Preventing DIABETIES is in your hands

When you consider that "glucose-intolerant" is another term for "diabetic," it's easy to see what you shouldn't eat. Namely, glucose-rich foods, such as bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes. But Mary Vernon, M.D., prefers a more positive approach: "I like to emphasize what people can enjoy." So, use the guidelines below to build a prescription diet. One caution: If you're currently taking medication for high blood pressure or high blood sugar, consult your physician first, as this diet will cause both to drop.
The Rules

·         Eat until you're satisfied, not stuffed.

·         Don't skip meals, especially breakfast.

·         Include protein, such as meat, cheese, and nuts,
with every meal and snack.

The Foods

Vegetables: Down as many as four servings a day of nonroot vegetables. That means broccoli, asparagus, spinach, and any other leafy green vegetable. One serving is 1 cup raw—about the size of a baseball—or 1/2 cup cooked (half a ball).

Meat and eggs: Eat as much of these foods—which include poultry and fish—as you want (i.e., until you're full).

Cheese: Have up to 4 ounces of hard and firm cheeses daily—for instance, Parmesan, American, and cheddar. One serving is about the size of two dominoes.

Fruit: Limit yourself to 1 cup of berries or melon a day.

Nuts: One ounce a day.

Extras(Help yourself)

Condiments: Mustard, horseradish, soy sauce, and Tabasco sauce.

Salad dressings: Oil and vinegar, and full-fat dressings—such as ranch—that contain no more than 2 grams of carbohydrates per serving.

Oils: Olive and canola are best; use only small amounts of other oils.

Beverages: Drink 64 ounces of water a day. Then consume only two servings of diet soda per day and unsweetened tea and coffee as desired (decaf when possible).

A brief look into Demenita

• Dementia is a term that describes a collection of symptoms that include decreased intellectual functioning that interferes with normal life functions and is usually used to describe people who have two or more major life functions impaired or lost such as memory, language, perception, judgment or reasoning; they may lose emotional and behavioral control, develop personality changes and have problem solving abilities reduced or lost.
• There are different classification schemes for dementias roughly based (and with overlap) on observed problems; some frequently used are cortical (memory, language, thinking, social) , subcortical (emotions, movement, memory), progressive (cognitive abilities worsen over time), primary (results from a specific disease such as Alzheimer's disease and secondary (occurs because of disease or injury).
• Alzheimer's disease (AD): is the most common cause of dementia in people over age 65 with cause possibly related to amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles; almost all brain functions, including memory, movement, language, judgment, behavior, and abstract thinking, are eventually affected.
• Vascular dementia: is the second most common cause of dementia caused by brain damage from cerebrovascular or cardiovascular problems (strokes) or other problems that inhibit vascular function; symptoms similar to AD but personality and emotions effected only late in the disease.
• Lewy body dementia: is common and progressive where cells in the brain's cortex die and other contain abnormal structures (Lewy bodies); symptoms overlap with Alzheimer's disease but also include hallucinations, shuffling gait, and flexed posture with symptoms that may vary daily.
• Frontotemporal dementia: is dementia linked to degeneration of nerve cells in the frontal and temporal brain lobes and some evidence for a genetic factor (many have a family history of the disease); symptoms in patients (usually ages 40 – 65) have judgment and social behavior problems such as stealing, neglecting responsibilities, increased appetite, compulsive behavior and eventual motor skill problems and memory loss.
• HIV-associated dementia: is due to infection of the brain with HIV virus; symptoms include impaired memory, apathy, social withdrawal, and concentration problems.
• Huntington's disease: is a heredity disorder caused by a faulty gene and children of a person with the disorder have a 50% chance of getting the disease; symptoms begin in 30-40 year old people with personality changes such as anxiety, depression and progress to show psychotic behavior severe dementia and chorea - involuntary jerky, arrhythmic movements of the body.
• Dementia pugilistica: is also termed Boxer's syndrome, is due to traumatic injury (often repeatedly) to the brain; symptoms commonly are dementia and parkinsonism (tremors, gait abnormalities) and other changes depending where brain injury has happened.
• Corticobasal degeneration: is a progressive nerve cell loss in multiple areas of the brain; symptoms begin at about age 60 on one side of the body and include poor coordination and rigidity with associated visual-spatial problems that can progress to memory loss, hesitant speech and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing).
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: is a rare disease that seems related to a gene mutation that causes rapid (death about one year after symptoms begin to develop) degenerative and fatal brain disease in people usually over 60 years old; personality changes and reduced coordination develop, rapidly followed by impaired judgment and vision and many patients develop a coma before they die.
• Other rare hereditary dementias: – Most of these diseases develop in people between 50 – 60 years old and most have variable symptoms of poor reflexes, dementia, hallucinations, paralysis and most develop coma before death; some of the names of these diseases are Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, familial British dementia, familial Danish dementia and fatal familial insomnia.
• Secondary dementias: These dementias occur in patients with other disorders of movement such as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis and may because by one or more problems listed above; these dementias may share symptoms with any of the above mentioned dementias but researchers are unsure if this is due to disease overlap or other causes.
• Dementias in children: While infections, trauma and poisoning can lead to dementia in both children and adults, there are some dementias that are unique to children but may result in mental problems, seizures, reduction or loss of motor skills, blindness, neurodegeneration and death; many are inherited disorders such as Niemann-Pick disease, Batten disease, Lafora disease and mitochondrial abnormalities.
• Other conditions that may cause dementia: Reactions to medications, endocrine and metabolic problems, nutritional deficiencies, infections, subdural hematomas, poisoning, brain tumors, anoxia (lack of oxygen), heart and lung problems.
• What conditions are not dementia: Although these conditions may resemble some aspects of dementia, they have different causes, usually are treatable and have better outcomes; examples are depression, delirium, mild cognitive impairment and age-related cognitive decline.
• Dementia causes: All causes of dementia result from death and damage of nerve cells in the brain; genetics and possibly the formation of different types of inclusions in the brain cells are likely the major causes, although some researchers suggest that certain inclusions may be only side effects of an underlying disorder.
• Risk factors for dementia include advancing age, genetics (family history), smoking, alcohol use, atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, diabetes, high plasma homocysteine levels, mild cognitive impairment, Down syndrome
• Dementia is diagnosed by using many methods such as patient's medical and family history, physical exam, neurological evaluations, cognitive and neuropsychological testing, CT's, MRI's and other brain scans, mental status exams, electroencephalograms, blood tests, psychiatric evaluations, and even some pre-symptomatic tests are available for some patients that may have a genetic link to dementia.
• Most treatments for dementia will neither reverse or stop the disease; however, there are treatments and medications that may reduce the symptoms and slow the disease progression; they are tight glucose control by persons with diabetes, intellectual stimulating activities, lowering cholesterol and homocysteine levels, regular exercise, education, controlling inflammation of body tissues, using NSAID's and possibly other medications.

Introduction to Dementia

A woman in her early 50s was admitted to a hospital because of increasingly odd behavior. Her family reported that she had been showing memory problems and strong feelings of jealousy. She also had become disoriented at home and was hiding objects. During a doctor's examination, the woman was unable to remember her husband's name, the year, or how long she had been at the hospital. She could read but did not seem to understand what she read, and she stressed the words in an unusual way. She sometimes became agitated and seemed to have hallucinations and irrational fears.

This woman, known as Auguste D., was the first person reported to have the disease now known as Alzheimer's disease * (AD) after Alois Alzheimer, the German doctor who first described it. After Auguste D. died in 1906, doctors examined her brain and found that it appeared shrunken and contained several unusual features, including strange clumps of protein called plaques and tangled fibers inside the nerve cells. Memory impairments and other symptoms of dementia, which means "deprived of mind," had been described in older adults since ancient times. However, because Auguste D. began to show symptoms at a relatively early age, doctors did not think her disease could be related to what was then called "senile dementia. "The word senile is derived from a Latin term that means, roughly, "old age."

It is now clear that AD is a major cause of dementia in elderly people as well as in relatively young adults. Furthermore, we know that it is only one of many disorders that can lead to dementia. The U. S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment estimates that as many as 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia, and at least 1.8 million of those are severely affected. Studies in some communities have found that almost half of all people age 85 and older have some form of dementia. Although it is common in very elderly individuals, dementia is not a normal part of the aging process. Many people live into their 90s and even 100s without any symptoms of dementia.

Besides senile dementia, other terms often used to describe dementia include senility and organic brain syndrome. Senility and senile dementia are outdated terms that reflect the formerly widespread belief that dementia was a normal part of aging. Organic brain syndrome is a general term that refers to physical disorders (not psychiatric in origin) that impair mental functions.

Research in the last 30 years has led to a greatly improved understanding of what dementia is, who gets it, and how it develops and affects the brain. This work is beginning to pay off with better diagnostic techniques, improved treatments, and even potential ways of preventing these diseases.

What Is Dementia?

Dementia is not a specific disease. It is a descriptive term for a collection of symptoms that can be caused by a number of disorders that affect the brain. People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships. They also lose their ability to solve problems and maintain emotional control, and they may experience personality changes and behavioral problems such as agitation, delusions, and hallucinations. While memory loss is a common symptom of dementia, memory loss by itself does not mean that a person has dementia. Doctors diagnose dementia only if two or more brain functions - such as memory, language skills, perception, or cognitive skills including reasoning and judgment - are significantly impaired without loss of consciousness.

There are many disorders that can cause dementia. Some, such as AD, lead to a progressive loss of mental functions. But other types of dementia can be halted or reversed with appropriate treatment.

With AD and many other types of dementia, disease processes cause many nerve cells to stop functioning, lose connections with other neurons, and die. In contrast, normal aging does not result in the loss of large numbers of neurons in the brain.

MONSOON SKIN CARE

With the summer it’s all about the sun, radiation, tanning and protecting the skin from the Sun. In the Monsoon it’s about the skins hydration and moisture level.


So what can we do in the monsoon to care for the skin???

Cleanse skin with gentle cleansers:
The high humidity during the monsoon months can cause sweat to run in rivulets over your body. This can create a build-up of dust, dirt, grime and other toxins on the surface of your skin
Skin will also have a tendency to go drier and gets easily dehydrated in the monsoon season, so use a gentle cleanser unless you have acne prone or very oily skin.
For normal to dry skin: use a soap free cleanser as soap is very dehydrating for the skin.
For acne prone / oily skin: use a Salicylic acid based cleanser once a day in the morning and a soap free cleanser at night.

Moisturize your skin: Monsoons can cause a de-hydrating effect on dry skin and an over-hydrating effect on oily skin. Use a good moisturiser.
For normal to dry: Use a cream based moisturiser or a rich lotion
For acne prone / oily: Use a light lotion, avoid heavy moisturisers

If skin feels very dry you can also use a hyaluronic acid based skin serum with the moisturiser to keep the skin soft and hydrated

Use Sunscreen: Just because the clouds have moved in and it is not so bright or sunny anymore, it does not mean that you can stop using the sunscreens or stop bothering about sun exposure.

True, the days are dull and not so bright but what you have to remember is that the clouds block only 20% of the radiation, so you are still being exposed to the harmful sun rays and this can lead to long term skin damage like pre mature ageing, lines, wrinkles and sagging.

You can use a lesser strength SPF than the summer time. SPF 24 – 30 is ideal in the monsoon times. Use a water proof sunscreen so that should you get drenched in the rain, the sunscreen still stays on.
The sunscreen has to be reapplied every 4 – 5 hrs

Use skin fresheners on a regular basis: Use skin fresheners, like rose water or thermal waters that can be sprayed onto the skin. This keeps the skin hydrated and prevents dehydration. This is especially useful for persons who work in a air conditioned environment.

Go for Detox & Hydrating facials: This is the time to have detox facials that help drain the body lymphatics and toxins.

Protect your skin from fungal infection: Humid weather in the rainy season brings with it one of the major skin care issue of fungal infections. Fungus grows easily in areas where warm moisture can accumulate and foster growth, like between your toes, armpits and groin. One way to take care of this is to bath with an anti-fungal soap and apply anti-fungal powder after the bath. Try to avoid keeping your skin wet for a long time and if you have been in rain, take a bath in lukewarm water.
Eat Right:
It is essential to eat healthy at all times not just during monsoon. Nutritional supplements are usually advised to give extra protection and care for the skin during the monsoon. Take Vit E, Fish Oil (Omega 3) capsules. These are rich in oils and will help with skin nutrition and nourishment. Also take a multi mineral tablet that contains zinc as this is essential for skin healing processes. Also take Vit C so that you can boost your resistance during the monsoon.

Let your body rest:
Try to get at least 6 – 8 hrs of uninterrupted sleep at night so that the body gets time to recover and recoup for the next day. During this period your skin also vitalizes itself.

Avoid heavy makeup:
Let your skin breathe, so avoid heavy makeup, at least during the day. Use light water based foundations if you must use a foundation during the day. Avoid cake / heavy solid foundations during the monsoon. Opt for water proof make up so that it does not run if you should get wet in the rain.

So protect your skin and have a blast this Monsoon!!!

Hair care this monsoon

Rain! Rain! go away! Come again another day! Remember this nursery rhyme? After the scorching heat, the rains definitely come as a relief, but they also signal the need for extra protection, be it of our homes, our vehicles or even ourselves. Most importantly, maintaining those lovely, long, shining tresses- the hair. Like summer, in Monsoon too we face some hair care problems.

After summer, when the monsoon comes, the quantity of humidity and moisturizer affects our hair the most. Again rainy and damp weather makes it difficult to dry hair normally and as a result hairs become weak and greasy. Sunlight is absent, air is full of extra moisturizer, thus creating difficulties like limpness, greasiness and hair fall.

One reason why hair may fall at a higher rate during the monsoon could be that, as a coincidence, hair may be in the end phase of its life cycle. This coupled with humidity, weakens the hair making it easily breakable and you could have a problem.

If you get drenched in the rain, shampoo your hair as soon as you get back home. Rainwater carries atmospheric pollutants that weaken the hair roots causing hair fall. Along with rainwater, another danger in the monsoon is the municipally-treated water. During the monsoon, the municipality guards against bacteria with additional chlorine in the water. This concentrated chlorine compound may kill the bacteria but can also be harmful to your skin. Chlorine can cause dry skin, dry hair, itching, flaking and hair loss. This may be why the monsoon is the time for dandruff proliferation. A regular use of a mild anti-dandruff shampoo is recommended.

Avoid hot hair-treatments such as perming, straightening or coloring during the rainy season. These are not advisable since these treatments need time to settle on your strands and are likely to be washed away in the rain. When combined with wet weather, these treatments tend to weaken the hair shaft and promote breakage and hair fall. Ironing the hair repeatedly is not advisable either as the repeated flow of hot air can cause breakage and split ends.

While hair loss may not be a disease in the conventional sense of the word, it can still cause a lot of suffering. Traditionally, hair loss has been regarded negatively and subconsciously associated with aging and even loss of beauty. Thus, hair loss, especially if it is premature, is capable of causing great emotional turmoil and may, in some cases, even lead to social withdrawal.

In monsoon hair does not dry totally leading to dull, frizzy, damp hair. To avoid limp and flat hair you should follow a fitness regime for your hair exclusively in monsoon season. Here are some handy tips and helps for your hair to protect it from the damages causing in this season.

1). Choose the right product: Always use a brand that suits your hair texture best and makes it clean and silky with less hair fall. Mild shampoo is a good option. Medicated shampoos are available nowadays to revitalize the hair and to clean it. Check with your dermatologist for options

2).Don’t wash hair frequently as this can lead to drying and breakage. Wash twice to thrice a week maximum.

3) Condition your hair after each wash as this will coat the hair fibers and protect it from environmental damage.

4). Drink plenty of water and eat a balanced diet. Protein and fruit vitamins are necessary to fight against hair fall in monsoon. Hair fall is very common in this season. So you have to make your hair strong from inside.

5) In your diet make sure there is adequate intake of Biotin, Iron (Ferrous) and Proteins. These are available as oral supplements. Ask your dermatologist to recommend one for you.

6) Warm oil applications to the scalp is very good. Use gooseberry / Amla oil as this is very nourishing to the scalp and hair. Leave on for minimum 45 mins and wash off.

7) Warm compress to the scalp and hair after applying oil or conditioner is excellent. This will help penetrate the nutrition into the hair root

If you are having hair fall (normal is up to 100 follicles a day), see your dermatologist immediately

New chip may be game-changer in disease detection

A cheap, highly portable blood test has proven as accurate as expensive hospital-based analyses in detecting HIV, syphilis and other infectious diseases, according to a study released Sunday.
Researchers tested prototypes of the creditcard-sized lab-on-a-chip with hundreds of patients in Rwanda, reporting nearly 100 per cent accuracy.
The so-called “mChip”, they said, could help knock down three barriers to effective delivery of health care into the world’s poorest regions: difficult access, high costs and long delays for results.
“The idea is to make a large class of diagnostic tests accessible to patients in any setting in the world, rather than forcing them to go to a clinic to draw blood and then wait days for their results”, said Samuel Sia, a professor at Columbia University and lead developer.
The findings were published in Nature Medicine.
With a projected production cost of a dollar per unit, the mChip would be far cheaper to administer than current lab-based tests.
Because it can scan for multiple proteins, each corresponding to a disease, at the same time with a single blood sample, it is probably even cheaper — and more accurate — than strips which work like store-bought pregnancy tests.
“Current rapid HIV tests require subjective interpretation of band intensity by the user that can result in false positives,” that is, healthy individuals being misdiagnosed, the study noted.
The mChip, by contrast, allows for measurement using a hundred-dollar handheld instrument no more complicated to use than a cell phone, according to the researchers.
Finally, the device produces results in minutes rather than days or weeks, a time saving that can make a big difference in treatment outcome.
The device contains a microchip housed inside an injection-moulded plastic casing, explained Vincent Linder, Chief Technological Officer at Claros Diagnostics, which owns or has licensed relevant patents.
Unique disease “biomarkers” contained in a pin-prick blood sample bind to one of up to 10 individual detection zones.
A nano-scale gold “reagent” — which detects a substance via a chemical reaction — is injected, followed by a silver one that interacts with the gold to produce an ultra-thin film.
“The darkness of the film is proportional to the concentration of biomarker in the sample,” said Linder, comparing the steps to the development process in non-digital photography.
The results are measured with a LED-based detector, or can be assessed by the naked eye.
In Rwanda, Sia and colleagues tested the device in Muhima Hospital in Kigali, where on-site results currently take days or weeks because samples must be sent to an outside laboratory.
From a total of 70 specimens with known HIV status, half male and half female, only one tested false, a result that rivals the accuracy of lab-based HIV analysis.
Similar tests on more than 100 archived specimens yielded equally reliable results, as did further trials based on samples from female sex workers known to be infected with both HIV and syphilis.
The researchers hope the device will boost testing of pregnant women, especially in Africa.
Currently, barely a quarter of pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries are tested for HIV, a figure which provides scant hoping of reaching the UN goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission by 2015, according to the 2010 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.
In Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, only nine and six percent, respectively, of pregnant women currently receive HIV testing, according to the report.

10 Surprising health benefits of sex

1. Sex Relieves Stress

A big health benefit of sex is lower blood pressure and overall stress reduction, according to researchers from Scotland who reported their findings in the journal Biological Psychology. They studied 24 women and 22 men who kept records of their sexual activity. Then the researchers subjected them to stressful situations -- such as speaking in public and doing verbal arithmetic -- and noted their blood pressure response to stress.

Those who had intercourse had better responses to stress than those who engaged in other sexual behaviors or abstained.

Another study published in the same journal found that frequent intercourse was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure in cohabiting participants. Yet other research found a link between partner hugs and lower blood pressure in women.

2. Sex Boosts Immunity

Good sexual health may mean better physical health. Having sex once or twice a week has been linked with higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A or IgA, which can protect you from getting colds and other infections. Scientists at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., took samples of saliva, which contain IgA, from 112 college students who reported the frequency of sex they had.

Those in the "frequent" group -- once or twice a week -- had higher levels of IgA than those in the other three groups -- who reported being abstinent, having sex less than once a week, or having it very often, three or more times weekly.

3. Sex Burns Calories

Thirty minutes of sex burns 85 calories or more. It may not sound like much, but it adds up: 42 half-hour sessions will burn 3,570 calories, more than enough to lose a pound. Doubling up, you could drop that pound in 21 hour-long sessions.

"Sex is a great mode of exercise," says Patti Britton, PhD, a Los Angeles sexologist and president of the American Association of Sexuality Educators and Therapists. It takes work, from both a physical and psychological perspective, to do it well, she says.

4. Sex Improves Cardiovascular Health

While some older folks may worry that the efforts expended during sex could cause a stroke, that's not so, according to researchers from England. In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, scientists found frequency of sex was not associated with stroke in the 914 men they followed for 20 years.

And the heart health benefits of sex don't end there. The researchers also found that having sex twice or more a week reduced the risk of fatal heart attack by half for the men, compared with those who had sex less than once a month.

5. Sex Boosts Self-Esteem

Boosting self-esteem was one of 237 reasons people have sex, collected by University of Texas researchers and published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

That finding makes sense to Gina Ogden, PhD, a sex therapist and marriage and family therapist in Cambridge, Mass., although she finds that those who already have self-esteem say they sometimes have sex to feel even better. "One of the reasons people say they have sex is to feel good about themselves," she tells WebMD. "Great sex begins with self-esteem, and it raises it. If the sex is loving, connected, and what you want, it raises it."

6. Sex Improves Intimacy

Having sex and orgasms increases levels of the hormone oxytocin, the so-called love hormone, which helps us bond and build trust. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of North Carolina evaluated 59 premenopausal women before and after warm contact with their husbands and partners ending with hugs. They found that the more contact, the higher the oxytocin levels.

"Oxytocin allows us to feel the urge to nurture and to bond," Britton says.

Higher oxytocin has also been linked with a feeling of generosity. So if you're feeling suddenly more generous toward your partner than usual, credit the love hormone.

7. Sex Reduces Pain

As the hormone oxytocin surges, endorphins increase, and pain declines. So if your headache, arthritis pain, or PMS symptoms seem to improve after sex, you can thank those higher oxytocin levels.

In a study published in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 48 volunteers who inhaled oxytocin vapor and then had their fingers pricked lowered their pain threshold by more than half.

8. Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk

Frequent ejaculations, especially in 20-something men, may reduce the risk of prostate cancer later in life, Australian researchers reported in the British Journal of Urology International. When they followed men diagnosed with prostate cancer and those without, they found no association of prostate cancer with the number of sexual partners as the men reached their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

But they found men who had five or more ejaculations weekly while in their 20s reduced their risk of getting prostate cancer later by a third.

Another study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that frequent ejaculations, 21 or more a month, were linked to lower prostate cancer risk in older men, as well, compared with less frequent ejaculations of four to seven monthly.

9. Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles

For women, doing a few pelvic floor muscle exercises known as Kegels during sex offers a couple of benefits. You will enjoy more pleasure, and you'll also strengthen the area and help to minimize the risk of incontinence later in life.

To do a basic Kegel exercise, tighten the muscles of your pelvic floor, as if you're trying to stop the flow of urine. Count to three, then release.

10. Sex Helps You Sleep Better

The oxytocin released during orgasm also promotes sleep, according to research.

And getting enough sleep has been linked with a host of other good things, such as maintaining a healthy weight and blood pressure. Something to think about, especially if you've been wondering why your guy can be active one minute and snoring the next.

Breast feeding week begins

In the first week of August, Haryana will be participating in World Breast Feeding Week, a week-long campaign to spread awareness about and promote breast-feeding of children in the state.

The event which begins on August 1 and lasts seven days, will be taking place in different districts of the state, and will be specially focused on creating awareness in various villages of Haryana.

"The objectives of this year World Breast Feeding Week were to launch a campaign for creating a breastfeeding friendly environment and reaching out to people, especially the youth with information on breastfeeding," said a spokesman of Women and Child Development Department.

The organizers aim to advocate for community and family support to help enhance breast-feeding, and protect the children against manufactured baby food.

Ordinary vegetables with extraordinary benefits

We absolutely love veggies here and we do have our reasons. And once you read this list of veggies and why you must have them, we are sure you'll agree. 

Here are 10 anytime vegetables that are easy to cook, delicious, add colour to any meal and most importantly - provide you with the best of nutrition required in our daily lives. Here they are: 10 vegetables with extraordinary benefits.

Broccoli - A member of the cabbage family, broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin C - providing 245% of your recommended daily allowance per 1 cup serving! - as well as vitamin K and vitamin A. A multi-talented little vegetable, broccoli is thought to have excellent anti-cancer properties. Broccoli can be eaten raw or cooked, but recent studies suggest that if you do plan on cooking it, steaming is the best way to preserve all of the vegetables various enzymes and nutrients.

Brussel sprouts - Another member of the cabbage family, Brussels sprouts are also much touted for their cancer-fighting properties. However, Brussels sprouts in particular are often touted for their fiber, containing 4 grams of equal parts soluble and insoluble fiber. In addition, these teeny tiny cabbages are also thought to provide significant cardiovascular benefits and help reduce the risk of osteoarthritis, a degenerative form of arthritis that often occurs with aging.

Cabbage - The head of the cabbage family, cabbage provides all of the health benefits of broccoli and Brussels sprouts. When juiced and had over 10 days, cabbage can dramatically speed up the healing process for peptic ulcers! When cooking cabbage it's important to note that slicing, cutting or chewing activates myrosinase enzymes, which aid the release of anti-carcinogenic glucosinolates. Although these enzymes are denatured when you cook cabbage, you can preserve them by slicing or chopping the cabbage and then letting it sit for 10-15 minutes before lightly cooking, steaming or sauteing for 5 minutes.

Cauliflower - Guess what? This one's another member of the cabbage family, with just one real distinction - it lacks the chlorophyll necessary to give it the vibrant green hue of its relatives. But if there's one advantage cauliflower does have, it's that it is so very adaptable. And, new research shows that if you sprinkle your cauliflower with the spice turmeric, you can reduce the severity of prostate cancer, both in terms of tumor growth and metastasis.

Spinach - Spinach is a great source of vitamin K and vitamin A, as well as folate, magnesium and iron. In terms of specific health benefits, the various compounds in spinach are thought to help reduce the risk of several types of cancer, including tumors of the stomach, prostate, and skin, and also act as an anti-inflammatory to reduce the severity of symptoms associated with asthma, arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. Add spinach to soups or casseroles to provide bulk or simply cook on its own, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and black pepper.

Asparagus - In addition to being easy to prepare - steamed, grilled, oven roasted... the choice is yours! - asparagus packs a whopping 114% of recommended daily allowance (RDA) per 1 cup serving of vitamin K, which is important for bone health, and nearly 66% RDA of folate, which helps maintain a healthy cardiovascular system.

Aragula - A fixture of many-a-bistro salad, arugula is an excellent source of folate and vitamin C as well as a good source of calcium. Although arugula is typically mildly flavored, larger leaf varieties can have a more peppery, almost hot taste than the smaller, softer leaf variety, so choose your arugula accordingly! Arugula is typically best served in a salad with olives, hard-boiled eggs, onions and salty cheeses and is most flavorful when paired with lemon juice or vinaigrettes with a strong acid content, such as aged red wine.

Cucumber - A member of the squash family, cucumber's high water content makes it a refreshing (and hydrating) addition to summer menus. Although mainly comprised of water, cucumber is also a good source of vitamin C and silica, which is important for connective tissue health and also does wonders for the skin (both when ingested or applied topically to reduce swelling or redness). In addition, the skin of the cucumber is a great source of fiber, potassium and magnesium.

Mushrooms - With a low sodium and fat content and high levels of fiber and riboflavin, niacin, potassium and riboflavin, mushrooms are an excellent way to add bulk to a meal without dramatically changing the nutrition content of foods. When shopping for mushrooms, they should be dry and firm and, if open, should have gills that are intact and appear fresh. Mushrooms can be served raw, added to salads or sauteed, grilled or broiled for inclusion in any number of dishes.

Zucchini - Zucchinis are an excellent source of vitamin C and manganese and a good source of dietary fiber, magnesium, vitamin A, potassium, copper, folate, phosphorus, omega-3 fatty acids, protein and several B vitamins. When shopping for zucchini, look for those that resemble a cucumber in size and shape and have a smooth, thin skin that is either green or yellow in color. To enjoy, cut in half, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. If you prefer your zucchini raw, consider chopping juliennes and serve as part of a vegetable platter or add grated to salads, sandwiches and other summer salads. 

WHO for HIV testing and counselling

For over 20 years, client-initiated HIV testing and counselling, also known as voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), has helped millions of people learn their HIV status. Nevertheless, global coverage of HIV testing and counselling programmes remains low. Efforts are urgently needed to increase the provision of HIV testing through a wider range of effective and safe options.

In 2007, WHO and UNAIDS issued guidance on provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling (PITC) in health facilities to support increased uptake and improve access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. HIV counselling and testing (HTC) is a critical entry point to life-sustaining care for people with HIV, a key element of Treatment 2.0 and essential for prevention of vertical HIV transmission.

Currently the majority of people are still unaware of their HIV status and HTC services need to be expanded in antenatal care, STI and TB clinics, and other clinical settings as well as through outreach for most at risk populations, home-based HTC, testing campaigns and client-initiated testing centres.

People who test HIV negative should also be supported and receive counselling on how to reduce exposure to HIV.

HTC for couples should also be promoted and expanded within a human rights framework because of the high frequency of serodiscordancy and the important potential to reduce transmission in serodiscordant couples. Sharing serostatus allows couples to plan, make important life decisions, and to seek care and support together.

Find source of ego

Meditation is deliberating on the thought process and bringing it to a focal point. Some go for total thoughtlessness. The other way is to focus between the eyebrows to see the light of Brahmn. 

Chanting of a mantra is another way to do meditation. Ramana Maharishi of Arunachalam said that one should search for self-identity by asking: "Who am I?" In meditation one should ask this question and with gradual evolution find calmness and peace.

The question really means, what is the source or origin of ego? To find the answers you need to be free of attitude. Give up the bhavana that you are the body related to name, profession, region, language and other such acquired identities. There is no need to have an attitude about your real nature. It exists as it always has. It is real. Some ask that does not the enquiry "who am I"? turn out, in the end, to be an empty question?

Self-enquiry is not done in vain. It is more than the repetition of a mantra. If the enquiry were a mere mental exercise, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source. It is not one eye searching for another eye. Neither is self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure self-awareness. Until one realises that state of pure being, the enquiry should continue. By gradual evolution in this state, it is possible for one to get permanently established in the state of self-awareness. The state of self-awareness is termed as sat-chit-anand or total bliss.

Be what you are. Lose your ego. You cannot run away from your self. Maharishi said, reject all other thoughts and persist with the enquiry "who am I?" As per Maharishi's formula, if you keep raising the enquiry "who am I?" many thought waves will get to disappear with the enquiry.

Self-enquiry leads to knowledge of Self. One is aware of the Self even-though the Self is not objectified. When you say you do not know the Self, it means absence of related knowledge because we are so accustomed to relative knowledge that we always look for same. Because of this the goal of Self- realisation appears to be distant.

Feel yourself dismantling the false i that is ego and establish yourself in the real i and the answer to the query of "Who am I?" becomes evident. To gauge progress on the journey of Self-realisation see the degree of absence of thoughts. Self-realisation itself does not admit to progress. The obstacles are thoughts. Progress is measured by the degree of removal of these obstacles.

With self-enquiry you go to the source of these thoughts and this enquiry removes that source of thought. This process will remove all doubts and finally peace will prevail. This way we will be able to say that Self-realisation is that which is peace. All that we need to do is to keep quiet. Peace is our real nature. By realising the Self you can easily call yourself divine. Ahambrahmnsmi or " I am Brahmn" can be felt in word and spirit. Those who realise the Self are called saints. The journey is not difficulat; it is achievable. Just meditate on the question: "Who am I?" and you will eventually find the answer.