GenderBiology.net

Women's Heart Health: Fact Sheet

SOURCE: Medical News Today

DATE:  June 26, 2008

EXCERPT:  "Heart disease is the nation's number one killer for women. But, the well-known heart attack symptoms acute pain, tightness, burning and a dull ache in the chest describe what men typically experience during an attack. For many women the signs of a heart attack are completely different and can go unrecognized. Women tend to ignore signs of heart attack, thus increasing the likelihood of tragic consequences. With heightened attention to the facts about symptoms and treatments, much of this can be prevented."  more

Male And Female Brains Have Evolutionarily Conserved Sexual Signatures

SOURCE:  Medical News Today

DATE:  June 21, 2008

EXCERPT:  "An article published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics reports that male and female primates and humans have hundreds of biological differences that are evident in gene expressions in the cerebral cortex.  ....  They believe that the insights provided by this study may help explain some of the psychiatric diseases with differences in males and females  ....  [and] may be used in the future to calculate medical dosages, as well as for other treatments of diseases or damage to the brain."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Reinius B, Saetre P, Leonard JA, Blekhman R, Merino-Martinez R, Gilad Y, Jazin E. An evolutionarily conserved sexual signature in the primate brain. PLoS Genet. 2008 Jun 20;4(6):e1000100.     Free full text article in PMC.

Study: Health care lags for female vets

SOURCE:  AP/Philadelphia Inquirer

DATE:  June 15, 2008

EXCERPT: "Health care for female military veterans lags behind the care offered to male vets at many VA facilities, an internal agency report says, even as women are serving on front lines at historic levels.  There are clear needs for more physicians trained in women's care and more equipment to meet women's health needs, said Friday's review by the Department of Veterans Affairs."   more

More Girls Than Boys Benefit From Breastfeeding, Hopkins Children's Research Shows

SOURCE: Medical News Today

DATE:  June 4, 2008

EXCERPT:  "through their first year of life, researchers found that breast-feeding not only offered more protection to girls than boys, but also that formula-fed girls had the highest risk for severe respiratory infections. ....  [B]reast-feeding did not appear to affect the number of infections, but rather their severity and the need for hospitalization, meaning that breast milk does not prevent a baby from getting an infection, but helps a baby cope with an infection better.   [M]ilk does not directly transfer protection against lung infections but instead switches on a universal protective mechanism, already in the baby, that is for some reason easier to turn on in girls than in boys.  ....  If breast milk does indeed trigger a universal - but variably activated - protective mechanism against multiple viruses, the next step is to figure out exactly how this mechanism gets switched on and why it is relatively harder to activate in boys."   more

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Klein MI, Bergel E, Gibbons L, Coviello S, Bauer G, Benitez A, Serra ME, Delgado MF, Melendi GA, Rodríguez S, Kleeberger SR, Polack FP. Abstract. Differential gender response to respiratory infections and to the protective effect of breast milk in preterm infants. Pediatrics. 2008 Jun;121(6):e1510-6.

Asthma linked to heart disease and stroke in women

SOURCE: MedlinePlus.gov  (Reuters Health Information)

DATE:  June 3, 2008

EXCERPT: "Asthma that begins in adulthood appears to increase the risk of heart disease and stroke in women but not in men, according to a report in the American Journal of Cardiology."   more  (articles display for 30 days)

RELATED PUBMED LINK:

Onufrak SJ, Abramson JL, Austin HD, Holguin F, McClellan WM, Vaccarino LV. Relation of adult-onset asthma to coronary heart disease and stroke. Am J Cardiol. 2008 May 1;101(9):1247-52. Epub 2008 Mar 5.