Categories
Ailmemts & Remedies

Dandruff (Scaliness of the scalp)

Dandruff is a mysterious ailment. Mysterious, in that there is no commonly agreed upon theory about what actually causes the condition. It is estimated that as much as 97% of the population of the United States will at some point in their lives have a form of dandruff, but there is still a lack of total agreement about this condition.
Dandruff can happen at any age but is most commonly found in people between the ages of 12 and 80. (A form of dandruff known as cradle cap occurs in newborns and infants)….click & see

Dandruff is an itchy, annoying and persistent skin disorder of the scalp. A dark shirt and dandruff just simply don’t go together! There is nothing more embarrassing than to have someone brush white flakes off your new black sweater or denim jacket. In the past ten years dandruff problems in the United States have become more serious and more frequent.

What Is Dandruff? ……....CLICK & SEE
First you should know that a person’s entire body surface continuously sheds dead skin cells. The skin itself sheds every twenty-four days. Dandruff is the result of the normal growing process of the skin cells of the scalp. Shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp at an excessive rate, is the result of the normal growing process of the skin cells of the scalp.

In a normal scalp, the process of sloughing off old cells and manufacturing of their replacements is very orderly and complete. In the dandruff scalp, there is mass disorder and often the departing cells are not dead before leaving the scalp.

The term dandruff generally refers to the condition of the skin where in shiny, silvery scales separate from the scalp and collect amidst the hair. The condition can become troublesome when the skin gets infected.

Symptoms:
When the hair is combed or brushed, or when the scalp is scratched, the scales from the scalp fall like snowflakes and settle on the eyebrows, shoulders and clothes. These scales sometimes appear as lumps or crusts on the scalp. Often there is itching as well and the scalp may become red from scratching.

Root causes:
The main causes of dandruff are impairment of general health, development of a toxic condition mainly due to taking of wrong foods, constipation, and a low vitality due to infectious diseases. Other factors contributing to this disorder are emotional tension, harsh shampoos, and exposure to cold, and general exhaustion.

HEALING OPTIONS:
————————
Home Remedies :Apply listerine mixed with baby oil on your hair. Within 2 to 3 days you will get rid of dandruff. Fenugreek seeds, Lime , Green Gram Powder and Snake gourd are also used as home remedy.

Other Remedies: Dandruff can be removed by massaging the hair for half an hour with curd which has been kept in the open for three days or with a few drops of lime juice mixed with alma juice every night before going to bed. Another measure, which helps to counteract dandruff, is to dilute cider vinegar with an equal quantity of water and dab this on the hair with cotton wool in between shampooing. Cider vinegar added to the final rinsing water after shampooing also helps to disperse dandruff.

Ayurvedic Suppliments : Amlaki Rasayan, Guducgyadi Taila (Oil) Buy in internet.

Diet: People should avoid spicy and greasy food because it helps dandruff to increase and spread. People should add more vegetables and fruits on the diet. It is very essential to take fresh foods avoid taking tinned and canned foods add more green vegetables and fruits.
Strong tea and coffee, processed foods should be avoided for the dandruff.

Lifestyle: The foremost consideration in the treatment of this disorder is to keep the hair and scalp clean so as to minimise the accumulation of dead cells. The hair should be brushed daily to improve the circulation and remove any flakiness. The most effective way to brush the hair is to bend forward from the waist with the head down towards the ground and brush from the nape of the neck towards the top of the head. The scalp should also be thoroughly massaged everyday, using one-finger tips and working systematically over the head. This should be done just before or after brushing the hair. Like brushing, this stimulates the circulation, dislodges dirt and dandruff and encourages hair growth. Exposure of the head to the rays of the sun is also a useful measure in the treatment of dandruff. Use any herbal shampoo for clean the hair. Also a herbal hair pack can be prepared and used by mixing henna powder, curd, ritha power together and apply on the head keep it for ½ an hour and wash with water, after this you wash your head with a herbal lime based shampoo for dandruff. Lime is good for dandruff as well as conditioner.

Yoga Remedy : Cobra (Bhujanga Asana) and Vajrasana

How to do Cobra (Bhujanga Asana)
1. Lie down with your legs together and your hands palms down under your shoulders. Rest your forehead on the floor.
2.Inhaling, bring your head up, brushing first your nose, then your chin against the floor Now lift’up your hands and use your back muscles to raise your chest as high as possible. Hold for a few deep breaths then, exhaling; slowly return to position 1, keeping your chin up until last.
3.Inhaling, come up as before, but this time use your hands to push the trunk up. Continue up until you are bending from the middle of the spine. Hold for two or three deep breaths, then exhale and come slowly down.
4.Inhaling, raise the trunk as before, but this time continue up and back until you can feel your back bending all the way down from the neck to the base of the spine. Breathe normally.
5.To complete the asana., walk your hands in toward your body, straighten the arms, and lift the pelvis slightly. Separate the legs, bend the knees and, pushing out the chest, drop the head back and touch the feet to the head. Breathe normally, then slowly come down, as before.

How to do Vajrasana

1. Sit on your knees keeping them together.

2. Draw both toes together, and with heels apart, sit on them.
Keep your hands straight on the respective knees.

3. Breathe normally with your spine straight. Relax your hands
and release the legs

4. Now lie on your back or stretch your legs in front with hands
at the back and relax.

5. Take rest for 10 counts and repeat.

6. Do this two times.
Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.
Help taken from:Allayurveda.com

Related articles
Categories
News on Health & Science

Garlic delight

[amazon_link asins=’B002PWYVOC,B0055J865W,B00RPWI2II,B003UCG6DK,B01I0V9574,B01K23RF7U,B0078EZQE6,B06XH5VVXG,B000WR8TT0′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b21c955b-9571-11e7-90ff-f7657a78117d’]

click to see the picture
Researchers from Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu have discovered that a chemical found in garlic can help fight adverse health effects caused by cadmium. The metal is a food contaminant and a major component of cigarette smoke. The studies, to be published in the April 2007 issue of International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, showed that diallyl tetrasulphide from garlic protected mitochondrial cells and reduced oxidative stress. Oxidative stress, an imbalance in production of reactive oxygen such as free radicals implicated in ageing and a biological system’s ability to remove them effectively, can permanently damage most components of the cell, including proteins, lipids and DNA. Cadmium is known to cause an increase in the production of reactive oxygen.

Good old garlic

A simple home remedy awaits millions of people in West Bengal and neighbouring Bangladesh who are affected by dangerously high levels of arsenic in drinking water. A team of researchers from Calcutta’s Indian Institute of Chemical Biology has found that garlic — Allium sativum, commonly used as a spice in several dishes — could help reduce arsenic levels in the body. The study by Keya Chaudhuri and her colleagues appears in a latest issue of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology. The scientists found that rats — which were fed garlic extracts — had 40 per cent less arsenic in their blood and liver as the animals passed more than 45 per cent of the toxic material in their urine. They think that sulphur-containing substances in garlic do the trick as they scavenge arsenic from tissues and blood. People who eat one to three cloves of garlic daily can substantially reduce the health risk posed by arsenic, says Chaudhuri.

Source:The Telegraph(Kolkata,India)

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
News on Health & Science

Alleviating and treating ailments Through recommend supplements

[amazon_link asins=’B071FVLXY4,B074L9J2FY,B07B45CH3K,B0748LHQHR,0425204103,B01E670LJM,B0743DHTK7,B01M09UMOH’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2b0c6d2b-2531-11e8-9c26-252fdeabff63′]

Many practitioners of complementary medicine recommend supplements for a wide range of health problems affecting virtually every body system. For most of these conditions, conventional physicians would be more likely to prescribe drugs, though they might treat some disorders with supplements. For example, iron may be prescribed for some types of anemia, vitamin A (in the drug isotretinoin, or Accutane) for severe acne, and high doses of the B vitamin niacin for reducing high cholesterol levels.

In this tool, certain vitamins and minerals are suggested for the treatment of specific ailments. However, the use of nutritional supplements as remedies, especially for serious conditions, is controversial. Most doctors practicing conventional medicine are skeptical of their efficacy and believe it is sometimes dangerous to rely on them. But based on published data and their clinical observations, nutritionally oriented physicians and practitioners think the use of these supplements is justified — and that to wait years for unequivocal proof to appear would be wasting valuable time. Until there is clearer, more consistent evidence available, you should be careful about depending on nutritional supplements alone to treat an ailment or injury.

For thousands of years, however, various cultures have employed herbs for soothing, relieving, or even curing many common health problems, a fact not ignored by medical science. The pharmaceutical industry, after all, arose as a consequence of people using herbs as medicine. Recent studies suggest that a number of the claims made for herbs have validity, and the pharmacological actions of the herbs covered in this book are often well documented by clinical studies as well as historical practice. In Europe, a number of herbal remedies, including

St. John’s wort, ginkgo biloba, and saw palmetto, now are accepted and prescribed as medications for treating disorders such as allergies, depression, impotence, and even heart disease. Of course, even herbs and other supplements with proven therapeutic effects should be used judiciously for treating an ailment.

What supplements won’t do
Despite the many promising benefits that supplements offer, it’s important to note their limits — and to question some of the extravagant claims currently being made for them.

As the word itself suggests, supplements are not meant to replace the nutrients available from foods. Supplements will never make up for a poor diet: They can’t counteract a high intake of saturated fat (which is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and cancer), and they can’t replace every nutrient found in food groups that you ignore. Also, although scientists have isolated and extracted a number of disease-fighting phytochemical compounds from fruits, vegetables, and other foods, there may be many others that are undiscovered — and ones you can get only from foods. In addition, some of the known compounds may work only in combination with others in various foods, rather than as single isolated ingredients in supplement form.

Supplements won’t compensate for habits known to contribute to ill health, such as smoking or a lack of exercise. Optimal health requires a wholesome lifestyle — particularly if, as people get older, they are intent on aging well.

Although some of the benefits ascribed to supplements are unproved but plausible, other claims are far-fetched. Weight-loss preparations are the leading example. Though they’re extremely popular, it’s questionable whether any of them can help you shed pounds without the right food choices and regular exercise. Products that claim to “burn fat” won’t burn enough on their own for significant weight loss.

Similarly, claims of boosting performance, whether physical or mental, are difficult to prove — and any “enhancement” will be a limited one at best in a healthy person. Though a supplement may improve mental functioning in someone experiencing mild to severe episodes of memory loss, it may have a negligible effect on the memory or concentration of most adults. Likewise, a supplement shown to combat fatigue isn’t going to turn the average jogger into an endurance athlete. Nor is it clear that “aphrodisiac” supplements are effective for enhancing sexual performance if you aren’t suffering from some form of sexual dysfunction.

No supplements have been found to cure any serious diseases — including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or AIDS. The right supplement, however, may help improve a chronic condition and relieve symptoms such as pain or inflammation. But first you need to consult a health professional for treatment.

Source:Your Guide to
Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbs

Related articles
Categories
Positive thinking

Hand In Hand With Nature

Healing Gardens
Time spent in nature’s embrace is a soothing reminder of the fact that we also are products of the natural world‘s ingenuity. We feel at home in a quiet forest and are comforted by the pounding surf of the seaside. In both the sunny meadow and the shaded waterfall’s grotto, stress and tension we have long retained melts away. Finding opportunities to reconnect with nature to enjoy its healing benefits can be difficult, however. Planting and tending a garden allows us to spend time with Mother Nature in a very personal and hands-on way. We work in tandem with nature while gardening-honoring the seasons, participating in the life cycle of various organisms, experiencing the unique biorhythms of our environments, and transcending all that divides us from the natural world. As we interact with the soil, we are free to be ourselves and reflect upon meditative topics. Fresh air invigorates us, while our visceral connection to the earth grounds us.

Though you may plant a garden to grow food or herbs, or for the pleasure of seeing fresh flowers in bloom, you will likely discover that the time you spend working in your plot feels somehow more significant than many of the seemingly more important tasks you perform each day. Whether your garden can be measured in feet or is a collection of plants in pots, tending it can be a highly spiritual experience. You, by necessity, develop a closer relationship with the soil, seeds, water, and sunlight. Nurturing just a single plant means cultivating a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that permit it to thrive. A true healing garden is simply one where you feel comfortable plunging your hands into the earth, lingering over seedlings and plants to observe their growth. And yes, even caressing and talking to plants. Creating beauty through the creative use of space, and giving yourself over to awe when you realize that you have worked hand in hand with nature to give birth to som! ething, is truly wonderful.

The partnership that is formed when you collaborate with Mother Nature through gardening is wonderful in that it provides you with so many opportunities to be outdoors. You will be reminded of not only your connection to the earth but also of your unique gifts that allow you to give back to the earth.

Source:Daily Om

Related articles
Categories
News on Health & Science

Why is the heart pear-shaped?

T.V. Jayan explains, with the help of a new study:  It’s often been said that there is no engineer quite like Mother Nature. A living organism ” with all its parts that fit in so smoothly  is after all an engineering marvel. But this near-perfect  manufacturing  skill of Nature has often fanned the debate on whether life was created, or evolved.

CLICK & SEE

If the advocates of creationism are ready to swallow, however grudgingly, the theory that life originated from the amoeba eons ago, science has not been able to give convincing answers to a number of sub-questions. How does, for instance, a tiny, fragile fertilised egg grow into a body of full-blown organs without any “external” guidance? Why are the shapes of organs in a human being as they are? Why are our legs longer than our arms?

Ardent proponents of evolutionary biology, however, may no longer have to fumble for answers to many such questions. A team of scientists from the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, affiliated to the New York University School of Medicine, recently proved that logic could explain some of these difficult questions. Led by Deborah Yelon, the scientists unravelled the factors governing the complex process of the formation of the heart, which is a simple tube in early development, growing into a four-chambered, intricate organ with a characteristic pear shape. The researchers published their study in the February 20 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.

The heart, like many other organs, undergoes dramatic changes in its three-dimensional form as the embryo develops and functional demands intensify. Before it becomes a multi-chambered organ, it exists as a simple tube made up of myocardium (muscle) lined by endocardium (endothelium). As this thin-walled tube bulges outward, the chambers emerge and eventually acquire the characteristic dimensions of curvature and thickness.

In an article in Current Biology (September 2005), Sheffield University scientist David Strutt wrote that in order to control the shape and size of an organ, it is necessary that the dimensions be measured as the organ grows, and growth stops in each axis at the appropriate time.

But how this is achieved largely remains a mystery.

Developing organs acquire a specific three-dimensional form that ensures their normal functioning. The unique shape of the heart in higher-order animals, too, is critical for proper functioning. It is composed of a series of chambers that rhythmically drive blood circulation. Each of the chambers is designed for its optimal functional capacity. The organ, which commences beating from approximately 21 days of conception, is responsible for pumping blood via blood vessels through repeated, rhythmic contractions. In the process, it picks up carbon dioxide from the blood and drops it off in the lungs in exchange for oxygen which is in turn circulated through the blood.

Organs acquire their characteristic shapes not simply as a consequence of the accumulation of cells that profusely divide and multipl  Shape is also a physical process during which tissues are pressed, pulled and moved,  the scientists said.

In the experiments using transgenic (containing genes transferred from another species) zebra fish in which individual cardiac cells can be watched, Deborah Yelon, her student Heidi Auman and others demonstrated that cells change size and shape, enlarging and elongating to form bulges in the heart tube and eventually the chambers. The big question was whether the function of the heart — that is, blood flow — too influences cell shape.

Their studies using zebra fish   genetically modified so that each fish has a functional defect — helped them to find out that both blood flow and contraction of the cardiac tissues play a role in shaping cardiac cells. The unique tools the researchers used helped to clearly show that blood flow affects form. Further, they could define this at the cellular level.

The contribution of individual cell morphology to the overall shape was not previously shown, particularly in relation to the impact on chamber morphogenesis (formation and shape), said Deepak Srivastava, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, University of California, San Francisco.

“This is an important advance as although it has long been thought that blood flow does affect morphogenesis, the two have been difficult to isolate in a cause-and-effect manner,” Srivastava told KnowHow.

Moreover, the work is more rigorous and detailed than previous such exercises, he said.

However, Larry Taber, professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University, feels that the researchers are missing some key points. For example, he says, they talk about curvature (of the heart chambers) but never explicitly discuss looping, which causes the greatest changes during heart development. Looping, it may be mentioned, involves the bending and twisting of the heart tube to create asymmetry of the chambers as is required for optimal functioning.

There are a lot of misconceptions about looping among developmental biologists, including some propagated in this paper,  Taber, who has been studying heart formation in chicks for a couple of decades, told KnowHow.

He, however, said that the Skirball team’s conclusion that contraction and blood flow are important for chamber expansion seems plausible. He also said that cell shape changes can cause curvature changes as well. What he disagrees with is their implication that contraction and blood flow regulate looping.

The use of zebra fish with minor induced genetic defects helped the Skirball Institute scientists to show that slight abnormalities in cell morphology may lead to substantial changes in the shape and functioning of the cardiac chambers. This could probably explain aberrations observed in some types of heart disease.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

Related articles
css.php