The Women’s Center is coming to Winter Park!
May 20th, 2010
Coming Soon….
The Women’s Center is glad to announce its fifth location to open up in Winter Park. Our staff is excited and we hope you are too! For those of you that would like to join us out there, we will be located at 6001 Brick Court, Suite 121 Winter Park, FL 32792. The Women’s Center Winter Park office will be opening its doors in June 2010!

Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Women's Health, Women's Health - General, Womenscenter | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Your Bad Traits May Not Be So Bad After All.
April 19th, 2010
Ever thought that your negativity and pessimism would be considered "good traits"? Our bad traits can actually be beneficial in some situations according to Bryan Gibson, professor of social psychology at Central Michigan University.
Here are five traits that can actually help you reduce or prevent stress, obesity, and other diseases.
Negativity: Remember how we are always asked to remain positive? Positivity breeds success, blah, blah? Well researchers think that pessimism can help prevent future problems according a professor of psychology at Wellesley College, Julie Norem. (Professor Norem has also written a book "The Positive Power of Negative Thinking".)
Cursing: Ah cursing! How many times have we heard that "swearing is crass"? Now researchers believe that cursing allows the body to copy with pain and stress in a crisis
Doodling: Doodling is for people who can't focus, right? Wrong! Dooling, it appears can improve the ability of our minds to remember mundane information by almost 30 percent. Researchers from the University of Plymouth state that when we doodle, we use our brain's visuospacial processes. These processes are normally used for daydreaming but allow the brain to prevent wandering when used during doodling.
Procrastination: Lazy, unable to finish things on time, etc. are all the labels given to someone who procrastinates. But now it appears that by putting off work for a bit to take a nap, surf the web, check Facebook statuses, etc. can make a person approximately 10 percent more productive than those who don't.
Gossip: Old wives gossip; Gossip is bad form; Gossiping is for immature people, etc. etc. Well, not anymore! Non-malicious gossip is good for forming better friendships and making your "moral compass" stronger.
Anger: Anger is considered to be unhealthy cause it raise blood pressure and creates conflict. But Jennifer Lerner, director of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory states that by showing anger in situations that are unfair or wrong can actually be good for the body. As long as the anger is not a chronic anger, by getting angry in situations that warrant some good old anger, our body releases cortisol, the stress hormone which can cause depression, obesity, and bone loss.
So go ahead and show your negativity, curse when that hammer hits your thumb instead of the nail, show anger when the dry cleaner loses your best pair of pants, and enjoy some juicy gossip about what's happening with Brangelina.
As for me, I'm going to go ahead and procrastinate before I decide what else to blog about.
Tags: Gossip_Anger_Negative_Good_For_Body Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Women's Health | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Pregnancy May be Ok for Women Who’ve Successfully been Treated for Breast Cancer
March 26th, 2010
Very exciting news for women who want to get pregnant but had to face the personal challenge of battling breast cancer. At the European Breast Cancer Conference held recently, researchers reported their findings after analyzing trials in which approximately 1400 pregnant women and 18,000 non-pregnant women had participated. Women in both groups had a history of breast cancer. Researchers found that the women who were successfully treated for breast cancer could get pregnant without any fear of recurrence of the disease and that pregnancy actually may even improve their chances of survival from breast cancer.
Researchers found that the women who became pregnant after being diagnosed and treated for breast cancer improved their chances of survival when compared to women who did not get pregnant after breast cancer treatment.
The bottom-line message here is that even after breast cancer treatment, women can get pregnant and their pregnancy can actually increase their chance for survival. This is truly a huge blessing for many women who can finally achieve their dream of getting pregnant in spite of battling breast cancer!
Tags: Breast_Cancer_Survival_Improves_After_Pregnancy Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Breast Cancer, Pregnancy | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Want to Get Pregnant? Perhaps Mediterranean Diets Can Help??
March 24th, 2010
Ah, here's a new study suggesting that women who want to get pregnant may want to include vegetables, vegetable oils and fish in their diet. This could result in them not needing fertility treatments to get pregnant. According to a study conducted in the Netherlands, 161 couples undergoing treatment for fertility were studied. Those women who were on a Mediterranean-like diet had a 40% greater chance of becoming pregnant than those who ate "healthy".
Although the study does not provide any proof that diet alone boosts fertility, the study may indicate the importance of diet when couples undergo fertility treatments.
So what was the key factor to note from this study? Well, vegetable oils found in a Mediterranean diet contain omega-6 fatty acids. These Omega-6 fatty acids are precursors to hormone-like substances in a women's body, called prostaglandins which are involved in menstrual cycle, ovulation, and pregnancy. A Mediterranean diet also includes higher levels of B6 which may have been the reason for a increased fertility.
Like any study, clinical trials would be required to prove that a Mediterranean diet may indeed lead to higher chances of becoming pregnant. The results of this study can be found in the latest issue of the Fertility and Sterility Journal.
Tags: Mediterranean_Diet_Pregnancy Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Infertility Treatment, Pregnancy, Women's Health | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Stressful Pregnancies May Lead to Asthma in Children!
March 22nd, 2010
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston released study results which found that pregnant women who have a stressful pregnancy can have children who have a higher risk of developing asthma later in life.
The study was conducted with 557 pregnant women from Boston, New York, and Baltimore, with a large number of women belonging to ethnic minority groups and almost 20% of them living below the poverty line. Also, each participant had at least one family member who had asthma in their medical history. The women were asked details about the stressors in their lives including financial, marital, domestic violence, and any other stressors that they faced on a daily basis. Researchers collected blood from the infants' cords and analyzed them for the production of various cytokines which are indicators of how the immune system of the infant would respond to external environmental conditions.
When compared to infants born to mothers with low stress levels, the researchers found a significant difference in the markers to conclude that infants with higher levels of cytokines may be at a higher risk of developing asthma and allergies as they grow older.
The findings will be published in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (ANI).
Tags: Pregnancy_Asthma, Pregnancy_Stress Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Womenscenter | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Why Take Care of Your Gums During Pregnancy?
March 18th, 2010
Can Periodontal disease during pregnancy cause preterm births? A recent study indicates that perhaps it's so.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied 1000 would-be-mothers with symptoms of gum disease in which 160 were diagnosed with gum disease. Women who were not treated for gum disease had a higher chance of delivering before 35 weeks, or preterm. Those who received treatment for gum disease faced a lesser risk than those who didn't. The study also found that children born to women with untreated gum disease had a higher risk of tooth decay problems.
The study was presented at the American Association for Dental Research.
Tags: Gum_Disease_And_Pregnancy Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Pregnancy, Women's Health | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Pregnancy Related Deaths on the Rise in the US?
March 15th, 2010
Amnesty International issued a report last week that shows that in the United States deaths from pregnancy and childbirth have doubled in the past 20 years. The report also showed that one-third of pregnant women in the US suffer from pregnancy-related complications.
In the report, Amnesty International states that most of the pregnancy related deaths and complications are among women who are living in poverty. Their report also states that inner cities and rural areas face a shortage of qualified health care professionals which elevates the concern for providing timely care to pregnant women.
The report is called "Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA. What's shocking is that the report states that the risk of maternal deaths is greater in the United States than in 40 other countries and that since 1988, pregnancy-related complications have increased by 25%.
According to a study conducted by the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 2007, it was found that 40% of such complications were preventable with better prenatal care. Amnesty International's report showed that "minorities, women living in poverty, Native Americans, immigrants and those who speak little or no English" are at highest risk for pregnancy complications.
Another shocking statistic is from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta which showed that for African-American women there is a mortality rate of 32.7 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies whereas Caucasian women have a mortality rate of only 9.5 per 100,000 pregnancies.
Tags: Pregnancy_Related_Deaths Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Pregnant and Feeling Depressed? Acupuncture May Help!
March 12th, 2010
The statistics are startling; according to experts, one-third of all women face the blues, literally as in face depression, during pregnancy. A Stanford University study finds that acupuncture may help pregnant, depressed women. 150 women who were depressed and pregnant were subjected to a combination of acupuncture for depression, regular acupuncture, and Swedish massage treatments.
Each woman participated in 12 sessions of under 30 minutes and it was observed that after eight weeks, almost 60% of the women who were given depression-specific acupuncture showed a 50% reduction in their symptoms. Of the women who received just regular acupuncture or massage, only half of them showed reduced symptoms.
If you want to read more about the study, pick up the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology where the study will be published.
Tags: Depression_And_Acupuncture, Pregnancy_And_Depression Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Pregnancy, Women's Health | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Can Yoga Help you Get Pregnant?
March 10th, 2010
Should you consider yoga to get pregnant? No, it hasn't been scientifically that yoga helps boost the chance for conception but many believe that yoga may help when you are trying to get pregnant because yoga helps you relax.
Stress has many adverse effects on us and so can it affect hormonal balance during ovulation. Dr. Alice Domar who is a researcher at Harvard Medical School studied women who had been trying to conceive a year or longer. 50% of the women in the study went through a 10 week "mind and body" program which included meditation, yoga, nutrition and exercise to change negative thought patterns. The remaining were in a control program which had none of the above mentioned activities. Dr. Domar found that 55% of women who were in the mind and body program became pregnant within 12 months versus only 20% of women from the control group became pregnant.
It appears quite logical that yoga has a positive influence on getting pregnant. Yoga may also be beneficial due to the fact that its practice improves muscle tone and relaxes the body overall.
Again, there may be no scientific data to prove that yoga improves your chance for pregnancy but what do you have to lose if you begin practicing yoga besides stress?
Tags: Yoga_Benefits, Yoga_for_Pregnancy Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Pregnancy, Women's Health | No Comments »
Women’s Health Blog: Fertility Treatment Risks
March 8th, 2010
Fertility treatments may cause a four time greater risk of a stillbirth according to a research study released by British researchers when compared to women who got pregnant naturally. The extra risk was found for women using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Dr Andre van Steirteghem, the IVF pioneer told a US conference that more than 260,000 children born from IVF treatments in the UK are at greater risk of health problems.
More about the study and associated statistics can be found at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1253342/Risk-stillbirth-increases-fourfold-women-using-fertility-treatment.html#ixzz0iDcy83TL
Tags: Fertility_Treatments_Risk Posted by Dr. Douglas Gearity | Posted in Infertility Treatment | No Comments »
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