Help, panicking

I ate SO MANY CARBS TODAY. I usually eat 100-150 carbs, 1,000-1,500 calories a day. I'm recovering from an eating disorder and am now up to 75 pounds at 4'5 and I'm 15. I have gained 15 pounds from my lowest weight.

I had sushi AND a huge chocolate cupcake today and I'm so worried I'll gain loads now since I'm trying my best to maintain. Would I gain from today?

Here's what I ate:

B - 2 eggs, mini whole wheat bagel with whipped cream cheese, 1 cup orange juice

S - 4 oz rice pudding, nature valley granola bar

L - banana with 2 tbsp almond butter

D - 1 container sushi and a peach

S - giant chocolate peanut butter cupcake

= 1,757 calories, 254 grams of carbs for one day!!! ): 8 cups water

I usually eat a lot healthier so I'm kinda freaking out and I don't really workout because I don't like it and I don't want to become obsessed with it

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Low-Dose 'Pill' Linked to Pain During Orgasm, Study Finds

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) -- Women taking birth control pills with lower amounts of estrogen -- a commonly prescribed contraceptive -- may be at higher risk for chronic pelvic pain and pain during orgasm, according to new research.

A study of nearly 1,000 women found that women on the lower-dose oral contraceptives were more likely than those on the standard dose (with higher estrogen levels), or those not on the pill, to report pelvic pain.

"In our practice, we have seen a lot of this anecdotally," said Dr. Nirit Rosenblum, assistant professor of urology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, a specialist in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.

To investigate the potential link further, she compared pain symptoms of women on low-dose birth control pills with those not on pills and those on standard doses.

She is scheduled to present the findings Tuesday at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in San Diego, but acknowledged additional research is needed to understand the association.

For her study, Rosenblum defined low-dose birth control pills as those that contain less than 20 micrograms (mcg) of synthetic estrogen. (The name often includes the word "lo.") Those that have 20 mcg or more are "standard" or normal dose.

When natural estrogen production declines at menopause, women can begin to experience pelvic pain, Rosenblum said.

To see if low-estrogen birth control pills might mimic those effects, she evaluated the online survey responses of 932 women, aged 18 to 39, associated with two large universities. Women with a history of pelvic pain, the painful pelvic condition endometriosis or any who were pregnant were excluded from the study.

Women reported if they were on the pill or not and which dose pill. Of the 327 women taking birth control pills, about half used a low-dose pill. The other 605 women did not take the pill.

The women answered questions about pain. Twenty-seven percent of those on a low-dose pill had pelvic pain symptoms or reported chronic pelvic pain compared to 17.5 percent of those not on the pill.

Those on normal-dose pills were less likely to have pelvic pain overall than those not on the pill, she found.

Low-dose pill users were twice as likely to report pain during or after orgasm than those not on the pill: 25 percent versus 12 percent. Those on higher-dose pills reported no difference in pain at sexual climax than those not using birth control pills.

Dr. Christopher Payne, a professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of its division of female urology, said the information could be helpful. However, "I don't know if we can draw any conclusions from this," he added.

"You can only say there is an association [between the low-dose pills and pelvic pain]," he said. "You can't say it's cause and effect."

However, "it's certainly something people should be knowledgeable about," he added. The proposed mechanism -- that the lower estrogen somehow is linked with the pain -- is plausible, he said.

"We have observed people who have bladder pain say they often have flare-ups in the premenstrual period, which is the lowest estrogen level of the whole menstrual cycle," Payne said. However, some women also report pain in other parts of the cycle, he said.

"This information could help clinicians be aware there could be a connection between a woman's hormone level and her hormone therapy and their pain," Payne said.

However, he and other pain specialists see a subgroup of women -- those who have pain problems. Many women on the low-dose pills could be experiencing no problems at all with the lower estrogen levels, Payne said.

Women using low-dose pills who do experience pain might ask their doctor about switching to another contraceptive or using a higher dose, Rosenblum said. However, higher-dose pills are linked with other risk factors, such as blood clots and strokes, so women should discuss the pros and cons with their doctor.

The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Nirit Rosenblum, M.D., assistant professor, urology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City; Christopher Payne, M.D., professor, urology, and director, female urology division, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, Calif.; presentation, American Urological Association, annual meeting, May 7, 2013, San Diego, Calif.

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in need of support and advice.

I don't know where to start, how to keep it up, or how to eat correctly.

Background: 28, mother of a 9 month old who breastfeeds. Currently weight 170lbs 5'4" I used to have an eating disorder prior to finding out I was pregnant. And currently dealing with a growing umbilical Hernia.

Before becoming pregnant I was 117lbs. I never learned how to eat properly and healthy so I don't know where to begin. I have found myself fighting "disordered eating" thoughts and want to learn how to become healthy and lose this weight the right way.

Any suggestions on how to keep focused, motivated and get over this initial anxiety and fear of failure?

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Girls With Autism May Need Different Treatments Than Boys

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- With four to five times more males affected by autism spectrum disorders than females, much less is known about girls with autism.

Fortunately, more research is beginning to focus on autism in girls, said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks, with two such studies set to be presented Saturday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Sebastian, Spain.

"Autism affects boys much more frequently than girls. But, we may be missing some girls. The diagnostic criteria were developed using symptoms in boys, and symptoms in girls and boys may be different," Dawson explained.

"Because of this difference in incidence, researchers may end up with a small number of girls in studies," she said, adding that differences in symptoms or reactions to treatments may lead to the girls' data being excluded from studies. But, it's just those differences that may really need to be researched, to make sure girls are being diagnosed and treated correctly.

"Other neuropsychiatric disorders have already made the discovery that symptoms can be different in girls and may require different treatments for girls," said Dawson, who is also a research professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. One such example is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Girls tend to be less hyperactive than boys, and may instead appear as if they're daydreaming.

In the latest autism research, the first study compared visual scanning patterns in boys and girls with autism spectrum disorders. Scanning patterns were also collected for typically developing children.

"We used eye-tracking technology while the participants in these studies watched videotapes of social scenes that presented naturalistic stimuli," said study co-author Ami Klin, director of the Marcus Autism Center, in Atlanta.

The study, which was led by Klin's student, Jennifer Moriuchi, included 116 school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders. Eighty-one were boys and 35 were girls. The children with autism had varying degrees of social disability. The study also included 36 typically developing children.

"On a surface level, it appears that boys and girls with autism appear to spend equal time learning from the eyes. They did look less than other children," Klin said. But, when the researchers correlated the youngsters' eye tracking with their level of disability, a much different picture emerged.

"In boys, the more they looked at the eyes, the less socially disabled they are. In girls, the more they looked at the eyes, the more disabled they are," said Klin, chief of the division of autism and related disorders at Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

"What the study is suggesting is that we should not automatically assume that boys and girls learn about the world in the same way," Klin said, adding, "we have to take gender as a mediating factor."

Dawson said "the study found that there are differences in the way girls and boys look at the eyes, so there may be differences in the way autism is manifested in girls than in boys." She noted that an important criterion right now for diagnosing autism is a lack of eye contact and using the eyes for social cues.

The second study looked at the genetics involved in autism, and potential differences in boys and girls. Yale University researchers analyzed samples from 2,326 families. Included in those samples were those of 2,017 boys and 309 girls with an autism spectrum disorder.

The Yale team found differences between the boys' and girls' genetic samples.

"The fact that autism does affect boys so much more frequently has been staring us in the face for decades. There's been a hypothesis that there's something in the extra X chromosome that girls have that may be protective," Dawson explained. "The idea is that if you have this protective mechanism in place you may need more risk factors to overwhelm that protective effect and cause autism, and that's exactly what they found."

"To develop autism in a girl requires more genetic mutations," Dawson said. The type of mutations they found are called "de novo" mutations, she added. This means that the genetic change occurs in the sperm or the egg. It isn't a gene that's passed down from the parents. These mutations can occur randomly, or they can be caused by an environmental trigger.

Because these studies are being presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., chief science officer, Autism Speaks, and research professor, department of psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Ami Klin, Ph.D., director, Marcus Autism Center, and professor and chief, division of autism and related disorders, Emory University School of Medicine and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta; May 4, 2013, presentations, International Meeting for Autism Research, San Sebastian, Spain

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Foods that help bloating

I know bananas do. But does anybody have any tricks that work for them? I have been eating a lot of food that is not that healthy and now i am bloated!

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Drug Shows Some Benefit for Kids With Autism

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- An experimental drug for autism did not improve levels of lethargy and social withdrawal in children who took it, but it did show some other benefits, a new study finds.

Children on arbaclofen did improve on an overall measure of autism severity when compared to kids taking an inactive placebo, said lead researcher Dr. Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, an associate professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University.

He is to present the findings Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in Spain.

One of 88 children in the United States is now diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, the umbrella term for complex brain development disorders marked by problems in social interaction and communication.

Veenstra-VanderWeele focused on evaluating the social improvement with the drug because earlier research had suggested it could help. However, one of the earlier studies did not compare the drug to a placebo, but simply measured improvement in those who took the drug.

In the new study, Veenstra-VanderWeele and his team assigned 150 people with autism, aged 5 to 21, to take the medicine or a placebo, without knowing which group they were in, for eight weeks. The participants had been diagnosed with autistic disorder, Asperger's syndrome or another related condition known as pervasive developmental disorder.

In all, 130 finished the study. When no differences were found in social withdrawal or lethargy between the two groups, the researchers looked at a scale that measures severity and improvement of autism with treatment.

Those on the drug improved more on that scale. A child, for instance, who began the study evaluated as having marked severity might be described as moderate by the study's end, Veenstra-VanderWeele said.

"This is the sort of improvement that would motivate us to start a medicine," he said.

The drug is believed to work, Veenstra-VanderWeele said, by increasing inhibition, improving social functioning and interactions.

Right now, Veenstra-VanderWeele said, "there is no medication that has clear evidence to improve social function in autism."

Those on the drug did report side effects, including suicidal thoughts reported by one patient on the drug and one on the placebo. Some patients on the drug became upset more easily; others reported sleepiness.

The next phase of trials of the drug are in the planning stages, Veenstra-VanderWeele said.

But more research is needed, said Dr. Andrew Adesman, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York.

Even though the expected benefit did not materialize, Adesman sees a reason to continue to study the medication. "There is [still] some suggestion of benefit from the medicine," Adesman said. "It just didn't quite show up where they expected."

The drug may offer benefit to some children with autism, Adesman said. "But it's unclear which children may be the best candidates."

The trial received funding from the drug's maker, Seaside Therapeutics. The medication is not currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., associate professor, psychiatry, pediatrics and pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tenn.; Andrew Adesman, M.D., chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics, Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York, New Hyde Park, N.Y.; May 2, 2013, presentation, International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR), San Donostia/San Sebastian, Spain

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Brain Differences Seen in Kids With Conduct Problems

THURSDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- The brains of children with conduct problems don't react in a normal way when they see images of other people in pain, a new study finds.

Conduct problems include antisocial behaviors such as cruelty to others, physical aggression and a lack of empathy (callousness).

In this study, U.K. researchers used functional MRI to scan the brains of children with conduct problems and a control group of normally behaved children as they viewed images of other people in pain.

The children with conduct problems showed reduced responses to others' pain, specifically in regions of the brain that play a role in empathy. Among the children with conduct problems, those who were the most callous had the lowest levels of activation in these brain areas, according to the study. It was published May 2 in the journal Current Biology.

This pattern of reduced brain activity in children with conduct problems may be a risk factor for becoming psychopaths when they're adults, said Essi Viding, of University College London, and colleagues. Psychopathy includes traits such as callousness, manipulation, sensation-seeking and antisocial behaviors.

The researchers noted, however, that not all children with conduct problems are the same, and many do not continue their antisocial behavior as they get older.

"Our findings indicate that children with conduct problems have an atypical brain response to seeing other people in pain," Viding said in a journal news release. "It is important to view these findings as an indicator of early vulnerability, rather than biological destiny. We know that children can be very responsive to interventions, and the challenge is to make those interventions even better, so that we can really help the children, their families and their wider social environment."

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Current Biology, news release, May 2, 2013

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