Author: Mukul

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News on Health & Science

Low-fat food is bad for you

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From The Times

February 28, 2007

Women who consume low-fat milk and yoghurt may find it harder to become pregnant, a new study has found.

A team at Harvard School of Public Health found that women who eat a lot of low-fat dairy foods were 85 per cent more likely to suffer from a failure to ovulate.

Women who had a least one serving a day of a high-fat dairy food were 27 per cent less likely to suffer from this form of infertility than were those who consumed high-fat dairy food only once a week.

The finding suggests that the obsession with low-fat foods, driven by nutritionists trying to protect against heart disease and by consumers trying to lose weight, may have a downside.

Anovulatory infertility — the type studied here — is just one of a variety of ways in which infertility can be caused. In the population studied, it was responsible for one in eight cases of a failure to conceive.

The data comes from the Nurses’ Study, a long-running research project in the US that draws comparisons between diet and lifestyle and medical history.

A team led by Jorge Chavarro of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard and colleagues used a subset of more than 18,000 married nurses from the study who had either become pregnant or attempted to do so during an eight-year period in the 1990s. Their success, or lack of it, was compared with their dietary habits, which had been recorded several years earlier. There were 3,430 cases of infertility, of which 438 were identified as having been caused by a failure to ovulate.

By comparing the diet of these women with that of women who conceived successfully, the team were able to draw their conclusions.

The scientists, whose work is published in Human Reproduction, say that the total intake of dairy foods shows no link with anovulatory infertility. But when high-fat and low-fat dairy foods were considered separately, a difference emerged.

Women consuming at least five portions week of low-fat foods had a higher than average risk of being infertile. If women ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy foods a day, they increased their risk of ovulation-related infertility by more than four fifths (85 per cent) compared with women who ate less than one serving of low-fat dairy food a week.

And if women ate at least one serving of high-fat dairy food a day, they reduced their risk by more than a quarter (27 per cent) compared with women who consumed one or fewer high-fat dairy servings a week. High-fat foods include ice-cream and whole milk.

Dr Chavarro said that his advice to women wanting to conceive would be to change their diet. “They should consider changing low-fat dairy foods for high-fat dairy foods; for instance, by swapping skimmed milk for whole milk and eating ice-cream, not low-fat yoghurt.”

But he added that it was important that women did this within the constraints of maintaining their normal calorie intake and limiting saturated fats. He said that once they are pregnant “they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods”.

Just why low-fat dairy foods should have this effect is not yet clear. High-fat dairy products have a higher concentration of the female sex hormone oestrogen than do their low-fat counterparts. Alternatively, greater insulin sensitivity among high-fat dairy consumers may improve ovulatory function.

“Given the scarcity of studies in this area, it is important that our studies are confirmed or refuted,” the team said.

Dr Chavarro added: “Clarifying the role of dairy foods intake on fertility is particularly important since the current dietary guidelines for Americans recommend that adults consume three or more daily servings of low-fat milk or equivalent dairy products.

“This is a strategy that may well be deleterious for women planning to become pregnant as it would give them an 85 per cent higher risk of anovulatory infertility.”

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News on Health & Science

Supplements raise death rate by 5%

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Vitamin pills commonly taken by millions of people are doing them more harm than good, an analysis of the evidence has concluded.

Three supplements   vitamins A and E and beta carotene   appear to increase the death rate of those taking them. Vitamin C and selenium have no effect.

The results, published in Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that money spent on vitamin supplements is wasted. In response, the British Heart Foundation said people should not take supplements but should concentrate instead on eating a healthy diet.

The new study is a meta-analysis   a procedure in which many earlier studies are collected together to produce the most accurate verdict.

It was carried out by a team led by Goran Bjelakovic of Copenhagen University Hospital and colleagues, using methods developed by the Cochrane Collaboration, the leading international group specialising in the analysis of what works in medicine.

Supporters of vitamin supplements, which are consumed regularly by up to ten million Britons, believe they can act as antioxidants, preventing highly active oxygen radicals in the body damaging molecules such as cholesterol, to cause heart disease. The theory seemed plausible, and some initial trial results appeared to lend it support. But as better trials were done different results emerged.

The Copenhagen team considered 68 randomised control trials, involving 232,606 people, and published by October 2005. Of these, they rate 47 trials as being of the best quality, with the rest more prone to bias of one sort or another.

Taking only the 47 low-bias trials — involving 180,938 people — they found that supplements as a whole increased the death rate by 5 per cent.

When the supplements were taken separately, beta carotene increased death rates by 7 per cent, vitamin A by 16 per cent, and vitamin E by 4 per cent.

Vitamin C gave contradictory results, but when given singly or in combination with other vitamins in good-quality trials, increased the death rate by 6 per cent.

Selenium was the only supplement to emerge with any credit. It appears to cut death rates by 10 per cent when given on its own or with other supplements in high-quality trials, but the result is not statistically significant. The team concludes: “Our findings contradict the findings of observational studies claiming that antioxidants improve health.

Considering that 10 to 20 per cent of the adult population in North America and Europe (80-160 million people) consume the assessed supplements, the public health consequences may be substantial.

They say there are several possible explanations. One is that oxidative stress is not the cause of conditions such as heart disease for which it has been blamed, but may be a consequence of such conditions.

Alternatively, by eliminating free radicals we may interfere with essential defensive mechanisms such as apoptosis (programmed cell death), phagocytosis (the destruction of foreign tissue, including bacteria) and detoxification. But the team adds that they examined only the use of synthetic vitamins.

Ann Walker, of the Health Supplements Information Service, a body funded by the industry, said that the study carried the same flaws as another analysis that questioned the health of supplements. She said that both combined the results of trials on two different classes of people: those with no known ill-health, and those who were already suffering from conditions such as heart disease.  In my view, the results of these mixed-sample meta-analyses are worthless, she said.

Ellen Mason, a cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said:   There are good scientific reasons for believing that antioxidant supplements might protect against heart disease but a number of clinical trials have failed to provide any robust evidence in favour of this. We would recommend that you only take substances, whether dietary supplements or drugs, proven in well-conducted clinical trials.

Source:www.timesonline.co.uk

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Meditation

Effects and Benefits of Meditation

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Our health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit.   The wellness of each part  and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. This principle of holistics recognises that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of meditation releases a new and positive life force,  borne of inspiration, happiness, peace  into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health. With meditation even our sleep pattern can change  an improvement in quality, a likely reduction in quantity. More time and energy to live our lives!

Everything Starts Within

The way we feel and function in our outer life is determined to a very great extent by our inner life …… our happiness, our confidence, our moods, our consciousness. We often have little power to change events in the outer world, but we can change the way we react to them. When we are happy and calm, difficulties and problems are easily coped with.  When we are anxious or unhappy, the same difficulties can become nightmares. Our whole experience of life is colored by our own consciousness and  our life is the creation of our minds! Meditation balances the inner and outer worlds and brings out the bright colors of our nature …….joyfulness, serenity, loving kindness, strength. These emerging positive qualities reshape our very experience of life, for everything starts within.

The writings of all the great sages and pathfinders over the centuries share many recurring ideas and truths. One of these is a belief in the wisdom and beauty of the human soul. Sri Chinmoy describes the soul as our ‘inner pilot’ ……it is our highest Self, our truest Self, our in-house life guide. The more we listen to our soul, the more our outer life will flourish and prosper  and it is in the silence and stillness of meditation that the wisdom of the soul can most easily be felt and experienced. In everything of life …. decision-making, problem solving, the search for fulfillment and purpose . The inner pilot is there to show us the way and we can learn to access it through our deepening practice.

The Soul’s Special Promise

The great sages also tell us that each soul is unique and has something very special to accomplish on earth. It is by listening to our ‘inner pilot’ that we begin to feel and understand what our life’s deeper purpose is and then our outer life becomes increasingly in harmony with this knowledge. The discovery and fulfillment of the soul’s special promise brings us great happiness.

Power of mind:

The many techniques employed in learning meditation share a common theme and that is harnessing and concentrating the power of the mind. By-products and benefits of this effort are numerous and they are …an ability to focus and concentrate quickly, enhanced memory, a stillness in the meditating mind which enables us to access deeper, intuitive, creative and inspirational parts of our being. Power of Heart.

Sri Chinmoy places great emphasis on the spiritual heart in our quest for happiness, for it houses many of our most powerful spiritual qualities. A widening, deepening capacity for love; compassion for others; a oneness with all of life; inner wisdom; a desire less happiness, like the fragrance of an inner flower, spreading out into our life ….. a treasure trove waiting to be discovered! Sunset over the ocean.The heart is an egoless, unhorizoned consciousness and living ‘in the heart’ is one of the secrets of real happiness. One of the principle forms of yoga is bhakti yoga and that is centered in the spiritual heart as well. Here, the power of devotional love is directed out to God and sees divinity in all things.

A Peaceful Life

Meditation will make you a very peaceful person. This peace comes about through a growing self-acceptance and self-confidence, and through an inner poise that comes from a deeper part of our being. This peace is not something passive and fragile. It is very powerful and dynamic. This kind of inner peace will lift you above success, failure, the positives and negatives of life . it leaves in us an adamantine poise and a sense of calm detachment in the face of life’s changing fortunes and tribulations. People who have developed inner peace are very powerful.

Awakening

Meditation is the awakening to our true nature, a spiritual path to enlightenment, self-realisation, oneness with God. This is why one should always feel gratitude for the impulse to meditate . We have consciously begun the great journey of awakening that lies at the very heart of all human life.

From the writing of Jogyata Dallas

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News on Health & Science

Secrets to Managing Workplace Stress

click & seeThe time you spend at the office may be the most stressful part of your day, but it doesn’t have to be. You have a greater ability to shape your office environment than you may realize…..click & see

Take breaks throughout the day. It will help clear your mind and relieve pressure. Something as simple as going to the water cooler for a drink may do the trick.
Enroll in a noontime or an after-work exercise class. This will give you a chance to unwind and a way to relieve stress.
To help your workday go smoothly, try pacing your activities: Do more demanding work in the morning, when your energy level is higher, and easier work later in the day, when you may be tired.
Try listening to music recordings, such as a pounding surf or songbirds, to help you relax. Such tapes are sold commercially. Use headphones if you’ll be listening to them in the middle of the workday.
Get to work early or stay late once a week. You may be able to accomplish more when you vary your routine.
If your stress comes from job insecurity, take stock of yourself. Update your resume, and remind yourself of your skills and strengths. Also, make sure you keep up with new developments in your field. This will make you valuable to employers.

Don’t let work rumors, which are usually false, cause you worry. A co-worker may just be thinking out loud about worst-case scenarios.

If your office is less structured (or if you are the boss), consider a company mascot. A cat or dog can do wonders for workers’ morale.

Source:Reader’s Digest

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Herbs & Plants

Thankuni Leaf (Centella asiatica)

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Botanical Name::Centella asiatica
Family: Mackinlayaceae
Genus: Centella
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Apiales
Species: C. asiatica
Common names : Gotu Kola, Asiatic Pennywort, Indian Pennywort, Luei Gong Gen, Takip-kohol, Antanan, Pegagan, Pegaga, vallaarai , Kula kud, Bai Bua Bok , Brahmi (this last name is shared with Bacopa monnieri) and rau má (literally: mother vegetable- Vietnamese). In Assamese it is known as Manimuni. It is used as a medicinal herb in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional African medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine. Botanical synonyms include Hydrocotyle asiatica L. and Trisanthus cochinchinensis (Lour.).In Telugu Language this is known as “Saraswathi Plant” in India. In Kannada  language is known as Ondelaga.

Habitat : Native to India, Sri Lanka, northern Australia, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, and other parts of Asia.Centella grows along ditches and in low wet areas. In Indian and Southeast Asian centella, the plant frequently suffers from high levels of bacterial contamination, possibly from having been harvested from sewage ditches. Because the plant is aquatic, it is especially sensitive to pollutants in the water, which easily are incorporated into the plant.

Description
The stems are slender, creeping stolons, green to reddish green in color, interconnecting one plant to another. It has long-stalked, green, reniform leaves with rounded apices which have smooth texture with palmately netted veins. The leaves are borne on pericladial petioles, around 2 cm. The rootstock consists of rhizomes, growing vertically down. They are creamish in color and covered with root hairs.
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The flowers are pinkish to red in color, born in small, rounded bunches (umbels) near the surface of the soil. Each flower is partly enclosed in two green bracts. The hermaphrodite flowers are minute in size (less than 3 mm), with 5-6 corolla lobes per flower. Each flower bears five stamens and two styles. The fruit are densely reticulate, distinguishing it from species of Hydrocotyle which have smooth, ribbed or warty fruit.

The crop matures in three months and the whole plant, including the roots, is harvested manually.

Edible use:
Centella is used as a leafy green in Sri Lankan cuisine, where it is called Gotu Kola. In Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) Gotu = conical shape and Kola= leaf. It is most often prepared as mallung; a traditional accompaniment to rice and curry, and goes especially well with vegetarian dishes such as parippu’ (dhal), and jackfruit or pumpkin curry. It is considered quite nutritious. In addition to finely chopped gotu kola, mallung almost always contains grated coconut and may also contain finely chopped green chilis, chili powder (1/4 teaspoon), turmeric powder (1/8 teaspoon) and lime (or lemon) juice.

A variation of the extremely nutritious porridge known as Kola Kenda is also made with Gotu Kola by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. Kola Kenda is made with very well boiled red rice (with extra liquid), coconut milk and Gotu Kola which is liquidized. The porridge is accompanied with Jaggery for sweetness. Centella leaves are also used in the sweet “pennywort drink.”

In Indonesia, the leaves are used for sambai oi peuga-ga, an Aceh type of salad, also mixed into asinan in Bogor.

In Vietnam and Thailand this leaf is used for preparing a drink or can be eaten in raw form in salads or cold rolls.

In Malay cuisine the leaves of this plant are used for ulam, a type of Malay salad.

It is one of the constituents of the Indian summer drink “thandaayyee”.

Cultivation method: For rapid propagation vegetative organ especially stolon and seeds are used.

Medicinal Uses:
Gotu kola is a mild adaptogen, is mildly antibacterial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcerogenic, anxiolytic, a cerebral tonic, a circulatory stimulant, a diuretic, nervine and vulnerary.

When eaten raw as a salad leaf, pegaga is thought to help maintain youthfulness. In Thailand cups with gotu kola leaves are used as an afternoon pick me up. A decoction of juice from the leaves is thought to relieve hypertension. This juice is also used as a general tonic for good health. A poultice of the leaves is also used to treat open sores.

Richard Lucas claimed in a book published in 1966 (second edition in 1979) that a subspecies “Hydrocotyle asiatica minor” allegedly from Sri Lanka also called “Fo ti tieng”, contained a longevity factor called ‘youth Vitamin X’ said to be ‘a tonic for the brain and endocrine glands’ and maintained that extracts of the plant help circulation and skin problems. However according to medicinal herbalist Michael Moore, it appears that there is no such subspecies and no Vitamin X is known to exist. Nonetheless some of the cerebral circulatory and dermatological actions claimed from centella (as hydrocotyle) have a solid basis.

Several scientific reports have documented Centella asiatica’s ability to aid wound healing, which is responsible for its traditional use in leprosy. Upon treatment with Centella asiatica, maturation of the scar is stimulated by the production of type I collagen. The treatment also results in a marked decrease in inflammatory reaction and myofibroblast production.

The isolated steroids from the plant have been used to treat leprosy. In addition, preliminary evidence suggests that it may have nootropic effects. Centella asiatica is used to re-vitalize the brain and nervous system, increase attention span and concentration , and combat aging. Centella asiatica also has anti-oxidant properties. It works for venous insufficiency. It is used in Thailand for opium detoxification.

Ayurvedic medicine
In India it is popularly known by a variety of names: Bemgsag, Brahma manduki, Brahmanduki, Brahmi, Ondelaga (North India, West India), Gotu kola, Khulakhudi, Mandukparni, Mandookaparni, Mandukaparni (South India), or Thankuni depending on region.

Bacopa monnieri is the more widely known Brahmi—both have some common therapeutic properties in Vedic texts and both are used for improving memory. C. asiatica is called “Brahmi” particularly in north India, although that may be a case of mistaken identification that was introduced during the 16th century, when brahmi was confused with mandukaparni, a name for C. asiatica.

Probably the earliest study of Mandookaparni as Medya Rasayana (improving the mental ability) was carried out at Dr.A.Lakshmipathy Research Centre(now under CCRAS)VHS,Adyar,Chennai by Dr.M.V.R Apparao,Kanchana Srinivasan et al.

Village people use it hugely for its availability and easy cultivation. Juice of leaves is used to cure dysentery and bowel complaints especially for babies and used as tonic also. It is also used for eczema, ulcers, liver complaints, rheumatism, improving memory, piles and irregular menstruation. Saving hair leaf juice is also very effective.

Folklore
Gotu Kola is a minor feature in the longevity myth of the Tai Chi Chuan master Li Ching-Yun. He purportedly lived to be 256, due in part to his usage of traditional Chinese herbs including Gotu Kola.

A popular folklore tale from Sri Lanka speaks of a prominent king from the 10th century AD named Aruna Withane who claimed that Gotu Kola provided him with energy and stamina to satisfy his 50-woman harem.

Background: Elderly people of this region(Eastern India & Bangladesh) have a strong belief that thankuni leaf as a pulp or extract can control loose motion. The mechanism of action of thankuni leaf extract is not known but the elderly, especially grandmothers, use thankuni leaf extracts for their grandchildren who suffer from loose motion. Objective: Evaluate control of motion and fluid loss as affected by intake of thankuni extract. Methodology: In a prospective study, 25 children aged 1-2 year(s), having more than 5 loose motions/day were randomly advised to take 60 mL of thankuni extract (extracted from 50 leafs with stem). The children were suffering from persistent malnutritional diarrhoea. They were also fed khichuri made with 300 g of rice, 200 g of vegetables, two eggs, 150 g of fish, 150 g of musur dal, and 30 mL of soybean oil. The total amount of khichuri was divided into 3 meals, and after each meal, 60 mL of thankuni extract was given to ingest. They were also advised to drink oral saline (tasty saline) in between the meals, and if capable, to eat fruits, such as banana, mango, guava, star fruit, and shaddock. The study was conducted at the private chamber of the author during 3 January-3 June 2003. None was admitted to hospital. Urinary excretion and stool of each patient were examined routinely on the first and the fifth day. After fifth day, they were advised to eat normal diets. Results: On the second day, 5 patients showed controlled motion (2-3 motions a day). Eleven cases showed controlled motion on the third day, 7 cases on the fourth day, and 2 cases on the fifth day. Signs of dehydration were absent in 15 cases on the third day, 8 cases on the fourth day, and 2 cases on the fifth day. Motion and dehydration both were controlled within the fifth day of thankuni therapy. Conclusion: Treatment of diarrhoea with thankuni, a common herb in Bangladesh, is not yet established, but the observation on 25 cases in this study showed 100% cure within 5 days. So, ICDDR,B  and other big children hospitals handling diarrhoea should give a clinical trial  upon thankuni extract and should establish this low-cost easy treatment in Bangladesh and abroad.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centella_asiatica
Medicinal Plants Of Bangladesh
Transfusion Medicine, Comilla Medical College, Comilla, Bangladesh

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