August 2018

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This Baby Was Photographed With The 1,616 IVF Needles It Took To Conceive Her

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Wearing a rainbow swaddle, the 2-week-old is encircled with hundreds of syringes showing her parents' IVF struggles.

The heart around her is made of the blood-thinner needles her mom used twice a day. The next ring shows the many IVF injections that her mom took.

After four years of trying, seven attempts, three miscarriages and 1,616 injections, the O'Neills say they are overjoyed to welcome their daughter to their family. London O'Neill was born on August 3.

The photo of London was only meant to be something personal for Patricia and Kimberly O'Neill, a reminder of their fertility journey. After almost 55,000 shares on Facebook, the photo has become a symbol of hope for others struggling with infertility.

"I hope that there's a couple out there that's going through what we are that can see that there's hope at the end of the tunnel," Patricia O'Neill told CNN. "There's a light and you just have to get there."

They fell in love and wanted to grow their family

Patricia and Kimberly met almost six years ago while both were working at a daycare. They fell in love and knew they wanted to have a baby together.

After a year into their relationship, they started trying to conceive in February 2014. Patricia, now 30, said she didn't want to narrow her window of having a child. During their fertility journey, they married in January 2017.

Patricia, who has a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, always wanted to have a biological child. Kimberly has a 14-year-son of her own from another relationship. They decided Patricia would carry the child.

"We just thought it would only take going into a fertility clinic and nine months later, we'd have a baby," Patricia said. "It just didn't happen like that for us."

The Sun City, Arizona, couple saw a fertility doctor and tried two rounds of intrauterine insemination, neither of which resulted in an embryo. Next they tried two egg retrievals and began the IVF journey with a new doctor. The second attempt gave them five embryos.

The hope of finally having five chances to have a baby dwindled with each implantation. The couple lost baby one at six weeks. They lost baby two at eight weeks.

Something was wrong and Patricia's doctor decided to do some genetic testing. She learned she had a blood-clotting condition called Factor V Leiden.

It's a mutation of a clotting factor in the blood, and it increases a person's chance of developing "abnormal blood clots," according to the Mayo Clinic. Women with this mutation have a higher risk of developing blood clots during pregnancy.

Knowing what was wrong, they tried the third embryo and it didn't take, Patricia said. After a month they tried the fourth embryo and were successful.

"We were excited. We went in to eight weeks in and we knew it was a boy," Patricia said. "We saw the heart beat and then we went at 11 weeks and the heartbeat had stopped."

Patricia said she was at her breaking point after losing their son.

"I was done and I couldn't do it anymore. But my wife and I, we started this journey together, and we decided we would always be together in the hard decisions and she wasn't done," she said.

They finally figured out what was wrong

Patricia (left) and Kimberly O'Neill with baby London on August 10.

The O'Neills couldn't bear the thought of discarding, donating or not using their last embryo. They found a new doctor, this time one who specialized in Patricia's clotting mutation.

Vegans Live A Lot Longer Than Meat Eaters

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I’ve taken a look at the health benefits of veganism, including the research which found people following this diet are more likely to live longer than those who eat meat and dairy.

The vegan diet steers clear of meat, seafood and dairy – as well foods produced using animals, such as honey, some wine, beer and cider, filtered using animal products.

The study, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine Journal was carried out by scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

The scientists found every three per cent increase in calories from plant protein, was found to reduce risk of death by 10 per cent and the figure rises to 12 per cent for risk of dying from heart disease.

By increasing the share of animal protein in a person’s diet by 10 per cent, it led to a two per cent higher risk of death from all causes – increasing to an eight per cent higher chance of dying from heart disease.

Haleh Moravej, a senior lecturer in Nutritional Sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University, told :

Research suggests vegan diets usually contain more dietary fibre but have less cholesterol and saturated fat.

This reduces the risk of many modern chronic diseases such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, however, without informed food choices or supplementation, deficiencies may be an issue.

Health experts suggest informed and well-planned vegan diets are suitable for all individuals at all stages of life.

Diet is just one element of a complicated lifestyle puzzle so to live longer, one has to look at other indicators but a healthy, plant based, balanced, varied, nourishing and sustainable diet, could improve the quality of life.

We don’t have enough data to say exactly how a vegetarian diet influences long-term health. It’s difficult to tease out the influence of vegetarianism from other practices vegetarians are more likely to follow, such as not smoking, not drinking excessively and getting adequate exercise.

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Tim Shieff, a professional British free-runner, who was the last man standing in the first series of Ninja Warrior UK and a finalist in the second series, has been a vegan since 2012.

He’s an advocate for the vegan diet, proving you don’t need to eat animal products to be in good shape or for fitness levels.

There are also a number of vegan public figures and celebrities including grime artist JME, actors Liam Hemsworth, Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix, to name a few.

You can watch Tim speaking about veganism on the below podcast:

Professor Moravej also told :

Baby born at 22 weeks ‘graduates’ from NICU, complete with cap and gown

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Born after just 22 weeks of his mother’s pregnancy, Cullen Potter from Alabama had a challenging start to life to say the least.

Cullen first experienced difficulties while still in the womb, leading his mother Molli to spend three weeks in a Pensacola hospital prior to his birth.

His parents were told nothing could be done to save the little boy, who had just a two per cent chance of survival. Even if they were able to somehow keep him alive, he would suffer from disabilities.

However, his family never gave up; with dad Robert ringing 16 hospitals across three states to find one which could accommodate such a severely premature child. After experiencing two miscarriages the previous year, the couple were going to do all they could to give Cullen a fighting chance.

Molli was transferred to USA Children’s and Women’s Hospital, where Cullen was delivered through an emergency C-section.

The brave baby boy – who weighed just 13.9 ounces at the time of his birth – has beaten all odds, and has now even ‘graduated’ from intensive care.

Adorable Cullen now weighs 5 pounds, 11 ounces and is thankfully said to be free from any major difficulties; overcoming the devastating prognosis given to his parents. After 160 days in hospital, the little warrior could finally go home.

And to celebrate this momentous milestone, the precious little chap was given his very own graduation ceremony; complete with solemn music and a beyond cute cap and gown from a Build-a-Bear shop (the only outfit diddy enough to fit him).

Have You Ever Wondered What These 10 Everyday Things Are Called

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In life we take things for granted and never really bother to give much importance to the little objects in life.

The thing is that it is these little things that make our clothing, apparel and life at home comfortable because without them, we would be inconvenienced to a certain degree that can lead to a lot of irritation.

Moreover, you must have found yourself wanting to describe an object to someone but you just didn’t know what it is called. That happens to almost everybody because we simply don’t know the names of these little items. Here are 15 everyday objects and what they are called.

1Nose pads

Ever wondered what those little pads on the bridge of your spectacles are called? Well, it may have the very simple term of nose pads yet they are indispensable. Regardless of how costly your glasses, without nose pads to help them stick and fit comfortably on your nose, your spectacles are useless. They would also hurt and skin your nose.

Image Source: dailyhunt.in

2Pull loops

Your sneakers will always have a small loop at the end of the ankle section. Called pull loops, they are for the convenience of pulling on your shoes. Give credit to shoe companies for such small details.

Image Source: vielsker.net

3Phloem Bundles

Now this sounds something unrecognizable and confusing. Phloem bundles are actually got to do with food. They are the stringy bits you get on your banana that confuses you whether you should eat them or not.

Image Source: newshunt.com

4Punt

Have you noticed that at the bottom of your wine bottle there is a concave bump? Called a punt the only purpose it serves is to help keep the bottle upright and prevent it from toppling over.