Global health chiefs warned against complacency over swine flu, saying one in three people may be infected worldwide if there is a pandemic, as life in Mexico returned to normal.

“It is critical for countries to maintain their alertness and monitoring so this evolution can be followed as closely as possible,” said Keiji Fukuda, acting director-general of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO).

“We don’t believe we have fully got a handle on the severity of the phenomeno…

General Electric announced Thursday that it will spend six billion dollars between now and 2015 on innovative healthcare technology — from portable ultrasound machines to low-cost X-ray equipment.

“Healthcare is an important industry that is challenged by rising costs, inequality of access and persistent quality issues,” GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said at a Washington press conference as he unveiled the company’s “Healthyimagination” initiative.

“Healthcare needs ne…

These nutrition facts about apples make them a wonderful summer – and all-year-round – food:
• Apples are 85% water by weight and they are good to have when you are tired or sick. The pectin (a soluble fibre) in apple helps make your stools firm when you have diarrhea. Pectin has this effect because it dissolves in water to form a gel.

• Apples also give you energy from the fructose, or fruit sugar, they contain.

• Apples are a good source (technical meaning: they provide up to 25% of the required daily allowance) of fiber and Vitamin C. They also have some carbohydrate, very little fat, and small quantities of minerals like calcium and iron.

• Apples have antioxidants that fight cancer, allergies like asthma and even lung disease. One study found smokers who ate apples every day were less likely to develop bronchitis. Fuji apples especially have more antioxidants than other apples.

To get the most out of apples, select well-ripened fruits with good coloring. If they are organic apples, eat the skin because the skin contains most of the antioxidants and other nutrients. Cooking destroys some of the antioxidants and minerals, so eat them uncooked. If you juice them, don’t discard the pulp: pulpy juice is more nutritious than clear apple juice.

And last, but hardly the least, apples will stay sweet and firm and fresh in your lunch box or in your bag. Take them for those in-between times when you feel like a bite.

Read more about apples here:

1. Apples are a superfood

2. Eat apples when you are pregnant to lower your baby’s risk of asthma

3. Apples prevent colon cancer

4. Apples reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes

Sex sells fast and it is no more a secret. Across the globe porn CDs and DVDs flood the open and grey markets depending on whether viewing pornography is legal or illegal in a country.
 
The Internet is flooded with porn sites like never before.  Consider some of the following facts from last year’s surveys and the numbers are definitely on the rise with recession keeping more people tense and looking for a vent.

• Sex is the most searched word in the Internet
• 266 new porn sites appear on the Net everyday
• 70% of Internet porn traffic happens during the 9-5 workdays
• There are an estimated 372 million web pages of adult sex viewing pages
• 35% of all Internet downloads are porn stuff

Many studies are conducted on the connection between porn and crime. There are those who contend that viewing Internet porn has reduced sexual crimes in developed countries. The US dept of Justice statistics confirm that sexual assault has dramatically fallen in the US since the beginning of the 1970s. Northwestern Law Professor Antony D’Amato’s essay “Porn Up, Rape Down” cited FBI stats of 85% decline in rape since 1970 and attributed it to freely available pornographic material in the country. (The essay was however, slammed by the likes of Dr. Judith Reisman, President of the Institute of Media Education, on the grounds that the FBI stats were the result of “cooking the books” and cover-ups to show a lower crime rate!)
 
Concurrently there are people who observe that in developing countries porn viewing affects a segment of the population that is uneducated and sexually frustrated.  It fast tracks them on to a sexual crime spree targeting the most vulnerable—women and children. There is also a danger of Internet pornography abetting sex at its worst—incest, sadism and bestiality.

For further reading in Medindia:

Sexual Deviance

Let’s talk about what nutrients you can get in a watermelon today – continuing on the theme of the importance of keeping yourself hydrated.

The nutritional value of a typical watermelon comes mainly from the water it contains. Which means it’s a good fruit to have lots of this summer. It also has potassium, which is important for people who are dehydrated because they lose potassium fast (lack of potassium causes the muscle cramps dehydrated people sometimes experience).

Besides, you also a bigger wallop of lycopene (the antioxidant pigment which makes watermelons and tomatoes red) from watermelons than you get from tomatoes. Lycopene from watermelons is more easily absorbed than from tomatoes (which need to be cooked to make the lycopene available). Lycopene protects you from cancer and heart disease.

It also has Vitamins A, C, and B6.

So go get that watermelon and eat it, or juice it and drink it. Enjoy!

Learn more about the watermelon! Go to:

1. Interesting facts about the watermelon

2. Watermelon juice

3. Watermelon for beauty

4. Watermelon – an aphrodisiac

The rising number of pornography sites on the Internet has often sent questions about size of our sex organs. The teenagers are usually curious and intrigued when we send them the average world averages.
 
Our average size applies to 85 to 90% of the general population. If you are different write to us or take our sex survey. What you see is the XXX rated movies is often exaggerated. Remember big is not always beautiful, in fact it can be painful for a female. Read on…

1. Penis – During – Erection- 5 to 7 inches with an angle of 15 degrees from the horizontal pointing upwards. When Flaccid or resting – 3 to 5 inches – pointing downwards.




2. Testicle Size: About 2 inches in length, 0.8 inch in breath, and 1.2  inches in diameter (5 x 2 x 3 cm).  Left testis hangs lower than right testis and appears bigger.




3. Vagina – Normal depth – 3 inches and Diameter – 0.8 inches
   When stimulated – 4 inches depth and 2.5 inches diameter. The vaginal angle corresponds to the male organ angle and it lies at 45  degrees




4. Clitoris – 1 inch, the part that projects and peeps out is only 0.20 long. It is male equivalent of the penis and is full of sensory nerves




5. Orgasmic contractions in both sexes occur at intervals of 0.8 seconds and the average duration of Orgasm in male is only 3-5 seconds whereas is females it is a little longer at 5 to 8 seconds.

Related links

1. Orgasm – Myths and Facts

2. Top Ten Stimulating Sex Facts

3. Sexual Intercourse Top Ten Facts

4. Sex Calculator

5. Male Sexual Performance Score

It’s summer again, and a lot of us need to be reminded that it is vital to keep drinking fluids that rehydrate you, and not just water. In fact, the essence of oral rehydration therapy is replacing the salt as well as the water the body loses when it is very hot, or because of vomiting or diarrhea. Remember this if you exercise a lot, or work in hot places, or have to be in the sun, or have small children you need to keep hydrated.

This is why it is vital to drink not just plain water but other rehydrating fluids – unsweetened fruit juices, buttermilk, coconut water, soups, diluted gruels, rice water (conjee), and weak tea can effectively hydrate the body. For babies, breast milk works best.

You can also go for oral rehydration solutions that you find in any pharmacy.  If you want to make this at home, the formula is one liter of water with one level teaspoon of salt and eight level teaspoons of sugar. Add fruit juices to make the solution tastier and more nutritious.

Too much plain water is not good for someone with heat exhaustion, watery diarrhea, or vomiting who is rapidly losing or has lost a lot of body fluids. It can lead to a condition called water intoxication or hyponatremia when a dehydrated person drinks a lot of water but does not replace the electrolytes he has lost. Essentially, the cells – of the brain, heart, lungs – absorb the water and swell. The effect can be fatal.

So be careful to stay hydrated by drinking fluids that replace water and body salts.

Want to know more about the dangers of dehydration? Go to:

1. Assessing dehydration in children with diarrhea

2. Treating dehydration in children with diarrhea

3. Amy Winehouse hospitalized for dehydration

4. Dangers of dehydration when you travel

Before the importance of washing hands was discovered, you were gambling with you life if you admitted yourself to a hospital. No one did this under they were poor or desperate or both. Almost 20% of the women who went to a hospital to give birth died, especially if it was a teaching hospital for doctors.

The credit for discovering the importance of hand washing goes to Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor who worked at a clinic for women in Vienna in the mid-1800s. Semmelweis noticed, like many others did, that women who were treated by midwives during childbirth were much more likely to survive than those treated by medical students or their professors. He noted something more: medical students went to examine these unfortunate women straight from dissecting dead bodies. Without washing their hands – possibly just wiping them off on their coats.

When Semmelweis made it a policy that that doctors and students wash their hands in a chlorinated solution before they visited the women, the death rate dropped ten-fold – from 18.3% in April 1847 to 1.2% that July.

Now everybody knows that washing your hands properly is the single most important thing you can do to stop the spread of disease. It works for the deadly MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infections, which tends to spread in hospitals. It is also works for swine flu – you will find it in every thing you read about how to protect yourself from the swine-flu virus.

Washing hands works only if you do it properly. The US Center for Disease Control recommends that you wash your hands with soap and clean running water in these steps.

1. Wet your hands
2. Rub them with soap
3. Work up a rich lather and rub every part of your hands. Do this for at least 20 seconds, or as long as it takes to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice.
4. Wash off all the soap in clean water.
5. Wipe your hands with disposable tissue and throw it away. Or you can use a blow dryer.
6. If possible don’t touch the tap after washing and use a disposable tissue to turn it off.

If there is no clean water or soap or tissue around, use an alcohol-based solution. Most hand-hygiene products in the market work fine so long as they contain alcohol (check for this). Take a sufficient amount in the center of your palm and rub it all over both your hands till your hands feel dry.

Remember, washing hands can protect you and others from swine flu and lots of other illnesses too.

Want to know more about hygiene and washing hands? Go to:

1. Personal hygiene can ward off swine flu: Indian expert

2. Hand washing can significantly reduce episodes of diarrhea

3. News: New low-cost method to monitor hand hygiene

4. News: World hand-washing day to be launched by UNICEF

Shampoos, conditioners and hair loss prevention creams are being launched in our market almost every other day. Each claiming to be superior then the other. Each claims to cure conditions such as dandruff.  Despite all the hype there is still no cure for this relatively benign but annoying condition. In the long run it can cause hair-loss.

Speaking about hair loss what information do we need to understand about this condition that is medically called  alopecia. Medindia often gets questions related to this topic. Do not get carried away by all the advertisement that claim to restore your lost hair. Some of these advertised products are extremely expensive and can burn a hole in your pocket. Before investing understand the condition and go through our different resources related to hair-loss.

The term ‘Alopecia’ comes from the Greek alopekia, which means fox-mange.

Alopecia is mostly hereditary condition and is normal in some individuals. For men, it typically starts from the forehead and the hair loss continues to recedes further back  till only a horseshoe-shaped fringe is left on the sides. For women, there is more diffuse  hair loss throughout the scalp, but they seldom  get bald.

Some of the hair loss is not necessarily genetic, and needs to be investigated by a doctor. Hair loss in patches (alopecia areata) and hair loss all over the body (alopecia universalis) are thought to be caused by an autoimmune disorder. Skin diseases, excessive hair treatments, and habits like wearing the hair pulled tight and pulling out hair are also known to cause severe hair loss in children and adults.

Doctors treat hair loss with medicines like Minoxidil and Finasteride (generic names) and surgery, and many herbal and alternative treatments are also available. If they don’t work, there are wigs and hair pieces of all colors and styles. If you are young and losing hair, doing your research and being proactive about your problem will help you find solutions and feel better.

To know more about alopecia, go to:

1. Sporting the Naked Pate: On Hair Loss and Balding
2. Hair Loss in Women
3. News: New drug may stop alopecia
4. News: Study says common treatments for patchy hair loss are useless
5. News: Smoking related to age-related hair loss in men