Archive for April, 2009
Tobacco and Health
Posted by admin in Female Health on April 29, 2009
* The components of cigarettes are tobacco, nicotine, tar, arsenic, acetone, additives and agents of flavor and texture.
* The burning lit cigarette produces smoke which is what many experts denominate a “veritable chemical factory”
* The burning of a cigarette causes the formation of many toxic substances.
* 4000 substances are present in cigarette smoke
* More than 40 ingredients are carcinogenic.
* Lighting a cigarette leads to the formation of benzene, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia and mercury and metals including lead, mercury and chromium.
* When a smoker smokes a cigarette, all chemicals are mixed and form a sticky tar.
* Cadmium is a heavy metal that is 70 years to evacuate the body.
Never leave a cigarette burn in an ashtray because the substances released into the smoke is more dangerous than those that are inhaled.
What are the effects of nicotine?
* Nicotine is not carcinogenic.
* Nicotine makes smokers addicted to tobacco and secondarily to expose dozens of toxic and carcinogenic.
* It stimulates the nervous system and causes a strong dependence close or even superior to that produced by heroin and cocaine.
* Nicotine takes about 8 seconds to reach the brain and cause a flash effect, very rapidly, causing the sensation of pleasure and relaxation.
* Nicotine affects the brain and leads to reduced stress, feeling of having less need to eat or a stimulating effect.
* Nicotine causes adverse cardiovascular effects by increasing heart rate.
* Nicotine decreases the diameter of the arteries supplying the hands and feet causing a drop in temperature.
* Nicotine occurs naturally in tobacco and its concentration varies depending on the part of the plant. * We find the form of suspended particles in the smoke.
Tar
* The tar present in tobacco smoke is composed of many highly carcinogenic chemicals including oil, benzene, inorganic compounds.
* The tars are the main substance responsible for smoking-related cancers.
* The tar from the burning cigarette and stick to the walls of the mouth, pharynx and bronchi.
* A smoker of a pack a day inhales 250 ml of tar per year in his lungs, the equivalent of two pots of yoghurt.
Carbon monoxide, CO
* Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells and reduces the ability of red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues.
* It promotes the onset of hypoxia, a decrease of red blood cells in blood increased cardiovascular risk due to an increase in heart rate to rise to the onset of shortness of breath, cough and of increased cardiovascular risk.
* Carbon monoxide similar to that emitted by the exhaust from cars.
* Smokers who depend heavily on their cigarettes fix more CO to hemoglobin
* 4 to 6 hours are necessary to remove carbon monoxide in the blood.
Additives
* Additives are substances added to tobacco in cigarettes.
* Some additives emit hazardous components during combustion.
Irritants
* The acetone, phenols and hydrogen cyanide are irritants who assault the walls of the bronchi, nose and eyes.
* Hydrogen cyanide is one of the most toxic products found in tobacco smoke.
Cigars
* The cigarette is more toxic than cigarette
* The smoke is not filtered
* The nicotine content varies from 1 to 20 according cigars
* The tobacco leaf around it prevents the evaporation of substances produced by combustion
* The risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease increases with the number of cigars smoked
* The risk of lung cancer is multiplied by 3 because cigar smokers inhale deeply smoke cigar
* The risk of developing cancer of the mouth, larynx and pharynx is multiplied by 4 compared to a non-smoking because the smoker for cigar storage long minutes the smoke in his mouth.
* The tobacco of the cigar is richer in NNN, Nitrosonomicotine highly carcinogenic (INPES, May 2006 “deadly tobacco in all its forms”)
Light cigarettes
* Many experts have highlighted the toxicity of cigarette lighter or lights: this type of smoking cigarettes causes the same risks as smoking cigarettes.
* The “light” cigarettes are very harmful and toxic, because they involve a different type of lung cancer.
* The filter present in these cigarettes is composed of small holes that allow air to enter and let the smoke. But these holes, most often blocked by fingers or mouth, no longer fulfill their function to give the cigarettes the term “light”.
* To satisfy his craving for nicotine, a smoker of light cigarettes tend to smoke more, but also to increase the number and intensity of their puffs.
The pharmacological addiction to nicotine leads smokers of light cigarettes to inhale more deeply outlining the alveoli and small airways to high levels of toxic compounds in the smoke and cause the formation of a malignant tumor type adenocarcinoma.
The bidies
* The cigarettes are bidies Indian crafts including tobacco rolled in leaves of eucalyptus.
* The bidies produce 3 times more carbon monoxide and nicotine and 5 times more tar than regular cigarettes.
* The lack of filter and the lack of porosity of leaves used to wrap the tobacco cause the smoker to inhale more often and more deeply how to avoid going out.
* Studies have shown that the risk of cancer of the lung, mouth, esophagus, stomach were higher than those of a non-smoker.
* There are also 3 times more risk of myocardial infarction, and 4 times greater risk of chronic bronchitis (source: INPES, National Institute of Prevention and Health Education in May 2006 “Tobacco, Deadly in any forms “)
Cigars
Rolling tobacco
Higher tobacco prices have led to increased consumption of rolling tobacco. The vast majority of cigarette smokers rolled ignores the risks of rolling tobacco.
* The rolling tobacco is four times more harmful than regular cigarettes
* The rolling tobacco is a highly toxic releases more cancer-causing compounds more toxic than cigarettes.
* It contains 4 to 6 times more nicotine and tar
* He has no filter.
* The October, French Office of Tobacco Prevention, even mentions the word “scandal of rolling tobacco”
Allergy
Posted by admin in Female Health on April 6, 2009
The word allergy comes from the Greek, means abnormal reaction, excessive and different. Indeed, people with allergies do not react like others, they “overreacts” upon contact with substances foreign to the body.
The allergic reaction is an abnormal and excessive response of the immune system to normally harmless substances that people with allergies breathe, swallow or touch. But normally our immune system helps the body defend itself against bacteria or viruses.
This reaction is secondary to contact with a foreign substance in the body, called an allergen, wrongly seen as dangerous by our cells.
Thus, a substance quite harmless such as pollen or food, for example, may cause some people an allergic reaction.
After initial contact with an allergen by inhalation, skin or food, the body produces antibodies directed against the allergen, IgE (immunoglobulin E). This phase did not result in awareness events.
In a subsequent contact with the same allergen, these antibodies react, causing the cascade of allergic inflammatory reaction expressed in the form of rhinitis, asthma, conjunctivitis, according to the place where it occurs.
The most common allergic manifestations occur in people genetically predisposed. One or more members of their family have allergic reactions.
List of major allergens, substances considered foreign to the body
Thousands of allergens can cause allergic reactions. Among the most common include:
* Mites
* Pollens
* Animals
* Insects
* Mold
* Latex
* Cockroaches
* Food
* Drugs, vaccines, anesthetics
* The houseplants
* The jewelry fantasies ….
Tobacco is not an allergen, except in some exceptional people working in tobacco factories. It is a non-specific irritant that aggravates the allergic reaction.
Depending on where the allergic reaction occurs, the allergy will cause:
* Allergic rhinitis, if it occurs in the nose
* Allergic conjunctivitis if it occurs at eye level
* Eczema or hives if it occurs in the skin
* Angioedema if it occurs on the lips or throat
* Anaphylactic shock: it is the allergic reaction The most severe of the body, can affect all body organs and cause a fatal reaction.
Each allergen can cause one or more events in isolation or associated.
* As an allergy to dust mites, pollen and animals can cause rhinitis and / or asthma and / or eczema and / or conjunctivitis, but more rarely, urticaria, angioedema or anaphylaxis.
* A food allergy causes a rather rash, but it can also lead to events located in the nose or lungs, causing asthma or rhinitis, or at eye level, cause conjunctivitis.
An allergen, such as mites or pollen, for example, can cause one or more of these events, individually or successivement.De imagine that many allergic pollens such as allergic rhinitis do, that food is responsible for manifestations of the skin (hives, eczema). These misconceptions may delay diagnosis: pollens can also cause such as hives and food cause sneezing.
Carrots?
Posted by admin in Female Health on April 5, 2009
The book makes pleasant Carrots? Written by dieticians and nutritionists Adine Anne-Marie and Jean-Paul Blanc, reviewed 313 ideas on nutrition. We learn in particular that there is no nutritional difference between fresh green beans after cooking and canned beans. The book presents diverse ready-made ideas that contradict the authors most often, by providing explanations.
“Eating fruit protects against cancer of the colon”: yes, say the authors of the book, explaining that the beneficial effect is related to the acceleration of intestinal transit. “Treatments of fruits are slim” No, they can lose weight, but it comes at the expense of muscle mass.
“We have selected these ideas based on questions that patients were asking for consultation, which were often the same,” said Anne-Marie Adine, one of the authors.
Among the ideas it considers the most meaningful, Anne-Marie Adine refers primarily those famous green beans, whose nutritional value is the same as canned green beans. “If the beans spend some time on the shelves, they lose their vitamin C. The canned beans were therefore a vitamin C added,” she says.
Other ideas talking, the author points in particular that the crackers are less caloric than bread or the black pudding is the best source of iron.
Other ready-made rather unexpected, “sugar causes obesity,” the idea that authors respond “yes and no.” “Not a bit of sugar will make you fat. By eating too much fat, by cons, can lead to weight gain,” said Anne-Marie Adine.
We also learn that dark chocolate is less calorie milk chocolate, because it is fatter. “The dark chocolate 72%, cons, less calories,” says Anne-Marie Adine.
Moreover, cooking cream is less calorie cooking butter: Butter contains 82% fat, against 35% fat for cream. The buttercream lightened also reduces calorie intake. ”
“But cook the meat with butter has little interest in this case, better use of olive oil”, says the author.