Acupuncture improves brain functions in stroke sufferers

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The activation/deactivation in several brain regions in patients with ischemic stroke may improve with both acupuncture at Waiguan (SJ5) and sham acupuncture.

However, there are some difference in Brodmann areas 4, 6, 8, Brodmann areas 7, 39, 40, Brodmann areas 18, 19, 22 and Brodmann areas 13, 24, 32, 28.

Most studies addressing the specificity of meridians and acupuncture points have focused mainly on the different neural effects of acupuncture at different points in healthy individuals.

Dr. Ji Qi and co-workers from School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University in China examined the effects of acupuncture on brain function in a pathological context, and compared the effects between Waiguan and sham points in 16 patients with ischemic stroke.

Compared with sham acupuncture, acupuncture at Waiguan in stroke patients inhibited Brodmann area 5 on the healthy side.

These findings indicated that the altered specificity of sensation-associated cortex (Brodmann area 5) is possibly associated with a central mechanism of acupuncture at Waiguan for stroke patients.

The study has been published in the journal Neural Regeneration Research.

Source: med india


Just walk a bit to get creative thoughts back

Just walk a bit to get creative thoughts back

 

Not been able to crack a solution to an office problem or feeling brain-jammed while in the middle of writing a creative plot? Go stroll around to get free-flowing thoughts back.

Taking a simple walk may lead to more creativity than sitting, research says.

“Incorporating physical activity into our lives is not only beneficial for our hearts but our brains as well. This research suggests an easy and productive way to weave it into certain work activities,” explained Marily Oppezzo from Santa Clara University.

Many people claim they do their best thinking when walking. With this study, we finally may be taking a step or two toward discovering why, he added.

To figure this out, Oppezzo and colleague Daniel L. Schwartz from Stanford University’s graduate school of education conducted studies involving 176 people, mostly college students.

They found that those who walked instead of sitting or being pushed in a wheelchair consistently gave more creative responses on tests commonly used to measure creative thinking.

When asked to solve problems with a single answer, however, the walkers fell slightly behind those who responded while sitting.

Of the students tested for creativity while walking, 100 per cent came up with more creative ideas in one experiment.

In other experiments, 95 per cent, 88 per cent and 81 per cent people from walker groups had more creative responses compared with when they were sitting, said the study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition.

Source: Times of India


Watermelon can improve sex life too!

Watermelon can improve sex life too

The summer just got hotter. The humble watermelon in your neighbourhood fruit market not only helps you shed weight, improve circulation or lower blood pressure, it can also boost your sex drive!

According to a recent study by Italian researchers, citrulline amino acid in watermelons improve blood flow and can alleviate erectile dysfunction.

Our bodies use citrulline to make yet another amino acid called arginine, which has viagra-like effect. Arginine boosts nitric oxide which relaxes blood vessels – the same basic effect that viagra has.

Extra nitric oxide can also help treat angina, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, the study noted.

The juicy fruit is 92% water, 8% sugar, a great source of vitamin C and only 71 calories per serving.

Source: hindustan times


New cure found for HIV virus?

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Scientists have discovered new vulnerable site on the HIV virus that can be attacked by human antibodies in a way that neutralizes the infectivity of a wide variety of HIV strains.

The researchers from Scripps Research Institute Scientists working with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative said that an effective vaccine would work by eliciting a strong and long-lasting immune response against vulnerable conserved sites on the virus-sites that don’t vary much from strain to strain, and that, when grabbed by an antibody, leave the virus unable to infect cells.

Dennis R. Burton, professor in TSRI’s Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, said that HIV has very few known sites of vulnerability, but in this work we’ve described a new one, and we expect it will be useful in developing a vaccine.

The study was published in the journal Immunity.

Source: Yahoo news


Weight-loss tamarind and anti-depressants a deadly mix

health-weight-loss-tamarind-and-anti-depressants-deadly-mix

Are you taking weight-loss supplements while on anti-depressants? Take caution because the popular weight-loss supplement garcinia cambogia — famously known as Malabar tamarind — could lead to toxicity in the body.

Previous studies have shown that garcinia cambogia may, in fact, increase the levels of serotonin — a neurotransmitter.

New research found that taking the supplement in combination with anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — which also cause serotonin levels to rise — could lead to serotonin toxicity.

“People who are taking SSRIs should not use garcinia cambogia at least until further research is done,” said D. Robert Hendrickson, a toxicologist at Oregon Health and Sciences University.

In India, garcinia cambogia is better known as Malabar tamarind.

This fruit originated in Indonesia, but is grown and cultivated along the western ghats of Kerala. Sri Lanka and Malaysia are also well acquainted with the garcinia cambogia.

The hydroxycitric acid (HCA) compound in the fruit is touted as a fat-burning, metabolism-boosting, appetite-suppressing weight-loss product.

“If I had a family member or a patient who was considering starting Garcinia and they were on an SSRI, I would recommend that they do not do it for now,” a Live Science report quoted Hendrickson as saying.

The study appeared in the Journal of Medical Toxicrotonin toxicity, Serotonin, Toxic food


Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Why Stress Is Bad for Your Health

Not Just in Your Head

You don’t need a doctor to tell you that anxiety can have a negative effect on your health. But do you really know the toll that long-term stress can take?

Stress is the body’s reaction to something that taxes or exceeds its resources, says Frances Cohen, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco. When we perceive something as harmful, our brain triggers hormones such as cortisol, which flood the body and contribute to various physical responses.

Here are several ways stress can affect different aspects of your health — and how you can protect yourself against them.

Lack of Sleep

Anxiety is one of the main causes of insomnia and sleep disruption: When you think about something stressful while lying in bed, it’s harder for your body to relax and drift off to dreamland — and this nightly pattern only gets worse as your brain and body learn to dread bedtime.

You may also be deliberately robbing yourself of much-needed rest by staying up too late or rising too early: Most of us need seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but many overscheduled and overworked adults regularly get by on less. Skimping on sleep can cause fatigue and attention problems, and increase your risk of disease.

Weakened Immune System

We’ve all experienced the nasty cold that comes after a deadline — a reminder that psychological stress can weaken defenses and make us more susceptible to germs. It can also slow our recovery from illnesses; in fact, research has shown that stress hormones actually make immune cells age faster.

It’s not just minor ailments to which stress leaves us vulnerable, either: Consistently high levels of stress can reduce a woman’s ability to fight infections such as human papilloma virus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer.

Low-Level Inflammation

Whether you scrape your knee, twist your ankle, or succumb to strep throat, the body’s reaction is the same: The immune system sends in white blood cells to destroy bacteria and repair the tissue, causing redness, swelling, and warmth. This healing process, called the inflammatory response, is one of the body’s most basic survival instincts.
But when bombarded by unrelenting stress, the immune system works overtime, releasing a stream of inflammation-promoting compounds that spread throughout the body, damaging cells and tissues. If left unchecked, low-level inflammation can simmer for years, contributing to a range of seemingly unrelated ailments such as heart disease, asthma, and cancers.
High Blood Pressure

Stress and anxiety stimulate your nervous system to raise levels of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which narrow blood vessels and therefore increase your risk of developing hypertension. Only about a third of people with hypertension (blood pressure higher than 140/90) know they have it — even though it affects around one in three American adults.
The condition can be bad news if left untreated, raising your risk of such ailments as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and blindness. Fortunately, eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly — and learning to stress less — can help you stay healthy.

Blemishes and Wrinkles

Just as inflammation can have a negative effect on your long-term health, it can also have a physical — and much more immediate — effect on your appearance. Stress and fatigue can lead to puffy skin and a blotchy complexion, dark circles under the eyes, and early wrinkles. Hormones triggered by stress can also cause breakouts well into adulthood.

In addition to getting enough sleep and reducing stress levels, you can calm redness and blemishes with serums and gels that contain extracts of anti-inflammatory herbs like chamomile, calendula, and lavender

Aches and Pains

Millions of us work at desks every day, and our bodies pay the price. From stiff necks and tension headaches to throbbing backs, head-to-toe pain can result from staring at a computer for hours on end — and when you’re stressed about your job, you’re less likely to take frequent breaks and more likely to overdo it.

Inflammation caused by stress has also been linked to migraines and rheumatoid arthritis, two chronic pain conditions that may improve with stress-reduction techniques.

Mental Health

Trying to do too much at once — whether it’s work assignments, family obligations, or social appointments — can leave you feeling burned out and empty inside. 817132d7edd2b285_stress.xxxlarge
Too often, when stressors start to pile up, the first things we push aside are the ones that can help us cope: quailty time with friends and family, alone time for reflection and enjoyment, a good night’s sleep, and regular exercise. These activities help our brains and bodies cope with the harmful effects of stress, and without them to keep us grounded, it’s easy to spin out of control.
Substance Abuse

When you’re juggling the multiple responsibilities of work and home, being frazzled can start to feel normal. Many people have never learned healthy ways of dealing with stress, instead turning to alcohol or nicotine.

Weight Gain

Stress, fatigue, and weight gain are common companions: Sleep deprivation can cue your body to release stress hormones, triggering weight gain. Studies have shown that those who sleep fewer than eight hours a night have higher body mass than people who sleep a full eight hours, and that babies who sleep fewer than 12 hours a day are twice as likely to be overweight by age 3.

Meanwhile, stress can also lead to poor food choices; this can put your body on a blood-sugar roller coaster, which causes low energy (and, in turn, makes it even harder to get to the gym or outside for a walk). And the less time you have to take care of yourself, the harder it is to make healthy changes.

Infertility

Infertility is a medical condition used to describe couples who have tried unsuccessfully to conceive for 12 months. By the time a woman or a couple receives this label, they’re often highly stressed, says Tracy Gaudet, M.D., director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University — which only makes matters worse. (Read Dr. Gaudet’s guide to coping with infertility.)

The higher a woman’s stress level, the lower her fertility. Highly stressed women can stop ovulating altogether, which makes sense biologically: In the hunter-gatherer days, stress probably indicated a lack of food or an imminent threat — not wise times to bring an infant into the world

Low Libido

There are quite a few external causes of low libido and tension between you and your partner, and many of them have to do with stress. The first year or two after the birth of a baby, for instance, when both parents are often overwhelmed and sleep-deprived, is a notorious libido killer. Career-focused years can leave women depleted and stressed, with all of their passion going into their jobs. And chronic stress can lead to depression, also a cause of plummeting desire.

Gastrointestinal Issues

That feeling of butterflies in your stomach may very well have a physiological basis: Your GI tract has its own nervous system, which is why stress can cause digestive problems such as diarrhea, heartburn, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Learn to manage stress — and reduce GI problems — by exploring massage, art therapy, breathing exercises, and other relaxation techniques.

Self-Fulfilling Pessimism

There’s nothing wrong with considering the potential pitfalls of your current situation — for a little while. It’s smart to anticipate and plan for how you’ll handle a given obstacle.
But endlessly stressing over what might go wrong often proves more than unproductive. It can actually set you up for the very thing you fear the most. When you visualize a negative outcome, you approach things differently. You operate, ironically, in a way that supports the result you most want to avoid.

Source: Whole living


Now, a kit to test sperm quality at home

health-now-kit-test-sperm-quality-home

Before you rush to buy the pregnancy kit for your spouse, want to know if you are fertile enough to be a father?

You may soon avoid frequenting a doctor as scientists have now developed a fertility-test kit that allows men to test their sperm quality from the comfort of their home.download

Aptly named TrakFertility, the portable device allows men to learn about their sperm counts within minutes, claimed the scientists.

“It allows men to test and track their fertility from the comfort and privacy of their own homes,” researcher Greg Sommer, who co-developed the device, was quoted as saying.

Sommer worked as a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in the US.

In view of the fact that most fertility solutions today are women focused, TrakFertility is expected to highlight the importance of sperm quality in conception.

The researchers, who founded a start-up Sandstone Diagnostics Inc to develop the device, said the the kit would be available for consumers next year, reported

Source: Zee news


Almost half of homeless men had traumatic brain injury

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Almost half of all homeless men who took part in a study by St. Michael’s Hospital had suffered at least one traumatic brain injury in their life and 87 per cent of those injuries occurred before the men lost their homes.

While assaults were a major cause of those traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, (60 per cent) many were caused by potentially non-violent mechanisms such as sports and recreation (44 per cent) and motor vehicle collisions and falls (42 per cent).

The study, led by Dr. Jane Topolovec-Vranic, a clinical researcher in the hospital’s Neuroscience Research Program, was published today in the journal CMAJ Open.

Dr. Topolovec-Vranic said it’s important for health care providers and others who work with homeless people to be aware of any history of TBI because of the links between such injuries and mental health issues, substance abuse, seizures and general poorer physical health.
The fact that so many homeless men suffered a TBI before losing their home suggests such injuries could be a risk factor for becoming homeless, she said. That makes it even more important to monitor young people who suffer TBIs such as concussions for health and behavioural changes, she said.

Dr. Topolovec-Vranic looked at data on 111 homeless men aged 27 to 81 years old who were recruited from a downtown Toronto men’s shelter. She found that 45 per cent of these men had experienced a traumatic brain injury, and of these, 70 per cent were injured during childhood or teenage years and 87 per cent experienced an injury before becoming homeless.

In men under age 40, falls from drug/alcohol blackouts were the most common cause of traumatic brain injury while assault was the most common in men over 40 years old.

Recognition that a TBI sustained in childhood or early teenage years could predispose someone to homelessness may challenge some assumptions that homelessness is a conscious choice made by these individuals, or just the result of their addictions or mental illness, said Dr. Topolovec-Vranic.
This study received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation.

Separately, a recent study by Dr. Stephen Hwang of the hospital’s Centre for Research on Inner City Health, found the number of people who are homeless or vulnerably housed and who have also suffered a TBI may be as high as 61 per cent — seven times higher than the general population.
Dr. Hwang’s study, published in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, is one of the largest studies to date investigating TBI in homeless populations. The findings come from the Health and Housing in Transition Study, which tracks the health and housing status of homeless and vulnerably housed people in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.

source: Science daily


Eco-Friendly Diapers Made From Jellyfish

Eco-Friendly Diapers Made From Jellyfish

Move over Brawny, there’s a new product in the works with the strength to get the job done, and it comes from the sea. Cine’al Ltd., an Israeli nanotechnology start-up, is developing a line of super-absorbing products made from jellyfish.

Jellyfish populations worldwide have been exploding in recent years, and the creatures are expected to be one of the few winners of the warming oceans brought about by climate change. They present a real problem: In 2013, a cluster of jellyfish temporarily shut down a nuclear reactor in Sweden after they were sucked into a cooling pipe. However, until now, very few useful purposes have been found for jellyfish.

Enter a second conundrum: Absorbent products such as diapers, medical sponges and feminine pads contain synthetic super-absorbing polymers that take hundreds of years to break down in landfills. These same products made with jellyfish biodegrade in less than 30 days, and they soak up twice the mess, the Times of Israel reports.

A Double Scourge

Cine’al’s product was inspired by research conducted at Tel Aviv University, which harnessed jellyfishes’ ability to absorb high volumes of liquid without deteriorating. By breaking down jellyfish flesh and adding nanoparticles (for antibacterial properties), researchers created a material they call Hydromash, which can be used as an absorbent material in diapers, toilet paper, medical sponges and tampons.

In the United States, a 1998 study from the Environmental Protection Agency found that 3.4 million tons of diapers entered landfills in that year alone. Cine’al’s president Ofer Du-Nour is thus hoping his product will kill two birds with one stone.

“There are too many jellyfish in the sea, and too many Pampers in landfills. Cine’al may have the ultimate answer to both those issues,” Du-Nour told

It’s unclear when, or if, these jellyfish products might arrive in the aisles of supermarkets. According to Green Prophet, Cine’al is currently discussing building manufacturing plants in Korea and South Carolina — where jellyfish fishing operations are already going strong.

Source; Discover


Benefits of olive oil for the heart, skin and hair

benefits-of-olive-oil-for-skin-care

Cholesterol and Heart Health

Despite the drama surrounding the use of fats and oils, these things are an essential part of a balanced eating plan. The key is to choose your fats wisely. Olive oil is one of the healthiest types of fat around. The monounsaturated fat in olive oil has been shown to control LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol. This can potentially lower your risk of heart disease.

When you digest your food, free radicals that are naturally produced by the body can damage the cells. Free radicals from environmental factors such as dust, smog, cigarette smoke and pesticides don’t help the situation. The antioxidants contained in olive oil can help fight off and repair some of the damage that free radicals can cause.

To get the best heart-healthy results from olive oil, the U.S Food and Drug Administration recommends eating two tablespoons daily. You can easily get this amount in your diet by following the examples of top chefs and using it in your favorite foods.

Skin and Hair

The antioxidants contained in olive oil can benefit more than your heart. Because this substance prevents cell destruction, it fights the signs of aging and gives you a more youthful appearance. When applied topically, olive oil moisturizes and softens dry skin. Since the product is natural, adverse reactions are not common.

The problem with a lot of commercial skincare products is that the moisturizing ingredients don’t penetrate the skin. Extra virgin olive oil is composed of more than 80 percent oleic acid. This substance easily penetrates the skin, and allows the oil to heal damage, reduce wrinkles and improve texture.

If you struggle with dry, brittle hair, keeping a bottle of olive oil handy can help. A weekly deep conditioner of olive oil can be used in the place of products that contain silicone ingredients to make the hair more manageable. Shampoos that contain sulfates will strip the moisture out of your hair and make it look drab and lifeless. Using olive oil in the place of your regular commercial conditioners can moisturize the hair and give it a healthy sheen.

Olive does more than make scrumptious dishes. It is well documented that, when combined with a nutritious diet, this oil’s antioxidant properties can have a positive impact on cholesterol levels and heart health. In addition, when added as part of a regular beauty regimen, it can improve the health of your skin and hair.

Source: Natural News