Proper Way To Wear And Use A Mask

 Wearing a face mask in public helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 — but only if worn properly, covering both your nose and mouth.

After the pandemic, the Government of every country announced to maintain social distancing and wear the mask when you are in public places.

Wearing a mask doesn’t even just protect you but the other person as well, because if you are having its symptoms you can avoid spreading it among others. But people are wearing masks for the sake of escaping the fine, and that too they are not even wearing it the way it should be worn. They are wearing the mask below nose holes which does not make sense at all, as the virus can easily enter your body through your bare nose. 

Follow these Guidelines to Proper way of wearing a mask:

• Wash your hands before and after touching the mask.
• Touch only the bands or ties when putting on and taking off your mask.
• Make sure the mask fits to cover your nose, mouth and chin. If you adjust the mask to cover those areas, wash your hands before and after.
• Make sure you can breathe and talk comfortably through your mask.
• Wash reusable masks after each use. If the mask is disposable, discard it when visibly soiled or damaged.

To Protect yourself & others, avoid these common mask-wearing mistakes:

• We do not recommend wearing bandanas, gaiters or masks with exhalation valves as face coverings.
• Don’t touch your or your child’s mask while it is being worn.
• Don’t wear the mask under your chin with your nose and mouth exposed.
• Don’t leave your nose or mouth uncovered.
• Don’t remove the mask while around others in public.
• Don’t share your mask with family members or friends.

Remember, anything you do just keep sanitizing your hands and avoid coming into contact with people closely, and keep wearing masks in the way they should be. 

Poor diets threaten health more than malaria, tuberculosis, measles

Given the direct impact on wellbeing, learning capacity and productivity, the loss and waste of micronutrients is of particular concern.

Health News: With one-in-five deaths associated with poor-quality diets, the UN food agency has said that regularly eating poor-quality food has become a greater public health threat than malaria, tuberculosis or measles.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) co-authored the report titled 'Preventing nutrient loss and waste across the food system: Policy actions for high-quality diets'.

It urged policymakers to reduce food loss and waste to improve access to nutritious and healthy food as it concluded that regularly eating poor-quality food has become a greater public health threat than malaria, tuberculosis or measles.

Approximately one-third of food produced for human consumption never reaches the consumer's plate or bowl. Nutrient-rich foods, such as fruits, vegetables, seafood and meats are highly perishable, rendering them susceptible to losses throughout increasingly complex food production systems.

Reducing food loss and waste, particularly high-nutrient foods, not only has nutritional benefits, but also contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and should be a new priority for improving nutrition.

↓↓↓ Read full news report of United Nations FAO ↓↓↓

Poor Diets threaten Health

Chemotherapy may cause early menopause risk in women

Women with lung cancer who underwent chemotherapy are likely to experience an early menopause.

Health News: The results suggested that chemotherapy for patients with lung cancer increases the risk of early loss of menses in survivors.

It may cause acute amenorrhea and menopause, leading not only to hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and bone loss but also the possibility of loss of fertility.

"Although more definitive research is needed, premenopausal women who need chemotherapy for lung cancer appear to have a similar risk of amenorrhea, early menopause, and loss of fertility as premenopausal women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer and lymphoma," said JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director at the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) in the US.

Early Menopause

Although lung cancer is more common in older adults, women are diagnosed at a younger age compared with men. Extensive research of women receiving treatment for breast cancer has found that between 40 per cent and 80 per cent have premature menopause. However, early menopause rates after lung cancer treatments are understudied, the researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Menopause, included 182 premenopausal women, with an average age of 43, between 1999 and 2016 and annually thereafter about their menstrual status. Types of lung cancer treatments were recorded, and frequencies of self-reported menopause at each survey...continue reading

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News Source: BS

The evolution of fitness over the years

Not too long ago, being fit literally increased our chances of survival.

Health News: We have grown up listening to the adage "Survival of the Fittest" -- in the context of competitive sports, academics and even business. However, not too long ago, being fit literally increased our chances of survival.

A lot has changed since our hunting and foraging days though. From fitness being a part of our daily routine in the form of walking, cycling or intense physical labour during the pre-digital era, to becoming a fervently adopted lifestyle choice, the evolution of fitness and its significance in our lives has changed dramatically, to say the least.

Evolution of Fitness

Fitness has, over the centuries, traveled quite far from people relying on natural movement like walking or jogging, doing household chores, or following a fitness regime at the local "akhadas", to modern physical exercises that include circuit training, modified yoga programmes, Pilates, parkour workouts among other innovations that have taken place in the industry.

Of course, the need to lead healthier lives has been more pronounced in recent years because of the rise of lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes, among others. Naturally, these changes have also provided much-needed fillip to the fitness industry in India which has been largely unorganised and fragmented thus far. With more people focused on leading healthier lives, looking good and feeling good in today's sedentary, digitally-connected world, the onus lies on the fitness industry to keep pace with timely innovation that can deliver better fitness experiences to...continue reading

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News Source: BS

Brain tumors may occur in children with common genetic syndrome

The frequency of brain tumors has been underestimated in children with the common genetic syndrome -- neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1).

Health News: Parents, please take note. The frequency of brain tumors has been underestimated in children with the common genetic syndrome -- neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a new study has found.

According to the researchers, this disorder is characterised by birthmarks on the skin and benign nerve tumors that develop in or on the skin. Brain tumors are also known to occur in children and adults with NF1.

They estimated that only 15-20 per cent of kids with NF1 develop brain tumors. But the study, published in the journal Neurology: Clinical Practice, found that the frequency of brain tumors in this population was more than three times higher.

What is Neurofibromatosis

• A condition that causes tumors to form in the brain, spinal cord and nerves. 
• SYMPTOMS: Type 1 can cause bone deformities, learning disabilities and high blood pressure. Type 2 can cause hearing loss, vision loss and difficulty with balance. Type 3 can cause chronic pain throughout the body.

"I'm not delivering the message anymore that brain tumours are rare in NF1. This study has changed how I decide which children need more surveillance and when to let the neuro-oncologists know that we may have a problem," said senior author David H. Gutmann from the Washington University School of Medicine.

Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of children with NF1 characteristically show bright spots that are absent in the scans of unaffected children. Unlike tumors, they are generally thought to disappear in teenage years, the researchers said.

Since brain tumours can be confused with harmless bright spots, it has never been clear whether finding these abnormalities via...continue reading

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News Source: BS

Nipah Virus Scare: Fruit and vegetables from Kerala banned in Gulf

Region takes about a third of all Indian fruit shipment and quarter of vegetables sold abroad; consignments from other states could face ban, too, if virus not contained.

Health News : With Kerala continuing to battle the infectious and deadly Nipah virus, all fruit and vegetables from the state have been banned in the majority of nations across the Arabian Gulf. The region is India’s largest export market. Nipah has claimed 17 lives till now.

Last week, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had ordered complete import restriction on fruit and vegetables from Kerala. Over this weekend, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait also announced officially that import in both categories would stop till further notice.

Since most countries in the region have similar and closely knit Customs rules, media reports from Oman suggest it might also follow.

The brain-damaging Nipah virus appeared in Kerala early last month. It is contagious and there is no vaccine for it. The natural host of the virus is a fruit bat of the Pteropodidae family, according to the World Health Organization. As a result, major importing nations are now wary of produce grown in Kerala and have also issued severe travel advisories against visiting the state. The timing is expected to hit the southern state hard, as fruit export generally swells in the hot month of Ramzan, currently on.

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Also Read: Nipah Virus

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“Right now, it is difficult for Customs inspections at ports to find out whether any consignment is infected, since the foods do not show any physical signs. Other Indian states might come under the restriction if the virus spreads,” said Ali Shaaban Balah, acting chief of the plant protection & quarantine section at the ministry of works, municipalities and urban planning in the government of Bahrain.

The Gulf region is India’s largest market for fruit and vegetables, with the UAE being the single biggest importing nation on both counts. Export to the nations in the Gulf cumulatively make about 35 per cent of all fruit shipment and nearly a quarter of all vegetable ones from India, according to data from the commerce ministry.

“There have been complaints from the industry whereby consignments have now started being turned away from Kuwait, Qatar and other nations but we are yet to receive formal communication from some of these countries,” said a senior official here from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.

Read More → Nipah Virus Outbreak

Nipah virus outbreak in India: Know about its symptoms and treatment

According to WHO, there is no vaccine currently available for either humans or animals

Health News : Kerala’s Kozhikode is on high alert as a deadly virus called ‘Nipah’ (NiV) claimed six lives in the state. The fast-spreading virus Nipah reported has a mortality rate of 70 per cent. The central government on Monday sent a multi-disciplinary Central team from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to the district in the wake of deaths due to Nipah virus outbreak.

Kerala Government has assured that all arrangements are on place and there is no need to panic. It also sanctioned an emergency fund of Rs 2 million (Rs 20 lakh) to the Kozhikode Medical College to tackle the fever outbreak.

Here is all you need to know about the deadly Nipah virus:

What is Nipah virus?

• Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both humans and animals. Zoonosis means a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals.
• The natural host of the virus is fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus (fruit-eating species), according to WHO.

How does it spread?

• Transmission of Nipah virus takes place through direct contact with infected bats, pigs, or from other NiV-infected people.

What are the symptoms of Nipah virus infection?

• According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infection with Nipah virus is associated with encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). An infected person shows symptoms of fever and headache within three-14 days of exposure and an incubation period of five to 14 days. The clinical signs are fever, headache, dizziness and vomiting, followed by drowsiness, disorientation and mental confusion.

When did Nipah Virus first occur in India?

• In India, Nipah Virus affected the humans without any involvement of pigs. The first outbreak was observed in Siliguri, West Bengal in 2001. The second incident also emerged in Nadia district in West Bengal in 2007. Scientists have found that humans often contracted the disease by drinking raw date palm sap tapped directly from trees, a sweet treat that fruit bats also enjoy. The virus claimed over 300 lives across Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh and India between 1998 and 2008, according to WHO.

What are the treatments of Nipah virus?

• According to WHO, there is no vaccine currently available for either humans or animals and NiV-infected patients are currently limited to supportive care. People have also been cautioned that they should not consume fruits that have fallen on to the ground.

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Also Read → Kerala Nipah Crisis

Not living in a polluted area, still falling sick? Here are 4 reasons why

For someone living in polluted New Delhi, for example, those 20,000 breaths include the equivalent of around 20 grains of table salt worth of particulate matter deposited in their lungs each day.

Health News : Not a day seems to go by without a story of an “airpocalypse,” usually somewhere in a developing nation. It’s hard not to empathize with the people in the smoggy images of New Delhi or Ulaanbataar or Kathmandu, often wearing masks, walking to school or work through soupy cloudiness.

Last year, a study found that more than 8 million people per year die early from air pollution exposure. This amounts to more deaths than diarrheal disease, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined.

As a researcher in air pollution and its health effects, I know that even if you don’t live in these places, air pollution likely still affects your quality of life.

Where does air pollution come from?

You might imagine air pollution as smoke pouring out of a factory chimney or the tailpipe of a car. While these are important sources of air pollution, there are many others. Air pollution includes chemicals humans put into the atmosphere and chemicals released by natural events. For example, forest fires are a large source of air pollutants that affect many communities. Dust that’s picked up by wind can also contribute to poor air quality.

Ronald Reagan famously said that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” While this myth has been debunked, he was right in at least some ways. Trees do release certain gases, such as volatile organic carbon, that are ingredients in air pollution chemistry. This, when mixed together with emissions from cars and industry, leads to increases in other types of pollution, such as ozone.

There isn’t much that scientists can, or should, do about tree emissions. Public health researchers like myself focus most on the ingredients from human activities – from burning petroleum to emissions controls on industrial facilities – because these are sources located close to where people live and work. There are also many chemical reactions that occur in the air itself. These reactions create what are known as secondary pollutants, some of which are quite toxic.

Finally, it’s important to realize that air pollution knows no boundaries. If a pollutant is emitted in one location, it very easily moves across borders – both regional and national – to different places. New Delhi, for example, experiences seasonal pollution, thanks to extensive burning of agricultural fields some 200 miles away. New Delhi is an extreme example. But, even if you live in a less polluted environment, pollutants emitted elsewhere often travel to where other people live and work, as seen in recent wildfires in California.

Read More on → Air Pollution in Delhi

One in seven women do not get pregnancy care

The World Health Organization recommends that all pregnant women receive at least four antenatal care (ANC) visits, and that the first such visit should be in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Health News : More than one in seven Indian women did not receive antenatal care during their last pregnancy–nearly half of them because their husband or family did not think it was necessary or did not allow it–according to the latest National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) data, highlighting the need to sensitise men about women’s rights to healthcare.

Antenatal care (ANC) constitutes healthcare for pregnant women to monitor for signs of complications, detect and treat hypertension and diabetes, provide iron and folic acid tablets and counsel on preventive care, diet during pregnancy, delivery care, postnatal care etc. ANC is provided by a skilled healthcare provider such as a doctor, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) or other health professionals.

Only 16.7% women in rural India received full antenatal care–at least four ANC visits, at least one tetanus toxoid injection, and iron and folic acid tablets or syrup taken for 100 or more days–about half as many as in urban areas (31.1%), NFHS-4 data show.

The World Health Organization recommends that all pregnant women receive at least four ANC visits, and that the first such visit should be in the first trimester of pregnancy.

The gendered nature of decision-making in Indian households also affects women’s healthcare seeking behavior.

One in four men whose wives did not receive ANC said they did not think it was necessary. One in five men said their family members did not think it was necessary while one in ten said the women themselves thought ANC to be unnecessary. Nearly one in four men said it was ‘too costly’.

A larger share of urban men and their families were more likely to think ANC was not necessary or to not permit the ANC, data show.

While this is intriguing and needs further study, a smaller proportion of deliveries in urban areas were in public facilities (46.2%) compared to rural areas (54.4%), suggesting that private health facilities may not be providing the right kind of pregnancy-related advice to couples.

→ Women Rights To Healthcare  ←

Buying ‘mineral’ water? There’s a 30% chance it will be contaminated

Junior consumer affairs minister reveals 224 of 743 bottles tested by FSSAI contained impurities; action against 131 manufacturers taken.

Health News : In what would come as a jarring statistic for the billion-dollar packaged water industry, three out of ten units of so-called mineral water sold across India have been found to be contaminated. This was stated by Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C R Chaudhary while replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

Chaudhary stated that the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) had undertaken an exercise to test 743 samples in 2016-17. Out of these samples, almost a third, or 224 samples of packaged water were found to be not conforming to safety standards set in India.

After finding such large samples to be contaminated, FSSAI launched cases against 131 manufacturers of these packaged water bottles. In the end, 33 were convicted and penalties were imposed on 40.

The minister did not elaborate on the nature of the penalties. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), which is the regulator for ensuring food quality, states “No person shall manufacture, sell or exhibit for sale packaged drinking water and mineral water except under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification mark”.

According to FSSAI guidelines, packaged water is deemed safe if, after being procured from sources, it is disinfected to a level where it does not adversely affect health. It can be disinfected by means of chemical agents or physical methods such as distillation, which will reduce the number of micro-organisms to a level scientifically acceptable for food safety.

Manufacturers were not just guilty of producing contaminated water by not following the prescribed standards, some were even found to be flouting Bureau of Indian Standards (BSI) ‘Standard Mark’ guidelines. As per the government, the BIS has received 55 complaints in the past three years. Till February 2018, twenty-three complaints about packaged drinking water were established and action taken. Complaints were also received over misuse of BIS mark by the sellers.

Silent Signs and Symptoms of Depression

If an individual is suffering from these symptoms for a prolonged period he or she may be suffering from early signs of depression and may require help.

Health News : Today millions suffer from depression silently; a majority of them don’t seek or get professional help unless their condition really heads south. Contrary to popular belief, depression is not something which is in the head. It is a real disease for which to heal just the willpower alone is not enough. Therapeutic management is therefore essential. Psychotherapy and antidepressant medications may also be needed depending upon the stage and degree of depression. But talking to your doctor is a first step which should be taken at the earliest. Mentioned below are some early signs of depression, if an individual is suffering from these symptoms for a prolonged period he or she may be suffering from early signs of depression and may require help.

Chronic feeling of sadness – Without there being necessarily reasons, the depressed person feels an immense sadness. It is very invasive and is often accompanied by feelings of hopelessness. For people suffering from depression it becomes difficult to experience pleasure, everything becomes irrelevant as if life does not make sense anymore. Seeing friends, playing with children, listening to music, the little pleasures of everyday life are no longer enjoyed the way they should be.

Feeling of worthlessness – The feeling of worthlessness is very common among depressed people. Thoughts such as ‘I’m not good enough’ or ’I do not serve anything’ often make home in the minds of depressed people. They think they are responsible for their malaise and blame themselves. Thus often depressed people have a feeling that neither any person nor treatment could change the situation. For this reason, it is sometimes difficult for them to seek outside help.

Feeling of chronic exhaustion – A depression person may also experience permanent feeling of lack of energy. Neither rest nor sleep will alleviate this feeling of fatigue. Sometimes the feeling is so intense that as a result, even daily chores also become difficult to accomplish, as the person no longer has strength for the same.

Feeling of anxiety – Difficulty in breathing, stomach ache, feeling of repression and more; anxiety is common in cases of depression. Depression manifests both physically and psychologically. Thus, the person feels a fear without necessarily and apparent reason. This anxiety can be amplified by a feeling of loneliness and abandonment.

Disturbed sleep – During a depressive episode, the quality of sleep is degraded. Less deep and shortened, it no longer plays the role of rejuvenation and repair. Early awakening, early in the morning, is common. Often, the person can not go back to sleep. Conversely, in some other people, sleep becomes a refuge. There is then an excess of sleep but that is not satisfactory either.

Sexual problems – Sexuality is governed by both the body and the mind. But in case of depression, the biological and psychological functions are both disturbed. The general loss of pleasure can result in decreased sexual desire. An affected sex life can cause issues in relationships and induce feeling of helplessness.

→ Symptoms of Depression  ←

How to Maintain Good Health throughout Summer?

Summers can be a period of extremes and excesses. During this period many a times we find individuals indulging in excess consumption of cold food items such as ice creams and sodas.

Health News : Summers can be a period of extremes and excesses. During this period many a times we find individuals indulging in excess consumption of cold food items such as ice creams and sodas. Other times we will find people all exhausted and dehydrated.

It is very essential to take extra care of one’s health during the summers. Summers are often time for outdoors, travel and holidays for families especially with yearly vacation for children. Thus people especially children are often exposed to heightened health risks in the summer season.

Physical injuries due to accidents both at home and outside with children being left unsupervised also rise in summers. In summers, sun protection is even more imperative for young than for adults and wearing hats and sunglasses is essential. An infant should never be left alone in a car and should be well hydrated during a car ride during hot weather.

Cases of accidental fires and dog bites also rise during the summer season, so extra caution should be practiced especially with kids during the summer season.

Good hydration during summers

• The first and foremost tip during summers is to drink ample amount of water. When it’s hot, we sweat more because the body regulates its temperature by producing sweat to cool off.

Keep up with the Eating Healthy Habit

• Fresh and crisp salads, seasonal vegetables, scented fruits make an ideal safe and healthy meal. Remember that some fruits are sweet too and if one is eating them between meals, then take them into your daily total, around 2-3 servings of fresh fruits are ideal.

Other ways to protect oneself during summers

• Summer is the time for outdoors, picnics and beaches, staying protected when spending an extended time out in the sun is extremely essential. A sun protective cream which suits one’s skin type can provide effective defense and is almost a must during time spent under direct sun.

 → Hair Care Tips for Summer  ←

Myths and Beliefs about Pregnancy

Some of these myths include theories on how to choose the date of birth or sex of your child or how best to have a fair or healthy baby and much more.

Health News : There are numerous dos and don’ts, advices and instructions that are given to a pregnant woman by relatives and others, especially in India. The internet is also swarming with information and tips, sometimes by gynecologists and other times stuff that are just hearsay. Some of these myths include theories on how to choose the date of birth or sex of your child or how best to have a fair or healthy baby and much more. Unravel the truth and split facts from fiction by understanding the below mentioned pregnancy myths.

Expected mom has to eat for two – This is probably one of the first tips that a pregnant lady hears when she announces her pregnancy. In reality and especially during the beginning of pregnancy the quality of what one swallows is far more important that the amount. In fact increase in diet can make one gain weight quickly without any particular effect on the baby’s health.

Pregnant women have weird food cravings – Watermelon in December or chocolate at middle of night, it is believed all pregnant women get weird and sometimes crazy cravings. But the said phenomenon is not universal, some women feel no particular craving throughout their pregnancy and the cravings are not related to health of the baby in any way.

Round belly means it’s a girl and long belly means it’s a boy – A woman with a round belly is associated with a female birth. And if the future mother has a belly rather forward then it is believed that the baby is a boy. There is nothing scientific in the said assumption; it is just a myth that has made its way in some people’s minds.

If one moisturizes the skin well there would be no stretch marks – If only it was so simple, in fact it’s all about hormones. If one already tends to have stretch marks on the breasts or thighs then there is a good chance that one will have them on your stomach too. But this should not prevent one from moisturizing the skin very regularly, in order to limit the damage.

If it moves all the time, it’s going to be an active baby – Although the baby may be always moving in the belly but it does not necessarily mean that he will be hyper active baby when he comes into the world. Nothing can predict in advance the character of a child; one will only experience after birth what kind of child it will be.

Heartburn during pregnancy means the baby will have lot of hairs – Heartburn is related to the upward rise of the stomach, pushed by the growing uterus. They are more common from the second trimester of pregnancy. There is no relation whatsoever between heartburn and a hairy baby. Simple hygienic diets will help one limit them.

→ Pregnancy Myths ←

Stress during pregnancy affects the size of baby

A research suggests that babies are physically affected by the stress level of their mother during pregnancy.

Health News : Mothers-to-be, please take note! Taking stress during the beginning and the end of gestation period affects the growth of the baby.

A research suggests that babies are physically affected by the stress level of their mother during pregnancy.

The findings indicate that that stress during late gestation reduces offspring growth during dependence, resulting in a reduced body size throughout development, whereas stress during early gestation results in largely-unaffected growth rates during dependence, but accelerated growth and increased size after weaning.

Researchers from the Universities of New Mexico, Gottingen and German Primate Center, have proposed a hypothesis that largely predicts why there are highly variable patterns in the growth rates of disadvantaged offspring across 719 studies on 21 mammal species.

Lead study author Andreas Berghanel says that the idea is that prenatal stress affected an offspring in two different ways depending on the timing of the stressor during pregnancy – yielding different outcomes before birth, after birth, and after weaning.

Berghanel states that prenatal maternal stress late in gestation causes mothers to invest less energy in their newborn, which leads to slower growth in the womb and during infancy, but doesn’t affect growth later.

Click to Read → Stress During Pregnancy

56% abortions in India unsafe despite being legal; kill 10 women every day

A legislative amendment to increase gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years

 

Health News : Niketa Mehta was in the 24th week of her pregnancy when a test revealed substantial abnormalities in the foetus’ heart that posed a risk to its survival. Mehta decided to abort, but found herself restrained by the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, which prohibits abortion of a foetus older than 20 weeks, except when “immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman”.

Mehta’s obstetrician sought judicial authorisation (Nikhil Datar v. Union of India) from the Bombay High Court, saying Mehta did not want to give birth to a severely disabled infant and witness its suffering. The court refused, saying the issue was of future health risks to the unborn child, and not to the mother.

This was in 2008. The ruling fueled a fierce debate around individual choice, ethics, technology and the law, and fueled demands from women’s and reproductive rights activists that the MTP Act be amended. Nine years since, in July this year, the Supreme Court allowed a woman to abort an over-20 week foetus which had serious cardiac impairments, observing that a woman’s right to reproductive choices is a part of her personal liberty.

The courts have clearly come a long way, reflecting a broader change in society, but a legislative amendment to increase the gestation limit for abortion from 20 to 24 weeks has been hanging fire for three years.

The 2014 draft bill proposes to allow abortion for up to 24 weeks’ gestation in rape cases, and to remove the limit altogether in case of specified abnormalities in the foetus. In order to make abortion services more accessible, it also proposes to allow AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) doctors, auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and nurses to conduct abortions.

Click to Read → Abortion in India

Health Benefits of Dry Fruits, the Surprising Superfood

Due to various benefits health and otherwise that different dry fruits provides many a time dry fruits are also termed as superfoods. Dry fruits just like berries and nuts are high on antioxidants.

Why are Dry Fruits classified as Superfoods?

• Superfoods can be termed as food items which are superior to other food items when compared in their nutritional value. Even small portions of a superfood can supply abundant nutrition in form of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and proteins. Many a times superfoods can be termed as such because of some special characteristic or benefit that they provide such as it may provide relief from some ailment or disease, enhances immunity, reduces blood pressure, sugar or cholesterol and much more.
• Due to various benefits health and otherwise that different dry fruits provides many a time dry fruits are also termed as superfoods. Dry fruits just like berries and nuts are high on antioxidants. They are also high in other nutrients and some dry fruits are believed to have unique properties like that they prevent ageing, sharpen intellect and much more.

Muscle Building The Vegetarian Way

Best Dry Fruits for Consumption

• There are many dry fruits that a person can and should include in his daily diet. Some of these are good others are still better. So which are the best and most beneficial dry fruits and why? First in the list is of course almonds; they have zero cholesterol and are rich in antioxidants and fibre. Besides that they are great for skin, hair and overall health. They are also believed to provide protection from heart and many other diseases.
• Second on our list are Cashews, they are rich in Vitamin E and B6. They also contain ample protein, potassium, mono-unsaturated fat and fibre. Walnuts are third on our list because they are loaded with Omega-3 fatty acids, proteins, fibres, anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals. Raisins, pistachios and dates will come next on the list. These dry fruits are rich in vitamins and proteins; they also boost immunity and prevent lifestyle diseases such as cholesterol and diabetes.

Click to read → Health Benefits of Dry Fruits

Online shopping makes people weak and feeble

Ordering from home means that one ends up missing out on essential muscle-strengthening exercises

 

The digital age is surely making shopping easier and accessible for many people. Getting cashbacks on purchases some people want to know how cashback works.

While the online shopping stores are giving us convenience in many matters, they are ruining our muscles, according to a group of physiotherapists.

According to a new study, by staying at home and ordering everything direct to us, people are missing out on a whole load of essential muscle-strengthening exercises.

A poll of more than 2,000 people found 24 per cent of those aged 65 and over admit that they now do no strengthening activities at all each week.

This puts them at increased risk of falls and other health problems.

Also Read: Amazon India Ends Discount On Prime Membership Fee

Professor Karen Middleton, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, said, "Online shopping may be very convenient but it does mean that we are losing some of the methods that used to exist for strengthening our muscles. We're carrying fewer bags home from the supermarket because it arrives at our door."

She added, "We're also waiting at home for other goods to be delivered when in the past we would have gone out to buy them. This isn't an argument against progress. It's just to show that maintaining strength and being active doesn't have to mean going to the gym, and we should look for ways to build it into our everyday lives."

National Health Service guidelines recommend two strengthening exercise sessions a week, be it weight-lifting or simply carrying.... Read Full Article

Fit & Proper: Tips to lead a healthy life without stress

A healthy lifestyle includes a balanced diet and adequate sleep is integral

 

 

Tips to manage stress:

 Relaxation: Giving priority to relaxation time and activities should be a priority. These activities vary from person to person.

 

Physical exercise: Simple physical activities done regularly are helpful in alleviating stress and improving one’s mood.

Connecting with others: Speaking your mind out with someone helps us in venting out and de-stressing.

Writing: Writing one’s thoughts and feelings is also helpful in venting out. Besides, writing being a relaxing activity, it also aids in getting a perspective on our own problems.

Healthy lifestyle: A lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and adequate sleep is integral.

Getting off gadgets: Being constantly online and connected takes a toll on our well-being. It’s important to take time off and engage with real people.

Time management: Doing adequate planning and groundwork beforehand, is helpful in avoiding stress associated with lack of preparation and deadlines.

Professional help: If the stress is difficult to manage, it is advisable to consult a psychologist who would guide you towards a happy & healthy life.

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