Top 10 Research Facts on Diabetes Foods

Diabetic people are always in the look out of foods which can keep their blood sugar levels under control and yet provide the essential nutrients to the body. This article enlists certain fruits, vegetables and herbs beneficial to them along with research facts to substantiate their uses

Top 10 Research Facts on Diabetes Foods:
Fenugreek: According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, intake of 25-50 grams of these seeds is useful. A component Pectin present in these seeds keeps the glucose level in check.
Spinach: A study was carried out by the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts in 2004. The study found that one cup of boiled spinach has 156 mg of magnesium. Intake of this leafy vegetable has inverse effect on the blood sugar level.
Azadirachta Indica: The leaves of the tree, according to ayurveda, have the quality of stimulating the beta cells in the pancreas responsible for producing insulin.
Onion: A research study carried out way back in 1977 revealed that lower levels of chromium mineral increases insulin production. A cup of onion daily fulfils 20 percent of the requirement of this mineral.
Garlic: Research study carried out in November 2008 at the Suzuka University of Medical Science, Japan, found that garlic contains two substances Allixin and Vanadium. They are found to influence the genes in the diabetic patients in such a way that the pancreas starts producing insulin in high levels.
Rinds of Citrus Fruits: A component called d- Limonene present in 51.24 percent in rinds of citrus fruit. The research was carried out in October 2009 at the Institute of Biotechnology, Hungkuang University, Taiwan.
Carrots: This vegetable gets its natural color because of the component Carotenoid. This component is found to be a power antioxidant fighting with the complications of free radicals in diabetic people. Researchers at the University of Minnesota School of public health found that it reduces the risk of diabetes to half as well.
Apple: Research study has found that eating this fruit decreases the need of insulin hormone by 35 percent. A natural healing component of this fruit beneficial to the diabetic people is pectin. The Glycemic rating index of apple is 38. Its glycemic load for 120 gms of consumption is only 6.
Capsicum: A substance Capsaicin separated from this vegetable and given to diabetic people reduced the blood sugar level by 23 percent. Results of the findings were published in the journal Phytotherapy Research, in March 2004.
Drumsticks: Researchers at the Department of Nutritional Science, Faculty of Applied Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Sakuragaoka, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, have found that leaves of this vegetable contains a component Quercetin-3-glucoside which can bring down the blood sugar level under control gradually.

Dangers of Oral Contraceptives

For some women, the benefits outweigh the dangers of oral contraceptives, but women with certain medical conditions or those who experience adverse side effects while using oral contraceptives may need to choose an alternative contraceptive method. Health care providers screen for major contraindications, but many women are not informed about dangers of oral contraceptives, such as vitamin deficiency and post-pill amenorrhea.

1. Types

   • There are two types of oral contraceptives--pills that contain only progestin and pills that contain both estrogen and progestin. Progestin oral contraceptives are less likely to produce serious side effects but are also slightly less effective in preventing pregnancy. Other hormonal contraceptives, such as birth control patches and injections, produce side effects and dangers similar to oral contraceptives.

   Side Effects

   • Common side effects of oral contraceptives include irregular spotting or bleeding, nausea and vomiting, breast tenderness, weight gain and mood changes. These side effects usually subside after three cycles. More serious side effects may include stroke, blood clot and jaundice. The risk of side effects is increased in women who smoke or are over 35. Medical disorders such as blood clotting disorders, obesity, diabetes or high cholesterol also increase the risk of serious oral contraceptive side effects. Some women experience abnormal hair loss or excessive hair growth when taking oral contraceptives.

   Contraindications

   • Women who have a history of blood clots, high blood pressure, jaundice during pregnancy or severe migraines should not take oral contraceptives. Certain heart diseases and hepatitis also increase the risks associated with oral contraceptives. Women with a family history of breast, cervical or liver cancer should discuss the risks with a knowledgeable health care provider since oral contraceptives have been linked to an increased instance of these cancers.

   Amenorrhea

   • Approximately 3% of women who stop taking oral contraceptives experience post-pill amenorrhea, an absence of menstruation for six months or longer. High levels of estrogen and progestin in oral contraceptives send feedback to the pituitary gland that indicate sufficient hormone levels in the body. With prolonged usage, the pituitary gland stops producing estrogen and progesterone, even after oral contraceptive use has ceased, so that neither ovulation nor menstruation occurs. If menstruation does not spontaneously return, estrogen blockers may be prescribed to stimulate estrogen production by the pituitary gland.

   Vitamin Deficiency

   • Oral contraceptives interfere with the body's absorption of folic acid, vitamin B6, selenium and vitamin C. Folic acid prevents anemia and cell changes that can lead to cancer. Long-term folic acid deficiency can lead to anemia, digestive disorders and increased cardiovascular risk. Vitamin B6 deficiency is linked to depression. Selenium and vitamin C are both important for maintaining a healthy immune system. Women taking oral contraceptives should consider supplements or increase consumption of vitamin-rich foods to prevent such vitamin deficiencies. source : http://www.ehow.com

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Now parents to a baby girl and boy.

Carey's representative, Cindi Berger, confirmed the births. The singing superstar gave birth on Saturday at an undisclosed hospital in Los Angeles.

Ms Berger said the baby girl was born first, weighing 5lb 3oz, and was 18 inches (45.7 centimetres) tall; her brother was next, at 5lb 6oz, and was 19 inches (48.3 centimetres).
Ms Berger said the couple had not named the children yet. Cannon drove Carey to the hospital in their Rolls-Royce Phantom. Ms Berger said 41-year-old Carey, who had gone through false labour, was calm, thinking that it was another false alarm.
Meanwhile, 30-year-old Cannon was so nervous he went to the wrong department at the hospital, and was guided to the maternity ward by a nurse.
"It was like right out of an 'I Love Lucy' skit," said Ms Berger, referring to the 1950s TV comedy.
Ms Berger said they were listening to Carey's We Belong Together after the children were born.
The couple are expected to renew their wedding vows on Sunday. The pair got married in 2007 after a whirlwind romance.
They were the subject of endless baby rumours, and the couple actually were expecting shortly after their marriage, but Carey had a miscarriage; they did not reveal the miscarriage until she announced her pregnancy last autumn.
As far as more children, Carey recently declared she's done.
source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com

Health benefits of kissing

Recently, scientists have found why we close our eyes when kissing. Kissing is already known to be beneficial to one’s health, but it’s difficult to say how kisses actually influence our health state. Medical professionals argue that kissing in not only pleasure but also an effective remedy against many diseases.
Long Kissing and Cardiovascular System

Long kisses are beneficial to our circulatory system. When kissing, our pulse rate is quickening up to 110 beats per minute. This is a great training for our cardiovascular system.
Kissing Prevents Lung Disease
After kissing, the lungs work harder, resulting in 60 inhales per minute compared to regular 20 inhales. Such “ventilation” is a good preventive measure against lung diseases.

Kissing and Dental Health
Some dentists believe that kissing is a preventive measure against dental caries. Indeed, kissing stimulates the flow of salvia that eliminates acid coat on the teeth.
Passionate and tender kissers are less likely to suffer from gum diseases. The best remedy against parodontosis is a gum massage. And that’s what we actually do when kissing.

Kissing to Manage Stress
Kisses that last more than three minutes help us fight stress and its effects. Long kisses trigger the chain of biochemical reactions, which destroys stress hormones.

Burning calories
Kissing may help you to burn some extra calories. The intensity of your kiss is important to burn more calories and it’s proven you can burn 15 calories in one quarter and it will also double your metabolic rate. It is either much lower than exercising and it is certainly not a good idea to replace your exercises through kissing. To lose one pound, you should have to kiss for at least five hours

Cardiovascular benefits
The adrenaline which has been created when you kiss the one you love causes your heart pumps more blood around your body. Frequently and passionate kissing may help you to lower your blood pressure and provides a better blood circulation. Kissing is helpful to increase your fitness.


Reduces hay fever
A Japanese scientific report shows that kissing reduces the production of histamine, a chemical in human’s body which causes sneezing and other allergic reactions. The report shows that kissing for thirty minutes reduces the levels of histamine.

Kissing is certainly good for your health and the best way to show your affection. How you kiss is either important to get the best results out of your kissing activity. Here are some tips which may help you to kiss efficiently


Freshes your breath and Moistures your lips
A fresh breath is important if you kiss. It may be important to brush your tooth before you go to your date. You make a bad impression if you have a bad breath and sometimes a peppermint after dinner can help you to get a better breath. It is important you don’t take the peppermint just before the kiss because you don’t want to have something in your mouth when you kiss and the one you love will smell the peppermint.kissing can also moisture your lips a little bit before you kiss. It is maybe best to run your tongue over your lips before you kiss. It makes kissing more enjoyable.

The Royal honey moon

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in the grounds of Buckingham Palace before flying off to a secret destination for the weekend by helicopter


 After waking together for the first time as husband and wife, the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced yesterday that they were postponing their honeymoon and that the Prince would be going back to work next week like most of the rest of us.

The couple left Buckingham Palace for a weekend break at an undisclosed location in Britain, after which Prince William will return to his job as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. They are expected to leave for an overseas honeymoon in the next fortnight, the location of which, despite feverish speculation, remains secret.

After the pomp of the Palace, the Middleton family returned home. Leaving the Goring Hotel, Kate's mother Carole told the crowd: "We had a wonderful time." Arriving back at their house in Bucklebury, Berkshire, Kate's brother, James, led the way, quickly followed by Kate's mother and sister, Pippa, in a Land Rover Freelander.

What is new about the concept of reproductive health

Reproductive health does not start out from a list of diseasesor problems - sexually transmitted diseases, maternal mortality or from a list of programmes - maternal and child health, safemotherhood, family planning.  Reproductive health instead must beunderstood in the context of relationships: fulfilment and risk; the opportunity to have a desired child þ or alternatively, to avoid unwanted or unsafe pregnancy.Reproductive health contributes enormously to physical and psychosocial comfort and closeness, and to personal and social maturation þ poor reproductive health is frequently associated with disease, abuse, exploitation, unwanted pregnancy, and death.The most significant achievement of the Cairo Conference was to place people firmly at the centre of development efforts, as protagonists in their own reproductive health and lives rather than as objects of external interventions.The aim of interventions is to enhance reproductive health and promote reproductive rights rather than population policies and fertility control.  This implies the empowerment of women (including through better access to education;the involvement of women and young people in the development and implementation of programmes and services; reaching out to the poor, the marginalized and the excluded; and assuming greater responsibility for reproductive health on the part of men. How this concept of reproductive health differs from exist in family planning and maternal and child health programmes Programmes dealing with various components of reproductive health exist in some form almost everywhere. But they have usually been delivered in a separate way, unconnected to programmes dealing with closely interdependent topics. For example, the objectives,design and evaluation of family planning programmes were largely driven by a demographic imperative, without due consideration to related health issues such as maternal health or STD prevention and management.Evaluation was largely in terms of quantity rather than quality - numbers of contraceptive acceptors as opposed to the ability and opportunity to make informed decisions about reproductive health issues.  In general, such programmes exclusively targeted women, taking little account of the social, cultural and intimate realities of their reproductive lives and decision-making powers.  They tended to serve only married people, designed to serve men even though they have reproductive health excluding, in particular, young people.  Services were rarely concerns of their own, particularly with regard to sexually transmitted diseases.Moreover, the involvement of men in reproductive health is important because they have an important role to play as family decision-makers with regard to family size, family planning and use of health services.A reproductive health approach would differ from a narrow family planning approach in several ways.  It would aim to build upon what exists and at the same time to modify current narrow,vertical programmes to ones in which every opportunity is taken to offer women and men a full range of reproductive health services in a linked way.  The underlying assumption is that people with a need in one particular area - say treatment of a sexually transmitted diseases - also have needs in other areas - family planning or antenatal/postpartum care.  Such programmes would recognize that dealing with one aspect of reproductive health can have synergistic effects in dealing with others.  For example, management of infertility is difficult and expensive but it can be largely prevented through appropriate care during and after delivery and prevention and management of STDs.  Promotion of breast-feeding has an impact on reproductive health in many ways - it helps prevent certain postpartum problems, delays the return to fertility, may help prevent ovarian and breast cancer, and improves neonatal health. Another important difference between existing programmes and those developed to respond to the new concept of reproductive health is the way in which people - particularly women and young people who are the most affected by reproductive health concerns - are involved in programme development, implementation and evaluation. When women become more involved in programmes it becomes clearer that they have health concerns beyond motherhood and also that dealing with reproductive health involves a profound rethinking of the behavioural, social, gender and cultural dimensions of decision-making which affect women's reproductive lives.
What reproductive health services includes 
The precise configuration of reproductive health needs and concerns, and the programmes and policies to address them, will vary from country to country and will depend on an assessment of each country's situation and the availability of appropriate interventions. Globally, however, both the epidemiological data and the expressed wishes of diverse constituencies indicate that reproductive health interventions are most likely to include attention to the issues of family planning, STD prevention and management and prevention of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity.  Reproductive health should also address issues such as harmful practices, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, reproductive tract infections including sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, infertility,malnutrition and anaemia, and reproductive tract cancers. Appropriate services must be accessible and include information, education, counselling,  prevention, detection and management of health problems, care and rehabilitation.  Reproductive health strategies should be founded first and foremost on the health of individuals and families.  In the operationalization of the strategies all reproductive health services must assume their responsibility to offer accessible and quality care, while ensuring respect for the individual, freedom of choice, informed consent, confidentiality and privacy in all reproductive matters.  They should focus special attention on meeting the reproductive health needs of adolescents.
   Factors affecting reproductive health
   Reproductive health affects, and is affected by, the broader context of people's lives, including their economic circumstances, education, employment, living conditions and family environment, social and gender relationships, and the traditional and legal structures within which they live.  Sexual and reproductive behaviours are governed by complex biological, cultural and psychosocial factors.  Therefore, the attainment of reproductive health is not limited to interventions by the health sector alone.  Nonetheless, most reproductive health problems cannot be significantly addressed in the absence of health services and medical knowledge and skills.     The status of girls and women in society, and how they are treated or mistreated, is a crucial determinant of their reproductive health. Educational opportunities for girls and women powerfully affect their status and the control they have over their own lives and their health and fertility. The empowerment of women is therefore an essential element for health. 
Who is most affected by reproductive health problems 
Women bear by far the greatest burden of reproductive health problems. Women are at risk of complications from pregnancy and childbirth; they also face risks in preventing unwanted pregnancy, suffer the complications of unsafe abortion, bear most of the burden of contraception, and are more exposed to contracting, and suffering the complications of reproductive tract infections, particularly sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Among women of reproductive age, 36% of all healthy years of life lost is due to reproductive health problems such as unregulated fertility, maternal mortality and morbidity and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.  By contrast, the equivalent figure for men is 12%.  Biological factors alone do not explain women's disparate burden. Their social, economic and political disadvantages have a detrimental impact on their reproductive health. Young people of both sexes, are also particularly vulnerable to reproductive health problems because of a lack of information and access to services.     How countries can identify reproductive health needs and assess priorities     A number of countries have expressed the desire to move forward with a new and comprehensive approach to reproductive health.  Support to national authorities in carrying out a systematic review of reproductive health needs at country level should focus on the importance of adding innovative and participatory approaches to more familiar epidemiological methodologies in which the process tends to be directed by experts and framed by biomedical approaches and indicators.  The identification of reproductive health needs, the determination of priorities and the development of programmatic responses to those needs should be conducted through an inclusive process, soliciting the perspectives of a range of groups concerned with reproductive health including, for example, women's health advocates, youth groups, health care providers at the periphery as well as at the central level, health planners, researchers, and non-governmental organizations.       Several instruments have already been developed for situationanalysis and needs assessment in different components of reproductive health, for example, family planning and safe motherhood.  However, in the context of the new approach to reproductive health it is necessary to ensure that assessment and prioritization reflect people's concerns as agreed at national and local levels and not the priorities of agencies or donors.  It is important to avoid duplication and to develop tools that are appropriate for countries themselves.  A number of such instruments already exist and are widely used.  However, it is important to ensure compatibility and consistency among the various instruments currently available.     Similar considerations apply to the selection of priorities for action in reproductive health.  Criteria for identification of priority problems should include not only importance - prevalence, severity, public concern, government commitment, impact on family, community and development - but also the feasibility of addressing them - known interventions, cost-effectiveness, availability of financing, human resources and adequate equipment and supplies.    
Human resources for reproductive health     
The operationalization of the new concept of reproductive health will mean changes in skills, knowledge, attitudes and management.  People will have to work together in new ways.  Health care providers will have to collaborate with others, including NGOs, women's health advocates, and young people.  Managerial and administrative changes will also be needed because integrated services can impose, at least initially, greater burdens on already over-stretched staff and require attention to planning and logistics in order to ensure availability and continuity of services.     Training for reproductive health workers will need to focus on improving both technical and interpersonal skills.  Additional training, particularly in counselling skills and in ways of reaching out to under-served groups will be essential elements of such training.  The back-up and support of functioning referral systems will be essential elements if the full range of reproductive health concerns is to be adequately addressed.    

 

 

Jessica Simpson reveals new trim pre-wedding figure

All that time in the gym has paid off for Jessica Simpson, who showed off a slimmer figure at US Weekly’s Hot Hollywood party this week.

                      

                                                     Simpson at the Hot Hollywood party

Jessica, who is engaged to NFL player Eric Johnson, is rumoured to be walking down the aisle before the end of the year - but not before shedding a few pounds.

Jessica has been criticised in the past for her fuller figure and fluctuating weight, but from these recent pictures it appears the star is be beating the bulge. She revealed her super toned physique while wearing a tiny tribal print dress on the red carpet for the celebrity event.
                
The singer and fashion mogul was the honouree of the night as she received the award for Style Icon of the Year.




It is believed that Jessica works out four times a week for 75 minutes with Anderson, who has also worked with Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The 30-year-old bride-to-be is not a fan of restrictive diets. The star admitted to following a vegan diet for a short time, but when asked if she would fully commit she replied, “I’m from Texas, I’d fry steak.”
 Promo from comedy movie Dukes of Hazzard.

Addressing the issue of her weight, she said last year, “We all obsess over looking like the perfect Barbie type, and that’s not always what’s beautiful. It’s about making peace with yourself.”

This is the second marriage for Jessica, who was previously married to pop star Nick Lachey in 2002 and appeared on MTV reality show ‘Newlyweds’. The couple divorced in 2006. She began dating Johnson in May of last year and the couple announced their engagement this past November