on the up and others are declining is unclear, with there likely being no one answer.

Scientists estimate around two-thirds of the overall increase is down to us living longer.

The average Brit lives to 80, compared to around 70 in 1960.

With us surviving longer, there are more opportunities for genetic mistakes to accumulate, triggering cancer.

Lifestyle habits may also explain why bowel cancer appears to be stabilising in women and declining in men.

A diet rich in red and processed meat has been linked to the disease, with the plant-based movement encouraging many to cut back.

Sunbathing and sunbeds may be why melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has risen in both men and women.

Nationwide screening programmes could also explain why fewer cancers have an unknown origin.

For example, mammograms and smear tests allow doctors to spot breast and cervical cancers early, before they spread.

When it comes to stomach cancer, greater awareness around food preparation may mean less people become infected with the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, known to boost the risk.

The increasing number of people getting cancer in the UK is mainly because people are living longer nowadays, and cancer is more common in older people, Rachel Orritt, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, told Yahoo UK.

The NHS must be prepared to cope with this alongside demands for better diagnostics, treatments, and earlier diagnosis.

But around four in 10 cancer cases in the UK could be prevented, so its important to think about how we can reduce our risk too.

Making positive changes can make a big difference if we stick to them.

Stopping smoking, cutting down on alcohol and eating a healthy balanced diet all help to stack the odds in our favour.

Excerpt from:
The cancers on the rise - and the decline - in the UK - Yahoo Lifestyle

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

From sizzling fiction to searing memoirs to thought-provoking essays, this list has offerings not just from celebrated women authors but dazzling debuting ones too. With almost a hundred books to choose from, this year holds the promise of an exciting reading experience. Add your own finds to this list, send your recommendations to us and embark on your reading odyssey. Compiled by Archana Pai Kulkarni.

1) The Mirror And The Light, by Hilary Mantel

This eagerly awaited book has been eight years in the making. With it Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of aferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common mans vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion, and courage.

2) Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, by Deepa Anappara

This story is a talisman. Hold it close to your hearts, were told, at some point, in this debut novel. Anapparas years of journalistic work, wide-ranging awards, fellowships, and advance praise, precede the arrival of her foray into full-length fiction. Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India, the novel captures the fierce warmth, resilience, and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble.

3) Jaipur Journals, by Namita Gokhale

Told from multiple perspectives, set against the backdrop of the vibrant multilingual Jaipur Literature Festival, diverse stories of lost love and regret, self-doubt, and new beginnings come together in a narrative that is as varied as India itself. Part love letter to the greatest literary festival on earth, part satire about the glittery attendees who go year after year, and part ode to the many up-and-coming writers, Gokhales book stages and makes space for the pretensions and the pathos of the loneliest tribe of them all: the writers.

4) No Straight Thing Was Ever Made by Urvashi Bahuguna

After Terrarium, a richly layered and deeply felt poetry debut, Bahugunas new book is a collection of essayssitting on the fence between personal narratives, conversational anecdotes, and research. She discusses living with mental illness in all its forms and facetsfrom family to physical fatigue and professional impact.

Also Read: Here Are Three Inspirational Books For Greater Creativity

5) The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich

This novel is based on the life of Erdrichs grandfather, a night watchman who fought in the 1950s against Native dispossession. Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humour, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

6) Afterlife, by Julia Alvarez

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the centre of Afterlife has just retired from her college, when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. Then, her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis, including maybe especially members of our human family How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves?

7) American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins

Lydia Quixano Prez runs a bookstore in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. Lydia stocks some of her all-time favourite books in her store. And then one day Javier, a charming, erudite man comes to the store to buy a few books. Unknown to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has taken over the city. When Lydias husbands tell-all profile of Javier is published, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca are forced to flee. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed.

8) This Is One Way to Dance, by Sejal Shah

In the linked essays that make up her debut collection, Sejal Shah explores culture, language, family, and place, and reflects on what it means to make oneself visible and legible through writing in a country that struggles with race and maps her identity as an American, South Asian American, writer of colour, and feminist. These essays some narrative, others lyrical and poetic explore how we are all marked by culture, gender, and race; by the limits of our bodies, by our losses and regrets, and by trauma and silence.

9) Manto and I, by Nandita Das

In this book, I have chosen to share not just my creative, but also my emotional, political, and spiritual experiences of the six years I spent with Manto, says Das. If youve watched the film, this book will serve as a companion, as it candidly cuts into the behind-the-scenes moments and the making-of the story on screen. I believe, together, the images and words will tell you a story you havent seen on the screen. With Manto and I, my journey feels complete.

10) You Exist Too Much, by Zaina Arafat

On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12-year-old Palestinian-American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mothers response only intensifies a sense of shame: You exist too much, she tells her daughter. Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, the novel is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings for love, and a place to call home.

Also Read: 15 books to read before you are 15!

11) A Room Made of Leaves, by Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville is best known for her 2006 novel The Secret River, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin award. Her bibliography covers historical fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about her writing process. Her new novel, titled A Room Made of Leaves, sees her returning to historical fiction, taking place in early colonial Sydney and centring around a woman, Elizabeth Macarthur, described as a woman of spirit, cunning and sly wit.

12) Summer, by Ali Smith

From the Man Booker short-listed author of Autumn, Winter, and Spring comes Summer, the highly anticipated fourth novel in her acclaimed Seasonal Quartet. Here is the exciting culmination of Ali Smiths celebrated Seasonal Quartet, a series of stand-alone novels, separate but interconnected (as the seasons are), wide-ranging in timescale and light-footed through histories.

13) The Loneliness Of Hira Barua by Arupa Kalita Patangia, translated from Assamese, by Ranjita Biswas

The English translation of the 2014 Sahitya Akademi Award-winning collection of short stories, originally titled Mariam Austin Othoba Hira Baruah, from one of our leading feminist voices. It paints powerful portraits of ordinary people, especially women, negotiating their personal lives in times of socio-political strife and turmoil in Assam.

14) The Girl with the Louding Voice, by Abi Dar

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who wants an education. As the only daughter of a broke father, she is a valuable commodity, who is removed from school and sold as a third wife to an old man. When unspeakable tragedy swiftly strikes in her new home, she is secretly sold as a domestic servant to a wealthy household, where no one will talk about the strange disappearance of her predecessor. But Adunni wont be silenced. She is determined to find her voice in a whisper, in song, in broken English -until she can speak for herself.

15) Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride

From the author of the award-winning A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, comes the beguiling travelogue of a woman in exile: from her past, her ghosts, and herself. A nameless woman enters a hotel room. There, amid the detritus of her travels, the matchbooks, cigarettes, keys and room-service wine, she negotiates with her memories, with those she has lost or left behindand with what it might mean to return home. Urgent and immersive, its a novel of enduring emotional force.

Also Read: You Beneath Your Skin Is An Engaging Psychological Thriller: Excerpt

16) Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Womens Activism in Kashmir by Ather Zia

Drawn from Ather Zias ten years of engagement with the APDP as an anthropologist and fellow Kashmiri activist, the book follows mothers and half-widows as they step boldly into courts, military camps, and morgues in search of their disappeared kin. Through an amalgam of ethnography, poetry, and photography, Zia illuminates how dynamics of gender and trauma in Kashmir have been transformed in the face of South Asias longest-running conflict, providing profound insight into how Kashmiri women and men nurture a politics of resistance.

17) Sex and Lies, by Lela Slimani

In these essays, the author gives voice to young Moroccan women who are grappling with a conservative Arab culture that at once condemns and commodifies sex. In a country where the law punishes and outlaws all forms of sex outside marriage, as well as homosexuality and prostitution, women have only two options for their sexual identities: virgin or wife. Sex and Lies is an essential confrontation with Moroccos intimate demons and a vibrant appeal for the universal freedom to be, to love and to desire.

18) My Past is a Foreign Country: A Muslim Feminist Finds Herself, by Zeba Talkhani

28-year-old Zeba Talkhani charts her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia amid patriarchal customs, and her journey to find freedom in India, Germany and the UK. She offers a fresh perspective on living as an outsider and examines her relationship with her mother and the challenges she faced when she experienced hair loss at a young age. Drawing on her personal experiences Talkhani shows how she fought for the right to her individuality as a Muslim feminist and refused to let negative experiences define her.

19) Weather, by Jenny Offill

Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian, which gives her a vantage point to practise her other calling: as an unofficial shrink. For years, she has supported her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. Her old mentor, Sylvia Liller wants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives. As she dives into this polarized world, her brother becomes a father and Sylvia a recluse, and Lizzie is forced to acknowledge the limits of what she can do. But if she cant save others, then what, or who, might save her?

20) Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency, by Olivia Laing

In this remarkable, inspiring collection of essays, acclaimed writer and critic Olivia Laing makes a brilliant case for why art matters, especially in the turbulent political weather of the twenty first century. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia OKeefe, interviews Hilary Mantel and Ali Smith, writes love letters to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, she celebrates art as a force of resistance and repair, an antidote to a frightening political time.

Also Read: Female Poets Retrace Their Journeys At Hyderabad Women Writers Fest

21) Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, by Zora Neale Hurston

In 1925, Barnard student Zora Neale Hurstonthe sole black student at the collegewas living in New York, desperately striving for a toe-hold on the world. During this period, she began writing short works that captured the zeitgeist of African American life and transformed her into one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. This is an outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African American folk culture. All are timeless classics that enrich our understanding and appreciation of this exceptional writers voice and her contributions to Americas literary traditions.

22) Passage to the Plaza, by Sahar Khalifeh, translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain

In Bab Al-Saha, Palestine, sits a house of ill repute. In it lives Nuzha, a young woman ostracized by her community. When the Intifada breaks out, Nuzhas abode unexpectedly becomes a sanctuary. In the furnace of conflict at the heart of the 1987 Intifada, notions of freedom, love, respectability, nationhood, the rights of women, and Palestinian identity will be melted and re-forged. Vividly recounted through the eyes of its female protagonists, the novel is a groundbreaking story that shatters the myth of a uniform gendered experience of conflict.

23) Victory Colony, by Bhaswati Ghosh

This 1950s-set story speaks of the resilience of refugees from East Pakistanand specifically of Amala Mannawho found themselves mostly unwanted on either side of the border following Partition. In the face of government apathy and public disdain, they started anew their lives from scratch, and in the process, changed the sociocultural landscape of Calcutta, the city they claimed as home, forever. Needless to say, Victory Colony has renewed resonance and significance in our current political climate.

24) Breasts and Eggs, by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)

Coming out this spring is this novella, which details a three-day reunion between a 30-year-old unmarried narrator, her sister Makiko and Makikos daughter, Midoriko. Kawakami focuses in on each womans respective struggles with identity and the female body, tackling big themes with humour and offering a cold, hard look at the many pressures facing women in Japan. Breasts and Eggs opens a discussion on reproductive rights within Japan, and the social struggles associated with one woman making her choice.

Also Read: Why I Write: Writing Defines My Identity, Choices and Priorities

25) Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda (translated by Polly Barton)

Feminist retellings of classic tales are always fun and rapidly growing in popularity around the world. In 2020, taking a collection of traditional Japanese ghost stories and crafting them into often humorous yet painfully relevant tales is a move of pure genius by Aoko Matsuda. Taking place in a contemporary setting, with a decidedly feminist bend, the book takes classic Japanese ghost stories and rewrites them to make them relevant to the current gender climate of modern-day Japan. Witty, biting, and poignant, Matsudas collection is a pleasantly haunting surprise.

26) My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. Alternating between Vanessas present and her past, the novel juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. A masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions, it raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood, and brilliantly captures the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.

27) Brother & Sister: A Memoir, by Diane Keaton

With prose as quirky and affecting as her on-screen personas, actress Diane Keaton has already chronicled her extraordinary life in two memoirs. Keatons third, is the most wrenching yet as she tries to understand how her beloved younger brother Randy became a troubled recluse who lives on the other side of normal. In beautiful and fearless prose thats intertwined with photographs, journal entries, letters, and poetry, this insightful memoir contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart.

28) Recollections of My Nonexistence, by Rebecca Solnit

Solnits first full-length memoir is the transfixing account of the feminist firebrands intellectual awakening. In 1981, Rebecca Solnit rented a studio apartment in San Francisco, where she began to come to terms with the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, and the authority figures that routinely disbelieved her. Set in the era of punk, of growing gay pride, of counter culture and West Coast activism, here is an electric account of the pauses and gains of feminism in the past forty years; and an extraordinary portrait of an artist, by a seminal American writer.

29) More Myself: A Journey, by Alicia Keys

As one of the most celebrated musicians in the world, Alicia Keys has enraptured the globe with her heartfelt lyrics, extraordinary vocal range, and soul-stirring piano compositions. Yet away from the spotlight, Alicia has grappled with private heartacheover the challenging and complex relationship with her father, the people-pleasing nature that characterized her early career, the loss of privacy surrounding her romantic relationships, and the oppressive expectations of female perfection. Here, she shares her quest for truthabout herself, her past, and her shift from sacrificing her spirit to celebrating her worth.

30) Redhead by the Side of the Road, by Anne Tyler

Tylers second novel in two years is about a creature of habit named Micah whose life is turned upside down by two peoplefirst, his thirty-something girlfriend who has nowhere to go after being evicted from her apartment, and then the teenager who shows up at his door claiming to be his son. Classic Tyler, a la The Accidental Tourist.

31) The Book of Longings, by Sue Monk Kidd

Did Jesus have a wife? A 1,300-year-old scrap of papyrus suggests he might have. The author of The Invention of Wings, takes that enduring scholarly mystery and delivers unto us the story of Ana, who meets Jesus when hes 18 and falls in love with him. This historical saga conjures a woman who defies the expectations of her time by becoming a scholar and philosopher ultimately in exile from Nazareth and her husband.

32) If I Had Your Face, by Frances Cha

Chas striking first novel follows four young women in Seoul, South Korea trapped in a sphere of impossible beauty standards, a place where extreme plastic surgery is as routine as getting a haircut, where women compete for spots in secret room salons to entertain wealthy businessmen after hours, where K-Pop stars are the object of all-consuming obsession, and ruthless social hierarchies dictate your every move. Unsettling and deeply affecting.

Also Read: Must Read Books On Yoga That Offer Deeper Insights Into The Practice

33) The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel

Half a decade after her best-selling, ground-breaking dystopia, Station Eleven, the writer returns with a mystery about the relationship between a New York financier, his waiter lover, and a disappearance. Set across a ship, Manhattan skyscrapers, and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, the novel paints a heady and breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

34) Little Eyes, by Samanta Schweblin, translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell

The characters in Samanta Schweblins brilliant new novel reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung soulsbut yet they also expose the ugly side of our increasingly linked world. Trusting strangers can lead to unexpected love, playful encounters, and marvellous adventure, but what happens when it can also pave the way for unimaginable terror? Schweblin creates a dark and complex world thats sensible, recognizable. A visionary novel about our interconnected present, about the collision of horror and humanity, from a master of the spine-tingling tale.

35) The Heart Asks Pleasure First, by Karuna Ezara Parikh

It is 2001 and Daya and Aaftab have just met in a park in Cardiff. This, the poets debut work of fiction has been a decade in the makingand its not your average love story, were told, but one of impossible, forbidden love, difficult joyous friendship in a world of migration, xenophobia, Islamophobia and jihad.

36) Postcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie Diaz

Diazwho is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribewon an American Book Award for her debut poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec. Her transformative second collection, described as an anthem of desire against erasure, and a thunderous river of a book about bodies, is already being welcomed with warm, rapturous praise on both sides of the Atlantic.

37) Shameless, by Taslima Nasreen, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Shameless, the sequel to the controversial and best-selling Lajja, had never been published in Bengali, or any other language, until very recently, when a Hindi translation was printed. This timely, topical and outspoken novel about communal tensions in India is, according to its author, not a political noveland instead about what the politics of religion does to human beings and their relationships: a ruthless, uncompromising, heartbreaking tale of ordinary peoples lives in our times.

38) Name, Place, Animal, Thing, by Daribha Lyndem

Set in politically charged Shillong, this interconnected collection of stories speaks of the coming-of-age of a young womanand the city and community she calls home. As each chapter gently lifts a curtain to reveal glimpses of the protagonists Protestant, Khasi life, we see her cross the threshold from childhood to adulthood.

39) The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins

The prequel to the trilogy will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games. Yes, this will be a major event in the book world this year. Yes, you should reread the trilogy while you wait.

40) How Much of These Hills is Gold, by C. Pam Zhang

This epic debut novel, set during the Gold Rush in a reimagined American West, has received early praise from the likes of Daisy Johnson and Lauren Groff. Lucy and Sam are two newly orphaned siblings who travel an unforgiving landscape with their fathers body on their backs. This is the story of the myth of the American Dream, of memories, of (an immigrant) family and fortune, and more.

Also Read: A List Of Uplifting Books To Help You Kick Start Your Day

41) Death in Her Hands, by Ottessa Moshfegh

Your year of rest and relaxation is overfor the Booker Prize-shortlisted writer of Eileen, and unlikeable female protagonists, is back with a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense, horror, and the pitch-black comedy we love her for. A forest, a handwritten note, a dead body are you hooked and spooked yet?

42) A Thousand Cranes for India: Reclaiming Plurality Amid Hatred, edited by Pallavi Aiyar

This anthologycomprising 23 pieces of reportage, stories, poems, memoir and polemicuses the mythology, history, and symbolism of Japanese Origami paper cranes as a pathway for some of Indias best-known writers, poets and artists to pave a shared, civic space for a conversation about the fault lines in India at a time of darkness.

43) Why is my hair curly? by Lakshmy Iyer

Meet 10-year-old Avantika, adopted at the age of six months. In a family where everybody has sleek, straight hair, she has a head full of unruly curls. Interspersed with illustrations, the protagonists preoccupation with her hair becomes a starting-point for conversations about genetics and the fabric of a family.

44) Sisters, by Daisy Johnson

Lauren Groff has called her a goddamn swaggering monster of fiction. Johnson was shortlisted for the Booker Prize with the magical, mesmerizing, murky-with-genre, Everything Under. With this new novel about sibling love, she steers closer to psychological horror, and perhaps, to her debut work of fiction, the short story collection, Fen.

45) Hunted by the Sky, by Tanaz Bhatena

From the author of A Girl Like That, this YA fantasy explores identity, class inequality, alongside a high-stakes romance story. Hunted by the Sky is set in the Kingdom of Ambara world inspired by medieval India, and a world of deadly, dark secrets and adventures.

46) Little Gods, by Meng Jin

On the night of June Fourth, a woman gives birth in a Beijing hospital alone. Thus begins the unravelling of Su Lan, a brilliant physicist who until this moment has successfully erased her past. Years later, when Su Lan dies unexpectedly, her daughter Liya, who grew up in America, takes her mothers ashes to Chinato her, an unknown country, where her memories are joined by those of Zhu Wen, the woman last to know Su Lan before she left China, and Yongzong, the father Liya has never known. This lyrical and thought-provoking debut novel explores the complex web of grief, memory, time, and selfhood in the immigrant experience, and the complicated bond between daughters and mothers.

Read more here:
Books By Women Authors To Look Out For In 2020 - SheThePeople

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

In Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley, hedge fund manager Joon Yun is doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation. According to US social security data, he says, the probability of a 25-year-old dying before their 26th birthday is 0.1%. If we could keep that risk constant throughout life instead of it rising due to age-related disease, the average person would statistically speaking live 1,000 years. Yun finds the prospect tantalising and even believable. Late last year he launched a $1m prize challenging scientists to hack the code of life and push human lifespan past its apparent maximum of about 120 years (the longest known/confirmed lifespan was 122 years).

Yun believes it is possible to solve ageing and get people to live, healthily, more or less indefinitely. His Palo Alto Longevity Prize, which 15 scientific teams have so far entered, will be awarded in the first instance for restoring vitality and extending lifespan in mice by 50%. But Yun has deep pockets and expects to put up more money for progressively greater feats. He says this is a moral rather than personal quest. Our lives and society are troubled by growing numbers of loved ones lost to age-related disease and suffering extended periods of decrepitude, which is costing economies. Yun has an impressive list of nearly 50 advisers, including scientists from some of Americas top universities.

Yuns quest a modern version of the age old dream of tapping the fountain of youth is emblematic of the current enthusiasm to disrupt death sweeping Silicon Valley. Billionaires and companies are bullish about what they can achieve. In September 2013 Google announced the creation of Calico, short for the California Life Company. Its mission is to reverse engineer the biology that controls lifespan and devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. Though much mystery surrounds the new biotech company, it seems to be looking in part to develop age-defying drugs. In April 2014 it recruited Cynthia Kenyon, a scientist acclaimed for work that included genetically engineering roundworms to live up to six times longer than normal, and who has spoken of dreaming of applying her discoveries to people. Calico has the money to do almost anything it wants, says Tom Johnson, an earlier pioneer of the field now at the University of Colorado who was the first to find a genetic effect on longevity in a worm.

In March 2014, pioneering American biologist and technologist Craig Venter along with the tech entrepreneur founder of the X Prize Foundation, Peter Diamandis announced a new company called Human Longevity Inc. It isnt aimed at developing anti-ageing drugs or competing with Calico, says Venter. But it plans to create a giant database of 1 million human genome sequences by 2020, including from supercentenarians. Venter says that data should shed important new light on what makes for a longer, healthier life, and expects others working on life extension to use his database. Our approach can help Calico immensely and if their approach is successful it can help me live longer, explains Venter. We hope to be the reference centre at the middle of everything.

In an office not far from Googles headquarters in Mountain View, with a beard reaching almost to his navel, Aubrey de Grey is enjoying the new buzz about defeating ageing. For more than a decade, he has been on a crusade to inspire the world to embark on a scientific quest to eliminate ageing and extend healthy lifespan indefinitely (he is on the Palo Alto Longevity Prize board). It is a difficult job because he considers the world to be in a pro-ageing trance, happy to accept that ageing is unavoidable, when the reality is that its simply a medical problem that science can solve. Just as a vintage car can be kept in good condition indefinitely with periodic preventative maintenance, so there is no reason why, in principle, the same cant be true of the human body, thinks de Grey. We are, after all, biological machines, he says.

His claims about the possibilities (he has said the first person who will live to 1,000 years is probably already alive), and some unconventional and unproven ideas about the science behind ageing, have long made de Grey unpopular with mainstream academics studying ageing. But the appearance of Calico and others suggests the world might be coming around to his side, he says. There is an increasing number of people realising that the concept of anti-ageing medicine that actually works is going to be the biggest industry that ever existed by some huge margin and that it just might be foreseeable.

Since 2009, de Grey has been chief scientific officer at his own charity, the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (Sens) Research Foundation. Including an annual contribution (about $600,000 a year) from Peter Thiel, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and money from his own inheritance, he funds about $5m of research annually. Some is done in-house, the rest sponsored at outside institutions. (Even his critics say he funds some good science.)

De Grey isnt the only one who sees a new flowering of anti-ageing research. Radical life extension isnt consigned to the realm of cranks and science fiction writers any more, says David Masci, a researcher at the Pew Research Centre, who recently wrote a report on the topic looking at the scientific and ethical dimensions of radical life extension. Serious people are doing research in this area and serious thinkers are thinking about this .

Although funding pledges have been low compared to early hopes, billionaires not just from the technology industry have long supported research into the biology of ageing. Yet it has mostly been aimed at extending healthspan, the years in which you are free of frailty or disease, rather than lifespan, although an obvious effect is that it would also be extended (healthy people after all live longer).

If a consequence of increasing health is that life is extended, thats a good thing, but the most important part is keeping people healthy as long as possible, says Kevin Lee, a director of the Ellison Medical Foundation, founded in 1997 by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, and which has been the fields largest private funder, spending $45m annually. (The Paul F Glenn Foundation for Medical Research is another.) Whereas much biomedical research concentrates on trying to cure individual diseases, say cancer, scientists in this small field hunt something larger. They investigate the details of the ageing process with a view to finding ways to prevent it at its root, thereby fending off the whole slew of diseases that come along with ageing. Life expectancy has risen in developed countries from about 47 in 1900 to about 80 today, largely due to advances in curing childhood diseases. But those longer lives come with their share of misery. Age-related chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimers are more prevalent than ever.

The standard medical approach curing one disease at a time only makes that worse, says Jay Olshansky, a sociologist at the University of Chicago School of Public Health who runs a project called the Longevity Dividend Initiative, which makes the case for funding ageing research to increase healthspan on health and economic grounds. I would like to see a cure for heart disease or cancer, he says. But it would lead to a dramatic escalation in the prevalence of Alzheimers disease.

By tackling ageing at the root they could be dealt with as one, reducing frailty and disability by lowering all age-related disease risks simultaneously, says Olshansky. Evidence is now building that this bolder, age-delaying approach could work. Scientists have already successfully intervened in ageing in a variety of animal species and researchers say there is reason to believe it could be achieved in people. We have really turned a corner, says Brian Kennedy, director of the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing, adding that five years ago the scientific consensus was that ageing research was interesting but unlikely to lead to anything practical. Were now at the point where its easy to extend the lifespan of a mouse. Thats not the question any more, its can we do this in humans? And I dont see any reason why we cant, says David Sinclair, a researcher based at Harvard.

Reason for optimism comes after several different approaches have yielded promising results. Some existing drugs, such as the diabetes drug metformin, have serendipitously turned out to display age-defying effects, for example. Several drugs are in development that mimic the mechanisms that cause lab animals fed carefully calorie-restricted diets to live longer. Others copy the effects of genes that occur in long-lived people. One drug already in clinical trials is rapamycin, which is normally used to aid organ transplants and treat rare cancers. It has been shown to extend the life of mice by 25%, the greatest achieved so far with a drug, and protect them against diseases of ageing including cancer and neurodegeneration.

A recent clinical trial by Novartis, in healthy elderly volunteers in Australia and New Zealand, found a variant of the drug enhanced their response to flu vaccine by 20% our immunity to flu being something that declines with old age.

[This was] the first [trial] to take a drug suspected to slow ageing, and examine whether it slows or reverses a property of ageing in older, healthy individuals, says Kennedy. Other drugs set to be tested in humans are compounds inspired by resveratrol, a compound found in red wine. Some scientists believe it is behind the French paradox that French people have a low incidence of heart disease despite eating comparatively rich diets.

In 2003, Sinclair published evidence that high doses of resveratrol extend the healthy lives of yeast cells. After Sirtris, a company co-founded by Sinclair, showed that resveratrol-inspired compounds had favourable effects in mice, it was bought by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline for $720m in 2008. Although development has proved more complicated than first thought, GSK is planning a large clinical trial this year, says Sinclair. He is now working on another drug that has a different way of activating the same pathway.

One of the more unusual approaches being tested is using blood from the young to reinvigorate the old. The idea was borne out in experiments which showed blood plasma from young mice restored mental capabilities of old mice. A human trial under way is testing whether Alzhemiers patients who receive blood transfusions from young people experience a similar effect. Tony Wyss-Coray, a researcher at Stanford leading the work, says that if it works he hopes to isolate factors in the blood that drive the effect and then try to make a drug that does a similar thing. (Since publishing his work in mice, many healthy, very rich people have contacted Wyss-Coray wondering if it might help them live longer.)

James Kirkland, a researcher who studies ageing at the Mayo Clinic, says he knows of about 20 drugs now more than six of which had been written up in scientific journals that extended the lifespan or healthspan of mice. The aim is to begin tests in humans, but clinical studies of ageing are difficult because of the length of our lives, though there are ways around this such as testing the drugs against single conditions in elderly patients and looking for signs of improvements in other conditions at the same time. Quite what the first drug will be, and what it will do, is unclear. Ideally, you might take a single pill that would delay ageing in every part of your body. But Kennedy notes that in mice treated with rapamycin, some age-related effects, such as cataracts, dont slow down. I dont know any one drug is going to do everything, he says. As to when you might begin treatment, Kennedy imagines that in future you could start treatment sometime between the age of 40 and 50 because it keeps you healthy 10 years longer.

With treatments at such an early stage, guesses as to when they might arrive or how far they will stretch human longevity can only be that. Many researchers refuse to speculate. But Kirkland says the informal ambition in his field is to increase healthspan by two to three years in the next decade or more. (The EU has an official goal of adding two years to healthspan by 2020). Beyond that, what effects these drugs might have on extending our healthy lives is even harder to predict. A recent report by UK Human Longevity Panel, a body of scientists convened by insurer Legal and General, based on interviews with leading figures in the field, said: There was disagreement about how far the maximum lifespan could increase, with some experts believing that there was a maximum threshold that could not be stretched much more than the current 120 years or so, and others believing that there was no limit.

Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Ageing Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is one of the pessimists. Based on the biology that we know today, somewhere between 100 and 120 there is a roof in play and I challenge if we can get beyond it. Venter is one of the optimists. I dont see any absolute biological limit on human age, he says, arguing that cellular immortality in effect running the clock backwards should be possible. We can expect biological processes to eventually get rid of years. Whether this will happen this century or not, I cant tell you. Such ideas are just speculation for now. But John Troyer, who studies death and technology at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, says we need to take them seriously. You want to think about it now before you are in the middle of an enormous mess.

What happens if we all live to 100, 110, 120 or beyond? Society will start to look very different. People working and living longer might make it more difficult for a new generation to get into the labour force or find houses, says Troyer. And, with ageing delayed, how many children are we talking about as being a normal family? There is a very strong likelihood there would be an impact on things like family structures. A 2003 American presidents Council on Bioethics report looked at some of these issues suggesting there may be repercussions for individual psychology, too.

One of the virtues of mortality it pointed out is that it may instill a desire to make each day count. Would knowing you had longer to live decrease your willingness to make the most of life? De Grey acknowledges potential practical challenges but cheerily says society would adapt, for example by having fewer children, and with people able to decide when to end their lives. There are pressing questions too about who would benefit if and when these interventions become available. Will it just be the super rich or will market incentives who wouldnt want it? push costs down and make treatment affordable?

Will Britains NHS or health insurers in other countries pay for drugs that extend peoples lives? The medical cost of caring for people in their twilight years would fall if they remained healthier longer, but delayed ageing will also mean more people draw pensions and state benefits. But advocates say these challenges dont negate the moral imperative. If the period of healthy life can be extended, then doing so is the humanitarian thing to do, says Nick Bostrom, director of Oxfords Future of Humanity Institute. There seems to be no moral argument not to, he says. Troyer agrees but asks whether living longer does necessarily mean you will be healthier what does healthy or healthier mean in this context? he asks.

The far future aside, there are challenges for the new tech entrants. Calico may get too side-tracked by basic research, worries de Grey; Venters approach may take years to bear fruit because of issues about data gathering, thinks Barzilai; while the money on offer from the Palo Alto prize is a paltry sum for the demanded outcome and potential societal impact, says Johnson. Still, history reminds us, even if they dont succeed, we may still benefit.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh tried to cheat death by devising ways to replace human organs with machines. He didnt succeed, but one of his contraptions did develop into the heart-lung machine so crucial for open-heart surgery. In the quest to defeat ageing, even the fruits of failure may be bountiful.

Why might tech zillionaires choose to fund life extension research? Three reasons reckons Patrick McCray, a historian of modern technology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. First, if you had that much money wouldnt you want to live longer to enjoy it? Then there is money to be made in them there hills. But last, and what he thinks is the heart of the matter, is ideology. If your business and social world is oriented around the premise of disruptive technologies, what could be more disruptive than slowing down or defeating ageing? Coupled to this is the idea that if you have made your billions in an industrial sector that is based on precise careful control of 0s and 1s, why not imagine you could extend this to the control of atoms and molecules?, he says.

Peter Thiel, 47, PayPal co-founder and Facebooks first investor, recently told Bloomberg Television he took human growth hormone (HGH) as part of his regime to reach 120 (there is no evidence it works and it can even cause harm). He also follows a Paleo diet, doesnt eat sugar, drinks red wine and runs regularly. He has given more than $6m to Aubrey de Greys Sens Foundation, dedicated to extending the human lifespan. In a recent interview he identified three main ways to approach death. You can accept it, you can deny it or you can fight it. I think our society is dominated by people who are into denial or acceptance, and I prefer to fight it.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin, 41, is known for his love of special projects like Google Glass and CEO Larry Page has credited him for helping bring its new biotech company Calico to fruition. Were tackling ageing, one of lifes greatest mysteries, says the website of the research and development company launched in 2013 and which in September 2014 joined with biopharmaceutical firm AbbVie to pour up to $1.5bn into a research facility focused on fighting age-related diseases. An extra reason for Brins interest may be that he discovered in 2008 he carries a genetic mutation that gives him a greater likelihood of developing Parkinsons disease. Bryns wife is co-founder of personal genomics company 23andMe.

Larry Ellison, co-founder of computer company Oracle, told his biographer Mark Wilson. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there? Ellison, 70, created the the Ellison Medical Foundation in 1997 to support ageing research and has spent more than $335m in the area, though it announced in 2013 that it would no longer fund further grants in the area. Ellison remains tight lipped about why, but there are reports that, with the emergence of Calico, he felt that hed done his bit.

A lot of people spend their last decade of their lives in pain and misery combating disease, says Craig Venter, San Diego based pioneering biologist and billionaire entrepreneur who raced to sequence the human genome. I think it is possible to begin to do more about that than we are doing. Venter, 68, announced his new company, Human Longevity, to promote healthy ageing using advances in genomics and stem cell therapies in March 2014. Would Venter like to beat death? I am not sure our brains and our psychologies are ready for immortality, he says. [But] if I can count on living to 100 without major debilitating diseases I would accept that Faustian bargain right now.

A digital copy of your brain turned into a low-cost, lifelike avatar, which doesnt age. Thats the vision of Dmitry Itskov, a thirtysomething Russian multi-millionaire internet mogul who founded an online media company New Media Stars. His 2045 Initiative, so-called for the year he hopes to complete it, aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individuals personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. Though not from Silicon Valley himself, his ideas draw on those of Ray Kurzweil, a prominent futurist, who is director of engineering at Google. Kurzweil has predicted that scientists will one day find a way to download human consciousness, no longer necessitating the need for our bodies.

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Live forever: Scientists say theyll extend life well ...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Q: Can the life of standard carbon fiber composite SCBA cylinders be extended past 15 years?

A: Yes. In 2017 the US Department of Transportation (DOT) approved Life Extension for carbon fiber composite SCBA cylinders beyond 15 years by issuing DOT Special Permit 16320. Here is a link to the DOT/PHMSA's announcement of regarding SCBA cylinder life extension: PHMSA's New Cylinder Special Permit Announcement

In DOT-CFFC, the DOT document that controls the design and manufacture of composite SCBA cylinders, life extension is allowed. To extend the life to 30 years from original manufacture date, the DOT must verify that the cylinders processed for life extension can operate safely for the extended lifetime. According to SP-16320, the only DOT accepted method to prove that the cylinders safely meet this high standard is Digital Waves LEx life extension process, which is based primarily on Modal Acoustic Emission (MAE) testing technology. The only company certified by the DOT to use LEx today is the company that invented the technology Digital Wave Corporation (www.digitalwavecorp.com). Dalmatian Fire Equipment (www.dalmatianfire.com) is the exclusive distributor of the LExTM technology.

Q: How does the LEx process work?

A:First, Modal Acoustic Emission (MAE) testing uses non-destructive vibration technology to find and analyze microscopic flaws in the carbon-fiber SCBA cylinder. Second, the aluminum liner is reconditioned to repair those flaws, and extend its life.

Q: Is the special permit number of the cylinder changed when the cylinder is qualified for 30 year life?

A: No. The manufacturers special permit number, part number and label are not modified in any way, and the cylinder meets all 42 CFR Part 84 requirements. As with hydrostatic testing, a RIN sticker is permanently affixed to the cylinder with the re-qualifier's RIN and the SP number under which the testing was performed, as required in section 7.(h) in special permit 16320. The special permit can be found at: https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/approvals-and-permits/hazmat/file-serve/offer/SP16320.pdf/offerserver/SP16320.

Q: Can my current hydrostatic testing facility extend the life of my standard carbon fiber SCBA cylinder to 30 years?

A: No. Hydrostatic testing is not recognized for life extension.

The DOTs special permit 16320 specifies that cylinder liner remediation and Modal Acoustic Emission testing are both required to extend the life of a standard SCBA cylinder to 30 years.

Q: How long does LEx extend the life of my standard carbon fiber SCBA cylinder?

A: To 30 years from the date of manufacture including MAE requalification each 5 years after life extension.

The LEx process extends the life to 30 years from the original manufacture date. Requalification with a Modal Acoustic Emission (MAE) test is required each five years after life extension. The MAE requalification test requirement is the required periodic inspection for life extended cylinders. Return your cylinder to Dalmatian Fire Equipment or Digital Wave each five years to get the Modal Acoustic Emission test for a modest fee. The MAE requalification test is different from the MAE life extension test.

Q: What if my SCBA cylinder is not yet at its 15 year end of life? Can I life extend it prior to the current 15 year end of life and how long can it be used for?

A: Yes. For example, if you have a SCBA cylinder that was manufactured in 2004 and you life extend it in 2017, it can be used to 30 years from the original manufacture date. This would be 2034. It would require MAE requalification testing every 5 years from life extension date.

Q: My SCBA cylinder was manufactured in 1998. After 15 years in service, I just stored it in my warehouse. It has been there since 2013. Can I life extend it now and how long can it be used for?

A: Yes. For example if you have a SCBA cylinder that was manufactured in 1998 and you life extend it in 2017, it can be used to 30 years from the original manufacture date. This would be 2028. It would require MAE requalification testing every 5 years from the life extension date.

Q: Does it matter if my cylinder was hydrostatically tested during the initial 15 years of life?

A: No, the LEx process is specifically designed to take into account hydrostatic testing that was used for requalification testing.

Hydrostatic testing was the only means to requalify SCBA cylinders prior to Modal Acoustic Emission. If cylinders were not properly dried after hydrostatic testing, the aluminum liner could see corrosion. The LEx process inspects the liner and also remediates liners exposed to water during the initial 15 year life.

Q: If the manufacturers say the cylinders are not in warranty after 15 years, shouldnt they be removed from service?

A: The DOT states that the life of cylinders is longer than originally calculated and they are safe beyond 15 years of life.The design requirements in DOT-CFFC make them the safest high pressure cylinders in the world. To safely extend the life beyond the original equipment manufacturers 15 year specification, the DOT requires: liner remediation, proof that it was done correctly using Modal Acoustic Emission testing; and re-labeling. To keep cylinders in service beyond the original 15 year service life, the DOT requires the checks and balances built into LEx.

Q: Are LExTM cylinders warrantied?

A: Yes, the LExTM cylinders carry a limited warranty for ten (10) years or the life of the cylinder, whichever is shorter for protection against manufacturing defects.

Q: The manufacturers say they have a new 30 year cylinder that I should replace my end of life cylinder with.

A: You already have a 30 year cylinder! You have used it 15 years already. You have another 15 years to go if it has been life extended with LEx. You have 15 years to make the decision of what new cylinder to buy.

Some manufacturers are claiming that they have 30 year cylinders available for sale. This is somewhat of a misleading statement. In actuality they may have a 30 year cylinder available. The DOT has not officially granted approval of 30 years for these cylinders. In the special permit requirements, the manufacturers must supply data at the ten(10) and fifteen (15) year intervals to be granted the 30 years of service life. If you look closely at the fine print on these manufacturers web pages regarding these cylinders you will see that they state up to a 30 year life (Cylinders must undergo additional testing before they are fully approved for 30 years.). What this means is that they still need to perform the testing required to prove to the DOT that they can be used for 30 years. They DO NOT as of yet have this 30 approval. What you do have is the DOT approval to use your current 15 year SCBA cylinder until 30 years from the manufacture date with LEx life extension.

This lack of certainty is explicitly stated in a SCBA manufacturers literature (https://www.scottsafety.com/en/us/DocumentandMedia1/QA_30-Year_Cylinder_HS7221A_EN.pdf)

Q: Why do the manufacturers limit standard carbon SCBA cylinder life to 15 years?

A: This life was based off of stress rupture studies by NASA on Kevlar composite cylinders, and does not apply to carbon fiber pressure cylinders.

Life Extension with Digital Waves MAE technology is new, and its more than just testing. The LEx process has 2 basic parts: First, MAE testing verifies the composite quality by usingnon-destructive vibration technology to find and analyze microscopic flaws in the carbon-fiber SCBA cylinder, second, it remediates the cylinder liner deterioration. Before 2017, the LEx process was not available. Before LEx, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) did not allow use of standard SCBA cylinders beyond 15 years. LEx is a proprietary process, and the manufacturers dont have it. With LEx technology from Digital Wave and Dalmatian Fire Equipment, the US Department of Transportation says life extension is safe up to 30 years.

Q: What are the safety specifications and measures that the DOT used to evaluate LEx?

A: Design Safety Factor of 3.4 minimum, and (for 4500 PSI cylinders) a Design Burst Pressure of 15,300 psi.

The DOT-CFFC document requires cylinders to have a design factor of safety of 3.4. Thus, a cylinder that has an operating pressure of 4500 psi must have a minimum design burst pressure of 15,300 psi. DOT/PHMSA funded research shows that carbon fiber cylinders typically withstand closer to 20,000 psi before bursting, for a factor of safety of closer to 4. The design requirements in DOT-CFFC make them the safest high pressure cylinders in the world, and their operating statistics support this claim. The service to burst pressure ratio also results in fatigue life performance that meets the ISO test requirements of infinite life. For safe life extension, the DOT still requires LExTM .

Q: How did the engineers at Digital Wave Corporation discover the SCBA Life Extension process?

A: The US Navy hired them to see if their cylinders could be used for an extra 15 years.

In 2011 the U.S. Navy had SCBA cylinders coming up on their 15 year life, and they wanted to know if there was a way to use them beyond their life. Digital Wave Corporation was contracted by the Navy to perform testing to provide DOT the needed data for life extension. The work was successful. Digital Wave Corporation proved conclusively that the cylinders met, or exceeded, the operating requirements of brand new cylinders, and received a DOT special permit SP-15720 for life extension of Navy SCBA CFFC and FRP-1 cylinders. In addition they received SP-16343 for life extension of Navy life raft inflation cylinders manufactured to the same DOT-CFFC design requirements.

Q: How long does the aluminum liner of a standard SCBA cylinder last?

A: At least 24,000 refill cycles.

With LEx conditioning, the test cylinders lasted an additional 24,000 refill cycles, which is considered infinite life according to ISO 11119-2, the international standard for the design and manufacture of composite cylinders.

Q: Why do cylinder liners need the reconditioning with the LEx process?

A: To heal the small areas of corrosion caused by hard water exposure of the liner.

After years of use and hydrostatic testing, small amounts of corrosion can occur in an aluminum cylinder liner. The corrosion comes from moisture in improperly dried breathing air, or from improper cylinder drying after the hydrostatic testing required every 5 years. Digital Wave engineers developed a proprietary method that reconditions the aluminum liners, effectively healing the corroded areas.

Q: How do we know that LEx reconditioning really works?

A: Testing shows DOT-CFFC cylinders lasted 24,000 refill cycles after life extension processing.

After the reconditioning of cylinders with highly corroded liners, they were then cycled to developed pressure (e.g., for a 4500 psi operating pressure, this would be a 5192 psi developed pressure) for an additional 24,000 cycles after the 15 year life of the cylinder. At this number of cycles, ISO 11119-2 states that the cylinder has infinite life.

Go To Life Extended Cylinder page

Read the original here:
Life Extension Cylinders FAQ - Dalmatian Fire Equipment

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Updated Nov 6, 2019

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"Good benefits, decent pay, good people"(in 12 reviews)

"You are helping people learn to be healthy, free health insurance, good pay"(in 8 reviews)

"Firstly, its a call center and you are expected to be seated a lot (which is well compensated)"(in 11 reviews)

"Aggressive, non-relevant callers, and the unforgiving "chronic callers" exploit this as they learn HA's literally have no defense to this"(in 5 reviews)

Current Employee - Senior Wellness Specialistin Fort Lauderdale, FL

Recommends

Approves of CEO

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for less than a year

Pros

Friendly work environmentgood payexcellent discount and benefitsProducts are effectiveon job training Great learning experienceTons of free food and snackssupportive staff. They acknowledge your medical degree even if your are IMG

Cons

I have seen a lot of negative comments regarding company here, that made me think twice before signing my offer letter, however I dont think any of the cons stated are realistic. Firstly, its a call center and you are expected to be seated a lot (which is well compensated). If everything is being recorded then at the same time they train you for 3 months (paid and well structured training) these recordings are not to keep a check on you but to help you and company protected from false claim that might come up someday (every healthcare org will have things documented. Break time is standard (15 min break x 2 = 8 hour shift) plus lunch break 45 min.

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Current Employee - Wellness Specialistin Las Vegas, NV

Doesn't Recommend

Neutral Outlook

Disapproves of CEO

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for more than 3 years

Pros

decent hourly pay, good benefits package

Cons

High stress environment, no job stability, difficult attendance policy. Company encourages you to work OT no sick time without penalty in pay.

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Current Employee - Wellness Specialistin Fort Lauderdale, FL

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Positive Outlook

Approves of CEO

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for less than a year

Pros

No prior knowledge necessary.... bonuses based on call scores

Cons

sitting all day.... everything is monitored

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Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Disapproves of CEO

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for more than 5 years

Pros

The people on the floor are amazing, most of the Sups are great!!

Cons

There has been way to must turnover.

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Former Employee - Wellness Specialistin Las Vegas, NV

Recommends

Neutral Outlook

Approves of CEO

I worked at Life Extension full-time for more than 3 years

Pros

Excellent benefits, overtime, great pay, wonderful learning opportunity, amazing unbeatable discount on their products.

Cons

Repetitive days, graded calls, minimal breaks, very hard to get time off(trades are expected) overtime is expected, no way to move up. Unhealthy copious amounts of sitting.

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Current Employee - BI Developerin Fort Lauderdale, FL

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Positive Outlook

No opinion of CEO

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for more than a year

Pros

Friendly people, good benefits

Cons

No weekly working from home

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Current Employee - Customer Service Representative

Recommends

Negative Outlook

I have been working at Life Extension full-time for less than a year

Pros

Good benefits, decent pay, good people

Cons

The actual work, tedious, redundant, boring, too much to remember, lack of facilities.

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Former Employee - SEO Specialistin Fort Lauderdale, FL

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Disapproves of CEO

I worked at Life Extension full-time for less than a year

Pros

They offer top pay for the appropriate skill and experience. Theres not much else outside being offered more than market rate; its entrapment.

Cons

Company has selective favor among people that hang together and run in clicks, childish in conflict resolution quickly dismissing people. This also a place that puts senior management in positions of power without the necessary experience to handle top talent. This is especially true in the Marketing Department. The way the onboard people and introduce people into work flows is unprofessional to other stake holders. The company would be toxic to any professional with extensive experience long-term. Take this a word of warning before putting your career in a grinder.

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March 22, 2019

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Life Extension Reviews | Glassdoor

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Trans-Pacific View|Security|Southeast Asia

A reported development provided a window on some of the ongoing functional cooperation between the two countries in spite of wider challenges for bilateral ties.

Last week, details emerged regarding the transfer of aircraft mission systems from the United States and Malaysia. The development spotlighted an aspect of cooperation between the two countries in the defense realm amid wider challenges in the broader bilateral relationship.

As I have observed before in these pages, while the relationship between the United States and Malaysia has seen its share of challenges since the coming to power of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in a shock election in May 2018, functional cooperation in certain areas has nonetheless continued to take shape. This includes the security side, where the two countries have continued to work on issues such as counterterrorism, human trafficking, and immigration.

Last week, this aspect of U.S.-Malaysia relations was in the spotlight with suggestions that Malaysia would be receiving aircraft mission systems from the United States. Affendi Buang, the chief of the Royal Malaysia Armed Forces (RMAF), told defense outlet IHS Janes on January 31 that the mission systems on the two aircraft would be provided by the United States via the Pentagons Maritime Security Initiative (MSI) as Malaysia seeks to convert two PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) CN-325 transports into maritime patrol aircraft (MPAs).

While few additional details were provided by Affendi himself, IHS Janes said the mission suite is likely to include the Merlin maritime surveillance system developed by Oregon-based Integrated Surveillance and Defense, Inc (ISD) including a maritime surveillance radar, an electro-optical sensor turret, and an electronic support measures system which has been installed on three CN-235s, two of which are in service with the Indonesian Navy and the other operated by the Indonesian Air Force.

Though specifics are still unclear, the development would not be without significance. While Malaysia had preserved the option to convert the transports into MPAs when it received the completed delivery back in 2001, it has yet to be exercised thus far and Malaysia currently operated seven CN-235s. The transfer of these mission systems would thus help realize a previously held objective.

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To be sure, the impact of this will be contingent on details that have yet to be revealed thus far. In terms of timelines, Affendi said work to upgrade the two CN-235s is expected to begin later this year, likely at PTDIs facilities in Bandung Java, where the company is carrying out a service-life extension program for the aircraft as part of a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) contract signed in April 2018. More could also lie ahead: two more platforms could also be converted into MPAs if more funding from MSI is approved.

Nonetheless, the spotlight on this development has highlighted the ongoing collaboration between the United States and Malaysia in the security realm despite the challenges that remain for the relationship. And such manifestations of cooperation will be worth watching to get a full sense of how U.S.-Malaysia defense ties are developing in practice.

Read more:
US-Malaysia Security Cooperation in the Headlines with Aircraft Mission Systems Transfer - The Diplomat

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Regarding the new capacity, the three wind farms are located in Sicily, Molise, and Campania and construction will start in 2020, with entry into service expected for 2021. As for the upgrading and useful life extension of the four plants already in operation, the refurbishment works will be carried out between 2020 and 2021 in Molise, Sardinia, Piedmont, and Tuscany.

With this award we confirm our dedication to the growth of renewables in Italy, a key country for our business and for our commitment in the energy transition towards a more sustainable electricity generation model,saidAntonio Cammisecra, CEO of Enel Green Power and director of Global Power Generation."The investments in the development of new renewable capacity will contribute to the decarbonization objectives of the Group and the country, supporting the progressive replacement of fossil sources with those with zero emissions."

Building new capacity and upgrading existing plants in Italy are part of the Enel Group's broader commitment to the growth of renewables and decarbonization, which will involve, over the 2020-2022 period, the development in the country of 700 MW of new renewable capacity and for which EGP has developed a pipeline of around 1.3 GW that can enter into service in the same period.

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Wind - Enel Green Power Awarded 80 MW in Italy in GSE?s First Auction - Renewable Energy Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

OneWeb satellite: Working to produce 15 satellites per week

Paris-based satellite industry specialists Euroconsult, in its latest report (The Space Economy Report), forecasts a spectacular future for the sector. The firms says that todays commercial revenues from manufacturing, launch and ground equipment (the upstream segment) and the downstream elements of operations and services are already worth some $298 billion at 2018 prices and values.

Euroconsult takes a look forward and says that the Upstream portion - worth $8 billion in 2018 - will grow over the following 10 years to 2028 to around $11 billion, while the Downstream segments will expand at some 5% annually to reach an impressive $474 billion by 2028.

Drilling down into the study - and important as the five key industry segments all are - but in 2018 the value of satellite navigation overtook satellite communications as the top commercial revenue sector. This might be hard to imagine, but the value of GPS-based devices is truly huge, and these days includes high-value aircraft navigation as well as the millions of vehicle and maritime GPS devices installed each year.

For example, in February it was announced that satellite operator Eutelsat, despite having a major glitch with its Eutelsat 5 West B satellite (launched in October 2019), was still able to operate its EGNOS device. EGNOS (European Global Satellite Navigation Overlay Service) is added to ordinary GPS systems making them more accurate. One end result is that aircraft can depend on its signals on their final approach to an airport, and then move safely around an airport during fog and bad weather.

Not helping conventional satellite-based TV and communications is the downward pressure on pricing. This is good for the consumer and business end-user but not so appealing to the infrastructure owners. Satellite operators are discovering that their well-established businesses are now being commoditised. The only premium for transponder rentals, for example, is the fact that millions of dishes are pointed towards a particular satellite. Moving them to another operators orbital location would be massively expensive.

Nevertheless, Euroconsult says that the satellite market will experience a radical transformation in the quantity, value and mass of the satellites to be built and launched with a four-fold increase in the number of satellites at a yearly average of 990 satellites to be launched, compared to a yearly average of 230 satellites in the previous decade. This market value will reach $292 billion over the next decade. This reflects a 28 per cent increase over the previous decade which totalled $228 billion in revenues.

This near-explosive rise in value is largely attributed to the boom in orders for smallish but numerous satellites for the mega-constellations from the likes of Elon Musks Starlink system and OneWeb.

Newcomers like OneWeb, SpaceXs Starlink or Amazons Project Kuiper are becoming the largest owners of assets in orbit, challenging the satellite industry in many ways, said Maxime Puteaux, editor-in-chief of this research product and senior consultant at Euroconsult.

These changes are characterized by several factors:

New Low (LEO) and Medium Earth (MEO) orbiting constellations are expected to account for 77% of the projected demand in the next decade driven by broadband projects like SpaceXs Starlink, OneWeb, Amazons Project Kuiper, Telesat LEO and SESs O3b mPOWER.

Starlinks plan: To build and launch up to 42,000 satellites

Source: University College, London

Incumbent Geostationary (GEO) commercial satellite operators, such as SES, Intelsat and Eutelsat are transitioning from a legacy of their established GEO broadcasting business to more data-centric use cases, impacting satellites orders.

Euroconsult says the gradual recovery of contracts will continue, following the low point of just seven new satellite orders in 2017 with demand driven by the first orders of satellites with much more sophisticated fully reconfigurable digital payloads.

DynamicThese new digital satellites are wonderful in that they can reassign spectrum dynamically and thus allow much more flexibility over their 15-20 year lifetimes in orbit.

Euroconsult expects an average of 13 GEO communications/broadcasting orders per year post-2020 based on a replacement scenario that considers the competition of Non-GEO satellite systems and the introduction of life extension services. Demand from global and regional GEO comsat operators will reach a yearly average of $8 billion over the next ten years.

Euroconsults hint that life extension services will be important. Theyre right, and the worlds first space tug or mission extension vehicle was launched in October last year, by Northrop Grumman. MEV-1 has been designed initially to mate with an old satellite (Intelsats I-901) that is very low on fuel and then take over the pointing and positioning of the old satellite.

MEV-1 brings with it a full tank of fuel. This will not be injected into the old satellite but MEV-1 will act as a space buddy (officially a Combined Vehicle Stack:), linking itself to I-901 and then taking over the normal station-keeping duties of the old satellite.

Intelsat 901 carries 72 C-band transponders and also providing Ku-band spot beam coverage for Europe, as well as C-band coverage for much of North America, all of South America, Europe and almost all of Africa.

Rescuing a craft by these means has never been done before and if the experiment succeeds means that lower-cost servicing/rescue craft could be launched and totally revolutionise the economics of satellite replacement.

Euroconsult says that Civil government agencies are projected to be the top drivers of satellite demand, accounting for 40% of the entire market value, ahead of both defense and commercial demand. This is a result of increasing interest in space science, exploration, and Earth observation. On the defense side, a new cycle of orders is beginning with new strategies and replacement satellites needed by the US, China, Russia, Japan, India and Europe.

Added together these new systems are making a dramatic difference as Euroconsult suggests. Elon Musks Starlink system has plans to build and launch up to 42,000 satellites. The first iteration sees 12,000 in place by the mid-2020s and delivering broadband to every part of the planet.

Greg Wylers OneWeb has similar ambitions and is working to produce 15 satellites per week and to start broadband services by the end of this year.

Broadband is seen as crucial in todays world, and while fibre-to-the-home is a reality for some consumers and businesses, satellite is a key component. This growth, forecast by Euroconsult, might even be an understatement.

See the article here:
Satellites: The $500 billion business | Industry Trends - IBC365

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Will mankind, who is attempting to travel between systems in the universe, find a precaution to prevent the passengers from traveling on the ship from getting old? Lets discuss a little bit about this issue.

One of humanitys biggest dreams is to travel between star systems in the depths of space. But, as you know, star systems are very far apart, and when compared to the life span of a person, the duration of this journey can make a huge difference.

Thanks to the time dilation when high speeds are reached, someone who goes fast is getting slower than others. Still, even if a spaceship with humans reaches 90% of the speed of light, human life still looks like a grain of sand compared to the duration of that journey.

Is the solution to this situation to put people to sleep?Today, it is not possible to reach the speed of light with its technologies. So scientists have to find a solution to prevent the aging of those who travel on the spaceship. This solution is none other than the sleep solution that we often see in science fiction movies.

There is enough technology available today to create a solution that passivates the human body and prevents aging. A technique called bio-vitrification has been used in organ transplantation for some time. This technology, which has been used for decades, has the opportunity to facilitate space travel in the future.

Biovirtification reduces the aging of human tissue to a minimum by using a liquid that protects it from freezing effect, to almost 0. The liquid used serves to prevent the formation of ice crystals that cause cells to break down.

Although this technique is used in organ transplantation, it has not been tested in humans yet. But some companies, such as the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, offer services that protect the human body so that one day it can bring back dead people. Although these companies have not yet brought back any people, they have returned several simple organisms from death.

Protecting the brain or protecting the body?Some hospitals can also take patients to cool down to extend the time required in emergencies. Although this process is not the same as bioventilation, it is almost similar. As a result, if all known are combined one day, healthy and long-lived individuals may emerge.

So would you like to sail to even more interesting points? The company Alcor, which we just mentioned, offers people two options: First, to cover the whole body with a liquid that protects it from freezing and to protect the whole body; secondly, only protect the brain and brain stem.

So why does a person only want to protect his brain and brain stem? Because if one day manages to fix a harm that ends their life, a new clone body can be created with the use of DNA of a person who died until then. Of course, there is a very long way to go until humanity reaches this point. Although the cloning technology we are talking about is being developed today, humanity may not yet be ready for cloning a human body. By the way, we strongly recommend the 1997 movie Abre Los Ojos

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Will It Be Possible to Sleep People in Space Travel? - Somag News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Since the introduction of Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant in 1984 in South Africa, the prospects of nuclear technology have not had a smooth trajectory. It remains the only nuclear power generation in Africa writes Knox Msebenzi, the managing director of NIASA.

At one stage, around 2007, the countrys power utility Eskom got a go-ahead to have as much as 20,000MW new nuclear installed. The approach adopted by the government was not so much to procure nuclear power plants but to build a capability by localising the industry in an aggressive way.

This is when the Nuclear Industry Association of SouthAfrica (NIASA) was formed. It was envisaged that, like South Korea, SouthAfrica would at worst become a major player in the nuclear supply chain allover the world and at best become an exporter of the technology in its ownright.

This dream was on the brink of materialising with the PebbleBed Modular Reactor (PBMR), when a political decision to terminate the programmewas taken.

The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) of 2010 2030 made a provision for a reduced amount of nearly 10,000MW, owing mainly to the entrance of renewable energy as a new source of power, largely embraced by the international community riding on the wave of climate change and other environmental considerations of sustainability.

Read moreIRP2019 making hay from coal while the sun shinesIRP, a balancing act for South Africas energy mix

The energy mix debate in South Africa attracted a lot of interest from international and local Non-Governmental and Civic Organisations, whose thrust was to lump nuclear technology with coal as anathema to the environment and, therefore, arguing nuclear technology must be wiped out of the face of the earth.

The environmental argument was augmented with theanti-fossil fuel lobby, cost issues and the linkage to corruption labelledagainst nuclear. A figure of R1 trillion as the cost of nuclear was peddled inthe media until it was taken as fact by the public and some politicians.

There was a rife narrative that basically equated nuclearwith corruption. All in all, the debate was highly politicised with all mannerof people leading the debate as experts on energy when in many instances thereal experts were limited by protocol to enter into it.

The anti-nuclear lobby was thus somewhat successful in waging a protracted campaign to get nuclear thrown out of the IRP and the Draft IRP of 2018 (approved by Cabinet for public comment) reflected only 2,500MW new nuclear by 2030.

The current IRP 2019 states, In the period prior to 2030,the system requirements are largely for incremental capacity addition (modular)and flexible technology.

The 2,500MW initially contemplated in IRP 2018 does not appear as the government is emphasizing the approach of small modular reactors, in keeping with the principle of doing it at a scale and pace that flexibly responds to the economy and associated electricity demand.

It also states that upfront planning with regard to additional nuclear capacity is requisite, given the greater than 10-year lead time, for timely decision making and implementation. In addition to this, the Government has made a decision regarding the design life extension of Koeberg NPP and the expansion of the nuclear power programme into the future.

In view of these considerations, nuclear does not appear in the new additional capacity up to 2030, but the policy is very clear that work must begin forthwith to realise this goal.

NIASA also believes that it would be wise to have a contingency plan to add reliable baseload power should the 2,500MW Inga hydropower be either delayed or does not materialise. Besides, as we decommission coal plants, they should be replaced by another source of reliable dispatchable power.

The Water-Energy Nexus identified in the IRP 2019 offers a huge opportunity for further nuclear expansion. South Africa is endowed with uranium (and other potential nuclear fuels) and conjunctive deployment of small modular reactors in coastal areas for electricity generation and water desalination is a low hanging fruit.

Water is a commodity that, unlike electricity, can easily be stored. All the coastal areas are currently receiving power mainly from Mpumalanga. If nuclear plants are erected in these coastal areas, any plant failures on the remaining coal plants could be mitigated by loadshedding water desalination capacity, without installing any additional transmission capacity.

There are countries with highly populated cities in this world who have never heard about Day Zero like was the case in Cape Town recently and yet some of these places do not get a drop of rain. They use their natural endowments to literally boil seawater and condense the steam into potable water.

Read moreIs Cape Towns Day Zero water threat over?Thyspunt nuclear project, a missed opportunity for water security

In fact, if sufficient capacity is installed, it would bepossible to turn certain areas in the Northern Cape and the Karoo into greenzones, for instance. The Middle East could provide ample and appropriate casestudies for South Africa to emulate.

One of the adjectives commonly used to describe nuclear power plants is that they are inflexible. To some extent that is true because they have been designed that way. If it does not make a difference cost-wise, whether one is running at 30% or 100% capacity, why would one want to reduce the power output, hence they are designed to run flat out.

The French power system, because of its high proportion of nuclear in the energy mix, has nuclear plants with load following capabilities incorporated at the design stage. The expansion of nuclear power generation would provide the necessary bedrock to further develop many other nuclear technologies that are not power related.

Examples that come to mind are nuclear applications in medicine, agriculture and industry. In medicine, the well-known radioisotope manufacturing plant at Pelindaba is a case in point. Nuclear technologies are also used in a variety of applications in disease control and irradiation of fruits and vegetables to give them long shelf life.

A scaling down of the nuclear power programme may have an undesirable negative knock-on effect on other nuclear technologies. As the undisputed industrial leader on the African continent, it is absolutely prudent that we strengthen our civil nuclear capability. Many African countries have either embarked or are about to on some nuclear programme.

It is no secret that they would be looking forward to getting assistance in doing so. This will not be on a charity basis but a business opportunity to export skills and expertise. All our BRICS counterparts are seriously pursuing both nuclear and renewable energy.

NIASA, therefore, believes the future of nuclear is very bright.

Op-Ed by Knox Msebenzi, managing director of the Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA).

View original post here:
Op-Ed: Prospects of nuclear power generation in SA's energy mix - ESI Africa

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

(KOB) Its an organ that can sometimes be neglected, even though it has a very important role.. the thyroid.

Specialists say it is very important to get it checked regularly, because if there are any thyroid diseases it can compromise your health.

Whitney Marquez noticed a lump on her neck and says she didnt really think anything of it.

After a few tests..

It turned out I had not only thyroid cancer in this side, but also on the other side where I didnt have a bump either, said Marquez.

Whitney Marquez is now cancer free following treatment.

Her cancer is just one of the few things that could go wrong with the butterfly shaped organ in front of the neck.

Dr. Lisa Ereifej an endocrinology specialist explained the importance of the thyroid.

It produces the thyroid hormone. Its secreted directly to the blood, and it goes to every single tissue in the body, said Ereifej.

Dr Ereifej says the hormone produced helps regulate the body organs.

But thyroid diseases could compromise your health, even if it isnt cancerous.

The most common structure problem that we see in a thyroid in our clinic is thyroid nodules, explained Dr. Ereifej, So its simple a lump in the thyroid. Sometimes patients have no symptoms at all. The other part is a thyroid function problem. So your thyroid is either making too much thyroid hormone or too little thyroid hormone.

Sometimes there arent any symptoms but if you are experiencing anxiety, fast heart beat, weight fluctuations, fatigue, or difficulty sleeping, visit your doctor.

If you catch it on time, there is treatment that can help stabilize the issue.

We know our own bodies. If something shows up that just seems kind of out of place, get it checked out, said Marquez.

Medical experts recommend regular thyroid checkups. They say, if left untreated, it could lead to long term health issues.

Read this article:
The importance of a regular thyroid check - WSAV-TV

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Orgasms are a very common human phenomenon. The physical and mental health benefits have been researched frequently as a result, and yet, there is still so much to be learned about how our bodies and brains react to the chemicals and hormones released during and after experiencing this type of sexual release.

"The amount of speculation versus actual data on both the function and value of orgasm is remarkable" explains Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.

Masturbation causes a rush of dopamine, which is a chemical that is associated with our ability to feel pleasure. Along with the rush of dopamine that is released during an orgasm, there is also a release of a hormone called oxytocin, which is commonly referred to as the "love hormone."

This concoction of chemicals does more than just boost our mood, it also can play a key role in decreasing stress and promoting relaxation. Oxytocin decreases cortisol, which is a stress hormone that is usually present (in high volumes) during times of anxiety, fear, panic, or distress.

According to BDSM and fetish researcher Dr. Gloria Brame, an orgasm is the biggest non-drug induced blast of dopamine that we can experience.

By boosting the oxytocin and dopamine levels and subsequently decreasing our cortisol levels, the brain is placed in a more relaxed, euphoric, and calm state.

Sexual arousal and orgasm increase the number of white blood cells in the body, making it easier to fight infection and illness.

Image by Yurchanka Siarhei on Shutterstock

How do those effects on the brain from reaching orgasm translate to boosting our immune system and making our body healthier?

The increase of oxytocin and dopamine that causes a decrease in cortisol levels can help boost our immune system because cortisol (well-known for being a stress-inducing hormone) actually helps maintain your immune system if released in small doses.

According to Dr. Jennifer Landa, a hormone-therapy specialist, masturbation can produce the right kind of environment for a strengthened immune system to thrive.

A study conducted by the Department of Medical Psychology at the University Clinic of Essen (in Germany) showed similar results. A group of 11 volunteers were asked to participate in a study that would look at the effects of orgasm through masturbation on the white blood cell count and immune system.

During this experiment, the white blood cell count of each participant was analyzed through measures that were taken 5 minutes before and 45 minutes after reaching a self-induced orgasm.

The results confirmed that sexual arousal and orgasm increased the number of white blood cells, particularly the natural killer cells that help fight off infections.

The findings confirm that our immune system is positively affected by sexual arousal and self-induced orgasm and promote even more research into the positive impacts of sexual arousal and orgasm.

Orgasms help minimize pain and promote relaxation which can help boost our immune system.

Photo by Marko Aliaksandr on Shutterstock

The benefits of masturbation have long been debated, but the more research that is done on the topic the more we understand that there are many positive reactions that happen in our bodies and brains when we orgasm.

Orgasms can help prevent or mitigate pain, which boosts the immune system, preventing cold and flu symptoms.

According to neurologist and headache specialist Stefan Evers, about one in three patients experience relief from migraine attacks by experiencing sexual activity or orgasm. Evers and his team conducted an experiment with 800 migraine patients and 200 patients who suffered from cluster-headaches to see how their experiences with sexual activity impacted their pain levels.

The study showed that 60% of migraine sufferers experienced pain relief after participating in sexual activity that resulted in orgasm. Of the cluster-headache sufferers, about 50% said their headaches actually worsened after sexual arousal and orgasm.

Evers suggested in his findings that the people who did not experience pain relief from migraines of headaches during their sexual activity did not release as large amounts of endorphins as those who did experience pain relief.

According to rheumatologist Dr. Harris McIlwain, people who suffer from chronic pain have immune systems that are simply not functioning at full capacity - therefore, alleviating pain (through orgasm, as an example) can help boost the immune system.

Orgasms can also promote relaxation and make it easier to fall asleep. Serotonin, oxytocin, and norepinephrine are all hormones that are released during sexual arousal and orgasm, and all three are known for counteracting stress hormones and promoting relaxation, which makes it much easier for you to fall asleep.

There are several studies showing that serotonin and norepinephrine help our body cycle through REM and deep non-REM sleeping cycles. During these sleep cycles, the immune system releases proteins called cytokines, which target infection and inflammation. This is a critical part of our immune response. Cytokines are both produced and released throughout our bodies while we sleep, which proves the importance of a good sleep schedule to a healthy immune system.

The immune system is a balanced network of cells and organs that work together to defend you against infections and diseases by stopped threats like bacteria and viruses from entering your system. While there are many things we need to do to keep our immune systems functioning at optimal levels, masturbation (or other means of achieving orgasm) has proven to have positive effects on the immune system as a whole.

Just as bad habits (such as an inconsistent sleep schedule or harmful chemicals in your body) can slow your immune system, positive habits (such as a healthy sleep schedule and active sex life) can help boost your immune system.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

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Is masturbation the new cold & flu medicine? - Big Think

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

When left untreated, a UTI in the lower urinary tract can spread to the kidneys, which can lead to serious health issues and possibly even be life-threatening. The symptoms of a kidney infection can include fever, chills, a burning sensation while you pee, nausea, vomiting, blood in your urine, foul-smelling pee, and pain in your back, side, abdomen, or groin, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Those are the tell-tale signs of a UTI, Dr. Dweck says. The tell-tale signs of a yeast infection are very different.

Yeast infections happen when a fungus known as Candida builds up too much in your body and wreaks havoc. Candida isnt actually always a cause for concern, though. In fact, the CDC says its normal to find Candida in warm, moist (sorry) body parts like your throat, mouth, gut, and, you guessed it, vagina. Candida can become a problem, however, when it overgrows to the point of causing an infection.

What can contribute to this overgrowth of Candida in the vagina specifically? Well, Candida exists alongside bacteria called Lactobacillus that help to maintain the crucial balance of microorganisms in the vagina, the Mayo Clinic explains. Changes in estrogen (like from pregnancy, birth control, and hormone therapies) can throw off this balance, as can taking medications like antibiotics. Wearing damp clothes next to your vagina for too long can also increase your risk, as it creates a wet, Candida-friendly environment, the Mayo Clinic says. (This is why changing out of your swimsuit, workout leggings, and the like ASAP is always a good idea.)

Then theres the question of how to tell the symptoms of a yeast infection apart from those of a UTI. We hate to break it to you, but there can be some similaritiesnamely, a burning sensation, especially when you pee, according to the Mayo Clinic. The other possible symptoms of a yeast infection are pretty different from those of a UTI; they include itchiness, irritation, swelling of the vulva, and the hallmark thick, white discharge that doesnt have an odor. If somebodys got a white cottage-cheese dischargeand the vulva looks swollen and red, thats probably a yeast infection, Dr. Minkin says. Yeast infections can also cause watery vaginal discharge, for what its worth.

Both of these issues suck all-around, but we hope shame isnt part of your discomfort. Every year there are an estimated 1.4 million outpatient visits for yeast infections in the United States, the CDC says, (and given the prevalence of over-the-counter treatments, the exact number of cases is unknown). The Mayo Clinic estimates that 75% of women have had a yeast infection at some point in their lives.

UTIs are also pretty run-of-the-mill, with about 40 to 60% of women experiencing one in their lifetime, according to the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

All this means that if you have either of these infections, youre not alone. Whats more, you have treatment options.

The issue is not just that these two infections require different medications to relieve you of your symptoms. Its also that if you try to treat what you think is a yeast infection with over-the-counter meds when its really a UTI (which you can only treat with a prescription), you could eventually be at risk for a kidney infection, or at the very least not actually get rid of your UTI. Youre not going to get better, Dr. Minkin says bluntly about using the wrong treatment.

View original post here:
UTI or Yeast Infection: How to Tell the Difference - Self

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Sex Educations second season premiered on Netflix earlier this month, continuing the streaming services steady outpouring of edgy, weird, hormone-centric exclusives. Over the past few years, Sex Education, along with The End of the F***ing World, and Big Mouth, have amassed a cult following among teenagers and young adults.

First released in January of last year, the show quickly became a fan-favorite for its diversity and positive message about sex. Following up right where season one left off, this season continues exploring the antics of Moordale Secondary School studentsspecifically those of resident sex therapist-wannabe Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) as he deals with his complicated relationship with his new girlfriend Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison) and his lingering feelings for his sex-clinic business partner Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey).

This season, however, dials the weirdness up to eleven. Right from the get-go, it becomes obvious that theyre not going to hold back, clearly shown with a horrifyingly-vivid montage of Otis masturbating in increasingly-public locations, culminating with him getting caught by his sex-therapist mom Jean (Gillian Anderson) in her car. This display of unrestraint serves a prelude for the rest of the season, setting up Jeans involvement in the actual sex education of her son and his peers. His mothers involvement in his school starts to pose problems for Otis and Maeves sex clinic, as their clients start flocking to her scholarly, free advice. Even more problems arise for their sex clinic as Otis girlfriend Ola starts to feel jealous about his previous feelings for Maeve and demands that he stop talking to her.

While I personally dont like when shows centered around teenagers start to focus too heavily on the parents (cough cough, Gossip Girl), Sex Education figures out how best to balance the two in a way that doesnt detract the shows primary viewers, teenagers and young adults. The issues that the adults in Sex Education face clearly mirror those of the primary characters. For example, Maureen Groffs (Samantha Spiro) increasing frustration with her husband (Alistair Pettrie) ignoring her leads her to seek advice from Jean, and later, file for divorce.

In dealing with its main theme of sex-positivity, the show departs from its previous season by not specifically developing these ideas through the course of the sex clinic, but rather through the events that surround itfocusing more on the lives of people outside of them giving or receiving therapy. Theres more of an emphasis on the characters relationships, showcasing a more direct and practical display of sex-positivity. Characters like bad-boy Adam Groff (Connor Swindells) and Lilys (Tanya Reynolds) gradual acceptance of their sexuality, Otis romantic relationships, his best friend Erics (Ncuti Gatwa) newfound confidence with his sexuality, and the relationships of all the parents highlight the main message of the show: you love who you love.

Go here to see the original:
An Embrace of Weirdness: Sex Education Returns To Netflix - The Georgetown Voice

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Its as big weekend for the Hunt family, whose Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl for the first time in half a century. They lost their beloved patriarch, Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, to prostate cancer in 2006, when he was just 74.

This would be just a dream for Lamar, Norma Hunt, Lamar Hunts widow, said at the presentation of the Lamar Hunt Trophy named for the iconic sports team owner after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game. He loved the fans more than any person that Ive ever known.

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Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt hoists the Lamar Hunt trophy, named after his deceased father, with his mother Norma Hunt (C) after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. Nikon D5, Manual exposure ISO 2000, f/4 at 1/640, Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 lens. Kansas City Chiefs running back Damien Williams scores a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, ISO 1000, f/4.5 at 1/1000, EV -.7, Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 lens at 40mm. #kansascityphotographer #nikonlove #justgoshoot #sports #reedhoffmannphotography #kcchiefs #chiefs #football #photojournalism #photojournalist #normahunt #clarkhunt

A post shared by Reed Hoffmann (@reedhoffmann) on Jan 21, 2020 at 4:39pm PST

At 26, Hunt, whose father was an oil tycoon, desperately wanted to own a football team. Having the means, he made the bold choice to start his own league. The AFL debuted in 1960 with eight teams, including Hunts own Dallas Texans. The Texans held their own against the NFLs Dallas Cowboys, but after battling it out in Dallas for three years, Hunt moved his team to Kansas City in 1963 and renamed them the Chiefs. Talks eventually lead to the merger of the AFL and the NFL.

Legend has it that Hunt coined the term super bowl a riff on a toy his children played with called a super ball.

Hunt was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, according to the Chiefs website. Hebattled cancer for several years and then was hospitalized just before Thanksgiving in 2006 due to a partially collapsed lung, reported theAshland Tidings. It said that doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. He died that December.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and the American Cancer Society estimates that over 33,000 men will die from the disease in 2020. But as we continue to see advances in diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, deaths from the disease are declining sharply. Between 1993 and 2017, the death rate for prostate cancer fell 52%, according to a study from the American Cancer Institute published this year.

RELATED VIDEO:Dr. James Brooks, a urologic oncologist at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, discusses current guidelines for prostate cancer screening

There have certainly been some major changes, advancements and new treatments for the disease in the last 14 years, Dr. Frank Jevnikar, a urologist in the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, tells SurvivorNet.

Techniques for screening and diagnosis have also changed tremendously since Hunts 1998 diagnosis. Now instead of relying on biopsies, we use MRI scans to assess not only the likelihood of having prostate cancer, but also to pinpoint the location of tumors, he says.

The evolution of prostate cancer treatments over the past decade means more men are now surviving the disease. Even treatments that have been in use for decades have improved and become more effective. Hormone therapy is one example.

RELATED:Good News for Prostate Cancer Patients a Promising New Procedure with Lower Risk of Impotence

We now have new drugs that are much more effective at manipulating a patients hormone levels to halt the spread and progression of prostate cancer, Dr. Christopher George, a hematologist and oncologist at Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center Delnor, tells SurvivorNet.RELATED:Vegetable-Rich Diet Wont Stop or Slow Prostate Cancer, New Study Shows

Radiation is another area thats seen many advancements, including more precise dosing to target prostate cancer cells. Proton beam therapy appears to be every bit as effective as conventional radiation and may have fewer side effects, says Dr. George. And for more advanced disease we are now able to inject radioactive particles into the bloodstream where they find and bind to prostate cancer cells.

RELATED:A Crucial Message: Ben Stillers Candid Account About Sex After Prostate Cancer

If removal of the prostate is necessary, that operation called a radical prostatectomy has also changed tremendously.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic technology has revolutionized radical prostatectomy, allowing surgeons to better visualize the anatomy and perform more precise reconstruction after removal of the prostate gland, says Dr. Jevnikar. This also means fewer issues with side effectssuch as sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinencethat used to be common and expected after surgery.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Sally Wadyka is a freelance writer and editor based in Boulder, Colo., who specializes in health, nutrition, fitness and beauty topics. Read More

Its as big weekend for the Hunt family, whose Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl for the first time in half a century. They lost their beloved patriarch, Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, to prostate cancer in 2006, when he was just 74.

This would be just a dream for Lamar, Norma Hunt, Lamar Hunts widow, said at the presentation of the Lamar Hunt Trophy named for the iconic sports team owner after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game. He loved the fans more than any person that Ive ever known.

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Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt hoists the Lamar Hunt trophy, named after his deceased father, with his mother Norma Hunt (C) after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. Nikon D5, Manual exposure ISO 2000, f/4 at 1/640, Nikkor 200-400mm f/4 lens. Kansas City Chiefs running back Damien Williams scores a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday. Nikon D850, Aperture Priority, ISO 1000, f/4.5 at 1/1000, EV -.7, Nikkor 24-120mm f/4 lens at 40mm. #kansascityphotographer #nikonlove #justgoshoot #sports #reedhoffmannphotography #kcchiefs #chiefs #football #photojournalism #photojournalist #normahunt #clarkhunt

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At 26, Hunt, whose father was an oil tycoon, desperately wanted to own a football team. Having the means, he made the bold choice to start his own league. The AFL debuted in 1960 with eight teams, including Hunts own Dallas Texans. The Texans held their own against the NFLs Dallas Cowboys, but after battling it out in Dallas for three years, Hunt moved his team to Kansas City in 1963 and renamed them the Chiefs. Talks eventually lead to the merger of the AFL and the NFL.

Legend has it that Hunt coined the term super bowl a riff on a toy his children played with called a super ball.

Hunt was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, according to the Chiefs website. Hebattled cancer for several years and then was hospitalized just before Thanksgiving in 2006 due to a partially collapsed lung, reported theAshland Tidings. It said that doctors discovered that the cancer had spread. He died that December.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and the American Cancer Society estimates that over 33,000 men will die from the disease in 2020. But as we continue to see advances in diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, deaths from the disease are declining sharply. Between 1993 and 2017, the death rate for prostate cancer fell 52%, according to a study from the American Cancer Institute published this year.

RELATED VIDEO:Dr. James Brooks, a urologic oncologist at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, discusses current guidelines for prostate cancer screening

There have certainly been some major changes, advancements and new treatments for the disease in the last 14 years, Dr. Frank Jevnikar, a urologist in the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic, tells SurvivorNet.

Techniques for screening and diagnosis have also changed tremendously since Hunts 1998 diagnosis. Now instead of relying on biopsies, we use MRI scans to assess not only the likelihood of having prostate cancer, but also to pinpoint the location of tumors, he says.

The evolution of prostate cancer treatments over the past decade means more men are now surviving the disease. Even treatments that have been in use for decades have improved and become more effective. Hormone therapy is one example.

RELATED:Good News for Prostate Cancer Patients a Promising New Procedure with Lower Risk of Impotence

We now have new drugs that are much more effective at manipulating a patients hormone levels to halt the spread and progression of prostate cancer, Dr. Christopher George, a hematologist and oncologist at Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center Delnor, tells SurvivorNet.RELATED:Vegetable-Rich Diet Wont Stop or Slow Prostate Cancer, New Study Shows

Radiation is another area thats seen many advancements, including more precise dosing to target prostate cancer cells. Proton beam therapy appears to be every bit as effective as conventional radiation and may have fewer side effects, says Dr. George. And for more advanced disease we are now able to inject radioactive particles into the bloodstream where they find and bind to prostate cancer cells.

RELATED:A Crucial Message: Ben Stillers Candid Account About Sex After Prostate Cancer

If removal of the prostate is necessary, that operation called a radical prostatectomy has also changed tremendously.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic technology has revolutionized radical prostatectomy, allowing surgeons to better visualize the anatomy and perform more precise reconstruction after removal of the prostate gland, says Dr. Jevnikar. This also means fewer issues with side effectssuch as sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinencethat used to be common and expected after surgery.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

Sally Wadyka is a freelance writer and editor based in Boulder, Colo., who specializes in health, nutrition, fitness and beauty topics. Read More

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Lamar Hunts Super Bowl Dream: The Kansas City Chiefs Owner Would Be So Proud of His Team - SurvivorNet

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Article courtesy of: Dr. Joel Kahn, MD, one of the world's top cardiologists, best selling author, lecturer, and expert in plant-based nutrition & holistic care.

Actor George Burns said that you cant stop getting older, but you dont have to get old. Considering he lived to be 100 and was active until just before his death, his words have more impact than most. The scientific pursuit of understanding aging is robust, and significant amounts of money are being spent on researching strategies to delay or reverse the damage aging creates. I have participated in studies where my entire genome has been sequenced as part of a growing database relating our DNA code to health. While you might not have had your entire genome sequenced, there are steps you can take now to minimize aging in your body. It is important to understand what inflammation is, how it relates to aging (sometimes called inflammaging), and how one food group, meat, promotes inflammaging.

Inflammation is a complex process in which cells and chemicals in our bodies fight infections and other threats, and it can be activated acutely or long-term. If a threat is detected by the immune system, chemicals like histamine are released that cause blood vessels to dilate, permitting white blood cells to arrive to clean up the area.

While inflammation can protect our health when its an acute response like a bug bite or infection, chronic inflammation is a different story. Many medical illnesses are caused by the chronic activation of inflammatory pathways. These include asthma, acne, celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and even atherosclerosis of heart arteries. In fact, in 1856 Rudolf Virchow proposed that arterial disease was an inflammation of blood vessels and recently the role of inflammation in initiating heart disease events was proved. You want to do everything you can to avoid increased levels of chronic inflammation and the ability to measure inflammatory status in blood tests has advanced greatly. Patients in my preventive clinic get half a dozen tests like the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) to assess inflammation.

More than half of our immune defenses are located in our gastrointestinal tract to monitor the foods that we eat. Foods can be inflammatory and initiate a chronic response if eaten over and over, and other foods can be anti-inflammatory. It is important to consider the question of whether meat can sustain inflammation and promote aging. Ive found that the data favors that meat is a source of inflammaging you might want to avoid.

1. Meat elevates C-reactive protein (hs-CRP).

Elevations of hs-CRP predict the development of serious illness including cardiovascular disease. Multiple studies have found that, even after correcting for confounding factors, meat consumption associates with increased hs-CRP. A recent basic science study performed in mice demonstrated that an amino acid found in high levels in meat, methionine, increased oxidative stress and inflammation and actually reduced heart strength too. A human study just published related meat intake to higher levels of arachidonic acid, another mediator that promotes inflammation and aging, and a diet low or absent in meat was recommended for optimal health.

2. Meat causes insulin resistance.

Another route by which cellular aging may progress is the development of insulin resistance. Scientists looked at how eating certain foods affects the release of insulin. Surprisingly, some protein-rich and fat-rich meats induced as much insulin secretion as did some carbohydrate-rich foods (e.g., beef was equal to brown rice). The researchers found that fish, beef, cheese, and eggs had larger insulin responses per gram than many carbohydrate foods. The scientific fact that meat is insulinogenic is rarely mentioned and may contribute to aging.

3. Meat raises insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1) levels.

IGF-1 is a peptide hormone stimulating cell growth. Its also linked to higher risk of breast and prostate cancers. Meat eaters consistently have higher levels of IGF-1 than vegetarians or vegans. Breast and prostate cancers are rare in traditional Asian communities, which have a very low intake of meat products. Okinawans, some of the longest-living people on the planet, eat a diet with less than 10 percent of their daily calories from meat. A plant-based fasting-mimicking diet has been shown to reduce levels of IGF-1, which has an anti-aging effect.

4. Meat produces Trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO).

In 2011, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic demonstrated that meat eaters produced a metabolite that promotes heart disease, called TMAO. Of great interest, TMAO was not elevated in vegans who were asked to eat a meat meal for the purposes of the study. In my clinic, I routinely measure levels of TMAO, and my patients eating meat on a regular basis have elevated measurements. I worry they are aging prematurely and counsel them to substitute beans for beef.

5. Meat can lead to the accumulations of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

POPs are toxic synthetic chemicals that accumulate in fat. Some of the POPs are PCBs, dioxins, DDT, and flame retardants used in clothing and furniture. They disrupt endocrine pathways and are linked to cancer, heart disease, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. POPs enter our body largely from animal products that we eat. For example, levels of PCBs in animal fat found in meat is much higher than the levels found in vegetables, fruits, and cereals.

6. Meat contains Advanced Glycation End-Products (AGEs).

AGEs are naturally occurring compounds in food and can be increased by cooking on dry heat, such as on a grill. AGEs are associated with a variety of diseases including brain inflammation, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Levels of AGEs found in meat are many multiples higher than in any fruit or vegetable. The irony of the chemical term AGE is not to be missed as increased levels of AGEs lead to premature aging and are best avoided by skipping the meat entirely.

A recent scientific review article stated one of the most consistent epidemiological associations between diet and human disease risk is the impact of red meat consumption (beef, pork and lamb, particularly in processed forms). While the risk estimates vary, associations are reported with all-cause mortality, colorectal and other carcinomas, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and possibly other inflammatory processes. While the quality of meat such as grain or grass-fed may have a small impact on inflammation in limited studies, meats of all types will favor inflammation and aging. Of course, no matter what you choose to eat, fill as much of your plate as possible with the most proven inflammation-fighters and anti-agers around: vegetables.

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This Food Is Causing Inflammation & Making You Age Way Faster - Anti Aging News

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

The menopause is something every woman knows she will eventually have to deal with. At what age, how long for and what symptoms she will have, however, vary widely. Thats what makes this stage of life so difficult to define, because one woman is nothing like her mother, her sister, her aunt or her friend. Everybodys body and hormonal balance is individual, but we must understand the basics in order to figure out how to best tackle our own reality.

The only experience Dubai resident Anna Yates, 66, had of the menopause before she started going through it had been that of her mothers. She was completely doolally for a couple of years, she says with a laugh. We never knew what she was up to next she used to do all sorts of crazy things. That included going to court for shoplifting when she accidentally put a loaf of bread in her own bag rather than the trolley. Fortunately she had a good doctor who went with her to court to say: Look, this womans going through the menopause, so she doesnt know what day of the week it is, never mind where her bread is.

Thankfully, for Britain-born Yates, who has been going through menopause for the past 15 years, her experience was not like her mothers. I was not looking forward to it, but it was nothing like that for me. The most inconvenient symptoms she experienced were spotting and night sweats. It was much easier than I expected it to be.

The menopause is the time that marks the end of a womans menstrual cycles. Menopause happens to every woman, but very few actually know much about it, says Alexandra Collishaw, a physiotherapist and clinical lead at Dubai clinic OptimalTherapy. Collishaw has worked in Dubai since 2011 and specialises in womens health physiotherapy, treating complaints such as pelvic floor issues, reduced muscle strength, and aches that can be common during menopause. We hear stories about hormone replacement and hot flushes, but that is about as much as most women know.

Menopause can start, on average, between the ages of 40 and 58, she explains. It starts with the perimenopausal stage, which can last between two and 15 years. This is when a womans menstrual cycle becomes irregular. Once you have gone without a period for 12 months, then you will be diagnosed with having reached the menopause stage. This is associated with hot flushes, poor sleep, weight gain, incontinence, night sweats, emotional changes, dry skin, decreased libido and vaginal dryness, joint pains, headaches and memory loss, says Collishaw, adding that some of these symptoms will also be present when perimenopausal. You are post-menopausal when these symptoms start to fade away and you start to get your energy back.

Yates, who is a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, believes her relatively easy experience of The Change has a lot to do with the lack of stress in her life. My body wasnt so busy making stress hormones and so it could make the hormones to help me get through the menopause, she explains. There are some women who sail through the menopause because theyve got very easy lives. If youve got a stressful life, chaotic husband, crazy kids, stressful job, youre so busy making the hormones to cope with that.

Dr Tara Wyne, clinical psychologist and director of wellness clinic The Lighthouse Arabia, agrees that mental health can have a huge impact. I think going through the menopause is primarily associated with a sense of loss; not having a menstrual cycle means being unable to conceive and a critical shift in identity and status, she explains. Women often catastrophise and imagine the worst outcomes, like significant weight gain, loss of sexuality and many other visible and humiliating symptoms. Dr Wyne adds that women can often feel inferior to or jealous of others who can still reproduce and having no control over this phase of life makes them fearful. Lack of acceptance of this phase can result in a less resilient coping response and a much greater sense of impact than is strictly necessary.

The other reason Yates found it so easy to cope was because she used hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which can come in the form of pills, patches or creams. At first, she took the regular HRT treatment, but then, seven years ago, her gynecologist put her on bioidentical hormones man-made hormones derived from plant oestrogen designed to be chemically identical with those the human body produces. I was told I could stay on it forever if I wanted to, but I thought Id be sensible and try and carry on without it, says Yates, who was concerned about reports that show oestrogen increases the risk of getting breast cancer.

Over the years, HRT has caused controversy, but not all of it is true, says Dr Aagje Bais, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist at Mediclinic Arabian Ranches. There was this big study done when they found people using it had increased risk of breast cancer, endometrial cancer and cardiovascular disease, she explains. But we found out that by really analysing the data [that] these ladies were over 60 years of age and used HRT for longer than five years It is a balance and you have to find what is suitable for you.

Everybody responds differently to the menopause, everybody has different symptoms

Dr Aagje Bais, consultant obstetrician and gynecologist, Mediclinic Arabian Ranches

Importantly, says Dr Bais, women need to know that they dont have to suffer through uncomfortable symptoms. Everybody responds differently to the menopause, everybody has different symptoms. Some people say it is what it is and thats fine, but a lot of females struggle and it gets in the way of their day-to-day activities. In this case, you should do something about it. However, this also depends on affordability, as many insurance companies operating in the UAE exclude HRT and menopause treatments in their health coverage.

Depending on the troubling symptoms you have, there are a range of treatments to opt for, she adds. One of the most recent interesting advancements in medicine for menopause is vaginal laser treatment, which has been used for vaginal atrophy, she explains. You have dryness, urinary tract infections, infections, bleeding that can all be treated quite easily with laser treatment. [It] has had some good results so far. Of course its not been on the market that long, but as far as I can see, people are happy with the effects.

Another recently announced treatment by British company ProFam that caught the medical industrys attention promises to delay the onset of menopause by as many as 20 years. However, it will be a few years before this kind of procedure, which involves performing keyhole surgery to remove a small piece of ovarian tissue, is available in the UAE.

Yates, for one, highly recommends seeking medical advice when its necessary. If youre struggling, then look for help, she says. If the first doctor you go to says get on with it, then go somewhere else. Wait until you find a doctor who is sympathetic with the challenges of going through the menopause not all doctors are.

Some women prefer to go through it alone and tackle this natural biological process without medicine. Paula Newby, 60, an entrepreneur who lives in Dubai, has been going through the menopause for the past 10 years. Before she started, shed had her uterus removed, so her doctor suggested oestrogen patches instead of full HRT to manage her menopause symptoms as they have a lower cancer risk, Newby explains. I tried them, but I didnt sense there was any real impact. Im not a pill-popping person. If I dont need something, I dont take it I come from a family who generally dont reach for the medicine cabinet very quickly. We tend to crack on and get on with it.

So, Newby turned to natural remedies, such as evening primrose oil and the herb, black cohosh. Im afraid I was too impatient with those. They take a while to take effect. Instead, she reduced her alcohol and coffee intake, adopted a primarily vegetarian diet, and started intermittent fasting, which shes found has helped enormously. Ive battled through, really.

Dr Marilyn Glenville, a leading nutritionist in the UK who specialises in womens health, is a big proponent of diet and lifestyle change when it comes to managing nasty symptoms. The more you can look after yourself, especially during those early perimenopause years, the more comfortable and easier the transition through the actual menopause can be, Glenville explains. The menopause is a time of change and the female hormones are going to be fluctuating up and down at this stage. What you eat as you go through [it] can make the difference between having a difficult or easy menopause.

Research has shown that eating oily fish, which contains omega-3 essential fatty acids, could delay the menopause by three years, Glenville says. They stimulate antioxidant capacity in your body and antioxidants help to slow down the ageing process in general and that would include your ovaries, too.

Eating a good amount of legumes, beans and soya products, which are phytoestrogens, are also thought to help delay onset, cushioning the effects of the hormone roller coaster women go on and helping to balance hormones, she adds. On the other hand, eating a diet high in refined carbohydrates can cause you to reach the menopause a year and a half early. This is because foods such as white rice and white pasta can cause problems with blood sugar and lead to insulin resistance, she explains.

Collishaw, who recently completed a postgraduate course focusing on the menopause, also has plenty of advice for women going down the all-natural route. Ensuring that your levels of vitamin D and vitamin B are optimal can assist in improving your liver function, which is important in optimising your hormone balance, she explains. Vitamin C can help to improve your gut microbiome thus helping with mood by optimising the gut-brain axis.

Curcumin has been reported to help aches and pains, sage with hot flushes and rosemary for brain function so these may all be things to introduce into your diet along with the polyphenols, such as dark berries, to help modulate inflammation in the gut.

Whether you use pills or not, Newby says she feels strongly that these things need to be talked about in a more open forum so that women, when they get to a certain age, are going in with their eyes open. When they do find themselves waking up to start the day and feeling terribly emotional and tearful, they dont have to feel like theyre going mad.

Collishaw agrees that education is key, as a study by BodyLogic MD Survey in 2018 found that only 19 per cent of perimenopausal women were moderately aware of menopause expectations, she explains. That same study showed the 53 per cent of women who were not informed, felt angry about what was happening to them. We know that knowledge is power and acceptance, and an understanding of menopause often leads to feelings of healthiness and relief So it is vital that we get the information out to ladies about what is happening, and empowering them so that they can control their own symptoms and make informed decisions regarding areas such as hormone and supplement therapy.

I encourage women to be radically self-compassionate, understand that menopause may cause some struggle and suffering, but that they should meet this with kindness

Dr Tara Wyne, clinical psychologist and director of wellness clinic The Lighthouse Arabia

Dr Baiss advice is simple: Discuss it. Discuss your situation with someone who you trust or you like a doctor or a friend or family to see how other people experience menopause and do realise everyone is different. They might have some tips on how they dealt with certain complaints.

Above all, dont be shy and dont feel ashamed, she advises. There are solutions. Sometimes its not easy to find the right solution and it takes time, but there are always solutions.

From a mental health standpoint, Dr Wyne echoes this sentiment. I encourage women to be radically self-compassionate, understand that menopause may cause some struggle and suffering, but that they should meet this with kindness, a lack of judgment and acceptance that this is part of our journey and our identity. Women need to uphold that their life experience can still be enriched and we can still be of great value and experience joy, despite menopause.

And thats whether you accidentally steal a loaf of bread or not.

Updated: February 2, 2020 11:28 AM

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Hot flushes and HRT: everything you need to know about the menopause explained - The National

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Stylist contributor Francesca Brown goes to a wellbeing spa on the Spanish coastto tackle her sleep issues.

Im 1,200 miles away from home and 30 minutes away from bedtime in a Spanish nurses office. Shes hooking me up to a portable sleep polygraph with tubes up my nose and a monitor clipped to my index finger to measure my oxygen intake and breathing. Just to say, you probably wont sleep that well tonight, she cheerfully briefs me. All I can think is plus ca change because me and 3am hang out on a nightly basis.

At that witching hour, Ill be wide awake, my anxious mind squirrelling away on deadlines, forgotten birthdays, that time in 2009 when I had to send emails to new colleagues apologising for my behaviour at the Christmas party Ill snatch a couple of hours sleep and wake at 7am a walking zombie grumpy, impatient and unable to concentrate on work. So when the pioneering SHA Wellness Clinic on the Costa Blanca in Spain asks Stylist for a sleep guinea pig for three nights, I am the first to stick my weary hand in the air.

Acclaimed for its pioneering 360-degree holistic approach to health, the SHA mixes state-of- the-art Western medicine (genetics, ozone therapy, hormone treatments) with the traditional (Chinese medicine, yoga, tai chi) all underpinned by macrobiotic menus and bespoke wellbeing and fitness regimes designed to boost health, detoxes and, crucially, sleep.

Plus, they mean business: three days before my stay Im asked for my mattress and pillow preferences. The SHA app also recommends I forgo caffeine, meat and processed foods in favour of herbal teas and organic veg served with wholegrains in preparation for my treatment.

Thank god I do because arriving at SHA is a culture shock. It looks like a vast cruise liner has run into a mountain with sweeping views over the bay of Altea. It boasts luxury suites, a wellness clinic, a chef, two pools, a fitness area, a hydrotherapy complex, the SHAmadi restaurant, SHA boutique and the SHApel (for your spiritual needs); everything is pristine and dedicated to your wellbeing. The unfailingly lovely staff just want you to feel great.

Its also a full-on first day of appointments where theres a health examination; a medical consultation in which Im prescribed magnesium before bed to aid sleep; a nutrition consultation which recommends SHAs Biolight menu lots of miso soup, fish, pickles, tofu and seitan along with personalised herbal teas including shiitake to help me relax.

A meeting with Dr Mera, aka the sleep doctor, is booked in for 7.45am the next day and hes passionate about the importance of rest. Arms flying, he advises everyone needs good sleep hygiene: walk around barefoot to support the meridian lines that run through our bodies according to Chinese medicine, dont drink cold water, sleep with lavender under a pillow, go to sleep every night at 10.30pm and get over 50 hours of sleep a week waking at 5am every day.

But first, he needs to rule out sleep apnea, which he describes as: Imagine I invisibly crept into your room then STRANGLED you in your sleep. (Why would anyone paint this scene for an insomniac? Why?) So Im signed up for a nocturnal polygraph diagnosis (the aforementioned tubes). After an uncomfortable night hooked up to the monitors, my results come back the next day and on a scale of one to 10 (10 being serious breathing problems that would require a sleep apnea mouth aid or BIOPTRON light therapy to reset circadian rhythms) Im a pathetic two and the most likely causes of my sleep issues are: anxiety, stress and the need for better diet and fitness.

So Im signed up to various detox treatments to get my body to shed unwanted toxins. These include the SHA Detox Massage which is lymphatic drainage via cupping (I now know what it would be like to try one of those silent Scientology births), a magnesium bath and a deep tissue massage by a man named Joan whom Id marry if only hed have me.

An appointment with the acupuncturist is particularly eye-opening as she reveals that, according to the 24-hour cycle of Chinese medicine, 3am-4am wake-ups are associated with anger and sadness and stress in the liver and lungs (hence the detox programme); she encourages me to open up my bodys blocked channels using her needles. Similarly, in a one-on-one yoga class, the instructor teaches me a viniyoga practice for when insomnia strikes thats all about the breath and using the intercostal muscles that surround the lungs by expanding them backwards and sideways breath is the thing thatll get you back to sleep.

On the last evening, Im sent for a neurocognitive assessment with a doctor who grills me about my life (from my libido to work). He suggests he place a skull cap on my head for some transcranial electrical stimulation to kickstart my prefrontal cortex (the brain centre of emotional responses) which he believes will counteract my nightly anxious thoughts and overactive brain. Lying under a blanket for 30 minutes with a strange tapping sensation on my head, my mind wanders to bizarre childhood memories and I leave his office strangely giggling to myself.

Back in my room that night I walk barefoot as prescribed, turn out the light by 10.30pm and place my head on the medium pillow. I feel positive, like something in my mind has turned a corner; that quality sleep isnt totally elusive, I just need to give my brain the chance to switch off and my body will follow. I close my eyes and a perfect eight hours later I awake rested and calm. 3am has totally passed me by

Room-only rates at SHA Wellness Clinic start from 330 (278) for a Deluxe Suite and rates for a focused Sleep Recovery Programme start from 4,000 (3,374) for seven days; shawellnessclinic.com

Images: courtesy of SHA Wellness Clinic; writers own

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Can a wellness and sleep clinic in Spain cure my insomnia? - Stylist Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

If a body has trouble detoxing itself, its likely there are MTHFR defects, some doctors might say.

Yes, we know you might be scratching your head after reading that sentence above, asking yourself, What the heck is MTHFR?

The short answer is, MTHFR is something thats vital to help detox the body and produce good health.

As for the long answer, read on for a synopsis on why MTHFR is so important.

What is MTHFR and what does it stand for?

MTHFR is an abbreviation for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, an enzyme that breaks down the amino acids homocysteine and folate in the body. It is vital in the biochemical process called methylation.

Why is MTHFR so important?

Genes can become active or inactive, according to an article on drhardick.com, and MTHFR helps enhance methylation, which helps activate genes and enzymes that help provide nutrients to the body.

What are signs and symptoms of MTHFR defects?

According to an article on medicalnewstoday.com, some of the symptoms associated with MTHFR defects are:

What happens when there are MTHFR defects?

According to mthfr.net, there are 64 diseases that can be enhanced in the body by impaired methylation.

Some examples include:

How can someone tell if they have MTHFR defects?

Normal physical examinations or blood tests with a doctor can help determine if someone has defects in MTHFR.

Genetic testing can also be used to identify MTHFR defects, but screening for MTHFR gene variants is also recommended by organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

What are ways you can combat MTHFR defects?

Here are some suggestions on how to enhance the levels of MTHFR in the body.

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What is MTHFR? Why is it so important for good health? - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

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In January, Germany joined the EU's "1+ Million Genomes Initiative". While the German government had previously declined to actively participate in the project and Germany had merely assumed the role of an observer, it can now become involved in sharing genome data across Europe for research purposes. Genome analysis is not only instrumental to the future diagnosis, prevention and treatment of rare diseases, it is also an important economic factor in digital health.

1. GENOME SEQUENCING

Human genomes are made up of at least 20,000 genes containing all our genetic information. Genome sequencing allows us to decode almost all mutations in human genomes. This enables us to identify individual gene defects causing diseases and thus to better diagnose and treat rare diseases. Increasingly, whole genome sequencing is being used in the field of tumours to identify mutations and tailor medication to the genetic makeup of a specific tumour.

But although the development of new technologies such as high throughput DNA sequencing over recent years has made it much easier and faster to carry out human genome research, the mutations that cause disease have been determined only for around 4,000 of the 20,000 protein-coding human genes. Medical researchers will probably need decades to identify all genetic causes of disease.

2. THE EU'S GENOME INITIATIVE: 1 MILLION GENOMES BY 2022

In order to produce reliable scientific findings, researchers need broad access to genomic data from both healthy and sick patients. The aim of the EU's Genome Initiative is to collect at least one million sets of genomic data by 2022 and make these accessible beyond EU borders. The initiative is part of the EU's agenda for the digital transformation of health and care, which is aimed at harnessing the potential of new digital technologies to improve healthcare. In a declaration published in April 2018, EU, EEA and EFTA countries agreed to work together to build up and link genome databases to form a suitable technical infrastructure. So far, 21 EU member states and Norway have signed the declaration. Ten specialised working groups have been set up to look into ethical, legal and social issues, common data standards, best practices for sequencing, issues relating to health economics, research and public sector participation, as well as to analyse uses for rare diseases, cancer and common complex diseases.

3. CURRENT LEGAL SITUATION IN GERMANY

The current market leaders in genome analysis are the USA, China, the UK and some EU member states from Continental Europe. While other countries have already introduced whole genome sequencing as a standard procedure in genetic diagnostics and have produced millions of sets of data, Germany has only generated tens of thousands of data sets from whole genome sequencing. This cautious approach was put down to the particularly high level of interoperability required and restrictions due to data protection regulations.

There are certainly still some legal and also financial obstacles to be overcome in Germany. Although the German Genetic Diagnostics Act (Gendiagnostikgesetz, "GDA") provides a legal framework for genome sequencing for medical purposes and establishing parenthood, there is no specific legislation governing genome analysis for research purposes.

Genetic Diagnostics Act on genome analysis for medical purposes and establishing parenthood

Genome analysis for medical purposes entails diagnostic and predicative genetic testing. Like genome analysis to establish parenthood, it is governed by the GDA. It stipulates that doctors have to provide genetic advice, restricts genome testing and analysis to doctors with appropriate training and provides for a patient's right "not to know" the results. Moreover, according to the GDA, patients must be given comprehensive information on the procedure beforehand and they must grant their consent.

Genome sequencing has already become part of standard care in Germany and since mid-2016 has been included in the German physicians' fee schedule. However, unlike in England, the German system does not cover sequencing of whole genomes but only of a very small gene panel of up to 25 kilobases, which corresponds to an average of four genes. For some diseases, up to 1,000 genes need to be analysed. Doctors wishing to perform larger sequencing projects have to apply for extra-budgetary services. Since such applications have often been rejected in the past due to the strict requirements, there is currently no incentive for physicians to perform medical genome analysis.

Pursuant to the GDA, genetic testing to establish parenthood requires the consent of the individuals providing the samples and can also be performed by specialists not qualified as doctors, for instance molecular biologists. Unlike in the USA, for example, analyses performed privately are not permissible.

No specific legislation on genome analysis for research purposes

The German legislator deliberately decided not to extend the scope of the GDA to cover genome analysis for research purposes, including general research on the factors affecting human characteristics. By contrast to predictive genetic testing, such research is not aimed at developing specific treatment for specific individuals. This means there are no specific regulations in this field of research, so the general statutory provisions apply.

Therefore, for related clinical studies, the general German laws on medicinal products and medical devices apply. They require that participants be provided with full information on any testing and must grant their prior consent. Since genome analysis involves collecting personal data, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and national data protection regulations also apply. Article 9 of the GDPR classifies genetic data as sensitive data that may only be processed if the data subject has given their explicit consent or with special legal permission. However, the German legislator took advantage of the exemption clauses in Article 89 (2) GDPR. Article 89 states that genetic data may be processed for scientific research purposes even without consent if it would otherwise be impossible to fulfil such purposes and the interests of the party responsible for processing the data significantly outweigh the interests of the data subject in not having data processed. Given the significance of genome sequencing for research, the consent requirement could therefore be dispensed under data protection regulations.

However, this would breach the strict laws on medicinal products and medical devices which require consent to the use of data in clinical studies. Data protection law also entitles data subjects to request information on their data or have their data deleted. This may be difficult to put into practice if large amounts of data have been collected. Another point to be clarified is whether individuals have a right to know or not to know about random genetic findings.

Ultimately, in the absence of specific legislation on genome analysis for research purposes, many legal questions have yet to be answered. It remains to be seen whether the legislator will set out more precise regulations in future.

4. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

The Federal Ministry of Research (Bundesforschungsministerium) has announced that the next step will be to set up national working groups. A detailed schedule and set of requirements are to be drawn up by mid-2021. Only then will it be possible to develop strategies for the cross-border use of genomic and phenotypic data. According to the Ministry, the first locations for testing the secure sharing of genomic data are to be selected by the end of 2020. On that basis, it will be possible to donate genomes during clinical treatment.

By joining the Genome Initiative, Germany has taken an important step in terms of digital health. Now the task is to adjust the existing legal framework to cover whole genome sequencing and to clarify the remaining legal issues. In future, genome analysis will play a key role not only for major pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of medical devices, hospitals and research institutes, which are directly or indirectly involved in researching rare diseases, but also for investors. To meet today's legal and regulatory challenges and any further challenges the future may bring, all players will have to keep a close eye on developments in this field.

More:
Germany Joins the Genomes Initiative - Lexology

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Increasing public awareness and increasing amount of companies delivering Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing is expected to drive the market growth.Data Bridge Market Researchhas recently announced publishing of a report, titledGlobal Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market Industry Trends and Forecast to 2026As per the report, Global direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing market is set to witness a healthyCAGR of 18%in the forecast period of 2019-2026. The report contains data of the base year 2018 and historic year 2017. This research report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing industry. The report also enlists several important factors share, size, growth, trends, global statistics, key manufacturers and 2026 forecast analysis.

Download PDF Sample Of This Report @https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=glo

The report Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges, opportunities and entry strategies for various companies in the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Industry.

The report profiles some of the Leading Players in the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market. These include:EasyDNA, Ancestry, 23andMe Inc., Color Genomics, Inc., Genesis HealthCare, Full Genomes Corporation, Inc., Helix OpCo LLC, IDENTIGENE, LLC, Living DNA Ltd, Mapmygenome, Pathway Genomics, Gene by Gene, Ltd., MyHeritage Ltd., 10X Genomics, Dante Labs, Inc., 24Genetics, LabCorp, Myriad Genetics, Inc., Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Abacus Diagnostica Oy among others.

The report focusses on weaknesses and strengths of the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market with a competitive landscape that includes information on some market vendors. Information presented in the report is gathered from primary and secondary research methods. The report also presents recent trends and opportunities of the market helping players strive for the lions share in the market.

Explore Key Industry Insights In 60 Tables And 220 Figures From The 350 Pages Of Report,Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market

The global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market report covers scope and product overview to define key terms and offers detailed information about market dynamics to the readers. This is followed by a regional outlook and segmental analysis. The report also consists of the facts and key values of the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market, in terms of sales and volume, revenue and its growth rate.

One of the important factors in the global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market report is competitive analysis. The report covers all of the key parameters, such as product innovation, market strategies of the key players, market share, revenue generation, the latest research and development and market experts views.

Segmentation: Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market

By Service:Diagnostic Screening ,Prenatal ,Newborn Screening, Pre-Implantation Diagnosis, Relationship Testing.

By Test type:Carrier Testing ,Predictive Testing ,Ancestry & relationship Testing ,Nutrigenomics Testing ,Others.

By Technology:Targeted Analysis ,Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Chips, Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) ,By Product type, Ancestry, Health and Wellness, Entertainment,

By End User:Laboratories, Blood Banks, Nursing Homes, Hospitals, Imaging Centers, Home Care, Cosmetics, Others, By Sales Channel, Online Channel, Over the Counter Channel, Doctors Office

By Business Model

Competitive Analysis: Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market

The global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as product (software) launches, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.

Primary Respondents

Demand Side: Doctors, Surgeons, Medical Consultants, Nurses, Hospital Buyers, Group Purchasing Organizations, Associations, Insurers, Medical Payers, Healthcare Authorities, Universities, Technological Writers, Scientists, Promoters, and Investors among others.

Supply Side: Product Managers, Marketing Managers, C-Level Executives, Distributors, Market Intelligence, and Regulatory Affairs Managers among others.

Key Developments in the Market:

In May 2019, MyHeritage Ltd. pronounce the launch of the MyHeritage DNA Health+Ancestry test, which gives new scopes of genetic awareness to enhance the life, enlighten the health further assists in leading a better life. It will also help the company to strengthen their genetic testing, clinical trial, and consulting capabilities in the areas of R&D providing accurate information about their genes.

In October 2018, 23andme, Inc. received the U.S. FDA approval for de novo technology, which is being operated in pharmacogenetics tests. Representing how consumers genetics may impact the way they break down certain medications. This approval will permit the company to introduce innovative and advanced products, thereby fostering companys growth.

Reasons to Purchase this Report

Order this Complete[emailprotected]https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/gl

Research Methodology: Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market

Data collection and base year analysis is done using data collection modules with large sample sizes. The market data is analysed and forecasted using market statistical and coherent models. Also market share analysis and key trend analysis are the major success factors in the market report. To know more please request an analyst call or can drop down your enquiry.

The key research methodology used by DBMR research team is data triangulation which involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary (industry expert) validation. Apart from this, other data models include Vendor Positioning Grid, Market Time Line Analysis, Market Overview and Guide, Company Positioning Grid, Company Market Share Analysis, Standards of Measurement, Top to Bottom Analysis and Vendor Share Analysis. To know more about the research methodology, drop in an inquiry to speak to our industry experts.

Customization of the Report

All segmentation provided above in this report is represented at country level.

All products covered in the market, product volume and average selling prices will be included as customizable options which may incur no or minimal additional cost (depends on customization)

Table of Content:Global Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Genetic Testing Market

Browse Complete Tables and Figures:https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-direct-to

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Here is the original post:
Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Market to Grow with a High CAGR 18% by 2026:EasyDNA, Ancestry, 23andMe Inc., Color Genomics, Full Genomes,Gene by...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

We all experience annoying symptoms from time to time. Fatigue, anxiety, hair loss and weight gain are symptoms we might chalk up to stress, diet, lack of sleep, or aging.

Often, many of these issues can be resolved by eating a healthy, whole food diet, exercising more, reducing stress and getting enough sleep. But when symptoms persist, you may want to visit your primary care physician and get your thyroid levels checked.

An estimated 20 million Americans have some form of a thyroid condition. According to statistics, women are much more likely than men to have thyroid problems. Hyperthyroidism affects two in 100 women and two in 1,000 men.

The thyroid is the butterfly-shaped gland in the base of the neck that makes the hormone T4. When enters the bloodstream; it converts to T3, the most active form of thyroid hormone. Having sufficient levels of these hormones helps regulate body temperature, metabolism, blood pressure and heart rate.

When thyroid issues are left untreated, patients can suffer from cardiovascular problems, nerve injury, infertility and, in severe cases, death. Pregnant women with undiagnosed hypothyroidism have an increased risk of miscarriage, preterm delivery and severe developmental problems in their children.

The thyroid can become underactive, overactive, infected or cancerous. Here is a rundown of the most common thyroid issues:

Hyperthyroidism

Someone who has an overactive thyroid may notice some of these symptoms:

Irritability

Rapid heartbeat

Sweating

Hand and finger tremors

Fatigue

Osteoporosis

Anxiety

Insomnia

After diagnosis, an overactive thyroid can be treated with medication. Graves disease is a type of hyperthyroidism. Its an autoimmune, genetic condition that can cause the tissue and muscle behind the eyes to swell. While graves is a life-long condition, it is treatable. Some treatment options include medication, radioactive iodine and, in some cases, surgery.

Hypothyroidism

Another common problem facing many Americans is an underactive thyroid. Some of the common symptoms associated with hypothyroidism include:

Memory loss

Fatigue

Cold intolerance

Constipation

Dry skin

Fertility problems

Depression

Hair loss

Weight gain

Your doctor will likely start by testing the thyroid hormone levels in your blood. Once a doctor diagnoses a patient with an underactive thyroid, they may prescribe a hormone replacement, which can reverse the effects of hypothyroidism.

Cancer

Thyroid cancer occurs when the cells in the thyroid grow uncontrollably, forming a nodule or tumor. Approximately 62,500 people are diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the United States each year. The disease usually affects people between the ages of 20 and 55. Women are nearly three times more likely to develop thyroid cancer. Many patients have no symptoms, but some experience a lump in the neck, voice changes and painful swallowing. Fortunately, about 90% of thyroid nodules are benign, and one out of 10 is malignant.

Regular neck checks are an essential part of your wellness routine. During your annual exam, your primary care physician will check your neck. If you find a lump or experience any of the symptoms described above, schedule an appointment with your primary care provider to get it checked out.

Dr. Julio Santiago is board certified in family medicine, fluent in Spanish and is a member of the medical staff at Galesburg Cottage Hospital.

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Local Doctor: Keeping tabs on your thyroid - Monmouth Daily Review Atlas

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Patients with cancer often want to know 'How long do I have?' Now they can take a look themselves at a newly launched and free online prognosis tool, CancerSurvivalRates.com.

It provides patients with a simple tool that can be customized according to their cancer type and specific characteristics such as grade and stage, as well as individual characteristics such as their age and gender.

Stephen Buck, CEO and cofounder of Courage Health, the company behind CancerSurvivalRates.com, emphasized that the goal of this tool is not only to provide information about prognosis, but to encourage patients to speak with their physician.

"We want the patient to do the research for the purpose of having a conversation the doctor," he told Medscape Medical News. "These are just statistics, based on their profile, but it provides the basis for further discussion."

Buck explained that it was developed as an aid for patients. "Once you hear something shocking like a cancer diagnosis, you can really be overwhelmed," he said. "And a lot of studies have shown that patients often don't understand what they are told about a prognosis. The physician, for example, may use language that may be hard for patients to understand."

Courage Health uses the same data as the American Cancer Society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), he said.

"The NCI does provide information on their website through the SEER [Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results] Explorer tool, but it's tricky for an inexperienced user," said Buck. "In this regard, our tool using the same underlying data is very similar. We just have an easier-to-use interface plus questions to ask your doctor."

In addition, this tool is a little more customizable, Buck added. "Someone with colon cancer, for example, may have a 5-year survival rate of 75% according to some data, but that might include all ages and grades. We try to tailor it a little to make it more exact."

Medscape reached out to oncologists to gauge their reactions to the new online tool.

"I believe if you ask 50 oncologists and 50 lay people about the utility of the tool, you'll get a variety of different responses," said Ramy Sedhom, MD, an oncology fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He emphasized that no algorithm, or a clinician's best judgement, will be correct all of the time.

"This is especially true considering that, as a society, we have not done our part to account for the variables that influence patient outcomes, including a lack of equity," he said. "However, I believe the training of oncologists is changing and allowing flexibility when it comes to how patient information is shared. And with the explosion of social media, Twitter, and patient advocates, there needs to be an openness to utilizing novel ways to share important information."

Sedhom said the new website provides information that is more user-friendly than other sites, as it allows for considering different variables, such as hormone receptor positivity. "Of course, the average person does not know that these statistics are meant for a population level and are not applicable for individual patients," he noted.

"With that being said, the tool is an excellent framework for a discussion about potential outcomes to allow a bigger conversation between patient and oncologist about prognosis, goals of therapy, goals of the individual patient, and potential outcomes," he said. "What I especially appreciate is the nod to palliative care, which is often taboo."

The American Cancer Society pointed out that it offers prognosis information on its own website. "The intention of the survival rate data we offer on our website and in our annual publications is to provide information about cancer survival at the population level, rather than provide data for the individual cancer patient, whose prognosis involves not only stage, grade, and age, but many other factors as well," the ACS said. "It is important to note that we also publish research studies that include more detailed survival analyses with additional prognostic factors."

While cancer statistics are available in many other places, this new website "represents the best, simplest tool that can be used by patients and providers alike," says Andrew Bruggeman, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology and section chief of the Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences Palliative Care Service at the University of California, San Diego.

"This site has a simple, easy to use interface and has data for several different types of cancer," said Bruggeman, who served as an adviser on the CancerSurvivalRates.com project. "The data is highly reliable when looking at large numbers of patients with a certain type of cancer."

"If there are providers who are leery of patients using this website out of concern for the reliability of the data source, they should rest assured that the data comes from SEER data, so the models are based upon reliable, real-world data," he told Medscape Medical News.

Having said that, he emphasized that determining an individual patient's prognosis is much more nuanced than what can be captured in a single website. "There are no perfect tools for determining an individual patient's prognosis and that is a limitation of this and any other website or data source," he added.

[It] will be useful to both patients and clinicians. Dr S. Vincent Rajkumar, professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic

S. Vincent Rajkumar, MD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, agreed that this website is very easy to navigate and is convenient for obtaining prognostic information. "It is well referenced and will be useful to both patients and clinicians," he said.

Elsewhere on the Internet, the "rates provided can vary widelyI checked out the myeloma rates with various parameters, and they are accurate, said Rajkumar, a myeloma specialist.

The site is intended for both for patients and physicians, and Rajkumar thinks that oncologists will find it useful as well. "And as they use it more, they may be more receptive," he said.

However, the problem with survival rates is interpretation, and he agrees that patients may not realize that these estimates are for populations. "No one can predict that for an individual patient," he said. "But it gives an idea, and that is useful for reassurance and for planning. Another factor is that the numbers depend on data that is a few years old. Outcomes with current therapy maybe better, and that should offer hope."

The simplicity of this tool may help oncologists put prognosis into better perspective when having that discussion with patients, commented Alex R. Menter, MD, an oncologist with Kaiser Permanente in Lone Tree, Colorado. He added that he has "played" with the NCI calculator in the past, but found it cumbersome to use.

"The version I used previously looked at overall mortality based on comorbidities, but did not look at cancer-specific mortality," he said. "I love this calculator because it allows me to share with my patients some real-world numbers and give them a rough idea of what they can expect with their cancer."

Menter noted that in practice, he finds it particularly difficult to discuss prognosis with older patients, as survival rates are frequently based on estimates from clinical trials that typically enroll younger patients with better prognoses. This tool includes SEER data for actuarial outcomes for patients with different cancers, which can give patients a better real-world estimate of what could happen with their diagnosis and at their age, he said.

"I also appreciate that I can pull it up quickly on the computer in the room or on my phone if needed," he said. "This does not take into account some subsets of cancer that may have a particular targeted therapy or a much better prognosis, but I can adjust my discussion with the patient based on their tumor characteristics."

"I typically try and describe best case, worst case, and average scenarios, and these points and estimates help facilitate that discussion and understanding," he added.

Thomas LeBlanc, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, said that, although there is a plethora of information available on the Internet, it can still be incredibly difficult for patients and families to know what might apply to them. Thus, a tool that allows some personalization is helpful.

However, the more important issue is that bulk of available data online does not account for the problem of "numeracy," he emphasized.

"Much like 'health literacy,' the concept of 'numeracy' relates to the functional understanding of numerical information and ability to apply it to one's life and decisions," LeBlanc said. "Evidence clearly shows that the average American layperson is not functionally numerate, meaning they aren't able to functionally understand, for example, what a '50% chance of remission' might actually mean for them."

Most of the data available about cancer outcomes are presented in exactly this way, and unfortunately clinicians are complicit in this problem, LeBlanc said. "We talk a lot, and we think we're doing a great job of conveying complex information, and often we're actually overwhelming patients and families, while presenting too much data and doing so in a way that isn't actually meaningfully accessible and actionable for those without high numeracy," he said.

"So, a more numeracy-friendly tool that is personalized and patient-facing is really a very welcomed advance in cancer communication," he said.

LeBlanc pointed out that multiple, high-quality studies have clearly shown that many patients with advanced incurable cancers still think their disease could be cured.

"So there's a huge gap here between what clinicians know and are trying convey, vs what patients and families hear/internalize from our encounters," he added.

"If we just continue doing what we have been doing, this gap will remain. If we figure out how to use a novel tool like this one, we might be able to more effectively help patients and families understand the likely outcomes, and have better conversations about goals, values, and preferences for treatment when they better understand the background and context for decision making."

The tool provides cancer survival rates for 30 types of cancer, and is available completely free of charge. The algorithm takes into account age, stage, grade, time since diagnosis, histology, and additional factors such as the Gleason score in prostate cancer. The 1-, 2-, and 5-year survival rates can then be calculated.

"Our models are Cox Proportional Hazard models, a very standard and widely accepted technique within academic literature for producing population-based survival rates," explained Buck, the Courage Health CEO. Both the modeling techniques and model output underwent expert review. "There is always some room for subjectivity in how certain things are done, but we feel strongly that our methods are in line with acceptable practices in developing survival rate models."

All statistical models use SEER data from 2004-2015 and survival rates are cause-specific, not all-cause mortality.

"This website will paint with a broad brush to help give patients an idea of 1-, 2-, and 5-year survival for 'X' type of cancer," said Bruggeman. "This is information that patients often want to know but don't always get from their providers or know how to find. It is important for them to then follow up with their individual provider to help take that information and then discuss why their individual prognosis may be similar, better, or worse."

The tool is a work in progress, and is being tweaked as feedback comes in.

"Free, constructive advice for makers of this website" was offered up in a Twitter post from Vinay Prasad, MD, a practicing hematologist-oncologist and associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University, and also a Medscape contributor.

He suggested that "instead of 5-year survival, show the 20th and 80th percentile of survival (or 15th and 85th) to provide a range of outcomes most people experience," and added that it may be useful to also "provide the stat with and without therapy."

Buck told Medscape Medical News that he thought these suggestions were "a fantastic idea to explore."

"The treatment element is certainly worth exploring in a future phase," he said. "Difficult but useful."

Paulo Nassar, MD, PhD, an intensivist at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, commented that he is "always discussing prognosis with oncologists" and that he has sent the tool to all his intensive care unit colleagues, adding that he intends to use the tool for patient cases.

Nassar also had some ideas for improvements. "If I could suggest anything, it would be to include a range maybe something like CI [confidence interval] 95% for the survival estimates, although I'm not sure it would help patients, but certainly doctors would be helped."

Buck told Medscape Medical News that he and his team of developers have already had conversations with three major national insurers/health systems about how to integrate into patient- and physician-facing tools. "All have expressed interest in working together," he said. "And based on feedback from oncologists, we're adding additional statistical details the percentiles for survival for the healthcare professional version only. We should have this ready soon."

Given that the tool only launched at the end of 2019, feedback from patients is still limited. Still, Buck noted, it has been interesting so far. "The number one email question/complaint we get is 'Why isn't my type of cancer included?' " he said. "These cancers usually pertain to brain, gallbladder, appendix, duodenal, and other leukemias."

There are two main reasons for not including them, at least for now. One is that the complexity and the number of individual factors involved are too numerous to provide useful comparisons. The second is the sample size. "Some of these types have less than 1000 patients a year," he said, "so building a model with multiple variables would have too much variability in survival rate estimates for subgroups."

For more from Medscape Oncology, join us on Twitter and Facebook

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'How Long Do I Have?' New Online Tool for Patients With Cancer - Medscape

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Stix has ovulation tests and pregnancy tests for users to order online.

More than 6 million women in the US struggle to become pregnant or stay pregnant, according to the Department for Health and Human Services. They typically usehome ovulation tests and period-tracking apps to help them determine their best window to conceive. On Tuesday, female-founded pregnancy test provider Stix launched a new subscription service to help women determine their most fertile days -- without connecting to any app that could leak sensitive data.

Pregnancy tests and ovulation kits are readily available in stores or online. But Stix aims to make the purchase about more than just the transaction, co-founder Cynthia Plotch told CNET. Almost all of the products on the market are packaged as if everyone wants to get pregnant. Not everyone does.

Stix's tests detect the surge in luteinizing hormone in urine, which occurs a day or two before ovulation, signaling the fertile window when a person is most likely to conceive. Having this information can help people make the best choices for their own lives, whether or not they are trying to conceive.

The FDA-approved tests cost $17 for a one-time set of seven or $13 for a monthly subscription pack. Subscriptions are the best option for people who need tests regularly, Plotch said -- for example, those trying to get pregnant, or those who have irregular periods and want to better track their cycles. The tests have a three-year shelf life.

Read more: Fertility, pregnancy prevention and more: Why you should be tracking your period

Stix's test is shipped in a plain envelope, so no one but you knows what's inside. And on the topic of privacy, the company doesn't use an app, so there are fewer privacy issues at hand than there might be with other period-tracking apps.

Stix's privacy policy says that the only information the company collects is that needed to ship the items to your home. The site does allow for information to be collected, so it can advertise to you. Stix's policy says that your information will be shared with Shopify and Google Analytics, but provided a way to opt out of Google Analytics and a link to Shopify's privacy policy. Stix also gives ways for you to opt out of targeted advertising, tracking and data retention.

Stix's tests arrive in a discrete package for privacy.

Plotch said that Stix retains the basic information customers enter when they make an account and that the company works with third-party software to store the data securely.

While apps are convenient ways to interact with companies and products, they're not immune to data leaks. Last September, multiple period trackers were found to be sharing sensitive information with Facebook. The apps included Maya by Plackal Tech and MIA by Mobapp Development, My Period Tracker by Linchpin Health, Ovulation Calculator by Pinkbird and Mi Calendario by Grupo Familia.

More recently, in January, the period-tracking apps Clue and My Days were collectively sharing user data with at least 135 advertising-related companies. The data shared included GPS locations, IP addresses, details about gender, sexuality and political views.

Stix the company is just over a year old and run by Plotch and her co-founder Jamie Norwood. Plotch said that the team isn't planning to create an app, but if the consumer base wants one, nothing is off the table.

"Regardless of your age, location, or anything else -- all women deserve access to quality healthcare and health information," Plotch said.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Link:
This home ovulation testing service thinks you shouldn't have to forgo privacy to get pregnant - CNET

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Whether youre hitting the online slot machines in Las Vegas, racing in an old-school video games like Mario Kart, or having an augmented experience on your cellphone via Pokemon Go, internet gaming is just about everywhere these days.

At least one person plays video games in two-thirds of American households, according to the Entertainment Software Association, and according to the American Psychiatric Association, about 160 million U.S. adults play internet-based games, one recent study estimates.

Its easy to see that internet games and video gambling can be quite entertaining, and it may be just as easy to get caught up in the thrill of the competition. But can playing these types of games truly be addictive?

Winning results?

A study published in September in the Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling examined the relationships among personality, motivation and internet gaming disorder. According to the APA, the disorder is the persistent and recurrent use of the internet to engage in games, often with other players, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress.

Lead author Kristy L. Carlisle, an assistant professor of counseling and human services at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and her three co-authors noted that gamers social tendencies, as determined by personality traits, may play a role in developing problematic gaming habits and addiction.

Addiction is by definition continually engaging in a behavior despite harmful consequences, says Dr. Hallie Zwibel, director of sports medicine at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City. In the instance of gaming, prolonged uncontrollable game play results in depression and social isolation in addicted individuals.

When counselors understand the potential social context of clients situations, according to the study, they have more information to develop prevention and treatment strategies that treat the whole person and not just a diagnosis. But more research is needed to understand the full interplay among personality, motivation and IGD, along with demographic risk factors.

The study, which included 1,881 adults from various countries, found that predictors of IGD included being male, being neurotic, introverted personality traits, and having motivation related to achievement.

The prevalence of IGD varies based on the source of the information, but a few things are clear, Zwibel says.

Males are more likely to be diagnosed as having gaming disorders compared to females, he says, adding that some studies have shown men being four to 10 times more likely to demonstrate gaming addiction, and a few characteristics can often be good predictors of IGD, Zwibel says.

Individuals with mental health disorders such as substance abuse, depression and anxiety are risk factors, he says. Friends and family members who have gambling addictions can increase ones risk. Also, individuals with less emotional support or who are more socially isolated or more likely to be predisposed to gaming addiction.

Gender vs. gender

Its important to note that, according to the APA, gaming addiction was described in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to determine whether the condition was a unique mental disorder or the best criteria to classify it at the time that the DSM-5 was published in 2013.

Dr. Donnie Sansom, associate medical director at Sierra Tucson, an addiction and behavioral health care center in Tucson, Arizona, says IDG is only under study at this point The APA does feel at this point, however, that there is a growing body of literature to suggest that internet gaming disorder be further studied and has thus included a potential diagnosis.

Online video games have been shown to elicit more craving-related activations in the brains of male subjects in studies as compared to female subjects, and this may be why so many video games are designed for males, he says.

Men have generally, starting in childhood, had games that involve risk and competition, Sansom says. This tends to be true in virtually every culture. Think about this: for men of a certain age, we remember running off into a field or through the neighborhood playing cops and robbers or army or the like. Now, youngsters are supervised and have play dates from the time they are young with far less autonomous play away from the watchful eyes of parents. So boys now go and seek that competition and risk online or at a video game station that connects to other players online.

Women are generally less prone to such competition, so they may engage in betting against the house or the dealer more than sports betting or playing in person, and so online gambling becomes a more attractive option, according to the gambling marketing site GamblingSites.com, Sansom adds.

Some data also suggests that women advance from regular gamblers to IGD faster than men do, a concept thats referred to as telescoping, says psychologist Erica Fortune, an associate professor of psychology at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

For gambling, research indicates that women tend to be drawn to gambling machines, which would include video poker, while men tend to prefer card games, casino games and sports betting, she says. This could be a result of their personal motivations for gambling some gamble to avoid negative mood, some gamble for excitement, some gamble for socializing purposes, etc.

The finish line to success

Zwibel says there are multiple negative impacts on health from playing too much internet video games and participating in online poker or gambling.

Gamers at the college level are having increased levels of body fat and decreased levels of muscle mass compared to their peers, he says. Gamers often use LED monitors, which suppress the sleep hormone melatonin which can lead to insomnia. Sitting for prolonged periods of time can result in neck and back pain, while the repetitive movements on the keyboard mouse or controller and results in elbow pain and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Fortune says those who gamble tend to be in poorer health overall.

The correlation between gambling and poor health is quite clear. Higher BMI, higher incidence of cardiovascular issues, as well as a high prevalence of comorbid mental health disorders like anxiety and depression as well as comorbid addictions alcohol, tobacco and drugs, she says.

I could imagine that you might see some of the same health issues in those who game: poorer physical health due to a rather sedentary lifestyle and poorer mental health due to lack of social interactions/withdrawing from society, she adds.

When it comes to addressing IGD, specifically internet gaming in men and video poker and gambling in women, Fortune says its wise to keep open the lines of communication.

The best thing people can do is simply talk about it, she says. Disorders like these often fall to the wayside. Parents know they need to talk to their kids about things like drugs, drinking and sex, but they often forget about things like gambling and gaming, which look very innocuous at first blush.

}Sansom adds that in both cases, it is often difficult for men and women to recognize or address the problem themselves.

Some of these issues can be treated as an outpatient with cognitive behavioral therapy, support groups such as Gamblers Anonymous and individual therapy, he says. Seek the help of a mental health professional or your primary care physician and start the dialogue. More studies will need to be done, but now that is on the APA radar, that will likely help.

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Game Reset | Health - Olean Times Herald

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