Exercise during pregnancy appears to be safe even for African-American women at high risk for pregnancy complications, a new study suggests.

The study, which focused on poor, urban African-American women, found that “exercise participation did not increase or decrease the risk of low birth weight or preterm birth," said co-author Suezanne Orr, Ph.D.

“There is not much information about exercise participation in this population. Most of the research has been on middle-aged white women," said Orr, with the Department of Health Education and Promotion at East Carolina University, in Greenville, N.C.

The study, which appears in the current issue of the journal Ethnicity and Disease, looked at 922 low-income African-American women receiving prenatal care at five Baltimore clinics between 1993 and 1995.

Morning Sickness

Morning Sickness One of the first signs to pop up during pregnancy is morning sickness. If a couple is not planning to have children at that time, this may be the first clue that a little one is on the way. The severity and timing of morning sickness varies greatly with each woman. Some have extreme bouts of it, and it begins early in pregnancy, while others barely notice it, and it doesn’t really affect them very much. If you are one of those women who has a severe case, you are probably looking for cures and advice on how to deal with it. Morning sickness usually strikes during the first trimester of pregnancy, and is thought to be caused by the wide fluctuation of hormones in a woman’s body. Many women handle it well, while others are knocked off their feet. For the very unlucky, morning sickness lasts for the entire pregnancy. If you are looking for a cure, your best source for information is your doctor. No matter what you try, talk it over with them first. You don’t want to do anything that might harm your baby or you. Some women handle morning sickness by watching what they eat. The tried and true method of eating crackers and drinking water when feeling sick works well for some women, and not so well for others. Morning sickness does not always occur in the morning. Some women have it all day, and late into the night. This can make life difficult, and a diet of only crackers and water is not the best for the baby. On occasion, prenatal vitamins can make morning sickness worse. You can help alleviate this by making sure you take your vitamin on a full stomach. Take it in the middle of or after a bigger meal. That way, the vitamins aren’t sitting in an empty stomach. Whatever you do, do not stop taking your vitamins if they are making you feel unwell. Talk to your doctor about how they are making you feel, and try anything they may suggest to you. You can find a lot of morning sickness cures online, but remember to talk to your doctor before trying any of them. Anything you put into your body is going to affect your unborn baby. Some remedies labeled as natural might not be good for you, no matter what they claim. Sometimes, the cure for morning sickness is as simple as taking it easy, remembering to get plenty of rest, and to lie down when you don’t feel well. Heavy odors and certain foods may trigger your morning sickness, so learn what to avoid.

Acne Cures During Pregnancy

To consider the lengths we go to to find acne cures is to take us in the direction of the latest skin care efforts. I hate to have to report on what I just read about, but it all comes with the territory of researching skin care and acne cures and the like: there is a cosmetics firm in China (which sells to Europe) that is using dead skin to develop beauty products. Maybe this is not all that remarkable, but the company is using the skin of those who died by execution. The cosmetics firm reportedly uses the skin of “condemned convicts” who have been shot in their developing of products such as lip collagen treatments and wrinkle treatments. Some of their products have already been circulated, evidently, having been exported to England. When challenged, company heads respond that this practice is “traditional”, says a writer for LBN (Levine Breaking News). They also say that there is “nothing to ‘make such a big fuss about.’” But as the same writer tells it, there are ethical concerns for those developing and then for those using the products. As well, the reporter notes that there is “potential risk of infection” for those indulging in the “harvested” skin care products. Maybe the company and others like it have no qualms about ethics or health. Maybe the same have nothing to do with acne cures. Then again, maybe the offenders are ushering in the Soylent Green era, using the flesh of the dead for gain. Possibly, they are bringing on a new wave of illnesses or diseases. What concerns us should therefore be what goes into all our youth recouping, our beauty regimes, our acne cures. Yes, when we have the frustrating external flaws of acne—whether we are teens or twenty-somethings or pregnant mothers of stressed out fathers—we are inclined toward extreme solutions. We will go to great lengths to normalize, to clear up skin and fit in with the beautiful people, the unscathed, the oil-free. We will try the OTC (over-the-counter) acne cures, will resort to homemade acne cures, will suffer ourselves to the experimental acne cures of the innovations of science and medicine. Hell, when I was a teenager with insufferable zits galore, I succumbed to the “latest” acne cures, using strengths of Tetracycline that could cure twenty strep viruses at once, using lemons and vinegar and scrubs with sand in them (it felt like), and using what the doctor prescribed before it was fully tested: Retin-A, a solution we mixed with straight Vodka and burned away layers of dermis with. But I am concerned and curious as to what I would do today if someone offered me acne cures in a bottle or jar that had on its ingredients list an item too closely resembling the dead skin of a criminal’s ass. Okay, so we forego the ethics, and we let go of the “silly” fuss over health issues. What about the cosmic passing of an evil soul or an unjustly convicted, condemned, and executed woman or man by way of her or his skin through our pores?