Boost antioxidants

Add avocado to your salad. Vegetables have an unexpected downside: Many of them are virtually fat free, and you need fat in the meal to absorb cancer-fighting carotenoids.

Snack on dried figs. Dried fruits are known to be rich in antioxidants - but some of the less popular types are the most nutritious. Figs and dried plums had the best overall nutrient scores, shows recent research at the University of Scranton. A handful of dried figs (about one and a half ounce) increased "antioxidant capacity" - the ability to neutralise free radicals - by nine percent. That's more than double the increase seen after a cup of green tea.

Eat a fruit salad. Antioxidants love company: A mixture of oranges, apples, grapes, and blueberries provides five times the antioxidant power you get from eating the same fruits solo, says recent research by Liu, at Cornell. Ingredients to toss into fruit salad, ranked in order of phenolic content (a type of plant chemical that cuts the risk of chronic disease): cranberries, apples, red grapes, strawberries, pineapples, bananas, peaches, oranges, and pears.



Protect your stomach from bugs

Turn down your fridge. If the setting is over 40∞F, your food is sitting in the danger zone - the temperature at which bacteria begin to multiply.

Exercise gene could help with depression

Boosting an exercise-related gene in the brain works as a powerful anti-depressant in mice-a finding that could lead to a new anti-depressant drug target, according to a Yale School of Medicine. "The VGF exercise-related gene and target for drug development could be even better than chemical antidepressants because it is already present in the brain," said Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study. Currently available anti-depressants help 65 percent of patients and require weeks to months before the patients experience relief. Duman said, "it is known that exercise improves brain function and mental health, and provides protective benefits in the event of a brain injury or disease, but how this all happens in the brain is not well understood." He and his colleagues designed a custom microarray that was optimised to show small changes in gene expression, particularly in the brain's hippocampus, a limbic structure highly sensitive to stress hormones, depression, and anti-depressants.

Fever can briefly unlock autistic brain

Over the past few decades, parents and clinicians have observed that the behaviours of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to improve, sometimes rather dramatically, during a fever. Longer concentration spans, increased language production, improved eye contact and better overall relations with adults and peers have all been reported. In a study, researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland confirmed, for the first time, parent and clinician reports that the behaviour of children with ASD improves with fever. The study evaluated children with ASD during and after an episode of fever and found that fewer autistic-like behaviours were recorded for children with fever compared to controls. Understanding how fever affects the behaviours of children with ASD may provide insight into the causes of the disorder and potential treatment opportunities.

Walk for health

The rising incidence of diabetes has created an alarming situation worldwide. Pakistan is one of the countries having the highest number of diabetics and facing an epidemic of diabetes. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), estimates, there are presently more than seven million diabetics in Pakistan and this number will increase to 16 million by 2025. Another six million or more are suffering from Impaired Glucose Tolerance, which means they are at high risk of developing diabetes. This ranks Pakistan 8th in the world as far as the number of the diabetics is concerned and according to WHO estimation, Pakistan will be placed 4th in this regard by the year 2025. These figures make diabetes an epidemic and call for an immediate action.

To make people vigilant of this situation diabetes awareness walk was organised recently by the National Diabetes and Diabetic Foot Programme at Boat Basin, Karachi. It was inaugurated by Prof FU Baqai, Vice Chancellor of Baqai Medical University and Prof Abdul Samad Shera, Honorary President International Diabetes Federation and Secretary General Pakistan Diabetes Association. The purpose of the walk was to create awareness in the people in general, regarding diabetes, its prevention and management and to stress the importance and need of regular physical activity and exercise.

Change in the life style from sedentary to more active with regular physical exercise and balanced diet rather than the high calorie fatty and sugary diet can prevent diabetes in a large proportion of people. The programme is a nationwide diabetes project, launched jointly by the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), and Baqai Institute of Diabetology and Endocrinology (BIDE), with an aim to giving knowledge regarding diabetes, to initiate the prevention of diabetes and to improve the diabetes care and the diabetic foot care nationwide.

A number of stalls were there at the starting point of the walk providing literature and verbal information about diabetes and its prevention and management. Moreover, free blood-sugar and cholesterol tests were provided and Body Mass Index (a criterion for obesity) was measured.

Health update

Replace sugar with buckwheat honey. This sweet substance has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient times; when it's applied to a wound, honey is a natural antibacterial salve. Now researchers say that its benefits may be much more than skin deep. Test-tube studies show that honey slows the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

Cool hot flashes

Breathe deeply. "Slow, deep abdominal breathing can reduce the frequency of hot flashes by about half," according to three recent studies. Estrogen withdrawal is partly to blame for hot flashes, but researchers believe that stress also plays a role by firing up the sympathetic nervous system. Sit in a comfortable chair and allow your breath to deepen. Inhale through your nose; exhale through your mouth. Close your eyes to cut out distraction. Let your belly be soft - you want it to rise and fall with each breath.

Boost your health in almost no time

What if you could cut your risk of heart disease, get fitter, and slow aging - not to mention protect your smile? Better health does take time, but not as much as you may think. Yes, you should exercise 30 minutes a day and sleep seven to eight hours a night. But top experts in nutrition, cardiovascular health, and cancer prevention know the super-simple, amazingly fast steps you can take to dramatically improve your well being. So take a minute or so ... and boost your health in almost no time flat.



Fight cancer

Eat the peel. The bulk of an apple's benefit lies in its skin. In a recent lab experiment, more than a dozen chemicals in the peels of red apples inhibited the growth of breast, liver, and colon cancer cells.

Take the right supplements. Getting enough vitamin D and calcium brings a remarkable reduction in cancer risk, found a recent four year study at Creighton University: Women who took the combo reduced their overall risk by up to 77 percent. "Vitamin D enhances your body's immune response - which is the first line of defence against cancer," says lead researcher Joan Lappe, PhD, RN, a professor of nursing and medicine.



Slow aging

Sniff some lavender or rosemary. The scent of lavender can bring you a restful night's sleep - but the plant can do you a world of good in daylight, too. In a recent study, volunteers sniffed the essential oils of lavender or rosemary for five minutes. Result: Levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva dropped as much as 24 percent. That's good, because the hormone increases blood pressure and suppresses the immune system. What's more, people who smelled low concentrations of lavender or high concentrations of rosemary were better at getting rid of free radicals, the pesky molecules believed to speed aging and disease.



Cut cholesterol

Sprinkle pistachios on your salad. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University recently gave volunteers a pleasant task of eatingone a half ounces (about a handful) of pistachios every day. At the end of four weeks, those who munched the nuts reduced their total cholesterol by an average of almost seven percent. That reduction has a major payoff: Cutting your total cholesterol by about seven percent reduces your heart disease risk by 14 percent. "Pistachios are one of the best sources of plant sterols, compounds we know reduce absorption of cholesterol," says researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, who led the study.