New research from Harvard University has found that bisphenol A (BPA) exposure may affect a woman’s ability to become pregnant while undergoing fertility treatments. Researchers studied women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) at the Massachusetts General Hospital Fertility Center in order to examine the relationship between BPA exposure and pregnancy success. All women were of a decent childbearing age (18-45 years), used their own eggs in the IVF procedure and most were Caucasian and non-smokers. Researchers followed this group of women through each IVF cycle until they delivered their baby or decided to stop the IVF treatment. After measuring BPA urine concentrations of the women, the researchers confirmed that women with higher BPA levels in their system were less likely to get pregnant while undergoing IVF than women with lower BPA levels. The more intense the fertility treatment, the greater the link to problems associated with BPA. In most cases, pregnancies failed because the embryos did not attach to the uterus. While this human study was small, other research with experimental animals also shows that BPA decreased embryo implantation success and reduced litter size. Clearly research like this reveals a growing trend that harmful chemicals are a major consideration if you’re attempting to become pregnant, especially since we know that most pregnant women carry a slew of chemicals in their bodies.

+ Urinary Bisphenol A Concentrations and Implantation Failure among Women Undergoing In Vitro Fertilization

Lead image by Flickr User janineomg

Just as EWG released their new safe sunscreen guide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released some sunscreen news of their own. Apparently, due to pressure from two cosmetic industry groups – the Personal Care Products Council and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, the FDA announced on May 11 that they’ll be delaying implementation of pending sunscreen regulations. The new, now delayed regulations mandate how sunscreens are labeled and marketed, and are supposed to make it easier for consumers to chose properly labeled sunscreen. This FDA decision comes as somewhat of a shock, since the new rules were announced a year ago after an already insane 30 years of deliberations. Now, simply because trade groups can’t get their act together and because the FDA lacks the will to enforce them, the new sunscreen regulations have been pushed back all the way to December 2012. Sadly, for consumers, this means we’ve got another whole summer of misleading sunscreen labels on the market.

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Environmental Working Group (EWG) just released their updated 2012 safe sunscreen guide – good news if you’re overwhelmed by all those sunscreen choices out there. As usual, most of their safest sunscreen winners include sunscreens made with zinc oxide or titanim dioxide, both of which are preferable and safer than chemical ingredients such as oxybenzone. This year EWG notes that an ideal sunscreen choice should block both UVA and UVB rays, contain active ingredients that do not break down in the sun and of course, be free from an insane amount of toxic chemicals. If you’re interested in how EWG conducted their analysis and ranked products this year, check out their sunscreen FAQ. Before we take a look at this year’s sunscreen winners and losers, remember that sunscreen is only one way to help protect your skin from sun damage. Limiting sun exposure during peek sunny hours and wearing protective clothing are also important actions. Also, don’t forget, sunscreen is only effective if you actually apply it correctly. This means you should apply sunscreen generously 30 minutes before going outside and reapply it every two hours. Keep reading to see which sunscreens earned top spots on the EWG list this year.
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Research suggests that merely listening to music changes our world in amazing ways. From how we walk, talk, remember events and deal with emotion, music plays a part in many people’s lives. Past studies have also shown that exposing your baby to music is a great idea. Singing, listening to and creating music helps your little one to develop important mental processes and improves spatial reasoning. Now a new study recently published in the journal Developmental Science delves deeper into the world of musical babies, suggesting that 1-year-old babies who have an early relationship with music, and more specifically early musical training, smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.

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