Which blood group is best ? Type A, B, O or AB

We the humans have evolved in millions of year, but in the beginning there were not so many blood groups. Type-A was the most ancient blood type, which is found in hominids (pre-humans). Around 5 million years ago type-O blood group originated after some genetic mutation. Before we proceed further you should know a little about blood groups. 

Blood Groups among Humans

Based on antigen A and B, we have four different blood types: A, B, AB and O.

• Type A : have only A-antigen on red-blood cells.
• Type B : have only B-antigen on red-blood cells.
• Type AB : have both A and B antigen on red-blood cells.
• Type O : have neither A nor B antigen on red-blood cells.

In early 1900s, Dr. Karl Landsteiner discovered ABO blood types. If Type A person is given Type B blood then his body considers it as some foreign object and rejects it, which can be fatal. During those days Type-O blood group was considered as universal donor, as it has got no antigens, and in most of the cases it was accepted by every receiver. Similarly Type AB was considered as universal receiver. 

But still something was missing. Cross-matching is a technique where two blood samples are mixed to check if they are accepting each other. In such cross-matching sometimes samples of same blood group were not matching. In 1940 Karl Landsteiner and A.S. Weiner gave answer to this puzzle by discovering the Rh factor. Today we know it as positive and negative. If RhD protein is present on RBC then we call that blood group positive, else negative. It is called Rh (Rhesus) factor because it was originally found in rhesus macaque monkeys. So it made two subgroups in previously accepted 4 blood groups, thus taking the count to 8 types of blood groups. In present terms O-ive is the "universal donor" while AB+ive is "universal recipient" blood type.

Evolving blood groups among humans

Earliest blood group found in human ancestors (hominids) was type A. Around 5 million years ago Type O blood group evolved. It makes Type B and type AB as the most recent. Usually evolution takes place to improve us to make us adapt to present environment. Blood groups and their effect on our overall health is a major topic of research today. 

According to wikipedia, O+ is most common blood group with 38.67% population. 27.42% are A+, 22.02% are B+ and 5.88% are AB+.

Around 94% of world population is Rh-positive while just 6% is Rh-negative. If we talk about Rh-negative blood groups then 2.55% are O-, 1.99% are A-, 1.11% are B- and just 0.36% are AB-.

B blood group is mostly found in south Asia, while it was totally absent in native Americans and Australians. 

Which blood group is Best ?

Most of us think that blood is just a carrier of oxygen and nutrients in our body. But evolution of blood groups in human body means that there must be some hidden features. Some people believe that AB+ blood group is best, as people with this blood group are universal recipient, so during any medical emergency they may receive any other blood group. If you are one of those who like donation then you may think that having O- blood group is best. Apart from receiving and donating blood there are a number of features that are listed below.

• Cells infected with malaria don't stick to Type O and B, while they stick to type A. It means people with O and B blood groups are on safer side from malaria.
• People with O blood group are prone to infections of Helicobacter pylori, a bacteria that causes stomach ulcers. AB blood group is less prone to such infections.
• Type A blood group people are prone to gastric cancer or stomach cancer.
• Type O blood group have lower level of certain blood clotting factor, so they are at higher level of death risk due to trauma.
• People with O blood type are at less risk of heart diseases as their blood clots lesser than A or B blood group.
• AB blood group people are at higher risk of stroke as their blood clots more.
• Average life span of O blood group people is highest due to lesser heart diseases.
• A, B, or AB blood group are more prone to Venous thromboembolism (VTE), in which blood clots in a deep vein in legs. O blood group people are mostly safe from this disease.
• Memory problems, such as dementia often occur more among people with AB blood group.
• People with A blood group have high level of cortisol, thus more stress.
• Type 2 Diabetes is more common among A and B blood groups.
• Women with O blood group are found to have lower number of healthy eggs, which plays an important role in getting pregnant. However this result need more research to find the actual reason.
• Some studies have suggested that smallpox pandemics were fatal for O blood group and non-fatal for A blood group. 
• During 1996, 87.5% of patients who died due to cholera pandemic in Scotland were of O blood group.

Some experts who believe in "Ancient Aliens" think that Rh- humans are hybrids of humans and aliens, as some of them have extra rib and extra vertebrae. However most of the medical societies don't believe this alien hybrid theory.

Did you get the answer to question about the best blood group ? Is it NO ! You are right, no one blood group can be considered best. Betterhealthfacts.com found that each blood group have its own pros and cons. But this diversity of blood groups provided us with a better chance of survival as a race. We as an individual might want to prove ourselves better than others on the basis of blood group, but in front of nature we "the humans" are just a race. Even if one type of blood group people surrender to a bacteria or virus, the other group continues to evolve. This is true evolution and our blood group is also evolving, we just can't see it in a single generation.

What do you think about this article. Please mention your blood group with you comments. Your one comment motivates betterhealthfacts.com to post more health oriented articles.

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Are you Right handed or Left handed ? Which one is better !

Being right-handed or left-handed is something natural, and we can't do much about it. Just as we can't choose our gender, we also can't choose our dominant hand. But nature is not so neutral about dominant hand as 90% population is right-handed, while just 10% are left handed. Only 1% population can be called ambidextrous. Ambidexterity is the ability to use both hands equally. Does it mean that ambidextrous people are better than both right handed and left handed people. If it is so, then why all of us are not evolved to be ambidextrous ? Betterhealthfacts.com will try to answer this question in this article.

Is there any difference in our genes that makes us righty, lefty or ambidextrous?

Genetics explains a lot of things but in case of dominant hand, it is a bit confusing. Till now researchers have not not found a single genetic locus ( a genetic marker) that can be held responsible for being right-handed or left handed. You will be surprised to know that when scientists studied 25,732 families with twins, they found that heritability of handedness is roughly 24%. In a normal case if both parents are left-handed then their are 74% chances for the child being right-handed. So our heredity has got very less to do with our dominant hand.

Ambidexterity is the ability to use both hands with equal perfection. Some experts believe that it is just a practice which makes people perfect in using both hands, but most of the ambidextrous people prefer to use their original hand when they are in hurry to complete a work.

What decides which dominant hand will a child have ?

• Genetic factors can answer only 25% of such behavior, remaining 75% are the environmental factors.
• Some researchers believe that position of a baby in final trimester decides the dominant hand. 
• Premature babies are five times more likely to be left-handed.
• A mother aged above 40 years is 120% more likely to a left-handed child.

Why are there more right handed people ?

According to Stanley Coren, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, more right-hand dominance is unique to humans. Other animals have 50-50 chances of side dominance, even the chimpanzees. One possible reason behind it our developed brain and our ability to speak. During evolution our brain divided itself in different regions to control different functions of body. Precise or more accurate tasks are mostly done by left side of brain, which also controls right side of body. This is the reason why most of us are right-handed.

Is left-hand dominance a disease ?

According to Professor Coren, "Yes". If during the final phases of pregnancy if sufficient blood supply is interrupted to left side of developing brain, then right brain tends to capture some of its functions and thus a person becomes left-handed by birth. Some other researches, especially left-handed, don't agree with this theory, as there have been a number of world famous personalities in different fields who have shown their brilliance.

According to Professor Coren, left handed people are more vulnerable to diseases and may also have learning difficulties, which also makes them criminals, schizophrenics and alcoholics. Here are some figures that he provided in his book "The Left-Hander Syndrome".

• Left-handers are 11.5 times more prone to suffer from hay fever and asthma.
• Eczema and diabetes is more common in left-handed people.
• Left handers are three times more prone to depression and suicide.
• Insomnia and cross-eyedness is two times more common in left handers.
• Deafness is 2.5 times more among left handers.
• Left handers are 4 times more prone to being Alcoholic as an adult.
• Dyslexia is 11 times more common among left handers. 
• Average age of left-handed men is 10 years less than right-handed men, while left-handed women live 4 years less.
• A study done in 1921 found that there were only 7% left handed children in normal school, while there were 17% left handed children in schools for mentally retarded.

Contrary to the above facts, several left handed people achieved a place in society and history that we can never forget. Some of them are:

Mark Zuckerberg, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Picasso, Charlie Chaplin,Leonardo Da Vinci,  Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Mahatma Gandhi, Isaac Newton, Neil Armstrong, Aristotle, Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan and the list can go on.

Do these facts really prove anything or it is just a way to prove that one kind of humans are better than others. Being left handed might be a disease ( as Professor Coren wrote in his book), but it does not mean that left-handers are anyway less intelligent or creative than their right-handed counterparts. Instead left handers live a tougher life than most of the right handers as most of the day-to-day tools, such as potato peeler, pencil sharpner, corkscrews, scissors and many more are designed for right-handed usage. Even our languages consider right as right and left as wrong.

Lefties overwork on their talents to prove themselves, which makes them even better in several cases. Our mind and brain are much beyond than what we know. According to betterhealthfacts.com, we still need more research to know the reasons behind being left-handed. In the mean time we should make this world more friendly to left-handers by making ambidextrous tools. There is no answer, to the question that which handed people are better. It is the work with these hands that makes us a better person. 

In the end you must know that human brain is brilliant, it can prove whatever it wants. Sometimes we just want to prove our preconceived notions. A researcher, who wants to prove left-handers are less brilliant, might say that 17% children in mentally retarded school were left-handed. But here he is ignoring the fact that remaining 83% are still right-handed.

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DNA Mystery : 99.9% Same DNA in all human beings

We, the human beings, have divided ourselves among different races but biologically we all identical twins. As the title of this article says "All human beings have 99.9% same DNA". This fact is very interesting as people of different races, or different continents look very much different from outer appearance, but if we look at DNA then we find that they are almost same. 99.9 is almost 100 percent. Does this 0.1% makes all the difference between any two people ? Are your genes 99.9% similar to Albert Einstein ? Such thoughts make us feel that there must be something wrong here. You must have DNA matching in crime investigation movies/tv serials. If we all are 99.9% same, then how DNA matching is possible. BetterHealthFacts.com will try to answer these questions in this article.

99.9% same DNA in all Humans

We have got 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each pair is made by one chromosome from both parents. Each of these chromosome contain a DNA which is more than one inch in length, but it sits inside a chromosome which is just 1/1000 inch in length. It is one of the best examples of natural engineering that such lengthy microscopic entity folds itself so many times without getting tangled. We have got 46 such entities in each cell of our body. So the total length of DNA inside a single cell is around 1.5 meter. Our body has got around 37 trillion cells and all of them have exactly same DNA, but cells in different body parts differ a lot in function and look. Neuron, muscle, nerve, RBC, WBC are different type of cells with exactly same DNA. So same DNA does not mean that their appearance and function will be same. Same applies of human bodies as well. What differs in DNA, even within cells is the gene-expression.

Interesting facts about DNA, Genes and Chromosomes

What is Gene Expression ?

We have 20000 to 30000 genes in each cell. Our forty-six chromosomes contain about six billion base pairs. Size of each gene may differ from few hundred base pairs to few thousand base pairs. All of these genes are never active. Just one third of these genes remain active in brain cells. It is called gene expression. Different type of cells in our body have different gene expression. 

However two different human beings have 99.9% same DNA, but their gene expression may differ a lot, which not only changes their appearance traits but also their thinking and intellectual capabilities. So now you know why being 99.9% similar to Einstein's DNA don't give you similar looks or intelligent quotient.

Can our brain turn Genes ON and OFF ?

Being 99.9% same makes us humans. If we differ more then our looks will differ a lot. You will understand it if you look at human DNA comparison with other beings.

• DNA of human beings and chimpanzees is 98.7 percent same.
• Gorillas and humans share about 98.4% DNA
• Orangutans share 96.9 percent of their DNA with humans.
• Rhesus monkeys and humans share about 93 percent DNA.
• Cat shares 90 percent of its DNA with humans.
• Mice and humans share, on average, about 85 percent of their DNA.
• 84 percent of Dog DNA matches with humans. 
• Cows and Humans have 80% same DNA.
• Fruit flies and Humans are genetically 61% identical.
• Chicken DNA is 60% similar to humans.
• Human DNA is 50% similar to Plants, and 60% similar to Banana.

After reading about so much similarity. You must be thinking about DNA matching (or DNA Profiling), which is done several movies to identify the criminals.

DNA Profiling (DNA Fingerprinting)

Although human DNAs match 99.9% and you may feel that it is hard to judge if two samples are perfect match, but after technological advancement 100% DNA profiling can be attained. Very first usage of DNA matching was done in 1980s. However it is hard to identify difference between genetically identical twins using this technique. 

At the end of this article we must say that human beings are much beyond just DNA as two genetically identical twins may develop into distinct individuals. What influences our gene expression is a matter of vast research. Is it our diet, our habitat, our atmosphere, our thoughts or our upbringing. Almost all of us have got 2 eyes, 2 legs, 2 hands and 1 brain, but everybody have got a distinct way to use them. 

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Your Jeans putting you at Health Risk

Jeans are quiet popular among all age groups due to their good looks and low maintenance. Some of the brands even claim that you will save water by wearing their jeans. But here we are more concerned about your health rather than looks or saving water. Wearing jeans has increased the occurrence of some diseases among both genders.

Warning : Reading this article further might change your views about wearing jeans.

Lets begin with some incidents of severe medical conditions where doctors believe that tight jeans were the main culprit.

A 30-year-old man of Delhi was found unconscious on his office stairs with no-BP and a pulse rate of just 10-12 per minute. He survived after 5 crucial days in hospital. As the doctors researched more, they found that this guy drove a car on last weekend for more than 250 km without any break while wearing a tight jeans, which resulted in some strain and uneasiness in his leg. After complete analysis doctors told that a clot formed in his leg arteries due to improper blood flow during his driving spree, and later that clot traveled up to his heart and caused massive pulmonary embolism, which could have resulted in death. Even after he revived in hospital, his vital organs like kidney were not working as they stopped working due to very low BP.

Lesson : Never wear a tight jeans while driving and always take some breaks on long run, as it is important for your leg's blood circulation.

In another incident a lady started feeling some pins and needles sensation in her calf , but she became concerned about it where this sensation increased and started to hinder her movement. Initially doctors diagnosed it as sciatica, but as some questions were asked it was revealed that she was wearing her old tight jeans even after gaining some weight. She even told that she chopped the knees of her skinny jeans with a cheese grater, just to keep wearing them.

Lesson : Now you know that sciatica symptoms are possible due to tight fitting trousers or jeans, if they are hindering your blood flow or muscle movement.

According to an incident published in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, a 35-year-old woman's calves ballooned in size as she was squatting for hours to empty the cupboards for a house move. She was rushed to hospital as she was unable to walk and her feet were numb. Doctors diagnosed that condition as compartment syndrome which was caused by bleeding and swelling within muscles. She reached this state because she was wearing a tight pair of jeans while doing this intense workout, which made her calf muscles to swell inwards rather than outwards.

Lesson : Never workout while wearing a tight pair of jeans or trousers.

Some of you might think that the cases discussed here were the extreme circumstances, but there are some more day-to-day facts about wearing tight jeans for both men and women.

• Wearing tight jeans or underwear can result in low sperm count, as it make it too out there and don't allow the sperms to mature. Read More
• Tightness of clothes near the testicles can also result in twisted testicles, which is a severe medical condition. If it remains untreated then it might result in death of testicle and its surrounding tissues.
• If your jeans or pants are too tight then it may result in skin friction and excess moisture down there, which gives perfect environment for fungus and bacteria to grow. Conditions like jock itch, yeast infection or UTI can occur due to it.
• Women wearing skinny jeans or pants are twice more prone to vulvodynia, a pain disorder of vulva, often experience as stinging, burning, or itching sensation. 
• Risk of Bacterial vaginitis, a vaginal infection among women aged 15 to 44 years, can increase up to 2 times by wearing tight jeans just once a week.

We are not asking you to ditch your jeans altogether, just follow some tips.

• Don't prefer it too tight. There is a simple test to check if your jeans are too tight. When you take off your jeans at night, if you can easily check if there are marks imprinted on your skin. It it imprints its design on your skin then its too tight.
• If you are wearing some skinny jeans then avoid staying in same position for too long, just to keep the blood flowing in your legs.  

Reference:

• https://journals.lww.com/jlgtd/Citation/2019/07000/Exploring_Hygienic_Behaviors_and_Vulvodynia.8.aspx
• https://www.ejog.org/article/S0301-2115(04)00285-4/fulltext
• https://www.bbc.com/news/health-33223045
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33245474/my-skinny-jeans-caused-me-nerve-pain
• https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33238110

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Human Brain memory capacity in Gigabytes (GB)

When it comes to measuring memory capacity of human brain, we tend to think in terms of digital memory. The most popular term to measure memory is GB (Gigabyte), which is comparatively very less when it comes to measuring memory capacity of brain. A number of researches have tried to measure this capacity and have given various estimates which differ a lot from each other. Usually researches say that our brain can store petabytes of data.

There are different estimates about size of human brain when in comes to counting neurons. Some researchers say that only 10% of or brain are neurons, rest are the cells protecting them or the connections between neurons. One neuron can make around 1000 connections (known as synapses) with other neurons, which generates a complex net of neurons and synapses. Each of these connections can also store a memory.

According to present estimates each synapse can store 4.7 bits of information. Cerebral cortex alone has 125 trillion synapses.

According to scientificamerican.com our brain can store upto 2.5 petabyte (i.e around 2621440 GB). This might seem lesser to some people but this much storage can store up to 300 years of continuous video.

Some Neuroscientists believe that this estimate might be too low or too high, because while doing this simple math we assume that each synapse can hold 1 byte of information. This assumption of 1 byte equals 1 synapse might not be correct. Apart from that all synapses are not used for storage purpose, as some are also used for processing that memory.

One more interesting fact is that, no matter how much the age is, a human never feels out of space to save newer memories. Some researchers feel that it is because our storage capacity is more than required, while some feel that it is because our brain keep erasing those memories which are not of much importance.

Our brain is not just a Hardisk

When we talk about brain and memory, most of us think as if it is a digital pen-drive or a hardisk, while it is not so. Our brain does not learn a thing completely unless that thing is paid attention to or if we don't revise it. You can't learn names of 100 people in a single day, but you may learn it in a few days/weeks if they are your co-workers in your office. A computer can do this thing in a few minutes if it is programmed to do so by a human. Here you might think that your brain is less smart than a computer, but wait a second ! Do you know how much time a computer will take to search for name of a person by matching its face in a 2.5 petabyte hardisk. Probably it might take days, but your brain can instantly tell you if he/she is someone familiar or not, even if you have met that person years ago, you will remember the name if you had met that person a few times. Our brain is a biologically evolved storage and processing device which is way smarter than we think.

Our Consciousness and Memory are outside !

There are some people who think that human consciousness is not something inside our brain. According to them our brain is just a communicating device. We know that we can communicate with other people through talking, but we can also read their expressions, their body language, or their behavior. We are not connected through wires but we communicate better than any wired medium. When it comes to computers we know that they communicate through cables, wifi, bluetooth or other radio frequencies, but we don't know how our brain communicates with our own consciousness. If this theory is true, then our brain is just a processing and communicating device which is always connected to some outer consciousness (like cloud computing), from where you can access unlimited amount of data. At present not much people believe in this theory but who knows what we may come to know in future.

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Using Aluminium Foil to wrap your food ! Is it Healthy ?

8.23% of Earth crust is Aluminium. It is the third most abundant element after Oxygen and Silicon. Usage of Aluminum foil in cooking is being done from a long time. Some use it just to wrap the food, while some use it for cooking and serving purpose. Some people believe that aluminium in food can cause Alzheimer's disease, and this myth/fact is spreading widely on social networking sites. Here i will try to gather some facts to know the truth.

The word "leaching" gained popularity in past few decades and people came to know that food contained in plastic containers is not healthy anymore, due to the chemicals that leach from plastic to the hot/cold food. Thanks to crazy brain of some people, they developed a self proved theory with no studies behind them that leaching can also occur from aluminium foil and it is also a leading cause of brain diseases.

According to World Health Organisation daily intake of 40mg per kilogram of body weight per day is safe. So a 60kg person is allowed to intake 2400 mg.

Aluminum is found in a number of consumer products including

• food additives
• antacids
• astringents
• cosmetics
• buffered aspirin
• antiperspirants / deodorants

If we talk about  just foods, then aluminum compounds may be added during processing of some foods, such as:

• baking powder
• flour
• anticaking agents
• coloring agents

A healthy human body contains much less aluminium than an antacid tablet. 

Lets talk about how much aluminium we consume through different intake methods. An average american adult consumes about 7–9 mg of aluminum per day.

• Aluminum in the air range from 0.005 to 0.18 micrograms per cubic meter.
• Aluminum in natural waters is below 0.1 milligrams per liter.
• Antacids have the highest concentration of aluminium among the items listed here. 300–600 mg aluminum hydroxide (i.e around 104–208 mg of aluminum) in every antacid tablet/capsule/or a 5 mL liquid dose.
• Buffered aspirin may also contain 10–20 mg of aluminum per tablet.
• Vaccines may contain upto .85 mg of aluminum compounds per dose.
• If you are using cooking products such as baking powder, coloring agents, anticaking agents or some some other food additives then you might be consuming up to 94 mg of aluminium per day. In North America an average adult is eating up to 24 mg aluminium daily through food products.
• Dietary intake of aluminium is just 1% of total intake.  

If you use Aluminium as saucepans, cooking utensils, cans and foil then it increases you daily intake of aluminium by less than 0.1 mg.

What does our body do with Aluminium ?
Our healthy body can filter out a lot of aluminium through feces and urine. If you are taking antacids for longer duration then some amount of aluminium may reach your bloodstream, but that too can be filtered by kidneys. But if you are suffering from some kidney disease then you may need to tell your doctor before taking such medicines.
In case of some kidney disease the aluminium is deposited in your bones and may also also cause neurological damage.

There is no proof of dietary aluminum toxicity to healthy individuals in medical literature.

Aluminium and Alzheimer's disease
Some researchers believe that aluminium can damage neurological functions and it may be a reason behind Alzheimer's disease, but it is not proved yet. Here the interesting fact is that dietary aluminium can't reach the brain if the kidneys are working fine. So the real danger of side effects of aluminium increases only in case of kidney disease.

Aluminium Foil to wrap the food
According to researches done so far, there is no harm in wrapping your food in aluminium foil unless the food items are not too acidic, like thick tomato sauce or salad with vinegar dressing. How cooking with aluminium foil not suggested as may increase the aluminium content of food.

Do you think that Paper is a good alternative for Aluminium foil ?

Conclusion : The real danger of aluminium intoxication is not from food, but from over usage of aluminium based medicines and air pollution containing aluminium dust. Just like PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants aluminium dust can harm our body. Humans are evolved in aluminium rich environment, so a healthy body know how to deal with it, but industrial pollution is quiet new. So instead of thinking about aluminium utensils and aluminum foil, we must think about air pollution hazards.

Reference:

• Safety evaluation of dietary aluminum : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259180
• Public Health Statement for Aluminum : https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=1076&tid=34
• Dietary and other sources of aluminium intake : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1490425
• https://www.hydro.com/en/about-aluminium/aluminium-and-health/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25233067/
• http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v64je01.pdf

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How long does our Brain works after Heart stops beating

We all know that our brain works through electrical signals / impulses travelling through neurons. Brain is one of the most mysterious organs of human body, which is still not completely understood by medical science. From past few decades some researchers are conducting researches on its functioning. When a person dies, his brain can still work for some time due to some oxygenated blood present in it and electrical impulses travelling inside brain. These things are sufficient to keep the brain alive even after heart stops beating. It the person revives through some medical intervention by making his heart beat before brain dies, then it is called near-death-experience (NDE).

Actual Death of a person can only be considered when all levels of consciousness is lost and all electrical activity shuts down completely. Electrical activity inside the brain can be measured by scientific instruments.

How long does our brain works after Heart stops beating

According to some researches it takes 3 to 5 minutes for all electrical activity to seize inside brain after heart has stopped beating. However some researchers are in dilemma if consciousness also seizes with electrical activity.

Depolarization is a shift in electrical charge distribution among cells. Chemical changes that leads to actual death of brain begin with depolarization of brain cells. As the depolarization spreads across the brain and final wave of electrical activity travels through brain, it is called "spreading depression". According to researchers this "spreading depression" shuts down the brain completely. Once this condition has occurred then even restarting the heart no longer works, as damage to the brain becomes irreversible.

Where this research will be used ?
This research can play a crucial role in reviving a person who has just passed away due to heart failure. It can also help in such organ transplants where blood supply to brain needs to be stopped for a very short period of time.

How does a person feel when his heart stops but brain is not dead ?
Collecting such experiences is a major part of such medical researches. Such researches of some previous decades reported experiences like flashes or tunnels of light, which were anecdotal in nature. Such experiences are collected from such patients who revived after medical intervention minutes after their heart stopped beating. In some recent researches patients reported peaceful, fearful or feeling being dragged under water. Some survivors reported hallucinations, while some heard their own death being declared by doctors. Most of such memories remain only for a short time, but some survivors can recall all conversation that occurred between doctors and nurses while trying to resurrect him/her.

Note: Some experts believe that a healthy person can revive even hours after death. But in such cases there are chances of substantial amount of brain damage.

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Can you Survive in Himalayas in just Shorts

This question seems a bit insane but someone has achieved this superhuman capability. That person has not just survived in Himalayas in shorts but also climbed Mt. Everest. It was a unique achievement that no one has ever dared to do in history of mankind. The name of this achiever was Wim Hof and he did it in year 2007 and reached up to 23,600 feet. However he did not succeed in his attempt but still made a world record by doing it in shorts and sandals. According to Wim Hof, also known as "Ice-man" , he achieved this superhuman capability through the power of controlling breathe and mind. According to him anybody can achieve this through dedication and strong will power.

Climbing mount Everest is just one of the tasks that Wim Hof has done to show his capability. He has got 26 world records in his name for tasks such as under-ice swimming (57.5 metres in year 2000), running a marathon in  Namib Desert without water (2009) and reached the top of Mount Kilimanjaro wearing just shorts in 2 days (2009). Wim Hof says that he has developed a method known as WHM (Wim Hof Method) to survive in extreme cold.

Do you know that when an investigative journalist, Scott Carney, tried to debunk his method, he ended up learning WHM himself.

What do scientists say about WHM (Wim Hof Method)

According to scientific studies WHM suppress the innate immune response and increases the heart rate and adrenaline levels. WHM consists of cold therapy, breathing exercises and meditation. According to some experts his method works but not equally for every one. There are two ways that our body utilize to deal with cold: shivring and non-shivering thermogenesis. In the non-shivering method our body burns the brown adipose tissue (which is a type of fat) to generate heat for body. WHM has increased the brown adipose tissue in the body of Wim Hof, which might be a reason behind his cold resistance.

Four practitioners of Wim Hof Method did drown in year 2015 and 2016. So according to scientists, the breathing exercises and meditation definitely improved the cold resistance and immune response but checking your limits can be dangerous.

Personal life of Wim Hof : Wim Hof was born in year 1959 and has got an identical twin brother who does not have such cold resistance. Some people believe that Wim Hof learnt the breathing meditation to get rid of sadness after passing away of his first wife in 1995. He has got 4 children from his first wife and 2 from second. 

Note: WHM (Wim Hof Method) is similar to Tibetan Tummo meditation and Pranayama meditation, as both of them teach similar breathing meditations and known to improve the immune response and psychic powers.

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Sumo Wrestlers : Fat or Fit ?

Sumo wrestlers are one of the most reputed athletes in Japan and people take blessing from them for a good health. But people from other parts of world often wonder if a Sumo Wrestler should be considered healthy of not. Their physique gives an impression of a diseased person, who has gained enormous amount of fat. But when we see them in wrestling rings, they give a tough fight to wrestlers of any other form of wrestling. Some of you must have seen sumo wrestlers in WWE.

On an average a sumo wrestlers is 185cm in height and 148kg in weight. It gives us a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 43. Anything above 30 on BMI scale means that the person is suffering from Obesity, which is a disease in modern terminology and can lead to lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

Know your BMI

Most of you must have already made their mind about health of sumo wrestler, but we will suggest you to read this article without any preconceived notion. Usually we see sumo as a wrestling sport but the truth is something beyond. We will tell you that after discussing about the health perspective.

Diet of a Sumo Wrestler

Diet of a sumo wrestler is not composed of fatty food, as usually believed, and they don't eat all over the day. They eat just two heavy diets in a day and eat Chanko Nabe (or Sumo Stew), which is a protein rich diet made with all kinds of vegetables (bok choy, mushroom, daikon, anything you can think of) in a rich dashi and chicken, fish, meatballs, tofu. Their diet is composed of 4000 to 5000 calories per day, while some wrong sources mention it as 10000 to 20000 calories (which is something inhuman). Actual sumo diet is more than twice of a normal man, but it does not increase the visceral fat. which is main cause of obesity related diseases in normal people.

Difference between Visceral Fat and Subcutaneous Fat

Training Routine of a Sumo Wrestler

Unlike other seasonal sports that happen only at a part of year, Sumo Wrestling tournaments occur all over the year, so professional sumo wrestlers train themselves all over the year and eat accordingly. Some facts about training sessions of Sumo Wrestlers are listed below.
Sumo Wrestlers are not allowed to have breakfast, instead they have a large lunch after training session. If we talk about their training, then it is intense and one of the toughest. Some facts about Sumo training are listed below.

• Leg stomps: moving forwards while barely lifting upward-turned feet
• Slapping wooden pillars with open palms
• Standing stationary absorbing charges from other wrestlers
• They are trained to do all kinds of splits. Lifting their legs as high as possible or spreading their legs and touching the floor with chest or cheek are part of their tough training.
• A single workout session can make them sweat in kilograms. Profession Sumo wrestlers can loose upto 5 kg of weight in a single session.
• Some sumo wrestlers have even died while training.

Behavior of a Sumo Wrestler

Sumo Associations have made various rules to keep Sumo Wrestlers well disciplined. Some of these rules are:

• They can't drive a car
• They need to live in communal sumo training stables.
• They need to grow their hair long to form a topknot (chonmage).
• They should wear traditional Japanese dress when in public.
• A Sumo wrestler must always speak softly.
• Sumo Wrestler's rand decide the type and quality of their dress.
• They need to wear wooden sandals known as geta that make a distinctive clip-clop sound.
• When in stable (the training gym of sumo wrestlers), juniors wake up at the earliest and also help in daily chores like cooking, cleaning and preparing bathrooms for seniors.
• Ranking hierarchy is maintained in bathing and eating lunch. Junior wrestlers even wipe the senior wrestler's sweat with a towel.
• Only senior wrestlers get their personal room in stable, while junior wrestlers use dormitories to sleep.
• They should not show joy at winning or disappointment at losing.
• If a sumo wrestler breaks the rules then fine or suspension can be awarded to both the offending wrestler and his stablemaster.

Due to such strict rules the dropout rate of new recruits is quiet high. Life of juniors is considered harsh among sumo wrestlers.

Health of a Sumo Wrestlers

Most of the sumo wrestlers are not as huge as we have seen. Normally we only watch those sumo wrestlers on television who have got famous after winning championships. Sumo Wrestlers live a healthy adult life due to their tough workout routine. As they retire after growing old and get away from training, the fat in their body start to show the negative consequences and they suffer from type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and liver problems. Due to these diseases in old age the average life expectancy of Sumo Wrestlers is 60 to 65 years, which is 10 year less than normal Japanese people. Know your Life Expectancy
But living a life of Sumo Wrestler is not about living a long life but about making it large and developing better soul inside. Due to this reason Japanese people respect Sumo Wrestlers just as if they are monks.

Sumo wrestling is a part of Japanese tradition and their religion. Most of the sumo wrestlers don't end up as professionals, but they spend years at stable to prepare themselves for some other professions. They learn discipline and self control while also increasing the physical capability in handling any kind of pressure. They are not just tough from body but also from their brain. A number of sumo wrestlers have become famous chefs as they learned the cooking skills in the stables.

In past few years the sumo associations have set a minimum height requirement of 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches) to be a sumo wrestlers. Now the weight gain requirement are also not as strict as past, to save the wrestlers from health consequences.

What do you think about sumo wrestlers after reading this article. Please mention you views in the comment section.

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Drinking Cobra Venom : Deadly or Not !

If you are asked to drink cobra venom, then most probably you will not. But do you know that some people really drink it. Cobra is one of the snake species known for its deadliest neurotoxic poison. One bite of cobra have enough venom to kill 20 men or even an elephant. In-spite of such facts some people survived after drinking cobra venom. Is it really possible, or it is just a magic trick where audience are made to believe that the person is drinking venom, while he/she just sips a energy drink. The answer to this question is going to surprise a lot of people.

My curiosity to get an answer to this question arise when i watched an Indian Guru ingesting the cobra venom. I was sure that he was not doing any sort of cheating. He even told some benefits of the cobra venom.

Note: Never try to drink any kind of venom after reading this article as sometimes it can cause threat to your  life.

Drinking Cobra Venom : Deadly or Not !

When i researched about the drinking of cobra venom, i came across some very interesting facts. These facts are listed here.

• One liter of snake venom costs more than $200,000 . So King Cobra Venom will definitely cost more than that.
• Cobra Venom is used is used to made medicines and beauty products. Pain killers made using cobra venom are 20 times more effective than any other pain killer. Some venom are even used in cancer treatment.
• Pain killers developed from cobra venom have no side effect, which is some thing very unique.
• Cobra Venom contain a protein named Ohanin, which is a small protein made up of 107 amino acids. This protein is unique and not found in any other snake family. It is responsible for medicinal properties of cobra venom.
• Cobra venom is not poison. Poison are such type of things which can kill you when ingested. 
• Cobra Venom is a protein, which contain some neurotransmitters, that can harm you only if it enters your blood stream and then attack your nervous system to paralyze you to death.
• If you ingest cobra venom then the proteins present in it will be broken down by saliva and acids in the stomach.
• Drinking cobra venom can harm you only if you have some ulcers in your stomach or a cut in your mouth as it will give the venom the way to enter blood stream.
• Cobra snake is considered as a holy creature in India as lord Shiva wears it as garland. According to Hindu mythology, the consciousness level of King Cobra is very high, and no other animal can attain that much consciousness.
• Cobra is the only snake which builds nest, and keep their offspring in it.
• Cobra is considered as a shy snake and don't harm humans unless it feels danger.

Those who practice drinking venom do it either with a belief to improve their immunity or to be known as superhero. They start it by drinking very mild amounts and then increasing the amount over a period of months and years after analyzing its effect on body.
At the end of this article, we wound again suggest you to never try it. This article is only for information purpose, so that you know the science behind drinking cobra venom. One more thing told in this article is that snake venom are source of some of the best medicines and researches are still going on to find cure for some deadliest diseases by using them.

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Cancer Treatment coming soon ! Thanks to Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has given a hope to millions of cancer patients as clinical trial for cancer treatment done on 90 mice was made public a few days ago. Such research might sound cruel for these mice but it can give humans a good cancer treatment. This successful clinical trial has attracted the attention of both doctors and cancer patients around the world. Now the pharma companies and scientific community are looking towards immunotherapy as a medical revolution of the 21st century.

According to Ronald Levy, MD, professor of oncology at Stanford School of Medicine, they run the trial on 90 mice after transplanting lymphoma tumors on two sites on their body. Then they injected two agents into one of the tumor. The results were surprising as it cured 87 mice. It not only regressed the tumor injected with agents, but also the other tumor. Remaining three mice, which were not cured, went through the same procedure again and got cured.

How does our immune system struggles with cancer normally ?
Our body have T-Cells which are part of out immune system. As soon as T-cells recognize the proteins present on cancer cells, it tries to attack them and kill them. But as the cancer tumor grows the activity of T-cells is suppressed, which leads to further development of cancer.

How does immunotherapy cures cancer ?
Some agents are injected into the cancerous tumor, which activates the suppressed T-cells again and they start killing cancer cells.

How does Professor Levy's method Work ?
He and his team has developed two immunotherapy agents for this approach. Both of these agents are injected into cancerous tumor in micogram amount, which is one-millionth of a gram. A short stretch of DNA called a CpG oligonucleotide, finds the T-cells already present in the tumor and amplifies the expression of OX40 (its activating receptor). The other agent, which is an antibody, binds itself to OX40 and activates the T-cell for fight against cancer cells. As those T-cells were already inside the tumor and sent by body to destroy cancer-specific protein, they act as a better destroyer of cancer cells, just by improving their expression and activation.
This approach not only treated the tumor injected with agents, but also the second one in those 90 mice. These results made this immunotherapy approach more interesting. However the above approach was initially used to treat lymphoma tumors, but the researchers witnessed similar results in breast, colon and melanoma (skin cancer) tumors.

Now as the world is waiting for human trials to be completed successfully, some lymphoma patients are already enrolling themselves for the clinical trials. We hope that all those who enroll themselves in this trial get cured successfully and open the gates to cancer treatment.

Reference:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/01/cancer-vaccine-eliminates-tumors-in-mice.html

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Creative Gardening : Exploring Yourself for Something Beautiful

Creative Gardening is something that i came across a few days ago, and i can't stop myself from saying it "Beautiful". When we see something beautiful, it makes our mind happy and uplifts our mood and well being. But when we create such thing which make the viewers happy, then it has a more powerful impact on our well being. Here the motive behind this article is to inspire some people to create their own garden and show some unique creativity in it to make it beautiful. The pics that we have shown below will definitely give you some idea about what creativity we are talking about.

Vertical Garden: Best for those who have shortage of space, but still want a garden or kitchen garden. Hanging vases and unused hard boxes or tin cans can be utilized in such garden. Here an image shows how drainage pipes used in houses can be utilized to a vertical garden.

    

Recycled Garden : By using some old and unused things in your home and putting some creativity in it, can make a good looking garden for you.
               

Something for Kids : Such things inspire kids to build a garden. You may use the help of kids and their creative ideas. Such creative garden items are liked by both kids and adults. Making them brings the kid out of an adult.
               

Creative Ideas : Coping the ideas of others is not easy every time. Somethings that look easier are sometimes harder to implement. Try to create something new that is your original idea. You may take help from the following creative gardens to develop your own.
                 
So what are you waiting for. Just get the tools and start exploring yourself to create something beautiful.

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Drinking Cold Water : Good or Bad ?

Drinking cold water is favorite task of most of the people after returning home on a hot day. But have you ever tried to find if it is a healthy habit or not. Normally we feel that cold water reduces the body temperature and helps in relaxing, which is true up to some extent. If you are doing a workout and drinking cold water during intervals then it keeps your core body temperature low and also keeps you hydrated. But the truth is that drinking cold water have an overall negative effect on your health.

Negative effects of Drinking Cold Water

• Temperature of stomach plays an important role during digestion. Drinking cold water just after a meal hinders the digestion as it reduces the temperature below the optimum temperature required for digestion.
• Cold water makes stomach muscles unable to work properly unless body raises their temperature. Proper functioning of stomach muscles is necessary to break the food before passing it into the intestine. If you have got a little knowledge of workout science, then you must have known the fact that warming-up of muscles is necessary before a workout (especially during winters), as cold muscles can't contract and relax easily and may result in muscle damage.
• Drinking cold water can decrease the sterilization capacity of gastric acid. It can make some germs in your stomach food to be passed to your gut which may result is typhoid, dysentery, infectious diarrhea or enteritis.
• When we drink the cold water, it disturbs the organs which come in direct contact with that water. So it affects respiratory system and the gastrointestinal system the most. Thus long term drinking of cold water makes our oral cavity and respiratory system mucous membrane more fragile. It may also result in inflammation, cough, pneumonia and bronchitis.
• Cold water shrinks the blood vessels and reduces blood flow. It can increase the blood pressure temporarily. If you have got a bad habit of drinking cold water then are at increased risk of hypertension and cardio-vascular diseases. If you are already a patient of hypertension then drinking cold water increases your chances of cardio-vascular diseases.
• If you drink cold water just after a meal then it results in excess mucus build-up, which may result in other side effects. An old study done during 1978 which involved 15 human subjects, found that drinking cold water made nasal mucous thicker.
• A 2001 study found that drinking cold water can trigger migraine pain in those people who are already a patient of this disease.
• According to Ayurveda and ancient Chinese medicine system, cold water with hot food creates imbalance in body. Drinking luke-warm water is recommended by these old traditional systems to get best results and better health.

Some people believe that drinking cold water make our body use some calories to rise its temperature to body temperature and thus helps in reducing weight. But in reality that type of calorie consumption is very less. The benefits of drinking cold water are lesser than disadvantages, so we don't recommend to drink cold water to reduce weight.

So if you ever have an urge to drink cold water then don't gulp it fast, instead sip it slowly and keep it for sometime in your mouth and then drink it. It will help in better relaxation from hot with least side effects on your body. You may drink cold water if you feel necessity but don't make it a habit. 

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Circumcised Foreskins are used for Surprising things

Have you ever wondered about the circumcised foreskins, if they use to throw them in garbage bins or they use it somewhere ? The answer to this serious question might surprise a number of people. Before telling you the answer, let me tell you that each foreskin is worth thousands of dollars in market. Several religions and communities make it compulsory for boys to get their foreskin circumcised. A number of hospital and surgeons do these minor operations to remove the foreskin. They collect these foreskins and sell them to some research laboratories and some private organisations, as these foreskins have a lot of value.

Usage of Circumcised Foreskins

• Some high-end skin cream manufactures use foreskins. Some skin creams contain fibroblasts, which is compound grown on foreskins and harvested from it. Same foreskin can used for many years to harvest fibroblasts from it. Fibroblasts produce Collagen, which is a protein that can hold connective tissue together and hence helps in maintaining smooth and youthful skin.
• Skin grafts are another major usage of foreskins. Burn victims are treated with these foreskins as a new skin to replace old burned skin. Baby foreskins suits best in this usage as their chances of rejection by the recipients immune system are very less.
• Cosmetic Testing is also done on foreskins. Instead of using a real human subject or a lab-rat to test the newly developed cosmetics, foreskins often act as a better subject to test upon. Thus it saves humans and rodents from any possible side-effect on skin.

Are such usage good or bad ?
Different people may have different views on that. Those who feel it right due to religious beliefs, will find these uses beneficial for the society, but they might also feel themselves cheated as doctors usually don't reveal such facts to those who visit them for circumcision. Those who are already against circumcision and take it as mutilation of human body, find something good being done with it, but they also feel that doctors and religious clerics might be earning a lot by prescribing such mutilation and endangering the lives of kids. We are nobody to decide the good or bad unless the parents of such kids don't know the complete truth of circumcision.

The motive of this article is not to hurt religious sentiments of people, but to tell the truth. Most of the innocent public don't know how some people are earning a lot through their baby's skin.

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