Anyone trying IVF?
Discussion
This should get the Usual Suspects into Ad Hominem mode.
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4578527.stm[/url]
Others' smoking harms IVF success
Women undergoing IVF should avoid other people's smoke to have the best chance of a successful pregnancy, say experts.
Smoke from other people's cigarettes more than halved the likelihood that a transferred embryo would take and grow, a team of US researchers found.
It is already known that smoking can hamper a woman's fertility, but this latest study hints that exposure to others' smoke might be just as bad.
The McMaster University research is published in Human Reproduction.
Smoking danger
Senior researcher Professor Warren Foster said: "Although we do need a prospective confirmation study, the findings from our study already warrant a warning to women to reduce or, if possible, prevent exposure to cigarette smoking, especially if they are trying to conceive."
His team, along with colleagues at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, studied 225 women undergoing IVF or another fertility treatment called ICSI.
It is already established that smoking adversely affects IVF outcome and fertility
Dr Richard Kennedy, spokesman for the British Fertility Society
They divided the women up into groups according to their smoking status - smokers, non-smokers or "side-stream" smokers, which meant that the women were living with a partner who regularly smoked and therefore exposed to smoke emitted from lit cigarettes.
They found no difference in the quality of the embryos from the three groups.
But there was a striking difference in implantation and pregnancy rates between the non-smoking group and the smokers and side-stream smokers.
More research
Lead author Dr Michael Neal said: "There was a significant difference in the pregnancy rates per embryo transfer, with the non-smokers achieving around 48%, the smokers around 19% and the side-stream smokers 20%."
A similar trend was seen with the implantation rates. Implantation was successful 25% of the time among the non-smokers but only 12% of the time among smokers and side-stream smokers.
The investigators speculated that cigarette smoke might damage the egg in some way that only becomes important later in embryonic development and recommended further research.
Researchers have already shown that tobacco smoke can damage sperm.
But Simon Clark from the smokers' lobby group FOREST said: "Retrospective studies, such as this, which rely on self-reported smoking habits should be treated with extreme caution.
"Anyone who concludes from this study that so-called side-stream smoking is as potentially damaging as mainstream smoking would be seriously jumping the gun.
"The dangers of side-stream smoke would appear to be speculation and until there is clear scientific evidence to support such claims, people should be careful not to draw ill-judged conclusions."
Dr Richard Kennedy, gynaecologist and spokesman for the British Fertility Society, said: "It is a small study so it would be premature to say that side-stream smoking is as damaging as smoking.
"But it is already established that smoking adversely affects IVF outcome and fertility so I am not surprised by the findings."
A spokeswoman from the British Medical Association said: "There is no safe level of smoke inhalation.
"Prospective parents should give themselves the best possible chance of conceiving and avoid smoking altogether."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4578527.stm
Published: 2005/05/25 23:56:35 GMT
© BBC MMV
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4578527.stm[/url]
Others' smoking harms IVF success
Women undergoing IVF should avoid other people's smoke to have the best chance of a successful pregnancy, say experts.
Smoke from other people's cigarettes more than halved the likelihood that a transferred embryo would take and grow, a team of US researchers found.
It is already known that smoking can hamper a woman's fertility, but this latest study hints that exposure to others' smoke might be just as bad.
The McMaster University research is published in Human Reproduction.
Smoking danger
Senior researcher Professor Warren Foster said: "Although we do need a prospective confirmation study, the findings from our study already warrant a warning to women to reduce or, if possible, prevent exposure to cigarette smoking, especially if they are trying to conceive."
His team, along with colleagues at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, studied 225 women undergoing IVF or another fertility treatment called ICSI.
It is already established that smoking adversely affects IVF outcome and fertility
Dr Richard Kennedy, spokesman for the British Fertility Society
They divided the women up into groups according to their smoking status - smokers, non-smokers or "side-stream" smokers, which meant that the women were living with a partner who regularly smoked and therefore exposed to smoke emitted from lit cigarettes.
They found no difference in the quality of the embryos from the three groups.
But there was a striking difference in implantation and pregnancy rates between the non-smoking group and the smokers and side-stream smokers.
More research
Lead author Dr Michael Neal said: "There was a significant difference in the pregnancy rates per embryo transfer, with the non-smokers achieving around 48%, the smokers around 19% and the side-stream smokers 20%."
A similar trend was seen with the implantation rates. Implantation was successful 25% of the time among the non-smokers but only 12% of the time among smokers and side-stream smokers.
The investigators speculated that cigarette smoke might damage the egg in some way that only becomes important later in embryonic development and recommended further research.
Researchers have already shown that tobacco smoke can damage sperm.
But Simon Clark from the smokers' lobby group FOREST said: "Retrospective studies, such as this, which rely on self-reported smoking habits should be treated with extreme caution.
"Anyone who concludes from this study that so-called side-stream smoking is as potentially damaging as mainstream smoking would be seriously jumping the gun.
"The dangers of side-stream smoke would appear to be speculation and until there is clear scientific evidence to support such claims, people should be careful not to draw ill-judged conclusions."
Dr Richard Kennedy, gynaecologist and spokesman for the British Fertility Society, said: "It is a small study so it would be premature to say that side-stream smoking is as damaging as smoking.
"But it is already established that smoking adversely affects IVF outcome and fertility so I am not surprised by the findings."
A spokeswoman from the British Medical Association said: "There is no safe level of smoke inhalation.
"Prospective parents should give themselves the best possible chance of conceiving and avoid smoking altogether."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4578527.stm
Published: 2005/05/25 23:56:35 GMT
© BBC MMV
Phew! That's a relief, I thought we were going to be overrun with little Brucies 
More on topic, at the rate that smoking related "research" is going, I fully expect a report in the near future that indicates a direct link between passive smoking and the assaination of JFK!
It does make one think though, that were Brucies nirvana of a non-smoking world actually to come to pass, what would all of these norks do for a living? Would they transfer their "valuable" skills on to a different subject such as telling us not to drink coffee, which I think is a disgusting, smelly habit that should be banned.
More on topic, at the rate that smoking related "research" is going, I fully expect a report in the near future that indicates a direct link between passive smoking and the assaination of JFK!
It does make one think though, that were Brucies nirvana of a non-smoking world actually to come to pass, what would all of these norks do for a living? Would they transfer their "valuable" skills on to a different subject such as telling us not to drink coffee, which I think is a disgusting, smelly habit that should be banned.
TeamD said:
Phew! That's a relief, I thought we were going to be overrun with little Brucies
More on topic, at the rate that smoking related "research" is going, I fully expect a report in the near future that indicates a direct link between passive smoking and the assaination of JFK!
It does make one think though, that were Brucies nirvana of a non-smoking world actually to come to pass, what would all of these norks do for a living? Would they transfer their "valuable" skills on to a different subject such as telling us not to drink coffee, which I think is a disgusting, smelly habit that should be banned.
Did you know that recent Brucie research shows that all smokers are homosexual martians, and that all passive smokers are passively becoming homosexual martians? AND!!! that the BMW suspension designer is a homosexual martian, AND the finest automobile ever made is a Peugeot 405 diesel.
Fatboy said:
Still, IVF is tricky enough as it is, and being in the best health possible has got to be helpfull....
My eldest daughter - now almost 4 - came via IVF. There is no kid healthier than her. Strong as a bull. Smart and big like she's about 6 . . .
I used to be a smoker - Gauloisses without the filters . . . - from 15 to
33 years old. The coughs stopped after a years quitting . . . no more colds and hey: my tasting and smelling has improved inmense! And I love food and drink . . . even more than I love cars . . .
Yet more insight, it does your brain in as well:[url]http://alcoholism.about.com/od/brain/a/blacer041217.htm[/url]
Smoking Compounds Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage
From ACER News Release
Motor Function, Balance Affected
The substances most frequently used by alcohol-dependent individuals are tobacco products; roughly 80 percent of alcohol-dependent individuals report smoking regularly.
Although brain morphology, neurometabolism, and neurocognition are known to be adversely affected by chronic, heavy alcohol consumption, little research has examined the independent effects of cigarette smoking or its potentially compounding effects on alcohol-induced brain damage.
A study in the December 2004 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that cigarette smoking can both exacerbate alcohol-induced damage as well as independently cause brain damage.
"While the effects of cigarette smoking on the heart, lungs, central and peripheral vascular systems, and its carcinogenic properties have been studied for many years in humans, very little is known about its effects on the brain and its functions," said Timothy C. Durazzo, a neuropsychologist and neuroscience researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center and corresponding author for the study. "A mere handful of studies indicate that chronic cigarette smoking by itself has adverse effects on brain structure and cognitive functioning. However, to date, we are not aware of any published studies using magnetic resonance imaging methods on human brains that have shown cigarette smoking compounds alcohol-induced damage."
What is known, said Durazzo, is that smokers tend to consume more alcohol than non-smokers. It is also known that chronic alcohol dependence can damage alcoholics' brains, particularly the frontal lobes, which are critically involved in higher-order cognitive functions such as problem solving, reasoning, abstraction, planning, foresight, short-term memory, and emotional regulation.
Magnetic Resonance Images
"So, is all the brain damage described in alcoholics in treatment due to chronic excessive alcohol consumption," asked Durazzo, "or does chronic comorbid smoking also contribute to some of the damage observed?" Researchers compared 24, one-week-abstinent alcoholics (14 smokers, 10 nonsmokers) in treatment with 26 light-drinking "controls" (7 smokers, 19 nonsmokers) on magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging measures of common brain metabolites in gray and white matter of the major lobes, basal ganglia, midbrain and cerebellar vermis. Measures of neurocognitive functioning and laboratory markers of drinking severity and nutritional status were also compared.
Frontal Lobe Damage
"Results indicate that chronic cigarette smoking increases the severity of brain damage associated with alcohol dependence," said Durazzo. "That is, the combined effects of alcohol dependence and chronic smoking are associated with greater regional brain damage than chronic alcoholic drinking or smoking alone. Our studies show that this exacerbation of the alcohol-induced brain damage is most prominent in the frontal lobes of individuals studied early in treatment."
Durazzo noted that frontal-lobe functions are applied in multiple contexts of everyday life. "Therefore, exacerbation of alcohol-induced damage to the tissue of the frontal lobes by chronic cigarette smoking may further compromise recovering alcoholics' ability to successfully execute more challenging activities of daily living or accurately judging or anticipating the consequences of their actions, particularly with increasing age," he said.
Motor Skills, Balance, Coordination
Cigarette smoking, independent of alcohol consumption, was also found to have adverse effects on neuronal viability and cell membranes in the midbrain and on cell membranes of the cerebellar vermis.
"These brain regions are involved in fine and gross motor functions and balance and coordination," said Durazzo. "We also observed that higher smoking severity among smoking recovering alcoholics was associated with lower N-acetylaspartate levels in lenticular nuclei and thalamus, areas also involved in motor functions." N-acetylaspartate is an amino acid derivative and its concentration is used as a measure of neuronal viability. "Together, these findings may indicate a particular vulnerability of subcortical structures to the effects of cigarette smoking," he said.
Durazzo added that these findings have significant implications for both alcohol researchers as well as the general population.
Smoking Affects Brain Tissue
"Our results give strong preliminary evidence that chronic cigarette smoking, a behavior that commonly is associated with alcohol dependence, has a significant impact on the integrity of tissue in several brain regions, particularly the frontal lobes and cerebellum," he said.
Durazzo added that chronic cigarette smoking is also commonly seen in other neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. "Any neuroimaging and/or neurocognitive investigation of these conditions should consider the potential impact of smoking on outcome measures," he said.
©2005 About, Inc. All rights reserved.
User Agreement | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy
Smoking Compounds Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage
From ACER News Release
Motor Function, Balance Affected
The substances most frequently used by alcohol-dependent individuals are tobacco products; roughly 80 percent of alcohol-dependent individuals report smoking regularly.
Although brain morphology, neurometabolism, and neurocognition are known to be adversely affected by chronic, heavy alcohol consumption, little research has examined the independent effects of cigarette smoking or its potentially compounding effects on alcohol-induced brain damage.
A study in the December 2004 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that cigarette smoking can both exacerbate alcohol-induced damage as well as independently cause brain damage.
"While the effects of cigarette smoking on the heart, lungs, central and peripheral vascular systems, and its carcinogenic properties have been studied for many years in humans, very little is known about its effects on the brain and its functions," said Timothy C. Durazzo, a neuropsychologist and neuroscience researcher at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center and corresponding author for the study. "A mere handful of studies indicate that chronic cigarette smoking by itself has adverse effects on brain structure and cognitive functioning. However, to date, we are not aware of any published studies using magnetic resonance imaging methods on human brains that have shown cigarette smoking compounds alcohol-induced damage."
What is known, said Durazzo, is that smokers tend to consume more alcohol than non-smokers. It is also known that chronic alcohol dependence can damage alcoholics' brains, particularly the frontal lobes, which are critically involved in higher-order cognitive functions such as problem solving, reasoning, abstraction, planning, foresight, short-term memory, and emotional regulation.
Magnetic Resonance Images
"So, is all the brain damage described in alcoholics in treatment due to chronic excessive alcohol consumption," asked Durazzo, "or does chronic comorbid smoking also contribute to some of the damage observed?" Researchers compared 24, one-week-abstinent alcoholics (14 smokers, 10 nonsmokers) in treatment with 26 light-drinking "controls" (7 smokers, 19 nonsmokers) on magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging measures of common brain metabolites in gray and white matter of the major lobes, basal ganglia, midbrain and cerebellar vermis. Measures of neurocognitive functioning and laboratory markers of drinking severity and nutritional status were also compared.
Frontal Lobe Damage
"Results indicate that chronic cigarette smoking increases the severity of brain damage associated with alcohol dependence," said Durazzo. "That is, the combined effects of alcohol dependence and chronic smoking are associated with greater regional brain damage than chronic alcoholic drinking or smoking alone. Our studies show that this exacerbation of the alcohol-induced brain damage is most prominent in the frontal lobes of individuals studied early in treatment."
Durazzo noted that frontal-lobe functions are applied in multiple contexts of everyday life. "Therefore, exacerbation of alcohol-induced damage to the tissue of the frontal lobes by chronic cigarette smoking may further compromise recovering alcoholics' ability to successfully execute more challenging activities of daily living or accurately judging or anticipating the consequences of their actions, particularly with increasing age," he said.
Motor Skills, Balance, Coordination
Cigarette smoking, independent of alcohol consumption, was also found to have adverse effects on neuronal viability and cell membranes in the midbrain and on cell membranes of the cerebellar vermis.
"These brain regions are involved in fine and gross motor functions and balance and coordination," said Durazzo. "We also observed that higher smoking severity among smoking recovering alcoholics was associated with lower N-acetylaspartate levels in lenticular nuclei and thalamus, areas also involved in motor functions." N-acetylaspartate is an amino acid derivative and its concentration is used as a measure of neuronal viability. "Together, these findings may indicate a particular vulnerability of subcortical structures to the effects of cigarette smoking," he said.
Durazzo added that these findings have significant implications for both alcohol researchers as well as the general population.
Smoking Affects Brain Tissue
"Our results give strong preliminary evidence that chronic cigarette smoking, a behavior that commonly is associated with alcohol dependence, has a significant impact on the integrity of tissue in several brain regions, particularly the frontal lobes and cerebellum," he said.
Durazzo added that chronic cigarette smoking is also commonly seen in other neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. "Any neuroimaging and/or neurocognitive investigation of these conditions should consider the potential impact of smoking on outcome measures," he said.
©2005 About, Inc. All rights reserved.
User Agreement | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy | Kids' Privacy Policy
Bruciebabe, I do enjoy your posts. You obviously know you are being laughed at, and yet carry on doing it. Seriously, I admire your tenacity!
Almost troll-like behaviour, but you admit to being who you are, and are willing to stick by controversial opinions.
Sometimes I wonder whether you just have a drier sense of humour than I have ever encountered before, and therefore your posts are poking fun at yourself. If this is true (as I suspect it is), my respect for you grows.
Oli.
Almost troll-like behaviour, but you admit to being who you are, and are willing to stick by controversial opinions.
Sometimes I wonder whether you just have a drier sense of humour than I have ever encountered before, and therefore your posts are poking fun at yourself. If this is true (as I suspect it is), my respect for you grows.
Oli.
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff