Clipmarks | michellezm's 'health' clips

The Power of the Purple Carrot

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:53:30 GMT

clipped by: SenorCoconut

We all know about the numerous health benefits of carrots (Daucus carota L.), they are an excellent source of vitamin A, and contain phytochemicals including carotenoids, phenolics, polyacetylenes, isocoumarins, and sesquiterpenes.

Not only do purple carrots contain all of the phytochemicals found in orange carrots, they also contain anthocyanins, potent antioxidants. Anthocyanins are responsible for the bright red, blue and purple colors of fruits and vegetables. Anthocyanins are abundant in berries, especially the blueberry, which has exceptionally high antioxidant activity.

In recent years several studies have shown that anthocyanins display a wide range of biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic activities. In addition they display a variety of effects on blood vessels, platelets and lipoproteins able to reduce the risk of coronary heart diseases.

Tags: health benefits purple carrots, daucus carota, phytochemicals, anthocyanins, high antioxidant activity

12 Diseases That Altered History

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:35:11 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: health.usnews.com

12 Diseases That Altered History

By Matthew Shulman

Posted January 3, 2008

In his book Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, Irwin Sherman, a professor emeritus of biology at the University of CaliforniaRiverside, describes how bacteria, parasites, and viruses have swept through cities and devastated populations, felled great leaders and thinkers, and in their wake transformed politics, public health, and economies. U.S.News & World Report spoke with Sherman about how 12 key diseases—smallpox, tuberculosis, syphilis, AIDS, influenza, bubonic plague, cholera, malaria, yellow fever, two noninfectious diseases (hemophilia and porphyria), and the plant disease behind the Irish Potato Famine—have altered history.

Bubonic plague is mainly a disease in rodents and fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis).

(SMC Images/Getty Images)

Tags: health

Real facts of health and fitness

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:52:25 GMT

clipped by: Brimstone
clipper's remarks: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - strawberries in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming “ WOO HOO! What a Ride!"

Clip Source: www.nmmu.ac.za

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?

A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it..........don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?

A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?

A: Well, if you have a body and you have body fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?

A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?

A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Tags: health, humour

Are we being hoodwinked by alternative medicine?

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:02:04 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Just how effective is complementary medicine? In a new book, Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary medicine, and Simon Singh, a leading scientist and documentary maker, set out to answer that question. They have produced a definitive - if controversial - guide to what works, and what doesn't. It makes indispensable, if sometimes alarming, reading.

Which therapies work and which ones are useless? Which therapies are safe and which ones are dangerous? These are questions that doctors have asked themselves for millennia in relation to all forms of medicine.

And yet it is only comparatively recently that they have developed an approach that allows them to separate the effective from the ineffective, and the safe from the dangerous.

So what did we find? While some therapies do provide some health benefits (e.g. osteopathy), most have nothing to offer.

Many popular therapies are "effective" only because they are good at eliciting a placebo response

Tags: medical, health, alternate medicines, healing

DIY religions do more harm than good

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:43:04 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.religionnewsblog.com

Rosemary Aird examined a possible correlation between new forms of spirituality and mental health as part of her University of Queensland PhD studies.

After surveying more than 3700 Brisbane-based 21-year-olds, she found spirituality and self-focused religions may undermine a person’s mental health.

“I had a look at two different beliefs - one was a belief in God, associated with traditional religions, and the other was the newer belief in a spiritual or higher power other than God,” Dr Aird said.

The research found non-traditional belief was linked with higher rates of anxiety, depression, disturbed and suspicious ways of thinking and anti-social behaviour.

New-age beliefs promote the idea of self-transformation, self-fulfilment and self-enlightenment

“Traditional religion tends to promote the idea of social responsibility and thinking of others’ interests, whereas the new-age movement pushes the idea that we can transform the world by changing ourselves.

Oh My Achy Unhappiness

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:37:27 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: Stress hormones associated with inflammation (and a host of chronic illnesses) are more rampant in "unhappy" people.

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Happiness may be good for your health

In the study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, women who reported more positive emotions had lower blood levels of two proteins that indicate widespread inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation is believed to contribute to a range of ills over time, including heart disease and cancer.

One possibility is that happier people lead more healthful lifestyles, but not all studies have found this to be the case, explained Steptoe.

The current findings, according to Steptoe, add to evidence that happiness and other positive emotions are "associated with biological responses that are health-protective."

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

They found that men and women who reported happier moods had lower average cortisol levels over the course of the day -- even when factors such as age, weight, smoking and income were taken into account.

Alcohol is Killing Us

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:47:21 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Some reading this have survived alcohol. Some of you are suffering right now. More of you are unable to admit that alcohol is poisoning your life. All of us know people whose lives have been torn apart by it. True too, for most this hardest of drugs is one of life's blessings.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

If you look at the burden of damage to society, it's hugely greater for alcohol than for drugs.

Professor Ian Gilmore
Royal College of Physicians

The new Health Alcohol Alliance says 13 children are admitted to hospital every day as a result of Britain's growing alcohol misuse.

Professor Gilmore said that, in some parts of the country, doctors find it hard to get help for patients with alcohol-related problems, even though two thirds of people with a drug problem can access specific services.

The government said its target for the Home Office on reducing harm from drugs and alcohol had been recently rewritten - to redress what it concedes has been an imbalance.

It said in future both problems should be given the same priority in the provision of services.

The number of alcohol-related deaths has more than doubled from 4,144 in 1991 to 8,386 in 2005.

Tags: alcohol, health

Top Ten Uses For Vinegar.

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:40:32 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken
clipper's remarks: Some good cheap tips here. I have always used vinegar as a fabric softener, (no, there's no smell once the clothes are dry) and as scale remover. It's a good disinfectant too and it cleans stained aluminium. Put a bit in the water when you're washing windows and bling bling, their sparkling shiny and clean. Good for cutting through the muck on car windscreens too. Uhm... what else?
Oh yeah, it's really, really cheap, non-toxic, pet- and child friendly, environmentally harmless and good for your health too.

10 Health Benefits of Vinegar

Grandma knew that her old remedies worked even if she couldn't explain to the scientific world. She knew that diluting vinegar in the ear would help infections due to swimmer's ear. Now, the American Academy of Otolaryngology endorses this remedy. There's something to be said about how smart grandma was.

Clip Source: www.associatedcontent.com

I always have a gallon of vinegar handy in my cupboard, as I have found multiple uses for it way beyond just cooking and eating. Here are my top ten things I use it for and how.

Number Ten: Air Freshener

Nine: Flea Control

Eight: Clean Stainless Steel

Seven: Unclogging Drains

Six: Cleaning grease

Clip Source: www.associatedcontent.com

Five: Clean and polish wood

Four: Anti Static for Plastic

Three: Ant Killer

Two: Hair Care

One: Itching Relief

Vinegar is good for many things and is cheap and non toxic. Always keep a jug of it handy because you never know when you may want to use it.

Tags: household, tips, cleaning, non-toxic, economy, thrift, smarts

The return of the wet-nurse

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:34:24 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Breastfeeding someone else's baby has been unthinkable for mothers for over a century. Incredibly, despite the health risks, it's making a comeback in modern Britain

Wet nursing, cross-nursing, shared feeding, call it what you like - the idea of allowing another woman to breast-feed your baby leaves the uncomfortable feeling of boundaries being overstepped, of someone trespassing on a unique relationship.

For centuries, the British aristocracy employed wet nurses to feed their babies because breast-feeding was seen as ruining a woman's figure, and, at that time, wealthy women were far more removed from their own offspring.

The practice was commonplace, even among middle- class women, until the middle of the 19th century, when doctors realised that wet nurses might be passing on infections such as syphilis, cholera and TB.

Yet a steadily growing minority of mothers now believe that wet-nursing is the answer to the eternal dilemma of women who want to go back to work

Tags: children, child care, wet nurse, medical, health, current affairs

40% of Zimbabweans mentally ill

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:39:59 GMT

clipped by: michellezm
clipper's remarks: And our fearless leader Thabo Mbeki said last week that the ills of Zimbabwe are greatly exaggerated. (This despite the fact that our auithorities cannot stop the border rush as thousands of Zimbabweans cross illegally into South Africa every day) But please note, this is the same man who claims that HIV does NOT cause AIDS - this as South Africans are dropping like flies from the disease. Sometimes I wonder whether there are any sane people living in sub-Saharan Africa. Oy!!!!!

Clip Source: www.news24.com

Harare - About 40% of Zimbabweans suffer from mental disorders, ZimOnline reported on Friday.

World Health Organisation consultant Dickson Chibanda ascribed this to the current economic hardships in the country and the effects the 2005 Murambatsvina slum eviction programme.

"In Zimbabwe, latest data on common mental disorders indicated prevalence close to 40%," Chibanda said.

"Operation Murambatsvina caused a lot of mental disorders to those who were forced out of their homes."

Operation Murambatsvina is said to have displaced more than 700 000 families and forced hundreds of children out of school.

The percentage of Zimbabweans suffering from mental health problems could be higher now due to the deteriorating economic climate in the country, he said.

Unemployment is estimated at about 80% while most workers earn salaries that do not last them a week.

the minister of health and

his deputy

could not be reached for comment on the matter on Thursday

Tags: zimbabwe, phychology, current affairs

African child death shock

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:02:08 GMT

clipped by: michellezm

Clip Source: www.health24.com

Every five minutes, eight African children under the age of five die of vaccine-preventable diseases, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Polio, tetanus and measles are the primary killers of the children, said a UN statement released at a meeting in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Delegates were discussing ways to increase child vaccination rates in Africa, Agence France-Presse reported.

About 155 of every 1 000 children born in Africa die before the age of five, the UN said. The UN's World Health Organization and children's fund UNICEF want to halve that death rate by 2015. - (HealthDayNews)

Tags: africa, children, medical, health, current affairs

What your Nails Say About Your Health

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:24:44 GMT

clipped by: laughingheart
clipper's remarks: Health

Clip Source: www.webmd.com

What Your Nails Say About Your Health: 10 Possible Signs of Serious Conditions
Nail Appearance	Associated Condition
White nails	Liver diseases, such as hepatitis
Yellowish, thickened, slow-growing nails	Lung diseases, such as emphysema
Yellowish nails with a slight blush at the base	Diabetes
Half-white, half-pink nails	Kidney disease
Red nail beds	Heart disease
Pale or white nail beds	Anemia
Pitting or rippling of the nail surface	Psoriasis or inflammatory arthritis
"Clubbing," a painless increase in tissue around the ends of the fingers, or inversion of the nail	Lung diseases
Irregular red lines at the base of the nail fold	Lupus or connective tissue disease
Dark lines beneath the nail	Melanoma

Tags: health

Is Soya Good for You?

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:54:27 GMT

clipped by: tron2007

Clip Source: itsringing.blogspot.com

You may or may not like tofu, soya nuggets and soya milk, but you might have definitely heard that it is good for you.
In fact, some people mix soya flour with wheat to add that 'extra' protein in their diet.

However, some forms of soya can actually be bad for your health.

…But First

If you don't know exactly what soya is, here's a low down. Soya bean is actually a legume like your dals (lentils), beans and peas.

It contains nutrients and minerals that are great for health. And the best thing about soya is that its protein levels are really high and carbohydrate levels are really low.

So if you are worried about not getting enough protein because you are vegetarian, or if you are allergic to lactose in milk, then soya could be the answer to your prayers.

Tags: general, health

The Dark Side of Soy

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:27:12 GMT

clipped by: CarnivalBorn

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

After years of consuming various forms of soy nearly every day, I felt reasonably fit, but somewhere along the line I'd stopped menstruating. I couldn't figure out why my stomach became so upset after I ate edamame or why I was often moody and bloated. It didn't occur to me at the time to question soy, heart protector and miracle food.

When I began studying holistic health and nutrition, I kept running across risks associated with eating soy. Endocrine disruption? Check. Digestive problems? Check. I researched soy's deleterious effects on thyroid, fertility, hormones, sex drive, digestion, and even its potential to contribute to certain cancers. For every study that proved a connection between soy and reduced disease risk another cropped up to challenge the claims. What was going on?

"Studies showing the dark side of soy date back 100 years,"

The 1999 FDA-approved health claim pleased big business,

Soy is a $4 billion [U.S.] industry that's taken these health claims to the bank.

Tags: health

bookswaping - readers united

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 16:51:57 GMT

clipped by: tidbit2
clipper's remarks: this is the best bookswaping site I've seen yet , out of a few dozen

Clip Source: readersunited.com

Swap the books you've read, for some you haven't!

Browse Category: All Books

Art, Architecture & Photography Biographies & Memoirs Business & Investing Business, Finance & Law Children's Books Comics & Graphic Novels Computers & Internet Cooking, Food & Wine Crime, Thrillers & Mystery Entertainment Food & Drink Gay & Lesbian Health, Family & Lifestyle Health, Mind & Body History Home & Garden Horror Humour Languages Large Print Libros en español Literature & Fiction Medicine Mind, Body & Spirit Music, Stage & Screen Nonfiction Outdoors & Nature Parenting & Families Poetry, Drama & Criticism Professional & Technical Reference Religion & Spirituality Romance Science & Nature Science Fiction & Fantasy Scientific, Technical & Medical Society, Politics & Philosophy Sports, Hobbies & Games Study Books Teens Travel & Holiday Young Adult Other

Click on a category, or if you know the title or author of the book you want try search.

Tags: books, free, reading, literature