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Most people who plan to lose weight and start a weight-loss regime (including diet), wonder whether they need to cut out all added sugar from their food intake in order to lose weight.

Sugar by itself does not contain fat in its chemical composition. And when it is consumed along with coffee or tea, and milk and curd, it does not register as fat in the body and thus is irrelevant to the ‘lose weight, quit sugar’ stuff . It comes in as carbohydrate food, which is immediately used as energy. Similarly, if you have a couple of teaspoons of jam, jelly or honey, the sugar is used up as energy. However, if you eat candies, with sugar content equivalent to about 3-4 teaspoons of sugar or take 300 ml of a soft drink (roughly 7 tsp of sugar) the excess sugar is converted to fat.

In short, as long as you are not diabetic you may safely consume 3-4 teaspoons of sugar every day, distributed through the entire day, and still lose weight. Moreover, giving up sugar completely and substituting it with a sweetener is not recommended, as they can have harmful side effects even though they say that such artificial sweeteners help to lose weight. What you could do, though, is give up sweet treats like cakes, ice cream, candies, pastries and other sweets instead. (more…)

This revelation of the effects of smoking, especially on your eyes is astonishing. An approximate amount of 4000 chemicals present in the cigarette smoke gets into the bloodstream of smokers and may cause damage to the eye. It can even cause the thinning of the membrane covering the eye, (conjunctiva) resulting in bloodspot and irritate the eyes.

Age-related macular degeneration and other diseases have also been linked to effects of smoking. The causes of macular degeneration are not completely understood, but smoking is believed to be the main preventable risk factor. Smoking directly is linked to the rising of intraocular pressure that can lead to glaucoma and accompanying optic nerve damage. Although the effects of smoking stretches to several eye diseases, including nuclear cataract and thyroid eye disease, the most common cause of smoking related blindness is age related macular degeneration, which results in severe irreversible loss of central vision.

How does smoking damage the eyes? (more…)

Body odor is one of the most disgusting problem for you and also for the person standing next to you. As we have seen in several deodorant ads, a stinking person will not have much to do on a crowded area, and most important of all, he will be driving people away from him “literally”.

Body odor is a smell that is unpleasant and specific to the individual, and can even be used to identify people. All active people will face embarrassing situations at least at one point in their lifetime due to their body odor.  And so, it is most important to learn how to prevent body odor, thus remaining fresh all day long. Everyone knows that the obvious solution to this problem is to use a deodorant. But nowadays, studies are proving that even deodorants are harmful to your body and their use must be as minimal as possible.

Keeping this in mind, I have listed a few tips on how to prevent body odor. These are very handy and can be done with the kitchen ingredients, so, you don’t need to bother about side-effects or similar problems… (more…)

There are two good reasons why everybody should know the most basic information about heart attacks. First, odds are high that either you or someone you love will suffer from a heart attack during your lifetime. And second, whether you (or your loved one) survive that heart attack may depend on what you and your doctors do during the first few hours.

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI) is the death of the heart muscle, caused by blockage in one of the coronary (heart) arteries. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot forms at the site of an atherosclerotic plaque (fatty deposition) in a coronary artery. The clot blocks the artery, and the blood flow stops. The muscle becomes starved of oxygen and if blood flow is not restored within few hours, the heart muscle dies. Plaque ruptures are the most common cause of heart attacks. Plaque formation (fatty deposition) in the artery wall develops gradually over time and it can start around the age of 20.

Symptoms of heart attack

It is very important to know the symptoms of heart attack because the sooner you recognize them the chances of good recovery are better. (more…)

The winter brings relief from the sweltering summer days, but can wreak havoc on your skin. One of the common skin problems in the winter are fungal infections. This is obvious as the humidity will be more and fungal activity will be at its peak! To prevent it, avoid wearing damp clothing and socks as this can predispose you to fungal infections.Those who are prone to fungal infections should keep clean and dry, use an anti fungal soap, and use a prophylactic anti fungal dusting powder in the groin areas and feet. Carry an extra set of clothing or keep a spare change at your workplace to avoid staying in damp clothing for prolonged periods of time as this can lead to fungal infections.

Basic Skin Care

Your skin tends to be oily in this humid season and basic skin care products may need to be modified to suit the season.
Use a medicated face wash suited for oily skin as it is beneficial to prevent acne break-outs

1. Use oil-free moisturizers as your skin still needs hydration, but avoid heavy, oily creams in this humid season
2. Use oil-free sunscreens
3. If your skin tends to be too oily, use an astringent or toner
4. A mild exfoliating scrub may be done gently once or twice a week

(more…)