The list of items pregnant women can and can’t consume keeps getting bigger. Doctors recommend that pregnant women consistently keep their bodies hydrated, and with the hormonal changes women go through – taste of certain drinks, change, get bland, or are just not satisfying.

Lots of women choose to stick with water while pregnant, and although it’s great, sometimes it gets a bit bland. For the women that are ready to step it up a bit, there is another option – HINT Water – The all natural, pure essence water has zero calories, zero sugar, zero fake stuff. Just water and a hint of natural flavor. A great alternative to juice, soda and water.

So...have you tried HINT water yet?

New Tool For Detecting Breast Csncer at Well Woman Blog

My mother lost both breasts to breast cancer. The first breast was removed back in the forties by a doctor that didn't know what he was doing. It left horrific scars and a lifelong fear of breast cancer in both my mother and me. She lost the second breast in the sixties. The radiation and chemo treatments made her very sick. Most of her hair fell out. Earlier detection would have [...] Read More


My Experience With Breast Cancer at Well Woman Blog

Breast Cancer The year was 1947. I was twelve years old and scared. Something was wrong. Mom cried a lot, spent hours lying on her bed, and refused to talk to anyone. Dad walked around looking angry and growled at me when I spoke to him. I'd seen him like this before. He wasn't really mad. He was worried, like the time the hail wrecked the wheat. I could feel the tension, [...] Read More


Chemicals and Breast Cancer at Well Woman Blog

Looking for a cause for breast cancer? Family history and your genetic makeup may account for a small number of cases, but according to the Cancer Blog: A bundle of scientific reports indicate more than 200 chemicals, found in the air and in consumer products, cause breast cancer in animal tests. Scary, isn't it? Even more so when you read the list of potential culprits: There are 216 chemicals that induced breast tumors [...] Read More


Using Chicken Antibodies for Detecting HER2 Breast Cancer at The Biotech Weblog

Researchers report of a novel method to detect an aggressive form of breast cancer that overproduce HER2-encoded proteins, using antibodies from chicken. In a paper in the International Journal of Cancer, the NIST-NCI-SAIC research team found that chicken immunoglobulin Y (IgY) antibody created against the HER2 protein could be tagged with quantum dots (tiny, intense and tunable sources of colorful light) to more reliably detect the HER2 biomarker than the existing [...] Read More


deCODE BreastCancer Genetic Diagnostic Test Launched at The Biotech Weblog

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Dawn PolanddeCoODE Genetics launched deCODE BreastCancer™, a new non-invasive tool for assessing risk of the common forms of breast cancer. The deCODE BreastCancer™ test measures seven widely replicated single-letter variations (SNPs) in the human genome that deCODE and others have linked to risk of breast cancer. These SNPs contribute to the incidence of an estimated 60 percent of all breast cancers. The test integrates data from [...] Read More

If you haven't ditched your smoking habit yet, here's another reason why you should: Cigarettes harbor many pathogenic bacteria.

Apparently not only are cigarettes bad news because of the nicotine, but they also contain a wide variety of human bacterial pathogens.

"The commercially-available cigarettes that we tested were chock full of bacteria, as we had hypothesized, but we didn't think we'd find so many that are infectious in humans."

"If these organisms can survive the smoking process - and we believe they can - then they could possibly go on to contribute to both infectious and chronic illnesses in both smokers and individuals who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke."

Bacteria of medical significance to humans were identified in all of the tested cigarettes and included Acinetobacter (associated with lung and blood infections); Bacillus (some varieties associated with food borne illnesses and anthrax); Burkholderia (some forms responsible for respiratory infections); Clostridium (associated with foodborne illnesses and lung infections); Klebsiella (associated with a variety of lung, blood and other infections); and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (an organism that causes 10 percent of all hospital-acquired infections in the United States).

The researchers also suspect that smoking weakens a person's natural immunity, which may be why the respiratory tract of smokers are characterized by higher levels of bacterial pathogens.

A new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology identified five exercises that can significantly reduce shoulder and neck pain particularly among women who worked in offices on repetitive tasks and did computer work. According to the study, strength training exercises using dumbbells can reduce pain and improve function in the trapezius muscle, the large muscle which extends from the back of the head, down the neck and into the upper back. The exercises also improve the muscle's ability to respond quickly and forcefully among women suffering trapezius myalgia, a tenderness and tightness in the upper trapezius muscle.

Five strength exercises — the one-arm row, shoulder abduction, shoulder elevation, reverse fly and upright row — can substantially reduce perceived pain.

If you don't have a fitness trainer, have a look at the instructions to these exercises here.

Women, because they get pregnant and give birth, are more prone to bone loss even before menopause. Add post menopausal to that and women are really in trouble bone-loss wise.

Researches on calcium supplementation came to a point that women can still absorb the supplemented calcium in their 40s or was that 50s?

Anyways...

Here's something that may slow bone loss in postmenopausal women: supplementation with soy-germ derived isoflavones. That's according to an American study that involved over 400 postmenopausal women.

Over 400 postmenopausal women participated in the multicenter, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled two year, which used either 80 or 120 mg of soy hypocotyl aglycone isoflavones (Frutarom’s SoyLife) plus calcium (400 mg) and vitamin D (400 IU).

Only the 120 mg per day produced benefits, with significantly reduced loss of whole body bone mineral density (BMD) after both one and two years.

Frutarom's SoyLife is a soy germ ingredient rich in isoflavones that is available in the market.

Read from Nutraingredients to find more information on the above study.