Pregnant women who are deficient in Vitamin D at the time of delivery could have almost four times the risk of having Caesarean sections as women who are not Vitamin D deficient, according to a study released in December in the online Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The two-year study, conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, involved 253 women. Researchers noted that previous studies have linked Vitamin D deficiency with muscle weakness and less-than-optimal muscle performance, and speculate that this could be the reason for the findings.

Vitamin D isn’t present in many foods, but can be obtained through sun exposure (though some experts worry about skin cancer risk from unprotected exposure to UV rays) and supplements. It is needed to help the body absorb calcium, and to help bones grow and maintain their strength and shape. Without vitamin D, bones can become brittle.

Experts recommend that pregnant women take in at least 200 IU (international units) of vitamin D daily.

Food sources include fish and fish liver oils (though pregnant women should be careful about the types of fish they consume, as some species are more likely to be tainted with mercury), plus small amounts in beef liver, cheese and egg yolks. It’s also available through fortified foods such as milk.

Learn more about Vitamin D …

– Christina Elston

Bacteria. Most of the current generation of parents have been dosed – and dosed their children – with antibiotics designed to kill these single-celled microorganisms, and have scrubbed everything from kids to kitchen counters with soaps intended to wipe them out.

Those echoes from the early 1980s about “friendly bacteria,” a type our bodies actually need, hadn’t yet taken hold. But today “probiotics” have gone from the fringe to the front shelves of health food stores, and even your local grocery. (Pictured above is Lactobacillus acidophilus from SciMAT/Photoresearchers Inc.) Learn more about the benefits of probiotics, and how to choose quality products …

If there was an earthquake while your child was at school, would she remember your cell phone number? How about Dad’s number at work? What if her own sparkly pink cell phone – with these numbers in the address book – was left behind or damaged?

Or maybe your child is one of the 326,000 in the U.S. living with epilepsy, the more than 4 million who had an asthma attack last year, or as many as 3 million with type 1 diabetes. Would he know what to tell his teachers or a paramedic about his condition?

The answer could be as simple as a little new bling.

Camper Alert child safety bracelets ($19.95, www.hopepaige.com), for instance, let parents hide phone numbers and other important information under a metal tab. They look like those trendy rubber bracelets kids love, come in lots of bright colors, and are sturdy enough to handle kid-level wear and tear. And they’re great for field trips, theme parks, and summer camp because they stay right with your child.

For $5, you can have the company engrave two lines of text or numbers, 20 characters each, on the back of the metal tab. That keeps your info out of the public eye, but handy if your child (or a teacher or emergency personnel) needs it.

And for kids with medical conditions, there’s Lauren’s Hope medical I.D. jewelry ($39.95-$169.95, www.LaurensHope.com), which allows kids to choose anything from waterproof sports bands to ankle bracelets, stone and charm bracelets or even guitar pick necklaces. They’re a much cooler twist on the traditional MedicAlert bracelet, but still offer tags engraved with all the pertinent info.

Two fun ways to make sure all the needed information is on hand in an emergency.

– Christina Elston

Years ago, when I was all but flattened by a raging sinus infection, a doctor named Lorber offered the following advice:

Mix up an 8-ounce glass of warm water and a half-teaspoon of salt. With a bulb syringe (the kind you use to clean out a baby’s nose), squirt it in one nostril and let it run out the other. Do that every four hours or so.

I was desperate, so I tried it. And by the end of the day I could actually breathe. It was unpleasant and pretty gross. And messy, because I had to tip sideways, keeping one nostril over the sink while squirting the water into the other. But for years whenever I got a cold I would stand with lots of towels at the ready and faithfully flush my sinuses. Read on …

Ovary Transplant Restores Fertility

Doctors from the Infertility Center of St. Louis have transplanted the intact ovary of a 38-year-old woman into her identical twin sister, who experienced premature menopause at age 15. And that woman gave birth to a baby in November, the New England Journal of Medicine reported. Dr. Sherman Silber, who led the transplant team, said the technique could one day help preserve fertility for young cancer survivors, and even for women who decide to delay childbearing. Learn more … 

IVF Over – But Then What?

Once a woman is finished with in-vitro fertilization attempts, whether she becomes pregnant or not, she almost always has frozen embryos left over. And a Duke University survey of more than 1,000 women found that decisions about what to do with them can be as complicated and painful as the infertility itself. Options are few: thaw and dispose of them, donate them to other women, give them to researchers, or leave them frozen indefinitely. The majority of women in the survey, published online in Fertility and Sterility, didn’t care for any of those. They preferred the idea of either inserting the embryos into their bodies at a time when they were unlikely to become pregnant and letting nature take its course, or having some sort of disposal ceremony. But those options aren’t commonly offered. Learn more …

The Pill Effective Against Endometriosis Pain

Good old low-dose oral contraceptives can really reduce the pain associated with endometriosis – a condition where uterine tissue grows outside the uterus, which affects more than 5.5 million women in North America (an estimated 2-10%). That was the conclusion of Japanese researchers reporting in the November issue of Fertility and Sterility. They divided 100 women with endometriosis into two groups. One received the pill, and the other took placebos, but both were allowed their usual pain medications. The group treated with oral contraceptives reported less pain overall, and saw significant reduction in the amount of endometrial tissue growing outside the uterus. Learn more about endometriosis … 

– Christina Elston

The “batten down the hatches” feeling in the air these days tends to focus on the financial, but we still need to be ready for other types of crisis. The new year is a good time to take stock of how well you’re prepared – and how well you’ve prepared your kids – for disasters that strike outside Wall Street.

As director of the Disaster Preparedness Project at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Jeffrey Upperman participated in the Great Southern California Shake Out Nov. 13. The drill was a learning experience for thousands, and followed this summer’s wildfires as a new experience for Upperman. “Being an East Coast guy, I did not realize that fire was a season,” he jokes.

But Upperman takes disaster preparedness seriously, and has these tips for families: Read Upperman’s tips …

My husband takes a daily dose of calcium to ward off bone loss, and beyond the occasional hit of vitamin C if he’s feeling sniffly, that’s about all I can convince him to do. And he could be right.

Two new studies show that for men, healthy living is sometimes much more worthwhile than taking a supplement.

The first, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that vitamins E and C didn’t reduce risk of heart disease in men. “Our trial, perhaps surprisingly, showed that there seems to be no benefit derived from taking these supplements,” says Howard Sesson of Brigham and Women’s hospital, who led the study of more than 14,000 men over age 50.

The second, also reported in JAMA, concluded that selenium and vitamin E – even when taken for 5 ½ years, didn’t prevent prostate cancer. That study, out of the Univeristy of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Cleveland Clinic, followed more than 35,000 men and found no benefit from taking Vitamin E, selenium, or both combined.

Few preventive measures against prostate cancer have been proven, though the benefits of a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables are being studied, and high dietary levels of dairy products and calcium are thought by some to increase risk. But in terms of heart disease, preventive measures are clear. Don’t smoke, exercise, stay slim and eat right.

Learn more about prostate cancer … 

Learn more about cardiovascular disease … 

– Christina Elston

Nobody’s surprised to hear that a new mom is losing a bit of sleep, and “baby blues” are fairly common as well. In fact, as many as 13% of the 4.2 million new moms in the U.S. each year will suffer from Postpartum depression (PPD).

But sleep deprivation and PPD are linked, a new study shows. Bobbie Postmontier of Drexel University compared sleep in new moms with and without PPD, and found that depressed moms took longer to fall asleep, and slept for shorter periods of time, than did their non-depressed counterparts. And the worse their sleep quality, the worse their depression. Neurotransmitters that influence sleep quality also impact mood.

What’s more, moms who are having trouble sleeping could also set up poor sleep in their babies, because newborns often synch up with their mothers’ circadian rhythms.

How to break this vicious cycle?

If you’re feeling depressed, irritable, and/or panicky, are having trouble enjoying yourself or bonding with your baby, or feel like you’re “out of control” or “going crazy,” talk with someone about what’s going on. Call your OB-GYN or other healthcare provider.

And if you’re not getting enough sleep, take that seriously. “Mothers can develop a plan to have other family members help care for the baby at night,” says Postmontier. “They also should practice good sleep hygiene. That includes going to bed at the same hour every night, avoiding naps and steering clear of caffeine, exercise, nicotine and alcohol within four hours of bedtime.”

Postpartum Support International offers a free weekly chat for women suffering from PPD, their families and loved ones. Find out more …

– Christina Elston

Whether you’re trying to stave off holiday weight gain, or to set good habits in motion for the new year, Cedars Sinai dietitian and diabetes educator Netty Levine has some advice to help clear the clutter from your family’s food and drink.

To start with, she suggests the family stick to milk or water as a mealtime beverage, and stay away from juices. “I would rather they eat their fruit in the natural package,” she explains. If you’re eating out, sweeten the deal (and add a math lesson) by calculating how much cash you would have spent on beverages and putting that aside to spend on something fun for the family.

Drinking water means you’re also saving on calories – as many as 150 per beverage. And Levine points out that taking in just 250 extra calories per day means half a pound gained at the end of the week.

At home, be ready for the after-school or after-work munchies by heading off the junk food with a healthy snack. “The best time to try a new fruit or a vegetable is when they’re really hungry right from school,” Levine says. “A lot of times they stand there with the refrigerator door open, and you’ve got to be one step ahead.” Have some cut-up fruit ready to eat. “Kids who are losing their teeth don’t like to bite into fruit,” Levine advises. You can puree berries, fresh or frozen, to use as a healthy dipping sauce. Or in summer you can freeze the fruit itself.

Hummus, low-fat dressing or salsa makes a good dipping sauce for cut vegetables. Or in the winter try putting a vegetable soup in a croc pot so it’s ready at the end of the day. “The aroma might entice them to try,” Levine says. And if they object to the pieces of vegetable, get out your hand blender and puree the soup. With a snack like that, there’s no need to worry about spoiling their dinner.

– Christina Elston

Want to get an early start on your New Year’s resolution, guys? Mike Levinson, R.D., author of Buff Dad: The 4-Week Fitness Plan For Real Guys, has a bit of advice to help you make every day a bit more fit.

“I believe in choices, not habits,” says the dad, trainer and former amateur bodybuilding champ. “I think we all have a choice to eat healthier, exercise or not and be active. It is a constant battle for most people, me included, but I have found some good tips and strategies that would help your readers.”

Here’s a quick-and-easy daily before-breakfast workout that can make a big difference in 2009: Check out Mike’s workout …