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Beetroot Juice Gives Stamina a Boost


Drinking beetroot juice boosts your stamina, concludes a new study, which adds that the magical drink can help you exercise for up to 16 percent longer.

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The University of Exeter led-study has for the first time shown how the nitrate contained in beetroot juice leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake, making exercise less tiring.

The study reveals that drinking beetroot juice reduces oxygen uptake to an extent that cannot be achieved by any other known means, including training.

To reach the conclusion, research team conducted their study with eight men aged between 19 and 38. They were given 500ml per day of organic beetroot juice for six consecutive days before completing a series of tests, involving cycling on an exercise bike. On another occasion, they were given a placebo of blackcurrant cordial for six consecutive days before completing the same cycling tests.

After drinking beetroot juice the group was able to cycle for an average of 11.25 minutes, which is 92 seconds longer than when they were given the placebo. This would translate into an approximate 2 percent reduction in the time taken to cover a set distance. The group that had consumed the beetroot juice also had lower resting blood pressure.

The researchers are not yet sure of the exact mechanism that causes the nitrate in the beetroot juice to boost stamina. However, they suspect it could be a result of the nitrate turning into nitric oxide in the body, reducing the oxygen cost of exercise.

Source :The research has been published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

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Too Close for Comfort

The scientific study of a person’s sense of personal space may one day lead to ways of treating neurological diseases such as autism.
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Have you been annoyed by people standing too close to you? Do you feel uncomfortable when people stare at you? If you are offended by excessive proximity, you are among the billions of normal people on this planet. If you are not, there may be something abnormal in your brain.

A person’s sense of private space is considered so important that scientists have given a name to its formal study — proxemics. The subject is already throwing up interesting theories and practical applications.

Studies show that our sense of personal space determines a large part of our public behaviour. It is this sense that stops us from staring at others in crowded places, opt for unoccupied rows in a train or bus, or not stand close to another person in a urinal. Also, it enables us to sense danger in people’s expressions. Our sense of personal space — or more accurately, lack of it — could even be linked to some neurological diseases such as autism.

At the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the US, professor of psychology and neuroscience Ralph Adolphs recently found that our sense of personal space resides in a part of the brain called amygdala. This almond-shaped structure is in the medial temporal lobe, equidistant from either ear. The amygdala has been known for over a century but neuroscientists were not interested in it until recently. The region was known to be associated with emotions, but scientists are now learning that it also plays a role in a number of brain disorders.

Adolphs and his team had come across a woman who they prefer to call SM. SM had no sense of personal space, because of which she had got into potentially dangerous situations. She participated in an experiment at Caltech where people were asked to walk towards the experimenter but stop at a distance where they felt comfortable. SM got very close to the experimenter, far closer than anyone else did. The other 20 volunteers stopped at about two feet; SM stopped at one foot. She did not feel uncomfortable even when the noses were about to touch. “She had earlier got into relationships with people whom normal people would not associate with,” says Adolphs.

Obviously, SM cannot decide whom to trust and is uniformly friendly with everybody she meets. Adolphs then used imaging techniques to determine what part of the brain lit up when people felt uncomfortably close to the experimenter. It was undoubtedly the amygdala. SM had lesions on both sides of the amygdala. Now the team is investigating the relationship of the amygdala, our sense of space and autism. Autistic people have difficulties with personal space and have to be taught its importance.

The experience of SM clearly suggests that our sense of personal space is also a necessary part of a defensive mechanism. She could not recognise fear in the faces of others and could also not judge whether someone is trustworthy, both being abilities that could be related to our sense of personal space. So important and so ingrained is our sense of this space that we carry it even to cyberspace. In experiments performed at Stanford University, scientists had found out that people maintain their sense of personal space even in virtual worlds. Says Nick Yee, former Stanford PhD student and now research scientist at the Palo Alto Research Centre, “When avtars gather in Second Life, they tend to maintain a distance as they do in the real world.”

Second Life is a 3D virtual world where people can create “avtars” who interact just as in the real world. The Stanford Virtual Reality Lab research team, of which Yee was a part, had created algorithms that could analyse the behaviour of avtars in Second Life. The aim of this project was to study virtual environments and not our sense of personal space, but it clearly demonstrated that personal space was important even in virtual worlds.

Around 10 years ago, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, professor Dane Archer videotaped several individuals in situations where they felt their sense of personal space was being violated. These situations involved urinals, libraries and other public places. The videos are now sold by Berkeley Media LLC, a leading distributor of documentaries in the US. The clips show that though people feel their personal space is being violated, their response is to move away rather than confront the aggressor.

Although the term proxemics is only a few decades old (its originator, Edward Hall, passed away this July), the scientific study of personal space is just beginning. It is providing fascinating insights into non-verbal communication. And scientists hope it would one day also lead to ways of treating neurological diseases.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Shoes that Warn You About a Fall

Scientists working to help astronauts regain balance after extended flights in zero gravity say they’ve found a way to use the research to help elderly people avoid catastrophic falls.

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An “iShoe”insole contains sensors that read how well a person is balancing. The point is to gather information for doctors and to get people to a specialist – before they fall.

Erez Lieberman, a graduate student who developed the technology while working as an intern at Nasa, says a damaging fall is preceded

by numerous warnings, similar to how high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure point to a coming heart attack. “You gradually get worse and worse at balancing,”said Lieberman, who studies in a joint Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology health science and technology program. “If you know the problem is there, you can start addressing the problem.”

The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates 300,000 people annually suffer hip fractures, which are often caused by falls. An average of 24% of hip fracture patients age 50 and over die within a year of the fracture.

Many fall victims who don’t die within a year end up being disabled the rest of their lives.
“It’s a huge issue,”said Elinor Ginzler of the AARP. “It significantly impairs your ability to stay independent, which is what people want.”

The idea for the iShoe came to Lieberman while he was working on a project to help astronauts regain balance after months in zero gravity. The work is part of preparations for long space missions, such as trips to Mars, that require astronauts to perform complicated tasks on the terrain soon after landing.

He and Katharine Forth, a visiting scientist at Nasa who also works on the iShoe, had been touched personally by the issue of elderly falls, with each seeing a grandmother’s health rapidly deteriorate after such an accident. “It was something that has kind of been on my mind in general, and once I started looking at balance it became very clear it would have applications in that direction,”Lieberman said.

Nasa tests balance with an expensive device about the size of a phone booth. Lieberman and Forth say the iShoe insole, slipped inside any shoe, solves the problem of portability and affordability, since the device would cost about $100.

Lieberman estimates $1 million is needed for a broad clinical trial, and $3 million to $4 million to bring the insole to market. The company has applied for a patent and as well as federal funding. Once funding is obtained, the iShoe could be for sale in 18 months, Lieberman said.

Sources: The Times Of India

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Keep Weight Sway At Bay

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Loosing weight may be easy; it’s keeping it off that is difficult. Scientists now have a better understanding of long-term weight maintenance:

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In her 39 years, Claudia Hallblom has, by her own estimation, lost and regained nearly 455 kilograms.

Her success at losing weight was always driven by a goal, such as looking nice for her graduation or wedding. Her tactics usually included strict calorie counting. But her success was always fleeting. Sooner or later, she would revert to her old habits and no longer feel motivated to change.

“I didn’t know how to lose weight and keep it off,” the Downey, California, woman says.

Most people can lose weight. But few can maintain it. Researchers are now tackling that problem, and what they’re learning is disconcerting. The human body is designed to sabotage weight loss at every turn — once a body has been fatter, it wants to revert to what it used to be. Physiology is cruelly changed in two ways: the body needs fewer calories to maintain itself, but its craving for food is more intense.

Keeping the pounds at bay means pitting one’s willpower against several biological processes involving the brain, hormones, metabolism and fat storage.

“There is a big shift toward understanding long-term weight maintenance,” says Paul MacLean, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver. “You can easily lose weight; the big problem is keeping it off.”

However, scientists think that understanding the stubborn biological processes at work will lead to ways to fight back.

Exercise buffers the post-diet body against regaining weight, in ways that researchers are just starting to comprehend. Certain foods may help stave off weight regain too. And medications now in development target some of the biochemistry thought to be linked to regaining weight.

“There are strong physiological adaptations to weight loss that promote weight regain,” MacLean says.

Human biology is designed to protect against weight loss and potential starvation. After a period of obesity, the body may permanently alter the way weight is regulated by more aggressively stimulating appetite and signalling the body to protect fat stores.

Metabolism has changed: the body now needs about eight fewer calories per day for each pound of weight that is lost. This difference in energy needs before and after weight loss has been dubbed the “energy gap”.

Appetite hormones change too. The hormone leptin, for example, is a major appetite regulator; it tells the body to stop eating and store fat after meals. Some people may be genetically prone to having lower leptin levels, making them more prone to obesity. But studies also show that, after a weight loss, leptin levels are lower than what they used to be. That means appetite is less easily quelled.

Another hormone, ghrelin, stimulates food intake. Its levels in the brain fall after a meal. However, after a weight loss, ghrelin levels generally increase, and the fall after mealtimes isn’t as marked.

“You lose 10 per cent of your body weight. All of a sudden all these systems kick in to try to keep you from losing weight,” says Dr Ken Fujioka, director of nutrition and metabolic research at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego. “People are mad at themselves or depressed after they regain the weight. But I explain: it’s not you. Biology has kicked in… You are hungry all the time.”

And the weight comes back fast. “You may look like a lean person, but your body hasn’t changed inside,” says MacLean.

Moreover, animal studies show that most of the regained weight is distributed as visceral fat, the abdominal paunch that is linked to heart disease and diabetes.

So what is a dieter to do?

“There is nothing we know of that does anything to reverse this,” says Fujioka.

But it’s not impossible. Based on data from more than 7,000 people, Rena Wing, director of the weight control and diabetes research centre at Brown Medical School, says there are few similarities in how people lose weight. But those who succeed in maintenance sing the same song. Instead of trying to eat less for the rest of their lives to bridge the energy gap, these people exercise more.

Physical activity influences some of the biological systems that promote weight regain, encouraging the body to become more sensitive to leptin and insulin, for example.

The successful maintainers also change what they eat: the registry found that they keep their calories in careful balance with what they expend. They also tend to eat low-fat foods.

But there may be more nuances to food choices than that. “We’re getting more interested in studies that look at food composition,” Fujioka says. “It could be that eating certain nutrients may also help the system work better.”

Scientists don’t know how long it would take to return the physiological responses of a once-obese body to normal — or if, indeed, that ever is quite possible.

Studies do show, however, that weight regain is most likely in the first couple of years after weight loss.

“After that, it’s as if you master the technique,” Wing says.

The current research strongly points to two messages: don’t gain excess weight in the first place, and if you do, be prepared to make permanent lifestyle changes to lose it and maintain the loss.

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Arsenic Poisoning

Arsenic is known best as a deadly poison, although in small doses it does have medical benefits. BBC News Online looks at the workings of the chemical infamous for its deadly effects.

Arsenic is often found in metal ores

What is arsenic?

Arsenic is a semi-metallic naturally-occurring chemical. It is all around us in the environment and we are all exposed to small doses on a regular basis.

It is difficult to detect as it is generally odourless and flavourless, meaning people have little idea when it is around.

What is the risk?

Arsenic is a very toxic substance that is found in food, water and household items. Tobacco smoke, laundry detergent, bone meal, sea food, beer and even drinking water are a few of the items arsenic can be consumed from. Headaches, confusion, sleepiness, and even convulsions can be the effects of arsenic poisoning. Vomiting, diarrhea, kidney, liver and lung problems can occur, including death in extreme cases. Here is how to avoid and cure arsenic poisoning.

Arsenic is found in many different places. Arsenic is used to poison pests such as rats and mice, and can be used to kill any living thing. Arsenic is found in tiny amounts in many things that we consume. Apples, for example, have a minute amount of arsenic in their seeds. If you eat apples daily and eat the seeds you are depositing arsenic into your system. Other food items that may contain arsenic are seafood, water, bone meal, dolomite, kelp, table salt, and beer.

If you work in a job that produces any kind of pesticide, agricultural insecticide or spraying of any of these, you are at risk of arsenic poisoning. Other jobs that are at risk are copper smelting, mining, sheep dipping and metallurgical industries. Continued exposure to arsenic builds up in the system and there is an accumulated effect. The more you are exposed the more serious are the consequences.

Exposure to arsenic is suspected as the cause of many types of cancer. The types of cancers that are found in workers that are regularly exposed to arsenic are: skin cancer, scrotal cancer, liver cancer, cancer of the lymphatic system, and lung cancer.

Arsenic can kill humans quickly if consumed in large amounts, although small, long-term exposure can lead to a much slower death or other illness.

Studies have linked prolonged exposure to arsenic with cancer, diabetes, thickening of the skin, liver disease and problems with the digestive system.

It has also been associated with nervous system disorders – feeling tingling or losing sensation in the limbs – and hearing difficulties.

How it is Diagnosed?

Arsenic poisoning is usually determined by a hair analysis. If arsenic is found in the hair follicles it will stay there for years. If it is in your hair follicles it is usually in your body as well. Arsenic is also deposited in the fingernails and skin.

What happens if you are poisoned?

A person exposed to large amounts of arsenic – either through eating or drinking it – will usually die, and symptoms will appear within 30 minutes of exposure.

There is a similar outlook for people who breathe large amounts of it, although the onset of symptoms may be delayed as the concentration is likely to be lower.

Physical contact with arsenic can cause, initially, the skin to thicken and, with prolonged contact, blood flow to the heart to become decreased.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms of arsenic poisoning begin with headaches, confusion and drowsiness. As the poisoning develops, convulsions and changes in fingernail pigmentation may occur. When the poisoning becomes acute, symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, blood in the urine, cramping muscles, hair loss, stomach pain, and more convulsions. The organs of the body that are usually affected by arsenic poisoning are the lungs, skin, kidneys, and liver.


Symptoms include violent stomach pains in the region of the bowels; tenderness and pressure; retching; excessive saliva production; vomiting; sense of dryness and tightness in the throat; thirst; hoarseness and difficulty of speech; the matter vomited, greenish or yellowish, sometimes streaked with blood; diarrhea; tenesmus; sometimes excoriation of the anus; urinary organs occasionally affected with violent burning pains and suppression; convulsions and cramps; clammy sweats; lividity of the extremities; countenance collapsed; eyes red and sparkling; delirium; death. Some of these symptoms may be absent where the poisoning results from inhalation, as of arseniuretted hydrogen.

The final result of arsenic poisoning is coma or death.

You may click to see:-> pictures of Arsecnic poisoning

The first sensations include a metallic taste in the mouth, excessive saliva production and problems swallowing.

The next stage is to suffer vomiting and diarrhoea coupled with garlic-like breath, stomach cramps and excessive sweating.

As the poison’s effects progress, the patient will suffer seizures and go into shock, dying within a few hours. If death does not occur at this stage, it will happen a few days when the kidney fails.

What is the treatment?

It is extremely important to seek medical advice immediately if arsenic poisoning is suspected. One way to test for arsenic poisoning is by checking hair follicles. If arsenic is in the bloodstream, it will enter hair and remain there for many years.

Chemical and synthetic methods are now used to treat arsenic poisoning. Dimercaprol and Succimer are chelating agents which sequester the arsenic away from blood proteins and are used in treating acute arsenic poisoning. The most important side-effect is hypertension. Dimercaprol is considerably more toxic than succimer.

In the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, Keya Chaudhuri of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata, and her colleagues reported giving rats daily doses of arsenic in their water, in levels equivalent to those found in groundwater in Bangladesh and West Bengal.Those rats which were also fed garlic extracts had 40 per cent less arsenic in their blood and liver, and passed 45 per cent more arsenic in their urine. The conclusion is that sulfur-containing substances in garlic scavenge arsenic from tissues and blood. The presentation concludes that people in areas at risk of arsenic contamination in the water supply should eat one to three cloves of garlic per day as a preventative

Arsenic poisoning can be treated if it is caught early enough, through a series of injections into muscles.

The patient needs 2.5mg to 5mg per kilogram of body weight of a drug called dimercaporal every four hours for the first two days followed by two injections on the third day then one a day for the next five days.

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If you suspect that you are being exposed to arsenic your diet needs to include lots of sulfur. Sulfur can eliminate some of the arsenic from the body. The foods that contains sulfur are; eggs, onions, beans, legumes, and garlic. Sulfur can be bought and taken in tablet form also. The amino acid that provides sulfur is cysteine.

Fiber can also help to leech the arsenic from your system by attaching to it and washing it out. Include a lot of fiber in your diet by eating whole grains and cereals, fruits and vegetables.

If someone accidentally ingests arsenic administer 5 charcoal tablets immediately. Take 5 more charcoal tablets 15 minutes later and again every fifteen minutes. Go immediately to an emergency room. Charcoal tablets should be a part of every medicine cabinet for any type of poisoning.

Chelation therapy is an option if you have arsenic poisoning. Chelation therapy is used to remove toxic metals such as cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury from our bodies. Metals and minerals can clog our systems and can be removed with chelation therapy. The procedure has been done for forty years in the United States and is safe. Chelation therapy is a series of injections of ethylenediaminetetra aacetic acid (EDTA) that is done in a doctors office.

You can also do chelation therapy at home with over the counter chelation formulas bought at a health food store or a drug store. Most are made with alfalfa, garlic, fiber, turin and selenium. Alfalfa liquid or tablets, taken three times daily with meals, detoxifies the liver and chelates substances from the body. Coenzyme Q(10) improves circulation of the blood which allows the toxic substances to leave the body. L-Lysine, an amino acid, detoxifies harmful heavy metals from our systems. Rutin and apple pectin can be taken to bind with unwanted toxic metals and remove them from the body through the intestinal tract.

When doing any chelation therapy, make sure that you replace lost essential minerals by taking alfalfa, iron, kelp and zinc in addition to your regular multi-vitamin

What is the environmental threat?

There is growing concern about levels of arsenic in the environment, both from natural occurrence and from pollution.

Forty million people in West Bengal and Bangladesh are thought to be at risk from arsenic-contaminated water supplies, although studies are continuing into what effect the poisoning is having.

The contamination is thought to have occurred naturally, as a result of arsenic being released from rocks into underground water supplies.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has an ongoing research programme to look into arsenic in the environment and to establish what constitutes a safe level.

What are the benefits?

Small doses of arsenic have been shown to send some forms of cancer into remission, and it can also help thin blood.

Homeopathists have also used undetectable amounts of it to cure stomach cramps.

However, therapies involving the chemical are still in the experimental stages.

This page contains basic information. If you are concerned about your health, you should consult a doctor.

You may also click to see:-
Arsenic beats cancer
Glimmer of hope for homeopathy cures
Bangladesh arsenic crisis
Internet links:->
West Bengal India and Bangladesh Arsenic Crisis Centre

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

Resources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/459078.stm
http://www.chelationtherapyonline.com/articles/p110.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenic_poisoning

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