Five Health Lessons We shall Learn from Santa

How you been during his Christmas season? Did you receive a gift from Santa Claus yet? This year Santa Claus brought us not only a real gift, but also give us its own experiences on five health lessons! The healthy gift, you have to receive a good strategy!

Lesson 1: Stay up all night

The only way for Santa to get the job done is to stay up all night on December 24 -- and that can lead to some serious health concerns. Sleep loss has a cumulative effect, and Santa has been working hard, likely cutting back on sleep, for the entire month preceding Christmas. As people lose sleep, they have problems responding quickly to specific objects.

Lessons 2: Carring Heavy Sack Of Presents


You should never carry something that weighs more than 10 percent of your body weight, especially when one shoulder is taking on most of the burden. In fact, doing so can cause back strains and sprains, muscle pulls, back spasms, difficulty walking and tingling and numbness down the arms and legs.


Lesson 3: Obesity/Excess Weight

The health risks linked to obesity are well-known, including, among others, Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, certain types of cancer and osteoarthritis. And belly fat, in particular, can cause serious health problems, especially among men. Belly fat can increase risk for insulin resistance, high triglycerides, heart disease and metabolic syndrome, among other problems -- most increased risk happens with a waist size over 40 inches.


Lesson 4: Deficiency of Vitamin D

Living with the short days in the North Pole, not to mention working the night shift in December, can cause a serious deficiency of Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, which has been linked to several health problems. Santa should aim to take a supplement that provides 1,000 IU of the nutrient. In addition, he should consider increasing his consumption of Vitamin D-rich foods, such as salmon or fortified milk.


Lesson 5: Shift Work

Santa's not alone here, more than 8 million Americans perform shift work, which has been linked with serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, ulcers and depression, among others.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

5 Secrets About Our Brains

Secret 1: 60% of the brain are Fat

Yup, our brains are made up of 60 percent fat, says Dr. Michael Green, a research psychologist at Aston University.

To function optimally, our brains need to maintain this level of fat. A lower amount of fat, in fact, can lead to neurological disorders. Dieters beware!

Secret 2: Our brains beed gut bacteria

According to new research, the composition of gut bacteria can affect brain development and adult behavior.

Gut bacteria can affect autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis as well as developmental disorders like autism.

Secret 3: Our brains also have an internal sense of direction

According to new research carried out by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, humans may have an internal compass that allows them to navigate across the earth without an external device.

The study found that monarch butterflies have an internal sense of direction that allowed them to get from one point to another even in the absence of light by sensing the Earth's magnetic field.

Because we share a similar crypotochrome gene with monarch butterflies, it's possible that we have this magnetic sensing ability too.

Secret 4: Children's Brains are more active than Adults’

Three-year-old brains are two-and-a-half times more active than adult brains, says a report by the California Early Childhood mentoring program.

Because children are born with blank brains, each experience is completely new. In the first three years of his or her life, a child builds approximately 1 trillion synapses.


Secret 5: Our conclusion on time perception depending on how far the event is from us

New research found that time perception changes depending on how close or far an event is from us.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Do you Know Really? Sugar Could be The Key to Lose Weight

Eating fresh fruit and vegetables helps people resist the temptation of waist-expanding treats, scientists have found.

When our supplies of glucose - found in carbohydrates - drop we begin to lose our ability to control desire, while our urge to eat increases.

The lack of glucose – which is used to power the brain – makes us helpless against the urge to reach for high-calorie foods, researchers said.

Obese people are particularly vulnerable, with even the slightest drop in glucose prompting irresistible cravings for carbohydrates, from which we get most of our sugar.

These can be "good" carbs, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, brown rice and pasta and wholemeal bread, or "bad" varieties which include white bread and sugar, fizzy drinks, cakes, crisps and other packet snacks.

Making sure the brain's glucose levels do not drop could be the secret to staying slim, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggested.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

A New Monitor Chip will Change the Way Diabetics Live

Guide: British researchers now are testing a new type of chip, this tiny device could help doctors to monitor the blood glucose level of diabetes all around the clock. Allegedly, this technology has good prospects, it can also be used as a monitor device for other chronic diseases.

A small, insignificant looking square pad, the size of a finger nail, could change the way diabetics live. Almost invisible, on the surface of the pads are scores of needles.

Each micro-needle, which measures one millimeter long, contains its own sophisticated sensor, or nano wire; completely invisible to the naked eye. Together, the needles are in a constant cycle of collecting and analyzing the blood of the patient it's attached to.

You won't be able to feel it either according to its inventors, who say it's designed to stay permanently and painlessly in contact with a patient's arm.

The technology, being developed at Swansea University, is in its infancy stage. The team is now in the middle of developing a transmitter which will be able to send an SMS message to a hospital, or to relatives as soon as a patient is at risk of a hypoglycemic attack.

The idea is to ensure that there is no delay in providing emergency treatment, even if the diabetic is alone and unconscious. Dr Vincent Teng is Swansea University's nano-technology expert.

"The length of a needle is about 1mm and they have a diameter of about 15 microns. That offers a painless experience to a patient when using it. These needles will be attached to the arm of the patient and blood sample will be drawn using these micro-needles. The sensors, which are developed using nano-wire technology, will be integrated into the micro-needles, and that offers painless detection of blood glucose, and continuous monitoring of blood glucose."

An undetected hypoglycemic attack can prove fatal for people with type 1 diabetes. Sufferers need to take insulin injections, meaning they must test their blood glucose levels up to 10 times every day. Such a device would mean they wouldn't need to carry blood sugar testing equipment around with them at all times.

The micro-needles are just part of the work from the University's Health Informatics Research laboratories, directed by Professor David Ford. He says the device being developed here is aimed at ensuring that diabetics are not at risk of fainting, or going into shock, when they're asleep, or alone.

Ford says the system of continual monitoring is an exciting development.

"If a patient was to wear this 24 hours a day it would be an enormous benefit in terms of understanding the way that their blood glucose responds to what they eat and what they do during the day, and potentially could have a role in perhaps automating the introduction of insulin into the bloodstream, which is the mechanism that is used naturally to moderate blood glucose levels."

This technology for diabetics is still a few years away from being tested. But Teng says that the team hopes the same system can be widened to provide pioneering care applications for people who suffer from heart disease and strokes.

"With the use of the right bio markers on the nano wires we'll be able to use this technology to detect other chronic diseases. Say, for example, heart disease, asthma, and also stroke, which is very common. In fact the number of people who suffer from this chronic disease has increased rapidly in recent times."

The WHO says non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, are the leading cause of death in the world. That's 63 per cent of all deaths each year.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis 

 

How Hard You Can Against the Temptation of Food?

You might have thought resisting that piece of chocolate cake or extra biscuit was simply a matter of exerting a little will power. But for some of us it’s much more difficult than that – because of the way our brains are wired.




Scientists have found that a key part of the brain which stops the body from acting on impulse – and gorging – does not function as well in those who are overweight or obese.

A study by scientists from Yale University has shown that falling glucose levels lead to a loss of self-control in the brain which subsequently lead to parts of the brain craving high-calorie food such as cakes, biscuits or crisps.


In obese people the effect may be even more pronounced, so they are driven to eat by the slightest drop in glucose. Their uncontrollable cravings for treats are triggered by falls in blood sugar

Glucose is normally obtained from carbohydrate foods, which can come in healthy and less healthy forms.

Scientists believe the phenomenon occurs because of the brain's huge demand for glucose, which it needs as energy fuel.

'Good' carbs include fresh fruit and vegetables, brown rice and pasta, nuts, wholemeal bread, and beans.

Among the 'bad' varieties are white bread, white sugar, biscuits, cakes, crisps and other packet snacks, carbonated soft drinks, ice cream and corn syrup used in processed foods.

Ensuring adequate brain glucose levels - in a healthy way - might make it easier to stay slim, the research suggests.

“The key seems to be eating healthy foods that maintain glucose levels. The brain needs its food,” said Professor Rajita Sinha, from Yale University in the U.S., who led the study.

The research is reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.Prof Sinha's team manipulated blood sugar levels in a group of volunteers with intravenous injections of glucose.

At the same time, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of their brains while being shown pictures of high-calorie and low-calorie food, and non-edible items.

The scans showed that when glucose levels fell, two 'reward' regions of the brain that make certain activities pleasurable induce a desire to eat.

But the most pronounced reaction was seen in the prefrontal cortex, the 'sensible' part of the brain that prevents people acting on impulse. When glucose levels lowered, the prefrontal cortex lost its ability to reign back the urgent 'eat' signals.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

In Infrared Light Everyone Looks Terrifying

Infrared Light is emitted by an object because of what is happening at the atomic level. Using a typical camcorder, you can see the infrared light from a remote control.


Like humans, most animals rely on visible light for seeing, and plants rely on it for photosynthesis. In addition to the light that's visible to us, the sun also radiates ultraviolet and infrared light.


Snakes have infrared sensors, and bees can see some ultraviolet light, but they're among the few exceptions to the rule. Why are we earth dwellers so attuned to visible light, instead of some other segment of the spectrum?


Why don't we see ultraviolet or infrared?

The traditional answer to this question was that most of the sun's radiation is visible light, so our eyes evolved to see those wavelengths. However, the sun also gives off a whole lot of infrared radiation. What would it be like if our eyes evolved to see infrared light?


If we could see infrared, the sky would appear dark, and grass and trees very bright. Our veins would shine darkly through our skin, and warm blooded creatures would be very easy to spot. That would be a great advantage not only for predators on the prowl, but also escaping prey.


What's visible light?

No one knows for sure why animals and plants on earth evolved to perceive visible light, rather than infrared. One theory is that maybe there's no biochemical reaction that would allow us to translate infrared light into a visual image we can perceive, as we do with visible light. Or, maybe evolution just hasn't found it yet.

"Three things I like the most in the world: The sun,the moon and you.The day is the sun,the night is the moon and you are eternity."

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis