Do you know what I love....

About Sunday Football??

versus

If given the choice...most people would pick the sunshine. Depending on the day... I'd pick both. But what I love... is sitting in my apartment in shorts and a short sleeve tshirt because it's 80 degrees outside while watching the Patriots kill the Titans in lots of slushy, very cold looking snow!!

Welcome to Colorado...where the sun always shines...and if it isn't...wait 5 minutes and it will. :-)

A&P Exam 2

Enough said...

:-) :-) Love you! :-) :-)

Physiology Update

Hey Friends and Family....

I need to take a moment to brag... For my A&P class we have to write 3 responses to articles within the health field that relates to what we are currently learning. The catch is once someone has used a specific article it can't be reused. UGH! Below is the response and the article I chose to write about. I will admit I had some concern that my professor wouldn't see the correlation between the article I chose...and I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the response. LAZY!!! I know...but it was late and due and my brain hurt. Anyways... We got our grades. 50/50... 100%. YIPEE!! My professor also made an announcement to the class in which she said "Real Life Articles Graded

October 8, 2009 3:10 PM

One of the things I like about the Real Life assignments is that I learn things too. A couple articles that stand out are the One about HIV transmission in Vit. D deficient pregnant women, and the link between pattern baldness and coronary disease (testosterone link). The quality of assignments turned in was very high, good job!"

Please notice that my article is the one about VIT D deficient pregnant women and HIV transmission. YEA!!! I feel soooooo excited...and a bit like the teacher's favorite right now. :-)

Thought you all would be proud of me....

Ok...now back to studying I go. Test 2 tomorrow.

The ARTICLE:

From Reuters Health Information

Low Maternal Vitamin D Increases Risk of HIV Transmission to Offspring

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Sep 08 - In HIV-infected pregnant women, low levels of vitamin D are linked with a higher risk of virus transmission during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and also with an increase in infant mortality.

These findings are from a study in Tanzania that appears in the October issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

"Vitamin D has been shown to improve cell-mediated immunity, phagocytic capacity of macrophages, and the cytolytic activity of natural killer cells," Dr. Saurabh Mehta from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston told Reuters Health by email.

As a part of a clinical trial on the role of multivitamin supplements during pregnancy, Dr. Mehta and colleagues in Dar es Salaam evaluated outcomes of 855 offspring of HIV-infected women. Maternal 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels were estimated during pregnancy, and HIV tests were done in offspring at regular intervals. Vitamin D levels below 32 ng/ml were considered to be low.

Among babies born to the women with low vitamin D levels, HIV infection rates were 10.7% at birth, 21.7% at 6 weeks, and 35.2% at 2 years, Dr. Mehta and colleagues report. Corresponding infection rates in offspring of women with adequate vitamin D were 6.5% at birth, 16.3% at 6 weeks, and 27% at 2 years.

On multivariate analysis, low maternal vitamin D was linked with a 50% higher risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV at 6 weeks, a 200% higher risk of transmission during breastfeeding to babies who were uninfected at 6 weeks, and a 46% higher overall risk of acquiring HIV infection.

Furthermore, the investigators found, the children born to the HIV-infected women had "a 61% higher risk of dying during follow-up."

"By virtue of its ability to improve both innate and adaptive immunity in the mother and by helping in the development of the fetal immune system, vitamin D may help lower the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV," Dr. Mehta postulates.

While recommending further studies, Dr. Mehta concluded that "vitamin D supplementation may represent a low-cost method to reduce child mortality and to help decrease mother-to-child transmission of HIV as an adjunct to anti-retroviral therapy."

J Infect Dis 2009;200:1022-1030.

MY RESPONSE:

This article, originally written in September 2008, talks about pregnant women infected with HIV and how their vitamin D levels can affect whether or not they have a high risk of transmitting HIV to their babies. The article references a study done in Tanzania that looked at pregnant women with both low vitamin D levels and normal vitamin D levels. Those with a low vitamin D level had an almost 50% higher risk or transmitting HIV to their babies, which increased greatly to a 200% increase when they breastfed. The article concludes that vitamin D supplementation may help to decrease the risk of HIV transmission in pregnant women.

This article applies to the last unit because we talked about how skin produces a vitamin D precursor. This occurs when the skin cells are exposed to natural sunlight. Vitamin D can also be found in pill forms, as mentioned in the article, and can be a substitute to natural vitamin D production when people do not get into the sun enough to get the vitamin D necessary to prevent HIV transmission.

Personally I think if people would relax on the skin cancer panic and spend some time outside in the natural sunlight, before applying sunscreen there wouldn’t be such a high risk of Vitamin D deficiency. I do think it’s interesting that vitamin D can decrease the risk of transmitting HIV to offspring and wonder what causes this to happen. I will admit I do not know much about HIV, but if increasing vitamin D would decrease the chance of giving it to your children I think it is a great solution to be considered. I would be interested in researching more information on HIV and why it is that vitamin D levels can affect transmission from pregnant women to their children.

Another Month Gone By...

Ok...seriously....its October.... Things have been going well here in Northern Colorado. Its been cool the last few days (some might even consider it cold!!) I don't buy it... I am enjoying the fall like weather and the changing colors. :-) 2 or so weeks ago I went to Colorado Springs for my best friend's wedding.... Congrats Dana and Family!!

School is going well... I have a test this Friday so need to get busy studying this week. I'm starting to realize just how much my two D's in Physiology at CSU are REALLY due to me not being able to understand the concepts. I have to tell you....I don't expect a lot out of those in my class but I do think you should be able to look at a picture and know which bones you're looking at on the skeleton. I mean, seriously.... Pretty Girl can do that! (granted all my nieces and nephews are brilliant kids). Oh, I realize I have more experience than most of the people in my class but I have a hard time not getting frustrated with my classmates when they can't name the basic bones in the skeleton, let alone all the bones in your skull. YIKES!!

Aaron and his girlfriend of almost 5 months, Megan, came up last night. We played games, ate pizza, and the boys played Tiger Woods golf. It was a fun date night... Thanks guys! (even tho neither of you read my blog)

Work is....well, busy as usual. It's not that any one job is extremely difficult...but... running a business, watching 3 boys, training high school rugby games, and additional babysitting jobs...keeps a girl busy. Especially when you're sick... :-(

Rugby is currently the easiest job. I've been hired by the Fort Collins Youth Rugby Club to train their home games. Usually about 4 a season. I trained the boys in the Spring and am currently training the girls. They had a game yesterday....pretty easy, mostly because girls injuries aren't as intense or bloody as the boys can be. I have been asked to train the state qualifying day on October 31st.... :-) Fun fun fun!!!

Have you ever heard of Zumba?

I blogged about it a while ago but thought I'd give another shout out. It's become my newest workout and its a total BLAST!!! Friday night I went to the first (hopefully annual) Zumba Jam. FOUR HOURS of dancing!! And being the girl who likes a challenge I wanted to do all 4 hours. And was successful except the 2 songs (water break and to get some cool air). It was soooooo much fun. And for a great cause... the proceeds were divided between Livestrong and the Cure. Check out gwendahansen.com for photos... Especially photos 9, 10, 14, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 34. And if anyone wants to come with me to a Zumba class let me know... or if you want to join in the awesome-ness that was the Zumba Jam...let me know and I'll let you know when it's going to happen again.

So thats the update for the month of September. Who knows what this next month will bring... Love to you all!!

Labor Day 2009

Spencer, Shep and I went on a picnic up towards CSU's Pingree Park for Labor Day. We got KFC and went on a drive. The colors are just starting to change... SOOOO PRETTY!!!! Shep was facisnated with all the smells...quite the adventuring dog. :-)



Ok....I think that catches me up. Right? Oh I forgot...school....I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology at the JC here in Ft Collins. I took my first test this past Friday and got an A!!! YEA!!! So exciting.... I'm glad to know it really was the professors at CSU that were making it difficult to pass BMS 300 at CSU and not me... So my current thoughts are... finish A&P at front range, go back to CSU Fall 2010...graduate August 2011... Sounds like a good plan to me.

Maybe I will be better about blogging from here on out. Just keep in mind....school isn't picture worthy. :-)

Amy and Jeff

On August 28th I went back down to Colorado Springs for one of my best friend's wedding. Miss Amy got married on Saturday the 29th. She was one of my best friend's at CMHS... She went to college in Missouri and met Jeff... They are moving to Boston for Jeff's work. I'm going to miss her..but the wedding was GORGEOUS!! My friend Dana was one of the bridesmaids. We've know eachother since first grade...She gets married this Friday. Wow....everyone is getting married. When did I get this old??

July in a Nutshell

Wow....is it really already the middle of September?? Where in the world did August go? Well...here are some fun pictures from our family reunion in July. So when you have over 500 photos from 14 days...its REALLY hard to decide which ones get posted. Dad's sister and her family came out from Southern California. My cousin Tori is a budding photographer so she was always taking photos. Thanks to her...I have tons of photos to enjoy...

Enjoy the little morsel of family fun...



One day we went to Garden of the Gods....sooooo pretty. If you haven't been, definitely go. Such a wonderful place to realize how much our Heavenly Father loves us. :-)



Family Picnic at Soda Springs Park in Manitou Springs. This was no normal picnic...this was a Dad picnic. For those who don't know what Dad's version of a picnic is where every person is supposed to bring one item for the picnic (enough to feed the whole group). The catch is that what you're bringing is a SECRET!! No one knows what everyone else is bringing... Its fun. Kinda worrysome when you don't know if you'll end up with all drinks and desserts...or no drinks and all fruits. We must be one smart family because we had a pretty good assortment of food. Lots of fruit, but thats never a bad thing...