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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Do Deodorants cause Breast Cancer

A very interesting fact about most of the breast cancer cases is that most of the cancerous tumors are found in left upper / outer breast region (in both men and women). Most of the right handed people (which are majority), spray deodorants and antiperspirants on that region primarily and then other parts of body. It is enough to explain the seriousness of this issue.

People often due deodorants to get rid of body odor. Newer deodorants guarantee that they will keep your body odor null for a complete day. They do it by using certain chemicals that either make you sweat less or by killing the good bacteria on your skin which makes your sweat smell more. Such products are usually released in market after doing some short term researches which show that these products are safe for normal usage. Researches are going on to know the actual effect of these deodorants / chemical after long term usage. Some recent researches have shown some interesting results which can make the whole world think twice before using any deodorant in market.

 Before we go further, you must know about the type of products which are used to get rid of body odor.

• Perfumes were just to put on clothes to override your body odor.
• Deodorants mask the smell with a fragrance
• Probiotic deodorant promote certain bacterial colonies which can make you smell better.
• Antiperspirants reduce the amount of sweat.

When we searched about this issue on internet we found a website named cancer.gov which contain some authoritative information about it. According to cancer.gov Antiperspirants contain some aluminium based compounds which temporarily plugs the sweat duct and hence the sweat flow from the skin is reduced. Some experts believe that these aluminium compounds when applied for longer duration, may cause estrogen-like hormonal imbalance in body. As current researches suggest that estrogen can promote breast cancer cell growth, so some researchers believe that aluminium compounds in antiperspirants may promote breast cancer.

But does that mean that men are on safer side ?  Read further.

Parabens are a kind a preservatives used it deodorants and antiperspirants, which can also mimic the activity like estrogen and may cause cancer. However parabens are currently not used it most of the deodorants and antiperspirants in US, but still it is being used in cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical products.

Some studies were done by examining breast cancer patients and examining their history of usage of antiperspirants and underarm deodorants and underarm shaving habit. However most of these studies don't conclude a solid result, but still more researches are going on.
Manufacturers of such products always advertise on the basis of some major researches which found them safe for use, but still consumers use their own brain sometimes.

A fact published in dailymail.co.uk made a number of consumers feel something serious about usage of deodorants and antiperspirants. Britain is one of the leading consumers of such products and number of breast cancer cases in UK has doubled from 1970. Every year 13000 women in UK die due to breast cancer, which is something serious. The cases of breast cancer has not only affected women but also men, where the cases have also doubled in past 30 years.

 It doesn't matter if researches have found something or not, but if people get fearful of something then its consumption starts decreasing gradually. Some safety guidelines like frequency of usage and amount of usage should be printed on these products to save the consumers from any possible side effects. Hormonal imbalance is one of the primary reasons behind cancerous tumors in breast, so think twice before using any such product which may or may not harm you.

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Can you remember your Dream !

People often say that they can't remember what they dreamed about last night except some situations when the dream is either too joyful or a scary nightmare. Even if you can remember a dream just after waking up then most probably you will forget it within a few hours. Chances of remembering dream are more when you get awake in middle of it. Those who study sleep and dreams know the reason why you can't remember all your dreams.

Dreams are meant to be forgotten

On an average we sleep for one-third part of our life. 20% of that time is REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep during which we dream. Everyday we dream at least 5 different dreams. If our brain remembers all those dreams then it will take a lot of memory. Remembering all those dreams can also make it harder for us to distinguish between real memory and dream memory, as sometime dreams revolve around real subjects and circumstances. We are meant to forget dreams only to make our life easier. Sometimes the dreams are either too joyful or too scary and remembering them for long duration can take us away from reality in actual life. Usually we remember only the last dream that we had last night and the chances of forgetting that dream within a few hours are quiet high. The probability of remembering a dream increases if we wake up in middle of it.

Science behind Sleep and Dreams

If you study a little about sleep cycle the then you will come to know that sleep can be put into two main stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep and Non-REM Sleep. Non-REM Sleep can be further partitioned into four different stages. Out of these stages "Stage 4" is the deepest sleep during which we never dream and our body repairs broken tissues and builds bones and muscles. We dream during REM phase and the duration of REM phase increases as the sleep cycle increases and so does the duration of your dreams. So most probably your last dream will be lengthier than other dreams and may take up to 1 hour of your sleep. If you try to remember your last dream within 45 seconds after waking up then most probably you will remember that.
50% sleep time of babies is dedicated to REM sleep, while this duration decreases to 20% in adults. It means that kids dream more than adults. You may notice the kids dreaming by noticing the movement of their eyeball inside their closed eyes, which is easily visible (that is why they call it REM, Rapid Eye Movement). Due to more REM sleep in kids, the probability of remembering a dream increases in them.

The more time we take after REM phase to wake up, the lesser are the chances of remembering that dream. So now you know why we remember some dreams while some we don't. And the dream that we remember is usually the last dream of that sleep.
Creative people do remember their dreams more often. A number of extra ordinary scientists have have accidentally made some discoveries through their dreams.

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Whose muscles are better: Athlete or Bodybuilder ?

Health conscious people often compare the body/muscles of an athlete with bodybuilders. The truth is that even professional bodybuilders can't beat the strength of muscles of a professional athlete. The looks of a bodybuilder's muscles might be more fascinating compared to an athlete, but not the strength. Even the best bodybuilder in the world with best leg muscles can't beat Usain Bolt on a racing track.

What makes muscles of an athlete work better than a bodybuilder ?
Muscles of an athlete are trained for strength, while muscles of a bodybuilder are made to look bigger in size. There is a major difference between their body types. More strength in the body of an athlete is a result of better nervous system. Bigger muscles are not a proof of better nervous system functioning behind. More power generated by athlete's muscles is done by both muscles and nerves connected to brain. It would not be wrong to say that real strength lies in your brain. Practice is necessary in both cases, but exercises of a bodybuilder are totally different from athletes. Training programs of an athlete train their nervous system equally with their muscles.

Science behind improving nervous system for more strength

Intense physical activity causes motor unit recruitment to increase the strength. Motor Units (motor neurons connected to muscle fibers) make our muscles contract by bringing the electrical signal sent by brain from spinal cord to muscle fiber. Motor Unit Recruitment is activation of more motor units. Intense physical activity activates more motor units and thus increases the strength of contraction of muscles.

Our brain fires electrical impulses to motor units to contract a muscle. The strength of contraction depends on two factors.

• How many muscle fibers are connected to each motor unit.
• How fast is the firing rate of electrical impulse sent fro brain to motor unit.

Regular intense physical activity increases both of these factors. It increases the strength of contraction by 2 to 4 times. 

When we exercise regularly our brain get used to increased blood supply and adapts the ability to turning some genes ON and OFF as per need of body at that time. When we exercise our body take that moment as a moment of stress, due to increase of blood pressure and breathing (as if we are fighting or fleeing from some enemy). To protect our brain from this stress a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) is released, which empowers our memory neurons.
So in more easy terms you can say that exercise or intense physical activity not only increases your muscle size but also improves your memory and ability of your nervous system to contract your existing muscles with more power.

Athlete versus Bodybuilder

After reading all of the above content you will believe it if we say that size has nothing to do with actual strength.

• Body of a professional sportsperson is trained to use its muscles with speed and strength. While the body of a bodybuilder is trained to show how much it can pump .
• No matter how big are muscles of bodybuilder, they can't push the body to attain the speed of an athlete. It is due to lesser motor unit recruitment, which empowers the nerves behind the muscles to show more strength at a certain time.
• The coordination between different body muscles is better in athletes/sportsperson. Even eye's coordination with other body parts is better in them.
• Muscles of a bodybuilder may be bigger but their flexibility is lesser that a sportsman. 
• Muscles of an athlete can bear more burden for a longer duration. Again it is due to better nervous system functioning behind.

If you understand the difference between exercises of Athlete and Bodybuilder, then you will be better able to know why athlete's muscles work better in certain sports while the bodybuilder's bigger muscles can't do that.

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Why do men have nipples ?

Some say that nipples in men is just an evolutionary baggage and believe that men once used to feed babies. Some say that it is just for looks, else the chest region would look empty. Most of such talks don't really make an intellectual person believe them. So we decided to know the real motive behind men's nipples. The facts that we got are really interesting and make us understand the human body better.

Men and Nipples ! What do Science say ?

In the beginning as the embryo is formed inside the uterus, you can't determine its sex, as it is neither male nor female. By that time nipples have formed. After 6 or 7 weeks certain changes occur, which determine its gender. If it is going to be male, then testes start to form and testosterone hormone begins to produce. It is the testosterone hormone that makes a male from the uni-sexual embryo.

According to one more scientific hypothesis, we are all females inside the mothers womb for upto 7 weeks. After than the Y chromosome develops in some embryos to make the male. By that time nipples and some undeveloped breasts have already developed. Even the labia and clitoris have also formed by that time. But as the testosterone hormone production starts, labia fuse to become scrotum and clitoris develops to become penis.

Why men can't feed a baby ?

Nipples in men as just dummy and can't produce milk. Prolactin hormone in females stimulates lactation and milk is formed inside the breasts to feed babies. Absence of this hormone in males makes men incapable of producing milk.

Can a man lactate ?

Yes, in some very rare cases it has happened. It happens only when pituitary gland in males secrete prolactin hormone, which is responsible for lactation in women. In 2010 a study was published where a man lactated due to pituitary tumor. Normally a woman have double amount of prolactin hormone in her body compared to man. During and after pregnancy this amount can become 10 times which makes a woman lactate. It means that a man needs 20 times more prolactin to be able to lactate which can happen only under certain rare medical conditions.

Can a men have breast Cancer ?

Yes, however the chances are very rare. Only 1% of all breast cancer cases happen in men. It is because men have underdeveloped breasts under their nipples. Obesity play an important role in developing breast cancer in men.

Those of you who feel more proud to be a man should must know that once you were a baby girl and god left you with those non-useful nipples to keep you reminding of that.

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How long can a person stop his breath !

You must have tried it for fun while playing with your friend. Some people practice it to improve their underwater swimming experience while some practice it just to know how long can they stop their breath. Some people also do it to make it to Guinness World Records. We don't suggest you to practice it alone at your home as sometimes it can be really dangerous. Those who made world records used proper guidance and expert advice to do it correctly.

Breathing is something that happens naturally without forcing our body to do it. But when it comes to stopping your breathing process, you need to apply force and control your urge to inhale.
Aleix Segura Vendrell (Spain) holds the Guinness World Record for holding breath for 24 Minutes 03 Seconds.

There are some secrets behind holding the breath for such a long duration.

• Underwater: You can stop your breath for longer duration under water compared to land. The duration differs by 50%. No one has yet hold his breath for more than 12 minutes on land, while the underwater record is above 24 minutes. This is due to “diving reflex". Even if an untrained diver goes inside the water, the pulse rate slows down by 30%, which means a decrease in metabolic rate of body. Professional divers can slow their pulse by 50% under the water. This diving reflex decreases the oxygen consumption of body and allows a diver to hold his/her breath for longer duration.
• Hyperventilation: Hyperventilation is a process of fast and deep breathing to decrease the Carbon Dioxide level in body. Those who have deeper knowledge of biology know the fact that our brain controls the urge to breathe through CO2 level (not Oxygen level). When CO2 level in brain reaches at a certain maximum level, we feel the heavy urge to breathe. Decreasing the CO2 level through hyperventilation makes a person buying some extra time to stop his/her breath, as it takes longer for CO2 level to reach the maximum level.
• Practice: Practice and dedication is the key to holding your breath for long duration. But you should never practice it alone without any medical help near you. Slowing down your pulse rate/metabolism by 50% takes a lot of practice.

Side effects of holding your breath

Stopping your breathing process is not something normal for your body. Your body will try to do everything to make you breathe. But if you don't then it will take some alternative measures to save your life. These alternative measures constitute of some side effects on body.

• Brain Damage: Lack of oxygen supply to your brain can damage certain areas in your brain. However there are different views on this side effect among the experts.
• Hypoxia: If you are doing hyperventilation before stopping your breathe then you might face unconsciousness due hypoxia, which is lack of oxygen in body tissues. Hyperventilation decreases CO2 level in body and it takes longer for that level to reach its maximum level, but the oxygen level in body might be exhausted before CO2 level reaches its maximum level, which can cause unconsciousness due to hypoxia.

Note: Guinness World Record allows the contestant to hyperventilate with pure oxygen for 30 minutes before making an attempt to stopping breathing. In normal air oxygen is just 21% while in pure oxygen it is 100%, which makes a person stop his breath around 2 times more than hyperventilating with normal air. So a normal person with normal air to breath with no practice of hyperventilation can never reach even the 50% time of the world record.

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Do we really use just 10% of our Brain ? Myth vs Fact !

A number of people believe that humans just use 10% of their brain on average. Those who have have higher IQ might have crossed this average percentage. A normal person world easily believe this theory, as we have a tendency to believe in super humans with super intelligence, and it is not possible if all of use 100% of our brain. Else there will be no difference between a normal person and Albert Einstein. But the truth about this theory is totally different.

Do we really use just 10% of our Brain ?

Homo Sapiens (or today's Man kind) is made after evolution of millions of years. In this process of evolution we got some new abilities as per necessity and also lost some feature if they were of no use any more. We are still evolving today but the it is not visible in one generation or two, it takes thousands of years to notice any visible effect. Today we have a perfectly balanced body and every organ has a use according to present environment. If you believe this theory then you must agree think twice before agreeing to "10% of brain" theory.

How may we get a brain 10 times the necessity. It is simply a wrong fact. Those who found it, either did some wrong analysis or believed in the fact that we are successors of some alien species that came to earth a long time ago and we are yet to know full potential of our brain.

Real Science is that that believe on facts, not on any preconceived notions. A number of people keep believing in the 10% of brain theory without questioning it.

From where do we get this 10% of brain theory ?
Before we answer this question you must know that The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research did a survey in 2013 and found that 65% Americans believe that just 10% of our brain is used by us in a lifetime. However now this brain usage percentage has increased to 35% in some cases but still this myth is surviving and will not come to an end anytime soon.
Timeline of origin of 10% brain theory

• Harvard psychologists William James in 1890 told audiences that people only meet a fraction of their full mental potential, which was taken as a plausible clause by educated people of that time.
• In 1929 a book "Mind Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions About the Mind and Brain" was published which contained a chapter on 10% brain myth.
• In 1936, American writer Lowell Thomas added a falsely precise percentage and said that Professor William James used to say that humans use just 10% of their brain.
• In the 1970s, psychologist and educator Georgi Lozanov proposed a teaching method called suggestopedia with a belief in its base that humans use just 5 to 10% of their mental capability.
• Some people also believe that in late 19th century and beginning of 20th Century when early brain researches were going on, scientists were unable to find the functions of a large part of brain. It lead to a misunderstanding that only 10% of brain is used by humans.

 Today the truth is known that 100% brain is used during a day. However it is possible that during one particular task only 10% brain is active. But a large percentage of population still thinks that we use just 10 to 35 percent of our brain.

Facts that will make you believe that we use 100% of our brain.

• The very first fact is that we evolved and got only that much capability which is necessary. Getting a brain with 10 times of normal capability is something unnecessary and impossible to develop under the normal biological process of evolution.
• Death during childbirth was often associated with large skull size. If our brain is really unnecessarily large then we should have lost it by natural selection and mortality rate during child birth would have been less.
• Every person with a brain damage (either accidental or stroke) always loose some capability due to loss of a part of brain. However some lucky people may get their lost capability back due to neuroplasticity if the that was not a major brain damage.
• Some recent researches based on brain scans confirmed that all parts of brain remain active all the time. Some parts remain more active during a particular task, but we can't take any part of brain as non functional.

Every part of brain has got a function, either physical, mental or emotional. Some parts of brain just handle our internal metabolism. All functions of brain are really very hard to know as some of these parts make us think, make us dream, make us plan. Our brain can take us to a scene decades before and can also make us think of that future when we will not be here. Whatever we look, we are much more than that. The fact that we don't utilize our full potential is true, but nature has granted us with power to do much more in our life with a brain of three pounds.

After reading this article you must stop believing that extra 90% brain can give psychic powers to you some day which is falsely advertised in a number of sci-fi movies. Your views on this article are most invited in the comments section. 

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Human Brain vs Computers - Something Unbelievable

You won't be same after reading this. Nature has granted us with a immensely powerful computer fitted in a very tiny space with very less power consumption. You can't even utilize its full capability in several lifetimes. The more we use our brain the more it learns and become more efficient by practicing the same task again. If you want to know the power of your brain compared to modern computers in a terminology that you understand then read this complete article.

What is there in our brain ?

• Our brain have 80 to 100 billion neurons.
• Same amount of Neuroglia, also called glial cells. These cells protect and insulate neurons, provide nutrition, remove dead neurons and destroy pathogens.
• Neurons are found in 26 different sizes.
• Size of neurons varies from 4 microns (.004 mm) to 100 microns (.1 mm). Their length may vary from few millimeters to few feet.
• 400 miles of Capillaries to provide blood and nutrition to them.
• Each neuron makes 5000 to 10000 connections with other neurons.
• So there are 500 to 1000 trillion connections in our brain. 

Brain compared to Computers

Even the best computer in world can't reach the capability of brain. However you may not fit a pendrive in your skull to store some movies in it, but your brain can remember things faster than any super computer. The memory of our brain has the capability to store much more data than any super computer on earth till now.

• Memory Capacity of Brain:  According to Paul Reber, Professor; Director of Brain, Behavior, & Cognition at Northwestern University, our brain can store upto 2.5 Petabyte (which is one million GB). This much memory is enough to play continuous video on TV for 300 Years.
• Processing Speed: A neuron can fire upto 200 times per second. For 86 billion neurons it makes 17.2 trillion action potentials. According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, Neuroscientist, our brain processes 400 Billion bits of information per second, but yet we are aware of 2,000 only. All of our senses send 11 million bits of data per second to the brain but it can process only upto 60 bits of data per second. It is possible only if you compress 11 million bits into just 60 bits (just like we make zip files in computers). Such compression technology is not yet possible for man made computers.
• Power consumption: If we use the same memory as our brain and same processing speed in a computer then it will use 1 gigawatt of power, which will need a nuclear power plant. But when it comes to our brain, it uses less than 20 watt of electricity in the form of electrical impulses between neurons. Our brain is just 2% of our body weight but consumes 20% of our calories and 25% of oxygen. In resting state our body needs 1300kcal of energy which is equal to 63W of energy. 20% of this consumption is just 12.6W . So 12.6 watt can be stated as power consumption of brain. This much efficiency is impossible to imagine in any man made machine.
• Serial Processing and Parallel processing: Some researches found that our left brain do the serial processing tasks while right brain do the parallel processing tasks.

Interesting facts about Brain

These fasts will make you believe more in superiority of human brain compared to any computer.

Cognitive Reserve (brain's cache memory): It increases in size with a person keeps learning new things all over his life. When such person takes rest from busy life after retirement, his or her cognitive reserve remains same and his efficiency in mental tasks remains much better than the people of similar age group.
Neuroplasticity: It is a feature of our brain to learn new things and repair its circuits in case of a damage due to accident or stroke. Previously it was thought that brain can't repair it self after a certain age, but now we know that brain can repair itself through neuroplasticity.

A computer can be programmed to do one particular task much better than a human brain. For example a supercomputer can beat a chess grandmaster, but the same supercomputer can't store visual memories, language skills, cooking skills, thinking ability and most important emotions. Human brain is a capable to control the human body to do any physical or mental task or a combination of both. So these two things are not comparable at all. Man often try to challenge nature, but nature is something to be known, not something to beat. We need to learn a lot from the nature. Thats why we call it mother nature.

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What happens during COMA !

Coma is a medical condition in which a person can't respond to any external stimuli. A person is considered in coma only if he/she remains unconscious for more than 6 hours. It can occur due to some head injury or internal bleeding in brain. When a person is in Coma, it appears as if he/she is in deep sleep, but can't get up even if you shake him/her up. In medical terms coma is persistent vegetative state or a state of deep unconsciousness. What happens to a person during Coma differs from person as it depends on the level of coma. Level of coma can be measured using Glasgow Coma Scale.

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)

It is a scale used by medical practitioners around the world to measure the intensity of Coma. Its readings differ from 3 to 15. A patient with level 3 Coma is most severe and chances of recovery are usually very rare, while a person at level 15 is considered fully awake and conscious. There are three criteria on which the condition of a patient is measured. These criteria are eye movement, verbal ability and motor function (ability to move the body). Eye movement is rated on scale of 1 to 4, verbal ability is rated on scale of 1 to 5, and motor function is rated on scale of 1 to 6. Thus sum of all these criteria gives the final result. So the minimum result is 3 while the maximum result is 15. Usually the medical practitioners write intensity of coma in following way : GCS7 = E3 V2 M2 . Such description of  Glasgow Coma Scale gives whole information above patients consciousness level.

What causes coma ?

Coma can occur due to following reason.

• Head injury: It might be due to some accident and impact on head. Internal bleeding in brain can also cause coma. Sometimes due to sudden impact during an accident, brain moves inside the skull and causes coma.
• Stroke: Stroke can stop the blood supply to some important parts of brain which may lead the patient into coma.
• Blood loss: Blood loss due to an injury can cause coma as brain stops functioning due to lack of blood. If this condition remains same for longer duration then some parts of brain may get damaged permanently and severity of coma may increase.
• Swelling in Brain: Swelling in brain can cause come. Swelling may occur due to lack of oxygen or electrolyte imbalance.
• Blood Sugar: Both  hyperglycemia (very high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (very low blood sugar) can cause coma. But this condition is reversible in most cases by correction of blood sugar level.
• After Surgeries: It is found that some patients enter the state of coma after some surgeries. It is not necessary to be a brain surgery. However such cases are very rare.
• Drowning or Choking: These conditions stops the oxygen supply to brain for longer duration and sometimes found responsible for coma.
• Repeated seizures: Single seizure can't put a person into coma but repeated seizures can.

What happens during COMA

Different people have different experiences during coma.

• Pupils of a person in coma are usually dilated. It means pupils don't expand or contract due to light.
• In most of the cases the patient don't remember anything that happened during coma, as if he/she was in a deep sleep.
• Some patients report that they were able to hear all voices around them but can't react as they are not able to move their body, not even eyes. Such condition is very bad as person is trapped in his own body.
• In some cases the patient is able to control eyes and eyelids but not other parts of body. Such patients sleep and wake up like other patients but can't move any other part except their eyes.
• Some patients face memory loss after recovery from coma as some vital part of brain responsible for memory was damaged. Once a patient who recovered from coma was not able to recognize his wife, to whom he was married for 20 years.
• Once a patient came out of coma after 8 years and spent a day catching up with family and fell back into coma the very next day and never recovered.
• Mel Blanc, a loony toons voice actor fell into coma and didn't respond until a neurosurgeon addressed him as "Bugs Bunny", to which he responded "Myeeeh...Whats up doc".
• Hours before Thomas Edison died, he recovered from coma and looked upwards and said "It is very beautiful over there". I am struggling to find whether has was talking about ceiling or heaven.

Experts on the subject of coma have different views about it. But the best explained is that our brain is a large bunch of neurons, all of which are never used and only some part or some circuit is used. If some import part of brain is damaged then we fell into coma and in the mean time our brain tries to make some alternate circuit by using the remaining neurons. Damaged neurons can't be regenerated by our body but circuits can be reconstructed with the remaining neurons. If it succeeds then the patient recovers from coma gradually.

How long do a person remains in coma ?
There is no time limit as it depends on cause of coma and severity of come. On an average it takes 2 to 4 weeks to recover from a coma but as the duration increases the chances or revival gets less. Some patients recover from coma in a few days while some can spend their complete remaining life in that state. Terry Wallis woke up from a coma after 19 years, which is the longest duration for a patient waking up from coma. However Elaine Esposito was in coma for 37 years and 111 days but she never recovered and died in coma.
The longer the person takes, the chances of some body disability increases. Due to this reason some therapies are recommended to recovered patients to recover from disability.

When it comes to brain then nothing is impossible. We humans still have a lot to learn about functioning of brain. May be some day in future we will be able to scan the brain circuits and make a person recover at a faster rate.

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Does eating sugar makes you Diabetic !

High level of glucose in blood is linked to diabetes, but does eating sugar makes you diabetic ? Most of the people with history of diabetes in family tend to stay away from sugar to save themselves from diabetes. Can this step of abstaining from sugar help them in being non-diabetic ? In this article betterhealthfacts.com will put some light on eating sugar and diabetes. If you are fond of eating sweet dishes then you must read this article.

Does eating sugar makes me Diabetic ?
The answer to this question both Yes and No. Yes, because high level of blood sugar on regular basis can make you diabetic. No, because sugar is not the only factor responsible for making someone diabetic, there are several other factors responsible for diabetes.

What we miss when we connect sugar with diabetes is that sugar is a carbohydrate. High level of carbohydrate in diet means high level glucose will be created in our body. But sugar is just one carbohydrate. Lactose in milk, fructose in fruits, carbs in potatoes and uncountable other items in our diet are carbohydrates which are also broken down to glucose by our digestive system. We connect sugar with high level of blood glucose because we know that both sugar and glucose tastes sweet. But the truth is that sugar is just one carbohydrate in your diet. Even if you stop eating sugar but keep eating other carbohydrate rich foods, then you are still at risk of diabetes. The solution lies is controlling your carbohydrate intake.

I am fond of eating sweet. How can i stay away from diabetes ?
Its very simple, control your total carbohydrate intake. You are fond of eating sweet does not mean that you can eat sweetened foods all day. Nobody can do that. Most of us have an urge to eat something sweet at some point of day. That is no need to restrict yourself from doing so. Our body urges only for those things that it needs. Controlling your urge, unless you are suffering from some medical condition, can make you sick. We feel thirst because our body needs water for proper functioning. But keep one thing in mind that too much of anything is harmful. Even drinking too much water can cause water poisoning. So don't abstain yourself from eating sugar, but don't eat that too much.
If you are fond of eating something sweet then keep it in limit and take care of total carbohydrate intake and do some physical workout on regular basis.

Does exercising helps if i am fond of eating sweets ?
Yes, it definitely does. But most people don't do it regularly. Exercising can burn the extra calories that you intake in the form of sweetened food. Exercising keeps your weight in control, which is necessary to stay away from diabetes. Just keep monitoring you weight weekly. If you weight is increasing then it is something to worry. Weight increases due to three reasons

• too much eating or unbalanced diet
• lack of physical activity or exercising
• some medical condition such as hormonal imbalance

If you don't have any medical and still your weight is increasing then either control your diet or increasing you physical activity level. Any type of exercising can help, it is not necessary to do workout for your tummy only.

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Does Human Body works on Electricity !

Most of us think that we get energy just from food for our day to day work but the truth is that we work on electricity. If you have not studied about nervous system and brain then you might not be familiar with the fact that our body works on electricity. Our heart beats due to that electricity, our muscle move due to that electricity and your thinking is dependent on that electricity. Most of these electrical functions are involuntary and we can't do much about that. Even our memory can't function without that electricity. Here in this article we will try to explain how this electricity is generated and how our body works through it.

Why do our body need electricity to transmit messages while it can be done through blood ?

Any liquid travelling from one part of body to other part takes some time, even the minimum time will be a few minutes. Suppose someone is chasing you but your brain sends the signals to your heart to beat faster and to your legs to run, through blood stream. In such case your will start running after a few minutes and in the mean time whole event might have been finished. Electrical signals in nerves travel much faster and hence acts as the fastest medium of communication within our body.

Is there any difference between electricity in wires and nerves ?
Normal current that flow in wires is somehow different from current flowing in our body. In wires flow of electrons, which are negative charge particles, is known as current. While in our nerves sodium ions and potassium ions do this work, not electrons. Due to this reason some people don't distinguish it as electricity in human body, but still it is some sort of charge and it flows really fast. However speed of electrons in wires is much faster than speed of ions in nerves. Flow of ions in nerves can also be called as nerve impulse. Speed of nerve impulses differ from each other depending on the type of nerve. Nerve impulses to send a pain signal travels slower at 0.61 m/s. Touch signals travel at high speeds of 76.2 m/s. But you can't compare any of these nerve impulses with the spped of real electricity in wires i.e. 200,000,000 m/s . Don't get disappointed as at max the nerve impulse can travel at 119m/s which is more than speed of a formula 1 racing car.

Nerves act as wires in the body

All organs and muscles in our body are connected to our brain through our nervous system, which is just like wires connected from brain to all body parts for proper controlling. However in reality these are not wires but nerve cells which are connected to each other and carry to-and-fro electrical signals between brain and all parts of body. We have got 90,000 miles of nerves in our body which is even more than length of blood vessels in body, which is just 60,000 miles.

How does current flow in our nerves ?

Our nerve cells are specially created cells for transmission of signals. Nerve cells have several dendrites and one axon. Axon terminals are used to transmit while dendrites receive the signal. The flow of current across neurons is just like a relay race. One neuron receives a signal and passes it on to next. Ions travel only in some part of cell and rest is done by electric field. When our body needs to sends a signal, it opens the membrane gate, which let the Na and K ions move freely in and out of neuron. Negative Potassium ions leave the cell due to positive charge outside and positively charged sodium ions enter it. This switch in charge generates an electrical impulse which opens the gate of next neuron and in this way the transmission reaches the destination.

Sometimes people try to find how much current can flow through neurons. The answer is not what people think as it is ions, not electrons and these ions are not racing, but relay racing. However some resting potential in terms of millivolts is measured. Resting potential of a cell is around -70mV. Electrical property of cells and neurons are determined the membrane surrounding it. So don't try to know the ampere value of current flowing in human body as different websites will give different answers.

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