July 2011

Yes. Grass fed beef contains significant amounts of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids that are essential for good heart health. Most grass fed beef is also free of the antibiotics, rbst and hormones that most cattle are given.

Grass fed beef is INFINITELY a better choice of beef than regular beef.

Grass-fed beef comes from cows that eat only grass and other foraged foods. Usually, beef and dairy cows eat a diet of processed grain, such as corn. The difference in the diets of the cows is thought to change the nutrients and fats you get from eating the different types of beef.

Grass-fed beef may have some heart-health benefits that other types of beef don't have. When compared with other types of beef, grass-fed beef may have:

* Less total fat
* Higher levels of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids
* Higher levels of another type of fat (conjugated linoleic acid) that's thought to reduce heart disease and cancer risks

Lean beef that's 10 percent fat or less — whether it's grass-fed beef or another type of beef — can be part of a heart-healthy diet. But it's still uncertain whether grass-fed beef adds even more heart-health benefits. Talk to your doctor or dietitian if you're thinking about adding more lean beef, including grass-fed beef, into your diet.

source: Mayoclinic

How Pregnancy Affects Your Thyroid?

Pregnancy can put a lot of stress upon your thyroid gland. Pregnant women and thyroid disease often go hand in hand.

Pregnancy causes an increase in estrogen (the primary female sex hormone) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), which is the thyroid measured in a pregnancy test. These increases stimulate the release of thyroid hormones.

The old line that you're eating for two may not be true but, particularly during your first trimester, you will be providing thyroid hormones for two while your baby's brain is growing.

After the first trimester, the baby's thyroid starts producing its own thyroid hormone. In order to be able to make its thyroid hormones, though, your baby still relies on you to consume enough iodine for the both of you.

Hyperthyroidism, which involves levels of thyroid hormones that are too high, affects one in 1500 pregnancies. However, hyperthyroidism may not be recognized and diagnosed as it can mimic many aspects of pregnancy.

Undiagnosed and untreated hyperthyroidism in a pregnant woman can result in labor that begins too early, putting the baby at risk, and in pre-eclampsia (also called toxemia or pregnancy-induced hypertension).

Very high levels of HCG may be linked to morning sickness and may cause transient (temporary) hyperthyroidism.

Hyperthyroidism, like Graves' disease, can lead to a severe condition known as thyroid storm. Thyroid storm also goes by the names thyrotoxic storm, hyperthyroid storm and accelerated hyperthyroidism.

Thyroid storm is characterized by severe agitation, confusion and restlessness. Diarrhea, fever, shaking and sweating, with a pounding heart are other symptoms. The emergence of thyroid storm requires immediate medical attention.

Hyperthyroidism may improve in the third trimester, and then reappear postpartum.

During the three to six months after delivery, about 5 percent of women will be hit with thyroiditis. In this condition, hyperthyroidism rears up first, and then a period of hypothyroidism (low thyroid hormones) moves in.

After this, the thyroid will return to normal. During these transitions, life can be a roller coaster ride for a new mother.

You can find yourself dealing with hypothyroidism during pregnancy. Hypothyroidism appears to contribute to postpartum depression.

Keeping an eye on your thyroid function during pregnancy and after the birth of your baby is a good idea. Your doctor can be on the lookout for a number of thyroid conditions.

Prevention or treatment of hypothyroidism, hyperthryoidism, and other disorders like thyroid nodules, postpartum thyroiditis, will be most effective when caught early.

source: empowher

What keeps celebs looking good inside and out?

How do celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Channing Tatum and Fergie get their healthy-looking glow? Could be their good diets. Nutritionist to the stars Kimberly Snyder shares her top clients’ secrets in her new book called The Beauty Detox Solution ($12.99, Harlequin) and talked to us about the truth of the mantra “You are what you eat.’’

What are common mistakes on the road to a proper diet?

People think they’re doing a good deed by polishing off a protein-packed dinner by having fruit for dessert. But fruit is in and out of the stomach in about 25 minutes. Protein, like chicken or fish, can take up to four hours. When you put the fruit behind the protein, you’ve literally created a traffic jam in your stomach. The fruit will start to ferment, literally, and you won’t even get the nutrients. So eat fruit on an empty stomach.

Did you ever eat junk food?

Knowing what I know, I cannot stomach eating certain things ever again. I’m at the point now where they don’t even appeal to me, but that has taken years and years of work cleansing my body, as well as my mind of food addictions. I don’t eat perfectly, though; I will overindulge in foods I do love, which just happen to be unprocessed. I’ll certainly go to town on my gluten-free chocolate cookies sometimes.

How can proper nutrition help our appearance?

The idea of “face-mapping” has been practiced in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. It is centered around the idea that certain physical maladies [under-eye circles, crow’s feet] are a manifestation of deeper problems within our bodies. You can even look to your fingernails. White half-moons indicate good health and vitality. A lack of this half moon indicates poor circulation. Cayenne pepper, garlic and onions help [that].

How is it working with stars?

The thing that has surprised me most is how incredibly tiny Hollywood is. It’s about two degrees of separation. It is a really interesting, interconnected web of people. So when I make food for one client, many times it gets shared or talked about, and on another set another actor will mention they heard about my such and such food.

It’s hard to find time to eat healthy food; what advice do you have?

Be prepared. So many people make bad choices because they’re in a rush or just because it’s the easiest option. Packing snacks that will carry you through the day is essential to staying on track: veggie sticks, salsa and other healthy dips, raw nuts and smoothies.

What is the hardest thing about eating well?

It’s hard to commit to a healthier diet. But my clients are always amazed at how much energy they have and how much better they feel when they start eating the food that our bodies were designed to have.

Meth abuse increases risk of Parkinson's disease PEOPLE hospitalised for abusing methamphetamines such as speed and ice have a 76 per cent increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared with the general population, new research shows.

The link has previously been suspected because Parkinson's disease is caused by a deficiency in the brain's ability to produce the chemical dopamine.

Methamphetamines boost levels of dopamine, resulting in feelings of euphoria, but have been shown in animal studies to damage the cells that produce it. Canadian researchers established the link in humans after studying the records of 300,000 patients over a 16-year period in California, an area with a high rate of methamphetamine use.
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They quantified the increased risk of Parkinson's disease after comparing patients hospitalised for methamphetamine-related conditions to those treated for cocaine abuse and appendicitis, in a study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

About 80,000 Australians have Parkinson's disease, a progressively degenerative neurological disorder which affects the control of body movements.

Lead researcher Russell Callaghan, of Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said the study was one of the few to examine the long-term association between methamphetamine use and the development of a major brain disorder. ''Given that methamphetamines … are the second most widely used illicit drugs in the world, the current study will help us anticipate the full long-term consequences of [their] use,'' he said.

Federal government figures released yesterday show that 7 per cent of Australians had used methamphetamines in their lifetime, and two per cent had used them in the last year.

Director of Melbourne's Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre, Dan Lubman, said the study added to overwhelming evidence that regular methamphetamine use was associated with a range of harms, particularly psychosis. ''This furthers our understanding of the connection between how drugs affect the brain,'' he said.

source: theage

Sleep well, align your spine with new mattress

Poor sleep equals poor energy. That’s a no-brainier. And believe it or not, if you’re not getting the sleep you need, an outdated mattress may be the culprit.

Buy new mattress

If you’ve hung on to the same mattress for more than ten years – or if you’re waking up feeling stiff and sore – then it’s time to go mattress shopping. A new mattress can do wonders for your ability to get high-quality sleep. Which, of course, can do wonders for your energy level. Finding the right mattress is like finding the right mate – what’s perfect for one person is all wrong for the next. To underscore just how intensely personal mattress style is, Consumer Reports went through an exhaustive testing process to try to rate mattresses, and decided it was next to impossible. Because sleepers’ review were all over the map, the magazine couldn’t make a recommendation.

MATTRESSES MATTER
There is a dizzying array of styles, materials, and prices. Just going to the mattress store can drain your energy. But stick with it.

Innerspring mattresses are the most common, but there are also air beds and water beds and the exploding category of memory-foam mattresses (such as tempur-Pedic). There’s an energy-boosting mattress in there for you somewhere – you just need to take the time to find it!

Spend at least 15 minutes lying on a mattress in your normal sleeping pose, before shelling out your cash. If you share your bed, you and your mate should shop together. The right mattress takes your weight, sleeping style, and size into consideration. A good mattress and foundation will keep your spine aligned (it should look the same when you’re lying down as when you’re standing) and gently support your body.

Pay special attention to how your hips shoulders, and lower back feel. A lot of stores have a 30-day return policy – a good thing, because you may not really know how good (or bad) a mattress is until you actually sleep on it. So start shopping because choosing the right mattress means fewer muscle aches, better sleep, and more energy.

PILLOW TALK
Your pillow should offer enough support to cradle your neck and head. The optimum thickness depends on your sleeping style (and size).

If you sleep on your side, try a pillow that’s between 4 and 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) thick; stomach sleepers should have on about 3 inches (7.5 cm) thick; and if you sleep on your back, your pillow should be about 4 inches (10cm) thick. My personal favorite is the Primaloft Side Sleeper Pillow by Garnett Hill.

Fats: Dietary Guidelines detail the good, the bad and risky

The federal government’s 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans urge us to reduce our intake of “solid fats” such as saturated and trans fats by replacing them with more healthful, unsaturated fats and oils. The former are believed to increase risk of certain chronic conditions and diseases, while the latter may help protect against them.

Robert Post, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, says Americans are getting “far too many” of their calories from fat, especially solid fat.

“That leads to development of fatty tissue and weight gain,” Post explains, “which promotes hypertension, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and chronic diseases related to the diet like diabetes.”

“Decrease the amount of certain fats in the diet,” Post adds, “and you potentially reduce the risk of those health outcomes and may even live longer.”

Setting aside the matter of disease risk, there’s compelling reason to keep an eye on the solid fats in your diet. Because solid fats are highly caloric, and because foods containing a lot of them also tend to have lots of sugar, reducing consumption is an excellent way to cut calories while leaving room for more nutritious foods on our plates. And that’s something most of us could use.

Kinds of fat

The fats we eat are made up of different combinations of three kinds of fatty acids: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Fats containing mostly saturated fatty acids or trans fatty acids (more about those in a moment) are solid at room temperature and are thus considered solid fats. Fats containing mostly unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and are called oils.

Saturated fats typically are found in animal-based foods, including meats and dairy products. Major sources of saturated fats in our diets, according to the guidelines, are cheese, pizza, grain-based desserts (think cookies, cakes and pies baked with saturated fats) and dairy desserts (such as ice cream). The dietary guidelines say we should limit saturated fats to 10 percent or less of our daily caloric intake.

Unsaturated fats include the essential (so-called because our bodies don’t produce them) fatty acids known as omega-3 and omega-6. Unsaturated fats usually come from plants (including avocados, seeds and nuts) but are also found in some fish and shellfish (such as salmon, mackerel and tuna). These fats are believed to promote cardiovascular and overall health and may even help ward off Alzheimer’s disease.

(Confusingly, a handful of plant oils — such as coconut, palm kernel and palm oils — are considered solid fats because they are semi-solid at room temperature and have similar effects on our bodies as saturated and trans fats.)

Trans fats are technically unsaturated fats. While some trans fats occur naturally in the meat and milk of grazing animals such as cows, some of the trans fats in our diets are created through a process called hydrogenization. When trans fats are partially hydrogenated, most of their unsaturated fatty acids are converted to saturated fatty acids. The process is what makes them solid at room temperature — turning them into those unhealthful solid fats. In 2006 the federal government required food manufacturers to list the amount of trans fats on product packages; the use of trans fats has dropped dramatically since then.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance known as a lipid and is found only in animal-based foods. Our livers produce it, and it plays a key role in producing Vitamin D and hormones. Eating too many cholesterol-rich foods has long been blamed for raising blood cholesterol, which boosts cardiovascular disease risk. But some people seem to be able to enjoy dietary cholesterol without affecting blood cholesterol. The dietary guidelines suggest that saturated fat and trans fats may have a greater effect on blood cholesterol than dietary cholesterol does. Still, the guidelines call for most of us to limit cholesterol to 300 milligrams daily.

Calorie counts

“We do need some fat,” Post points out. Among other functions fats fulfill, our bodies need fat to benefit fully from the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. “If you eliminated it entirely, you’d have a deficiency issue.” But, Post adds, “our metabolic systems differ across our life span,” so we require different amounts of fat at different ages. Here’s a guide to the percentage of our daily calories should come from fat:

—Ages 1-3: 30 percent to 40 percent

—Ages 4-18: 25 percent to 35 percent

—Ages 19 and up: 20 percent to 35 percent

“If an adult on a 2,000-calorie diet devotes 400 to 500 calories to fat, that’s okay,” Post explains. Since a gram of fat has nine calories, that’s about 45 to 55 grams a day. Keep in mind that the total includes the healthful oils, too, which weigh in at 120 calories per tablespoon.

Tracking fat intake

When you’re keeping tabs on your fat intake, the Nutrition Facts panel is your best friend. That document, which appears on food packages, tells how many grams of total fat, saturated fat and trans fat and how many milligrams of cholesterol a serving contains, plus percentages of Daily Values (the amount of a nutrient recommended within a 2,000-calorie daily diet) for each kind of fat.

—Ingredients lists on food packages also provide useful information about the kinds of fats a food contains.

—Go easy on coconut oil, palm kernel oil, butter, beef fat (tallow), pork fat (lard), shortening and stick margarine.

—Embrace cottonseed oil, soft margarine, peanut oil, soybean oil, olive oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and safflower oil.

Be fat savvy

There are obvious ways to literally trim “bad” fat from your diet: Remove visible fat from your steak before you grill it, for instance, and stick with skinless chicken breasts. Avoid stick margarines and shortenings containing partially hydrogenated oils. Choose low-fat salad dressings, or just drizzle your greens with vinegar and olive oil. Dip bread in a bit of olive oil rather than spreading it with butter. Saute or stir-fry in one of the healthful oils above. And switch to fat-free or low-fat milk.

source: washingtonpost

The American Disease--The Debt Ceiling And Schizophrenia Schizophrenia what we call several brain disorders that distort reality. Sometimes people see hallucinations or hear voices that tell them what to do--and sometimes these actions are destructive to the schizophrenia sufferer and the people around them.

The word "schizophrenia" comes from the Greek and literally means “split-mind.” It’s what happens when a mind is at war with itself. Schizophrenics, without treatment, are sometimes forced by their disease to act against their own self-interest.

We are familiar with thinking about conditions like schizophrenia as they apply to individuals--the mental health field is a real growth industry. If you haven’t been in therapy--probably for something less severe than schizophrenia--you know someone who has been.

There are ways to treat schizophrenia, to manage it, to cope.

But what do you do when your culture has become schizophrenic? How do you treat an entire nation at war with itself?

I make no bones about my staunch support of liberal democratic ideas. Some of you spit the word “liberal” as if it were a libel, but I take it at face value. Liberal comes from the Latin liber, meaning free (man).

In my book, to be a liberal is to be an advocate of freedom. It is to protect freedom from those that would infringe upon it: large corporations; religious demagogues; social engineers.

I consider myself at war, albeit a civil war, with all of you. If you defend nutty religious positions, if you are in favor of corporate protectionism, if you believe we can standardize test our way into the future, then I oppose you in every way.

You are wrong, and you are doing harm to those you purport to help.

Fortunately, your numbers are small. You are well trained, and you have loud and often shrill voices, but you are few and weak at the core.

You are easily combatted. But you, unfortunately, are not the problem.

The problem is the rest of us--the average Joe, the average Jane. The people without a rigid ideology have become embroiled in ideological squabbles we care very little about. We have listened to the voices--on T.V., on the radio, on the internet.

The people who take life as it comes, who don’t presume to know how to make a better human being, have been seduced by the voices.

For the most part we just want to go to work, enjoy our friends, and raise a family. If we have a job and are treated fairly we are essentially contented with the big fiscal questions of debt and taxes, eternal salvation, and educational theories.

And we are the vast majority of us.

But we are divided against ourselves. The disease of schizophrenia is upon us, and there is no national prescription, no Zyprexa dosage that will protect us from the damage we are doing to ourselves.

Unemployment is killing us. The shrinking middle class is destroying democracy. Rapid depletion of natural resources is dimming our future. Attempts to reinvent the wheel as a collaborative set of culturally relativistic ovals have only succeeded in getting us stuck in the mud.

But still we are compelled to act against our own self-interest. We cut off our noses to spite our faces because the voices tell us to.

Today in Washington the voices are working earnestly at our self-destruction. The stupid, ham-fisted debt ceiling debate rages on, and on.

With a little luck, however, the rest of us will come to our senses and convince our representatives to do what is practical, not what is pure.

There’s no Zyprexa for America, but maybe a dose of reality will do the trick.

Let’s toss out the ideologues and get back to the ugly messiness of compromise--our freedom depends on it.

Is there any way to bring the American Left and American Right together?

source: missionviejo.patch

Can eating worms banish asthma?

Can eating worms banish asthma? Scientists discover common diseases are linked to being too clean...

Could the cure to a wide range of modern epidemics such as diabetes, Crohn’s disease, asthma and heart attacks, lie in swallowing parasitic worms and letting them live in our stomachs?

Rob Dunn, an eminent professor of biology, believes our healthy future lies in what he calls ‘re-wilding our bodies’. In a new book, he urges us all to adopt a radical approach to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’.

This is the idea that our lives have become too clean for our own good, and that this is making our immune systems so disorientated that they over-react massively to harmless everyday substances, such as house dust. Professor Dunn says this is causing a rise in serious allergic responses, such as asthma, as well as autoimmune diseases, including Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Unappetising idea: Scientists believe having real worms in our guts could help our immune systems

Evidence is growing to support the hygiene hypothesis. For example, earlier this year, in a study of 1,400 children, researchers at Yale University in the U.S. said that infants who receive antibiotics have a 70 per cent higher risk of suffering from asthma in childhood.

This asthma risk may be caused by the fact that the antibiotics have wiped out swathes of bacteria — good and bad — in the babies’ bodies. This deprives their immature immune systems of a healthy benchmark of normality on which to base their development.

In the years before antibiotics and scrupulous hygiene, our immune systems were used to bacteria and learnt to ignore this as non-hazardous. But when they are deprived of this early lesson thanks to growing up in a highly hygienic environment, the immune system can over-react to minor provocations, such as harmlessly low levels of bacteria.

Professor Dunn, of North Carolina State University, believes we should convince our bodies they are still in the natural state of our ancestors: roaming bug-infested forests and living in unsanitary hovels. We can do this, he says, by having worms living in our guts.

While it sounds wacky and, frankly, disgusting, research scientists across the world are taking this idea very seriously.

‘We have gone from lives immersed in nature to lives in which nature has disappeared,’ he says. ‘But our bodies continue to expect to meet our old companions, the parasite species with which they tangled for generation upon generation.’

Western people became routinely free of parasites only in the early 20th century.

Professor Dunn adds: ‘Some of the ways we have distanced ourselves from other species are good. I do not miss smallpox. But in recent years a new suite of diseases has plagued us.’

There is, indeed, a paradox about western healthcare. While old epidemics, such as cholera, have disappeared from advanced nations thanks to antibacterial wipes and medicines, a set of new ailments — including inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis — has become more common. Many of these seem linked to our immune systems.

In the Thirties, Crohn’s — a chronic form of inflammatory bowel disease that can inflict constant misery and pain on people’s lives — was so rare that it was mostly undetected.

Then, between the Fifties and the mid-Eighties, its incidence rate began to grow. The number of Scottish children affected has risen by 50 per cent since 1995, says Jack Satsangi, professor of gastroenterology at the University of Edinburgh.

Up to 90,000 Britons now suffer from Crohn’s and this number is rising. Some of this may be due to better recognition, but that does not wholly explain the rapid rise in this often-debilitating condition.

Professor Dunn’s argument is inspired by Joel Weinstock, a medical researcher at Tufts University in the U.S. who noticed the countries where Crohn’s was becoming common were also the places where intestinal worms were known to have become rare.

He wondered if the absence of intestinal parasites was causing Crohn’s disease — if our bodies missed their worms’ parasitic presence so badly they were increasingly attacking themselves.

Such a possibility contradicted the accepted belief that medicine is meant, in part, to remove species from our bodies to make us healthy.

But tests by Weinstock showed that when you put parasitic worms into the digestive systems of mice, you could stop them from getting a mouse version of irritable bowel disease. He tried something similar with 29 humans with Crohn’s in 1999. Each was given a glass of whipworm eggs to swallow. Whipworms are found in pigs’ guts.

Weinstock hoped that although this strain of worm would not be able to breed inside humans, it could prompt the human body to respond to their parasitic presence.

Twenty-four weeks later, all but one patient was doing better and 21 were in remission. Since then, other studies have found that when treated with worms, people with inflammatory bowel disease can improve and diabetic mice may return to normal blood-glucose levels.

In some animal tests, the progression of heart disease has been slowed and the symptoms of multiple sclerosis have improved. All these conditions may be caused by inflammation in the body, which has resulted from an over-reactive immune system.

But why would intestinal worms have this effect? One theory is that, over millennia of evolution, our immune systems got used to worms. So if you take them away, the immune system runs wild, as it has nothing to work against.

Another theory is that parasitic worms in our guts can produce compounds that suppress the immune system. It may be that our bodies evolved to depend on at least low levels of worm-produced compounds to keep them running within normal bounds.

‘Perhaps our bodies make more of an immune response than is necessary, as they assume that some of their response will be dulled by the worms,’ suggests Professor Dunn.

‘Instead, this over-response is precipitating a wide range of modern lifestyle diseases. We must bring back some of the worms.’

He thinks that could apply to all of us, even those who are healthy. But if it were all so easy, why are we not all swallowing glasses of worm eggs at breakfast?

The fact is that while clinical tests on deliberate worm infection have shown benefits, those results have been patchy — some studies work well, but others with the same test conditions do not show such good results.

Furthermore, experiments have revealed bad side-effects from worms, such as developmental problems in children and heart troubles in adults.

Rick Maizels, professor of zoology at Edinburgh University, is sceptical about using live worms.

‘In people exposed to parasites, you see a spectrum of outcomes and they are not all good,’ he says. ‘In fact, most people have some ill effects.’

Furthermore, many people would simply be too repelled by the idea of swallowing worms ever to try it. Professor Maizels is pursuing a nicer way of bringing us the benefits of parasitic worms.

He is trying to take a known natural remedy (often a medicinal plant), isolating its active ingredient and working out how to manufacture it as a clinically-reliable compound. This is how we got aspirin from willow.

‘We are trying to isolate from worm parasites the substance they have that changes the human immune system to make it is less likely to over-react to allergens,’ he says.

‘We are working on a parasite called heligmosomoides polygyrus — a form of worm commonly found in mice. Mice that are without it have many more allergies.’

Professor Maizels’ team has also found the mechanisms in the human immune system that react to such parasites. This is the other crucial half of the equation — the lock that fits the worms’ chemical key.

‘Now, when we find the substance in worms that makes the human immune system less prone to over-reacting, we’ll be able to make it into a drug therapy,’ he says.

Sadly, for sufferers of diseases caused by over-reactive immune systems, any effective drug remains about ten years away.

Until then, most of us would probably not want to eat worms instead.

source: dailymail

New Tests for Newborns, And Dilemmas for Parents The familiar heel prick that newborns receive is revealing more about a baby's health than ever before. But, as technology opens the possibility of screening newborns for hundreds of diseases, there is controversy over how much parents need to know.

Within days of an infant being born, a few drops of blood are taken from the baby's heel and tested for signs of more than two dozen different conditions, including congenital hypothyroidism and sickle-cell diseases. In many places, babies also are given tests to identify the likelihood of hearing or vision disorders.

Some states have expanded their checks, including testing for amino-acid and metabolism disorders. Many of the new conditions being looked at have no definitive treatment or it isn't clear whether immediate intervention is necessary. That can present an emotional dilemma for parents who may want to know if anything is wrong with their baby but in many cases have no therapy to pursue.

"The question is no longer whether we can test for them," says Alan Fleischman, medical director of the March of Dimes Foundation, "but what we want to know."

Newborn testing identifies at least 3,400 babies with a disorder each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The programs generally have focused on well-understood medical conditions in which early intervention can make a difference in a baby's life. For example, the genetic disease phenylketonuria, or PKU, if left untreated, causes a protein to build up in the body and leads to brain damage. A special diet, including low-protein foods, can prevent it.

Proponents of broader screening programs say early intervention in a disease can improve a child's life and might speed the development of treatments for rare diseases, where symptoms often don't appear until severe damage has occurred. Often there are few specialists knowledgable about rare disorders, and newborn screening can save families years of anguish searching for a diagnosis. Some parents also say the information is important to know for family-planning purposes.

But critics say the additional tests may raise flags that lead to unnecessary further testing, or treatment, for babies who will not get sick. The tests can add big additional costs to the health-care system, they say. And some people are concerned about privacy, since stored blood-spot samples can be used by researchers. Some states give parents the ability to decide whether they want a child's specimens used for research purposes.

New York state tests newborns for Krabbe disease, even though federal health officials say the available treatment for the rare, often fatal, neurodegenerative condition—a stem-cell transplant—has a high mortality rate. And Illinois plans next year to begin testing for Pompe disease, a muscle-weakening disorder. Federal officials say it's hard to tell which infants need immediate treatment.

"Distinguishing between who will benefit and who will not is a phenomenally difficult issue," says Ellen Wright Clayton, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University and a critic of the number of conditions for which babies are now screened. Newborn screening was set up to identify babies who can benefit from documented treatments, she says. "Anything else should be done as research," she says.

Most states offer screening for 29 major disorders recommended by the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services. Some states have mandated additional tests; babies in New York are screened for HIV. Many states, including California and Missouri, also tell families of any abnormal findings from tests for as many as 25 other conditions that aren't on the core list but that HHS thinks offer important health information.

The tests cost between about $20 and $120, depending on the state and number of conditions checked for, according to the nonprofit National Newborn Screening and Genetics Resource Center. For state-required conditions, the fees are usually paid by an insurer or Medicaid. Parents can also pay private labs to test for additional diseases.

An advisory board to the Secretary of Health and Human Services can suggest when new tests should be added, based on nominations from patient advocates, researchers or clinicians. Since 2005, HHS has agreed to add to its recommended list severe combined immunodeficiency disease, or "bubble boy disease," and is still considering whether to add a congenital heart condition.

One disorder turned down by the advisory committee was Krabbe disease. The committee said it worried about the difficulty identifying which children have the most aggressive form of the disease that requires immediate treatment. It also voiced concern that the available treatment, a stem-cell transplant, was invasive and has a high mortality rate.

Still, New York made screening for Krabbe-disease mandatory in 2006. A consortium of doctors developed a type of scorecard to determine which babies who test positive for Krabbe disease should receive an immediate stem-cell transplant. Babies are assigned points based on a combination of factors, including testing for an enzyme low in Krabbe patients and neurologic and other exams. If a child gets to four points, transplant is considered. The other babies are closely followed. Members of the consortium meet every six months to discuss each newborn who screens positive and to refine the scoring formula.

Patricia Duffner, a neurology and pediatrics professor at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine who organized the consortium, said more than a million babies have been screened for Krabbe disease in New York state in the past five years. She said health-privacy laws restrict her from providing information about the children.

But a report published last year by researchers from various institutions who reviewed the New York program said 25 newborns tested positive for Krabbe disease. Two of the children were considered at high risk for the disease but had not developed symptoms by 8 and 16 months of age. Two other children were diagnosed with Krabbe disease and were given stem-cell transplants. One died from complications of the transplant, the report said.

Cindy Parseghian, a mother of four children, three of whom died from the fatal cholesterol-metabolism disorder Niemann-Pick Type C, started a foundation together with her family that helps fund research efforts, including a project to develop a newborn screening test. Children with the disease are often treated with Zavesca, which is approved for a different genetic disorder. An experimental drug, cyclodextrin, is slated to go into an NIH trial in the coming year. In mice, both Zavesca and cyclodextrin are more effective at controlling the disease when given before symptoms appear.

Even without a cure for Niemann-Pick Type C, it is critical to find a way to diagnose children at birth if the drugs are going to make a difference, Ms. Parseghian, of Tucson, Ariz., says. Beginning work to develop a test for newborns now, she says, "will hopefully result in drugs and a screen being available at the same time."

First Checkup

Federal public-health officials recommend that all newborns should be screened for at least 30 possible diseases, although states can decide on their own which tests are required. Here are some disorders that babies are commonly checked for:

* Congenital hypothyroidism—a deficiency of thyroid hormones

* Cystic fibrosis—a genetic disease that makes it difficult to breathe

* Galactosemia—an inability to transform galactose into glucose, leading to blindness and other problems, sometimes death

* Congenital adrenal hyperplasia—a condition in which the adrenal glands fail to produce certain hormones, affecting growth and development

* Biotinidase deficiency—a disorder that can cause seizures, movement problems and sometimes death

Some states have added other newborn-screening tests, including ones that are controversial. A sampling:

* Krabbe disease— New York tests for this neurodegenerative condition, despite concerns by federal health officials over the difficulty of identifying which children would benefit from being treated with a stem-cell transplant.

* Pompe disease— Illinois plans next year to start screening for this progressive muscleweakening disorder caused by a buildup of glycogen. Infants with the most severe form can die from heart failure before their first birthday. Federal officials have raised concerns about difficulties distinguishing infants who need immediate treatment.

* Toxoplasmosis—New Hampshire and Massachusetts screen for this parasitic infection, which can lead to motor abnormalities and vision impairment. Some public-health officials have questioned if the disease occurs too infrequently to make it cost-effective to screen.

* Hemoglobin H disease— California screens for this condition, which can result in anemia. Federal officials have failed to recommend the test because of uncertainty over whether early identification improves a baby's health.

source: online.wsj

Nirvana with Aromatherapy

You can’t walk into an upscale boutique or visit a spa without being struck by the wonderful, gentle aromas of carefully chosen oils that have the power to invigorate and energize you (just as they also have the power to calm and relax you). You can get the same effect yourself without the high price tag by channeling the energy-boosting power of aromatherapy.

When you practice certain movements, such as those in gi gong, your energy increases.

Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential oils distilled forms the fragrant parts of different plants – flowers, bark, leaves, roots, of fruits – to promote physical and emotional health and well-being.

Essential oils are the highly concentrated essences of various flowers. And when I say highly concentrated, I’m not kidding. For example, you’d need 220 pounds (100 kg) of lavender flowers to make 1 pound (455 g) of essential oil! People who use aromatherapy to improve mood, well-being, and energy know that each type of essential oil has a different chemical structure, which in turn affects how it smells, how it’s absorbed, and how it’s used by the body. Because the oils are so concentrated, they’re often diluted in water or vegetable oil. Some scents act as stimulants, others have a calming effect, and some can boost your energy through the roof.

THE POWER IS IN THE PATHWAYS
We don’t know exactly how aromatherapy works, but one theory is that our smell receptors send chemical message along nerve pathways to the brain’s limbic system, which is ground zero for moods and emotions. (This is one reason why it’s standard operating procedure to use potpourri and freshly backed cookies as “bat” when you’re selling a house!)

Another slightly more granola-ish theory about why aromatherapy works suggests that because essential oils are extracted from plants, they have a life force that can affect the body in unique ways. Who knows? But you don’t have to know exactly how it works to know that aromatherapy can boost your energy*.

By measuring brain-wave activity, researchers have found that clove, basil, ylang-ylang, black pepper, and cinnamon oils act as stimulants. Other studies have shown peppermint, eucalyptus, jasmine, neroli, and rose oils are energizing, while lavender, chamomile, lemon, and sandalwood oils are relaxing.

Studies have also suggested that a little aromatherapy goes a long way toward making employees more alert and attentive. Workers in one Tokyo office building have a variety of aromas – lemon, rose, or cypress – wafting through their air-conditioning system. Another Japanese company fills the air with peppermint to fight fatigue.

*If you doubt that smells can have a powerful effect on energy, just ask anyone who’s ever passed out and then had smelling salts waved under his or her nose!

MIST, SPRITZ, OR DIFFUSE
There are several ways to reap the benefits of aromatherapy. With a few drops of essential oil, an aromatherapy diffuser will disperse a fine mist of scented steam throughout the room. 9Diffusers range in price for $60 to $120).

You can also add two or three drops of oil to a cold lightbuilb ring (a ceramic or metal ring designed to be placed directly on lightbulbs) or to a handful of potpourri. Essential oil can turn a bath into an aromatherapy session (just add a drop or two).

For a great pick-me-up while housekeeping, add two to four drops of eucalyptus oil directly into the vacuum cleaner bag (you can also mix eucalyptus with lemon oil for a refreshing, clean smell). To make you own air freshener, add a few drops of oil to a spray bottle filled with water, then shake and spritz.

To add an air of energy to a room, try eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary, jasmine, or cinnamon. For a calming effect – which helps reduce stress and thus ultimately boosts energy, though not in the short term – go for lavender, chamomile, sandalwood, or lemon (which also happens to be really refreshing). Because essential oils can elicit different responses in different people, experiment to find the scent that works best for you.

WORTH KNOWING
A word of caution. When working with undiluted essential oils, make sure you’re I a well-ventilated room, and take frequent breaks. If the oil gets on your skin and irritates it, quickly dilute it with vegetable oil.

Difference Between Duck Eggs and Chicken Eggs

Though chicken eggs are the most commonly used, duck eggs are still catching on as effective alternatives.

Duck eggs are quite large compared to chicken eggs, which makes them easily distinguishable.

The large size of the duck egg gives it a larger yoke to white ratio than a chicken egg. So if you want more yoke, duck eggs are what you should go for. With the larger size you definitely get more for your money, compared to a chicken egg!

A 100 gm of duck egg will provide about 185 KCal of energy, compared to 149 KCal of energy provided by a chicken egg. Both types of eggs, match each other in terms of carbohydrate content, while the protein content is slightly higher in the duck eggs compared to chicken eggs. The mineral content of duck eggs is very similar. Both contain selenium, manganese, zinc, copper, potassium, sodium, phosphorus, calcium and iron. The duck eggs contain slightly higher amounts of all these minerals.

Same is the case with vitamin content in both of them. The vitamin content too is similar, but duck eggs have a higher amount of each one of them, which includes thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, folate, vitamin B6, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and retinol.

Duck eggs provide a taste that is different and tastier than chicken eggs according to most users. Individual tastes might vary, so it is best if you try one out to decide!

Every thing that you do with a chicken egg, can be done with a duck egg.

Calories:
Duck: 130
Chicken: 80

Fat:
Duck: 9.64 grams
Chicken: 5.57 grams

Cholesterol:
Duck: 619 mg (OMG!)
Chicken 237 mg

Protein:
Duck: 8.9 grams
Chicken: 7.4 grams

Crash diets can excrete your chances of being a mother

Tick, tock, tick, tock -- for women dreaming of becoming a mum, it's the most terrifying sound in the world.

But could it be your desire to look good in a super skimpy bikini, not that biological clock, which determines whether or not you can have a baby?

Reality TV star Chantelle Houghton this week revealed that years of crash dieting have left her infertile at just 27.

"Because of my obsession with food and my crash- dieting when I had bulimia, I've ruined my chances of having a baby naturally," she confessed to Heat magazine.

"[The doctor] told me that I'd never be able to conceive naturally . . . that I had low fertility and that if I wanted a baby, I'd have to have IVF.

"He said that if I'd waited another three years, I would never be able to have children. I wouldn't have any eggs left."

Chantelle is best known for winning Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 -- even though she was a 'non-celebrity' at the time.

But her newfound fame, coupled with a decade-old battle with bulimia, drove her to extreme measures for the veneer of perfection.

In the wake of her split from fellow BB housemate, pop star Samuel Preston, in 2007, the 5' 7" star's weight plummeted to eight stone.

Yet it wasn't until she went to a fertility expert complaining of stomach pain that the true devastation wreaked on her body by eating disorders was discovered.

"I've punished my body and now it's punishing me," says Chantelle of the diagnosis that she may never be a mother.

"I have tried every diet there is," she admitted in the past, "from body wraps and the Special K diet to just drinking water. I was obsessed from the minute I woke up in the morning until the minute I went to bed. Ultimately it's my fault. I hate myself and can never forgive myself."

Body fat is key to a woman's ability to get pregnant and stay pregnant. And shrinking below or ballooning above your recommended weight can throw reproductive hormones out of kilter.

In men, being dramatically under or overweight can slash sperm count.

"Crash dieting puts the body under huge stress, so of course that's going to take its toll," says nutritionist Dr Marian Faughnan of Safefood.

"Body weight has a huge impact on fertility -- women who are extremely underweight or overweight can stop menstruating and ovulating altogether.

"More commonly in Ireland, we see women who are on the overweight side experiencing fertility issues.

"But while it affects a smaller number -- and is therefore sometimes ignored a little, being underweight is just as big a problem for women trying to get pregnant."

Around 200,000 people in Ireland are affected by eating disorders, according to the Department of Health -- with anorexia estimated to affect one-in-150 15-year-old girls.

"When someone develops an eating disorder in adolescence, it can pretty much halt puberty," explains Suzanne Horgan, director of the Eating Disorder Resource Centre of Ireland."But that's an incredibly difficult message to convey to teenage girls.

"When you tell clients of that age that they could be damaging their fertility, they don't care -- some of them are quite happy to be infertile because they want to remain childlike.

"It's not until later on when they're trying to start a family that they realise the implications."

"Whether you're planning a pregnancy or not, every woman who's of child-bearing age and sexually active should be eating a healthy, balanced diet and taking folic-acid supplements -- just in case," says Dr Marian Faughnan.

Having beaten bulimia before becoming overweight and slimming down to a size 10, American reality TV star Khloe Kardashian admitted recently that she's now struggling to get pregnant.

"I thought I'd be pregnant by now," revealed Khloe (27), who's married to basketball player Lamar Odom.

"We've been working at it all year. I don't know what the problem is. If it happens, it happens."

However, it's not just anorexics and bulimics who could be playing Russian roulette with their reproductive systems -- even a last-ditch bikini diet can result in irregular periods impacting on fertility.

And as the 'Size Zero' generation matures towards motherhood, prepare to see more headlines about infertile twenty-something women.

"It's the next generation of girls who will really highlight this problem," predicts senior clinical embryologist Declan Keane of ReproMed Fertility Clinic in Sandyford.

"Today's cultural ideal of being super-skinny is likely to cause a continuation of fertility problems for years to come.

"Girls who want to eventually become mothers shouldn't rely on the 'magic wand' of IVF or egg-freezing.

"The ovaries are a limited resource," he warns. "So girls need to take steps to protect that now by eating healthily and taking folic acid, cutting out smoking and reducing their alcohol intake, getting enough exercise, developing a regular sleep pattern and protecting themselves against STIs.

"For someone like Chantelle, she needs to address her issues with food before even contemplating pregnancy."

In the meantime, the Essex star can take heart from the story of eating disorder survivor Katie Rhead (23) who defied medics to give birth to a tiny 3lb baby girl earlier this year.

Going public with her regret, Chantelle hopes to make other girls wise up to the potential cost of squeezing into their skinny jeans.

"All the time I was making myself sick, I was thinking 'Yes, I'm getting skinnier," she recalls. "I thought I was winning, but I was losing. It's cost me the chance of a family.

"Being stick-thin -- is it worth that?"

Source: Irish Independent

Tall women more likely to develop cancer

The taller a woman is, the greater her risk of developing one of 10 different cancers, according to a new study published in the journal Lancet.

Researchers followed 1.3 million middle-aged women in the United Kingdom for several years, and found the risk of cancer increased by about 16% for every 4 inches or 10 centimeters of increased height.

But the question remains, why?

According to Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist at Oxford University and the lead author of the study, the tallest group -- women 5 feet 9 or taller -- were 37% more likely to develop cancer than the shortest group -- women 5 feet and shorter- regardless of factors such as age, socioeconomic status, body-mass index and amount of physical activity.

There were 97,376 incidents of cancers reported among the women, and height related increases were greatest for the following: colon, malignant melanoma, breast, endometrial, kidney, central nervous system, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and leukemia.

The study did not investigate what specifically about height led to the increased risk, but the research add to other studies that have found a link between cancer and height. The study authors aren't sure what exactly increases the cancer risk, but they believe there are several theories that warrant more investigation.

For one, the authors propose that "taller people have more cells, and thus a greater opportunity for mutations leading to malignant transformation."

Another possible culprit: Hormone levels resulting from insulin-like growth factors both in childhood and in adult life.

"Growth hormones increase cell growth and rate of division, and inhibit cell death," Green explained in an email. "Both of these might be relevant to cancer either directly or perhaps just by increasing the number of cell divisions during which mutations can occur in the cell DNA."

A study published earlier this year by researchers in Ecuador found that a condition that stunts the growth of extremely short Ecuadorians, simultaneously reduced the risk of cancer and diabetes in that population. The patients in that study all exhibited a specific mutation in their growth hormone receptor gene.

According to experts with the American Cancer Society, tall people should not be alarmed because of these findings.

"The underlying biological reason for the slightly higher risk among taller people is not known," explains Eric Jacobs, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology. "Nobody will be trying to make themselves shorter to lower their cancer risk, and the current results do not mean tall people need additional cancer screening," Jacobs explains.

In fact the study found that smoking was a much stronger risk factor. In current smokers, smoking-related cancers were not as strongly related to height, which Jacobs says highlights the overwhelming importance of the role smoking plays in cancer risk.

"The bottom line is that both short and tall people can lower their risk of developing and dying from cancer by not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting the recommended cancer screening tests," he says.

The authors also note more research is needed as certain populations continue to grow taller. The average height of people in Europe has increased by about 1 cm (or .39 inch) per decade throughout the 20th century, the study authors say.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 1960 and 2002, the average height of an adult man in the U.S.increased from just over 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 and ½ inches, while the average height of a woman increased from just over 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4.

"The increase in adult height during the past century could thus have resulted in an increase in cancer incidence some 10--15% above that expected," the authors report.

source: kaj18

US FDA Issues Draft Regulatory Guidelines For Mobile Medical Apps With the increasing number of medical and health care related apps making their way on smart phones and other portable devices (tablets, media players etc), the US Food and Drug Administration has issued Draft Guidances for bringing certain Mobile Medical Apps into the regulatory regime, seeking feedback from the medical industry and the FDA Staff.

This is a sign of things to come – with an increased focus on mobile health related services in India, undoubtedly, mobile initiatives in India will also come under regulatory scrutiny. Regulators in the country are waking up to the impact of digitization: for example, the insurance regulator IRDA issued draft guidelines regarding web aggregators of insurance services earlier this year. The guidelines from the US FDA for medical mobile apps should be seen as a pointer for something that might happen in India, perhaps a couple of years from today (if not sooner):

What The US FDA Is Seeking To Regulate

The guidelines cover only select apps that are critical to or impact the performance or functionality of currently regulated medical devices, and app developers whose apps qualify as a medical app as per the FDA’s definition, would be under close watch of the authority. App distribution platforms such as app stores are expected to cooperate with app developers in conducting corrections and removals. Although the draft guidance does not establish legally enforceable responsibilities, it does require the manufacturers i.e developers to annually register their establishments with the FDA and provide a list of devices/apps they market, so that it is informed about them.

The FDA believes that this subset of mobile apps poses the same or similar potential risk to the public health as currently regulated devices, if they fail to function as intended.

More Information

Ture Fact: Life of a Boy/Man A true fact.

I think everyone might have read about Mom's, Wife's and Girl's...

Its time to learn something about Men...

Who is a boy / man ?

A boy/man is one of the most beautiful creations of GOD.

He starts compromising at very tender age. He sacrifices his chocolates for his sister.

Later he sacrifices his love for just a smile on his parents face. He sacrifices his love for his wife and children by working late nights.

He builds their future by taking loans from banks and then repaying them for the life time. Thus he sacrifices full youth for his wife and children without any complain.

Believe me he struggles a lot but still has to hear the music (scolding) of Mother, wife and his boss. Yet every mother, wife and boss tries to have control over him.

Finally his life ends up by compromising for others happiness. He is that creature of God who no one can compete with.

Respect every boy/man in your life. You will never know what he has sacrificed for you.

Just extend your hand when he needs it and you shall receive twice fold love from him.

Enough Of Girls /Women / Wife Emotional Articles and Mails Now… Boys also Have Emotions and respect it.

Most Effectual Exercise To Boost Health And Muscles

Fortunately, it doesn’t take all that much to train your muscles. I’ve put together some effective exercises that will do the trick. Do the complete circuit, moving from one exercise to the next with minimum rest in between, about three times a week. (Of course, you can do more: two sets per exercise, or the whole circuit twice.

Hey, go for broke and do it three ties. What the heck.

Side benefit: You’ll also like how you look at the beach. And you’ll actually have enough energy to get yourself there!

Here are the exercises for boosting muscles and health.

* Crunches – for the Ultimate Six-Pack
I constantly hear from people that they are doing hundreds of crunches. The minute I hear this, I know they’re doing them wrong. (I also know there’s a good chance they’re using momentum and are setting themselves up for a lower back injury). If you do a crunch properly, it’s hard. Most people don’t to them correctly. The good news is that when you do them correct. The good news is that when you do them correctly, you don’t have to do nearly as many to get results.

Here’s how: Lie on the floor with your legs bent, feet flat on the floor, and hands clasped behind your head with your elbows touching the ground. You head should be in position with your body so that you could hold an apple between your chest and your chin.

Imagine Velcro-ing your lower back to the floor. You may feel like you’re doing a small pelvic thrust slightly forward to accomplish this. Keep your lower back nice and stable in this position.

Curl your upper body forward and up holding the highest position for a full second before lowering your upper body back to the ground. Don’t pull on your neck when you come up.

When you lower your upper torso back to the ground, don’t return all the way to the relaxed position where you weight is supported by the ground, but rather to a point where you upper body is just above the ground and your abs are still contracted.

Remember to keep your elbows all the way back while doing the motion. Repeat for as many reps as you can manage in good form. The goal is to try for 10 to 20 reps.

Beginners: Remember that if you can do only one or two, that’s fine. You’ll work up to more, you can bet on it. Don’t dwell on what you can’t do, and just concentrate on what you can do.

Muscles worked: Abdominal muscles (the “six pack”)

* Squats – for a Badacious Back View
Stand with your arms at your sides. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and your head up. Slightly arch your lower back. Slowly bend your knees while pushing your rear out, until your thighs are about parallel to the ground. Squeeze your thighs and glutes for added contraction. At the same time as you bend, bring your arms up straight in front of you for balance until they’re extended straight out at shoulder height, palms facing each other.

Now come up until you’re standing again, dropping your arms back to your sides as you come up, and repeat for 10 to 15 reps. Don’t lock your knees when you return to a standing position. Adjust your foot stance until it feels comfortable.

You’re going to perform one set, from 8 to 15 reps. (Remember that if you can only do a few repetitions to start, that’s fine, too. This will be you personal starting point. You’ll work up to where you can do 8 to 15. Note: this exercise can be done with or without weights.

Muscles worked: Thighs and glutes (but)

* Chest Presses – for Perfect Pecs
For this exercise you’ll need a pair of dumbbells or filled water bottles. *For all exercises requiring weight, start with a weight you can comfortably do for 8 to 12 reps. If that weight is light enough for you to do more than 12 reps, increase it. If it’s too heavy to perform 8 reps, decrease it. (for more information, see the sidebar on page 118). Lie down on a bench, with your feet resting comfortably no the floor. (if you don’t have a bench, you can use a step or even the floor). Extend your arms overhead, shoulder-width apart, palms facing out, so that the dumbbells are positioned directly over your shoulders.

Bend your elbow about 90 degrees, gradually lowering the weights until they are above and a little beyond your shoulders. Now push the dumbbells up with an arcing motion until they’re back in the starting position.

Muscles worked: Pectoralis (chest), deltoids (shoulders), and triceps (back of arms)

*The beauty of using water bottles is that you can fill them to whatever level you choose to provide just enough resistance to make the exercise difficult but doable. You can then fill to a higher level as you get stronger.

* One-Arm Rows-for Sexy Rhomboids
You will need a single dumbbell or filled water bottle for this exercise. Bend over and rest your left hand on a bench or stool about 2 ½ feet (76 cm) high. Extend your right leg behind you so that you’re far enough away from the bench that your back is flat; make sure you don’t round your back and instead keep it as flat as possible (you may actually have to arch it a little to keep it in this position). You back should be like a tabletop in this position. You right arm will be hanging down straight.

Take a dumbbell in your right hand and bring it straight up toward you hip by bending your elbow and bringing it up behind you toward the ceiling. It should be almost like starting a lawnmower in slow motion. When the weight is about at hi level, lower it back down until your arm hangs straight down. That’s one rep. After you complete 8 to 12 reps with your right arm, reverse everything and do the same number of reps with your left arm.

Muscles worked: Rhomboids (muscles in the back)

* Biceps Curls – for Firm Arms, Part I
Stand with a pair of dumbbells (or filled water bottles) in your hands, palms facing out and feet shoulder-width apart.

Keeping your elbows close to your torso, curl the dumbbells toward your shoulders, and then bring them slowly back down. Repeat for 8 to 12 reps.

Muscles worked: Biceps (front of arms)

*Triceps Dips – for Firm Arms, Part II
Sit on the edge of a bench or step, with your hands on the edge of the bench and your fingers facing forward. Lift your butt off the bench and your fingers facing forward. Lift your butt off the bench and lower it towards the floor by bending your arms at the elbows. Make sure you stay perpendicular to the ground, with your back straight. Don’t push your hips forward. Lift yourself back up by straightening your arms, but don’t reset your butt back on the bench until you’re done. Repeat for 8 to 12 reps.

Muscles worked : Triceps (back of arms)

* Lateral Raises – for Shapely Shoulders
Take a dumbbell (or filled water bottle) in each hand and hold them at the sides of your body, palms facing inward. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Don’t lean backward.

Raise your arms up and out to the sides until they are parallel to the ground, then lower back down. Repeat for 8 to 12 rep.s

Muscles worked: Medial deltoids (shoulders)

All the best!

How to Deal With Migraine Headaches in Kids?

Doctor Manny, get a lot of health questions both in my practice and in email inbox. Today, he found one from a mom whose 8-year-old child suffers from migraines. How do you deal with an “adult” illness that affects a young child?

I have an 8 year old son who is suffering from migraines. One time, his migraine was so intense, he cried all the way to the ER, after we tried unsuccessfully to treat it at home. I have been told that there are adult medications for migraines that can be used on children in a smaller dosage. However, according to my pediatrician, they have not been tested on children and because such a small percentage of children get migraines, they will probably never be tested on children. My son has a migraine at least once a week, sometimes more. Is it worth putting him on one of these medications, and if not, what can I do to ease the discomfort without ending up at the local emergency room? – Carla

Doctors reply:
Carla, I understand your frustration. It is very hard to watch and deal with a young child grappling with migraine headaches. Because there are so many factors that could trigger a migraine, it can be difficult to pin down the exact root of the problem.

The first thing that I would say is that I hope your child has been seen by board certified pediatric neurologist who has properly diagnosed him with migraines.

Sometimes, it can be very difficult to get a proper medical history from children. It can be especially confusing for them to try to describe the location and timing of migraine headaches.

However, remember there are many other conditions that could mimic a migraine in a child, such as sinusitis or dental problems, which can both result in head pain.

If migraine is in fact the actual diagnosis, then the treatment becomes multi-faceted.

Key components of treatment include making sure the child gets enough rest and sleep, as well as utilizing the over-the-counter medications that your physician recommends. Most likely, a physician will prescribe a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug such as Tylenol.

Prevention, of course, is even more effective than treatment.

There usually tend to be two culprits in pediatric migraines. One is nitrates, which is found in many foods that kids eat such as packaged foods, processed lunch meats and hot dogs.

The other culprit is monosodium glutamate, or MSG. MSG is a flavor enhancer that is found in baking mixtures, chips and gelatins, among other products. It is highly toxic for many people that suffer from migraines.

So while working with your physician, it is key that you also focus on nutritional aspect of children’s health. In doing so, your child may suffer from fewer migraines and require less drugs, which, as you state in question, have not been clinically tested in children.

source: askdrmanny

Nanomedicine centre to tackle child cancer New ways to treat one of the trickiest types of tumours in children will be tackled at a new cutting-edge medical research centre.

The Australian Centre for Nanomedicine at the University of NSW in Sydney is the first of its kind in the country and brings together experts in nanotechnology, engineering and chemistry.

The experts will use their collective talents to develop organic nanoparticles which could possibly one day revolutionise treatments for diseases including cancer.
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Nanoparticles are measured in millionths of a millimetre and can be used in a variety of ways such as adding them to drugs or help "switch off" certain genes linked to certain diseases.

One of the centre's first projects will be to develop new ways to treat neuroblastoma, the most common tumour in children under five and one which only 40-50 per cent of youngsters survive.

In most cases, the tumour quickly spreads through the child's body and is difficult to treat.

Their current treatments include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and bone marrow transplants.

But experts at the centre hope to develop a special nanoparticle to stop the cancer spreading.

"We are trying to develop a magnetic nanoparticle that we can load up with genetic material to switch off one of the genes that is involved in the spread of the cancer," the centre's co-director Maria Kavallaris told AAP.

"We may be able to use the nanoparticles in combination with the other treatments or they could allow us to reduce the doses of the drugs given to children."

The UNSW has provided the initial funding for the new centre but the researchers there hope they will also be able to secure grants from the NSW and federal governments in the future.

Nanomedicine is a growing field and is regarded as having the potential to dramatically change medical science.

"The area is still in its infancy in that we have a long way to go but a centre such as this really is unique in the sense we have brought together three disciplines from faculties of medicine, science and engineering to really work in a collaborative manner to come up with new advances," Prof Kavallaris said.

"And it's not just cancer. There are also other diseases that can also be treated with nanoparticles."

As well as its neuroblastoma project, the centre will also focus on new treatments for conditions including lung cancer and chronic liver disease as well as new pain management drugs.

source: news.smh

Passive smoking linked to hearing loss in teens

Some earbud-addicted teens listen to music so loud it seems smoke might come out of their ears. But new research suggests that many cases of hearing loss are the result of smoke that goes into their bodies.

We're talking passive smoking or secondhand smoke, a.k.a. SHS.

SHS has been linked to myriad health problems in kids, including behavioral problems and lung and ear infections. And now researchers have linked SHS to a reduction in adolescents' ability to hear both high and low frequencies.

For the study - published in the the July issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery - researchers at New York University analyzed interviews of 1,533 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19. In addition, the teens were given physical exams and hearing tests as well as blood tests for cotinine, a chemical byproduct of nicotine exposure.

Roughly 12 percent of SHS-exposed kids had mild to severe hearing loss in one ear, compared to less than eight percent of kids without smoke exposure, Reuters Health reported. More than 80 percent of the affected kids were unaware they had any hearing impairment.

What's the take-away message for teens and their parents?

"Adolescents who are exposed to SHS may need to be more closely monitored for hearing loss," the researchers said in a written statement. "In addition, they should be educated about risk factors for hearing loss, such as recreational or occupational noise exposure and SHS."

The finding came as a bit of a surprise to some experts, including Dr. Josepha DiFranza, a secondhand smoke researcher at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester.

"We already knew that passive smoking is bad for children," he told Reuters Health. "This just piles on another reason" kids shouldn't be exposed to secondhand smoke.

source: cbsnews

Ethiopia, Kenya Face Measles Epidemic Ethiopia and Kenya are facing a severe measles epidemic, with inadequate availability of vaccines adding to the trouble in both Horn of Africa nations. UNICEF statistics state that there have been over 17,584 measles cases in 2011, including 114 deaths, attributing the pathetic situation to the lack of resources and political unrest.

Measles, caused by a virus, can sometimes become fatal. The virus is contagious and thus spreads quickly in overcrowded conditions, lacking in sanitation. The situation has become extremely worrisome due to widespread fighting in the region, which has caused constant movement of people into refugee camps, where filthy conditions are the breeding grounds of the disease.

The World Health Organization is concerned about the quick spread of water-borne diseases and measles in Ethiopia and Kenya. The world health body has called for timely vaccination of young kids to prevent them from measles and water-borne diseases, including acute watery diarrhea.

According to WHO Spokesman Tarik Jasarevic, the situation is critical in Ethiopia, particularly the population in the worst-affected areas. WHO statistics put the number of children most at the risk of measles at 2 million. More than 5,000 cases have been reported since the beginning of the year. WHO estimates that over 3 million children under the age of five must be screened for malnutrition.

WHO blames the extremely serious measles outbreak on the “complex humanitarian crisis,” caused by the increasing refugee inflow from Somalia, with their kids at a high risk of the disease. People have been forced to flee their homes to escape the worsening drought and violence, which has made it even more difficult for them to make measles vaccines available for their kids. The refugee crisis is having negative health consequences as measles spreads easily in migrant camps.

Measles Comes Back in Developed World

Measles seems to be making a comeback in the United States and parts of the developed world. The WHO statistics are quite surprising in this regard. According to the world health body, 4,937 cases of measles were reported between January and March in France, which is a serious cause for concern as only 5,090 measles cases were recording during the entire 2010. Across Europe, over 6,500 cases have been reported this year alone. Auckland in New Zealand seems to be experiencing the worst measles outbreak in a decade.

Being a contagious disease, measles transmits from person to person. Some of the common measles symptoms include fever, cough, bloodshot eyes, muscle pain, rashes, and sensitivity to light. Though there is no particular treatment for measles, bed rest, acetaminophen, and humidified air can ease the symptoms.

source: ezega

Eat Protein at Every Meal for All-Day Energy

As a personal trainer, I believed the myth that carbs give you energy. That’s why I was always surprised that I didn’t feel very energetic after eating a high-carb snack. In fact, quite the opposite.

I later learned why. The appetite control mechanisms that send message from your gut to your gut to your brain signaling that you’ve had enough to eat work very well with protein and fat, which have been in the diet of the human genus for 2.4 million years. The “satiety” molecules in the gut are exquisitely tuned to respond to those macro-nutrients, which they recognize quite well.

But those appetite control mechanisms don’t work nearly as well with carbohydrates. For one thing, we haven’t had as much “practice” with them, because most of the carbohydrates we eat (from grains) are relatively new in the human diet, and the highly processed kindly, which make up most of the American diet, are virtually unprecedented. (In case you were wondering, that explains why it’s so easy to eat six bowls of cereal watching reruns of Friends. Not that I’ve ever done that, of course, but I’ve heard of it).

Because protein (and fat) just naturally activate the body’s innate satiety mechanisms, it’s a lot less likely you’ll overeat, and if you don’t overeat, you’re a lot less likely to fall into that post-meals slump. Plus, when you meal has a greater ratio of protein to carbohydrate, it stabilizes blood sugar and reduces insulin response. As an added bonus, new research suggests that leucine, an amino acid found in protein, helps you maintain muscle mass while losing body fat during weight loss.

For high-energy snack food, think nuts, cheese (string cheese is a great choice), hard-boiled eggs, jerky, or some leftover chicken, all of which, by the way, are extremely portable. (There goes the excuse “the snack machine was the only thing around”. Sorry about that!)

You can add a piece of fruit to the mix or some veggie crudites, such as carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower, but what you can’t do is grab a bag of chips or pretzels or a chocolate chip cookie. Or at least not if you want to boost your energy!

Because protein (and fat) just naturally activate the body’s innate satiety mechanisms, it’s a lot less likely you’ll overeat, and if you don’t overeat, you’re a lot less likely to fall into that post-meal slump.

How Googling Affects Human Memory?

The access to data anytime, anywhere, through search engines like Google, is taking an effect on human memory, according to a new study, ultimately altering the way the brain functions.

With so much information available, there is less need to remember everything, especially with tools like Google allowing us find what we need quickly. The result -- the Internet becomes an "external memory" for humans.

At least that's what the study "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips" says.

Published by Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel M. Wegner, on the Web site of Science Magazine, the authors performed a number of experiments into how the human brain uses memory differently when computers are involved.

"The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger," the report says. "No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can 'Google' the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue."

As an example, about 60 Harvard students were asked to type 40 pieces of trivia, such as "An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain," into computers, and were told either the information would be saved or erased.

People who believed the data would be saved were less likely to remember, according to the study published online by the journal Science.

"The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves."

The research also found that people are primed to look to the Internet first for knowledge.

Another experiment, run on 34 undergraduates at Columbia University in New York, showed that people remembered where they stored their information better than they were able to recall the information itself.

"We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools, growing into interconnected systems," the authors wrote in the paper. "We have become dependent on them to the same degree we are on all the knowledge we gain from our friends and coworkers -- and lose if they are out of touch."

It isn't clear what the effects of being so "wired" will have on people over time, the authors, led by Betsy Sparrow of Columbia, wrote

But it suggests that the use of search engines is causing our brains to reorganize where it goes for information, adapting to new computing technologies rather than relying solely on rote memory.

Another experiment sought to determine whether computer accessibility affected exactly what we remember.

"If asked the question whether there are any countries with only one color in their flag, for example," the researchers wrote, "do we think about flags, or immediately think to go online to find out?"

As further experiment the participants were asked not only to remember the trivia statement itself, but which of five computer folders it was saved in.

The answer surprised the researchers: People were better able to recall the folder.

"That kind of blew my mind," Sparrow said in an interview.

Experts call this "transactive memory." Essentially, remembering where you can get the information and not the information itself.

"Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member, or co-worker," Sparrow said. "We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.

"I love watching baseball," Sparrow said in example of transactive memory. "But I know my husband knows baseball facts, so when I want to know something I ask him, and I don't bother to remember it."

The Internet's effects on memory are still unexplored territory, Sparrow said, but added that her experiments have led her to this conclusion: Internet has become our primary external storage system.

"Human memory," she said, "is adapting to new communications technology."

source: news.cnet

New Smartphone App Measure Brain Waves

A new mobile phone app and accessory will let users measure their brain waves and gain insight into their own health and well-being, as medical apps continue to bring care directly to the patient.

The new Mobile Brain Wave Measurement system, developed by KDDI, consists of an app and a band that is wrapped around the head with an embedded NeuroSky sensor and Bluetooth module. When the sensor contacts with the user's forehead, the device is able to measure feeble current changes.

According to information from the Japanese-based company, the sensor registers three kinds of applications, including "droid touch," which determines the user's physical condition based on the user's concentration, "brain sound," which converts the brain waves into sounds, and finally "psychology view," which measures brain vitality.

The product was showcased at the International Modern Hospital Show last month in Tokyo and reportedly helps maintain good health by measuring brain waves to check physical conditions.

The brain wave device and app join an exploding mobile market where consumers may find an app or device to check on nearly every bodily function. From measuring glucose levels, to checking out suspicious skin moles, to even determining the calories contained in a meal for weight management, there is an app for nearly everything health-related.

But the rise in mobile medical innovation, especially apps, is raising public concern and getting the Food and Drug Administration's attention as well. This spring the agency announced it would draft guidelines to approve mobile health apps. In the future, mobile apps' safety and efficacy may be tested, especially as U.S. consumers increasingly rely on medical apps to coordinate overall healthcare.

The Japanese company backing the Brain Wave App, which acquired Kyocera DDI in 2001, presented prototypes of the apps at the show, and expects to commercialize the system later this year.

source: mobiledia

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