Eating shark products may increase Alzheimer's risk

Consumed widely in Asia, shark products may not be actually that healthy for humans as researchers have found high concentrations of toxins linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease in the fins and muscles of sharks.

"Our results suggest that humans who consume shark parts may be at a risk for developing neurological diseases." said senior author of the study Deborah Mash, Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami in the US.

Fins and muscle tissue samples were collected from 10 shark species found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for concentrations of two toxins - mercury and beta-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA).

"Recent studies have linked BMAA to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)," Mash said.

In a study published in the journal Toxins, the researchers reported detecting concentrations of mercury and BMAA in the fins and muscles of all shark species at levels that may pose a threat to human health.

While both mercury and BMAA by themselves pose a health risk, together they may also have synergistic toxic impacts.

"Since sharks are predators, living higher up in the food web, their tissues tend to accumulate and concentrate toxins, which may not only pose a threat to shark health, but also put human consumers of shark parts at a health risk," the study's lead author Neil Hammerschlag from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science said.

Shark products including shark fins, cartilage and meat are widely consumed in Asia and globally in Asian communities, as a delicacy and as a source of traditional Chinese medicine. In addition, dietary supplements containing shark cartilage are consumed globally.

"People should be aware and consider restricting consumption of shark parts. Limiting the consumption of shark parts will have positive health benefits for consumers and positive conservation outcomes for sharks, many of which are threatened with extinction due in part to the growing high demand for shark fin soup and, to a lesser extent, for shark meat and cartilage products," Hammerschlag said.

10 things depression makes you experience that no one talks about

Depression doesn't mean you're feeling sad. In fact, living with this mental illness can significantly alter your life. Here's how.

One of the most common words used in day-to-day conversations is depression. People often talk about how someone has been feeling depressed. Ever since Bollywood actors like Deepika Padukone have spoken up about depression, it is no longer treated with the same stigma and indifference.

Despite all this awareness about depression, it always bothers me how so many of my friends and acquaintances, who are otherwise smart, well read and highly educated people, are so clueless about how living with depression can significantly affect one’s day-to-day life. ‘Just stop being sad, yaar. You have nothing to be sad about,’ or ‘Snap out of it’ are very common phrases they use. These are the things no one told you about depression.

However, being depressed has nothing to do with being sad. These are the ten things a patient living with moderate to chronic depression experiences on a daily basis while struggling to lead a normal life.

1. Your personal hygiene is no longer a priority

When you’re depressed, you no longer function like you used to. You will find yourself putting off taking a bath, making your bed, keeping your house clean or even brushing your teeth on some days. Your self-esteem hits an all-time low. Every time you see your reflection in the mirror, all you can see are your flaws and shortcomings.

2. You feel guilty all the time

When you’re depressed, you tend to be very hard on yourself.  You feel like you’re constantly letting down your loved ones and beat yourself up for having a condition you just can’t control.

3. Even simple tasks make you feel exhausted and overwhelmed

Making yourself a cup of tea can seem like a gigantic task. You find that you take much longer to complete simple steps and get overwhelmed easily. You’re unable to concentrate on work or studies and constantly feel like your batteries need to be recharged despite taking long breaks.

4. Physical symptoms

A common misconception is that depression cannot affect you physically. However, that is far from the truth. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2004 has confirmed that the physical symptoms of depression include chronic joint pain, limb pain, back pain, chest pains, gastrointestinal problems, fatigue and sleep disturbances [1].

5. Feeling hollow or empty

Not everyone who is depressed spends the entire day crying into a pillow or just feeling sad. Chronic depression acts a lot like a Dementor (from Harry Potter) and leaves you feeling completely hollow or empty on the inside.

6. You will feel irritable

Being irritable and grumpy is a symptom of depression that is often ignored. You will find yourself snapping and losing your temper over the smallest triggers. Due to lack of awareness about this symptom of depression, you will be labelled as ‘moody’ or’ unstable.’

7. Lying awake in bed all night long

Depression causes a lot of sleep disturbances. You might feel tired and exhausted after surviving yet another day but despite that, you won’t get any sleep. On the other hand, if you’re oversleeping it could be a sign of depression.

8. Isolation

When you’re living with depression, you are likely to lose friends. Not everyone will understand what you’re going through or have the inclination to provide any support. Another major side-effect of depression is that you lose interest in socialising and being around people. You feel like no one can understand you and you start isolating yourself by spending far too much time in your room alone. Consciously make the effort to reach out to a few people and to build a strong support system.

9. You might experience nightmares

Finnish researchers found a link between depression and nightmares as they observed that depressed individuals were far more prone to nightmares as compared to healthy people. Frequent nightmares could also be a sign of post stress trauma disorder (PTSD).

10. You will be called lazy

When you’re struggling to deal with depression, your loved ones will call you lazy and even blame you for not putting in enough effort. However, it is important for you to remember that just like you would get a viral fever or other physical ailment treated by a doctor, depression can also be treated with the right psychiatrist or psychologist. 

Heath Ledger's father reveals his son's tragic last words

When Heath Ledger died in 2008, just months before the world got to see his sneering, paint smeared face in the role that would define him, the world was left in mourning. Now, 8 years after his tragic passing due to an accidental overdose or prescription drugs, Ledger’s father Kim spoke about his son’s struggles and the last words he said to his sister.

“It was totally his fault. It was no one else’s. He reached for them. He put them in his system. You can’t blame anyone else in that situation,” Kim told Daily Mail Australia. “That’s hard to accept because I loved him so much and was so proud of him.”

Ledger was found in his New York apartment after having wrapped shooting on The Dark Knight, the film that would earn him his posthumous Oscar for his performance as The Joker. He was in the middle of production on Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the strenuous shooting schedule leaving him drained.

“There’s so much pressure on them to perform so even though your body is telling you that it’s not good and needs time, it’s like ‘just take these painkillers and keep going,’” Kim said. “That was the case with Heath. He had to be back on set to finish (the next day). They were doing night shoots in the freezing cold and he had a weak chest anyway. He’d caught this (cough) and just couldn’t shake it but he thought he had to because he wanted to get the movie done.”

Kim said that Ledger’s sister spoke to Heath the night before and warned him not to mix drugs. “He said, ‘Katie, Katie, I’m fine. I know what I’m doing.’ He would have had no idea,” said Kim.

This Homemade Juice Can Treat Diabetes, Gastritis And More!

Most of us tend to save up money for the future, as we fear that diseases are inevitable and we know that we will need the money for all the expensive treatments. 

Imagine a situation in which you did not have to spend money on expensive hospitals or better yet, find a way to treat ailments from the comfort of your home! 

That would be wonderful, right? Well, as far fetched as it may sound, there is a possibility of that happening, if you turn to natural remedies! 

Yes, your kitchens holds powerful natural ingredients, which come with certain medicinal properties that can treat, prevent and even cure a number of diseases. 

Did you know that the mixture of potato juice and honey can treat up to 7 disorders? Learn how to make the juice, here. 

Ingredients Required: 

Potato - ½  
Honey - 1 tablespoon 

Method To Prepare And Consume The Juice: 

• Add a few pieces of peeled potato into a blender, along with some warm water, to obtain the juice.
• Collect the juice in a cup, and add a tablespoon of honey, do not strain it.  
• Consume the juice, every morning, after breakfast. 

Have a look at the various disorders treated by this natural juice.

1. Diabetes 

The mixture of potato juice and honey has the ability to regulate the insulin and glucose levels in your bloodstream, thus keeping symptoms of diabetes under control.

2. Gastritis 

This natural juice has the ability to alkalise the acid levels in your stomach and aid in a better digestion process, thereby keeping ailments like gastritis and acidity at bay.

3. Kidney Stones 

The combination of potato and honey aids in flushing out the toxins and excess amount of nitric acid present in the kidneys, thereby helping in the prevention of kidney stones.

4. Liver Damage 

This homemade juice has the ability to detoxify your liver and also aid in a better liver function, thus preventing serious conditions like liver damage.

5. Skin Ailments 

The mixture of potato juice and honey can keep up the health of your skin by providing moisture from within, preventing conditions like skin dryness and psoriasis.

6. Brain Disorders 

As this combination of potato juice and honey is rich in vitamin B6, it can improve brain function and strengthen the nervous system, preventing disorders like depression, anxiety and even ADHD.

7. Cardiovascular Diseases 

The vitamin C and vitamin B6 present in this natural juice can help clear out the cholesterol accumulation in your arteries, in turn keeping your cardiovascular system healthy.

You can soon depend on text messages to help you kick the butt

The next time your phone dings, you could be reading a text message that inspires you to stub that cigarette butt.

The next time your phone dings, you could be reading a text message that inspires you to stub that cigarette butt. The U.S. Food Drug and Administration plans to use graphical warning labels to help people stop smoking, but researchers from The Miriam Hospital’s Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine suggest another strategy: Text messaging. 

The team found that smokers who received a text messaging intervention were more likely to abstain from smoking relative to controls. ‘Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable global health problems, and text messaging has the promise to reach a wider audience with minimal costs and fewer resources,’ said senior researcher Lori Scott-Sheldon.

Text messaging (short message service, SMS) interventions provide health education, reminders and support using short written messages. SMS interventions can be adapted to fit an individual’s health needs in his or her natural environment. The messages of support can be as simple as ‘You can do it!’ or ‘Be strong.’ 

Using meta-analysis, a statistical technique for combining the findings from independent studies, the researchers conducted the most extensive systematic review of the literature to date. This included 20 manuscripts with 22 text messaging interventions for smoking cessation from 10 countries. ‘The evidence provides unequivocal support for the efficacy of text messaging interventions to reduce smoking behavior, but more research is needed to understand for whom they work, under what conditions, and why,’ said Scott-Sheldon. 

Complications of kidney disease – everything you should know

Kidney disease is known as a silent killer, as most people suffering from this health complication show no significant symptoms until late in its course. Most people with kidney disease realize the seriousness of the condition only after its too late, making treating the condition more difficult. Kidney disease is best tackled as soon as the problem is detected, if not, it can lead to a whole host of complications. Here are some of the health ailments that you may suffer from, if you ignore kidney disease.

Recent doctors have stated, ‘If kidney disease is left untreated, it progresses to the entire organ deteriorating the functional units of the kidney. Due to this, kidney function reduces gradually leading to various health complications. The key changes that occur in the kidneys include accumulation of harmful toxins and excess body fluids in the organ, electrolyte imbalance and low blood cell count.’

In severe stages of kidney disease, patients usually complain ofvomiting, loss of appetite, fatigue, itching, nausea, sleep disturbances and breathing difficulty. In some cases, swelling over the ankles, puffiness of the eyes and leg cramps are also reported. The serious and life-threatening health complications that are observed in rare cases include uncontrolled blood pressure, seizures and cardiac arrest (due to high potassium levels in the body) may prove fatal.

How to deal with the complications of kidney disease?

Doctors says, ‘In addition to improving or stabilizing the kidney function with the use of specific drugs, a nephrologists will initiate treatment measures to manage chronic kidney disease. For example, to protect kidney function and control blood pressure, ACE inhibitors are used. In the case of problems with the kidney’s filtration process, steroids are commonly prescribed.’ Other measures that are commonly used to deal with the complications of kidney disease are as follows.

• Treatment of anemia, a common side effect of defunct kidneys.
• Control of phosphorus levels in the blood with the use of tablets.
• Controlling and treating lipid abnormalities. This is commonly believed to be due to malnutrition; since the kidneys do not function optimally, making absorbtion of nutrients and elimination of waste difficult.
• Control acid-water buildup in the kidneys with bicarbonate tablets.
• Control the patient’s diet, by reducing the consumption of salt and potassium.

While these are clinical measures that your healthcare professional will take care of, there are few precautionary tips to be followed by people with kidney disease to prevent worsening of the condition. Here are few tips from some expert doctors.

• The first and foremost measure is to take your medications as prescribed by your doctor and on time (without fail).
• Follow your diet as advised by your doctor. Avoid foods that contain high amounts of salt and phosphorus like aerated cold drinks and other junk foods, as they may aggravate kidney disease.
• Avoid smoking and drinking excess alcohol.
• Start an exercise regime to keep your blood pressure, blood sugar levels and weight in check.
• Avoid using over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, especially painkillers without consulting your doctor.
• Monitor your BP and blood sugars levels, making sure to get health check-ups done annually and a follow-up with your doctor.
• If you have a family history of kidney disease, get yourself screened at regular intervals with simple blood tests, urine tests and BP measurements.

Hence, visit a doctor if you experience any symptoms of kidney disease and get treated immediately. Early detection and safe treatment is the key to prevent various health complications and live a healthy life.

White Tiger kills youth in Delhi. Watch the shocking video here.

A white tiger attacked and killed a 19-year-old man who jumped into the animal's enclosure at Delhi Zoo located in Sundar Nagar in south Delhi on Tuesday afternoon.
 
The attack was photographed and videographed by some eyewitnesses in their mobile phones. After the mishap, the zoo was closed for the day.  
 
The deceased, identified as Maqsood, 19, was a factory worker and resident of central Delhi’s Anand Parbat. His parents – Mehfooz alias Pardeshi and Ishrat – claimed that Maqsood was being treated for mental illness for the past two years. They also said that Maqsood was addicted to bhang.

Amitabh Agnihotri, zoo director, said the incident took place at around 1 pm when Maqsood crossed the stand-off barrier of the white tiger enclosure and jumped into the moat despite at least two warnings given to him by a security guard, identified as Praveen. The moat is almost 20-feet down from the ground.
 
Eyewitnesses said that after the youth jumped into the moat surrounding the enclosure. Within five seconds, the white tiger that was roaming inside the enclosure was facing Maqsood. "The man was cowering in fear and appeared to be pleading with folded hands to the tiger to spare him," said Himanshu, an eyewitness.

It was Himanshu who called the police control room. The tiger stood still facing Maqsood for over ten minutes, even as some horrified witnesses began screaming and threw stones and sticks to divert the tiger’s attention and save the youth’s life.
 
“The tiger pounced on the youth with his paw and grabbed him by the neck only when it panicked following a drill conducted by the zoo staff to divert the attention of the tiger. After locking the youth in its jaws, the tiger dragged him up to almost fifty meters from the moat toward the left side of the cage. The man was writhing badly in pain and he kept suffering for the next 10-15 minutes, but nobody helped him,” said Himanshu.
 
Another witness said the tiger kept roaming around the enclosure, holding the victim by the neck. A police team along with an ambulance also arrived at the spot.



Zoo manager Riaz Khan said they do have tranquilising guns kept at the zoo hospital.
“By the time we could have organised those, the youth was killed,” he said. The enclosure is separated from visitors by a concrete ditch, with shrubs on the tiger's side followed by a 60-centimetre (two-foot) railing.
 
Mandeep Singh Randhawa, DCP (Southeast), said they are taking legal action into the case. “We will register a case of negligence and probe the matter from all angles,” said Randhawa.

The answer to lower smoking addiction: Low Nicotine Cigarettes

 

Do you find it nearly impossible to quit cigarettes? Well a new technique is soon coming in your hand that may help you get rid of such addiction. In a recent research it was found that cigarettes with low levels of nicotine may reduce addiction in smokers without increasing exposure to toxic chemicals. 

In this study, 72 adults were monitored who were made to switch between three types of cigarettes, each type with markedly reduced nicotine levels.

One of the researchers, David Hammond,  Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at University of Waterloo in Canada, said that ‘When the participants switched between conventional cigarette brands – which have similar nicotine content – there was no significant change in their puffing behaviour, number of cigarettes consumed or levels of toxic chemicals in their systems’. However, when these adults were introduced to consume the low-nicotine cigarettes, Quest 1, Quest 2 and Quest 3  which had a nicotine content of 8.9, 8.4 and 0.6 mg, respectively (as opposed to an average of 12 mg in a regular cigarette) they found that smokers were unable or unwilling to compensate due to a markedly less nicotine in the cigarette,” said David Hammond, from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at University of Waterloo in Canada. The study appeared in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.

Is quitting cigarettes getting very difficult?  Try some natural remedies that may help you out.

1. Cleanse the Body of Toxins

Cigarette smoke poisons the body with not just nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide but several other toxins whose numbers run into thousands. Products containing herbs such as Shatavari, Gotu Kola (Brahmi ), Ginseng and Ashwagandha and products such as Triphala and Sudarshana Choorna can also help detoxify tissues; it is best to use these under the supervision of a qualified Ayurvedic doctor.

2. Substitute Herbal Cigarettes for Nicotine-Containing Ones

Many Ayurvedic medical stores sell herbal cigarettes that are free from nicotine; these generally contain medicinal herbs such as turmeric, tulsi, cinnamon, gangal, mulethi, clove and guggul. Ayurveda prescribes the use of such medicinal smoking as an initial step to overcome the craving for nicotine.

3. Get Sufficient Exercise

It is well-known that exercise causes the release of mood-enhancing endorphins and this can help you deal with the feelings of melancholy that sometimes accompanies the effort to give up cigarettes. Set up a regular routine for exercise and stick to it.

4. Make Changes to Your Diet

Quite a few people who quit smoking experience a peculiar bitter taste; changing the food you consume can help you adapt better to this. A vegetarian diet that is low in fat is the best when you first attempt to quit smoking. Increase your consumption of alkaline foods such as vegetables, fruits, dry nuts, sprouts, lima beans and raisins; cut down on the acidic content of your food by reducing foods such as bread, coffee, tea, dairy products and meat. 

Here are some of the ways which may help you to withdraw such an addiction. These are: nicotine replacement therapy, use of electronic cigarettes and other medical aids help one to quit the habit of smoking.

6.0 magnitude earthquake jolts California

A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted California early Sunday morning, the US Geological Survey said, though there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious damage.

The quake struck at 3:20 am (1020 GMT) northwest of American Canyon, California, USGS said, at a depth of just 6.7 miles (10.8 kilometers) below the surface.

The power was out in Napa, about six miles from the earthquake's epicenter, as well as in other towns and cities nearby, affecting more than 10,000 households, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

The California Highway Patrol in the San Francisco Bay Area tweeted that it was "checking over crossings and bridges for obvious signs of structural integrity," and asked residents to report any signs of problems.

Residents of the cities of San Francisco, some 40 miles southwest, and Davis, just over 40 miles northeast, quickly took to Twitter reporting also feeling the quake.

• Twitter user Tyson Winter wrote: "Shook violently here in Napa. Power's out." 
• Ann Marie Christy,wrote that her mother, also in Napa, said the shaking "was very violent with a lot of broken glass." 
• And in San Francisco, Om Malik posted "Damn, woke me up. Was super long. #quake #sf."
• Further north, Tim Kerbavaz tweeted: "Felt it in Davis too. Quite long."

Finally some signs of peace: Gaza unconditional cease-fire announced

After weeks of fighting and hundreds of deaths, some semblance of peace may be coming to the Middle East — at least temporarily.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire was reached. It began at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (10 p.m. Thursday PT). It will last 72 hours — or three days — “unless extended,” the United Nations and United States said in a joint statement.

“During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement said.

Hamas accepted the cease-fire, a spokesman for the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization texted Thursday.

Moments after the announcement, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said it came “after careful deliberations with all the parties.”

The cease-fire is meant to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza caught up in the violence, some of whom have seen their neighborhoods hit hard and loved ones killed, hurt or displaced. The aid will include things like bringing in food, caring for the injured and burying the dead.

As all this is going on, Israeli and Palestinian officials should be meeting in Cairo to try to reach “a durable cease-fire,” the U.N. and U.S. statement said. “The parties will be able to raise issues of concern in these negotiations.”

Will they be able to reach a breakthrough?

The past doesn’t suggest such is likely, at least anything that will lead to a solution to issues that Israelis and Palestinians have been grappling with for decades. And the animosity between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, runs especially deep, with both sides accusing each other of putting each others civilians at risk.

The latest round of violence, which started earlier this summer, has been particularly bad. At least 1,432 people have been killed in Gaza during the current conflict, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. That’s more than the 1,417 Palestinians that the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said died in the 22 days of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which spanned 2008 and 2009.

Those killed in the ongoing hostilities — which are tied to the Israeli military’s Operation Protective Edge — include 327 children and 166 women, the Gaza health ministry reports.

The bloodshed prompted the United Nations’ top human rights official to warn earlier that war crimes may have been committed, accusing Israel of “deliberate defiance of obligations (to) international law.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay referred to the shelling of homes, schools, hospitals and U.N. “premises,” while insisting, “We cannot allow this impunity, we cannot allow this lack of accountability to go on.”

“None of this appears, to me, to be accidental,” Pillay said.

The scale of the violence, as well as the international condemnation of it, could drive both sides to peace. But even if it does, some Palestinians — like Samy Bahraqe, who is in a U.N. camp after her home was destroyed — aren’t looking forward to the future.

“Life is meaningless,” Bahraqe said. “… What dreams in life can we have now that everything is ruined?”

More Israeli troops

The Israeli military said Thursday that it is calling up 16,000 additional reservists, bolstering its forces for its fight against Hamas in Gaza after a request for more ammunition from the United States.

The addition brings the total number of reservists Israel has called up since the beginning of the operation against Hamas to 86,000, a military spokeswoman said.

After more than three weeks of fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel would complete its goal of destroying Hamas’ network of tunnels with or without a cease-fire. Netanyahu said this is just the first phase of the demilitarization of Gaza.

While U.S. officials have called on Israel to do more to protect civilians, the United States has agreed to Israel’s request to resupply it with several types of ammunition, a U.S. defense official stated on condition of anonymity. It’s not an emergency sale, the official said. The items being bought include tank rounds and illumination rounds, the Pentagon said.

Shells land near U.N. school

As has happened day after day after day, Hamas continued to launch rockets Thursday — many of which Israel intercepted, though some did land.

One rocket hit inside a neighborhood in Qiryat Gat, which is about 20 miles from Gaza on the Israeli side of the border. One man was seriously injured and a car caught on fire, Israeli spokesman Mikey Rosenfeld said.

The man suffered from shrapnel injuries and has been taken to the hospital.

Another rocket hit in an open field.

Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have died, according to the military, and three civilians have been killed in Israel since the conflict began. Many more citizens have been forced to take shelter, as rockets rained overhead.

Still, the level of death and destruction doesn’t compare with what’s happening in Gaza, where health workers are struggling to deal with the relentless stream of dead and wounded.

“The hospitals in Gaza yesterday had a very difficult time. All the hospital morgues were flooding with dead bodies, and the injured were laying on hospital floors because of the lack of hospital beds,” said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health..

Gaza’s health ministry said that Thursday’s toll included 11 people — among them three children — killed by a strike on a house in the Nurisat camp in central Gaza. Another 46 were injured.

Meanwhile, a number of shells fell Thursday next to a U.N. school housing displaced residents — a day after another school-turned-shelter was hit by artillery killing more than a dozen people.

“The school itself was not targeted, it was nearby the school,” Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said about the Thursday incident.

No one was killed inside the school — the Beit Lahiya School for Girls, he said. Eight people were slightly injured.

Calls for civilian protection

The violence between Israel’s military and Palestinian militants is playing out against a backdrop of failed humanitarian cease-fire attempts, with militants firing rockets from Gaza into Israel and Israelis responding with airstrikes.

A large part of the criticism has been leveled at Israel and its airstrikes, which have bombarded Gaza.

Chile, Peru, Brazil and Ecuador have pulled their ambassadors out of Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli offensive.

Israel, in turn, has accused Hamas of hiding weapons, including rockets, in schools and launching attacks from near shelters.

‘This is a disaster’

The incessant attacks and counterattacks are taking a terrible toll on Gazans.

More than 219,000 Palestinians are packed into 86 shelters across Gaza, the U.N. said. That equals about 12% of all of Gaza’s population.

Clean water is inaccessible for most. And some 3,600 people have lost their homes.

“We cannot supply electricity” for hospitals, sewage treatment or domestic use, said Fathi al-Sheikh Khalil, deputy chairman of the Palestinian Energy Natural Resources Authority in Gaza. “This is a disaster.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it sent 43 trucks carrying 750 tons of food, medicine and supplies to Gaza on Wednesday. It also said it has sent fuel.

Cholesterol-free foods could kill you!

Did you know that cholesterol free foods can actually lead to higher cholesterol levels because they have a component known as trans fat? 

This type of fat along with saturated fats is a recipe for disaster. Both the compounds require a large amount of processing by the body and can lead to higher levels of LDL or bad cholesterol which then go and clog arteries leading to heart disease, infertility, raise your chances of strokes and according to certain experts even Alzheimer’s.

What is LDL cholesterol? Why is it the ‘bad boy’ of the cholesterol world?

LDL also known as low density lipoprotein is actually simply a carrier of one type of cholesterol. Since the carrier when combined with cholesterol can cause severe conditions like heart disease it has been labelled as the ‘bad boy’ of cholesterol carriers.

Daytime napping may lead to early death

For all those who doze off during the day to catch some 'missed' night sleep, beware! You maybe harming yourself. According to an alarming research, middle-age and older adults who take daytime naps at office or home may be at increased risk of dying.

In particular, naps were linked with an increased risk of dying from respiratory diseases. Those between ages 40 and 65 were nearly twice as likely to die during the study period if they napped for an hour or more, compared to those who did not nap, the researchers from University of Cambridge said.

“Excessive daytime napping might be a useful marker of underlying health risks, particularly respiratory problems, especially among those 65 years of age or younger.

It may not actually be napping that is unhealthy, but rather, that those who tend to nap also have undiagnosed medical conditions that affect their risk of dying. The study involved more than 16,000 people in Britain who answered questions about their napping habits between 1998 and 2000, and were followed for 13 years.

People aged 40 to 79 who napped daily, for less than an hour, were 14 percent more likely to die over a 13-year period, compared to those who did not nap. People whose daily naps lasted an hour or more were 32 percent more likely to die over the study period, the research, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, added.

The researchers took into account many factors that could affect people's risk of death, such as their age, gender, body mass index (BMI), smoking, exercise, and whether they had certain pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer or asthma.

"Further studies are needed before any recommendations can be made," the researchers concluded.

No proof yet that mobile radiation leads to CANCER

All the researched evidence shows that there is no link between cell phone radiation and cancer, said oncologist and renowned author Siddhartha Mukherjee.

"I would have suggested to WHO to downgrade cell phones in the list of carcinogens (cancer causing substances) but there is a process to that," Mukherjee said in a media interaction at the India International Centre (IIC) here Monday.

"There are large studies which are pending, but we have to be scientifically accurate. There is no direct evidence but that does not mean that we stop investigating," he added. The status of radiation from mobiles should be "pending further investigation", he said.

Mukherjee is the author of famous book on cancer "The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer", which won the Pulitzer prize in 2010. The author further said that the landscape of cancer treatment has transformed over the years, and that there would be a transformation in all cancers and their treatments.

Mukherjee, here to receive the prestigious Padma Shri award from the Indian government, said that the extent to which carcinogens can trigger cancer depends on the amount or dose to which a person has been exposed to.

"We need to educate people on the appropriate doses of carcinogens to which they can expose themselves to within the safety net," he said. Awareness, said the expert, who specializes in blood cancer or leukaemia, is the key to prevention and control of the disease.

"Cancer is like a detective story. You cannot solve it using only one evidence," he added. At a separate lecture on "Emerging Carcinogens in an Emerging World" also at the IIC, Mukherjee said: "The world has to understand exposure to carcinogens with respect to changes and age profile of the population."

Tracing the history of cancer in medical literature, he said that it is the environment which mutates genes to cause cancer. "The levels of diversity which cancer cells exhibit is unique in nature," he added.