10 DIY Homemade Pedicure Tips for Healthy & Soft Feet

A homemade pedicure is one of the easiest and cost effective ways of improving the appearance of your feet and their nails. Essentially, it is a manicure of the feet with a few additions to keep them feeling comfortable in both open toed and enclosed footwear.

The word Pedicure comes from the Latin word ‘pes’ (meaning ‘foot’) and ‘cura’ (meaning ‘care’) and also has relevance to other foot conditions such as ‘pes plano’ which means flat footed.

10 DIY Homemade Pedicure Tips for Healthy & Soft Feet

An at home pedicure is good for several reason,s but most importantly it enables you to check over the feet in detail to identify and hopefully prevent any problems, such as fungal nails and athlete’s foot, before they occur.

A Homemade Pedicure In 10 Simple Steps…

1) Remove Polish

Remove any existing nail polish or gel coverings preferably using a non-solvent-based nail polish remover, this will prevent the nail plate from being damaged and drying out. Try to use cotton bands instead of cotton wool balls so as not to leave any traces of cotton behind.

2) Soak Feet

Use a bowl of warm water or a foot spa and add a drop of shampoo and a tablespoon full of sea salt or Epsom salts as this is good for any cracks in the skin. You can also add an essential oil such as tea tree or eucalyptus. Soak your feet for around 10 to 15 min. If you have heavy calluses you may need to soak them for longer.

3) Exfoliate

Gently exfoliate your feet and heels with a ready-made foot scrub, or a face scrub. This will help with any dead skin and minor calluses. You can also use a pumice stone at this stage or the coarse biodegradable pumice pad to treat minor calluses.

Do not scrub too hard as you may damage the upper layers of your skin and make it sore Use a fine foot file once the feet are completely dry to smooth the skin before applying cream.

Never use a razor to remove calluses as all too often you will end up cutting yourself which may lead to more serious problems. If they are that bad, visit your podiatrist who will scalpel them down for you.

However, remember calluses are there for a reason-to protect your foot from friction and pressure. If you remove them without addressing the cause they may become very sore.

4) Dry Properly

Make sure you dry your feet correctly particularly in between the toes to prevent a damp environment for bacteria and fungus such as athlete’s foot to get hold. Use a foot towel specifically for your feet and no other member of your family to prevent cross infection problems.

5) Tidy Cuticles

Apply a cuticle softener to each cuticle on the toes, carefully rubbing it in and wait 3 to 5 min. Ten very gently push back the cuticles using a clean orange stick.

Tip: if you don’t have a cuticle softener, using olive oil will work just as well.

6) Trim Nails

Carefully trim and cut your toenails with a pair of nail clippers or scissors. Be careful not to cut them to short or you would damage the nail bed or worse make it bleed.

Always use a good quality and clean (preferably sterilised) pair of clippers and cut them straight across.

This will reduce the risk of ingrown nails from cutting down the sides. However, cutting straight across often leads to sharp corners which need to be filed carefully with a special file called a ‘blacks file’ by podiatrists or an ‘ingrown toenail file’ by pedicurists.

Tip: If visiting a salon always make sure the tools/instruments they use have been sterilised correctly so as to avoid bacterial and fungal contamination of the nails and skin.

7) File Nails

A glass file is often best for filing toenails, although metal ones can be sterilised. However, most people opt for the disposable emery board type. File in one direction so as not to split the nail and remove any sharp corners left from cutting as in step six.

8) Massage Your Feet

Give your feet a gentle reflexology style massage to finish your homemade pedicure and make them feel fresh and new again prior to applying any nail polishes.

9) Separate Toes

Use a foam toe separator to separate the toes prior to painting. This will help with any smudging or marking of the nails if you have to walk about while they dry.

10) Polish Nails

Always apply a good quality base coat before applying your nail polish as it will protect your nails from any solvent in the polish, which can lead to destruction of the nail plate over time. Let your nails completely dry before wearing shoes or sandals.

Source: tips zone

A New Mexico Woman Is Being Tested for Ebola After a Visit to Sierra Leone

Health officials say she’s unlikely to be infected, however A New Mexico woman is being tested for Ebola, even though the state department of health says it is improbable that she’s carrying the virus.

A New Mexico Woman Is Being Tested for Ebola After a Visit to Sierra Leone

The 30-year-old returned from a teacher assignment in Sierra Leone with fever, muscle aches, headache and a sore throat — all symptoms similar to the early stages of Ebola, the Albuquerque Journal reports. However, she had no known exposure to the contagious disease, which is spread through contact with body fluids.

Health officials say the woman is being tested “out of an abundance of caution.” Preliminary test results are expected later this week.

In the past five months, the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever has claimed over a thousand lives in West Africa.

Source: TIME

Study says music makes people feel powerful

There’s scientific evidence to support what a lot of us have thought: Listening to music, particularly songs with a heavy bass line, may make a person feel more powerful.

Study says music makes people feel powerful

Scientists at Northwestern University first conducted a pre-test, in which they asked participants to listen to 30-second clips of 31 different songs from various genres. The researchers then rated the most and least powerful songs, based on how powerful the participants said the songs made them feel.

Next, the researchers observed how the highest and lowest power songs influenced the participants’ psychological and behavioral sense of power by having them carry out certain tasks. The participants were also asked about the feelings they experienced while carrying out the tasks.

The results of the study, published in the journal Social Psychological & Personality Science, revealed that when the participants listened to the songs rated most powerful, they felt the highest sense of power. Songs rated as most powerful included “We Will Rock You” by Queen and “Get Ready For This” by 2 Unlimited, while those found to be least empowering included “Because We Can” by Fatboy Slim and “Who Let the Dogs Out?” by Baha Men.

The study suggests that listening to a favorite song may help people feel empowered and more confident before going into an intimidating situation.

Source: health central

Natural Remedies for Regulation of the Menstrual Cycle

Many of women around the world suffer from irregular menstruation. Sometimes it can happen to get PMS two times a month and sometimes not getting that for 2 or 3 months. If you want to learn how to adjust the monthly cycle, you can try some natural remedies.

Natural Remedies for Regulation of the Menstrual Cycle

Apple Cider Vinegar

Consuming apple cider vinegar before a meal once a day helps to regulate it.It reduces insulin levels and blood sugar. Drink 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar with water before eating.

Exercise
Some aerobic exercise like walking , dancing, bicycling can help.It increases blood circulation and reduces the activity of insulin.The increase in insulin is one of the reasons for irregular menstrual cycle.

Fruits

You need to practice a healthy and nutritious diet. Instead of fast food, include fresh fruits and green vegetables in the diet. There are specific fruits that cause menstruation affecting its regularity. Pineapple is one such fruit which helps you get your period on time, even papaya is good at it.

Source: secretly healthy

Fish consumption could boost seniors’ brain health

A study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences suggests shifting focus from omega-3s to fish, pure and simple, baked or broiled, for better brain health.

Fish consumption could boost seniors' brain health

“Our study shows that people who ate a diet that included baked or broiled, but not fried, fish have larger brain volumes in regions associated with memory and cognition,” says senior investigator James T. Becker, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, Pitt School of Medicine.

While studies abound hailing the multitude of health benefits that omega-3 fatty acids offer and associations with brain health account for a large portion of them, Dr. Becker and his team were underwhelmed by the influence of omega-3s in their study.

“We did not find a relationship between omega-3 levels and these brain changes, which surprised us a little,” he says. “It led us to conclude that we were tapping into a more general set of lifestyle factors that were affecting brain health of which diet is just one part.”

Using high-resolution MRI scans of the brain, lead investigator Cyrus Raji, M.D., Ph.D., who now is in radiology residency training at UCLA, and the research team analyzed data from 260 people who were concurrently participating in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS).

The participants, all of whom were over the age of 65, were assessed to be in good cognitive health at two time points during the 10-year study, which began in 1989, and self-reported their dietary intake.

“The subset of CHS participants answered questionnaires about their eating habits, such as how much fish did they eat and how was it prepared,” says Dr. Raji. “Baked or broiled fish contains higher levels of omega-3s than fried fish because the fatty acids are destroyed in the high heat of frying, so we took that into consideration when we examined their brain scans.” Researchers conclude that participants who ate baked of broiled fish at least once per week had a grey matter volume that was, on average, 4.3 per cent greater than those who didn’t.

Their cognition was superior by 14 per cent and they were more likely to have a college education than non-fish eaters.

Data regarding blood levels of omega-3s, however, revealed no association between the latter and the differences in cognition and grey matter.
“This suggests that lifestyle factors, in this case eating fish, rather than biological factors contribute to structural changes in the brain,” Dr. Becker noted. “A confluence of lifestyle factors likely are responsible for better brain health, and this reserve might prevent or delay cognitive problems that can develop later in life.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Source: ctv news

232 Tiny ‘Toothlets’ Removed from Teenager in India

A team of oral surgeons reportedly removed 232 teeth from the mouth of a 17-year-old boy in India on July 21. The boy was diagnosed with a condition called complex composite odontoma, a rare type of tumor that affects the jaw or gums, his doctors said.

232 Tiny 'Toothlets' Removed from Teenager in India

The Disturbing Places Teeth Can Grow
Your brain is probably the last place you’d ever expect TEETH to grow. Ashik Gavai was admitted to JJ Hospital in Mumbai with swelling in his right jaw, Dr. Sunanda Dhiware, head of the hospital’s dental department

The boy had been experiencing discomfort from the swelling for 18 months, Dhiware said. His father, Suresh Gavai, told the Mumbai Mirror that his son began complaining of severe pain a month ago.

In people with complex composite odontoma, a tumor grows in the jaw and contains tooth-like structures, as well as blobs of enamel and dentin, the tissues that make up teeth.

“Once we opened [the tumor], little pearl-like teeth started coming out, one-by-one,” Dhiware told. “Initially, we were collecting them, they were really like small white pearls. But then we started to get tired. We counted 232 teeth.”

However, these pearl-like objects, aren’t really teeth in the truest sense of the word, according to Dr. J. David Johnson an associate professor at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and spokesperson for the American Dental Association.

“Some people call them ‘denticals’ or ‘toothlets.’ They’re not really true teeth because, if they were to erupt, there would be no periodontal ligament or root structure, and they’re always deformed,” Johnson said.

Although these malformed teeth don’t typically cause symptoms, he said they can lead to problems and do need to be removed, he told Live Science.

In the case of Ashik Gavai, the toothlets did seem to be causing some trouble, however. “If they’re growing into an area where there are nerves, that can generate some pain. Sometimes infections will form in association with them, and that can generate pain as well,” Johnson said.

Odontomas are the most common type of odontogenic tumors, comprising about 22 percent of all of this kind of tumor diagnosed by dentists and oral surgeons. Although it isn’t clear exactly why these growths form, trauma, infection and possibly growth pressure may be responsible, Johnson said.

After the teeth are removed surgically, the tumor isn’t likely to return, he said. And for Gavai, now that the tumor is gone, the 28 teeth that remain in his mouth will likely be healthier.

“Typically we recommend the removal of the odontoma so it doesn’t affect the health of the adjacent teeth or interfere with the eruption of the other normal teeth,” Johnson said.

Although Johnson said he has personally never seen an odontoma as large as the one described in this particular case, he did not express doubt that such a massive tumor could form. He said that, like Gavai, most of the patients he sees with odontomas are teenagers, with the average age for the condition being 14. Males are slightly more likely to develop these growths than females, he said.

Source: discovery news

Bitter Melon – Homemade Juice that Cures Dangerous Tumors and Cancer

Recent results from a study of Bitter melon at the University of Colorado are more than encouraging. This herb, which is known in the East and is used in food for centuries, can help in treating cancer.

Bitter Melon – Homemade Juice that Cures Dangerous Tumors and Cancer

A new study performed on mice has shown that bitter melon juice significantly reduces the growth of pancreatic tumors, because it hampers metabolism of glucose in cancer cells and automatically it starves then and leaves no sugar, “fuel” without which cancer cells cannot survive.

The numerous health benefits associated with consumption of bitter melon is already known. This herb is grown and eaten throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, Japan, China, Oceania, and even the Caribbean. It is particularly popular in the Okinawa, and Japanese are known who are known for longevity.

Anticancerogenic action from Biter melon is visible in breast, prostate, colon, liver and stomach cancer, certain tumors and in leukemia. The latest study showed that bitter melon has cytotoxic effect on pancreatic cancer. Researchers from the University of Colorado bought these melons in the local market, removed the skin and seeds and using a blender made juice from it.

The resulting juice is used for testing in two ways: directly to the cells, or frozen and ground into powder, which was later used as food for the test on mice’s. Freshly squeezed juice diluted with only 5 percent of water acted hard on reduction of the cancer cells of the pancreas . In fact, after 72 hours of testing AsPC- 1 and Capan- 2 tumor cells were reduced by 90 percent, and BxPC- 3 and MiaPaCa- 2 to even 98 percent.

Juice caused programmed death of cancer cells. Once the mice in the experiment were fed up with the dust of bitter melon, there was a 64 percent reduction in cancer cells.

The story is similar with chemotherapy applied in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, but in this case without apparent side effects that accompany chemotherapy treatment.

Source: secretly healthy

2.5 kg tumour removed from Mumbai woman!

In a rare surgery, a team of doctors at Sion Hospital here removed a tumour weighing over 2.50 kg during an emergency caesarean operation on a 26-year-old pregnant woman, a team member said.

2.5 kg tumour removed from Mumbai woman

Though the surgery was performed almost two months ago, the doctors chose to announce their achievement only now as they were waiting for the patient to recover completely.

The tumour — the size of a watermelon – had remained undetected till the woman was brought to the Lokmanya Tilak Memorial General Hospital (LTMGH), or Sion Hospital, run by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

“This is the first case in the country in which such a huge ovarian tumour has been removed during an emergency caesarian section operation,” Dr. Niranjan Chavan, professor in LTMGH department of obstetrics & gynaecology, told. The woman – a domestic help from Vikhroli

suburb – was in labour with a high pulse rate when she was brought to Sion Hospital June 15 from a private nursing home. She was immediately taken to the operation theatre. After a caesarian section operation, the doctors delivered a boy weighing 2.7 kgs.

Post-delivery, as the team was performing the cleaning sequence of the paracolic sections, they were shocked to detect a huge tumour in the woman’s abdomen. “We had checked her medical records which only stated that she had already undergone two caesarian section procedures in the past, but nowhere was it mentioned that she had an ovarian tumour,” Chavan said.

Terming it as “an unfortunate development,” Chavan and his team finally removed the huge tumour, punctured it and drained one litre fluids from it. They also managed to save the left ovary of the patient. Later, they carried out a tubal ligation (sterilization) on the couple as per their request.

Head of the department Dr Y S Nandanwar and Sion Hospital dean Avinash Supe, while congratulating the medical team, said this was the first case reported in India where such a large ovarian tumour was excised during emergency caesarean section operation.

The histopathology report of the Vikhroli woman, who has two sons, six and three years old, suggests that the tumour was benign and she would be able to lead a normal healthy life

Source: the free press

Why eating with your hands is good for health

Most Indians eat with their hands. But today as we adopt more traditions of the western world, it is common to see people using spoons and forks to eat. But did you know that eating with your hands has a number of health benefits? Here are the top 4 reasons you should start eating with your hands.

Why eating with your hands is good for health

Keeps all your vital life energies in balance: According to Ayurvedic texts, we are all made up of five main pranas or life energies and these five elements correspond to each finger on our hand (your thumb indicates fire, index finger correlates with air, middle finger indicates sky, ring finger stands for earth and little finger indicates water). An imbalance of any one of these elements can lead to diseases. When we eat with our hands we usually join our fingers and thumb to eat, this is actually a mudra that is a form of mudra vigyan, or the study of mudras and their healing power on the body. Therefore when we eat we are putting together all the five elements and energizing the food we eat so it helps us become healthy and keep all our pranas in balance.

Improves digestion: Touch is one of the most strong and often used sensation in the body. When we touch our food with our hands, the brain signals our stomach that we are about to eat. This in turn, readies the stomach to digest the food it will receive, aiding in better digestion.

Promotes mindful eating: Eating with your hands requires you to pay attention to what you are eating. You often need to look at the food and focus on what you are putting into your mouth. Also known as mindful eating, this practice is much more healthier than eating with a fork and spoon that can be done mechanically. Mindful eating has a large number of benefits for your health and one of the most important benefits is the fact that it improves the assimilation of nutrients from the food you eat, enhances digestion and makes you healthier.

Protects your mouth from getting burnt: Your hands also act as a very effective temperature sensor. When you touch food it is easy for you to gauge how hot it actually is, and you are less likely to put food that is too hot into your mouth – effectively preventing you from scalding your tongue.

Source: the health

WHO Declares Ebola an International Emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) calls the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa an international emergency, and officials say the spread of the disease demands a massive, coordinated response.

The outbreak affects Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. These countries have reported 1,070 confirmed cases, 436 “probable cases,” and 932 deaths through Aug. 4, according to the WHO.WHO Declares Ebola an International Emergency

Largest Outbreak Recorded
Following a 2-day teleconference, WHO announced there is now a risk that the disease could spread to other countries. It says the spread of the virus is being worsened by inadequate health facilities in affected countries. Experts say this is the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

WHO has made several recommendations for affected countries. It calls on each head of state to declare a national emergency and personally address the nation to update the population and outline what measures will be taken to control the situation.

It also calls on them to put in place national disaster and emergency management programs, provide good quality clinical care, and improve the safety and protection of health care workers.

Screening Travellers
It also recommends that affected countries should screen anyone trying to travel abroad for Ebola if they have unexplained symptoms consistent with the disease. What’s more, anyone who might have been exposed to Ebola should be banned from leaving those countries, unless they’re travelling under proper medical supervision.

The WHO says there should be no general ban on international travel or trade. The director general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, told a news conference: “The declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern alerts the world to high vigilance for possible cases of Ebola Virus Disease.” But the announcement “by no means implies that all countries, or even many countries, will see Ebola cases.”

Low Risk in U.S.
The CDC says the risk of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. is low. “The standard, rigorous infection control procedures used in major hospitals in the United States will prevent spread of Ebola,” the CDC told.

“In the past decade, the United States has had five imported cases of hemorrhagic fevers – one of Marburg and four of Lassa, both viruses that are similar to Ebola. Each time, the American public health system identified the cases and through thorough infection control procedures, prevented anyone else from becoming ill.

“The best way to protect Americans is to stop the outbreak in West Africa,” the CDC says. “We know how to control Ebola. Previous outbreaks of Ebola virus disease have been contained by patient isolation, rigorous use of infection control measures in hospitals, intensive and thorough tracing of those who came into contact with the patients, and community education.”

Source: web md