The high alert raised by the World Health Organization (WHO), placing the current incidence of swine flu one level below Pandemic, may sound scary but it could be because the H1N1 virus seems very similar to the deadly Spanish flu virus that let almost 50 million people dead in 1918. But then experts believe there can be no comparison, as understanding of diseases, their transmission and the checks that are put in place is completely different now than it was a century ago. Our public health disaster response – screening, quarantine and awareness campaigns are all far advanced.

So far, 15 countries have reported human infections of the multi-strain swine flu and a little more than 100 people have died from the infection, mostly in Mexico, which is where the outbreak of swine flu started.

What Is Swine Flu?

Swine Flu or swine influenza is a respiratory disease that causes influenza in pigs. Although, these viruses may be present among swine all around the year, the outbreaks usually occur during the fall and winter months just like influenza strikes humans during these months.

Are Pig Farms Responsible For This Outbreak Of Swine Flu?

While swine flu viruses are not generally said to infect humans, there have been a few human infections here and there. These infections have mostly occurred in people who are directly exposed to pigs. Even in the past, there have been a few cases where one person spread swine flu to other people. There was supposedly an outbreak of swine flu in 1988 in pigs and it lead to human infections. It was also documented that health care workers taking care of the patients with swine flu suffered from the transmission of the virus. However, there has never before been a community outbreak.

In this outbreak, Edgar Hernandez from Mexico is the first confirmed case of swine flu. He is said to have been infected from a gigantic pig farm in Mexico, which is one of the chain of pig farms that are controlled by Smithfield, one of the world’s biggest pig breeders and pork processors. Each of these pig farms has about 50,000 pigs. (more…)

You would be surprised to know that the “tasty and scrumptious” foods we eat can prove to be dangerous and fatal too in certain circumstances.

While most of the foods we consume are safe, there are a few foods that can prove to be potentially dangerous and even fatal at times if not cleaned, cooked or stored in a certain way. Understanding this helps us practice safe eating habits.

Let’s take a look at some of the very common but potentially dangerous foods we eat on a daily basis:

Blowfish (Fugu)

In Japan, there was an incident recently where blow fish testicles prepared by an unauthorized chef made diners ill and they developed limb paralysis and breathing problems, and had to be hospitalized. The owner of the restaurant did not have the license to serve Blowfish, which is extremely poisonous if not prepared properly. Fugu is considered a delicacy in Japan and Hong Kong. According to a Health Association in Japan, Blowfish poison, called tetrodotoxin is about 1,200 times more poisonous than potassium cyanide. It has the capacity to cause death within one hour after eating. Statistics reveal that more than 100 people die of Fugu poisoning each year. The most poisonous parts of Fugu are the muscles, liver, ovaries and the skin. The chefs need to have a special licence to prepare Blowfish and getting the licence is a long process, and after the training, the chef has to prepare a Fugu meal and eat it himself. So, the next time you are in Japan, you know which food you should not be tempted to try. (more…)

Here are two of the most dreaded diseases that nobody would want happening to them or their loved ones. It helps to understand them better in order to deal with them more efficiently.

Aids

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease that you can get infected with because of a weakness in the body’s immune system that fights diseases. AIDS is caused by a virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

When a person acquires HIV, the body naturally makes “antibodies,” which are special molecules, to fight this infection. The detection of HIV in a person is done by a blood test which looks for these antibodies. If antibodies are found in the person’s blood, it means the person has HIV infection. People with HIV antibodies are called “HIV-positive,”

It is a misconception that people who are HIV-positive all have AIDS. Hundreds of people who are HIV-positive do not get sick for years. As this HIV-infection progresses, it slowly collapses the body’s immune system. When this happens, all the viruses, fungi, bacteria and parasites that usually are harmless to normal people, make people sick, causing “opportunistic infections.” (more…)

Let’s see who can stare the longest without blinking! Scientists have just taken away all the fun out of playing the stare game.

We think we are gazing at some object fixedly without moving our eyes. But scientists say there is nothing like a steady stare, as the eyes continue to move even when we try and fix a gaze on a stationary object.

We may not be able to notice the eye movements, but our eyes are making flickering movements unconsciously thousands of times.

These movements are called microsaccades and are a type of fixational eye movements and occur when we gaze at something fixedly for at least many seconds. This is not only common to humans but also happens in animals with foveal vision.

Fovea is a part of the eye that is located at the center of the retina and is responsible for sharp central vision (foveal vision). This vision is important for reading, watching movies, driving and all activities that require visual detail. (more…)

Unlike our ancestors who used their muscles for everyday activities and lived a physical lifestyle, our lifestyles are comparatively sedentary. Body fat is accumulated in unwanted places and the perfect body shape is a dream. Getting rid of the fat seems an almost impossible task. Fortunately, with the advancement in science, there are ways we can do something about that.

Just like sculpting a figure, body sculpting is the new term used to describe cosmetic surgery that is intended to change a person’s body contours to achieve a perceived perfect physique.

It is most natural for fat to deposit in specific areas of our body and can impact an otherwise perfect physique. These localized fat deposits often are hereditary, such as in the neck, chin, arms, abdomen, breasts, flanks, knees, thighs and buttocks.

There are a couple of popular methods available for us to get rid of these deposits and shape our bodies the way we want; liposuction and lipolysis.

Liposuction was first performed in 1974 and has advanced over the years. It is now considered as one of the safest body shaping and contouring surgeries that helps in removing unwanted fat from specific areas. Fat cells are taken out from under the skin using a vacuum-suction cannula (a hollow instrument that looks like a pen) or with the use of an ultrasonic probe that breaks up the fat into small pieces and removes it with the help of suction.

Lipolysis on the contrary is a procedure where there is a breakdown of fat that is stored in fat cells, which means melting down of fat in the body through injections without any procedure. It works for spot reduction of fat. The fat cells are dissolved into liquid and eliminated from the body through urine and feces. It takes about two weeks for the results to be noticed. (more…)

The human brain is the most complex and highly sophisticated computer ever built. The entire nervous system is very complex and is as vulnerable to various problems as the rest of the body is. There is fear of damage to the brain cells, infections, injuries, degeneration and other defects and tumors. Degeneration or disease in which nerve cells degenerate and die, usually quite slowly, is pre-senile dementia, which includes Alzheimer’s.

What is Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a non-reversible age-related brain disorder that develops over a period of time (years). In the initial stages, people experience confusion and memory loss, which usually is mistaken for memory changes associated with aging. However, these symptoms of AD gradually lead to personality and behavior changes, a decline in cognitive abilities such as decision-making skills, language skills as well as problems recognizing even close family and friends. Ultimately, AD leads to loss of mental function. These losses are caused by the worsening breakdown of the connections between different neurons in the brain and eventually their death. AD comes under the group of disorders called dementias and is the most common cause of dementia among people aged 65 and older. (more…)

Obesity is a problem most adults of today face. Some give up trying to reduce weight thinking it’s hereditary and others get discouraged when nothing seems to work. There are some people who are happy with themselves and what they are.

Agreed, we do not have to bother about what others feel about us but we have to be concerned about our health. Obesity as we all know leads to all sorts of health problems. Lack of exercise only aggravates the situation.

Researchers have time and again drilled it into us that exercise helps burn fat. Results of another recent study reveal that just a single bout of exercise helps obese people boost their fat-burning rate and improve their metabolism.

This is great news and should motivate all those obese individuals who have given up taking care of their health. According to a researcher from the University of Michigan, “This means that exercising, even without losing weight, can benefit individuals in terms of metabolic health. By exercising to increase their ability to burn fat and store fat as triglycerides in muscle, which is beneficial, people reduce their insulin resistance and their likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.”

They also found that obese women’s fat burning rate had reduced when they overate and did not exercise. (more…)

A woman’s curse? In the West, through much of its history, women were considered ritually unclean during the monthly flow of blood. This period put a woman into a state of ritual defilement. Theologians believed that this “unclean creature” could not be entrusted with the care of God’s sacred rituals. Similar taboos existed among many cultures, including the Greeks and Romans. Women were not only considered to be “impure” but in danger of communicating this impurity to others. Anyone who touches a woman or her belongings becomes unclean and must clean themselves. These traditions were onerous and complicated.

Now for the blessings of the curse! The same blood is now claimed by researchers as life-saving. It is found to contain stem cells that are in the early stages of development, thus having the potential to turn into different types of cells.

American and Japanese researchers say that this blood contains adult stem cells and can be the “super repair kit” for the body. These stem cells can be used to develop nine different types of cells for growing new cartilage, bone, fat, skin, brain cells, lung, nerve, muscle and even the heart. (more…)

By now you know that it is not possible to “live” with a toxic colon because it will not let you live. Yes, it can get very bad if neglected and lead to a host of debilitating health issues, including obesity, severe gastrointestinal dysfunction, gum disease, food allergies as well as recurring depression. But, how do you know if you are a victim?

You will certainly know when you cannot see your knees anymore – due to overweight. That sounds scary but it is a fact.

There are other ways of finding out the condition of the colon. One obvious sign is difficult and painful bowel movements. According to Robert Gray, a nutritional counselor, “Few people have any inkling as to how much old, hardened feces are chronically present within their bodies.”

Transit time can also be used to measure the health of a bowel, with the optimal transit time being 18-20 hours. Other symptoms of a toxic bowel are bloating and gas, weight gain, lower back pain, headaches, fatigue, depression, dark circles under the eyes, sallow complexion, abnormal body odor, tender abdomen and bad breath.

While observing the symptoms is essential, nutritionists also advise undergoing tests to get more detailed information about the colon condition. These tests may also help determine the treatment that is needed. (more…)

“Funiculus umbilicalis” in spite of sounding like a magic spell from a Harry Potter movie; is the Latin name for the narrow cord of tissue, commonly known as the umbilical cord that connects the embryo to the placenta. It brings nutrient-rich oxygenated blood from the placenta to the embryo or fetus and returns the deoxygenated, nutrient-depleted blood to the placenta.

According to researchers, this fetal life-support system has now been found to have other uses too. Stem cells from the umbilical cord are said to be helpful in the treatment of several diseases, such as hepatic diseases, sickle cell disease, leukemia, thallasemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and others. When healthy stem cells are transplanted into an ill child, these cells can grow new bone marrow cells and replace the destroyed ones.

Cord blood is the blood that is left in the umbilical cord after birth. This blood contains stem cells, which is what a human body is made of. These cells have the ability to develop into hundreds of different types of cells in the human body, like blood cells, bone marrow cells and brain cells. They are found at every stage, when developing from an embryo into an adult.

Stem cell research was always believed to hold awesome potential. Scientists believe that stem cells may be used to repair or even replace damaged cells and this has a huge potential of changing the treatment for diseases such as cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s etc.

Researchers from the Universities of Leon and Granada have revealed that the human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBCs) have been studied to have the capacity to treat hepatic diseases, such as hepatitis. They also say these cells can prove to be an effective alternative to bone marrow.

Currently, the treatment for hepatic failure is liver transplant; however, this is an issue because of lack of enough donors. There is also no specific treatment for fibrosis that is caused by hepatic diseases and this research can help many people suffering from this condition. (more…)