Month: February 2014

How to give yourself a neck and shoulder massage

Most people suffer from tension in their necks and shoulders at some time in their lives, which is hardly surprising if you consider the job the neck has to do! Poor posture, bad working positions, and carrying heavy bags all conspire to make the problem worse. However, you can ease the pain with a remedy literally at your fingertips.

This simple self-massage exercise gets right to the core of the tension and eases it gently and effortlessly; you can try it almost anywhere and at any time. Try to focus on the areas that feel most tense, and work slowly, deeply, and methodically.

Use the photos provided to help you learn how to perform self massage. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

1: Tilt your head back, and with the palms and fingers of each hand, squeeze the flesh at the base of your neck on either side of {1}your spine. Then, slowly roll your head forwards, still squeezing your skin. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds, then return your head to an upright position. The amount of flesh you can squeeze depends on your state of relaxation.

2: Stroke your hands up and down the back of your neck to warm the area. Then use the fingers of both your hands to make deep, circular pressures all around the neck area, making sure that you do not apply pressure to the spine itself.

3: Place your left hand on your right shoulder and squeeze the muscle. Hold the squeeze and slowly rotate your shoulder backwards. A grinding noise indicates that muscles are tense and should be freed up. Repeat with the right hand on the left shoulder.

4: Pummel {2} your right shoulder with your left hand to bring fresh blood to the area. Support your left elbow with your right hand for comfort, and keep your wrist loose and floppy as you swiftly strike the flesh. Repeat on your left shoulder.

5: With your fingers, stroke firmly from the centre of your chest outwards, applying deep pressure between your ribs. {3}When your fingers reach the outer edges of your ribcage, return to the centre and repeat the movement. Feel for tense spot and concentrate on these as you work over the chest.

Source: mail Online

 

The 5 jobs most likely to make you sick

Talk about an occupational hazard: 40 percent of Australian workers may be exposed to chemicals that boost their risk of developing cancer, according to a team of Aussie researchers. Solar radiation, tobacco smoke, and diesel engine exhaust topped the list of the most common disease-causing culprits.

While some jobs, such as logging and power line repairing, are inherently dangerous–they rack up some of the highest fatalities each year–your career could be making you sick without you realizing it. Keep clicking for the five jobs most likely to put your health on the line.

#1: Agriculture

Although farmers tend to have lower death rates due to heart disease and cancers of the lung, esophagus, bladder, and colon–likely thanks to lower smoking rates and a physically active lifestyle–they have an exceptionally high risk of other conditions, according to the National Cancer Institute. Among them: leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, soft tissue sarcoma, and cancers of the skin, lip, stomach, brain, and prostate. Why? Farmers are exposed to a wide range of hazardous chemicals including pesticides, engine exhaust, fertilizers, fungicide, and fuels, as well as animal viruses and dust.

#2: Construction workers

Falling objects and machines that turn digits into stumps aren’t the only on-site dangers. Roughly 1.3 million construction workers are currently exposed to asbestos, according to the American Lung Association. Small fibers of asbestos build up in your lungs over time, causing scarring that can stiffen your breathers–a condition called asbestosis. The kicker: Asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma–a fatal cancer also caused by asbestos–can take as long as 40 years to develop after you’ve been exposed to the toxin. If you’ve worked in construction, talk to your doctor about whether you should receive a lung cancer screening, which can also detect these conditions.

#3: Firefighters

Trauma and smoke inhalation must be the most serious threats, right? Nope: Firefighters are seven times more likely to die of a heart attack than smoke inhalation and nearly twice as likely to kick the bucket because of ticker trouble than trauma, the U.S. Fire Administration reports. Blame physical and psychological stress: Firefighters’ risk of heart attack increases up to 100-fold while battling a blaze, suggests a Harvard study.

#4: Pilots

The saying, “don’t fly too close to the sun” takes on a whole new meaning when it comes to airline pilots. Researchers at the University of Iceland found that airline pilots have 25 times the normal rate of malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Cosmic radiation may be partly to blame, but researchers suggest lifestyle factors play a role in pilots’ susceptibility to skin cancer, too. These include excessive sunbathing when they’re not up in the air–hello, free flights to tropical locales–and disrupted circadian rhythms when crossing multiple time zones, which could affect the body’s ability to fight off disease.

#5: Anything at a desk

Despite your cushy chair and ergonomic keyboard, your desk-bound career is hardly harmless. A sedentary job is associated with an 82 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who spend less than four hours per week sitting on the job, suggest new University of South Carolina research. In addition to the obvious–inactivity means burning fewer calories–excessive sitting causes changes in how well your muscles gobble up glucose and burn fat. Fortunately, researchers discovered that regular exercise significantly chips away at desk jockeying’s damaging effects.

Source: fox news

Revealed – how chocolate can help you lose weight

Chocolate has almost always been on the ‘Heck no!’ list when it comes to diets, but a new regimen promises eating the sweet treat helps with weight loss. Neuroscientist Dr. Will Clower penned the book ‘Eat Chocolate Lose Weight’ and says consuming chocolate can actually help you eat less each day. Studies on thousands of people have reportedly proved his theory right.

‘What we see in all these people is that the amount that they’re hungry for at the plate will drop by a half to a third,’ the doctor told CBS News Pittsburgh. ‘And the amount that they’re hungry for, the amount of between meal snacks that they have, will drop by about a half.’

However, this doesn’t mean diet followers can chow down on bricks of the stuff each day and expert results. Clower outlines specific guidelines in his book, including going with dark chocolate whenever possible. Already celebrated for its health properties, Clower stresses ‘the darker, the better.’ Dark chocolate protects against sunburn and cancer, provides energy, stabilizes blood sugar and improves mood in addition to aiding weight loss.

‘So all of the good stuff in chocolate comes from one place and one place only – and that is the cocoa,’ Clower said. Cocoa that’s 70 percent or higher is best.

Clower also recommends eating chocolate 20 minutes before lunch and dinner, as well as five minutes after these meals.

‘With the little piece of wonderful, rich dark chocolate at the end of your meal, it stabilizes the sugar onset into your bloodstream so that you have more of that blood sugar more often throughout the afternoon, so you’re just not hungry,’ he explains.

Additional guidelines include not consuming portions larger than the end joint of your thumb, savoring instead of chewing chocolate, and eating the sweet daily.

‘If they brain-scan people and have them eat chocolate while they’re doing it, their pleasure centers are like a Christmas tree — everybody’s happy in there,’ Clower said.

Other health benefits of chocolate

Curious to know how chocolate can be healthy for you in other ways too? Well, here are some more of its health benefits.

1. Makes you feel good

Just like coffee, eating chocolate too can provide a ‘feel-good’ effect in the brain. This is because chocolate contains a stimulant called theobromine which is similar to caffeine, except that it doesn’t affect the central nervous system.

2. Acts as an aphrodisiac

Ever wondered why so many chocolate ads revolve around love and romance? The reason is that chocolate acts as an aphrodisiac which boosts your sexual desire or libido. The two nutrients responsible for giving chocolate this property are tryptophan and phenylethylamine
Source: The health site

Dogs can detect emotion in human voices, study shows

As many dog owners already know, dogs can often seem tuned into their “person’s” emotions or mood. Now, a new study from Current Biology offers evidence that this is, indeed, the case.

The study found that “dogs are sensitive to cues of emotion in human voices,”

And just how did researchers come to this conclusion? Fox reports, “For their study, researchers trained 11 dogs to sit still in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. The researchers than analyzed the brain activity of both dogs and humans as they listened to 200 different dog and human sounds, ranging from crying to playful barking and laughing.

“While the brains of both dogs and humans responded most strongly to noises produced by their own species, they processed emotionally-loaded sounds in similar ways,” Fox reports.

“Some differences were noted as well: Dogs responded more strongly to non-vocal noises, compared to humans.”

Researchers hope the study will lead to “a better understanding of why dogs are so in tune with their owner’s emotions.”

Source: Now trending

 

Surgeons reconstruct baby’s skull with 3D printing technology

When baby Gabriel was born in August, his dad, Manuel Dela Cruz, said everything initially seemed fine with his new son. It wasn’t until a week after his birth that Gabriel’s parents thought their son’s forehead looked abnormal.

“We noticed something was wrong with him,” Dela Cruz, of East Quogue, N.Y., told . “His eye wasn’t the same, and his right forehead was more protruded than the other one.”

Worried for their son’s health, the new parents took Gabriel to a pediatrician, who diagnosed the newborn with unilateral coronal synostosis – also known as anterior plagiocephaly. For babies with this condition, a growth plate fuses prematurely on one
side of the skull, causing the forehead to become more and more distorted and form asymmetrically.

Although the side effects of plagiocephaly are mostly cosmetic, the deformity can grow significantly worse if left untreated – leading many parents to opt for reconstructive surgery. Knowing what needed to be done, Dela Cruz said it was frightening to have
their son undergo an operation at such a young age.

“You obviously fear the worse, especially because it was in the head,” Dela Cruz said. “Knowing he was going to be opened up…it was very scary on the part of the parent.”

In order to treat Gabriel, physicians at Stony Brook University decided to try a completely new kind of operation – one that would cut down on the time the infant spent in the operating room.

Through a collaboration with Medical Modeling Inc. in Golden, Colo., Dr. Michael Egnor and Dr. Elliot Duboys were able to virtually plan the entire surgery beforehand.  Additionally, the company created 3D printed before-and-after models of Gabriel’s skull for the surgeons, so they could accurately predict how the operation’s results would look.

“The first thing we do, after we make a diagnosis, is a CT scan of the baby’s head… and we sent the CT image to [Medical Modeling],” Egnor, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told FoxNews.com. “Using a computer program, they simulated the baby’s skull with the symmetry and dimensions it should have. Then the
company manufactured these templates and sent them to us, so we had the exact measurements.”

Knowing exactly how the skull should look after the procedure, 6-month-old Gabriel was brought in for surgery and placed him under anesthesia. In order to get to the deformed bone, the surgeons made an incision across the top of Gabriel’s forehead,
exposing the entire front of the skull and eye sockets. Through the use of a special saw, the surgeons removed four pieces of deformed bone and made special cuts in the skull to help reshape and restructure the baby’s head. In an

attempt to make the remodeling more precise, Egnor and Duboys utilized the 3D printed templates provided by Medical Modeling, which helped to highlight where the surgeons needed to make their incisions.

“They sent us cutting templates, which were pieces of 3D modeling that we were able to place on the child’s skull during surgery,” Duboys, associate professor of surgery at Stony Brook Medicine, told. “And then we just traced where the cuts should be on the
skull, almost like a stencil… And then we know where to cut.”

Both Egnor and Duboys said the 3D modeling technology helped to cut down on the length of the procedure, which meant Gabriel spent far less time under anesthesia than during traditional surgery. They hope more surgeons will utilize this 3D imaging and modeling to perform reconstructive surgeries in the future.

“I think it’s going to become, over time, acknowledged as the best way to do procedures of this nature,” Egnor said. “I was hopeful that this would work nicely, and it made a believer out of me.”

As for Gabriel, Dela Cruz said his son will still need to wear a helmet to reshape his forehead. But overall, he responded extremely well to the surgery and his forehead is not as protruded as it once was.

“There are no side effects, and he’s a normal baby,” Dela Cruz said. “…Gabriel responded very good to the procedure, and three or four days after, he was joking and playing. It was great seeing him that way.”

Source: Fox news

Admissions open for Nursing programs in TAU

Nursing_Oncampus_landing_pa

Texila American University (TAU) one of the best Caribbean Medical school is located in Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America. 4 Years Bachelor of Science in Nursing Provides student an opportunity to get in touch nursing profession practically as well as theoretically. The program is designed on the basis of requirement of professional at Developed and Developing economy Eligibility:

  1. Students from HIGH School will Undergo a 4 year [ 12 Semester program ] as we RUN 3 semesters a year.
  2. Students from A levels or Higher Secondary schooling with the last 2 years focusing on Subjects in Biology and Chemistry will Skip the two 2 semesters of the BSN nursing program

Salient Features of the program

  • Opportunity for learning at the College, local hospitals, and community health agencies.
  • Preparation to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.
  • Oppturnity work as a Nurse in the healthcare facilities of United States of America.
  • Job options in a variety of environments including hospitals, GP surgeries, clinics, nursing and residential homes, occupational health services, voluntary organisations.

For more details visit our website and apply online

Man Has Skin Reaction to Tattoo — 20 Years Later

There have been many cases of people having allergic reactions just after getting a tattoo. But for one man in England, the reaction was delayed, coming 20 years after he got his tattoo, according to a new report of his case.

The 54-year-old man had recently completed chemotherapy for the blood cancer lymphoma, and had just undergone a bone-marrow transplant using his own cells. Six days later, when his immune system was still suppressed because of the procedure, he developed a fever.

Looking for the cause of the fever, doctors found newly formed skin lesions on the red-ink parts of his old tattoo, resembling the allergic reaction that some people experience when they get a new tattoo.

“While acute red-ink tattoo reactions are well documented, a case of a tattoo reaction with a delay of more than two decades has not been previously described,” said Dr. George Chapman, who treated the man.

Although most people who get such reactions to tattoo ink are allergic to one of the ingredients in the ink, this was likely not the case for this patient, said Chapman, of Churchill Hospital in England.

“Given this was a bone-marrow transplant of the patient’s own bone marrow, his immune system should be near identical (in terms of what his immune system reacts to, and what it has seen before) both before and after the transplant,” Chapman told Live Science in an email.

“I believe that immune-system suppression was the trigger for the reaction, Chapman said.

Most likely, the tattooing done decades ago had introduced bacteria into the man’s body, and those bacteria were held at bay by a healthy immune system, Chapman explained. But once the immune system was compromised by chemotherapy, those bacteria found an opportunity to cause problems.

In fact, three days later, when the patient’s immune system returned to normal, the lesions healed, leaving only peeling skin behind [Image of the tattoo reaction]

The patient declined a biopsy, so it remains unknown which bacteria may have caused the reaction.

However, it is also possible that the reaction was not due to an infection, Chapman said. Rather, an ingredient in the ink might have interacted with one of the chemotherapy drugs to form a new compound. This new molecule could have then appeared new to the immune system, and caused a reaction, Chapman said.

The report was published Jan. 10 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Source: Live science

Student Body: School helps bullied 510 pound teen slim down

It was hard not to notice the 510-pound freshman in English class who dwarfed his peers and walked with his head down, sullen and quiet.

His teacher knew that the 14-year-old needed help. What the teacher didn’t know was how Eric Ekis had ballooned to that weight — while mourning the death of his father. Or why this lonely kid didn’t seem to want to change, even though his classmates bullied him. Or that in helping Eric, he might just help the whole school.

On that first day of class at Franklin Community High School in Indiana this past fall, teacher Don Wettrick tried to engage this new student, suggesting they work out together.

“I’d like to but I can’t,” Eric said.

A few days later, Wettrick brought it up again. Again, Eric said no. Then Eric crushed a desk in class. Wettrick tried again, and again heard no.

He realized his methods were failing. He saw that Eric felt terrible — both physically and mentally. His classmates bullied him. One day Eric smelled so bad, Wettrick pulled him aside to talk about his hygiene. Eric said he knew it was a problem.

“I just don’t care,” Eric told him.

“About?”

“Anything.”

“When did you give up?” Wettrick asked.

“When my dad died.”

Eric cried as he explained that his dad died suddenly in 2010 of a brain aneurysm and soon afterward, 11-year-old Eric fell in the shower, shattering his leg. He underwent multiple surgeries and received rods and screws to fix it. At 6 feet tall and 300 pounds, the doctors feared that Eric might grow lopsidedly, so they broke his other leg to slow the growth. The surgeries rendered Eric bedridden, and months of rehab followed. His lack of mobility and grief made it easy for Eric to stress eat.

“After that is when he started putting weight on. Bedridden and upset and depressed,” says Laura Ekis, Eric’s mom. He gained weight so gradually they did not notice until he ballooned. Three years later, he was 6’4” and 510 pounds.

Now everyone noticed, and Wettrick needed a plan. The English teacher also taught an innovations class, which teaches kids to think creatively. One of his students, Kevin Stahl, a senior and star of the swim team, needed a project. Wettrick approached Kevin

Kevin suggested that Eric walk as a way to get used to exercising. First period every day, Eric walks.

“I was sick and tired of being big and bigger than everyone else,” Eric says. “I got lucky it was Kevin. Kevin is just a nice person. … I am glad he is my friend.”

The two also talked to a dietitian about ways Eric could also improve his diet.

“We’re eating healthier at home. We’re baking things and not frying things,” says Laura Ekis. “I want him to be healthy and productive and enjoy everything high school has to offer.”

Eric wasn’t the only kid in school struggling with obesity – in 2011, about 30 percent of Indiana high school students were considered overweight or obese, according to the Indiana State Health Department. When his classmates noticed what he was doing, some joined him and formed a walking group. Another student, Tessa Crawford, lost 25 pounds thanks to walking and food journaling.

Even students who were not overweight supported the efforts.

“People [had] been bullying me. And they all stopped and people are being supportive,” Eric says. “I feel physically better. I feel better emotionally, too.”

While Wettrick feels overjoyed that Eric is becoming healthier, he also likes that this program has reduced bullying.

“This has almost been more of an anti-bullying campaign,” Wettrick says. “If more students wanted to help, as opposed to point and laugh, [it] can lead to great bonds and friendship.”

It’s been a long journey for Eric and will continue to be. The weight is coming off slowly; he’s lost 10 pounds. Like so many others, Eric gained over the holidays. But he is learning how to live a healthier life.

Wettrick left Franklin Community on Monday — he took a position as an innovation teacher at Noblesville High School — but he still talks with Eric and Kevin. Another teacher, Lesleigh Groce, took over the program. The walking group, which includes about a dozen students, walks for 45 minutes a day; twice a week they do some additional exercise such as shooting hoops or yoga.

Eric says that even with the setbacks, he doesn’t get discouraged because he has so much support.

“From the beginning, I wanted this to help other kids just like me — overweight kids that need the help and the support,” he says. “I just like to help others. It is the right thing to do. … It is what my mom taught me.”

Source: Today health

Family Fights to Block Deportation of Comatose Exchange Student

A Pakistani exchange student, in a coma since a November car accident, faces possible deportation next week as his visa expires and the Minnesota hospital caring for him seeks to send him home amid mounting, unpaid medical bills, claims the man’s family.

The immigration status of Shahzaib Bajwa, 20, has gained the U.S. State Department’s attention, while near his bed at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, his family wages a strained battle with the hospital to keep Bajwa at that facility, off an airplane, and in the United States. He was in a one-semester program at the University of Wisconsin-Superior before a car in which he was a passenger struck a deer.

“They asked us to sign a consent form to take him back to Pakistan in this condition. We just want what’s best for my brother, to stay here, to be treated in the United States,” said the student’s brother, Shahraiz Bajwa.

“There is one doctor at this hospital who has put a lot of effort in sending my brother back, and he must be very heartbroken that we are still here. He is doing it because my brother is costing them money,” Bajwa said. “In his condition, it would be a big risk. It would be 24 hours to get there. And they do not have the same medicines in Pakistan.”

The young man’s family is in the U.S. on visitors’ visas. His travel insurance plan was capped at $100,000 for emergency medical care.

Hospital spokeswoman Maureen Talarico said patient-privacy laws prevent her from addressing the family’s claims and allow her to report only that Shahzaib Bajwa is in fair condition.

“We are working collaboratively with Mr. Bajwa’s family and caregivers along with the U.S. and Pakistani governments to reach the best possible outcome for the patient and for his family,” Talarico said.

His family is watching both the calendar and the clock.

nbc

Bajwa has slowly regained the ability to open his eyes, wiggle his toes, and squeeze his mother’s hand – although inconsistently, and he remains unable to speak, his brother said, adding: “We don’t know what’s going on in his mind.” Based on a common neurological scale, Bajwa may be emerging from his coma.

While the ensuing months of bedside vigil may be many, the family sees the hours dwindling before his student visa expires Feb. 28.

“When we asked the hospital to convert his student visa into a medical visa, first they said they would help us. Then they took that offer from the table,” Shahraiz Bajwa said. His brother’s medical expenses, he confirmed, exceed $350,000, adding the family – visiting from Pakistan – does not have the money or medical insurance to cover to those bills.

Now, federal agencies are examining the issue.

During a Feb. 13 briefing, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf was asked if the agency had decided not to extend Bajwa’s student visa while he remains in a coma.

“No, that’s not true,” Harf said. “… The State Department is continuing to work with the hospital, with the student program sponsors. He is in the United States on a State Department-sponsored J-1 (student) exchange program …

“… It’s not accurate to say that the State Department isn’t extending the visa. That’s just not how the process works, right? So we’re working with his family as they decide on treatment options and we’ll help them maintain flexibility in terms of his status,” Harf said.

Minneapolis-based immigration attorney Saiko McIvor, working on behalf of the Bajwa family, said the State Department seems not to favor extending Bajwa’s student visa. She’s in talks with the local branch of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“We are working to get things resolved so that he would stay in legal status in the United States beyond Feb. 28. But trying to get a J-1 extended may be very difficult because that would require U.S. State Department’s cooperation and I don’t think they might be willing to do that,” McIvor said.

Source: NBC news

 

how to style your hair without harming it

Who doesn’t want to look perfect on their wedding day? Brides start planning months before what dress will they wear, what the jewellery be like, but hairstyling is often ignored. In the end, all of them pretty much get the same kind of hairdo – curled or straightened hair tied in a bun. But beauty experts have advised brides-to-be to skip the hair dryer and curling iron and switch to no-heat hairstyles while getting ready for their big day. Read essential skincare tips for brides-to-be.

Style-Your-Hair-Step-1

Rod Anker,Vogue’s Colorist of the Year, said that for the sangeet and ring ceremony, hair can be let loose. Also, waves and loose buns bring out your hair’s natural texture and give a totally natural look, he said.

How to get these looks

After taking a shower, towel-dry your hair and part it where you like it and if your curls tend to loosen out quickly, lightly run some styling foam or mousse through it, Anker explained. Monsoon Salon does rehearsals on bridal hairdos before executing the look on D-day.

For instantly glamourising your look with curls, begin by twisting your hair away from your face in a wringing motion and continue twisting until hair dries, Anker added. Try these haircare tips for brides.

A ‘doughnut bun’ is another hairstyle, which if piled right on top of your head, gives the illusion of height, that is very in this season. You can get a doughnut ruffle from any accessory store. To do the style, simply thread the ponytail through this and wrap your hair around the doughnut creatively and accessorize with flowers, Ambika Pillai suggested.

Centre parting is also in these days and brides can wear a heavy maang-teeka after they section their hair from the middle. They leave it open during the reception and sangeet functions and tie it into a bun during the wedding rituals. If you have too frizzy hair, calm them down by applying aloe vera gel in it. Read more tips to tame frizzy hair. If need some bounce in your mane, wash your hair and take the last rinse of amla powder diluted with water. Here are home remedies for all your hair problems.

Source: Health