By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) -Women seeking in vitro fertilization might improve their odds of becoming pregnant if they lose weight, but the magnitude of any advantage wasn’t clear, in a new analysis of previous studies.
The benefit of weight loss was mainly seen in the few couples who ultimately achieved pregnancy without assistance, however.
While weight loss interventions appeared to improve the likelihood of spontaneous pregnancy – negating the need for IVF – it was not clear whether they improved the odds of IVF-induced pregnancy, according to the report by lead researcher Moscho Michalopoulou and colleagues at the University of Oxford in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Also unclear was whether weight loss improved the odds of a live birth.
Weight loss interventions studied included low-calorie diets, an exercise program accompanied by healthy eating advice, and pharmacotherapy accompanied by diet and physical activity advice – but no single approach seemed better than another.
The 12 randomized trials in the review were small, and the wide variety of methods employed by the various research teams made it hard to compare the results, the authors of the new analysis wrote.
Weight loss did not appear to increase the risk of pregnancy loss, the researchers also found.
Dr. Alan Penzias, an IVF specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, published an editorial with the study. He notes that “weight reduction among people with overweight or obesity has many known health benefits… (and) some patients may also achieve a desired pregnancy as a consequence of weight loss.”
But in decision-making about IVF, the editorial continues, “we must consider the marked decrease in fertility as age increases… and other factors that weight loss cannot address.”
EXPERIMENTAL NANOBOTS SEAL OFF SENSITIVE TOOTH NERVES
Experimental microscopic robots that travel into tiny tunnels in teeth may one day offer lasting relief from tooth sensitivity, laboratory experiments suggest.
Tooth sensitivity – sharp, sudden pain triggered by hot, cold, sweet, or sour substances – occurs when the protective layers of the tooth are compromised, exposing the underlying nerve endings.
The researchers’ so-called CalBots are 400-nanometer magnetic particles loaded with a ceramic formula that mimics the natural environment of the tooth.
Guided by an external magnetic field, the tiny bots travel deep into the exposed tubules and assemble themselves into cement-like plugs that protect the nerve.
In lab experiments on extracted human teeth, high-resolution imaging confirmed that the bots had created tight seals, the researchers reported.
In animal tests, they found that mice with tooth sensitivity who had been avoiding cold water would drink it again after treatment with the CalBot solution.
Most current treatments for tooth sensitivity, such as desensitizing toothpastes, offer only surface-level relief and need to be reapplied regularly, while the CalBots would provide longer-lasting relief in just one application, the researchers reported in Advanced Science.
They hope their treatment – which still needs to be tested in humans – might eventually offer benefits beyond the relief of dental hypersensitivity, such as minimizing the penetration of bacteria into cavities and tooth injuries.
“We didn’t want to create a slightly better version of what’s already out there,” study leader Shanmukh Peddi, a post-doctoral researcher at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, said in a statement.
“We wanted a technology that solves a real problem in a way that no one’s attempted before.”
Peddi is a co-founder of Theranautilus, a Bangalore nanotechnology and healthcare company.
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(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; editing by Aurora Ellis)
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