Month: November 2007

Categories
Featured

Sit Straight, Not Slumped

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There’s a hidden danger of driving long distances   sitting badly at the wheel, writes David Rose :-

Thousands of drivers are suffering unnecessary injuries every day, but not as the result of drink driving, speeding or other accidents. Sitting in cars for long periods can cause long-term damage to the neck, back, arms, shoulders and knees, experts say. Musculoskeletal disorders arising from driving are on the rise

At least half of high-mileage business drivers suffer from pains in their lower back from sitting — or slouching — say researchers at Loughborough University, UK, who are now setting guidelines to prevent driving-related strains and injuries.

“Driving long distances is one of the worst things you can do to your body” said Brian McIlwraith, an osteopath who specialises in car ergonomics. “There’s a tendency for you to be forced into a slumped position, so your back is bent, putting pressure on the hips, lower back and intervertebral discs.” Other potential dangers include stretching to reach steering wheels or pedals, and the way you pull yourself out of your seat, he added.

Musculoskeletal disorders are the most common form of work-related ill-health in Britain, and employees who drive more than 20 hours a week are at particular risk.

Those who drive for more than four hours a day or 40,200 km a year are six times more likely to take sick leave for a back injury than those who drive less. A recent study suggested that a fifth of men regularly experience muscle and joint pain or discomfort owing to driving, which makes motoring, after do-it-yourself home improvements, the second highest cause of aches and pains.

According to recent figures, 70 per cent of people in Britain drive to work, taking an average time of 26.3 minutes. Three per cent commute for more than 90 minutes, while 11 per cent spend more than an hour behind the wheel. The average journey time has increased by three minutes over the past decade, while high property prices are leading workers to commute long distances, rather than move home, experts said.

But despite a slew of innovations from manufacturers, modern cars still contort the body into undesirable positions.

Diane Gyi, a member of the research team at Loughborough, said that she hoped to publish guidelines for businesses and motorists by the end of next year. “Driving enforces a constrained posture, but in addition the car is increasingly being used as a mobile workplace,” she said.

Source: THE TIMES, LONDON

Categories
Positive thinking

Awakening The Inner Warrior

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Stoking The Fire Within
There are certain personality archetypes that we all carry within us, such as the inner child, the lover, and the mother. Some of these archetypes present themselves strongly, while others lay fallow. For example, there is an inner warrior in each one of us, but in some of us this warrior is underdeveloped to the point that we are unable to stand up for ourselves, even when necessary. There can be many reasons for this. We may have grown up with a parent whose warrior aspect was overdeveloped, and we responded by repressing ours completely. On the other hand, we may have grown up with parents in whom this aspect was dormant, so we never learned to awaken it in ourselves.

A warrior is someone with the strength to stand up for what he or she believes; someone who perseveres in the face of challenges and obstacles; someone who speaks and acts in the service of an ideal; someone who protects those who are too weak to fight for themselves. Regardless of the reasons for an underdeveloped inner warrior, you may begin to notice the lack of its fiery, protective presence and wish to awaken it. You may need to stand up for yourself in a certain relationship or situation, or you may have a vision you want to realize, and you know you will need the courage, energy, and strength of a warrior to succeed. Similarly, if you find that you often feel scared, anxious, or powerless, rousing this sleeping ally may be just the antidote you need.

One excellent way to cultivate the presence of your inner warrior is to choose a role model who embodies the qualities of bravery, strength, and vitality. This person could be a character in a myth, movie, or book, or a historical or living person you admire. Simply close your eyes each day and contemplate the quality of energy that attracts you to this person, knowing that the same potential lives within you. Confirm for yourself that you are capable of handling this energy responsibly, and stoke the fire of your own inner courage.

Sources:Daily Om

Categories
News on Health & Science

Better Ways to Fight Cold & Flu

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The herb Echinacea, utilized by Native Americans for centuries, is a popular remedy for preventing or reducing the severity of the common cold. Hundreds of studies, primarily conducted in Germany, have provided information on the herb’s chemical and pharmacological characteristics, yet few studies have actually proven its ability to reduce cold severity.

To evaluate the effectiveness of dried, whole-plant echinacea capsules for early treatment of the common cold, approximately 150 students in the early stages of a cold were divided to take either a placebo or echinacea. The echinacea group took an encapsulated mixture of unrefined echinacea root and herbs in one-gram doses, six times on the first day of illness and three times per day on subsequent days, for up to 10 days. The placebo group took capsules containing alfalfa, which has no proven ability to boost the immune system, at the same frequency.

No difference was observed between the echinacea and placebo groups for any cold symptoms, including cough, sore throat, runny/stuffy nose or headaches. Average duration of the cold was approximately six days in both groups. Also, cold severity measures were “nearly identical” in those taking echinacea or placebo pills.

Although this is certainly not the last word on echinacea, since some previous research contradicts this study, it shows that otherwise healthy people might not obtain as much benefit from the herb as older adults who have frequent colds or viral illnesses. The best advice is to reduce your chances of getting a cold in the first place: wash your hands frequently with soap and water, and boost your immune system by eating lots of fruits and vegetables and getting plenty of sleep.

It’s cold and flu season, and the sounds of coughing, sneezing and runny noses can be heard in nearly every home, office and shopping mall across the country. But don’t run to the doctor and stock up on prescriptions just yet.

Colds, flus, most sore throats and acute bronchitis are caused by viruses, and antibiotics do not help fight viruses. Your prescription medication won’t fight the virus, make you feel better, yield a quicker recovery or keep others from getting sick. In fact, because of the potentially serious side effects, taking antibiotics to treat a virus can do more harm than good.

In addition to failing to solve your problem, taking unnecessary antibiotics can result in an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in some way that reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of drugs, chemicals or other agents designed to cure or prevent infections. This means the next time you really need an antibiotic for a bacterial infection, it may not work.

When the scratchy throat, sinus headache and sniffles get to be too much to handle this season, resist the urge to reach for the easy answer. Talk to your doctor about natural alternatives for treating your cold or flu.

For more information, go to http://www.toyourhealth.com/mpacms/tyh/article.php?id=971

Sources:http://www.toyourhealth.com

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Categories
News on Health & Science

Secret Enzyme From The Sea

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Stem cells can now be safely delivered to the site of injury or disease. T.V. Jayan reports:

Stem cells, one of the most promising medical therapies of the 21st century, may get a boost from a humble marine plant. A team led by an Indian researcher in the US turned a substance isolated from a commonly found brown algae into a device that can release stem cells inside the human body for permanent repair jobs.

A polymer naturally occurring in brown seaweed forms the scaffold for the delivery mechanism

Stem cells have the ability to morph into every kind of cell and tissue in the body and are thus considered to be a potential antidote for a host of medical problems, ranging from a degenerative ailment like Alzheimer’s to an injury resulting in a broken leg. Though this has been known for a while, one of the key issues that prevented stem cell culture from moving into the realm of application was the lack of an effective delivery mechanism.

Ravi Kane, professor of chemical and biological engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and his team seem to have resolved this problem. The researchers (who include two Indian students, Akhilesh Banerjee and Supriya Punyani) extracted a polymer naturally occurring in brown seaweed and converted it into a device that can support the growth and release of stem cells at the site of an injury or the source of a disease.

“We have developed a scaffold for stem cell culture that can degrade in the body at a controlled rate,” says Kane, who was voted among the top 100 scientific brains below the age of 35 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004. Such scaffolds, he thinks, could be used some day to release stem cells directly into injured tissue.

The seaweed material, known as alginate, is actually a complex carbohydrate-like sugar. Highly fibrous, it can turn into a tiny, rigid three-dimensional mesh when mixed with calcium. The resulting stuff, called alginate hydrogel, can retain stem cells. These substances are safe, palatable and already in use in the food industry.

But when it comes to medical application, alginate poses a problem. It does not naturally dissolve in the human body and can stay on for months. It may thus not be ideal for stem cell implantation.
Stem cells can now be safely delivered to the site of injury or disease. T.V. Jayan reports

Kane and his colleagues, however, have found a safe and effective means to disintegrate the hydrogel once it’s inside the body.

According to a report by the scientists in the forthcoming issue of the journal Biomaterials, one of the reasons alginate does not dissolve naturally in the human body is that mammals do not produce an enzyme that is responsible for disintegrating it. Such an enzyme, however, does exist in brown algae as well as many bacteria.

Hence if this enzyme were packed within the cage, it would ensure the controlled degradation of the scaffold so that a sustained release of stem cells is assured. For this, the Rensselaer scientists first created microscale beads (microspheres) containing varying amounts of the enzyme alginate lyase. Subsequently, they were encapsulated in the larger alginate scaffolds along with the stem cells. As the microspheres degraded, the enzyme was released into the larger alginate scaffolds and it slowly began to eat away at their surface, releasing the healthy stem cells in a controlled fashion.

“You could either (surgically) implant the stem cell containing hydrogel at the site of the injury or form gels in situ,” Kane told KnowHow.

“This seems to be an interesting piece of work from the point of view of medical application,” says Vidita Vaidya, a scientist working on neural stem cells at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. “The immediate beneficiaries of such stem cell-filled scaffold implantation would be those suffering from paralysis due to spinal cord injury.”

The scientists say that the microspheres can also be filled with drug molecules and proteins that could influence the fate of the encapsulated stem cells. “By adding these materials to the larger scaffold, we can direct the stem cells to become the type of mature, differentiated cells that we desire,” Kane remarks.

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Categories
Fruits & Vegetables Herbs & Plants

Parbal (Patol)

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Botanical Name: Trichosanthes dioica

Family: Cucurbitaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Cucurbitales
Genus: Trichosanthes
Species: T. dioica
Common Names: Parwal (from Hindi), or potol (from Assamese, Oriya or Bengali ). Colloquially, in India, it is often called green potato.

Habitat :Parbal  plant grows in India,Bangladesh, Burma and Srilanka during summer time only.It is widely cultivated in the eastern part of India, particularly in Orissa, Bengal, Assam, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.

Description:It is a vine plant, similar to cucumber and squash.The plant is cripary and an annual plant. It is a dioecious (male and female plants) vine (creeper) plant with heart-shaped leaves (cordate) and is grown on a trellis. The fruits are green with white or no stripes. Size can vary from small and round to thick and long — 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm). It thrives well under a hot to moderately warm and humid climate.Grows during summer season in India.

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Edible Uses:It is used as ingredients of soup, stew, curry, sweet, or eaten fried and as dorma with roe or meat stuffing. In India Parbal is used as Vegetable. Most of the Indian make curry of parbal and eat along with rice or chapati.The fruit is not bitter but the leaf of the plant is bitter in taste.

Medicinal Uses:

It is a good source of carbohydrates, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It also contains major nutrients and trace elements (magnesium, potassium, copper, sulfur, and chlorine) which are needed in small quantities, for playing essential roles in human physiology.

The plant is a cardiac tonic and antifebrile; its decoction is given in bilious fevers as a febrifuge and laxative. Chemically it contais saponin, hydrocarbons, sterols, glycoside and tannins. The fruit is digestive, stomachic and anti-bilious. Its main action is on the head and stomach. The root juice is a strong purgative. The leaf juice is emetic and so it should be taken with coriander to control bilious fever. The leaf juice is applied over the head for the cure of alopecia (baldness).

#Its decoction with chirata and honey is given in bilious fevers as a febrifuge.

#A decoction or infusion of the plant is an efficacious remedy for boils and worms.
#The leaf juice is rubbed over the scalp for the cure of alopecia.

#Powder of the dried root is very effective in curing ascites.
#A decoction of its leaves with chebulic myrobalan taken in the morning on empty stomach is an age-old remedy for acidity and bilious disorders.
#Leaf juice is an age-old remedy for liquor poisoning.
#Leaf juice is a household romedy for controlling high blood pressure.
Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.online-family-doctor.com/fruits/parbal.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parwal

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