Poison - over the counter

A Dangerous Myth: If It's Over the Counter, It Must Be Safe.
The temptation is great. The convenience can be irresistible. You don’t feel well, and there are remedies for the asking just down the road at your local convenience store or pharmacy. Since you don’t need a prescription, all you have to do is decide which item will best treat your particular problem. But that could take a while. Although it’s easy to pick up a cold remedy or pain treatment without a prescription, finding the one that perfectly matches your combination of symptoms can be a challenge. This one is for sneezing, congestion and cough, but you have no cough; that one is for congestion, runny nose and fever, but you have no fever. It’s no wonder that many people never get to the fine print about the potential dangers of over-the-counter medicines.
The Risks of Over-The-Counter Therapy
Although most nonprescription remedies are safe and effective, there is no such thing as risk-free medication. Even when taken as recommended, and even when the drug does exactly what it is supposed to do, an over-the-counter treatment can cause trouble. It is not rare at our weekly medical conferences for concerns to be raised about the possibility that treatments a person might be taking (often without their doctor’s knowledge) could be contributing to the problems under discussion.
Some of the problems that may arise when taking over-the-counter treatments include:
Wrong treatment for the problem - If you take a cough suppressant for a bad cough, and if the cough is due to asthma, it’s unlikely to work. In addition, while waiting for the cough suppressant to work, the asthma may get worse. The delay in getting the right treatment can be dangerous. A recent study found that yeast medications are commonly used erroneously for symptoms that may be due to a urinary-tract infection, a condition that may be complicated by spreading of the infection to the kidney, a serious illness called pyelonephritis.
Side effects - Over-the-counter therapies generally have a low incidence of serious side effects, but side effects do occur; for certain groups, those reactions can be quite serious. One example is diphenhydramine (brand name Benadryl, and others), a common remedy for allergies that often causes sedation. For elderly persons at risk of falling, diphenhydramine can provoke confusion, dizziness or falls. A hip fracture is high price to pay for the convenience of trying to treat allergies, but that’s the sort of thing that can happen.
Drug interactions - Any drug, including nonprescription drugs, can interact with any other drug. To use the diphenhydramine example again, any other medication that causes sedation can interact with this medicine. For example, people who take Ambien or Xanax for sleep may find that the addition of diphenhydramine causes troublesome sedation, confusion or difficulty thinking, especially in the elderly.
Worsening of existing illness - Nonprescription medications may cause a pre-existing problem to worsen. Sometimes that happens when the previous problem was not even recognized. For example, if you have mild kidney failure or an ulcer, you may not even know it because both may be silent; over-the-counter ibuprofen (Advil and others) or naproxen (Aleve and others) may worsen your condition.
Nonprescription medicines are often taken incorrectly -The chances of a problem with over-the-counter treatments increases if the medicine is taken more frequently or in higher doses than recommended. And a recent poll suggests that such behavior is not rare - almost one-third of people admitted to taking more than the recommended doses of over-the-counter medications.
Duplicate medicines - Some nonprescription drugs are similar or even identical to prescription drugs, though often in a lower dose. It is easy to take too much of a medication because it is already present in something else you are taking. For example, Advil may seem like a good idea for a headache or muscle pain; but if you already take prescription strength Motrin for arthritis, you are already taking ibuprofen (the generic name for both medicines), and the added nonprescription medicine may simply increase the total dose into a risky range.
Unpredictable reactions - Just because a medicine is available without a prescription does not eliminate the rare and unpredictable allergic reaction.
Then Why Are Drugs Sold Over-the-Counter?
With so many ways for things to go wrong, you may wonder why certain nonprescription medicines got that way. The types of medicines available to the public without a prescription and the decisions to allow that vary from country to country. For example, in many countries outside the United States, antibiotics are available without a prescription.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration carefully reviews requests by drug manufacturers to make a drug available over the counter and weighs risks based on data from hundreds or thousands of people who have taken the drug in research studies or after approval as a prescription medicine. But often people in studies are entirely healthy (except for the symptom or condition that lead to that medication’s use), may not be taking other medications as you are, and are carefully screened and monitored in a way that most people taking nonprescription drugs are not. The truly rare side effects may be difficult (or impossible) to detect even after FDA approval, because there is no mandatory reporting system that records every potential problem. For all these reasons, it makes sense to be careful even with over-the-counter medicines.
Most nonprescription medicines are either less powerful versions of well-established prescription medicines (for example, ibuprofen or naproxen), particularly safe medicines for common problems (for example, ranitidine or acetaminophen), or have a well-known and extensive safety and effectiveness profile from being over the counter for many years (for example, guaifenesin as a cough suppressant in Robitussin or pseudoephedrine to reduce nasal congestion in Sudafed)
Many people make the assumption that a medicine would never be available without a prescription unless it was safe. That’s usually true, but keep in mind that each person is an individual with a unique set of prior medical problems, medication use, allergies and ways of responding to drugs.
The Solution
For some of the problems with over-the-counter medicines, the solutions are straightforward: Read the fine print, take medicines as recommended on the label, and know your own allergies and medical problems. Use generic names of medicines, not just brand names; that will make it much easier to compare what you are already taking with the nonprescription medicines. Pay particular attention to warnings about conditions you might have that would make the medicine more risky. And when in doubt, talk your own health-care provider about the advisability of any nonprescription medicine or treatment. Be sure to let him or her know what you are taking.
Don’t hesitate to ask your health-care provider for printed information, books or Web sites that provide reliable information about over-the-counter treatments. As with any prescription medicine, you want an unbiased, balanced and thorough review of risks and benefits - do not rely on advertisements for that.
Remember that the instructions on labels of nonprescription medicines usually represent conservative recommendations. Stick to the recommended doses and frequency of medication use. If you experience a possible side effect, stop the medicine; and if you aren’t already getting better, contact your health-care provider for evaluation.
The Bottom Line
The added convenience of over-the-counter therapy comes with added responsibility. Take that responsibility seriously when deciding whether to go to the convenience store for a remedy rather than seeing your doctor. Avoid “wishful thinking” - that your symptoms will always be easily treated with a nonprescription drug of your choosing. It is a myth to assume that nonprescription drugs are always a good choice or always safe. If your symptoms are unusual or severe, get some advice from your physician. But if the symptoms are something you’ve had before and were readily relieved with an over-the-counter treatment that you tolerated well, take advantage of the unprecedented number and variety of nonprescription options. Just don’t forget to read the label one more time.

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Green Tea - cut your cancer risk

CUT YOUR CANCER RISK
Several polyphenols - the potent antioxidants green tea's famous for - seem to help keep cancer cells from gaining a foothold in the body, by discouraging their growth and then squelching the creation of new blood vessels that tumors need to thrive. Study after study has found that people who regularly drink green tea reduce their risk of breast, stomach, esophagus, colon, and/or prostate cancer.
SOOTHE YOUR SKIN Got a cut, scrape, or bite, and a little leftover green tea? Soak a cotton pad in it. The tea is a natural antiseptic that relieves itching and swelling. Try it on inflamed breakouts and blemishes, sunburns, even puffy eyelids. And that's not all. In the lab, green tea helps block sun-triggered skin cancer, whether you drink it or apply it directly to the skin - which is why you're seeing green tea in more and more sunscreens and moisturizers.
STEADY YOUR BLOOD PRESSUREHaving healthy blood pressure - meaning below 120/80 - is one thing. Keeping it that way is quite another. But people who sip just half a cup a day are almost 50 percent less likely to wind up with hypertension than non-drinkers. Credit goes to the polyphenols again (especially one known as ECGC). They help keep blood vessels from contracting and raising blood pressure.
PROTECT YOUR MEMORY, OR YOUR MOM'SGreen tea may also keep the brain from turning fuzzy. Getting-up-there adults who drink at least two cups a day are half as likely to develop cognitive problems as those who drink less. Why? It appears that the tea's big dose of antioxidants fights the free-radical damage to brain nerves seen in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
STAY YOUNG
The younger and healthier your arteries are, the younger and healthier you are. So fight plaque build-up in your blood vessels, which ups the risk of heart disease and stroke, adds years to your biological age , and saps your energy too. How much green tea does this vital job take? About 10 ounces a day, which also deters your body from absorbing artery-clogging fat and cholesterol.
LOSE WEIGHT
Oh yeah, one more thing. Turns out that green tea speeds up your body's calorie-burning process.

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Vegeterian diet and cancer prevention

A vegetarian diet helps prevent cancer. Studies of vegetarians show that death rates from cancer are only about one-half to three-quarters of those of the general population.Breast cancer rates are dramatically lower in countries where diets are typically plant-based. When people from those
countries adopt a Western, meat-based diet, their rates of breast cancer soar. Vegetarians also have significantly lower rates of colon cancer than meat-eaters. Colon cancer is more closely associated with meat consumption than any other dietary factor.Why do vegetarian diets help protect against cancer? First, they are lower in fat and higher in fiber than meat-based diets. But other factors are important, too. Plants contain other cancer-fighting substances called phytochemicals. For example,vegetarians usually consume more of the plant pigments beta-carotene and lycopene. This might help to explain why
they have less lung and prostate cancer.Also, some studies have suggested that diets that avoid dairy products may reduce the risk of prostate and ovarian cancer.Some of the anti-cancer aspects of a vegetarian diet cannot yet be explained.For example, researchers are not quite sure why vegetarians have more of certain white blood cells, called “natural killer
cells,” which are able to seek out and destroy
cancer cells

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A healthy diet can help prevent cancer

What you eat can greatly affect your health and well-being. Scientific studies have shown time and again that choosing healthy foods can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
A healthy diet can help prevent cancer, since up to 60 percent of cancer cases are diet-related. Healthy foods can also help you maintain a healthy weight. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, close to 100 million Americans are overweight or obese. Being obese or overweight substantially increases the risk of morbidity from several conditions, including heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and several types of cancer.
So what type of diet is best for disease prevention and to maintain a healthy weight? The best diet is one that you can stick with for life. A healthy diet is a lifestyle, not a fad that is dangerous or difficult to maintain. Abundant evidence suggests that the most healthful diets set aside animal products and also reduce fats in general, while including large amounts of vegetables and fruits. Eliminating meat and dairy products from your diet is a powerful step in disease prevention. These products are typically high in saturated fat and cholesterol and completely devoid of fiber. They have also been specifically linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancers. Eating a low-fat, plant-based diet rich in whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables is the best way to prevent disease and increase chances of survival. One additional diet consideration may be useful for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. Choose foods that have a low Glycemic Index (or "low GI"), which means the foods that turn to sugar more slowly and cause less of a rise in blood sugar levels. Although you'll find various lists of the GI values of different foods, there are really only a few foods to be concerned about. Sugar, of course, has a high GI, as do white or wheat bread, most cold cereals, watermelon, pineapple, and baking potatoes. Foods to enjoy that have a low-GI are pumpernickel, rye, multi-grain or sourdough bread; old-fashioned oatmeal, bran cereals and Grape-Nuts; most fruits; sweet potatoes, pasta, rice, barley, couscous, beans, peas, lentils, and most vegetables.

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The Anti Cancer Food

Tomatoes - The Anti-Cancer Food
Eating vegetables and fruits is the best way of ensuring a healthy life. There are many vegetables, which besides being tasty and nutritious, enhance the immune system of your body. Tomato is one such vegetable, which is an anti-cancer agent.
CUTS RISK OF CANCER
Researchers have come up with studies, which suggest that eating tomatoes would subsequently lower the risk of cancer. The pigment called lycopene prevents cancer. This pigment is released when the vegetable is cooked.Lycopene is the element, which gives the red colour to tomatoes. The redder the tomato, more the lycopene. Tomatoes, which are green or yellow in colour, do not contain this element.
Lycopene provides all the protective qualities of the tomato. This element is also found in other fruits like watermelon and pink grapefruit.
It is a very common myth that raw tomatoes are healthier when compared to cooked ones. As mentioned earlier the cancer preventing lycopene pigment is released only when tomatoes are cooked and processed. Hence, when raw the pigment is not released and the body cannot absorb it.
As lycopene is fat-soluble, a certain amount of fat in the food helps in the absorption of this element. Besides this tomato has high nutritive value. It contains vitamins like vitamin A, C and potassium. Tomatoes are also considered as fruits. They are excellent when used in soups and curries.

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Vegeterianism - natural way to good health

The word " Vegetarian " was coined by the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom in about
1847. The word does not come from vegetable as is generally assumed : It is a derivation of the
Latin word ‘ vegetari ‘ which means to enliven.
The practice of vegetarianism, however, goes far back in history. Many noted philosophers and
religious teachers urged their followers to avoid a flesh diet. Brahminism, Jainism,
Zoraostrianism and Buddhism acknowledged the sacredness of life and the need to live without
causing suffering ; so did many of the early Christians.
There are various types of vegetarians. " Vagans "are the strictest vegetarians who eat only
plant foods and exclude all animal by-products such as eggs, milk, cheese, curd, butter, ghee
and even honey. There are " lacto vegetarians " who eat plant foods as well as dairy products
and " lacto-avo vegetarians " who eat eggs besides plant foods and dairy products. There are
even fish-eating vegetarians. The common factor among them is that they do not eat the flesh of
warm- blooded animals.
Meat seems to have assumed an exaggerated importance nutritionally. It is generally mistakenly
believed that nutritional deficiences , especially of proteins and vitamin B12 and poor health may
result if animal foods are eliminated. Studies however, have indicated to health problems or
deficiency diseases for those on a vegetarian diet.
Of the 22 amino acids -the essential components of proteins - needed by the body for its normal
functioning, only nine need be supplied by the diet as the body synthesies the remaining 13. The
body can use 100 per cent of this protein if all ten amino acids are in ideal proportions. If,
however, one or more of the essential amino acids are present in less than the ideal amount, the
value of the entire protein is reduced in the same proportions. On a quality rating scale of 1 to
100, egg protein is 95, milk is 82, meat and poultry are 67, fish 80, grains are between 50 to 70
and legumes, nuts and seeds are between 40 and 60.
The so-called protein deficiency in a vegetarian diet is in fact more imaginary than real as the
contribution of the protein value of the green vegetables has been ignored and the true protein
requirement is less than that assumed. Green vegetable protein is as high in quality as milk
protein and thus makes a very valuable contribution to the vegetarian’s protein nutrition. The
high quality of protein balances the lower quality of other vegetarian proteins such as nuts and
beans. The recommended daily allowance of 70 value proteins is 44 grams per day for women
and 56 for men. Researchers have now discovered that the actual protein requirement is much
less, being 15 grams per day of 100 value protein or 21.5 grams of 70 value protein or 30 grams
of 50 value protein. A wholesome vegetarian diet can, therefore, easily meet the body’s protein
needs.
Moreover, it is possible to combine two low-value plant proteins to get a protein of higher quality.
Thus , wheat which has a deficiency in the amino-acid lysine but an abundance of sulphur
containing amino-acids can be combined with beans which have the opposite enrichment
combination. Taken together, they complement each other to form a complete protein.
As regards the adequacy of B12 nutrition, laco-avo vegetarians and lacto-vegetarians should not
feel concerned on this score, as the B12 needs can be easily supplied by dairy products and
eggs. A quarter litre of milk or 100 grams of cheese or 1 egg per day will supply the
recommended daily allowance. This vitamin once eaten is stored in the liver. Vagans, however,
do not get this vitamin in their food, yet reliable scientific studies have found no evidence of B12
deficiency diseases. It is therefore, presumed that this vitamin can be synthesised in the body.

Most diseases of the human body are caused by auto-intoxication or self-poisoning. The flesh of
animals increases the burden of the organs of elimination and overloads the system with animal
waste matter and poisons. Chemical analysis has proved that uric acid and other uremic poisons
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contained in the animal body are almost identical to caffeine, there and nicotine, the poisonous
stimulating principles of coffee, tea and tobacco. This explains why meat stimulates the animal
passions and creates a craving for liquor, tobacco and other stronger stimulants. Excessive uric
acid resulting from meat-eating also causes diseases such as rheumatism, Bright’s disease,
kidney stones, gout and gall stones. Meat proteins cause putrefaction twice as rapidly as do
vegetable proteins. The morbid matter of the dead animal body is foreign and uncongenial to the
excretory organs of man. It is much harder for them to eliminate the waste matter of an animal
carcass than that of the human body. Moreover, the formation of ptomains or corpse poisons
begins immediately after the death of the animal and meat and poultry are usually kept in cold
storage for many days and even months before they reach the kitchen.
Another powerful influence tends to poison the flesh of slaughtered animals. As is well known,
emotions of worry, fear and anger actually poison blood and tissues. Imagine the excitable
condition of animals after many days of travel, closely packed in shaking vehicles - hungry,
thirsty, scared enroute to the slaughter -houses. Many die even before the end of their journey.
Others are driven half dead with fear and exhaustion to the slaughter pans, their instinctive fear
of death augmented by the sight and odour of the blood shambles.
Flesh is often a carrier of disease germs. Diseases of many kinds are on the increase in the
animals, making flesh foods more and more unsafe. People are continually eating flesh that may
contain tuberculosis and cancerous germs. Often animals are taken to the market and sold for
food when they are so diseased that their owners do not wish to keep them any longer. And
some of the processes of fattening them to increase their weight and consequently their market
value , produce disease. Shut away from light and pure air, breathing the atmosphere of filthy
stables, perhaps fattening on decaying foods, the entire body now becomes contaminated with
foul matter.
Benefits of Vegetarianism
A vegetarian diet can have many nutritional benefits, if it is rich in fruits and vegetables, and
contains moderate amounts of seeds, nuts, whole grains and legumes. One of the main benefits
of a proper vegetarian diet is its low caloric content in relation to the bulk supplied, which helps
maintain ideal weight.
Another benefit of the vegetarian diet is the much lower intake of fat, if dairy products, seeds and
nuts are eaten sparingly. This accounts for lower serium cholesterol levels found in vegetarians,
which considerably reduces the risk of developing heart diseases and breast and colon cancer.
A third nutritional advantage of the vegetarian diet is its high fibre content. Fibre, being
indigestible, increases the bulk of the faces, keeps them soft and makes them easy to expel.
One study has indicated that lacto-avo vegetarians consume twice as much and vagans four
times as much fibre as non-vegetarians. High fibre intake has been associated with decreased
risks of diseases of the colon, appendicits, cancer of the colon and rectum, hiatus hernia, piles
and varicose veins.
McCarrison, one of the greatest aurhoties on food, has outlined a perfect diet. According to him,
" a perfectly constituted diet is one in which the principal ingredients are milk, milk products, any
whole cereal grain or mixture of cereal grains, green leafy vegetables and fruits. These are the
protective foods. They make good the defects of other constituents of the diet, protect the body
against infection and disease of various kinds, and their use in sufficient quantity ensures
physical efficiency. "
Vegetarianism is thus a system based on scientific principles and has proved adequate for the
best nutrition free from the poisons and bacteria of diseased animals. It is the best diet for man’s optimum, physical, mental and spiritual development.

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Miracle of juices

A good immune system is the cornerstone of good health. Your immune system is your main defence against all the forces that push you in the direction of malignancy. Therefore you need to know how to keep it in the best condition. We all know that eating fruits and vegetables is good for our health. But we cannot comply with this simple fact most of the time, because: You may not like the taste of most vegetables except for potatoes. Grain based menus are more satiating. For example: pulao with curd or dal-chawal, or biryani with raita, idli sambar or upma, poha, and so on. We like our vegetables overcooked, mashed and slightly greasy. Further more, even if we like eating raw fruits and vegetables, it is not practically possible to eat enough in a day to nourish your body properly. While this has always been true, it is especially pertinent today, when your body demands more nutrients in order to detoxify the large amount of environmental toxins. You definitely don't have the time to eat a kilo or two of carrots everyday! But you certainly can find the time to drink a couple of glasses of its juice in order to obtain its nutritional benefits! It is for this reason that you need to drink fruit and vegetable juices. Benefits of Juices: Tulsi juice for asthma : The juice of tulsi leaves is known to be an excellent, remedy for asthma, bronchitis, cold cough, sinus problems, acidity, constipation and fever. The leaves of black tulsi have more medicinal properties than green tulsi. Crush about 25 leaves at a time into a paste, add water, lime and salt and drink it twice a day to get its health benefits. Watermelon juice for water retention : Its juice is rich in potassium and helps to reduce water retention and high blood pressure. Cucumber juice also helps the same conditions provided other dietary modifications and lifestyle changes are also followed. Avoid excess use of salt, sugar and maida if you suffer from water retention. Carrot juice : This miracle juice is rich in calcium, vitamin A, sodium, potassium, magnesium and also contains some amounts of vitamins B, C, D, E and K. As calcium, is a fussy mineral, it needs a whole lot of other minerals to support its absorption. Carrot juice provides the correct mix of nutrients to increase bio-availability of calcium. You can use 6-7 large carrots to make a glass of juice and drink it twice a day to derive its health benefits. For those of you who have given up drinking milk, carrot juice can prove to be a good alternative. It helps fight tumours, increases vigour, vitality, appetite and body weight. It helps improve the functioning of the nervous system, improves skin, hair, nails and purifies the blood. You can also take carrot juice along with spinach juice. Blend about 50 gms of spinach (palak) leaves (after washing them thoroughly in a vinegar solution). Add this paste to the extracted carrot juice. Squeeze lemon juice, add seasonings if required and take it for a period of 2-3 months. It strengthens immunity, prevents constipation, bleeding gums, anaemia, indigestion, colds and coughs. Drink at least two three glasses of fresh juice daily. You will begin to feel healthier, have more energy and a greater resistance to disease.

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