Healthy Fitness Ideas

Stan­dard­ized extracts of Ginkgo biloba, pro­duced from the leaves of the Ginkgo tree, have been pro­moted for more than 30 years as an effec­tive way to improve mem­ory, and avoid age-related cog­ni­tive impair­ment, demen­tia and Alzheimer’s dis­ease.  Ginkgo extract has been uti­lized in tra­di­tional Chi­nese med­i­cine (TCM) for more than 500 years, accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Botan­i­cal Coun­cil.  But new research ques­tions the ben­e­fits of tak­ing Ginkgo biloba extract. A research study pub­lished in the Decem­ber 2009 issue of the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion found that the pop­u­lar herbal sup­ple­ment Ginkgo biloba was inef­fec­tive in pre­vent­ing demen­tia or Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The study, titled “Ginkgo Eval­u­a­tion of Mem­ory trial,” fol­lowed a group of more than 3,000 healthy par­tic­i­pants aged 75 or older. They peri­od­i­cally com­pleted demen­tia assess­ments over a period of about six years, to mea­sure whether a daily dose of 240 mgs. of Ginkgo biloba extract could delay or pre­vent demen­tia.  One of the authors of the study, Dr. Steven DeKosky, of the Uni­ver­sity of Vir­ginia School of Med­i­cine, stated that, based on find­ings in this study, “Ginkgo biloba can­not be rec­om­mended for the pur­pose of pre­vent­ing demen­tia.”  Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the sup­ple­ment indus­try crit­i­cized the study, sug­gest­ing that the middle-aged, rather than the elderly par­tic­i­pants, would be a more reli­able way to ana­lyze ginkgo’s effects on the aging brain. They pointed out that demen­tia devel­ops over many years and that the par­tic­i­pants in this study were already at the high­est age risk for devel­op­ing the dis­or­der, due to advanced age.

Should You Con­tinue Tak­ing a Ginkgo Biloba Supplement?

The study authors cau­tioned that because Ginkgo biloba has an anti-coagulant effect, elderly patients with a his­tory of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease should always con­sult with their physi­cian before start­ing a Ginkgo biloba reg­i­men. If you are oth­er­wise healthy and find that tak­ing Ginkgo biloba helps you feel more focused and alert, then the lat­est study is fur­ther evi­dence that Ginkgo biloba is safe for healthy peo­ple to con­sume, even if seem­ingly inef­fec­tive as a pre­ven­ta­tive for Alzheimer’s dis­ease.  The lat­est research study is by no means the final ver­dict on Ginkgo biloba. The sci­en­tific com­mu­nity hasn’t reached a con­sen­sus on the effec­tive­ness of Ginkgo biloba in pro­tect­ing cog­ni­tive func­tion­ing. A 2008 study spon­sored by the government’s National Insti­tute of Health demon­strated that reg­u­lar, pro­longed use of stan­dard­ized ginkgo extract had a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia. On the other hand, a 2007 study which exam­ined sev­eral smaller clin­i­cal tri­als, found them “incon­sis­tent and uncon­vinc­ing” proof that ginkgo biloba had a sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit for peo­ple with demen­tia or cog­ni­tive impair­ment. There is another large 5-year study being con­ducted in France, the GuildAge study, and those results are expected to be pub­lished some­time in 2010. In the mean­time, here are cur­rent rec­om­men­da­tions to help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s dis­ease:
•   Con­sume a bal­anced diet with plenty of fruits, veg­eta­bles, olive oil, whole grains, nuts and fatty fish such as salmon and tuna.
•   Exer­cise reg­u­larly and aer­o­bi­cally to increase blood cir­cu­la­tion and oxy­gen sup­ply to the heart and the brain.
•   Avoid and reduce excess stress.
•   Stay con­nected with other peo­ple because social iso­la­tion is a risk fac­tor.
•   Learn new things and use your sense of humor to keep your mind sharp.

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

For cen­turies, choco­late has been a sweet tast­ing sen­sa­tion. One thing that clouds the pop­u­lar­ity of this all-time favorite treat is the belief that any­thing that tastes really good must be bad for your health. For this rea­son, many are cau­tious when devour­ing choco­lates, espe­cially those who are extremely con­scious of their health.

But researchers have dis­cov­ered that choco­late might not be so bad after all.   In fact, there are health ben­e­fits that are asso­ci­ated with choco­lates and it can be good for those with a sweet tooth.  This is par­tic­u­larly true if peo­ple choose and con­sume choco­lates wisely.

The sur­pris­ing news is that choco­late con­tains over 300 chem­i­cals, many of which have been inves­ti­gated by  sci­en­tific orga­ni­za­tions and uni­ver­si­ties.   So far, this is what researchers have dis­cov­ered regard­ing the health  ben­e­fits of dark chocolate:

1.  It was found that the main com­po­nent of choco­late, the cacao, has been proven to have antibac­te­r­ial agents that actu­ally help fight tooth decay.   This is in con­trast of course to the tra­di­tional belief  caus­ing moth­ers to warn their chil­dren against eat­ing too choco­late as it can ruin their teeth.

2.    Choco­late is believed to be a mood ele­va­tor because it con­tains phenylethy­lamine, an amino acid that influ­ences neu­ro­trans­mit­ter lev­els and lifts mood.

3.    The aroma of choco­late actu­ally helps peo­ple to relax and low­ers stress lev­els, due to the fact that it increases theta brain waves.

4.    Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, choco­late can be good to peo­ple hav­ing prob­lems with bad cho­les­terol.  The health food con­tains a kind of monoun­sat­u­rated fat, called oleic acid, which raises good cho­les­terol lev­els in the blood.

5.    Choco­late can be good for peo­ple who are weight-conscious.  One hot choco­late cup taken before meals can help reduce appetite.

6.    Choco­late also con­tains flavonoids, which are instru­men­tal in keep­ing blood ves­sels more elastic.

7.    Choco­late con­tains chem­i­cals that help increase antiox­i­dants lev­els found in the bloodstream.

8.    It was also dis­cov­ered that men can add one year to their lives if they con­sume chocolates.

9.    Choco­late con­tains car­bo­hy­drates, which are  good for main­tain­ing a sense of well-being, because car­bo­hy­drates help increase sero­tonin lev­els found in the brain.

10.    Choco­late has been used by the Mex­i­can heal­ers to treat insect bites and bronchitis.

In addi­tion to the above find­ings, there are other research stud­ies that dis­prove  some half-truths about choco­late. Here they are:

1.    Although choco­late can con­tain stim­u­lants includ­ing bromine and caf­feine, these are present only in tiny quan­ti­ties that do not lead to ner­vous tension.

2.    Choco­late is not addictive.

3.    Choco­late does not con­tain chem­i­cals that cause acne.

4.    Choco­late doesn’t make any­one high.  You would have to con­sume about 25 lbs. in one sit­ting,  a huge quan­tity,  to expe­ri­ence any notice­able effect.

5.    Choco­late will not increase bad cho­les­terol lev­els and it actu­ally con­tains a neu­tral fat called stearic acid.

But just like any other food, mod­er­a­tion is the rule.  Choco­late has some cau­tions too, along with the many health ben­e­fits found:

1.    Peo­ple with migraines are not advised to eat choco­late as it can trig­ger a migraine.

2.    If choco­late is con­sumed with milk, it can con­tain extra sugar, sat­u­rated fat, and high calories.

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

You’ve prob­a­bly seen news reports about “good” fats and why not all fats should be avoided, even by those who are try­ing to lose weight. In recent years, a grow­ing body of research indi­cates that some fats, espe­cially the essen­tial fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6, can be help­ful in treat­ing a wide range of med­ical prob­lems, includ­ing car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, depres­sion, asthma, and rheuma­toid arthri­tis. Fatty acids are the build­ing blocks for the pro­duc­tion of postaglandins, pow­er­ful hormone-like sub­stances which reg­u­late inflam­ma­tory and aller­gic responses and play a role in keep­ing our skin sup­ple and moist, and our hair and nails healthy.

Fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 are termed “essen­tial” fatty acids (EFAs) because they required by the human body but can­not be man­u­fac­tured by it. These essen­tial fatty acids must be obtained through foods we eat or by con­sum­ing EFA supplements.

Research sug­gests that omega-3s may be better-absorbed from food sources than from EFA sup­ple­ments. Researchers believe that omega-3s may be bet­ter absorbed from fish sources because fish con­tains omega-3s in triglyc­eride form, while almost all commercially-refined fish oil con­tains omega-3s in the ester form. Once con­sumed, how­ever, omega-3s are con­verted by the body from triglyc­eride to ester forms as needed. (Source: Lipids. 2006 Dec;41(12):1109 – 14). Two weekly serv­ings of a non-fried, omega-3-rich fish source (for exam­ple, Pacific salmon) can boost your blood lev­els of omega-3s.

Mod­ern food pro­cess­ing takes away many dietary sources of EFAs, such that an esti­mated 99% of peo­ple in the United States do not con­sume the rec­om­mended amounts of EFAs. It’s not easy to rec­og­nize the symp­toms of EFA defi­ciency, which can be sub­tle and mis­taken for other nutri­ent defi­cien­cies or ill­nesses. Omega-3 fatty acid defi­ciency may com­monly appear as fatigue, dry or itchy skin, brit­tle hair and nails, con­sti­pa­tion, an inabil­ity to con­cen­trate, or joint pain or depression.

Foods rich in omega 3 include oily cold water fish such as salmon, mack­erel, her­ring, alba­core tuna, anchovies, sar­dines, hal­ibut, shrimp, snap­per and scal­lops. Eggs are also good sources of EFAs, although high in cho­les­terol. If you enjoy sal­ads, you can use flax seed oil (an omega-3 oil) and olive oil (omega-6 oil) as a tasty and very health­ful salad dress­ing. Avo­ca­dos are a rich source of omega-9 fatty acids, also present (in lesser amounts) in olive oil.

For­tu­nately for veg­e­tar­i­ans, there are plen­ti­ful omega-3 plant sources, as well. Very good non-animal sources of omega-3s include cau­li­flower, cab­bage, cloves and mus­tard seeds. Soy­beans, tofu, and dark green leafy veg­eta­bles (kale, spinach, mus­tard greens, col­lard greens, and Brus­sels sprouts) are also good sources. Other good veg­etable sources include flaxseed (lin­seeds), hemp seeds, sun­flower seeds, wal­nuts, pump­kin seeds and wheat germ. Soya beans, grape seed oil, pine nuts, pis­ta­chio nuts, sesame seeds and pump­kin seeds are also abun­dant sources of omega-6. A con­ve­nient way to sup­ple­ment your diet is to con­sume one to two table­spoons of flax seed oil, an omega-3 oil, each day. You can eas­ily add flaxseed oil to your break­fast cereal, or add it to soups, or your smoothie or to a salad. Con­sum­ing enough essen­tial fatty acids will pro­vide your body with the nec­es­sary healthy fats, to help keep your skin clear, moist and beautiful.

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

What can be done about those prob­lem areas you want to tone or improve? Even peo­ple who are for­tu­nate enough to have achieved their ideal body weight will still have some prob­lem areas in the body. For one per­son, it might be those “love han­dles,” for another, the skinny arms, the chicken legs, or the sag­ging butt. Turn on the TV and you will find adver­tis­ers offer­ing all sorts of prod­ucts, from creams made of exotic ingre­di­ents to fit­ness gad­gets that promise to tone the arms, thighs or the abs.

How­ever, no mat­ter how good the prod­uct seems, how attrac­tive the model is, or how many celebri­ties endorse it, the real­ity is that you can­not just “spot reduce” those prob­lem areas Spend­ing money and time on just one area will not to work.

Why Can’t I Just Spot Reduce the Prob­lem Areas?

Adver­tis­ers spend mil­lions of dol­lars to pro­mote prod­ucts that promise ben­e­fits from rev­o­lu­tion­ary, secret or break though prod­ucts when in fact there really are no mag­i­cal, no-effort results to look for­ward to. But there are some sound prin­ci­ples that you should follow.

1. Healthy Diet Is Essential

Diet is an essen­tial part of any effort to get rid of the unde­sir­able body fat.. The foods that you eat have calo­ries and fats that get stored in your body, con­tribut­ing to those prob­lem areas. An unhealthy diet is the main cause for unwanted body fat.

So no mat­ter how faith and hope and money you invest in those those mir­a­cle gad­gets that promise fast results with almost no hard work, the results you seek will remain elu­sive if you keep indulging in too many sweets, fatty foods or junk foods.

2. Spot Reduc­tion of Prob­lem Areas Is a Mar­ket­ing Gimmick

It is not smart to believe those who are pro­mot­ing the ben­e­fits of spot reduc­tion efforts. The gad­gets you see in stores and on TV sup­pos­edly require noth­ing more than attach­ing a device or apply­ing them on the prob­lem areas. What about your other body parts? What about the other require­ments of the body?

In any suc­cess­ful health endeavor, you must be con­scious of your body’s phys­i­ol­ogy. You need to know what it takes to achieve your fit­ness goal. For exam­ple, if you want six-packs abs or buns of steel, you have to learn what it takes to get them, and then follow-through with a plan and remain com­mit­ted to accom­plish it.

Some peo­ple (usu­ally try­ing to sell you some­thing) will assert that if you want to improve the tone of your stom­ach or get rid of a belly, you sim­ply have to do end­less abdom­i­nal exer­cises or use the mag­i­cal gad­gets that will do the exer­cise for you. Again, you can­not spot reduce. You can­not achieve your desired fit­ness goal by sim­ply doing that one type of abdom­i­nal exercise.

No mat­ter how inno­v­a­tive or hyped the device is, the body fat will not just melt away just by just using a gad­get. Your par­ents and your inher­ited genet­ics is a fac­tor influ­enc­ing body com­po­si­tion. Diet obvi­ously plays a big role. Your lifestyle, active or seden­tary, affects the body shape equation.

The hard to swal­low truth is, before you can get the six-pack of mus­cles on your stom­ach, you will have to lose the the abdom­i­nal fat through sen­si­ble diet and reg­u­lar exer­cise. Doing 500 crunches a day may give you a sense of accom­plish­ment, but it will not get rid of that belly fat. Your body will not burn-up the excess fat in the prob­lem spot you are tar­get­ing. Well-planned whole body work­outs will increase your metab­o­lism and address the over­all fat to lean-muscle ratio in your body. Fat loss takes time and con­sis­tent effort, and not just exer­cis­ing to tar­get one area.

Reduc­ing fat level is only half the goal, You also want to increase lean mus­cle mass, the calorie-burning engine in your body. Even in 2009, with all the inno­va­tions of sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy, the only sure-fire way to get rid of that unwanted body fat and replace it with lean mus­cle mass is to fol­low a healthy diet and do car­dio­vas­cu­lar exer­cises at least twice each week.

When you have mas­tered the diet and aer­o­bic exer­cise com­po­nents of the puz­zle, then can you do those abdom­i­nal exer­cises and get the kind of results you want This is the only real secret to get­ting those six-pack abs.

3. There Are No Mag­i­cal Shortcuts

Mir­a­cle celebrity diets, pills con­tain­ing secret ingre­di­ents and exotic creams are detours on the road to suc­cess that will lead you nowhere. If a healthy body is your goal, you have to work at it con­sis­tently You have want it and sweat to earn it.

We live in amaz­ing times, where cell phone cam­eras and text mes­sag­ing can spread news around the globe in moments. But the human body still is bound by nat­ural laws. There­fore, your weight loss plan needs to be based upon what is nat­u­rally needed by the body. It takes a healthy diet, reg­u­lar aer­o­bic and resis­tance exer­cise and con­sid­er­able amount of effort and patience to reach the desired result.

4. Health and Fit­ness Require Commitment

At the end of the day, a healthy body is not the result of a pill or a gad­get, but rather a life­long com­mit­ment to your­self. Even if you’re sat­is­fied with your body shape now, it will not remain toned and fit for­ever if you neglect your diet and adopt a seden­tary lifestyle. Your ideal body needs to be renewed and nur­tured on a reg­u­lar basis.

This is why depend­ing upon so-called mir­a­cle spot reduc­tion devices is a path to frus­tra­tion. Hop­ing for the results you want is not enough to get them. So if you really want a healthy toned body, get started with a diet and exer­cise pro­gram. Look at your body shape from a holis­tic point of view. Improve not only the body itself, but your self-image, eat­ing habits and out­look on exer­cise as well.

5. Get Results the Old Fash­ioned Way

The bot­tom line is really that there are no short­cuts. You need to get toned the proper way. The old ath­letic adage still holds true for weight loss: “no pain, no gain.” So, don’t fall for diet and weight loss prod­ucts that seem to be too good to be true. They are too good to be true. Be a wiser con­sumer and know the real secret behind a bet­ter body. Take con­trol of your own fit­ness and diet plan and enjoy the mul­ti­tude of ben­e­fits that fol­low a healthy body. dg64pkyqcu

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

Stud­ies have shown that 200 to 350 mil­ligrams (mg) of caf­feine helped some peo­ple have more endurance. This may be because caf­feine pro­motes the use of body use fat as fuel instead of glyco­gen (stored sugar). Or, caf­feine may sim­ply lessen the feel­ing of fatigue.Coffee was shown to cause the release of fat from fat cells, spar­ing mus­cle glyco­gen. Some marathon run­ners will drink a cup of cof­fee before a race to avoid “hit­ting the wall.” The the­ory behind this is that, glyco­gen is the pri­mary source of energy in the mus­cles, whereas body fat is used as a sec­ondary energy source. Once mus­cle glyco­gen reserves are used up — after 2 hours of vig­or­ous aer­o­bic activ­ity — body fat comes more into play as an energy source, but body fat is not as eas­ily uti­lized dur­ing exer­cise. Vin­son & Dab­bagh, Nut Research 1998; 18 (6): 1067 – 75.

But not every­one ben­e­fits from caf­feine. Some ath­letes feel too jit­tery or ner­vous to do their best dur­ing sports activ­i­ties. .In mod­er­a­tion, caf­feine may give you a men­tal edge for com­pet­ing. It may boost your mood and moti­vate you to work­out more reg­u­larly. What are the risks? Caf­feine can cause you to over­look the fact that your body needs more rest to repair and grow your mus­cles. Lis­ten to your body and take time to recover from work­outs. Caf­feine is also a diuretic which means it can make you pee more than usual. Drink extra liq­uids for 2 to 3 days before com­pe­ti­tion to avoid dehy­dra­tion. You need to deter­mine the right amount of caf­feine for you and take it at the right time before exer­cis­ing. High lev­els of caf­feine use, such as 800 mg per day, have been banned by the Inter­na­tional Olympic Com­mit­tee and other insti­tu­tions. Most peo­ple can stay in the allowed lim­its by tak­ing less than 350 mg per day.

How much caf­feine is in food and drinks? Caf­feine con­tent in mil­ligrams (mgs):

Cof­fees: 8 oz. cup of brewed cof­fee (130 to 175 mgs.); 8 oz. cup of instant cof­fee (70 to 135 mgs); 5 oz. cup of espresso (150 mgs.); 8 oz. cup of decaf­feinated brewed cof­fee (3 to 6 mgs.). Teas: 6 oz. cup of black tea (40 to 60 mgs.); 8 oz. glass of iced tea, from pow­der (30 to 60 mgs.); 6 oz. cup of green tea (35 mgs.). Sodas: 12 oz. can of cola, diet or reg­u­lar (40 to 50 mgs.); 12 oz. can of cit­rus pop (45 to 55 mgs.). Choco­lates: 6 oz. cup of hot choco­late (5 to 10 mgs.); 8 oz. glass of choco­late milk (10 mgs.) 1 oz. bak­ing choco­late (35 mgs.); 1 oz. semi-sweet choco­late (20 mgs.); 2 oz. sweet choco­late (15 mgs.) .Med­i­cines: Allergy and cold pills (15 to 30 mgs.) ; Diuret­ics (water pills) (200 mgs.); Appetite sup­pres­sants (150 to 200 mgs.); Pain reliev­ers (30 to 130 mgs.). Start with a small amount if you decide to use it, 50 to 100 mgs of caf­feine and slowly increase the dose. Most ath­letes get the best results by tak­ing 100 to 300 mg of caf­feine two hours before work­ing out. Another way to fig­ure out the opti­mal amount of caf­feine is to take it accord­ing to how much you weigh. Aim for 2 to 4 mg of caf­feine for each kilo­gram (kg) (2.2 lbs.) of body weight. Divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to fig­ure out how much you weigh in kilo­grams. For exam­ple, a 150-pound ath­lete who weighs approx­i­mately 77 kilo­grams and could con­sume 140 to 320 mgs of caffeine.

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

As reported by the Asso­ci­ated Press, on Fri­day, Brown County Dis­trict Judge John Roden­berg issued a deci­sion rul­ing that the State of Min­nesota had demon­strated a “com­pelling state inter­est” in pre­serv­ing the life of Daniel, a 13-year old boy, that was suf­fi­cient to over­ride con­sti­tu­tional rights of both the par­ents and Daniel to the free exer­cise of reli­gion.  Daniel has Hodgkin’s lym­phoma, and sev­eral respected doc­tors pro­vided tes­ti­mony that, con­sid­er­ing the stage and type of tumor, Daniel could have at least an 85% chance of sur­viv­ing with chemother­apy but that with­out ther­apy he is cer­tain to die of his dis­ease, except if  a very rare spon­ta­neous remis­sion of Hodgkin’s occurs.

Already, the rul­ing has sparked out­cry from reli­gious groups and con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors.  But what isn’t widely-reported is that the reli­gious belief is based upon Nemen­hah, an internet-based reli­gion whose web­site requests a $250 “Spir­i­tual Adop­tion” dona­tion and what­ever sub­se­quent monthly finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion a believer wish to make.  The leader of Nemen­hah is a white man who describes him­self as a natur­opath and Native Amer­i­can “healer” with cures for AIDS and can­cer.  Surely free­dom of reli­gion is cher­ished in this coun­try, but com­mon sense dic­tates cau­tion when a reli­gious leader has his hand in your pocket while promis­ing a mirac­u­lous cure.  While pro­fess­ing to be adher­ents of Nemenhah’s tenets, sup­pos­edly derived from Native Amer­i­can tra­di­tions, Daniel’s par­ents and Daniel are not of Native Amer­i­can ances­try.  As pointed out by NAFPS, because Native Amer­i­can teach­ings are trans­mit­ted face-to-face, any sup­posed Native Amer­i­can tra­di­tional teach­ings in touted books or on web­sites are sim­ply  “not authen­tic.”
©2009 — All Rights Reserved | Pub­lished by: www.ebargains-unlimited.com

Book­mark It

Hide Sites

As of April 26th, health offi­cials in the United States declared a pub­lic health emer­gency over the new strain of swine flu, des­ig­nated A(H1N1).  The emer­gency dec­la­ra­tion releases more fed­eral dol­lars for anti-viral drugs.  One-quarter of the U.S. government’s stock­pile of 50 mil­lion courses of anti-flu drugs will be made avail­able for pub­lic health use. So far there have been 20 con­firmed cases of includ­ing 8 in New York, 7 in Cal­i­for­nia, 2 in Kansas, 2 in Texas and 1 in Ohio.  More A(H1N1) flu cases are expected to be reported, but vir­tu­ally all cases in this coun­try been mild and non-fatal. At the begin­ning of the 20th cen­tury, it was well-understood that many con­ta­gious dis­eases were caused by microbes.  How­ever, unlike today, there was no anti-viral treat­ment avail­able for any of the virally-caused dis­eases, with the excep­tion of syphilis and malaria. The 1918 – 20 flu pan­demic, some­times referred to as the “Span­ish flu” was an influenza pan­demic that spread to nearly every part of the world.  It was caused by an unusu­ally vir­u­lent and deadly Influenza, a virus strain of sub­type H1N1.  The Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol esti­mates that the 1918 – 20 Span­ish flu virus infected at least 500 mil­lion of the world’s 1.5 bil­lion pop­u­la­tion at the time, and that approx­i­mately 20 to 100 mil­lion peo­ple were killed world­wide. Most of its vic­tims in the 1918 – 20 pan­demic were healthy young adults.  Other influenza out­breaks usu­ally struck the very young, the elderly, or those with com­pro­mised immune sys­tems.  The high fatal­ity was a com­bi­na­tion of the high infec­tion rate (up to 50%) and the extreme sever­ity of the symp­toms, sus­pected to be caused by cytokine storms, an over-reaction of the immune sys­tem.  It is the­o­rized that younger peo­ple, with stronger immune sys­tems, reacted more extremely to the virus.   Bur many of those who died in the 1918 – 20 pan­demic could have been saved if today’s anti-flu drugs, antibi­otics and mechan­i­cal ven­ti­la­tors had been avail­able at the time. Even though there is cur­rently no vac­cine for humans for the new A(H1N1) flu strain, it is cur­able.  The flu virus is sus­cep­ti­ble to the he antivi­ral drugs Tam­i­flu and Relenza. The C.D.C. rec­om­mends the fol­low­ing pre­cau­tions: wash­ing your hands fre­quently; avoid­ing touch­ing the face; cov­er­ing your nose and mouth when sneez­ing; and stay­ing home when bat­tling the flu.  Although the new strain is called swine flu A(H1N1), the virus is spread by con­tact with peo­ple infected with the virus, not by con­sum­ing pork. ©2009 — All Rights Reserved | Pub­lished by: www.ebargains-unlimited.com

Book­mark It

Hide Sites