Tag: Alberta

Categories
Herbs & Plants

Moneses uniflora

[amazon_link asins=’B004TH7J22,B00DKWM3LE,B00ZWIPLIQ,B009GFC4CM,1332977421,1171471203,1171027109,B000R4JJ9M,1170692206′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’087fd8cd-1dbd-11e7-a9b2-7529c106af74′]

[amazon_link asins=’B00284TRPA,B00284TOOY,B00284TPUC,B00284TR82,B00VUKRKGG,B0199AZGIW,B016A88N36,B00JLQ9VH2,B008QWOK6O’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’87f707f6-1dbc-11e7-83c0-0b405dce4bcb’]

Botanical Name : Moneses uniflora
Family: Ericaceae
Subfamily: Monotropoideae
Tribe: Pyroleae
Genus: Moneses
Species: M. uniflora
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Ericales

Common Names: One-flowered Wintergreen (Scotland); Single Delight; St. Olaf’s Candlestick (Norway)

Habitat :    Moneses uniflora is native to Europe, including Britain, from Iceland south and east to Spain, N. Asia to Japan, N. America. It grows in pine woods, the margins of moist woods in shady mossy places often in a bed of pine needles, avoiding calcareous soils.

Description:
Moneses uniflora is a perennial herb with a slender rhizome, the leaves are basal or low, oval-elliptic to obovate, from 10 to 30 mm in diameter, with small teeth. The petiole is shorter than the leaf diameter. Each stem terminates in a nodding, fragrant flower on a stem from 30 to 170 mm high. The corolla has a diameter of 15 to 25 mm. The spreading five white petals are slightly rumpled. The sepals are oval, separate and white-greenish. Flowering occurs from May to October

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

Cultivation:
Prefers a moist sandy woodland soil. in a cool position with partial shade. Requires a peaty or leafy acid soil that remains moist in the summer[200]. This is a very difficult plant to grow. It requires a mycorrhizal relationship in the soil and therefore needs to be grown initially in soil collected from around an established plant. It is also very difficult from seed as well as being intolerant of root disturbance which makes division difficult. This species is rare decreasing in the wild in Britain. Surviving populations are threatened, usually by commercial forestry.
Propagation:
Seed – the only information we have on this species is that it is difficult from seed and germinates infrequently. We would suggest sowing the seed as soon as it is ripe if this is possible. Sow it into soil collected from around an established plant, only just covering the seed, and put the pot in a shady part of a cold frame. Pot up any young seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle, once again using soil from around an established plant. Plant out into their permanent positions when the plants are large enough. You should not need to use soil from around an established plant to do this since the soil in the pot will contain the necessary micorrhiza. Division with great care in the spring. Pot up the divisions using some soil from around an established plant, grow on in a lightly shaded part of a greenhouse or frame and do not plant out until the plants are growing away vigorously
Edible Uses: Fruits are eaten….. The fruit is a capsule about 8cm wide. Seed are eaten raw or cooked

Medicinal Uses:
An infusion of the dried plant has been used in the treatment of coughs and colds. The plant has been chewed, and the juice swallowed, as a treatment for sore throat. A poultice of the leaves has been used to draw out the pus from boils and abscesses, to draw blisters, to help reduce swellings and also to relieve pain.

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/Moneses
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_RST.htm

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Moneses+uniflora

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
News on Health & Science

Air Pollution May Cause Appendicitis

[amazon_link asins=’B002P7S1U2,B00QH6TUXO,B00RYACXC2,B00JLS22IA’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’94119326-57e0-11e7-aed1-8f3a03ec94a6′]

Air pollution is already linked to respiratory and cardiovascular ills, and now researchers say the dirty air you breathe may also cause appendicitis.

Authors of a new study published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that cases of appendicitis go up when the air is dirtier.

“This makes us think about the underlying cause of appendicitis that could potentially be linked to air pollution,” said Dr. Gilaad G. Kaplan, senior author of the study and assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology at the University of Calgary in Alberta. “Air pollution is a modifiable risk factor. If these findings are confirmed and we are able to legislate better air pollution control, cleaner air, then potentially we could prevent more cases of appendicitis.”
But at this early point in the research, the implications are not so clear-cut, warned another expert.

“It’s provocative, but there’s a huge difference between correlating any number of factors with a disease and proving that any of these factors might actually cause a disease, and this study fails to show causation,” said Dr. F. Paul Buckley III, assistant professor of surgery at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and a surgeon at Scott & White Healthcare Round Rock, Texas.

“Do we all want to decrease pollution? Yes. Is that going to decrease the incidence of appendicitis? I doubt it,” said Buckley.

Parts of the findings were presented at a conference a year ago.

No one really knows why appendicitis, or swelling and infection of the appendix, occurs.

Appendicitis cases rose significantly in the late 19th century and early 20th century, as industrialization took hold. Cases declined in the middle and later parts of the last century, at about the time clean air legislation gained headway. Meanwhile, countries that are just now industrializing have increasing rates of the condition, the study authors stated.

A prevailing theory is that appendicitis occurs when the opening to the appendix, a pouch-like organ attached to the large intestine, gets blocked. Specifically, some experts believe that lower fiber intake among citizens of industrialized countries leads to obstruction of the appendix by the stool.

But that doesn’t explain the decreased incidence of appendicitis in the second half of the 20th century, Kaplan said.

Air pollution is already linked with a wide range of health conditions, most notably respiratory diseases and cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.

Kaplan and his colleagues looked at more than 5,000 adults who were hospitalized in Calgary with appendicitis between April 1, 1999, and the end of 2006. This data was cross-referenced with an analysis of air pollutants the week prior to the admissions.

“We found that individuals were more likely to come in with appendicitis in weeks with higher concentrations of air pollutants, specifically ozone and nitrogen dioxide,” Kaplan said.

More appendicitis admissions took place during Canada’s warmest months (April through September, when people are more likely to be outdoors), and men seemed more likely to be affected by air pollutants than women. It’s unclear why this gender difference exists, the researchers said.

Kaplan theorizes that inflammation may explain the link — if it proves to exist — between air quality and appendicitis.

“It’s speculative, but air pollution might be driving inflammation which triggers appendicitis,” he said. “We’re a few steps away before we can make that statement. We need to confirm and replicate these findings.”

Kaplan and his co-authors plan more studies in multiple cities in Canada.

Last year, Forbes magazine rated Calgary as the world’s cleanest city and Baku, Azerbaijan, as the dirtiest.

Source: Health News. 5Th.Oct.’09

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
Categories
Health Alert

Killers in packs

[amazon_link asins=’B0752CGLBS,B01MY15BZ3,B072PRRM91,B01K881IJA,B06XZW79KJ,B074JKTH6H,B077BMH79P,B074DWL557,B071Z7RBQ2′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’9d3aa947-dbcf-11e7-8683-d5258ff0ef87′]

Smoking was once considered macho, high-class and sophisticated. James Bond, Fidel Castro and socialites smoked publicly and elegantly. Now smoking has sunk way down in the etiquette scale and is socially unacceptable. Smoking in public places such as offices, trains and movie theatres is banned in many countries including India.  Cigarette packets carry the warning: “Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. Yet, there is no serious effort to implement a 2004 law banning the sale of cigarettes to minors. As a result, 7-8 per cent of teenagers in India use tobacco, as cigarettes, beedis or as chewing tobacco.

CLICK & SEE

Cigarettes are made up of finely shredded tobacco leaves and stem rolled in a special kind of paper. When smoked or chewed, tobacco provides the body with a rush of nicotine and around 600 other addictive, harmful and cancerous chemicals. These produce elation and euphoria. Eventually, the intervals between “fixes” become shorter and the number of cigarettes smoked increases.

Addiction to tobacco is both genetic and environmental. A preconditioned individual reared in a conducive environment will eventually become addicted.

As the tobacco smoke enters the lungs, it paralyses the cilia. (These are small hair-like projections from cells lining the airways and are responsible for removing foreign particles.) The smoke can then settle in the interior of the lungs, causing destruction and difficulty in breathing. Attempts to clear the material are futile and result in hacking and unproductive cough. There are repeated bacterial and viral infections. Oxygenation becomes insufficient. The person may go into heart failure and become permanently breathless.

The build up of toxins can eventually lead to cancers — in the lung, urinary tract, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, pancreas, stomach and blood (acute myeloid leukaemia).

In those who do not develop cancer, tobacco damages several organs. The teeth become yellow, plaque ridden, loosened from the sockets and may eventually fall. Conversation becomes difficult because of halitosis (bad breath). The bones weaken leading to early osteoporosis.

New evidence shows that the chemicals in tobacco alter the body metabolism, precipitating glucose intolerance and the changes associated with the metabolic syndrome X. Diabetes sets in, and the lipid levels are altered. Atherosclerotic plaques build up in the blood vessels, leading to heart disease, paralysis, stroke and vascular disease. The blocks in the peripheral vessels cause pain while walking and numbness, burning and tingling in the limbs.

The IQ (intelligence quotient) falls and the smoker’s cognitive skills decline faster than in non-smokers. This makes early dementia a very real possibility.

Women who smoke during pregnancy place themselves and their foetuses at great risk. They tend to have small babies. Also, there is a much higher incidence of abnormalities of the digits in the child. Fingers and toes may be more or less than normal or stuck together.

Non-smoking men and women who live in close contact with smokers suffer all the ill effects of smoking without the pleasures of addiction. Passive smokers are the single largest international group of victims of substance abuse.

More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol consumption, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. Smoking causes diverse and silent deaths — an unpublicised form of slow suicide. The others diseases and causes of death receive far more media publicity.

Giving up smoking is not easy. As with all other addictions, it involves reconditioning of the body and the mind. Quitting has to be abrupt and overnight. There is no slow, weaning process.

Face-to-face interactive counselling on a one-is-to-one basis is very successful in motivating people to quit.

Medication to counter the urge to smoke is available in India. The sustained-release bupropion SR is a non-nicotine drug that supposedly reduces the craving by affecting the same chemical messengers in the brain that are activated by nicotine. It is expensive, the dosage has to be individualised, and it has to be taken for a prolonged period. Motivation and persistence are usually lacking in smokers, and thus the medication has not been a success in India.

Nicotine gum is available in some of the larger cities.

Most young smokers are convinced that they have the willpower to quit whenever they want to, but in reality 90 per cent are still smoking five years later. Many sincerely believe that complications will side step them and affect others!

It is never too late. Smokers who do manage to quit get a second lease of life. On average, they live longer and are healthier than those who continue the habit.

If you want to stop, grit your teeth and “just do it”.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
css.php