HealthMay 29, 2008 3:43 am
Down syndrome could be suffered by someone with following physical characteristics: oblique eye fissures with epicanthic skin folds on the inner corner of the eyes, muscle hypotonia (poor muscle tone), a flat nasal bridge, a single palmar fold, a protruding tongue (due to small oral cavity, and an enlarged tongue near the tonsils), a short neck, white spots on the iris known as Brushfield spots, excessive joint laxity including atlanto-axial instability, congenital heart defects, excessive space between large toe and second toe, a single flexion furrow of the fifth finger, and a higher number of ulnar loop dermatoglyphs. Most individuals with Down syndrome have mental retardation in the mild (IQ 50–70) to moderate (IQ 35–50) range, with individuals having Mosaic Down syndrome (explained below) typically 10–30 points higher. In addition, individuals with Down syndrome can have serious abnormalities affecting any body system. They also may have a broad head and a very round face.

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HealthMay 26, 2008 1:16 am

Everyone knows that smoking is not good for health live. How to stop and quit of?

Someone starts to smoke for some sort of motivating reason. Smoking is not natural or everyone would be smoking. You cannot grow a cigarette tree in your backyard or a cigarette plant in your garden. They are not natural. Tobacco may be natural but cigarettes are far more than tobacco with an estimated 4000 ingredients added! The list is highly guarded and protected by law as a trade secret. Imagine that. It’s the public’s health and it’s a trade secret. Something isn’t right.

But may be there are some of the most common quit methods:

Support groups/counseling

Most people find it helpful to join a support group, get counseling or read self-help books. This type of support will help you understand what to expect and better cope with withdrawal symptoms. Contact your provincial Lung Association to find out more about support groups and programs offered in your community.

Nicotine replacement therapies

Nicotine replacement therapies come in many different forms: skin patches, gum, sprays and inhalers. They have small amounts of nicotine in them and can help take the edge of cravings. These products work by slowly reducing the amount of nicotine delivered to your body to help you handle withdrawal symptoms more easily. Research shows these are effective in helping people to quit smoking, especially when combined with counseling or self-help.

More about nicotine replacement therapies

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HealthMay 1, 2008 12:41 am

When you go to a pharmacy , one can’t but help notice the hundreds of vitamin bottles lined up on the shelves. But do we really need to takes these vitamin supplements at all ?

That’s a difficult question to answer. Are you taking a well-balanced and healthy diet containing fortified rice and bread, meat, green vegetables, citrus and other fruits and fish ? Are you getting enough sunlight ?

Whether or not you need to take supplements will depend on all these factors, and on your current condition. For example, do you have certain disease, are you pregnant ?

But if you don’t take enough of a certain vitamins, this will lead to vitamin deficiency. The word vitamin was actually coined by a guy called Funk. He called it “vital amine” in 1912, when it was discovered that amine extracted from rice polishing could prevent beriberi.

Since then, vitamins are considered essential organic compound for life, because the human body  cannot synthesize them. Vitamins A, D, E and K are classified as fat-soluble vitamins, whereas B, C and D are classified as water-soluble vitamins. Vitamin A was the first fat-soluble vitamin to be discovered (that is why it is called A) in 1913.

Vitamin A is essential for vision (especially your eyes` adaptation to dark surrounding) , your immune response (where your body mount its defense against infections), cell growth and repair, bone growth, reproduction, maintenance of the surface lining of the eyes, and maintenance of the surface linings of the eyes, and maintaining the lining of your respiratory, urinary and intestinal tracts. 
If you have deficiency of the vitamin, then you’ll get abnormal dark adaptation. When this happens, you will find it difficult to see in the dark. You might have dry skin, dry hair, broken finger-nails, and decrease resistance to infections.

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