All posts by Sumana Rao

Don't worry about the people in your past; There's a reason they didn't make it to your future.

Stages & Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease

November is Alzheimer’s awareness month! It is important to understand the symptoms and stages of Alzheimer’s disease as you may come across a person with these symptoms. The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease worsen over time, although the rate at which the disease progresses varies. On average, a person with Alzheimer’s lives four to eight years after diagnosis, but can live as long as 20 years, depending on other factors.

Stage 1: Normal Outward Behavior : Only a PET scan, an imaging test that shows how the brain is working, can reveal whether he has Alzheimer’s or not. One can see more changes as the person goes through next stages.

Stage 2: Very Mild Changes : At this stage, some symptoms of Alzheimer’s that starts showing in a person generally do not interfere with his ability to work or live independently.

Problems coming up with the right word or name
Trouble remembering names when introduced to new people
Having greater difficulty performing tasks in social or work settings
Forgetting material that one has just read
Losing or misplacing a valuable object
Increasing trouble with planning or organizing

Signs of Alzheimer’s/dementia	Typical age-related changes
Poor judgment and decision-making	Making a bad decision once in a while
Inability to manage a budget	Missing a monthly payment
Losing track of the date or the season	Forgetting which day it is and remembering it later
Difficulty having a conversation	Sometimes forgetting which word to use
Misplacing things and being unable to retrace steps to find them	Losing things from time to time

Stage 3: Mild Decline: It is at this point that you start to notice changes in your loved one’s thinking and reasoning, such as:

Forgets something he just read
Asks the same question over and over
Has more and more trouble making plans or organizing
Can’t remember names when meeting new people
You can help by being your loved one’s “memory” for him, making sure he pays bills and gets to appointments on time. You can also suggest he ease stress by retiring from work and putting his legal and financial affairs in order.

Stage 4: Moderate Decline: During this period, the problems in thinking and reasoning that you noticed in stage 3 get more obvious, and new issues appear. Your friend or family member might:

Forgetfulness of events or about one’s own personal history
Feeling moody or withdrawn, especially in socially or mentally challenging situations
Being unable to recall their own address or telephone number or the high school or college from which they graduated
Confusion about where they are or what day it is
The need for help choosing proper clothing for the season or the occasion
Trouble controlling bladder and bowels in some individuals
Changes in sleep patterns, such as sleeping during the day and becoming restless at night
An increased risk of wandering and becoming lost
Forgetting about amount on checks

Stage 5: Moderately Severe Decline: Your loved one might start to lose track of where he is and what time it is. He might have trouble remembering home address, phone number, or where he went to school. Person may ask same question and may get more attached to one person whose face he may remember. He may able to tell a story and may not like certain people around him. He may not remember the facts and may forget where he wanted to go.

Stage 6: Severe Decline: As Alzheimer’s progresses, one might recognize faces but forget names. He might also mistake a person for someone else. They may behave like a child. Delusions might a set in, such as thinking he needs to go to work even though he no longer has a job. Other symptoms include:

Require full-time, around-the-clock assistance with daily personal care
Lose awareness of recent experiences as well as of their surroundings
Require high levels of assistance with daily activities and personal care
Experience changes in physical abilities, including the ability to walk, sit and, eventually, swallow
Have increasing difficulty communicating
Become vulnerable to infections, especially pneumonia
You might need to help him go to the bathroom.

Many people with Alzheimer’s love hearing music, being read to, or looking over old photos.

Stage 7: Very Severe Decline : Many basic abilities in a person with Alzheimer’s, such as eating, walking, and sitting up, fade during this period. At this stage can no longer tell when they are thirsty. The family must stay involved by feeding loved one with soft, easy-to-swallow food, helping and making sure they drink.

References:

http://www.alz.org/
http://www.alzheimers.net/
https://www.alzinfo.org

Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BraakStagingbyVisanjiEtAl.png

Attribution: Visanji, Naomi P., Patricia L. Brooks, Lili-Naz Hazrati, and Anthony E. Lang. / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: November 3, 2016

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« What Do You Know About Varakh (Silver Foil) On Sweets Dementia, Alzheimer‎’s & Coconut Oil »

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What Do You Know About Varakh (Silver Foil) On Sweets

Silver traditionally represented wealth, and that association extended to sweets to convey ‘meant for the wealthy’ Silver was also considered an aphrodisiac. Silver is widely used for various purposes in the market today. Silver is considered precious and its utility is enormous. The reason behind this is that silver reflects back 95% of the light energy that falls on it.

Edible silver and gold foils on sweets, on confectionery and desserts is not unique to the Indian subcontinent; countries such as Japan and Europe have long used precious metal foils as food cover and additive. Silver is also used in saffron syrup.

The reason for silver foil usage on Indian sweets possibly for one of these two reasons:

The foil reduces moisture evaporation, and hence it would prevent the sweets from drying out.
It also acts as aphrodisiac.

Why people do not want to eat sweets covered by Varakh?

Traditional varakh is made by pounding silver into a sheet a few micrometers thick, and backed with paper for support; this paper is peeled away before use. It is extremely brittle and breaks into smaller pieces if touched.

According to vegans and vegetarians today’s varakh is non-vegetarian material. Few years back Indian Airlines instructed to its food suppliers that sweets should be supplied without silver foil.

The investigation conducted by organizations like Beauty without cruelty and FSDA of India sheds some light on this. VARAKH is prepared by using important parts of the cattle or ox. Guts of cattle/ox are obtained from the slaughterhouse after butchering. Pulled gur from the animal is later handed over to the manufacturers of VARAKH. Before handing over the intestines, they are washed in the slaughterhouse to get rid of the blood and other remains on these intestines in the limited facility that is present in the slaughterhouse. Intestines are cut into small pieces and then are bound together as pages in a notebook. A silver block will be placed in the middle of these bound intestines, and the whole thing is placed in a leather bag and sealed. Experts, who know how to make VARAKH, pound the bag with wooden sticks, till the entire bag flattens out. The silver block would by this time be turned into silver foil. This Silver foil would now be separated from the intestine pack and will be placed on paper. This is VARAKH, which reaches the market ready for use. Even staunch vegetarians, who shy away from egg, unknowingly consume this as a part of sweet, pan and areca nut. Why the intestines of the cattle/ox? Why not something else? The reason behind using the intestines of the cattle/ox for preparing the VARAKH is because of the elasticity of the intestines. They do not get cut even after a severe pounding. This aspect is brought out in the magazine “Beauty without cruelty” and the Television show of Maneka Gandhi, “Heads and Tails”. In India, on an average an estimate indicates that 2,75,000 kilos of “Varakh” is consumed. Can you estimate how many cattle/ox are sacrificed for just a bit of taste?

Whether Varakh is vegetarian or non vegetarian – further research conducted on silver foils revealed following information: The silver cannot be digested; therefore, there are no benefits from its consumption . A study done in November 2005 by the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre in Lucknow on varakh says that the silver foil available in the market has toxic and carcinogenic metals in the thin silver foil, nickel, lead, chromium and cadmium. Over half of the analysed silver foils had lower silver purity than the 99.9 per cent purity stipulated by the prevention of food adulteration act of India. When such foil enters into the body, it releases heavy metals that can lead to cancer. The report also details the unhygienic conditions in which workers put silver in small leather bags and beat it into foil in filthy shops.

This Deepavali (Diwali) before consuming the sweets that have the silver foil cover think twice!

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: October 28, 2016

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« Functional foods – Let food be thy medicine! Stages & Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease »

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Functional foods – Let food be thy medicine!

Hippocrates said 2500 years ago that “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food“! These wording of Hippocrates is regaining lots of attention in recent years. The reason behind this is the education and awareness that people are gaining about medicine and food. The role of health enhancing foods and the active physiological compounds that are present in food and the benefits we get has made us to be aware of our health and fitness.

Consumer interest in the relationship between diet and health has increased the demand for information about functional foods.

What are functional foods?

All foods are functional to some extent as they provide aroma, some nutrients and taste. However, foods are now being examined intensively for added physiologic benefits, which may reduce chronic disease risk or otherwise optimize health. This research on food resulted in the term Functional foods and it was coined (in Japan). Functional foods can be considered to be those whole, fortified, enriched or enhanced foods that provide health benefits beyond the provision of essential nutrients (e.g., vitamins and minerals), when they are consumed at efficacious levels as part of a varied diet on a regular basis.

Many academic, scientific and regulatory bodies have developed, or are developing, guidelines to establish the scientific evidence base needed to support and further validate claims for functional components or the foods containing them. FDA regulates food products according to their intended use and the nature of claims made on the package. Five types of health-related statements or claims are allowed on food and dietary supplement labels:

1. Nutrient content claims indicate the presence of a specific nutrient at a certain level.

2. Structure and function claims describe the effect of dietary components on the normal structure or function of the body.

3. Dietary guidance claims describe the health benefits of broad categories of foods or diets and do not refer to a disease or a health related condition.

4. Qualified health claims convey a developing relationship between components in the diet and reduced risk of disease, as reviewed by the FDA and supported by the weight of credible scientific evidence available.

There are two types of functional foods:

a) Functional foods originated from animals:

The most intensively investigated class of physiologically-active components derived from animal products are the (n-3) fatty acids, predominantly found in fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines and herring. And, in recent years the another class of animal product has gained lot of attention – biologically active animal-derived component namely probiotics. Defined as “viable microorganisms that are beneficial to human health”

b) Functional foods originated from plant sources:

Plants like oats, soy, paddy, tomato, flax, citrus fruits, tea, turmeric, ginger, garlic, Indian bitter melon, grapefruit, avocado oil, blueberries, olive oil, coconut oil, apple and many others who exhibit particular biochemical sources and elements that can be extracted for human use are real functional food sources. Functional plant foods fall into following categories:

1) Domesticated food plants: These plant species were derived from wild plant species decades or centuries ago and have been highly cultivated and bred for specific characteristics that appeal to the culture where they are sold. Food plants are primarily of interest for their nutritive properties.

2) Wild food plants: These plants are gathered by peoples throughout the world. They tend to be highly seasonal in nature, difficult to cultivate for an economic advantage, and little known outside of a specific culture or subculture. Sometimes they are merely locally abundant in the wild and have never gained widespread popularity within a culture. For example, in the southern United States, poke-weed is viewed as a delicacy, but while available as a wild species throughout the East and Midwest, its popularity has not grown beyond its traditional southern cultural roots.

3) Medicinal plants: These plants have traditional or cultural health attributes ascribed to specific parts of the plant.

4) Botanical supplements: These are derived from plants and may have both nutritive and medicinal properties, but they are viewed as supplemental to the basic diet for enhancing the structure and function of the body.

5) Plant parts and their derivatives used primarily as condiments. These include red pepper and additives such as peppermint.

6) Plants that have a wide variety of economic uses not typically associated with the diet in any way. These plants or plant parts may be toxic if ingested by humans or may have been used for hundreds of years for only one purpose and not fully explored with regard to the diet. This category can be subdivided by type of use, but for this discussion its use will be termed non-dietary.

7) Plants for which there is no known human use.

The scientific community continues to increase its understanding of the potential for functional foods and their role in maintaining and optimizing health.

For more information on functional food and components of functional food see this link:

http://www.foodinsight.org/Content/3842/Final%20Functional%20Foods%20Backgrounder.pdf

Image credit: Image by Shirley Hirst from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: October 21, 2016

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Health Tips For Elders

Aging is a natural process and everyone goes through the process. It is a life stage and we need to prepare ourselves for a better life in the old age. Few precautions and changes in habits can help in aging without any cumbersome.

Stay healthy and happy; enjoy every bit of life till the end of life. Try these health tips for elders for a better life.

1. Quit smoking: Smoking not only reduces your income but also injurious to health in many ways – it causes stroke, heart failure, lung disease and cancer. Smoking hurts sexual life due to atherosclerosis and it takes away pleasure out of retired life. Quit smoking today to save money for a happy life.

2. Eat good food: Illness in old age also caused by bad eating habits. Include functional foods in your diet. These foods supply necessary nutrients for the body along with basic nutrients. High blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, type 2 diabetes – all these can be prevented by taking healthy and nutrient food every day. Eat fresh vegetables, cereals and fruits. Take your supplements (as prescribed by your doctor) Drink milk, consume yogurt and combine eating with physical activity. Some food recommendations are:

fruits and vegetables
whole grains- oatmeal, whole-wheat bread, and brown rice
fat-free or low-fat milk and cheese, or soy or rice milk that is fortified with vitamin D and calcium
beans, nuts, and seeds
reduce spices and salt intake
avoid too much sugar and desserts
take vitamin B12 and vitamin D supplements
don’t skip your breakfast
drink good amount of water

3. Physical activity: Go for walk, play tennis (if you have strength), go to gym, practice yoga poses that are dedicated for seniors, dance with your partners – do small work at home – arranging books, cleaning table, loading dish washer, folding clothes etc. These activities give balance, maintain strength, increases flexibility and help in blood circulation. Maintain a healthy weight to reduce body mass index and cholesterol.

4. Regular checkups: Go for dental, vision and hearing checkups. With age gum and teeth will degenerate. It is important to maintain the hygiene. Vision checkups are important to make sure to see and read. Hearing declines with age for many. Go through hearing checkups and talk to your doctor about hearing aid prescription if you need one. Do not forget about yearly health checkups! Understand the changes of the body at old age.

5. Healthy weight: It is important to keep healthy weight during old age. As the body ages, one will notice changes in body’s makeup- lose muscle mass, which may increase frailty. If the physical activity is low then one will burn fewer calories. To prevent weight gain eating fewer calories than your young age will help. It means your body needs fewer calories to help to get the nutrients as well as energy.

6. Immunization and other tests: Stay up to date on immunization and health screening. If you need Flu shot – talk to your doctor. Men should go through prostate cancer check up and women need mammography to check for breast cancer. Ask your doctor what other tests and blood work you need to go through once you cross 50 and 60 years.

7. Special needs: If you need special assistance to take care, do not hesitate. It is okay to take help from others. You can take help, still be independent while attending to the work that is possible from you. If you have body conditions, need checkups, and cannot drive to see a physician then, consider taking help.

8. Keep a note: Make notes of your observation about your health, grocery that you need, passwords if you have any – with age memory loss is common. Keeping a note of important items of your life helps you to access into during critical time. When you go for grocery carry a note book with you that contains list. This way you can avoid frequent visit to grocery to buy something. Keep a note of your medicines and the time you take. If you forget then note will help you to recall to take prescribed medicines.

9. Relaxed life: All through life you have struggled and had to work for yourself and family. This is the age to relax and have fun. Do not take any type of stress to your mind. Meditation helps to bring stress level down. Learn to adopt and appreciate every small thing that gives happiness to you. Make sure to be positive in life. The knowledge and wisdom that you gained in your life should come to use at this age. Do not compare the success of your offspring to anyone else. Let them take responsibility to shape up their lives and encourage them to be positive.

Spend time with family and grandchildren. Taking care of grandchildren will boost your energy. It will help to bring back your memories and you will look at life totally in a different angle.

10. Be good to yourself: Due to loss of loved ones, health problems, money problems, or other reasons, many older adults may feel lonely, sad, low, or stressed. Make new friends and keep old friends. Have a walking and discussion group. Chose a topic and have healthy discussion with them. Being in the midst of people will help you to overcome loneliness that most elderly people go through in later stage of their lives. If you are able to, then travel and see places.

See some check list for better health here: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/weight-control/young-heart-tips-Older-adults/Documents/YAH_TipSheet.pdf

Source: www.werindia.com

Image credit: Image by truthseeker08 from Pixabay

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: October 19, 2016

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Emfit QS Sleep Monitor

The Emfit is a sleep tracker is the world’s first heart rate variability enabled contact free sleep tracker. It is automatic and installs under a bed mattress. This is designed with better athletic performance in mind, focusing on quantifying your overnight recovery data, this non-invasive model is easily tucked under your mattress, from which it wirelessly transmits data to the paired app. Emfit QS gives you a detailed description of your sleep quality, stress level, and progression of recovery. With this data you can make well educated choices for daily workouts, meetings and other important events.

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: October 7, 2016

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KuaiWear – Personal Wearable Coach

The World’s smartest headphones from Kuai! The set has a biometric sensor that provides you with real-time, vocal feedback on your performance. The “coach” also helps you adjust your pace and stride based on the newfound information. With the corresponding app and seamless Bluetooth connectivity, they’re also waterproof up to three meters. Kuai gives instant voice feedback about your heart rate, speed, distance, calories and more. All effortlessly delivered to you by audio while listening to your favorite music and practicing any sport, including running, swimming, cycling, gym and more.

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on:

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e-Cigarette – How Bad It Is For Children?

e-Cigarettes are battery-operated devices designed to deliver nicotine with flavorings and other chemicals to users in vapor instead of smoke. Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, include e-pens, e-pipes, e-hookah, and e-cigars are known collectively as ENDS – electronic nicotine delivery systems.

They resemble traditional tobacco cigarettes, cigars or pipes, or even everyday items like pens or USB memory sticks; newer devices, such as those with refilling tanks, may look different. More than 250 different e-cigarette brands are currently are in the market.

While electronic or e-cigarettes are often promoted as safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes, which deliver nicotine by burning tobacco, little is actually known yet about the health risks of using these devices.

How do e-cigarettes work?

Generally these e-cigarettes consists of three components:

a cartridge, which holds a liquid solution containing varying amounts of nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals
a heating device (vaporizer)
a power source

In many e-cigarettes, puffing activates the battery-powered heating device, which vaporizes the liquid in the cartridge. The resulting aerosol or vapor is then inhaled (called “vaping”). The liquid is heated into an aerosol that the user inhales. The fluid in the e-cigarette, called e-liquid is made of nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerin, and flavorings.

What is Nicotine: Nicotine is an addictive substance, and almost all e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Even some products that claim not to have any nicotine in them may still contain it. For instance, initial FDA lab tests conducted in 2009 found that cartridges labeled as nicotine-free had traceable levels of nicotine. A 2014 study found little consistency in the amount of nicotine delivered by e-cigarettes of the same brand and strength.

Children and e-cigarette:

The nicotine in e-cigarettes is more attractive to children than that in regular tobacco products. Nicotine liquids may be flavored and smell pleasant. The packaging often is brightly colored and sometimes looks like candy.

The liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes is highly concentrated and contains anywhere from six to 36 milligrams of nicotine per unit. Swallowing nicotine can cause vomiting, rapid heart rate, seizures and possibly death, depending on the amount and concentration.

Nicotine found to have a negative impact on adolescent brain development. Human brain development continues far longer than was previously realized, and nicotine use during adolescence and young adulthood has been associated with lasting cognitive and behavioral impairments, including effects on working memory and attention.

The tobacco industry aggressively markets e-cigarettes to youth, glamorizing e-cigarette use in advertisements and offering e-cigarettes in candy flavors like bubble gum and gummy bears. Kids can also easily buy e-cigarettes online, according to a March 2015 study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Basic FDA oversight, which would include youth access restrictions, is needed to protect kids from becoming the next generation hooked on nicotine. Aside from concerns about e-cigarette use and emissions alone, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that calls to the nation’s (US) poison centers for e-cigarette exposure poisonings are rapidly increasing. It was only recently that the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act went into effect, mandating that e-cigarette liquid packaging be child-resistant.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics found the number of poison control cases involving children swallowing the devices’ liquid nicotine has steadily been on the rise since 2012. Youth are using e-cigarettes at increasing and alarming rates. Between 2014 and 2015, CDC studies found e-cigarette use among high school students increased by 19 percent, with more teens now using e-cigarettes than cigarettes.

Colleagues in a College in Ohio raised concern that the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes could encourage teenagers to use the device to vaporize cannabis, which could potentially expose them to higher concentrations of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in weed. Similarly, a survey of over 3,800 students from five high schools in Connecticut, found out that in those who had used e-cigarettes, 18 percent also used the device to vaporize cannabis in some form including THC-infused wax and hash oil !

Flavors in e-cigarettes are also a cause for concern. Not only are flavors used to target kids, but they may be harmful on their own. E-cigarette and flavor manufacturers and marketers may suggest that the flavor ingredients used in e-cigarettes are safe because they have FEMA GRASTM status for use in food, but such statements are false and misleading. The reality is that FEMA GRASTM status only applies to food, meaning it’s safe to eat, and does not apply to inhaling through e-cigarettes.

Many e-cigarette companies market their product as a tool to help smokers quit. However, the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has not approved any e-cigarette as a safe or effective method to help smokers quit. Instead of quitting, many e-cigarette users are continuing to use e-cigarettes while still using conventional cigarettes. In 2013, 76.8 percent of the people who recently used e-cigarettes also currently smoked conventional cigarettes.

Currently, there are no e-cigarettes approved by FDA for therapeutic uses so they cannot be recommended as a cessation aid. Starting August 2016, FDA started applying and enforcing key provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act as it relates to the sales, marketing and manufacturing of e-cigarettes. This year, FDA finalized a rule extending regulatory authority to cover all tobacco products, including vaporizers, vape pens, hookah pens, electronic cigarettes (E-Cigarettes), e-pipes, and all other ENDS. FDA now regulates the manufacture, import, packaging, labeling, advertising, promotion, sale, and distribution of ENDS. This includes components and parts of ENDS but excludes accessories.

Nicotine Warning Statement from FDA:

Beginning in 2018, the product packages and advertisements of all newly-regulated covered tobacco products must bear the following warning statement: “WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.”

Educate yourself about e-cigarettes and its effect on children (and adults) by visiting these sites:

http://www.lung.org/
https://www.drugabuse.gov
http://healthcare.utah.edu/
http://www.fda.gov/

Image credit : Image by Ethan Parsa from Pixabay ( (Free for commercial use)

Author: Sumana Rao | Posted on: September 29, 2016

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Which oil is better for your health?

To absorb nutrients into our body we need one nutrient help -the FAT. We can eat carbohydrates, proteins and consume vitamins in various forms. However to absorb these beneficial nutrients we need help of most unpopular nutrient namely fat. We can go on diet without eating fat but it results in can result in unhealthy conditions. People who go on continuous low fat or no fat diet will get angry, frustrated, mood swings and irritable for no reasons! Before going on such diets it is better to gain knowledge on what are good fats and bad fats? Three types of fats – Unsaturated, saturated and Trans fats. Well, we all know how bad is trans fats. Between other two unsaturated fats are highly recommended. In saturated fats category, there are few types of fats, in recent days are gaining importance like coconut oil and ghee (clarified butter).

In next few slides let us see which are the oils that are beneficial for us and why?

Sunflower Oil: Click to know more