Health and Fitness

Vitamin A What it does and why you need it  

‘Vitamin A’ covers both a pre-formed vitamin, Retinol and a pro-vitamin, Beta-Carotene. Some amounts of beta-carotene transform into Retinol by GI enzymatic action. Retinol is converted to some pigments in our retinal tissue. These pigments are absolutely essential for our vision in dim light. Vitamin A is also essential to maintain the integrity of the glandular and the epithelial tissues present in every organ in our body. It also helps in the skeletal growth and boosts the immune system.

Daily requirement of Vitamin A –

Sources of Vitamin A: -

Foods of Animal Origin – eggs, liver, whole milk, butter, cheese. Fish Liver oils such as Cod liver oil and Halibut liver oils are the richest sources of Vitamin A, but generally they are used as food supplements.

 Foods of Plant origin: -

Green leafy vegetables like spinach, amaranth. All the yellow vegetables like carrot, pumpkin, tomatoes, and papaya contain a great amount of Vitamin A in the form of Beta-carotene.

Fortified foods: -

Some commercially available foods like baby foods, milks and margarines are fortified with Vitamin A.

Effects of Vitamin A deficiency: -

These are primarily seen in our eyes. The effect can be as low as nightblindness up to extremely detrimental condition like Keratomalacia where the eyes become rotten. Among the extra-ocular manifestations, these are anorexia, growth retardation and follicular hyperkeratosis.

Relieving Sunburn 

Sunburn is a condition of the skin caused due to inflammation after excessive exposure to sunlight. There is pinkish or reddish discoloration of the skin. The general symptoms of sunburn are burn like pain and itching. In severe cases, there may be blisters over the burnt area. Irritation and watering from the eyes are also noticed. Premature aging has been noticed in persons who remain outside in the sun for long periods. Too much sunburn may cause cancer of the skin.

There are various ways of relieving sunburn. It can occur even on an overcast day, so applying sunscreen lotion is not the only solution to this. But of course, applying sunscreen lotion plays an important role to get out of sunburn. It is recommended to apply the sunscreen lotion at least 30 minutes prior to going out.

Topical anesthetic agent like lignocaine spray over the affected area will relieve the pain and irritation instantly. But one has to be extra cautious not to spray near the eyes.

Any cream containing Aloe Vera gel is counted as one of the best solutions for relieving of sunburn. Apply generously over the affected area.

Take a cool shower after coming back home from outside; after that, apply calamine lotion over the sunburn area. Calamine has a soothing effect on the skin. In case of excessive pain and irritation, over the counter pain killers will help.

Viagra Alternatives

Losing Fat fast

The summer is here and you’ve probably only just become concious of your wobbly bits, your going on holiday in August and you want to look good on the beach.

Theres no good way to lose pounds of fat fast, crash dieting is not healthy and you’ll probably also lose a lot of muscle, muscle is the best thing to burn fat. Losing lots of it means when you stop dieting you get even fatter.

 Heres some stuff to help you slim up in a healthy and sustainably manner first of all you could start by reading these fat loss tips, cut down your alcohol consumption theres a lot of Calories in Lager, Circuit training will help you tone up Heres some basic circuits for you to try and if your considering pills to lose your fat heres a little guide to how Fat metabolisers work.

Your holiday will be much more enjoyable if your more confident about the way you look,

Since Wimbledon starts today and you’ll all be getting the tennis bug like everyone in the U.K does at this time of year I thought we’d look at Tennis elbow, you don’t have to play tennis to get it. 

Tennis elbow (medically known as Lateral epicondylitis) is a condition characterized by excruciating pain over the outer aspect of your elbow. This is one of the most prominent overuse injuries you can get. This is a misnomer; the disease can occur in other activities which also which involve extensive use of the forearm.

The main symptom of tennis elbow is recurrent pain over the outer aspect of upper limb, near to the elbow. Sometimes, the pain can radiate up to the wrist joint. The person can not lift or grasp any object; even writing becomes difficult in advanced cases. You can not extend your hand fully; pain in the elbow will restrict your normal activities.

Once started, the acute stage of pain will last for at least 6-12 weeks. It can remain for up to years in a milder form.

The cause of Tennis elbow is repeated minute tear in the tendons of the muscles. Initially the tear heals itself. But with repeated tear, the muscle and the whole tendon becomes inflamed. Collagen tissue comes out and aggravates the situation. There is formation of granulation tissue in the places of normal tendinous tissue. The friction against the bony prominence makes the condition worse.

The best way to treat a case of tennis elbow is complete rest. This will normalize the situation early. You may have to stop playing games if the condition does not improve.

Gradual stretching exercise will help in the betterment of the situation. Corticosteroids may be prescribed in refractory cases.

If medical management fails, surgical removal of the inflamed tendon and lengthening of the tendons will definitely improve the condition.

Amino acids are precursors of protein. Several different amino acids after joining by chemical bonds form a protein structure. The chemical and other properties of protein depend upon the sequence of amino acids in the chain.

There will be two separate protein molecules if the sequence of the amino acids is different, no matter if the combination of amino acids is same in two proteins.

Branched chain amino acids are non-linear amino acids containing aliphatic side chain. There are three amino acids in this category – valine, leucine and isoleucine. These three amino acids are very essential to build the skeletal and muscular structure in our body. They also produce different proteins in different combinations. At present, there is much discussion about branched chain amino acids in lowering mental fatigue as it is seen that they can reduce the serotonin level in the brain. They are also used to treat burn patients in their convalescence stage.

An essential amino acid is such that it can not be synthesized de novo, i.e. our body can not synthesize this amino acid from other resources.

Therefore, this group of amino acid has to be supplied by food. There are nine essential amino acids – lysine, leucine, isoleucine, histidine, valine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine and tryptophan.

The non-essential amino acids can be synthesized in our body. They are – alanine, cysteine, cystine, glutamic acid, glutathione, glycine, serine, taurine, threonine, asparagine and proline.

Oi Baldie!  Want to know why your hairs falling out and what option you have to prevent it? 

Hair loss is a common problem. More than 80% of the total hairs in our head are at growing stage. The last 10% are at resting stage. This phase lasts for 2-3 months. After that they fall of and new hairs grow. Therefore, it is quite usual to shed some hairs daily.

There are various causes of baldness in both males and females. A number of medical conditions, hereditary diseases and environmental factors play a significant role.

Pattern type of baldness: commonest cause of baldness both in males and females. As the person gets older, the hairs follicles become shallow. And with little alterations, they fall off. There may be family history of baldness in the persons suffering from this type of baldness.

Hormonal problem: this condition occurs due to androgens. Moreover, if there is surplus amount of thyroid hormone in blood (thyrotoxicosis), hair loss is seen.

Major trauma: after a major surgical operation, patients may experience excessive falling of hairs. This is because of lack of proper nutrition and stress.

Medical conditions: Various diseases can lead to hair loss – alopecia areata, long standing diabetes, lupus, dandruff are the prominent culprits. Some medications also cause hair loss – warfarin, allopurinol, birth control pills, chemotherapy drugs, antidepressants may result into baldness.

Medical management: Minoxidil – it increases blood flow in the scalp. Finesteride – it prevents the conversion of testosterone to its active form DHT, which is one of the greatest causes of baldness.

Surgical procedure: hair transplants are very common nowadays.

Wigs: use of wigs is in practice since the ancient times.

The healthy approach to weight loss involves daily workouts, adequate diet and proper sleep. There is no role of over enthusiastic dieting and crash exercise. Mother Nature has so created our body that it can not withstand fast transformations.

Suppose, you are living a really sedentary lifestyle and someday you are requested to run 100 meters sprint. You will injure yourself, if you do not break any leg bones. You will be demoralized and it will put your level of fitness further back.

Dieting also demands slow and steady reduction in the amount you eat. The diet you consume calories will supply the required energy when you are doing any exercise schedule. If you starve, your performance in the work out program will also suffer.

Lifestyle modification

Simple modifications in your lifestyle will make a huge difference. Just follow these simple steps –

If you have a pet, take him outside for regular walking.

Add 30 minutes extra to your domestic work like gardening, dusting, cleaning etc.

Engage in any hobby that demands outdoor activity like hiking.

If travelling for a short distance like to the shop for a paper, use your feet.

If you can park your car at a distance from your destination. Take a quick walk from there.

Avoid sending e-mails to office colleagues. Go and personally meet him with a smile. Your PR (Personal Relations) will go up.

Shin splints are injuries over the frontal aspect of the lower leg. It is not a disease by itself, but a combination of symptoms for which there may be number of reasons.

It is an aftereffect of an inflammation of the periosteum (covering of the bone) of the lower limb (tibia) or due to injury to the posterior peroneal tendon along with adjacent musculature. According to sports medicine, shin splints occur due to overuse of the lower limb.

The pain in shin splints characteristically occurs to the frontal aspect of the shin bone (tibia) area. The pain usually comes during the initial phase of exercise and gradually reduces as the person goes on doing exercise. In the beginning, the pain is dull aching in its nature. But after some time, with continuing inflammatory process, it becomes so intense, that the affected person is forced to stop doing exercise. There may be swelling over the same area in advanced cases of shin splint.

The first and foremost thing to do in a case of shin splints is to stop doing any kind of exercise. You can apply ice over the area to reduce pain, but never massage the area. Stretching of the muscles of the lower limb is also helpful. You may try putting some shock absorbing insoles inside your shoe. Oral anti inflamatory pain killer medicine is prescribed in resistant cases.

Are you continuing your morning session of running even you are suffering from excruciating pain in the left heel? Have you ever felt a binding for treadmill running even when you are having a low grade fever? Continue to skip even when your friends have given up long before?

If anyone of these is true, you may be having some kind of exercise addiction my friend. Whereas regular exercise is necessary to keep your health hale and hearty, doing excessive exercise will cause no good, instead it can ruin your life.

How do you know that you are addicted to exercise? Let us find out –

• You feel extremely anxious if you miss any time of your daily exercise schedule.
• You continue to exercise each day, even when you are so sick that it is better to remain in the bed.
• You are missing classes, reaching late in the workplace or skipping social gathering to do some more exercise.
• If you miss any schedule, you do twice or thrice on the very next day.

If your answer is yes in any case, it is time to have a look into the deeper aspect of life as to who is driving your mind for doing exercise or how. Experts say that maintaining an exercise dairy will enable you to track the progress.

If you are progressing, there is no need to continue over exercising. It may land you in personal injury in a short time or you may become a patient of osteoarthritis at an early age.