Some Tips to Help Avoid Backache / Back Pain

As we grow older, the back muscle – weakened by inactivity, poor posture, and almost unavoidable wear and tear – start to complain.

Other causes of back problem are muscle and joint strain, changes in the spine, psychological tension, and internal diseases.

Here are some tips to help avoid backache:

• Learn to lift correctly. Use your legs muscles, which are stronger than back muscles, by placing your feet closer to the base of the object, bending your knees outward, and pushing up with your legs.

• Avoid subjecting your back to any sudden, erratic motion.

• Try to improve your posture when sitting and walking.

• Sleep on a firm bed; a bed board may be helpful.

• Get regular exercise of a type that stimulates all your muscles rather than just a few.

• If you sit for a long period, get up and stretch occasionally.

• Beware of excess weight. Extra weight on the abdomen pulls on the vertebrae at the small of the back, increasing the spine’s normal curve and causing pain.

• Try never to become over fatigued or exhausted, either physically or mentally. Emotional pressure from work or personal problems causes muscle tension.

Reference: The New Complete Medical and Health Encyclopedia

Vitamins and Its Function

Vitamin A
Maintain normal vision, skin health, bone and tooth growth reproduction and immune function.

Thiamine
Help release energy from nutrients; support normal appetite and nerve function.

Riboflavin
Helps releases energy from nutrients, support skin health, prevent deficiency manifested by cracks and redness at corners of mouth; inflammation of the tongue and dermatitis.

Niacin
Help release energy from nutrients; support skin, nervous and digestive system, prevents pellagra.

Biotin
Help in energy and amino acid metabolism; help in the synthesis of fat glycogen

Pantothenic
Help in energy metabolism

Folic Acid
Help in the formation of DNA and new blood cells including red blood cells

Vitamin B 12
Help in the formation of the new cells; maintain nerve cells, assist in the metabolism of fatty acids and amino acids.

Vitamin C
Help in the formation of protein, collagen, bone teeth cartilage, skin and scar tissue; facilitate in the absorption of iron from the gastrointestinal tract; involve in amino acid metabolism; increase resistance to infection, prevent scurvy

Vitamin D
Help in the mineralization of bones by enhancing absorption of calcium.

Vitamin E
Strong anti-oxidant; help prevent arteriosclerosis; protect neuron-muscular system; important for normal immune function.

Vitamin K
Involve in the synthesis of blood clotting proteins and a bone protein that regulates blood calcium level.

What is Hives?

Hives are indications of allergic sensitivity to various foods, drugs, furs, fabrics, cosmetics, or a reaction to emotional stress. It is not solely blamed to sting bites of insects.

Hives appears as red or white welts on the skin which may disappear a suddenly as they come, or may last for several days.

The development of hives (urticaria) occurs when the body releases histamine, an organic compound of the human tissues that is produced during allergic reactions. The process would cause a widening of the blood capillaries, then the plasma escapes, producing swelling on the skin surface.

The food causing allergies are strawberries, peaches, nuts, shellfish, pork and some wheat products. Feathers, woolen fabrics, and animal furs could cause surface irritants. Cosmetics containing chemical dyes, serums in the form of vaccines for immunization, and various drugs, chiefly penicillin and some medicine for hypertension, could cause hives to appear.

Brain Capacity

Fallacy:

The brain can get tired by reading to much information.

Fact:
The statement seems to assume that the brain is the same as the mind. The brain has many parts, made up of tissues just as the rest of the body is. It controls bodily movements and is also concerned with the different senses. All the knowledge that we have, first comes to us through the sense organs. The mind, however, is not a physical thing; it cannot be seen or weighed. It is the part of our being with which we learn, remember, think, and feel. Nevertheless, it is through the brain that the mind works. The mind cannot function without a brain to gather all the impressions relayed by the senses.

These sense impressions automatically go to specific areas in the brain. Everytime we absorb or recall them, a deeper track of impression occurs in the brain nerves that is made by the incoming impression. The brain by nature will continually allow us to remember sets of impressions that we had in the past. Unless the brain becomes diseased or injured, it can go on receiving impressions and connecting new ones. Usually, the more connections or experiences we have, the easier it will be to recall these impressions.

What is true: the brain does not get tired. It is the muscles of the sense organs, such as the eye, that tire and need rest.

Milk Stops Bone Loss

A study done to women who passed the menopausal stage showed that drinking milk fights bone loss. According to this study, women should drink milk during their adult’s lives. This will help fight the bone-thinning effects of a lifetime of coffee drinking

Women who do not drink milk but drink coffee containing caffeine can suffer bone weakening as they get older. This is according to a study conducted by Elizabeth Barret-Cannor and colleagues at the University of California at San Diego. This can place them at risk of suffering weakening and life threatening fractures. Previous studies have linked coffee drinking to an increased rate of hip fracture.

An intake of calcium or vitamin, later in life, is not enough to fight the bone loss caused by a lifetime of coffee drinking. Rather, it must be countered by enough calcium intake throughout one’s life.

Benefits of B- Carotene and Vegetables in our Body

Experts from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said that if you want to be healthy, you must eat a lot of vegetables. Good Advice.

Good eyesight, glowing skin, and glossy hair come from eating green and leafy and yellow vegetables. These vegetables contain B-carotene. This is converted to vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A is important for growth and for healthy eyes, skin and hair. These vegetables also contain minerals, like iron and calcium. Iron and calcium are very important to the body. They help in the bone formation and the functioning of the circulatory and digestive systems. They are also rich in dietary fiber This helps in the removal of wastes from the body. It also reduces the risk of having common diseases, like heart diseases, cancer and diabetes.

B- carotene can be found in the leaves of camote, cassava, pepper, saluyot, malunggay, kangkong, mustard, and squash. Carrots, yellow camote, squash fruit, and tiesa are also high in B-carotene. These vegetables also contain vitamin C when eaten raw or slightly cooked. An adult needs ¾ cup of green leafy and yellow vegetables everyday.

(S & T Media Service)

Baby’s Hair and Hair Cut

Some believes that it is not good to have a child’s hair cut before the age of one year but nowhere in the scientific literature can one find a medical basis for this belief. Cutting the hair of a child who is below one year old has no effect whatsoever to his physical, mental, and emotional well-being.

The growth of hair is normal in all individuals. It begins as early as the third month of fetal life. Each hair grows in a follicle which is composed of epidermal cells.

Hair follicles are distributed throughout the skin, except in the palms, soles, lips and glans penis. The hair on the head has an almost continuous rate of follicle activity; each hair being replaced almost as soon as it reaches its full length. Scalp hair usually grows on the average of .35 mm a day. It takes about four years for a hair to reach its average length about 28 centimeters.

For babies, it is a must that the hair be kept short and clean always. Otherwise, it will cause so much irritation to them, especially to their eyes. Mothers may certainly not entertain second thought on whether or not to have their babies hair cut.

(Source: Bato Balani , For Science and Technology)

Fact and Fallacy : Food Allergy

Fallacy:
Everybody has an allergy to certain foods.

Fact:
Most of us believe that we have some kind of allergy to certain foods. But real foods allergies are rare. Most of what we think as allergies are really food intolerances that have little or nothing to do with the immune system. People sometimes mistake food intolerances for allergy, because both have the same symptoms.

A food allergy is defined as an overreaction of the body’s immune system, which includes the white blood cells, lymph tissues, thymus gland, and bone marrow. Substances, usually proteins, trigger the immune system of someone with allergy to release antibodies. These antibodies fight the unwanted proteins. Their immune systems release chemicals such as histamine that irritate body tissue. The most commonly affected tissues are the gastrointestinal tract, skin and respiratory system.

Otherwise, food intolerances are reactions to food that are not related to the immune system. It is difficult to know when a physical problem is a result of food allergy or simply intolerance. Consult a physician if you have any of the aforementioned symptoms.

(Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, August. 1991)