{Calcium is vital for strong bones and teeth. You also need to incorporate foods rich in calcium into your diet because calcium helps the body maintain healthy blood vessels and regulate blood pressure.}
Here are 10 foods rich in calcium your bones and teeth need
1. Yoghurt
2. Milk
3. Spinach
4. Soybeans
5. Cheese
6. Kale
7. Black-eyed peas
8. Almonds
9. Oranges
10. Sesame seeds
{A recent research from New Zealand has found that alcohol can cause seven types of cancer.}
A study of existing research found strong evidence of a direct, harmful effect of drinking, even though scientists are unsure of the exact biological reasons why alcohol causes cancer.
Writing in the journal Addiction, Jennie Connor, from the University of Otago in New Zealand, said alcohol was estimated to have caused about 500,000 deaths from cancer in 2012 alone – 5.8% of cancer deaths worldwide.
Even people who drink at low levels are still at risk of cancer, the study found.
Her finding linked alcohol to cancer of the mouth and throat, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, bowel and breast.
She said: “There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites, and probably others.”
She said that based on current evidence there was no safe level of drinking and the risks were reduced for some cancers when people stopped drinking.
{Despite high rates of violence and poverty, Guatemala is consistently in the top 10 of happiest countries globally.}
For millions of people around the world, physical and social isolation are fuelling chronic loneliness.
As a result, many researchers today fear solitude could be the next big public health issue, cutting years off people’s lives.
Perhaps people like Silvia Pablo have something to share with the world – and teach it.
The 21-year-old Guatemalan in no stranger to loneliness. She was born with spina bifida and was shut inside her mother’s house for 10 years after her father left them.
But Pablo says her faith kept her going and helped her overcome her daily struggles. Today she has own wheelchair and works at a factory.
“I think my happiness comes from God,” she says. “Yes there are difficult times. But with God’s help, we can overcome any obstacle or sad situation. We need to live the lives we’re born into … and try to be happy through our faith.”
And Pablo is not alone.
Despite high rates of violent crime, poverty and corruption, Guatemala is consistently in the top 10 of happiest countries in the world.
“Guatemala is often found near the top of the global list for inequality and violence; more than 50 per cent of the population lives in poverty and around 13 people are murdered every day,” Al Jazeera’s David Mercer said from Antigua.
“Yet some international polls report that people here are some of the happiest in the world.”
{{‘Resilience is key’}}
Psychologist Andres Pinto says that in addition to faith and family, resilience is key to helping people in the country fight off loneliness, anxiety and depression.
“Many Guatemalans have suffered a lot, and don’t have much to lose,” he says. “When they encounter problems they know they have to work hard to overcome them. Of course we’re not all like this, but resilient people can teach us a lot.”
But Pablo likes to put it a different way.
Happy people are not those who have the most, she says, but those who are most grateful for what they have.
{The health risks associated with sitting for eight or more hours a day — whether at work, home or commuting — can be eliminated with an hour or more of physical activity a day, according to a new study.}
The health risks associated with sitting for eight or more hours a day — whether at work, home or commuting — can be eliminated with an hour or more of physical activity a day, according to a study from an international team of researchers.
Ever since a study back in 1953 discovered that London bus drivers were at greater risk of heart disease compared to bus conductors, scientists have found increasing evidence that lack of physical activity is a major risk factor for several diseases and for risk of early death. Recent estimates suggest that more than 5 million people die globally each year as a result of failing to meet recommended daily activity levels.
Studies in high-income countries have suggested that adults spend the majority of their waking hours sitting down. A typical day for many people is driving to work, sitting in an office, driving home and watching TV. Current physical activity guidelines recommend that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week.
In an analysis published today in The Lancet that draws together a number of existing studies, an international team of researchers asked the question: if an individual is active enough, can this reduce, or even eliminate, the increased risk of early death associated with sitting down?
In total the researchers analysed 16 studies, which included data from more than one million men and women. The team grouped individuals into four quartiles depending on their level of moderate intensity physical activity, ranging from less than 5 minutes per day in the bottom group to over 60 minutes in the top. Moderate intensity exercise was defined as equating to walking at 3.5 miles/hour or cycling at 10 miles/hour, for example.
The researchers found that 60 to 75 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per day were sufficient to eliminate the increased risk of early death associated with sitting for over eight hours per day. However, as many as three out of four people in the study failed to reach this level of daily activity.
The greatest risk of early death was for those individuals who were physically inactive, regardless of the amount of time sitting — they were between 28% and 59% more likely to die early compared with those who were in the most active quartile — a similar risk to that associated with smoking and obesity. In other words, lack of physical activity is a greater health risk than prolonged sitting.
“There has been a lot of concern about the health risks associated with today’s more sedentary lifestyles,” says Professor Ulf Ekelund from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. “Our message is a positive one: it is possible to reduce — or even eliminate — these risks if we are active enough, even without having to take up sports or go to the gym.
“For many people who commute to work and have office-based jobs, there is no way to escape sitting for prolonged periods of time. For these people in particular, we cannot stress enough the importance of getting exercise, whether it’s getting out for a walk at lunchtime, going for a run in the morning or cycling to work. An hour of physical activity per day is the ideal, but if this is unmanageable, then at least doing some exercise each day can help reduce the risk.”
The researchers acknowledge that there are limitations to the data analysed, which mainly came from participants aged 45 years and older and living in western Europe, the US and Australia. However, they believe that the strengths of the analysis outweigh these limitations. Most importantly, the researchers asked all included studies to reanalyse their data in a harmonized manner, an approach that has never before been adopted for a study of this size and therefore also provides much more robust effect estimates compared with previous studies.
{The human body is very complex and delicate; one wrong move can trigger a negative change in its functionality, and that is why it is absolutely expedient that people are careful in handling their bodies—from the things we eat and drink to the amount of stress we subject ourselves to. As the days go by, more and more people suffer from avoidable diseases/illnesses, and it’s all owing to ignorance. One of such conditions is erectile dysfunction, otherwise known as weak erection—a condition in men where victims have either a partial or no erection.}
Many people wrongly believe that only older men are vulnerable to this condition, but that is false; anyone can suffer E.D if absolute caution isn’t taken. Erectile dysfunction is a very serious condition, and can lead to complete impotence if ignored. However, it can be salvaged and managed if detected early. Our focus today shall be on the causes of the condition, and they include:
{{1. EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL}}
Most young men consume alcohol as a way of boosting their sex drive and stamina, but unknown to them, it has damaging effects to the body. Alcohol contains a great deal of sugar, so the more you consume, the more quantity of sugar is deposited in your body, and consequently, your libido (sex drive) and erection power weakens. Apart from the sugar content in most alcoholic beverages, when you habitually use alcohol as a sexual stimulant, soon, your body becomes accustomed to it and without it you won’t be able to perform.
{{2. SMOKING}}
Good sexual functioning depends on good blood flow. Nicotine, however, is a very potent vasoconstrictor, affecting blood vessels in two ways. First, as a stimulant, it causes direct arterial spasm, affecting arteries of the heart, lungs, eyes, internal organs, arms, legs, and of course, the genitals. Next, it damages the lining of the blood vessels, impairing the ability of those vessels to relax and allow more blood flow. Nicotine also interferes with the mechanism within the veins that help maintain an erection. All this adds up to decreased blood available for an erection and an inability to keep that blood from leaking back out.
{{3. DEPRESSION}}
Research has proven that most cases of Erectile Dysfunction are more psychological than people think. The mind cannot be in two places at the same time; you cannot be worrying about something else during sex, and expect to have a full hard-on because your mind isn’t really there—that’s how the body works. Depression affects your erection; snap out of it, and regain full strength of the man in you.
{{4. EXCESSIVE MASTURBATION}}
The penis is like a car, the more you drive (use) it, the weaker it gets. You cannot masturbate at every instance and expect to have a very strong erection each time; it just doesn’t happen. Even during a real sexual intercourse, after the first round, you notice that your erection isn’t quite as hard as the first time. Excessive masturbation can weaken your erection as a man.
{{5. DRUG ABUSE}}
Some drugs have an adverse effect on the body’s functionality, and that is why it is ill-advised to do self-prescription. Only use drugs that are prescribed by your physician/doctor; doing the contrary can lead to serious health complications. Also, sexual Performance enhancers are meant as a cure for men who have no little or no libido at all; to help them have sex. But some sexually healthy young men ignorantly think these drugs can increase the length of time one lasts per round of sex, hence, they abuse them, and on the long run, they find it difficult to have an erection without the drugs because their bodies have been conditioned to respond only to the drugs. Unless prescribed by your doctor, do not use any sexual performance enhancers.
Have you been causing harm to your body without knowing? It’s time to stop those bad habits and regain the man in you.
{A new study, which followed 180 pre-term infants from birth to age seven, found that babies who were fed more breast milk within the first 28 days of life had had larger volumes of certain regions of the brain at term equivalent and had better IQs, academic achievement, working memory, and motor function.}
The findings were published online in The Journal of Pediatrics.
“Our data support current recommendations for using mother’s milk to feed preterm babies during their neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization. This is not only important for moms, but also for hospitals, employers, and friends and family members, so that they can provide the support that’s needed during this time when mothers are under stress and working so hard to produce milk for their babies,” says Mandy Brown Belfort, MD, a researcher and physician in the Department of Newborn Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and lead author.
Researchers studied infants born before 30 weeks gestation that were enrolled in the Victorian Infant Brain Studies cohort from 2001-2003. They determined the number of days that infants received breast milk as more than 50 percent of of their nutritional intake from birth to 28 days of life. Additionally, researchers examined data related to regional brain volumes measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at each baby’s term equivalent age and at seven years old, and also looked at cognitive (IQ, reading, mathematics, attention, working memory, language, visual perception) and motor testing at age seven.
The findings show that, accross all babies, infants who received predominantly breast milk on more days during their NICU hospitalization had larger deep nuclear gray matter volume, an area important for processing and transmitting neural signals to other parts of the brain, at term equivalent age, and by age seven, performed better in IQ, mathematics, working memory, and motor function tests. Overall, ingesting more human milk correlated with better outcomes, including larger regional brain volumes at term equivalent and improved cognitive outcomes at age 7.
“Many mothers of preterm babies have difficulty providing breast milk for their babies, and we need to work hard to ensure that these mothers have the best possible support systems in place to maximize their ability to meet their own feeding goals. It’s also important to note that there are so many factors that influence a baby’s development, with breast milk being just one,” says Belfort.
Researchers note some limitations on the study, including that it was observational. Although they adjusted for factors such as differences in maternal education, some of the effects could possibly be explained by other factors that were not measured, such as greater maternal involvement in other aspects of infant care.
Belfort adds that future studies using other MRI techniques could provide more information about the specific ways in which human milk intake may influence the structure and function of the brain. Future work is also needed to untangle the role of breastfeeding from other types of maternal care and nurturing on development of the preterm baby’s brain.
{According to a recent research by scientists from Los Angeles, women who enter menopause early age faster than others.}
To conduct the study, Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles analysed DNA samples taken from more than 3100 women in a 15-year study of post-menopausal women.
“For decades scientists have disagreed over whether menopause causes ageing or ageing causes menopause,” said Horvath.
“Our study is the first to demonstrate that menopause makes you age faster.”
Measuring the biological age of cells from blood, saliva and inside the cheek, Horvath and his team were able to pin down the relationship between chronological age and a woman’s biological age.
“Menopause speeds up cellular ageing by an average of 6%,” said Horvath.
Woman who entered menopause at 42 would on average be biologically a year older eight years later than women who began menopause at 50.
{MRI study shows shared brain biology is linked to symptoms that occur across different.}
A team of scientists has found similarities in brain impairments in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. The study involved brain imaging of white matter in 200 children.
A team of Toronto scientists has found similarities in brain impairments in children with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
The study, published this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry, involved brain imaging of white matter in 200 children with autism, ADHD, OCD or no diagnosis. White matter is made up of bundles of nerve fibers that connect cell bodies across the brain, and enable communication between different brain regions.
“We found impairments in white matter in the main tract connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain in children with either autism, ADHD or OCD, when compared to healthy children in the control group,” says Dr. Stephanie Ameis, first author on the study and clinician-scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s (CAMH’s) Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. This particular white matter tract, the corpus callosum, is the largest in the brain and among the first to develop.
The research team, from CAMH, the Hospital for Sick Children and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, also found children with autism and ADHD showed more severe impairments affecting more of the brain’s white matter than those with OCD. This finding may reflect the fact that both autism and ADHD typically have an onset at a much younger age than OCD, and at a time when a number of different white matter tracts are going through rapid development, says Dr. Ameis.
Autism, ADHD and OCD have common symptoms and are linked by some of the same genes. Yet historically they have been studied as separate disorders. Together, these three neurodevelopmental disorders affect roughly 15 per cent of children and youth.
The study is part of a major Ontario initiative, the Province of Ontario Neurodevelopmental Disorders Network (POND) that is examining various childhood brain-related disorders collectively, to better understand their similarities and differences, and develop more effective and targeted therapies.
Brain-behavior link
Many of the behaviours that contribute to impairment in autism, ADHD, and OCD, such as attention problems or social difficulties, occur across these conditions, and differ in severity from person to person. The researchers found that the brain’s white matter structure was associated with a spectrum of behavioral symptoms present across these diagnoses. Children with greater brain impairment also had higher impairments in functioning in daily life, regardless of their diagnosis, said Dr. Ameis, who is also appointed at the Hospital for Sick Children.
This finding has implications for our understanding of the nature of brain-related disorders, notes senior author Dr. Evdokia Anagnostou of Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Hospital and head of the POND Network. By providing biological evidence that brain structure relates to a spectrum of behavioural symptoms that cut across different developmental conditions, it highlights the shared biology among such conditions. And it points to the potential that treatments targeting a spectrum of behaviours may be relevant for all three conditions.
{Mosquitoes are repulsed by the smell of chicken, raising hopes for the development of a novel way to prevent malaria.}
Ethiopian scientists have discovered mosquitoes are repulsed by the smell of chicken, raising hopes for the development of a novel way to prevent a disease that kills hundreds of thousands every year.
A team of insect experts led by Professor Habte Tekie at the University of Addis Ababa began their investigation after noticing that mosquitoes bite humans and other animals but stay away from chickens.
“We went into the chemical basis involved in repelling malaria mosquitoes by odours emanating from the chickens… The results show that compounds from chicken have very good potential as repellent,” Tekie told AFP.
One theory for their behaviour is that mosquitoes see chickens as a predator, so seek to avoid them, he said.
{{Safe repellant }}
Tests carried out in three villages in western Ethiopia showed that families that slept beneath a chicken in a cage overnight were mosquito-free in the morning, while homes without indoor poultry were not.
The obvious challenges of sleeping with a bird suspended over the bed were addressed in a follow-up experiment in which villagers were supplied with vials of chicken extract. The results were similar.
The findings, recently published in the medical publication Malaria Journal, will be used in a new collaboration with Swedish scientists to develop an odourless repellent.
“This repellent will be safe for human use, (with) no residues contaminating soil or water or poisoning people and it can easily be integrated into malaria control operations,” Tekie said.
Malaria threatens 60 percent of the population of Ethiopia, a nation of almost 100 million people.
The chicken stock with a difference will be “entirely natural,” according to the scientist, and the chance of mosquitoes developing resistance is “minimal”.
There is currently no vaccine against malaria, and the disease killed 438,000 people in 2015, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.
{Ever wondered why women still look pregnant after giving birth? Sometimes eight weeks after giving birth, some women still look pregnant.}
According to a publication in Daily Mail, the reason why women still look pregnant even after giving birth is due to the slow-shrinking uterus.
The uterus shrinks slowly after a woman gives birth. It doesn’t deflate instantly.
During pregnancy, the uterus expands to accommodate the growing baby, rising above the pubic bone and pushing out the abdomen.
The body isn’t an elastic band so it can’t bounce back instantly after giving birth. It can take between six and eight weeks to lose the baby bump.
According to the publication by Daily Mail, the speed at which a woman’s frame recovers after birth is dependant on her age, the size of her baby, how it was delivered, the strength of her abdomen and her pre-pregnancy weight.
Women who exercise regularly during pregnancy, who didn’t eat too much during pregnancy and gained less than two pounds during pregnancy will lose their baby bump quicker. Breastfeeding also helps you lose the baby bump too.
