how to make your hair better

Hair is a reflection of your health & personality. If taken care of they can add to your beauty. Your hair and scalp needs proper care now and always. A sign of neglect over a period of time will show up in form of dry brittle hair, split-ends, hair fall, dandruff etc. From the moment you wake up to the time you go to sleep and if you are sleeping, there are many factors that can lead to hair breakage.

The following are some helpful ways that can help you:

Hair Wash: Wash your hair regularly. Follow your usual routine in applying shampoo onto hair. Some people use shampoo once everyday, other do it every other day and some do once a week. Using very hot or cold water can damage your hair.

Brushing your hair: Combing has to be done from the top to bottom. Start combing at the end of your hair. Go through some inches until all knots are combed out, and then restart some inches higher. You have to use a good hair brush. Don't buy those cheap plastic stuff. The problem is not that it might rip your hair, but it has an effect like glue which is sticky.

Hair Drying: Try to dry your hair in a natural way. Dry it up using a bath towel or you can make use an electric fan if you are in a hurry to make your hair dry. Frequent use of those hair dryer products can also damage your hair. Hair styles can also help avoid heavy hair fall.

Atmosphere: One major thing that can also affect your hair is the atmosphere. Like when you go to the beach, the heat of the sun and salt water can make your hair dry. Another factor is when you go swimming in a pool. The chlorinated water can damage your hair. You can cover your hair with a cloth or use swimming cap to cover your hair from sunlight.

Applying shampoo and conditioner: Use mild shampoos. Do not use those ones that has strong ingredients and swear to make your hair healthy and shiny. The stronger the ingredients are, the higher risk you have in damaging your hair. Also with conditioner, avoid using it regularly because it can also make your hair frizzy and more hair fall you will have.

Hair Style: We always want to have a different hair styles. The type of hair styles we have reflects our individuality and sometime it reflects our mood. Avoid frequent use of those styling products like hair straightening and curling iron because it will damage your hair.

Sleeping Pattern: Comb your hair before going to bed, do not let the bands or clips on. Even the way you sleep can affect your hair. Restless sleepers may actually be breaking hair as they sleep. If you're a restless sleeper, try a satin pillowcase so that the hair glides when you move in your sleep. On a regular cotton pillowcases, hair can get caught and break. Hair should be put in a ponytail on top of the head. Always use rubber bands that are wrapped in cloth.

We should always take care of our hair. It is one of the major part of our body that helps enhance our physical appearance. You must have a good diet because that helps a lot to make our hair healthy. Our hair is the reflection of our personality and health. We have to take good care of our body to achieve the kind of hair that we want.

prevention of hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is a virus, or infection, that causes liver disease and inflammation (swelling) of the liver.

Hepatitis C virus is found in the blood of persons who have this disease. The infection is spread by contact with the blood of an infected person.

TIPS

1
Hepatitis C (HCV): Hepatitis C is a serious problem for some, but not others. Most persons who get hepatitis C carry the virus for the rest of their lives. Most of these persons have some liver damage but do not feel sick from the disease. Some persons with liver damage due to HCV may develop cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure which may take many years to develop.

2
You can protect yourself from HCV by minimizing your contact with human blood. For example, don’t ever shoot drugs and don’t share toothbrushes, razors, or other personal care articles.
 
3
HCV can be spread by sex, but this does not occur very often. If you are having sex you should always get tested just to be safe.

 4 
Hepatitis C is NOT spread by breast feeding, sneezing, hugging, coughing, sharing utensils, food, water, and casual contact.





stay healthy...

Can people with diabetes take alcohol?

 

People with diabetes can have a moderate amount of  alcohol. Research has shown that the risk of heart diseases (which is usually increased in people with diabetes) can be reduced by moderate consumption of alcohol. If you have any questions about whether alcohol is safe for you, check with your doctor. People with diabetes should follow the same guidelines as those without diabetes if they choose to drink:

• Women should have no more than 1 drink per day.
• Men should have no more than 2 drinks per day.

*One drink is equal to a 12 oz beer, 5 oz glass of wine, 1 oz of alcoholic herbal drink (alomo bitters)  or 1 ½ oz distilled spirits (vodka, whiskey, gin, etc.).

Here are some tips

If you have diabetes, practice caution when drinking. Never drink on an empty stomach or when your blood glucose level is low. If you choose to drink, follow the guidelines above and have it with food. This is especially important for those on insulin and diabetes pills such as sulfonylurea and meglitinides (Prandin), which lower blood glucose by making more insulin.

• Do not omit food from your regular meal plan and replace it with alcohol. (If you use carbohydrate counting to plan meals, do not count alcohol in your plan as a carbohydrate choice.)
• Sip your drink slowly to savor it and make it last.
• Have a zero calorie beverage by your side to keep yourself hydrated like water, diet soda or iced tea.
• For mixed drinks, choose calorie-free drink mixers like diet soda, club soda, diet tonic water or water.
• Do not drive or plan to drive for several hours after you drink alcohol.

Alcohol can cause hypoglycemia shortly after drinking and for up to 24 hours after drinking. If you are going to drink alcohol, check your blood glucose before you drink while you drink and for up to 24 hours. You should also check your blood glucose before you go to bed to make sure it is at a safe level – between 100 and 140 mg/dL. If your blood glucose is low, eat something to raise it.

Takeaways

• If you choose to drink alcohol, follow the guidelines above and have it with food. Talk with your health care team about whether alcohol is safe for you.
• If you drink alcohol at least several times a week, make sure your doctor knows this before he/she prescribes a diabetes pill.
• Drink only when and if blood glucose is under control. Test blood glucose (if prescribed) to help you decide if you should drink.
•  

READ: symptoms of diabetes

see:  diabetes and heart disease

EBOLA : There's hope for west Africa

An Ebola test vaccine provided blanket protection in a field trial in Guinea, researchers have said, possibly heralding 'the beginning of the end' for the devastating west African outbreak.

The serum was 100-per cent effective, after a week, in more than 7600 people innoculated, according to results published in The Lancet on Friday and hailed as 'extremely promising' by World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan.

The world was 'on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine', the UN's health agency said in a statement.

'The initial results of the study show that the vaccine can effectively contain the further spread of the Ebola virus,' said the University of Bern, which contributed to the research.

Though encouraging, the results are 'interim' and the vaccine will not become immediately available as a community-wide Ebola shield, experts cautioned.
About 28,000 people have been infected in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since late 2013, according to the WHO. Nearly half have died, but there is thought to be a large undercount of cases and deaths.

Having brought an already fragile health sector to its knees, and driving out much-needed investment, the outbreak has started winding down but is not over.

Seven cases were confirmed the week ending in July 26 - four in Guinea and three in Sierra Leone - the lowest weekly total for more than a year.
But even a single undetected case can spark a flareup - the virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids.

Africa to benefit from malaria vaccine

   I wrote about a new drug which might stop malaria but while we await the drug, we can start jubilating because a new malaria vaccine is coming to Africa to save Children in Africa.

The world's first malaria vaccine would soon be approved for use in Africa.

After some scientific research, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has said that the new malaria vaccine is safe and effective.

The target population for the vaccine are kids under the age of 5 in Africa.

Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of the "Roll Back Malaria Partnership" said The vaccine will not stop malaria, but will add onto the benefits of other prevention measures, this is good as it will assist the children to fight malaria better.

Over 100,000 thousand children die of malaria yearly in Africa and majority of them are under five years.

#fightAgainstMalaria 

New Drug might block Malaria

Scientists have developed a new drug that shows hope for stopping deadly malaria in its track.

The new drug acts as a roadblock for malaria, curing mice of established infection, according to a study. Treatment was not associated with obvious side effects, suggesting that the drug may also be safe and effective in humans.
In 2011, a group of scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK discovered that a human protein called basigin was required for all strains of Pf to invade red blood cells, an essential stage of the parasite’s life cycle. Antibodies that block the interaction between basigin and the parasite protein PfRH5 were known to block Pf infection in culture, and the Sanger Institute group has now developed a nontoxic anti-basigin drug (called Ab-1) that cured mice of established blood infection.

The transition of promising new drugs from mice to humans usually requires costly and time-consuming clinical trials, but the path for Ab-1 may be less arduous.

Basigin has also been implicated in the progression of certain cancers and in graft-versus-host disease in transplant patients, and drugs that block the protein have already proven safe and effective in patients and are already in clinical use.
According to the World Health Organization malaria currently infects more than 200 million people worldwide and accounts for more than 500,000 deaths per year.
Malaria has been a problem in Nigeria for centuries.

The disease is caused by infection with the parasite Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), and although the disease can be treated with anti-malarial drugs, the drugs are harsh and resistance often develops.

The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

COLD and FLU are not the same

Naija no dey carry last sha. Some of us don't know the difference between cold and flu and when we are trying to 'form' we just say 'I gat flu' even if it's cold, as long as we feel sick and have a runny nose.

Well cold and flu are not the same same though common cold and flu (influenza) are both upper respiratory infections caused by virus, they are quite different.

The differences and similarities between them are:

* Flu gives rise to a high fever; a cold may give rise to a mild fever

* A Flu usually start with a dry throat and nose making your voice to 'crack'; a cold usually starts with a runny nose

* Flus can cause muscle pain to the whole body; colds affect the nose and throat

* Flus may lead to severe exhaustion; colds can cause mild exhaustion

* A flu can lead to more serious complications, such as pneumonia, so is considered much more serious (dangerous) than a common cold

* Both infections are highly contagious and can be caught from close contact with someone who has the virus, for example breathing in droplets of air when someone coughs or sneezes but don't run away like it's Ebola.

* It's difficult to avoid catching colds and the flu so when you come into contact with someone with an infection avoid sharing things they may have used, such as handkerchiefs, clean shared surfaces such as door handles, and wash hands regularly.

   I've had flu and cold, so I know it is nothing so 'dangerous' if well taken care of.

Treatment for cold and flu includes:

Bed rest (I'm not saying you should 'stay on bed' all day, but try to have some rest and don't get stressed)

Drinking lots of fluids (avoid cold WATER, especially if you gat sore throat), it keeps the body hydrated and reducess those 'gbagaun gbagaun' headaches. *I take naturally fruit juice*

Taking paracetamol (for flu) to manage aches, pains and fever. Also taking paracetamol for cold if it leads to mild fever.

Warm drinks and lozenges to soothe a sore throat.

You could visit a doctor, to prescribe antiviral medication for the flu, but they need to be given early in the illness to be effective.

Stay healthy

Duru Brian

BLACKBERRY to produce antimicrobial phones

Good news for doctors, nurses, microbiologists and all health care workers.

We might have thought that BlackBerrys went out of style with the advent of the touch screen, but the company is making a bold move to put their devices back in the limelight. Well, in hospitals at least—BlackBerry announced that it might be in the market to make antimicrobial cell phones for health care workers, Bloomberg reports.

We don’t usually think about how much bacteria is lying in wait on our cell phones. But it turns out there’s a lot—one study from last year found over 7,000 types of bacteria on 51 cell phones, and individuals often have unique microbial fingerprints on their devices. And this can change throughout the day as you check your phone over a hundred times, transmitting bacteria from the last thing you touched in each instance.

For the average person, having a bacterial cornucopia on your phone probably isn’t that big a deal. But in a hospital, bacterial transmission is a huge problem. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are on the rise, can infect patients with immune systems that are already compromised; hospital-acquired infection is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals. If a doctor is checking his/her phone in the room of an infected patient, then goes to check on another patient with a compromised immune system, she/he might have unwittingly transmitted the infection. Current hygiene standards require physicians to wipe down their phones with alcohol before leaving each patient’s room, but no one is certain that these alcohol wipes are as effective as they need to be.

Blackberry is testing a clinical alerts pilot project in a hospital outside Toronto to see if there is demand for an antibacterial cell phone. But if the demand is there, it looks like the company is game: “Health-care workers have to be worried about one less thing to wipe down,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a press conference. So far the company has not released any details about how exactly the phones would ward off bacteria.

MALE BREAST CANCER

When people hear about breast cancer, they think it can never happen to a man.
Well that's ignorance and that's why I chose to make out time from my busy schedule today, to talk about MALE BREAST CANCER.

Male breast cancer is a cancer that forms in the breast tissue of men. It is a rare condition but it exist.
It is the same as female breast cancer and occurs when a malignant tumour develops in the cells of the breast. The cancer may spread to surrounding tissue, to the lymph nodes and to other areas of the body.

It is rare but male breast is more common in men over the age of 50.

The cause of male breast cancer is not well understood for now, though scientist are currently working on it, but some of the risk factors includes;

Increasing age (over 50 years of age)


High estrogen levels (which can occur from obesity or as a result of diseases such as Klinefelter's syndrome).

Use of hazardous chemicals on skin

Exposure to radiation

Some testicular disorders

A strong family history of breast or ovarian cancers.

GOOGLE smart contact lens can monitor glucose level

Smart technology makes tracking personal health metrics — from posture to sleep quality — easier than ever. But one new device could be more medically useful than any yet on the market: a smart contact lens.

Developed by Google’s secretive Google X arm, the initial prototype is designed to monitor glucose for diabetics. It sports a tiny sensor that measures glucose in tears and an antenna that wirelessly transmits the data to a connected device.
Google’s clinical research studies demonstrate the device can take one reading per second, promising a constant, noninvasive alternative to diabetics’ routine finger pricks throughout the day. The lens could also immediately alert patients, doctors or caregivers to abnormal glucose levels.

A different twist on the same technology could produce lenses that work better than current bifocal contact lenses. By detecting eye muscle movements and automatically adjusting focus — similar to an automatic camera lens — the new lens could replicate the eye’s natural functioning.

In July, pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced it would license and commercialize the lenses, initially focusing on these two applications. CEO Joseph Jimenez said the company wants a prototype available for research-and-development reviews by early 2015, though Novartis says it’s too early to say which version of the lens will be available first.

Source : discovermagazine

KEY STATS AND INFORMATION ON HIV/AIDS

* An estimated 35 million people are living with HIV globally. 3.2 million of people living with HIV are children under 15 years old.

* AIDS is the leading cause of death among women of childbearing age (18-49).

* AIDS is the leading cause of death among adolescents (10-18) in Africa.

* Despite progress in reducing new infections, four countries still account for half of all new infections among children: Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania.

*AIDS related deaths and new HIV infections are preventable.





Source: Unicef

SYMPTOMS OF DIABETES

    If you go through my previous posts, you'd find out that I write about diabetes a lot. It could be due to the fact that some people are ignorant of diabetes and others only know about it when they are bedridden by it.
    Below are some of the symptoms of diabetes (I put together) and if you're exhibiting any of the following symptoms, contact your doctor and have your blood glucose level checked.

• INCREASED THIRST AND FREQUENT URINATION

    This is caused by the failure of the kidney to filter the excess glucose in the blood, so it is passed out with the urine which leads to frequent urination as the body tries to remove the excess glucose. Sometimes there's excessive sweating
The body then becomes dehydrate and you feel thirsty.

• INCREASED HUNGER

Unavailability of insulin in the body reduces the quantity of glucose getting into the cell. Cells need glucose for energy, so the body tries to increase calories for energy which increases hunger.

• UNFORESEEN WEIGHT LOSS

This is due to the decrease in the amount of calories absorbed by the cell because of the excretion of glucose in urine.

• FATIGUE AND WEAKNESS

This is caused by the reduction in glucose that gets into the cells leading to reduced amount of energy to function.

• BLURRY VISION

Many people don't know this is a symptom of diabetes. High blood glucose affects the eyes causing swollen lens with abnormal shape, thereby leading to a blurry vision.

• SORE HEALS SLOWLY AND FREQUENT INFECTIONS

When the blood glucose level is high, it weakens the immune system which leads to slow healing process and the body is prone to infections.

Stay healthy.

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