Month: May 2014

Here Are The Miraculous Plants That Strengthen Your Immunity!

honey-garlic-and-aloe-vera-juice

 

Herbal medicines consisting of various plants are dissolved in alcohol most efficient preparations to enhance immunity and to prevent diseases. Because each of us is already endangered by viral virosis more than ever, preventing them except vaccination, can be done by taking herbal products that increase immunity, because in a healthy organism, the risk for being affected by viruses is very small.

Iron, garlic, cinnamon, herb called cat claws, gooseberry, herbal medicine called propolis, aloe vera, are some products that affect the growth of the organism immunity.

Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey contains various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of honey strengthens the blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.

Garlic is a natural antibiotic that stimulates the immune system and enhances the effectiveness of white blood cells and cells of T. It blocks the toxin products with microbes. Garlic is undoubtedly key to achieving optimal immunity and protection against infections.

Aloe vera is another more effective product to increase the immunity of the organism. It contains more than 200 ingredients scientifically verified that activate and strengthen our capacity for self healing and has proven himself as one of the best medicinal plants. Scientific research proving that the main effect of aloe vera, namely activation of our immune system, based on the active ingredient akemanan (a complex carbohydrate), which is absorbed by the intestines and accumulates in the cell membranes. This compound increases the resistance of any particular cell against harmful viruses and bacteria.

Source: health on top

Healthy Recipe: Chickpea Salad

Chickpea-Salad1-600x218

Chickpea is a legume rich in plant fibers that facilitate digestion, rich in magnesium which is essential for heart health and bone, and rich in iron which is not lost even during cooking

When we talk about the biochemical composition, chickpea is not very different from other legumes: contain up to 23% protein, 58% carbohydrate and about 5% vegetable oil.

Enriched with iron more than meat, and this mineral is not lost by cooking. From arab ancient writings, chickpea is mentioned as a powerful aphrodisiac: “man would drink potion before sleeping that consists of honey, crushed garlic, crushed chick pea and water” .

This legume contains many plant fibers that are responsible for lowering cholesterol. Chickpea have another useful property: it expels sulphates from our body, harmful compounds that are used as preservatives in food processing.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated that 1 of the 100 people overly sensitive to sulphates. This sensitivity can be shown in any period of life, and the symptoms are weakness, nausea, diarrhea, rash, wheezing.

Chickpea is a natural source of calcium, copper and magnesium, which, according to new scientific research plays an important role in binding of calcium to bones.

That refers to the fact that osteoporosis occurs not because of a lack of calcium, but due to the deficit magnesium.

Except that, this mineral participates in regulating heart rate and lowering cholesterol levels and is very important for pregnant women because it reduces the risk of miscarriage and premature birth.

Chickpea_pods-600x485

Ingridients:

-2 pounds chickpea
-2/3 pound cauliflower
-3 small tomatoes
-1/4 pound walnuts, finely chopped
-2 small onions
-1 cup of chopped parsley
-2 tbs coriander
-fresh lemon juice
-2 tbs olive oil
-salt and pepper

Boil the chickpeas in a pot until grains are soft. Then strain it. Mix it in blender.

Move the Chickpeas in a bowl. Add the cauliflower and add all remaining ingredients.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

Allow the salad to for 15 minutes to soak up all the flavors. Then serve it with toasted bread.

Source: secretly healthy

Almonds Milk Health Benefits

Almond-Milk-tan-8-1600x1200

One of the finest milk who has a beneficial effect on the regulation of cholesterol levels in the blood and affect the strengthening of teeth and bones, and improves concentration.

As pointed out by many nutritionists , almond milk is one of the healthiest in the world , and can be made even at home in a very short time.

Eating almonds is usually recommended in cases of constipation , disturbances in the respiratory tract , coughing , heart problems , anemia , impotence , and diabetes .

They are a source of vitamin E ( which is essential for heart health ), calcium,phosphorus , iron,magnesium and vitamin B6 ( which is responsible for the proper functioning of the immune system ).

Almonds contain zinc , selenium , copper , niacin , omega 3 and omega 6 fats, and compared to other nuts, are in the category of the most nourishing. It is best to eat them on an empty stomach in order to ensure better absorption of nutrients.

Only 0.033 pounds of almonds satisfies as much as 50 percent of our daily requirement for all listed vitamins, and therefore they receive a superfood status, and they are perfect for our body for strengthening of the immune system and protection against many diseases.

That’s why nutritionists suggest almond milk as a perfect substitute for cow milk. It is easily made in the fridge can be kept for three to five days.Here you can find how can make homemade Almonds Milk.

Health Benefits
Almonds and almond milk , have positive implications for the brain and nervous system function, and is particularly recommended for children.

Beneficial effect on the heart because the monounsaturated fat from almonds is one of the healthiest.Protein and potassium that almonds contain is the reason why they are recommended for heart disease and regulation of cholesterol levels.

Regular consumption of almonds increase HDL – high density lipoproteins and reducing the level of LDL – low density lipoproteins. In this way, almonds affect regulation of cholesterol levels .

Also they are good in preventing sugar increased concentration of insulin in the blood after a meal, strengthen teeth and bones, and they are used as an important ingredient of cosmetic products for skin care.

Natural almond milk will help you lose weight by monounsaturated fats who provide the feeling of fullness and they can prevent overeating.

Almonds has probiotic properties which increase the level of good bacteria in the intestines and contribute to the proper functioning of the digestive system.

*However, like all foods, almonds have their drawbacks . They contain oxalates, so people who have kidney and gallbladder problems should avoid them.

Source: secretly healthy

5 Smoothies That Will Help You to Lose Belly Fats

5-best-smoothies-1

To lose belly fats it is very important to consume food that is great source of fiber, vitamins, minerals and food that is great cholesterol free protein source such as nuts and seeds. Berries are great source of these nutrients.

Blueberries for example contain: vitamins K, C, manganese, fiber, coumaric acid, quercetin, resveratrol, etc.

Strawberries are rich source of: anthocyanins, vitamin B complex, niacin, vitamins C, A, E, antioxidants such as: lutein, zea-xanthin, manganese, etc.

-Preparation of strawberries-peach smoothie:

1 peach

1 cup strawberries

2 tsp. flax seeds

Glass of water

Put these ingredients into blender and get irresistible smoothie.peach-cherries-smoothie5

Preparation of apricot-orange smoothie:

1 cup apricots

1 orange

1 peach

Glass of water

Put these ingredients into blender and blend it.apricot-orange-banana-smoothie3

Preparation of blackberries-raspberries smoothie:

½ cup blackberries

½ cup raspberries

½ cup strawberries

2 tsp. flax seeds

Blend these ingredients and the final result is incredible smoothie.blackberries-raspberries-4
Preparation of peach-cherries smoothie:

1 peach

1/3 cup cherries

1 banana

¼ cup crushed almonds

300 ml water

Put these ingredients into blender and you will get incredible smoothie.
Preparation of blackberries-blueberries smoothie:

½ cup blackberries

½ cup blueberries

Handful of spinach

¼ cup crushed hazelnuts

300 ml water

Put these ingredients into blender and blend it.

Source: healthy food base

10 Vitamin E Rich Foods You Must Have

vit e

Deficiency of vitamins can cause many health problems. So, for proper growth and development of the body it is crucial to eat vitamin rich foods. There are many vitamins like A, C, E, D, B12, B11 etc that have many health benefits. However, vitamin E is very important for your body.

Vitamin E is an anti-oxidising agent that helps overcome vitamin deficiency related health disorders. There are many health benefits of vitamin E. The powerful antioxidants in vitamin E rich foods removes free radicals on the body that can damage the body and lead to several diseases.

Vitamin E rich foods are also good for your skin. It reduces cellular ageing, prevents blood clotting and protect lungs from pollutants. Foods rich in vitamin E also benefits the health as it boost up immune system, fights cancer, diabetes and also protects the heart from cardiovascular diseases.

There are many vitamin E rich foods that are easily available in the market. Introducing them in your diet can be one of the best ways to get the required vitamin supplements. Green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, dandelion greens, fruits like mangoes, nuts like peanuts and pistachio are vitamin E rich foods that are healthy for you. Lets check the list of healthy vitamin E rich foods that you must include in your diet to overcome problems.

Source: bold sky

New breakthrough to help in fight against ‘aggressive’ breast cancer

BREAST-CANCER-large570

Researchers have reported a discovery that they hope would lead to the development of a powerful new way of treating an aggressive form of breast cancer.

The breast cancer subtype in question is commonly called “HER2-positive”; it’s a subset of the disease affecting about one patient in four, in which tumor cells overexpress a signaling protein called HER2.

The blockbuster drug Herceptin is a treatment of choice for many women with HER2-positive breast cancer, but in most cases, resistance to the treatment develops within several years. The prognosis for HER2-positive breast cancer patients is worse than for those with other subtypes of the illness.

A multi-institution team led by CSHL Professor Nicholas Tonks reported that it has found a means of inhibiting another protein, called PTP1B, whose expression is also upregulated in HER2-positive breast cancer.
PTP1B has been shown to play a critical role in the development of tumors in which HER2 signaling is aberrant.

When they treated mice modeling HER2-positive breast cancer with a PTP1B inhibitor called MSI-1436 (also called trodusquemine), Tonks and colleagues inhibited signaling by HER2 proteins.

Dr. Tonks discovered PTP1B some 25 years ago. It is an enzyme – one in a “superfamily” of 105 called protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) — that perform the essential biochemical task of removing phosphate groups from amino acids called tyrosines in other proteins. Adding and removing phosphate groups is one of the means by which signals are sent among proteins.

The new paper by Tonks and collaborators importantly reveals an alternative binding site, called an allosteric site, that does not present the biochemical difficulties that the active, or “catalytic,” binding site does. This allosteric site is a target of the candidate drug trodusquemine.

The paper has been published online in the journal Nature Chemical Biology

Source: Yahoo news

Yoga can ease stress for pregnant women

Yoga-pregnantwomen

Practicing yoga during pregnancy can help you reap health benefits like stress reduction and a decrease in a woman’s fear of childbirth, according to researchers.

A new report from Manchester University researchers finds that it can ease stress and reduce women`s fear of childbirth by a third. In addition to its many other health benefits for pregnant women, including reduced cortisol levels, less difficult birth plus more full term and healthy weight neonates, pregnancy yoga is a low cost intervention too.

Yoga teacher Natasha Harding has two children that she delivered naturally using her skills in the art. “Yoga is a wonderful exercise to try during pregnancy, when you naturally want to take it a bit easier. It’s ideal to ease many of the ailments that women suffer from when they’re pregnant such as backache, sciatica and general aches and pains,” she said.

“By maintaining a regular yoga practice during pregnancy the positions will become second nature with the aim being that the woman can have a more active labour with less intervention.

“My second baby was born in 51 minutes. It was because of the fact I did yoga every single day and felt so strong during the birth,” he added.

Harding`s five favourite yoga poses to try every day while you’re expecting:

* Butterfly (Badha Konasana): This position allows the baby to move down into the pelvis and uses all the muscles that a woman draws upon in labour. The yoga guru BKS Iyengar claims if a woman practises this pose every day it will take the pain out of child-birth.

* Wide Legged Seated (Upivista Konasana): Stretching your legs in this position will encourage your hips to be more flexible which is clearly vital during labour. It’s a great position to do every day if possible and leaning forward will gently stretch the back too and towards the end encourage the baby into a good birth pose.

* Staff (Dandasana): Staff pose is wonderful to sit in and circle your ankles and legs each day which will help with any puffiness you may be experiencing. When you combine breathing work too. you’re helping to release your shoulders as well as creating much needed space in your abdomen and chest. It’s a good one to try if you’re getting heart burn.

* Cat (Marjariasana) with arm and leg lifts: Being on your hands and knees is wonderful for any pregnant women as it relieves symptoms of backache and encourages the baby into a good birth pose – our mums would have been told to wash the floors. By lifting the arm and leg you stabilise the pelvis which is vital during pregnancy.

* Down Dog – adapted for pregnancy (Adho Mukha Svanasana): A lot of women find their back aches a lot during pregnancy and Down Dog is a great stretch to try. When you’re pregnant though you shouldn’t do the full pose, so using the wall instead will give a similar stretch but it’s much safer.

Source: zee news

U.S. doctors eradicate woman’s cancer with engineered measles vaccine

measles vaccine

A 49-year-old U.S. woman with advanced bone marrow cancer called multiple myeloma is effectively cancer-free after receiving an experimental trial that injected her a single dose of an engineered measles vaccine, according to a new U.S. study published this week.

The patient, with tumors all over her body, including a 3-cm- diameter one on her forehead, experienced complete remission of myeloma and has been clear of the disease for over six months, according to Mayo Clinic researchers who described their trial Wednesday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

A second patient in the study, a 65-year-old woman, did not respond as well to the virus treatment that is selectively toxic to myeloma plasma cells.

However, high-tech imaging studies “provided a clear proof” that the intravenously administered virus specifically targeted the sites of tumor growth, they said.

The researchers said the trial is a “proof of concept” that virotherapy, destroying cancer with a virus that infects and kills cancer cells but spares normal tissues, can be effective against the deadly cancer multiple myeloma.

“This is the first study to establish the feasibility of systemic oncolytic virotherapy for disseminated cancer,” Mayo Clinic hematologist Stephen Russell, first author of the paper and co-developer of the therapy, said in a statement.

“These patients were not responsive to other therapies and had experienced several recurrences of their disease,” Russell said.

Virotherapy has a history dating back to the 1950s, according to the Mayo Clinic, and thousands of cancer patients have been treated with a host of various viruses.

“However, this study provides the first well-documented case of a patient with disseminated cancer having a complete remission at all disease sites after virus administration,” according to the Mayo Clinic statement. It was noted that both patients were studied at the highest possible dose of the therapy.

The normal dose of a measles vaccine contains 10,000 infectious units of the measles virus, Russell told local media. They, however, started out giving the two 1 million infectious units and gradually cranked up the dosage but it didn’t work until both patients were injected with 100 billion infectious units, enough to inoculate 10 million people.

Both women also had limited previous exposure to measles, and therefore fewer antibodies to the virus, and essentially had no remaining treatment options.

The researchers said their next step is to see if the measles vaccine works in a larger number of patients. They also want to test the effectiveness of the virotherapy in combination with radioactive therapy in a future study

source: china

Top 11 health benefits of jackfruit

Jackfruit_helps_your_heart-_better

Jackfruit may not be one of those fruits that you can munch whenever and wherever you want. Its huge size and external thorny appearance might not exactly be pleasing but internally it’s delightfully sweet and equally beneficial as other fruits. Here are top 11 reasons you should not miss them.

1. Instant source of energy: Jackfruit is rich in carbohydrates or sugars like fructose and sucrose which provide instant energy. 92% content of jackfruits is made of only carbohydrates. About 1 cup of jackfruit bulbs contain 40 gm of carbohydrates, which is good enough to keep you energetic for the time between the meals. This nutritional benefit of jackfruits can especially help people who want to gain weight in a healthy way.

2. Prevents thyroid problems: Fruits are a good source of minerals required by the body in minute quantities. Jackfruit is highly rich in copper that plays a special role in thyroid functioning. It helps in regulation of thyroid hormones by helping in absorption and synthesis of hormones.

3. Boost immunity: Most fruits have their immune boosting function attributed to the presence of high levels of vitamin C. Jackfruits not only contain high amount of vitamin C but also have simple sugars that may have help in improving immunity. A study by Tan YF and colleagues analysed the immune stimulating function of sugars in jackfruit pulp and found that polysaccharides in jackfruit enhanced the function of phagocytic cells, a type of cells of the immune system, in mice.

4. Reduces blood pressure: About 14% of your daily potassium requirement can be met by a cup of sliced jackfruit pieces. This high potassium level in jackfruit makes it extremely good for regulating blood pressure and keeping you away from associated conditions like heart disease.

5. Good for digestion: Jackfruits are fairly rich in dietary fibre and water content, which helps in relieving constipation and improving digestion. But, according to Ayurveda, jackfruit (especially the smaller raw ones), might be difficult to digest for people who suffer from serious digestive problems.

6. Improves vision: Jackfruit is naturally rich in antioxidant compounds like flavonoids and phenols that remove free oxygen radicals known to damage cells at the DNA level. Free oxygen radicals can cause degeneration of the retinal cells and lead to chronic degenerative diseases like cataracts and macular degeneration. Jackfruit is also rich in vitamin A, offering about 10% of your daily requirement in just 165 gm.

7. Has anti-cancer properties: Being rich in antioxidants, jackfruit protects the cellular DNA from direct damage and induced mutations caused by free oxygen radicals. Due to it starchy and sticky nature, it acts like a cleanser for the colon to remove all the toxins from the digestive system which are linked to increased risk of colon cancer.

8. Cures anemia: Anemia can be caused due to deficiencies of minerals and vitamins required for the synthesis of red blood cells (RBCs) and hemoglobin. Jackfruit is rich in vitamin A, C, E and K as well as folic acid, niacin and vitamin B6. It also contains manganese, magnesium and copper required for production of red blood cells, thus helping to cure and prevent anemia.

9. Makes your bones stronger: We all know calcium is required for improving bone health. A handful of sliced jackfruit pieces will give you somewhere about 56.1 mg of calcium, accounting for 6% of your daily calcium requirement. It can be a natural supplement of calcium in people suffering from osteoporosis and weak bones.

10. Keeps your skin healthy: Like all other antioxidant rich foods, jackfruit helps in providing protection against skin damage and wrinkles due to early aging induced by free radicals.

11. Improves sperm count: According to Ayurveda, ripened jackfruit helps in increasing sperm motility and quality of semen in infertile men. Even in the traditional Chinese folk medicine, jackfruit ranks in the list of natural aphrodisiacs. It has been used to treat low libido, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in men since the ancient times.

Source: The health site

Summer special : Tips to prevent dehydration, heat stroke

water

In this scorching heat people are at high risk of dehydration and worse. A heat stroke occurs when a person faces prolonged exposure to high temperatures in combination with dehydration.

Without proper fluid intake, the body becomes dehydrated. If dehydration is untreated, it can lead to permanent brain damage and even death. So, it is necessary to be a little cautious and not to succumb to heat stroke.

Here area a few tips to avoid dehydration:

  • Drinking plenty of water is a must. If if you don’t feel thirsty, try drinking at least 7-8 glasses of water a day to prevent heat stroke.
  • Eat a lot of juicy fruits as they help maintain water balance inside the body. Watermelons, muskmelons, chikku, kiwi are a good cjoice as all of them have antioxidant properties and water content so eating them will help quench thirst and avoid dehydration.
  • Avoid eating a lot of spicy food and instead go for fresh green vegetables.
  • Limit caffeinated and alcoholic beverages as they increase your body’s fluid needs.
  • Wear light colour clothing as light colours absorb heat better during summers and allow sweat to evaporate.
  • Avoid heavy exertion and vigorous exercise specially during daytime as it makes your body work a lot and sweat a lot and might lead to dehydrtion.

Source: india vision