Birth control pills 101- what you absolutely need to knowWritten by Mansi gupta
Introduction The alarming increase in population because of stationary birth rates and ever lowering death rates of countries brought about by economical an social development has imposed a need to lower birth rates. There are also certain social stigmas which are to be overcome to reduce birth rates for e.g. till recently in certain parts of world birth control pills were not socially accepted. But since their introduction they have placed themselves into a commanding position into one’s family life.History of birth control pills The term birth control pill is usually referred to group of drugs used by females to avoid pregnancy. In 1955 a couple of scientists, introduced concept of birth control pills when they used progestins for birth control. Before that people used to try things like condoms, diaphragms, sponges and even avoiding sexual intercourse at time of fertile period. The latter had its disadvantages with its efficiency being very low as compared with former ones. Later it was also found that adding estrogens made them more efficient. Types of birth control pills Because of great success and increased demand of birth control pills there has been extensive research in this field and hence there are different types of pills available to cater different population. Broadly there are 4 types of birth control pills and besides these are certain injections used for long-term birth control. The 4 types are: 1) Combined pills This type consists of both estrogen and progestin. This is most common type of pills used today. This is a set of 28 pills to be taken daily. 2) Phased regimen pills Now been used rarely and only for those greater than 35 years of age. 3) Minipill Females who cannot take estrogen for some reason or other can take this type of pill wherein there is no estrogen. 4) Postcoital or emergency pills This is used to avoid pregnancy in those cases in which females can become pregnant because of unprotected sexual intercourse. This is to be taken within 3 days of sexual intercourse.
| | Silver Bullet for Acne? - I Don't Think So!Written by Tony McGlinn
I read a report recently discussing success of project to sequence genome of bacteria that is said to cause acne, Propionibacterium acnes, and how this may lead to new ways to treat Acne.It made me think how easily we can jump to conclusions, that may not be supported by evidence, or by common sense. Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly support research that scientific community is doing in field of Acne, and I am hopeful that it will lead to better treatments, or better understanding of what acne treatments are likely to work. The article started by saying "European scientists have sequenced complete genome of a bacterial species involved in many cases of acne, and they're already working on potential new treatments based on that achievement". That is fine but it then continued with assumption that having found bacteria which caused acne, and decoded it's genome, it was only a matter of time before problem of acne was solved.
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