METRO Tuesday, October 20, 2009 D Join Sandycove Squash Club For full details contact 01-280 9645 email:sandycovetsc@eircom.net www.sandycovetsc.ie Offer subject to availability terms & conditions Call now 01 8047100 Sale ends 31 October 09 699 Fr including taxes Obese IVF women 35% less likely to conceive OBESE women have less chance of IVF working and increased risk of premature birth and stillbirth, a major study shows. The effect is worsened as weight increases, with the fattest women having the lowest chance of success, according to data taken from almost 50,000 women in the US. The most obese would-be mothers had 35 per cent less chance of getting pregnant and a 59 per cent increased chance of giving birth to a very premature baby. Overweight females are also at risk, with a 13 per cent lower chance of giving birth to a live baby and a 16 per cent increased risk of premature birth compared with lighter women. This study underlines the fact that if you are thinking about having children, you should start thinking about losing weight at least six months before you conceive, said Tam Fry, from the UKs National Obesity Forum. Women need to understand that obesity not only af- fects themselves, it can affect their child. Dr Barbara Luke, a professor of obstetrics and gynae- cology, presented her findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta. Obesity is a state of inflammation and increasing obes- ity is not good. It is not conducive to conception or preg- nancy, Dr Luke said. By ellen oreilly Kelly Brook hides her modesty behind the piano, while former Coronation Street star Julie Goodyear poses on the piano stool as the new cast of Calendar Girls is announced. The stage production of the hit movie will begin a ten-week run at londons noel Coward Theatre from november 3 Picture: PA Home Alone style show is cleared of child harmCHANNEL 4 has been cleared of putting child welfare at risk with a series in which under-12s lived without adults for a fortnight. Regulator Ofcom was satisfied that Boys And Girls Alone which caused an outcry when it was screened in February with many claiming it amounted to child abuse did not cause the children unnecessary distress or anxiety. But the programme was found to have breached Ofcoms code for the potential upset to viewers by failing to adequately explain to the audience the lengths taken to ensure the protection of the children aged between eight and 12. Viewers of Boys And Girls Alone believed that the youngsters, who had been left to their own devices, were in distress and had been bullied. More than 180 complaints were made to Ofcom, including concerns raised by the NSPCC and the Family and Parenting Institute. Ofcom accepted the safeguards put in place by Channel 4 including rigorous selection procedures, chaperones and parental monitoring were numerous and comprehensive. The series showed ten boys and ten girls allowed to live without adult supervision in two cottages in Cornwall, cooking, cleaning and managing budgets. Alone: The Channel 4 show Protesters call for a ban on fat-ism ATTACKING someone for being fat should be a hate crime, campaigners have said. Members of the Size Acceptance Movement demonstrated yesterday outside the offices of the mayor of London calling for fat-ism to be made illegal on the same grounds as race, age and religious discrimination. I was cured by a bionic stomach CURRY-loving mother Shimmi Munshi was sick 50 times a day for four years until she diagnosed herself online. The 32-year-old baffled doctors and was unable to keep anything down for longer than a few minutes. After trawling the internet, she found she had gastroparesis or paralysis of the stomach. Now the mother of one has had a 10,000 bionic pacemaker fitted that tells her stomach when to process food. Im just pleased I can eat. When I got home I had aloo saag. Everything tastes great now, said Miss Munshi, of Bolton, England. Curry lover: Shimmi Munshi is looking forward to tucking into saag aloo once more nude nOtes At home fertility tests can provide false hope WOMEN should not rely on home fertility tests to determine how many childbearing years they have left, researchers have said. The tests, which predict how many eggs a woman has, can help couples make decisions about their future, but they do not tell the whole story. Dr Todd Deutch, of the Advanced Fertility Centre of Chicago, published a study on women aged 35 and under seeking IVF and found that normal test results do not guarantee a woman wont have problems conceiving. BABY TALK: Infants as young as five months old are able to differentiate between human speech and the cries of monkeys. Babies gazed longer at the pictures of human faces when paired with speech and at monkeys when the sound of a gekker call was played to them. The findings of the US researchers appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. cLocK wATching: The human body clock is shaped by the weather as well as the changing seasons. The findings could help tackle problems experienced by people doing shift work and those affected by jet lag, according to University of Edinburgh scientists. Models of internal clocks were made and researchers looked at how they worked in a variety of environments. JUicY FRUiT: The juice of super-fruit mangosteen could help obese people fight off heart disease and diabetes. Drinking more than half a litre of the juice a day significantly lowers the levels of a particular protein linked to the two health threats. US researchers said the breakthrough could prove to be valuable in treating obese patients. Mangosteen is a tropical evergreen tree originating in Indonesia. If you have a story for MiniCosm please e-mail us at news@metroireland.ie MINICOSMSCIENCE & DISCOVERY IN BRIEF index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html