Category: Health

{A lot of things could cause you to feel itchy and discomfort around your vag, and I have highlighted 8 things that could cause you to itch around your vag.}

{{1. Don’t scratch }}

The first urge you would have is to scratch, but try not to. You could aggravate your feeling of itching or your skin could become irritated when you do this. So, avoid scratchinh.

{{2. Sleep without your underwear }}

Avoid sleeping with your underwear when going to bed; natural air would help provide some relief and cleansing. Also, you should avoid wearing tight clothes, and only wear organic cotton lingerie or no lingerie at all, until you solve the case of your vaginal itching.

{{3. Drink lots of clean water }}

Drinking lots of clean water would help flush out yeast infection quickly.

{{4. Avoid sugar }}

If you are dealing with yeast infection, it would be advised that you avoid sugar. Yeast thrives on sugar; so reducing your intake of sugar would help reduce the yeast present.

5. Yeast infection is a common cause of itching could be controlled by antifungal cream and vaginal suppositories.

{{6. Apple cider vinegar bath }}

Having a bath with apple cider vinegar could help soothe your vaginal itching. This has worked for a lot of women, and it is believed that it is as a result of apple cider being able to kill and inhibit the growth of yeast infection with its strong acidic pH level.

{{7. Avoid having sex }}

It’s best to avoid having sex at this time, as it could cause you to itch more.

{{8. In the case of trichomoniasis, it could be treated with an antibiotic.}}

{{9. Antibiotics could also kill the effect of bacteria in the vagina that could cause itching. The antibiotics could be administered orally or vaginally.

10. An anti-itch could also provide quick relief, and washing your vag with cold water could also provide soothing relief.

11. Avoid the use of scented soaps, scented toilet paper and tampons; they could cause your vag to become irritated.
}}

{Consuming higher amounts of unsaturated fats was associated with lower mortality rates, according to a new study.The researchers found higher consumption of saturated and trans fats was linked with higher mortality compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrates. This study provides further support for the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that emphasize the types of fat rather than total amount of fat in the diet.}

Consuming higher amounts of unsaturated fats was associated with lower mortality, according to a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In a large study population followed for more than three decades, researchers found that higher consumption of saturated and trans fats was linked with higher mortality compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrates. Most importantly, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats conferred substantial health benefits. This study provides further support for the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans that emphasize the types of fat rather than total amount of fat in the diet.

The study is the most detailed and powerful examination to date on how dietary fats impact health. It suggests that replacing saturated fats like butter, lard, and fat in red meat with unsaturated fats from plant-based foods — like olive oil, canola oil, and soybean oil — can confer substantial health benefits and should continue to be a key message in dietary recommendations.

The study will be published online July 5, 2016 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“There has been widespread confusion in the biomedical community and the general public in the last couple of years about the health effects of specific types of fat in the diet,” said Dong Wang, a doctoral candidate, SD ’16, in the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and lead author of the study. “This study documents important benefits of unsaturated fats, especially when they replace saturated and trans fats.”

The study included 126,233 participants from two large long-term studies — the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — who answered survey questions every 2-4 years about their diet, lifestyle, and health for up to 32 years. During the follow-up, 33,304 deaths were documented. Researchers from Harvard Chan School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined the relationship between types of fats in the participants’ diets and overall deaths among the group during the study period, as well as deaths due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and respiratory disease.

Different types of dietary fat had different associations with mortality, the researchers found. Trans fats–on their way to being largely phased out of food — had the most significant adverse impact on health. Every 2% higher intake of trans fat was associated with a 16% higher chance of premature death during the study period. Higher consumption of saturated fats was also linked with greater mortality risk. When compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrate, every 5% increase in saturated fat intake was associated with an 8% higher risk of overall mortality.

Conversely, intake of high amounts of unsaturated fats — both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated — was associated with between 11% and 19% lower overall mortality compared with the same number of calories from carbohydrates. Among the polyunsaturated fats, both omega-6, found in most plant oils, and omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and soy and canola oils, were associated with lower risk of premature death.

The health effects of specific types of fats depended on what people were replacing them with, the researchers found. For example, people who replaced saturated fats with unsaturated fats — especially polyunsaturated fats–had significantly lower risk of death overall during the study period, as well as lower risk of death from CVD, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and respiratory disease, compared with those who maintained high intakes of saturated fats. The findings for cardiovascular disease are consistent with many earlier studies showing reduced total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol when unsaturated fats replace trans or saturated fats.

People who replaced saturated fats with carbohydrates had only slightly lower mortality risk. In addition, replacing total fat with carbohydrates was associated with modestly higher mortality. This was not surprising, the authors said, because carbohydrates in the American diet tend to be primarily refined starch and sugar, which have a similar influence on mortality risk as saturated fats.

“Our study shows the importance of eliminating trans fat and replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fats, including both omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. In practice, this can be achieved by replacing animal fats with a variety of liquid vegetable oils,” said senior author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

{MIT engineers have developed a new type of easily customizable vaccine that can be manufactured in one week, allowing it to be rapidly deployed in response to disease outbreaks. So far, they have designed vaccines against Ebola, H1N1 influenza, and Toxoplasma gondii (a relative of the parasite that causes malaria), which were 100 percent effective in tests in mice.}

The vaccine consists of strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA, which can be designed to code for any viral, bacterial, or parasitic protein. These molecules are then packaged into a molecule that delivers the RNA into cells, where it is translated into proteins that provoke an immune response from the host.

In addition to targeting infectious diseases, the researchers are using this approach to create cancer vaccines that would teach the immune system to recognize and destroy tumors.

“This nanoformulation approach allows us to make vaccines against new diseases in only seven days, allowing the potential to deal with sudden outbreaks or make rapid modifications and improvements,” says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Anderson is the senior author of a paper describing the new vaccines in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of July 4, 2016. The project was led by Jasdave Chahal, a postdoc at MIT’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and Omar Khan, a postdoc at the Koch Institute; both are the first authors of the paper.

Customizable vaccines

Most traditional vaccines consist of an inactivated form of a virus or other pathogen. These vaccines usually take a long time to manufacture, and for some diseases they are too risky. Other vaccines consist of proteins normally produced by the microbe, but these don’t always induce a strong immune response, requiring researchers to seek an adjuvant (a chemical that enhances the response).

RNA vaccines are appealing because they induce host cells to produce many copies of the proteins they encode, which provokes a stronger immune reaction than if the proteins were given on their own. The idea of using messenger RNA molecules as vaccines has been around for about 30 years, but one of the major obstacles has been finding a safe and effective way to deliver them.

Khan decided to package RNA vaccines into a nanoparticle made from a branched molecule known as a dendrimer. One key advantage of this material is that the researchers can give it a temporary positive charge, which allows it to form close associations with RNA, which is negatively charged. Khan can also control the size and pattern of the final structure. By inducing the dendrimer-RNA structure to fold over itself many times, Khan generated spherical vaccine particles with a diameter of about 150 nanometers. That makes them of similar size as many viruses, enabling the particles to enter cells by exploiting the same surface proteins that viruses use for this purpose.

By customizing the RNA sequences, the researchers can design vaccines that produce nearly any protein they want. The RNA molecules also include instructions for amplification of the RNA, so that the cell will produce even more of the protein.

The vaccine is designed to be delivered by intramuscular injection, making it easy to administer. Once the particles get into cells, the RNA is translated into proteins that are released and stimulate the immune system. Significantly, the vaccines were able to stimulate both arms of the immune system — a T cell response and an antibody response.

In tests in mice, animals that received a single dose of one of the vaccines showed no symptoms following exposure to the real pathogen — Ebola, H1N1 influenza, or Toxoplasma gondii.

“No matter what antigen we picked, we were able to drive the full antibody and T cell responses,” Khan says.

The researchers also believe that their vaccines would be safer than DNA vaccines, another alternative that scientists are pursuing, because unlike DNA, RNA cannot be integrated into the host genome and cause mutations.

“The option of rapidly creating a completely synthetic formulation that can be effective as a vaccine is an important addition to currently available vaccine strategies,” says Hidde Ploegh, an MIT professor of biology, a member of the Whitehead Institute, and an author of the paper, who added that it will be important to assess safety and cost.

Rapid deployment

The ability to rapidly design and manufacture these vaccines could be especially beneficial for fighting influenza, because the most common flu vaccine manufacturing method, which requires the viruses to be grown inside chicken eggs, takes months. This means that when an unexpected flu strain appears, such as the 2009 pandemic-causing H1N1 virus, there is no way to rapidly produce a vaccine against it.

“Typically a vaccine becomes available long after the outbreak is over,” Chahal says. “We think we can become interventional over the course of a real outbreak.”

Khan and Chahal plan to start a company to license and commercialize the technology. In addition to the vaccines they have already designed, they hope to create vaccines for Zika virus and Lyme disease.

They are also working on cancer vaccines. At a recent “Mission: Possible” competition hosted by the Koch Institute, Khan and Chahal were part of a team that ended up withdrawing from the competition because an outside funder, the Advanced Medical Research Foundation, offered to support them.

For that project, the researchers designed vaccines that target genes that are normally turned on only during embryonic development. These genes, dormant in adults, often become reactivated in a type of cancer known as non-small cell lung tumors.

“We are all excited about the potential of this new approach to provide a new way of vaccine delivery,” says Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and an author of the paper.

{Patients of throat cancer continue to increase in Rwanda according to Dr Mugabo Rajab, a specialist in this disease.}

He said that in the past three years, at least five patients would be taken to hospital per week which saw 138 throat cancer patients registered within three years.

Dr Mugabo says that laryngitis is among symptoms of the throat cancer adding that it can be healed when detected early.

“We receive many cases of throat cancer.The first of its symptoms is laryngitis extended to more than three weeks,” he said.

Dr Mugabo cited throat pain among other symptoms of throat cancer.

He advised people whose laryngitis goes beyond three weeks to look for specialist doctors for assistance.

The number of cancer patients across the globe has multiplied 50 times, with 500 people catching throat cancer annually among which 200 lose life.

Dr Mugabo advised Rwandans against alcohol and tobacco and to get medical tests to detect symptoms and start treatment early in time.

{The work life is getting increasingly competitive and highly stressful; early morning rush hours which cause traffic, huge pile of work and other job related activities make the life of a worker more stressful, and a lot of people don’t get to have enough sleep at night.}

Health experts recommend that a working class adult ought to sleep for 7 – 8 hours every night, but we all know that it’s almost impossible in today’s workforce.

However, while 7 – 8 hours of sleep might be impossible to attain, it shouldn’t go less than 5 hours, which a lot of workers do today. Having less than 5 hours of sleep is extremely risky for the following reasons.

{{1. You are more likely to fall ill }}

Adequate sleep helps boost your immunity level, and a lack of sleep would also weaken your immune system. Research has shown that adults who have less than 5, 6 hours of sleep are four times more likely to have a cold than adults who have 7 hours of sleep.

Having 5 hours of sleep or less would leave your body defenseless against common cold, flu and virus.

{{2. Your productivity level drops }}

You are most productive when you have enough sleep. When you have quality sleep, your mind becomes sharper and you make sound judgments. If you want to be productive at work, you shouldn’t have 5 hours of sleep.

{{3. Moodiness }}

With a lack of sleep comes poor mood. Sleep deprivation can cause you to become short-tempered, irritable and prone to stress.

Your mood and mental state would be affected and your anxiety level would increase.

{{4. Accidents }}

Research has shown that sleep deprivation can increase the risk of accidents and injuries on the job. In one study, workers who complained about extreme daytime sleepiness had significantly more work accidents.

Having 5 hours of sleep can also cause sleepiness when you are at work, and this can either cause an injury or even lead to your sack.

{{5. You gain weight}}

A lack of sleep increases your risk of gaining weight. Sleep deprived people tend to have reduced levels of leptin (chemical that curb hunger), and increases the levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates hunger.

Having 5 hours of sleep or less would cause you more harm than good, and could pose other serious health risks, like depression and heart related sicknesses.

{Salt consumption is not unhealthy in itself; after all, it’s a rich source of sodium, which is something the body needs a lot to stay healthy and function properly. A good amount of salt in the body is good for the nerves and the muscles, but then, too much of it is very unhealthy, and can affect your health in the following ways.}

1. It can affect your heart. Too much salt in the body can damage arteries that lead to the heart, and this can result in sharp pains in the heart due to a short supply of oxygen and other important nutrients to the heart. And in case of a clogged artery, a heart attack may be the consequence.

2. It affects your brain. Since the brain controls the central nervous system, eating too much salt can damage the arteries that lead to it, and as a result, dementia may follow due to reduced oxygen levels in the brain.

3. It can affect your kidneys.The primary responsibility of the kidney is to ensure that the body is rid of excess fluid. Now, eating too much salt can stop it from performing this function, which can lead to infections, diseases, and eventually failure.

4. It can affect your arteries. You know that the arteries are meant to transport blood from the heart to other parts of the body. Eating too much salt can raise your blood pressure, and that can strain the arteries. This can ultimately lead to failure of the arteries to perform well.

Health experts recommend a daily intake of 2300 mg of sodium, which is equal to a tablespoon for all healthy adults, but then knowing that our bodies differ, it’s good to consult your physician before you make any significant change to your daily salt intake.

{If you desire to have a healthy hair and glowing skin, you need to start paying more attention to your diet because the secret to having a glowing skin and healthy hair starts from within.}

Here are 6 nutrients that will give you a healthy hair and skin

{{1. Vitamine E}}

Vitamin E is good for the skin as it helps protect the skin against free radicals that accelerate breakdown of collagen. Get all the vitamin E you need by eating nuts, spinach and sunflower oil.

{{2. Omega -3 fatty acids }}

Salmon and walnuts are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for growth of healthy hair.

{{3. Biotin }}

Lack of biotin can lead to hair breakage. So if you want to add strength to your hair strands and reduce breakage, you should eat foods like salmon, avocado, eggs and peanuts which are rich sources of biotin.

{{4. Vitamin C }}

Vitamin C gives you a glowing skin and is also important for the production of collagen. Strawberries, citrus fruits and pawpaw are rich sources of vitamin C.

{{5. Vitamin A}}

Vitamin A is an important nutrient that helps fight aging. It helps fight fine lines and wrinkles leaving you with a younger skin. Sources of vitamin A include carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin.

{{6. Iron }}

Iron helps make your hair strands stronger thereby reducing hair shedding. Sources of iron include spinach, kidney beans and oysters.

{It isn’t only poor hygiene that could make a lady feel itchy down there; there are a host of factors that could make a woman feel itchy around her vag, and it should be taken as important.}

{{1. Hormonal changes }}

Changes in your hormone could cause a little itching in your vag. Hormonal changes like fluctuation in your period, pregnancy and even menopause could cause the vag to feel itchy.

{{2. Yeast infection }}

This is a common infection a lot of women suffer. It’s caused by a fungus called Candida, and it could cause itching, swelling and irritation.

{{3. Vulvovaginitis }}

This is another common infection of the vag and the vulva; it could cause itching and discomfort, increased vaginal discharge and discomfort when urinating.

{{4. STDS
}}

A lot of sexually transmitted diseases could cause itching down your lady part; herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomoniasis could cause you to itch down there. Another reason to avoid unprotected sex.

Pubic lice and crabs could also cause you to itch around your pubic hair.

{{5. Genital warts
}}

Genital warts are STIs caused by strains of the HPV virus. These warts are soft growth that occur on the genitals and could cause pains and itching.

{{6. Urethritis }}

This is a condition where the urethra, or the tube that carries urine from the bladder becomes inflamed and irritated. This could cause serious itching around your vag.

{{7. Trichomonas infection }}

This is another common sexually transmitted infection that is also referred to as “trich”. It is very treatable, but it could cause itching and vaginal discomfort.

{{8. Contact dermatitis }}

This is a skin irritation that is usually caused by allergies to certain products. It could be caused by anything that comes in contact with the vagina; things that your skin is sensitive to. It could be caused by condoms, perfumes, skin products and douching. The vagina is a self-cleansing organ, so you don’t need to douch.

These eight things could cause itching and discomfort around your vagina.

{Don’t you think it’s really necessary you know how your vagina functions and how to keep it healthy?}

Below 10 things every woman needs to know about her vagina

1. You are probably using the word vagina wrongly. The term “vagina” refers only to the narrow canal inside a woman’s body connecting her vulva (the outer part of her private part) to the cervix.

2. The vagina is incredibly elastic.No matter the size of his penis, the vagina always returns to its usual tightness after sex.

3. Kegel exercises can help tone up the vagina, giving you a tighter grip during sex. It’s also been reported to make it easier for women to reach climax.

4. The vagina contains lots of bacteria. Don’t freak out because these bacteria are actually good bacteria like lactobacilli that helps keep bad microorganisms at bay so you don’t get an infection.

5. The vaginal walls do not need cleaning as it cleans itself with an excretion from the vaginal walls. You should only clean between the labial folds and along the perineum.

6. If you experience difficulty having sex due to the contraction of the vaginal walls, you could be experiencing a condition known as vaginismus. Ensure you visit a gynaecologist if you experience this.

7. Every vagina has a scent but when the scent from your vagina is too strong and unpleasant and it’s maybe accompanied with a discharge, you should visit a doctor.

8. Having sex regularly is actually good for women as it helps reduce stress and anxiety. So make sure your husband sees this. But this is no reason to have too much sex.

9. The vagina discharge tends to be thinner and clearer during ovulation as this helps create a hospitable environment for the sperm to travel up to the egg.

10. A woman’s orgasm is generally more intense than the male orgasm.This is because the clitoris has about 8,000 sensory nerve endings compared to the penis that has only 4,000.

{One of the major causes of infertility in men is damaged sperm. For sperm to be effective, it must be healthy, and by that, I mean not lacking in anything. Now, the only way to have such sperm is to lead a very healthy lifestyle, and stay away from anything that can cause your health problems. Unfortunately, some men don’t take good care of themselves, and that is why you find them having major issues with reproducing.
}

As I have mentioned before, to have a healthy sperm, you must stay away from anything that is bad for your health, and that includes…

{{ 1. Smoking excessively }}

Cigarette and other forms of smoke contain materials that are harmful to the body, and I’m not talking about the lungs only. Smoking too much can also have a negative effect on your sperm quality. However, once you quit the habit, your body begins to make healthier sperm.

{{2. Drinking too much }}

There’s that common notion that drinking alcohol helps boost a man’s longevity in bed, but as true as that may be for some people, its long-term effects are harmful to the body. Drinking too much alcohol can reduce the quality of sperm a man makes.

{{3. Adding too much weight }}

Adding too much weight can reduce sperm production, and perhaps, lead to impotence; so stay fit, always. Watch what you eat and make sure you work out often to burn some calories.

{{4. Over-working yourself }}

Overworking yourself will lead to stress, and trust me – that’s not good for you and your reproductive health. According to researchers, stress leads to an abnormally shaped sperm and an immobile sperm. Now, if your sperm has those issues, it’s as good as useless.

{{5. Exposing your body to heat }}

Unless you’re extremely cold, you have no business exposing yourself to heat, and even if cold, there’s a limit to how much heat your body should have. This is because heat isn’t good for your sperm production. It’s advised to keep your body temperature cool always, especially the genital region.

{{6. Exposing your genitals to radiation }}

Radiation can be from a mobile phone; this is why it’s not right to have your phones close to your pant pockets or anywhere near your genitals. According to researchers, mobile phones can cause as much as a 9% drop in sperm sample. Hold your phone in your hands, please.

And those were it, guys. Healthy living isn’t so hard; it starts by loving yourself enough to put your health and wellbeing first. Live healthy, and live happier/ longer today.