But within a year or two farmers saw a devastating increase in pestilence and water shortages.
Our research at the Centre of Excellence for Postharvest Biotechnology at Nottingham University s Malaysia Campus is making these natural products into nano-forms or submicron particles to control postharvest diseases.
Synthetic chemicals are used currently to control postharvest diseases but consumers worry about the chemical residues they leave on fruit their environmental impact
and the potential for pathogens to become resistant to them. Our research is a response to this developing more environmentally friendly and non-chemical approaches.
since these natural biodegradable products we are researching can also contribute to traditional medicine and pharmacology as we learn more about our natural environment.
Hopefully too we can develop better ways of reducing the huge amount of food loss that takes place
#Can Apple Health Change Behavior?(Op-Ed) Dr. Jim Lebret is an assistant professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical center/Bellevue Hospital center.
He contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. As an early adopter of medical technology I wanted to cheer
when I heard Apple had announced its new Health app which is designed to collect and organize health-related information from other apps on an iphone.
It's an easy-to-read dashboard of health and fitness data such as heart rate blood sugar and miles walked.
But as a doctor I asked Will this save lives? For the moment the answer is no.
People are limited by their own health-behavior issues. Most people are motivated to eat well and work out but good intentions aren't enough.
You need motivational support to turn intention into action said David Conroy a professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State university in an interview with me.
His current study in The American Journal of Preventive medicine conducted with colleagues at Penn State examined more than 150 of the most popular exercise apps.
Most of the apps Conroy studied demonstrate how to properly perform a workout which is great
if you've taken the initiative to locate a gym buy a membership set aside time
But according to the U S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 80 percent of Americans never make it that far especially those most in need of healthy habits such as the elderly the sick and the poor.
I tried to imagine my former patient Linda using Apple's Health app. When I first met Linda in my residency clinic she was 62.
She had a mop of brown curly hair; a boisterous personality; and uncontrolled diabetes. She'd recently had her first heart attack.
Linda wolfed down a Whopper and fries during her first visit. I asked her to see a nutritionist
and to walk 15 minutes each day. They're on my to-do list she said but her three sons and a job as a human resources manager always distracted her.
Once people learn the importance of a healthy behavior they often intend to use that behavior
Some will suggest that Apple's Health app could bring attention to poor health behaviors spurring Linda and others to act.
and relapse that led to their health decline. In addition Apple largely caters to those who have taken already steps to change their lives not the vast majority of people who stall at the vague insight
and clinicians who can leverage scientifically verified behavior modification programs and find a way to turn those techniques into apps that will motivate individuals like Linda to hurdle the obstacles between the couch and the gym.
Doc Reviews Food Words Used in Medicine From symptoms such as watermelon stomach to blueberry muffin rash food imagery has helped long doctors describe features of diseases and health conditions.
Now one doctor is calling to celebrate this centuries-old tradition and secure its place in medical teaching.
References to food items although sometimes stomach turning reinforce doctors'understanding of diseases and have enriched the medical lexicon said Dr. Ritu Lakhtakia head of the department of Pathology at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman.
A part of this curious tradition may owe its origins to practicing physicians and researchers catching up on their meals in clinical side rooms
or operating theatre offices or with an inevitably cold platter eaten with eyes glued to a microscope Lakhtakia wrote today (July 9) in the journal Medical Humanities.
Whatever the genesis these time-honored allusions have been and will continue to be a lively learning inducement for generations of budding physicians she said. 7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe From anchovy sauce to spaghetti and meatballs The food references in medicine range from beverages and fruits to dairy products
and even whole dishes. In a gastronomic tour of medical conditions Lakhtakia highlights some of the well-known instances.
For example anchovy sauce is used to describe the pus from a liver abscess and sago spleen indicates protein (amyloid) deposits
whereas oat cell carcinoma describes the appearance of a highly aggressive form of lung cancer. The beer belly is a well-known example of a reference to a beverage Lakhtakia said.
Dairy products also feature prominently in medical terms including milk patches which describe the white plaques showing healed inflammation in the membranes around the heart and cafã au lait spots
which refer to pigmented birthmarks on the skin. These sometimes indicate a genetic disorder that causes nerve tumors.
References to various types of cheese help doctors identify certain bacterial infections whereas egg shell crackling denotes the grating sound that indicates of a type of bone tumor that thins the bone surface as it expands.
The gastronomic analogies in medicine also draw on breakfast foods: A croissant in a cell nucleus cues doctors to diagnose benign growths on peripheral nerves
and blueberry muffin rash is a sign of congenital rubella while the shape of a red blood cell is referred to as doughnut.
Sometimes references include an entire dish for example a skin condition called tinea versicolor is characteristic by its spaghetti and meatball appearance.
With the names of fruits vegetables and legumes doctors can identify the shape of organs or the size of tumors.
For example the kidneys have a beanlike shape; people can have body shapes similar to an apple
or a pear and tumors can be walnut-size or orange-size. Fruits also come in handy in identifying certain diseases:
Strawberry cervix describes the inflamed red appearance of the neck of the uterus in women with a parasite infection called trichomoniasis
and peau d'orange which is French for orange peel refers to appearance of the skin affected by inflammatory breast cancer.
Sometimes these alternative terms help doctors remember conditions described by difficult medical terms. Watermelon stomach euphemizes the vascular streaks seen in the unpronounceable condition gastric antral vascular ectasia Lakhtakia writes.
The condition consists of dilated vessels under the stomach lining which may rupture and bleed.
Reminiscent of imagination cultures and creativity These audacious and colorful references can be attributed to the imagination of the scientists who came up with them as well as to those scientists'regional food preferences Lakhtakia said.
The majority of the references mention European foods but American foods have been added later and there are a few examples of more-Eastern food items as well.
Besides their usefulness in teaching medicine such food references could stimulate epicurean enlightenment in medical students
and teach them about this aspect of global culture and gastronomical differences Lakhtakia said. However using allusions to food
when referring to illness also calls for strong stomachs Lakhtakia said. It is a wonder that in the midst of the smells
and sights of human affliction a physician has the stomach to think of food at all she wrote.
Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her@alterwired. Follow Live Science@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Originally published on Live Science i
#Smart Health: Apple Watch Wants to Get You Moving Apple's new smartwatch Apple Watch aims to get people to move more by tracking their daily exercise as well as sitting time according to an announcement from the company today (Sept. 9). Being more active is one of the best
things you can do to improve your health and Apple Watch gives us the ability to motivate people to be more active Tim cook CEO of Apple said at the Apple Watch unveiling today in Cupertino California.
Apple Watch has a fitness app that monitors a person's movement throughout the day using the watch's accelerometer
Fantasy Fitness Tracker: 8 Absolutely Must-Have Features The Apple Watch also has a move ring that fills up as you burn calories
in addition to not enough exercise too much sitting is bad for your health.)A separate workout app in the Apple Watch will track your stats during a workout including how far you've gone how fast you're moving and the length of your workout.
Data from your Apple Watch can be stored on the iphone's Health app which can be accessed by third-party apps the company said.
Many of the health components in Apple Watch are available in fitness trackers such as Basis
On the other hand most fitness trackers do not have the ability to run apps as the Apple Watch does.
The Apple Watch the Sport Collection (specialized for fitness) and the Apple Watch Edition which is made from 18-karat gold.
which leads to crippling injuries; mutilating animals by cutting their tails horns and genitals off without pain relief;
and the health of animals raised for food and firmly believe that robust farm animal health
and welfare standards can have both a direct and an indirect impact on food quality and safety.
The severe spatial restriction also leads to disuse osteoporosis. The study determined that battery cages#the industry's standard confinement system are in fact the only method of housing birds that does't have the potential to provide satisfactory welfare for laying hens.
Sows routinely confined in gestation crates display behavioral abnormalities such as bar-biting and aggression caused by the environmental deficiencies and restricted feeding regimens.
Sows in large industrial operations also are affected by a number of production-related diseases and suffer from higher mortality rates.
Health Benefits, Risks & Nutrition Facts Potatoes are the No. 1 vegetable crop in the United states and the fourth most consumed crop in the world behind rice wheat and corn according to the U s. Department of agriculture.
But when prepared in these ways they can lead to weight gain diabetes and heart disease according to the Harvard School of Public health.
Here are the nutrition facts for a potato according to the U s. Food and Drug Administration
which are organic components of plants that are thought to promote health according to the USDA. Phytonutrients in potatoes include carotenoids flavonoids and caffeic acid.
or delay some types of cell damage according to the National institutes of health. They may also help with digestion heart health blood pressure and even cancer prevention.
Blood pressure Potatoes may help lower blood pressure for several reasons. Victoria Jarzabkowski a nutritionist with the Fitness Institute of Texas at The University of Texas at Austin said that the fiber found in potatoes can help lower cholesterol by binding with cholesterol in the blood.
After it binds we excrete it she said. Potatoes are also a good source of potassium.
Potassium is a mineral that helps lower blood pressure according to the U s. Food and Drug Administration.
Potassium too can help lower blood pressure through its actions as a vasodilator (blood vessel widener. Scientists at the Institute for Food Research have discovered that potatoes contain chemicals called kukoamines
Brain functioning and nervous system health The B6 vitamins in potatoes are critical to maintaining neurological health.
Vitamin b6 helps create useful brain chemicals including serotonin dopamine and norepinephrine according to the University of Maryland Medical center.
This means that eating potatoes may help with depression stress and even perhaps attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD.
A 1995 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that modest increases in glucose could help enhance learning and memory.
Inflammation Some people think potatoes and other members of the nightshade family such as eggplants tomatoes and peppers trigger arthritis flares.
However there is limited scientific evidence to support this hypothesis according to the Arthritis Foundation. The organization suggests that people with arthritis try cutting nightshade vegetables from their diets for two weeks to see
if symptoms improve. Some studies suggest these vegetables may actually help reduce arthritis symptoms the foundation said.
For example a 2011 study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that potatoes may reduce inflammation.
Digestion The largest health benefit offered by potatoes is how they can help with digestion due to their high fiber content Jarzabkowski said.
Heart health Potatoes give your heart plenty of reasons to swoon due to the fiber content.
and high levels of it are associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Athletic performance Jarzabkowski described how potatoes can be a win for athletes.
Jarzabkowski said The last thing I'd recommend to a diabetic is a potato. On the other hand potatoes are also a great source of fiber Jarzabkowski said
Even when prepared in a healthy way potatoes can present health problems to individuals with obesity or diabetes.
The Harvard School of Public health tracked the diet and lifestyle of 120000 men and women for about 20 years and found that people who increased their consumption of French fries
If they are sprouting the National institutes of health recommends cutting off the eyes and their sprouts before eating the potato.
Potato stems branches leaves and fruits are toxic containing alkaloids such as arsenic chaconine and solanine.
Solanine is very toxic even in small amounts according to the NIH. Poison is also found in green potatoes.
The vegetables turn green if they have had too much exposure to light. According to the NIH you should never eat potatoes that are spoiled or green below the skin.
Here are some potato facts from the U s. Potato Board and the Idaho Potato Museum:
For many years people thought that eating potatoes would cause leprosy. Potatoes arrived in The british colonies in 1621
Over the course of the famine almost 1 million people died from starvation or disease.
and 100000 insect species. These have been a great source for the discovery of new medicines with at least 120 approved for use.
The results imply that there is still time to conserve the immense genetic diversity of microbes as sources of new antibiotics and absorbers of carbon dioxide.
Hamsters were brought to the United states in 1936 from Syria according to the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association.
#Skipping Red Meat May Lower Breast cancer Risk Women who eat more poultry fish nuts and legumes and less red meat when they are young adults might have lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life according to a new study.
The researchers looked at nearly 89000 women ages 26 to 45 and followed them for 20 years to look at links between the women's diet as they reported it in 1991 and their risk of breast cancer.
By the end of the study period 2830 women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The women who reported the highest consumption of red meat about 1. 6 servings daily had a 22 percent higher risk of breast cancer compared with women who ate the least red meat
or about 0. 2 servings daily according to the findings published today (June 10) in the journal BMJ.
Each serving per day increase in red meat was associated with a 13 percent increase in risk of breast cancer the researchers wrote in their paper.
This increase is relatively small but because breast cancer is a relatively common cancer the absolute number of excess cases attributable to red meat intake would be substantial
and hence a public health concern they wrote. 6 Foods That May Affect Breast cancer Risk The results also showed that eating more poultry in early adulthood was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
The researchers estimated that replacing one daily serving of red meat with a serving of other protein-rich foods may reduce risk of breast cancer by 14 percent.
Red meat alternatives include legumes nuts poultry and fish. Previous studies have linked red meat to several cancers particularly colon cancer.
Although it's not clear how red meat may increase the risk of cancer researchers are investigating several possible mechanisms.
For example cooking meat at high temperatures can produce cancer-causing chemicals. Meat proteins may also promote tumors'growth by triggering growth hormones
which could explain the link. Studies have produced mixed results on the link between red meat and breast cancer.
However most previous studies focused on people's diets during midlife and later whereas it is possible that diet during early adulthood has greater effects on the development of breast cancer the researchers said.
In the study red meat included both unprocessed and processed meat products. Poultry included chicken and turkey and fish included tuna salmon mackerel and sardines.
The results held when the researchers accounted for other factors that could affect the risk of breast cancer such as age weight race family history of breast cancer history of benign breast disease smoking habits and oral contraceptive use.
The researchers examined whether the link between red meat and breast cancer risk would change when levels of other risk factors changed.
They found that only oral contraceptives seemed to further increase the risk associated with red meat. For each daily serving of red meat the risk of breast cancer was 54 percent higher among women who currently used oral contraceptives
and 11 percent higher in women who were former users of the contraceptives. The researchers detailed the findings today (June 10) in the journal BMJ.
Email Bahar Gholipour or follow her@alterwired. Follow us@Livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Live Science
#Whoosh! Aircraft Drops Retardant on Oregon Fire (Photo) Zooming low and tight against a cloud of billowing smoke an MD-87 air tanker drops retardant on the Two Bulls fire
which includes contaminants such as sulfides as on pure methane. Now the company is setting out to achieve the same yields at a commercial scale.
We are very confident that livestock emissions were being underestimated said lead study author Kevin Wecht an atmospheric chemist at Harvard university in Massachusetts.
The difference between fuel-reduction burning and back burning is effectively the same as the difference between elective and emergency surgery.
and protect human health. Fuel-reduction burning will remain a key tool that must be incorporated cleverly in landscape fire planning.
#Stress Makes Antarctic Penguins Less-Attentive Parents Stress induced by changes in Antarctic sea ice may cause adult male Adã lie penguins to be less attentive to their chicks and may increase chick mortality according to a new study.
A certain degree of stress and the related release of hormones can benefit penguins and other animals by increasing alertness and reallocating energy reserves to react to stressors.
But chronic stress can produce negative effects in an individual's health and behavior and can jeopardize a parent's ability to care for its young.
Changed ice more stress As the distribution of sea ice is projected to continue to change throughout the century as climate change progresses researchers based at the University of Strasbourg in France were interested in determining how this environmental stress may impact the future population of Adã lies on the southernmost continent.
and captured and treated 10 adult males with pellets containing corticosterone a stress hormone common in birds.
Evidence builds The researchers were surprised not especially to find that the stress hormones took a toll on parenting
and could help pinpoint nuanced behavioral changes associated with elevated levels of stress hormones Thierry said.
and you have not had shot a tetanus you should seek medical attention because the corn snake s mouth may contain bacteria that can lead to infection f
#German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions With a population of more than 82 million Germany is in Central europe bordering Austria Belgium Czech republic Denmark France Luxembourg Netherlands Switzerland and Poland.
Does Alcoholism Have an Evolutionary Basis? As the child of an alcoholic father Robert Dudley long wondered what caused the destructive allure of alcohol.
Then while working in the Panamanian forest as a biologist Dudley saw monkeys eating ripe fruit
Maybe alcoholism is an evolutionary hangover. Had fruit-eating animals including human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage by learning to associate the smell and taste of alcohol with ripe fruit?
However in the modern one where booze is plentiful this adaptation produces a major public health problem for some people according to his hypothesis. His idea echoes the thrifty gene hypothesis which proposes that millennia of natural selection for an efficient metabolism led to diabetes
Despite the concept's name drunkenness is only a small part of the hypothesis. Stories of apparently intoxicated animals may get a lot of attention
I am a great friend of Dr. Dudley's but found his drunken monkey hypothesis rather speculative and unsupported to say the least Miltontold Live Science in an email.
The health effects of alcohol are another point of contention. Dudley cites studies showing beneficial effects of moderate ethanol consumption in a few animals and in humans.
which only becomes toxic when encountered in abnormally high concentrations. Milton who is skeptical of the benefits just sees an enjoyable toxin.
She has her own theory on the human attraction to ethanol. Unlike our primate relatives humans have no innate nutritional wisdom that tells us what to consume she said.
and generation after generation has learned to like it as a result The reason for this attraction probably has nothing to do with nutrition or health:
</p><p>When the babies are around a month old the mother spider rolls over on her back allowing the spiderlings to clamber over her kill her by injecting their venom
</p><p>The teensy female poison arrow frog literally goes above and beyond when taking on the duties of motherhood.
and watching them hatch the strawberry poison arrow frog carries her tadpoles one by one on her back from the rain forest floor up into trees as high as 100 feet.
The mother strawberry poison arrow frog then feeds each of her young with her own unfertilized eggs over the course of six to eight weeks
and so as it grew would deliberately place material in such a way as to minimise stress.
and the result was a fantastic reduction in stress concentration allowing for more slender components.
#Health check: How Food Affects Mood and Mood Affects Food (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
Eating good food promotes overall health and well-being but what you eat may also impact how you feel.
and oily fish for instance is associated with reductions in mood swings depression and anxiety. And the opposite holds for a diet based on foods high in refined sugar (think lollies) one that combines high levels of sugar
Results of research on the connection between food selection and poor mood are reasonably consistent people in a negative frame of mind are more likely to choose sugary fatty or salty indulgence or comfort foods rather than nutritious ones.
which has been shown to improve mood by reducing anxiety and stress or doing fun things such as watching a film listening to music or visiting friends.
Such activities not only enhance mood but also assist with controlling indulgence food intake. The connection between food selection and positive mood (if there is one) is still unclear.
What we can say with confidence is that eating a well-balanced diet may confer not only physical health benefits but also better mental health through improved mood.
Kate Flinders is a member of the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) and as a member of this association she is accredited as an Accredited Practising Dietitan (APD) and Accredited Nutritionist (AN).
Chris Forbes-Ewan receives funding from the NHMRC. This article was published originally on The Conversation.
The new study used data from 5540 high-school seniors who were asked about their hookah use between 2010 and 2012.4 Myths About Hookah Health The new finding is in line with a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control
. while the use of alternative tobacco products such as hookahs has increased by an alarming 123 percent said Dr. Michael Weitzman a professor of pediatrics
and environmental medicine at New york University and co-author of the new study. Weitzman said this trend is especially worrisome
However evidence suggests that hookahs may be even more damaging to health than cigarettes are said he. Lung cancer respiratory illness and periodontal disease are some of the health risks associated with hookah smoking according to the CDC.
The appeal of hookahs Although hookah smoking and cigarette smoking cause similar health woes they differ in important ways said Joseph Palamar an assistant professor of population health at NYU
and co-author of the study. For one thing hookahs are smoked frequently in hookah bars and lounges where smokers can order their preferred flavor of tobacco along with their favorite cocktail or juice.
However the normalization of hookah use could result in a potential epidemic of a lethal habit Weitzman said.
and those who used alcohol marijuana or other illicit substances were more likely to use hookah.
The study will be published in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics. Follow Elizabeth Palermo on Twitter@techepalermo Facebook or Google+.
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