Wednesday, July 29, 2009

More Sex Is Safer Sex

It's true: AIDS is nature's awful retribution for our tolerance of immoderate and socially irresponsible sexual behavior. The epidemic is the price of our permissive attitudes toward monogamy, chastity, and other forms of sexual conservatism.

You've read elsewhere about the sin of promiscuity. Let me tell you about the sin of self-restraint.

Suppose you walk into a bar and find four potential sex partners. Two are highly promiscuous; the others venture out only once a year. The promiscuous ones are, of course, more likely to be HIV-positive. That gives you a 50-50 chance of finding a relatively safe match.
But suppose all once-a-year revelers could be transformed into twice-a-year revelers. Then, on any given night, you'd run into twice as many of them. Those two promiscuous bar patrons would be outnumbered by four of their more cautious rivals. Your odds of a relatively safe match just went up from 50-50 to four out of six.

That's why increased activity by sexual conservatives can slow down the rate of infection and reduce the prevalence of AIDS. In fact, according to Professor Michael Kremer of MIT's economics department, the spread of AIDS in England could plausibly be retarded if everyone with fewer than about 2.25 partners per year were to take additional partners more frequently. That covers three-quarters of British heterosexuals between the ages of 18 and 45. (Much of this column is inspired by Professor Kremer's research.)

If multiple partnerships save lives, then monogamy can be deadly. Imagine a country where almost all women are monogamous, while all men demand two female partners per year. Under those conditions, a few prostitutes end up servicing all the men. Before long, the prostitutes are infected; they pass the disease to the men; and the men bring it home to their monogamous wives. But if each of those monogamous wives was willing to take on one extramarital partner, the market for prostitution would die out, and the virus, unable to spread fast enough to maintain itself, might die out along with it.

Or consider Joan, who attended a party where she ought to have met the charming and healthy Martin. Unfortunately Fate, through its agents at the Centers for Disease Control, intervened. The morning of the party, Martin ran across one of those CDC-sponsored subway ads touting the virtues of abstinence. Chastened, he decided to stay home. In Martin's absence, Joan hooked up with the equally charming but considerably less prudent Maxwell--and Joan got AIDS. Abstinence can be even deadlier than monogamy.

If those subway ads are more effective against the cautious Martins than against the reckless Maxwells, then they are a threat to the hapless Joans. This is especially so when they displace Calvin Klein ads, which might have put Martin in a more socially beneficent mood.

You might object that even if Martin had dallied with Joan, he would only have freed Maxwell to prey on another equally innocent victim. To this there are two replies. First, we don't know that Maxwell would have found another partner: Without Joan, he might have struck out that night. Second, reducing the rate of HIV transmission is in any event not the only social goal worth pursuing: If it were, we'd outlaw sex entirely. What we really want is to minimize the number of infections resulting from any given number of sexual encounters; the flip side of this observation is that it is desirable to maximize the number of (consensual) sexual encounters leading up to any given number of infections. Even if Martin had failed to deny Maxwell a conquest that evening, and thus failed to slow the epidemic, he could at least have made someone happy.
To an economist, it's clear why people with limited sexual pasts choose to supply too little sex in the present: Their services are underpriced. If sexual conservatives could effectively advertise their histories, HIV-conscious suitors would compete to lavish them with attention. But that doesn't happen, because such conservatives are hard to identify. Insufficiently rewarded for relaxing their standards, they relax their standards insufficiently.

So a socially valuable service is under-rewarded and therefore under-supplied. This is a problem we've experienced before. We face it whenever a producer fails to safeguard the environment.
Extrapolating from their usual response to environmental issues, I assume that liberals will want to attack the problem of excessive sexual restraint through coercive regulation. As a devotee of the price system, I'd prefer to encourage good behavior through an appropriate system of subsidies.

The question is: How do we subsidize Martin's sexual awakening without simultaneously subsidizing Maxwell's ongoing predations? Just paying people to have sex won't work--not with Maxwell around to reap the bulk of the rewards. The key is to subsidize something that is used in conjunction with sex and that Martin values more than Maxwell.
Quite plausibly, that something is condoms. Maxwell knows that he is more likely than Martin to be infected already, and hence probably values condoms less than Martin does. Subsidized condoms could be just the ticket for luring Martin out of his shell without stirring Maxwell to a new frenzy of activity.

As it happens, there is another reason to subsidize condoms: Condom use itself is under-rewarded. When you use one, you are protecting both yourself and your future partners, but you are rewarded (with a lower chance of infection) only for protecting yourself. Your future partners don't know about your past condom use and therefore can't reward it with extravagant courtship. That means you fail to capture the benefits you're conferring, and as a result, condoms are underused.

It is often argued that subsidized (or free) condoms have an upside and a downside: The upside is that they reduce the risk from a given encounter, and the downside is that they encourage more encounters. But it's plausible that in reality, that's not an upside and a downside--it's two upsides. Without the subsidies, people don't use enough condoms, and the sort of people who most value condoms don't have enough sex partners.

All these problems--along with the case for subsidies--would vanish if our sexual pasts could somehow be made visible, so that future partners could reward past prudence and thereby provide appropriate incentives. Perhaps technology can ultimately make that solution feasible. (I envision the pornography of the future: "Her skirt slid to the floor and his gaze came to rest on her thigh, where the imbedded monitor read, 'This site has been accessed 314 times.' ") But until then, the best we can do is to make condoms inexpensive--and get rid of those subway ads.



By Steven E. Landsburg
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Lemon good for skin

Lemon juice is an acid, which can dry up our skin very fast. When it is used inappropriately, it may even burn it. It's not BAD for your skin, but you definitely shouldn't wash your whole face with the lemon juice; dry skin all over isn't good. The following are some advices found the web and I have summaries them for the ease of everyone.

What you SHOULD do with lemon juice.

1. Wash your face with a facial cleanser you prefer (most dermatologists will suggest cetaphil, but just test out different cleansers. Make sure your cleanser doesn't leave your skin either oily or dry.)

2. Dry your face by dabbing at it with a towel. Don't wipe it down. Make sure it's completely dry.

3. Place lemon juice on your problem spots using a cotton ball or Qtip(pimples, oily parts of your face, bumps, or anything you want dried out)

4. The lemon juice will dry out those spots; don't put lotion on the same spots you put the lemon juice on, because it will cancel the actions out. If your skin starts becoming irritated, really red, extremely itchy, or you get a rash, wash off the lemon juice. It's alright if it burns A TINY BIT, because it's just drying up the spots.
With the lemon juice on your face now, I'd suggest washing it off so you don't hurt anything on your face.

Lemon is good for the skin.. It contains vitamins especially vitamin c which helps everything including the skin we have.

1. You should be drinking it (the juice from one or two lemons a day make a big difference). Make sure that you rinse your mouth and teeth well.

2. For acne you ought to start out with a real soapy washcloth and hot water. Rub your face delicately and then rinse with cool water.

3. Change your pillow cases once a day if you really have a lot of acne.

4. Drink more water during the day and cut out the sugary beverages andcandy bars that you may be eating. Don’t eat fried foods like those delicious frence fries and potatoe chips,

Eat an apple a day.
Eat beans a few days a week to substitute red meat which is high in fats. Oh, You should have about two table spoonfulls of any kind of yogurt per day,
You will feel a lot better if you can manage to do these things, they are positive for your skin.


source
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Monday, July 27, 2009

Beer is good for Health


A pint of beer ( 1/8 a gallon ) may help protect against heart disease more effectively than red wine or spirits, researchers have found.

While the health benefits of red wine have long been touted by scientists, a letter in medical journal The Lancet suggests that the odd pint may also be a good idea.


Beer contains vitamin B6 which prevents the build up in the body of a chemical called homocysteine - thought to be linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease.


However, Dutch researchers have discovered that this may not be the only reason why beer may be good for the heart.


Dr Henk Hendriks and colleagues from the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, studied 111 healthy men who each drank beer, red wine, spirits, and water, for three weeks, with dinner.


They found that homocysteine levels did not increase after beer consumption, but rose after drinking wine and spirits.


Beer drinkers had a 30% increase of vitamin B6 in blood plasma.


Levels of B6 also rose in people who had drunk wine and spirits, although not by the same amount.


Dr Hendriks' team suggests that beer may contain other ingredients that help protect against heart disease.


Dr Hendriks told BBC News Online: "Moderate alcohol consumption affects many processes in the body, one of which is the significant increase in HDL cholesterol - the good cholesterol.


"However, one should not drink alcohol to become healthy."


Andrew Varley, of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, warned against people using the research as an excuse to drink more beer.


He said: "Any research about the various health-giving properties of different types of alcohol is a bit of a red herring as the effect is usually marginal and restricted to a very small group of people under certain circumstances.


"There are damn sight better ways to protect against heart disease than by drinking beer, but people love this sort of thing because it gives them an excuse."


Mr Varley said that drinking large quantities of beer would create far more health problems than it would solve.


A spokesman for the British Heart Foundation said: "At the moment we should all stick to the known facts: one or two units of alcohol a day may have a protective affect on the heart but more than this could do more harm than good.


"Using this study as an excuse to go on a beer binge over the Bank Holiday weekend is not the answer.

source

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Orange Juice reduce heart disease


Nugget : Other than drinking orange juice, a good diet is the most important factor in heart disease.

Two glasses of orange juice a day lowers blood pressure, a new study suggests. It doesn't mean that OJ is the cure for what ails you. It does mean that a good diet is crucial -- especially for heart patients.
High blood pressure isn't good for anybody. It's a particular problem for people with clogged arteries. Blood-pressure drugs help, but a good diet can make a big difference.



For the first two weeks of the study, they drank two glasses a day of an orange-flavored drink fortified with vitamin C. Their blood pressure dropped a bit. During the next two weeks, they drank plain, not-from-concentrate orange juice. Blood pressure dropped a little more. For the next two weeks they drank OJ fortified with vitamin C and for the two weeks after that they drank OJ fortified with both vitamin C and vitamin E. At the end of the final two weeks, most patients had blood pressure within the normal range.

"This study is intriguing and thought-provoking but it doesn't mean we should tell people to drink two glasses of orange juice a day," Sperling tells WebMD. "But people with heart problems absolutely have to make changes to their diets. There is good data that diet -- weight loss, watching alcohol, and salt intake -- may have a greater impact than medical therapy."
And as the OJ study suggests, a little drop in blood pressure goes a long way.
"A small difference in blood pressure can make a big difference in cardiovascular risk," Sperling says. "And in a diabetic person, we shouldn't be satisfied with just reasonable control -- we should go for optimal blood pressure.
source
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Our Bottle drink isn't safe


For years tap water has been under scrutiny for the potential risks involved with chemicals, added minerals, and general impurities that can cause dangerous side effects. The fear of the tap led to a surge of bottled water and a craze that has been long-lasting because these attractive little plastic bottles are convenient and no one questioned their source. Emerging research shows that maybe we should not have been in fear of the tap, but rather we should have been embracing it.


In an investigation of almost 200 brands of widely used bottled waters, an Environmental Working Group (EWG) found some startling results when all of the data was collected. The EWG Sr. Vice President for Research, Jane Houlihan, discussed these findings in a congressional oversight hearing in order to speed up the process in helping the government regulate new bottled water standards.

Perhaps the most surprising result of the study was that out of the 188 different brands of bottled water investigated, only 2 disclosed these three basic facts about the water contained in them:

  1. The exact source of the water.
  2. How the water is purified.
  3. Which chemical pollutants may be in every bottle.

These three little facts may seem insignificant, but if you stop to think about it, knowing where the water comes from that you are drinking is a good idea not only as a safety concern but an economical concern as well. Think of how many times you have been in a gas station, restaurant, or amusement park and bought an expensive (between 2 and 7 dollars) bottle of water.

The mystery surrounding the mostly-empty labels on your little plastic bottles is explained by Houlihan because under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives the brand makers of beverages the ability to choose what details they would like to give to their consumers. However, tap water doesn’t get off so easy under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because the Safe Water Drinking Act makes the nation’s 52,000 tap water suppliers develop an annual water report. Houlihan says that the allure of fancy bottles and simple labels has been distracting, “Many people assume bottled water is healthier and safer to drink than ordinary tap water…. The ugly truth is that under lax federal law, consumers know very little about the quality of bottled water on which they spend billions every year.”

So next time you are thirsty and are not near your tap or another local source of water, which 2 brands can you trust the most? The two highest rated bottled waters because of their adherence to the three basic facts listed above are: Ozarka Drinking Water and Penta Ultra-Purified Water. They both list their water sources being geographically specific as well as giving their water treatment methods on the label. Their websites gave recent quality tests done to show the quality of their water.

The disappointing facts of the report also showed that none of the top ten bottled water suppliers in the United States include the specific water source and the treatment method on their labels. By using enticing terms like “perfect, pure, and clean,” the brand makers are advertising a genuine product but not delivering one. Any of these ten waters may in fact be as safe as your local tap water, but if they do not list all three of these requirements on the label, these facts might be hard to find out: Aquafina, Arrowhead, Crystal Geyser, Dasani, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, NestlĂ© Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring, and Zephyrhills.

If you are a die-hard recycler, someone who stocks up on bottled water, or a person who travels a lot, you may want to check the label before purchasing. The full report can be found at the EWG website where you can look up your favorite bottle of water and see how it stacks up against the top ten. The good news is that some people are taking the initiative to require specific information on their bottles; in fact California enacted a law that took effect January 1, 2009, in which the three questions need to be included on every label and on their websites. A bill is in process for the U.S. Senate to pass a similar law for the entire nation…then we can all drink peacefully.

http://www.healthnews.com/nutrition-diet/is-your-bottled-water-safe-3470.html
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Friday, July 17, 2009

Sleeping pattern



Our Sleep patterns change with age, anxiety levels and many other factors. Normally, younger people have more concentrated periods of deep sleep compared to older people. That's why old people tend to wake up in the middle of the night ( usually at 2-3am), when the cycle hit the peak.

source


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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Visa charged teen $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 for drugs


The embarrassingly-named VISA BUXX card is a debit card for teenagers: parents get reports, control, etc. My daughter has one.

My lectures about financial responsibility appear to have failed: yesterday she charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 at the drug store. That's 2,000 times more than the national debt, which is a paltry 11 trillion.

The ever-vigilant folks at VISA added a $20 "negative balance fee," and have suspended the card.

When I called, they said that there was a "system problem," and that the "help desk was working on it."


source
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Facts on Fruits

We all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It's not as easy as you think. It's important to know how and when to eat.

What is the correct way of eating fruits?

IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS! FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.

If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let's say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.

In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil.

So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining - every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet etc - actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!

Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will not happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.

There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.

When you need to drink fruit juice - drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don't even drink juice that has been heated up. Don't eat cooked fruits because you don't get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.

But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!

KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.

APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.

STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.

ORANGE : Sweetest medicine. Taking 2-4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.

WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of lycopene - the cancer fighting oxidant.. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.

GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.

source
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Home remedies for Cough ( Whooping cough)

Nugget : the disease does carry the risk of severe complications, including pneumonia and brain damage.

Nugget 2 :patients should avoid eating mucous-forming foods like milk, milk products, and dairy including tofu or ice cream, in order to better manage the treatment.

What is whooping cough?

Whooping cough -- also called pertussis -- is caused by a highly contagious bacterial infection. The disease-causing bacterium, Bordetella pertussis, travels through the air in tiny droplets released when a person coughs or sneezes. If whooping cough germs find a home in the windpipe, the bacteria start producing toxins that irritate the surrounding tissues. The body responds by producing lots of mucus that clogs the windpipe and causes a wracking cough.

If you live with someone who has whooping cough -- and if you haven’t been vaccinated (or already had the disease) -- there’s an 80 percent chance that you’ll also get sick. Even if you've been vaccinated in the past, you can still get the disease, though it may be a milder case. Without treatment, whooping cough remains contagious for about three weeks.

Annoying indeed, but also dangerous, this cough starts as part of a cold with symptoms like a runny nose, sneezing, and a general body ache. While seeming like a normal, dry cough accompanying a cold, within the first week it turns into a wheezing cough where the patient suffers attacks of coughing that last beyond breath.

Home Remedies

In order to stave off a build-up of mucous, patients should avoid eating mucous-forming foods like milk, milk products, and dairy including tofu or ice cream, in order to better manage the treatment. Meals should also be smaller and more frequent with lower fats. The patient should stay hydrated with fruit juice, popsicles to soothe the throat, hot tes, and plenty of water.read on...

Vitamin C supplements should be taken along with bioflavonoids to promote the immune system. Zinc can also help strengthen your immunity, and probiotics such as yogurt are helpful for getting the digestive tract running smoothly as an attack like this on the body can mess with digestion.

These home remedies can help soothe your insides while coping with the ongoing stress of treating whooping cough:

  • Orange juice mixed with water
  • Diet rich in fruit
  • spending time outdoors with fresh air balanced with lots of rest and relaxation
  • Five drops of garlic juice 2 to 3 times a day may help the severity of the cough
  • Almond oil in tea
  • Ginger juice with honey and fenugreek
  • Epsom salt baths with cold compresses against the throat to soothe the body and relieve pain and agitation
Most of these remedies seem to be beneficial for children and have not been used primarily on adults because adults tend to get much milder cases of the infection, but it’s not to say they cannot work. As for my own bout of whooping cough, I will try to refrain from giggling at the phrase, stop enjoying cereal and milk products for the time being, and make some more herbal tea to ease my scratchy, wheezing throat.

source 1,2
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BURBERRY used Dog Fur too ( So boycott Puppymill products NOW)




The Puppymill Link Exchange Project
A puppy mill, sometimes known as a puppy farm, is a large-scale commercial dog breeding facility that some consider to operate under substandard conditions regarding the well-being of dogs in their care ( they just do it for commercial benefits). Similar types of operations exist for other animals commonly kept as pets or used as feed for other animals and some are killed for theyr fur to be made into clothing.(www.wikipedia.com)

Several hundred thousand puppies are shipped cross-country to be sold in pet shops, but many are sold via newspaper classifieds or Internet sites and are often accompanied by false claims such as, "We'd never sell puppies from a puppy mill" or promises that the puppies are "home raised," farm raised," or "raised with kids/grandkids." The ploys of the puppy mill are designed to dupe a well-intentioned family into buying a puppy and keeping the engine of cruelty working
overtime.(http://stoppuppymills.org/)

The rest, which are not so fortunate, are killed for their fur to be used to be made into clothing. Their fur are trimmed and most of the time the clothings will not state where the fur come from on the tags of the clothings. It doesn't compel to Fur Labeling Act
as it doesn't state anything on the labels. Some of the dog's fur are dyed into green, blue to disguise the true colour of the fur. Consumers like us seriously don't know what we are getting. Whether they are buying real fur or dog fur? Big brands like BURBERRY, Jennifer Lopez's brand use animals intensively but on the label behind it just labelled using "100% Polyester/Poliester" and "acrylic". What we didn't know is that the trim of the clothing used fur.(videos :http://video.hsus.org/)

Nugget:
Ralph Lauren most recently, have abandoned fur after pressure from the animal-rights movement, the industry says that many more have taken it up. “The last five to six years, more than 400 international designers have included fur in their collections,” said Tina Jagros, executive director of the North American Fur Association, a trade group. She estimates that this is double the number of designers who included it 15 years ago.

The Puppymill Link Exchange Project
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Six Premier League stars tested for HIV virus ( names of victims and pictures of the girl included)


'Six Premiership stars are allegedly facing an agonising wait for the results of HIV tests - after all bedding the same girl.

It is reported the shocked players took the tests after being told a soccer groupie had found out she was infected.

She apparently had no idea whether she contracted the virus - which causes AIDS - before or after she slept with them all.

The stars, who it's claimed play for three different clubs, cannot be named for legal reasons.' If they have HIV, think no one will tackle him anyway. It was hinted on the web that the girl is Danielle Lloyd (the girl on the right)

The professional footballers who may are predicted to contact HIV were...

Ryan Babel,Jamie O'hara, Sheringham, Defoe, Marcus Bent,Jamie O'Har.

Report says, Ryan Babel was the last star that flink with her and Jamie O'Hara was his current bf from Spurs.Speculation goes on...

source
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Swearing is very good Pain Killer

Finally, Bigmouth saw something good for those Mr and Mrs F*. Swearing words are said to have a powerful pain-killing effect. The British scientists revealed in the journal NeuroReport.

The researchers originally thought that swearing would make pain worse by focusing a person’s attention on the injury and its implications but their results show otherwise. To prove their hypothesis, they set up an experiment with 67 college students.

The students were asked to plunge their hands into frigid 41-degree Fahrenheit water for as long as they could stand the pain. Half were told to repeat their favorite curse word while their hands were submerged. The other half were asked to repeat a neutral word describing a table, such as solid or brown, while keeping their hands under water. Then the whole experiment was repeated with the two groups switching types of word. (Favorite swear words were, as you might guess, the ones starting with "F" and "S." But since the subjects were British, the researchers also got an earful of "bollocks.")

To the researchers’ surprise, the cursing group not only reported lower levels of pain, but also were able to keep their hands in the icy water longer. The men in the study, for example, were able to keep their hands in the water for an average of 190 seconds while swearing, but for only 140 seconds when uttering a neutral word.

Pain killer by swearing works better with women

The difference was even more pronounced in women. While men’s pain scores dropped by a point when they cussed, the women’s dropped by almost two full points.

Women tend to swear less and that may make the words more powerful for them, says Stephens, a researcher in the school of psychology at Keele University in England.

How much pain you feel when you stub your toe or hit your thumb with a hammer is a result both of the signals sent by the nerves in your body and of your mind’s interpretation of those signals, she explains.

And your mind can moderate those feelings of pain, says Cope, director of the university’s pain medicine program. The emotions let loose when you curse may somehow inhibit the pain response, because your brain gets distracted by the anger, she says.

Or it may simply be that cursing gives you a sense of control, Cope suggests. “You don’t feel the same level of helplessness. Studies have shown that when you give patients control over their own analgesia, they use less than when they have to depend on someone else to get pain relief.”

As for why cursing works better for women, Cope says: “That may be because cursing is a more emotionally laden activity for them,” she adds. “It might be interesting to take a population that swears as a matter of course — prisoners, say — and compare them to a group, such as nuns, who never swear.”

In the meantime, the study may just give the rest of us permission to just let go and explode with our favorite curse word when we bump our shins on the coffee table.

That would be fine by Stephens, “so long as there are no children around to hear you.”

source
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Monday, July 13, 2009

Why Attractive males release fewer sperm?

Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females, according to a new paper on the evolution of ejaculation strategies. The findings by researchers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Oxford suggest that, paradoxically, matings with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

How a male negotiates this trade-off depends on how easy he finds it to attract females. The more attractive a male is, the more females will be willing to mate with him, reducing the value of each mating to him. This means it is optimal for him to contribute fewer sperm per mating. Although this reduces fertility per mating, it maximises the number of offspring he sires overall. Less attractive males secure fewer matings but value each of them more highly, and by allocating more sperm to each mating make the most of their meagre opportunities. This leads to the rather paradoxical prediction that matings with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive males.

Further work in this area should look at males that are similarly attractive, but have different levels of resources to allocate to sperm production, to see how this alters their sperm number and quality...

source
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Have you heard of Anal Cancer?


Anal cancer is a very rare cancer. It is a lump , that occurs in the anus, the end of the gastrointestinal tract, which is created by the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells in the anus.Anal cancer is more common among women, men who receive anal intercourse, and people with weakened immune systems. Experts say that anal cancer is closely associated with some HPV (human papilloma virus) strains.

What causes anal cancer?

Experts are not sure what causes anal cancer. However, the following are considered as possible risk factors:
  • HPV (human papilloma virus) - some types of HPV are closely linked to anal cancer. Approximately 80% of patients with anal cancer are infected in the anal area with a HPV.

  • Sexual partner numbers - this is also linked to HPV. The more sexual partners somebody has (or has had) the higher are the chances of being infected with HPV, which is closely linked to anal cancer risk.

  • Receptive anal intercourse - both men and women who receive anal intercourse have a higher risk of developing anal cancer. HIV-positive men who have sex with men are up to 90 times more likely than the general population to develop anal cancer, this study revealed.

  • Other cancers - women who have had vaginal or cervical cancer, and men who have had penile cancer are at higher risk of developing anal cancer. This is also linked to HPV infection.

  • Age - the older somebody is the higher is his/her risk of developing anal cancer. In fact, this is the case with most cancers.

  • A weak immune system - people with a weakened immune system have a higher risk of developing anal cancer. This may include people with HIV/AIDS, patients who have had transplants and are taking immunosuppressant medications.

  • Smoking - smokers are significantly more likely to develop anal cancer compared to non-smokers. In fact, smoking raises the risk of developing several cancers.

  • Benign anal lesions - IBD (irritable bowel disease), hemorrhoids, fistulae or cicatrices. Inflammation resulting from benign anal lesions may increase a person's risk of developing anal cancer.

How is anal cancer diagnosed?

The first person to see will probably be a GP (general practitioner, primary care physician). The GP will ask the patient about his/her symptoms and carry out an examination. The doctor will also need to know about the patient's medical history. Then the patient will be referred to a colorectal surgeon - this is a doctor who specializes in bowel conditions. Colorectal surgeons are sometimes called proctologists. The specialist may carry out the following tests:
  • A rectal examination - this may be a bit uncomfortable, but is not painful. A proctoscope or sigmoidoscope may be used - an instrument that allows the doctor to examine the area in more detail. In some countries this device is called an anoscope, and the procedure 'anoscopy'. The examination will determine whether the patient needs a biopsy.

  • A biopsy - a small sample of tissue is taken from the anal area and sent to the lab for testing. Tissue will be examined under a microscope.
If cancerous tissue is detected after the biopsy the patient will need further tests to find out how advanced (big) the cancer is and whether or not it has spread. The following tests may be done:
  • CT (computerized tomography) scan - X-rays are used to create a 3-dimensional picture of the target area.

  • MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan - magnets and radio waves produce 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional pictures of the target area.

  • Ultrasound scan - sound waves are used to create an image of the target area. This could be done internally with a rectal ultrasound - the instrument is inserted into the anus before the scanning begins.
Bigmouth suggest if you feel something strange down your anus, don't delay, go straight down to a GP to seek advice.

"As, ignorance is always the main cause of cancer."

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99 Facts on Guys

1.Guys don’t actually look after good-looking girls. they prefer neat and presentable girls.
2.Guys hate other flirts.
3.A guy can like you for a minute, and then forget you afterwards.
4.When a guy says he doesn’t understand you, it simply means you’re not thinking the way he is.
5.Are you doing something?” or “Have you eaten already?” are the first usual questions a guy asks on the phone just to get out from stammering.
6.Guys may be flirting around all day but before they go to sleep, they always think about the girl they truly care about.
7.When a guy really likes you, he’ll disregard all your bad characteristics.
8.Guys go crazy over a girl’s smile.
9.Guys will do anything just to get the girl’s attention.
10.Guys hate it when you talk about your ex-boyfriend.
11.When guys want to meet your parents. Let them. …….dont think so

12.Guys want to tell you many things but they can’t. And they have one habit to gain courage and spirit to tell you many things and it is drinking! but do not generalise
13.Guys cry!!!
14.Don’t provoke the guy to heat up. Believe me. He will.
15.Guys can never dream and hope too much.
16.Guys usually try hard to get the girl who has dumped them, and this makes it harder for them to accept their defeat.
17.When you touch a guy’s heart, there’s no turning back.
18.Giving a guy a hanging message like “You know what?!..uh…never mind!” would make him jump to a conclusion that is far from what you are thinking.
19.Guys go crazy when girls touch their hands……yeh rite - watever.
20.Guys are good flatterers when courting but they usually stammer when they talk to a girl they really like.
21.When a guy makes a prolonged “umm” or makes any excuses when you’re asking him to do you a favor, he’s actually saying that he doesn’t like you and he can’t lay down the card for you.
22.When a girl says “no”, a guy hears it as “try again tomorrow”. ……so true.
23.You have to tell a guy what you really want before he gets the message clearly.
24.Guys hate gays!
25.Guys love their moms.
26.A guy would sacrifice his money for lunch just to get you a couple of roses.
27.A guy often thinks about the girl who likes him. But this doesn’t mean that the guy likes her.
28.You can never understand him unless you listen to him.
29.If a guy tells you he loves you once in a lifetime. He does.
30.Beware. Guys can make gossips scatter through half of the face of the earth faster than girls can.
31.Like Eve, girls are guys’ weaknesses.
32.Guys are very open about themselves.
33.It’s good to test a guy first before you believe him. But don’t let him wait that long.
34.No guy is bad when he is courting
35.Guys hate it when their clothes get dirty. Even a small dot.
36.Guys really admire girls that they like even if they’re not that much pretty.
37.Your best friend, whom your boyfriend seeks help from about his problems with you may end up being admired by your boyfriend.
38.If a guy tells you about his problems, he just needs someone to listen to him. You don’t need to give advice…….very true.
39.A usual act that proves that the guy likes you is when he teases you.
40.A guy finds ways to keep you off from linking with someone else.
41.Guys love girls with brains more than girls in miniskirts. ……..sumtimes.
42.Guys try to find the stuffed toy a girl wants but would unluckily get the wrong one.
43.Guys virtually brag about anything.
44.Guys cannot keep secrets that girls tell them.
45.Guys think too much.
46.Guys’ fantasies are unlimited.
47.Girls’ height doesn’t really matter to a guy but her weight does!……very true.
48.Guys tend to get serious with their relationship and become too possessive. So watch out girls!!!When a girl makes the boy suffer during courtship, it would be hard for him to let go of that girl.
49.It’s not easy for a guy to let go of his girlfriend after they broke up especially when they’ve been together for 3 years or more.
50.You have to tell a guy what you really want before getting involved with that guy.
51.When an unlikable circumstance comes, guys blame themselves a lot more than girls do. They could even hurt themselves physically.
52.Guys have strong passion to change but have weak will power.
53.Guys are tigers in their peer groups but become tamed P**** with their girlfriends…..sumtimes depends wen they want sumat.
54.When a guy pretends to be calm, check if he’s sweating. You’ll probably see that he is nervous.
55.When a guy says he is going crazy about the girl. He really is.
56.When a guy asks you to leave him alone, he’s just actually saying, “Please come and listen to me”……sumtimes.
57.Guys don’t really have final decisions.
58.When a guy loves you, bring out the best in him.
59.If a guy starts to talk seriously, listen to him….very important.
60.If a guy has been kept shut or silent, say something.
61.Guys believe that there’s no such thing as love at first sight, but court the girls anyway and then realize at the end that he is wrong.
62.Guys like femininity not feebleness.
63.Guys don’t like girls who punch harder than they do.
64.A guy may instantly know if the girl likes him but can never be sure unless the girl tells him.
65.A guy would waste his time over video games and football, the way a girl would do over her romance novels and make-ups.
66.Guys love girls who can cook or bake. ….they love u regardless.
67.Guys like girls who are like their moms. No kidding!……true but only wen the guys are ready 2be settled down.
68.A guy has more problems than you can see with your naked eyes.
69.A guy’s friend knows everything about him. Use this to your advantage.
70.Don’t be a snob. Guys may easily give up on the first sign of rejection.
71.Don’t be biased. Try loving a guy without prejudice and you’ll be surprised.
72.Girls who bathe in their eau de perfumes do more repelling than attracting guys.
73.Guys are more talkative than girls are especially when the topic is about girls.
74.Guys don’t comprehend the statement “Get lost” too well.
75.Guys really think that girls are strange and have unpredictable decisions but still love them more.
76.When a guy gives a crooked or pretentious grin at your jokes, he finds them offending and he just tried to be polite.
77.Guys don’t care about how shiny their shoes are unlike girls.
78.Guys tend to generalize about girls but once they get to know them, they’ll realize they’re wrong.
79.Any guy can handle his problems all by his own. He’s just too stubborn to deal with it.
80.Guys find it so objectionable when a girl swears.
81.Guys’ weakest point is at the knee.
82.When a problem arises, a guy usually keeps himself cool but is already thinking of a way out.
83.When a guy is conscious of his looks, it shows he is not good at fixing things.
84.When a guy looks at you, either he’s amazed by you or he’s criticizing you.
85.When you catch him cheating on you and he asks for a second chance, give it to him. But when you catch him again and he asks for another chance, ignore him.
86.If a guy lets you go, he really loves you.
87.If you have a boyfriend, and your boy best friend always glances at you and it obviously shows that he is jealous whenever you’re with your boyfriend, all I can say is your boy best friend loves you more than your boyfriend does.
88.Guys learn from experience not from the romance books that girls read and take as their basis of experience.
89.You can tell if a guy is really hurt or in pain when he cries in front of you!
90.If a guy suddenly asks you for a date, ask him first why.
91.When a guy says he can’t sleep if he doesn’t hear your voice even just for one night, hang up. 92.He also tells that to another girl. He only flatters you and sometimes makes fun of you.
93.You can truly say that a guy has good intentions if you see him praying sometimes.
94.Guys seek for advice not from a guy but from a girl.
95.Girls are allowed to touch boys’ things. Not their hair!
96.If a guy says you’re beautiful, that guy likes you.
97.Guys hate girls who overreact. ……sumtimes.
98.Guys love you more than you love them IF they are serious in your relationships.
99.A guy has to experience rejection, because if he’s too-good-never-been-busted, never been in love and hurt, he won’t be matured and grow up.

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BigMouth8 Best Guide Ever : SO U will Never Sick Again

This is one of the most informative guide I have ever seen and BigMouth is here to SHARE

1. HEADACHES : FISH (PROTEIN)
Eat lots of fish as fish oil helps to
prevent headaches. So does ginger
which reduces inflammation and pain.

2.HAYFEVER : YOGHURT
Eat lots of yoghurt before pollen
season.

3.STROKES : TEA
Prevents buildup of fatty deposit
on artery walls with regular doses
of tea.

4.INSOMNIA : HONEY
Use Honey as a tranquilizer and
as a sedative.

5.ASTHMA : ONIONS (RED)
Eating onions helps ease
constriction of bronchial tubes.

6.ARTHRITIS : FISH
Salmon, tuna, mackerel and
sardines actually prevent arthritis.

7.UPSET STOMACH : BANANAS, GINGER
Bananas will settle an
upset stomach. Ginger cures
morning sickness and nausea.

8.BLADDER INFECTIONS : CRANBERRY JUICE
High-acid
cranberry juice controls harmful
bacteria.

9.BONES PROBLEMS : PINEAPPLE
Bones fractures and
osteoporosis can be prevented by
the manganese in pineapple.

10.PMS : CORNFLAKES
Women can ward off the effects of
PMS with cornflakes, which help
reduce depression, anxiety & fatigue.

11.MEMORY PROBLEMS : OYSTERS
Oysters help increase your mental
functioning by supplying much needed
zinc.

12.COUGH : RED PEPPER
A substance similar to that found
in cough syrup is found in hot red
pepper.

13.BREAST CANCER : WHEAT BRAN, CABBAGE
Wheat bran and cabbage help maintain
estrogen at healthy levels.

14.LUNG CANCER : ORANGE, GREEN VEGETABLES
A good antidote is beta-carotene, a form of
Vitamin A found in orange & green
vegetables.

15.ULCERS : CABBAGE
Cabbage contains chemical that
help heal both type of ulcers.

16.DIARREA : APPLES
Crate an apple with its skin. Let it
turn brown and eat it to this
condition.

17.CLOGGED ARTERIES : AVOCADOS
Mono-unsaturated fat in avocados
lower cholesterol.

18.HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE : OLIVE OIL, CELERY
Olive oil has
been shown to lower blood pressure.
Celery contains a chemical that lowers
blood pressure too.

19.BLOOD SUGAR IMBALANCE : BROCOLLI, PEANUTS
The chromium in broccoli and peanuts helps
regulate insulin and blood sugar.

20.LIVE HEALTHIER AND LONGER:
Read More information from BigMouth8.blogspot.com and
share it with your friends now.

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Eat Less, Live Longer

For years there has been evidence that a diet extremely low in calories extends the life span of species from mice to monkeys (and a recent study confirms positive results for humans on this type of diet too), and the more we learn about caloric restriction, the more it appears to be something of a medical marvel: this week, a study in the journal Science shows that monkeys on a 20-year calorie-restricted diet not only lived longer, but had younger brains and fewer age-related diseases than the monkeys that ate a regular diet. But is it possible to eat a low-calorie diet and not lose your mind?

Yes, the diet is by definition restrictive (thought practitioners simply call it CR).

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Men consume 1,800 calories, rather than the recommended 2,500; women eat only 1,500 to 1,700 calories per day, compared with the recommended national average of 2,000. But that doesn't mean they don't eat well.

On a recent morning, Cavanaugh, who lives in coastal North Carolina, prepared his breakfast, the same one he has had most days since starting the calorie-restrictive diet eight years ago: a quarter cup each of oatmeal, oat bran, powdered skim milk, and liquid skim milk. After two minutes in the microwave, he topped the concoction with half a cup of frozen blueberries—to provide antioxidants and improve mental crispness—and two tablespoons of sunflower seeds that will fulfill 60 percent of his daily vitamin E requirements. He washes down his 451-calorie breakfast with a cup of coffee. He won't eat again until dinner and claims he won't be hungry until then.

"My breakfast gives me more than half my nutrition for the day," says Cavanaugh, who's pre–calorie restrictive eating habits included bacon and eggs, hot dogs, chips, and cinnamon buns. "It's so filling, I just don't get hungry for lunch."

A retired Marine who stands 5 feet 10 inches tall, Cavanaugh eats has seen positive physical results since he scaled back his calorie intake. Prior to embarking on the diet, he weighed 178 pounds, had a body mass index of 26 (an ideal BMI falls between 18.5 and 24.9), and his cholesterol level was 273 (the ideal is less than 200).

Five months into his new lifestyle, Cavanaugh's cholesterol dropped 103 points, and his triglycerides dropped from 145 to 63 (a healthy number is 150 or below). Now 140 pounds, he claims he hasn't had a cold in eight years, and the chronic athlete's foot and jungle rot he suffered since his time in the Marines has disappeared completely. His energy levels have skyrocketed. "Remember when you were a kid and you would suddenly just take off running across the yard because of the exhilaration of energy? That exhilaration came back to me," Cavanaugh says. "I haven't felt like this since I was a teenager playing tackle football."

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Facts on Cancer

One in three of us will be diagnosed with cancer during our life.

The disease tends to affect older people - but can strike at any time.

Excluding certain skin cancers, there were almost 290,000 new cases of the disease in 2005.

Some cancer, such as breast, are becoming more common, while new cases of lung cancer are expected to fall away due to the drop in the number of smokers.

However, while the overall number of new cancers is not falling, the good news is that successful treatment rates for many of the most common types are improving rapidly.

BBC News has produced, in conjunction with Cancer Research UK, a guide to some of the most common forms of cancer and the treatments used to tackle them.

To learn more about different types of cancer, and to read the experiences of patients, click on the links to the right.

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Sperm made from human bone marrow


Scientists say they have successfully made immature sperm cells from human bone marrow samples.

If these can be grown into fully developed sperm, which the researchers hope to do within five years, they may be useful in fertility treatments.

But experts have warned the findings from the German study should be interpreted with caution at this very early stage.And proposed new laws would ban their use in fertility treatments in the UK.

The government's recent fertility White Paper proposes a ban on using artificially created sperm or eggs in assisted reproduction.

The researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Münster and the Medical School of Hannover isolated adult stem cells - cells that have the ability to become many types of tissue in the body - from bone marrow samples taken from male volunteers.

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Breast cancer patients are overtreated


LONDON - One in three breast cancer patients identified in public screening programs may be treated unnecessarily, a new study says.

After the screening programs began, there are more cases of breast cancer picked up, the study showed. If a screening program is working, there should also be a drop in the number of advanced cancer cases detected in older women, since their cancers should theoretically have been caught earlier when they were screened.



However, Jorgensen and Gotzsche found the national breast cancer screening systems, which usually test women aged between 50 and 69, simply reported thousands more cases than previously identified.

Overall, Jorgensen and Gotzsche found that one third of the women identified as having breast cancer didn't actually need to be treated.

Harmful consequences to screening
Some cancers never cause symptoms or death, and can grow too slowly to ever affect patients. As it is impossible to distinguish between those and deadly cancers, any identified cancer is treated. But the treatments can have harmful side effects and be psychologically scarring.

Take the Breast Cancer Test Now --> TEST <--


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