Day: 11/29/2015

Increased asthma risk, liver and kidney damage: The secret dangers of giving your kids too much Calpol

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Calpol

Calpol
Dangerous… overusing Calpol can increase the risk of heart damage in children, according to medical experts Getty
PARENTS have been warned that by giving their kids too much Calpol they could be storing up health issues for them later in life.

Leading paediatrician Alastair Sutcliffe says that by treating mild fevers with paracetemol-based medicines, such as Calpol, they risk overusing the painkiller.

And that could lead to a host of complications.

He explained: “There is evidence to suggest that the excess usage of paracetamol is associated with increased rates of asthma, increased rates of liver damage, but less widely known, kidney and heart damage”.

Sutcliffe is backed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), which warned that parents should be better educated about when to use paracetamol based medicines.

Experts warned that is easy for parents to give their children excessive doses of Calpol without realising, especially if their children are small for their age or if parents and carers alternately look after kids without accurately knowing their previous doses.

Calpol
Parents have been advised by experts not to treat mild fevers with Calpol

RPS spokesman Steve Tomlin said “Children often go from one care setting to another and the chances of them getting extra doses might be quite high.”

Only a few days of Calpol overdose can put children at risk of liver damage, according to the experts.

Parents are advised to rely less on thermometers, which may be inaccurate, to detect serious fever in children.

Instead, parents should pay attention to their children’s behaviour, watching out especially for when children are lethargic or aren’t drinking.

Helen Sammons, an RCPCH spokeswoman said “Paracetamol is very good to treat discomfort and pain, whereas you shouldn’t necessarily give it because a child has a temperature.”

Amazing Facts about Left Handed People

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With only about 10% of the population being left hander, lefties are a serious minority. Today, many left handed people are proud of their unusual handedness. And why not? After all, they have to survive and thrive in a world designed for those who are right handed. There are plenty of advantages of being left-handed as well

http://www.speakingtree.in/slideshow/amazing-facts-about-left-handed-people

Seven bizarre conspiracy theories which turned out to be true

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http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/seven-bizarre-conspiracy-theories-which-turned-out-to-be-true–xJeose5tlZ

A woman had six ribs removed to make her look like Jessica Rabbit

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A woman has had six ribs removed to give her a 14-inch waist in a bid to appear as a real-life Jessica Rabbit.

Pixee Fox, a former electrician from Stockholm who now lives in North Carolina, has spent almost £80,000 on 15 surgeries to restructure her body.

The 25-year-old, who is 5ft 4in tall, has gone from 30-24-34 measurements to 38-16-39.

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“I am transforming myself from human to living cartoon,” Fox wrote on her blog.

Her latest operation in Indianapolis required five hours of keyhole surgery.

As a result of her many surgeries, Fox is reportedly unable to eat heavier foods – such as meat or bread – and instead has to restrict her diet to nuts, vegetables and fruit, which she blends into smoothies.

She claims the changes to her body, emulating that of cartoon characters, represent the idealisation of the female body.

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“I want to have the tiny waist, the butt, big boobs, big eyes and a really pretty face,” she told the Daily Mail.

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Belgian Physicists Calculate that Everyone Is Lying About the Downed Russian Jet

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It’s rare to see physics being used as an effective tool to comment on current events, but astrophysicists Tom van Doorsslaere and Giovanni Lapenta of the Belgian KU Leuven used some simple Newtonian mechanics to show that both the Russian and Turkish accounts of what happened with the downed jet can’t be right.

Using video of the incident and the maps provided by Turkish and Russian officials, they show in a post on a blog run by KU Leuven that what went down couldn’t possibly have happened as both parties present it.

First, the “facts.” The downed jet was shot down by the Turkish military Tuesday because the pilot reportedly ignored several warnings about entering Turkish airspace. Turkish officials say the military warned the jets ten times in a period of five minutes. When these warnings went unheeded, the Turkish prime minister himself gave the command to take the jets down, according to several reports. Both jet fighters were in Turkish airspace for just 17 seconds, Turkish officials say.

And now, the science. In the video of the incident, which was posted online, it can be seen that one of the two jets got hit and starts crashing to the ground. The jet takes approximately 30 seconds to hit the ground. “Because the vertical movement is only dependent on gravity (g=9.81m/s², z=gt²/2), we can calculate that the plane was moving at a height of at least 4500 meters,” the phisicists write in their blog. “That number is consistent with the Turkish statement of the jets being at an altitude of 19,000 feet (5800 meters).”

Map provided by Turkish officials. Image via New York Times

On the map provided by Turkish officials, it can be seen that the plane crashed eight kilometers from the place it was hit. The jet traveled those eight kilometers from the time it was hit until the time it crashed. A simple division gives an initial speed of 980 km/h, a perfectly acceptable speed for an aircraft travling at that altitude. So far, so good.

Then, the physicists take that speed and compare it to the distance the jets traveled in Turkish airspace according to the Turkish map, around 2 kilometers. When flying at a speed of 980 km/h, an object would cover that distance in seven seconds, instead of the 17 seconds according to Turkish reports. To cross that distance in 17 seconds, the plane should have been traveling at a meager 420 km/h. The video shows this simply could not be true, if the crash site is accurate. Physics 1, Turkey 0.

The Turkish airforce says it warned the fighter jets ten times in five minutes. In five minutes, an aeroplane traveling at 980 km/h would cross a distance of about 80 kilometers. From these facts, the professors conclude: “How could the Turkish airforce predict that the Russian jets were about to enter Turkish airspace? Military jets are very agile, and in theory the Russian jets could have turned at the last moment to avoid Turkish airspace. The warnings issued to the Russian pilots were mere speculation at the moment they were made.”

According to those facts, the warnings couldn’t possibly have been issued in the time the jets were in Turkish territory. Unless Turkish air controllers can speak impossibly fast, issuing ten warnings in seven seconds seems kinda improbable. Physics 2, Turkey 0.

In issues like these, there’s never one party to blame. This is international geopolitics, a discipline in which the truth is as malleable as Play-Doh.

The map that was spread by Russian officials.

On the Russian map, it can be seen that the plane makes a ninety degree turn after it was hit, which is quite impossible. According to the physicists, the only way this could be achieved is if the momentum of the incoming rocket was so much larger than the momentum of the jet that the latter would be negligible. “A change of course of 90 degrees can only be achieved with an object that’s many times heavier or faster than the jet,” the physicists write. From this we can conclude that the jets were not actively trying to avoid Turkish territory, which is the Russian side of the story. Physics 3, Turkey 0, Russia 0.

You’re free to decide what political conclusions you arrive at with this information. The authors don’t mention the whole political situation, they just focus trying to distill facts out of the observable information: a rare and admirable thing in a time in which almost everything comes with some political spin.

Watch the video. URL:https://youtu.be/lj_La29JLyA

Men Who Smoke Are Passing On Cancer To Their Unborn Children.

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The ads on TV that say ‘Smoking causes cancer’ should now be revised to ‘Smoking also gives your unborn children cancer’.

Smoking Childhood Cancer

via TOI

If you smoke, you’ve probably heard a million times that smoking causes cancer. However, new research from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has found that men who smoke are also more likely to father children with cancer.

This happens because smoking damages your sperm.

The toxins in cigarette smoke cause oxidative stress, which is countered by the antioxidants in the fruits and veggies you eat. However, in the case of sperm, the antioxidant effect is not as strong, and your DNA is not able to repair itself as easily, making your sperm more likely to get damaged. Sperm damage has been linked to many childhood cancers.

Smoking Childhood Cancer

via WrappedUpInBooks.DeviantArt

If that’s not scary enough, smoking also increases the risk of miscarriages and perinatal deaths.

A factsheet published by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a UK-based public health organisation, states that smoking is associated with:

• 5 – 7% of preterm-related deaths

• 5 – 8% of premature births

• 13 – 19% of cases of low birth weight in babies carried to full term

• 23 – 34% of deaths caused by sudden infant death syndrome (cot death).

Infertility specialist Dr. Ranjana Dhanu, Consultant Obstetrician Gynaecologist, Hinduja Healthcare Surgical, points out that apart from this, smoking also causes implantation defects, genetic defects and growth retardation in the baby.

In fact, smoking hurts your ability to conceive a child in the first place.

If you ever want children, it’s way past time to stop smoking! The ASH factsheet says that men who smoke are more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction, lower sperm count, poor sperm mobility and damaged sperm. Women who smoke take longer to conceive and tend to reach menopause faster than non-smokers.

Amazing facts you probably didn’t know about Swami Vivekananda

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January 12 is celebrated as the National Youth Day in honour of Swami Vivekananda, who was born on this day.

http://www.speakingtree.in/blog/amazing-facts-you-probably-didn-t-know-about-swami-vivekananda

Eating potatoes may cut stomach cancer risk.

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White vegetables such as potatoes, onions and cauliflower in your diet may reduce the risk of developing stomach cancer, new research has claimed. DH Photo

Including large amounts of white vegetables such as potatoes, onions and cauliflower in your diet may reduce the risk of developing stomach cancer, new research has claimed.

However, beer, spirits, salt and preserved food increase the risk of the disease, researchers said.

Scientists at Zhejiang University in China found that people who ate large amounts of white vegetables were a third less likely to develop the cancer than those who largely avoided them.

Fruits and green-yellow vegetables such as cabbage, kale and celery also seemed to have a protective effect.

Vitamin C is thought to be the key nutrient, which acts as an antioxidant to cut down cellular stress in the stomach as well as fighting a bacterium responsible for causing gastric cancer.

The scientists analysed 76 best studies on diet and stomach cancer, which involved more than 6.3 million people and almost 33,000 deaths from the disease, ‘The Times’ reported.

They found that for every 100g of fruit a person ate each day – roughly equivalent to half an apple – there was 5 per cent reduced risk of stomach cancer.

Having 50mg of vitamin C daily, approximately two potatoes’ worth, brought the risk down by 8 per cent.

Every five grammes or teaspoon of salt consumed each day drove the risk up by 12 per cent. Alcohol in general had a negative effect, although wine did not seem to have any effect on stomach cancer, the researchers said.

Eating excess of pickled vegetables, liver and spinach also resulted in an increased risk of the disease.

Children who eat breakfast score higher marks

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Nutritionists have already shown a link between eating breakfast and staying healthy. Now, a study of 5,000 nine to 11-yearolds by Cardiff University reveals the first authoritative link between eating breakfast and academic performance. The study states that children are twice as likely to score higher than average marks in assessments if they have started the day with a healthy breakfast.

In a report by The Independent, Hannah Littlecott, lead author of the study, says, “While breakfast consumption has been consistently associated with general health outcomes and acute measures of concentration and cognitive function, evidence regarding links to concrete educational outcomes has until now been unclear.”

Professor Chris Bonell, professor of sociology and social police at the University College London Institute of Education, adds: “Many schools throughout the UK now offer their pupils a breakfast.Ensuring that those young people most in need benefit from these schemes.”
As reported by the Medical News Daily, the research further cites growing evidence that break fast items with a lower glycemic index, which release energy steadily throughout the morning, may have a positive effect on cognitive functioning, health, school attendance and academic outcomes The level of educational performance was significantly associated not only with the number of healthy breakfast items consumed, but also with other dietary behaviours, such as the number of sweets, chips and portions of fruit and vegetables eaten throughout the rest of the day. In India, in a recent study on the nation’s breakfast habits conducted by College of Home Science, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai, with support from Kellogg’s India, only 40% of the 3,600 people surveyed felt that breakfast was the most important meal of the day .

In a sample size of 3,600 subjects in the age groups of 8 to 40 years, the survey conducted within a SEC A and B sample population found that nearly 24% of kids below 12 skip breakfast, and 32% adolescents (of which more higher number of girls than boys are skipping breakfast). The study also found that for 72 % of Indians breakfast is nutritionally inadequate. And the nutrients missed at breakfast are not being compensated for through the consumption of a mid-morning meal or through other meals in the day .

The breakfast for all the people studied is poor for all nutrients except calcium. The calcium intake at 30% of the day’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is high due to the consumption of milk at breakfast.

However, there are gross inadequacies in the intakes of iron, fibre and most B group vitamins in breakfast across all age groups.

Protein intake in children was significantly lower than 25% of the RDA. Breakfast skipping is seen more in Mumbai, followed by Delhi and Kolkata. Though there is very little skipping in Chennai, the trend for an inadequate breakfast rather than no breakfast is seen across all age groups.

Is It Really Possible To Make Vaginal Yeast Bread?

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A woman has made headlines with her attempt at yeast infection sourdough—does the science back her up?

You will likely never think of the tangy, hearty taste of sourdough bread the same way again. That’s thanks to Zoe Stavri, an anarchist feminist blogger who is attempting to make a loaf of sourdough using her own vaginal yeast as an ingredient. The idea for this culinary experiment was sparked by “the familiar itchy burny” feeling that she awoke to on Saturday morning. Instead of rushing to the store for some Monistat, Stavri decided to figuratively turn lemons into lemonade by leavening her excess of vaginal fungus into bread.

And, of course, tweet all about it.

Her attempt to bake vaginal yeast bread, which Stavri has christened with the hashtag #cuntsourdough, has inspired hundreds of tweets, many of them variations on “ew, gross” or “this is the end of the Internet.” Outraged commenters seem unconcerned with the question of whether it will actually work, which is a large part of what drove her project in the first place (she says it wasn’t her feminism, contrary toheadlines suggesting otherwise). As she wrote on her blog, the idea was simply the “fatal combination of a slightly perverse sense of humor” and “a keenly scientific mind.” Later she adds, “I got curious and the next thing that happened was I was scraping white goop off of a dildo into a bowl of flour mixed with water.”

Feel free to take a moment if you need to.

As Stavri waits for her sourdough mixture to ripen—that’s the technical term, folks—the question remains: Will it actually work? Can you make bread from vaginal yeast? Inquiring minds that have run out of baker’s yeast want to know!

I tried to get bakers in my hometown of San Francisco, famed for its sourdough, to comment—but alas, no one wanted to be associated with yeast-infection bread. The basic mechanics of sourdough give us all the answers we need, though. It’s made from what’s called a “starter,” a combination of water and flour, which is mixed and left to sit for several days. Traditionally, the mixture relies on the yeast that’s already in the flour and floating around in the air to begin the fermentation process as opposed to adding a commercial yeast.

So, Stavri’s bread will hardly have to rely on her vaginal yeast to rise. (Now, if she were making another kind of bread, she would likely need baker’s yeast, which is from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae family, an entirely different fungus than the one likely causing her vaginal grief, Candida albicans.) The bigger question is whether her vaginal yeast or bacteria will have much of any effect on the loaf—and Stavri acknowledges that. “Of course, there’s the distinct possibility that absolutely none of my own vaginal bacteria is actually growing within the sourdough,” she writes on her blog. She continues, “In fact, it’s probable that none of the yeast that is growing originated betwixt my thighs.” The biggest challenge facing Stavri is the same one facing all sourdough bread-makers: It is damn hard to get right—even when there is no yeast infection involved.

This should give you a whole new appreciation for the sourdough stuffing you’ll be enjoying tomorrow.