Coffee May Boost Miscarriage Risk

A team of researchers working at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif. concluded that a daily habit of drinking 200 milligrams of caffeine--about two cups of coffee--significantly increases the risk of miscarriage. It's about the caffeine more than it's about the coffee. The researchers say it didn't matter what the source of caffeine was: sodas, tea or coffee; just that once pregnant women crossed the 200 mg threshold, their pregnancy became in danger. The following two paragraphs are from the story which appeared on MSNBC:

In the study, published in Monday’s issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Li's team interviewed 1,063 women in the San Francisco area who became pregnant between 1996 and 1998 about their caffeine intake. While 164 of the women drank 200 mg of caffeine or more daily, 635 consumed some caffeine but less than 200 mg. The remaining 264 women said they didn’t consume any caffeine.

Overall, 172 of the women suffered a miscarriage. The risk of a miscarriage was more than double in women who consumed 200 mg or more of caffeine, with 25 percent suffering a miscarriage compared to just 12 percent of women who didn't consume caffeine. The low-caffeine drinkers also appeared to have an elevated risk of miscarriage, but this trend wasn't statistically significant, meaning the researchers could not rule out that it was merely due to chance.

Click here to read the full article.

Eat Your Way to a Better Sex Life

Self magazine has put out an article which lists various foods that will boost your libido in the bedroom. A rule of thumb according to Lynn Edlen-Nezin, Ph.D., a clinical health psychologist who co-wrote "Great Food, Great Sex," suggests what's good for the heart is good for the genitals. This is a really great article with lots of scientific explanation as to why certain foods affect your sex life, but we'll cut to the chase. Some of the food listed include: almonds, walnuts, salmon, cod, halibut, tomatoes, red peppers, garlic, spinach, broccoli, beets, berries, red grapes and much more. To read the full article, click here.

Technology Is a Relationship Killer

John O'Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas says that "technology overload"--addiction-like behavior using electronic gadgets like cellphones or acting as a slave to e-mail can be just as destructive to a relationship as drugs or alcohol. The article from Reuters Life! says the Internet/Computer Addiction Services in Redmond, Washington estimate that 6 to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in the U.S. have a dependency on technology.

One of the signs O'Neill says to keep an eye on is when you or your spouse uses text, e-mail or phone call rather than face-to-face interaction when it would be more appropriate. Do you find that this is a problem in your relationship? We'd love to hear from you on this. To read the full article, click here.

Why Mars and Venus Collide

Author John Gray, PhD just released his new book this week, "Why Mars and Venus Collide: Improving Relationships by Understanding How Men and Women Cope Differently with Stress." Gray is best known for his bestseller, "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" and has brought us back to the two planets to focus on the ways that men and women misinterpret and mismanage the stress in their daily lives. These misinterpretations then go on to affect the marriage. From the publisher HarperCollins website it says:

Backed up by groundbreaking scientific research, Gray offers a clear, easy-to-understand program to bridge the gap between the two planets, providing effective communication strategies that will actually lower stress levels. Whether in a relationship or single, this book will help both men and women understand their new roles in a modern, work-oriented society, and allow them to discover a variety of new and practical ways to create a lifetime of love and harmony.

So are you going to take a trip out of this world? Click here to read more.

Real Love Letters

If you're looking to write your spouse a lover letter and you're looking for inspiration be sure to check out "Other People's Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See" by Bill Shapiro. The book offers reprints of real love letters (as the title indicates); some of the letters are sweet, others intimate and some offer a look at the ugly and make you glad you're in a happy and stable relationship. To make the letters even more engaging, they're scanned from images of letters on everything from napkins to barf bags. You can find the book here.

What do Women (and Men) Experience After an Abortion?

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court. NPR's Talk of the Nation program did a story without political chatter to hear what men and women had to say post-abortion--either directly for women or through the relationship for men. This show took a refreshing and often overlooked angle on the emotional experiences after the fact. You're probably thinking, I missed that show, so why are you telling us? Well, the NPR website is fully equipped and has the show in its entirety ready to be listened to. Click here.

Husband Tries to Understand Wife's Anorexia by Not Eating

Glamour magazine has published a very heartfelt essay from husband, Tom Cramer, and his struggle in dealing with his wife's anorexia. The essay tells a story of the perfect couple and then quickly whittles down to the ugliness of the disease. As an engineer, Tom wanted to fix the situation, but he didn't know how. Tom decided--without telling anyone--that he would starve himself to help better understand the demons his wife, Meg, was facing.

Tom only lasted a few days, but he became enlightened. Meg ended up in the hospital and has since recovered. Tom and Meg continue to deal with the disease on a daily basis, but it brought out a new level of honesty in their relationship, not just between them, but also with their friends and family.

This is definitely an article you should read. Click here.

Warning Signs of a Troubled Marriage

About.com offers a lengthy bullet list of items that are warning signs of a troubled marriage. We've pulled out a couple of them and hopefully they don't look too familiar.

- The two of you bicker a great deal.
- You don't fight fair.
- You no longer have fun together.
- You don't trust one another and feel suspicious.
- One of you, or both, has been unfaithful.

Seriously, that last line is on their list.

What Kills Sex In A Marriage?

USA Today gives a Q&A with the authors of Sex-Starved Wife (Michele Weiner Davis) and He's Just Not Up for It Anymore (Bob Berkowitz and Susan Yager-Berkowitz) about what kills sex in a marriage. Here's a sample question and answer from that article:

Q: Is there an average or normal amount of sexual activity among married couples, and how does it change with time?

Weiner Davis: It's really very subjective. For some couples, if they had sex twice a week, they'd think they died and went to heaven. For others, it would put them in divorce court. Mutual interest needs to be taken into account.
Yager-Berkowitz: To me, what's normal is if both partners are happy. From the first days of a relationship to maybe three years, the brain hormones of people tend to be far more sexual to reproduce or form an attachment for all kinds of cultural and psychological reasons. What's normal in the first year of a relationship is very different in 10 years.

To read the full article click here.

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