Month: September 2013

Girl with fatal brain infection is now discharged from hospital

A 12-year-old Arkansas girl who survived a rare and often fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba says she is lucky to be alive.

 

A 12-year-old Arkansas girl who survived a rare and often fatal infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba says she is lucky to be alive.

Kali (KAY’-lee) Hardig, her parents and doctors spoke to reporters Wednesday before she was to be released from Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Kali says she has missed playing with her dog and seeing friends after being hospitalized in July.

The girl was diagnosed with an infection caused by a brain-eating amoeba. Health officials say there were 128 reported infections in the United States between 1962 and 2012. Before Kali, doctors could only point to one known survivor in the U.S. and another in Mexico.

Health officials believe Kali became sick after a trip to an Arkansas lake. The amoeba is often found in warm, fresh water.

This article is appeared in fox news

 

5 habits of naturally slim people you should steal

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in more than 15 years of private practice, it’s that weight management is about far more than calories in, calories out. In addition to genetics, there are dozens of patterns that day after day, week after week, influence our shapes and sizes. Many of the habits of seemingly “naturally slim” people aren’t deliberate, but you can consciously adopt them. Over time, they’ll soon become second nature, and work for you too. Here are five I notice often, and how they can lead to diet-free weight loss.

Be fidgety

Research shows that people who move more burn as many as 350 extra calories a day, the equivalent of talking a daily 60 minute walk at 4 miles per hour. If you’re not one of those people who is always tapping your toe, moving around in your chair, or talking with your hands, start building some purposeful non-workout activity into your day. Stand up while you talk on the phone or brainstorm, get up from your desk every hour on the hour to sip water, stretch , or just walk around the room, park in the furthest spot on the lot, and take escalators and stairs every chance you get. It may seem forced at first, but stick with it, and it will soon feel odd not to do these things. For one of my clients, this change not only resulted in weight loss, but also a surge in creativity, which makes sense, since movement enhances circulation. That may be why one recent study found that sitting less slashes the risk of chronic diseases , including cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes .

Eat without distractions

We’ve become a nation of multi-taskers, including eating while driving, working, reading, walking, and well, just about any activity. The other day, I saw a woman strolling through Target, placing items into her card, while simultaneously eating and talking on the phone. While it may be efficient to do several things at once, people who eat mindfully and without distractions tend to eat less and feel more satisfied. Do you remember being a kid, eating an ice cream cone, and being so into it you couldn’t help letting out an “Mmmmmmm” as you savored every spoonful? Some adults maintain that kind of awareness, and according to the research, relearning it can result in naturally eating 300 fewer calories a day, enough to drop two sizes in a year’s time. start, commit to noshing without doing anything else, even just once a day. Take a few deep, relaxing breaths, then eat, while drawing all of your attention to the aromas, flavors, and textures of your food. Much like yoga  and meditation, this daily exercise can boost your overall awareness, a benefit that will likely translate to curbing your intake, and boosting your enjoyment.

Order unapologetically

I waited tables in college and grad school, so I appreciate kindness to servers, but these days, customizing your order when dining out is the norm, and in my experience, it’s a major habit of naturally slim people. The key is, they modify meals not to save calories, but to get what they really want, and to eat in a way that intuitively makes them feel best. I remember one regular customer who, long before carbs were considered evil, always ordered her turkey burgers bunless. She’d say things like, “If I have that bun, I won’t have room for popcorn at the movies” or “If I don’t skip the bun, I’ll feel like napping rather than shopping!” To her, ditching the bun wasn’t about dieting, it just made sense, and I advise my clients to take the same approach. One exercise I give clients is this: recall a recent meal that left you feeling stuffed and sluggish, then write down how you would modify your order to result in what I call the “Goldilocks effect” – not too little, not too much, just right. One hundred percent of the time, the imagined do-over meals are more balanced, far lower in calories, and much more “sensible.” Apply that logic every time you dine out, and you’ll end restaurant eater’s remorse.

Rethink waste

Through keeping food journals, one of my clients recently discovered that she nearly always finished her kids’ leftovers. When we talked about why (e.g. what was she thinking and feeling while doing this?), she realized it was because she couldn’t let the food go to waste. This mindset also resulted in frequently eating until she was uncomfortably full. She marveled at how thin people can push a plate away with food still on it, and take one bite of a free sample, then toss the rest in the trash. She knew this “rule” was ingrained in her as a child, and as an adult, she still felt bad about breaking it. But when I asked her to make a list of the pros and cons of continuing to follow this directive, it hit her like a ton of bricks that overeating, just to avoid throwing food away was even more wasteful. Not only would it not help others in need, but by eating more than her body needed, she was gaining “waste weight,” which she had to carry around 24 hours a day. That powerful realization led to paying attention to her body, eating when hungry, stopping when full, preparing more appropriate portions for the whole family, and effortlessly shedding pounds and inches.

Forego what’s so-so

One of the biggest insights many of my clients gain is just how often they eat things they don’t even really like, something naturally slim people rarely do. When you begin to eat more mindfully, the experience of eating something that’s not flavorful, or unsatisfying, is such a let down, it doesn’t make sense to keep eating. And eating something that doesn’t really do it for you often leads to overeating or prolonged eating, in an attempt to become satisfied, which typically results in feeling stuffed–and still unsatisfied. One of my clients recently experienced this while out to dinner with her hubby. They ordered a dessert that looked amazing, but after one bite she realized it was just meh. She put down her spoon, and decided to have a few squares of dark chocolate when she got home instead. This was not a restrictive move, but an it’s-not-worth-it-when-it’s-not-worth-it shift that has changed the way she eats, and resulted in a diet-free body transformation.

This article is originally appeared in Fox News

Are egg yolks good or bad for your health?

egg received a bad reputation with regard to cardiovascular health, as one large egg contains approximately 187 milligrams of cholesterol.

California stores of the supermarket chain unveiled a brand new product called Beyond Eggs – artificial eggs made with ground-up peas, sorghum and other plant ingredients.

 

According to Hampton Creak, the company that created the product, the main motivation behind the chicken-less egg was to provide a plant-based alternative for developing countries, in order to help increase their food supply.  And as global demand for eggs continues to increase, the manufacturers claim that more land and water are being used to raise chickens, therefore they wanted to find a way of reducing the environmental footprint created by egg production.

 

While the chicken-less egg was mostly created to address international food shortage concerns, the product is also potentially appealing to vegans, who don’t eat any animal-based products, and other consumers who are concerned that eggs are too high in cholesterol.

 

But are these concerns actually valid?  The nutritional value of the egg and its yolk has been debated by nutritionists for years.  Originally, the egg received a bad reputation with regard to cardiovascular health, as one large egg contains approximately 187 milligrams of cholesterol.

 

However, most research has shown that cholesterol found in foods isn’t fully to blame for increased LDL cholesterol in the body.

 

“Eggs are an animal product, and they do contain cholesterol,” Lisa Cimperman, a registered dietician for UH Case Medical Center, told FoxNews.com.  “But actually, cholesterol in foods doesn’t affect our blood cholesterol as much as saturated fat does.  Cholesterol in food, in general you do want to avoid, but it’s not necessarily the main culprit of high cholesterol.”

 

Compared to other animal products, the average egg actually contains relatively low amounts of saturated fats – approximately 1.6 grams per egg yolk.  Additionally, various studies from the Harvard School of Public Health and the British Nutrition Foundation have found that eggs have clinically insignificant effects on blood cholesterol, and are not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

 

Regardless, many consumers are still concerned over the yolk’s fatty content, so rather than eat the full egg, they often eat the egg’s albumin – more commonly referred to as the egg white.  Since egg whites are considered pure protein, this dietary decision isn’t a bad move.  However, some dieticians argue it’s important to consume both the egg’s fat and protein, as the combination can have positive health benefits when it comes to blood sugar.

 

“You want the fat, because it not only satiates you, but also slows the absorption of your food,” Laura Cipullo a registered dietician in New York City, told FoxNews.com.  “So you stay fuller longer, and it won’t increase blood sugar.  A lot of people have toast with just egg whites, but it’s giving them a quicker rise in their blood sugar. But if you have the yolk with it or a different form of fat like avocado, your blood sugar won’t rise as quickly, because it takes longer to break (the food) down.”

 

Of course, all fat must be consumed in moderation, which is why many dieticians recommend eating only a few egg yolks each week.  And for patients with a history of vascular disease, keeping track of the eggs they eat each week is critical to their health.  A recent study from the National Institutes of Health found that patients with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease should limit their cholesterol intake from foods to about 200 milligrams a day.

 

“What I typically recommend for individuals who I see who have had heart disease or have high cholesterol, I recommend they eat no more than three egg yolks per week and then as much of the egg white as they want,” Cimperman said.  “Being conscious of the quantity they’re eating can be helpful.”

 

Despite their fat and cholesterol content, egg yolks are good source of vitamin A and iron, along with a host of other nutrients.

 

“Eggs, in general, are also good sources of B vitamin, thiamine is one example, and selenium, which is an antioxidant,” Cimperman said.  “And folate is a good vitamin, particularly for pregnant women.”

 

Cimperman noted that although eggs contain many health properties, egg preparation is critical, since the way an egg is made can completely alter its nutritional value. An egg fried in butter, for example, will wreak more havoc on a person’s blood cholesterol than a hardboiled egg.

 

But as long as consumers are conscientious about how many eggs they consume and the way they’re consuming them, they shouldn’t be overly concerned about their cardiovascular health.

 

“Even if you’re eating something like a nut – that also has saturated fat in it,” Cipullo said. “You have to look at the benefits, and the benefits of eggs providing overall protein and vitamins and being easy to eat, that outweighs the fact that it has a few grams of saturated fat.”

 

Read more : Fox News/health

Women advised to have babies before turning 35

Experts have suggested that women should aim to have children before turning 35.

During British Science Festival in Newcastle, a panel of doctors said that a woman should aim to start her family before the age of 35, as fertility declines sharply after this point, the Scotsman reported.

Experts warned that many women wrongly believe that procedures such as IVF could prolong fertility, saying that there was no way of reversing declining fertility.

Mary Herbert, professor in reproductive biology at the University of Newcastle, advised all women to think about family planning in the context of not just preventing pregnancy but also in the context of having their babies at a time when they still have their reproductive fitness.

The experts said that women are born with a pool of one to two million eggs that shrinks until, at the menopause, the eggs effectively run out.

However, it was also noted that is not only the number but the quality of eggs that is reduced by the passing years.

 

52 test positive for swine flu in Indore in 2013

With one more person testing positive for swine flu at a local hospital, the total number of those infected by the H1N1 virus in the city has reached 52 this year.

Health officials said laboratory examination of swab samples of a 50-year-old man from Sonkutch in neighbouring Dewas district confirmed that he had swine flu.

The patient is undergoing treatment for the last one week in a hospital and his condition is steadily improving, officials added.

Tea made from mamala tree may help fight AIDS

The prostratin compound shows both preventing HIV from infecting human cells and awakening dormant HIV viruses that are hiding inside human

A compound found in a medicinal tea brewed from the bark of a tree could help fight AIDS, scientists have found.

The tea used by tribal healers on the South Pacific island of Samoa to treat hepatitis contains the compound prostratin, extracted from the bark of the mamala tree.

Scientists have found a way to isolate the compound and synthesise it so it is 100 times more potent.
The new version of prostratin shows promise in laboratory tests for both preventing HIV from infecting human cells and awakening dormant HIV viruses that are hiding inside human latently infected cells.

Latent HIV cell reservoirs are untouchable by today`s antiviral medicines. Antiviral medicines reduce active virus levels in patients` blood and keep patients healthy.
But when patients stop the medication, the hibernating HIV in reservoirs awakens to resupply active virus. Prostratin flushes HIV out of its cellular sanctuaries so that antiviral drugs can attack and hopefully eradicate the HIV from the body.

Speaking at the American Chemical Society`s meeting in Indianapolis, Paul A Wender from Stanford University described efficient new ways of making prostratin.
Wender and colleagues first developed a way to make the tea ingredient, prostratin, in large amounts from readily available ingredients.

He described how that initial synthesis broke down a major barrier to probing prostratin`s antiviral effects. Until then, scientists had to extract prostratin from the bark of the Samoan mamala tree, and only tiny and variable amounts were so obtained.

Samoa is where another scientist, Paul Cox, in 1987 heard a native healer praise mamala bark tea as a remedy for viral hepatitis. It led scientists at the National Cancer Institute to analyse the bark and identify prostratin as a key ingredient.
Wender`s synthesis of prostratin opened the door to research on the substance and enabled his team to change prostratin`s architecture.

“We now have made synthetic variants of prostratin, called analogs, that are 100 times more potent than the natural product,” Wender said.

Wender`s group also synthesised bryostatin, a substance that occurs naturally in sea creatures called bryozoans, and appears even more effective for AIDS and have applications for Alzheimer`s disease and cancer.

“Bryostatin has shown great promise in laboratory experiments as the basis for development of potentially transformative medicines for cancer, Alzheimer`s disease and the eradication of HIV/AIDS,” Wender said.

Researchers have designed simpler and more readily synthesised analogs of bryostatin which are up to 1,000-fold more potent in flushing HIV out of its hiding places than prostratin.

Source Zee News/health

Multiple sclerosis originates in different part of brain

The proteins in the CSF of the new MS patients suggested physiological disruptions not only in the white matter of the brain where the myelin damage eventually shows up.

A physician has said that the reason behind the slow progress in researchers` quest for the cause of multiple sclerosis is that most of the research has targeted the wrong part of the brain.

Steven Schutzer, a physician and scientist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, attacked the problem from a different direction. He is one of the first scientists to analyze patients` cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by taking full advantage of a combination of technologies called proteomics and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

He said that proteins present in the clear liquid that bathes the central nervous system can be a window to physical changes that accompany neurological disease and the latest mass spectrometry techniques allow us to see them as never before.

In this study, Schutzer used that novel approach to compare the cerebrospinal fluid of newly diagnosed MS patients with that of longer term patients, as well as fluid taken from people with no signs of neurological disease.

What Schutzer found startled one of his co-investigators, Patricia K. Coyle of Stony Brook University in New York, one of the leading MS clinicians and researchers in the country.

The proteins in the CSF of the new MS patients suggested physiological disruptions not only in the white matter of the brain where the myelin damage eventually shows up.

They also pointed to substantial disruptions in the gray matter, a different part of the brain that contains the axons and dendrites and synapses that transfer signals between nerves.

The new findings have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

 Source: Zee News

Not all obese women are at childbirth risk!

“Healthy” obese women, who have given birth to a baby before, are at lesser risk than first-time mums of normal weight, according to a new study.

But a new study by Oxford University shows the risks are not the same for all obese women.

Lead researcher Dr Jennifer Hollowell of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, said that the increased risk was fairly modest for obese women who did not have conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes or a previous caesarean section, and the risks were quite low if the woman had given birth previously.

She said that they found that around half of very obese women giving birth in obstetric units have medical problems or pregnancy complications when admitted.

Hollowell asserted that their study focused on women who were obese but otherwise healthy when they went into labour, and some of them had much lower risks than might have been expected.

The Oxford University researchers point out that, among healthy women with a straightforward pregnancy, childbirth risks are influenced more by whether someone is a first-time mum than whether they are obese.

They found that the chances of first-time mums of normal weight having medical interventions or complications during childbirth are greater than for `very obese` but otherwise healthy women having a second or subsequent child. The findings are published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The findings have been published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Source: Zee news

 

Top 5 super foods to boost your immunity

5 super foods that you should indulge in to bolster your immunity and see if you can feel healthier all year.

They say ‘an apple a day, keeps the doctor away’, but, trust us, it takes more than just an apple to recharge one’s immune system. One can ensure that one’s body runs slickly by just eating food rich in nutrients which in turn will help one fight against those whacky flues and other seasonal diseases.

Here is your guide to 5 super foods that you should indulge in to bolster your immunity and see if you can feel healthier all year.

Yogurt: Yogurt contains important minerals like potassium, calcium, protein and B vitamins. Most important of all it contains bacteria which helps in absorption of nutrients in the intestines and stabilises the immune system. Yogurt is also good for the skin. It has excellent anti-fungal properties.

Green Tea: The presence of polyphenols and flavonoids in green tea boosts the immune system to make the human body stronger in fighting various infections. It is also an excellent source of Vitamin C and thus helps keep common cold and flu away.

Beetroot: Drinking a glass of beetroot juice daily actually aids blood flow to the brain and halts age-related ailments like dementia. Also, the purplish-red root detoxifies the liver and cures diseases of the digestive system.

Garlic: Garlic is one of the most commonly used spices in cooking because of its aroma and the enticing flavour it adds to food, but it has some impressive health benefits too. It has antiseptic, anti-fungal and nutritive properties, which help fight against bacteria and several infections.

Green vegetables: Green leafy vegetables like broccoli, spinach, lettuce, salad leaves act as great antioxidants and are a good source of Vitamin C that prevents fine lines. For this reason these are highly beneficial for the body. They also contain lycopene and beta-carotene which help block UV rays to thwart ageing. Not only do they help keep the body weight under control but also help fight toxins and keeps all kind of diseases at bay.

 Source: Zee News

Chinese boy whose eyes were gouged out is getting implants

A 6-year-old Chinese boy whose eyes were gouged out by an attacker is receiving implants at a hospital in southern China after a Hong Kong eye doctor volunteered his service.

The implants are a precursor to fitting Guo Bin — known as Bin Bin — with prosthetic eyes that will look and move more like normal eyes, but which do not restore vision.

A personal assistant to Dr. Dennis Lam Shun-Chiu said the surgery started Tuesday afternoon at Lam’s private hospital in Shenzhen.

Police in the boy’s home province of Shanxi say they suspect his aunt gouged out his eyes, but have not identified a motive for last month’s attack. The woman has since committed suicide.

Ho said Bin Bin and his family travelled to Shenzhen on Sunday.