Women's Health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday morning that they were awarding the Ohio Department of Health with a $97,204 grant to help educate health care providers and women of child-bearing age of environmental health risks. More than $500,000 worth of similar grants were also awarded to various states nationwide.

In the state of Ohio, the grant is to be used to develop an "easy-to-use profile to access a woman's potential exposure to environmental risks."

The grant will focus on environmental issues that could affect women and their unborn children. These issues would include such things as exposure to lead, mercury, environmental tobacco smoke, chemicals, pesticides, indoor and outdoor contaminants, and drinking water contaminants.

Nationwide these grants are expected to reach about 3,000 health care providers and 10,000 women of child-bearing age. Further information about the grants is available at the EPA website.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report on Thursday which showed that for the first time since 1991, teen birth rates were on the rise in 2006. Additionally, C-sections and births to unmarried women hit all-time highs last year.

There was no increase in births for the 10 to 14 age group, however, there was a 3% rise in the 15-17 age group, with 22 births per 1,000 women. There was also a 4% rise for teens age 18-19, with 73 births per 1,000 women.

Stephanie Ventura, head of the CDC's Reproductive Statistics Branch, said that the rise in teen birth rates is "notable", however, it is "way too early to know if this is the start of a new trend."

Births to unmarried women also reached a record high of more than 1.6 million babies, which is more than an 8% increase over 2005.

1/3 of all babies born in the U.S. last year were delivered via cesarean section (c-section), which is also a new record.

Birth rates for women in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s were on the rise in 2006, and rates of preterm births and low-birth-weight babies also rose slightly from 2005 to 2006.

A new study out of Britian seems to have found a link between life in the city and the incidence of breast cancer in women. Researchers found that the stresses and strains of city life could be putting women at risk of breast cancer, and that women in urban areas are "significantly" more susceptible to the disease than those living in the countryside.

The researchers suspect that women in the city are more likely to have stressful jobs, and are more physically active. It is already known that stress can double the chances of developing breast cancer, and that being think increases the risk of the disease in the years leading up to menopause.

"Women living in cities need to pay more attention to having regular breast screening. Women who live in urban areas are known to have lower attendance for breast-screening programmes-than women in outlying areas," said Dr. Nicholas Perry, a radiologist at the Princess Grace Hospital in London, England, who led the research study.

To conduct the study, researchers studied the mammograms of 972 women and compared the physical makeup of their breasts with where they lived. What they found was that women living in London had the densest breasts, and those between the age of 45 to 54 had breasts that were twice as dense if they lived in London.

Breasts are made up of fatty and fibrous glandular tissue, and research has shown that women with more glandular, dense breasts are up to four times likely to develop breast cancer than those of the same age with more fatty breasts.

In the study, they also found that breast density decreased in like with distance from the urban center, becoming progressively less pronounced in suburban and rural areas.

A number of factors are believed to be at play here. One of the explanations may be that it is simply related to weight. A survey found that women in London were the thinnest in the UK. Breast density is known to be inversely related to body weight. Another possibility could be that alcohol, number of children, and stress play a role.

Two of our Buckeye neighbors to the south, Columbus and Cincinnati, placed in the bottom five of unhealthiest places for women to live.

Here are some of the findings in the 8th edition of "8th Annual America's Healthiest Places for Women". With Cleveland being virtually surrounded by bad places on the list, you may not want to pick up a copy of the list that will show 100 metro areas and how they fared. The magazine is in stores today.

Results in SELF's feature also include:
-- Fittest: Orange County, CA
-- Best Environment: Tucson, AZ
-- Worst Environment: Philadelphia, PA
-- Dirtiest Air: Los Angeles, CA
-- Happiest City: Minneapolis, MN
-- Unhappiest: Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (4 top stars debate whether
celebs are happy in LA!)
-- Salad Lovers: Fort Lauderdale, FL
-- Best Place to Have a Baby: Boston, MA
-- Most Migraines: Cincinnati, OH
-- Most STDs: Detroit, MI
-- Best Drivers: Central New Jersey (Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon
Counties)
-- Worst Drivers: Billings, MT
-- Smokiest: Las Vegas, NV
-- Most Crime: Memphis, TN

Here are the top 5 Healthiest and unhealthiest cities:

Researchers believe that they have found a chemical in cannabis that may help to stop the spread of breast cancer throughout the body. They are hope that the chemical cannabidiol (CBD), which is found in cannabis, could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Furthermore, unlike cannabis itself, CBD does not give users a high and it is not illegal.

The chemical compound CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene known as Id-1, which scientists believe is responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells away from the original tumor site, creating what are known as "secondaries."

Research has already shown that CBD can successfully block aggressive human brain cancers, and recent research shows that it can have a similar affect on breast cancer.

Before you go and light up a joint to ward of any cancer, doctors stress that smoking marijuana is not likely to be effective as adequate quantities of the CBD compound are not found in the plant's leaf. CBD must be extracted, and then concentrated to make a dose strong enough to kill cancer cells.

An international review of 24 studies, involving more than 50,000 women, confirms findings of a link between birth-control pills and the incidence of cervical cancer. Researchers found that women who use oral contraceptives are at an increased risk of cervical cancer for up to 10 years after they stop.

Women who use oral contraception for five years or more double their risk of the disease. And while the risks of contracting cervical cancer diminishes when contraceptive use stops, it takes nearly a decade for the risks to return to the level for women who have never used the pill.

The authors of the report, who hail Oxford University in England, contend that the overall risks still remain small and should be seen in context.

A new study has found that women who feel stressed at work are at a significantly increased risk of developing breast cancer. Results of the study suggest that women with demanding jobs are 30 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than those who feel more on top of their work. These latest findings are to be published next month in the journal of Epidemiology.

The study took a look at more than 36,000 Swedish women between the ages of 30 and 50 who work working when the study began in 1990. The study followed them all the way up until 2004, when by then, 767 had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Researchers found that the risk of breast cancer increased for those women with stressful jobs, even after other factors such as number of children, weight, age, and alcohol consumption were taken into account. Interestingly, they found no link between stress and cancer amongst women with only part-time work.

Did you know there are many eye exercises that can help you overcome many eye ailments and diseases? Just like physical exercise, eye exercise can help boost your bodies defense system against problems ranging from dry eyes to macular degeneration. Doing a mere 15 minutes a day of eye exercises can help reduce the strain of everyday use that your eyes contend with.

Here is what one of the clients of naturaleyecare.com said about their experience doing eye exercises:

A new study conducted by Danish researchers and published in the "New Scientist" reveal that strenuous exercise more than triples chances of a miscarriage during early pregnancy. More than 90,000 pregnant women partook in the study, and researchers found that those who participated in high-impact sports such as jogging, racket sports, and ball games were more likely to miscarry.

Also at a higher risk of miscarriage in early pregnancy were those who did more than seven hours of exercise per week.

The research, however, did find that swimming did not increase the risk of miscarriage, and there was no link found between exercise and miscarriage after 18 weeks.

Jane Brewin, Chief Executive of Tommy's baby charity, said: "Contact sports, high impact sports and vigorous racquet sports that may risk bumps to your abdomen, excessive stress on your joints or risks you falling and scuba diving should definitely be avoided."

Doctors advise more moderate exercise during pregnancy, such as walking, swimming, and antenatal yoga classes.

We can now add acne to the list of undesirable side effects of smoking cigarettes. Researchers published a report in The British Journal of Dermatology which reveals that smoking causes acne in humans, and effects women the most.

Researchers were able to identify a particular type of acne known as NIA (non-inflammatory acne) as common amongst smokers. "Smokers' acne" is characterized by blocked pores and large blackheads, but less inflamed spots than normal acne.

Researchers studied 100 women between the ages of 25 to 50, and found that 42% of smokers had acne. Only one out of ten non-smokers were found to have acne.

Experience with acne as a teen has also been found to have an affect on your chances of suffering from the skin disorder as an adult. Smokers who suffered with acne in their teens were found to be four times more likely than non-smokers to suffer from it as an adult.

Dermatologists have long associated smoking with premature aging of the skin, wrinkles, and a leathery complexion, and this research gives an even better idea of the effects of tobacco on the skin.