Move over Rover: There’s a new sniffing powerhouse in the neighborhood

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

Some animals have a superpower in their sense of smell. They explore, interpret and understand their world with such sensitivity that people have enlisted canines to help solve crime and detect cancer on the breath. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology are now homing in on the secrets behind animals’ super sniffers to develop an artificial chemical sensor that could be used for a variety of tasks, from food safety to national security.

“We turned to animals to understand what nature has already figured out,” said Thomas Spencer, a doctoral candidate in David Hu’s lab at Georgia Tech. “We are applying the underlying principles that we learned about these mechanisms to design a better sensor.”

Spencer will present the group’s latest design for an electronic nose that concentrates odors for improved chemical sensing at the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, which will take place Nov. 18-20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Their work began inauspiciously at a competition to develop a sensor that could identify different varieties of cheese. Turning to nature to guide their work, they traveled to the Atlanta Zoo to compare the way different animals sniff, from mice to elephants.

“We wanted to measure the sniffing frequency of animals when they are trying to identify a new source of food or something that interests them,” Spencer said.

After reviewing the data, they found that sniffing speed decreases as body size increases; put another way, mice sniff faster than elephants. Using their findings, they designed a customized pump that oscillates back and forth at the same frequency that animals sniff. The design of their device moves airflow around the chemical sensor in a more controlled fashion.

“These findings are important because it gives us insight into the physics of sniffing,” said Hu, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and biology at Georgia Tech. “This information will affect how we scale up sniffing machines.”

Because odor is invisible, the team used wind tunnel experiments and computer simulations to analyze how the odor particles moved through the air. In addition, they gathered sensor information in real time to see how the chemical compounds vary throughout the air in space and time.

While the team initially designed the electronic nose to distinguish different varieties cheese, the fundamental principles behind their device could be used in many different applications.

“This is still a fairly new study,” Spencer said. “Our hope is to get a snippet of that ability and replicate it for ourselves.”

Adams Clark joined Spencer and Hu on this study. They received funding from the National Science Foundation.

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Materials provided by American Physical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

The ‘Swiss Army knife of prehistoric tools’ found in Asia, suggests homegrown technology

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

New analysis of artifacts found at a South China archaeological site shows that sophisticated tool technology emerged in East Asia earlier than previously thought.

A study by an international team of researchers, including from the University of Washington, determines that carved stone tools, also known as Levallois cores, were used in Asia 80,000 to 170,000 years ago. Developed in Africa and Western Europe as far back as 300,000 years ago, the cores are a sign of more-advanced toolmaking — the “multi-tool” of the prehistoric world — but, until now, were not believed to have emerged in East Asia until 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.

With the find — and absent human fossils linking the tools to migrating populations — researchers believe people in Asia developed the technology independently, evidence of similar sets of skills evolving throughout different parts of the ancient world.

The is published online Nov. 19 in Nature.

“It used to be thought that Levallois cores came to China relatively recently with modern humans,” said Ben Marwick, UW associate professor of anthropology and one of the paper’s corresponding authors. “Our work reveals the complexity and adaptability of people there that is equivalent to elsewhere in the world. It shows the diversity of the human experience.”

Levallois-shaped cores — the “Swiss Army knife of prehistoric tools,” Marwick said — were efficient and durable, indispensable to a hunter-gatherer society in which a broken spear point could mean certain death at the claws or jaws of a predator. The cores were named for the Levallois-Perret suburb of Paris, where stone flakes were found in the 1800s.

Featuring a distinctive faceted surface, created through a sequence of steps, Levallois flakes were versatile “blanks,” used to spear, slice, scrape or dig. The knapping process represents a more sophisticated approach to tool manufacturing than the simpler, oval-shaped stones of earlier periods.

The Levallois artifacts examined in this study were excavated from Guanyindong Cave in Guizhou Province in the 1960s and 1970s. Previous research using uranium-series dating estimated a wide age range of the archaeological site — between 50,000 and 240,000 years old — but that earlier technique focused on fossils found away from the stone artifacts, Marwick said. Analyzing the sediments surrounding the artifacts provides more specific clues as to when the artifacts would have been in use.

Marwick and other members of the team, from universities in China and Australia, used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to date the artifacts. OSL can establish age by determining when a sediment sample, down to a grain of sand, was last exposed to sunlight — and thus, how long an artifact may have been buried in layers of sediment.

“Dating for this site was challenging because it had been excavated 40 years ago, and the sediment profile was exposed to air and without protection. So trees, plants, animals, insects could disturb the stratigraphy, which may affect the dating results if conventional methods were used for dating,” said Bo Li , an associate professor of archaeology at the University of Wollongong in Australia and one of the paper’s corresponding authors. “To solve this problem we used a new single-grain dating technique recently developed in our OSL lab at the University of Wollongong to date individual mineral grains in the sediment. Luckily we found residual sediment left over by the previous excavations, so that allowed us to take samples for dating.”

The researchers analyzed more than 2,200 artifacts found at Guanyindong Cave, narrowing down the number of Levallois-style stone cores and flakes to 45. Among those believed to be in the older age range, about 130,000 to 180,000 years old, the team also was able to identify the environment in which the tools were used: an open woodland on a rocky landscape, in “a reduced rainforest area compared to today,” the authors note.

In Africa and Europe these kinds of stone tools are often found at archaeological sites starting from 300,000 and 200,000 years ago. They are known as Mode III technology, part of a broad evolutionary sequence that was preceded by hand-axe technology (Mode II) and followed by blade tool technology (Mode IV). Archaeologists thought that Mode IV technologies arrived in China by migration from the West, but these new finds suggest they could have been locally invented. At the time people were making tools in Guanyindong Cave, the Denisovans — ancestors to Homo sapiens and relative contemporaries to Neandertals elsewhere in the world — roamed East Asia. But while hundreds of fossils of archaic humans and related artifacts, dating as far back as more than 3 million years ago, have been found in Africa and Europe, the archaeological record in East Asia is sparser.

That’s partly why a stereotype exists, that ancient peoples in the region were behind in terms of technological development, Marwick said.

“Our work shows that ancient people there were just as capable of innovation as anywhere else. Technological innovations in East Asia can be homegrown, and don’t always walk in from the West,” he said.

The independent emergence of the Levallois technique at different times and places in the world is not unique in terms of prehistoric innovations. Pyramid construction, for one, appeared in at least three separate societies: the Egyptians, the Aztecs and the Mayans. Boatbuilding began specific to geography and reliant on a community’s available materials. And writing, of course, developed in various forms with distinct alphabets and characters.

In the evolution of tools, Levallois cores represent something of a middle stage. Subsequent manufacturing processes yielded more-refined blades made of rocks and minerals that were more resistant to flaking, and composites that, for example, combined a spear point with blades along the edge. The appearance of blades later in time indicates a further increase in the complexity and the number of steps required to make the tools.

“The appearance of the Levallois strategy represents a big increase in the complexity of technology because there are so many steps that have to work in order to get the final product, compared to previous technologies,” Marwick said.

Jumping genes shed light on how advanced life may have emerged

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

A previously unappreciated interaction in the genome turns out to have possibly been one of the driving forces in the emergence of advanced life, billions of years ago.?

This discovery began with a curiosity for retrotransposons, known as “jumping genes,” which are DNA sequences that copy and paste themselves within the genome, multiplying rapidly. Nearly half of the human genome is made up of retrotransposons, but bacteria hardly have them at all.

Nigel Goldenfeld, Swanlund Endowed Chair of Physics at the University of Illinois and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and Thomas Kuhlman, a former physics professor at Illinois who is now at University of California, Riverside, wondered why this is.

“We thought a really simple thing to try was to just take one (retrotransposon) out of my genome and put it into the bacteria just to see what would happen,” Kuhlman said. “And it turned out to be really quite interesting.”

Their results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, give more depth to the history of how advanced life may have emerged billions of years ago — and could also help determine the possibility and nature of life on other planets.

Along the way to explaining life, the researchers first encountered death — bacterial death, that is. When they put retrotransposons in bacteria, the outcome was fatal.

“As they jump around and make copies of themselves, they jump into genes that the bacteria need to survive,” Kuhlman said. “It’s incredibly lethal to them.”

When retrotransposons copy themselves within the genome, they first find a spot in the DNA and cut it open. To survive, the organism then has to repair this cut. Some bacteria, like E. coli, only have one way to perform this repair, which usually ends up removing the new retrotransposon. But advanced organisms (eukaryotes) have an additional “trick” called nonhomologous end-joining, or NHEJ, that gives them another way to repair cuts in their DNA.

Goldenfeld and Kuhlman decided to see what would happen if they gave bacteria the ability to do NHEJ, thinking that it would help them tolerate the damage to their DNA. But it just made the retrotransposons better at multiplying, causing even more damage than before.

“It just completely killed everything,” Kuhlman said. “At the time, I thought I was just doing something wrong.”

They realized that the interaction between NHEJ and retrotransposons may be more important than they previously thought.

Eukaryotes typically have many retrotransposons in their genome, along with a lot of other “junk” DNA, which doesn’t have a well-understood function. Within the genome, there must be a constant interplay between NHEJ and retrotransposons, as NHEJ tries to control how rapidly the retrotransposons multiply. This gives the organism more power over their genome, and the presence of “junk” DNA is important.

“As you get more and more junk in your DNA, you can start taking these pieces and combining them together in different ways, more ways than you could without all the junk in there,” Kuhlman said.

These conditions — the accumulation of “junk” DNA, the presence of retrotransposons and their interactions with NHEJ — make the genome more complex. This is one feature that may distinguish advanced organisms, like humans, from simpler ones, like bacteria.

Advanced organisms can also manage their genome by using their spliceosome, a molecular machine that sorts through the “junk” DNA and reconstructs the genes back to normal.

Some parts of the spliceosome are similar to group II introns, bacteria’s primitive version of retrotransposons. Introns are also found in eukaryotes, and along with the spliceosome are evolutionarily derived from group II introns. Goldenfeld said this poses an evolutionary question.

“What came first, the spliceosome or the group II introns? Clearly the group II introns,” he said. “So then you can ask: where did the eukaryotic cell first get those group II introns in order to build up the spliceosome early on?”

This study suggests that group II introns, the ancestors of introns in the spliceosome and retrotransposons in eukaryotes, somehow invaded early eukaryotic cells. Then, their interactions with NHEJ created a “selection pressure” that helped lead to the emergence of the spliceosome, which helped life become advanced billions of years ago.

The spliceosome helped life become advanced by enabling eukaryotes to do more with their DNA. For example, even though humans have roughly the same number of genes as C. elegans, a worm, humans can do more with those genes.

“There’s not much difference between this very simple worm and humans, which is obviously insane,” Goldenfeld said. “What’s happening is that humans are able to take these genes and mix and match them in many combinations to do much more complicated functions than C. elegans does.”

Not only did NHEJ and retrotransposons help with the creation of the spliceosome; this study suggests that they may also have assisted in making chromosomes — DNA molecules that contain genetic material — more advanced. Interactions between NHEJ and retrotransposons may have aided in the transition from circular chromosomes (which bacteria generally have) to linear ones (which more advanced organisms have), another indicator of advanced life.

Goldenfeld said that before this research, many researchers studied the role of retrotransposons, but the importance of NHEJ was not fully appreciated. This research proves that it played a part, billions of years ago, in eukaryotes becoming the advanced organisms we know today.

“This certainly was not the only thing that was going on,” Goldenfeld said. “But if it hadn’t happened, it’s hard to see how you could have complex life.”

This study contributes to the larger questions that the Institute for Universal Biology, a NASA Astrobiology Institute that Goldenfeld directs, seeks to answer — questions like: what had to happen in order for life to become advanced?

Answering this question in greater detail could help scientists determine the possibility of life on other planets.

“If life exists on other planets, presumably one would expect it to be microbial. Could it ever have made this transition to complex life?” Goldenfeld said. “It’s not that you’re inevitably going to get advanced life, because there are a bunch of things that have to happen.”

The physics perspective of this study helps to quantify these theoretical questions. This quantification comes from simply taking measurements in a laboratory and using those measurements to make models of evolution, as was done in this study.

In doing so, basic measurements in a laboratory become a time machine to the past.

“We’re doing laboratory evolution,” Goldenfeld said. “We’re looking at what evolutionary processes must have happened billions of years ago.”

Health24.com | Soccer stars Mesut Ozil and Mathieu Flamini are saving the planet

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

Best friends and soccer stars Mesut Ozil and Mathieu Flamini have teamed up to save the planet. And they’re doing so by starting grooming brand One Unity. The brand launched on Tuesday, with the stars taking to social media to tell the world.

Flamini who used to play for English club Arsenal FC alongside his newfound business partner, Ozil, has played his hand in global sustainability projects for years. He’s been dubbed one of the world’s richest footballers, with his company GF Biochemicals said to be the future in providing a sustainable alternative to oil-based products.

The packaging on the outside

And now he has taken a shot against plastic. With the two midfielders out to defend the planet’s obscene plastic usage. One Unity is said to produce “wellbeing products that combine feeling good and doing good, naturally,” according to their site.

The two state on the site that they’re “not just focused on what’s inside [their] products… [but they] care deeply about the packaging on the outside.

“We’re focused on reducing our impact on the planet, without risking the quality of the product inside.” With ingredients known to be bad for the environment, and the world’s oceans, left out of the packaging. “Harsh ingredients like parabens, SLS, SLES, mineral oils, plastic microbeads and artificial fragrances should be a thing of the past – so we never use them in our products, ever.”

And the two are revolutionising the game, with their grooming collection (which consists of eye cream, deodorant, shaving cream/ beard oil, face wash and shower gel) made from sugarcane, “a renewable and recyclable bioplastic, grown on sustainably farmed land”.

Sugarcane plants help to reduce CO2 emissions, whereas normal plastic made using fossil fuels, increases CO2 emissions, according to the site.

Opportunities for employment

Sugarcane has been put forward in South Africa, too. And is said to be the future of “green” plastics, with Durban home to a vast production of sugarcane. Economics Master’s student at the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, Warwick Thompson, has a put case forward for diverting biomass from South Africa’s sugarcane crop for the manufacturing of plastics, according to SADC SugarDigest.

According to Thompson, “If South Africa could produce these bio-based polymers, we would move closer towards a bio- economy, being less dependent on fossil resources. Greenhouse emissions would be reduced and further opportunities for employment in the green economy would become available.”

For Ozil and Flamini, their launch has been a powerful one. With the stars launching an emotive ad campaign, alongside their pledge to donate 1% of their revenue towards causes saving the planet and supporting those in need. The video opens with Flamini stating, “It’s half time across the planet. What’s happened already is lost. But what happens next is ours to choose. We choose how to step out and play the next half.”

Here at MH, we’re all about the fight agains plastic, and like Ozil and Flamini, we’re going to play a spectacular second half. This time winning over our planet. Join National Geographic’s incredible initiative to keep single-use plastics out of the environment, sign up here.

^{This article was originally published on} ^www.mh.co.za

^{Image credit: iStock}

Blackpool hospital worker held over ‘poisoning’ claims

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

The allegations relate to alleged mistreatment and neglect of some stroke patients in Blackpool.

Peanut allergy treatment ‘in sight’

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

Emily Pratt, six, took part in the treatment trial and can now tolerate foods with traces of peanuts.

Giving blood: ‘We are reliant on blood donors to keep Henry alive’

Posted on 19/11/2018 by Boris Clair

Blood donors urged to keep appointments to avoid a dramatic slump in stocks over the festive period.

Health24.com | ‘I took my nipples for granted – until I got breast cancer’

Posted on 18/11/2018 by Boris Clair

The sense of loss women feel after losing one or both nipples post-mastectomy is hard to describe, but perhaps this sums it up best: “Without a nipple, a breast isn’t a breast – it’s just a mound,” says Dr Joshua Levine, a natural breast reconstruction surgeon in New York City.

That’s why nipple reconstruction can have a huge impact on the emotional-recovery process of mastectomy patients, say experts like Dr Anastasia Bakoulis, assistant professor of surgery at Stony Brook School of Medicine’s breast centre.

Her research suggests that about 90% of women now opt for breast reconstructions after mastectomies (up from just 10% in the 1980s). Nipple-sparing mastectomies are a choice for some, depending on the specifics of the cancer, but others are limited to options like tattooed-on nipples, reconstructions built from, say, leg tissue, or prosthetics that need to be reapplied for each use.

Research backs up the fact that nipples play a key role in the emotional-recovery process: One recent study, for example, found that women reported significantly higher levels of psychosocial and sexual well-being after a nipple-sparing mastectomy, compared to a total mastectomy.

“The nipple restores a sense of normalcy and health to a woman,” says Dr Levine. “It can help her leave the memory of surgery and disease behind her.”

For patients who can’t keep their nipples, reconstructed, tattooed or prosthetic options can greatly improve their quality of life. “I’ve seen women who have refused to remove their bras in front of their husbands for years that have no problem whipping off their tops to show off their marvellous breasts today,” says Friday Jones, a tattoo artist who does post-operative tattooing. “It’s like they finally recognise themselves again.”

Here, five women who have undergone post-mastectomy breast reconstruction share how they dealt with the loss of their nipples – and how it impacted their lives.

‘Getting my nipples surgically reconstructed was the one part of this process that felt like it was for me.’

“I was only 25 when I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, so everything about it – from the diagnosis through my recovery – was a total shock.

“I had a life-threatening diagnosis, so at the beginning, I was so worried about surviving that I didn’t care at all about losing my breasts, much less my nipples. Having a mastectomy was something I needed to do to live, so I did it.

“I chose to have reconstruction surgery for both breasts shortly after my double mastectomy, but I had to wait several months for my previous surgery to heal before I could have nipple-reconstruction surgery – it ended up being three years between my first surgery and when I had my nipples done.

“I was really excited to get the surgery – seeing my new breasts with no nipples was just too weird. But I had to make a lot of decisions I never thought I’d have to think about – like how far I’d want my nipples to stick out.

“My surgeon used grafts of my own skin from the inside of my upper thigh for the nipple reconstruction. It was incredibly painful – I couldn’t walk for weeks afterward – but totally worth it. The skin from my thigh gradually darkened on its own into the areolas, and the nipples themselves were created by a series of incisions and tucks in the skin and fat.

“When I finally saw my new nipples after the bandages came off, I immediately knew I’d done the right thing. Even though there was a lot of healing to do still, I felt like myself again.

“Since my nipple reconstruction, I’ve ended up talking about them a lot. I’ve had conversations about my post-cancer nipples with female acquaintances who were curious about my reconstruction process, I’ve shown them to women who were about to go through their own breast-cancer battle, and I’ve even had to convince more than one well-meaning mother that, no, I really couldn’t breastfeed my child, even though I technically had nipples.

“These days, I’m super-happy with how my breasts and nipples look; the reconstructive surgeries have given me a lot of peace.

“The nipple reconstruction was especially gratifying, as it was the one surgery I did just for me. Every other one was because I didn’t want to die, or didn’t want my body to be so messed up. It felt wonderful after years of my life being in the control of the medical community to make a decision that was purely mine.” – Mary Smith, 42, diagnosed at 25

‘My fake nipples look better than my real ones ever did.’

“I have a long family history of breast cancer, so I decided to get tested. Sure enough, I have the BRCA2 mutation. So in 2017, I chose to have a preventative double mastectomy, followed by reconstruction.

3d rendered illustration of breast cancer

“At the time, I was told I was a good candidate for nipple-sparing surgery, where they keep your original nipples and reattach them to your new breasts, but that it would involve one extra surgery. I think everyone was surprised when I told them not to bother. Unlike a lot of women, I never had any real attachment to my nipples. In fact, I had always thought they were too big and looked kind of weird.

“Even though I felt no emotional attachment to my original nipples, I wondered if I’d look down after the surgery and feel upset that they were gone.

“I didn’t miss the old nipples at all, but I wanted to look whole again, and I wanted my breasts to look as natural as possible. So I decided to have nipple-reconstruction surgery.

“I chose to go down a few sizes – from a 34DDD to a 34D – so I knew my boobs were going to look different. The surgeon created new nipples out of little flaps of skin. Then, a few months after that, I got tattoos done on the new nipples to make them look more realistic. My tattoo artist even added little bumps to mimic the glands women have on the areolas.

“They look so good that my doctor forgot they weren’t real for a minute at my checkup.

“Ultimately, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. The one downside is that I don’t have any sensation in my nipples. I do miss feeling aroused there, but my breasts look amazing – better than they did before the surgery.” – Maggie Gaines, 45

‘I’m not sure if I’ll reconstruct my nipples at all.’

“My experience losing my nipples to breast cancer is hard to put into words.

“I wasn’t a candidate for keeping my nipples, because of the type of cancer I had, and I went through a real grieving process for them – it felt like I was losing an essential part of my femininity.

“After I woke up from the mastectomy surgery, I was in so much pain, and all I could see were the drains and expanders and bandages – my body looked like a medical battlefield.

“At first, it was gut-wrenching, but as I looked at the scars seared across my chest, I realised how strong I really am and that the scars where my nipples used to be were just one more sign of how I’d kicked cancer’s ass and won. That, to me, was worth way more than keeping my nipples.

“After my mastectomy, I had several breast-reconstruction surgeries, and currently, I don’t have any nipples – I’m not even sure if I want them at all, tattooed ones or reconstructed ones.

“This surprises people, but I don’t feel like I need nipples to be sexy. Real men – the kind worth having around – are just happy you’re alive and won’t care about the no-nipples thing.

“Besides, I’ve had a lot of fun trying on ‘new’ nipples – using pepperonis, whipped cream, cherries, peach candy rings. For me, keeping a sense of humour about everything has been one of the most important parts of my recovery.

woman naked with colorful background holding grape

“I also have two daughters who may or may not have the same breast cancer gene I have. I want them to know that nipples and breasts are feminine and sacred – but when it comes to cancer, it’s not about saving your breasts, it’s about saving the brave, badass woman underneath them.” – Brooke Parker, 31, diagnosed at 28

‘As soon as my nipple prosthetics arrived in the mail, I couldn’t wait to try them on.’

“There are four generations of breast cancer in my family, so in 2015, after finding two precancerous growths, I decided to have both my breasts removed as a preventative measure.

“I opted for a double mastectomy immediately followed by reconstructive surgery. One year after my mastectomy, I got the final surgery to put my breast implants in, and three months after that, the soonest I possibly could, I had nipple-reconstruction surgery. Unfortunately, it didn’t work at all.

“The surgery didn’t take, and the new nipples totally flattened back out and looked strange – which can sometimes happen after reconstruction, I was told. My surgeon tried to tattoo them so at least the colour would give the appearance of nipples, but they just didn’t look real.

“I was devastated. I felt so unattractive that I refused to take my top off during sex and cried to my boyfriend about how awful I felt. I had no self-confidence. Finally, I went to a tattoo artist and had 3-D tattoos done over the ones my surgeon had done. These turned out a lot better, but as great as the tattoos were, my nipples still didn’t stick out at all from my breast, so they didn’t look real.

“Then, I was searching on the Internet one night and came across Pink Perfect, a company that makes prosthetic nipples for women. They had a bunch of different style, size and colour options so I could find a pair that felt right for me.

“As soon as they arrived in the mail, I couldn’t wait to try them on. They attach with a removable adhesive, and once I stuck them on, they felt totally natural. I ran to my room and put on a tight T-shirt. When I saw my nips poking out through the fabric, I was overjoyed. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more beautiful than I did in that moment.

“The nipple prosthetics look unbelievably real. When I went to my follow-up appointment with my plastic surgeon, neither my doctor nor the nurses realised they were fake at first. Now, I wear the prosthetic nipples all the time – to the gym, out running errands and, yes, during sex. They change my overall look and give me so much more confidence. They’re life-changing.

“I’m really happy with my look now, and my health is great. I even found out after my surgery that one of my breasts really did have breast cancer, and I am so lucky we caught it that early.” – Dana Reinke, 45, diagnosed at 42

‘Doctors can’t even tell my 3-D nipple tattoos aren’t real.’

A woman receives a medical tattoo on her breast.

“I’ve had breast cancer twice. The first time, we treated it with chemo and radiation. When it came back two years later, I decided to get a double mastectomy, immediately followed by reconstruction surgery.

“I wasn’t able to do the nipple-sparing surgery on the side with cancer, but I was told I could keep the healthy nipple if I wanted to. I opted to have both removed because I didn’t want them to be mismatched.

“The first time I saw my breasts after the implant surgery, which followed my mastectomy, I remember thinking how good they looked… except for the lack of nipples. It was a huge shock to see two large, oval-shaped scars where they should have been.

“Honestly, losing my nipples was one of the hardest parts of my cancer. Every time I felt cold or aroused and my nipples didn’t react, it was just another reminder of how much I’d lost to this disease.

“I was desperate to feel normal again, so a year after my breast-reconstruction surgery – as soon as I was healed – I decided to have nipple-reconstruction surgery. My surgeon was a genius, but I was not prepared for what I would see post-surgery – my new nipples looked like raw meat. They were so red and inflamed and were covered in stitches. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but they looked terrible at first.

“Caring for my new nipples was also lot of work. Every day for weeks, I had to put on ointment, cover them with bandages, and then try to figure out a decent outfit I could wear without needing a bra, since I wasn’t able to wear one during the recovery period. It was overwhelming, and even worse, I still wasn’t thrilled with how they looked when they were healed.

“They didn’t look like ground meat anymore, but they still didn’t look real. The areola was too big, and the colour was lighter than the surrounding skin – not darker, how nipples typically look.

“About a year later, I decided to get my reconstructed nipples tattooed. It’s unbelievable how realistic the tattoos look. The artist corrected the colouring and added details like shading and dots that look exactly like real nipples. In fact, the last time I went in for a checkup, neither my dermatologist nor my gynae realised they weren’t real.

“Today, I wouldn’t change a thing about my nipples. And interestingly enough, my choice to get both nipples removed turned out to be a life-saving one: When the pathology came back on the ‘healthy’ nipple, I found out I had a second cancer on the other breast. So now when I look in the mirror, I’m both happy and healthy.” – Jana Muntin, 44, diagnosed at 40

Special thanks to Dr Oren Lerman, for his consultation services.

^{This article was originally published on} ^{www.womenshealthmag.com}

^{Image credit: iStock}

Health24.com | This leg-sculpting workout will make you want to wear shorts

Posted on 18/11/2018 by Boris Clair

Earlier this year, I became Nigeria’s first winter Olympian when I represented my country in Skeleton at the Pyeongchang Games. As Nigeria’s first Winter Olympian, keeping my legs in tip-top shape is an upmost priority. I’ve spent years perfecting how to get my legs lean, strong and powerful. And now, I’m sharing my fave exercises to achieve killer legs. Get ready to train like an Olympian and challenge your legs for the best results.

Your Moves

1. Kangaroo box jumps

Box jumps are my absolute fave. They’re super fun, burn a ton of kilojoules and blast fat. Jumping also increases your strength, muscle tone and gives you amazing calves.

Do it:

You’ll need some space and three to five plyometric boxes or sturdy raised surfaces. Choosing the height of the boxes will depend on your current fitness level, but most women will want to start with 30 to 45cm heights. Set the boxes up in a straight line by taking two large steps in between each box (you can create more space in between the boxes if you’re more advanced and as you progress). Once the boxes are set up, jump onto the first box, landing with both feet. Then immediately spring back up as quickly as you can to jump on or over the next box. Start with three or four sets of box jumps a few times a week.

2. Power skips

I love skipping because it’s really convenient and activates the major muscles of your lower body; glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calf muscles. It also burns a high amount of kilojoules, which can help with weight loss and trimming your thighs.

Do it:

Grab a skipping rope and start by running in place and alternating between your right and left foot. Bring your knees as high as you can in front of your body with each step. Jump for 30 seconds – as you get better at it, you can up your time to 60 seconds or more. Do four to six sets of timed intervals, resting 30 seconds between sets.

3. Frog thrusts

These give me life. They work your quads, glutes and hamstrings and have many of the same benefits as the dreaded burpee, without leaving you a hot mess on the floor of the gym.

Do it:

Start in push-up position. Then bring both feet up to the outside of your hands, sinking into a deep squat. Once both feet touch the ground, kick both legs back to start. Repeat. Try doing 25 in a row as fast as you can. As you get fitter, go for more.

4. #SleighSimiSleigh sprints

To be Africa’s fastest woman on ice, I have to do tons of sprinting off the ice. Sprinting gets my legs strong and keeps my overall body snatched because it burns a great deal of kilojoules in a short time. Sprints can be done anywhere and are very time effective, as well.

How to:

Before diving into your sprint workout, warm up by doing a mix of low-intensity cardio (skip or jog at a comfortable pace for 4–5 minutes), sprint-specific drills (lunges, skips, leg swings) and plyometrics and accelerations (high knees and 10–20–30-metre accelerations – run fast for 10, 20, then 30 metres). This should take about 15 minutes; then you’re ready to sprint. Find a 40-metre straight, flat area (pavements, long driveways and hallways work well). Sprint as fast as possible for 40 metres, then walk back to the start. That’s one rep. Do a set of four reps, resting for 2 minutes between. Once you’ve done your set of four, rest 5 minutes, then go again.

5. Explosive step-ups

These strengthen the muscles on the front and back of your thighs and, bonus, will also help get your gluteus maximus (AKA your booty) rock solid.

How to:

You’ll need a bench, box or platform, just under knee height. Stand tall facing the bench. Plant one foot on top and explosively drive upward, extending at the hips, knees and ankles. Switch legs in mid-air and land softly with the opposite foot on the box. Immediately start your next rep. Do four reps on each leg, aiming for maximum height on each rep. That’s one set. Do three sets in total, resting 2 minutes between sets.

^{This article was originally published on} ^{www.womenshealthsa.co.za}

^{Image credit: iStock}

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