Benefits of Playing Tennis for Health and Daily Life

Tennis is game that has attracted a number of youngsters, not only due to its popularity but due to its health benefits. Roger Federer's recent 18th Grand Slam will bring more popularity to this game because he has shown how fit tennis player can be at an age where other sports person plan for retirement. Playing tennis not only improves your health to be a better player but also improves it for other aspects of life such as social and mental health. Once you go further into this article, you will find how much you underestimated this game.

Health Benefits of Playing Tennis

• An hour of playing Singles tennis can consume 600 calories in men and 420 calories in women. Average daily calorie consumption of a normal man is 2640 calories, and for women is 1785 calories.
• Just like other exercises, playing tennis lowers body fat.
• Bone density is also increased, if you play on regular basis. It makes your bones strong and less prone to fracture.
• Playing Tennis makes your body powerful and flexible. Muscles are toned in a way to provide good force with better flexibility.
• Reaction time of tennis player is more than a normal person. Its due to constant practice of reactions to hit the ball.
• Your metabolic function and aerobic capacities are incresed and thus your remain healthy.
• If you play tennis regularly then you resting heart rate and blood pressure is lowered. Which means your heart becomes powerful.
• Tennis is game in which all of your body parts are used and exercised.
• While playing tennis even eyes are trained to concentrate well.
• Tennis is not just a game to test your physical strength. It improves your mental strength as well. Your capability to make strategies is also increased.   

Benefits of Playing Tennis in Social and Daily Life 

Apart from usual health benefits, tennis provides some social and daily life benefits as well. 

• It provides opportunities to meet new people irrespective of age and profession.
• It makes you more outgoing and sometimes more talkative. It makes you very less prone to stress related diseases.
• It increases your social circle. You make new friends, not only for playing time but sometimes also for spending holidays and sharing your thoughts.
• This game is played all around the world, so where ever you go, you will be able to play it.
• Irrespective of your age, you will find people of all age groups enjoying this game to keep themselves fit for life. 
• You can start playing Tennis at any age in any part of the world. The popularity of this game is all around the world and in all age groups. Once you decide to play, you will definitely find someone with a matching playing level.
• As mentioned in health benefits that it improves your mental strength. This mental strength not only helps in playing but also in your social and daily life. If you are a student then you might find its benefits in your studies.
• According to a research tennis players score higher in optimism and self-esteem.

All these benefits are sufficient to to tell the importance of tennis in proving a better health and better life. We hope that this article will inspire some of you to make this sport a passion. 

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A life without Pain : Blessing or Curse

You will wonder if i tell you that there is a person who don't feel pain. It seems to be a blessing to live a life without pain. Most of the people face some kind of pain in some phase of life. Pain is one of the most troubling element in some people's life. Either its Sciatica, Spondylitis, tooth pain, fracture pain or an injury. We face pain in all segments of life and want to get rid of it. But if you think that it will be a blessing to live without pain then you are wrong. Instead its a curse. Pain is a sensation which have its own importance. You will know it once you read this complete article.

Gabby Gingras, born 2001, is a girl who can't feel pain. When she was in 5th Month and teething she bite her father's finger so much that he pulled his finger out and a tooth came out, Gabby bled but didn't cry. Only then her parents noticed that she don't feel pain. Afterwards she started to bite her fingers. After visiting several doctors and searching internet for this disease her parents found that its HSAN(Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy), a disease in which the nerve fibers that feel pain and temperature are not present in body. Her parents got her baby teeth removed and she broke most of the adult teeth herself. As the time flew by Gabby chew her tongue, lost one eye, broken her jaw and hurt herself in several ways. She is still surviving with various safety measures. She has artificial left eye, wears a protective contact lens on right eye and wears swimming goggles while sleeping. A documentary film "A life without Pain" was also made on her life.

Joann Cruz and another 30 years elder case of HSAN. She was born in 1971 and survived with this disease. She had 6 major spinal surgeries as she had broken her spine several times. A rod was inserted in her spine to hold it all together. But she broke the rod as well and noticed it only when she heard it scratching crack-crack sound but felt no pain. Her baby teeth were also pulled out.

Its really hard to believe this fact there is such disease and much harder to live with it. We can't even imagine the problems that such patients and their parents face. For example its hard for such patients to decide if the food and drinks are at right temperature to drink. They can easily burn their or mouth with hot food or water.

Only that person can understand the importance of pain who can't feel it. Pain is a sensation which saves us from harmful events and make us treat them as soon as possible. If we don't feel pain we can't know that any thing wrong is happening to our body. Pain is an indication to look towards our body. The more severe the pain, the more critical matter it is.

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The disease that won't let you AGE

Most of us don't know that there is a disease that can act as an effective anti-aging pill. Everyone desires not to get old and keep yourself young for all of your life. Everyone wants to avoid diseases that comes with old age. We want to keep our best body for all of our life. Stopping aging is the very first desire of every human being. We can't think that its a disease if we stop aging. But its a disease if a natural process stops without doing anything to stop it. It becomes a disease when it happens without your desire to do so. You will understand what we are saying once you read more about this disease that won't let you age.
Here we bring you such cases which are unique in medical history and seems unbelievable.

Brooke Greenberg of Baltimore was a unique case is medical history. Born on 8 January 1993, and Died 24 October 2013. She died after attaining twenty years of age. Most of us will have an image of fully grown girl by this detail. But she was just 30 in tall, weighed about 16 lb when she died. Her mental age was just of a nine month to 1 year old baby. This fact is enough to let you know when she stopped aging. Doctors call this condition as Syndrome X. Brooke Greenberg was the third child of their parents, out of 4 girl child. She was born 1 month premature and suffered various medical conditions by the age of five. In year 2009 it was found that her body parts were not developing as a coordinated body. Here mental age was not above 1 year, she was not able to speak but responds to sounds. Her bones were like of a 10 year old kid and she still had her baby teeth. She died due to bronchomalacia, which is a medical condition that usually occurs in children. Read more about Brooke Greenberg at wikipedia.

Another case is of Nicky Freeman from Australia. He was born in 1970. He still looks like a preteen boy. His story was published in various news reports. He was born one month overdue. His head was larger than usual and doctors told that he would not live as he had hydrocephalous - fluid on the brain. But he survived and still alive. According to doctors his bone structure is growing 4 times slower than usual. An article was published in The West about him with title "40 year old trapped in a Child's body". Her mother fears that his son's disabilities are due to anti-histamine, an anti-allergic medicine that she had during pregnancy. Four other women in her town had abortions due to that medicine and one had a child with disabilities. Mrs Freeman has got three other healthy children.

Gabby Williams is the second oldest kid of her parents. She has got five siblings and she is the smallest one. She was born in 2005. Still she has a face of newly born, body of a toddler and wears nappies, just like a newly  born. According to doctors, she was born with some abnormality in brain, damaged optic nerve, two heart defects, a cleft palate, and an abnormal swallowing reflex. She is blind from birth and still needs to be bottle-fed in every three hours. Some people call her real life Benjamin Button (character from Brad Pitt movie). It takes Gabby 4 years to age just one. At the time of birth doctors told Gabby's parents to expect the worst, but her parents poured all of their love for their kid.


María Audenete do Nascimento born on May 7, 1981 in Ceara, Brazil. She was born in a mud hut and raised in it. Now she is 36. At the age of 9 months its found that she is suffering from an auto-immune disease, hypothyroidism. She is 27 inches tall and weighs just 19 pounds. She was not able to walk or talk but just communicates like babies with sign language and gestures. Due to her poor financial status, she didn't get the required medical facilities else she might have grown. Her family was dependent of the aid given by tourists to get her treated till the age of 29. Then something changed as Record News interviewed her and provided her proper medical facilities. Later Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ceara provided her medical care for free. Now she can walk. Later Brazilian TV show Programa do Ratinho provided here free residence and it proved beneficial for her health and family.

Few more cases of Syndrome X are also reported recently. In July 2016 two such cases were reported. One was of Alyssa Pennington of New Mexico, who looks like 5 year old girl while she was 12. Other one was Jenifer Sandoval of Colorado, she looks like four years old while she is 22.

All these occurrences made medical community to take these cases as a chance to find something that can stop ageing process. However there are some people who strongly believe that stopping ageing will create abnormalities in body just like examples shown above. 

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Lack of New Antibiotics in Global Market

Antibiotics are the class of medicines that doesn't existed before 1930s. The very first antibiotic was Penicillin, which was known to cure a wide range of diseases. After that a wide range of Antibiotics were discovered till 1970. But now Antibiotic discovery has reached a point where they are not getting attention of either governments or pharma companies. In this article we will try to put some light on this issue and try to find the reason behind lack of new antibiotics in global market.

Why No New Antibiotics ?

No new antibiotics are coming into market due to various reasons. Some of the major reasons are:

• Market Failure: Antibiotics are not as profitable as other drugs, such as drugs to treat hair loss, diabetes and asthma. Most pharmaceutical companies are private and they go for profitable business. Antibiotics research takes a lot of time and money.
• Doctors don't prescribe new Antibiotics: Even if the new antibiotic is effective, doctors don't start prescribing it. They save it for those cases where other antibiotics don't work. Doctors are well aware of resistant bacteria and they want to keep some surprise element for them. But this thing makes pharmaceutical companies keep themselves away from new antibiotic production.
• Lack of Rules and Regulation: Most of the governments don't have proper rules, regulations and guidelines for research, development and clinical trials of new antibiotics.

Classes of Antibiotics: The following table shows the year of introduction of some Antibiotic Class. Here you can see that most of the antibiotics were discovered between 1930 to 1970.

According to a news published in The Telegraph on 7th Jan 2016, a new antibiotic named Teixobactin is discovered that can fight against a wide range of bacteria. Good thing is that bacteria can't become resistant to it for at least 30 years. But the bad thing is that this antibiotic is still to go for human testing and it will take at least 5 years to be available in market for general public. Discovery of this new antibiotic has created a new class of antibiotic and made a way to create antibiotic through genetic engineering.

Apart from the above discovery, governments of different countries should also provide some fund for Scientific research on new antibiotics. Private pharma companies will only go for profit, but government can either ask them to invest certain percentage of their profit on Antibiotic research or just make it mandatory for them.

We hope that new and better antibiotics will be available in market soon.

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Facts about Antibiotics and Bacteria

In the modern world where resistant bacteria is emerging as a threat to humans, its necessary to understand the infections, bacteria and antibiotics. Here we will provide some facts which will not only increase your knowledge but also help is treating infections with correct medicines. Here are the facts.

• The Word Antibiotic originated from "Antibiotique",which was first used during 19th Century. At that time it meant "destructive to microorganisms". Still most of the dictionaries use the same meaning. In 1942 Selman Waksman started to use the term Antibiotic only for those compounds that kills bacteria.
• All infections can't be treated by Antibiotics. Antibiotics can fight with only bacterial infections or some pathogen infections, not viral infections.
• Due to lack of knowledge or knowledge of wrong definition of Antibiotic, one-third of US Adults think that Antibiotic can treat viral infection.
• Over or under usage of antibiotics and using antibiotics for viral infections can help bacteria in becoming resistant to antibiotics.
• Most of the antibiotics are made using bacteria itself. Bacteria produce antibiotic as a defensive measure to compete against other competitors.
• 20th part of our total body weight is due to bacteria.
• All bacteria are not harmful to us. In fact some are necessary for our body to work normally. But Antibiotics can't distinguish between these good and bad bacteria, and kill both which eventually lead to side effects.
• HAI (Hospital Acquired Infections) are those infection that a person gets after a surgery or during a hospital stay. It might be due to lack of hygiene or from other infected patients.
• 1.7 million Americans are infected by HAI infections every year. Around 99,000 of them die due to it.
• In 2008 Medicare refused to pay bills for HAI (Hospital Acquired Infections).
• Day-by-day Antibiotics are becoming less effective either due to over-prescription or inappropriate use.
• Biggest consumers of Antibiotics are Farm Animals. Antibiotics are mostly used in Pig and chicken farms. 
• 2nd biggest consumer of Antibiotics are children who are usually sick due to viral infection.
• Antibiotics can combat against multiplying bacteria. They are less effective against non-replicating (latent) bacteria.
• According to a study, those doctors who see more than 34 patients per day are 20-27% more likely to prescribe antibiotics where they are not appropriate.
• Some researchers believe that Antibiotics have cased increased height and obesity in human race.
• Green tea can act as a booster for Antibiotics. The effect of antibiotic increases if the patient drinks green tea.
• Antibiotics may have negative effect on our immune system. Those kids who are prescribed lots of antibiotics before 2 years of age are 3 times more prone to asthma that other kids.

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Superbug Bacteria Infection - An Artificial Disease

A recent incident of a Nevada woman dying from Superbug Infection that she probably got from India has raised the issue of lack of understanding of medicine use. Its not wrong if we say that Superbug is an artificially created disease by human ignorance. The bad thing about Superbug infection is that it can't be treted by any known antibiotic. Before we proceed further its important to know what is this Superbug Bacteria Infection.

Superbug Bacteria

Superbug Bacteria feature can be acquired by any common bacteria. This superbug feature makes it a superpower among other bacteria as it can't be killed by using any antibiotic. Superbug bacteria is made by adaptation in bacteria. But we the people who use antibiotics are responsible for this adaptation. Superbug is not created in a day. Its made by decades of use of antibiotics without any prescription from doctors.

How Superbug Bacteria is created ?

As we said earlier that Superbugs are not created in a day. These are invented by human ignorance towards usage of Antibiotics from past century (if not more). In most of the cases people don't have patience to visit a doctor and take any leftover antibiotics to treat their illness. They don't even care if they are suffering from a bacterial infection or a viral infection. In most of the cases a person suffering from common cold or flu, which is a viral infection, uses antibiotics. He/she have no idea how his/her illness is getting treated. Normal Cold and flu can be treated even without any medicine. But once they feel relieved they use those antibiotics again in future for same viral infection. This thing does on harm to virus but provides a good environment to bacteria to evolve and generate genes resistant to that particular antibiotic. The worst thing about bacteria is that they can carry and pass genes to next bacteria. Now if resistant genes of all different resistant bacteria ends up in one bacteria, then this bacteria becomes a Superbug, which can't be treated by any antibiotic available in the market.

Types of Superbug

Superbugs are usually named after the resistance they have acquired from a group of antibiotics. Here a few known superbugs that the affecting people around the globe.

• MRSA: Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus
• C.Diff : Clostridium difficile
• VRE: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci
• CRE : Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae
• CRKP : Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae
• Necrotizing fasciitis : the flesh-eating bacterial disease

The Nevada Women who died recently due to the superbug was suffering from a  bacteria named New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM), a highly resistant form of CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae) .

Some of the bacteria that acquire the superbug gene are generally available on our skin or digestive system, but they are of no harm to us unless they become superbug due to our own mistake. For example Staphylococcus aureus is a normal bacteria present in our nose and respiratory system, but if it becomes resistant then it can become MRSA.

It is a social duty of ours to takes antibiotics only when necessary after prescription from a doctor and follow the complete course. If we take antibiotics at our own will then we will not only make ourselves prone to superbug infection but also those who are close to us.

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Lactose Intolerance in Kids and Adults | Diet for Lactose Intolerant

Lactose Intolerance is a disease in which our body is incapable of digesting lactose (a sugar found in milk), thus causing pain in stomach after consuming milk. Here betterhealthfacts.com will bring the complete information about this medical condition. The best way to fight with Lactose Intolerance is to have complete knowledge about it and having proper diet that doesn't hurt you.

What is Lactose Intolerance ?

Our body have different enzymes in different parts of digestive tract to digest different items in our food. One such engyme is "Lactase", which digests lactose. Lactose is a sugar and lactase breaks it down into glucose and galactose, which are absorbed into our blood stream. If it remains undigested in small intestine, then bacteria in large intestine try to break it down and releases hydrogen as a byproduct. This hydrogen causes pain in our stomach region and the patient feels cramps in his/her stomach.

Types of Lactose Intolerance

Lactose Intolerance is of three types. Before we tell you these types, its necessary to know the lactase engyme. In a normal person lactase levels are high at the time of birth, as we need it to digest the milk. Milk is the primary source of nutrition for infants and lactase helps in digesting it. As we grow, we start to eat other food items as well and the lactase level gradually deceases, but it remains sufficient to digest normal input of milk. Now we can tell you the types of Lactose Intolerance.

• Primary Lactose Intolerance: Its the most common type of Lactose Intolerance. In this type a person is born with sufficient levels of lactase, but its level decreases at a rapid rate and by the time the person reaches adulthood, he/she becomes Lactose Intolerant.
• Secondary Lactose Intolerance: Sometime as a side effect of some illness, injury or surgery of intestine, the lactase production decreases heavily and the person develops the symptoms of lactase intolerance. It can be treated by treating the primary illness or injury, but it takes time to recover and rise lactase level.
• Congenital Lactose Intolerance: Its the worst and least found lactose intolerance. When a child is born with lactose intolerance then its Congenital Lactose Intolerance. Its a genetic disorder and such genes come from both father and mother.

Risk Factors for Lactose Intolerance

• Genes play the most important role. It may come from any of the parents.
• Increasing age is the second factor. As we age the production of lactase decreases gradually.
• Injury or Illness of Intestine can decrease the lactase production.
• Premature birth can also cause Lactose Intolerance as Small Intestine develops in the the third trimester. 

Symptoms of Lactose Intolerance

• Watery Stools with pain in abdominal region
• Some kids and adults may feel just uncomfort or pain in abdominal region after a lactose-rich diet.
• Some occasional symptoms are muscle pain, headache and constipation

Diet for Lactose Intolerant Infact / Kid

In case of an Infant being Lactose Intolerant, the situation becomes more sensitive as infants either depend on breastfeed milk or formula milk. There are some lactose free formula milk such as Karicare Delact, Nan sensitive and S26 LF (Lacose Free). But if you are giving breastfeed to your baby then its better to consult your doctor or dietitian as this milk is rich in lactose.

Diet for Lactose Intolerant Adult

• If you are an adult than you may learn to live a lactose free life. Depending on you Lactose Intolerance level, you may choose a low lactose diet. 
• If you don't want to remove milk from your diet then lactose-free milk is also available. Lactose free yoghurts and custards are available.
• Before buying a packed food item, check its ingredients. Avoid those food item that contain milk, milk solids, non fat milk solids, milk powder, lactose, casein, whey and cream.
• Avoid regular milk, milk desserts, yoghurt, cream cheese, ice-cream, cream, custard, processed cheese, cheese spread, ricotta cheese and cottage cheese.
• To overcome the deficiency of milk, start eating food products that are rich in calcium and iron.
• Fruits, vegetables, bread and cereals are also good source of nutrition.
• Some other food items may also contain lactose such as biscuits, cakes, cake mixes, creamed soups, mayonnaise, milk chocolate, and milk flavourings. So be aware of that.
• Some doctors also recommend lactase engyme drops that can used to pre-treat the milk or other milk products before you eat or drink them.

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Transplant Tourism Pros and Cons (Unknown Facts)

A number of people in US go to Asian countries to get organ transplant and then return to US for follow-up care. There are various reasons why they prefer that. Here we will discuss both pros(benefits) and cons(disadvantages) of Transplant Tourism. Transplant tourism makes a big part of medical tourism in all developed countries.

Pros of Transplant Tourism

The pros of Transplant tourism can be known after go into depth and find why patients prefer Transplant Tourism. Both donors and recipients sometimes have something good in it.
According to recipients:

• Sometimes its a cheaper or faster alternative for getting a new organ. Transplant costs in developed countries like US are much more than some developing Asian Countries. Even the addition of Air Fare is not a burden in transplant tourism.
• The belief that patient will get a disease free life after transplant.

According to donor:

• It proves to be an easy source of one time earning.

Cons of Transplant Tourism

• In case of transplant from a donor of different continent the chances of rejection of that organ by recipient body is much more. Its because the organ and body belong to different genetic ancestors.
• In some cases the organs come with some diseases as the donor either never received any vaccination or never get tested for that disease before donation.
• Some times the recipient is not aware of laws and rules about organ donation in that country and may find themselves in trouble if something goes wrong.
• Sometimes the transplant is a success but the organ fails within a week or 2.
• In most of the cases the donor belongs to a poor background and selling his organ to get rid of some kind of loan.
• Sometimes you are are not aware of the fact that you are becoming a part of illegal organ donation. 
• In some cases the donor is not aware of the act and his/her organ is taken without his consent. Human trafficking is done to get such donors.

Unknown Facts of Transplant Tourism

Now we are bringing some unknown facts about Transplant Tourism. These facts might bring the real picture of transplant tourism in front of you.

• In 2003 an international study revealed that a kidney recipient paid $100,000 while the donor received just $800.
• There is no after care provided for donors in developing or undeveloped countries.
• Transplant tourism is banned in Istanbul because it violates the principles of equity, justice and respect of human dignity.
• In 1997 Brazil passed a law to make it illegal to sell organs. In 1998 a new law was made to make every adult an organ donor at death.
• According to a 1984 law in China, organs from an executed prisoner can be transplanted if the family don't claims the body.
• The huge need of organs for transplant has opened gates for criminals for illegal trafficking of human organs. The use every illegal way for that varying from kidnapping to murdering.
• Major Organ exporters on the map are Pakistan, China, India, Philippines, Bolivia, Brazil, Iraq, Egypt and South Africa.
• Major Importers of Organs are residents of developed countries like Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia and USA. 

According to a study by American Medical Association on kidney donation in India.

• 96% donors donated their kidney to recover from some debt.
• 74% failed to pay their debt even after 6 years of donation.
• 86% reported that their health condition deteriorated after donation.
• 79% of donors don't recommend it to others.

The team of betterhealthfacts.com believes in organ donation as a healthy practice and want every body to donate their organs at death. It will not only remove organ trafficking but will also save those who sell their organs for just money.

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