Low Sperm Count May Lead To Bone Fracture, Diabetes

A new report by Swedish researchers has indicated that men with infertility problems have a heightened risk of developing other diseases later in life.
This is the finding of a study published by Skane University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.
According to the researchers, men with fertility problems were more likely to suffer bone fractures and may also be more susceptible to diabetes later in life.
Infertility refers to an inability to conceive after having regular unprotected sex.
Infertility can also refer to the biological inability of an individual to contribute to conception, or to a female who cannot carry a pregnancy to full term.
According to the researchers, the findings was the result of research carried out on 192 men with sub-average sperm counts.
While a complete absence of sperm is called azoospermia, sperm count is considered lower than normal if it is fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter of semen.
Having a low sperm count decreases the odds that one’s sperm will fertilise the partner’s egg, resulting in pregnancy.
It said that men with fertility problems were more likely to suffer bone fractures and may also be more susceptible diabetes later in life.
The study registered that a third of men aged below 50 with low sperm counts suffered from testosterone levels below average.
Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group and is found in humans and other vertebrates.
In humans and other mammals, testosterone is secreted primarily by the testicles of males and, to a lesser extent, the ovaries of females. Story By Johnson OKPUSA OBASI

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WHO's Recommended Excercis333e Too Low To Beat Deseases

In order to reduce the risk of five common chronic diseases, researchers from the United States (U.S) and Canada have urged the world community to engage in higher levels of physical activities far above the recommended levels by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to the researchers, when the level of total physical activity per week is five to seven times the minimum level recommended by the WHO, there would be a lower risk of stroke and of contracting breast and bowel cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Chronic diseases are long-term medical conditions that are generally progressive. Some examples of chronic diseases include heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and chronic respiratory problems.
At present, these are the major causes of disability and death globally. In effect, the study findings show that higher levels of physical activity can achieve bigger reductions in the risk of the five highlighted common chronic diseases, but only if people engage in levels far above the recommended minimum exertion.
An analysis of 174 studies found that gardening, household chores and more strenuous activities, when done in sufficient quantities, were strongly associated with a lower risk of stroke and of contracting breast and bowel cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
At present, the WHO recommends that people conduct at least 600 metabolic equivalent minutes (MET minutes) of physical activity – the equivalent of 150 minutes each week of brisk walking or 75 minutes of running.
But the new study suggested most health gains were achieved at 3,000 to 4,000 MET minutes per week. Reacting, the lead author, Hmwe Kyu, from the University of Washington, said: “Major gains occurred at lower levels of activity. The decrease in risk was minimal at levels higher than 3,000 to 4,000 MET minutes per week.
“A person can achieve 3,000 MET minutes per week by incorporating different types of physical activity into the daily routine – for example, climbing stairs 10 minutes, vacuuming 15 minutes, gardening 20 minutes, running 20 minutes, and walking or cycling for transportation 25 minutes on a daily basis would together achieve about 3,000 MET minutes a week.
Analysing studies published between 1980 and 2016, the researchers found the pattern highlighted was most prominent for ischemic heart disease and diabetes and least prominent for breast cancer.
For example, individuals with a total activity level of 600 MET minutes per week had a two per cent lower risk of diabetes compared with those reporting no physical activity. An increase from 600 to 3,600 MET minutes reduced the risk by an additional 19 per cent.
The same amount of increase yielded much smaller returns at higher levels of activity. “With population ageing, and an increasing number of cardiovascular and diabetes deaths since 1990, greater attention and investments in interventions to promote physical activity in the general public is required,” they wrote. “More studies using the detailed quantification of total physical activity will help to find a more precise estimate for different levels of physical activity.” Story By JOHNSON OKPUSA OBASI

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Breastfeeding Prevents Cancers In Mothers - UNICEF

Nursing mothers now have a strong reason to take the issues of breastfeeding very seriously as UNICEF has said that nursing mothers who breastfeed their children exclusively in the first six months of their lives stand a chance of being protected against breast cancer and cancer of the uterus.
Speaking at a press conference to commemorate the 2016 World Breastfeeding Day, Chief of Kaduna UNICEF Field Office, Utpal Moitra, said breastfeeding within 30 minutes of childbirth equally saves mothers from maternal death.
Explaining how exclusive breastfeeding reduces some health risks, Kaduna State Nutrition Officer, Mrs. June Gwani, stated that constant breastfeeding of the baby protects nursing mothers against cancer of the uterus and breast cancer, such that it equally helps the mothers’ uterus to return to its position quickly after delivery.
Speaking further, Moitra said the 2016 World Breastfeeding Week was targeted at creating awareness on the relationship between breastfeeding an infant and young child feeding as a key component of sustainable development goals.
According to him: “Initiation of breastfeeding within 30 minutes after birth saves mothers from the risk of post-partum haemorrhage and maternal death and exclusive breastfeeding on demand in the first six months of life without water or any other food starts every baby on healthy path in life, providing all the nutrients the baby requires for optimum growth and development.
Gwani said that against the general belief of mothers that a baby needs water, all a baby needs in the first six months of life is in breast milk.
According to her, breast milk contains 85 per cent of water; so there is no fear of absence of water in the breast milk. “The feeding of the colostrums serves as the first immunisation against a host of diseases the mother must have been exposed to while continuing breastfeeding up to two years and beyond.”

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Impatience Can Lead To Reduced Life Span - Study

A new study, which shows the health benefit of patience, has revealed that people who are impatient may die earlier than those who are not. This is the findings of a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Patience or forbearing is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on negative annoyance/anger; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties.

It is the level of endurance one can have before negativity, which can refer to the character trait of being steadfast. The findings, by a team of researchers from the United States and Singapore, found that young women who scored low, have more impatient on a common psychology test tended to have shorter ‘telomeres,’ tiny caps on the ends of chromosomes linked to longevity, than their more patient counterparts.

According to a report in the Medical Xpress, the team explained that telomeres protect the chromosomes from damage – as cells divide, telomere length shortens – and scientists believe this is one of the main reasons we age. As telomeres grow shorter, starting at around age 16, we grow older – until eventually the cells can no longer divide and we die.

In this new study, the researchers report that they have found that impatience may cause biological changes that lead to telomere shortening, which may in turn cause people to age faster and die sooner.

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Daughters Can Inherit Moms’ Depression Genes

Mothers may pass on vulnerability to depression in much the same way they give their daughters green eyes or curly hair. The findings of a small study published in the Journal of Neuroscience show that girls might inherit a brain structure that is predisposed to mood disorders from their mothers.

Researchers focused on what’s known as the brain’s corticolimbic system, the interconnected brain areas responsible for regulating emotion that also influence depression, stress responses and memory. According to a report in the Thomson/Reuters, the researchers studied the brains of 35 families, including parents and their biological children, and found the particular contours of the corticolimbic system are more likely to be passed down from mothers to daughters than from mothers to sons or from fathers to children of either gender.

“While our study was not directly done in depressed families, our findings may mean that if mothers have brain structural anomalies in the corticolimbic circuitry, their female but not male offspring are more likely to have similar abnormal structural patterns in the same brain regions, which would be consistent with how depression is linked within families,” said lead study author Dr. Fumiko Hoeft of the University of California, San Francisco.

Previous behavioural health studies have pointed to a strong link between psychiatric problems in mothers and similar mood disorders in their daughters, Hoeft and colleagues noted.

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Eating Fatty Foods During Pregnancy Damages Baby's Immune System

Children born to mothers who ate fatty food during pregnancy suffer from more immune diseases and allergies, scientists have discovered.

A high-fat diet damages cells in the foetal liver, which can affect the child’s immune system in later life.

The research was the first to link a mother's weight and diet to the damage caused to the developing liver blood stem cells of their unborn babies.

The study published in the journal Molecular Metabolism used mice models that closely mimics the high-fat, high sugar diet currently consumed by many young women of childbearing age.

Subsequent research demonstrated that maternal overnutrition in mice significantly reduced the size of the foetal liver.

Using these findings the US researchers discovered that the complex changes that occur as a result of maternal high-fat diet and obesity ultimately compromises the developing immune system.

Dr Peter Kurre from Oregon Health and Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital said: "These findings may provide broad context for the rise in immune disease and allergic disposition in children."

Professor of paediatric oncology Dr Peter Kurre said: "In light of the spreading western-style, high-fat diet and accompanying obesity epidemic, this study highlights the need to better understand the previous unrecognized susceptibility of the stem and progenitor cell system.

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