An olive leaf extract can lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure in patients with mild hypertension, according to a new study.

According to the study, taking 1000mg of EFLA943 can help do the trick.

These findings came from a ‘Twins’ trial, in which different treatments were given to identical twins.

By doing this, researchers could increase the power of their data by eliminating some of the uncertainties caused by genetic variations between individual people.

The research is published in the latest edition of Phytotherapy Research.

Hypertension is one of the most common and important disease risk factors imposed by the modern lifestyle. Many people would therefore benefit from finding ways of reducing blood pressure. Experiments in rats had previously indicated that olive leaf extract could be one way of achieving this goal.

To test this in humans, researchers from Switzerland and Germany conducted a pilot trial with 20 identical (monozygotic) twin pairs who had an increased blood pressure.

ndividuals were either given placebo capsules or capsules containing doses of 500mg or 1000mg of olive leaf extract EFLA943.

Pairs of twins were assigned to different treatments. After the subjects had taken the extract for eight weeks researchers measured blood pressures as well as collecting data about aspects of life-style.

“The study confirmed that olive leaf extract EFLA943 has antihypertensive properties in humans,” says one of the co-authors, Cem Aydogan, General Manager, Frutarom Health.

“This works showed that taking a 1000mg dose has substantial effects in people with borderline hypertension,” says Aydogan.

Source-ANI

SRM

A recent survey by the NGO Forum for Urban Water and Sanitation (NGOFUWS) and tested by consumers themselves found that chlorine content in 47 per cent of piped water samples collected from 120 places of the Kathmandu Valley is nil.

At least 648 samples (47 per cent) among the 1,385 tested in between June 9 and August 25, contained no Free Residual Chlorine (FRC) while 99 samples contained higher FRC than recommended.

Traces of FRC in water are the indicator that the water is free from germs. Low FRC (less than 0.2 mg per liter) means incomplete destruction of germs.

Xinhua quoted Praksha Amatya, executive director of NGOFUWS as saying, “Absence of FRC is an indicator that the water might be contaminated with pathogens. There is an increase in the cases of waterborne diseases during the last few months.”

Chandra Lal Nakarmi, technical manager of Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), said they treat the water in reservoirs at the rate of one to two mg per liter and the loss of chlorine at the household level could be due to the distance between the place of utilization and reservoir.

“KUKL was planning to repair the distribution lines,” Nakarmi added.

Source-ANI

SRM

New research conducted by Queen’s researchers has given fresh insights into why Viagra may be the panacea for many health conditions, including heart attacks and strokes.

Lead researcher Donald Maurice, a professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, says that the fresh insights his team has gained into how the erectile dysfunction drug-also used to treat pulmonary hypertension-inhibits an enzyme called PDE5 lead them to this conclusion.

“As scientists, we’re excited about this discovery because it’s a fundamentally new approach to regulating what enzymes do in cells. The fact that it also offers a potentially novel use of a drug already widely in use for other applications is an unexpected bonus,” says Dr. Maurice, a Career Scientist with the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The researcher says that the enzyme his team targeted is known to regulate the activity of platelets: small blood cells needed for normal blood clotting.

A research article in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) says that problems can arise when people have stents permanently implanted in their arteries to maintain blood flow.

Their platelets sometimes bind to the stent and, if enough platelets accumulate to form a blockage, this may cause a sudden, massive heart attack or stroke to occur, the article adds.

Lindsay Wilson, a PhD student in Pathology and Molecular Medicine and first author on the study, says that drugs like Viagra inhibit PDE5, but it has not been possible so far to isolate the small “pool” of activity within the cell where occurs.

In their latest study, the Queen’s researchers have shown that within each cell, there are two different pools of the PDE5 enzyme, but that only one of them regulates platelet activation.

“Understanding how the cell works should allow us to affect the activity of enzymes in one neighbourhood – and leave alone their ‘identical twins’ in a different neighbourhood in that cell,” says Wilson.

“The idea is to use a PDE5 inhibitor such as Viagra selectively to inhibit platelet function. We now know that not all the enzymes in the cell are doing the same job. Just like in real estate, it’s all about the location!” she adds.

Source-ANI

SRM

In a shocking incident, teachers at a Texas country school packed a gun along with their lesson plans when classes started this week.

The isolated, 110-student school near the border with Oklahoma is thought to be the first in the United States to allow guns in the classroom.

School officials say arming teachers is the only way to protect the old brick schoolhouse, which sits 30 minutes from the nearest police station.

“How do you stop the angry person without enough sense?” said Superintendent David Thweatt of the Harrold Independent School District.

“It’s not going to take very long for it to be a total massacre.”

But critics say the risks of having guns around children far outweigh the potential threat of a crazed gunman.

“Which risk is more likely: that someone is going to accidentally set off a gun in class and God forbid hit a student, or someone will come in off the highway and start a random shooting spree?” said Doug Pennington, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

While random shootings grab headlines, they are extremely rare, Pennington said, adding that fewer than one percent of school-age homicide victims are killed on school grounds or on the way to and from school.

Pennington questioned whether teachers were adequately trained to respond in a crisis situation and said the school would be better off with a security guard — the only people technically allowed to carry guns in Texas schools.

Thweatt would not say which teachers were armed or how many but said they all received adequate training.

Harrold’s school board decided last October to allow its employees to carry concealed handguns on campus when the 2008-09 school year began on Monday.

Mass murders at schools, college campuses, shopping malls and churches have claimed scores of lives across the United States in recent years.

Some, like Harrold’s superintendent, blame the violence on federal legislation enacted in 1995 that made such areas “gun-free zones.”

“That’s the place people could go if they are feeling crazy or mad at the world and get a big body count,” Thweatt told AFP.

Thweatt says he studied the issue for two years while he filled his school with more than 100,000 dollars in state-of-the-art security systems.

But even with the new keyless entry, camera system, lock-down buttons and classroom telephones, Thweatt said he still could not have prevented a mass murder like the one in an Amish one-room schoolhouse in Pennsylvania in 2006 that left five girls dead.

It also would not have been enough to deter the deranged student at Virginia Tech University, who killed 32 people and wounded 23 in 2007.

“They were like fish in a barrel,” Thweatt said.

The Harrold policy requires that each teacher who carries a gun be approved by its school board, earn a concealed carry license, and complete training in crisis management and hostage situations.

Guns must be worn — not locked in a safe — and loaded with ammunition designed to blast into powder instead of ricocheting through the hallways.

The decision to arm teachers isn’t a far-fetched idea for this ranching community, said Bridget Knight, who lives in nearby Vernon.

“For Harrold, it makes total sense.”

Its windswept fields are ranch country, she said, where guns are a mainstay — if not to stop a madman, then to shoot a snake, a wild hog, a wild dog or coyote that might run onto the playground.

Even Harrold children are raised to handle guns, said Lee Anderson of nearby Wichita Falls, Texas.

“Most high school seniors been huntin’ on their own since the age of 12,” he said. Many eventually join the rodeo circuit or work in the oil fields.

“These are country people. They grow up with guns. It’s nothing unusual.”

Still, that doesn’t make guns fit for the classroom, said Kristina Tirloni of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association.

She called the policy “extreme.”

Adding security guard to a teacher’s duties is “a lot of responsibility for someone who already has a lot of responsibility in the classroom,” she said.

While a handful of colleges and universities allow people with permits to carry guns on campus, “as far as we are aware this is the first policy of its kind at the elementary or high school level,” Pennington said.

Source-AFP

RAS/L

A new study from University of Oklahoma Department of Ophthalmology has found that daily use of medication called pirenzepine gel can slow down myopia progression in children, say researchers.

Myopia or nearsightedness is a condition in which focus on near objects is good, but distant objects appear blurry. Caused by a problem with the length of the eyeball or the curvature of the cornea, myopia gets worse over time in many children.

In the study led by Dr. R. Michael Stiatkowski of Dean McGee Eye Institute/University of Oklahoma Department of Ophthalmology, children with myopia were randomly assigned to treatment with pirenzepine gel or an inactive placebo gel. All children initially had “moderate” myopia, with an average refractive error of about -2.00 diopters.

Over a year of treatment, the team found that the average increase in myopia was significantly less for children using pirenzepine.

The new study presents the final results in 84 patients who continued treatment for a total of two years: 53 with pirenzepine and 31 with placebo.

Although myopia worsened in both groups of children, the rate of progression was slower with pirenzepine.

At the end of two years, myopia increased by an average of 0.58 diopters in children using pirenzepine compared to 0.99 diopters with placebo.

New glasses are generally prescribed when myopia worsens by at least 0.75 diopters. During the study, 37 percent of children using pirenzepine met 0.75 diopters cut-off compared with 68 percent of the placebo group.

Treatments to slow worsening myopia could also have important quality-of-life benefits.

Previous studies have suggested that a drug called atropine can delay progression of myopia. The new results show that pirenzepine-a related drug with fewer side effects-is also safe and effective for this purpose.

The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of AAPOS (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus).

Source-ANI

SRM

A trainee pilot from India has come in for all round praise in Australia as he managed to crashland away from a primary school Thursday. He himself died though.

24-year-old Akash Ananth on a solo flight missed the Cheltenham East Primary School by just 60 metres as his plane, caught in a mid-air collision, plummeted to earth.

The Cessna exploded at the back of a block of units opposite the school, where 220 students were on a lunch break.

The pilot, 24-year-old Akash Ananth, died on impact, but may have saved dozens of lives by guiding the plane away from the school grounds.

Another student pilot, also Indian, and his instructor in the second plane managed to return to Moorabbin airport.

Both trainee pilots were learning to fly with the Royal Victorian Aero Club.

Language difficulties between the Indian students and the air traffic control tower have been identified as a possible cause of the tragedy.

“We were very lucky that the pilot’s skill allowed him to land the aircraft where he did,” a Metropolitan Fire Brigade spokeswoman said.

“Had he crashed across the road, he would have gone straight into the primary school.

“He managed to land the aircraft in such a way as to protect the public.

“He was a bit of a hero.”

The dead pilot, an Indian national from Bangalore in southern India, arrived in Australia two months ago and was staying with his cousin, Dilip Mysore, and his family in Clayton South.

Mysore said his cousin had been flying for nearly two months and had done his first solo flight last Saturday.

Ananth had been studying to be a pilot in Bangalore, India, for about a year before arriving in Australia two months ago on a student visa.

“He had plans of going to France and flying for Airbus or Boeing,” Mysore said.

“He liked everything about Melbourne except the cold.

“He was a pretty social guy and got along well with everyone,” Mysore said.

The flying school has many Indian students, and several went to the crash scene soon after the tragedy.

Student pilot Ben Zachariah said he did not know Ananth but was told he was on a solo flight.

“He was forced to do a spiral dive. He would have been doing circuits, which means you are not more than 1000 feet high, and couldn’t have had time to do it safely,” Mr Zachariah said.

Police said Ananth’s parents in India had been told of the tragedy.

The crash sparked fresh calls for Moorabbin airport to reduce the volume of air traffic.

“This is not a safe environment for people living here,” said Tom Uren, of Moorabbin Airport Residents Association.

“We’ve been waiting for this to happen.

“It chilled my blood when I heard about it.

“We are extremely lucky there was only one death.

“It could have been a terrible disaster.”

Both aircraft have been in service for more than 30 years.

Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said they were among the most popular training planes in the country.

“Local residents shouldn’t be concerned about these sort of things happening frequently. They don’t,” he said.

Source-Medindia

GPL/L

‘Big Brother’ star Jade Goody has admitted that she ignored a fourth warning that she needed cancer treatment and went on to the Indian version of Big Brother, called Big Boss, for a 100,000 pounds fee.

The reality TV star, who is now fighting advanced cervical cancer, already had three abnormal smear tests after enduring an operation to remove the cells.

After her fourth abnormal smear, she ignored a letter urging her to return to hospital, instead hoping that the disease would go away on its own.

“I couldn’t think about it. You know me – just brush it under the carpet and hope it will go away,” the Daily Star quoted Goody, as saying.

“They’d sent a letter to me ages ago telling me I needed to go in, but I’d been too scared to do anything about it,” she added.

Mum-of-two Goody decided to go ahead with her trip to India because the fee would be needed to raise her two young sons if she fell ill.

Source-ANI

SRM

An Australian mother is outraged that her 14-year daughter obtained contraceptive pills through her school nurse. She says she has been robbed of her parental rights.

Suzanne, not her real name, did not know her daughter was sexually active before her husband discovered the pills in her daughter’s school bag.

It is really hard to get your head around the fact that when your child goes on an excursion they need to have a permission slip signed by the parent, but the school is within its rights to take a child to the doctor to be put on the pill,” she told Geelong Advertiser.

Bellarine Secondary College principal Colin Sing defended his school, saying staff were bound to protect students’ welfare and privacy.

It is the second time in two years the school has been embroiled in such controversy. In 2006, a Leopold mother complained she could not stop the school’s nurse helping her daughter get a contraceptive implant.

Sing conceded privacy regulations could be at odds with parents’ wishes.

“In cases that involve health professionals, there are even more stringent regulations in relation to protecting the privacy of students in their care,” Sing said.

“Where a student is deemed at serious risk or there is imminent threat to the student’s health and safety, the student can be referred to a general practitioner.”

Suzanne said the school nurse encouraged her daughter to talk to her mother about having sex but she chose not to.

“Had she come to me and said, ‘Mum, I want to go on the pill’, I would have been able to talk to her about it and be in control, I would have been able to take her to my family doctor and make sure she was properly educated about it,” she said.

“She didn’t even know how to use the pills properly.”

Suzanne said she was now organising a sex education session for her daughter through a health clinic.

“Just what exactly am I entitled to know? My daughter needs real education on relationships and sex and she is not mature enough to make that decision alone,” she said.

“All these privacy regulations do is break down the relationships between parents and their children.”brSing said it was up to a GP to decide whether a student should be prescribed the pill, not the school’s wellbeing co-ordinator.

“These issues are very uncommon in our school considering we have more than 1200 students. The problems that underlie these student health issues are very complex and generally family related,” Sing said.

A spokeswoman from Medical Indemnity Protection Society medico-legal advisers said doctors assessed whether a young person was capable of giving consent to medical treatment but age was not a factor.

Doctors and school nurses are required to protect confidentiality if, in their judgment, a student is capable of making sound decisions.

The society uses British common law as the basis of its advice, which says that young people can make decisions about their lives and bodies if they have a mature appreciation of the issues. These views have not yet been tested in Australian courts.

Sexual health expert Dr Sally Cockburn said it was sad the girl felt she couldn’t discuss her health with her parents.

“We need to look at why kids feel they cannot talk about this with their parents,” she said.

“If she had and the parents refused to give her the pill it’s not necessarily going to stop her having sex.

“I worry more about the kids at this age who are having sex and not seeking contraception.” Dr Cockburn said the nurse had not done anything wrong and had acted withing her duty of care to the girl.

She said it was more an ethical question for doctors about whether the pill should be described at that age without parental consent, but that children under the age of 16 didn’t need consent from their parents if they were deemed a mature minor by the doctor and and able to make their own decisions.

Source-Medindia

GPL/L

A new study suggests that physically active adolescents are less likely to smoke than their non-active counterparts.

In a study involving 3,000 Spanish adolescents, Professors Pablo Tercedor, Palma Chillon, and Manuel Delgado, from University of Granada found that adolescents, who play a sport do not smoke usually, and more than 40 pct of the adolescents aged between 13 and 18 do not practice any physical activity.

The participants were given a questionnaire to know their habits. The survey showed that 80.9 per cent of the active subjects said that they do not smoke, compared to 71.4pct of the non-active adolescents.

It revealed that 59.2pct of the adolescents were physically active, with 71.1 pct of the boys as against 46.7 pct of the girls.

Moreover, 15pct of the adolescents were regular smokers, slightly more girls than boys.

Scientists suggests that the importance of adopting measures to promote the practice of physical activity and eradicate tobacco consumption, as it has been proved how physical activity, diet and tobacco and alcohol consumption are related to obesity, diabetes, coronary disease, osteoporosis and cancer.

The study is published in the journal Nutricion Hospitalaria.

Source-ANI

SRM

A leading plastic surgeon of the UK has come under fire for offering a range of cosmetic surgeries to school girls under various pretexts.

Douglas McGeorge, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, claimed that he reshaped the nose of a teenager who was bullied no end and was in depths of despair.

He said the girl’s allowed her have the procedure, known as rhinoplasty, after she was targeted over her appearance at three schools.

But he insisted that the procedure, costing around 4,000, had transformed her life after years of extreme bullying.

The surgeon, who helps train doctors in cosmetic surgery, said the girl’s life had been transformed since the operation.

He added: ‘This was an unusual case but the parents had been through every other option available before taking the decision.

‘She was starting a new school at Christmas and wanted to fit in. I bumped into her later on holiday and she was very confident. Her hair was tied back whereas before her hair was hanging down over her face.”

Although it was the only case in which McGeorge, a consultant plastic surgeon at the Grosvenor Nuffield Hospital in Chester, had agreed to reshape a child’s nose, he also offered expandible breast implants to girls with a rare form of developmental disorder while operations to pin back children’s ears or straighten their teeth were common.

He explained that young people develop at different rates in puberty, meaning some were singled out by bullies. Under the procedure, doctors insert an implant which helps to expand the chest tissue gradually.

As for the nose-reshaping, he said: “This girl had left schools because of the bullying, had been counselled for it and at the end of the day came along to me to see whether surgery would improve the appearance of her nose … It has had an amazingly positive result for her.”

He added: “This is an example of a child where an aesthetic procedure has had a benefit, but it is not something that is offered as a first-line treatment, it is almost a procedure of last resort on a youngster but it can have a positive benefit for them.”

McGeorge went on to assert that such procedures were not necessarily born out of vanity, The bullying problem in school was very real and grave.

He said: “You think about children whose ears stick out, it’s the same thing. Children are very cruel and there’s a lot of stigma attached to appearance.”

But many clinics will not operate on anyone under the age of 18 although children can have any medical treatment with the consent of their parents.

Liz Carnell, director of the on-line advice service Bullying UK said: “It is giving in to bullies, if you have to change something about yourself because people are making remarks about you, you are giving in to their views.

“I think it is very hard for parents and children to say to themselves that there are perhaps better ways of dealing with this and one of those is to force the school to take action against the bullies.”

Diana Sutton, head of Policy at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC ) said: “As this shows bullying can drive children to desperate measures and it starkly highlights the need for Government, schools and parents to work together to tackle the issue.”

Source-Medindia

GPL

People are deeply confused about what causes cancer and the most effective means of prevention, with many favouring more fruit rather than cutting down alcohol, a new study said Wednesday.

“Many people hold mistaken beliefs about what causes cancer, tending to inflate the threat from environmental factors that have relatively little impact while minimising the hazards of behaviour,” the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) said in a statement.

The study was released on the first day of the UICC’s World Cancer Congress in Geneva, and was based on interviews with 29,925 people in 29 countries over the past year carried out by Roy Morgan Research and Gallup International.

It found that in high-income countries like the United States, Britain and Spain, 59 percent of people thought not eating enough fruit and vegetables was a cancer risk, while only 51 percent viewed alcohol intake in the same way.

“The scientific evidence for the protective effect of fruit and vegetables is weaker than the evidence that alcohol intake is harmful,” the UICC said.

Moreover, 42 percent of people questioned in high-income countries said that drinking alcohol does not increase the risk of causing cancer — a claim not borne out by statistics, according to the UICC.

“In fact, cancer risk rises as alcohol intake increases,” it said.

In low- and middle-income countries, many people still adopt a fatalistic approach to the disease, with 48 percent of respondents saying they believed “not much can be done” to treat the illness — against just 17 percent in high-income countries.

“Such a misbelief is worrying because it might deter people from participating in cancer screening programmes, which are important for saving lives,” the UICC warned.

“In general, people in all countries are more ready to accept that things outside of their control might cause cancer (such as air pollution), than things that are within their control,” such as being overweight, it added.

UICC President-elect David Hill said the survey showed “some big unheard messages”.

“We know that people need to be given a reason why they should change. They need to be shown how to change; they need to be given resources or support to change; they need to remember to change,” he said.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, killing close to eight million people each year — more than malaria, AIDS and TB combined, the UICC noted.

By 2030, this will increase to almost 16 million cases and around 11.5 million deaths per year, if current trends continue, it said.

World Health Organisation Director-General Margaret Chan told the opening of the Congress that “the time is right to make cancer control a development priority.”

Cancer is no longer an “affluent” disease but affects millions of people in poor and developing countries whose infrastructure struggles to cope with the impact of the disease, she warned.

“Developing countries are now face-to-face with problems that affluent countries confronted decades ago … but with the shift in the cancer burden, a nation’s resource level can no longer be viewed as a barrier to cancer control,” she urged.

Source-AFP

SRM

One doesn’t have to shun eggs too much. They could actually help you lose weight and also lower cholesterol levels.

New research seems to suggest apprehensions that the cholesterol-rich could raise risk of heart disease could be misplaced.

A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition makes a strong case for eggs in the breakfast menu.

A team from Surrey University, led by Dr Bruce Griffin, fed two eggs per day to almost 50 overweight but otherwise healthy volunteers for 12 weeks.

They also had to follow a reduced-calorie diet recommended by the British Heart Foundation.

Another group followed the same diet, but cut out eggs altogether. Both groups lost weight and saw a fall in the average level of blood cholesterol.

Dr Griffin said: ‘There is no convincing evidence to link an increased intake of dietary cholesterol or eggs with coronary heart disease. Indeed, eggs make a nutritional contribution to a healthy, calorie-restricted diet.’

It is thought that eating eggs for breakfast contributes to weight loss by making people-feel fuller for longer.

This research provides evidence to support the scientific consensus that saturated fat, found in pastry, processed meats, biscuits and cakes, is more responsible for raising blood cholesterol than cholesterol-rich foods, such as eggs, which are low in saturated fat.

Britons eat 28million eggs a day – between two and three per person per week – one of the lowest intakes in the world.

There seem to be a number of other reasons too to say cheers to eggs:

The yellow of egg yolks helps to protect eyes from age-related macular degeneration – the most common cause of deteriorating eyesight in old age.

Canadian researchers have already found that the antioxidants lutein and zeaxanthin, which give yolks their distinctive colour, reduced the risk of cataracts.

A US study said that when women ate two a day, their HDL cholesterol – the “happy” cholesterol that protects against heart disease – rose by ten per cent.

There is more to celebrate with eggs:

They contain vitamins A, D and K. Vitamin A is essential for eyesight and one of the first signs of deficiency is poor night vision. Vitamin D helps us absorb calcium, making it important for healthy bones. Recent research shows vitamin K, essential for blood clotting, also boosts bone health.

Eggs are packed with protein, which are chains of up to 20 amino acids – nine of which are essential -and eggs are packed with them. Our bodies can’t make essential amino acids so we must get them from food. And eggs are the only natural food to contain all nine.

Eating eggs helps you lose weight, a recent study at the University of Illinois found. They contain leucine, which helps to reduce muscle loss and boosts fat burning. Bodybuilders often take extra leucine to bulk up. Eggs are low in calories too. Each contains around 75 calories -about the same as a banana.

Big fluctuations in blood sugar levels can trigger a condition called glucose intolerance, which can develop into diabetes. Leucine in eggs appears to help stabilise blood-sugar levels. More research is needed but some scientists believe this could provide a clue to reducing the risk of diabetes.

Eggs are a great source of iodine -a mineral which fuels the thyroid, the gland that produces hormones which regulate growth. In extreme cases, iodine deficiency can lead to birth deformities and mental impairment. More common symptoms are dry skin and hair, depression, irritability and poor memory.

Eggs contain an important nutrient for the brain called choline.

Scientists have found our brains use it to transmit messages between cells. There is also evidence it is a catalyst for many complex mental functions. Studies involving animals have shown a lack of choline in the womb is associated with poor memory.

A Harvard Medical School study found teenage girls who ate eggs regularly were less likely to get breast cancer later in life. Researchers warned more investigation was needed but suggested that high levels of amino acids, vitamins and minerals in eggs were likely to play a part.

We need iron to make haemoglobin – the oxygen-carrying part of red blood cells – or we feel tired. Eggs supply the “haem” – iron that comes from animal sources.

Source-Medindia

GPL

If you thought wasting a little bit of food is no bid deal, think again. According to a new study, not only are you wasting food but you are also wasting lots of water! How? That’s by taking into account all the water that went into the cultivation and processing of food.

According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), the study, titled “Saving Water”, released by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), found that In the United States, as much as 30 percent of food products, worth some 48.3 billion dollars, is thrown away annually just by households alone.

“That’s like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion liters of water into the garbage can — enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people,” said the report.

Professor John Anthony Allan of King’s College, London, the winner of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize, is the author of a concept called “virtual water”, where he argues that people consume water not only when they drink it or take a shower, but also when they consume food products.

The virtual water concept measures water embedded in the production and trade of food and consumer products – from the field and the factory to the dinner table.

A cup of coffee, for example, accounts for about 140 liters of water that is used in growing, producing, packaging and shipping the beans.

One single hamburger accounts for an estimated 2,400 liters of water; one kilogram of beef consumes 15,000 liters of water; a slice of white bread takes in 40 liters of water; and one kilogram of cheese absorbs 5,000 liters of water.

“I was very surprised with the high numbers. But it catches everybody’s attention,” said Allan.

The figures, according to him, were worked out scientifically by researchers in the Netherlands.

As to if there was a direct link between water and food scarcities, Allan said that while there is a shortage of food in some parts of the world, there is also a need for twice as much food in other parts of the world.

“So, there is a distribution problem. But this also reflects the maldistribution of water,” he said.

Meanwhile, a report released by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that while each person in Britain drinks, hoses, flushes and washes their way through around 150 liters of water a day, they consume about 30 times as much in “virtual water” embedded in food, clothes and other items – the equivalent of about 58 bathtubs full of water every day.

According to Charlotte de Fraiture, a researcher at IWMI (International Water Management Institute), as much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted.

“Curbing these losses and improving water productivity provides win-win opportunities for farmers, business, ecosystems, and the global hungry,” she said.

Source-ANI

TAN

Olympic athletes eventually overcame the stress of strict discipline they faced during the two weeks of competition with a final burst of sexual release on the eve of the closing ceremonies in the Olympic Village.

“This sex fest . . . (happened) right here in Beijing,” the New York Post quoted Matthew Syed, a past Olympian and table-tennis champion now working as a commentator, as writing in the Times of London.

“Olympic athletes have to display an unnatural – and, it has to be said, wholly unhealthy – level of self-discipline in the build-up to big competitions. How else is this going to manifest itself than with a volcanic release of pent-up hedonism?” he wrote.

He said that big winners were the principal objects of desire for many female athletes, included those “as geeky as Michael Phelps”.

Even losers got their share, he said, adding that it was “a common sight to see recently knocked-out athletes gorging on Magnums and McDonald’s, swilling alcohol and, of course, shagging like crazy.”

The Beijing Government ensured the supply of free condoms so that the competitors would practice safe sex.

One Australian athlete said: “It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions.”

Source-ANI

SRM

Food in its natural form is endowed with high nutritive value. No wonder, raw food which includes fruits, nuts and vegetables is fast becoming a hot favorite. Moreover, there is nothing to beat its ease of cooking or its flavor, which is way ahead of cooked food. One need not add sugar and spice; hence it is a great buddy of the digestive system.

What happens when we cook fruits and vegetables?  

Heating cuts the vitamin content of food, while also destroying proteins and fats. The very enzymes that aid digestion are also destroyed in the process.

Why go for raw food?  

Health reasons  

• High nutrition
• Great balance of nutrients, fibre and water
• Less oil and fat
• Protective benefits –cuts the risks of chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease
• Strengthens defensive mechanism against cold and flu
• Bid good bye to indigestion, gas, acidity and constipation
• Helps maintain weight, a boon for those who want to shed weight
• Natural body cleanser

Other Reasons 

• Preparation time for raw food is much less than that of cooked food
• Less time and effort to clean up work area
• Raw food is pocket friendly
• It is environment friendly too – when food is cooked, carbon dioxide is released into the environment

The National Institutes of Health has recommended the consumption of at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, for all round health.

These are good enough reasons to reach out for raw vegetables, fruits and nuts instead of snacking on fried food, and opting for the salad bar for lunch, as raw foods are a package to good health.

Naked cyclists gathered in front of the Vancouver’s main police station Saturday to protest the arrest of a man and his three-year-old son during a nude ride earlier in the day. The ride went down the city’s crowded Robson Street, stopping both vehicle and pedestrian traffic and drawing hoots and horns.

Naked Bike Ride spokesman Conrad Schmidt said six squad cars and a paddy wagon showed up as the group of about 75 naked cyclists arrived along the city’s English Bay.

They were taking part in a naked bike ride event, which happens several times a year.

Such protests are taken periodically as part of the World Naked Bike Ride (WN

) movement.

It is an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together Ien masse/I on human-powered transport (the vast majority on bicycles, and fewer on skateboards, rollerblades, roller skates) to “protest oil dependency and celebrate the power and individuality of our bodies.”SUP/SUP

Conrad Schmidt said the boy was in tears as police took him and his father away.

He said the arrest prompted the group to cycle through downtown Vancouver to the police station.

Vancouver Police Const. Jana McGuinness said several people had called police, concerned about the child’s well-being. Police arrived and reached an agreement with the man that both he and his child would wear underwear during the ride.

As he left to join the group on the ride, the man stripped his and his son’s clothes off. The father was then arrested at the scene of the bike ride under public nudity laws.

However, McGuinness said it appeared the man regretted his actions.

“When they were leaving (the scene) it was under the understanding that perhaps he hadn’t shown the best judgement, there were a number of people that took offence to the child being naked in the group and subjected to people’s scrutiny,” she said. “It sounds like it’s been a good lesson all around.”

Some apparently stayed away from the police station protest to express their unhappiness over the way the father dragged his son into the protest ride.

One cyclist who declined to give her name said the man took off the boy’s pants

“The leaders of this event do not support what the guy did,” she said.

“I think that’s wrong. The kid’s a minor.”

Source-Medindia

GPL

In a dramatic move Lake County chief Mark Curran has sentenced himself to a weeklong stay in prison to find out conditions there firsthand. He entered the prison under his jurisdiction Wednesday.

“I believe that I can be a better sheriff by having a better understanding of jail operations from the perspective of an inmate,” he said at a news conference. “Because the idea came to me in a church, I believe it is divinely inspired.”

Curran, a Catholic, couched his reasoning for going to jail in terms of redemption and forgiveness. He often intersperses his public comments with religious terms.

“The biblical adage that we reap what we sow is very true in criminal justice,” said Curran, 45, before exchanging his business suit for a prison jumpsuit at the Waukegan, Illinois, facility near Chicago.

He said he was attending a law-enforcement leadership conference at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington when “a light bulb kind of went off in my head.”

Curran, 45, a former prosecutor elected sheriff in 2006, has shown a strong interest in jail and correctional programs since being elected, including visiting the notorious Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana to gauge how faith-based education and counseling programs work there.

The sheriff blamed the Illinois Department of Corrections for allowing conditions that led gangs to gestate within the walls of its prisons. The state prison system “has treated inmates like caged animals, only to see them released back into their communities angrier and more bitter than they originally were,” he said.

Curran said he intends to learn how to improve programs to help inmates succeed on the outside and draw attention to initiatives in the jail that might work at state prisons.

He says he has four goals he hopes to achieve by spending a week at the jail.

“My first goal that I wish to discuss is my desire to find some additional introspection into our inmate programming,” he said. “I believe that I can be a better sheriff by having a better understanding of jail operations from the perspective of an inmate.” brHe said he will spend time in classrooms observing inmate programming, as well as spending “significant periods of time in conversation with inmates while I attempt to learn more about their issues.”

Curran says his second goal is “to bring attention to what we are doing in Lake County. I believe that we have the best-run jail in the nation and I hope that the Illinois Department of Corrections will consider what we are doing as well as others that are involved in the corrections.”

His third goal “is to honor in some small way the volunteers that come in to the jail on a regular basis. Many of [the approximately 500] have enjoyed tremendous success in the private and public sectors yet they choose to come into the Lake County Jail for little to no money and no recognition. They choose to come to the Lake County Jail to minister to the people that many in society have forgotten or would rather spit on than choose to help. They choose to love these people that desperately need love. I will wear the inmate clothing and sleep in the jail in part to honor these servants as I am so humbled to serve in their presence.”

His fourth goal “is to draw attention to the need for rehabilitation programming and to awaken the collective consciousness of society,” Curran said. “I still believe in locking up the real bad guys forever. However, the reality is that according to recent studies, virtually every person incarcerated in a jail in this country and approximately 97 percent of those incarcerated in prisons will eventually be released.”

“I hope that my wearing inmate clothing and sleeping in the jail does draw attention to what we are doing here in Lake County because it is truly special,” he said. I hope that hearts are softened, because people need second chances. Almost every inmate in this jail will be released and they will need jobs to support themselves.

The sheriff will spend his first three nights in one of the jail’s dorm-style accommodations, according to jail officials. While other inmates in that area sleep in beds arranged in rows in a large room, the sheriff will have his own 6-by-8-foot cell. From there he will spend two nights in a general population cell that is one of several arranged around a day room where inmates play cards and watch television.

Curran also will spend a night in the maximum-security segregation unit and the jail’s medical unit, he said. During the days he will participate in a substance abuse support group and also take classes for those taking GED tests – a group of tests enabling one to obtain certificate of proficiency in school-level academic skills.
DIVSPAN style=”FONT-SIZE: 12pt”FONT face=”Times New Roman”FONT face=Verdana/FONT/FONT/SPAN/DIVBesides he will work in the kitchen and work on a road cleanup crew. He will eat with other inmates, he said, though jail food is not his “cup of tea.”

The jail houses about 650 inmates, most awaiting trial; charges range from petty misdemeanors to sexual assault and murder. Curran said he had been assured by jail officials that he would not be in danger.

“Him being my boss, I wouldn’t even allow this if I didn’t think it was reasonably safe,” said Jennifer Witherspoon, the sheriff’s department chief of corrections.

Curran said he cleared most of his schedule for the week so he can stay in jail, though he will leave the jail for a few meetings. Undersheriff Charles Fagan will run the department in Curran’s absence.

In a holding cell near where Curran was booked, several men stared through a layer of reinforced glass, quizzical looks on their faces as a throng of news media swarmed.

Personalizing issues to drum up media coverage is nothing new for Chicago-area public officials. In 1981 Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne famously moved into the notorious Cabrini-Green housing projects to highlight conditions there. More recently, 10th District Democratic House candidate Dan Seals in May sponsored a campaign event in which customers at a Lincolnshire gas station paid only (Dollor) 1.85 a gallon for 10 gallons of gas that was selling for (Dollor) 4.14 a gallon; he covered the difference and worked the pump, Chicago Tribune reports.

Source-Medindia

GPL

Former British rock star and a convicted paedophile Gary Glitter returned home Friday. His demand for police protection round-the-clock has been turned down, and he has been told to sign sex offenders register.

He tried to wriggle out of the register business, saying it was a violation of his human rights, but was sternly told by a judge to either register within three days – or face a jail term.

By signing the register, Glitter will be required to tell authorities where he plans to live, inform police within three days if he changes his name or address. He must also disclose if he plans to spend more than seven days away from home or to travel outside Britain for more than three days.

If he breaks the terms of his registration, he could face a prison sentence of up to five years.

Despite Home Secretary Jacqui Smith saying earlier this week that she did not believe Glitter should be allowed to leave the country again, he is not yet subject to an official foreign travel ban or any formal court-ordered supervision preventing him from approaching children.

However, he is expected to be monitored under multi-agency public protection arrangements.

One of their first actions will be to tell community leaders in the area in which Glitter will live – such as headteachers, leisure centre managers, employers and landlords – that he has moved to the area.

Glitter said he feared for his safety and demanded police protection – costing thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ money – before leaving Heathrow airport by car for a secret location. But he didn’t obtain any safehouse guarded by the police.

A spokesman for the London Metropolitan police said: “He is not being treated any differently from any other person in these circumstances.”

David Corker, Glitter’s solicitor, said that the singer rejected his conviction in Vietnam as a “charade” – calling it a “show trial” – and saying that he will prove his innocence. He has a 21-day window to appeal.

When asked why Glitter had paid off the families of his young female victims in Vietnam, Corker said he did not have enough information to answer.

Glitter had been released from prison in Vietnam on Tuesday after serving two years and three months in jail for abusing two young girls.

Having failed to gain entry to Thailand on two occasions and Hong Kong once, Glitter eventually agreed to fly to London.

The lawyer insisted his client was “pleased” to be back in the UK, despite the farcical three-day hunt for another country that would let him in.

Meanwhile, a senior NHS source said that the former singer would be an unwelcome patient at hospital – although doctors would not be able to turn him away.

Glitter has said he wants to receive treatment for a heart condition and his lawyer claimed he was “not a well man” and may be suffering from tuberculosis.

The source said: “Every hospital in London is very worried about having him as a patient.”

Source-Medindia

GPL

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anubmani Ramadoss said on Friday that no policy can be effective without taking into consideration the social reality of exclusion.

Pointing to the huge cor-relation between the low health indicators and the fact of social deprivation among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other backward sections and minorities, Dr. Ramadoss said that development has to be an all inclusive process. He said that without including deprived sections,growth could not be termed as real.

Ramadoss was addressing a seminar on ‘MDG (Millennium Development Goals) and the Socially Excluded – A critical appraisal’ organized by Indian Institute of Dalit Studies.

Talking about the better socio-economic profile of the south Indian states, he said that indepth reservation policies based on social inclusion had brought about development.

“There are important lessons as in all health indicators such as IMR, MMR and Under-Nourishment, SCs, and STs fare very poorly. However, indicators with regard to sex ratio are much better in these deprived communities as there is better value for life,” said Ramadoss.

Referring to the Prime Minister’’s emphasis on health, education and agriculture, Ramadoss expressed satisfaction for the strides made by the National Rural Health Mission.

Due to excellent performance in Janani Suraksha Yojana and other components of NRHM, he said that India is likely to achieve Millennium Development Goals with regard to Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).

“However, maternal mortality remains an area of concern. This along with malnourishment remains the key focus of the government’’s efforts,” said Ramadoss.

Source-ANI

SPH

Mothers who report that they or their partner spanked their child are more likely to use harsher forms of punishment than those who do not spank, say a group of researchers.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said punishments considered physically abusive included: beating, burning, kicking, hitting with an object somewhere other than the buttocks, or shaking a child less than 2 years old.

Also, increase in the frequency of spanking is associated with increased odds of abuse, and mothers who report spanking on the buttocks with an object, said Adam J. Zolotor, M.D., the study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the department of family medicine in the UNC School of Medicine.

The study has been published on the Web site of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Although some surveys show evidence of a modest decline in spanking over the last 30 years, recent surveys show that up to 90 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years are spanked by their parents at least occasionally.

Zolotor and his co-authors conducted an anonymous telephone survey on parenting of a probability sample of 1,435 mothers in North Carolina and South Carolina in 2002.

Forty-five percent of the mothers reported that they or their partner had spanked their child in the previous 12 months and 25 percent reported spanking with an object on the buttocks.

Four percent reported using harsher forms of punishment that met the study’s definition of physical abuse.

Statistical analyses of the survey data found that while any spanking was associated with increased risk of abuse, spanking with an object was strongly associated with abuse.

Only 2 percent of the mothers who reported no spanking reported use of physically abusive punishment. In comparison, 6 percent of mothers who reported spanking and 12 percent of mothers who reported spanking with an object also reported abusive punishment.

Source-ANI

SPH

Michelle Wild, 36 could not play with her three old son on the floor due to a painful condition that had claimed her agility since her teenage years. Medically termed as non-cancer related lymphoedema, the condition left her legs badly swollen, resulting in a lot of pain.

Michelle is also a victim of spina bifida.

Fortunes turned in her favor when she least expected it, after years of battling the condition following a chance meeting with an intuitive GP. Finally, his reference saw her approaching the two year old lymphoedema clinic at Clatterbridge Hospital, which gave her a new lease of life.

Explaining her problem, Michelle said: “My legs were twice the size as normal which restricted my movement and, worst of all, I couldn’t get down on the floor to play with my three-year-old son like other mums.”

Michelle underwent three weeks of regular and intensive treatment which employed many levels of bandages and stockings to dissolve fluid accumulation in the limbs, which is typical of people suffering the condition.

“The treatment was tough, but it was quick, and now I feel absolutely fantastic. My legs are half the size which means I can get about much more easily and, best of all, I can play games with my son,” Michelle said.

Concerned that there could be more patients suffering the condition, Lol Pidcock and Janice Entwistle, part of the team that made this possible for Michelle, call out for more such sufferers to come out and seek relief from their condition.

Lol explained: “Lymphoedema can affect adults and children but our message to people is don’t suffer alone – go to your GP and ask to be referred.”

Source-Medindia

SAV/L

Alice’s wonderland of rushing rabbits, magical brews, queen of hearts, shrinking sizes, Cheshire cats, pool of tears, knaves and tumbling cards did not blossom merely from Lewis Carroll’s imagination. Experts opine that the author who weaved the Wonderland has recreated, in his fantasy yarn, some of his experiences while grappling with migraine.

“Many of the descriptions conjured for Carroll’s stories were based on classic migraine experiences,” says neurologist Mary Ann Mays, M.D, of the Cleveland Clinic. “Only a person who had experienced these phenomena would be able to describe them.”

Today, “Alice in Wonderland syndrome” is a term used by neurologists to refer to a perception disorder that is characterized by hallucinations and visual disturbances –symptoms that are associated with the ‘aura’ that precedes a migraine.

A migraine is a traumatic experience, which the sufferer usually hates to recall. It is an intense, throbbing pain affecting one or both sides of the head. A migraine episode may last for a few hours or may extend for days; some are so severe that it incapacitates the sufferers, leaving them bed-ridden

It is still not clear why migraines occur although several triggers have been identified such as stress, pollution, noise, odors, certain medications, caffeine, champagne, red wine, processed meat, old cheese and chocolates. Hormonal changes and change in routine schedules are also known to usher in migraines.

Migraines seem to favor women, as they are three times more likely to suffer from the condition, compared to men. And it also observed that there is a genetic predisposition involved- the chances of the victims’ children being affected is higher than the children of normal individuals.

All about Aura

The word ‘aura’, which conjures up a surreal vision of subtle splendor, is actually an array of psychologic or neurologic disturbances that precedes a migraine episode.

Auras have a short life span; they may last for 5 to 20 minutes with their frequencies varying among individuals. Some experience it once in a lifetime while others experience it every day.

Auras comprise of symptoms such as vertigo, imbalance, confusion or numbness. Another intriguing feature of the aura is the dramatic visual effects or ‘special effects’-flashing lights, floaters, zigzag lines, complex colors and shapes.

Migraines are broadly classified into two- those with and those without aura. Although migraines with aura are less common , they are more challenging, medically, and can be more unsettling for the affected individuals.

The ‘one-eyed’ monster

In the ocular variety, which is the rarest migraine, individuals experience the ‘bizarre’ associated with the aura, but only in one eye. These symptoms are temporary and do not cause permanent damage. This is commonly followed by a migraine headache.

Some patients see blind spots or “holes,” which is actually a reference to the missing segments in a normal visual field. Shades of black or gray over the visual field are also viewed by some. Some people draw a comparison between these visual phenomena and the faulty patterns produced by an old television, with compromised reception. Others believe it is like looking through wet glass.

Although the experiences are similar for patients who experience ocular migraine and conventional migraine, there are differences.

One key difference is the source of the visual disturbances in the two headaches. In case of ocular migraine, the retinal blood vessels, inside the eye, play the trick, while the occipital cortex of the brain is the source of visual disturbances in migraines with aura.

Therefore, there seems to be some instant remedy for those affected with the ocular migraine. All they need to do is to close the affected eyes to stop the symptoms.

Taking the bull by the horn

Visiting a neurologist is not a bad idea for people who suffer from ocular headache. This would help to rule out other conditions, such as stroke or retinal artery thrombosis that produce similar symptoms.

Traditionally, anti-inflammatory agents have been used to treat migraines. Although not ideal for ocular migraines, the recently discovered triptans, are believed to be God –sent. A healthy life style with consistent patterns holds the key to a migraine-free existence.

Knife gangs seem to operate with impunity in London, despite various measures the government claims it is implementing. A school boy who plunged to his death in terror was the 24th victim this year.

Ahmed Benyermak fell from the seventh floor the day before he was to pick up his GCSE results. He had passed nine of them.

The 16-year-old was with friends playing on the 14th floor of the block in Paragon Road, Hackney, when they spotted a hooded and masked gang on bikes below and fled.

Witnesses said the gang also had knives.

Ahmed clambered on to an open balcony and began to climb down – but fell at the seventh or eighth floor. He was found at the foot of the block just before 4pm Wednesday by horrified passers-by.

Paramedics were at the scene within minutes, but could not save him.

He was described as a “good pupil” by the head of his school, Hackney Free and Parochial C of E.

James Roberts, 45, assistant site manager at Ahmed’s school, said: “A gang of kids was chasing him – there were about five of them – and they were probably trying to stab him or something. He tried to climb down each balcony but then he fell.

Head teacher Richard Brown of Hackney Free and Parochial school said that Ahmed had never been in trouble.

He said: “I spoke to the family this morning. His parents were too upset to come and collect the results but I gave them to his brother and cousins.

“He was only here for a year and I know his family are really proud of the C grades he got in maths and science.

“I’ve spoken to teachers who told me he was a pleasant, quiet lad. He comes from a good family who are proud of his achievements. As a head teacher you get to know where the problems are and I didn’t know Ahmed.

“He was a quiet lad who had his group of friends and was not someone you expected to be in trouble. He has just been a tragic victim.”

Brown said the school will be keeping in close contact with the family and be helping them come to terms with their loss.

Police said they had found a number of abandoned cycles around the scene which were being forensically examined. They are also looking at CCTV.

A national soul searching is on even as police reveal teenagers as young as 13 are becoming involved in gangs and officers have started going into primary schools to speak about the dangers.

Mass searches are being conducted to recover knives.

Brainstorming sessions are regularly reported. Observers point to a range of causes, from poverty and isolation to lack of opportunity with education and employment. Preventative measures put in place included extra youth programmes and a hotline for parents.

Tottenham MP David Lammy said, “Without role models, young boys have to look elsewhere. An aggressive street culture replaces success in other spheres of life as an expression of masculinity.

“Young men become attached to gangs, which reinforce this subculture, rather than families who work against it.”

Statistics show that 9 out of ten gang members are male and that 97 per cent of juvenile offenders are boys.

The minister for skills also blamed the “get rich or die trying” culture for undermining the value of hard work.

“Criminality has become a short cut to symbols of wealth and power that will otherwise take years of hard work to achieve.

“Young men need something purposeful to do, so that they learn to share, co-operate and produce, not just consume”, he added.

Source-Medindia

GPL

A novel research has shown that men from polygamous relationships seem to live longer than those from monogamous ones.

After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12 percent longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.

The latest research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long? This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who – unlike nearly all other animals – live long past the menopause.

One answer seems to be a phenomenon called the grandmother effect. For every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she gains two additional grandchildren, Lummaa says.

It seems that doting on and spoiling grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their grandmother’s genes. Men, by contrast, can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s, and most researchers assumed this explained their longevity.

But Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors explained the long lifespan of men, such as a grandfather effect.

To test this possibility, the team analysed church-gathered records for 25,000 Finns from the 18th and 19th centuries.

People tended to move little, no one practiced contraception and the Lutheran Church enforced monogamy. Only widowed men could remarry, and if they had children with their new wife, they fathered more kids, on average, than men who married once. But ultimately remarried men “don’t end up with any more grandchildren,” Lummaa says.

“If anything the presence of a grandfather was associated with decreased survival of grandchildren,” New Scientist quoted Lummaa, as saying.

Perhaps, Lummaa adds, the children of the first mother lose out on food and resources that go to the second mother’s kids.

“It’s kind of the Cinderella effect,” Lummaa added.

Even fathers with only one wife provided no benefit to their grandchildren, a finding supported by previous research. With the grandfather effect ruled out, Lummaa and Russell next wondered whether the constraints of human physiology explain male longevity.

In the same way that men have nipples that evolved for women to nourish their young, male longevity might be a consequence of biological selection for long-lived women.

To answer this question, the researchers compared the lifespan of men from polygamous countries with those from monogamous nations.

Using data from the World Health Organization, Lummaa and Russell scored 189 countries on a monogamy scale of one to four – totally monogamous to mostly polygamous.

They also took into account a country’s gross domestic product and average income to minimise the effect of better nutrition and healthcare in monogamous

ummaa stressed that their monogamy score is a crude first stab, and they are working to find multiple ways to assess marriage patterns. The conclusions could evaporate under further analysis, she adds.

If female survival is the main explanation for male longevity, then monogamous and polygamous men would live for about the same length of time. Instead, it seems that fathering more kids with more wives leads to increased male longevity. Men, then, live long because they’re fertile well into their grey years.

The study has been presented at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York. (ANI)

Source-ANI

SAV/M

The scars of war take time to heal, but at least this is a start. The UN-run summer camp in Gaza offers solace to the children of the war-torn region. This shelter is their only home they lost everything they ever had, including their entire families.

Take for instance, Huda Ghalia who is still haunted by the explosion on a Gaza City beach that killed most of her family. An iconic photograph taken after the June 9, 2006 blast shows Huda screaming next to the bloodied remains of her father, minutes after he and seven other picnickers were killed in a blast that the Palestinians and international rights groups said was caused by an Israeli artillery shell.

But now the tall, slender 14-year-old can be seen playing and laughing with other children at a summer camp, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, where she has become an inspiration to other children scarred by war.

She leads a group of around 20 children between the ages of eight and 15 in games of handball and helps them with drawing and painting. “I like to draw flowers and children playing, not tanks and planes,” Huda said.

The guns have largely fallen silent in Gaza since a truce came into force on June 19, but countless Gazans remain wounded, physically and mentally, from years of huddling in the crossfire between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Many children have found relief at one of dozens of summer camps operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provide essential humanitarian aid to Gaza’s one million registered refugees.

“We provide educational and recreational activities to reduce the stress that Palestinian children suffer from, in addition to providing part-time work for people who are unemployed,” UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said.

Each summer around 200,000 children attend UNRWA camp held at schools and other locations across the impoverished territory. About 30,000 of them — like Huda — are attending camp on Gaza’s sandy wind-swept beaches.

Unlike summer camps run by the Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in June 2007, and the smaller but more radical Islamic Jihad, the UNRWA camps do not include ideological indoctrination or military drills.

“We try to stay away from politics,” Abu Hasna said. “The goal is to help these children confront the results of violence.”

Fifty-six percent of the territory’s 1.5 million residents are under 18 years old, and since the start of the year 69 minors have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting, according to UN figures.

A few weeks of summer recreation may help the children confront their demons, but the scars from the Gaza war could last much longer.

“These activities will help Huda to begin to heal, but her suffering, like that of hundreds of other children like her, cannot be erased in two years,” said Samir Zaqut, a psychologist and professor at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University.

On a recent summer day as children raced across the beach savoring their last days of vacation before going back to school, Huda sat in the shade painting red and white flowers with her art teacher, Ilham al-Assamna.

Though Assamna is seven years older than Huda, the two are united in their suffering. The 21-year-old’s home in northern Gaza was hit by an Israeli shell in 2006 that killed her mother and three of her siblings.

“For two years I could not smile or even cry. Then I met Huda and we began to move away from the pain and agony,” she said. “We are confronting our tragedies together.”

They are not alone at the summer camp. Huda’s little sister Hadil survived the beach explosion with shrapnel wounds to her neck. She wants revenge, but not the kind offered by Gaza’s myriad armed groups.

“I want to be a journalist,” the 11-year-old said. “I want to shame the Jews because they killed my father and my sisters.”

And there is Ayman, a 12-year-old who still has shrapnel in his thigh from an Israeli air strike a year and a half ago and is awaiting a final surgery to remove it. “I want to be a doctor,” he said, “so I can heal people.”

Maysaa, one of the counselors at the camp, has been listening to Gaza’s children for years. “There are so many stories of suffering … In every house you hear different stories.”

After several months of therapy Huda was made a team leader by the Partner Foundation, a non-governmental organization that provides counseling to the children at the camps.

“(Ghalia) broke through the barrier of terror and went to the beach for the first time since the massacre of her family,” said Hossam Radwan, the director of the foundation.

“We have succeeded in moving her past the shock but she is still depressed.”

From time to time Huda stops playing, lowers her eyes, and falls silent. The camp counselors ask if she’s all right, if she would like something to eat or drink. They ask her if she is upset.

“No,” she says, as the feeling slowly passes. “I’m fine.”

Source-AFP

TAN/L

Pop singer Sandi Thom has teamed up with Cancer Research UK to create awareness about the risks of using sunbeds.

The computer-generated images show the 27-year-old singer with deep-set wrinkles, drooping eyelids, under-eye bags, and sagging and discoloured skin, thus warning youngsters of the dangers of sunbed.

One set of images shows how the fresh-faced Thom would look at 57 as a result of natural age progression, while the second set shows her at the same age after decades of over-exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays – resulting in 70 per cent more wrinkles.

According to the charity using a sunbed before the age of 35 increases the risk of skin cancer by 75 per cent.

Thom, who was herself a regular sunbed user is shocked to see the images.

“I’m in a state of shock and the thought of looking like this at 57 is terrifying. Having seen these images I can honestly say I am never going to use a sunbed again,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

“You can so easily get brown from a bottle these days, there is just no point in ruining your looks and risking skin cancer by using sunbeds.

“I hope the horrible image of me will make other young people think twice before they next use a sunbed,” she added. (ANI)

Source-ANI

SAV/S

Our cells contain about seventy percent of water, therefore fluid balance in the body is integral to offset risks of dehydration. This is one of the greatest benefit of drinking water.

Water is used by the body to carry out routine functions, and is also used up when we perspire. The trick is to consume enough water to make up for its loss from the body.

What you might not know about water …..

• Water cleanses the body off waste products and toxins.
• Water revitalizes and energizes the body.
• Water keeps the skin healthy.
• Digestive problems can be remedied with water.
• Water also helps to lose weight by cutting down hunger.
• Water cuts the risk of colon, breast and bladder cancer by 50%
• Water makes you feel happy, so is also a good mood elevator.

Enough reasons to go for water, but how do you figure out the right amount of water necessary in a day? The quantity of water required by an individual depends upon the body weight, with water requirement increasing with increasing weight. Thus, those who are overweight will need to drink more water.

Experts recommend about 8 glasses of water a day. This can be achieved by drinking plain water, from food as well as beverages and drinks one consumes in a day. Whatever it is, never deprive your body of water, as it is rightly called the essence of life.

Did you know that one of the worst fallacies with regard to chocolates is its bad effects on teeth?

Most of us have grown up being wary of chocolates in a bid to maintain a sparkling set of teeth. However, recent studies have shown that chocolates can do more good than harm for our teeth. To the extent, chocolates, toothpastes and mouthwash may soon have a common thread running between them!

More recently, chocolates have hogged the spotlight for its heart protective benefits and cancer fighting properties. This news is one more to choclates’kitty of positives.

The word is out, there is no conclusive proof yet, about chocolates causing tooth decay. Going a step further, chocolates can actually protect teeth by preventing the onslaught of mouth bacteria.

Scientists from Osaka University, Japan, found that cocoa bean, a key component of chocolates have antibacterial properties which prevent the entry of mouth bacteria. Cocoa bean husk, the outer covering of the bean, not normally used while manufacturing chocolates, is capable of preventing dental plaque and tooth decay. Now, chocolate manufacturers have something to chew upon.

But as they say, too much of anything is bad. Bingeing on chocolates coupled with improper oral hygiene is a recipe for disaster. Not only will cocoa butter raise cholesterol levels and risks of heart disease, it may also pose a threat to your sparkling set of teeth of course, only in the face of bad oral hygiene. The key is to enjoy chocolates for its taste and health benefits, but always in moderation.

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What has the use of laptops to do with male Infertility?

Generally, in a man, the temperature of the testicles is 3 to 4 degree Celsius lower than the rest of the body. This is the reason they are embedded in the scrotal and hang out. The lower temperature of the testicle is quintessential for optimal sperm production.

When a man works on a laptop placed on lap, the heat produced by the processor comes out from the vents and get transmitted to the scrotum. This has a negative effect on the quantity and quality of the sperm thereby affecting the fertility of a man.

Read special report on Infertility on Medindia

How is estrogen in water affecting fertility?

The level of Estrogen in drinking water is steadily increasing the world over , thanks to contamination from birth control pills and human wastes. Studies have discovered the existence of the Hermaphrodite fish – fish with both male and female characteristics – in several world water bodies.

Males in certain piscine populations became feminized and began to produce eggs. This startling revelation came from a study conducted in the UK where such ‘eunuch’ fish were found downstream from sewage plants. This phenomenon is directly linked to hormone pills and other forms of estrogen, both natural and unnatural, that have wound their way into the waters

Chris Metcalfe, professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University, Ontario, says, “Closer to home, we have observed intersex white perch in various locations in the Great Lakes. And in the Columbia River, there is a much higher proportion of female salmon than males, indicating that some feminization process may be going on.”

Lab experiments on aquarium fish by Metcalfe revealed that estrogen hormones – 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol, 17 beta-estradiol, estrone and estriol – caused sex change in these fish. Ethinylestradiol is the active component of the birth control pill. The other compounds are the natural female estrogen (beta estradiol) and their metabolites.

Metcalfe also discovered that other estrogen- mimicking compounds, such as plasticizer and Bisphenol, had very little effect on the fish and believes that estrogen compounds and their metabolites released from sewage treatment plants were indeed responsible for the feminization of wild fish.

The feminization of fish in European waters kindles interest when viewed from the context of human fertility. There is speculation that the food we eat is goaded with hormones, specially estrogen compounds. Could there be a link between the food that we eat and the rise in infertility? It prompts one to speculate…

Read more about Rising Infertility in the world on medindia

Fishing In Troubled Waters