Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Sugar-free isn’t risk-free

The market is nowadays flooded with sugar free products, including chewing gums. But beware! While saving you from Diabetes, the gums could lead you to other serious health problems

London: Bad news for people with diabetes who are fond of sugar-free chewing gums.

A report in the British Medical Journal Friday highlighted the cases of some patients who lost up to a fifth of their bodyweight after chewing sugar-free chewing gums.

The study described the sweetener used in sugar-free chewing gums as the culprit that, according to researchers, triggers several health disorder including weight loss, abdominal pain and diarrhoea.

The sweetener Sorbitol, also known as "E 420", is used in some toothpastes and thousands of other products too.

Herbert Lochs and Juergen Bauditz from the University of Berlin studied two patients with chronic diarrhoea, abdominal pain and substantial weight loss.

They underwent extensive investigation before a detailed analysis of their eating was undertaken. It was found that both had been consuming large amounts of sugar free gum and sweets, the online edition of the Daily Mail reported.

The first patient, a 21-year-old woman, chewed around 15 sticks of gum a day, while the second, a 46-year-old man, chewed 20 sticks of gum and ate up to 200 grams of sweets every day. Both lost their weight substantially, the study says.

After they started a sorbitol-free diet, their diarrhoea stopped and they gained weight.
Lochs said the cases were unusual because the consumption of sorbitol was not enormously high yet the effects had been serious.

He said people, particularly diabetics, who buy low-sugar or sugar-free foods should be aware of the fact that too much sorbitol might be "dangerous" for them.

Source: IANS
Courtesy : MSN Health

Respect Yourself

It doesn't matter what other people think of you. All that matters is what you think of you.

We lose so much energy worrying about the opinions of others, wanting to be liked. Leadership and personal mastery is about rising above social approval - to self approval.

Respect you. So long as you are living by your values, being authentic, running your own race and doing your dreams, who cares what anyone else thinks/feels/says about you? As Robin Sharma writes in The Greatness Guide: "Lead."

"Let Go Our Ego"

There was once a learned scientist after a lot of practice and efforts developed a formula and learned the art of reproducing himself. He did it so perfectly that it was impossible to tell the reproduction from the original. Thus he was successful in his formula. One day while doing his research realized that the Angel of Death was searching for him. In order to remain immortal he reproduced a dozen copies of himself. The reproduction was so meticulous that all of them looked exactly like him.

Now when this Angel of death came down, he was at a loss to know which of the thirteen before him was the original scientist, and confused, he left them all alone and returned back to heaven.
But, not for long, for being an expert in human nature, the Angel came up with a clever idea. He said to the scientist addressing all thirteen of them, "Sir, you must be a genius to have succeeded in making such perfect reproduction formula of yourself. However, I have discovered a flaw in your work, just one tiny little flaw."

The scientist immediately jumped out and shouted, "Impossible! Where is the flaw?" "Right here" said the Angel, as he picked up the scientist from among the reproductions and carried him off.

The whole purpose of the scientist and his formula of reproduction failed as he could not control his pride and lost his life.

Our Learnings from the Story …
While our knowledge and skills takes us to the top of the ladder and make us successful, but the three letter word "EGO" pulls us down immediately…so let us "Let go our EGO"

How Does A Toaster Work?

Appliances that heat up, such as a hair dryer, a clothes iron, toaster, electric toaster oven, or an electric space heater all work on the same idea. They change electrical energy to heat energy.
The devices all plug into a source of electricity. Electric current runs from your wall socket down the wire and into the appliance.

Inside each of the appliances are loops of special mixture of metals. One type is called nichrome. Nichrome is a nickel / chromium alloy.

Electricity cannot pass through this special metal very easily. The metal slows down the electrons and "holds up" the current flowing through it. This is called the "resistance" of the metal. When the resistance of a metal is higher, the metal will get hot because of the friction of the electrons in the current of electricity.

As the electricity is forced through the wires, the wires begin to heat up and glow very hot. If you look inside your toaster, you'll see those coils or wire glowing orange. It's those coils or loops of wire that cause the bread to brown making your toast.

In older toasters, the hot wires heat up a small device called a thermocouple. When it reaches the right temperature, which is about the same time as your toast is properly toasted, it releases a catch allowing the toast to pop up. At the same time, it shuts off the electricity. In some newer toasters, the thermocouple is replaced by a small timer.

Health -Important Tips.

Answer the phone by LEFT ear.
Do not drink coffee TWICE a day.
Do not take pills with COOL water.
Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm.
Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume.
Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night.
Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS.
Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time.
Best sleeping time is from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning.
Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping.
When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times.

How Light Bulb Works .

While conversion of electrical energy to light was demonstrated in laboratories as early as 1801 by English scientist Humphry Davy, it took more than 100 years for the modern form of electric light bulb to be developed, with the contributions of many inventors.

The first successful incandescent light bulb was made by the British inventor Sir Joseph Swan in 1860 using a carbon paper filament, but it burned out very quickly.

In 1879, American inventor Thomas Edison created the first incandescent light bulb with the characteristics we recognize today using a carbon filament in an oxygen-free bulb. The first bulbs he experimented with lasted about 40 hours, but he eventually produced a bulb that could produce light for over 1500 hours.

How does it get power?
Electricity flows through wires to the bulb's socket. This power source may be a battery (as in a flash light) or a distant power plant supplying your local electric utility.

How does it work?
Electricity flows through a thin wire in the lightbulb called the filament. The filament used in a bulb has a property called "resistance." Resistance is the amount of friction that an object will put against electricity flowing through it. A filament has a lot of resistance to electricity.

Therefore as a result of this, the filament heats up and starts glowing, converting electrical energy to light energy. This is because of the Joule-effect, which means that resistances heat up when electrical current runs through them.

How dangerous is it?
Light bulbs themselves, if used properly, are not dangerous. Although their primary function is to produce light energy, as a side effect they also produce heat.

Light bulbs are sold according to the number of watts they use - the higher the number, the brighter the bulb is, and the more energy it uses. Despite getting hot, lightbulbs don't explode. However, the outer glass of a light bulb which has been on for some time is quite hot, and can cause minor burns, or the broken edges might cut the skin.

After hundreds of hours of operation the filament in the bulb eventually burns out and the light bulb no longer works. The light bulb then needs replacing. It is necessary to be careful in replacing the lightbulb. First, the switch for the light fixture needs to be turned off or the cable disconnected. This is because electricity flowing into the socket where the metallic part of bulb sits can give you a severe electric shock if you touch the inside of the socket or the metal base of the bulb while it is still partly in the socket. In addition, if the glass breaks it is possible to get cuts.

These hazards can be reduced by ensuring the bulb is cool to the touch before grasping it and by holding it firmly but not squeezing by the fattest part of the glass while rotating counter-clockwise until it comes completely loose