Facts About Sun Exposure

Direct sun exposure without any protection is very harmful to skin, as ultraviolet A rays are high-energy rays that can penetrate even tinted glass. Use a maximum UVA protection sunscreen on a daily basis with advice from a board-certified dermatologist in this free video on skin care.

7 Nutrition Fundamentals for Losing Fat

Dr Clay shares 7 fundamental nutrition tips that serve as the foundation of any good diet.

The Medical Benefits of Vitamin C

Ectropion

Ectropion is an outward turning of the lower eyelid, most commonly caused by aging, although eyelid burns or skin disease may also be responsible.
Normally, the eyelids help lubricate and cleanse the eye during blinking. The sagging lower eyelid leaves the eye exposed and dry, and as a result, excessive tearing is common with ectropion. If it is not treated, the condition can lead to excessive tearing, crusting of the eyelid, mucous discharge, and irritation of the eye. A serious inflammation could result in damage to the eye. Ectropion can be diagnosed with a routine eye exam. Special tests are usually not necessary.

Symptoms:
The wet, inner, conjunctival surface is exposed and visible. Normally, the upper and lower eyelids close tightly, protecting the eye from damage and preventing tear evaporation. If the edge of one eyelid turns outward, the two eyelids cannot meet properly, and tears are not spread over the eyeball. This may lead to irritation, burning, a gritty, sandy feeling, excess tearing, visible outward turning of the eyelid, and redness of the lid and conjunctiva.


Treatments:
Treatment varies. Make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your condition.But in general
Artificial tears (a lubricant) may relieve dryness and keep the cornea lubricated. Surgery to tighten the muscles that hold the eyelids in place is usually effective. It may be performed as outpatient surgery with local anesthesia.

Melanoma

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes which are found predominantly in skin but also in the bowel and the eye (see uveal melanoma). It is one of the less common types of skin cancer but causes the majority of skin cancer related deaths. Malignant melanoma is a serious type of skin cancer. It is due to uncontrolled growth of pigment cells, called melanocytes.Despite many years of intensive laboratory and clinical research, the sole effective cure is surgical resection of the primary tumor before it achieves a Breslow thickness greater than 1 mm.

Around 160,000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed nationally each year, and it is more frequent in males and Caucasians. It is more common in Caucasian populations living in sunny climates than in other groups. According to a WHO report about 48,000 melanoma related deaths occur worldwide per year.

Malignant melanoma accounts for 75 % of all deaths associated with skin cancer.

The treatment includes surgical removal of the tumor, adjuvant treatment, chemo- and immunotherapy, or radiation therapy.

Detection

To detect melanomas (and increase survival rates), it is recommended to learn what they look like (see “ABCD” mnemonic below), to be aware of moles and check for changes (shape, size, color, itching or bleeding) and to show any suspicious moles to a doctor with an interest and skills in skin malignancy.

A popular method for remembering the signs and symptoms of melanoma is the mnemonic “ABCDE”:

* Asymmetrical skin lesion.
* Border of the lesion is irregular.
* Color: melanomas usually have multiple colors.
* Diameter: moles greater than 6 mm are more likely to be melanomas than smaller moles.
* Enlarging: Enlarging or evolving

Rhinoplasty (Nose Job)

Florida facial plastic surgeon, David C. Pearson, M.D., explains rhinoplasty (cosmetic plastic surgery of the nose) in this illustrated video of the procedure.

Most Common Sport injuries and their prevention

Even with proper conditioning, equipment and other precautions you may still develop pain from exercise. If so, what you do immediately can prevent the pain from becoming a chronic problem. At the first sign of pain stop or ease back on your sport immediately

Ankle Sprains and Strains
A number of factors can lead to ankle sprains, including poor technique and uneven terrain. The right footwear is essential to preventing a sprain, but it isn’t the only thing you can do. If you have a history of ankle injuries a brace can provide extra stability to prevent re-injury. Physical therapy after an injury can increase strength and range of motion.

Knee Pain
Knee injuries are often caused by improper technique, lack of conditioning and poor flexibility. While it’s important to build up training gradually to avoid overuse, biomechanics can also come into play, if you have flat feet or high arches, pronate or supinate, you may have more knee pain. Appropriate footwear or orthotics can improve alignment and help reduce injury risk. If you are a cyclist, proper bike fit can also make a huge difference.

Lower Back Pain
Low back pain is a common problem and one of the main reasons is inactivity. As we get older and less active, we lose the strength and balance in the core muscles (abs and low back) can lead to poor posture, improper alignment, fatigue and pain. Regular exercise is the best way to protect your lower back.

Elbow Pain
Tennis players and golfers have more elbow injuries than most, but anyone can develop elbow pain. Although conditioning is a major cause, proper technique is essential to preventing problems. Take a class or get professional instruction. Also, make sure your equipment fits well.

Shoulder Injuries
frequently seen in throwing sports, rotator cuff tendonitis is a common cause of shoulder pain. Staying in shape and easing into an activity are the best ways to prevent problems. There are a number of potential shoulder injuries; however, so proper conditioning is essential for your sport.

Muscle Pull
Probably the most common sports injury is a muscle pull, which can happen to almost any muscle in the body. No matter how diligently you warm up and stretch, or cool down and stretch, you may pull a muscle from overuse, fatigue or taking a fall. There is little you can be done to prevent a muscle pull except to stay limber and work your muscles regularly.

Muscle Pull Treatment
The universally held treatment for a muscle pull or tear is to apply ice and rest until the pain and swelling subside. The ice relaxes the muscle and helps relieve any spasm. Ice should be applied for about 20 minutes on, then 20 minutes off, as much as possible for a few days. The dull ache of a muscle pull usually disappears within a few days.
A muscle pulls when a sudden, severe force is applied to the muscle and the fibers are stretched beyond their capacity. If only some of the fibers tear, that is a muscle pull. If most of the fibers tear, that is a muscle tear.
As soon as tolerable, begin gently stretching the muscle. A pulled muscle may go into spasm as a reaction to being overstretched. If the muscle fibers are not gradually re-lengthened, the muscle will pull again with return to activity because it will have healed in a shortened state. In general, you can return to action when the injured body part can be stretched without pain as far as the healthy one on the other side of the body. That may take a week for a calf muscle or more than a month for a hamstring pull.

Even with proper conditioning, equipment and other precautions you may still develop pain from exercise. If so, what you do immediately can prevent the pain from becoming a chronic problem. At the first sign of pain stop or ease back on your sport immediately. Apply ice for 15 to 20 minutes several times a day and elevate the injured area. If you still have pain after two or three days, you should see your physician.

Diets to Lose 5 Pounds

Sometimes you want to look your best for friends and family, colleagues or job interviewers. Even if you are not obese, when a favorite pair of jeans or a shirt fits tight, it affects your morale. The diet industry has many quick weight loss programs that work for a disciplined or motivated individual. Follow the rules and five pounds will disappear but remember that quick weight loss is often temporary without permanent lifestyle changes. Like any dieting plan, talk to a doctor before starting, especially if you have preexisting conditions.

5-Day Miracle Diet
The 5-Day Miracle diet limits the amount of calories and carbohydrates that you eat and focuses on portion control. The goal is to reduce food cravings and stabilize blood sugar levels. Breakfast is an egg with a slice of toast 30 minutes after awakening. Snacks include a nectarine, half cup of grapefruit, raw carrots or cauliflower eaten two hours later. Lunch is at 1 p.m. with a protein, fresh vegetables and fruit, followed by another snack three hours later. Dinner is vegetables, any protein (2 to 4 ounces) and bread. Men can eat three starchy foods every day but women can only eat starch every other day. The diet advises you to drink lots of water.

Cabbage Soup Diet
The cabbage soup diet requires you to eat nothing but cabbage soup for seven days. It is not for pregnant women, children, the elderly or anyone with gastrointestinal disorders. The diet is simple and easy to remember, with a focus on one main food--cabbage soup at lunch, dinner, and for a snack. It is a low-fat, high-fiber diet plan that works for temporary quick weight loss.

Grapefruit Diet
The Grapefruit diet is for people in good health who want to lose weight fast. It is a fad diet that has been around since the 1930s when Hollywood made it popular. The diet is a low-calorie plan that is easy to understand with three meals per day and a daily snack. With each meal, the dieter eats half a grapefruit or half a cup of unsweetened grapefruit juice. This is a strict diet for successful weight loss but there is no behavior modification so some people regain the weight they lost.

Counting Calories & Weight Loss

Many people fret upon the idea of having to count calories in their daily diet, with reasonable justification. The one problem is is that there is a lot of hype regarding the process of counting calories, and another problem is that most people don't even know how to put that caloric information to work. It's all a very simple concept, and a simple process once you understand the basics.

First of all, let us get the facts down about calories themselves and what they are. A calorie is essentially a unit of energy. When a calorie is used, it's burned as energy. Macronutrients are all made up of calories. There are three primary macronutrients, and we've all heard about them. Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat. One gram of protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories, and one gram of fat contain 9 calories (thus you can see why fat is a major culprit.)

Now how do macronutrients and their calories all correlate to weight loss? It's a simple principle that professionals in the fitness industry refer to as "Calories in vs. Calories out".

The "Calories In" portion represents the amount of food you're consuming on a daily basis. Remember, all of the food you eat comes equipped with food labels, which all contain macronutrients, which contain calories. All of us generally follow a "diet plan" even if we don't follow one intentionally. We all have certain foods we eat at certain times, and we can average that information out. What you need to do is spend some time figuring out how many calories all of those foods amount to, in an average day. Once you have this number, you will know how many calories you're taking in per day.

The "Calories Out" portion represents the amount of calories your body burns on a daily basis. You burn calories through two ways. One way is through involuntary means, which is referred to as your Basal Metabolic Rate. The many functions your body performs like your beating heart, brain functions, lungs, digestive system, etc... all require energy (calories) to function and they burn a lot of calories throughout the day. The second way to burn calories is through physical activity (voluntary action). You can visit the weight loss programs website to take a free fitness profile which will help you determine how many calories your burning on a daily basis.

Now here is where we bring it together. If the amount of calories your burning is fewer than the amount of calories you're taking in per day, you will gain weight. If they're equal to each other, you won't lose or gain weight. And if you're burning more calories than what you're taking in, you will obviously begin to lose weight. From there, it's only a matter of determining an approach in which you can control your diet by cutting back calories, and reinforcing your weight loss efforts by burning more calories through exercise.

Good Film on COPD and it`s health care costs ($42.6 billion)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of two commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed. This leads to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs causing shortness of breath. In contrast to asthma, the limitation of airflow is poorly reversible and usually gets progressively worse over time.

COPD is caused by noxious particles or gases, most commonly from smoking, which trigger an abnormal inflammatory response in the lung. The inflammatory response in the larger airways is known as chronic bronchitis, which is diagnosed clinically when people regularly cough up sputum. In the alveoli, the inflammatory response causes destruction of the tissues of the lung, a process known as emphysema. The natural course of COPD is characterized by occasional sudden worsenings of symptoms called acute exacerbations, most of which are caused by infections or air pollution.

The diagnosis of COPD requires lung function tests. Important management strategies are smoking cessation, vaccinations, rehabilitation, and drug therapy (often using inhalers). Some patients go on to requiring long-term oxygen therapy or lung transplantation.

Worldwide, COPD ranked 6th as the cause of death in 1990. It is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries.[2] COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S., and the economic burden of COPD in the U.S. in 2007 was $42.6 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.

COPD is also known as chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD), chronic airflow limitation (CAL) and chronic obstructive respiratory disease.

Facts about High Protein Diet

One of the most important nutrient that the body needs is Protein. In its pure form, it consists of chains of amino acids - there are 22 amino acids that get together to form different proteins, and 8 of these must come from the foods we eat(essential). Our body utilises these amino acids to form body elements:muscles, blood, skin, hair, nails and internal organs. Proteins help replace and build new tissue, transports oxygen and nutrients in our blood and cells, regulates the balance of water and acids, and is needed to make antibodies.

However, much much protein poses danger to your health. Eating too much protein (specifically animal protein) results to heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, and kidney stones.

Many are unconsciously practicing a dangerous eating style. Americans consume two times more protein than what is actually required. Some people who work on weight loss diets go on high-protein diets and are eating up to four times the amount of protein that their body needs. This is still a questionable kind of diet because according to the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, the ideal amount of protein that adults should consume should be as little as 50-60 grams. This breaks down to about 10-12% of total calories. Your body only needs 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight. To calculate the exact amount you need, multiply your ideal weight by 0.36. This will give you your optimum daily protein requirement in grams. Since the amount of protein needed depends on the amount of lean body mass and not fat, ideal weight is used instead of actual weight.

People on high-protein diets are consuming up to 34% of their total calories in the form of protein and up to 53% of total calories from fat. Most of these people are unaware of the amount of protein and fat that is contained in the foods they eat. For instance, a typical 3-ounce beef hamburger, which is small by American standards, contains about 22 grams of protein and 20 grams of fat. Animal proteins are loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat.

Many people on these diets also experience an elevation in their LDL (the bad) cholesterol when they remain on this diet for long periods. High levels of LDL cholesterol in the blood clog arteries and is the chief culprit in heart disease, particularly heart attack and stroke. So while you may lose weight in the short-run, you are putting your cardiovascular health in jeopardy in the long-run.

By replacing animal protein with vegetable protein and replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat, like that found in olive and canola oils, you can avoid the pitfalls of the typical high-protein diet. You will be able to improve your health and regulate your weight while enjoying a vast array of delicious, nutritionally dense, high fibre foods.

Near-Death Experiences and Brain Activity

Near Death Experiences(NDE) are the experiences that a person feel or observe when he is near to his death.Many Scientists are doing many researches on this topic and observe the experiences of thousands of person who come in life again after Near Death Experiences.

A lot of Mysteries are present in NDE which varies one to one but 1 thing is common among all i.e. the person is walking through dark tunnel toward a luminous light end. He sees an attractive shining light and then he moves toward it. In most cases the word “light from a point or dark tunnel” is discussed by the persons after NDE. This data come to us from the persons who experienced but do not die. Now the Researchers concentrate on finding the biological reasons for all these experiences. One of a major they find is “Brains Activity or Brain waves during NDE”.

The mystery of why people ‘brought back from the dead’ report powerful spiritual experiences may have a biological explanation, according to experts.

* Researchers who studied brainwaves of dying patients, found there was a surge of electrical activity in their brains just moments before their lives ended.
* The doctors from George Washington University medical centre in Washington believe this surge may be the cause of near-death experiences, where patients see themselves walking towards a bright light or floating outside their bodies.
* Many patients who experience these sensations believe they are having a religious vision and treat it as confirmation of an afterlife.
* Some revived patients even reported seeing religious figures. Others said they felt suffused with a sense of peace as they start to walk into a light-filled tunnel.

However, the intensive care doctors at George Washington have an alternative biological explanation, which has been published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. A team led by Dr Lakhmir Chawla used an electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that measures brain activity, in seven terminally ill people to provide pain-relieving sedation. Dr Chawla noticed moments before death patients experienced a burst of brainwave activity that lasted from 30 seconds to three minutes. The activity was similar to that measured in fully conscious people. Soon after the surge the patients were declared dead.

Dr Chawla said, “We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen”. As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.’ He added that he had seen the same phenomenon in around 50 other patients.

However, Sam Parnia, leader of the Awareness During Resusciation study in the UK, said Dr Chawla’s conclusions should be treated with caution. Dr Parnia said there was no proof that the electrical surge is linked to near death experiences as all the patients died. His team are currently interviewing 700 Britons who have been brought back to life after cardiac arrests to study the mental consequences of the experience.

Near death experiences have been found to have a positive effect on the majority of patients, whatever their cause. A Dutch study published in The Lancet in 2001 found around one in five cardiac arrest victims underwent a near-death experience. They found these patients tended to feel happier, more altruistic and less afraid of death later on.