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It may seem pretty obvious but for years, fertility specialists suggested that couples refrain from too much sex to give sperm a chance to regenerate. Now a new study is showing the complete opposite.  According to newswise.com, sexual activity causes immune system changes that increase chances of conception. Here's how it works: sexual activity triggers physiological changes in the body that increase a woman’s chances of getting pregnant, even outside the window of ovulation. It's a common recommendation that partners trying to have a baby should engage in regular intercourse to increase the woman’s changes of getting pregnant -- even during so-called 'non-fertile' periods -- although it’s unclear how this works, researchers say. "This research is the first to show that the sexual activity may cause the body to promote types of immunity that support conception," says lead author Tierney Lorenz, a visiting research scientist at the Kinsey Insti...

I suppose Phillip is lucky I was not a good housekeeper when he was born.  Not that I let the formula sit out all night or put it in a dirty bottle.  But I just didn't worry about spotless floors (hey, the five-second law), or sparkling windows or even, clothes neatly folded and put away.  Now a new study says I may have been right, all along. Newborns need to be exposed to a lot of dirt to build up their immune systems, it seems. Infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens and a wide variety of household bacteria in the first year of life appear less likely to suffer from allergies, wheezing and asthma, according to newswise.com. Hmm.... Phillip did develop asthma. Previous research has shown that children who grow up on farms have lower allergy and asthma rates, a phenomenon attributed to their regular exposure to microorganisms present in farm soil, the Web site reports. "Other studies, however, have found increased asthma risk among inner-c...

Depends how much you want to be depressed on Memorial Day Weekend, but want to know the foods and things that can really hurt you? According to Leah Zerbe at rodalenews.com, the biggest is microwave popcorn. Now, we've all heard the scare stories about how it will give you lung cancer and stop you from growing (made that one up).  But they're out there, and so are the ones that say it can harm your immune system. Foodbabe.com reports that the bag almost all microwave popcorn varieties come in is lined with a chemical, the same toxic stuff found in teflon pots and pans. It can stay in the environment and in the human body for long periods of time. This chemical when heated has been linked to infertility, cancer and other diseases in lab animals. No long term studies have been conducted on humans, but the EPA lists this substance as a carcinogen. Zerbe goes further, claiming that what's in the bags of this popcorn (that I and my son can't wait to eat a bag of...

Be very careful when you're pregnant not to get an infection.  A new study has found that moms-to-be who do are more likely to have the infection impair their fetuses' neurological functions, resulting in autism or schizophrenia. According to newswise.com, Johns Hopkins researchers report that fetal mice — especially males — show signs of brain damage that lasts into their adulthood when they are exposed in the womb to a maternal immune system kicked into high gear by a serious infection or other malady. The findings suggest that some neurologic diseases in humans could be similarly rooted in prenatal exposure to inflammatory immune responses. "The investigators say that the part of the brain responsible for memory and spatial navigation (the hippocampus) was smaller over the long term in the male offspring exposed to the overactive immune system in the womb," the Web site notes. The males also had fewer nerve cells in their brains and their brains contained a ty...

Yet one more reason to feel stressed about not sleeping. It can give you cancer. Poor-quality sleep marked by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth, increase tumor aggressiveness and dampen the immune system’s ability to control or eradicate early cancers, according to a new study, as reported by newswise.com. The Web site notes that the study is the first to demonstrate, in an animal model, "the direct effects of fragmented sleep on tumor growth and invasiveness, and it points to a biological mechanism that could serve as a potential target for therapy." “It’s not the tumor, it’s the immune system,” said study director David Gozal, MD, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, at newswise.com. “Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive.” He adds, "(The gene)  appears to be a lynchpin for the cancer-promoting effects of sleep loss. The effects of fra...

Can't they ever make up their minds?  Now moderate alcohol consumption may be okay? Despite just this week seeming to imply that women should drink very little, if at all, compared to men, a new study now says that a glass of wine at dinner may actually boost the immune system and improve its response to vaccination, according to medicalnewstoday.com. Scientists vaccinated two sets of monkeys against smallpox.  One group was given 4% alcohol while the other, sugar water. The monkeys were monitored for 14 months, then vaccinated again at seven months. During this time the mice's alcohol intake varied, with some classified as "heavy" drinkers and others, moderate drinkers. In the end, the heavy drinkers had a more muted response to the vaccine than the ones given sugar water. Those considered moderate drinkers had the best response to the vaccine. So what does this mean for people?  "If you have a family history of alcohol abuse, or are at risk, or have be...

That's right.  Some of us are more susceptible to it than others, thanks to our forebears, according to a new study , as noted by newswise.com. "New research shows that chronic stress changes gene activity in immune cells before they reach the bloodstream. With these changes, the cells are primed to fight an infection or trauma that doesn’t actually exist, leading to an overabundance of the inflammation that is linked to many health problems," the Web site reports. What does this mean?  We're not talking about occasional stress -- stuck in a traffic jam, the copier won't work, your son stuck his tongue out at you as you were driving away from school.  No, this is repetitive stress, newswise.com says. Repeated stress that triggers the sympathetic nervous system, "commonly known as the fight-or-flight response," stimulates the production of new blood cells. "While this response is important for survival, prolonged activation over an extended per...

Something new to worry about.  Prostate cancer and fish oil.  Will these doctors ever get it right? A new study has shown that too much fish oil (and fish) could lead to prostate cancer.  Say what?  Writes David L. Katz, MD, MPH, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center, this recent headline caught his attention: "Fish oils may raise prostate cancer risks, study confirms." Katz neither confirms nor denies the possibility that the study may be correct.  Instead, he reports, "The study does not prove that fish oil intake causes prostate cancer. But nor is the study dismissible rubbish, as the large crowd of fish oil proponents gathered around it with harpoons in hand would like to contend." There were some steps taken that aren't usually in a study like this, and some that were.  "Blood was obtained from men at baseline as they enrolled into the study," he relates. Over time, more than 800 men developed prostate cancer, whi...

Men, have you ever been lying in bed when your legs start to do the Harlem Shake, all on their own?  If you have, you could be at risk for dying early. A new long-term study  has found that men with restless leg sydrome (RLS) do seem to die younger.  Over 18,000 healthy men around the age of 67 were followed for eight years, 3.7% of whom had RLS, characterized as "an irresistible urge to move the legs and often causes leg sensations of burning, creeping, and tugging, which are usually worse at night," according to a story at  newswise.com. During the study, more than 2,700 of the men died, and of the people with RLS, "171, or 25 percent, died during the study, compared to 2,594, or 15 percent, of those who did not have RLS," newswise com reports. The stats are even scarier.  The study found that men with RLS had a nearly 40 percent increased risk of death compared to men without RLS.  And differences in body mass index, lifestyle, chronic...