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Category Archives: Mind Building
5 Tips for Safely Buying Drugs on the Internet
Surfing for drugs on the web is a great way to save, but don't assume that online prices will always be lower than those at your local pharmacy.
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Buying prescription medicine online can be a convenient and, in some cases, less expensive way to stock up on drugs you take regularly. If your insurance policy has a prescription benefit, your co-pay will be the same no matter where you shop. But if you pay for your own prescriptions or need a drug that isn't covered by your insurance plan (expensive patented drugs not yet available as generics, for instance), shopping online could save you money. But you need to shop around and take precautions to make sure your health and well-being are not compromised by counterfeit or toxic drugs. Use these tips when shopping online to make sure you're actually saving money and getting quality, legitimate prescription medication:
- Shop around. Websites such as PharmacyChecker and DestinationRx allow you to search for the drug you need and compare prices at numerous online pharmacies. Don't assume that online prices will be lower than those at your local pharmacy, however. Prices often vary between different pharmacy chains, websites, and even a single chain's stores and website. You may have to comparison shop by checking with multiple stores and sites.
- Make sure the pharmacy is legitimate. Verify that there is a licensed pharmacist available to answer your questions and that the site requires a prescription from your doctor or another authorized medical professional. You'll need to mail in a prescriptionor have your doctor fax or call it inbefore a legitimate site will send you any medicine. Check the website in question for specific instructions.
- Plan ahead. You should allow at least two weeks for your prescription to be processed. If you don't receive your order in time, you may need to get a fill-in, which you may have to pay for out-of-pocket, as most prescription plans don't pay for more doses than the prescribed amount.
- Exercise caution when ordering from pharmacies outside the U.S. Although this is a common practice, and although several state governments have set up programs that help their residents purchase drugs from Canada and other countries, buying drugs from foreign pharmacies can be risky and in some cases illegal. The Food and Drug Administration has reported instances of Americans who unwittingly purchased counterfeit or tainted medications from foreign pharmacies.
Health24.com | These beer lovers created a workout to help you ‘earn your booze’
There’s only one body part named after beer, and it’s not flattering: The beer belly. It’s plagued the casual beer drinking class for about as long as there’s been a casual beer drinking class. Beer bellies are so common you’d think people would have figured out a quick fix, but here we are.
A couple of veterans and drink lovers in Arizona in the USA believe they’ve landed on a solution, though. Alcohol doesn’t have to be a weight-gaining vice that’s going to ruin all the hard work you put in at the gym, you just have to earn it.
That’s the idea behind Earn Your Booze, a company started by Justin Cross, a brewer; Elliott Clark, the man behind the Instagram account Apartment Bartender; and Danny Page, a fitness nutrition specialist certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
Read more: All about the R16 million whisky plus our (cheaper) choices
It all started when Cross was in the Navy. His service demanded a high level of fitness, “but a good sailor also knows how to throw down some rum and beer,” Cross told MensHealth.com. He became embedded in the brewing and nightlife industries when starting a brewery after his service.
Cross quickly learnt that health and wellness were parts of life that people in the alcohol industry needed some help with, so he started working with brewers and bartenders to teach them how to lose the beer gut and feel better overall. Clark’s mantra at the gym was that he was earning those drinks he knew he was going to have later, and the two stuck with that idea. They trademarked “Earn Your Booze”, and the brand was born.
“It’s very easy to let the drinking and late night lifestyle get away from you,” Cross says. “Increasing your fitness level, reducing alcohol consumption, and embracing a mindset that encourages you to ‘earn it’ is solid advice for bartenders, brewers, and everyone else who likes to imbibe.”
Read more: The ultimate list of beers to have on braai day
Cross and Clark started hosting work out events that ended with beer and cocktails. Arizona breweries like Scottsdale Beer Co., Helton Brewing and Goldwater Brewing hosted events, and the liqueur brand St Germain sponsored an event in Miami. Many of the events also give back to US veterans.
“Drinking responsibly is a piece of our culture,” Page, the “earn it” side of the brand, says, “as is exercising and taking care of one’s self.”
To bolster the brand’s workout cred, they brought Page on as a consultant to plan and lead the work outs. Page tailors the routines around where the event is being held in a way that people of all fitness levels can participate. Above everything else, he emphasises whole-body workouts.
“See, the common belief is if people drink or consume some alcohol, all of those kilojoules are going to go right to their gut or belly, so they think they need to train their midsection or core to counterbalance the effects,” Page says. “This is simply not true – a kilojoule of alcohol is still a kilojoule to the body and it can be stored anywhere if not burned off or used for energy.”
Read more: 20 ways to melt your gut and shed those unwanted kilos
Earn Your Booze found a following with people who enjoy CrossFit, yoga, and weight lifting, as well as with top bartenders like Pam Wiznitzer, brewers, and people who just enjoy a drink. Essentially, Cross says, Earn Your Booze is there to show that you can have a good time while maintaining your fitness.
“When you embrace the ‘earn it’ mentality,” Cross says, “all areas of life improve.”
Danny Page’s at-home earn your booze circuit
Try out this circuit to get a taste of an Earn Your Booze workout. Perform each of the bodyweight exercises without rest until you’ve finished the set. Take a minute off, then start over again. Perform the whole series three to four times for a full session.
Push ups for pop tops
15 Reps
The move: Get in a push up position with your hands about shoulder width apart. Keep your lower back flat and don’t let your hips sag. Lower yourself and keep your elbows close to your body as you descend.
Sweet and sour reverse lunges
10 each reps each side
The move: Stand with your feet hip width apart. Take a long step back so your knees make two 90-degree angles at the bottom and pull yourself back up with your forward leg. Start without dumbbells and advance to a dumbbell or barbell in either the back squat or front squat position.
Read more: These 6 workouts will give you a ripped stomach like this cover guy
Hammered hip bridges
15 Reps
The move: Lie on the ground with your knees bent and feet on the floor. Drive through your heels and squeeze your glutes to push your hips up. Repeat. Do not use your lower back to pull yourself up.
Drunken dead bugs
8 reps each side
The move: Lie on your back with your hands and knees in the air. Keep your butt off the ground with your lower-back flush on the ground. Reach with opposite arms and legs while maintaining your starting posture. Alternate sides.
Saucy salute planks
8 reps per side
The move: Start in a plank position. Keep your core tight and your glutes squeezed. Bring one hand to your forehead in a salute position and hold for five seconds (not shown in the example above). Squeeze your core to prevent your hips from twisting and stay tight. Alternate sides.
Malted mountain climbers
30 seconds
The move: Get into a push up position. Keep your core tight and run as fast as you can while driving your knees to your chest. Don’t let your hips rise. Keep them at the same height as when you started.
Originally published on www.menshealth.com
Image credit: iStock
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Health24.com | How biting your nails can cause infections
Every now and then you may find yourself nibbling at your nails. You might be doing it subconsciously while working or watching television or you might be a conscious nail-biter struggling to kick the habit.
According to studies, approximately 20 to 30% of people are regular nail-biters. Medically referred to as onychophagia, biting one’s nails is seen as a coping mechanism for things like stress, nervousness or boredom.
The American Academy of Dermatology notes that onychophagia can also be triggered by physical factors like hangnails, chipped nails or chipped nail polish.
However, biting you nails is not just an innocent coping mechanism – it can unfortunately also transport nasty bacteria from your nails to your mouth or create an opening for bacteria and fungi to infect your nail bed.
Nail-biting situation
In an interview with Time magazine, nail disorder expert Dr Richard Scher notes that the area underneath your nails is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli. In fact, a study by researchers at the Atatürk University in Turkey found that 76% of people who bit their nails had E. coli in their saliva, compared to 26% of non-nail-biters.
Ingesting bacteria like E. coli, salmonella and the like can make you really sick. Common symptoms include diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and fever.
Chomping away at your nails and the surrounding skin opens the area to infections like paronychia. Paronychia is a skin infection that causes the infected area to swell, followed by some redness and mild pain. Anyone is susceptible to this infection, which can be caused by both fungi and bacteria. Symptoms can worsen rapidly when caused by bacteria.
Infections
Paronychia comes in two forms, acute paronychia and chronic paronychia. Acute paronychia does not last long, but can cause abscesses to form around the nail. Chronic paronychia can last for several weeks at a time and can return. Chronic paronychia can leave the nail feeling hard and slightly deformed. In worse case scenarios the nail can separate from the finger.
If you suffer from diabetes, paronychia can be particularly dangerous. The infection can spread from your fingernails to body tissues and bones. In the worst case scenarios the infection can result in the loss of fingers and toes.
You can prevent infection by refraining from nail-biting, making use of clean nail clippers and keeping your nail area clean. Make sure that your nails are always neatly trimmed to avoid hangnails. You can also purchase over-the-counter products that discourage you from biting your nails.
You can treat infected nails by regularly soaking the infected areas in warm water. Should the situation not improve, it is advisable to see a doctor.
Image credit: iStock
Puzzle solving ‘won’t stop mental decline’
A new study suggests that doing intellectual activities throughout life is best.
Lifespan extension at low temperatures is genetically controlled
Why do we age? Despite more than a century of research (and a vast industry of youth-promising products), what causes our cells and organs to deteriorate with age is still unknown.
One known factor is temperature: Many animal species live longer at lower temperature than they do at higher temperatures. As a result, “there are people out there who believe, strongly, that if you take a cold shower every day it will extend your lifespan,” says Kristin Gribble, a scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL).
But a new study from Gribble’s lab indicates that it’s not just a matter of turning down the thermostat. Rather, the extent to which temperature affects lifespan depends on an individual’s genes.
Gribble’s study, published in Experimental Gerentology, was conducted in the rotifer, a tiny animal that has been used in aging research for more than 100 years. Gribble’s team exposed 11 genetically distinct strains of rotifers (Brachionus) to low temperature, with the hypothesis that if the mechanism of lifespan extension is purely a thermodynamic response, all strains should have a similar lifespan increase.
However, the median lifespan increase ranged from 6 percent to 100 percent across the strains, they found. They also observed differences in mortality rate.
Gribble’s study clarifies the role of temperature in the free-radical theory of aging, which has dominated the field since the 1950s. This theory proposes that animals age due to the accumulation of cellular damage from reactive oxidative species (ROS), a form of oxygen that is generated by normal metabolic processes.
“Generally, it was thought that if an organism is exposed to lower temperature, it passively lowers their metabolic rate and that slows the release of ROS, which slows down cellular damage. That, in turn, delays aging and extends lifespan,” Gribble says.
Her results, however, indicate that the change in lifespan under low temperature is likely actively controlled by specific genes. “This means we really need to pay more attention to genetic variability in thinking about responses to aging therapies,” she says. “That is going to be really important when we try to move some of these therapies into humans.”
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Materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Ocean fertilization by unusual microbes extends to frigid waters of Arctic Ocean
Microbes that provide natural fertilizer to the oceans by “fixing” nitrogen from the atmosphere into a form useable by other organisms were once thought to be limited to warm tropical and subtropical waters. Now, however, researchers have documented nitrogen fixation by an unusual type of cyanobacteria in the cold waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas.
“This goes against all the textbook assumptions about where nitrogen fixation occurs. All the mathematical models for nitrogen input to the oceans are constrained by temperature because of this underlying assumption,” said Jonathan Zehr, professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz and senior author of a paper on the new findings published Monday, December 10, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Katie Harding, a graduate student in Zehr’s lab and first author of the paper, explained that in many parts of the oceans, productivity is limited by the availability of nitrogen. “Nitrogen fixation fuels the food chain in some areas, so it’s important to understand what all the sources are,” she said.
The nitrogen fixation Harding discovered in the Arctic is carried out by an organism called UCYN-A, which was first discovered by Zehr’s group in the open ocean near Hawaii. After finding DNA evidence of a previously unknown nitrogen-fixing microbe, Zehr’s lab eventually identified it as a type of cyanobacteria oddly lacking the capacity for photosynthesis. Finally, in 2012, they discovered that it lives in a close symbiosis with a type of small, single-celled algae. In this mutually beneficial partnership, UCYN-A provides fixed nitrogen while the haptophyte alga provides fixed carbon through photosynthesis.
Meanwhile, Zehr and other researchers were finding the newly discovered UCYN-A in increasingly widespread areas of the ocean, first in coastal waters and then in waters as far north as the Danish Straits. UCYN-A cannot be grown in the laboratory, but it can be identified and isolated from water samples using sophisticated cell sorting and gene sequencing techniques.
The new study shows not only that it can exist in the Arctic, but that it is functional and fixing nitrogen in Arctic waters with temperatures below 4 degrees Celsius (40 degrees Farhrenheit). “It’s not just cells drifting up into the Arctic on ocean currents. It’s active, and it’s the only real cyanobacterial nitrogen-fixer in the Arctic,” Zehr said.
Cyanobacteria (once referred to misleadingly as blue-green algae) are bacteria that can photosynthesize like plants, although UCYN-A seems to have lost this ability. Only some cyanobacteria are able to fix nitrogen, including Trichodesmium, which was once thought to be the main source of nitrogen fixation in the open ocean. Trichodesmium, however, doesn’t grow in waters cooler than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
“It’s hard to measure nitrogen fixation rates in water samples and tell which organism does how much, but I suspect that if you were to add up global nitrogen fixation by UCYN-A, it is a substantial and possibly the biggest source of nitrogen in the ocean,” Zehr said.
Although it hasn’t been found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica yet, Zehr said that is probably the next place he’ll look for it. When his collaborators at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science first proposed looking in the Arctic, he was hesitant. “I didn’t expect to find much nitrogen fixation at all, let alone nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. It just goes to show, you don’t know until you look,” he said.
“One of the interesting questions from a biological standpoint is how UCYN-A can tolerate such a wide range of temperatures, especially when the temperature range for Trichodesmium is so narrow,” Harding said.
On a research cruise out of Nome, Alaska, in September 2016, Harding and other members of the team collected and processed water samples for analysis back in the laboratory. On-ship processing included incubating samples with nitrogen-15 so that any newly fixed nitrogen would be labeled with the heavy isotope. This enabled the researchers to measure nitrogen fixation rates and to show that UCYN-A was actively fixing nitrogen. Back in the lab, they used fluorescent labeling to identify UCYN-A and an advanced mass spectrometry technique to detect nitrogen-15 in the cells of UCYN-A and its algal symbiont.
The nitrogen fixation rates they measured in the Chukchi Sea were relatively low, but rates in the Bering Sea (at 10 degrees Celsius) were similar to those measured in much warmer waters. Nitrogen fixation by UCYN-A accounted for all of the nitrogen fixation measured in the Bering Sea, but only accounted for a fraction of the total in the Chukchi Sea.
“The rates in the Arctic are pretty low, so UCYN-A may not be very important there now. But if Arctic warming continues, it will become more and more important as a source of nitrogen in Arctic ecosystems,” Zehr said.
In addition to Harding and Zehr, the coauthors of the paper include research specialist Kendra Turk-Kubo at UC Santa Cruz, Rachel Sipler and Deborah Bronk at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Matthew Mills at Stanford University. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Simons Foundation.
Shape-shifting origami could help antenna systems adapt on the fly
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have devised a method for using an origami-based structure to create radio frequency filters that have adjustable dimensions, enabling the devices to change which signals they block throughout a large range of frequencies.
The new approach to creating these tunable filters could have a variety of uses, from antenna systems capable of adapting in real-time to ambient conditions to the next generation of electromagnetic cloaking systems that could be reconfigured on the fly to reflect or absorb different frequencies.
The team focused on one particular pattern of origami, called Miura-Ori, which has the ability to expand and contract like an accordion.
“The Miura-Ori pattern has an infinite number of possible positions along its range of extension from fully compressed to fully expanded,” said Glaucio Paulino, the Raymond Allen Jones Chair of Engineering and a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “A spatial filter made in this fashion can achieve similar versatility, changing which frequency it blocks as the filter is compressed or expanded.”
Results from the study, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Semiconductor Research Corporation, were reported December 10th in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers used a special printer that scored paper to allow a sheet to be folded in the origami pattern. An inkjet-type printer was then used to apply lines of silver ink across those perforations, forming the dipole elements that gave the object its radio frequency filtering ability.
“The dipoles were placed along the fold lines so that when the origami was compressed, the dipoles bend and become closer together, which causes their resonant frequency to shift higher along the spectrum,” said Manos Tentzeris, the Ken Byers Professor in Flexible Electronics in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
To prevent the dipoles from breaking along the fold line, the perforations were suspended at the location of each silver element and then continued on the other side. Additionally, along each of the dipoles, a separate cut was made to form a “bridge” that allowed the silver to bend more gradually. For testing various positions of the filter, the team used 3D-printed frames to hold it in place.
The researchers found that a single-layer Miura-Ori-shaped filter blocked a narrow band of frequencies while multiple layers of the filters stacked could achieve a wider band of blocked frequencies.
Because the Miura-Ori formation is flat when fully extended and quite compact when fully compressed, the structures could be used by antenna systems that need to stay in compact spaces until deployed, such as those used in space applications. Additionally, the single plane along which the objects expand could provide advantages, such as using less energy, over antenna systems that require multiple physical steps to deploy.
“A device based on Miura-Ori could both deploy and be re-tuned to a broad range of frequencies as compared to traditional frequency selective surfaces, which typically use electronic components to adjust the frequency rather than a physical change,” said Abdullah Nauroze, a Georgia Tech graduate student who worked on the project. “Such devices could be good candidates to be used as reflectarrays for the next generation of cubesats or other space communications devices.”
There were also physical advantages to using origami.
“The Miura-Ori pattern exhibits remarkable mechanical properties, despite being assembled from sheets barely thicker than a tenth of a millimeter,” said Larissa Novelino, a Georgia Tech graduate student who worked on the project. “Those properties could make light-weight yet strong structures that could be easily transported.”
Health24.com | Stimulating one brain area may ease tough-to-treat depression
Electrical stimulation of a certain part of the brain may offer a new option for “treatment-resistant” depression, a small new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that 25 patients with moderate-to-severe depression gained significant improvement in their mood after electrical stimulation of a brain region called the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC).
Improvements in body language
After just three minutes of electrical stimulation to the OFC, even on just one side of the brain, “patients said things like ‘Wow, I feel better,’ ‘I feel less anxious,’ ‘I feel calm, cool and collected,'” UCSF postdoctoral researcher Kristin Sellers said in a university news release.
“You could see the improvements in patients’ body language,” she added. “They smiled, they sat up straighter, they started to speak more quickly and naturally.”
The OFC is a small area of the lower surface of the brain, located just above the eyes. It’s exact function remains unclear, but study senior author Dr Eddie Chang explained that the OFC “is richly connected to various brain structures linked to mood, depression and decision making, making it very well positioned to coordinate activity between emotion and cognition”.
Reporting in Current Biology, the UCSF researchers suggested that the targeted therapy might help patients with treatment-resistant depression, which affects as many as 30% of depression patients.
One neurosurgeon who wasn’t involved in the study said brain stimulation therapy for depression isn’t new – and the field has had some setbacks.
“Brain stimulation to treat other conditions (such as Parkinson’s disease) has been known for decades to have an effect on the mind,” noted Dr Michael Schulder. He directs neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York.
Wrong brain area?
“Several studies over the last 15 years, in which depressed patients had implanted brain stimulators, initially showed great promise,” he said. In the final analysis, however, outcomes were not much better than would have been obtained with medication or psychotherapy.
But could those attempts have been targeting the wrong brain area? Chang’s team wanted to find out.
Their new study involved 25 patients already enrolled in UCSF’s epilepsy clinic. Chang specialises in neurosurgery for people with the seizure disorder. He explained that as a routine part of these surgeries, patients get electrodes temporarily implanted in their brains to help guide the surgery.
But in these 25 patients with depression, Chang’s group used feedback from the electrodes to track brain activity over several days. They then linked that information to patients’ changing moods, thereby pinpointing brain areas that might be amenable to stimulation therapy.
That led the investigators to the OFC, among other brain areas. The researchers would deliver a mild electrical current to brain regions and then ask the patients about their emotional state.
Stimulation to the OFC was the clear “winner” here, in terms of a mood boost. What’s more, stimulating that area seemed to initiate a larger response within the brain, similar to what happens naturally when a person is feeling positive.
A naturally positive mood state
Also, the therapy seemed to only help patients with moderate-to-severe depression, not those with milder forms of the illness.
According to study team member Dr Vikram Rao, this suggests that “stimulation was helping patients with serious depression experience something like a naturally positive mood state, rather than artificially boosting mood in everyone.”
Rao, a UCSF Health neurologist, explained in the news release that prior research had suggested that OFC activity was “elevated” in people with depression, so the stimulation might alter the OFC in a healthy way.
Despite these promising results, the study authors said further research in larger groups of patients is needed to determine whether this therapy produces long-lasting benefits.
‘Unlearning’ depression
Dr Vladan Novakovic directs outpatient psychiatry at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. He agreed that most work in electrical brain stimulation has focused on a part of the brain’s cortex, while leaving other areas, such as the OFC, unexplored.
Novakovic said the new study is “commendable for providing real-time, clinically relevant information about the state of OFC and improvement in mood”.
For their part, the UCSF team believes that an improved understanding of the OFC’s role in depression could lead the way to individualised treatment.
Heather Dawes, who helped to oversee the research, said, “The more we understand about depression at this level of brain circuitry, the more options we may have for offering patients effective treatments with a low risk of side effects. Perhaps by understanding how these emotion circuits go wrong in the first place, we can even one day help the brain ‘unlearn’ depression.”
Image credit: iStock
Transplanted organs gave patients cancer
Two people developed cancer after organ donations from a woman who had the undetected disease.
