27 September, 2013

Will you sacrifice your health for a smartphone?

Mobile phones can be included as basic necessity, along with food, water and shelter. Will you buy a cheap phone rather than buying a branded, safe and reputed phone? 

Smartphones are the cell phones to have, but choosing the right phone is important as it is what separates you from developing healthproblems. We dig deeper to find you a safe phone.

Satish Nikam - Technology Expert says - "Before buying any cell phone, one key aspect all consumers should beware of is its SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) value. It is the measure of the amount of energy absorbed by your body when it is exposed to radio frequency (RF) waves. Radio waves are one, which are emitted by mobile phones.

One should prefer cellphones, which has lower SAR value, because the lesser the SAR value, the better it is for your health. Each mobile phone emits radio waves while connecting to the mobile towers, which itself also emits these waves. A part of the energy of these waves is absorbed by the body tissue, and this amount is depicted by the SAR value.

Most of the smartphones, which are unbranded, have no information on the radio waves being emitted by the mobile set. Thus be cautious while buying a smartphone, because a higher SAR value can mean a potential health hazard.

At present, the SAR value limit in India is set at 1.60 W/kg in 1g tissue mass. Besides, a phone stating a higher SAR value does not really mean that it is always more unsafe to use as the phone operates on highest rate only when linking a call. Otherwise, it operates on low SAR values.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.09.2013

Women develop heart disease 10 yrs later than men

A new research has revealed that a biological ability to compensate for the body's reduced response to insulin could help explain whywomen typically develop heart disease 10 years later than men. 

Lead author, Sun H. Kim, MD, MS, of Stanford University School of Medicine, said that among men and women ages 50 or younger with comparable levels of insulin resistance, their study found women experienced fewer complications than men did. 

She said that this ability to deal with the fallout from insulin resistance was no longer present when we examined women who were 51 and older. 

Kim asserted that this gender difference may illuminate the 'female advantage' - a phenomenon where the onset of cardiovascular disease tends to happen a decade later in women than in men. 

The cross-sectional study also examined insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease risk in 468 women and 354 men. 

Among participants ages 50 or younger, women had lower blood pressure and fasting blood sugar levels than their male counterparts. 

In addition, women had lower levels of triglycerides, fats in the blood that can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. 

The study has been published in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM).

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.09.2013

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward

Jim Rohn