Medicrit – Medicare

Archive for January, 2012

Are you one of the 600,000 plus men who will undergo a vasectomy in the year ahead or among the 10-15% of men seeking a reversal? If you are, here is a word of advice. Consider banking. And you have to do so now, because your sperm must be banked before the vasectomy or during your vasectomy. It’s really like buying an insurance policy. Should there be regrets about undergoing a vasectomy procedure, then using the sperm can enable more children. Or, if your reversal is not a success, using the bank also enables you to have children.

For you, sperm may not necessarily be the right choice. Perhaps you are absolutely certain that you only want to have children naturally. Using sperm from a bank means you and your partner will be willing to go through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). First off, this involves a lot of intervention for the female. Secondly IVF is a more expensive option than undergoing a vasectomy. On the positive side, IVF procedures are safe, effective and there is less lag time to achieve pregnancy. For some positive of IVFmay be a further inducement to sperm before the vasectomy or during the reversal.

If you a going to have a vasectomy, but there are lingering doubts about having children in the future, then your options are to either (a) put off having the vasectomy or (b) bank. Using your sperm, that is stored at the sperm, may not even necessary. But banking provides peace of mind because despite warnings from the vasectomy doctors that vasectomy should be regarded as permanent, 10-15% seek a reversal.

In deciding whether to sperm during the vasectomy, there are two questions to keep in mind. If, you and your partner are willing to move to a, “plan B” after a failed reversal, then banking during the vasectomy is the right choice. The other factor to investigate is the health of the female partner. In some situations the woman can only achieve pregnancy by undergoing IVF (in-vitro fertilization). Some examples include a woman over 40, or a woman whose tubes are completely blocked. In such cases, the best course of action is for the vasectomised man to undergo sperm aspiration so that the women can undergo an IVF.

Even if sperm is not right for you, it merits serious consideration. Vasectomy seems like an easy decision since the procedure is relatively simple and usually covered by insurance. However, vasectomy is considered permanent because reversing a vasectomy is costly, involved and success is not assured. Those man who have banked their sperm before vasectomy and during reversal may undergo IVF treatments. It’s not a perfect solution, but banking is a solid option.

Of the many “miracle” vitamins on the market today, fish oil is one of the more popular ones that actually have some scientific evidence. The benefits of this substance was discovered when Danish scientists studied the native Inuit population of Greenland. The scientists discovered that these people had a low risk of heart disease, even though they had a lot of fat in their diet. They discovered that these “fats” coming from the large amounts of fish they consume was good fats, or Omega-3 fatty acids, as they were later called.

So now, many companies have come out with their own nutritional supplements, claiming that their product is the best in the market. How do you know which one to buy? To find out which is the best fish oil, here are some things you need to consider:

Is your fish oil pure? All fish have oil, but not all have the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. You need to know where the fish comes from and what part of the fish it was pressed from. Ocean fish are the best sources – salmon, tuna, herring and trout are some good sources. The oil should be pressed from the fatty bodies of these fish, not the head or bones. Many unscrupulous companies sell supposed capsules of oils from fish, but are made of just any cheap fish or are pressed from other parts, so make sure your oil supplement is pure. Also, to be absolutely sure of the quality, the oil should come from a single type of fish.

How is it produced? The production process is just as important as the source. The manufacturer should be able to purify the oil, filtering out the toxins found in fish, such as mercury and heavy metals. Also, the process they use to make the oil should be able to maintain the structure of the oil so that it retains all the good nutrients and omega-3 fatty acids. In many cases, too much heat is used, changing the structure of the oil.

Does is contain the right nutrients? Oxidation issues can be a problem, so the best fish oil capsules on the market should contain antioxidant nutrients to make sure the oil is preserved. Next, it should contain the essential fats found in omega-3 oils, particularly EPA and DHA. Not all types of oil supplements contain this, so read the label to ensure that it has these necessary fats.