Health News.

•     Gross obesity.

•     Smoking, drinking and hard drugs all reduce sperm counts.

•     Stress can inhibit ovulation in a woman and sperm formation in a man.

•     Ovulation problems are the most common cause of infertility in women. Usually the cause is unknown but the post-Pill syndrome has been mentioned above.

•     Endometriosis is a common cause of female infertility. Some of the lining tissue of the womb finds its way into the pelvic cavity and embeds there to produce pain and bleeding every month with a period.

•     Varicocele is the name given to a vein that supplies a testis (usually the left one) when that vein is varicose. About 30 per cent of male infertility is thought to be caused by this.

•     Zinc deficiency. Zinc is known to be necessary for many parts of the male genital system and is found in greater concentration in the male prostate gland than in any other part of the body. Zinc deficiency definitely reduces sperm quality.

•     Low sperm volume is an uncommon cause of male infertility.

•     Some women become allergic to their partner’s sperms and so never conceive.

•     Certain drug allergies cause a temporary shutdown of sperm production if the drug is taken.

•     Really poor nutrition undoubtedly reduces sperm production. Vitamins À, Â and Ñ have been found to be vital in human sperm formation and function and vitamin E is vital in rats at least.

•     Drugs can affect fertility in two ways. First, they may affect a man’s sex drive so that he wants to have sex only very infrequently (alcohol, sleeping tablets, tranquillizers, anti-depressants and some anti-blood-pressure drugs are examples). Second, several drugs actually affect sperm production. (Examples of these are sex hormones, anti-malarial drugs, certain anti-cancer drugs and Depo Provera.)

•     Impatience. Some couples are not really infertile but expect to conceive almost immediately and worry when they do not.

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HerbalResearchers investigating biofeedback at the Menninger Clinic discovered that whenever we have peace of mind, the body also becomes completely relaxed.

This led to their defining the law of biofeedback. It states: “Not only does every change in thought cause a corresponding change in body function, but every change in body function is accompanied by a corresponding change in our thoughts and feelings.”

By first calming the mind, the body quickly follows suit and it becomes easeful and relaxed. According to the law of biofeedback, this should also work in reverse. And indeed it does. By first relaxing and calming the body, the mind quickly follows suit and it, too, becomes calm and serene. When the mind is calm and serene, our immunocompetence is enhanced to its optimal level.

Researches quickly realized that we could speed recovery from a cold, flu or other disease by relaxing the body. Several behavioral scientists went a step further and discovered that if, while in a state of deep bodily relaxation, we made mental pictures of our immune system fighting and destroying viruses, recovery was even swifter.

Out of these discoveries was born the psycho-techniques of Deep Relaxation and Creative Imagery. Deep Relaxation is also known as Relaxation Training, Deep Muscle Relaxation or Progressive Relaxation while Creative Imagery may also be called Guided Imagery.

To demonstrate how swiftly and effectively these techniques bolster our immunocompetence, Mary Jasnoski, a Harvard psychologist, performed a test on thirty-two college students all of whom were known to be good at creative imagery. The students were divided into three groups. During a one hour training session, group one, the control group, received no training. Croup two practiced deep relaxation and slow-breathing techniques. Group three also practiced deep relaxation with slow-breathing but additionally, they visualized their immune systems as strong, powerful entities that were vigorously attacking weak cold and flu viruses.

Saliva tests were made immediately afterward to measure two immune system components: salivary immunoglobulin cells (which attack upper respiratory tract viral infections) and helper T cells which spur antibody production.

The control group raised neither count. The relaxation – only group boosted their salivary immunoglobulin level. But the group which practiced both relaxation and visualization significantly raised the level of both immune system components.

This study, which was presented recently at the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco, demonstrated that relaxation alone may help fight colds or flu. But when imagery is used as well, the overall level of immunocompetence is clearly enhanced.

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