Moderate caffeine consumption is associated with higher levels of estrogen in Asian women, but lower levels in white women, according to a study of reproductive-age women conducted by the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

Over 250 women, ages 18 to 44 years old, participated in the study between 2005 and 2007. On average, they consumed 90 milligrams of caffeine a day, equivalent to approximately one cup of caffeinated coffee.

Asian women who took in an average of 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day — the equivalent of approximately two cups of coffee — had higher estrogen levels than women who consumed less caffeine.

In contrast, white women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day had slightly lower estrogen levels than women who consumed less.

Black women who consumed 200 milligrams or more of caffeine a day were found to have elevated estrogen levels; however, the result was not statistically significant.

Total caffeine intake was calculated from any of the following sources: coffee, black tea, green tea, and caffeinated soda.

Findings differed slightly when the source of caffeine was considered singly. Drinking 200 milligrams or more of caffeine from coffee was consistent with the findings for overall caffeine consumption—with Asians having higher estrogen levels, whites having lower estrogen levels, and the results for blacks not statistically significant. However, drinking more than one cup each day of caffeinated soda or green tea was linked to higher estrogen level in Asians, whites, and blacks.

The changes in estrogen levels among the participants did not seem to affect ovulation. Animal studies had suggested that caffeine could possibly interfere with ovulation.

“The results indicate that caffeine consumption among women of child-bearing age influences estrogen levels,” said Enrique Schisterman, Ph.D., of the Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH institute where some of the research was conducted.

“Short term, these variations in estrogen levels among different groups do not appear to have any pronounced effects. We know that variations in estrogen level are associated with such disorders as endometriosis, osteoporosis, and endometrial, breast, and ovarian cancers. Because long-term caffeine consumption has the potential to influence estrogen levels over a long period of time, it makes sense to take caffeine consumption into account when designing studies to understand these disorders.”

Most of the study participants reported to the study clinic one to three times a week for two menstrual cycles. Their visits were scheduled to correspond with specific stages of the menstrual cycle.

During each visit, the participants reported what they had eaten in the last 24 hours and answered questions about their exercise, sleep, smoking and other lifestyle factors.  Reproductive hormone levels were also measured.

Researchers added that receiving these details during multiple stages across two menstrual cycles produced more precise information concerning the link between caffeine and hormones than was possible in previous studies. The researchers also noted that the study volunteers were more racially diverse than those from earlier studies.

The study was published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source:  National Institutes of Health

 APA Reference 

Pedersen, T. (2012). Caffeine Linked to Estrogen Changes. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 29, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/28/caffeine-linked-to-estrogen-changes/3…

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What a gorgeous and reverent example of how cycles and rhythms work! This shows the sacred geometry of our female cycle, without showing a thing about the female cycle!  

Watch, and see what I mean… This will fill you with light, love, and understanding of what our bodies are all about too. When we align the rhythms within us with the rhythms around us, all is right, clean, calm, respectul, peaceful. There is nothing left but true honoring of all. 

Menstrual Blood Banking: Scope and Future

http://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/Menstrual-Blood-Banking-Scope-and-Future-95616-1.htm

Till date women have been discarding menstrual blood as an unwanted and unsanitary waste. However, a new research has found that menstrual blood is a rich source of stem cells that have the ability to multiply and differentiate into any kind of cells.

Earlier, blood from umbilical cord was regarded as the ultimate reserve for stem cells. Only those who have given birth at anytime of their life were able to preserve the stem cells as they were obtained from umbilical cord. But researchers have now discovered and successfully harvested stem cells from menstrual blood making it possible for all the women including those who have never given birth to preserve stem cells for themselves. The discovery of stem cells in the menstrual blood has given a new meaning to menstruation for women who earlier considered menstruation as nothing but a painful and necessary evil. 

Stem cells have the unique quality of differentiating into any type of cell. As these cells are immunologically immature in nature, they are able to contribute successfully in the cell survival after a transplant. Researchers have harvested stem cells from menstrual blood under laboratory conditions and the harvested cells were successfully differentiated into nerve cells in vitro under lab culture conditions that were controlled. When the differentiated cells were infused into an animal model of stroke, these cultured stem cells reduced behavioral impairments in the stroke model. 

It is now established that endometrial wall of the uterus has unique quality of regeneration. There is a thick growth of blood cells which are dispelled every month and the uterus prepares a new endometrial lining and prepares itself for pregnancy. The shed blood contains varied cells some of which have regenerative properties. Researchers tried to find out the practicality and feasibility of collecting menstrual blood in order to harvest the stem cells. They performed several types of analysis of the shed blood and found that these cells can not only be harvested but they also differentiated into specific cells like cartilage, neural tissue or adipose tissue. When menstrual stem cells were induced to the adipogenic lineage, chondrogenic or osteogenic lineage, they displayed histological characteristics such as the presence of fat vacuoles in adipocytes or calcium deposits for bone. 

The Menstrual stem cells (MeSC’s) have a great importance for clinical translation of regenerative therapies. The studies demonstrate that these are a unique population of cells that can be safely isolated and can provide us with an expandable source of stem cells from women until they reach menopause. Considering their relevance and importance in treatment of rare diseases including certain neuro disorders, it becomes crucial for women to preserve their menstrual blood in the Menstrual Blood Bank. 

Menstrual Blood Banking enables women to store their menstrual blood under required conditions and preserve it for future. These banks charge minimal annual fee for storage and preservation and allows you to have lifelong benefits from them. Although Menstrual Blood banking is still new and lot of research is still going on menstrual blood, if its benefits are utilized, it can prove to be very beneficial for all women who want to give themselves the gift of good health. The process for collection of menstrual blood is simple; like tampon, a silicone cup is inserted in the vagina on the day of heaviest flow. The cup needs to be placed inside the vagina for at least three hours so as to collect approximately 20 milliliters of blood. This is then poured in the collection kit and is sent back to the menstrual blood bank laboratory where it is processed, frozen and stored. What makes this method user friendly is that it is completely painless and non invasive. Also, any woman who wants to preserve stem cells for future can do so without having to wait for delivery of baby. 

Menstrual Blood Banking has a wide scope as the need for regenerative therapies incorporating cells that can engraft and differentiate is vast. Though Menstrual Stem Cell technology is yet to be utilized in human treatments and therapies, the research has established the beneficial properties of these cells and their potential use in treatment of several medical conditions like atherosclerosis, diabetes, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson disease and many more. Alongside, menstrual blood can overcome the problem of immune rejection during the transplant, allowing the female patients to use their own stem cells for the treatment. Thus, it can be said that Menstrual Blood Banking has a vast scope in future and is the next big thing in the medical world. 

Reference: Multipotent Menstrual Blood Stromal Stem Cells: Isolation, Characterization, and Differentiation by Amit N. Patel, Eulsoon Park, Michael Kuzman, Federico Benetti, Francisco J. Silva, and Julie G. Allickson.

Source-Medindia

Read more: Menstrual Blood Banking: Scope and Future | MedIndia http://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/Menstrual-Blood-Banking-Scope-and-Future-95616-1.htm#ixzz1iq5JNe2U

This outstanding post was recycled from: http://www.weboflove.org/youweremadeforthis

You Were Made For This
By Clarissa Pinkola Estes

My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people. 

You are right in your assessments. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, everyday people, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet, I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless. 

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.

We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn’t you say you were a believer? Didn’t you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn’t you ask for grace? Don’t you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.

What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale. 

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. 

There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate.

The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours. They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D

Author of the best seller Women Who Run with the Wolves 

See our collection of inspiring resources at www.weboflove.org/inspiringresources

The ancient wisdom of our design lives deep within us and in alignment with the natural and spiritual forces of the universe. By digging through the debris of historical human behavior we can discover and uncover the interconnected root system of our divinity.

Here lies the inner beauty and life force of the human species—the Divine or Sacred Feminine; our Sleeping Beauty, inside each of us waiting to be awakened after being put into protective hiding so long ago. 

Section 1, Four Seasons in Four Weeks:Nature’s Guiding Rhythm for Woman’s Sacred Vessel