Biomedical Roadmap health blog

Preventative medical tricks

David Allen — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:56:58 +0000

There are many things that people can do to keep themselves healthy and it does not even mean just eating healthy or getting the right amount of exercise there are many other simple day to day practices that can be done in order to get and stay healthy.

Here are few ideas:
Laugh
Get Sunshine
Drink Water
Sleep
Give Hugs
Cut back on activities
Meditate
Eat Less
Pet your Pet
Breathe
Phone a Friend
Exercise
Play with Children
Stretch
Lift Weights
Quit Smoking
Wear your Seat Belt and Helmet
Wash your Hands

These points can easily be put into the daily routine and help everyone to stay healthy.

Source [Kitchen Table Medicine]

Classical music helps pregnancy

David Allen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 06:46:05 +0000

Mums to be could feel less stressed about their pregnancies if they listened to sounds of nature and classical music according to a recent study. The music must have a tempo of around sixty to eighty beats per minute, which is similar to that of the human heart.

Professor Chung-Hey Chen from the Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan says that pregnancy is unique and carries its own problems; anything that can help relieve the stress of being pregnant is a welcome addition to the treatments offered mothers.

The study also showed that it makes no difference to when the music therapy starts as it takes only two weeks for the stress levels to be calmed down. By this simple and cost effective method of treatment.

Source [Daily Mail]

What the pharmacy does not say

David Allen — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:23:53 +0000

These days it is sometimes preferable to visit one of the pharmacists in your area instead of taking time out to visit the local GP. This is because these days they do offer their customers a fuller services, which is come cases could save the time and effort of visiting the GP then going to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription.

However behind the smiling face, are some pharmacies telling you everything that that should, and is it about that the customers opened up a bit in order to get the right treatment regardless of cost and time. The list below shows that not all is right at the local pharmacy.

Do not put up with the silent treatment
An over-the-counter version might do the trick
Ask about over-the-counter drugs
Go ahead and call me doctor
Open up a little
People take too many drugs
Talk to me—and check my work
We will save you money if we can
Some pharmacies are so volume-driven

Source [RD]

Brain can use recycled energy

David Allen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:04:45 +0000

The human body is an incredible thing, there is no doubt about that and researchers are only just finding out some of the inner workings of the body. One such study has found that the brain is able to function on recycled energy in emergencies or when the body is working at higher levels.

Researchers from Holland and Denmark have discovered that as the body breaks down food and changes it into energy the muscles produce lactate as a by product of this process. It used to be thought that this built up to form lactic acid, which gives off the sensation of pain this can be noticed when exercising.

However, studies have found that lactic is actually used by the body as fuel; this is because high levels of lactate have been found in the bloodstream of people who have been exercising for some time.

The study has helped the researchers understand how the brain can cope with the demands that people put on their bodies.

Source [Live Science]

Coffee and sugar cannot replace sleep

David Allen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:15:30 +0000

In today’s busy lifestyles, people are often tempted to stretch out the days by sleeping less and in order to compensate the body for the lack of sleep and in an attempt to put off the tiredness, many people are trying to feed their bodied with caffeine and sugar.

Sugar is an obvious route to try as it gives the body energy, but as the sugar wears off the body becomes even more tired than before, which could mean slower reaction times.

The other and probably most used solution to tiredness is caffeine, this is a well-known solution, but too much caffeine can result in even more tiredness further on down the line. This is because the energy produced by caffeine can last for hours and sometime into the night meaning that by the time that morning comes round the body could feel even more tired.

Source [Health]

Woman who is blind for three days

David Allen — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:16:47 +0000

A mystery illness has struck an Australian woman, for three days of a week her eyes are completely fixed shut and then for no apparent reason are open again for another three days; this condition has got medical staff baffled.

However, this is not something that has recently occurred, Natalie Adler aged 21 has had to put up with this for over four years now. She is believed to be the only person in the world to suffer from this problem, which is caused by random muscle spasms.

Doctors have tried Botox, which worked for a while, but the condition keeps returning the stage in the treatment will be a course of electrical stimulation. Bring the first and only of the condition, the medical staff are breaking new ground every time that they try something.

Source [News]

Man dies in drugs trial

David Allen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:03:43 +0000

Being diagnosed with testicular cancer is blow for any man, however the chances of surviving the disease are getting better all of the time. Nevertheless, when Gary Foster aged 27 was told that he had the disease with a sixty per cent chance of survival; he wanted to get all the help that he could.

The hospital University London Hospital (ULH) were running a trial of new chemotherapy drug TE23, which had been offered to him and following discussions the trail went ahead.

However, it seemed that there was a catalogue of errors and within a couple of days, Gary was dead. Initially a computer error was suspected and the Medical Research Council suspected that an overdose had occurred, but instead of making a phone call, they wrote a letter instead. This letter was opened two days after Gary had died.

Source [Telegraph]

Healthy uses for Tea

David Allen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:35:04 +0000

We have always heard about tea being one of those natural products, which is both good to drink and has many other healing properties too. However, despite all of the claims there is never a complete list of exactly what tea is good for part from drinking that is.

The list below is just a few of the health related issues that a simple pot of tea can help with and you may be surprised.

Cool sunburned skin
Relieve your tired eyes
Reduce razor burn
Get the grey out
Condition dry hair
Tan your skin with tea
Soothe those bleeding gums
Relieve baby’s pain from injection
Dry poison ivy rash
Stop foot odour
Make soothing mouthwash

Source [RD]

Research into driving and texting

David Allen — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Researchers from the UK have been looking into the effects of driver habits and how they affect the driver’s reaction times. It turns out that surprisingly the habit that is more likely to effect the drivers coordination, may not be the thing that everyone would expect.

The researchers found that drivers who use their mobile phones for reading, writing and sending text messages are behaving more dangerous than those drivers who are under the influence of drink or even marijuana.

The tests were carried out on drivers aged between seventeen and twenty four; it was found that when they sent or received a text message, their reaction time was reduced by thirty five per cent. However, the same test was carried out but where the driver had used marijuana their reaction time was down by twenty one percent and those drivers who were under the influence of alcohol, their reaction time was down by just twelve per cent.

Source [Asylum]

Loud music means more drink

David Allen — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:10:21 +0000

For anyone who has ever wondered why pubs and clubs have the music so loud that it is impossible to even hear yourself think, then the answer is very simple. The louder the music the more people are going to drink.

However, this is no medical condition, it is psychological. The idea is that when the bar or club is full, the lights are dimmed and the volume of the sound system is raised to a level where it is impossible to have a conversation.

This means that people have no option other than to shout at each other, this soon becomes boring and so there is only one thing left to do, get to the bar and order another round of drinks.

This has been confirmed with several experiments in France and in Scotland, for three weekends, bars were observed and the music was turned up over the course of the experiment, by the last weekend the music was loud and the most drinks were sold.

Source [Spring]