» health

Smoking Lowers IQ Level

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 04:48:01 +0000

The study discovered that average IQ of a non-smoker was about 101, while smoker’s average was about 94. The IQ of a smoker who can smoke more than a packet in a day lie around 90.

The study directed by Prof. Mark Weiser of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Psychiatry and the Sheba Medical Center on 18 to 21 yrs old men working in the Israeli army.

This study also tracked two twin brothers, in this case one of the twin smoked and he registered lower IQ on average than the non-smoker twin.

Researchers took data from more than 20,000 men, some of them had left army, some of them are in army and some of them are planning to join army. During this investigation it was found that all men acquire good health, since they had to keep their health according to the norms of army. Researchers found few surprising results, 28 percent are sample smokers smoking one or more cigarettesin a day, 3 percent are ex-smokers and 68 percent are non-smokers.

Diabetes Patients Are More Prone To Kidney Failures

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:44:45 +0000

International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations has finally announced their theme of this year on March 11, World Kidney Day.

“Protect your kidneys: Control diabetes” is the new theme. According to the organization, Diabetes and High Blood pressure are the common causes of kidney failures and chronic kidney diseases. And, they will launch various kinds of campaigns this year to increase the awareness amongst Diabetes and High Blood Pressure patients and will tell them the importance of its prevention and early detection.

According to the organization, most of the people don’t have any idea about their conditions until they need dialysis. Chronic kidney disease develops very slowly and don’t show any symptoms at the start.

How to Prevent Chronic Kidney Disease

Go For a long Walk.

Reduce your Weight

Control the amount of sugar in your food

Eat Healthy Food and Avoid all kind of junk food

Frozen Vegetables Are More Nutritious Than Fresh vegetable

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:27:39 +0000

According to study conducted by UK-based Institute of Food Research, Frozen vegetables are 45 percent more nutritious that fresh vegetables.

Nutritionist Dr Sarah Schenker said, “The nutritional content of fresh vegetables begins to deteriorate from the minute they are picked. This means that by the time they end up on our plate, although we may think we’re reaping the vegetable’s full nutritional benefits this is often not the case. With frozen vegetables, where vitamins are locked in at the point of freezing, there’s no need to worry about how nutritious they are”.

Fresh vegetables take a fortnight to reach the table after being picked from the farm, though the common belief of 80 percent shoppers was that fresh vegetables in supermarkets are not more than four days old. Important nutrients in fresh vegetables diminish between the process of harvesting, supermarket stay, home, and the actual consumption.

Sunbathing Boosts Men’s Testosterone Levels

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:19:38 +0000

A recent study in Clinical Endocrinology journal has revealed that Men who sunbath have higher levels of Testosterone then those who don’t.

The study on 2,299 men shows that testosterone and vitamin D levels were high in the month of August and drop off in winters with lowest level in March.

Researchers found men with at least 30 nanograms of vitamin D per millilitre of blood had much more testosterone circulating than those lacking in vitamin D.

Professor Winfried Marz who conducted study said ” Men who ensure that their body is at least sufficiently supplied with vitamin D are doing good for their testosterone levels and their libido among other thing”

Jessica Harris of Cancer Research UK said: “Enjoying the sun safely while taking care not to burn should help people strike a balance between making enough vitamin D and avoiding a higher risk of skin cancer.

“People can also top up their levels of vitamin D by eating more foods like oily fish such as salmon, trout or mackerel.”

Glue that helps in repairing fetal membrane

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:56:14 +0000

A scientific study done by Northwestern University reveals that “Glue Mussels” which is used to stick the surfaces of rocks has inspired researchers to create a sealant that could be used for repairing the ruptures and holes on fetal membrane during pregnancy. The mussel inspired sealant was tested on animals and was found to be both bio-compatible and effective at sealing the tiny holes which could be really dangerous and lead to the leakage of the amniotic fluid resulting in premature labor and termination.

Fetal membrane – Fetal Membrane is the structure that surrounds the developing fetus.

The research was done by Phillip B. Messersmith, who was one of the study’s leaders and is professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. Currently Messersmith and his colleagues are testing the mechanical qualities of Sealant

Junk Food Can Cause Depression

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:53:26 +0000

According to research done by British and French scientists, eating Junk Food may cause depression in addition to making you obese.

The study was conducted on 3,486 men and women, of various demographics. The findings revealed that there is a strong relations between the diet and symptoms of depression. All participants were around age of 55. Participants were asked to fill a questionnaire about the amount of junk food they take daily. There answers were recorded and compared with their lifestyles, physical activity and habits like smoking,drinking etc.

Scientists said that “Processed food, that are easily available in the market can gulped down when in depressive mood by hundreds of already overweight people. Controlling triggers of hunger, following a discipline for weight loss and believing in self can help overcome depression due to weight issues.”

Rabbit Milk to Treat Heart Patients

admin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:44:38 +0000

Herds of rabbits are being created by Scientists so that they can use rabbit milk to treat their patients. The first such farm of Dairy rabbits is running in Holland , where rabbits who have been genetically modified to include a human gene and contain a protein called C1 inhibitor are commercially milked.

The milk protein would help in preventing the rejection of transplant organs and tissue damage in survivors of strokes, heart attacks and car accidents, and may also treat the hereditary immune disorder angioedema.

Trials have been done on more than 200 patients and final results were successful.

The treatment is awaiting approval from European drug regulators after which the milk would be available in the market

Yoga prevents anti-age inflammation in Body

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:54:05 +0000

A new study conducted by Ohio State University revealed that Yoga is a great way to reduce the number of inflammatory proteins found in blood which might increase due to aging and stress.Inflammation is the main cause of many decisions and doing Yoga few times a week is a great, simple and cheap way to minimize your probability of getting infected by such diseases.

The Study was conducted on 50 women aged 41 who were divided on two groups Novice and experts based on their Yoga skills.
During the study, All participants had to undertake lot of psychological tests as well as several tasks, called ‘stressors’, specifically designed to increase their stress levels and their blood samples were tested from time to time.

Analysis of Blood samples revealed that novices had higher amounts of cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) which is responsible for inflammatory response in the body and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, arthritis and a host of other age-related diseases. in their blood as compared to women who routinely practiced yoga and were in Experts group.

Findings of the study suggest that one can reap varied health benefits by regularly practicing yoga few times a week.

Did WHO exaggerated fear of swine flue ?

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:55:18 +0000

WHO experts have denied the allegations which were slapped on them by Danish daily ‘Information’ last month. The controversy came in to existence, when documents acquired through Danish Freedom of Information Act unleashed the fact that Prof Juhani Eskola, a Finnish member of the WHO board on vaccines, had received almost 6.3 million euros in 2009 for his Vaccine research program from vaccine manufacturers GSK, the company whose vaccine was recommended by WHO last year to its member countries.

Danish journalists also reported six other members of SAGE(Strategic Advisory Group of Experts) having financial ties with big pharmaceutical companies. These include Dr Peter Figueroa, Dr Neil Ferguson, Prf Malik Peiris, Dr Arnold Monto, Dr Friedrich Hayden and Dr Albert Osterhaus.

Members of SAGE(Strategic Advisory Group of Experts) have to recommend WHO chief, which vaccines and how much should be bought by its member countries. According to rules of WHO, Each member of SAGE has to declare all professional and financial interests, including funding received from pharmaceutical companies or consultancies or other forms of professional engagement with pharmaceutical companies.

But, None of WHO members except Dr Peter Figueroa, who revealed that he had accepted a research grant from Merck, in their disclosure.

Your Face Speaks More Than Your Words

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:18:09 +0000

A recent study done by scientists at Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany proved that a face expression can tell more about the person than his own words.

The other fact which this study revealed was that a normal face is able to classify an expression much better when it moves naturally rather than when it is frozen in a photograph.

Scientists claimed that your brain need at least 100 millisecond to understand what the expression implies. If the duration of expression is less than this then your brain won’t be able to figure out what the expression implies

According to the scientists, expressions are an active phenomenon and may reveal about the state of mind of a person, but this idea needs to be probed further with the help of video sequences.

“Facial expressions are a dynamic phenomenon and need to be investigated with the help of video sequences in order to get a better understanding,” said Dr Christian Wallraven, co-author of the study.