Happy Friday!
Today’s Five Bullet Friday:
1. Is it Time We Started Treating Endometriosis as if it Were Cancer?
2. The First Road-map for Ovarian Aging
3. How do you Explain to Someone How Muscle Imbalances Can Lead to Acute, Unexpected Pain?
4. Exercise has the Same Effect on the Brain as Coffee
5. Patient HANDOUT: All About Pessaries
Five Bullet Friday: Women’s Health is meant to be a quick, easy to skim resource for you and other health and medical professionals to keep you up to date with all things related to women’s health. My goal for these emails will be to bring to you pertinent and helpful resources for patients (such as short videos or handouts), new research and guidelines, clinical pearls, or anything else interesting related to women’s health! If you’d like to be added to my email list to receive my Five Bullet Friday: Women’s Health, or if you would like suggest particular topics you are eager to hear about, please send an email to cassie@tayloredtraining.ca.
Thank-you, and happy reading!
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1. Is it Time to Treat Endometriosis as if it were Cancer?
In an article published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada just this week, authors Matthew Leonardo and colleagues proposed that we need to have a shift in our mindset when it comes to the field of endometriosis.
Leonardo and colleagues discussed how since the establishment of gynaecological oncology as a sub specialty, outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer has very much improved, likely by the care managed by multidisciplinary teams in specialized units. Leonardo advocates that we now do something similar in the field of endometriosis. He advocates that we recognize complex benign gynaecology (that would include endometriosis) as a subspecialty.
By recognizing this subspecialty and managing care of women with endometriosis by a multidisciplinary team of dedicated and specialized health professionals, Leonardo and team expect there will be improved outcomes, including improved quality of life, for people living with endometriosis.
Ref: Mathew Leonardi, Alan Lam, Mauricio S. Abrão, Neil P. Johnson, George Condous, Ignored Because It Is Benign – It Is Time to Treat Endometriosis as if It Were Cancer, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jogc.2019.12.014.
2. The First Road-map for Ovarian Aging
Read an exciting new summary of research just published today on the discovery of how non-human primate ovaries age, with implications for human fertility:
“Infertility likely stems from age-related decline of the ovaries, but the molecular mechanisms that lead to this decline have been unclear. Now, scientists have discovered, in unprecedented detail, how ovaries age in non-human primates. The findings reveal several genes that could be used as biomarkers and point to therapeutic targets for diagnosing and treating female infertility and age-associated ovarian diseases, such as ovarian cancer, in humans.”
Read more of this exciting new research at the reference below!
Ref: Si Wang, Yuxuan Zheng, Jingyi Li, Yang Yu, Weiqi Zhang, Moshi Song, Zunpeng Liu, Zheying Min, Huifang Hu, Ying Jing, Xiaojuan He, Liang Sun, Lifang Ma, Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban, Piu Chan, Jie Qiao, Qi Zhou, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Jing Qu, Fuchou Tang, Guang-Hui Liu. Single-Cell Transcriptomic Atlas of Primate Ovarian Aging. Cell, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.01.009
3. How do you Explain to Someone How Muscle Imbalances Can Lead to Acute, Unexpected Pain?
As a physiotherapist I oftentimes will see people who have a new onset pain that is related to a loner standing imbalance somewhere in their body. This can sometimes be difficult for people to understand: if they’ve had an imbalance for some time, why is it that all of a sudden there is pain without an appreciable event/injury that happened?
This is where I love to use the analogy of “the lazy man on the assembly line”.
Check out one of my articles here for the full analogy and how you can explain it to your patients!
4. Exercise has the Same Effect on the Brain as Coffee
A new study which was published in Nature Scientific Reports determined that just 20 minutes of exercises is as good as a coffee for your working memory.
In this study, researchers investigated the difference between caffeine and exercise when it came to working memory. What they found was the results were quite similar, but that overall exercise was better because not only were improvements in working memory similar after doing 20 minutes of exercise as compared to consuming a serving of caffeine, but exercise didn’t lead to the side effects of caffeine, or caffeine withdrawal.
Authors also note that if people are ever experiencing caffeine withdrawal, simply taking a brief, brisk walk will help reduce symptoms!
So, instead of (or maybe in addition to!) reaching for that cup of coffee in the morning, ensuring you get 20 minutes of exercise first thing can make a big difference in your memory and overall health!
Ref: Morava, A., Fagan, M.J. & Prapavessis, H. Effects of Caffeine and Acute Aerobic Exercise on Working Memory and Caffeine Withdrawal. Sci Rep 9, 19644 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56251-y
5. Patient HANDOUT: All About Pessaries
Find a quick, concise and useful handout talking about what pessaries are and their role in the handout attached to this email!
Cassie Dionne, PT 