Archive for the 'Health Tips' Category

15
Nov
09

Correct timing to take water,

Correct timing to take water, will maximize its effectiveness to Human body.

LilGirlDrinkingWater
Two (02) glass of water – After waking up –  Helps activate internal organs

One (01) glasses of water  - 30 minutes before meal – Help digestion

girl-drinking-water
One (01) glass of water – Before taking a bath – Helps lower blood pressure

One (01) glass of water – Before sleep  - To avoid stroke or heart attack

DrinkingWater2.200172711

 

30
Jun
09

Dhanvantari- God of Ayurveda

Dhanvantari

Dhanvantari

Commonly worshipped as the God of Medicine, DHANVANTARI is regarded as the origin exponent of Indian medicine. Dhanvantari has many myths and legends woven around him. He emerged with the pot of ambrosia (symbolic of medicine) in his hand from the ocean when it was churned by the contesting gods and demons. He is viewed as the very incarnation of God Vishnu. He is said to have recovered ambrosia which had been lost, and thus obtained a share in sacrifice.

Legends make him reappear as “DIVODASA” the prince of Benaras (Kasiraja), in the family of Ayus. Dhanvantari, Divodasa and Kasiraja are names of the same person who is “the first god and who freed the other gods from old age, disease and death”, and who in his Himalayan retreat taught surgery to susrutha and other sages. DHANVANTARI appeared on earth in Banaras in the princely family of Bahuja and became known as Divodasa; he wandered about as a mendicant even during his early years.

DHANVANTARI also appeared to have been an actual historical person, although his precise identity is hard to be ascertained. He taught surgery and other divisions of Ayurveda (Indian system of medicine) at the instance of susruta, to a group of sages among whom Susruta was the foremost.

DHANVANTARI is regarded as the patron-god of all branches of medicine. While DHANVANTARI is not credited with any medical treatise of his own, in the early accounts, there is a voluminous glossary and material medical in nine sections known as Dhanvantari-Nighantu; it is a compilation which is probably contemporaneous with the famous Amara-kosha (A.D. 100). There are a few other works which are also ascribed to Dhanvantari.

There are numerous preparations which are ascribed to him, and many of them quite ancient.

Dhanvantari-Nighantu is considered the most ancient of the medical glossaries that are available. The original work is said to have been in three recessions; the present version which may have been based on one of them, is in six sections and deals with 373 medicinal substances; their names, synonyms, and brief description of properties being given. The work which claims to be ‘like the third eye’ for the practicing physician, is extensively relied upon, despite several more comprehensive glossaries that have been compiled subsequently. Since there are no authentic source of information, this text can be considered more as indicative.

Introduction to Ayurveda

ayurveda-ancient

ayurveda-ancient

Ayurveda is one of the ancient systems of Medicine. Its origin is in Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest continuously practiced system of medicine and it still have its imporatance. This systems consider man as a part of nature itself and treatment are based on this assumption. It uses medicines that are got from the nature itself. It is most widely used and practiced in India, Nepal, Srilanka and there are a lot of Western people who believes in this treatment.

Ayurveda is being practiced from prevedic period of 5000BC onwards. Charak samhitha and Sushruta Samhita are two classical Ayurvedic texts which were written around 1000BC. Rigveda and Atharva veda also discuss about this type of medicinal system. In Indian Epics also Ayurveda has its importance. In Both Ramayana and Mahabharatha the Medicinal plants are given their importance.

Ayurveda means ‘knowledge of a long living’ or ‘Wisdom for living’. Ayurvedic treatment is not only based on physical condition but also give importance to astrological and environmental features such as seasons and weathers. In ayurveda the main priority is to the levels of energy (prana). There are 5 elements which is known as ‘panchabootha’ by which all matters are made up of. They are Water, Fire, Earth, Air and Ether (space). Our senses are also five (‘Pancha Indriya’). Each of this senses correspondes to these five elements. They together give rise to 3 doshas Kapha, Vata, and Pitta. Each of this Doshas affect specific parts of body like Kapha affect lungs and chest.

chanakya

chanakya

In Ayurveda the detection of disease is based on the Doshas actually they are finding the imbalance in Doshas and this is the diagnosing technique. Person’s life style has important affect in the balance of Doshas, hence it is much compelled that the patient have to follow some diet instructions given by the doctor like should not eat oily foods. Some exercises are also referred.

For people who wish to get ayurvedic treatment in Sasthamcotta, please check the below link

http://www.sasthamcotta.com/Ayurvedic%20Tourism_kollam_sasthamcotta.html

01
Feb
09

Beware : Welcome to the World of HIV AIDS

hi friends this is a forwarded mail from fropki.com

(Don’t avoid Pls read this mail)
FROM Arvind Khamitkar, I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai

Aids Virus

Aids Virus

Dear Friends,

A few weeks ago, in a movie theatre, a person felt something poking from her seat. When she got up to see what it was, she found a needle sticking out of the seat with a note attached saying

“You have just been infected by HIV”.

The Disease Control Center (in Paris ) reports many similar events in many other cities recently. All tested needles were HIV Positive..

French aids posters

French aids posters

The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers at public banking machines. We ask everyone to use extreme caution when faced with this kind of situation. All public  hairs/seats should be inspected withvigilance and caution before use. A careful visual inspection should be enough. In addition, they ask that each of you pass this message along to all members of your family and your friends of the potential danger.

Recently, one doctor has narrated a somewhat similar instance that hppened to one of his patients at the Priya Cinema in Delhi . A young girl, engaged and about to be married in a couple of months, was pricked while the movie was going on. The tag with the needle had the message

“Welcome to the World of HIV family”.

Red aids ribbon

Red aids ribbon

Though the doctors told her family that it takes about 6 months before the virus grows strong enough to start damaging the system and a healthy victim could survive about 5-6 years,the girl died in 4 months, perhaps more because of the “Shock thought”.
We all have to be careful at public places, rest God help! Just think about saving a life byforwarding this message. Please, take a few seconds of your time to pass along.

With Regards, Arvind Khamitkar ,
I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai.

Rather than forwarding irrelevant mails, kindly pass this to every one.
Probably ur mail can help to save his/her life

Aids Alert

Aids Alert

Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise

December 1st is World AIDS Day. Established by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day serves to focus global attention on the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Observance of this day provides an opportunity for governments, national AIDS programs, churches, community organizations and individuals to demonstrate the importance of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The red ribbon has been an international symbol of AIDS awareness since 1991. The Red Ribbon Project was created by the New York based organisation Visual AIDS, which brought together artists to create a symbol of support for the growing number of people living with HIV in the US.

The red ribbon is worn as a sign of support for people living with HIV. Wearing a red ribbon is a simple and powerful way to challenge the stigma and prejudice surrounding HIV and AIDS that prevents us from tackling the global epidemic.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 39.5 million people living with HIV, including 2.3 million children, and during 2006 some 4.3 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

World Aids Day Angel Poster

World Aids Day Angel Poster

Research & Awareness Desk : sasthamcotta.com

31
Jan
09

15 Effects That Coffee Has on Your Health

http://images01.trafficz.com/relative/h3w4/4_1196890656_coffee.jpg

1. Some say that the energy boosting effect of the morning coffee is only in your mind and you should sleep more. The caffeine eases withdrawal symptoms accumulating overnight, but does not make people more alert. Only people who do not regularly drink coffee will get a ‘push-up’ from caffeine, while the British Coffee Association insists that regular drinkers do feel more alert.

Regular coffee drinkers swear that their morning caffeine wakes them up, and in case they don’t take it, they feel they have no energy and will surely be less efficient in their activities. Researches show that a first caffeine intake does not make the individuals more alert than those who do not drink coffee are.

Others insist that moderate coffee consumption of four to five cups per day is perfectly safe for the general population and has a beneficial effect on alertness and performance even in the case of regular coffee drinkers.

Caffeine, the main active chemical of coffee, blocks adenosine, a chemical that makes you naturally drowsy, increasing concentration and reaction speed. But the long term effects can be really tricky. Once the temporary stimulation stops, the brain cells start needing caffeine for stimulation and a sudden neural sluggishness installs.

2. Caffeine has been found to prevent cognitive decline in the elderly women. Women aged 65 and older who consumed over three cups of coffee (or the same caffeine levels in tea) daily scored better over time on memory tests than women who drank one cup or less of coffee/tea daily did. The memory benefits of the caffeine rise with age – coffee drinkers being 30 % less exposed to memory impairment at age 65 and 70 % less over 80. Still, caffeine consumers did not have lower rates of dementia.

Caffeine seems to slow the dementia process rather than prevent it. Why caffeine has a slightly different effect on women than it does in men is a puzzle.

Caffeine has been found also to protect against Parkinson’s disease and depression, and this could be linked to its inhibiting effect on adenosine receptors. Depression is eased because caffeine increases dopamine, the “happy feeling” hormone, in your brain.

3. Italian researchers found that coffee defends against blepharospasm, an involuntary eye spasm which makes patients blink uncontrollably, which may turn into a severe vision impairment, and in severe cases, this can make the patients functionally blind (despite intact eyeballs) as they cannot impede closing their eyes. One to two cups daily have this effect. The blepharospasm onset age was delayed by coffee drinking, with 1.7 years for each extra daily cup, and this could be due to caffeine’s effect on the adenosine receptors.

4. Everybody knows the laxative effect of coffee. Brewed coffee also contains soluble cellulose fibers, which help the body absorb vital nutrients, keep a lid on cholesterol and fight constipation. The amounts are of 0.47-0.75 grams of fiber per 100 ml. Freeze-dried coffee came out on top. Men comsume on average about 38 g of fiber a day and women around 25 g. A 240 ml cup of coffee could contain as much as 1.5 g of fiber (3.2 cups means 5 g of fiber).

5. High coffee consumption (more than three cups per day for years) increases loss of bone mineral density. Caffeine is a mild diuretic, speeding up the urination cycle, but “steals” calcium which is lost through urine. Long term, heavy caffeine use leads to a rapid development of osteoporosis.

6. The effect of coffee on the cardiovascular health is controversial: some say it’s good, others that it is a risk factor. Caffeine blocking adenosine constricts the brain’s blood vessels. The heart beats rate increases, muscles tighten, the blood pressure booms, blood vessels near the surface constrict and more blood flows to the muscles.

Researches show that blood pressure and heart rate spurred in healthy sedentary adults drinking two cans of caffeine containing drinks daily by up to 11 %.

But if you’re going to practice sports, the heart beats can increase up to a dangerously high level, while triggering extremities shivering and nausea. On the long term, the unnatural heart racing is unhealthy, and can trigger heart conditions.

7. Caffeine causes sleep disturbances. Don’t even think about drinking coffee or other caffeine containing beverages before sleep. And remember that the alkaloid needs 12 hours to be completely eliminated from your body.

8. A new research has found that coffee could cut the risk of skin cancer. 6 cups of caffeinated coffee daily lowered the likelihood of developing skin cancer by 35 %, while 2-3 cups lowered it by 12 %. Caffeine is believed to impede cells dividing in the tumor, or to work as an antioxidant. One research found coffee and exercising fight against sun-induced skin cancer by 400 %.

Other researches suggest that coffee could be beneficial also against breast cancer.

9. Coffee fights gout symptoms! The beverage lowers uric acid levels on short term, easing the most common and excruciatingly painful inflammatory arthritis in adult males. Drinking 4-5 cups of coffee daily significantly decreases the risk of gout by 40 % and over 6 cups per day by 59 %. Tea (which contains caffeine) has no impact on gout incidence, thus other chemical than caffeine induces this effect; the main suspected being the phenol chlorogenic acid, a powerful antioxidant.

10. Two cups of coffee reduce significantly post-gym muscle pain. Caffeine consumed one-hour before going to the gym induces a 48 % decrease in pain; those who drink caffeine before the near-maximum force test have 26 % drop in soreness. Caffeine boosts endurance, and one study discovered caffeine to decrease pain during moderate-intensity cycling. By blocking the receptors for adenosine, released in response to inflammation and implied in pain sensation, coffee could have this effect. Caffeine seems to be more efficient than conventional pain and soreness reliever drugs, like naproxen (the active ingredient in Aleve), aspirin and ibuprofen.

11. Caffeine mixed with acetaminophen (paracetamol),
one of the most common painkillers used in the US and Europe could harm your liver. The caffeine was discovered to triple the quantity of a toxic byproduct, N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI), produced by the enzyme that breaks down the acetaminophen. Still, the effects would be determined by the daily consume of 20-30 cups of coffee.

12. Caffeine gets women in the mood for sex, especially in moderate amounts and when the women are not heavy drinkers. The chemical is also known to increase excitability in men.

Interestingly, female rats that received the middle dose of caffeine had quicker return visits to the males than the highest dose tested.

13. Researches show that the consume of unfiltered coffee increases the level of cholesterol. Why? Because coffee contains a substance called cafestol which triggers the rise of cholesterol levels. The cafestol blocks a receptor in an intestinal pathway crucial for cholesterol regulation, and is the most potent food chemical to do this.

By pouring hot water over the ground coffee, the cafestol is extracted. The same thing happens when the ground coffee is boiled in water by several times, like in the case of Turkish coffee or Scandinavian brew, or a paper filter is employed, like in French coffee. If the coffee is made without the filter, the cafestol remains in the prepared beverage.

A cup of unfiltered coffee contains up to 4 milligrams of cafestol that can raise the cholesterol level by 1 %. The espresso coffee contains cafestol, as it is not prepared with a filter. Still, this type of coffee can increase less the cholesterol if you use a small cup. Less espresso means less cafestol, probably just 1-2 mg per cup. Still, 5 cups of espresso can raise the cholesterol by 2 %.

Decaffeinated coffee contains cafestol, since removing caffeine does not influence the other compound.

14.Coffee was found to remove 78-90 % of the heavy metals dissolved in the tap water, like lead or copper, because the ground coffee has the molecules not electrically charged or negatively charged, attracting the heavy metals, which are positively charged. Stronger coffee removes a higher amount of the toxic heavy metals. Instead, tea removes just one third of the same amount of lead and has not effect on the copper.

15. Coffee can kill you! Just as any other drug, in small amounts, caffeine (and coffee) is a stimulant. But the coffee plant synthesizes the alkaloid with the purpose of killing�its natural consumers. The grazer eating too much coffee will die. We, too, may be killed. The uncontrolled heart beats are the prelude of a heart attack.

Over 400 mg of caffeine (found in 4-5 cups of brewed coffee) can cause caffeine intoxication. Some even snort caffeine powder, which results in a more rapid and intense reaction. The symptoms are just like those induced by any other drug: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, face flushing, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.

Deadly coffee doses have not been tested on people, but in rats the average lethal dose (LD50) of caffeine is 192 mg/kg: 50 % of the rats died after consuming this quantity. In humans, however, the value would be linked to weight and each one’s sensitivity, to about 150 to 200 mg/kg of body mass.

So, you have to drink 80 to 100 cups of coffee very quickly to die… This also varies with the coffee variety, and cup size, as this determines how much caffeine enters your body. Actually, cases of death caused by coffee drinking have not been reported yet (at least from rapid drinking; the chronic effects are another story) but caffeine pills (just 2 g) are much more effective and have been proven lethal.

28
Jan
09

10 Essential Health Tips (The Basics to Practice Every Day)

1. Move More

Walk with your Dog

Walk with your Dog

Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog; chase your kids; toss balls with friends, mow the lawn. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool, it’s a stress buster. Think ‘move’ in small increments of time. It doesn’t have to be an hour in the gym or a 45-minute aerobic dance class or tai chi or kickboxing. But that’s great when you’re up to it. Meanwhile, move more.

Thought for the day: Cha, Cha, Cha…. Then do it!

2. Cut Fat

reduce fat

Reduce fat

Avoid the obvious such as fried foods, burgers and other fatty meats (i.e. pork, bacon, ham, salami, ribs and sausage). Dairy products such as cheese, cottage cheese, milk and cream should be eaten in low fat versions. Nuts and sandwich meats, mayonnaise, margarine, butter and sauces should be eaten in limited amounts. Most are available in lower fat versions such as substitute butter, fat free cheeses and mayonnaise.

Thought for the day: Lean, mean, fat-burning machine…. Then be one!

3. Quit Smoking

Quit Smoking

Quit Smoking

The jury is definitely in on this verdict. Ever since 1960 when the Surgeon General announced that smoking was harmful to your health, Americans have been reducing their use of tobacco products that kill. Just recently, we’ve seen a surge in smoking in adolescents and teens. Could it be the Hollywood influence? It seems the stars in every movie of late smoke cigarettes. Beware. Warn your children of the false romance or ‘tough guy’ stance of Hollywood smokers.

Thought for the day: Give up just one cigarette…. the next one.

4. Reduce Stress

Listen to soothing music

Listen to soothing music

Easier said than done, stress busters come in many forms. Some techniques recommended by experts are to think positive thoughts. Spend 30 minutes a day doing something you like. (i.e.,Soak in a hot tub; walk on the beach or in a park; read a good book; visit a friend; play with your dog; listen to soothing music; watch a funny movie. Get a massage, a facial or a haircut. Meditate. Count to ten before losing your temper or getting aggravated. Avoid difficult people when possible.

Thought for the day: When seeing red, think pink clouds….then float on them.

5. Protect Yourself from Pollution

Avoid high traffic areas

Avoid high traffic areas

If you can’t live in a smog-free environment, at least avoid smoke-filled rooms, high traffic areas, breathing in highway fumes and exercising near busy thoroughfares. Exercise outside when the smog rating is low. Exercise indoors in air conditioning when air quality is good. Plant lots of shrubbery in your yard. It’s a good pollution and dirt from the street deterrent.

Thought for the day: ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’…and your mouth, and your nose and your lungs as do pollutants….hum the tune daily.

6. Wear Your Seat Belt

Always Wear Your Seat Belt

Always Wear Your Seat Belt

Statistics show that seat belts add to longevity and help alleviate potential injuries in car crashes.

Thought for the day: Buckle down and buckle up.

7. Floss Your Teeth

Floss Your Teeth

Floss Your Teeth

Recent studies make a direct connection between longevity and teeth flossing. Nobody knows exactly why. Perhaps it’s because people who floss tend to be more health conscious than people who don’t?

Thought for the day: Floss and be your body’s boss.

8. Avoid Excessive Drinking

Avoid Excessive Drinking

Avoid Excessive Drinking

While recent studies show a glass of wine or one drink a day (two for men) can help protect against heart disease, more than that can cause other health problems such as liver and kidney disease and cancer.

Thought for the day: A jug of wine should last a long time.

9. Keep a Positive Mental Outlook

Keep a Positive Mental Outlook

Keep a Positive Mental Outlook

There’s a definitive connection between living well and healthfully and having a cheerful outlook on life.

Thought for the day: You can’t be unhappy when you’re smiling or singing.

10. Choose Your Parents Well

Make your paretns happy

Make your paretns happy

The link between genetics and health is a powerful one. But just because one or both of your parents died young in ill health doesn’t mean you cannot counteract the genetic pool handed you.

Thought for the day: Follow these basic tips for healthy living and you can better control your own destiny.




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