Andhranews

How old would you be, if you didn’t know how old you were? Most of us ‘feel’ atleast 10 years younger than we look. But the mirror seems to reflect a different picture. Being in the field of alternative medicine, I have a particular interest in foods and herbs that can hold back the ageing process. And what’s more, these foods are all around us.

By choosing to eat correctly, you can recapture many of your faculties that traditionally slip away with age. The way food and herbs fight disease, is by strengthening the immune system and combating free radical activity. Free radicals are the terrorists within the body that cause cellular damage and precipitate the ageing process. Antioxidants found in fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs and vitamins douse free radical activity and prevent needless ageing. Here are some basic strategies to keep you young:

Take C0Q—10: As you age, your heart grows steadily weaker. Its pumping action becomes laboured as its machinery gets damaged by free radicals. Consequently, this leads to heart failure. Whilst we cannot stop the ageing process, we can control the rate at which we age. Much research documents that C0Q-10 restores energy production by heart muscle and improves heart function.

It has antioxidant properties that protect fat molecules from becoming oxidised. It protects arteries by preventing the oxidation of blood cholesterol. It strengthens the heart muscles thus preventing heart failure. Unfortunately, your body’s production of C0Q-10 begins to decline around the age of 30.
A prolonged deficiency affects heart function. Therefore, if you want your heart ticking, it is wise to take C0Q-10 supplements for its heart strengthening properties.

Lose weight if you are overweight: The heavier you are, the older you will feel and look. Being overweight also predisposes you to type II diabetes and a whole lot of other diseases like heart disease, osteoarthritis, cancer which are manifestations of premature ageing. Being 20 per cent above ideal body weight can make you more susceptible to type II dabetes. But the silver lining is that by just losing 7 per cent of your body weight you can reduce diabetes by 50 per cent and bring about better blood sugar control. Losing excess body weight has an amazing effect on insulin resistance. In other words, if you are an overweight, Type II diabetic and on antidiabetic medications, then by just losing a few pounds you can reduce medication and lower blood sugar effectively.

Take an antioxidant supplement everyday: Antioxidants are substances that neutralise free radicals, which play a significant role in the ageing process. Raw fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants. Therefore, it is wise to begin your day with a glass of freshly squeezed vegetable juice or fruit juice.

Control stress: As it causes needless ageing. While stress is all around us and is not necessarily bad, it is in the way we handle stress that causes ageing. Stress related medical and emotional problems have dramatically increased over the last few decades.

Stress, if handled incorrectly, can produce undesirable results. A student coming down with flu during the exams, an executive losing his job and suffering a recurrence of herpes. A person experiencing palpitations and difficulty in breathing when under fear are examples of stress affecting the body.
Under such stressful situations the inherent equilibrium in our body gets disturbed. When this disturbance persists over a period of time, we begin to age.

There are more antiageing strategies in this universe than one can think of. But the secret to the fountain of youth lies within each one of you rather than in global remedies. It is your commitment to your body that decides your state of health. It takes more than a New Year resolution to improve your health. Nevertheless, it is a beginning.

Critically ill malaria patients given albumin in their resuscitation fluids are seen to benefit and it has helped reduce the mortality rates greatly, say scientists. The mosquito-borne infectious disease is widespread in many tropical and subtropical regions. It causes between one and three million deaths annually, mostly among young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists from the Imperial College in London and experts in Kenya have developed the new technique based on fluid replacement for children ill with malaria. Using intensive care methods usually only available on paediatric intensive care units in developed countries, the researchers showed that fluid depletion was key to the development of severe symptoms among Kenyan children with malaria.

In the past children with severe malaria have been denied additional fluids for fear it might exacerbate brain swelling associated with the disease. The new treatment avoids this problem by including albumin — a molecule that holds water inside blood vessels — in resuscitation fluids given to children. In two preliminary studies, less than five per cent of children who received albumin died — compared to up to 40 per cent who die after receiving conventional treatments.

In a new trial of 88 children, just two per cent of children receiving albumin died, compared to 16 per cent receiving a cheaper synthetic solution. “The observation is that treating very sick children with severe malaria with albumin infusion can reduce the mortality rate by over 80 per cent,” said one of the researchers, Kathryn Maitland.

Administration of fluid to children critically ill with malaria is contrary to prevailing practice, and albumin is currently not available in most African hospitals. Maitland said her team was now seeking funding for a larger trial involving over 1,000 children in Ghana, Gambia and Kenya.

Osteoporosis is a major public health problem, particularly in women, and low bone mineral density is an important risk factor for osteoporotic fractures. Bone density worsens for women after menopause, so scientists suggest that intervention in childhood to maximise peak bone mass could minimise the impact of bone loss related to age. Children could be given increased vitamin D concentrations and more fruit and vegetables instead of calcium supplements, the study said.

The researchers analysed the findings of 19 different studies involving 2,859 children collectively aged between three and 18. They included randomised trials of calcium supplementation in healthy children that lasted at least three months and which measured bone outcomes after at least six months of follow-up. They found there was a small effect on total body bone mineral content and upper limb bone mineral density — children taking the supplements only had 1.7 per cent better bone density in their upper limbs than children not taking the supplements.

However, there was no effect at important sites in the body for fracture in later life — namely the hip and lumbar spine. After children stopped taking calcium supplements, the effect persisted at the upper limb, but disappeared for total body bone mineral content.