I am very lazy in cooking and when I cook, I cook a larger quality which I can use the next day. I use Microwave oven to heat up my food as its very easy, less time consuming, energy efficient and works great for me. Recently I was talking to one Doctor and she told me that she has stopped using Microwave as she read some articles which says that its not good for health to have food cooked in Microwave.

I did some search on Microwave Oven health hazard and found some information on this topic. 90% of American homes use Microwave oven to cook their food.

In commercial models, the oven has a power input of about 1000 watts of alternating current. As these microwaves generated from the magnetron bombard the food, they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second.

All this agitation creates molecular "friction", which heats up the food. This unusual type of heating also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them.

By comparison, microwaves from the sun are based on principles of pulsed direct current (DC) that don’t create frictional heat; microwave ovens use alternating current (AC) creating frictional heat.

I am not going into the science of Microwave cooking, but to understand, the food heated or cooked using Microwave oven has biological effects of exposure.

Exposure to microwave emissions also had an unpredictably negative effect upon the general biological welfare of humans.

This was not discovered until the Russians experimented with highly sophisticated equipment and discovered that a human did not even need to ingest the material substance of the microwaved food substances: that even exposure to the energy-field itself was sufficient to cause such adverse side effects that the use of any such microwave apparatus was forbidden in 1976 by Soviet state law

Microwave oven manufacturers insist that microwaved and irradiated foods do not have any significantly higher radiolytic compounds than do broiled, baked or other conventionally cooked foods. The scientific clinical evidence presented here has shown that this is simply a lie.

Its not safe to cook or heat your food using Microwave oven, there are some health hazards, could damage brain, cancer, etc. Atleast we should avoid using Microwave cooked food for babies / kids. Anyway, I am not planning to stop using Microwave Oven, millions are using it, so do I do.

I love tea and drink at least two cups of tea every day. Green tea is something which is good for health. This is a good news for tea lovers and an advice for people who prefer  to have coffee over tea.

According to Lenore Arab, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, drinking the beverage can reduce the threat by as much as 21 per cent.

DNA: Health: Drinking three or more cups of tea a day ‘reduces stroke risk

Recession does not really affect the drinking pattern of the people. Come what may, they just stick to their habit. For drinkers who are diabetic, drinking in small as well as large quantity is not at all advisable. Drinking liquor is equivalent to eating sugar. Even wine in small quantity is also harmful to the diabetic patients.

Certain common facts:

• 60 ml liquor gives 140 – 150 calories of energy, which is equivalent to eating 7 teaspoon sugar
• 1 bottle of beer contains 240 calories
• 100 ml wine has 120 calories, which is equivalent to eating 6 teaspoon sugar
• Those who still continues drinking with diabetes, here are certain do’s and don’ts for them

Don’ts:

• Don’t mix fizzy drinks like cola with the liquor, since 300 ml contains 12 tsp sugar
• Don’t drink more than twice a week and don’t do it on consecutive days, since liquor shoots up the blood sugar level
• Don’t take liquor on empty stomach
• Don’t take peanuts, fried meat, pickle, chips, etc with the liquor because  10 chips contains 110 calories, 100 gm peanut has 500 calories
• Don’t take dinner after drinking, take liquor with the dinner

Do’s:

• The maximum liquor consumption per day for a diabetic person is either,1 bottle of beer or 2 glasses of wine or 2 large (60 ml) whisky
• Take bread or salads with the liquor

I have been known diabetic for the past 6 years and today just thought of sharing my experience with you all. Diabetes is something which is well known to everybody and now its found very common, but being diabetic at a very young age like me is very unlucky.

One thing to be clearly understood is once you are diabetic, its not curable, but can always be controlled by various means. The most important thing is that you should have routine screening for blood glucose to make sure that you are not diabetic. Many cases the individual does not know he / she is diabetic and just leave a normal life and finally lead to complications.

What are the complications of diabetics?

1. Heart Disease
2. Stroke
3. Eye Problem
4. Renal Problems (Kidney)
5. Nerve problems in the legs, hands or other parts of the body

I am not a medical specialist of a Doctor, but this is my personal experience and some information that I have got from my Doctors and other sources.

Once you are diagnosed diabetic, what should you do ?

Regular Doctor check-ups- Keep monitoring your blood glucose level with a Glucometer and make sure that its always within the range. If you find its abnormal, consult your Doctor for advice or change in medications

Control your diet – Have timely, well balanced diet, prescribed by your doctor / dietician. Most important is timely food and medicines. Avoid oily food, or a mean that controls calories, fats and carbohydrates.

Check your weight – Make sure that you maintain your weight

Exercise – At least have brisk walk everyday and I can advice that swimming is very good. Swimming helped me a lot to control my sugar level

Dental Check-up – Visit your dentist at least once in 6 months and have a check-up

Eye-Check up – Very important, have your eye tested at least once in 6 months or if you feel something wrong with your vision, go to an ophthalmologist immediately

Stress – This is something very much bothering and out of control. For me this is the main reason for increase in my blood sugar level. Even if I do not eat anything and I am under stress, my blood glucose level shoots up like anything. If you are stressed up take a break, visit your friends, read some stress reducer books, do some exercise or meditation.

If you are diabetic, make sure that you carry your medicines with you when you are travelling , always keep some sweets in your pocket if you are on medication or insulin. Sometimes your sugar level may fall very low and in such situation you can take some sweets to bring it up or you may go to hypoglycaemia. Don’t smoke, smoking can cause other complications too. Eat lots of high fibre food, vegetables, drink lot of water and try to be stress

If you are able to control your blood sugar level by taking precautions, then you can delay the complications that arise from diabetes, but if its not under control, the the complications will come soon.

I have been using mobile phones for the past 10 years and have understood and faced the advantages and disadvantages of using a mobile phone. Mobile phones are used by almost everybody these days. When you meet a new person or when you have a new friend, one the information that you take from that person is his / her mobile phone number.

Using mobile phones has lots of advantages and disadvantages and most you will be aware of that. Earlier days, when we are out of home or office, we need to search for a public telephone booth to make a phone call, but now, just pick up your mobile phone and dial. I am trying to list the Pros and cons of using a mobile phone in this post.

Advantages of using a mobile phone

Always connected

You are always connected, anybody who knows your mobile number can contact you. If you are travelling out of your territory or to another country, you can use the roaming facility to be connected anywhere and all the time. You can can use features like Text messaging to send messages, receive messages, send greetings, MMS for sending pictures, get information like news, flight timings and many more features

Internet Access

Now most of the mobile phone service providers has GPRS or EDGE or 3G enabled network. You can using internet anytime and anywhere. If you need to check your mail, you can do that when you are travelling or out of your office. You can reply to important messages or emails from your mobile phone itself. Features like Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry are really great. When you receive an email at your server, you get it pushed to your mobile phone. Latest PDA’s, or iPhone are not just mobile phones, you even term it as Mobile Office. I get all my mails pushed to my HTC TyTN II. Even if I am travelling, I am always aware of the important messages and I can respond quickly with out entering my office. I use remote desktop with my Pocket PC using wifi connections, through which I can access all my office desktop computers from anywhere in the World. There is an excellent service called Logmein, which is something I have been using for long time. Other excellent feature of mobile internet is that you can use internet sharing to using internet on your laptop while you are travelling. Just connect your PDA or pocket pc or your mobile phone with GPRS or EDGE or 3G internet and use it on your laptop. Other features like bluetooth, infrared are something very much I use. I do post articles using my mobile phone which is something I really need badly.

Other features like calendars, contacts, task, reminders are really something which cannot be missed. Once you use these kind of features, it will be very difficult to mange your day without a mobile phone.

Disadvantages of using a Mobile Phone

Always Connected

I mentioned this as an advantage above, but that’s a big disadvantage too. You are always connected to the world, you are always responsible for answering a phone call or if you are using a Blackberry or a Windows Mobile 5.0, you get emails which you need to respond instantly because your company or your clients expects this from you. You may not really understand the ill side of this, but your family or kids will feel this much more. If you are on a vacation and you are roaming, your office expects you to reply to the emails or the phone calls that you receive on your mobile. You lose your privacy, your freedom to be free from your daily routine work when you are connected.

Health Hazard

Using mobile phones for long time are definitely bad for health. The radiation caused by Mobile phones are of concern and experts believe that its bad for health.

Using mobile phones are very important in today’s world, but we need to make sure that we get enough freedom and time to spend with our family and make sure we don’t overuse to spoil our health

I had been to my home recently and was going through old pictures and got this one. This is my father long ago. I don’t know the name of this asana, but its something very difficult to do. He is a master in Yoga and has taught me and my sister some yoga which is really helpful. He is now 69 and still practices Yoga. Yoga is a powerful discipline that can improve health and fitness. Regular yoga practice has been known to increase the stamina, flexibility, stability and strength. Practicing of yoga postures also brings a feeling of well-being to the entire body by stimulating the organs and improving the circulation.

Yoga affects complete body mind complex and triggers a change from negative to positive direction on the physical, mental, spiritual plane of existence.

Yoga helps in reducing physical, mental and emotional stress. Yoga is well-known for its calming effects. Because of the body/mind connection, if the muscles are relaxed by stretching, the mind will also relax, with less anxiety and better sleep patterns.

Wordpress Tags: Yoga, Health | Technorati Tags: Yoga,Health

I have been using Navarathna Oil from Himani for some years now. Earlier I was not using any oil before bathing. I used some hair creams like brylcream or Vaseline after bath. Navarathna Oil is an excellent cooler, soothes your eyes, give you a fresh feeling and cool head. As soon as you apply the oil, you will feel the ice cold effect on you head. Other thing what I have noticed is sound sleep. Use Navarathna Oil regularly, you will get some relief from tiredness, and if you use computer for long time, its ideal. I used to have some problems with my eyes after I sit long in front of the computer monitor, but now I spend more time but I do not have any problem.

Just apply to your head and face about 20-30 minutes before bath regularly, you will really notice the difference and the power of Navarathna Oil

Today, April 7th is celebrated as World Health Day, world wide. The theme for the world health day for this year , 2008 is “protecting health from climate change”

World health day is celebrated to mark the founding of the World health organization. All the institutions in the Health sector do celebrate this day by providing some service or creating awareness among the people.

The theme “protecting health from climate change” puts health at the centre of the global dialogue about climate change. WHO selected this theme in recognition that climate change is posing ever growing threats to global public health security.

In today’s world most of us have a very busy schedule and we often feel that 24 hours a day is not sufficient to complete our daily work. We can try to sort out this time issue by planning our day and prioritizing our tasks. You need to spend time for your work, which can be official related to your full time job, personal tasks or jobs, time for yourself, time for your family, social activities, time to do some exercise to keep yourself healthy and fit and very important, sleep.

Official work or full time job

Many individuals, including me, who have very responsible posts and who do not have a fixed working hours face the problem of allocating time for their personal work or anything other than regular job. Many times I get calls from my office and may have to go to my office and sort out the issue as I have to give high priority to my work as I am holding a very responsible post and this is expected from my Company. Still I need to manage time for my personal and family needs. May be I may have to postpone tasks which are of low priority and give importance to high priority tasks. In such cases I prioritize events or tasks and work accordingly.

Family

Its very important that we give sufficient time to our family and spend some time dedicated to them. People who have a fixed working hours, will not have any problem doing this, but again as I mentioned, some individuals who hold posts which are of high responsibilities may face problem in giving sufficient time for their family. But we need to try our best and plan our time in a way to dedicate some time for our family and personal work.

Social Activities

We need to have social relation, go to our friends and relatives place, build good relation, invite them to your home, go out for dinner, picnic etc. You should plan some time for this. You do not need to do this every day but at least during weekends.

Personal Work

What I mean by personal work is for example, you have a blog and you need to do some posts or spend some time reading the comments and replying to them, you need to allocate some time for this everyday. This is again very important

sleep

Very important, make sure that you sleep at least 6-8 hours a day. You need to make sure that you have sufficient sleep. So its again left up to you to decide how many hours do you need to sleep, but make sure that you sleep the same number of hours every day. Some people are comfortable sleeping 5-6 hours and some 7-8 hours. I sleep 6-7 hours a day but sometime I am not able to do this, which really spoils my day. When I do not have my regular sleep, I have problems with my appetite, memory and concentration. Its like restarting a computer, when you sleep and wake up, you feel fresh and can work more efficiently. Sleep is very important for health and should be treated with high priority.

Health

Health is something which you should take care even if you feel that you are healthy and you do not have any disease. To be healthy, you need to keep your body fit, do exercise regularly, go for a walk, have regular fitness checkup. You need to find time for this and should be treated as a high priority task. If you are not healthy, then there is no point in working hard and making money. I had read an article which was written by a businessman who is now at the retirement age. He has been working whole his life and earning lot of money. He did not have time keep himself fit, now he has money but he is suffering from all sorts of health problem. Money is important, but without good health, you cannot make use of the money you have. Make money and make sure that you are using the money for you, for improving your lifestyle.

I just discussed some factors related to planning your day and giving priority to your personal, official, social needs. Prioritizing all these needs are left up to you, but you should keep in mind that all these are basic needs to keep ourself healthy and fresh to keep continuing our life.

I will be coming up with a post soon on how can we manage our time efficiently and the tools that we can use to manage our time. I use the best to get the best our of myself. Try to work using the best tools which can save time and we get the full output for the time we spend. .

To summarize, Prioritize your tasks, fix a deadline to a task and make sure that you meet the deadline for all your tasks.