Health Smoking Mothers’ Embryos ‘Grow More Slowly’
Severe Sleep Loss Affects Immune System
Sleep deprivation and physical stress have similar effects on the immune system of human beings, researchers from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have reported. Both physical stress and severe sleep loss jolt the immune system into action, the authors explained. The scientists, from Erasmus MC University Medical Centre Rotterdam, and the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, compared the number of white blood cells in 15 healthy young adult males who were subjected to normal sleep and severe sleep loss. The greatest impact was on granulocytes - types of white blood cells - which lost their day-to-night time rhythm as numbers shot up, especially during night time.
Time-lapse photography has shown that embryos of smoking women develop more slowly. French academics in an IVF clinic took regular pictures of an egg from the moment it was fertilised until it was ready to be implanted into the mother. At all stages of development, embryos from smokers were consistently a couple of hours behind, a study showed. Researchers watched 868 embryos develop - 139 from smokers. In the clinic the embryos of non-smokers reached the five-cell stage after 49 hours. In the smokers it took 50 hours. The eight-cell stage took 62 hours in smokers’ embryos, while non-smokers’ embryos reached that point after 58 hours. Smoking is known to reduce the chances of having a child. It is why some hospitals in the UK ask couples to give up smoking before they are given fertility treatment.
Coffee and Cake Lower IVF Success
Regular trips to the coffee machine or having a diet packed with saturated fat have been linked to lower IVF success rates by fertility experts. One study suggested heavy coffee drinking was as bad as smoking for IVF success rates. Another showed saturated fats lowered the number of eggs that could be used in IVF, while a ‘Mediterranean diet’ boosted birth rates. Experts say lifestyle affects both the chances of IVF and natural conception.
Intravenous Oxygen Injection For Patients Who Cannot Breathe
An injection that delivers oxygen directly into the bloodstream for patients who cannot breathe has been invented by scientists at Boston Children’s Hospital, according a report published in Science Translational Medicine. The authors explained that when patients suffer from an obstructed airway or acute lung failure, they urgently need oxygen to reach their blood, otherwise they have brain injury or suffer from cardiac arrest. The researchers designed an injection filled with tiny, gas filled micro-particles that can be administered directly into the bloodstream, supplying it with much-needed oxygen. The micro-particles are made of a single layer of fatty molecules that surround a miniscule pocket of oxygen - they are placed in a liquid solution and injected into the patients.
The Dirtiest Places In The Office
If you think the restroom is the place you are most likely to pick up germs at the office, perhaps you should think again, because new findings from the US suggest the dirtiest places in the office are in break rooms and kitchens, with sink and microwave door handles topping the list of germ “hot spots”. For the research, which forms part of the company’s Healthy Workplace Project, Kimberly-Clark Professional hygienists collected nearly 5,000 swabs from office buildings housing more than 3,000 workers employed in a cross-section of industries. These included law firms, manufacturers, healthcare firms and call centres.
August 2012 | Bahrain Confidential | 77