Spoiling your sleep, making you scratch the bitten spot, infecting you with serious diseases like malaria, dengue,chikungunya and brain fever.
We try everything that we can think of to get rid of the menace: mosquito coils, mosquito nets, sprays containing mosquito repellents etc. In the process, we have started poisoning ourselves with toxic chemicals like allethrin, which is commonly used in mosquito coils. We even close all windows, doors and every other hole through which it can come. We block all paths of ventilation and are ready to suffocate ourselves to death rather than be bitten by mosquitos. Still all our efforts fail and we despair not knowing what to do.
On occasions, I have taken ‘Ledum Palustre’, a homeopathy medicine in low and medium potencies for mosquito bites with definite relief.
My nephew, Aravind, never fails to light a stick of “dasangam” to stop mosquitoes from entering the house. To some extent, it stops them; an added benefit of this is the pleasant smell that emanates from the fumes. I have read somewhere “dasangam” and “agar bathis” (generally incense sticks) have a positive effect on the mind.
Mosquito repellents is big business now. In every home you find people using some sort of mosquito repellent or the other. As everybody knows, mosquitoes thrive and multiply where water stagnates, whether it is rain water or water from the gutters. Our civic bodies whose top most priority should be sanitation do not have time or money to maintain it. They spend public money to put up hoardings everywhere of their leaders or of themselves, which are no use to the general public and a clear misuse of public funds.
I have come across these interesting, useful and very practical articles in “THE WHY FILES” entitled, “Mosquito Bytes”, “Protecting yourself from the flying nightmare”, “Trivial facts about a non-trivial insect” and “Why do mosquitoes bite me more than my friends?”. I feel it would be of interest to everybody. I am giving below their links, in case you want to read these articles:
http://whyfiles.org/016skeeter/index.html
http://whyfiles.org/016skeeter/7.html
http://whyfiles.org/016skeeter/8.html
http://whyfiles.org/071questions/7.html
For a detailed article on “MOSQUITO” from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito
If you have any additional material, you are most welcome to share them with me and other readers of this blog. Thank you.
Grateful thanks to Terry Devitt, S.V.Medaris, David Tenenbaum and Amy Toburen of The Why Files and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Quit smoking.
Drink lots of water.
Take a good diet of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Take Vitamin A.
Practice Relaxation Techniques.
Stop frowning too much.
Reduce intake of oily and fatty foods.
Reduce or avoid intake of sweets, particularly chocolates.
Wikipedia article on “WRINKLES”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrinkles
Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
1. Do Yoga and Meditation.
2. Do Deep Breathing Exercises
3. Practice regularly Relaxation Techniques like listening to therapeutic music.
Courtesy: The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, April 13, 2008.
Wikipedia articles on “STRESS REDUCTION” and ‘BEST OF STRESS MANAGEMENT”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_reduction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_Stress_Management
Grateful thanks to The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Excerpt from “Nature Cure for Common Diseases”
By Vithaldas Modi
Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi
Pages 197
Price: Rs.20/- (1988)
(A great book and a must for those who would like to follow Nature Cure and prefer to treat themselves).
On the other hand, a high level of good cholesterol (HDL) seems to protect against cardiovascular diseases, and low HDL cholesterol levels (less than 40 mg/dL) increase the risk of heart disease.
To reduce the risk of gallstones, it is now advised to take plant-based foods, fibre, complex carbohydrates and magnesium-rich food.
Schussler’s Biochemic Medicine says magnesium deficiency causes among other things muscular cramps, muscular pains, menstrual pains and hiccough. So biochemic medicine supplements the magnesium deficiency with potentised magnesium phosphate (MP or Mag Phos). In fact, MP is considered to be a wonderful remedy for cramps.
For dysmenorrhoea or difficult menstruation, especially membranous dysmenorrhoea, biochemic medicine generally recommends MP in 6x, 12x or 30x, depending upon age and severity. Case studies reveal great success with MP in such cases.
Depending on other symptoms, one may have to take other biochemic medicines also, along with MP. A good biochemic practitioner should be able to help such patients.
Some excerpts from that article:
To supplement our health, fruits rich in phytonutrients (polyphenols) and antioxidants like Jamun, Lychees and Cherries should be taken.
Jamun, the Indian berry, is rich in minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc and manganese. It also contains a powerful antioxidant called anthocyanins, which has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. Jamun also lowers blood sugar.
Luchee has anti-cancer properties and is rich in Vitamin C. It is also good source of riboflavin, potassium. Copper and fibre. Lychee has been found to contain the second-higher level of heart healthy polyphenols (antioxidants).
Cherries contain the highest levels of disease-fighting antioxidants. It is also rich in nutrients like vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron, fibre, folate and beta carotene.
Cherries are also a source of anthocyanidine and ease arthritis pain and gout, diabetes and certain cancers.
Ms Meghna Nanda Dasgupta can be contacted at
meghna@nutrinirvana.com. You can visit her website: http://www.nutrinirvana.com/Personally, I find all berries: black berries, blue berries, raspberries, strawberries and gooseberries very healthy, though you may not the like the taste of some, if you are like me. Generally, they contain Anthocyanins, Antioxidants, Catechins, Ellagic Acid, Gallic Acid, Phytochemicals, Quercetin, Rutin, Salicylic Acid, Dietary Fiber and Vitamin C. They also have ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity). That is why they are good for health. Properties of these nutrients are available in the Fact Sheets from Berry Health Benefits Network ( link furnished below).
Some other related and useful articles:
For an interesting and colorful article on berries from Wikipedia:
Exercise
Eating in Moderation
Eating nutritious and easily digestible food
Total avoidance of Fast Food and Junk Food
Drinking a minimum of 2 litres of water
Minimum six hours sleep
Avoidance of Over-indulgence in anything
Getting up before 6 a.m.
Avoidance of Stimulants and Spicy Food
Fasting for one full day every month
Including plenty of juicy fruits and vegetables in one’s diet and reducing cooked food to the barest minimum
Regular Walk in the morning and evening
Courtesy: Chennai Times, July 25, 2008 (“Toons & Trivia”).
Detailed Wikipedia article on “Bones”:
A study of camel’s milk was carried out at the Bikaner Medical College of Rajasthan. It was found that one litre of camel’s milk contains 53 units of insulin.
People suffering from Type I diabetes can benefit by taking camel’s milk.
It was also found out that certain tribes of Rajasthan are totally free from diabetes as they take camel’s milk on a regular basis.
Further lab experiments on albino rats have confirmed that camel’s milk has curative properties.
‘Kalaimagal’, a Tamil monthly magazine, reports that the Indian Medical Council has recognized the above study.
Courtesy: ‘Kalaimagal’, Tamil monthly magazine, February 2008
The Six Tastes and their Application in Treatment (especially Diabetes)
Though the West classifies food taste into four categories: sweetness, bitterness, saltiness and sourness, India classifies food taste into six categories, the additional two being ‘pungent’ and ‘astringent’.
Indian Naturopathy experts say one can keep good health and overcome diseases by eating raw, uncooked, natural food. One can easily find websites and books suggesting various types of natural food depending upon the condition of the individual. The general idea is if our food is balanced and contain all the six tastes in the right proportion, our system is strengthened and it can tackle most of the ailments. But since we generally avoid ‘bitter’ and ‘astringent’ food and prefer sweet and spicy food, our system gets weakened.
1. Bitter-tasting food generally strengthens blood vessels; and,
As such, these these two tastes are important and one should not avoid them. They should be taken in moderation like every other taste. Too much of anything is generally not good.
Bitterness contrasts sweetness. As you may probably know, medical experts tell us that excess blood surgar can damage small blood vessels in the heart, eyes and the kidneys and that is why diabetes is called a silent killer. When excess blood sugar damages small blood vessels in the eyes, it impairs one’s vision and one can even become totally blind suddenly. Once a diabetic loses his eyesight, there is no way he can get it back. This has happened to many.
Likewise, when excess blood sugar damges the small blood vessels in the heart, heart ailments including massive heart attack could happen. That is why experts advise you to keep your blood sugar under control.
There are some relevant articles on this topic, which you can see for yourself if you want:
Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, HealingLifestyles.com, ABC of Diabetes and Diabetes Information Guide.
London: Pregnant who eat nuts or nut products like peanut butter daily raise the risk of their children developing asthma by 50%, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday.
“We were the first to find these strong effects on asthma symptoms,” said Saskia Willers, an epidemiologist at Utrecht University, who led the study. “But until we are certain we don’t want to restrict them from the diet.”
In some countries as many as 30% of children develop asthma, according to the World Health Organisation. Scientists do not know why some children develop asthma; some believe allergies can trigger the disease that causes a narrowing of the bronchial tubes. – Reuters.
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, July 16, 2008
Articles on “Asthma” and “Allergy” from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergies
Grateful thanks to Reuters, The Hindu and Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Courtesy: ‘Newscape’, The Hindu, Madurai, Feb.2, 2008
Excerpt from ‘Chillies’ by Rachana Rana Bhattacharya, ‘SWAGAT’, November 2006.
LDLs (Low-Density Lipoproteins)
The “bad” cholesterol that clogs arteries.
Desirable: Less than 130 mg/dl
High: 160 mg/dl or more
HDLs (High-Density Lipoproteins)
The “good” cholesterol that transports LDLs away from artery walls.
Desirable: The higher the better; 35 mg/dl or less increases heart risk.
Triglycerides
A blood fat linked to heart disease.
Desirable: Less than 200 mg/dl
High: Over 400 mg/dl
Total Cholesterol
A combined measure of all blood cholesterols
Desirable: Less than 200 mg/dl
High: 240 mg/dl and up
– National Cholesterol Education Program.
“Honey has a number of properties that make it effective against bacterial growth, including its high sugar content, low moisture content, gluconic acid, which creates an acidic environment, and hydrogen peroxide. It has also been shown to reduce inflammation and swelling,” Dr Khan said.
Dr.Khan’s team also reported that applying honey can be used to reduce amputation rates among diabetes patients. “It can be used to sterilize infected wounds, speed up healing and impede tumours, particularly in keyhole surgery,” Dr Khan said. Studies have suggested that honey should be applied at regular intervals, from hourly to twice daily and that wounds can become sterile in three to ten days.
“Research suggests that honey seems to be especially indicated when wounds become infected or fail to close or heal. It is probably even more useful for healing the wounds left by laparoscopic surgery to remove cancers…….”
As a part of their study, the researchers followed 1253 mother-child pairs and studied their dietary intake. The study also backs up the findings of an early study published in the European Respiratory Journal in June that found a link between apple juice consumption and a reduction in wheezing among children. Among children who experienced what was characterized as “current wheeze” (where the child had wheezing or whistling in the chest in the last 12 months), there was a significant dose response association between consumption of apple juice and a reduced incidence of the wheezing.
Researchers found that drinking apple juice made from concentrate and consumption of bananas one or more times a day (compared to drinking apple juice or eating bananas less than once a month) was directly associated with improvement of wheezing occurrences. Authors of the Thorax appear suggest that apples help kids because they have a powerful phytochemical content, which includes flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and phenolic acids – ANI.
Courtesy: The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, Dec. 9, 2007.
– From a ‘Letter to the Editor, from N.J.M.Yadav, Thanjavur (Name of Newspaper not given)
Excerpt from ISTE Newsletter (Other details not available).
Grateful thanks to ISTE Newsletter.
Courtesy: The Hindu, October 30, 1997.
Grateful thanks to The Hindu.
Despite knowing about age-old therapies like yoga, reiki and acupressure, Bajaj decided to try a novel “clapping yogasana“, when he lost his eyesight suddenly, a decade ago. “If a person claps in a correct way he an help maintain a good health and cheerful mind. It is not at all tiring,” he adds.
According to Bajaj, forceful clapping warms blood and increases its circulation, cleans the blood vessels of cholesterol and reduces chances of heart ailments. While the increased temperature of blood kills germs thus preventing various diseases. He claims to have clapped for at least one crore times in a duration of two and a half years! Bajaj has his name in Limca Book of Records-1997 for his special ability to “clap 9,500 times in an hour”, the sound of which could be “heard a kilometre away”.
He discovered the positive effects of ‘clapping yogasana’ after he learn about it in a discourse.
People in airconditioned offices do not sweat but this exercise helps circulae warm blood and opens pores to cleanse body.
It is the calcium content that, besides heredity, determines physique and gives the body its resilience. A shortage of it leads to lack of stamina and brittle bones, which in later years results in osteoporosis.
For lack of calcium, aggravates leaching from bones into the bloodstream, as blood too requires – an infinitesimal but indispensable quantity of – calcium to help produce hormones, aid nerve conduction, regulate heartbeats, draw essential nutrients from food and facilitate myriad physiological functions. Dried dates, rich in calcium as well as apricots are things that most children love; so too til and groundnut laddoos bound with jaggery, which turn into lip smacking treats are filled with calcium.
Regular exercise stabilises inflow and outflow of calcium, so it is both necessary and advisable. Avoiding aerated drinks, alcohol and nicotine, meats and controlling stress check calcium erosion.
There is truly no dearth of items that provide all the calcium that we can use. The only requirement is that we be aware of the sources and include them in a healthy and tasty diet.
A model identifying this process has been reported in Neurobiology of Aging. As the brain develops, cholesterol levels increase. This promotes production of a toxic protein that attacks myelin. This eventually leads to the brain-destroying tangles visible years later in Alzheimer’s patients. Increasing iron levels in the middle age also degrade myelin. Intake of cholesterol and iron-lowering and anti-inflammatory medications may prevent the disease.
We can prevent more critical physical problems if we heed the warning signs and change our behaviour and/or our thinking. Our bodies and our minds see things in different ways. When we ignore our body’s messages and think we know what is wrong, our body is forced to send stronger messages to us to feel. Feeling our feelings gives us the information we need to stay healthy. If my stomach is my barometer and I am avoiding ‘taking action’ on an issue that is important in my life, my stomach may remind me. It is sensible to ask myself, “What am I avoiding?” Sometimes it may be that I am avoiding looking at a problem that I have relegated to the ‘it is not THAT important’ file. A part of us is aware even when we have rationalized an issue. Our feeling body knows more than our thinking mind and is able to access the information for us. Listening to this information by quieting the mind is a learned skill and, when practised, serves us well.
1. Eat less, chew more.
2. Ride less, walk more.
3. Clothe less, bathe more.
4. Worry less, work more.
5. Idle less, play more.
6. Talk less, think more.
7. Waste less, give more.
8. Frown less, laugh more.
9. Preach less, practice more.
Source: Not given
The trouble, researchers are now warning, is that this sensitive piece of biological timekeeping is being skewed by our unnatural lifestyles. International travel across different time zones, more shift work and late-night leisure pursuits take no heed of that little nucleus. Increasingly the body clock is being masked by caffeine or amphetamines or simply ignored.
Another, closely related way of adapting the clock is using melatonin. It is a naturally occurring “chrono-biotic”; a hormone-like secretion from the pineal gland, melatonin’s basic function is to tell your body “when the dark happens”. It also reduces the length of night to determine reproduction or sleep cycles.
The claim comes from researchers at the University of Bern, Switzerland. They said one gram of onion a day can help prevent the process that causes the condition – resorption, where calcium seeps from the bones making them brittle.
Excerpt from ‘Energy Era’ of Oct.1, 1999
In another study at the University of Illinois at Urbana– Champaign on a group of elderly sedentary people, were assigned aerobic exercise program. After six months, their brains were scanned using an M.R.I. Those who had been doing aerobic exercise showed significant growth in several areas of the brain. These results raise the hope that the human brain has the capacity not only to produce new cells but also to add new blood vessels and strengthen neural connections, allowing young neurons to integrate themselves into the wider neural network. “The current findings are the first, to our knowledge, to confirm the benefits of exercise training on brain volume in aging humans,” the authors concluded.
And the benefits aren’t limited to adults. A team of University of Illinois scientists have studied school-age children and found that those who have a higher level of aerobic fitness processed information more efficiently. The researchers also found that higher levels of aerobic fitness corresponded to better standardized test scores among a set of Illinois public school students.
What is it about exercise that prompts the brain to remake itself? Different scientists have pet theories. One popular hypothesis credits insulin-like growth factor 1, a protein that circulates in the blood and is produced in greater amounts in response to exercise. IGF-1 has trouble entering the brain — it stops at what’s called the “blood-brain barrier” — but exercise is thought to help it to do so, possibly sparking neurogenesis.
Believe it or not, scientists have tested the rule. We are sorry to report it is not necessarily true. Bacteria can attach itself to your food even if you pick it up super-fast. But will your dropped food contain enough bacteria to make you sick? It is possible and that is why you should not eat food that has hit the floor.
A floor that looks dirty is usually worse, but even dry floors that look clean can contain bacteria. Why? Some germs can survive on the floor for a long time. And unless you have a powerful microscope, you can’t check to see how many germs are there. So chances are, some bacteria are probably living on your kitchen floor and the cafeteria floor at school.
When in doubt, toss it out. Some bacteria are not harmful. But others can give you awful stuff, like diarrhoea. You can’t see the bacteria and even if you could, it does not take much to make you sick. So what are you to do with that delicious piece of whatever that just slipped from your grip? The safest choice is to throw it out. Or give it to your brother. Just kidding! (MCT)
Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle, Chennai of Sep.24, 2007
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