August 2012 - Page 2 of 3 - Hormones Matter

The Poor Spend More on Health Care

Published on August 14, 2012

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NPR recently reported How the Poor, the Middle Class and the Rich Spend Their Money in America, and there are notable spending differences when it comes to education, retirement, utilities, and health care.

While the rich and poor seem to spend the same amount of money on eating out and clothing, the rich are in a position to invest a larger portion of their income towards education and retirement, which, naturally, sets them up for a brighter future.

The poor, on the other hand, are paying significantly more for basic living costs, such as utilities, food at home, and health care, which can make it difficult to prepare for the future when a majority of one’s income is going towards essential living needs. In fact, the poor contribute almost twice as much of their income towards the costs of health care and health insurance as the rich.

Whether the larger proportion spent towards health costs is due to living environments, work environments, health lifestyles, or just due to the fact that health costs take up more of a small income is uncertain, but clearly, the unproportionate amount of spending for health care impacts the poor, potentially deterring them from investing in their futures, which only widens the wealth gap.

A Ruined Life from Gardasil

by Hormone Stories

Published on August 14, 2012

9711 views

This was submitted by Tracy Wolf, the mother of Alexis who has suffered severe side effects from the Gardasil vaccine, this is her story. We thank Tracy for sharing.

In the spring of 2007, Alexis was a happy, shy, and well-adjusted 13-year-old, young lady. She had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January of 2006, but responded to this in the most positive way. Her doctors were so impressed with how well she dealt with it that they recommended she be put on the insulin pump. Through all of this she worked hard, made the honor roll at school and was educating her fellow students about Type 1 diabetes. Her grandparents wanted her to visit them in Germany, but we were reluctant to do this because of the diabetes. Her doctor felt that she was so responsible and mature compared to other kids her age with Type 1, that she should be allowed to go.

In March of 2007, I took Alexis to see her pediatrician for a wellness check up before her trip to Germany and she received her first Gardasil injection. Alexis asked for it to be given in her leg. We did not notice any side effects at that point. In June, we returned to the doctor’s office right before Alexis left on her trip for the 2nd of 3 injections for Gardasil. Again there were no immediate side effects. A couple weeks later she left for Germany. While she was in Germany most everything went well. Her grandparents said she did act a little strange and out of character for her, but nothing they thought to be too serious.

When Alexis arrived back home from her trip, I noticed that she did not experience jet lag like we all had the last time we all went to Germany. Also, I thought it was odd that she didn’t (or couldn’t) cry when she was told that our 12-year-old dog had passed away while she was gone because she had always been a very sensitive child. As time went on more and more strange behavior, very unlike Alexis, started. She was getting in trouble at school and was unable to concentrate or retain anything she learned. I was taking her to every kind of doctor I could think of, but every test came back normal. Things progressively got worse. At this point her personality had changed 100%. She would go through bits of rage and she would scream at me and call me names and tell me how much she hated our family and me. She said she wanted to be taken to an orphanage and be adopted by another family. At this point doctors and school staff were telling me that Alexis was acting out and testing her boundaries. I argued with all of them. I knew there had to be something medical going on, although doctors and the school were not listening to me. She started having massive panic attacks where her heart would pound so hard you could see her chest moving. Sound and movements bothered her. She would talk about “things looking funny or strange.” she said that peoples faces made her sick to her stomach including people on TV and everyone around her. Often, she would look around as if she didn’t know where she was.

Soon I realized that she was not sleeping at all. She stayed up in her room writing notes all night. The notes were nonsense. She became obsessed with food and would eat anything she could get her hands on while we were asleep. I didn’t realize this at first because she was still being pretty responsible with her diabetes and giving herself the insulin she needed to correct for the food she was eating. One day she stuck her tongue out at me and I noticed a huge bump on the side of her tongue. She had no memory of how the bump got there and it was so big it looked like she had bit off a chunk. Looking back now, I think this is when the seizures started in her sleep.

I took her back to see her endocrinologist and at that point her doctor suggested that we see the in office psychologist thinking that maybe she was having issues being a diabetic. I told her that I really didn’t think it had anything to do with her diabetes, but she wanted us to try. On the second visit with her psychologist, the doctor came to the conclusion that Alexis had been sexually molested while she was in Germany. I was so upset and asked her why she thought this. She said that Alexis talked about seeing nudity in Germany (hello, have you ever been to Europe?) Nudity is everywhere in Germany and I talked to Alexis about this for many hours and on different occasions. Alexis swore to me that nothing like that happened in Germany. I spoke to her grandparents about it and they said that nothing like that happened. Seemed like the only one that believed that really happened was the psychologist (months later she apologized for being wrong, but at that point every doctor after that was subjected to her notes. I was labeled as a “mother in denial”). We were sent to other psychologist and psychiatrist. The only thing they knew what to do was throw anti-psychotic medications at her. Nothing worked, she only got worse. She started throwing up everything she ate, and then couldn’t wait to eat more.

By January 2008, I had taken her in to see her pediatrician again and she was given the 3rd shot in the Gardasil series. Things got much worse after that. Two weeks later we were back at her pediatrician’s office because she had lost five pounds in a week, was throwing up a lot, and not sleeping at all. The doctor sent us to the hospital. Alexis was admitted and spent the next four days getting blood tests, MRIs and a CT scan. Everything came back normal. I was told, once again, that nothing medical was wrong with my daughter. They sent her to Kaseman Behavioral Unit. There she was treated like an animal. They put her on many more anti-psychotic medications, none of which helped her sleep or stopped the vomiting. They told her that if she threw up her food she would not get anything else to eat. They seemed to have no idea how to deal with her diabetes and I had to constantly show them how to deal with it. She was not allowed to be around any of the other children and was told she could only be in her room or walk up and down a short hall. They gave her a bucket for the vomit and on the fourth day two nurses witnessed her eating her vomit from the bucket. After five days of being admitted, they said she was stable and sent Alexis home. That day she was not able to keep any food down and she did not sleep at all that night. The notes were lined up on the banister the next morning when I woke up.

The next day, we were told to take her to a new psychiatrist. We did and the doctor was almost in tears. She had no idea why we were sent to her. She could see right off the bat that she would not be able to help Alexis. She told us that she thought we were getting the run around. We went home and called her pediatrician and begged her to help us. She was reluctant but said she would make some calls and get back to us. We were able to get her into the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital at the University of New Mexico Hospital. This was on a Friday night and their psychiatrist would not be in until Monday so they just tried to focus on getting Alexis to sleep. They gave her high doses of Trazadone and she still didn’t sleep. The next morning I went to see her and she was sitting in a chair in the front room and she was slumped over and drooling and moaning. When I walked in, she slowly raised her head and almost in slow motion said, “Hi mommy.” I got her up and took her to her room and tried to get her to lie down and try to sleep. She started dozing off and I thought Yeah, she is going to sleep! But within five minutes her face clenched as if she were in pain, her eyes twitched, and her mouth filled up with saliva. They noticed right away that Alexis was not going through behavioral issues. When the doctor showed on Monday morning I told her exactly what was happening and while I was telling her, Alexis had another “spell.” The psychiatrist noticed right away that she was most likely having seizures. An EEG was done and they found out she was in fact having seizures that were all concentrated in her frontal lobe, the part of our brain that control our personality. She had been having seizures some time and no one noticed, until just then!

Alexis spent the next six months at UNMH. They did every medical test on her that they could come up with: EEGs, CT scans, MRI’s, 2 spinal taps, muscle biopsy, blood tests were sent out all over the United States, plasmapheresis, IVIG, and then some. Everything came back normal. They determined that she was exposed to a virus and her body made antibodies to attack the virus. However, she had not been sick and had not shown any symptoms of having a virus or even the sniffles. The only virus she had been exposed to was the Gardasil shots. They also determined that she suffered brain damage because of the seizures. She now is testing at a 4th grade level and still to this day is unable to attend school. She has seizure activity every day and night, almost constantly. She is in constant pain and no medication seems to help. Every day more symptoms pop up. She has numbness in her arms and legs, headaches, horrible pain, loss of bladder control (now she has to wear adult diapers), constipation (and when she is able to have a BM they are the size of a grapefruit and plug the toilet every time), vision problems, memory loss, brain fog, chronic fatigue, leg cramps, back pain, dizziness, she repeats the same things over and over again with no memory of having said it a million times, she is unable to retain anything that is said to her or that she sees, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and more

In 2009, she spent four days in the local Presbyterian hospital for high heart rate and super high blood pressure. All the tests came back normal. In November, I took her to Barrows Neuro in Phoenix. She spent six days attached to an EEG machine and under went another MRI. All the doctors were baffled and don’t know what to do. Her neurologist is very experienced and has never seen anything like what Alexis is going through.

We are all heart broken that a girl who showed so much promise three years ago, had her life as we knew it taken away. She will never be the same. We are pretty much out of options and our next step is getting an adult neurologist to look over her case to see if she would be a candidate for Vagus Nerve Stimulation or VNS therapy. This would mean having surgery to implant a device in her chest that would send impulses to her nerve endings in the base of her skull to try to stop the seizures. Alexis is scared and does not want to have this done, but I feel we have no other choice because none of the anticonvulsants are working.

Lawyers have refused to include Alexis in their class action lawsuits against Gardasil because her first symptoms were more “behavioral”. We now know that her behavior change was due to seizures. I spend most of my time trying to get Alexis special services that our government provides to people who have traumatic brain injuries, but I was told Alexis is on a waiting list of over 47,000 people in New Mexico and it could take up to 10 years for her to receive any benefits because there is no money to support the people in need. This is such a horrible nightmare that I wish we could all wake up from, but unfortunately this is real, very real.

Thank you for taking the time to read Alexis’ story. Some of these things are very hard to talk about and probably hard to read as well, but we all need to know what is happening to our children and be able to make educated decisions.

Alexis will be featured in the upcoming documentary One More Girl.

To read an update on Alexis’ condition: A Day in the Life of Alexis Wolf: Six Years After Gardasil.

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Hormones Matter^TM is conducting research on the side effects and adverse events associated with Gardasil and its counterpart Cervarix. If you or your daughter has had either HPV vaccine, please take this important survey. The Gardasil Cervarix HPV Vaccine Survey.

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Are We Really that Fat and Does it Matter?

by Chandler Marrs, PhD

Published on August 13, 2012

3586 views

Body mass index (BMI), the dreaded math calculation used for decades to tell us whether we are merely fat or morbidly obese, suggests that over 41 million or 35% of us are in the latter category. As bad as that may seem, it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Researchers from New York University found that BMI underestimates the obesity numbers, especially for women.

In a study published on PLoS ONE, a peer reviewed open access journal, researchers suggest that when more accurate measures of adiposity (fat) are used, at least 74 million Americans (64%) should be deemed obese. Whoa.

BMI and Women’s Health

It appears that BMI (weight in pounds/(height in inches)²×703) while a quick and easy indicator of obesity, ignores several important factors that tend to underestimate obesity levels in the female population. Most importantly, BMI doesn’t account for the relationship between lean body mass and fat mass. Sarcopenic obesity, the loss of lean mass or muscle combined with the increase of fat mass, plagues women more frequently than men, especially as we age. As we age and lose more lean mass, BMI measures of obesity become less and less accurate. According to the research, BMI underestimates the obesity levels in women by 40% across all age groups, but for the older age groups, >60 years, the number approaches 60-70% error. This is striking, not only because of the high mis-classification rate in women (remember medical decisions are made based upon BMI assumptions) but also, because BMI potentially underestimates the number of women who should be considered obese. Or does it?

While I agree that many of us are not as slim as we should be, I wonder if we might not need new measures of health and fitness. I am thinking of the female athletes in the Olympics – not the gymnasts or divers (although even as petite as those athletes are, their weight, because of muscle mass, to height ratio could be skewed by BMI standards), but the female weight lifters, boxers, wrestlers, judokos, and even the water polo players. Many of these women would be considered overweight by current BMI standards, and yet, they are at the pinnacle of health and fitness. What does that say of the BMI standards when those at the height of health and fitness can be considered fat while those at edge of illness, who are noticeably overweight are considered normal weight because of skewed lean to fat mass ratios?

The Paradox of Obesity: Why BMI Doesn’t Predict Health

And here we have the paradox of obesity (and the problem with BMI); obesity doesn’t correlate with mortality. Indeed, with many conditions and under many circumstances-stroke, cardiovascular disease, hemodialysis, cancer and others, being overweight increases survival. Maybe it’s not the fat, or even the lean muscle to fat ratio, but the fitness level that should be measured. Research shows that individuals who are metabolically healthy regardless of weight, have no increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease than their normal weight counterparts.

Resting Heart Rate Better than BMI

It is well known that athletes, no matter their BMI, have lower resting heart rates than couch potatoes. Perhaps resting heart rate might be a better indicator of overall health. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated that a low resting heart rate may be a better indicator of cardiovascular and metabolic health in women than BMI. So, before we go starving ourselves to reach some physical notion of health (and beauty) based upon a faulty metric, embrace your inner athlete and exercise.

To the researchers who bemoan the growing obesity epidemic and associated health costs, it’s time to move beyond what we look like as a matter of predicting health and move toward how our bodies function. Resting heart rate may be one solution, biomarkers may be another, but BMI is not an effective metric for evaluating women’s health.

First Female Referee in the NFL

by Lisbeth Prifogle, MFA

Published on August 8, 2012

1692 views

I’m not a football fan, but living in San Diego I hear nothing but disappointment comes from the Chargers stadium (for local fans anyways). However, on Thursday August 9, 2012 something positive will be happening in the stadium regardless of what team you’re cheering for. The NFL will break down their gender barriers and allow Shannon Eastin to be the first woman to officiate an NFL game.

A true role model, Eastin stated in an interview in 1999 with the Arizona Republic, “It may sound crazy to some people, but I think I can be in the NFL some day. I told them that I would go referee in the NFL Europe league for five years if that’s what it takes. You’ve got to believe in yourself. If you don’t, nobody else will.”

As in all firsts for women, she will have to prove herself, but Eastin, who has reffed football for 16 years (the past four in the Middle-Eastern Athletic Conference or MEAC), should have no problem paving the way for other women who aspire to break gender barriers.

I wonder how fans will take to this change and how long it will be until the little jabs start popping up on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. I already read one post on Facebook from a male friend that stated, “First female referee in NFL history will be refereeing Chargers game Thursday night! Hope it’s the right time of the month, or will have to really watch out for the red flag!”

What do you think? Is this a great step for women? Will men be resistant to letting so much estrogen into such a testosterone driven sport? I am actually going to sit down and watch this woman make history. It will be the first NFL game I have ever watched (just on television). Who knows maybe she’ll pick up some extra fans for the NFL out there!

School Forces Girls to Take Pregnancy Test

by Lisbeth Prifogle, MFA

Published on August 8, 2012

2587 views

The Delhi Charter School in Northeastern Louisiana is under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for their pregnancy policies.

The school’s strict policy states that if a student is pregnant and wants to stay in school, she must study at home. Furthermore, if a student is suspected of being pregnant she is required to take a pregnancy test; if a student refuses the test she is forced to study at home. The school can choose which doctor the student sees.

ACLU executive director Marjorie R. Esman, stated that, “It violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause because “boys who are expecting children — or who are suspected of having engaged in sexual activity — are not similarly treated.” She also referenced Title IX, which requires equal opportunities for both sexes in education and mandates that “pregnant students are entitled to an education free from discrimination.”

This is the policy, directly from the school handbook:

If an administrator or teacher suspects a student is pregnant, a parent conference will be held. The school reserves the right to require any female student to take a pregnancy test to confirm whether or not the suspected student is in fact pregnant. The school further reserves the right to refer the suspected student to a physician of its choice. If the test indicates that the student is pregnant, the student will not be permitted to attend classes on the campus of Delhi Charter School.

If a student is determined to be pregnant and wishes to continue to attend Delhi Charter School, the student will be required to pursue a course of home study that will be provided by the school… Any student who is suspected of being pregnant and who refuses to submit to a pregnancy test shall be treated as a pregnant student and will be offered home study opportunities. If home study opportunities are not acceptable, the student will be counseled to seek other educational opportunities.

Furthermore, according to Huffington Post, “Overall, high school dropouts cost taxpayers between $320 billion and $350 billion a year in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs, among others. Dropouts are also a cost to themselves: of the 3.8 million students that started high school last fall, a quarter won’t earn a diploma. Those who don’t finish will earn $200,000 less than those who do over their lifetime.” Louisiana is ranked 6th for states in teen pregnancy rates. Will forcing teenage girls to take tests out of suspicion and then sending them to home schooling if they are pregnant really help them finish high school?

What do you think? Should a charter school be able to force female students to take pregnancy tests and study at home?

For more information go to CBS News Houston.

Women Eligible for No-Cost Preventive Services

by Elena Perez

Published on August 8, 2012

1636 views

Women are 33% more likely to visit the doctor than men, yet studies have shown that health costs have deterred women from seeking medical attention, even when they are insured. As of August 1, 2012, under the new Affordable Care Act, women can take advantage of certain preventive services without having to pay out-of-pocket costs for new, non-grandfathered private health plans. Keep Reading

Fear of Childbirth Prolongs Labor

by Elena Perez

Published on August 6, 2012

3237 views

When I was little, I would constantly ask my mom about childbirth: Is it really as painful as they make it seem on TV? My mom confirmed that it was the most painful thing she ever experienced. Of course, she said, I’d do it all over again because my babies are so special. My eyes were wide in disbelief – I don’t think my siblings and I were ever that special.

The idea of giving birth to a child has always been incredibly scary to me, and now, with more knowledge on the subject, the idea is scarier still. Just thinking about contractions, tearing, and a head coming out of my vagina is enough to make me pass out.

Unfortunately for me, researchers recently found that such fears only draw out the labor process.

Fear of Childbirth Only Prolongs Childbirth

Norwegian researchers published a study in BJOG, An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, that found women with a fear of childbirth spend an hour and 32 minutes longer in labor than women without fears of childbirth.

Even after researchers adjusted for other factors that could contribute to the duration of labor, such as having given birth before and instrumental vaginal delivery, women who feared childbirth were still in labor 47 minutes longer than those with no fear.

In addition, labor-fearing patients tended to be more likely to deliver by instrumental vaginal delivery or emergency cesarean delivery than women who were more comfortable with labor.

Stress Hormone May Prolong Labor

Researchers from Akershus University Hospital, The Health Services Research Center, and the University of Oslo, Norway are not exactly sure why women who fear childbirth get to experience the joys of labor for a longer period of time, but some point to stress hormones.

Samantha Salvesen Adams, co-author of the research, shared two theories:

“First, stressed women have higher stress hormones during pregnancy, and high stress hormones may weaken the power of the uterus to contract. And second, we think that women who fear childbirth may communicate in different ways with health care professionals during pregnancy,” which could impede proper assistance for a shorter labor.

Oxytocin and Catecholamines

The hormone oxytocin is released in large amounts during labor, causing the uterus to contract regularly, which is why the name was derived from the Greek word for “quick birth.” Oxytocin has also been shown to increase trust and reduce fear, a happy result for fearful mothers-to-be.

The secretion of oxytocin, however, is repressed by catecholamines, or the fight-or-flight hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine. Catecholamine levels can rise when a woman feels frightened, and labor can be suppressed.

This is fine at the beginning of the delivery – no need to start contractions too early, catecholamines are even important for the fetal-ejection reflex; but these adrenal-gland hormones can make for a long labor if they continue to inhibit oxytocin from kicking in.

How to Handle the Fear of Childbirth

Studies seem to indicate that fear begets fear, so it seems the best way to handle any anxiety is by coming to the delivery room with as little fear as possible, and that takes preparation.

If I was expecting a baby, I would take advantage of the following methods to reduce anxiety, fear, and excessive amounts of catecholamines:

Massage
Finally, an excuse to get a really good massage. Massages can help keep your head clear and your anxieties at bay. Of course, if you didn’t get your fill of massages prior to delivery, the Traditional Chinese Medicine University claims that massage during labor can significantly shorten the labor process.

If all else fails, massaging the nipples can increase oxytocin production and induce labor. You should consult your doctor prior to using these massage techniques.

Prenatal Yoga
Om.ygod. Prenatal yoga helps to reduce the stress and anxiety that can make delivery last longer than necessary. By focusing on breathing techniques, stretching, strengthening, and mental concentration, you are preparing yourself for labor.

Some studies even suggest that prenatal yoga shortens the overall time of labor, particularly the first stage of labor.

Meditation
I’m not thinking about the pain. I’m not thinking about the pain. I’m not thinking about the pain. With enough practice, you’ll learn to control these thoughts. Like prenatal yoga, meditation focuses on breathing and mental exercises, which minimize the adrenaline and cortisol levels that trigger stress.

In fact, one study found that women who practiced meditation during pregnancy reported a decline in stress and anxiety.

Communication
As Samantha Salvesen Adams stated, fear may prolong labor because of poor communication between doctor and patient. In order to mitigate delayed treatment and assistance, start building a relationship with your doctor by communicating any fears or anxieties you have prior to delivery.

Open communication can give your doctor an idea of how you may handle delivery, and the doctor may, in turn, give you advice to prepare for the upcoming delivery. Communicating early on will also allow you to feel more comfortable discussing fears and pain when you’re in the delivery room.

What Worked for You?

I’ve already made it clear that I have not been in labor, but I would be interested to learn what techniques worked to reduce your fear of childbirth.

Bloomberg Promotes Breastfeeding by Banning Formula

by Lisbeth Prifogle, MFA

Published on August 4, 2012

1777 views

I want to preface this article by stating that I was breastfed, my four siblings were breastfed, my mom taught breastfeeding classes for Women, Infant, Children (WIC) when we were younger. I am a firm believer that breastfeeding is much better for the child when it is possible. However, we live in a society that shoves women in dirty bathrooms to cover up their breasts as they feed their child. Women are forced to remove photos of breastfeeding moms off of Facebook even if she is fully covered while feeding her newborn. Woman in combat boots face increasing difficulties breastfeed or even pumping breast milk while states side. Breastfeeding is considered vulgar, but when woman want to show off their cleavage in a sexy manner that’s fine, even on Facebook. So when I heard that Mayor Bloomberg, the same politician who is trying ban the sale of bottled drinks over 16 ounces that contain more than 25 calories per 8 ounces, is now trying to ban hospitals from giving out formula to new mothers, you can imagine my response.

The New York Post reports, “Under Latch On NYC, new mothers who want formula won’t be denied it, but hospitals will keep infant formula in out-of-the-way secure storerooms or in locked boxes like those used to dispense and track medications.” Similar to when SWAT teams raided Amish farmers for selling milk, criminalizing anyone who dares make a choice about the food products they put in their body (I grew up in farm country – raw milk is safe and much healthier), we now get to feel like criminals for making a decision about how to care for our child based on what the city thinks we should do rather than what we can/want to do?

The Post continues, “Lisa Paladino, of Staten Island University Hospital, said: “The key to getting more moms to breast-feed is making the formula less accessible. This way, the RN has to sign out the formula like any other medication. The nurse’s aide can’t just go grab another bottle.” Again, instead of educating women about the benefits of breastfeeding, teaching women how to read the formula nutritional label and showing them dangerous chemicals lurking in it (high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and fluoride), Mayor Bloomberg chooses to lock up formula.

Instead of making public restrooms breastfeeding friendly, or starting a campaign asking businesses to make policies that will give women more leeway to breastfeed or pump at work, Mayor Bloomberg wants to make women feel like criminals for asking for formula. This makes no sense.

Maybe it’s time for more women in higher office. What do you think?

Photo Credit: The International Breastfeeding Symbol was donated to the public domain by the creator Matt Daigle, see http://www.mothering.com/sections/action_alerts/iconcontest/waiver.html for more information.

August 2012 - Page 2

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Fear of Childbirth Only Prolongs Childbirth

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