PMS Factor

Drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages won’t do you any good in your efforts to lose weight and keep it off, the Mayo Clinic says.

Caffeine acts as a diuretic, causing the body temporarily to retain less water. But there’s nothing to suggest that these effects are permanent, and the stimulant does nothing to reduce body fat.

The best way to lose a few pounds and maintain a healthy weight is to get enough exercise and eat a proper diet.

This is a story from HealthDay, a service of ScoutNews, LLC.

If you eat too many simple carbs at breakfast — say, a donut and coffee with sugar — your blood sugar rises and then quickly falls, and you’ll feel your energy sag. Try oatmeal, whole-grain bread or fruit instead.

Aim for three daily servings of fiber-rich carbs — eat whole fruits rather than drinking juice whenever possible; you’ll get more fiber, which helps slow the digestion of fruit sugars. Another good choice is starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes, eaten with the nutrient-packed skin.

Recent findings that a mother’s use of antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft can trigger withdrawal symptoms in newborn infants may gain added impetus now that another study has found that such infants could be at risk of a life-threatening hypertensive condition.

The new University of California, San Diego (UCSD) study found an increased risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) in the newborns of mothers who used antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI).

PPHN is a serious condition that involves severe respiratory failure in newborn infants and requires immediate treatment. The condition occurs in only a small percentage of babies but the researchers say that the risk is elevated if the mother was taking SSRI antidepressants late in the pregnancy. The study found that exposure to antidepressants other than SSRIs did not pose a risk for PPHN. In addition, women who discontinued use of SSRIs in the first half of pregnancy did not have an increased risk of delivering a child with the condition.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, based its findings on a review of more than 1,000 deliveries between 1998 and 2003. “Based on our findings, we estimate that six to twelve mothers per thousand who use an SSRI after 20 weeks’ gestation, are likely to deliver a child with PPHN,” said researcher Christina Chambers. She added that this was a relatively low risk, with PPHN affecting around one percent of exposed newborns.

Despite the risk, the researchers point out that mothers may need to continue SSRI treatment during pregnancy in order to care for themselves appropriately.

Source: University of California - San Diego

One of the greatest things you can do for yourself is get a good night’s sleep. It can help make the PMS symptoms and other ailments seem a little less… take the edge off. While this can be easier said than done, here are some tips to helping you get more quality (and quantity) sleep.

• Limit caffeine consumption. Along with coffee, tea and sodas, caffeine is found in chocolate and in medications used to treat headaches, colds and sinus congestion.
• Avoid nicotine, which impairs the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep.
• Don’t drink before bedtime. Having just one or two alcoholic drinks within a few hours of going to bed can disrupt sleep and lead to more frequent awakening in the latter half of the night.
• Get active. Lack of physical activity during the day is associated with increased sleep problems. But don’t exercise too close to bedtime because that can make it more difficult to fall asleep.
• Eating too much close to bedtime can make it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.
• Be careful with daytime naps, which can make it harder to fall asleep at night. If you do need a nap during the day, keep it under 30 minutes.
• If self-treatment strategies to improve sleep don’t help, talk to your doctor. Sleep difficulties can be related to a number of medical conditions.

These tips come from some research done by the Mayo Clinic in the January 2006 issue of January Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.