Thursday, May 13, 2010

Horse gram or widely known as kollu, a common bean, available in abundance in Sri Lanka and neighbouring countries is a remedy for many health issues!

Kollu,or horse gram local bean but healthy friend


Nutritious and balanced

[ Kollu facts]
* Remedy for weakness of the body
* Helps dissolve kidney stones
* Reduces blood pressure and cholesterol
* Helps control obesity
* Cures menstrual problems
Horse gram or widely known as kollu, a common bean, available in abundance in Sri Lanka and neighbouring countries is a remedy for many health issues. This is often used as fodder for horses and cattle. But the little known fact is this dhal has amazing medicinal qualities.

It is recommended for general weakness, dissolving kidney stones and reducing blood pressure and cholesterol.Horse gram is extensively used by the people of Andhra Pradesh in their weight loss diet.

The consumption of the gram is also said to control obesity. Besides this, it is known to cure menstrual problems in women, as it purifies the blood. But despite its medicinal qualities, horse gram remains one of the most ignored beans, probably because of its moth-ball-like taste.

But even this can be disguised through proper preparation. It can be used in various recipes in place of other beans, or a sauce can be made out of this and used instead of soya sauce.

dailynews.lk

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that that caffeine helped improve workers’ memory and concentration.!!!

How office coffee breaks make staff work harder
By John Bingham

Taking a coffee break in the office might not seem like hard work but, according to a new study, it could actively make workers more productive.


Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that that caffeine helped improve workers’ memory and concentration as well as reducing the number of mistakes they made.

For those on long overnight shifts, it has a similar effect to taking a "power nap", the findings, published in the Cochrane Library journal, suggest.

The researchers also suggested that drinking coffee could help reduce accidents at work, traffic crashes involving people at the end of long shifts and even medical errors by doctors on call for long periods of time.

The team reviewed the findings of 13 separate studies from around the world involving shift workers, mostly in their 20s, in simulated working conditions.

Volunteers had been asked to perform tasks to test their memory, concentration, use of words and reasoning while two of the trials measured how prone they were to making simple errors.

Some were given caffeine while others were given a placebo to compare the effects.

The tests were then repeated when the volunteers were exposed to other factors such as bright lights or allowed to take a nap.

In memory, reasoning and concentration tests, those who had been given caffeine all scored moderately better than those given a placebo.

The effect could be seen irrespective of whether they drank a cup of coffee, an energy drink, took a caffeine pill or ate food with a high caffeine content.

Although there was little difference between the results of those given a cup of coffee compared with those allowed to take a nap overall, one study showed that those given caffeine made fewer errors.

Katharine Ker of the London School of Tropical Medicine in London, the lead researcher, said: "The results of the trials suggest that compared to no intervention, caffeine can reduce the number of errors and improve cognitive performance in shift workers.

"It seems reasonable to assume that reduced errors are associated with fewer injuries, although we cannot quantify such a reduction."

The team called for more research to measure the effects of caffeine on older people.



(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010


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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

In the first 6 months, babies learn things much quicker than we thought possible.! What they are born with and what they learn is difficult to divide!

Six-month-old babies 'can tell good from evil'
By Heidi Blake

Babies are able to tell good from evil from the age of six months, a study has suggested.



Researchers asked infants of various ages to choose between characters which they had seen behaving well or badly, and found they overwhelmingly favoured the "good" characters.

One-year-old babies who were asked to take treats away from a "naughty" puppet in some cases went so far as to lean over and smack it on the head.

The research, which is being pioneered by a team of psychologists from the Infant Cognition Centre at Yale University, Connecticut, contradicts the belief promoted by psychologists such as Sigmund Freud that babies are born "amoral animals" and acquire a sense of right and wrong through conditioning.

In another experiment, babies aged between six months and a year watched an animated film in which a red ball with eyes tries to climb a hill while a yellow square tries to help push it up from behind and a green triangle tries to force it back down.

At the end of the film, scientists tested which shape the babies favoured by measuring how long they spent looking at a picture of each one. In 80 per cent of cases, the babies chose the helpful character over the unhelpful one.

Paul Bloom, the professor of psychology who heads the study team, said: "A growing body of evidence ... suggests that humans do have a rudimentary moral sense from the very start of life. With the help of well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone."

One-year-old babies who watched one rabbit puppet trying to snatch a ball from a toy cat while a second rabbit puppet tried to return it chose to punish the "naughty" puppet by confiscating some sweets it had been given earlier. Some also smacked the rabbit on the head without being prompted.

Peter Willatts, a senior lecturer in psychology at Dundee University, said: "You cannot get inside the mind of the baby. You cannot ask them. You have to go on what most attracts their attention.

"We now know that in the first six months babies learn things much quicker than we thought possible. What they are born with and what they learn is difficult to divide."



(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010


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Friday, May 7, 2010

The stress of modern living could be making us eat more sugary and fatty foods, scientists claim..!!!

Scientists find anxiety gene that also makes you comfort eat
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent

The stress of modern living could be making us eat more sugary and fatty foods, scientists claim.

Researchers have found an "anxiety gene" which when switched on not only causes stress but increases our craving for sweets and comfort food.

They believe that the gene could be the reason why we are becoming an increasingly obese and stressful society. It could be the reason for the phenomenon "comfort eating".

Dr Alon Chen, a neuroendocrinologist at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, said: "We showed that the actions of a single gene in just one part of the brain can have profound effects on the metabolism of the whole body.

"In essence, stress may be turning us fat."

Few people lead stress-free lives these days which may, say experts, account for the rise in obesity triggered by the stress gene.

"Stress is definitely influencing every system in the body," said Dr Chen "It’s not just causing anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder but is influencing metabolic syndromes such as obesity."

In the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers have discovered that there’s a "stress switch" that seems to lead to diabetes and obesity.

The Israeli researchers created their own method for changing the activity of the gene in the brain, causing it to release varied amounts of a protein called Ucn3.

They discovered that increased levels of Ucn3 caused anxiety and changes in metabolism.

With increased levels of Ucn3, the bodies of mice used more sugar and less fatty acids and metabolic rates increased, showing the first stages of type 2 diabetes.

Dr Chen added: "Until now the lines drawn between stress, appetite and anxiety were pointed out, but never fully explained.

"This new research may be the important missing link that can help drug developers create drugs targeting stress that could have multiple side-benefits, like preventing diabetes, promoting heart health and keeping our weight down.

"We showed that the actions of single gene in just one part of the brain can have profound effects on the metabolism of the whole body.

"This mechanism, which appears to be a "smoking gun" tying stress levels to metabolic disease, might, in the future, point the way toward the treatment or prevention of a number of stress-related diseases."


(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Researchers found a link between using hormonal contraception and female sexual dysfunction, a condition most often caused by a lack of desire..!!!

The Pill linked to low desire for sex, claims study
Taking the pill could be putting women off sex, a new study has claimed

By Richard Alleyne,
Science Correspondent

Researchers found a link between using hormonal contraception and female sexual dysfunction, a condition most often caused by a lack of desire.

The findings back up previous anecdotal evidence that the pill reduces libido and also calls into question the long term use of the contraception especially in ever younger women.

"Sexual problems can have a negative impact on both quality of life and emotional wellbeing, regardless of age," said researcher Dr Lisa-Maria Wallwiener of the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

"Female Sexual Dysfunction is a very common disorder, with an estimated prevalence of about two in five women having at least one sexual dysfunction, and the most common complaint appearing to be low desire."

For the study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, the researchers recruited 1,086 women most of whom had been sexually active in the last month.

They were asked to complete questionnaires designed to identify problems with sexual function and this was compared to the type of contraception if any they had used in the last six months.

The researchers found that the women who took hormonal contraception suffered the most sexual dysfunction especially compared with those who used other types such as condoms.

Dr Irwin Goldstein, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, said this had huge implications for women at the beginning of their sexual lives.

"The irony is that these women are provided a medication that enables freedom from reproductive worries but these same women are not provided information that there are significant adverse sexual effects that may ensue," he said.

"Agents that interfere with the hormonal milieu of women may adversely affect their sexual lives."


(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010


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Asteroids brought both water and compounds to the early Earth - helping lay the foundation for life on the planet..!!!

Life began after asteroids slammed into earth, scientists say

Life on Earth began after asteroids crashed into the planet, scientists have claimed.

Astronomers have confirmed for the first time that a giant space rock contains frozen water on its surface.

Analysis of asteroid 24 Themis also shows evidence of widespread organic chemicals.

The scientists say this supports the theory that asteroids brought both water and compounds to the early Earth - helping lay the foundation for life on the planet.

Using an Hawaii based NASA telescope they studied infrared sunlight reflected by 200-kilometer wide 24 Themis that sits halfway between Mars and Jupiter in an area called the Main Belt.

They found the spectrum was consistent with frozen water and determined the object is coated with a thin film of ice. They also detected organic matter.

Asteroids were once believed to be dry and lifeless but it is now believed they played a vital role in the evolution of life.

Planetary scientist Dr Josh Emery, of the University of Tennessee, said: "The organics we detected appear to be complex, long-chained molecules.

"Raining down on a barren Earth in meteorites, these could have given a big kick-start to the development of life."

Dr Emery, whose findings are published in Nature, said discovering ice on 24 Themis was a surprise because the surface is too warm for it to stick around for a long time.

He said: "This implies ice is quite abundant in the interior of 24 Themis and perhaps many other asteroids. This ice on asteroids may be the answer to the puzzle of where Earth's water came from."

Still, how the water got there is unclear as the asteroid's proximity to the sun causes ice to vaporize. But the researchers' findings suggest its lifetime of ice ranges from thousands to millions of years depending on the latitude.

So the ice is regularly being replenished possibly by a process of "outgassing" in which ice buried within the asteroid escapes slowly as vapor migrates through cracks to the surface or as vapor escapes quickly and sporadically when 24 Themis is hit by space debris.

Since Themis is part of an asteroid "family" that was formed from a large impact and the subsequent fragmentation of a larger body long ago, this scenario means the parent body also had ice and has deep implications for how our solar system formed.

Dr Emery said: "Asteroids have generally been viewed as being very dry. It now appears when the asteroids and planets were first forming in the very early Solar System ice extended far into the Main Belt region.

"Extending this refined view to planetary systems around other stars, the building blocks of life - water and organics - may be more common near each star's habitable zone.

"The coming years will be truly exciting as astronomers search to discover whether these building blocks of life have worked their magic there as well."

The scientists' discovery also further blurs the line between comets and asteroids. Asteroids have long been considered to be rocky and comets icy.


(C) The Telegraph Group London 2010


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