29 June, 2018

Here is why you should NOT stand and drink water!

Water is imperative to human life. Hydration ensures smooth functioning of all biological processes in your body. Therefore, it is important to know how to derive the best from nature’s most powerful resource and make it useful for your body. If your parents often taunt you on your water drinking skills (read: while standing up), here are five reasons that will make you sit down (while drinking water).

WHAT AYURVEDIC SCIENCE STATES: As per Ayurveda, when you have water while standing up, you are putting pressure on your stomach wall. This is because the water flows down straight from the esophagus to the stomach and causes damage to the areas around it as well. This means that if you are having water while standing up, your body is automatically rejecting all its nutrients from being absorbed.

HOW DOES IT AFFECT YOUR BODY: Drinking water while standing up can affect your body in a bad way. Once water flows with high pressure, it leads to impurities accumulation in the bladder. This can severely affect the kidneys.

CAN CAUSE SIGNIFICANT PAINS: Posture and drinking water are closely related. This is because high pressure ends up affecting the entire biological system of your body. This can even lead to joint pain.

POSSIBLY LEAD TO LUNG ISSUES: How is drinking water linked to lungs? Turns out, when you have water while standing up, it can suppress oxygen supply in the food pipe and windpipe. If this is done on a regular basis, this can possibly end up in lung and even heart issues.

SIT AND SIP: Therefore, it is best to sit and drink water. This way the flow is slow and your body digest water with relaxed nerves. Tension builds up in the nerves when water pressure is high, leading to disruption in the existing liquids of your body.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

29.06.2018

Life doesn't get EASIER; you just get STRONGER

27 June, 2018

‘Preschool teachers at higher risk of hearing problems’

Seven out of 10 female preschool teachers suffer from hearing problems, finds a study that linked the profession with a higher risk than others’ exposed to noise. It is because the preschool teachers are regularly exposed to voices and screams that often convey important information and is difficult to avoid, unlike in an industrial environment, as they have to listen to the children.

“Preschool teachers have a much higher risk than those who work in environments with a similar noise rating. The symptoms can be triggered by the boisterous environment, and it’s also difficult to use hearing protection,” Sofie Fredriksson from Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden said in a statement.

“We have an occupational group with much higher risk for these symptoms, and if nothing is done about it, it’s really alarming. We have to lower sound levels, have a calmer preschool,” Fredriksson explained. 

 The findings suggested that hearing loss and tinnitus — sensation of hearing sounds in ears — were the second most common symptoms affecting preschool teachers. Among the group of 4,718 women who participated in the study, while 71 per cent experienced sound-induced auditory fatigue making them unable to listen to the radio, 46 per cent had trouble understanding speech.

Similarly, 39 per cent said that they experienced discomfort or physical pain in their ears from everyday sounds that are not necessarily loud at all, at least once a week. 

 “Hearing protection devices are normally the main intervention if the sound level cannot be reduced in another way, and it may be necessary if you have a child who subjects your ears to crying for a whole day during their introductory period at preschool,” Fredriksson suggested.

“But the design of the premises and room acoustics also have to be considered. In a large room with solid walls, it becomes noisy no matter how educational and strategic you are in your work,” she added.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

27.06.2018

Be  patient and tough, someday this pain will be useful to you

Ovid

25 June, 2018

Doctor-Patient Ratio In Karnataka Among The Lowest In The Country

Even as Karnataka is yet to recover from the political ills that left the state in a limbo for weeks, the latest National Health Profile released by the Union Health Ministry reveals that its health situation isn’t any better.

As reported by the Deccan Herald, Karnataka with the lowest doctor-patient ratio in South India is one among the worst states in the country when it comes to availability of doctors in government clinics and hospitals. One government doctor caters to 13,556 people in Karnataka. This is way below the national average of 1:11,082.

And this number seems to be getting worse as the 2017 figure was 13,257.

And these government doctor numbers despite Karnataka being one of the three states with over one lakh registered doctors. Primary healthcare centres across the state have only 2,136 doctors. The number of specialists at the community healthcare centres (CHCs) too is a dismal 498 with not a single specialist joining the CHC’s in the last one year.

Healthcare in India is under focus since Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the Centre’s pet project of Ayushman Bharat to provide health coverage to over 10 crores poorest families in the country. However, given the dismal condition of government hospitals, private sector will have to step in big time for the programme to be a success.

Source: www.deccanherald.com

25.06.2018

Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you…..Not because they are not nice because you are nice….!!!

22 June, 2018

‘16% adults in Karnataka at risk of heart diseases’

At least 16% of adults aged between 30 and 74 years in Karnataka may experience heart attacks, strokes or other serious cardiovascular diseases, says a new study that found high heart disease risk in southern states. Karnataka, however, fares better than four of its neighbours – Kerala, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu where nearly one-fifth of the population can develop serious cardiovascular complications. Among the southern states, the risk is the lowest in Telangana.

The study estimates how the average 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease varies widely among India’s states, ranging from 13.2% in Jharkhand to 19.5% in Kerala with substantial variation across socio-economic groups.
The risk tends to be on the higher side, particularly among males, in South India including Goa, three northern states Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, most of the states in North-East barring Assam and West Bengal.

The study also shows nearly 20% urban adults aged more than 30 years in Kerala and West Bengal are likely to develop fatal or non-fatal heart attacks and stroke. For urban Karnataka, the figure is almost 18% while for just under 16% of people in rural areas may experience such diseases in 10 years time.

In the new heart disease mapping exercise, a team comprising researchers from 13 institutes and led by the Harvard University used two large household surveys conducted between 2012 and 2014. The surveys sampled 797,540 adults aged 30 to 74 years across India and the CVD risk was examined by state, rural or urban residence, age, sex, wealth, and education.

The research corroborates the common perception of males having a higher risk of heart diseases and stroke. High CVD risk is 31.7% among males as against 14.6% among females.

Source: www.deccanherald.com

22.06.2018

People who change after change will survive.People who change with the change will succeed.People who cause the change will lead

20 June, 2018

Excessive yawning is telling you about these health dangers

EXCESSIVE YAWNING COULD BE HIDING THESE HEALTH DANGERS: We believe yawning is a natural process. You'd be surprised to know that while yawning occasionally is quite normal, yawning too much is not. When excessive yawning becomes a part of your daily routine, it could be indicating an underlying problem.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU YAWN? When you yawn, you open your mouth wide and breathe in air, filling your lungs. Your eardrums stretch and extra oxygen is carried to your brain and other parts of the body. A yawn can be both of long and short duration. 

WHAT DOES YAWNING DO? It increases our alertness by forcing oxygen and blood into our brain. That is why it happens when we are less alert or tired. We yawn when we go to bed at night, when we wake up or when we are bored as in these situations our brain becomes less stimulated and yawning increases alertness.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF YAWNING: Your diaphragm, larynx, the thoracic muscles in your chest and the palate of your mouth are all involved in the process of yawning. The process also wets your lung’s air sacs. 

SLEEPING DISORDERS: Insomnia or sleep apnea, the most common sleep disorders can lead to excessive tiredness and thus yawning. 

BRAIN DYSFUNCTION: Studies say that brain tumour may lead to excessive yawning and can be linked to the lesions in the brain stem. Yawning can also be a result of compression of the pituitary gland.

HYPOGLYCAEMIA: Excessive yawning can be the primary signal of hypoglycaemia in diabetics. Hypoglycaemia occurs when blood glucose level falls below 72mg/dL.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.06.2018

Don’t let the shadow of your past eclipse the brightness of your future

18 June, 2018

Parkinson’s: Young diabetics are more at risk

The findings showed that those with Type-2 diabetes had a 31 percent greater risk of a later diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease than those without diabetes. The risk was even higher for younger people, aged 25 to 44. In addition, those with complications from diabetes had a 49 percent greater risk of a later diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease than people without the disease.

 “Restoring the brain’s ability to use insulin could potentially have a protective effect on the brain,” said Thomas T. Warner, from Britain’s University College London (UCL). “It is possible that a link between Type-2 diabetes and Parkinson’s could affect future diagnosis and treatment of these diseases,” Warner added.

For the study, detailed in the journal Neurology, the team identified more than 2 million people who were admitted to the hospital for Type-2 diabetes for the first time.

They were then compared to more than 6 million people without diabetes who were admitted to the hospital for a range of minor medical and surgical procedures like sprains, varicose veins, appendectomy and hip replacement.

“Our study found a strong link between these two seemingly different diseases. Whether it is genetics that may play a role in the development of these diseases or they have similar pathways to development needs to be investigated further,” Warner explained.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

18.06.2018

Knowing yourself is the Beginning of all Wisdom…

 Aristotle

15 June, 2018

Lonely people more likely to die early

Loneliness may be bad for the heart and can nearly double the risk of early death, a study has found. The study found that feeling lonely was a stronger predictor of poor outcomes in heart patients than living alone, in both men and women.

“Loneliness is more common today than ever before, and more people live alone,” said Anne Vinggaard Christensen, a Ph.D. student at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. “Previous research has shown that loneliness and social isolation are linked with coronary heart disease and stroke, but this has not been investigated in patients with different types of cardiovascular disease,” said Vinggaard Christensen. The study investigated whether poor social network was associated with worse outcomes in 13,463 patients with ischaemic heart disease, arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), heart failure, or heart valve disease. Participants were patients discharged from April 2013 to April 2014 from five heart centres in Denmark, who to answer a questionnaire about their physical and mental health, lifestyle factors such as smoking, and social support.

Feeling lonely was associated with poor outcomes in all patients regardless of their type of heart disease, and even after adjusting for age, level of education, other diseases, body mass index, smoking, and alcohol intake.

Loneliness was associated with a doubled mortality risk in women and nearly doubled risk in men. Both men and women who felt lonely were three times more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and had a significantly lower quality of life than those who did not feel lonely. “Loneliness is a strong predictor of premature death, worse mental health, and lower quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease, and a much stronger predictor than living alone, in both men and women,” said Vinggaard Christensen.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

15.06.2018

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer

13 July, 2018

Your eyes can determine your sincerity

Do you use anti-ageing creams? Besides hiding your wrinkles, they may also negatively impact people’s perception of your sincerity, say researchers. The findings showed that human brains are pre-wired to perceive wrinkles around the eyes as conveying more intense and more sincere emotions.

This eye-wrinkle feature, called the Duchenne marker, occurs across multiple facial expressions, including smiles, expressions associated with pain, and expressions of sadness. When participants were shown images of faces grinning and frowning with and without eye wrinkles, the participants focused on which one their brain deemed most important.

They systematically ranked the Duchenne smiles and Duchenne sad expressions as more sincere and more intense than the non-Duchenne expressions, the researchers said. “The expressions involving the Duchenne marker were always dominant,” said Julio Martinez-Trujillo, Professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada. “So if the emotion is more intense, your brain actually prefers to bring it into perceptual awareness for longer time.”

The results, published in the journal Emotion, are a step toward understanding the more general questions of why facial expressions contain the specific facial actions they do, and how that contributes to our understanding of emotion, the researchers said. “These findings provide evidence of a potential universal language for reading emotions. In other words, a given facial action may have a single role across multiple facial expressions — especially if that facial action shapes your social interactions,” said Nour Malek from the university.

“My interest now is, what will be the results if we do this same test with people with autism spectrum disorder. “They often have trouble reading out emotions from other people, so we wonder if that might have to do with their ability to read this marker for sincerity,” he said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

13.06.2018

Never choose a friend without complete understanding and never lose a friend because of a small misunderstanding

11 June, 2018

How gender affects your health

Is your male friend any different than you? You will be surprised to know that apart from the reproductive organs, each tissue in a male and a female body is different. This difference wasn’t fully publicized until 1990, when the book 'The Female Heart: The Truth About Women & Coronary Artery Disease' explained how heart attack can be strikingly different in men and women.

We all know what a heart attack feels like; pain in the left arm along with discomfort in the chest. But more than half the women who have had a heart attack reported that they experienced no chest and arm pain. This is just one of the many conditions with a strong differences between male and female. Here are such other conditions that affect the two sexes in different ways.

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: Alzheimer’s is the premature deterioration of the brain that results in dementia. With more than 5 million people suffering from Alzheimer’s, women make up 64 percent of this figure. Also, the disease progresses more quickly in women as compared to men.

DEPRESSION: At some point in their life, 20 percent of women and 10 percent of men experience depression. More women attempt suicide than men but more men often die from the attempt. Feeling of worthlessness, guilt, sadness, loss of interest or hopelessness are some signs of depression.

STROKE: Men have a higher risk of stroke than women until the age of 85. Post 85, the risk increases for women. The outcome of a stroke may also differ in a man and a woman. Stroke in women often result in poor quality of life and are fatal.

Apart from the common symptoms that include numbness in face, legs and arms, women also experience symptoms like hiccups, chest pain, exhaustion and nausea.

MIGRAINE HEADACHES: Women once again win the race as the ratio of women and men getting a migraine headache is 3:1. Female hormones have a bigger role to play in migraine headaches and this can be one probable reason why the symptoms worsen around their periods. The different brain structures of men and women also play a major role in this. A female brain is more easily triggered to get migraine pain than a man's.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

11.06.2018

Mistake increase your experience; And experience decreases your mistakes

8 June, 2018

Negative social media experiences linked to depression, says study

The findings, published in the journal depression and anxiety, suggests that negative experiences on social media were associated with depressive symptoms. “We found that positive experiences on social media were not related or only very slightly linked to lower depressive symptoms. However, negative experiences were strongly and consistently associated with higher depressive symptoms,” said lead author Brian Primack from the University of Pittsburg in the US.

For the study, the researchers surveyed 1,179 full-time students aged between 18 to 30 about their social media use and experiences. The participants also completed a questionnaire to assess their depressive symptoms. The researchers found that each 10 percent increase in positive experiences on social media was associated with a four percent decrease in odds of depressive symptoms, but those results were not statistically significant, meaning that the finding could be due to random chance.

However, each 10 percent increase in negative experiences was associated with a 20 percent increase in the odds of depressive symptoms, a statistically significant finding, the researcher said. Other characteristics too were linked to the participants having depressive symptoms. For example, compared with men, women had 50 percent higher odds of having depressive symptoms, they added.

The researchers also said that while the findings still need to be replicated, public health practitioners could start using them to educate the public of the risks of negative social media interactions.  “Our findings may encourage people to pay closer attention to their online exchanges. Moving forward, these results could assist scientists in developing ways to intervene and counter the negative effects while strengthening the positive ones,” Primack noted.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

08.06.2018

If you are not making mistakes, then you are not making decisions

6 June, 2018

Is anxiety making your bones weak?

Many of us are chronic worriers, fretting over small things. This constant anxiety can weaken our bones and get vitamin D levels down, according to a new study. It has been established earlier that anxiety, fatigue and loneliness — all synonymous with modern living — can lower bone mineral density. But for the first time a study has discovered that highly anxious women are at higher risk of low bone density, breaks and fractures. A team of Italian researchers has found out that women with anxiety have three percent greater risk of hip fractures and a four percent higher risk of other fractures than men. Highly anxious women are at higher risk of low bone density, breaks and fractures.

Says Dr Sagar Mandada, psychiatrist, “Excess worry is perceived as distress by our body. Increased long-term stress causes unbalanced release of cortisol and has been associated with many changes in the body, especially bone and joint related problems. Stress impacts Vitamin D levels as well. One should increase the intake of Omega 3 fatty acids as it improves brain function and anxiety.”

Deal with it

Author Dr Antonio Catalano, who led the study, believes that anxious women are more likely to engage in poor health behaviour. The negative effects of stress hormone on bone status increase the fracture risk. The study recommends taking in vitamin D and eating oily fish, egg yolks and fortified cereals. Adds Dr Sagar, “The best way to let go of anxiety is accept the certainty of uncertainty. There will be things and outcome beyond your control. Don’t worry and think the worst case scenario.”

Source: www.timesofindia.com

06.06.2018

Failure is not a failure unless you don’t learn from it

4 June, 2018

Only 20% of young people treated for anxiety stay well, finds study

Researchers have found that only 20 percent of young people diagnosed with anxiety will stay well over the long term, no matter which treatment they get.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, examined 319 young people aged 10 to 25 who had been diagnosed with separation, social, or general anxiety disorders.

“When you see so few kids stay non-symptomatic after receiving the best treatments we have, that’s discouraging,” said co-author Golda Ginsburg from the University of Connecticut, the US. The researcher has suggested that regular mental health checkups may be a better way to treat anxiety than the current model. 

 For the study, the participants received evidence-based treatment with either sertraline or cognitive behavioural therapy or a combination of these two, and then had follow-ups with the researchers every year for four years. The follow-ups assessed anxiety levels but did not provide treatment.

Other studies have done a single follow-up at one, two, five, or 10 years out, but those were essentially snapshots in time. This is the first study to reassess youth treated for anxiety every year for four years, the researchers said.

The sequential follow-ups meant that the researchers could identify people who relapsed, recovered, and relapsed again, as well as people who stayed anxious and people who stayed well. 

 They also found that about half the patients relapsed at least once, and 30 percent were chronically anxious, meeting the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder at every follow-up. Other predictors of chronic illness were experiencing more negative life events, having poor family communication, and having a diagnosis of social phobia.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

04.06.2018

Work hard in silence, let success make the noise