The Health Effects Of Lack Of Sleep

You know lack of sleep can make you grumpy and foggy. You may not know what it can do to your sex life, memory, health, looks, and even ability to lose weight.

Sleepiness cause accident. Sleep deprivation was a factor in some of the biggest disasters in recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, and others.

But sleep loss is also a big public safety hazard every day on the road. Drowsiness can slow reaction time as much as driving drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the United States estimates that fatigue is a cause in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths a year in that country. The problem is greatest among people under 25 years old.
Studies show that sleep loss and poor-quality sleep also lead to accidents and injuries on the job. In one study, workers who complained about excessive daytime sleepiness had significantly more work accidents, particularly repeated work accidents. They also had more sick days per accident.

Sleep loss dumbs you down. Sleep also plays a critical role in thinking and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways. First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.

Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.

Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to Serious Health Problems

Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss can put you at risk for:

• Heart disease
• Heart attack
• Heart failure
• Irregular heartbeat
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Diabetes.According to some estimates, 90% of people with insomnia -- a sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling and staying asleep -- also have another health condition.

Lack of Sleep Kills Sex Drive. Sleep specialists say that sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame.

For men with sleep apnea, a respiratory problem that interrupts sleep, there may be another factor in the sexual slump. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism suggests that many men with sleep apnea also have low testosterone levels. In the study, nearly half of the men who suffered from severe sleep apnea also secreted abnormally low levels of testosterone during the night.

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The Evils Of Obesity... As Quincy Herbal Slimmers Kicks Off Super Summer Bonanza!

Dr Mrs Quincy Olasumbo Ayodele, MD/CEO Quincy Herbals

Good times are here for those who want to lose weight with natural medicine as Quincy Herbal Slimmers, a front liner in the Nigerian herbal slimming industry, as kick-started its Super Summer Bonanza. A statement from the management of Quincy Herbals, which was made available to Nigeria Natural Health Online, reads:
"Super Summer Bonanza is here! Big Discount on Instant Weight Loss, Tummy Blasting, Slimming Garri, Skin Lightening & more! WhatsApp 08055250669 BBM 7EF8884F."

Why You Must Fight Obesity Now!

Obesity is a term that means you weigh at least 20% more than what is considered a normal weight for your height. It makes you more likely to have conditions including:

• Heart disease and stroke
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Some cancers
• Gallbladder disease and gallstones
• Osteoarthritis
• Gout
• Breathing problems, such as sleep apnea (when a person stops breathing for short episodes during sleep) and asthma

Not everyone who is obese has all of those problems. The risk rises if you have a family history of one of those conditions.
Also, where your weight is may matter. If it's mostly around your stomach (the "apple" shape), that may be riskier than if you have a "pear" shape, meaning that your extra weight is mostly around your hips and buttocks.
Here's a closer look at four conditions that are linked to being obese or overweight.

Heart Disease and Stroke

Extra weight makes you more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Both of those conditions make heart disease or stroke more likely.
The good news is that losing a small amount of weight can reduce your chances of developing heart disease or a stroke. Losing 5%-10% of your weight is proven to lower your chance of developing heart disease.

Type 2 Diabetes

Most people who have type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. You can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by losing weight, eating a balanced diet, getting adequate sleep, and exercising more.
If you have type 2 diabetes, losing weight and becoming more physically active can help control your blood sugar levels. Becoming more active may also reduce your need for diabetesmedication.

Cancer

Cancers of the colon, breast (after menopause), endometrium (the lining of the uterus), kidney, and esophagus are linked to obesity. Some studies have also reported links between obesity and cancers of the gallbladder, ovaries, and pancreas.

Gallbladder Disease

Gallbladder disease and gallstones are more common if you are overweight.
Ironically, weight loss itself, particularly rapid weight loss or loss of a large amount of weight, can make you more likely to get gallstones. Losing weight at a rate of about 1 pound a week is less likely to cause gallstones.

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The Impoortance Of Natural Medicine In The Larger Society (1)

In this piece, we present the views of Haile T. Debas, Ramanan Laxminarayan and Stephen E. Straus, authorities in natural medicine especially as it relate to developing countries. We refer to medical practices that evolved with indigenous peoples and that they have introduced to other countries through emigration as traditional medicine. We refer to approaches that emerged primarily in Western, industrial countries during the past two centuries as scientific or Western medicine, although we acknowledge that not all Western medicine is based on scientifically proven knowledge. The terms complementary and alternative describe practices and products that people choose as adjuncts to or as alternatives to Western medical approaches. Increasingly, the terms CAM and TM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) and TM (Traditional Medicine) are being used interchangeably.
Endless varieties of practices are scientifically unproven and poorly accepted by medical authorities. For the sake of organizing an agenda for research into these approaches, they have been into five somewhat overlapping domains as follows:

• Biologically based practices. These include use of a vast array of vitamins and mineral supplements, natural products such as chondroitin sulfate, which is derived from bovine or shark cartilage; herbals, such as bitter leaf, and other vegetables; and unconventional diets, such as the low-carbohydrate approach to weight loss espoused by the late Robert Atkins.
• Manipulative and body-based approaches. These kinds of approaches, which include massage, have been used throughout history. In the 19th century, additional formal manipulative disciplines emerged in the United States: chiropractic medicine and osteopathic medicine. Both originated in an attempt to relieve structural forces on vertebrae and spinal nerve roots that practitioners perceived as evoking a panoply of illnesses beyond mere musculoskeletal pain.
• Mind-body medicine. Many ancient cultures assumed that the mind exerts powerful influences on bodily functions and vice versa. Attempts to reassert proper harmony between these bodily systems led to the development of mind-body medicine, an array of approaches that incorporate spiritual, meditative, and relaxation techniques.
• Alternative medical systems. Whereas the ancient Greeks postulated that health requires a balance of vital humors, Asian cultures considered that health depends on the balance and flow of vital energies through the body. This latter theory underlies the practice of acupuncture, for example, which asserts that vital energy flow can be restored by placing needles at critical body points.
• Energy medicine. This approach uses therapies that involve the use of energy—either biofield- or bioelectromagnetic-based interventions. An example of the former is Reiki therapy, which aims to realign and strengthen healthful energies through the intervention of energies radiating from the hands of a master healer.

Alternative systems of medicine use elements from each of these CAM and TM domains. For example, traditional Chinese medicine incorporates acupuncture, herbal medicines, special diets, and meditative exercises such as tai chi while Afican traditional medicine involve the use of herbs, food and spiritual faith based disciplines. Ayurveda in India similarly uses the meditative exercises of yoga, purifying diets, and natural products. In the West, homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine each arose in the late 19th century as reactions to the largely ineffectual and toxic conventional approaches of the day: purging, bleeding, and treatments with heavy metals such as mercury and arsenicals...
To be continued next week

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Adulterated Palm Oil Selling Fast In Nigerian Markets, Causes Cancer And Other Diseases

A major problem currently facing consumers of palm oil in Nigeria is the issue of adulteration of the product. Adulterated palm oil has flooded the market and researchers have associated the product to the rising cases of cancers, heart disease and kidney failure. It is red and tasty. It is one of the basic ingredients in Nigerian traditional diets, from porridge to soups. It is in high demand and often adulterated. Adulterated palm oil is on the prowl. The business is booming but leaves organ damage and sudden deaths associated with cardiovascular diseases in its wake.

Mrs. Funmilayo Omoyajowo, working mother of one, said she has had nasty experience with adulterated palm oil. “ I remember when my friend prepared vegetable soup with palm oil for all four of us her friends.  After eating it, all four of us, including our friend, who brought the meal purged seriously to stupor so that we were forced to ask our confused friend what she used to prepare the soup. We blame it on vegetable, not until when I later bought adulterated palm oil in the market,” she said.

It is feared that adulterated palm oil has contributed to the rising cases of cancer, kidney and other organs damage, heart disease and sudden deaths in Nigeria.

It has been shown that palm oil obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaies guineensis) is the most widely produced edible vegetable oil in the world today. It is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, South East Asia and parts of Brazil. Several studies have shown that in a bid to make more profits by improving the red colour of the oil and the quantity, unscrupulous producers and marketers use dangerous chemicals such as solvent red 24. Many palm oil producers use solvent red 24 as an additive to improve the color and market value of improperly processed palm oil.

Solvent red 24 (sudan IV, scarlet red) is a lysochrome diazo dye often used in coloring plastic, waxes, oil, fat among others. As food dye, solvent red 24 is considered an illegal dye, mainly because of its harmful effect over a long period of time.

Chief Dietician, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, Mr. Ogbona Obi Chimela said that the adulteration of palm oil might be time bomb ready to explode as palm oil has been found out to be a very important to man’s existence.

further explained, “it is a source of vitamin A in it as it has beta carotene in it. So it protects the eyes from disease called night blindness or total blindness. It is another ready source of energy as one gram of fat from it gives about nine joules of energy, other sources of energy do not have as much as that. It also act as lubricant to the food we eat so that it make it palatable as part of its aesthetical function.

“If it is true that they adulterate palm oil with chlorine, it would be dangerous to man’s health because chlorine is a bleaching agent. It could lead to peptic ulcer if it is added to man’s food as it could erode the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). There is a tolerable level of chlorine that man can take that it may not be harmful.

“Palm oil is fatty in nature. Hence, if chlorine is mixed with it, palm oil could store such chemical for a long time only to lead to health hazards later. It would affect the movement of food in the GIT and erode it overtime only to create wound called ulcer.”
  
So, how does one recognize an adulterated palm oil? is it from the texture, smell, colour or taste? find out in our subsequent publications. Keep a date with Nigeria Natural Health Online.

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Beware: Public Swimming Pools Contain Toxins, May Lead To Death

Contrary to popular belief that swimming pools treated with chlorines are safe and free from toxins, recent research has just discovered that Sodium hypochlorite and similar chlorine compounds used in treating pool water can cause liver and kidney cancer, severe infections as well as death.

The research conducted by America’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealed that these chemicals react with organic material (such as urines, feaces, sweat from swimmer’s body) to form toxic substances that later develop into a number of diseases in humans. It listed the most common diseases incurred from chlorinated water to include respiratory defects, eye and skin infections, gastrointestinal defects, neurological dysfunctions and injuries of the kidney and liver. It also linked excessive exposure to chlorine compounds to kidney and liver cancers.

The research also discovered that chlorine does not kill all germs in the water and swallowing just a little water that contains these germs can cause sickness. In the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the number of infections associated with swimming. The most commonly reported is diarrhea. Diarrheal illnesses are caused by germs such as Crypto (short for Cryptosporidium), Giardia, Shigella, norovirus and E. coli O157:H7.

Crypto, which can stay alive for days even in well-maintained pools, has become the leading cause of swimming pool-related outbreaks of diarrheal illness.
Few days ago, Reno Gazette Journal published the story of a 21-year-old woman from California, who died from an infection called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) which she contracted after going swimming in Reno, Nevada. The woman woke up from a nap on June 16 with symptoms including a headache, nausea and vomiting. Few days later her condition deteriorated until she suffered a cardiac arrest and died.

Aside from contracting germs, fatal illness can also develop after heavy exposure to chlorinated water. According to the CDC research, 2% of the total victims of chlorinated water suffered from severe liver and kidney infections. Risks of renal cancer due to chlorinated water were highlighted by the researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health some years back. The report estimated that these disinfectants are causing at least about 10,700 cases of kidney cancers every year. This figure also estimated that the number of cases will rise continuously, if adequate measures are not taken.

To analyze the scope of damage from water disinfectants, America’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences tested trihalomethanes, an important unit of water disinfectants on rats. The chemical was mixed in their food. A large number of rats developed colorectal and renal cancer while others developed kidney and liver infections from the toxic food.

Subsequent research corroborated the fact that chlorinated water causes potential health risks to people.
Again, the CDC notes that when chlorine binds with sweat, urine, and other waste from swimmers, air irritants increase. Depending on the concentration and how long a person is exposed to them, everything from asthma aggravation and skin problems to neurological problems and diarrhea can develop.
However, the problem goes beyond inhaling air irritants. Researchers from Purdue University say that swimming in a public pool is a health concern because of the multiple ways people can absorb infections; through inhalation, ingestion and skin absorption. Furthermore, they explained that chemicals in makeup, insect repellants and sunscreens also make their way into the pool environment, increasing a person’s exposure to health-aggravating compounds.

“You can inhale, you can ingest and it can go through your skin. So the exposure you receive in a swimming pool setting is potentially much more extensive than the exposure you would receive by just one route alone.
These factors can compound existing health problems or potentially play a role in the onset of new ones,” says Ernest R. Blatchley, a professor at the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University.

On the solution to this mounting issue, Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC’s Healthy Swimming Program has advised that swimmers need to take an active role in protecting themselves by observing hygiene in the pool. “Swimmers should use the pool to swim, the restroom to pee and the showers to wash up before getting in the pool" he says.

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Prevent Malaria, Cold And Cholera This Rainy Season

If you have been coughing and wheezing lately, you may have contracted one of the illnesses that come along with the rainy season. After months of experiencing the scorching heat of the sun, the first showers of rain in the year brought relief to many; however, the downpour will now experience could pose some challenges to health.

Scientists say the rainy season invites lots of illnesses and infections which include cold, flu, diarrhoea and some other water-borne and air-borne diseases.

Chest physician, Dr. Anthony Anisuba, identifies the sudden change in temperature and the presence of air and water impurities in the environment as factors that increase fever and other respiratory infections this time of the year.

He notes that water- and food-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid are also widespread during the wet season, adding that the likelihood of ingesting contaminated food or water —especially by those who eat in roadside restaurants — is very high this period.

Anisuba states, “The air and water in our homes and environment are likely to be contaminated and polluted this period more than ever before. When one inhales or ingests these impurities and germs, they weaken the body’s antibodies.

“In trying to cope with the infections, the body fights back and this reduces its immunity levels and it may eventually succumb to infections such as malaria, cold and typhoid.”

Though many are aware that illnesses like malaria, cholera and pneumonia infections are rampant this season, they have yet to take steps to protect their kids and families.

While some common illnesses cannot be avoided during the rainy season, experts say if one can take certain precautions, many infections would be kept at bay.

Wear protective gear

When you are going out, you should be prepared and well geared so that even if you are caught in rain, you do not get drenched.

When rain starts pouring in, you first look for a shelter and try to save yourself from getting drenched. However, a shelter can save you from getting wet in rain, but it will not protect you from catching any kind of infection. This is especially when your immune system is very low.

This is very important. This will save you from many infections.

Drink purified water

To save yourself from water-borne diseases, try to purify the drinking water up to the maximum level. There are many new and improved water filters available in the market. They are economical and useful. If you do not have any water purifying system at home, you should buy one of these this rainy season. You can also drink boiled water in the absence of water filter to get somewhat relief from infections.

Take extra care

Anisuba says though no one wants to get sick, if anyone falls ill, they should visit the doctor if the cold or flu persists even after 24 hours.

“Do not take any kind of risk; and if the temperature or the symptoms do not subside after 24 hours, consult the doctor. The person may be infected with cholera, typiod or pneumonia.”

Stay clean 

If the cause of disease is lack of cleanliness either inside or outside the house, get it rectified first. Cleanliness in every aspect is extremely important during rainy season.

Always wear clean and dry clothes. If possible, keep one extra set of clothing with you when you go out so that even if you get caught in rain, you can change into dry clothes.

Avoid eating outside, stay fit 

It is good to eat easily digestible food items in this season. Avoid eating out at all costs. Increase intake of green vegetables and fruits. Try to make your life disciplined and exercise for at least 30 minutes daily. This will help you keep away many diseases.

Wash the rain away

If you are caught in rains and get drenched, you should take bath after getting home and get your hair and body dry completely. Wear dry and clean clothes and if you have been in rain for more time, drink some hot drink, preferably hot milk, soup or so. This will save you from catching cold. A glass of hot milk with one teaspoonful of turmeric powder is a very good remedy and you should drink this at night before going to bed.

Also, when a person is sick, he or she might feel depressed and so you can put on light, soothing music so that it helps them feel relaxed.

Anisuba adds that if you follow these tips and stay protected, you will ward away infections, allergies and diseases during rainy seasons.

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