Yet Another HIV Breakthrough

A new compound that inhibits HIV protease has been developed by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The protease, which is necessary for HIV replication, is a common target in the treatment of HIV patients. But this is the first new HIV protease inhibitor compound to be developed in 20 years and could lead to a new class of HIV/AIDS drugs, according to the researchers, who created the compound using computer models and then confirmed its effectiveness in laboratory tests.


This new compound debilitates the HIV-1 protease in a different way than current protease inhibitors, which bind to the center of the protease, freezing it closed, and preventing it from processing the proteins needed to assemble an active virus.

The new compound targets a different area of the protease and holds it open, which also inhibits its activity.

"It’s very easy to make an inhibitor, [but] it’s hard to make a drug. This compound is too weak to work in the human body. The key is to find more compounds that will work by the same mechanism," Carlson said.

Learn How To Breathe Correctly For Your Body

How To Breathe Correctly

Many people do not breathe correctly. As easy as it seems, it is a true fact. Breathing effects our minds, our bodies and our souls. It can be what keeps us from getting depressed, or what keeps us happy on a daily basis. People try breathing techniques in yoga classes and it helps them leave with peace of mind. Learn how to breathe correctly for your body.

Instructions

Step1

Start your breathing technique by standing up straight or lying down on your back on a soft cushion or bed. Make sure you are comfortable and able to relax. Do this exercise away from distractions such as the phone or television.

Step2

Put your hand on your stomach and leave it there. Breathe as you always do and see whether your chest falls and rises or if your stomach if rising and falling.

Step3
Notice if your stomach is rising and your chest is staying still when breathing in. If it is, then you are breathing correctly. When the chest rises, it is incorrect.

Step4

Practice breathing in and out and keep your hand on your stomach. Take a deep breath and count to five. Then exhale and see as your stomach drops and your chest stays still.

Step5

Keep doing these exercises so that you can learn to breathe this way all the time. This type of breathing will eventually become natural for you, and you will feel less stress, less tension and more happiness in your daily life.

source:ehow.com

A radiation knife to treat tumours

Scientists have developed a "radiation knife" which they claim can operate on tumours that cannot be removed through conventional surgery.

According to them, the gamma knife allows surgeons to use radio waves in removing life-threatening tumours inside the head and neck of a patient - the operation takes up to two hours and is painless.

Although the treatment cannot cure cancerous tumours in the brain, it can often prolong life. However, in those with dangerous but non-cancerous growths near blood vessels and glands, it can be a life-saver.


During the procedure, patients have their head secured in a metal frame. Scans are taken to establish the location of he tumour, before beams of gamma radiation are targeted at the site.

The surgeon is able to work over the growth without damaging the surrounding tissue. And, patients can recover much faster because the whole operation does not involve open or conventional surgery.

According to the scientists, the technique is also able to correct defects in blood vessels that cause seizures and headaches, leading British newspaper the Daily Telegraph’ reported.

source:timesofindia

How to Live With Arthritis

here are many different types of arthritis. Arthritis is a very broad and generic term, and your diagnosis will have to be defined by a competent physician.

Steps

1. Seek medical care. The best thing you can do is find a physician you can feel free to talk with honestly. The best physician to look for is called a "rheumatologist."

2. Express yourself. For the pain, find words to express how you would like to feel. Say the word "happy," visualize that feeling, and write a positive statement. Smile; this changes they way you feel.

3. Try to forget about your pain. To compensate for your loss of activity, read a good book and listen to music. The book gets you involved with the characters and the music lifts your spirits, so you can escape your sense of loss.

4. Enjoy life. The best uplift is someone to talk to who can make you laugh. Laughter is music for the soul and the key to wellness. As Bernie Siegel writes in his book about his journey to healing from cancer, he watched funny movies as often as he could each day, and discovered that for every few hours he laughed, he got an hour of relief from pain.

5. Inquire about new treatments. Consult your doctor regularly as research is always making progress against arthritis. Join the nearest arthritis support group to meet other sufferers. Subscribe to Arthritis Today magazine.

6. Keep flexible. Movement is essential. Walk as much as you comfortably can. Learn some stretching exercises. Consider classes for gentle exercise. "If you rest, you rust" is a good reminder for patients with arthritis.

7. Eat to live. Eating a healthy diet with lots of leafy and green veggies will help. Drink lots of water. Also,

8. Try supplements/medications.

* Ask your doctor about anti-inflammatory prescription pain reliever drugs, and their side effects.
* Eat a balanced diet.
* Glucosamine/Chondroiten is not a painkiller, but it may rebuild the fluid level and cushion the joint over a period of time.
* Some people find that eating dried cherries helps alleviate arthritis pain, and is especially helpful against gout, which is a form of arthritis that is in the big toe. There is a cherry concentrate extract you can take daily when cherries are out of season; find this in health food stores.
9. Consider self-care. Prior to doing any self care, inquire of your physician as to the type of arthritis you have and what the doctor recommends for at-home treatment.
* If you have no swelling, but pain, try moist warm heat, such as a warm bath, foot soak, heating pad with a moisture pad insert.
* If you have swollen, hot joints, try ice instead. Apply an ice pack on the affected joint(s) 15 minutes on, then 15 minutes off. This works especially well on knees.
* If neither method works, then alternate ice and heat leaving 20 minutes between; this is very helpful for spinal pain.
* Give yourself extra time to function, if it takes a while to get moving, in the mornings for instance.
* Look into helpful tools, such as a long-armed unit for reaching up high or down low so you don't overextend your joints. Obtain adaptive tools for opening jars, etc. to make life easier.
* Lose excess weight. This will relieve unnecessary stress on your joints.
* Have a loved one massage your joints with St John's Wort oil, it is a natural anti inflammatory. Use Anica oil for massage if you have overused a joint, as this oil helps to relieve strain. Buy these in health stores or from a good herbalist.
10. Pray. It has been shown in double blind studies that people who pray and are prayed for have a happier and more satisfied life. Never lose hope.

Tips

* Avoid exercises or activities that overstretch the joints, such as ballet, gymnastics, and jogging.
* To prevent joint damage, resist the temptation to perform "party tricks" to show off mobile joints.
* Consider alternative remedies with care. Herbal remedies take time, so give them at least a few weeks. They are not like prescription medication in potency so it will take time. Beware those who would take advantage of you and sell you products that are useless against arthritis.

Warnings

* Be careful about overdosing on anti-nflammatory drugs to relieve pain. Watch out for stomach irritation from this drug family.

source:wikihow.com

'Teens Turn To Drugs For Sexual High'

More and more teenagers in Europe are turning to alcohol and drugs to improve their sex lives, a new study has revealed.

Researchers questioned 1,341 young people in nine cities across Europe - a third of men aged 16 to 35 and a quarter of females surveyed said they drank only to hit new sexual peaks.

Those who took cocaine regularly were five times more likely to have had five or more sexual partners in the last 12 months or have paid for sex. And, young people who indulged in alcohol, cocaine or ecstasy before the age of 16 were more likely to have underage sex, the survey found.

Young people were also more at risk of unsafe sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, it revealed.

"Millions of young Europeans now take drugs and drink in ways which alter their sexual decisions and increase their chances of unsafe sex or sex that is later regretted.

"Yet despite the negative consequences, we found many are deliberately taking these substances to achieve quite specific sexual effects,"the British media quoted the study's lead author Mark Bellis of Liverpool John Moore's University.

In fact, almost half of participants in Vienna had drunk alcohol and had sex by the time they were 16. "Young people often see alcohol, drugs and sex all as part of the same social experience and addressing these issues requires an equally joined up approach,"study's co-author Amador Calafat wrote in the latest edition of the 'BMC Public Health' journal.

source:timesofindia.com

Tips For Clean, Green House

6 Ingredients For A Green, Clean Home

Sure, it’s great to find that one magical product that solves a very specific household problem. (The Gonzo Pet Hair Lifter a multiple-cat-owning friend received as a Christmas gift truly has no equal.) But the truth is, you need little more than the following six ingredients—baking soda, borax, lemon juice, salt, olive oil and white vinegar—to clean just about anything in your home (pet hair excluded). Here are just a few of the many uses for these, well, magical multi-taskers:

1. Baking soda: Acts as a scrub to remove hard water stains; polishes metal; deodorizes pretty much anything it touches (try stashing some in the fridge).

2. Borax: Mixed with three parts water, it makes a paste for cleaning carpet stains; mixed with ¼ part lemon juice, it cleans stainless steel and porcelain. (Note: although borax is a natural substance, you still shouldn’t eat it—and neither should your kids or pets.)

3. Lemon: Deodorizes and cuts grease on counter tops; rubbed on cutting boards, it bleaches stains and disinfects; combined with baking soda, it removes stains from plastic food storage containers.

4. Salt: Another natural scrubber—sprinkle it on cookware or oven surfaces, then rub; add citrus juice to turn it into an effective rust remover.

5. White vinegar: Deodorizes and disinfects; combine with water (and a little liquid soap—I know, it feels like cheating) to clean windows, mirrors, and floors; use at full strength in a spray bottle to fight mold and mildew.

6. Olive Oil: Mix two parts oil with one part lemon juice and use as a natural wood polish. (Save the really good stuff for dinner.)

One added bonus of using natural cleaners: as part of your spring cleaning regimen, you can now clear out all those bottles of specialized (and possibly toxic) potions.

For more tips on rounding out your eco-friendly cleaning closet, see Christina Strutt’s cleaning-pantry-checklist from her new book, A Guide To Green Housekeeping; for a video demonstration of how to mix up some natural cleaning solutions with these ingredients, watch this clip from Decor It Yourself.

source:shine.yahoo.com

An American Eats 5 Times More Than An Indian

US eats 5 times more than India per capita

Even as the world spins into a global food crisis, a popular theory — voiced by the likes of US President George W Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice — is that the Chinese and Indians are responsible. The 'logic': due to zooming incomes, they are eating more, causing worldwide shortages. But is that true?

Due to their huge populations, countries like India and China may appear to consume gigantic amounts of food. But the real elephant in the room that nobody is willing to talk about is how much each person gets to eat. And the answer will shock many.


Total foodgrain consumption — wheat, rice, and all coarse grains like rye, barley etc — by each person in the US is over five times that of an Indian, according to figures released by the US Department of Agriculture for 2007.

Each Indian gets to eat about 178 kg of grain in a year, while a US citizen consumes 1,046 kg.

In per capita terms, US grain consumption is twice that of the European Union and thrice that of China. Grain consumption includes flour and by conversion to alcohol.


In fact, per capita grain consumption has increased in the US — so actually the Americans are eating more. In 2003, US per capita grain consumption was 946 kg per year which increased to 1046 kg last year.

By way of comparison, India’s per capita grain consumption has remained static over the same period. It’s not just grains. Milk consumption, in fluid form, is 78 kg per year for each person in the US, compared to 36 kg in India and 11 kg in China.

Vegetable oils consumption per person is 41 kg per year in US, while Indians are making do with just 11 kg per year. These are figures for liquid milk, not for cheese, butter, yogurt and milk powders which are consumed in huge proportion in the more advanced countries.

A significant proportion of India’s population is vegetarian, and so, this is all the food that they get, apart from vegetables and pulses. But the source of carbohydrates and fats is mainly derived from food grains and oils.

As far as meat consumption is concerned, the US leads the world in per capita consumption by a wide margin. Beef consumption, for example, is 42.6 kg per person per year, compared to a mere 1.6 kg in India and 5.9 kg in China. In case you are thinking that perhaps Indians might be going in for chicken, think again. In the US, 45.4 kg poultry meat is consumed every year by each person, compared to just 1.9 kg in India.

Pork consumption is negligible in India, while it is a major item elsewhere. In the European Union, 42.6 kg pork is consumed per person every year, while in the US, 29.7 kgs are consumed. Pork is a staple for Chinese, and so over 35 kg are consumed per person per year. And, we are not talking about various other types of meat, like turkey.
All these comparisons are for powerful economies, whether of the west or the east.

But the story would not be complete without mentioning the plight of Africa, where foodgrain consumption in 2007 was a mere 162 kg per year for each person, or about 445 grams per day. Don’t forget they are not getting any meat or milk products out there.

Perhaps, it is time to include the lifestyle choices of the West in the whole feverish debate on how to tackle the global food crisis.

These figures are collated by the US Department of Agriculture. US per capita grain consumption rose from 946 kg in 2003 to 1046 kg last year. India’s per capita consumption remained static in this period.

source:timesofindia