#Medicinal Value

[fieriframes]

[Relic from those ill- fated times possesses medicinal value too.]

[subbalakshmisastry]

Ravishing Flowers of Coral Fountain/ Firecracker plant /Russelia equise...

[compayur]

The Medicinal Value of Fishes: A Dual Perspective

The Medicinal Value of Fishes: A Dual Perspective

Fishes, a staple in many diets worldwide, are a source of essential nutrients and have significant medicinal value. This blog post delves into the medicinal benefits of fish from both Ayurvedic and modern medicine perspectives and suggests vegetarian alternatives for those who prefer plant-based diets. The Medicinal Value of Fishes Fishes are packed with high-quality protein, iodine, various…

[palsaa]

[13eyond13]

I love the way that, in addition to his origin story with his over-sized sword and the scar on his nose, the flashbacks to Guts's childhood show how much of his insane work ethic and reckless self-endangering abandonment in battle were all kinda ingrained into him by his craving for attention and approval from shitty father figure, Gambino.

Random nice mercenary guy: "Don't overexert yourself, kid. Just do what's needed. 'Cause if you die, you lose everything."

Gambino: "It's your first battle. Work hard!"

Guts: [throws himself into battle so hard he nearly dies multiple times, fixating on pleasing Gambino the entire time]

Gambino: "C'mon, hurry up! Work! Work!"

Guts: [gives Gambino his entire earnings, Gambino tosses him back a single coin]

Guts: [more motivated by this one mild bit of encouragement than anything he's ever experienced before in his life]

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom Attendance rewards/punishments in schools/workplaces are ableist and not conducive to health care. In Starfleet if I say my patient needs rest, I can make that an order that even someone above my rank has to obey. Your society could learn a thing or two about this. emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 3:24 PM · Sep 22, 2023

[andhumanslovedstories]

Also do you have any nursing book recommendations (not study books I mean novels)

Okay so it's not nurses exactly but from Terry Pratchett, the Tiffany Aching series and the Discworld witches are basically my nursing icons. From Granny Weatherwax to Tiffany Aching to Nanny Ogg to the witches that are a little too into crystals and all that, I just think something about the witches captures the good and bad of the spirit of nursing better than basically anything else.

But that's literally it, I don't have other nursing vibe novels and I would also love them. Recommendations please, anyone who has any.

(Actually, I do have another one sort of, which is the Protector of the Small series protagonist Kel by Tamora Pierce, but that one's maybe so tangentially related it only exists in my head. There's something about a work ethic dedicated to unglamorous labor that just gets me.)

[redrobin-detective]

Fellow nurblrs! We had a rousing discussion on my unit the other day about what every nursing domain likes to focus on. Like L&D had their special monitoring equipment, accels, decels and such and onc cares about BSAs. What are you obsessed with on your nursing unit?

[dailyneuvillette]

day thirty seven; braiding

[lordwoolselytaxservices]

To the people who are trying to break the 'capitalistic nature of medicine' but still charge you $800 for an hour and a half (about $533/hour) long session with them I hope you know you're part of the problem. (It's not just medicine either. It's all the get rich quick people, all the 'its so easy to become a millionaire/entrepreneur/business owner/etc' people too.)

Because the realty is that those of us who need your services the most can't afford that. And since Big Pharma doesn't recognize your practice because they can't profit off of it I have to pay out of pocket.

I'm not saying you shouldn't be paid for your time and expertise. You should. But $800 for 90 minutes of what? How often? What if it doesn't work like everything else I've tried? That's half my monthly salary as a full time employee. They offer 15 minute phone consultations first, which is great! At $75 per 15 minutes. A rate of about $300/hour.

People who can afford those types of services at those prices are already doing it. *gestures to upper middle class and upper class* The people who need it the most can't.

I've been playing prescription roulette for over 20 years at this point. Finding someone who is approaching things from a different angle is the only option I haven't exhausted. And you wanna charge me, someone who is considered impoverished by class terms/value/salary/etc. here in the US, $800 for a 90 minute session.

I am so so so fucking sick of this "let me post this video on TikTok/Reels/etc about how I can help so many people and then let them click a link that tells them it costs literally hundreds of dollars".

You are praying on us just like Big Pharma and Big Corp and quite frankly the entire upper class does.

What will y'all do when we're all dead and can't carry your labor and fill your pockets? What then?

[venacoeurva]

What is with those random accounts like [insert a few random words here]-blog just popping up flooded with machine fabricated images. Are they the new spam bots, because if so they've finally found a spam bot more annoying than the p[]rn ones: silicon valley type machine learning bros...

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

So Yeah I Just Got Done Watching The Sudbury Devil

...and it kinda blew my mind. It's somehow the most-unreal and most-real historical film I've ever seen. This is basically a thesis piece on de-romanticizing the period movie, and I cannot imagine anyone else currently in the biz who would even want to try and do that, and that's what makes this such a special project.

Watching this, I was reminded of how people dress up as fairies and elves and go to Ren Faire with the justification that "well people back then believed in those things so this is what their world would have looked like to them!" and let's just say this movie is a bit of a dark funhouse-mirror version of that idea. If we run with the conceit of looking at the Puritans' world through their eyes, it's less glitter and elf ears and more penis magic and Rosemary's Baby. Satan lurking around every corner, horrors beyond comprehension... and on the other side you have the more quotidian horrors of an oppressive and rigid hierarchy, ostensibly the side aligned with God. I grew up in the Evangelical milieu, so that shit hits a little close to home. Maybe one day I'll tell the story of how church life in my teen years was so miserable I accidentally a witchcraft... but I digress.

Admittedly I may be biased because I've watched so much of Andy's stuff and I get where he's coming from, so I don't know what this is going to look like to people being introduced to Andy's work for the first time, even if they are history enthusiasts. Watching a lot of the Witchfinder General's antics helps with the Original Pronunciation dialogue, and Andy's videos on King Phillip's War are a primer on the themes he's working with in this movie. I remember King Philip's War in school being the merest of footnotes but Andy treats it as crucial to understanding this country in all its fucked-up complexity and he's kinda winning me over on that one.

I should note that this movie is definitely not going to be for everyone: this has a level of gore that's on the bleedin' edge of what I can stand and a lot of sexual content, apparently enough that some people had to walk out of the premiere. All of it is in the service of the story, though. So yes, I recommend giving this a whirl when it comes out on streaming/to a theater near you if you can stomach some very literally visceral stuff. It's so much more unhinged and weird than I could possibly convey in a review, I dunno. I'm so glad I got to see it (but EVEN SALTIER that I didn't get to go to the IRL premiere now after seeing what Dr. Justin Sledge brought to the screening).

[anonymocha]

suddenly seeing parallels between kumar and medicine pocket

[yoshistory]

Rascal weaved out of the bathroom for a quick second the other night again (he is getting really stir-craszy unfortunately) before I could grab him and pop him back into the bathroom, and Olive witnessed him and her tail ballooned and she spat at him and stood her ground for a second before she skulked off but didn't attack him. Rascal was just like ❔️ huh. And Hoper was there too and she just like looked at him again and they were chill (this all happened in like a 4 second span)

I think in a hypothetical where he somehow opens the bathroom door while I'm away, Olive would get pissed and scared and run, and he and Hope would be like ❔️ hey whatever at one another. But I don't THINK anyone would get hurt because while scared and warning him and leaving, Olive didn't try and hurt him

[coochiequeens]

Gay men and the wealthy are no longer content to exploit one woman now exploiting two at the same is becoming trendy

Why have one baby when you can have 2? People are paying $500,000 to hire 2 surrogates at once and have 'twiblings'

By Kelsey Vlamis  Jul 16, 2024, 3:04 PM EDT

Some people are hiring two surrogates at the same time to carry their babies.

Concurrent surrogacy can be complicated and costly, with prices reaching up to $500,000 or more.

Many people who do it are in their 40s and trying to build out their family quickly.

Bill Houghton still vividly remembers the moment he met his son.

He was sitting in the hospital waiting room, right outside the birthing room, when a nurse appeared carrying a little green bundle.

"I just held him in my arms and just started crying. It was so overwhelming. My husband was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that this is it. We're a family,'" Houghton told Business Insider. "This is my son."

Just one week later, Houghton and his husband would have the same experience all over again when their second child, another son, was delivered.

"And it has been like that ever since," he said. "To this day, I still look at them and I think, 'Oh my God, these are my sons.' My father had sons. I never thought that I would have a son."

Houghton and his husband opted to become parents via concurrent surrogacy — a process in which two surrogates are hired to carry two babies at the same, or overlapping, time.

The resulting children can be born anywhere from one week apart, like Houghton's, to nine months apart, and have been referred to by some people in the industry as "tandem siblings" or "twiblings."

Surrogacy agencies told BI that concurrent surrogacy journeys are not uncommon, with some saying it's a rising trend in a growing industry that was valued at $14 billion in 2022 by Global Market Insights and has attracted the investments of private equity firms.

All kinds of people — couples or singles, straight or gay, young or old — have opted to build out their family two at a time via concurrent surrogacy. But there is one thing that most parents of twiblings have in common: the ability to afford them.

While Houghton hired surrogates abroad, couples who choose to go through US-based agencies can easily spend $300,000 to half a million dollars or more on concurrent surrogates, according to five surrogacy agencies that spoke to BI.

"It is a luxury, absolutely," Brooke Kimbrough, cofounder and CEO of Roots Surrogacy, told BI. "Most American families don't have $200,000 in cash to go through surrogacy generally, and then $400,000-plus in cash to be able to go through that twice at the same time."

Still, the use of concurrent surrogates could grow as surrogacy generally grows in the US, in part because celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Chrissy Teigen have started opening up about using surrogates, as well as depictions in film and TV that have made the practice more mainstream. Teigen was even pregnant at the same time as her surrogate.

Surrogacy is also becoming increasingly relevant as more and more people are opting to have kids and start building their families later in life.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have opened up about using a surrogate. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

Concurrent surrogacy can help build a family quickly

Concurrent journeys typically look like regular surrogacy journeys, just times two. Gestational surrogacy, when IVF is used to place a fertilized embryo into a surrogate, is the most common form of surrogacy in the US today. Parents can use their own egg and sperm or that of donors.

Like many gay couples, Houghton and his husband each used their sperm for one of the babies, as well as the same egg donor, so their sons are technically half brothers.

While there has been increased awareness around what some call "social surrogacy" — using a surrogate when it's not medically or biologically necessary — the majority of people who conceive via surrogacy do so because they have to.

"Typically, when people come to us, they've been through a lot. This is not their plan A, it's often not plan B, maybe it's plan C," Kim Bergman, a psychologist and senior partner at Growing Generations, told BI. "They've had a lot of disappointment, and they've had a lot of trials and tribulations."

Many hopeful parents are in their 40s and are simply eager to build their families, the agencies said. A surrogacy journey can easily take one and a half to two years, so for intended parents who know they want multiple kids, concurrent surrogates can be appealing.

Certainly, some people who opt for concurrent surrogates do not fit the definition of medically necessary, at least according to the standards laid out by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).

Some people have mental health reasons or a fear of giving birth. Others are actors or brain surgeons who spend 12 hours a day on their feet and who can't get pregnant and continue to do their jobs. All the surrogacy agencies BI spoke with said it's essentially never the case that someone opts for surrogacy simply for vanity reasons.

David Sher, founder and CEO of Elite IVF, told BI they've helped coordinate surrogates for celebrities, politicians, and people in demanding careers like finance or tech. He said he currently has a client who serves on the cabinet of a Western country and is trying to have a baby via surrogate in part due to her demanding schedule.

Sher said he thinks concurrent surrogacy has long been an option for intended parents but that there does seem to be an uptick in people who are opting to do it.

Part of the reason for that could be because fewer and fewer agencies are willing to do double embryo transfers, which were previously more common and could result in a twin pregnancy. The ASRM recommends against them, as twin pregnancies come with heightened risks for both the surrogate and the babies. So concurrent surrogacy is a safer option for intended parents who want to have two kids at the same time or in close succession.

Costly and complicated

Though it's viewed as a safer option, concurrent surrogacy is controversial. The ASRM guidelines actually recommend against concurrent surrogacy, as well as against social, or not medically necessary, surrogacy. But all five surrogacy agencies that BI spoke to will facilitate concurrent surrogacies.

The agencies said they've seen many concurrent surrogacy journeys be successful and that a lot of care and prior planning goes into making them happen.

"It's not taken lightly," Bergman said, adding that concurrent journeys are rarely chosen by 30-year-olds who have plenty of time to build their families, though that does occasionally happen.

Surrogacy, in general, is expensive — commonly ranging from $150,000 to $250,000 for one child. The costs go toward surrogate compensation, agency fees, legal fees for contracts, and clinical bills.

The agencies BI spoke with said a concurrent surrogacy journey would essentially cost twice that. Meaning there's no two-for-one special.

But cost isn't the only factor to consider. Perhaps the primary drawback to pursuing concurrent surrogacy (that is, besides the high price tag) is the logistics of it.

All the agencies emphasized that concurrent surrogacy should only be pursued with full transparency and the fully informed consent of every person involved. That means matching intended parents to surrogates who are fully aware and OK with the fact that they will not be the only surrogate.

Gestational surrogacy, in which a fertilized embryo is implanted in a surrogate, is most common in the US. Jay L. Clendenin/for The Washington Post/Getty Images

There's also tons of planning and talking through hypotheticals. Are the surrogates based in the same area? Can the parents attend both births? Are we staggering expected delivery times enough? What's the plan if one surrogate gets pregnant on the first try but the other doesn't?

There's also a psychological aspect. Will both surrogates feel fully supported? How will one feel if she doesn't get pregnant right away and the other does?

"All of these conversations are front-loaded. Anytime in the conversation, the surrogate can say, 'I'm not comfortable doing this,'" Bergman said, adding that sometimes, after thinking through the logistics, some parents will change their minds and plan to space the deliveries out further than they initially wanted, like to six or nine months.

Most agencies recommended staggering the planned deliveries by at least three months. But at the end of the day, parents need to be ready for the timeline to not go exactly as planned.

Houghton and his husband had actually planned to have their babies six weeks apart, but when one of the babies was born five weeks premature, they ended up with birthdays one week apart.

Concurrent surrogacy may not be for everyone — even if you can afford it

Although the cost of concurrent surrogacy makes it prohibitive for most people, that could change in the future as more and more companies expand their fertility benefits.

There are also more nonprofits popping up that will provide grants or partial funds to people who want to build their families via surrogacy but may not have the means to.

Jarret Zafran, founder and executive director at Brownstone Surrogacy, told BI that it's not necessarily only the ultrawealthy who pursue concurrent surrogacy. He said he currently has clients who are lifelong educators on the older side who are getting ready to start the surrogacy process. They recently asked about what it would look like for them to do a concurrent journey.

"I guess it is still a luxury in the sense that most Americans would not even be in a financial position to afford it the first time," Zafran, who also had a child with his husband through surrogacy, said. "But for them, this is not a frivolous decision, and they're scraping together every single little penny that they have, all of their savings, their retirement funds, and I get it."

By using surrogates abroad over a decade ago, Houghton and his husband, who are based in Spain, spent much less on their concurrent surrogates than they would have in the US. But he's still not totally sure why they chose to do concurrent journeys rather than space the children out a bit more.

"We just liked the idea of having two kids that were about the same age that would sort of grow up together," he said, adding, "I didn't realize at the time the challenges that would come with having two kids."

In reality, he said having the two boys grow up so close together in age, not twins but in the same class in school, ended up leading to a lot of conflict and constant competition as they were growing up. He said it has gotten better now that the boys are facing their teen years and developing their own identities.

Still, if he could do it over again, he thinks he would stagger them more.

"They're unbelievable young men, and I'm so proud of everything about them," he said. "But having the two together has been a challenge."

Have a news tip or a story to share about concurrent surrogacy? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.

If a brain surgeon or politician can't do their job while pregnant have they thought about how kids in general will impact their job? What if their kid wakes them up the night before surgery because they got of had a nightmare? Are they counting on a reliable spouse or a nanny to take care to the unpleasant parts of parenting.

Finally at the very end of the article they address how being born so close together impacts kids. We're they really surprised that there was a lot of competition? And they article just touched on how one of the twins was born 5 weeks premature. That means at one week old the dudes in charge of its care were focused on its twibling. Considering that surrogacy pregnancies are more likely to have complications do the parents consider how they will care for one baby while another baby is in the hospital longer than expected?

[spacedocmom]

Doctor Beverly Crusher @SpaceDocMom Seeing health as a virtue is rooted in the same historical religious mindset that sees wealth as a virtue. Poverty doesn't make someone a less worthy person and disability/illness doesn't either. If you're healthy/wealthy you're just lucky, not better than anyone else. emojis: black heart, blue heart, masked 1:20 PM · Oct 29, 2023