The Effect Of Acid Rain On Natural Health

Environmental pollution can lower the pH of precipitation, creating acid rain. This type of acid precipitation can directly kill some organisms, like trees and fish, devastating ecosystems.

While impacts of acid rain on humans is not very dramatic, it can indirectly cause health problems, particularly lung issues. Acid rain has decreased since the late 1970s in North America, where tighter U.S. regulations have improved air quality.

Acid Rain

All rainwater has a slightly acidic pH level due to ambient levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Certain industrial pollutants, however, can decrease the pH excessively, causing it to pose a danger to the environment. Sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides, for example, can have a dramatic effect on rainwater's pH.

Rain contaminated by these compounds changes the pH of water and soil, making them more acidic. Certain trees and fish have adapted to specific pH levels and changes in pH can kill them, leaving parts of forests, lakes and rivers devoid of life.

Direct Effect of Acid Rain on Humans

While acid tends to bring to mind the image of corrosive chemicals dissolving metals and other materials, acid precipitation does not have direct effects on human health. Acid rain does not have an acidic enough pH to burn human skin.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Swimming in an acidic lake or walking in an acidic puddle is no more harmful to people than swimming or walking in clean water." While acid rain cannot burn your skin, it is linked to several indirect health effects.

Indirect Effects of Acid Rain

Everything is connected in air quality. While acid rain cannot harm humans directly, the sulfur dioxide that creates it can cause health problems. Specifically, sulfur dioxide particles in the air can encourage chronic lung problems, like asthma and bronchitis.

Additionally, the nitrogen oxides that create acid rain promote the formation of ground-level ozone. While ozone high above the Earth helps block ultraviolet radiation, ground-level ozone promotes severe lung problems like chronic pneumonia and emphysema.

When acid rains fall at places located at higher altitudes, acid rains lead to thick acidic fog that hangs low, affecting visibility and causing irritation to eyes and nose. Acidic fog also affects trees and plants and causes their leaves to turn brown and wilt.

Apart from the effects of acid rain on air quality, acid rains also greatly affect environmental balance. Acid rain falling directly on trees and crops can harm them. Runoff from acid rain leaches minerals such as aluminum from soil, thereby decreasing its pH and making the soil acidic. Acidic soil is detrimental for the growth of crops and results in damaged harvests.

When the acidic runoff flows into lakes, rivers and seas, it disturbs the balance of these aquatic ecosystems and causes injury or even death of aquatic organisms. Imbalance in aquatic ecosystems has an adverse effect on fishing industry.

Environmental Successes

In some ways, the reduction of acid rain in the United States is one of the biggest successes of environmental policy. Since the 1970s, various laws have reduced the emission of sulfur dioxides and nitrogen oxides from power plants, including the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement of 1991.

The longest continuous rain-chemistry monitoring station in North America, the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forrest in New Hampshire, found that hydrogen ion concentration (pH) decreased by roughly 60 percent since the 1960s.

The EPA estimates that the reduction in the acid rain-producing emissions has saved $50 billion in health care costs. Despite the overall positive picture, some areas in New England are still recovering.

  

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Millet Based Diets Can Reduce Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes - New Study

A new study has shown that eating millets reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and helps manage blood glucose levels in people with diabetes.
The study indicates the potential to design appropriate meals with millets for diabetic and pre-diabetic people as well as for non-diabetic people as a preventive approach.

Drawing on research from 11 countries, the study published in Frontiers in Nutrition shows that diabetic people who consumed millets as part of their daily diet saw their blood glucose levels drop 12-15% (fasting and post-meal), and blood glucose levels went from diabetic to pre-diabetes levels.
The HbA1c (blood glucose bound to hemoglobin) levels lowered on average 17% for pre-diabetic individuals, and the levels went from prediabetic to normal status. These findings affirm that eating millets can lead to a better glycemic response.

The authors reviewed 80 published studies of which 65 were eligible for a meta-analysis involving about 1,000 human subjects, making this analysis the largest systematic review on the topic till date, said International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

"No one knew there were so many scientific studies undertaken on millets' effect on diabetes. These benefits were often contested, and this systematic review of the studies published in scientific journals has proven that millets keep blood glucose levels in check, reducing the risk of diabetes, and has shown just how well these smart foods do it," said Dr. S Anitha, the study's lead author and a senior nutrition scientist at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

"Diabetes contributed to very high disease burden from 1990-2016 in India. Diabetes-related health expenditure was over $7 million. There is no easy solution, and it requires a lifestyle change, and diet is a very important part of this. This study provides one part of the solution useful for individuals and governments. How we use this and implement it into programs needs careful planning," said Hemalatha, Director, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN).

Raj Bhandari, one of the study's authors and a representative on the Indian National Technical Board of Nutrition, noted that additional attention to our health has been accelerated due to Covid-19 and diabetics are even more vulnerable to the virus. "Our diets play a critical role and if we could bring millets back as a major part of our diet, we would not only help in controlling diabetes, but we would also be adding important nutrients to our plate."

According to the International Diabetes Association, diabetes is increasing in all regions of the world. India, China and the US have the highest numbers of people with diabetes. Africa has the largest forecasted increase of 143% from 2019 to 2045, the Middle East and North Africa 96% and South East Asia 74%. The authors urge the diversification of staples with millets to keep diabetes in check, especially across Asia and Africa.

Strengthening the case for returning millets as staples, the study found that millets have a low average glycemic index (GI) of 52.7, about 30% lower glycemic index (GI) than milled rice and refined wheat, and about 14-37 GI points lower compared to maize. All 11 types of millets studied were either low (<55) or medium GI (55-69), GI being an indicator of how much and how soon a food increases blood sugar level. The review concluded that even after boiling, baking and steaming (most common ways of cooking grains) millets had lower GI than rice, wheat and maize.

 

"Millets are traditional foods consumed in India. Use of locally available millets as dietary diversification coupled with good lifestyle modifications would help reduce not only Type II diabetes but also gestational diabetes.," said study co-author Professor Kowsalya Subramaniam, (Food and Science Nutrition), Registrar at Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women (deemed to be university) in Tamil Nadu.

 

"The global health crisis of undernutrition and over-nutrition coexisting is a sign that our food systems need fixing. Greater diversity both on-farm and on-plate is the key to transforming food systems. On-farm diversity is a risk mitigating strategy for farmers in the face of climate change while on-plate diversity helps counter lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. Millets are part of the solution to mitigate the challenges associated with malnutrition, human health, natural resource degradation, and climate change. Trans-disciplinary research involving multiple stakeholders is required to create resilient, sustainable and nutritious food systems," said Dr. Jacqueline Hughes, Director General ICRISAT.

 

This study is first in a series of studies that has been worked on for the last four years as a part of the Smart Food initiative led by ICRISAT that will be progressively released in 2021. Included are systematic reviews with meta-analyses of the impacts of millets on: diabetes, anaemia and iron requirements, cholesterol and cardiovascular diseases and calcium deficiencies as well as a review on zinc levels.

As part of this, ICRISAT and the Institute for Food Nutrition and Health at the University of Reading have formed a strategic partnership to research and promote the Smart Food vision of making our diets healthier, more sustainable on the environment and good for those who produce it," explained Joanna Kane-Potaka, a co-author from ICRISAT and Executive Director of the Smart Food initiative.

End of the article

  

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How Loud Noise Causes Hearing Loss

Hearing loss is a decrease in your ability to hear or understand speech and sounds around you. Hearing loss can happen when any part of the ear or the nerves that carry information on sounds to your brain do not work in the usual way. In some cases, hearing loss can be temporary. However, it can become permanent when vital parts of the ear have been damaged beyond repair. Damage to any part of the ear can lead to hearing loss.

Loud noise is particularly harmful to the inner ear (cochlea). A one-time exposure to extreme loud sound or listening to loud sounds for a long time can cause hearing loss. Loud noise can damage cells and membranes in the cochlea. Listening to loud noise for a long time can overwork hair cells in the ear, which can cause these cells to die. The hearing loss progresses as long as the exposure continues. Harmful effects might continue even after noise exposure has stopped. Damage to the inner ear or auditory neural system is generally permanent.

Damaged Hair Cells in Your Ears Can Lead to Hearing Loss

The average person is born with about 16,000 hair cells within their cochlea. These cells allow your brain to detect sounds. Up to 30% to 50% of hair cells can be damaged or destroyed before changes in your hearing can be measured by a hearing test. By the time you notice hearing loss, many hair cells have been destroyed and cannot be repaired.

After leaving a very loud event, such as a concert or football game, you may notice that you don’t hear as well as before. You might not hear whispers, sound might seem muffled, or you may hear ringing in your ears. Normal hearing usually returns within a few hours to a few days. This is because the hair cells, similar to blades of grass, will bend more if the sound is louder. But they will become straight again after a recovery period.

However, if loud noise damaged too many of the hair cells, some of them will die. Repeated exposures to loud noises will over time destroy many hair cells. This can gradually reduce your ability to understand speech in noisy places. Eventually, if hearing loss continues, it can become hard to understand speech even in quieter places.

Noise Can Also Damage Nerves in Your Ears

In addition to damaging hair cells, noise can also damage the auditory nerve that carries information about sounds to your brain. Early damage may not show up on your hearing test. It can create a ‘hidden hearing loss’ that may make it difficult for you to understand speech in noisy places. The effect of loud noise over time affects how well you might hear later in life. It also affects how quickly you might develop hearing problems, even after exposure has stopped.

 How Do We Hear?

We hear sound because of vibrations (sound waves) that reach our ears. We recognize those vibrations as speech, music, or other sounds.

Outer Ear
The outer ear—the part of the ear you see—funnels sound waves into the ear canal. The sound waves travel through the ear canal to reach the eardrum.

Middle Ear
The eardrum vibrates from the incoming sound waves and sends these vibrations to three tiny bones in the middle ear. These bones amplify, or increase, the sound vibrations and send them to the inner ear.

Inner Ear
The inner ear contains a snail-shaped structure filled with fluid called the cochlea. Sound vibrations create waves in the cochlear fluids. As the waves peak, they cause tiny hair cells to bend, which converts the vibrations into electrical signals. These tiny hair cells are called stereocilia (types of receptors that can detect sound).

Auditory Nerve
The auditory nerve carries the electrical signals from the inner ear to the brain. The brain interprets the signals as sound that you recognize and understand.

  

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Important Health Benefits Of Crayfish

Different people eat crayfish differently, some take it as a snack, while some use it as spice for all foods they cook. They are one of the most popular cuisine all around the world and they are categorized as seafood. Crayfish is very beneficial to human health and it can be taken as often as you like.

Below are some of the health benefits of crayfish:

Weight loss

Crayfish serves as a very good ingredient for weight loss because it contains low fats as well as traces of carbohydrates. Crayfish helps in making a healthy and nutritious diet. This seafood can go a long way is serving as salads and green vegetables.

Strong bone

Cray fish helps in development of bones because of the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium which is essential. It can help in minimizing the chances of developing bone-related diseases that are caused by calcium and magnesium deficiency.

It serves also as a source of iron, daily intake of crayfish which aids in improving the production and circulation of blood in the body and can effectively reduce the chances of developing anemia and other low iron-related health conditions.

Brain development

Constant intake of crayfish can help to prevent the chance of Alzheimer’s disease. Crayfish is also very good for growing children because it will help in brain development. The omega-3 acids present in the seafood also aids in promoting the cognitive function.

Smooth skin

Crayfish is very good for the skin. This seafood aids in making the body smooth by removing spots and blemishes and also helps in promoting a beautiful and healthy skin.

Prevents depression

Constant consumption of crayfish can really help in dealing with depression because of the presence of omega 3 present in it.  Therefore it is advisable for those suffering from depression to always eat enough of this seafood regularly because it will really be of great help to them in combating stress and depression.

  

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Nigeria To Begin Local Manufacturing Of COVID-19 Vaccines By 2022 - NAFDAC

The federal government has said it is targeting to commence local manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines in the next 12 months.

This is just as the federal government yesterday said it has concluded the training of about 40,739 health workers across the nation for the phase two vaccine roll out.

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who revealed government’s planned local manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines while speaking on ARISE News Channel’s ‘The Morning Show,’ also said the agency has commenced clinical trials on three local herbal medicinal products for the treatment of the virus.

Adeyeye said the government was concerned about the absence of medicine security and its implications for the healthcare needs of the people.

She said the federal government was particularly worried about current challenges posed by inadequate supply of the vaccines to take care of millions of Nigerians, adding that the government was working diligently to start local manufacturing of the vaccine.

When asked to give update on the plan to establish a factory in Nigeria that would undertake local manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, Adeyeye said: “In terms of local manufacturing, the federal government is working assiduously to ensure that there will be local manufacturing of vaccines within a year.”

According to Adeyeye, with less than two per cent of the country’s population vaccinated so far, the federal government was conscious of the constraints posed by lack of drug security.

Adeyeye further said NAFDAC has initiated a process to develop herbal medicine products in the country by setting up the Herbal Medicine Product Development Committee to advance the development of herbal medicine.

She added that the purpose was to bring herbal medicine practitioners and researchers together so as to subject their products to scientific investigation.

She described the development of herbal medicine as a very complicated process.

According to Adeyeye, NAFDAC undertakes a rigorous process in approving herbal medicines for the listing by inspecting the premises of the practitioner to ensure that it meets the required hygienic standards

She also said the agency runs a number of relevant tests before approving herbal medicine products for listing.

In addition, Adeyeye disclosed that NAFDAC has so far commenced clinical trials on three herbal medicine products with a view to confirming their efficacy for the treatment of COVID-19.

“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have approved 45 herbal medicines for listing for temporal approval but you cannot say that they cure COVID-19. Out of these numbers, two or three herbal medicine products have started clinical trials,” she said.

Adeyeye said listing a product only means that it is now safe for consumption but does not confirm how efficacious such a medicine would be until it is subjected to clinical trials.

“It does not confirm how efficacious such herbal drug is until it is subjected to clinical trials. To do clinical trial, it has to be well designed. It is not just that I gave it to 10 people in my village and it worked, but you have to do it in such a way that it will attract recognition across the world. That clinical trial stage is what is going on now,” she said.

Adeyeye also spoke of the Central Bank of Nigeria assisted initiative known as the Research and Development Intervention Scheme which provides funds to assist local production of medicine.

“It cost a lot of money, that is why the CBN is helping to put some money into this intervention scheme for those who are successful during the grant review process,” she added.

  

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Study Links Sleep Deprivation To Accelerated Aging In New Mothers

According to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers, when new mothers complain that all those sleepless nights caring for their newborns are taking years off their life, they just might be right.

UCLA research published this study in the journal Sleep Health.

Scientists studied 33 mothers during their pregnancies and the first year of their babies' lives, analyzing the women's DNA from blood samples to determine their "biological age," which can differ from chronological age. They found that a year after giving birth, the biological age of mothers who slept less than seven hours a night at the six-month mark was three to seven years older than those who logged seven hours or more.

Mothers who slept less than seven hours also had shorter telomeres in their white blood cells. These small pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes act as protective caps, like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces. Shortened telomeres have been linked to a higher risk of cancers, cardiovascular and other diseases, and earlier death.

"The early months of postpartum sleep deprivation could have a lasting effect on physical health," said the study's first author, Judith Carroll, UCLA's George F. Solomon Professor of Psychobiology. "We know from a large body of research that sleeping less than seven hours a night is detrimental to health and increases the risk of age-related diseases."

While participants' nightly sleep ranged from five to nine hours, more than half were getting less than seven hours, both six months and one year after giving birth, the researchers report.

"We found that with every hour of additional sleep, the mother's biological age was younger," said Carroll, a member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA's Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. "I, and many other sleep scientists, consider sleep health to be just as vital to overall health as diet and exercise."

Carroll urged new mothers to take advantage of opportunities to get a little extra sleep, like taking naps during the day when their baby is asleep, accepting offers of assistance from family and friends, and, when possible, asking their partner to help with the baby during the night or early morning. "Taking care of your sleep needs will help you and your baby in the long run," she said.

Co-author Christine Dunkel Schetter, a distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, said the study results "and other findings on maternal postpartum mental health provide the impetus for better-supporting mothers of young infants so that they can get sufficient sleep -- possibly through parental leave so that both parents can bear some of the burdens of care, and through programs for families and fathers."

Dunkel Schetter added that while accelerated biological ageing linked to sleep loss may increase women's health risks, it doesn't automatically cause harm to their bodies. "We don't want the message to be that mothers are permanently damaged by infant care and loss of sleep," she emphasized. "We don't know if these effects are long-lasting."

The study used the latest scientific methods of analyzing changes in DNA to assess biological ageing -- also known as epigenetic ageing, Dunkel Schetter said. DNA provides the code for making proteins, which carry out many functions in the cells of our body, and epigenetics focuses on whether regions of this code are "open" or "closed."

"You can think of DNA as a grocery store," Carroll said, "with lots of basic ingredients to build a meal. If there is a spill in one aisle, it may be closed, and you can't get an item from that aisle, which might prevent you from making a recipe. When access to DNA code is 'closed,' then those genes that code for specific proteins cannot be expressed and are therefore turned off."

Because specific sites within DNA are turned on or off with ageing, the process acts as a sort of clock, Carroll said, allowing scientists to estimate individuals' biological age. Greater an individual's biological, or epigenetic, age, the greater their risk of disease and earlier death.

The study's cohort -- which included women who ranged in age from 23 to 45 six months after giving birth -- is not a large representative sample of women, the authors said, and more studies are needed to better understand the long-term impact of sleep loss on new mothers, what other factors might contribute to sleep loss and whether the biological ageing effects are permanent or reversible.

Carroll and Dunkel Schetter reported last year that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological ageing, which is a form of "intergenerational transfer of health risk," Dunkel Schetter said.

Co-authors of the new study included researchers from the department of psychology, the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, and the department of human genetics and biostatistics at UCLA and from the psychology department at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Funding sources for the study included the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Aging, both part of the National Institutes of Health. (ANI)

  

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