Author: Mukul

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WHY CORNER

Why does your stomach growl when you are hungry?

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Doctors call it “borborygmi”. Sounds somewhat like the sound you hear, isn’t it?

Growling in the stomach is a common phenomenon all of us would have experienced sometime or the other. “The stomach muscles are in constant peristaltic motion to digest the food ingested and letting it flow into the intestines. In general, increased flow within the system causes the stomach to growl,” says Dr Mahesh Goenka, director and head of the department of gastroenterology, Apollo Gleneagles, Calcutta.

The reasons for the increased flow of chyme (digested food) are many. Often, an obstruction in the gut may hamper the bowel movement, thereby causing an increased flow in the proximal region to allow smooth passage. In an attempt to do so the muscles contract vigorously, thereby causing the growling noise. The obstruction could be due to a tumour or a consequence of tuberculosis.

“Again, if in the absence of food the stomach walls squeeze together in an attempt to mix and digest food, the gases and digestive juices slosh around in the empty organ creating the noise,” says Dr Goenka.

Yet, hunger actually has nothing to do with an empty stomach but is a result of certain nutrients missing in the bloodstream. The brain contains a “hunger centre”, which functions as an accelerator — or brake — for our stomachs and intestines. Once the necessary nutrients are lacking in the blood, the dinner bell is rung and the stomach and intestines start growling.

The reasons that trigger malabsorption of nutrients often include worm infestations like gyadriasis or tropical spruce (common in India), TB, lymphoma (an intestinal tumour) or Crohn’s disease (an allergy that causes inflammation of the bowel). And, adds Dr Goenka, if you are thin and lack adequate adipose padding, then too your stomach can often be heard growling.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Gotu kola

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Gotu kola is a small, ground-hugging plant grown in India, Pakistan, Madagascar and South Africa. It is also found in Eastern Europe. In Sri Lanka, the plant’s leaves are consumed by both humans and animals, especially elephants.

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Gotu kola has historically been reported to enhance mental activity and help a variety of illnesses, including rheumatism, fevers and high blood pressure. It is a staple in ayurvedic medicine; some of its more common uses are for cardiovascular disease, water retention, bronchitis and coughs. Practitioners also make a poultice out of gotu kola, which is used to treat many skin conditions.

The primary active ingredients of gotu kola are asiaticoside, madecassoside and madasiatic acid. These compounds have been shown to inhibit the production of collagen, especially in conjunction with scar tissue. Other studies have shown that gotu kola can help treat burns and wounds, and that it may be helpful in preventing and treating keloid scars.

How much gotu kola should I take?
Most practitioners and herbalists recommend 60mg of a standardized gotu kola extract taken two to four times a day. Other providers have suggested 10-20ml of a gotu kola tincture daily.

What forms of gotu kola are available?
Dried gotu kola leaf can be found at many Asian markets and specialty stores. Some nutritional stores sell gotu kola supplements; others offer fluid extracts and tinctures.

What can happen if I take too much gotu kola? Are there any interactions I should be aware of? What precautions should I take?
In rare instances, people who are allergic to gotu kola have reported an adverse reaction after taking the herb. However, no other significant side-effects have been reported, and there is currently no evidence of any harmful drug interactions with gotu kola.

Source:ChiroFind.com

Categories
Positive thinking

Paradise? Places where people live longest

WASHINGTON: Dan Buettner, writer and adventurer, has bicycled around the world, started ventures to teach people about different cultures. He is globetrotting with a team of doctors and demographers, pinpointing places where people live longest.

“I just became obsessed with finding what it is that helps these people,” he said. Buettner’s newest expedition is to the Nicoyan Peninsula, on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. For reasons doctors are striving to understand, men in Nicoya live to age 100 four times as often as men in the US— even though their medical care costs only about 7% as much.

Buettner calls Nicoya a “blue zone,” a place where many factors combine to allow people to live longer and better. “There’s no one silver bullet,” he says, “but there are about eight things people can do, and each can give them six to 18 additional good months of life.”

Buettner has profiled two other blue zones: the mountainous Italian island of Sardinia, where farmers work hard in the fields, drink red wine, eat fruits and vegetables they grew themselves, and are taught to respect their elders; the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Here, there is no word for “retirement”— but there is another word, Ikigai, which translates roughly to “purpose” or “that which makes one’s life worth living.” Men there have a fifth as much cancer as Americans, and a quarter as much heart disease.

Many of the things people do in these widely dispersed places probably sound familiar. People there are active throughout their lives. They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, but little meat. They don’t get fat. They put a premium on family, friends and religion for emotional support.

And, as researchers have reported, people who drink a glass of red wine a day tend to live longer than teetotalers. Buettner also found surprises. It appears high altitude is good for you.

Thinner air actually lowers one’s blood pressure, and more exposure to the sun means more vitamin D. Alos, people who eat nuts seem to live two or three years more than average—although, as Buettner said, “is that because the nuts are good for you, or because you’re not eating potato chips?”

There are probably many factors people cannot control; genetics clearly play a significant role in people’s longevity. But Buettner is trying to communicate his findings to schoolchildren, in the belief that if they adopt healthy lifestyles early, they will benefit for a long time.

With help from the University of Minnesota, the National Geographic Society and the Allianz life insurance company, he’s put together a computer program that estimates for people, based on their lifestyle and behaviour, how long they’re likely to live, and suggests how they can improve their odds.

“People who just concentrate on diet and exercise are missing three-quarters of the picture,” he said. “There’s a whole a la carte menu that will help you live longer and better.”

Source:The Times Of India

Categories
Fruits & Vegetables

1 Tomato, 2 Tomatoes, 3 Tomatoes, More!

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Italian-food lovers everywhere, rejoice: Tomato sauce is even healthier than previously suspected. Research is showing that tomatoes and tomato-based foods are excellent sources of lycopene, an antioxidant with cancer-fighting abilities; specifically, lycopene is believed to significantly reduce a man’s chances of getting prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is serious: It affects one in four men over age 50, who may suffer impotence and incontinence as a result, and is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men.

A six-year study of prostate cancer in 40- to 75-year-old men was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute as a follow-up to a previous six-year study. Nearly 50,000 men reported on the foods they ate so researchers could evaluate their intakes of lycopene-rich foods, including tomatoes and tomato sauces (e.g., pasta sauce and salsa); pizza; watermelon; and grapefruit.

Consuming tomato sauce (considered the best source of lycopene) more than twice per week reduced the odds for prostate cancer by about 25%, compared to consuming it less than once per month. A high estimated lycopene intake from any foods was also associated with a significant reduction in prostate cancer risk.

These data confirm previous reports of a reduced risk for prostate cancer through consuming tomato products and other sources of lycopene. Cooked tomatoes and tomato products, such as ketchup and various tomato sauces, are the optimal sources of lycopene.

Reference:

Giovannucci E, Rimm EB, Liu Y, et al. A prospective study of tomato products, lycopene, and prostate cancer risk. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2002:94(5), pp. 391-398.

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Categories
News on Health & Science

Gene linked to Alzheimer’s identified

WASHINGTON: Scientists said on Sunday they have pinpointed a new gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease, the incurable brain disorder that is the top cause of dementia in the elderly.

Abnormalities in a gene called SORL1 increased the risk for the disease, and this finding could help scientists develop new treatments, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Genetics.

The researchers looked at DNA samples from 6,000 people from four ethnic groups: Caribbean-Hispanics, North Europeans, black Americans and Israeli-Arabs. They found certain variations of SORL1 more often in people with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease than in healthy people.

The late-onset form, affecting people age 65 and up, represents about 90% of Alzheimer’s cases. The rarer early-onset form affects people from about age 30 to 65.Only one other gene, called ApoE4, has been identified as a risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s. It was identified in 1993.

Source:The Times Of India

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