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EVERYTHING
Epilepsy Therapies Need to Get Hormonal
What: Epilepsy affects men and women equally, but The Conversation reports that they experience it differently in profound ways, due to hormonal shifts: “For women, fluctuating hormones – spanning from the reproductive years, to pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause – can affect the frequency of seizures at multiple stages in their lives.”
Why it matters: The authors argue this should be taken into account when prescribing or designing therapies for women, including if seizures frequency can be reduced “with progesterones during certain times in the menstrual cycle.”
Source: The Conversation
FERTILITY
Alcohol Isn’t Good for Fertility
What: A meta-analysis of over 100 research studies found that “alcohol negatively affects reproductive health by inhibiting the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, causing infertility in both men and women,” or in simpler terms – it makes getting pregnant harder (though obviously not impossible!) by disrupting hormones.
Why it matters: The link between fertility and alcohol isn’t often emphasized, especially to younger men and women.
Source: The Healthy
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
The Metamorphosis of Motherhood
What: A reported essay and book review on how having a baby changes everything – mentally and physically. Perhaps no other sentence has captured postpartum as accurately for me: “And when everyone else was finally sleeping, I was wide awake, with a throbbing sense that I had no idea who I was.”
Why it matters: “Matrescence makes the case that the transition to motherhood is the biological, neurological, psychological, and social metamorphosis that it feels like.”
Source: The Cut
ABORTION ACCESS
Republican State Senators Lose Elections After Protecting Abortion Access
What: The Associated Press explains the cost of voting to protect abortion access in one state: “A near-total abortion ban was defeated in South Carolina with the help of the only three Republican women in the Senate, but after Tuesday’s primary, they’re losing their election bids.” Two of the three lost reelection, and a third is facing a runoff.
Why it matters: “The state had only men in the Senate in 2012 and may end up without a single Republican woman in the chamber in 2025. There are just two Democratic women among the 46 members.”
Source: Associated Press via ABC
METABOLISM + WEIGHT
Are Weight Loss Drugs a Holy Grail?
What: New Scientist has a deep dive on the “surprising mental health and
brain benefits” of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy: “…there are hints that these drugs could be repurposed to treat depression, anxiety, addiction and even certain eating disorders – as well as neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. What’s more, it seems that these effects aren’t just mediated via weight loss, but through direct action on the brain.”
Why it matters: One theory on why this is happening? Brain sugar: “Some studies in humans show that GLP-1 modulates the transport of glucose across the blood-brain barrier and the rate that the brain consumes glucose, says Mansur, increasing access to this vital energy source and hence, presumably, boosting the brain’s ability to operate.”
Source: New Scientist
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