Did you know that the simple act of washing your hands is enough to keep your health in good shape, and to keep serious illnesses at bay? Just washing your hands through the day, before eating and after using the services can help keep your hands germ free and keep diseases away. October 15 has been designated as Global Hand washing Day. The date has been marked as the global advocacy day dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding the importance of hand washing with soap. Here are some of the reasons why Hand washing is important!

1. It functions as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives.

2. Hand washing is one of the most significant public health interventions around the world, because the simple act has averted many public health concerns.

3. Every year, as many as 1.7 million children do not see their fifth birthdays because of diarrhoea and pneumonia. Hand washing with soap is among the most effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diseases.

4. Hand washing can save lives effectively. It helps by cutting the prevalence of diarrhoea by almost one half the extent it prevails at, and also cuts back on acute respiratory infections by nearly one-quarter.

5. Hand washing with soap impacts not just health and nutrition, but also education, economics, and equity in social set ups.

6. Hand washing with soap is highly effective in building good health and even saves lives by preventing infections from spreading. Many infections begin to spread when one’s hands are contaminated with disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

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7. After using the toilet, or changing a child’s diaper, coughing, sneezing, touching other people’s hands, and touching other contaminated surfaces automatically allow the spread of germs. A single gram of human feces can contain 10 million viruses and one million bacteria. Hand washing with soap works by removing bacteria and viruses from hands before they get a chance to actually cause infections or spread to other people.

PC: www.handresearch.com

8. When handsare contaminated with disease causing germs – both bacteria and viruses alike, they can enter the body or pass from person to person very easily. Once these germs enter the body, they can cause a wide range of infections. Hand washing stops the process before it gets out of hand.

9. Diseases and infections that can be kept at bay with hand washing are diarrhea, pneumonia, ebola, skin and eye infections, intestinal worms and even common colds.

References:
http://globalhandwashing.org/global-handwashing-day/
http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/en/
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/cleaning/tips/a19054/germ-proof-house/

Come summer, and the soaring temperatures can be a terrible impingement on your body. One of the more vulnerable body parts to rising summer temperatures are your eyes. Be they allergies or infections, your eyes could wind up with anything from sore eyes, red eyes, conjunctivitis and migraines. We have some simple tips for you to follow to make sure that your eyes are protected and stay healthy this summer. .

1.Go for regular checkups to see if your eyes need medical attention, supplements or nutrients, or perhaps if there are any changes in power so that there are changes in spectacles accordingly.

2.Protect your eyes from pollution to the best of your ability. Wear shades, and keep wet wipes that help you get rid of any irritants from falling into your eyes. Make sure to keep your hair off your eyes as well.

3.Avoid overworking your eyes as much as you can. If you can help it, unplug from computers and digital screens after work. If you cannot avoid it, make sure to take breaks suitably to relieve your eyes.

4.Eat healthy and make sure that you get the right resources in the form of vitamins, minerals and nutrient rich food. Vitamin C is very important for your eyes. Avoid foods that are too rich in oil and fat. Snack healthy if you can help it.

5. De-stress with your eyes and as much as possible, do some calming exercises to help ease the burden on your eyes. One exercise is called palming, where you have to rub your hands together for a few minutes until slightly warm, and then place them on your closed eyes lightly.

6. Another thing you can do occasionally is to repeatedly blink to reduce the strain on your eyes.

                                     

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7. Whenever possible, keep your eyes closed for a good many minutes so that you can resume work with a less negative impact and strain. Every now and then, focus on a distant object for a few seconds and allow your vision to strengthen itself with the ciliary muscles gaining some respite and some of the stress being knocked off. Another useful tip is to roll your eyes in circles a few rounds every now and then, and then close your eyes, focus on your breathing and relax for a bit.  

8. Make sure that you protect your eyes from sunlight. The best way to do this is to use protective sunglasses of the wraparound kind, so that they absorb at least 99 percent of the Ultra Violet Rays – UVA and UVB – from the sun. Doing this will keep you away from suffering migraines and cataract.

9. When you look to clean your eyes, never rub or clean them with unclean hands. If you are outdoors, in public places, or have just returned from public places where you held onto different things, use hand sanitisers or wash your hands to get rid of infections before you touch your eyes.

10. Never splash water inside your eyes, because this affects your tear film by washing it away. It is a protective layer for your eyes, so you should be washing your eyes only when dust gets in, or foreign particles enter them.

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11. Make it a point to wash your face and hands every time you are back home from outside. The pollution makes you vulnerable to contracting infections of every kind, so you need to make sure that nothing from outside – dust, grime, germs, allergens or infection, enter your eyes and leaves you with allergies.

12. When you have a tendency for allergic reactions, avoid using perfumes and cosmetics, and avoid going around spaces that have dust, pollen, mould and even smoke. If you do wind up with an allergy, you can spot it by looking for signs of redness, itching, burning and puffiness. They may or may not be related to nasal allergies, so the best thing to do is to get in touch with your doctor.

References:

http://www.indiatimes.com/health/buzz/world-sight-day-care-for-your-vision-242032.html

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Care-of-Your-Eyes

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/good-eyesight

 

Did you know that your shot at keeping breast cancer at bay lies in the food that you eat? You read it right! A simple dietary choice that is responsible and pivoted towards strong nutritive values can help your body find all the resources it needs, to avoid breast cancer. Here are a bunch of food options that you can indulge yourself in, for longstanding good health, and for breast cancer prevention:

1. A meal that is rich in vegetables and fruits is one of your best bets to avoiding breast cancer at all costs. By eating fruits and vegetables, you get one of the most direct forms of nutrient supplies into your body, and that ensures that you get as much as your body needs, to stay supple and healthy, and to remain capable of healing itself. 

2. A diet that is low in starchy carbohydrates may help prevent breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence.

3. Eating turmeric rich dishes will also help keep breast cancer at bay. Comprising a chemical called curcumin, turmeric helps to fight breast cancer tumours, and also have an inherent anti-inflammatory effect that can protect your body.

4. Broccoli is also a significant element in breast cancer prevention, since it blocks tumour growth, prevents the spread of cancer and also keeps the body’s own immunity levels high. Though this property as an anti-cancer benefit vegetable exists in cauliflowers, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, and kale, broccoli is richest in it.

5. Garlic is a powerful dietary supplement since it prevents cell-cycling, or the process by which healthy cells become carcinogenic. This happens because of allyl sulfide, which can, if taken in regular doses, keep breast cancer at bay.

6. Apples are rich in antioxidants and fibre, and this can help keep your body’s immune system up, and work especially well in preventing breast cancer.

7. Pomegranates are great resources in preventing cancer, as they contain a compound in them that works well to fight the growth and spread of cancer, especially the kind that is estrogen-dependent.

            

8. Walnuts and Fish are fantastic sources of Omega-3, which help keep cancer at bay. They are very helpful nutrients and healthy elements that help your body fight inflammation and multiplication of cancerous cells. Another alternative is flaxseed, which also contains a fair bit of Omega-3.

9. Foods that are rich in carotenoids are excellent resources to fight breast cancer. Particularly in the form of oranges, carrots, capsicums / peppers and perhaps to some extent, even in cantaloupes and sweet potatoes – these foods help augment the presence of carotenoids in the bloodstream, and leave the individual at a lower risk for breast cancer.

References:
http://www.everydayhealth.com/breast-cancer-pictures/foods-for-breast-cancer-prevention.aspx
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/Top-10-foods-that-prevent-breast-cancer/articleshow/17129219.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/Top-10-foods-that-prevent-breast-cancer/articleshow/17129219.cms

Whether you are a vegetarian by choice outside of religion or within religion, it is definitely a choice to celebrate. While people might have their own reasons for going green in their eating habits, the benefits of being a vegetarian accrue in equal measure to everyone. This World Vegetarian Day, which falls on October 1, join us in celebrating the brilliance that comes with picking out a green plate! Whether you’re vegetarian or non-vegetarian, here are a couple of things you can do to celebrate the day!

                                                       

1. Encourage your family and friends to take on a vegetarian diet. There are so many advantages to going vegetarian – lower cholesterol, your body is not put through hormones and unnecessary chemicals that can add to heart disease and blood pressure related issues, and you wind up sustaining longstanding good health.

                                                     

2. Take a pledge to turn vegetarian and encourage your friends to go meat free all month long, in October. Skipping meat, pork, fish and poultry can really keep your heart health and cholesterol in order.

                                                      
3. Throw a veggie party! Get your friends together and host a cook-out, or a pot luck dinner, or even a no-host dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. You’ll be surprised to find how creative and delicious vegetarian cooking can be!

                                                     
4. Throw open an environmental awareness rally that centres around how great going vegetarian actually is, for the ecology. Vegetarian diets work really well for the environment, especially since the production of meat is a polluting process. Furthermore, the injection of hormones into animals to create robust meat products results in a lot of imbalance in the body, and by extension, in the environment.

                                                      
5.  Adapt a non-vegetarian dish in vegetarian style! Take a non-vegetarian recipe and find a way to twist it into a purely vegetarian style – soya chunks go where meat went, paneer goes in place of chicken – get creative, and get cooking!

                                                     
6. Found or create a veggies club! Find like minded individuals who are either already vegetarians, or are hoping to become vegetarians, and form a club – you could share recipes, restaurant reviews, find ways to influence policy around healthy eating and vegetarianism, and host cook off events, too! If you find it hard to network with vegetarians or vegetarians to be around where you live, look online – Facebook and Twitter are very comfortable networking hubs that can help you find like-minded individuals with ease.

References:
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/7-meaningful-ways-to-celebrate-world-vegetarian-day.html

http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/diet-tips/12-reasons-vegetarian-diet-good-idea

http://www.indiatimes.com/health/healthyliving/its-actually-possible-to-build-muscle-on-nothing-but-a-vegetarian-diet-244992.html

PC: Wikipedia & Pixabay

This World Heart Day, make a commitment to yourself: to give yourself good heart health by creating environments around you that are conducive to good heart health. We live in a world that is constantly filled with stress, routes for anxiety and depression, worry and physical ill health. With this as our environmental backdrop, it is not a surprise that many of us suffer from lifestyle diseases and conditions of ill health. An enabling environment can do wonders in retaining good health. Here are a few ways to ensure that you have a heart healthy environment around you:

• Avoid indulgence in bad habits – smoking, drinking too much alcohol and even taking to drugs is dangerous for your heart.

• Eat healthy, by giving your body nutritious food that is not demanding on the body and mind.
• Avoid fatty food, food that is too heavily cooked
• Avoid refined and processed foods that are filled with ingredients that can damage your heart health and wellbeing
• Exercise regularly by allowing yourself time to keep your cardio and conditioning routines alive and well.

• Snack healthy with good options that keep your body nutritionally strong, while your stomach remains filled
• Do not live a sedentary lifestyle, always adopt sustainable measures of factoring fitness into your everyday being and approach.
• Increase your social interactions and make choices to stay happy as much as you can, for it is in gregariousness that you find good health that is sustainable.
• Keep stress and tension at bay by adopting practices such as writing journals, taking counselling assistance wherever needed.
• Practice yoga, meditation and / or pranayam with some regularity to keep your mind and body well stocked and healthy on the de-stress routes.

References:
http://www.world-heart-federation.org/what-we-do/awareness/world-heart-day/about-world-heart-day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-brown/this-world-heart-day-help_b_5888668.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Healthyhearts/Pages/Healthy-heart-tips.aspx
http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/healthy-heart-tips#2

Picture Courtesy : www.healthshare.co.za &wikipedia

According to the latest research studies, an abnormal build-up of fat cells in the brain may cause and accelerate the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The research that was conducted by a group of Canadian researchers concludes that the accumulations of fat droplets in the brain has a tendency to trigger the development of Alzheimer’s disease, which automatically offers some clarity in the direction of research to address and cure Alzheimer’s. According to the World Health Organisation, over 47.5 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia. And yet, despite decades of research, the only medications currently available treat the symptoms alone – so this new path breaking research process clarifies a lot significantly.

Handling Alzheimer’s medically, and preventing it medically has its own obvious limitations – science shows that there are routes to only address the symptoms, rather than the disease, its genesis or causes itself. To this end, there are some preventive means with lifestyle choices and alternative means that can be put to use to keep Alzheimer’s at bay. Some of these include:

– Keeping your mind active throughout – do a crossword puzzle, a sudoku puzzle or a quiz, or anything that lets your brain exercise, think, question and look through ways to stay exercised and active. There are loads of trivia and puzzles online, and the simple task of keeping sometime of the day aside to do this is a great way to keep your brain in shape.
– Exercising physically on a regular basis – the process of exercising releases something called feel good hormones, which allows your body and mind to stay on an emotional and mentally healthy path.
– Turmeric is a good brain food, for it has plenty of anti inflammatory properties that can help keep the brain cells sharper and stronger to ensure good brain health.
– Doing Pranayama and Yoga, as they help keep the body stress free, and allows the comfortable circulation of blood to the brain while allowing the mind to relax with the right amount of oxygen supply it needs.
– Meditating regularly, in order to de-clutter the mind and to calm the brain down from all its stressing and anxiety.
– Eating Dark chocolate, for it is known to improve memory by 25%, and comprises a good composition of nutrients that helps keeps the brain sharp.

References:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/Fat-build-up-in-brain-may-trigger-Alzheimers-disease/articleshow/48709711.cms
http://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/benefits-yoga-meditation-alzheimers-dementia/

Photo Courtesy: http://alzheimersnewstoday.com/ and .newsucanuse

Ways to Snack healthy in the witching hour

The usual rule is that you should not be eating anything after 8:00 PM if you want to stay healthy and keep obesity at bay. And yet, who says that your stomach conforms to the demands that your schedule and erratic sleeping hours put on it? The fact is, work and study can keep you awake for long, making you put in a lot of effort to keep the best of results coming. With all that hard work, you undoubtedly will feel hungry in the wee hours. So how do you indulge yourself, while staying healthy? Here are a bunch of healthy snacking for you to opt for, while snacking at midnight!
Why do cravings occur and how can you keep them at bay?

Cravings for food at night happen for a large number of reasons. Here are some of the reasons why this occurs and what you can do to settle these cravings:
• The foremost of these are that your last meal might have been too early. If you know that you are going to stay up for a while, don’t eat an early dinner. Try to keep a late dinner, so that you don’t eat again at night.
• You might also be dehydrated, and your cravings will kick in because of that. Keep yourself well hydrated through the day, and make sure that you get at least 4 litres of water in a day.
• Not having anything to do when you stay up for long hours may also result in boredom, which can lead to cravings. Make sure that you stay up for a purpose, and not to do nothing, or to just veg out before the television.
• Sometimes, Low salt or sugar levels can make you seek out something to eat late at nights. Always make sure that your intake through the day is balanced and well stocked on all the requisite sugar and salt levels.
• Another common reason is the lack of protein in your body. Make sure that you have a good amount of protein that will help ensure that you don’t have any cravings.

Eating healthy late at night:
– Salad sticks are clever and healthy snacks to keep in tow for long nighters. Sticks of cucumber, zucchini, carrots, radishes and beetroots are light and do not impinge on your health while they fill your stomach just as well. Cut up all these vegetables into sticks, and keep some good hung curd, or light mayonnaise around, so you can use them as a dip.
– Fruit cubes are also a smart and healthy snacking option in the middle of the night. Although most people might argue against eating fruits, light options like watermelons and bananas are a good option. Chopped fruits left in the freezer double up as a smart little ice cube full of flavour and nutrition.
– If you have a sweet tooth and your cravings are centered towards sweet stuff that fruits can’t satiate, Dark Chocolate is a smart snack to have at midnight. Since dark chocolate is low on sugar and high on cocoa, it is actually healthy for you because it can keep your stress low by lowering your blood pressure and also help improve your mood.
– Tofu and Paneer sticks are a wise snacking option. Rich in proteins, the snack will help you boost your recovery while sleeping, if it is eaten late into the night. It also helps you feel full, although it could be a little heavy on the stomach to process.
– On occasion, you can enjoy some ice cream, but in moderation. Ice cream can be a high calorie snack and is least recommended, but a little bit can fill you up just as well. If you would rather not opt for ice cream of the regular kind, you can have frozen bananas and frozen berries on the go.
– Jasmine and Chamomile Tea is an ideal midnight snack for people who have insomnia and are not able to eat. Brew a bag full in hot water, and you will sleep as soundly as a baby, if not more.
– Nuts, especially almonds, walnuts, peanuts, cashews and pistachio seeds are good to indulge in at midnight. Roasted pumpkin seeds and channa dal are also comfortable bites to nibble on. Since they are rich in salts, they keep you de-stressed and help you unwind at night no matter how heavy your workload may be.

References:
http://www.thefitindian.com/19-healthy-late-night-snacks-to-control-craving/

14 Yummy Easy-To-Make Midnight Snacks For Night Owls

Picture courtesy: http://fruitguys.com/

chapter5recovery.com

Did you know that your eyes can live on after you, and give a visually impaired person the gift of sight? Donation of one’s eyes is the act of giving one’s corneas after one’s passing. Blindness of the cornea can be best benefitted through a donation – and can restore eyesight comfortably. Usually something one pledges while they are alive, after the passing of an individual, the family of the deceased can elect to donate the corneas.

Here are some important facts around eye donation:

– When eyes are donated, the cornea – or the frontal clear and transparent tissue of the eye can be used to restore vision to a person who suffers from corneal blindness. The other portions of the eye are also put to use for research and training purposes in order to develop eyesight and ensure solutions to eye issues.
– Did you know that a pair of donated eyes can actually help restore sight for two or more needy people?
– To donate your eyes, one just has to register online – there are many eye bank websites that offer enrolment programs. Some of these websites include www.eyedonation.in and www.donateeyes.org
– Once you register to donate your eyes, you are given a certificate or a card that will help you enlist yourself as a donor. You can carry this card on your person.
– Eye donations are a noble, voluntary and personally motivated gesture on an individual’s part, so no one is forced to, or compulsorily made to donate their eyes.
To ensure that donated eyes are not misused, there is a legislation called the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994, which decries that it is a crime to buy and sell organs. The Government issues a certificate of registration to eye banks and has a provision to inspect them regularly. To contact an Eye Bank, an individual can use a toll free number of 1919 if they call from BSNL, or 197 if they call from BSNL / TATA Directory.

References:
http://donateeyes.org/what-is-eye-donation/
http://npcb.nic.in/index2.asp?slid=123&sublinkid=48&langid=1

Picture Courtesy: smchealth.org