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Terminally Ill British Infant’s Parents Give Up Battle with Hospital

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The 11-month old terminally British baby whose parents were in a legal battle for rights to transfer him to the US for experimental treatment have decided to end their fight.

“It’s too late for Charlie,” the family’s lawyer said about the legal battle over the experimental treatment. “The damage has been done.”

Since March, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, parents to baby Charlie Gard, battled with the hospital caring for their son.

The medical staff assessed that Little Gard’s genetic deformity that he was born with was irreversible. The parents were not willing to give up on their son and sought to transfer their infant to the United States to receive experimental treatment pioneered by Dr. Michio Hirano, a neurology expert from Columbia Medical Center in New York.

The Great Ormond Street Hospital argued that  the infant was in pain and further treatment would only increase his suffering. They asked the court for permission to pull the plug. In Great Britain, children’s rights are separate from their parents and it is common for courts to intervene when the wishes of parents and the medical team diverge.

Read more about the case here

photo: Getty

 

TTC COUPLES NOW HAVE NEW NATURAL SUPPLEMENT OPTIONS FOR MEN

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Innovation in over-the-counter supplement is helping situations when the male partner may be the cause of a couple’s infertility.

In America, an estimated 7 million couples struggle with infertility.  Don’t get caught up in the misinformation out there.  And there is plenty of it. You’re not considered infertile after just a few months of trying to conceive (TTC) unsuccessfully.

TTC spouses and partners are considered infertile after they try to have a baby for at least six months, if they are over 35 years old, or for at least a year, for those under age 35.

There is usually one culprit that causes infertility for prospective would-be moms.

“In women, a common cause of infertility is Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal imbalance that can cause irregular and sometimes no ovulation,” says Michael Krychman MD, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist in Newport, CA

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According to the PCOS Foundation, PCOS may be responsible for 70 percent of infertility issues in women who have difficulty ovulating.

Self-diagnosis or internet diagnosis are not good ways to get to the bottom of the reason why you cannot conceive.

It’s best to seek the intervention of the medical community and consider lesser invasive options before jumping into more invasive procedures and options like IVF (intravenous fertilization) or other procedures.

Fortunately, there are non-prescription natural therapies on the market, Krychman recommends, and supplements you can pick up at your Wallgreens, CVS drug store like Pregnitude which is one of the common ones for women.

And from the company that makes Pregnitude, comes Evolution60. It is a brand new, just released non-prescription fertility support dietary supplement for men. (available online for now).

Listen, there is actually science behind some OTC options, and for Pregnitude and Evolution60, in particular, they contain nutrients that have been shown in clinical studies to support fertility.

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For example, there is a substance that naturally occurs in our bodies called myo-inositol that we can also take as a dietary supplement in a daily pill to boost fertility health.

By now, it has been pretty widely known that we (both women and men) require ample doses of folic acid to maximize fertility health.

But, seriously, who also knew folic acid was actually a form of  B vitamin that promotes cell growth, and in therapeutic doses can promote menstrual regularity, ovulatory function and higher quality eggs? I didn’t I always assumed folic acid was its own supplement.

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But if you’ve been TTC for a while, you know healthy eggs are key to getting and staying pregnant, so I’m thinking it makes sense that we get sufficient support for those eggs.

The struggle is real. No really.

And a lot of times, we hear about fertility options for women, but in the case for a lot of couples, it is the male partner who is the cause of infertility.

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For some reason, it is more unspoken.

In men, being older, certain aspects of their lifestyle, environmental factors and certain medical conditions they may have can affect their reproductive health.

Men too need nutrients like myo-inositol, selenium, folic acid, Vitamin E, L-carnitine and L-Arginine, and if it’s not naturally occurring in the body, supplements are the way to go for optimal support!

Dr. Krychman states “if a patient is having trouble getting pregnant due to cycle irregularity, I’ll first recommend that she should consider trying Pregnitude- which contains these ingredients in therapeutic doses, but adds “women and men should always consult with their physician before taking any vitamins or dietary supplements and should get proper medical work ups if fertility concerns are problematic.”

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And now it looks like men have options as well finally with OTC supplements like Evolution60.

Bravo for science, innovation and options!

Mandela Day Revisited: 5 Lessons Kids Can Learn From Nelson Mandela

 

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This week was Nelson Mandela International Day, a day dedicated to the late great Nelson Mandela, the beloved leader and former president of the South Africa.

Mandela Day commemorates the lifetime of service Nelson Mandela gave to South Africa and the world. It was launched on his birthday, 18 July, in 2009 via a unanimous decision by the UN General Assembly.

Here are five things that Nelson Mandela personified, and taught us, in simplified language for children:

1. Courage – There are many people who see injustice and wrong but do nothing. It is easier to do nothing. It is safer.

When Nelson Mandela was a young man he saw his people suffering from the white minority rule of his country. He saw his people suffering from inequality, injustice, prejudice, bias and discrimination and he had the courage to risk his life and the lives of his close loved ones to stand up for change.

For his defiance, he was sentenced to prison, a sentence of hard labor.

What had happened was that under Dutch Rule, and during Colonial times, South Africa was colonized under a system of government which forced the native people to live in segregation. South Afrikaners were only allowed to live in certain areas of their own birth land, their movements were restricted and they were forced to carry identification cards to validate their existence.

The people of South Africa were delegated to second class citizen status.

Many knew this was wrong but they were not strong enough to stand up to the leaders who enforced the stringent biased policies that ruled the land. Nelson Mandela was one that stood up. He organized other young, revolutionaries willing to risk everything for change. They were courageous.

2. Perseverance – As expected, those who were in power and control did not appreciate a rebel stirring up the masses, empowering them to speak up for themselves to demand justice and equality. Mandela was put in prison for 27 years in the hope that his absence would rob the people of their will to fight.

The oppressors hoped his absence from their sight, his voice silenced, would blanket the uprisings.

It did not work. While in prison, Mandela wrote letters and contemplated his life and struggles. Meanwhile, those on the outside became more outraged over his imprisonment and continued to fight. Others, in nations including the United States, put pressure on the government to not only release Mandela but to abandon their system of government which denied people basic liberties simply because of the color of their skin.

Mandela persevered.  Eventually he was set free.

3.Forgiveness – When someone hurts another person, it takes a lot of strength to forgive that person. Although Mandela was put in jail for standing up to ill-treatment of himself and others, he chose to not harbor ill-will towards those who placed him in a tiny cell simply for demanding change.

Mandela turned the other cheek, deciding to abandon any violent means he may have condoned in the past to revolt against those who had invaded his land and made it their own.

By this time, generations of colonizers had been born in South Africa too. It had become their native land as well. So Mandela worked with all: Black or white the new face of South Africa had changed.

Eventually, he won the trust of many people, earning their respect to become the first democratically elected black president of South Africa. Before then, all presidents were of the Dutch race of the original colonizers.

As a leader, Mandela forgave those that imprisoned him and segregated his people. He was a president for all.

4.Humility – After just one term, Madiba, (a name of honor that people used to refer to Mandela), decided that he had done enough. He decided against running for another term in office and stepped aside to make room for others to rule.

That gesture is almost unheard of and is uncommon, not just in Africa but around the world because leaders who have power very rarely want to give it up.  Mandela’s term in office was just four years.

Mandela embodies what it meant to be humble.

5.Progress – Since then, the nation of South Africa has progressed substantially.  There is ample opportunity for all children and people from all races to do what they want to if they work hard.

Since President Mandela, South Africa has had several black presidents as well as other government officials. Children go to school together and are not separated because of their skin color.

The nation still has challenges, but the people of South Africa are working on them together as one.

Certainly, politics have colored some people’s decisions to disregard the net sum contribution Mandela left on the world instead focusing on minutiae to justify their judgment.

There are those who lose sight of the big picture instead nitpicking various insular reports, decisions or incidents in Mandela’s life that they disliked.

But in a lifetime that spanned nearly 100 years, there are two options that can be taken:

One can choose to excuse their own nations’ Founding Fathers and the respective roles those historic leaders played in allowing the atrocities inflicted on fellow human beings of a different and darker hue (slaves).

They will disregard how historically, it has been necessary to resort to violence to overthrow colonizers and oppressors.

People can opt to selectively invoke a moral high ground in the case of Mandela and in the same breath discount the massive sum of what he represented for millions of oppressed people.

Or two, they can choose to be on the right side of history which will acknowledge Madiba’s role in inspiring and empowering a generation, uniting and bringing together a subsequent generation.

The choice should be simple.

 

Meet the 12-Year Old Entrepreneur with Multi-Million Dollar Deals with WholeFoods, Wegmans & NFL Players

 

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One Texan Pre-Teen has turned a lemonade stand into a profitable business with multi-million dollar chain grocery storedeals and powerful investors, including 10 NFL Players.

Mikaila Ulmber’s stint pitching her home-made nationally distributed lemonade to the sharks on ABC‘s Shark Tank back in 2015 got her lots of attention. While she was on the show, shark Daymond John  offered to invest $60,000 in the company in exchange for a 25% stake in it. Ulmer accepted his offer.

After the exposure, sales grew by 231%, she told CNBC.

The 7th grader has since met and introduced on stage then President Obama at a big event, was invited to the White House twice and more recently, she caught the eye of 10 National Football League (NFL) players who chose to invest in the succesful entrepreneur.

According to NBC Sports, Arian Foster, Glover Quin, Duane Brown, Jonathan Grimes, Omar Bolden, Bobby Wagner, Darius Slay, Sherrick McManis, EJ Manuel and Malik Jackson recently agreed to invest $810,000 collectively in capital to Ulmer’s Austin-Texas based family business.

Hey everybody!! Soo excited that I was on shark tank. Thank you! What a show???

A post shared by Me & the Bees Lemonade (@mikailasbees) on

“We look for companies that match our main focus of developing a good product, but are also good people and do it for the right reasons,” former Houston Texan running back Arian Foster told the Houston Chronicle about the importance of backing businesses like Mikaila’s. “It’s more than about money to us. We believe that investing in small black businesses is extremely important.”

Ulmber’s personality sells the business and she has been in charge for the 9 years of being in business.

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The middle school counts on her mom to assist with marketing and her dad to manage the finance operations.

Ulmer’s business responsibilities include doing trade show demos, media interviews, business presentations, workshops about bees and about entrepreneurship, depositing her money in the bank, putting in money orders, depositing checks, checking the business email and posting on social media.

Meanwhile, she maintains all As and goes to school full time.

Amazing, right? Her most investors think so.

“She’s very special. Obviously, she has a bright future,” Detroit Lions safety Quin said. “Hopefully, I can be a part of it and nourish it and watch her grow. The sky is the limit.”

How did a 12 year old become a 9 year old CEO vet in the first place?

It all started when Ulmer got stung by two bees in one week when she was just 4-years old. Her parents encouraged her to learn more about bees to lessen her fear of them and to do some research about them. It coincided with the receipt of a family recipe book her grand mom sent her which contained her great-grandmother Helen’s 1940s flaxseed lemonade recipe.

While looking for ideas of what to organize for a community showcase and competition to encourage entrepreneurship in children, Ulmer, with the help of her parents, of course, decided to set up a lemonade stand. Her great-grandmom’s recipe came in handy.

It eventually became her signature product, a popular drink called “Me & The Bees.”

 

Ulmer eventually tweaked the recipe to use locally sourced honey as a sweetener. Sales went through the roof.

Today, Ulmer is the CEO of the company, BeeSweet Lemonade. The company’s motto is “Buy a bottle, save the bees!”

 

Lemonade sales were good, so Ulmer continued to sell her drinks at youth entrepreneurial events until one year, the owner of East Side Pies, an Austin-based pizza company suggested she bottle it. Ulmer agreed and moved the lemonade production from her family’s kitchen to a small commercial kitchen.

Now BeeSweet Lemonade is sold in 12-ounce bottles of freshly squeezed lemonade with flavors such as original mint, ginger, prickly pear and iced tea. They can be found in Whole Foods Market and several stores and currently are in 20 states.

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Photo: Ian Kasnoff.

In 2016, BeeSweet sold more than 300,000 bottles of lemonade. She scored an $11M deal with 55 Whole Foods stores that year too, per the Daily Mail and she also recently closed to get her products into Wegman’s grocery chain.

 

“I want a BeeSweet Lemonade line, like the Hello Kitty line,” Mikaila said a few years back. “I want BeeSweet everything.” She’s getting close to her wishes.

Since launching in 2015, Ulmer has spoken at Google, and appeared in numerous outlets including CNBC, Essence, Microsoft and has appeared on The Real and other TV and radio shows.

photo: Ian Kasnoff.

photo: Ian Kasnoff.

 

While not being an all A student, Ulmer has speaking engagements that take her world-wide.  Her family travel with her and turn the gigs into mini -vacations, one report on Microsoft’s blog noted given they all make biz work and have little downtime.

Ulmer wants to become a serial entrepreneur and become a coder.

Wow! This little girl is inspirational and is certainly going places. So many lessons to be learned by her success!

 

Lead Photo: courtesy Houston Texan/Charlotte Carpenter

Studies Suggest Children’s Addiction to ‘Screens’ is ‘Digital Heroin’

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Last year, New York Post published a piece about new research suggesting that electronic gaming and screen addiction in children is akin to drug addiction, as those with it exhibit similar signs as true drug dependent people and experience similar neurological and other body functioning deterioration.

Here is an excerpt about a mom who gave in to giving her son an iPad to play games like Minecraft which she was convinced by her son’s behavioral therapist was akin to digital lego blocks:

Although that concerned her, she thought her son might just be exhibiting an active imagination. As his behavior continued to deteriorate, she tried to take the game away but John threw temper tantrums. His outbursts were so severe that she gave in, still rationalizing to herself over and over again that “it’s educational.”

Then, one night, she realized that something was seriously wrong.

“I walked into his room to check on him. He was supposed to be sleeping — and I was just so frightened…”

We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug.

She found him sitting up in his bed staring wide-eyed, his bloodshot eyes looking into the distance as his glowing iPad lay next to him. He seemed to be in a trance. Beside herself with panic, Susan had to shake the boy repeatedly to snap him out of it. Distraught, she could not understand how her once-healthy and happy little boy had become so addicted to the game that he wound up in a catatonic stupor.

There’s a reason that the most tech-cautious parents are tech designers and engineers. Steve Jobs was a notoriously low-tech parent. Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their kids in no-tech Waldorf Schools. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page went to no-tech Montessori Schools, as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Many parents intuitively understand that ubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids. We see the aggressive temper tantrums when the devices are taken away and the wandering attention spans when children are not perpetually stimulated by their hyper-arousing devices. Worse, we see children who become bored, apathetic, uninteresting and uninterested when not plugged in.

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But it’s even worse than we think.

We now know that those iPads, smartphones and Xboxes are a form of digital drug. Recent brain imaging research is showing that they affect the brain’s frontal cortex — which controls executive functioning, including impulse control — in exactly the same way that cocaine does. Technology is so hyper-arousing that it raises dopamine levels — the feel-good neurotransmitter most involved in the addiction dynamic — as much as sex.

This addictive effect is why Dr. Peter Whybrow, director of neuroscience at UCLA, calls screens “electronic cocaine” and Chinese researchers call them “digital heroin.” In fact, Dr. Andrew Doan, the head of addiction research for the Pentagon and the US Navy — who has been researching video game addiction — calls video games and screen technologies “digital pharmakeia” (Greek for drug).


Interesting. Read the entire article here. 

Editor’s notes: I’m stoked that I have something in common with these tech giants because although I am a tech policy and inclusion advocate and earn a living using technology, especially online digital media, my children attend a very low-tech classical school that emphasize on fundamentals. Yet, still, my children exhibit lots of signs of digital addiction so…yeah. * le sigh *

Study: Restless Leg Syndrome can Impact Sleep During Pregnancy

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New York: A new study on pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is twice as likely to lead to poor sleep quality, poor daytime function and excessive daytime sleepiness.

RLS is an irresistible urge to move your legs typically in the evenings.The results showed that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS, had moderate to severe symptoms.

Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness.

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These Kids, Maternity & Baby Stuff Deals Are going FAST!

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So Groupon wasn’t interested in letting Amazon Prime have all the fun! It is hosting its own doorbuster mid season sale and today is the Friday.

The deal site is offering its  usual up to 85% off on select local deals, activities, goods and more.

During this week and ending on July 15 for some offers and July 18 for others, the Black Friday Bonanza, has even deeper pricing cuts across tons of deals from tech, toys, home, auto, beauty and also… gifts! It’s really never too early to start shopping for holidays gift and beat the rush.

Just a heads up though, hot deals will have an earlier end date (noted in red text).

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We scoped out the hundreds of items on sale and picked out a few steals for parents, moms and expecting women.

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  1.  Children’s Urinal Pottty Removable Toilet Pee Training – $39.42 down to $6.99

2. Spectra S2 Hospital-Grade Double Electric Breast Pump – 180 down to $116.99 (ends 7/15) – $119.99 down to $74.99

3. BenBat Kids’ Hardshell Backpack and Lunch Bundle (2-Piece)

4. Striker-X 720p HD Camera RC Drone – from 159 to $49.99

5.  Adelina Designer Double Stroller – From$199.99 to $84.99

6. Licensed Maserati 6V Children’s Ride-On Car from $299 to $154.99

7. Ergonomic 360 Cool Air Breathable Baby Carrier from $179. to $89

  1. Motorola Digital Video Baby Monitor with WiFi from $179.99 to $129.99
  2. Portable Toilet Potty Training Ladder Step Seat with Anti-Skid Feet From $59.99 to $18.99
  3. Kids Infant Lil’ Loo Potty Training Toilet From $19.99 to $8.79
  4. Let’s Learn to Read 10-DVD Collection by Rock ‘N Learn From $129 to $29.99

12. Nursing Bra for Breastfeeding with Bra Extender for Maternity Clothes From $35.99 to $19.88

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13 Carter’s Boy’s Water Sneakers From $30 to $15.9913. 

14 Over-the-Shoulder Maternity Dress From $69.99 to $29.99

15. Women’s Maternity Ruched Tunic Tank Tops (3-Pack) From $69.99 to $34.99

  1. Women’s Cowl Neck Ruched Maternity Dress From $79.99 to $24.99

17. Women’s Maternity Maxi Dress with Tummy-Support Band From $76.50 to $24.99

 

Study: High Fat Pregnancy Diet Linked to Breast Cancer Risk

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Researchers have learned that slight modifications to the genome – epigenetic changes – can be caused by environmental influences, and can be passed down through generations. Pursuing this line of thinking, researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed mice over generations, finding that when pregnant females consume a diet high in fat derived from common corn oil, there is a significant increase in the risk of breast cancer for three generations of offspring.

The senior author of the report, Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, PhD, a Professor of Oncology at Georgetown Lombardi suggests it’s worth pursuing this research in pregnant women. “It is believed that environmental and life-style factors, such as diet, plays a critical role in increasing human breast cancer risk, and so we use animal models to reveal the biological mechanisms responsible for the increase in risk in women and their female progeny,” Hilakivi-Clarke explained.

High-fat diets have already been connected to an increase in inflammation, and epidemiological studies have determined that inflammation is linked to an increased risk of cancer, she said. Hilakivi-Clarke has previously found that pregnant mice consuming a high fat diet have female pups that experience increased cancer risk. In this work, when pregnant mice changed to a high fat diet during their second trimester, which is when the germ line transmitting genetic material between generations, there is also an increased breast cancer risk in the second generation.

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Father’s Day: How to Get Free Beer and Wings for Dad Today

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To encourage Americans to give their dads what they really want on Father’s Day—quality time (and maybe a dad bod)—Postmates is delivering free chicken wings and beer to new users and their dads in 100+ cities across the U.S. (see the full list here https://postmates.com/) who download Postmates and order throughout Father’s Day weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

  1. Download the Postmates app by visiting: http://springboard.postmates.com/dadrocks
  2. Add any order of chicken wings and/or beer to your cart from your favorite local or chain restaurant

  3. Use code DADROCKS to get it for free

Get yours for your dad or a dad in your life today!

Father’s Day Diss?A 1/4 Americans Don’t Plan to Get Their Dad Anything

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Dads have it rough.

A recent survey reveals that most Americans think dads get the short end of the stick on Father’s Day, compared to the heaps of attention moms get on Mother’s Day.

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The NationalToday.com and Postmates survey  indicate that 69% of dads surveyed and 74%  of moms surveyed think fathers are cheated from recognition of their role and contribution to parenting.

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It’s so bad that 1 in 4 Americans don’t plan to get their dads anything for Father’s Day.

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While 24% of respondents say they have no plans to buy anything for Dad this Father’s Day, another 44% will spend $50 or less on dad, and the other 32% will spend $50 or more.

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But it’s not like dads want stuff anyway. Like how many ugly ties and socks can one man have in his drawer chest?

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Of those surveyed, 49% of dads say time with family is the best Father’s Day gift. Gadgets and electronics come in second (12%), followed by gift cards (8%), tools or appliances (8%), and sporting equipment (6%).

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The least popular Father’s Day gift among dads? Office supplies. ha! (Editor’s Note: Not my dad. He loves Office Supplies)

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Here is to hoping you all do things for the dads in  your lives today and make them feel special too!

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