The Image Woman

–It’s easy to suffer an injury in a slippery bathroom, but taking some precautions can get rid of potential hazards.

The Home Safety Council lists these suggestions to reduce slips and falls in the bathroom:

Install grab bars next to the toilet and the shower or bathtub.Use a non-slip mat or non-slip strips in the shower or bathtub.Place a bath mat with non-skid backing on the floor just outside the shower or bathtub.Clean up the bathroom floor regularly, and quickly wipe up any spills or moisture.Put a nightlight in the bathroom and in the hallways.

We take so much care of our facial skin, what with application of lotions, sunscreens and night creams. But we forget to extend the same care to our lips. An otherwise radiant complexion is sometimes marred by dry flaky lips. To combat this, you need to take care of your lips by exfoliating them from time and time and applying a rich conditioning lip balm. Many women just slather on lip balm day and night, without first scrubbing the lips. This results in dryness and flakiness that does not appear very appealing. If you apply lipstick on dry and chapped lips, the lipstick will bleed and settle on the fine lines of the lips. Now you certainly don’t want that? Do you….? So using a lip scrub or lip exfoliator will help in removing flakiness and make them smooth and soft. But most of the goods offered inside the industry are quite expensive and not all of them are effective. So why not try a homemade lip scrub instead? Here we will discuss the best way to make some simple but effective residence made lip scrubs.

How to Make Homemade Lip Scrub

Homemade Lip Scrub #1
If you are seeking for a simple homemade lip exfoliator which does not require too many ingredients to make, then this one is just ideal for you. Take one tablespoon of granulated sugar in a small bowl and add two tablespoons of regular petroleum jelly. Mix the sugar and petroleum jelly thoroughly until you have a paste. Now take a small amount of this sugar and petroleum jelly mixture on a toothbrush and rub gently on your lips in circular motion. Wash your lips with lukewarm water and you will be left with smooth lips. Make sure that you use a soft bristled toothbrush and the gentlest of pressure while scrubbing your lips.

Homemade Lip Scrub #2
To make this lip scrub you will need 2 tablespoon pomegranate seeds, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Crush the pomegranate seeds, granulated sugar and olive oil in a mortar and pestle. As soon as you have a rough and coarse paste, transfer the paste to a small container. Add a bit more olive oil if the paste is too thick and gluggy. Now apply a small amount of this scrub on your lips and exfoliate with gentle circular motion.

Homemade Lip Scrub #3
In a small container add the juice of half an orange and half a lime. To this add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar or demerara sugar. Mix the sugar into the orange and lime mixture, but do not let it dissolve completely. Dip a clean flannel cloth into this mixture and scrub your lips gently with this natural homemade scrub. This is a very gentle scrub and you can use it twice a week to keep your lips smooth and soft without any hint of flakiness or dryness. Read the Buzzle article the best way to make your own lipstick, if you want to make natural lipstick at property.

Homemade Lip Scrub #4
Mix 1 tablespoon honey with 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil with 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. When you have a thick paste add the juice of a handful of crushed mint leaves. Mix the paste thoroughly and use it to exfoliate your lips in a gentle circular motion. Massage your lips with the scrub for 1-2 minutes and then wash the scrub off with water.

Homemade lip scrubs are safe for regular use and they help eliminate dryness and flakiness. Ideally lip exfoliation should be done one or twice a week and over exfoliation should be strictly avoided. Since lips do not contain any oil glands, it really is important that you keep them hydrated, after scrubbing them. So always apply a hydrating lip balm to your lips after exfoliating them.

–Though clean and healthy teeth can brighten any grin, going to the dentist may not bring a smile to your face.

The American Dental Association lists these suggestions to make a dental visit easier on those who experience dental anxiety:

Explain to your dentist and the rest of the staff in the office that you’re anxious about going to the dentist, and express your specific concerns.Schedule your dentist appointment for a time when you won’t feel pressured or rushed, such as a Saturday morning.Bring along a personal radio, MP3 player or CD player to drown out the sound of the drill.While you’re in the chair, try to relax by visualizing yourself in a happy, relaxing and comfortable place, such as the beach.

Lip scars might be caused due to various reasons. Lip piercings, infections, wounds, acne, etc., can result into scars on this area which are often prominent enough to ruin your looks. I am sure that you are here to find out the ways to get rid of such scars on your lip area, right? Well, then just move on to the next section and get some ideas on clearing off the lip scars. Opting for one of the below mentioned remedies as soon as you notice any scar on lip area will help fade off the same much faster. Also, let me tell you that deeper and older scars will take lengthy to heal and clear off completely. So continuing the treatment for weeks and months is essential to get the results in most of the cases.

Tips on The best way to Get Rid of Scars on Lips

Vitamin E Oil
Well, while you search the best way to get rid of scars on lips, you might commonly find vitamin E oil as a recommended treatment. Regular application of vitamin E oil is sure to heal off the scar and help you have softer and flawless lips. You can either buy an oil bottle or opt for the vitamin E capsules which are known to be much effective. Break open a capsule and apply the content on lip scar.

Olive Oil
If you are wondering the best way to get rid of scars on lips which are caused due to acne, then olive oil may be the thing to opt for. You can simply buy a small bottle of olive oil and commence applying the same at least twice a day. Make sure that you massage it well with your finger guidelines into the scar and don’t eat or drink anything at least for 25 minutes after the application.

Aloe Vera Gel
Application of aloe vera gel is another best way to get rid of lip area scars. You can buy a bottle of aloe vera gel and apply it 2-3 times a day. Extracting fresh gel from an aloe vera plant at the time of application is also a good idea. Aloe vera is known for its healing properties and it really is an effective treatment in fading off dark spots and scars.

Lemon and Honey
Honey and lemon juice are also amongst the popular picks when it comes to clearing off scars using property remedies. All you need to do is combine 1 tsp. natural lemon juice, 2 tsp. honey and 1 tsp. shea butter and stir it well. You will have a thick mixture which could be applied on the scar. Repeat this remedy 2-3 times a day for a few weeks.

Advanced Treatments
Well, if there is no improvement inside the lip scars even after a few weeks of trying the residence remedies, you can consult a dermatologist and go for advance treatments. He/she will initially prescribe you some topical creams and oral medications. If the same doesn’t seem to work or if the scars are deeper and extremely prominent, your doctor will suggest advanced treatments like dermabrasion, laser treatment or plastic surgery. Deep injury scars and lip piercing scars often need to be patched off with plastic surgery.

While you opt for any advanced treatments, make sure that you consult an experienced and reputed dermatologist. Lips are amongst the most prominent parts of your body and hence they need to be treated with extreme care. Early treatment is sure to help fade off the scars much earlier. So, if you have a lip scar, make sure you don’t keep on hiding it with a concealer. Opt for a good remedy and get set to have flawless lips that spice up your beauty.

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Hospital Outpatient Care Pricier Than Doctor’s Office Visits: Report

Only five percent of all ambulatory doctor visits in the United States in 2008 were to doctors in hospital outpatient departments, but these types of visits accounted for more than 20 percent of the $309 billion spent on that type of care, says a federal government report released .

The average cost of a hospital outpatient doctor visit was $1,275, compared to $199 for a visit to a doctor’s office, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The average cost of a hospital emergency department in which a patient was seen by a doctor was $922. This type of visit accounted for only four percent of all ambulatory visits but 14 percent of the total amount spent on ambulatory doctor care.

Patients who received hospital outpatient care from a doctor were about seven times more likely to have surgery than patients seen in a doctor’s office and four times more likely than patients seen by a doctor in a hospital emergency department, the report said.

In cases where patients didn’t have surgery, the average expense per visit for physician care was 44 higher in the hospital emergency department than in the outpatient department — $821 vs. $569.

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FDA Approves Cervical Cancer Test

A test to identify women at high risk for cervical cancer has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The test can detect two types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) associated with more than 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, as well as 12 other types of HPV that can also cause the disease, Bloomberg News reported.

FDA approval of the test from Roche Holding AG was based on a study of more than 47,000 women in the United States.

In 2010, more than 12,000 cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. and more than 4,000 women died of the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute, Bloomberg reported.

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Rituxan Approved to Treat Blood Vessel Inflammation Disorders

The arthritis and cancer drug Rituxan has been approved to treat two rare disorders that cause blood vessel inflammation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.

In combination with steroids called glucocorticoids, Rituxan (rituximab) can be used to treat patients with Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA). The diseases each affect less than 200,000 people in the United States.

The FDA approval was based on a single clinical trial that included 197 patients with WG or MPA. Common side effects included infection, nausea, diarrhea, headache, muscle spasms and anemia.

The drug already has FDA approval to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

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Policy Shift Will Reduce Medicare Drug Plan Service Cuts

The Obama administration will award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated as average, a move that could prevent service cuts to millions of seniors enrolled in the plans.

The decision will lead to a $6.7 billion infusion into the popular private insurance plans and could avert service cuts that would have been a political problem for the president and Democrats in Congress, the Associated Press reported.

The quality bonuses will change what would have been averaged out as a net loss for the Medicare Advantage plans in 2012 into a small gain, according to the insurance industry.

Plans with average ratings account for more than half of the approximately 11 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, the AP reported.

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Woman Shows Off New Hand

A 26-year-old American woman who showed off her newly transplanted right hand Tuesday said she’s still getting used to it.

“I do feel like it’s mine. Slowly but surely, every day it becomes more and more mine,” Emily Fennell said Tuesday at a news conference at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.

She received her new hand March 5 during a 14 1/2-hour operation at the medical center. It was the first such transplant at the hospital and the 13th in the United States.

Doctors said Fennell, who lost her hand in a traffic crash, faces a long rehabilitation process, the AP reported.

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Breath Test for Cancer a Step Closer: Scientists

Researchers say they’re a step closer to creating a breath test that can detect cancer.

Israeli scientists who created an “electronic nose” found that it was able to identify chemical signals of cancer in the breath of 80 patients with lung or head and neck cancer, BBC News reported.

The findings appear in the British Journal of Cancer.

“There’s an urgent need to develop new ways to detect head-and-neck cancer because diagnosis of the disease is complicated, requiring specialist examinations,” said lead researcher Professor Hossam Haick of the Israel Institute of Technology, BBC News reported.

“We’ve shown that a simple ‘breath test’ can spot the patterns of molecules which are found in head-and-neck patients in a small, early study,” Haick said. “We now need to test these results in larger studies to find if this could lead to a potential screening method for the disease.”

While the findings are encouraging, it will take years of research to determine if the breath test could be used in the clinic, Dr. Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, told BBC News.

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, April 20 — Researchers have identified a genetic variant that’s found in at least 59 percent of those who have pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly lung disease that typically kills within a few years of diagnosis.

Those with the gene variant had nearly 7 to 22 times the risk of contracting the lethal disease.

For the study, the researchers did a genome-wide linkage scan of 82 families with pulmonary fibrosis of an unknown cause. This type of scan typically looks at how inheritance patterns of multiple affected families are related to several hundred markers throughout the DNA.

The researchers zeroed in on chromosome 11, where they found a common gene variant.

The researchers then compared the results to the genomes of 83 people with familial pulmonary fibrosis (meaning it runs in their family), 492 people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (the type for which there’s no known cause) and 322 people without lung disease.

More genetic mapping showed that about 59 percent of people who have familial pulmonary fibrosis (also known as familial interstitial pneumonia) and 67 percent of those with the idiopathic type had the particular variant, or polymorphism.

Only 18 percent of those who did not have lung disease had that variant.

Pulmonary fibrosis involves rapid and progressive scarring of the lungs, making it increasingly difficult to breathe. It develops mostly in middle-age and older adults, according to the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis. Each year, about 40,000 people in the United States die of the disease.

“This gene variant contributes to the development of disease in 60 percent of patients with pulmonary fibrosis,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. David Schwartz, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of Colorado and director of the Center for Genes, Environment & Health at National Jewish Health in Denver.

So what does the MUC5B gene do in the body? It is involved with mucus production it codes for it, in fact — and is expressed in the air sacs deep within the lungs.

In people with the variant who had pulmonary fibrosis, expression of the MUC5B protein was 14.1 times higher than in those without lung disease. The protein produced by MUC5B was also found at higher concentrations in the injured sections.

Though pulmonary fibrosis was believed to be a problem with the lung tissue itself, the new research suggests that pulmonary fibrosis is actually a problem of the airways, Schwartz said.

That could open the door to new treatment possibilities, including inhaled medications, he said.

“We don’t have an effective treatment for the disease, and we don’t have an effective treatment because we’ve been focusing on the wrong target,” Schwartz said. “This discovery will help us focus on the right target and develop or try treatments that are directed at the mucus in the lung and the repair process in the lung associated with excessive mucus production.

The research is reported in the April 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Marylyn Glassberg, an associate professor of medicine and surgery and director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said that the researchers have found a strong association, but they haven’t proven causality.

“They make a strong case that this could be a very important contributor in terms of the development of the disease,” Glassberg said.

But the findings do not explain why about 9 percent of people without lung disease have the variant but not the disease or what triggers the disease in those who get it.

It’s likely that other genes, illnesses or environmental factors play a role, Glassberg said. Conditions such as lupus and scleroderma are risk factors for the disease, as is smoking and air pollution, she said.

“This is a very important study, but it’s not causative,” Glassberg said.

It’s possible that too much MUC5B protein makes it increasingly difficult for the mucus in the lung to clear foreign particles, such as cigarette smoke, dust and air pollution or to repair itself when it’s exposed to pollution and other irritants, Schwartz said.

Another theory is that the MUC5B polymorphism may result in the protein being produced in parts of the lung where it shouldn’t be, so that it acts not as a protector but as a toxin.

Besides opening the door to other treatments, Schwartz said, the study’s findings might also enable genetic testing of people who have the disease in their family.

In addition, researchers found that those who’d inherited one copy of the variant from their parents were seven to nine times more likely to have disease and those with two copies of the variant had up to a nearly 22-fold increased risk.

A genetic test for pulmonary fibrosis would be welcomed by many, such as Teresa Barnes, vice president of patient outreach and program support at the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis. Her father was diagnosed with the disease in 2002 and died within two years. Within a few years, his sister and two other brothers also died of the disease.

“It’s excruciating to watch,” Barnes said. “Someone you love is suffocating. You can’t make it go away. You can’t stop it. You feel really helpless, and you feel really hopeless.”

Barnes, who has a 7-month-old daughter, said she wonders if she or her daughter are destined to get the disease.

“It scares the life out of all of us,” Barnes said. “If 100 percent of the generation before you died from something, believe me, you’re afraid.”

More information

The Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis has more about pulmonary fibrosis.

SOURCES: David Schwartz, M.D., chairman, department of medicine, University of Colorado, and director, Center for Genes, Environment & Health, National Jewish Health, Denver; Marilyn Glassberg, M.D., associate professor, medicine and surgery, and director, Interstitial Lung Disease Program, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami; Teresa Barnes, vice president, patient outreach and program support, Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis; April 21, 2011, New England Journal of Medicine

The skin on your lips is thinner than the rest of your body and more prone to dryness, as it does not have sebaceous glands. Chapped lips are a huge turn off in both men and women. Even the best of makeup cannot compensate for dry lips and there is no excuse, considering it’s so easy to make your lips soft. When we speak and smile, the attention is on our lips and being well-groomed is essential to make a good impression.

Ways to Get Soft Lips

You do not need expensive merchandise to get your favorite celebrity pout, follow some of these easy suggestions and see the results for yourself.

Keep the Lips Hydrated
The secret to soft lips is keeping them hydrated and the simplest way to do this is by drinking enough water. It truly is often seen that chapped lips are common in people who do not drink enough water. So, ensure you have 8-10 glasses of water a day to keep your lips supple. Refrain from licking your lips, as it only temporarily moisturizes your lips and causes it to dry all the more.

Exfoliate the Dry Skin
The same way that you exfoliate your face and body, you also need to exfoliate your lips. There are a number of ways to do this, you can use lip exfoliating items or make your own homemade lip scrub. Mix sugar with olive oil to make a paste and rub it in small circles. Another method is to brush your lips with a soft baby toothbrush. Be careful to exfoliate very gently and avoid exfoliating if you have any cuts or wounds on your lips.

Moisturize Your Lips
Use a good quality lip balm to keep your lips moisturized. They are accessible in various flavors and give your lips the necessary moisture and shine. Opt for merchandise that have shea butter and vitamin E and apply it using your fingers. If the taste of lip balm makes you want to lick it off, then stick to basic petroleum jelly. Use one that has sunblock and wear it under your lipstick, carry it along with you and reapply it as often as required.
Below are some simple merchandise that work well to moisturize your lips.ButterHoneyOlive oilMilk creamBaby oilGlycerinCoconut oilAll these merchandise from your kitchen are very effective lip softeners. When applying any of these goods, use your finger and massage it in circular motions for a couple of minutes for best results.

Eat Right
Just like our skin benefits from a healthy diet, so do our lips. Eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, the minerals and vitamins will make your lips soft and healthy. A balanced diet is perhaps the easiest way of ensuring that you have soft lips, without making any other effort. So, alter your diet and include food that are rich in iron, essential fatty acids and vitamin A, you will be doing your lips a huge favor.

Some More Useful TipsBefore sleeping every night, apply two layers of lip balm, after you massage the first layer, apply another coat on top. This will give you added moisturization, as both the layers will be absorbed through the night.Do not use merchandise that are very old, check the expiry date and dispose accordingly. Also avoid sharing lip merchandise, as there are chances of passing on bacteria.An easy trick to get that perfect pout is to gently rub a warm cloth on your lips, this increases the blood flow and makes your lips plump and soft.If your lips are extremely dry, apply a thick layer of any cream that has an oily consistency and let it absorb completely.To remove sunburn, apply a mixture of honey and lemon juice and wash after 15 minutes.Avoid wearing lipstick when you have chapped lips, if at all you have to wear lipstick, make sure you apply a liberal dose of lip balm first. Use non-matte lipsticks as they contain more moisturizing ingredients in comparison to matte lipsticks.Always make sure you use only good quality lip merchandise to prevent your lips from drying. Follow these easy suggestions to get irresistibly soft lips and flaunt that pout!

, April 20 — A new study offers insight into “inattention blindness,” a phenomenon that causes people to lose sight of seemingly obvious things while they focus intensely on something else.

The study authors, in an effort to shed light on how inattention blindness may make drivers more prone to traffic accidents if they are talking on their cell phone, used a video from earlier research on what is called “selective attention” as an example of how people can lose focus on everything around them while being very focused on one thing.

The video shows a small group of people passing around two basketballs. Viewers are told to count how many times the ball is passed by the players in white shirts. Many viewers focus so intensely on the task that they fail to notice a person in a gorilla suit enter the frame and walk between the players.

“Because people are different in how well they can focus their attention, this may influence whether you’ll see something you’re not expecting — in this case, a person in a gorilla suit walking across the computer screen,” study lead author Janelle Seegmiller, a psychology doctoral student at the University of Utah, said in a university news release.

In the new study, the researchers tested 197 students, aged 18 to 35, who hadn’t seen the video before. The subjects had previously been tested with a set of math and memory problems, and had to get 80 percent right to be accepted into the study.

The study authors were focusing on something called working-memory capacity, which “is how much you can process in your working memory at once,” Seegmiller explained. “Working memory is the stuff you are dealing with right at that moment, like trying to solve a math problem or remember your grocery list. It’s not long-term memory.”

The subjects watched the video, and researchers measured their working-memory capacity. Again, subjects had to get 80 percent of the basketball passes right for their results to be analyzed.

According to the report, 58 percent of the students noticed the gorilla, while the rest did not. Among those who accurately counted the number of passes of the ball, 67 percent of those with high working-memory capacity noticed the gorilla, but only 36 percent of those with low working-memory capacity did.

In other words, people with a high working-memory capacity are not only better at focusing their attention; they are better able to switch the focus of their attention and multitask when necessary, the researchers explained.

The findings may explain why some people are more prone to inattention blindness than others.

The study is scheduled for publication in the May issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Study co-author Jason Watson, assistant professor of psychology, said: “The potential implications are that if we are all paying attention as we are driving, some individuals may have enough extra flexibility in their attention to notice distractions that could cause accidents.”

But, he continued, “that doesn’t mean people ought to be self-distracting by talking on a cell phone while driving — even if they have better control over their attention. Our prior research has shown that very few individuals [only 2.5 percent] are capable of handling driving and talking on a cell phone without impairment.”

More information

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has details about driver distraction.

Man had given all other bliss,
And all his worldly worth for this,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips ~ 19th Century English Poet.

The above written words are the best way to express the importance of beautiful lips in a woman’s life. Women who think that they haven’t been blessed with luscious and beautiful lips can definitely opt for lip augmentation. These days any woman can have lips like Angelina Jolie and Kate Beckinsale and thanks to the wonders of different cosmetic procedures, women can make drastic changes in their appearance without worrying too much. In lip augmentation doctors with the help of cosmetic procedures enhance the appearance of both the lips. Most women who have a little knowledge about cosmetology need to be knowing what lip augmentation is. For those who have heard this term for the first time, read ahead to know all about lip augmentation and how much does lip augmentation cost.

Lip Augmentation Procedure Cost

Women who want beautiful and lustrous searching lips opt for the procedure of lip augmentation. By lip augmentation women make their lips fuller and attractive. This cosmetic operation has been very popular with women but nowadays even men are opting for it. Doctors inject dermal fillers into the lips and in surrounding areas to improve the shape and appear of both the lips. With age, lips lose their luster and smoothness and this procedure is undertaken to improve the overall appearance of the lips.

Coming on the cost of lip augmentation, this topic can have various answers as the total cost depends upon a lot of factors such as; the surgeon, the geographic location and the type of procedure performed on the lips. A visit to the doctor’s clinic will give you a better understanding of the entire procedure and total cost. The price range could be anywhere between $600 to $1000 for the lip plumping injections that is required for lip augmentation. Patients can opt for Collagen, Autologen, Dermalogen, Alloderm and Hylaform injections. These are temporary procedures which last for some time and then women might have to take these injections again probably after 6 to 7 months. Going for multiple lip augmentation procedures is surely going to raise the cost of lip augmentation.

Most women wouldn’t like to go in for temporary procedures. They would prefer to go for a permanent procedure (also known as non injectable) of lip augmentation. A permanent procedure is offered but for that patients have to shell out some extra money. Permanent procedures such as Soft Form, Ultra Soft and Gore Tex Implants means shelling out more than $2000 for each lip. The treatments guarantee permanent results and also reduces the cost for multiple sessions of lip augmentation. With the $2000 some more factors can also be taken into account such as the consultation fees, the hospital charges, surgeon fees, operating room fees, medications and anesthesia. It’s advised that women should go to a good and reputed cosmetologist for lip augmentation and considering all the expenses, the rough estimate comes to $5000 to $6000.

I hope this article has given a rough estimate on how much does lip augmentation cost. Another important thing to remember about lip augmentation is that it’s termed as a cosmetic procedure and a health insurance doesn’t cover it, although, some doctors do offer their patients some easy payment options. Lip augmentation does sound tempting but remember almost all cosmetic procedures have their fair share of side effects, so think twice before opting for it.

, April 20 — Researchers have developed a blood test that they say could help physicians predict whether pregnant women will deliver their babies prematurely.

The test isn’t ready for prime time, however, and it’s not foolproof: a study found that it misses some premature births and incorrectly predicts others.

Still, the test “should be an important tool for an obstetrician who currently has no clue” if premature birth is a possibility until it happens, said Brigham Young University (BYU) chemistry professor Steven W. Graves.

Physicians will “be able to use a simple blood test and then know that this woman is at increased risk or reduced risk of a preterm birth,” said Graves, whose laboratory performed the research in the study.

About 10 percent of births are premature, and the rate rises to 30 percent among women who have already had a baby prematurely, Graves said. Premature birth can lead to a long list of medical problems and puts babies at risk of dying.

In the new study, the researchers examined blood samples from 80 women who went on to have normal births and 80 who had premature births. They tried to find signs in the blood that indicate what kind of birth the women would have.

The researchers developed a screening method that looked for so-called peptide biomarkers in the blood that — in tandem with several other proteins — predicted 80 percent to 90 percent of the premature births at 28 weeks of gestation. The false positive rate — referring to tests that wrongly indicated premature birth — was 20 percent.

The test wasn’t as effective at 24 weeks of gestation.

“This may simply indicate that some of the causes for preterm birth may not pre-exist before the pregnancy,” Graves said. “Most probably don’t, but develop or become apparent as the pregnancy progresses. The closer to the preterm birth, the more likely you are to have significant changes in the physiology of the woman that is observed in the blood.”

The test may cost $150 to $250, Graves said. It would require several years to go through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval process. BYU and the University of Utah have a patent on the test and have licensed it.

Even if the test is found to indicate that a birth will be premature, physicians would have limited options. One option is to provide drugs that dampen the immune system so the baby’s lungs develop faster, said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Wu said the study results are promising, but more research is needed to confirm that the test is reliable. “If you are going to be alarming a patient by saying that she may have premature delivery, you want to make sure that’s truly the case.”

The study appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

More information

For more about premature birth, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.