The kidneys are responsible for removing waste products from the body. High blood pressure, diabetes, or hardening of the arteries, may develop kidney disease, preventing the kidneys from doing the job they are supposed to. Kidney disease is life-threatening, so it is better to do everything to look after kidneys and keep them clean. Hence, these nine foods naturally cleanse your kidneys. Try them out.
(Agencies)
Lemon water is pretty popular. Some people drink it for health benefits. Lemon water is very good for you.
Taken daily, you should be able to tell if it helps you within about 7 days. Here’s what may happen if you take up the lemon water habit. Give it a try! There is nothing to lose.
(Agencies)
The world is observing February 13th as the International Condom Day. Condom is used to control unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Moreover, the day is observed to create more awareness among the people regarding the condoms and benefits of using condoms.
Similarly, condom, which is made up of thin latex rubber, is a very cheap means of contraception and is better than having oral contraceptive pills. International AIDS healthcare foundations started observing the Int’l Condom Day to reduce the spread of HIV via safe sex practices in connection with the Valentine’s Day.
Mistakes to avoid while using condoms
Teenage is a crucial period of physical, emotional and social maturation. This is an important stage in the human life cycle as the body changes from childhood to adulthood, where hormonal and physical changes occur drastically. In the same time since teenagers are under academic pressure, their bodies need nutritional diet, including extra calories, calcium and iron, and sufficient protein. Teenage eating habits are influenced less by parents and family, and more by peers, media messages, and body image issues. They tend to make more food choices on their own, often in the company of influential peers.
Teenagers are notorious for their terrible eating habits. They typically eat only what tastes good or what’s within reach. Since their bodies are still growing and developing, good nutrition is crucial to prevent various diseases. Since teenager’s body goes through tremendous physical changes, it needs changes that need to be supported by a balanced diet.
Due to modernization and fascination towards western influence, teens usually tend to control their diet which leads to lack of nutrients. However in some cases, due to high consumption of junk food, they tend to be obese. Assuming that Ready to Eat Food (RTEF) is lighter than homemade food, they discard homemade food. Some even have the wrong concept that only ‘higher class’ people consume RTEF. Therefore, youngsters prioritize on such food merely to impress the society of being a ‘higher-class’ teenager.
The teens often tend to ignore positive guidance or suggestions provided by their parents and listen more to their peers. They also like to spend more time with peers, giggling with them rather than being with their family members. During this stage, the teens gain independence and start eating out with their friends.
Advertisements of RTEF in different media attract teenagers thus enticing them toward packed and canned food. They enjoy having food prepared in the restaurants rather than their homes. Therefore, youngsters should be encouraged to know the benefit of homemade food and discourage them to eat food in fast food cafes. What is to be emphasizes is that RTEF is not rich in nutrients needed for a body. The test is of course awe-inspiring and seems palatable but if you go in depth, there is nothing healthy components which can add a brick to build the body and brain except giving energy. These foods are filled with sugar, overheated oil, harmful chemicals and artificial colors due to which the food seems attractive and, of course, tasty.
The Government has implemented different health and nutritional programs targeting children, pregnant and lactating women. However, special concern and programs has to be initiated to create awareness among the teenagers.
Teens should be aware of making healthy choices when they eat out, whether at school or in a local restaurant. This is the period their body needs more micro-nutrients along with adequate amount of protein and energy. Selection of diets should be made accordingly considering adequate amount of calories, carbohydrate, protein, and micro nutrients.
A simple menu suggested for youngsters:
Nepali meal (Daal, Bhat, Tarkari and Achaar) is a very good combination of essential nutrients. It has enough amount of Carbohydrates, Proteins, Vitamins and Minerals. One should select proper vegetables to get adequate amount of vitamins and minerals and follow the proper way of preparing, cooking and storing so that essential nutrients containing in the food do not loss.
For the snack, they have option to go with Curd and Bitten Rice (Chiura), Horse Gram (Chana) and Bitten Rice, Chapati (Roti) with different beans such as Soya bean, Cowpea. Meat and eggs are good source of protein and essential nutrients. Obviously, teens are fond of Spring roll, Pizza, Momo, Sandwiches, Ham Burger, etc. Think whether these foods have all those components discussed before? Are all these foods fresh? What kind of oil has been used? What about the harmful preservatives and artificial color?
Think before eating
Whether the food contains energy giving, body building and protecting components or not? While choosing the drinks with food, instead of carbonated cold drinks such as Coca-cola, Sprite or Pepsi, select fresh juice or whole fruits. It gives adequate amount of vitamin C and other nutrients that helps you to absorb more iron containing in the food. Tea and Coffee is also considered as break food but think, caffeine containing in these drinks wont’ help you rather shrinkages the nutrients food have.
Ms. Sunita Rimal is a nutritionist.
A healthy diet is low in sugar and deep-fried food, and high in fruit and vegetables. What’s less well known is how often a person should eat. Doctors recommend eating frequently – at least five to six times a day since our health must be replenished to work satisfactorily. According to Heiko Griguhn, a nutritionist, people wanting to lose weight often make the mistake of eating too seldom, he says. After a long interval without food, the body starts trying to conserve energy by reducing the number of calories it burns.
Heiko recommends eating frequently – five to six times a day. He suggests afternoon snacks to avoid low blood-sugar, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. In order to maintain a healthy weight, it’s essential not to consume more calories than one burns, he says suggesting small portions of vegetables or other snacks in between breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, experts recommend chewing each mouthful of food 15 to 30 times. Likewise, experts also suggest drinking plenty of fluids, which helps in simulating the production of digestive juices. (Agencies)
If you want to boost your health, but resolutions seem too daunting, then read on for five easy ways to improve well-being each day and throughout the coming year.
Cut Out Soft Drinks
Even making small diet changes can boost health, and cutting out soft drinks and other sweetened beverages are one of the biggest small changes you can make, reducing both calorie intake and sugar consumption. A high intake of sugary drinks has been linked to a variety of health problems, including increased risk of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, lower chance of getting pregnant, an increase in visceral fat (the type of fat that wraps around internal organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines), and even an increased risk of death.
Walk More
If the thought of a gym membership or marathon training is too big a fitness goal, simply walking more will still bring benefits for health. One study found that walking at least four hours a week, or just 35 minutes a day, may reduce the severity of a stroke, and walking to work has been linked with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and death, with an even lower risk for those who also walk in their leisure time.
Picking up the pace can also bring extra benefits, with walking at an average pace linked to a 20% lower risk for all-cause mortality compared with walking at a slow pace, and walking at a brisk or fast pace reducing the risk even further, by 2%.
Get Some Daylight
Getting enough natural daylight has previously been linked with a lower risk of depression, a lower risk of postnatal depression in women, and more recently, with improved eye health. Previous research has suggested that getting outdoors in the morning is most beneficial; those who struggle to get outside are advised to open the curtains at home and sit by windows in offices to try to maximize the amount of light, or use light therapy lamps to help fight depression in winter months.
Enjoy A Massage
A massage is a great way to help you de-stress, which is important for health, but recent research is suggesting the benefits may go further than simply helping us to relax. A recent study also linked regular massages with improved arthritis symptoms, while a study published back in 2014 also suggested that shiatsu massage could aid sleep.
So if you choose just one way to improve health this year, booking yourself in for a massage might be the most enjoyable one.
Visit Blue And Green Spaces
If you live in the countryside, this one is easier, but even in a city, most of us have access to blue spaces, such as lakes and rivers, and green spaces, including parks and nearby forests. Taking in these locations can not only help you get more active through walking, but many recent studies are also uncovering a variety of benefits from being near nature and natural space, including fewer respiratory problems, reduced risk of breast cancer in women, improved mental health and a lower risk of depression, as well as improved overall well-being.
(Agencies)
New research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, finds that sleep deprivation increases sensitivity to pain by numbing the brain’s painkilling response. Sleep may be key for relieving chronic pain, a new study suggests. One in 3 adults in the United States, or 35 percent of the adult population, do not get enough sleep.
The effects of sleep deprivation on the brain are numerous, from inducing an inebriation-like state of cognitive impairment to hindering our ability to learn and form new memories. New research highlights another neurological effect of insufficient sleep: heightened sensitivity to pain.
A lack of sleep impairs the brain’s natural mechanisms for relieving pain, finds the new study, which draws attention to potential links between the public health crises of sleep deprivation, chronic pain, and prescription opioid addiction.
In the U.S., over 20 percent of the population, or around 50 million adults, are living with chronic pain, according to recent estimates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that, on average, around 130 people in the U.S. die from an opioid overdose every day. Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California in Berkeley carried out the study, together with doctoral candidate Adam Krause.
How sleep loss affects pain sensitivity
Walker and Krause induced pain in 24 healthy, young study participants by applying heat to their legs. As they were doing so, the scientists scanned the participants’ brains, examining the circuits that process pain. The participants did not have any problems sleeping or any pain-related disorders at the beginning of the study.
The scientists started by recording each participant’s pain threshold after a good night’s sleep by scanning their brain with a functional MRI machine while applying increasing levels of heat to the participant’s skin. Once the scientists had established the person’s pain threshold, they repeated the procedure after a night of no sleep.
“Across the group, [the participants] were feeling discomfort at lower temperatures, which shows that their own sensitivity to pain had increased after inadequate sleep,” reports Krause, the study’s lead author. “The injury is the same,” he explains, “but the difference is how the brain assesses the pain without sufficient sleep.”
The researchers found that the brain’s somatosensory cortex, a region associated with pain sensitivity, was hyperactive when the participants hadn’t slept enough. This confirmed the hypothesis that sleep deprivation would interfere with pain-processing neural circuits.
However, a surprising finding was that the activity in the brain’s nucleus accumbens was lower than usual after a sleepless night. The nucleus accumbens releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which increases pleasure and relieves pain.
“Sleep loss not only amplifies the pain-sensing regions in the brain but blocks the natural analgesia centers, too,” explains Prof. Walker. Finally, the researchers found that the brain’s insula, which assesses pain signals and prepares the body’s reaction to pain, was also underactive. “This is a critical neural system that assesses and categorizes the pain signals and allows the body’s own natural painkillers to come to the rescue,” notes Krause.
‘Sleep is a natural analgesic’
To replicate their findings, the researchers also conducted a survey of over 230 adults who were registered in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk online marketplace. The participants reported their sleep patterns and pain sensitivity levels over several days.
The scientists found that the smallest changes in the participants’ sleep patterns correlated with changes in pain sensitivity. “The results clearly show that even very subtle changes in nightly sleep — reductions that many of us think little of in terms of consequences — have a clear impact on your next-day pain burden,” Krause says. Walker comments on the findings, noting, “the optimistic takeaway here is that sleep is a natural analgesic that can help manage and lower pain.” “Yet ironically, one environment where people are in the most pain is the worst place for sleep — the noisy hospital ward.”
Source: Medical News Today
There is no compelling evidence to indicate important health benefits of non-sugar sweeteners, and potential harms cannot be ruled out, suggests a recent review of published studies in The BMJ, a leading general medical journal in the UK.Foods or drinks containing non-sugar sweeteners have become increasingly popular in recent times.
To understand the potential benefits and harms of sweeteners, a team of European researchers analyzed 56 studies comparing no intake or lower intake of non-sugar sweeteners, with higher intake, in healthy adults and children, the BMJ report said. The measures included weight, blood sugar control, oral health, cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, mood and behavior. For most outcomes, there seemed to be no statistically or clinically relevant differences between those exposed to non-sugar sweeteners and those not exposed, or between different doses of non-sugar sweeteners.The study suggested small improvements in body mass index (BMI) and fasting blood glucose levels with non-sugar sweeteners, but the certainty of this evidence was low.Likewise, lower intakes of non-sugar sweeteners were associated with slightly less weight gain (-0.09 kg) than higher intakes, but again the certainty of this evidence was low.In children, a smaller increase in BMI score was seen with non-sugar sweeteners compared with sugar, but intake of non-sugar sweeteners made no differences to body weight, according to the study.
Several studies show that people who drink a lot of diet beverages tend to gain weight. However, the reasons for this are not clear. But there are a few theories. While a theory considers the cravings for sweet foods, another theory says people tend to think that since the biscuits or cakes are sugar free, they can increase the slice. Therefore, it is not necessarily true that drinking a diet beverage over a sweetened drink will result in weight loss.
(Agencies)
Studies have revealed that eating too quickly can lead to several health problems. According to a study conducted by Hiroshima University cardiologist Dr. Takayuki Yamaji, chowing down food too fast can lead to problems like putting on weight and an increased risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.
A study with around 1,000 healthy adults carried out by Dr. Yamajishowed that those eating too quickly were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes, according to kompas.com. The adults were asked to characterize their eating speed — slow, normal or fast, and then asked to track their health for the next five years.
Likewise, the study showed that chowing down food too fast can increase the risk of acid reflux, as the digestive tract is filled with larger pieces of food. According to the study, such a habit would lead to the organ being overloaded and to excess stomach acid leading to acid refluxes giving people an experience of a burning sensation in the chest, a sour taste, regurgitation, and even sore throat.
Meanwhile, the study found out that when people eat fast, they tend not to feel full and are more likely to overeat since eating fast causes bigger glucose fluctuation leading to insulin resistance.
(Agencies)
Eyes, as an extremely sensitive organ, needs protection and caring. They need to be taken care of to improve vision.
However, there are certain myths that surround the care of eyes and need to be busted.
Myths: Carrots are considered the best food to improve eyesight.
Fact: Carrots are good for the eyes, but may not be the best food. Rather go for green leafy vegetables and other foods rich in antioxidants to keep your eyes even better. Consuming green vegetables may help in avoiding and delaying problems like cataract.
Myth: Low light will affect your vision.
Fact: Low light does not affect your vision. However, it tires the eyes quickly.
Myth: Staring at a computer screen all day affect your vision.
Fact: The light of a computer screen will not directly affect the eyes. It, however, can cause you to blink less often, which can lead to tired and weary eyes. It can cause blurred vision and similar problems but the problems are not because of the screen. It is because of not blinking enough and not giving your eyes proper lubrication.
Myth: Taking a break from your glasses or contact lenses is healthy for your eyes.
Fact: Wearing a glass according to the doctor’s recommendation is suggestible. Not wearing glasses will make your eyes tired and may cause a headache or pain in the eyes, not proven to deteriorate the vision.
Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Consulting your doctor is suggested.
(Agencies)