Left to Die

By: Dr. Nasir Siddiki

By age 34, Nasir Siddiki, a successful businessman, had made his first million, but money meant nothing to him on his deathbed. Diagnosed with the worst case of shingles ever admitted to Toronto General Hospital, his immune system shut down and doctors left him to die.

The next morning I woke in a sterile room on the eighth floor of the hospital, my skin burning as though someone had doused me in gasoline and lit a match. I felt on fire from the inside out.

My doctor arrived and looked at me in wonder. “The blisters are multiplying so fast I can literally watch them grow,” he said. ‘”Your body isn’t fighting back.”

The next morning, in addition to shingles, I had chicken pox from head to toe. I was put in strict isolation. That evening my temperature soared to 107.6 degrees — hot enough to leave my brain permanently scrambled. 

Sex Lives of Diabetic Men Improve with Weight Loss

Sarah C.P. Williams, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor

If you're an overweight man with diabetes, changing your eating habits may improve your life more than popping a pill can.

A new study concludes that even for men with diabetes that's well-controlled by medication, dieting can improve the erectile dysfunction and urological problems commonly experienced.

"Lower urinary tract symptoms are often ignored," said Dr. Gary Wittert, an endocrinologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, who led the research. "But they may affect up to 40 percent of the overweight, diabetic population."

These symptoms, Wittert said, include erectile dysfunction and overactive bladder syndrome, which is often characterized by urinating frequently and urgently.

"Medication is expensive, medical care is expensive, here's a lifestyle change that's quick, cheap, easy, and can improve health substantially beyond anything that medication can do," Wittert said.

Avoid eating after dark to lose weight: study

AFP Relax

Make your final meal of the day one that sets with the sun in order to lose weight.

That's the overriding conclusion of a recently published study which found that eating after dark could be a contributing factor to obesity.

It's a theory that correlates the metabolic cycles of different organs to eating schedules, researchers explained in the study published online in the journal Cell Metabolism last week. While other studies have examined how nighttime eating affects the body's circadian rhythms, the latest research also underscores how this unhealthy habit relates to the cycles of particular organs.

"Every organ has a clock," said lead author of the study Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute in a statement. "That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles, and other organs will work at peak efficiency and other times when they are -- more or less -- sleeping."

Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk: study

REUTERS - Circumcised men may have a slightly lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who still have their foreskin, according to a U.S. study.

The World Health Organization already recommends the controversial procedure based on research showing it lowers heterosexual men's risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Last year scientists also reported that wives and girlfriends of circumcised men had lower rates of infection with human papillomavirus or HPV, which in rare cases may lead to cervical and other cancers. And last week, researchers reported that African men who were circumcised were less likely to be infected with a particular herpes virus.

The new study, published in the journal Cancer, jibes with those findings but falls short of actually proving that circumcision will reduce a boy's future cancer risk, said Jonathan Writer, at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who led the study.

"I would not go out and advocate for widespread circumcision to prevent prostate cancer," Wright said. "We see an association, but it doesn't prove causality."

Although most U.S. men are circumcised, the procedure has become less popular over the past decade, and various groups have spoken out against it. In September, the Royal Dutch Medical Association discouraged the practice, calling it a "painful and harmful ritual."

For their study, Wright and his colleagues compared two groups of more than 1,600 men who had answered questions about their medical history, sex life and whether or not they were circumcised. Half had prostate cancer, the others didn't.

In the group with cancer, 69 percent of the men have been circumcised, compared to 72 percent of those without cancer -- suggesting a small protective effect.

Even accounting for a host of other factors, such as age, race and whether or not the men had been screened for prostate cancer, those who were circumcised still had a 15 percent lower risk of the disease.

"Circumcision before first sexual intercourse is associated with a reduction in the relative risk of prostate cancer in the study population," Wright and his colleagues wrote.

The foreskin is prone to tiny tears during sex, which may help bacteria and viruses enter the bloodstream.

Wright said that some viruses can trigger cancer when they are incorporated into human DNA. Another possibility is that sexually transmitted microorganisms could lead to cancer by causing chronic inflammation.

One in six U.S. men will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, although only a minority of them will die from the disease. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/h73jcS

(Reporting from New York by Frederik Joelving at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/circumcision-tied-lower-prostate-cancer-risk-study-004109207.html

Cured meats linked to exacerbated respiratory illness symptoms: study

AFP Relax

Eating too much cured meats like salami, chorizo and bacon can worsen symptoms of respiratory diseases like emphysema and chronic bronchitis and lead to a trip to the hospital, says a new study.

Published in the European Respiratory Journal last week, a team of Spanish researchers say they've found a link between the consumption of cured meats and the increased number of hospital admissions among people suffering from chronic pulmonary disease (COPD).

The umbrella term is used for a number of respiratory illnesses caused by inflammation in the lungs.

For their study, researchers worked with 274 COPD patients from their first hospital admission and monitored them for the next two years. Participants also provided information on their cured meat consumption.

Their conclusion? People who eat large quantities of cured meats -- identified as more than a slice of ham or equivalent a day -- were more likely to experience exacerbated symptoms and be admitted to hospital.

Researchers believe the problem lies in the nitrites which act as preservatives and anti-bacterial agents in the meats -- substances which have also been shown to cause a reaction and damage tissue in the lungs.

While previous research has shown that increased consumption of cured meats like hot dogs and salami can lead to an increased risk of developing COPD, the Spanish researchers say theirs is the first to show that eating processed meats can also inflame and worsen symptoms.

Processed and cured red meats, which are high in sodium and nitrites, have also been linked to the development of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and bowel cancer.

http://bit.ly/vZsDvU

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/cured-meats-linked-exacerbated-respiratory-illness-symptoms-study-143050895.html

What is Bad Ozone?

Sometimes we hear that ozone is good, as in the ozone layer, and sometimes we hear that ozone is bad as in air pollution or smog.  How can it be both good and bad?  This depends on where it is in the environment and how it is formed.  


This page will discuss the so called "bad ozone" or "ground level ozone".  To learn about "good ozone" by clicking on this link.  


In the Earth’s lower atmosphere, near ground level, ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, chemical plants, and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight. 


Ozone pollution is a concern during the summer months when the weather conditions needed to form ground-level ozone—lots of sun, hot temperatures—normally occur.

Ozone can irritate your respiratory system, causing you to start coughing, feel an irritation in your throat and/or experience an uncomfortable sensation in your chest. Ozone can reduce lung function and make it more difficult for you to breathe as deeply and vigorously as you normally would. 


When this happens, you may notice that breathing starts to feel uncomfortable. If you are exercising or working outdoors, you may notice that you are taking more rapid and shallow breaths than normal. 


Ozone can aggravate asthma. When ozone levels are high, more people with asthma have attacks that require a doctor’s attention or the use of additional medication. One reason this happens is that ozone makes people more sensitive to allergens, which are the most common triggers for asthma attacks. Also, asthmatics are more severely affected by the reduced lung function and irritation that ozone causes in the respiratory system. 


Ozone can inflame and damage cells that line your lungs. Within a few days, the damaged cells are replaced and the old cells are shed—much in the way your skin peels after a sunburn. 


Ozone may aggravate chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis and reduce the immune system’s ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system.

This is why ozone water treatment systems are designed to remove ozone before the vent gas is released into the environment.

Here are some additional links on ground level ozone:

Ozone and Your Health (USEPA)
Smog - Who Does it Hurt? (USEPA)
Summertime Safety: Keeping Kids Safe from Sun and Smog (USEPA)USEPA Ozone Air Quality StandardsUS Ozone Air Quality Trends


gotquestions http://www.spartanwatertreatment.com/ground-level-ozone.html

The chia craze

By Lauren EverittBBC News Magazine 

Many people in the UK won't have heard of the chia seed, but if regulators give their backing this US superfood craze could be on the way.

Goji berries, kombucha, wheatgrass, acai berries. It seems rarely a year passes without at least one new health-food frenzy.

Everything from handfuls of strange seeds to bacteria-infested yoghurts to espresso-style shots of odd-tasting green juices are touted as a shortcut to wellbeing.

Chia will soon be joining the list. So what exactly is it?

Chia, or Salvia hispanica L., is a member of the mint family from Mexico and South America. The flowering plant can sprout in a matter of days, but chia's appeal is in the nutritional punch of its tiny seeds.

With more omega-3 fatty acids than salmon, a wealth of antioxidants and minerals, a complete source of protein and more fibre than flax seed, the seeds have been dubbed a "dieter's dream", "the running food", "a miracle", and "the ultimate super food", by advocates and athletes.

To some the seeds taste utterly bland, but to others there is a slight nutty flavour. It also can seem expensive compared with other seeds and nuts.

What's in 100g of chia?

• Energy: 330kcal
• Protein: 20.7g
• Fat: 32.8g
• Carbohydrate: 41.8g
• Fibre: 41.2g
• Calcium: 714mg
• Iron: 16.4mg
• Niacin (B3): 613mg
• Thiamine (B1): 0.18mg
• Riboflavin (B2): 0.04mg

Source: National Science Research Institute

In the UK, the seeds are only currently allowed for sale as a bread ingredient, but over the next few weeks, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes is poised to allow chia seeds in a wide variety of products including baked goods, breakfast cereals and nut and seed mixes.

Elsewhere in the world, chia-seed products have been springing up over the past few years. In 2011, 72 new chia products hit the market and 28 new chia foods are already out this year, according to research group Mintel. Compare that with only seven new chia products for all of 2006 and you get a sense of its growing popularity.

The US is particularly infatuated with the seed, introducing 21 new chia items in 2011 and 13 in 2012. It's in sweets, snack foods, seasonings, yogurt and even baby food.

To chia cheerleaders the seeds do no wrong. They claim chia reduces inflammation, improves heart health, and stabilises blood sugar levels. A few tablespoons are touted as remedying just about anything - without any ill effects

Health food crazes

• Gojii berries: prounced go-gee, the Himalayan fruit is hyped as a "fruit Viagra" and "cellulite-busting" superfood
• Kombucha: the fermented tea is touted as a tonic for digestion problems, hair loss and other ailments
• Acai berries: pronounced ah-sih-ee, advocates claim the palm tree fruit cleanses the colon, prevents cancer and boosts weight loss
• Wheat grass shots: the concentrated juice made of young wheat plant shoots is purported to have curative properties, particularly for digestion
•  
• So is this new superfood all it's cracked up to be?
  "In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach and human growth hormone," writes Christopher McDougall in Born to Run, the bestselling book about an ultra-distance running tribe in Mexico who fuel their epic jaunts with the seeds. The book is credited with shining the spotlight on chia as food for athletes.
  "If you had to pick just one desert-island food, you couldn't do much better than chia, at least if you were interested in building muscle, lowering cholesterol, and reducing your risk of heart disease; after a few months on the chia diet, you could probably swim home," McDougall adds.
  Wayne Coates, co-author of Chia: Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs, agrees. The University of Arizona professor started experimenting with the seeds in South America more than 20 years ago as part of project to identify alternative crops for farmers in Argentina. He then started cultivating the seeds commercially.
  "I hate to call it a miracle food because there are too many miracles that turn out not to be, but it almost is. Literally, you could live on this stuff because it's pretty much everything you need," Coates says.
  
  
  Elisabeth Weichselbaum of the British Nutrition Foundation admits she hadn't heard of chia, but she says the foundation doesn't buy into the idea of a single superfood.
  "It is true that some foods are higher in vitamins and minerals, but no single food provides us with everything we need. So the best way to be healthy is to eat a variety of foods," she says.
  As an avid runner, Coates relies on the seeds to power his way through 50 and 100-mile races.
  "I actually carry it in a film canister on my runs, I down a half a canister and wash it down with water."

  How chia is eaten

  
  • Mixed in couscous
  • Added to bread or muffin mix
  • Sprinkled over salad
  • Chia gel - seeds are soaked in water to form a gel-like substance added to jelly, jam, yoghurt or salad dressing
  • Agua fresca de chia - seeds are stirred with water, lime juice and sugar to make a cold drink
  Source: AZChia
  Jeffrey Walters of the chia producer Omega 3 Chia is also a firm believer. He says the company has received inquiries from the United Nations World Food Programme to bump up the nutrient content of their rice dole.
  Walters says he has also been contacted by schools looking to sneak nutritional value into canteen fare and doomsdayers searching for a nutrient-dense food to stockpile in the event of a catastrophe.
  David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Lab at Appalachian State University, has analysed the nutritional content of chia and its impact on health in a series of studies. Nieman says the seeds "as a nutritional package are wonderful", but they're no "magic pill".
  "If you grind it up and sprinkle it on cereal and put it in yogurt, or put it in juice then you are giving yourself a nutritional boost. You're definitely adding to your mineral, fibre, protein, and omega-3 intake, but will it magically cure disease or take away risk factors? It's almost like a cult following for some of these chia people, they claim everything under the sun.
  "But after 10 to 12 weeks we don't see anything happening to disease risk factors in free-living people."
  Walters says business has doubled each year for the past four years.
  In the UK, chia is permitted in bread products at concentrations up to 5%, according to the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes.
  But that's set to change. The ACNFP recently released a largely positive draft opinion on the expanded use of chia seeds in other foodstuffs.
  Walters has already seen a drive toward the UK market. One of his clients requested a huge quantity of chia for UK products for 2013.
  Health food chain Holland and Barrett already offers whole and milled chia seeds online, ostensibly as a bread ingredient.
  "Interest in chia has been building for the last two years, but it is only in the last six months that the product has been readily available in the UK," according to Holland & Barrett's nuts and seeds manager Douglas Thompson.
  Although the hype may be new in the UK, the seeds have been around for hundreds of years. The Aztecs replied on chia as a staple food and revered it enough to use for religious ceremonies and medicinal purposes, according to Coates.
  "It disappeared for 500 years and the only place you could find it is in a few little villages in Mexico and Guatemala," Coates says.
   
  
  
   American footballer Ray Rice is one of the athletes advocating chia
  But even before Coates and his team picked up on the seeds, chia had something of a cult following in the US.
  Until recently, most Americans would recognise it as the cheesy Christmas gift of choice circa 1990. The Chia Pets, terracotta figurines which spout chia in place of hair, grow from the same seeds.
  As with any other "miracle food", it's important not to see chia as a panacea, says Dr Catherine Ulbricht, founder of the Natural Standard Research Collaboration.
  "People think with natural therapies that they can take as much as they want because it's natural, but they do have potential side effects just like any therapy," she says.
  "Anything that can have an action in your body can also have a reaction. Nothing is 100% spot-on all benefit."
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17476690
  
  
  

Bangladesh's "teenage" brothels hold dark steroid secret

By Andrew Biraj | Reuters

TANGAIL, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Their faces painted heavy with make-up, teenage girls in short, tight blouses and long petticoats loiter in squalid alleys, laughing and gesturing to potential clients who roam Tangail town's infamous red light area in the early evening.

There is no shortage of men looking for "company" in Kandapara slum, a labyrinth of tiny lanes - lined cheek-by-jowl with corrugated iron shacks - a few hours drive northeast of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

But with rates as low as 50 taka (60 U.S. cents), the need to attract as many customers as possible is desperate - prompting a rising, yet dangerous, trend of steroid abuse among adolescent sex workers to "enhance" their appearance.

"There is a huge difference between my appearance now and the malnourished look of my childhood," says Hashi, 17, who was lured into the sex trade by a trafficker when she was 10 and sold to Kandapara's brothel, where she began taking steroids.

"I am healthier than before and fit to serve a lot of customers in a day. Sometimes up to 15," she says, placing a large black bindi, or dot used by Hindu women, between her perfectly shaped eyebrows.

She sits in her tiny room with a bed, a cooking stove and posters of Bollywood stars taped across the wall.

Hashi is one of around 900 sex workers - some as young as 12 - living a painful life of exploitation in Kandapara, not only bonded by debt and fear of stigma, but compelled to take the steroid, Oradexon, which brings more income but leaves dangerous side effects.

COW FATTENING DRUG

Also known as Dexamethasone, Oradexon treats inflammation and allergies in humans and is used by farmers to fatten livestock.

Charities say the over-the-counter drug is taken by 90 percent of sex workers in Kandapara and the other 14 legalized brothels across this impoverished South Asian nation.

The girls are first forced to take it by their madams, or "sardarnis", who run the brothels.

It increases their appetite, making them gain weight rapidly and giving the appearance that these poorly nourished teens are in fact healthy and older - attracting clients who prefer girls with "curves".

It also helps sardarnis keep the police away. The legal age for sex work in Bangladesh is 18.

The girls then continue to consume it, saying that it keeps them "strong and healthy", which in turn will help them get more clients in a day so they can earn enough to survive.

"My sardarni forced me to take a tablet. She beat me up and stopped giving food. She threatened me and reminded me about my loans," says Hashi, who has a four-year-old son staying with relatives, whom she has not seen for two years.

"In this brothel, customers always look for healthy girls. I take Oradexon. I need customers so I can pay my bills and loans. If I don't get any customers one day, I cannot eat in the next day. I wish to save some money for my son."

The story is the same with most of Kandapara's teenage sex workers, or "chukris".

Sold for as little as 20,000 taka ($245) by their poor, rural families to traffickers, they are then traded on to brothel sardarnis, who are former prostitutes themselves and keep the teenagers in bonded sex work.

The girls speak of being with up to 15 men in one day, but say their earnings are pocketed by their sardarnis, who tell them they have to work to pay off the money paid for them.

Many girls have been in Kandapara's brothel for years, yet due to their illiteracy, they have no idea whether their debts have been cleared and what their rights are.

Others, who have been left by their sardarnis because they are too old or not-profitable, are in principle free to leave but choose not to, fearful of the social exclusion they will face in the conservative, Muslim society outside of Kandapara.

BATTLE WITH BROTHELS

Oradexon, they say, keeps them going, even though there are known risks associated with its long-term use.

The steroid can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, skin rashes and headaches and is highly addictive, according to social activists.

It also weakens the immune system and leaves patients more susceptible to illnesses. There have been reports of young sex workers dying from over-use of the drug.

The small white pill is easily available in Kandapara's slums. It is sold without prescription for 15 taka (18 U.S. cents) for a strip of 10 at the tea and cigarette stalls blaring Bangladeshi pop music that populate a maze of open-sewer lanes.

"Steroids are life-saving as well as life-destroying drugs which are used by sex workers in poor countries," said Shipra Gowshami, a lawyer and human rights activist who works with sex workers in brothels in the central Bangladeshi town of Faridpur.

"A lack of awareness, easy availability and malpractices of quacks are some of the prime causes of why these drugs are being abused," Gowshami said.

In 2010, ActionAid Bangladesh began a campaign to promote awareness of the drug among sex workers. But they say they are facing a long fight in persuading not only the brothels to stop using it but also authorities to regulate it.

"There have been attempts to raise awareness on the negative impact of the use of such medicine but brothel owners, madams and pimps are a long way from withdrawing such practices," said Farah Kabir, country director for ActionAid Bangladesh.

"We have an uphill battle, yet it can be won. There needs to be greater regulation in the sale of such drugs. Government and the state must play an active role."

(Writing by Nita Bhalla; Editing by John Chalmers and Paul Tait)

http://news.yahoo.com/bangladeshs-teenage-brothels-hold-dark-steroid-secret-024639562.html

Ginger Better than Drugs for Pain?

Author: Michelle Schoffro Cook, MSc, RNCP, PhD

New research in the Journal of Pain reports that ginger is an effective natural anti-inflammatory that helps reduce pain and inflammation.  Both raw ginger and heated ginger were used in the study with similar effectiveness.  


The scientists specifically explored ginger's effects on muscle pain. Ginger has been used medicinally for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine in India as a natural anti-inflammatory food.  


Dr. Krishna C. Srivastava, a world-renowned research on the therapeutic effects of spices, at Odense University in Denmark has also conducted extensive research into the anti-pain effects of ginger. In one study, Dr. Srivastava gave arthritic patients small amounts of ginger daily for three months.  The majority of people had significant improvements in pain, swelling, and morning stiffness by eating ginger daily.

Dr. Srivastava also found that ginger was superior to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Tylenol or Advil because NSAIDs only work on one level: to block the formation of inflammatory compounds.  


Ginger, on the other hand, blocks the formation of the inflammatory compounds-prostaglandins and leukotrienes-and also has antioxidant effects that break down existing inflammation and acidity in the fluid within the joints.

gotquestions  http://www.diabetesinfocenter.org/View.aspx?url=Ginger_Pain_Relief_Arthritis