Chemical additives in Fast-food Turns you Diabetic

Don’t invite the Diabetic menace by consuming food made of the flour readily available on the market in attractive packages, as they are mixed with Alloxan, a chemical that appears like glucose which is a natural energy source of food. When Alloxan contaminated food is consumed it destroys the beta cells of pancreas, which are responsible for producing blood Insulin. Infact scientists are injecting Allexan to rats to investigate and develop medicines to cure diabetes. The moment this chemical is injected, rats turn diabetic and they are ready for experiment. Are you ready to become a laboratory animal by consuming contaminated food?

Change in our lifestyles thanks to the media induced consumer culture; we stopped practicing our traditional ways of food preparation and consumption. Urbanization and westernization of lifestyles have introduced fast food culture in traditional Asian and African societies and the local alternatives are gradually disappearing making way to super markets and shopping malls that sell processed food with additives.

Hence beware of what you consume and think twice before eating pizzas, sandwiches and white bread. These food industries use alloxan to make flour more white, clean and eye-catching.

Globally it is banned by many food authorities such as USFDA, FSSAI etc., even though there are many reports of finding alloxan especially in fast foods. There is a need of appropriate quality assessing in order to conserve sustainable global health.

Dine Together to Fight Eating Disorders

Parenting is a sensitive practice where children learn many things from the parents and the other elders in the family. Eating is not an exception. According to research among 200 families, children are free from the eating disorders and obesity in families that dine together at least for twenty minutes, four times a week.  

eating disorders

By staying close to the parent, the child not only picks up the right eating style, but also the perfect diet that keeps it away from the eating disorders and weight related problems. Communication in the family plays significant role in building good behavior and healthy habits, apart from promoting parent-children bond and relationship. Researchers are particularly concerned about the advertisements targeting children as they are promoting nasty food habits among them.

It is high time the governments must act in the right direction against the advertisers that are appeasing the children and making huge money by pushing junk food in the market.

Citizens of developing countries - their destiny with clinical trials

The idea for a clinical research study or clinical trial often originates in the laboratory. Further, the most promising experimental treatments are moved into clinical trials, which are conducted in phases. During a trial, more information is gained about an experimental treatment, its risks, and its effectiveness.

The civic is unknowing of the innate differences between medical treatments and clinical trials, and therefore, the two terms are often interchanged. As a participant or volunteer, you play an integral role in determining whether these drugs are suitable for patients with the targeted condition on a mass level. FDA works to protect participants in clinical trials and to ensure that civic have reliable information before deciding whether to join a clinical trial.

Developing countries ironically have conflicts in the goals of interests of clinical trials and treatments (refers to volunteers without proper consent)."Less stringent ethical review, anticipated under-reporting of side effects, and the lower risk of litigation make carrying out research in the developing world less demanding," said Ames Dhai, director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

“India is another example, where a recent trial of two vaccines against the virus responsible for cervical cancer has had a lot of negative publicity after some deaths that were later shown to be unrelated to the trial, but exposed ethical irregularities in the Indian system” Dhai added.

Civics of developing and under developing countries was vulnerable to trials, because they could not afford high quality treatment, rather expensive treatment though they are seriously ill. Paradoxically these trials also violate national and international ethical guidelines.

Researcher Wolfe and Lurie have observed that the number of clinical studies taking place in developing countries has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, the troubling rotavirus vaccine trial in India indicates that we still have a long way to go to achieve implementation of a single international ethical standard for human subject research.

The trials conducted in developing countries happening due to lack of access to quality and inexpensive care and therefore civics may accept the challenging offers. At the same time benefits of research is not reaching the people on which they were tested. Such practices are in violation of the Declaration of Helsinki as well as the general principles laid down in the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Government of India’s ethical guidelines for biomedical research. The infrastructure for regulation, ethics review and monitoring is insufficient.

The government’s priority seems to be ensuring that clinical research in developing countries produces good quality data according to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standards; perhaps people desperation for the affordable and appropriate health care may escalate the rate of trials. Hence the infrastructure of trials has to be universal and civic awareness campaigns are much needed for the betterment.

Indian Horse Chestnut: A Magical Herbal Remedy for Multiple Health Disorders

Indian Horse Chestnut (Aesculus indica) belongs to the family Hipocastanaceae and grows generally at higher altitudes of 1000-3050 meters above the sea level. This tree possess abundant medicinal values as its seeds, leaves, flowers, and bark of these plants can be used for centuries as traditional medicinal therapy to cure vascular problems and venous insufficiency.

These trees grow in the Himalayan region of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Hilly areas in Kangra, Shimla and Mandi districts are blessed with prevalence of them. They are also grown across North-eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. Tall, deciduous and spreading Indian Horse Chestnut has multiple benefits; it is used as food, feed, home decorative, and medicines. Its bark is used to cure intermittent fever and ulcer. The fruit is used to relieve rheumatism, neuralgia, rectal complaints, skin disease, and hemorrhoids and headache. As it is also used to cure colic disorder in horses, it attained its name Horse Chestnut.

In the absence of medical facilities, tribal population of this area relies heavily on plants like Aesculus indica to cure various ailments. The plant extracts contain active chemical ingredients called as Aescin , which is a mixture of triterpenoid saponin. This is blessed with pleanty of  anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant with βanti-oedema properties. Aescin exists in water-insoluble and soluble in organic. Hence it is widely used in the preparation of therapeutic agents required for the oral administration. Aesculus seeds and nuts are highly toxic and they are used as skin care medicine.  

Despite these many values, Indian Horse Chestnut remains misused and underutilized due to low awareness about it medicinal value. In their study Sangita Sood, Manju Mishra, Anil Sood and Vikram Thakur have discussed how the flour made of the plant is used to test the glucose levels among rats reduced blood glucose level from 228 to 95 mg/dl. The study observes the need to enhance the awareness levels among the local population in general and scientific community in particular about its medicinal importance.

Dietary Reasons Swell Diabetes among Senior Citizens of USA

As per the national Diabetes report-2014, 21 million citizens above 65 years are diabetic and this is a cause for growing concern as it is significantly affecting the lifespan of men and women in the country by over 50 years. Diabetes among the seniors is prevalent among the American Indians of Alaska origin (15.9%), followed by 13.2% non-Hispanic Blacks and 12.8% of blacks.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Report, diabetes is the largest and fastest spreading health concern in the country and it was the 7^th leading cause for death in the year 2007. 37-40% of the elderly population is getting low nutrition levels leading to hospitalization, and physical disability among them. Measures like ‘Meals on Wheels’ has been initiated to assist the elderly population to cater to their nutritional needs.

The Older Americans Act (OAA) makes provision for 1/3^rd of the nutrition requirements prescribed by the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) and there by abide by the food safety and sanitation requirements of people in the age group of 60 and above. Although it covers 30% of the home delivered meals, it do not cover any therapeutic diet, which is not part of the DRI of the people aged 60 and above.

According to the National Home and Hospice Care Survey of 2011, about 7.6 million people receive home-based care and 30.6% of them are diabetic. 7% of US adults over 60 years are receiving benefits from Meals on wheels ‘programme and 74% of these beneficiaries are suffering due to malnutrition.

Although no cure for diabetes, diabetes management is possible with dietary supplements and necessary workouts. Medication is increasingly expensive if the individuals do not have health coverage. Patient education is extremely important as it leads to early screening. Together with necessary datary measures, diabetes management can be optimized among the senior citizens of USA.

Blessed to stay Slim amidst many Obese!

High rates obesity is a global concern today as the numbers have been on rise in the developed and less developed world alike. Despite growing numbers, few people remain slim even when they are living in an obesogenic environment.  

According to a study conducted by Rachel et al, from the Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, which compared two groups consisting individuals that are obesity resistant (ORIs) and obesity susceptible individuals (OSIs). The study found that sensitivity to oral fatty acids remained as the root cause for making certain individuals fat.

In order to prove their argument, the researchers have conducted a test called ‘triplicate triangle’ amongst 50 ORIs and 36 OSIs and have compared the oral fatty acid sensitivity and fat ranking ability between the two groups.  Participants are asked to taste three varieties of milk, one sample with oleic acid and two samples without oleic acids. Individuals that are sensitive to fatty acids picked up Oleic acid in three of the samples and those that are free from the fat acid sensitivity could resist the intake of oleic acid.

Fat ranking test was conducted to examine their ability to differentiate the fat content of custards containing 0%, 2%, 6%, and 10% canola oil (Sunfield, Tasti Products Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand) and the participants were asked to rank the custard samples from the highest to the lowest fat level and scores based on their ability to rank the samples was recorded based on a previous study by Stewart et al.

The study found sufficient support to claim that Hypersensitivity to oral fatty acids among ORIs may influence their dietary fat intake, and thus their body weight regulation. Future larger studies are needed to confirm this. The researchers however maintain that future studies with more number of samples need to be conducted to confirm the fact that sensitivity to Oral Fatty Acids is the main cause to become obese.

Old is Gold Policy is the Best to Promote Health

In tropical countries like India where there is abundant sun light available throughout the year, can you believe 75 to 100% of people of all age group are suffering due to vitamin D deficiency?  We have to believe the statistics that speak the truth.

It is a traditional practice among the elderly people in the Indian household to expose the new born babies to tender sunlight during the day. Schools of good old days allow children in schools to play during evening sunlight so that they get benefitted not only due to physical activity, but also due to exposure to Vitamin D rich sunlight.

The diversified Indian food with cereals, grains, fruits and vegetables, oil and meat, fish and leafy vegetables full of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and other nutrient values have been a source of promoting a good health. These practices have passed on from the generation to the next for ages. 

According to the study by Agarwal et al, 55% of extensively breastfed infants of 10 months old and 44% of kids over 6 months old have developed Rickets due to vitamin D deficiency. As per Ekbote et al, 83% 0f toddlers below 3 years are vitamin deficient. As the schooling starts at the very tender age in modern days, 77% of kids that spend time in play schools are suffering as they are not exposed to sun light during the day. Children that are residents of high level of Atmospheric pollution have abundant Vitamin D levels that children living in less polluted areas.

Irrespective of social and economic strata, 94% of children aged 6-17 years also suffering from health issues due to insufficient vitamin d level.

76% of Pregnant and lactating women and 70 women of menopause age in south Indian states is vitamin deficient according to a study by Harinarayan et al.

Both urban and rural population of central and north India are also affected by it. What are the challenges on our way to accumulate vitamin-D?

Poor dietary intake of vitamin-D followed by the reduced exposure to sun light is the major reasons for the vitamin-D deficiency among Indians. Strangely, The Indian Council of Medical Research, a nodal agency that should play an instrumental role in propagating the importance of Vitamin-D is not very active.

Indians should remember the old Indian practices are golden in blessing them with good health. So don’t hesitate in learning them from your elders.