Metformin's Journey from Herbal Origins to Anti-aging Therapy

This is a picture of the Goat's Rue plant, which is the original source of the insulin sensitizing medicine metformin. It is also known as French lilac, not known to Hippocrates, but it has been used since the middle ages to reduce thirst and frequent urination, before these symptoms were known to be due to diabetes specifically. Once only used as a treatment for diabetes, metformin today is one of the most widely prescribed medications used in PCOS, infertility, weight loss, and to preserve cardiovascular health in those with metabolic syndrome.Studies prove that it can reduce a pre-diabetic's chance of becoming a diabetic. It is critical to realize that radical lifestyle and diet changes might do even better in early treatment of many of these conditions including diabetes and PCOS. Its chemical mechanism of action is quite complicated, but it has an effect on skeletal muscle to enhance it's uptake of glucose (sugar). Overall it leads to fat burning, decreased new production of sugar, improvements in how your liver handles fats and sugars, and decreased appetite. It also leads to shifts in the type of bacteria in the gut. These and other effects have thus led to metformin's gaining in popularity as an anti-aging treatment. Metformin can have side effects, especially GI, and thus it is not for everyone. Other issues can be that metformin can lower B12 levels, and most on it should discuss with their provider how to get adequate B12 levels or whether they need a pharmacologic boost in levels. Metformin can also interact with other medicines and that can interfere with the effectiveness, so that needs to be evaluated. Come in to Women's Health Practice if you have questions.

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Passing Your Uterine Lining, Menstrual Period Norms

Decidual Cast Periods can be fairly easy, passing some tissue at a time, or off can come the whole lining in one piece called a decidual cast. Generally the lining of the uterus is only 6-8 mm thick at the time of the menstrual period, and it is shed gradually, a few cells at a time. The decidual cast is when the entire lining passes spontaneously. It's not uncommon, but it usually both uncomfortable, and alarming to some. But us women are designed to have some sort of periods Or Not? We have to pass tissue each month. Or Not? Are they good for us? Or Not? Do we want them? Or Not? Is this something that is individual? Or Not? It's a complex topic that I will be discussing a lot over my time in this blog. So lets start with basics: How much do we bleed and what are we loosing, and just what was this that the patient passed? And another basic: track your periods, and the Women's Health Practice site http://www.womenshealthpractice.com/media/pdf/menstrual_chart.pdf you...

Post-Endometrial Ablation Syndrome

If you have had an endometrial ablation and have developed symptoms of pelvic pain you might have post endometrial ablation syndrome. What is post-endometrial ablation syndrome? It is a constellation of symptoms due to entrapped blood or tissue within a uterus that has previously undergone an endometrial ablation. We are able to diagnose this at Women's Health Practic e but occasionally other conditions are causing similar symptoms. Other complications of endometrial ablation include pregnancy, risks from pre-existing conditions such as a polyp or fibroid, an infection of the uterus, or a pregnancy. If you have had a tubal ligation then it is possible that the condition could be post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. The ablation procedure is designed to destroy all lining tissue, but in fact there is no way to confirm the completeness of the ablation. It is thought that either residual or regrowth of the tissue is producing the symptoms of post-endometrial ablation syndrom...

You Have an IUD: But a Positive Pregnancy Test

Fortunately IUD pregnancy failures are rare. But if you have an IUD for contraception, and you get a positive pregnancy test, you probably ask yourself, what next? Well, make your gyno appointment promptly, this is a condition that is not typically an emergency, but it can be and it’s not handled over the phone or on a blog, or through self diagnosis! That being said, some researchers from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas decided to look back at over 4100 women who had IUDs and of those 42 cases who became pregnant in their institution, over about a year period of time, to help understand what these women could expect when they got to their gyno and what actually happened to their pregnancies. Accurate pregnancy diagnosis, pelvic examination, and pelvic ultrasound were the cornerstones of the evaluations. They had very specific ways they looked at their ultrasound to prove there was no pregnancy in the fallopian tube, or partially in the fallopian tube...

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