Making sure your home pregnancy test is accurate
During Monica and Chandler’s wedding on “Friends,” Rachel reveals that she’s pregnant. “Are you sure you peed on the stick right?” Monica asks. “How many ways are there to do that?” Rachel replies, before agreeing to take another test.
Well, there are more ways than you may think — and how you do it really does matter.
Even though home pregnancy tests are 99 percent accurate IF done correctly, you can get a false positive or false negative. So…
■ Check the package’s expiration date; out-ofdate tests may be inaccurate.
■ Pregnancy tests check levels of hCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, that’s present only during pregnancy. It’s best to test upon waking up, as urinary levels of hCG are most concentrated. Don’t drink lots of liquid before a test. This could dilute hCG levels and give you a false negative.
■ A false positive may result if an egg is fertilized but fails to implant.
■ Check results within the suggested time frame; the water line left by dried urine can look like a second line and mislead you.
■ If you recently had a miscarriage or abortion, hCG remains in your body for about two weeks and can cause a false positive.
■ Some infertility medications contain hCG and can produce a false positive too.
■ Certain cancers, ovarian cysts, kidney disease or UTIs can raise hCG levels, causing a false positive.
A positive result? See your doc to confirm. And if you experience any unusual pain after missing a period also head to the doc, even if your pregnancy test was negative.
Learn, Nap, Repeat: How sleep consolidates learning
At the 2015 World Yo-Yo Contest in Tokyo, Yang Yuan-Ching from Taiwan won the “Long Sleeper” contest with a time of 29 minutes and 45 seconds; that’s how long the yo-yo napped at the end of its fully extended string before being reawakened and rewound without trouble. And that’s just about the perfect naptime for people, too!
Napping is a winning strategy, and that’s been confirmed in a new study of almost 3,000 folks 65 and older who volunteered to learn, nap and recall. Researchers, writing in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, asked the volunteers to try to memorize a list of words and then hit the hay for less than 30, 30 to 90 or more than 90 minutes after lunch; and one group got no nap at all. Turns out that the moderate (30 to 90 minute) nappers were able to remember the most, correctly recalling 10 to 16 words. That was significantly more than the other nappers. The non-nappers could only come up with around seven or eight words.
Our recommendation: Siestas for everyone! They’re not just pleasant, they’re a brainy idea. But if you’ve got no time for a nap, a study in Psychophysiology found that you have a better shot at retention of info if you learn it right before bedtime and then sleep on it rather than learning it earlier in the day. So before you make big decisions or need to trot out your expertise, be smart,
stretch out and nap on it!
Question: My 87-yearold mother has a cataract in one eye and is developing another in the other. Her doctor says she should have surgery, but at her age, I’m worried about the operation. What’s your advice? — Edie C., Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania
Answer: If her overall health is good, the surgery should not only improve her quality of life, but could extend it as well. A new study based on data from the Women’s Health Initiative found that cataract surgery was “associated with decreased risk for all-cause mortality.” “All cause” means everything from cardiovascular disease to cancer.
The team of researchers, assembled at UCLA and including docs from across the U.S., recently published its findings in JAMA Ophthalmology. It looked at more than 20 years of data that included 74,000 women 65 and older, 40,000 of whom had cataracts.
The scientists found that seeing an ophthalmologist and maintaining your vision (cataract surgery) was associated with better cognitive function and a longer life. One obvious reason is that an older person’s risk of falling is greatly reduced with improved vision. Falls are the leading cause of death among people 65 and older, accounting for around 9,500 deaths annually. Also, when you can see better, you’re happier, more active, more able to read, play games and interact with the world
— all fuel for keeping the body healthy and the brain sharp.
So for your mom, the next step is to find a good eye surgeon. We suggest getting referrals from her doctor and friends who have had the procedure done; then talk to the surgeons. Ask about their complication rate. Even though the procedure has an overall success rate above 98 percent, there are risks. In the U.S., the lifetime risk of a detached retina as a complication is about 1 percent. That number rises to about 2 percent if there is some cloudiness on the lens post-surgery that’s cleaned up with YAG laser capsulotomy.
But chances are Mom will sail through with flying colors — that she’ll be able to see!
Q: Last week I had some oysters at a restaurant and got really sick. A friend of mine who’s allergic to shellfish said that’s what happens to her if she eats clams or shrimp. I’m 45 years old; could I have developed a food allergy this late in life? — Yu L., Jamestown, New York
A: A few things could have happened; you ate a “bad” oyster; you’ve developed a food intolerance; or you really do have a food allergy. That last option is probably the least likely, but it’s possible.
Just recently at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, research was presented that showed almost half of people with food allergies developed them later in life.
Overall, the incidence of food allergies in adults is rising, and it’s rising at twice the rate for Asians, blacks and Hispanics as it is for whites. So it’s not just kids who find that everything from peanuts to eggs trigger an allergic reaction.
Allergic reactions can include: tingling in the mouth, nausea and vomiting; swelling of the lips, face, tongue and throat; hives, blisters and rash; or anaphylaxis, a life-threatening medical emergency requiring an epinephrine injection.
To be safe, our advice is to see an allergist ASAP to find out if you’re allergic. You don’t want to risk having a severe or even lifethreatening reaction next time you have a shrimp cocktail. The tests are not intrusive, just a pin-prick test, and in many cases the specialist can tell you exactly what you’re allergic to. Then the allergist can tailor a food plan for you that will eliminate the risks and let you continue to eat healthy foods (like omega-3-rich salmon and trout) and dodge bivalves and shellfish if necessary.