* Health Benefits of Vitamin D

(NaturalNews) This once obscure vitamin has been thought to only fortify skeletal structure through the minerals calcium and phosphorous; however, new emerging research shows this vitamin carries many more tasks than just strengthening bones.

Vitamin D and Pre-eclampsia

Pre-eclampsia is a devastating systemic disorder that is characterized by proteinuria (protein in urine), high blood pressure, and edema. This disorder can cause grave health problems for the mother and fetus: pre-eclampsia can cause premature delivery and is the leading cause of maternal and infant illness and death around the globe (causing some 76,000 deaths per year). Pre-eclampsia is, no doubt, a problem that greatly affects mothers and infants. The cause still remains unknown; however, a study carried out by the University of Pittsburgh found that vitamin D deficiency early in gestation is associated with a five-fold increase risk of developing pre-eclampsia.

Vitamin D and Diabetes

Most people in Western societies are familiar with diabetes, particularly that of type II diabetes. Type II diabetes is highly publicized since most diabetes sufferers are afflicted with this particular form of the affliction. However, the smaller subset, those suffering with type I diabetes, have a small advantage over their counter parts. Recent research has demonstrated that those who receive high amounts of vitamin D during childhood have a lower risk of developing type I diabetes later on in life, the greater the amount of vitamin D, the greater the benefit.

Type I diabetes is different than type II in the fact that, it does not arise out of insulin resistance; rather, it comes about because the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas are destroyed by one's own immune system, starting early in childhood. Though more commonly found amongst Europeans and North Americans, it can affect people from all walks of life.

Vitamin D and Cancer

Vitamin D has also been linked to better outcomes in cancer. In breast, colon and prostate cancer, the sun-shine vitamin has been shown to suppress cancer growth and the formation of blood vessels that feed cancer cells. Furthermore, in a breast cancer study, 24 percent in the breast cancer study had adequate levels of the vitamin at the time of diagnosis. Those who were deficient were more likely to have the cancer metastasize or recur ten years later. Moreover, 73 percent of the deficient were more likely to die.

A study in the International Journal of Cancer found that vitamin D protects cells from oxidative stress. This study used the most biologically active form of the vitamin, vitamin D3 along with nonmalignant human prostate epithelial cells. Metabolism of cells produces free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer formation and accelerated aging. Vitamin D links with a gene that increases its activity and produces an enzyme that combats free radical damage by clearing the cell of those DNA-damaging substances. This relieves cell stress and retains healthy cells.

Vitamin D and Brain Function

Because of the many vitamin D receptors in the brain, it has been discovered that vitamin D plays a very important role in maintaining and achieving a healthy mind. Though more research in this particular area of vitamin D functions is needed, it is worth mentioning since vitamin D has been indicated in children with brain dysfunction (its exact mechanisms are still unclear at present).

Though behavioral and cognitive difficulties and their association to low vitamin D levels is still a little sketchy, what is known is how low vitamin D levels affect depression in the elderly. Accompanied by an overactive parathyroid, low vitamin D levels have been implicated to increase depression in older adults, and in other mental disorders. This information is particularly important because, instead of treating patients with dangerous psychotropic medications that have hazardous side effects, depression could in the future be treated with a higher intake of vitamin D or more calcium and exposure to sunlight.

Supplementation

Now that many of the health benefits of vitamin D have been shown, it is time to describe where to find this vitamin and who needs it the most. The largest source of this vitamin is the sun. Contrary to popular belief, spending time in the sun daily is not deadly. Though there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, never spending any time in the sun is certainly not the better alternative. Lighter individuals need less time than darker individuals, about 15 minutes in the sun daily. For darker individuals, more time is need than 15 minutes (approximately 30 minutes).

Another source is through diet. Raw milk naturally contains vitamin D, but the largest dietary source
would have to be cod liver oil.

As for who needs vitamin D the most, everybody needs it! However, it has been recently shown that young children and infants tend to be deficient, even though they appear healthy otherwise. Currently, the new info on vitamin D and all its varying abilities has prompted many to deem the recommended daily allowance (RDA) to be far too low -- the highest amount suggested being 600 IU. The Vitamin D Council recommends at least 1,000 IU (or 25 ug/day).

To sum up all this info on supplementing this vitamin: if people get plenty of sunshine, raw milk, and cod liver oil, many would surely reap the benefits of this vitamin.

Overall, vitamin D has been for years underestimated in its abilities and its health benefits. The future only holds more data on how important this vitamin is; therefore, supplementation needs to be more emphasized.

* Diet Rich in Fish

Researchers have found that a diet rich in fish, seafood, and grains -- also called polyunsaturated fats -- is better at preventing heart disease than a diet containing olive oil, nuts, and avocados -- called monounsaturated fats.

Although both types of fats are healthy, people should probably include more of the first than the second in their diet to keep a healthy heart, the scientists say.

Too much cholesterol has long been linked to increasing risks of developing heart disease, but it has been less clear how the various dietary fats -- saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated -- make people susceptible to the disease.

Lawrence L. Rudel and colleagues developed a method to determine the effects of the three types of dietary fats on acyl-coenzyme A, a key molecule involved in the metabolism of fatty acids.

The scientists found that mice fed diets high in saturated and monounsaturated fat showed an increase in acyl-coenzyme A compared to mice fed a diet enriched in polyunsaturated fat. These results suggest that polyunsaturated fat is a more suitable replacement than monounsaturated fat for dietary saturated fat, the scientists concluded.

Article: "Monounsaturated fatty acyl-CoA is predictive of atherosclerosis in human ApoB100 transgenic, LDLr-/- mice" by Thomas A. Bell III, Martha D. Wilson, Kathryn Kelley, Janet K. Sawyer, and Lawrence L. Rudel

* New Disease Fighting Nanoparticles

Ultra-miniature bialy-shaped particles — called nanobialys because they resemble tiny versions of the flat, onion-topped rolls popular in New York City — could soon be carrying medicinal compounds through patients' bloodstreams to tumors or atherosclerotic plaques.

The nanobialys are an important addition to the stock of diagnostic and disease-fighting nanoparticles developed by researchers in the Consortium for Translational Research in Advanced Imaging and Nanomedicine (C-TRAIN) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. C-TRAIN's "smart" nanoparticles can deliver drugs and imaging agents directly to the site of tumors and plaques.

The nanobialys weren't cooked up for their appealing shape — that's a natural result of the manufacturing process. The particles answered a need for an alternative to the research group's gadolinium-containing nanoparticles, which were created for their high visibility in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Gadolinium is a common contrast agent for MRI scans, but recent studies have shown that it can be harmful to some patients with severe kidney disease.

"The nanobialys contain manganese instead of gadolinium," says first author Dipanjan Pan, Ph.D., research instructor in medicine in the Cardiovascular Division. "Manganese is an element found naturally in the body. In addition, the manganese in the nanobialys is tied up so it stays with the particles, making them very safe."

The bulk of a nanobialy is a synthetic polymer that can accept a variety of medical, imaging or targeting components. In the July 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society the researchers report that targeted manganese-carrying nanobialys readily attached themselves to fibrin molecules, which are found in atherosclerotic plaques and blood clots. Laboratory-made clots then glowed brightly in MRI scans. They also showed that the nanobialys could carry both water-soluble and insoluble drugs.

Pan, who is a research instructor in medicine, played a leading role in the creation of nanobialys and chose the particles' name. "When we looked at the particles with an electron microscope, we saw they are round and flat, with a dimple in the center, like red blood cells, but also a little irregular, like bagels," he says. "I came across the word bialy, which is a Polish roll like a bagel without a hole that can be made with different toppings. So I called the particles nanobialys."

Pan is one of a group of researchers headed by Gregory M. Lanza, M.D., Ph.D., and Samuel A. Wickline, M.D. Lanza is an associate professor of medicine and biomedical engineering. Wickline is a professor of medicine, physics, biomedical engineering and cell biology and physiology. Lanza and Wickline are Washington University cardiologists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Nanoparticles can be a more effective way to administer medications and imaging contrast agents because they are targeted, packaged units — drugs and imaging agents stay on the nanoparticles, which can be made to concentrate at a specific site in the body.

In animal studies, the research group has shown that their original, spherical nanoparticles can carry therapeutic compounds to tumors and atherosclerotic plaques. These nanoparticles also can hold thousands of molecules of gadolinium, which allows the researchers to use standard MRI scanning equipment to see where the nanoparticles congregate. The scans can then detect the size of lesions as well as the effect of drugs delivered by the nanoparticles.

But gadolinium has recently been linked to nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). First described in 2000, NSF is an unusual progressive, incurable disease seen in about 3 percent of patients with severe kidney disease who have had MRI scans using gadolinium. In NSF, collagen accumulates in tissues causing skin hardening and thickening, joint stiffening that can lead to physical disability, and disorders of the liver, lungs, muscles and heart.

"Even though it seems that gadolinium affects only those with severe renal failure, physicians have decided not to use gadolinium even in those with moderate renal failure," Lanza says. "A lot of patients with diabetes or hypertension develop renal failure, so that decision potentially affects many people. Our goal has always been that our nanoparticle technology should be able to help everyone. And with a growing number of people having diabetes and related cardiovascular problems, we knew we needed to find a substitute for gadolinium-based particles — nanobialys are our first step in that direction."

The researchers will continue to adapt the nanobialys for a variety of medicinal applications and work to develop other types of nanoparticles so that they can supply a wide range of medical needs.

"We're not sitting in the lab generating nanoparticles and then looking for what they could be used for," Lanza says. "We see a medical problem and ask what kind of particle might overcome it and then try to create it."

Funding from National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute supported this research.

* How Viruses Evade Immune System

Viral Cloaking Device: How Viruses Evade The Immune System

Viruses achieve their definition of success when they can thrive without killing their host. Now, biologists Pamela Bjorkman and Zhiru Yang of the California Institute of Technology have uncovered how one such virus, prevalent in humans, evolved over time to hide from the immune system.
The human immune system and the viruses hosted by our bodies are in a continual dance for survival--viruses ever seek new ways to evade detection, and our immune system devises new methods to hunt them down. Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), says Bjorkman, Caltech's Delbrück Professor of Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, "is the definition of a successful virus--it thrives but it doesn't affect the host."

HCMV is carried by eight in 10 people. Although it generally harms only those who are immunocompromised, it has also been linked with brain tumors like the one for which Ted Kennedy recently had surgery. Understanding how HCMV survives may help in the development of a vaccine, as well as in the fight against other viruses with similar evasive tactics.

"We are interested in mechanisms taken by viruses to escape our immune system," says Caltech biology postdoc and HHMI associate Zhiru Yang. She and Bjorkman published their findings on HCMV survival mechanisms in the July 15 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They describe the underpinnings of a viral cloaking device, partly made of stolen goods from healthy cells, that helps HCMV to move undetected through the body.

For 20 years, Bjorkman's lab has been dedicated to understanding class 1 major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins and the immune response, most recently related to AIDS research. MHC proteins carry peptides, small pieces that are chopped up from the cell's internal proteins, to the cell's surface. If a cell has been infected, MHC presents viral peptides to signal T cells to kill it. So some viruses evolved to evade T cells by keeping MHC from reaching the cell surface. In turn, the immune system recruited other hunters to search for cells that don't show MHC proteins.

Sometime along its treacherous evolutionary path, HCMV stole a class 1 MHC molecule from its host and modified it for supreme stealth. "This is a decoy," Bjorkman says. She and Yang analyzed the structure of the mimic, called UL18, to compare how similar it is to the real thing. They found that despite a mere 23 percent match in genetic sequences, UL18 looks almost exactly the same as a true class 1 MHC.

The same immune cells that search for missing MHC proteins are designed to bind to them when they find them, thereby inhibiting an immune response. Yang and Bjorkman found that UL18 happens to bind 1,000 times tighter to these inhibitory receptors than real MHC molecules do. "This is exactly what the virus wants--to avoid being recognized by T cells, but to engage inhibitory receptors to turn off immune cells," Yang notes. "Only a small number of UL18 molecules are required to have the same inhibitory effect as a large number of MHC class I molecules."
"What I find astounding is that the virus stole this gene and kept it almost identical but improved upon its binding," Bjorkman says.

UL18 didn't stop there. "It also binds peptides--that's unique to this MHC mimic. We don't know why," Bjorkman adds. The peptide is obscured from killer cells by yet another shield, Yang says. In a trait it shares with HIV proteins, HCMV's UL18 covers itself with carbohydrates, which are unrecognizable to the immune system. A real class 1 MHC molecule has one site for adding carbohydrates; the fake has 13, Bjorkman notes. The only place where it's not covered is where it binds to the inhibitory receptor.

All its efforts have made UL18 virtually undetectable. "It's a good example of a viral protein that evolved from its host ancestor to block unwanted interactions," Yang says. "The more we understand that, the more effectively we can fight viruses that hide out," Bjorkman adds.
This study was supported by HHMI.

* Cleaning Infected Blood

Biologists Develop Machine To Remove Viruses From Blood

Infectious disease experts designed a machine called the hemopurifier. It works much like a dialysis machine, using thin fibers to capture and remove viruses from the blood it filters. The machine requires the drawing of blood through an artery, which is sent through a tube into the machine, then back into the body. It can treat a number of illnesses.

Every day, 14,000 people are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDs. There's no cure, but now a breakthrough -- a machine that could clean blood, keeping more and more people alive longer.

"I remember lying in bed thinking, 'I am going to die. I'm going to die. I feel so sick.' And I remember thinking laying in that bed, 'And I know exactly what it is,'" HIV patient John Paul Womble, told Ivanhoe. HIV could kill Womble. He watched his father die from the virus and now he is living the rest of his life with it. "I've got to live as healthy as I can, but this virus is not going to control me," he says. Now, a machine could help clean Womble's infected blood and keep him healthier, longer.

"It's designed to mimic the natural immune response of clearing viruses and toxins before cells and organs can be infected," Jim Joyce chairman and CEO of Aethlon Medical in San Diego, told Ivanhoe. Developed by infectious disease and biodefense experts, the hemopurifier works like a dialysis machine. Antibodies on these spaghetti-like fibers capture and remove viruses as blood filters through it.

"Your entire circulation flows through the cartridge about once every eight minutes," Joyce explains. The entire process takes less than a few hours. It could help patients infected with HIV, hepatitis C, as well as people with the measles, mumps and the flu. "The cartridge is able to selectively capture viruses."

A larger version of the machine would be used in a hospital, but a smaller one could be taken to emergencies. It could be a life-safer against the avian flu or bio-weapons like Ebola and small pox, giving people a chance to survive a deadly attack, whether it's from a terrorist or a virus.

"I don't have to be afraid," Womble says. "I have a virus. I've got to do something about that virus. I've got to treat that virus. I've got to live as healthy as I can." The hemopurifier is also a leading treatment candidate to protect United States civilian and military populations from bioterror threats and emerging pandemic threats like the bird flu and dengue fever that are untreatable with drugs and vaccines.

REMOVING VIRUSES FROM BLOOD: The hemopurifier uses antibodies to remove viruses as blood filters through it. It is designed to filter out viruses and toxins before they attack organs. The method is very similar to dialysis, and can be used to help patients with HIV, Hepatitis C, the measles, mumps, the flu, and more. It can also begin working before doctors identify the cause of the illness.

WHAT IS DIALYSIS? Hemodialysis is often used as a treatment for end stage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure, in which blood is removed from the body, filtered through an artificial kidney and then the cleaned blood is returned to the body. In the US, hemodialysis is the most common treatment for people who have kidney failure. However, dialysis is also a painful, expensive procedure, and while it cleans the blood well enough to maintain existence, it does little to improve a patient's overall quality of life. Also, data shows that if patients get a transplant before they get to the point of dialysis, they do better in the longer term.
Note: This story originally produced for the American Institute of Physics series

* Alcohol Use Disorders

Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are frequently overlooked in patients undergoing surgery, say German researchers who studied 1,556 surgical patients.

"First, we noted that AUD is not diagnosed adequately during preoperative assessment. Then, even if a finding of AUD was made before surgery, preventive measures were not often undertaken. This is significant, because patients with AUD have three to four times more complications during and around the time of surgery than patients without AUD," study author Dr. Claudia D. Spies said in a news release issued by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

When AUD is properly identified, doctors can begin intervention strategies.
Spies and colleagues found that most doctors didn't use well-documented tools for AUD detections, perhaps because the doctors were uncomfortable asking patients about their alcohol consumption.

"Physicians tend to underestimate and miss AUD in younger patients, especially young female patients," Spies said. "Our results emphasize that the use of computer-based screening methods ... applied to every patient, are effective in addressing these biases."

The researchers found that when a computerized self-assessment tool called AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) was used, more than twice as many patients with AUD were identified compared to when doctors used the standard preoperative interview.

This may be due to the fact that many doctors lack training in preoperative screening for alcohol use and that patients prefer the more anonymous nature of the computerized self-test.

"Patients seem to be more confident in answering questions about their alcohol use in a computer-based question-and-answer format," Spies said.

The study was published in the current issue of Anesthesiology.

HealthDay

Copyright (c) 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

* HIV Patients Living Longer

Since 1996, the life expectancy of HIV patients in developed countries taking antiviral therapy has increased more than 13 years, and deaths have dropped by almost 40 percent, researchers report.

Despite these gains, life expectancy still falls short by some 20 years, compared with people in the general population. Life expectancy among injection drug users and those who start their treatment late is even shorter.
"People on [antiretroviral therapy] can live a fairly long life," said lead researcher Robert Hogg, from the British Colombia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver. "If they are a woman, they can marry and have a child, and see the child grow up. If they're going to school, they can graduate from university, or they can continue to have a full adult life expectancy."

The report was published in this week's special HIV/AIDS issue of The Lancet.
For the study, Hogg's team collected data on 43,355 HIV patients from Europe and North America who participated in 14 studies. Among these patients, 18,587 started treatment in 1996 to 1999, another 13,914 began treatment in 2000 to 2002, and 10,584 started treatment between 2003 and 2005.

During the study period, 2,056 patients died. However, mortality decreased from 16.3 deaths per 1,000 person-years in 1996 to 1999 to 10 deaths per 1,000 person-years in 2003 to 2005. In addition, life expectancy for someone starting treatment at age 20 increased more than 13 years, from 56.1 years in 1996 to 1999 to 69.4 years in 2003 to 2005, the researchers found.

For some HIV patients, life expectancy is even shorter. For example, those who start treatment later in disease progression, life expectancy is 52.4 years, compared with 70.4 years for patients treated early. In addition, life expectancy among injection drug users is also lower at 52.6 years, compared with people who acquired HIV is another way at 64.7 years.

In addition, women had a longer life expectancy compared with men (64.2 versus 62.8 years). This may be due to women starting their treatment earlier, Hogg's group suggests.

"This sort of a mind shift for people, even physicians and researchers, that when you look at this life expectancy for these people is even longer than expected," Hogg said.

Rowena Johnston, vice president for research at the Foundation for AIDS Research, thinks that antiretroviral treatment has transformed HIV/AIDS from an early death sentence to a manageable chronic illness.

"One of the most striking successes of HIV/AIDS research has been the development of antiretroviral therapy that significantly extends the lives of people living with HIV," Johnston said.

Increasingly longer life expectancy is obviously a boon to patients and doctors, but it comes with increased risk of side effects and other difficulties associated with taking these medications for long periods of time, Johnston said. "Clearly, though, the benefits outweigh the risks," she added.

"Longer life expectancies are shifting what has been the traditional portrait of AIDS, such as body-wasting along with numerous rare infections, into a condition that is increasingly associated with some of the manifestations we traditionally think of with older age, like cancers, heart disease, kidney and liver disease, and insulin resistance," Johnston said.
However, Johnston thinks that many HIV patients continue to fall through the cracks. "What we haven't managed to do as well is to increase numbers of people getting tested, so that they find out about their HIV infection early enough to reap these benefits," she said.

HealthDay

Copyright (c) 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

* Latest Spine Surgery from India

*
Latest technique of Spine Surgery now available in India
Health & Medicine

Press release from: Forerunners Healthcare Consultants

(openPR) - Forerunners Healthcare Consultants-is a medical tourism company of India. They arrange medical trips to India for the health seeking individual who seeks low cost surgery in India. Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation surgery is first-of-its-kind spine surgery in the India have been launched by Forerunners Healthcare-The pioneers of Medical and Health Tourism to India. This technology is available in just few centers of the world and will be now available in India as well.

This percutaneous pedicle screw fixation surgery has drastically reduced the trauma and morbidity of the patient. The smaller incisions have also ensured lesser chances of getting infections. The two-hour surgery will come with no additional cost to the patient in India.

Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation surgery is first-of-its-kind spine surgery in India. Instead of making a 10-inch incision in the back to fix the screws, the Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation surgery has been performed by making four small incisions, each not more than 1.5 inch long, by using indigenous surgical equipment.

Previously such surgeries were performed by opening the spinal area by making a long incision and then fixing the screws in the area around the spinal cord, which is was more than 9 mm in size. In, a percutaneous pedicle screw fixation surgery small incision is made in the back, and then wires are put in and the screws are introduced. In the absence of any big cut in the back, the view of the area where the screws had to be fixed is available only through X-ray imaging. The surgery has to be performed by constantly looking at the X-ray monitor.The innovative surgical procedure had turned out to be a boon for those who have been suffering for Back pain for a long time.

“Spine Surgery in India could be highly beneficial due to highly reduced costs and extremely good medical care available. Medical tourism is the term coined which covers patients traveling across the globe for tourism purposes clubbing their requirements for treatment of acute illness, elective surgeries such as low cost spine surgery. Spine surgery in India offers some of the best facilities combined with surgeons whose expertise is equal to the best available in any country.

Once in India you can be rest assured about your proper diagnosis and medication. Furthermore, if situation demands, surgery packages are also within your reach. Medical Treatment in India is amid the best in the world, facilitated by the most skilled doctors and up to the minute super sphere hospitals offer.”-said-Dheeraj Bojwani-MD-who is an International patient Consultant for International patients seeking healthcare in India.

For more details on Spine Surgery in India, contact-Dheeraj Bojwani-MD
Web-www.forerunnershealthcare.com
Email- enquiry@forerunnershealthcare.com
Phone-0091-98607-55000

Forerunners Healthcare
Despande Layout, Mumbai.

Web-www.forerunnershealthcare.com
Email- enquiry@forerunnershealthcare.com
Phone-0091-98607-55000

Dheeraj.Bojwani-MD
Pr.forerunners@gmail.com

forerunners healthcare Consultants is the premier most medical tourism company of India aranging medical and health tours for International Patients in India.More than 300 patients has been treated by Forerunners healthcare Consultants.

* Avoid Junk During Pregnancy

Eating Junk While Pregnant Can Harm Your Baby
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.

We all know that smoking and drinking when pregnant can harm the baby, but new research published in The Journal of Physiology suggests that poor diet may also cause long-lasting, irreversible damage in offspring from heart disease to diabetes.

Stéphanie Bayol and Neil Stickland at the Royal Veterinary College, London fed female rats a "junk food" diet of crisps, cheese, muffins and other processed foods throughout pregnancy and lactation.

The offspring, who were overweight at birth, were born with a taste for junk-food themselves. But even when fed a healthy diet, the junk-food babies had a host of medical problems that lasted beyond adolescence into adulthood.

The rats had raised cholesterol and triglyceride levels - both associated with heart disease. Insulin and glucose in the blood were also unusually high, known to be a cause of type-2 diabetes. And the rats remained significantly podgier than normal with extra fat around the kidneys, another diabetes risk-factor.

The female offspring were particularly badly affected, expressing high levels of glucose and the appetite-promoting hormone leptin making them very prone to obesity.

"It seems that a mother's diet whilst pregnant and breastfeeding is very important for the long term health of her child," says Dr Bayol. "This does not mean that obesity and poor health is inevitable and it is important that we take care of ourselves and live a healthy lifestyle. But it does mean that mothers must eat responsibly whilst pregnant."

But will these results translate to humans? Very probably, says Professor Stickland. "Humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is good reason to assume the effects we see in rats may be repeated in humans," he says. "Our research certainly tallies with epidemiological studies linking children's weight to that of their parents."

* How Food Affects The Brain

Studying How Food Affects The Brain

In addition to helping protect us from heart disease and cancer, a balanced diet and regular exercise can also protect the brain and ward off mental disorders.

"Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain," said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and physiological science who has spent years studying the effects of food, exercise and sleep on the brain. "Diet, exercise and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage and counteracting the effects of aging."

Gómez-Pinilla analyzed more than 160 studies about food's affect on the brain; the results of his analysis appear in the July issue of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience and are available online at

http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n7/abs/nrn2421.html.

Omega-3 fatty acids - found in salmon, walnuts and kiwi fruit - provide many benefits, including improving learning and memory and helping to fight against such mental disorders as depression and mood disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia, said Gómez-Pinilla, a member of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and Brain Injury Research Center.

Synapses in the brain connect neurons and provide critical functions; much learning and memory occurs at the synapses, Gómez-Pinilla said.

"Omega-3 fatty acids support synaptic plasticity and seem to positively affect the expression of several molecules related to learning and memory that are found on synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for normal brain function.

"Dietary deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in humans has been associated with increased risk of several mental disorders, including attention-deficit disorder, dyslexia, dementia, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia," he said. "A deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids in rodents results in impaired learning and memory."

Children who had increased amounts of omega-3 fatty acids performed better in school, in reading and in spelling and had fewer behavioral problems, he said.

Preliminary results from a study in England show that school performance improved among a group of students receiving omega-3 fatty acids. In an Australian study, 396 children between the ages 6 and 12 who were given a drink with omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients (iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins A, B6, B12 and C) showed higher scores on tests measuring verbal intelligence and learning and memory after six months and one year than a control group of students who did not receive the nutritional drink. This study was also conducted with 394 children in Indonesia. The results showed higher test scores for boys and girls in Australia, but only for girls in Indonesia.

Getting omega-3 fatty acids from food rather than from capsule supplements can be more beneficial, providing additional nutrients, Gómez-Pinilla said.

Scientists are learning which omega-3 fatty acids seem to be especially important. One is docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, which is abundant in salmon. DHA, which reduces oxidative stress and enhances synaptic plasticity and learning and memory, is the most abundant omega-3 fatty acid in cell membranes in the brain.

"The brain and the body are deficient in the machinery to make DHA; it has to come through our diet," said Gómez-Pinilla, who was born and raised in salmon-rich Chile and eats salmon three times a week, along with a balanced diet. "Omega-3 fatty acids are essential."

A healthy diet and exercise can also reduce the effect of brain injury and lead to a better recovery, he said.

Recent research also supports the hypothesis that health can be passed down through generations, and a number of innovative studies point to the possibility that the effects of diet on mental health can be transmitted across generations, Gómez-Pinilla said.

A long-term study that included more than 100 years of birth, death, health and genealogical records for 300 Swedish families in an isolated village showed that an individual's risk for diabetes and early death increased if his or her paternal grandparents grew up in times of food abundance rather than food shortage.

"Evidence indicates that what you eat can affect your grandchildren's brain molecules and synapses," Gómez-Pinilla said. "We are trying to find the molecular basis to explain this."

Controlled meal-skipping or intermittent caloric restriction might provide health benefits, he said.

Excess calories can reduce the flexibility of synapses and increase the vulnerability of cells to damage by causing the formation of free radicals. Moderate caloric restriction could protect the brain by reducing oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids and nucleic acids, Gómez-Pinilla said.

The brain is highly susceptible to oxidative damage. Blueberries have been shown to have a strong antioxidant capacity, he noted.

In contrast to the healthy effects of diets that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, diets high in trans fats and saturated fats adversely affect cognition, studies indicate.

Junk food and fast food negatively affect the brain's synapses, said Gómez-Pinilla, who eats fast food less often since conducting this research. Brain synapses and several molecules related to learning and memory are adversely affected by unhealthy diets, he said.

Emerging research indicates that the effects of diet on the brain, combined with the effects of exercise and a good night's sleep, can strengthen synapses and provide other cognitive benefits, he added.

In Okinawa, an island in Japan where people frequently eat fish and exercise, the lifespan is one of the world's longest, and the population has a very low rate of mental disorders, Gómez-Pinilla noted.

Folic acid is found in various foods, including spinach, orange juice and yeast. Adequate levels of folic acid are essential for brain function, and folate deficiency can lead to neurological disorders such as depression and cognitive impairment. Folate supplementation, either by itself or in conjunction with other B vitamins, has been shown to be effective in preventing cognitive decline and dementia during aging and enhancing the effects of antidepressants. The results of a recent randomized clinical trial indicate that a three-year folic acid supplementation can help reduce the age-related decline in cognitive function.

In patients with major depression and schizophrenia, levels of a signaling molecule known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, are reduced. Antidepressants elevate BDNF levels, and most treatments for depression and schizophrenia stimulate BDNF. Here, too, omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial, as is the curry spice curcumin, which has been shown to reduce memory deficits in animal models of Alzheimer's disease and brain trauma. BDNF is most abundant in the hippocampus and the hypothalamus - brain areas associated with cognitive and metabolic regulation.

The high consumption of curcumin in India may contribute to the low prevalence of Alzheimer's disease on the subcontinent.

In humans, a mutation in a BDNF receptor has been linked to obesity and impairments in learning and memory.

"BDNF is reduced in the hippocampus, in various cortical areas and in the serum of patients with schizophrenia," Gómez-Pinilla said. "BDNF levels are reduced in the plasma of patients with major depression."

Smaller food portions with the appropriate nutrients seem to be beneficial for the brain's molecules, such as BDNF, he said.

Gómez-Pinilla showed in 1995 that exercise can have an effect on the brain by elevating levels of BDNF.

He noted that while some people have extremely good genes, most of us are not so lucky and need a balanced diet, regular exercise and a good night's sleep.

* Go Fish!!

Are you getting your two portions of heart-healthy oily fish a week? A great source of protein, vitamins (especially vitamin D) and minerals, like selenium and iodine, oily fish also provides those essential long-chain omega-3 fats, known as DHA and EPA for short. DHA and EPA are an important part of the nervous system, brain and retina and are good for heart health as they prevent your blood from clotting and regulate your heart's rhythm.

- There is plenty of oily fish to choose from to keep your diet varied and benefit from the range of vitamins and minerals they provide; salmon, fresh tuna, mackerel, trout, kippers, herring, pilchards, sardines and eel all provide omega-3.

- Buy them whole or filleted, fresh or frozen or in ready-made meals (just check the food label as sauces can be high in fat and salt).

- Marinade them in lemon or lime juice and herbs and grill or barbecue them; bake them in the oven, fry them gently or poach them.

- For tuna, enjoy it on wholegrain toast, a bed of salad or added to pasta as tinned oily fish still contains omega-3 fats and is a good source of calcium.

- Oily fish like mackerel go well with spinach, watercress and even fruity sauces like rhubarb or gooseberry.

There are 21 meals in a week, so make sure you get your two portions of oily fish - think of it as one lunch time and one evening meal and give your heart, arteries, brain and other parts of your body the long chain omega-3 fats they need for optimum health.

* What Are Healthy Fats?

Good Fats - What Are Healthy Fats?

Those who say all fats are bad for you are, of course, dangerously incorrect. As it turns out, plant-based fats are powerful cancer fighters, and even saturated fats from plant sources are now being shown to offer extraordinary health benefits.

If you want to prevent cancer, or you're currently battling colon cancer, prostate cancer or breast cancer, it is essential to get plant-based fats into your diet on a daily basis. What kind of plant-based fats are we talking about? What are the healthy fats?

Canola oil is what I consider a neutral fat, meaning it's not necessarily a bad fat, but neither is it considered one of the healthier fats. The healthy fats include extra-virgin olive oil, flax seed oil, and fats from plant sources such as nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconuts. These healthy fats should be consumed with every meal.

Failure to include these fats in a meal will result in many of the nutrients consumed during the meal not being absorbed by the body. That's because many nutrients are fat-soluble nutrients. Beta carotene, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E are three such nutrients that require fat in order to be absorbed and used by the human body, but there are many other nutrients that also need fats for human metabolism.

Incidentally, these oils do much more than just fight cancer, they also improve your cardiovascular health and fight weight gain and obesity. The benefits list is a long one.

A fascinating new study published shows that dietary fat is necessary for the absorption of nutrients from fruits and vegetables. In the study, people who consumed salads with fat-free salad dressing absorbed far less of the helpful phytonutrients and vitamins from spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots than those who consumed their salads with a salad dressing containing fat.

This is interesting research, but not necessarily all that surprising. We've known for a long time that healthy fats are a critical part of a healthy diet, and that avoiding fats actually causes chronic disease. The key is in choosing the right kind of fats for your diet and making sure you don't overdo the fats, because fats have a very high caloric density and can add far more calories to your meal than you might expect.

The fact is we all need fats. Fats helps nutrient absorption, nerve transmission, maintaining cell membrane integrity etc. However, when consumed in excess amount, fats contribute to weight gain, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Fats are not created equal. Some fats promote our health positively while other increases our risks of heart disease. The key is to replace bad fats with good fats in our diet.

In other words, if you take super food supplements without fat, you're not getting the same benefit as taking the same supplements with a little bit of fat

The total amount of fat you eat, whether high or low isn't really linked with disease. What really matters is the type of fat you eat.

Written by Dr Syed Muneeb Younus

Copyright: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

* Boosting Weight Loss

Boosting Weight Loss By Limiting Fructose

One of the reasons people on low-carbohydrate diets may lose weight is that they reduce their intake of fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quickly, according to a researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Elizabeth Parks, associate professor of clinical nutrition and lead author of a study appearing in a current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, said her team's findings suggest that the right type of carbohydrates a person eats may be just as important in weight control as the number of calories a person eats.

Current health guidelines suggest that limiting processed carbohydrates, many of which contain high-fructose corn syrup, may help prevent weight gain, and the new data on fructose clearly support this recommendation.

"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," Dr. Parks said. Fructose, glucose and sucrose, which is a mixture of fructose and glucose, are all forms of sugar but are metabolized differently.

"All three can be made into triglycerides, a form of body fat; however, once you start the process of fat synthesis from fructose, it's hard to slow it down," she said.

In humans, triglycerides are predominantly formed in the liver, which acts like a traffic cop to coordinate the use of dietary sugars. It is the liver's job, when it encounters glucose, to decide whether the body needs to store the glucose as glycogen, burn it for energy or turn the glucose into triglycerides. When there's a lot of glucose to process, it is put aside to process later.

Fructose, on the other hand, enters this metabolic pathway downstream, bypassing the traffic cop and flooding the metabolic pathway.

"It's basically sneaking into the rock concert through the fence," Dr. Parks said. "It's a less-controlled movement of fructose through these pathways that causes it to contribute to greater triglyceride synthesis. The bottom line of this study is that fructose very quickly gets made into fat in the body."

Though fructose, a monosaccharide, or simple sugar, is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods. Fructose is perhaps best known for its presence in the sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which is typically 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, similar to the mix that can be found in fruits. It has become the preferred sweetener for many food manufacturers because it is generally cheaper, sweeter and easier to blend into beverages than table sugar.

For the study, six healthy individuals performed three different tests in which they had to consume a fruit drink formulation. In one test, the breakfast drink was 100 percent glucose, similar to the liquid doctors give patients to test for diabetes - the oral glucose tolerance test. In the second test, they drank half glucose and half fructose, and in the third, they drank 25 percent glucose and 75 percent fructose. The tests were random and blinded, and the subjects ate a regular lunch about four hours later.

The researchers found that lipogenesis, the process by which sugars are turned into body fat, increased significantly when as little as half the glucose was replaced with fructose. Fructose given at breakfast also changed the way the body handled the food eaten at lunch. After fructose consumption, the liver increased the storage of lunch fats that might have been used for other purposes.

"The message from this study is powerful because body fat synthesis was measured immediately after the sweet drinks were consumed," Dr. Parks said. "The carbohydrates came into the body as sugars, the liver took the molecules apart like tinker toys, and put them back together to build fats. All this happened within four hours after the fructose drink. As a result, when the next meal was eaten, the lunch fat was more likely to be stored than burned.

"This is an underestimate of the effect of fructose because these individuals consumed the drinks while fasting and because the subjects were healthy, lean and could presumably process the fructose pretty quickly. Fat synthesis from sugars may be worse in people who are overweight or obese because this process may be already revved up."

Dr. Parks said that people trying to lose weight shouldn't eliminate fruit from their diets but that limiting processed foods containing the sugar may help.

"There are lots of people out there who want to demonize fructose as the cause of the obesity epidemic," she said. "I think it may be a contributor, but it's not the only problem. Americans are eating too many calories for their activity level. We're overeating fat, we're overeating protein; and we're overeating all sugars."

* Importance of Regular Meals

It is obvious to most people that our health is affected by what we eat; now, however, scientists have shown that it is also a matter of how often we eat. People who eat at irregular times run a greater risk of developing insulin resistance and what is known as metabolic syndrome, according to a study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet.

Metabolic syndrome is a condition whereby multiple risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes accumulate in one and the same individual. The chances of developing the components of the syndrome abdominal obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and glucose intolerance are affected by several lifestyle factors, of which diet is thought to be one of the most important.

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet have now, for the first time, showed that the frequency of meals, regardless of their content, affects the chances of developing metabolic syndrome. The study, which was based on a survey and medical examination of over four thousand 60-year old men and women, shows that irregular eating is associated with a higher risk of metabolic syndrome.

The participants that said that they rarely ate a regular breakfast, lunch and dinner had, on average, a larger waist size and more blood lipid disorders than people who ate more regularly. They also tended to exhibit more signs of insulin resistance, which is thought to be an underlying cause of metabolic syndrome. The scientists believe that the results can help to improve dietary advice regarding the prevention or treatment of metabolic syndrome.

"Dietary advice is usually all about what kind of food we should eat," says Professor Mai-Lis Hellénius, who led the study. "But this study shows that the way in which we eat can also be an important health factor."

* Spinach - Green Gold

Spinach is said to have come from Persia. It would first have been cultivated regularly when the Graeco-Roman civilization was at its height.

It was in 1929 that the cartoon 'Popeye' was first screened displaying a sailor-man who consumed spinach by the tin-full, and got instant and spectacular muscle boosts from it. However, the idea that spinach contains enormous amounts of iron, good for building healthy blood and a strong body, is ill-founded. Funnily enough, it was due to the mistake of a researcher who placed the decimal point in the wrong place when analyzing spinach, and therefore concluded inaccurate iron content. That does not matter, however, as spinach have plenty more to offer as outlined below.

In fact, when compared calorie for calorie to other vegetables, nothing is as nutrient dense as spinach. Spinach nutrition isn't just about the vitamins and minerals found within its leafy, green exterior.

Spinach still has a large nutritional value, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled. To be sure, it is loaded with such antioxidants as Vitamins A, C, E, K, B1, B6, minerals like potassium, calcium, zinc, and so much more.

Recently, opioid peptides called rubiscolins have also been found in spinach. It is a source of folic acid (Vitamin B9), and this vitamin was first purified from spinach. To benefit from the folate in spinach, it is better to steam it than to boil it. Boiling spinach for four minutes can halve the level of folate.

But, more than this, the major healthy properties of spinach are attributed to special substances it contains. For example, research has shown that spinach is packed with over a dozen phytonutrients. These phytonutrients are potent substances that have properties that can fight cancer. More and more, a substance called homocysteine is believed to be just as an important marker of heart disease and high levels are also associated with elevated risks of stroke. However, one of the components of spinach nutrition is folate. Folate can help neutralize harmful homocysteine.

The incidence of breast cancer may also be cut with the consumption of spinach by women. For men, prostate cancer risk may be slashed because of a carotenoid substance spinach contains called neoxanthin.

Do you suffer from arthritis? You'll be glad to know that one of the healthy properties of spinach is that it harbors anti-inflammatory nutrients.

For the millions of people who are concerned about cardiovascular health, the healthy effects of spinach are promising due to its free radical fighting antioxidants.

Are you worried about macular degeneration and other common eye diseases people get as they age? Spinach has lutein, which is a nutrient that has been extensively shown in Government studies to protect against not only macular degeneration but also cataracts .To get optimal spinach nutrition, you should thoroughly wash it and eat it raw. It works well in salads. Many dishes are prepared on a bed of spinach.

In culinary terms, this is referred to as "a la Florentine." If you cook it, try to cook it lightly to preserve most of its beneficial spinach nutrition.

Written by Dr Syed Muneeb Younus

Copyright: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

* Skin Cancer fears may increase risk of bone thinning disease

Skin cancer fears may increase risk of bone thinning disease

British people may not be not getting enough sunlight to generate sufficient levels of vitamin D, as they are worried about the possibility of skin cancer, according to a poll by the National Osteoporosis Society. The poll found that awareness of the importance of wearing sunscreen is high, with 74 per cent of people believing you should always apply sunscreen when going out in the sun in the UK.

However, a small amount of regular exposure to the sun is important as sunlight is one of the best natural sources of vitamin D, which is important for strong bones and reduces the risk of the bone thinning disease osteoporosis.

Professor Roger Francis, chair of the National Osteoporosis Society's Medical Board, commented: "High profile skin cancer campaigns have made people far more aware of the dangers of overexposure to the sun.

"However, an unanticipated side-effect may be that people now feel that they shouldn't spend any time in the sun at all. Potentially, this could result in a lack of vitamin D and increased risk of osteoporosis."

The professor noted that too much sun causes skin cancer and ageing and advised against spending lengthy periods in the sun.

"However, we feel that people should be able to get out and enjoy some summer sunshine over the next couple of months," he claimed, adding: "We can use the summer months to build up our levels of vitamin D so that we have enough stored to last us through winter."

Cancer Research UK's health campaigns manager, Caroline Cerny, said that by enjoying the sun sensibly, it is possible for everyone to make enough vitamin D while not increasing their risk of skin cancer.

"The amount of time in the sun required to make enough vitamin D changes from person to person and depends on things like skin type, time of day, time of year, and where you are in the world," she noted.

Ms Cerny advised: "We all need a bit of sunshine in our lives, but it's important to remember that the amount of sun needed to make enough vitamin D is always less than the amounts that cause reddening of the skin or sunburn."

Simple ways to get enough sunshine without increasing the risk of overexposure include hanging the washing outside to dry or watering the garden while your face and arms are bare.

However, people who are fair-skinned, have lots of moles and freckles, or who have a family history of skin cancer should take particular care and everyone should avoid the strong sunshine in the middle of the day.

* Influenza, Common Cold...

Eating Junk While Pregnant Can Harm Your Baby
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.

We all know that smoking and drinking when pregnant can harm the baby, but new research published in The Journal of Physiology suggests that poor diet may also cause long-lasting, irreversible damage in offspring from heart disease to diabetes.

Stéphanie Bayol and Neil Stickland at the Royal Veterinary College, London fed female rats a "junk food" diet of crisps, cheese, muffins and other processed foods throughout pregnancy and lactation.

The influenza disease is an illness which affects the upper respiratory system. Influenza signs and symptoms can vary, but are often similar to the common cold, except that relatively high fevers are almost always present in cases of the flu, but rarely in adults who have a cold. Although most people recover quickly from the flu, there is a risk of developing complications in some people.

The influenza disease is caused by infection with an influenza virus. The symptoms of the common cold can be caused by any of nearly 200 different viruses, including the rhinovirus, corona virus or influenza virus. The stomach flu is caused by an infection with the norovirus. Although the names are similar and people often refer to either condition as "the flu", influenza signs and symptoms (other than headache and fever) are quite different from those associated with the stomach flu. What is referred to as "cold and flu season" is not actually caused by changes in the weather, but by an increase in indoor activities and close contact among large groups of children and adults in school settings.

If you have nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, then you have probably been infected with a norovirus. Stomach flu is sometimes referred to as gastroenteritis or food poisoning, because the symptoms are the same. Stomach flu symptoms appear suddenly and usually last less than three days. Influenza signs and symptoms can last for as long as ten days, usually beginning with fever, body aches and chills and ending with cold-like symptoms (runny or stuffy nose, dry cough, sore throat, etc.) usually noticed after the other symptoms improve.

Influenza disease, stomach flu and the common cold are all contagious diseases. The viruses can be transmitted from one person to another by close contact, touching contaminated surfaces or eating contaminated food. The ways to avoid these viruses include avoiding close contact with those who are obviously sick, washing hands after touching public surfaces and keeping the hands away from the mouth, nose and eyes. Antibiotics cannot kill any of these infections, as they are all viral infections.

A visit to the doctor is usually unnecessary, unless fever is unusually high or prolonged or symptoms of bacterial infection or other complications occur. A cough that produces mucus may indicate bronchitis or pneumonia. Pain in the ears can indicate an ear infection. Severe headache, facial pain and pain in the teeth can indicate a sinus infection.

Those people who are at high risk for developing complications from influenza disease should call their doctor within 48 hours of developing symptoms, as anti-viral medications are sometimes prescribed to shorten the duration and severity of influenza signs and symptoms in these people, as well as to reduce the chances of spreading the virus among these groups.

Those people who are at high risk include people older than 50, nursing home and long-term care residents, people with heart problems, lung disease, diabetes, kidney problems, sickle cell disease and children who are on an aspirin therapy regimen and anyone who suffers from an impaired immune system, including those who are taking immuno-suppressive drugs. Women in their second or third trimester of pregnancy also have an increased risk of developing complications from the virus.

Scientific research has shown that some vitamins, minerals, herbs and other natural products can be used to shorten the duration and severity of influenza signs and symptoms. These can also be taken safely as a regular health supplement to reduce the likelihood of developing influenza disease and other viral infections.

* Ginseng for Stress

Many health benefits have been claimed for ginseng, but, as with many other traditional remedies, little has been proven. As ginseng is a plant that is freely able to grow by anyone, there is little incentive for drug companies to invest in large-scale trials, which means that most of the studies we have are the efforts of enthusiastic amateurs and perhaps-biased Chinese researchers.

The primary health benefit claimed for ginseng is that it reduces stress without otherwise harming the body - something like alcohol, only without the side effects. The few studies that have been done have shown a few other benefits: it was proven to slightly reduce the risk of flu in old people, for example. The most controversial claim (again, one that is made for many traditional medicines) is that ginseng helps to fight cancer - but while this has been shown to be true in animals, it does not seem to have any effect in humans.

Red ginseng has a few extra health benefits: it even further reduces the risk of cancer in some animals, and has also been proven to be an effective treatment for impotence, although nowhere near as effective as real impotence medicines such as Viagra. Similarly, wild ginseng has the same effects as normal, domestic ginseng, but is a lot more powerful. Many of the problems with studying ginseng come from the sheer number of different types on the market and different places they are grown, as every variety seems to produce slightly different effects.

Studies from China make somewhat vaguer claims for ginseng, including one government-funded study that concluded that ginseng 'increases quality of life'. It seems likely that this is more of an attempt to promote Chinese agriculture than anything, however.

In the end, the only real proven benefit for ginseng is that it reduces stress, and, indeed, this is the reason most people take it. As a stress treatment, ginseng can be very good, but don't expect the world from it.

* Bloodshot Eyes

As the name suggests bloodshot eyes makes your eyes blood colored. The blood vessels in the white portion of the eyes are enlarged and irritated causing the redness. Some common reasons for the redness of the eyes are due to coughing, eyestrain, dry air, over exposure to sun, dust, foreign body, an allergic reaction, infection, trauma, fatigue, alcohol consumption, lack of vitamin B2 and B6 and high blood pressure.

You can get bloodshot eyes by

Blepharitis - Caused by skin bacteria that leads to itching and turns your eyelid greasy and crusty.
Conjunctivitis - Also known as pink eye is caused by a virus, bacteria and allergy or skin irritation. It is very contagious if caused by an organism.
Corneal ulcers - It is caused by viral infection affecting the outer cover of the eye.
Uveitis - It causes inflammation of uvea, including iris, ciliary body and choroids. It is related to autoimmune disorder, infection or exposure to toxins.

Home Remedies for Bloodshot Eyes

Reduce the redness by splashing cold water over closed eyes. This soothes the eye and shrinks the blood vessels as in case of an allergic reaction.

You can apply cold compress to your eyes by using an ice pack wrapped in a towel.

Use warm compress for red eyes without any itching. This may be due to fatigue or tiredness.

Put three drops of rose water in your eyes.

Soak cotton pad in a mixture of rose water, milk and Aloe Vera juice. Place these cotton pads over your closed eyes for 10-20 minutes in a dimly lit room. This will help in reducing the redness.

You can try the hot and cold compress on your eyes, alternately.

Stay away from allergy triggering agents, which may lead to bloodshot eyes.

Goldenseal is a native medicinal plant that contains berberine which compresses blood vessels and helps in reducing the bloodshot effect. You can use it as a compress or wash to get rid of the pain.

To get relief from bloodshot eyes have two ripe tomatoes first thing in the morning on empty stomach. The vitamin C and flavonoids in the tomatoes makes the blood vessel walls stronger.

You can also use non-preservative artificial tears, this helps in soothing your eyes and clearing the redness.

Wear genuine preservative-free contact lenses. The ones with preservatives can cause redness and other related infections.

Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautionary measures while following instructions on the home remedies from this article. Avoid using any of these products if you are allergic to it. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.

* Sleep Better

Tricks to get better sleep

Our mind is often the best resource we have for creating and solving problems. This is certainly the case when it comes to insomnia. Those who have problems sleeping know far too well the way anxiety about not sleeping perpetuates the problem. You cannot sleep; you toss and turn; worrying about having to be up by a certain time the next morning exacerbates the situation and you toss and turn even more.

There is, however, something you can do to turn the situation around. You can trick the mind to get better sleep. The mind, after all, can be tricked into compliance, especially if you work at re-programming what it understands to be a time for wakefulness and a time for sleep. Here are a few suggestions you might find helpful to trick the mind into compliance with a sleeping schedule.

a) Maintain good Sleep Hygiene or setting a regular schedule and routine for sleep. Getting habituated to a set routine at bedtime works well because it programs the mind and body to a set of expectations: the same time every night, in the same bed with the same routines. Nothing convinces the mind more of your seriousness and expectation than repetitive action. You might experience sleeplessness for the first night or two, but if you persist with the routine schedule, chances are within a week, you will have little difficulty falling asleep.

According to a report in the Boston Globe, a study of insomniacs found that those who had set and regulated their waking and sleeping times, who avoided naps during the day and used their bedrooms only for sleep, were able to reduce their sleepless period (after retiring to bed) by 54%. This percentage is significant considering that a control group using relaxation therapy experienced only a 16% reduction while a placebo group had only a 12% reduction. Maintaining good sleep hygiene is one way of tricking the mind to get better sleep.

b) Lower the temperature of the bedroom before sleep. Cool temperatures make for better sleep because they can trick the body into lowering its temperature, a prerequisite for deep sleep. The body's temperature is triggered by an internal clock. Although the average body temperature for humans is about 97 degrees F, it fluctuates in a regular pattern on a daily basis. Body temperature hits its low (about 88 degrees F) between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., then climbs steadily through the morning before dipping again at around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

c) Wearing socks and mittens to bed can also trick mind and body into better sleep. Socks and mittens widen blood vessels in hands and feet, a necessary step to inducing sleep, according to a Swiss study. In this study, researchers found that as the body prepares for sleep, the blood vessels in hands and feet dilate. This dilation precipitates the cooling of the blood as it flows through the open channels near the surface of the skin; when body temperatures fall, sleep automatically follows.

d) Do not go to bed hungry. Hunger will keep you alert and tense. A bedtime snack that contains amino acid tryptophan is best. The body converts tryptophan to sleep-inducing chemicals. Having a small, lean slice of turkey (rich in this amino acid) with a piece of toast is best. Another alternative is one oatmeal cookie with a glass of milk (also rich in tryptophan).

e) If stomach problems like heartburn or acid reflux prevent you from getting a good night's rest, consider sleeping on your left side. Studies show that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. According to Dr. Anthony A. Star-poli, a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College, when you sleep on your right side, your stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. However, when you sleep on your left side, you turn the situation around and stomach acid slides down.

f) Focusing on staying awake rather than trying to fall asleep can do the trick as well. In what is known as "paradoxical intention," the mind that focuses on being awake will sooner relax than the mind that is struggling to fall asleep. If you aren't asleep 30 minutes after you retire to bed, get up and read a book--preferably one that you know is dull and tedious. Research shows that the longer you lie awake in bed, the less likely you will have a night of uninterrupted sleep. Far better it is to get up, do something else until you feel sleepy.

g) Getting at least 1-2 hours of sunlight each day is another trick to get better sleep. Research suggests that getting enough sunlight keeps our biological clock on track. Out master body clock is a tiny cluster of cells that lies deep within the brain in an area called the hypothalamus. This area controls basic functions such as food intake and body temperature.

This cluster of nerve cells is influenced by light which regulates the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that controls the circadian rhythm of our body (when we sleep and when we stay alert). During the day, sunlight slows the production of melatonin (which is a reason why we feel so alert during the day); at night, the production of this hormone increases, allowing us to feel relaxed and drowsy. Getting 2 hours of sunlight during the day will ensure that the natural wake and sleep cycles of the body are maintained.

If you still have difficulty falling and staying asleep, make sure you see a physician because insomnia can be triggered by physiological conditions such as sleep apnea, menopause or depression. Some drugs that can disturb sleep include antidepressants, beta-blockers, diuretics and painkillers.

* Facts about sleep

The topic of sleep is so vast and yet so little seems to be known about this great subject, which is a daily part of our everyday lives. There are many interesting facts about sleep, which you may not know about yet knowing these facts can immensely enhance your daily sleep.

The more you sleep the more energetic you feel

This couldn't be further from the truth as you don't need ten or eight hours of sleep in order to feel energetic and in fact contrary to standard beliefs, you only require five to six hours of sleep. Astonishing as it may sound, less sleep means you can perform better. In fact some of the world's greatest CEO's, entrepreneurs and scientists sleep only four hours a day and wake up full of energy and ready for yet another challenging day of work.

Do these people have a secret? Not really, here is another crazy fact about sleep. The more you sleep the more tired you feel. You may or may not have heard about this but in case you didn't know, over sleeping makes you lazy. This is pure common sense that if you sit in front of the TV all day doing nothing you're going to become a lazy couch potato. Sleep is the same thing if you over do it as over time, you will become lazier and lazier. "Use it or lose it", have you heard that statement before?

Less sleep means you can do more. What is the secret to the success for some of the world's top performing minds? It may surprise you, but sleeping less means they gain extra hours per day instead of losing them. Imagine this scenario. You normally sleep nine hours a day. Deduct that from twenty four and you got fifteen hours to achieve your set goals for that day. Now consider someone who sleeps only four hours a day, they have an extra five hours to go after their goals. Here's the part where it gets better, now calculate that for ten years, and see how many hours the second person would have had extra in comparison to the first. You will be shocked!

Here is another great fact about sleep. One third of your entire life is spent on sleep! How can so much time possibly be wasted. If every human being on this planet just cut down on one hour of sleep and devoted that one hour to work can you imagine how much more technologically advanced we would be today. Add up the man hours.

If you are someone who over sleeps, then try getting up early every morning and join the five O'clock club to see how this will affect your life. Believe me the results will leave you amazed at what you have achieved in that first single month in comparison to your previous year.

* Stop Snoring Naturally

The ways to stop snoring naturally are some of the most discussed topics in the world. Snoring is breathing through the mouth while sleeping, which could produce embarrassing sounds. The effect of snoring is often so loud it can be a nightmare for anyone sharing a bed with them. More over, scientific studies have shown that snoring will also lead to more serious health problems such as hypertension and cardiac arrest.

Snoring is a common phenomenon and statistics say one out of three people will snore daily, at some point in their sleep. The methods to stop snoring can be formulated and practiced, only after understanding the real cause for the snoring. It is said that snoring sound is produced as a result of the vibration of soft tissues in the mouth, while the air pass through it. The physical peculiarities such as long uvula, tonsils, tongue movements, obesity, nostril septum, allergy and behavioral irregularities such as alcohol consumption are considered to be the main reasons for snoring.

Before resorting to the costly remedies flooded in the market, such as mandibular advancement devices, continuous positive airway pressure devices and surgery, practice any of the suggested natural methods. Most of the natural methods are effective and possesses unique advantages such as no side effects, permanent cure and cost effectiveness.

Snoring natural remedy can be chosen according to the difficulty, which stops the person from normal breathing. Sleeping on the side is the most practical option to stop snoring, as it promotes nasal breathing. Sleeping on side results in the opening of nasal passages, which helps for a normal breathing where as sleeping on back may reflux breathing through the mouth. Use thick pillows on the side to avoid involuntary turns while sleeping and using a thick elevated pillow is another method to alleviate snoring. It reduces snoring tendency by opening the nasal passages.

Exercises are the best practices for stop snoring naturally. Many experts have formulated effective exercises, to reduce snoring. The exercises are non-invasive options, which focus to control the movement of the parts such as tongue, and jaw that take part in the action of snoring. The regular practice of exercise for recommended period of time will certainly give relief from snoring.

Good dietary habits are also an inevitable part of natural snoring remedy since obesity increases the chance for snoring. Avoid high calorie foods and include easily digestible cuisines for the night menu. The excessive use of alkaloids such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol consumption has to be strictly avoided. The tranquillizers and other such medications are also not advisable for a good sleep.

Good sleep hygiene is a necessity for sound sleep and to stop snoring. The experience of successful patients proves that good sleep and routine practice of natural methods will definitely help to stop snoring. Alternative medicines also suggest many herbal remedies to stop snoring, however, seek the advice of an expert sleep specialist before starting the recommended natural methods to stop snoring, since some of them may not suit your body constitution.