Health Bytes
Health experts now say coconut oil is as unhealthy as beef fat and butter. It is full of saturated fat, which can raise "bad" cholesterol, the AHA says in updated advice. Health nuts have made coconut oil their magic elixir, using it for cooking and baking, as a skin moisturizers, to heal cuts and scrapes. No good studies to support claims that it is better than other saturated fats exist yet. The disconnect between the views of nutritionists and the public about the oil could be entirely attributed to marketing.
No, this isn’t a disorder for those of us who have woken up feeling “dead tired.” Walking Corpse Syndrome is a belief held by a person that they are dead, or that parts of their body no longer exist, and some die from starvation because they feel they no longer have to eat. It has been linked to depression as well as to those who are chronically deprived of sleep or suffer drug psychosis. This distorted reality is caused by a malfunction in an area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus.
Disk hernias and alignment problems of the neck are the most common diseases that are growing rapidly in today’s world and the major cause of this is the use of mobile phones. The constant use of mobile phones, tablets, laptops and computers are increasing the stress on the spine by almost 60 degrees. In several x-ray reports of patients, it has been found that the neck curves backward. This has been termed as “text neck” because it has been found that texting causes this more than watching videos or browsing the internet. So, it is advisable to restrict the use of cell phones as far as possible.
There has been a huge rise of mental health illness like stress and depression including other serious problems due to the unmatched level of work pressure and personal problems that we go through. Research has shown that such illness can be avoided by practicing group meditation, a therapy which has shown remarkable improvement in a group of people with some or the other mental illness. Results revealed that the average rate for 15 different indexes in multiple questionnaires decreased to a large extent in both the scales.
With Sun getting stronger with each passing day and summer hitting hard on our body, we quite get tempted to indulge ourselves into some tantalizing chilled out fresh summer drinks to soothe our body from within. The season calls for fresh fruit juices, fruit punches, and some ice tea to treat our taste buds. However, expert figures from Vietnam say that iced tea can cause cholera which was proved through a survey. Almost 22% people were victims of cholera after drinking ice tea within a week.
We love hitting the gym or working out at home to keep our body fit and in shape. Some of us are just obsessed about the gym and cannot even think of missing out on it. Good news for them as exercising reduces the chances of suffering from a heart attack. Studies have shown that working out develops collateral blood vessels in the heart which helps in a healthy amount of blood flow even after the blockage. This stimulates heart attack survival, thereby giving you a longer life.
Ever experienced a sudden case of hiccups when you were having a hearty laughter session? So what causes those involuntary fits that interrupt your laughter and conversation when they attack you in their full power? Sometimes, when you laugh for an extended period of time, air rushes into your diaphragm because of improper breaths, which forces your body to expel the excessive air in a different way – hiccups. Laughter can also disturb the phrenic nerves, which connect the brain to the diaphragm, by abnormal breathing, which in turn leads to contraction of the diaphragm and eventual hiccups.
Here’s a reason for mothers to rejoice because all your doubts have been confirmed and sealed with science! Research says that the mother’s genes are responsible for how smart her child will turn out to be. Mommies everywhere, this is your cue to yell, “I knew it!” The research confirms that most of a person’s intelligence is attached to Chromosome X – which is carried by women in a pair. While female children get one of the X Chromosomes from the father, intelligence genes aren't activated when they're passed down by a male. So the next time your child is behaving all goofy, you'll know exactly whom to blame. At least until they find out who passes on the tantrum genes.
Everyone likes food that tastes good. But what about colors, smells or textures? Ever felt like thrusting your mouth in a barrel of paint or found yourself wanting to take a crunchy bite of a vibrantly spherical piece of chalk? Then you might just be suffering from an eating disorder called ‘pica’, which makes people addicted to eating substances that aren’t food. Reasons for having symptoms of pica include a chemical disorder, a nutritional deficiency or even obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)! Health complications that may arise out of this disorder could include gastric pain and bleeding, constipation, lead poisoning or even bowel perforation.
Can eat certain types of foods really have an impact on our dispositions? Researchers have found that people who prefer to eat sweet foods are more likely to volunteer for someone in need and are more agreeable and helpful generally – literally making them “sweet as sugar”. The study also pointed out how different tastes can evidently be associated as metaphors for personalities of people (eg.: She’s a ‘sweet’heart!), when in fact, the taste would seem to have so little in common with a person’s behavior or temperament! So apparently, you are very much what you eat. Like we needed another reason to love chocolate anyway.
It is surprising that people can develop this life-threatening disease even if they have never smoked a tobacco product throughout their lives. Three major factors play a role– the environment, lifestyle, and genetics. Radon gas, a colorless, odorless radioactive gas that forms naturally as a result of the decay of radioactive elements can be an important environmental constituent. Spending a large amount of time in areas where one is exposed to secondhand smoke could increase the risk of falling prey to the disease. Individuals with a family history of lung cancer are also more likely to develop lung cancer themselves.
A study has shown that any level of physical activity can have a positive effect on the emotional wellbeing of a human being. Periodically engaging in slight physical activities can lead to a more positive emotional side and can be a contributing factor to your overall mood and happiness. When we make a gesture the movements of which are related to a specific emotion, it can elicit or create that emotion in us. Rhythmic movements like jumping or hopping or even dancing to random music can make you happy and instantly boost your mood. So go on and move it, move it!
Tired of your children throwing a fit every time you ask them to eat healthy veggies? Harness the superpowers of their superheroes to convince them! Researchers have found that invoking names of superhero role models encouraged children to eat healthier food over junk items and illustrated that when superhero cues were given, 36% more children opted for the healthier alternative! So the next time your children are going ballistic about leaving out broccoli or radishes, ask them if their favorite superhero would do that. Will you, however, have the energy to match their extra energy once they get into their “superhero” modes? Sigh! If only YOU were Batman too.
To control our calorie intake, we need to control the portion sizes we serve. But can something like the size of our plates cause us to eat more than we think? A study has explained how larger plates make food servings appear smaller and unconsciously push us into serving more food, while smaller plates can lead us to misjudge that very same quantity of food as being significantly larger. Since some people feel compelled to finish whatever they have served, they invariably end up eating more off larger plates. In order to avoid the glorious act of gluttony, we must manipulate the size of the dinnerware we use!
Do you have a favorite person who waits on you in specific restaurants who might be on the healthier side? He might be the reason for you to order more while dining there – and not because he recommends the best food items to you. A study shows that diners who ordered their dinner from heavier wait staff were four times more likely to order dessert, and ordered 17% more alcohol. Yes, lighting, music and where you sit have also been shown to influence your eating preferences but a heavy waiter or waitress seemed to have a bigger influence on what we ordered, especially on skinniest diners!
Ever feel like the handsome hunk or someone with the most oozing appeal around town that the ladies just love to dig? Errr… we meant the “mosquito” ladies since only the females bite. Research has shown that mosquitos exhibit blood-sucking preferences which can be narrowed down to two categories – sight and smell. People dressed in darker colors attract plenty of mosquito ‘vision’ attention. ‘Smell’ attractors include the carbon dioxide you emit, or smells from your skin or breath like lactic acid or acetone. Another factor is your body temperature or warmth, as people with higher body temperatures indicate that blood – their most favourite treat – is closer to the skin surface.
Sometimes we feel like junk food has us all gripped into its superficial deliciousness and convenient availability. Everyone is hopelessly addicted and yet struggling to find ways to control their junk intake. Help is not far, as a recent study has illustrated that simply serving your food to yourself, then accepting a portion from someone else, will help in curbing your junk food cravings. The study found that people eat less unhealthy food when they're in control of how big their portion is. Well, if it keeps us away from junk food, we will definitely have all hands on deck (and off the unhealthy plates)!
A study in the Journal of Consumer Research illustrates how consumers are drawn towards expensive food items, assuming them to be healthier and how affordable items are left behind as junky food – even if neither of the cases is true. Yes, generally, the healthy option is often the costlier one, but that holds true only on a comprehensive basis – like fresh fruits or veggies will be costlier than processed or junk food. But when you’re talking about individual items, that rule isn’t a universal one. Thus, people are less inclined to believe that a product can be healthy unless they’re shelling out more for it.
Remember the time when your milk teeth fell off and you looked like a cute little toothless bunny? Humans are diphyodonts, meaning that they grow two separate sets of teeth throughout their lives and milk teeth are naturally required by children for proper chewing and for speech development. However, baby teeth also preserve space for our adult teeth until they can grow up underneath our gums. By distributing chewing forces into our jaws, our baby teeth keep space available so that adult teeth can erupt normally into our mouths. And you thought they were only for the tooth fairy! Ha!