BODY: Mama's got a squeezebox

Today's op-ed in the New York Times , Postpartum Impression, discussed the little-talked about practice of vaginal strengthening after childbirth. It helps tighten the muscles for all sorts of reasons: pelvic health, preventing incontinence and, of course, pleasure! The author, Pamela Druckerman, used the practice as an example to point out that in France this type of thing is subsidized, while it is not in the United States.

Insurance and health-care debates aside, I am left wondering why such a simple and cheap procedure is not even discussed much here by health care practitioners? Our Puritanism astounds me again and again, especially when it is ostensibly a procedure from which men have much to gain.

From what I can tell the procedure can be done at home. It involves a whole lot of squeezing down on a wand (which most women probably already own, albeit with a different name.) One French web site sells oeufs de jade (jade eggs) for home-practice; an American site sells a medical-looking wand with a digital meter and then there is the Kegelmaster, a slightly pre-historic dildo type thing. (CN)

MIND: A place where neither mind or body matter

MIND: Estrus makes bank

This is one of the items in the New York Times magazine's end of year Annual Year of Ideas. I think it's quite fascinating. The short form: Women in "heat" make more money than those who don't in a strip club. (CN)

December 9, 2007
Lap-Dance Science
By REBECCA SKLOOT

Despite media reports to the contrary, the University of New Mexico did not pay for Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan to get 5,300 lap dances in two months. In fact, Miller has never even been in a strip club. And frankly, they’re getting tired of everyone’s asking.

Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, and Jordan, his recent undergraduate research assistant, did conduct a study examining the impact ovulation has on lap dancers’ tip earnings. But they gathered data via a Web site, where strippers logged in anonymously to provide information about their earnings, productivity and menstrual cycles during 296 work shifts (about 5,300 lap dances). The results: While ovulating — and therefore the most fertile — strippers made an average of $30 per hour more than menstruating women and $15 per hour more than women elsewhere in their cycles. Women on the pill — who typically don’t ovulate — made significantly less than naturally cycling women overall and had no “estrus earning peak.”

Jordan first became aware of this phenomenon while working his way through college managing a strip club, where his duties included “physical protection,” collecting nightly reports on women’s tips and providing dancers with tampons when necessary. Jordan noticed that the women getting tampons reported lower tips than those who didn’t. So he started collecting “preliminary data” to analyze for his evolutionary biology coursework.

“Studies like this,” Miller says, “can tell us about the nature of human sexuality and attraction and answer important questions scientists have been debating for decades.” For example: Conventional scientific wisdom says that almost all mammals except humans go into estrus (a k a “heat”). Cats yowl and raise their hind ends in the air; female primates get visibly engorged in relevant areas. But humans, scientists have long believed, do no such things. Miller and Jordan’s research indicates otherwise. “It’s highly controversial because it’s science blurring the line between humans and other primates,” Miller says, “but our results give clear economic evidence that human estrus actually does exist.”

The findings that estrus impacts earnings could have implications for women selling cars or giving big presentations as C.E.O.’s,” Miller says. “Should women schedule big job interviews during certain weeks of the month? We don’t know. But maybe.

MIND: Experts question bipolar explosion in youth

From Sept. 7 issue of Activate:

In a uniquely American trend, more children than ever are being diagnosed as bipolar, a psychiatric disorder of alternating mania and depression. Between 1994 and 2003 there was a 40-fold rise in diagnosed cases — and a similar jump in prescriptions for anti-psychotic medicine — in children under 19, according to a new study.

The news has fractured the field of child psychiatry. Some doctors argue that there is a new and needed awareness of the disease. Others warn that the disorder can be confused with ADHD, anxiety, and depression, or over-diagnosed due to heavy marketing by drug companies and lower parental tolerance for troubling behavior. (CN)

BODY: I'll have what she's having

I still find it very funny when the media takes an age-old health concept and tries to trendify it. The most recent story I came across was a story from USA Today about new mothers who elect to eat their placenta. Cough. I am not even a mother but I am pretty sure that women were eating the placenta, like, 5,000 years ago. What I find a more interesting 'trend' story is the ever-increasing number of women who have elective c-sections at 8 months in order to preserve their bodies. On the subject of childbirth, another story from Wired I found fascinating. Engineers have created a child birthing simulator for doctors to practice delivery with.  (CN)

BODY: Cosmetic beauty more than skin deep

The rush for every product under the sun to label itself as natural and organic has been a huge marketing boom, particularly to lovely smelling ingredients such as lavender. But new evidence suggests that the effects are not unilateral. Case studies recently reported in New England Journal of Medicine have linked lavender and tea tree oil with breast growth in three young boys. Researchers theorized that chemicals in the ingredients were disruptive to the endocrine system. The boys went back to normal after they stopped using products with the ingredients.

However, the small study points to a much larger issue: how are cosmetic additives, both synthetic and natural, affecting our hormones? A recent story in the New York Times focused on phthalates, a chemical compound used to make vinyl and also found in many cosmetics. In some forms the compound is highly hormonally reactive, causing infertility in men. Data has been too inconclusive to categorically regulate the chemicals, according to the FDA, however consumer groups are pushing for more lab tests on cosmetic products. (CN)

MIND: In utero, remember?

A new study shows that infants, as young as six months, can have real memories. But how quickly they forget. Previous memory research had speculated that babies were unable to form memories, but new research shows that they do form impressions - however, they are quickly forgotten. (CN)

MIND: Second grade's long tail

Can't get a date tonight? Go ahead and blame your childhood. A new study, conducted over the past 25 years and counting, reaffirms kitchen-table wisdom of mothers everywhere: early childhood experiences shape adult relationships. The study shows that adults who had positive and well-adjusted early childhood experiences are more likely to have positive and well-adjusted adult romantic relationships. But is the news too little too late for many Americans? Children in the United States have the second worst welfare, right behind Britain, in a study of 21 wealthy countries, according to a UNICEF report. (CN)

BODY: Go ahead, take a nap

It hardly seems like breaking news when studies show that sleep is, well, good for you. But in the amped-up 24/7 lifestyles that we find ourselves, it is useful to remind ourselves how very good it actually is and why our bodies need it. Several new studies made headlines this week. One new study shows that napping is good for your heart while not enough sleep, especially in kids, can lead to obesity and stump brain cell growth.

But how much is enough? New business trends have latched on to this very question. Napping spas are sprouting up in major sleep-deprived urban areas, while the range of sleep aids - from herbal remedies to pharmaceuticals - has boomed. One rule of thumb: if you don't feel sleepy, then you're probably getting what you need. (CN)

MIND: Pioneering study shows talk therapy works

As Woody Allen fans know, psychology comes in many flavors. Those considering a little psychic help would do well to find the style that best fits their needs. Two main styles are cognitive behavioural therapy, which focuses more on behaviour patterns, and psychodynamic therapy, which probes and analyzes past history and underlying reasons for symptoms.

A new study shows the effectiveness of psychodynamic, or talk, therapy when used for panic disorder, a common form of anxiety. The study is a landmark for psychodynamic therapy as it provides the elusive and much-needed quanitative evidence that it works. Cognitve behavioral therapy has grown increasingly popular in recent practice because many of the techniques are evidence-based. Psychodynamic therapy, during which the patient and practioner engage in dialogue over months to years, has grown less popular because there is little clinical evidence to prove it's effectiveness apart from self-report. As a result it has fallen out of favor with insurance companies and institutional settings. The new study could signal a revival in popularity for talk therapy. (CN)

BODY: Cost of birth control triples for students

Birth control at some student health clinics and low-income health providers has as much as tripled in the last month. The price hike, sending a one packet of the popular Ortho-Tri-Cyclen from around $15 to $40, is due to the Defecit Reduction Act of 2005. The measure was signed into law last month and affects organizations who buy birth control through the 340B drug discount program. Student newspapers, including Univ. of Pennsylvannia, UT Austin, Purdue and Pitt, responded to the news. (CN)

BODY: Priobiotic foods get trendy

The flora and fauna of the digestive track are seeing the light of day. Like oat bran to the 80s, probiotics appear poised to be the new food trend in the United States. Found in live-culture foods such as yogurt, the microbes are also found in kombucha, a type of fermented Japanese tea, which has been gaining prominence in the bevvie aisle at Whole Foods. So what gives? We've have long known that these play an important role in warding off yeast infections, especially after a round of antibiotics. But with renewed focus obesity-related diseases, anything we can do to help the guts do their thing is up for consideration. (CN)

MIND: Meditate at your online ashram

Last April I spent an afternoon at a Starbuck-esque coffee shop in Ooty, India. Ooty is a hill station that is popular because the temperatures are quite cool during the summer and is weekend destination for Bangalore's emerging tech class. I browsed the coffee shop's in-house magazine which had a feature Q&A with call center workers. It highlighted some of the new cultural conflicts for Indian 20-somethings: working odd hours took away from family meal time, religious traditions had to be comprimised and waistlines thickening with office life. A recent story described how young Indians were solving these office-age problems: online meditation courses. A quick Google turned up thousands of online meditation resources. A few to consider: (CN)

Wild Mind

Ananda

Life Bliss

MIND: Meet your new bestfriend, the insula

The astounding recent news that damage to the brain's insula region caused smokers to instantly quit the habit had us wondering if will there be a rush on insula-related accidents a la self-trepanning? We hope not, but the insula is suddenly the neuro-region du jour. The prune-sized area helps us, well, be human. It reads body states like hunger, anger and craving. It also helps guides our moral compass. Bottom line: we want to more about this thoughtful region. (CN)

BODY: Debate over HPV vaccine

Texas is the first state to require all middle-school girls to be vaccinated against HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer. Currently 18 other states are considering similar measures. The vaccination called Gardasil was created by two leading pharmaceutical companies.

The law has stirred debate in all corners - from right-wing groups who fear that more sexual activity is the implicit fallout from such vaccination to feminist groups , left wondering what the government's role in women's health is. For the rest of us the debate hits closer to home: should we get the vaccincation? Listen to NPR's coverage about the implications. (CN)