Health Care Article

A vaginal yeast infection is one of the most irritating yet common conditions that affect women.In fact, it is so common that about 75% of women will have a yeast infection at some point in their lives. With almost half will have recurrent infections, meaning two or more infections later on in life.

What is a yeast infection?
Yeast infection is also called candidiasis, and is due to the fungus Candida albicans that infects the vagina.

You must be wondering why yeast would grow in the vagina. In fact, it is natural to find small amounts of yeast living in the vagina under normal conditions. However, the natural acidity of the vagina can be unbalanced, causing the yeast to overgrow and cause an infection.

The infection will then cause irritation of the vagina and the vulva. This may cause you to suffer extreme itchiness in and around the vagina. This may be accompanied by a thick, white, odourless vaginal discharge that has the texture of cottage cheese.

You may also notice other symptoms like burning, redness and swelling of the vagina and vulva, pain upon urinating, and pain or discomfort during sex.

What causes it? (more…)

Women have puzzled over it for years-why the heck do men do the things they do? Why do they profess their love for you one minute, then ignore you the next (say, when an Attila the Hun special turns up on TV)? Why can they not remember our birthdays? Let science explain some of these conundrums-and help you rev up your relationships!

Be patient with his memory
The hippocampus, where initial memories are formed, occupies a smaller percent of the male brain than the female brain. If on your first date he can’t remember where you work, even though you told him all about it when you met, just remember that size matters … hippocampus size, that is. Don’t take it personally. (Oh, and don’t be surprised when, months down the line, he has no clue you’ve just changed your hair.) (more…)

Soya bean, a perennial Asian staple, reduces the risk of breast cancer among Chinese women, a published study said on Tuesday. Conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS), the
University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota, the study tracked more than 34,000 Chinese women in Singapore aged 45 to 74 for a decade.

Women who consumed Soya proteins in amounts more than in a serving of soya bean curd or a glass
of soya bean milk were 18% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate less, said the findings in The Straits Times. Eating a serving of soya bean curd or drinking a glass of the milk
every day reduces the risk, the study said.

“Our study shows that the amount of soya needed is not high, and is easily achievable in a typical
Asian diet,” NUH associate professor Koh Woon Puay was quoted as saying. Post-menopausal women, those with a higher body mass index and those who had consumed soya for longer, experienced the greatest reductions in risk, the study found. The results are similar to those of eight other studies conducted on Asians. One in Japan showed an average 12% reduction in breast cancer risk for those who eat the soya bean.

Studies on Caucasian women have been inconclusive, possibly because of the low levels of soya involved, the report said. Koh cautioned against consuming too much soya, which could
lead to conditions such as gout. NUS’ Centre for Molecular Epidemiology is planning a 10-year study
of 12,000 Chinese, Malay and Indian women, with and without breast cancer, to fi nd out how genetic and lifestyle factors interact to determine breast cancer risks.

Washington: Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to 26% greater risk of death in men and women, according to a study published on Monday that appears to confi rm the importance of this essential nutrient.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland, studied 13,000 initially healthy men and women from 1994 to 2000, comparing the mortality rate between those with low and normal levels of vitamin D in the blood. They found that of the 1,800 people who died by Dec 31, 2000 - 700 from cardiovascular diseases - 400 were deficient in vitamin D, which translated to a 26% increased risk of death.

The number of heart disease related deaths was insufficient to establish a cause-and-effect link to
vitamin D defi ciency, the researchers said in the study published in the the Archives of Internal Medicine. However, the study “does highlight a trend, with other studies linking shortages of vitamin D to increased rates of breast cancer and depression in the elderly.” Doctors recommend a 10-15-minute daily exposure to the sun for adequate levels of vitamin D, which is also found in fatty fishes. - AFP

When it comes to safe sex, both men and women are responsible for ensuring that they use the right kind of contraception correctly. Condoms are one of the most common and easy to use forms of contraception to protect against unplanned pregnancies and certain sexually transmitted diseases.

It is also one of the most affordable and accessible methods as you do not have to go clinic or get a prescription. However, certain myths and misconceptions about condoms prevail, causing some people to avoid using them or use them incorrectly.

For birth control
The condom is really nothing more than a very thin piece of latex or polyurethane that fits over the penis. It blocks semen from entering the vagina, as well as the exchange of bodily fluids that may carry infection.

Condoms - if used consistently and always correctly have a 98% efficacy in preventing pregnancies. However, the problems lies in the way people use condoms. If condoms are not correctly or not with every sexual intercourse, then ‘accidents’ are bound to occur. One way to increase the efficacy of condoms is to use contraceptive foams, creams, jellies, films, or suppositories that kill the sperm if condom breaks. Some condoms are even coated with a spermicide to provide this extra protection. (more…)

MEXICO CITY: Leaders in the quest for a vaccine against HIV acknowledged on Monday that their mission was dogged by many problems and cautioned that any breakthrough lay years in the future.
In a workshop at the International AIDS Conference, they said the AIDS pandemic would only be
defeated by a preventative vaccine, rather than treating people who are already infected.

But they admitted there have been many setbacks in crafting such a shield, and some advocated a return to fundamentals, and said it is time to draw lessons from failure. “Vaccine science is still more of an art than a science,” said Tachi Yamada, executive director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Programme, a major donor to the vaccine effort. (more…)

WASHINGTON: US health authorities acknowledged on Saturday that they have substantially underestimated the number of new HIV infections in the country, in a study showing that the epidemic is worse than previously thought.

About 56,300 people were infected with the virus that causes AIDS in 2006, a figure 40% higher than the previous estimate of 40,000 new infections a year, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) said. “This new picture reveals that the HIV epidemic is – and has been – worse than previously known and underscores the challenges in confronting this disease,” Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC’s National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. (more…)