Category: Health

{Condoms are important if you want to protect yourself against STIs and prevent unwanted pregnancies but failure to use a condom properly will reduce its effectiveness.}

Below are 9 mistakes most men make when using condoms

1. Not wearing a condom for the entire duration of sex is a common mistake men make when using condoms. Any genital contact before a condom is worn can lead to STIs. So ensure you use a condom right at the beginning and keep it until you’re finished.

2. Using a condom without adequate lubrication is another common mistake men make. Using condoms without adequate lubrication can lead to the condom tearing. When using lubes, avoid lubes like coconut oil, lotions, massage oils and petroleum jelly as they can break down the latex. Use water-based lubes instead.

3. Using expired condoms is another common mistake most men make. A condom’s effectiveness is reduced after a condom expires so its important you check the expiration date before use.

4. Not waiting until you are hard is another common mistake men make when using condoms. Before wearing a condom, it’s important you wait until you are hard down there.

5. Not leaving some room at the tip of the condom is another common mistake men make when using condoms. Ensure you always leave a room at the tip of the condom when wearing a condom.

6. Not rolling the condom down to the base of the pen*s is another mistake most men make when using condoms. Always ensure you roll the condom all the way down to the base of the pen*s when using condoms.

7. Not knowing the right size of condom to wear is another common mistake most men make. Avoid using condoms that don’t roll all the way down to the base of the pen*s or condoms that are too tight. Go a bigger condoms if you have this issue.

8. Reusing a condom is a common mistake that should be avoided. It’s important you use a new condom for every sex act.

9. Using two condoms at once is another common mistake men make when using condoms. It’s important to note that using two condoms will not give you double protection. Using double condoms will increase the likelihood of condom tear.

{Psychologist, physicist and statistician collaborate on unique study.}

Sunshine matters. A lot. The idea isn’t exactly new, but according to a recent BYU study, when it comes to your mental and emotional health, the amount of time between sunrise and sunset is the weather variable that matters most.

Your day might be filled with irritatingly hot temperatures, thick air pollution and maybe even pockets of rainclouds, but that won’t necessarily get you down. If you’re able to soak up enough sun, your level of emotional distress should remain stable. Take away sun time, though, and your distress can spike. This applies to the clinical population at large, not just those diagnosed with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

“That’s one of the surprising pieces of our research,” said Mark Beecher, clinical professor and licensed psychologist in BYU Counseling and Psychological Services. “On a rainy day, or a more polluted day, people assume that they’d have more distress. But we didn’t see that. We looked at solar irradiance, or the amount of sunlight that actually hits the ground. We tried to take into account cloudy days, rainy days, pollution . . . but they washed out. The one thing that was really significant was the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.”Therapists should be aware that winter months will be a time of high demand for their services. With fewer sun time hours, clients will be particularly vulnerable to emotional distress. Preventative measures should be implemented on a case-by-case basis.

The study, which was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, started with a casual conversation that piqued Beecher’s professional curiosity.

“Mark and I have been friends and neighbors for years, and we often take the bus together,” said Lawrence Rees, a physics professor at BYU. “And of course you often talk about mundane things, like how are classes going? How has the semester been? How ’bout this weather? So one day it was kind of stormy, and I asked Mark if he sees more clients on these days. He said he’s not sure, it’s kind of an open question.

It’s hard to get accurate data.”

A lightbulb went off in Rees’ head. As a physics professor, Rees had access to weather data in the Provo area. As a psychologist, Beecher had access to emotional health data for clients living in Provo.

“We realized that we had access to a nice set of data that not a lot of people have access to,” Beecher said. “So Rees said, ‘Well, I’ve got weather data,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve got clinical data. Let’s combine the pair!’ Wonder Twin powers activate, you know?”

The duo then brought in BYU statistics professor Dennis Eggett, who developed the plan for analyzing the data and performed all of the statistical analyses on the project.

Several studies have attempted to look at the weather’s effect on mood with mixed results. Beecher cited four reasons why this study is an improvement on previous research:

The study analyzed several meteorological variables such as wind chill, rainfall, solar irradiance, wind speed, temperature and more.

The weather data could be analyzed down to the minute in the exact area where the clients lived.

The study focused on a clinical population instead of a general population.

The study used a mental health treatment outcome measure to examine several aspects of psychological distress, rather than relying on suicide attempts or online diaries.

The weather data came from BYU’s Physics and Astronomy Weather Station, and the pollution data came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mental and emotional health data came from BYU’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center.

{A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who do not get enough sleep at night are more likely to overeat during day, thereby gaining weight.}

The researchers from King’s College London found people who get less than five and a half hours of sleep a night consumed an average of 385 calories per day more than those who had more than seven hours of sleep.

“If long-term sleep deprivation continues to result in an increased calorie intake of this magnitude, it may contribute to weight gain,” Dr Gerda Pot of King’s College London is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“The main cause of obesity is an imbalance between calorie intake and expenditure and this study adds to accumulating evidence that sleep deprivation could contribute to this imbalance.

“Reduced sleep is one of the most common and potentially modifiable health risks in today’s society in which chronic sleep loss is becoming more common.”

Circadian rhythm or body clock has a strong influence on our metabolism including the way we feel hungry and when we are full and the researchers suspect sleep was tied to calorie intake by the body clock.

Phil

{The toilet is a good place to visit, considering that it provides one with the opportunity to pass out waste from the body and leave feeling way better. However, if you don’t do all the right things while you’re there, it can end up doing you more harm than good. For this reason, I’m sharing some of the common errors people make in the toilet.}

{{1. Sitting/staying in for too long }}

The toilet is meant for you to go in, do your business and then step out. If you’re constipated, seeing a physician would be a more rational thing to do. Don’t try to force it, as you can cause yourself more damage by doing so. Staying longer in the toilet also exposes you to harmful germs, so avoid this.

{{2. Wiping wrong }}

This is important especially for women. I know that some of you are probably used to doing it the wrong way, but it only exposes you to infections by up to 70%. After doing your business in the toilet, the right way to wipe is from front to back. Why? The reason is simple; you don’t want to wipe anal waste into your Vee.

{{3. Over wiping }}

Still on wiping; after doing your business in the toilet, use the right amount of tissue paper to wipe your anal area. Do not use too much toilet paper, as that may mean wiping too much, and when you wipe too much, you risk irritating your anal area.

{{4. Pit toilets }}

If for some reason, you have access to only a pit toilet, it is better to always do the business elsewhere, on something (a bowl or piece of paper), before throwing it into the pit toilet. This is to avoid exposing your genitals to germs which are very common with pit toilets.

{{5. Always wash your hands afterwards }}

In the process of doing the business in the toilet, it is possible to lay hands on germ affected areas, which can be dangerous to your health if left unattended to. So it’s important to always wash your hands afterwards.

Don’t forget to share. Health is wealth. The more careful you are about yourself, the healthier and happier you are.

{Sleep deprivation may result in people consuming more calories during the following day, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis led by researchers at King’s College London.
}
The meta analysis combined the results of many previous small intervention studies to produce a more robust answer and found that sleep-deprived people consumed an average of 385 kcal per day extra, which is equivalent to the calories of about four and a half slices of bread.

The study, published today in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, combined the results of 11 studies with a total of 172 participants. The analysis included studies that compared a partial sleep restriction intervention with an unrestricted sleep control and measured the individuals’ energy intake over the next 24 hours.

They found partial sleep deprivation did not have a significant effect on how much energy people expended in the subsequent 24 hours. Therefore, participants had a net energy gain of 385 calories per day.

The researchers also found there was a small shift in what sleep deprived people ate — they had proportionately higher fat and lower protein intakes, but no change in carbohydrate intake.

Dr Gerda Pot, senior author from the Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences Division at King’s College London and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, said: ‘The main cause of obesity is an imbalance between calorie intake and expenditure and this study adds to accumulating evidence that sleep deprivation could contribute to this imbalance. So there may be some truth in the saying ‘early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wise’. This study found that partial sleep deprivation resulted in a large net increased energy intake of 385 kcal per day. If long-term sleep deprivation continues to result in an increased calorie intake of this magnitude, it may contribute to weight gain.

‘Reduced sleep is one of the most common and potentially modifiable health risks in today’s society in which chronic sleep loss is becoming more common. More research is needed to investigate the importance of long-term, partial sleep deprivation as a risk factor for obesity and whether sleep extension could play a role in obesity prevention.’

A previous small study in 26 adults found partial sleep deprivation resulted in greater activation of areas in the brain associated with reward when people were exposed to food. A greater motivation to seek food could be an explanation for the increased food intake seen in sleep deprived people in this study, the authors suggest. Other possible explanations include a disruption of the internal body clock affecting the body’s regulation of leptin (the ‘satiety’ hormone) and ghrelin (the ‘hunger’ hormone).

The amount of sleep restriction varied between the studies, with the sleep deprived participants sleeping between three and a half and five and a half hours in the night. The control subjects spent between seven and 12 hours in bed.

The authors suggest that more intervention studies are needed into the effect of increased sleep duration over longer periods in everyday life on weight gain and obesity, as most of the studies included in this analysis were in controlled laboratory conditions over periods of one day to two weeks.

Haya Al Khatib, lead author and PhD candidate at King’s College London, said: ‘Our results highlight sleep as a potential third factor, in addition to diet and exercise, to target weight gain more effectively. We are currently conducting a randomised controlled trial in habitually short sleepers to explore the effects of sleep extension on indicators of weight gain.’

{Women experience a notable decline in sexual function approximately 20 months before and one year after their last menstrual period, and that decrease continues, though at a somewhat slower rate, over the following five years, according to a study led by a researcher at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.}

The study, published ahead of print in the online issue of Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, also found that various factors that frequently co-occur with menopause have less direct influence on declining sexual function than menopause itself.

“Sexual functioning in women declines with age, and there has been much debate about how much this is due to menopause, aging or other physical, psychological or social factors,” said the study’s lead author, Nancy Avis, Ph.D., professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest School of Medicine, part of Wake Forest Baptist. “Our findings support that menopause has a negative effect on sexual functioning in many women.”

Additionally, the study found that women who have a hysterectomy before the onset of menopause do not experience a marked decline in sexual function immediately before undergoing the procedure but do so afterward, for as long as five years.

The researchers based their findings on information collected from 1,390 participants in the federally funded Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), which began in 1996. These women, who were between the ages of 42 and 52 at the time of enrollment in the study and who had a known date of final menstrual period during their participation, responded to questionnaires dealing with various aspects of sexual function — including desire, arousal, satisfaction and pain — between one and seven times over the course of the study. The researchers analyzed 5,798 of these self-assessments (4,932 from the 1,164 women in the natural menopause group and 866 from the 226 women in the hysterectomy group) and tracked the changes in the respondents’ scores on the sexual-function questionnaires relative to either their final menstrual period among women who experienced a natural menopause or the hysterectomy. Of note, in the natural menopause group the researchers found that race/ethnicity played a major role in the decline of sexual function, with African-American women experiencing a significantly smaller decline and women of Japanese descent experiencing a much greater decline when compared with white women.

“Sexual functioning is an important component of women’s lives. More than 75 percent of the middle-aged women in the SWAN study reported that sex was moderately to extremely important to them when the study began,” Avis said. “It is important for women and their health care providers to understand all the factors that may impact women’s experience of sex in relation to both the natural menopausal transition and hysterectomy, and we hope our findings will contribute to better understanding in this area.”

{Ten years ago, a businessman Jean Malic Kalima known for trading in minerals conceived an idea of establishing a modern clinic equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, to support the government in enabling access to medical services without necessarily making international referrals. }

His dream came true one and half months ago when he completed the first phase of Legacy Clinics & Diagnostics in Nyarugunga sector at the road leading to Kabuga in Kigali city at a cost of $4.5 million. The facility has 15 specialist doctors and five general practitioners ready to start delivering medical services at the Legacy Clinics & Diagnostics.

During the launch of Legacy Clinics on Friday last week; the medical director facility, Dr. Subira Manzi revealed that the clinic is to offer health care services of international repute thereby reducing referrals to such countries as India, among others.

“Legacy Clinics and Diagnostics will expand its medical services in the next phase to provide highly specialized diagnosis and treatment rarely found in the country and in the region,” he said.

The Clinic has three departments; Legacy Clinics: A facility with equipment used in treatment with doctors from Rwanda and Indian; Legacy Diagnostics with a laboratory equipped with diagnosis machines and radiography; and Legacy Dental which focuses on provision of dental services offered in collaboration with Legacy Clinics/Rwanda and SL Diagnostics from India.

Legacy Clinics and Diagnostics has modern equipments like CT-Scan, Mammogram an equipment used in breast cancer diagnosis released on market in 2014, orthopedic, cardiovascular and dental equipment among others.

Philippa Kibugu-Decuir, a founder and director of Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa Inc says he is satisfied with the establishment of Legacy Clinics given its commitment to the treatment of breast cancer. “It was my dream when I visited Rwanda in 2007. There were no services of treating cancer. Today we thank our Legacy Clinic. Dreams have come true,” he said.

“I was healed of cancer 22 years ago because I lived in America. I had more than seven doctors taking care of me with all needed services and assistance. Unfortunately, I had a relative in Africa who died of cancer because he had no assistance like me,” he added.

Philippa who established Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa, an organization fighting against cancer requested women to get medical tests in time to know health status and embark on early treatment where need be.

At the launch,The Minister of Health, Dr Diane Gashumba said that t is great pleasure to see private investors contributing to maintaining Rwandans lives in such a suitable place.

“We have observed that this clinic will receive many patients from the region given the modern equipment available, using technology and has specialist doctors which will play a role saving Rwandans lives,” she said.

“What is exciting is that they have all services.They have services of treating children, adults, and, best of all, the ability to diagnose diseases. There is a laboratory with modern equipment used in making almost all medical tests, equipments testing heart diseases and others testing respiratory diseases,” she said.

Dr Gashumba lauded the clinic for using technology enabling doctors to internationally communicate and consult with their peers specialized in different branches of medicine.

Jean Malic Kalima said that establishing Legacy Clinics & Diagnostics is a result opportunities presented by the Rwandan economy and in line with government policy of encouraging local investments other than waiting for the government or foreign investors to do it.

“We have committed to invest in medical services and seek specialized doctors to offer good services,” he said.

{Have you eaten an avocado today? Do you know there are lots of amazing benefits you derive from eating an avocado every day?}

Below are 14 reasons why you should eat an avocado every day

1. Avocado contains healthy fat which is good for the heart.

2. Avocado helps you lose weight by making you feel satisfied and full for longer.

3. Avocado helps reduce your risk of diabetes by regulating blood sugar levels.

4. Avocado contains oleic acid which helps fight inflammation.

5. Avocado is good for the eye because it contains lutein which helps prevent macular degeneration.

6. Avocado is rich in vitamin E which helps protect the body tissues from damage by free radicals, thereby slowing down the effects of aging on the skin.

7. Eating avocado helps reduce bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol.

8. Avocado contains a good amount of vitamin K, copper and folate which are good for your bones.

9. Avocado is rich in fibre which helps keep the digestive system running smoothly.

10. Avocado is good for pregnant women because it contains folate which is essential for the healthy development of the foetus in early pregnancy. Avocado also contains vitamin B6 which eases morning sickness.

11. Avocado is rich in potassium which helps control blood pressure.

12. Avocados are rich in B vitamins which help fight off illness and infection.

13. Eating avocado helps your mood because its contains potassium. Studies have found a link between a lack of potassium and depression.

14. Avocado contains copper which is good for the brain.

{Drinking water immediately after waking up comes with lots of benefits.}

Here are 6 reasons why you should drink water first thing in the morning

{{1. It improves metabolism }}

Drinking water immediately after you wake up helps improve your body’s metabolism which means an improved digestive system.

{{2. It helps the skin }}

Drinking water immediately after you wake up in the morning helps increase blood flow in the skin which helps the skin glow.

{{3. It helps remove toxins from the body }}

Drinking water immediately after you wake up in the morning leaves the body fresh and healthy by eliminating harmful toxins from the body.

{{4. It helps prevent kidney stones and bladder infections }}

Another amazing reason why you should drink water immediately after you wake up is because it prevents kidney stones by diluting the acids which lead to stones in the kidney. It also helps protect against bladder infections.

{{5. It’s good for your hair }}

Dehydration is bad news for the health of your hair because water makes up almost 1/4 of the weight of a hair strand. Drinking water immediately after you wake will help nourish your hair.

{{6. It helps prevent heartburn and indigestion }}

Indigestion occurs due to increased acidity in the stomach and drinking water immediately after you wake will help dilute the acids that cause indigestion and heartburn.

{Normal, healthy heart muscle is well-supplied with oxygen-rich blood. But UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have been able to regenerate heart muscle by placing mice in an extremely low-oxygen environment.}

Researchers with the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine gradually lowered the oxygen in the air breathed by mice until it was at 7 percent — about the concentration of oxygen at the top of Mt. Everest. After two weeks in the low-oxygen environment, the heart muscle cells — called cardiomyocytes — were dividing and growing. Under normal circumstances cardiomyocytes do not divide in adult mammals.

The findings, published in Nature, build upon years of work that began with the discovery that the hearts of newborn mammals have the ability to regenerate, similar to the way skin has the ability to repair itself after a cut. But this ability of heart muscle to regenerate is quickly lost in the following weeks as the animal ages and cardiomyocytes are bathed in the oxygen-rich environment of the beating heart, causing damage to the cells.

“The adult human heart is not capable of any meaningful repair following a heart attack, which is why heart attacks have such a devastating impact,” said Dr. Hesham Sadek, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and with the Hamon Center. “Though counterintuitive, we’ve shown that severely lowering oxygen exposure can sidestep damage to cells caused by oxygen and turn cell division back on, leading to heart regrowth.”

In the current study, researchers lowered the oxygen level from the normal 21 percent to 7 percent over a period of weeks, then monitored the mass and function of the heart. They demonstrated that reduction in oxygen leads to both an increase in cardiomyocytes and improved heart function.

The researchers had tried a 10 percent oxygen environment, but there was no heart regrowth in the 10 percent oxygen environment. To avoid oxygen damage to cells, oxygen levels needed to be very low, a situation referred to as hypoxia.

“This work shows that hypoxia equivalent to the summit of Mt. Everest can actually reverse heart disease, and that is extraordinary,” said Dr. Benjamin Levine, Professor of Internal Medicine who holds the Distinguished Professorship in Exercise Sciences, and who directs the Institute of Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, a joint program of UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources.

“In theory, creating a low-oxygen environment could lead to repair not only of heart muscle, but of other organs as well,” said Dr. Sadek, who holds the J. Fred Schoellkopf, Jr. Chair in Cardiology. “Although exposure to this level of hypoxia can result in complications, it is tolerated in humans when performed in a controlled setting.”

The latest findings build upon previous research by UT Southwestern scientists that includes:

A 2011 study in Science showing the ability of the neonatal mouse heart to regenerate

A 2014 study in Cell in 2014 showing that oxygen metabolism causes damage to DNA in heart cells, which shuts down the ability to regenerate

A 2015 study in Nature showing that a few heart cells which are in very low-oxygen pockets retain the ability to divide.