Archive for May 5th, 2012
Study: Higher Risk of Birth Defects from Assisted Reproduction
May 5th, 2012 | 
Author: In the most comprehensive study of its kind in the world, researchers from the University's Robinson Institute have compared the risk of major birth defects for each of the reproductive therapies commonly available internationally, such as: IVF (in vitro fertilization), ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) and ovulation induction. They also compared the risk of birth defects after fresh and frozen embryo transfer.
The results are being published May 5 in the New England Journal of Medicine, and presented in Barcelona, Spain at the World Congress on Building Consensus in Gynecology, Infertility and Perinatology …
"The unadjusted risk of any birth defect in pregnancies involving assisted conception was 8.3% (513 defects), compared with 5.8% for pregnancies not involving assisted conception (17,546 defects)," Associate Professor Davies says.
"The risk of birth defects for IVF was 7.2% (165 birth defects); and the rate for ICSI was higher at 9.9% (139 defects).
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Psychology & Its Discontents
Many people will tell you that having many friends, a fortune or freedom is essential to happiness, but [Jerome Kagan, emeritus professor of psychology at Harvard] believes they are wrong. "A fundamental requirement for feelings of serenity and satisfaction," Mr. Kagan says, is "commitment to a few unquestioned ethical beliefs" and the confidence that one lives in a community and country that promote justice and fair play. "Even four-year-olds have a tantrum," he notes, "if a parent violates their sense of fairness." His diagnosis of the "storm of hostility" felt by Americans on the right and left, and the depression and anomie among so many young people, is that this essential requirement has been frustrated by the bleak events of the past decades. War, corruption, the housing bubble and the financial crisis, not to mention the fact that so many of those responsible have not been held accountable, have eroded optimism, pride and the fundamental need to believe the world is fair.
Supermoon 2012
Another "supermoon" is in the offing. The perigee full moon on May 5, 2012 will be as much as 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than other full moons of 2012.
The Surprising Shortcut to Better Health
Perhaps the most unexpected message from the new fitness book "The First 20 Minutes" is not that we all need to exercise more to achieve better health. We just need to do something.
Q. — Why did you choose “The First 20 Minutes” for the title of a fitness book?
A. — The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, reduced disease risk — all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active.