Extended fertility is becoming more and more popular in the modern world. The latest technologies help many people from the whole world to reach the long-awaited baby birth at the right time. Cryopreservation of biological material is your chance not to draw the special attention to the passage of time, just live your life as fully as possible – to travel, to work, to build a career or to wait for the right time and the right person to have a baby with.

ADONIS ‘own cryo bank provides the opportunity to use the cryopreservation services of the highest level of quality. Genetic material, embryo preservation – all possible efforts are focused on the safety of your most precious. 

ADONIS cryopreservation advantages:

• ADONIS embryo laboratory is created with all facilities needed to support effective embryos and genetic materials in the cleanest, safest environment with a unique air handling system and maintained temperature control. 
• The special technique of flash-freezing helps to save all qualities of the embryos and biological materials for the most effective treatment and conception.
• The special Cryotec method of vitrification (a superior freezing technique) consists of a specific set of strictly monitored cryopreservation protocols which highly increase the survival rate of embryos and biological materials.
• Embryo freezing allows our patients to have their own healthy born child at the right moment for their family. Embryos can be created at the time when parents are young and totally healthy to ensure the best quality and state of their future procreation. 

Vitrification method of preservation

Medical Center ADONIS Family uses the latest method of embryos freezing – vitrification method. 

The process of vitrification differs in the highest level of safety, because, according to the newest research, no more than 10-12% of embryos are damaged or die as the result of this type of preservation.

After the vitrification, ADONIS experienced fertility doctors provide successful transfer of frozen embryos with the help of painless and approved manipulations.  

The main aspects to perform embryos cryopreservation include: 

• any diseases, painful conditions, contraindications to embryo transfer in woman’s menstrual cycle during the attempt of IVF Program
• contribution to the future – to save quality embryos for their next use in the future IVF cycles
• Surrogacy Programs participation
• preservation of the embryos for the right time in your family life

ADONIS clinics long-term medical performance for more than 23 years has helped many people from around the world to gain parental happiness. Frozen embryo transfer success rate is really high and effective thanks to the qualitative equipment, experienced staff and constant follow-up and control of the processes.

The final decision and referral for the embryo cryopreservation is made by ADONIS leading physician and embryologist for each case and couple individually. Because the personal approach of ADONIS is known and appreciated for its effectiveness.

ADONIS qualitative medical assistance with the highest level additional services as the safest cryopreservation of embryos and biological material – is your way for healthy procreation. Choose the best variant for you!

If you love the tranquillity and allure of the countryside and the fun of the city, you’re not alone. There’s certainly something to be said about the fresh air, privacy and expansive greenery of living in a rural area, but cities tend to offer easier access to a wider range of amenities and better transport links.

However, it needn’t be a trade-off. The health and wellness gurus at Made4 Vitamins have analysed which of the UK’s 25 largest cities will allow you to live the healthiest lifestyle, considering factors such as air quality, walkability, access to green spaces, sunshine, life expectancy and more. If you’re looking for the charm of the countryside with the hustle and bustle of the city, then don’t miss out – now, you can have both.

Key Findings:

• Of the top 25 cities in the UK by population, Edinburgh offered the best air quality, followed by Leicester and Birmingham.
• Bradford offered the worst air quality, followed by Brighton and London.
• Edinburgh also offered the greatest amount of green space per person, with 233.3m² of green space available per head.
• Sheffield ranked second in green space per person with 155m² of green space per head.
• Edinburgh also ranked highest in walkability, followed by Sheffield and London.
• Of the top 25 cities, Plymouth ranked highest in the UK (2^nd) in terms of sunlight per year, with Bristol coming in eighth.
• Cities in the north of the UK were more likely to experience vitamin D deficiencies than cities in the south.
• Cities in the north of the UK tended to have lower life expectancies than cities in the south.
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Air Quality – Edinburgh

Air quality can have a huge impact on your health and wellbeing – fresh air has been associated with a healthy digestive system, improved blood pressure and heart rate and more, whilst polluted air can result in various cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers.

As such, the World Health Organisation has established guidelines for acceptable air pollution levels, based on the concentrate of PM_2.5, fine particulate matter of 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter, in the air.

Of the top 25 most-populous cities in the UK, Bradford ranks worst for air quality according to IQ Air, with their 2021 air quality exceeding the WHO guideline by 2-3 times. The second-worst UK city by air quality was Brighton, followed by London, Bristol, and Belfast.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh offered the best air quality of the top-25 cities, followed by Glasgow, Leicester, and Birmingham.

Green Spaces – Edinburgh

Green spaces add a charm and freshness to any city, breaking up the monotony of skyscrapers and tower blocks. Not only that, but they create a safe space for community and exercise, for kids to play and to meet friends in.

According to Natwest’s Green Cities report, Edinburgh is the number one city in the UK in terms of green space. The city offers a massive 233.3m² of green space for each person living there, beating out second-placed Sheffield who boast 155m² of green space per head. Public-access parks and green spaces constitute a whopping 49.2% of the city, meaning that there are plenty of great options when it comes to getting a bit of fresh air.

Sheffield also ranked well when it came to other metrics such as green energy production, residents’ energy consumption and the percentage of car owners with ULEZ vehicles, and topped the NatWest study’s list of Greenest Cities. At the other end of the list was Wolverhampton, where there was just 25m² of green space to each person, and high numbers of people commuting by car.

Walkability – Edinburgh

If a city is lacking proper infrastructure for pedestrians, you’re much more likely to get into unhealthy habits, such as driving or taking public transport everywhere. Luckily, that problem is much more common in the US, where cities fail to provide proper pedestrian areas or walking routes.

Edinburgh topped the list of UK cities for walkability too, no doubt helped in part by the sheer number of green spaces on show throughout the city. A survey by Living Streets quizzed residents on how they felt about their city’s walkable access to shops and parks, the quality of pavements and streets, and whether they felt safe walking there.

Again, Edinburgh ranked highest for walkability, followed by Sheffield, with London in third place. 82% of respondents found Edinburgh’s streets to be of good quality, with 67% of respondents finding it easy to reach a park on foot and 65% finding it easy to get to the shops on foot.

Sunlight – Plymouth

Though the UK’s sunniest city, Chichester, falls outside the top-25 population ranking, two of the UK’s most populous cities make the top 10 – Plymouth and Bristol. Plymouth was ranked the UK’s second-sunniest city in the country in a 2018 survey, having enjoyed 1730.1 yearly hours of sunshine. Meanwhile, Bristol took eighth position on the list with 1627 yearly hours of sunshine.

Ensuring you get enough sunlight can be crucial for your health – a failure to receive enough sunlight can result in an insufficiency or even deficiency of vitamin D. A 2021 study backed this up, with areas in the north of England most likely to suffer from insufficient vitamin D. Scotland was the most likely area for this to happen, though residents in London were also likely to have lower vitamin D levels.

Life Expectancy – Westminster 

When it comes to judging cities or even regions on their life expectancy, it can be a little trickier to gauge due to disparities that exist in each city. For example, there are significant fluctuations within London when comparing areas such as Kensington and Newham. The highest life expectancy in the country, according to data from 2017-19, is from the London borough of Westminster, where men tended to live to around 85, and women to 87.

Overall, however, data highlights the fact that places in the south of the UK tend to have higher life expectancies than places in the north. Though these figures vary across London, the capital city as a whole boasted approximate life expectancies of 81 for men and 85 for women according to figures from 2017-2019.

Meanwhile, Newcastle and the surrounding areas had the lowest life expectancies in England. Many other cities north of the Watford Gap had a noticeably lower life expectancy than London, including Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, where life expectancy tended to be around 78 for men and 82 for women. These numbers were lower still in Scotland, where life expectancy was 77 for men and 81 for women.

Though the life expectancy is lower in Scotland, Edinburgh remains a similar level to Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, and boasts significantly better walkability, access to green spaces, and better air quality – it therefore tops our list of the healthiest places to live in the UK.

In this video, I’m going to debunk the 9 most pervasive, outdated myths about autism for you! We’ll explore the truth about autism, including how it affects a person’s life and some that you may have heard before, but some might be a SURPRISE to you.

Researchers have successfully tested a device that may one day use the chemical biomarkers in sweat to detect changes in a person’s health. 

In a new study published in the journal Science Advances, a team from The Ohio State University demonstrated a battery-free, wireless biochemical sensor that detected the blood sugar – or glucose – humans excrete from their skin when they exercise. 

The Ohio State team fabricated a “smart necklace” – complete with a functional clasp and pendant – which, once placed around their necks, was used to monitor the glucose level of study participants as they exercised.

Instead of a battery, it works using a resonance circuit, which reflects radio frequency signals sent out by an external reader system. After engaging in indoor cycling for 30 minutes, participants took a 15-minute break, during which they drank sugar-sweetened beverages, before resuming cycling. 

The researchers knew that glucose levels in the sweat should rise after drinking the sugary beverages – the question was whether this new sensor would pick it up, said  Jinghua Li, co-author of the study and assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Ohio State.

The results showed the sensor did track the glucose levels successfully, which suggests it will work to monitor other important chemicals in sweat.

“Sweat actually contains hundreds of biomarkers that can reveal very important information about our health status,” said Li. “The next generation of biosensors will be so highly bio-intuitive and non-invasive that we’ll be able to detect key information contained in a person’s body fluids.”

Biomarkers are substances that can divulge a body’s deepest secrets: Everything from disease, infection and even evidence of emotional trauma can be found in a person’s bodily fluids, which include sweat, tears, saliva and urine. In addition to analyzing the composition of sweat, the researchers believe this sensor could one day be customized as bioimplants and used to detect neurotransmitters and hormones, which could help identify ion disorders in cerebrospinal fluid associated with secondary brain injury, or even lead to a new understanding of how the brain functions, Li said. 

Additionally, this smart necklace requires only a minimum amount of sweat for the interface to work due to the miniaturized structure of the sensing interface, Li added.

Although it’ll be some time before a device similar to this study’s prototype will become available to the public, Li is already thinking about what will benefit the people who will need this potentially life-saving technology the most.  

Instead of using the bulky and rigid computer chips found in our phones and laptops, the sensors are made out of materials that are ultra thin. This style of design makes the product highly flexible, protects the device’s functionality, and ensures that it can safely come into contact with a person’s skin. 

While the study notes that further miniaturization would make it more feasible for this and similar devices to become implantable, for now, Li said she imagines it as a lightweight device with simple circuit layouts that could be easily integrated into our daily lives. 

“We hope that eventually these sensors can be seamlessly integrated into our personal belongings,” she said. “Some of us may wear necklaces, some may wear earrings or rings. But we believe these sensors could be placed in something we all wear and that it could help us better track our health.”

People with a severe form of diabetes, where the beta cells of the pancreas do not produce or no longer produce enough insulin, have no choice but to inject themselves regularly with artificial insulin in order to survive. But Insulin therapy is not without its dangers: it is difficult to dose and, in the long term, it can also lead to serious metabolic and cardiovascular problems. Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have been working for several years on an alternative therapy based on the S100A9 protein. They have now provided proof of principle that this protein can significantly improve metabolism in insulin deficiency. In addition, by deciphering the biological mechanisms at work, they have discovered a previously unknown anti-inflammatory effect that could prove key well beyond diabetes. These results are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Insulin therapy, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021, has probably saved the lives of hundreds of millions of people suffering from type 1 diabetes or severe forms of type 2 diabetes. However, it has some risks, if the doses are too high or too low, and is even directly responsible for some potentially fatal conditions. Consequently, the life expectancy of insulin-dependent diabetics is reduced by 10 to 15 years compared to the norm. “Life-threatening hypoglycaemia, negative impact on fat metabolism and increased cholesterol: these are some severe side effects of insulin. This is why we are looking to develop complementary or alternative treatments that are more effective and less dangerous”, summarises Roberto Coppari, a Professor in the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism and Coordinator of the Diabetes Centre of UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who directed this work.

The S100A9 protein proves its worth

In 2019, Professor Coppari’s team identified a protein called S100A9 that regulates blood glucose, lipids and ketones (a product of fatty acidic oxidation in the liver when the body no longer has enough glucose to function), without the side effects of insulin. “To develop a drug, however, we had to understand how this protein works precisely and demonstrate its effectiveness in animal models,” emphasises Girorgio Ramadori, a research associate in Professor Coppari’s lab and lead author of this study.

The team first set out to decipher the mode of action of S100A9 in diabetic mice. “It turns out that this protein acts in the liver,” says Gloria Ursino, a first author of the study and post-doctoral fellow in the research team. “It activates the TLR4 receptor, which is located on the membrane of certain cells, but not on the hepatocytes, which are the main functional cells of the liver.” This is excellent news from a pharmacological point of view: it means that S100A9 does not need to enter the liver cells to act and allows for a simple injection mode of administration.

In diabetic people, insulin deficiency can cause a sudden increase in ketones and acidification of the blood, a mechanism called diabetic ketoacidosis. This is a life-threatening emergency that affects 2-4% of people with type 1 diabetes every year. “TLR4 activation in the liver controls the production of ketones,” explains Gloria Ursino. “But this activation process does not trigger inflammation, whereas TLR4 is usually pro-inflammatory. The S100A9-TLR4 dialogue therefore seems to act as a totally unexpected anti-inflammatory drug.”

A strategy in several steps

The scientists completed their results by examining the blood of diabetic people arriving at the emergency room with severe insulin deficiency. “A slight but insufficient natural increase in S100A9 is detected,” explains Giorgio Ramadori. “Therefore, additional administration of S100A9 is expected to enhance this compensatory mechanism.”

While the idea of a combination of drugs has already been explored, previous research has focused on drugs that increase insulin sensitivity. “But this only leads to the same results with lower doses.  The side effects of insulin therapy remain the same,” explains Roberto Coppari. “Here, we propose a radically different strategy with a drug that works independently of insulin and that can neither trigger hypoglycaemia nor disrupt fat metabolism.”

The scientists will initially test their drug in conjunction with low doses of insulin, but do not rule out the possibility of administering the S100A9 protein alone in the future, in specific conditions. To further develop this highly innovative therapy, Roberto Coppari and Giorgio Ramadori have created a start-up company, Diatheris, supported by UNITEC, the UNIGE’s technology transfer office, and FONGIT, the main foundation supporting technological entrepreneurship in the canton of Geneva.