Category: Online Special

Having a miscarriage is often a painful experience for couples to overcome, both physically and mentally. Overall, about 12 to 15 per cent of clinically recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage – with the occurrence increasing with maternal age.

Miscarriage is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the premature loss of a foetus up to 23 weeks of pregnancy and weighing up to 500 grams. The occurrence at 20 years of age is about 10 per cent and increases to more than 90 per cent among women 45 years of age or older.

A new report published in the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology indicates that 25.2 per cent of miscarriages could be prevented by a combination of lifestyle changes. Modifiable risk factors such as underweight, obesity and alcohol consumption appear to have the greatest impact on miscarriage.

The study that consisted of 91,427 pregnancies highlighted the importance of eating a balanced diet, limiting substances of abuse such as alcohol, and not lifting over 20 kilograms per day while pregnant, or working at night.

Women wanting to conceive should also eat a balanced diet, make sure they are not “too skinny”, or overweight, cut out smoking and ask their partners to follow suit, said Caroline Overtone, spokesperson at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Related research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests folic acid can also reduce the risk of early miscarriage. In the study, women with low levels of folic acid were 50 per cent more likely to have a miscarriage than women with normal levels.

Folic acid is a vitamin that is required for the proper growth and development of an embryo. All women of childbearing age should consume folic acid daily.

According to the Institute of Medicine, “women capable of becoming pregnant should take 400 micrograms of synthetic folic acid daily, from fortified foods or supplements or a combination of the two, in addition to consuming food with folate from a varied diet.

Women who get at least 400 micrograms can reduce their unborn baby’s risk of neural tube defects by as much as 70 per cent. Birth defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly can be prevented as well as placental separation during pregnancy, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and low blood supply to the placenta.

Excessive alcohol intake, as found in the study, has been shown to destroy folic acid and damage the lining of the digestive system – reducing one’s ability to absorb nutrients.

Poor nutrient absorption can play a significant role in the development of many health conditions that can impact miscarriage and the overall health of the mother and child. Without addressing the causative factors, i.e. diet and alcohol consumption, many women taking medications can further deplete folic acid.

According to the University of Maryland Medical Centre, “several types of drugs can cause folic acid depletion. These drugs include antacids, anti-inflammatory medicines like aspirin and naproxen, antibiotics, anti-convulsants such as barbiturates, birth control medications, diuretics, ulcer medications, cholesterol-lowering medications and the anti-diabetic medication metformin.”

Folic acid is naturally found in fruits like lemons, bananas and melons as well as leafy-green vegetables like spinach, broccoli and lettuce. Beans, peas and lentils also provide high amounts of this protective nutrient. Folic acid is added to many breads, juices and cereals during processing and is labelled as ‘enriched’ or ‘fortified’.

Lastly, to prevent potential miscarriage, practice safe sex and get screened for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Untreated STIs such as gonorrhoea, syphilis, HIV and herpes can increase the risk of miscarriage.

Couillard is an international health columnist that works in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s goals of disease prevention and control. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement. You can reach him via: Email: drcorycouillard@gmail.com, Facebook: Dr Cory Couillard and Twitter: DrCoryCouillard

If we want to take appropriate action to fix something that is not working properly, then it is necessary to understand, precisely, the nature of the problem. Obviously, if our diagnosis is inaccurate, then the solution applied is unlikely to work.

This principle of needing to understand a problem accurately before we can devise and implement an appropriate solution applies in all fields of human endeavour, whether it be a mechanical, scientific, health or environmental problem, or a conflict at any level of human relationships.

The most important impediment to understanding and resolving any problem or conflict is our fear of knowing the truth. We spend a lot of our time trying to deal with problems and conflicts by deluding ourself about the cause and/or the solution necessary.

For example, the truth is that most of us are addicted to using violence in one or more of the following ways (among many others): we want to reserve the right to use violence to control or ‘discipline’ our children, we want to pretend that our unhealthy diet is not the cause of our
ill-health if we like eating all of those unhealthy foods, we want to be able to consume more than we really need and pretend that the ongoing destruction of the natural environment and the accelerating climate catastrophe are unrelated to our own behaviour, and/or we want to buy those cheap consumer goods made by exploited workers (and sometimes even child labor) in those factories in Africa, Asia and Central/South America where the largest corporations are less encumbered by such considerations as a requirement to pay fair wages and taxes, to address health and safety concerns, and to consider other human rights and environmental issues.

And we want to blame other people for our conflicts if looking ourselves deeply in the mirror might tell us something about ourselves that we don’t want to know.

But if we want to deal adequately with any problem or conflict, first of all we need to be courageous enough to acknowledge the truth, including any truth about ourselves. Why is this so difficult? Why have we become afraid of the truth?

Like all of our fears, the fears that tell us that we cannot understand a problem and that we cannot fix it originate in our childhood experience.

Evolution has given all human beings an enormous array of potential capacities for knowing the truth in a diverse variety of circumstances. These include sensory perception such as sight, hearing, smell and touch to provide accurate information about the external world; feelings such as thirst, hunger, nausea, dizziness and physical pain to provide accurate information about the state of our body and what it needs; memory to store and provide access to learning from past experience; a ‘truth register’ to detect lies and other misinformation; intuition to ‘listen’ to and remain in touch with ‘the big picture’ of life as a whole; conscience to enable us to make and act on those difficult moral choices that, for example, might ultimately require us to act against social conventions or unjust laws; more feelings such as fear, happiness, emotional pain, joy, anger, satisfaction, sadness, sexual ones and a vast variety of others to tell us what is happening for us in any given situation and to give us the power to behave appropriately in this context when the time is right; and intellect to acquire, interpret, analyse and evaluate information from
these and other sources, such as written material.

Tragically, however, much of modern socialisation seriously inhibits or even destroys the development of these genetic potentialities by inflicting what I have called ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ violence on us throughout our childhood: because they would make us powerful in ways that run counter to what society wants: as a result, we each become a ‘socially-constructed delusional identity’ (student, employee/soldier, citizen) who is readily manipulated and coerced by society instead of becoming the powerful individual “our ‘True Self” that evolution intended.

For most of us, one outcome of this violence is that we learn to not trust ourselves and to fear the truth that is internally communicated to us. As a result, decisive action, outside that which is obviously socially endorsed, becomes impossible.

In contrast, powerful individuals who know the truth are not unthinkingly obedient. Powerful individuals trust their ‘inner voice’, as Gandhi called it: ‘You should follow your inner voice whatever the consequences’.

Despite the fact that our fear is often telling us that some problems are monumental and there is no way forward (which, for example, our fear might tell us in relation to the vast environmental challenges we now face), in fact there are sensible, straightforward solutions to virtually all of our problems. And while this will mean that we often need to change our own behaviour, most of those changes will require little effort and can be easily accomplished. Of course, the genuinely powerful individual is able to take responsibility for making changes that set an example and inspire others to act too. In contrast, if we wait for others to take the lead or if we lobby elites to act on our behalf, we will usually find the experience pretty disempowering and this will reinforce our fear that problems cannot be solved.

So, for example, if you want to take powerful action on the full range of pressing environmental problems yourself, then you can certainly do so. One way is to participate in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’ http://tinyurl.com/flametree and to invite others to participate as
well. And if you are unafraid to know and act on the truth “that human violence in its many manifestations now has extinction howling outside our door” then you might also like to consider joining the worldwide movement to end all violence by signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World

The bottom line is this: Can you still hear your inner voice? And do you, like Gandhi, have the courage to follow it ‘whatever the consequences’?

Burrowes, author of Why violence?  has a lifetime commitment to understanding and
ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He can be reached via: email address flametree@riseup.net and website http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com

Osteoarthritis strikes nearly 10 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women over age 60. For many sufferers, pain is a daily companion that keeps them from living full, active lives. Approximately 80 per cent of sufferers will have limitations in movement and 25 per cent will not be able to perform activities of daily living.

Osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease is characterised by the gradual wearing away of cartilage that cushions joints throughout the body. This causes bones to rub together, leading to pain, swelling and joint stiffness.

This devastating condition is often associated with ageing, injury and obesity.  It will most likely affect the joints that have been continually stressed throughout the years including the hand, wrist, neck, back, knee and hip. Osteoarthritis sufferers often experience pain and stiffness in the morning that improves as the day goes on.

Osteoarthritis is already one of the ten most disabling diseases in the country. The prevalence of osteoarthritis is increasing with extended life expectancy, with the greatest disease burden where access to therapies is not readily available.

To address this growing burden, the Osteoarthritis Research Society International has recently published new guidelines in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. The new guidelines highlight the non-surgical management of knee osteoarthritis and the importance of biomechanical interventions, exercise and weight management strategies.

Depending on the severity of the condition, common treatment approaches usually involve over-the-counter and prescription medications. However, these approaches can have side effects that can range from a nuisance to life threatening.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, “staying physically active and maintaining a healthy weight are the keys to living well with osteoarthritis. Too little movement can lead to stiffness and weak joints. Losing one pound can take four pounds of pressure off your knee joints.”

Locally, inactivity levels are high with more than half of adults being insufficiently active. Urbanisation and rapidly growing cities has resulted in increasingly popular sedentary pastimes such as watching television.

Some people with osteoarthritis tend to avoid exercise if they’re in pain, or out of fear of worsening the cartilage loss. But research shows that exercise is an integral part of prevention, maintenance and treatment of osteoarthritis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends adults aged 65 and above do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week.

Exercise is also an effective weight control mechanism, which can help prevent osteoarthritis from developing in the joints. Strengthening exercises help reduce stress and pain by building muscles and keeping joints flexible and mobile.

Combining regular exercise with a healthy diet can assist weight loss, reduce joint stress, and provide the body with required nutrients for health and healing. Researchers have found vitamins A, C and E to have antioxidant properties that have potential benefits to osteoarthritis sufferers.

According to WHO, there is a threefold increase risk of progression of osteoarthritis for people in the lower decile of vitamin C and D blood levels.

Citrus fruits are excellent sources of vitamin C but there are many non-citrus sources as well. Examples include papaya, strawberries, pineapple, kiwifruit, cantaloupe, raspberries, blueberries and watermelon.

To get enough vitamin D, it is important to get frequent, short exposures of direct sunlight. Regular short exposures have been found to be much more effective and safer than intermittent longer ones.

As a general rule, older people need more vitamin D than younger people, larger people need more that smaller people, and dark-skinned people need more than fair skinned people.

Couillard is an international health columnist that works in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s goals of disease prevention and control.

Email: drcorycouillard@gmail.com, Facebook: Dr Cory Couillard and Twitter: DrCoryCouillard

So you want to start a business? You’ve gotten an idea and have developed a concept of how to be successful. You’ve gotten the appropriate training and are ready to go. But, take it easy, here are some tips worthy to consider.

1.  The name is important: While for purpose of identification, every business should have a name. But in the age of the internet, you’ll also need a website. And a name for the website too. So, you need to do an online check to know whether your desired business domain name is available. If it’s available, buy it even if you’re not ready to start a business. If it’s not available, you might need to consider changing it, or forget being on the internet, which is not advisable. And remember

2.  Register your business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission. For sole proprietorship, you may be able to fill and submit the applications on your own. But for other forms of business, you might need to hire a lawyer.

3.  Follow the money: Okay, you’ve gotten a name. It’s time to open a bank account. And you’ll need to register with the appropriate tax authorities. You stand a LOT to gain from paying your tax like juicy business opportunities, even though it might appear a great burden to a fledgling business.

4. Get quality stationery: You will need to let people know you’re in business. Start by printing office stationeries like letterheads and envelopes. And make sure they’re of good enough quality to represent your business as in some instances, these stationeries will be the first impression your business gives to others.

5. Advertise on the internet: while you can spread the word about your business through word of mouth to family and friends, the internet has evolved to be a free advertisement if properly used. And as a smart entrepreneur, you can take advantage of it by engaging previous and potential customers. Hence, opening accounts for your business on appropriate social media like facebook, youtube, instagram, google +, linkedin, and Twitter, is a good idea.